 Good evening. Welcome back. Hope you had a wonderful afternoon of fellowship and rest. It's good to see everybody back here and looking forward to looking at our texts this evening. So please turn with me in your Bibles to Judges chapter 3. It's our joy to be able to come back to the ministry of God's Word in an evening service like this. I'm grateful for that blessing and grateful for you all coming and looking forward to working continuing our work through the book of Judges and so tonight we come to Judges chapter 3 verses 12 through 30 where we're looking tonight at Ehoed and the Portley King Eglon, the rotund ruler, the massive monarch of the Moabites. Look at his record tonight from Judges chapter 3 verses 12 through 30. So here the Word of God and the children of Israel again did evil on the side of the Lord and so the Lord strengthened Eglon king of Moab against Israel because they had done evil in the side of the Lord. Then he gathered to himself the people of Ammon and Amalek went and defeated Israel and took possession of the city of Palms and so the children of Israel served Eglon king of Moab 18 years. But when the children of Israel cried out to the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer for them, Ehoed, the son of Gerah, the Benjaminite, a left-handed man and by him the children of Israel sent tribute to Eglon king of Moab. Now Ehoed made himself a dagger. It was a double edged and a cubit in length and he fastened it under his clothes on his right thigh. So he brought the tribute to Eglon king of Moab. Now Eglon was a very fat man and when he had finished presenting the tribute he sent away the people who had carried the tribute but he himself turned back from the stone images that were at Gilgal and said, I have a secret message for you, O king. He said keep silence and all who attended him went out from him. So Ehoed came to him. Now he was sitting upstairs in his cool private chamber. Then Ehoed said, I have a message from God for you. So he rose from his seat. Then Ehoed reached with his left hand, took the dagger from his right thigh and thrust it into his belly. Even the hilt went in after the blade. The fat closed over the blade for he did not draw the dagger out of his belly and his entrails came out. And then Ehoed went out through the porch and shut the doors of the upper room behind him and locked them. When he had gone out Eglon's servants came to look into their surprise the doors of the upper room were locked and so they said he's probably attending to his needs in the cool chamber. And so they waited until they were embarrassed and still he had not opened the doors of the upper room. Therefore they took the key and opened them. There was their master fallen dead on the floor. But Ehoed had escaped while they delayed, passed beyond the stone images and escaped to Sera. And it happened when he arrived that he blew the trumpet in the mountains of Ephraim and the children of Israel went down with him from the mountains and he led them. Then he said to them, follow me for the Lord has delivered your enemies the Moabites into your hand. So they went down after him, seized the fords of the Jordan leading the Moab, did not allow anyone to cross over. And at that time they killed about 10,000 men of Moab, all stout men of Valor, not a man escaped. So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel and the land had rest for 80 years. This is the word of God. Amen. Amen. Let's take a few moments now and pray as we work through our text this evening. Let's pray together. Father in heaven, Lord, thank you for the blessing of your word. Thank you for this blessed privilege of coming together on Sunday evening this way Lord and having this time together with God's people to consider your word together and to consider what you would have us learn this evening Lord and to consider the blessings that you have poured out on us through preaching this this book Lord being able to go through this book together. It's just a blessing from you. We're very grateful for that. So Lord I pray please bless our time this evening to help us Lord to understand would help us to remember these things and how they point us to the Lord Jesus Christ in your ultimate redemptive plans and purposes that have been fulfilled in him. We know Lord that you have already dealt the death blow to our enemy and our rest awaits and we thank you for that blessed privilege Lord that blessing that you've given us Lord I pray that you would come soon quickly bring it all to fruition. We long for that day to be with you in eternity. Thank you Lord for this time together tonight in Jesus name. Amen. All right and the title of our sermon this evening is appointed message from God. Appointed message from God. I think you get the point that that sermon title. The pointed message from God we're in Judges chapter 3 verses 12 through 30 and we come now to the second judge in the book of Judges the second judge cycle in this book our account of the second judge in Israel begins with what has been and what will be a common refrain during this period in the nation's history. We see that refrain in verse 12 where the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord. After the death of Othniel the people revert back to their idolatry back to their sin sinning even worse than they did before. What we see throughout the book of judges is this gradual deterioration this gradual canonization of the nation of Israel and so once again as we consider the lot here of the children of Israel in the land verse 12 the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord. The inhabitants of the land and their idols have become a snare to Israel. They become a snare to the people as the people now plunge themselves into a brazen pattern of sin and rebellion. This brazen rebellion is also throughout the book set against a backdrop of God's gracious persistent consistent faithfulness to his covenant with the people and we think about that from even the beginning God had been exceedingly merciful to the patriarchs entering into covenant with them reiterating his covenant to them. He had formed the nation from the 12 sons of Jacob one of the patriarchs. He'd rescued Israel out of bondage from the iron furnace in Egypt in wonder right signs and wonders as the plagues were poured out on Pharaoh and as God miraculously rescued them and brought them into the wilderness he entered into covenant with them at Sinai where they heard his audible voice. They saw the pillar of fire by night the cloud of smoke by day. He cared for them in the wilderness provided food for them provided water for them. He brought them into the promised land defeated all their enemies before them. He heard the cry of their misery had compassion on them in their pain and he raised up Othniel a lion of a man to deliver them from oppression and not a word had failed of all that God had graciously and mercifully promised to this people not a word had failed. God is exceedingly faithful even when we are faithless right and we see his testimony is faithfulness all over the pages of scripture. Yet verse 12 when Othniel the judge died the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord. As we continue to see in this all too familiar pattern that now marks their experience. God responds to their rebellion their continued rebellion with retributive justice. His anger is described as hot against Israel a blast of furnace out of his furnace heat out of his nostrils so to speak. The Lord responds with a righteous indignation not an out of control outburst of wrath like we're accustomed to right but this is a loving compassionate jealous and zealous righteous indignation not an out of control outburst of wrath but a covenant keeping faithful to his word zealous for his name holy anger and we'll see God's glory in his judgment on the people God's glory in his exercise of justice. God will be faithful to his word including faithfulness to his promises to pour out his judgment upon the wicked. So what does the Lord then do in retributive justice as the children of Israel again did evil in his sight. The Lord strengthened eggline king of Moab against Israel because they had done evil in the sight of the Lord they had fallen again into plunged themselves into idolatry. So look at verse 13 with me then. So then he gathered to himself the people of Ammon and Amalek went and defeated Israel and took possession of the city of Palms which is Jericho. Okay, so let's think about this for a moment. God himself sovereign over all circumstances in point of judgment intending to judge the people intend to intending to deliver them over to the hands of their enemies. God himself raises up eggline king of Moab eggline king of Moab reaches out gathers to himself the people of Ammon the people of Amalek and they went and they defeat Israel as God intended for them to do and they took possession of the city of Palms another word for Jericho. Okay, verse 14. So then the children of Israel served eggline king of Moab 18 years. Now, so we consider this text together consider first with me the enemy that God raises up against the Israelites. If you look at the beginning of chapter three, it's not one of the nations that God leaves in the land at the beginning of chapter three, verse one, these are the nations which the Lord left that he might test Israel by them. Okay, and if you go down verse three, namely five lords of the Philistines, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, the Hivites who dwelt in Mount Lebanon from Mount Bell Hermon to the entrance of Amoth, you go down to verse five, thus the children of Israel dwelt among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Parasites, the Hivites and the Jebusites. The people that are not listed in there are the Moabites, the Ammonites and the Amalekites, right? But this is the group of people. This is the tip of the spear, so to speak, of God's judgment. God raises up this enemy against Israel. It's not in the land with them. They're coming from outside the land. So the instrument that God chooses then the instrument of his judgment is the Moabites. Now, the Moabites were a particularly despised enemy of Israel, very despised and partly sorely despised because they were related to the Israelites. You remember how the Moabites were related to the Israelites? They were definitely the black sheep of the family, so to speak. The Moabites were the offspring of Lot and Lot's incestuous relationship with his daughters. In Genesis chapter 19, the two daughters of Lot hiding out in a cave with their father, they hatch a plan together to preserve the family line through incest by getting their father drunk. And so Lot's firstborn daughter gives birth through an aberration, a son named Moab, and Lot's youngest daughter gives birth to a son named Ammon. So we see the Moabites and the people of Ammon, the Ammonites. So God strengthens Eglon, strengthens Moab, obviously from outside the land. Eglon rallies the people of Ammon to his side, their brotherly kinsfolk, so to speak. And then he calls on the most hated of Israelite enemies, Amalek. Now, these enemies, the Moabites, the Ammonites, the Amalekites were absolutely, certainly thorns in Israel's side. They were burrs under their saddle. This unholy trinity defeats Israel in their own land. And Eglon, not giving any heed to Joshua's curse on the city of Jericho. You remember what Joshua said about the city of Jericho, right? When the city fell, he said anyone who attempts to rebuild this city on this foundation is going to do so with the life of his firstborn, right? He curses Jericho. Eglon doesn't care about that. He sets up his base of operations, if you will, in Jericho, the city of Palms, his Palestinian palace, so to speak. And Israel is subject to this wicked guy for 18 years. They had to put up with the Moabites, the Ammonites, and the Amalekites for 18 years. Now, their hatred, it's interesting as you read through the text, their hatred for their oppressor comes out in the telling of the story. There's sarcasm here, there's irony here, there's satire here. And we see their mocking of their enemies in the text. Now, as it did with twice evil from two rivers, Kushan, Rishat Iyam, from verses 7 to 11, we now have the blubbery king Eglon from Moab. His name, the name Eglon means little calf or little bull. It sounds very much, it's extremely like the word for round or rotund. And we know from the text that he was a very and extremely fat man, verse 17. The word for fat there is a word that's used to refer to fatted cattle or fattened sheep. They were fattened for a purpose. What was the purpose of fattening cattle or sheep? Slaughter. They're being fattened for slaughter. So we have little bull here, little calf, fattened and ready for slaughter. Eglon pictured here by the language as a fatted calf heading for slaughter. The Israelites certainly would have enjoyed this picture, this word picture as the story is retold over and over again associated with the story to add insult to the serious injury inflicted here on old Eglon. The word used for Eglon's fat belly in verse 22 is also a word that essentially means fatheaded, dull-witted or stupid. So we get a picture, a very unflattering picture of Eglon, the blubbery king of Moab. So Eglon displayed as dumb, lazy, fat, unsuspecting fool of a king. And then this account is riddled with multiple mistakes made by the king that led to his demise. We'll see that as we work through the text. Later we'll also see that the Moabites themselves were also considered to be dim-witted. We see them sort of fumbling along toward their demise also. By the end of the account, Eglon lays dead in his own excrement and his servants stand embarrassed outside the doors and witless. There's a bit of irony in that also. I think it's going to come with me now. So the Israelites would have taken a certain joy in hearing this story retold and their enemies portrayed in this way. There's also a bit of irony in that as much as the Israelites might have enjoyed painting that picture, this is who they had been delivered to in their sin. So this is also a picture of their shame. If we want to think about it that way, the Lord doesn't hesitate to draw this picture on the pages of Scripture drawing out Israel's shame in their sin. Their sin had put them lower than this bunch of dim-witted people, so to speak, had put them lower than the Moabites. They had been put under the rule of this embarrassing king, this embarrassing people. The nation is subject to Eglon for 18 years before they finally cry out to the Lord in their distress, oppressed, taxed to the hilt to support these people. You'd almost expect old Eglon to get more and more round with every tax dollar he took in, every meal he ate from their tax dollars. But sometimes we're to see, aren't we, our own utter foolishness in the foolish circumstances that we sin our way into. It's like the Lord uses the embarrassing details of this story to bring a sense of shame and conviction on the nation of Israel for having subjected themselves to this particular judgment. And I've thought about that over the years. Maybe I'm not the only one who thinks about some of the absolute foolish things I've done in my past. When you get yourself, you've sinned yourself into a circumstance and now you're having to endure. And years later, you look back on that and you say, how in the world could I have been that foolish? Right? How in the world was I that thick headed, that dim-witted to have sinned in such a way to put myself in those circumstances? Lord, please, please be merciful. Be merciful to me the fool. Be merciful to me the sinner. We often find ourselves in foolish circumstances through our own foolishness, through our own shame. The Lord is gracious and merciful. Is he not? In spite of this, right, they're put under these people. And in spite of all this, what does God do? God raises up a deliverer. God sends them a savior to deliver them. Look at verse 15. When the children of Israel then cried out to the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer for them. The word means savior, right? Moshe is the word. Moshe, a savior. The Lord raised up a deliverer for them. Ehud, the son of Gerah, the Benjamin, a left-handed man. And by him the children of Israel sent tribute to Eglon, king of Moab. Now here again, we see in verse 15, just like we did under Othniel, the people cry out. They don't cry out repentance over their sin. This is not a cry of repentance, a cry of mourning over their sin. But this is a cry of misery and pain under oppression. They're under the oppression of this enemy. They cry out in need, a need of help. And so what does the Lord do then? Does he ignore their cries? No. The Lord in covenant, steadfast love hears their cry for help, raises up for them a Moshe, a savior. Not a murderer, not an assassin, not a deceiver, not a liar. Ehud's none of those in the Lord's estimation here in verse 15. Ehud is a deliverer, a savior. And this one is from the tribe of Benjamin. It's interesting that the word Benjamin, the name for that tribe, means right-handed. The word Benjamin, the name Benjamin means right-handed. And Ehud is specifically here, a left-handed man. So he raises up an unusual character from the tribe of right-handed men. He raises up a left-handed assassin in Ehud, a deliverer, a savior. It's interesting, isn't it? And unexpected. Interesting and unexpected. It's supposed to be interesting and unexpected. We'll find out why in a moment. Well, this Ehud is the ultimate antithesis of the dole-witted Moabites and their blubbery king, Eglon. He is here, a master of deception. The ruse begins in verse 15 where by him, by Ehud, the children of Israel sent tribute to Eglon, king of Moab. Ehud contemplated this plot beforehand, thought about it very carefully, and planned to use the opportunity of the tribute to take out this enemy. So in verse 16, what does Ehud do? Ehud makes himself a dagger. Makes himself a dagger. It was double-edged and a cubit in length. A cubit was about the length from your elbow to your wrist. So it's about 18 inches long or so, a dagger about the length of 18 inches, and Ehud fastened it under his clothes on his right thigh. Now think with me, from verse 16, every part of the plot of Ehud is carefully and meticulously planned. The Israelites would have also enjoyed this retelling, this account of Ehud's plans. The double-edged blade, you think about the double-edged blade, would allow Ehud at close range to thrust the dagger straightforward instead of having to use a hacking motion. It might have required him to bring his arm above his head. So in close quarters, close range, Ehud could have shoved the dagger in close range without having to use a lot of motion. Double-edged dagger. Being left-handed, Ehud strapped the blade then to his right thigh where no one would suspect it. Now it's interesting, it would have been customary, especially for someone under the king's rule, the king's objection, to have been padded down when he approached the king. In this case, they wouldn't have expected to find a blade on his right hip or his right thigh because that would have presupposed that he was left-handed. And of course, there were no left-handed people around at this time, I guess. And so they must not have padded him down very carefully. Ehud got the dagger in without being noticed. Again, it sort of points to the foolish or dim-witted nature of the Moabites who are serving as bodyguards for the king. So verse 17, he brought the tribute to Eglon king of Moab. Eglon was a very fat man. And again, that word there for fat man also means dim-witted. And when he had finished presenting the tribute, he sent away the people who had carried the tribute, but he himself turned back from the stone images that were at Gilgal. Those are idols in the land. And he said, I have a secret message for you, oh king. Think about verse 19 for a moment. Ehud, with the people that had come with him, were on their way out of town. And on their way out of town, often these idols were placed on the border between lands. And so they reached Gilgal and these stone images. And these stone images were the pagan idols that the children of Israel had allowed to be set up by their oppressors, by their enemies in the land, because they failed to drive out these pagan influences. Had they obeyed the Lord, when they took conquest of the land and had driven out pagan idolatry, they wouldn't have been ensnared by these idols. But these would have been idols even at Gilgal, that the nation of Israel themselves would have been worshiping. It's a pitiful position that the people have fallen into here. He passes these stone images, these pagan idols that were at Gilgal, and he said, turns back to the king, turns back to Eglon, now by himself. And he said, I have a secret message for you, oh king. Now the word for secret message here, there's a word play. It's very interesting. It can also mean hidden thing. So a secret message or hidden thing. I have something I want to show you, Eglon. Essentially what Ehoed was saying. I have something I want to show you. I've got something I want to tell you. I need to whisper it in your ear. So Eglon said, keep silence. That's interesting that when he says keep silence, all who attended him, all those who were guarding him, his attendants left the room. They went out from him. Somehow or another they interpret his be quiet to mean for them to leave the room and leave Eglon, portly Eglon, alone in his cool upper chamber with his enemy. Not smart on the part of the Moabites. Not smart. So then verse 20, Ehoed came to him and now Eglon was sitting upstairs in his cool private chamber. And now Ehoed said, rather than I have a secret message for you, Ehoed said, I have a message from God for you. And so Eglon arose from his seat. What was a secret message for the king is now a message directly from God. Eglon foolishly stands up, gives Ehoed a more comfortable strike, a larger target to aim for, and Ehoed drives the message home. Verse 21, Ehoed reached with his left hand, took the dagger from his right thigh, thrust it into his belly, even the hilt or the handle went in after the blade, and the fat closed over the blade for he did not draw the dagger out of his belly, and his entrails came out. We're there for entrails. Literally means bowels. His bowels came out, maybe having folded over in utter agony in his cool upper chamber, where Ehoed was thought to have been relieving himself and he could no longer control himself and his bowels come out. In any event, the way that the dagger is described as going in the words being used means that it would have been thrust through the groin area into his abdomen, was thrust so far that the fat closed around the 18 inch blade, even to the point of the handle, apparently that wasn't made with a hilt per se because he was hiding it on his thigh, and so the message driven all the way home, a pointed message from God. The message delivered, verse 23, then Ehoed went out through the porch, shut the doors of the upper room behind him, and locked them. Now there's some debate over what happens in the upstairs room. Ehoed before would have gone in, the king would have met him sort of downstairs and have received the tribute from him, then as Eglon or Ehoed comes back to meet, Eglon, Eglon wanting to hear the private message from Ehoed takes Ehoed surprisingly up into an upper room or an upper chamber patio room you could say at the top of the house where they could be alone. It was also a room where it's likely that the king would have been able to use the restroom as we hear later, he might have been relieving himself as his servants thought, and this was a room where they could have spoken in private. All of his servants, all of his bodyguards leave the room, leave Eglon alone with Ehoed, and Ehoed kills Eglon, locks the doors of the upper chamber behind him, escapes out the window so to speak, or out the porch, and gets away. One commentator joked, preach the gospel at all times when necessary, use swords. I thought that was clever. Eglon would have been astonished at his teaching for his message had authority. And remember, Ehoed was raised up by God for this mission. That's what's interesting, isn't it? God who is sovereign over for all things, God who works all things according to the counsel of his own will, raised up Ehoed for this mission. God sovereignly in charge of all circumstances, and chose Ehoed, and Ehoed delivers God's message to the king. I have something I want to say to you, Eglon, and he does it in an unexpected, in an unexpected way. Reminds me, thinking of this story and thinking about the satire that goes along with it reminds me of Psalm 2, right? Why do the nations rage and the people plot a vain thing? The Moabites, the Ammonites, the Amalekites plotting vain things against the one who actually rules in the land, the kings of the earth in Psalm 2 set themselves, the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed saying, let us break their bonds and pieces, cast away their cords from us, and he who sits in the heavens shall laugh. Right? The Lord shall hold them in derision, and he shall speak to them in his wrath and distress them in his deep displeasure. I have a word for you. God has a message for them. The Lord says, yet I have set my king on my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree the Lord has said to me, you are my son. Today I've begotten you, ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance and the ends of the earth for your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron. You shall dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel. God will not be mocked. God's plans will not be thwarted. His ends will come about. It's nothing to laugh at. Nothing to laugh at when one day the Lord will say to the wicked, I have something I want to show you. Come closer. I have a word for you. Come closer. I have a message to give you. When the proud, vain enemies of the righteous will be ingloriously cut down, lying in a puddle of their own excrement. Verse 24, when he had gone out, Eglon's servants came to look. To their surprise, the doors of the upper room were locked. And so they said to themselves, he's probably attending to his needs in the cool chamber. Possibly meaning, probably meaning that he's in the restroom. And so they waited, verse 25, until they were embarrassed. Couldn't wait any longer. Still he had not opened the doors of the upper room. They stood outside and they waited, might possibly have been fooled by the smell as Eglon laid in a puddle of his own filth. And therefore, verse 25, they took the key, opened the doors. There was their master fallen dead on the floor. A left-handed counterpunch against the enemies of Israel. It's interesting. The idea that Ehoed in this through ruse, if you will, when Eglon, the Moabites, the Ammonites, the Amalekites, thought they had Ehoed under their thumb, thought they had the people of Israel under their iron fist, what happens? It catches them off guard, catches them by surprise. The tactic is strategic, the death blow well planned, and the enemy is caught by surprise. It's interesting if you look at the parallels. Christ also caught his enemies by surprise, didn't he? In the strategic death blow dealt at the cross when his enemies thought that they had him under their thumb, right? Jesus Christ pulls them close and deals the death blow. He says, I have a message for you, it is finished. It is done. Christ also sent to deal our enemy a death blow, to catch them off guard, so to speak, to do that through a strategic ploy. They thought they had him at the cross, and the cross was used to deal the death blow to our enemy Satan, to death. The cross was strategic. It was a left-handed counterpunch, unexpected. When they thought they had him under subjection, the Lord says, I have a word for you. It's interesting how that's described then in the Bible, the Lord's actions after his resurrection. He says in Colossians 2.15, having disarmed principalities and powers, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it. Isn't that interesting? He made a public spectacle of principalities and powers, triumphing over them in his victory, having disarmed them. 1 Peter 3, verse 18, Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive by the Spirit, by whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison, who formerly were disobedient when once the divine long suffering waited in the days of Noah, he went and triumphed over them. He put his boot on their neck, so to speak. You see, that's what the story does here with Eglon, King of Moab. The boot is placed on Eglon's neck by God's instrument of divine retribution, Eud. Now in verse 26, Eud escapes while they delayed. He passed beyond those stone images, and he escaped to Sera, and it happened that when he arrived, that he blew the trumpet. I like to think of that as the Jubilee trumpet, right? Liberty to the captives. He blew the trumpet in the mountains of Ephraim, and the children of Israel went down with him from the mountains, and he led them. One fatal blow to the serpent, right? One death blow. The serpent may have bruised his heel, but the Lord crushed his head and blew the trumpet. What happens after the fatal blow is delivered at the cross? The Lord Jesus Christ, the greater Savior, the greater judge, so to speak, gathers his people. He gathers his people at the sound of the trumpet, so to speak. The trumpet of victory, they come down out of the mountains of Ephraim. The children of Israel went down with him from the mountains, and he led them. He leads them in victory. Then he said to them, verse 28, Follow me, for the Lord has delivered your enemies, the Moabites, into your hand. Now that's a picture of the victory of God's people, and the victory that we can expect in preaching the gospel. The in-gathering of God's people from the four corners of the earth during this time, when the gospel's being preached, this is the salvation of God's people, right? The God gathering in his people under the triumphant Lord and King, Jesus Christ. He says, Follow me, the Lord has delivered your enemies, the Moabites, into your hand. And so they went down after him, seized the fords of the Jordan, leading the Moab, and did not allow anyone to cross over. And at that time, they killed about 10,000 men of Moab, all stout men of Valor, not a man escaped. When they at first went out, and it failed to do as God had commanded. And to take out every stout men of Valor, they didn't fail this time, not a man escaped. It's interesting that as we get past the Book of Judges and we get into the monarchy, one of the first enemies that the new King Saul is charged with addressing is the Amalekites. And if you remember, Agag from the Amalekites, he hacked Samuel did Agag to pieces because Saul had failed to put down that enemy. Here, all of Moab, stout men of Valor, not a man escaped. And so Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel and the land had rest for 80 years. One fatal blow, the people are gathered together, one victory, and they get rest for a lifetime. Isn't that interesting? Ehud goes into the upper room, takes out the King Eglon, one fatal blow, he gathers the people together, and the land had rest for a lifetime for 80 years. Our King, the greater Savior, the great judge, the Lord Jesus Christ deals one fatal death blow in one moment at the cross. We then throughout this age gathered together and our victory is a rest for eternity. Our King, our judge, our Savior is ever living, never dying, and our rest with him will be for eternity, not just a lifetime. All praise, honor, and glory be to our great Savior. Amen. Amen. Let's pray. Father in heaven, Lord, we thank you for how you have delivered us from bondage. Thank you, Lord, that you have rescued us from those foolish circumstances that we've sinned our way into, Lord, that foolishness of our own sin, our own bondage, our own slavery to sin, our oppression and the weight of our sin. Thank you, Lord, that you made provision for our deliverance in our great Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. I praise you and thank you, Lord, that you've dealt the final death blow at the cross and have said it is finished. That work is done, the person, the work of the Lord Jesus Christ having secured for us this great salvation that we now enjoy by faith through faith in him. We thank you, Lord, for that blessing. I pray, Lord, that we would live in light of our eternal rest that really began at the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, at our salvation from works of the law under the covenant of works. Now, Lord, having been justified freely by your grace through the righteousness that is ours by faith from Jesus Christ, we praise you and thank you, Lord, for this blessing of rest that we have in that way. And, Lord, look forward to an eternal rest with him in heaven for all eternity. And thank you, Lord, for this masterful, glorious, great plan of redemption that you have crafted in your infinite wisdom. And thank you, Lord, for the Lord Jesus Christ who has secured it for his people. I pray, Lord, that we would worship you rightly, live for you fervently, praise you for this. All glory, honor, and praise be to you. In Jesus' name we pray these things. Amen.