a Bible doctrine really gush
forth out of the book of Genesis, especially chapters 1, 2, and
3. And if there's a failure to understand what God has to say
to us in these first three chapters of the book of God, in these
portions of Scripture, then we will be led into, we will wander
into, perhaps is a better way to express it, into great errors
pertaining to the rest of the Word of God. If we start off
right, we'll end up right. But if we don't have a basic
understanding of how the Bible begins, what it deals with, even
in these first three chapters, if we don't have the basis, if
we don't have a foundation, If we don't understand what God
by His Spirit has inspired Moses to write in chapters 1, 2, and
3 of the book of Genesis, then we're going to get way off base
as we get deeper into the Word of God. I want to show you several
things this evening about man. I've been thinking about this
for several days. Of course, I indicated to you
when I began in chapter four that I wanted to talk to you
about what happened in Eden's garden. And so this is our fourth
message and the last message in this brief series on chapter
three. But I want to speak to you again
tonight on this issue, what happened in Eden's garden. And I want
us to walk through, I want, as it were, to be a teacher to you
and I'm gonna make this very easy to follow because I'm gonna
give you various words and all of them are gonna begin with
the same letter so that you can follow right actually from Genesis
chapter one and then in chapter two but especially in chapter
three as we trace our father Adam. and the way God dealt with
him, the way God used him, and the things that he faced and
the things that he endured, the things that happened to him,
and I want us to then see that as God dealt with him, he dealt
with him as a representative man. And so God deals with all
of his children through another representative, and that is the
God-man. So I'll move along fairly quickly. And here's the first thing I
want to talk to you about is creation, the creation of man. God has said back in chapter
one and verse 26, God said, let us make man in our own image. And of course, there we find
the plurality of God, not that there are three gods, but we
find out there God is Trinity. That's indicated by the way God
expressed that. Let us make man in our image. Now we are Trinitarians, and
we believe very forcefully, very, very convincingly, and nobody
can convince us otherwise of the reality of the Trinity, but
we can't. explain the Trinity? We can't
really adequately set forth the Trinity? There is no illustration
about the Trinity. He who doesn't believe in the
Trinity is a fool. And he who tries to set forth
and describe the Trinity, he's equally a fool. Because when
we get into the person of God, the Godhead, God the Father,
God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. We're getting into very deep
water because we're talking about the identity of God himself. Enough to know that God reveals
himself as Father, as Son, as Holy Spirit. Our Lord Jesus,
he instructed us when we baptize to baptize people in the name
of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. He says,
John says in 1 John 5, these three are one and indivisible. So right from the beginning here
in Genesis 1, we find out about the creation of man. Man is identified
in 1 Corinthians 15 as being the first man. This is also,
this man is described as the first Adam. And God says, let
us make man in our likeness, in our image. Now, what does
that mean? Well, it means, first of all,
we were created in the image of God physically. You say, but
God is spirit. That's correct. Therefore, whatever
in the Bible In Genesis, certainly, but throughout the Bible, whenever
God has dealings with men, God being the spirit, whenever he
appears to men, whenever he speaks audibly to men, whenever he deals
with men, it is always the second person of the Trinity that deals
with men, always. There are no exceptions. There's
only one mediator between God and men. That's the man, Christ
Jesus. And in the Old Testament, every
time God deals with men, Like in this case, in chapter 3, when
God deals with Adam and Eve, it is the Son of God who deals
with them. The Scripture says, God says,
no man can see My face and live. And yet many people have seen
the face of God. Well, how do you explain that? Well, God is Spirit, so you can't
see His face. But the Son of God, throughout
the Old Testament, quite frequently He's set forth as the angel of
the Lord. And as the angel of the Lord,
He takes a representation of man. He appears as a man to men,
as He did to Abraham, as He did to Manoah and his wife. as he did to many people through
the Old Testament, as he did to Jacob. There wrestled with
Jacob a man. Well, who is that man? That's
the God-man. And he took upon himself pre-incarnate
existence, a form. Otherwise, God couldn't be seen. Now, Adam was created in the
image of God physically. You see, the very first one who
was ordained to have a body was the Son of God. The Son of God. In old eternity, God laid out
everything about redemption. It would be by the substitutionary
death of one who was real, who had a body. who could suffer,
who could bleed, who could die. God ordained, God fashioned that
body for him. And then when God made Adam,
he made Adam after the figure or the likeness of that body
that he ordained for the Son of God. The Greek word for man, of course,
the Old Testament is written in Hebrew, but in the New Testament,
the Greek word for man is anthropos. And I'm sure several of you,
perhaps in a high school and certainly in college, you took
anthropology, which is the study of man. And literally, anthropos
means the uplooking one. This is how God created man. He created man as that one who
physically, constantly looked up to God. He looked up to God
to praise Him. He looked up to God to thank
Him. He looked up to God to worship
Him. Man is the up-looking one. And even now, even in our depraved
state, When we need help, we say, Lord, help us. What do we
do? We look up. Even the natural
man looks to the heavens and he says, oh God, help me. Help
me. Little wonder then that we read
in the New Testament, set your affections upon things above,
not upon things of the earth. You're the up-looking one. God
made you to look up. Look up! Not look in. Not look out. You look in, you
see sin. You look out, you see trouble.
Look up! See your God seated upon His
throne. See your God governing. See your
God as your salvation. So He was created in the image
of God physically. Secondly, He was created in the
image of God morally. Morally. Solomon said, Ecclesiastes 7
and 29, Lo, this only have I found, God made man upright. But he sought out many inventions. He sought out other ways to be
happy. He sought out other ways to be
joyful. He sought out other means by
which he could be contented. But you see, there is no real
happiness. There is no real joy. There is
no real contentment except that which is found in our God. Man was made to worship God and
enjoy Him forever. That's why man was made. And
you can search the catechisms. And there are several of them
that are worth your study, worth reading. Spurgeon had a good
catechism. There are several other old ones.
I wrote a catechism years ago for the children at the church
there in Almonte, Michigan. And they all start this way.
What is the first? What is the chief end of man? The chief end of man is to enjoy
God. Not to enjoy things. Not to find
happiness in possessions. The chief end of man is to worship
God and enjoy Him forever. And that's exactly what we're
going to do in heaven. There is no one who is discontented
in glory. Because they all worship the
Lord. So man was created in the image
of God morally. And though that image has been
marred by sin, still naturally, there is a sense, though it is
a twisted sense sometimes, there is still a basic sense of right
and wrong. And therefore men know it's wrong
to steal. How do you know that? There's
something written on your conscience about that. And men know it's
wrong to kill. How do you know that? Because
God created man in the image of himself morally. Now, I know
we have a distorted view of right and wrong, but still, it is there. It is there. when Adam and Eve,
when they had sinned against God, and they heard the voice
of the Lord God calling in the cool of the day, though they
had fallen into depravity, they still had an awareness, something's
wrong. Now granted, man has no idea
how to right the wrong. He doesn't have any idea what
to do about sin. How can sin be gotten rid of?
He doesn't know that, but he has some awareness of the fact,
I'm certainly not a perfect person. And then thirdly, Man was created
in the image of God physically. Man was created in the image
of God morally. Man was created in the image
of God typically. For you see, Adam was not, he
wasn't a private individual. He was a representative man. Adam represented all the human
race. That's just the way it is. And He represented one who would
come into this world. He stood in typology as a figure
of Him who was to come, that is, the Lord Jesus Christ, who
would represent all of His people. And as what Adam did had a devastating
effect upon everybody he represented, which is every person born of
a man and a woman. Even so, this other representative
man, the Lord of glory, that which he did had a glorious effect
upon everyone for whom he lived, died, and arose again. So there's the creation of man.
Here's the second thing, the competence of man. Here's the second thing I wanna
deal with, the competence of man. He was so knowledgeable. He was given authority, he was
given dominion over the garden, over all the animals, over all
the creation. God equipped him for the work
that he had to do to name all of the animals and to take care
of the garden. God said, have dominion, have
control over everything. And he was competent to do that. There was no incompetence in
Adam. There was no incompetence in
Adam. He was up to the task. Everything
God required of him to do, he did except for one thing, but everything
else he was competent to do. Thirdly, we see a covenant made
with the man. That's in chapter two, verses
16 and 17, where God said, now put a tree in the midst of the
garden. It's the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil. You can eat of the fruit of the
rest of the trees of the garden, that's fine. And I'm fully persuaded
that Adam and Eve ate often of the tree of life. But God said,
of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt
not eat of it, for in the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt
surely die. And God ended it into a covenant
with Adam. It's a covenant of works. Everything
good was dependent upon Adam's obedience. Obey and live. Very clear. Disobey, die. That's it. That's typical of
another covenant, the covenant of grace. And of that covenant,
very few people know anything about it. And I'm ashamed to
say most Baptists don't know anything about it. Most Southern
Baptists don't know anything about, that's what Marty and
I were talking about before the service began, that the Southern
Baptist Convention has its roots in sovereign grace. James Pettigrew
Boyce, one of the great theologians who established the seminary
in Louisville, who was solid in grace. And many, if not most
Southern Baptist churches, they have their covenant, they have
their beliefs written down, and they'll find them. If they'd
ever dust them off, they'd find what their forefathers believed.
They believed this covenant of grace, a covenant made within
the sovereign Godhead. And it was a covenant regarding
the salvation of a multitude of sinners. This included election,
it included predestination, it included redemption, it included
righteousness, it included reconciliation, it included justification, it
included glorification. Everything's in the covenant.
That's the reason David said he rejoiced in that covenant.
He said, it's all my desire. He said, it's all I want's in
that covenant. And most people don't know anything about that,
Covenant Ron. That's a sad thing. They don't know anything about
it. Tell you what, when you're on your dying bed, as David was
in 2 Samuel 23, If you're on your dying bed,
if you're seeking for some kind of assurance that all is right
with God, and if you're going to start examining, well, I hope
I've repented enough, I hope I've prayed enough, I hope I've
believed enough, well, you're going to be in real trouble finding
any kind of assurance. David said, all my hope is tied
up in that covenant. It is absolutely a covenant of
pure grace. Who are you depending upon? My
God. I'm depending upon my God. I'm
depending upon His grace. I'm depending upon the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, God, see the blood and receive
me. A covenant. He is referred to, the Savior
is referred to as the surety of a better covenant. Say, Jim,
what is a surety? Illustration. Without going deep
into the story, you'll remember when the brothers went to Jacob's
sons, went to see Joseph, though they didn't know he was Joseph.
Benjamin, the youngest, stayed home. Joseph and Benjamin were
brothers of the same mother. The rest of the boys go and then
they tell the story. We're looking for food. We have
our fathers at home. And you know, things are scarce
over in the land of Canaan because the famine's bad over there.
And we hear that you've got some to eat over here. And of course,
Joseph had been promoted to second in control under Pharaoh. And
Pharaoh gave to Joseph, he's in charge of all the greeneries
of Egypt. Want anything to eat? Go to Joseph. Want some food? Go to Joseph.
You want some corn? Go to Joseph. If Joseph gives
it to you, fine. If Joseph decides he's not going
to give it to you, well, you're going to starve to death. So
these brothers, without Benjamin, they go to Joseph, says, we're
hungry, sell us some food. Well, who are you? And they begin
to tell him, and he says, ah. And of course, he's tricking
them. He says, if you're really telling
me the truth, bring me your younger brother. What did you say his
name was? Benjamin. Go bring Benjamin to
me. And so they said, OK. So he said,
well, I'm going to keep one of you here with me. I'm going to
keep Simeon. You want to see him alive, you
better come back with Benjamin. Oh, OK. So they go. And they go to their dad, Jacob.
And, hey, dad, this guy in Egypt, he's a tough guy. He's a tough
negotiator. And Jacob said, where's Simeon? Well, he's back in Egypt. What's
he doing in Egypt? That guy who's over all the greeneries
of Egypt, he held him back. He says, not gonna let him go
unless we bring Benjamin with me. And Jacob says, oh no, all
of these things are against me. Joseph is not. Now you wanna
take Benjamin? Now, what Jacob didn't know,
we do know. Nothing was against him. But we have the benefit of reading
all that happened. And there are a lot of times
in the lives of God's people will say, all of this is against
me. No, it isn't. That's just your
pitiful, weak perception of things. You can't see things like God
sees things. God sees the whole picture and
He's moving us around like pieces on a chess board. And He's manipulating everybody
and everything to bring to pass His eternal counsel. No, Jacob, it's not all against
you. He says, oh, what am I going
to do? And Reuben, the eldest, the firstborn, Reuben says, hey,
Dad, I'll go and I'll take Benjamin with me. I guarantee you, Dad,
I'm going to take care of him. Nope, not to be. Not to be. Wrong son. Wrong son. Judah. Judah must be surety for
Benjamin. And Judah says to his dad, I'll
be surety for the lad. You hold me fully responsible
for his safety. I bear all of this responsibility. I will take Benjamin with me,
and Dad, I promise you, on my own life, I'll bring him back
to you alive and safe. That's a surety. Judah was surety
for Benjamin. And our Lord Jesus, He was surety
in the everlasting covenant of grace for us. He sure did. God said, bring
them all home safely to me. All my Benjamins. And one of
these glorious days, all of God's Benjamins are gonna be brought
safely home to glory to the praise of the glory of the grace of
Christ Jesus. All because of a covenant. Fourthly,
God made a companion for the man, Eve. God gave him a wife,
God gave him a bride, a bride, a help meet, one who was meet
for him, one who was fit for him, one who was worthy for him,
and Eve came right out of his side. At that time, she didn't
have the name Eve, and we'll study about that in a few minutes.
She was the woman. capital W, the woman. And God put Adam into deep sleep, and God cut him open, and God
took a rib from near his heart, from near Adam's heart, and God
healed him up, and from that rib made he a woman. And then
Adam woke up, and he looked at that woman, He said, you're the
most beautiful creature I've ever seen in my life. He fell
head over heels in love with her right there. Love at first
sight. Kind of like it was with me falling in love with Nancy.
Love at first sight. Yeah, it's a gift from God, a
bride. Even so, God gave Christ a bride,
a bride. and he makes this bride worthy
and fit for companionship with Christ Jesus, because God, through
the blood of the Lord Jesus, washes away our sins, and robes
her in the garment of righteousness. We're the everlasting companion
of Christ Jesus, and what God hath joined together, let not
man put asunder. There's no such thing as losing
your salvation. Not if God saves you. Because He's joined you to Jesus
Christ. He joined you to Christ before
the world began. Nobody can separate the bride
from the bridegroom. But then we get to chapter 3.
Here's the corruption of man. Oh, corruption. Eve was deceived,
but not Adam. He willed to eat, he deliberately
defied God, sin entered into this world through that one man,
by that one man's disobedience. Even so, Romans 5 tells us that
while one man's disobedience brought about sin, another man's
obedience resulted in the righteousness of all those he represented. corruption of man, which brings
us to number six, the compassion upon man. In verse eight of chapter
three, they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden
in the cool of the day. Oh, what compassion. And the
voice they heard was not a voice of anger. It was not a voice
of judgment. It was a voice of fatherly love. Not pursuing them in vengeance,
but pursuing them out of compassion, out of loving kindness. Not in
the heat of the day, not in the darkness of night when men's
hearts fail them for fear, but in the cool of the day. And the
sin of Adam, it wasn't surprising to God. God had said, in the
day ye eat thereof, you'll surely die. It didn't say if you eat,
He said in the day you eat, you'll surely die. It's man's fall that
gave God opportunity to manifest His greatest glory, the salvation
of sinners through the death of an innocent sacrifice. And then we see in verses seven
and eight conviction, the conviction of the man. Well, they knew something
was wrong. And I don't, we aren't really
told exactly how they knew something was wrong. After studying it
for the last several days, I'm of this persuasion, I think,
now they know they're naked. And you want to look at this
verse, look at Psalm 104. I'll tell you what kind of garment
I think they had on. Psalm 104 in verse two. Psalm 104 in verse two. Who covereth thyself, that is
God, covers himself with light. as with a garment. You see that? Psalm 104 and verse two, who
coverest thyself with light as with a garment. You remember
when the Lord Jesus was transfigured on the Mount of Transfiguration?
His clothes were as bright as light. I think and I'm just kind of
stepping out on a limb here a little bit, but I think that Adam and
Eve in their purity, in that purity in which Adam was created
and in the purity in which Eve was made, I think there was about
them a brightness, a brightness that is the glory of the Lord
shining upon them. and that they were illuminated
themselves. And then when they sinned, the
light was gone. That's my theory. No charge for
that, but that's my theory. The light was gone and all of
a sudden, they look at themselves, oh no, I'm naked. I'm naked. The glory is gone. Oh, it sure is. The brightness
is gone. Yes, it is. And they're convicted. They're convicted. Because you
see, they did have an uprightness before God. But that's lost. That's gone. It's gone forever. Now it has
to be said there's none righteous No, not one. And there's none
that seeketh after God. Man is convicted and he hides
from God and he knows something's wrong, but he doesn't know what
is to be done about it. In verse eight, here's the eighth
thing, here's the conversion of the man. They heard the voice
of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day,
and Adam and Eve hid themselves from the presence of the Lord
God amongst the trees of the garden. I believe here's the
conversion. God is drawing these sinners
unto Himself. Pay no attention. Pay no attention
to those who say, make the first step toward God. and he'll meet
you halfway. You can't make the first step.
That's a problem. If you can take the first step,
you can just go all the way. Any reasonable, honest person
who reads this passage of Scripture will have to admit Adam and Eve
ran from God. The one who is in pursuit, the
one who is seeking, is a loving God, that is, the Son of God,
the Lord Jesus Christ, who came to seek and to save that which
was lost. Here's man's conversion. The Lord turned them unto himself. He sought them. Here's the eighth
thing. Conversion of man and then commitment
to man. Let me give you this one. Commitment
to man. God makes a commitment. And here it is in verse 15. and
I will put enmity between thee and the woman, between thy seed
and her seed. It shall bruise thy head, and
thou shalt bruise his heel." Here's God's commitment. I promise
you. It's the Son of God speaking.
I promise you. The seed of the woman will rise
up. Serpent, he will rise up and
he will crush your head. whereas you will bruise his heel. Satan received a mortal wound
at the cross of Calvary. It has been said that an animal
who is wounded is even more dangerous after he's wounded. And Satan
is a wounded lion. who goes about seeking whom he
may devour. But then we get to the curses
on account of man. The curses on account of man.
Now look at this. Look at verse 14. And the Lord
God said unto the serpent, because thou hast done this, thou art
cursed. So a curse is put on the serpent.
You're cursed above all cattle, above all beasts of the field.
Upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the
days of thy life. There's a curse upon the serpent.
Now look at verse 16. Under the woman, he said, now
there's gonna be results for her transgression. I will greatly
multiply thy sorrow and thy conception, In sorrow thou shalt bring forth
children, thy desire shall be to thy husband, he shall rule
over thee." You're going to have pain giving in childbirth? And you'll answer to your husband. And unto Adam he said, because
thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten
of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not
eat of it, cursed is the ground for thy sake. The serpent is
cursed, the ground is cursed. In sorrow thou shalt eat of it
all the days of my life. Thorns also, and thistles shall
it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field.
And you know about thorns and thistles and weeds. If you've
got a garden, It's really close home to you. Because you're fighting
those things all the time. Why do you fight the weeds? Because
of sin. That's why. I have a beautiful
flower garden. What's that growing there next
to my rose bush? That's not a flower. No, that's
a weed. You're going to have to deal
with it because it will just keep on growing. Look at verse 19. In the sweat
of thy face thou shalt eat bread till thou return unto the ground,
for out of it thou wast taken, for dust thou art, and unto dust
thou shalt return. Death, that's coming to you,
Adam. And boy, the evidence that these things have come true,
especially as part of my death, is that billions of people who
have lived upon this earth have died. Evidence of the truthfulness
of this passage. But here's what I want you to
see. The serpent was cursed. The ground was cursed. You know
who wasn't cursed? Adam wasn't cursed. Eve wasn't
cursed. They were blessed in Christ Jesus
with all spiritual blessings and heavenly places in Him. Balaam said to King Balak, you
can't curse when God is blessed. Oh, the serpent is cursed. The
ground is cursed. But you see that sinner standing
there? Adam, you see that woman, that
sinner standing there? The first one who transgressed
and ate the fruit that God had forbidden to be eaten. You see
them? I bet you God's gonna curse them
too. No, no. There's a sacrifice that's about
to be offered up for them. They're blessed in the Savior. And go hurriedly and go a little
bit further in verse, Number 20. Here's a choice of a name
for man's wife. And guess who gave her the name?
Not God, but Adam. So we look here in chapter three. Look at verse 20. And Adam called
his wife's name Eve. because she was the mother of
all living. Literally, Eve's name means life. You know what this is evidence
of? Adam believed God. Adam believed God. You see, the
law of God said death. The grace of God said life. And the faith that Adam had,
he said, life! She's the mother of all living.
There's going to be life on this earth. I know, I know the law
said death for sin. But hang on, there's going to
be a sacrifice for these two guilty people. And Adam believed
the Lord. The fact that the Lord came after
them, he knows in his heart, he believes in his heart, we're
going to live. We're going to live. Even though
God said in the day you eat thereof you'll die, Adam said we're going
to live. Honey, your name's Eve. Well,
what does that mean, Adam? Life, honey. Life. And you see, in Adam we did die,
but in Christ Jesus, we live. We live. We live forever. And then we get to verse 21. Here's the cost, the cost to
save Adam and Eve. It's illustrated. An Adam also unto his wife did
the Lord God make coats of skins and clothe them." There's that
apron, those aprons they've got. Get rid of the aprons. They don't
cover you. You need a coat. And that coat
covered them, covered their nakedness. But what it pictures is the covering
of their souls, the covering of their souls. And God made
them, and God wrote them, because it says, says, unto Adam and
to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skin. They didn't
make them themselves, God made them. There's the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ, and he clothed them, there's righteousness
imputed to our fallen parents. The penalty of sin was death.
I'm sure Adam and Eve watched in amazement as the Son of God
in pre-incarnate form took animals and lambs, I suspect, and killed
them, shedding their blood. Shedding innocent blood. Those
animals, they didn't defy God. They didn't transgress God's
law. They died in the stead of sinners in a coat The righteousness of our Lord
Jesus covers our naked souls. I was thinking today of a beautiful
passage. I'll give it to you quickly in
Luke chapter 3 and verse 11. Our Savior said, He that hath
two coats, let him impart unto him that hath none. The Son of God already had a
coat for Himself. But we needed one. So he goes to the cross of Calvary,
and he establishes a coat for us. He says, this is yours. This is yours. And you know,
when the Spirit of God deals with us in grace, we take off
those old fig leaf aprons and throw them on the ground and
just trample on them. Because they just felt the rags
anyhow. I said, Lord, put that coat on me. That's a robing of
the soul, the robing of the soul. And then lastly, consolation
for the man and woman in verses 23 through 24. Suffice to say
this, that Adam and Eve were driven from the garden, lest they eat of the, tree of
life and live in that condition forever, God put him out. God sent him forth. But look
at verse 24. So he drove out the man and he placed, and I
have mentioned this before, I think to you, the word placed means
dwelt or tabernacled. God tabernacled there. At the
east of the Garden of Eden, they put their chair bends and a flaming
sword, which turned every way to keep or guard the way of the
tree of life. And you know, for years I thought,
well, that sword is pointed at Adam. It's not pointed at Adam. It's pointed at Satan. It's pointed
at Satan. Adam and Eve, they would come
to this place to worship. The sword is pointed toward the
serpent, toward the evil one to protect, to guard, to guard
the way to the tree of life. And as we shall see next week, Adam and Eve taught Cain and
Abel where to worship God. Between the cherubim, where the
fire is. which was a pre-announcement,
as it were, of that which would adorn the Ark of the Covenant,
the chair bent with the fire in the middle, the mercy seat. I gotta give you one more thing. Can I squeeze this in? Show you a picture of our Savior,
and I'll give it to you quick. prophet, priest, and king, chapter
3. See, Christ is our prophet. He predicted, prophesied His
own coming, the seed of the woman. Prophet, priest, offered to God
the sacrifice that satisfied God's justice. And king, king
of grace, Adam, where are you? Come here, Adam. Effectual grace. Only the King can do that. Only
the King. Oh, how marvelous is the grace
of God to us through the Lord Jesus. Our Father, take now the
things that have been spoken. Magnify Your free and sovereign
and matchless grace. Father, uplift and exalt your
Son, the Son of your love, our own Savior. And Lord, fill us
who know you with joy, with a delight and satisfaction in the blessed
Savior, this One whom to know is indeed life everlasting. Oh, how merciful you are to us. And we thank you. And we ask
these things in the name of Christ our Savior. Amen. you