Turn with me to Isaiah 48. Isaiah 48 and we're going to
look at verses 9 through 11. Now in the chapter of Isaiah
48 we see a people's confidence. They are very confident in themselves. Confidence can be a helpful attribute
when combined with wisdom and experience in a tenuous situation. where a firm hand is needed to
guide the people through a difficult or uncertain way. But confidence
in a man can also make it hard for him to make an honest assessment
of himself. And it can make it hard for him
to hear a word that he needs to hear in season. For example, men rarely Men are
very confident about their righteousness. They're very confident that their
works are good and acceptable before the Lord. They don't know
a lot, but they imagine that if there is a God, when they
stand before him, things will work out in their favor. But the Lord has true wisdom
for you, his children. He has true wisdom for you and
he's going to make your confidence. He puts the confidence of his
child in him. That's where we learn our strength
is from, our help, our shield, our provision and protection.
It comes from the Lord and the Lord does this in such a way
so that he truly becomes our confidence. If you recall, these
people had a tremendous amount of confidence declaring themselves
to be the people of God, making their boast to be in their lineage
and their city and where they were from. Our confidence, brethren,
is in the Lord, and he's teaching us that every day. He causes
his people to hear his voice, and it comes to them in power. And so he sends his word to this
confident people, saying in verse one, hear ye this, O house of
Jacob. They were very confident in themselves,
so confident that their ear became closed to the word of the Lord. And they didn't see the danger
that they were in. They didn't recognize just how
dangerous of a situation it was and how their kingdom was all
rapidly coming. to an end. And while it was ending,
they're speaking very proudly and with arrogance so that, for
example, in verse 2, they called themselves of the Holy City. They said, we're children of
Jerusalem. We're of the great city of our
God. And they became hard-hearted
in their disobedience to the Word. The fact is that every
one of us in this fleshly nature is disobedient to the word of
God. The truth is we're all sinners
and we're all disobedient. Look at verse four because understand
this people, Israel here, they are a type of the people of God. They are a picture and a type
of God's people. Now, Here they are, and this
is what's said of them in verse four. The Lord says, because
I knew that thou art obstinate. You're hard. You're a hard people. You're a hard people. You have
a hard heart. And he says, and thy neck is
an iron sinew, meaning I'm not going to be turned. My neck isn't
going to turn. to hear what the Lord is saying
to me, nor is my neck going to be turned to see what the Lord
is showing me. By nature, my neck is an iron
sinew." And he says, thy brow brass. That means no matter how
reasonable, how rational or logical, It is. It's not going to penetrate
my head. It's not going to penetrate my
mind because I'm a hard man. I'm a hard, obstinate man. Now,
in the understanding that these children had, they knew what
every man should know about the Lord, that he is their creator
and their God, and his word is to be honored and adhered to. They knew more than other men. They knew more than what the
heathen knew. who worshiped God groping around
in utter and complete darkness. And they could boast of their
relation to God. But this is what the Lord says
now in verse eight. Yea, thou heardest not. You didn't hear my word, he says.
Yea, thou knewest not. You didn't even know what you
thought you knew. That's what the Lord's saying
to them. Yea, from that time thine ear was not open. They did not have an open ear
for I knew the Lord says that thou wouldest deal very treacherously. The Lord didn't let them hear
because he knew they deal treacherously and was called a transgressor
from the womb. Now, the Lord did this to his
people. He did this work in the midst
of his people, but there is a purpose in him doing it and it was not
to destroy them. It was not to destroy His people. Rather, it was to make their
salvation a true and living faith. They were going to understand
and know that this salvation was not wrought by my hand, my
wisdom, my confidence, my experience, none of it, no righteousness
of mine. This is of the Lord. This really is of the Lord. This was something that some
there were saved. So there were some people there
in that city that were saved and some that were not saved
but maybe would be saved after the Lord did this work in their
hearts. Our God was going to manifest
his salvation gloriously in their hearts in a manner where they
could boast of the Lord alone. That's all they were gonna know
is God did this. He did this and performed this
work wonderfully before our eyes. So brethren, your God is able
to allow us as men to be brought to the end of ourselves. to wear ourselves out in the
flesh, showcasing to us all our faults, all our inabilities,
all our insufficiencies, so that when all is said and done, we
know it's only of the Lord's doing. I'm not a fisherman. I've been fishing a few times
as a child. I think I pulled in a trout from
a river once and a couple bass from a lake. but that's about
the extent of my experience fishing. But I've heard, I've been told
by some good experienced fishermen, those
that catch very large fish, that they have experience. There's
a way to do it so that you don't wear yourself out, but the fish
wears himself out. So that by the time he gets up
against the boat to where you're about to scoop him up with the
net, he's pretty compliant. He goes in a lot more easily
than if you had just dropped your line off the side of the
boat and caught him right away and had to Paul lamented, well,
our God, your God, he works salvation in the hearts of his people such
that we are made willing in the day of his power. And when we
forget, he makes us willing again. And he keeps reminding us that
it really is a miracle of his grace that I can stand here before
you this day and preach this word. And that you are gathered
here this evening to hear this word. It's all of His grace and
mercy. So what we see in tonight's text
is the sin of man will not be a means of provoking your God
to forsake you, to abandon you, or to give up and destroy the
work of His hands for His people. He's not going to be turned from
His goodwill and purpose to bless you, to bless you with salvation. to feed you and to encourage
your heart. Not the hardness of man's heart,
nor the unwillingness for us to turn our iron neck, nor this
brow of brass making it impossible for me to hear my God. No man,
no sin, no enemy is going to be able to persuade our God or
defeat him or cause him to turn from his gracious will and purpose
toward us, because salvation is not the result of something
in us. It's not the work of ours that
causes God to do a gracious and compassionate work for us. Salvation
is the gracious work of our God for His chosen people in Jesus
Christ His Son. God may chasten his people as
he does here in this text. We'll see that. It's beautiful.
It's a beautiful picture of how he delivers his people unto himself. He may chasten them, but it's
always going to result in their salvation and their peace and
their blessing and their riches in the grace and glory and treasure
of our God in Christ. That's because our God will never
turn from his promise to save them that he loves, those whom
he's chose in eternity to be his beloved bride for his son. He gave us to his son in eternity
and nothing's going to derail that. Nothing will take the will
of our God away from doing that. We shall be refined by the blood
of Christ. Yea, we are refined by the blood
of Christ who endured as we shall see the furnace of affliction
for his people. And that to the praise, glory,
and honor of his name. Not ours, his name. I've titled
this message, A Refinement Not With Silver. A Refinement Not
With Silver. We'll have three points, each
one corresponding to the three verses, 9, 10, and 11. Verse
9, we'll see God defer his anger. Then we'll see Christ work our
refinement. And then we'll close with a brief
point, just reaffirming and confirming to you that it's all for Christ's
sake that this is done. All for his sake. First, man
needs to know that all our sins, all our boasting, all our confidence,
all our works, those good and those pretty good, all of it,
all our righteousness, which is nothing but self-righteousness,
man needs to know that it's all worthy of death. From those that
we all can say, yep, that's worthy of death, even down to the tiniest
little infraction that we say, come on now, that's not that
major, right? Doesn't matter, it's all worthy
of death. But let us not shrink back from that offense to our
flesh, but rather let us lean in. What does the Lord then have
to say about the matter? If everything I am and everything
I do is worthy of death, what does God say about the matter? He tells us in Galatians 3.22
that the scripture hath concluded all under sin for this purpose,
that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to
them that believe. God has shut us up to see and
to know I'm a sinner, and I can't work my way out of a paper bag,
let alone stand before him in righteousness and defend what
I am in this flesh. I'm guilty, but being shut up
and concluded to be under sin, it's that I may receive that
promise, that I might know and hear the glorious good news of
my God, that it's by faith. which he gives to his child to
behold and to look to the Lord Jesus Christ. So our God says,
because for Christ's sake he shall defer his anger against
his people. He's deferring his anger, meaning
he's not going to destroy us for those sins so utterly worthy
of his destruction and death. Look at verse 9. For my name's
sake will I defer mine anger, and for my praise will I refrain
for thee. That I cut thee not off. No angel ever heard those gracious
words, but you hear those words. You hear those precious words
from our God. Our Lord is bearing. He bears
long with his people. He's very patient toward his
people. Peter, in his second letter,
reminds us. He tells us that our God is long-suffering
to us-ward, not willing that any, any of us should perish,
but that all, all of us should come to repentance. That's for our sakes that we
might come to a knowledge of Him in salvation. That's also
for our sakes that we would hear His words and grow in His grace
and wisdom and experience so that we would be useful, made
willing to serve in His kingdom to also be a means of those others
who have yet to come and hear, that this gospel may be furthered
in His churches. You know, at one point, our Lord
was talking to his disciples. These are the men who walked
with him in the earth. And this is after his resurrection.
And he says, oh, fools and slow of heart to believe all that
the prophets have spoken. We know these things we know
these truths to be real made by him and that he shall fulfill
all his word to us we know that we however are fools and slow
of heart to believe and yet we're always glad to hear his word,
to be reminded, because we are fools, and because we are slow
of heart to believe. We're always glad to be brought
back to hear his gospel, to be reminded it's all of his work,
because he's so willing, and so patient, as he was here with
these disciples, to tell them, so he tells us now, over and
over, again and again, that it's, he is our salvation. It's all
of him, He's gracious and patient with us and he's teaching us.
The psalmist, well, he said this because of their unbelief of
him and his power, but he didn't destroy them for their unbelief.
He didn't destroy them for their unbelief. Rather, he appeared
to them again and he opened their understanding that they too might
understand the scriptures, and that's what he does for each
of us. Each time he gathers us together, it's to give us to
understand, to be reminded of how merciful, how compassionate
he is to us. The psalmist said it perfectly
in Psalm 103, verse 10. He hath not dealt with us after
our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. He's that
patient with us. He's that gracious to us. He
deals with us in grace and in mercy always. Always, brethren. Let us never think that our God
is being merciful or gracious to us because we deserve it.
Let us never think that. We don't earn his mercy. We don't
merit favor with our God. He refrains himself from cutting
off his people, but it's actually not for the reasons that the
natural man thinks it is. The natural man thinks God is
patient with me and not cutting me off because I've made up for
a little something of it. I've made up for some of my crimes.
I've done some penance. I've done some good works. I
said a few good things. I put a little extra in the plate.
I attended services once this year or whatever it is. It could
be every single time the door is open. It's not, God's not
merciful to us for the natural reasons that man thinks. You
know, when a man begins to hear the gospel, it's very confusing
to them. If they're sitting under a gospel
preacher, it's got to be very confusing, because without the
spirit of God, we don't understand the things of the Lord. Can you imagine, go back in your
mind to hear again, based on how you were trained, to hear
again that it's not by your decision. It's not your decision that saves
you. It's not by your choice or your
will that God saves you, nor is it by your works. But they
stumble over this because this is what man is told. This is
what he's fed his whole life. And he may cry out. The more
he hears it, he may cry out like Bildad the Shuhite in Job 25,
4. How then can a man be justified
with God? How can a man be clean that is
born of a woman? He wants to know how a man can
get himself saved, because that's how we hear it, that we get ourselves
saved, that we avail ourselves of the mercy of God in Christ
by something we do or say. When we ask, then, well, if it's
not my decision, what is it? It's because we've not heard
the gospel where our Lord declares to us that it's already accomplished. The whole work of it is already
accomplished in and by the Lord Jesus Christ for his people. It's apart from their decision. In other words, God is not waiting
for man to realize that he needs God to save him. That's not the
gospel. God doesn't wait upon a man to
realize that he needs Christ. That's not just for unbelievers,
you know, to know that our salvation is accomplished. It's not just
for unbelievers. It's a comfort to the child of
God who is snared in sin. because we get troubled by our
sin. We get brought low by our sin
when we stumble and feel we've fallen and feel troubled by it. It's a comfort to know, to remember,
to hear the word of your God to say it's all finished. The works are finished from the
foundation. I've accomplished it all in my
son to know that he's accomplished my salvation and that he makes
it effectual continually in my heart. The manifest works of
salvation shall be wrought in every child of God as the Lord
is pleased to reveal it in them by faith in Jesus Christ. And faith is not of the man,
even when we can't believe. Our Lord is faithful to his own
word and to his own covenant and to his own promise. Faith
is not of man, but it's the gift of God for one to whom God has
made to be alive by his spirit apart from our works and our
will. Now I'm being meticulous about
it. I'm being careful with my words
there because I want I want you brethren to process that and
to understand the truth of our God, that we that receive God's
salvation, that we know this salvation is wrought in me, in
Christ. from the first hour to the last
hour. It's not because I did something
to get it in the beginning, nor is it when we stumble and fall
in sin. That's not what's going to lift
us up out from that dunghill and being heaped upon by our
woes and our fears and our worries. God, as he freely gave it the
first time, so he freely gives it each time to his children,
all of it. Not because you sought it, but
because it's his good pleasure. to reveal His work of salvation
in you, to bring you back, to draw you with cords of love and
mercy to Him. And so it's all His work, Him
having compassion on whom He will have compassion, showing
mercy to whom He will show mercy. That's your God. He's gracious,
to whom he will be gracious and he's always gracious to you as
children. All right now, so the Lord will
not cut you off. He's not going to cut you off.
You may feel like you've been cut off, but it is always working
towards your good. It's for your good and your blessing
in Christ. All right. That brings us now
to our second point, our refinement. You're gracious. God says to
you in verse 10, behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver. I have chosen thee in the furnace
of affliction." Now notice those words, I have refined thee, I
have chosen thee. Again, it means, it's showing
us that the work is already accomplished. It's already accomplished. You've
believed on Christ, you've walked in Him for a time, and now you've
fallen in sin. You've stumbled and fallen. The
Lord says, it's accomplished. I have refined thee. I have chosen thee. Salvation and our deliverance
from sin is not a possibility, but something that our God has
already accomplished for us in His Son, Jesus Christ. Michelle
and I have purchased a couple of homes and sold a couple of
homes in our marriage and which ones we lived in. And I remember
there was one in particular where there was a portion of it going
towards the house, but not all of it. There was actually a big
portion that we were going to receive to use for for fixing
up and and other expenses and the way we got it was a check
was cut to us after we did the closing and everything they gave
me a check with a very large sum of money larger than I've
ever had in in my possession like that for sure And even though
the bank wasn't very far away, all I could think about is the
first thing we're going to do is put this check in the bank. And as I'm driving there, it's
only what, maybe five minutes away, maybe 10, I doubt it though,
maybe five minutes away, all I'm thinking is, watch, I'm going
to get into an accident. watch it's going to be a bad
accident and I'm going to end up in the hospital and this check's
going to go missing and I don't know what what's going to happen
how it's ever going to come together and I got all worried and anxious.
Can you imagine if if I was worried about a little piece of paper
with some digits on it if I was worried about that could you
imagine if there was any bit, any aspect of our salvation that
was left to our hands to fulfill. Can you imagine how anxious,
terrifying, fearful this journey would be knowing that anything
could derail the hope of eternal life with my God? Your God says,
There is nothing that can derail it. There's nothing that's going
to take away the promise that I give to you in my Son, Jesus
Christ. It's all accomplished. It's all
accomplished. Don't be afraid. Don't be fearful. He's got the whole thing. Nothing
is left to us. There can be no failure in your
salvation for God's child. It's already accomplished in
the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing shall fail about it.
Now, I think you'll understand this when we see it in the light
of the word where he says, I have refined thee, but not with silver. What does the Lord mean when
he says, I refine thee, but not with silver? Well, there's only
one reason that we are not destroyed for our sin, every one of us,
and why salvation cannot fail for the child of God. It's because
we are purged from our sin by the Lord Jesus Christ. It's all His doing. We are refined
by the Lord Jesus Christ. Who did the purging? The Lord
Jesus Christ. When did He do the purging? When
He hung on the tree, on that cross for you, child of God. to put away your sin, to accomplish
your salvation, to make you righteous before the Father, to satisfy
the holy justice of God, and to silence his law against you. What did he accomplish? A refinement,
a refinement for the people of God, to make them perfect before
their God, to make us righteous before our God. What did he accomplish? Our justification. So that when our God looks upon
us, we that believe on Christ, we that have no hope but the
blood of Christ, when we come before him covered in nothing
but the blood of Jesus Christ, your God looks upon you and says,
You're as just as my Son. You are justified even as my
Son is justified. You are righteous even as my
Son is righteous. You are precious in my sight
even as Christ is precious in my sight. That's a refinement. Your Lord has made you perfect
to stand before your God, accepted and righteous in Him. He's accomplished the whole work.
And that is what faith lays hold of. Faith lays hold of what our
Lord has accomplished for us. It lays hold of the finished
work of Jesus Christ. Faith believes, Lord, you say
it's finished, And that's what we receive, that's what we believe,
that it is already finished by the Lord Jesus Christ. And that
faith which lays hold of what he's done, believing it, receiving
it, is his gift worked in us. It's not of this flesh, otherwise
it would fail. It's his work and therefore cannot
fail, being worked in us because it's the Spirit's work for the
children of God formed in the new man. and that which only
God can make and do for his child. So our faith does not make Christ's
blood effectual to us. Our faith is how we know it's
already done for us by the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what faith
receives, and it's all worked in us. Receiving that faith is
by the Spirit of God. If Christ died for you, you shall
believe. you shall know what he's accomplished
for you because he works that believing heart, that softened
heart, that heart that was hard is removed and replaced with
a heart given to us by God to believe the work of our Savior. 2 Thessalonians 2, 13 and 14,
we read it a lot. 2 Thessalonians 2, 13, we're
told that God hath from the beginning, chosen you
to salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the
truth. He chose his people to believe
because he chose them unto salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. Whereunto,
because he did this, he called you by our gospel to the obtaining
of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So the will of your God
for you, it shall not be frustrated by man's fickle will, nor man's
insurmountable mountain of sins, nor the enemy of our souls opposing
it. Nothing shall frustrate the will
of God, but it shall be performed in his chosen redeemed child
unto completion. He says there in 1 Thessalonians,
1 Thessalonians 5, 1 Thessalonians 5, 24, faithful
is he that calleth you who also will do it. He's called you,
he's going to perform the work in you, nothing stopping him. You are refined, brethren, but
not with silver. Rather, it's with the precious
blood of Christ, as of a lamb, without blemish and without spot. And Peter said just before that
verse in 1 Peter 1, verse 18, we're told that God makes every
child to know that we were not redeemed with corruptible things
as silver or gold, from your vain conversation received by
tradition from your fathers. A lot of people's hope is founded
upon their tradition, their catechisms, their courses, their theological
seminaries, and all their teachings. These things are corruptible
things. They do not save. Religion doesn't
save. Religious sacrifice doesn't save.
None of those things saves us or comforts us because your God
makes those things to crumble because he's showing us they're
worthless. There's only one precious thing
which he receives and it's his son, Jesus Christ. It's his blood,
it's his righteousness, and that's the one in whom we come because
all those corruptible things are the works of man's hands
and shall come down fast when the Lord shakes it all and brings
it to nothing. Our Lord Jesus Christ went into
the furnace of affliction to put away the enmity that was
in our heart by nature. and He continues to conquer this
wicked flesh, which is no better than it was before, we believe.
It's an evil, stinking, rotten rag of flesh and dung that we
carry about with us, but it cannot overcome the precious will of
God for you, His saints. You are more than conquerors
in the Lord Jesus Christ. The furnace of affliction is
the cross which our Lord endured when He made satisfaction to
God's holy justice, when He silenced the law and made us acceptable
to the Father. So this salvation in the first
hour, we believe on Him because Christ went into the furnace
of affliction for you. The Holy Spirit blessing you,
giving you a new heavenly birth, which is not of your own, He
graciously teaches you His child. He gives you the kingdom within. He makes you to know His will
and what He's accomplished for you. And He reveals the mystery
of Christ to us through this gospel, which men of religion
and renown don't know. They don't know, but you know
it. You know it because it's the will of your God for you
to know what He's done for you. And then every deliverance from
sin thereafter, being saved by the Lord Jesus Christ, if some
great need arises due to some grievous sin in his child, our
deliverance from it and the feeling of our deliverance from it and
being forgiven, it's not going to come by an increase of religious
sacrifices or works. It's not going to come by our
getting more diligent and a little more disciplined in our life.
That's how we hear it in the flesh. You've got to shape up. You better fix this. You better
make things right and do things better going forward. That's
not how our God speaks to us. That's not what he says to his
child. Our forgiveness and our sense
of forgiveness doesn't come from the works of our hands. Instead,
the Lord is able to bring upon us an affliction and a chastening
so that we know it really is all his work that did it. He
said, behold, verse 10, I have refined thee, but not with silver.
I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. So Israel was
taken captive by Babylon and the Lord delivered his people
out of their captivity. And they knew we didn't do this. We didn't deliver ourselves.
We went into captivity for our sin, but it was the Lord who
delivered us out. And so it is, we may be ensnared
in sin for a time, but it's the Lord that brings us out and reveals
to us sweetly that it's all in his hand, all his control. It's
accomplished. The works are finished. All right. Now, Let's go and let's finish
up here with this last verse. Well, I would also just add that
our refinement through those chastenings, it's because Christ
went into the firmness of reflection. All right, now, verse 11. Here we see that our Lord assures
us why it is that he's so gracious to us. For mine own sake, even
for mine own sake will I do it. He's never going to be turned
from doing this for us for his own sake. For how should my name
be polluted and I will not give my glory unto another." That
means that our flesh is not going to withstand the will of our
God for us to be gracious to us. This old man is not going
to prevail against the will of the Lord in him making you his
child or in him keeping you. as his child. God is able to
deliver his children from the hardness of sin and being destroyed
with the inhabitants of this world. He accomplishes this all
in us by Jesus Christ who was crucified for us in the furnace
of affliction and it's his blood that refines us, that has perfected
us, that makes us righteous in him even now. The end is no mystery. It's promised. It's settled in
the Lord Jesus Christ. And you and me have nothing to
glory, nothing to boast in for it. He says, for how should my
name be polluted? If it did come down to you or
me, we pollute the whole thing, make it an awful stench. God
is saying, It isn't in your hands, it's in my hands entirely. Our God never looks to the sinner
for something redeemable, for some reason to save you. Never
looks to you. Our God always and only looks
to Jesus Christ his son. It's only in him, and that's
it. And again he says, I will not give my glory unto another,
so that the work that your God is working in you now, you're
gonna cast your crown before Him, saying, thou art worthy,
because who's the one who earned that crown for us? He did. So we have no problem casting
that crown before Him and declaring, you alone, Lord, are worthy to
the glory, honor, and praise of the name of Jesus Christ.
Amen. All right, brother, let's close
in prayer. Our gracious and merciful Lord,
take these weak lips of clay. Take these weak words, Lord,
that I tried to bring forth. I pray that you would make them
a comfort to your people, that they all would know that it's
not us. We're not going to do anything
to prevent you from saving us. We're so thankful for you deferring
your anger, that you would provide salvation fully, freely, completely
in your son, Jesus Christ. That in the first hour, Lord,
you perform it, and even now, as we grow and see what we are,
more and more in self, just how wicked and awful this flesh is,
Lord, we stand amazed to behold that you are yet merciful and
compassionate toward us, not for our sakes, but because your
son has so wonderfully, so fully, so completely finished the entire
work for our redemption, for our refinement, for our life,
that we may know you and live with you for all eternity. Lord,
help us. Help us in this work even now,
Lord, to feed upon the bread of life. Lord, deliver us from
our sin, deliver us from our darkness, deliver us from all
our faults, and help us to behold Christ, to see him in all his
beauty, to receive him into the ship that you have put us in,
that we may all labor as one body in the Lord Jesus Christ,
rejoicing, being glad for what you've accomplished for us, and
how wonderful, how merciful, how magnificent you are, in all
things that you exceed far beyond our comprehension and understanding,
because it's all to your praise, your glory, your work. We thank
you, Lord, and know and pray that you would bless each and
everyone who is struggling, whether with sickness or something of
the mind or something spiritual, Lord, you know all the needs
of your people. Bless them, bless them fully
and let us all feel and know your love in the Lord Jesus Christ
for us. It's in his name we pray and
give thanks, amen. I just wanna, just one more thing
too. I just wanna pray for Val too and then we'll have him there.
Lord, we thank you for your great mercy. Lord, and just how merciful
you've been to Val and to Jacob, to Joe and Joanne, to Laura and
her husband, and all the children, Lord. Just what a terrifying
thing it can be when a family member, especially to be out
of the country, to have that blood clot. Lord, we thank you
for your mercy. We thank you for your grace upon
your people. that you should be so kind to
Val and that you would sustain her and give the doctors wisdom. Lord, to get her back here safely
and to get that clot out, we pray that you will continue to
bless that surgery and bless the work, Lord, to deliver her
from the danger of that clot and what it could do. We're so
thankful for that, Lord, and we praise your name and ask that
you would continue to heal her and help her. It's in the Lord
Jesus Christ we pray this. Amen. Let's all stand and sing a closing
hymn, 255 Blessed Assurance. 255. With assurance Jesus is mine,
Who would afford taste of glory divine? Bearer of salvation,
purchase of God, Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood. This is my story, this is my
song, praising my Savior all the day long. This is my story,
this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long. Perfect submission, perfect delight,
Visions of rapture now burst on my side. Angels descending
bring palm above. Echoes of mercy, whispers of
love. This is my story, this is my
song. Praising my Savior all the day
long. This is my story, this is my
song, praising my Savior all the day long. Perfect submission,
all is at rest. I am my Savior, and happy and
blessed, watching and waiting, looking above. filled with his
goodness, lost in his love. This is my story, this is my
song, praising my Savior all the day long. This is my story,
this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long. Thank you.