Please turn back to the book
of Isaiah chapter 9. I'd like to read verse 6 and
verse 7. Verse 6 and verse 7. For unto us a child is born,
unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his
shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor,
the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government
and peace there shall be no end. Upon the throne of David and
upon his kingdom to order it and to establish it with judgment
and with justice from henceforth even forever. The zeal of the
Lord of hosts will perform this. I want to speak primarily this
morning upon verse 6. I thought a great deal about
this verse of scripture from time to time and it may not appear
to some to be seasonable to preach the end of May on Isaiah chapter
9 and verse 6, but nevertheless We are not those who are given
here to seasonal preaching and to preaching upon text that seems
to match with a certain time of year. We will preach the gospel
as the Lord enables us to and declare his truth according as
he enables us to do so. But now this morning I want to
say just a few words about the opening part of the verse and
then spend most of our time on talking about his name and what
his name shall be called. What his name shall be called. Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty
God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. The burden
of my soul is to preach Christ. and to exalt Him. I really believe
that what every one of us need is to have the Lord Jesus Christ
presented to us in the preaching of the Word. We need that Christ
would be lifted up and that we would be enabled by the Spirit
of God to see Him that we might be able to worship. I am certain,
beloved, that you will never truly be able to worship Almighty
God until you know Jesus Christ and until you understand the
truth about Him. I know that sound doctrine begets
true worship, and I know that nobody truly worships God until
they know His Son, the Lord Jesus. May God be pleased today to reveal
His Son to your heart. The Lord Jesus Christ came into
this world through the womb of the Virgin Mary. A body was prepared
for Him and a child was born. When the Lord Jesus was in the
womb of the Virgin Mary, He was Mary's God. He was God in the
womb of the Virgin. He came forth
into this world as a child, but he was God, he was the God-man
when he came into this world. It says unto us, a son is given. Paul said thanks be unto God
for his unspeakable gift. We read in John 3 and 16, for
God so loved the world that he gave He is only begotten Son. We read over in John 10 and 29
where it says, My Father which gave them Me is greater than
all and no man can pluck them, that is the sheep of Christ,
out of His hand. My Father which gave them Me. And so we have a Son that is
given. The Son that is given is the
only begotten of the Father, He that is full of grace and
truth. The Son is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Beloved of God, the
Beloved One of God, who was with the Father in the bosom of the
Father before the world began and then was given unto us. And I've often asked the question,
how could we have ever received Christ, how could we have ever
gotten the Lord Jesus Christ if he hadn't been given to us
as a love gift from the Father? Now if you value your eternity-bound
soul, you become interested in the Father's gift of His Son,
and you become greatly interested in that because your only chance
of escaping the judgment of God for all eternity is that you
be found in Him who has come forth from the bosom of the Father
and has come into this world to bleed, to suffer, to die in
order that men and women who believe upon him might be reconciled
unto the great Father. Now this morning, it's the just
for the unjust that has suffered in our place and has brought
us unto God. And I hope this morning that
if you're here and you're interested in your soul, you're concerned
about what's going to happen when you pass from this life
and go off into eternity, that you'll listen very carefully
because I'm going to describe to you this morning the Savior
of God's people. I want to describe the Savior,
the Son of God, and lift Him up the best we can before you.
Now it says here that his name, the name of the child born and
the son given, that his name shall be called Wonderful. Now
we've been told that the government shall be upon his shoulder. Now, the government here, it
refers to the creation, it refers to providence, it refers to the
grace of God, all of this being under the control. and the dominion
of the Lord Jesus Christ. The government, he's the prime
minister of the universe. The Lord Jesus Christ and the
government is upon his shoulder. As reward of his obedience to
God as our representative, Christ has been given this government
over creation, providence, and grace. And so the government
is upon his shoulder. We read in verse 7, of the increase
of his government and peace there shall be no end. Here the Lord
Jesus Christ is described as that one who has this government
given to him and there shall be no end of his government.
He's sovereign Lord forever and ever throughout the ages, the
countless ages of eternity and we're told here in the last part
of verse 7 that the zeal of the Lord of Hosts will perform this. All this that has to do with
our Lord Jesus Christ, His coming into the world and His having
the government placed upon His shoulder, all of this the Lord
of Hosts will perform this. He'll bring it to pass. He'll
cause that this shall be and this is a truth that you have
to deal with. Jesus Christ is your Lord. He is your Lord and you've got
to bow to Him. He's your Lord. He belongs, you
this morning belong to Him and He's not in your hands, you're
in His hands because the government is upon His shoulder. What becomes
of you depends upon His sovereign prerogative and will and His
desire for you and His purpose for you. You're in His hands,
the government is upon His shoulder. Now then we get to the name.
His name shall be called Wonderful. Now our Savior is called what
He is, Wonderful. He's called what he is wonderful. Now brethren, the Lord Jesus
Christ is wonderful in his person. Who among men can describe the
beauty and the glory of Emmanuel? Emmanuel, God with us. He is God, but He is also man. He's as much God as though He
were not man, yet as much man as though He were not God. Christ
is the God-man. He's the only mediator between
God and men. Yes, beloved, He is wonderful
in the quality of His character also. in his person and in the
quality of his character. Christ's love for his people
is indescribable. Who can describe the love of
this one who is wonderful? His voluntary humility and his
meekness and his patience throughout the days of his earthly visitation
This sets before us an example of true holiness by which the
lives of all men should be governed. Now listen to me, his sympathy
with his people is such that even now he is touched with the
feeling of our infirmities. And furthermore, the earthly
life of the Lord Jesus was a constant series of wonders. There's no wonder that his name
is called wonderful because of all the events that took place
in his life while he was here on earth. Let me just give you
a few of them. First of all, he was born miraculously
of the Virgin. Number two, the wise men were
directed to him by a special star. I'm talking about him whose
name is wonderful. And then he was miraculously
preserved from the harrod slaughter of the infants. And then when
he was 12 years old, the boy Jesus, who is God all wise, taught
the doctors in the temple the word of God. And then when he
came to be baptized by John, the Father spoke from heaven,
the Spirit descended visibly upon him, and the Son of God
condescended to fulfill all righteousness at the time of his baptism. And
after forty days and nights of fasting and prayer, the man Christ
met Satan in the wilderness of temptation and triumph, where
the first man, Adam, failed, the Lord Jesus Christ triumphed
over Satan there in that hour of temptation. And then the miracles
performed by this one who is called wonderful upon his own
authority were manifestly the works of God alone. Beloved,
no man could do the works that the Lord Jesus did, the wonderful
works that He did, except He be God, except He be the God-Man. And upon the Mount of Transfiguration,
the Son of Man was revealed in His glory as the Son of God. And this, my friend, is where
we are now. We recognize that this One who
is called Wonderful is the Son of the Living God. Brother, sister,
here is a man. He's the only man who can properly
wear this name wonderful. He's the only man, I say, who
can properly wear this name wonderful. And this man is God our Savior. Now the wonders of his earthly
life demonstrate the fact that He is God from all eternity. It demonstrates the eternal deity
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now the Lord Jesus Christ, the
Son of Mary, is the Son of God and He is wonderful. Now listen
to me. It would take hours upon hours. You could study and you could
trace out and you could meditate upon the wonders of our Savior's
earthly life. And every believer should strive
I believe to pattern his life after the example of him whose
life is best described by this name, wonderful. You ought to
follow him as your example. But wonderful as his earthly
life was, it would be meaningless were it not for the greater wonders
that followed. Note with me, if you will, Christ
was wonderful, I believe, in his death. It is a wonder that
he should ever have died at all. The Lord Jesus Christ, the lawgiver,
that one who is life, he's the prince of life, the Bible teaches
us that. He's the Lord of life and glory. He is life. Apart from him, there
is no life. Yet he died by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God and by his own voluntary
will. He said, no man takes my life
from me. I lay it down of myself. I've
got the power to lay it down and I've got the power to take
it again. Now our Savior died just for
the unjust that he might bring us to God. He died for sinners. the chief of sinners, that we
who deserve to die, that we might not die, but have everlasting
life. By his death, the Son of God
abolished death for his people. He destroyed him that had the
power over death, the devil, and he obtained eternal redemption
for God's elect and secured their everlasting salvation. And furthermore,
after three days in the earth, the Son of God arose from the
grave, and I want to say that He was wonderful in His resurrection
from the dead. Now His human body was resurrected
by His own divine power. He was raised up from the dead.
Now before he saw corruption, at the time specified by the
types and the prophecies of the Old Testament, Christ came forth
from the tomb with the same body in which he suffered and died. And thus he declared the accomplished
justification of those whose sins he bore upon the cursed
tree of Calvary. And again, Christ Jesus is wonderful
in his ascension and in his exaltation. as the king of kings and lord
of lords. He was taken up in a cloud into
heaven. There he took his seat upon the
throne of universal dominion, receiving all the gifts of grace
for his redeemed people, and now he rules over all flesh with
total sovereignty to effectually give those blood-bought gifts
to all those whom the Father chose and gave Him as a love
gift from eternity. And so the Lord Jesus Christ
is in the position of exaltation. I'm talking about Him that is
wonderful. He was wonderful in His ascension
and exaltation. Now and then, let me say also
that He is wonderful and will be wonderful in His glorious
second advent. when he comes again, can you
imagine what it would be like for this same Jesus whom was
taken up into heaven to see him come again in like manner as
he was seen taken up into glory. Behold he cometh is the statement
made in Holy Scripture. This very same Jesus shall come
the second time without sin unto salvation. He will gather the
bodies of his saints from their graves. He'll transform those
who are alive at his coming. He'll destroy all of his enemies
and make all things new. I'm talking about this one who
is wonderful. I'm talking about the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now secondly, we see that his
name shall be called Counselor. Do you agree with me that His
name is wonderful? Are you able to agree in your
heart? I mean, not only give mental
assent, but are you able in your heart to say, yes, I can say
amen to what the preacher's talking about? Jesus is wonderful in
His character. Jesus is wonderful in His death. He's wonderful in His ascension
and His exaltation. He's wonderful in His resurrection.
He's wonderful in His second advent. The Lord Jesus Christ
is the only man who can properly wear the name of wonderful. Jesus is wonderful. Well, then
let me talk to you a little bit about His name being called Counselor. Now look, if you will, in Isaiah
28. And notice verse 29. If you want to turn there, Isaiah
28 and 29. It says, This also cometh forth
from the Lord of hosts, which is wonderful in counsel and excellent
in working. The Lord of hosts, which is wonderful
in counsel and excellent in working. Now, the Lord Jesus is the only
counsel with God for men and the only counselor with men for
God. Now you'd have to study that
statement a little bit but it just simply tells you that nobody
can talk to God without coming through Jesus Christ and that
God never speaks to men apart from a mediator who is the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now then, he was our counselor
in the Council of Peace before the world began. I invite you
to turn to the book of Zechariah, if you can find that book. And
there's the sixth chapter, there's a couple of verses here I'd like
to read. That's verse 12 and verse 13. I'm saying that the Lord Jesus
was our counselor in the council of peace before the world began.
He took counsel with God our Father as our surety in eternity. And it says here, And speak unto
him, saying, Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, Behold
the man whose name is the branch, and that's the Lord Jesus, and
he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple
of the Lord. Even he shall build the temple
of the Lord, and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and
rule upon his throne, and he shall be a priest upon his throne,
and the counsel of peace shall be between them both. The Lord Jesus Christ was in
old eternity, and he was our counselor, the one that was in
the counsel of God from old eternity. In that eternal council, the
scheme of grace was fixed. There's when a ransom was found
for our redemption, our souls being bought by the blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ. This was all purposed in that
council before the world began. The time and the place of Christ's
incarnation and his death was set. that council and all the
blessings of grace were bestowed upon the elect multitude at that
time in each old eternity. Now then Christ was a counselor
to men also while he walked upon the face of the earth. He counseled
sinners to come to him and live. He told men that if you live,
you must come to Me. Come to Me. And He counseled
the weary to come to Him for rest. And He counseled the hungry
to come to Him for food. He counseled the thirsty to come
for a drink. And He counseled the naked to
come to Him for dress. And He also counseled the defiled
to come to Him for cleansing and washing in His blood. Now all who came to the Lord
Jesus Christ, He counseled them, and one thing He counseled them
to do was to sin no more. He counseled them not to continue
to practice that which they had practiced prior to their coming
to him. He told them that they ought
to sin no more. Do you remember what he told
the woman there when she was taken in adultery and his accusers? He said, woman, where's your
accusers? And she said, well, Lord, they're
not here. They fled. And he said, well,
I don't condemn you. He said, but go and sin no more. And He also counseled those who
came to Him to love one another, and to live for the glory of
God, and to pray to the Father in His name for their souls'
every need. I'm telling you that Jesus Christ
was a counselor to men while He was here on earth. And furthermore,
Christ is a counselor to His people today through the ministry
of His Word by the power of His Holy Spirit. Now the Bible is
the counsel of God. The Word of His Wisdom it is,
it's the transcript of His eternal purpose, and it's the declaration
of His will. Now then, by the ministry of
the Word, the Lord reveals Himself to His people He orders their
lives, He directs their steps, and He instructs their minds,
and He comforts their hearts and their souls. The Counselor
does all this through His Word, through the Bible, as the Bible
is preached, as the Spirit of God takes the Word and makes
application of it unto the hearts and lives God's people. Now,
beloved, you listen to me. He is abundantly qualified to
be our counselor. Do you have problems? Do you
need to have your steps directed? I mean, do you need to have the
way open before you? Is there something that is mysterious
that you're dealing with? You do not understand? You do
not know how to deal with it? The Lord Jesus Christ is abundantly
qualified to be our counselor, for He is the only wise God. He's our mediator in whom are
hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. and the one upon
whom the spirit of wisdom and understanding of counseling might
rest. He's the one that has the wisdom
and the ability to counsel your soul. He's the one that can lead
you in the way and point you in the way that you ought to
go. We often, well several years back, we don't do it so often
anymore, but we sang that little chorus, the Lord knows the way
through the wilderness, And all you have to do is follow. The
Lord knows the way, beloved, and we need to follow His counsel
and His wisdom. He who is the wisdom of God is
our counselor. He is God and He is our counselor. And if we were wise men and women,
We would seek and we would take counsel from Him alone. We would take counsel from Him. We'd seek it nowhere else. We'd
take it from Him. We would seek counsel from the
Lord. Well, the next it says that He's
the mighty God. I have to move pretty fast here
this morning because there's a whole lot in this. I think
you could probably preach a half a dozen sermons from this one
verse and probably that wouldn't cover it. But we read that He's
the mighty God, and still we're talking about the Lord Jesus
Christ in His mediatorial offices. We're talking about Him who is
our Savior, our Lord Jesus, the One of whom we sing, the One
that we praise, the One that we glory in. the one that has
made the way open for us to come unto God. Now, He's the mighty
God. Now, Jesus Christ possesses all
the attributes of the Godhead. In every way the Lord Jesus is
equal to the Father and the Spirit. He is the second person of the
Godhead and he is equal to the Father and the Spirit. Now his
Godhead is demonstrated by the works of creation, it's demonstrated
by the works of providence and grace, that are attributed to
him, and it's also demonstrated, I believe, by the worship that
he receives both from men and angels as very much about the
Lord Jesus, who is the mighty God. Now Isaiah tells us that
He is God, the Mighty One. His mighty power is God, His
omnipotence is revealed in the works He performs, works which
none but God Himself could do. The works that Jesus Christ did,
none but God could do them. Now the works He performed before
His incarnation demonstrate that Christ is the Mighty God. Who, I ask, I hope my throat
don't give out on me this morning. Who I ask but the mighty God
could create all things out of nothing, uphold all things by
the word of His power, and sovereignly manage all the affairs of providence. Who could do that but the mighty
God? Now these are works that are
attributed to the Lord Jesus Christ throughout the scriptures. He not only had a hand in all
these things, He performed all these things. David said, He
performeth all things for us. And so the Lord Jesus is the
mighty God. Now second, the works that were
performed by Christ while He was upon the earth were the works
of God the Mighty One. He healed the sick, By the word
of His power, He fed the multitudes with the loaves and the fish,
He cast out devils, He calmed the winds and the sea by His
voice, and He raised the dead by His own word. Surely we can
see that the man who did these things is God the Mighty One. Truly, this is the mighty God,
so that his name shall be called the mighty God. We can all agree
and we can say amen to this. Now next, Christ showed himself
to be the mighty God by his great work of redemption. He gave himself
into the hands of wicked men, yet he controlled those hands
while he was in their hands. He's the mighty God. Now listen
to me. He never knew sin, but he bore
all the sins of all of his people. They were all laid upon him.
How could one who was less than God, bear the sins of all of
his people upon him. And when the justice of God fell
upon him, he satisfied it fully with his precious blood and put
away all the sins that were laid upon him forever. They were all
the sins of his lap laid upon him and he put them away forever. I'm talking about the mighty
God. I'm talking about our Savior,
the Redeemer, the Lord Jesus. Then He breathed out His life
and after three days He raised Himself to life again which was
for the justification of His people. Then again I believe
His works of grace in His elect make all who believe or make
all who experience these works of grace to know that Christ
Jesus is the mighty God. In other words, I'm not referring
you to history. I'm bringing you down to your
personal experience. Your personal experience in the
grace of God ought to teach you that Jesus is the mighty God. Now what do I mean by that? Well,
who but God could make rebels, such as you and I were, willing
in the day of His power Who could subdue our sins within us? Who could clear our conscience
of the guilt that was accumulated by years of sinning against God? Who could clear, I say, our conscience? Who could deliver us from the
power of Satan? Who could keep us in the hour
of temptation? And many of us have come through
some very, very difficult and trying temptation. But who could
keep us except the mighty God? Brother, sister, if it was not
for God and for Christ and His keeping of us daily, every one
of us, I'm sure, would have succumbed long ago to the temptations of
the flesh. And then, who could restore us?
when we fall, except the mighty God. And about every one of us
here, although we might not have went publicly with our fall,
every one of us here at different times in our Christian life,
every one of us have fallen, as it were, and slipped. Every
one of us have gotten into a backslidden state, and we needed to be restored. And our experience is this, beloved,
that it's the hand of the mighty God, the Lord Jesus Christ, that
has restored us to fellowship. David said, He restoreth my soul. And so it is God that does this. And who is it that comforts our
hearts in trouble? Who could do that but the mighty
God? Have you ever been cast down? Have you ever been vexed
and burdened? I mean above and beyond your
ability to almost sustain yourself? Well, it's the mighty God who
comes and comforts our hearts in the time of trouble. He keeps
us in peace in this world and He preserves us in grace and
faith. And so I'm telling you this morning
that our experience as God's people teaches us that the name
of Jesus, the mighty God, that this is a true name. It's a true name. Now then, we
who believe know by experience that Christ is God, the mighty
one. Then we read also here that His
name will be the Everlasting Father. Well, what in the world
could that possibly mean? The Everlasting Father? Well,
Isaiah here is declaring the mediatorial character of the
Lord Jesus Christ, who's the Son of God, the second person
of the Godhead. And in his mediatorial character,
Christ is the Everlasting Father. Well, what does that mean? Well,
it means this to me. It means that Christ is the father
of an elect race. It means that God's elect were
given to Christ as his children and his offspring in the covenant
of grace from everlasting. That's what it means to me. and
adopted into that family that bears His name. All of the offsprings,
all of the chosen people of God were given to Christ in the covenant
of grace from everlasting and adopted into that family that
bears His name and that is the Lord's family, that's God's family,
All of God's elect is in that family, makes up that one family
of God. And Jesus Christ is the everlasting
Father of all of the elect. Now in time, each elect child
of God is born again by His regenerating grace and by the power of His
Spirit. Regeneration and faith do not
make men and women the children of God, but it reveals that they
are the children of God from everlasting. It reveals it. So
when you're brought to regeneration, when you're born again, and you're
brought to faith in Christ, it just simply reveals that you're
a child of the everlasting Father, who is the Lord Jesus Christ,
and that in old eternity, He set His love upon you, and His
affection upon you, and He determined and purposed that you would be
His child, and that He would be your Father everlastingly. Now then, Jesus Christ is a father
to God's adopted children unto everlasting eternity. That's
what it means. Everlasting eternity, he is the
father of all of those that are adopted into God's family. Now because he can never die,
we will never be left fatherless. God's people will always have
a father. He'll be a father and we will
be his sons and his daughters forever because he is our father
who cannot die. As our father, he supplies us
with everlasting provisions of grace, clothes us with an everlasting
garment of righteousness, and gives us an everlasting inheritance. Now, This will promote everlasting
honor and glory unto His name. All this that He's done on the
behalf of His elect. And so He is the everlasting
Father and He saves us with what kind of a salvation? With an
everlasting salvation. We do not believe that God saves
a man and then takes that salvation back. We believe that when God
saves a man or a woman, boy or girl, that they're saved everlastingly. They're saved with an everlasting
salvation. Christ is the father of eternity. He is the author of eternal life. He purchased it for his elect
and he gives it to them and he's the one to whom eternity belongs. He inhabits and possesses eternity. Now Christ is the eternal I am. who is before all things, and
by whom all things consist. He was set up as our Mediator
by the Everlasting Father from eternity, having glory with the
Father before the world was, in whom eternal election was
made, and of whom everlasting covenant was established. And
so Christ is the Father of all of His people, and He's the Father
of the world to come. Now listen to me just a moment.
I'll be through just a little while. The law came by Moses
and he was the father of the legal dispensation. But grace
and truth came by Christ and he is the father of the gospel
dispensation. He is the one who makes all things
new. And all the doctrines, the ordinances
of the gospel dispensation were given in and by Him. And when
this gospel age has ended, Christ will come again to raise His
children from the dead, to inhabit a new heaven and a new earth,
an eternal world which is yet to come. Christ is the everlasting
Father. And I believe this morning that
you and I can take comfort and consolation from this name of
our Savior, the Everlasting Father. Now just a quick word here about
this last name here given of our Lord, the Prince of Peace. He's the Prince of Peace. Now
what that means to me, and that's all I can tell you is what it
means to me, It means that His kingdom lies not in meat and
drink, but it lies in righteousness and joy and peace in the Holy
Ghost. His royal proclamation of the
gospel is peace, peace. The fruit of His Spirit is love,
joy, and peace. The subjects of his kingdom are
both peaceable and they are peacemakers. He is called the Prince of Peace
because it is his sovereign prerogative to give and to speak peace to
his people. And there is no real peace in
the world but that which he bestows. Only when you've got peace, peace
from him Only then do you have real peace. Christ gives peace
which passes all understanding. The Bible says to those who trust
Him. He who made peace with God for
sinners by the blood of His cross freely gives peace to sinners
by His almighty grace. No one will ever apply to Christ
for peace until they're in trouble And until they have distress
of soul, and until they're made to feel their danger, until there's
bitterness of soul, and until they know the consequences of
sin, and they're made to see the impossibility of helping
themselves. Now whenever people come to that
place, then with a weary, heavy-laden heart, Sinners are brought to
seek him I believe that he steps out upon the bow of their troubled
tempest-tossed ship and Reveals himself in boundless grace and
says to their raging soul peace be still I'm talking about our
Savior the Lord Jesus he can say peace be still and immediately
as there was in the gospel of When the Lord Jesus said to the
raging waves, peace be still, immediately there was a great
calm. Now beloved, this morning if
your soul is in a state of bitterness, and if you're weary and heavy
laden, and you have no rest for your heart, no rest for your
soul, and no peace, but your soul is like the sea that is
tossed to and fro by the wind Maybe this morning the Lord Jesus,
who is the Prince of Peace, may speak to your soul and say, peace
be still. And immediately there would come
calm to your heart. Well, I'm talking about the Prince
of Peace. This is his name. Now, I felt
this morning that I had to bring these thoughts to your heart.
And I'm going to be away for a while. I don't know how long
I'll be away, but I've got several appointments to fill out east,
and only God knows what time's going to bring. I have several
engagements and some situations to take care of in Indiana, West
Virginia, and Wisconsin, and I don't know what time's going
to bring. There's a brother down in Bozeman, Brother Don Collett,
who will be up a couple of times in the month of June here to
preach. Brother Baker was talking to
me last night. He called me and he said he might
be up at the end of June and he would speak for you one Sunday.
Bring a message one Sunday morning for you. And I covet your prayers. There's a lot of things that
I don't know about. I don't know what to do about
right now. There's a church in Indiana where
I used to preach there that wants me to preach two months for them.
And I don't know whether I'll be able to do that or not. I
told them that I just wasn't sure about what I could do. And
so I don't know what time is going to bring, but I covet your
prayers. And I hope that God will be pleased
to direct you and be with you here, meet with you here. God
is omnipresent. He's everywhere. And God can
meet with you here and bless you as he meets with his people
everywhere and blesses them. And Brother Larry and Mike will
be in charge of the services and I hope that you will remember
what you've been taught and that you will abide in the truth of
the gospel and meet together faithfully to worship the Lord
in my absence. I hope that God will be pleased
to bring us together again in his divine purpose. May the Lord
bless you and encourage you.