Instructions of maturity — Unknown Speaker

The Hard Experiences That Shape Christian Maturity

What really has happened in your life that's really changed you in any way? Has it been the good stuff, the easy things? Or how about the hard things, the bad things, the things that we wish we didn't have, like a bad doctor's report, or a child that's not going on for the Lord anymore, turned and walked away and said, I'm 18 now, I'm done.

Not going to come back to meetings anymore. I've had it with God, with the gospel, with giving thanks for food, with Bible readings at house, having to go to meetings, I'm done. That's hard. It happens to God's people.

The Instructions of Maturity and the Danger of Failure

So there's some things that we can't do anything about, but we are going to be speaking today about the instructions of maturity, and we'll be reading first in the book of Deuteronomy chapter 4, first of all about the prediction of failure.

And then in Joshua chapter 4, preparations for questions. And then in 2 Kings chapter 17, old people can sometimes be guilty of the propagation of evil. And then, as we read earlier today, in Psalm 78, we find the presentation of facts.

These are things that are involved in giving instruction. But just by way of a brief review, Joseph understood the need of trust. And you and I need to understand that we are passing on certain values by attitudes and by words, by the consistency of our conduct, by our commitment to the things of God, and our young children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren are picking up on that, and they're looking to see where we're going to change or why we don't.

You see, we develop trust. We earn respect. We can't demand it. And so you and I need to understand, all of us, young and old alike, that our word is our bond, the same as it was back in the days when you could make a business deal with a handshake.

And our work should be as good as we can possibly do it, no matter what it is. And our ways should be reliable, could be tested rather than being inconsistent. And our worship should always be in spirit and in truth.

I wanted to mention that to you because I would like to tie that in with what we're going to read here. Here, reading in Deuteronomy chapter 4 and verse 2, you shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish aught from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you.

Notice verse 6, keep therefore and do them, for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes and say, Surely this nation is a wise and understanding people.

For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for? And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous, as all this law which I set before you this day?

Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life. But teach them thy sons and thy sonsons, especially the day that thou stoodst before the Lord thy God in Horeb, when the Lord said unto me, Gather me the people together, and I will make them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days of their life, that they shall live upon the earth, and that they may teach their children.".

A Christian Heritage Passed from Generation to Generation

I am privileged to have a Christian heritage. I looked at that bunch of books back there. I'm very tempted whenever I see books to buy one of each, but at my age I'm trying to learn how to get rid of them, and it's pretty hard because they become friends of yours.

But coming down that list there, I saw a number of names that I know. I see a name there on one of those books, James Campbell. He was a pioneer. My middle name is Campbell. I was named after that man.

He was preaching when my grandfather got saved. Came along to another one, Donald Ross. Donald Ross was a Scotsman, preached in the UK for a while, but came to this country, buried right over here in Chicago, brought the gospel to a lot of places where the assemblies are in this area, and I came to the name Donald Monroe.

I'm mentioning those names because those are names that my great-grandmother and great-grandfather knew when they were first saved on my father's side. And when they were just young over in England, they heard these men preach, and then those men came to this country, to North America.

My wife and I, a couple of weeks ago, were in Toronto, and we went down to Mount Pleasant Cemetery right in the middle of that city because there's a spot there that I like to go. That's where Donald Monroe was buried.

And we looked there for his tombstone, and sure enough, there it was about this high, higher than my head. Gives his name, the name of his wife. But on the back of that tombstone, it tells quite a bit about the man and what he did.

He was one of the original pioneers of the gospel from assemblies of people gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ in North America, Donald Monroe, Donald Ross. And my people, and I'm telling you a story for a purpose, because this is how we oftentimes instruct our young, by letting them know how God instructed our forebearers, and how we came to this particular place today.

The prediction of failure came here if they did not teach their sons and their sons' sons God's way with them in the past. My great-grandfather and grandmother were in their 40s. They had six sons and two daughters, and they lived on an estate over in England.

And now, what are you going to do with six sons? Where are you going to fit them in when you've got a village that works for you? In their 40s, they realized that more important than their positions and possessions over in that country was eight children.

And they had two and a half dozen, two girls and a half dozen boys. My wife is the oldest of two and a half dozen, six girls and two boys. But they prayed about it. They were assembly people. And they came to the conclusion one day, scanning a paper, free land in North Dakota Territory.

So they took their children and came to New York City, got a train as far as Minneapolis. That's as far as it went in those days in the 1880s. Bought some wagons and oxen, horses, and went on their own wagon train up to North Dakota, right next to the Canadian border, and homesteaded some land.

He bought some other land. They ended up with a couple thousand acres altogether. But two men came, Donald Ross and Donald Monroe, heard they were there. And they came to that little home. My great-grandfather built a building for people to meet in.

And there, they began to instruct their young. One of them was in his 20s, and he began to preach the gospel. An assembly was started in Winnipeg with a man named, well, I'm telling you a bit of history here, but also one in Rose Isle, Manitoba, and other places besides the one in their own farm.

And these people came along, and they instructed them carefully, because sometimes superstition, and I was going to say superstitions that come from religions, can corrupt assemblies. They didn't complicate the Bible in those days, and we shouldn't complicate it now.

Stick with what it says. Stay with the context. Stay with the words that we have here. Teach them to your sons, and to your sons' sons, to your children, and to your children's children. That's what we have here.

The true service of God will have lasting effects that you'll never be able to change. They will stick. They might not come out the way we wish it, but when we do what God wants us to do, we can have confidence that God can use what he says in our own lives, the same as he did in Donald Ross and Donald Monroe.

My wife and I stood there, and we prayed out loud with thanksgiving for people who were prepared to leave in the 1880s and before, the 1870s actually, and come to North America and establish biblically gathered New Testament assemblies like are right here.

And from that assembly in North Dakota, a man went to work for my great-grandfather. He had a lot of people working for him because he had a lot of land. His name was Healer. And in the cold part of the year, he came on down the Mississippi, and he landed right here in Gutenberg, just down the road, because he had family down there that wasn't saved.

My great-grandfather had over the wash basin in the bunkhouse where the men were, these words written, the wicked shall be turned into hell and all the nations that forget God. Now, that's not really an intriguing gospel verse, but that reached those men, and this man came to Christ as a worker in that farm, came down here, and a man named Mr. Hermans from over by Waterloo was a relative, and the Lord saved him.

And a next-door neighbor listened to Mr. Hermans' talk, and before long, he talked to his neighbor, Mr. Oliver Smith, and Mr. Oliver Smith got saved. And before long, Mr. Oliver Smith talked to some of you brethren here, and right from this spot, men like Louis Brandt and men like Mr. Lorne McBain and Mr. Oliver Smith brought together what we are participating in here today, a work of God.

It was their work then, it is our work now, and we need to be about this work and teach them to our children. Don't just make Bible scholars out of them, make them Bible-livers. It's not enough to know all the scriptural references.

I would strongly suggest if you are a young person, start memorizing a half a dozen verses about sin, then get a half a dozen verses about what God has done about sin, then a half a dozen verses about how sin can be forgiven, so that when you're teaching a Sunday school class, you're not just going through a form, you're teaching children and children's children.

And when you're preaching the gospel, you're not just giving a sermon, you're passing on a message. That's why we're here. We've been given a message, and a true service of God will come from the heart of God's people.

Teaching Children to Avoid Spiritual Failure

Make it a point that we do not fail our children. Make it a point that we do not fail our children's children, because we read in verse 25, when thou shalt beget children and children's children, and ye shall have remained long in the land, and shall corrupt yourselves, and make a graven image or the likeness of anything, and shall do evil in the sight of the Lord thy God to provoke him to anger, then comes the call to heaven and earth.

To bring us down in brokenheartedness and repentance to God. Understand, failure is not necessary in the Christian life. Sin does not have dominion over us. And as we heard, greater is he that's in us than he that's in the world.

Let people know, like they did back there, that the coming generations will not forget what God has done to bring them to this spot, this day, in this street in Garnevillo. This is no accident. Way back, God was working with men on the other side of the pond, and he moved them with hearts of love and compassion, and they saw the value of souls, and they decided it's not worth it to be over here and do what is pleasing to me.

It's time that we move out and pass the word along to our generation and the ones following that what we have is worth more than this whole material world. We need to understand not only who we are, but why we're here.

Have you ever figured that out yet, you young folks? You know, anybody can be an engineer if they put... Well, I couldn't. Math's not my big deal. But I heard people say one time, actually, on a graduation ceremony in school, you know, you go out and conquer the world.

You can be anything you want if you put your mind to it. That's not true. But as far as God is concerned, you are capable of being anything that he wants you to be. So don't waste your efforts, your intellect, your strength, or the strong early years of your life on things that don't count.

Decide why you're here. Teach the children that our God still does miracles. One happened, as far as I'm concerned, it's a miracle. Over 60 years ago, a man on the Labrador coast heard the gospel. The very first time assembly preachers preached it there, the very first meeting.

And for the last... Since 1956 until 2018, he listened to the gospel, gospel meetings, gospel series, gospel preachers visited in his home. They slept in his house. They ate meals at his table. But neither he nor his wife were saved.

His children got saved. Some of his grandchildren got saved. My wife and I visited him with him last November. He said, I said, you're not looking too well. No, I said, I'm not feeling very well. He's 85 now.

What's the problem? Don't know. I'm afraid to go to the doctor. Well, you understand it's appointed unto man once to die, and after this, and he wouldn't say it. Come on, Stan. I said, after this? So I said, just so you know, a man who is not saved is not going to heaven.

He's going to hell. And I'm telling you that because I love you. I've known you for a lifetime. We left. A week or two later, he went to the doctor. And he found he had pancreatic cancer. That's the kind you don't get over.

So in connecting with his wife weekly, my wife, that's one of the things she does for the Lord, is call people on the telephone, saved or unsaved, and talks to them. Telling them of her interest and her concern and ours as those who serve the Lord.

This man, one day, he said, when he really got sick, he said, I want to hear Andrew Bergsma's testimony. Now, Andrew Bergsma had been there over 60 years before. But he had come down here to Iowa a year or two just before he died.

And somewhere along here, he gave a real clear-cut testimony of his conversion. And that was how they introduced his funeral sermon. He preached his own funeral sermon. And he wanted to hear that every morning after breakfast.

Because Andy would say, the Bible says, He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. H-A-T-H, hath. And he emphasized that. One day, I talked to him on the phone. I said, I'm not going to ask how you are because that's stupid.

You're dying. You know it. I know it. And we're not going to see each other again. So I'm going to give you 10 words from God, and I'm going to say them five times so that they're stuck in the sticky side of your head.

Stan, this is what it says. God said, When I see the blood, I will pass over you. When I see the blood, I will pass over you. When I see the blood, I will pass over you. When I see the blood, I will pass over you.

When I see the blood, I will pass over you. I said, You know what that means? Yes, he said. That's the blood of Jesus Christ. I said, That cleanses from all sin. Before you get to H-A-T-H, you've got to get to the blood.

Sin has to be faced and paid for. I didn't know. Two days later, they took him to the hospital, and less than a week later, one of his nephew leaned over him and said, You're dying, Uncle Stan. Yes. And he could hardly talk.

He said, And he said, Pray for, and he mentioned the name of his sister who was older than him. And I thought, Why is that? And then he said, When I see the blood, I will pass over you. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses from all sin.

He that hath the Son hath life and died. I'm telling you that because when we teach what God intends us to teach, we can expect results. In this day and age, the same as in the past, and you're capable of doing that, whether you're a young girl or an old man.

I'm not an old man. Hang on. I decided I'm going to wait till I'm 90, not 85. But whatever your age is, understand that by you passing on the truth that you know to be true and are faithful in doing that, and you can pass on God's faithfulness to you because you followed what he said.

And we pass on the account of how God works in the lives of people like you and me. Then we speak them clearly to our children with a view of the fact that they, in turn, can pass them on to their children and their children's children, and that will preserve them from going down the way of verse 25.

Memorials That Prepare Children to Ask Questions

Now turn with me over to Joshua chapter 4. Joshua chapter 4 and verse 19. And the people came up out of Jordan on the tenth day of the first month and encamped in Gilgal in the east border of Jericho.

And those twelve stones which they took out of Jordan did Joshua pitch in Gilgal, and he spake unto the children of Israel saying, When your children shall ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean these stones?

Then ye shall let your children know, saying, Israel came over this Jordan on dry land. For the Lord your God dried up the waters of Jordan from before you until you passed over as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up from before us until we were gone over, that all the people of the earth might know the hand of the Lord, that it is mighty, that you might fear the Lord your God forever.

So comes the time when children ask questions. I was at a house a couple days ago, there was a little boy there, we got talking, I like kids, like to talk to them, and just asked a couple of questions and he said, Why this and why that and why something else?

And you know, he's at that why age, all they know is questions. And he said, Why you got that mark on your head? I said, Well, that's because I didn't keep my head down at the right time. And he went over a whole lot of things like that.

And so I said, Why are you alive? And he stopped. I said, Why are you in this room? I said to this little boy, I said, Why did God let you have this family? And we went over. So I did the why thing to him.

That's once a man twice a child, you understand how it is. That's what happens when you get older. And so I asked him the why's. And he said, Well, I don't know. I don't know. All I said, It's time you learned.

I said, You're here because God made you. And you're here because God wants you to grow up to be a man who knows God and who knows Jesus. That's what it means to have eternal life. And you're in this family because God figures this is the best place you could be to learn how to be saved.

So we had a scattered bunch of questions back and forth. That's why I told you about my ancestors. Because there are some things that impress me with a fact that long before I was ever thought of, six generations before my grandchildren, a 16-year-old girl whose mother was an alcoholic, and they had more money than sense as far as the family, they had so much that they lived the life of leisure, a boring life of leisure.

You know, the kind that takes you to Florida for the vacation. Oh, I'm here in Iowa. That's right. Well, you know what I'm saying. There's some people and all they do is looking for a place to travel that they haven't seen.

And we made a mistake. It wasn't a mistake. But we took a journey at our 50th anniversary. And it was a journey through our heritage back in the United Kingdom. But we also went to Normandy where I cried because there's people from our neighborhood died there.

6 ,900 and some men in one day. It's like you're walking on blood. I wanted to remember my heritage as an American. Some neighbors died for me. And over in Gander, Newfoundland, there's two cemeteries or two memorials.

One is on there is during the Second World War, 12 men died into 12th of December, 1943. That was my birthday. 1985, on the other side of the road, 285 Americans died when a plane crashed bringing American servicemen back from the Middle East.

And yes, I cry sometimes. And that's when I do it occasionally when I realize that there's been a big price paid for me to live where I live and do what I do and pass on the gospel the way I do. I stood there shortly after it happened.

The trees were limbed down. That airplane crashed and 285 people were jammed, bodies, seats, everything, luggage, everything else against the front 20 feet of that airplane. They were in there like a big chunk of coal.

And I thought, these men died on my birthday, but they couldn't bring me eternal life. All they can do was bring me the privilege of living in freedom. But one day, God's own son gave his life as a ransom for me.

I tell this to my grandchildren as often as I can, until when I start and use words like this on the 12th of February, 1952, and they'll pick it up in the back room of a veteran of foreign wars building between half past nine and 10 o 'clock at night.

They know the story well enough that they can tell it. And that's what I want them to know. I want them to know it's no accident they're in my family. And you and I need to understand that we're going to have questions.

Tell people how you were saved. Tell them what it means to be forgiven. Tell them about prayers that have been answered. Whenever we gather as a family at our table, they're always kind of waiting for grandpa to tell them what's happened lately, because we still travel more than, well, we travel on the ground.

They travel in the air. They can't stick driving across anywhere. But me, anyway, we'll leave that. But I did tell them this. My wife and I, two years ago, we're over in Nova Scotia waiting in February to cross the Newfoundland.

It was blowing a gale, 65 or 70 miles of wind. And they gave us the word the crossing is canceled. So we stayed overnight there. In the morning, they said it's not going to go. But Linda and I decided that we would go and get in line anyway.

We went and lined up. And here's the flags that was blowing that hard. The flags were like a piece of plywood hanging up there. It didn't even flap. It was so strong. And the wind was just solid. And somebody said to us, why are you here?

I said, well, we're going on that boat. Not likely. So here's my wife and I sitting in there for three or four hours in the car. She's praying, Lord, please, if it's possible, make the count of three.

And I'm on the other side of the seat saying, please, Lord, you calmed the wind before. Please do it today. Well, the Lord didn't do either. He calmed the sea. He left the wind. And sure enough, we got aboard that boat.

And the purser and the sailors on board the boat said, I don't know why we're going out here. This is going to be some rough. We got it. And you would think you're sitting in this building. No more than a ripple in a, not a hardly ripple in the pool.

Flag is still on the boat is straight as a board. The wind is blowing and the sea is calm. Oh, you say, well, what happened? You know, a lot of ice or what? No. God answers prayers. And when we reached the other side without a wrinkle, the mate said to me, I can't believe we came over here smooth as glass.

And they canceled the return trip because the sea was too rough. We got on the other side now at one o 'clock in the morning, heading for Corner Brook. And I said, Lord, the forecast is for snow. Big snow.

We got into Corner Brook about half past two or three. And as soon as we took our suitcases out of the car and went into Steve Joyce's house, it started to snow. Next morning, the snow was about that deep.

I tell that to my children. I said, I don't believe God is dead. I said, I believe the same God that can take people across a Red Sea, can take people across the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The same God that can feed people with a little bit of five loaves and two fish until 5 ,000 men besides women and children are full, can feed you and me.

Let our children know what we believe. Now, I know probably half of you don't believe what I just told you, but don't fool it up for me. I'm solid in that. God does work. I got to move on to another place here in 2 Kings chapter 17, 2 Kings chapter 17.

The Danger of Trying to Serve Two Masters

I do want to tell you this much, though. When those children of Israel and their children came along by that river, walking along generations later, I can see one little kid turning to his grandpa, Grandpa, what's that big pile of stones there?

Well, they've been put there by some people in a long time, by your forefathers years ago. Why did they do that? Because they walked across that river on dry land. Not mud, dry land. And I tell them that something special happened here.

I can tell you there's no veteran of foreign wars building where I was saved now. It's a parking lot for a medical clinic. But at that spot, I can take you to the place where God saved me. And I do that.

I retell the story of the faithfulness of God, the place. Then I tell them the purpose for me telling you this is because I do not want you to fall under the lies of revisionist history. This country in which you and I live was based on people that believe the Bible.

We've strayed as a nation. But let us never stray as the people of God who gather to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. But that pile of stones would not only remind them of the place and the purpose, but of the power of God who can stop a river without a dam.

And the principle is by doing this, we keep before them. What's important? Bring your children to Sunday morning meeting. Let them see. They may learn their verse in the backseat. They might write a note or two to their friends.

Don't panic over the small stuff. Make sure they're there. And make sure they're there with a respectful attitude towards what's happening. Let them know that when we walk in there and sit down, there's something special going to happen.

I sat in the back for years. The older kids took care of the babies. Mothers trusted kids in those days. If they cried, we took them out. But I watched over those years, and I saw people with tears in their eyes, and I wondered why.

And I heard men pray with quivering voices, and I wondered why. And I watched the ladies. They didn't say anything, but their heads were bowed, and every now and then you'd see them go like this. And I'm wondering what's happening here.

Why is this such a big deal? And as much as they told me, the first Lord's Day that I was in there as a teenager was received in the fellowship. I learned what it was all about. I knew it, but I didn't know it.

We were over just the other day at a conference in Ottawa, and a young man was announced for fellowship that Sunday morning. I talked to him down in Toronto at a conference, and then he was up in Ottawa where he came from.

And I talked to him on the Saturday, Sunday morning. He stood up. First time he was there. He's in his 20s. He's an apprentice plumber. He's going to be master plumber soon. He was dressed like he was respectful, and he stood quietly, and then he said, Heavenly Father, we're here today to honor your son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

And we honor him by doing what he said. Thank you. And a couple more words, and he sat down. So after the meeting was over, I spoke to him, and I said, you touched my heart. I said, I appreciate what you did.

He said, I figured that if I didn't do it the first Sunday, it could be forever until I did. And I thought, good for you. And I think maybe the Lord said amen after I did, or maybe the same time. Because there's something about it when people understand that there are certain responses.

This one is a bit scary to me, here in Second Kings, because, how will I say it? There's sometimes people forget that our children will learn from us the bad stuff. That's right. You got a short temper?

Your children know. Your grandchildren know. Do you not, do you disrespect your wife? I made sure that our children and our grandchildren knew that they would never say no to my wife. The reason I'm saying that is because this is not popular in the world today.

But when we worship the Lord, and try to serve idols at the same time, that leaves a lasting impression on the generations that follow. Well, you know, I had to miss the Lord's Supper because it's going to rain tomorrow, and I got hay out in the field.

Really. I learned from my father and others, and father had perishable crops. He had 15 acres of strawberries ready to pick, and the forecast was for rain. And the people that he had hired, several hundred, were prepared to come and work on Sunday.

He said, no, this is the Lord's Day. We don't work on the Lord's Day. We give the Lord all of our attention, completely, on this day. He lost one picking of his strawberry crop because of rot, because of rain.

But he ended up with enough money to more than satisfy him, and my mother, and our family. You understand, you don't have to go out and use swear words. You don't have to cheat on your income tax. You don't have to lie to your neighbors to propagate evil.

Who we are can be seen in our face and hands. Those are our comely parts that the Bible talks about, because that shows what I am inside. Even if I was up here barefoot, that wouldn't, you wouldn't see anything about my personality in my feet, or in my elbows, or in my shoulder.

But face, hands, these are the ways we express who we are. So, when I connect with people, or when I speak to people, or the tone of voice I give to people, and deal with people, I'm propagating something.

Never allow yourselves, in any way, to do what happened here. These people were trying to serve two masters. The way the Assyrians did it, as we heard this morning, they were mean as a junkyard dog, those Assyrian soldiers.

I mean, they beat people, but they barbarized people. They went way beyond what was normal. And the way they handled their conquering, the people they conquered, was to spread them out all over the empire, so they'd never get together again.

And what's happened? The few that ever were connected were called Samaritans, a few that came back, mixed with the unsaved. There's always a problem. But you and I need to be men and women enough to know that when we gather by the Spirit of God, to the person of Christ, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we drew a line between ourselves and the world, drawn by the Spirit of God and the Word of God, and we stay on our side with God.

And in that way, we will not propagate evil. I just want to mention this, and then I'll conclude. In Psalm 78, where we read before, there is a certain necessity of an older generation to pass on to you who are younger some facts.

Passing on the Facts of Faith to the Next Generation

Facts are not changed by revisionist history in a university. I went to school when we respected the name of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Now they've come back almost to the place where they go back to calling him an ape, and that bothers me.

And some of my relatives, I'm going to use that word carefully, have swallowed the facts of revisionist history. And so once you start removing a foundation or the basis of our government or the basis of an assembly government to accommodate to the will of the population or the majority of the population, once we try to accommodate to that, we've buried the next generation.

We've left them without roots. We've left them without guidelines. Let us all here today commit ourselves without reservation to know the Bible well enough to instruct our children as to who they are in the eyes of God, to why they are here, to what their life is supposed to be, as to where they're going in the future, as to what they're going to do for God.

I was heartbroken a while back when in a community where we had preached and people were dirt poor 50 years ago, one of those that had been opposed to the gospel for years said to me, sort of with a sly remark, do you know that in this community there are now 11 millionaires and they all go to the gospel hall?

And I could have gone through the floor if there was one there. And I thought to myself, I don't mind if you make millions, but you know, much of what's happening in this world today is being supported by people who quietly know who they are and they've moved their goods to the far parts of the world so that some build a place in Angola, some more repair buildings in Kathmandu, others support people in Dominica that's been demolished three years in a row.

Let us remember who we are as the people of God. Let us remember why we're here. And let us instruct our young that they will never find the real meaning in their life until they follow what God has given us in his word.

And let us who are older lead the way and not back off, but move out with confidence that we are not done in this dark world. And the further we move ahead and the more united we are as brothers and sisters in Christ, the more light we can shed.

Let us go forward not just with the gospel, but that's where I'm pushing because I am a gospel preacher, but also with our truth. Let us keep the truth. Let us keep what we have. Let us build up our faith.