For Isaiah saith, the passage
we just read, Lord, who hath believed our report? Now that tells me right off the
bat that the gospel is to be obeyed. It's a message to be
obeyed. Then he quotes Isaiah, who hath
believed our report. This was Isaiah's complaint.
And I understand that, who hath believed our report? And to whom
is the arm of the Lord revealed? Now that's who believes, whoever
the arm of the Lord is revealed to. Whoever he reveals himself
to, they believe the report, don't they? But when Isaiah makes
this complaint, and it's a complaint, He doesn't give up and quit.
He gives what I believe is the most detailed explanation of
the person and work of Christ that you find anywhere in all
the Bible, New Testament included. Isaiah 53 could well be called
the Mount Everest of the Old Testament. You know, the similarities
between Isaiah and the Bible are remarkable. The Bible has
66 books, 39 Old Testament, 27 New Testament. Isaiah has 66
chapters. And at the end of the 39th chapter,
there's a transition. It's like it goes from the Old
Testament to the New Testament. That's where the first 39 chapters
deal with the Babylonian captivity and the judgments of God against
them. And then all of a sudden, in chapter 40, he breaks out,
Come, ye my people. And then we have the 27 books
of the New Testament. And some have called this the
gospel of Isaiah, and some have called it the fifth gospel. I'm
not so sure it shouldn't be called the first gospel. The Gospel
of Isaiah. Nowhere do we ever find such
clear exposition concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. His life,
His death, His substitution, His satisfaction, His resurrection,
His intercession as the Messiah, Jehovah's servant, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And this deals with the most
important question there is. the question that transcends
all other questions. How can a sinner be right with
God? Now, if you would Google what the most asked question
is, I doubt that that would make it. Most people would consider that
a dull and uninteresting subject. How can God be just and justify
the ungodly? Most people don't even consider
that, don't even think about it. But if you have any understanding
of the holiness of God and your own sinfulness, this is a question
that you want to hear answered over and over and over again. You don't say, well, I've got
that down pat. Let's go on to other things. No, this is something
you want to hear over and over and over again. And it becomes
more thrilling. It becomes more glorious. when you see this thing of how
God can be just and yet justify somebody like me. Well, I was,
after I read that 53rd chapter and Claire was making those comments
on it, I thought, he died for me. He died for, he had my name on
his heart. He knew me. He died for me. Now, I understand this. Faith is not believing that Christ
died for you. You can believe Christ died for
you and not be saved. Did you know that? Faith is not
believing Christ died for you. Faith is believing He's the Savior.
Assurance is when you believe He died for you. You have assurance
then because you know that if He died for you, you must be
saved. And I pray that the Lord will
give all of us assurance of the benefits of his death, that when
he died, he had me on his heart. That's so amazing. Now, we'd probably do well to stay
in Isaiah 53 for the next year, but maybe we should because there,
like I said, is not a more important chapter in all the Word of God
than Isaiah chapter 53. Now, we're actually going to
start in verse 13 of chapter 52, but I've got five points
to this message. The astonishing servant, the
scorned servant, the substitutionary servant, the silent servant,
and the successful servant. Now what I think is so glorious
about Isaiah 53, this was written 700 years before the death of
Christ. And it's all spoken of in the
past tense. It's all spoken of as something
that's already been done. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. It's spoken as a thing already
done. And here's why. In Revelation chapter 13, verse
8, we read that he's the lamb slain from the very foundation
of the world. This has always been the most
glorious subject there is, Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And we have the clearest exposition
of the person and work of Christ right here, written 700 years
before it even happened. You know, somebody says, I don't
believe the Bible is the word of God. Well, it is. It is. And Isaiah chapter 53
is as much a proof of it as anything else. All these things spoken
of that our Lord would do and what he would accomplish right
here 700 years before it took place. Now, this chapter also
is the most quoted chapter in all of the New Testament. Isaiah
chapter 6 verse 10 is the most quoted verse, but this chapter,
Isaiah chapter 53, is quoted, parts of it, in over half the
books of the New Testament. That gives us some idea of the
importance of this glorious chapter. I've entitled this message, The
Report. The Report. By God's grace, would you give
me your ear and pretend like you've never heard the gospel
before, like this is the first time you've ever heard, and listen
up, the report. Now let's begin in Isaiah 52,
verse 13. God is speaking, And he says, behold my servant. Now don't you reckon if God says
behold, we ought to behold? He's saying that to me. He's saying that to you. Behold
my servant shall deal prudently. And my marginal reading says
he'll prosper. He'll be successful. That's the
first thing he says about him. He should be successful. Now,
understand this. The first point I'd like to make is the only
Christ there is is a successful Christ. He's going to succeed
in whatever he does. And if somebody is preaching
a Christ that is not absolutely successful, he's preaching a
false Christ. Now, you write this down. He
must be successful. He must succeed in whatever he
does. Now, the Christ of universal
redemption, the Christ that died for all men and made salvation
available to all men, that Christ is an idol. He's not true. He's not real. He's the figment
of man's imagination. Now, here's the point. Whenever
I preach the gospel, I want to preach a Christ, the Christ of
the scripture, who actually died for God's elect and accomplished
their salvation. He didn't die for everybody.
Now somebody says, why would you want to make a point of that?
Because it seems negative. It seems negative to say he didn't
die for everybody. Why do people even need to hear that, that
he didn't die for everybody? Well, for one reason, because
the Lord said, I lay down my life for the sheep. And not everybody's
a sheep. He said, you're not of my sheep
as I said to you, but here's the point. Here's the point.
He's successful. If He died for you, you must
be saved because He's successful. And if you tell me of a Christ
who can die for me and I wind up in hell anyway, you're telling
me about a Christ who's a failure. He intended to do something and
it didn't get done. That Christ won't do me any good.
A Christ that can't save unless I do my part, that won't do me
any good at all. I need a successful Christ. He shall deal prudently, or he
shall prosper, or he shall be successful. Oh, don't you love
to think of his success? I love that scripture, they spake
of the deceased, which he should accomplish. You see, he accomplished
something by his death. He's successful. Now, the only
motive for man presenting the gospel of Christ and not presenting
it in his successful death for the elect. The only motive a
man would have in trying to present the Christ and bypass that is
because they're trying to remove the offense from the cross and
make it more palatable to the natural man. That's the only
reason you do that. There are no other reasons. No,
the Christ of the Bible, he's successful. If he died for you,
my dear friend, you must be saved. You can't run the risk of the
hazard of the possibility of anything but saved if he died
for you. He shall succeed. He shall prosper. Behold, my servant shall deal
prudently. He shall be exalted and extolled
and be very high. I love the way Isaiah saw him
in Isaiah chapter 6 verse 1 when he said, in the year the king
Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting on a throne high and
lifted up. Now, the only way the Christ
of the Bible can be presented is high and lifted up. And I'm
a failure trying to lift Him up enough or preaching Him high
enough. I can't do it. It's impossible.
That's one of the frustrating things about preaching. There's
no way I can preach Him as high as He is. He's extolled. He's exalted. He's very high.
That's the Christ of the Bible. Look what it says in verse 14,
as many were astonished at Thee. His visage was so marred more
than any man in his form, more than the sons of men. That's
talking about his death. His visage, his face, you couldn't
even tell he was a human being. His beard was ripped out. He had the crown of thorns on
his head, bleeding. You couldn't even tell who he
was. He wasn't recognizable. His visage was more marred than
anybody else's. And here, once again, I'm talking
about something I think, this is so high and holy and glorious.
And I'm trying to look at what it says in verse
15. So shall he sprinkle many nations. The blood of sprinkling
that speaks better things than that of Abel. That's talking
about the putting away of the sins. And the kings shall shut
their mouths at him. Now that's quite a statement.
They don't have anything to say. They hear the gospel and they
don't know what to say. How do you respond? What do you
say? I'm listening. I'm considering, but I feel like
it would be wrong for me to say anything. What do you say to
this, other than you bow and you worship? The kings shall
shut their mouths at Him, for that which had not been told
them shall they see, and that which they have not heard shall
they consider. Oh, would to God that our mouths
would be shut tonight, and that we would hear His Word. Now, the scorned, servant. We've read of this astonishing
servant that is so high and glorious that the kings of the earth don't
even have anything to say. His visage marred, yet totally
successful, totally prosperous. That's the astonishing servant,
the Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man. Isn't he astonishing in his person?
Fully God, just as though he were not man at all. Fully man,
just as though he were not God at all. What an astonishing person! What a glorious person! And yet,
look at how he is the scorned servant, Jehovah's scorned servant. Verse 1 of chapter 53, Who hath
believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the
Lord revealed? Christ Jesus is the arm of the
Lord, the power of God. He shall grow up before him as
a tender plant and as a root out of a dry ground." Have you
ever seen dry, parched, cracked ground, nothing but dirt, cracked
and maybe a little tiny plant coming up out of it, seemingly
so vulnerable, so weak? You know, Christ wasn't what
we expected Him to be. Not in any way. He's not who the Jews
were thinking the Messiah would be. He comes up as a root out
of dry ground. Look what it says in verse two.
He hath no form nor comeliness. There's nothing about him physically
that we would have been impressed with. You think of how we're
impressed with people physically. Somebody's big and tall and good
looking and you think, oh, what an impressive person. Then somebody's
not like that, you don't give them a, he's the person you wouldn't
give a second thought to. If you would have seen him physically,
it would have meant nothing to you. He had no form nor comeliness. There's no beauty that we should
desire. And he didn't have anything physical
about him that would have drawn us to him. He was just a plain
Joe. We wouldn't have seen anything
about him that would have caught our attention. Verse 3, he is
despised and rejected of men. You know men hated the Lord Jesus
Christ while he walked upon this earth? The very first sermon
he preached went back to his hometown in Nazareth. They picked
him up and led him up to the top of a cliff and they would
have thrown him down headlong. They wanted to kill him. They
were so mad at what he said. They hated what he said about
his father. They hated what he said about himself, his claims.
They hated what he said about men. They didn't love him. He
was despised and rejected of men. Everybody that was anybody
turned thumbs down on him. They had no love for him. He's
despised and rejected of men. A man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. Man of sorrows, what a name for
the Son of God who came. Ruined sinners to reclaim, hallelujah,
what a Savior. Acquainted with grief, and you
think of the grief he experienced, and there's no way you and I
can understand this, but I can make some comments about it. Sin just doesn't bother us much. Oh, we feel bad about it sometimes,
but We don't recoil at sin. We're used to it. We're used
to it. We were born sinful. And it's a way of life. It's
a way of thinking. We're used to it. But he knew
no sin. And how do you think it was for
him to walk this earth seeing what he saw, hearing what he
heard, being around the people he was around, His holy nature. Oh, he was a man of grief. He
was acquainted with sorrows and grief, being around people like
me and you all the time. I think of one time he said,
how long shall I suffer you? I think of that. How long shall
I suffer you? Bring him to me. Can you imagine
him wanting to be around you? Think about that. Him desiring
your company? I mean, he would. That just shows
how we are, because the sinners came to him. And a sinful man
could come into his presence and not feel threatened, not
feel judged. But still, it's amazing to think,
when you know what you are, and to think of him being around
you, him being around me. Look what it says. We hid, as
it were, our faces from him. He was despised, and we esteemed
Him not. Now, to me, that, I suppose,
might be the saddest verse in the Bible. As glorious as He
is, we esteemed Him not. I don't suppose there's a greater
indictment against us than that, that we could actually not esteem,
disesteem the glorious Son of God. We hid our faces from him.
I mean, he was one of those people, we saw him, we didn't want to
be identified with him. We'd turn around. You've seen
people like that. You saw them turn around. You
don't want to face them. Well, that's the way people were
with the Lord Jesus Christ. The scorned servant. Verse four. the substitutionary servant.
Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken,
smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him, and with his stripes we're healed. All we, like sheep,
have gone astray. We've turned everyone to his
own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. Now, 11 times in those three
verses I just read, the pronouns we, our, and us were used. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. Who are the we, the our, and
the us? He was wounded for our transgressions. By his stripes, we are healed. Who are these people? Well, they're
the people he died for. The same us as Romans 8.31, if
God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not His own
Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not also
with Him freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
is He that can condemn? It's Christ that died, yea, rather
that's risen again, who's even at the right hand of God, who
also maketh intercession for us. Now that's the us, that's
the we, that's the our He's speaking of. You see, an absolute substitution
took place. If I believe that he died for
everybody and some of those people he died for end up in hell anyway,
all I do is make his death utterly meaningless. That's it. Doesn't even make, no real substitution
took place. But there was a real substitution
that took place where he bore my sins. My sins were lifted
off of me. And God can do that. And only
God can do that. You know, I never will forget
when Jim Baker, that preacher that got in trouble back in the
80s, got in trouble, and they were interviewing. And they said,
well, what about your sin? He said, now, well, I've, he
said, I've taken those sins and put them under the blood. And
I thought, oh. You can do that. Do you actually think that you
have the authority to take your sins and put them under the blood
of Christ? You got the right? No, no man
can do that, but God can. He has the authority to take
my sin. Of course he has the authority.
He is authority. That's who he is. I shouldn't say. He took my sins off of me. and placed Him in His Son. Who
His own self bear our sins in His own body on the tree. And listen to me, if He took
them off of Himself or took them off me and placed them on His
Son, you know who doesn't bear them anymore? Me. Sin cannot be two places at once.
He took my sin and my sorrow. He made them his very own. He bore the burden to Calvary
and suffered and died alone. He was wounded for my transgressions.
He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him and by his stripes were healed. Complete healing
through the substitutionary work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the
cross. You know, here's our confession
in verse 6. Isn't this your confession? All we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone to his
own way. That's all you can say about
us. We've gone astray. We've turned to our own way.
We've not turned to him. We've turned away from him. Turned
to our own way. And the Lord hath laid upon him
have made to meet upon him the iniquity of us all. He bore our griefs, carried our
sorrows, wounds, bruised and beaten with stripes. And here's
why. The Lord hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all. He took it off us and put it
on him. And he bore it away. And I love
to think of the angels saying after the resurrection of Christ,
Mary didn't know where he was. She didn't even know he died. I mean, she didn't know he was
raised from the dead. And the angel said, come behold the place
where the Lord lay. Now he went in there with my
sins. He went out of there without
my sins. What do you see there? Nothing. An empty tomb. Come see the place
where the Lord lay. Oh, the substitutionary work
of Christ. Now look in verse 7. The silent
servant. We've seen the astonishing servant.
We've seen the scorned servant. We've seen the substitutionary
servant. But now listen to the silent servant. And this is what
Philip heard the Ethiopian eunuch reading when he came up to him
in Acts chapter 8. And he was reading that passage of scripture.
You remember the eunuch said, of whom speaketh the prophet?
Himself or some other man? When Philip came to him and said,
do you understand what you're reading? He said, how can I,
except some man guide me? And he invited him up into the
chariot, and he was reading the scripture there. And he asked,
Philip, that question, of whom speaketh the prophet, himself
or some other man? And at that same scripture, Philip
opened his mouth and preached unto him, Jesus. I hope in the
Lord's providence Sometimes somebody comes up to me and says, what
in the world does Isaiah 53 mean? Wouldn't that be a blessing for
somebody to come up to you and ask you what in the world is that?
Who's he talking about? Well, the silent servant. Verse seven, he was oppressed
and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He has brought us a lamb to the
slaughter, and as a sheep before her shears is dumb, so openeth
not he his mouth." He didn't speak. Now, we have all been
accused falsely before. Every one of us have. We've all
had things projected to us that we weren't guilty of, and people
projected them on us. We've all had that happen to
us. When that happens to you, what do you want to do? You want to defend yourself. That's the natural response.
It's generally not the best response, probably is never the best response,
but it's what you want to do. You want to defend yourself. Why didn't the Lord defend himself? Why was he the silent servant
when all these things, these accusations were brought against
him that were not true? And yet he opened not his mouth. He didn't say a word while they
were bringing on him all these railing accusations. He remained
silent. He didn't try to defend himself.
Why? Only one reason. Because he was
guilty. He was made sin and he was guilty. He didn't try to defend himself.
His mouth remained closed because I'm guilty. What am I going to
say? You know, on the cross, when
he cried out, My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Isn't
that amazing how at this time, He didn't feel like I could even
call Him Father? He had no mercy. He had no sense of God's presence. He had no sense of God's favor. Nothing but the awful frown and
wrath of God. And He couldn't even call Him
Father. He lost His sense of Sonship. Do I know what any of that means? I'm just amazed. I stand amazed
in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene and wonder how he could
love me, a sinner, condemned, unclean. He didn't say anything
because he knew he truly was guilty and he himself deserved
the wrath of God. You see, my sin became his sin. My sin became his sin. He was
guilty. Thank God just as truly as my
sin became his sin, his righteousness becomes my very personal righteousness
before God. Verse 8, he was taken from prison
and judgment. Who shall declare his generation?
For he was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression
of my people. Was he stricken? My margin of reasoning says he
was taken away by distress and judgment. He bore the full wrath
of God, the full equivalent of an eternal hell. He was cut off
as our substitute. And the thing of it is, he died.
Now that, to me, that's the most mysterious part of the gospel.
Lot of mystery in the gospel, isn't there? But to think that
the Son of God actually died. There was a time in his experience
when all of a sudden, After knowing no sin, never having sin, all
of a sudden he was made sin. And he felt all the hellishness
of sin. And then he actually died. Verse 9 says, He made His grave
with the wicked and with the rich in His death. You know,
it was prophesied that He would be buried in a rich man's tomb.
I mean, it's amazing. You know, if you read the account
of the death of Christ and all the things that happened, it's
almost like everything that goes, well, what do we do next? Well, here's
Psalm 22 says we do this. Or Isaiah 53 says we did this.
You know, I mean, there's just so, it's so detailed. So detailed. All of it. And He was buried
in a rich man's grave, because he had done no violence, neither
was any deceit in his mouth. But last of all, we read of the
successful servant. Verse 10, yet, and here's another one of those
glorious scriptures, it pleased the Lord to bruise him. Now, you know that doesn't mean
the Lord got some kind of sadistic pleasure out of inflicting pain
on His Son. But the Lord was satisfied with
His death. Satisfied. The moment He died,
justice was satisfied. The moment He died, God was completely
satisfied with me. That's how much His death, life,
death, and resurrection is salvation. It pleased the Lord to bruise
Him. You see, this was always the Lord's purpose. He's called,
I've already quoted this once, Revelation 13, 8, the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. The Lamb literally having been
slain from the foundation of the world. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
Him. He had put Him to grief. when thou shalt make his soul
an offering for sin. Now see that word offering for
sin? When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. That
same word is quite often translated in the Old Testament, sin. And it's also translated guiltiness. When thou shalt make his soul
sin. when thou shalt make his soul
guiltiness. There's a fella that came to
church here for quite a while and he left, and he said regarding
that statement, he said, that's just not right. That's just not
right, to actually think that Christ could actually be made
to sin. That's just not right. He said,
I don't believe that. It's okay. Still so, whether you believe
it or not. That's what the scripture says,
and that's the only hope me and you have, that my sin actually became his
sin. I've heard people say with regarding
to 2 Corinthians 5.21, for he hath made him to be a sin offering. Not sin, but what that means
is a sin offering. He's made him to be a sin offering.
Well, how would this sound? For he hath made him to be a
sin offering who knew no sin offering. Doesn't even make sense,
does it? No, he made him to be sin who knew no sin, that we
might be made the very righteousness of God in him. He shall see his
seed because he made him an offering for sin. He shall see his seed,
all of the elect. He shall prolong his days, oh,
the length of his days after the resurrection. They're forever. And the pleasure of the Lord
shall prosper in his hand. Now, up to this point, all the
words have been spoken of in the past tense. But now, Isaiah
quits speaking and the Father begins to speak. Look what he
says in verse 11. He shall see. Now it's future. He shall see of the travail of
his soul. And he shall be what? Satisfied. Completely, eternally, utterly
satisfied. And he is satisfied with me. He is satisfied with every single
believer. You're beautiful. You're without
sin. You're without fault. That's
the only thing he can be satisfied with, is perfection. He shall
see the travail of his soul and be satisfied by his knowledge.
Shall my righteous servant justify many? You know, justification
was taught in the Old Testament, wasn't it? By his knowledge shall
my righteous servant justify many, and here's how it comes,
he shall bear their iniquities. And if he bore my iniquities,
he paid for them. He gave me his righteousness,
and I'm justified. Therefore, verse 12, the successful
servant, therefore will I divide him a portion with the great,
and he shall divide the spoiled with the strong. Now who are
these people, the great and the strong? The same people who like
sheep, went astray and turned everyone to his own way. Now
we're given the New Testament account of these people. I love,
you know, you look in the scriptures, you read about Sarah, for instance,
when the Lord told her she'd have a child, she laughed. Then the Lord said, why is she
laughing? She said, I didn't laugh. She lied. I mean, in the
very presence of the Lord, she's scared to death. But you read
her account, it was an account of unbelief. And yet, when the
writer to the Hebrews speaks of her, he says, by faith, Sarah
received strength to conceive seed. What about Moses? Moses murders a man. Finds out
Pharaoh hears about it, he's scared to death. He hides the
body in the sand, and he flees away. He runs away, scared to
death. And when the New Testament talks about the same account,
it says, by faith, Moses, fearing not the wrath of the king. You
know, the New Testament story is the true story. If you want
to know the true story of my life, it's perfect. That's what
the Lord accomplished. You think of Lot. Lot. If we didn't have the New Testament
account, I guarantee you not one of us would think he was
even saved. Yet, the New Testament account, just Lot. That righteous
man with his righteous soul. Now these People who had gone
everyone to his own way, they're now called the great and the
strong. And if I belong to Christ, that's
God's view of me, the great and the strong. Therefore I divide
him in portion with the great and he shall divide the spoil
with the strong because he gives these four things he did. He
poured out his soul unto death. And he was numbered. That's the
word we get imputed from, the same word. You know, the Bible
has always taught imputation, always has. Here in the Old Testament,
he was numbered with the transgressors. Mark quotes this in his account
of the death of Christ. He says the reason he was there
was because he was numbered with the transgressors. He was counted by God as the
transgressor. He was numbered with the transgressors.
He was imputed to Him. And you know, imputation, what
a glorious, only God can do it, but He can take my sin and impute
it to His Son and it becomes His sin. And He can take the
very righteousness of His Son and impute it to me and it becomes
my righteousness. What a glorious gospel. He was
numbered with the transgression, transgressors. And he bare the
sin of many. And I've told you before, this
word bear is a different word than the bear in the previous
verse. This word means he became gravid. It's the word that's
used for being pregnant. And there is no relationship
closer than a woman with a child in her belly. what closeness
there is. That's how truly he was made
sin. It's like him becoming pregnant
with our sin. And he made intercession for
the transgressors. He bore their sin, he put it
away, and he made intercession for the transgressors. And let
me remind you this about the intercession of Christ. This is so important.
Well, I need him pleading for me, don't you? How many times
that David said, oh, plead my cause, plead my cause. I need
him as my intercessor. I need him to represent me before
the Father. I need him as my great high priest. But when he intercedes for his
people, understand this, he's not asking for a favor. He's not saying, oh, forgive
him again. I know they've done it 4,000 times, but forgive him
for this 4,000 first. No, that's not the way he intercedes.
That's not intercession. He shows the Father continually
his hands and his feet, and nothing else needs to be said. He stands
continually as my intercessor. my great high priest, that these
things write unto you, that you sin not, and if any man sin,
we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. It's a glorious chapter, isn't
it? Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for your
word. How we thank you for this one that your word tells us of
who took our sins and our sorrows and made them his very own and
bore the burden to Calvary and suffered and died alone. Lord,
how we thank you for our Redeemer. How we thank you for the glories of his person. How
we thank you for the success of his work. How we thank you
for his intercession. Lord, give us each the grace
to trust him completely. In his name we pray, amen. Now
after the service, we're going to recognize our high school
graduates, four of them. And it's amazing seeing these
kids grow up and all of a sudden, they're out of school. Out of the house before you know
it. Come on.