Well, November is Missions Month at Beacon Baptist Church each year. We focus during the month of November upon the worldwide need of the Gospel and the proclamation that God has commanded us to be involved in, in disseminating the Gospel to the ends of the earth. Some, of course, are called to go to other places, to the far ends of the earth, for messengers are needed to carry the Gospel. All are called to be involved in some way, to pray and support the effort of worldwide evangelism.
Design, the Gospel to the ends of the earth. It is traditional at Beacon on the third Sunday in November that we have labeled as Harvest Day, that the text that we have chosen for our theme for Missions Month be the text for the sermon and so we have come, therefore, to Psalm 67, particularly verse 3, which we have chosen as our theme text and that gives us our theme phrase, the caption, let the nations praise you, from Psalm 67, 3, let the peoples praise you, O God, let all the peoples praise you. And yet, because this verse can only be properly understood within the total context of the psalm, we are going to make the entire psalm, the seven verses of Psalm 67, our preaching text for today.
We are going to approach it in this way. First of all, the psalm examined. Secondly, the psalm applied to Israel and third, the psalm applied to the church. But we begin with examining the psalm and this is a preliminary examination of just some of the notable features by way of introduction because the rest of the sermon will also be examining the psalm as we apply it first to Israel and then to the church. But in this preliminary examination, what do we notice about Psalm 67 that will be helpful to our understanding of God's message to us?
And I begin with what I would call the basic structure. And as we read through this psalm, trying to pick up its elements and get some direction for where it's going, it is a bit perplexing because it is primarily praise. Or to be a little more formal, is it primarily invocation or primarily benediction or doxology? At the head of my psalm, 67, in my translation, it says an invocation and a doxology.
Invocation is prayer, doxology is praise, and so whoever added that heading to Psalm 67 concluded what I'm trying to show you right now, that we cannot classify it as one or the other because it is truly both blended together. We also, whenever we look at a psalm, are generally interested in who is the author because though most of the psalms are written by David, a number of the psalms are written by other individuals. Which psalm is the psalm of Moses? Psalm 90, is that right?
That's what comes to my mind, am I correct about that? Psalm 90 is written by Moses, just one by Moses. A number of the psalms are attributed to Asaph and to others. And many of the psalms do not have a particular author that is listed in the introduction or the heading of the psalm.
And Psalm 67 is one of those. It is David, number one, because he wrote most of them. And since he is the predominant author of the 150 psalms in our Old Testament, it would not be surprising if therefore he were the author of this psalm that does not designate an author. It would seem more likely that the authorship of David is assumed where it is not identified, but where others are the author that they are specifically identified. So we will know that it's not David, because otherwise we normally would assume it is.
So that's one reason why. And then the other reason is because the language, the format, the flow of the psalm is very similar to other psalms of David. And so though it's not a hundred percent certain, I would say my estimation, it's over 90% certain that King David, in fact, is the author of this psalm. But now we're still considering this question of what kind of a psalm is it? Is it primarily a prayer? Because some of the psalms are entirely prayers to God. Or is it primarily praise? Because the psalms are songs to be sung in worship in praising God.
And so which category does this one fit into? And looking down through the seven verses, we realize that verse number one is addressed to Israel. That's not a prayer because it isn't addressed to God. Verses two, three, four, and five are addressed to God. And by very definition, therefore, whatever is addressed to God is indeed a prayer. But then verses six and seven swing back and are addressed to Israel. And I assume that this is both prayer and praise.
A mixture of the two cannot be avoided. I also make note of the heading before we get into the content of the psalm. And though these headings are probably not original, they're probably not placed there by the inspired author, though they could be. We don't know that for sure. What we do know is that they're very ancient. They're found in manuscripts that go way, way back.
They have some legitimacy to them. And this particular psalm is committed to what is called in my translation, the chief musician on stringed instruments, a psalm, a song. Committed to the chief musician. I think another translation said committed to the choir director. The minister of music, whoever was in charge of leading the people of God in worship in the realm of music.
And David seems to be the one who was the champion of that. I can't say that it didn't occur before he came along, but he was a musician. And he organized choirs and instrumentalists in the worship of God in the tabernacle, which then even blossomed further with the building of the Solomon's temple. And of course, wherever you have choirs and wherever you have orchestras and wherever you have music being rendered in the worship of God, you've got to have somebody who knows what they're doing leading it or else it'll be chaos in bedlam. And so this psalm was written by David, inspired by the spirit of God, but put into the hands of the chief musician to be used in the worship of God. And he even told this chief musician what instruments he wanted to accompany it. In this case, not the brass, not the horns, not the tambourines, the cymbals, the drums, whatever else might have been used at various times. This one is to be accompanied by stringed instruments.
He had it all planned out, didn't he? He knew not only what he wanted to say, but he wanted it to sound when it was being sung in public worship. I make mention of that word sila that we find scattered throughout the Psalms and sometimes we're a little perplexed as to what to do with it.
When I read the Psalms, I generally don't read sila, you've noticed that. Others do. Who's right? I have no idea. Should that be read? Should it not be read?
What does it mean? Nobody seems to know for sure. But most scholars are convinced that it is some kind of musical notation. The exact nature of which, again, is not clear. But it could be crescendo, at this point you increase the volume. It could be interlude, at this point the instruments will play until the choir begins to sing again, giving us a little time to reflect on what has been sung before we start considering what will next be sung. Or it could indicate modulation, like we did with the first hymn this morning. You may not have known what that is called, but after singing five stanzas in one key of Jesus Shall Rain, it's a boost of energy. To modulate up, I suppose half a step, was that correct?
Modulate up half a step, half a key, and sing that last stanza in a new key. And I think very likely that's what sila may indicate, but it could be the others. But no doubt a musical notation. So even the silas are placed with a purpose. Psalm probably is the one who placed them there for the benefit of the chief musician. So he would know how the author wanted this hymn to be arranged when it was sung in public worship.
This is what you will do. It is the word Elohim. The more common name for God in the Psalms is Yahweh or Jehovah, but that is not found in this psalm.
Why not? Probably, again we can only speculate, probably because of the worldwide scope of this psalm. Yahweh was a special covenant name for the nation of Israel. But Elohim, God, is the name that is more broadly disseminated throughout the world. And this psalm has a worldwide focus, worldwide emphasis, and therefore we're not surprised that Elohim, God, is the title that is used for the Almighty.
Two more things before I stop my preliminary examination. The word people that you find in this psalm is inevitably in the plural. God be merciful to us and bless us and cause his face to shine upon us. Skipping down to verse three, let the peoples, not people, but peoples plural praise you, O God.
Let all the peoples praise you. That's significant. More customarily, you would find the singular people. And where you find people, it's a reference to Israel, the unique people of God. But where you find the plural peoples, that is other nations.
In fact, this makes it clear all the nations of the world. That your way may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations. Let the peoples of the earth, all the peoples, all the nations of the earth praise you, O God. So that's the purpose for the plural of peoples. And then finally, one more, I think, highly significant notation is to recognize that that opening verse, God be merciful to us and bless us and cause his face to shine upon us, is language drawn from Israel's priestly benediction found in Numbers chapter six.
You're familiar with that, of course. Numbers 6 23, God said to Moses, speak to Aaron and his son saying, this is the way you shall bless the children of Israel. Say to them, the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. So they shall put my name on the children of Israel and I will bless them.
Now, what I want you to see here is a couple of things. Number one, that the language of Psalm one is drawn from this priestly benediction. But number two, that it is very clear from Numbers that this priestly benediction was something that God gave specifically to the nation of Israel. This is their blessing from their priesthood that God directed to them. But when we bring it over into Psalm 67, we find that it, like the rest of the Psalm, is expanding that blessing beyond Israel to the peoples, the nations of the earth.
We'll see more of that in a moment. That's the preliminary Psalm, the Psalm examined in a preliminary fashion. All right, let's go through the Psalm and see what it probably sounded like to the people who first heard it.
The nation of Israel in David's day. How did this Psalm apply to them? And with the opening two verses, they would be reminded that Israel is indeed a specially blessed people.
God be merciful to us and bless us. This is directed, we might say inward, to the nation of Israel and cause his face to shine upon us. For God's face to shine upon Israel or upon any people means his smile of approval, his favor, his divine blessing. Other places in the Bible you will read of times of chastening and judgment when God hid his face from people.
It's the opposite of that. When chastening and judgment falls, you don't see the face of God. You're looking for it, you can't find it sometimes. But it's not his face shining upon you. But may his face shine upon you, his face of blessing, his smile of approval, his special presence with you in what you do. And so in the beginning, this is the special favor of God from the language of the priestly benediction for Israel, God's national people. And their response actually to this priestly benediction because though this language is drawn from number six, it's not a repetition of number six. The pronouns are changed, the direction is changed.
See if I can show you that. In number six, here's what the priest would say when he blessed the people. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Now, what does the psalmist say? It's almost like he's picking up the blessing, he's hearing it in his mind as he's heard it many times from the priest in the worship of God in the temple or tabernacle. And now he says, yes, may God be merciful to us.
The priest said, to you. David says, yes, to us because it is the special blessing of God to the nation of Israel and cause his face to shine upon us. So this is a special blessing of God upon his people that has been understood, received, honored, gratefully embraced. And this is the author of the psalm, no doubt David, talking to the people of Israel and saying, let us receive this special blessing that God has chosen to bestow upon his people. We are a favored people. We are a blessed people. Let us receive the blessing of God with thanksgiving and joy. And so we see Israel a blessed people. But don't miss the blessing or don't, shall I say, consider the blessing without considering what is coupled to it, the reason for the blessing.
What is that? God be merciful to us and bless us and cause his face to shine upon us that or in order that your way may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations. So why did God choose Abraham? He had a purpose in mind, a long range purpose, you might say. Why did God fashion a people out of the physical descendants of Abraham? He had a purpose in mind.
And we can find several strands of that purpose. One of the most obvious ones is that he was creating and protecting a lineage to bring the Messiah into the world. The Messiah is going to be a son of Abraham. The Messiah is going to be a son of David. But the line of David, the line of Abraham has to be a special people separated from the other peoples of the earth in order that this line, this messianic line will not be destroyed before the Messiah comes. And so it is carefully protected by God's purposes even during difficult times like in Babylonian captivity. But still it is very carefully protected and they're brought back to the land and the line continues until the Messiah is born. This is all God's purpose but again, why the messianic purpose for Israel?
And the Jews in Christ's day would answer that question to say well God favors upon us, God loves us, God wants to bless us, God wants to save us. Period. No.
Not period. All this blessing that comes upon you is for you to be an instrument of blessing to others. Don't be so insular. Don't be so petty. Don't be so vindictive toward the gentile nations that you have disdained because they don't have this special blessing. You've missed the whole point if you do that.
You've missed the whole point. Why has God blessed Israel in order to make Israel a blessing to the whole earth? There's a purpose in this and it's not simply to bless you.
You can't rule that out. It is a special blessing of God upon Israel. But that's not the main purpose.
That's sort of incidental. You get the overflow of this blessing. You are greatly blessed to be chosen to be the instrument that God is going to use to get his name known to the ends of the world. But the purpose in all of this is so that the message of God and who he is and his saving grace and power shall be extended to the nations.
That your way, O God, may be known on earth, your salvation, O God, among all the nations. Thus we have Israel, a blessed people. But then we have what I have been bold enough to call in verses three through five, Israel, an enlarged people. And I don't know that they would have understood it this way, but they should have.
That's the point. This is what they should have heard when they heard this song being sung. Let the peoples praise you, O God, not just Israel. Let all the peoples praise you. Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, not just Israel, for you shall judge the peoples righteously and govern the nations on the earth. There is here certainly at least a hint, if not more, that in God's ultimate purposes, Israel is not going to uniquely be the only people of God upon the earth, but God is going to have a much larger, a much more diverse people of God upon the earth. In other words, Israel's blessing to be chosen to be the people of God is going to be expanded to the Gentiles.
Israel is not only a blessed people, but is indeed an enlarged people. And thus through Israel there will be not only Israeli worship of God, but the universal worship of God, the primary purpose of salvation. I made reference earlier in my opening remarks to the words of Jesus in John chapter 4 to the Samaritan woman. Jesus said to her, verse 21, woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, Mount Gerizim, where they worshiped, nor in Jerusalem, where the Jews worshiped, worshiped the Father. He said previous to that, he settled the argument. He declared the right answer to the argument. Where is the right place?
She raised the question. Where is the right place to worship God? Mount Gerizim, as my people say, as our forefathers have told us, Mount Gerizim is where Yahweh should be worshiped, or the Jews say that he must be worshiped in Jerusalem. And so she wanted to raise this argument, and Jesus said, he answered that argument, he said the Jews are right, Jerusalem is the place, no, has been the place.
It's right now changing. With Jesus upon the earth, it's changing. Jerusalem has been the place, but it's not going to continue to be the place.
Isn't that what he's saying? The hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, Gerizim, nor in Jerusalem worship the Father. You worship what you do not know. We know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. We are correct in worshiping God in Jerusalem, for God in fact has told us to do that, and we are carrying out his instructions, but, verse 23, the hour is coming, and now is. The transition is taking place right now, and now is, when the true worshiper shall worship the Father in spirit and truth for the Father, and this is where I'm going with this, the Father is seeking such to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. God is seeking such to worship him.
Therefore, we learn that the primary purpose for salvation is to be enabled to worship God. How can we put that on the back burner as if that's sort of an incidental matter? Oh yeah, we ought to do that too.
Do that too? That's the main reason. That's why you are a Christian. That's why God saved you in order for you to worship God. He's seeking people to worship him, and he's seeking people from all over the world to worship him. He has saved us to enable true worship. We can't worship him until we are rightly reconciled to him. As sinful rebels defying his law, despising his name, rejecting his rule, we cannot worship him, but God saves us, and when he saves us, he changes all that to enable us to worship him. Furthermore, not only does he enable us to worship him, but he motivates the true worship of God.
He creates within us a desire to worship him, which is why you are here today, I trust. Now it could be that some of you are here today because somebody dragged you here. I hope before you leave today, you'll have a better reason for being here than somebody twisted your arm and said you're going.
We're going, come on. That's not a bad thing because it's good for people to be with the people of God. It's good for sinners to hear the word of God, but most of us, I think, are here today because we desire to be here, and it does put a question mark over the profession of salvation of those who seem to have lost that desire. Yoo-hoo, where are you? God is seeking people to worship him.
Well, I can do that at home. I hope you are, but yoo-hoo, that's not all. There is the gathering of the saints, there is the corporate worship, there is the Lord's Day, there is the people of God. God puts a desire within the hearts of his people to gather together, to assemble for the public worship of God, to honor him. That's a very enlarged purpose of salvation. If you have been saved for that purpose, but you have no desire for that purpose, then have you really been saved? I'll let you answer that question.
I can't see your heart, but it needs to be asked. And so God enables true worship by reconciliation through the blood of Jesus Christ. God motivates true worship by creating a desire within the hearts of his now regenerated people, born-again people, to worship him. And God activates the true worship of God by bringing us together so that a company of people can worship him in spirit and in truth. So we have the universal worship of God in verse three. We have the universal submission to God in verse four. Well, let the nations be glad and sing for joy.
Yes, by all means. It looks like most of the nations are pretty gloomy and despairing at this time. Let the nations be glad and sing for joy.
Let the United States be glad and sing for joy. But that's not going to happen until and unless the last part of verse four takes place. For you shall judge the people righteously and govern the nations on earth.
Selah, interlude, crescendo, modulation. Think about this. Now, there are several ways that verse can be understood. And according to your particular eschatology, you may be thinking about it one way or another. But let me apply it in a way that I think Israel should have understood it and will apply to every situation, no matter what your eschatology may be.
People can't worship God until they surrender to his righteous rule. That's the immediate application. Is there a day coming when he's going to rule the whole world righteously and all people on the earth are going to be willing subjects to him? Yes, no doubt. No doubt. No doubt. How's that going to come about? When is that going to happen? Well, you've got your idea.
I've got mine. But here's the point. For this universal worship of God to take place, there has to be a change in hearts. Rebellious hearts have to be made to surrender to the rightful, righteous, holy, just, perfect rule of God. Isn't it interesting how that those who know the Lord can look at his rule and say, whatever my God ordains is right. I believe that. I've experienced that.
And I trust that even for the things I cannot understand. And those who are unyielded to Jesus Christ can find nothing but fault. I don't see why God does this. I don't see why God does that. I don't see why he does it this way.
I don't see why he does it that way. I have trouble believing in God. Then you're not singing for joy, are you? And you won't, let me promise you, you won't be glad and sing for joy until you acknowledge the righteous rule of God in your life.
And in all the world. Universal submission to God. And then verse five is an exact repetition of verse three. Let the peoples praise you, O God. Let all the peoples praise you.
Could I stick in a little aside here? One of the criticisms of a lot of contemporary Christian music is the abundance of repetition. Singing the same phrase over and over and over and over and over and over again. Not that there's anything wrong with that particular phrase, but why all this endless repetition almost seems like a desire to ramp up something emotionally rather than to give truth for people to respond to. But that's one of the criticisms of much contemporary Christian music. And one of the defenses against that criticism is, well, you can find things like that in the Bible.
True. And here's one of them. There is repetition, but not a lot.
If we're going to follow the biblical example, we'll allow a little as being legitimate and God-honoring. Here's an example of it. But this isn't very common. How many times do you go through the Psalms and find two verses identical in the same little short space? It's not very often.
But the fact that it's there means it's not illegitimate. The fact that it is not common means that we shouldn't be overloaded with it. The Bible tells us the purpose for our singing, it's instruction, speaking to one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, instructing one another, teaching one another. Teaching is one of the words that is used in either Ephesians or Colossians where that phrase, where that instruction is found. We are to instruct one another.
We want to have a pretty good measure of teaching Psalms or songs, a good measure of what somebody has called doctrinally dense hymns. You say, well, I don't like that. Then change your liker because evidently God does.
Any of you remember Oliver Green? If you're rubbing the fur the wrong way, turn the cat around. If that rubs you the wrong way, then turn around and line up with what we find in the word of God. Here, this phrase in verse five repeats verse three, which indicates the main purpose of this Psalm. There's a reason for repetition.
Get this. Let the nations praise you, O God, let all the peoples praise you. And in case you missed it, here it is again. Let the peoples praise you, O God, let all the peoples praise you. That's the main theme of the Psalm. That's why we call it the missionary Psalm.
It has that purpose. But finally, in verses six and seven, a motivated people. Motivated first by God's goodness, verse six, and secondly by God's purposes, verse seven. Verse six, then the earth shall yield her increase. God, our own God, shall bless us. Now, just a note, the translators of my Bible added the word then at the beginning of that verse. It's in italics.
It's not part of the original. And they therefore understood the statement to be the result of people praising God. When people praise God, when people worship God, when people are submitted and surrendered to God, then the earth yields her increase. Then God's blessing, evidently, primarily material blessing, because that's the context here, the earth shall yield her increase, then God's material blessing shall follow.
There's no question in my mind that that is a true statement, but I note that the then is added and this probably should be understood as a simple statement of fact. The earth shall yield her increase. God, our own God, shall bless us. This is God's goodness to the nation of Israel. And then the purpose of God for this blessing, God shall bless us. And as a result of this blessing, all the ends of the earth shall fear him. So it seems like the psalmist isn't saying if you will worship God aright, God will bless you. But it's the other way around, because God has already blessed you. Demonstrate your gratitude for that and respond to that blessing in the way that he instructs you to.
All right. Note. Israel's testimony to the world was primarily to be an example to the nations. God's power at work in Israel was noticed by other nations.
We find examples of that many times in the Bible. When when God brought the nation of Israel out of the land of Egypt and performed all those miracles, when they got to the land of Canaan, we found out all those nations knew about it. They'd heard about it. When God blessed Solomon so greatly with wisdom and riches and so forth, people started to come from other nations to learn about it. The queen of Sheba came, and when she saw everything that Solomon had done, she said, I only heard the half of what God has blessed you with here.
This is amazing. So God's power at work in Israel was noticed by other nations. When God's blessings were upon the nation of Israel, Israel's testimony was enlarged.
When God's chastening hand was upon them, their testimony suffered. But now for a few minutes, and I don't have a lot of time to do this, I want to thirdly apply this psalm to the church. And let me begin by clarifying something in regard to the term church. The New Covenant Church is composed of believing Jews and Gentiles. I personally don't think it's particularly appropriate to use the term church to speak of God's old covenant nation, Israel. I acknowledge that believing Old Covenant Jews do belong to the New Covenant Church.
That's undeniable. But the New Testament presents the church as something new, something unknown before. To read church back into the Old Testament, I think, encourages various errors. Ah, but you say, Stephen, in his defense, in Acts chapter 7, before the Sanhedrin, called the people of God in the wilderness the church, in the wilderness, right?
Right. But then Dr. Luke, later in the book of Acts, calls the assembly of the government in the city of, was it, Ephesus, he calls that the church. It means assembly. So the word church, which at its basic foundation means assembly, does not always mean church in the sense of the New Testament church. And it seems to me that the church is a term that is avoided in the Old Testament, but is prolific in the New Testament because something new has happened. The church has been born. The church has been brought to pass. This new and mysterious thing, which was hidden to the Old Covenant saints, has now transpired.
There is a name for it. It's called the church. And that term was not used of Israel in the Old Testament. And I do fear that forcing that word church into the context of Old Covenant Israel encourages errors. Because what happens, and I don't have as much time for this as I'd like, it equates national Israel with the New Covenant church. And there's a vast difference between them, as we've tried to point out from the book of Hebrews when we talked about the Old and the New Covenant. The church, as that term is used by God when it's talking about the universal church, the church, as opposed to a church, the church is composed only of born again, regenerated believers. The people of God, Israel, as that term is applied to them, when the Bible calls the nation of Israel the people of God, that normally means in the physical sense, there were all kinds of people who belonged to Israel legitimately, were circumcised into the nation of Israel, belonged to the covenant people of God in Israel, and were lost.
There's a vast difference there. And so when you call Israel the church, you're almost forced into making some errors in your thinking about Israel and how we should understand that. Old Testament Israel was the people of God in a physical sense. Yes, there were born again spiritually enlivened people within that, the remnant, but the term church as it's used by many people is not restricted to the remnant of saved people within the nation of Israel.
It's a broad term that is often applied to the nation of Israel, and I'm hesitant to do that. The New Testament church is the people of God in the spiritual sense. All right, now in two minutes, let me wrap up what this says to the church. The church are also a blessed people like Israel was, verses one and two. Having received the special favor of God as Israel did in the Old Testament, does anyone doubt that?
For the same purpose as Israel, in order that the nations of the earth may know the way of God, in order that salvation may come to all the nations. That's why God has blessed the church. The church, like the people of God in the Old Testament, is also an enlarged people. We are involved in the universal worship of God. We are not restricted to a small company, which requires universal submission to God. The gladness of verse three depends upon the submission of verse four.
We've already seen that. So the church is a motivated people, motivated by God's command. We have clarity that Israel didn't have.
We have what we call the Great Commission to the church, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Israel never heard those words. But we have. Israel wasn't responsible to declare God to the nations in exactly that way because they weren't commanded to.
But we are. We are commanded to. We must obey the command. And so the church's testimony, unlike Israel's, is primarily by proclamation. Israel's testimony was primarily by example. When the nations of the earth saw God's blessing upon Israel, they perked up and took notice. And that was a testimony to the ends of the earth. But the church's testimony is primarily by proclamation.
But there are some similarities here. God provides material resources to the church to extend gospel proclamation. It does require material resources for people to go as messengers to the ends of the earth. When God's people use God's blessings for their intended purpose, God is honored and the gospel is spread. When God's people hoard God's blessing selfishly, God is dishonored and the gospel is reduced. To sum it all up, God desires to bless his people.
That's his nature. He's a giving God, a blessing God. But the reason for God's blessings to a particular people are not only to demonstrate his favor for those people, that is true, but it is for them to use the blessings that God has entrusted into their care for the expansion of his kingdom. Would anyone question the statement that from an historical standpoint over the world, the nations that have been most prosperous have almost always been the nations that have been most Christian. Not entirely Christian, but where the gospel has gone, prosperity abounds. Where prosperity flows, the gospel is enlarged. Where the gospel has not come, poverty abounds.
This is a general universal observation. So why are we so blessed in the United States of America? What is this American dream all about? Most people say, opportunity to get rich.
I won't rule that out completely. But why? It's to make God's name known throughout the world. It's to spread the gospel throughout the world.
Let's notice that. Let's respond accordingly, shall we pray. Father, thank you for this wonderful portion of scripture. Apply it to our hearts, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.
