All right, if you'll return to
Isaiah 61. We'll begin reading at the end
of verse 2. To comfort all who mourn and
to provide for those who grieve in Zion. Now, it's our tendency,
certainly mine, to avoid sadness. to avoid mourning and grief. God gave us emotions for a reason. We are an emotional animal. And these emotions are designed,
in some respects, to direct us. The things that make us sad are
things we want to avoid. And that's a proper use of sadness. If something makes us sad, then
that teaches us that's, generally speaking, a thing to avoid. Things
that make us happy are generally things we should seek out. There's nothing wrong with trying
to avoid sadness. The Lord showed the way to happiness,
and in this scripture, he promises to provide happiness for those
who mourn in Zion. The point I'm trying to make
here is even though mourning is a necessary part of the spiritual
experience of every believer, yet it is not in and of itself
a good thing. Its purpose is to drive us. Its purpose is to make us dissatisfied
with the way things are and seek out a different way. In the scriptures, or in this
scripture, there is this promise to provide happiness for the
mourners in Zion, but there is a great danger in trying to counterfeit
these emotions. These scriptures here, when it
speaks of grief and mourning, and then speaks of rejoicing
and praise. These emotions, these experiences
have to be understood within the context of the Scriptures. I mean, there's lots of reasons
for mourning. I mean, you lose a loved one,
you mourn, you grieve. But that's not the mourning and
the grieving that the Lord is speaking of here. You may mourn
and grieve over the loss of just about anything. In fact, you
know, psychologists tell us that grief is the same. It's just
our response to loss, whether it be a minor loss of our brand
new car got a dent in it, you know, and we experience some
grief over that, or it be something serious like the loss of a dear
loved one. But grief, mourning, All people
experience it in one way or another, but this is talking of a particular
kind of mourning and a particular kind of happiness. Some realizing
that the promise of happiness comes to those who mourn. After
all, the Lord said, blessed are they that mourn, for they shall
be comforted. When they realize that the promise
of comfort and happiness comes to mourners, they try to create.
a mournful spirit and attitude. You know, mourners shall be comforted,
so I'm going to start mourning. And then some, in the midst of
mourning, try to create happiness. But the mourning and the happiness
that this Scripture speaks of cannot be created by anyone but
the Lord Himself. Both the mourning and the provision
of happiness to overcome the mourning, both of these things
come from the Lord. Let's look at that, Zechariah
chapter 12. You know, one of the most important things for
us to learn is that nothing spiritual, nothing of eternal value can
be created by us. Not any frame of mind, not any
attitude, not an emotion, not faith, not conviction of sin. None of these things can be created
by us. These are things which are created
by God. They are the works of His grace.
Therefore, if someone tries to create a mournful spirit, he's
just messing up. He might get sad, but he's not
going to mourn in this fashion. or someone in the midst of mourning
who tries to create a happy spirit, he may somehow or another cover
up his mournful spirit and act happy and feel kind of good,
but he does not have that happiness which comes from the Lord alone. In Zechariah 12, verse 10, God
says, Zechariah 12, 10, And I will pour out on the house of David
and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication,
they will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will
mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly
for him as one grieves for a firstborn son." Now here is this grief,
here is this mournful spirit. Where did it come from? God says,
I'll pour this spirit out on them. I'll do it. And then if you look over at
Matthew, Chapter 5, that's just a few pages over in your Bible.
Matthew chapter 5, verse 4. Blessed are those who mourn. Now look here, for they will
be comforted. Notice this is what, in grammar,
they call the passive tense, or passive mood. In other words, it does not say,
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall find comfort.
Blessed are they who mourn, they won't do anything. Something
shall be done to them. They were going along their happy
way in the world, and God poured out on them a spirit of grace
and supplication. Notice that, a spirit of grace
that made them mourn. They didn't try to mourn. They
weren't even thinking about those things. But God impressed them
with some truth, and they began to mourn. And when they mourned,
God came and comforted them. So neither the mourning nor the
comfort were the work of men, themselves, or preachers. It
was the work of God. I remember that Many times, particularly
early on in my preaching ministry, I would try to create an atmosphere. I tried preaching just a way
that if I wanted people to mourn, well, I'd try to make them mourn. If I wanted to make them happy,
I'd make them happy. And that tendency still works
in me, but I have learned over the years I can't make people
mourn after this fashion and I can't make them happy according
to this scripture here. It's out of my power. These are
works of God. Oh, there's a great temptation
in us to do what only God can do. Preachers try to create these
feelings. Folks try to create these feelings
in themselves. They read that that publican
beat upon his breast and said, God be merciful to me, a sinner.
And they think, well, that's the way to be justified, because
he went down to his house justified. So they tried to make themselves
sad about their sin. They tried to, as it were, beat
upon their breasts and cry out to God. But it's just so much
flesh. Anything that's born of the flesh
is just flesh. Anything that comes about originating
from our will and our purposes, it's the will of the flesh, and
the will of the flesh cannot accomplish anything in the domain
of the Spirit. And you know, when the reality
of these frames of mind cannot be created, counterfeit versions
are manufactured. Have you ever noticed this? That
people can go to church and be so somber. They know how to put
it on. And speak in deeper tones. In
more measured tones, you know. Oh, that person, you know, you think
they're mournful. They're serious about their sin.
They're sad about what they are. But you see them Monday through
Saturday. And they're just like normal people. Friends, that
means that what you saw on Sunday was just made up, is just manufactured. It wasn't real. And it happens
the other way around. Folks come to church and they've
been taught that, well, Christians should be happy. And so they
come to church just giddy. And everything's just wonderful.
Like that fellow I told you about once. This was one of the churches
in Franklin, Tennessee. I went there and it was just...
The rain was just pouring down. I mean, torrential type rain.
The kind that, you know, you can park right up next to the
church building. If you get out and try to walk in, you're soaked
by the time you're there. So I ran in there. I probably had some
paper over my head, because I didn't own an umbrella. But I come into
that building, and I shook the water off of me, you know, and
tried to make my hair look so it wasn't so bad, you know. And
there was one of the members of the church standing there,
and I said, Man, what a rainy, nasty day. This is the day the
Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad. I wonder if the guy would have
said the same thing if I wasn't there and it was on Tuesday,
and he had to walk out and get the mail in the rain. We know
how to put on sadness. We know how to put on happiness. But the problem is, it's just
put on. is not from the Lord. And if it's not from the Lord,
it ain't worth having. Now, this passage is quoted by
our Lord in Luke 4. We read that. And he appears,
when you read there in Luke 4, he also added some things from
other portions in Isaiah, which I was reading one commentator
that said those Jews felt free to do that when someone was called
on to read Scripture, they'd be reading it, and if there was
a portion of Scripture they thought would fit well in with that,
they'd just bring it in too. So maybe that's what the Lord
was doing. Of course, you know, He is the Scriptures in human
flesh, and He can quote them however He wants, and so to speak,
shuffle up the phrases however He wants to. He didn't quote everything here
in Isaiah 61, but in quoting that, and saying
that it was fulfilled by His appearance, we can apply all
of this passage of Scripture to Him. to the year of jubilee, which
would picture the gospel, and to proclaim the day of vengeance
of our God. How do you claim, proclaim God's
year of acceptance, his jubilee, and the day of his vengeance
all at one time? Well, you see, that's the great
wisdom of the gospel. That when the Lord Jesus Christ
came, he brought with him both judgment and salvation. And in
particular, God's vengeance was fulfilled against his people
in Jesus Christ, and that brought about God's favor for his people. The day of salvation and the
day of vengeance are all one in the same day. And even in
the great day at the end of the world, whenever that shall be,
on that great day there shall be both judgment and salvation. Jesus Christ will save His people
from this world by destroying it. He will come in power and great
glory, and that power and great glory is going to be revealed
with an angry face of wrath to all the ungodly, who in their
ungodly ways have resisted Him and rebelled against Him, and
He'll destroy them with the breath of His mouth, with the word of
His mouth. And they shall forever be destroyed. from the presence
of the Lord. And that same coming and that
same action will bring about the everlasting salvation of
all those whom He chose, redeemed, and called by His grace. And
so Christ says, I have come, and it is both the day of God's
acceptance and the day of vengeance, and I have come, He said, to
comfort all who mourn, to provide for those who grieve in Zion.
Three things we want to look at. Who is it that mourns? And why and how do they mourn?
And what does Christ do for them? Now, who is it that mourns? Now,
we're speaking here of this mournfulness that God creates. People mourn over all kinds of
things. But we're speaking of a specific kind of mournfulness.
And who is it that mourns? Well, it's those in Zion. He said, to comfort all who mourn,
to provide for those who grieve in Zion. Now, when he talks about
grieving in Zion, he's not distinguishing between those in Zion who mourn
and those in Zion who do not mourn. Because everyone in Zion
mourns. Rather, he's speaking of distinguishing
between Those who mourn in Zion and those who mourn anywhere
else. You see, God's grace is particular. God's grace, we call it sovereign
grace, is not upon all. It's upon a specific people.
It's upon those in Zion. You know, those outside of Zion,
for instance, legalists, they mourn. Their preachers stand up in thunder
with the wrath of Sinai, and lay before them all the law of
God, and the law of God doing its deadly work, works in them
a kind of mourning. But that is not in Zion, that's
on Sinai. And there is no comfort to them
who mourn on Sinai. Did you hear that? There is no
comfort to them who mourn on Sinai. The law provides no comfort. What things the law says, it
says to them that are under the law that every mouth may be stopped
and the whole world become guilty before God. And that's all that
the law has to say. The law does not draw near those
that it wounds and put its arm around them and say, now I've
got a remedy for you. I've wounded you that I might
heal you. I've killed you that I might make you alive. The law
never says that. The law never says, comfort ye, comfort ye,
my people. Those who mourn on Sinai mourn
forever. It's those that mourn in Zion
that find comfort or that comfort is brought to them. Where is
Zion? Well, Zion, so far as a historical
location, actually, throughout the Old Testament, it kind of
changes where it is a little bit. I mean, it's always in the
area of Jerusalem. Sometimes it's more specific
than others. But the first time we see the
mention of Zion, it's when David takes Zion and he changes the
name of Zion to the city of David. Now we know this, that David,
more than anybody else in the scripture, is a picture of our
Lord Jesus Christ. And so we find that Zion stands
as a representation of the city of the Lord Jesus Christ. The
place of His habitation. His home. And therefore it is the home
and habitation of all His people. That's what Zion is. It's where Christ is and where
all his people are. Furthermore, Zion is called the
throne of the king. Look over here at the second
Psalm. Psalm 2, the sixth verse. I have installed my king on Zion. my holy hill." Zion is the city
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Zion is the throne of the King,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Zion is also called that whole
host of people who have been redeemed by God. Look at Isaiah
chapter Isaiah chapter 1 verse 27, Zion
will be redeemed with justice, for penitent ones with righteousness. And so Zion is that entire group
of people whom God chose and sent His Son to redeem, and whom the Spirit comes to
and gives them this spirit of repentance. That's Zion. And then you look over here at
Hebrews chapter 12. That said, he's going to provide for those
who mourn in Zion. Who or where is Zion? You know, we sing that song,
we're marching to Zion. And I don't And it's not like
I mind singing that song, because often people use Zion as a representation
of heaven. Though I don't think the scriptures
ever really do. Zion, in many respects, is us. It says here in Hebrews chapter
12, verse 22, But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly
Jerusalem, the city of the living God, you come to thousands upon
thousands of angels in joyful assembly to the church of the
firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. Think about that now. What is Zion? Brethren, if you
are a believer, you aren't marching to Zion, you're in Zion. You're
there. You are Zion. Zion is God's church. Because the church is God's habitation
on the earth. The church is where Christ is
enthroned. And in Zion, you might wonder,
why would people mourn there? Why would anybody mourn where
Christ is? Why would anybody mourn being
among all the people of God and among the angels, thousands and
thousands of angels in joyful assembly? Why would anybody mourn
at the throne of Christ? Why would anybody mourn in the
gospel kingdom? Well, I'll tell you this. It's
the only place that people mourn to the saving of their souls.
It's only in Zion that true godly repentance is ever granted and
experienced. How and why do these mourners
mourn? They mourn because of their sin
and the awful consequences that have come by it. Now, when I
talk about that Zion is the people of God and it's the church, there
are people in God's church who don't know it yet, because the
church was chosen way back in that timeless eternity before
the foundation of the world. We were chosen in Christ before
the foundation of the world. We were in Zion before we were
on earth. And so there are many in Zion,
unaware of their blessed circumstances. And when the Spirit of God begins
to work on them, begins to open their heart and their mind to
understand things as they really are, instead of according to
the lie of the world and of Satan. One of the things he'll do, one
of the first things he'll do, he will convict the world of
sin. And when the Spirit of God convicts
a man of sin, that man mourns. And you don't have to add anything
to what the Spirit of God does. You don't have to sing a sad
song. You don't have to put any kind of emotional pressure on
Him. If the Spirit of God reveals a man's sinful heart to him,
he will begin to mourn. And he'll mourn in such a way
that you can't make him happy. He'll mourn in such a way that
he can't make himself happy. You see, the repenting work of
the Holy Spirit, that is, the work by which, or the grace by
which He works repentance. It is an undeniable, irresistible
work. I can make you feel bad for sin.
I can do it. At least with most people. I
could put together some words and make you feel ashamed of
the things you've done. And I could make you feel sorry
that you've done it. But the service would be over,
you would go out, and in a certain amount of time, it would vanish
away. For my works are but fleshly
works, and they, just like all other flesh, they die. When the
Spirit of God gives a man repentance, causes him to mourn over sin,
he doesn't quit mourning until God makes him quit mourning. And I'd venture to say this,
he'll never quit mourning for the rest of his life. I'm not
saying that we go around hanged all All the time. No. I'm saying that there is
a principle of repentance in the heart of a believer all through
his life. At least, I'll have to say from
my experience, I never get over the fact that I'm a sinner against
the God of my creation and the God of my salvation. it still
bothers me. A man unmoved by his sin, I think
this is a safe statement to say, a man unmoved by his sin is a
man untouched by the grace of God. We mourn because of our sin and
the awful consequences. We mourn because of our transgressions. Let us never get so theological
about sin that we forget that the things we do are as much
sin as what we are. We don't want to forget either
side of it. We are sinners by birth, by nature, and by practice. And if you've been a believer
very long, you'll know this, that fact doesn't change very
much, does it? I remember a song by an old friend of mine. One of the lines said this, My
life began in sin. It hasn't changed much, and it
hasn't. I find in men, do you? I find
in you all those motions of sin, and they break out. It would be nice, wouldn't it?
In some ways, if our sin was altogether inside, but it's not
altogether inside. It's on the outside. We not only
think bad things, we not only desire bad things, we do bad
things. We are in our flesh just what
we were when we were born. We are evildoers. And anybody in Zion, mourns that. Paul says, I don't understand
what I'm doing. Putting this in modern day language,
he said, it just blows my mind, the things I do. I don't understand because it's
not what I want to do. It's not what I really desire,
but I do it anyway. And what does that prove? It
proves that there is a law within my members that I cannot resist
100%. A power and a force that breaks
out in transgressions. They mourn their sin as expressed
in transgressions, and then they mourn their sin as expressed
in their nature. God may give us grace to restrain
some of the outbreaks of our sinful nature. And we're glad when he does,
aren't we? I mean, I'm glad when I can resist a temptation. But you know, even when the temptation
is resisted, and we do not allow that sinful motion and force
within us to break out into transgression, yet still we mourn that that
awful wickedness is in there. Paul or, to me, Job, having heard
from God and seen God, he says, I've heard of you with the hearing
of the ear, but now my eyes see you, and I abhor... He didn't say, I abhor what I've
done. He said, I abhor myself. Oh, that I could be someone else.
Someone else. And something else. Oh, that I can go through a day
or an hour or even five minutes without such wretchedness just
boiling and roiling around in this hidden part of mine. Another song I heard, I'm going
to try to remember the words to it. I just listened to it
this morning. There are things going through my mind that you
would not believe. And I try real hard to capture
them, and then I set them free. You see, bad things comfort me. That may be more honest than
you want to be, but that's the truth, isn't it? You see, if we didn't like sin
so much, we wouldn't do it so much. It's in there. And we mourn over that. And then
we mourn what our sin costs us. Oh, what fools we are, time and
time again, as sin breaks forth in transgression and it hurts
us and harms us and brings us into despair, and yet we keep
doing it. That alienation we feel. Alienation from God. I'll just put it in what I suppose
is a good metaphor. We wound the heart of our Father. You know, I've told you many
times, I think I had some of the best parents God ever made.
And when I was a kid, I didn't get into much trouble. And you
know, I didn't stay out of trouble because I was afraid of a whipping
from Mom and Dad. Really? was not what restrained
me. To disappoint them and to feel
as though I had hurt them was just something I could not bear. And it was as though when I did
those things, there was a wall put up. Even if they didn't find
out about them, that meant I had to go around as something I was
not. I knew there was a wall up there.
I knew that I had transgressed their ways. And that kept me out of most
trouble, at least the worst of it. And brethren, you children
of God, it's the same thing with your heavenly Father. Oh, we
mourn the cost we bring about on ourselves in the enjoyment
of our Father's embrace. Because you see, when guilt lies
on us, we don't feel free to run to our Father and jump up
in His lap and hug His neck. Or we mourn our sin. What would
you give to be rid of your sin? Would you not give everything
you have if you could get rid of it? I mean utterly rid of
it. Get rid of the record of it.
Get rid of the temptation to it. Get rid of your weakness
in the face of it. What would you give to get rid
of all that? There's nothing you can give.
There isn't. Thank God. What we could never
give to accomplish that, Jesus Christ has rendered. Now we grieve
because of our sin, and I'll turn back to Zechariah chapter
12 again. Here's something that I believe
separates between the mournfulness that comes by the fleshly religion
and the mournfulness that comes by the Spirit of God. We not
only mourn our sin, we mourn because of Christ. In Zechariah
12.10 again. The Lord says, I will pour out
on the house of David, that's Zion again, right there, and
on the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one
they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for
an only child and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a
firstborn son. Are we just feeling sorry for
Jesus here? Is that what he's talking about?
I think the best way, I'm going to read you a hymn by John Newton,
the writer of Amazing Grace. I'm sure many of you are familiar
with it, but I believe that this expresses exactly what the prophet
is saying. It says, In evil long I took
delight, unawed by shame or fear, till a new object struck my sight
and stopped my wild career. I saw one hanging on a tree in
agonies and blood. He fixed his languid eyes on
me as near his cross I stood. Sure, never till my latest breath
can I forget that look. It seemed to charge me with his
death, though not a word he spoke. My conscience felt and owned
the guilt and plunged me in despair. I saw my sins, his blood had
spilled. and helped to nail him there.
Alas, I knew not what I did, but now my tears are vain. Where
shall my trembling soul be hid? For I, the Lord, have slain."
A second look he gave, which said, I freely all forgive. This
blood is for thy ransom paid. I die that thou mayest live. Thus, while his death my sin
displays in all its blackest hue, such is the mystery of grace
it seals my pardon to. With pleasing grief and mournful
joy my spirit now is filled, that I should such a life destroy,
yet live by him I kill. We mourn for Christ, not because
we feel sorry for Him, because we realize we killed Him. We
killed Him. When that movie, The Passion
of the Christ, came out, it created such a big hubbub of Jews that
were feeling offended because they said it looked, you know,
it was portrayed as though the Jews killed Him. And others say,
well, the Romans were involved too. And, well, I don't know
that much about what Mel Gibson believed, but he got this point
right. He said, the movie is not about them killing him. We
killed him. We killed him. You and I killed
the Lord Jesus Christ with our sin as assuredly as we took up
the hammer and nails and nailed Him to the cross. We killed Him
with our sin just as assuredly as if it was us that had the
spear in hand and thrust it in His side. We killed Him as assuredly
as if we were standing in the crowd saying, crucify Him, crucify
Him. And we are no less guilty in
this matter than was Pilate when he said, I wash my hands of him.
You do with him what you want. You can go to Sinai, you can
go to the law and find out something about your sin. You can find
out you've transgressed against God. But if you really want to
understand what your sin's like, you go to Calvary and you put
him there. with all the hate and vitriol
of a soul in rebellion against God, I put Him there. And when we quit theologizing about the death
of the Lord Jesus Christ, you know, sometimes theology is just
a shelter in which we try to hide from the power of the gospel.
We try to argue the points about who He died for Whether it's
everybody or some and all that, I'm not saying there isn't a
time for these arguments, but we can get all wrapped up in
those things. There's nothing to argue about. Was he nailed
up to a cross or was it an actual tree he got nailed to? Argue
about all this stuff. That's just a way to hide from
the gospel truth that we crucified Christ. It's my fault He died. It's my fault that the Father
ordained from eternity past that He would be the Lamb slain. John said, Behold the Lamb of
God that takes away the sin of the world. And we can stand there
and think about the world's sin and all that. Let's get personal
about it. That's the Lamb of God that died because of my sin. They mourn because of Christ.
Those who mourn this way mourn in some respects at all
times. And yet Christ does something
for them. He says, I provide for those
who grieve in Zion. We're back in Isaiah 61.3. This
will not take a lot of explanation. But even though His death caused
us great mourning, As we recognize that our sins put Him there,
His death brought to us great joy. Because by His death, He
bestows on us a crown of beauty instead of ashes. In olden times
when they would mourn, they'd cover themselves in sackcloth
and ashes just to show how sad they were. That was just their
way of expressing it. And try to look as miserable as they
could. And our Lord comes to those in such a mournful state
And He bestows on them a crown of beauty, oil of gladness instead of mourning,
a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. You know,
this mourning process begins with despair. And while the Lord
does not take away the sorrow for sin, He does take away the
despair over it. For despair means there is no
hope, but He comes and gives us hope. He teaches us to be
deprived of all hope outside of Him. All hope in ourselves,
all hope in the preacher, all hope in the church, all hope
in our works, all hope in the ceremonies, all hope in someday
doing better. He puts us in despair. Why? being
deprived of all other hope, He can show us the one hope that
brings eternal life, even Himself. And they will rebuild the ancient
ruins. Excuse me, I missed part of it. They will be called Oaks
of Righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of
His splendor. He takes away all our hopes so
that when we are given the hope of Christ, it will be for His
glory. As it is written, let him the glory of His glory in
the Lord. They'll be called oaks of righteousness. Oaks are a
pretty strong tree. God's people are not made into
thin saplings of that poplar. That's a kind of poplar, isn't
it? It's on the north side. They planted a row of those because
they grow fast, but they die just as fast as they grow. Those
trees that have protected us from the wind somewhat for a
while, branches are falling off of them, the top's coming out
of them. It's an old rotten soft wood. But that's not what the
people of God are like. The people of God, by the grace
of God, are made into oaks of righteousness, a planting of
the Lord for the display of His splendor. And the end of it is
this. Verse 10. Having made us mourn,
And then provided for us all things necessary, we say this,
I delight greatly in the Lord. I'm happy in Him. My soul rejoices
in my God. That mournful heart broken down
now rejoices. Why? For He has clothed me with
garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness. Think about that. Oh, our sin. Our sin from all its corrupt
forms to its filthy rag righteousness. And when God shows us Christ
on the cross, we're broken down, we're made to mourn. We say,
there is no good in me. And Christ comes and strips us
naked from all those filthy clothes, from all those worthless garments,
and He puts us in a garment of His salvation. He clothes us
in a robe made of nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. And with those clothes on, I'm
happy. Oh, the remembrance of my sin.
I still mourn over that. I mourn over the remnants of
sin that are still in me and the power of it in my flesh.
I still mourn over that, but oh, I'm so happy. Sinful as I
am. I am robed in the righteousness
of Christ. And as bad as I am, He is better
than I am bad. Can you imagine that? Christ
is more righteous than I am sinful. And it covers it all and puts
it all away. The Spirit of the Lord is upon
me, says the Lord Jesus Christ, to comfort those that mourn,
to provide for those that grieve in Zion, Do you mourn over your
sin? There's comfort to be found in
Christ. If you don't mourn over your
sin, I feel real sorry for you. You're in a worse state of all.
You're dead to truth. But if the knowledge of your
sin, the knowledge of what that cost
the Lord Jesus Christ, makes you grieve, then there has been
a work of grace in you. And in His time, the Lord will
make you rejoice. May God grant that Spirit to
all of us.