What Meaneth This? — Carl Armerding

The Pentecost Account and the Question “What Meaneth This?”

Meditation for this evening, let's turn again to the Book of the Acts, Chapter 2, the second chapter of the Book of the Acts. I might say that, God willing, these evening studies will continue in this Book of the Acts, picking out certain important passages, and by that I'm not saying that the rest of it isn't important, but taking passages of Scripture which I believe are relevant to the day in which we live, and which have a message for us now.

We're living in the now generation. They're reminding us of this every once in a while, that they're more interested in the here and now than they are in the there and then. They forget that it's possible to be interested in both, and so tonight we want to minister in both directions, now and here, and there and then.

The second chapter of the Book of the Acts,. And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing, mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.

And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

And they were dwelling in Jerusalem, Jews, devout men out of every nation under heaven. And when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language.

And they were all amazed and marveled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galileans? And how were here we every man in our own tongue wherein we were born? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judea and Cappadocia, in Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, and Egypt, and the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes?

Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God. And they were all amazed and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this? I'd like to use these last three words as my text this evening, What meaneth this?

Evidently here was something so different and so unique that they had never heard the like of it in history before. Last night, you'll remember, as we were looking into Chapter 1 with some of the related passages, we pointed out some of the unique features of our Christian faith.

Christianity’s Unique Prophecies and Miracles

The fact that the founder of our faith was born of a virgin, and that this was not something which was discovered after it happened, but it was something predicted 700 years before he came. Indeed, we could go back even further than that to the book of Genesis, where God himself said that the woman's seed was to bruise the serpent's head, so that in a sense you could say it was predicted 4 ,000 years before it took place.

But put in exactly those terms in the seventh chapter of the book of Isaiah that a virgin should conceive and bear a son. This was unique. Then we pointed out that it was also pointed out where he should be born, in Bethlehem, and that Daniel gave us the time of his birth, so that here are three lines of prophecy running over one person at one time in one place.

It can never happen again. It's conceivable that somebody might come along and say, I'm born a virgin and I was born in the town of Bethlehem, but he's just too late. It had to occur at a certain particular time, and here is a wonderful thing when you see three lines of prophecy running over one person in one place at one time.

It can never occur again. This is unique. And so we went on to show that the death of our Lord was unique. His resurrection was unique, but last night we concentrated on his ascension to glory, which was also unique.

The Holy Spirit Baptizes Believers into One Body

Well, tonight we come to another unique feature of our Christian faith, and that is the coming of the blessed Holy Spirit. And here again, the timing is perfect. The Lord Jesus had predicted that he was coming.

In that very first chapter from which we read last night, he said, You shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. And here we find this prophecy of our Lord's being fulfilled, and the Holy Spirit comes.

Now there are three things I would like to just point out and make as clear and simple as I can tonight with regard to the coming of the Holy Spirit in answer to this question in this verse which we read here in verse 12.

What meaneth this? Now let us notice first of all how the Spirit came in the beginning of the chapter. We notice that the setting was perfect. They were all with one accord in one place. In other words, they were conditioned for the very thing that the Holy Spirit was about to do.

And what was that? The Holy Spirit was about to baptize all these believers into one body. That's the first answer to the question, What meaneth this? He was baptizing these believers who were one accord in one place, he was baptizing them into one body.

This had never been done before. The Holy Spirit had other functions in the Old Testament. Sometimes people get the idea that the Holy Spirit never had anything to do until this present dispensation. Nothing is further from the truth.

The Holy Spirit is the first member of the Holy Trinity which is named by name in the Bible. In the very first chapter of the Bible, he is the first person of the Holy Trinity that is singled out by name when you read that the Spirit of God brooded or moved upon that chaotic scene depicted in the second verse of Genesis 1.

Then in the sixth chapter of Genesis, again, we have reference made to the Holy Spirit. He was striving with men, and God said, My spirit shall not always strive with men. We turn to the book of Exodus, and we find that the Spirit of God fills men to build the tabernacle.

They were filled with the Spirit of wisdom, which is none other than the Holy Spirit. David certainly must have had the Spirit because he prayed in Psalm 51, Take not thy Holy Spirit from me. And according to Peter in his first epistle, the Old Testament prophets had the Holy Spirit, because Peter says they prophesied of things by the Spirit of Christ which was in them, which signified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that should follow.

So the Holy Spirit was in those Old Testament prophets, and the Holy Spirit must have been regenerating men in Old Testament times. Otherwise the Lord Jesus would never have said as he did to Nicodemus, speaking about the new birth, Understandest thou not these things?

Yes, men must have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit in Old Testament times, and the Lord Jesus challenges Nicodemus with the question, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things? The unique work of the Holy Spirit in this age is that he takes believers in the Lord Jesus, you and me.

He takes us and baptizes us into one body. And this is true the moment we accept the Lord Jesus Christ as our personal Savior. This is something the Holy Spirit does for us. We find that this baptism of the Holy Spirit is brought out here in three stages in the book of the Acts.

Here in chapter 2, we have it on a distinctly Jewish congregation. We turn to chapter 8, and there we have the Samaritans introduced. And that's not a fresh baptism. That's merely an extension of the primary baptism.

And when you come to chapters 10 and 11 of this book, you find this is further extended to take in the Gentiles. This is not a new thing. It's merely an extension. We sometimes illustrate it this way.

These United States of America started with 13 states, but from time to time other states were added to the Union. Until today we have 50 of them. But the government didn't have to go through the process of becoming a new government every time a new state was added.

So there's no such thing as a repetition of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. It's merely an extension of it that it takes in these others. And this is what I believe is one of the great subjects of this book of the Acts.

So this is the answer number one to the question, what meaneth this? But as I said, we'd like to point out how this Holy Spirit came when He did this. You notice in verse 2 of our chapter it says, "...suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind.".

The Holy Spirit’s Power Displaces Satan’s Influence

And a tempest, as it is in the original language. A terrific force. Something that could be felt when He came in. And you say, why did He come that way? He didn't fall that way upon the Lord Jesus. We were reading yesterday morning talking about how John knew that the Lord Jesus Christ was the Son of God, because he saw the Holy Spirit descending upon Him like a dove, coming down very silently, very softly upon Him, and it abode upon Him.

But here we see the Spirit of God as a mighty rushing wind. What's the idea? Well, you know, there's another being in the universe of God who is called in the second chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians, he's called the Prince of the Power of the Air.

The Spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, none other than the devil himself. And here the Holy Spirit, who is, shall we say, the direct opposite to the devil, comes into this scene, and He comes in with a force that makes even this one move to one side.

Do you know, dear friends, that this is the reason why we Christians who live in a world like this, over which Satan is the God and the Prince, do you know how it is that we can triumph? Because greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.

That's why. He comes in with a force which is irresistible. He makes himself felt. And I believe this is true not only in a corporate sense, but in an individual sense. You remember when the Apostle Paul was writing to the Thessalonians?

He says, Our gospel came not unto you in word only, but in power, and in much assurance, and the Holy Ghost. Power came. You remember the first night or the first day that the gospel gripped you? And if you're here tonight and have never had this wonderful experience, I trust that somehow through the working of the Holy Spirit tonight, you may know something of this terrific power, the gospel coming to you in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Yes, He comes like a mighty rushing wind to displace the one who would keep His word from operating in your heart and mine. This is the way He comes. Then we notice a second effect here. You notice it says here, It filled all the house where they were sitting, and there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as a fire, and it shat upon each of them.

Now, of course, we believe that this phenomenon was a temporary thing, that it happened, and that was it. And Luke, the divine historian, the divinely inspired historian, gives us a record of this, that He not only came in this sensible form, but He came in this visible form.

It was something that made His presence visible. Ah, yes, you say, if we only had something like that today. We have it. We have it. Do you know, dear friends, occasionally we look into the face of some person who is really under the guidance and power of the Holy Spirit, and his face fairly radiates.

It glows. I remember one night in the city of Albuquerque, New Mexico, I was saying farewell to a dear brother who was leaving us in Albuquerque to go back to his home in San Diego, California. It was before the days of air travel such as we know it now.

It was even before the days of air conditioning in the trains, so that my brother, who was taking advantage of an empty seat, he didn't have a berth that night. He was going to ride all night sitting up.

And we were talking through the open window of the train while waiting for the train to leave. We were improving the last minutes, and our conversation was about the Lord Jesus Christ. And my friend was bewailing the fact that he would have to do without Christian company the rest of the journey.

He says, you know, Carl, it's going to be a lonely trip tonight without you, because we were close friends and we loved to talk about the Lord. But sitting right behind him was a man whom he couldn't see.

And the more I talked about the Lord, and the more my friend talked about the Lord, the more this man's face began to get radiant. Why, his eyes nearly popped out of his head, and finally he couldn't keep himself any longer, and he shouted out, Hallelujah!

My friend nearly went out of his seat. I said, Ed, there's your friend right there. And they had a wonderful time that night. That man had one of the cloven tongues of fire on him, you know that? You know, dear friends, this is one of the best advertisements that I know of for our Christian faith.

You know, some people get the idea that in order to be a good Christian, you ought to have a face long enough to eat your oatmeal out of a quart jar, but it isn't so. It isn't so. The Lord wants his people to be happy.

You know the old Hebrew hymn book, and you've got a copy of it right there. Hymn number one in the old Hebrew hymn book says, Blessed or happy is the man. Psalm 1. That's how God starts his hymn book.

He wants his people to be happy. He wants them to be radiant with what they have. And you know, dear friends, sometimes this speaks louder than anything you could say. I remember one time traveling on a ship where I was told that I couldn't have any meetings.

I couldn't even have private Bible studies with people who were interested. It was against the rules. I said to my wife, I said, Well, at any rate, we can show we've got something. You know, we weren't on that ship more than two days.

When a man sidled up to me one day, he said, Say, mister. He said, I've been watching you and your wife. He said, What is it you've got that I don't have? What is it you've got that I don't have? Well, I said, I don't know.

It can't be money. Couldn't be that. Oh, no, he said, you've got something money can't buy. He said, When I noticed you two people talking, you've got that book. He said, I suppose that's the Bible. I said, Yes, that's what it is.

And I said, There's where the secret is, right in this book too. There it is. Oh, beloved, what an advertisement for our Christian faith. Last night, you remember, we were talking near the, near the close, yesterday morning rather, talking near the close of the meeting about what it means to, with open faith, to behold as in the glass, the glory of the Lord, and to be changed into the same image from glory to glory.

God help us to manifest more of that in a world such as we live in. You know, dear friends, we're living in a queer world. I never dreamed when I was a young man, a boy, seventy years ago, and I was beginning to think about my surroundings, sixty years ago, when I was looking at things in the eyes of a teenager, I never dreamed we'd come to this.

I never dreamed we'd come to a day when young people who should be full of pep and energy without anything should be having to take things to give them pep. Friends, I was, my doctor, my doctor told my father, he said that that boy didn't have asthma, he'd jump over the moon.

We had energy. We didn't need any pills to give us energy. And when it comes to spiritual energy, dear friends, there's only one place you and I'll find it, and that's right here. And this will send forth a glow that I believe will answer to what we have in this passage of scripture tonight, the glowing tongues of fire that were there.

They were glowing. That was an evidence of the presence of the Holy Spirit. And I believe that's a phenomenon which can be present today and is present today in congregations and in individuals where the Spirit of God really presides.

Being Filled with the Spirit Through the Word

Then there's a third thing here. You notice it says here in verse 4, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. Now somebody says, yeah, that's wonderful. It's not only wonderful, dear friends, but it's something that we're told we have to have.

And I want you to keep your bookmark here in Acts 2, and we're going to go first of all to Ephesians 5, Ephesians chapter 5, to read about this being filled with the Spirit. Just to show you that this was not simply a passing phenomenon, but it's something that God intends should be true of His people throughout this whole dispensation in which we live.

Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 18. And be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit. Now notice, He doesn't say be prayed to be filled with the Spirit. He doesn't say work yourself up into a frenzy, but He says be filled with the Spirit.

Now how do you do this? Well, let's look at the next verse, because this is a continuation of that very sentence. Speaking to yourselves in songs and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.

That simple, isn't it? Have you ever thought of what a wonderful gift has been given to the Christian church in the psalms and hymns and spiritual songs that we have? I have a collection of old hymn books that I've been making now for something like, oh, I guess some 40 years ago I began making this collection of old hymn books.

And I've got some real old ones. I'm amazed at the richness of the poetry we find in these hymn books. I've had in college courses, of course, to read other poetry. We read the Canterbury Tales by Chaucer.

We read the Fairy Queen by Spencer. We read Shakespeare's plays and so on. And more modern authors after them. And they were real poets in those days. But you'll find nothing that can excel spiritual poetry.

It's tremendous. If you haven't bathed your soul in it, you've missed something. I know these are days when they say, oh, we're too practical to be poetical. Dear friends, you have to be poetical to be practical.

Do you know why? Because this is the very word God has used of this creation which he made. Do you know that when the Bible tells us about the things that are made in Romans 1, he uses the word poem? Do you know that in the first verse of Genesis in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the word poiema is used to denote the creation?

Do you know that in Ephesians 2 and verse 10, where it says, we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, the word workmanship is poem? God intends it to be a poem. And this is the thing he wants you and me to be occupied with and have our souls filled with it.

And how wonderful to begin a day with some grand old hymn of the church. Some grand old hymn that exalts the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, I tell you, many a day has been begun with a song like that, and God has blessed it.

Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, making melody in your heart. You don't have to sing so loud you wake up everybody in the house, you see. It's making melody in your heart to the Lord.

But then let's go a little further. Verse 20, Ephesians 5 .20, giving thanks always for all things unto God and Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. The sentence goes even further than this, but we'll stop there tonight.

Yes, you say, brother, but you still haven't given us any practical way outside of this reading these hymn books, as you point out. Is there really a practical way of being filled with the Spirit? Now it so happens, dear friends, that we have a parallel passage to this one we've just looked at in Ephesians 5.

And you know, parallel passages are the most helpful things that you can get. This is one of the blessings of the four Gospels, that you have an opportunity to put parallel passages alongside of each other and gain fresh light on them.

I could give you a dozen illustrations of that tonight, but I'm going to give you this illustration tonight, a parallel passage to Ephesians 5 .18 and 19. Turn, please, a few pages over in your Bible to Colossians chapter 3.

Colossians chapter 3, verse 16. Colossians 3 and verse 16. Let the word of Christ dwelling you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

Do you get it? Let the word of Christ dwelling you richly. That's the parallel to the expression in Ephesians 5, to be filled with the Spirit. How do you let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom?

Well, one simple way of doing it, dear friends, is to read the word of Christ in the book. You see? Read it until your heart burns. As we've heard it said in connection with Luke 24, did not our heart burn within us?

While he talked with us, by the way, don't be content with just reading ten verses. Don't be content with reading a chapter. Keep on until you get that heartburn. That's it. Let the word of Christ dwelling you richly in all wisdom.

And you'll notice that it has exactly the same context that you have in Ephesians 5. It says here, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him. Notice the parallel passages. Where you have in Ephesians 5, be filled with the Spirit you have in Colossians 3, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom.

Two things which produce the same effect must be equal. You see? They were filled with the Spirit. And this came, brings about a third result there in Acts 2. Let's come back to that chapter now. You'll think that this is something after the method of an old schoolteacher.

Well, I'm just simply going according to a habit that's been mine for years, to go along the schoolteaching way. And so if this looks to you like a schoolteacher behind the school desk tonight, well, take it as such.

And let's see what the Spirit of God has to teach us now in Acts 2. Verse 4, they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. Now, we've talked about that, what it means and how it can be done. And they began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave the mutterings.

Speaking in Tongues as Communication

Ah, somebody says, now we're in for it. No, you're not. This passage means just exactly what it says. And this must not be confused with what you have in 1 Corinthians 14. In 1 Corinthians 14, nobody understood what was said.

In Acts 2, everybody understands. In 1 Corinthians 14, you need an interpreter. In Acts 2, you never hear about one. You're not talking about the same thing. You look at him and see. But what is he telling us here?

Well, as we go down this passage of scripture, we count and we find there are about fourteen different languages that they talked here, and everybody understood what was being said. This was the marvel of it.

And sometimes people get so occupied with the means that they forget the purpose. It's like a person picking up a telephone. He takes a telephone. Isn't it a wonderful instrument? Somebody says, let's take this thing apart and see what makes it tick.

And as sure as you do, you're going to spoil it. Because if you don't know anything about telephones, you better let that alone. But you get so occupied with the telephone. Look at the shape of it. Look at the color of it.

And I wonder who can use this. Bless your soul, it wasn't made as an ornament. It was made as a means of communication. That's the lesson of Acts 2. First of all, the Spirit of God united them in one body.

Secondly, he filled them and he made them to glow. And now he uses them to communicate. Don't get occupied with the detail. Take into account the purpose, dear friends, that God has given us this gift to communicate.

And we're responsible to communicate. You say, how am I going to communicate? That's a good question. This is something which has battled the educators down the years. They think they've got an educator all ready for the job.

And he gets up before a classroom full of and he doesn't communicate. You pick out somebody you think is going to be a first-class Sunday school teacher, and he or she doesn't communicate. They don't know how to put it over.

In other words, their lips are not anointed by the Holy Spirit to communicate. And sometimes we take the rudest person who's had very little education, and it's amazing how he or she can communicate. They really know how to communicate.

Communicating the Gospel in the Hearer’s Language

And to communicate, dear friends, is to give somebody something in language and spirit that he understands. You're talking his language now. You're communicating with him. And this doesn't mean that you need to descend to the level of slang, nor even to colloquialisms.

You can use choice language, even with the most primitive peoples. And it's amazing how they respond to it. I know this from experience on the mission field. Not so long ago, I was down in Salvador in Central America, and giving an address in the Spanish language.

And I had gone over this address a good number of times to see that I was speaking idiomatic Spanish. And here were some people in the audience who had little or no education. But it's interesting to hear them after the service saying, Muchisimas gracias, hermano, por la palabra de Dios.

Thank God. Thank you for the Word of God. This is it. You're communicating. And dear friends, sometimes this is a blunt statement, but you're communicating something. I had a dear father-in-law. He's now in glory.

He had very little, if any, education. He came over to this country, to Canada, rather, when he was a boy, I think, ten or eleven years of age, from Yorkshire. Settled up in the province of Ontario, Canada.

His father before him was a bootmaker. And so he learned the trade, even as a lad. But when he got up in his teens, he decided he'd go out west, to Western Canada, out to Manitoba, to take up claims there.

He and a brother of his, his brother Stephen. They went out there and went into the cattle business. And they really made good at it. He was a shrewd dealer, but absolutely honest. And I watched this man as he went about his business, for I went with him on some of his trips up there in Manitoba, as well as later on in Ontario.

And I looked at this man and his approach to people. He talked business with them, and he knew his stuff when he talked business. They couldn't fool him about a cow or a steer. He knew what he was doing, and he knew almost to the pound what the beast would weigh, without putting it on the scales.

Clever businessman. Never learned this in college or the university, because he never finished the grade schools, even, in the old country. But he had a way of communicating. And I give you one illustration to show how it was done.

One Sunday morning, we were out taking a little walk before the meeting for the remembrance of our Lord. He and I were walking the streets of Clinton, Ontario. And there was a man across the street who cupped his hands in the morning sunlight, and he looked at two of us.

And addressing my father-in-law, he says, Is that you, Mr. Taylor? My father-in-law said, Yes, this is John Taylor. Aye, it's a fine morning, that Mr. Taylor. It's a fine morning if your sins are forgiven.

And he was halfway across the street. And he communicated with this fellow. He had struck a note when he said, It's a fine morning if your sins are forgiven. I don't think the man had ever connected that beautiful Sunday morning with the forgiveness of his sins.

But before that morning was over, this was the most wonderful morning he'd ever lived. Now, it had been put to me and said, Suppose you talk to this old man about his soul. I don't know that I would have known just how to go about it.

But here was a man who knew how to communicate. And dear friends, this, I believe, is one of the great lessons of this second chapter of the book of the Acts, is to learn to communicate with men and women about the Lord Jesus, the wonderful works of God, as we read here in this chapter.

They heard everyone, the wonderful works of God. And this led them to the question, What meaneth this? And dear friends, this is it that makes Christianity unique. I've talked to Buddhists. I've talked to Muslims.

I've talked to a good many atheists. And not one of them could produce something like what the gospel does to men and women. And I've taken this gospel, dear friends, into a variety of places. In ten years of ministry in the city of Albuquerque, New Mexico, we were taking it to one bedside after another to those TVs.

Some of them were rich, and some of them were poor. Some of them were ignorant, and some of them were educated. Some of them were cultured, and some of them were rude. But we took the same message to all of them, and counted on the Spirit of God to make it good.

And he gave us a harvest of souls. He really did. Oh, this matter of communication. Dear friends, to me it's one of the great burning desires of my soul, that as long as I live I'll still be able to communicate these wonderful good news.

Preaching Christ Rather Than Seeking Praise

I don't want people to go out and say, you know, oh, that was a tremendous thing. I remember I had one man like that in my conversation out in Arizona one morning. He said, as he went out, he said, you know, Preacher, I don't think that sermon of yours this morning could be improved on.

It was excellent. That night he was back, I was wondering if he was going to say no. I'd either slipped or something. Anyhow, he came up, asked him, he says, well, Preacher, I didn't think it could be done, but really, he said, you outdid yourself tonight.

Well, you know, if you didn't know the human race, you'd say to yourself, that's terrific. Did you know what I said to him? I said, my friend, I'm afraid you've missed the whole point of my message. I said, I wasn't aiming to get you to tell me what a wonderful sermon I preach.

I was aiming to get you to tell me what a wonderful Savior I represent. That's it. And, beloved, that's exactly what they did here. They didn't call attention to their gifts. They didn't call attention to their manner of presentation.

But they preached Christ. And this is what we need to do on a day like this, in this dispensation of the Holy Spirit. And the way to become proficient in this is expressed in the little hymn with which we're going to close this service tonight.

That's hymn number 365. Hymn number 365, which will probably put into poetic form what we've been trying to say about taking time to be holy. Three hundred sixty-five, take time to be holy, speak oft with thy Lord, abide in him always, and feed on his word.

Make friends of God's children, help those who are weak, forgetting in nothing his blessing to seek. Number 365. Shall we sign?

Take time to be holy, and abide in him always, and feed on his word.

We thank thee, thou didst leave this world. It was with a promise left behind that thou would send a Comforter who is to abide with us forever. We thank thee for the presence of thy blessed Holy Spirit.

We thank thee for what he does to those of us who trust in thee, putting us together in this one sacred body which thy word calls the Church, which causes our very countenances to glow with holy light, and which frames our tongues and lips to speak his words with power and assurance to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death.

O Lord, we trust that each one of us shall be more sensitive to the Holy Spirit in our everyday living, in our everyday witnessing, that we may truly fulfill the exhortation of thy word to be filled with thy Spirit, speaking to ourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, and making melody unto the Lord.

So our Father blessed to us this word tonight, this portion of thy word. We commit it to thee and to ourselves, ourselves into thy hands. Praise and bless us as we go to our respective abodes in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen.