Let us read from the Word of God, first of all from the Old Testament, Genesis chapter 4. Genesis chapter 4, reading from verses 1 to 11. This is the well-known story of Abel. Let us hear God's Word. Now Adam knew Eve, his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain and said, I have acquired a man from the Lord. Then she bore again, this time his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of the sheep, but Cain was a teller of the ground. And in the process of time, it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord. Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord respected Abel and his offering, but he did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. So the Lord said to Cain, why are you so angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, Will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door, and its desire is for you. But you should rule over it. Now Cain talked with Abel his brother, and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him. Then the Lord said to Cain, Where is Abel your brother? He said, I do not know, am I my brother's keeper? And he said, what have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground. So now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. Amen. Our second reading is in Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews 12, reading verses 18 to 24. Hebrews chapter 12, verses 18 to 24, and again, this is God's Word. For you have not come to the mountain that may be touched, and that burned with fire, and to blackness and darkness and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words, so that those who heard it begged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore. For they could not endure what was commanded. And if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned or shot with an arrow. and so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, I am exceedingly afraid and trembling. But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels. to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, who are registered in heaven, to God, the judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. Amen. And may the Lord bless the public reading of his holy words. Please turn again to Genesis chapter 4. Genesis chapter 4. What is it that ought to be foundational in the Christian life? What is it that ought to be central? in our mind, our thoughts, our imaginations, our heart, our affections. The Apostle Paul teaches us in 1 Corinthians 2-2 the answer. I determined to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. This is the answer. Christ Jesus is the foundational principle of our life. Christ and Him crucified ought to be central in our thoughts, our imaginations, our affections, and our actions. Take a Christian who's struggling with pride. What ought they to do but look to Christ crucified? There they will see their true state as sinners who deserve nothing but the wrath of God. And yet Christ came and died for them. They will then not glory in themselves, but glory in the cross. Take a Christian who's struggling to take sin seriously. A saint who's struggling to be convicted by their own sin. What ought they to do? But look to the cross. There we see the true nature of sin. There we see how offensive sin is to God as he bruises his own son. Take a Christian who is struggling to know the love of God. What are they to do but go to the cross? For there, God commended His love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. So the cross, Christ crucified, ought to be foundational, central to all of our lives. For this reason, I want to look at Christ crucified through Abel. The Bible, the New Testament, speaks of Abel as a type of Christ, and I'm crucified. In Matthew 23, verse 35, Abel is someone who suffers for righteousness' sake, even as Jesus did. And even more clearly we see Hebrews chapter 12, where it says, Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, whose blood has atoned in work, speaks better things than that of Abel. And so when we see Abel and his death, we ought by eyes of faith to see a picture, a shadow, an illustration of Christ and him crucified. So where in Genesis 4 can we behold Christ? First of all, we behold Christ in Abel as the chosen seed, the fall. was nothing less than cosmic catastrophe. The Lord God created all things very good. He placed man in his garden, a paradise of delights. No war, no bitterness, no sin, only peace, love, and joy. And then we fell in Adam. Sin entered the world. And what do we see? Destruction and misery. Lies and deceit. Hatred and murder. Man under the wrath of God. by nature, under the wrath of God. And God will send every man to hell justly, to suffer in agony, body and soul, for all eternity. But our God is a gracious God. And He would glorify His name by saving a people for Himself. And He did this with a most solemn promise, that which we call the Covenant of Grace. And this Covenant of Grace was instituted in Genesis 3.15 with this promise, the seed of the woman shall bruise, crush the seed of the serpent. And through this promise, God would raise up families, and through the chosen covenant one would be the Messiah to the end, Jesus Christ. But to show salvation is of the Lord. Salvation is not according to man's wisdom, but God's wisdom. He did something against human convention. Man thinks, who will be the inheritor, the elder? God says, no, the younger. Who would receive the promise from Abraham? Would it be the elder, Ishmael? No. He was the ungodly one. But the younger Isaac was the chosen one, a man of God, a man of faith, a man of prayer. And then through Isaac, who would be the promised one? The elder Esau? No. He was the evil one, the wicked one. But the younger, Jacob. And here we see two brothers. Cain is the elder brother. Abel, the younger brother. And we see the same pattern. Cain is wicked. Cain is sinful. Cain is the one who hates and has wrath to God. But Abel's different. He is the chosen seed. He is the godly one. This is a picture of God choosing his salvation. For who is ultimately the seed? The Lord Jesus Christ, says Paul in the epistle to the Galatians. How will man be saved? How will our sins be washed away? By what we think? No. But our plans? Oh no. By our works and by what we do? No. But Christ is the Chosen One from all eternity. Do you ever wonder what was happening in the mind of God from all eternity? What was He thinking? What was He doing? The Bible reveals such heavenly things. Isaiah 42.1, God the Father speaks to God the Son. Behold! My servant, mine elect one, in whom my soul delights. My spirit will be upon him, and he will bring salvation. And when Christ came into this world, how the natural man could not see God's chosen Savior. He had no form, no comeliness, no beauty that we should desire him. Man thinks of a savior of the world. Who would he be? What would he be like? A man born in an important place, in a palace, in the riches, but not the chosen one of God, born in a manger. brought up in Nazareth, as Nathaniel says, can any good come out of Nazareth? No. God would show his glory by choosing a poor woman, Mary, whose lineage goes all the way back to Adam, and God would bring the divine nature united to the human nature in the person of Christ in the womb of the Virgin Mary. And it is through the chosen seed, Christ, whereby man shall be saved. Secondly, we see Christ enables vocation. It tells us here the the jobs, the callings in life that Cain and Abel were given. Cain was a tiller of the ground, a farmer. Crops, vegetables. Abel's different. He's a keeper of sheep. He's a shepherd who would look after his sheep, protect them, provide for them, feed them. And in the Bible, often the Messiah is a shepherd. Think of the great types of the Christ. Joseph, David, Moses. What was their common calling? They were all shepherds. Then Ezekiel 34, God says, My Messiah's coming. My Messiah's coming. And what shall He be? A shepherd. And that's who Jesus Christ is. He is the great shepherd of His sheep. As a shepherd, He's what's called the federal head. That is, someone who represents a people. So that whatever He does, they have. Just like Adam is our federal head. Whatever Adam does, goes to his posterity. Adam fell in sin. Therefore, His posterity, we're born in sin. Christ is our shepherd, our federal head. Wherever He does, we receive. He's to obey the law for righteousness' sake. He's to suffer under the wrath of God to satisfy His justice. And He's doing it not as a private person, but as a public person on behalf of His people. So that as He is righteous, we would be righteous. As He is holy, we would be holy. As He is the Son of God, we would be adopted as sons of God. And what a shepherd this is! A shepherd knows his sheep intimately. I don't see much sheep here in America, but where I come from in Scotland, sheep possibly outnumber the people. and there are shepherds everywhere. And if you ever speak to a shepherd, they can have a flock of hundreds, and yet they can designate every sheep individually. They know their characteristics, they know their traits, they know their sicknesses just by looking at them. And John 10 says that Jesus Christ is the shepherd who knows his sheep. He knows you. He knows your sins. He knows your particular sins. He knows the thoughts, the skeletons in your closet which no one else knows. And what does He do with you with that knowledge? Does He wash His hands with you? Does he say, filthy, dirty, I've got nothing to do with you? No, he's the good shepherd who knows you more than you know yourself, and yet out of love and willingness, he will lay down his life for his sheep. And He knows your attitude, your character. He knows your struggles, your battles, your wars, and your temptations. And as a good shepherd, He's with you every step of the way to give you consolation and comfort, to give you strength to overcome, to give you another assurance of His forgiveness. so that you can say with the psalmist, the Lord is my shepherd and I shall not want. This is Christ, the shepherd of His sheep. And then thirdly, we see Christ in Abel suffering for righteousness sake. What so provoked his brother? Why was Cain so angry? 1 John chapter 3 verse 12 helps us. It says, why did he slay him? Why did Cain slay Abel? Because his own works were evil and his brother's righteous. Cain saw Abel as righteous before God, doing things pleasing before God, and therefore hated him, despised him, and killed him for righteousness' sake. How did Abel become righteous? Well, it's just like you become righteous and I become righteous, by faith. by faith in Christ. For Abel, by faith in the promised seed. And when you have faith in Christ, your life is conformed to that reality. And you seek to do things pleasing in the sight of God. Hebrews 11.4 says, by faith, Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice And this demonstrated he was righteous. Well, where did this faith come from? Because faith cometh by hearing, hearing by the word of God. Where did Abel hear that God was pleased with the sacrifice of his parents? Just like many of us, just like us who are children, where do we hear about the things of God? Where do we hear about the Bible? How do we know Jesus Christ? Our parents. I hope you are a parent who's teaching your children the gospel, Jesus Christ, the Bible. Adam and Eve, they would have sat their two children on their laps. My son Cain, my son Abel, let me tell you the truth. Just before you were born in our own lives, God created us. He loved us. He gave us all things. Life was glorious. And then children, we sinned. And sin entered into the world and God promised death would come through sin. but know your God is good. He's gracious. And they would have told their children about Genesis 321, how the Lord sacrificed an animal to cover their shame. And they would have said, sons, God desires a sacrifice. You can't cover yourselves like we did with the fig leaves. No, God must provide for himself a sacrifice to cover you. So when you go to the Lord, children, you bring a sacrifice. Cain did not believe, and so he offered fruit from the ground. Abel believed, so he offered an animal in sacrifice. That's a lesson to you, children. You're growing up. You're listening to the truth. You're listening of Christ. You're being taught of God. Will you be a Cain who will not believe? Or will you be an Abel who will believe? No, Cain does not please God. Cain is not right with God. Cain is not acceptable before God because he did not believe. You must be like Abel and believe what your parents tell you about the things of God for yourself. Because as they grew up, Cain came with his unbelief and says, God will be satisfied where I think, where I convey in my mind, God of course will accept. And he does not. Abel believes. And he comes, not with worship from his own imagination, but what God requires, a sacrifice. And Cain looked at his brother, acceptable before God, and for righteousness sake, killed him in the field. And that's exactly what happened to our Lord Jesus Christ. No one was righteous like Christ. He did not have faith so that righteous was imputed like us, but he is intrinsically righteous. He loved the law. Psalm 40 says that the law of God was in his heart. And that word heart doesn't mean heart in Psalm 40. It means bowels. The bowels are the seats of affections. He was zealous. He was passionate. His love was fiery for the law and obedience of God. He loved God with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength. And he loved his neighbor as himself. How he would have such trust in God, such faith in God, he would do all things according to his Father's will. What did he do on a Sabbath day? Luke tells us in chapter four, as was his custom, his delight, he went to the synagogue to praise God. When he saw a sick person, a blind man, the lame, the outcast, the hated of society, the cutoff, he went about doing good. And with a heart full of compassion, he healed, he consoled, he comforted. And as he came keeping the law, what happened? People loved him, didn't they? Everyone in the land was like, what a good person he is. No, they crucified him. They crucified him. Because he was righteous, they were not. They were jealous. They were angry. And for righteousness sake, they put him to death. Fourthly, we see Christ and Abel suffering from the wrath of man. Here, Abel's in a field. And it says twice, Cain is full of anger, hate, wrath. It controls him, consumes him, and he slaughters his own brother. Jude 11 describes this as the way of Cain. Malice, hatred, vengeance, jealousy. Do you know that? Have you ever been in a discussion with someone, a debate? They were right, you were wrong. And rather completely and utterly, being in a state of humility, simply accepting that, there was something still in your heart. You couldn't take it, they were right and you were wrong. And there's this jealousy inside you, this anger, this malice. That's the way of Cain. That's the way of Cain. And 1 John 3, 15 is very clear. He that hates his brother is a murderer. You see, the law is not merely speaking about the things that we do. but what's in our hearts. Always, always remember, hatred is the root of murder, but murder is the fruit of hatred. As Jesus himself taught in Matthew five, even if you have unjust anger, mockery in your heart and the thought which no one else can hear and see, God sees it and he says, it's murder. And so Cain killed his brother before the act. The root of it was in his heart. Is that you? Is that me? You're a man, a woman of hatred, with unjust thoughts and anger against someone, someone in this room, someone in the family, someone at home. Beware of the way of Cain. Because even if you just thought it, never mind acted upon it, in the eyes of God, it's murder. You need to confess your hate, confess your malice to God, and seek forgiveness. And then you need to go to Christ and learn from Christ to love your enemies, to pray for them, to do them good. But Cain, full of wrath and anger, rose up and slew, slaughtered his brother. And this is exactly what happened to Christ. He suffered the wrath of men. We see how good and gracious and loving He is. Even to those who oppose Him. Israel, the Jews, they oppose Him. And time and time again, Christ shows His love. He says to the 70 in Matthew 10, don't go to the Gentiles. It's not time yet. Go two by two to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Preach the kingdom. Preach the gospel. Preach the good news. And they reject him. And yet Christ in Matthew 23, 37 is still full of love and goodness. Oh Jerusalem! Jerusalem! How I would have gathered you as a hen gathers her chicks. I was willing, but you were not. So loving. So compassionate. And how did they respond? Wrath. Anger. You wanna know why? Because he exposed them. As John 3 says, the light came into the world and it exposed our darkness. That's why people hate Jesus. That's why when you speak of Jesus in a sentence, people wanna run away, because they know their heart will be exposed by the light of Jesus. The Pharisees, so religious, So orthodox. They might honor God with their lips, but their hearts were far from them. Jesus exposed it. How they were so faithful to prayer. How they would make long prayers, but Jesus says it was a pretense. They were greedy and covetous. Oh, oh, oh, no, I'm religious, I'm faithful. This money, carbon, carbon, dedicated to God. Jesus said, you only dedicated that money to God because you don't want to give it to your parents, you want it for yourself. And as he exposed them for their hypocrisies and their pride and their self-righteousness, how did they respond to Jesus? Anger, hatred. Anger blinds us, doesn't it? You've had experience when you've been angry or deeply upset at something, it just blinds you. The Jews were blinded. You ask the Jews, the council when they tried Christ, Mr. Pharisee, Mr. Sadducee, Mr. Sanhedrin, what do you think about blasphemy towards God? Never be! Never would I blaspheme Jehovah, never! And yet Jehovah incarnate is right before their eyes, and what do they say? Blasphema. Ask them about rebellion. Would you say rebellion against God and His law is good? Never be! Never be said about me, I rebel against Jehovah or His law. And what do they accuse Christ of? Rebellion, sedition, Jehovah incarnate. And you can see as Pontius Pilate, he recognizes Jesus as innocent. And I've got a plan, a plan so that Jesus is freed. There's this man Barabbas, wicked, guilty, evil. And you have Jesus who's innocent and good. I'll put them both up and surely the crowd will say, release Jesus. Not that day. the soul full of hate, the soul stirred up with anger, crucify him, crucify him. And our Lord suffers the wrath of man. Fifthly, we see Christ enables suffering from satanic attack. We need to be careful for being blind. or seeing things as the world sees things. The world sees things only in a materialistic way. Christians, I find today, are far, far too often like that too. We need to walk by faith and not by sight. What is going on between Cain and Abel? What's happening here? As Paul says in Ephesians 6, we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers. Satan is active in Cain's heart. When people have this real high degree of hatred against Christ, it's often satanic. I could be on the streets preaching or handing out tracts and most people can either take them or not take them and go on, but there's times when there are people who want to do physical violence to me. Had it time and again. Why is it a man just handing out a tract, a guy or a woman comes up and just spews hatred? Satan, Satan. Why is it in your own life? There are people who know you're a Christian, and sure, they might not pay much attention, but there's particular people who just have this hatred against you, and you know it. Satan. Why is it in our nation? There's such a vehemence, vehemence against the church right now. It's Satan. And that's what's happening here. 1 John tells us, 1 John 3, 12, Cain, who was of that wicked one slew his brother." See what John's saying? Why was this high degree of anger in the heart of Cain? It wasn't merely Cain. He was of that wicked one. Satan, ever since that promise, wants to kill the people of God. And throughout the history of time, the seed of the serpent is seeking to bruise the heel of the seed of the woman. And so Satan was present there in Cain, manipulating things, increasing things, because that's what he does. Satan watches you. He knows your weaknesses. He knows what makes you upset. He knows what makes you act irrationally. He knows what makes you say stupid and silly things. He knows what makes you be impatient with other people. He knows what makes you strike out at other people. He is a polymath. He's an expert. He's a genius. And he manipulates circumstances so that you will sin against God. That's why you need to always be aware, watch and pray. That's why you need Christ's strength because he's greater than Satan. That's why you need to be wary of his wiles. That's why you need to be sober and alert because he's as a walking lion seeking whom he may devour. But if you are watching and you are praying and you are alert, James says, resist him and he shall flee from you. but Satan was in the heart of Cain to rise up and slay. Why was it the Jews were so blind? Why was it they were so angry? It's because Satan was in them. Judas was a greedy man, a very greedy man. And when he came to realize that the kingdom of God was not a geopolitical kingdom with lots of money and high positions, well, he thought, what shall I do? And it says in John 13, Satan put it into the heart of Judas to betray him, betray Christ. Why was it the Pharisees and the council so against Christ? Because Satan was in the midst of them. Look, Chapter 22, verse 53. When I was daily with you in the temple, you stretched forth no hands against me, but this is your hour and the power of darkness. You couldn't touch me. You couldn't do anything against me, but now it's the hour. You are able because the power of darkness. And Satan was in the Sanhedrin. Satan were in the men. He saved others. He can't save himself. Come down from the cross. Satan was in the mind of Jesus Christ, tempting Him. He did it in Matthew 4. If you be the Son of God, do this, do that. If you be the Son of God, why is there darkness? Why is there anger? Why do they hate you? Psalm 22, many bulls have compassed me. Strong bulls of Bashan surround me. They gaped upon me with their mouths as a ravering and roaring lion. He suffered Satan's attacks. But he is the discontinuity Abel was a helpless victim. Jesus Christ was no helpless victim. John 10, 18, no one takes my life from me. I give it of my own accord. I have come to seek and save that which is lost. I am willing and prepared to suffer these things. Because Christ ultimately or merely did not suffer at the hands of men and Satan, but the God of holiness. Because He had been made a curse for us. All of His people's sins, the idolatry, the blasphemy, the covetousness, the sexual immorality, the anger, the way of Cain, the iniquity of us all was laid upon Him. And before Almighty God, he is accursed. And on that tree, he is not merely suffering the wrath of man or satanic attack, but the holy anger of God. Who can fathom such things? Think of Gethsemane. It was not the reality, but only a foretaste. And if the foretaste caused Christ to be sorrowful even unto death, how much more under the wrath of God. If the foretaste, the pressure of divine forsakenness caused him to sweat as it were great drops of blood, how much more under the wrath. If simply feeling the heat of the fire in Gethsemane does this, how much more in the midst of the fiery firmness of God's wrath? The darkness, friends. Remember the plagues? And the darkness was all over the land of Egypt. What was going on there? God's justice, God's anger being poured out against Egypt. And then after the darkness, what was the last plague? The death of the firstborn son. And that's what happened at Calvary, with the darkness for three hours, God's wrath being poured into the soul of His Son, and then the death of the only begotten Son of God. And then lastly, we see Christ in Abel's blood speaking. When God comes to Cain saying, where is your brother? And Cain tries to manipulate, am I my brother's keeper? I know, because I hear the blood speaking to me. What did this blood speak? Vengeance. Vengeance. Even on this planet right now, though people might not be saved, when there's innocent blood, it speaks to God. The blood of the aborted children. God's not deaf. God hears. The shedding of innocent blood angers God. war, even unconverted people, the shed of innocent blood angers God. And except someone come to Christ and receive forgiveness of sins, God wrath will be poured out then on judgment day, on abortion, war, oppression, And Christ has always forgiven us for these things. That's the grace of God. But if someone doesn't come to Christ, there's wrath and judgment day. But Hebrews tells us, Christ's blood speaks better things than that of Abel. What does it speak? Mercy, justification, peace. Christ's blood speaks mercy. We deserve His wrath. You deserve His anger. You deserve hell, but his blood speaks mercy to you. God's goodness to the undeserving, that he'll provide for your salvation, that he'll wash away your sins, that he'll adopt you as a child of God, that when you die, you'll go to glories in heaven, mercy. It speaks of justification because Christ took our punishment on our behalf. So that when we come before God, Christ's blood says, I took their punishment. They're justified in the sight of God by faith alone. And the blood also speaks peace. No more alienation. No more enmity. Reconciliation and peace with God forever. This blood speaks to you today Where are you in Christ? If you're an unbeliever, you're not coming to Christ, you know your heart. God knows your heart. He's seen the way of Cain. He's seen your anger. He's seen your hatred. He's seen your malice. He's seen your mockery. Maybe it's come out your lips to your brother or your sister, your father, your grandparents, your work colleagues, to anyone. He sees it in your actions. Maybe you physically assaulted someone. But this blood can cleanse you from every sin. Why do you hold off? Are you waiting for a sign it's not gonna come? Are you looking for a light bulb to go on? It's never gonna come. It is Christ wooing you by his blood, saying, I die for sinners, even the chief of sinners. In my blood there is mercy for you, there's justification for you, there's peace for you. What do you need to do? Romans 3.24, you simply have to have faith in His blood. That's faith in Christ and His atonement for you, and you will be cleansed from every sin. You who are believers, this blood is speaking to you today. Why would Jesus Christ be prepared to suffer such things? Why was He so willing to come under the wrath of man, Satan, and God Himself? Love. Love for you, brother. Love for you, sister. I don't know what's going on in your life right now. I don't know your struggles. I don't know your battles. But I do know this, if you're Christ's, He's done this for love for you. Don't doubt it. Don't think, how can He love a sinner like me? He loves me. I am a sinner. He knows it, and He took all the wrath for me. He loved me, and He gave Himself for me. You should be full of the love of Christ. because Christ is full of love for you. This blood also speaks to you for eternity. Abel's the first glorified saint. He's the first person to go to heaven. Think about that. In heaven, there's the special presence of God, there's the holy angels, and no one else. I'm talking about here. And then Abel dies, and his soul immediately goes to heaven. And as time goes on, other saints are dying, and they go to heaven. That's a hope for you and me. You know, we don't think about heaven often. Because we live in a world that causes us not to, plus thankful is a good thing. We have medical science and technology. We're living longer and better and curing diseases we could not. But then sickness comes in. A diagnosis comes our way. A friend, a family member, a grandparent dies. What do you do? Do you sorrow? Yes, you should sorrow. Do you grieve? Yes, you should grieve. But you despair? Absolutely not. You grieve with joy. Why? Because if they're in Christ, they're like Abel. They've gone to glory. No more suffering, no more pain, no more hatred. What about you? I don't know when you're going to die. You could die at four years old, 12 years old, 20 years old, 99 years old. You might not know you're going to die. You're just going to get hit one day. I don't know. Or God might grant you a witness so that you're on a bed with doctors and nurses and family and friends and you can be a testimony to the grace of Christ. And you can think of dear old Abel here. What's gonna happen to you in your last breath? Your body's gonna die. But in the next breath, your soul's gonna be immediately with the Lord. Christ and Him crucified is not something we study, then move on to higher theologies. No. Christ and Him crucified is fundamental, foundational, central. Think daily upon these things. Seek the things above. because when we know the immeasurable, infinite love of God and the cross, it permeates our souls and we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. Let us all look to Christ and then crucify through the picture of Abel. Let us pray. Our Lord God, what love has been given toward us, Christ came into this world and suffered for our sin, and we bless Thee that His blood speaks better things than of Abel, the mercy, the justification, the peace, and how we rejoice and give Thee the praise and adulation which is due. Oh, cause every one of us to have faith that's firmly fixed on the Savior, and help us all to know His love and to rejoice in the Lord always. In Christ's name, amen.