Luke 10, after these things, the Lord appointed 70 others also and sent them two by two before his face into every city and place where he himself was about to go. Then he said to them, the harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few. Therefore, pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go your way. Behold, I send you out as lambs among wolves. Carry neither money bag, knapsack, nor sandals, and greet no one along the road. But whatever house you enter, first say, peace to this house. And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest on it. If not, it will return to you. And remain in the same house, eating and drinking such things as they give, for the laborer is worthy of his wages. Do not go from house to house. Whatever city you enter and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you, and heal the sick there, and say to them, the kingdom of God has come near to you. But whatever city you enter and they do not receive you, go out into its streets and say, the very dust of your city which clings to us, we wipe off against you. Nevertheless, know this, that the kingdom of God has come near you. But I say to you that it will be more tolerable in that day for Sodom than for that city. Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will you be brought down to Hades? He who hears you, hears me. He who rejects you, rejects me. And he who rejects me, rejects him who sent me. Then the 70 returned with joy saying, Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name. And he said to them, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven." And at that hour, Jesus rejoiced in the spirits and said, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in your sight. All things have been delivered to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and the One to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. Then He turned to His disciples and said privately, Blessed are the eyes which see the things you see. For I tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see what you see, and have not seen it, and to hear what you hear, and have not heard it. Let's take a moment to ask the Lord to bless his word this morning. Lord our God, this is your word. It is gifted to us that we might know not just about you, but that we might also come to know you. And so we pray that you would do that work by your spirit this morning. Through the weakness of the flesh, the weakness of your servant, you would sow a seed and bring, Lord, the seed to grow and bear fruit of life, of repentance and faith and of a life of service for you. God, this is your work and we want you to receive all that glory. Equip me then to preach a faithful word and all of us to receive it. and to receive it well. Or whatever might be blocking our ears or stopping up our hearts, we pray remove it so that this truth, that faith in Christ could grow and be real. So bless this time, we pray in your word. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Well, this passage before us, is a weighty passage, it's a heavy passage. And it's a passage that carries much warning. We have the 70 being sent out. Jesus sends out the 72 by two, a larger group of disciples than the 12. And he sends them out to preach the gospel. But there was a call there that went out with that gospel. It was to be received or rejected. And if it's going to be rejected, then came the woes, the returning of peace, the warning of judgment. And then Jesus from there begins to tell the 70 and all who would listen about these places, Chorazin and Bethsaida and Capernaum, which were central to his ministry. Capernaum was his own hometown, as it were, the headquarters of his ministry. He warns them who had such privileges to hear the Gospel, to be in the Word, to hear it proclaimed, and to see the signs and wonders that accompanied the ministry of Christ, the healings, the casting out of demons. But he had rejected, by and large, had rejected Him as the Messiah. He was warning them of the judgment that would come. There is a response. There's no neutral in hearing the Gospel. You have a response. It's either to receive Jesus Christ by faith, or to reject Him for whatever reason you have decided you wanted to reject Him. But this passage of weight and this passage really of woe, of warning, also then begins to turn into a great passage of joy, actually, a rejoicing. We see the 70 coming back and they're rejoicing because the Lord had given them fruit on their ministry. They had been going to proclaim the Gospel, preparing Jesus' way to Jerusalem as He was on His way, at least theologically on His way to Jerusalem at this point for the end of His life. But they had gone and they come back rejoicing that even the demons are subject to them. They were casting out demons. They were healing. But most of all, that was just part of the proclamation of the coming of the kingdom of God, long promised, now being fulfilled in Christ. But Jesus tells them, yes, let's rejoice that Satan is falling from heaven. Let's rejoice. Even more than the gifts that you've been given, rejoice at the grace that's been shown to you. Rejoice, he's not saying be sad about those things, he's saying rejoice at those things, but more than that, rejoice because your names are engraved in the book of life in heaven. Your names are written in heaven. Don't rejoice mostly at what God has gifted you, but in terms of how he's made you useful in the kingdom, but rejoice that he has shown you grace. Because that matters far more. There are many who had gifts and thought they were serving Christ, but had no grace. And the scriptures warn of those who, in the end, were lost. But then this joy of the 70 stirs the heart of our Lord Jesus Christ to joy. And he's rejoicing. And that's what we're going to see this morning as we come to this text. We see he begins to rejoice. And out of that joy, he blesses his disciples. He gives them a benediction. This is actually the only time that's recorded in the Gospels of Jesus rejoicing. It's not the only time Jesus would have rejoiced, but it's the only time that it's recorded. So what that says to us is that we ought to pay attention. Because what gives Jesus joy, of course, ought to give you joy. Because if we're followers of Jesus, then we ought to rejoice at the same things He does. And that's a large part of the call this morning, is to hear what He has to say, and also that you would be filled with joy. And some of you, as you hear this message already, are looking and reading this, and you're rejoicing that there is salvation. You're rejoicing that the Seventy are successful, that the Kingdom is coming and has come in Christ. And that's where you're going with this. But for others of you to hear a call to joy is almost too much. It maybe even sounds cruel. You're thinking, well, you don't know what's going on in my life. You don't know how hard things are. You don't know what I've been through. How can you call me to joy? You're troubled in your soul, even as a believer, overwhelmed by the needs of life and the cares, the concerns of family or health or whatever it might be, of spiritual struggle. Let me call you to set those things aside as you come to Christ this morning. Not to forget them as if they don't exist and pretend they don't exist, but to put them aside and pray now as you're here for the Lord to give you the grace to listen. So you're able to focus, pay attention to what God has to say to you, yes you, even in your particular place right now. Recognize, you would recognize the privilege of being under the word of God. And that God's message meets you where you are and brings you to God himself. You're drawn, you're brought into his presence and worship and brought to his word, a message from God for you. Sometimes the suffering that we suffer because of our concerns becomes, and the needs that we have, not that those things aren't real, but we can make the suffering worse because we become so focused on ourselves. And we become so inwardly drawn that we don't even have eyes to see God. We're not looking to Him for an answer. But far better is it for your eyes to be set upon Him this morning than upon yourself. So let me call you to consider, what is this call to joy? How do you get this joy? You might feel like, I'll never know joy again at this point in my life. Listen to what Jesus has to say to you. And if you're not trusting in Jesus Christ this morning, if you're not a believer in Jesus Christ this morning, let me tell you this, you can't, hearing this message, you're going to hear the call of Christ to come, but you're not going, you have not yet known true joy in your life. You've known some bits of happiness or bits of things that might make you smile or laugh, but true joy Joy, steadfast joy, the real enjoyment that God has created you for cannot be had outside of a relationship with Him through Jesus Christ. The call then is to come, to hear the call and hear the message and come to Christ. But our theme then for these verses, verses 21 to 24 of Luke 10 is rejoice at Jesus' joy over your salvation and receive His blessing. Rejoice at Jesus' joy over your salvation and receive his blessing. That's how we're going to see verses 21 and 22. Rejoice at Jesus' joy over your salvation. And then verses 23 and 24. Come and receive his blessing. Well, first we see Jesus' joy, rejoicing in praise and rejoicing in proclamation. Now, it's a very simple theme, rejoice at Jesus' joy over your salvation and receive his blessing. It's a very simple theme, but don't be fooled, it's deep, it's rich. The text we have before us addresses some of the deepest questions of life and theology and our understanding of God. But these things are set in a context that are perhaps unfamiliar. As we look at verse 21, where Jesus rejoices in the Spirit and says, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in your sight. Consider what is being said here. We recognize these are questions of God's supreme sovereignty. These are questions of divine election. These are questions of God's determination of all things and his establishing all things, all that is going to come to pass from before the foundation of the world. These are statements that are often set perhaps for you in a context of debate, are considered a context of divisiveness, and they make you uncomfortable, and they make conversation with others awkward. But you see, what Jesus does is He sets the whole thing, the whole idea of sovereignty and divine election in the context of joy. It might seem like those two don't get together, but they do for our Savior. He rejoiced, and then he makes this statement about the Father's plan of salvation, where he's hidden the way of salvation from some and revealed it to others, and it was good that he did so. Jesus is praising the Father for this, and I hope you'll see as we work through this text why he's doing that. But it's not just the joy of Christ. It's the joy of the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Of course, Christ the Son is rejoicing, but He's rejoicing in the Holy Spirit. And so the Spirit is rejoicing. And of course, Jesus is rejoicing in the work of the Father. And if He's rejoicing in the work of the Father, the Father surely is rejoicing in His own work. He's not going to do that which does not bring Himself joy. And so we see the God, the triune God, is rejoicing in the great plan of salvation. God is not a reluctant Savior. God is not one who has to be coaxed and convinced and arm-twisted to try to get Him to save someone. God is a joyful Savior. God is a God of joy. That might, again, strike you as a bit something you maybe haven't thought of all that much, or doesn't sound like God. God, you might think, is, you know, He just, the way things seem to be and the way, the impressions you've had, He just seems to be a bit dour, a bit sour, a bit angry and grumpy. And we don't think of God as a God of joy. We think of Him as, we imagine just this angry judge, and God certainly has a holy anger. God certainly is a just judge. But we've allowed that to perhaps cloud our view of God, which is not God. God is joy. God is love. God is just. God is merciful. God is angry. God is not pieces of these things. He's not in the morning he's angry and in the evening he's happy. God is all of these things. He holds them together in perfection in himself. We might think, well, God has no time to be joyful. Look at the world. Look at the state of the world. Surely, I barely have time to be happy if I look at the state of the world. And then we transplant our views and ways on God. But no, God is a God of joy. And he rejoices in who he is. And he rejoices in his works that flow out of who he is. He rejoices in salvation. Is that how you think of God? Certainly this text, and there are many others in Scripture, that should shape how we think of God. Not our impressions of our by ourselves, but what God declares of Himself and His Word. Jesus here, in the Spirit, to the Father, is rejoicing in salvation. This is Jesus' response, and if it's Christ's response, it ought to be our response to the way of salvation. He rejoices at the master plan of salvation, whereby this plan of God's saving grace to take sinners out of darkness and to bring them into light, to take them from hell and to bring them into heaven, to take them from the path of hell and to bring them to the path of heaven, and to bring them through to heaven, is not for those who are wise and prudent according to the world's standards, those who have it all figured out themselves, those who have no room for God, no room for humility, no room for anything else, except their own ideas, their own wisdom, and following what the world says is good. Rather, these things have been revealed to the Babes, to the weak, the helpless, those who cannot provide for themselves, those who are unable to, who recognize I have nothing in myself to bring, those who are weak and helpless and needy of someone or something else. Those who are on the fringes of society, the outcasts, the ones the rest of the world looks down on, ignores, walks by on the street. Now what's being said here, Understand what's being said here. It's not being said here. Jesus is not saying that there are some who are just more naturally worthy of God than others. That if you happen to be illiterate, or you happen to be poverty stricken, or you happen to be something, you have some disability of some that somehow just by nature you're more worthy of God. No, that's not it. We're all sinners. We've all fallen short of the glory of God. None are worthy, not even one. But with this emphasis, there are many certainly who are the weak and the outcasts of society who are brought into the kingdom of God, but so there are many with advanced degrees and who seem to have some reputation in society who also God brings to salvation, but he has to bring them to an end in themselves before they'll have a new beginning in Christ. He's not saying that there are by nature some more worthy than others, but what this is emphasizing, what Jesus is emphasizing is that God's choice of whom he will save is completely uninfluenced by the rankings and standards of the world. That you might be somebody the world all looks up to. You might have a great reputation. You might have all sorts of things going for you, but that's not going to influence God. Because God's choice is His sovereign decision. His, who He sets His love upon, has been His choice. And any who will come to Jesus Christ will first be humbled before they will come to put their faith in Jesus Christ. Paul writes to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 3, he says, Perhaps you, this morning, need some humbling. You need to recognize that your view of things, your perceptions, your calculations, even of what you've read in the scriptures, your own ideas, you find yourself arguing with God, let me tell you, you're in the wrong, God is in the right, you need to be humbled, so you recognize, submit yourself to the good pleasure and the good will of God. That's what Jesus again is. He gives a statement of God's sovereign choice in who will receive salvation and won't, who will have these truths of the kingdom revealed and who won't. And then he says, even so, Father, for so it seemed good in your sights. Which he's saying this is according to your good pleasure. This is good. This isn't a mistake. This is similar to what Paul says, he writes to the Ephesians, he speaks of, he blesses God, he praises God, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and then he goes on to say, he's the one who has predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace by which he made us accepted in the beloved. See, what that means for you who are safe and secure in Jesus Christ is that you can take comfort in the fact that you had nothing to do with your salvation. If you had something to do with your salvation, then you'll have something to do with the undoing of your salvation. But if it's God who has established your salvation, then you're secure as you'll ever be. And you can take comfort in that. And you can worship God. because of such a way that he has made. If you're not in Christ, you need to, the call, the free call of God is to come to him to receive from him, not to determine yourself again, whether you're one of the wise, just to come to God, to humble yourself, say, Lord, I need what you're speaking of. I need to receive this and cast yourself upon his grace. How do you receive this? Perhaps you see yourself as the world sees you, not as God sees you. And you imagine either you're really great, and so you've ranked yourself pretty high, and you think God owes you something. Or perhaps you're also on the other extreme, and you think, well, you don't measure up. You don't have much to offer. You're not worthy of such a salvation. And God probably doesn't have time for you. And you know what? Your sins are probably too many, and you've probably sinned too long, and you're too old, and you make all these standards according to the world's measurements. That's not how God measures you. God's way is better. God's way is gracious. God's way is free. You come. He doesn't look at how spiritually healthy you are. He knows you're spiritually unhealthy. He knows you're lost without Him. You simply come, and you cast yourself upon Him, and you plead with Him for mercy, and you wait upon Him to work. You come to Him, receiving, to receive it from Him, so that you too can rejoice like Jesus did at the way of salvation. There's Jesus rejoicing with praise to the Father. But then he rejoices to proclaim the way of salvation as he does in verse 22, where he says, The Trinity Father, Son, and Spirit are perfectly united, are perfectly unified in all things. They're unified in love. They're unified in justice. They're unified in every part of their being. They're unified here in delight in salvation. There's no disconnect. There's no, again, some of us might think this way or have thought this way, that somehow the Son comes to twist the arm of the Father to get Him to save some people. And the Father still really wants to cast us into hell, but the Son is in the middle. And no, that's not the way. That's not what Scripture says. It's the Father who out of love sent the Son in order to be the Savior. And it's the Son, His own Son, whom He has sent so that He could be a Savior. See, it's what Jesus says, all things have been delivered to me by my Father. The Trinity is unified in delight, unified in all its being, but within the Trinity there's a distinction in the work of salvation. It is the Father who is the grand architect of the plan of salvation. It is the Son who is sent in order to bring about the plan of salvation. And it's the Holy Spirit who is given to make this way of salvation effectual in our hearts. This is the way that the way of salvation has been planned. And so the Son has been given everything by the Father in order to be your Savior. He has been sent to be that mediator between God and man, perfectly coming as a man, yet me remaining God, as a man in order to be able to offer himself as a sacrifice to satisfy divine justice and reconcile us to God. And the Father has given him a people to save. The Father has given him a calling to accomplish the way of salvation, the path he had to follow. He's given him the Spirit of God to be upon him and to equip him for his ministry in this world. The Father has given him everything that he needs in order to accomplish that salvation. This comment that Jesus makes, this statement, all things have been delivered to me by my Father, is not a statement about just in this one moment this happened, but it's a reference to the whole plan. As Matthew Henry says that Jesus is the great trustee that manages all the concerns of God's kingdom. He's been given everything that he would be the Savior God intended him to be. And you see his joy. What is his great joy with what the Father has given him? It's to reveal God to man. It's to reveal the Father to us. Again, within the Trinity, within the relationship within the Trinity, there is perfection. There is perfect communion amongst the members of the Trinity. There is perfection in their love between the persons of the Godhead. And in this context, there's perfect knowledge The son doesn't need to be taught something about the father. The spirit isn't missing some information about the son. They perfectly know each other. There's a perfection in their understanding between the persons. That's what Jesus says here so wonderfully. He says, No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son. There's this perfect understanding of each other. He brings the Spirit in there as well. And what this does, actually, first of all, for us, this beautiful statement, it reminds us of the divinity of Jesus Christ. He is the Son who is one with the Father and the Spirit. He is the Son. Jesus is divine. He is God Himself sent by the Father in order that we could know God. Because what happens is that the statement keeps going, but it doesn't have to keep going. You see, Jesus says, no one knows who the son is except the father and who the father is except the son. And that's a perfect statement in itself. But what? And it could have stopped there and there could have been a period and we could just move on and realize, well, God knows himself, but I guess we'll never know God. But God chooses to reveal himself. God has continued this sentence. No one knows who the son is except the father and who the father is except the son and the one to whom the son wills to reveal him. There's more to this statement. That not only can we know something about God, But what Jesus has come to do is to make it possible for you to know God. It's the difference between knowing someone, knowing about someone, and then coming to actually know them. Perhaps before you were married, you first heard about your spouse, and you first heard their name, and you first heard some descriptions, and someone's trying to set you up, and someone's trying to tell you all about them, and their hair color, and how tall they were, and all the details that are important. But then you finally come to know them. And as you deepen that relationship, and as you're married, it's different. You don't just say, oh, I know about her. You're like, no, I know her, or I know him. And that pales in comparison to how God knows himself. But then the beauty of how we can know God because God has made a way to reveal himself to us. Again, within the Trinity, there's no need for that revelation. The Son doesn't reveal something to the Spirit about the Father. But we need revelation. We need God to speak to us. We needed this even before the fall, but we needed it even more after the fall. We wouldn't have really known, we couldn't have a relationship with God unless he came down and began a relationship with us. Adam and Eve needed to experience that themselves. And that is why Jesus Christ has been sent. So that God could be revealed in a saving way to humanity. Jesus says in John 14, the upper room discourse to His disciples, He says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also, and from now on you know Him and have seen Him. And Philip said to Him, Lord, show us the Father, and it's sufficient for us. And Jesus said to him, Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father. So how can you say, show us the Father? Because in Jesus Christ is everything you need to know about the Father. In Jesus Christ, whom to whom has been given all things, is everything you need to truly know God. If you want to know God, do you want to know God this morning? Do you really want to know God? Not just about God. Do you want to know God? Then look to Jesus Christ and come to Jesus Christ empty. Don't come with all your preconceived notions. Don't come with all your arguments and excuses and reasonings and all that you studied I'm not saying all of that is useless. It's just that if you don't know God first, then you're not going to know how to understand anything else about God. You need to come empty. Not coming to say, Lord, look, I've almost reached it. I've almost gotten there. But come empty, seek Christ, and rejoice that through Him, through Him alone, you can truly know God. You see what this does, friends, is that reminds us and teaches us that the doctrine of election, which Jesus rejoices over, which you and I ought to rejoice over, does not close the door to salvation. It opens it. It opens it. Because if God had not chosen to reveal himself through Christ to sinners for salvation, none of us would be saved. The door would be closed and barred like those when the floods started coming in Noah's day, tried to pound on the door to get in the ark, and they could not get in. That's what we did. We sealed that door shut when we sinned and fell and rebelled against God, but God, by His gracious election, has opened the door. God's mercy was not a requirement. He did not need to show us mercy. He did not need to offer mercy. We need His mercy, that's a requirement, but He was not obligated to show mercy to any. but He has chosen to do so to those whom He saves. And again, that gives us comfort as believers in Jesus Christ, because your salvation is not counter to God, it's because God has desired it. And what God has given, God will surely maintain, which is the grounds of our assurance. Ephesians 2, we read these words after we're told just how horrific We are without Christ. Paul says, but God, who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved. And he goes on to say, for by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. That gift is what you need in your life this morning. That gift is what you will get through Jesus Christ alone. And that gift is not something you conjure up in yourself with your own wisdom. It's what you seek from Him and plead for from Him and recognize that God delights to save. It's the need you have. It's the need we have as believers daily to be reminded of this and daily to rejoice that we have such a Savior. Rejoice at Jesus' joy over your salvation and receive his blessing. God rejoices. The God-man rejoices at salvation. Do you rejoice at salvation? That's the call of this text. But then we see the blessing that Jesus gives. With joy, he turns to his disciples and he blesses them. And that is a call for us to also receive this blessing. As Jesus turns and he says to his disciples privately, blessed are the eyes which see the things you see. For I tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see what you see and have not seen it and to hear what you hear and have not heard it. The disciples, likely the 12, perhaps the 70 as well, but the 12 certainly were witnesses of Jesus Christ. They were eyewitnesses to his work. They were earwitnesses to his preaching. They saw so much already and they would see greater things. They would see him go to Jerusalem. They would see him go to the cross, buried in the grave and risen again. And then they would see him ascend up into heaven as he blessed them on his way back to glory. And then they would receive the power of his spirit. poured out upon them at Pentecost. They would see and know and experience these greater things yet. They were right there on the front lines of seeing the fulfillment of God's promises that fill the Old Testament. And the Redeemer, God Himself coming as the divine Redeemer of sinners. They had received the teaching of the Father through the Son by the Spirit. Far more than any saint to this point had received. Far more than anyone in the Old Testament had come to understand. And they were honored. Jesus is saying to them, blessed are you for seeing these things. Blessed are you. You've received such honor. As they would recognize in the context of what Jesus just said, not because they were so smart, not because they had finally connected all the dots and figured it out how it was all going to work. No credit to themselves, because God had determined to reveal these things to them. We just heard Jesus give woes to, he literally bring curses upon others who had heard the word but had openly rejected it. What made the difference between them and Chorazin and Bethsaida and the residents of Capernaum? God had determined it. God made the difference in those hearts. God had opened their hearts to see and believe that Jesus is the Messiah, to confess that. And compared to the fathers, to the kings like David and Josiah or the prophets like Isaiah and Daniel who had received much in terms of knowledge of the future, yet they themselves had not understood what these disciples had already seen. As Peter would go on to say later when he wrote to the churches in 1 Peter, He said, it's of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully who prophesied of the grace that would come to you. Searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ who is in them was indicating when he testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. To them it was revealed that not to themselves but to us they were ministering the things which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you. by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things which angels desire to look into. He's saying to his disciples, look at this great blessing you've received. You are blessed to receive this knowledge to know. But he speaks beyond the disciples to us who are hearing this word this morning. As Peter indicates, we're not eyewitnesses. We weren't there in Palestine 2,000 years ago. We didn't hear directly from the lips of Christ in that sense. but we have the testimony of those who are there. As Peter says, we've seen these things, which the Old Testament prophets and kings wanted to look into, and we've now passed this on to you. We have a sure and certain testimony of Christ here in the Word of God given to us. We have the whole revelation of God necessary for salvation here in the Bible. The whole plan of salvation that is necessary for us to know, laid out here in the Scriptures. There's no room for you and I to have any pride in the knowledge we have, or to think, well, wouldn't David like to know what I know? Well, David, in glory, has had great revelation, no doubt. But still, that we can think of this as somehow, again, because of us. No, it's by grace that you've received the Word. Forever long you've been under the Word of God. Maybe it's been weeks or months, maybe it's been years and decades. You've had the Word of God and Jesus says you are blessed to have received the Word of God. But you have a responsibility now to receive the Word of God as the very Word of God, to believe what God calls you to believe on, to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and to use this blessing well, to improve on it. lest we turn this blessing into a curse, lest we turn this blessing into saying, I've received great things, and look at my shelf. This is kind of like how some of us have with all our books, and we can brag about how many books we have on the shelf, and yet we haven't read a single shelf of all the shelves of our books. And I know as a pastor, that's probably, I'm preaching to myself there, but I'm sure you know what that's like. So this idea that we have, look at me, I've got the Bible, and all these poor people in the world don't have the Bible, but what are you doing with the Bible? What are you doing with the word of God? What are you doing with this blessing? Because if we take anything, someone gives us a blessing, someone gives you a meal and you just let it rot, that's not a blessing, man, now it becomes a curse. Now you need to get rid of it as quickly as you can. So this is, we need to use it. And if you've not trusted in Jesus Christ this morning, if you're hearing this and really, let me tell you this, there are people all over the world who are searching for the answers to the purpose of life, the reason we're here, where we're going, what's coming, seeking peace, seeking joy, seeking to know what it is, to have some connection to God, knowing that they are made by God. All people want some knowledge. It's here in the Word of God, from the mouth of Christ, that we find that knowledge. It's the only place. Seek Jesus to know the answers to those deep questions of the heart. More than a mere intellectual knowledge, as if you're just studying a textbook, but you would know God himself intimately and personally, deeply with the heart. Because in Jesus Christ, you will find the answers to those questions. And in Jesus Christ, even if life is so hard in every other way, in Christ you are more blessed and you'll have more reason to rejoice than those who are out of Christ and maybe at the pinnacle of society in terms of honor and wealth and every other ranking that our world uses. If you've heard this word this morning, don't reject the Christ who comes to you. Pray that you would see Him. Pray that you would know God. Believe on this Lord Jesus Christ and receive joy. in true life. Rejoice at Jesus' joy over your salvation and receive his blessing. What a joy. This text is filled with joy. The joy of the Savior who saves. The joy of the Father who sent the Savior. The joy of the Spirit who is working that salvation. The joy of God. How blessed you are to hear this word and in Christ to be able to rejoice Think of the joy that's here. Think of the joy of being saved as one who is utterly lost and had no opportunity to find joy anywhere else. How wonderful the salvation you've received, the forgiveness of sins. Your life may be very hard. Your sight is limited to see much beyond what you're going through. But even in these circumstances, even where it's hard to rejoice, pray. Pray to the God of joy that you would be able to rejoice by faith. Rejoice in trusting Him. Rejoice not because of you or your circumstances, but because of Him. And may He make us also proclaimers of that joy to others. Our world is joyless. There's lots of things we try to fill ourselves with. There's lots of things people try to fill themselves with to get some sort of quote-unquote joy, some high of joy in some way or fashion. But we have no true joy outside of Him. We need to proclaim this so others would also come to know Jesus, through Jesus to know the Father, and to know joy in that relationship. There's true joy in that salvation. So by the same spirit who filled Jesus Christ with joy, may we all this morning have spiritual joy and receive God's blessing and faith. Amen. Let's pray together. Please stand for prayer. Oh Lord our God, we have reason to love you. because you have heard the voice of our pleas for mercy. You've inclined your ear to us. You have shown us grace. You have shown us love. You have declared to us who you are and how we can know you. You have revealed yourself to us in your son. And for us who are in Christ, you have blessed us in him with every spiritual blessing. And we therefore come, Lord, in prayer, and we will call upon you as long as we live. Lord, draw near to us again, if there are any who are not in Christ this morning, that they would come to have that true knowledge, not just about you, but to truly know you, to know joy in their hearts. Take away the excuses or even the ways that things are being explained away in their own hearts right now. But Lord, may they have true joy and true knowledge. For those of us who are in Christ, Lord, You have been near to us. You are near to us when we call upon You. Lord, we thank You that we can pray, too, to seek for greater joy and delight in You. Even now as we bring our petitions to You, we bless Your name, we praise You. for your word. We thank you for you hear prayers and answer them. We bless you Lord for the great cloud of witnesses with which we are surrounded, for the people of old who received their commendation and are now through faith and patience inheriting the promises you've made and fulfilled in Jesus. Lord, give us to follow them always as they followed Christ, to live by faith rather than by sight, to trust you, Lord, in all things, including as we make our petitions, recognizing that just because we make our petitions does not mean you must automatically do as we demand. Lord, would that we come here humbly submitting ourselves to your perfect will and plan for our life. Lord, our prayers are not vending machines where we put in a prayer and we expect whatever it is, whatever code we've punched in to get that particular item out. Lord, that's not how prayer works. Prayer is a way of humbling ourselves, of submitting ourselves to your ways, of coming under you and recognizing you are good and you do good. Lord, we pray that you would bless this congregation. Can you bless your people here and the witness of Covenant Reformed in the Halifax community. We pray for them through the ups and downs that they go through in Christian life, both personally and also corporately as a church. And we pray for the great needs that are here for salvation and for discipleship, for growth and grace and godliness. Thank you, Lord. We thank you for Pastor John. and his labors here and his decades of labors here in this congregation. We bless you for him, Lord, for his love for you and his love for the people. We pray that you would continue to sustain him and give him the strength and energy to teach and to preach and to take that lead. We thank you for the elders who shepherd the flock with him and pray they would do so under the strength of the good shepherd, Jesus Christ, that they would always look back to remember the laying on of hands, which points them, Lord, to the empowering of the spirit, for their ministry and their work. We thank you, Lord, and so bless them and Lord, continue to provide. We pray that you would raise up more men to serve as officers in this congregation, as elders and deacons, that you would give them, give the men in this congregation to pursue godliness, to pursue, Lord, qualification for church office, to be holy and righteous before you and in their families, Give them also the courage to take up the yoke of leadership, trusting in Jesus Christ who alone enables such leadership. And where, Lord, there may be fear, we pray that that fear of man or fear of responsibility would be replaced by a holy and right fear of you, that this would be taken up with boldness and with joy in the Lord. Lord, we pray that you would grant for this congregation to dwell together in peace and love, loving and thankful for their elders who are set over them and making their work to be a work of joy and not a great burden. We pray that they would be steadfast in welcoming the stranger, showing hospitality, praying fervently for one another and for the church as a whole. We thank you, Lord, for the many visitors and new attendees that have been coming here in Halifax, and we pray that they here, too, would hear the gospel proclaimed, that their life in Christ would grow, and that they would be blessed amongst the people. We pray that this congregation, they would minister to each other by the word, that they would uphold the sick and encourage the weak, and so love one another and fulfill the law of Christ. And Lord, we pray that even as you, the God of all comfort and the Father of mercies, are comforting them in their own afflictions, that they would be a comfort to others. We pray, Lord, for this church and its evangelism and outreach. You've given many opportunities, even recently, for this type of work. We pray that you, Lord, you indeed have brought the nations to our borders. You've brought the nations within our borders, Lord. The Great Commission work is right set out before us. Lord, we pray that we would all see our role in the Great Commission and rejoice that those from many different tongues and tribes, peoples, and nations can come together with unity in Christ to praise and worship. Make this congregation a faithful micro version of that great heavenly multitude that surrounds the throne and praises your name. We pray that you would give us boldness as a people of God with love to be used of you, to reveal you to others, that we have heard and known that we would teach and proclaim it to others. We would, of course, be fully dependent on the Spirit to do that work to the heart, that we would with joy go knowing that, Lord, that even as you rejoice in salvation, that you will bring fruit on these labors, and we trust you will. We pray, Lord, you pray that you now prepare us to rejoice in the central truths of your good news, the cross of Jesus Christ, As we come to the Lord's Supper, enable us to receive it in faith and hear us then we pray for Christ's sake. Amen. Peace. Lord bless you and keep you. Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up the light of his countenance upon you and give you peace. Go in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.