I'm going to go straight into
the message here in Psalm 1. You know, the book of Psalm,
it just means psalm. Psalm is a psalm. And there are
some denominations, I think the Orthodox Presbyterians and some
of the Scottish people and some of the, they still, they seem
to have what they call a psaltery. And that's all they sang, is
the psalms. They don't use any other kind of hymn book. We've
had folks visit here that wouldn't sing with us, wouldn't open a
hymn book, because they wouldn't sing what they would call contemporary
hymns. All they ever sung was the psalms,
so they wouldn't even participate in our song service while they
were here. And so there's people who uses the psalms and actually
sings them. And you know Brother Rick, he
sings a couple of the psalms and uses them. And so they're
psalms. And this is a song of David.
And I don't know how you'd sing it, but the Jews did. And if it was written in the
Hebrew, you'd understand it. But here he calls him, Blessed
is the man. And this word blessed here means
the same thing as happy. Happy is the man. Happy is the
man. This is the opening song of the
Book of Songs. And whenever you see that blessed
man, there's so many places in the Scriptures it talks about
the blessed man. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord imputeth not iniquity. Blessed is the man who maketh
the Lord his refuge. Blessed is the man who the Lord
causes to approach unto him. And then the Beatitudes. Blessed
are the poor in spirit. Blessed are the meek. Blessed
are the peacemakers. Blessed are the righteous. And
you go on and on and on. So here we have all these blessed
people that God calls them blessed of Him. And the word blessed
here is plural. Plural. It's not singular. They
say blessed. You got to bless, you know, you
were blessed. But this is blessing, talking about all the plural.
And what he's talking about, the happiness, all the blessings
that this man has. In fact, he's blessed with all
spiritual blessings, as all of us who are God's people is. And
one thing he knows is, he knows the difference between what is
temporal blessings. And I enjoy my temporal blessings.
I enjoy my home. I enjoy my marriage. I enjoy my children. Enjoy my
money. What little money God's blessed
me with, I enjoy it. Enjoy my automobiles. Enjoy my
health. Enjoy heat, air conditioning. Enjoy my friends. Enjoy a place
to worship. Enjoy my health while I got it.
These are all temporal blessings. And one of these days, they'll
all go. And I know that, and you know that. But this blessed
man knows the difference between the temporal blessings and the
spiritual blessings and the eternal blessings, and he knows which
one is the most important. And if you understand the spiritual
blessings and what we have in Christ, that makes you enjoy
the temporal blessings that much more, and makes you realize who
they come from. And this happy man, this blessed
man, is seen in two aspects in this first song. He's first revealed
in his negative character, and secondly, in his positive character.
Now, what do I mean by negative? Well, there are some things he
will not do. And that's what we mean by negative. That's what
the Pharisees, they says, we don't, we don't, we don't, we
don't. That's negative. Everything about their religion
was negative. Well, there are some negative things about this
blessed man, this happy man, this man who has these spiritual
blessings. There are some things he will not do. There are some
places he will not walk. There are some places he will
not sit. And there are some places he will not stand. Ain't that
what it says? Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel
of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth
in the seat of the scornful." There's places he ain't going
to walk, places he ain't going to sit, and places he ain't going
to stand. But that's what it means about
negative. And there's things he won't do,
not because of law. There's no law that says he can't
do it. And he's not afraid of the judgment if he doesn't. But
he has been made to know something better. He has been given something
better. He don't want to walk in the
council of the ungodly anymore. He don't want to stand in the
place of sinners anymore. He don't want to sit in the seat
of the scornful anymore. Because he has been blessed of
God. He's been regenerated of God.
And not because he has afraid of judgment or some law that
says he must not walk in this way, but his love for the Lord
Jesus Christ, his love for the Word of God, his love for the
will of God causes him to not walk in these places. And here's
the first thing he doesn't do. He walks not in the counsel of
the ungodly. This word, counsel, is the same
word as wisdom. He doesn't walk in the wisdom
of the ungodly. He doesn't walk, you know, he
don't go, if he wants some counsel, if he wants some wisdom, if he
wants some guidance, he don't go to an ungodly person to get
it. He don't go to somebody who don't know God, who don't care
about God. Somebody that's wretched and
wicked. He doesn't go there. He doesn't walk in the wisdom
of this world. He doesn't walk, and that's why
Paul says, we walk not according to the wisdom of this world.
We're not saved according to the wisdom of this world. And
the ungodly, the wisdom of this world, says this. Get all you
can get. Rise as far as you can rise.
Be as successful as you can be. Get a hold of everything you
can get your hands on. And there's no need to worry
about your soul. Because, you know, when you leave
this world, you're no different than a dog. And you know, just
be a good person. live an honest life, do the best
you can, get your good education, and make this world a be all
eat, drink, and be merry, for the more you may die. But all
the happy, the blessed man, he don't walk in that council. He's
not going to walk in that council. He's not going to walk in that
council that tells them that they don't have an eternal soul,
that they don't have to worry about their relationship with
God, that they don't have to worry about what God has done
for them or the judgment that is to come. James and I was talking
before the service. A man's wife, a man's mother
died and she's a Pentecostal preacher, didn't you say? Go
to her funeral, she's a Pentecostal preacher. What do you reckon
she knows about God now? You gonna walk in her counsel?
Walk in her wisdom? You gonna walk in the wisdom
that tells you That Jesus Christ loves everybody, and God died
for everybody, loves everybody, and Christ died for everybody.
Walk in this wisdom that holiness is something that you do, and
sanctification is something that you do, and living a good holy
life is something you do, and as you get to the end of the
road, God will reward you for all the goodness you've done.
That's walking in the council. We're not going to walk in that.
This blessed man's not going to walk in that council, in that
kind of wisdom. And then with what else it says,
he not only does not walk in the council of God, he don't
stand in the way of sinners. Now, when it says to stand, that
means that you're taking a stand. Everybody says, you know, I'm
taking my stand. If I stand, I can do no other. That's what
Martin Luther said. He said, I'm firm and I'm fixed.
Well, what he's saying here is that sinners are standing firm,
and they're standing fixed in their way against God, against
light, against Christ. They're deliberate transgressors.
Now, these sinners here he's talking about are deliberate
transgressors against light. They have light, but they don't
want to walk in it. They have the truth, but they
don't want to believe it. They stand proudly. deliberately, boldly, in the face of God, without God
and without Christ, and have no shame about it. They stand in rebellion, we stand
in grace. They stand in darkness, we stand
in light. They stand without hope and we're
glad about it, and we stand in hope. I've seen a thing that
a bunch of atheists are going to put out a bunch of make a
bunch of billboards, and they're going to put Santa Claus and
Jesus and Satan all on them, and say there's no difference
in any of them. That's a good way of writing
it. And we stand back and wonder, why in the world would God let
something like that happen? We'll get to that in a minute,
but I'll tell you what. Why did God let you and I go on as long
as we did? But, oh, beloved, we're not going
to stand in the way of those sinners. We're not going to stand
firm and fixed in our deliberate transgression against God. We're
not going to stand in the same place that these sinners does.
And then look what else it says here. He doesn't sit in the seat
of the scornful. You know what scornful means?
It means cynical, critical, judgmental, And to sit in a seat means to
sit in the place of a teacher, someone who is critical, who
is cynical. And you keep Psalm 1, look with
me over in Matthew 23, and I'll show you what I'm talking about.
He doesn't sit in the seat of the scornful. You know, there are folks who
sit in the seat of the scornful. They're cynical, they're critical,
they're judgmental. Nothing's ever right, nothing
nobody does. I think I put a little article
in the bulletin a few weeks or months ago where Brother Henry
said, I'd rather sit beside a hypocrite in the service than to go to
hell and spend eternity with him. And that's right, I'd rather
sit beside one in the service than to spend eternity with him.
And that's what he means here. Don't sit in the seat of the
scornful. And to sit in the seat means to sit in the place of
an instructor. Look what it says here in Matthew
23 and 2, verse 2. Our Lord speaking to the multitudes,
saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sat in Moses' seat. They sat up there in their seat.
Oh, they tell you everything to do. He said, Whatever they
bid you, You observe. That observe and do. But don't
you do after what there works. For they say one thing and don't
do it. And what they'll do? You know what they do? They bind
heavy burdens and grievance to be born. Critical. Cynical. You've got to do. And they lay
them on men's shoulders, but they themselves will not move
one of them with a finger. They'll tell you all the things
that you need to do. And beloved, this scene of the
scornful, they despise the word of God, critical of the love
traditions of men and opinions of doctors of philosophy. It's
like when the Jews said to Moses, when he broke up those two Jews
that were fighting, and this Hebrew was fighting with an Egyptian
and being mistreated, and Moses slew him and buried him. And
he came up on these other two Hebrews that were fighting one
day, and he's trying to break them up, and they said, man,
who may be a judge over us? They turned around and were scornful
of him, critical of him. And he had to leave town because
of that. It's been 40 years on the back
side of the devil. And it's like Ahab. He said,
in the sea of the scornful aghast, he's getting ready to go to war,
and this prophet's got up, and they got him some horns, and
said, this is the way you'll be. You'll just be like these
horns. You'll just push the enemies in front of you. He said, but
now wait a minute. Before we go to war, Jehoshaphat
said, listen, there's got to be one other prophet. Oh, there
is. His name's Micah. Oh, oh, oh,
oh, oh, oh, don't call him up here because he never says anything
good about me. Never prophesies anything but
what's against me. Scorn the truth. Scorn the truth. And, of course, they called him.
Micah says, you know, I know they told you, but said, you
know, listen, when God gets through with you, you won't be Jephthah,
you know, said, there's only going to be a thing left of your
wife is her palms, her hands. Ain't going to be nothing left
of you, your kingdom, or your children. He said, I told you,
I told you. This is Jesus' scornful. But
then, but now, that's his negative character. But look at his positive
character here in verse two. Oh, his thought, positive. Back over here in Psalm 1, verse
2. But he has a delight. Some things where he won't walk,
he won't sit, and he won't stand. But I'll just tell you what he
delights in. He delights in the law of the Lord. And you know,
the law of the Lord here means the whole Word of God. That's
the law of the Lord here means all the scriptures, all the Word
of God, every bit of it. It don't mean those Ten Commandments.
It don't mean the ceremony laws. It don't mean that. It means
all he delights in God's Word. He enjoys God's Word. And a lot
of folks think, you know, that being a believer is you have
to give something up. I don't know. How many of you all
gave up anything to become a believer? I remember Henry telling about
Brother Barnard one time. He was having a meeting. And
he was eating supper with these people. And the lady went to
the services all the time. She was a member of the church.
And her husband owned a tavern and run a tavern. Run it for
years. And every time they'd have a revival, they'd come there
and every one of them preachers would tell that man, you'll have
to sell that tavern. You'll have to sell that tavern.
If you're ever going to become a Christian, you've got to sell that tavern.
You've got to get out of that tavern business. He was sitting
there eating with them one time, Brother Barnard was, and they
said to him, Everybody that's ever come here told me that I'd
have to sell my tavern before I could ever become a Christian,
be a member of the church. He said, what do you think about
that? He said, no, I don't think you'd
have to sell it at all. He said, what? He said, no, no,
I wouldn't know why you'd have to sell it. I felt that pressure. I said, you mean to tell me I
won't have to give up my tavern? He said, no, we're going to give
up the tavern. Brother Barton, you've got to have something
for it. A tavern, you go out of a tavern
business just like that. And Barton knew that. That's
when you give somebody something to do. Next one, that's just
nothing but words. And Brother Barton says, no,
I don't think we have to give it up. Well, he started coming
the next night. And back then, they had meeting
after meeting, and he started coming. The Lord saved him. And
he went out of the tavern business just like that. Nobody had to
tell him he had to do it. Nobody had to hold a gun on him.
No law made him do it. And he just, you know, that's
what happens. That's what we're talking about here. He delights
in the law of the Lord and the Word of God. And he being a believer
isn't giving up anything. It's getting something. It's
getting Christ. It's getting His Word. It's getting
a relationship with God. A relationship with His Son.
And where do we see Christ? Where do we learn of Him? Where
do we see about our inheritance and our relationship? But in
the blessed Word of God, in the law of the Lord. We see Christ
in Genesis 1. We see Christ in Genesis 3. We
see Christ in Genesis. In Noah's name. We see Him in
the water. And how did we see Him in there?
In the blessed Word of God. And, oh, beloved, which will
we learn of him? This is where we learn more and
more of him. This is where we learn about
our role, about our righteousness. Where did you find out that you
had a righteousness, not your own? That there's a man, certainly
than ever, who has a righteousness and we who have none gives us
his while we live in this world. And we stand as close and as
holy in God's presence as he does because he gave us his righteousness. Where'd we ever learn that at?
That's why we delight in the law of the Lord. And, oh, beloved,
not only is he delighted in the law of the Lord, but look what
he says here, and in his law doeth he meditate, day and night. Now, I'll tell you what, if you're
like me, you don't think of the Scriptures day and night. But
what it says, there's day and night, Both day and night, the
scriptures come to your mind. You wake up in the night, some
scripture come to your mind. Or your call on the Lord. You're
going about your daily business, and something about the scriptures
have come to your mind. Something that you heard a preacher
say. A message that you listened to. And that's what he's talking
about. As you read it, you start thinking about it. And as you
read it, you start looking at it. I read a verse the other
day. And this is a mystery to me, and I hope I can bring a
message from it. God says, Don't curse the death, and don't put
a sunbeam right before the blind. Why would God have to put in
His Word, don't curse the death? He couldn't hear you if you did
curse it. And if you laid something in
front of a blind man and he stumbled over, he couldn't see who done
it. You know why God put that in there? And I thought about
that and thought about that. Because God sees us and hears
us curse the deaf. And God sees us putting something
in a stumbling block before the blind. They may not know, but God knows.
And what kind of human being, how desperately wicked are we? How desperately sinful are we?
That God has to tell the human race, don't you cuss a deaf man.
just because he came here. And don't you put something in
the way of a blind man that would hinder him from where he walks.
That's how desperate we can be. God has to tell us, don't do
those things. And that's why we delight in
it. We think about things like that. We chew on it. We wonder
about it. And we compare Scriptures with
other Scriptures. And you know, it's like Elijah's
servant. He had to go look seven times before he saw a cloud the
size of a hand coming. And that's what we have to do.
We have to go sometimes seven times before we ever see anything
as small as a little cloud. But we keep on looking. Now you
keep this. Let me show you something Romans
15. I want you to see this. Talking about the scripture.
We delight in them. Oh, what a blessing they are
to us. How comforting they are. How
strengthened they are. How much bread they give us.
And how much light they give us. And how much comfort they
give us. And how much assurance they give us. How much light. No wonder David
says, there's a light under my path. A lamp under my feet. Vicom Romans 4.15 and verse 4. Look what it says. For whatsoever
things were written aforetime were written for our learning."
Oh my, we're going to learn? We're going to learn about God?
We're going to learn about Christ? We're going to learn about ourselves?
We're going to learn about things that go on in the world? "...that
we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have
hope." Oh, no wonder he says he delights himself in the law
of the Lord. Back over in Psalm 1, let me show you this. Not
only was he delighted in the law of the Lord, But look what he says. He says
he's hopeful. He says he's hopeful. Not only does he meditate in
it, but he says here in verse 3, he shall be like a tree planted
by the rivers of water. And you notice there it says
rivers. Now, if you went to Israel, and went over there in the Mideast,
it's pretty dry over there, about everywhere. And even here, in the summertime,
it's only the trees that's close to the river, close to creeks
and things, that stays green. Everything else dries out. Oh,
you think about that. Here's this tree, and he's flourishing. He's growing. And here it says,
rivers. It don't say planted by a river,
but rivers. God plants His trees by rivers. Rivers. And this is a tree planted
by the Lord. God plants where trees of righteousness
planted by the Lord, it says. And you know what? His roots
are nourished, and they're satisfied, and His roots are buried in the
rivers of God's eternal grace. That's where God planted us,
in the rivers of His grace, and that's what nourishes our fruit.
Of His sovereignty, of His truth, and His mercy. And, O beloved,
our roots, he has the roots of faith and love as he's planted
by these rivers of grace and truth and sovereignty and mercy
and the scriptures. Oh my, planted down, rivers of
all these things that flow from the throne of God. Then look
what else it says. And not only will it be like
a tree planted by the rivers, rivers of waters. Not just a
river. Rivers. Rivers flowing. Rivers
flowing. And oh, beloved, then he says
that bringing forth his fruit in his season. He's going to
be a fruitful person. There's no such thing as a believer
not bringing forth fruit. It's just impossible. I don't
care if he's a newborn babe or whatever. He's going to bring
forth fruit. The scripture says it. The very fact that you believe
is the fruit of faith. The very fact that you love Christ
is the fruit of the grace of God. That's the fruit. You can't not do it. And fruit
is according to the character of the tree. Our Lord Jesus Christ
himself, he says, is a good tree. cannot bring forth corrupt fruit,
neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. So the character
of the tree tells you what kind of fruit you've got. And so this
tree is the one that's planted by the rivers of water, and he'll
bring forth his fruit. And it says, his leaf shall not
wither. Oh, beloved, he has abundant
life, fruit-bearing life. I'm going to show you. If you
keep Psalm 1, you've got to see this. I just thought of it. In
Hebrews, I mean, excuse me, John 15 and 16. John chapter 15, verse
16. Talk about fruit. Every believer
has fruit. John 15, 16. You know, we're planted by the
rivers, and them rivers give us abundant life. Fruit bearing
is a natural result of that. Paul calls the Philippians, he
says, you know, you have the fruits of righteousness. For the fruit of the Spirit is
love, joy, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.
Against such there is no law." But look what our Lord said here
in John 15, 16. You have not, John 15, 16, you have not chosen
me, but I have chosen you and ordained you that you should
go and bring forth fruit. And listen to this, and that
your fruit would remain. I mean, He's ordained that we
do it. Now, I know not one of us think
we bring forth very much fruit, but that's what Christ said.
The very fact that we believe Him is the fruit. The very fact
that you're here tonight listening is the fruit of the grace of
God in you. The very fact when you open a
Bible and you believe what God said is the fruit of the faith. that God gave you, and all beloved. Now let's go back over it. So
Rabbi Duquesne, if we bring forth fruit, it's impossible to be
a child of God and not bring it forth. That's why I said he's
a blessed man. Then look what else it says.
His leaf also shall not wither. My goodness, never have a withered
leaf. And I don't know about you all,
but boy, when all these leaves get old, By the middle of January,
I'm just as, oh, I'm just as blue. You know, everything is
dead and lifeless, and it's depressing. It's dark at 4.30, and you know,
there's no life don't seem like anywhere. The flowers are gone,
grass is grown. Our leaves, our leaves go withering,
the wind blows them away. You know that? Wind just blows
them leaves everywhere. Very nice coming up the interstate
through Virginia, beautiful on both sides, and them leaves just
coming down on the interstate, just flowing down. Beautiful
then, but when all them leaves are gone, it'll be bad going
through there. But what I'm saying is, that's
not the way we are. Our leaf never, ever withers. Every time you look at this tree,
now to us it don't look this way. Listen to what God says.
His leaf, he's a beautiful tree. And the reason the leaf won't
fade is because of its connection to the root. Our Lord said, I'm
the vine, you're the branches. If you join to Him, I mean life
comes from Him, and if you get life from Him, He never withers.
And if we're fruit comes from Him, He never withers, so we
better wither. And where there ain't no connection
to Christ and to the root, that leaf's going to wither away and
blow away. And oh, let me hurry here. Let
me show you something else. And then it says there in verse
3 again, the last part of the verse, oh, this is how positive
character. And whatsoever he doeth shall
prosper. Whatever he does, it's going
to multiply, it's going to prosper. or whatever the truth produced
shall come to maturity. That's what that means. It may
start out in the mud, go into the blossom, produced by the
Holy Spirit, it'll come to perfect fruition. You know, I could show you this,
but I'll just tell you. When Joseph was put in prison,
it says that the captain of that prison, the guy who run that
prison, didn't care anything about taking care of anything
in there. He gave everything over to Joseph to take care of.
And Genesis 39-23 says this, that Joseph, that whatsoever
he put his hand to do, God did make it to prosper. Prosper. You say, I don't seem to be prospering.
Seriously, we are. You could not be prospering.
Oh, beloved, listen, it's God which worketh in you both to
will and to do of His good pleasure. Look over here at Psalm 138.
You know, God's going to carry on this work. We're going to
bring forth this fruit, Psalm 138, until the day that the Lord
takes us home. Oh, it's successful. Whatsoever
ye do, it shall prosper. Psalm 138, verse 8. Look what
it says here. Oh, my. Whatsoever he does, he'll
prosper. Now, the carnal mind and the
ungodly in religion will say that you prosper all materially. That's all they'd be interested
in. They'd make us apply materially, worldly. But look what he says
here in Psalm 138. The Lord will perfect that which
concerneth me. He's going to perfect it. What
concerns us? Everything about us concerns
Him. Our life and everything about
us that concerns Him concerns me. He's going to perfect it.
Thy mercy, O Lord, endureth forever. Forsake not the work of thy hands.
And He won't. But now let's look over here.
Look what a contrast. We've seen the blessed man. He
won't walk in the caps of the ungodly. He won't stand in the
way of the sinner. He won't set in the scenes of
this harm. For he delights in the law of
the Lord. He's a tree planted by rivers of water. He brings
forth his fruit in his season. His leaf won't wither, and whatever
he does will prosper. But, but, look here what the
great difference is in verse four. The ungodly are not so. They're nothing, nothing like
the blessed man. They're not blessed at all. They're
cursed. They have to say, sure, the ungodly
are not so. They're not like this. They don't
meditate in the Word. They do walk in the counsel of
the ungodly. They do stand in the way of sinners.
They do sit in the seat of the scornful. They're just the opposite
of what we are. They're just the opposite of
a believer. They're lawless. They have no
delight or no reverence for the law. They're law unto themselves. And instead of being a tree planted
by water, look what it says, but they're like the chaff, which
the wind driveth away. The chaff is the oldest left
of the thaw of the skin of the wheat or anything else. If the
wind comes and catches it and just blows it away, it's got
no strength to it, got no character, got no life in it, and the wind
just blows it away. And it drives it. The chaff is
wind. It's blown about by the wind.
And these folks were born about of every wind of doctrine, every
popular opinion, and every worldly success. And remember now, Lord
Jesus said He'll gather the weed into His gardener, and the chaff
He'll burn with fire unquenchable, and the chaff will just burn
and burn and burn. And the chaff has no power against
the wind or the fire. And then look what else it says
here. Therefore this ungodly, that are not like this blessed
man at all, shall not stand in the judgment. Now what does that
mean? You know they're going to be judged. The righteous will
be judged according to what Christ has done. And what it means here
is that they don't stand in the judgment with Christ. They don't
stand in the judgment and stood with Christ in the judgment that
God brought upon Him. So they'll not stand with the
same place that you and I will. They will stand with Christ.
They didn't stand with Christ when judgment fell on Him. They
didn't stand with Christ with His cross. And then He says,
because of that, they won't never be in the congregation of the
righteous. You know what our Lord Jesus said? He said, I'll
declare thy name. in the congregation of the righteous.
That's what he's done. Christ declared the name of God
in the congregation of the righteous. And that's what he says. They'll
not stand in the judgment. They'll not stand there and have
anything to say for themselves, anything to clear them of all
their guilt, anything to say, yes, I'll identify with them.
And they're not numbered with the congregation of the righteous.
And look what it says here. In verse 6, for the Lord knows
the way of the righteous. The Lord knows who they are.
He knows which way they go, where they go, what they do. He knows
the righteous. That's what Paul meant when he
wrote to Timothy. He says, Timothy, there's men
who have overthrown the faith of the Son, but nevertheless,
the foundation of God standing is sure. How do you know? Because the Lord knows every
one of them there is. That's how come he stands short. The Lord knows them better than
he is. Oh, they come to the Master and
they says, Master, Simon Peter and them says, you offended these
Pharisees. He says, listen, every tree which
my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up. Shall be
rooted up. And beloved, that's why the undaunted
are not like us. ever plant that God hasn't planted.
It's going to be rooted up. But these that's been planted
by the rivers of water, and the way of the ungodly must perish.
Because it's the way of pride, it's the way of pleasure, and
self-righteousness, and unbelief, and rejection of Christ and His
righteousness. So they must perish. The ungodly
shall perish. Shall perish. What a great difference. Are you one of those blessed
men? Oh, I'm one of those happy fellows.
That's another one of those blessed men. Happy is the people who
has the God of Jacob for their God. Oh, I'm happy. He's my God. Oh, gracious, gracious Father.
Thank you, blessed be your name, giving us this time, this privilege
to gather here this evening to be with you, to be in your presence,
to look into your word, to be here with the children of God,
these dear saints of God. Oh, I bless you for it. Thank
you for it. And as for your presence and
your power and your blessings upon these dear children of God,
on their homes, on their hearts, on their hands, in their lives,
to bring glory to yourself and give great peace, comfort, and
assurance to them. We ask these things in Christ's
name. Amen. Amen.