I invite you this morning to turn to the Old Testament and the book of Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes, chapter nine. And I'm going to read for you verses 13 to 16, you may think that is a strange passage of Scripture to turn to. On a day where we remember the death of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. But if it be remembered that Jesus said to those disciples, those two disciples on the road of Emmaus. That everything in the scriptures speak about him. then we ought not to be surprised to find these gems throughout the Old Testament that cause us to think and contemplate the Lord Jesus Christ. A little bit of the context of the book of Ecclesiastes, written by King Solomon, I believe, when he is a much older man. You'll know something about King Solomon. The Lord had graciously revealed himself to him very early on. There was that wonderful dream he had and that wonderful cry for wisdom to lead the people of God. And so I believe at that point he came into a saving relationship with Jehovah or Yahweh. We know something of the story of Solomon. Having found satisfaction in a relationship with God, he began to be attracted by the things of this world. He ran after women. In fact, we read he had many foreign wives and they were his undoing. We read that he pursued riches. seeking to find satisfaction in that. We read also that he pursued great building projects and he committed himself to work thinking that he might find satisfaction in that. We read that his fame spread beyond the borders of Israel and even the Queen of Sheba came to visit him because of his fame. And yet here we find him, I believe, towards the end of his life looking back and he says, you know what? There is only one thing that satisfies. And that thing that satisfies is a relationship with God, because that is the purpose for which God has made us. And so what he is doing here, I think he is appealing to the called out assembly, because that is what Ecclesiastes means. Ecclesia. We see in that that French word for the church, Eglise, this is a message of wisdom to the called out assembly. Listen, remember your creator in the days of your youth. And you almost can sense in the teacher, in the pundit, an apathy amongst the people of God, that they just don't care anything for the things of God. As I was thinking about that, I think it's the same in our day, even amongst the people of God. Do we care for the things of Christ? How many people in the city of Sarnia on this day are actually gathered in churches to remember what the Lord Jesus Christ did for us? And there is neglect and there is apathy all over the place. Not only do we see it in the world as they go about being busy, with various things, but we also see it among the people of God. And I really feel the burden of the preacher here. And like any good preacher, Solomon loves to use illustrations. And he uses an illustration here to wake the people up from their apathy. But it is so much more than an illustration. And hopefully, as I read this to you, you'll begin to think about another poor man who is wise, who delivered a city that was besieged. And yet Solomon talks about the people being apathetic towards that, and yet he still preaches it and he still proclaims it. Well, again, Ecclesiastes 9. Let's look at verses 13 to 16. I have also seen this example of wisdom under the sun, and it seemed great to me. Would have taken a lot to impress King Solomon. There was a little city with few men in it and a great king came against it and besieged it, building great siege works against it. But there was found in it a poor wise man. And he, by his wisdom, delivered the city. Yet no one remembered that poor man. But I say that wisdom is better than might, though the poor man's wisdom is despised and his words are not heard. Well, let's pray together one more time. Oh, Heavenly Father, we pray that you would send your Holy Spirit in these moments that we have together. I pray that you would so work in your people that we would just be caught up in wonder, love and praise of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you are great God and Heavenly Father. And I pray for those who may be indifferent to the things of God this morning. Maybe they have heard about the Lord Jesus Christ many times and salvation through him and through him, a relationship with you, a relationship that not only provides lasting satisfaction, but also provides eternal life. I pray that you would move in their hearts as well by your Holy Spirit. Oh, Lord, may we not be an apathetic people as we consider the wisdom of the poor man this morning. And we ask these things in Jesus name. Amen. Well, here we have a story about wisdom, and it points to that greater story of the wisdom of God and the wisdom of God is who? It's actually a who, isn't it? The wisdom of God is the Lord Jesus Christ. And so this Old Testament passage points to that individual, to that great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, and what He accomplished for us. Jesus spoke to those two disciples on the road of Emmaus. And we read in Luke 24, 27, beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them and all the scriptures, the things concerning himself. And I wonder as he went through the book of Ecclesiastes, he just stopped at Ecclesiastes, chapter nine, verses 13 to 16, and went like this. The wisdom of the poor man. Are you going to be apathetic, too? Well, I want us to notice from this passage three things. I want us to notice a city that is besieged. I want us to notice a city that is saved. And I want us to notice a city that is apathetic. Three things. And again, look at this passage of Scripture through that passion narrative that we read in John 19 a little bit earlier on. Notice, first of all, a city besieged in verse 14. We're going to explain each of these verses, and then we are going to apply them to the cross work of the Lord Jesus Christ. There was a little city with few men in it, and a great king came against it and besieged it, building great siege works against it. Here's the explanation. Notice, first of all, the weakness of the city. Notice the adjectives that King Solomon uses. There was, how is it described? A big city or a little city with many people in it or few people in it. It was a little city, few people in it. And against this tiny little town with few people in it, we notice that there is a mighty adversary that comes up against it again. Notice the adjectives that Solomon carefully uses. And a great king came against it and besieged it, building great siege works against it. So we see that word great used two times to understand this powerful adversary that just comes up to this tiny, tiny little town. Do we have the picture in our minds? If we have the picture in our minds, what conclusion would you reach about this tiny little city, about the few people in it? What's going to happen to them? Without reading the rest of the story, of course, they're done. They are absolutely done. They're going to be destroyed by this great and powerful enemy. You could almost imagine the citizens in the town saying, it is finished. for us. Now, is there not something in that description as we move to application of this small city with a powerful full aligned against it that speaks to our spiritual predicament as human beings born into this world? I want you to think about two things. I want you to think about the weakness of human beings. And I want you to think about the might of the adversary. How are we born into the world? That's not a rhetorical question. Are we born with a clean slate? Born as perfect individuals, and it's only because of our environment that we choose that which is bad. Is that how we are born? No, we are born under Adam. We are not only his physical descendants, but we are also his spiritual descendants. And that means that we were born with the condemnation of guilty hanging over our heads and that pronouncement, you shall surely die when you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That applies to us as well. Born into the world with that pronouncement of guilty hanging over our heads and condemnation hanging over our heads. But not only that, we are born with a bent towards sin. That is our default position born into the world. We are so weak, and that is to say, if I were to set up a million choices before you and 999,999 were to choose God and one choice was to choose something that would take you away from God, you know what you're going to choose? You're going to take that one choice every single time. And that is how weak you are. when you were born into this world. Romans 3 verse 23 puts our plight in this way for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Each and every one of you born into this world have that banner of condemned over your head and you have a bent to sin. Then there's the adversary that stands against you. Who is he? There's a person. He does have personality, that is fallen angel. He is called actually your adversary in Scripture. He is a destroyer, a badden, a poly on. He is Satan. And you need to understand that he works against human beings because he does not want to see them come back into that relationship with God, that relationship that God in his prescriptive will intended. He wants human beings destroyed. And what he loves to do as the accusers time and again is say this to you, listen, God demands perfection of you. And you are far from perfect. Look at his standard. Look at what his standard says. He reminds us even of Scripture, how far short you fall. And then he loves to throw our sins in our face all the time, and he loves to reinforce this banner of condemned over us, does it all the time. He is a mighty adversary. There's one passage in Scripture that I love to refer back to in this regard. It's taken from Zechariah's prophecy in chapter 3, verses 1 to 3, and there you have the high priest of Israel standing before Jesus Christ, who is referred to as the angel of the Lord in the Old Testament, and he's clothed with filthy robes. In that point of the history of redemption, Satan is there. In the glory. And what is he doing? He's accusing. He showed me Joshua, the high priest, standing before the angel of the Lord and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. Why? Because Joshua was standing before the angel clothed with filthy garments. Look at you. How will God ever accept you? Do we have the picture in our minds now that spiritually weak city in that spiritually powerful adversary. If we were like the psalmist and we were looking at last Sunday night in Psalm 142, we looked for our right to our right hand for help. What would we find in this world? Would we find anybody in this world that could save us from our predicament, whether our own might or somebody else? Will your own good work save you? Will the prayers of other people save you? Will their good works on your behalf save you? Anybody in this world? Is there anybody to be found on our right hand, the right hand of our might and power and honor that will save us? And we look around and we say no. And as that small city, we come to understand this, and we look at the might of our adversary, and we look at our own sin, and we look at God's law accusing us, we say to ourselves, we are finished. Don't we? We say like Isaiah did when he saw the Lord Jesus Christ in His glory. I am ruined. I am undone. I'm a man of unclean lips. And I stand among a people of unclean lips. My eyes have beholden the King, the Lord of hosts. I'm ruined. I'm going to be incinerated because of my sin. But we notice, praise be to God, that's not the end of the story, is it? That Solomon gives. And again, he wants us to embrace wisdom. He wanted the Old Testament people of God to embrace wisdom, to follow hard after their Creator. And as we bring this up into New Covenant language, into this Gospel age, I, as a preacher of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, want you to embrace wisdom. And so Solomon is not done. And the story for us is not done either, because we see in the story the city is saved. It's glorious. Look at verse 15. But there was found in it. Where? What does the it refer to? What does that pronoun refer to? In that tiny little city with few people in it. There was found in that small little city with that great adversary standing against it, a poor, wise man. And he, by his wisdom, delivered the city. Well, what's the explanation of the story? Well, we discover that though that city was very small and though it had a great enemy arrayed against it, the city was delivered. It's a great story, Solomon. Well, by whose hands was it delivered? Was it by some five-star general? Who did some great military exploit? No, we read there was found in it a poor wise man. Now, notice the adjectives here that the Holy Spirit uses through King Solomon. Aren't they very interesting? A man who was poor, materially poor. Nothing about this guy that would have attracted people to him. Nothing in his visage, in his personality that people would have flocked to him. He was poor. But he was also wise. He not only knew what was right, but he knew how to apply what was right. And this man actually, by God's grace, lived in this tiny little city with a great enemy arrayed against it. And by what means did he save the city? Well, we read in the text, and he, by his wisdom, Delivered the city. The word delivered, when it's used in the Old Testament, primarily refers to deliverance in the context of delivering someone from certain death. And notice here, the word is very important. He delivered by his wisdom, that word delivered doesn't mean he made deliverance possible. He actually saved the city. There's a huge difference between those two concepts. He did not just make deliverance a possibility for the people, he actually came through for them, actually delivered them. The city was rescued. The city was delivered. The city was safe. Now, we're not exactly sure what story Solomon is thinking about. He could be thinking about that rebellion under his father, King David, by Sheba, a guy named Sheba. And he held himself up in a little place called Abel, where people used to go to for wisdom. We read, actually, that there was a woman in that city. And when Joab was amassing his armies against that city, the woman called out from a window, Why would you attack that which is a mother in Israel? And Joab says, Far be it from me. Far be it from me to destroy a city like this. All we want is Sheba. And the woman, through her wisdom, says, You've got him. And he took off his head. The city was spared. Maybe thinking about that. But again, isn't it a it's a surprising result, isn't it? Great big, huge army amassed against a tiny little city, and there's this poor but wise man who comes through and delivers the city. We see these kind of shocking results all the time, and this sort of story would not only appeal to those Old Testament people of God, but they appeal to us as well. We see it all over the place, don't we? Brother Ken Moore was telling me about a fan at the Air Canada Centre, one of the last home games of the Toronto Maple Leafs, and he had on his back, I think it was the number 67, and across it, rather than the name, it said, Still Waiting. Back in 67, that was a great victory. The mighty Montreal Canadiens versus the lowly Toronto Maple Leafs. The Maple Leafs carried the day. Surprising victory. You see surprising victories all over the place, and they are hearts are really warm to them. You think of Frodo, that little hobbit in the Lord of the Rings. So here I go again, Lord of the Rings, right? But he's against the mighty Sauron, the dark lord. And yet at the end of the story, he tosses that ring. Well, actually, Gollum goes in with the ring into Mount Doom and Sauron is destroyed. Surprising. We love stories like this. But this story doesn't point to stories that are akin to it. This story points to that which is superlatively greater than this one. Not just one story in world history, but the greatest story ever told. Do you see the spiritual parallel between this story and that story? Getting back to spiritual application here, though we are besieged sinners, And though we look all about us on this horizontal plane, God has provided a way in which we can be saved. Sinclair Ferguson has said, you know, you're reading a text like this, and whose name most naturally comes to mind when we hear of a poor man, full of wisdom, who became a Saviour? Who do you think about? Instinctively, we think of Jesus. The man the pundit saw had the attributes of true spirituality and wisdom. He was just a reflection, a kind of preview of the spirituality and wisdom of the true poor and wise man who would later become a savior and rescue us from our sins. The wages of sin is death. that the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Praise God, right? But we need to work it out, don't we? So let's ask those same questions as we did of the text. By whose hand are sinners rescued? What does the text say? That there is found in it, in that city, amongst those sinners, a poor wise man. You ever get over the incarnation? You ever get over the thought that the eternal Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, entered into it? Entered into time and space and took on human flesh that he might be our perfect representative? And he did that not only for 33 years, my friends, he is still in his flesh now. That was an eternal decision that he made. I can't fathom it. He lived among us in the person of Jesus Christ, but there was found in it, in the world now, a poor, wise man. How do the Scriptures describe Jesus Christ, the Savior? Isaiah 53, verse 2, for he grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground, and he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, no beauty that we should desire him. Not like the flannel grass that we grew up with, friends. You know, Jesus always had this nice white robe, a little bit of blue in it, blue sash and long flowing locks of hair, piercing blue eyes. So what Scripture says to everybody else, just a regular poor man. You know, he was materially poor as well, and that is just incredible to think of. Here's the Lord of glory who owns everything, makes himself nothing. To do the will of his father. To save a people for himself. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men." Philippians 2, 5-7. Took on human flesh. voluntarily laid aside access to his divine attributes. He was still God. But in order to be our perfect representative, he needed to live as a perfect man, independent upon the Holy Spirit. And that's why he's the fulfillment of prophecy in Isaiah 61, the spirit of the Lord is upon me. He was not only the poor man, He was and is a wise man, isn't he? Not only knew what was right because he had the mind of God, but actually applied what was right in the giving up of himself. Paul writes of this wisdom in Colossians 2, 1-3, For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not seen me face to face, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding the knowledge of God's mystery. Does he sound a little bit like Solomon here? What's God's mystery? What's God's wisdom? It is Jesus Christ. in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. See the poor but wise man in the person of Jesus Christ. How did Jesus Christ rescue sinners like you and me? What does the text say in Ecclesiastes 9? By what means are sinners rescued? By what means is that small city rescued? And He, by His wisdom, delivered the city. Are you able to trace out that wisdom? We are saved by the wisdom of God, as it is found in the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Are you able to trace out that work? Why did he come as a baby? Why? Why not just as a man, 33 years of age, appears in Gethsemane and goes straight to the cross? Why as a baby? So we have the babies chiming in, they want you to answer. Why is a baby? Because one of the things that God demands from us as sinners is perfection. And he came to fulfill every single aspect of the law. He says down to every jot and every iota. I will fulfill it all. As a man, independence upon the Holy Spirit, I will be your representative. That was the plan in eternity past. He would come down as a babe and live as a man and fulfill the positive elements of the law, that which God demands of us, but which we could never fulfill in our own strength. Jesus does for us. But he not only does that. He fulfills, and this is wisdom, the negative element of the law as well. Because there is a curse attached to the law of God. The wages of sin is what? Death. Jesus' eyes were always fixed at Jerusalem. Make no mistake. They were always fixed at Golgotha's lonely hill. They were always fixed at that place where He would bear in full measure the wrath of God. against the sins of those whom He would give to His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, of all over world history who had put their faith and trust in Him. And, my friends, when we read in John 19, verse 30, and Jesus said, it is finished, what He was saying there, that was not a cry of defeat. It was a cry of victory. He was saying, paid in full. Six hours He had worked on the cross. Remind you of anything? How many days to make the creation? Six days. How many hours to make the new creation? Six hours. And then he rested. He rested. It is finished, paid in full. One Greek word often used on a financial accounting thing. When you had debt, you paid off your debt. They would stamp it with that one word, paid in full. It is finished. That's the wisdom of God. And the Bible says, listen, if you are a sinner and if you are looking at your right hand for strength, don't look there. Look to God. Put your faith and trust in him and he will give you the gift of Christ's righteousness such that when God looks at you, he looks at you as if you are clothed in the Lord Jesus Christ with a perfect righteousness, as if you've never sinned. It's a free gift. free gift doesn't depend on you. By wisdom, he delivers the city by that wisdom, but is there neglect here this morning? Is there apathy here this morning? For while we were still weak at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly Romans five or six. One new hymn that we have begun singing picks it up in this way. The matchless wisdom of God's ways that mark the path of righteousness. His Word a lamp unto my feet, His Spirit teaching and guiding me. Teaching me what? Guiding me to what? Oh, the mystery of the cross. That God should suffer for the lost so that the fool might shame the wise. and all the glory might go to Christ. The wisdom of the poor man is this, his giving up of his life as an atoning sacrifice for sins. I have to think that when John Bunyan was writing his Holy War, he was thinking about this passage of Scripture. You may know something about the story, There is a city in that book, a small city called Mansoul, M-A-N-S-O-U-L, Mansoul. And against that city came a mighty adversary named Diabolus. It's not a good name. Diabolic. He speaks in that book about how Immanuel saves that city by his wisdom. Again, through the death of Christ, all whom God has elected and all who place their faith in him are saved. The enemy is completely routed. He's a roaring lion, first Peter five, but make no mistake, he's toothless when it comes to Christians. Believer, hear these words from Scripture, 1 Corinthians 1, verse 30. And because of him, who is the him? The wise, the poor man, because of Jesus, you are saved. Jesus Christ, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption. 2 Corinthians 8 verse 9, For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you by His poverty might become rich. Colossians 2 verses 13 to 15, and you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling, canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. And He disarmed the rulers and the authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in Him, that is, in Christ. Revelation 12, verse 10, And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come. For the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. A city besieged. A city rescued. But notice here as well, a city apathetic. Or a city indifferent. What is Solomon right there? Again, you can see something of his heart. Is anybody listening to me as he's writing the book of Ecclesiastes? Is anybody out there? Does anybody care? Yet no one remembered that poor man. But I say that wisdom is better than might. For the poor man's wisdom is despised and his words are not heard. Again, let's look at the explanation and then apply this spiritually. Notice the apathy of the people here. Yet no one remembered that poor man. The poor man's wisdom is despised and his words are not heard. sad. How sad is that? You see the people's apathy in their forgetfulness, even in their scorn. Also, in their disobedience, Solomon could see it. But, you know, I have to admire him as a preacher. There's some perseverance there in the man. And he said, I say that wisdom is better than might. Wisdom is better than might. Solomon speaks into the apathy and you can sense his passion. Oh, he goes, I've done it all, he's saying. I've experienced everything that life has to offer and it is fleeting and it is lacking and it does not satisfy and it does not save. Cast aside your indifference. Remember the poor man's wisdom. Heed the wisdom that I am imparting to you. Remember your Creator in the days of your youth. Do not despise it. Embrace it. Remember that embracing this wisdom by faith, it's better than strength. It's better than depending upon yourself or looking to yourself. or looking to this world for salvation. That's what Solomon is saying here. Well, what about the spiritual application? The apathy of the people certainly we see when we think about the Lord Jesus Christ and what he did. If no one remembered that poor man, the poor man's wisdom is despised and his words are not heard. You know, that was true of Jesus Christ when he was here. It's not the case. In Mark six, verses two and three, we read when Jesus was ministering. Where did this man get these things they were saying of him? What is the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands, is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon and are not his sisters here with us? And they took offense of him. Yet no one remembered that poor man, the poor man's wisdom. Notice its present tense, though, isn't it? The poor man's wisdom is despised and his words are not heard. Do you not see that amongst the unbelieving world? As you're in your schools and as you're testifying of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not Jesus Christ despised. Do you not see it in your workplaces as you try to live that godly and holy life before your peers? And they ask you about the hope that is in you and you answer, it's all about Jesus Christ, it's all about faith in him and trusting in him, and I am looking forward to glory. And you hear them say, well, that wisdom is fine for you. I'm following a different wisdom. Which, by the way, is foolishness. But don't we see it all over the place? Does it not make your heart long for them, like the preacher's heart here? But you know what? There is also an indifference and apathy among those who actually profess the wisdom of God, Jesus Christ. I mean, we've been doing this series and just finish it off in Galatians, and that was the problem with the Galatians. That set of believers were being told, listen, if you want favor with God, it's all about what you do. It's all about what you don't do. Paul writes to them, as Solomon wrote to the Old Testament people of God, foolish Galatians. Who is going to do you not know that wisdom is greater than strength. I want to ask you one question, Paul said to the Galatians. How did you receive the spirit of the living God, which testifies that you are born of God and is the seal and guarantee of your inheritance? Did you do that by works of the flesh or by believing in the one who shed his blood for you? How do you become more and more like the Lord Jesus Christ is by focusing on the laws or by focusing on Jesus Christ in an ever deepening way, Paul writes. Oh, Paul knew apathy amongst believers. He could see it not only as they were following after different teachers, but he could also see it in those who actually professed to say, yes, I'm all about the Lord Jesus Christ, all about faith in Him, and yet they were putting the hate on in regards to their brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul is saying, how can that be? He's saying, some of you, you've got it all up here. But if you really love the Lord Jesus Christ and really understand that wisdom of God, it is going to filter out on a horizontal plane. Through love, serve one another. Through love, serve one another. You see, there's apathy all over the place. Yet no one remembered that poor man, the poor man's wisdom is despised and his words are not heard. But in the midst of that, In the midst of that, preachers still proclaim the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I'm not tooting my own horn here. Anything that I do is only by the grace of God. But if I were to die today, I think I could look back and say, I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race. I have preached Christ crucified to you. And if the Lord spares me another day, I will continue to do so because wisdom is greater than strength. And you need to be praying for me that I do that for your own benefit and for the glory of God, like Solomon did long ago. And you need to be praying that young men are brought up to proclaim exactly the same thing, because, my friends, wisdom is greater than strength. This is the message that saves. This is the wisdom that saves. Not doing good things. Not following an ethic. Not imitating Jesus. No. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Focusing on Him. Focusing on His finished work. Zechariah 4 verse 6 basically repeats what is said here, but I say that wisdom is better than might. This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel. descendant of David, not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord of hosts. Paul could say as a preacher of the Lord Jesus Christ, indeed, Solomon could say at the end of his life, I am not ashamed of the gospel of the wisdom of God, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek. As we close on this Good Friday morning with the cross of Jesus Christ before you, I need to ask you some questions. To those of you who have not embraced this wisdom, first of all, are you indifferent this morning? Oh, I just if I could work it up in you, I would do it. Indifference will kill you. for all eternity. It will kill you. And your only hope is to embrace the wisdom of God and the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't be apathetic. And believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. As you contemplate that great love of the Lord Jesus for his father and that great love of the Lord Jesus Christ for you. How can you be apathetic? How can you be indifferent? Pray that the Holy Spirit of the living God that dwells within you stirs your soul this morning, that you might live those lives that glorify him and honor him and that praise him. Wisdom is greater than strength. The wisdom of the poor but wise men. Praise God for his glorious grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you. We thank you on this good Friday. For the Lord Jesus Christ. And for his crosswork. And for his victory. Lord, we are amazed that you made any way possible. You would have been perfectly just and glorified to live all of humanity in their sin. Perfectly just if you had destroyed Adam and Eve right after they fell. Lord, we see something of your. Common grace. And allowing men to live a physical life. And in giving them good things in this life and in restraining sin. But, oh, do we ever see something of your special grace? In the second person of the Trinity, taking on human flesh and living and dying for us. Replace stony hearts this morning, Holy Spirit. With hearts of flesh, hearts that beat for the living God. And move amongst your people, revive them. Grow them in grace and in the knowledge of these things. and cause their love for you to overflow in love for one another. Do away with apathy here this morning, we pray, Holy Spirit, for the name of Jesus Christ and for the glory of you, our blessed, loving Father, in Jesus' name, Amen.