So I'm going to read in your hearing now the first 14 verses of Job 40, although I'm going to focus in on verses 9 and 10. May the Lord help us. Behold, I am vile. What shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth. Once I have spoken, but I will not answer ye twice, but I will proceed no further. Then answered the Lord unto Job out of the whirlwind, and said, Gird up thy loins now like a man. I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me. Wilt thou disannul my judgment? Wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous? Cast thou an arm like God, or cast thou thunder with a voice like Him? Deck thyself now with majesty and excellency, and array thyself with glory and beauty. Cast abroad the rage of thy wrath, and behold every one that is proud, and abase him. Look on every one that is proud, and bring him low, and tread down the wicked in their place. Hide them in the dust together, and bind their faces in secret. Then will I confess unto thee that thine own right hand can save May God help us as we seek to understand why He is saying what He is saying to suffering Job. You may be seated. Well, as you have seen, we return to Job chapter 40. Having reached the ninth verse, A section that continues to reveal and declare a number of truths, and because of the nature of what this section reveals, I didn't get as far as I thought I was going to. But truths that show to any right-thinking person, and dare I say that only a true believer is a right-thinking person, but truths that show to any right-thinking person that no one but a Holy Spirit, infallibly and inerrantly inspired man, would have or could have written the verses, not only the verses I've already sought to open up before you in this chapter, but the verses I want to look at this morning. They are truths that only a Holy Spirit-inspired man could have written. Now why do I say what I have just said? First, because even though Job has put his hand over his mouth and said he will say no more, having acknowledged he is vile and that it was foolish for him to think that he could question the Lord God in light of the infinite distance and infinite difference that exists between his limited knowledge of things and the Lord's perfect and complete knowledge of all things. For if this right reaction of Job to his smallness, to his vileness and the Lord's greatness was all that was needed, then the Lord would not have continued to interrogate Job. If all that was needed for lost sinners to be accepted by God was to acknowledge that there is a higher power out there somewhere, an intelligent designer with far greater ability and wisdom than any of us have, then the biblical gospel of repent and believe the gospel would not need it to be preached. Because how many lost religious sinners say they believe in a God that is greater than they are? but not the living, true, and only God of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who can only be known savingly and correctly through the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ on his cross of penal substitution and the sovereign regenerating grace of God the Holy Spirit. How many who say they believe in God believe that truth? But this interrogation by the Lord did not end after Job acknowledged how great the Lord was in comparison to him, and the behind-the-scene battle or contest between the Lord and Job's adversary, Satan, will not come to an end until Job repents. In the opening verses of chapter 42, the last chapter of this most illuminating of books in God's wonderful written word, for how the Lord brought Job to renewed repentance in this section that I began to look at last Sunday, must have annoyed the unrepentant, incapable of repentance, wicked mind of the devil. Because, dear brethren, what did Satan want to hear Job do? What did he want to hear Job do? He wanted to hear Job curse the Lord. The last thing the devil wanted to hear was Job repenting. Because once Job repented, the contest was over. But Satan will never repent of the folly of questioning the absolute truth of the word of the Lord. And so just the very fact that God continues to interrogate Job shows that this has to have been a Holy Spirit inspired man to have written what God is saying, because people will acknowledge God all over the place. In God we trust, one nation under God. But challenge them, have you repented and believed the biblical gospel? Why do I have to do that? Why didn't I just say I believe in God? But a second thing, a second reason that the verses I sought to open up before you last Sunday show the uniqueness of the Holy Bible being the book that only uniquely chosen men who were infallibly guided by the Holy Spirit of truth would have or could have written is because of what the Lord God challenges Job with in the verse I ended at last Sunday afternoon. Verse eight, wilt thou disannul my judgment? Wilt thou condemn me that thou may be righteous? Because be honest, friends, how many lost sinners think that because they think something is right, because something is acceptable, that even though it is wicked in the Lord's sight, but despite this, they think the living, true, and only God has to accept what they think either about Him or about what they think is acceptable in their fallen thinking because they sincerely believe it. But friends, you can be seriously wrong and still be sincere. You can be sincerely wrong with sobering temporal and even eternal consequences. Because dear brethren, how many sincere lost religious people sincerely believe that they can do something to make themselves right with God. Or can contribute something to making themselves right with their idolatrous view of God. Because as I said last Sunday afternoon, every world religion of which biblical Christianity is not in league with, are men saying before God, before the living true and only Lord God, we will decide for ourselves. We will decide for ourselves what you are like, God, and what you must accept from our sin-stained hands. Because be honest, brethren, how many sincerely devout but lost religious people honestly believe and confess that all their righteousnesses are as filthy rags in the sight of the living true and only God? or how many in massachusetts would disannel God's judgment of the ongoing perverse celebrations of so-called gay pride, because what does the Lord call such affections through Paul in Romans 1.26? Vile affections, disgraceful affections, dishonorable affections, shameful affections, not affections to be proud of and promotes. Oh, people doubt they need the only Savior of sinners, the Lord Jesus Christ. But every time they say, I don't agree with that. Every time they say, I don't like that. Every time they say, I don't think that is right. But what they are not agreeing with, what they are not liking, or what they are not thinking is right, they are doing exactly what the Lord God is challenging Job with in verse 8. Will you disannul my perfect judgment of what is right? Will you condemn what I declare to be true and righteous so that you can establish your own perverse and false view of what is right? Dear friends, let me make something perfectly clear to you. The Lord God declares what is right and true, not you. not me, not the president, not the pope, the living Lord. The Lord God declares what is right and true, not you, and if you disagree with him, it is not God who has to change. It is not God who has to repent, it is you. It is me. It is everyone on the face of the earth. Oh, friends, the living, true and only Lord God, who is interrogating Job. Is the living, true and only God, because no fallen sin, no fallen sinner would ever have imagined and made up the living God who is interrogating Imagine a God who is not satisfied with my thinking, who he should be and what he will accept. That's not my God. Imagine a God who is not satisfied with our thinking. He knows more than we do. Imagine a God who dares to say that I don't have the right to decide for myself what is right and wrong, and can criticize and reject what He declares is? Imagine a God who dares to say that what I think He is, if He disagrees with what He says about Himself, shows that I'm an idolater? Who needs to repent and believe the gospel? Who does this being think that He is? The only living and true God? Brethren, the Lord doesn't just think it, He knows it. And he declares this in the verses we have reached in Job 40 verse 9. And even before I attempt to open up this verse in verse 10, not getting as far as I thought as I mentioned, but in just these two verses, you have another example of the uniqueness of the written Word of God as seen in this section of Job and the holy uniqueness of the Lord God who is continuing to interrogate now silent, suffering Job. Now, why do I say this? Well, what would you think? Well, first of all, remember, Job is still suffering. He hasn't been delivered from his suffering until Job 42. Job is still suffering. But what would you think of a person who went to visit someone else and the person he is going to visit has lost his children and has been afflicted from the top of his head the soles of his feet, with painful oil, and yet when he gets to this afflicted person's house, all he wants to do and does is talk about himself. What do you think? He's afflicted from the top of his head to the soles of his feet. He's suffering. When I get there, I'm just going to talk about me. What would you say about such a person? You would say, what arrogance? What indifference? Has he no compassion? And dear brethren, Notice, this is what the Lord God is continuing to do before suffering Joel. Dear friends, the idols that lost men call gods have limitations, have inadequacies just like you and me, but the living true and only God is so awesome, He is so awful! that it would be a denial of who he is not to challenge even suffering Job with the truth of who he is. For one of the problems with all the idols that idolatrous lost men call God is that they are too small. They're not worthy of the But dear brethren, the living, true, and only Lord God is so, is so awesome, is so awful, is so far above you and me that in order to bring this out, how does the Lord speak about himself to Job in verse nine? How does he do it? He speaks to Job in the third person. He speaks to Job in the third person. Yes, the Lord God speaks to Job in the first person, as seen in verse 8, and this will be seen again. But in verse 9, the Lord God speaks of Himself in the third person. Hast thou an arm like Me? That's not what it says. What's He say? Hast thou an arm like God? Or canst thou thunder with a voice like Me? That's not what it says. Or canst thou thunder with a voice like Him? What is the Lord doing here, brethren? He is illustrating how great and how glorious He is. Now a way that illustrates this that I think will help you see what I'm referring earthly monarchs who, because of some pride in their lineage, they actually think they should be treated different than any other like-dying sinner. For if my memory serves me correctly, I remember hearing what Queen Victoria said about Canada becoming an independent country. We approve. We approve? What's this we, Queenie? You are only one person. But to give the impression that her subjects should be awed by her approval, we approve. Lift your thoughts, dear brethren, above dying, sinful, human leaders who need the blood of Christ to cleanse them from their many sins, just as much as the poorest person living on the street. Because, dear brethren, how many fools The reigning queen, when she dies, is in heaven just because she died. But if she's never given any evidence of having come in true repentance and faith, she's as lost as the most degenerate person. Lift your thoughts above dying, sinful human leaders who need the blood of Christ to cleanse them from their many sins, just as much as the poorest person living on the street. Lift your thoughts out to the living, true and only God. How can He illustrate how great and how glorious He is in and always will be by referring to Himself in the third person? Hast thou an arm like God, or canst thou thunder with a voice like Him? For of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things to whom be glory forever. Amen. How can I impress upon my suffering servant Job the folly of thinking that his suffering and his difficulties gives him the right and ability to question my ways? With him, I will ask him a question about me as though I was looking at what I am capable of doing. Hast thou an arm like God? Now the living, true, and only triune God is an eternal, omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent spirit. He does not have physical arms like you and I have, which should show you the blasphemous, cultic nature of the Mormons to anyone being guided by the written word of God. Yes, the incarnate Lord Jesus had physical arms, but they were arms of his sinless humanity, not his eternal deity. So what is the Lord God saying about himself by asking He is thinking of his strength and of his power, even of his omnipotence. They refer to many times in the prophet Isaiah, Isaiah 40, verse 10, Behold, the Lord God will come with strong hand, and His arm shall rule for Him. Behold, His reward is with Him and His work before Him. Isaiah 51, 9, Awake, awake, put on thy strength, O arm of the Lord, awake, as in the ancient days and the generations of old. Art thou not it that hath cut raheb and wounded the dragon? Isaiah 52, 10, The Lord hath made bare His holy arm. in the eyes of all the nations and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God. Now, what is the only correct answer to the first question of verse 9? Hast thou an arm like God, Job? What's the only correct answer? No. Do you have an arm like God? No. Do I have an arm like God? Does anyone have an arm like God? No. And think of it this way, dear brethren. You were able to bottle up all the strength of every person who has ever lived. All the Arnold Schwarzeneggers and all the bodybuilders and everybody, Samson. Your strength, my strength, the strength of every person who's ever lived. is living and will yet live and put all that strength into a single arm. Put all that strength into a single arm and then challenge God to an arm wrestle. How easy would it be for the Lord to put that on? Dear friends, Sinner man in his blind demonic idolatry makes idols that have weaknesses and failings and inabilities like he does. But suffering saint, you don't need an idol in the midst of your trials. You need the God whose arm is omnipotence. But the Lord God will use this truth about his omnipotent arm in a way that lost sinner man does not want to face or admit, as I will show Lord willing this afternoon. But how does the Lord God further challenge Job to consider the folly of his thinking he has either the right or ability to question God in his sovereign ways with him? Well, what is the second question? The Lord asks Job about himself in the third person in verse 9. Hast thou an arm like God, or canst thou thunder with a voice like Oh friends, with this question that the Lord declares about himself to Job, if I dare put it this way, the Lord God has raised the bar to the power of deity, the power of creator. A fallen man can say that something is to be done, but someone else is often used to carry out whatever that order or command might be. But even that command is not certain of being completed with simply because someone has said it. Because what did King Nebuchadnezzar command to be done? Bow down to his idol. What did King Darius command? No prayers except to him. What did the lost religious leaders tell the apostles to do? Stop preaching. But who disobeyed the voice of King Nebuchadnezzar? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. who disobeyed the voice of King Darius, Daniel, who disobeyed the religious leaders, the apostles. And oh, how different would the witness of the Christian church have been and be if all those who profess to be followers of King Jesus, the Prince of Peace, have said, I can't obey what you are telling me to do, because to do so would mean I would have to disobey the voice of my King. But what is the only thing the Lord God needs to do to have what He wants done, done? What does He have to do? Just say it. Just say it, and it's done. All He has to do is speak. For what do you read in Genesis 1 verse 3? And God said, let there be light. And there was light. Verses 6 and 7. And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament. And it was so. Verse 9. And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear. And it was so. Verse 11, and God said that the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind whose seed is in itself upon the earth. And it was so. And dear brethren, what event of history was Job closer to than you and I are when the Lord God spoke to his waters in the heavens above and the waters under the earth to burst forth to cover the earth in the universal flood of Noah's day. And to try and illustrate the truth of what the Lord is declaring about his voice in the third person, I want to ask you a question. If every unrepentant sinner who has died since man is displayed his sinfulness by physically dying, if all those who died in the universal flood of Noah's day combined with all those who have since died since Noah came out of the ark, if all this unknown number except to God were able to gather together in a massive grave room, and all with one united voice, cry out, We will not allow the Lord Jesus Christ to raise us up to stand before Him in final judgment. I ask you, dear brethren, will the power of this united voice of all the reprobate sinners who have died before the Lord returns be able to overpower the word of the Lord? Because what does Jesus say in John 5, 28 and 9? Marvel not at this. You're not to be amazed at this, you're not to marvel at it. For the hour is coming and they in the witch all that are in the grave shall hear his voice and shall come forth. They that have done good unto the resurrection of life and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of death. Oh, in light of the truth of the power of the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ that will be displayed on that day, have you faced the sinfulness and the impotence of your voice? Remember what filled Isaiah with fear. When he was given a vision of the living, true, and only Lord God in Isaiah 6, verses 1 to 5, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up in his train, filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims, each one had six wings. With twain or two he covered his faith, and with twain or two he covered his faith, and with twain or two he died. He did fly, and one cried unto another and said, Holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Then said I, woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Lord, if you were to judge me simply by what I have said, I would be undone forever. when your powerful voice calls me before you. Lord, hear my repentant voice. Lord, have mercy upon me, a sinner, because you're the only one who can clothe me in the pure righteousness of thy sinless Son, that alone is acceptable in thy holy sight. And it is important to see this truth by faith alone, because how does the Lord challenge Job to face the impotence of his voice against the omnipotence of His voice? Verse 10, which is the verse I will end with this morning. Deck thyself now with majesty and excellency, and array thyself with glory and Now if I dare return to my earlier illustration, keeping in mind that it is not until after Job repents and prays for his accusing friends that he is delivered from his physical afflictions. But what again would you think of a person in good health coming to someone like Job? He's lost his children, he's suffering from the top of his head to the soles of his feet as well as suffering emotionally and spiritually. and coming to such a person and saying, why don't you just change your condition? Why don't you just change your condition? Job, I'm in good health. Why are you not? Because look at me. All I've been able to do with my rowing machine and my super green drink. Now what would you rightly say about such a person again? We are to weep with those that weep, and rejoice with those who rejoice. We are to bear one another's burdens, brethren, and so fulfill the law of Christ. But is this what you see the Lord doing with suffering Job at this point? No. Job, why can't you just speak a word and deliver yourself from your boil-covered body? After all, haven't you heard of Naaman? Why don't you just show me your abilities by changing your situation from one of suffering to one of majesty, excellency, glory, and beauty? Then I will concede that you have the right and ability to question me, the very one who has all these characteristics and more from all And Joe, all that you have gone through in the midst of your great suffering, and all the suffering that man has gone through since your father Adam rebelled against me, has not changed my majesty, has not changed my excellency, has not changed my glory, has not changed my beauty one bit. For in contrast to my eternal gloriousness, as seen in my never-changing, because, dear brethren, change can only be in one of two directions, improvement or deprovement or decline. But in contrast to my eternal majesty, excellency, and glory and beauty that I am eternally clothed with, what is true about you, Job, and all of your fellow creatures? Yes, fallen man can manifest their pride and blindness by arraying themselves in expensive, costly clothing and taking milk baths, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But what can none of these things do if I decree to lay them low as I have laid you low, Job? You can't restore what I've taken away. You can't restore what I've taken away. Change and decay in all around I see, but thou changest not, and thy majesty and excellency, glory and beauty will never diminish or improve, because thou art eternally majestic, eternally excellent, eternally glorious, and eternally beautiful. All the money that the beautiful, so-called dying, unbelieving sinners spend on themselves to blind them to the truth that they are dying, decaying sinners cannot change the fact that they're dying, decaying sinners. And despite all the so-called advances of 21st century man, you will never achieve the longevity of those who live before the flood. And what did they all do apart from Noah and his family who died after they exited the They all decayed and died before the flood, or died and decayed through the flood. Let someone live to be 90, and people say, he or she has lived a long life, but this is only one-tenth of the lifespan of those who lived before the flood. And that person who lives to be 90, or even 100, dear brethren, looks a lot different at 100 than they did when they were with us. even if they were one of the beautiful people before they died, who misused their temporary wealth and position to try and suppress the truth that they are a decaying, dying sinner that only Jesus can save if he is pleased to do so by getting transfusions. Apparently, this is the new fad there, brother, by getting transfusions of younger blood. But dear brethren, what is that younger blood flowing in? Old veins and a decaying and dying body. The Lord, dear brethren, is not being callous or cruel to Jews. The Lord is challenging Job to face more correctly the two most important things you need to have a correct understanding of. Two things I've mentioned before. You need a correct understanding of yourself. Possible only through the written word of God, and you need a correct understanding of the living, true and only God of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Possible only through the written word of God. Friends, there are very few good anthropologists today. What's an anthropologist? It's a person who studies man. Most of them spend their time examining bones and skulls, and then pontificating on the age of the bones, giving ages for the bones they find that show they are still walking in darkness. But what should every good anthropologist who picks up any bone that gives evidence of being human say that it is telling him or her, not their mythological dates to buttress their religion of evolutionism, but with this human bone I am again reminded that man, that I do not have the ability to clothe myself with majesty and excellency, glory and beauty like the living true and only God who has been eternally clothed with these things and more. And dear brethren, there are also very few good theologists today because they use the word God, but what they say about God shows that they are talking about their idol and not the living true and only God that is challenging Job to face the truth of who he is and who the Lord God is. For how many anti-theologians, for that is what they are, but how many anti-theologians Job in words that he could understand. There are anti-theologians that say God is so far above us that He can't speak to us. Well, what's He doing here? Speaking to Job. God didn't actually speak to Job personally out of the whirlwind. This is just an ancient story about a mythical man and how he tried to come to grips with the difficulties he faced that he was going through. Hath God really said? You don't actually believe that God asked Job the questions recorded in this section and challenges Job to do what he says in verse 10? Dear brethren, the last thing any suffering person needs is a myth. The last thing any suffering person needs is a fairy tale. You need the truth about yourself and the truth about the living true and only God. For if you honestly face the truth of who you are, as revealed in God's written word, and you honestly face the truth of who the living, true, and only God is, as revealed and declared in His written word, the Holy Bible, there is only one safe and saintly conclusion to come to, in light of the fact that the living, true, and only God does not change, because He is eternally glorious in all His attributes, and in light of the fact that there is one thing certain of Me, mainly change, culminating or Ending in my ultimate change, if I'm not one of those alive at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, my ultimate change is to pass from this life and death and stand before the living God who changes not. In light of this ultimate change, a change only fools refuse to think about. What hope do I have to stand safely before the thrice holy, eternally glorious God, knowing that I have sinned and thought were indeed against this holy and glorious Lord God? I need to be clothed. I need to be clothed in a righteousness not my own, because the very fact that I am decaying and dying, that I am a decaying and dying creature, should show me that I can't present to you, Lord, the never-dying, eternally glorious, living, true and only God, anything you will accept or can accept, because pure is all. lives with you. I need a purity, not my own. I need a righteousness, not my own. I can't deck myself with glory and beauty that the Lord Willer can accept. I must be clothed in glory, not my own. I must be clothed in beauty, not my own. I must be clothed in righteousness, not my own. But where is Where is such beauty found? Where is such righteousness to be found? It is only found in the only one God accepts as the perfect, glorious, righteous substitute for his sinful but believing people, the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, I can't clothe myself with a righteousness that you would accept, even if I was to live to be as old as Methuselah, because everything I do on my own, everything anyone does, regardless of who they are on their own, is tainted with sin and polluted with sin. But if you clothe me... in the righteousness of your beloved Son, that even though I see the reality of my living in a fallen world in this sin-cursed and sin-affected body, I have the saving hope of the gospel that all who come to you through your beloved Son and through your beloved Son alone will not be cast out. Have you faced the absolute Have you faced your constant imperfections and even your growing imperfections as you age, even though your body may not be as afflicted as Job's? Have you faced the truth of what your weak, easily injured, decaying and dying body is telling you? It is telling you that it is impossible for you to appear before the perfect and holy God without an acceptable substitute. Oh, if you have faced these two truths biblically, you know there is only one who is capable of enabling you to meet God safely when the reality of your impossible to correct imperfections accumulate and culminate in your death. Are you believing on the one who is the resurrection and the life, the Lord Jesus Christ? Because what did Jesus say to Martha who was grieving the death of her brother Lazarus? I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead yet, shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die, believest. Do you believe this? If you believe this, you will not be annoyed or offended when you are challenged to consider the perfections of God as the Lord challenges Job with. If you believe this, you will not try to put out of your mind that getting older with the associated growing inabilities as you age are things to deny and suppress, but they're messages to you. There are messages to you from your one and only Savior, believer. Yes, it is not wrong to want to be healed from every illness and to praise and thank the Lord when you are healed. But what does every illness, every affliction remind you, a believer, that this dying, decaying earth is not? The Lord has gone to prepare a place for you so that you might be in his glorious presence forever. And as you age, believer, with all the difficult aspects of getting older, what does that advancing age and decreasing abilities and increasing disabilities do? What does it mean? Dear brethren, it means the Lord is closer to having the room He is preparing for you finished. As you wear out and rust out and decay, my room, it's almost finished. Believer, in whatever way the Lord has decreed for your dying and decaying body to finally give up the ghost, when that takes place, it means His prayer for you has been answered by His Father, and your heavenly mansion is now ready for you to occupy. Don't use your inability to overcome the advancing challenges of aging to cast you down and discourage you, but to teach you the truth that you are a pilgrim and sojourner in this dying world, believer. Are you looking for the city whose builder and maker is God, the God who is eternally arrayed in majesty, excellency, glory, and beauty? If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ sits on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. for you're dead and your life is hid with Christ in God. Dear brethren, where is your life? Oh Lord, how we thank you for the way you questioned Job. Because the way you questioned Job challenges us to consider who you are and who we are. And oh Lord, those are the two things we need to see correctly. We need to see who you are correctly and we need to see who we are correctly. And when we see these two things, we know our only hope is your son, the Lord Jesus. And so by your grace and for your glory. May we say, Lord, I see you, I see me, and I see the one standing between me and you, your beloved son, in his sinless humanity, his glorious deity, saying, Father, receive this one because he believes that I am the only one who can make him acceptable in your sight. receive that woman, that man, that boy, that girl because they are resting in my righteousness alone so that they can be received into your holy presence. Oh Lord, God, deliver us from the foolish and dangerous idea that abounds in our world today when so many think they have a right to decide for themselves who you are and who they are, and then live their idolatrous lives and die not ready to meet the living, true, and only God. Have mercy upon them as you have had mercy upon your people gathered in this place. And should they ever come into this place and say they've been brought from death to life by seeing the glory of the Lord in the face of Jesus Christ, we will have reason to praise You and thank You, Lord, for how we ask that You might yet work it in those who show by their lives and their ideas that they are walking in darkness. Show them the light of the world, the Savior of the world, even Your Son, in whose name we pray. Amen.