Welcome this morning. We are in Proverbs chapter 21. Proverbs chapter 21. And I hope that you've been enjoying and maybe even receiving a little bit of conviction as I have, as we've been walking through these Proverbs, many of them maybe easily can be dismissed by us, you know, as Christians, but I think we all have areas in our life where these can prick at our heart a little bit. And my hope today is that we will see that even though we struggle with our fallen man, the residue of his presence in us that Jesus Christ and that the Father and the Holy Spirit are on our side. And in all essence, they really are the king of our hearts. And that's not for us to claim. Because of the death of Christ, our hearts and our lives and our souls have become theirs. And because of that, we need to honor that. So we will be looking at Proverbs 21. I would ask that you join me in prayer before we get started. Gracious Lord, thank you again for your great mercy, for the reminder that it is because Christ has been crucified, that he has risen and that he ascended and is reigning at your right hand, that we as your people know that you are the sovereign of this universe and that you are sovereign over the hearts of men, even kings and noblemen. Father, may that be a great comfort to us this day as we struggle. Lord, let us be reminded that you are in control. Lord, thank you again for the comfort of your word. Thank you for the conviction of your word and spirit. Let me ask again that you would change us as we hear your truth and embrace that. And this we ask in Christ's name, amen. Now in Proverbs 21, the issue of God as king and sovereign over his creation returns to the forefront, just as it did back in Proverbs 16. Back in Proverbs 16, we're reminded that God is in control of the affairs of men, all the way down to what seems so simple and so random as what's called in that text, casting of the lot. To us today that would be something like the flipping of a coin, the drawing of straws, or the taking the number out of a hat. Many people view these types of things as nothing more than a matter of chance. But the amazing thing about what the Word of God calls casting of lots is that the Lord is ultimately the one who is in control of that outcome. Men may cast lots, but God's will prevails. God's interaction in this world, even down to those things that we think and we see that are incidental or coincidental in everyday and mundane affairs of men are not out of the control and are not out of the reach of God. Now, some may be saying, but wait a minute, Pastor, are you saying that God controls and has control over all things? Well, what about the human heart? Well, I'm very glad you asked that. And Proverbs 21 opens up with answering that question for us, reminds us that God is the one who rules the heart. Let's look at verses one through eight. The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord. He turns it wherever he will. Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the heart. To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice. Haughty eyes and a proud heart, the lamp of the wicked, are sin. The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty. The getting of treasures by the lying of a tongue is a fleeting vapor and a snare of death. The violence of the wicked will sweep them away because they refuse to do what is just. Verse 8, the way of the guilty is crooked, but the conduct of the pure is upright. Now, in verse one, we see that the Lord is king and he rules over even the most free and powerful of all human beings, that is, world leaders. In this time, it would have been kings. In ours today, maybe there are places where they're kings. In our country, it's president. In other places, they come with other titles, but it's God the one who holds, and he is the one who guides the human heart of anyone. Now, if God can do this with the most powerful and most noble, like kings and presidents, then surely he can do this with any man or woman in which he chooses. You see, God is the one who turns the heart, even the heart of kings. God turned the heart of Pharaoh to Joseph. He turned the heart of Saul to David. He turned the heart of Nebuchadnezzar to Jeremiah and of Darius to Daniel. He even worked on the heart of Cyrus and afterwards of Alexander the Great to the Jews. And then even some of the Roman persecutors, he turned their heart in favor towards early Christians. You see, Bruce Waltke reminds us that God's inscrutable mastery extends to the king, the most powerful of human beings, and to the heart, their most free member. Now this should build our faith. This should build our trust that God can guide and he does change hearts. Sometimes we despair when we see the stubbornness and the hardness of people's hearts against God and his will, but the king's heart, is in the hand of the Lord and he can turn it wherever he wills it to go. Now this analogy of the king and his heart being like a river really illustrates how God may guide the heart of a man. In moving a river or that large kind of flowing body of water, one can shape the banks in such a way as they can divert the water and make it go whichever direction they would like it to go, wherever they desire. So God does not need to violate the heart of the human to make that person do what God desires. All he has to do is simply arrange other circumstances, much like digging out portions of the bank of a river so that the water can be guided and the flow can be used where it's needed. This is exactly what a farmer does as he plants a field, doesn't he? He channels the water where he wants to. He regulates the flow. And so does the Lord with the heart of the king. Therefore, one of the things that we need to be reminded of is that no human ruler then is supreme. Or to put it another way, the Lord, the Lord God is truly king of kings. And there's a reason why that's his title, isn't it? And even here we see the proof of it. There's a story from the Eastern Roman Empire of a Christian monk who was horrified by the wickedness of the emperor. He prayed and asked God, why did you allow that evil man to become emperor? And God replied, because I couldn't find anyone worse. Now that's not what you expect to hear, is it? All right, we must remember that God, that history is kind of, you and I know it, is God's story, right? Some people say history is his story, history. And in that we need to be reminded that he reigns. He reigns when politicians and presidents that we vote for get into office and he reigns when those same elected officials that we don't or we didn't vote for get into office. God still reigns in those regards. God is sovereign over the rulers of this world and we can trust him to do all that is right because his works and his truth and his ways are just or justice according to Daniel 14, 37. All right, we've kind of set that first bookend as the psalm opens up on the sovereignty of God. As we get to the end of the chapter, you're going to see that the book closes with the second bookend, talking again about the sovereignty of God. But let's move on to verse two. Verse two teaches that the natural mind really does not function rightly in the spiritual realm. In fact, as sinners whose deepest imaginations are evil and our thought life processes produce sinfulness and illusions in our own thinking, we tend to think of ourselves as pure. We tend to think of ourselves as clean, when in reality we are guilty before God. That's why, for example, so many people tend to shift the responsibility for their behavior to environmental factors or faulty upbringing. That's what I hear a lot these days, right? It's just the way I was raised. If my mom and dad wouldn't have done it that way, I wouldn't be this way. And I joke with my kids, quite frequently actually, joke with my kids about when you get older and you happen to go see a counselor and you can tell them that your dad is the one that really messed you up. And I don't want to be let off the hook for that. I'm sure that they've received many unfortunate things at my hands. But the reality is that we tend to see ourselves in such a way as that we don't acknowledge our own sinful rebellion. See, we don't do that. We tend to push it off onto somebody else. We don't see the selfishness and we imagine ourselves to be helpless, innocent victims of just circumstances, right? That's kind of the catchphrase today. It's just the circumstances. And in this way, we justify thoughts and feelings and actions that are obviously sinful according to the biblical definition, and yet we just simply want to pass those off as just feelings, or we want to pass those off as just thoughts. You see, their way is right in their own eyes, the text says, but the Lord is the one who weighs the heart. As Christians, we should be aware of the deceptive nature of our hearts and allow the Holy Spirit to correct our vision through the knowledge of God's Word. In this way, we seek to live pure lives. In verse 8, we see a contrast between the pure and the guilty. Look at verse 8. You see, every life is on a path, this verse tells us. It's on a way of living. And some people walk in a way that's twisted and crooked and perverse. And those who walk this crooked way are guilty before God, right? They've committed sin, they've rebelled against their creator, and they are guilty before God. But as for those who are pure, that is, this person's conduct in life is called upright. The crooked way belongs to the guilty man, but the upright conduct belongs to the pure man. And the path that you and I walk will display who we are. If you'll remember from last week, we kind of had one of the proverbs that pointed out the fact that character is clearly shown by actions and not by words alone, right? If you want to see who someone really is, I don't care what they're telling you with their words. their actions really do dictate at the heart level of what's going on with them. So remember that in this case, to say that we walk a pure path, that needs to flow forth from our actions also. All right, verses 9 through 19 address relationships in the home. and also interaction with those outside the home. Let's read those verses now, beginning verse nine. It is better to live in the corner of a housetop than in a house shared with a quarrelsome wife. The soul of the wicked desires evil. His neighbor finds no mercy in his eyes. When a scoffer is punished, the simple becomes wise. And when a wise man is instructed, he gains knowledge. The righteous one observes the house of the wicked. He throws the wicked down to ruin. Whoever closes his ear to the cry of the poor will himself call out and not be answered. A gift in secret averts anger and a concealed bribe strong wrath. When justice is done is a joy to the righteous but terror to the evildoers. One who wanders from the way of good sense will rest in the assembly of the dead. Whoever loves pleasure will be a poor man. He who loves wine and oil will not be rich. The wicked is a ransom for the righteous and the traitor for the upright. Verse 19, it is better to live in a desert land than with a quarrelsome and fretful woman. All right, verse nine. I love the smiles. I see smiles already. You know, I was thinking this week, this is not something that I wrote, but I will share it with you. I was just thinking this week how influenced even we are in this day and age in society that even when we read something like verse nine or even verse 19, we kind of wince a little bit, right? That kind of just the wife or the woman's being called out and the husband's not being called out and some scream patriarchy and some other things. But I just kind of thought that interesting about maybe how I've been affected at some level. Maybe not so much in a bad way, but I hope that it's a conscious way to realize that the word of God is there to convict both men and women, right? that there is no male and female when those are in Christ. When those are sinning, it's not looked at so much just purely man or woman. You're a sinner at that point. So I think about that a little bit as we work through this. But then again, then I have to go back to the language and I have to go back to the grammar. And when I do that, it kind of It kind of tips it one way. So I'm going to err on the side of what the grammar and the language tells us. So look at verse nine. The corner of a housetop is not a great place to live. All right. I don't, Well, it's small, it's confined, it's exposed to the elements because it's on the roof. And what you have to remember is roofs at that time, not like we've got now right where you've got an attic and you can kind of go up in a ladder and mosey around up there. That's not what a house had back in those days, right? It was a flat roof probably, mud or maybe some thatched material inside of it had mud packed over it. But it didn't, wasn't this nice crawl space that was up there. It was really that it was completely exposed to whatever weather conditions were going on at the time. And so it's really unprotected. But the text tells us that in some ways and circumstances, that corner of the exposed housetop is a better place to live than in a house that has discord, right? To own a house or maybe even a mansion, but to live in constant conflict with a quarrelsome wife is misery. One would be better off living in a more humble environment and to have peace in the home than to live in this mansion in a great place where there's this quarreling going on. The same principle would be true for a man. I'm not going to leave the guys out of this. You can be one of those kind of people that causes problems also. But although here the word for woman is a bit ambiguous, now it can refer to other women who live in the household. Now remember back then you have kind of multiple generations that would live in a household. You can have the mother, you can have kind of the grandmother, maybe a mother-in-law, you've at least got probably a daughter in there. So this word for woman could cover all of that, but it seems to be the wife that's being pointed out. We've seen this in Proverbs 12 and 19 already, and it's more probably intended that it's the wife because of what we saw in Proverbs 18.22, which said, he who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord. All right, so I think I'm gonna side with that and say it is in some ways speaking to the women, And therefore, we would do well to be mindful of that, even as men, and ask about what part do we play in making sure that there's peace in the home. Now, many of the Proverbs tell of poverty that is caused by bad conduct, and other Proverbs express God's compassion towards the poor, because God does care for the poor. and he commands us to have compassionate hearts towards him. This is, in essence, kind of verse 13 is talking about this. Remember the actions over in the New Testament, we kind of know it, I think, a little bit as the Good Samaritan, but we remember the actions of the priest and the Levite to whom the man fell among thieves. We remember how he responded in such a way that they made sure they did not help the person who had a need. And we need to learn from this that if we're going to shut our ears against the cry of the poor, then we have to be reminded that the ear of God will be shut against us, too. And I think we need to take that seriously. Now, I think for a lot of our society today, the idea of poor has been redefined, it isn't necessarily what the scriptures talk about, but we'll chat about that in an upcoming proverb also, because I do want us to make sure that we don't feel guilted into something that the Bible itself is not leading us into. And just because we define the poor in one way today, doesn't mean that that's necessarily the way the scriptures themselves define the poor. But but but the essence of this verse here in verse 13 really is quite plain There's not a difficult to understand what's being taught here and what's being taught here is the idea that we will reap what we've sown All right again that theme comes back in we will reap what we sow if we're treating cruelly and and we're not being gracious and merciful to people, then you need to understand and I need to understand that that's the type of response that we will tend to get also. So we will reap what we've sown. All right, in verse 17, to find success and prosperity, there must be a measure of discipline and self-denial. The person who loves pleasure lacks this discipline and self-denial and often ends up a poor man. And so I think a key word here is the idea of love. All right, the person who loves, that is here portrayed to be a very excessive or uncontrolled way of desiring something or being engaged with something because it brings one, the end result of loving these things brings one to poverty. All right, it's not one that builds up, it's not one that helps, but it brings to poverty. Perhaps other responsibilities are being neglected, or people are trying to live above their means may be another way that this comes out, right? They're not spending their money well. They're not doing the things they need to. All right, in the second half of verse 17, we see that he who loves wine and oil will not be rich. Now here, wine and oil represent the luxuries of life, all right? There's many instances where you needed oil for a lamp, and that's at one level, But the way it's talked about here, it's something that's extra. It's kind of over and above what's needed. And there is an appropriate way to enjoy wine and oil without setting one's heart on them. But if these are loved, and they're loved in this wrong type of way, right? This excessive type of desiring and wanting beyond proper measure, it becomes a pathway to poverty and can even bring spiritual destruction. Now in verse 19, the quarrelsome wife returns to the forefront. Previously in verse nine, it was thought better to live in the corner of a rooftop than with a contentious woman. But notice this proverb adds something to the contentious spouse, the idea of fretfulness, worrisome, or anger. All right, so not only there's quarreling things going on, there's the idea of fretting, of worrisome or even anger. This proverb removes the man from his house. He had kind of moved to the rooftop to kind of get away from this. Now he's no longer even in the house. He's out in the wilderness. He's removing himself far, far away from this situation. And this really does Show us the value of what it means to reap the benefits of peace in your home life, all right? I know many of us understand that we live in different circles. You know, we have kind of what we, the friends we have at work and the things we do at work and there's some things we do publicly. And then we have this thing that goes on in the home. And the home can have a tremendous effect upon how you do things at work and your work can have an effect on how you do things at home. But this idea of what goes on in the home is really central to the scriptures, right? There's lots of things that can make a marriage or make a man and a woman or parents very stable and secure if their home life is good. It can bring a lot of peace and stability to other areas of their life if that's a good thing. And when your home is a safe haven from the attacks of the world and even one spouse, that's a good thing too. So if you find yourself not doing a lot of things at home, you're kind of on autopilot, you're not engaging a lot at home, Ask the Lord to give you insight on why that's going on. Because in fact, you and your spouse, and if you have children, especially your children, they need to see mom and dad together on the same team, right? That they're doing and living for the benefit of the family in a way that honors God. So therefore, make sure that that's what's going on. All right, in verses 20 through 29, we see the way of the wise. How is it that the wise act in 20 through 29? Let's begin in verse 20. Precious treasure and oil are in a wise man's dwelling, but a foolish man devours it. Whoever pursues righteousness and kindness will find life, righteousness, and honor. A wise man scales the city of the mighty and brings down the stronghold in which they trust. Whoever keeps his mouth and his tongue keeps himself out of trouble. Scoffer is the name of the arrogant, haughty man who acts with arrogant pride. The desire of the sluggard kills him, for his hands refuse to labor. All day long he craves and craves, but the righteous gives and does not hold back. The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination. How much more then will he bring with it evil intent? False witness will perish, but the word of a man who hears will endure. Verse 29. A wicked man puts on a bold face, but the upright gives thought to his ways. All right. In verse 20, the wise gain wealth, but the foolish squander it. Even when the foolish does gain wealth, it does not last. And why is that the case? That the foolish can gain wealth and it won't last. Well, one of the reasons why is that the foolish nature dominates the person who squanders this gift that has been given to them. The clearest example of this is the lifestyle of the movie stars and the rookie elite athletes. Many go broke, literally broke, with wasteful and frivolous spending sprees. As one singer put it, yeah, my receipts be looking like phone numbers. All right? That's a lot of digits, especially if you put the area code in the front of it, isn't it? This just proves our saying that a fool and his money are soon parted. And really it has to do with the choices that are made because of the foolish nature of this person. There's another reoccurring theme that we've been looking at as we work through the book of Proverbs And it comes up now here. It's the tongue in verse 23 Solomon in all of his wisdom and in the New Testament James the Apostle recognized the destructive power and the danger of an uncontrolled tongue and it was And he was not alone, even what's spoken of in the Old and New Testament. Men and women in many cultures, in many different times have warned us about the need to guard our speech. And I want to share this bit of verse with you by Phillips Burroughs Strong. I think he says it well. Listen to what's said about the tongue in regards to the way it's been expressed through even different cultures and times. The boneless tongue, so small and weak, can crush and kill, declares the Greek. The tongue destroys a greater horde, the Turk asserts, than does the sword. A Persian proverb wisely saith, a lengthy tongue, an early death. Or sometimes it takes this form instead, do not let your tongue cut off your head. A tongue can speak a word whose speed, the Chinese say, outstrips the steed. While Arab sages disimpart, the tongue's great storehouse is the heart. From Hebrew wit, this maxim sprung. Though feet should slip, ne'er let the tongue. The sacred writer in Proverbs crowns the whole. He keeps his tongue, doth keep his soul. All right? Just a reminder there that there seems to be this universal pattern that people acknowledge that the tongue can be a very, Well, in some ways, a very wicked instrument, can't it? And it's something that needs to be guarded. Is it any wonder that James chapter three, verses four through six, liken the tongue to a fire that can set off a great blaze within a forest or the very small rudder that turns a mighty ship in a storm. You see, it's good that we should guard what we say and not speak everything that comes to mind. Unguarded words can bring a lot of trouble. Having wisdom to guard our mouth and tongue will keep us from many troubles. You see, maybe what we could do is we could implement a prayer into our lives, especially as we struggle with what proceeds from our mouth. Maybe we could say, oh, Lord, help us learn lessons from the wise and to be wise and to help us to hold our tongue and not let it slip, to not share that which is coming from our hearts. In many ways, from the fleshly side of who we are, isn't it? All right, do y'all remember Phil Fendick from Britain from Proverbs 19? I shared a little bit with you about this guy who was basically the laziest man in Britain. Well, he returns here, the sluggard and the lazy man in verse 25 of Proverbs 21. It's this sluggard or this lazy man that has desire. He just doesn't have the initiative or the will to move out and actually do what he wants to do. His life is unfulfilled, his desires are unsatisfying, and he feels as if he's going to die under the weight of the things that he really wants to do, but he just can't seem to get off the couch and do them. This is the death of self, but not in a good and godly kind of way. Having the desire for good and blessing and prosperity, but not desire to work, the lazy man lives a life of constant disappointment and frustration. He does not know the satisfaction of earned achievement. Why is this the case for the lazy man? Well, because he is the king of wishful thinking. Living in a world of wishful thinking and not working will bring ruin we are told this verse teaches that doing rather than desiring brings success. Right? It's the actual getting out and doing the work that brings in the paycheck, not just the fact that I desire for the paycheck to be there. All right? And maybe there's, maybe this is one of those messages that could be transferred to some of the younger people to remind them that you desire to have all these things. Listen, it's hard when you're young and maybe you're in your teens or your 20s and you look at people around you and they've got houses and cars and they've got extra things and you want those. But most of those people that had those types of things didn't get them because they sat around watching TV. They were at work, right? And they had some self-discipline and some self-denial or delayed gratification, and they desired to purposefully put that money up so that they could secure that. But it wasn't just because they wanted it that they should get it, some kind of entitlement mentality that just because I exist and breathe I should have anything I want. And maybe we've done a poor job as parents because we've kind of told them that this kind of stuff comes easily. Maybe they think it comes easily because of some of the things they've seen in our life. Whatever the case is, we need to be reminded that desiring things is good, but you need to get up and fulfill that desire through ways that are honoring to God. And in many cases, that's actually working. Just actually having to go out and get a job, and maybe even doing some things you don't want to do at the job, just to remind you, well, maybe this is not what I want to do, right? I'll do this in honor to the Lord, in honor to my boss, but this is not what I want to do. Maybe that's what gives you the unction to really go out and look. And to say, oh, I want to do this over here. Well, that's good. Try that out, right? Find out the gifts that you have and the things that you desire, but act upon those good desires, right? Those things that are good, act upon those. All right. The fool's behavior concerning his laziness and lack of work is an affront to God as we just saw But there is something else that is also An abomination to the Lord and it's the worship that is offered by the wicked the worship that's offered by the wicked. God said to obey is better than sacrifice, 1 Samuel 15, 22. But according to verse 27 of Proverbs 21, religious ceremonies do not cover over a wicked life. And God regards those religious ceremonies as an abomination. You see, when a sacrifice is offered, observers are not able to see the wicked intent of one's heart, but God certainly does. A preacher from the days of old, G. Campbell Morgan, said it this way, it is abominable for any man who is living wrongly to make an offering to God in a way of worship. That abomination becomes worse when the offering of the wicked comes from an ulterior motive. for a wicked man to give for his own pleasure is an evil thing, but if he hopes by his gift to win some spiritual favor while he continues to sin, that is a still deeper evil. All right, I think Morgan said it well. I think he teased that out really well. Now, I'm not saying that we, even as Christians, always do our worship for right motives. Even we're guilty in some regards of coming to the Lord for purely what we want, right? But the wicked always do that. It's the way they live. And anytime you see them trying to usually do something that's favorable in the eyes of God, it's doing it to gain favor. And you and I don't gain the favor of the Lord through our worship. Our favor is gained because we are in Christ and because we're loved by God because of what Christ has done on our behalf. And we need to be reminded of that. All right, finally, we come full circle. Our bookend on the shelf, the first one regarded the sovereignty of God, the second here brings us back to that at the closing of Proverbs 21. We see that it is useless, and I mean that word, it is useless to fight against the sovereign king, for the victory is the Lord. Verses 30 and 31. No wisdom, no understanding, no counsel can avail against the Lord. The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the Lord. You see, to fight against the Lord, the sovereign king of this universe, is a losing battle. No one can ever succeed against the sovereign king of the universe and the sovereign king of hearts. Human plans, no matter how wise or well-advised, cannot stand against Yahweh the Lord. Again, G. Campbell Morgan says, therefore it is true, full and finally, that there is no wisdom or understanding or counsel against the Lord. And thus it becomes true that to them that love the Lord all things work together for good. Here then is the place of our rest. Here is the secret of our confidence. Here is the inspiration of song in our darkest of nights. That the victory is the Lord's and that we can rest in Him. And why is this the case? Well, because we can rest in him because the victory is the Lord's, verse 31. Though it's wise to make the best preparation for battle, like readying your horses during this day and age, as the readers, original readers would have understood, ultimately one should not trust in their horses. or their preparation, but in God for deliverance or victory belongs to the Lord. Israel learned this or had to relearn this a lot, didn't they? There were just times when they were gonna take it. They had gotten a couple of victories behind their belt and they thought, you know what? We got this. Let's just go out and do what we did last time. And they suffered defeat, didn't they? The Lord called them back and said, you're not trusting me. You're trusting in horses and chariots. You're trusting in your kind of man-made contracts with people who are outside this covenant community. And you have a contract with me. You have a covenant with me. And that's where you need to put your trust. We are called that we need to use the means and the gifts that God has given us, but we do not need to idolize those things. Those who put their trust in them will fall, all right? To put your trust in yourself and not to trust in the Lord, I promise you, you will fall. Those who remember that their safety is in the Lord will stand upright. And when it comes to seeking to live and honor and worship the King of hearts who is victorious on our behalf through Jesus Christ, it's even more important that we exercise active faith and dependence on God's spirit. Now, really, this does just bring me into the close where I have to ask this question because I believe that the text really does force it. And the question really becomes, will you turn to God this day and deny yourself and cast yourself upon the king of hearts and the king of the universe? You see, God has already won the victory over sin and death for you in Christ, and Christ calls And not only calls, but he also promises with these words, he says, come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Folks, I believe that's the question that lies before us today. Whether you're a Christian or a non-Christian, will you cast yourself at the feet of the King of Kings? Will you take eternal life on His standards and by His way through Jesus Christ, or will you seek to do that on your own? And that's a question that has to be answered. It's not an optional question, it has to be answered. All right, would you join me in prayer? Father, again, we do thank you for your great mercies to us. Lord, that you would not leave us in our own destitute place, wallowing in our sin, wallowing in our selfishness and in our pride. Lord, that you would show us the way that is true and right through Jesus Christ and you would provide a complete atonement and you would grant to us eternal life through him. Lord, would you remind those in the room that are yours that this is their true hope? Lord, if there are any that do not know you, Lord, would you call them? Would they see the beauty of what it means to submit to Christ and to cast their sin and their care upon him? for you really do care for us, Lord. Thank you again for the reminder that we should rejoice that the Lord is King. Your Lord and King adore. Rejoice, give thanks and sing, and triumph evermore. Amen.