Well, we turn for our Scripture reading this evening to Luke's Gospel, chapter 4, verses 1 through 15, returning to the passage which we began to look at this morning. We began a series titled, What Would Jesus Do? Handling Temptation. The first sermon in the series was The Devil's Dynamics, and we come this evening for this second sermon in the series to The Devil's Defeat. And for our edification, we read once more from Luke's gospel, chapter four, verses one through 15. Let us hear God's holy word. And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for 40 days. being tempted by the devil, and he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry. The devil said to him, if you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread. And Jesus answered him, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone. And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time and said to him, to you, I will give all this authority and their glory for it has been delivered to me and I give it to whom I will. If you then will worship me, it will all be yours. And Jesus answered him, it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve. And he took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, if you are the son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, he will command his angels concerning you to guard you. And on their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone. And Jesus answered him, it is said, you shall not put the Lord your God to the test. And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time. And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report about him went out throughout all the surrounding country. and he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all. Again, may the Lord bless this reading of his word and our study of it. In returning to the devil's temptation of Jesus, we want to underline three things that we went through this morning. First of all, a point about sin. I want to underline, especially if as of yet you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ, you know about him, that everyone faces temptation. Those without a new nature as well as those with a new nature. Those who, as of yet, as theologians say, are unregenerate, as well as those who are, by the grace of God, regenerate. And other than for an ulterior motive, the unregenerate are careless about sin. Sin comes in different shapes and sizes, and the unregenerate are careless about what Jerry Bridges, in one of his books, calls respectable sins. but the unregenerate also can be careless about scandalous sins as well and are most vulnerable to temptation because they do not have the Lord Jesus Christ ruling by His Spirit in their lives, and that is what makes them so vulnerable. But we've been noticing also that as the regenerate, those with new natures who have a desire by the gift of the Spirit of God through Christ, a desire to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever, that we too can be vulnerable to falling into temptation. We have a great concern about it though, and that is what distinguishes the regenerate and the unregenerate. The unregenerate do not have a concern to fall into sin apart from this, that there is an ulterior motive for not doing so. The regenerate, by contrast, we have a great concern not to fall into sin because the honor and the glory of God is at stake, and also our enjoyment of Him. So let me ask us tonight as we come back to this passage of God's Word, are we careless about sin? or are we concerned about it? That is a good question to ask as we ponder where we stand in relationship to God. And then a second point that I'd like us to underline tonight is a point about salvation, because there are a couple of things going on in the context here which we need to note. On the one hand, there's something unique. Jesus, during these days of His ministry, is procuring for His people a perfect righteousness without which we could have no hope of approaching God in life or in death. Note the way in which Luke structures chapter 3 and chapter 4. In chapter three, you have the baptism of Jesus, the inauguration of the ministry of Jesus, and then flipping over to chapter four, you have the temptation of Jesus, and yet stuck in between is this genealogy of the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice chapter three, verse 23. Jesus, when he began his ministry, was about 30 years of age, being the son, as was supposed, of Joseph. And then Luke traces this genealogy all the way back to the dawn of history. And so verse 38, we find that he's the son of Enos, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God. What is Luke trying to teach us? Well, he is teaching us, of course, that here as we enter into the temptations of the Lord Jesus, we are dealing with the second or the last Adam. who has come to undo the disobedience of the first Adam. And so it is very strategic then, that having documented the baptism of Jesus and the inauguration of his ministry, and then this genealogy, and then the temptation, that we are being taught specifically why it is so important that the Lord Jesus Christ rebuff Satan's temptation. For by his obedience in eventual death, Jesus undoes the disobedience of the first Adam. And so important is this, that the devil himself comes to try and to get Jesus Christ to sin and thereby to kill his ministry. So there's something unique going on here, but there's something also exemplary. For by the time Luke writes his gospel, Jesus has gained many disciples, and they're not simply Jews. Luke is writing predominantly for Gentile hearers, and so, whereas Matthew traces the genealogy back to Abraham, or towards Abraham. the father of the nation. Here Luke traces it back to Adam, the father of the human race. What are we being taught? We're being taught that the gospel is going out from the Jewish people to the Gentile people, and God is going to, through his Christ, bringing an innumerable elect people from across the world. And all those who come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ then have the question, how are we now going to live as the followers of Jesus Christ? And one of the answers that we give is this, we follow the example of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so putting these two observations together, that something unique is happening and something exemplary is happening, we get the point. Salvation is not found in copying the Lord Jesus Christ. Our copying of Christ is a fruit of salvation, not the pathway to salvation. You see, there are many in our day who love the teaching of the example of Jesus Christ. Their whole salvation rests upon the Sermon on the Mount. Well, you see, you want to be a Christian, just open Matthew 5 to 7 and just try and work out what Jesus was doing. Or you come to a passage like this. And if you want to be saved, you want your place in heaven, just try like Jesus to rebuff what Satan was trying to do. But what we want to say is this. If you are in Adam tonight, if you are in the flesh, you do not have the power, nor do you have the desire to follow the example of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so you can try as you might until kingdom come to try and copy the example of Christ. I've just got to try a bit harder. I've just got to exert myself some more. In fact, I was driving around this week and listening to the program Open Line, and there was this lady, very honest, and she phones in and she says, listen, I'm not born again, but I'm trying. And that might be you tonight, misunderstanding the gospel, saying, well, I know that I'm not a professing member of the Christian church. I haven't yet placed my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. I haven't turned from my sins, but I'm trying. So here we are today and you take hold of this passage about the temptations of Jesus and you say, well listen, this is my latest piece of the jigsaw puzzle whereby if I try and thwart Satan as he gets me to sin, I will at last come to salvation. What I want to say to you tonight is give up. Give up. You will never do it. And so when we find then that Jesus, as the second or last Adam, is undoing the disobedience for the first Adam, the message of the gospel comes powerfully to us tonight and says, look unto me and be saved, all the ends of the earth. Stop your wrestling as if you can earn your salvation, as if you can build up power and energy and desire to thwart the evil one. You are not strong enough. nor are you desirous enough. But the message of the gospel comes to us and says this, Jesus went through these temptations and defeated Satan on the way to procuring a perfect righteousness which you could never procure for yourself. And in the process of procuring this righteousness, He sets His face to go to Jerusalem. He dies upon the cross, an atoning death. And all those who put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, all those who turn from their sins unto God, are gifted not only the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior, but are gifted the Holy Spirit. so that it is now by the power of the Holy Spirit, using the example of Jesus Christ, that we begin to grow as Christians and come into the conformity of Jesus Christ. Let's not misunderstand the gospel. And I am very well aware, brothers and sisters, that we can be sitting in Reformed churches and misunderstand the gospel. You know, when I was ministering at Seventh Reformed Church, conversions of people are always the most delightful aspect. And two of those most telling conversions were of people who had been communicant members, not baptized members, communicant members of the church for 50 years. And I remember Joyce. She gave me the permission to speak about this, and so I feel free to speak about it whenever it's relevant. And she was fearful of leaving this world and going to face God. And I said, Joyce, why are you afraid? She says, well, I don't know if I've done enough. I said, whoever told you you could do enough to be saved? Well, that's what our ministers have taught us. Well, being one of the ministers, I said, no, Joyce. No, we've told you the opposite of that. You could never do enough, but Christ has done it all. And so the example of Christ is a fruit of salvation, not the way to salvation. And if you're outside of Christ tonight, don't just sit here. Make sure you take this piece away. And the third point I want us to understand tonight is a point about sanctification. You see, those of us understanding the grace of salvation are in Christ. Remember that whereas the atonement is vital for our justification, the example of Christ has a role in our sanctification. So whereas we are united to Christ through faith alone, And once united to Christ, two blessings spring up from that union, two distinct but inseparable blessings. Our justification on the one hand and our sanctification on the other, as we saw this morning, we are positionally holy, no longer in the world, separated unto God in Christ Jesus. When it comes to the progress of our sanctification, that is not by faith alone. God has given us multiple means whereby we can grow in grace. He's given us faith. He's given us prayer. He's given us the law of God. We don't read it now as a mirror of the righteousness of God as if we've never learned of God before. We as God's people now don't read it as conviction of sin so that we must come to Christ for the first time, but we do read the moral law of God as a structure of our liberty in Christ, because our liberty is not to sin, it's a liberty not to sin. And so God has given us not only faith, prayer, the third use of the law as we call it, He's also given us the example of Christ. Why is the example of Christ so important? because he helps us to navigate a path between license on the one hand, where we have a disregard for the law of God, and legalism on the other, whereby it's all about the law of God. If you and I want to be holy in a balanced way tonight, we don't so much look at the law of God, we look at Christ. But what did Christ do? Well, he kept the law. But how did he keep the law? Well, he kept it out of sheer joy, sheer delight in God the Father. So it's as we look to Christ who keeps the law, but in superb joy that we are able to navigate the path between legalism and license. So let's not overreact then in the battle between liberals and conservatives going back to the early days of the 20th century. What was the battle? Well, you see, the liberals grew up and they said, oh, we don't like this teaching of the penal substitutionary atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. We don't like all this talk about the blood of Christ. The gospel is not what Christ did at the cross. The gospel is what happened at the incarnation, that Christ comes into the world, he sets us a marvelous example, and it's such a tragedy he died at the end of the age. And because we have opposed that teaching, we say, no, no, no, no, the gospel, it's all in the penal substitutionary atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. We don't like this language of the example of Christ because then we're on this slippery slope, the thin end of the wedge where we're gonna be liberals before we know it. And yet we, the more we know the scriptures, the more we know the Reformed faith, the more we know the history of what has gone on in the Western world, we say this. Yes, we rejoice in the unique, penal, substitutionary atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. But how do we manifest our gratitude? By living holy lives. And one of the means that God has given us to live holy lives is to follow the example of Jesus Christ. Well, that's longer than I intended. So let us now move on, having looked at the devil's scheme in tempting Jesus to consider his triumph, and we want to notice that he knew his identity, he knew his word, and he knew his responsibilities. Notice with me first of all then this evening that he knew his identity, verses three to four. The devil said to him, if you are the son of God, command this stone to become bread. And Jesus answered him, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone. Now Jesus' knowledge of his identity has developed with this person, and Luke tracks how that development has taken place. And so you can go back to chapter two, verses 39 to 40. After eight days, what do we read? When they had performed everything according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee to their own town in Nazareth. And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom, and the favor of God was upon him. And then Luke gives us this unique insight into Jesus, the 12-year-old. Verse 41 through into 52. You remember how he goes back to the temple and he sort of gate crashes this PhD seminar for rabbis. And they are massively impressed. He says that he must be about his father's business or his father's house. And then we read verse 52. And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature in the favor of God and man. And then we come to chapter three, when Jesus is 30, and he's come forward to be baptized, and there is the voice from heaven saying, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. The spirit rests upon him like the dove. What is Luke saying? Luke is saying that Jesus was a person who knew his identity. And so when Satan comes to him, it's a battle over Jesus' position, and it's a battle over his power. The first thing I want to say is this, that Jesus was secure in his position. If you are the Son of God, Well, all that's gone before has denoted that he is the Son of God. And so Jesus now, as he is faced with this question from the devil, refuses to engage the devil about his identity. It's not up for discussion. Even to entertain the question would be compromise, for it would call into question the Father's affirming of his divine Sonship. So Jesus ignores the questioning of his identity. And in fact, it's likely this event which helped shape Jesus' impression that the devil was a liar from the beginning. Certainly, his name means slanderer, and that is what he is doing. So not engaging the devil's attack upon his position, Jesus says, in effect, consider the source. Don't enter into a disputation with the devil. He casts aspersion on the truth. He lies. And this is very applicable for us, because when Satan comes and tries to undermine, undercut our identity, there are certain things that we ought not to engage Satan about. If God has promised us through His Word that we are a child of the King, a son of God, It is folly to start engaging Satan when he tries to undercut what God has told us from his word and assured us by his spirit. What did Jesus do later in his ministry? Get behind me, Satan. What are we told in Jude 9 when Michael the archangel enters into a disputation with Satan, about the body of Moses, the Lord rebuke you. And that is the way we must handle the devil. You see, Martin Lloyd-Jones has made a very valuable point. And the point is this. We listen to these voices too much, and we speak the word of God to them too little. And then we notice that Jesus was secure in his power. Jesus answered him. You see, the devil seeks power at all costs. The power he seeks is self-serving. If there's an opportunity to collect power or to exhibit power, then take it. So he tempts Jesus to become like him. Command this stone to become bread. In other words, demonstrate your power. Jesus doesn't do so. He won't bow to the devil's command for a number of reasons. Well, first, the exhibition of power would be futile. The only one to whom Jesus would demonstrate his power would be the devil, who has already seen the power of God in heaven before he fell. The exhibition of power would be reckless. Since the Spirit has led him into the wilderness, it's for the Spirit to lead him out once the trial is over. It's not for us to end the trials that God has appointed. God will not end those trials until they have been sanctified to us. The exhibition of power would be compromising. It would demonstrate that Jesus is governed by the same temptations as everyone else. That he would do everything to live, but not everything to obey. Command these stones to be made bread. And the exhibition of power would be weak. The only people who have to prove who they are, are the weak people. Jesus is secure in his position as the Son of God. He is secure in his power and therefore he does not respond to the devil to command the stones to be made bread. My mind goes back to life in Wales growing up with my younger brother. We were the two youngest. And my brother is sitting on the wall And he says, Tim, push me off the wall. I dare you. I bet you're not strong enough to push me off the wall. And he kept nagging away at me, nagging, nagging. Come on, do it. Push me off the wall. See if you're strong enough. Bet you're not strong enough. Bet you're not strong enough. Well, you know what happens. Finally, I give in because I'm not strong enough. I push him off the wall and look down the other side, which was far deeper than what I anticipated. And there he is howling. I said, well, you said to push you off the wall. But I know in myself, the reason I've pushed him off the wall is because I did not have the strength to walk away. But Jesus has the strength to walk away. And he won't command the stone to be made bread, because he knows his identity. Well, secondly then, Jesus knew his word. Although Jesus had the Spirit in his fullness, it's interesting that he didn't ignore the Word. Rather, the Spirit's filling leads him to make great use of the Word to combat the devil. Again, we're living in days, aren't we, where there's much extreme thinking. All you need is the Spirit. All you need is the Spirit, and if you have the Spirit, then the Word is immaterial. And then there are those of us who say, well, I have the book. I don't need some powerful experience of the Holy Spirit. I'm a man of the book. But what do we find here? We find the supreme balance of the Lord Jesus. He's full of the Holy Spirit, but he draws upon the scriptures then to refute the temptation that Satan is subjecting him to. And on each occasion, the devil comes at Jesus, Jesus answers with the word. Note, first of all, Jesus' authority. He's likely without a scroll of the scriptures as he's here in the wilderness. And yet he quotes the scriptures and relevantly in accordance with the specific temptation. So we learn here just how much the Lord was a man of the book. and just how much we need to be a man of the book as well, a woman of the book. He knew scripture and he utilises it to great effect. Notice the response to temptation 1 in verse 4. Man shall not live by bread alone. To the temptation, number two in verse eight, you shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve. And to the temptation, number three, verse 12, it is said you shall not put the Lord your God to the test. And so if we want to be victorious in temptation, well, we need to be Bible scholars. And we need to apply the scriptures in dependence upon the Holy Spirit. Our minds go to Psalm 119 verse 11. I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. And here's an example of Jesus who's done exactly that. He's without a scroll in the wilderness, but he's hidden the word of God in his heart that he might not sin against God. And the same goes for us. We need to be conscious not only of our identity as children of the king, sons of God, but we need to know the scriptures. These are our authority as they were Jesus' authority. And then notice, secondly, Jesus' brevity. The Hebrew scriptures are subdivided into the law, the prophets, and the writings. Jesus only quotes the law. The first temptation, Deuteronomy 8, verse 3. The second temptation, Deuteronomy 6, 13. The third temptation, Deuteronomy 6, verse 16. Well, you say, well, Jesus didn't have a very good knowledge of the scriptures. And if he only quotes the law, he doesn't quote the prophets, he doesn't quote the writings. It's a very narrow, select reading of the scriptures. It sounds a bit like me when I have my quiet time. Well, I only read the bits that I like. I only read the bits that I understand. Was Jesus any different? Oh, he was very different. I'll tell you why he was different. Because Satan is coming at him as an accuser, as a slanderer. He wants Jesus to do the one thing that will destroy his ministry, and that is break the law of God. And it is for that reason then that the devil only quotes, that Jesus only quotes from the law. And he's saying to him, this is what the law says. And you're asking me to be a lawbreaker? It's not happening. It's not happening. So not only does Jesus know the word of God, he is well able to utilize the word of God. He doesn't adopt a softly, softly approach. He doesn't smooth or pat the serpent. He stamps on the serpent. And then with regard to Jesus' knowledge of the word, consider Jesus' particularity. Jesus quotes the law, but he's wise in doing so. From Deuteronomy 8, verse 3, he rebuffs the devil's focus on material and temporal satisfaction. From Deuteronomy 6, verse 13, he rebuffs the devil's delusion that he has become God after all. From Deuteronomy 6, 16, he rebuffs the devil's desire to misuse God's providence recklessly. You see, brothers and sisters, it's not enough simply to say, well, I'm a man of the book, I'm a woman of the book. We need to know how to wield the book. This is the sword of the spirit, whereby we fight against the devil. If I may give an illustration, traveling through the country of Dubai a number of years ago, and having time to kill, I was, taken out into Dubai by a taxi driver, and I'm looking at all these marvelous buildings, but my heart is heavy. I'm thinking to myself, are there the people of God here in this place? Are they all of another faith? And then after the layover, I came back to the airport and came to the check-in, and I hand my case over to the official. And the official says to me, are you carrying a weapon? I said, no. He said, are you sure you're not carrying a weapon? I said, no, I'm not carrying a weapon. He said, are you sure? By that time I knew what he was talking about. He said, you are carrying a weapon. You're carrying the sword of the Spirit. And I thought, yeah, the Lord has his people here in this place. But you see, it's only a weapon if we pick up the Word. It's only a weapon if we know the Word. It's only a weapon if we are articulate in using the Word and to enlist it in the battle against Satan. And surely you know as well as I know that that's when we start losing skirmishes, when we're fast and loose with the Scriptures. When we've been satisfied with a surface skimming of the Scriptures and not a study of the Scriptures. I'm glad to see in your bulletin you have Bible studies. Do you attend those? Are you content to go across the Scriptures, or is your heart yearning, in the uncertain days in which we live, to go deeper into the Scriptures and say, I need to know this Word, I need to be able to utilize this Word, I need to pick it up like the sword of the Spirit, and when Satan comes against me, you are saying this, that's lies. This is what the Word of God says, and this is what I go by. And so thirdly, Jesus knew his responsibilities. Standing at the threshold of his ministry, he understood that the devil's temptation was not a private matter. It's a matter between him and God. But how he responds to this temptation will also affect countless numbers of the people of God. In fact, if he fails, there will be no people of God. And so four responsibilities, just quickly, to please the Father, It's one thing for us to be pleasing to the Father. It's another thing for us to take that knowledge that we are pleasing to the Father out through these doors and to proactively live With this intent, I am going to please the Father day by day, self-consciously so, proactively so. Remember how Jesus said in John 8, 29, I always do those things that please the Father. And it is the desire to please the Father when sin comes in like a flood, the temptation to sin that overrides the desire to sin because I have this desire first and foremost to please the Father. Second responsibility, to rely on the Spirit. Although Jesus' relationship to the Spirit is unbreakable, he understood that his faithfulness to his father's mission required the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Here he is, verse one, he's full of the Holy Spirit, but notice verses 16 to 18. He came to Nazareth, he goes to the synagogue, he gets up to read in the synagogue, and what do we read, verse 18? The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim the good news to the poor, et cetera, et cetera. So what do we learn from Jesus about defeating Satan when he comes to tempt us? Well, it's not enough to say, well, I've read my Bible in the morning. We need to be praying prayers, not just saying prayers, praying prayers, that the Spirit would fill me afresh, that as I go out into this world, a battle with the world, the flesh, and the devil, I am filled afresh with the Spirit of God. I have that anointing from God so that I can rise above the temptations of Satan. And how does that rising up show itself? Well, thirdly, the responsibility to obey the word. Obedience takes precedence over our feelings. Jesus was hungry. Over our short-sightedness, when we can't see what good comes from obedience other than pleasing the Father. In fact, temptation is permitted in part to test whether pleasing our Father is enough for us. We look back upon our lives, and with heavy hearts we say, I remember that disobedience did not pay. And therefore, even though we cannot see in the moment how obedience will bear fruit in time to come, we say, I will obey the word of God, believing in the provisions of God the Father, that he will honor that obedience. And then fourthly, our responsibility to serve the people. Countless souls hung on how Jesus handled temptation. The question the devil poses Christ is whether he will serve himself the need of bread or others the need of salvation. And the same question comes to us. In the midst of temptation, will we serve our brothers and sisters or serve ourselves for immediate gratification? Well, I close then with one last point. Jesus knew his prospects. He endured the temptation and he came through. Note his blessings in the short term. Jesus has withstood the temptation. Three things happen. First of all, at the end of Matthew's account of the temptations, Jesus says, be gone Satan. I've heard enough. Be gone. And we need to say that too. Secondly, Matthew 4.11, then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him. Rabbi Duncan, the great 19th century Scottish scholar, said that when he gets to heaven, the first person he wants to meet is the angel that ministered to the Lord. We read of it in Matthew's account. We read of it in the Garden of Gethsemane, the angel that came and ministered to him after days of temptation. And then there is also the Father and the Spirit rejoicing. Jesus sets out for Galilee in the power of the Spirit, verses 14 and 15. That's the victory in the short term. The victory in the medium term. Jesus here positions himself to direct his disciples with authority when he sends them out. While he has been tempted by the devil, He realizes, though, that the temptations of the disciples may be somewhat more indirect. You can read Luke 17, 1 to 4. And then in the longer term, his victory at the outset of his ministry prepared him for further victories against the devil, critically the victory on the Mount of Olives. He goes there with his disciples, pray that you enter not into temptation. He pours out his heart to the Father, sweating drops of blood, and then he goes through with the cross. What's he doing? He's stocking up the victories of his spiritual experience among earth so that when it counted, his experience counted. And brothers and sisters, you might not know, what the purpose of a localized victory is in your life. But when you add them all up as you go through life and you see one victory after another as you have faithfully rebuffed Satan, then when it comes to when it really matters, you have this stock of victories to know that you can have one more victory before entering into heaven. And then, fourthly, in the longest term, by his death, Jesus not only defeated the devil once for all, which is why he came into the world, 1 John 3.8. but was raised to an unending life. All authority is now being given to him in heaven and upon earth. So that in our skirmishes, whether in our localized lives, our personal lives, or in our church life, when Satan seems to have put one over on us and to have utterly defeated us, we come back and we say, no, authority has been given unto Jesus in heaven and upon earth. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and to godliness. Our victory over Satan is certified by the cross of Jesus Christ. The war is won. Jesus has won the war. Yes, we lose battles here and there. But we rejoice tonight that there's not one of God's people who will fall short of heaven. Remember how Jesus finishes his high priestly prayer? I will, that all those whom you have given to me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory. the glory that I had with you before the foundation of the earth. And there's myriads of the Lord's saints who are beholding God in glory and in his greatness, who come through the battle scarred, damaged, beaten. But because of the victory of Christ, they themselves are victorious. And so my message to you, beginning as a message to myself, let's set our eyes upon Christ. The victory is won. And one day, perhaps sooner than we think, we will get to see that victory. Brothers and sisters, keep on keeping on. Don't put your trust in princes or in the Son of Man. Put your trust in the Lord Jesus, our great, great conqueror. What does Paul say? We are more than conquerors through him who has loved us and loved us even unto the death of the cross. Let us pray. Father in heaven, we thank you for your word. Thank you for all the ways in which it ministers to us. And we pray, oh God, that we would hide your word in our hearts, that we might not sin against you. in the week that is to come, in the remainder of our lives, but that we would set our affections and our eyes firmly and squarely upon Jesus Christ. Help us then to persevere, but we persevere in the knowledge that we are being divinely preserved and we are glad. Father, we thank you that Christ by his death has defeated the works of Satan, And we pray then that by the gift of the Holy Spirit we would go forth full of him to witness unto Jesus Christ in these days. And we'll give you the glory even unto the ages of eternity to come as you fulfil your work in us and for us and through us. Amen.