I want to turn to two passages tonight. The first is Isaiah chapter 9, and the first verse is there. And the second is Matthew and chapter 4, which cites Isaiah chapter 9 as being fulfilled when Jesus goes to Galilee, the Galilee of the Gentiles. So we're going to read of a promise and of a fulfillment tonight. Now Isaiah the prophet is the one who promises these things of light in the darkness. And we read of the fulfillment of this in Jesus of Nazareth who visits Galilee of the Gentiles. So Isaiah chapter nine, we're gonna see once again how this Bible is one. There's one message and it's all about Jesus and his salvation. So listen carefully. This is the best book you could ever read. Isaiah 9, let's read the first seven verses. Nevertheless, the gloom will not be upon her who is distressed. And he's talking here of the Israelites in their apostasy in darkness and under the wrath of God. He says, the gloom, the darkness will not be upon her who is distressed, as when at first he lightly esteemed the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, and afterward more heavily oppressed her by the way of the sea beyond the Jordan in Galilee of the Gentiles. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined. You have multiplied the nation and increased its joy. And here the light shining and its fruits is described. You've multiplied the nation and increased its joy. They rejoice before you according to the joy of harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. For you have broken the yoke of his burden and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian. For every warrior's sandal from the noisy battle and garments rolled in blood will be used for burning and fuel of fire. And then here's the well-known prophecy of Christmas. For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon his shoulder and his name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace, there will be no end upon the throne of David and over his kingdom. To order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever, the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this." So there's a promise, and we can trust that the zeal of the Lord of hosts would perform it, and we read of this, lo and behold, in the Gospel according to Matthew, the only place by the way where this prophecy is said to be fulfilled. when Jesus, soon after the beginning of his ministry, goes into Galilee of the Gentiles. We're going to read Matthew 4 and verses 12 through 17, the fulfillment of the prophet Isaiah's words. And it's all because the zeal of the Lord of hosts is performing this. Now, when Jesus heard that John the Baptist had been put in prison, he departed to Galilee. And leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is by the sea in the regions of Zebulun and Naphtali, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death, light has dawned. From that time, Jesus began to preach and to say the same thing that John did, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. As far as we read God's holy word, may God bless the reading of it, and now the hearing of a sermon on it to our living out of the faith that we pray is worked through the preaching. While the beginning, beloved, is over, a beginning, that is, of Jesus' ministry. Things have happened, recorded in Matthew, not only, but recorded in the other Gospels. But the Spirit, through Matthew, as we've seen, has been trying to make a point, and the Spirit, when He tries, always succeeds. And in the first place, in chapter one we've seen, well, in the first chapters we've seen that Jesus is set out as an outstanding, the outstanding one whom God will use to bring salvation to the earth. In the first place, in Matthew 1, in the genealogy recorded there, Jesus is said to be the son of David not only, but he's the one who is also David's Lord. He's Immanuel. There's an outstanding feature of Jesus, if ever there was one. In Matthew 2, we read in this unique message this only account of the Magi in Matthew 2. And when they come from the East and they follow this wonderful star, they come to the wonderful Savior and they worship Him. And this is to remind us that this Jesus, who's the Son of David and David's Lord, is the Lord and the Savior of Jew and Gentile. And in Matthew 3, we've learned that He is the one who represents Israel. And in Matthew 2, we've learned that He goes down to Egypt to represent Israel and to be called out again. But in Matthew 3, we also learn that He's going to represent them in being baptized on their behalf. John was wondering, now why do you have to be baptized? Well, the fact is, Jesus is the one who has to bear sins, and baptism is a picture, of course, of the removal of sins, and Jesus, who has no sin, nevertheless bears sins on his shoulders, and so to fulfill all righteousness, and the picture of the sinners he represents, Jesus is baptized. And lastly, Matthew has pointed out the fact that Jesus proves his worthiness by being able to resist all temptations from the devil at the very outset of his ministry. And that's the first part of our chapter four, when Jesus is led by the Holy Spirit to vindicate the purity of Jesus in this terrible, terrible temptation and real temptation. But when he nevertheless says, it's written, it's written, it's written, he shows that he's invulnerable. He's the God of our salvation and he will not be moved from his course, that is to bear the sins of all God's own. So Matthew's made his point The Spirit has made his point irresistibly through the inspired Matthew. And now something happens on the way to the public ministry. And it's this. Jesus goes to the darkest place on the planet. The darkest place on the planet, described in our text as Galilee, the northern part of Israel. Now, why is this? Children, I want you to hear very carefully here why Jesus has to go into the darkest place of the planet. It's darker than any cave, darker than any brothel, that's a bad place to be. Jesus goes to the darkest place on the planet and it has to be, and happens to be, right in the midst of the people of God. And so we want to talk here about this peculiar or an unusual visit of Jesus, but we're going to be those who would emphasize the dawn. It's the dawn. He goes to the darkest place to shine there, not just to shine a flashlight, but to shine the truth as it is in Himself and the truth of His saving grace. So we would entitle the sermon, The Dawning of the Kingdom of Heaven. And first, let's look at the deep, dark death in Galilee. Second, we would behold by faith the great dawn of the kingdom that no eye, no mere eye could see, and that we are to consider as well in a practical application that this is light today for you and for me. Jesus, when he hears of John the Baptist being put in prison, for reasons of which we'll speak later perhaps, he goes to Galilee. And this is described here, not only according to its geography in verse 13, but also described as to its morality and idolatry, its apostasy. But I find it striking, and I hope we can as well, that Jesus would go here to this place in Galilee and find it so dark. And also maybe it's striking to you that the pastor would find that this is the darkest place on the planet. After all, it doesn't say here that Jesus left Judea and then left Nazareth and went to San Francisco. That, we think, is a dark place. They've left all semblance of morality, liberal as the day is long. Didn't say that they went to Long Island. That's the other side of apostasy in America. Seems like these things of apostasy come to our nation, not just through the south border, but through the west and through the east. Be that as it may, these are places we might think are dark, spiritually dark, too. when liberalism has crept in and there's all kinds of blatant immorality and people giving over to the pursuit of the world. And it doesn't say that he goes to any other kind of place, but it does say that he goes to Galilee. Now, Galilee is said to be here or described here as two different components of it. There's about five. Capernaum is a city in Galilee, which is by the Sea of Galilee on the west side. It's the regions of two tribes of the northern kingdom of Israel, Zebulun and Naphtali. And also included in this description of Galilee is the Galilee of the Gentiles, which may refer to the regions east of the Jordan River, not inside Israel proper. But the whole thing could be called this Galilee and is described as a place of darkness. The land of Zebulun, the land of Naphtali, by the way of the sea beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. It's all about those people there. Not just that the land's a dark place and no sun shines there and there's lots of caves. But the people there are in the darkness. Verse 16, the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light. And upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death, light has dawned. And we have a hint at to what's being described here of the darkness of the people of that region in Isaiah 9. That's quoted here. And we read the first part of that. And there Isaiah is consoling the people of the northern kingdom. who are prophesied as having been visited with judgment for their falling away from the truth. And the prophet speaks here of a day when a son would be born and a child would be given and so on. The light will shine and there will be this dawning of the kingdom of peace. But we stick now with the darkness. Darkness in the Bible is attributed to a people that were once a people of God. And that's why I submit to you that this is the darkest place on the planet. Because when there is a place where the truth has shined in all of its gospel light and purity and power, and then there's a people or a consistory or a church or a denomination that departs and says, we don't want it anymore, That's the darkest place there can be. It's one thing to be just an ordinary Adamic darkling, a person who is in the dark of ignorance and without any knowledge of God. That, you know, is how the world is. This whole world is a place of darkness. Just even worse than the chaos before there was light in the creation of God in Genesis 1 is the darkness of a people that's in sin. We're all that way. There's none that doeth good, no, not one. There's none who seeks after righteousness. We are ignorant. That's how the Bible describes darkness, and that's what darkness means in the Bible. We are bound for destruction, and we are, as the text says, really with this people here in Galilee, a people who sat in darkness, who've seen a great light, and who sat in the region and shadow of death. Darkness is the wages of sin. The ignorance is God's judgment upon those who have willfully plunged themselves in Adam, and as they make their choices in life, and they say, we don't want God. We don't want his gospel. We don't want to hear the bad news or the good news, because in the darkness we say, I'm fine. My family's fine, and my friends are fine, and how I drink beer, that's up to me, and what I do with my leisure, not only, but in my work, that's up to me. Leave me alone. That's the darkness of this world. No matter what they say, who are enlightened, no matter what they've been saying since they rejected religion wholesale in the 16th, 17th, 18th century with the enlightenment, People thought they gained a lot of knowledge by saying, you know what? The key to knowledge is rejecting this, and rejecting the church, and rejecting authority. That's constrictive. That's some people, some priests maybe, some theologians saying, here's like it is, but I don't believe that. I'm listening to my inner voice. And besides, there's another source of knowledge. It's called the mind and a reason. And so now since those centuries of so-called enlightenment, men have rejected the Bible and rejected the godly traditions of faith and the creeds of the church and the church itself for man. And man is the arbiter of all things and it's just like in the beginning. when the devil tempted Adam or Eve, first of all, and said, yeah, if God said, is it really like that? Is there really one being who's in charge of you, Eve? And Eve bit into it, of course, because this is the pride of man and woman. We love the darkness rather than the light. That's how the Gentiles are described in the Bible. I move on to the darkest place, and that's where the truth has been rejected. There's dark places all over the place. There's no light except there'd be light from heaven. But the darkest is the church that falls away, the darkest place in the planet. That's why the prophet would say, judgment begins at the house of God. That's where judgment will begin. on the final day, and that's where judgment is beginning today, and we see it. No prophetic voice in America because there's no prophetic voice in the church. And the ministers are more like politicians and prophets, and they put their finger to the wind to see which way public opinion is going and who is going to be pleased or not when I preach this sermon and they decide to please men. And it's not, you see, that the prophetic voice in America is dim because we're not saying anything or enough about abortion and now about this terrible ungodly practice of aborting babies at the third trimester. Really? Have we become that much of a beastly nation? But that is not the first mark of the darkness of the church. The mark of the darkness of the church is that we had Jesus once, and our forefathers were learning about the gospel of grace, salvation by grace alone. And now we have Jesus and man. And Jesus is a good example, but we've got to do this on our own. That's now the way of salvation, doing something for Jesus and in order to please God so that you can earn something with him. Church has left the gospel, the good news that salvation for sinners is only of God. The church has left the gospel of predestination, the gospel of the depravity of man, the gospel of the canons of Dort, the gospel of Genesis to Revelation, the good news of the kingdom of heaven. And there is judgment to be sure. There is hell and going to be hell to pay. Now, Galilee of the Gentiles represents, I believe here, the entire northern kingdom. And that entire northern kingdom, remember, had left the tents of David. You read of this in the books of Kings and Chronicles. And under Jeroboam, the people had demanded alleviation of their taxes and of the yoke of Solomon and so on. And when Solomon or his son Rehoboam was hard, They said to your tents, O Israelites, what have we to do with the house of David? And that was the beginning of apostasy, the falling away from the truth. You know why? Because the house of David represented Jesus. Jesus would come, he's the son of David. And to the people of God together, there had been this wonderful good news of God with us and the promises to Abraham and to his seed that he will be a God to us. And when Jeroboam left and the Israelites left, that was the beginning of the end because when you leave Jesus, it's always the beginning of the end. And so they left. this wonderful inheritance and salvation for a massive pottage of independents. And it showed they'd have no good king in Israel and the northern kingdoms. There'd be a false worship set up and a false priesthood, and now they'd be worshiping around golden calves set up in Dan and Bethel, and they would not go to Jerusalem. That would be discouraged. There was this halfway house of a halfway covenant of a halfway people of a people that would be halfway only persuaded that God alone is God. Now, that's the great death darkness. into which Jesus goes. And what is remarkable about this point in the narrative of Matthew is that if you look at it in Matthew 4.12, this occurs when Jesus had heard that John had been put in prison and then he departed to Galilee. But if you look at the other narratives, and I can't visit that with you in detail right now, but if you look at, say, John, You find that there are other things that happened to Jesus and that he did before this aspect of his ministry when he went, and this is called the Great Galilean Ministry. He did other things in Galilee. It may have been that he'd gone to Nazareth before and had been rejected. It certainly was that he had cleansed the temple already. He had talked with Nicodemus, John 3. He had visited with the woman of Samaria and talked to her about the water of life and that he was Messiah. And so these things had occurred, but Matthew skips them all because there's something that Matthew wants to have outstanding here in his gospel. And the Spirit has inspired him for this. And it's simply to show that this one, who's of David, and who is David's Lord, and who is this Immanuel, and so on. He's the one who's also the light. And he's the light not only of Jewry, but he's the light of Galilee, even Galilee of the Gentiles. And he's such a light that it does not matter how dark the darkness is, and whether there's corpses strewn all over the landscape, or in the pews, Jesus comes to save and to shine and to raise from the dead miserable sinners, even apostate ones. See, apostasy and the departing from the truth of those who once held it means we don't want God anymore. But Jesus will not be denied. It will never be the case if Jesus wants you that he'll ever want you no more. He's that kind of a Jesus. Sovereign, faithful God. Remember that, sinner. When you think God has rejected you, the fact is maybe you've rejected him. And therefore, your feeling is wrath. Fly to Jesus and live. who is the Jesus of sinners. And there's this focus then on the light. You love it. And Jesus comes into Galilee just by going there and making now Capernaum his base of operations. You know, Galilee and Capernaum now as the base of operations will be where Jesus does most of his public ministry on earth. For three some years, this Galilean ministry will dominate. He makes forays into Judea, but he focuses on this Galilee of the Gentiles, this place that was despised by the hierarchy of the Jews, but is not despised by God. It's there you see that he would do his shining business, that he would shine in the darkness, that he would be the light of the world, that He would be this amazing Savior who gives with light, life. And this is the context again of Isaiah. And we love to hear this before Christmas comes upon us, or maybe in reflecting upon Christmas. But it's beautiful to hear as well the fulfillment of Jesus given to the Gentiles when he visits them, and it's all about this child is born and this son that's given for the Galileans too. For sinners, yes. Galilean ones too. He's a child who's born. He's a son who's given. It's all of grace. And where there was a departure from the kingdom of heaven, there will the kingdom of heaven be preached and established in the blood of Jesus. The government of that kingdom shall be upon his shoulder, and he'll build the walls and he won't need a vote to build the walls or a tell down other walls. He'll command this or he'll command that. The government on his shoulder will be a government in good hands and on good shoulders. It's all because of his identity. And Jesus has been identified in the Gospels. The Gospels always are quick to identify the Jesus of the Gospels. As Immanuel, God with us, and now he's called by other names of God, like Wonderful, and Counselor, and Mighty God, and Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace. What a God! What a Savior! They're in the midst of the Galileans. They're traveling on two feet. They're human like the rest of us, without sin. He's God in the midst. And the result of it was that Isaiah has a word of hope for those in the darkness, and it's described here as, A reality, prophetically, the people who walked in darkness, they've seen a great light. They dwell in the land of the shadow of death. Upon them a light is shined. And then this great shining in life is described as the multiplication of the nation. Could very well be that here's the addition of Gentiles to the Jewish people. There's joy that's the result of this shining of the son of God, rejoicing before God according to the joy of harvest, compared also to victory of people and men. who rejoice when they divide the spoil, compared to the breaking of the yoke of the Egyptians, is this breaking of the yoke of the Assyrians who attack from the north. And it's all fulfilled when Jesus comes to break the yoke of sin and reality. It's exactly what he does. Walking under the yoke of depravity, Jesus says, give me that yoke, and he tears it in pieces, and he gives us the Holy Spirit, and now we are a temple of God, and there's this beginning, as the catechism reminds us of the new obedience, set free from all those Egyptian sins that hound us, and would hold us again in their tyranny, and would manhandle us. And it's described even as such a rout that the warrior's sandals are no more, the garments that they might use to have rolled up things and get bloody because of all the enemies they've trounced. They're gonna be burned up. There's gonna be no sign of war anymore. Why? Because you see, the light shines, and it's all about his establishing peace in the light. And so we can know and we can be comforted and there's light to walk in. This is something that the family that just said goodbye to a loved one needs to hear, my family and the church family. Where's the light in this? Where's the light in the darkness of death? Where's the light when things don't go the way we want it and maybe the children don't turn out the way we want it. Why are they staying away? Jesus gives peace. So all the prophecies of light in the Old Testament, and they're full of them. The prophecies of light are mingled with prophecies of peace, joy, and happiness. You read, for example, in 2 Timothy, one lovely verse It speaks of God who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began, but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who's abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. Now that's a great dawn. All there was in the world, darkness, And especially in the apostate places, the people who had the truth, they rejected it. The dawn shines with the brilliance. You can't even see. The Bible speaks of the things that I hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor has entered into the heart of man, the things that God has prepared for them. Well, that's like this. That's speaking of heaven, probably primarily, but Here's the beginning of heaven, the kingdom of heaven. Jesus shines, and it's such a brilliance, and the people are all sleepy-eyed, and he's there in their midst, and he does mighty works, and he preaches the gospel of the kingdom of heaven. And it's something that's blinding and so brilliant that it just knocks them over. This is the glory of God after all, and don't you see? The glory of God. Jesus in the midst, that name. And Jesus, read this, preaching in the midst. Isn't that something? Later on, we'll read in verse 23 and following that He preaches and that He works miracles. But here, it's just said that He began to preach and to say, repent and for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Now, that's something for us to remember. The kingdom of heaven comes through preaching of the kingdom of heaven. And not just preaching which is the preaching about the kingdom of heaven and even about Jesus, but it's Jesus in the midst preaching and commanding the kingdom of heaven to be established. The kingdom of heaven is God's rule, especially God's rule in the sphere of the salvation of the people of God so that the kingdom comes and becomes within you. It takes over you, the rule of God, the blessings of this great sovereign, no tyrant, but a covenant God who fellowships with his people, every subject. What great treasures, children, in the kingdom of heaven? Seek them all and seek none of the things below." That's what we're told is the riches of the gospel. Jesus comes and He is the light in Jewry and in the Galilee of the Gentiles, and He commends at their belight when He speaks of the kingdom of heaven, the rule of God, the establishment of order in the chaos, peace with God. That's our Savior. And finally, I want to say that this is light for you and for me. Later on, the disciples, I think it's Matthew 10, are called to preach roughly the same message, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. There's a calling for us who receive this word of the light that dawned long ago to carry on the torch, as it were, to be the light bearers, and that's what Jesus says the church is, we're the light of the world. So you see, the New Testament is relevant to us as is the old. the kingdom of heaven was at hand. It was just beginning then, and Jesus himself was not yet crucified, and now on the other side of things like the cross and the empty tomb, we have this message still, and the kingdom of heaven that is still at hand in the sense that it's still coming, and it's waiting for one final event, the coming of the king of kings in glory. So it's still at hand in that sense, though it's come. And what a message we have to bring, what confidence we can have. The kingdom of heaven and heaven's king has given us the keys of the kingdom to preach and to go into all the world and command salvation by a preaching and call sinners to darkness and call even the apostate darkest parts of the world to repent and believe. What do you think the darkest parts of the world are? I'll just speak of two places. First of all, America. America is the darkest nation in the world. That's what I believe. Here's why. Because long ago the pilgrims came, 1600s and so on, and there were a lot of Christians. They were escaping religious persecution and there were lots of governments, local and state, that were founded on Christian principles and so on. I'm not talking about the Christianization of America or something. But there was a people there that lived for the gospel, and they would establish a place now of religious freedom. And these were some of the religious principles on which our nation was founded. But what's happened? Well, what's happened is that America has become the darkest place because it's rejected any semblance of the gospel, and not saying just in the government, but in society and the culture at large. The world has taken over. And so you can look at the burned over areas, and I'm gonna start from the East Coast, where I'm from, Long Island and New England. Used to be that there were places like New Amsterdam and places that were Christian colonies and so on that were established, and now it's given over to such liberalism as would embarrass people who are not used to these things. There's a Unitarianism, a denial of the Trinity there, where the people have rejected the truth en masse, and churches have rejected the truth there. But especially what I present to you because it's a biblical thing, in the churches, and especially the Reformed and Presbyterian and otherwise historically sound churches, where there has been compromise, that's the darkest place on the planet today. It is. This is where the great deception of the ages is going on, where people say, God and man. That's the beginning of the problem. because discernment then is necessary for people to discern just what the theologians mean by God and man, that is, God saving and men maybe contributing something to salvation. Where grace and works are mingled together into a kind of a smorgasbord from which you pick, sometimes I need grace, sometimes God needs my work and my will. That's where it's the beginning of the end of the power of the gospel that saves sinners. And it's the beginning of the beginning of a people that's a humanistic Christianity. Don't fall for it, beloved. Don't fall for it. And sadly, it's not only among churches that have left the truth that there's apostasy, which will lead to the Antichrist. And to the young people leaving the church in droves for something more popular, sadly, it's not only where there's a departure from the truth. That might be relatively easy to discern. They've left the creeds, therefore, we're gonna leave. The hardest thing, I find, is often when there's a departure from the love of the truth. The Bible even speaks of that. In the last days, Men will leave the love of the truth, 2 Thessalonians 2, and they'll be given over to a spirit of delusion because they had the truth. And they became more important than the Savior. They who thought they had all the truth and that was what's gonna keep them and just have to mind the cans of dirt, maybe, or something like that, and you're in, as if there's an automatic devotion that's worked by orthodoxy. This is scary. The truth coming to people, the light actually shining in my heart and in your heart, And Jesus working there, that's the important thing. Truth, the reality of it, that gets to us by this wonderful work of God, and then we receive it, and we embrace it, and we're humble about it, and we're very humble and patient with others who may not have been raised the way we are, and so on. is what we strive for here, and we all are to strive for this. Truth in love, truth in reality that will cause us to live and die for Jesus. Let's never be the darkest place in the earth. Let's be the light of the world. And let's preach. As Jesus, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Preach the reality, kingdom of heaven is here. I'm here, kingdom of heaven is here. Now you, repent, turn, be converted, believe these things. And that's what we say today. Sinners, be converted. Turn to God. Turn from your worldliness to heavenly mindedness. Turn from what you think is good to what God thinks is good. Turn to God. Rejoice in the light. And having this wonderful light in your heart, in your life, live unto the glory of God. This will not always be A victory we might think needs to be before we're convinced that God is gaining the victory, because often the gospel comes and it falls on deaf ears. In fact, in Capernaum, Jesus made his home operation at Capernaum. He was raised in Nazareth. They rejected him. Raised in Capernaum, or he did his work from Capernaum. In Matthew 11, 23, 24, Jesus is pronouncing woes upon Capernaum. And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to hell or Hades. For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained unto this day. But I say to you, it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you." Judgment begins in the house of God. Judgment begins in a place where you hear the truth and there's rejection of the truth. Judgment, beloved, that's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Believe. And the victory and the promise is therefore for you, for light in your path. Enjoy that light. People of God, you go in the light and you be, continue to be, children of light. Amen. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for the dawn of the kingdom of heaven long ago. We pray that you would continue to bless us with light. You've shown once again, you've shined the light to the dark places of our own depravity and sinful nature. You've shown us that without light, we die, and that there's no way we can avoid the day of your wrath, and wrath on that day. Lord, in your light we trust, in your Son, And we pray, Lord, dispel all the darkness and all the doubt and all the gloom of our life, and we may truly give glory to the God who says, here's the fruit of my life, peace with me, and joy and great hope. Fill us, Lord, bless our church, those who've heard tonight. Keep us from evil and the evil also of letting the Word of God drop to the ground after we've heard it. May we go our way and may it be your way, speaking to one another of the things of grace and of the gospel, things we've heard with resolutions to live out of faith in light of the truth we've heard. For Christ's sake, amen.