Please turn with me to the 19th
chapter, the 19th chapter of Isaiah. I was going to preach
the whole chapter tonight, but I don't believe I'm going to
be able to. I'm going to preach through verse 17 and finish it up next
week. Let's read the whole chapter
so you can look forward to what's going to come next week after
verse 17. The burden of Egypt. Behold, the Lord rideth upon
a swift cloud, and shall come into Egypt. The idols of Egypt
shall be moved at his presence, and the heart of Egypt shall
melt in the midst of it. And I will set the Egyptians
against the Egyptians, and they shall fight every one against
his brother, and every one against his neighbor, city against city,
and kingdom against kingdom. And the spirit of Egypt shall
fail in the midst thereof. and I will destroy the counsel
thereof. They shall seek to the idols,
and to the charmers, and to them that have familiar spirits, and
to wizards. And the Egyptians will I give over into the land
of a cruel lord, and a fierce king shall rule over them, saith
the Lord, the Lord of hosts. The waters shall fail from the
sea, and the rivers shall be wasted and dried up. They shall
turn to rivers far away, and the brooks of defense shall be
emptied and dried up and the reeds and flags shall wither
the paper reeds by the brooks by the mouth of the brooks and
everything sewn in the brooks shall wither be driven away and
be no more the fishers also shall mourn and all they that cast
angle into the brooks shall lament they shall spread the nets upon
the waters shall languish that they that spread nets upon the
waters shall languish. Moreover, they that work in fine
flax, and they that weave networks, shall be confounded. They shall
be broken in the purposes thereof, all that make sluices and ponds
for fish. Surely the princes of Zoan are
fools. The counsel of the wise counselors of Pharaoh is become
brutish. How say ye unto Pharaoh, I am
the son of the wise, the son of the ancient kings? Where are
they? Where are thy wise men? Let them
tell thee now. Let them know what the Lord of
Hosts has purposed upon Egypt. The princes of Zoan are become
fools, the princes of Naphth are deceived. They have also
seduced Egypt, even they that are the stay of the tribes thereof.
The Lord hath mingled a perverse spirit in the midst thereof,
and they have caused Egypt to err in every work thereof, and
as a drunken man staggereth in his vomit Neither shall there
be any work for Egypt, which the head or the tail, branch
or rush, may do. In that day shall Egypt be like
a woman, or likened to women, and it shall be afraid in fear
because of the shaking of the hand of the Lord of hosts, which
he shaketh over it. The land of Judah shall be a
terror unto Egypt, even one that maketh mention thereof shall
be afraid in himself because of the counsel of the Lord of
hosts, which he hath determined against it. In that day shall
five cities in the land of Egypt speak the language of Canaan,
and swear unto the Lord of hosts. One shall be called the City
of Destruction. In that day there shall be an
altar unto the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar
at the border thereof to the Lord. It shall be for a sign
and for a witness unto the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt.
For they shall cry unto the Lord because of the oppressors, and
he shall send him a Saviour. and a great one, and he shall
deliver them. The Lord shall be known in Egypt,
and the Egyptians shall know the Lord in that day, and shall
do sacrifice and oblation. Yea, they shall vow a vow unto
the Lord, and perform it. And the Lord shall smite Egypt,
and shall smite and heal it, and they shall turn even to the
Lord, and he shall be entreated of them, and he shall heal them. And that day there shall be a
highway out of Egypt to Assyria and the Assyrians shall come
into Egypt, and the Egypt into Assyria, and the Egyptians shall
serve with the Assyrians. And that day shall Israel be
the third with Egypt, and with Assyria even a blessing in the
midst of the land, whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying,
Blessed be Egypt, my people, and Assyria, the work of my hands,
and Israel, mine inheritance. Let us pray. Father, we are full of wonder
at your greatness and your sovereignty, your rule over and in the affairs
of men. We are thankful that you do as
you please in heaven and earth and all the deep places. And
we are grateful that you have given us account of so many of
these instances where humanity can never begin to grasp a religion
that can't make sense of that you would say unto your enemy
I will destroy you and bring you down to nothing and then
raise you up and set you among princes we rejoice that thou
art God and that your thoughts are not our thoughts we know
when it comes to our enemies we don't want to be around them
we don't want them even to exist. We know that we were once your
enemies by nature and by heart. Our mind and will set upon you
and set against you to take you off that blessed throne and put
ourselves on it. And yet by your grace and mercy
you brought us down to nothing. Like the prodigal son who looked
with envy at the husks that the pigs ate and then brought us
home. We praise you for it. Help us
tonight as we look at this passage to rejoice in the greatness of
our God and the wonder and beauty of our Savior. Father, we ask
for those who are sick going through trials. Thou knowest
every case. Thou knowest there are many in
this congregation who are suffering right now, awaiting different
treatments who are having serious matters of the heart and the
emotion. Now know it's every case. We pray that you'd speak
to every heart, every one of them. Comfort them and fix their
eyes and hearts upon Jesus Christ. We ask Lord that you'll help
tonight, that we might worship you in spirit and in truth. We
are helpless. We are frail, faulty, full of
sin, yet we know that you are able to turn our eyes to Jesus
Christ. Cause it to be so, Father, we
pray in Christ's name. Amen. The title of my message is taken
from a verse here in this passage of Scripture when our Lord says,
In verse 22, the Lord shall smite Egypt and he shall smite and
heal it. He shall smite and heal it. The
title of my message is Smitten and Healed. Many years ago, a man named John
Flavell wrote a book. It was called The Method of Grace.
It was a great little book which he set forth the premise that
though the Lord saves personally, dealing with his elect individually,
that God's grace always followed an observable and discernible
course in the salvation of his people. In other words, certain
elements of the salvation of sinners are always the same,
though circumstances may vary. Last week we saw the Lord defeat
and rout his enemies and then graciously turn the hand of mercy
upon them. We saw through that that there
was a picture of us as the enemies of God whom he has saved. The
same scenario is true in the account of the destruction and
salvation of Egypt. Hardly think that the word Egypt
and salvation could ever be together. Even in the book of Revelation,
the false teachers are called Egypt and Sodom. So it's a strange
combination, but here our Lord tells us that No matter how bad
we are and how much of an enemy we are, we ought not despair
the grace of God. God is gracious to the worst
kind of people. The Lord is not in the business
of saving nations, however, but individuals out of nations. The
salvation is referred to as the salvation of Egypt is in the
same sense that might be said of an animal lover who saved
the last one of the species and thus was accounted as saving
the species. If the Lord saves some Egyptians,
then in effect he has saved Egypt. And the method of that grace
follows a particular course. We saw in verse 22, and the Lord
shall smite Egypt. He shall smite it and heal it.
Smile it and heal it, and they shall return even to the Lord,
and he shall be entreated, or shall hear them, and he shall
heal them. When Hannah praised the Lord
in prayer for the birth of Samuel, she declared the method of grace. We see it here in this passage
of scripture, smitten and healed, smitten and healed. Turn over
to 1 Samuel if you will, turn back to 1 Samuel rather, chapter
2. You know the story of Hannah. She loved her husband, but bore
him no children, because the Lord had shut up her womb. And
she prayed to the Lord to open her womb, because the woman who
was her husband's other wife had given him ten children. And
the Lord opened her womb, and before he opened her womb, she
said, if you'll give me a child, I'll give him back to you. And
so she gave Samuel back to him when he was born. But when she
did conceive and gave birth, she worshipped the Lord. She
worshiped the Lord for his kindness and she said some things that
are very important. Now I must, as far as the historical
count, she's talking about the difference between her and Penina,
the other woman. But she's also setting forth
the principle of God's grace. She couldn't bear children. Why
couldn't she bear children? The Lord shut up her womb. That's
what it says in the scripture. And then when she prayed unto
the Lord, He gave her a child. Penina never prayed to the Lord
for children. She was not barren. She had children
all over the place. She didn't need the Lord. She
had a fertile womb. But our Lord fixed it so Hannah
would eventually pray to Him and bring forth a child that
she would give to His church. How'd He do that? He shut up
her womb. It's the Lord that shut up her womb. And from that
scenario, and then from the fact that Penina had mocked her and
laughed at her, said, you don't have any children. I've given
your husband ten children. Though her husband loved Hannah, though
Hannah's husband loved her ten times more than he loved Penina.
He gave her ten times more stuff. He wanted to show her how much
he loved her. When finally she bore that son, she prayed this
prayer in chapter 2. And Hannah prayed and said, My
heart rejoiceth in the Lord My horn, or my confidence, is exalted
in the Lord. My mouth is enlarged over mine
enemies, because I rejoice in thy salvation. Now this is a
description of God's salvation. I rejoice in thy salvation. There
is none holy as the Lord. For there is none beside thee,
neither is there any rock like our God. Talk no more exceedingly
proudly. Let not arrogancy come out of
thy mouth. For the Lord is a God of knowledge,
and by him actions are weighed. The bows of the mighty men are
broken, and they that stumble are girded with strength. They
that were full have hired themselves up for bread, and they that were
hungry ceased, for no longer hungry. So that the barren hath
born seven, and she that hath born children is waxed feeble. Now here's the method of grace.
The Lord killeth, and he maketh alive. He bringeth down to the
grave. and he bringeth up. The Lord
maketh poor, and he maketh rich. He bringeth low, and he lifteth
up. He raiseth up the poor of the
dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them
among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory.
For the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and he hath set
the world upon them. That's the method of God's grace. He killeth, he maketh alive. He bringeth down to the grave
and he raises up. He takes the beggar from a dunghill
and sets him among princes. The Lord himself declared that
back in Deuteronomy. In Deuteronomy as he was getting
ready to send his people into the promised land. He said in
Deuteronomy 32 and verse 29, this is how he describes himself.
That was Hannah's description of salvation. That was Hannah's
description of God. Now the Lord describes himself
in Deuteronomy chapter 32 and verse 39. He said, See now, that
I, even I, am he. There is no God with me. I kill. I make alive, I wound, and I
heal. Neither is there any that can
deliver out of my hand. This is the method of grace,
and it is set forth clearly, this method, in this passage
of Scripture that we're looking at tonight. As we consider this
method of grace display, the historical aspect of this story
spans centuries, culminating in the incarnation and death,
burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. But as all things in
the Old Testament, the events were typical and are succinctly
disclosed in the operation of grace upon the heart and the
soul of the sinner as he is brought to the place where he calls out
to the Lord for mercy. This is the story of Christ saving
one of his enemies, and thus it applies to the salvation and
conversion of every sinner saved by grace. The method of grace
utterly destroys the false, blasphemous notion of what most of what is
called Christianity has embraced. Grace is not offered to anyone.
You'll not find it offered to Egypt. Grace is not set out as
a commodity, as an available commodity offered to everyone. Grace is not offered to anyone. You'll not find grace used in
that kind of language anywhere in Scripture. It is not on the
commercial shelf of some redemption superstore. Salvation is a work
and not your work. Salvation is a work. It is the
work of God Almighty. and is done in such a manner
that always has the selected sinner being brought to a place
where he must call out for mercy. The kingdom of God suffereth
violence, our Lord said, and the violent take it by force. When you come to Christ, you've
got nowhere else to go, but nobody's going to keep you from going.
You're going to have Christ because you must have Christ. You'll
never come up with that. We can't come up with that. Those
who are blessed, and they are blessed, to hunger and thirst
after righteousness, those are the ones that are filled. They
are blessed of God to hunger and to thirst. But the only way
to make a man thirsty or hungry is to remove his food and water.
That's how it works. You take away a man's food and
water, pretty soon he's going to be thirsty, and pretty soon
he's going to be hungry. Hunger and thirst are needs.
Their needs, needs that are felt and they are experienced. One
who is not thirsty or who is not hungry cannot be convinced
that he is thirsty and hungry no matter how hard you try because
he's not thirsty or hungry. Preachers stand up and say, you
need Christ. They don't know that. They can't
know that. Everybody don't need Christ.
Ask them. Men are satisfied with themselves,
they're satisfied with their lives, they're satisfied with
their positions. You tell them they need Christ, they'll think
you're stupid. You tell a man who's just drank a gallon of
water, you must be thirsty. I know you're thirsty for water.
I'm full, thank you. I don't need any water. Religion spends its time and
its energy trying to convince satisfied folk that they are
unsatisfied. That is a salesman. That's what
salesmen do. They tell you that your product
is inferior and you need a new product. They try to convince
you that you're not satisfied with what you have. That's how
that works. But we're not selling anything,
folks. Preachers aren't salesmen. They're men who stand up and
repeat what God has said. They simply tell it out. You
try to convince unsatisfied folks, or rather satisfied folks that
they're unsatisfied, finally they're going to relent just
to get the religious folks to shut up about it. They really
will. They'll do it, and they'll think
they've done something good. Listen here. God does not try
to convince men that they need Him. He's not in the business
of trying to convince you that you need Him. If you are His,
if He has set His affection on you, He strips you. He strips
you, removes from you that which you trust in, and creates a true
and real and experienced hunger and thirst. I must have Christ! I must have Him! Or else I die. How'd you get to that place?
Well, some preacher stood up and told me that I was thirsty.
No, that ain't how it happened. God took away your water. God
took away your food. God took away your carnal hope.
And when you had nothing left, you said, I must have Him. I
must have Him. The fact is that God has fixed
it so there's a let come to Him because they have nowhere else
to turn. If coming to Christ is a choice, no one will ever
choose. People don't choose to be thirsty.
People don't choose to be hungry. They're either thirsty or they're
not. And if they're thirsty for spiritual
things, it's because God the Spirit has moved upon them and
stripped them of all spiritual confidence. And this passage
is proof of that. It's proof of that. First, the
Lord's revelation of Himself is very important. In verse 1,
it says, The burden of Egypt, behold, the Lord rideth upon
a swift cloud. rideth upon a swift cloud. Picture
that in your mind. Here is a nation that hates God. Here is a nation that has enslaved
His people and they have been delivered. Here is a nation that
has formed alliances against the people of God. And all of
a sudden, across the sky, God appears, riding on a swift cloud. He does not come in beggars'
rags or as some solicitous salesman, promising what he cannot deliver
or telling you that he wants what he wants for you. He does
not stoop to the paltry inventions of men, nor does he employ the
trickery of psychobabble. He does not come to his elect
with a hallmark card about unrequited anemic affection. He comes above
it all, up yonder, outside, untouchable, moving with haste and speed,
riding upon a swift cloud. He comes as judge riding on swift
justice and who can abide His coming? When He comes, He comes
to strip. He comes to smite. He comes to
remove from the center His very last hope in this world and in
this flesh. And He's not petty. He's not
petty. He'll cross you at your point
of rebellion every time. You say, well, I believe, but
I'll not be baptized. You'll be baptized if you're
his. Why? Because that's where you're
fighting him. Go ahead and fight him where you want to. That's
where he's going to cross your path. He comes on a swift platter.
That's how he reveals himself, in power, in dignity, and on
high, and on high. He's not petty, but with methodical
precision, he rips from the center what is so tightly held in his
grasp. And the first thing to go is
the center's gods. The center's gods have got to
go. It says this, on a swift plan he shall come to Egypt,
and the idols of Egypt shall be moved in his presence, and
the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst thereof. The idols
of Egypt shall be moved in his presence. That's probably a metaphorical
language as they compare the gods they've made with their
hands, the gods that they've offered up their children to,
the gods that they've made out of iron and steel, the gods they've
made out of wood and stone. And they see this god coming
on a swift cloud. One of the words there is coming
in light. And light discloses darkness and sends it away. But here's the thing, the first
thing to go going to be your God. Because you got one, one
you made up in your mind, one you figured out, one you think
of how He is. You say, well, I believe this
is how God is. People say it all the time. God
is as He says He is, and He's like none other, and there is
no other God beside Him. So your little gods are going
to have to go. Martin, you say this, before I tell you about
my God, I'm going to have to kill yours first. I'm going to
have to kill your God first. And a lot of what is preached
in the gospel is God-killing. It's God-killing. It's called
being an iconoclast or casting down idols, casting down idols. With that hope vanished, the
heart of the sinners melted. What does that mean? It means
courage and confidence goes out the window. People are so proud
when God's not around. But I don't find any of this
mess that's going on in religion today happening in scripture
when God shows up. Do you? Do you find anybody trotting
around, popping their gums, singing cute songs when God shows up? What do they do? They hit the
dirt. They hit the dirt, afraid to
lift up their eyes, afraid to look at Him in His face, because
they know when He looks at them in the face, they're going to
die. They're going to die. Most of what religion is called
worship today is nothing more than laughing in the face of
Almighty God because God ain't showed up. Because when He shows
up, it's going to be a whole different ballgame. That hope
vanished, the heart melts, the confidence goes out the window.
The Lord says, friends are of no value. The spirit is brought
down. The counsel of those thought
wise will come to nothing. Fake religion will be of no comfort. and your cruel taskmaster will
be revealed. Look at verse 2. And I will set
the Egyptians against the Egyptians. There goes your friend, and they
shall fight every one against his brother. There goes your
family, and every one against his neighbor. There goes the
neighborhood, city against city, and kingdom against kingdom.
And the spirit of Egypt shall be failed in the midst thereof.
Have you ever been totally dispirited? You have spiritually if you are
a child of God. One day you just give up, because
you ain't got nothing left. Remember that, Peggy? Remember that night, Peggy? I
remember that night. One day you're going to surrender,
because you don't have nowhere to go. You don't have nowhere
to go. He said, I will destroy the council
thereof, all the wisdom of men. And men will want some help from
their former idols. They seek the idols. They seek
to the charmers, to them that have familiar spirits and wizards.
They look to the stars and to astrology, all that. People come
up with some of the goofiest things I've ever seen. And the Egyptians, will I give
over to a land of a cruel lord? Who's that? They're going to
realize who the boss has been all this time and didn't know
it. Satan has had you in his hands. You have been in his castle
captive, and it's going to take a stronger than him to come and
cast down that king that lets you out of your bondage. And
a fierce king shall rule over them, saith the Lord of hosts. Those things that have been a
given in the sinner's existence in the flesh will be dried up,
and the work of his hands shall be nothing. The rivers and waters
of the Nile and the Noah extremely important to the Egyptians. They
lived by that. They lived for the floods of
the Niles to wet the lands and they would go out after the flood
had receded and all that mud and they would put down the seed
and press it down with their foot and plant the different
crops in that muddy mess. They relied on that yearly flooding
of the Nile. They relied on that Nile for
life, for water, for all these things. They built sluices and
they raised fish in different places on those Niles. And our
Lord says, all that you counted on, because this is what they
looked to. They loved that God. They loved that Nile. That Nile was
a God to them. God said, I'm going to dry it
up. Everything you counted on. Everything you counted on. Verses
5 through 10 says, and the water shall fail from the sea. The
river shall be wasted and dried up. And they shall turn the waters
far away. One of the kings tried to actually
make a canal from the Red Sea to feed the Nile during a time
of drought. And over 150,000 men died in
that escapade, and it was never finished. It says that the brooks
of defense shall be emptied and dried up. And the reeds and the
flags shall wither. What does that mean? The reeds
and the flags were used to make a lot of things. They made mats. They made ships out of some of
those reeds. They made all kinds of things
that were useful in the household over there, like we made our
baskets, like we make our baskets around here. The paper reeds
by the brooks, what they used for papyrus, by the mouth of
the brooks, and everything sown by the brooks, everything you
planted in by the brooks, shall wither and be driven away and
be no more. and be no more. The fishers also
shall mourn, and they that cast angle into the brook shall lament,
and they that spread nets upon the water shall languish." There's
not going to be any fish because there ain't no water. There ain't no water. Moreover, they that work in fine
flax, and they that weave networks, flax-made quilts, clothing, they're
going to be confused. And they shall be broken in the
purposes thereof, their plans, their ideas, their plans and
purposes are going to be torn down. All that makes sluices
and ponds for fish are going to be confounded and lost. What
does that mean? Everything they count on for
the existence of their flesh is going to be dried up, and
the works of their hands are never going to accomplish anything. I remember the day when the Lord
showed me that. that the works of my hands and
my purposes and my intents amounted to zero. He killeth and he maketh alive. He brings
down to the grave and he lifts up. He takes the beggar from
the dumb hill and sets him among prisoners. The wisdom of this
world is going to come to nothing. It's going to come to nothing
Zohan and Noth were cities of great wisdom and power. Libraries
were established there. And our Lord says in verse 11,
Surely the princes of Zohan are fools. They're fools. The counsel of the wise counsels
of Pharaoh has become brutish like a beast. How say ye unto
the Pharaoh, I am the son of the wise, the son of the ancient
kings? How do you say to that man who's
a fool? You're really smart. Where are the wires? Where are
they? Now, Egypt was a great nation. Many great scientific
discoveries were made in Egypt. Those pyramids, as great and
as huge as they were, were built on the concept of pi, 3.14, and
I mean they were shot geometrically perfectly. How they did that,
I have no idea. I know they didn't have a pocket
calculator, but they was able to do it. Where are they? He said. Where's your wise men?
Let them tell thee now. Let them know what the Lord of
hosts has purposed on Egypt. The princes of Zoanna become
fools. The princes of Noth are deceived. They have also seduced
even they, Egypt, even they that are the state and the tribes
thereof. The Lord mingled a perverse spirit. The Lord sent them something
in their minds. Does that sound familiar at all? You remember over in
2 Thessalonians chapter 2 when he says, The Lord sent them a
strong delusion that they would believe a lie, and then damned
them for the lie that they believed. The Lord has mingled a perverse
spirit in the midst of them, and they have caused Egypt to
err in every work thereof, as a drunken man staggereth in his
own vomit. Not a very pretty picture. Neither
shall there be any work for Egypt. which the head or tail, branch
or rush may do." That means from top to bottom, from left to right,
from center to the outermost. Nothing they do is going to count.
Nothing they're going to do is of value. Does that sound familiar?
If that sounds familiar, of course it is. It's the Lord killing
and the Lord making alive. Look over at 1 Corinthians chapter
1. I believe Paul might have been reading from 1 Corinthians
Or rather from Isaiah chapter 19 when he penned these words
concerning what God said about the wisdom of this world. The wisdom of this world. In
1 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 1 and verse 19 he says, For it
is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the world. That's spoken
in Isaiah 29. I will destroy the wisdom of
the wise. And I will bring to nothing the
understanding of the prudent. That don't mean there won't be
wise men in the flesh, there won't be men who are prudent
in the flesh. It means the Lord will make men know and make all
his people know that that wisdom will get them nowhere. That that
wisdom amounts to nothing and counts for nothing in this world.
Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is
the disputer, debater of this world? Hath not God made foolish
the wisdom of the world? for after that in the wisdom
of God the world by its own wisdom could not know God. What a statement!
God is so wise that he made it where men's wisdom can never
bring that person to God by his own wisdom. And it pleased God
through the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Verse 21 of 1 Corinthians gives
us some sense to the meaning of verse 17 back in our passage
It says, in the land of Judah shall be a terror unto Egypt.
Everyone that maketh mention thereof shall be afraid in himself,
because of the counsel of the Lord of hosts, which he hath
determined against it. You ever wonder why people who
count themselves wise in this world despise the people of God? Now, I know a lot of people who
say they're of God. bring a lot of stuff on themselves
just because they're rear ends. Pardon the expression. But that's what they act like.
And they come up with stuff that has no value, that's not going
to change anything. They fight fights like someone
that's beating the air. They'll stand in the street and
raise their voice in anger and hatred against this group or
that group. All for naught. I've said many
times, I remember one man, one red-headed preacher, and I was
kind of glad my hair went gray after I saw him, but he was big
on getting rid of all homosexuals. And he would march up and down
the street on one side, hollering, and the homosexuals would be
on the other side of the street, they'd be holding signs, and
they'd be hollering. They'd be wanting to kill each other. And
I've said a hundred times, let me get right in the middle of
that crowd of the preachers and the homosexuals, let me tell
them the truth about God one time. They will join hands against
me. Because neither one of them know
the truth. Neither one of them know the truth. The world hates God's people.
In Egypt, when it saw Judah, protected of God, cared for by
God, and saw the kind of people yet Judah was, despised them and they became
a terror to him. And he saw how God's purpose
was to save this people and his purpose was to destroy Egypt.
And it drove them crazy. It drove them crazy. The knowledge
of the elect of God and that they thrive that those who are
the Lord's are at peace in a world that's going to hell in a handbasket
is a constant thorn in the flesh of religious men. But this is
the method of grace. It's how God does things. He
said this is how he does it. This is the Lord stripping his
elect, creating a need for him in their hearts so that they
call on him as Peter did, sinking in the waves. Lord, save me,
or I'll perish, or I'll perish. Father, bless us through our
understanding. We pray in Christ's name. Amen.