We have been looking at the Ephesians and since we are done there but I want to follow up on something which we were speaking previously. So turn to Acts chapter 1, we will begin reading with verse 15 and we will read through the end of the chapter and then we will go back into the Old Testament to read a portion there. Let us stand together as we show our reverence to God who does speak to us in his holy word. Acts chapter 1 beginning with verse 15 and reading through the end of the chapter, here then the word of your God. And at this time Peter stood up in the midst of the brethren, a gathering of about 120 persons was there together. And said brethren, the Scripture had to be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit foretold by the mouth of David concerning Judas who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus. He was counted among us and received his portion in this ministry. Now this man acquired a field with the price of his wickedness and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out and became known to all who were living in Jerusalem so that in their own language that field was called Hakeldama, that is field of blood. For it is written in the book of Psalms, let his homestead be made desolate and let no man dwell in it and his office let another man take. It is therefore necessary that if a man who ever accompanied us all the time, the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning with the baptism of John until the day that he was taken up from us. One of these should become a witness with us of his resurrection. They put forward two men, Joseph, called Barsadis, who was also called Justice and Matthias. And they prayed and said, Thou, Lord, who knowest the hearts of all men, show which one of these two thou hast chosen to occupy this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place. They drew lots for them, the lot fell to Matthias. He was numbered with the eleven apostles. And now go back the Old Testament to the book of Psalms, the hundred and ninth psalm. Psalm 109 will begin reading with verse 1. Psalm 109 and verse 1. O God of my praise, do not be silent. For they have opened the wicked and deceitful mouth against me. They have spoken against me with a lying tongue. They have also surrounded me with words of hatred and fought against me without cause. In return for my love, they act as my accusers, but I am in prayer. Thus they have repaid me evil for good and hatred for my love. A point of wicked man over him and let them accuse or stand at his right hand. When he is judged, let him come forth guilty and let his prayer become sinned. Let his days be few. Let another take his office. Let his children be fatherless and his wife a widow. Let his children wander about and beg and let them seek sustenance far from their ruined homes. Let the creditor seize all that he has and let strangers plunder the product of his labor. Let there be none to extend loving kindness to him nor any to be gracious to his fatherless children. Let his posterity be cut off in a following generation. Let their name be blotted out. Let the iniquity of his father be remembered before the Lord and do not let the sin of his mother be blotted out. Let them be before the Lord continually that he may cut off their memory from the earth because he did not remember to show loving kindness, but persecuted the afflicted and needy man and the despondent in heart and put him to death. He also loved cursing so it came to him and he did not delight in blessing so it was far from him. But he clothed himself with cursings as with his garment and entered into his body like water and like oil into his bones. Let it be to him as a garment with which he covers himself and a belt for which he constantly girds himself. Let this be the reward of my accusers from the Lord and of those who speak evil against my soul. May God bless to our understanding the reading of his holy word. Please be seated. We were speaking about the necessity of the believer in every age standing firm in the Christian warfare which has been committed to us as the people of God. That we are the people of God that we bear the name of Christ and we are to have a concern for his kingdom in its advance to the end of the world. And we have said that one of the things that has hindered that work of the kingdom has been that we've forgotten to take upon us the whole armor of God. That armor was given that we might stand firm in the evil day and having done everything to stand firm. And more recently we talked particularly about those items of our warfare which have been most neglected. We talked about the need to reclaim the hope of salvation. But there is that which God has promised to us that no matter what may befall us for the sake of the gospel. But there is a hope that our labor is not in vain in the Lord but there is going to be victory and history as well at the end of history. And we need to reclaim that hope as God's people for God puts before us a glorious future for the kingdom of our own future may indeed be that of persecution and hardship. But you see what it means is that our efforts in proclaiming the gospel and in seeking to expand the kingdom of Christ by obedience to Him is not going to be a futile thing that meets with failure, it's going to succeed. We need to reclaim that hope. We need to reclaim our confidence in the Word of God that that is the means by which the Lord Jesus Christ is subduing nations to Himself. Not with the weapons of this world, not with the things that we can come up with but with a simple trust in and use of the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God. That's what brought us under the dominion of Christ and that is what is going to bring others under the dominion of Christ and that is what is going to bring the world under the dominion of Christ. And we must believe that and we must use the Word of God upon ourselves, our families, our church, our community and so on. But we also pointed out that something else which needs to be reclaimed as the matter of prayer. We do not have because we do not ask and we need to understand that that is an absolutely vital facet of the Christian life that daily and perpetually we are calling upon the Lord to bring about that which He has promised and to give us grace to perform that which He has commanded. We need to reclaim all of these areas. A particular aspect of prayer long neglected is that of praying what are called imprecatory prayers. As you read this song, you may have become just a little bit uneasy about reading it. You see, this is an imprecatory song. It is a song in which David, understanding the assault upon himself as the representative of God, being an assault upon the Kingdom of God, calls upon the Lord to deal with his enemies in justice. Now folks, I want to point something out to you. So how is it that we don't have difficulty praying for the victory of the Kingdom, but somehow we have difficulty praying for the defeat of God's enemies? How can God be victorious over his enemies if he doesn't defeat them? We have discarded these songs as if they are somehow sinful expressions of a carnal people in the Old Testament. And what has happened is that the Church has become more interested in being nice than in being faithful. Now I'm not saying that you ought to be coarse and callous and write roughshod over people, but there is a certain, I want to be careful on how I say this, but I'll just put it straight forward to you. The Church has become the wimp institution of the end of the 20th century, kind of a Marvin Milk toast entity. And that doesn't mean that we need to be macho, what it means is that we need to be faithful. And that faithfulness will come as we take upon us the whole armor of God and stand firm and resist everything that lifts itself up against the knowledge of God. Now we're going to be looking at this 109th Psalm for a couple of weeks here. This morning I want to touch on one aspect of it, and that is I want to look at the legitimacy of praying in precatory prayers and particularly in precatory songs. And in succeeding weeks we will examine how we should pray for Christ's enemies. The first thing that I want to point out to you and urge you to do is if you're going to again reclaim the matter of prayer, you will need to affirm will be legitimacy of praying the imprecatory songs. You're going to have to come to grips with it that if you are uncomfortable reading these words in this song and if you're even more uncomfortable about praying them, then you need to have your mind and your heart changed. You need to come to grips that these songs were given to us as the prayers of God's warriors and they are intended not only for the people of God and the old covenant, but they are intended for the people of God and the new covenant. They are given to you to direct you how you need to pray for specific enemies of God. Now we'll be talking about that later on. This isn't something casual. This isn't something that you pray. When a guy cuts you off on the road, you don't say, what? What a posterity! From now on, no. That isn't what we're talking about. That isn't what we're talking about, but we are talking about there's legitimate place for the preaching of the Word of God and the praying of the imprecatory songs. It's legitimate. It is not only legitimate, it is necessary for these songs were given to us and the Word of God was given to us to direct us how we may pray according to the will of God. Several things that I want to point out that affirmable legitimacy of the imprecatory songs first, you may pray these imprecatory songs because they are inspired by the Holy Spirit of God. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be perfect, fully prepared for every good work. You may pray them because this is the Word of God and if you can't pray God's Word back to Him, then what can you pray? The whole Bible, of course, is God's inspired Word. Someone may come along and say yes, but the Bible contains the words of Satan too, and we don't believe the words of Satan. But I want you to understand this particular portion of God's Word as well as others is particularly attributed to the Holy Spirit Himself. We read in Acts chapter 1 verses 15 through 20 that this was commanded by the Holy Spirit that Judas should have this done to him but he should have his posterity cut off and that another one should take his office. This is that which in verse 15 the Apostle Peter says the Holy Spirit commanded us to do and it is based upon this portion of the Word of God. You must understand that which is spoken by the Holy Spirit is itself holy and not sinful and that an accusation against the Word of God's Spirit is an accusation against God's Spirit Himself. You understand that? It is a serious thing to say that which is quoted with approbation by those who are inspired by the Spirit of God. It is a sinful thing to say, oh, that's a sinful expression. We dare not do that. If it is a sinful expression for you and me, it is a sinful expression of the Holy Spirit in these no longer holy and I fear that a position that says that these are not legitimate, they are simply the hard-hearted musings of a sinful, old Testament man comes very close to the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit wherein we attribute to the Holy Spirit. It is an act of the devil. It is a dangerous thing. You may pray the impregnatory Psalms because they are inspired by the Holy Spirit. Secondly, by the way I am not saying that those who have this view have committed the unpardonable sin because many times it is done in ignorance. The unpardonable sin, I believe, is that hard-hearted and self-conscious rejection attributing to the Spirit what men know to be the work of the Spirit and yet say it is the work of the devil because of the hardness of their heart. Something quite different when we are simply ignorant and uninformed. But secondly, you may pray the impregnatory Psalms because they are consistent with God's character and covenant. Remember when we are talking about prayer in general, we said that one of the things that we are to do is we are to pray according to the will of God. How do we know what is the will of God? We go into the Word of God and we read the Word of God what is God's will and we are able to pray with confidence that we are praying according to that will. Well, God reveals Himself to be a God of justice. Yes, He is a God of mercy and of grace but He is also a God of justice. Will you look back when God reveals Himself to Moses Exodus chapter 34? I want you to see what is being spoken there as the Lord passed by. He declared this as He declared the revelation of Himself. Exodus chapter 34, you recall that God hid Moses in the cleft of the rock. It wouldn't allow to see it in His entire glory directly but just the vestiges, the last feeding images of the glory of God and in verse 6 we read, then the Lord passed by in front of Him and proclaimed the Lord. The Lord God compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness and truth who keeps loving kindness for thousands who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin, true. Yes, yet He will by no means lead the guilty unpunished visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren of the third and fourth generation. God is a God of mercy and grace and loving kindness but He is also a God of justice who will not allow those who harden their hearts to continue in that hardness. God reveals Himself to be a God of justice. And God threatens judgment on the willfully unrepentant. When you look at Deuteronomy chapter 28 and other portions of the Word of God where the doctrine of the covenant is proclaimed and set forth, you find that there are blessings upon obedience and that there are curses upon disobedience and these curses which are proclaimed upon the willfully disobedient are perfectly in accord with the teachings of the covenant of God. You pray for the blessings of the covenant, don't you? You may also pray for the curses of the covenant upon the willfully rebellious. Thirdly, the imprecatory Psalms are legitimate because they are approved universally in Scripture. Saints of both Testaments pray imprecatory prayers. We see David praying this one. In Jeremiah chapter 18, we don't have time to look there, but Jeremiah also prays an imprecatory prayer against those who are posing the Word of Revelation and leading the nation of Israel astray. But let's go to the New Testament. Galatians chapter 1 is a famous one. The Apostle Paul comes to the Galatians and he says, if someone should come to you proclaiming a gospel different than I have preached unto you or if I myself should come preaching a gospel different than I have preached to you or if an angel from heaven should come to you preaching a gospel different than that which I have come to you, let him be anathema. Under the ban, under the curse of God, having all the covenant curses poured out upon him unto damnation for eternity. If that should happen, that is what Paul pronounced and declared and by his pronouncing it pray and ask God to do it because Paul cannot do that to anyone, only God can anathema ties. And Apostle Paul was not afraid to pray an imprecatory prayer upon the end of the gospel. In 1 Corinthians chapter 16, at the end of the end of the book, again we see something very similar, chapter 16 and verse 22. If anyone does not love the Lord, let him be anathema. Maranatha of the Lord comes. You see, the Apostle Paul was not afraid to use imprecatory prayer. They are proved universally in Scripture, the saints of both testaments pray imprecatory songs. More importantly, I think, or more revealing, I should say, glorified saints pray imprecatory prayers. Now we're talking about those who have died, to be absent from the body, to be present with the Lord and in the very presence of the Lord, they pray imprecatory prayers. Turn with me if you will please, the book of Revelation 6 chapters. Absolutely vital to understand this. These are perfected saints. What I'm trying to show you is there's nothing inherently sinful about these prayers when they are put in their proper context. Revelation 6 and verse 9, and when he broke the fifth seal, this is the Lamb of God breaking the seals on the scroll. I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the Word of God and because of the testimony which he maintained. And they cried out with a loud voice saying, how long, O Lord, holy and true, will thou refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth? How long are you going to refrain from bringing the curses of the covenant upon your enemies, who have attacked you by shedding our blood because we were followers of the Lamb? How long, O Lord, will you let the injustice go? How long will you let the assault on your king and your kingdom go on before you visit them? And Jesus reduced them and says, my, what an un-Christian thing to do. No. There was given to each of them a white robe and they were told they should rest for a little while longer until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed even as they had been should be completed. He says, you saints, I am angry with the enemies of my kingdom. I will avenge your blood. You wage a little bit longer. You wage a little bit longer until their cup of wrath is filled up. The saints pray in precatory prayers, glorified, perfected saints, and furthermore, the Lord Jesus favorably answers in precatory prayers. If you look back and you can see this in Revelation 5 verse 8, again the Lamb takes the scroll and when he taken the book, the Forlidden Creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the Lamb had in each one a heart and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song saying, worthy art thou who take the book and to break its seals without what's slain, and it's purchased for God with thy blood, men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and thou hast made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God and they will reign upon the earth. Now I want you to notice that he takes this bowl and he identifies the incense which is upon it is the prayers of the saints and then you go over to chapter 11 and verse 15 and we see this 15 through 19. In the seventh angel, sound and there are rose-loud voices in heaven saying the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ and he will reign forever and ever. And the 24 elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God saying, we give thee thanks, O Lord God, the Almighty, who art and who were washed because thou hast taken thy great power and has begun to reign. And the nations were enraged and thy wrath came and the time came to the dead to be judged and the time to give their reward to thy bonds servants, the prophets and to the saints and those who fear thy name, the small and the great and destroy those who destroy the earth of the land. And the temple of God which is in heaven was opened, the ark of this covenant appeared in his temple and there were flashes and lightnings and sounds and peels of funders and an earthquake and a great hailstorm. And this is that which is spoken of as God pours out the altar, the incense bowls or the prayers of the saints and he brings judgment upon the world and answered the prayers of the saints. Christ Jesus himself answers the imprecatory songs and responds to the appeals of his church. And furthermore angels praise God for answering the imprecatory prayers. Revelation chapter 17. It's been a lot of time in Revelation this morning. What I'm trying to point out to you again here is we are trying to affirm, want you to affirm the legitimacy and the validity of praying imprecatory songs. Revelation chapter 17 verse 4. That doesn't look like that's going to be the one that I'm looking for here. Okay, 16.4. Third angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and the springs of waters and they became blood. And I heard the angel of the water saying righteous art thou who art and who wast a holy one because thou to judge these things. For they poured out the blood of saints and prophets and thou has given them blood to drink they deserve it. And I heard the altar saying yes, old Lord God, the Almighty true and righteous are thy judgments. You see the praise to God for answering the imprecatory songs. The angels praise God for visiting his judgments in response to the prayer that say righteous and just art thou, old Lord. For thou has heard the prayers of thy saints or justice, you have answered them glory to your name. Chapter 19 verse 1. After these things I heard as it were allowed voice of a great multitude in heaven saying, Hallelujah, salvation and glory and power belong to our God because his judgments are true and righteous for he has judged the great harlot who was corrupting the earth with her immorality. And he has avenged the blood of his bond servants on her in a second time they said, Hallelujah, her smoke rises up forever and ever and the 24 elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sits on the throne saying amen, hallelujah. And a voice came from the throne saying, give praise to our God all you his bond servants, you fear him, the small and the great. I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude and as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty peals of thunder saying, Hallelujah for the Lord God all mighty ways. Now if you think it's sinful to pray the imprecatory songs, you're going to have to deal with the praise of saints and angels and the Lord of glory answering the prayers of his sins to bring judgment and justice upon the earth and that is all you are doing when you pray the imprecatory songs. You are asking God to be faithful to his own character and to his own coverings. Now secondly here and quickly learn to answer the objections raised against praying imprecatory songs because they're going to arise from you and they're going to arise from others. Objection 1, imprecatory prayers reflect the carnality of the Old Testament, that is it's sinful, it's nasty, it's hardhearted, it's not right. Well I think we've already dealt with that. That objection reflects an evolutionary view of God and his word, a change in God's essential nature and word. Lord Jesus himself has said, heaven and earth made pass away but not one jot or tidal of my word shall pass away into everything people put. It implies that God is unjust in his judgment of the wicked and if that is so, that when God brought Israel out of Egypt and brought judgment upon Israel in order that he might save his people, God was unjust. That when God drove out of the Canaanites because their iniquity was full and because of their oppression and immorality and hostility to God, when God brought his people in and pushed them out of the land that God was unjust and on it goes. Brothers and sisters, God is not unjust in judging the wicked. Were God to come and consume us with the fire of his wrath, he would be perfectly just in doing so. But he has had mercy upon us but he has not had mercy upon us apart from executing his justice. You must remember that if you are free from the wrath and curse of God, it is because he poured it out on a substitute for you. He poured out the full measure of his wrath on the Lord Jesus Christ and he bore what you and God deserved. Was God unjust in that? That is the grace of God. That when God saves his people he judges his enemies and there is nothing inconsistent with that. The impregnatory prayers are not the carnal reflections of an Old Testament sinner. They are the very word of God and prayers for God's justice to prevail in the earth. And if you cannot pray that God would deal with us injustice as well as in mercy, then you do not know the character of God. Objection 2, Jesus prayed for those who crucified Him. Father, forgive them. For they know not what they do. We find that in the book of Luke chapter 23 and may I point something out to you very quickly here. In the very context of that we see the Lord pronouncing an imprecation or a judgment upon those very people. In Luke chapter 23 and verse 33 we read and when they came to the place called the skull, there they crucified Him and the criminals one on the right and the other on the left. But Jesus was saying, Father, forgive them. For they do not know what they are doing and they cast lots dividing up his garments among themselves. We read that. And we marvel at the grace of God that you must read that in its context. For in verse 27 we read and there we're following Him a great multitude of people and of the women who were mourning Him and lamenting Him. But Jesus turning to them said, daughters of Jerusalem, stop weeping for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold the days are coming when they will say blessed are the barren and the wounds that never bore and the breasts that never nursed. And they will begin to say the mountains fall on us into the hills, cover us for if they do these things in the green tree, what will happen in the dry. Don't you weep for me because of the wickedness of your deeds the day is going to come when you are going to say blessed are the childless because of the wrath of God that is going to come upon you for the crucifixion. The context includes a curse pronounced upon that wicked generation. So we understand that Jesus prayer was not a universal prayer as we read in John chapter 17. He says he does not pray for the world but for his sheep for his people. John Calvin said it this way, it is probable however that Christ did not pray for all indiscriminately but only for the wretched multitude who were carried away by inconsiderate zeal and not by premeditated wickedness. For since the scribes and priests were persons in regard to whom no ground was left for hope it would have been vain for him to pray for them. Or can it be doubted that this prayer was heard by the heavenly father and that this was the cause why many of the people afterwards drink by faith the blood which they had shed. And you recall it on the day of Pentecost 3000 of those who had been gathered yelling crucify him were pricked to the heart and they cried out what must we do to be saved. The answer believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. Jesus when Jesus prays his prayers are answered. So we can see that although indeed we are to pray and we'll see that later on we pray for the conversion of those who are ignorant. But do you remember those priests, those wicked, hard-hearted priests who self-consciously opposed Christ and His reign? That when the Lord Jesus was resurrected they called the guards before them. The guards reported, listen what he said was going to happen happened he's raised from the dead and you know what those wicked priests did. They didn't humble themselves before the Lord and repent and say how terrible we are we were wrong. They bribe those guards and they say now you go out and you tell everybody that you meet that His disciples came along and took the body and went away. That hard-hearted rebellion and obstinacy that said we will not have Christ to rule over us and we will destroy anyone who will. Jesus in pronouncing the woes in Matthew 23 spoke to them and said behold your house is left you desolate. That upon this generation may come all the blood of the prophets was shed by your forefathers. You think that you have gotten away with it your wrong my justice and my wrath will be visited upon you and was in response to the prayers of the saints of God. Yes Jesus prayed for those who crucified Him but He also pronounced His judgment upon those who hated Him with a premeditated and self-conscious hatred. Objection number three Jesus commands us to pray for our enemies and that is certainly true. God does forbid you to execute vengeance rather than leave vengeance to Him as we read in Romans chapter 12 in verse 14. But God's command to pray for our enemies does not forbid us to pray for God's justice. We pray that God would indeed bring judgment upon the enemies of the kingdom in one of two ways. The God would break and crush his enemies unto repentance and conversion and faith. That's what we ought to pray first of all. We ought to pray that God would visit his enemies with his wrath and judgment that would bring them to terror to the place where they will bow the knee before the Lord and confess with their lips that Christ is Lord the glory of God the Father. But let me tell you something, that is God's judgment upon the wicked. When He kills us and we die to sell and live on the right things, you have been killed and put to death. You have been visited with the wrath of God upon the Lord Jesus Christ and you died with Christ and were raised up with Him in newness of glory. But it was a judgment you died and your life is hidden with God in Christ. That's one way we ought to pray for our enemies. But we ought also to pray that if the enemies of the gospel continue to oppose and to persecute the people of God, that if they will not turn that God would crush them, that his saints may be delivered and the gospel may go forth to the end of the world. That's how we pray. And the admonitions to pray for our enemies have to do with personal offenses rather than those who self-consciously rebel against God and his kingdom. And we'll talk more about that a bit later. Those are the answers, but I hope, as you go forth today, you will understand, when you read Psalm 109, you will not be uncomfortable in reading it. We'll explain more about it because it has a very limited use as I hope you've already seen. Let me also give you these questions as you learn to pray. Do not pray these imprecatory songs self-righteously. You must remember that these things are what you deserve apart from the grace of God in Christ. If you're a haughty and arrogant and proud, when you pray these prayers instead of broken and humble and seeking the face of God and his glory, then indeed you are misusing the imprecatory songs. We have a sinful tendency to selfishness and hatred, and these things are not that which ought to characterize our praying, the songs. They ought to characterize a heart that is concerned for the glory of God and the growth of his kingdom. Beware of failing to discriminate between those who are deceived in their sin and those who are self-consciously rebellious. There is a difference. We pointed that out when Jesus prayed, Father, forgive them, but they know not what they do. He was praying for those who did not self-consciously rebel against the Lord, but who were deceived. He pronounces imprecations on the priests and the scribes and the Pharisees who knew exactly what they were doing and refused to humble themselves. Pray the songs carefully, with humility and a deep appreciation for the reality that this is the way we pray that God would expand his kingdom to the uttermost parts of the earth. Brothers and sisters, this is the Word of God. If we are going to reclaim prayer for the growth of the kingdom, we must learn once again to pray the imprecatory prayers with a right heart for the glory of God. Let's pray again. Almighty God, we bow before you and we pray to forgive us first of all for, first of all, impugning your word and your spirit and the revelation that you have given to us. Father, we pray that we might learn to humble our hearts before you and invite and seek the Scriptures to see what these things be sell. But you will make us aware that we are those who deserve the wrath and curse of God, unless we be lifted up in our own self-righteousness. But, O Father, may we also have a heart that yearns for the reign of Christ, that yearns and longs to see every enemy brought under His will. And if men will not humble themselves voluntarily by grace through faith to the ruling Christ, the Father, we know that you shall bring them to that place by the word of your power and the outtouring of your wrath, that men in fear and terror will confess that Jesus is Lord through the glory of your name. Father, give us off concern for your justice and for your kingdom. And make us willing and efficient in the use of all that which you have given to us. Lord, guard our hearts, glorify your name and will you deliver your people? And will you, O Lord, call your elect people from every nation, tribe and tongue? And would you indeed subdue your enemies under your feet that men may learn to kiss the sun, less he be angry, and they perish from the way? For we ask these things in Jesus' name and for His sake. Amen. Let's conclude our worship by turning in our soldiers. Once again, the Psalm 25-A, Psalm 25-A, to thee I lift my soul, O Lord, I trust in thee. My God, let me not be ashamed or foes, exalt or me. Ye none that weighed on thee shall be ashamed at all, but those that want to me transgress upon them, shame shall flow. This is the message of the gospel. There's a saviour of life and a life of those who believe and a saviour of death and death of those who harden their hearts. You must not be ashamed to proclaim that, nor must we be ashamed to pray that God will bring it about. Let's sing together to the praise of God, Psalm 25-A, verses 1-7. 25-A, let's stand together as we sing. My God, let me not be ashamed. My tender mercy is gone through. Receive now the benediction of our God, and now may the grace, mercy, and peace of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit be with you and abide with you now and forevermore. Amen.