Well, good morning and welcome to our worship service this morning. We're very glad you could join us on this wonderful and beautiful day the Lord has given to us. I do have just a couple of announcements before we get started here today. Our call to worship, to make known to the sons of men, his mighty ax and the glorious majesty of his kingdom. Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and your dominion endures throughout all generations. The Lord upholds all who fall and raises up all who are bowed down from Psalm 145 verses 12 through 14. A couple of announcements here. We will have a meeting for those that are helping out with the prison ministry next weekend, right after service in the Fellowship Hall. So those that are participating in that, I would assume would know, please meet in the Fellowship Hall after service. Looking forward to this week, Wednesday will be our prayer meeting at 6.30 here at the church as we are praying for the church and those that are in need of prayer, and also going through the second book of Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan. And then next Sunday, April 13th, will be our membership class at 9.30, our youth and adult Bible studies at the same time, and then also our worship service as always at 10.30. As we look out to later in the month, our Good Friday service will be on April 18th at 6.30 here in the sanctuary. And then that Sunday, the 20th, not only will we have worship, but we'll actually begin with our Easter pancake breakfast. I have 9 a.m. on the bulletin. I've heard that that may be eight. So luckily we still have a week or so for me to clarify that and make sure that you guys are aware. But that will be in the fellowship hall. The Easter pancake breakfast will be in the fellowship hall and then obviously we'll come in here in the sanctuary for Easter worship. And then looking toward the end of the month will be our family fun night on the 25th of April at 630 here at the church. I think that's all the announcements that we have. We could have the youth come up. Deuteronomy 32.4 He is the rock, his work is perfect, for all in his ways are justice, a God of truth and without injustice. Righteous and upright is he. Deuteronomy 32.4 uh uh um uh uh And all God's people said, Amen. If you would stand with me, please, we'll begin our worship today by reciting together the statement of our belief that we know as the Apostles' Creed. If you're unfamiliar with the Apostles' Creed, you can find it on the inside cover of the bulletin if you received one when you came in. What do you believe? I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried. He descended into Hades. The third day, he rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sitteth on the right hand of God, the Father Almighty. From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Christian Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen. Our opening hymn today is hymn number 86, Great is Thy Faithfulness. Hymn number 86. ♪ Great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father ♪ So shall I be with thee. Thou changest not thy compassions, David, thou. And thou, David, do not forget the Holy Grail. Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave ♪ Summer and winter and springtime and harvest ♪ ♪ Sun and moon and stars in their close midst above ♪ ♪ To play with all nature in their equal witness ♪ ♪ To thy reign recognize Christendom ♪ It's the life we've missed. It's the life we've missed. I look into the seas I've seen. We have not been provided. It's the life we've missed. ♪ I love to hear you ♪ ♪ Our lovely boys take a lonely step in glory ♪ ♪ I love your presence each day and tonight ♪ ♪ Strangle to death with confidence in my heart ♪ Stains of blood will take us every step. Our greatest and faithfulness, greatest I've been blest. I, in my glory, never cease my singing. I can't be without that friend for all I've been. It's the biggest disappointment. Good morning, everyone. We're so thankful to be able to come to the House of the Lord to worship together in prayer. We have always certain needs in the congregation that we can be holding up. Some of our elderly, Laverne Thompson, continue prayer for him. We hold up Alice Stone continually as well, and of course, Dale and Marlene weekly. We're thankful this morning as one of our own, one of our own leaders, Matthew Sarter, is going to be breaking the bread of life to us and ministering the word of God. And so we want to be holding him up in prayer even as we're singing and worshiping the Lord. And we look forward to being fed from God's word today. And what a blessing it is. He's you know him as one of our deacons and he's the adult Sunday school teacher as well. So let's go to the Lord in prayer. Let's bow together. Our Father, we're so blessed. We're so blessed to be a part of your people. We know that it is not because of our own selves that we are your children, Lord. It is because of your grace and your mercy. It is your abundant work in our lives. You called us and adopted us as your own children. You've set us apart to a life of holiness in Your Word. And we just praise You, Father, for the many good things. For we see Your goodness each day in the land of the living, and we rejoice in Your goodness. We rejoice in Your faithfulness, as we just sang a few moments ago. We see Your greatness, and it causes us to lift our minds up and our hearts up. as we give you praise. Father, in this congregation, we always have many needs, even large churches and small churches alike. We know that each day, everyone must die to self and live for you. In Skounceton, those times are often pain that no one knows of, but you know. So we pray for those who face pain each day. We pray, Lord, that you'd strengthen their soul. We pray for those who are healing. or who have a chronic disease or a cancer, Lord, we just pray that you'd strengthen their soul. Heal their body in accordance with your will. We trust you, Lord, and we hold up our dear elderly. We hold up Laverne Thompson each week. Thank you for his faithfulness. Strengthen his soul and Alice Stone. We also pray, Lord, for Dale and Marlene, continued strength for them. Thank you for your goodness and kindness to us. Make us aware of one another, willing to reach out. We do hold up this morning the ministry of your word. We pray for our brother Matthew, indeed, that you would strengthen his soul. Give him the words to speak and the courage and the grace, Lord. Thank you for that work. What a blessing it is to continue to praise your holy name, and so we trust in you, Lord, that we will worship you with our heart, soul, our mind, and all of our strength, giving you the praise and the glory in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. If you would stand with me, please. Our hymn of preparation today is hymn number 78, Grace Greater Than Our Sin, hymn number 78. Please. Please. Please. ♪ Praise, praise God's praise ♪ ♪ Praise the heavens with them ♪ ♪ Praise, praise God's praise ♪ ♪ Praise that is greater than the highest heaven ♪ ♪ Sin and despair like the sea waves ♪ ♪ In the song within burning hearts ♪ ♪ Creates that is waywardness, grace and hope ♪ ♪ Points to the river into the milky path ♪ ♪ Grace, grace, your power's grace ♪ ♪ Grace that will harm in the clenched fist ♪ He breaks God's grace. Grace that is greater than a heart's skin. Dark is the stain that we bear. Can a whale do a shiver? Blood of a prince, blood queen of crimson tide. who may be today. Praise, praise, God's praise. Praise the God that lives within. Praise, praise, God's praise. Praise that who greater than our sin. ♪ Our world is never a matchless place ♪ ♪ We may stop, but not believe it ♪ ♪ In the light we see it's place ♪ ♪ In this moment it's grace we see ♪ ♪ Grace, grace, God's grace ♪ ♪ Grace of the Lord ♪ Please remain standing as Norm comes and leads us through our scripture reading today. Morning. We're gonna read Psalms 116, it's on page 702 in your Q Bible if you don't have one. 702, we're gonna read the entire psalm. Let's begin. I love the Lord because he has heard my voice and my supplication. Because he has inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call upon him. all along as I live. The pains of death surround me, and psalms of Saul lay behold of me. I found trouble and sorrow. Then I called upon the name of the Lord. O Lord, why you deliver my soul. Gracious is the Lord and righteous. Yes, our God is merciful. The Lord preserves the simple. I was brought low and he saved me. Return your rest, Oles. For the Lord has dealt bountifully with you. For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living. I believe, therefore, I spoke. I am gratefully afflicted. I said in my haste, all men are liars. What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits towards me? I will take up the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows to the Lord now in the presence of all his people. Precious is the sight of the Lord in the death of his saints. Oh Lord, truly I am your servant. I am your servant, the son of your maidservant. You have loosed my bond. I will offer to you sacrifices of thanksgiving. I will call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows to the Lord, now in the presence of all his people, in the courts of the Lord's house, in the midst of you, oh Jerusalem. Praise the Lord. May the Lord take pleasure in the reading of his word. Morning. Okay, so. 1st, I'd like to thank you all for your support for your prayers. It's not a great deal to me in terms of. Preparation for this day and for the code that I had last week, which kept me from being here. But I think that you'll find that might have worked in your favor. And, um, so warm welcome to our, our friends, our family, um, visitors, and I thought it prudent. To begin by assuring you all that, um, I know where I stand. And, um. the responsibility that comes with this pulpit and with the history and the legacy of this church and of all the great men of God that have actually graced this pulpit, pastors, theologians, missionaries, et cetera. I am none of those things, so my only claim is Jesus Christ as Redeemer, and that's really all we need. As it is said, the ground is level at the foot of the cross, and the Lord doesn't keep bad company, just repentant sinners. So I grew up under the notion that children were to be seen and not heard. And so consequently, I am heavily introverted. And I would prefer to be a fly on the wall as I'm more comfortable there. But that's not to be, especially today. And so a small piece of my story was that I was raised by some God-fearing Catholic parents, and when I was five years old, my mother and father were very much involved in the church, and so they would arrive early. And when this happened, this one particular day, I was placed in the third pew on the right, as was our custom and our place, and I was told to stay put, right? And so I did. But, Over the course of the church filling up before service. Um, a 5 year old kid had a conversation with the Lord. Okay. And what. What all was said, I can't really tell you, but I can give you, um. The conclusion of the matter and mind you, this is a 5 year old 5 year olds language and the sum and substance of it came to this. Lord, I don't know if all this is real. but I know you are." And that, my friends, is a confession. It's not a perfect confession, but it's a confession just the same. And it's a confession that I believe that the Lord is honored on his timetable in bringing me here to this church. And very briefly, and how that came to be was that, you know, in my 20s, I loved rock and roll. So I have that in common with a few of you. And at any rate, I was I was channel surfing on the radio one day, and I caught this old preacher with this very raspy kind of distinct voice. And he He caught my attention. And so I tuned in, I listened to this guy and I found it very interesting because he was explaining scripture. And what I didn't know at the time is that he was an expositional preacher and he was doing exegesis. He was actually explaining the word and what it meant as he went along. And you may be familiar with this guy's program. It was called Through the Bible. And so that was kind of my introduction into actual scripture. Not that the Catholic Church was deficient per se, but in terms of getting to the meat of the word, that was my first introduction. And so from there, over the course of some years, I would catch this guy periodically, which led to Christian Radio, which led to another friend of mine that I came across much later. And basically, we had an affinity for Bob Duco and the truth. And I was always amazed by all these, people and the guests that he would have on, and he was very strong in the faith, if you know Bob Duco. But anyway, short version of that is that person attended here and he said to me this, he goes, look, if you love Bob Duco, you've got to come here, Pastor Dickie. And so that's what that's what got me here. And so I've been here ever since. So, so that's kind of a little bit of my story. We have a very ambitious text today. It is the biblical narrative from Luke concerning the. the trial of Jesus. And so the trouble with some narratives like this is that they're large in scope, but I was very reassured because my instincts were kind of confirmed when I came across in Barclay's exposition that he thought that this should be handled as a whole. It could be broken down into parts later, but as a whole, the text should be handled all at once simply because of All of the dynamics that are going on. And so that's that's basically where we're at. And that's that's what we're going to cover this morning. So, um, Additionally, we'll be looking at it from multiple perspectives. So you need to consider this like a game of chess or like looking at a chess board, like if you were circling around it, watching the players make their moves, because you would have a perspective that the people that are actually engaged in the game aren't going to have. And so that's kind of what I hope to do. And by shifting around the perspectives from, say, the Sanhedrin and Pilate and Jesus, that we'll get a really, really very broad treatment of of what is actually going on in the text. So try and keep that in mind. And the theme of this is really the inevitability of God or God's sovereign grace, God's sovereign plan of salvation and how he works out redemption. And at length, like I said, we're going to go verse to verse, just one at a time, just because the text is so long, it would just serve our purposes much better if we just go one for one. With that, let's go to the Lord in prayer. Gracious Heavenly Father, Lord, we just thank you for this day. We thank you for the opportunity to come together in your house, Lord, and to have your word proclaimed and to have... The word exposit in a way that's that's readily understandable and that it's accessible to us that will increase our understanding and it just bless our lives when we really get to see into the inner workings of all that went on and all that you went through to to to get to the cross to redeem a fallen man. and to save us from our sins. And so Lord, we just give you all the thanks and the praise and the glory for what you're gonna do here today. And we just ask that you would bless and pour out your spirit upon these people and that you would give your word power and in effect changes in lives and just really draw people closer to yourself in Jesus' name, amen. Okay, so if you will open your copy of the scriptures to Luke chapter 23, That's where we will spend the bulk of our time. And before we get going, I had a whole history of Rome set for you, but we just don't have the time. So I'll give you a little bit of background information on Pilate, because he's pretty much the main character in this story, aside from, obviously, Jesus. Pontius, the name suggests that he was of a Samnite origin and Samnite was an actual tribe in Italy and they were derivatives of the Sabines and basically that's just kind of the lineage of it and there's actually some historical evidence to suggest that he was actually of like their royal line or the line of leadership because his name is shared with other leaders from the first to third century. He had some affiliation with that potentially now. We know that pilot was of the equestrian order in the Roman Empire, which basically means that he's a middle rank of Roman nobility essentially. Right? So this means that he's going to be highly educated more than likely somewhat wealthy. And when, when we look at the scriptures in Luke, we're going to see. generally his contempt for not only religion of the Jewish people, but of the pagan religions as well. He had really no place for it because, and I believe and other scholars believe that he was actually brought up as a Stoic, which is very fitting for the time and it was very popular with the Roman military leadership. So you're gonna see some of the outworkings of that belief system. And what I mean by that is particularly the principles of duty and maintaining order in stressful circumstances. Those are kind of the two big things that you can see very readily in the text and how he's trying to control the situation as he goes. And if you're not familiar with the Stoics, there was basically four virtues. It was wisdom, justice, courage, and temperance. And if you really think about it, as we're going through this, you're going to see how he's trying to hold it all together. But ultimately, he's compromised in the ends and completely fails and violates all of the virtues that he would have actually tried to stand for had he been an actual Stoic, or if he was an actual Stoic. So there's your background on Pilate. So in chapter 23, one to 25 is where our focus will be. This is following, of course, Jesus' arrest in the garden. There was, you know, of course, Peter's three denials outside the high priest's house, and where they first took Jesus to try and basically put together the accusations and assemble their case, you know, preemptively before they actually took him to a formal trial to give it the veneer of legitimacy. So they end up there and they're awaiting daybreak with the assembly of the chief priests, scribes, and elders, right? And so what I hadn't planned on doing until yesterday was actually expanding the text by a couple of verses. And we're actually going to backtrack into Luke 22 for six verses, because that really sets the table for everything that follows. So To set more of the scene, we've got the Sanhedrin, you know, this preemptively that the 1st meeting that happens and, you know, we know that's the Supreme Court of the Jews. We know that's composed of 70 members. We know it's got scribes, Pharisees, rabbis, priests and Sadducees and Sadducees largely control it because they're the political elite. And so, and this is overseen and ruled by the high priest, who we know, of course, is Caiaphas in this case. And he has jurisdiction, essentially, over all religious and theological issues. And they convene this court formally in the Hall of Hewden Stone. We won't see that till we hit 23, but that's where it's, that's where it'll end up. So in the meantime, they're over at the high priest's house, and this is from Luke 22, verse 66. And as soon as it was day, the elders of the people and chief priests and scribes came together and led him into their council, saying, Art thou the Christ? Tell us. And he said unto them, If I tell you, ye will not believe. And if I also ask you, ye will not answer me, nor let me go. Hereafter shall the son of man sit on the right hand of the power of God. Then said they all, art thou the son of God? And he said unto them, ye say that I am. And they said, what need we any further witness? For we ourselves have heard of his own mouth. Now, to break this down a little bit, there's a couple of rules involved in the Sanhedrin and in actual formal trials. And so, What they have is, we'll look at three rules, essentially. So the first rule is that they can only convene court during the daylight hours, right? And this is obviously the middle of the night, so they couldn't actually hold a formal court, but they will as soon as we get to 23. And then the second thing, or second rule was, all charges must be supported by at least two witnesses, right? And they have to be independently examined, right? And then the third rule was that the sentence of death could never be carried out on the day it was given. This required them to sleep on it so that their condemnation might actually turn to mercy. So the time must be allowed for reflection, right? These are their rules. And then in terms of acquiring the votes for condemnation, it was essentially 50% of the vote plus two. And for an acquittal, it was 50% plus one, right? So, the central charge that they're fishing for is laid out in verse 67, art thou the Christ, right? And he says, if I tell you, you will not believe. And then in 68, Jesus responds, and if I ask you, you will not answer me nor let me go. Now, there's three words here that are important, ask you and about, all right? Because what Jesus is actually trying to do, he's actually trying to lead them to himself with this question. And what I mean by that is, is he's trying to authenticate what is of God. This is the same thing he did for John the Baptist in Luke chapter 20, verses four to seven, when he's asking, you know, was John's service of God, of heaven? And then they say, neither will we tell you. And then Jesus says, neither will I answer you, right? So the process of the thought is authenticate what is of God. And then secondly, you take that authentication and then you would move to scripture. Because if you can authenticate it's of God, then you can authenticate it's of scripture, then you would be able to authenticate his messiahship. So there's the whole thought process that's really pregnant in that verse. All right, so that's what Jesus is trying to do with them and they're not getting it. And there's also, this whole thing is loaded with irony, but here's one of them. They would not answer him openly, but demanded that from him, essentially, right? And so what Jesus is doing here is he's checking their hypocrisy. He's establishing their hypocrisy because they don't want to authenticate what's of God. They don't want to authenticate the scriptures or his messiahship, right? He knows they're not going to answer, and so he's basically just like, you're a hypocrite because you don't even want to listen to me. It doesn't matter what I say, basically. All right, and so that reveals that this is just a means to an end for the Sanhedrin, right? They have an agenda. Okay, so you will not answer me fairly or directly, seriously or soberly, which speaks to their motives, the hardness of their heart. They had a low view of scripture and a high view of their own ability to please God. Then we go to 69. Hereafter shall the son of man sit on the right hand of the power of God. And what this is, is an affirmation of the Messiahship. And we're not gonna turn there, but you can find it in Daniel chapter seven, verses 13 and 14. That's the reference for that verse. And it talks about, or infers that he would very soon be seated at the right hand of God. and would receive the divine authority of that position. And what's ironic also is that they are not realizing that they're the ones that are putting him there. It's phenomenal. Okay, Alexander McLaren commenting on the same passage says, it is fitting that the representatives of Israel, however prejudiced, should hear At the supreme moment, the full assertion of deity, it was fitting that Israel should condemn itself by threatening that claim as blasphemy. It was fitting that Jesus should bring about his death by the twofold claim, one made to the Sanhedrin of being the son of God, and then secondly, before Pilate, of being the king of the Jews. So the Sanhedrin, essentially, was looking for what they wanted the Messiah to be. I mean, we know this. And not what the scripture actually revealed him to be. If they had, for a moment, considered the prophecies, or gone through the process of authenticating God, the scriptures, and the Messiah, they would have come to the obvious conclusion. And they have this against them, from John 3, 2, for no man can do these things except God be with him. That was a testimony of their own people. The mistake of the Sanhedrin is often very much our mistake in a smaller way perhaps. Do we see Jesus as he's revealed in scripture or do we impose our thoughts and will upon him? Is our Jesus the Jesus of scripture or a Jesus of a religion? Or as the Sanhedrin saw him and desired him to be something that he was not, right? So meaning another Jesus. So if we have the right Jesus, then naturally obedience from love should follow. We should crucify the flesh through thought, prayer, fasting. We should pursue him in his word. We should desire communion with him and fellow believers. We should worship and praise him and actually delight to do so. It's not a duty. It's not something to do. It's something we get to do. It's amazing. So the question beyond that question would be how will we know him and be known by him if we don't? you know, if we're not participating, if we're not pursuing, if we're not going after him. Verse 70. Then said they all, art thou then the son of God? And he said to them, ye say that I am. The entire Sanhedrin in this verse is actually implicated. If you look at the Greek meaning for all, it's every or the whole, but we know that there are certain exceptions to this, so we don't know necessarily. It could just be the whole of all that were there. It could be the majority, but it really leans toward all of them. But the exceptions, of course, would be Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea, and maybe a few other potential sympathizers. Now, what's interesting about the accusation is they said that he was the son of God. That was the claim that the charge of blasphemy. And so they're assigning that to him, but they're not believing it. And they're affirming that it is by what they said and did to him. Does that make sense? That's a little twisted. So, Again, what is interesting about this is they said that he was the son of God, but believed not, and then on the other hand, they affirmed it by what they said and did to him. More irony, I suppose. Meaning their actions fulfilled the scriptures, and yet they were blind to both, and worse, their own conscience is being seared in the process. So they had the testimony of people, that were healed, that was readily available, and they had their own conscience. And so really what you have with the Sanhedrin is unbelief in all of its forms. It's full unbelief and the denial of their own conscience. Then verse 71, they asked the question, what need we any further witness? Previously, they'd been looking for the false witnesses, and you'll notice the shift in the narrative here. And the use of witness in the singular meant that they considered Jesus' own words as the testimony against himself, right? So the charge worthy of death was blasphemy, and that was alleged and agreed upon by the council at this point. Now, interestingly enough, Rome would not allow them to enforce the death penalty for this offense, nor did they render nor did they want to render it themselves for fear of being unclean or polluted, as we're going to see shortly, because of the Feast of Passover. And another reason for not stoning Jesus was simply the fact that he was well-loved. He was very popular. And so they essentially needed a scapegoat, which is also ironic. And that scapegoat was Rome. So that brings us to Luke 23. Verse one, and the whole multitude of them arose and led him to Pilate. And they began to accuse him, saying, we found this fellow perverting the nation, forbidding to give tribute to Caesar, and saying that he himself is Christ the King. So we see the charges right here, and they're in three pieces, perverting the nation, forbidding to give tribute to Caesar, and claiming to be a king. And then in verse three, we see Pilate get involved. And Pilate asked him, saying, Art thou king of the Jews? And he answered him and said, Thou sayest it. Now Pilate's question was to see if Jesus was in fact a threat, basically to Caesar. You know, was this another king rising up and trying to take over, right? That was the concern. And so anyway, Jesus affirms his kingship right there, but this takes us to the Gospel of John because what's missing in Luke is the entire exchange between Pilate, the Sanhedrin, and Jesus. And so if you turn over into the Gospel of John chapter 18, we're gonna pick it up at verse 28 where this narrative actually collects itself. It says this, then led they Jesus from Caiaphas unto the hall of judgment and it was early. They themselves went not into the judgment hall lest they should be defiled but that they might eat the Passover. So in 28, this happens during the fourth watch, which is generally between four and six a.m. MacArthur says it was probably around five at the break of day. And so essentially the Sanhedrin is more concerned about ritual purity and the law of Moses allegedly, and never minding all the other laws and whatnot that they're breaking. So in verse 29, Pilate then went out unto them and said, what accusation bring ye against this man? So what you need to be watching here is pilots going to move from the judgment hall to the street, right? And this is like a separation of witnesses. It's what they do in modern interrogations. They try and separate the people, even at a traffic accident, so they can get all these stories, but they should all come together and tell essentially the same story, right? And that's what we have in the four gospels. It's the same thing. It's all told from different perspectives, but it all comes together. And so here pilots basically affecting the same kind of a result by, um, interrogating the Jews and then interrogating Jesus. So Pilate goes out to him in 29, what accusation bring ye against this man? And they respond in verse 30, they answered and said unto him, if he were not a malefactor, we would have not have delivered him up to thee. Well, that's kind of crazy because a malefactor is an evildoer or a criminal in the Greek. And that's tantamount to saying that, oh, he's a bad guy because we said so. That's literally the charge. And so, no surprise, Pilate sees through this in verse 31. is not lawful. And this is the result of the political restrictions or because of the feast. It's debated, but realistically, it's both. Josephus and the Talmud record that, you know, 40 years before the destruction of the temple, they had The right of the sword removed from them and so that would fit perfectly in this timeline now It doesn't mean that they didn't go ahead and execute people. We can look at James. We can look at Stephen we can look at You know certain cases along the way and so I think that Rome had a policy basically of just You know where it had to do with like religious zeal or fervor or if a Gentile made it into the temple, you know They wouldn't interfere with with something like that. They would just let it go. They would brush it under the carpet as it were So that's the official position. And isn't it interesting that the Jews are actually going to Rome and citing law to them. Oh, it's not lawful for us. Interesting. They had no respect for Rome. Anyway. It also reveals their desired result by innuendo, right? And then when we go down to verse 32, that saying of Jesus might be fulfilled, which he spake, signifying what death he should die. So in 32, we could look at a reference to say John 3.14 that says, and as Moses was lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. That's effectively what they're getting at. And then if we go to 33, then Pilate entered into the judgment hall again and called Jesus and said unto him, art thou king of the Jews? All right, so again, Pilate's traveling between the two, and he asks the only question ever really worth asking, and watch how Jesus responds in 34. It's incredibly calm, incredibly calm. 34, Jesus answered him saying, sayest thou this thing of thyself, or did others tell it thee of me? And so Dr. Petz, an expositor, Analyzes it looks at it this way. We'll say Jesus replied with a question. His reply was not a direct reply Was not direct because a direct reply would not have been the truth for while he was a messianic king He was not a king in the way that they meant so he asked was it pilot who was saying so or someone else? This sets pilot aback. This is not a question He's ready for and he could see that this was no belligerent pretender, but a calm self-assured rational person and he was a little disconcerted Right? So the interchange or the way Jesus is actually dealing with Pilate is not going to add up. It's completely foreign to him. It's not at all what he's expected or even what he's used to. So the question is, who's in control here? It's he who's asking the questions, right? All right, 35. Pilate answered, am I a Jew? Thine own nation and chief priests have delivered thee unto me. What hast thou done? And this is where Pilate's patience is worn thin already. And you can really feel the incredulity and contempt in the verse if you actually just read it right. And what I mean by that is, am I a Jew? Thine own nation and chief priests have delivered thee unto me. What hast thou done? A little different, right? So, now notice that Jesus, as he responds in 36, does not answer Pilate's query directly again. Jesus answered, and we'll actually take it to 37. All right, so Pilate's question was to see if Jesus was a threat to Caesar. That's the reason he keeps asking. He's trying to establish, you know, whether there's a revolt or a rebellion brewing. And Jesus affirms his kingship, but not of this realm, else my servants would fight. Answers in such a way, are we going from faith to faith and strength? And again, if we look at this honestly, and we ask these questions, we know what the answers are. We do. We really do. And it's the prayer. It's the being in the word. It's the fasting. It's worship. It's praise. It's gathering together for these corporate things and doing them together as well. So from that, we can actually travel back after this declaration, we can actually go back to Luke and we can pick back up in verse four, which is effectively the same verse in John 38, where we have the declaration of innocence, right? Then Pilate said to the chief priests and to the people, I find no fault in this man. And then we come down to verse 5 says, and they were the more fierce saying, he stirs up the people teaching throughout all jewelry, beginning from Galilee to this place. Now, this is an interesting piece. because it's a new accusation, it's a weaker accusation. It's not actually a charge, but its effectiveness isn't in the fact of its weakness, which is deceiving. It's actually pretty potent when taken as the whole. And what I mean by that is the first allegation is he stirs up the people or he excites the people. That right there is a cause for revolt or sedition and would get a Roman emperor's attention very quickly. Teaching throughout all Jewry, which is the land of Judah, the idea that everywhere he goes this exciter of the people is going out there and the insinuation is that it's bad on the whole and that he's essentially fomenting rebellion. And then the third part, which is like the insult, Galilee was known as a backwater. It was a place of political unrest, banditry and tax revolts happened there. And so it's just, it's, it's an altogether wrong side of the track situation, but worse than that in the south part of Galilee, you have Nazareth. So if, if Galilee is the backwater, uh, Nazareth is the swamp, if you will. And then, um, To buoy that up or to give you some perspective on it, we can look at John 1 46, where the Lord's picking up his disciples, and in this case, Nathanael, and he hears of Jesus of Nazareth, and he says, can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? And so what we see is a common perspective that was held by a large percentage of the population at the time, Is that Nazareth was was indeed just a bad place and bad characters and bad actors came out of there. So this, this 3 fold accusation that they're bringing it is. while it may seem weak on the surface, it's actually quite potent. So Pilate previously had a quarrel and a tax insurrection in Galilee and put it down. And the Galileans on the whole were reckoned as a seditious people and had been drawn into rebellion and suffered loss for it. So this is the picture they're painting and they're giving this to Pilate, right? Because they're, They're trying to put him into a position where he has to do something, and that something is taking out Jesus Christ. But if you boil the argument down, it comes down to this. They argue Jesus is a bad guy because we said so. He stirs up the people, and look, he's even from the bad part of town, and you know how those guys are. All right, and so Pilate's already tried to acquit Jesus twice, and that's why the scribes and Pharisees are reacting the way they do, and they come up just with this violence in terms of their response, you know? All right, so verse six, Pilate attempts to figuratively wash his hands because the Galilean thing gave him an out, and And it says this, when Pilate heard of Galilee, he asked whether the man were a Galilean. And as soon as he knew that he had belonged to Herod's jurisdiction, he sent him to Herod, who himself was also in Jerusalem at the time. And again, we know this is the time of the feast. And so the population in Jerusalem is going to be swollen. It's going to be massive. And so that's why, you know, Herod was local for it because he was a pseudo pretending to be a Jew at some point. And then Pilate was obviously there for military reasons and control and population. So, Jesus is sent to Herod Antipas, who actually killed John the Baptist, right? So keep that in mind, and we're gonna take 8 to 11. And when Herod saw Jesus, he was exceedingly glad, for he was desirous to see him of a long season, because he had heard many things of him, and he had hoped to have seen some miracle done by him. Then he questioned him with many words, but he answered him nothing. And the chief priests and the scribes stood vehemently to accuse him, vehemently accused him. And Herod, with his men of war, set him at naught, mocked him, arrayed him in a gorgeous robe, and sent him again to Pilate. Again, there's a lot going on here. So, essentially, Herod, for a long time, wanted to see him. It was basically an amusement, okay? He asked Jesus a multitude of questions. Jesus responds to absolutely zero. And then in verse 10, we see vehemently or intensely or mightily, as the Greek translation has it, you know, this is where they're at a shouting fervor, essentially, right? And then Antipas treats Jesus like a sideshow, no respect for his alleged Jewish faith. There's no respect for Jesus as a prophet for which he more than qualified for, and everyone knew it. And there's no respect for Jesus as a person, right? So he treated Jesus with contempt, ridicule, and scorn. Some kind of king, right? Now, verse 12, we see Herod sending him back to Pilate. And that same day, Pilate and Herod were made friends together for before they were at Edmonton between themselves. And the short, short, short version of this is, this is how it worked. Antipas was pleased that Pilate would even consider him or respect his jurisdiction by sending Jesus to him, right? And so, that was a huge thing for Pilate and then, or for both of them really. And so Pilate was impressed that Herod would actually acquiesce his role, his leadership, his right to try the case and send him back to Rome effectively. And so basically reciprocity created a mutual respect and they end up as buddies, short version. All right, 13. Okay, 13. and Pilate when he had called together the chief priests and the rulers of the people. Now notice he's calling them together because what he's setting up for is a declaration, all right? That's why that verse is there, it's why it's important. Now, We come to 14 and it says this, So what... Pilate's doing here is he's basically one. He's presenting the accused to he's stating the charge three. He's He's saying that he's examined him and he's actually incorporating the Jews into that as witnesses that you were here when I did it and then fourthly, he's rendering a verdict of innocence for the second time, right or whatnot. Anyway, so he renders this verdict, and the first declaration of it, as we know, is in 4, and then we come to verse 15. "'No, nor yet Herod, for I sent you to him, "'and lo, nothing worthy of death is done unto him.'" So on 15, Pilate is basically invoking Herod's testimony, Herod's findings, Herod's declaration of innocence, okay? And now Herod Antipas, who was the Tetrarch of Galilee and Perea, was the son of King Herod, right? Who actually tried to kill Jesus in his infancy. Right? And this is the guy that says Jesus is innocent. You can't make it up. Let that stew. All right. And then the governor of a Roman province of Judea, the largest empire on earth with the most people under her rule at the time. Nearly a quarter of the world's population is under Roman rule. And a greater audience and a greater witness could not be had anywhere on planet earth. And when Pilate declared Jesus innocent on behalf of all Rome, just governor is representative of Rome declared him innocent. So verse 16, I will therefore chastise him and release him. 17, for of necessity he must release unto them, one unto them at the feast. So chastise him and release him. This is basically an attempt to gratify the accusers while presuming that said gratification resulting in the disgrace, the ridicule, and the whipping would suffice. In verse 17, that was just a customary thing that they did. Verse 18, And they cried out all at once saying, away with this man and release unto us Barabbas. Now the word cried here in the Greek means to scream up. And so I have a question for you if you've been paying attention. What did they accuse Jesus of doing in verse five? Stirring up the people. What do you suppose they're doing right here? Stirring up the people. You got it. So, interesting. Okay, verse 20. Pilate, therefore, willing to release Jesus, spake again to them. And this is, I believe, from Dr. Petz as well. But Pilate, desirous of releasing Jesus because he was convinced of his innocence, made a further plea for his release. The ludicrous nature of the situation is revealed. The judge was pleading with the prosecutors. And this was so unlike Pilate, who had a reputation for acting abruptly and brutally, that it probably arose because of the fear that Pilate had of a complaint going to Caesar that he had failed in his duty of protecting Judea from a self-proclaimed king. It was no longer a case of guilt or innocence at this point, and everyone knew it. It had become a political seesaw, and the question was whether Pilate would do the right thing or give in to essentially political blackmail. that's really where they've got him. So the crux of the dilemma for Pilate's problem was that in the past he had tried to abruptly and brutally enforce his will on the Jews in a number of ways, and after revealing his cruelty, he had to back down, something which no doubt already known to the emperor, or at least he would suppose. Thus, he was well aware of the contempt against, the complaint against him, And it might mean the end of his career and it was something that he dared not risk. Thus he did not want to provide them with any cause for complaint. Yet at the same time, it was clear that his conscience was at work. This man, Jesus, made an impression on him and he did not want to condemn him. And on top of that, he also did not want to give the Jewish leaders their way. Okay, 21. But they cried, saying, Crucify Him, Crucify Him. And in 21, we have a word for cry that only occurs three times in the New Testament. Epiphaneo and it means to call it something to exclaim or give a shout or cry against and it's that cry against that is the final piece. So, you know, in all these, you know, these Greek words and these definitions are carrying the idea of the intensity of them shouting down Jesus and railing these accusations at him. I mean, this is a mob that's eventually or essentially fomenting right before Pilate at this point. All right, 22. And he said unto them the third time, Why? What evil hath he done? I found no cause of death in him. I will therefore chastise him and release him." And this is where this whole study really started for me when I hit the words third time because I'd never really added it up personally. And when you start to analyze the text and you see how much is actually happening in between the verses and the intentions of them, it's pretty incredible. So first declaration was in verse four, second declaration was in 14, and now we have the third time in verse 22. And we also have to look at some of these witnesses. We have Pilate, who's the Roman governor, by extension, the Jews that were with him, right? We have Antipas, the Tetrarch of Galilee, and we have Judas, who we did not cover, but we'll mention here because in Matthew 27, four, Judas says, And short, short, short phrase, I have sinned in that I have betrayed innocent blood. Now, the implications from those couple words are pretty staggering. So what's interesting about Judas is that this confession by Jewish law would have resulted in his own death, okay, because he already made these charges of the capital case. And he's the one that got bought off. And, to acquire Jesus, all right? So effectively, his confession would have resulted in death either way. The second interesting thing about that confession, it would have necessitated Jesus' acquittal, right? Because it fell within the day's grace of that 24-hour period for mercy to prevail in a capital case where the death penalty had been invoked. And the Sanhedrin effectively ignored that rule, right? And they disregarded Judas's confession. So right here, they're guilty of at least two additional crimes by their own law. All right, verse 23. And they were instant with loud voices requiring that he might be crucified, and the voices of them and of the chief priests prevailed. Now the requiring word in the Greek has the idea of a beggar, a calling forth, or a craving. And I believe I've actually heard Pastor Dickey cover this with this particular definition. It was a craving. I mean, these guys are salivating at the mouth trying to get Jesus put to death. The crowd was woke up to a fever pitch, and the Jews, despite the facts, would not take no for an answer. Rather than risk the tumult that they had whipped up, Pilate acquiesced, because why? because of Pax Romana, because of losing his job, because ultimately it was his life or Jesus's, right? If that revolt happened and there was an uprising, Pilate could be taken out for that. Okay. So Pilate chooses himself, which should surprise no one. And as Christians, we face similar decisions every day. I don't mean salvically unless you're presently unsaved, but what I mean is that every day, do we choose Christ in our disciplines? Do we choose Christ in our devotions? But more importantly, in our actions, is charity our defining feature? Is love the rule of our hearts? What are we known for? And what must we change? So in verse 24, Pilate gives sentence that it should be as they required. And there it is, the inevitability of God's plan, of God's sovereignty, of God's salvation. The path to the cross is certain at this point, and the redemption of fallen man is nigh. Pilate couldn't stop it, Judas couldn't stop it, because they couldn't. So in verse 25, And he released unto them for sedition and murder, was cast into prison whom they had desired, but he delivered Jesus to their will. And Dr. Petz, one more time on this. He delivered Jesus to their will. What words can be found to comment on this statement? It is almost incomprehensible. The flower of humanity, the light of the world, the son of God was delivered by Pilate, the representative of world power to the will of an evil crowd. He was handed over to the wolves and no one sought to stop it. And we may accept that Joseph of Arimathea, even possibly Rabban Gamaliel, were not happy with the decision, but they must have known it and yet made no open protests against it before Pilate. So there was no one to speak up for him. Luke wants us to know that responsibility lay with the whole of Jerusalem, not just the Sanhedrin, because they were all present in the shouting of crucify him. And in the list of dissenters, I think that we might be able to perhaps add even Nicodemus as he's spoken of in the Gospel of John. So we've looked at the dynamics surrounding Jesus' trial. We've seen the hypocrisy and the total corruption of the Jewish leadership. We've seen who is actually guilty of what. We have seen the inevitability of God's perfect plan, the absolute helplessness of Pilate to affect the outcome, or Judas for that matter. We've seen the blackmail of Pilate. We've seen the failure of his to act upon the truth of the matter. And frankly, I thank God for that, because if it didn't turn out this way, we would not have what we have today, right? We should have a profound appreciation for the orchestration of the plan of salvation, for how we see it advancing through the scripture, despite some people's opposition to it. Now, what about how contrary the efforts and purposes of both sides is able to bring about the necessary outcome, or contrary to the efforts of both sides, God is able to bring about the necessary outcome. When you look at the motives, the political intrigue, the maneuvering, the conniving, the lies, the deceit, when you look at the attempts to keep the peace, to pacify, to avoid the tumult, to avoid the insurrection, when you look at the threats to Pilate in his position as a governor, his livelihood, and his very life, it's a thrilling story because at the center, of all of this controversy is the Lamb of God, right? Who suffers all manner of indignity, the whippings, the spitting, the crown of thorns, the mockery, all this humiliation and injustice in the hands of his own people, and by extension, actually you and I. And isn't it interesting that in the final analysis of the trial of Jesus, did you ever consider for a moment that everybody got what they wanted? The Jews got Jesus crucified, Pilate avoided a tumult, and God saved mankind. Everybody got what they wanted. He came to die and suffer for the punishment and sin, your sin, my sin. The Jews had the law given them by Moses, a law that they could not keep by effort or works for by the law came the knowledge of sin and Christ is the end of the law to everyone that believeth. And so I would direct you to Romans 10 for the last thing we're gonna look at. Romans 10, starting in verse nine. That, if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, whosoever believeth on him shall not be assaimed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. We were all strangers to grace at some point. And it's fitting that the love of God redeemed fallen man. So it's fitting that love is actually the currency of heaven and that of salvation. And not only that, but it is the language of heaven and of the Christian life and reaching the lost. And it is the only thing that we actually leave this world with. So with that, I would like to close with something that I heard from this pulpit many times, and it's been in the front of every Bible I've had since I came here, and some of you will know this. Though the cover is worn and the pages are torn, and though places bear traces of tears, yet more precious than gold is this book worn and old that can shatter and scatter my fears. This old book is my guide, it is a friend by my side. It will lighten and brighten my way. In each promise I find, it soothes and gladdens my mind as I read it and heed it today. When I prayerfully look in this precious old book, Many love from the Father above, who is nearest and dearest to me. To this old book will I cling, of its worth will I sing, though great losses and crosses be mine. For I cannot despair those surrounded by care while possessing this blessing divine. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Gracious Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you for this day. We thank you for the word, and we just pray that you would apply it to your people, to their understanding, Lord, that you would give them the words of truth and of life and bless it upon their hearts and consciences and really let your love flow through them and just complete the work of your kingdom, complete the work of salvation, in these here your people, Lord, and we know that it is a daily process that we go through, and we just thank you for all of the grace and the mercy that you have shown us to bring us to this day, to bring us to your house, to lift up your name, to praise your name, and to magnify the Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen. If you would stand with me, please, we'll continue our worship with our, as the men prepare for communion. Hymn number 284 at the cross. Hymn number 284. All that I say, It was there by faith, received by sight. Now I am happy all the day. ♪ Was it woman's day ♪ ♪ We roared upon the tree ♪ ♪ Amazingly we raced ♪ ♪ And the media did ring ♪ ♪ We crossed and we crossed every spot of light ♪ ♪ And we braved the cold and the pain ♪ It was never my day, I received my smile, and now I'm happy all the day. Well, I'm happy to be with you. And I'm happy to be with you. ♪ And lost and lost ever is the light ♪ ♪ That I have found out all the way ♪ ♪ It was there I prayed that I could see myself ♪ ♪ And now I am happy all the day ♪ ♪ But I, I, I, I'm not afraid ♪ ♪ Of everything that's appeared to me ♪ It was there by faith I could see myself and now I am happy all the day. The crops are green and everywhere the field of love I know. Dear Lord, I hate myself and there's nothing I can do. But the grass, and the grass, and every stalk I know. Now I know. Great was their power, and I received my star, and now I am happy all the day. Blessing is to hear the word of God. cross, we celebrate the Lord's teaching, we celebrate to spend any step to lead us. As we enter into the Lord's table, oftentimes we mention just a few things before we begin. We invite you who have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, who are in obedience to Him to partake with us today. We note that this is not a sacrifice of Christ. And we often say that. We'll say that this is a table, that this is not an altar. The Lord Jesus, when he gave his life, he died one time for sinners. He died once and for all. When he paid the price, he paid it in full. As we contemplate the work of Christ on the cross, which is the theme of the Lord's Table, were reminded that he actually paid the penalty for our sins. There were ancient theories concerning what Christ did on the cross that sounded legitimate, but were off base. One of those was called the ransom theory, that when Christ was on the cross, he was actually paying off a debt to Satan. But you know that that's not true. that God, when He sent His Son to die on the cross, Jesus God the Son bore not only the sins of man, but He took on the wrath of God the Father. We cannot give Satan the power, so to speak, to be the one to whom the debt was paid. You see, God in his infinite justice and in his infinite mercy demanded a sacrifice for sin. It was himself. He gave his own son. There were other theories through church history, but some of those theories did not adequately embrace the idea that Christ actually paid the price for sin. We call the true teaching from the scripture, we call it that the atonement of Christ was a vicarious or a substitutionary atonement. We call it a penal sacrifice, meaning the wrath of God in its infinite nature was poured out on Christ. And we will try to wrap our minds around that in the coming weeks. This is what we celebrate with the Lord's Table. We remember his death till he comes. We're aware, if we have been redeemed, we are aware of the tremendous price that Christ paid for us. The scriptures are not silent to this. Peter says in his little epistle, he says, Christ himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree. that we, having died to sin, should live to righteousness, by whose stripes you were healed. Christ bore our sins in His body on the tree. John, in his small epistle, says that Jesus was the propitiation for our sins. That means He was the atoning sacrifice that bore the wrath of God. That word is hilosmos. It means The Father poured out his judgment for sin on the Son, who is the only one who could bear that penalty for us. This is the work of Christ on the cross. This is what we celebrate today. I want to invite you, if you will, to join with us in this time of celebration. If our men would stand at this time. I'm gonna ask Brother Ken if he would ask the blessing on the bread this morning. Dear Heavenly Father, oh, we thank you. Our words cannot express the gratitude that we have or should have for what you've done on the cross. As it's been said today, you paid the penalty, you paid the price that we should have paid. And in you yourself, you did it for all and you satisfied the Father. We contemplate this, we think of this today as we break bread and remember you. In Jesus' name, amen. Okay. the the the Okay. Okay. Okay. From the Apostle Paul's account in 1 Corinthians 11, we read the following. He said, For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, on the same night in which he was betrayed, he took bread, And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, take eat. This is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me. Shall we remember together? Our heavenly gracious Father, we come to you today, Lord, and give thanks for the blood you shed for our sins, Lord. You lived a life that we couldn't have, died the death that we deserve, Father, and through your blood, we will have everlasting life with you, and we give it all in Jesus' name, amen. so so I'm. Oh, Okay. In the same manner also he took the cup after supper saying, this cup is a new covenant in my blood. This do as often as you drink it in remembrance of me shall we remember together. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, You proclaim the Lord's death till he come, amen. Amen. If you would stand with me, please. Our hymn of response today is hymn number 180, Ann Kennedy, hymn number 180. ♪ Ann Kennedy ♪ ♪ Let our children win ♪ ♪ Let them sing the Savior's love ♪ ♪ Dying for me ♪ ♪ Who caused his pain ♪ ♪ For me who lived and ever stood ♪ ♪ Amazing love ♪ ♪ How good it would be ♪ ♪ I've got to stop for me ♪ ♪ I'll wait three blocks out in the rain ♪ ♪ And hope that God should come for me ♪ ♪ Three blankets full of snow will I walk alone ♪ ♪ Breathe the Lord in faith and praise ♪ ♪ Empty and sad only show His love ♪ ♪ And glad for an hour of selfless praise ♪ ♪ Tithe personally all, amen, say we do ♪ ♪ My God, how great Thou art, how great Thou art be ♪ ♪ How great Thou art, how great Thou art be ♪ ♪ That Thou, my God, hath chosen thy glory ♪ ♪ All mine Prince, and Savior, and Savior, and Savior be ♪ ♪ The winds in their majors died ♪ ♪ I knew so quickly they had all but died ♪ ♪ With my last days were gone ♪ ♪ I was free, I knew I was free ♪ ♪ We are raising love, hallelujah ♪ ♪ Children's cry for me, no condemnation ♪ ♪ For death, Jesus, still and young ♪ I didn't like it in there. They're open, but it's sexy back. All of their clothes keep turning on and on. And they ain't no brand of true love that's coming on. Let's continue to keep Matthew in our, in our prayers. This can be a very challenging time. This is also a reminder of how we should be with anyone who stands at this pulpit and opens God's word. Pastor is very experienced at this, but he needs our prayers just as much as anyone else that would stand here at this pulpit or any pulpit across the world. So keep him in your prayers in this time. Flesh and the devil will do a wondrous work on a man after he has opened God's word. So let's continue to lift him up in prayer. Our Father and our God, we are so grateful, Lord, for your word, for your Son, Christ Jesus, for the Holy Spirit, each doing their part, Lord, orchestrated and designed by you to seek the lost, to humble them before the cross of Christ, the sacrifice that Christ has done here on the cross to save us from our sins, shedding his own blood and taking upon himself our punishment. And Father, we see not just throughout all of history, how you have guided how history has unfolded, but just in these passages that Matthew opened up for us today, Lord, your sovereign hand guiding and orchestrating every step as you do throughout every day of our lives, how unlikely it was to accuse and convict an innocent person of what he did, and yet we see how you unfolded that and manipulated the situation to breaking their own laws and turning the minds of people that are willing to let him go as an innocent man so that you could accomplish, Father, your will and your design to save us unworthy sinners. We thank you, Father, for how you've guided through this. We thank you also, Father, for lifting up Matthew to stand in the gap, Lord, and to hoist your sword of truth today. Father, we thank you for this time. We pray, Lord, that you would be with him continually as he meditates upon the scriptures that he opened up for us today, Lord. Father, keep him in a positive attitude through this time. comfort him and help to protect him from the enemy. Lord, we thank you for the gifts that you've given to us. We ask, Lord, that you would lend us your wisdom as we use those gifts for the furtherance of your kingdom. And we pray that we honor you with all that we do. And we pray this now in Jesus' name, amen. Our parting praise, and if you're unfamiliar with our parting praise, you can find that on the inside of the bulletin there. Mother, we love you. We worship you. Lord, by thy name, call me your birth. Lord, by thy name. Lord, by thy name. Lord, by thy name, call me your birth. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all forevermore. Amen. God bless you all.