Alright brethren, let's turn
to Isaiah chapter 65. Isaiah 65. We're nearing the end of this
chapter, or end of this book. We've been in it since I came
here. So I'm looking forward to finishing
it, and I'm looking forward to, I'm wanting to start a a new
series on marriage. I've got a lot of people, friends
getting married and want to do that, but I want to finish this
book first. Now the nation Israel had rejected
God for their idolatry. And God said they were a people
that provoked Him continually to anger to His face. They worshipped
where they would, how they would, who they would. And yet, being
so rebellious against God, these people had the audacity then
to separate themselves from one another and say of one another,
stand by thyself, come not near unto me because I am holier than
you are. If you wonder what was going
on in Israel, all you have to do is just look into our nation
right now. Look what's going on in this
world right now. This world is absolutely full,
absolutely rampant with idolaters. Well, I don't see a bunch of
people bending down to stumps and what have you. An idolater
is a worshiper of self. The Scripture says in these last
days, men will be lovers of their own selves, despisers of those
that are good, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers
of God. I sat over there the other night
at this giant soccer field, it's indoor, huge field, and all these,
about five fields, and all these kids and parents and everybody
in there playing, and this scripture just kept coming to my mind.
Lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God. In religion, in
politics, in civics, everybody's divided against one another.
Everybody seems to be an authority on God. Everybody seems to be
able to tell you what's right and what's wrong. That's what
Paul meant when he said they'll also have a form of godliness,
but they'll deny the power thereof, Christ the power thereof. And
so in religion, in politics, in civics, everybody is divided
against everybody. out people and expose people
and rail on people for what they call political incorrectness.
And every time that happens, you know what's being said? One
group saying of another, stand by thyself, don't come near to
me, I'm holier than you are. It's self-righteousness. We live
in the most self-righteous generation there's ever been. His self-righteousness. And God said, these are a smoke
in my nose, a fire that burns all the day. And so God declared
to political Israel that He would destroy that nation. He would
destroy the reprobate. And yet in our text, He gives
us a word here that would be grace, a word of grace and a
word of hope for Psalmy and Israel. And this is a word of grace and
hope for some here today, in this world today. Now here's
what I want us to see in this message. The one reason, the
one reason that God preserved Israel for a time is the one
reason God preserves this world right now. It is because God
has an elect remnant who He shall save in Christ Jesus His Son. He says, this is for my people.
That's what I titled this message, for my people. Now, here's our
text in Isaiah 65, and I'll give you the divisions as we read
it. First, we see God's analogy, verse 8. Thus saith the Lord,
as the cluster Thus saith the Lord, as the new wine is found
in the cluster, and one saith, Destroy it not, for a blessing
is in it, so will I do for my servants' sake, that I may not
destroy them all. And then secondly, we have God's
work. He says in verse 9, And I will bring forth a seed out
of Jacob, and out of Judah, an inheritor of my mountains. and
mine elect shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there. Now lastly, here's the end. And
Sharon shall be a fold of flocks, and the valley of Acre a place
for the herds to lie down in, for my people that have sought
me. Now first, let's look at God's
analogy. In verse 8, He said, Thus saith
the Lord, As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one
says, Destroy it not, for a blessing is in it, so will I do for my
servants' sakes, that I may not destroy them all. Now the analogy
here is of a withered grapevine. This vine is dried up. It's producing
no fruit whatsoever. So the owner is about to cut
the vine down. What's the use of having a dried
up vine that's not producing fruit? It's cumbering the ground. It's going to cut it up. But
new wine is found in the cluster. In the midst of these dried branches,
there's a small cluster in which is new wine. And therefore the
owner of this vineyard says, don't destroy it, destroy not
this vine, there's a blessing in it. And God says, so will
I do for my servants' sakes, that I may not destroy them all.
Now, God had declared, we saw last week in the first seven
verses, God declared that Israel was a dried up, withered vine,
not producing any fruit, and God said He would cut it down.
He was going to turn, He was going to recompense into the
bosom of the reprobate their own works that they earned. And
that's what you see when you look at this world today. It's
a dried vine that produces no fruit. And God declared He would
destroy it. And God declares He's going to
destroy this world. But in the middle of Israel,
there was new wine found in the cluster. New wine found in the
cluster. Let me give you Song of Solomon,
chapter 1, verse 14. The church is singing about Christ. About Christ. And this is what
she says, My beloved is unto me as a cluster of camphor in
the vineyards, in the vineyards of Enjeti. My beloved is the
cluster. Christ is the cluster. He's the
cluster. Ever since God chose His people
in Christ in eternity, Christ has been the preserver. All His
people, even this world has been preserved in the Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world because of Him. That's what Paul meant
when he said in Colossians 1.17, He is before all things and by
Him. All things consist. It's by Him
that this world's held in store. It's by Him, the Word, that it's
held in store. His covenant Word, His promise
to bring all His people to God. That's why this world's held
in store. By Him, all things consist. And therefore, God says
this, Destroy it not, for a blessing is in it. And He says, So I'll
do for my servants' sakes, that I may not destroy them all. Now,
God's going to destroy Israel, reprobate Israel in time. He
did. He said He would and He did.
But God preserved them for a time. Why did He do that? Look at 2
Peter chapter 3. Why is God preserving this present
ungodly world right now? Look at it. You look at the things
going on and you think, oh, it's such a wicked place. Things happening
that you just thought, even just ten years ago you thought, I
would have never imagined that would happen. Why does God preserve
it? Why does He preserve it? One
reason is God has an elect remnant in Christ. Christ is the preserver
and His people in Him are the preservative. Now look here in
2 Peter 3 and verse 7. He says there, The heavens and
the earth which are now by the same word are kept in store. Whose word is that? That's Christ's
word. It's His covenant promise to
call out His people and save His people that's holding this
world in store. And He says, but it's reserved unto fire against
the day of judgment and perdition. That means destruction of ungodly
men. See, God's holding it up. He's
preserving it right now. But He's preserving it to a day
of fire when He's going to judge and destroy ungodly men. Now,
verse 8, but beloved, now notice that, beloved, that's who he's
writing to. That's Peter and that's those he's writing to
and that's me and you who've been called by His grace. But
beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with
the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years is one day.
The Lord's not slack concerning His promise, as some men count
slackness, but is long-suffering to us-ward." Who's the us-ward? He just said it. The Beloved. The Beloved. Those that are elected
of God in Christ. The Beloved. He's long-suffering
to His elect because He's not willing that any should perish,
but that all should come to repentance. If God is not willing for something
to happen, is it going to happen? If God's not willing for any
to perish, is there going to be any that's going to perish?
No. Why? Because God has power to
work His will. And God's will is that none of
His elect people perish. So then verse 15 tells us this. So you can account that this
longsuffering of our Lord is salvation. It shall end in all
His people being saved. You can count on that. You count
on that. I'll give you an example. In
the old world, Noah preached for 120 years as that ark was
being built, and he was saying, this is going to be the salvation
of this world. Get in that ark right there.
It's going to bear the judgment, and those inside won't have to
bear it. But if you're outside, you're
going to have to bear this judgment yourself. And they sat and mocked
Him, and scoffed at Him, and made fun of Him. And think how
long the world's been here. You sitting here telling us this,
Noah. It ain't ever even rained before.
And one day it started raining. But you know, God didn't drop
one drop of water on that place until He put Noah in that ark,
and those He would save in that ark, and shut that ark, and then
He poured out judgment. God's not going to pour out judgment
on this world with fire and destroy ungodly men, which He will do,
but He's not going to do it until He's called each and every one
of His elect people into Christ. Every one of them. All right,
now secondly, look back at Isaiah 65. Secondly, God declares this
is His work in Christ His Son and it's for His chosen people.
This is God's work in Christ His Son for His chosen people.
Verse 9. And I will bring forth a seed
out of Jacob, and out of Judah, an inheritor of my mountains. Salvation is the work of God.
Everything we're talking about here is the work of God. God
says there, I will. I will. By God's sovereign eternal
purpose, I will. By my free and sovereign grace,
I will. By my mighty hand, God says,
I will. I will. There's never been a
sinner that saved himself. There won't ever be a sinner
that saved himself. Salvation is of the Lord. Now brethren,
because you see God here saying, I will, this is what I will do,
you can rest assured of this. When you look around today and
you see this craziness going on in this world, and it will
get you down if you start trying to focus on it. Just know this,
every single thing that is happening, good and evil, is under the direct
control of the sovereign God of heaven and earth. Everything.
He's absolutely sovereign over everything. And everything that's
happening is coming to pass exactly according to God's purpose. The reprobate who rejects Him
and says, I will not have this man reign over me, he's fulfilling
God's purpose. For this same purpose have I
raised you up, that I might show my power in you, the power of
my justice to damn you justly, because you earned it. That's
what he said to Pharaoh. Everything is working according
to his purpose. And this is so. He's working it all together
for his own glory, for the glory of his Son in the salvation of
his people. It's for our good. Every bit
of it. Now, what's preserving it? What's
preserving it? Why is he preserving it? Christ
is the preserving cluster. He's the promised seed. That
word cluster and seed have a lot to do with each other. I won't
get too graphic, but if you look the word cluster up, you'll find
out what it means. It's where the seed comes from. It's where
the seed comes from. Alright, verse 9. He says, I
will bring forth a seed out of Jacob and out of Judah, an inheritor
of my mountains. Go to Genesis 3.15. In the garden, right after Adam
plunged us all into sin and death, God came and preached the gospel. And He declared to the devil
this word right here. He declared this to Adam and
Eve, but he's speaking directly to the devil. Genesis 3.15. He
says, I will. Now that's how our text speaks.
And this is the same message of our text. The same gospel
he preached in the garden is what he's preaching in Isaiah's
day. Listen to this. I will put enmity between thee
and the woman, between the devil and the woman, and between thy
seed, your offspring, your children, your seed, The woman's seed. The woman's seed. This woman's
seed shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. This is the gospel that's declared
in our text. God promised the Son of God would
become the Son of Man, the seed of woman. He would take flesh
like His people because He had to represent His people. He had
to be made His people and stand in the place of His people. And
He declared He's going to use the devil to put Christ on the
cross and bruise Christ's heel. That's what He did. All those
wicked men that took Christ and nailed Him to the cross, they
were doing exactly what God determined before to be done. God was using
them. Everybody's God's servant. Some
He's going to destroy justly because they earned it. But the
others are His servants who He's going to save by His grace. Everybody's
serving His purpose, though. Whether you like it or not, everybody
is. And he says there, that by that,
the God-man is going to crush the devil's head and he's going
to save his people from our sins. So, even though Adam had transgressed,
even though sin had entered in and death had entered in, and
now death is going to pass upon all men, because in Adam everybody
sinned. Well, why then didn't God just
destroy it all right then? Because He just told us, there's
a blessing in it. From this man, Adam, is going
to come a son and a son and a son and a son and go through the
flood and be preserved by God all the way through the rebellion
of Israel, all the way down to the time when that promised seed
is going to be born of a woman, Christ the Lord. And for His
sake, God said, destroy it not, there's a blessing in it. There's
a blessing in it. And so he didn't destroy it.
He said, I'll bring forth a seed out of Jacob and out of Judah.
That's what he's saying to us here. I won't destroy it because
I'm bringing a seed out of it. Now God chose for Christ to come
into this earth through Adam's lineage. That's what he chose. Not through the natural sons
of Adam, through the spiritual sons of Adam. Now let me give
you an example. God promised, He said, in thy
seed, He told Abraham this, in thy seed shall all the nations
of the earth be blessed. And Paul tells us that he said,
now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made, and he said,
and he didn't say to seeds as of many, but to thy seed, which
is Christ. He's talking about Christ. In
Christ shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. Because
I've got a people in all the nations of the earth and I'm
going to save them all, save them in Christ. So in Christ
the seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. So why
then does Christ call, is He called the seed of Jacob and
of Judah? This is what I'm wanting you to see. Why He's called the
seed of Jacob and the seed of Judah? Why is He called that? Well, Abraham begat Isaac. Isaac begat Jacob, Jacob begat
Judah, and Christ came through that line. And so Christ is,
He's the seed of Abraham, He's the seed of Isaac, and in our
text here, He's the seed of Jacob, and He's the seed of Judah. You
see that? And if you go to, at your leisure,
you go to Matthew 1, and you can read the genealogy of our
Lord Jesus Christ, and you follow it on further. You can see that
Judah and Tamar produced Phares. And you can see on down the line,
Boaz begot Obed of Ruth. And then Obed begot Jesse. Jesse
begot King David. And he keep on going down the
line. And Christ enters the world. The seed of woman. The seed of
Abraham. The seed of Isaac. The seed of
Jacob. The seed of Judah. The line of the tribe of Judah.
There it comes. God said, that's why I'm going
to spare reprobate Israel. I'm going to spare them until
Christ comes into this earth through the spiritual sons of
Jacob and Judah. I will bring forth a seed out
of Jacob and out of Judah. Now that's the first application.
Now here's the second thing this means too. In Christ was a holy
seed called God's elect people. In Christ. When you look at this
remnant that was in Israel, who Christ was going to come through
into this world, they themselves were in Christ. That's right. By divine election, by the election
of grace, there was a holy seed in the holy seed. A holy people
in Christ the Holy One, by God's divine election. That's what
we're looking at. Look back at Isaiah 1. And that's
the only reason, it was for Christ, it was for that people in Christ,
that's the only reason that God hadn't already destroyed Israel
even in Isaiah's day. Look back at Isaiah 1. That's
what this whole book's about. Isaiah began talking about how
corrupt Israel and Judah had become. And look what he said
here in Isaiah 1.19. Except the Lord of hosts had
left unto us a very small remnant except the Lord had chosen a
very small remnant. We should have been as Sodom
and we should have been like unto Gomorrah. What happened
in Sodom? There was lot down there in Sodom.
You know who he was? He was an elect child of God. He was one of that elect remnant.
There he is off down there in Sodom where he shouldn't have
been. And God said, I'm going to destroy Sodom. That's a place
of nothing but reprobates. And I'm destroying it. But God
didn't do one thing to destroy that place until He sent the
Gospel down there and some men down there and grabbed Lot and
brought him out of there. And then He destroyed him. He
destroyed Sodom. And Isaiah says here, if it wasn't
for the fact that God chose an elect remnant and put them in
Christ, And for the sake of Christ and for the sake of that elect
remnant, if it wasn't for them, we'd a long time ago been destroyed
just like Sodom. Well, I can tell you this right
here. If it wasn't that God has an elect remnant according to
the election of grace right now, this world that you and I live
in would have a long time ago been destroyed. A long time ago. Now notice this too. I want you
to see this. Christ is the heir of God. He's
called here the heir of God. He says, I'll bring a seed out
of Judah, an inheritor of my mountains. And mine elect shall
inherit it. and my servants shall dwell there."
Christ is the inheritor of God's heavenly mountains. Now, don't
misunderstand me. As God, He owns everything. The
cattle on a thousand hills are His, and the hills are His. But
we're talking here about something greater than this creation. We're
talking about that new creation, that new heavens and new earth.
We're talking about His heavenly mountains. He's inherited all
that God the Father promised Him in that covenant and that
everlasting covenant before the foundation of the world. Our
Lord Jesus Christ is the inheritor of the new heavens and the new
earth. He's the Father's preeminent elect and God says, My elect
shall inherit it. He shall. And therefore in Christ,
all God's select people shall inherit all heavenly blessings
with Christ. every one of them, because Christ
did what He told the Father He'd do. He promised the Father that
He would come and establish righteousness in the earth. He would fulfill
the law of God. He would put away that transgression
that Adam committed for his people. He would satisfy God's justice. He would purge the sin of His
people. He would make it so God could
have mercy on His people and forgive His people in a way that
was totally in harmony with the justice of God. And Christ went
to that cross and accomplished everything that He said He would. He cried out, it is finished,
and it is finished. Brother Eric just came up here
and showed me that text where He said, if a man won't leave
everything he has. Isn't that what it says? If he's
going to leave everything he has, he can't come to me. He can't be a part of this. Now
look, when you come to Christ, you don't bring anything. You
don't bring anything of your own making. This table is full. You can't get another thing on
it. It's provided. You don't bring anything to the
table. You come bringing nothing and saying Christ is all. That's where you come. And because
he's done this work and God's satisfied with him as the mediator,
as the God-man mediator, as the son of God and the son of man
that God's well pleased with, God has raised him and given
him this great inheritance. It's all his. Everything the
father has, he's given to his son to inherit. His holy, heavenly
mountains. The Hebrew writer said, you haven't
come to the mountains that can be touched. You've come to heavenly
Jerusalem. You've come to Mount Zion. You've
come to the city of the living God, the New Jerusalem, to the
innumerable company of angels, to the spirits of just men made
perfect, and to Christ Himself who speaks from heaven. See that
you hear Him. That's who we've come to. This
is the inheritance we're talking about. And this is ours. Look
at Romans 8 and verse 16. You know this world, look at
this world right now, brethren. And you can get caught up in
it easy, but this world's trying to go around and get everything
they can possibly get of this world while they can. One preacher said they're getting
all they can, canning all they get, and sitting on the can. But you see, while they're doing
that, you and I can sit and know this, we might not have great
things in this life. And that's for our good. Melinda
and I were just talking the other day about, well, if you won that
Powerball. And we began to talk about it
and what you'd do with it and how you'd do this and how you'd
do that. And I told her, I said, think how much trouble it's causing
us and we ain't even won it yet. Just imagine if you won it, how
much trouble it'd cause you. Oh, that'd be horrible. That
would be terrible. You think I could help this one
and help that one and help the other ones and make it easier
on them? That would just hurt them. Think you could give it
to all these different churches and help them out. That would
hurt those churches. Why? They need to struggle. They need
to depend on Christ. They need to be where they are
because God put them where they are. Help people when you can
help them. No, don't doubt that. But we
don't want to help people out of the trial to the point that
they miss the meaning of the trial. But as we're looking at all this
world's going after, you and I have this confidence. We have
an eternal inheritance, and everything is ours. Everything. I don't
have to fight for it. They're just paying taxes on
it right now. They're just keeping it up for
me, that's all. It's all mine. Pass by some beautiful estate
and look at it and say, that's mine. Everything's mine. by cause of Christ. Look here
now. But that's just an example. I'm talking about heavenly things.
I'm talking about greater things than earthly things. Look at
Romans 8, 16. The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit
that we are the children of God. And if children, then heirs.
Heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. Heirs of God and
joint heirs with Christ. That means we're going to get
the inheritance. If so be that we suffer with Him, that we may
be also glorified together with Him." Look what he says, I reckon
that the sufferings of this present time, sometimes they're rough,
these sufferings that we endure right now. And I'm talking about
for Christ's sake. I'm not talking about just not
being disgusted because you don't have what you want. I'm talking
about suffering for Christ. It can be difficult. But, he
says here, they're not worthy to be compared with the glory
which shall be revealed in us. There's the inheritance. The
glory which shall be revealed in us. Do you notice in our text
how many wills and shalls there are? He says there, this glory
shall be revealed in us. Our text is not any maybes about
it. God says in our text, He says,
I will do this for My servant's sake. He says, I will bring forth
a seed out of Jacob. He says, Mine elect shall inherit
it. He says, My servant shall dwell
there. There are no maybes about this. God said this shall be. And brethren,
you can count on this. This glory of our inheritance
shall be revealed in us. It's reserved. It's reserved. Now let's come to the end. That
brings us to the end. Verse 10. And Sharon shall be
a fold of flocks, a fold where flocks of sheep are folded together,
and the valley of Acre a place for the herds to lie down in. for my people, for my people
that have sought me." You know, after Christ arose to His heavenly
inheritance, when He arose and sent forth Peter declaring He's
King in Christ. After that, the Lord sent Peter
to this literal place called Sharon. He sent him there with
the gospel. And I'm convinced he did that
to show us an example of what he's doing in his church and
shall never fail to do. He sent Peter there to that place
to Sharon. This is what the Scripture says.
Acts 9.35 says, All that dwelt at Lydda and Sharon turned to
the Lord. All of them turned to the Lord.
Sharon is that fat green pasture that you're in right here. That's
what it is the fat green pasture under the sound of His gospel
where you can feed and feed and feed. It's where He folds His
flocks together. Jew, Gentile, rich, poor, male,
female. He brings them all together into
one fold. Jew or Gentile, He brings them
to one fold with one shepherd and He feeds us there at His
green pasture. And just like He turned them
all to the Lord through Peter in that place, He's going to
turn all His people to the Lord. Every one of them. And it says
here, and the valley of Acre is a place for the herds to lie
down in, rest in Christ. This was that valley where Achan
was stoned for his sin. And God turned away from his
fierce anger. And then Hosea, who means Savior,
he gave this valley to Gomer for a door of hope. He said,
I'll allure her and bring her into the wilderness and I'll
speak comfortably to her. And He said, and I'll give her
the valley of Achan for a door of hope. What does all that mean? Well, in this valley of sin that
we live in right now, because Christ took our place on the
cross, God has turned away His fierce anger. And now Christ
our Savior, our Hosea, gives Himself to us for a door of hope. And when you have Him, He says,
it'll be a place where the herds will lie down. When you have
Christ, the door of hope, you can rest. You can rest. But there's one more thing about
this Valley of Achan. This Valley of Achan was the
very first spot of ground that Israel stepped foot on when they
crossed over the Jordan into that promised land. This was
the first spot of ground they stepped foot on. Well, one day, we're going to continue
through this valley of sharing, feeding on this gospel, being
fed by Christ our shepherd. We're going to continue through
this valley of aching, through this valley of sin, but we're
going to do so knowing God's turned away His fierce anger
from us. We'll travel through it knowing there's a door of
hope. This is a door of hope that God's given to us. Christ,
the door of hope. But then one day, you know what we're going
to do? We're going to cross over Jordan. And we're going to step
foot into that eternal valley of Achan. That eternal valley
of Achan. And we're going to be with the
Redeemer forever and ever and ever. No maybes. No maybes. This is going to happen for all
His people. That's why God's preserving this world. right
now. Because He's going to see that
day. And His people are going to see that day. Now notice this. Notice who this is for. God says
there at the end of that verse, this shall be for My people that
have sought Me. For My people that have sought
Me. Now I said to you at the beginning, the one reason that
God preserves this world now is because God has an elect remnant
who He shall save in Christ Jesus His Son. Christ is the cluster,
He's the preserver, the new wine, and He's going to save all His
elect in Him. That's why God's preserving it.
Now let me ask you this. Are you one for whom God preserves
this present world? Just think of that. If you're a believer by His grace,
trusting Christ alone, all your salvation, you can say honestly,
God is preserving this world right now for me. Because of me, He's preserving
it. I tell you, folks that hate our gospel, they shouldn't get
mad at believers at all. Because believers are the reason
God's preserving this world. And that's how we're serving
Him. By believing Him. And being the preservative of
this world. The only reason the reprobate gets to kick up his
heels and enjoy the lusts of his flesh and his earth is because
God's preserving it for his people. Are you one for whom Christ is
preserving this world? Are you one for whom God gives
nations? He said, I give Ethiopia and
Saba for thee. Right now, God's giving nations
for his people. Giving them up for his people. Are you one that he's doing that
for? Has Christ folded you together? given Himself to you for a door
of hope? If so, seek nothing else. Seek only
God our Savior. Don't seek anything else. Seek
Him. Seek Him. He says, Mine elect
shall inherit it, and My servants shall dwell there, because this
is for My people who have sought Me. What are you seeking? What am
I seeking? God make me seek Him. Only Him. All right, brethren, let's stand
together. Lord, thank You for Your Word.
Thank You for preserving this world so that You call out to
Your elect people. Thank You for Christ, the Preserver.
Thank You for all that He's done for us to present us to You,
holy and spotless and without blame. Lord, thank You for this
Valley of Sharon where we can have these green pastures of
Your Gospel and Your grace and feed and feed and feed Even in
this Valley of Achan, Lord, where there's so much sin and so much
trouble, You've given us a place where we can lie down in Christ
and rest. A door of hope. That itself is
a door of hope. Make us now, Lord, to look forward
to that day when You bring us over the Jordan and bring us
into Your presence forever to our holy, eternal inheritance
with Christ our portion. And Lord, make us seek you, make
us seek only you. Oh, we got so many distractions,
Lord, that are pulling us from this way and that way, and troubles
in our families, and troubles in the world. Make us to lay aside the sin
that so easily besets us, and make us run this race that's
set before us, looking nowhere but to Christ Jesus our Lord. Make us seek You, Lord. Nothing
else is important. All that we do when we separate
from one another is we say, stand over there, I'm holier than you
are. Make us worms, Lord, make us worms. Make us put away this
division and make us look to Christ only. Follow Him together
as your holy fold of sheep. We thank you, Lord, in Christ's
name. Amen.