Grace for the Undeserving

Well, again, I want to say good morning to all of you.

We're glad that you're here.

I see there are a few extra family members visiting this summer,

which is wonderful.

We're glad that you are here and joined with us, with your family.

The flowers in front remind us that yesterday,

Mary Lou Bailey and Dan Midgett got married.

So if you know them, celebrate with them.

Wish them well as they begin their new life together.

And as we turn to the scriptures this morning,

it occurs to me, as I've been reading the news this week,

it feels like the world is getting worse.

This past week, there was an assassination in Japan.

There continue to be stories of gun violence,

whether it be in Highland Park,

or if you read the New York Times article,

the fact that more kids or more people died in the west and south side of Chicago

than they did in Highland Park this past week.

And it's easy to think that the world is getting harder, getting worse.

We see that there is war in our world that's affecting us.

We see as well that we live in a culture where the overwhelming tide of cultural patterns

moves further and further away from living as God called us to.

And we see in this post-pandemic just a sense of fear and anger

that grips our society in many ways.

As the hymn says it, though the wrong seems oft so strong,

there is a sense of inevitability and a sense of triumphalism about it.

Many places in the world, there are people who would say,

we don't need God to win.

And what is wrong is defended as right and justified by those who do it.

You may be an optimist and think, oh, it's not that bad.

But there's certainly some pretty good evidence for it.

And it's not just out there.

It's not just in the world.

It's in the church too.

It's in the people who claim to be God's people.

We see that the slide away from orthodoxy and faithfulness to the Bible

is a constant tide that pulls us away.

We see that church leaders have so often failed to lead in righteousness

and spectacularly at times.

To the point where even when people are successful and seem to be doing well,

we find ourselves wary and suspicious rather than celebratory.

The church seems to know less and less of God and His Word,

and there's more lukewarmness, more defense of sin,

and more failure to live in ways that bring glory to God.

In the face of this tide, as you see the world through this lens,

and I know some of you may not, some of you may think,

man, that's a pretty doom and gloom analysis.

But I believe that it's the way that the people of God

in the 7th and 6th century BC would have seen the world.

We're preaching in our series through the book of Isaiah,

and if you remember in the 7th and 6th centuries in Israel,

what had happened is the northern kingdom had been conquered by Assyria

and destroyed.

The southern kingdom was beleaguered.

Political football between the superpowers of Assyria and Egypt,

and then Babylon rose up and defeated Assyria

and became the other superpower in the time.

And if you remember, this section of Isaiah 40 through 55,

Isaiah is writing to the people in the 600s,

so the 7th century BC,

but he's looking ahead to the 6th century

when they would be taken off into exile.

And he's giving them a word of comfort and hope

when it certainly seemed like evil had triumphed

and the world had fallen apart.

The temple was destroyed, the king was gone,

and the people had been scattered and were living in exile.

And it sure felt like the world had gotten as bad as it could be.

And in that moment, they asked themselves the questions,

where is God?

Did we pick the wrong side?

Are we in the wrong team?

Has our God failed us?

What is God doing?

And this is what Isaiah 47 and 48, our text for today, speak to.

If you want to turn there in your pew Bible,

and I'm going to encourage you to do so,

because it's a long two chapters.

We're not going to read them all all the way through.

So if you would please turn there.

They're in their pew Bibles in front of you, page 569.

We're going to try to follow along.

And if you're new to the Bible,

the big numbers are the chapters,

and the little numbers are the verses.

And so as I refer to them, you can try to track along with us.

We're going to look at Isaiah 47 and 48 this morning.

And what we will see is that God, the gracious God of redemption,

will have the last word, not sin and evil.

He will bring an end to the arrogance of the world,

and He will graciously redeem a people for Himself.

This is the big idea of these two chapters together.

We look at God's word together.

Oh, Lord Jesus, we come to You now.

We ask for Your help.

Lord, as we look at this passage together,

as we look at what You have to say to us,

Lord, as we look at Your word,

God, will You by Your Spirit enlighten our minds

and open our hearts and soften us, Lord,

so that we might receive Your word this morning,

that we might hear it,

that we might hold it to be true,

and Lord, that we might respond as You would have us do so.

Lord, I pray for Your help,

that You will help me to speak clearly this morning.

Lord, that the words that I speak would be Your words,

and Lord, that together we would sit under Your word

and so bring glory to You.

We pray these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

So, as we've said, in this section,

Isaiah is preaching to a people in the future

who are going to be in exile in Babylon.

And chapter 47 is all about the end of Babylon,

that God will bring an end to the arrogance

of a self-reliant world that does not honor God.

Look with me in the first couple of verses.

Come down and sit in the dust,

O virgin daughter of Babylon.

Sit on the ground without a throne,

O daughter of the Chaldeans,

for you shall no more be called tender and delicate.

Take the millstones and grind flowers.

Put off your veil.

Strip off your robe.

Uncover your legs.

Pass through the rivers.

Your nakedness shall be uncovered

and your disgrace shall be seen.

I will take vengeance and I will spare no one.

So, this is the message fundamentally

that Isaiah is bringing from God

to the nation of Babylon.

And a lot of what he's doing in this chapter

is he's uncovering the arrogance

and the pride of the nation of Babylon.

So, I'm going to walk through what that looked like

and then we're going to talk a little bit

about how God responded to it.

So, first we see that one of the things

that Babylon prided themselves on

was their privileged place in the world.

They were the local superpower during this time.

And you see some of the words

that they saw themselves like a pampered princess

or like a privileged queen.

That they had all the power that they wanted

to conquer the nations around them.

They had all the riches of the things

that they gathered from these conquering nations.

There's a great opportunity if you ever go to Berlin

to see the gate of Ishtar

and the magnificence of the Babylonian empire

at that time.

It's a remarkable piece of architecture.

To see their great power and their greatness.

And they lived in comfort and security

and satisfaction.

You see this in verse 1.

You also see it in verse 5.

You shall no longer be called the mistress of kingdoms.

That is, the one who is the queen of the party,

so to speak.

And verse 7.

You said I will be a mistress forever.

And you did not lay these things to heart.

There was this sense in the Babylonian empire.

We're going to last forever.

We're going to sit on top

and no one's going to conquer us.

Not only that, but in verses 8 and 9,

you see how profoundly they were self-reliant.

Look with me in verses 8 and 9.

Shower, O heavens, from above,

and let the clouds rain down righteousness.

Let earth open and salvation and righteousness

may bear fruit.

I'm sorry.

That's the wrong chapter.

I forgot to turn my page.

Let's try 47 verses 8 and 9.

Let's try this again.

Now, therefore, hear this,

you lover of pleasures who sit securely,

who say in your heart,

I am, and there is no one beside me.

I shall not sit as a widow

or know the loss of children.

These two things shall come to you in a moment,

in one day.

The loss of children and widowhood

shall come upon you in full measure,

in spite of your many sorceries

and the great power of your enchantments.

Second half of verse 8.

I am, and there is no one beside me.

The arrogance of Babylon was to say,

I am sovereign in my own life.

I am unaccountable to all,

and I have control.

I will never suffer the hardship

and the losses that others suffer

of widowhood or of loss of children

because my power is so great.

This is the spirit of the human heart.

This is the spirit of the lie

that the serpent spoke in the Garden of Eden

when he said,

you can be like God.

You can have your own independent power

and sovereignty in the world.

And friends, if you can't see this,

let me just point it out.

Is this not the spirit of our age today?

That we live in a world today

where self-determination,

I am who I say I am,

not who I've been made by the Lord

who is the creator of heaven and earth,

but who I am.

Self-reliance.

I have created my own success.

How I live

is completely determined

by my own strength

and my own power.

A self-orientation.

It is not only good,

but right for me

to care about myself first,

no matter what it does to other people.

Friends, we recognize

how profoundly self-centered

our modern world is.

How little we think of neighbor,

of nation,

of the world.

How little we care for others.

And even when we do care,

how often we do it

for our own aggrandizement

rather than for the ultimate good

of others.

So not only was Babylon

privileged in their position,

in their self-esteem,

not only were they self-reliant,

but they worshipped feudal gods.

Verses 12 and 13

remind us of this.

Stand fast in your enchantments

and your many sorceries

in which you have labored

from your youth.

Perhaps you will be able to succeed.

Perhaps you may inspire terror.

This is God talking smack.

If you've ever seen,

like, this is what prophets

do really well.

He's like,

hey, why don't you test out

your gods

and see if they're any good?

Maybe they'll be successful.

And the implication is

they won't be.

They're unable to do this.

Right?

Verse 13.

You are wearied

by your many counsels.

Let them stand forth

and save you.

Those who divide the heavens,

who gaze to stars,

who went to new moons,

make known what shall come upon you.

And he's saying this ironically

because they can't do it.

They can't tell you

what's going to happen.

They, and,

and Isaiah's making a contrast

that he'll make

in the next chapter

with the God of the Bible

who's actually able to say

what is going to happen.

We know from history

that the Babylonian Empire

was full of magic

and sorcery

and astrology.

All of these things promised

a special knowledge

and good fortune in life.

a certain way

that you might worship

these idols

with a promise

of getting victory in battle

or a good harvest for food

or,

or fruitfulness

in childbearing.

But they're futile

and they're unable

to save them.

And God mocks them

and says,

do you see the emptiness

of what they do?

And again, friends,

let us recognize

that our idols today

might look different.

Some of them may not,

actually,

we still,

maybe you

or some of your neighbors

know what it's looked like

to play with crystals

or to read your astrology

every morning

and wonder if this is,

is this going to tell me

what's going to happen today?

You know,

late night television

still has lots of advertisements

for psychics

that you can call

and they will tell you

all about your life

and what you should do

and where you should go.

But we all know

that the idols of our world

tend to be less spiritual

but more subtle.

The promise of

if you work a little harder

and climb the ladder

a little bit more fiercely

that you will gain success.

The thought that if you have

just a little more money

or a little more prestige

or a little more position

in the world

that you'll finally feel comfortable.

if you get just that

right kind of family

or that spouse

that you long for

that finally you'll be satisfied

and won't be lonely anymore.

There are all sorts of ways

in which we idolize

many things,

many times good things

that when we make them ultimate

become idols

that cannot deliver.

Babylon was like this as well.

They worshipped feudal gods

and God exposed them.

And the last thing

that Isaiah exposes

about the Babylonian empire

is the cruelty

that they exhibited

towards God's people.

Verse 6 says this.

So this is God

speaking about Israel.

He says,

I was angry with my people

and I profaned my heritage.

I gave them into your hand.

You showed them no mercy.

On the aged

you made your yoke

exceedingly heavy.

Though Babylon

was an instrument

of God's judgment

on his own people

for their faithlessness,

for their lack of trust,

for their turning away

from worshipping him

to worship other idols,

they were not authorized

to sin

and to be cruel

and to be ungodly

in the way

that they carried that out.

And yet Babylon

did that very thing.

They put,

they treated God's people

without mercy,

treated those

who were most vulnerable

with the most harshness.

And for all of this,

God says,

I will bring judgment.

I will bring an end

to the kingdom of Babylon.

You who have exalted yourself

up in the eyes of the world

and in the eyes of yourself,

I will bring low.

This is what verses 14 and 15 say.

Behold,

they are like stubble.

The fire consumes them.

They cannot deliver themselves

from the power of the flame.

No coal for warming oneself

is this.

No fire to sit before.

Such to you

are those

whom you have labored,

with whom you have labored,

who have done business

with you from your youth.

They wander around

each in his own direction.

There is no one

to save you.

And as we have seen

in the history,

what Isaiah is referring to

is that God will raise up Cyrus

in the Persian Empire

from the east

and they will come

and they will conquer Babylon

and Babylon will fall.

And no longer will

the Babylonian gods

and the Babylonian kings

and the Babylonian rulers

and the Babylonian wolf

be theirs,

but they will be brought low

by this instrument

that God is raising up

to humble this nation

that has exalted itself

before Him.

So what do we have to learn

from a chapter like this?

Two things.

First, let us recognize

that God calls us

to not be like them.

As He exposes their sin,

He calls us

to forsake these ways.

To recognize how easily

the human heart

wants to be arrogant

in our position

to defend our sin

and our cruelty.

To say our self-reliance

and trusting in selves

is not just good

but right

and to turn to other gods

for our salvation.

Let us turn away

from these things.

But the second thing

that He reminds us

and the purpose

that I think Isaiah says this

is to say

don't be afraid,

God's people.

Though the wrong

seems off so strong,

He is the ruler yet.

God is still in charge.

Though the nations

that are evil

rise up against God

and His people,

God will not let that

stand forever.

There will be a reckoning.

There will be a restoration.

There will be a righteousness

that will come.

And God's people

are not abandoned.

And the evil will not win.

So don't be afraid.

But continue in faith in God.

And it seems like

this is launching us

into verse,

into chapter 48.

And chapter 48

would be this great,

you know,

come to me

and believe in me

and I will restore

your fortunes

and I will give you

all these great things.

It seems like this

is what God would do

in verse,

in chapter 48.

Because in chapter 48,

Isaiah turns to

the people of Israel,

to the people of God

and speaks to them.

He speaks a word

that says God

will graciously

redeem a people

for Himself.

But it will be not

because of their faithfulness

but despite

their faithlessness

that He will do this.

Israel might have hoped

God would turn

from judgment

to Babylon

to praise to Israel.

But He has no praise

for them.

Let's look at it.

Chapter 48,

verses 1 through 9.

We see in this

God reminding Israel

of their faithlessness.

Hear this,

O house of Jacob,

you who are called

by the name of Israel

and who came

from the waters of Judah,

who swear by the name

of the Lord

and confess the God

of Israel,

but not in truth

or right.

For they call themselves

after the holy city

and stay themselves

on the God of Israel.

The Lord of hosts

is His name.

The former things

I declared of old.

They went out

from my mouth

and I announced them.

Then suddenly I did them

and they came to pass.

Because I know

that you are obstinate

and your neck

is an iron sinew

and your forehead brass,

I declared them

to you

from of old.

Before they came to pass,

I announced them to you,

lest you should say,

my idol did this,

my carved image

and my mental image,

commanded them.

You have heard.

Now see all this

and will you not declare it.

From this time forth,

I announced to you

new things,

hidden things

that you have not known.

They are created now

not long ago.

Before today,

you have never heard of them,

lest you should say,

behold,

I knew them.

You have never heard,

you have never known.

From of old,

your ear has not been opened,

for I knew

that you would surely

deal treacherously

and that from before birth

you were called rebel.

God comes

and he speaks

to his own people

and he says,

you too have failed.

You too,

let me lay bare before you

your own sinfulness.

Verses 1 and 2

is Israel's claiming,

but aren't we

God's privileged people?

We claim the name of God.

We come from Jerusalem.

Isn't that a place?

Don't we have a standing

with God

because of that name?

Do you guys know

what a bandwagon fan

is in sports?

A bandwagon fan

in sports

is someone

who starts to root

for, say,

the New York Jets,

if that ever happens again,

say the New York Jets

because they start winning,

right?

And so lots of people

become Jets fans

in the world.

But they're only fans

as long as they win.

And they might wear

the jersey

and strut around town

saying,

look at me,

I'm a Jets fan.

But they're

fair weather fans

and they will turn away

as soon as the Jets

start losing,

which is sure to happen.

And sorry,

Jets fans,

I love you,

but it's been

a rough long time.

Israel

was like

a bandwagon fan

of God.

They loved

being God's people

when it was easy,

when it was providing

them victory,

when it was,

but when it came down

to actually

living it out,

they were only

on the surface

and they were

wearing the jersey

and saying,

don't we have a right

to something

because we're

God's people?

And God says,

no,

because you did

not do it,

as it says

in the end

of verse 1,

not in truth

or in right.

Not only

did they do this,

but they had

a hard-headed

trust in idols.

Did you see

when I read

verse 4 and 5?

This is like

the best image

in the Bible.

You are hard-headed.

You actually

literally have

a forehead of bronze

and a neck of steel,

a neck that will

not bow before

me and a forehead

that cannot receive

any information

inside of it.

This is the image

that it's saying

and you are

the most hard-headed

people what God

has ever seen.

He's saying,

you have not

listened,

you have not

received,

and you have not

humbled yourselves

before me.

And then in verses

6 through 9,

he exposes

that they too

were presumptuous,

unfaithful,

and rebellious.

That they assumed

because they were

God's people

and maybe because

they had received

revelation from Sinai,

because they had

prophets in their midst,

that they knew

what God was

going to do.

And he says,

no,

I am working

in a way

that will reveal

you have no idea

what I am up to.

What I have spoken

in the past,

I'm bringing to bear

in the present,

and you didn't see

it coming.

And what I'm going

to do in the future

is even better,

and you have no idea,

you have no place

to say,

my idol did this,

because you didn't

even know

what God was going

to do.

And he exposes

their presumption

and the pride

of their knowledge

and the ways

that they had turned

to other ways

of learning

and knowing

for salvation,

the idols

that they had

trusted in.

And so God

in these first

eight verses

has this word

of rebuke

for his own people.

And yet,

and yet,

though God's people

should deserve

the same judgment

that Babylon

deserves,

this is part

of what Isaiah

is doing,

is saying,

Israel,

you're no better.

Do you see

the same pride,

the same presumption,

the same hard-heartedness,

the same worship

of idols?

Though you deserve

the same judgment

that Babylon does,

I am a God

who's committed

to redeeming

a people

for myself,

for my own namesake,

and for my glory.

God will show

his gracious

faithfulness

in redemption

in spite of the sin

and fallenness

of the world.

This is what

he begins

talking about

in verse 9.

So let's read

verses 9 through 17.

For my namesake,

I defer my anger.

For the sake

of my praise,

I restrain it

for you

that I may not

cut you off.

Behold,

I have refined you,

but not as silver.

I have tried you

in the furnace

of affliction

for my own sake.

For my own sake,

I do it.

How shall my name

be profaned?

My glory

I will not give

to another.

Listen to me,

O Jacob,

and Israel

whom I called.

I am he,

I am the first,

and I am the last.

My hand laid

the foundation

of the earth,

my right hand

spread out the heavens.

When I called to them,

they stand forth together.

Assemble,

all of you,

and listen.

Who,

who among them

has declared

these things?

The Lord loves him.

He shall perform

his purpose

on Babylon,

and his arms

shall be against

the Chaldeans.

I,

even I,

have spoken

and called him.

I brought him,

and he will prosper

in his way.

Draw near to me.

Hear this.

From the beginning

I have not spoken

in secret.

From the time

it came to be

I have been there.

And now the Lord God

has sent me

and his spirit.

And thus says

the Lord,

your Redeemer,

the Holy One of Israel.

I am the Lord,

your God,

who teaches you

to profit,

who leads you

in the way

you should go.

This is the promise

of God's

gracious faithfulness

towards his people.

In verses 9 through 11,

we see God

explaining his motivation

for this.

No one is deserving

of God's redemptive power,

certainly not Israel,

certainly not Babylon,

but God says,

I will do this

not because you deserve it,

because of who I am,

because I am a God

who is right and good,

and because I am

the creator of the world,

and because it is

my delight

to reveal my glory,

and my glory is shown

not merely

in the greatness

of my creation,

and the power

and the beauty of it,

but even more so

in my power

to redeem people

out of darkness

into light.

And so,

I will do this work

because I have said

this is the kind

of God that I am,

the Holy One of Israel,

your Redeemer.

And that is,

because that is who I am,

I will bring faithfulness

to you

that you don't have

to call you out of

your arrogance

and pride

and rebellion

to be my people

so that in the world

my people

might be a place

where I might display

my glory

and my power

in people

who don't deserve it

and people

who have no merit

of their own

to receive it.

How do we know this?

Well, he talks about it

in two different ways.

He talks about

his past faithfulness,

the old things

that I've done.

He says,

my past faithfulness

is proven.

Verse 5,

he talks about

what I've declared

from old.

And this is,

he's talking about

his prediction

of Cyrus coming

and freeing them

from Babylon.

And he's saying,

I have predicted it,

I said it was going to come,

and now you have seen

it happen.

Right?

Now you have seen

that Cyrus is arriving

and the end of Babylon

is upon you.

Okay?

So my faithfulness

has been proven

by my ability

to predict

what would happen

and then carry it out.

And that had always

been his plan.

And he would do it

according to verse 5,

excuse me,

particularly so they would

see that it wasn't

the idols.

There's no way

they could have predicted

that it would be Cyrus

who was raised up

apart from God's word.

The idols didn't say,

oh, well,

another nation's going

to come and free you

from Babylon.

Only God did this

and he did it

so that,

so that all would see

that this was God's work.

He did it not to destroy them

but to save them.

He refined them like silver

and if you know anything

about silver,

the way you refine it

is you put it in heat

and it burns off

all the impurities.

But the implication

of the image here

is that Israel

was so impure

that if it had been refined

to its fullest extent

there'd be nothing

but ashes.

There was no silver left.

There was nothing

that Israel had

that would be preserved

through the fires

of judgment

and so God relented

and brings instead

his redemptive power.

power.

And this redemptive power

is shown

first through Cyrus

but then he says

but there is a new thing

that's coming.

He referenced it

in verse 6.

There is a new thing

that I'm doing

and I don't know

if you noticed it

but in verse 16

the voice changes

and it's a confusing,

if you sit down

and you really work through it,

it's a confusing thing.

Verse 16 doesn't seem

to flow from verse 15.

It feels like

the flow of thought changes

and I think that's right

because I think

what verse 16 is doing

is giving us

for one verse

in these two chapters

the voice

of the suffering servant.

The voice of the one.

We've already seen it

mentioned earlier in Isaiah

and we're certainly

going to see it

as it comes up

in the next section

because at the end

of chapter 48

this whole section

40 to 55

40 through 48

is about Cyrus

and God's deliverance

from Babylon

and 49 through 55

is going to be

about God's deliverance

of His people

from sin

and it's going to focus

on the suffering servant

and it's going to find

its highlight

in chapter 53

which you all know

is the picture of Jesus

as a substitute

suffering for His people

to redeem them

out of sin and death

and to bring them

into life

and this is what God

is up to.

If the old things

were redeeming Israel

from Babylon

through Cyrus

the new thing

is He's going to

redeem His people

from sin

and of course

this isn't new

because we know

it's throughout

the whole Old Testament

that this is God's purpose

but the new thing

is how is He going

to do it

and this brings us

to the hope of Isaiah

it's the hope

that Jesus is coming

and that Jesus

is going to humble Himself

where we are proud

Jesus

is going to obey

and listen to God's Word

when we don't

Jesus is going to

submit Himself

when our hearts rebel

and in being

the Israel

that God intended Israel

to be

for us

in being

the perfect

human being

that He intended us

to be

before the fall

that we are never

going to be able

to be

Jesus is able

to be our substitute

and so

when He goes

to the cross

and He dies

for our sin

in our place

His substitute

achieves for us

a redemption

and freedom

from that sin

and freedom

from the judgment

of God

that should be

upon all of us

because Jesus Himself

took it

and so that all

who are under Christ

all who have put

their faith in Him

know then

the God of Israel

the Holy One

the Redeemer

as their God

who has redeemed them

from the world

and from sin

through Jesus Christ

and this is the hope

of the gospel

and this is the message

that the Christian church

is called to proclaim

this is what we cling to

and what we hope in

this is what grace is

I kept wanting to

in this sermon

talk about

undeserved grace

and I realized

undeserved grace

is repetitive

and unhelpful

because grace is

by definition

undeserved

it's what God

showed to Israel

by not destroying them

the way He destroyed Babylon

it's what God

shows to us

by sending Jesus

to be our Savior

so that as we

humble ourselves

and believe in Him

we can be

God's people

we can be

redeemed

from our sin

so how do we

respond quickly

first

we're to hear

and to listen

to God's word

Isaiah over and over

says Israel didn't hear

they didn't listen

and then he encourages them

listen hear

hear what I have to say

hear the words

of the gospel

not the gospels

the four stories

about the life of Jesus

but the message

the core message

of the Bible

which is that

God is a God

who redeems

through the person

of Jesus Christ

hear that

go back to it

meditate on it

say

that

and

should

let us

do it

as we

understand

we need

some

but

we want a

and then

he can

get

And finally, as you see in verse 21,

nope, verse 20,

Declare it with a shout of joy, proclaim it, and send it out to the ends of the earth.

The Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob.

Friends, this message is really good news.

It's good news for all of us.

And we ought to be full of praise.

Praise in our conversations with our neighbors about what a great God we serve.

Praise as we gather around our family tables or in our apartments,

as we recognize his goodness on a daily basis.

Praise as we gather in our small groups and as we gather here in our praise to God,

because though we are undeserving, he is a gracious redeemer.

Let's pray together.

Lord Jesus, we pray that you will fill our tongues with the song of praise.

Lord, that we will be humbled before you, recognizing our unworthiness, but your greatness.

Lord, we thank you for your word.

We pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.