Our text is going to be Isaiah
8, 14. Isaiah 8, 14, and we're actually just going to be looking
at the opening phrase of that verse, which declares that He
shall be for a sanctuary. He shall be for a sanctuary.
And our title is Christ Our Refuge. And we're just going to have
two divisions. we'll look at sin, that sins must be punished,
sin will be punished, and then we'll look at the refuge for
sinners, the refuge for sinners. Now these opening chapters in
Isaiah that we've been looking at, they're showing us that the
Lord will punish sin, and judgment's going to come upon the wicked,
but We see through it, we see Isaiah declaring what the Lord
shows him that the Lord's going to provide for the people, so
that we remember in Isaiah 3, verses 10 and 11, it says, say
ye to the righteous that it shall be well with him, for they shall
eat the fruit of their doings. Woe unto the wicked, it shall
be ill with him, for the reward of his hands shall be given him. And we see this truth, the reality
of this, this truth of God, it's played out over and over throughout
the history of man. We see it in our own lifetime,
we see it declared in the scriptures, and it most specifically touches
those that think They are righteous. Those that justify themselves,
their deeds, their thoughts, their actions, they justify themselves. And in their mind and in their
thoughts, they're righteous, as opposed to those who are poor
and helpless and cry out to the Lord for mercy and for grace
and compassion. They cry out to the Lord for
help. Now this wickedness, this wickedness of man, it began in
the garden. And turn over, hold your place
there in Isaiah, but turn over to Genesis 3. And I know that
we look at this the truths declared here in Genesis 3 fairly often,
and that's because it's the foundation of man's corruptness. It's where
we see man's iniquity entered in and the death that we now
possess, the death that we are, this is where it all entered
in, in Genesis 3. And in verses 4 and 5, We read,
the serpent said unto the woman, ye shall not surely die. If ever there was a lie, if anyone
says, you know, if you ever hear someone say the greatest lie
perpetrated against man is blah blah blah, well, this is the
greatest lie ever perpetrated against man. Ye shall not surely
die. For God doth know that in the
day ye thereof Then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall
be as gods, knowing good and evil. And the next thing that
we read down in verse 6, notice it says, and he did eat. Adam did eat at the very end
there. So man willingly disobeyed God's
command and he plunged himself and his whole posterity, which
is his seed, all the seed in him, he and all his seed were
plunged into darkness. And just like God said, in the
day you eat of it, you shall surely die. Man died. He was severed from fellowship
with God. He was plunged into darkness
and he knew not God. any longer, he had no fellowship
with God, so that we read what Paul said, and just hold your
place there in Genesis, but what Paul said is that, Now, this
world continually seeks to justify,
to do what they think is right. And when they do something they
think is right, they're just in their own minds. They think
they've done a righteous and a good work. And so if you tell
a person that they're a sinner, that they've offended holy God,
and that they've sinned against him, being unregenerate, they'll
hate you for it. They'll hate you for it. They
won't appreciate what you're declaring to them, because they
think they're just and right in their own mind. But it's true.
It's true. And the scriptures declare this.
Again, especially those who are righteous in themselves, those
who think that they are just and justified by their own actions,
their thoughts, and their deeds, what they do. Whether they think
or whether they call it religious or not, whether they think they're
religious or not, but people are idolaters whether they're
in a church or in a religion or they never go inside a church
or inside of some other religious building. They're still idolaters
because they think in themselves that they make themselves right
and what they do is right. And Romans 10 3 says, For they
being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish
their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto
the righteousness of God. So men are willful in their ignorance
and they're willful in their enmity against God. They hate
God. Their enmity against God. So Romans 8, 5 and 8, it tells
us that the reason for their corruptness, their The reason
why they don't see the truth and understand the truth is that
they walk according to the flesh. Because that's all that they
are now. When Adam sinned, he died spiritually. All his seed
was corrupted in him. We come forth spiritually dead,
so that there's no fellowship with God. And it says, they that
are after the flesh, to mind the things of the flesh, but
they that are after the spirit, the things of the spirit. For
to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded
is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity
against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed
can be, so then they that are in the flesh cannot please God."
And that's what we all are when we come forth by nature, We come
forth carnal, but nothing spiritual, which is why Christ said you
must be born again. You must be born from above,
born from heaven, given a spiritual birth so that now you can walk
in the Spirit. Now you can understand spiritual
things. that's what what we need but Adam and Eve when they ate
that fruit they were immediately plunged into darkness and they
began walking in the flesh immediately immediately so if you look at
Genesis 3 verses 7 through 10 we see this it says the eyes
of them both were open and they knew that they were naked and
they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. So, you see, right away they
imagined that there was something they could do in their works,
by their own flesh, that they could do to fix the problem that
they just created for themselves. They went immediately and got
to work and they sewed together fig leaves to make an apron to
cover their shame, their nakedness. And that's exactly what We see
men doing today. That's what we did in the deadness
of our religion and the deadness of our understanding. We thought
that it was by something we did that we were justified. Even
we who said that we believed on Christ, but we were still
looking to our faith. We were looking to what we had
done so that God would forgive us and cleanse us with the blood
of Christ. We didn't see it. We called it grace, but we didn't
understand that was just works. We were looking to our own works
and not looking to the truth. The reality is that God, in grace,
saves his people, he calls his people out, he's the one who
gives faith, and it's not our faith that saves us, it's the
object of our faith, the Lord Jesus Christ that saves us and
delivers us from our sin. They imagined that they could
fix their problem, but what man does will not save them. And
we can see that right here with Adam and Eve. If you wanna know
how your works are gonna stand up when you stand before God,
if you're trusting in your works and you wanna know how's this
gonna play out when I stand before the Ancient of Days sitting on
his throne to judge the nations, how's it gonna go for me? Well,
you can see it right here in verse eight. And they heard the
voice of the Lord God walking in the garden, in the cool of
the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence
of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden." So that we see
here that once the light came, once God came in his presence
there in the garden, they knew immediately that their work was
insufficient. They were still ashamed. They
knew they were naked, and that everything they had done, which
seemed good in their mind, until the light came, then they knew
it wasn't sufficient to save them. Verse 9, And the Lord God
called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said,
I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was
naked, and I hid myself. Naked? Didn't you just sew a
fig leaf apron on yourself, Adam? Weren't you covered? Didn't you
cover your nakedness so that you could stand before God? nope
he knew immediately that it was insufficient his own works couldn't
cover his shame and his nakedness all right so any man or woman
who's trusting in their own works who thinks that what they do
is their righteousness they now know they can see it can look
right there in Genesis 3 and see when you stand before God
it's not going to be sufficient we need a righteousness that
truly covers our shame that truly covers our nakedness before holy
God. And so man, we see there, we
see how in that work enmity had already set in. He had already,
he was afraid of God immediately and he ran and hid. So there
was enmity. He was immediately distrustful
and fearful of Holy God as soon as he ate that fruit. And that's
what we see in us by nature. It says in John 3.20, Everyone
that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light,
lest his deeds should be reproved." So they didn't want to come to
the light because they were afraid that their deeds were going to
be reproved. So we see that right there in
the garden. But notice also that even though
Adam and, you know, that Adam rebelled and plunged himself
and his whole race into eternal darkness, We see here how gracious
the Lord is, how the Lord provided for Adam and Eve. He provided
a covering looking unto Christ that should come. It says in
verse 15, when he first, he said to the, when he was speaking
to the serpent, he said it in Adam and Eve's hearing so that
they heard the gospel. He said, I will put enmity between
thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed. It shall
bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel. so that they
heard the promise of Christ, that he would be their refuge. Christ would be sent of God to
be their refuge, to deliver them from the sin and the iniquity
that they had committed, to cleanse them of that sin. So he forgave
them, looking to the promise of Christ. And it says in verse
21, Genesis 321, unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord
God make coats of skins and clothed them, so that God showed them
grace in the sacrifice of those animals. To slay those animals,
it was a picture, a type of the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ
slain from the foundation of the world. That's what it was
picturing there. It was pointing to Christ, the
promise of Christ, and so those animals died. Those animals didn't
save them. It wasn't the blood of those
animals that did it, but it was looking unto what God would do
for His people and His Son, Jesus Christ. In Romans 3.25 we read,
whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith
in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that
are past through the forbearance of God. So God forbear with Adam
and Eve until Christ should come. They were forgiven in Christ
until Christ should come. Everyone is saved the same way.
There's not no one is saved a different way. We're all saved in Christ
We're all saved by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ
No matter what covenant we were born under we all must be saved
by the covenant that God made with the Son because Christ put
away the sin of His people and only Christ. There's no other
way to come to God and be saved by Him but through the Lord Jesus
Christ. Okay, now, so we see that we're
sinners. We see that we're all plunged
into sin and darkness and we must be saved. We must be saved
by that Lamb of God that He's provided from the foundation
of the world. We see this in Christ. We see
this provision that God's made in his son, Jesus Christ. And
so, when we look here at Isaiah 8, Let's start back in verse
11. We see the joy and the comfort
that we have in the provision that God has provided, the refuge
that He's provided in His Son, Jesus Christ. Isaiah 8-11 says,
For the Lord spake thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed
me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying,
Say ye not a confederacy to all them to whom this people shall
say a confederacy? Neither fear ye their fear, nor
be afraid. Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself,
let him be your fear, and let him be your dread, and he shall
be for a sanctuary." Now that word sanctuary means refuge. He shall be for you a refuge. So specifically, Christ is our
refuge. He's the one that God has provided
for the people to flee to, to be saved, to be delivered, to
protect them. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. In
short, It's what 1 Peter 5, 7 says, casting all your care upon him
for he careth for you. Now why? Why are we fleeing to
the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, Peter goes on there after
he said in verse 7 and 1 Peter 5, 8 through 10 it says, be sober,
be vigilant because your adversary the devil is as a roaring lion
walketh about, seeking whom he may devour, just as he did back
there in the garden, whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing
that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren
that are in the world, but the God of all grace, who hath called
us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have
suffered a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle
you." What are we seeing here in all this? What are we seeing here in Isaiah
8 in our text? Well, we see a number of examples
of man's sin and his rebellion. You see Ahaz, the idolater, who
trusted in man. He trusted in his own wisdom.
He didn't trust in the provision that God had made. We see Israel,
who's coming up against his brother to war against his brother. We
see Syria, who's the enemy of Judah, and he's partnering with
Israel to come and destroy Judah. And then we see Assyria coming
into the picture, and they're being raised up as a tool to
come and to beat down the enemies of the people of Judah there.
So there's all these men, all these actions, all this wickedness
of man coming together to do these things that they're doing.
What the scriptures are telling us over and over is that the
wickedness of man is going to be dealt with. God is going to
punish the wickedness of the wicked. He's going to punish
their sin and their iniquity. It says in Numbers 32, 23, Be
sure your sin will find you out. Be sure your sin will find you
out. But to the righteous, we're to understand and know that all
these things that in the Lord dealing with this world and the
wickedness and the rebellion that's entered and the enmity
against God and all the sin and iniquity of man that's just coming
out of him constantly, all these woes must be worked out. It's
the way the Lord is revealing his will here in the earth, that
we would know, that the people of God would see the Lord judging
this wickedness and unrighteousness, but that they would see the provision
that God has provided in his Son. So in Matthew 24, 6, our
Lord said, And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars, see
that ye be not troubled, for all these things must come to
pass. But the end is not yet. So these
woes and this trouble which is always coming upon man, it's
always being worked out upon him, they're there to trouble
the wicked, they're there to punish the wicked, but the righteous
when they go through these things, because we're touched with these
things, we experience these things, we see these things, we see the
wickedness of man, we see the Lord pouring out his judgment
on men, there's no peace here on the earth between man, it's
just a constant struggle, and one thing, whatever they do,
they think is right and just in what they're doing as they
do it to others, but we see this, and when it touches us, we're
humbled. if you notice, by the Spirit
of God. He applies in such a way that we're humbled, we're brought
low, and we flee to the Lord. We look to the Lord Jesus Christ
because that's why God sent him. That's why he provided Christ.
And so through these experiences, He's bringing us low in ourselves. He allows these things to bring
us low. He allows us to be touched with
these things, to know our mortality, to know that we're nothing in
ourselves, to feel the infirmity of our flesh that we might see
and behold preciousness of the Lord Jesus Christ that God has
provided for his people so that we don't miss the point that
Christ is our refuge. We're going to know that he is
The refuge, as it says there in Isaiah 8.14 in our text, he
shall be for a sanctuary. Now, we see this, this picture
of Christ being our refuge, we see it in the cities of refuge. So if you turn over to Numbers
35. Numbers 35, verse 15. Numbers 35, 15. It says, these
six cities shall be a refuge, both for the children of Israel,
and for the stranger, and for the sojourner among them, that
everyone that killeth any person unawares may flee thither. Now
drop down to verse 24. Numbers 35, 24. Then the congregation
shall judge between the slayer and the revenger of blood according
to these judgments. and the congregation shall deliver
the slayer out of the hand of the revenger of blood." That
is, if the slayer is innocent, if it was an accident and not
intentional to slay that person, they'll deliver them out of the
revenger of blood, who would legally be allowed to slay them
because they slew their relative, their kin. So they'll deliver
them from it because it was an accident. They judged that it
was an accident and not intentional. And the congregation shall restore
him to the city of his refuge, whither he was fled. And he shall
abide in it unto the death of the high priest which was anointed
with the holy oil. All right, verse 26. But if the
slayer shall at any time come without the border of the city
of his refuge, whither he was fled, and the revenger of blood
find him without the borders of the city of his refuge, and
the revenger of blood kill the slayer, he shall not be guilty
of blood, because the slayer should have remained in the city
of his refuge until the death of the high priest. But after
the death of the high priest, the slayer shall return into
the land of his possession. So these cities here, they picture
Christ our refuge, where we flee to. We flee to him, and we're
safe. The slayer can't touch us. The
revenger of blood can't touch us there in that city of refuge. And we see, as I was saying,
we see how the Lord's dealing with the wickedness and the unrighteousness
of man. He promises that he's going to
punish the wicked in the earth. And it says in Romans 1, 18 and
19, For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness
and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. Because that which may be known
of God is manifest in them, for God hath showed it unto them. You know, what we see is that
men and women who love their sin and love this darkness, who
love their deeds and trust in their deeds and believe that
what they're doing is right, they'll perish for their sins. We see that those that are self-righteous
and confident in their works, they're going to be ashamed.
It's going to be their shame because they think that they
have a suitable covering now, which they've worked for themselves.
It's like Adam and Eve thought they had a suitable covering.
But when they stand before God, they're going to see that that
covering is just a fig leaf sham. It's not sufficient to cover
them because they're not looking to the only covering for sin,
which is the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the only
salvation, the only refuge for the sinner. And that's why it
takes patience, because we're waiting on the Lord to work these
things out as it pleases Him, because He's working all these
things out for His glory, He's establishing His kingdom, and
it's all working out for our good. And it says in Revelation
13, 10, He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity. And he that killeth with the
sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and
the faith of the saints. They're waiting for the Lord.
The Lord's going to work it out. Those that lead people into captivity,
they're going to go into captivity. And those that kill, they're
going to be killed. The Lord's going to work it out.
And we're just being patient, waiting on the Lord to do His
will in this matter. And through all that, the Lord
is teaching His people. He's exalting Christ before our
eyes. He's lifting Him up so that we
see He's our refuge. This is the one that we're to
flee to. And Him is our salvation. He's our hope and our protection. So He's like that city of refuge.
But we also see how He's like the high priest there in that
passage. well when it says but after the
death of the high priest the slayer shall return into the
land of his possessions and we understand how it was our sins
that that put Christ there on the cross it's because of our
need of salvation that Christ came in the flesh and he and
he worked righteousness and And He was faithful to the Father,
and He was faithful in His ministry and His service to His people,
so that He is a fit Savior. He is the spotless Lamb of God. And in Him is no sin, no blemish,
no spot. And the Lord laid on Him the
iniquity of us all. And He went there to the cross,
bearing the sins of the people, bearing their sin and God poured
out justly poured out his wrath upon the Son as our surety in
our place so that we don't bear that sin I mean we don't bear
that that punishment Christ bore it because he he carried our
sin he carried our iniquities and bore the punishment for that
and took them away forever. He brought them out into the
wilderness where they can never be found. Again, he did all that. So he paid our debt and he's
the high priest who sacrificed himself, who made that perfect
sacrifice to the Father so that we now He's died and laid down
his death so that we may be restored to Christ, our city of refuge,
and that we also see in the other picture that he's our inheritance,
that we might go back, return to our land of inheritance, our
land of possession. which God has given us, which
is Christ. So we see how Christ is everything
to the believer. He's the high priest. He's the
sacrifice. He's the city of refuge. He's
the land of possession that we return to. It's all because of
Him that all those precious truths, all the sweet blessings that
God reveals in the scripture, we see it just fulfilled in Christ,
just overflowing with the fruit of Christ our Savior. And so
we see how the Lord, he's not hard with us and angry with us,
he delights to show us mercy. And that's why he lifts up and
exalts the refuge, Christ the refuge of sinners. So it says
in Micah 7, 18, who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth
iniquity passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage
he retaineth not his anger forever because he delighteth in mercy
and he does that in Christ that's why he can pass by our iniquity
he's gonna still punish the iniquity of the world that are not his
all those that that hate him and rejected him and want nothing
to do with him he passed on by his Them and left them to the
to the the fruit of their doings and they're gonna suffer the
wrath of God, but he's provided Deliverance for us that we're
not paying for the price of our own sin that that that we earned
with our With our own doings and the sin that we committed
now in 2nd Chronicles 20 We read that Syria. Here's another example,
in 2 Chronicles 20, we read how in the time of Jehoshaphat, so
this is after Isaiah's ministry, but we see another picture of
what we're seeing here in Isaiah. In 2 Chronicles 20, in verses
3 and 4, it says, Jehoshaphat feared. He heard that Syria again
is coming up to attack them, and he feared and set himself
to seek the Lord. Rather than, unlike Ahaz who
turned to men, Jehoshaphat turned to the Lord and proclaimed a
fast throughout all Judah. And Judah gathered themselves
together to ask help of the Lord. Even out of all the cities of
Judah, they came to seek the Lord. So they knew where to go
in times of trouble. They turned to the Lord. They
turned to the refuge, the sanctuary, which is Christ. And in verses
eight and nine, we see what Jehoshaphat prayed to the Lord. And he prays
concerning their sanctuary. It says in verse eight, he says,
and they dwelt therein, speaking of their fathers, they dwelt
therein and I've built thee a sanctuary therein for thy name. And that
word sanctuary is the same word in our text. It's a refuge, it
pictures Christ. And so, What he says is that,
you'll see in the next verse, no matter what the trouble is,
no matter what the problem is, we're to look to the sanctuary,
we're to look to the refuge that God has provided. himself, and
it says in verse 9, if when evil come upon us as the sword, judgment,
pestilence, or famine, we stand before this house and in thy
presence, for thy name is in this house, and cry unto thee
in our affliction, then thou wilt hear and help. And that's
the truth, brethren. All who come to the Father in
Jesus Christ the Son are accepted of Him. He receives all who come
to Him in the Son. All who look to Christ as their
refuge and their hope. that He's their righteousness,
that we can't work a righteousness of our own. We trust in what
God has provided in His Son, Jesus Christ. All who come to
God in the Son are accepted of Him. They're all received, and
He'll deliver them. As it says in Ephesians 1, 6,
to the praise of the glory of His grace wherein He hath made
us accepted in the Beloved. So He says to us in Christ our
refuge, in Isaiah 26, verses 20 and 21, He says, he says Isaiah 26 20,
come my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors
about thee. This is Christ our refuge. Hide
thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation
be overpassed. Right, because the wrath of God
is coming. It's going to be revealed against
all unrighteousness, and all the niquidates where it in the
world and throughout the ages and whatever the trouble is that
is going on. He says you flee to Christ. You come to Christ and you hide
yourself there in him for a little while for a little time until
the indignation of the Lord be overpassed. And it's not good.
It's not for you. It's for the wicked. It's for
them to suffer the woe and the wrath of God. But he's provided
Christ for us, brethren. He's provided Christ. So for
his people, Christ swallowed every drop of the wrath of God
in that cup. He drank it dry so that there's
no more wrath left for us to drink. There's not even a drop
of wrath God for us to drink he satisfied he drank it completely
dry and it says in verse 21 and Isaiah 20 26 21 for behold the
Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of
the earth for their iniquity the earth also shall disclose
her blood and shall no more cover any her slain. So brethren, it's
such a sweet picture. He points us again to the refuge,
to the sanctuary, the Lord Jesus Christ. Get you in the Lord Jesus
Christ and the wrath of God will not touch you in Christ. Now
Peter says in 1st Peter 3, 14 and 15, but in if ye suffer for
righteousness sake, right? You're not suffering the wrath
of God, but the wicked, they may afflict you and trouble you
for these things. He says, happy are ye and be
not afraid of their terror, neither be trouble. Alright, so as the
world's going through tribulation and as they're going through
woe, they're gonna take it out on the people who trust and who
are his people and and and and have fellowship with God because
there's no fellowship with the world and Peter says but just
like our text in verse 13 is a 13 where he says but sanctify
the Lord God sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready
always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason
of the hope that is in you and with meekness and fear. Just
like it said, let him be your dread, let him be your fear.
And Peter just says, he adds in there, in that, as we're looking
to the Lord, he says, you be faithful to declare what God
has done for you in the sun, in the refuge that he's provided. And what we see there, what we
hope in that is, just as the God, the holy God, who created
the heaven and the earth, who loves you, thinks on you and
provided a refuge for you just as he's shown grace and mercy
to you to turn your hearts to the living God to trust in his
refuge he might show then he might grant then grace and mercy
and turn their wicked hearts to trust in the the refuge that
God has provided and deliver them from the wrath of God which
is coming upon the wicked. He may use your faithfulness
that he's given you to be a means whereby the wicked see what God
has done for you and turn their wicked hearts. That's why he
says you be faithful because you may be being faithful in
the face of a brother or sister who yet doesn't know that Christ
is their refuge and the Lord may use that. So he says be faithful. Be faithful You confess me before
men, I'll confess you before my father and the angels of heaven.
And that'll be a glorious day. It'll be worth it. Whatever suffering
we may go through at the hands of men in the light of the glory
of God and his blessing upon us in his son, Jesus Christ.
I pray the Lord will enable each of you here, every one of you
here, to hear that word, to flee to the Lord Jesus Christ, to
flee to the refuge that God has provided in his son, for why
should you perish in your sins? He's provided the refuge, so
look to Christ. I pray the Lord will bless your
hearts and warm your hearts with the Lord Jesus Christ, even this
night, and that you would glorify him and praise his name for providing
sanctuary for providing a refuge for you brethren let's pray our
gracious Lord we thank you we thank you for providing a sanctuary
for providing a refuge Lord you are faithful holy and just and
your word says that you're going to punish this world for their
sin and iniquity and rebellion and darkness and enmity against
you and Lord you are just and we are so thankful Lord that
you provided a sanctuary, a refuge for us to flee to, to the Lord
Jesus Christ, that we would be delivered from your coming wrath. We thank you for your grace and
your mercy. We pray, Lord, that you would
continue to warm our hearts with him. And Lord, I thank you for
the brethren here, each and every one, Lord, who loves you and
rejoices in your gospel. And Lord, all who come here each
week, We pray that you would have mercy, save every one of
us here, Lord. Turn our hearts to the refuge,
that we would trust you, trust in Christ for our salvation. We pray this in Jesus' name,
our Lord and Savior. Amen.