All right, let me start in prayer. Father God, thank you again for bringing us here. Thank you for the season that we're celebrating as we look to the advent of Christ, both what he has done in the past, and of course, looking forward to his coming again. And Father, I pray that as we study another one of these great hymns, Lord, that you would soften our hearts toward Christ and help us to be like him in all that we do. It's in his name we pray, amen. Okay, so last week we looked at one of the most ancient hymns. It went all the way back to the 6th century. This week, we're going to look at one that goes back to the fourth century. So these are very ancient things. These are very ancient hymns that we have. And this one is one of my favorites when we start reading through the verses. It really puts it in perspective of who we are, who God is, and what the incarnation should mean to us. And so we're going to look at the origins of the hymn, which are interesting. And then we're going to jump into some of the theological significance in each of the verses. We'll do a lot of running through the scriptures. You can try to stay with me, but there's a lot to go through, and I'll read them out. But it should be a really good understanding of, again, this very interesting hymn. So if you look at your page that we handed out there in the lower left-hand corner, as we get started into the origins of this hymn, you can see it says, Liturgy of St. James, 5th century. So we're going to go through what all that means. It's kind of interesting. The history of these hymns is always contained at the bottom in our Trinity hymnal. The words and the authors are in the left-hand corner, and then the song and the meter are over in the right-hand corner. And so we're going to look at that. So you'll see French melody, 17th century. It's interesting. So we'll go through all that. So like I said, the words of this hymn date back all the way to the fourth Century church and that liturgy of st. James will be significant here as we look at that. So what does that mean? So the words were actually part of a very specific liturgy used during communion This this this hymn and these words were were said in the liturgy Which is the kind of the program of how we do worship or how they did worship back then for instance And they called it the st. James liturgy And so that's what this became a part of, and that's why on the left-hand corner you see Liturgy of St. James. That's where these words came from. They were forms of prayers or chants that they did, again, while they were serving communion, which is interesting. You'll kind of get the idea when you look at it. It's like, what's going on here? This St. James Liturgy, by the way, is very interesting. Some people can complain about long sermons and things like this. This liturgy, by the way, took almost three hours. And so it was a lot of prayer. There were a lot of things that went into it. This is as they work toward, of course, the communion. And that's what it was all about. So that's where it comes from. That's where these words were. So it was originally known as a, I'm gonna butcher this word, Jebutic hymn, which means hymn of the angels. And as we look at the verses, you're gonna see why. So it was not originally thought to, this was not the original name of it. It was really the Hymn of the Angels, and it was, the angels were calling men to silence before God, as they considered his magnificence, his magnificent work in salvation through Christ, as remembered during the Lord's Supper. And so they would say these things to call you to consider what was happening, to ponder, and to stop, shut your mouth and stop, be silent before God. And really when you look at what the angels do in response, we should kind of follow them when you look at how they're responding to God. Us and our sinful natures, that's not what we normally do, especially during this time of season. So around 1864, Gerard paraphrased and translated the words of this into the hymn that we know today. And then in 1906, Ralph Williams took Picardy and made it, took that French folk hymn and brought the tune, which we'll sing later on in our service today, and you'll recognize the tune and put it to the words, or put the words to the tune, and that's what we have today. So again, this thing goes way back to the fourth century, but interesting, during the 20th century, it moved from a song that was sung and done during the Holy Communion to what we see today, which is an Advent hymn. It's interesting how it kind of morphed itself in the direction of Advent. All right, so that's the history of the hymn and where it came from and where the words came from. And again, we see it going all the way back to these ancient worship services. And then it becomes this Advent hymn. So let's look at some of the theological significance. I want to start, we're going to read each of the verses and then look at corresponding scripture verses that go with it. One of the things that I'm always struck by when I look at hymns is how well the hymn writers knew the scriptures. and how well they could take scriptures and condense it down into verses that you sung. And this one is no different. All the words that are in it have point back toward either a New Testament or Old Testament writing about what they're trying to talk about here, which is this let moral flesh be silenced before God. And so let's take a look at the first verse here. Switch over here. Before we get there, I want to read Habakkuk 2.20. What's interesting too, if you look at the Trinity Hymnal, everywhere in the hymnal, every hymn you see, there's like a Right at the top, look underneath it says, let all mortal flesh keep silent. I don't know if you've ever noticed, but right underneath it is a scripture verse that tends to summarize everything for you. Every single hymn has this same thing in it in the Trinity Hymnal. Trinity Hymnal is super rich. It's not just a song book. There's so many things that are in it. If you don't own one of your own, I mean, I use it all the time. It's like you want to look at things and look at, you know, and you see Jesus Christ, his advent, there's all these different things up at the right, again, at the top. The Trinity Hymnal is very a treasure trove, so to speak, of theological information for us. So let's look at this Habakkuk 220. It says, but the Lord is in His holy temple, let all the earth keep silence before Him. You know, as Christians, one of the things that is significant for us is to understand who God is and who we are. And we're gonna see in some of these things, we're gonna talk about this issue of a right fear of God or a proper posture before God. I was reading earlier in a book this week, and he was talking about the significance of the fact that in Christianity, we start with the first, one of the greatest theological truths we have is contained in the first sentence in the Bible. In the beginning, God created. And so this sets us completely apart from most of the other religions that are out there and these ideologies that are out there because we recognize right off the bat that God's creation and God himself are separate. that God created, and so there's some huge, when you stop and think about that, and you start to contemplate the fact that all of creation came from God, it's not like Carl Sagan said, it hasn't existed forever. that there was a beginning and God did it. It really puts us in a proper posture as we step back and think about it. So you have an awesome creator God who creates the universe. So what's the significance there? We see that he's the creator. You know, imagine if you had a great business that you started and you You started this thing from nothing, and you grew it into something, and then your employee said, you know, we hate your guts. We want your money. We want to be you. You would stop and think about that, right? You'd be like, huh, is that a proper posture? toward the guy who created this business, or should we respect him, do these things. And so it's a bad analogy, but it still puts us in the perspective of, here you have this universe. By the way, the universe, if you haven't considered it lately, is enormous. Not only is it beautiful, but it's beyond our understanding how big it is. And so what I'm trying to point here is when you think about God and stop for a second and consider that He's the Creator and you're part of His creation, it starts to put you in this proper mindset that what is our response to this Creator? What should we do? How do we respond to a Creator God as His creatures? You know, we're not autonomous. We're not equal to God, although we spend most of our life trying to do that. You know, we have a kind of a grandfatherly hug kind of thing that we want to do with God, or we want to make Jesus our boyfriend. Instead of stepping back in humility, look at what he's done. Look at who he is and then who we are. And so this reminds us, when you look at Habakkuk here, it reminds us of this, let the earth be silent before him. Why? Because it's a proper posture of humility before him. And this whole hymn is a reminder of that. Stop for a second, consider the creator, consider who you are, and place yourself in this posture of humility. And then when you start looking at the posture of Christ's humility, we start to see the beauty of the gospel to where we then respond properly in worship. And that's what this is about. And I'm gonna talk a little bit about how the angels respond to God and how it should be similar to us When we respond so so let's let's look at the first verse All right, so starting the top one there. It says let all mortal flesh keep silence and with fear and trembling stand. Okay, we have this posture of humility right off the bat. And then he says, ponder nothing earthly minded, for with blessing in his hand, Christ our God to earth descendeth, our full homage to demand. There's a lot going on here in this first verse to call us to a proper posture of humility before God. So let's look at it. So the first thing we see there is we need to be silent before God in a posture of humility and awe. When you look at, there's many, many verses through the scripture that talk about this fear of God. Now we don't talk about that much in most churches. because they're more interested in Jesus as a boyfriend than Jesus as God. And so we have a proper posture when we have a proper understanding that we should rightly fear God for being the creator. Not in a trembling, I'm an aunt kind of thing, but in the idea that again, He is the creator God and we are His creatures. So look at what Psalm 111 says. It says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. It's a very interesting statement when you think about it. It's the beginning of wisdom. So where do we start? With a proper understanding of who God is. And then it says, all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever. So it puts us in the right place. What did Jesus say in the Beatitudes? We want you in a humble state first, blessed with the humble. So we want to be in a state of humility. and understanding rightly this fear of God. Proverbs 1.7, the fear of the Lord, again, beginning of knowledge. Fools despise wisdom and instruction. Then you have Proverbs 19.23, the fear of the Lord leads to life. So again, we see a proper understanding of this fear because why does it lead to life? Whoever has it rests satisfied and he will not be visited by harm. Who's harming us here? What are we doing? We're talking about God. When you go to hell, Satan's not there with a pitchfork to stab you. That's not what hell is. You know, God is there in a sense of He now has rejected you and you're paying the price for your sin. And so God's the one that's down there that has this visit of harm on you. And I know that sounds kind of like, but I've always heard God is love. Well, He is, but He's also a God of justice and holiness and righteousness. And so we look at this, it says, it leads to life. Why? Because it drives us to the arms of Christ because there's nothing we can do. We're all guilty before him. And so again, we see this right posture that the Bible does to keep us in line with who we really are and who he really is. And then you see in Matthew 10, 28, and this is Jesus speaking, he says, and do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul, rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Again, he's rightly pointing us to a proper understanding of God's creator right and his awesomeness. All right, so we see that, so we're supposed to be, we have this posture of humility and awe, but we also get to see in this first verse that not only are we saying God is magnificent, He's awesome, He should be feared, but at the same time, what's He pointing to? He brings us to Christ. We're not left in this position of humble fear before God because of what we've done. He kind of rightly points it out to us, and then it shifts and says, hey, but ponder the incarnation of Christ. And by the way, He demands our homage. So what does that mean? So let's look at 1 John You see this right off the bat in John's gospel, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory. Glory is only the Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. Galatians 4.4, but when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law. And then of course the famous verse in Isaiah, therefore the Lord himself will give us a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel. Paul writes to the Philippians, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth. In Hebrews 1.6, and again when he brings his firstborn into the world, he says, let all angels worship him. So we have this understanding of The creator of the stars becomes a baby, comes in human form in order to do what? Show his love to us in that he loves us so much he sacrifices. His Son on our behalf. And so we see not only a righteousness of God, but we also see a love of God that transcends our understanding, that really drives us to say, I have a problem before a holy and righteous God, and He loved me so much, He solved my problem. He sent Himself, His Son, to come and pay the price. And so that's what they're after. And we also see at the end of this, it says, our full homage to demand We not only stand before a creator of God as his creatures that we should bow to, but yet that's a bowing in fear, which is okay, but now we move to look at the incarnation and now we bow in love. We bow in adoration. We respond in such a way. Remember, that work on the cross demands a response from us. and it is one of homage. He is the King. He is the Savior. It should move us in that direction of being a worshipful people. All right, so now let's look at the second verse. It says, King of kings, again describing Jesus, yet born of Mary, as of old on earth he stood, Lord of lords in human vesture. and in the body and in the blood, he will give to all the faithful his own self for heavenly food. So you see how he's moved from the creator God to incarnation to now what has he done? And we look at this and he's describing Jesus. And so let's look at the first part of this. Virgin born of a, virgin birth of the creator of the stars. So Jesus is a very, he is, He is fully God and fully man. Hard for us to comprehend that. But when we do, we start to recognize this thing. We have the creator of the stars is also born of a virgin and is fully human to us. And that's significant because as covenanters we understand the covenant that God made with his people and the redemption through Christ is through that covenant, that promise with God. We've studied that before. And so we see that this creator of the stars also is born to a virgin. and becomes fully human. And so let's look at, again, we've seen Isaiah 7, 14, we've seen John 1, 14, but look at Matthew. Again, we see this, the angel is proclaiming this, behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and they shall call his name Emmanuel. So don't miss the significance. You know, it's not just this little baby being born that went to the cross. This is God who takes on flesh to come to earth to do a very specific task, which is to live the perfect life, to die on the cross as a perfect sacrifice for us to be redeemed to Him. Huge things we have here. Not little things to consider, but big things. All right, so this is interesting. His body and blood as heavenly food. Now remember, originally this hymn was part of the liturgy as they were doing communion. And so you can see here we're pointing to this communion piece, the great sermon that Logan did a couple weeks ago, talking about the significance of the communion, what's happening in it, how we should respond to it. And we see this hymn pointing us back to this, this heavenly food. So let's look at some of these Bible verses. So this is the story in Luke of the Last Supper. And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, Listen to what he says, This is my body, which has been given for you. Some translations are broken for you, some is other things, but his body is given to you. Do this in remembrance of me. And likewise, the cup after they had eaten, saying, The cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood so so you can see here There's two things going on on that cross that are happening his his body is being crushed Given for you. That's the sacrifice piece of Christ that's happening on the cross And he's saying this blood as you grind up the bread in your teeth. That's what's happening to him. He's being ground up God is is propitiating your sin through Christ and And then we see this next statement about his blood as a covering. It's the covenant. It's the new covenant. His blood covers your sin. And so we can see it. And then in John, we see him go on to say this, this is Jesus again speaking, and he's kind of, this is before, of course, the Last Supper, but he kind of indicates to them what the whole purpose of his coming is. So he says this, he says to them, truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, that was the manna, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever. He's making a very pointed analogy here of what his body is all about and what we as Christians are gonna be feeding on. We get to heaven through Christ and Christ brings this whole thing, the Last Supper's all about it, my body's broken for you, the blood is the covenant for you. He's talking here, he's saying you gotta feed on my flesh, you gotta drink my blood. He's talking about this in a spiritual context. You know what's interesting is, right after this, what did the people do? All the people that had been following him? Yeah, they're like, what is this? We're out of here. They left. This was right after, I believe, that he did one of his great miracles of feeding them. He brings the point to them. They're out in the middle of nowhere. He feeds them. And then he says this, and they're like, whoa, what is this? What's going on here? We don't understand this saying. And so, again, Christ is pointing to something significant. He's not just a tragic figure in history. He's come to do something very, very significant, which is our redemption, restoring a people to himself. And so he does that through his body, and that's why the hymn writer here, this heavenly food comment is so important for us to understand. There is a sacrifice in which you must partake. You must put faith in him that this sacrifice was for you in order for you to be saved, which means you, in essence, spiritually, are born again through eating his body and drinking his blood. Spiritual context, okay? I'm gonna stop there for a second. This is so important to understand. This is the this is the heart of the gospel right here Okay, all right, we're gonna keep on going in all right So now we're gonna jump on to verse 3 and this is where we start getting these last two verses where they called this an angelic hymn So look at what the angels are doing here. So now we're gonna look at how the angels are responding here So let's look at verse 3 Rank on rank, the host of heaven spreads its vanguard on the way, as the light of light descendeth from the realms of endless day, that the powers of hell may vanish as the darkness clears away. Man, there's so much going on here, but he uses kind of these interesting words here. So, rank on rank, the host of heaven spreads its vanguard There are a multitude of angels. It's not a small amount. There's not like a handful of these guys. They are huge in number. So he talks about this vanguard, this rank on rank, host of heaven. Who's the host of heaven? They're the angels, right? And so then it goes on, it says, and on the way, what's the way? This path, this light of, so you see them spreading out to celebrate what's happening. We see it in some of our other hymns that we're gonna talk about, and when Logan preaches on the Gloria, we see the angels' response to the birth of Christ. But you see them then shift, so let's talk about that, let's go to here first. So Angelico celebrates his arrival, so Luke, 2.13.14 this is the canticle that is called the Gloria and it comes from this, and suddenly there was an angel with the angel, remember that one angel shows up and tells the shepherds what's going on and then the sky bursts forth with this angelic host, I mean they become apparent to them, it must have been just awesome and awe-inspiring to see it happen. An angel appears with a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom He is pleased. So you see this bursting forth of this vanguard of angels, this massive number of them on the hills singing God's praise. And then we see something similar to this when we look at Revelation. It says, Then I looked, and I heard around the throne the living creatures and the elders, the voice of many angels, numbering myriads and myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing." So you see what they're doing. They're worshiping God at the throne. There's thousands of them. More than than than John can see they're like look at all this this massive host Worshiping God and so so then we shift to this next part about this light that comes forth Now I want you to catch something there From the realms of endless day, what is that? That's heaven, right? So the realm being heaven endless day mean there's no darkness in heaven none And then we see that the powers of hell may vanish as the darkness clears away. So we have God coming from heaven. where it's endless day, and he comes down to earth, and now we're starting to chase away the darkness. Christ conquers the sin. Remember the double cure? He cleanses us from its guilt and power. He's coming to do that. It's driving out sin. So there's lots of things in the Bible that describe Christ as the light of the world. So let's read a couple of them just to get a significance of what the Bible's talking about. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. What a hopeful statement. You know, we live in a dark world. Look around at what's going on. You want to turn the TV off and just crawl under the covers. But we see that Christ has overcome this. And then Jesus spoke to them saying, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness and will have the light of life. Isaiah 9, 12, the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who dwelt in the land of deep darkness, on them a light has shone. So again, we see this light of the world that we talk about. It is significant. If you've ever been in a dark place, how many people have been in a cave that's really dark? They shut off the lights. It's kind of terrifying, isn't it? Where you have no point of reference, everything is dark, zero light, and you're like, this is kind of scary. That's the world we live in. We live in a scary place. But here comes any amount of light, then chases away the darkness. And we see Jesus as the light of the world. We see this massive coming in. It's like, okay, I'm coming to light up this dark place. And he does. All right, so let's keep going. 2 Corinthians 4-6, for God who said, let light shine out of darkness, has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. So again, not only is the world lit up, but our heart is lit up. We have a dark heart. And when God regenerates us and we are reborn, He sees this, the light has shone in our hearts to give the light of knowledge of the glory of God. So before we're saved, back to what we were first talking about, before we're saved, We have in our minds an insignificant God. He doesn't exist. He's not out there. It doesn't matter. Then look what happens at regeneration. Your heart's changed and you recognize who God is and who you are. This is that light that comes into you that you have this knowledge of the glory of God. that you see it. You see who you are, you see who He is, and that should move you toward this praise and understanding this glory that God has in the face of Jesus Christ. Alright, so let's keep going. Colossians, the last one we'll look at here. He has directed us from the domain, I'm sorry, He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son. You are set free by Christ. You were in that dark cave and now there's light and you follow that light out of that cave. What an awesome picture that we have here that we're being delivered from the domain of darkness through a baby who was the creator of the stars. Pretty pretty amazing. All right, so last one. This is verse 4 and we'll end it up here So let's read this again the angels are talking or they're talking about J angels at his feet the sixth-winged seraph Cherubim with sleepless eye Veil their faces to the presence as with ceaseless voice they cry Alleluia Alleluia Alleluia Lord most high So If you want to know how to respond to God, look at what the angels do. And so you see them here. It's this angelic worship that's around the throne. We go back to Isaiah and we see him. This is what the verse is quoting. Above him stood the seraphim, each had six wings. With two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to the other, saying, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, and the whole world is full of his glory. So again, you see these angels in heaven, and they're singing God's praise and glory. And so we see this endless praise for the matchless king. And so look at Revelation 7, and all the angels were standing around the throne, and around the elders, and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne, and they worshiped God, saying, Amen, blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might be to our God forever and ever. Amen. Again, you see this posture of worship, this posture of humility before the great Creator God, and also the great Redeemer God. And they're falling down, and they're praising Him. Hebrews 1.6, and again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he said, let all God's angels worship him. So we see this, this whole, you know, angelic realm. Now remember, the ones that are in heaven never have sinned. They are magnificent creatures. It'll be, it's one of those cool things when you go to heaven, you get to meet one of them, or a lot of them. And then there's the ones that fell and they're not in heaven. They're gone. But you see that the angels in the heavens are worshiping him. And that's our posture as well. We worship a great and awesome God. And so that's what this is calling us to silence, to ponder, think about it, and respond like the angels do. All right, so let's look at Psalm 103. Bless the Lord, O you his angels, you mighty ones who do his word, obeying the voice of his word. Bless the Lord, all his hosts, his ministers who do his will. So that's for us, too. The angels have not sinned. They don't have a sin nature like we have, but you see how they respond to God. And when you stop and silence yourself, silence your mind, especially during this busy time, all of us say, what about Christmas? So busy, so busy. Somebody got to buy gifts. Stop for a second. Think about how the angels respond here. Ponder it anew, so to speak, and look at it and say, what is it that we're celebrating here? What's really going on? Let's step back and look at this big picture, and let me look at these magnificent creatures, the angels, and look at how they respond to God, and we should likewise do that. And that's why this hymn was originally called the angelic song, because you see how the angels respond. And that's where the first two verses, it's like they're calling us to be silent. Be silent. You know, remember when Elijah goes up into heaven and he's confronted Elijah, Isaiah, I can't remember. Anyway, we have this great prophet goes to heaven and what happens to him up there? What happens to his mouth? You know, he's given a coal to shut it. It's like he's unclean and he knows that everything unclean is coming out of his mouth. He's being silenced. If you go through the scriptures, there's like 50 verses about us shutting our mouths, not speaking, being silent before God, being aware that what's in our heart flows out of our mouth. And so you see this silencing that's called for that the angels say, you need to be quiet now. It's like you're in the presence of God. This is very significant for us. And that's what we do when we're in the presence of the greatness of our God. It should shut our mouths and should bring us to understand what it is that we're in front of. And the fact that he's even led us into the throne room should be stunning to you. and then to be able to say, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. And so we see this awesome response in this hymn. And so you see the significance of it in the words. So in conclusion, during our busy season, let us be silent and ponder this incarnation of God with us in the form of Christ. We need to hear more silent night, holy night, not the world's words. So, and we need to fear God rightly, not in a, I'm terrified because I'm going to be hurt. That's a movement, but it should move us to understand really who God is in his magnificence and awesomeness. That's the fear of God that is a right posture before him. And then in humility, we bow down and we respond in adoration to his work on our behalf, just like the angels, look at what they responded, how they did it. And they're amazed by the way, if you look at what the scripture talks about, You know, imagine them, especially the ones that did not rebel against God, they're in God's presence all the time, they are perfect, they don't sin, and yet they look at what God's love for his creatures, the humans, and it's very puzzling to them. Remember, they don't have the redemption of Christ. You know, if you look at the angels that were cast out with Satan, there's nothing the Bible would indicate that there's redemption. And so you see this host of heaven looking at what God has done for us, and it drives them to worship God, to declare glory, to look and see what He's done. And in light of what happened to them prior to our fall, it should bring them to a little bit of a, that's amazing. And we should respond the same way. It is amazing. Our redemption is amazing. God with us. What an incredible thing. So let our flesh keep silence. as our minds ponder the wonder of Christ. Any questions or thoughts? I think the title of this hymn is so significant, especially because when I put it in the bulletin, my fingers just typed, let all mortal flesh keep silent. And fortunately, I have two people that look at the bulletin, Logan and Daniel, and Daniel's like, Laura, it's keep silence. And I'm like, Yep. Oh, there's a difference there. And I mean, like, you know, one, one is like, I say to my kids, silent. But if you're keeping silence, there is a pondering and a different posture. And the fact that it's let all mortal flesh, the angels can't, they cannot keep silent before him. They cry all day and night, holy, holy, holy. And that is significant, I think, too. I'm glad they changed the name of it, because I think just in pondering the title of it, you're gaining so much insight. Right, it's a great point. When we see the angels in their posture before God and then turn to us mortals, because they're not mortal, they turn to us and say, you need to keep silence. and hold that and do something with it, not just, because the Lord could. make us be silent at a word, but our participation in it, that pondering, that keeping the silence. Anyway, I was glad, it was a happy mistake this week. I was looking in my, I hope, I thought I brought my older Bible. I have some really great old quotes, but I brought my newer one. There's a great theologian, help me out, he said, along the same lines of the silence, and I'm gonna paraphrase it and butcher it, but what his point was is when we're confronted with the gospel, it should move us to silence. To shut our mouths. Yeah, I thought it was Jones too, but you know, same kind of response you see that the angels call us in this to do. You see that great theologian Jones, if it was him, he was also saying the same thing. It should move us to shut our mouths. And both in a way that is showing our humility, but also in stepping back and looking at the awesomeness of our God. Not only is He a God of justice and holiness and righteousness that should cause us a bit of a fear, but at the same time, you see a God who is loving and kind and is sacrificial for you and giving you His son. I mean, those two things alone, to try to wrap around them, takes some pondering, you know, to sit back, and when you do, I hope it moves your heart in ways that are beyond just the gifts and the pretty lights and blah, blah, to say, this is an amazing thing that has happened, and that we respond like the angels do, and we lift up our praise to God, because he's certainly worthy of it. All right, let me close this out in prayer. Father God, thank you again for this great hymn that goes back so many centuries. We thank you for those who have come before us that point us in the direction of our proper posture before you, our proper response. And of course, we ask that you would help us to be silenced and silent in this season as we ponder anew what you have done in this first Advent. And Father, also keep in our minds That we should be hopeful about the second advent as well. And Father, that we should respond just like the angels did as they sing, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Lord most high. We pray all this in Jesus' precious name, amen.