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morning everyone just a few announcements before we begin worship the first is that it is the luncheon fellowship luncheon after this morning service so all of you are welcome to come back to the fellowship hall after the morning service for food even if you didn't bring food even visitors are welcome to join us you just have to sit on a different half of the heart just joking all are welcome to come and co mingle and enjoy some enjoy some food and fellowship after the morning service a note with regards to luncheons this is the last of the summer so there won't be any luncheons in July or August just so you know on the third week of those months you don't not eat in the morning in anticipation of a meal after that sir physiol you'll be hungry so this is the last luncheon will reconvene with our fellowship luncheons in September this after the fellowship luncheon at two-thirty p.m. as we announced last week will be at heritage village for a short service that we do there for the folks in that hospital so that's 230 we we sing some hymns we have a reading from the scriptures and we give about a 10-15 minute message and then if we're able to we speak with some of the folks that are there so again that's the Heritage Village at two-thirty if you need directions and you're coming to the luncheon you can ask someone who knows how to get there thirdly we have a hymn sing here at four-fifteen so 45 minutes before the evening worship at four-fifteen if you'd like to come and sing some additional hymns prior to worship please do so that's also in the fellowship luncheon hall again for 15 this afternoon lastly it is the baptism of Abigail stare next Lord's Day morning so that'll be a wonderful sunday all sundays are but it's a special occasion where we have a baptism in this church it's been it's been a while I think so it's nice to have another baptism here at free grace so just so that you're aware of that that's the baptism of Abigail dare next Sunday July the third well moving on now let's open up our worship by a reading of God's Holy Word if you'll turn into your Bibles with me to Jeremiah chapter 9 Jeremiah 9 we open up with a call to worship from the Holy Scriptures Jeremiah 9 will begin reading at verse 23 Jeremiah 9 verse 23 this is the word of the living and true God thus says the Lord let not the wise man glory in his wisdom let not the mighty man glory in his might nor let the rich man glory in his riches but let him who glories glory in this that he understands and knows me that i am the lord exercising loving-kindness judgment and righteousness in the earth for in these I delight says the Lord amen well let's stand and sing our first tim is going to be in the smaller read trinity salter you can turn to Psalm 89 we're going to sing Psalm 89 verses 1 to 16 you please be seated we go to the Lord in prayer we can remember a number of things we can keep Dawn neufeld in our prayers as many as as well as many who are afflicted with illness and those sorts of things as well we can remember a jl ditto as her surgery is on Tuesday and of course the diddle family at large and many other things as we now go to the Lord our God in prayer let us pray our righteous and heavenly father we do rejoice as a gathered assembly having gathered in the name of our Savior the Lord Jesus Christ that we can come into this place and worship you are trying God Father Son and Holy Spirit we rejoice in you and we rejoice that we have the freedom to gather in this place we do pray that you would impress upon us the high and heavy honor it is to gather in Liberty to rejoice in the triune God to sing the praises of our Christ and to rejoice an amazing grace we do pray that you would help us as your gathered Saints to properly hallo your name we pray that having gathered we would worship you except ibly with godly fear we do pray that you would give us that measure of the spirit that we might have our souls stirred unto a proper praising proper honoring of our triune God we do pray as well but throughout the earth you would empower your people that you would tend to your people that the tongues of your gathered Saints would sing praises of their triune God and the Lord that Christians around the world today would by your grace and for your glory sing your praises and rejoice in you we do pray that you would be worshiped and we do pray Lord God that your will would be on earth as it is in heaven and we rejoice in the forgiveness of our transgressions we thank you Lord God that you have in your appointed and accepted time called us from out of darkness into marvelous light by grace and for your glory through the perfect work of the Lord Jesus Christ and the fruitful work of the Holy Spirit we know that salvation is from first to last midst and throughout the work of the triune God who saves without a helper and we thank you that we are the blessed recipients of amazing in victorious grace we do pray that you would cause us to properly worship you that we would rejoice in you and that we would engage in biblical worship returning unto you those spiritual sacrifices that come except ibly to you through our mediator the Lord Jesus Christ we do pray Lord God that you would cause us to rejoice again rejoice a fresh in the forgiveness of sins we know that we have this by virtue of the perfect work of our Savior and the shedding of his blood we do pray that you would wash us a fresh that we would know with a certainty that we would know with assurance that we have forgiveness in the Lord Jesus Christ that we have the forgiveness of sins through the shedding of his precious blood and we do pray Lord God that in light of this we would worship you are right in in this upcoming week we would conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of our Lord Jesus we do pray God that you'd be with those who need prayer for physical things or many who are afflicted with disease with illness with injury recovering from surgeries many other things God we do pray that you would bless each and every one we think of dawn Neufeld Lord we do pray that you'd watch over him and strengthen him we pray that you would bring him swiftly back to a comfortable health we do pray that you would heal him and tend to his body and we do pray in the midst of affliction as we very often pray Lord that in the midst of suffering and the pains of disease you would lift up his soul unto high thoughts of his God in His Christ we do pray Lord 4jl ditto and this upcoming surgery on tuesday we do just pray that you would go before it that you would prepare the hands and the minds of those who will be tending to her we do pray Lord God that you would give them precision that they would be able to go about this procedure with the proper exercise of their craft and we do pray that you would guide their hands knowing that you ultimately are the great physician who brings about all things for the good of his people for those who are the called according to his purpose and you watch over these things we do pray that you would bless and that you would tend to the hearts of the ditto family that you would cause them not to be anxious but with prayer and supplication mingled with Thanksgiving that they would make their requests known to you and that you would return unto them Lord God the peace that surpasses all understanding which comes through Jesus Christ our risen Lord we do ask Lord that you would just be over this for your Glory's sake for all others Lord suffering that you would strengthen them in body that you would heal them that you attend to their various wounds return strength to them Lord and with these as well that you would bless them in the midst of affliction with the knowledge of Christ with it rejoicing in their triune God knowing that the judge of all the earth does right by his Saints we would ask God that you would be with the need ssin family and the loss of this in the loss of their child we do just pray that you would comfort their hearts most of us know nothing about the loss that they have gone through and we do just pray that you attend to them that you would bring sweet supplies of grace and the knowledge of yourself that they might in the midst of loss and in the midst of turmoil torque turmoil find repose in you that they would find peace in the triune God we would ask Lord that you would be with those around the world who are suffering persecution for the cause of Christ and truth we would ask that you would bless each and every one of our brothers and sisters most of us know nothing of chains and know nothing of beatings even unto death like our brothers and sisters around the world we do just pray that you would strengthen each and every one that you would just come swiftly to them as the god of all comfort that they might know in the midst of horrible circumstances that there is a triune God that there is a risen price to who stands at the right hand of the Father even judging those who would do violence to the people of Christ and warmly welcoming those who are brought to death by the sufferings of persecution we do just pray that you would bring them comfort and a knowledge of their God and a knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and we do pray Lord God that you would deal with enemies of the gospel you would cause them by your grace and for your glory to know the Lord Jesus Christ that they would turn from the madness of their idolatries and their blasphemies and that they would turn unto the religion of the Lord Jesus Christ that they would find in the triune god they're all in all and that they would bend a knee to the king of kings and the Lord of lords we do pray as well Lord God for that exercise of your holy and pure justice your holcim severity against those who would remain in opposition to our risen Christ we do pray that you would bring swift justice that you would cause them to wither away as a snail that you would cause them Lord God to be taken out of the way that they might no longer bring violence against our brothers and sisters we do pray Lord that you would be glorified in this place we would pray as we engage in worship that you would help us to worship you in spirit and in truth we do pray for the preacher Lord God be with pastor Butler as he comes up here to proclaim your word we know that ministers of your gospel those true ministers of yours that they do not lean upon their own understanding and upon their own strength but rather they lean on the understanding and the strength and the grace is afforded to them by the triune God we do pray father son and spirit that you would help our brother in the pulpit we pray that he would know fresh supplies from the triune God as he proclaims the word we do pray that you would help us as we engage in worship and as we engage in that central act the preaching of the word we would pray Lord that you would help your gathered Saints to be instructed to be edified to be encouraged to be equipped by the proclamation of the word attended by the spirit we do pray Lord that this worship this morning the preaching of the word would be unto the salvation of sinners that by spirit and word you would cause those who entered in these two doors outside of Christ to leave in him singing the praises of his most glorious name we pray now that you would bless this service unto the praise in the honor of the triune God and we pray in the name of our Savior the Lord Jesus Christ amen let's stand and sing then our next team is going to be 321 if you'll stand with me hymn number 321 you you our new testament scripture reading is from Matthew 12 this morning Matthew 12 beginning in verse 22 Matthew chapter 12 beginning in verse 22 as Jeremiah 9 this is the word of the living and true God then one was brought to him who was demon-possessed blind and mute and He healed him so that the blind and mute man both spoke and saw and all the multitudes were amazed and said could this be the son of David now when the Pharisees heard it they said this fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub the ruler of the demons but jesus knew their thoughts and said to them every Kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation in every city or house divided against itself will not stand if Satan casts out Satan he is excuse me he is divided against himself how then will his kingdom stand and if I cast out demons by Beelzebub by whom to your son's cast them out therefore they shall be your judges but if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God surely the kingdom of God has come upon you or how can one enter a strong Mans house and plunder his goods unless he first binds the strongman and then he will plunder his house he who is not with me is against me and he who does not gather with me scatters abroad therefore I say to you every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men anyone who speaks a word against the son of man it will be forgiven him but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit it will not be forgiven him either in this age or in the age to come either make the tree good and its fruit good or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad for a tree is known by its fruit brood of vipers how can you being evil speak good things for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks a good man out of the good treasure of his art brings forth good things and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things but I say to you that for every idle word men may speak they will give account of it in the day of judgement for by your words you will be justified and by your words you will be condemned then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered saying teacher we want to see a sign from you but he answered and said to them and evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah for as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth the men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah and indeed a greater than Jonah is here the queen of the south will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon and indeed a greater than Solomon is here when an unclean spirit goes out of a man he goes through Dry places seeking rest and finds none then he says I will return to my house from which I came and when he comes he finds it empty swept and put in order then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself and they enter and dwell there and the last state of that man is worse than the first so shall it also be with this wicked generation while he was still talking to the multitudes behold his mother and brother stood outside seeking to speak with him then one said to him look your mother and your brothers are standing outside seeking to speak with you but he answered and said to the one who told him who is my mother and who are my brothers and he stretched out his hand toward his disciples and said here are my mother and my brothers for whoever does the will of my father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother amen well there's so much that one could comment on in this passage but as time restricts us one thing that we ought to highlight is the greatness of the Lord Jesus Christ that is easy and ought to be easy for every Christian preacher to say but the whole chapter and specifically verses 39 to 40 to bring forth the reality that the Lord Jesus Christ while serving in the capacity while serving in the office of a prophet is different from the prophets that preceded him we see the greatness of Christ brought forth men of Nineveh Christ Himself says in verse 41 will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah and indeed a greater than Jonah is here one of the things that uniquely marks the Lord Jesus Christ and I believe we see this in Hebrews chapter 1 verses 1 through 4 is that the Lord Jesus Christ in in contrast to the prophets that preceded him is both messenger and the content of the message preached Jonah preached the The Book of Jonah itself while it of course has a contemporaneous application to the people of that era and concerns people hundreds of years before Christ it was Christ's word in its trajectory bringing forth the reality that this great fish and the swallowing of the prophet pointed forward typically to the anti typical Christ who would come who would be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth Solomon we read with regards to verse 42 the Queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon and indeed a greater than Solomon this year the wholesome boldness of the Lord Jesus Christ in declaring to his unbelieving audience in declaring to this assembly gathered before him that he is greater than the Prophet Solomon's son of David wonderful words by our Lord Jesus Christ fully realizing the fact that he is the one to whom the writings of Solomon pointed we read in proverbs 8 for example that isn't a proverb generically in generally and ambiguously about wisdom but it is first and primarily concerning the Lord Jesus Christ who is wisdom who is the word of God who was eternally begotten of the Father God from God light from light true God from True God who comes into the world here in this instance and proclaims with great glory the riches of himself we come as a gathered assembly this morning and we worship our Savior we worship our triune God we come to this Christ who from his exalted position at the right hand of the father sends his spirit to encourage and to enrich our hearts as we gather as the Saints of Christ might we as we continue in worship glory and our Savior recognize this greater than Jonah and this greater than Solomon as God from God light from light true God from True God who took to himself man's nature for us in our salvation let's rejoice in him and continue in worship singing the praises of our triune God let us pray Heavenly Father we thank you for your word for what it discloses concerning the greatness of our Savior the perfection of his proclamations before man in the greatness of his salvation we truly rejoice in our blessed Savior and we pray that as we continue to worship in his name as we continue to pray in his name as we continue to reflect upon the glories of of our Savior we do pray that you would help us by your spirit that nothing would interfere and hinder proper worship that our minds wouldn't wander that our hearts would not wander we do pray Lord God that you would stir us up to proper worship and that you might be glorified we pray in the name of our Savior Lord Jesus Christ amen our last him then before the preaching if you'll stand and sing with me is 240 240 and the Trinity hymnal that stand and sing that together you you is be seen well please turn with me on your Bibles to Matthew chapter 23 matthew 23 are focused this morning is specifically verses 34 to 36 christ announces the impending judgment of israel this follows the giving of the woes beginning in chapter 23 at verse 13 very similar with the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 5 he declares a series of woes against the nation of Israel and then highlights the fact that God's judgment will come to bear upon them and that is precisely what Christ is doing in this section I'll pick up reading in 23 verse 13 but woe to you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for you shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against men for you neither go in yourselves nor do you allow those who are entering to go in woe to you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for you devour widows houses and for pretence make long prayers therefore you will receive greater condemnation woe to you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for you travel land and sea to win one proselyte and when he is one you make him twice as much a son of Hell as yourselves woe to you blind guides who say whoever swears by the temple it is nothing but whoever swears by the gold of the temple he is obliged to perform it fools and blind for which is greater the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold and whoever swears by the altar it is nothing but whoever swears by the gift that is on it he is obliged to perform it fools and blind for which is greater the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift therefore he who swears by the altar swears by it and by all things on it he who swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it and he who swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits on it woe to you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for you pay tithes of mint and anise and cumin and have neglected the weightier matters of the law justice and mercy and faith these you ought to have done without leaving the others undone blind guides who drain out a gnat and swallow a camel woe to you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence blind Pharisee first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish that the outside of them may be clean also woe to you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for your like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outward Lee but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men but inside you're full of hypocrisy and lawlessness woe to you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous and say if we had lived in the days of our fathers we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets fill up then the measure of your father's guilt serpents brood of vipers how can you escape the condemnation of hell therefore indeed i send you prophets wise men inscribes some of them you will kill and crucify and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of zechariah son aburro kiya whom you murdered between the temple and the altar assuredly I say to you all these things will come upon this generation o Jerusalem Jerusalem the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her how often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings but you are not willing see your house is left to you desolate for I say to you you shall see me no more till you say blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord amen let us pray father in heaven we thank you for the written word and we pray for the Ministry of the Holy Spirit we ask that he would guide us now lead us and help us as we look to scripture help us to understand this passage in its context and help us to see how it applies to us in our own generation we pray that you would forgive us for all of our sins and our transgressions whenever we come into the presence of a thrice holy God we're mindful of our own waywardness and our own proneness to wander so we confess our transgressions to you we confess our iniquities and we pray that you would cleanse us in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ God for any and all who have come here this morning that are outside of a relationship a saving relationship with the Lord we pray that today would be the day of salvation that you and your mercy and in your grace would take the word and apply it to hearts she would cause sinners to come to the Savior believing that he alone is the one that can save to the uttermost we pray that you would do this for your glory and for your honor for your praise and for the good of souls in this place and we pray these things now through Jesus Christ our Lord amen well as I said and as pastor Porter reminded us in the scripture reading in Matthew 12 Jesus is indeed a prophet when he comes into the the city of Jerusalem in Matthew 21 in that triumphal entry the people of Galilee announced that he is the prophet and all throughout this particular section the Prophet does battle least by words with the religious leaders they challenged him concerning his authority in chapter 21 jesus then reproves them with three parables that highlight the coming destruction that will come upon that and then he gets into for disputes very direct confrontations with these religious leaders and then here in chapter 23 he warns his disciples and he warns the multitudes in verses 1 to 12 against these religious leaders and then in verses 13 2 33 he pronounces a series of eight woes and he calls them hypocrites he calls them a brood of vipers he calls them blind guides and he doesn't mince any words when he brings to bear upon them their sin and their depravity and as I said verses 34 to 36 he announces impending judgment an impending simply means something that's near it's close its soon and Jesus highlights that particular reference at the end of verse 36 and then when we move on from this particular section and verses 37 to 39 Jesus laments over the city again very consistent with the Old Covenant prophets they not only announced the destruction of Israel in the 8th century BC in terms of the Northern Kingdom but as well in the 6th century in the southern kingdom but they did it with a spirit of lamentation a spirit of sorrow well on the one hand Jesus does not shrink back from declaring to them their wickedness and their vileness nevertheless it's all tinged with that compassion and that's what that lamentation over Jerusalem indicates concerning our prophet but this morning as we take up the impending judgment of Israel will notice three things in the first place their rejection of the prophets secondly their accumulation of guilt and thirdly the imminence or near nests or the impending nests of the judgment to come now note in the first place the rejection of the prophets and verse 34 after declaring the series of woes Jesus says therefore indeed i send you prophets wise men and scribes this is a wonderful statement concerning many things with reference to our Lord but we ought to consider its connection to the preceding notice in verse 33 he says how can you escape the condemnation of hell this verse 34 seek to correct that therefore indeed i send you prophets wise men inscribes to instruct you so that you may indeed escape the condemnation of hell I take 34 as going with verse 32 in verse 32 Jesus gives them this ironic command he says fill up then the measure of your father's guilt and then in verse 34 he highlights that he's going to send these prophets these wise men and these scribes so that they can indeed aid fill up the measure of their father's guilt France takes it this way when he says more likely the connection is with verse 32 they are being sent so that the measure of guilt may be filled up when they are rejected and killed Spurgeon saw it this way as well he says the object of the King in sending his last representatives was that the guilty city should be left forever without excuse when its measure of iniquity should be full and it's awful doom basile Zoe highlight so he tells them to fill up then the measure of your father's guilt and then in verse 34 essentially says that after he ascends on high he leads captivity captive he gives gifts to men in this particular context he says I will send you prophets wise men inscribes you will scourge them you will kill them you will persecute them from city to city thus filling up the measure of your father's guilt and thus bringing to bear upon your own heads the wrath and fury of God most high but as we consider this rejection of the prophets notice the source of authority in the New Covenant it's an amazing thing as I said therefore Jesus says indeed I send you profits we see this in Matthew 9 Matthew 10 and in Matthew 28 Christ has the authority to send men out in this new covenant era to proclaim the truth as it is in Jesus as well this is similar to Yahweh's practice in the Old Testament look at chapter 21 for a moment Matthew chapter 21 you see something of a parallel with Old Covenant Israel and with the New Covenant situation established by our Lord notice in Matthew 21 beginning in verse 33 that parable of the wicked vine dressers Christ tells about a vineyard this obviously being the nation of Israel God is the owner of it and what does God do notice in verse 35 verse 34 now when vintage time drew near he sent his servants to the vine dressers that they might receive its fruit and the vine dressers took his servants beat one killed one and stoned another he sent other servants more than the first and they did likewise to that then last of all he sent his son to them saying they will respect my son so you see what Christ is doing is directly parallel to what yahweh in the Old Covenant does he sends prophets as prosecutors of the Covenant lawsuit to call the nation to repentance and faith when the nation fails to repent and believe the prophet then announces the judgment that is to come and God sends it in this against the northern tribes via Assyria and against the southern tribes via babolat and he will do so in 80 70 against Israel as a whole via the Roman armies and then this is confirmed in the book of Acts this act of the Lord Jesus sending man in order to call the people of God or call rather the people to repentance and faith and acts 1 they pray to the Lord that he would replace the apostolate they prod we see in math Acts chapter 9 it's Jesus who sends the Apostle Paul on his task of preaching the gospel and when we note these offices in verse 34 he says prophets wise men and scribes in the parallel it says prophets and apostles in Luke 11 49 I think this is Old Testament language applied to New Testament offices that's what Matthew Henry says so when we read prophets and we read wise men we read scribes when Christ goes to heaven he sends men and he sends them into various places to proclaim his truth and as Jesus prophecies or declares or announces here the unbelieving Jews will take them and despise them the unbelieving Jews will persecute that the unbelieving Jews will even kill them and the New Testament history shows that or demonstrates it very plainly and as well we ought to appreciate that what we've seen in our studies in the past this is consistent with the Old Testament second king 17 God says I sent you prophets you rejected them that's just at the dawn of the judgment by Assyria in second chronicles 36 y always says the same thing i sent you prophets but you rejected that and that's just at the dawn of the judgement via Babylon in the 6th century BC so as I've tried to try to make you understand or help you understand Christ is not doing anything new here and it bears on our interpretation of the Olivet discourse when we get to Matthew 24 I submit that if we properly understand chapters 21 to 23 then 24 is a whole lot easier for us to understand we don't have to try and take a tamper with it or tinker with it and see what part applies to them and what part applies to Jesus is very clear and very candid and very concise in the target audience of the destruction that is coming as he reveals it in Matthew 24 but notice as well with reference to this treatment verse 34 jesus says I send you prophets wise men inscribes some of them you will kill and crucify some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city this highlights their solidarity with their murderous fathers doesn't it why'd they build the monuments and adorn the tombs of the prophets to try and show that they were a faithful witnesses are faithful recipients of the prophetic word they try to distance themselves from their murderous fathers who put them to death Jesus tells them that they are consistent or in solidarity with these murderers fathers because when he sends these prophets when he sends these wise men when he sends these scribes they're going to reject them they're just like their fathers of old as well when we go through each of these particulars we see them fleshed out in the book of Acts the murder murder of the of the of the early church Acts chapter 7 we see the murder of Steven Acts chapter 12 we have the murder of John son of Zebedee there's no specific reference to someone crucified in the book of Acts but it may go along with what Jesus says in Matthew tat if they reject the master then they will reject the servant we see the scourging of apostles in Acts chapter 5 verses 42 42 remember that scene where they rejoice because they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name when Paul is rehearsing his sufferings on for the cause of Christ in second Corinthians 11 24 and 25 he highlights that he himself had been scourge so you see what Jesus says here in many respects foreshadows precisely what the book of Acts is going to record I will send you these gifts I will send you these men I will call you back to repentance or call you in repentance and faith back to the kingdom and you're going to reject them you're going to murder that I mean with that account of Stephen that godly in that righteous man who stands before the Sanhedrin to testify and what happens they Nash out him with their teeth they drive him out of the city and they take stones and they cashed them at him and they murder this man while he being filled with the Holy Spirit gazes in heaven he sees the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand but nevertheless this vile and wretched mob is putting to death a godly and choice servant of our of our beloved Lord acts 12 John the brother of James the son of Zebedee he loses his hat under Herod these men did not like the church these men did not receive the truth they did not receive the message concerning Messiah and that is what Christ announces here this persecution from city to city you see it very clearly in Paul's first missionary journey in the book of Acts chapter 13 verse 12 chapter 14 and verse 28 I mean everywhere Paul goes Gentiles believed Jews resist everywhere Paul goes Gentiles cry out to hear the truth and the Jews continue to mock him and Blass fee and they even chase him down and they stone him when he's out at Lystra they dragged him outside of the city where they supposed him to be dead so the persecution that goes from city to city Christ tells of here is fleshed out in the book of Acts this is all very consistent with what Jesus says in Matthew and in terms of the missionary enterprise of his disciples and then the statement of Paul highlights this as well first Thessalonians 2 you can turn there because i think in first Thessalonians 2 Paul is following this portion of Jesus teaching very very closely first Thessalonians chapter to note the same language that Paul employees in the same order that was employed by Christ if I don't shake your hand this afternoon or this morning it's because I feel like I've got a bit of a flu coming on or on so don't come up and hug me or don't come up and shake my hand because I don't want you to get what it is I've got 1st Thessalonians to notice in verse 14 for you brethren became imitators of the Churches of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus for you also suffered the same things from your own country man just as they did from the Judeans who kill both the Lord Jesus and their own profits and have persecuted us and they do not please God and are contrary to all men forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved so as always to fill up the measure of their sins but wrath has come upon them to the uttermost he follows christ closely the rejection of the prophets the accumulation of guilt and the declaration of impending judgment I submit that Paul here in to 14 to 16 is very intimately connected to what Jesus is saying in Matthew 23 with in Judea unbelieving Jews unbelieving Israel is persecuting the church of christ they killed the Lord Jesus they killed the prophets they are filling up the measure of their father's guilt and wrath will come upon them to the uttermost Paul tells us exactly what Jesus is declaring in Matthew 23 so going back to Matthew 23 we see that rejection of the prophets now notice secondly the accumulation of guilt verse 30 85 he's already said in verse 30 to fill up then the measure of your father's guilt verse 35 he says that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah sanober akaya whom you murdered between the temple and the altar the measure of their father's guilt the righteous blood is obviously I mean blood in and of itself is neither righteous or unrighteous the righteous blood refers to the blood of those who are righteous before God this idiom may come on you is an idiom for death or for judgment we see it used in several places in the scripture the parallel in Luke 11 50 draws it out even more that the blood of all the prophets which was said shed from the foundation of the world may be required of this generation so you see this righteous blood that was shed it may be required of this generation in Luke Matthew gives us that it will come on you the point is clear it is retributive justice for their having violated the God of heaven and earth visa V by rejecting and murdering the very profits that were sent to them later on they themselves will employ this same idiom and it's very shocking if you understand Matthew 21 to 24 when you get to 27 and you hear this godless mob say his blood be on us and our children you will hopefully appreciate they don't really know what they're saying because God would indeed bring it to bear upon them via the destruction in AD 70 now know the history of blood guiltiness that they participated says that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth and then two figures are given two names Abel we all know him in Genesis chapter for his murder his brother Kane took him out didn't he being able was the prototypical martyr Cain was the prototypical Pharisaic wretch and Cain takes Abel out he murders him this reference to Zechariah the son of bear kya most likely refers to the Zechariah given to us in second chronicles chapter 24 now there he's identified as Zechariah the son of jehoiada and some suggest that this just couldn't be the case that he's the one that fares in Matthew 23 but many of the older commentators and I agree with them highlight that it was not untypical for persons to have two names and based on what Christ is saying in this particular instance I think it does give us impetus to call or to highlight that this was Zechariah the son of Bharata second chronicles 24 so what's the significance from able to Zechariah now they didn't have a hand in the actual murder of these men they didn't have a hand in the actual you know whatever it was that that cane used to slay able they didn't have a hand in that they weren't there physically when Zechariah was put to death to see what Jesus is doing he is saying by the fact that they are going to reject him the great prophet the Lord Christ they are going to reject all the ones that he sends up until their destruction in AD 70 they are in solidarity with their murderous fathers so there in that mass of humanity that opposed a able and that oppose Zechariah and the significance is seen just here in the Old Testament the first book of the Bible is genesis in the last earn the the Hebrew canon rather the first book is Genesis and the last book is second chronicles so in essence though there were persons that died after Zechariah to be sure in essence what Jesus is saying is a to z now it happens to work out in English that way but it does it in the original languages no a2z there's no Z at the end of the the Greek alphabet but what we have is an A to Z from Genesis to second chronicles that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Barack ayah whom you murdered between the temple and the altar so from the first book in the Hebrew and in the book of Genesis to the last book second chronicles you find your place with those men who murdered the righteous who murdered the godly who murdered the servants of the Lord Most High this is all culminating in their murder of the Lord Jesus Christ and after he ascends on high he leads captivity captive he gives gifts to men they're going to reject and murder those men as well and something interesting about both able and Zechariah is their call for retribution their call for judgment remember what God says to Cain in Genesis 4 4 10 he says the voice of your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground intriguingly when Zechariah the son of Barack ayah is put to death as he died second chronicles 24 22 he said the Lord look on it and repay France notes that this marks out these two deaths as not merely martyrdoms but martyrdoms requiring retribution their blood remains to be accounted for so just stepping back for a moment summarizing up to this particular point here's the eight woes here's how you guys are hypocrites here's how you met have rejected the Covenant that the God of heaven and earth has imposed upon you because of that you are going to fill up the measure of your father's guilt I am going to send you prophets I'm going to send you wise men I'm going to send you scribes but instead of repenting instead of believing you're going to murder that you're going to crucify them you're going to scourge them and you're going to persecute them from city to city you are going to fill up the measure of your father's guilt such that all the righteous blood that has been shed from able to Zechariah will be required at your particular hand and now notice in the third place he highlights the imminence of judgment or the nearness of judgment by saying in verse 36 assuredly I say to you all these things will come upon this generation note the prophetic assurance this all men or this assuredly this isn't up for grabs this isn't a debatable point this isn't something that's just suggestive it's not something that he just sort of throws out there that if the stars all aligned properly then judgment is going to befall you now this as all argue takes place specifically against the Jewish nation in the first century AD the Brethren it applies equally to each and every one of us when the Bible tells us that there is judgment to come when the Bible assures us that we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ to give an account of deeds done in the body whether good or evil those things aren't just like I said a suggestion or a possibility you need to understand that there is something that is in your future you need to understand that there is something that is inevitable in the America and I think in Canada we say there's there's two things that are that are absolutely essential or two things rather that are inevitable death and taxes I've said it before you cannot pay your taxes I don't recommend that but you cannot pay your taxes if you're happy with living in prison you cannot pay your taxes but death and judgment are the two things that we have that are inevitable look at the prophetic assurance that Jesus gives to them concerning this judgment that is to come assuredly I say to you it's our word on men truly truly he underscores the reality of the situation and highlights the inevitability of this again I want us all to consider the fact that one day we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ I'd hate it to be the case that as we set up the specific context to understand all of that somebody may hear might say well you know none of this applies to me it all applies to you every jot and tittle of it if Christ dealt this way with the covenant people the old covenant people Christ out that way with them he's going to deal this way with us you're all made in the image of God you've all been called upon to do what God says you've all been told to obey perfectly exactly entirely perpetually the law of the living and true God now none of you have done that but God in His grace and in His mercy has indeed provided a way of salvation as we sought to see last week in verse 33 how shall you or how can you escape the condemnation of hell tried to explain out and I hope that you didn't forget it i hope that you pondered it and i hope that you think about it today as well if you continue in your sin how can you escape the condemnation of hell there's one way it's interesting the language that Christ uses in verse 35 that on you may come all the righteous blood shed he uses the same language later on when he's in the UH when he's yeah when he's uh on the Passover when he Institute's the Lord's Supper what does he say he speaks about his own blood being shed for the remission of sins for many brethren friend that's the way of escape how shall you escape the condemnation of El it's to flee to the righteous one who shed his blood for sinners believe on him and you shall be saved there is a prophetic assurance concerning the judgment to come upon Israel but there's a prophetic assurance concerning the judgment that is to come upon every single man woman and boy and girl you need to understand this and you need to realize that what Christ is doing here is not simply suggestive he's not simply tossing out ideas he is speaking is the authoritative prophet of God most high announcing to them that judgment is coming now notice assuredly I say to you all these things I take that as a reference to the judgment the retribution the requirement of this righteous blood I say to you all these things will come upon this generation the reason for the judgment of these men as I said Genesis 8 or 15 daniel 8 daniel 9 1st Thessalonians do the Bible envisages idea that when the measure of the fullness of guilt is filled then God sends forth his wrath d Davies and Allison said the love the answer lies if we ask the question why then verse 36 why then the answer lies in verse 32 those who overflow the measure of a lotta drahthaar those upon whom that wrath will fall France says it is because the current generation is continuing in the same tradition of hostility to God's messengers that it now faces judgment and that judgment results not only from their own failings but from the whole tradition from able to Zechariah to which they are willing heirs so you can't say well this just isn't fair they are acting in the same manner that their murderous fathers did they are participating if every bit as much as Kane did and as those who murdered Zechariah they are rejecting the prophet the Lord Christ they are going to crucify him they are going in the space of a couple of days from this vantage point this is the Tuesday we get to the Friday and they say away with them away with them crucify him they show their solidarity with these men who murdered the prophets of old and it's going to come upon them now notice he says I say to you all these things will come upon not just the religious leaders not just the scribes and the Pharisees not just the Sadducees of those who challenged Christ not just the Sanhedrin but all these things will come upon this generation that means most of Israel I think there was always a remnant even in this obviously Matthew was a believer obviously Paul was a believer there was the remnant to be sure but in terms of generalities this generation as a whole cited with the religious leadership and so Christ announces the judgment to come and it will come upon this generation the religious leaders are targeted in the woes however the nation as a whole as under judgment note the words this generation some have tried to evade the clear meaning of this to try and offset it or put it to the generation when Jesus that's living when Jesus cons it's interesting every time Matthew uses this generation in his gospel it refers to the contemporaries of Jesus and His disciples notice in Matthew 11 at verse 16 Matthew 11 verse 16 but to what shall i liken this generation who's he talking to starting the people that he was right there with his contemporaries it is like children sitting in the marketplaces in calling to their companions notice in chapter 12 pastor porter read this this morning the specific or the general reference to an adulteress and are an evil in adulterous generation in verse 39 the notice he hones in in verses 41 and 42 this generation and then again in verse 45 this wicked generation 16 for not this generation but a reference to that generation 16 for a wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah notice in 17 7 17 17 jesus answered and said o faithless and perverse generation how long shall I be with you how long shall I bear with you bring him here to me 2336 our particular tax de shortly i say to you all these things will come upon this generation and then notice in 24 34 assuredly i say to you this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place my argument is that Jesus meant this generation that when Jesus says this generation he's talking about first century Israel that will reap the door call down the wrath of God for their treatment of Christ in their treatment of the prophets matthew henry when he comes to deal with verses 34 239 he says we have left the blind leaders fallen into the ditch the close let us see what will become of the blind followers and particularly of Jerusalem that's 34 to 36 according to Matthew Henry we've left the blind leaders in the ditch the lowes now let's see what happens to the followers of those leaders verse 36 indicates this generation that means the bulk of the people in Israel in that first century setting followed these religious teachers Henry's references obviously to Matthew 15 14 they are blind leaders of the blind and if the blind leads the blind both will fall into a ditch that's why Jesus will lament over Jerusalem because it's the city that rejects the prophets it's the city that stones those that scourge as those that are sent to that it's the city that would reap the judgment of God most high so he laments over that so that when we get into Matthew 24 we are not to be amazed when we argue that it refers to that destruction in AD 70 that all these things did take place note this generation brackets the all of that discourse 2336 24 34 i suppose and all argue that everything in between did take place in that generation it was according to the promises of God outlined in the book of Deuteronomy there are blessings if you obey there is curses if you disobey Christ does the same thing when he comes in Matthew there's blessings Beatitudes Matthew 5 there's curses woes Matthew 23 Christ is acting consistent with Yahweh of the Old Testament Christ is acting consistent with the prophets of the Old Testament they came they announced the judgment of God if the people of Israel did not repent then the wrath and fury of God would come upon that that's the setting that's the stage that's the context by which we are to understand all of that france says this generation which jesus has already condemned repeatedly is the generation which is about to reject the Messiah God's final messenger God's judgment on his rebellious people can no longer be delayed and if you prefer an older commentator john gill says and which came to pass this verse 36 judgment listen to Jesus assuredly I say to you all these things will come upon this generation Gill says and which came to pass and had its full accomplishment about 40 years after this in the utter destruction of Jerusalem and the whole nation so that many now living were personally involved in that temporal ruin as well as escaped not the damnation of hell in verse 33 well brethren I don't want us to just look at these chapters as the context for the Olivet discourse I mean they hold out enough information and instruction and encouragement and challenge to us apart from our understanding of the Olivet discourse but having said that there's a whole lot of sort of confusion about the end times sort of a last days madness is Gary DeMar refers to it people are just perplexed over the eschatological scheme and trying to answer those questions they posit a whole host of things that just don't have any warrant in the scripture we need to understand the context in order to help us understand the actual discourse well in conclusion of our message this morning we see in the first place the coven ental consistency of God the coven ental consistency of God I've already said Deuteronomy 28 blessings and curses Israel was told very specifically and very clearly here are the demands of the Covenant here's how you're supposed to function here's what you're supposed to do if you do it you will live long and be blessed in the land if you do not you will be cursed you will be judged toward the end of Deuteronomy 28 it speaks at length about exile in 722 the nor tribes were exiled second King 17 records the fall of Israel the Assyrians come and they destroy they take the survivors to back to their homeland they leave some in that particular region but it was a judgment wrought by God Isaiah 10 we see that God uses Assyria to bring judgment to bear upon the northern tribes in 587 586 the southern tribes are judged by Babylon God announces it through the prophets God calls them to repent God calls them to forsake their sins through his messengers the prophets how do they respond to the messengers the Prophet they kill them they refuse them they scourge them they reject them so God uses Babylon to bring judgment to bear upon the southern kingdom you would think and you would hope that once they'd been judged twice they would come out of the captivity and they would be a holy harmless and undefiled people but no that's not what happened I mean post exile they returned to Judah and what do they do they build the top of the temple again but when Malachi the prophet is prophesying what is the problem in Israel it's the same sort of stuff that Jesus condemns here they're coming to the temple in order to sacrifice but they take the worst of their animals they take the mangy one they take the lame one they take the blind one and they bring that to God and worse yet they steal sacrifice on the way to the temple if you ever steal money to give it to the church you've got big problems if you find yourself in a position where is stealing money in order to give it to a charitable cause hopefully something will dawn on you to think this is just not right well that's what they did in the Old Testament system this is post exile this is after Babylon this is under Malachi the Prophet you steal an animal to bring it as a sacrifice to God God says I'm a great king God says I'm a great lord where is the worship that is due me he says to that old covenant people why don't you try to pay your pagan governor with a with a crippled animal why don't you try to pay your taxes with a crippled lamp why don't you Canadians try to pay revenue canada with something that they don't receive see how that's going to go over and God through the Prophet says yet that's how you treat me so we go into Judah we go into the time of Messiah Christ comes to his own and his own received him not just like Matthew 21 we read just a bit of that the father the owner rather of the vineyard sends prophets he send servants they despise them they reject them they beat them and then the owner of the vineyard says I know what I'll do I'll send my son they'll certainly receive the air but they don't they despise him they reject him they ultimately kill him well that's Christ brethren Jesus comes to his own his own received him not he pronounces these woes upon that and then he announces their coming destruction consistent with what we have throughout the Old Testament God the Lord is not mocked God the Lord will not go away you continue to reject and rebel you continue to rebuff you continue to refuse one day God will come to judge you this is a terrifying thing since why Paul says knowing therefore the terror of the Lord we persuade men the thought of standing before a holy God have you ever considered that you ever ever considered that someday I'm going to stand before the God of heaven and earth a God whose eye is too pure to look approvingly on any evil the Bible says i'm nothing but evil that can only produce terror in the hearts of sinners i would i would hold and yet for some reason men we live as if there is no judgment to come we live as if God isn't consistent we live as if God isn't going to visit us is rath we live as if God is gone you can't live that way God is a consistent God and God brought judgment to bear upon Israel in the Old Covenant he brought his judgment to bear upon Israel in AD 70 we ought to appreciate as well with reference to the authority of Christ the fact that he sends more servants the fact that he sends more servants I think this bears on the whole Islam thing they say that Muhammad is a prophet greater than Jesus if we properly understand verse 34 and assume that Mohammed was a prophet which I don't but if we assume that if Jesus who sent him how is the one sent greater than the sender Jesus didn't send Muhammad by the way Jesus sent the prophets the scribes are the wise men in the scribe he sent the apostles to teach the truth as it is in Christ the spirit used those men to Penn Scripture now that those apostles are gone and that cannon is closed we don't look for further manifestations of profits we don't need a Joseph Smith we don't need a Muhammad we don't need any Mary gln or Ella Luther name L&G white we don't need any of them because we have the closed canon of Holy Scripture and may I advance it one step further we certainly don't in tongues and prophecy because we have the closed canon prophesying and tongues in the New Testament were revelatory what is prophesying in tongues today zolan says if private revelations agree with Scripture they're useless if they disagree with Scripture they are blasphemous Christ sent the last authority structure visa V the Apostles now that they have written now that we have their word that is what we rest our souls upon Christ is the authority behind the sending of the servants Christ is the authority and calling Israel to repentance and faith Christ is the authority and bringing judgment to bear upon these Covenant breakers Christ is the authority and sending out the gospel to the four corners of the earth and Christ is the authority in being the object of faith for those who would indeed escape the condemnation of hell and then finally with reference to the church as we've treated these woes we've seen how they not only show us the terrible state of the first century Jewish leaders but hopefully they serve as a helpful warning to us in the church today the first place we ought to recognize that HIPAA chol hypocritical religion is repulsive to God it's repulsive to God hypocritical religion I mean isn't that what the woes are all about woe to you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites when we struggle with this in the church today don't we struggle with these elements of hypocrisy and the way that we conduct ourselves we need to listen to the warnings of our Lord Jesus we need to see them applied in that first century context but we needed to take from them things that will hopefully serve to correct our behavior I mean all the stuff that is indicated here you you shut up the kingdom of heaven from menu you devour widows houses and for pretence make long prayers you you scurry about to try and make men up or gain proselytes you make them twice as sons of hell as you you have this whole convoluted way of dealing with biblical texts visa vie oaths you've got all these you know emphasis on things that you know really don't matter in the grand scheme of things you tie your mint and your anacin your cumin but you neglect justice and mercy and faith he doesn't say don't tie he says you shouldn't leave those on done but what about justice mercy and faith you like those whitewashed tombs looks beautiful on the outside but on the inside it's full of dead men's bones you're like a cop that you know on the outside it's all shiny and bright but on the inside it's filled with garbage you actually have the gall to you know build up monuments and testify concerning your your fidelity to the to the true prophets of god most high and yet you don't live like that you don't conduct yourself like them your doctrine is aberrant your doctrine is heretical you don't hold to the truth as it is in Jesus you see the church needs to listen to these woes so that we don't fall into the same practice as well we need to understand the necessity of hearing teachers who teach the truth if Matthew 15 14 is true and it comes from the mouth of our beloved Savior they are blind leaders of the blind and if the blind leads the blind both will fall into a ditch it is incumbent upon us to find teachers who teach the truth Royal says when such were the teachers in this first century context what must have been the miserable darkness of the tot he pronounces the suit the woes on the scribes and the Pharisees but he says the judgment comes upon this generation in total why because that generation instead of receiving Messiah instead of bowing to Christ instead of confessing in his Lord listen to these heretics we're not supposed to listen to heretics were supposed to find teachers who preach and teach the truth of God's Word were supposed to evaluate them based on Scripture were supposed to be of that berean spirit in acts 17 that examines daily what Paul was teaching if you ever considered that it's Paul teaching and yet they examine the scriptures to make sure that what Paul was teaching was accurate it ought to be the case that you survey the Scriptures when you're listening to breaching that you flip to the tax that you see it for yourself that the preacher the teacher is able to show you how he gets that from the tax if you're left scratching your melon going man how do you ever get that out of there that's not good hopefully the task of the preacher of the teacher is simply to help you lead you along say this is what's there and you say oh yeah that's what's there if a blind man leads a blind man then both will fall into it into a ditch there's this mindset today where you know as long as we have you know this compartment covered we have teachers up here I don't really need to know theology yeah you do you need to understand the truth as it is in Jesus so that you can rightly scrutinize whether or not you're being the truth I taught the truth and if you're not don't sit under it it's always amazed me 19 years I've been here met people that have borne up and bad churches for years not none of you all just get it out of your head you guys are all great but you know you talked to somebody I've been in this church for 10 years in the preaching it's not good it's not is you know it's bad why 10 years I'm all for faithfulness in church life brethren I think that's a bait on our society this church hot mentality where we go from place to place to place and we don't become members we don't grow grow roots we don't thrive and flourish I'm all against that but I am certainly not for someone sitting under heresy because they've got some strange notion of loyalty to a particular denomination or structure and yet they're being led into a ditch that's one of the reasons and one of the Blessed benefits that we have a confession of faith it routes us to the historic Christian Church that's orthodoxy it's not infallible it's not authoritative in the way that the scripture is but that summary of things most surely believed among us tells anybody and everybody who comes into this place we're not teaching anything new we are rooted in and tapped into and vitally connected to the Catholic Church and i don't mean the abomination of the roman catholic but the catholic the Church Universal the people of God through all ages and in all places to benefit some say oh you've got that confession that makes you mean and vicious and hard-hearted I think it's mean and vicious and hard-hearted to present a church with the minimal amount of doctrines present the maximal amount of truth so that we can have camaraderie founded on those doctrinal conviction its brethren fine man who teach the truth thirdly we need to recognize that God sees the mistreatment of his servants and will punish those who mistreat them Abel and Zechariah cried out that God would repay what do we learn it may take time it may not be overnight but God will visit with judgment those who persecute his servants and then we need to finally appreciate the reality of what we find in verse 32 and in verse 35 the understanding that the mercy of God does run out when the measure of guilt is filled up God brings his wrath it's good place for us to end today thinking about the wrath of God thinking about the judgment of God thinking about the Vengeance of God because I don't think we do this enough we don't sing him to 40 enough we don't contemplate the realities of another age enough we don't contemplate the fact that we will stand before a holy God on the day of judgment for those of us who are in Christ Jesus praise God Almighty that day will be most blessed right will be hidden safely in the hollow of his hand we will find our refuge in that rock which is Christ we will find our safety in that one who lived and died and rose again so that sinners might have life if you are not in Christ you will face the judge of all the earth and that will be a terrifying thing verse 33 how can you escape the condemnation of hell may I just encourage you as I try to every week every Lord's Day that we're together may I just say believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved that's it I you know I can't write you a check and say present this to God on that day and that'll buy yourself into heaven no I can pray for you and trust that I do pray for you but you've got to come to Christ you've got to look and live just as Moses lifted up the serpent so must the Son of Man be lifted up when that serpent was lifted it was a look and a live I love the simplicity there it wasn't dragged yourself over there and kissed that brazen serpent it was a look and live look and live believe on the Lord Jesus Christ the scripture says believe and you will live let us pray our Father we thank you for your word and we thank you for its clarity and for its beauty in for the fact that you have not left us as orphans in this world you've given us the spirit you've given us your truth and we pray should help us to improve upon it by meditating by contemplating by reading by studying by filling our hearts with the word of truth for any and all who are outside of Christ we know ultimately God it is your will it is your sovereignty it is your supremacy and power and we know that what is impossible with men is possible with you so we pray that you would save today that you would get glory for your name through the salvation of sinners by Jesus Christ and we pray in his Most Blessed name amen we'll have a brief time of meditation then I'll come back up and pray and then we'll go eat the food that's prepared you