 The word of God should be at the very center of our worship as the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen? We are to worship God as God has revealed himself to us in his word. We're to preach Jesus Christ. We're to teach Jesus Christ as the Lord Jesus Christ is revealed to us in Scripture. We're to sing biblical truth from the word of God, admonishing one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. So we are to come to the worship of God on the Lord's Day with a heart-level intention to hear, to understand, and to heed God's word. God's word is at the center of our worship. When the word of God is read, God is speaking. We don't have the words here of men. We shouldn't receive them as the words of men. These are the very words of a living God. Many would say today that we as the church, or we in the church, we can't be dogmatic about what the Bible says. It's too difficult to understand. There are too many interpretations. It's too mysterious. The message isn't clear. Well, theologians have a theological word for that, and that word is hogwash. Those are people, the people who hold to that kind of idea. The word is too difficult to understand. Too many interpretations. It's too mysterious. I can't follow it. Meaning isn't clear. Those are people who don't study the Bible. Those are people who don't take time to read the Bible for themselves, or those are people who don't want to accept the Bible for what the Bible clearly says. 98% of the Bible, 99% of the Bible is exceedingly abundantly clear. People often have a different agenda. Thousands of denominations isn't an indictment on the Bible's clarity. Thousands of denominations is an indictment on the ignorance of men. What does God say about his word? Through Moses, Deuteronomy chapter 30, beginning in verse 11, the Lord says this. For this commandment, which I command you today, is not too mysterious for you, nor is it far off. The word there for commandment in verse 11 is a word used by Moses to refer to the whole text of the covenant. That scripture given by God in covenant relationship with the people of Israel. It's the words of scripture that God had given to the people through Moses. Moses explains that commandment is not too mysterious for you. In other words, it's not too hard to understand. It's not too difficult. It's not beyond our comprehension. And sometimes you have to work at it, right? Sometimes it's not easy but it's not too mysterious for us. Moses says, additionally, it's not too far off. It's not beyond our reach. You don't have to go to the ends of the earth searching for it. You don't have to search underneath every rock and behind every shrub looking for mysteries that are hidden from us. It is the revelation of God, revelation of himself to us. God has brought it very near to us. It is near to us even now, amen. The word of God is clear and the word of God is near. And not the opinions of Mark Brashear. Verse 12, It is not in heaven that you should say, Who will ascend into heaven for us and bring it down to us that we may hear it and do it? Nor is it beyond the sea that you should say, Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us that we may hear and do it? I don't have to wonder what God's will is. I don't have to be anxious. I don't have to worry. I don't have to guess. I don't have to attempt to interpret providence in advance. I don't have to lay out a fleece. I don't need someone to come to me with a word from God for me or a dream or a vision. They don't need to come to me with a word from God for me unless it comes from this book, right? If it comes from this book, then their dream or their vision is unnecessary. If it doesn't come from this work, this book, then it is a work of the enemy, a work of Satan, and we shouldn't heed that. I don't need the word of some nutcase liar who said he spent 30 minutes in heaven. I don't have to go up to heaven to bring it back down to us. We don't need that. I don't need it brought back to me from some bald monk in Tibet. I have the very words of the living God in my hands when I hold the Bible. When I read the Bible, I'm reading the very words of the living God to me, to us, those words that he intended for us to have. So Moses says, verse 14, the word is very near you in your mouth. Doesn't the Lord say that we're to speak of it when we rise up, when we lay down, when we walk along the way? It's very near to you in your mouth and in your heart, with the purpose that you may do it. The Lord is constantly rebuking the Jews in the New Testament with the question, have you not read? Have you not read? Have you not read? Correcting them. And then Paul comes and Paul later quotes this very passage in Deuteronomy 30, he quotes in Romans chapter 10, verse 6. Listen to Paul. Do not say in your heart who will ascend into heaven, that is to bring Christ down from above, or who will descend into the abyss, that is to bring Christ up from the dead. But what does the word say? The word is near you in your mouth and in your heart. Paul says that is the word of faith, which we preach, that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. And once again, the Lord brings Christ near to us this morning through the preaching and teaching of his word. Christ isn't brought near in any other way I would submit to you, but through the preaching and teaching of God's word by his Holy Spirit as Christ is revealed in the scriptures. The issue always is, the issue always is then, what are you and I going to do about it? Are we going to worship God? Are we going to praise and worship the Lord Jesus Christ? Will we heed his word? We're here this morning as the people of God to worship him, amen? Let's do that with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind, all our strength this morning as we sing praises to him. Pray with me. Father in heaven, we praise you Lord, that you have revealed yourself to us in your word. We praise you, God, that you have revealed the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ. We praise you and thank you for the perspicuity of scripture, Lord, that it is clear. It's not too mysterious for us, Lord, by your grace and mercy to us. It's not far off because you have condescended to bring it near to us. We praise you, God, that you attend the preaching and teaching of your word by your spirit to bring it even nearer within our very mouths, within our own hearts, within our own minds that we may heed it for your glory and for our good. Please be with us now as we worship you. I pray that it would be worship that is fueled by your spirit in spirit and in truth in a way that honors the Lord Jesus Christ. And I pray, Lord, that if there are those here who do not know you, that you would work in them by your spirit to save them for your glory, for the exaltation of the sun. And Lord, that you would be pleased to build up in the faith your saints. Those called by your name is the bride of Christ. We pray that you would sanctify them to yourself and pray in all these ways, Lord, that ultimately you would be glorified for your glory that we pray these things in Christ's name. Amen.