Chapter 12, and there appeared
a great wonder in heaven. A woman
clothed with the sun, and the moon was under her feet. and upon her head a crown of
twelve stars. And she, being with Shaw, cried,
treveling in birth, and pained to be delivered. And there appeared
another wonder in heaven, and, behold, a great red dragon, having
seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail drew the third part
of the stars of heaven, and it cast them down to the earth.
And the dragon stood before the woman, which was ready to be
delivered, to devour her child as soon as it was born. And she
brought forth a man-child, which was to rule all nations with
a rod of iron. And her child was called up unto
God and to His throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness,
where she had a place for prayer of God, that they should feed
her there a thousand two hundred and sixty days. And there was
war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought
against the dragon, and the dragon fought with his angels, and prevailed
not, neither was their place found any more in heaven. And
the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent called the devil,
and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world, he was cast out
unto the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. And I
heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation
and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of
his Christ. For the accuser of the brethren
is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.
And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, by the word
of their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto death.
Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and be glad. And ye that dwell
therein, woe unto the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea!
For the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because
he knoweth that he hath but a short time. And when the dragon saw
that he was cast out into the earth, he persecuted the woman
which had brought forth the man-child. And to the woman were given two
wings of a great eagle. that she might fly into the wilderness
and to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times
and half a time from the face of the serpent. And the serpent
cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that
he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. And the earth
helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth and swallowed
up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth. And the
dragon was enraged. He was wroth. with a woman and
went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments
of God and have the testimony of Jesus." Last week you and
I looked at this, and I don't want to go through it again,
but just to remind you, last week we looked at this woman
and the child and the dragon, and what we saw from that, this
woman, was the Old Testament saints. They were waiting for
the coming of Christ and longed for His coming. They pained like
a woman ready to have a man child. And we saw that this child was
the Lord Jesus Christ, who else but Christ rules the nations.
And who else but Christ is called up into the throne of God. And
of course, we saw the dragon was Satan. And we saw there that he was
defeated. He couldn't stop the Christ child
from being born. As hard as he tried, every turn,
finally Christ was born and bruised his head and he was defeated.
But he never gives up, does he? Satan never gives up. He's like the old lady that somebody
was telling about, that she spake well of everybody. And one fellow
said to her, said, Dear lady, I think you could find something
good to say about the devil. And she said, Well, you'll have
to admit he's persistent. So he is persistent in this.
He just doesn't give up. But every commentator that I've
read agrees on what we looked at last week. Even the pre-millennialists
will agree what we said last week about Christ being born. But I want you to notice this
in our study tonight. This same woman who was waiting
for the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, is the same woman that
was spoken of after the birth of Christ. Now did you notice
that in verse 6? And the woman fled into the wilderness
where she had a place prepared of God that they should feed
her there a thousand twelve hundred and sixty days after Christ was
born. She was still here and a place
was given to her to be fed. Also here in verse 13, it says
basically the same thing. And when the dragon saw that
he was cast into the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought
forth the man child. So she did not cease to be the
woman. Now, who was the woman? It was
the church in the Old Testament. And here's the amazing thing.
The church in the Old Testament. just integrated in to the church
of the New Testament. She became one with the church
in the New Testament. Also here in verse 6, it talks
about a place prepared for her for 1260 days. Now, where have we read that
before? 1260 days. Well, look back in
chapter 11, and you remember in verse 3, I will give power
unto my two witnesses," now remember who they were? The church and
her ministers. That's the two witnesses. We
proved that in the scriptures. "...and they shall prophesy a
thousand two hundred and sixty days clothed in sackcloth." So
this woman was waiting on the Christ child to be born. When
the Christ child was to be born, she did not cease to be. She's
still here. And the same time that she's
nourished is the very same time that the two witnesses witnessed for 42 months, 1260 days, or
three and a half years. Time, times, and half a time. All of those things denote the
gospel age. From the time the Lord Jesus
ascended back to heaven until He comes again, we're told is
1260 days. So here this same woman that
had the cross job, that brought forth the cross job, the church
in the Old Testament, she is now become the church in the
New Testament. Isn't that amazing? And what
does that tell us? That tells us there's just one
church. There's just one gospel. There's just one kingdom of our
Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. You remember, the Lord Jesus
told this He made this statement in Matthew chapter 11 when that
centurion came to him to heal his son and he said, I'm not
worthy that you should come under my roof. And he said, I've not
found so great a faith. No, not in Israel. And then the
Lord Jesus made this statement. He said, many shall come from
the east and from the west and sat down with Abraham, Isaac
and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. You mean Abraham and Isaac and
Jacob is in the kingdom of heaven? That's the same kingdom you're
in if you're a believer. So what does that tell us? There's
just one kingdom. There's just one church. There's
just one gospel. There's just one faith. Abraham
believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness. He's
in the kingdom. If you're here tonight and you
believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, righteousness has been imputed
to you and you're in the same kingdom, Abraham. Ain't that
amazing, though? We look back at the Old Testament
church for 4,000 years, and now it comes to pass that they are
one with us. Just one church. I want you to
look at this, hold Revelation 12, because we're coming back
to this, and look in Ephesians chapter 2. A very familiar passage
of the Scripture, Ephesians chapter 2, and it tells us about this
very thing. that Christ has made us all one. Look in Ephesians chapter 2 and
look here in verse 11. Ephesians chapter 2 and verse
11. Wherefore remember that you being
in time past Gentiles in the flesh who are called uncircumcision
by that which is called the circumcision and the flesh made by hands.
You were Gentile dolls alienated from the life of God. that at
that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth
of Israel, and strangers from the covenant of promise, having
no hope, and without God in the world. But now, in Christ Jesus,
ye who sometimes were afar off are made nigh by the blood of
Christ. For ye is our peace, who hath
made both one. Both believe in Jews and believe
in Gentiles, one, and hath broken down the middle wall of petition
between us, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even
the law of commandments contained in ordinances. For to make in
himself of two one new man, so make in peace. And that he might
reconcile both unto God, both Jews and Gentiles, in one body
by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby, and came and
preached peace to you which were aforeof, and to them which were
nigh. For through him we both have
access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore, you Gentiles,
You are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens
with the saints and of the household of God, and you are built upon
the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself
being the chief cornerstone, in whom all the building fitly
framed together groweth unto the holy temple in the Lord."
What did Christ do when he died? He reconciled believing Jews
and believing Gentiles. But even more than that, He made
one the Old Testament saints and the New Testament saints.
We're all one in Jesus Christ. And all distinction has been
taken away, haven't they? It don't matter what race you
are, what nationality you are, who you are, what you are, in
Christ there's neither male nor female. We're all one. This one large family. in Jesus Christ. The same woman
that was waiting for Christ to come is the New Testament church
now. That's amazing, isn't it? I know
we have some, bless their hearts, they're talking about there's
a gospel for the Jews and there's a gospel for the Gentiles and
soon we'll have to lay aside Paul's epistles because they
just want to apply to the time that we're coming to. No, brothers
and sisters. There's never been but one gospel.
Never been but one gospel. Never been but one church. Never
been but one Redeemer. Never been but one faith. Just
one. Look back over at our text now.
Look back over in verse 7. And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought
against the dragon. The dragon fought and his angels. Now, I want to ask you two questions.
When was this war in heaven? Now, we need to determine that. When was this war in heaven?
And number two, what did it look like? What was this war between
these mighty angels all about? Okay, let's answer the question
if we can. When? Now, verse seven. There was war in heaven. It takes
us all the way back up to verses 1 and 2. This war was taking
place all the time that the church was waiting for the Lord Jesus
Christ to be born. This is a battle that took place
all through the Old Testament time. Let me read verse 5 and
verse 10 together. Let me read it like this. And
she brought forth a man child who was to rule all nations with
a rod of iron. And her child was caught up unto
God and through and to his throne. Now, we know he leaves out some
things. He leaves out the sufferings of Christ, the atonement that
Christ made, his burial and resurrection. We can fill that in. But when
he was caught up into the throne, now read verse 10. And I heard
a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation and strength
in the kingdom of our Lord. And the power of his cross for
the accuser of the brethren is cast down. When was this battle
going on? All through from Adam and Eve
in the fall, all through the Old Testament scriptures, there
was a battle going on. And it did not end until Christ
lifted up his voice on the cross and said, it's finished, and
then ascended back to heaven physically and sat down on the
right hand of God. And that's when they said, there's
no more place for you up here, Satan. And they cast him out
and him and his angels. Now, one thing you'll find out
as you read this chapter, there's two falls of Satan described
in this chapter. We looked at one of them last
week in In verse 4, where he sinned against God, and his tail
took one-third of the angels, and they were cast out into the
earth, that's his first fall. We have no idea when that happened.
Sometime back in the beginning, because he was in the garden,
wasn't he? And he was cast out then. Christ
said, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. So that was
the first fall. But here in verse 10 talks about
another fall. being cast out of heaven. So there's twice that he was
cast out. One he was cast down, but he still had access, didn't
he? He accused them before God day and night. But now he's not
allowed up there. What's this battle about? We
see when it went on all through the Old Testament. What was it
about? Well, we're told here in our
text it was about Satan accusing the Old Testament saints. before
God. So he was allowed into heaven
all through the Old Testament. And he stood before God to accuse
the saints day and night. Now, we know we can turn to some
passages in the scriptures, but I'm smelling food. I ain't going
to be able to last that long, so I'm not going to keep you
long. I'm up a little bit higher than everybody else, and it's
just enough to get that coming through that door. I smell potatoes. I smell steak. I smell corn.
You'll be falling out of it. But when we read the scripture,
don't we read the times that Satan came up before God to accuse
his children? Remember the account of Job. That there was a time when the
sons of God came to appear before the Lord, and Satan was among
them. And God said, where have you been? He said, from just
walking to and fro through the earth. We know what he was doing,
walking to and fro, seeking whom he may devour. And God said to
him, if you consider my servant Job, he said, yeah, I've considered
him. And you're right, he's a perfect
man, but you take what you've given him, and he'll curse you
to your face. I assure you, I know Him. I know what He is. He'll curse
you to your face. He accused Job. So the Lord let
Job have everything he had. He took his children, his possessions,
and then Job held forth his integrity. He said, though He slay me, I'm
going to serve Him. And there was a day when Satan came back
up and stood before God again. And the Lord said to him again,
have you considered My servant Job? That you moved me against
him to destroy him? What's this accusation about
when Satan comes up before God to accuse his people? It's about
destroying them. You moved me to destroy him without
cause. And Satan said, you move now
your hand and touch his health, afflict his body, and you'll
see what he's made of. And God did that. And boy, it
was tough on Job, wasn't it? It was tough on him. That's what
Satan does. He accuses the brethren before
the Lord. In Zechariah chapter 3, I don't
have time to turn over there, but sometimes you can turn over
there and read that account. There was a man by the name of
Joshua, the high priest. I don't know what all brought
this about, but the Bible said he was clothed in filthy garments.
Remember that, Patrick? You preached a message, I think,
on this. And he stood before the Lord. And the angel of the
Lord stood by, which probably was the Lord Jesus Christ, pleading
the cause of this Joshua. But he was clothed in filthy
garments, and Satan stood there to accuse him before the Lord. Now what do you think Satan said?
He had a plea. He said, look at this man. Look
what a sinner he is. Look how filthy he is. Look at
his rags that he's clothed in. He needs to be damned. And what did the Lord say? The
Lord rebuke you, O Satan. The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem
rebuked you and He told those who stood by, He said, take those
filthy garments from him and put a tangerine on it and make
him clean. But Satan stood there to plead
against him to make sure that if he could, that God would damn
him. That's what Satan's about, isn't
it? The Bible says here in our text that Michael and his angels
fought. Now, when you read Michael, he's
only mentioned five times in all the Bible. Jude calls him
an archangel, a leading angel. Daniel calls him one of the princes. So he's a mighty angel. Sometimes
he's presented in such a way, some people think he's Christ.
I don't think he is, but I understand why they would say that. But
every time you see this Michael mentioned, it always has to do
in the context with war. He's a fighter, boy, he's a warrior. That's why he's in charge of
all the angels. He fights with Satan and his angels. Now, what did this battle look
like? Angels fighting. I can about
see Hollywood. I told Cindy, can't you see Hollywood
making a movie about this? And here you've got these strange
looking characters running around with these laser guns shooting
at each other and everything. Well, it wasn't anything like
that. What was this war about? What did it look like? Well,
the Scriptures tells us that God's angels are ministering
spirits. They are sent forth to minister
for them and no doubt to them who shall be ours of salvation. Remember the angel that delivered
Peter out of jail in Acts chapter 12? Remember the angel that brought
the message to Zechariah that him and Elizabeth would have
a son? Angels that announce the Savior's birth, their ministering
spirits sit forth to minister for us. They take our part, they
defend us, and they minister to us. When John wrote this book,
there was an angel helping him, remember that? Opening his understanding
and showing him these visions. And John was so impressed with
him, once, twice, he bowed to worship him. And the angel said,
don't you do that. Don't you ever worship anybody
but God. But this battle here is between
good angels and bad angels. And what was it about? What was
it over? Think about it this way. Satan
was fighting for the souls of the Old Testament saints to damn
them. That's why he was standing before
God to accuse them. pleading with God to destroy
them. Remember Michael and Jude's little
book, Contending with the Devil, about the body of Moses? They
were arguing about the body of Moses. Satan said, I want his
body. Michael said, you can't have
his body. And when he finally kept on insisting that he gift
the body of Moses, Michael finally said, the Lord rebuked you, O
Satan. Why did Satan want the body of
Moses? Now, people speculated about
this, but I think he wanted it to damn it. What if he could have took Moses'
body down to hell? and held him up before all his
demons, how they would rejoice. We've got one of God's big prophets. How he would have boasted about
that in heaven. And Michael says, you can't have
him. The Lord rebuked you, O Satan. You remember what the Lord Jesus
said to Peter about Satan desiring him? Peter, Satan has desired
to have you. That's his longing to have you,
Peter, that he may sift you, may sift the faith out of you,
may sift the life out of you, may fill you with such corruption
and unbelief that you'll leave me. He wants to sift you. That's one of the things that
Satan was doing in the Old Testament. And these angels and Michael,
the leader, was opposing him. Listen to this. Historically
speaking, Christ did not yet come and shed His blood to atone
for the sins of His people. God had purposed it. God had
decreed, and therefore it was sure, so sure that the Bible
says Christ was a lamb slain before the foundation of the
world. Not actually, but in God's mind and in God's decree. And Satan's argument was this. Since no blood has really been
shed, since the Son of God has not really died and atoned and
put away their sins, there's no grounds that you can forgive
them and let them in heaven. That's what he kept pleading.
And Michael and his angel contended that since the sovereign God
had decreed that Christ would come in time, and shed His blood
to atone for their sins. Therefore, it was as good as
done, that the saints in the Old Testament were forgiven,
and righteousness was imputed to them, just as it was to Abraham,
because Christ had already agreed to be their charity." We have
that old phrase, and we used to use it a lot, saved on credit. And I like that. The Old Testament
saints were saved on credit because Christ hadn't actually come.
God forgave their sins. He imputed righteousness against
them. On this grounds, Christ my Son
is coming and He is going to atone for their sins. We can imagine that this War
took place in the life and death of every believer in the Old
Testament. It took place in Adam and Eve's
life. It took place in Abel's life, Noah's life, Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob, David, Isaiah. They battled with Satan over
this very thing. that Christ has not actually
come yet. There's no grounds for us to
be justified. Only through the decree of God
and the promises of God that He would come. Paul tells us
in Hebrews 2, there was a sense in which Satan had the power
of death. I don't understand that fully,
but here's what he said. Through his death, Christ destroyed
him who had the power of death. That is the devil. And I imagine
he whispered in the ears of the saints, you know that Christ
hasn't come and you know I'm going to kill him before he gets
here. I'm going to kill his seed. You've got no grounds to hope
that you're reconciled to God, that your sins are forgiven because
Christ has not come yet. He kept saying that to them and
he held this fear of death over their heads. You and I can look
back. They had to look ahead. You and
I can look back at the finished work. Actually, they looked at
the promise that the work would be finished. And that's what Michael and his
angels kept whispering in the ears of these saints. Hope thou
in God. God is true. Wait upon the Lord. The Messiah is coming. He's promised. He's coming. And they waited. Did you notice the language used
about this woman here in Revelation chapter 12? That she prevailed
in birth and pained. She pained to be delivered. She almost was in such agony
She was ready to cry out and scream, Come, Lord Jesus! Come, Lord Jesus! She longed
for His coming. Why? But she was in this battle,
in the battle with Satan and his angels. And these, Michael
and his archangels were encouraging them and fighting this battle
with them. You remember, let me give you
an example of this, of how important it was that Christ come and die. You remember on the Mount of
Transfiguration, when Christ took Peter, James and John up
on the mountain, He was glorified before Him, His face shone and
even His clothes shone. And you remember the two men
that came down from heaven and talked with Him? Who was it? Elijah and who? Who? Moses and Elijah. Remember what
they talked about? Of all the things, they come
down from heaven. Can you imagine what they could
have talked about? What did they talk about? The death that he
was to accomplish at Jerusalem. Why was that so important to
those two men come down from heaven? But their eternal salvation
depended on his death. They'd been waiting for his coming.
They've waited for God's decree to be fulfilled. I'm telling
you, when the rubber meets the road, there's only one issue
that's going to matter. Has my sins been atoned for? Has my sins been punished? Has
God swept my sins under the rug? Has He saved me by mercy without
any regard to justice in His law? No. The death of Christ
atoned. The death of Christ made reconciliation
for me. The death of Christ brought in
an everlasting righteousness to justify me before the throne
of God. That's the most critical issue
in the scriptures, isn't it? And they knew it, Bud. They experienced
that war. They had Satan whisper in their
ear, he's not going to make it. I'm going to see that he don't
make it. And Bud, they were in a battle all their lives. And
now here He is. And He's almost ready to go to
the cross. And here these two great men come to hell. And what
do they want to talk about? Your blood shedding. Your death
upon the cross. And the Lord Jesus went to the
cross. He atoned for all the sins of those in the Old Testament.
Actually, He did it. Which was absolutely necessary.
As well as all the sins of all the elect in the New Testament.
He was buried. He raised from the dead. He ascended
back on the throne of God. And now what does our text say?
Now is come salvation. Now is the accuser of the brother
cast down. Satan's not allowed up there
anymore to plead and accuse the saints. Why? He has no grounds
to stand on. He didn't have grounds before,
but he thought he had. But now, Just point to the blood. Now Christ points to the hole
in His side and the Prince in His hands. Look at this! Who
is He that condemner? It's Christ that died. There's
no reason for Him to be up there anymore. He doesn't have anything
to plead. So He's cast out. And He can't
stand before God to accuse the brethren anymore. Isn't that
wonderful? They fought, but that battle's
over. There's a battle still going
on, but that one's finished, isn't it? Christ has come. He's
died. Look back at our text again.
In verse 11, we're still talking about the Old Testament saints
now. Next week we'll get into the
New Testament saints just a little bit. We're still talking about
the Old Testament saints. In verse 11, here's the way they
overcome Him, all the way from Adam, through the book of Malachi.
And they overcame him three ways. One, by the blood of the Lamb. How did the Old Testament saints
overcome Satan? By the blood of the Lamb. The
same way we do. What do you plead? And my old
neighbor, bless her heart, not too long before she died, she
asked me, she said, do you ever just have to plead His blood?
I said, every day. Every day, just like they did.
There was one element in the worship of the Jews that they
were very careful that it was there. And what was it? Blood. But they did not approach God
without blood. I mean, you follow it all the
way through the Scriptures. The first time God shed blood
of those two animals in the garden, God was the first one that shed
blood. Because he knows that he would not be approaching without
blood. He shed animal blood and clothed
our first parents. Abel brought a bloody lamb and
placed it between himself and God. When Noah got out of that
ark, what's the first thing he did? He built an altar and put
those bloody victims on it and set them ablaze. You remember
down in the 12th chapter of Exodus when they were ready to be delivered
and go towards the land of promise? You remember what the Lord told
them to do? You be certain that you do this. Take you some blood
from a lamb or a goat and you put hyssop in it and sprinkle
the little of the Lord. And when I see the blood, I'll
pass over you. And the Bible says that Moses
kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, lest he which destroyed
the first barn should touch them. There were millions of barrels
of blood spilled on Jewish altars, and there was one reason for
it. Without the shedding of blood, there's no remission. And boy,
that's what they looked to. Remember one of the old prophets talking
about it, Zechariah? In that day there shall be a
fountain opened. It's not open yet, only in the
person of God. But He said it's going to be
opened for sin and for uncleanness. The Lord Jesus takes His twelve
up in the upper room. They're sitting there eating
the Passover supper. And He takes this little glass
of wine and He hands it to them and says, This is My blood of
the new covenant which is shed for many. They overcome him,
brothers and sisters, just like you do, by the blood of Jesus
Christ. That's our plea, isn't it? He
made peace. How? By the blood of His cross. Secondly, they overcame him by
the word of their testimony. I love what Job said when he
was in those awful afflictions. It seemed like God had forsaken
him. And Satan was tempting him, depressing him to death. And
you know what Job said? You know what his testimony was?
I know my Redeemer lives. And though I die and skin worms
devour this body, in my flesh I shall see God. God is my Redeemer. That was his testimony, wasn't
it? And he said, thirdly, they love not their lives unto death. Here's what the Lord Jesus said
about that. He that loves his life shall
lose it. Ain't that amazing? Don't tell
why this world won't come to Christ. They love their lives. They love the present life. The circumstances, they love
the situation they're in right now. They're just seeking to
improve their lives in this world. They want to live in this world.
They love this world and all it has to offer them. Therefore,
they won't come to Christ. Therefore, they're going to lose
their life. He that loves his life will lose his life. He that
hates his life in this world, he'll retain it. What does it mean to hate your
life? It means you hate yourself. It means you hate what you are.
You hate your nature. Don't you ever call yourself,
oh wretched man that I am. Don't you ever say with Jacob,
I'm not worthy of the least of your mercy? Or with Job, I abhor
myself. Don't you hate yourself? Don't
you hate your sin? Don't you hate your unbelief?
Don't you hate that you're so unlike your Lord and Savior?
You hate your life, don't you? And therefore, you look away
from yourself. You look away from this life.
And you find your life in Jesus Christ. In His life. There's
the way to keep your life. They loved not their lives unto
death. Sidney and I were talking this
evening about those saints, those Old Testament saints in Hebrews
chapter 11 and what they suffered. They had trials of cruel mockings. They brought them up to a trial
and it was just a sham of a trial. They mocked them. But they would
not accept deliverance. What does that tell us? Their
enemies offered them deliverance. If you will deny your hope in
this Messiah that's coming that you forbid, we'll let you go.
They said, no. What kind of life do we have
without him? We hate our life. He's our life. So boy, they took
their property. They had to live in dens and
caves of the earth. They stripped them of their clothes.
They had to kill a lamb and wear its wool. They sawed some of
them in two, alive with saws, persecuted them, killed them,
and they would not accept deliverance. And why wouldn't they? Same way
you would. Same cause you would. What's
your life without Christ? You'd hate it, wouldn't you?
You would despair without the Lord Jesus Christ. If somebody
could just take Him from your bosom, you would despair. I hate everything. I'm like old
George Strait. I hate everything but Him and
everything that's got to do with Him. Everything down here is
miserable, isn't it? You get one problem solved and
another one pops up over here. You think you've got one sin
under control and another one pops up over you. Everything. And you just grow weary with
this life. Weary with yourself. And you've
found your life outside of yourself. And that's in Jesus Christ the
Lord. And if that's the way you feel, you have life eternal. You have life eternal. Our Father,
thank you for this study. Thank you for letting us gather
tonight to look into your word. Bless it to our hearts for Christ's
sake. Thank you for this food as we eat and fellowship one
with another in a few minutes. Bless it to our bodies for Christ's
sake. Amen.