In the time to Chapter 5, Matthew Chapter
5, and we will see in what he
proposed to do at Calvary and how effectively
he intended to do it.
We have been studying the words of Christ
as a parenthesis in our study of the
Book of Hebrews.
In the Book of Hebrews, we read, We
are to give the more earnest heed, because
God, who spoke in times past by the
prophet, hath in these last days spoken unto
us by his Son.
And it seemed the Lord's mind and will,
as we should discover again, something of that
which the Son said.
And so his words are engaging us for
this period of time.
We saw in Matthew 5 the Beatitudes, and
remind our hearts again this morning that the
Beatitudes are not a ladder by which we
find God, but they constitute a photograph of
the redeemed heart.
They do not tell us how, but they
tell us what.
You will not meet God savingly by trying
to keep the Beatitudes.
You can only keep the Beatitudes because you
have met him in saving power.
The Beatitudes are the revelation of the outworking
of the new life, the unveiling of what
God does in the heart that he redeems.
Verses 13 to 16 declare the function and
the purpose of the Christian in life and
the world.
The first, the Beatitudes tell us the kind
of a person the Christian is, and the
second portion, verses 13 to 16, tell us
the kind of a life he is in
the kind of a world to which he's
being sent, a world that's decaying and needs
salt, a world that's in darkness that needs
light.
Verses 17 to 20 describe the relationship of
Christ and his people to the law.
There would be those hearing him speak that
would surmise that he was going to destroy
the Mosaic law and substitute precepts of his
own, but such is not the case.
And early in his ministry he declares that
he has not come to destroy the law
but to fulfill it.
Not only its prophetic utterances concerning him, but
its glorious personal intention is to be fulfilled
by his work on the cross.
And therefore we see the relationship of Christ
and his people to the law.
Beginning with verse 20, Christ is expounding the
relationship of himself and his people to the
law in two aspects, two different ways.
First, he declares that which the law means
to him and how he intends it to
be understood and obeyed.
In a positive sense he gives the declaration
of the true meaning of the law.
He doesn't add to it, he simply expounds
it.
And in the second aspect of this portion,
verses 20 to 48, he contrasts his teaching
with the perverted, twisted, false teaching of the
Pharisees.
Actually, I suppose we could well say that
the balance of this sermon, that is from
verse 21 through the last verse of chapter
7, is an exposition of verse 20.
In this portion, from 21 on to the
end of the sermon, the Lord Jesus is
explaining what he said here in this verse,
I say unto you that except your righteousness
shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and
Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into
the kingdom of heaven.
The balance of chapter 5 from 21 on,
our Lord explains the true interpretation of the
law against the Pharisees' false and twisted interpretation.
In chapter 6, he shows the true nature
of fellowship with God as over against the
superficial, shallow, and meaningless relationship that the Pharisees
had taught.
In chapter 7, he shows the true righteousness
that he imparts as over and against that
which was taught and practiced by the Pharisees.
In all of this sermon, this marvelous sermon
on the mount, that is evangelical in its
character and its detail and purpose, our Lord
is describing what he prophesied in Ezekiel.
Do you remember what he said?
He said, I will sprinkle clean water upon
you and cleanse you from all your filthiness.
This is pardon and justification.
Then he said, I will, previously said in
Jeremiah, I will put a new heart within
you and I will write my law upon
your hearts.
And then he said, I will put my
spirit within you and cause you to keep
my statutes.
Thus, in the sermon on the mount, he
is expounding this and explaining this and unfolding
this so that we might understand what his
new thing is.
Now there are six statements made by the
Lord Jesus in this portion, and I want
you to see them, not that we shall
expound them in detail, for each such statement
would merit an entire sermon and more, in
fact.
So you understand that all we can do
is to try and gain some perspective and
see this in the relationship to this one
theme that he is in this portion explaining
the proper interpretation of the law as against
the twisted false interpretation given by the Pharisees.
Here it is, I begin with the twenty
-first verse, and each of these six statements
has this formula, Ye have heard that it
was said by them, but I say unto
you.
And here the first, Ye have heard that
it was said by them of old times,
Thou shalt not kill, and whosoever shall kill
shall be in danger of the judgment.
But I say unto you that whosoever is
angry with his brother without a cause shall
be in danger of the judgment, and whosoever
shall say, Raca, shall be in danger of
the council, and whosoever shall say, Thou fool,
shall be in danger of hell fire.
He has now carried the meaning of this
scripture, this statement, Thou shalt not kill, away
from the act of slaying as it was
interpreted by the Pharisees to the attitude which
would make possible the slaying.
He has taken it away from the act,
from the overt outward expression of hatred, down
to the very existence of hatred in the
heart.
This is what our Lord is seeking to
say when he declares, Except your righteousness exceeds
the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you
shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.
They didn't kill, but they found convenient and
subtle ways to accomplish their purpose without staining
their hands with blood.
Their hearts were filled with hatred, with anger,
with animosity, and they had been forbidden to
kill, but they could malign, they could plot,
they could unscrupulously slay by innuendo, they could
deceive.
All of this was held to be a
keeping of the law because they hadn't taken
a knife and plunged it into a back
or a club and crushed a skull, and
therefore they could say, Well, I've kept the
law, the law says thou shalt not kill.
And our Lord doesn't add to it at
all, he simply expounds it, he simply opens
it.
He said God doesn't look on the outward
appearance, he looks on the heart.
And when God sees hatred in the heart,
he sees murder there, for hatred is the
intention to harm.
He uses three statements here, he said, If
thou shalt be angry, there is hatred boiling
as an emotion.
And when anger is present, this kind of
which he speaks without a cause, because of
personality difference or because of ambitions being thwarted
or some other hindrance, without a cause, this
anger that comes that had, would be as
Cain's anger was toward Abel, when he says
when the anger is there, even though it
never even rises to the surface sufficiently to
come out in a word or a look
or a gesture, it's still seen by God,
and God says that viewing the anger as
it is, he can hold it to be
murder.
He says it's murder, and thus Christ has
now taken the law down from where it
had been placed as a ten-foot rule
of outward action to an x-ray that
peers right down into the innermost part of
the heart and discovers the feelings and the
motives and the attitudes.
And then he enlarges upon it by using
the word raka.
I don't know that anybody knows too much
as to what this meant.
It may have been a term of derision,
there may be some who know exactly what
it is, but I have never been satisfied
about it.
But whatever it was, it was a term
of derision that expressed contempt and expressed desire
to hurt.
We might use it for all slanderous terms,
all terms which deride, all terms which belittle,
all terms which twist and misrepresent.
It's that that the Lord sees, it's that
which he looks at.
And then he said, whosoever shall call another
thou fool.
And this, of course, he attaches with the
extreme penalty of danger of hellfire.
Now he's taken the one statement, thou shalt
not kill, and he's added to it a
dimension of depth.
You see, what God proposed to do was
not simply to keep people from slaying one
another by forbidding it, but he proposed to
give a climate of love by changing the
heart.
And when he says these things, he's simply
saying that the person that gets angry without
a cause, that says raka, the person that
says thou fool, the one whose heart sees
and boils and rages with a purpose to
hurt, never had to happen to him what
has to happen if they're to see heaven,
never had the new heart given.
For when one's been given that new heart
by the Lord, the motive becomes as grievous
as the act would have been.
The attitude becomes as heinous a sin in
the individual's eyes as the act would have
been.
And what he is actually saying is that
those that have received his grace have not
simply had an outward form of life imposed
upon them because of an obedience to a
law, but they have had a miracle take
place within them so that they've partaken of
the divine nature.
This is what he's saying, except your righteousness
exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees.
Oh, one can go on without ever having
blood on their hands and go straight to
hell because all through their lifetime professing religion,
professing Christianity, professing salvation, quoting scripture verses, even
witnessing and working in religious service, they've had
a heart filled with anger and malice and
wrath, never been saved.
See, the plan of salvation doesn't save, and
scripture verses don't save, and decision doesn't save.
Salvation is a person, a person that invades
the human personality, and in coming in gives
a new life and a new nature, makes
one a new creation.
This is what he's saying.
We proceed to the next, verses 7, 27
to 30, and here he speaks of this
problem that confronts every generation, I'm sure he
is, and ours, the problem of morality.
You've heard that it was said by them
of old times, thou shalt not commit adultery,
but I say unto you that whosoever looketh
on a woman to lust after her hath
committed adultery with her already in his heart,
and if thy right eye can thee pluck
it out and cast it from thee.
What is our Lord saying?
He's saying that again, the crime of course
has its social consequences in the act, but
it has its spiritual consequences in the attitude,
and that God who looks not on the
outward appearance but looks upon the heart, sees
deeply within the spirit of man, and when
he sees the look with lust, with the
intention or the purpose to secure illicit pleasure
and gratification, he deals with that intention of
the heart as though it were the deed
consummated.
Obviously he is dealing with it on a
spiritual basis, and obviously we recognize that the
social consequences do not result from the attitude,
but the spiritual consequences do, and what he
is saying is that the Pharisees could have
rigidly kept the Scriptures with commandment, thou shalt
not commit adultery, but their hearts were filled
with avarice, with covetousness, and with lust, with
immorality, and they had failed to recognize that
the heart was the measure of the man
and not the outward action, and that therefore
they were to judge themselves as being religious
or irreligious, not on the basis of what
they did, but on the basis of what
they wanted to do.
And my friend, today we must face this
fact that you are not what you do,
you are what you want to do, and
when God regenerates a heart, he puts within
that heart a want, a new want, a
new desire, a new passion, a new desire,
a new longing to glorify God and to
please God and to obey God.
And that one that's been born of God
will deal with the attitude of the heart
as though it were the act.
He will slay himself in the presence of
God, on his face before the Lord, not
because of an act, but because of an
attitude.
It will be whether it's in anger or
hatred or animosity toward a brother, he will
slay himself, die inside himself as the murderer
God holds him to be, not because it's
come to any outward action or word, but
because of the heart.
And so it will be here in this.
What's Jesus Christ saying?
He says, he goes and he regenerates, receives
from him a new nature, and in that
new nature they have a new purpose, and
in that new purpose they have a sensitivity
to the thought of sin as though it
were the deep completed and they will deal
thus with the thought.
This is what he's saying.
He's saying that everyone to whom he gives
his life, he gives his attitude toward sin,
all sin.
The third thing that he speaks of here
is in reference to the marital relationship.
It has been said, whosoever shall put away
his wife, let him give her the writing
of divorcement.
But I say unto you that whosoever shall
put away his wife, saving for the cause
of fornication, cause of her to commit adultery,
and whosoever marry her that is divorced, commiteth
adultery.
This is his word, and he is saying
now that the writ of divorcement that Moses
prescribed fulfilled the outward purpose of the law,
but it left uncovered the deep need of
the human heart and the human spirit, and
he said it's not enough, for the one
that has been born of God discovers that
the church is pictured by the whole.
And he's taken a divine illustration of what
the whole is to be when, of what
the church is to be when he said
Christ is the bridegroom and the church is
the bride.
And he said now you, anyone that's been
born of him can't be content with the
writ of divorcement because they realize there's a
heavenly significance, gloriously glorious heavenly significance, that it
has to be respected.
And he said they, you've heard, but I
say unto you, saying now that there comes
into the heart a deep passionate desire to
secure the glory of God, not one's own
whim or fancy or pleasure.
Verse thirty-three brings us to the fourth.
Again, you have heard that it has been
said by them of old time, thou shalt
not forswear thyself, but thou shalt perform unto
the Lord thine oath.
Yes, that's what it was in the old
time, but he says it's not that way
now.
He said God doesn't ask for an oath,
he doesn't ask for this swearing by all
that is good and all that is holy.
He said you're not to swear by earth,
it's his footstool, by Jerusalem, it's the city
of the king.
You can't even swear by your own head
because you can't turn one hair black or
white.
He said the Christian that has a new
heart and a new nature doesn't have to
reinforce his statements by appealing to heaven or
to kings or cities or hair or head,
because his only desire in speech is to
speak that which is true, and he only
needs say yes or no, for anything beyond
this comes from a desire to reinforce, and
as Shakespeare would imply, that one did protest
too much.
And so he is saying that that person
that's been born of him, that person that
has the righteousness from above, does not need
to protect his truthfulness by appealing to those
that could bring reprisals upon him for failure,
but because he has a heart that is
committed to truth and loves truth, he simply
says yes or no and this is the
end of it.
And it is thus that he is saying
the truth is in the inward parts, and
the one that's been born of him has
had this rectifying of the inner man so
that he doesn't need to be protected by
oaths, but because he fears God and stands
in the presence of God, his word is
enough.
He's describing the regenerate heart, the one whose
word is yea, yea, and nay, nay.
And then the fifth one, verse thirty-eight,
ye have heard that it's been said an
eye for an eye, and a tooth for
a tooth.
This was the great improvement.
When Moses declared this, he changed the social
conditions of Israel and of the world around
about him, for it soon was adopted by
others.
You see, it was in days past that
if a man lost an eye, he slew
the one who caused it.
If he lost a tooth, he took the
life of the person that had injured him.
And it wasn't an eye for an eye,
it was a life for an eye, and
a life for a tooth.
And life was cheap.
But now, he said, something's happened.
It isn't just this improvement over that by
establishing an eye for an eye, but now
it is something entirely different.
Resist not evil.
And whosoever shall smite you on the right
cheek, turn to him the other also.
And if a man will sue thee at
the law and take away thy coat, let
him have thy cloak.
And whosoever shall compel thee to go a
mile, go with him plain.
Give to him that asketh thee, and from
him that would borrow thee, turn not thou
away.
Unfortunately, I'm afraid that about all that most
people see in this is the first phrase
of the forty-second verse, and they use
it to justify giving to the people on
the street.
Now I would urge you and plead with
you not to so misapply the scripture.
And I would urge you and plead with
you not to give to the people that
on Sunday morning come and stand outside the
church door expecting a handout.
I believe that there is no greater damage
done to human personality than this.
It wasn't until the prodigal was in pain
of eating of husks, and no man would
give to him that he came to himself.
And it is a known fact that a
panhandler in the Times Square area, if he'll
work a full eight hour a day, can
collect eight, three hundred and fifty dollars on
the average week.
Of course snowstorms and natural things would stand
in the way.
Now don't any of you go out and
say it's better than I'm making.
This isn't what I'm suggesting it for.
I'm simply saying that there's absolutely no justification
for interpreting this scripture on that basis.
Now if you happen to know some family
or some need or some individual where you
understand that in Israel the begging such as
we would know here for the purpose of
continuing an indulgence in licentiousness didn't exist as
such.
And if there would be such a case
where you would have someone come, I believe
that it is very wrong for a Christian
seeing someone in need, where there is need
and where there's an opportunity to help and
to establish a home and to establish something
that could protect from great grief.
You know it's the loss of the nail
that caused the loss of the shoe that
caused the loss of the horse that caused
the loss of the soldier that caused the
loss of the battle.
And there are times when help is needed.
But I suggest to you that when that's
done it do not be considered alone.
It says give to him that asketh thee
and from him that would borrow of thee
turn not thou way.
Yes but let's move back again and see
the significance of it.
That you resist not evil but whosoever shall
smite thee on the right cheek turn to
him the other also.
Most of the trouble that people get into
is in trying to protect themselves and avenge
themselves and defend themselves.
And someone says something against you and so
you can't wait for an opportunity to get
even.
And someone does something and the person just
can hardly wait for an opportunity to give
in kind.
And the Lord Jesus Christ has said this
is all finished with my people.
My people haven't a desire to avenge themselves
and vindicate themselves and prove themselves right and
defend themselves because they've seen themselves worthy of
death.
And they've stood at the door of the
cross.
And they've viewed a man hanging there for
them.
And they've said that I deserve the death
he dies.
How can anyone that's taken that attitude toward
himself vindicate himself and justify himself?
No no they smite you on the right
turn the left and leave it with the
Lord.
This is the, not so much, it has
to do of course with social relationships but
what he is saying is that in his
work of grace he does something in the
heart.
It's deep within the heart that the Lord
does the work.
And that's where he's letting it come.
There's something happened in their heart.
By nature none of us are of this
order.
Every one of us are right there to
defend ourselves.
But God in grace gives new hearts.
And you're prepared to leave the case in
his hands and allow him to take care
of it.
Truth crushed to earth will rise again.
It won't fall.
It won't disappear.
It may be stomped upon but it will,
it will come back.
And so he said anyone that's mine that's
had this work I've come to do has
a new law within them.
Not the law of retaliation.
Not the law of self vindication.
Not the law of self defense.
But the law that nothing can touch me
but what my Father permits it.
Nothing can happen to me but what my
Father allows it.
He's given me a new act.
This is what he's saying.
He's describing what he does.
And then the last is found in verses
43 to 48.
He have heard that it has been said
thou shall love thy neighbor and hate thine
enemy.
Oh yes.
This was even an improvement because Israel didn't
always love his neighbor.
But he said when it was given it
was considerable improvement because it involved the necessity
of dealing with one's neighbor on the same
basis that one would be dealt with.
It's the root of the golden rule.
Do unto others as thou wouldst have others
do unto you.
But now our Lord is saying that what
they had heard love your neighbor and hate
your enemy wasn't what Moses said.
It was the Pharisees interpretation of what Moses
said.
For you see after the captivity in Babylon
most of the Jewish people in our Lord's
time could not read Hebrew.
They spoke Aramaic or Arabic and they couldn't
read the scripture and they had to depend
upon the rabbis to tell them what God
said.
And so what the rabbis said was thou
shall love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy.
It was their interpretation of it.
The Lord said no no.
He said I say unto you I say
unto you love your enemies.
Bless them that curse you.
Do good to them that hate you.
Pray for them which despitefully use you and
persecute you that you may be the children
of your Father which is in heaven.
That you may be yes in that sense
that it may be revealed and manifest and
disclosed that you are the children of your
Father which is in heaven.
That's what he say.
Everyone that he redeems he gives this kind
of a heart to.
You say well I I I haven't I
haven't lived this way all the time.
The question isn't as much have you lived
this way all the time but have you
dealt with everything contrary to this as the
sin that it is.
If you've been born of God he's given
you this kind of a heart.
This kind of a desire.
This kind of a purpose.
This kind of a longing.
And you cannot tolerate the contrary to this
in your life as being justifiable and defensible.
And so when you find hatred springing up
self vindication springing up then you're going to
have to deal with it as the sin
it is.
That's what the Lord is saying.
He's saying that when he makes a person
over again and he saves them he makes
them a new creature.
Oh we've lost so much of the sense
of the supernaturalness of the grace of God.
We've reduced it down to a formula and
a tipping of the hat and a nodding
of the head.
When it's something infinitely more than that it's
encounter with God when the whole personality undergoes
that glorious transforming work that only the living
Christ can perform.
This is what he's saying.
You see what we've done we've tried we've
had salvation made so easy and then we've
tried to get done in sanctification what God
put in salvation and fill the churches with
unconverted people.
Oh that the Spirit of God can bring
us back to see all that the Holy
Ghost put into salvation.
And there's still abundance left to be done
in his sanctifying grace and work.
But this is what he does to a
regenerate heart.
This is what he does to one that's
born again.
This is the kind of a person a
Christian is.
That's what he's saying.
This is what he does.
He's putting this dimension.
He's saying this is the kind of righteousness
that I give that exceeds and surpasses that
of the Pharisees.
And by possessing this and this alone can
one go into heaven.
The salvation that he's talking about.
Now I want you to see him closing
five things.
First he's shown us here that the matter
of the utmost importance is the spirit of
the law and not just the letter.
The intention and not just the word.
The motive and not just the detail.
And then the second thing that he's shown
us is that conformity of the law is
not in action only but also in motive.
And God is judging not so much what
one does, that of course is clear, but
why one does it.
Oh what a pity it is that we
have usurped to ourselves the prerogative of judging
motives.
No one can ever save another person.
The reason they did that was this.
No one knows why.
We only have to deal with what.
There are times when people do things and
persist in doing things that must be judged
on the basis of the thing itself.
But only God knows the motive and God
always judge according to the motive.
Second thing is, third thing is that we
must understand that Christ is saying that the
law must be thought of positively not just
negatively.
Not just what it forbids but what it
intends.
Not just what it prohibits but what it
promotes.
And you can see from his unfolding of
the law that it wasn't just to restrict
certain outward actions, but it was to have
a new kind of person, a new genus,
a new species of which he was the
first and all of his own were to
be followers.
What he actually did you see when he
came was to create an entirely new species.
All the others of men had natural life.
But now he is coming down and taking
men who possess natural life and by a
supernatural act is imparting divine life.
And the Christian therefore is to be thought
of if he's rightly viewed as a new
kind of being for he possesses not just
human life but divine life.
And he is to act according to the
nature, according to the species of which he
is now a part.
And then the fourth thing we need to
see is that the purpose of the law
is not just to keep us in a
state of obedience by means of oppressive rules,
but it is to aid and to develop
character, spiritual character.
And the law is just and holy and
good in this intention.
When it is used by the Holy Ghost,
when the Spirit of Him who raised up
Jesus from the dead dwell in us, He
quickens our mortal bodies and He quickens our
human spirits and the law is fulfilled in
us who walk not after the flesh but
after the Spirit.
This is what we are to understand.
The purpose of the law is character, spiritual
character.
And then of course the fifth thing that
you anticipate is this, that the end of
the law is not in itself an obedience
to it, but the end of the law
is to make it possible for us to
know God.
And therefore we are to understand when Christ
explains the law that what He is doing
is explaining that God is first going to
do something in a man to make him
a new kind of a man, do something
in a woman to make her a new
kind of a woman, so that in the
doing of this, this new kind of a
woman can know God.
And God is the end of all religion,
all Christianity.
God Himself, not heaven, not blessings, not good,
not healing, not health, not money, not prosperity.
The end of all religion is to know
God.
And the end of the law is to
make it possible for us to know God.
And so what He has done is given
to us this explanation of the meaning of
the law and saying the only kind of
people that can know God are the people
that have had this kind of a supernatural
operation performed upon them.
I'm sure that I speak to many, and
as I do, you say, oh how I
praise God for what He's done.
Yes, this is what He's done.
He's given me this purpose.
I haven't perfectly fulfilled it.
I have failed, I have lapsed, but as
I know my heart before the living God,
this is what I want to do and
be.
How marvelous it is.
You know every preachment of truth should have
three results.
It should make people glad or sad or
mad.
And if I've spoken to you and this
has borne witness to your heart and you've
said yes, this is what God did when
He saved me, then I trust you're glad
with heavenly joy.
But if perhaps the preaching of this has
said, well it didn't happen to me on
this wise, I heard the plan of salvation
and agreed with it and all these years
I've presumed I've been saved, but these things
didn't happen, then, oh friend, let it make
you sad.
Sad to the point where you're willing to
meet Him and let Him do this, for
this is what He does in His own.
And perhaps there will be some that will
say, we've never heard it on this wise,
and it will make you mad.
The only thing that we can't tolerate is
to have you go the way you came.
When you hear the word of the Son
of God, something must happen.
But oh, I'm so glad to tell you
today that the Lord Jesus Christ stands at
the door of grace and bids all who
will come.
And should it be that you find that
your heart is not of this sort, do
not go from here filled with despair.
For Jesus Christ stands ready to make everything
that He died to produce real in your
life.
And His nail-pierced hands extended to you
and His loving voice beckoning you.
Come unto Me and I will give you
rest.
Ought to be sufficient invitation for you to
come with your need and ask Him to
do all that needs must be done.
Christ explains the law not as something that
we do to be, but something that we
do because we are.
Shall we bow in prayer?
Living as we are in these days, our
God, when men have systematically sought to rob
the words of the Lord Jesus Christ of
their meaning and their import and their cutting
edge, we stand before Thee to thank Thee
that the book is entire and we hold
it as ours.
We thank Thee that this is Thy word.
Our God, our hearts cry out to Thee
this morning that there should those here that
can say from the word of the Lord
Jesus applied to their consciences, this is what
He's done.
To His, by His grace and to His
glory, this is what He's done.
He's given me this kind of a heart.
Oh, might there be joy in rejoicing.
But for such our Father who may have
professed to be saved, but have not found
the delivering, releasing, ransoming power of the cross
of Christ in their lives, might it be
that just now they'd be willing to face
their heart need and bow before Thee and
meet Thee, lest they should be satisfied with
other than that righteousness which He imparts.
Grant, Lord, the word shall lay upon our
hearts.
It's a loving word.
Thou hast never used the word to wound,
only in the wounding to heal.
And might it be that the word this
morning is come, even where it must deeply
cut, with love, knowing that every wound that
Thou didst inflict or Thy word did bring
is but the promise of that healing and
health that Thou wilt give.
So seal Thy word to us.
And for those needy hearts that have heard
it, oh, bind it close upon them and
draw them to Thyself.
Yea, Lord, might it be that today, this
hour, that they make known their need, come
to Thee.
For Jesus' sake.
Amen.
Let us stand for the benediction.
Now may the God of peace that brought
again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that
great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood
of the everlasting covenant, make us perfect in
every good work to do His will, working
in us that which is well-pleasing in
His sight, through Jesus Christ our Lord, to
whom be the glory now and forever.
Amen.