How deep the Father's love for
us How vast beyond all measure That He should give His only
Son To make a wretch His treasure How great the pain of searing
loss The father turns his face away As wounds which mar the
chosen one Bring many sons to glory Behold the man upon a cross
My sin upon his shoulders Ashamed I hear my mocking voice Call
out among the scoffers It was my sin that held him there Until
it was accomplished His dying breath has brought me life I
know that it is finished I will not boast in anything, no gifts,
no power, no wisdom. But I will boast in Jesus Christ,
His death and resurrection. Why should I gain from his reward? I cannot give an answer But this
I know with all my heart His wounds have paid my ransom But
this I know with all my heart His wounds have paid my ransom Thank you. Learn, if you would, in your
Bibles, once again to Matthew chapter
5. Matthew chapter 5, and I'll read verses 10 through 12. Blessed are they which are persecuted
for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye when men shall
revile you and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil
against you falsely for my sake. and be exceeding glad, for great
is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets
which were before you." Now this is our final look at
what some have called the Beatitudes. And if you remember, Christ has
been giving us what I've called a profile of the blessed. We have all these people who
say that they are blessed, and yet only the Lord Jesus Christ
can tell us those who are truly blessed or truly happen happy. And this is a description of
those that he says are blessed of God. And I thought about it as I was
looking at this. I know of no statement in all
that we've looked at in the previous verses here in Matthew 5, that
is any more contrary to our nature than these verses. Note what
he says in the verses that we've read. He says, blessed, this
is Christ now, and he says, blessed are they that are persecuted,
reviled, spoken evil against. Can that be? Can that be really true? And maybe I should say even more
so, can such people be really, genuinely, Well, I can say this also, if
they weren't, then the one who is himself the truth, he would
not have said so. But this is not, what he's talking
about is not what some people call persecution. This is real persecution. And it is simply because of their
identification with Jesus Christ and His gospel. There are a lot
of folks in this world, religious people, who think that they are
persecuted, but all it is is simply people responding to their
bad attitudes, and to their religious self-righteousness, and to their
political possessions, and their obnoxious things that they do. It is no wonder that people speak
and say things against them. No, this is a particular persecution,
and it is unique to those who believe on Christ as He really
is, and who believe His gospel which is as He says that it is. There are many who supposedly
believe on Jesus. But all we have to do is open
up this book, and it is obvious that the one that they believe
on is what Paul called simply another Jesus, a false Christ. There are those who say they
believe the gospel, and yet the gospel that they believe in no
way resembles the gospel that we read in this book, the Bible. To be persecuted means to be
pursued after. And to be reviled is to be defamed
and reproached and taunted and slandered. And Christ said it is to be blessed
of God to have men say all manner of evil against you if two things
are present. Number one, if it is false. Doesn't matter what they say,
if it is false. And then secondly, also says,
if it is because of Christ. He says, for my sake. So we need not fear, we need
not dread, we need not be unhappy if men say what they say against
us and it is not true or if it is because of Christ's namesake. As a matter of fact, this will
always be the case in the lives of all who truly identify with
Jesus Christ and with His gospel and with His people. And it should come as no surprise
to us because this is exactly what the Scriptures teach and
this is exactly what Christ said would happen. You go all the
way back in the Psalms and you find many verses wherein such
as this is stated. He says, the wicked plot against
the just and gnash their teeth upon him. The wicked always do
so. That is, those who believe not
on the true Christ, they always do so toward these just ones
justified by God in His Son. And then you might remember the
words of Christ in Mark's Gospel where he says this, Verily I
say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren,
or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands
for my sake and the gospels." For my sake, he said. If it came
down to Christ or any of these things, for Christ's sake or
the Gospels, but he shall receive an hundredfold, now in this time,
houses and brethren and sisters and mothers and children and
lands with persecutions, and in the world to come eternal
life." The Lord Jesus Christ told every one of His hearers
to count the cost. And if you'll hold your place
here and turn over to Luke's Gospel, in Luke chapter 6, listen
to what is said here in Luke chapter 6 and verse 22. He says much the same thing. In Luke 6 and verse 22, he says,
blessed are ye when men shall hate you. Can that be actually
true? Well, it is said of Jesus Christ,
he said, they hated me without a cause. Or how could they hate any of
the people of Christ without a cause, without any reason? Well, it is because of this,
because the natural mind, the natural mind of every one of
us as we are born in this world, he says, is enmity against God. They hated Jesus Christ without
a cause, but they really hated Him because He was God manifest
in the flesh. They hated Him because He came
from God, because He came to do the will of God, because He
brought forth the Word of God, and because He came to save the
people of God. That was the only cause of them
hating him. And then in Luke again it says,
Before all these they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute
you, delivering you up to the synagogues and into prisons,
being brought before kings and rulers for my name's sake, and
it shall turn to you for a testimony. What does that mean? That means
it will bear witness before men that you are the true children
of God because what happens to you, he says, is what God says
happens to His people. Listen to this in John 15. He
said, remember the word that I said unto you. The servant
is not greater than his Lord. If they have persecuted me, they
will also persecute you. If they have kept my saying,
they will keep yours also. In other words, this persecution
is because of Christ. It is because of our being identified
with Him, believing on Him, and believing His gospel and His
gospel alone. Turn also to 1 Peter. Look with
me in I Peter chapter 4 and listen to the Apostle in I Peter, beginning
in verse 12. I Peter 4 and verse 12, he says,
Beloved, that is, these not only loved by him, but especially
loved by God, Beloved, think it not strange concerning the
fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing
happened unto you." In other words, this persecution, this
slander against God's people, this reviling of the Beloved
of Christ He says, don't think that it is something strange
that has happened to you or unique just to you in one day, but rejoice
inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings, that
when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding
joy. In other words, the Apostle says,
if you think that what is taking place with you now as one persecuted
for Jesus' sake, if you think that is something, it is nothing
to compare with that glory that you will be a partaker of when
the glory of Christ is made manifest to all men. We have a saying
sometimes, it says, he who laughs last, laughs loudest. And those who under this persecution
and suffering for identifying with Christ in this world, the
glory that will be theirs and manifest with the glory of Christ
cannot even be compared to what they might suffer in this life. And this was the case of what
happened in the early church that we read about in the book
of Acts. It says of that early church,
those who went everywhere being chased from town to town and
persecuted, they were described by men as this. They said, these
are they that turn the world upside down. But the truth of the matter is,
and was at that time, the world, because of sin, because of our
fall in Adam, is already upside down and God's people bear the
only message by which he will turn it right side up. They bear witness to the truth
as it is in Christ Jesus. And those first heralds of the
gospel in Acts 5, it says, and when they had called the apostles
and beaten them, You say, could that happen today? It actually
does happen where there is not a law to prevent it. When they
had taken the apostles and beaten them, they commanded that they
should not speak in the name of Jesus and let them go. They said, don't be preaching
this gospel anymore. Don't be speaking things in the
name of this man, Jesus, anymore. But it says, "...and they departed
from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted
worthy to suffer shame for his name." They counted it all joy. that he had enabled them to suffer
this shame which was because of his name. And daily in the
temple and in every house they ceased not to teach and preach
Jesus Christ. Though they were beaten and mocked
and stoned and slandered and mocked, When the Apostle Paul stood up
on one occasion, he had to confess this. He said, after the way
which they call heresy. What is that? That is error. That is falseness. He said, after
the way that you call heresy. So worship I the God of our fathers,
believing all that was written in the Law and the Prophets."
They called it heresy. And in our day, they call the
same thing, the same gospel, the same Christ that Paul preached,
they still call him heresy. But the Lord's people, though
they call it heresy, that is the only way that they can and
will worship the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is what will happen
to all people in every place where they are brought by God's
grace not only to preach but to receive and to believe the
gospel which is the gospel of the grace of God." I love to go back sometimes,
and sometimes I'll just go and do a search like on my computer
in the Bible software, and I'll put in that phrase, the gospel
of. And when you do that, you come
up with a listing of those verses wherein that phrase is used And
I love to look again at what is followed by that phrase, the
gospel of. In one place he calls it the
gospel of God. In another place he calls it
the gospel of the grace of God. In another place, he calls it
the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the gospel of peace. And when we identify with the
gospel of God, we are brought under this persecution. It is
the gospel of the free grace of God, and it always meets with
the same reception. I remember so well. Many years
ago, when I used to read verses like I have read to you this
morning, verses like our text here in Matthew 5, I can remember
thinking to myself, well, that was in the days of the apostles.
That was in the days when Christ walked here on the earth. That
was in the days when the gospel was first being preached. But
here I am, I'm a preacher, and I'm preaching the gospel, and
I'm not experiencing anything like that. But the truth is, I wasn't preaching
the gospel. But when God in His mercy began
to teach me the gospel, When He began to bring my heart to
bow before the truth of His Word, and when that Word began to,
like Jeremiah said, build like a fire in my bones, so when I
would not speak, I could not contain, I began to meet the same kind
of reception. You see, it's not a generic gospel. But if you look back here in
Matthew chapter 5, he says, "...blessed are they which are persecuted
for righteousness' sake." What are they persecuted for?
For righteousness' sake. That is for preaching and believing
and identifying with the gospel of God's righteousness. I had a friend at one time, somebody
said this about him. They said, he has a lot to say
about righteousness. And the thought that came to
my mind in light of what I read in this book is this. Yes, him
and every other true gospel preacher, they're all going to have a lot
to say about righteousness. Let me read you Paul's words
in Romans 1. He said, for I am not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ. Well, somebody says, we'll just
preach Jesus. We'll preach Jesus, but we won't
preach doctrine. When we preach doctrine, somebody
always gets mad and offended. It always divides. When the truth is, if we have
not preached the doctrine of Christ, as John says, we've not
preached Christ. He says, For I am not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation
to every one that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to
the Greek, For therein," now listen, for therein is the righteousness
of God revealed. Therein, that is therein in the
gospel of Christ, is the righteousness of God revealed. What does that mean? The righteousness
of God. Well, it has to do with an issue
that, apart from the grace of God, we'll never consider. And it will never even dawn with
us the inconsistencies of what we believe about it. That is
this. How can God, who is infinitely
holy, and perfect and sinless and just, how can He, who must
punish sin, who said He would punish sin, how can He, as God,
act justly and yet at the same time let sinners like you and
I go free? Now, we wouldn't like this in
the law that we call the law of the land. Suppose that somebody
comes and they just brutally and coldly murder some of your
family members. And that person is taken and
hauled into court, and the judge sits up there and says at the
end of the trial, with all the evidence presented against him, Let Him go free. You know what
the first thing you're going to say? You're going to say,
you call that justice? You call that right? We'll say, that's not right. And God who has bound Himself
by that same standard and much more an inflexible standard of
justice, how can He who by no means will clear the guilty,
how could He set you free from your sins? And not only that,
how could He rather at the same time not only say that you're
not guilty of your sin, you're free from your sin, but you're
also righteous in His sight? How can He do that? How can man, Job said, be just
with God? How can God be righteous in the
salvation of His people? How can He, as He says He is
in Isaiah, be this just God and a Savior? Well, when men, women, all of
us by nature. have this idea that we can be
accepted by God on the basis of something that we do, or on
the basis of something we stop doing, or on the basis of a decision,
or something like that. When we, by nature, want to believe
such as that, and the false gospel comes along and offers such as
that, we fall for it flat on our faces. But my friends, if God, if this
holy God, if He lets one sinner in their sins, or on the basis
of their works, which are nothing but sinful works, if He lets
one of us into heaven in ourselves, He will cease to be God. That's right. Heaven, that holy and pure place,
if you and I were brought into that place in our sins, it would
no longer be heaven. God would not be just. So, the gospel. is the gospel
of Jesus Christ wherein the righteousness of God is revealed, manifested. And it's simply this, that God
is right to receive every sinner that Jesus Christ died for and
in their place bore in His body the penalty of that sin that
was theirs, which is death. Do you hear that song? I have
nothing to boast in but Jesus Christ, because He is the One
who has taken my sin upon Him And in that body, on that cross,
in that tree, paid the debt of that sin against the justice
of God, which was to die. That's the righteousness of God. He says that they are persecuted
for righteousness sake, that is, persecuted for declaring
and determining that it has to be that among Adam's race there
is none righteous, no, not one. Now, you go in this world and
you tell all these people who think that they are all basically
and essentially good that there is none good, no, not one. that there are none righteous
in themselves, no, not one, you're going to meet with resistance. You mean to tell me. I don't
know how many times I've heard that. You mean to tell me. No,
that's the whole thing of it. God is telling you. that not
one single one of us, not my children, not my mother, not
my father, not any single son or daughter of that first man
Adam, not one of us, in and of themselves, I don't care how
morally, outwardly good we are, not one of us is righteous in
the sight of God. They're persecuted for believing
that the only righteousness that God will accept is the one that
He gives as a gift to His people in Christ. It is the righteousness
which the Bible says He imputes or charges to their account,
and it is not because of what they do. It is Christ who is
described in this book as the Lord, our righteousness, the
One who was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. It is that we might be made this
righteousness in Him, and not by works of righteousness that
Paul says, which we have done, but because of God's mercy. But I'd have to say this most
of all. They're persecuted for that grace
that reigns in righteousness. Now, what is grace? For by grace
are ye saved? I don't really run up with very
many people who say they don't believe in salvation by grace. But what is grace? Well, in Romans
5, after Paul goes through everything he says there, he says that this
grace that's in Jesus Christ, this grace has reigned in righteousness. That means grace has to be righteous
grace. Grace can't be God just sweeping
our sins under the carpet, so to speak. It has to be Him dealing with
our sins, paying the debt of our sins, suffering the penalty
of our sins. Because that's what righteous
grace is all about. grace that reigns in righteousness. And they are persecuted because
that they believe that salvation is all of grace, and all of this
grace is in Christ, that we, because of what we are, are in
need of Christ as sinners, that God in grace has chosen a people
in Christ and has redeemed every one of them in Christ, And they
are effectually and mightily by the Spirit of God called to
Christ and kept eternally by Christ. You know, I can remember when
I first began to hear of and read of and think about what
men call the doctrines of grace. I read over them, and I began
to look in the Scripture, and I said, this is true. This is
what the Bible says. But there was one thing I didn't
understand. And that was that every one of
these things, such as total depravity, which is simply nothing but our
need for Christ, or unconditional election, which
is simply, as Paul says in Ephesians 1, our being chosen in Christ. Or limited atonement or particular
redemption, whatever it is you might call it by, it's simply
our being redeemed by Christ. Irresistible grace is simply
the Spirit of God calling us and bringing us to faith in Christ. and perseverance was nothing
more than our being preserved by the grace of God in Christ. And just like every other doctrine,
every verse in this book, when you separate it from Jesus Christ
and Him crucified, it is nothing. One hundred percent grace. Well, no, I believe in grace,
preacher, but, you know, I also believe in this. No, 100% grace. And not only that, not only for
the righteousness sake in this sense, but also for seeking to
do right according to God's Word. What does that mean? That means
they are persecuted for seeking to follow what are truly biblical
principles in our lives before this world. They're persecuted
for righteousness, say, for that righteous salvation in Christ,
and also for seeking to be honest and trustworthy and faithful
and truthful and loyal and morally upright and hating evil and living
soberly and godly in this world. I'll tell you this, the Lord's
people, They don't believe that they're saved by their doing
any of these things. But they sure believe that because
the Lord has saved them by His grace in Christ, theirs it is,
not only as a duty to do, but to desire to do the things that
He speaks of in His words and which we do for the glory of
His name. Paul writing to Timothy, he says
this, And indeed, all desiring to live godly in Christ Jesus
will be persecuted. And this persecution and reviling
and slandering these blessed ones endure for Christ's namesake,
because men did the same to Him. Peter says, who, when he was
reviled, reviled not again. When he suffered, he threatened
not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously. Now, what happened to Christ?
Well, long before they ever took Him and actually nailed Him to
the cross, They reviled him and slandered him, and they spoke
all manner of evil against him, most of all because of his words." He asked them on one occasion,
he said, for which of these miracles do you now try to stone me? You
can go back and Search the Scriptures and find this out for yourself.
That when they rose on various occasions and sought to do him
harm, it was because of what he said. He said, what, for which of these
miracles do you stun me? Was it because I fed the multitude
or healed this man? Oh, it's not for any of these
things, but it's because you make yourself to be God. And then when he went back to
his own hometown, so to speak, there in Nazareth, and he stood
up in the synagogue at Nazareth, And he read from the Scriptures,
and he said, this prophecy is fulfilled in your eyes this very
day. They looked at him, and he was a lot less of a Messiah
than they wanted. They wanted an unearthly king
that would relieve them from the Roman bondage and fill their
bellies and line their pockets with gold and coins. And so he said this, he said, there were many with
us in the time of the famine, but God didn't send his prophet
to but one of them, and she was a Gentile woman. There were many lepers, people
who had leprosy in the days of the prophet, but he only sent
his prophet to one, and he was a Syrian by the name of Naaman. He said, you think, just like
all people think, that you deserve something. But God sovereignly
blesses and is gracious and merciful to whom He will." Guess what happened next? They
rose up to kill Him. The Lord's people are ridiculed
for distinguishing Him before this world rather than just allowing
this another Jesus to be put in His place. You know, Christ said, Whosoever
is ashamed of Me and My words, before this adulterous generation. Him I'll be ashamed of before
my Father and all the holy angels." Well, I'm not ashamed of Jesus. Are you sure? Ashamed of Him and His words. His people are persecuted for
giving all the glory of their salvation to Him. They are persecuted
and reviled for believing what the angels said about His name,
that His name shall be called Jesus, for He shall save all
His people from their sins. They revile for believing what
He said, that He laid down His life for the sheep, that He knows
them, that not all are of His sheep, that His sheep shall never
perish because He gives to them everlasting life. They revile
because they believe that Christ is, as He said, God manifest
in the flesh, that He actually obtained eternal redemption for
His elect people. that all of them are predestined
to be conformed to the image of Christ, that they are chosen
in an unconditional and divine election by God in Christ before
the world began, that He rules and He reigns over all things,
all peoples, all events, at all times. In John, where Joe read, he said,
I have given them thy word, and the world hates them. Somebody said, well, how does
that square with John 3, 16? We sure better find out. I have given them thy word, and
the world hath hated them, because they are not of this world, even as I am not of this world. They're slandered because they
believe that His cross death was not something just to make
something available or possible, but that it was the greatest
accomplishment and the greatest success of all eternity. That it's a finished work that
you and I can add nothing to. They're persecuted that Christ
crucified is the gospel and there is no other, no better, and that
it is all our hope. He said, blessed are all those that are persecuted. and reviled, and have all manner
of evil spoken against them falsely for my name's sake." And the Lord's people are slandered.
They're called all names of reproach. They're lied about. And people
tell others what we believe. They tell people what I preach,
even though they've never heard me. Do you know that? The people, like in this very
area, who tell other people the most about what I preach, what
is preached here and believed in this assembly, are people
who've never heard me. Not only that, but the people
who would say that we are in the greatest error are the people
who are the most ignorant about the Scriptures. I thank God that He brought me
to see some long time ago that I'm glad I'm not what people
say that I am. I'm what He knows that I am in
His Son, Jesus Christ. And there's something about preaching
a gospel that gives to God all the glory. There's something
about believing in a salvation that gives to Christ all the
glory. That offends man's pride. that makes his works to be nothing,
rather be nothing but sin. And he despises it until God shows him who he is. You know, you don't need a remedy
until you find out you're sick. As a matter of fact, most of
the people who have tremendous health problems,
one of the first things they are unwilling to confront is
the reality of how sick they are. I saw someone recently, just
this tremendously large person. We've taken like three different
kinds of insulin and eaten dessert. That's the way we are as sinners.
And only when God brings us to know what we are, to show us
our helplessness and our sinfulness, only then when He reveals Christ
to us as all. that we see our need of Him. Men accuse us of practices, and
yet they've never been among us, never even been to a service. And you would think that how
we conduct ourselves and what is preached and what we do would
be the most desirable thing to people. We come in and rather than tell
people what they're to do, we tell them what God has done in
Christ. On this hot day, we invite them to come in out of the heat
into a cool place. That costs them nothing. We will
not beg for anything. We will not have sales and raffles
and such as that and demean the very glory and character of God
to men. We won't put any pressure on
you. Just come in, sit down in the cool, listen. The Bible is
open, read and preached. Leave, go home, do what you will. And we'll wait for God to do
something. Because His sheep hear His voice
and they follow Him. But we're in good company. We're in good company. Look at
what he says here again. First of all, he says, theirs
is the kingdom of heaven. These who are persecuted and
reviled and spoken evil against, slandered for Christ's sake,
they are possessors of the whole Kingdom. Why? Because God's given them
the King. Those who are in the King have
the Kingdom. But look at this in verse 12.
He said, Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward
in heaven. Reward? Yes, the reward of grace,
which is the only one this book talks about. Oh, you're not going to live
in a big, fine mansion somewhere over here on Fifth Avenue or
First Avenue and me live over here in a little cabin in the
corner of Gloryland. No, this is the reward of grace
because if we have Christ, we have all, everything. Not only that. He said, For so
persecuted they the prophets which were before you. Elijah,
Isaiah, Jeremiah. They put Jeremiah in a watery
dungeon. Daniel they cast into a den of
lions. Elijah they sought after his
life. But they always do. from the very first one of the
children of Adam, which was Abel, that God brought to believe that
he saved his people by a God-provided sacrifice of blood. His own brother
rose up and killed him. First murder in this world was
over salvation by grace and not by works. The prophets, like a man by the
name of Micaiah. Have you ever heard of Micaiah? Well, one day Jehoshaphat asked
King Ahab, He said, is there not a prophet
of Jehovah besides that we might inquire of him? Ahab had already
asked his own preachers whom he had in his pocket and on his
payroll. Jehoshaphat said, isn't there
one prophet maybe of Jehovah God that we might inquire as
to whether or not we're to do this or not? And the king of
Israel said to Jehoshaphat, yet there's one man. There's one man to seek Jehovah
by him, but I hate him, for he does not prophesy good
concerning me." I don't like that preacher. There's
one preacher, you know, he's out there. But he didn't have anything good
to say about me. I don't have anything good to
say about you, I'm afraid. But I do have something good
to say about the Lord Jesus Christ. Years ago, a young man, he got to reading the Bible and
looking at some things, and he saw that there were some things
in there that most preachers weren't saying anything about.
And so he went to one of the big churches in town and finally,
after going there a while, he asked the pastor, he said, I
read about predestination and election in the Bible and grace. And he said, is there anybody
around here that preaches that stuff? And the pastor said, there's
just one fellow I know of that has anything like that to say.
And he's out there at that Sovereign Grace Baptist Church. And that's where he came. My sheep hear my voice. And though they're persecuted
for righteousness' sake, Though they're reviled and slandered
and excluded from social circles and made fun of, whispered against. Though when they walk up to a
group of people who are engaged in a religious conversation,
everybody gets real quiet, you know. When people ask them where
do they go to church, and they say, well, I go to Sovereign
Grace Baptist Church, and the next thing they say is, oh, oh. He said they're blessed. That word means happy. My friends,
that's the only happy people there are in this world, and
they're going to be happy for eternity. Persecuted here? Yeah. Spoken falsely against? Yes. Slandered and reviled? Yes. But blessed, happy, and always
going to be happy. I'm happy now. Sometimes I get
awful low and I don't like to be lied about and I don't like
to be slandered and I don't like to be excluded. I don't like
all these things. My flesh doesn't like it. But when it comes right down
to it, I'm happy. I'm happy. If you get persecuted
for identifying with the true Christ and believing His gospel,
so be it, because they did the same thing
to our Lord. Father, this day we give You
thanks for all that You are and for all that You do. We praise You. And if for your
sake, if for your namesake, such wretched creatures as we are
be persecuted or slandered by other wretched creatures, what
does it matter? We pray that we might know you,
that we might be known of you. saved by your grace in Jesus
Christ, through His blood, through His cross death, to be numbered
among your people, to be counted among the redeemed, sinners saved
by your grace. Give us courage. Give us strength. And cause us to know this true
happiness and blessing. It calls us to remember the one
that we follow, the people that we are identified with, the great
prophets of old. Watch over us, we pray. Help
each and every one. Bless and keep those that are
sick, that are on our hearts. Lord, watch over David as he
is away in California. The other David who's in Kosovo
and Brad who's in China. Lord, all your people, wherever
they are and whoever they are, they never escape your watchful
and loving and protecting eye. Give us grace. Give us faith that we might look
to the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you and we praise you
in His name. Amen.