We stand to read the word together from Malachi chapter three and then Luke. Luke chapter seven. And we will read just the first two verses of Malachi chapter three and then turn to Luke chapter seven. A prophecy of John the Baptist. Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight. Behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. And then to Luke chapter 7 and verse 24. When the messengers of John had departed, he began to speak to the multitudes concerning John. What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? But what did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft garments? Indeed, those who are gorgeously appareled and live in luxury are in king's courts. But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I say to you, and more than a prophet, this is he of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you. For I say to you, among those born of women, there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist, but he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he. When all the people heard him, even the tax collectors justified God, having been baptized with the baptism of John. But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the will of God for themselves, not having been baptized by him. And the Lord said, To what then shall I liken the men of this generation? What are they like? They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another, saying, We played the flute for you, and you did not dance. We mourned you, and you did not weep. For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, he has a demon. The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, look, a glutton and a winemaker, a friend of tax collectors and sinners. But wisdom is justified by all her children. The grass withers, the flower fades, the Word of God endures forever. And we turn to the preaching of the Word of God. Luke chapter 7 and the verses 24 to 35. Very close continuation of the narrative from last week which had the disciples of John the Baptist come to Jesus to ask Him that great question, are you the one or should we look for another? And the text opens in verse 24 with those disciples leaving and returning to John. And Jesus then pivots at that occasion to preach to the multitudes that were gathered and ostensibly overheard some of this earlier conversation on the same topic, the topic which is the ministry of John the Baptist, but at a deeper level, a plea for Israel. to heed or listen carefully to the Word preached. And we will learn some lessons from this text about how God uses preaching in history and the urgency of listening. And to put it even more sharply, to listen the first time. It's dangerous not to listen the first time. This book, the Bible, which you have in your hands, is unique in all of human history. It's different than any other book. We believe it to be the Word of God. You just heard a membership question this morning, which was the following. Do you believe the Bible to be the Word of God? The Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. And do you believe that This book contains the perfect and only true doctrine of salvation. Making it distinct and unique from all other writings in all of human history. Why is that? Because we believe it is indeed the Word of God. Do you believe the Bible is the Word of God? That's the question. That in it God speaks. And that God has given to humanity two things, the word written, inscripturated, scripture, and the word preached. And that by these things, these means, God himself who made the heavens and the earth, he speaks in history. He speaks verbally, audibly, and clearly. A lot of people say, why doesn't God speak to me? It is foolishness to say that if you don't read your Bible. It's interesting how many people say that and haven't read their Bible. It was actually interesting, I don't know if some have been following this, the British celebrity Russell Brand. He's been saying some interesting things about Christianity, and one of the things he said a few weeks ago, maybe he's, it seems he's professing faith in Christ. He said some remarkable things. Notable public figure, and he's talking a lot about it. One of the things that's notable in what he's been saying publicly is that I'm reading the Bible, and he said a little phrase. He said, I was ashamed that I thought I knew better than my grandmothers who read this book, especially when I had never read it for myself. In other words, I never bothered to listen. And I don't know Him, I don't know exactly what's happening. You probably pray for Him and many others in the world today. I've actually read a good number of people, public figures, who are starting to read their Bibles for the first time. It's interesting. We need to pray that people read the Word. It is the voice of God in history. It's also urgent to listen to it and dangerous not to. Very dangerous not to. The stakes are high. The Bible is not only the Word of God, but it is filled with God pleading for us to listen, to hear, to believe, and to obey. It's not a book of bare propositions. It is a book where the triune God centrally through the person of Jesus Christ speaks to humanity pleading with us to be reconciled to Him through the blood of His Son. It's a book, not a cold distant book. It's a book in which God Himself draws near and has dealings with humanity. And then especially so as the Spirit enables the preaching of that book in history. And the stakes are very high. As a matter of fact, the ultimate stakes are eternal life and eternal condemnation. But there's a lot of smaller ways where the stakes are high. For example, if you truly believe the gospel, but you decide to hold on to a secret sin, and you're not willing to repent of it for a time, and God has been saying the same thing to you again and again and again, there will be consequences, and the consequences may not be that you lose your salvation, like David who sinned greatly, but you could lose much of what you have in this life. The book is powerful. What it says is true. What it calls you to is authoritative. And when God says, listen, He's also the living and true God. He's watching if you listen. He is active, living and powerful. He is not speaking in a cold, detached manner. He is speaking in this Word in a personal manner. It couldn't be more personal because at the heart of it is the revelation of His Son Jesus Christ. Who Himself is the Living Word. At the center of history indeed is the One who is the Divine Logos. God's self-revelation in the person of Jesus Christ which is essentially what this book is about. Who it is about. So listening is important. It's life and death. It's happiness and tragedy. It's blessedness and destruction. And it always is and it cannot help be because it is the Word of God. We learn about some of these principles in this text when the messengers of John verse 24 had departed. A little bit of background from last week. You remember the messengers of John, I said a moment ago, to come to Jesus to ask him his identity, the disciples of John. And they had been sent with John with this question. It appears that John wanted them to know that Jesus was the Messiah. And because of that interaction between the disciples of John the Baptist and their question, and Jesus sending them back with the answer, which was, tell John what you see, the Messiah has come with saving, healing, redeeming power. According to the promises in Isaiah 35 and 61 for example go back and tell John you have seen the glory of the Lord You've seen the Messiah the answer is yes He is the coming one you shouldn't look for another but because of this the ministry of John is on the mind of our Lord Jesus Christ they leave and Christ pivots and from that discussion to the crowd to remind them of the ministry of John the Baptist and why that ministry was so significant and important for them. In other words, Christ here is teaching and preaching about preaching. The preaching and teaching of another John the Baptist. That is the main theme. And you remember a little bit about John the Baptist. He's remarkable. An angel foretells his coming. His father loses his ability to speak because he doesn't fully believe. The events of his birth have his father regaining his ability to speak, naming him John, and then There's declarations already here in the Gospel of Luke about the unique nature and power of his ministry. As a matter of fact, all these signs made the family and friends already at John the Baptist's birth ask this question, what kind of child will this be? And then we read, the hand of the Lord was with him. John the Baptist preached and it was not, we saw a few weeks ago, it was not comfortable preaching. As a matter of fact, he said things like this. Brute of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? He had an incisive ministry where he was calling a wandering people who are wandering in the fields of sin to repent and return to the Lord. A spiritual message of repentance and faith. An effective ministry that resulted in multitudes. As a matter of fact, you read in Mark chapter one, all Jerusalem and Judea were coming to him. The cities and towns are emptying and they're going into the wilderness to find this man and to hear his message of repentance and then to be baptized with his baptism in the Jordan River. A baptism of repentance signifying a willing break with an old life. and a commitment to follow the Lord in holiness with a special focus on John's ministry that the Messiah was here. He is on the doorstep. The one who Malachi said, behold I send my messenger before your face. We'll get to that in a moment. His central message is one is coming. His central perhaps signal act in his ministry is the baptism of Jesus Christ. A remarkable, powerful prophet that stands at the crossroads of the Old and New Covenant in a unique way in human history. In prophetic history, in preaching history. Now, Jesus appears to be here after what the disciples of John had come and left. to intentionally be publicly commending John's ministry, this ministry, again to Israel. Now this is an instance of remembering. John's in prison, we know that from Luke chapter three. He's not ministering publicly anymore. And so what he's asking these hearers to do is remember what God did through him. Go back and remember. And let me tell you what was happening. Let me remind you of the extent and power and glory of John's ministry. And then, as he does so, he's gonna exalt his own ministry by the end of the text. What does our Savior say about his ministry? First he asked a question. He said, you remember John? Why did you go out into the wilderness to see him? What did you go out into the wilderness to see? Jesus asked this question three times. saying, you remember that remarkable, powerful ministry. I want you to ask yourself why you personally went to see him. What was it about this one that made his ministry so powerful and a consequential in Israel's history? Well, Jesus reminds them first of two reasons why they didn't go. Two rhetorical questions. What did you go out to see in the wilderness? A reed shaken by the wind. What does that mean there? You were not attracted to John's ministry because he was indecisive, unclear, or unsteady. You go back to chapter 3, I just said it a moment ago, but there is nothing unclear, indecisive, or unsteady about John's preaching. Get brood of vipers. Who warned you to flee from the wrath that come, therefore bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, we have Abraham as our father. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees." He's preaching judgment, repentance, the urgency of the holiness of God, and in doing this, he's preparing the way of Jesus Christ the Lord. Jesus says He was not A reed shaking in the wind. Second thing he says, you didn't go because of his smooth and sophisticated presentation or persona. Look at the text again. He says, did you go out to see one who was dressed in soft clothing, who looked like he lived in the ease of a worldly royal court? If you look at the language, it's again a rhetorical question. A man clothed in soft garments? It's a direct reference to the fact that he wasn't. A man who was gorgeously appareled and lived in luxury in king's courts? No, he wasn't. As a matter of fact, Matthew tells us that he wore a coat of camel's hair, he lived in the wilderness with nothing. The indication is a poor life of solitude devoted to God in the way of Moses or Elijah before him. A prophet in the wilderness to receive the revelation of God. who ate locusts and wild honey, who did not live in a king's house or palace, who had no place in the courts of power of this world, and who was obviously putting aside this world for something else. You didn't go to him because he was indecisive, unclear, or sophisticated. There's a little note here I was thinking about. John was entirely free of worrying about what the world thought of him. He was devoted to his mission. You young people, I want you to listen. I don't know if I ever used the word cool from the pulpit. He was not cool, sophisticated, or worried about being in the right crowd. He was not striving for acceptance with this world. He had a simple mission. An unsophisticated, otherworldly mission. And Jesus says, the attraction then, if it wasn't that he was sophisticated, or had soft language, why did you go? You were not looking for a relevant, Socially acceptable preacher the world if you are looking for that you would have never wanted to hear John preach It's a painful experience What was then the positive drawing power? Why did you go out and what did you go see verse 26 a prophet? What's a prophet? Sometimes we need to slow down What is a prophet? The broadest sense, historically, the use of the word in Hebrew and in Greek is a proclaimer of truth from the gods. Now, why would I say that? Because there's people all through history who proclaim that they have some sort of divine truth from another realm. And the Bible uses the word prophet for true prophets and false prophets. But the basic function is a messenger of information from the invisible realm to the visible. Now the great question is, is the source of that information? The idea of a prophet in itself presupposes an invisible realm of powers and the Bible says there are two kinds, good and evil. And because of that there are true prophets of God and false prophets and we think of Ahab consulting with the prophets and the Lord mysteriously permitted a lying spirit to enter one of the false prophets of Israel who did bring a message from another realm which was not true. But when we think of prophet We rightly think, predominantly think, of those specially set apart by the triune living God in order to bring messages from the throne of heaven which are truth, glory, and power. A prophet here is one who carries divine truth. And right from the beginning of the idea of prophets, Moses warned that there will be two kinds. And he said, I'll give you a rule how to identify them. The prophet which true, everything he says will come to pass. The prophet that is false, it won't. And a false prophet is condemned. What Jesus is saying about John is he's a true prophet. He's a prophet of the Lord. He's a biblical prophet, and that means he has an ability to do a number of things. He could predict the future. He knows the past. He could look into the heart. But at the core, he was a proclaimer or a preacher of the Word of God. And he's speaking with power on behalf of God in history. And they went first, Jesus said, did you go to see a prophet? Yes, I say to you, you went to see a prophet, someone who was engaged in this work of being a messenger of the triune living God. But second, he says, but even more than a prophet. Now, what does he mean by that? Because John the Baptist is a prophet with a unique mission. Verse 27, behold, this is he of whom it is written, I will send my messenger before your face who will prepare your way before you. That's from Malachi 3, we just read it. What makes John a unique prophet? Because every other prophet was looking ahead anticipating a future coming. This prophet's ministry from the womb when Mary and Elizabeth met and John leapt in the womb. This is the great prophet rising out of the old covenant era yet but touching as it were the new whose life is in parallel. in many ways, to that of the One of whom He is preaching, who sees Him, and when He sees Him, who is able to say, as His eyes see Him, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, who baptizes Him, who sees the glory of God in the person of the Spirit descend on Him. And here's the voice from heaven who has the unique role of all of history to be the messenger who proclaims the coming of the messenger of the covenant, the Lord Jesus Christ. There was a crescendo of prophets then, closer and closer, who with greater and greater clarity, until you get to John the Baptist, this is why Jesus says, among those born of women, there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist. He was to both announce and see the glory of the Messiah. From the womb, their lives were intertwined, their ministries intertwined. He has a unique role in redemptive history. All previous prophets, the glory of Jesus Christ is coming. John the Baptist, the glory of the Messiah is here. Then a finally astonishing statement by our Lord. After elevating John to the place of the highest of prophets, he indicates that he stands, so you think about him, no one above women greater prophet. And then Jesus adds a phrase that indicates the nature of his own ministry and glory. That John was both the end of an era, and touch the beginning of an era that would so eclipse the old covenant prophets that the one who was least in the new era would be greater than John. This is astonishing language. That the era that his forerunner ministry ushered in, the days of Jesus Christ, meant that as great as he was, the privileges and glory now revealed in the face of Jesus Christ have eclipsed anything that humanity has ever known or seen. Which means that New Covenant preaching has a greater glory and power than anything in all of human history. And to be a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ in the new covenant, after the life, death, burial, resurrection, and present reign of Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, is the era of the greatest privilege of all of human history, eclipsing even that of a prophet, John the Baptist, who in principle belongs to the old covenant, Jesus Christ himself, the inauguration of the new, the king of the kingdom. John was therefore announcing The present era of astonishing spiritual light and glory, which comes by the preaching of Jesus Christ. Jesus is saying that the Old Testament, as glorious as it was, is a land of shadows and types and prophecies, but now the reality has come in Jesus Christ. And there's a way in which this principle that's being taught by Jesus is even greater for us today because we live on the other side of what I already mentioned, but think about it carefully. We live on this side of the cross and the empty tomb and the ascension and the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. So privileges, I wonder if you've ever thought about the privilege of the era in which you live. That Jesus could say John the Baptist greatest among women in terms of prophets, but now no one in my kingdom has less than John had. No one. The reality of the presence of the kingdom of God in the mediator Jesus Christ cannot be overstated here. John is ushering in by his forerunner status the epoch in which God himself rends the heavens and comes down with the word becomes flesh. Where when we think of the speaking of God in history, the living word, preaches the word, even in this moment, eclipsing John and delivering from heaven, mysteriously now as the God-man, the revelation of the glory of the triune God. Verse 28, again, this kingdom eclipses John. We have better things in the gospel. Calvin, this gospel now preached, Jesus Christ himself being the good news, holds up Christ as having rendered complete and eternal satisfaction by his one sacrifice. He's the conqueror of death and sin by his work and the Lord of life. And in him, a veil. What happened when he died? The temple curtain was torn in two. And the veil between God and men was torn to shreds. Open access to the throne of God. This is what Jesus is saying. John brought history to this glorious point. So how do people respond to this? That's what Jesus says about John. And we have two interesting responses. There's two groups listening. And you need to understand the jarring nature of the narrative. The two groups are, so you've got this crowd. Pharisees and lawyers, top-tier intellects in Old Testament history and interpretation, the legal scholars of Israel, the political leaders of Israel, the intelligentsia, political power, everything. These are the respected class. They're supposed to be the shepherds of Israel. And then on the other side, there's tax collectors who are traitors to the Roman Empire and corrupt sinful people by nature, and everybody hated them. And that crowd is listening to Jesus. And two things happen. One of two things that only happens in history. When the word is preached. When all the people heard it, even the tax collectors, they justified God. They said, God is righteous. Having been baptized with the baptism of John. Remember that. The second group, the Pharisees and the lawyers, what did they say? They rejected the will of God for themselves, that He would not desire that they would be destroyed. Desires that all men be saved and come to knowledge of the truth. That His declaration of the free offer of the gospel in Jesus Christ our Lord, which goes to every man everywhere. That they rejected this, and notice, they had earlier rejected the baptism of John. So you gotta get this in your head. Two groups. One says, we glorify God for the ministry of Jesus Christ. That's the social outcast, worst of this world tax collector group. The self-righteous say, we want nothing to do with this, Jesus. And the first group had earlier listened to John. The second group had earlier already rejected John. What's happening here? Jesus tells a parable. Look at verse 31, 32. He said, this is what's happening. He said, imagine children in the marketplace, center square of an ancient city in Israel. And maybe it's a day that it's not market day, and the open square is filled with children playing. And Jesus says, I want you to imagine this scene. Think of this, that there's some children who are trying to get some other children to play, to listen. In one corner is a group of children, perhaps children you've done this sometimes, you've been stubborn. And no matter what someone offered you, no matter how friendly a friend was, maybe your anger or your bitterness, or you had a temper that day, nothing anyone said to you would change anything you would do. You weren't going to play with anyone. It's that kind of child. We should never do this, children. That kind of child is in mind. The other children are pleading with that child. Look at the text. It says, What do I liken this generation to? What are they like? These unbelievers, these Pharisees, what are they like? They're like children calling to one another saying, we played the flute for you and you didn't dance. We mourned you and you didn't weep. That there was nothing, that this one group of children, whether they try to be happy or sad, there was no reaction, impervious, no matter what happened, they would not listen. Jesus says to these Pharisees, this describes your response. Verse 33. First John the Baptist came and he was preaching. And what you said, you said he's crazy. He's living in the wilderness and he's not eating bread or drinking wine. He's by himself and you said he had a demon. You wrote him off. And now I have come, and I sit down with sinners at feasting tables, and you say, he must be a sinner, and you wrote me off. It doesn't matter how the Word has come to you. You have resisted it at every turn. And here's the sobering reality. You resisted the highest prophet among women, and now the Lord of glory, the Son of God, Jesus Christ. Impervious. No reaction. No matter what, zero. Like the children in the marketplace. Some lessons from the word of God. First on hearing the word. God speaks to humanity in verbal communication. We live in an age of endless images. Screens, screens, images, videos. I've said this before in preaching and I'll warn you all again and again. That screen that you carry, that computer that you have, that laptop you open, that internet portal to endless ungodliness, some helpful things, increasingly it is becoming impossible to determine whether or not anything you see is true. As a matter of fact, the vast majority of it is lies and sensuality. I was reading this week about what people look at on the internet, and I don't need to get into that, you probably guess. It's just a flood of ungodliness and lies. Now there's good things on there, I'm not saying it can't be used well. There's another way in which it's used tremendously well. Preaching is going out, and the Word's going out in ways it never has before. Not all bad. However, The way in which God has spoken to you in history is in this book, and this book preached. And if you had nothing else, you would have everything you need for salvation and everlasting life. If you knew nothing of what was happening in the world, you would never be entertained again. If you had nothing else, this word is a lamp to your feet, a light to your path. It is the voice of God who thunders in history. It is the revelation of His Son, Jesus Christ, the Divine Word. And this book written and this book preached is how God speaks to humanity. And it's how He always has. Indeed, Moses saw a burning bush. It was a great sign that drew him in. But it was the Word of the Lord. that changed the course of his life as he was called to be the Old Testament mediator of the Old Covenant. Elijah, the presence of God was not in the wind, or the earthquake, or the fire, but it was in the voice of the Lord speaking. And that is the mission of the prophet. Prophet after prophet, preacher after preacher, sermon after sermon, all through history, the living presence of God who speaks in history, pleading. And I want you to notice in this text, through John, through Jesus, And every time he speaks, he says, listen, repent, believe, and obey. We have the written word. There's more Bibles in history than any other book. You know, Providence of God at the last day, a world full of Bibles will be one of God's testimonies to the fact that he's spoken in history. And let's go back to the internet used for wealth. There's a million sermons you can listen to on YouTube. There's a million, we have sermon audio that's even run on a Greenville here. The word is being spread in different ways, remarkably all through humanity. And then there's every church where Christ is preached around the world. God is speaking in history. And notice the progression in the text. The word is received. Group one, I want you to notice the principle in the text, how they receive it. The first time John preached, they received the word. They repented and were ready for Christ's coming. And then when Christ added His glorious, eclipsing ministry to John's, because they heard the first time, listen carefully, they were baptized, their hearts were now open to hear the second time and they received the Lord Jesus Christ. They listen to the ministry of preparation, and then they listen to the ministry of consummation in Jesus Christ. The Pharisees are the opposite. They reject the first time, they're like Pharaoh. No. What happens when you do that? What happens if you sit through sermon after sermon, you don't repent, you don't believe, you don't listen, you don't grow? I'm here to tell you it's dangerous. For the Pharisees, not listening to the first sermon and refusing to be baptized meant they would reject the second one. They would reject Christ himself. They are like the sulking, stubborn children in the marketplace, Jesus says. They won't listen to anybody. The lesson here is the urgency of the Word of God. Its promises, its commands, how God speaks in history, are to be embraced quickly and eagerly and believing Every time as you receive the Word, laying hold of it, treasuring up in your heart, prepares you for the Lord to speak again. And in this case, it's a striking contrast. They reject John, so they reject Jesus. Second thing I'd remind you of, and I said it earlier, but your privileges under the better, glorious ministry of Jesus Christ in the New Covenant. Back to that phrase, but he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he. At the center of this message that we believe is a Savior who is Christ the Lord. The one, only, unique Savior. Back to the beginning of this section, are you the one or should we look for another? The answer is from Jesus' answer to John and Jesus' description of the ministry of John as the forerunner. and his words about the glory of his kingdom eclipsing all of history and salvation. It says that what you have in him proclaimed to you today is the greatest gift that God has ever given in human history. Salvation in life through the power of the gospel. And you believe it. He speaks even now, and if you've never bowed your knee to Jesus Christ, he calls you to come believing, to hear the voice of God. Third lesson, back to the cryptic final phrase, or to it, but wisdom is justified by all her children. Jesus understands that people would argue with him. Is this really true? You could just say this, this last phrase Jesus says, wait and watch. The wisdom of God will be justified by all her children. What is that? This message of salvation preached at the center of which is Jesus Christ, to use Paul's language, is the power of God unto salvation. It has an effect in history. And when it is received with faith, it produces fruits, the children of wisdom. And so the power of God is justified in human history. Wisdom is this word that encompasses God's self-revelation. Jesus himself is called the wisdom of God. The word says, get wisdom, get understanding. Jesus is saying, you Pharisees might continue in your hard-heartedness, but everything I have said will prove to be true. As you see my word, build my kingdom in history. Wisdom will be justified. The truth of my word will be confirmed by the effects of the word in its children. J.C. Ryle commenting on this in his expository thoughts on the gospel said this, that what Jesus is saying is that the word that I send out will accomplish all that I send it to do. He's also saying soberly this, as Paul said, it's the aromata of life unto life and death unto death. You have to understand that if you turn away from it, it still has the same power. It has a condemning power. It will be justified. Its work in history can never be turned back. The effects of the word will be demonstrated in its downstream fruits, its children. And so Ryle says, there will be never wanting a church of Jesus Christ, the little flock of God, in which hearts hear the voice of the shepherd gladly, and count all his ways right, and receive his word with faith. Question for you. What marks has this word, divine self-revelation, made on your life? Go back to the parable. You're like one of the children in the marketplace. Jesus is warning his own covenant people. He's saying, there's times when it doesn't matter what one group of children says to the other. If they say, let's play. Okay, you're sad. Let's cry together. The other group says, I don't care. In other words, no effect. Ask yourself. What effects does this word of the gospel, the new covenant, have in your heart and life? Jesus says wisdom is justified by our children. If you understand, believe, and lay hold of it, it will change you in the course of your life and your eternity. Submit to that word. Repent and believe. and hear Christ Himself as He eclipses the old covenant, proclaiming His own glory and kingdom, and submit yourself to Him. Let's pray. Lord our God, we ask for grace to recognize the remarkable time of privilege in which we live, that of the new covenant, that You would help us as we think on our propensity to so easily like the Pharisees and the children of the parable, or be strangely unaffected by the most powerful force in human history, Your Word. We pray for grace instead to learn in new ways to listen, repent, believe, study. Lord, submit and repent to change. That your promises would be more precious to us, your commands better studied by us. Lord, that the course of our life would be altered by your divine wisdom and that the fruits of that power would be evident in who we are and what we do. And we pray, oh God, that all those in this world that are striving against your divine self-revelation in Jesus Christ would even now submit, whether it be, Lord, a first confession or a determination to lay down an old sin, or that your word would have its way with power in us, that we might see more salvation, light, and glory. And we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Peace to the brethren in love with faith from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. And grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus in sincerity. Amen.