For a scripture reading this
morning, turn with me to Psalm 85. Psalm chapter 85. This will also serve as my text
this morning, so if you have a marker, you can put it there.
Psalm chapter 85. Lord, thou hast been favorable unto
thy land. Thou hast brought back the captivity
of Jacob. Thou hast forgiven the iniquity
of thy people. Thou hast covered all their sin. That word Selah is a musical
term. The Psalms are put to music. And it means pause and consider
what he just sung. Pause and consider what he just
said. Thou hast taken away all thy
wrath. Thou hast turned thyself from
the fierceness of thine anger. Turn us, O God of our salvation,
and cause thine anger toward us. cease. Wilt thou be angry
with us forever? Wilt thou draw out thine anger
to all generations? Wilt thou not revive us again,
that thy people may rejoice in thee? Show us thy mercy, O Lord,
and grant us thy salvation. I will hear what God the Lord
will speak, for he will speak peace unto his people and to
his saints, but let them not turn again to folly. Surely his salvation is nigh
then that fear him, that glory may dwell in our land. Mercy
and truth are met together, righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
Truth shall spring out of the earth, and righteousness shall
look down from heaven. Yea, the Lord shall give that
which is good, and our land shall yield her increase. Righteousness
shall go before him, and shall set us in the way of his steps. reading of His Word. I invite
you to turn back with me now to Psalm 85. I want us to see how fitting it is for
our day and time. The Scriptures are not affected
by time. I can talk about an event in
the Garden of Eden that is as current as what takes place today. Nothing new in the world, that's
what the Scripture said, nothing new. It's the same thing, same
record is played over and over and over. I titled the message
this morning, The Hope of a Righteous Nation. Psalm 85 is set apart
by most of the writers and they call it a national psalm. He speaks in verse 1 concerning
God's land. And again in verse 12 of God's
favor toward our land, His land and our land. If I view this
psalm in a natural sense, if I just read it and take it as
it's written, just take it and apply it naturally, I see the
land of Canaan, a land given to the Jews of God a land taken
by the power of God and a land in which he dwelt with his people.
They gathered there, worshipped him, received this land as their
inheritance, and in which he manifests his name. Of all the
lands in the earth, none were shown more favor than Canaan.
Canaan, what a land. What a land it must have been.
They brought back grapes and had two men that had to bear
them on a pole when they brought them back. What a land Canaan
must have been. Now the words of the Psalms suggest
a godly patriot praying for his afflicted nation. That's what
he's doing. They were not carried away in
bondage as they were at various times. Twice in the Bible they
were carried away under by evil nations into bondage, once by
Nebuchadnezzar and so on. But here he's talking about a
different kind of bondage. He's talking about, most say
it was a Philistine influence. They'd married into the Philistine
people and as the Lord had warned them, those influences began
to take its part among them. Patriot of Israel, he understood
this, David understood this, and he prayed for his nation. The psalm in a natural sense
could be sung by any nation in which God has revealed himself,
shown favor, yet its occupants have as a whole turned back to
folly. We are experiencing troubles
throughout the world. We have world news today. When
I grew up in the 50s, we didn't so much have world news, it was
always local news, or news in the United States. Every now
and then we'd get something from a foreign country. Today, news
can be anywhere. Be anywhere. And there's trouble. There's trouble all over the
world. There's famines, there's droughts, there's disease, there's
no end to the troubles. And what brought about these
troubles? Ignoring God. That's what brought them about. The wicked, he said, shall be
turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God. Consider this, he said, ye that
forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to
deliver you. And so it has been, and so it
shall be to the end of the world. The ungodly fate of a nation
is inseparably tied to their own rejection of God. The wicked,
he said, is snared in the work of his own hands. He has no one
to blame but himself. And where is the nation that's
not suffering, even as I speak to you this morning, because
of their own rebellion and unbelief? That's why we suffer. Religious
men like to talk about the United States, and they call it a godly
nation. This country is not a godly nation. It is a nation of antichrist
religion, and it's suffering for it. There's only one hope for any
nation, anywhere, at any time, and that is that God Himself
would show them mercy. And if God will show them mercy,
it's because He has an interest in that nation, and His interest
is His people. His people. Oh, great God, our
Savior, show mercy to this land for Christ's sake. Show mercy. This country's going
down the tubes. You can see it. Anybody with
eyes can see it. But this morning I want us to
see something far deeper than the nations, more far-reaching
than any wounded nation. I want us to see in this psalm
a holy nation, a peculiar people. That's how
Peter described God's people. Did you know that? You're a holy
nation. That's what he called it. A holy
nation. You know what holy is? That's
everything that makes up God. He's talking about the wholeness
of God. When you talk about holiness.
He's talking about God's justice, God's love, God's mercy, His
righteousness, His wrath, all of these things. These are attributes
of God. And every attribute of God operates
continually in perfect harmony. He said you're a holy people.
There's nothing in this people contrary to my character. Everything
in them is in perfect harmony with me. And you're a peculiar people.
Now, I want us to see here the captivity of Jacob. That's how
he begins this. He's talking about the captivity
of Jacob. Now, the Holy Ghost uses one
man to set apart the Israel of God. Jacob. Jacob. He calls them sons of Israel.
God changed his name from Jacob to Israel. That's how Israel
got its name. They're children of Jacob. And this psalm is not about a
physical nation, it's about a spiritual nation. So what about these people? What about this spiritual nation,
this holy nation, this peculiar people? What do you know about
them? Listen to this, verse 2. You can't apply this to any other
nation in this world, except this holy nation. He said, thou
hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people. You can't apply that. Try to apply that to even our
nation. You can't do it. Thou hast covered
all their sin. Covered it. God himself can't
see it. It's covered. How did he cover
it? It's under the blood. And then he says, Seba, consider. There is a redemption accomplished,
a salvation manifest to a people chosen of God. It's already accomplished. Christ came. He lived. He died. He was raised from the
dead. And he said of this people that
he raised them up with him and made them sit together with him
in heavenly places in Christ. This is a work of redemption
and this redemption is accomplished. It's not something God's hoping
to do, it's something He already did. There's a redemption accomplished
and a salvation manifest to a people chosen of God. But circumstances
being as they are, God's elect find themselves in sorrow and
pain and bondage and oppression. Within that nation of Israel,
there was a remnant. He talks about them over in the
book of Romans. He talks about a remnant even today. But you
remember when the old prophet was in the cave and God showed
him up and he was feeding him with a raven? He said, just take
my life. He said, I'm the only one left.
God said, you ain't the only one left. I've reserved thousands
who have not bowed the knee to Baal. And then Paul said, even
so now, at this present time, there is a remnant according
to the election of grace. And if by grace, then it's no
more works, otherwise grace is no more grace. God has a people. But him having a people in this
world does not change the circumstances of the world. The circumstances
are what they are because men and women forget God. They forget
God. Circumstances being as they are,
God's elect find themselves. When God awakens them, raises
them from the dead, gives them eyes to see and a heart to know,
when he brings them forth out of that mess, now they understand
the mess they're in. Up to that point, it was just
something difficult and temporary. If we can get a new president,
everything's going to change. Oh, no it ain't. No it ain't. The sinner's still going to be
a sinner. God's still going to be God. Now, he may help the
economy a little, and he may help you a little. Or he may
not. I don't know. But nothing's going
to change about what I'm talking about. God's elect find themselves in
sorrow and pain and bondage and oppression. What am I in bondage
to? My nature. Try not to get mad. You might accomplish it until
something blindsides you. There it goes, out the window. You remember David, that prophet
come and told him, he said, this one guy just had one little sheep.
And he said, this guy come along and took it and killed it. Oh,
man, he flew off the handle. He said, you bring him to me.
He said, that'll be the end of him. He said, you're the man.
You're the man. Oh, I tell you, it's one thing
to think about Sinners and looking out here and this and that needs,
oh, how sinful that is. You're looking down your nose
there. It's another thing, find yourself in the mix. One thing
to see a mass of maggots on an old dead animal, it's another
thing to understand that you're one of them. That's what Job
caught. A worm. Look it up. Maggot. Feeding on corruption. What this psalm is all about
is the elect of God being found under a general curse of men
and praying for God to deliver them. That's what this psalm
is all about. This world is being governed
and maintained for the salvation of God's elect. Paul said in
Romans 8.18, listen to this. He was suffering. He was suffering
persecution. He suffered disease. He suffered
attack by animals. You can read about it in there.
All the things he suffered trying to preach the gospel. He couldn't
get in his Tundra and drive up to Kentucky. He had to walk or
get in a boat. Paul said in Romans 8.18, he
said, For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not
worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed
in us. One day God's going to reveal
that glory that he manifested in the salvation of sinners.
He's going to take away the veil, He's going to take away all of
these things that hinder us, and we're going to see it as
it is. And there's no way you're going
to compare what little bit of suffering we do in this world
with the glory that shall be revealed in us. A glorious work,
a divine work, a new creation. And then He says in verse 19,
Romans 8, he said, For the earnest expectation of all creation,
all creation, waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of
God. Why is this world being, why
don't God just burn it up? That's what He's going to do
with it in the end. Why won't He do it now? What's holding
Him back? Sinners are sinners. What's holding
back the wrath of God? Why don't God just burn this
place to cinders right now? It's waiting for the manifestation
of the sons of God. God has an elect people that
He's going to save by His grace. And He's going to maintain this
world with all longsuffering. He's going to maintain this world
until the last of His elect is called. And when that happens,
He'll fold it up. That'll be the end. That'd be
the end of it. That's the purpose for which
it exists and the reason for its preservation. God has a people. They all fell under the curse
of God in the garden. And before conversion, they're
a child of wrath even as others. That's what it says in Ephesians
chapter 2. You were by nature children of
wrath even as others. I was born under that curse,
same as everybody else in this world. But God's not going to
leave me under that curse. Not going to leave me. If I'm
His, He's going to call me. He's going to call me. He's going
to enlighten me. Being fallen sinners, their hearts
are all gone to folly. They turn from God to their idols.
That's what the Scripture says. And man at his best state, right
now, under that curse. Man at his best state. Where's
that at? That's when he's sitting in a
church somewhere, singing a hymn, made a profession of faith, determined
not to do all the things that evil men do in this world. He'd
made his decision for Jesus, and now he's saved, and he's
going to do this and do that. Man, that is basically, listen,
it's altogether vanity. Well, what about his righteousness?
All our righteousnesses, Isaiah said, are as filthy rags. And those awakened find themselves
in sorrow and captivity. And seeing these things, they
turn to God for their idols. God has no respect for this country's
morals and ideals. What He does have is an interest
in the salvation of His people. If He had no interest, there'd
be no churches. Where God has an interest, He
establishes a church. When that interest is satisfied,
that church disappears. You can see it all through history.
All through history. God Almighty has a people and
whatever hope there is for this country is tied inseparably to
those chosen in His Son and bought by His precious blood. Thou hast
forgiven the iniquity, listen, of thy people. Thou hast covered
all their sin. Thou hast taken away all thy
wrath. Thou hast turned thyself from
the fierceness of thine anger. I don't know about you, but I
tell you there was a time in my life, I don't even remember
the circumstances anymore, But I got a pretty good glimpse about
the anger of God, the fierce anger of God. He just pressed
that on my heart. I could see it. And oh, I tell
you what, you want to talk about the hairs on your neck standing
up. When you know something about God, he said, don't fear man.
All he can do is kill you. That's all he can do. That's
the worst he can do, kill you. He said, fear God. He can destroy
both soul and body. But here he said, thou hast turned
thyself from the fierceness of thine anger. And here's the heart
of true prayer. Confidence in the God of glory
and the work He's accomplished in His Son. Now listen close
to what I'm about to say. The God of glory, the true and
living God, the God of creation, providence, and salvation is
a just and righteous God. He cannot just simply take an
eraser and erase away your sins. He cannot simply look upon you
in kindness and say, well, I'm going to let it go this time.
That's what religion preaches. You won't find that in the Scriptures. Sin has to be paid for. It has
to be paid for. God has to be satisfied. Or what
is it in God that has to be satisfied? His justice. His justice. His righteousness. His wrath. Confidence in the God of glory
and the work he's accomplished in his son. The God of glory,
the true and living God, is a just and righteous God. And I know
God is love. That's what the scripture says.
God is love. But listen, it's a righteous
love. Jacob have I loved. How come
him to love Jacob and hate Esau? This is a righteous love. Provision
was made for Jacob. That's right. Redemption was
purpose for Jacob. It wasn't purpose for Esau. He
said this before either one ever did any good or evil. And why
did he say it? That the purpose of God according
to election might stand. That's what he's talking about
in this psalm is the captivity of Jacob. He's representative
of all God's elect and they're being awakened in a world of
sorrow and pain under a curse. Captivity. I know God's love,
but His love is just and righteous. I know that there's none good
but God. But this goodness is a just and
righteous goodness. God is kind, but His kindness
is just and righteous. And true holiness is all these
things in harmony. Are you listening? Nothing can
turn away his wrath apart from the full satisfaction of his
justice and righteousness. This is what brought on the sorrow
and the pain and the captivity and the problems in the world.
What brought that on is his wrath and his justice. And no one but
God can satisfy God. Listen to this. Who's he talking
about? He's talking about God himself.
Thou hast taken away all thy wrath. Who did? He did. Whose wrath did he remove? His
own. Thou hast turned thyself from the fierceness of thine
anger. You can't turn God from his anger.
Only God can. Only God can. And God cannot
die and man cannot satisfy, but the God-man can do both. Now watch this, verse 4. God's
going to turn himself from his fierce anger. He's going to do the turning.
Now watch this, turn us. Turn us, O God of our salvation. and cause thine anger toward
us to see. I don't know if you know this
or not, but man is as fixed in his sin as God is in his attributes. You think about what I'm saying.
All man can do is sin. That's all he can do. Everything
he does, every word he says, every thought he thinks, sin. The carnal mind, enmity against
God, not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. None
good, no not one. None righteous. God can't do anything contrary
to his nature, and neither can we. We're held and bonded by
nature. You know, you put a man in a
little ten-by-ten cell and he's free. He can go anywhere he wants
to inside that cell, but he can't get out and he can't do anything
else. He's in bondage. We're in bondage to our nature.
And to discover who God is, is to discover who we are. It's
the light of God that exposes the filth of this flesh. That's
why he calls himself the light of the world. You don't light
a candle and stick it under the bed so you put out the light.
Its purpose is the light. In John chapter 3 verse 20, our
Lord said, For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light.
He don't like it. He don't like it. Neither cometh
to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that
doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest,
that they are wrought in God. John said, This then is the message
which we have heard of him, and declare unto you that God is
light, and in him is no darkness at all. 1 John 5 verse 6. And if we say that we have fellowship
with him, who is nothing but light, and walk in darkness,
we lie and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light,
as he is the light, we have fellowship one with another in the blood
of Jesus Christ his Son, cleanseth us from all sin. There is an
inward work of God that is God working in you both to will and
to do of His good pleasure. I can't explain it. I don't know
all the intricacies that God uses. I know that He works in
men and enables them to reason. Come, let us reason together,
saith the Lord. Well, man ain't reasonable by
nature. He has to make him meet. to do this. He has to give him
the ability to do this. And he works in men. Yes, they
reason. Yes, they're willing. Yes, all
these things. My people, he said, shall be willing in the day of
my power. God exerts that power when God
intervenes into the life. That man then begins to reason.
And you can talk to him. You can teach him. You can tell
him. But boy, up to that point, you can't tell him anything. There's a two-fold work that
only God himself can do and must be done according to the purpose
and will of God. And the first of this work is
to satisfy God. God's anger, the fierceness of
his wrath poured out on a substitute. He satisfied God. God saw the travail of his soul
and was satisfied. And even Jesus, which delivered
us from the wrath to come, he said. It's a work accomplished
by God and by way of a suffering substitute. God's anger and wrath
have exhausted themselves on Jesus Christ. The second work
of reconciliation is that of angry sinners being brought to
God by virtue of the merits of Christ and reconciled to him. Where ambassadors, Paul said,
for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us, we pray you
in his stead, be ye reconciled to God. What's he talking about?
For he hath made him to be sin who knew no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in him. What's this reconciliation? We
have to be reconciled to his reconciliation. This world is
not. If you reconcile to His reconciliation,
you're going to quit offering sacrifices. You're going to be
satisfied with the one God was satisfied with. That's what it
means. Be reconciled to His reconciliation. To see all things purposed of
God in Christ, who satisfied God and ascended back into glory.
Am I satisfied with Him? If I am, I'm reconciled. There is a wrath and anger toward
us by God that cries out in the consciences of men, and in order
for that fear and judgment to cease, the Holy Ghost, through
the preaching of the Gospel, must apply that blood to the
conscience. Listen to this, Hebrews chapter
10. We draw near, having seen that
sacrifice, having had that covenant written upon our hearts and minds.
We draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith.
Now listen, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience
and our bodies washed in pure water. Huh? And then he continues his prayer.
Verse 5. Wilt thou be angry with us forever?
Wilt thou draw out thine anger to all generations? Wilt thou
not revive us again that thy people May rejoice in me. Now here's the question of an
arrested sinner. What am I talking about an arrested
sinner? That's one in whom God has intervened. He said, you've
gone far enough. It's like he did Paul. That's
enough. He arrests us by his spirit.
He arrests us in his providence. He brings us to the point where
we have to face him. And here's the question of the
arrested sinner, one in whom God has begun the work of reconciliation. He looks within and without,
and he sees the situation as he is. And it seems hopeless,
it seems virtually impossible, and so it is with men. That's
what our Lord said. Until finally he inquires with
God, and then he sees mercy. He begins to learn something
about mercy and something about grace. goodness dispensed. And he sees
these things in the hands of a sovereign. And so he appeals
to him as such. He says in verse 7, Show us thy
mercy, O Lord. Jesus Christ is the Lord. Man
loves to make images, doesn't he? But every image he makes
of him as a baby or him dying on a cross or something like
that, there is no image to depict his lordship. He's lord. He's
lord in every sense of all power in heaven and earth in my name.
What's that mean? That means he can save you or
pass you by. He's lord. He's the blessed,
listen to this, he's the blessed and only potentate, pure potentate. One man, one man on the throne
governing all things. That's a potentate. He King of
Kings and Lord of Lords. Show us Thy mercy, O Lord, and
grant us Thy salvation. And this is the prayer of an
obedient sinner, one made aware of the madness of his rebellion,
one who'd been made willing in the day of God's power. He no
longer demands things to fit his fallen reasoning. He submits
himself to God. Listen to this, verse 8. Look
at the text there. Verse 8, Psalm 85. I will hear
what God the Lord will speak. I'm going to hear what God has
to say on the matter. I'll hear what God the Lord will
speak, for He will speak peace unto His people. If God speaks,
there'll be a day when He speaks in wrath, but it ain't today.
Today He speaks peace. Who does He speak to? His people. His people. He'll speak peace
unto His people and to His saints. But those that He speaks to,
let them not again turn to folly. Boy, you read Hebrews chapter
10 at the very end of it, see what it says. The just shall
live by faith, but if any man draw back, my soul hath no pleasure
in him. But, he said, we're not of them
that draw back unto perdition. We're of them who believe to
the saving of the soul. That man or woman called of God
wants to know what God has to say. I'll hear what he has to
say. Oh, what about you? What about
me? What is it that I want to hear? Will we hear what God the Lord
will speak? Faith cometh by hearing, hearing
by the word of the Lord. I can't have faith apart from
hearing. And this is what Paul said, how are you going to call
on him in whom you have not believed? How are you going to believe
on him of whom you have not heard? And how are you going to hear
without a preacher? If God speaks, he's going to speak through a
man. Born again by the word of God,
which liveth and abideth forever. And this is the word, Peter said,
which by the gospel is preached unto you. How shall you hear
without a preacher? If God speaks to you or me, he'll
speak through a preacher. Send out all those preachers
into places where he himself would also go. He sends them
out. They don't know where to go.
My soul, how would I know where to go? It's a big world. How
shall they preach except they be sent? God has to, he has to
arrange his providence. He has to, All of these inner
workings in his providence, he has to do all of those things,
put a man there, draw a people there, and speak to them. That's
God. And he said to those ones he
sent out, he that heareth you, heareth me. But here's another
question for you. How can a man who's been lost
and deceived his whole life, who has no well-rounded understanding
of the Word of God, know who is and who isn't called of God
to speak? How? Well, I know who is God's
ambassador and who's Satan's ambassador. How am I going to
know the difference? And here's my answer. You never
will, apart from the grace of God. You never will. You'll flip and flop around until
you hear something that strikes a chord in your heart that you
like and you'll settle in there and that's where you'll stay
until you die. You never will apart from the grace of God. See, it's not so much the sinner
seeking God, he will seek God. But it's not so much the sinner
seeking God as it is God seeking him. That's what it is. He knows where you're at. He
knows why you're there. He knows the circumstances. Nothing's
out of place. Everything's according to his
purpose. And he sends a man there to talk to you. Let me give you
a perfect example of that. Down here in Jerusalem, they're
having a revival. Thousands are being saved. Thousands
at a time. 5,000 on one hand, 3,000 on another
hand. Huh? 8,000 people. I've never seen that in my life.
I've never even seen 20 or 30, let alone thousands. And here the preacher is. He's
down there, man, he's having a ball. The Lord comes along
and says, hey, go out here into the desert. I got a man out there. What? Out there? Ain't nobody out there. There
will be. He goes out there, and here comes
the Ethiopian eunuch. Huh? Did that preacher know that Ethiopian
eunuch was out there? No, he didn't have a clue. But
God sent him out there. He sent him out there. He said,
I'll tell you who he is when the time comes. So he goes out
there, and he's looking all around. He's looking all up and down.
And here's a black man riding along in a chariot. And he has
a scroll. Do you know how rare a scroll
would have been in those days? Here's this man, he's reading
the book of Isaiah, but he don't have a clue what he's reading. Knowing the means of God, the
Holy Scriptures and preaching the gospel, that preacher come
up to him and he said, do you know what you're reading? He
said, how can I except some man tell me? He said, kudos. And starting on that verse of
scripture, in Isaiah chapter 53, he preached Christ to them.
And as soon as that man saw water, he wanted to be baptized. Huh? That's how God saves sinners.
He speaks to them. He arrests them. He arranges
his providence, and he sends them a preacher. And he preaches
to them. And the work's effectual because
God does it. He draws men. Those Jews looked
at Christ and they murmured, he said, he thinks he's the bread
of God. What a statement. Huh? What a statement. He thinks he's
the bread God sent down from heaven and he said, don't murmur.
Don't murmur. No man can come unto me except
my Father draw him. You can read it for yourself
in John chapter 6. as it's written in the prophets,
and they shall all be taught of God. Every man, therefore,
that hath heard of the Father, he comes to me. He don't come
to me murmuring, he comes to me. And him that cometh to me, I
am no wise cast out, I raise him up to the last day. God draws
men by the means he's ordained, which is the preaching of the
gospel. And here is a man who says, I'll hear what God the
Lord will speak. He'll speak peace to his people.
And if there's one thing that is manifested again and again,
it's God's willingness to speak peace to his people. Verse 9, Surely his salvation
is nigh them that fear him, that glory may dwell in our language.
And this fear is a reverential fear. It's a fear of a loving
Father. We fear the God and Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ, seeing what He's done for us in Christ. And what did He do? Well, mercy
and truth are met together. Righteousness and peace have
kissed one another. He's just and justifier, and
we understand that. Verse 11. Truth shall spring
out of the earth, and righteousness shall look down from heaven.
Righteousness is not in the temple looking up. That's what the Pharisee
did. Righteousness is in glory looking
down. Christ is the end of the law.
There's my righteousness up there. It's already accepted of God.
Righteousness is not declared looking up, but looking down
from heaven. And it's not looking down in
judgment, but it's looking down in peace. And Jesus Christ is
our righteousness. and is even now seated at the
right hand of God, looking down on chosen sinners. So what does
all this mean? Verse 12. Yea, the Lord shall
give that which is good, and our land shall yield her increase. What is the increase of any land? That for which it was created
and maintained, the salvation of God's own people. That's what
that land is going to yield. If God's in this land, and He
favors this land, and He don't wipe this land out, it's but
for one reason. He's got a people here, and He's
going to save them. He's going to save them, Russell.
One more verse, and I'll bring this to a close. Verse 13. Righteousness
shall go before Him. Him who? The Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ. Righteousness
shall go before him and shall set us in the way of his steps. Jesus Christ is the way. That's what he said. I am the
way. I am the truth. I am the life. None other name under heaven
given among men whereby we must be saved. So here's my prayer. give us the willingness, the
strength and ability to see Christ, to know Him, to follow Him, to
submit unto Him, rest in Him and rejoice in Him. And to see this salvation that
He purposed and get involved in it.