[0:00] of the Gospel of Matthew. We can read again from verse 41. While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, saying, What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?
[0:13] He said to him, The son of David. He said to them, How is it then that David in the Spirit calls him Lord, saying, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, till I put your enemies under your feet. If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son? No one was able to answer him a word, or from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.
[0:41] The four Gospels are concerned to tell us about the ministry of Jesus during his time in this world, but their concern primarily is to set out the identity of Jesus.
[0:59] Not so much what he did, or a lot of that, and what he said. These four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, tell us much about his words, his teachings, his miracles, his dealing with people, his response to questions, as you find in this chapter, all of these things and much more, you find in the four Gospels that Jesus said and Jesus did, and yet their main concern in presenting that to us is to help us to identify him as to who he is.
[1:33] That is the most important thing to realize about Jesus. Who he is? What is his identity? Is he just a mere man?
[1:45] Is he something more than that? And if so, who is he? And of course, for that you go to his own claims as well, to what he said about himself, as well as what he said about others, and about the world, and about God, and everything else besides.
[2:01] And that passage, this passage comes to deal with the identity of Jesus in a way of answering, his answering different questions that were put to him.
[2:13] As you go through the chapter, you see different questions put to him. For example, chapter 15, verse 15 of the chapter, it's the Pharisees that are brought before him, along with the Herodians as well, and what he says is, tell us what you think.
[2:33] Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Now, of course, they're trying to trap him. They're trying to catch him out. They're trying to get him to say something or do something by which they can then accuse him.
[2:45] And of course, they always end up really just entangling themselves in the net that they have set out for Jesus. And you'll find the same with the Sadducees.
[2:56] In verse 23, the Sadducees, when they don't, who didn't believe in such a thing as the resurrection, and of course, they wanted again to catch Jesus out. What would his opinion be about the resurrection?
[3:07] So they put it in a way that they feel is going to entrap him again. But of course, as often, as always the case, Jesus throws it back at themselves.
[3:18] And they then are silenced. And the crowd are astonished at his teaching. And then you come to this passage here, following again a reference to the Pharisees.
[3:29] So all of these questions that were put to him and the ways in which they were put as they were designed to catch him out, nevertheless, in his responses to them, Jesus is really setting out his own identities, especially, and the gospel writer here, Matthew, is really concerned to present Jesus to us as the Son of God.
[3:51] And that's where the passage reaches its climax here by way of verses 41 to 46. And you can see that Jesus, therefore, is turning the tables on them.
[4:05] And through that, the gospel writer here, Matthew, presents, as we say, the identity of Jesus as to who he is. Now, two things that I want to just mention from the passage.
[4:18] I'm going to look at the second point more fully. The first point to take from this is that Jesus believed the scriptures, and by that, of course, it was the Old Testament at that time, that Jesus believed the scriptures to be reliable.
[4:33] He believed the scriptures to be reliable. He saw them as other things, too. He saw them as authoritative. He saw them as God speaking to us in them. He saw them, indeed, as God's own word, God's truth.
[4:45] But we're just saying, summarizing it, saying he believed the scriptures to be reliable. And that's important. Because when you go through the gospels and you see how frequently Jesus used the Old Testament, you often find him using the Old Testament without any shred of doubt or question as to what these scriptures are, as to what status should be given to these scriptures.
[5:11] verse 43, for example, here, you find him saying, how then is it that David in the Spirit calls him Lord?
[5:21] Now, this, of course, as we'll see, is Psalm 110. But here, Jesus, as Matthew presents his words to us, Jesus is actually including the words in the Spirit.
[5:33] So you go back to Psalm 110, and you say, well, these are the words of the Spirit. These are reliable words. These are the words of God. This is God's revelation. And you'll find the same thing back in chapter 4, where he met with the temptation of the devil.
[5:50] As you well know, in chapter 4 there, the devil came to him with these temptations and set certain things before him that he was seeking that Jesus would do.
[6:00] And Jesus answered him out of the scriptures. It is written. Again, he says, it is written. He went to these Old Testament scriptures and said, this is authoritative.
[6:12] This is how I'm answering you. This is a definitive answer to your accusation or to your temptation. He's taking words that he knows are reliable. Go again to chapter 11, verses 20 to 24.
[6:26] You'll find the same thing exactly there, where you find Jesus beginning to denounce the cities where most of his mighty works have been done. Chorazin, Bethsaida, Tyre, Sidon.
[6:39] He mentions, if they had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago. And then he mentions Sodom. If they had been done in Sodom, these great works, they would have remained. It would have remained to this day.
[6:50] In other words, Jesus took the Old Testament references to these places, Tyre and Sidon and Sodom as well. And he had no question about their historicity, where they were actual places, whether what you find in the Old Testament about them is true or not.
[7:06] He regarded them as authentic, reliable scriptures. You can go through the Gospels again and again. You'll find the same sort of thing.
[7:17] You'll come across the same sort of thing. Now that's important for us in the context in which we're placed today. Why is it important to me and to you here and now in 2019 that Jesus believed the Old Testament to be reliable, to be the Word of God, to be authoritative for human life?
[7:37] Why is it important? Because, well, to put it succinctly, if it's good enough for Jesus, if it was good enough for Him, it should be good enough for me.
[7:48] If Jesus believed these Old Testament scriptures to be reliable, to be the Word of God, how can it possibly be that we should doubt them? How can we call into question anything that the Old Testament reveals about events, about places, about descriptions of various kinds?
[8:10] Christ's confidence in the scriptures underlies our confidence in the scriptures. Now we have to maintain our confidence in the scriptures as to what they are.
[8:21] Taking a bit of time over this, I'm not going to spend too much time on it, but nothing is more important to you, in a relative sense at least, nothing is more important to you than that you believe what the Bible is as God's authoritative, reliable Word.
[8:38] Everything you understand about God comes from this Word. Everything you understand and accept about Jesus and about yourself and about the world in which we live and where human beings came from and how did the world come into being, every single aspect of that as revealed in God's Word in the scriptures, that's where you find your information.
[9:01] And if this is not reliable, if this is not trustworthy, if these scriptures are anything other than that, then we have a huge problem. But as you well know, these scriptures are reliable because they are God's revelation to us.
[9:20] God's own will, God's own Word expressed to us in the Bible. So Christ's confidence in the scriptures underlies our confidence if somebody comes to you and says, I don't believe the Bible, what it says about how can you possibly believe something that was believed way back thousands of years ago.
[9:44] Look at how the world has changed. Look at all the changes in the generations since that time right up to the present day. How could the likes of Moses or David or any of the prophets or even the New Testament writers, how could they possibly have, how would they possibly have written what they wrote if they knew the world as we know it today?
[10:03] If they had the insight that science has given us and the technological advances that we, how could, they wouldn't have written all of that then as they, if that was indeed the case.
[10:15] That's the argument you hear. Well, either this is the work as Jesus said here, of the spirit or it is not.
[10:26] And if it is God's word then it's reliable for every generation and every circumstance and you rely upon it for your information. And when people challenge you as to those sort of ideas that I've just mentioned you really can respond to them and say well, do you believe Jesus was the person that's revealed to us in the scriptures?
[10:48] And people will say yes, I believe he was everything that the Bible sets out. Apparently there's no reason to dispute that. Well, he believed the Bible. He believed the Bible of his day to be the word of God.
[11:01] So why should I doubt it in my day? The scriptures are reliable and that's so important. Secondly, Christ believed himself to be the Messiah.
[11:15] That's why he's turning the tables here on the Pharisees. they've been asking him all these questions. Matthew has recorded these questions and his responses from the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Pharisees again, the Herodians.
[11:28] And then verse 41 you come to this really dynamic change because now while the Pharisees were gathered together it's as if he's saying to us well, Jesus just grabbed that opportunity and he said now I've got something to ask you.
[11:42] You've been asking me all these questions. Now it's your turn to answer the questions and it's my turn to ask them what do you think about the Christ?
[11:53] Of course, the Pharisees didn't believe that Jesus was the Christ. They believed in the Christ. They believed in the figure of the Christ prophesied of in the Old Testament. They believed that there was a Messiah coming as promised by God but they refused to accept that this person speak to them, this Jesus of Nazareth was in fact the Messiah.
[12:15] So he's saying to them what do you think about the Christ? What's your opinion about the Christ? In other words, he's saying to them you know what the Bible says, you know what the Scriptures say about the Christ, you're experts in the Scriptures, you Pharisees.
[12:32] So, what do you think about whose son is he? What's his identity? Who is he? Well, they said to him using a title in the Old Testament of course, the son of David.
[12:45] And then he takes these words from Psalm 110. Well, how is it then in the spirit that David calls him Lord saying, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand.
[13:00] Well, now this was a major aspect of messianic expectation that it would be someone who would be known as the son of David that would come to be revealed as the Messiah.
[13:13] And there's all kinds of passages in the Old Testament. I'm not going to go into them now, but 2 Samuel chapter 7, the promise that God gave to David that from, as one of his own descendants, would sit upon his throne.
[13:27] And then you think of Solomon and other kings coming after him. But then, God promised that his kingdom would be without end. So Solomon doesn't fit into that, neither do any of the Old Testament kings.
[13:39] And it awaited fulfillment in Christ and in his kingdom, as you find elsewhere too. And remember Ezekiel, chapter 24 of Ezekiel, where there's a denouncement by God of the shepherds, as he called them, these people in Israel, like the priests and some of the prophets as well, that were meant to look after God's people.
[14:00] They were shepherds of God's people, but they weren't acting as shepherds. They were destroying the flock. They were pillaging the flock. And that leads to Ezekiel, or God through Ezekiel, bringing out this great prophecy that God, he says, I will gather my people, I will gather my flock, and I will set over them one shepherd, even my servant David.
[14:24] Now by the time Ezekiel wrote that David had long since been dead. Why is he saying my servant David? Why is God saying I will set over them one shepherd, even my servant David, when God knew that David was long dead?
[14:38] Because the son of David, a descendant of David, was going to come to be indeed revealed as the Messiah. And you come to the likes of Acts, I know I'm going through some verses fairly quickly here.
[14:52] Acts chapter 2, it's a very important passage in regard to this point where in Acts chapter 2 as the apostles were led by God in the preaching of Christ and his resurrection, Acts chapter 2 and verse 29, you find there that Peter, especially as he's preaching here, is saying, Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried and his tomb is with us to this day.
[15:24] Being there for a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on the throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ that he was not abandoned to Hades nor did his flesh see corruption.
[15:39] This Jesus God raised up and of that we are all witnesses being therefore exalted at the right hand of God and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this, that's the Spirit of God that you of yourselves are seeing and hearing for David did not ascend into the heavens but he himself says, The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your foodstool.
[16:06] You see the same passage, Psalm 110 quoted there as in Matthew in the passage we have before us tonight. So, as the son of David the Messiah was expected to be a descendant of David and that's what fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
[16:24] But he's not just the son of David he is, as the passage says the Lord of David. Now here's something quite remarkable because as you go back to David's words in Psalm 110 here is what David says the Lord said to my Lord sit at my right hand.
[16:44] Think of David saying that. What is he really saying? Well he's saying the Lord that's God said to my Lord sit at my right hand.
[16:56] In other words David in the prophecy is speaking about two different persons. He's speaking about God my Lord but this other person he's saying to him sit at my right hand.
[17:08] The Lord said to my Lord. They're both lords but they're not identical persons. How can it be? That's the question that Jesus is asking the Pharisees who are now flummoxed because they don't know their scriptures the way they thought.
[17:26] how then if David calls him Lord how is he his son? How is the Messiah the Lord of David and the son of David?
[17:38] Well that can only be so in what happened in the incarnation the coming of Christ and that can only be true if the Messiah is himself both God and human at the same time.
[17:52] And of course he is. That's really what's behind the thought of the Lord and Matthew's presentation of it here. That Jesus believed himself to be the Messiah in keeping with these Old Testament prophecies both being Lord of David and son of David.
[18:11] And of course when you come to see how that's set out for you Romans chapter 1 of course verse 3 that's David again mentioned there Paul 7 of Jesus Christ called to be an apostle set apart for the gospel of God which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures concerning his son.
[18:34] You notice what that's saying. What is the gospel? What is the heart of the gospel? What's the substance of the gospel? It is the son of God. Paul is saying I was set apart by God to the gospel of God as an apostle but it's the gospel concerning his son who was descended from David according to the flesh.
[18:59] In other words in the incarnation in God taking human nature to himself and the son of God coming into this world he fulfills the prophecy of Psalm 110 and doesn't that demonstrate I think I mentioned it in prayer as it came to me in prayer the remarkable thing that the Bible is the remarkable thing that scripture is when God all of these centuries ago promised something that then came to be fulfilled in the person of Christ.
[19:24] How could any human being actually write Psalm 110 any mere human being I mean how could he write Psalm 110 and then that come to be fulfilled after centuries in the extraordinary person of Jesus Christ.
[19:41] Only God could do that and it demonstrates the divine nature of scripture itself divine in the sense of its authorship and its origin. The Lord said to my Lord.
[19:55] Now the New Testament expands on the Lordship of Jesus and Christ himself as the Lord when he is the Messiah when he is Lord as well as Son of David.
[20:08] Let me just mention a few to you. First of all he says sit at my right hand. he is the Lord in the sense of being Lord over death because sitting at God's right hand is subsequent to his death and subsequent to his resurrection and following on from what you read of the resurrection and the exaltation of Christ.
[20:30] In other words when you think of the Lord sitting at God's right hand in his exaltation and his session at the right hand of God what you are finding emphasized there is Christ's triumph over death.
[20:43] He is the Lord of death. He is Lord over death. He arrived by incarnation. He arrived into humiliation. He arrived in order that he might suffer and die.
[20:55] He took out human nature to that end so that that might be indeed fulfilled by him. But he is now at God's right hand. He is risen from the dead.
[21:06] He is exalted to God's right hand. And so he is Lord over death. That's the passage we mentioned and referred to and read from Acts chapter 2.
[21:18] I don't need to read it again but you realize that there is a mention there of Christ's resurrection and there is an emphatic emphasis there an emphatic statement that David the patriarch says is dead.
[21:34] So the son of David who is he? In Jesus Christ he is the Messiah. He is the Savior. He is the God man.
[21:46] He is Lord over death. And that's where you find the likes of Psalm 110 so powerful. The Lord said to my Lord sit at my right hand.
[21:59] You have finished the work of atonement. You have finished the work of redemption through your death and resurrection. Now sit at my right hand. Take your place that belongs to you.
[22:10] The place prophesied of. The place that's rightly yours. And you'll find that elsewhere in the New Testament like Hebrews chapter 1 as well.
[22:20] If you follow that through later on you can see how the Psalm is also quoted in that respect. And where Christ's superiority even over the elders, over the angels is emphasized there.
[22:32] So he's Lord over death. And he's secondly Lord over all his enemies and the enemies of his people. Sometimes we need to be reminded of that.
[22:46] When evil seems to hold sway, when sin seems to be so dominant in our society, when ungodliness seems to be unchecked and so rampant, when the church seems to be so tiny and fragile and impotent, sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.
[23:12] You see the victory has already been achieved. Christ has died. Christ has risen from the dead. Christ is sitting at God's right hand. There's only one thing left. What is it? It's to actually come finally to the final surrender of all his enemies.
[23:28] Openly, manifestly, for everything, for everyone and every being to see it. Angels, principalities and powers and human beings.
[23:40] When all of Christ's enemies will bow before him and acknowledge his lordship, not willingly necessarily, but still never mind, he is still acknowledged as the lord.
[23:51] Isn't that what Philippians 2 tells us? Everything that you find now in this present order of the world, from now to the end of the world, what is it doing? What is happening? It's moving towards the final surrender of God's enemies.
[24:06] Where Paul in the second chapter of Philippians precisely puts it that way, and it's no accident that he refers to Christ's humiliation and death and exaltation in that as well.
[24:22] These great words that have such a bearing upon our present conduct as well. have this mind among yourselves, which was also yours in Christ Jesus, who did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.
[24:52] Therefore, God has highly exalted him, and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
[25:13] What is our gathering here every Lord's day in worship about? It's a celebration of the Lordship of Christ. It's a celebration that he's Lord over death.
[25:26] It's a celebration that he's Lord over all his enemies, that he has the sway, that he holds sway, that he has the control, that his is the throne, that his is the authority, that his is the greatness, that his is the glory.
[25:43] That's why we worship him. That's who we worship. That's what the Lord's day really is about in its essence. It's the day of the Lord.
[25:56] It's the day of the Lord's worship, the day of coming to acknowledge him as the Lord who sits at the right hand of God.
[26:07] He is the Lord over death, he's Lord over his enemies. He began this morning looking at the book of Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament.
[26:19] And for those of you who remember we said that these words under the sun are so important because it means that the writer of Ecclesiastes is really setting out in his strategy, if you like, answering the big questions of human life.
[26:38] What is it about? Does it have meaning? Where is its purpose? If there is purpose. Under the sun, he says, in other words, leaving God out of it, it doesn't seem to make any sense.
[26:49] And indeed, it doesn't make any sense. But when you rise above the things of mere human life, of life without God, of life apart from God, well, that's then a different matter.
[27:07] Life in Christ, life in redemption is what you then come to. And you come to realize that Christ is indeed Lord.
[27:19] Lord, to the glory of God the Father. And that's really the search that Ecclesiastes is carrying out. It's answered, if you like, or there are glimpses of it in Ecclesiastes.
[27:33] It's answered in the New Testament in the identity of Christ and who he is and who he is now and what he has done as the son of David, the Messiah, the Son of God, our Redeemer.
[27:50] He's Lord over death. He's Lord over his enemies. He's also Lord over the Sabbath. I've just mentioned that in chapter 12 and verse 8. You find Jesus mentioning this where he was accused of doing certain things on the Lord's day.
[28:05] In chapter 12, he was accused along with the disciples of going through the cornfields, for example, and taking some of the corn and using that to feed themselves.
[28:18] That was regarded by the Pharisees especially as a breach of the Sabbath. Of course, they'd made up so many of their own laws in relation to the Sabbath day. Here he says, chapter 12 and verse 8, he said, let's just read it from verse 5.
[28:34] Have you not read in the law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. And if you had known what this means, I desire mercy and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the guiltless, for the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.
[28:56] You see, the Sabbath, or the Lord's day as we now call it in the New Testament age, it's governed by His authority. The Lord's day is what it is because Christ is Lord of it.
[29:08] it's not a human convention, it's not something the church has invented. Sometimes the church has misused it perhaps, either one way or the other, either being too restrictive or far too open, but it's the Lord's day.
[29:25] He is Lord over the Sabbath, He is the Lord over this Lord's day, this 24-hour Lord's day in which we gather for worship. Who governs this day, the Lord does.
[29:39] Who determines what's right and not right to do on this day, the Lord does. If we add human commandments to it and insist on people keeping them, then we are really interfering with the Lord's authority and with the Lord's wisdom.
[29:56] If we open it up and say it's just like any other day, we're doing the same thing. We're despising the authority of the Lord. we're interfering with the fact that He is Lord of the Sabbath.
[30:08] He's the governor. He's the one who controls it. It's His day. It's for Him and it's about Him. About His resurrection, that's what we celebrate, we said on the Lord's day.
[30:22] So He's the Lord over death. He's the Lord over His enemies. Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet. feet. And He's the Lord over this day, over the Sabbath.
[30:35] He's Lord of the Sabbath. And finally, in the way of a question, is He your Lord? Of course He is, ultimately.
[30:47] He's the Lord of each of us here and of all of us here, ultimately, because He's the Lord of everything. But what I mean is, is He your Lord willingly on your part?
[31:00] Have you welcomed Him into your heart as Lord of your life? Do you have such a relationship with Him as just knows about His Lordship and acknowledges His Lordship from a distance, but haven't yet situated Him on the throne of your heart, so that He will occupy that throne for you, and govern your life, and be your Messiah, and be your Redeemer?
[31:27] there. See, there's no response here to the question that Jesus posed. No one was able to answer Him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask Him any more questions.
[31:41] Well, you see, that's our opportunity. I'm not saying that's the reason why Matthew actually said that, and recorded that, but as you look at it there, what it really says to you is, well, you have to put your own answer, you have to put your own name there, you have to put your own response there.
[31:58] How is His Lordship in relation to your life, in relation to how you are tonight, and your hopes, and your eternity?
[32:13] I'm going to tell you something, a rather amusing story, I don't like jokes, you very well know in the pulpits, no place for jokes, but sometimes humor is not out of place.
[32:24] A story about bishop, an episcopal bishop, who was coming to visit a certain parish, and he was going to live with a local priest there for the weekend, and the priest had taken the young lad in to be a servant for the weekend, and he was training him, or telling him just what was necessary in terms of protocol, on the morning, that he would go up with the breakfast to the bishop, who would then be in his bedroom, and he said to the young lad, now you'll knock the door, and you'll not open the door until you hear the bishop inside the door, inside the bedroom, saying something in response, and when you knock the door and the bishop responds, you will say to him, it's the boy here, my lord, and of course the boy on the lord's day morning, he went up with a tray and the bishop's toast of tea, whatever it was, and he was so excited, and he got rather flustered, and he knocked the door, and the bishop responded, said yes, and the boy said, it's the lord here, my boy, there's no record of what the bishop's response was, but here's the serious point, the days coming in my life, and your life, when there will be a knock at the door of your life, and on the other side it will be the lord, and he'll be saying, it's the lord here, my boy, my girl, my man, my woman, that's serious, how will you respond, what will that mean to you, whatever it happens, might be tonight, could have been yesterday, might be many years from now, it doesn't change anything, it's still lord with this question, except this time he's saying,
[34:30] I'm here, and you have to answer me, will it be an answer of welcome, or will it be something that fills you with dread, Jesus, lord of life, lord of death, our lord, our savior, let's pray, lord of god, we pray that you would grant to us your blessing, as we have handled your word, and heard your word, forgive us, we pray, for everything that may have been amiss, and how we thought, and what we said, and how we received, and how we listened, lord grant us, we pray, that receptive heart, that will receive you as lord, and if we have already done so, help us, we pray, to live it out each day, to live under your lordship, consciously, and believingly, and faithfully, and make us thankful, we pray, for the guidance that you give us, and for every way in which your word, is our direction in life, hear us now we pray, for Jesus sake, amen.
[35:52] Let's conclude now by singing to God's praise, in Psalm 22, a messianic psalm, a psalm that we find very often, sung during communion time, sets out very graphically the sufferings of Jesus, the death of Jesus, and when you come towards the end of the psalm, you find a change in the mood, and you find a wonderful emphasis on the dominion that belongs to the Lord, and how all will come to bow before him, as we've been thinking of this evening.
[36:24] So, verse 27, the whole earth will remember him and turn towards the Lord their God. All peoples will bow down to him, the nations of the world abroad.
[36:35] 27 to the end of the psalm. The whole earth will remember him, and turn towards the Lord their God.
[36:54] All peoples will bow down to him, the nations of the world abroad.
[37:06] Dominion to the Lord belongs, and over nations he is king, the rich of all the earth will feast, and worship with an offering, and worship with an offering.
[37:34] All those whose destiny is dust, will humbly kneel before his throne.
[37:46] They cannot keep themselves alive, for they depend on him alone.
[37:57] hostility will serve the Lord, and generations still to come will tell our people yet unborn the righteous acts that he has done, the righteous acts that he has done.
[38:25] I'll go to the main door after the benediction. Oh Lord, we ask that your blessing now will bless to us the food prepared at the fellowship, and help us there to know your presence also, and be with David as he comes to speak to us about his role in road to recovery, and grant that it may be of benefit to us to know further of that great work.
[38:49] And now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you now and ever more. Amen. Amen.