Well, we turn back to Psalm 119
and to the very same section that we were looking at last
week. I didn't intend to do this, not at all, but as I went to
move on, I felt compelled over and over again that there's a
message in here that we need to hear and need to take to heart,
as we do every now and then, we do. Because you see, Believers
love to hear the promises of God. True believers love to hear
the true gospel of God, the assurance of accomplished redemption, the
redemption that Christ has accomplished, that it is certain, and the assurance
that it gives. and the confident hope, not just
a, oh, I hope it might happen, but it might not. No, certainty,
confident hope of eternal life in heaven, in Christ. We love
to hear these things. We love to hear preaching that
lifts up Christ and extols the blessings of the salvation that
he has accomplished and the sinner's place in that as completely of
grace, having no contribution. But we must beware of underplaying
the exhortations of Scripture, that once having seen that and
believed it, our objective, our aspiration, our desire should
be towards holiness. Why is it that we tend to major
so much on reveling in the promises and yet hold back on the exhortations
to holiness? Well I feel that it is for those
who have heard the true gospel, it's a fear of legalism. We came
out of legalism several years ago. We came out of legalistic
religion. which taught a sort of gospel,
but always it was your responsibility to make up that which was lacking
in what Christ had done with his death on the cross, and therefore
you needed to live with the law of Moses as your rule of life,
as if it was that that would earn you righteousness. If it
was that that would justify it, oh no, no, no, we got right on
the doctrine of that, no, no, no, we know that you're not justified
by the law, but certainly you're sanctified by the law, isn't
that what it's... no it doesn't, you know, no it doesn't. Sanctification
is in Christ. God's people are made holy in
Him, not by what they do. What they do is filthy rags in
the sight of God. No, we don't add anything to
the finished work of Christ. We don't progressively get more
sanctified. No, we don't. We grow in grace,
but we don't progressively get more sanctified. But nevertheless,
nevertheless, there is exhortation after exhortation in Scripture
that the believer should desire and should aim for conformance
in life to the precepts of God's Word. Don't turn a page, just
look on this page of Psalm 119. Look at verse 109. My soul is
continually in my hand, yet I do not forget thy law. 110. Yet I erred not from thy
precepts. 112. I have inclined my heart
to perform thy statutes always, even unto the end. 113. I hate
vain thoughts, but thy law do I love. 115. Depart from me,
ye evildoers, for I will keep the commandments of my God. 117. Hold thou me up, and I shall
be safe, and I will have respect unto thy statutes continually.
119. you put away all the wicked of the earth like dross therefore
i love thy testimonies 124 and i could read a lot more deal
with thy servant according to thy mercy and teach me thy statutes
125 i am thy servant give me understanding that i may know
thy testimonies 127 therefore i love thy commandments above
gold 128 I esteem all thy precepts concerning
all things to be right, I hate every false way. 129. Thy testimonies
are wonderful, therefore doth my soul keep them. 131. I opened
my mouth and panted, for I longed for thy commandments. I'll skip. Down to 145. I cried with my
whole heart, Hear me, O Lord, I will keep thy statutes. A man
who loves the righteousness of God and desires above all else
to attain it is what we have here in the Psalms. This Psalm
is a man who loves the righteousness of God and desires above all
else to attain to that righteousness of God in practical living. Has God put it in your heart
and in my heart a similar desire for holiness? Heavenly desires. Desires for the things of heaven. You see, the believer's ultimate
goal is heaven. Not this world. Not this life
in the flesh. The believer's goal is heaven. This world is not my home. I'm
just a passing through, as that song said. If heaven's not my
home, Lord, I don't know what I'll do. Heaven is our goal.
Heaven is our objective. Eternity. Sinless perfection. Sinless perfection. Peter said
this, 2 Peter chapter 3 verse 13, he said, We look for new
heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. That's where we're going. Are
you a believer? That's where you're going. That's
your objective. That's your final destination.
It's that place described in Revelation 21. I'll just read
two or three verses. Verse three. And God himself shall be with
them and be their God, and God shall wipe away all tears from
their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow,
nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former
things are passed away. And then down to verse 27, still
speaking of that heaven of God, there shall in no wise enter
into it, anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination
or maketh a lie, but they which are written in the Lamb's book
of life. Shouldn't that be our aspiration
now? Shouldn't that be what we aspire
to? Verse 131, I opened my mouth
and panted. The picture is of the stag that's
been chased by the hounds and he's hot and gasping for breath
and for water and he's tired of this place and of that existence
and wants to be at peace and have thirst quenched. I longed
for thy commandments. Shouldn't that be our aspiration
as believers? Let's look at David's longing,
David's longing, and then an implicit confession and then
his prayer for direction in holiness. First of all, what do you long
for? What do you long for? Well, when you're thirsty, If
you're like me, you long for water. When you're hungry, you
long for food. You want it! When you're tired,
you long for sleep. When you're cold, you long for
warmth. When you're hot, you long for cool. There are legitimate
longings of the flesh, things that we long for, legitimate
longings. There is also worldly covetousness,
which is a wanting of things more than the things that we
need, things which demonstrate that we haven't reached that
state that Paul said he'd reached, where he'd learned that in whatever
state he was, therewith, to be content, to be content. to be
content, not to love the world and the things of the world.
I've put in an article by Henry Mahan from the 1980s from his
bulletin. Read it later. You can't serve
two masters. You can't serve God and mammon.
You can't serve God and the aspirations of the children of God and the
desires, the covetous desires of the things of this world.
No. But do we long for God's commandments? Do we have a deep
desire to be holy as God is holy? That's what his word says to
his people. Leviticus 11, 44, he says, be holy for I am holy. Peter repeats it in 1 Peter 1,
16. Ye shall be holy, says God, for I am holy. were made in the
image of God, and God is holy, and God is without sin, and is
of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. And even the sinless
angels, the seraphim and cherubim, it says they shield their eyes
from the holiness of God. What was it that gave David this
longing? What gave him this longing for
the commandments of God? What was it? Look at verse 129.
We looked at it last time. The entrance of thy words giveth
light. Not just the words, but the entrance
of them. The Holy Spirit teaching us this
word in this book that we have open before us this morning.
The entrance of thy words giveth light. It giveth understanding
to the simple. It gives understanding of God's
truth, of eternal truth, of the truth of life, to the simple,
the untwisted, the one made straight. from the twist of sin by God's
Word. It's God's testimony, it's God's
Word, the entrance of thy words. God's Spirit has given birth
to a new man, a new person in the believer, with new desires. So he pants as the hunted stag
pants for waters, for thirst-quenching water. It's a longing for it. Believers are citizens of God's
kingdom and it's a kingdom of peace and of righteousness and
of satisfied justice. That's the kingdom of God. His
kingdom is not of this world. The kingdom of God that Jesus
came preaching in his ministry. Read Mark chapter 1. He came
preaching. The kingdom of God is at hand.
The gospel of the kingdom of God. It's a kingdom of peace
and righteousness without sin, of justice satisfied. What justice? The justice of God that must
condemn sin and says that the soul that sins, it shall die.
That justice is satisfied. in the kingdom of God. It's a
kingdom of conformity to the righteous character of God. Nothing
that defiles, we read it just before in Revelation, nothing
that defiles shall enter therein. Nothing that isn't as righteous
as God is righteous shall enter therein. Follow after, pursue
holiness, says Hebrews, without which no man shall see the Lord. Well, where do we find it? Where
do we find the righteousness whereby we shall see the Lord? Answer, Christ, who knew no sin,
was made sin, that his people might be made the righteousness
of God in him. That's it. That's where it is.
Not in your own sanctification, not in your own filthy rag self-righteousness. Who is it that longs this way? Who is it that yearns this way
for the holiness of God? It's the new man, born of God's
Spirit. Just turn with me to 1 John chapter
3. 1 John chapter 3, verse 8. 1 John chapter 3 and verse 8. He
that commiteth sin is of the devil, for the devil sinneth
from the beginning. You see, it was hearing the devil's
words of doubt about the truth of God that deceived Eve. And then Adam, not deceived,
knowing what he was doing for love of Eve, he likewise sinned
and thereby dragged him and all his progeny down into separation
from God. He says, the devil sinneth from
the beginning, for this purpose the Son of God was manifested,
that he might destroy the works of the devil. That's why Christ
came. Whosoever is born of God doth
not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot
sin, because he is born of God. What's that speaking about? It's
about the two natures in the believer. There's the fleshly
nature that all men and women have, by virtue of their birth,
by virtue of their descent from Adam. That nature is a sinful
nature in the flesh. But those that are born again,
you remember how Jesus said to Nicodemus, you must be born again. How can a man be born again?
Can he enter into his mother's womb and be born? No, you must
be born of the Spirit. He that is born of God, there's
a new man, a new nature, a new person that hears and sees the
things of the Spirit of God. And that one does not commit
sin. He cannot sin because he is born
of God. That's not talking about two
different people. That's talking about two natures
in the one believing person. The new man born of God's Spirit
longs for the commandments of God. The new man born of God's
Spirit longs for the righteousness of God. The new man that in Galatians
chapter 5, we read there in Galatians chapter 5 verse 16, he says there,
walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against
the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other, so that
you cannot do the things that you would. Now, in the believing
person, as the Song of Solomon chapter 6 verse 13 says, I see
a camp of two armies. There's a camp of opposing sides. In the one believer, what do
you see? A camp of two armies. There's
the flesh, which goes after the desires of the flesh, and there
is the man of the spirit which desires the things of God. But
because of them warring against each other, it says you cannot
do the things that you would. There's a desire to be holy,
there's that longing after the commandments of God, but it's
constantly hindered by the desires of the flesh. And you see that
in Romans chapter 7. Romans chapter 7 and verse 15. For that which I do as a man
in the flesh, I allow not. I wish I didn't do it. For what
I would, what I really want to do, that I do not. But what I
hate, the sin, That I keep doing in my flesh, I keep doing that
sin. Verse 19. For the good that I would, I
do not, but the evil which I would not, that I do. I want to do
good things, I long after the things of the Spirit of God,
and the truth of God, and righteousness of God, but my flesh keeps causing
me to sin. And the evil which I do in the
flesh, in my spiritual man, in the new man, I don't want to
do that. So there's this conflict going on. Remember John Warburton's
testimony, I put it in the bulletin, was it last week or the week
before? He said, I would not, and he's speaking as a believer,
he said, I would not commit a single sin for a thousand worlds if
I could help it. For it was my meat and drink
to do the will of my God and Saviour, who had done so great
things for me. Having become a child of God,
having believed the truth, a new man born within, he wouldn't
commit a single sin if he could help it, but in the flesh he
can't, for the law is weak through the flesh. He says, as the Psalmist
said, I longed for your commandments. In general, people all around
us fear death. People all around us cling on
to life, don't they? You know, all of this health
stuff that we constantly read in social media and other places
is all, you know, all the output of tin-pot universities and educational
establishments trying to justify their existence by coming up
with new schemes for you to live another five minutes longer.
You know, you must do this a bit more, and you must do that a
bit less, and there's no end of it, no end of it. And they
say, oh, you only live once, so squeeze every last bit of
comfort and pleasure out of the life that you've got. But a child
of God. longs to be rid of the body of
this death. That's Romans 7, 24. Who shall
liberate, who shall free me from the body of this death, this
flesh? Who shall free me from that?
And he goes on to say, of course, it's Christ and in him alone.
God's sovereign purpose is that his people, and why he's done
it, I'm not sure I fully understand, but he has, It's that His people,
with heavenly longings in them because of the new man, should
remain in the flesh for a while. Once they know the truth, that
they shouldn't immediately go to heaven, but should remain
in the flesh for a while, experiencing the Spirit's war with the flesh,
and the flesh's war with the Spirit. All the time, as Jesus
prayed in John 17, Father, keep them from the evil. Keeping them
from the worst aspects of satanic entrapment and delusion. And
I think it's all to sharpen the believer's experience of the
blessings of salvation. You know how in a picture contrast
brings out vividly. You know when you see something
set against a dark background, you see the light things so much
clearer because the contrast is greater. And the blessings
of salvation in the believer's experience are set against the
evil of sin and the justice of God in condemning sin. So then,
David's longing. And then there's an implicit
confession. In verse 132 he prays, He's crying
for mercy. Be merciful unto me. And can
you see that in him crying for mercy, crying to God for mercy, there's an implicit confession.
If he's asking for mercy, he's confessing that he's a sinner,
isn't he? He's confessing that he falls
short of the commandments of God, of the righteousness of
God. Look at Luke chapter 18, Luke chapter 18, and Jesus spoke
a parable, this was a parable, and it's in verse 9, he says,
he spoke a parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that
they were righteous and despised others. So he told this parable,
and whether it was actually there being played out before their
eyes is quite possible, but anyway. Two men went up to the temple
to pray, the one a Pharisee and the other a publican. The publicans
were despised because they were the Romans' tax collectors. They
were hated. You know, as different professions
go through phases of being disliked by society, they seem to become,
you know, house prices start to boom like crazy and everybody
in the process of buying a house starts to despise the estate
agents who are getting rich at their expense. Well, the people
despised the publicans. They looked down on them. But
the Pharisees were so respected. And the Pharisee stood and prayed
thus with himself, God, I thank thee. that I am not, as other
men are, extortioners, unjust. Not me. No, no. Look at those
adulterers. Oh, disgusting. Or even as this
publican stood by him. Look what I do. I fast twice
in the week. I give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican Standing afar
off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but
smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me, a sinner. And you know, in the original,
you look it up in the interlinear Bible, it's God be merciful to
me, the sinner. As if, as far as he was concerned
then, it didn't matter, there was no other sinner. He was the
sinner. God be merciful to me, the sinner. Is this not what David is praying
here? Look upon me and be merciful unto me. The Pharisee had no
concept that he needed mercy from God, because he thought
he was good in his own self-righteousness. But that self-righteousness,
as Isaiah tells us, 64 verse 6, filthy rags in the sight of
God. David prays that God will look
upon him and be merciful to the sinner, the one who breaks God's
commands, the one who feels the weight of his sin, violates his
holiness, offends his righteous nature, one who he knows was
made in the image of God, with a character compatible with his
maker's character, existing in perfect harmony and fellowship
until the fall. of deliberate rebellion, of unbelief
of the truth of God, of disobedience, of corruption of thought, of
word and deed. As in Adam, all die, all die
in Adam, because we all inherit that nature in our flesh. By
man came death, say those words at the end of 1 Corinthians.
In Adam all die, by man came death. So now, Psalm 53 verses
2 and 3, what's the situation? What's the judgment now of God?
God looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if
there were any that did understand, that did seek God. Every one
of them is gone back. They are all together become
filthy. There is none that doeth good, no not one. You can read
that in Romans chapter 3. The indictment of God against
the people of this world without Christ. All have sinned, all
have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. the natural
man, you and me, the man of the flesh. Don't think, oh, I'm better
than those terrible people down the road. Don't think, oh no,
I'm not like them. Oh no, I'm a nice respectable
person. Oh no, I've got such clean morals.
Don't think that. The natural man in the flesh
is what that describes, and that's you and me in our flesh as we
are. There is none righteous, no, not one. Yes, but we're nice
people, and we go to the right places, and we've got the right...
No, none righteous, no, not one. God said about the world of Noah,
before he brought the flood, and the reason he brought the
flood, he said, every imagination of the thoughts of his heart
is only evil continually. contrary to the righteousness
of God continually. The heart of this person, you
and me in our flesh as we are, the heart, says Jeremiah 17 verse
9, is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can
know it? I, the Lord, try the reins. The
Lord can see it, the Lord knows it. And divine justice Divine
justice, the holy character of God, demands retribution, punishment
for sin, the payment of debt to the justice of God. The justice
of God is not satisfied without payment of the debt. You might
be owed some money, imagine it, you're owed some money. When
are you satisfied? When that money is paid, and
not unless it is all paid. And you might, out of an act
of generosity, let off the last penny or two, but generally speaking,
you say, no, that's it, that's the debt, pay me it back. And
it calls for eternal separation from God. And not only from God,
but you know, by virtue of being separation from God, it means
from all that is good. What is hell, but that which
is separation from God for eternity. And all, without exception, are
sinners, but only those taught by God's Spirit know it and feel
it. Only those taught by God's Spirit.
People in general go on. The majority continue in their
vanity-fair disbelief of God. You know vanity-fair, Pilgrim's
Progress? Their vanity-fair disbelief of
God. People all around us. insensitive
to their true standing before God's holy character. But some,
in that vanity fair of Pilgrim's Progress, one, like Christian,
sensed a burden that would drag him down to hell, a great burden
on his back that would drag him down to hell in that allegory,
in that picture. And Incapable of helping yourself,
the only cry is verse 132, look thou upon me. You who are God
and holy and omnipotent and sovereign in all things, look thou upon
me and be merciful unto me. You've done it in the past to
people that love your name, do it to me. A cry that God will
mercifully save me from the just reward of my sins and my sinfulness. You know, I say it so often,
that hymn that says, a sinner is a sacred thing. All have sinned,
all without exception, but only those taught by the Spirit of
God, made so by the Spirit of God, know that they are sinners
who need the mercy of God, who need the justifying righteousness
of Christ. And we cry out, if we've got
that sense in our souls from the Spirit of God, Saviour, dear
Saviour, hear my humble cry. While on others thou art calling,
do not pass me by. Please, look on me and be merciful
to me. This is the same as Paul's desire
in Philippians 3. that when it comes to the day
of judgment, are you ready for the day of judgment? That I may
be found in Christ, in Him. Not having my own, not pleading
my own righteousness, which is according to the law, because
that's just filthy rags righteousness. Lord, didn't we do this in your
name? Didn't we do that in your name? And I will say to you,
said Jesus, depart from me, ye that work iniquity. What was
the iniquity? Not believing the true gospel
of God's grace. No, that I might not be found
in my own filthy rags righteousness, but in Him, the righteousness
of Christ, which is of faith. That when that day of judgment
comes, that's where I will be found, safe in Christ. To hear
those words, come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom
prepared for you from the foundation of the world. wasn't Paul's righteousness,
he hoped in, but Christ's. And David, likewise David, the
sweet Psalmist, who had such great soul-sight of saving grace,
looked through all the Psalms, yet in flesh was found capable
of great sin. Wasn't he? Capable of great sin. You say we wouldn't have him
as a member in one of our churches these days. So the religious
folks say, God be merciful to me. Be merciful to me, as you
have been down the ages, to those who are taught to love your name. The traditional view of religion,
of works-based religion, is that God favours those who have a
good try and are self-righteous. The truth is that the Gospel
is, nothing in my hand I bring, simply to thy cross I cling.
And so he prays for direction in holiness. In verse 133 he
says, order my steps in thy word and let not any iniquity have
dominion over me. Order my steps in your word.
and let not any iniquity have dominion over me. You know, David,
there was a time when iniquity did have dominion over him. when
he committed adultery with Bathsheba, and then even worse when he tried
to cover it up by putting her husband, her rightful husband,
into the front line of battle. And Nathan came to him and he
told him the story about somebody stealing some poor man with a
little lamb. And David was furious and he
says, that man shall die. And Nathan the prophet said to
him, David, you are the man. You are the one who's done this,
for you've stolen that man's wife and you've put her husband
in the front line of battle that he should die. You are that man.
God be merciful to me, the sinner. Psalm 51, read it. Do you aspire
to the holiness of God? Do you determine to subdue sin? We sin all the time. It's not
just the sins we commit, we commit sins because we are sinners.
Do you have a plan to achieve these goals of not sinning, of
being conformed to the righteousness and holiness of God? If you resolve
in your mind and rely on the strength of the flesh, you will
fail. If you try to keep the law by
flesh strength, you will quickly find that the law is weak. Nothing wrong with the law, but
it's weak because the flesh is weak. That's what Romans 8 verse
3 says. But David prays, order my steps in thy word, and let
not any iniquity have dominion over me. For God does direct
the steps of his people. He does. He orders our affairs. You say, really? Are you a believer?
Where are you now? Look back down your life. Look
back to what you were. Look back. I'm not saying you're
better. You're only better in the sense
that you've been given light from God. You're not better in
yourself. In your flesh you're not better. You've just been
given light from God to see the truth. But can't you see when
you look back down your life the steps that he's led you?
where you would have gone one way and circumstances, God arranged
it that you would go that way instead. Order my steps according
to thy word, that God will order his steps in his word, in his
truth, that he will providentially direct the steps of my earthly
life in accordance with his righteous precepts, the righteous precepts
of his word. As true believers, we desire
this holiness of God to live according to his word. It says
in verse 11 of this Psalm 119, it says, Thy word have I hid
in mine heart that I might not sin against thee. Your word have
I remembered. I've committed to my memory.
Why? Because it will restrain me in situations where I might
be tempted to commit sin and I will see, I will remember from
your word, a direction from your word, a precept from the gospel
that I shouldn't do this. This is a life directed and ordered
in accordance with God's precepts. This is salvation accomplished
and worked out by Christ in the lives of His people. You know
this verse well, Galatians 2.20, this is Paul's testimony and
the testimony of all true believers. He said, I am crucified with
Christ. My old man, this fleshly sinful
person that the law of God demands the death of, I'm dead, I'm crucified
with Christ. I was united with Christ before
the beginning of time and I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless,
I live, now I live. And the life I live in this flesh,
I live by the faith of the Son of God. Not faith in the Son,
but by the faith of the Son of God, which is what He accomplished
in saving grace. I live by the faith of the Son
of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. It's as Philippians
2, 12 and 13 says about your salvation, which is entirely
of God, but he says, work out your own salvation with fear
and trembling. Oh, does that mean I have to
do all the work necessary to be saved? No, for it is God which
worketh in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
He says elsewhere, when I'm weak in the flesh, conscious of my
weakness in the flesh, then under the providential care and guidance
of God's Spirit, then I'm strong. Not looking to self, but looking
to Christ. Run the race that is set before
us. With this great faith gallery of Hebrews 11, seeing as we have
so great a cloud of witnesses, let us run the race that is set
before us on our road to heaven, looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith. In Him, Believers are not under
law, but under grace. In him, and the walk of faith
in him, What it says in Romans 3.31 is true. Do we make the
law void through faith? No, no. Rather, through faith,
through this Gospel, we establish the law. We establish the very
objective of the law, the righteousness of God. The righteous demands
of God's law are established in the Lord Jesus Christ. By
faith, We heed the exhortation that Stephen read earlier in
Titus chapter 2 verse 12, teaching us that denying ungodliness and
worldly lusts, that we should live soberly, righteously and
godly in this present world, looking for that blessed hope
and the glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour, Jesus
Christ. How do we live like that? Again,
I'm going to close with this, this is John Warburton's testimony,
which I put in the bulletin a couple of weeks ago, but I just think,
you want me to summarise, and I can't think of a better way
of putting it, this is a humble, Poorly educated man, but taught
by God's Spirit and such a powerful preacher. He started preaching
near Manchester, a poor weaver, and then he was moved to Trowbridge,
down in Wiltshire, not far from where we are now. And he preached
there for years, and his chapel was full to overflowing for years
and years and years. And he says, I insisted on it.
that there was obedience. This is with the people that
were saying you've got to have the law of God to be truly obedient.
I insisted on it that there was obedience and blessed obedience
too in Christ. Obedience which did my soul good. Obedience which pleased God,
which honored the law. Romans 3 31. Pardoned all my
sins, confounded the devil, and made my soul dance for joy. It
was my meat and drink to do the will of my God and Saviour, who
had done so great things for me. But now, having been delivered
from the law, and having the love of the Lord Jesus Christ
shed abroad in my heart, I can believe in Him, obey Him, praise
Him, thank Him, and adore Him day and night, night and day,
sorry, and I insisted on it, that I never knew what it was
to hate sin, to love God, and to delight in His ways until
His pardoning love and blood were enjoyed in my heart, and
that I was confident that this was not the law, but Christ Jesus,
my God and my Saviour, in my heart, obeying the law, in my
room and stead. What a blessing! I opened my
mouth and panted, for I longed for thy commandments. Look thou
upon me and be merciful unto me, as thou usest to do to those
that love thy name. Order my steps in thy word, and
let not any iniquity have dominion over me. Amen.