Well, we'll bow together, please, and let us bend our hearts before the Lord. Let's all pray. For God and our Father, we thank Thee that we're privileged to come together here this Sabbath morning, drawing nigh unto Thy presence, coming to worship Thee. We thank Thee for our Lord Jesus Christ, by whose merits we make our approach to Thy throne. We rejoice, O God, today that there is a way to Thee by the blood of the covenant, by the merits of Christ. And we pray that as we assemble together, Thou wilt meet with us, Thou wilt bless us here. Take the word that we will read, that we will consider together, write it on our hearts, bring it to us, O God, with freshness and with power. We know Thy presence together as we wait here in this very Bible class now. We look to the Lord for the anointing of the Spirit to rest upon the entire day, upon every time that we gather together, upon the word that will be proclaimed. O Lord, upon our souls as we wait before Thee and look to Thee for blessing and for help from heaven itself. So abide with us, O God, and do us good. May Thy hand be upon us, we pray. We ask all this in Jesus' name and for His sake. Amen. We're turning to read the 2nd Psalm, Psalm number 2. And I trust the Lord will bless the reading of the word, too, as we welcome you all to the Adult Bible Class today, praying that the Lord will bless us and meet with us. We also welcome our webcast viewers, and we pray that they also will know the Lord's presence. Psalm number two, why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel to together against the Lord and against his anointed saying, let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree. The Lord has said unto me, Thou art my son. This day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth. for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron, thou shalt dice them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Be wise now therefore, O ye kings, be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way. when His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him." And God will bless the reading of His own infallible Word. Now, we have seen from our studies so far that the Lord's people in New Testament times were expecting the Messiah. They were expecting Him because the Old Testament Scriptures promised the Messiah. Furthermore, when Jesus of Nazareth began His public ministry, those who were His people, or even who became His people, recognized Him as the Messiah. Last week we noticed in John 1 verse 41, the words of Andrew, we have found the Messiahs. Then if you turn to John 4 and look at verse 25, you have the other place in the New Testament where the very name is used, the Old Testament Hebrew form that is Messiah. John chapter 4 and verse 25 says, The woman saith unto him, I know that Messiah cometh, which is called Christ. When he is come, he will tell us all things. Now at this point, the woman of Samaria was being dealt with by the Lord. She still did not recognize him, however. She did not know who he was at that point when he is speaking to her here about herself and her sin. But she did know enough of the Old Testament Scriptures to know that there was one who was promised as the Messiah. This is interesting because she was a woman of Samaria. She wasn't a Jew. And yet the Samaritans did have something of the Word of God. They did have some knowledge of divine things, although it was a very corrupt religion that they followed. And yet there was enough there for her to know that there was a promised Messiah. The Lord then began to reveal Himself to her more fully. Look at verse 26. It says, Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am He. And if you notice, In that verse, the word he is in italics. So, the Lord really said to the woman, or the verse could read this way, Jesus saith unto her, I am that speak unto thee. In other words, he's declaring himself to her as the I am, and he's therefore making it clear that the Messiah of the Old Testament is none other than Jehovah. the I am, because that's the real sense of that verse where the Lord speaks to the woman. Then in verse 29 you have her marvellous response when she obviously has been regenerated and brought to know the Saviour fully. Verse 29 she goes to her city, she says, Come see a man which told me all things that ever I did. Is not this the Christ? And she very deliberately uses the word that refers to the Messiah, that is the New Testament, the Greek New Testament equivalent of the Hebrew Old Testament word Messiah. She uses the word the Christ. So, in one hand she uses the word Messiah, or Messiah as it might be in the Old Testament. She uses the Hebrew form, that's back there in verse 25, I know that Messiah is cometh. And then Messiah reveals Himself to her completely. And he says, I am that speak unto thee. I'm the I am. I'm the Messiah. And then immediately, or well, a little after she responds, is not this the Christ? Is not this the Messiah? She realized, she recognized that he was the Messiah because he revealed himself to her and he revealed her sin to her. He brought her face to face with her guilt and her corruption and her sin. And He showed to her that He was her Savior. Here is therefore the word Messiah and its Greek counterpart used right in the one passage. And I looked with you last week, over 500 times in the New Testament, the title Christ is applied to Jesus of Nazareth. which means that the New Testament writers and the apostles and so on, these men recognized Christ as the fulfillment of the Messianic promises of the Old Testament. Now, these New Testament believers expect of the Messiah, as we have said, because of the promises of the Old Testament. And on a few occasions in the Old Testament, you will find that the term Messiah is clearly and directly used of the Lord Jesus. The actual word, I mean, is used and applied directly to the Messiah Himself. There are just a few occasions, but there are a few. If you look with me at 1 Samuel 2, you have the first of them, 1 Samuel, and the second chapter, and the verse 10, where Hannah, in her great prayer, says, The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces. Out of heaven shall he thunder upon them. The Lord shall judge the ends of the earth, and he shall give strength unto his king, and exalt the horn of his anointed. And you can read that latter part of that verse this way, and exalt the horn of his Messiah. In this verse, 1 Samuel 2 verse 10, the original Hebrew word there, his anointed, as I say, means the Messiah. And notice here that Hannah refers to his King, that is, God's King, and she also calls him his Messiah. And the reference here in this verse is with With regard to future time, exactly a prophecy, verse 10 of 1 Samuel 2. It's a prophecy of the end, of the coming of the Lord and His judgment upon His enemies. Read that verse again. The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces. Out of heaven shall He thunder upon them. The Lord shall judge the ends of the earth. So it's dealing with judgment, future judgment, and I believe it's speaking of the final judgment. And in relation to that, Hannah speaks here of the King, that is, God's King and God's Anointed. And therefore, when you put those details together, they point to the Lord Jesus Christ as the Anointed King, the Messiah King, dealing in judgment with the ungodly. The other verse, is the psalm that we read together, Psalm 2, and then the second verse of that psalm, it says, The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord, that's against Jehovah, and against his anointed. And again, you can read it, against his Messiah. This is Speaking of Christ, obviously, because the whole psalm concerns the Lord Jesus Christ, and over in the book of Acts chapter 4 we have these very words that are found here in verse 2, quoted and applied directly to the Lord Jesus Christ. On that occasion, when the apostles were in prayer, They were being persecuted, they were being told not to preach again in the name of Christ and they went to prayer and as they prayed they quoted from this psalm and they applied the words directly to the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice in Acts chapter 4, I just want to turn there a moment, the rendering that's given, Acts chapter 4 and verse 25 through to verse 27, that's where you have their prayer, and notice with me what it says in verse 26, the kings of the earth stood up and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against His Christ. So notice how the Holy Spirit led these men to substitute, you might say, the word Christ for the word in the original Hebrew in the Old Testament, this is Acts 4.26, against his Christ. But it means the same thing because it's the same person. As I explained to you last week, the only difference between the two words Messiah and Christ is that one is Hebrew and the other is Greek. That's the only difference. It's the same person. And here you see the use of the word Christ as the quote from Psalm 2, and they apply it, therefore, as they are led by the Spirit, they apply it to the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice also in verse 27 these words, For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, they are so clearly and plainly set forth, By the way, the word child there, we're not to think that the reference is to the babe in the manger, although the word child could be used in that way, but really the word child there is the Greek word that means son. Thy holy son, Jesus. And it's therefore not to be thought of that the Apostles here are praying and they're thinking, oh, the wile of the mother and the child, the child in a manger. No, it's referring to Christ as the Son of God. Thy holy Son, Jesus, whom thou hast anointed. And therefore, here we have clearly Psalm 2 taken, used in the New Testament. It is this reference to the Messiah, I mean, in verse 2 of Psalm 2. Taken, used in the New Testament, interpreted for us, applied for us, to the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Then the third place I want us to notice in the Old Testament is Daniel 9, where the name Messiah is found. Daniel chapter 9, verse 25. Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem, unto the Messiah, the Prince, shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks, and the street shall be built again, and the wall even in troublous times. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for Himself." Daniel 9, 25 and 26. Here's the name Messiah used twice, In the Old Testament Scriptures, here in Daniel 9, remember it means anointed one, and it refers to the Messiah here in conjunction with his being called the Prince. Then verse 26, Messiah being cut off, but not for himself. In other words, the reference is to his death. and he's cut off, he is put to death for sin of course, that's what the teaching is all about here. But here's the term employed twice and in each instance there's no doubt that the reference is to our Lord Jesus Christ. Now we also need to keep in mind that God's people in the New Testament were expecting the Messiah and they recognized him when he did come because he was foreshadowed in the Old Testament's era. Last week we noted the meaning of the word Messiah, that is, it means anointed one, and we saw that in the Old Testament there are basically three groups of people who were anointed in this special way with regard to the offices that they occupied, the priest, the king and the prophet. And therefore, those who actually occupied these offices were essentially messiahs, because they were anointed to their respective positions. That's what the word so powerfully means. It means anointed, and there were people who were anointed by the Lord to offices, and therefore, in that sense, they were messiahs. The Hebrew word means to smear with a liquid or to anoint. And therefore, in that sense, anyone divinely anointed, whether as a priest or a king or a prophet, was a Messiah. And in those three offices, there were factors that were common to them all and that were then fulfilled in our Lord Jesus Christ. Now last week, toward the end of our study, as I was wrapping it all up, we looked at those three factors that pertain to the Old Testament offices of prophet, priest, and king. Their appointment, their authority, and their ability. I just simply left it there because I hadn't time to go any farther. But today I come back to that to look at that with relation to Christ. What we've seen today is that He is the Messiah. He was expected by the New Testament believers. He was recognized by them. When He did come, they saw this is the Messiah. And therefore, when we take those factors that belong to the Old Testament Messiahs, we can see them in Christ, in the One who fulfilled all that was predicted and prophesied by the Old Testament Scriptures and all that was foreshadowed in those men, the prophets, the priests, the kings of the Old Testament. So, the first is the appointment of Christ the Messiah. We noted that the Old Testament priest or the prophet or the king was chosen by God. He was appointed to that office. Indeed, we saw that no one else was allowed to occupy the office of the prophet, priest or king except the one whom the Lord had chosen. And of course, with regard to Jesus Christ, there is no doubt about his appointment to be the Messiah. It is spelled out in New Testament language. This is the thing that we're seeing here. This is the fulfillment of this point that there was the appointment of the Old Testament Messiah. Therefore, if Jesus Christ is the New Testament Messiah, if He's the fulfillment of the Old, the one who was foreshadowed, if he comes along and is the New Testament Messiah, well, then we're going to see this feature of appointment, and we certainly do. We see, for example, in the many, many references to his being sent. Christ was sent by the Father, denoting divine appointment. Now, the verses that deal with that are many. John 17, verse 3, just as an example where the Lord Jesus Christ Himself in prayer refers to His being sent. John 17, 3, and this is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent. And you can go through the New Testament and see over and over again references to the word sent. And remember that the word has to do with the appointment of Jesus Christ. God the Father in sending Him was signifying that He had appointed Him to be the Messiah of His people. In the book of Hebrews chapter 3 and the verse 1 we have a title of Christ used, Hebrews 3 verse 1, and it refers to this idea of us being sent. Hebrews 3 verse 1, it speaks there of Christ as the Apostle and High Priest of our profession. And the basic meaning, the basic significance of the word Apostle is that of being chosen and being sent to fulfill a specific mission. And therefore, the word apostle itself is a word that really means the sent one. That's the meaning of that word. The Lord used, of course, this word regarding the man whom He sent, Peter, James, John, and so on. Why were they called apostles? Because the word means sent. and they were sent by the Lord to discharge their ministry, but as regards the actual apostle, the great apostle, that is Christ himself, and here he is called the apostle and the high priest of our profession. The fact that he was appointed to be the Messiah, chosen by God, and that is irrefutably so, is seen in this same book of Hebrews chapter 5. Look at verses 4 and 5, and notice what is said there. No man taketh this on or unto himself, but he that is called God, as was Aaron. So also Christ glorified not himself. to be made an high priest. But he that said unto him, Thou art my son, today have I begotten thee. So Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest. Rather he was sent. God the Father appointed him. And the appointment of him is spelled out here in those words, Thou art my son, today have I begotten thee. When were they spoken? They were spoken by the Father concerning the Son from all eternity. They are actually words that are quoted from Psalm 2 again, Thou art my Son, today have I begotten thee. And when you look at Psalm 2 you'll find that it says, I will declare the decree. And it's the eternal decree that's in view in relation to these words. Thou art my Son, today have I begotten thee. And the words here therefore signify that the Lord Jesus Christ was appointed by the Father from all eternity, and in the mind of God, Christ was therefore sent forth from all eternity to be the Messiah and the Saviour of His people. Christ, therefore, was appointed by divine appointment. The prophet Isaiah says in Isaiah 42 verse 1, Behold my servant whom I uphold, mine elect, in whom my soul delighted. That is God the Father speaking. And remember the word elect means my chosen, my appointed one. Again, the Father speaks clearly of the appointment of Christ to be the Messiah. These New Testament writers understood this. They recognized Him. They saw Him as the Messiah. They saw that just as the Old Testament priest or prophet or king was chosen by the Father and anointed by the Father, so was Christ. Christ was the fulfillment of all that in Himself. His appointment as the Messiah. Then His authority. That was the other factor that we noticed. The second one, the authority of Christ the Messiah. When a man was appointed by God to any one of these offices, he was invested with authority. And in Christ there is abundant evidence of the authority with which he was invested. We see it, we hear it, when He was baptized at the River Jordan. Because there the Father revealed that His Son was invested with authority that belonged only to the Messiah. The Father declared this of Jesus of Nazareth at the baptism of the Savior. If you look at that verse with me in Matthew 3 verse 17, and the words are familiar to the Lord's people, says, lo a voice from heaven saying, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. The voice came at this time of our Lord's baptism. Now, here he's entering into his humiliation. He's beginning his ministry that will take him into that whole scene of humiliation, rejection by men, despised by men, and eventually crucified. And therefore, how important it was that the voice of approval would be spoken concerning Christ at this very juncture when He's going into His humiliation to render perfect obedience to the law. And the voice comes, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. This was done publicly at the River Jordan, a voice from heaven. John heard it, John the Baptist heard it. Others standing around would have heard that voice. It wasn't done secretly. This all took place openly and publicly, and therefore it was being shown that the Lord Jesus Christ was going into His ministry with this authority, the very authority of God and of heaven resting upon Him and enveloping Him and marking His entire ministry. And that authority, of course, that He had as the Messiah was seen in a multitude of ways as He went through His ministry. It was seen, for example, in His authority over the natural elements. He spoke to the wind, He spoke to the waves, and they immediately obeyed Him. What authority there was in the very Word of the Lord Jesus Christ! In fact, when people listened to Him, The multitudes listened to him. They noted the distinction. They reported that this man speaks with authority, not as the scribes. They have no authority. They have no voice of strength or power. But this man has. Even the people maybe who never were saved recognized the authority of the Messiah. But over natural elements, over demons, powers of darkness, the Lord simply had to speak only. And immediately they left those whom they had inhabited or possessed and were driven away over the multitudes. He could speak a word and the multitudes were silent. He could speak a word and they sat down. The Lord Jesus Christ authority is seen in all these realms, over disease, over death. This is what has miracles, among other things, attested, that He is the Messiah. He has authority. He can speak a word and the dead rise. He can say one word and disease vanishes. Why? Because He is the Messiah and He has authority. And then the third factor is His ability. And that is his ability to fulfill his messianic role due to his anointing by the Spirit. That's what I mean by his ability. He had ability due to the anointing of the Holy Spirit. And that anointing, of course, is recorded by all four gospel writers. That in itself is important. That makes it clear that his anointing by the Holy Spirit was something very important, and all four gospel writers refer to it. Now, we turn to John's record of it, in John chapter 1. I find this a fascinating passage, John 1, where you read of the Lord's anointing and All in relation to His being the Messiah, we saw last week, in verse 41, those words, we have found the Messiah. And actually, it's on those very words that I plan to preach tonight, in the evening service. We have found the Messiah. Taking them from an evangelistic point of view, but certainly taking a lot of things here in this passage about the Messiah. But here you have, in John chapter 1, the record of the anointing of Christ as John gives it. So verse 32, and John bear record saying, this is John the Baptist in other words, John bear record saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him. And I knew him not, but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost." The one whom John would see being anointed with the Holy Spirit would be recognized, as he quotes here, as he relates here, would be recognized as the Messiah, as the Son of God. And the Spirit's anointing, therefore, was an unmistakable evidence of the Messiahship of our Lord Jesus Christ. And it was as well here that John the Baptist had revealed to him that the anointing of Christ would be permanent. It says there in verse 33, "...upon whom I shall see the Spirit descending and remaining on him." You see, the Old Testament Messiahs, if you want to call them that, and we certainly can because they were anointed men, their anointing was temporary. The Spirit came and went. from those men, came to them and went from them. They may have been anointed many times during their ministry by the Holy Spirit. But the Lord Jesus Christ was anointed only once. And when the Holy Ghost came on Christ, the anointing was permanent. The Spirit never left Christ at any time. He was the Messiah. Obviously, because of the ability that he was given through this anointing by the Spirit of God. And when I use the word ability, I'm talking about the fact that it was by the Spirit's anointing that the Lord discharged His whole ministry. We must always keep that in mind. He was the Son of God. He was eternal God. He had all power, therefore, with regard to the attribute of omnipotence. But all that the Lord did in His ministry, He did by the Spirit of God being upon Him. His anointing by the Spirit gave Him the power as the man Christ Jesus, the Messiah, to discharge His ministry. Even His very death, He died by offering up Himself through the eternal Spirit. Over there in Hebrews 9, And verse 14, in other words, when He was on the cross, He was there as a true man. And He was given power in His death to act as He did, to speak as He did, to offer up Himself as He did. He was given that power, that ability by the Holy Ghost. He therefore was the Messiah because He had this ability to discharge the ministry given to Him as a result of the Holy Spirit being upon them. Those are the factors that we noted concerning these Old Testament messiahs, the prophets, the priests, the kings of that era. And we find that all three factors are fulfilled with regard to the messiah himself, our Lord Jesus Christ. And you will see, therefore, brothers and sisters, what we're doing here in this study. We're looking at Christ as the key to the Old Testament. And what we're doing is we're simply noting various ways in which he is spoken of, and this is one of them, the Messiah, and we're seeing how that is in the Old Testament in such a remarkable way, that line of thought, that very meaning of the word, anointed one and so on, and then we're taking it back to Christ, which means that Christ is in the Old Testament by way of being foreshadowed, by way of being in view, and some of those direct references that we looked at, those three verses, they anoint it or His anoint it, This is why we're seeing that Christ is the key to the Old Testament. But today as we think about His appointment, His authority, His ability pertaining to those three offices in the Old Testament, the office of prophet, priest and king, what we're really seeing out of all this is clear. And that is that a prophet, a priest and a king are essential rules in order to our salvation. Now, you've learned the catechism, perhaps, which refers to Christ as our mediator, and how does he fulfill that role? Well, as a prophet, priest, and king. It goes on to say, Christ is a prophet, and it describes how he's a prophet, and then a priest, and then a king. In other words, we've all been taught from our catechism, through the preaching of the Word of God, that the Lord Jesus Christ is a prophet, priest, and king. But what we're seeing is that those offices pertain to his role as Messiah, which then translates into this, that the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ himself, is, as our prophet, priest and king, our mediator between us and God. Because the Lord Jesus Christ can only be our mediator by becoming a prophet to do what? To reveal God to us. He can only be our mediator by becoming our priest to reconcile us to God. He can only be our mediator by becoming our king to rule over us and defend us. and to be our Deliverer. So when you start to look at the whole concept of the Messiah and see how in the Old Testament there were these three offices intimately associated with the role of the Messiah, the priest, the prophet, the king, then you start to realize, well, all of that was pointing forward to Christ as our Messiah Mediator. And we can certainly call Him that. He is our Messiah Mediator. He is the one who was anointed by God to be our prophet, priest, and king, to reveal God to us, to reconcile us to God, and then to rule over us for God. He is our Messiah Mediator. 1 Timothy 2 verse 5 is a statement that... I used this language again, I used it last week, I think. And that is, it's a statement that is timeless and unchanging. And that great statement is, there is one God and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. One mediator between God and men. That's just not New Testament theology. That is biblical theology. That is the teaching of all Scripture. How in the Old Testament era, Did the Lord's people know that they needed a mediator? Well, it was revealed to them by means of foreshadowings. For example, those Old Testament saints, as they were taught the Word, and they saw maybe a king like David, or a prophet like Moses, especially Moses, or a priest like Aaron, As they saw these men, or read about these men from their past, and so on and so forth, these Old Testament believers were taught thereby, we need a mediator. We need a Messiah who will stand between us and God. who will reveal God's Word to us and reconcile us to God and rule over us. And therefore, when it says here in 1 Timothy 2.5, there's one God and one mediator between God and man, that's not a statement of truth that's true only for the New Testament era. That's a statement of truth, as I put it, that is timeless. It's not confined to just one point in time. It is timeless in that sense. It applies to all time. Indeed, it applies to all eternity, because for all eternity, Christ will be our Mediator. You ever stop to think about that? The merits of our Mediator prevail throughout eternity. Now, I speak here hypothetically, but I put it to you this way just to get it across to you. If for one split second, in glory, the merits of Christ were removed from the elect of God, we would be damned. Of course, that will never happen. But the point is, throughout eternity, the Mediator's merits, the value of His work, will cover us. We are saved eternally by this Mediator. And therefore, for all eternity, His work will prevail for our souls. and prevail for our well-being. But this is a wonderful statement, 1 Timothy 2.5, one God, one mediator between God and men. The man, Christ Jesus. It's very interesting. I remember this being pointed out when I was a student in theological hall, put out by Dr. Kearns. It says, one mediator between God and men. It doesn't say between God and man. Very often we quote it that way, not that we're deliberately setting out to change scripture, but just because we don't remember or whatever. But very often it's quoted that way, and that is between God and man, and that would mean between God and mankind as a whole. It doesn't say that. It says between God and men. You may say, well, what's the difference? Well, the difference is, when it says between God and men, it's not talking about all men. Otherwise it would be mankind, or it would be in the singular, but here it's in the plural because it's talking about different kinds of men. That's what the whole context is about. If you go back, It says in verse 1, I exhort therefore that first of all supplications, prayers, intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men. Does that mean that we are to pray in our church prayer meeting for every man in the face of the earth? It does not, because we couldn't do that. We don't know every man in the face of the earth. Notice what I'm showing you is, verse 1 explains to us the use of the word men. It means all kinds of men. And therefore, the Lord Jesus Christ is the mediator between God and all kinds of men, kings, rulers, or poor people, or whoever. That's the sense of the words. I just say that in passing because I think it's good to try to quote the scriptures accurately and remember what the verse actually says. He's not a mediator for all men or all mankind. He's a mediator in the sense that he's a mediator for all kinds of men, and that's what the chapter spells out. But anyhow, we thank God today that there is a mediator, and that mediator is the Messiah, our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ, revealed as the Messiah, that was our subject today. And we have sought to show you how those three factors of His appointment, His authority, His ability are seen in our Lord Jesus Christ. And therefore, as the Messiah, we have a very good line of thought to take and look at the Old Testament, using it there, seeing it that Christ is there in the Old Testament on the basis of that particular line of thought. So we'll leave it there today. We trust God will bless the Word. to each one of us. Let us just bow together, please, and let us unite our hearts in prayer. Our God and our Father, we thank Thee for Thy Word that we have considered. We rejoice in its message to our hearts. We thank Thee for the One who is our mediator, because He is the Messiah, the One given by appointment with all authority and the great ability to discharge His ministry. through the Holy Spirit resting on them. Lord, we pray that Thou wilt draw our minds and our hearts out after the Savior this day. And O God, enable us to glorify His name in all that we say and do. Abide with us and bless us together. We ask this for the Savior's sake and for His glory. Amen.