Conspiracy theories. They abound, don't they? And people eat them up. I've been thinking quite a lot about them lately. And the reason I think so many folks gravitate toward so-called conspiracy theories is they want to understand the story behind the story. They see obvious inconsistencies in the news that's reported or the nonsensical declarations that come from our politicians, and they know the real story is the story behind the story. That's not to say that many of the conspiracy theories aren't off the charts kooky, but it is worth pointing out that It was the CIA who popularized, not created, but popularized the phrase conspiracy theory to discredit those who challenged the results of the investigation into JFK's assassination. And calling people conspiracy theorists was simply a tool to shut people up who had questions and wanted to know the story behind the story. In media and political elites, they use the term to intimidate and squelch opinions that veer from their approved narratives. Just a couple years ago, people suggested that the Wuhan virus came from a lab in Wuhan where they were experimenting on that exact type of virus. Those people were accused of being xenophobes and conspiracy theorists. or when our leaders assured us that the vaccines were safe and effective and would stop the transmission of COVID-19. If you pushed back on that or even ask questions about that, you were labeled anti-science and a conspiracy theorist. As I said, please don't misunderstand me. There are conspiracy theories that are off the charts, cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs. But I think a lot of sincere people aren't buying the stories our leader class is selling because they wanna know what the story is behind the story. And that's especially true in regards to the rapid increase of immorality and wickedness and perversity. That's being called normal in our broader culture. I mean, we have a secretary of health who is a dude pretending to be a woman who has the responsibility of promoting a healthy lifestyle to children. Christians ought to want to know, what's the story behind that story? Why is perversity so popular and moral decency so deplored? We need to know the story behind the story. And God willing, that's what we're gonna be learning over the next several weeks. You recall, we've taken a bit of a diversion from our study in 2 Thessalonians to focus on the way the devil works in the world and to learn about the Antichrist and false prophet that he's gonna raise up and what God has done to ensure victory and what God is doing now to protect us and we'll learn these things from Revelation 12 through 14. Lord willing, it'll help us understand the story behind the story of so much of what we're experiencing today. So let's seek the Lord's face and we'll get to work. Please pray with me. Our great God in heaven, we pray that you give your people every attentiveness, every receptiveness, all that we need to hear, receive, believe, and embrace your word. As we'll be interacting with difficult passages that describe fantastic images, help us to think them through. Again, help us to see what you would teach us through these things. So again, help us, O God. Help us as we come to your word to be spiritually nourished. We ask these things in Jesus' name, amen. Let me ask you to open your Bibles to Revelation 12. I'm gonna read verses one through six. Revelation 12, beginning in verse one, this is the true word of our God. Now a great sign appeared in heaven. A woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of 12 stars. And being with child, she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth. And another sign appeared in heaven. Behold, a great fiery red dragon. having seven heads and 10 horns and seven diadems on his head. His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to earth. The dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth to devour her as soon as the child was born. She bore a male child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron, and her child was caught up to God and his throne. Then the woman fled into the wilderness where she is a place prepared by God that they should feed her there 1,260 days. Well, there ends the reading of God's holy word. May bless it to our hearts this morning. Dearest congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, last week I tried to provide some thoughts on how we can best interpret the book of Revelation. And I ran out of time and made a couple of the points more hastily than I would have liked, but here are a few of the overarching interpretive principles we want to keep front and center when we're thinking about the book of Revelation. First, the book of Revelation is chiefly about revealing Christ, who is the supreme victor over all of human history. That's principle number one. This is a book that's to teach God's people when history is consummated, Christ is the perfect, ultimate victor, having vanished all foes and secured all of his friends, namely those he gave the gift of everlasting life to. Second, the book is written in highly symbolic language. It needs to be interpreted accordingly. Rather than coming at the book of Revelation and thinking, we should try to do this as literal as possible, and maybe use symbolism when, no, no, other way around. It's written to be a symbolic book. We have to interpret it as a symbolic book. Third, the best way to unlock the fantastic images that we're going to encounter in Revelation, even in these couple chapters, is through the Old Testament. And fourth, the book is structured around seven vision cycles. And I shared this last week, but there have been various ways that churchmen have sought to interpret these seven vision cycles. Some see most of what's recorded in these seven visions as events that are yet in the future and they're called futurists. That's a view held by many of our dispensational friends and premillennialists. Some see much of those seven visions are almost all the seven visions as events that took place in the past. Those would be full preterists. And some see the seven visions as representative of seven successive ages moving through history chronologically and successively so that the first vision is basically the earliest days of the church, the second vision is just beyond that, then the third vision beyond that, and so on. But what most Reformed have believed about these seven vision cycles is that they're all describing events that chiefly fall between the first and final coming of Christ. Revelation 12 through 14 is the fourth vision cycle, so it's right in the middle of those seven vision cycles, and that ought to tell us that we can expect this to be a major transition point in the book of Revelation, and it is. In the first three visions, John's visions explain what the church will experience primarily at the world's hands, and how God will protect them and care for them, and what the world will experience by way of judgment from God's hand. Or said another way, the first three visions describe primarily the external experiences of God's people. But in the vision cycle we're beginning this morning, It's as if God's pulling back the veil to let us see what's going on behind the scenes by way of spiritual warfare. It's to show us that what's happening in the physical realm is reflective of what's happening in the spiritual realm. In other words, what we see in Revelation 12 through 14 is the story behind the story. Well, we move into our text and we're immediately confronted with some fantastic and vivid imagery. And this imagery is meant to depict for us cosmic warfare. And as we move through this chapter, it will become clear that this is warfare that's being described. So this morning we're gonna be introduced to the main combatants. There's a woman and there's a child and there's a dragon. And if you like mnemonic helps, you could think of it this way. There's a mother, a Messiah, and a monster, right? So those are the three combatants. Now when we read those first three verses of Revelation 12, we are immediately introduced to two of the combatants, the woman and the dragon. And it is obvious that these two are at war. We'll consider their identity in a moment, but we need to begin by understanding how it is that the woman and the dragon have come to be such fierce enemies. What caused this hostility between them? And to understand the war we're going to see and work through in Revelation 12, again, we need to go to the story behind the story. The story behind the story took place in the Garden of Eden. I know most of you are familiar with the book of Genesis and you know that the serpent came to Eve while she and Adam were enjoying paradise, he with great subtlety and guile came to Eve and he tempted her. And Adam and Eve succumbed to the temptation and they rebelled against God by eating the forbidden fruit. And of course, that's when sin and death entered the world. That's the story behind a lot of our story. And God's first word of rebuke after this cosmic treason, his first word of rebuke was to the tempter, to the devil, to the serpent of old. Listen to Genesis 3.15, and again, just remember this is God speaking here to Satan. I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. Now this is a profound moment in history. God's image bearers, Adam and Eve, became co-conspirators. with the devil, the very enemy of God. And instead of loving God and enjoying the awesome blessings that he had provided them in paradise, instead of loving and obeying God's word of truth, Adam and Eve chose Satan's lies. Adam pitched his tent with Satan. And his actions very clearly said, I have decided to follow Satan's word Not yours. Think about that. Now, from a purely human perspective, we would have expected God to step in and say, I'm declaring both of you, Satan and the man and the woman, you're all my enemies, period. That's what we would have expected. Instead, what we see is this clear demonstration of God's sovereign grace. when instead he steps in and he declares enmity between the seed of Satan and the seed of the woman. Think about that. God placed enmity between the two co-conspirators. And God made them hostile to one another. And of course that enmity is not just between Eve and Satan. God placed that enmity between their respective offspring as well. That's a big part of the story, behind the story, why people despise Christians, because there are two seeds unfolding in history, and they're at enmity. with one another. Inherent in this act of God, of course, is his sovereign purpose to save a people for his glory, which we see in the promise of the gospel in this passage where God promises he'll send one who'll come and crush the serpent's head. And of course, God fulfilled that promise when Jesus came into the world and defeated Satan through his saving work on the cross, through his death for our sins and his being raised to life for our justification. But this is the backdrop. This is the story behind the story of Revelation 12. God said there's gonna be two people who are gonna exist in history, the seed of the woman and the seed of Satan. And the reason these events of Genesis are so important is that this is exactly what Revelation 12 is picking up on. And incidentally, you probably noticed this before as careful Bible students, but the same three cast of characters that you find in Genesis 3, you find in Revelation 12. Well, let's look at how John the Apostle describes these two enemies in this morning's passage. Listen again to verses one and two. Now a great sign appeared in heaven. A woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of 12 stars. And being with child, she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth." Excuse me. So John sees a great sign in heaven, a woman. And I just want to start with this. It's not Mary. It's not a literal woman. It's not Eve. If you glance here at verse one, we're told this woman is a sign, very specifically, right? Not an individual woman. And to interpret this sign, what we have to do is evaluate the features. And when we do that, we would notice she's associated with luminaries. The sun, the moon, and on her head, a garland of 12 stars. So what do we make of that? Well, as I've said before, to rightly interpret the book of Revelation, you need to know that John assumes his readers are gonna have been saturated in the Old Testament. And the imagery of the luminaries around this woman would remind them of Joseph's vision that's recorded in Genesis 37, verses nine through 11. Again, I suspect most of you are familiar with that account. Joseph had a dream, and in the dream, it presented his father Jacob as the sun, his mother Rachel as the moon, and the 12 sons who became the 12 tribes of Israel, they were presented as stars. And of course, when we speak of the 12 tribes, it's simply a basic way to identify God's covenant people in the Old Testament, isn't it? And that's what the imagery of Revelation 12 represents. It's symbolic of the Old Testament church. Again, the woman's not Eve, not Mary. It's the people of God being depicted as a woman. And so, this woman's womb is the womb of Israel. Her womb is the protecting place that God is using to preserve the promised messianic seed, again from Genesis 3.15 up to the point when Messiah will be born. So again, this is a picture of Israel as Messiah's mother preparing to give birth to Messiah and a monster waiting to stop God's purposes. And again, why does Satan want to stop the Messiah from coming? Because he knows this is the one who God has ordained will crush his head. So that's the first character in Revelation 12. It's up through the first three, four verses. It's the Old Testament church. But then you see after verse five, it becomes the New Testament church. Again, that'll become clear as we work through those verses next week. But it's a way of telling us that God always has a single people, one people in redemptive history, right? Since this is a picture of Christ's church, we should ask, does it tell us anything about the church's purpose? Does it tell us anything about the church's purpose when we evaluate this symbolism? And it does. Obviously, on its very surface, we see the imagery of the church in the Old and New Testament. It has something to do with sun and moon and stars. Now think about that. These bodies of light, they had a very specific purpose in creation, didn't they? I wanna read the account from the fourth day of creation. This is recorded in Genesis 1, verses 14 through 19. God said, let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, Let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth." And it was so. God made two great lights, the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. You see, we hear all those three luminaries, don't we? God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good, and there was evening, and there was morning, the fourth day. Now, we read these lights, the sun, the moon, and stars, they're created by God to give light to His creation. And these awesome luminaries, these lightbearers are now being used in Revelation 12 to describe God's people, right? God's people are light bearers of God. Now, we're starting mid story, but if you were to go back and you'd read Revelation 10 and 11, you would see particularly the bit about the two witnesses. The two witnesses are representative of God's purpose to proclaim his word. to the world, right? And so when you get to chapter 12 and you get this imagery of luminaries who are to be God's light to the world, it's carrying over, it's following the same imagery. The people of God are seen as gloriously shining forth the glory of Christ. And this speaks directly to our calling in this world to be lights shining brightly in a world that's filled with darkness. And this was a calling of God's people throughout old history. God's Old Testament church and God's New Testament church had this calling. The Old Testament church had this calling in places like Isaiah 42, 6, where the Lord says, I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness. I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you. And I will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles. So that's God's old covenant church. And of course, this same principle is clearly taught by Jesus, isn't it? In Matthew 5, verses 14 through 16, Jesus says, you are the Light of the world, a city on a hill cannot be hidden, neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on a stand and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. Now in a couple weeks, we'll be exploring in some detail how it is the church who has the responsibility to prepare and equip and strengthen God's people for the task. But because it is through the church that Jesus ministers to his people by the word and spirit. But for now, we want to recognize that the very nature of this beautiful woman, this beautiful sign that John sees, is that this church is to be light bearers. We're to be men and women who bring light into darkness, to separate light from darkness. I know how our world needs men and women who do this. Right? We see so much darkness. I mentioned some of it in the introduction, but it's everywhere. And we have a word that's powerful, a word that can shine into the darkness and even overcome the darkness. And the question really is, do we avail ourselves to that and to those opportunities? Again, going back to Revelation 11 and 12, it seems to me the two witnesses were primarily to be a picture of the church fulfilling the great commission. And it seems when you move into Revelation 12, it's actually expanded, that the church is to bring the whole light of God's word into a world that's enshrouded by darkness. As sure as God Almighty has created the sun and moon and stars to give light to this world, we are His luminaries now to bring His light into the world. Again, we so desperately need people who will do this. I have shared with most of you guys The document we produced as a group that I'm participating in to push back against some progressive, liberal, apostate Christians. And one of the things that's incredibly disheartening, and the reason we haven't published it in newspapers, is because we can't find ministers who will stand up and say, God's word is true. and it is light that will shine into the darkness. And that's heart-wrenching, isn't it? This is what we're called to do. We even get a glimpse of that in this beautiful, powerful image. We're light to the world. This woman is the church, the church under the old covenant, the church in the new covenant, and we see something of her calling. We're light bearers, dear ones. Now let's look at the great enemy of the church. Who is it that must necessarily be the prince of darkness? Verse three, and another sign appeared in heaven. Behold, a great fiery red dragon, having seven heads and 10 horns and seven diadems on his head. So again, same vision, but John sees a second sign. And it's not hard for us to discern that the fiery red dragon is the devil. The ninth verse of this chapter makes it clear. But I want to draw your attention to one of the differences that we see in the description of the vision of the woman and the description of the dragon. When John's describing the church, the woman, he says, this is a great sign in heaven. It isn't surprising that John doesn't use the word great to describe the dragon, but I do want you to see what John does say differently concerning the dragon. Look there. John calls us to behold him. That's a command to look at him. Don't miss him. Know who he is. He's calling our attention to this vile creature. He's saying, listen, church. You need to be able to identify the wretched prince of demons. It's probably true that most believers hate the idea of having to look on a creature who is the archenemy of our Savior and the God we love, but John is telling us we must look. We must know who he is. We must know his tactics. We must understand his wiles. And he's calling us to look at this sign in heaven, that we might be able to recognize this depraved, fallen angel. We need to recognize Satan, who is the devil, the serpent, the father of lies, the destroyer, the prince of the power of the age, the god of this age, Beelzebub, the enemy of our souls. In the Garden of Eden, the great deceiver approached Eve with cunning and guile. In 2 Corinthians 11, 14, we learn that Satan masquerades as an angel of light. And here, John's telling us, look on this hideous creature and see him for what he is and who he is. He's evil in all of its grotesque fullness. He has to contemplate this sign that appears before John, but we've got to recognize the enemy. of our souls. You see, dear people of God, your adversary, the devil, he walks around like a roaring lion, seeking who he may devour. And if we can't identify who he is, if we become apathetic where the devil is concerned, we're not going to be able to spot him. And if we can't spot him, we can't stand against his wiles. If we don't know who he is and what direction he's coming from, we don't know how to implement our spiritual armor that God has entrusted to us. I think as Reformed believers, we sometimes look at an almost over-exaggeration in terms of the importance of demons and the devil in many evangelical quarters. And so we think, well, we don't want to go down that route. Well, maybe you don't, but maybe you should. It's true that people make egregious erroneous statements about demons and the devil. You know, over the years I've heard people, you know, flip Wilson theology. Any problem you have in your life, any struggle with sin, the devil made me do it, right? So you're overweight, here's your problem. You need to get that demon of obesity cast out, right? You see, that's nonsensical. But responding against that to a place where we don't understand that there's a clear and present danger to us from this malicious being is not the right response because he is a fierce enemy. And we have to know that he despises the church. In fact, he despises humanity. We have to know that Satan targets the church as a victim. He tempted Jesus, he'll tempt you. Of course, the great tactic of the devil is the same in every generation. It hasn't really changed since the Garden of Eden. It's always the same thing. Has God indeed said? That's it. Because once he can cause you to question the goodness of God as reflected in God's word, he's got his foul talons in you, right? And you know how you can recognize if that's happening? With the word but. I know what the Bible says, but. I know what the Bible says about sexual immorality, but. I know what the Bible says about loving my neighbor, but. I know what the Bible says about loving my wife, but you don't know her. Our butts are our end. Has God indeed said? Boy, it's been working for 6,000 Years. Well, examples are limitless. And I really don't know what Satan might be whispering in your ear, but I know he will always make it sound appealing. He'll always make it sound like if you just compromise God's word a little bit, it won't be a big deal. So when you're thinking about faithfulness, and you hear the word but begin to be conjured up in your mind, understand it is a fiery dart from the evil one. He knows how to whisper those things that our itching ears want to hear. He's that sly. He's that smooth. Well, the apostle John exposes him and calls us to recognize him, behold, He is no angel of light, he's a fiery red dragon. He's the enemy of your soul, know your enemy. And John goes on to describe the dragon as fiery red, again, and having seven heads and 10 horns and seven diadems on his head. This fiery red is a color that we associate with warfare, the shedding of blood, And this is befitting the one about whom Jesus said in John 8, 44, was a murderer from the beginning. And in regard to these other images of the dragon, we need to remember that in Revelation, many if not most of the numbers are highly symbolic, as I keep saying. And the number 7 is the number of completeness, and the number 10 is the number of fullness. So these numbers that John sees in his vision are symbolic to remind us that this is a powerful, a powerful, enemy, right? In fact, Jesus refers to this Satan as the prince of the power of the air, the ruler of this world. That's the extent of his power. And this sign that John sees depicts for us the desire of the devil to take full dominion over the creation. Well, rather than move into verse four, I'm gonna wrap up here. We've learned about the first two combatants. There's the woman, the mother of the Messiah, right? And when the Messiah comes, the mother still exists as the family that has embraced the Messiah. We've seen the enemy, a cruel, vicious, evil enemy. And there's war. We have just begun to scratch the surface of the war. But this is the story behind the story. Why is our culture so dead set on murdering babies? because the fiery red dragon hates God's image bearers. Why do we live in a world where gender has become a confusing topic? It's because male and female reflect the image of God, and the fiery red dragon hates God. And since he can't kill God, he wants to destroy God's image Our responsibility, brothers and sisters, is to be luminaries, to be those who bring the light and truth into this world of lies and darkness, and to know that it's a word that's powerful. And although this is premature because we haven't got to Revelation 14 yet, Here's the way the story behind the story ends. Christ conquers all his enemies and all ours. And we live with him victoriously forever. That's what motivates us. That's what gives us courage. Amen. Let's pray. Father, we thank you and bless you for your kindness and mercy to us. in showing us the history of the church, of giving us this vivid picture of the enemy of our soul, and reminding us of this divinely inspired task to be your luminaries in this world. We pray, O God, that the word we've heard this morning and the power of the Holy Spirit would strengthen us and give us courage to be luminaries. And as we come now to the Lord's table, we pray that we're strengthened in the hope that our Christ has won the victory for us. We ask all this in Jesus' name, amen. Well, brothers and sisters, as we prepare to come to the Lord's table, as you know, as you hear me say, each Lord's Day, the invitation to come to this table is extended to those who belong to Christ and to those for whom Christ belongs to them. In other words, it's for those who are in communion with Christ by faith alone, who come to this table not because of their worthiness, your worthiness, but we come to this table on the basis of Christ's worthiness. So if you're trusting in Christ alone for your salvation, and you are a member in good standing of a Bible-believing church, then the invitation to come is extended to you. As you know, we also Confess with the historic church what we believe using the Apostles' Creed. That's on page 851. 851 in the back of your hymnal. Christian, what do you believe? I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, his only begotten son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried. He descended into hell. The third day, he rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From there, he shall come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. Amen. Brother, can you hand me your bulletin? I didn't get through my notes, so I couldn't get to Calvin's meditation. Thank you. Let me ask you to give your attention to the reading of God's wonderful words here from 1 Corinthians 11, and then I do have a meditation from Calvin. The Apostle Paul writes, for I received from the Lord Now, which I also deliver to you that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which he was betrayed took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, take, eat. This is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same manner, he also took the cup after supper, saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Let's do as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till he comes. Therefore, whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup, for he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's And then I have a meditation I think I mentioned last week. I'm gonna use a couple of Calvin's meditations sequentially just to remind us the way the reformers thought about the Lord's Supper. So this is printed in your bulletin. You can all follow along except for Jeff because I have his bulletin. To maintain us in this spiritual life, the thing requisite is not to feed our bodies with fading and corruptible food, but to nourish our souls on the best and most precious diet. We find life only in Jesus Christ, and our souls have no other pasture than Him. Our Lord therefore instituted the Supper first in order to sign and seal in our consciences The promise is contained in this gospel concerning our being partakers of his body and blood and to give us certainty and assurance that therein lies our true spiritual nourishment. And having these tokens, the bread and wine, as God's pledge, we may attain a right assurance of salvation. Here then is the singular consolation which we derive from the supper. It directs and leads us to the cross of Jesus Christ and to His resurrection, to certify us that whatever iniquity there may be in us, the Lord nevertheless recognize and accepts us as righteous. Whatever materials of death be in us, He nevertheless gives us life. Whatever misery may be in us, He nevertheless fills us with all felicity. Or to explain the matter more simply. As in ourselves we are devoid of all good and have not one particle of what might help to procure salvation, the supper is an attestation that having been made partakers of the death and passion of Jesus Christ, we have everything that is useful and salutary to us. We can therefore say that in it the Lord displays to us all the treasures of His spiritual grace inasmuch as He associates us in all the blessings and riches of our Lord Jesus. Let us recollect then that the supper is given as a mirror in which we may contemplate Jesus Christ crucified in order to deliver us from condemnation and raised again in order to procure for us righteousness and eternal life. Let's pray. Father, as we come to this wonderful sacrament, We pray that these gospel truths will flood our minds. And as we take these elements, the bread and the cup, these same gospel truths will be sealed in our hearts. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen. Well, brothers and sisters, as we just heard, on the night in which the Lord Jesus was betrayed, He took bread. When He had given thanks, He broke it. He said, this is my body given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. Well, brothers and sisters, take and eat and remember and believe this is communion with the body of our Lord. After supper, the Lord Jesus took the cup and having given thanks, he offered it to his disciples saying, drink from it. All of you, this is the blood of the covenant poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. Well, brothers and sisters, the story behind the story for every child of God is that we have an all-sufficient Savior who rules and reigns. Take and drink and remember and believe this is communion with the blood of the Lord. Amen. Our hymn of application is gonna be number 245. 245, great is thy faithfulness. Please stand, 245. We'll receive the Lord's benediction. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all now and forever. All of God's people said, amen.