The Truth, the Whole Truth and Nothing but the Truth

Well take your Bible and turn back with me to Matthew 5. Like I said earlier in our scripture reading, we're going to be in verses 33 to 37. Now I'm not going to ask us to turn anywhere else this morning. I will reference quite a few other scriptures. You can write those down. Many of them are Old Testament scriptures. I think most of them are Old Testament scriptures. And you can go back and study them on your own. My preaching style is that I want you to just follow me with your heart and your mind and your ears. And sometimes if we're turning here, there, and everywhere, we might get distracted.

I want us to get what the Lord is giving us this morning. And then we're going to go back and study on our own and put all of this together in our minds and in our hearts. Now we are progressing along in these six lessons, these six illustrations. Starting in verse 21 to 48. You know I mentioned the different illustrations and lessons earlier. You know your Bible translation could have a heading before each of these sections. So it might be easy for you to see that. But maybe you note that in your Bible so that you can understand the proper division here in the scriptures. But we've finally gotten to the fourth lesson. Verse 33 to 37.

Now I say finally because it took us eight messages to get through the first three lessons. You know we just need to take our time. We're not in a hurry. Let's be thorough. Let's try to get all that we can get. If you're like me, you might need it to be a little slower. You might not need it to be too fast. So I just want to take our time. And if we need to approach one of these lessons in two or three or four messages, we will do that. But this morning we're going to have one message covering this fourth illustration. Now I have often called these sections of scripture, "Lessons are Illustrations." I use that language all the time.

Bible scholars use the same language as well. That's where I got that. But that's what we do have. Jesus is teaching six individual lessons and they have meanings in and of themselves. They're sermons or lessons in and of themselves. But also Jesus is using these lessons to illustrate several things which really are above and beyond the individual lessons. Let me explain what I mean by that because this is very relevant. We know the scene. Jesus is there at the Sermon on the Mount and he's going through these six lessons. And what did we learn before we got into the lessons?

We learned that he is giving us a new standard and he was giving the audience there a new standard and a new authority. His authority was God's authority and his standard was God's standard. He was really gutting the authority of the Jewish leaders and teachers, even their traditions. And he is exposing their low standard of interpreting the Old Testament scriptures. In each of these individual lessons, Jesus was teaching God's standard for life. But above and beyond the individual lessons, these are specific illustrations. Jesus is illustrating the true meaning of verses 17 to 20.

In verses 17 to 20, Jesus explains that man is accountable to everything in the Old Testament. But not like the Jewish establishment had taught. The Jewish leadership taught a purely external adherence to the Old Testament scriptures. And Jesus is teaching here that true citizens in the kingdom of God, they possess a work of God on the inside of the man. And that is what he told the crowds there in verse 20. That they must possess a righteousness that is completely different from the righteousness of the scribes of the Pharisees and that which was taught. And each of these lessons illustrate what that looks like. Now a question.

Do any of you remember what it was like to take tests in school? Some of you teenagers, you might take a deep breath and say, "Well, Brother Chris, why did you have to bring that up? We've had a coronavirus break and now summer break. Why are you bringing up tests in school?" Some of you might remember tests you took back in college. I remember tests in my seminary days. I mean, we know what tests are. Tests, they have a purpose and that is to reveal what we do know or what we do not know. We understand those tests. But we must see that there is a different type of test. We must see that there is a test to show who or what you are.

There is a test to show what you know. Yes, but there is a test to show who or what you are. I'll help you here with an example. Think about Abraham, the old patriarch Abraham, the father of the faith. God tested Abraham when he called him to sacrifice his one and only son, the son of promise. God knew exactly what Abraham would do. You see, the test wasn't for God. The test was for Abraham. See, Abraham didn't know what Abraham was going to do. And that test was to reveal to Abraham who he actually was. And then ultimately it was a test to do a work of God in Abraham. See, that was a big test.

Well, that is what Jesus is doing here in each of these lessons. Jesus is testing and Jesus is proving who and what these Jewish leaders were. Their reactions show us who and what they were. And with each lesson, Jesus is revealing that theirs was a man-made standard of religious works, nothing of the heart. It was all externals. And for generations, they had reduced the Old Testament scriptures to accommodate themselves and their external religion and really worse their sin. Remember that I said that the Jewish leaders were masters at reducing down the Old Testament scriptures to accommodate themselves.

Their whole religion was all about accommodating themselves in their sin. Now, everything in verses 33 to 37 centers around truth. It centers around truthful speech, truthful conversation. Now, I know we read the verses earlier, but look back at verse 37 in your copy of God's Word. What does Jesus say as he wraps things up here? Let what you say be simply yes or no. Anything more than this comes from evil. I like how the New American Standard says it. It places a little different emphasis. But let your statement be yes, yes, or no, no. Anything beyond these is of evil. See, it's rather simple. It's truth.

This is simple for us to see, but it's not simple to do. It's not simple for us to live this out. And then also there was really a lot going on here with the Jews besides just what the simple truth that's being taught is. Now, in our day, think about it. For us, we live in a day when truthful speech is as rare as a passenger pigeon. I mean truthful speech, it has just been relegated to history. It's been tucked away in some museum somewhere. I remember when I was in elementary school back in Laurel, Mississippi, there was one field trip that we were always going to take. You might say, "Chris, Laurel is the home of Sanderson Farms.

You must be talking about a chicken plant." No, I'm not talking about a chicken processing plant. It probably would have done us some good to go to a chicken processing plant. Now, what I'm talking about was this. In our elementary school days, we were always going to go to the local museum, the Lauren Rogers Museum of Art. It is and was a very prominent and well-known museum if you're into those types of things. And I vividly remember the Native American exhibit. They had one of the finest collections of Native American baskets, and they still do. And you know those baskets are real.

In their original day, they had a purpose, but they had been relegated to ancient history and they're under glass. And see, that's the way it is with truth and truthful speech and truthful conversation today. You can hardly find a journalistic source that you can trust today. Why? Because there's so much fake news. There's so many lies. We have to question the truthfulness of the news and even its source, you see. It could be China or Russia or Iran propagating their lies in our culture. Isn't that right? Isn't it the same way with politicians today? What politicians tell the truth at least some of the time?

I was going to say most of the time. But what politicians tell the truth at least some of the time? Now think about it. When they are running for office against one another, they say all sorts of terrible things about one another. Awful things. But when they need a running mate, many times they choose the one that they vilified as a liar and a crooked public servant. Do they not? They say, "Well, that's just politics." No, it's just lies. You see, truth and truthfulness is real. It's just an antique from the past. You see? It's been relegated to a museum and it's been put under glass somewhere and it's not for use today.

It's just a relic from a bygone era. Well, that is exactly the way it was in Jesus' day. Truth in speech, truth in conversation, truth in promises and vows, all of that was rare. I ran across some information. This helps. I like summaries, you know, I like to teach and then give a summary. Well, I ran across a little summary by John MacArthur and he describes the situation of the day. It's easy for us to understand and it will help get our minds going in the right direction.

And I'm quoting, "The Jew of Jesus' day revered the idea of truth in principle, but in practice it was buried under their system of tradition, which over the centuries had continually cut God's law down to fit their sinful perspectives and purposes." And that is exactly what Jesus was attacking. Yes, attacking and exposing right here in the verses. "The Jews and their abuse of truth, their abuse of truthful speech, their abuse of truth in conversation, and in their promises." Really, He is attacking their abuse of truth throughout all of their lives. So we're going to look at these verses in three ways. I usually call them major truths.

They're easy for you to follow. We're going to look at what I call the principle from the law there in verse 33. Then we're going to look at the problem revealed. This is at the heart of what Jesus is doing, verse 34 to 36. And then the practical expectation from Jesus. We've read that more than once in verse 37. Now we'll read the verses as we go through the message. So notice out of verse 33, this is what I call the principle from the Old Testament law. You could put it like this. This is the principle or principles from the Old Testament Scriptures. Look back at verse 33.

"Again, you have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.'" Now again, Jesus is reminding the Jews of something that they already knew. But you know, you need to remember this. Get this firmly fixed in your mind, folks. Even though the Jews had reduced the meaning and the application of the Old Testament Scriptures to fit their sin and their personal desires, it did not mean that they did not know the Scriptures. Intellectually, they knew the Scriptures.

It was their understanding of the Scriptures and it was their practice of the Scriptures that was so very flawed and we're learning that. You know, think about it. Isn't it the same today? I mean, isn't it the same today? Some of the most religious, some of the most respected and some of those who know the Bible backward and forward can be exactly like the Jews. They don't understand it and they don't practice it. Now we need to see that Jesus was not referring really to a direct quote. Many times he is.

Jesus was alluding to Old Testament passages that the Jews used and they used these Old Testament passages to form a tradition about their speech concerning their speech. And so this statement is connected to Old Testament Scriptures. We're going to revisit them or visit them here in a moment. But to understand what is going on in the verse here, we need to see two things. First, we need to understand specifically what Jesus is saying in the verse. And then second, we need to understand what's behind the verse, the traditions I spoke of earlier. So first, what is in the verse? What Jesus is reminding them of in the particular verse.

To grasp what is going on here, we need to understand that there are two key phrases in the verse. The first phrase is not swear falsely. And the second phrase is what you have sworn. Look back at verse 33. Again, you have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not swear falsely. There's a key phrase, but you shall perform to the Lord. What does it say? What you have sworn. There's the other key phrase. Now the first key phrase comes from the verb, which means to swear falsely. It means to perjure oneself. Simply, this is a vowel which was a lie. The New American reads, you shall not make false vowels.

The second phrase here comes after the conjunction, but. Many times when you see the conjunction, but, it means something bad is coming or something's good. Something good is coming. But this phrase comes from a word, which means to bind together. It means to fence in. It means to him something in. The picture here is of one who is hemmed in or tied to something. So in the verse, Jesus is saying something like this. Verse 33. This is my paraphrase. You were taught that you should not make a false vow. When you make a promise, you should fulfill that promise.

You should fulfill your vow or keep your word as if you made a vow or a promise to God. And Jesus was reminding them of these principles, this tradition that they were taught. But we need to go behind the tradition. We need to see what's behind the principles and this tradition. So second, the Old Testament scriptures that are behind all of this. Now, don't turn to your passages or don't turn to these passages, but just notice the biblical scriptures, the Old Testament scriptures. Leviticus 19 12 reads, "You shall not swear by my name falsely and so profane the name of your God.

I am the Lord." Numbers 30 verse 2 reads, "If a man vows a vow to the Lord or swears an oath to bind himself to a pledge, he shall not break his word. He shall do according to all that proceeds from his mouth." Deuteronomy 23 21 says, "If you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay fulfilling it." So out of these verses, we have what the Jews have been taught for generations. You see, this would have been a tradition. These were principles, you see, and they came out of the scriptures. Go back to the verse.

Again, you have heard that it was said, "To those of old, you shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn." Now, in summary, what do we see in the verse? Jesus was reminding these Jews of their traditional teaching concerning their vows and their promises, really concerning their word. He is reminding them of a set of principles, teaching that was based on Old Testament scripture. Again, my paraphrase, it helped me. Maybe it helped you. Jesus is saying something like this. Listen, folks, you were taught from the tradition that you shall not make a false vow.

When you make a promise, you should fulfill that promise. You should fulfill your vow or keep your word as if you made a vow or a promise to God. But two questions that I need to ask here. Think with me. First, was the teaching of the tradition biblical or not? Yes, it was. This teaching, these principles were biblical. We can see that this comes right out of the Old Testament scriptures. So the teaching, the tradition, it was biblical. But second, what was the practice of the Jews and especially the religious leaders of that day? Did they live up to the tradition? Did they live up to what they were taught? You see, that must be asked.

Now, hold on to that question. We're going to get to that question or answer that question shortly. Now, second, our second major truth, this deals with verse 34 to 36. I want us to see their problem. It was revealed. Their problem was revealed. Let's go back to the verses. "But I say to you," see, there's the new authority. There's the new standard. "But I say to you, do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King.

And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black." Now, the problem the Jews had here, it was not a simple problem. And what Jesus says here, really in the verses, can be misunderstood. There have been entire religious sects that have taken this and misconstrued it. I'll give you an example, the Quakers. They refused to take oaths, and it was because they had misconstrued what Jesus was teaching here. But a few questions. Is Jesus saying that it is wrong to take an oath? I mean, what is all this language about heaven and earth and Jerusalem? What is all this about oaths by heaven, oaths by earth?

Things such as that. I mean, this can be confusing if we're honest. Let's be honest. Sometimes we come across portions of scripture, and it's just like those Old Testament names. We don't understand them. We just kind of skip over them. Should we skip over them? No. We've got to dive into what the Lord wants to teach us. Now, we need to understand this problem in three ways. First, the Old Testament teaching, the teaching of the Old Testament scriptures. Then we need to see the specific problem of the Jews right there in front of Jesus. And then third, what Jesus was actually teaching.

So first, the Old Testament scriptures concerning an oath. Simply, the Old Testament had a lot to say about oaths. Leviticus 19.12 gave specifics for making an oath in the name of God. And also, the Old Testament is full of examples. I'm going to give you a few very quickly. Abraham, the great father of the faith, he confirmed the promises that he made specifically to the king of Sodom and to Abimelech. He did that with an oath in the name of God. We saw that or see that in Genesis 14 starting in verse 22. And then later in Genesis 21, verses 23 to 24.

And then Abraham also made his servant Eliezer, vow or swear to God that he would not find a wife or his son Isaac among the pagan peoples of the land. See, he made him swear that he would go and find a wife among his own people, among his own relatives. See that in Genesis 24 starting in verse one. What about David and his great friend, Jonathan? If you know that story, it's a wonderful story of friendship. David succeeded Saul as the king of Israel, but yet Jonathan was Saul's son. And yet Jonathan sided with David, even when Saul, his father, wanted to kill David. David and Jonathan made a special covenant of friendship together.

And we see in 1 Samuel chapter 20 that Jonathan made David pledge in a vow because of his unique love for him and in that unique circumstance. But Jesus, Jesus used a unique phrase many times. We see this something, it's something like an oath, something like a vow. We see it all throughout his teaching. We saw this in our study through the gospel of John. There are times Jesus would say, "Truly I say to you, are a more serious, truly, truly I say to you." Jesus' purpose here was to elevate the importance of the certain teaching. He was drawing a greater attention to a particular teaching, just like a vow.

One particular instance is when Jesus was before Caiaphas. He swore an oath that he was in fact the Christ, the son of God. We see that in Matthew 26, verses 63 to 64. "Now I know I started with the old and I went off into the new." Now, what was the purpose? What was going on here in all of these examples? God did allow a time for appropriate oath taking in his name to elevate and to validate the truthfulness of something said or to elevate and validate an agreement or a promise. This was done because of the sinfulness of man. Mankind is prone to lie. Is that not the truth?

And according to the Old Testament law, our oaths were made, they were to be made only in God's name, only in God's name. Deuteronomy 6 and chapter 10. But then second, I want us to see the perversion of the things by the Jews. The perversion of all of this by the Jews. Now, remember what I asked earlier. What was their practice in their day? How did they relate to the teaching, that tradition that was handed down by their forefathers? You see, the tradition Jesus talked about in verse 33, it seemed to be biblical and basically it was. But the Jews had abused it in every way.

They had relegated vows and oaths to the most trivial of circumstances and they only made the vows that they intended to keep, they made them in God's name. They would swear by heaven and earth and even the temple. They would swear by the hairs on their head, anything that they can think of to seemingly legitimize or make themselves seem serious and honest. This all represented a common way of speech that was marked by lying and taking advantage of others. Historians and scholars tell us this, that this was just a part of everyday life. This was accepted as long as it wasn't done in the name of God, you see. So what have we seen here?

The problem is revealed. First, we see the Old Testament teaching concerning oaths and even the New Testament. Then we see second, the perversion of things by the Jews. But what was the result? I mean, what was the result of all this? Their tradition, which was derived from the biblical teaching and it was God's standard for truth and truthfulness, it was reduced. Remember, they reduced it down to accommodate their sinfulness. But the third specific, Jesus' perspective on things. That's what verses 34 and 36 are all about. We see Jesus and his perspective on this common everyday practice.

Simply Jesus says, "Do not swear at all by heaven or by earth or by Jerusalem." Now, why did he say that? You see, heaven is God's throne. Earth is God's footstool. And Jerusalem is the city of the king. He is Messiah. And Jesus was saying this, "When you swear by heaven and you tell your lies, you are in fact swearing by God and lying." When you swear by earth and you take advantage of others, you are actually swearing to God and using it to your advantage to wrong others. Simply Jesus is telling the Jews here, "Every oath that you take, you are swearing to God, so no vow is trivial. No oath can be broken.

All oaths are solemn pledges unto God himself, and they should be honest pledges no matter what." Now, in summary, what do we see here? It's a lot. Jesus was exposing the fact that they had actually destroyed biblical principles taught from Scriptures from their forefathers. But more than their abbreviated description, they were destroying the Old Testament Scriptures that they should have known. But it even gets worse.

You see, they had this gigantic religious system which said that you could lie all day long, "Oh, but as long as you didn't swear by God's name, it was okay." The Jews had written within their religious system certain writings or codes of law called the Mishnah. They were codes. There were codes of conduct which were supposed to ensure that they kept the Old Testament Scriptures if they lived up to that written code. But within the Mishnah, they had an entire system which told them which vowels were binding and which vowels were not. I want to try to simplify it a little bit more.

They had literally volumes of all types of books, and the books were supposed to tell them how to obey the Scriptures. Imagine book after book after book, and if they obeyed those books, well, they're going to obey the Scriptures. And one part of the Mishnah literally spelled out for them which vowels that they could break and which vowels they could not break. Literally permission when to lie and when not to lie. But a question we need to ask here. Do we not see that today?

Church leaders, churches, even denominations, produce all kinds of statements and documents, even entire volumes, which are supposed to help the people of God in the church obey Scripture, but many times they're contradictory to Scripture. It's the same thing. And throughout church history, many in the church have upheld teaching and traditions and such that are supposed to ensure and help God's people obey the Scriptures, but they do not. That's why, folks, we have to go back to the book. Now, our third major truth out of verse 37, the practical purpose. Now, this will be much shorter. What have we seen?

We've seen the principle from the law out of verse 33. We've seen the problem revealed in verses 34 to 36. And now the practical purpose of it all. Now, here is where Jesus is being super practical. Some of you like that, but he's being very, very biblical. He is even sounding much like the tradition that he quoted in verse 33, if you'll pay attention. Now, listen to the Old Testament Scriptures I read earlier, just two. Leviticus 19, 12. "You shall not swear by my name falsely, and so profane the name of your God, I am the Lord." Numbers 30, verse 2.

"If a man vows a vow to the Lord or swears an oath to bind himself by a pledge, he shall not break his word. He shall do according to all that proceeds from his mouth." Now go back to verse 33. Jesus says, "Again, you have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.'" See, it all sounds the same, does it not? But then look on over to verse 37 again. Jesus says, "Let what you say simply be yes. Let what you say simply be no. Anything more than that comes from evil or sin." Now what is Jesus saying to the Jews? That audience that was right there in front of him.

Oh, the disciples were there on the front row, but that great crowd of religious leaders and Jews. Was he saying that all oaths were sinned? Was he saying that swearing by God's name was wrong? Was he in effect moving away from the Old Testament Scriptures here? Not at all. Listen, if he did that, he would be discounting the Old Testament Scriptures. Simply Jesus is saying this, "It is necessary to swear unto God and that necessity comes from man's sinfulness and the sinfulness of the world that we live in." Those are unique but necessary times. The Old Testament Scriptures we have read show us that reality.

But other than that, Jesus is saying that just let your everyday language, your everyday routine be nothing but truthful in every way. Now as I move away from dividing the Scriptures, as I move away from examining what we have going on here in this day, we must ask ourselves a question in application. How does this apply to us today? You know, it's okay for you to sit back when I'm preaching and teaching and say, "So what, pastor?" Now what I mean by that is, "So what? What does this mean to us today?" Some of you probably thought to yourself something like this. Is it right to swear or take an oath for us today? Frivolous oaths? No.

Trivial swearing and such? No. That is sin. Most of the time those are not kept anyway, isn't that right? Trivial oaths swearing in our day is nothing more than what the Jews did in Jesus' day. It's exactly the same thing. But yes, in unique circumstances, we are allowed to take an oath. We are even allowed to swear by God's name. Think about a courtroom setting. Think about if you're giving your testimony or if you're serving on a jury. That's a part of our American culture, is it not? So in that setting, what do we do? We swear by the name of God. And see, we are allowed to do that because the scripture allows us to.

But there are other settings. Think about this. When you sign a contract, you are in effect taking an oath. That is more than just your word, isn't that right? Think about a contract when you sell your house or buy a house. Think about a contract with your job. Think about when you're signing that car title and you are testing that the numbers on that odometer are right. Think about any legal work that you may sign. Think about when those who are in the military, they take an oath. Law enforcement, they take an oath. Doctors take an oath, you see? In those settings and circumstances, you are giving more than your word.

You are in effect taking an oath to your truthfulness. You are swearing to your truthfulness. You are swearing to your honesty and you are swearing to your integrity. So my question for you is this. Are you truthful in those settings? Are you? But what about your everyday speech? What about your speech at home? What about your speech when you're at work? What about your speech when you are engaged in your hobbies? What about your speech when you are with your friends? Are you truthful? Is your yes, yes, and your no, no? Or do we compartmentalize our lives? You know what it means to compartmentalize. We have this area over here.

We know we got our church life. Then we've got our work life. And we got our neighborhood life, you see? Do we compartmentalize our lives? Do we have truthful speech in certain areas of our lives while we brag and exaggerate and tell those little white lies in other parts of our lives? At work, are we honest? But yet in sports and in our hobbies, we just stretch the truth some. Are we honest with our work? But yet when we are dealing with our sports teams that we love so much, do we just stretch the truth? You know, it's like this. Many times we can be very honest at home and at church and at work.

But you know, when we go deer hunting, we see far more deer than anybody else. And you know, that can come out of pride. We catch more fish than anybody, you see? Now for us, what does Jesus say? Let your yes be yes and your no, you're no. When you swear an oath in those unique circumstances, but in our everyday life, anything else is evil. Isn't that what he says? It just comes out of evil. It comes out of our sinful hearts. Whether it's at work or play or work, it doesn't matter where it is. Now there are times when I will hold on to the title of the message and I do that on purpose. Maybe it adds an emphasis, I'm not sure.

But notice what the title of the message is. The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Think about that. Doesn't that fit? The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. But you know, I think we need to add to that. So help me God. See, it's simple, but I said it was very complicated. It's real tough. Because why? Because of our unique sinfulness, our personal sinfulness, and the sinfulness of the world that we live in. It's all about the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. So help me God. Listen folks, politicians may lie and they may say it's just politics. Journalists may lie and call it the truth.

Coaches may lie and call it a part of the game. And then they go speak at a church at some special event. Teenager, you may lie and call it getting by in your schoolwork. Sir, you may lie at work and say that's just part of moving up the ladder. You may lie on your taxes, signing your name and taking that whole oath. And the whole time you're saying, I'm just going to keep what's mine. You see? Listen, God's people can't lie. God's people must be truthful. What is Jesus saying? The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Anything else is evil and sinful. And our prayer must be, so help me God. Now remember our tests earlier?

Sorry, young people, I brought up tests. Maybe that just causes your stomach to turn. They're good. Just trust me. You need to take those tests. You need to work hard in school. Do the best you can. Do it under the Lord. But remember the tests from Abraham? God was testing him to prove who he was and to show Abraham who Abraham was. Well, how did the Jews do in that test? We know the rest of the story. They hated Jesus. They did not like him exposing them for who they were. They did not like him dismantling their religious system. They hated him at every test along the way.

And that's why every time he challenged them, they wanted to stone him. And eventually they did crucify him. They failed the test. He proved them for who they were. He revealed and exposed them. But what about you? What about us? How do we fare in the test? How have we been revealed? How have we been exposed? Because listen, it's God's people. It should be all about the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. So help us, God. Let's pray. And let's commit this to the Lord. And let us not just say, you know, "Good sermon. It's okay. I get it." No, we can't tip our hat to the truth.

We must pray and ask the Lord to help us make this real in our life. And for some of you, for some of us, this could mean repentance, apologies, changes of behavior, really even repentance in some very large ways. Let's pray. And then Brother Keith will lead us in our closing hymn.