Turn back to Luke chapter 4. Luke chapter 4. I want to read beginning where we left off in
the earlier reading. I want to begin at verse 16.
Luke chapter 4 and verse 16. And Jesus returned in the power
of the Spirit into Galilee, And there went out of fame of him
through all the region round about. And he taught in their
synagogues, being glorified of all. And he came to Nazareth,
where he had been brought up, and as his custom was, he went
into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto
him the book of the prophet Isaiah, and when he had opened the book,
he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord
is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the
poor, He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach
deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the
blind, and to set at liberty them that are bruised. To preach the acceptable year
of the Lord. A man by the name of Charles
Dickens. You may have heard of him. But he wrote a book in which
he titled A Tale of Two Cities. And he began that book in a rather
interesting way. He said it was the best of times. It was the worst of times. It was the age of wisdom. It
was the age of foolishness. It was the epoch of belief. It was the epoch of incredulity. It was the season of light. It
was the season of darkness. It was the spring of hope. It
was the winter of despair. We had everything before us. We had nothing before us. We
were all going direct to heaven. We were all going direct the
other way. And I thought about it. Everybody
in this day, almost, that I meet, seems to be talking about the
bad, terrible times in which we live. And I imagine that they
would take Dickens' line and call them the worst of times,
say we live in the worst of times. Because the news that we receive
on every hand is really not in any way good news at all. We hear about all the what seems
to be increasing frequency of natural disaster, how awful it
is to hear that maybe the largest recorded typhoon or hurricane
on record slams the Philippines and it may be something like
10,000 dead as a result. All the diseases such as diseases
that are flesh-eating bacteria, that sounds so awful. All the
crimes that we hear of on a daily basis that are of an unimaginable
magnitude. We look around us and we see
the total, I mean the absolute total collapse for the most part
of anything that would pass in the name of morality. And also
all the various conflicts in the home, in the family, in the
business world, in the political world, politicians that supposedly
are to represent the people and yet they fill their pockets and
enslave the people more every way you look it seems. All the
wars. conflicts, rumors of wars, and
especially the sad state of religion in our day, where false religion
passes on every hand as true religion. And we fear to face such a sad
time. And I know maybe that you're
like me. I not only fear it for myself
in a sense, but for my children and especially my grandchild. It does seem in so many ways
to be the worst of times. And we have a tendency, we kind
of want to relieve ourselves in some way by saying things
in remembrance of what we call the good old days. You remember
the good old days? Well, if you really stop and
think about them a little bit, they might not have been so good
after all. But we look at them in light
of what we see around us today, and we think about them as the
good old days. But in the midst of this time,
and you do know that this is the time that the Lord, in His
wisdom, has called us to live. We don't live in the good old
days. But in this time, in this awful,
it seems, time, we dare not lose sight of something. And we can
take another line from Dickens' book, and we can be assured that
we live in the best of times. That's my message, the best of
times. And I say that because we're
blessed to live in that time of which the Lord Jesus Christ
speaks of here in this fourth chapter of Luke. As a matter
of fact, we would be wise to think of this time in the light
of what He says, rather than what we're warned against in
Ecclesiastes 7, where it says, Say not thou, what is the cause
that the former days were better than thee? for thou dost not
inquire wisely concerning this." You see, the Lord Jesus, as we
have just read, both in our reading in the first of the service,
He had just been taken and submitted Himself to everything that the
devil could throw at And he triumphed victoriously in that temptation
and showed himself the worthy Savior and Lord of his people. But immediately on the heels
of that temptation, he is now gone down to Nazareth, down to
his, what you might say, home synagogue, where he was raised
up. And he walks into the synagogue
on this day, and as the custom was, he takes a portion, a scroll
of the scriptures from Isaiah 61, by the way, and he reads
from that portion of scripture, and he reveals himself, first
of all, as a preacher. Now, I realize that in the worst
of times, that the most of people think that the least valued person
and ministry is the preaching ministry. But our Lord, if you
look back in verse 18, He says, The Spirit of the Lord is upon
me, because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel. The Spirit of the Lord had anointed
Christ in His humanity to preach the Gospel. And so now He stands
up on this occasion, He reads from this passage of scripture
in Isaiah, and he says as he reads from that portion in Isaiah
61, this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. Something happened on that occasion
that made the Son of God announce at the reading of that passage
of Scripture that it was fulfilled in the ears of those who heard
it that day. I said he reads from Isaiah 61. Turn back to Isaiah 61 for a
minute. Because as we hear him reading
of this, and hear him quote it back to the hearers and to us,
there is a noticeable absence of something. Isaiah 61, the
Spirit of the Lord is upon me, Because the Lord hath appointed
me to preach good tidings unto the meek, he hath sent me to
bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to them that are bound, to proclaim
the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our
God." Now wait a minute. He didn't quote that line. He did not on this occasion speak
of the day of vengeance of the Lord. So what He is saying is
that His presence on this earth at that hour, it was that He
would usher in And this was the beginning of what he calls there,
and Isaiah calls it, the acceptable year of the Lord. The acceptable year of the Lord. And what an amazing thing it
is. You know, the saying was, when it was first said that Messiah
was come from Nazareth, they said, could any good thing ever
come out of Nazareth? And yet here on this occasion
is the Son of God Himself, the Messiah, not only come into this
world, but also come on this occasion to take up the prophecy
of Isaiah, to read from this text, and to announce such good
news, such glad tidings, such words of hope, and say, this
day is this scripture fulfilled in your presence. And the glory of this occasion,
I hope and I pray that it might be the glory of also this occasion,
this day in which we are. and in this place as well as
Nazareth, but the glory of this occasion and this prophecy fulfilled
by Christ is that he ushered in a period of great importance
to sinners such as we are. A period that yet remains and
has not yet ended. It is the acceptable year of
the Lord. The Amplified Bible gives it
like this, to proclaim the accepted and acceptable day of the Lord,
the day when salvation and the free favors of God profusely
abound. the acceptable year of the Lord. And this is what is called elsewhere
the accepted time, called also the day of salvation. Turn over in your Bibles to II
Corinthians, 2 Corinthians chapter 5, and look
with me beginning in verse 18. Paul writes, And all things are
of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and
hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation. God has done
something, God has reconciled a people unto Himself, and He
has given that people this ministry of reconciliation, this message
of reconciliation to which? What is it? that God was in Christ,
reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses
unto them, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for
Christ, as though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's
stead, be ye reconciled to God, for he hath made him to be sin
for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. But there's really no chapter
division here in the original. So it continues on, he says,
We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that
you receive not the grace of God in vain. For he saith, I
have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have
I succored thee. Behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. This acceptable year of the Lord
is the accepted time, the day of salvation. The prophet Ezekiel,
he referred to it in this way, he called it the time of love. He says, Now when I passed by
thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love. And I spread my skirt over thee,
and covered thy nakedness. Yea, I swear unto thee, and entered
into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest
mine." It's the time of love. Not only that, but it's also
called the time of visitation. or the time appointed. In Habakkuk
it says, For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at
the end it shall speak, and not lie, though it tarry, wait for
it, because I will surely come, I will not tarry. This time is also called by God
in Isaiah 64, the year of my redeeming. It's also that which is pictured
in Leviticus 25 where we read about the year of the Jubilee. As a matter of fact, it is most
likely a reference directly to what that year of Jubilee was
all about. It was that time when the trumpet
was sounded, and at the sound of that trumpet, all who had
been sold into slavery in Israel, they were released, and everyone
who had lost their land and such as that, it was all restored. That's the age that he's talking
about. what we might call the day of
grace. As a matter of fact, turn back
over to Psalm 102. I looked for this verse all week
and couldn't find it. Sat down this morning and thought
about reading a psalm just for my own spiritual benefit. Opened this psalm and guess what?
There's my verse I've been looking for. That's old age. But look down in verse 12 of
Psalm 102. He says, But thou, O LORD, shalt
endure for ever, and thy remembrance unto all generations. Thou shalt
arise, and have mercy upon Zion for the time to favor her. Yea, the set time is come. You see, all these references
and all these expressions used by the Spirit of God, by Prophet
and Apostle and Christ Himself, this is that same age and time
that they're talking about. And it doesn't mean the lifetime
of an individual or any particular portion of that lifetime, but
the whole period that had its public inauguration on this particular
occasion recorded here in Loop 4. In some places, it's called
a day. In other places, it's called
a year. Elsewhere, a time, indicating
a considerable period, but at the same time, revealing that
it has an end. Time's gonna end. A day always
ends. A year always ends. It has an
end, and at the appointed time, it will cease, but that time
has not yet come. And all these events and circumstances
and declines that we see all around us, they may be signs
of it soon ceasing, but that time has not yet come. And this era, if you want to
call it an era, a day, a time, a year, whatever, It is characterized
by grace from God. And not only that, it is a time
when he manifests himself as the Lord God merciful and gracious,
long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy
for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sins. We live in what we call changing
times. But God never changes. Do we understand that? God never
in any way at any time or because of anything ever changes. And not only that, His Word never
changes. His Word, His promises, His prophecies,
they never, ever change. And it is for that reason that
not only could Christ announce such good news But for the same
reason you and I can rejoice and find hope and comfort and
blessing in this fact, we live in the best of times. Now, I know what we think. We
think maybe that if we lived in Moses' day, if we lived in
the Old Testament time, If we had been like those Israelites
and seen all those open, miraculous manifestations, then we surely
would have called that day a better day than this. But not so. Because every person In that
group of people that came out of Egypt, they, everyone, even
after having seen all they saw, all but two died in the wilderness
in unbelief. They died in unbelief. But what I want to say this morning
is I want to try to remind you of some of the reasons why that
this is yet the best of times. And it is for that one reason,
first of all, that God not only never changes, His purpose never
changes. I know how dispensationalists
are. I know how various people are
viewing the scriptures. God tried this, it didn't work.
God tried that, it didn't work. God tried this, it didn't work.
No. He has never tried anything to
see if it worked. He has an unchanging purpose. He works all things after the
counsel of His own will. His, it says, is an eternal purpose. And it is, first of all, a purpose
of grace, a purpose of grace in Christ, wherein He chose a
people in Christ and determined that He'd be gracious to them. You let times become what they
will. You let things happen as they
will. You let the natural man decline
and fall further as he will. That does not change the saving,
gracious purpose of God in Christ to His people. And not only that,
it does not change His promises to them. All his promises were
never contingent on what happens in this world. All his promises,
it says, are yea and amen in Christ. He has purpose, and his
purpose shall not fail. He has purpose to redeem a people
out of every nation, every kindred, every tribe, and every tongue,
and it doesn't matter what happens around them or even to them,
they're going to know His grace. they're going to find that in
their lifetime, it was to them the very best of times. Because he, before time was,
he entered into an everlasting covenant. And in that covenant,
he made Christ their surety, and their redeemer, and their
substitute, and everything depended on what he did in time, not what
happens to them in time. Old John Gill, in referring to
this verse, he said, it is and was a time acceptable to the
Lord. The sufferings of Christ were
according to His will. His sacrifice was of a sweet-smelling
savor to Him. His righteousness He was well
pleased with, and the satisfaction and atonement for sin He made
was a plenary and complete one. All Christ did and suffered were
grateful to God, because hereby his perfections were glorified,
his purposes, counsel, and covenant were accomplished, and his people
saved. When Paul writes to Timothy,
he says, speaking of God, he says, Who hath saved us, and
called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but
according to his own purpose. Everything God does, he does
on purpose. according to His own purpose
and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began. So it doesn't matter what time
it is. It doesn't matter whether it appears the best of times
or the worst of times to us, because these are the times that
God has ordained, because His purpose will not ever change.
That makes it the very best of times. And then here's another reason,
and that is because the will of God has not changed. It is the best of times because
the will of God has not changed. I know that men set their so-called
free wills against the will of God. But if we don't know by
now, I don't know what it would take for us to ever learn it,
that what happens to any benefit to anyone in this whole world
that we live in, it will not come as a result of an act of
their free will. That's how we're in this mess. Our hope is in the unchanging
will of God. the sovereign will of God. The fact that God says, even
in the midst of the most awful wickedness, even in a time of
the greatest decline of truth in this world, I will be gracious
to whom I will be gracious. Now you just stop that. You let
a hard heart, you let a king on a throne, you let a president
in office, you let the most powerful wealthy people in this world
do what they will to stop the truth and advancement of God's
kingdom. It won't happen because the one
who sits upon the throne, he said, I will be gracious. Aren't
you glad he didn't say, I won't be gracious? I will be gracious
to whom I will be gracious. He says by the apostle, where
sin abounds, grace much more abounds. You see, the will of God cannot
be altered by the will of man. Christ said, this is the will
of Him that sent me, that of all which He hath given me, I
should lose nothing. This is the will of Him that
sent me, that everyone that seeth the Son and believes on Him,
they'll have eternal life, and nobody will ever be able
to stop it. This is a time when God says,
I'll be plenteous in mercy. This is a time when men, even
with their rebellious, blind, stubborn, self-righteous hearts,
they have to fall, they have to bow, they have to submit to
that righteousness of God that's in Christ. And this is the promise
that the Father has made to His King. He said, Thy people shall be
willing in the day of thy power. Now that's an individual experience
in God's elect, but you can count on it. This
whole age of His almighty glorious grace is the day of His power. all His people are going to be
brought to Him, bow to Him, believe on Him, worship Him, praise Him. They're called a generation,
and every one of them He's going to clothe with the garments of
salvation. It's the best of times, not only
because His will doesn't change, but because His faithfulness
doesn't change. If there's anything that seems
to characterize this day, it's absolute unfaithfulness. Listen. He says in Malachi 3,
I am the Lord. What's the next thing he says
about himself? I am the Lord, I change not. You change, I change. Sadly, my changes are mostly
for the worst. But he says, I don't change.
Therefore, ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. If there was ever
a time when the people of God, were it possible that they could
be deceived. As Christ said, it would be such
deceitfulness that, were it possible, even the elect of God would be
deceived. But if there was ever a time
when men and women could be and are being deceived, I mean, they're
being deceived. Even people who profess to know
the gospel, they're drawn into these things by the devil and
his devices. They're deceived into receiving
the thinking of fallen religion. And if it depended on our faithfulness. Oh, me. I think sometimes if
it depended on me to be faithful, if it depended on me just to
keep what God has given me, if it depended on me to try to merit
one blessing or to save one thing about my soul, I would surely
perish. But isn't it amazing when God
identifies His people with this very almost undignified name,
ye sons of Jacob. That scoundrel, that liar, that
crook, Jacob. He said, I am the Lord, I change
not, therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. You're not
consumed by the world, you're not consumed by the devil, and
you're not self-consumed. Paul said, God is faithful by
whom you're called unto the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Faithful is He that calleth you
who also will do it. And then he writes to Timothy.
And he says, this is a faithful saying. This is going to be true
when the flames of hell lick the highest. This is going to
be true when we stand before God the righteous judge. This
is going to be true when eons and eons of eternity have passed. It's going to be true. This is
a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners. And so when he announces that
this scripture is fulfilled in your ears, he was saying, this
day is the day in which I've come into the world to save sinners. It is the best of time because
the sacrifice of Christ remains unchanged. They had to go, those priests
did, day after day and year after year, and offer up sacrifices
and offerings and such as that. But after Christ died, and that
outward sacrifice ceased, in the Revelation, John, he sees
Christ. Christ has already died. Christ
has already been raised from the dead. Christ has already
ascended up into heaven. But how does John describe him
when he sees him? He says, I looked and I saw one
as a lamb newly slain. Newly slain. I remember I brought
a message one time from that text, and I called it, Finish
But Fresh. All his work is a finished work,
but it's a fresh, ever-abiding sacrifice. Still is that sacrifice
by which he puts away sin, because it's the sacrifice of himself. It's still that sacrifice, that
work, that offering, that satisfaction of God whereby He is the author
of eternal salvation. It's still that one sacrifice
for sins forever. And those He died for, they can
never send away that sacrifice. have a little bit of money in
your bank account and you get to feeling pretty good about
it. And then all of a sudden you know you start paying those
bills at the first of the month and you look and the balance
gets lower and lower and lower and lower and lower and lower
and lower. That doesn't happen to Christ's sacrifice. His is a work of righteousness. And because the justice of God
has never changed, In other words, He is at this very hour faithful
and just to forgive the sins of His people. When we come to
Him as the sinners we are, having sinned as we do, can we sin away
a day of grace such as this? No. You say, we ought not say that,
preacher. People just go and they just sin as much as they
want to. This I'm sure of, the Lord's
people sin more than they want to. More than they want to. But the justice of God, which
now required that payment for sin, that same justice that required
Christ to die on the behalf of his people, requires that everyone
go free. Every time I stand to preach,
knowing that Christ has died for a people, knowing that I
do not know who they are, but knowing that because of His justice,
because their sin that is paid, they're to be set free, and it
will be by bringing to them this message, It might be the day of His power
to them. It might be when He speaks in
the soul of some sinner. Those words, go free. Go free. Absolutely go free. Justice says they must go free. Their debt is paid. They cannot
be charged again. He has suffered in their place,
died for their sin. They must go free. And then the power of God has
not changed. We've got these new lithium batteries. They're really wonderful, aren't
they? You can put it in something, it'll last a while. But at some
point, it's gonna weaken and diminish in power. That's not
ever gonna happen to God. His ability to do in the worst
of times is no less than it is in the best of times. The power
of God in grace does not decline over the course of this time.
So that he's a diminished power at the end of this age, he's
always going to be the almighty God. He's still going to be mighty
to save. He's mighty to save us. You say,
well, not if we don't do this or that or the other. What God wants to do, that's
what he does. Whatsoever his soul desires,
that he does. And his desire was to save a
man by the name of Saul of Tarsus, who by the very description of
Christ was like an oxen that kicked against the pointed sticks,
a rebel, a God-hater, a zealous false religionist. But guess
what? God saved him. He saved him. He saves all his people from
their sins. And his power never diminishes. And it's the best of times because
he's not brought this acceptable year of the Lord to an end. You say, he will, but he hasn't. You say, how can you be so sure
that this day, this age, this, these best of times, how can
you say that they haven't, for sure they haven't ended? Because he still sends forth
here and there and in other places the very gospel by which he saves
and calls his people. And because Christ has not come. You see, it's the best of times
because we are to live in anticipation of His soon coming. They say, well, we've been hearing
about that for a long time. But one day, there is a man already
known and appointed and ordained of God. who will stand up somewhere,
maybe in a pulpit like this, but at that hour, he will make
the last and final declaration of this age and speak the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified to a bunch of sinners
and God will call out and reveal to him in them the Lord Jesus
save that last sinner. And the prophet said that it
will be like a building, be like a building in which the last
stone is cast. the top stone, the crown, the
evidence that this is the finished building. He said it will be
with shoutings of grace, grace. But then it will really be the
best of times, the best of times. Well, what does that mean to
everyone who is here this morning or everyone who hears this? Well, to any and all who are
not believers who are not saved, it means that God will still
accept, and that's where we need in our day to figure this thing
out, believe God. It's not our acceptance of Him
that determines salvation, it's His acceptance of us. And He
has accepted some people in the Beloved. He's loved them in Christ,
redeemed them in Christ, and is calling them to Christ and
will bring them to Christ. That's what our Lord said. All
that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that comes
to me I will in no wise cast him out. He will still receive
men and women, all who come to Him, all who come to Christ,
trusting His promise of salvation only through the blood and the
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. You come with it being a team
effort between you and God, He'll not accept it. You come offering
your pitiful works of whatever kind they are, along with the
work of Christ, He will not accept it. But that sinner that casts off
every other hope, all their phony religious experiences,
and vows before God and pleads His saving mercies in Christ
Jesus alone, He'll accept that sinner. If they do that, it's
evidence he's already accepted them. He's already made them
accepted in the beloved. And though they have not one
promise of tomorrow, they need not despair because
this moment is still the acceptable time. God, if we're hearing the message,
we may not hear it another time, but we've heard it this time. I pray it's that God show mercy
to us. And to all those who've been
saved by His grace, all who know Christ, we're reminded that this is our
purpose for continuing here in all this. to be His ambassadors, bear witness
to our generation of God's grace and salvation in Christ. To everybody who He calls to
preach or He calls to bear witness to this gospel, If he opens the door, if we open
our mouths, if we proclaim the truth as it is in Christ, it
must still be the acceptable year. It ought to be our encouragement
to seek to get others under the sound of the gospel, even those
who've heard it before but rejected it. It ought to move us to pray for
every living child. brother, sister, mother, father,
friend, grandchild, co-worker. And I know that outwardly and
humanly it seems so hopeless. But it's like Mordecai told Esther. Boy, it looked like things were
real bad. The Lord's people had a vicious
enemy by the name of Haman. He was trying to deceive the
king into having every Jew murdered. And Esther had to go in before
the king unannounced, which could be sure death for her. And Mordecai said, you go. She
said, I'll go. If I perish, I perish. But Mordecai
said this. He said, who knows why you're
coming to the kingdom at such a time as this? Who knows why we're called to
the kingdom for such a time as this? I don't know. But I believe it is the best
of times. When our Lord read this and made
the remarks that he made further describing the discriminating
grace of God, they got angry at Him and they would stone Him. I hope those who hear this won't
do that. but they'll bow and God will enable them to rejoice. But notice their character. Not
those, the most of whom responded on that occasion, but the character
in verse 18 of those that the Spirit of the Lord sends Christ
to. The Spirit of the Lord is upon
me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the
poor." They don't have anything. They don't have any righteousness.
They are the poor in spirit he speaks about. He has sent me
to heal the brokenhearted, not because of a tragic romantic
failure, but because they are broken of spirit, broken in a
contrite heart over sin. to preach deliverance to the
captives, release from bondage, the bondage
of Satan, whom he takes as captive at his will, the bondage of sin,
the curse of the law, deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the
blind. Those blind spiritually, they
come, as he did physically to some, gives them sight, sight
of faith, and to set at liberty them that are bruised. That word
there means crushed. You're crushed, poor, brokenhearted,
blind. It's the acceptable year of the
Lord. Turn back over to Isaiah 49,
and I'll just hush. Isaiah 49, and verse 7, Thus saith the Lord, the Redeemer
of Israel, and His Holy One. To him whom man despiseth, to
him whom the nation abhorreth, to a servant of rulers, kings
shall see and arise, princes also shall worship, because of
the Lord that is faithful, and the Holy One of Israel, and he
shall choose thee. Thus saith the Lord. In an acceptable
time have I heard thee, and in the day of salvation have I helped
thee. And I will preserve thee, and
give thee for a covenant of the people to establish the earth,
to cause to inherit the desolate heritages, that thou mayest say
to the prisoners, Go forth. To them that are in darkness,
show thyself. They that shall feed in the ways,
and their pastors shall be in all high places. They shall not
hunger nor thirst, neither shall the heat nor sun smite them.
For he that hath mercy on them shall lead them, even by the
springs of water shall he guide them. I will make all my mountains
away, and my highways shall be exalted. Behold, these shall
come from far, and lo, these from the north and the west,
and these from the land of Sinai. Sing, O heavens. and be joyful,
O earth, and break forth into singing, O mountains, for the
Lord hath comforted his people and will have mercy on his afflicted. These are the best of times. And it will be that the best
of times will be taking place with the worst of times. It will be the worst of times
in many respects. But to those in Christ, to those
that He's had mercy on, to those of us who He's been pleased to
be gracious to, this acceptable year of the Lord, this time we're
living in, between the first and second coming of Christ.
It will be and is the best of times. Father, this day we thank you.
We thank you for this day. This is the day that you've made.
Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Let us not unwisely say that
the former days are better than these, but that these are the
days of your grace and mercy. Draw us to yourself. Reveal your
truth to us and in us. Give us faith and encourage our
hearts. And Lord, to these who sit under
the sound of this word, speak to their hearts. Reveal to them
the truth and the glory of this gracious time. Bring them to
Christ. Cause them to believe and to
look to Him alone, and to know that peace that He made by the
blood of His cross. Get to yourself all the glory,
for we pray in Christ's name. Amen. Yeah.