Whate'er My God Ordains is Right

Invite you to take your Bibles and turn with me to the book of

Isaiah for using the red Bibles and the chairs around you.

You'll find our passage today on pages six O 5 and six O 6.

We're going to be looking at a chapter 44, beginning in verse

24 down through the end of chapter 45.

If you've been with us, then you know we've been studying the

book of Isaiah. We have moved into the last

section of the book, chapters 40 through 66.

We have seen a shift of focus, a shift of, of, of tenor In the

book, the first part of the book, there's a lot about the

rebellion of, of God's people, both Israel and Judah.

There's a lot of talk about coming punishment.

There is a lot of talk about the coming exile, but in the last

section of the book, in chapters 40 through 66, there is much

more of an emphasis on hope and promise, and particularly the

promise of return from exile. The the Lord, as we've seen all

throughout the book and especially in the last number of

chapters, has been talking about a deliverer that is going to

come, who will rescue and deliver the people out of exile.

And now we're getting more and more details about that

deliverer. This last section of the book

was written by Isaiah in the second-half of the 8th century

BC, but it's mostly addressed to God's people who were in exile

in Babylon about 150 years later.

And as we read the passage today, I want you to have a

sense, just be thinking about, have a sense of how hope

producing these words would have been for God's people to hear

it. He is trying to encourage His

people to trust Him, to trust that His plan is right and good

and good for them. Listen as I read to you from

chapter 44, beginning in verse 24.

Thus says the Lord your Redeemer, who formed you from

the womb. I am the Lord who made all

things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the

earth by myself, who frustrates the signs of liars and makes

fools of diviners, who turn, who turns wise men back and makes

their knowledge foolish? Who confirms the word of His

servant and fulfills the counsel of his messengers?

Who says of Jerusalem she shall be inhabited, and of the cities

of Judah they shall be built, and I will raise up their ruins.

Who says to the deep Be dry, I will dry up your rivers.

Who says of Cyrus? He is my shepherd, and He will

fulfill all my purpose, Saying of Jerusalem, she shall be

built, and of the temple your foundation shall be laid.

Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right

hand I have grasped, to subdue nations before him and to loose

the belts of kings, to open doors before him that gates may

not be closed. I will go before you and level

the exalted places. I will break in pieces the doors

of bronze and cut through the bars of iron.

I will give you the treasures of darkness and the hordes in

secret places, that you may know that it is I, the Lord, the God

of Israel, who call you by name. For the sake of my servant

Jacob, and Israel my chosen, I call you by name.

By your name I name you, though you do not know me.

I am the Lord, and there is no other besides me.

There is no God. I equip you, though you do not

know me, that people may know from the rising of the sun and

from the West that there is none besides me.

I am the Lord, and there is no other.

I form light and create darkness.

I make well-being and create calamity.

I am the Lord who does all these things.

Shower, O heavens from above, and let the clouds rain down

righteousness. Let the earth open, that

salvation and righteousness may bear fruit, that the earth

caused them both to sprout. I the Lord have created it.

Woe to him who strives with him who formed him a pot among

earthen pots. Does the clay say to him who

forms it, What are you making, or your work has no handles?

Woe to him. Woe to him who says to a Father,

What are you begetting, or to a woman with what are you in

labor? Thus says the Lord, the Holy One

of Israel and the one who formed him, asked me of things to come.

Will you command me concerning my children and the work of my

hands? I made the earth and created man

on it. It was my hands that stretched

out the heavens, and I commanded all their host.

I have stirred him up in righteousness, and I will make

all his ways level. He shall build my city and set

my exiles free. Not for price or reward, says

the Lord of hosts. Thus says the Lord, the wealth

of Egypt and the merchandise of Cush and the Sabians, men of

stature shall come over to you and be yours.

They shall follow you. They shall come over in chains

and bow down to you. They will plead with you,

saying, surely God is in you, and there is no other, no God

besides him. Truly you are a God who hides

himself, O God of Israel, the Savior.

All of them are put to shame and confounded.

The makers of idols go in confusion together, but Israel

is saved by the Lord with everlasting salvation.

You shall not be put to shame or confounded to all eternity.

For thus says the Lord who created the heavens.

He is God who formed the earth and made it.

He established it. He did not create it empty, He

formed it to be inhabited. I am the Lord, and there is no

other. I did not speak in secret in a

land of darkness. I did not say to the offspring

of Jacob, seek me in vain. I, the Lord, speak the truth.

I declare what is right. Assemble yourselves and come

draw near together, you survivors of the nations.

They have no knowledge you carry about their wooden idols, and

keep on praying to a God that cannot save.

Declare and present your case. Let them take counsel together.

Who told this long ago? Who declared it of old?

Was it not I the Lord? And there is no other God

besides me, a righteous God and a Saviour.

There is none besides me. Turn to me and be saved all the

ends of the earth. For I am God, and there is no

other by myself. I have sworn from my mouth has

gone out, and righteousness, a word that shall not return to

me. Every knee shall bow, every

tongue shall swear allegiance only in the Lord, it shall be

said of me are righteousness and strength to him shall come and

be ashamed. All who were incensed against

him in the Lord, all the offspring of Israel shall be

justified and shall glory. Let's pray together.

Father, such powerful words this morning, powerful because they

are your word. So we ask for the power of the

Holy Spirit to be at work taking your word and pressing it into

our hearts and our minds, making us more and more like what it

says. And above all, today, Father,

help us to see Jesus. Help us to be encouraged and

equipped and challenged by the gospel, for we ask it in Jesus

name, Amen. Well, we've been able to share

with some of you some of the things going on in the Harper

family over the last six weeks or so.

On September 16th, we got a phone call and it was our middle

son, Riley. He was letting us know that he

had recently had a mole on his head removed and it came back as

Melanoma. As you can imagine, that was

quite a shock, pretty jarring, especially as some of you will

remember that 15 years ago this past week, my father passed away

from stage 4 Melanoma. He was.

He died about four months after he was diagnosed.

So you can imagine as we heard this diagnosis, it was a pretty

jarring thing for the family. There was a week between when

Riley was diagnosed and when they did a full body PET scan.

That was a pretty rough week as we had to wait knowing about the

Melanoma but not knowing how far it possibly had spread.

There were lots of what ifs, there was a lot of trying to

resist worst case scenario thinking, and it was a pretty

hard week. What is God doing?

How is this a good thing? Wouldn't his plan be better in

some other way? The PET scan came back mostly

negative except for a just a small area around where the mole

was and that was actually expected.

So that was actually incredible news for us.

A plan was put into place. He was going to have surgery to

remove more skin around where they took the mole off.

It ended up being an area about a half dollar in size that they

removed skin from. They mapped out the lymph nodes

that go to that particular area for biopsies and they did end up

removing five of the nodes that in his neck and in his head.

Again, we had to wait for the biopsies to come back.

It was again a little easier having the results of the PET

scan, but still another hard week.

Thankfully all five of the nodes came back negative for any kind

of cancer spread. So that was great news.

Then we had to wait again. Riley was scheduled for a second

surgery to reconstruct and repair the area around where the

mole had been removed. Now it was even easier to wait

for that given the good news that we had heard, but still

some anxiety about the reconstruction that they were

going to be doing. Now, thankfully that as of a

little over a week ago, all of the surgeries are completed and

Riley is in the healing process and quote UN quote, cancer free.

It's been a challenging 6 weeks in moments like that in in

circumstances like that when they happen in our lives, it

tests what we say we believe. Do we really believe what error

my God ordains is right? Will we truly trust the Lord and

believe that He is sovereign, that He is in control, and that

His purposes, His plans, are right and good?

Those are questions that God's people have wrestled with from

the very beginning. Certainly they are questions

that God's people in Isaiah's day were asking those living in

the days of Isaiah's ministry, hearing about the coming

judgement and destruction and exile that they would

experience. And those reading Isaiah's words

while they were in exile in Babylon.

Remember, Isaiah ministered around 7:40 to 700 BC before the

southern Kingdom of Judah had been taken into exile.

And now in this section that we're reading the last part of

the book, he, he's writing to people who were in exile around

5 the five 80s to the five 30's. The people had lost everything.

They had lost their land, they had lost the temple.

They had lost all of the the rituals that they were supposed

to be doing. They had lost their freedom.

They were living in a Pagan nation under the authority of a

Pagan king with Pagan gods and idols everywhere.

What was God doing? Is God in charge?

Were His purposes and His plans being worked out?

Is was He sovereign and in control?

And if so, what is he doing? Doesn't he care about his people

anymore? What about the covenant that he

made with them? God spoke to His people then and

now through the ministry of Isaiah, and He tells His people,

He reminds His people, that He is sovereign and He is in

charge, and whatever He ordains is right, is good.

The Lord had not forgotten His people.

He had not forsaken His people. He was still faithfully

upholding the covenant that He had made with them, and He was

going to send a deliverer, a shepherd, and an anointed one to

rescue and restore and redeem His people and His name with

Cyrus. So he says, trust the Lord, rest

in the Lord, follow the Lord, obey the Lord, love the Lord.

This is the same message for God's people today as well.

We can truly sing and believe whatever my God ordains is right

that in the midst of hard and difficult and challenging and

painful circumstances of life, we can trust the Lord.

He has not forgotten us. He has not forsaken us.

He has even sent a greater deliverer to us, a greater

shepherd anointed 1 the Messiah, the Lord Jesus himself, and he

loves us. He is working out his rights and

good plan and purposes in our lives.

So let's look at the passage today and see how the Lord tells

his people then and now these things.

Let's let's look and see how He tells them that a shepherd is

coming, that this shepherd would be his anointed and that

whatever God does is right and what the purpose of God's plan

really is. And then ask, So what?

What difference does it make? First of all, we see that he

tells them that a shepherd is coming.

You can see that in verses 24 through 28 of chapter 44, and he

begins the section at the very beginning of verse 24 by

reminding the people who they are.

What does he say? He says they are God's people

who have been formed by God in the womb.

They are a people who the Lord loves and cares for that much.

He's been knitting them together from the very beginning of

existence. They are known by the Creator of

the universe, known thoroughly and intimately and specially.

They are part of God's family, but He doesn't just tell them

and remind them who they are, He also reminds them who He is.

You can see that at the end of verse 24 through verse 27, that

first of all, if you look in your text, you'll notice that He

says the Lord and the Lord is all capitalized.

You'll remember that that's recognition that it's the word

Yahweh. It's that special name that God

gave to His people as He covenanted together with them.

It pointed to the fact that this God was a God of steadfast love

for his special people. He also says that he is the

Redeemer, the God who loves his people so much that he would

redeem them and not forsake them.

He is the Creator God who has made all things he says, who

alone has stretched out the heavens and spread out the

earth. He is the God who frustrates

liars and makes fools of those who pretend that they know the

future. He is the God who is more wise

than even the wisest of wise men, who makes their knowledge

look foolish. He is the one who confirms and

fulfills the words of his messengers that he sends out.

He is the one who promises that his people return to the

promised land and that it will be rebuilt.

He is the one, as we see in verse 27, this reference to the

Exodus. He is the one who brought his

people out of Egypt by drying up the Red Sea for his people to

cross, pointing to the fact that he will lead his people out of

bondage and exile once again. He reminds them who they are.

He reminds them who he is, and then he tells them in verse 28,

I'm sending a deliverer. I'm sending a shepherd.

He finally reveals to his people how he is going to do this

incredible work. He is going to raise up Cyrus to

be the means of the people's release.

This is the first time that the deliverer, the promised

deliverer, is named. Cyrus was to be the king of the

Medes and the Persians. He would eventually conquer

Babylon and send God's people back home at around 536 BC

Isaiah is proclaiming who he is 150 years before that, and

notice he refers to Cyrus as the Lord's shepherd.

It's a term that was frequently used in the ancient Near East

for kings and for leaders. Of course, it has even more

meaning as we think about the ultimate shepherd that would

come, the ultimate deliverer that the Lord would send for his

people. And notice what he says that

this shepherd will do in verse 28.

He will fulfill the Lord's purposes.

He will do things that will cause Jerusalem to be rebuilt.

He will cause the temple to be reconstructed.

Then, as we move into chapter 45, we see not only that Cyrus

will serve as the Lord's shepherd, but that the shepherd

will be the Lord's anointed. You see that at the beginning of

verse 1 of chapter 45, he's referred to as the Lord's

anointed. That would have been astonishing

for the people to hear. It's the term that is used

regularly in the Old Testament for Israel's prophets and

priests and kings, and the literal translation of that word

is Messiah. Likely not what the people

wanted to hear. A Pagan king was going to be the

Lord's anointed over them. It's a reminder to us that God's

plans are not our plans. He's the one working out His

right and perfect and good plan and purpose.

Now what are we told that the Lord will do through this

anointed one? Well, you can see that at the

end of verse one through verse beginning of verse 3, the Lord

would be at work through this anointed Cyrus to subdue the

nations, to disarm the kings, to open the way for God's people to

return home. And we'll be given treasures and

hordes that are in secret and dark places.

And why is the Lord going to do that?

Well, we see that at the end of verse 3 through verse 8, He's

going to do it first for Cyrus's sake.

See that at the end of verse three, he says, I will give you

the treasures of darkness and the hordes and secret places

that you may know, that you, Cyrus, may know that it is I the

Lord, the God of Israel, who call you by your name.

The Lord was going to do this. Work through Cyrus so that Cyrus

would know that it is the Lord, the God of Israel, who has

called him and raised him up for this purpose.

So that Cyrus would know that the Lord God Almighty knows

Cyrus by name. He calls him by name.

Even though Cyrus may not know the Lord, may not believe in the

Lord, he would know that it was the Lord God Almighty who was

doing these things. But the Lord's going to do this

not just for Cyrus's sake. He's also going to do it for the

sake of His people. The beginning of verse 4, for

the sake of my servant Jacob and Israel my chosen.

And in verse 6 that people may know from the rising of the sun

and the and from the West that there is none besides me.

I am the Lord, and there is no other.

The Lord was going to use Cyrus for the sake of His people.

He was raising up this deliverer, this, this shepherd,

this anointed One, for the sake of the Lord's own people,

because He cares for them. He has not forgotten them and He

will not forsake them. And just to make it crystal

clear, who was going to be doing all of this?

Who was going to be accomplishing all of this?

We see at the end of verse 6 through verse 8, the Lord makes

it abundantly clear it wasn't the people that was going to

accomplish these amazing things. It wasn't even ultimately Cyrus

that was going to accomplish it. I am the Lord, He says, who does

all these things at the end of verse 7, verse 8, it is the Lord

alone who rains down salvation and righteousness from heaven.

It is the Lord who is at work accomplishing His will, His

purposes, His plans, fulfilling His promises.

He may choose means to do so, like the Babylonians, like

Cyrus, but it is the sovereign Creator and the covenant keeping

God who accomplishes His plans and purposes.

Now the Lord surely knew that his people or others might

question what He was doing or question how He was doing it.

So as we look at verses 9 through 13, we see that God

tells them very clearly whatever He does is right.

He gives them these two analogies in verses 9 and 10.

First one is of a Potter and clay.

And the implied question is, is it right?

Is it appropriate for the clay to question the Potter and how

he makes his pots? And the second analogy is in

verse 10, using the idea of parents and children.

Is it right? Is it appropriate for children

to question their parents, to question them, having children

accuse them of making a wrong decision?

And of course, the answer to both is absolutely not.

It's not appropriate, which is what the Lord goes on to say in

verses 11 through 13. The the people had to be

questioning what the Lord was doing, how he was doing it,

raising up a Pagan king, calling him the Lord's shepherd, calling

him the anointed one of the Lord, giving him those kingly

and priestly and titles of Israel.

How could the Lord do this? A Pagan king that would rescue

God's people, who would give an order for them to return home,

who would still have a measure of authority over them, who

would give orders to rebuild Jerusalem and rebuild the

temple. How can this be right?

God's plan surely must be wrong. And the Lord answers in verses

11 through 13. Thus says the Lord, the Holy One

of Israel, and the one who formed him, asked me of things

to come. Will you command me concerning

my children? In the work of my hands I made

the earth and created man on it. It was my hands that stretched

out the heavens, and I commanded all their host.

I have stirred him up in righteousness, and I will make

all His ways level. He shall build my city and set

my exiles free, not for price or reward, says the Lord of Hosts.

The Lord is the Creator. He made the heavens and the

earth. He created mankind.

He is the commander of the heavenly host.

If the Lord decides to accomplish his purposes through

Cyrus, that's the end of the story.

He is the omnipotent, omniscient, perfectly good

Creator. He is not to be questioned in

his plans. What's implied here is that the

people are being told to trust him, trust his plans and His

purposes because they are right, because they are good.

And to remind the people once again that his, his plans and

his purposes are are right and good and good for them.

He tells them that once again. You can see that in verses 14

through 25. The purpose of the Lord's plan,

the reason why it's right, the reason why it's good, is because

He's going to save His people. You could see it in verse 17.

But Israel is saved by the Lord with everlasting salvation.

You shall not be put to shame or confounded to all eternity.

The Lord is about the business of saving His people with an

everlasting salvation, removing their shame, removing their

confusion. This is the covenant keeping

God. And He says that His plan, His

purposes are to redeem His people through His steadfast

love. You see it again in verse 25.

In the Lord, all the offspring of Israel shall be justified,

shall be justified. That that that's what the Lord

is doing. That's why His plan and His

purposes is it is right, it is good.

It's because He is about the business of justifying His

people. It's the Hebrew word for

declaring right and in the Septuagint, which is the Greek

translation of the Old Testament, the word that is used

here in Greek is the exact same word that Paul uses in Galatians

2 For our justification by faith in Christ alone.

That's what our God is doing. That is what His plan and His

purposes accomplish. Although people may not

understand or even agree with how the Lord is accomplishing

His will and His purposes, He reminds them it is His plan, it

is His purposes, and they are right and they are good.

He is at work in the business of saving His people with an

everlasting salvation of justifying His people.

It's not the only purpose for His plan though.

We we see in verses 18 through 23 He's also going to turn the

nations to Himself. Verse 22, Turn to me, He says,

and be saved all the ends of the earth.

Verse 23 to me every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall

swear allegiance. Part of what the Lord is doing

through His plan with Cyrus and His people is calling the

nations to himself. The language that we read in

verses 20 and 21, it's the language that we've seen often

about a courtroom scene. Assemble yourselves, he says.

Draw near, present your case, take counsel together.

The verdict that you will come to will be what I've already

told you, just as I have declared it from of old.

He says I am the Lord, there is no other God besides me.

I am the righteous God, I am the saving God and there is no

other. So he says to the nations, turn

to me and be saved, because one way or another all will bow

their knee and swear allegiance to the Lord God Almighty.

We see one other purpose for what God is doing, not just that

he's going to save his people and turn the nation's to

himself, but also that he would receive glory.

We see it in verses 24 and 25 that he would receive glory from

his people, all people. He says at the end of verse 25,

this is his greatest purpose of all, that God receives all glory

and honor and praise because He alone deserves it.

It's His plan, it's his purpose, it's his work.

He accomplishes it and it is right and it is good, and all

glory belongs to the Lord. So what do we do with all of

this? Three things.

First of all, we need to see Jesus as the greater and

ultimate Cyrus. I don't know how we can read

chapters 44 and 45 of Isaiah and not see how the the Lord is

pointing us to Jesus. Jesus is the greater and

ultimate Cyrus. Jesus is the greater and

ultimate deliverer that had been promised, the greater and

ultimate shepherd anointed. 1 Messiah It is through the Lord's

Messiah, the Lord Jesus, that He would bring salvation to His

people. It is through the Lord's

Messiah, Lord the Lord Jesus, that He would work justification

for His people. It is through the Lord's

Messiah, the Lord Jesus, that He would be able to declare His

people righteous in His sight. It is through the Lord's

Messiah, the Lord Jesus, that God would receive the greatest

glory and praise. When we, when we read these

chapters of Isaiah, these ancient words, it should make us

marvel again at the gospel that Jesus would come into the world

and lead his people not out of exile and back to the promised

land, but he would lead us out of death and punishment and

judgment because of because of our sin.

That he would lead us into eternal life to an infinite and

eternal inheritance, to being reconciled with God.

Do you believe this gospel? Do you believe this gospel?

Do you believe in trust in this ultimate anointed shepherd?

Have you put your hope and your trust and your faith and Jesus

alone for your salvation, for your being declared right in

God's sight? Are you resting in Christ alone

for being accepted by God and of having eternal life in heaven?

If not, don't leave this building today until you do.

Cry out to the Lord and ask Him to reveal Himself to you who He

truly is and your need for the Lord Jesus Christ.

Secondly, God's word is trustworthy.

I didn't really point it out earlier as we were going through

the passage, but multiple times. Multiple times.

In this passage, the word of the Lord is mentioned 5 separate

times. We read thus says the Lord

chapter 44, verse 24. Chapter 45, Verse one.

Verse 11, Verse 14, Verse 18 again and again and again.

Thus says the Lord. Chapter 44 Verse 26 It is the

Lord who says that Jerusalem in the temple will be rebuilt.

Chapter 44, verse 27. It is the Lord who told the Red

Sea to part to allow his people to cross on dry ground.

Chapter 44 Verse 28 It is the Lord who speaks to Cyrus telling

him what he will do. Chapter 45 verse 19 it is the

Lord who doesn't speak in secret, but the one who speaks

truth and declares what is right.

Chapter 45 Verse 21 it is the Lord who spoke his plans and

declared it of old. Chapter 45, verse 23, it is the

Lord who has sworn by himself from his mouth go out righteous

words. All of this points us to the

reality that the word of God is fully trustworthy.

It is worthy of our trust. And if it's trustworthy and we

trust it and we believe it, then it means we need to follow what

it says. We need to obey it.

We are to read God's Word and to see the ways that our lives need

to change to be in conformed to it.

We are to be and to do what God's Word says.

The fact that God's Word is trustworthy also means that in

terms in in times of darkness and discouragement, depression,

confusion, doubt, we can turn to the promises of God and His Word

and be comforted by them because we know that they are true and

trustworthy. We can be filled with hope and

peace as we meditate on the promises that the Lord will

never leave us or forsake us, that He is with us in the valley

of the shadow of darkness and doubt and pain and even death.

The promise that He who began a good work in US will bring it to

completion. The promise that He will so

preserve us, enabling us to persevere to the end.

God's Word is trustworthy. And lastly, whatever my God

ordains is right. Many of you probably remember

the story of this first hymn that we sang this morning.

It was a hymn that was written by Samuel Rodagast.

He was a 17th century German pastor and teacher and hymn

writer, and he wrote the hymn, his first hymn, in 1676.

You sang it already this morning.

You probably had a sense of how personal it was.

He wrote it for a friend, Gastorius, who is sick,

discouraged and depressed. And he wrote this hymn to

encourage his friend, but also to exhort him to trust the Lord

even in the difficult circumstances of life.

Gastorius was so moved by the words, he ended up writing the

tune to accompany the hymn. The hymn was a favorite of King

Frederick William the Third of Prussia.

It was sung at his funeral. Bach even used the song in

several of his cantatas. Some believe that the hymn is

actually meant to be antiphonal. That means two parts, singing

the hymn back and forth to one another, feeling the weight of

the hymn but also the deep hope of the words.

That in the midst of the storms of life and the dark days and

the difficult circumstances when things are not going well, that

we would remember that despite our circumstances, the Lord is

sovereign and in control even when it doesn't feel like it or

seem like it. That He is at work accomplishing

His purposes and His plans, and they are right and they are good

and they are good for us. That the Lord is worthy of our

trust. We are never forsaken.

That He is our Father in heaven who loves and cares for us.

That He has demonstrated that love and care by sending the

great Deliverer, the great anointed Messiah and His name is

Jesus. Through his life and death and

resurrection. We see the love of God for us.

Now that doesn't mean that we won't have dark days, days when

we are tempted to doubt the Lord's care and love and concern

it. It doesn't mean that we won't

have times and season when the Lord feels far away from us.

It doesn't mean that we won't have things happen in our life

like Melanoma or worse. But when those days, when those

times when those seasons, when those circumstances come, we

must be vigilant to come back to these wonderful truths and

promises of our God and tell ourselves what is true and put

ourselves around God's people who can tell us what is true.

And remind ourselves once again that whatever God ordains is

right and good and worthy of our trust.

Let's pray together. Father, we confess that in the

midst of the challenges that we face, our own sin, the the

fallenness of the world that we live in, the circumstances that

we encounter in this life that are hard that beat us down.

It is, it is hard for us put our hope and our trust in how you

are at work in our lives to really trust You.

And so we pray, Father, that you would help us, that you would

strengthen us. We thank you for Your word and

we know that you are at work through it, through the work of

your Spirit to strengthen us. We pray as we come to the table

now, we pray that you would be at work through it as well to

strengthen us, to strengthen our faith so that we might go out

and truly believe that you are a good God and a God who is in

control. All this we ask, and the one who

gave his life, that we might be justified by faith, the Lord

Jesus Christ Himself. Amen.