Isaiah, Chapters 45-46

Greetings and good morning. At the end of last week's service, I sang a song, and I understand from talking to people afterwards, it made several people cry. I'll never sing again, I promise. Okay. We're here and sneaking in a verse from the end of chapter 44, otherwise selecting kind of key and pivotal verses from Isaiah 45.

To keep our perspective here on where this passage stands, we went through the first 39 chapters and they had these characters that you see here, a general focus on judgment, a focus on the nation of Assyria. And we've stepped into, as of several weeks ago, chapter 40, where there through the end of Isaiah, we see instead a general focus on deliverance. and the focus being more upon Babylon and even, as we'll see here this morning, the end of Babylon and what's next. We're right about here, if you were to try to gauge it in terms of the progress we've made. Now, we'll be galloping this month. I say that because we'll be taking two chapters at a time. each Sunday until we get to Isaiah 53. We will kind of hover over that and probably take most if not all of the month of December over that one chapter Isaiah 53. There's a lot to look at there and we don't want to drop anything between the cracks. We are here now the very beginning covering chapters 45 and 46.

We also mentioned a few chapters back that Isaiah presents in this section four servant songs. And the servant changes as to who it is, but Isaiah continues to refer to a servant presenting these four songs. We're kind of between the first and the second, so that's our status there. When we get to chapter 49, we'll be then into the second of the four servant songs. When we get to chapter 53, then we'll stop and hover a bit over that one because that's a real pivotal one and one we'll want to take a close look at.

Now, one of the things that we point out, and you have it on page one of your handout this morning, is that Isaiah 44.24 through 48.22 is what we have said before is a chiasm. That's not a medical condition.

That is instead We've made it in comparison to a literary mirror image, the idea that the written form has a turning point or a reflection point in the middle, and the last has a correspondence to the first. So it goes kind of like this, where you have Cyrus conquers the Babylonian Empire, and then the turning point, Israel under Cyrus, and then the final one, the Babylonian Empire conquered by Cyrus. and turning and dividing there in the middle. Alright, the center turning point, that is, be Israel under Cyrus, is that Israel is the center of God's worldwide plans. It's the very reason for Cyrus. This is the point that he's making here. Here the entire world is turning upon what is happening to Israel. That's the point that he's making here.

From the worldly viewpoint, Cyrus appeared to be at the center. Certainly, people were very impressed with what Cyrus pulled off. Cyrus joined actually three empires, pulled them together in order to take on the Babylonians, and he took over them with lightning speed, overcoming what otherwise seemed like huge obstacles and doing things thought impossible. While everybody else was impressed and looking upon Cyrus, the Lord was saying, Israel, I'm doing this for you. It's because of you that this is happening. The world may be focused on Cyrus, but you're my focal point.

Now, a few weeks ago we said this, we said a few things to keep in mind as we go through this chapter we were covering previously. Isaiah is setting the stage for an amazing prophecy about a future ruler of an empire to be revealed just a few chapters later. Well, we're there. Okay? According to the GPS unit, we've arrived. And you are here. Alright?

So this is the chapter we were talking about. Here is Isaiah 44, 28. And it is, uh, I who says of Cyrus, he is my shepherd. We get into 45.1. Thus says the Lord to Cyrus, his anointed. Let's take a look at this guy Cyrus here. It's the Lord who is the one who is pointing him out. It is I, the Lord, who says of Cyrus. So we'll talk about Cyrus here for a minute. We're not gossiping.

This guy's not in the picture anymore anyway. Now, these dates that I have on the timeline, and this is also on page one of your handout, is 700 BC, 600 BC, 500 BC, and of course you know what BC stands for, right? You know what BC stands for? That's Ben and Carol, right? Okay. Anyhow, here we have just about or slightly after 700 BC. Yeah, Roger, I saw you shaking your head. Okay. All right.

We have Isaiah writing what you see here in front of us this morning. And what we have about a century, not quite a century later, is the Babylonians take over the Assyrian Empire. So here's the Assyrians, the big threat during Isaiah's lifetime, during his entire lifetime. And yet, he's going to point out that the Babylonians are going to be taking over before a century is gone.

Well, so here's the Babylonian Empire. If you look at it, here's the Persian Gulf there on the lower right, and that would correspond to Kuwait today, and then you have that going up through what is Iraq, all the way over to the area that's Israel and Lebanon, and even into the southern part of what is now Turkey. That was the Babylonian Empire of that time. They took over the Assyrian Empire.

Here's Mosul. Matt Kirby was stationed there. That's basically the modern Nineveh. And you can go see the walls and even Nebuchadnezzar, which is not confirmed, but proclaimed to be the burial place of Jonah. And then here is Baghdad, where a lot of the news is going on. That's where Matt's most recently stationed. Babylon was the capital just south of that, which incidentally, Saddam Hussein put quite a bit of money into trying to reconstruct.

Now, the siege of Jerusalem. This is what's next. The Babylonians came in, in actually about three waves, and in the third wave just wiped out Jerusalem. They knocked down the walls. In great part, the walls were destroyed. They knocked down the temple, tore it all to pieces, and took all the valuables out of it.

This is kind of an artist reconstruction of what that temple destruction might have looked like. Set it on fire and take out all the good stuff. Anything that's worth hauling off, do. The rest of it, make sure it's wrecked. And that's what the Babylonians did. So here the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and they moved the population of Judah to the area around Babylon.

Now that is a long walk. and there's no DIA or anything close. Think of what that would be like if you were to compare that to the United States. It would be like you and I. Imagine if you happen to live through this thing, you get to take whatever you get to carry and that's about it. You don't get to take much more. If they haven't already taken it away from you, you get to carry it. You at least get to carry yourself.

You get to walk from here to the Mississippi River. By foot, okay? That's how far they went, by foot. I'm sure they weren't happy doing it, but the Babylonians gave them no choice. And you know, at the end of about six, seven hundred mile walk, you know what your feet are thinking, okay?

Anyway, then, after the Babylonians took over, some decades later, Cyrus led the Medes and the Persians, taking over the Babylonian Empire. That's the way the story goes. Here's the timeline. Here's 586 B.C. Judah was carried off to Babylon. That's where the feet got kind of upset.

And then Cyrus' order allowing the Jews to return. Here's Cyrus that comes on the scene about a century and a half later after Isaiah has told them Cyrus will come. So here's Cyrus, about 538 BC, giving the order to the Jews, you can go back to your homeland, and you can rebuild your walls, and you can rebuild your temple. You can go home. You can live the way you wanted to.

This is... what is it? Is it a piece of Persian pasta? Probably not. This is the Cyrus Cylinder, containing Cyrus Orders, allowing exiled peoples to go back to their homelands and rebuild. It's been found, and this is it. Other than the parts you see broken off, it's been translated. And basically gives the orders, much like is recorded in scripture, in terms of these people, this place, this place, and this place can go back to their homeland. Back to where they came from. So Cyrus issued this order, anyone who wanted to go back to their own land could do so, and he would help pay to rebuild. How about that? Giving an order? Giving him some money? Phenomenal! Amazing! As a matter of fact, Cyrus even issued an equivalent to our Bill of Rights. I don't think it had anything to do with carrying arms or something, but you get the idea.

You can see Ezra chapter 1 if you want to look at the story of how that came about. So they went from Babylon, over here, back. Oh, and you know what that means? More walking. And you know what the feet are thinking. But at least they're going back home. At least they're going back to the place that they call home. The place they call their homeland. The place that the Lord had given them. So, here are these Jews. They get to go back to Jerusalem and rebuild. They get to go back and put the walls back up. They get to go back and put the temple back in place. They get to go back and rebuild their homes. And think, you can read the story of this in Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai, and Zechariah.

I'll give you the accounts. And, see the manly Jewish man getting really buff by lifting heavy stones. without going to 24-hour fitness or Bally's. Isn't this great? Alright. So here's the end of chapter 44, the beginning of chapter 45, first verse there. Here's Cyrus. He is my shepherd. The Lord says to Cyrus, his anointed. Now, this is kind of amazing. Wait a minute. Cyrus, isn't he... I mean, he's a nice guy, relatively speaking, especially compared to the Babylonians, but isn't he a pagan? Isn't this kind of amazing? So here's Cyrus, shepherd, anointed, and it's the Lord who calls him those things. Here's Cyrus the Persian, my shepherd and his anointed. This is phenomenal. This is amazing stuff. Now, let's take a look. What is going on here?

First, shepherds in those days did some anointing themselves. and there's certainly plenty of shepherds around. Shepherds were ones who, in those days, I had some contact with the sheep years ago when I was on the farm, and some of you would say, yeah I agree Vern, but these shepherds would stay with the sheep, unlike what we did. They would stay with the sheep all the time. They would watch after them.

They would look for where does this Flock of sheep need to go to eat next. Where does this flock need to spend the night to be safe? Where does this flock need to go to get water? How is this sheep doing, and that one, and caring for them, and providing for them, and watching over them, and seeing that needs are met?

Also kings were another category of people that were anointed, and of course here's Cyrus the king. So this would fit. Cyrus was going to care for and give watch over the condition of the people of Israel and put them back in the land that they belong, the pasture, if you will. And he was going to rain from a distance, allowing them to have the latitude to go back and to rebuild and to live life the way that they had intended before they were hauled off from away from their land. So here is 44.28, the very last verse of chapter 44 there. He is my shepherd. He will perform all my desire.

Cyrus' declaration here, a century and a half after the time of Isaiah, was given before the walls were even broken down, before the temple was even destroyed. If it hadn't been for Isaiah's prophecy, they wouldn't know that they even had a need for Cyrus to do these things.

Isn't it amazing how the Lord anticipates our needs before we even know we have them? We oftentimes can get easily wrapped up and anxious and concerned about, oh, I need this and I've got to have that and this needs to happen here at this time and that's got to have... And the Lord anticipated it long ago, long before it even entered our mind that we needed them.

The Lord anticipated it, and it's certainly true here. If you were to have some kind of a comparison time-wise about how phenomenal a prophecy this is, for Isaiah to prophesy that Cyrus would restore Israel to the land and rebuild Jerusalem would be just a little bit, not entirely like, but a little bit like someone saying before the Civil War here in the United States, that the Twin Towers in New York would need to be rebuilt. That's how amazing this prophecy is. This is astounding stuff. Didn't even know we had the need yet. And the Lord already saw fit to meet the need. Apart from Isaiah telling them, the Jews had no idea that they would have a need to rebuild.

Rebuild what? We got them here. Rebuild the walls? There they are. Rebuild the temple? There it is. They didn't even know. The Lord says, yeah, you will have a need, but don't worry, I've already got it covered. I know exactly. Matter of fact, I'll tell you the guy who's going to do it. Here's the guy. By the way, he's two empires away from the one that you're under now. Two empires away. He declares of Jerusalem, she will be built. He authorized the Jews who wanted to return, he didn't force them. He says, if you want to, you certainly can. Anyone can return to their homeland, rebuild the walls.

Ezra and Nehemiah were a part of that. Here is, and you see, we'll show pictures of it more later, here's a portion of Nehemiah's wall still remaining. When the Romans destroyed Jerusalem, they didn't get that part. So that part's still there from Nehemiah's rebuilding. The actual return rebuilding were done in waves over a period of time. And Ezra and Nehemiah leading two of those waves that took place over time.

He declares of the temple, your foundation will be laid. In biblical times, they picked very carefully the location of where temples were located. And they weren't just looking at engineering kinds of issues. It had to be just right from spiritual considerations, and especially with the Jews' temple. They said, look, we've got a mess to clean up, but there's a specific location where this has to be. He says, your foundation will be laid. Even the foundation stones were ripped up from when the Babylonians destroyed things. They dug down to tear things out to make sure there was nothing to go back to. But he says, nope, you'll get a new one.

When they would build a temple, they would bring dignitaries to the initial laying of the foundation. They would put special objects. We have kind of a similar idea with a time capsule. and we'll have people bringing shovels and doing no work at all, but just sort of symbolically turning over the first dirt. And that's kind of the idea, but this is another thing they would give great attention to, the initial laying of the foundation.

The walls were to be rebuilt under Nehemiah. He returned 444 almost a century later after Cyrus' declaration. And Nehemiah was the one who led that, and it came about. But it was based on Cyrus' declaration, carried out under Nehemiah. Here is a kind of a point sequence. And of course, Cyrus' declaration that Isaiah is referring to here is the beginning of it. And you'll see the sequence through the temple being rebuilt by 515 BC, Ahasuerus becoming king of Persia, Esther becoming queen, the whole account of the Book of Esther. Ezra going to Jerusalem, the book of Ezra, and then Nehemiah in 444 going to Jerusalem to rebuild the walls. And it's kind of the point sequence, key events.

Then in the first verse of chapter 45, I have taken by the right hand. Now, I don't know about you, I'm a lefty. But don't be offended if you're a lefty. Don't be half offended if you're ambidextrous. Because what this indicates is the right hand is the hand of power. That's what it's talking about here.

In the Hebrew culture, that being the hand of power, I have taken it by the right hand. I have been the one to give him the power to carry things out. I have been the one to give him the power to do these things, and he even lays out here In the subsequent verses, what are the things that he's given him the power to do? But he says, by the right hand. I have given him the power to do these very things in order to carry out my intent, the Lord says. He took him by the right hand. God is the one granting Cyrus the power. The power to do the things that are described in the subsequent verses there. So here's Cyrus. Cyrus the shepherd. Cyrus the Messiah. These titles are usually given for godly people, shepherds, anointed, even of Jesus Christ.

So here is this unbeliever, and by the way, any record that we have says that Cyrus was an unbeliever. He served the pagan deities. Every record that we have points to that. But these titles weren't granted here because Cyrus was one who knew the Lord, or followed the Lord, or was being obedient even.

But because God used the ungodly leader, Cyrus, to carry out a godly purpose among his people. Big distinction and important point of discernment for us to draw from this here. This title, Shepherd, It was used to picture someone who leads and cares, watches over the needs of, directs and guides them in the way that they should go. And he did that not because he was godly, but because the Lord put him in that place to do so.

This word that we say in English, Messiah, the Hebrew is Hamashiah. The Greek equivalent, Christos, or in English, Christ, all those words mean anointed. Christ is the anointed one, and that's actually what Cyrus gets called here. He gets called God's anointed. He is set in place, appointed to that position for God's purpose. Prophets, priests, and kings were typically anointed for service. Cyrus had a special appointment. by God, not because it was godly, not because he personally cared for what God said, but because the Lord intended to use him to restore the people of Israel.

Verses two through four, I will go before you and make the rough places smooth. I will shatter the doors of bronze and cut through their iron bars. One of the things that's interesting as we look at that verse two, This is an artist's rendering of Babylon.

It was a massive city with a number of towers. You see a tower kind of like a Tower of Babel shown there. They had a number of towers as much as 450 feet high. There's a football field and a half tall. All built in place. Those were not high places in the city naturally. Those were all built in place by labor. in order to build those, and they had more than one. They had a number of them scattered throughout the rather sprawling large city that was there. Babylon, by a historical record that we have, had a hundred bronze gates. These were locked shut on the inside with an iron crossbar. So what is it? Did you see that? I will shatter the doors of bronze and cut through the iron bars. That is exactly what the Lord says he's going to do.

When Cyrus walked into Babylon, do you know how much of a fight the people of Babylon put up? None. The Lord just, it's like He opened the doors and the people had no idea inside. When He started coming through the outside of the city, the initial invasion, He moved so fast that they didn't even have word to get notice to the people deeper inside the city that He was coming. That fast. And so this prophecy is right there. The Lord says, I'll shatter it. I'll do it right in front of you.

There was hardly a battle fought when they went into Babylon. Here's this place phenomenally well defended. Bronze gates, iron bars, there wasn't anything better in those days. Cyrus crashed right through them, inexplicably. Why? The Lord did it. The Lord made the allowance there. Here is a picture of Babylon's Hanging Gardens, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, a phenomenal place that was inside Babylon.

That too, Cyrus and his troops went right in and right past, no defense, nothing. The Lord just opened up the doors all the way. not just once, but over a hundred times, with a hundred bronze gates and iron bars, right through. I will give you the treasures of darkness and the hidden wealth of secret places, so that you may know that it is I, the Lord God of Israel, who calls you by your name. When Cyrus went into Babylon, for which there was hardly a fight fought, He was able to take hold of the wealth of the Babylonian Empire.

People had no chance to hide things, no chance to even defend the riches that were there. They were taken in an instant, taken in a moment. The book of Daniel records the king's party inside, where basically people had no idea what was coming. Even with the handwriting on the wall, The handwriting on the wall was as much notice as they got, and it was nowhere near enough.

It was that night that Cyrus came in and took them by storm. Babylon also had hidden the treasures of the temple in Jerusalem, in those hidden chambers, and those were given back to the Jews, the very ones that were taken by the Babylonians. The only problem? You gotta carry them back. But they got all the things back that were stolen from them.

Verse 4, for the sake of Jacob my servant and Israel my chosen one, I have also called you by your name. Why? For you, my people, for you I've done this. That's why I've worked with Cyrus here. That's why I've used him as an instrument for your sake. For the purpose I have for you, Israel, this pagan person will follow what I have in mind. He'll do it. He'll be the instrument that I'll use. Because you, Israel, I love. Think about this for a minute, though. You might think, well, that was really cool. That's a nice piece of dusty history, but that's over 2,500 years ago. What does that have to do with you and me? I don't live in Babylon. I don't speak Babylonish. We're not Israel. We're not the nation of Judah. We've got our own issues. We've got some other people from over in that part of the world that would like to take us on, right?

But as for the Church, we've been made to be in Christ, who is also Israel's Messiah and King. Isn't that amazing? The Lord has made us to be in Christ, the very One who is also Israel's Messiah and King. They look to the same One, but differently. Look here at the passage in its context. It reveals some things about the way in which God works, both among His people Israel and for us in the Church. We can take a lesson from this. They spring from God's character, God's nature, who God is eternally.

How many of you have had unbelievers in your life in some place? We come in contact with unbelievers in various ways. And I would say it would be interesting to kind of go around the room. We won't take the time this morning. But just to say, what kind of contacts do you have with unbelievers? Relatives? Relatives or unbelievers? Neighbors? Maybe even some friends? People you work with or used to work with? People that you run into in the store? You know, like the ones who'd like to tell Nancy their life story in the grocery store line. You know, those.

And yet, Scripture provides a lot of guidance about our relationships with the unbelievers. We're going to be seeing that in our 1 Peter elective here before too many weeks go by. There are certainly other passages. We've given them there, and I've just listed a few. There are additional passages. Scripture gives us lots of guidance about our relationships with those unbelievers.

But aside from the direction that Scripture gives us, one of the other things that we see God has provided for us examples like Cyrus, person and point. Examples like Cyrus show that He will work through those who don't know Him in order to show His faithfulness to us. Isn't that something? He will work through those who don't even know Him in order to be faithful to us. That's astounding stuff. Faithless people will be His instrument for us who have faith in Him.

Didn't God use Judas, unbelieving Jewish leaders, Pontius Pilate, even some Roman soldiers, in order for Christ to die for our sins? Wasn't that a wonderful thing God did through them? For us to be identified with Him in His death, as we'll celebrate here this morning and remember, The Lord used unbelievers to accomplish that. Isn't that something? What a wonderful thing God did through the unbelievers who had no idea what they were doing. Probably the closest was the Roman centurion that after the nails had been struck said, surely this was the Son of God.

But by and large, these ones I've listed here and perhaps some others, the Lord used unbelievers to accomplish wonderful, Eternal, eternally valuable things. In your lives and in mine, can't he use unbelieving family members, bosses, co-workers, civil authorities, authorities that are uncivil, other authorities in order to accomplish his purpose? His purpose in our lives, the lives of those around us, isn't that amazing? The Lord can use them too, and does, and has, and will. Not only do these useful unbelievers find that they're used of God, though they don't know it, and they don't know Him, they don't even have to know that the Lord's using them, and that's fine. They can still be the Lord's instrument in our lives. It is amazing that the Lord will use those who don't even believe to be faithful to us, to conform us to the image of His Son. God accomplishes this in our lives and in the lives of unbelievers that He works through. All the while, He still holds the unbeliever responsible for belief in Him, to believe, and still holds the unbeliever responsible for actions. Look at this.

We've shown this list before and reproduced it here for your benefit, but there are five crowns promised in the New Testament for church believers, and there are three rewards. One of the things I noted here is the victor's crown is one that involves unbelievers. How about that? That for which we are eternally rewarded involves an interaction with unbelievers. A martyr's crown certainly involves unbelievers. and possibly even the church founder's crown initially involving unbelievers. Isn't it interesting that two if not three of the five crowns mentioned, Victor's crown, Stephano's crown, in the New Testament involve unbelievers' actions.

The Lord uses them. Now we'll jump ahead to verses 22 and 23. Turn to me and be saved, he starts out with verse 22, all the ends of the earth. The Lord made and even now makes His appeal to everyone on the planet to be saved. All. Everyone. Turn to the Lord. That's the answer. You don't have to just work harder. You don't have to just do this or that. But turn to the Lord. God alone, the scripture makes clear, is the one who has accomplished it and offers salvation to all who turn to Him in faith. God has done it. Now, how about the ends of the earth? Is that what he means? Probably not. Okay. Here's a passage that we'll be jumping ahead to in some weeks towards the end of the month here.

How lovely on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who announces peace and brings good news of happiness, who announces salvation and says to Zion, your God reigns. Listen, your watchmen lift up their voices, they shout joyfully together, for they will see with their own eyes when the Lord restores Zion. Bring forth, shout joyfully together, you waste places of Jerusalem, for the Lord has comforted His people, He has redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord has bared His holy arm in the sight of all the nations, that all the ends of the earth may see the salvation of our God."

Let's take a look at this here. The side of all nations, the ends of the earth. Psalm 52.10, this is another one of those small chiasms, and certainly a lot to point out there. The main point we wish to make, however, is that all the nations here are shown as in parallel with all the ends of the earth.

All the nations, all the ethnos, all the ethnic ones. Those are the ones scattered over the whole earth. The Lord has made his appeal in this passage for the entire earth, all Gentiles of every kind, every tribe, every tongue, every nation, all of them to turn to him and be saved.

Here is Psalm 22, 27, which we'll look at a little bit when we get to Isaiah 53. All the ends of the earth. And again, in the kind of Hebrew parallelism, the nations. Jeremiah 16, 19. To you the nations will come from the ends of the earth and will say.

And we'll look at, there are some additional passages in Psalm 2.8, Isaiah 52.10, of course, and Zechariah 9.10. All those show that these are parallel terms. All the ends of the earth and the nations, the ethnos, the people. Now in verse 23, I have sworn by myself. Hmm, that's kind of interesting.

From the days of Noah up until even New Testament times, there were three basic elements of a covenant. You will sometimes see all three of them listed, sometimes only a couple of them because the other is assumed. But the three parts are, one, there's an oath, two, there's a swearing by a deity, and three, there's a physical gesture or sign.

Even, and I show a picture here of the swearing in of former US Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, One of the things you'll notice, what does he got? He's got a sign. He's being sworn in and what does he do? He makes the oath, he gives a sign, he gives another sign, puts his hand on the Bible, right? And then how does he say that he's going to fulfill this?

Typically something like, so help me God. We oftentimes include similar kinds of elements, but these were things included in Scripture. Examples in Scripture start from the The Lord's own covenant, I will never again flood the earth, the entire earth. And what's the sign for that? The rainbow. He gives the sign or the gesture. That's the sign that he will never again flood the earth.

Then we see the words there that to me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear allegiance. We see that popping up in a couple of different places, that's right, in the New Testament. To me, every knee and every tongue. It shows up in Romans 14.11, where Paul is talking about judgment, and here the focus is on believers. As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall give praise to God. For believers, is referenced there in Romans 14. But it also applies to unbelievers. Every knee will bow, every tongue confess. It was whether or not that goes along with belief here on planet Earth, that's the issue.

But in the end, every believer and unbeliever, every knee will bow, every tongue confess. Here it shows up and is updated in Philippians 2, 8-11. And being found in appearance as a man, he, that is Christ, humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also God highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, so that the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, for the glory of God the Father. There will be universal acknowledgment that He indeed is Lord.

Far better to acknowledge that here. Far better to acknowledge that by faith. Far better to respond to what the Lord has revealed and laid out. Let's pray. Lord, as we look at this passage here, We see the marvelous ways in which you work, even through unbelievers, even those we might look at and say, oh boy, that person really needs the Lord, and yet you use those. We look at this passage here and recognize that the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ will ultimately be recognized by all. But we do it by faith here this morning, understanding by your revelation and your Holy Spirit's work in our hearts. You are indeed Lord of all. We acknowledge that and thank you and praise you for that. In Jesus' name, Amen.