Gracious, gracious Heavenly Father,
we come again before thy throne, a wondrous throne of grace, the
scripture tells us. A throne where we can find grace
to help in time of need. And Lord, we are a needy people.
There's never a time when we're not in need. Oh Lord, we come
to you. We pray that again you'd speak
to us through your word, that the Holy Spirit would would empower
the words of preached and would illuminate the scriptures for
us, O Lord, that you would teach us to look to you, Lord Jesus,
that you would refresh us. O Lord, so many things can bring
us down, and we're tried and tempted people. We struggle with
our own sinfulness, but you know us, Lord. You know we're but
dust. and yet you have mercy upon us. So we pray you'd meet
with us tonight as we go through your word. That you'd meet with
us and grant us a blessing, oh Lord, through the preaching of
thy word and thy holy gospel. In Jesus' name, amen. Name of the message tonight is
Gladness, Peace, and Sleep. gladness, peace, and sleep. Tonight we'll continue our study
in Psalm 4. Again, this is a wonderful psalm
full of eight verses of absolute sweetness for the believer in
Christ. Pure gold, as Brother Matt mentioned this week when
we were texting back and forth about this very psalm. And we see again that this psalm
is written for the chief musician on Neganoth, and this again is
the chief position of the stringed instruments in the temple worship. So let's read this wonderful
psalm again, and again I'm going to put Elohim in where it is,
and Jehovah where it is in the Hebrew. Hear me when I call, O Elohim
of my righteousness. Thou hast enlarged me when I
was in distress. Have mercy upon me and hear my
prayer. O ye sons of men, how long will
you turn my glory into shame? How long will you love vanity
and seek after Lysi, Selah? But know that the Jehovah hath
set apart him that is godly for himself. The Jehovah will hear
when I call unto him. Or just Jehovah will hear when
I call unto him. Stand in awe in Sinnot, commune
with your own heart upon your bed and be still, Selah. Offer the sacrifices of righteousness
and put your trust in Jehovah. There be many that say, who shall show us any
good? Jehovah? Lift Thou up the light
of Thy countenance upon us. Thou hast put gladness in my
heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine
increased. I will both lay me down in peace
and sleep, for Thou, Jehovah, only, makest me dwell in safety. This morning we looked at the
first four verses of this wonderful psalm and seeing how Elohim hears
our praise, which means the Mighty One, and seeing that our God
is named in this psalm and in the whole Bible as God of my
righteousness. Then we looked at the word of
truth in verse 3. Turn if you would to 1 Corinthians
4. I'd like us to look at something
else here in verse 3. It says, but know that Jehovah
has set apart him that is godly for himself and Jehovah will
hear when I call unto him. We looked at this wondrous verse
this morning and we saw that God's people are set apart. Well,
the Hebrew word which underlines this is actually for the whole
phrase, hath set apart. It's one Hebrew word, and it
means this, to be distinct. To be distinct, marked out, be
separated, and be distinguished. So right there again, as I mentioned
this morning, we see the wonderful electing grace of God, brought
forth in the Old Testament. Now I'd like us to go to 1 Corinthians
4-7, and look at this. This very same truth, in very
similar defined word, and the definition
in the Greek, listen to how close this is to the Hebrew. Again, I'll read what the Hebrew
is. To be distinct, marked out, be separated, be distinguished. In 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verses,
or 1 Corinthians chapter 1, boy I got it there, 1 Corinthians
chapter 4 verse 7 the scripture declares this, For who maketh
thee to differ from another? And what hast thou that thou
didst not receive? Now if thou didst receive it,
why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it? Now see
the word there differ? The Greek underlying word means
this, and remember, I'm gonna read again. I'm gonna read again
the Hebrew. To be distinct, marked out, be
separated, be distinguished. The underlying Greek word here
for differ means to separate, make a distinction, discriminate,
to prefer. The same truth that's proclaimed
in the New Testament is proclaimed in the Old Testament, beloved. So beloved of God, again, we
see clearly, brought forth in very plain language, the electing
grace of God. And it's Jehovah. It's Jehovah
who has set David apart. And it's Jehovah who has set
every one of his sheep apart. And it's Jehovah who makes us
godly. Jesus Christ is God incarnate in the flesh and we are than
His perfect spotless righteousness. It's He who hath made us godly.
And He has set us apart. This truth is brought forth in
the Old Testament just like it's brought forth as we saw in the
New Testament. And it's God who has made us
to differ in both sections. It's God who's done this. It's
God who's done this. And that is a very God-honoring
truth that speaks of the sovereignty of our great God in His free
electing grace. The godly are the chosen of God,
and again they are distinguished by distinguishing grace. They're
set apart. They're separated from among
men. Remember in our study in the life of Joseph? Israel and his family were separated
from the rest of the Egyptians, which again pictures us living
in Egypt, which is a picture of the world, but yet separated
from the Egyptians. And we are a chosen people, beloved.
We are distinguished by the grace of God. And we are separated
from other men. And this is clearly in verse
three, clearly the doctrine of election. And unregenerated men
and women cannot stand this truth. Whether they be religious or
whether they be lost. It's something that they don't
understand. And I remember someone telling
me when I was religious and unregenerate, and I reacted the same way as
natural man does. I recoiled at that truth. Because
you see, Man wants something to do. Do you know that all religion
is reciprocal? All religion. My son was doing
a study in anthropology, and he called me in about this article
that he pulled up. And in the article, this man
does not profess to be Christian who wrote this article. And he
said, every religion in the world is reciprocal, where But man
feels like they have to do something for God, and then God has to
give them something back. That's religion in a nutshell.
And the more they do and the more they give, the higher their
standing is within that church or within that body or organization. You see, grace flips it all upside
down, beloved. It's God who who has set His
love upon us. It's God who has set us apart. It's God who's done this. We
are but mere receivers of His grace, and we have nothing to
offer in return, and we receive that grace, and we are filled
with great joy that we are even objects of God's divine love,
and He expects nothing in return. It's He who has sacrificed Himself
to redeem our eternal souls. It's He who's done this. So grace
is the only true place where what we believe is not reciprocal.
We don't do things for the Lord to get things from God. We don't
give to get. We don't give to get. No. Not at all. If you do, you have
the wrong attitude. Because we are grateful for the
great things that God has done for us. It's wonderful. It's absolutely
wonderful. And this wonderful doctrine of
election is a glorious truth. Which comforts the true believer. and what rare persons the godly
are. What rare persons the born-again,
blood-washed saint really is. And our text says here, in Psalm
4, verse 3, that they are set apart for Himself. Jehovah has set apart a people
for Himself. Jehovah chooses men for his own
possession, men and women, for his own possession. And the chosen
ones are his treasure. His treasure. Oh, for the Lord hath chosen
Jacob unto himself in Israel for his peculiar treasure. They are the excellent of the
earth, his jewels, beloved. Malachi, it says this in Chapter
3, verse 17, and they shall be mine. Why are they his? Because they were set apart. They shall be mine, saith the
Lord of hosts, which is Jehovah. In that day when I make up my
jewels, and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son
that serveth him. So with that in mind, let's now
read verse 5 of this psalm. The scripture declares, offer
the sacrifices of righteousness and put your trust in the Lord,
put your trust in Jehovah. If the rebel has obeyed the last
verse, verse four, he now would be crying with the Philippian
jailer, what must I do to be saved? And the only way we can
do that, eh, is by the regenerating power of God the Holy Spirit.
And our prayer is if you do not know Christ, oh that the Lord
would draw you to Christ. There is only one answer to the
question, what must I do to be saved? There is only one answer.
Go to the Lamb. Go to the Lamb of God. Go to
the sacrifice of righteousness. Go to God's only accepted sacrifice
for sin, the Lord Jesus Christ. Put your trust in the Lord. When
the Jew offered sacrifice righteously, that is in a spiritual manner,
he was setting forth the great Redeemer, beloved. He was setting
forth the great sin-atoning Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ. So the
psalmist shows in this verse the full gospel here. Offer the
sacrifices of righteousness and put your trust in the Lord. Flee to the sacrifice at Calvary,
the Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man, and put in Him your whole confidence,
and your whole trust, because it is He who died for sinners.
It is He who is God incarnate in the flesh. He is Lord of all,
and He is the only hope for sinners. All your trust in our great High
Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. Cast yourself upon Him, and here
never cast away any who comes to Him. or never cast away any. Listen to what Robert Hawker
comments on verse 5 here, and I'll read the verse again. Offer
the sacrifices of righteousness and put your trust in the Lord.
Robert Hawker comments this, nothing can be more gracious
than what is here recommended. It is as if the Holy Spirit of
God commanded the sinner to pause over this view of his own nothingness.
and then to come by faith with Jesus and His righteousness in
His arms and say, Jehovah, here is my sole trust and dependence.
And is that not what we do by faith, beloved? Oh, it is, isn't
it? Offer the sacrifices of righteousness
and put your trust in the Lord. Beloved of God, sacrifices of
righteousness are such as were according to the law, sacrifices
offered in the right manner, which were not maimed, nor had
any blemish in them." Why? Because they pictured the Lord
Jesus Christ, the perfect, spotless Lamb of God. And those sacrifices
in the Old Testament were offered up in the faith of that great
sacrifice, Christ Jesus. For without faith, the Scripture
says, it is impossible to please God. By any sacrifice, we know
this to be true, and this sense is confirmed by the following
clause, which requires trust in the Lord at the end, in the
latter part of this verse, and put your trust in the Lord. So
we are to offer up the sacrifices of righteousness, and we are
to put our trust In the Lord, we are to put our trust in Jehovah. Never, ever, ever put your trust
in your own strength, or in your riches, or in your intellect,
or in works of righteousness, or sacrifices of righteousness.
Beloved, they are not to be trusted in. And do not even put trust
in your own heart. because the scripture declares
the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? And while the psalmist is striking
at the false confidence of the sons of man, he is here addressing,
he may at the same time be thought to be encouraging those that
were with him to trust in the Lord. So, as we saw in verse
4. Stand in awe in sin not, commune
with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah. He's encouraging those in the
following verse. Verse 5. Offer the sacrifices
of righteousness, and put your trust in the Lord. He's striking
with one point at the false confidences of the sons of men, which is
found. which actually we found in verse
two, when he says, how long will you love vanity and seek after
leasing? And then he says in verse four, you need to offer
the sacrifices of righteousness and trust in the Lord. Oh my, and then we see in verse,
yeah, in verse five there, you need to offer the sacrifices
of righteousness and put your trust in the Lord. He's encouraging
those who were with him to trust in the Lord, Jehovah. What does it say in Psalm 2?
Turn over just a couple of Psalms here. Look at this, Psalm 2.
We know this speaks of the Son of God. Look at verse 12. Kiss the Son lest He be angry
and you perish from the way when His wrath is kindled but a little.
Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him. In Him. Kiss the Son lest He be angry
and you perish from the way. when his wrath is kindled, just
but a little, just a little. Blessed are all they that put
their trust in Him. Beloved, we are to trust in the
Son of God alone, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we trust in Him for
all our acceptance before God, don't we? We trust in Him for
all our righteousness. We trust in Him for all our justification. We trust in Him for all our part,
beloved. And we trust in Him for the forgiveness
of all our sins. The expiation, Scripture says,
of our sins. We also trust in Him, in His
fullness. Excuse me, sorry. We trust in His fullness for
our daily supplies. We trust in Him, in His almighty
power for protection and safety. And beloved of God, it is right.
It is right to trust Him at all times. It is right to trust Him
in affliction. It is right to trust Him in times
of temptation. It's right to trust Him in times
of desertion. It's right to trust Him in times
of joy. It's right to trust Him in times of sorrow. It's right
to trust Him at all times, beloved, no matter what. He, Elohim, He,
Jehovah, is always the same. In Him is everlasting strength. He has an ability to help and
give assistance and support in times of hardship, distress,
that none can ever compare to. And none that has ever trusted
Him, none that has ever trusted Elohim, none who has ever trusted
Jehovah, were confused as they have peace
and safety, which we'll see at the latter part of this psalm. Why? Because the Lord is our
Shepherd. The Lord is our Shepherd. Now
let's look at verse 6. There be many that say, who will
show us any good? Lord, or Jehovah, lift thou up
the light of thy countenance upon us. Now there were many,
even among David's followers, who wanted to see rather than
to believe. And this is especially true of
the worldly, who says, we desire to see good. We desire to see
good. One thing we men and women do
is we make mistakes good, don't we? All of us. And those spoken of in this verse
desire to satisfy their passions and have no notion of any happiness
that does not come to them except through their senses. See, we
have a joy and a peace and a happiness that doesn't come to us through
our senses, beloved. We have an inner joy, an inner
peace, an inner rest that the world has no idea about or of. And these spoken of in this verse
desire to satisfy their passions and have no notion of any happiness
that does not come to them again except through their senses.
Therefore, they reject spiritual good. They reject Jehovah, who alone
can gratify man's desires. This is the reason why a millionaire
always wants more millions. They never have enough. And they are never content with
what they have. Now we know that riches are not
evil in themselves because God sometimes gives them to the righteous. But more generally they are the
property of the enemies of God. Listen to what Jack Shanks once
said. The awful reality is that those who receive and are never
received of the Lord How awful, and he's speaking
of those in verse six who just see things through their senses. How awful to be a rich man in
hell to suffer the torments of the damned forever. God and all
he has made is not more than God without anything he has made. It is better to enjoy God without
anything else than to enjoy everything else without Him. Lord, lift up the light of Thy
countenance upon us. Give us the light of the Lord,
that we may see what is real." Beloved, the light of God's countenance is the Christian's riches. This is His honor, His ambition,
and His ease. Truly, this only comes with God's
fellowship with us. And we know that our fellowship
with God is through the Son, through the Lord Jesus Christ.
And we see the cry of David at the latter part of this verse. Lord, lift Thou up the light
of Thy countenance upon us. And this is speaking of God's
gracious presence with David. The manifold manifestations of
his mercies to David. And the discoveries that David
has made of God's eternal love to him. Of his communion with
him. And the fact that he communes
with God leaves him in absolute awe and he desires that communion. He says, Lift thou up the light
of thy countenance upon us. Oh my. Again, we read that latter part
of verse six. Lord, lift thou up the light
of thy countenance upon us. This also speaks of the comforts
of God's spirit. in the joys of David's salvation,
which is in Christ, who is Jehovah. He's Jehovah. God's people run
to who? Christ. Jehovah in the flesh. Lord, again in this verse, is
Jehovah. When it says, lift thou up the
light of thy countenance upon us, when it says, Lord lift up,
that's Jehovah, lift thou up the light of thy countenance
upon us. This is speaking of God is being
raised up as a banner over them. And we know this occurs
every time the gospels preach, doesn't it? Every time the gospels
preach, The banner of the answer of the Lord is raised. Is raised. And the believers rest. The believer's safety is in Jehovah. It is He who is the safety of
His people. It is He who is a shield round
about them. It is He who encompasses them. Psalm 5, turn over to Psalm 5,
just look, it's right, the next Psalm here, look at verse 12,
and we see this so clearly. For thou, Lord, will bless the
righteous, those who have been set apart,
verse 3 of Psalm 4, those who have been made to differ, 1 Corinthians
4, 7, as we looked at, right, the righteous, not righteous,
but made righteous by the Lord Jesus Christ. For thou, Lord,
wilt bless the righteous with favor, wilt thou encompass him
as with a shield. He's just like a shield. A man
used to stand behind shields, and some of them were really
large shields that encompassed their whole body, and they could
stand behind that and nothing could hit them. And that's what
Christ is to His people. He's a shield that encompasses
us. With that in mind, let's read
verse 7 now. And note who puts the gladness in our hearts. See, this is where you hear me
say many times that you cannot muster up the fruits of the spirit.
You cannot counterfeit the fruits of the spirit. This is true gladness
that's going to be spoken of here. It says, thou has put gladness
in my heart. more than in the time that their
corn and their wine increased. Beloved, I like this quote. Again,
it's from Brother Jack, Jack Shanks. Beloved, Christ in the
heart is better than corn in the barn, and gladness of God
creates joy greater than when corn and wine increase. I'll tell you, when God pours
the joys of heaven They fill the soul of God's people, and
they run over. In 2 Corinthians 7, verse 4,
the scripture declares, Great is my boldness of speech toward
you. Great is my glorying of you.
I am filled with comfort. I am exceedingly joyful in all
our tribulations. Now the word there, exceedingly,
is I overflow with joy. An example of this would be a
cup that you're pouring, say you're pouring water into it,
and it gets to the point where it's so full that the water just
runs over, runs over that cup. See, that's the joy of the Spirit. So what's being brought forth
here is the fruit of the Spirit, which the Holy Ghost works in
us. That being love, joy, peace,
long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance,
against such there is no law. A man who the Lord Jesus Christ
saved by his grace said this, he said, I am happier now when
I'm not happy than I was before I was saved and was happy. So
he's saying in his unhappiness as a believer, he's more joyful
than he ever was as an unbeliever. One time a preacher visited a
family who had lost all that they had possessed in the fire.
But they were spared. The mother was a believer and
the preacher said, I give you joy, madam. And she said, what? Joy? All my property is gone. And
the preacher replied, no ma'am, joy that you, I'm speaking of the joy that
you have. that no such fire can touch. Beloved of God, there is as much
difference between God's gladness and man's as between a banquet
that is eaten and one that's painted on the wall. And the worldling, the worldling is always trying
to find something new. The heathen king named Xerxes
offered great rewards to anyone who could find a new pleasure.
A new pleasure. Beloved of God, this is where
the worldliness is. Always trying to find something
new that would shut out reality. Let's read verse 7 again. Thou hast put gladness in my
heart more than in the time that their corn and wine increased. Now listen to this verse in Isaiah
65, verse 24. And it shall come to pass that
before they call, I will answer, and while they are yet speaking,
I will hear. O Jehovah, Thou hast put gladness
in my heart, More than in the time that those of the world,
their corn and wine increased. Now let's look at this last verse.
In this wonderful psalm, it says, I will both lay me down in peace
and sleep. For thou, Jehovah, only makest
me dwell in safety. Now the question may come, how
can a believer lay down in peace and sleep in this wicked world? Beloved, there is no pillow so
soft as the promise of God, is there? There is no pillow so
soft for the believer as the promise of God, especially the
promise of a Savior from sin. Acts 5.31, Him hath God exalted
with His right hand. to be a prince and a savior,
for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And
that means all sins. Oh, what a pillow. What a soft pillow are the promises
of God. And we must never lose sight
of the Lord Jesus Christ while reading this psalm, as He is
the Lord, our righteousness. And when we come before God,
we must Refer to Him as the Lord our Righteousness. Never forget,
as I said this morning, that you, in prayer, you are approaching
Elohim. You are approaching the Strong
and Mighty One. You are approaching the Lord
our Righteousness. And we cannot lay down in peace
and sleep unless He is in our heart. Oh my, unless we've been
born again by the Holy Spirit of God. And think upon this, beloved.
Beloved of God, divinely loved ones, the blessed of God, the
Father has set you apart. And the Father has sent his Son,
the Word of God, one in our nature, but in perfect purity, sinless,
spotless. And He came to this world to
represent us. Living the perfect life that
we could never live. Fulfilling the law of God in
our room and place. And then satisfying the law and
justice of God by dying on Calvary's cross as the great substitute
of our sins. sinless, spotless. And now he represents us before
the throne of God's grace. And his name is the Lord Jesus
Christ. God manifest in the flesh. It's he who the father said in
him, I am well pleased. Now the believer in Christ can
know that my God and Father will hear me when I call upon Him
in Christ. And we can see that clearly bought
forth. Look in verse 3. But know that
the Lord has set apart Him that is godly for Himself. The Lord
will hear when I call unto Him. Because we're in Christ. And
that's the only reason. The believer then calls upon
the Lord for acceptance, knowing that God will hear them for his
son's sake. And the believer can proclaim,
My heart is fixed because the Lord Jesus Christ is my hope
and my righteousness. My heart is fixed upon Him. And as a farmer sows seed in
the daytime and then goes to sleep, And God causes all that
we have done to grow and to prosper? And we do not even know how,
eh? Matthew chapter 4, verses 26
and 27 says, he said, so is the kingdom of God, as if a man should
cast seed into the ground and sleep, and rise night and day,
and the seed shall spring and grow up. He knoweth not how. So think upon this. We are told
in scripture to cast our cares upon Christ, because He careth
for us. When we sleep, we're casting
our cares upon Him. You ever think that while we're
sleeping, He performs all things for us according to His will? Even while we're sleeping or
whether we're awake, And when we sleep, we give up
caring for ourselves. Do you ever think of that? And
we are delivered into the hands of another. We lay our head down. We say, Lord, if I don't wake
up in the morning, I know I'm in your hands like I always am. That's perfect trust, beloved. Sometimes cares and anxiety invade
our sleep. Perhaps the pressure of a day
causes a reaction. And as one commentator said,
we think perhaps the sky is falling while we're sleeping. But beloved, never forget who
holds the sky in place. It's Jehovah. So will you pillow our head? All things are working according
to His will. And the same God who keeps us
in the way every single day is the same God who watches over
us at night because He neither slumbers nor sleeps. He is ever watchful over His
people. And oftentimes we fight a good
trusting fight in the day, but we find that the quiet time is
when we forget loving trust for the Lord. We forget to say, I
will lay me down to sleep and leave tomorrow with God. And
that's what we need to do. We need to lay ourselves down
to sleep and we're going to, we need to say, I'm going to
leave tomorrow with God because tomorrow might not come from
me. We may be ushered into glory that night. We don't know. There was a preacher of old who
was to be executed on the next morning. And his brother offered
to stay with him through the night. But the preacher declined,
saying, I mean to go to bed and sleep quietly as ever I did in
my life. Just trusting the Lord. Beloved,
he knew the truth of this verse here. He knew the truth of verse
8 here, which says, I will both lay me down in peace and sleep. For thou, Jehovah, only makest
me dwell in safety. And how much that would be good
to remind ourselves. Someone says they don't get anxious,
they're lying. They have anxious moments. Something will eventually
come up in their life that will make them anxious. And in those moments, we need
to just trust the Lord. I need to always remind myself
that, just trust the Lord when He's in control. He holds every
breath you breathe, and every heartbeat of mine is in His hands. So this preacher, who was going
to be executed the next morning, said, no, I mean to go to bed
and sleep quietly as ever I did in my life. He knew the truth
of this verse here before us, beloved. I will both lay me down
in peace and sleep, for thou, Jehovah, only makest me dwell
in safety. He knew that tomorrow and forever
was in Jehovah's hands. He knew that his eternal soul
was in the hands of Elohim, the one who is his shield and protector,
the mighty one. And beloved, if we could but
dwell on God's good providence, We would have perfect peace at
bedtime and during the day as we commit all our concerns unto
our loving Father's hands, knowing that whatever transpires in the
night has been ordained by Him just as whatever transpires during
the day has been ordained by Him. We know that all things
work together for good to them that love God, to them who are
the called according to His purpose, Romans 8.28. And although it's hard, we must
not bring the evil of tomorrow upon today and ruin our rest
that we have each day in Christ. And this is proclaimed very clearly
in Matthew 6, verse 34, where it says, Take therefore no thought
for the moral, for the moral shall take thought for the things
of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the
evil thereof. When we consider God's providence
at work in our lives, beloved, it will cause us to have a sweet
rest, a sweet rest in Elohim. In the same way, we must resign
ourselves to the grave as well. For in due time, We will rise and sing a morning
song with all those who have proceeded before us. Death is
but a doorway into the glory of heaven for the blood-washed,
born-again, redeemed saint of God. And the believer in Christ can
proclaim these precious words in our heart about our departure
from this world. Weep not for me, but for yourselves. I go to the Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, who will, through the mediation of his blessed
Son, receive me, though a sinner, where I hope we shall meet to
sing the new song and remain everlastingly happy in the world
without end. We will close with this. How
beautiful is sleep, the sleep that Christians know. Ye mourners,
cease your woe, while soft upon his Savior's breast, the righteous
sinks to endless rest. Amen and amen. Heavenly Father,
again we thank thee for this wonderful psalm. Oh, the words
are precious within it, oh Lord, and how they comfort your people. And this is what the preacher
is to do. The scriptures proclaim that we are to comfort ye, comfort
ye my people, Lord. And we are to tell them that
their iniquity is forgiven. Oh, my Lord. And how when you
see in this psalm that your people are set apart and that the sacrifice
of righteousness we know to be the Lord Jesus Christ, who is
the God of my righteousness. Glory be, Lord Jesus, for your
mercy and grace to your people. May you use this message, these
two messages today, O Lord, to show sinners their desperate
need of thee, O Lord. And may you build up the saints
and comfort our hearts in our times of need. In Jesus' name,
amen.