GOD’s New PLAN!

And he claims, but I just don’t remember. He says that I met with him in a Tim Horton’s. He’s even got the address on Mohawk Road in Upper Paradise. And he says that I was rather boisterous. He said, you weren’t quiet about it. And you’re telling me you need to get saved, Doug.  And apparently, I led him to the Lord somewhere, either in the restaurant, over a cup of java, or maybe out in the parking lot. I don’t know. I don’t remember that. But I do remember going to your house and leading your beautiful wife to the Lord. I remember that with Elf Cowell. Yeah. 

So, it’s so good to see you all the way. And then, world travelers, Siegfried and Linda, in the very back, they were on a month-long honeymoon, celebrating—is it 50?—celebrating 50 years of married bliss. That’s according to Siegfried. 

We just had to check with Linda later. We celebrate you people. And there’s another couple just passed another anniversary. 

Did I say last week about it? Maybe it’s worth repeating again. Bernie and Mike just celebrated a—51. They’re a mile ahead of you, Siegfried and Linda. 

Fifty-one. We celebrate you. So, oh, to be married for only 51 years again.

Yeah, we’re sniffing at the 60. So, the Lord be praised. Amen? Well, I dare this morning to read out of my copy of the book entitled The Message.

Eugene Peterson was a Canadian minister out in BC. The man was a walking Bible. And for the sake of his children, he wrote The Message to help his children to get past, you know, bowels of mercy. 

And, you know, when I was a kid and I heard about bowels of mercy, I thought, I’ve had that. I was sick to my tummy at one time. Bowels of mercy. 

That was a King James statement. And I remember singing songs, too, that resonated with me. My mother used to put carnation milk in her coffee, and I was so excited when the church would sing about carnation milk. 

Thy great carnation so rich and free. Thank you, Lord, for saving my soul. So, this is not holy scripture. 

This is a holy story, okay? So, don’t get upset with me. I’m going back, not as far as the King James, but in a few moments I’ll walk through the NIV. But this is in story form, and I love it because it’s in today’s vernacular, and it sort of helps things to—it gives a little bit of color, if you might say. 

So, this is Hebrews chapter 10. And Eugene Peterson has taken the Old Covenant, the Old Testament covenant, and he’s calling it the Old Plan, okay? The Old Plan was only a hint of the good things in the New Plan. Since that Old Plan wasn’t complete in itself, it couldn’t complete those who followed it.

No matter how many sacrifices were offered year after year, they never added up to a complete solution. If they had, the worshipers would have gone merrily on their way, no longer dragged down by their sins. But instead of removing the awareness of sin, when those animal sacrifices were repeated over and over, they actually heightened the awareness of guilt. 

The plain fact is that bull and goat blood can’t rid us of our sin. That is what is meant by this prophecy that was in the mouth of Christ. You don’t want sacrifices and offerings year after year.

You’ve prepared a body for me for the sacrifice. It’s not fragrance and smoke from the altar that whet your appetite. So I said, I’m here to do it your way, O God, the way it’s described in your book. 

When he said, you don’t want sacrifices and offerings, he was referring to practices according to the Old Plan. When he added, I’m here to do it your way, he set aside the first in order to enact the New Plan, God’s way, by which we are made fit for God by the once for all sacrifice by Jesus. Every priest goes to work at the altar each day, offers the same old sacrifices year in, year out, and never makes a dint in the sin problem.

As a priest, Christ made a single sacrifice for sins, and that was it. Then he sat down right beside God and waited for his enemies to cave in. It was a perfect sacrifice by a perfect person to perfect some very imperfect people. 

By that single offering, he did everything that was needed to be done for everyone who takes part in the purifying process. The Holy Spirit confirms this. This New Plan I’m making with Israel isn’t going to be written on paper. 

It isn’t going to be chiseled out in stone. This time, I’m writing out the plan in them, carving it on the lining of their hearts. He concludes, I’ll forever wipe the slate clean of their sins. 

Our sins are taken care of for good. There’s no longer any need to offer sacrifices for them. I want to pause here and just say something that surely you all know. 

It’s quite likely the Apostle Paul was writing this. He was writing to Jewish believers, most likely the Jewish believers who were living at in Rome at the time. Persecution of the Jewish people at that time, as is true of every age.

Persecution was horrendous. Murders, intimidation, lack of privilege for education. As a Jew over the centuries, you couldn’t get a university education. 

You weren’t good enough. If you were allowed to have a home in a city, you had to live in the lower end, you know, like on the other side of the tracks. Narrow streets that are poorly looked after by proper sewage disposal. 

You had to, in Russia, wear special clothing that identified you as a dog. This is the kind of thing that was even happening to the Jews in Rome at the time of this writing by Paul. And so he’s worried about them because word has come to him that there’s a party of the Jewish people, we think in Rome, who were talking about going back, giving up on the new and living way, going back to the temple, going back and being part of the still ongoing boring sacrifices.

And Paul’s warning, you don’t want to do that. Allow me to read on. Friends, we can now, without hesitation, walk right up to God, into the holy of holies.

Jesus has cleared the way by the blood of his sacrifice, acting as our priest before God. The curtain into God’s presence is his body. So let’s do it, full of belief, confident that we’re presentable inside and out. 

Let’s keep a firm grip on the promises that keep us going. He always keeps his word. Let’s see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out, not avoiding worshiping together as some do, but spurring each other on, especially as we see the big day approaching. 

If we give up and turn our backs on all that we’ve learned, all we’ve been given, all the truth we now know, we repudiate Christ’s sacrifice and are left on our own to face the judgment, and a mighty, fierce judgment it’s going to be. If the penalty for breaking the law of Moses is physical death, what do you think will happen if you turn on God’s Son, spit on the sacrifice that made you whole, and insult the gracious Holy Spirit? This is not a light matter. God has warned us that he’ll hold us to account and make us pay. 

He was quite explicit. Vengeance is mine. I won’t overlook a thing, and God will judge his people. 

Nobody’s getting by with anything, believe me. When was this epistle written? It had to be written before 70 AD, the big day. It had to be written before, because the writer is saying, you can’t go back to the sacrifice. 

You can’t go back to the priesthood. You can’t go back to the Jewish way. He’s not talking about a time when the Jewish country has been ravaged, when they’ve been killed by the millions, when the temple is destroyed. 

No, no, this is before the destruction of the temple. And when he talks about the big day, he’s talking about the months that went from April to about mid-September, when the Romans marched on Jerusalem. Four months the war raged on. 

I never knew this before. I’m no idea. The walls that were around Jerusalem were a magnificent fortress.

And when the people of Jerusalem knew that the Romans were coming to destroy them—because the Romans had had it up to here, because there were so many Jewish people who were refusing to knuckle down, to put it in current perspective—they were refusing to identify with the new gender concepts. They were refusing to knuckle down and refuse to accept the thing that’s coming to be imposed on every one of us, the new digital number they’re going to give you. Pastor, that’s folklore. 

No, it’s happening. There’s a committee struck in Ottawa. They’re doing it even now. 

And London, it’s been announced in the last 48 hours, it’s about to take place in the now. It’s already gone through their parliament. A digital recognition. 

And in London, if you don’t—in England, if you refuse the number, you can’t buy. Does this sound familiar? You can’t buy, you can’t sell. You’re going to lose your real estate.

You can’t vote. You can’t have a driver’s license. You can’t have a card that says you get free medical privileges. 

There were Jewish people at the time, under the Roman sandal, with a spear in their back, you will abide. This is Roman territory now. And they were withstanding it and pushing back. 

And so, if you go back and you look at it, all the towns, so many of the towns of Judea and Samaria, all that part called the West Bank now, the people were resisting. And the Romans were going in, setting fire to their homes, the skirmishes, the skirmishes. But the resistance was quite incredible, because the Romans never knew who they were fighting. 

The Romans were always in their garb, but the Jewish people, they were carrying pitchforks and clubs and homemade swords and whatever. And they weren’t easily identifiable. So finally, Titus, who was the guy in charge of all of the Roman oversight of Israel, said, I’ve had it. 

If we attack Jerusalem and we can destroy it, the heart of these people will be downtrodden. Why? Because he knew that the temple site and the temple itself was the very heartbeat of Jewish religion. He said, Pastor, are you sure? I just spent two weeks preaching on it from this pulpit right here. 

Why the temple was significant? That was the place where God was to dwell. It started with one man, Abram, then Isaac, then Jacob. One man, one man, one man. 

One man. Abram had to say to Sarah, trust me, I’ve been with God. Isaac had to say to his little family, your grandpa’s God, I’ve met with him. 

Take my word for it. Jacob experiences his grandfather’s God at the foot of a ladder, wrestled with God, receives a new name, Jacob, Israel, which means he who wrestles with God. And he was one man who had to say to his family, which was growing wonderfully, trust me, God is, God is, I’ve met with him. 

And the family had to trust this one man who knew God. And then one man was raised up in the midst of the Egyptian hardships where the people of Jacob had gone to live in Egypt and scrounge for food. They became slaves after 400 years. 

They became slaves. And God raised up one man who said, I’ve met God. Where did you meet him? Well, God was a burning bush. 

You’re on fentanyl, what are you talking about? I’m telling you, there was a bush and it burned, but it wasn’t destroyed. I’ve met with God, and God says, here’s how I want to do things. Interesting that when Moses went to Pharaoh and said, the Lord God of heaven wants you to free his people—listen, he didn’t say he wants you to free his people, he’s giving them a promised land.

There was no mention of Gaza, no mention of the land of Israel, no mention. He told Pharaoh, God says, let my people go so I can be among them and they can worship me. That was God’s primary objective. 

It wasn’t about that piece of land called Israel. It was about relationship. God said, I want to be one with my children. 

I’ve chosen the children of Abraham. When they got out in the desert, the people became afraid when God came even remotely close. This is the first time that the children of Abram saw anything that bespoke of God. 

The miracles, the deliverance, frogs and lice, and a river that ran with blood didn’t occur. Well, that’s God. It wasn’t God. 

All of these things were symbolic. He’s near, he’s near, but he never came among them. When he came down on the Mount Sinai, the children of Israel cried out and said to Moses, his very voice is going to kill us. 

Please let God talk quietly to you, and then you pass it on to us. They were afraid of the presence of God because they did not understand. One man, Abraham, one man, Isaac, one man, Jacob, one man, Moses, and the children are still afraid.

So the Lord says, build me a tabernacle, a tent that’s movable. We’re heading to the promised land, a 40-day trek. By the way, it’s going to take 40 years because you people are in love with golden calves. 

It’s going to take a little bit of time. So I need this mobile place where I can come among you. And for the first time, the sons of Abraham actually saw the glory of God in the daytime, a cloud that moved, and they followed it. 

At nighttime, a fire to help them in the cold, bitter, damp temperatures of the desert. And it was a cold out there, and the fire kept them warm, God’s presence. And then when a sacrifice was made on a day of Atonement, the Holy of Holies, they felt and they sensed the glorious presence of God. 

God was among his people. But it was a momentary thing. It was a tent, and then they tear down the tent, and they move the tent and set it up again and again. 

And it was in the heart of David once. They were in the place called Israel, and David said, we’ve got to have a place where God is permanent, because they’d set up the tabernacle in Israel. So they built a temple, and it was after the same layout and package that the tabernacle had been. 

They built a temple that was a glorious thing. The blocks that were—I know I’m reminiscing. You’ve heard all of this, but if you hear it again and again, you’ll start to believe it. 

So the stones for the temple, each one of them weighed somewhere around 30 tons, and they were mined from underneath the temple mount. There’s a cave down there somewhere. How did they get them up to the surface? They rolled them on logs.

Mind your toes. The thing is coming. Don’t let it come back down.

Have you ever helped somebody move a piano or something up the stairs, and the guy at the bottom says, I’m losing it? You don’t want to. You’re going to turn into a postage stamp if this thing lets go. But the glory of God was among them. 

And that temple wasn’t to be a memorial. That temple wasn’t to be a piece of antiquity where you could go and take pictures of it, touch the walls. It was nothing of the kind. 

This was the dwelling place of God among his people. He said, I want to be near you, and I don’t want you to be afraid of me, and I want you to trust me, because I need you to be a model for the rest of the world, the nations of the world. But the people were enthused about the building, and they worshiped it like it was a holy cow.

The building became the focal point of their pride. The queen of Sheba had to come all the way just to see it. It was one of the great wonders of the world at the time.

Cedar inside from Lebanon, overlaid with gold. It was the most magnificent temple of the time, and they were so proud of it. Once a year, the high priest would go inside that temple, burn an offering, offer it unto the Lord, and again, it was a high time, the highest day of the year.

But it was the prophets who started to warn the people and said, if you don’t be careful, God’s presence among you is conditional upon you walking with God. He desires to be among you. He wants to be in partnership with you. 

He wants relationship. God wants relationship, and if you become so enthralled with this holy cow called the temple, it’s to be a place where you meet the holiness of God, and no, you’ve got to be so proud of it. Send Polaroid pictures to your grandchildren as they travel in Hawaii. 

You know, like God said, no, no, no, no, and so through the prophets, they were told, you either get your act together, or the glory is going to depart, and the glory departed. The temple was destroyed by an invasion of the Babylonians. What a mess that was, and the people at that invasion were gathered up by the thousands. 

Some of them were loaded onto ships, and were taken away to Iraq, and there they would become slaves, something like 700 years. I forget the time. It doesn’t matter the time span. 

I’m off on years at times. I can’t even remember how old I am. I don’t want to be how old I am. 

Don’t remind me. But the Lord had it that he wanted the people to come back, and so it was arranged that the people would come back to Israel, and they rebuilt the temple. They rebuilt it, and when Jesus came and started ministering with the disciples, one day as they’re walking out of the temple, the disciples were so excited, they said, you know what? We’ve seen this temple how many times? We go by it all the time. 

As little kids, we came by. And they got talking among themselves, and they had to say to Jesus, you know, we’re just having a little chatter here, and for the first time, we’ve actually stood back and looked at that. This is a marvel. 

Think about how it was built, and this is beautiful. And Jesus said, yes, it’s beautiful, but something’s coming. A horrendous moment is coming in your history, O Israel.

I wanted to gather you. I wanted to love you. I wanted to show you my glory. 

I wanted a relationship, the kind that I was begging for. That’s why I brought you out of Egypt, not to give you a monumental wonderland just north of Toronto. That’s not what it was about. 

It’s about relationship. I’ve called you. And Jesus said, there’s a day coming, and it was hard to—if I’d been standing there, I would’ve listened to it all. 

Somebody’s had too much popcorn. There won’t be one stone left upon another. How do you move a thirty-ton hunk of rock? Is there a hydraulic machine now that could get a whole thing like that? I suppose there is, but in those days, they didn’t have enough mules to do it.

It’s a marvel. And he said, not one stone will be left upon another. They did not believe it.

He said, and this temple will be knocked down, but three days later, it will rise. Think about it. Think about it. 

Think about it. Think about it. Think about it. 

Think about it. The temple was to be the place where God would reside. John 1. John 1, in the beginning. 

In the beginning, the Word was God. Right? And he came among us. He came unto his own. 

His own received him not. This Jesus who came was a walking temple of God. We just read it in Hebrews, where Jesus said, Lo, in the book it is written of me, a body thou hast prepared for me. 

A temple. And that temple was destroyed on Golgotha, right? Torn down. But three days later, the temple arose again.

But the temple arose again for a brand new plan, says Eugene Peterson. Where God is dwelling amongst us, all right, but just a few weeks ago, Art, you opened up your person as God in that service. And I don’t expect you to understand all this.

Nick’s been hanging on to this for a whole year, and he’s still stargazing. It’ll take you some time to come to understand what prompted you to raise your hand. And Mama too, Judy, that day was not, do you want to join the club? Free coffee every Sunday, and once a month we give you free sandwiches and soup. 

That’s not what you were after. At that moment, Art, the Holy Spirit was whispering into your heart and saying, Art, I want you to be my temple. I want you to be my temple, Art. 

And you said, yes. Now, we just read a warning though, Nick, Art, who and whoever else might be new in the Lord, there’s a solemn warning in here. Don’t get discouraged and turn back. 

Don’t cut and run. A few of us have done it by times, and we’re not proud of it. Nobody’s going to put your life story up here. 

I wouldn’t mind mine up there, okay? As angelic as you think I am, I have wings, but I got, they’re under the shirt. April has to pack my wings, and my halo, I take it off on Sundays. It’s kind of rusty.

I’m not a perfect person. There’s none of us righteous. No, not one. 

Everybody needs to be redeemed. Everyone has to open up and say, Jesus, I welcome you into my person. I want to become your temple. 

But that means a change of life, a change of demeanor, a change of language, a change of desire, a change where that which you used to turn away from, you embrace, and that which you used to embrace, now you run from, and you embrace the cross. You embrace a new life, and it gives you freedom. This new life is not chains in a jail. 

This is a place of freedom. Where you were was bondage, and you know so, but now you’ve been set free. I’m not talking to these guys. 

I’m talking to David. I’m talking to you, Doug Flakes. When you gave your heart to Jesus and a donut shop, we could have picked a better place. 

But I’m an idiot. I’ll lead you to the Lord in a park or on a roller coaster. I hate those things. 

I’d be yelling, Jesus, get us out of here now. It doesn’t matter where it happened, as long as it happens. But don’t you turn back, because there’s no sacrifice for sins, and there’s a solemn warning in this passage of Hebrews 10. 

I’ll never get through it all. Hebrews 10 is a message to these Jewish people who made such a good start. Pastor Dave, why were they turning back? Persecution.

They were being ridiculed. So you believe in this God, do you? Why was Charlie Kirk killed? They didn’t like his lifestyle. They didn’t want his Jesus.

They thought they’d shut him up. Do you know what happened a few days ago? Thousands of young South Koreans came out in the streets of Seoul and shouted, we are Charlie. We are Charlie.

You silenced him, but we are Charlie. You can’t stop him, because his message is alive. You can’t stop when God is doing something glorious. 

I said to April this morning, I said, there’s a little place called Drayton Valley. You know where that is, Pastor Peter? Did you hear? There was something like 6,000 people just gathered out in an open field a few days ago and sang and worshiped the king. People got saved. 

People got the baptism. This is a revival that’s happening all over. The campuses all over the US of A are springing up as places of revival. 

Young people are tired of this new wokeism. Young people are tired of the rabble and the nonsense, and they’re saying, there’s no anchor for my life, and they’re turning to Jesus. Temples are being erected, but God is doing it. 

And I tell you, persecution is coming. The persecution that is coming is going to be to stop our freedoms. I have no doubt we’ll have the freedom today to send this message out over the airwaves. 

This is not politically correct, what I’m saying today. Political correctness is going to be the law of Canada. And if you don’t agree with what they say, Pastor, don’t get political. 

This is not political. This is the reality. I’ve got to speak of what is about to take place. 

We will be shut down in terms of speaking of the gospel. Secondly, there’s a committee designed to take away every church’s registration as a charity in Canada. Every charity will be canceled. 

All of a sudden, the church has to pay real estate tax. You’re not a charity anymore. Who are you? You’re worthless to us. 

Churches are going to fall. They’re not going to be able to pay the realty taxes. Freedom. 

You know, in England, people are— I saw a picture of a little lady. Looked like she was on a beach or something. She just had this little sign. 

I never even got to see it, but it was something like, Jesus loves you or something. Two policemen walked up. They handcuffed her and led her away. 

They said, you’re not allowed to talk like that here. She’s standing there, emotionless, speechless. That’s coming to Canada. 

Pastor, you’re deranged. You had too much caffeine this morning. It’s happening. 

If you’re not aware, I’m sorry, but it’s coming. And what will happen to us when the persecution comes? Think about this. If this church were to lose its registration, how would that affect your donations to the church that day? No receipt.

I don’t know. It happens to me, I’m going to give double. I mean that. 

The church will need more help than ever before. It’s coming, honey. It’s coming. 

It’s coming. It’s coming. But these people, Paul writes to them and says, don’t give up now. 

Don’t give up. Don’t give up now. He says, be careful because the big day is coming. 

What big day? AD 70, the month of April. The Romans came. I’ve got so many scriptures. 

I could read stuff to you forever. It’s actually that the prophet said, your enemy will come and they will build ramps up to your walls. That’s exactly what the Romans did. 

It warned them, you will be so hungry, you’ll eat your own babies. The Jewish people were trapped in their own city. They couldn’t get out to get food. 

They were relying strictly on water. They were fighting among themselves. The city was surrounded. 

There were many valiant soldiers who died. And sometimes, like the Romans had a hard time defeating them. They’re fierce fighters. 

I tell you, the thing lasted for four months. One city stood against the entire Roman garrisons from Rome. It was a terrible thing. 

The slaughter was endless. Romans are horrible. You couldn’t give up. 

Don’t bother with a white flag. They’re going to chop you in pieces. They were so angry with the Jews. 

They wanted them all dead. They kept on coming and coming and coming and coming and coming. It was absolutely horrendous. 

I watched a documentary this week. I could hardly watch it to the end. I had no idea what happened to Jerusalem. 

Jesus was warning them, oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, I’ve come to warn you. You see, if Jerusalem had turned, if they’d followed through on that parade, Hosanna, Hosanna, right? The triumphal march, if they’d meant it. But you see, He wasn’t the kind of hero that they want.

He rode in a donkey. No, we want a big white horse. It was prophesied. 

He will come lowly. He will ride on the back of a donkey. It was all prophesied. 

And what happened to Jerusalem in A.D. 70 was all prophesied, right down, right down to every detail. Not one block will remain. The Romans threw firebrands into the middle of the temple. 

Why? Because the soldiers, as they were losing, kept on going back. Do you know where the last stand of the city of Jerusalem took place, where the Jews were fighting? The Temple Mount and eventually the temple itself. Until within a couple of weeks of the total destruction, annihilation of the Jews of Jerusalem, until a couple of weeks, there was a priest going out on a regular basis and offering lambs. 

Until they ran out of lambs, they were burning, they were killing, slaughtering lambs and saying, dear God, the Romans are here. Please, we’re sorry. We’re sorry. 

It was too late. It was too late. It’s too late. 

It’s too late. It was like the arc of the door of the ark had closed. And when the rain kept on coming and coming and coming, the people were outside, their hands were getting raw, pounding on the side there. 

Okay, okay, we believe you, Noah. Too late. It’s too late. 

It’s too late. It’s too late. Pastor, you’re coming unhinged. 

It’s okay. It’s almost a quarter after. I always finish by a quarter after. 

Yes, yes, yes, yes, I’m passionate. Because I think the church, certainly the church, we are asleep. Is this message being spoken in church? Well, no, nobody’s as nuts as you, Pastor Dave. 

So let some guy stand up in a stuffed shirt and just read a little text to the people and say, people, wake up. Wake up. The day is coming. 

Which day are we looking at? Not destruction for ourselves. It’s got to get tight. The day that we’re anticipating is in a moment. 

In the twinkling of an eye. My mom, my dad, my grandma, my grandpa, my uncle Milton, your mama, your daddy that you lost when you were 12. Their graves are going to open. 

Their bodies are going to be changed. Jesus’ feet are not going to touch the ground. He’s calling us to meet him in the air.

And so shall we ever be with the Lord. That day is about to happen. It could happen before we close in the next five minutes. 

It could happen anytime. Do you think we’ll get some warning? Sure, there’ll be a little email that’ll go out. Dave, put on your best suit. 

Put on that fancy tie. I didn’t wear a tie. The men of this church are after my ties. 

You back off. I got a whole message prepared. All I’ve preached this morning was the introduction.

I want to go through that chapter and put a magnifying glass on each. Each verse is pregnant with glorious divine truth. But it’s all a warning to the Jewish people who are going to walk away. 

He said, don’t do it, don’t do it, don’t do it. You need to stay under the covering of the Lord Jesus. Heavenly Father, I do not feel equal to this moment. 

I don’t feel equal at all to even approach this pulpit today. I am unworthy. I’m an unworthy servant. 

I’m a mouthpiece. I’m a shovel. Oh, Lord God, help us to understand Holy Scripture and help us to be diligent to walk with Jesus. 

Help us to be diligent to open the Word. That is our road map to survival and to success. And Lord Jesus, I pray that you’ll help every one of us to open our mouths and speak kindly, gently, maybe quietly to neighbors, pastors, by friends, family. 

You need Jesus. He wants you to be his temple. You need Jesus.

Help us to be soul seekers, soul winners. It matters. I pray now that with the dark days that are rolling on upon us in this country, being attacked from every side, being attacked from every side, and our country is languishing for need of finances to even provide for the little children for tables. 

Oh, Lord God, help us to be diligent to lift up our eyes toward you. May we be encouraged because Jesus has an excellent plan. May we be faithful to you, not turning back, not turning away. 

May we run toward you. We desire to be in partnership. We desire to be in relationship with the Lord our God. 

Thank you, Jesus, for being our friend. Amen and amen. Say these words with me. 

I am a friend of God.