John 8:31-32 The Urgent Need for Foxhole Christianity

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Application: Believers must hold fast to the truth of God’s Word in a world that has utterly abandoned it. Principle: The Truth of the Gospel is the only hope that can save our world today.

Notes
Transcript

Scripture Reading

Deuteronomy 20:1–4 “When you go out to war against your enemies, and see horses and chariots and an army larger than your own, you shall not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. And when you draw near to the battle, the priest shall come forward and speak to the people and shall say to them, ‘Hear, O Israel, today you are drawing near for battle against your enemies: let not your heart faint. Do not fear or panic or be in dread of them, for the Lord your God is he who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory.’”

Intro

To live faithfully as a Christian in our world today you need to understand one important fact…we we are in a war.
Not a war of guns and bullets, but of truth and lies.
The philosophies of men and the truth of God.
And just like any war…this war is a war of life and death…eternal life and death.
…Of slavery to sin and life and freedom in Christ.
The question is, are you ready to get in the foxhole?
To get in the fight and live all of your life for the glory of Christ?
Our passage today is
John 8:31–32 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
And from this passage our Big Idea is comprised of a theological principle and an application for how we live that out in our world today.
The Principle:

The Truth of the Gospel is the only hope that can save our world today.

Therefore, the Application:

Believers must hold fast to the truth of God’s Word in a world that has utterly abandoned it.

Set Up

Now from this passage, let me remind you where we are.
Back in verse 12, Jesus said I am the Light of the World.
I am the Son of God and Messiah…the Savior of the world and all those enslaved under darkness.
And then verse 30, As he was saying these things many believed in Him.
But apparently not with saving faith.
There faith was superficial and spurious.
As the passage goes on Jesus will say they are slaves to sin (John 8:34).
Indifferent to His word (John 8:37).
Children of the devil and liars (John 8:44, 55).
And in verse 59, they will even pick up stones to stone Him.
So what you have here is people who are curious about Jesus, and Jesus uses the opportunity to call them to true and deeper discipleship.
Now this makes perfect sense for the Gospel of John which was written John 20:31 so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
One of John’s main goals is not only to show that Jesus is the Christ, but also what true saving faith actually is and looks like.
And in this call to true and genuine discipleship we have the opportunity to take a step back and directly apply Jesus’ words to our lives today.
To look at our world as we are living in it through the lens of God’s Word which like glasses will help us to better see and understand our world our world as it is today as we look in the world in the glorious light of Christ.
And in doing so, we will have the opportunity to grow in our own discipleship and better understand what it means to glorify Christ live as Christ’s true disciples in our world today.
Next week Lord willing, we will look at our own individual lives and what it means that the truth will set us free from our slavery to sin.
But this week I want to take a Macro view.
A Big Picture view of you will know the truth and the truth will set you free as it applies to our world today.

Goal

So here’s what I want to do.
From this verse we are going to do a lot of cultural analysis and a lot of Bible verses.
I want to look at the lies dominate our world, speaking particularly of our American culture
And then I want to examine those lies that blind and enslave our world from a biblical worldview so that we might bring God’s Word to bear and be equipped to dig into the foxhole and hold fast to God’s word in every area of our life.

Why?

Now why do I want to do this?
Several reasons.

1. To Understand (Philosophies)

The first is to Understand.
Number 1…to explain the philosophies that shape our world and explain why our world is falling apart?
Did I say philosophies? Yes.
Philosophies are man’s way of trying to make sense of the world.
They are how men grope and search for truth trying to explain what is right and wrong and what is the meaning and purpose of life.
Now if you ever took a philosophy course, you might think philosophy is way up here…irrelevant…doesn’t make any practical difference in our life.
But that’s not true.
Its in the water.
Philosophies are the underlying beliefs that shape our world’s worldview and give rise to the spirit of the age.
What is True, Good, and Beautiful?
What is desirable, what is our purpose the thing we should be working towards?
These are the questions philosophy answers and contrary to the Bible, they are not rooted in truth but on lies to blind the eyes and keep people enslaved.
The Bible calls the Philosophies of men…the ones that grip and define a culture…as the pattern or course of this world (Ephesians 2:2).
The Bible says to not be conformed to this world (Romans 12:2). The spirit of the age.
That in the water, so to speak, is a pervading belief system of the world.
Something that is not rooted in truth and God’s revelation, but empty words according to human tradition (Ephesians 5:6, Colossians 2:8).
Man’s best guess at what is true beautiful and good.
You might call it a worldview…how we see and understand the world.
The problem is, these human philosophies, these human ways of understanding truth and the world are under the dominion of Satan.
2 Corinthians 4:3–4 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world…
Meaning the fallen world system in denial and rebellion against God.
Not the world as a planet because Jesus is the God of this world.
He is Lord over all.
All Authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me (Matthew 28:18).
But Satan is the god of fallen and sinful man who…
…has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
Ephesians says sinners…those of the world…those dead in their trespasses and sins…follow the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air [Satan], the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience (Ephesians 2:1-2).
That’s why Paul calls them in 2 Corinthians 10:4 strongholds.
Arguments and lofty opinions raised against the knowledge of God that enslave people and blind them from the truth (2 Corinthians 10:3-5).
So one thing I want to do is to help you better understand our world.
Why is the world falling apart and careening off a cliff as we are seeing it today?
The short answer is We have exchanged the truth about God for a lie (Romans 1:25).
That at its root, the problem of our world is not just a problem or different ideas or a different way of seeing the world.
It is that, but it is that because at its root what we have is a spiritual problem.
A world that has rejected God and exchanged the truth about God for a lie.
And that’s important because there is some comfort in that.
When you see the problem clearly defined, you no longer feel like your crazy or like you are in a boat that is tossed about.
Seeing a thing as it is brings a stability and calm to the storm.
But its also important because if we don’t see things clearly we won’t know how to fight.
We will trust in carnal weapons and the chariots of men instead of the spiritual weapons of Preaching, Prayer, and the Power of the Holy Spirit that actually have divine power to destroy the spiritual strongholds…the lies…that are enslaving and destroying our world.
By being able to answer the spiritual problem of our world with the spiritual truth of Jesus Christ we will be able to do as Paul says in…
2 Corinthians 10:3–5 For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.

2. To Guard

The second reason is to guard.
Like we said…Do not be conformed to this world…(Romans 12:2).
Don’t be pressed into the mold…but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.
Because we are in the water…because we are in the world…we can fail to see the different ways we’ve adopted the same way of thinking as the world.
Of seeing the world just as they do with a little bit of Jesus sprinkled in.
This is why a lot of churches are easily fooled by:
Social justice theology
A tyrannical reading of Romans 13
Ungodly ways of looking gender and sexuality…
Of family…of how we view the value of children and parenting and understanding the roles of men and women in marriage and in the home.
Without even realizing it, we’ve adopted the ways of the world!
We look at the world the same way they do just with enough Jesus that we can think of ourselves as Christians.
And to be clear I’m not talking about us, I’m talking in general as the church at large.
The church is called to be salt and light…in the world but not of it.
Colossians 2:8 See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.
Our worldview…our minds and the way we see the world need to be shaped by Scripture and the truth of God’s Word and not the philosophies of men.
And finally…

3. To Equip

Not just to guard us from being conformed to the pattern of this world but to equip us for how to live in it.
What does it mean to live in the world but not of it?
What does God expect of us as Christians and as a church…the pillar and buttress of the truth…in a world that has rejected God for a lie and is enslaved in darkness?
So the first thing to do is to look at the philosophies and worldview that has shaped our culture and the cultural suicide it brings with a section I’ve titled…

The Cultural Suicide of Postmodernism

Now you might not be able to define postmodernism…don’t worry, I’m here to help…but you’ll recognize it when you see it.
Remember what we are talking about are ways of thinking.
Postmodernism is just the name we’ve given how our culture sees and understands truth and the world.

The Enlightenment

But to understand Postmodernism, we need to first understand the Enlightenment?
The Enlightenment? I remember learning about that in public school, but I thought it was all just pointless.
Turns out it was important.
You can think of the Enlightenment as the fertile soil that gave rise to the Postmodernism we have today.
The Enlightenment can also be understood as the Age of Reason.
And even there you can see how easily it is to drink the Kool-Aid of the world because almost without thinking about it we can pit reason over and against religion.
As in reason is virtuous and religion is foolish.
Now that’s not true…we are going to see how relying on human reason alone is what’s actually foolish, but that’s the way the world obviously thinks.
That basically in the Enlightenment human reason was valued above all else.
Human reason it was believed could answer all of life’s question and solve all the world’s problems.
We didn’t need God or religion.
We could use innovation and scientific knowledge to find and build utopia the true meaning and good of the world.

Naturalism

And basically, what you need to know is that the Enlightenment, that way of thinking gave rise to Naturalism…the idea that the natural world is all that there is.
We obviously see how this idea has shaped our world today.
Trust the science.
Science is the ultimate truth…the only and ultimate way to understand what is true and life…
The idea that there is no God, no Creator who made and governs the world, we are all that there is.

Postmodernism

And that was the fertile soil that gave rise to Postmodernism.
If we are all that there is, then there is no ultimate transcendent truth that gives shape and meaning to the world.
This is where you get the idea that truth is relative, or that to truly be happy…to truly realize your full potential you need to live your truth.
You need to live according to how you see yourself, the world, and live for what you determine for yourself is the highest good.
Postmodernism essentially believes that there is no such thing as ultimate truth…truth that transcends all time and cultures.
Rather “truth” is relative.
Its not determined by some objective standard but by societal norms on a culture by culture basis and how we all agree to live together
So one culture or one way of living isn’t inherently better than another…its just the way we do it.
(Now obviously that is a logical fallacy because advocating for a position that says there is no ultimate truth is, in itself, and ultimate truth which just show how lost, blind, and upside down our culture really is.)
And when you couple that with our culture of radical individualism what you get is a highway that leads you straight to pragmatism and radical relativism.
Or in other words: Whatever works is good for them.
There is no sin. No one is wrong. That’s their choice…its how they choose to live…and besides, who are you to judge?
Do you hear that cultural Kool-aid again?
Its all rooted in postmodernism.
The idea that there is no standard of objective truth and good.
And that explains why our culture is so dogmatic about the idea of tolerance.
It is the highest virtue you can have.
Because if there is no standard of good or ultimate truth, the worst thing you could possibly to is pass judgment on someone else and their standard of life because who are you to say what is ultimately good for them?
And that’s what’s driving our world off a cliff.
Because by casting off God and any standard of objective truth, we have cast off every restraint of evil and now our sin knows no bounds.
Like Romans 1:32 says Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

Summary

That’s where we are.
That is the lie Satan has used to blind the minds of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ and lead them on the path of their own destruction (2 Corinthians 4:4).
Cultural suicide in their rejection of God and abandonment of the truth.
As Romans 1 says…
Romans 1:19–25 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools…
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…Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
What is the truth our world has rejected?
The most fundamental truth that literally holds the whole thing together.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1).
There is a God and He is our Creator.
There is a God and we are His creatures.
There is a God and we were made to live all of our lives for Him and not ourselves.
But instead we’ve exchanged that truth for a lie.
There is no God.
We are the result of random atoms bouncing around…the product of evolution.
There is no standard of ultimate good…right or wrong…sin…
Here is all that there is…so eat, drink, for tomorrow we die.
Like I said its in the water.
You might not have ever heard of the Enlightenment, naturalism, postmodernism, but you hopefully now can see it everywhere in the world around you.
Its Genesis 3 all over again!
What was the temptation in the Garden?
You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil (Genesis 3:4-5).
You don’t have to listen to God
You don’t need truth.
You can be wise in your own eyes and determine for yourself what is good and evil….right and wrong…beautiful and true…
You can determine what is right for you.
You don’t have to live for God you can live for yourself.
And lo and behold that is the exact same way of thinking that dominates our world today.
That’s why I said…

The Truth of the Gospel is the only hope that can save our world today.

Claiming to be wise they became fools.
What we are seeing in the world today is not a moral problem…or an intellectual problem…or a political one.
What we are seeing in our world today is a spiritual problem that can only be answered by the truth of the truth of the gospel.
What we need isn’t a new political candidate, or more information, or to just go back to the good ol’ days.
What we need is the truth and truth is a person…His name is Jesus Christ.
The gospel is the only way out of this mess.
Here is the truth we need.

The Truth We Need

There is a God.
He is our Creator.
And we were made to live for Him.
But we sinned against Him and became lost and dead in our sins justly condemned under the holy and righteous wrath of God.
We weren’t made to live for ourselves. That way leads to death.
But God in His great Love and Mercy did not leave us dead in our sins.
He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die in our place for our sins and give us eternal life.
He laid down His life for us.
He went to the cross, bore the wrath of God on our behalf and rose again to give us new life.
To open our blind eyes and deliver us from our sins so that we may no longer live for sin but live for Him!
The gospel is the answer for the world.
And if you are here today and not in Christ but still enslaved to your sin following the course of this world living for yourself according to your own wisdom…
The gospel is the answer for you.
2 Corinthians 5:15, Jesus died that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
Are you lost, blind, a slave to sin, living for yourself doing what is right in your own eyes on the way to death?
Christ died for you.
Christ died to save you and give you eternal life.
You only need to repent and believe!
And the good news of the gospel is, going back to our passage…
You will know the truth and the truth will set you free…and if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. (John 8:32, 36).

Application

Now what does all this mean for us today?
This is where we get to the equipping part of the sermon.
There can be a temptation to despair.
To look out at the world and say its all too dark and all too lost.
To think there is no way God can bring Reformation and Revival here!
But what does the Bible say?
I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes (Romans 1:16).
And I’ll tell you, no one believed Nineveh could be saved when Jonah walked into town.
And no one thought Saul could be saved after killing Christians and putting many more into prison.
But he’s the one that wrote that verse.
Our God’s grace is so great He’s in the business of saving sinners who left to themselves would never be saved otherwise.
What is impossible with man is possible with God (Luke 18:27).

Foxhole Mentality

So what does that mean for us?
Instead of giving into despair we need to have a foxhole mentality.
I’ve been watching a lot of WW2 miniseries lately, and I got to tell you, I’m amazed at the courage of those men.
To sit in the foxhole, face the danger, and get the job done.
That’s what we need today.
If the principle is:

The Truth of the Gospel is the only hope that can save our world today.

Then the application of that principle that we need to take with us and carry out into the world today is…

In a world that has utterly abandoned the truth, Believers must hold fast to the truth of God’s Word no matter the cost.

Or in other words we need a foxhole mentality.
Now when I say foxhole mentality, what do I mean?
You’re on the front lines…in the fight.
You’re not back at base playing sand volleyball.
There needs to be a seriousness about our faith.
Joy yes.
The Joy of the Lord is our strength (Nehemiah 8:10).
I’m not calling us to dour religion, but to joyful militant faith where instead of coasting through life just going through the motions we are in the foxhole.
Everyday intentional about worshiping God, growing in our discipleship, and carrying out the Great Commission to take the gospel to the world and bring it to bear on every area of life.
What we need is to be a foxhole church and we need to live out a foxhole Christianity.
Or as Jesus says, If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples (John 8:31).

Foxhole Church

1 Timothy 3:14-15 I am writing these things so that, if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth.
This is one of the clearest statements in the whole Bible on the identity and mission of the church.
First the church is a family.
Its the family of God.
That’s why Paul calls it the household of God.
Do we treat the church as the family of God or as the provider of goods and services.
Where as long as the church gives me what I want I’m happy, but if not, see ya!
And by saying the church is the pillar and buttress of the truth, what Paul is saying is that the church is entrusted by God to protect and proclaim the gospel, the truth, to a lost a dying world.
A buttress or a support is the foundation on which a building rests, and a pillar is something that holds something up.
So a church as is the foundation and pillar that maintains and holds up the truth of the gospel to the world.
So think of it like this.
If the only hope for the world is the truth, what would happen if the church as a pillar and buttress of the truth, lost it?
This is what happens in many churches today.
Churches try to accommodate the world and water down the truth of God’s Word, water down the very thing the world needs to be saved (2 Corinthians 4:2).
Now of course the church can never ultimately lose the truth.
Christ is her head and He guards her and washes here with the pure water of the Word (Ephesians 5:25-26).
Jesus promised Upon this rock (the truth of Christ) I will build my church and the gates of death shall not prevail against it (Matthew 16:18).
But it is the responsibility of every church to guard the deposit entrusted to them (1 Timothy 6:20).
It is our responsibility as Jude says to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 3).
So how do we do that?

Local Church

Number 1, by being doggedly committed to the local church.
If the church is the pillar and buttress of the truth and the hope of the world then we cannot treat it as just a nice extra.
It is essential to our life.
And the only way to express that commitment is by being a committed member with all the duties and responsibilities that brings of a local church.

Worship

Number 2, by remembering the importance of our worship.
We can get so lost in the grind of going to church, serving, giving…which you are all great at…that we can forget what we are doing here in the first place.
Worship is warfare.
What we are doing here every Sunday is the most important thing in the world.
Proclaiming and celebrating the truth and giving God the glory due to His Name.
If the world is lost in darkness Sunday worship is where we shine as the light of the world and city on a hill that cannot be hidden.
Just as the church is essential, worship is essential.

Abide in Christ’s Word

And number 3, we must abide in Christ’s Word.
We must unapologetically hold fast to the Word of truth no matter the cost.
We talked earlier how tolerance is the highest virtue of our culture.
And if you hold fast to the truth it will cost you.
You will be called crazy. Judgmental. Hateful. A Bigot.
On the wrong side of history.
If the world cannot conquer you and mold you into its image they will try to shame you into silence.
But you cannot give up.
We must hold fast to the truth.
You can’t expect to be in a foxhole in a war for eternal souls and not get a little bloody.
The sooner you accept it the better its going to be.
Get comfortable with being hated by the world.
If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you (John 15:18).
But remember what Jesus also said.Matthew 5:11–12 Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets [those who proclaimed the truth of God to the world] who were before you.
As the Pillar and Buttress of the truth, we don’t water down the Word but hold fast to it knowing it is life, salvation, and the only hope for the world.

Foxhole Christianity

Let’s talk Foxhole Christianity.
There’s two categories to this:
Foxhole Families…
And Foxhole Discipleship.
Not only do we need to abide in Christ’s word as a church, but as families and individual Christians if we are truly His disciples.

Foxhole Families

Joshua 24:15 As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
Men, this needs to be our life verse.
When King Jesus comes over to our foxhole and says, “We need to take that hill,” this is the hill.
This needs to be our focus and our aim.
Its not everything.
But its the first thing.
There’s still evangelism church and work, but unless we have this we have nothing.
So let me ask you: are you striving with all of your might to build your home on the foundation of the Word?
Are you leading your family spiritually?
Having family worship? Redeeming the time with holy conversations.
Let me give you a practical one.
At dinner time turn off the TV.
First of all have family dinner and then use family dinner for discipleship.
The opportunity is right there.
What is God teaching you? How can we be praying for you?
Take out the 1689 Baptist Confession or a catechism and work through it day by day explaining what it means, how it builds our faith, and asking one simple question: what did you get out of it?
Are you and Ephesians 5 and 6 family?
Husbands do you love your wives as Christ loved the church dying to yourself for her good in your leadership of the home?
Wives: do you submit to your husband as to the Lord trusting even when you think he’s wrong that you’re truly submitting to the Lord because Christ is the head of your husband?
Children are you obeying your parents?
And parents are you raising your children in the fear and admonition of the Lord?
Is your parenting just raising children or making disciples?
Are you distinctly Christian in your discipline governed by the truth of God’s Word seeking to raise children that don’t just obey but love Him always depending on God’s grace because who is sufficient for such an impossible task?
Do you pray with them? Not just every once in while but every day in every circumstance.
Teach your kids to run to the Lord.
What it all comes down to is are you parenting your way or God’s way?
Are you wise in your own eyes…yelling, snapping, constantly getting angry…parenting the way of the world?
Or are you striving to parent according to the Word of God?
Like I said…its not everything, but its the first thing.

Foxhole Discipleship

And finally Foxhole Discipleship.
John 8:31 If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples.
Are you living an all or nothing discipleship radically committed to glorifying Christ and godliness in every area of your life?

Word

Do you abide in Christ’s Word?
Do you live by bread alone or by every that comes from the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4).
Is God’s Word renewing and transforming your mind and changing how you see and live in the world?
That’s what it means to be in the world but not of it/
Nehemiah 10: separated from the world unto the Word of God.
Not just in church and not just in your family but in every are of your life…even the secret thoughts of your life…hold fast to the Word of God and live all of your life under the Word of God as your highest authority.

Sin

And related to that get serious about your sin.
You understand that if your living a life of unrepentance sin you are living the same kind of functional atheism of the world?
Functionally you are saying there is no God and you are living wise in your own eyes.
And when you see the destruction of that out there in the world and grieve it, you need to see that that same destruction is in every single one of our sins.
How can we who died to sin still live in it?
And, ultimately, how can we proclaim freedom in Christ and call the world to repentance if we are still enslaved to our own sin and aren’t willing to repent of it first?

Conclusion

In our church, in our family, and in our own individual lives we need Foxhole Christianity.
When you boil it all down, here’s what it comes down to.
Here’s really the question that encapsulates the whole thing in every area we talked about.
When we think about foxhole Christianity, here’s what we need to be asking.
Are we leaven or are we being leavened?
Leaven is what you use when making bread.
Its yeast. you put a little bit in and the watch the whole dough rise.
It takes the dough you had and transforms it.
Well, Jesus said the kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, until it was all leavened (Luke 13:21).
The church is called to leaven the world with the truth of the gospel of Christ.
To hold fast to God’s Word no matter the cost.
But if we aren’t careful we will be leavened by the world…conformed to the world…and eventually we will lose our saltiness and start to look like, act like, think like just like the world.
Foxhole Christianity says I refuse to be leavened by the world.
I will hold fast to the truth…hold fast to the Word and live it out no matter the cost.
Are you leaven or are you being leavened?

The Gospel is the only hope for the world.

They are lost and enslaved and dead without it.
Therefore...

We must hold fast to the Word no matter the cost and be a pillar and buttress of the truth in a world that has completely abandoned it.

Let’s Pray

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