Open—L. Smith, B. Warr
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58th chapter of Isaiah.
Cry aloud, spare not.
Lift up thy voice like a trumpet.
And show my people their transgression.
And the House of Jacob, their sins.
Yet they seek me daily.
And delight to know my ways as a nation that did righteousness and forsook not the ordinance of their God.
They ask of me the ordinances of justice.
They take delight.
In approaching to God.
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Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou see us not.
Wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge?
This is written in a day when Israel.
Was.
Turning away.
But notice their condition.
They delight in approaching.
To God.
Habits.
Of going to the temple.
Of rituals.
Maybe of eating together?
Various things.
They had this delight in approaching to God.
They fasted.
But to them, it seemed like he didn't see anything. Thou seest not.
We've afflicted our soul.
Now take us no knowledge.
Behold, in the day of your past you find pleasure.
And exact all your laborers.
We live in a day of pleasure.
Lots of it. People entertained continually.
To where the voice of the Lord getting through to the individual soul.
Is a difficult thing.
Are you and I content to?
Wait in.
To hear the voice of the Lord.
And exact all your neighbors.
The greatest system of battle and the great.
We're all ensnared in, aren't we?
We have jobs.
Certain amount of pay per hour taxes.
Tremendously developed system.
I hope.
We're able.
Still to give of ourselves.
2-3 years ago when I was in El Salvador, I was impressed that one brother had to wait for to come back from the.
Sugar cane cutting.
We got $2.75 a day.
Hard work.
But he helped his neighbor finish cutting his lot.
Not the amount you have.
That brings forth the abundance of the heart, is it?
But here they fasted verse four. We fast for strife and debate.
And their difficulties.
Amongst God's people.
Have you ever passed it?
Did you fast?
To prove your own point.
Where did you fast?
To be low before God.
Be still and know that I am God.
We live in a world that's in such a world, it's pretty hard to be still.
We've asked for strife and debate.
How's that up with? How's this add up with? They take delight in approaching to God.
And to smite with the first of wickedness.
Ye shall not fast as ye do this day.
To make your voice to be heard on high.
You know, beloved, there's one great heart in all existence.
That desires.
To be understood.
And it's the heart of God.
I don't think there's anything the human heart creates more than to be understood.
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What about the heart of God?
There's five. Is it such a fast that I have chosen a day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head as a bull rush?
And to spread sackcloth and ashes under him.
Without Call this a fast and an acceptable day to the Lord.
How much of these actions represented?
The heart that desire to be understood in Israel, this nation.
Was the only nation on the earth.
Whose very central point?
Was the place of his name.
The living God who dwelt among them.
Verse 6.
Is not this the fast I have chosen?
To loose the bands of wickedness.
For the sake of time, I'll just go over these few thoughts as we go through this.
But think of the Lord Jesus.
As he crosses over to Gadera.
And there's that man possessed for the Legion of demons.
And by the command of our blessed Lord Jesus.
That man sent into our world to tell out the heart of God.
He had commanded those demons to come out of him.
He loosed the bands of wickedness.
That's in the Lord Jesus ministry.
You can find it in more places than that.
What about the church?
The early church.
Paul writes in the Corinthians and he says.
And such were some of you, but you are washed.
You're sanctified.
All the power of the gospel, he could say. I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. It's the power of God under salvation to everyone that believe it.
To loose the bands of wickedness. To undo the heavy burdens. What the Lord Jesus say about the Pharisees?
They just stacked one thing and another on them, didn't they? They gave tithes of mint and rue and anise and.
They went on in their religion was the heart of God and.
No, no.
By their traditions, they negated the word of God.
And God, in the fullness of time, sent forth his Son.
To bring.
The very display.
Of his heart.
Out.
Those heavy burdens, we had that verse before us.
Take my yoke upon you.
And learned of Maine.
For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
Preceded by Come unto me all you that labor, and are heavy laden.
To undo the heavy burdens.
And I will give you rest.
To let the oppressed go free.
You know when Nehemiah said the exact, usually everyone of his brother.
And so there was such a *******.
They couldn't pay off their debts.
Remember the widow who had to sell her two sons because the creditor was come and he lie she stay.
Why did all those debts come about?
Who were not told.
But we know that the Lord gave deliverance in that day.
And he still gets deliverance. The heart of God is a delivering heart.
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And that you break every yoke.
There are many different yokes.
Do you and I place the yoke on ourselves?
That the word of God does not set forth.
Do you place a yoke on our brethren?
Let the word of God does not set forth.
Says that you break every yoke. The Lord could say at those Pharisees.
They bind all this on others and they don't even lift a finger.
You could say also you put themselves down in Moses seat.
Do as they say, not as they do.
Let ye break every yoke.
Verse seven Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry? Remember how he.
Had those 5000 around him and he takes 5 loaves and two fishes.
The heart of God is to feed His people.
Marvelous.
That he has made himself known in his son.
What about in the church?
It's repeated there too, isn't it?
Wherever there's the knowledge of the true God, his heart is brought out.
In Christ and in the Church.
And in you and I, that's our privilege.
I was thinking of Paul as he went to Jerusalem, found in his spirit to go there.
He had a heart for his Jewish brother. He desired their blessing.
But what happened? He ended up.
In bonds.
Let's look at Psalms.
Chapter 120.
6.
Verse 5.
They that sow in tears.
Shall reap in joy.
He that goes forth and reapers bearing precious seed.
Shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.
And I believe Paul.
Took in his heart many precious seeds who went up to Jerusalem.
But it was in his own spirit he went.
And he was an apostle.
But he was warned not to go.
The Lord stood by him when he had failed.
Said he'd have to appear at Rome.
Maybe you and their brother, their sister, have sought.
Earnestly to serve the Lord in something and it just seems like it was like a lost crop.
Like he had sewed something of the seed of the word of God and instead of it producing.
Brought it in the ground, so to speak, and nothing came of it and you just feel defeated by it.
Well, that's kind of a thought of this song.
The spare seed had been sown and it was crop failure.
But then it becomes precious seed, because what you'd saved for your food to get you to the next harvest, you have to take some of that.
And plant that and it's very precious seed.
But it says, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, I believe, Paul.
Though he failed in his desire to go up to Jerusalem.
Believe from that he writes the epistle to the Hebrews.
With no signature.
For their cry had been.
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Way with such an one from the earth not fit to live.
What Hebrews bring out Jesus?
Better.
Greater.
And so that was the bread he had Isaiah 58 seven to deal to the hungry.
It was something that had been made very precious to his soul. And if you've sought to serve the Lord and feel your failure at it.
As I have done to.
Perhaps we all learn this lesson.
The then what we get in reality before him becomes very precious, and says doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.
That they'll bring the poor that are cast out to thy house.
Think of it, the Lord Jesus says.
The foxes have holes, the birds of the air have mess.
Son of the man, Son of man hath nowhere to lay his head.
But he also says.
My father's house are many mansions.
We're not, so I would have told you.
All beloved Saints of God.
If you feel the poorness.
To an outcast of this world.
There's a home above.
What about the church?
The apostles could say, the apostle could say having no certain dwelling place.
And as he was in those bounds, for Christ's sake.
His eye was on the glory to come.
There's a home above.
But what about you and I?
There may be poor in this world.
That we could, at the direction of the Lord.
Bring to our house.
The Lord will reward you, dear brother.
Dear sister.
I can look back in my life and bless the Lord for some that took me.
Our opportunities are here to show forth the character of God in our ways.
And.
They're only here.
The rich man and Lazarus.
There was this man lying at his gate.
And this man had plenty of money.
He could have given him what he needed.
But that rich man did not show the character of God.
And there was the man with barns. There's so much. She didn't have enough to hold him.
And according to the Old Testament, he could have given to the poor and shown forth the character of God. But instead he says, I'll tear him down and build greater, and I'll say, you know, take thy knees.
Awful, wasn't it?
An opportunity to show forth the character of God.
When thou seest the naked, that thou cover him in Luke 10.
We read of a certain.
Man, that went down.
From Jerusalem to Jericho. And he fell among thieves, and they stripped him and left him half dead and.
Scantily clothed, along comes a Samaritan.
He binds him up.
And he pours in oil and wine, and he puts him on his own beast, and he takes him to an inn.
And he pays for his Keep all the heart of the God you and I have come to know.
Then in the church.
Well, how wonderful. The Lord Jesus could say that he'd done these wonderful works, but later he shall do greater.
For the spiritual aspect of things reach further, didn't it?
And.
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He takes us who were unclothed before God.
And it gives us a robe of righteousness.
How marvelous.
We live in a land of extreme plenty.
Compared to the rest of the world.
Famines.
Are very great in many places.
We need to be before the Lord.
As to how we spend our funds.
Whether to aggrandize our own nest or.
In some way set forth.
God's character.
That thou cover him.
You know.
We're going to be caught up any moment.
And we won't be found naked. If we've trusted in Jesus, we'll be found.
Closed upon.
Christ and glorious position.
Place before God.
These verses are God's fast. Amazing, isn't it?
Verses 6 and seven, we've seen them a little bit and you can take it further in the life of the Lord Jesus.
And in the early church.
But they're in contrast with the first few verses.
You might ponder this portion.
The little.
Other things that happen between man and man.
And the things that happen between man and God.
When God's fast characterizes your life and mine.
Then what's it say in verse 8? Then shall thy light break forth as the morning?
And thine health shall spring forth speedily.
And thy righteousness shall go before thee. The glory of the Lord shall be thy rear reward.
Oh, isn't that lovely?
That when his character is that which is set forth.
In our ways.
There's light.
There's hell.
Righteousness and the Lord, The glory of the Lord shall be their rearward.
Can you remind you little Abraham, doesn't it?
Lord says fear not Abraham.
I am thy exceeding great reward. Could you have a better presence?
Never.
Will you have more than that in eternity? No.
You'll be free from the presence of sin, but it's the same blessed God.
Whose heart he would have set forth in this world. And that's our privilege as believers.
Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer.
In Genesis we get such lovely conversations between God and men.
This shows he desires that still.
That sense in your soul that the Lord is answering your prayers.
Thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am.
All the God.
Whom we've come to know.
Once his heart.
If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke.
Are you or I?
Putting requirements.
On our brethren.
That are not of God.
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But putting forth of the finger.
And speaking vanity.
Is that possible?
In the church it was possible in Israel.
Happening, and God was grieved by it.
Did it change the truth? No.
Was there not a divine center at Jerusalem? There was.
Did Israel go into captivity? They did.
Did it eliminate the divine center? It did not.
Truth remains the truth, but the God you and I have come to know thy faith in the Lord Jesus.
Desires that his heart be understood.
And it's wonderful to have some principles.
And he would also have our ways.
Adorn all the sound principles.
If thou draw out thy soul to the hungry.
Is that something that moves you?
To provide where there is real need.
God's soul is drawn out to the hungry.
And satisfy the afflicted soul.
That's how God's heart is.
Then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as noonday.
That's bright, isn't it?
Couldn't have it better than having his presence.
And his spirit and His heart in our ways.
And the Lord shall guide me continually.
And I'm satisfied by soul and drought and make fat by bones.
Oh, that's a wonderful thing, isn't it? When everything dries up around and you still have his presence. Elijah felt that he went and dined at the book cherub.
With Ravens bringing him flesh.
That dried up, then he went and stayed with the widow.
And the barrel never got full, but it never got empty.
There was the presence of God and provision.
Even though there was drunk.
And thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a stream of water, whose waters fail not.
All this thought is often in Scripture, isn't it? And they that shall be of the.
Shall build the old waste places.
That's something that comes into the next generation, isn't it?
Thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations.
Thou shall be called the repairer of the brooch.
The restorer of paths to dwell in. You see when his heart and his character fills the soul.
And enjoy.
The children pick it up.
His heart set forth.
They know who you're enjoying.
Here the next generation.
Picks it up, building old waste places. How often we had before us those verses about.
Restoring the old paths.
Dwelling in the old pan, but this is how it's his heart known, enjoyed and set forth in our ways.
Yes, sound principle of being it, but our ways must adorn those principles.
The repair of the breach.
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Some years ago now, I visited the Alamo in Texas.
It's kind of a mission with extended boundaries around it, but.
When Santana's men came.
They finally entered that mission by a breach in the wall.
Here's a repairer of the breach.
Notice the benefits that come as a result of knowing the heart of God and.
Setting forth that heart, oh, he desires to be understood. This is Isaiah.
So we get it in the Lord Jesus.
Far more, don't we perfectly in that blessed Son of God.
He would have seen me at scene.
The Father Order man delights and desires to fill your heart and mind.
That we might consider and set forth his ways the restorer of paths.
To dwell in.
That's for the blessing.
Of all now just these few words.
And the Lord bless them.
A few scriptures.
Connection with what's been said.
Philippians, Chapter 3.
Brother referred to Paul and his.
Trip to Jerusalem at the end of Acts.
Philippians 3, verse 7.
What things were gained to me? Those I counted lost for Christ, They doubtless, and I count all things but lost for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.
For whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them, but done, that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness.
Which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness, which is of God by faith.
That I may know him in the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of his suffering being made conformable.
Unto his death, if by any means I might attain the resurrection of the dead.
Not as though I had already attained either were already perfect, but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I'm apprehended of Christ Jesus.
But, and I count on myself to have apprehended but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth, are those things which are before I press toward the mark of the prize of the high column, God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore as many as be perfect, be thus minded, and if anything, you be otherwise minded. God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless, where aren't you? We have already attained. Let us walk by the same rule. Let us mind the same thing.
I think of.
What's in this passage is dung and death.
And you know, we've been brought.
To God and to God's things, as we've heard, the heart of God would be manifest.
And the apostle Paul.
Here the problem he would enumerate for us is my righteousness.
And I'd like to just follow a few steps.
In his path.
About this verse, this expression, my righteousness because.
I believe that once we've been brought to where God's mind is manifest on earth and the liberty of the Spirit of God and Christ is exalted.
One of the greatest dangers, if not the greatest danger with us is.
My righteousness.
You know the in the Old Testament.
When they went to war, they had to carry with their Armory, with their arms.
A shovel.
To remove the dung from the presence from the camp.
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And you know that word shovel? There is really the word. It's clear in Spanish. It's the word for tent. Pen is the same word used as the tent peg. And when they set up a Tabernacle, it's that which indicates firmness.
And here the apostle.
Shows that firmness. He counted and he still counts it.
He had not accumulated over the past.
History in his walk.
He had not accumulated merits before God. He wouldn't have that.
And yet I think of how he is seeing.
This is the This is the one who is serving.
Let's look at the hearer first in First Corinthians chapter 4.
Remember, we are talking about those who are benefited by the mind of God hearing what God has to say.
And in the institution that God has set up on earth for this very purpose.
That we might.
Have communicated to us the wondrous things that God has given to us.
Chapter 4 and verse umm.
Six of one Corinthians.
And these things better than having a figure transferred to myself into a policy for your sakes, that you might learn in us not to think.
Above that which is written that no one of you be puffed up for one against another.
For who maketh and I'll read this so different for who maketh the to differentiate.
Puffed up. You can't be puffed up for one without being puffed up for another.
And puffed up is that which comes from having learned some things of God.
But not having walked in the presence of Christ with them, knowledge puffeth up. We had it yesterday, I believe.
Knowledge. Puff it up. The one that knows and love edifies the one that loves.
And here we have those who thought they could differentiate.
They thought they could differentiate between Paul and Apollo. I prefer a policy. I prefer Paul. They thought in their own level of righteousness, my righteousness. They thought they could distinguish the better of the two.
That's the hearers. We all fall into that danger of preferring or differentiating instead of leaving God to speak at His own level, to say what He wants to say. Because when I begin to differentiate between speakers, I am only looking for an escape hatch, not to have to bow to what's said to me by God through that person.
I can discount what he says because of him.
My righteousness.
My righteousness, may we never drop down our thinking brethren, the level of us.
May we live in the good of what God has given to us as we've heard His heart manifested to us.
Now for those who the speaker, the leaders, I'd like to just walk a few steps in the book of Acts.
Beginning with Chapter 18.
Brother mentioned Paul's journey.
18 Acts 1818. Paul after this tarried there yet a good while, and then took his leave of the brethren, and sailed fence under Syria, and with him pursuing Aquila.
Having shown his head in century before, he had a bow, and he came to Ephesus and left them there, But he himself entered the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews.
When they desired him to tarry longer time with him, he consented not, but bade them farewell, saying, I must by all means keep this feast that cometh.
In Jerusalem.
But I will return again unto you, if God will. And he sailed from Ephesus. Here the apostle Paul has lowered his sights.
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Down to a level where he is sailing away. Trouble where he's acceptable.
You know there is a thing in I believe it's Zechariah Chapter 11, spoken of as the Flock of Slaughter.
I look at that as a flop of shape passing through a village on their way to the slaughterhouse.
And someone who would watch. And there goes this flock of sheep passing down the road in front of their house, going to the slaughterhouse. That's the flock of slaughter.
That's where God started us out, brethren.
As far as the world is concerned, when the world looks on this House of mourning, that's what Ecclesiastes would tell us.
There is wisdom. The wise are found in the House of mourning. The world looks on the assembly.
It is not acceptable in the world. They look at it as a.
Odor of life unto life, or death unto death. It is a place of death. The world looks on the church.
And if we seek to make it acceptable to the world and lower it down to that level, and here it's the level of religion in the world.
We would say in our day it's lowering it down to the level of Christendom to make it acceptable.
We're going to do like him. We're going to have to sail away from Ephesus.
Wondrous things that we've had before us in the meeting, we have to go away from that.
To be acceptable.
Where really before they had tried to kill him.
I believe it's chapter.
Umm 19 Another thought I had on this.
Verse 19 of chapter 19.
Many of them also, which use curious arch, brought their books together and burned them before all men and they counted the price of them and kind of founded 50,000 pieces of silver.
You know I want to apply this.
Have we counted our losses, brethren? Do we count our losses so we can know how much we've lost for God?
To accumulate a little merit before him in his presence.
How dangerous it is not to still count it as dumb.
To count the laws, the apostle he just said I counted all as done here. They counted up. If we were to follow example in this and start counting up our losses.
So we would know how much progress we'd made. Maybe, Huh.
Now, brethren, let's don't look back, he says, forgetting those things are behind.
The path of faith down here we see it does not accumulate to us.
Merit. It does not make us any better in ourselves. We need Christ just as much today as we did.
The first day we believed even as we heard the Apostle Paul.
And fall in this trap of his righteousness.
Chapter 20.
Verse 16.
For Paul had determined to sail by Ephesus.
Because he would not spend the time in Asia, for he hasted if it were possible for him to be at Jerusalem the day of Pentecost.
You see that same thing Berlin.
There's something has come in that he's lowered his sights.
He is not looking at Christ.
He's got some something else before him.
He starts talking about himself.
You know, in Second Corinthians Chapter 11, he's so embarrassed to say anything about himself. He says, well, you, you've made, I'm talking about a fool. You've made me talk like this. And then he starts talking about himself here. He doesn't say it that way.
He just says something like this.
Verse 18 And when they had come to him, he said, you know from the first day that I came into Asia after what manner I've been with you in all seasons, serving the Lord without humility of mine, and with many tears and temptations.
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Now his whole tone is lowered.
Verse. Verse.
22 And now behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there.
Bound in his own spirit, as we've heard say, that the Holy Ghost witness, witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me.
But none of these things move me.
Ah, beloved brethren, my righteousness.
When I can decide a path?
When the warnings of the Spirit of God don't move me.
His righteousness neither do I, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy in the ministry.
His righteousness.
I believe, brethren, that having walked with the Lord for a while, we have a tendency to think.
That we know enough.
Not to listen.
My righteousness, this is the first step down out of Ephesians is Philippian error.
And the next step is Colossians, of course.
The first step down is me and my things. I have no one, he said. Everybody was preaching the gospel, but he couldn't. No one that cared for the Saints. Everybody works, cared about their own things.
Apostle included in that my righteousness.
And here he has his righteousness. He feels that it's righteous, the right thing to do to go to Jerusalem and the warnings of the Spirit of God don't move him. Just think of it him with all his messages of the the word to go out to the nations and gather out of people for the namesake names, Christ namesake and the Spirit of God is saying you're going to be in jail.
You're not going to be able to do that anymore.
None of these things moved me.
Well, if we don't walk in the presence of God and the presence of Christ with that which He's given to us, we will become hardened to what He says to us.
Last verse of the chapter soaring most of all, whenever he's going to leave.
Sorry most of all for the words which he spake that they should see his face no more.
They were sorry to lose. Paul didn't seem to touch him with the truth. He had been telling them that from their own selves men would arise.
Now he began to lose the weight of what he was saying to chapter 21 verse.
4.
And finding disciples, we tarry there seven days. Who said to Paul through the Spirit he should not go up to Jerusalem? Clear, very clear.
But he was beyond hearing because of his righteousness.
Chapter 21 in verse.
26 Then Paul took them in.
He was following the counsel of those there in Jerusalem Who?
He should never have been there fallen our counsel. Then Paul took them in.
And the next day, purifying himself with them, entered into the temple to signify the accomplishment of days of the purification, until that an offering should be offered for everyone of them.
He was going to offer an animal sacrifice. He was going to offer an offering.
Verse 27 And when the seven days were almost ended, the Jews, which are of Asia, when they saw him in the temple, stirred up all the people, and laid hands on him. God wouldn't let it happen.
The over ruling of God, you know we read in Two Corinthians chapter 2, I believe it is about a time when he went to Troas. Was it there? Was it for the preaching of the gospel?
And he couldn't stand. His heart was so burdened for the Corinthian Saints. He just, the door was open, the gospel and God gave him a job of doing. He just couldn't do it. He just failed and faded out.
But thanks be unto God, who always leads us in triumph.
Brethren, we do have a God that's able in Christ are the is the yeah and the Amen to the promises in Christ is the grace that exceeds or excels excels what excels me and my failures.
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To get the will of God done, he will overrule.
But just a warning for us.
We don't accumulate any wisdom by the walk by which I can decide my path. We don't accumulate any wisdom in our path by which I can decide which brother's going to speak to me. I can differentiate.
We don't accumulate any of that. The Apostle Paul says. I counted it and I do count it.
And one thing ahead, he said just one thing. Oh, to reduce life to one thing. Pressing on to the prize of the hike on. Don't think we've arrived. We have not arrived at any level where we don't need Christ at every breath. He is our only hope. He was our only hope. He will be our only hope. May God preserve us from lowering down the tone of our Christian path to our level and may keep us not with our righteousness.
But with His righteousness, with that which is His, to do what He wants me to do.
One thought about that is that I might arrive at the end of the path not being able to say, look, I did what I knew was best to do.
But to say I just did what I was told to do.