Pastor Mike Kelly continues his study in Hebrews, doing the second part of his sermon on Christ is superior to the angels. Good morning, Gateway Church. Glad to be gathered. This week went by insanely fast to me. I don't know if it did that to you. I'm glad to be back. It just seems like we were just together, and here we are again, and grateful for it. Invite you, please, turn to Hebrews, and we're gonna continue our study of Christ and his superiority over the angels, which will be the part two of Hebrews 1, 4 to 14. There'll be a part three next week. As you recall, last time, last week together, we spent about half of our time looking at an overview of the angels, who they are, and what they do. And then we looked at the first of five points that I've identified in this remaining text of chapter one, and we looked at that first point, the son has a more excellent name, and we spent a lot of time looking at his name. And so this morning we'll continue our march through, we'll look at a couple more points and maybe part of the fourth and save some of that for next week and the remaining point. But what I'd like to do is just to kind of get us on track again as is read this text in your hearing and that we can kind of be refreshed with what it is we're discussing. And I'll begin with verse five. And again, we're looking at this theme of the superiority of the son over the angels. And this is God's word to us this morning. Reading, for to which of the angels did God ever say, you are my son, today I have begotten you? Or again, I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son. And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, let all God's angels worship him. Of the angels, he says, he makes his angels winds and his ministers a flame of fire. But of the sun, he says, your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of a brightness is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore, God, your God has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions. And you, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain. They will all wear out like a garment, like a robe you will roll them up, like a garment they will be changed. But you are the same, and your years will have no end. And to which of the angels has he ever said, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet? Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation? So lots of stuff. Lots of mystery, lots of information, information in part and information even anticipated, information that we receive in some measure now, but not in fullness until we're gathered there. And this is exciting teaching. And I hope that the truth that's contained in our text, those things that we're able to engraft in and just come to know will enhance our love for, our reverence, and our appreciation for the person of Jesus Christ. He is worthy of our worship. So before we begin new material, I'd like to make just a quick couple of comments on some things we handled last week, and it has to do with this name, this excellence of the name of Christ. A couple more things. Look at verse five, and look there where God poses the question For to which of the angels did God ever say, you are my son, today I have begotten you? Or again, I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. And it's an interesting answer to this question, and I think it should be quite obvious to all of us, there is none. There is not one, there is only the eternal Son who is called such by the Father. None of those marvelous beings that we call angels have the privileges and the position of Christ Jesus our Lord. I just want to make that case very strongly. Angels are lesser beings, Christ is the eternal Son, and He is recognized as such by none less than our Father in heaven, and Christ is recognized as special and unique and one of a kind. So just hold on to that when you think of His name. And so therefore, that leads us naturally into our second point that we'll be getting. It's altogether fitting that the son receives angelic worship. That'll be our second point, the son receives angelic worship. And we're seeing that contained in verse six, and I'll read that one more time. And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, let all God's angels worship him. Quite a thought when he brings the firstborn into the world, and I'm amused on that. I don't believe this is a reference to some sort of second advent. There are other texts in God's word which speak very specifically to the second coming, the second advent of Christ, when the son comes as righteous judge. This text is not referencing that. It says, indeed, the son has come, and indeed, the son has accomplished his work. what he was destined, what he was willing, what he was willing to submit himself to this work. And what this text this morning tells us is that these are the events that the Son has produced, which serve to accomplish that outworking of the mandate of the decree of the Trinity. this inner Trinitarian counsel, which determined in and of itself from endless ages beyond our ever being a twinkling in our Father eye, that there would be a salvation produced for man, that there would be worshipers of God one day in humans. There would be a forgiven people who would for endless ages bow the knee and worship the God who saved them." So what's happened with this language of bringing the firstborn into the world is this is the incarnation of our Lord. This is His birth. This is His sinless life. This is His passion, His crosswork, His resurrection. It's that ascendance back into glory. It's His sending of the Holy Spirit to convict of sin and grant the blessings of faith and repentance. wrapped together in one package. This is acknowledgement that the decree has been effected, and it is operative, and it is working even now. God is calling a people to himself. This is what we're talking about. And that we, you and I, we are the fruits, the work, the people of the eternal son, because he has been brought into our world. Aren't you glad for that? Aren't you glad the Son came into the world and did what he did? Because we wouldn't be here together this morning. We would be nowhere. We would be lost. We would be dead in our trespasses and sin. Note in our text, this eternal Son is the firstborn. This is a pretty significant term. And I believe this term is an emphasis of the relationship or the primacy, the supremacy that Christ enjoys with the Father to the exclusion of all others. He is the Supreme One, the Exalted One. Dear ones, it is not a proof text for the Arian heresy. It is not. That heresy promotes the idea that Christ somehow came into being in time, that he is simply by the instrumentality of the Father a created being. This is the central teaching of the Watchtower organization, the Jehovah's Witnesses. And their founder, effectively, their founder, the fourth century Libyan presbyter Arius, taught their heresy. And what he said was, there was a time when the Lord Jesus Christ, quote, was not, unquote. And that is an evil and wicked teaching. Arius believed in a mistaken attempt to somehow preserve the uniqueness of God the Father, that the very substance of God the Father could not possibly be shared with any other being. That the substance of the Father was, quote, immutable, unique, unknowable, and only one. And so it could not be shared with Christ the Son. So Arius' conclusion was that Christ was created from nothing by the Father, that Christ was simply the very first of the created order and not the eternal and unique eternal God, the Son, which the Bible clearly does teach. And so in response to the heresy of Arius in the fourth century, the church fathers, the leaders at the time, gathered at Nicaea. in the year 325, and they asserted the following to properly capture this mystery of the eternal sonship of Christ the Son. And what they stated was this, that the Lord Jesus was, quote, of one substance with the Father, that he was true God from true God, begotten, not made. This is our Lord Jesus. And these men, and I see these wise, godly men, they rule that all who would falsely claim such things of the Son as these, there was once when he was not, before his generation he was not, He was made out of nothing. The Son of God is of another subsistence or substance, and the Son of God is created or alterable or mutable. Such had taught such things were under the ban of the church, the anathema or anatema, depending on how you want to pronounce that. It can go both ways. And to be under the ban, the anathema, anatema, means that you are devoted to evil and accursed, and as such, placed out of the pale of orthodoxy, placed out of the self-confines of the orthodox church, removed, and your influence removed from polluting the pure doctrine as revealed in Scripture. So when we think about firstborn, this term, we have to understand with reference to the status that's possessed uniquely by Jesus Christ is a rightful heir of all things. He's the firstborn in terms of his primacy. He's rightly called the firstborn. Why? Simply because He existed eternally before the creation. And by the way, little details. Not only did He precede the creation, but He built it. He constructed it. He made it. And one great day, it'll be His inheritance at that glorious second advent. We get little hints of these things in the Old Testament. I'll not give you too many references, but just a little. In Psalm 89, in verse 27, there's this teaching where the Davidic king, David, is being promised by God that, quote, I will make him the firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth. So what we need to hold on to this, knowing that indeed, King David is not reigning and ruling right now, But this teaching, it pushes our gaze forward to look for that greater David, that greater King. And in this text and others, it's Christ. Christ is the greater David. He's the greater one. He's the greater King. He's the greatest of all. He's over all others. He's the righteous one. He's the reigning and eternal King, even right now as we speak. And one of the proofs of His greatness, His superiority, the fact that He's the only begotten and the only eternal Son is found in the reality of the following commandment of the Father, those myriads of created angels who are before the presence of His glory, where our text tells us, let all God's angels worship Him. He's the one that gets that honor. He's the one that gets that attention of the angelic witness. These marvelous, powerful beings who prostrate themselves before His heavenly throne. John Owen, who's not really known for his humor, but for his incredibly rich and difficult to understand doctrine, which is quite marvelous if you can wade through it. And there's been a few times I've tried, but there's a kind of a humorous thing he says that I'll share with you. He writes, quote, it is quite clear that the person worshiped is greater than the person whose duty it is to worship. Right? There's some, you know, prioritization here. There's some ascendancy, as it were. And here in our morning's text, I think we get the clearest of pictures of the superior excellence of the Son, because we are told, and it's not subject to interpretation, it's as clear as a normal San Diego day, okay? He is worshipped by the angels. That's what they do to our King Jesus. They acknowledge Him. So we should say, well, all right, great. So what does that really mean? What are the nuances, the facets of that? Well, here's my stab at a few of them. Well, they sing praises to Him. They sing to Him. And they clearly honor Him. And they certainly revere Him. He is held in the highest of esteem by this angelic choir. He's definitely prioritized. And I believe He's first in their affections. He's valued, He's cherished. And here's another aspect, I think, of that worship. The things that He has done, they are remembered, and they are noted, and they are made much of, hence the worship. I just wonder, think with me, how are you and I doing in this department of according worship to the Son who gave Himself away for our benefit? Do we recognize Him, this great and wonderful Savior, this eternal Son? And as a proper way of recognizing Him, we worship, characteristically, in our lives and living, in many of the activities that we do, in our thoughts, behaviors. Do we worship Him? Do we have some level of synergy, some level of the energy of that angelic host in glory with regard to our worship? I hope so. Dear ones, we should be quick to recall that the victory over death that Christ has made possible was not given for the benefit and the blessing of the heavenly beings. That whole process, that whole decree was designed and implemented and accomplished for sinners like you and like me. It was done for us, not for the angels. And yet, even those angels worship. Isn't that interesting? I think it is. They recognize His worth. They recognize His beauty. They recognize what He has accomplished, and through their worship, they're lauding the triumph and His goodness over the evils of the world and the flesh and the devil. That in and of itself, in a not directly involved, somewhat objective way, fuels the worship of the angels in heaven. I think that's really something. They sing loudly of His excellencies. They sing their praises to this sinless One who is willing to lower Himself, to deny Himself, to be set aside, to set aside, rather, each and every joy and beauty and experience He had ever had from the eternal realm and enter into this human condition where we live with all of its attendant misery and degradation. They worship this fact of our Savior and King. They delight in it. And this heavenly choir, they marvel at how the Son pays in His person and cancels by His own unique merit the power and penalty that otherwise would have damned the sons of Adam to an eternity of hell. They love that objective reality. And dear ones, we are those sons of Adam. Angels are rejoicing even right now. They are worshiping the Son simply because you and I have been saved. And I just have to say, wow, that is so remarkable. angels now in glory characteristically give themselves over to the activity of singing joyfully of the truth that Christ has produced for himself a people and purchased them for himself because of the cross. And they laud him for that. So how could we then not worship him with at least some measure of the fullness of the angelic host? And I trust that we are. Being that the one who is being praised has been received by us, and is so very worthy of our affection and focus. Angels know what Jesus has done, and they gladly obey the command of the Heavenly Father when the Father says, you guys worship Him. And they do, because they know it's appropriate. Even though, again, they are not the direct beneficiaries of the redemption Christ has purchased. So we should be following their example. And I believe this is part of what the unknown author of our book and his leading of the Holy Spirit would lead us. to do. He would like us to know these things and to get at it. Christ has won victory over death. He is now in his session as our victorious king, and as that victorious king, he is worshiped. Remember verse three of our chapter a couple weeks ago where we were learning that he has sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high? That is the language of rule. He is reigning. He rules now. The angels don't rule. They prostrate themselves before the one who does. That's what they do. They worship the one who reigns. They recognize the superiority of the position of Christ. And so they dedicate themselves to sing his praises. Powerful and wonderful as they are, the Son is infinitely more so, and they worship Him because of who He is and the things He has done. So enough of that, and on to the next. Point three, the Son exercises authority over the angels. Three, again, the point that the Son exercises authority over the angels. This is verse seven. Reading, of the angels He says, He makes his angels winds and his ministers a flame of fire. That quote is taken from the psalmist, Psalm 104. I invite you to read that psalm. It's quite wonderful. The major themes of the psalm are very clear. There are two. First, God is the creator. Secondly, God is also the sustainer. Read that psalm. It's all over. God is creator, powerful and mighty in his workings. God is sustainer, preserving all that he has made. It's everywhere in that psalm. We learned last week in our study in verse 2 that the Son also is the Creator. Quote, He created the world, it says in our text. Christ created, the Son created the world. And also we learned in the next verse, verse 3, that the Son also sustains the world. Hence this quote from Psalm 104. He upholds this world. He builds it. He keeps it going. Creator, sustainer. That's what the sun does. He's great and mighty because of this power. It's awesome power. That is a legitimate use of that term awesome. That immensely overworked term in our culture. Say awesome when you think of something creating and sustaining the world. That fits. One of the few places it fits. So being that the sun sustains, and upholds this world is only then logical for us to assume that the Son also directs all of the affairs of those amazing members of the heavenly host. He sustains it all. He's in control of it all. He directs it all. So the angels are part of the all. I found this to be an interesting, helpful quote from John Owen. He writes, the providence of God in disposing and using angels in his service is meant here. God employs his angels and heavenly ministers in producing those winds, fire, thunder, and lightning through which he executes many judgments in the world. The sense here is completed by seeing this as a simile, which is stated in the Targum, which is an Aramaic paraphrase, first century paraphrase of the Hebrew scripture. It's paraphrasing the Targum on Psalm 104. He makes or sends his angels like the winds, or like a flaming fire. making them fast, spiritual, agile, powerful, and effective to accomplish the work they're appointed to do. Now, whether or not Owen is exactly on track here or not, I'm not sure. I think he very well could be. And I think he captures some of the possibilities of the work of angels, even in our modern day. They have a work that appears to be directed and commanded, initiated by the Father and the Son. And it appears that Father and Son indeed do direct all the activities of created angelic beings. And it's quite a thought for you and I to consider the possibility that angels might be the innervating power behind such natural things going on in our world. Angels, effectively, according to the authority of Scripture, they serve the providence of God, what He wants to accomplish, what He's planned, what He's ordained. There is tools to help effect what He wants to be effected, being that the preceding verse is so very clear, they worship the Son. Obviously, if you worship someone, you're given over to do His bidding. And these worshiping angels are given over to doing the bidding of the Son. This is logical for us to assume. In 2 Thessalonians, the opening chapter, verses 7 and 8, we get a little picture there of how the angels will be at the right side of the sun at His glorious second advent. And we read there, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of the Lord Jesus. It should be obvious to us that He will use the angels his instruments in his work of judgment upon the rebels of the earth. They will be also with him, powerful dispensers of justice, a rightly earned justice upon all who have shaken their fist in the face of the holy one on high. So when that time is ready, Christ will come and the angels he has commanded to join him will come with him because he's their boss. And that's what will happen. I'm gonna begin our fourth section, it's a little bit longer, and we'll just kind of make a beginning this morning, conclude it next time. And I'm gonna read the whole text, and we'll have several sub-points contained here, so I'll be reading verses eight through 12, and this is what they say. And I've entitled this, The Sun is More Glorious than the Angels. That'll be our fourth point, the sun is more glorious than the angels, with its sub-themes, five in number. Buddha, the sun, he says, your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness, therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions. And you, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain. They will all wear out like a garment, like a robe you will roll them up, like a garment they will be changed, but you are the same, and your years will have no end. So again, there'll be five sub-points under this heading. We'll look at the first one this morning, and it's Christ is the ruler of eternity. I'm calling this A, Christ is the ruler of eternity, beginning with the opening part of verse eight. But of the Son, he says, your throne, O God, is forever and ever. Angels do not rule. Angels are not in control of things. They're certainly not in control of all things. Powerful? Yes, very powerful. But not all powerful. Angels exist to serve the purposes of the Father and the Son. The Son both rules and exercises complete control over all things. Now, you know, as well as I do, that thronage is a little bit a part of the cultural discussion right now. We're looking to see who's going to be the next king on our throne, the next president in the Oval Office, right? We're concerned about the next occupant. And we know that every four years there is a competition amongst us and among many to occupy that position, the most powerful position in the world, the presidency of the United States. But we know that occupants in the Oval Office, they don't remain forever, not really even very long. Four years, maybe eight years, and the cycle repeats. The current ruler is exchanged, another one arises to take his place, for good or for bad. Historically, it's been more bad than good, but that's the way things go in this fallen sphere, a fallen world. At times, we receive good rulers, and we have the good times of peace and prosperity as God sees fit. And we should thank Him for such blessings, knowing that they're completely undeserved. Right? Okay. Now, we also receive, as well, not so good rulers in the difficulty-producing troubles, which are commonly associated with their tenures. And we should not be found chafing when such things occur, but we should rather entrust ourselves into the hands of that one who does all things very well and for our ultimate good. Difficult though as things might be, become for us in this temporal sphere. Fallen, temporal, the fallen temporal record of human history records these things, these are realities. Look at those records. We ought not to concern ourselves excessively with them, but rather we should be comforting ourselves with thoughts of the eternal blessed reign of Christ, whose reign we shall be gathered to one day. We will experience it in its fullness if we are in the faith, and only if we are in the faith. I hope that God will be helping us to faithfully keep a perspective like that. And there is no better way for us to maintain and promote that kind of perspective than by a regular sort of diligence and being in the book. It's essential. It's essential. We need to be regularly engaged in the Word and have our minds informed, our perspective bolstered and enhanced. The contents of that word as we look at it in various places, it calls us certain terms. Strangers, aliens, pilgrims, exiles, other glosses say wayfarers, sojourners. It says that we're saved by grace. That's the only way we can be saved, saved by grace. It says that when we're saved by grace, we're raised up with Him, with God and His Christ. We're raised up with Him and seated with Him in the heavenly places when we come to faith. There's a sense where we have a heavenly address when we come to faith, even now before we see that heavenly address. It says even now in 2 Corinthians 5, we have a building from God. a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent, which is just this mortal fleshly habitation, we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling. We're caught in the middle of these tensions of the already and the not yet. And when we get into this book, we're reminded of other delightful truths that if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. that the old has passed away, behold, the new has come, and that all of this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself. And it continues, and it just goes on, and it's just quite lovely to consider. It says that even now, you and I as followers of this Christ are called his ambassadors, ambassadors for Christ. representatives of this glorious son who now rules and he has given to us this ministry of reconciliation. Seeking to be useful and finding the people who are lost and giving them the saving word and sharing it with them in the hope that they too would be saved as we are. That's what makes us evangelicals. And we can be assured this reality that God is making his appeal through us. In other words, we're the means, we're the instrumentality as we open our mouth and share those things we've learned through our regular immersion in his word with those who as yet don't believe it. God makes his appeal to the lost through people like you and I. What a privileged position we occupy. What a delight to serve such a kind and gracious ruler, to be entrusted with his message, to willingly be enabled to bow now, here, in this life, in a very humble yet oh so important service to our heavenly master. Amazing. That's the service that we've been clearly charged to. We are his workmanship. creating Christ Jesus for good works, which he prepared beforehand that we walk in the Ephesians 2 10. That's why we're here. So clearly our true home is not here. This is the way station, our true home is there. So whether our current experience is yet on this fallen earth, which is what it is right now, we will serve our righteous ruler even here and now, amen? That's what we're gonna do. And then when we're called into his presence there by death, we shall again and always continue in his service forever and ever and ever to endless ages. That will not change. Back to our text, note some of the Trinitarian aspects of it. This is amazing. God the Father calls the Son God. Do you see that? God the Father calls the Son God. And he is. He's God in the flesh. Amazing. In that section, we see the eternal nature of this rule of the greater David. The Lord Jesus is backing up for just a moment. He's a Messiah figure that the Old Testament references. He's the God who makes intercession on behalf of his people, fulfills covenant obligations they have no power to fulfill, lays himself down as a willing and righteous sacrifice. This is our Christ, and our Christ is ruling at the right hand of the Father. He is our true ruler. Do you realize how well things are for us? All is well. Forget these headlines. Forget the talking heads. Pay it a minimum of attention, and pay the maximum attention to the fact that all is well. Our sin problem has been dealt with. The righteous ruler reigns. He's in control, all is well. Second sub-point of this third point. Christ's rule is just and sinless. Look at the second half of verse eight and the first part of verse nine, and we're gonna conclude with this. The scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Ah, there are messages contained just in those few verses. A scepter! That kind of long, skinny thing, maybe jewel-encrusted. We get little pictures of it. It's a scepter. It's given to the one who has the right to display authority. Signifies power and just administration of the realm. And Christ is ultimately and always just. It is the scepter of righteousness. Uprightness. Uprightness. No sin associated with this reign In Isaiah 11, there's a little hint about this rule of the son, his righteous reign, there he's called the branch, Christ is called the branch, the righteous branch. But in Isaiah 11, verse five, it says these words, righteousness shall be the belt at his waist. He wears this aspect of righteousness in the very center of his being. In the middle of this person, it characterizes him. It defines him. It's who he is. He's righteous. It says, righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness is the belt of his loins. That power, that strength of one's loins is his faithfulness. It's an unchanging faithfulness. It's a steady and enduring faithfulness, righteousness and faithfulness. He's our King Christ. That should produce some hope in our hearts. That's the characteristic of his reign, the tenor of his reign, his policies and procedures, his administration, righteous and faithful. So very unlike So very different, such a different tone and character when compared to the reign of our own temporal kings and our assessment of the success or lack thereof of their reigns, their administrations. Only the reign of Christ is truly righteous. When we say righteous, it means a lot of things. It should mean a lot of things to us. It means it's spotless. It's free of stain, free of blemish. It's without hypocrisy and dishonesty and greed and corruption. There's none of that to be found in the righteous reign of our King, not a bit. His reign is pure and good and always so. It's holy, it's just. He hates wickedness. Wickedness will not enter into his presence. And you realize that's why our own wickedness needs to be dealt with. It needs to be cleansed. It needs to be forgiven. It needs to happen in this life before we can enter in the life to come. And if it doesn't happen in this life, we'll never enter into the life to come. Our sin problem has to be dealt with. Otherwise, we'll never enter into the just and sinless rule of the sun on high. We will not. To be found lacking in the righteousness that the Son gives to his own in that coming day of our death means that we are dressed for hellfire. We are properly attired for separation for endless ages. We leave this life without the Son. There's a place prepared for those who are described by scripture as the wicked. And the wicked are those who ignore God. The wicked are those who reject Him outright. The wicked are those who mock His Word and do not submit themselves to His Word, who reject the Son and say fairy tales and hocus pocus. These are the wicked. Sadly, the wicked, they ignore those things that God has given to all men. for their sober consideration, the beauty of the creation all around. We call that the light of creation, the way God has seen the things that he has made, his power demonstrated. And they suppress even their own consciences. They deny the presence of God. They deny that which their consciences tell them to be true. The scriptures call such ones the unrighteous who will not inherit the kingdom of God. Those who are deceived. And they live like those who have been deceived. They are those who habitually practice those things of sexual immorality, and idolatry, and adultery, and homosexuality, or described in other places, thieves, and greedy, and drunkards, and revilers, and swindlers. consistently given over to such things, the deceived unrighteous. And unless they are given grace to repent of their evil, they will not, cannot inherit eternal life. So the conclusion is no man, no woman, no child can ever hope to enter in the presence of this wonderful place of righteousness unless they have been cleansed unless they have been washed, unless the blood of Christ covers their sins, and indeed they have been called by Christ through the Spirit's ministry to receive the Scripture, be given faith and repentance. That's the gospel. That's what the gospel says. You will die outside of Christ, but if you are in Christ, you will live. and you will go to that place of righteousness." And that's what our author in Hebrews is telling us. He's telling us there is hope and no other, and to Him we must go. And by grace, we must be enabled to submit to His rule. And that is the appeal of the New Testament. And that is the comfort that He gives to those who are His people. We have been assured of the certainty of the promises, and we'll be gathered to those promises one great, wonderful, lovely day. We will go there. So there's more, much more in this text. We're gonna stop here. We'll continue next week on the superiority of the angels, and hopefully make a finish of this opening chapter. Let's pray for now. Our Lord and our Savior, we thank you, Father, for the richness of these words. We thank you for the contents of this truth. It's exciting to consider that we have a Savior in the heavens, mighty and powerful, in the know about all the dealings of this world and all of its desires and machinations. He raises kings and sets them down. and He leads His people and places them where they need to be and gives them a work to do, gives them encouragement, convicts them of sin and forgives them for Christ's sake. Thank you for these things, Father. Thank you that we can be called your people, that we indeed are the church, the church alive and well, as our forefathers said, the church militant, yet alive, yet awaiting that day of being gathered to the church, triumphant in glory. Father, we look forward to that time when we will be gathered and we will worship with the angels, our great King, our risen Savior. And Father, until that day comes, may you find us diligent. May you find us industrious. May you find us about the work of ministry to the ministry you've called each and every one of us who know you. May we not be found wearying and well-doing. But may we, Father, serve with that gratitude attitude fueled by our sense of wonder and joy and privileged position at what you've done for us. Help us to such things. Thank you for your goodness. Thank you for the gospel. We ask these things in his name. Amen.