Let's turn back to Hebrews chapter
9. I titled the message this morning,
Three Appearances of Christ. Scripture reveals to us many
appearances of Christ. We know that Christ appeared
a number of different times in the Old Testament. Those are
called pre-incarnate appearances, times when He appeared to the
fathers before He was born incarnate at Bethlehem. He appeared to
Abraham. He appeared to Jacob. He appeared
to Manoah and his wife. Those are pre-incarnate appearances
of Christ. Christ appeared to several of
the fathers in dreams and visions in the Old Testament. And then
He appeared in the flesh when He was born in Bethlehem. An
angel sang to announce the glory of it. Look back at Malachi chapter
3. When Christ was born, eight days
later, Mother and foster father brought him to the tabernacle. He fulfilled a prophecy here
in Malachi chapter 3. Behold, I will send my messenger
and he shall prepare the way before me. That's John the Baptist
coming to prepare a way before me. And then the Lord whom you
seek shall suddenly come to his temple. Even the messenger of
the covenant whom you delight in, behold, he shall come. saith the Lord of hosts. And
roughly 400 years later, he came. He suddenly appeared. Mary carried
that baby into the temple, and he suddenly appeared. Simeon
saw him, didn't he? Anna saw him. And Simeon seeing
him enabled him to say, now let me depart in peace. I've seen
thy salvation. But these three appearances of
the writer to the Hebrews gives us in our text, our special divine
appearances. Christ made His glory known by
what He has done for His people. Now in his commentary in the
book of Hebrews, Brother Don Fortner says these three appearances
are our atonement, our assurance, and our advancement. Our atonement
is in verse 26, He hath appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice
of Himself. Our assurance is in verse 24,
that Christ now appears in the presence of God for us. And our
advancement is in verse 28, when he shall appear the second time
without sin unto salvation. And I want us to look at these
three appearances in a little bit of detail to see why each
of these appearances is important to us. How is this, each of these
different appearances, how does this glorify Christ and why is
it important to each of his people. Here's the first appearance,
Christ appeared to put away sin. Verse 26, for then must he often
have suffered since the foundation of the world. But now once in
the end of the world, hath he appeared to put away sin by the
sacrifice of himself. Now the writer says that Christ
appeared in the end of the world. But what is the end of the world? I mean, it's been 2,000 years
ago. What is the end of the world? Well, the end of the world are
the last days. And the last days are all of
the days from the time of Christ's resurrection until His second
coming. Look back at Hebrews chapter
1. During these last days, Christ
is all. Just like all the days before,
in these last days, Christ is all, Hebrews 1 verse 1. God who
at sundry times and in diverse manners spake in time past unto
the fathers by the prophets. He did appear unto the fathers.
He did speak audibly to the fathers. But he hath in these last days
spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all
things, by whom also he made the worlds. Now God's not going
to speak audibly to people anymore. God's not going to appear to
them in a in any form whatsoever. He's not going to appear to them
in dreams. If you have a dream where you
think that God is speaking to you, Christ is appearing to you,
better check what you ate. He's not doing that. If you want
to hear everything, I mean everything, that God has to say to sinners,
look to Christ. Because that's how God speaks
to sinners in these last days. Since the days of Christ, crucifixion,
his resurrection, his ascension back into glory. However long
those days last, the only way God speaks to sinners is by a
son. If you want to see everything
that God has to say to a sinner, look and see how he set forth
his son as the savior of sinners. That's how Christ speaks to or
God speaks to people today. It's through his son. Now, the
writer says that Christ appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself. That's why Christ came. That
was his purpose in coming, to put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself. And we're going to look at these
three appearances. Each of the three different words
translated appear in our text have three different meanings.
The word appear in this verse means to make obvious. Christ
appeared to make it obvious to all men. that the only way sin
could be put away is through the sacrifice of himself. He appeared to put away sin. He did. The Son of God appeared
in human flesh to put away sin. And he had to appear to do it,
didn't he? Because animal sacrifices couldn't put away sin. Religious
ceremony can't put away sin. Our attempts at keeping the law
can't put away sin. Look back at Galatians chapter
3. If sin could have been put away
any other way other than the sacrifice of Christ, God the
Father is a monster, isn't He? If He crucified His Son, He put
His Son through that, and there was a different way, another
way to put away sin, well, the Father's a monster. But there's
not another way. See, that's what he's telling
us here in Galatians 3 verse 21. Is the law then against the
promises of God? God forbid. For if there had
been a law given, which could have given life, verily righteousness
should come by the law. But the scripture hath concluded
all under sin. We can't keep the law. That he
made it obvious to us that we're all under sin that the promise
by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe
the only way Sin can be put away. The only way righteousness can
be brought in is by the faith of Christ, by the faithfulness
of Christ to do everything that was required to put away the
sin of his people. And Christ suffering and dying
at Calvary makes it obvious the only way God can save a sinner,
the only way God can forgive sin is through the sacrifice
of the Son. That's why he appeared. The only
way God can make his people righteous is through the obedience and
the sacrifice of his son. Sin can only be put away by the
perfect sin atoning blood of Christ. Our good works can't
do it. Our repentance can't do it. Our religious ceremonies can't
do it. Even our faith can't do it. The
only way sin can be put away is in the blood of Christ. And
that is exactly what he did. By His stripes, we're healed. We're healed of all of our sin
sicknesses. Aren't you glad He appeared to
put away sin? But now, how did He do it? How
did Christ put away sin? By bearing it Himself. By bearing
it away. The Lord Jesus Christ was made
sin. He took the sin of His people
away from them. And He made it His. He bore our
sins in his own body on the tree. He took it away from them. And
when he did that, when he took the sin of his people away from
them, he canceled the power of that sin by dying for it, by
sacrificing himself for it. Sin has no power to condemn any
of God's elect because Christ neutralized the power of sin. And he did it by sacrificing
himself. Now look back at 2 Samuel chapter
12. Here's a very good example of this. 2 Samuel chapter 12. This is when David's sin with
Bathsheba had been uncovered. His sin of killing her husband
Uriah was uncovered. Nathan came to him and told him,
David, you're the man. I told you this story about the
man that took his neighbor's little ewe lamb. But he said,
oh, that made David so angry. David said, I'm going to kill
him. And Nathan said, David, you're the man. Look what David
says here when his sin is uncovered. Second Samuel 12 verse 13. David
said unto Nathan, I've sinned against the Lord. And Nathan
said unto David, the Lord also hath put away thy sin. Thou shalt not die. Now you'll
notice Nathan didn't tell David, well now, it's all right. No, he said, David, you sinned.
Yes, that's true. That's true. But the Lord also
has put away your sin. David, you've sinned. Your sin
deserves death. But you're not going to die because
you cannot die. Because Christ took away your
sin. Christ has been crucified for
you. Now, I know in time Christ hadn't
been crucified yet, had he? But in the mind and purpose of
God, he was. God saw him, David, in a lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. Christ took away the sin, the
power of that sin to kill David. And the same thing is true for
all of God's people. Christ neutralized the power of sin so that sin
cannot kill us because He died in our place. He already died
for that sin. When Christ was crucified, His
blood blotted out all the sin of His people. He took it away
as far as the east is from the west, never to be seen again. That's why Christ came. Christ
did not appear as an example for us to follow and live by.
He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Christ
did not appear to try to put away sin. He didn't appear to
try to save as many people as he can. He appeared to put away
sin by the sacrifice of himself. And he did it with one appearance. He did it with one appearance
on the tree. The writer says once. Now that
once is as opposed to all the animal sacrifices that the high
priest offered. That once is opposed to all the
religious ceremonies that those Jews went through. They had so
many ceremonies. I don't know how they ever worked
a 40 hour week, do you? I mean they had so many ceremonies all
the time to be going through. And all those animal sacrifices
and all that religious ceremony had to be done over and over
and over and over again. Because none of it took away
even one sin. But Christ, by His one appearance
at Calvary, put away sin forever. Now that's the glory, that's
His glory. That by one sacrifice He could put away all of the
sin of His people. You think how much sin that is?
Scripture tells us When all of God's people are gathered together
at once, they're an innumerable host. Even today, with all of
our computers, with all of our technology, they're an innumerable
host. And each individual one of those
people has an infinite amount of sin. And Christ put it all
away. With His one sacrifice. Now that's
His glory. Now here's the comfort for God's
people. The atonement of Christ. powerful enough to remove all
of our sin. And the proof of it is that Christ
just one time had to offer Himself to put away the sin of His people.
The transaction's done. The sin of God's people is gone
because of the one appearance of Christ at Calvary. All right,
number two. Christ appears right at this
very moment in the presence of the Father to make intercession
for His people. Verse 24, back in our text, Hebrews
9. For Christ is not entered into
the holy places, made with hands which are the figures of the
true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence
of God for us. Now when Christ died, he wasn't
just performing a religious ceremony. He wasn't just giving us a picture
of redemption. That's what the high priest under
the Mosaic Law did. The high priest of old, He symbolically
transferred the sins of the people. Remember, He put His hands on
the head of that scapegoat and confessed the sins of the people
of Israel. And those sins were symbolically
transferred to the scapegoat. And by the hand of a fit man,
that scapegoat was let out in the wilderness and never saw
again. But that was just a picture. The sins of those people were
still there, wasn't it? They had to do the ceremony again
all over next year. Well, the Father didn't symbolically
do anything at Calvary. He didn't symbolically transfer
the sins of his people to Christ. He made him to be seen. Now,
I can't explain that because I can't understand it, but I
know it. So God does lots of things I
can't understand. He made his son sin so that he
could make his people the righteousness of God in him. And you and I
had better hope that that wasn't just a ceremony, that that wasn't
just a symbol of redemption. God's elect are only as truly
righteous as Christ was made truly to the same extent. God's people, to the same extent,
are only righteous to the same extent that Christ was made sin.
If Christ was not truly made sin, then God's people are not
truly made righteous and we're going to die and go to hell.
God wasn't playing games. See, this wasn't a symbol. Christ
did not die. on an altar of wood, or an altar
of brass, or whatever they made the altars out of. Those things
were just pictures. Christ didn't die on a picture.
Christ is our altar. Here in a little while, we'll
finally get to that in the book of Hebrews. We have an altar,
don't we? It's Christ. And He offered His humanity on
the altar of His deity. That was no picture. He's the
sacrifice and He's the altar. And He's the high priest. And
he didn't take his blood behind a veil made in a tabernacle made
by human hands. Matter of fact, when Christ gave
up the ghost, he gave, he says, finished. And he gave up the
ghost. What happened to that veil that the priest used to
go behind? What happened to it? It tore in two from top to bottom.
God said, that's over. The picture is over. You know
why the picture's done? The reality's come in. Christ,
he took his blood into heaven itself. He took His blood before
the Father, against whom we have sinned. And the Father saw that
blood, and He said, that's enough. Payment in full has been made
for the sin of Mylet. And that's no picture. Brethren,
that's our redemption. And Christ our Savior did not
stop there. He rose from the dead, and He
ascended back to the Father. And you know what He did when
He got there? He sat down. He sat down on the
throne of glory. But he's not sitting there doing
nothing. Yesterday, I had a little bit
of work to do. I did the task that I dread. I mean, I dread it all year long.
The putting up of Christmas stuff. It made me swear we're not going
to do this next year. But by next November, I'll forget
it and we'll put it up. And Janet came in the room and
she saw me, I was sitting there doing nothing, doing nothing.
I'm tired, I'm nothing. Christ the Savior is not sitting
there doing nothing. And He's not sitting because
He's tired. He's sitting because the work is done. He's sitting
in ease and satisfaction at a job well done. He sits as the King,
ruling the universe, ruling every event of the universe. to bring
about the salvation of His people. And He sits in glory, making
intercession for the sins of His people. And I've told you
this before. Christ does not sit on the right
hand of His Father constantly saying, Father, forgive Him for
that sin. My blood paid for it. Forgive Him for that sin. Forgive
Him for that sin. My blood paid for it. He's not doing that.
He's making intercession simply by appearing before the Father. This word appear, the writer
uses, means to exhibit. Christ appears before the Father
exhibiting the evidence of his sacrifice, exhibiting the evidence. What's the evidence of his sacrifice?
The scars on his hand and his feet, the scars on his head,
the scar on his side. Those scars are evidence That's
what the Apostle John saw in the book of Revelation. He saw
the lamb as it had been slain. He saw Christ with those scars,
the evidences of his sacrifice for his people. He sits there
exhibiting the evidence of his sacrifice. And that's always
enough for the father. The father wants no more. And
he says, I'm well pleased. Sin is forgiven. Now look at
first John chapter two. That's the glory of Christ. That's
his glory is the intercessor of his people. He doesn't say
a word. He just appears exhibiting the
evidence of his sacrifice for his people. And here's why that's
a blessing to God's people. Sinners like us must have an
intercessor just like that. We've got to have an advocate
just like that. First John chapter two, verse
one, my little children, these things right under you that you
see not. And if any man's sin, and that
word you know is win, win any man's sin, we have an advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is the
propitiation for our sins. And not for ours only, but also
for the sins of the whole world. The Lord Jesus Christ is our
advocate. He's the intercessor with his
Father for the sins of his people. And this advocate wins his case
every time. He's never lost a case. He always
receives what he asked for from his father by appearing, by giving,
by exhibiting his sacrifice before the father. Now, this advocate,
he doesn't win every case because he only takes innocent people.
That's not why he wins every case. The only client this advocate
will take are guilty clients. They've got to be guilty. He
makes every one of his clients plead guilty. You know, you see
him in court. A fella caught red-handed murdering
five people. I mean, red-handed he's caught.
And what does he do? He always pleads not guilty.
Not guilty. I don't know why they do that. They're just trying
to string it along or whatever. But don't insult everybody's
intelligence by pleading not guilty. This advocate makes all
of his clients plead guilty. Judge them guilty. Well, then
how can he win every case? If all of his clients are guilty,
how can he win every case? Because this advocate makes that
guilty sinner innocent by washing them in his blood. And all he's
got to do to win the case and set his client free, you know
what he's got to do? All he's got to do is appear before the
bar of God's justice and exhibit. He just stands there exhibiting
the evidence of his sacrifice. And when he appears like that,
the judge can only issue one verdict. There's only one possible
verdict. Not guilty. Go free. Oh, what an advocate
we have. Christ sits in glory in his human
body. A human body. And in his human
body, he presents his people to the Father. He presents them
to the Father as justified. The scars in his body are evidence. He sacrificed himself to put
away the sin of his people. They're justified. They have
no sin. And here's the blessing of that to God's people. Christ,
our intercessor, seated at the right hand of the father, gives
his people confidence. I'm justified. Even though the
only thing I see about myself is sin, my confidence that I'm
justified is my intercessor before the father. He appears making
intercession, pleading his sacrifice. Look at Romans chapter eight. This is a blessing for those
who find it so difficult to pray. Our intercessor presents the
prayers of his people to the father and makes them accepted.
Hebrews 8 verse 26. Likewise, the spirit also help
with our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray
for as we ought, but the spirit himself maketh intercession for
us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he searches the
hearts and knoweth what is the mind of the spirit, because he
maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. Christ our intercessor, he makes
intercession for the saints according to the will of God. And we pray
about a matter we don't know what God's will is. I pray, Lord,
this is what I want. This is my desire. But thy will
be done. I don't know. And our intercessor,
seated at the right hand of the Father, gives us confidence in
prayer. Even though we know we don't
say everything just right, we know we say everything wrong,
our prayers are still heard through Christ, the intercessor. That
gives us confidence in prayer, doesn't it? And the writer says
that Christ now appears in the presence of God for us. Now this
now is in the present tense, right now. At this very moment,
Christ is seated on the right hand of the Father, making intercession
for the poor words of this message. Right now. It's in the present
tense. But that present tense is always,
no matter when that you look into heaven, always right now. Christ has appeared. He has eternally
appeared in the past, present and future. Now appearing. for God, making intercession
for His people. That's the glory of His eternality,
the glory of His sacrifice that in eternity, before the sacrifice
was ever offered, the Father already accepted it. I mean,
what glory there is in that. Well, here's the comfort to the
hearts of God's people. Christ has always stood as the
intercessor for His people, even before God created anything.
God's always seen His people in Christ, the Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world. So, after God did create everything,
and He put Adam in the garden, and Adam sinned against God,
God did not just wipe out the entire human race. Because you
know why? In the present, at that very
moment, Christ appeared before the Father for His people. And
he made intercession simply by his presence before the Father.
And God's elect were spared. God has an innumerable host of
people that are coming from Adam's loins. God didn't wipe Adam out
because of the sacrifice of Christ for those people. Christ made
intercession for them. So here's our assurance. As we
go through the rest of our lives, we're going to go through the
rest of our lives in sinful bodies. All we're ever going to do is
sin. But whoever it is that Christ
is making intercession for is going to be accepted. The sacrifice
that Christ pleads demands that they be accepted. Both God's
justice and God's grace demand those people be forgiven and
accepted, and they will be. Whoever it is that Christ is
making intercession for Despite all of their sin and their failure
and their shortcoming and their weak faith, they're going to
be accepted because of who is making intercession for them.
All right, here's the third appearance. Christ, one day, will appear
again in His second coming. Verse 28, back in our text, Hebrews
chapter 9. So Christ was once offered to
bear the sins of many, and unto them that look for Him shall
He appear the second time without sin. unto salvation. Now, this
word appear means to show and to intensely gaze upon. When
Christ returns, that will be the most glorious event in human
history. Get a hold of that for a minute.
I mean, Christ appearing, the angels that appeared and sang
when he was born, that was That must have been glorious. It frightened
the shepherds that saw it. It frightened them, didn't it?
When the next time Christ appears, his second coming is going to
be far more glorious. The most glorious event in human
history. And when he appears, he's going
to appear so everybody in creation sees him all at once. Oh, every
eye will see him. How glorious that appearance
is going to be. And when He appears, we won't
be able to take our eyes off of Him. The sight of the Lord
Jesus Christ is going to be so glorious, we will intensely gaze
upon Him. We'll intensely inspect Him and
study Him. And eternity won't be long enough
to plumb the depths of His glory. Now, Christ's second coming is
going to be, in some ways, a whole lot like His first coming. It's
going to be a blessing to some and it's going to be a curse
to others. Christ's return will not be a blessing to everybody.
It's not going to be a blessing to those who don't believe on
him. Those people are going to be damned. They're going to try
to hide from him. They're going to call on the
rocks and the mountains to fall on them, to hide them from his
wrath, to hide them from his face and to no avail. They will
be condemned. But Christ's return will be a
blessing to those who look for Him. He says they're to those
that look for Him. Now what is it to look for Christ? Well, it's to be just like Simeon.
He was looking for Christ, wasn't he? He was waiting for Him. He
was waiting for the consolation of Israel and he was blessed
when Christ suddenly appeared in his temple. Oh, Simeon was
blessed, wasn't he? He said, now I'm ready to depart. And
we don't want in this flesh We just don't want to depart from
this place. Now, I mean, God just got to take us from even
when we're unconscious and this body just fights with everything
it's got to hang on to this earth. Christ appears the second time.
We're going to be just like Simeon. I'm ready to depart. I'm ready
to depart now. Those who are looking for Christ
are those who are longing for his return. They're looking for
his return because they're longing for his return. They're expecting
his return. And they will not be disappointed.
Christ will appear the second time without sin unto salvation. What does he mean there unto
salvation? I thought God's people are already saved. They are.
I am saved. If you believe Christ, you are
saved. You'll never be more saved than you are right now. And yet
we're always being saved, aren't we? Being delivered. But in that
day, that day, we'll be plumb saved. Plumb delivered from sin
forever. Now there are a couple meanings
to this appearing without sin. First, Christ is going to appear
the second time without any of the sin that was laid on Him
in His first coming. Because remember why He first
appeared? He appeared to put away sin by
the sacrifice of Himself. So when He appears again, that
sin's gone. So the second meaning of that
is, since that sin's gone, He's going to appear the second time
to gather together His people, the people who have been made
without sin. And that day, they're going to
be made without sin, body and soul. They will be, His people will
be, without sin. Right now, God's people are without
sin. It's gone. You'd never be, if
you believe Christ, you'd never be more justified in eternity
than you are right now. But all we see of ourselves is
sin. We look at ourselves, that's all we see is sin, isn't it?
We're without sin, that's how God sees his people. But in that
day, God's people will be made without sin, body and soul. That's how all of creation is
going to see us. without sin. You see, Christ
appeared the first time to obtain the salvation of his people.
He's going to appear the second time to give them the full possession.
And they're going to have it. That's his glory. He's going
to give that to his people. Take them to be in glory with
him for eternity, worshiping him face to face for eternity. Perfectly. That's the glory. Only God can do that. That's
his glory. Here's the believer's comfort.
Now you take this, it'll give you comfort for the rest of your
life here on this earth. Our comfort is this. This life
is not all there is. Now this life's not all there
is. There are joys of this life. We'd be foolish to say that there's
not joys of this life. But the joy that we have, those
days that are happy, you mark it down. They're not going to
last forever. Sad days are coming shortly behind
those happy days. That's the story of life on earth. There's going to be happy times,
absolutely. Sad times are coming right behind it. In this life
you shall have tribulation. But when Christ appears, the
glory of His appearing, the joy of His appearing will outshine
all of our happy days in the flesh. Just like the sun outshines
a spark. You know, you have those little
things of flint and you have a spark. The glory of Christ is going
to outshines it. They won't matter anymore. They'll
just be forgotten because of the glory, the happiness, the
joy of seeing our Savior. Whatever it is went on in this
life is just temporary. It's not going. This life's not
all there is. When Christ appears, we'll have life. We'll have life. And those days of happiness,
they seem like they don't last very long, do they? But those
days of sorrow and heartbreak, they seem like they last forever. Night, a physical night spent
in sorrow feels like a whole lot longer than eight hours does.
Feels like time stopped almost. This is the believer's comfort.
Our sorrow is not going to last forever either. That's coming
to an end too. When Christ appears, His appearing
is going to be so glorious. His appearing is going to be
so wonderful. His appearing will be so full
of soul thrilling rapture. We just won't remember those
sad days anymore. All the former things will be
passed away. And I don't know if we'll really not remember
those things or not, but I'm confident of this. We won't remember
what it felt like to be sad anymore. We won't remember what it felt
like to be full of sin anymore because of the joy of being made
just like Christ and being with Him forever. And that gives the
believer confidence to put this life in perspective. That lets
the believer enjoy the happy days when they come. I'm thankful
for them. I enjoy them. We just come through
this holiday season, had times and days of joy. I'm thankful
for them. But we know that our joy is Christ. And that means that we don't
have to seek happiness with everything we've got. I see people do that,
don't you? They seek happiness. They just,
with everything they've got, they seek distraction at all
costs, because they're seeking happiness. I've got to make myself
happy. And I'm telling you this, as soon as you ever hear somebody
say, I've got to make myself happy, trouble's coming. They're
going to hurt somebody else. The believer doesn't have to
do that, because we know happiness is coming. And that knowing and looking
for the second coming of Christ gives the believer patience to
endure the dark and sad and difficult days because we know there's
an end to it. Not only is there a purpose to
it, there's an end of it, of more glorious days coming when
Christ returns. And when he returns, we're going
to be done with sin forever. We're going to be done with sorrow
forever. We're going to be done with tears
forever because He appeared. That makes me want to look for
Him, doesn't he? Oh, how thankful I am He hath appeared to put
away sin. That He is appearing right now
as our advocate with the Father. And one day He will appear as
the victorious Savior. Those are the three appearances
of Christ. And that's a blessing, isn't it, to those that look
for Him? All right, let's bow in prayer. Our Father, how we thank You
that You would cause Your Son to appear for Your people, that
He would appear as the sacrifice to put away the sin of His people,
that it's gone under the blood of His sacrifice. No, it's not
possible. that our sin could condemn us
anymore if Christ had already been condemned for us. How we
thank you. And how we thank you that he appears right now making
intercession for our sin. We know we cannot be accepted
in our person and the things that we do in our sinful flesh,
we cannot be accepted. But oh, how thankful we are we're
accepted in the beloved. That we can appear before your
throne in him. That he appears. making intercession
for his people, exhibiting the evidence of his sacrifice that
makes us accepted and righteous in your sight. Father, how we
thank you. We couldn't be accepted any other way. Father, how we
long for that day when he will appear again and we'll see him
as he is, that we'll be made like him. Right now, it does
not yet appear what we shall be. Oh, but we'll be made perfect
when we see him. but will be made like him. Oh,
Father, how we thank you, how we thank you for your goodness
and grace to your people. And Father, I pray you'd bless
your word as it's been preached. Bless it to the hearts of your
people to comfort and encourage them. Bless your word to go forth
and give life to your people, those that as of yet have not
believed on you. Father, make Christ appear in
their heart. Give them life, faith, and repentance. And Father,
cause your word to go forth and bring glory to Christ our Savior. It is in his matchless name that
we pray and give thanks. Amen.