The Hope of the Nations
in your Bibles to Psalm 67, a Psalm that we looked at a few years ago and one I think bears repetition. I've entitled the message, The Hope of the Nations. And not only does the nation of Canada need gospel preaching and the truth of God's Word declared, but the nations of the earth stand in need. And Psalm 67 is a wonderful expression of God's blessing upon the nations, or rather a prayer from the church to fetch out God's blessing for the nations. So I'll read Psalm 67, beginning in verse one. To the chief musician on stringed instruments, a song. God be merciful to us and bless us and cause his face to shine upon us. Selah. that your way may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations. Let the peoples praise you, O God, let all the peoples praise you. O let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you shall judge the people righteously and govern the nations on earth. Selah. Let the peoples praise you, O God, let all the peoples praise you. then the earth shall yield her increase. God, our own God, shall bless us. God shall bless us, and all the ends of the earth shall fear him. Amen. Well, let us pray. Our blessed God and Holy Father, we thank you for this psalm. We thank you for psalms like it and for the promises through the prophets that are similar. We thank you for the emphasis in the new covenant on Christ's mission through his church, to go to all the nations and to make disciples therein and to baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. May you increase the faith and the confidence of your church today. May we see your blessedness and your majesty and your glory. And may we see the promises of scripture concerning the knowledge of the Lord covering the earth as the waters cover the sea. And may we step out in faith in terms of evangelism in terms of missions, in terms of church planting. Give us grace now in the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit to enjoy this psalm. And may it be a great encouragement to our hearts. And again, forgive us for all of our sin. And we pray through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. Well, if I were to ask you, what is the first statement in the Bible, or the first place in the Bible, where God promises to save sinners by His Son, Jesus Christ, I suspect you'd all say Genesis chapter 3 and verse 15. Well, when you move on from Genesis chapter 3 and verse 15, you see that promise amplified through the rest of the Bible. When you get to Abraham, for instance, Abraham is told to look north, south, east, and west, and that his descendants would be more numerous. Abraham is told to look up at the stars of the sky, and he is told by God that his descendants would be more numerous. When you get to the prophets, you get that sort of a mindset as well. Isaiah, Habakkuk, they tell us the knowledge of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. As well, in the book of Psalms, throughout the Psalter, you see that promise celebrated. And then you see it come to realization and fruition and application in the new covenant under Messiah, under our Lord Jesus Christ. So Psalm 67 is an encouragement for the church of God. And it should form the way that the church of God prays to God. And I hope to show you the connection between God's blessing upon us and then our response in terms of God's blessing to the nations of the world. The first five verses, the petition, the heading is the petitions offered by the psalmist. So he petitions, he presents requests to God in verses 1 to 5. And then secondly, we see the promise assumed by the psalmist in verses 6 and 7. So that's the way we'll move through the exposition. But in terms of the petitions offered by the psalmist, we could break this further into two aspects. First, for the church, and then secondly, for the nations. Notice in the first place for the church. You see that in verse 1. God be merciful to us and bless us and cause his face to shine upon us. So you have the psalmist, a representative of the covenant nation. The psalmist, a member, if you will, of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so the psalmist first asks for blessing upon us, upon the church. Now the background of verse one is the Aaronic blessing in number six in verses 24 to 26. Number 624 reads, the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Certainly you can hear that in this particular petition offered up by the psalmist on behalf of the church. God be merciful to us and bless us and cause his face to shine upon us. So we first praise for mercy. The church always stands in need of the mercy of God. There will never be a time in our lives when we are not dependent upon God's mercy. In fact, Spurgeon makes that observation. He says, mercy is a foundation attribute in our salvation. The best saints and the worst sinners may unite in this petition. Remember that man in Luke chapter 18, there were two of them that went to pray. One was a tax collector and the other a publican. And the tax collector basically stood and prayed thus with himself, and thank God that he was such a great guy. He patted himself on the back. He paraded his righteousness so others could hear. And then the scene turns to that publican who couldn't even look up into heaven, but he beats his breast and he prays, God be merciful to me, the sinner. Now brethren, that doesn't depart with reference to our salvation. Again, every single day, because of remaining corruption and because of the creatureliness of our being, we stand dependent upon God Most High. So it is no accident that the psalmist starts there. But then notice in terms of the church, he wants blessing. And by blessing, he doesn't simply mean give us stuff. He means spiritual blessing. Now likely, Psalm 67 along with Psalm 65 were psalms that were sung at the time of harvest. When God did bless, temporally they went out, they gathered up all of their crops, and they rejoiced in God, and they would sing the Psalter in response to him for the manifold mercies that he had poured out upon them. But the psalmist says, God be merciful to us and bless us. Again, it's not always temporal, but spiritual blessings that the church stands in need of. Not only do we need mercy, we need God's grace. We need an increase of faith, especially when it comes to a psalm like this. One of the blessings we ought to fetch out from the Lord is faith. I want to share a quote from a man who says that one of the problems in the church today, and he wrote quite a while ago, is a lack of faith. His name was James Henley Thornwell, and he was a Presbyterian minister in the 1800s in America. And he made this observation. If the church could be aroused to a deeper sense of the glory that awaits her, she should enter with a warmer spirit into the struggles that are before her. Hope would inspire devotion. She would even now arise from the dust and like the eagle, plume her pinions for loftier flights than she has yet taken. What she wants and what every individual Christian wants is faith. faith in her sublime vocation, in her divine resources, in the presence and efficacy of the Spirit that dwells in her, faith in the truth, faith in Jesus, and faith in God. With such a faith, there would be no need to speculate about the future. That would speedily reveal itself. It is our unfaithfulness, our negligence and unbelief, our low and carnal aims that retard the chariot of the Redeemer. So as the psalmist enters into prayer, it's not just mercy, but blessing. And may I encourage all of us that we need an increase in faith. Yes, there is that justifying faith by which when we believe the gospel, we receive the forgiveness of sins and the imputed righteousness of Christ. But we walk by faith continuously. And those people who have faith, those people who step out in faith, those people who test and try and prove their God, are the sorts of people we read about in Christian biography. They believe the promises of God and therefore they acted upon them. And as we move through this psalm, one of the things that I think you'll see is that the church stands in need of faith as a blessing from God Almighty. The psalmist elsewhere says, blessed be the Lord who daily loads us with benefits, the God of our salvation, Selah. Our God is the God of salvation, and to God the Lord belong escapes from death. When the church receives that mercy, when the church receives that blessing, the church then goes, therefore, and tells others concerning that mercy and blessing. But it's the third aspect or another aspect that we see with reference to the church. Notice again in 67.1, God be merciful to us and bless us and then cause His face to shine upon us. So yes, mercy, yes, blessings, but yes, communion with God. Again, isn't that everything about our religion? Isn't that what's most blessed, is that He loved me and that He gave Himself for me, such that now we enter into the saving knowledge of our great God? Jesus prayed, this is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent, communion with God. The psalmist in Psalm 73, in the NASB, it's translated beautifully. It says, but as for me, the nearness of God is my good. Brethren, I hope that is typical of our hearts. The nearness of God is our good. And the language in verse one is that. Cause his face to shine upon us. Not only number six, but turn back in this altar to Psalm 31. Psalm 31 at verse 16. is to see this emphasis on communion with God. Psalm 31, 16, make your face shine upon your servant, save me for your mercy's sake. Psalm 44, verses 44-3, For they did not gain possession of the land by their own sword, nor did their own arm save them. But it was your right hand, your arm, and the light of your countenance, because you favored them. And then over in Psalm 80. Psalm 80 in a couple of places. Psalm 80, verse 3. Restore us, O God. Cause your face to shine, and we shall be saved. Again in verse 7. Restore us, O God of hosts, cause your face to shine, and we shall be saved. And then again in verse 19. Restore us, O Lord God of hosts, cause your face to shine, and we shall be saved. Now when it says we shall be saved, it's talking probably in terms of preservation. It's a song or a psalm wherein the main theme is a request by God to revive his people. Again, that we may know more of your presence among us, that we may experience more powerfully that Revelation 1 dynamic where Christ is in the midst of his lampstand. When we come to church, we wanna meet with God. It's nice to meet with one another. It's nice to encourage one another. It's nice to engage in the fellowship of the saints. But the primary emphasis in terms of the public worship of God is God most high in the midst of his people, where we praise him and glorify him and honor him. With reference to the psalmist, go back to Psalm 42 to see that this was in fact the longing of his heart. Psalm 42 at verse one, as the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for you, O God, my soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? It's a hot day. I was talking to one of the brothers and the sisters that have chickens and they said, the chickens are just like that. And I said, this morning I took my dog out for a walk at 6.30 and the tongue is hanging out and she's gasping. The vivid imagery that the psalmist employs here. Notice what he says, as the deer pants for the water brooks. It's a hot day. That nutritious drink of water is absolutely requisite for the deer. And he likens that to his own longing for the presence of God in his life. Jesus uses similar imagery in the Beatitudes. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst for righteousness. And then turn over to Psalm 63. Again, this concept of being with God, communing with God, the nearness of God as our good. Psalm 63, look at verse one. Oh God, you are my God. Early will I seek you. My soul thirsts for you. My flesh longs for you in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water. So I have looked for you in the sanctuary to see your power and your glory. You see the longing there. You see the desire there. I wonder if any of us pray like that on a Sunday morning or on a Sunday afternoon. I'm trying to guilt anybody, not trying to manipulate anybody, not trying to emotionally abuse anybody, but I wonder if what we have in terms of our relationship to God through the Lord Jesus Christ manifests even a little bit of what David had. We have the blessedness of new covenant religion, and yet in many respects, David outshines us in terms of his longing for God. Oh God, you are my God, early will I seek you. My soul thirsts for you, my flesh longs for you in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water. So I have looked for you in the sanctuary to see your power and your glory. Now notice what he says in verse three. Because your loving kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise you. Again, is that our heartbeat? Because God's loving kindness is better than life? I mean, for most of us, life is pretty decent. I mean, it's been a strange 16 months to be sure. It's been odd having the government try to close our church. That's been no walk in the park. But for the most part, our lives are pretty decent. But in terms of David, with reference to the living God, he says, because your loving kindness, because your mercy is better than life, my lips shall praise you. So go back to Psalm 67. He fetches out, or he petitions God for mercy, for blessing, for communion with reference to the church. Now notice that he directs his attention to the nations. Look at verses 2, 3, 4, and 5. He says, that your way may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations. Let the peoples praise you, O God. Let all the peoples praise you. Oh, let the nations be glad and sing for joy. For you shall judge the people righteously and govern the nations on earth. Selah. Let the peoples praise you, O God. Let all the peoples praise you. See, he turns his attention from the church now to the world. And in the first place, he prays for the salvation of the nations of the earth. Verse two, that your way may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations. Now the church doesn't simply pray for herself, but the church prays for herself and she prays for the world at large. And with reference to the blessings she receives, that's what enables her to be helpful in the hand of God to achieve those particular needs. The word that, in the beginning of verse 2, highlights the connection. God be merciful to us, God bless us, God cause His face to shine upon us so that we'll be complete. No, so that will be complete in terms of our relationship to God, but that will also testify to others concerning those mercies and blessings and communion that God gives to needy sinners. Look back for a moment at Deuteronomy chapter 4. Deuteronomy chapter 4, this was one of the purposes for Israel among the nations. Deuteronomy chapter four, notice specifically verses five to eight. Surely I have taught you statutes and judgments, just as the Lord my God commanded me that you should act according to them in the land which you go to possess. Therefore, be careful to observe them, for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes and say, surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. In other words, they were to mediate the blessings of God to the nations around them. They were supposed to be a distinct from them nation, such that they would be able, having received grace from God, to proclaim that grace to the Hivites, to the Jebusites, to the Hivites, and all those others. And with reference to this, we see it picked up on in the New Covenant, 1 Peter chapter 2, 9. Actually, no, those cities were under the ban. Please forgive me. God said, holy war against them. But those seven nations, once they were devastated, the children of Israel were to mediate the blessings of God to the nations around them. But with reference to 1 Peter 2, listen to the language, but you are chosen generation. Same language applied to Israel in the old covenant. A royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people, that. Notice the that there. In other words, we receive these blessings from God for our benefit. God is good. He blesses us. He pours out good things upon us. But at the same time, we are then to turn around and tell others this wonderful story, this wonderful narrative. You are a holy nation, his own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light." The same emphasis that David strikes in the Psalm. Motier says, it is of course true that he blesses us for our own enrichment, because he loves us and delights to share himself with us. But there is another side to blessing. It comes to us for the sake of somebody else. Blessing puts us under responsibility, whether it is that we so respond to God's blessing that others see the difference in our lives, or that there is someone waiting to be told of this generous God. Blessing is granted in order that the world may know His salvation. See, with reference to the petitions for the church and for the world, they are closely and intimately connected. As we receive mercy, as we receive blessing, as we know communion with God, we then go out and tell it to others. Spurgeon says, it is the duty and privilege of a revived church to make that way to be everywhere known, that your way may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations. See, Gentile inclusion in the new covenant promises of God are not consolidated to the New Testament. You see it here in the Old Testament. You go all the way back to Genesis chapter 9 and the prophecy that comes through Noah that, in fact, Japheth would enter into the tents of Ham. That speaks of Gentile inclusion in the covenant promises of God Almighty. So he prays for salvation. But notice, secondly, he prays that the nations would worship God. What's the best way for a man, a woman, or a boy or girl to stop blaspheming? It is to be converted. It is to have their hearts changed. It is to look unto Jesus Christ and live. We're going to continually hear the blasphemy. We're going to continually hear the cursing against God. We're going to continually hear that rejection and repudiation of God until sinners are saved, until sinners are converted. And notice the emphasis on worship. Let the peoples praise you, O God, let all the peoples praise you. O let the nations be glad and sing for joy. Verses 3 and 4a. And then let the peoples praise you, O God, let all the peoples praise you. Verse 5. So it is our blessed privilege to proclaim the gospel to needy sinners such that under God's blessing, they turn from blasphemy onto proclamation of the Lord's praises. It is a most wonderful aspect of churchmanship and a most wonderful privilege that we have as God's people. But then notice thirdly, in terms of the nations, he prays for God's rule. Verse 4b, for you shall judge the people righteously and govern the nations on earth. See, as more and more people get converted, more and more people love the word of God. It's a very obvious sort of an implication, isn't it? As more and more people come out of darkness into marvelous light, they proclaim His praises. As more and more people get saved by the power of the preached gospel, we have people that were perhaps at one time murderous abortionists turn from that and become doctors who actually save life. We have those who perhaps were or horrible lawyers and they get converted and then they turn their energies to actual justice. This is something that we as the church really should be praying for. Our Lord Jesus teaches us to pray that the will of God be done on earth as it is in heaven. That's Jesus Christ. That's what he teaches, that the will of God be done on earth as it is in heaven. Now, of course, everybody will say, well, it'll never happen. In fact, I have said that. We're not going to have a utopia on earth. We're not going to have a paradise on earth. It's the consummated glory above, wherein righteousness dwells without any imperfection. But that does not invalidate the effort by the church in terms of prayer, in terms of preaching, in terms of disciple-making, to try and see the will of God done on earth as it is in heaven. There are no abortion clinics in heaven. There is no euthanasia in heaven. There is no sexual perversion in heaven. And when we, as the people of God, pray the way that God tells us to pray, then perhaps we will see answers to that prayer. I think in many respects, brethren, we fall prey to what James upbraids his hearers for. You have not because you ask not. Maybe the simple fact is, is that if we cried out for awakening and revival, God the Lord might actually respond. But the church doesn't typically cry out for that. The church typically doesn't cry out that God stop those who engage in the shedding of innocent blood. We get so caught up in whatever it is we get caught up in, we are not thinking God's thoughts after Him, and certainly we are not praying God's Word. back to him. Jesus teaches us that God's, pray that God's will be done on earth as it is in heaven. You shall judge the people righteously and govern the nations on earth. Listen to Spurgeon. He says, wrong on the part of governors is a fruitful source of national woe. Now remember, Spurgeon lived in London in the 1800s. It was no picnic, it was no walk in the park, it wasn't a godly, wonderful, righteous bastion of fidelity unto Yahweh. So he says, wrong on the part of governors is a fruitful source of national woe, but where the Lord rules, rectitude is supreme. He doeth ill to none. His laws are righteousness itself. He writes all wrongs and releases all who are oppressed. Justice on the throne is a fit cause for national exaltation. If you think, oh, he just sounds like one of these, you know. pie in the sky or heaven on earth sort of God. This is what the Bible teaches, brethren. This is what Solomon says. Solomon actually says righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people. That's scripture. That's not some wingnut post-millennialist that's off the reservation. That is the psalmist. That is the wise man Solomon. And Spurgeon is simply imitating that. Justice on the throne is a fit cause for national exaltation. We know that it's a fit cause for national disgrace when there isn't justice on the throne. He then goes on and says, and govern the nations upon earth. He will lead them as a shepherd his flock, and through his grace they shall willingly follow. Then will there be peace, plenty, and prosperity. It is great condescension on God's part to become the shepherd of nations and to govern them for their good. And now in this next statement, I think he's probably reflecting upon the state of his own nation at his own time. He says, it is a fearful crime when a people who know the salvation of God apostatize and say to the Lord, depart from us. There is some cause for trembling, lest our nation should fall into this condemnation. May God forbid. If Britain or London in the 1800s said, depart from us, what can we say of North America in the 21st century? It is a wholesale screaming out to God, depart from us. We will not have him to rule over us. We are looking more and more like the mutiny in Psalm 2, where the people's plot vain things, and the kings and the rulers all stand together against Yahweh and against His Christ, and they raise their fist at Him. Again, brethren, we're not saying, or I'm not suggesting that we simply pray, and everything's going to be hunky-dory. But we should be praying for these kinds of things. So those are the petitions for the church. Mercy, blessing, communion. For the nation, salvation, worship, and God's rule. Now let's look finally at the promise assumed by the psalmist in verses 6 and 7. Temporal and spiritual. I mentioned that this psalm, along with others, were likely sang at the time of harvest. They rejoiced in God. Their hearts were thankful. when God blesses with sunshine, and when God blesses with rain, and when those crops come up, and when it yields great produce for them, they respond with thanksgiving to God. But notice the emphasis on the temporal. Verse 6, then the earth shall yield her increase. God, our own God, shall bless us. When you look at the nations of the earth, do you think some just got more in terms of benefit? North America just happened to have running water? North America just happened to have sewage systems? North America just happened to have air conditioning? North America just happened to have SUVs? No, men that came to North America had faith. They feared God. They took the Bible seriously, and they sought by grace to exercise dominion over the nations. Those countries that are steeped in paganism, those countries that are steeped in heathenism, those countries that are in rejection or rebellion, rather, against the living and the true God, that may be one of the reasons why they don't typically prosper. Again, listen to Spurgeon. He says, sin first laid a curse on the soil, and grace alone can remove it. Under tyrannical governments, lands become unproductive. Even the land which flowed with milk and honey is almost a wilderness under Turkish rule. But when the principles of true religion shall have elevated mankind, and the dominion of Jesus shall be universally acknowledged, the science of tillage shall be perfected, men shall be encouraged to labor, industry shall banish penury, and the soil shall be restored to more than its highest condition of fertility. Again, Spurgeon isn't saying, and I'm not saying, pray this prayer and then you'll have a great reward in terms of your garden this year. The idea is, is that those who reject the true and the living God are typically rejected by the true and living God. Now, at times, in God's grace, God's mercy, what we call God's common grace or His goodness that comes upon even the wicked, they're not utterly decimated. But they're not thriving, they're not flourishing, they're not growing, they're not going forward because of their lack of faith in the living and true God. So with reference to the psalmist, he blesses God for and expects temporal blessings as a result of the pervasive influence of the gospel throughout the nations of the earth. But then he ends on the spiritual blessing. Notice in verse 7. God shall bless us, and all the ends of the earth shall fear Him." That, brethren, is a great encouragement for us, as by God's grace we move forward as individuals in terms of personal witness. You have a friend at work, you have a neighbor in your neighborhood, you have somebody in your family that you want to testify unto. Listen to the promise of the Psalms. Listen to not only this Psalm, but Psalm 2, verse 8, where Yahweh says to Messiah, ask of me and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, the uttermost parts of the earth for your possession. Psalm 22, we have the first half is the Psalm of the cross. And then it turns to the exaltation of Christ and says that all the nations shall be blessed in him. Psalm 46, 10, we've had cause to reflect upon that. Be still and know that I am God. That's a great and encouraging statement that should speak volumes of comfort to the people of God. But he goes on, I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth. Psalm 72, which is a glorious psalm depicting the spread of the gospel and the glorious kingdom of Jesus Christ. Psalm 86, 8 to 10. Calvin says the psalm, Psalm 67, contains a prediction of Christ's kingdom. under which the whole world was to be adopted into a privileged relationship with God. And Spurgeon, I love what Spurgeon says here. He says, despite the gloomy notions of some, we cling to the belief that the kingdom of Christ will embrace the whole habitable globe and that all flesh shall see the salvation of God. For this glorious consummation, we, notice what he says, agonize in prayer. It's typically the people who say, well, that will never happen, who aren't praying for it. Well, of course, genius, if you don't ask, you're not going to receive. Not that God needs us to ask, not that God is dependent upon us to ask, but God is a God who uses means. The prayers of the upright avail much. James teaches us that with a comparison to Elijah the prophet. And then in terms of the New Testament, you have Matthew 28, 18 to 20, and the rest of the New Testament and its emphasis on the gospel going forth to the nations. from the church that has received mercy, blessing, and communion with God, she then proclaims the excellencies of him who called us out of darkness into marvelous light. Well, in conclusion, we ought to, first of all, pray. Corporate prayer is crucial. It's not optional. It's not, well, if I can make it, well, if I can do it. No, brethren, we've come to pray. We've come on Sunday morning, we carve out some time on Wednesday night. That's not just obligatory. That's not just because pastors have a checklist and they have to make sure that they can report that they've checked off the box to headquarters. No, the backbone of church life is prayer. Paul exhorts Timothy in the first place that prayers, supplications, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority. The apostle tells the church in the first place, be about prayer. So we pray for the church, for God's mercy, for God's blessing, for God's presence. And we pray for the world, that God's ways and salvation would be known through the preaching of the gospel. It's a blessed privilege that we have. We may not be able to go, we may not be able to write big checks, we may not be preachers, we may not be missionaries, but the one thing that is constant for each and every one of us is that we can pray. We can pray to God for the blessing of God upon the preaching of the gospel of God for the salvation and way of God to be known among the nations. Secondly, with reference to the mission of the church. This doesn't just mean, you know, the nation's way across the waters. Our own nation certainly stands in need of these lessons. Our own nation certainly stands in need of the salvation of God, the true worship of God, and the government of God. I'm not suggesting he's going to throw Justin off his throne and somehow rule in private or personal sort of a way. but God can turn the hearts of kings in such a way as to engage in good for the people. As well, the proclamation of the gospel through the earth, through the missionary enterprise. Again, you may never be able to go across, you know, the country or across the water to another place, but you can pray for them. I mean, this morning we heard of Chris Santiago, and I was just musing as our brother was reading the prayer letter. We prayed for that guy for 20 years. We knew him when he was back in California. He came up here, he sort of made his presentation about what he had hoped to do, and he did it. He and his wife Shirley and their son, we used to call him Timmy, now he's Timothy, and he's probably a lot taller than I am. But they went. They went to China. She has experience. She's Chinese. She speaks Mandarin. So, it was a great fit. And it was like all along the way. I mean, sometimes, you know, ebb and flow more than others. But we prayed for that man. We prayed for his wife. We prayed for their son. And they would come back here on furlough. And they would come to encourage us and tell us what God was doing. And it feels participatory in that regard. Never been to China, but I know a man who has, and it's been a great privilege to try and hold up his arms in the work of the ministry in terms of preaching and teaching and getting the gospel out. We have that same relationship with the Hamiltons who give us the constant updates concerning Myanmar. It is a most blessed privilege that every Christian has to be able to pray for the missionary enterprise. And then finally, the message of the church. The way and salvation of God is preeminent. The person and work of Jesus Christ is primary. We need to get that right and we should never cease from speaking and proclaiming it. Gil explains it this way, God's way and method of grace in the salvation of sinners. the contrivance of it in Christ, the infiltration of it by Him, and the application of it by His Spirit, and the way of sinners to Him through Christ, the way, the truth, and the life, the new and living way to the Father, and the way of life and salvation, which is grace, and by Christ alone, and the gospel, which points out this way, and is itself called the way of God, together with the ordinances of it, which are the ways of pleasantness and paths of peace. All this was made known by the apostles and first preachers of the gospel, not only in the land of Judea, but throughout the whole earth." That's the emphasis. Now, if we're honest and we look around us, and I always fear this, and I don't like to do this. I must like it at some level, because I do it a lot. But to be a bit critical of what's happening around us, Brethren, that's not what's the primary emphasis. The way and the salvation of God, is that the primary emphasis today? There are churches that entertain. There are churches that are social clubs. There are churches striving so desperately to be culturally relevant that they have sacrificed their calling under God. And unfortunately, right now, to be culturally relevant is to be woke. And churches are going that way. They are preaching wokeism. They are preaching leftism. They are preaching and imbibing the sorts of things condemned by God's Holy Word under the guise of cultural relevance. The best way the church can be relevant is to do what God calls her to do. Preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, and exhort. The one thing that we have to offer to this lost and dying world is the power of God unto salvation, to the Jew first and also to the great. For in that gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. And when we try, under the guise of cultural relevance, to be hip with modern society, we typically compromise the word. The church that promotes self-help. Brethren, self-help is not good. You're not good at life as it is. Helping yourself is not going to make it a whole lot better. We need God's help, God's grace, God be merciful to us and bless us. The church that compromises the message of the Bible. And I would add, and I did add, the church that closes at the behest of the state. No, that's not an option. Going forward, whatever virus, whatever issue, whatever problem, whatever thing comes along, we ought never to shut our churches. because God's word is that important. God's will is that important. And we stand fast and hold the line and proclaim it to this world for the glory of God and for the good of souls. Well, let us pray. Our Father, thank you for the word and thank you for the Psalter and for the prophets and for the New Testament and for this glorious expectation of what God will do through the preaching of Christ and him crucified. Help us to be faithful witnesses in this land. Help us to have boldness and courage to open our mouths and to speak the truth as it is in Jesus. Help us to be in prayer as individuals and as families and as a church with reference to the nations of the earth. And God, please send forth your word. May it go forth gloriously and may it do that which you purpose in terms of saving, in terms of strengthening, in terms of bringing glory to your great and awesome name. And we ask this through Jesus Christ, our Lord, amen. We'll close with a brief time of meditation.