[0:00] Thanks Thomas. It really is a privilege to be preaching here. It's been so nice the way that Helen and I have been welcomed here to be part of this church and be part of the wider community and it's lovely to bring God's Word to you now. Before we look at Psalm 15, we pray in us for God's help. Heavenly Father, as we come to your Word now, we ask that you would give us ears to hear, hearts to understand. Lord, please use your Word as you've promised to convict and encourage and inspire us. Please cut us deep, not to wound but to heal and to build us up more and more into the image of your Son. Lord, we pray that you would use your Word to unite us with one purpose in growing more like him, in honoring him and in praising him, giving glory to you. Lord, we ask this for the sake of Jesus Christ. I don't know what you thought about that first line in Psalm 15. Oh Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill? That's the question we're confronted with right at the beginning of Psalm 15, aren't we? Or to put the question another way, who shall dwell in the temple of the Lord? Who can meet with God as God's friend? Who can live in his house? Who can be God's guest? Now, that might sound like a bizarre question in the year 2022 now on the Isle of Lewis over 2,000 years since this was written. However, it would have been a natural question for the original author, for David who's writing this Psalm and for the generations of Israelites who followed after, who sung this Psalm and who taught it to one another, probably as they journeyed up towards the temple to offer sacrifices. You see, imagine you're on your way to the temple or maybe you're a child and you're being brought up to the temple for the first time and you're being told that this is the dwelling place of God. This is the dwelling place of the God of Israel and you see it for the first time, the cut stone, the burnished bronze, the glittering gold, all of these, this majestic building that points to the glorious God who has made his home among his people. All of this is to reflect the God of creation, the one true God. And this temple is the meeting place of heaven and earth. This is the one place. When you come to God's people, you come to God's city, you come to his temple. This is where humanity can meet with God. It would have been truly wondrous thing to be journeying up to the temple. But as you approach the temple courtyard, it would have been obvious that not just anyone could approach this glorious God, still lest well with him. The first thing you'd have noticed is that there would be Levi, special priest standing guard at the temple gates. And you can see only Israelites, only circumcised Israelites could enter into the outer courtyard and you look a bit further in and you'll notice that it's not even those priests who can go all the way in. Only some of the priests are serving in the temple. And you'd have to be the high priest if you wanted to go all the way into the temple and even then you'd be allowed only once a year. And the reason is obvious. There right in the middle of the temple courts would have been that big bronze altar piled high with sacrifices, with the blood coming off it, the smell of the sacrifices there. And explains why. While God's people are invited to draw near to God in fellowship, there's still a barrier. There's still sin preventing true relationship with God. And so the temple itself was a vivid reminder of two important truths that we see addressed in this psalm. First, that God is glorious and holy. But second, that humanity's not. And it had been very natural then for the original author. You can imagine David looking down from his palace at all of this happening in the temple or the Israelite coming up the temple. It had been natural for them to ask this question, who can dwell on your holy hill? Who can dwell in your tabernacle of God?
[4:25] And in that way, it's an incredibly relevant psalm for us as well, because it's a psalm for people at every age and it speaks to the biggest human problem we have. That is man's relationship with God. Or maybe you should say our lack of relationship. We often speak of psalms, don't we, as our words to God. The psalms wonderfully articulate our pains, our prayers, our praise, all of the words in which we want to express to God. And they do it for us. But psalms are also God's words for us. God's way of teaching things about him. And Psalm 15 is a very good example of this. In Psalm 15, God is teaching at his people a sobering lesson. Verses two to five are that answer to that question of psalm one. Who may dwell, I don't know if you're looking as we read, it's this person of perfect integrity. Only the person of perfect integrity can dwell with the Lord. And that challenge of the psalm would have stopped the Israelite, right dead in his tracks. Some commentators think that these words were actually put sometimes on the temple doorposts. And so immediately as you come up to the temple, you'd have been convicted of your sin.
[5:44] But the psalm was meant to do more than that probably. As we go through this psalm, I hope we'll see not only how it convicts, but how it inspires God's people into righteous living. It's a wonderful standard to be inspired by. But final thing I will want to see as we go through this is that it should also be an encouragement. This side of the cross, we can look at this psalm through the lens of Christ, through his life and death and resurrection. And we can see how it's an encouragement for us as we seek to follow in his footsteps. So that's our roadmap for this evening. I hope that helps if you're taking notes just to know where we're going a bit or thinking. But first then I'd like us to think a bit more about this whole business of dwelling with God. After all, that's the point of the psalm. That's the longing. And if you're listening and maybe you're online or in person and you're still thinking about things to do with Christianity, you might be thinking, oh, what's the big deal? What's the big deal of dwelling with God? And even if you're not, all of us as Christians need to answer that question because that's the thing that goes right through this psalm. What's the big deal about dwelling with God? So our first point then,
[6:58] God's house is the longing of humanity. So let me just look at verse one again with us. The tent in the holy hill, if you notice in verse one, that speaks of the tabernacle or the temple of God on the hill on top of Jerusalem. And longing for God's house is a frequent theme in the Psalms. So I'll just run through a few places where we see it. Psalm 26 verse 8, David declares, oh, Lord, I love the habitation of your house and the place where your glory dwells.
[7:33] And then the next Psalm, he says, one thing I've asked the Lord, that will I will seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. And it's not just David that's longing for God's temple. Later on the sons of Korah say, how lovely is your dwelling place, oh, Lord of hosts, my soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord. How blessed are those who dwell in your house and sing your praise for one day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. Maybe most famously of all that language of dwelling will make us think of Psalm 23, which ends with, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. So dwelling with God is clearly a big thing for all these psalmist. It's their heart's desire. You saw that emotive language that we see there.
[8:27] So what is the big deal? Well, the psalmist's, I hope we'll see, have understood something that the Bible tells us again and again that God created us to have life with God in God's house.
[8:43] That was the original goal of creation. In Genesis one and two, we see humanity enjoying life in Eden, in God's house. But you all know the story that Adam and Eve, they rebel against God and humanity lose that privilege, don't they? And they are cast out and they face death.
[9:04] They're moved away. And the rest of the Bible then is that quest who may once, how can we once again dwell with God? How can we once again come in the house of God, not just enter in and then be kicked out the moment we put a foot wrong? How can we dwell? And in the language of the end of verse five, how can we dwell and never be moved? That's the, so if you're thinking the whole scope, the story of the Bible can be humanity dwelling with God exiled and longing and looking forward to that opportunity to dwell. God providing a dwelling and we see once more by the time we get to revelation that we can dwell with the Lord. The Bible then explains to us the origin and the reason for our desire for belonging. I don't know, we often think, we can often feel, have that feeling of wanting a sense of belonging, of maybe feeling restless. The Bible explains that deep down that desire is because we have been plucked out, exiled from where we should be. We should be in relationship with God. And we, you know, human relationships are wonderful and we do find a sense of satisfaction then, but it never fully quenches that longing. There's still something missing. There's still something we need. We're never completely satisfied. We still have that, yeah, never quenches that thirst for life. And the psalmist have picked up the center of life, though that's why they're singing about this. God has led them to that as they have meditated on
[10:43] God's word. As they see the temple, they're looking forward and seeing that life can be found in the house of God. This is where we're meant to be. Life is found with God. Psalm 36 actually describes the Lord's house as the source of all life and abundance. We read, they feast on the abundance of your house and they give the, and you give the drink from the river of your delights for in you, so with you is the fountain of life in your light. Do we see light life with God in God's house?
[11:19] That's what we're made for. That was tasted by David and his contemporaries as they looked at the temple and they long for more. The Old Testament prophets looked forward where there would be more.
[11:32] They glimpsed the final reality and that final reality, even if we're going to glance through and Jesus fulfilled it, we'll come back to that, but we're going through revelation. We see in those final words of revelation that it has been fulfilled. John says, I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself will be with them as they're God. There's the whole scope of it. That's where the Psalm fits in with the scope of it. That's where the quest for life with God in God's house ends. So just as David and the other Israelites were looking at God's temple and they're thinking, who can dwell with the Lord? We might not be standing in front of the temple, but we can equally be looking at the new creation, looking at eternity and asking that question, well, who may dwell in the temple? Who may dwell with God? Who may enter in through the gates of eternity to dwell with him in his new creation? Who can dwell with God? That's the question that the Psalm is asking.
[12:40] And we're going to turn to our second point now to think a bit about the answers. We look at verses two to five and a bit of a health warning. Our second point is longer than our first because those verses are longer mainly. So don't get worried if you think he's going on a lot longer than the first point. So verses two to five, I don't know whether you noticed, they give us a portrait, don't they? We see all the details from the person's head to their foot. We're given a portrait of God's guest. And I love the way that David doesn't ask the question, who can dwell on your holy hill?
[13:12] And his answer is me because I'm king. He doesn't do that. He doesn't say the answer of him because of status or anything. Because David has been meditating on God's law and of God's heart.
[13:27] He knows there isn't a matter of status. It isn't a matter of, I don't know who you are, where you've been born. It's a matter of character. It's a matter of the heart. That's why our second point is it's a person of perfect integrity. That's the person we see in verses two to five.
[13:45] And it's not an exhaustive portrait. And I want us to just look at a few of the characteristics in turn. There's so much in there. We'll try to just dot through them though. As we do, try to build a picture in your mind of what it would be like to know this person, to meet them on the street, or maybe to be even a little bit like this person. So the first facet we see in this portrait is verse two. He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart. This is a person whose character is wholly true. We're told he walks blamelessly. He never puts a foot wrong. It makes me think of, well, I guess, yes, back in all the way, it's about six months ago. Summer seems a long time now, doesn't it? If you think, if any of you watched the Olympics and you watched the synchronized diving and you have people, they never put a foot wrong. If they're going to get the gold medal, that is. Every step, every turn, every twist, and the splash is perfectly in sync. Those are the people who get the gold medal. They never put a foot wrong. On the balancing beam, it's not necessarily about how hard it moves and flips you do.
[14:57] It's about doing it and not putting a foot wrong and falling off. Well, God's guest is someone who who's never out of place. There's a razor sharp focus. It's faultless. It's flawless.
[15:12] And you read this and you think, who on earth could say that about their whole life? You know, many of us can put on a pretty good facade, can't we? If you spend a few hours with a person, especially if you're doing your first time getting to know them, we can put on a pretty good face and people think, okay, this is a decent person. But all day, every day, in all our interactions with everyone all the time, this is a person who is utterly blameless.
[15:40] And more significant, it's not just what they look like on the outside. It's their heart who speaks truth in his heart. Again, again, the Bible tells us that the heart is the true test of our character. And we can improve our outward appearance. We can hide our feelings from each other. But before God, everything is laid bare. In Jeremiah 17, we read, I the Lord, search the heart and test the mind to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds. Now imagine that God's dwelling place at the gates of God's dwelling place had a, I don't know, an x ray or MRI scan that scanned for sin. That examined every thought, every intention, past, present and future, and maybe even put the results up on a screen. So as you walk through, everyone can see it. What God's guess here is someone who can walk through without a single bleep. Not a single line will appear on the screen. This person is true through and through.
[16:45] Jesus was right when he said, blessed are the pure heart, for they shall see God. This is someone who is, there's nothing spotless inside and out. And what we see is that their hearts flow into their words. So if you look on in verse three, we read, they do not slander with their tongue. They don't take up evil against the neighbor. They don't take approach against the friend.
[17:10] We're reminded in James that humanity have tamed every beast except the tongue. And yet here God's guess is person who has tamed their tongue. They have restrained it.
[17:24] They don't slander. Slander is one way of speaking badly about someone, isn't it? He's a person though who doesn't let their frustration spill over into their speech. They don't gossip. They guard their lips. And when they've been wronged, when people have spoken badly about them or treated them unfairly, they don't take the first opportunity to talk to their spouse or a closest friend and vent and take out their anger in that way.
[17:51] They're utterly, utterly faultless. They don't slander. They're generous with their words and their actions as well. You know, Jesus said that one of the greatest two commandments, as well as love the Lord your God, through your heart, soul, mind and strength is to love your neighbor as yourself. And he reminds them that everyone is our neighbor. And here's someone whose relationships are just characterized by love as well. They don't take up, they do no evil to their neighbor. They're not tearing people down. They're building them up in love.
[18:28] They're not stingy with their love and just treating a small circle of family or the people they like. This is everyone. This is the neighbor. Everyone who crosses their path, they treat with the dignity of one who's created in the image of God. I always find that really challenging. When you're reminded or when someone reminds me that actually the person I'm talking with, the person I have a brief interaction with, the checkout counter, this is someone who's created in the image of God. That always just stops me in my tracks. Because if you're anything like me, we just don't think about that. We just don't treat someone as someone who's made an image of our glorious and holy God. That's what God's guest is to be like.
[19:15] Have you ever spoken to someone who's even a little bit like this? Maybe someone who makes you feel valued and loved and having a worth? Who doesn't listen to you and just try to find a way out or who's friends with you just for something that they can get out of you? It's a person who treats you with dignity and respect. Even when they want to correct you, I imagine this is the kind of person who'd put their arm around you and you'd feel like they were saying something really nice even because they're helping you. They're on your side. This is someone I would want to meet.
[19:51] So we've gone through their walk, we've gone through their talk, we've gone through their relationships. Well, verse 4 now looks at their eyes. What do they see? What does this person, how does this person see the world? What's their world of you? We've read in verse 4, in whose eyes a vile person is despised but who honours those who fear the Lord. Now, this might be a bit tricky, but basically this is someone who looks at the world as God does.
[20:17] God hates those who do evil but honours those who do good. That's what we're told. This is person who has the same reverent fear for God and looks like as the world as God does.
[20:29] Let me be clear though, this isn't a person who's filled with some self-righteous scorn, thinking all those people around there who are worse than me, those dirty sinners. That's not what it's like. In some ways, if we look at Jesus and we see what it's like, he's the one who, yes, Jesus knew the difference between right and wrong. He knew when to challenge the Pharisees and to call them out. But he also was the one who ate and drank with sinners. He's the one who came not to call the righteous but sinners through repentance. So even as we look at this, I think it's just important that as we apply this verse to ourselves and as we have the right warning of how do we look at the world? We need to make sure first that we apply it to ourselves. We take heed of Jesus' words, maybe to take the log out of our own eye before we take the speck out of someone else's. We need to have 2020 vision before we start looking in that way. But this is someone who sees the world as God does. But finally, just final characteristic, end of verse 4, verse 5.
[21:38] God's guess is someone who's honorable in all their dealings. I don't know whether you think about that word much, but I think that summarizes quite nicely how this person acts. I'm just going to read the NIV translation because I think it puts it quite clearly. So from halfway through verse 4, this is someone who keeps an oath even when it hurts and does not change their mind, who lends money to the poor without interest, who does not accept a bribe against the innocent.
[22:10] God's guess doesn't just make rash promises and then conveniently forget them. This is someone who sticks to what they say. They take the hit, they don't leave someone else to pick up their pieces, they don't say one thing and do the other. They're genuine, they're honest, they're straightforward in all they do. And they don't take advantage of someone for misfortune or gain. That's verse 5. They don't pervert the course of good justice, they're selfless, they're generous.
[22:42] I mean we just get across these verses. A person, this portrait of someone whose heart, whose mind, whose actions, whose relationships, whose integrity, everything, they're just in line with God's character, aren't they? They're not exhaustive, but if you cut someone, you would talk about if you cut them, they would bleed. Well, this is what they would bleed. This is what would come out. This God-like character, flawless and faultless. I wonder though, as we read this profile of God's guest, how did you feel?
[23:19] How do we feel? Maybe we felt convicted. Maybe we felt humbled. Maybe you thought like I did. I fall really far short of these characteristics. I fall really far short of God's standard.
[23:32] Maybe you were encouraged though. As you saw, actually as you saw Christ depicted in these words, that's my savior, you might think. Maybe you were inspired and you thought, you know what, I want to live more like that. I want to be, I want to have a life like the guest, like God's guest. I want this to be the template for my Christian life in the year 2022.
[23:59] I think God's guest is meant to evoke all three responses in us. It's meant to convict us. It's meant to inspire us. It's meant to challenge us. I think thinking about those three categories actually in general, a really good way of approaching any part of the law and Old Testament and New Testament. Law is always meant to do those three things. Let's just quickly look at those three things in our third point. Convict, inspire and encourage as we think about our response.
[24:31] This is a Psalm that convicts. Why? Well, quite simply because it's obvious, none of us have the character of God's guest. He is great, but he's not you or I. There's good evidence that many of these Psalms actually were put together after they were written. They were put in an order for a reason.
[24:54] If you scan through Psalm 14, which comes before Psalm 15, you'll notice that God's verdict on humanity is pretty bleak. So even if you just look at Psalm 14 verse three in your Bibles, read, God looks at humanity and he says, they have all turned aside.
[25:09] Together they have become corrupt. There is no one who does does good, not even one. That's God's verdict on us. That's very different to Psalm 15. So the question of Psalm 15 at verse one that we read is a really natural follow up in a world of fools who can ascend and dwell with God. And one writer was reading on this says, the answer of Psalm 15 should come like a series of punches. If we've read some Psalm 14 seriously, we should read Psalm 15 and feel like we're being punched. It's a person who's blameless. It's a person whose heart is pure, whose words are true, whose love extends to all. These should be like a series of punches convicting us, stopping us in our tracks because if Psalm 15 is who we are, then, sorry, Psalm 14 is who we are. Psalm 15 is who we're not. We by nature are the opposite of God's guest. None of us are blameless enough, truthful enough, pure enough, just enough to stand in God's presence. Like Adam by nature, we're all out.
[26:23] And I don't know if you, again, listening online or in person, if you're looking into Christianity, you might find this a bit shocking, even offensive that none of us are welcome by nature in God's house, that the gates of heaven are close to us. That relationship with God is out of bounds by nature. That this isn't a portrait of us. As such, none of us by nature can dwell on God's holy hill. But isn't it good that it doesn't end there? Isn't it good that this is also a portrait that encourages? Because if we flick, I want you to flick it, there's another Psalm, a bit more flicking. If you flick back to Psalm 2, if you got your Bible, that phrase holy hill does come up again. To read verse six, God says, while the kings of the earth are all raging, trying to topple God, God says, as for me, I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill.
[27:24] You see, no human broken by sin can meet God's standard. So God has provided the perfect man. The New Testament is very clear that the king of Psalm 2 is Jesus Christ. He's the only one who has lived with a life of perfect integrity. He's the only one who has lived Psalm 15 out. You can see, as you read the Gospels, he was blameless at every step. Even Pilate couldn't help but declare him innocent. Again and again, we're told that in his trial. The apostle Peter can say, when he was reviled, he did not revile him return. When he suffered, he did not threaten but continued in trusting himself to him who judges justly. I didn't stop him calling out the wicked, though either.
[28:12] We saw that I mentioned him. He does challenge the Pharisees, but he welcomes the sinful woman to pour out the perfume on his feet and wipe the hair on it. He welcomes those who recognize their sin to come to him. He says, come to me, all you weary, and I will give you rest.
[28:30] It's amazing. His heart is entirely devoted to obeying the will of the Father. He sets his face to go to the cross for those like that woman, for all of us who've recognized our sin to come to him.
[28:46] Jesus is the man of Psalm 15. Wonderfully, he did Psalm 15 in our place. That's the encouragement of it. He's God who took on perfect humanity. Where Adam fell, he triumphed. Jesus wasn't exiled 30 years into his life. He triumphed as our representative and king of all who trust in him. That means if we're part of his people, let's just expand. What does that mean? That means his righteousness, his righteousness. What does that mean? His record, the record of his life, the record of Psalm 15.
[29:21] Jesus, Psalm 15 is written all over Jesus. His record of that becomes our record. We're clothed in his team colors as it were. Because of him, God judges us blameless. As if God is looking at us, and as we go through that scanner, Psalm 15 bleeps up. He opens wide the door of his house to us.
[29:44] He welcomes us as his guest because we're in Christ. And I think David understood this. Because I'm going to again flicker to another Psalm, but don't worry. It's just the Psalm 16.
[29:57] Psalm 15 ends with that assurance. He who does these things shall never be moved. But Psalm 16 is one we often, we know well. And there's that famous line in verse 8 that we sing.
[30:10] And verse 8, I've sat the Lord always before me because he is at my right hand. I shall not be shaken. Now shaken is the same word as moved. And why does David think that he won't be shaken? It's not because he says I'm king. It's not because he says I've done Psalm 15. It's because he said I've placed God at my right hand. David, while he didn't know Jesus, trusted that if he put God at his right hand as his number one, he wouldn't be moved. He wouldn't be exiled. He wouldn't be cast out.
[30:45] And so for us as well, if we had to fulfill the requirements of Psalm 15 to dwell with God, we would never be allowed. Left to ourselves, we would have no assurance of salvation if Psalm 15 was the requirements. None of us would have anything, would have no chance. Jesus frees us from the impossible burden, you might say, of Psalm 15. Because if we're trusting in him, if we've placed him at our right hand, that's what trusting in him essentially is. It's saying, Jesus is my number one. He is the one who's going before me. He's representing me. He's the one in whom I can come to my father. If he is at our right hand, we can have the same assurance as David, that God will never turn us away. He'll never cast us away. We'll never be exiled from Eden as it were.
[31:37] And we can even look forward to a greater assurance when Christ returns and he takes his people to himself, into his new creation. A global Eden, it's essentially, new creation is Eden restored and perfected. And we can have the assurance that the fall won't be repeated.
[31:56] Well, if we're Christ's people, well, we will have life with God in God's house for eternity. We will not be moved. And so finally then briefly, for us as followers of Jesus, this is not only convicting and encouraging. This is also should be inspiring. All of us look at this, I imagine, this portrait and we think, I'd love to be like that person. It'll be bizarre for us not to, I think.
[32:24] Only one person that is Christ Jesus can say that he is. But because he's sent his spirit into our hearts, into our lives, we can all say, actually, with Christ's help, by his spirit, we can be transformed more and more every day for our walk to be like the walk of God's guest.
[32:43] To be a little bit more, a little bit more for our speech, for our actions, for our relationships, to reflect that. We will stumble, yes, the psalm will continue to be convicting, it will continue to point out to us the jagged edges in our lives, the potholes that need to be smoothed over.
[33:03] But we now have hope. The psalm gives us hope. In Christ we have hope because he's given his spirit so that we can live in him and like him. You could think about it this way, our king has lived Psalm 15 for us. He dwells on his holy hill by his strengths that we can dwell with him. We can walk with God as God's guest, independent from Christ who has walked it first. So let's, we're coming to a close now. As we close though, let's just answer that question again that we started with. Oh Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill? Well the answer is only God's blameless guest and that's a really good thing. That's a really good thing. It's only his anointed King Jesus but also with us as his people. Christ dwells but with us his people, all who put him at his right hand. With Christ at our right hand we can know the embrace of God as our father. We can, we can walk blameless by his spirit. We can look forward to a place that he's prepared for us to dwell as he promises. So wonderfully, intendantly in that, in John's Gospel and in Christ will never be evicted. Even when we see that our sin, even when we're convicted again and again and Satan tempts us to despair, we can look at verse five and we can remind it that he who does these things shall never be moved. Christ has done these things and if I'm trusting in him I will never be moved.
[34:46] May that be our assurance tonight and into this weekend, into this year to come. Let's pray. Heavenly Father we thank you for your word. Thank you that you speak life and you speak truth into our hearts. And Lord you make us so aware of your sin, of our sin. Lord your word is like a measuring stick, like a mirror that into our lives, a plum line and we do see how, how faulty and wonky we are in comparison. Lord thank you that you don't leave us in that despair even as we see in this song.
[35:31] Thank you that you have sent your son to live and to die in our place so that we may be called children of God and so we are in Christ. So Lord please apply the, all that this song does on our hearts, please convict us where we need that. Please cut us to the heart where we need and humble us where we need humbling. But please Lord also lift us up, lift us up so that we can rejoice in you this week so that we can have a great assurance in our King and our standing in faith in Him.
[36:11] We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Well we're now going to sing Psalm 24 as Thomas was saying we're going to be restarting singing in person. So as it all comes up we're going to sing Psalm 24.
[36:26] Psalm 24 is like Psalm 15. It reminds us that it's only through Christ our King we can enter. We're going to sing those lines so that sing of the King in whom we can enter it. So let's stand and sing as Christo leads us.
[37:09] Who is this? I'm my Lord of victory.
[38:09] Come forever to abide. Who is this?
[38:43] The Lord of my Jesus King. Oh glory to you.
[39:19] Amen.
[39:39] A verse and a prayer as we close then. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Now to Him who is able to strengthen you according to the Gospel of Christ and the preaching of Christ.
[39:55] To the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.