For Zion’s Sake – Travail

[00:00:00] Isaiah, chapter 62. Quite in one way well known. [00:00:07] A well known chapter amongst us here, but we've never really looked at it in depth. [00:00:15] Isaiah, chapter 62. [00:00:19] For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace. And for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest until her righteousness go forth as brightness and her salvation as a lamp that burneth. And the nation shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory. And thou shall be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name. [00:00:42] Thou shalt also be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God. Thou shalt no more be termed forsaken, neither shall thy land any more be termed desolate, but thou shalt be called Hephzibah and thy land. [00:01:05] For the Lord delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married. [00:01:11] For as a young man marrieth a virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee. And as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee. [00:01:25] I have set watchmen upon thy walls, o Jerusalem. They shall never hold their peace day nor night. [00:01:33] Ye that are the Lord's remembrances, take ye no rest. And give him no rest till he establish. Until he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth. [00:01:46] The Lord hath sworn by his right hand and the arm of his strength. Surely I will no more. Give thy grain to be food for thine enemies and foreigners shall not drink thy new wine for which thou hast labored. But they that have garnered it shall eat it and praise the Lord. And they that have gathered it shall drink it in the courts of my sanctuary. [00:02:16] Go through. [00:02:17] Go through the gates. [00:02:20] Prepare ye the way of the people. Cast up. Cast up the highway. Gather out the stones. Lift up an ensign for the people. Behold, the Lord hath proclaimed unto the end of the earth. Say ye to the daughter of Zion. Behold, thy salvation cometh. [00:02:43] Behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. And they shall call them the holy people, the redeemed of the Lord. And thou shalt be called, sought out, a city not forsaken. [00:03:06] Well, now, this evening I want to talk about the travail of Zion. We've spent an evening on the battle over Zion, and we've spent another evening on the building of Zion. And I want this evening to talk for a little while about the Travail for Zion. Now, I know, of course, that any who've not been with us in those earlier times may well have some problem in the beginning. At any rate in sort of adjusting and coming into what we've been considering. But we cannot really go over those earlier evenings or we shall find all our time on this tremendously important subject will have been taken the travail for Zion. We find it in this 62nd chapter of Isaiah. For Zions sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest until her righteousness go forth as brightness and her salvation as a lamp that burneth. Verse six. I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem. They shall never hold their peace day nor night. Ye that are the Lord's remembrances, take ye no rest, and give him no rest till he establish, until he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth. Now shall we just bow together in the word of prayer. [00:05:02] Lets all once more look to the Lord in a definite way that he will come to us. [00:05:08] Father, we thank thee, that thou has given us an anointing in our Lord Jesus. And it is the person of the Holy Spirit who makes that anointing a glorious reality. We thank thee for speaker or for hearer. There is that anointing provided. And Lord, now we just want to simply confess before thee that we can do nothing without thee. But lord, with thee, in thee and through thee we can do all things. And so, beloved Lord, we thank thee. Thy word can come to us in living power and will, and we can hear it in living power and we will. Dear Lord, we praise thee for thy gracious provision. Make thy word live to us. Lord, this night we pray. We ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen. [00:06:07] Now, who is speaking in this chapter 62 of Isaiah? It is in one sense a little problem for us. Is it the Lord who speaks through the mouth of the prophet in chapter 61, verse one? Of course, I think all of you know that we were not given these scriptures in chapters and verses. Someone at a much later date reduced all these scriptures to chapter and verse. And we must be very thankful for it because these chapters and verses are a great help not only in memorization, but in quick and easy reference. How could we possibly put our finger on something in psalm 119 if we didn't have verses? Think of it. Or another part of the word. Some other like Jeremiah, all his enormous number of chapters. I mean, there were no chapters and no verses. Think what we would have a problem trying to find something and be able to refer somebody else to it. We would have a terrible job. Someone reduced it to chapters and verses. But of course some folks have got this idea that the Lord sort of dictated it, you know, by saying, now this is chapter 62 coming up and verse one and then verse two now and verse three following. But of course it didn't come like that at all. And we have now these scriptures, we have the chapters, we have the verses for our help. But now and again, very unfortunately, it tends to hold back our understanding of the word. In other words, it sometimes breaks up the, the continuity of a passage. Now in chapter 61, verse one, we have the Lord Jesus, the messiah speaking. The spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings of the gospel unto the meek and so on. But in verse ten we have the prophet speaking, I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, joyful in my God, for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness as a bridegroom decketh himself with a garland, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels. So we then have a problem when we come to chapter 62 and verse one. Is it the prophet Isaiah who says, for Zion's sake will I not hold my peace? And for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest until her righteousness go forth as brightness and her salvation as a lamp that burneth? Or is it the Messiah? [00:09:01] It makes no difference in one sense for us this evening. Insofar as whether it is the prophet Isaiah who is speaking or the Messiah, it is travail and it is divinely given travail. It is travail that has been concealed by the Holy Spirit. It is my conviction that the one who speaks at the beginning of Isaiah chapter 62 is not the prophet, but is the Messiah. And we have therefore, as it were, a tremendously instructive revelation of the burden which is on the heart of the Messiah. We have, as it were, a window, a window into his intercessory ministry. We know he ever lives to make intercession for us. He has appeared before the Father's face for us. And here we have, as it were, a little window into that unceasing ministry at the right hand of God. [00:10:13] Now having said that, lets just take a look at this chapter. It falls very easily for us into three parts. First of all, in the first five verses we have the determination of the Lord revealed. And then in the verses six to nine, the next three verses we have the fellowship of the Lord introduced. And then we have in the last verses ten to twelve, we have the challenge of the Lord to us. [00:10:52] First of all, the determination of the Lord for Zion's sake, he says, I will not hold my peace. And for Jerusalem's sake, I will not rest until her righteousness go forth as brightness and her salvation as a lamp that burneth. The thing that is at the very heart of his travail is Zion and Jerusalem. [00:11:24] In other words, this whole matter weve been talking about last night and the night before is the key, key to the whole purpose of God, why we have been saved, why he's brought us into union with himself, why he has anointed us with the Holy Spirit, why indeed there is a creation at all, why there is a universe, why there may be other universes beyond that, why he created man, why he created man in his image, why in some inexperience he allowed man to fall, and why he sent forth the redeemer, the Lord Jesus. [00:12:09] Zion. Jerusalem. It's on the heart of the Lord Jesus. [00:12:14] Now. If it's on his heart, I want it to be on mine. [00:12:20] Spiritual things are so simple sometimes, of course, when we first hear a new truth, it seems to us to be so hard to take in. We think, oh, how deep it is, how complex it is. But in actual fact, when we see something, it is utter simplicity. [00:12:43] All the really essential truths are utter simplicity, profound, but utter simplicity. [00:12:54] And really, when I begin to think about it, if my life is a mess because I don't know whether I should go this way, I don't know whether I should go that way, I don't know if I should take this step or that step, I get worried about this. I get worried about how simple it is, at least to get hold of this one thing, that whatever is on his heart must be of vital importance to me. [00:13:20] And if my life can in some simple way become centered upon that matter which is central to our lord's burden and concern, then surely a whole lot of things are going to fall into place. [00:13:38] Business, family life, personal problems, background problems, national problems, international things. They're all going to somehow fall into place. If once we see what it is that is on his heart and what it means. It's one thing, as I said last night, just to have Zion as a name, but that doesn't mean anything if all we understand it is some strange idea. The point is to see what Zion really means, what it is that the, the Lord has a called Zion, what he means by that Jerusalem, which is above. Now we have it very beautifully put here. For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake, I will not rest until her righteousness go forth as a lamb. Now this is interesting. This little word, this first word here for Zion said, will I not hold my peace? In the Hebrew is a little word that means to be silent, as it is in the new american standard Bible. I think it is rendered there, I will not keep silent. Keep quiet. Keep silent is the verse. Yes. Keep silent. What's your version? RSV. Ah, it's better than the second one. Yes. Well, now, this first word in Hebrew just means to be silent, to be inactive, or to be still. [00:15:09] And our Lord says, for Zion's sake, I will not be silent, I will not be still, I will not be inactive. [00:15:19] That's the first thing. The second word is our word that we use and hear. Anyone who's been to Israel must surely have heard some father or mother or someone else, especially if you live in the place where I live, bawl out from the window, shake it, which just means shut up or silence, be quiet. And this is just the word. Exactly. [00:15:46] And the Lord says, I will not be quiet. [00:15:51] I will not be undisturbed. [00:15:56] Well, now, thats interesting, isnt it? If this really is a revelation of the heart of the Lord, that he says, I will not be inactive, I will not be still, I will not be silent, I will not be quiet or undisturbed. There is something that disturbs me. There is something that, as it were, gives me cause for real concern. Then there is another lovely thing here. It is for Zion, of course, Jerusalem. And then he says about this Jerusalem. In my version, it's put like this, until her righteousness go forth as brightness and her salvation as a lamp that burneth. Now here is something I find very, very beautiful. First of all, this word brightness is a very unusual word in Hebrew. It is the name given, it's a girl's name, Noka. And it just means the kind of clear sunshine, particularly, it's used particularly of clear clarity after rain. [00:17:08] So after the tempest, after the storm, you know, that wonderful clear vision when you can see miles and miles and miles, if you want to see where it is used, it is used in two Samuel and chapter 23 in a very, very beautiful and well known passage, when King David was dying. Two Samuel 23, when he said, verse four, a morning without clouds, when the tender grass springeth out of the earth through clear shining after rain. [00:17:44] Clear shining after rain. Now, isn't that a lovely thought? The Lord said, I will not be quiet. I will not be inactive, I will not be undisturbed until for Zion's sake, for Jerusalem's sake until her righteousness go forth as clear sunshine after the tempest, clear as crystal. [00:18:12] And then we have this other beautiful word and her salvation as a lamp that burneth. Now, it would be awfully interesting for those of us who are Bible students if the word here in the Hebrew for lamp was the menorah, you know, the seven branched lamp, because then we would be able to take it up with Zechariah, chapter four, and go on to revelation, chapter one and so on. It would be most interesting. But it isn't. [00:18:40] It is the word for a torch, you know, a burning torch. A flaming torch. But here is something beautiful. We've got Jesus in this. For the very word that is used for salvation is the word literally with his name in the heart of it, Yeshua in Hebrew. [00:19:01] Until jesus go forth as a lamp that burneth. The knowledge of Jesus, the salvation of Jesus. [00:19:14] Wonderful, isn't it? When you think of it like that. There it is, right there. His whole name right in this word. Of course, it means salvation. [00:19:23] So I found this rather wonderful, this whole determination of the Lord. What is his desire? His desire is that Zion and Jerusalem shall be like a flaming torch, giving light everywhere. In whose light? In the light of which nations may come to know God. Peoples may find the Lord, by which they may come into an experience. Experience of the salvation of the Lord. That is the longing of the Lord. And insofar as you and I, we here in this little company, are just part of that spiritual Zion, we are meant to be that in Richmond, wherever there is a company of the Lord's people, really gathered together on the foundation of the Lord Jesus and in his name, they are meant to be like a flaming torch in the light of which the people of the community may find God may know God may see God may experience God. The salvation of the Lord may burn like a lamp, shine like a lamp. And brightness. [00:20:36] Clarity. [00:20:38] Oh, we live in a world of confusion, of perplexity. [00:20:43] But we have this concern of the Lord that somehow or other, his zion, his Jerusalem, shall be clear shining. Righteousness is clear shining. Now we have no righteousness of our own, have we? We know that the more we go on with the Lord, the more we know this one simple fact, that we have no righteousness of our own. It is his righteousness. But, oh, if the. If the nation could only see his righteousness, if they could only see his justifying grace and power in and through us, wouldn't it be wonderful? I fear that sometimes all they see is storm. [00:21:25] All they see is tempest. All they see is smoke. [00:21:30] The fire's long since gone out. They just see something that is like a damp squib amongst the people of God. No dynamic, no fire, no power and no light. [00:21:44] But the Lord's determination has never changed. At the very beginning he said, upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And he has never, at any single point given up his responsibilities for the building of the church. Thank God for that. Nor did he say he will build the church until the Antichrist comes, or until the middle of the 20th century, when things will become so complex and difficult and all the rest of it that he will give it all over to the enemy, as some appear to believe. No, he said, he will build his church right through to the end. And we have that wonderful word in Zechariah. And the top stone shall be brought forth with shouts of grace, grace unto it, right in the very midst of all the storm and all the battle and all the foment of evil, of the powers of darkness. Right in the midst of it, all the work will be completed by the grace of God. The grace of God began it. The grace of God developed it. The grace of God watched over every single movement of the spirit in the history of its construction, and the grace of God will complete it. And, dear ones, what a wonderful joy it is that we are in that period when we may well see with our own eyes the completion of the work. Wasn't that marvelous? It's so wonderful either to be on the beginning of something or the end of something. I always feel sorry for the people who are in the middle of it, you know, because that's the real routine, just going on, plodding on and on and on. But it's wonderful to think that if we may have storms and troubles, we may have much that's going to come upon the face of the earth. But we've also got some glorious privileges which no other generation of the saints had. We're in the last part of the age, and therefore we're going to see the completion of the house of God. By the grace of God. Now, if it said by the power of God, or by the devotion of his people or by the zeal of the Lord's people, I should be very worried indeed. But since it says the last thing they'll gasp is grace, grace unto it. I have every confidence that this thing is going to be done. So why should we give up? Why should we fear? Why should we become discouraged? Why should we become worn out by the enemy's devices and weapons. If this is what his desire is for the church that her righteousness burns, burn us as a brightness and her salvation as a lamp that burners, well, we've got a tremendous comfort. I feel that if our Lord's praying like that, there's every chance it's going to get answered. [00:24:32] I'd rather be on his side than anybody else's. Thank you. [00:24:36] If there are those who feel that somehow or other the whole thing's going to be snuffed out, it's all going to go into darkness and all the rest of it admit they want to believe that. But as far as I am concerned, if our Lord is still going to pray that right through to the very end, then I want to side with him and I want to be with him and I want to be involved in this matter. So we have his determination. Now, the full answer to this burden of the Messiah will only be realized when he returns. So let's make that quite clear that it's only when he actually finally returns with glory and great power that this Zion will then be a lamp that burns to the ends of the earth. For the word of God says, the nations shall walk in the light of it. [00:25:29] This city, this Zion, it says expressly in revelation 22, and the nations shall walk in the light of it. It says, it has no need of the light of sun or moon, for the glory of God did lighten it, and the lamb is the lamp thereof, and the nations shall walk in the light of it. [00:25:51] Well, praise the Lord. When he does come, then this is going to be finally realized. But what about the travail that is required for that purpose of the Lord to be fulfilled? [00:26:09] It's not just going to come. And we cannot just face it in a fatalistic manner and say, well, well, it's the will of God. He's going to do it. He's all powerful. It'll be all right. The fact of the matter is that this full answer to our Lord's great burden here is going to be then. And that's why he goes on to say, and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name or designate. And then he says, and thou shalt be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord. A royal diadem in the hand of thy God. What wonderful words. A new name. We know in the first chapters of revelation, that our lord says to the overcomers, those who finally become part of that eternal Zion, he says to them, and my father will give you a new name which no one knows, but he who receives it. [00:27:02] It's wonderful. And a crown of beauty. Now, this may take away a little bit of it for you, because you're all used to those wonderful crowns at the tower. You know, I remember when I went there some years ago now, but, you know, I've forgotten all about the tower, and I had a macabre interest in the bloody tower and where they had all those bodies sort of all stacked in serried ranks under that little green lawn somewhere. But I must say that the thing that absolutely caught me were the crown jewels. I'd never seen anything like it. I stood there gawping for quite some while just looking at those jewels. What a crown. And then of course, I thought to myself, how does the queen ever wear that great hinge? Everything on her head. [00:27:55] Incredible. Now, it may disappoint you, but the first crown here is really a wreath, because in the old days, that was the kind of crowns they had, but it was still a wreath or garland, you see, of beauty or glory is the word in Hebrew. It's an unusual word. It's not the usual word for glory. It does mean beauty, but it's somewhere in between. Glorious beauty, a wreath of glorious beauty. Perhaps it's the best way we could put it. And then this other lovely word, a royal diadem, is a turban. [00:28:29] I'm sure some might be quite upset by that, but in the old days, the sort of potentates of the east, they wore a royal turban. It was still a symbol of absolute authority. [00:28:41] Only the king could wear that turpent. It was a royal, well, diadem, somehow I love the word diadem, because for us in the west, I suppose it has a real feeling of power, don't you think? It has. As soon as I hear the word diadem, I think of authority, regal authority, absolute authority. Of course, those of you, you know, from the states, I suppose you don't quite appreciate this, but when we think of diadem, we think of something absolutely absolute authority. [00:29:15] Well, don't be put off by the thought that it's a turban, because it means just the same absolute authority. Now, our Lord has said this, we know it's going to be in those days. Oh, we're told the beauty and the glory that's going to be revealed through that Zion of God, through the bride, the wife of the lamb, when the Lord and his bride are finally brought together and God's glory fills them and is manifested through them. Oh, it's going to be absolutely marvellous. An authority. It's going to be a city with great authority, a new name, glory and dominion. [00:30:01] Isn't that wonderful holding? [00:30:04] We don't want to just put it all in the future. [00:30:07] Because, you see, there have been many, many times in the history of God's people when the Lord, by the Holy Spirit, has come in like a great tide. And when that has happened, well, then Zion's righteousness has gone forth as brightness and her salvation as a lamp that burneth. I think of the reformation period. Oh, what a glorious thing it was when the Lord overturned the whole institutional thing. And for at least a generation, the salvation of Zion went forth as a lamb of God. It was like a flaming torch held up. It wasn't just a question of personalities, there were great personalities in it, one after another. But, dear friends, it was as if the people of God caught fire by the Holy Spirit and the whole thing went to the ends of the earth. It turned Europe upside down. [00:31:07] It was the same with the Moravians. It was the same with the Quakers that despised people. [00:31:16] But my word, what happened when the Holy Spirit got hold of George Fox and a few others and turned the whole of Britain upside down? Why, do you know, sometimes more than two thirds of the traveling preachers were imprisoned at one time. Think of that. [00:31:33] I don't suppose many a denomination has ever had two thirds of its ministers in prison. [00:31:40] What did they do? They turned the prisons upside down. Many of them died in those prisons. But my word, out of those prisons came convicts who became flaming evangelists and prophets, saved by the testimony of men who died in chains. It was a salvation that was like a flaming torch held up so that the whole country heard. [00:32:04] As a result, our prisons were reformed. [00:32:10] Quaker ladies went and sat in rat infested, vile and wicked places, and by their very purity of life and testimony, simply transformed the place from inside. [00:32:28] Not only those, think of the Wesleyans, that great movement of the spirit. When it first began, my, it was a lamp. It was a salvation. [00:32:39] Burning like a lamp. [00:32:42] Wasn't it tremendous what happened in this country, in these islands and in the United States as well, through George Whitfield and John Wesley and those other great men of God in that move of the spirit? Now, these are just a few examples. We could go back earlier to other periods before the reformation. We could come and mention many others since then. But what a wonderful time it's been. Every time the Holy Spirit has come in and this travail of the Lord and of others, has. Has been answered and realized, if only in part. And suddenly it's been that the righteousness of Zion and Jerusalem, God's spiritual Zion, has gone forth as brightness, like clear shining after tempest and storm. [00:33:35] Her salvation has gone to the ends of the earth like a flaming torch. Don't you think that you and I, we need something of this? We want to see it in our day, don't we? Oh, that God would do it in Britain, that God would do it in the nations of Europe, that God would do it in the whole free world. Thank God he is doing it in very large parts of the world, behind the Iron Curtain and the bamboo curtain. Salvation as a lamp that burneth. My, how wonderful it is when we hear on the BBC that it is conservatively estimated that 60 million of the citizens of the Soviet Union are believers in the Almighty. [00:34:20] Isn't it incredible? [00:34:23] So terrible is it that they have to stage what they normally call the showing of depraved films of the west on Easter Sunday and Good Friday to keep the youngsters out of the churches? [00:34:37] For the last two years in Russia, they've had non stop showings of what they normally call depraved. Now, we wouldn't call them depraved, I mean, Mickey mouses and that kind of thing. But the Soviets have called these depraved for years. [00:34:55] It's interesting, isn't it, that a tiny little clique at the top can hold a whole nation in absolute bondage. What an evidence it is that, oh, it is God who is behind the whole thing. [00:35:09] Normally speaking, you wouldn't think that so many millions of people could be held in such bondage. [00:35:16] But when God's time comes for that bondage to be broken, it'll be broken. But what about us in the free world? Abortion, blood guiltiness, pornography, evil on every side, our whole school system being infiltrated by us. Ideas that have not been tested and which in the end may lead to tragedy in many young lives. [00:35:41] What are we to do? [00:35:43] What we need is that kind of move of the Holy Spirit that will mean that the salvation of Zion will go forth, will burn as a torch, her righteousness will go forth as brightness. Well, I find all that very, very exciting. And there's another lovely little thing here in this chapter. It says, thou shalt no more be termed forsaken. Neither shall thy land any more be termed desolate. [00:36:15] These words, forsaken. Desolate. Have you ever seen something forsaken? [00:36:22] It's derelict, isn't it? Empty derelict. It's got a feeling of past glory. [00:36:32] If you've ever been somewhere, to a place, a house or something, that in times past has been glorious and now it's forsaken. [00:36:42] It has that awful atmosphere of dereliction, a land that is desolate. [00:36:51] You know, so much of the Lord's work comes into that category. [00:36:58] It's got an atmosphere of dereliction about it. [00:37:03] We've got the meetings, we've got the activities, we've got the preaching, we've got all the round of things. But somehow or other, it's forsaken. Somehow it's got divorced from its owner. [00:37:19] And then the Lord says about this thing, he says, thou shall no more be called forsaken, neither shall I land any more be termed desolate, but thou shalt be called chitzivah means. It's a name again, as you probably know, a lady's name, Yehudi Menuhin's sister is called Hepzibah. Now, the interesting thing is this, that this just means my delight is in her. So the lord is not forsaken. My delight is in her. [00:37:49] He's not departed, but his delight is in her. That's much more than I love her. I have an affection for her. [00:37:58] She is very interesting. [00:38:01] He says, my delight is in her. That is emotive language, isn't it? My delight is in her. [00:38:09] His heart is in this thing captured by her. And then, of course, he calls her Beulah married. [00:38:19] You know, in Hebrew, everything comes from roots. You have a root word, and all these other meanings comes very, very thrilling. It's exciting. The language is exciting just simply for that reason. And of course, I know, forgive me, any women's libbers here, but unfortunately, Hebrew is a language that doesn't take into consideration anything to do with women's liberation at all. And you see, it may shock you to know that the word baal, baal, which we have so much and which we think of as such a bad word, is. In fact, the word baal is the word for husband, lord. [00:38:57] And the word marriage comes from baal, you see? And so it really just means lauded or owned, you see. [00:39:08] Well, of course, some, I know women's liberation doesn't like this kind of thing anymore, but I mean, that's what the Bible says. And the Lord says, you shall no more be called desolate, but you shall be called owned, married, brought into union, brought into possession. [00:39:27] Oh, thats wonderful. And then he goes on and says something to any of you mothers, fathers and mothers here this evening, and any of you who are concerned about the new generation, which I think is tremendous because he does not say what you would think if you will look at it for as a young man, marrieth a virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee. [00:39:50] What is the great tragedy of Christianity? Work, that the children do not grow up in the faith of their parents. Somewhere along the line they saw hypocrisy or they saw something which didn't work, or they saw something that wasn't real, they turned away from it. It's the cry all over the world, don't feel condemned. There are great servants of the Lord whose children are as black sheep as it is possible to be. [00:40:19] I often have much to do with different sermons of the Lord. And I hear those dear white haired fathers, now grandfathers, groaning over with the ways that they dealt with their children in earlier days. [00:40:36] But the promise of the Lord is thy sons shall marry thee. [00:40:42] Now, if it said, for the Lord will marry you, I would answer, but the Lord actually says, the new generation of Zion shall be wedded to the old. [00:40:54] The new generation will come into a union with the old. They will marry you, your sons will marry you. [00:41:02] And then he goes on and says, and as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee. But what a wonderfully gracious intimation of the Lord's purpose. You know, this whole question of Zion's salvation burning as a lamp to the ends of the earth, her righteousness going forth as brightness, is also a matter of the new generation. [00:41:31] Unless there are people who are prepared to travail for the new generation, it's not a question of just teaching them. It is not just a question of sort of imposing ideas upon them. The real need is for people who will get behind the scenes and understand the burden on the heart of the Lord and really travail for them so that there will be another generation, not a second generation in one sense, but a second generation in the spirit of the first wedded. [00:42:02] Oh, I do think. I mean, theres one thing that is forbidden in scripture and that is for sons to marry their mother. [00:42:11] But the Lord speaks of your sons marrying you. [00:42:16] What can he mean? Since it is a forbidden relationship, what can he mean? He means simply this, that that new generation will come into such a union with the past generation that they will live in a contemporary way and speak in a contemporary and dress in a contemporary way, and yet have the same faith and the same experience and the same power and the same knowledge and experience of that salvation of the Lord, they will also be in Zion. [00:42:45] If you are a father or a mother, don't you think here comes a tremendous comfort to you that our Lord has actually said something about a new generation, your sons. [00:42:59] He said it. [00:43:00] It's all part of this matter. And we as a company have come to the place now where we have many growing up amongst us, and we have a burden for them. [00:43:15] Now let us move on because, you see where the clock beats us every time. What about the fellowship of the Lord in this matter? We have it in verses six to nine. I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem. They shall never hold their peace day nor night. Watchmen set on thy walls. Now, isn't this a very interesting word? This word here, this word for watchman can also be guard. Indeed, today in modern Hebrew, we speak of the police in the same way we speak of them as watchmen or guards. It is the same word in Hebrew. But of course, our Lord isn't saying, I've set policemen walls. Oh, Jerusalem. [00:43:56] Because immediately we get the idea of someone telling everybody else what to do or what they shouldn't do. But Watchmen is the best way, although it has got the thought of God. [00:44:10] You see, what does a watchman do? [00:44:13] He watches what is going on outside the walls of the city. And he also watches what's going on going on on the inside. [00:44:25] He guards the city. He watches the city. If in a single moment of time there's a problem, then immediately he will alert any problem coming from a distance. He will immediately see it. And the farther off he sees it, the better for the whole city. [00:44:45] The sooner he spots problem coming or danger, the better for the whole watchman on thy walls. The job of now the Lord has set watchman on the walls of this Zion, of his, this zion that he has so much concern for, that he loves so greatly, that he has this determination over. [00:45:08] He has watchmen on the walls watching and guarding. And then will you notice that these watchmen do something which is very interesting? He says, they shall never hold their peace day nor night. [00:45:21] Now here is one great excuse for never shutting up. [00:45:26] The Lord says about these watchmen, they'll never shut up. They'll never hold their peace. And he uses exactly the same word of himself. He said, I will not hold my peace. Here is the word. He will not be silent. He will not be inactive. He will not be still. [00:45:52] Well, you see, it's rather wonderful when you think of it like that, isn't it? That somehow or other, here is the fellowship of the Lord. [00:45:59] He says he will not be still. He will not be inactive. Now he says, I have watchmen on the walls that will not be inactive. They've come into my activity. They've come into my refusal to be silent or to be quiet or to be still. [00:46:16] They've got the same spirit in them. [00:46:22] Now, what does it mean, these watchmen are on the walls in Zion? They're not just in Zion. Will you note it? They're on the walls. [00:46:33] What does it mean? Please think. You've all often heard this verse quoted either in prayer or in preaching. But what does it mean, watchmen on the walls? It means people who are totally committed to the purpose of God. [00:46:56] They are not only in Zion, they are on the walls of Zion. [00:47:05] They don't merely travail that others will be in the will of God. They are sure that they are themselves in the will of God first. [00:47:17] Now, here is a little point. It is very possible to be deceived in this whole matter of prayer and to get a kind of prayer complex where we just simply pray and pray and we mouth things and mouth petitions and go on and on and on and actually become alienated from the mind of God because our prayer can become. You understand what I mean? Now, prayer can become an activity rather than something coming out of union with the Lord. Now, we have a capacity by which we can Bible study, we can do it with Bible study, we can do it with prayer, we can do it with our meetings, we can do it with church life, we can do it with everything. We can turn it into a thing instead of it coming out of union with the Lord, out of, as it were, sensitivity to himself. Now, do you understand what I'm trying to say on this matter? Perhaps some of you don't. But if you pray about it, I'm sure the Lord will help you on this. You see, it's no good sort of saying that. I know people who say, oh, I must pray about the Lord. I must pray that the church of God be recovered. And they're not in any recovery themselves. [00:48:32] They say, oh, I must pray that the Lord will do this and do that, and they're not themselves committed, as if somehow or other they can pray for it and in their own lives and so have a complete contradiction to the thing. [00:48:47] Do you understand what I'm saying? In other words, what I'm saying is, if you're going to pray for Zion, you must be committed to Zion. [00:48:55] If you're really going to travel for Zion, you somehow have not only got to be in Zion, but on its walls. [00:49:02] Well, what does that all mean? Well, it means this. These watchmen, let me put it as simply as I can, these watchmen have their own experience. Experience of Zion and of the king within its gates. [00:49:16] They have their own experience. They're under government. They're under his lordship. They hear his word. They do his bidding. They're there in fellowship with him. They have their own experience of Zion. They know what it is to be part of the building up of Zion. Like Nehemiah's day, they had, as it were, a gun in one hand and. And a spade in the other. It wasn't quite that dead, I think they had a sword in one hand and a trowel in the other, but you know what I mean. A gun in one hand and a spade in the other. [00:49:53] Yes, I've seen it many times in Israel today, gun over the shoulder and spade, getting on with the job. The point is this, you see that somehow or other they're not only watching, but they're committed. They've got their own experience of the building up of Zion, of the recovery of Zion. They know the difficulties about stone being built to stone, the whole difficulties of buildings going up in relationship to one another, the whole city being a compact city. They've got their own experience. They know something about the foundation. It says in Isaiah 28, I have placed in Zion a sure foundation, a tried stone. [00:50:43] And of course, the apostle Peter brought this up and said, behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone. He said, and it's all to do with this house of the Lord. Years living stones are built up together as a house in the Lord. Now, my point over this whole thing is very simple, and it's just this, that if these ones are going to be watchmen on the walls of Zion, then they've got to have their own experience of Zion. They must have their own experience of relationship to one another there. Do you understand? As living stones, they have their experience of the foundation. You know, it's one thing to be able to meet with people that you all agree with is another thing when you have to find a foundation of people you don't exactly like or temperamentally, you clash with, or there are things that it's much easier to say, I feel the Lord's leading me off to the Baptist, or I feel that the Lord might be leading me off to the Methodist. I feel I've got a job to do there. It's much easier to depart that way. We gloss it up. I've never known anybody leave simply because they dislike somebody else. But I'll tell you this, that 75 to 85, 80% of those who leave any company normally leave through personal collisions. [00:51:58] There are people in the leadership or people elsewhere, people in responsibility or just someone that they're having to share with, and they cannot get on with them, and they just can't face the fact that I can't get on with them and say, I just cannot get on with someone. So they gloss it all up in spiritual terms. And the Lord spoke to them in their quiet time. It was time for them to move. And on. They've trotted, but they never get anywhere because, you see, you jump out of the frying pan into the fire normally, you see, I mean, the problem that God was trying to get you through on is a problem that's in you, not in the other person. And if God could use that other difficult person to bring this whole problem in you, out into the open and slay it and deal with it, well, it's a wonderful thing. [00:52:39] You'd be very thankful, wouldn't you, instead of running off somewhere else, face the whole thing and come through it. That's wonderful. Well, there we are. They've got their own experience of the battles and the joys of Zion. So these watchmen are not just people who've been sort of positioned on the walls, who have nothing whatsoever to do with the city. They've come right through, if you know what I mean, from being bellboy. They've come right up through the whole firm until, in the end, they had this position of very real responsibility and authority to guard and watch. [00:53:19] Now, the fellowship of the Lord is very wonderful in this matter, because he says, ye that are the Lord's remembrancers, take ye no rest and give him no rest. Now we have the second word that don't be silent and don't let him sort of be still. [00:53:36] So the best way of translating it, just as we take no rest and give him no rest, don't be quiet yourself, and don't let him be quiet. That's how you probably put it if you understood it from the modern. In modern Hebrew. [00:53:56] So I went, what a command. [00:53:59] Now, the question immediately arises, if our Lord is all powerful and knows all things anyway and works all things according to the counsel of his own will, why does he have to be reminded? [00:54:12] I love my version. It says, ye that are the Lord's remembrances. The Hebrew probably means, you who are there to remind the Lord. But I think this is lovely, the Lord's remembrances. But why should we need to remember, remind the Lord. He should surely not need to be reminded. [00:54:32] He ought to know what he's doing. Why does he need to be reminded? Doesn't it somehow, don't you think it's something to do with real fellowship? Now, let me just for one moment, just take one digression in this matter, because I believe it's very important for us in this company, as well as coming out of our experience in the past months, both mine and yours. You know, it is so interesting in the whole matter of the kingdom of God being advanced, the will of God being done, and the work of the Lord being fulfilled, we have certain promises. For instance, in two corinthians and chapter one and verse 20, we read, for how many soever be the promises of God in Christ is the yes, and through him is the amen to the glory of God. Now, can I just explain something to you all? You see, we just take this wonderfully. Oh, wonderful, wonderful. How many so ever be the promises of God in Christ? As the yes, and through him they are men. Isn't that marvelous? Standing on the promises of God. But just wait. [00:55:44] I think that first of all, we need to see that the promises of God in Christ, however many there are, are yes. [00:55:55] But through him the amen is the problem. [00:56:01] Do you understand what I'm trying to say? I'm trying to say that when we know that the will of God is to do this and this and this, we get a promise made real to us by the Holy Spirit as a company, and immediately we know it's yes. It's yes. [00:56:15] But our problem is the amen. [00:56:21] It's one thing to have the yes through Christ, not in through Christ the amen. In other words, you can get the yes, but it's the process by which the yes becomes facts. [00:56:37] He has worked out the amen. See, when we say amen, let it be even. So. [00:56:45] Now, I link this up with hebrews six and verse twelve. [00:56:49] Dont be sluggish, but be imitators of them who through faith and patience, inherit the promises. In other words, faith may say its yes, but patience is the only thing that can wait for the amen. In other words, the final outworking of the promise. Now, let me explain a little straight. God told them, wheresoever the sole of your foot treads upon that will. I give you the moment they put their feet down through the river Jordan onto the river bed. What happened? There was an earthquake or something else up at Adam, and immediately the waters were piled up and the people went over us on dry ground. [00:57:35] It happened instantly. They didn't wait. They probably had to wait an hour for the riverbed to really dry so they could go over. But I mean, what an hour? It all happened in a moment. It was absolutely marvellous. Here was the promise of the Lord. We would say in Christ. Yes. And through him, amen. First came the. Yes, they put their feet down in the water. It stopped. And then through him the amen. Within hours, the whole nation was across into the promised land. [00:58:06] When they came to Jericho, they put their feet down. But what happened, if anyone had been a legalist and said, now, listen, everybody, God is all powerful. We don't need to go round and round this city. All we need to do is to put our feet down one and claim it in the name of the Lord. And if the walls don't come down, then where something's wrong. [00:58:29] But they had to go round those walls once a day for six days and seven times on the 7th day and only on the 7th time did the walls come down. Isn't that interesting? They had to have patience for seven days. [00:58:44] What about Jerusalem? [00:58:46] They could have taken it. They didn't. Do you know how long it took for them to take Jerusalem? 400 years. [00:58:57] 400 years it took before King David put his feet down and the Amen came. [00:59:06] Now, what I'm just trying to say is we need patience. You see, in this whole ministry of intercession, we are given promises about certain things and then if they don't happen immediately, we tend to get discouraged and what do we do? Very easily, we can fall to infighting. We can start on a kind of witch hunt. So and so is wrong, so and so's wrong, so and so's wrong. This is wrong, that's wrong, the other's wrong. We shouldn't have done this. We shouldn't have done that. And oh, the devil loves it. He loves it. Everyone starts looking at one. No, I'm not saying there are not times when we need to clean up a whole lot of things amongst us and get things right. But, you know, I have lived long enough, and I'm long enough in tooth now to have seen some amazing. I've seen the Lord bless. And then a bit later, when there's been a hold up, someone has said, if this and this was removed, we'd get the blessing. The funny thing, that thing was there when the blessing came before. [01:00:04] In other words, although I am quite sure there are times when we have to really deal with things, particularly when the Lord reveals it to us. God, preserve us. From witch hunts. [01:00:16] Its quite a different thing when the Lord reveals himself and unveils himself. And then we all get right because we know in our hearts theres something wrong in us. Its an altogether different thing when we all start looking at one another and trying to put one another right. [01:00:30] And I say that this is very important because there are times when it takes a moment. There are times when it takes seven days, and its time when theres 400 years. [01:00:42] When the set time comes, the amen comes. [01:00:47] But all for patience to battle on. [01:00:51] Daniel must have at times felt like giving up, especially when he was in the lion's den. There must have been times when he thought, well, you know, the Lord said 70 years, and somehow or other we are near to the end of the 70 years and it's just getting darker and darker and darker and darker. He might have thought, why doesn't the Lord just do it like that? No, the Lord gave him not only faith, but patience. [01:01:12] And don't you think it is an interesting thing, dear ones, that when Daniel really sought the Lord, in the 10th chapter of Daniel and verse twelve, an angel came to him and touched him in such a way that he fell on the palms of his hands and on his knees. Poor man. [01:01:31] That was a powerful touch from heaven, like an electric shock. And then the angel said, Daniel, the very first moment you started to pray, your prayer was heard and answered. [01:01:48] And I have been sent, but I got delayed. [01:01:53] Now, what in the world could that mean? He got delayed. And then he says, there was a fight between the prince of Persia and the prince of Greece. And these princes are not earthly princes at all. They're spiritual principalities. [01:02:09] They're not flesh and blood. Now, my point is this. You see, again, take this question of the house and jewels. I've learned deeply in those that you cannot just sort of say, this, this, and this will happen. And it just happened. There are tremendous battles, and unless the Lord's people rise up to it and really take it through and execute the will of God, then the thing is held up. It's still in the power. And furthermore, the Lord could do it. He could just, with a flick of his fingers, he could say, it's done, it's done. But he doesn't. Why? He doesn't because. Because he wants to teach us. [01:02:43] It's as if he's saying, listen, if you're going to let Jerusalem remain in jebusite control, it will remain under jebusite control until there's a big, strong man in charge of this city. Now, you have been able to dislodge him out of the land, out of Jericho, out of AI. But you can't dislodge him out of Jerusalem. [01:03:03] You need more. [01:03:05] You understand? [01:03:06] Now, forgive this digression, but it isn't really a digression at all, because it's all to do with this fellowship of the Lord. There's only one explanation why the Lord needs remembrances. And it is this that he wants to bring us into the place where we reign with him in heavenly places, where we learn here and now, in circumstances down here, what it is to bring the will of God. God into Richmond. What it is to bring the kingdom of God into Richmond. What it is to bring the kingdom of God into our circumstances. What it is to bring them into the nation's circumstances. [01:03:44] We have to learn it now. We're not going to learn it then. We've got to learn it now. And we have to learn that God gives us promises. Now, you all understand that there are times when I've heard promises given that I really don't think of being of the Lord. [01:03:56] But there are other times, and many times when the promises have been given of God made to us by the Holy Spirit, witnessed by two or three. You understand what I mean by two or three? In the mouth of two or three. It has been established that this really is the Lord speaking. And then we have such a battle over its realization, we wonder, why doesnt the Lord come in now? The whole danger is infighting or witch hunting or whatever else. Let us see the Lord and get ourselves cleaned up and let holiness and righteousness come right into our lives. But let us remember that there are strong beings that have to be bound before we can spoil the strong mans goods. [01:04:38] And until you and I learn to do this intercession, we can only go so far in intercession, if you know what I mean. Were all the time sort of taking this and taking it, and yet somehow or other, we never come to the point where actually the enemy is dislodged and we're through. [01:04:59] May the Lord teach us this tremendous lesson. Listen to what the Lord says in the last verses of that. [01:05:08] Isaiah 62. He says this. He says, verse eight. The Lord hath sworn by his right hand, hand and by the arm of his strength. Surely I will no more give thy grain to be food for thine enemies and foreigners shall not drink thy new wine for which thou hast laboured. But they that have garnered it shall eat it and praise the Lord. And they that have gathered it shall drink it in the courts of my sanctuary. Now this is again very interesting. What the Lord is saying is there will be a harvest, only others will not get it. You will enjoy it. Oh, don't you think so much of christian work is hard, hard work? And then after all that comes the great disappointment that those you have labored for just go off. [01:05:58] But the promise of the Lord here is that youll enjoy the harvest. They wont just go off. Theyll stay. But its even more beautiful. You see, you never eat meals in the of the sanctuary unless its special meals. Did you know that if you look into your bible, you will find in the book of Exodus, the book of Leviticus, the book of numbers, certain laws given for meals that you can have in the temple courts. [01:06:29] They were called peace offerings. [01:06:33] You remember when you brought in the new wine and then the, the priest and yourself, you could sit down and have a meal. It was a fellowship meal. [01:06:43] What a lovely thought, that when the Lord has got his tithe and when the Lord has got his offerings, you and the others sit down and enjoy it. [01:06:54] It's a beautiful thought for those of you who know your bibles a little bit more. But let's just go on finally to the last verses, ten to twelve, if that's the fellowship of the Lord. And his point is this, Zion and Jerusalem, nothing will ever happen until he has those in fellowship with him in this deepest of all ways, in this whole ministry of intercession. Listen then to the challenge of the Lord. Verse ten. Go through. Go through the gates. Prepare ye the way of, of the people. [01:07:29] Cast up the highway. [01:07:33] Gather out the stones. Lift up an ensign for the peoples. Now we've got some very interesting things here. And tomorrow I trust that we will be able to go on and really look at some of these things in depth, but just now to underline them and so introduce tomorrow, what does it mean, go through the gates? Does it mean go through the gates to enter the city? Or does it mean go through the gates to cast up the highway? Well, it doesnt really matter, does it? Because what it means is commit yourself. [01:08:04] Thats all. Either commit yourself to the life of Zion and to the children of Zion, really commit yourself to the work of the Lord, to the purpose of the Lord in this matter. Because first youll have to commit yourself by going into the city through the gates, and that's where the elders sit. [01:08:24] Now, I'm not saying anything about the elders, but what I mean is this, you see, it means that you come under authority. You commit yourself. It's not just that you do what you think is right. You commit yourself to the community of God's people and come under authority. So simple as that. But I mean, once you've committed yourself in, you're going to go back out before long. What to do to prepare a way for the people to cast up a highway to gather out the stones. Have you ever seen a big highway being prepared? [01:08:54] It really is interesting, especially in stony, rocky country. See these great people, all these men working like ants, slowly leveling away. First come the surveyors. I'm no engineer, so you understand that if I'm saying it all wrong. But I mean, you get these men sort of, with all their funny little gadgets, working thing. First of all, it looks like Virginia to me. I've often seen them not only here, but especially in Israel. I mean, just sort of spot there. I think, oh, something's going to happen here, some way's going to go. And sure enough, a few months later, you start to see the first outline. And then before long, those great boulders all being moved out of the way. It's tremendous. [01:09:31] But what does it all really mean? Well, first of all, you've got to commit yourself. I wonder if you really are committed. You know, don't ever let yourself, deceive yourself into thinking that you just don't agree with this or don't agree with that or whatever. [01:09:53] Because in the end, this matter of committing yourself to the Lord is a question of his lordship. [01:10:02] It is as simple as that. [01:10:05] Once you and I have really owned the lordship of Jesus, we will commit ourselves no problem. [01:10:16] We only have problems with our brothers and sisters afraid of their clammy hands upon us and what they might do to us in manipulating us when we have not owned the lordship of Jesus. For once we've got the lordship of Jesus, we know he's bigger than they. [01:10:37] I could say a lot about that, but we'll leave it, go through the gates. Here's the next thing. Prepare the way. There's a way to be prepared. We'll think about that tomorrow. Casting up a highway, what does that mean? A way for people to come. There are many, many people that God wants to bring to Zion, people who are not yet saved, others who do know the law but are in such afflicted and destitute circumstances, he wants to bring them. There are boulders in the way. Some of those boulders are traditional, some of them are institutional, some of them are just our own bigoted prejudices. Some of them are blemishes in our fellowship, things that really put off other people. See, maybe just a coldness we have towards people. We just don't welcome them. We don't smother them with love, if you know what I mean. We don't sort of warm up to the stranger amongst us. These can be boulders. These can be boulders. Everyone knows what it's like to come into a company where no one really takes an interest in you, where no one goes out of their way. And you see you've got lots of people all sitting there waiting for somebody else to talk to them. [01:11:45] The British are incredibly incredible in this manner. I mean, it's a british disease. [01:11:51] It really is. I'm not being funny, it is a british disease. You just don't get it in some of the other. I mean, other places you have to shake everybody's hand when you come in and shake everybody's hand before you go out, do you know the kind. I mean, I know that can become a dreadful routine, too, but at least it means that you've touched everybody. Other places you get crushed to death in brother's arms that nearly break your ribs, you know, smothered. I mean, it's not considered to be the least bit ungodly, but I mean, it's. At least there's some kind of contact and some you feel at least you're wanted. [01:12:24] But the British do suffer from this terrible sort of inhibition and sort of not quite knowing what to do. [01:12:34] That's the best idea of ever shoving a cup of tea in people's hands, especially the men. Because when they've got something in their hands, they seem as if they can then start to talk more normally. But, you know, sometimes these can be stones we need to think about. And they're actual stones of stumbling, because people come in, they may not be. Suddenly someone comes in great need and they're overlooked. And everyone's busy talking with one another, the people they know. And someone who really is in, really comes in and goes out, and that's that. And not always the unsaved. [01:13:05] Well, we. Those are just small things, but there are many others. Stones. Stones that are in the way. They're just stones of stumbling. You can't have a highway where you've got rocks all littering where they've got to be taken out. Now, isn't it an interesting thing that our Lord doesn't say? I will go through the gates, I will prepare the way for the people. I will cast up the highway, I will gather out the stones, I will lift up the. For the peoples. What is an ensign? An ensign is a flag of the nation or regiment, whatever. It is a royal standard which flies at a certain time, particularly in battle, so that if any soldier or any unit gets separated from the commander, they can immediately look and see. Theres the ensign. We know where he is. [01:13:52] We know where our ranks are. [01:13:56] Well, we need an ensign, dont we? [01:13:59] In this battle, people get sometimes separated, they get scattered, and then they dont know where they are. [01:14:11] We need an ensign. Well, the Lord doesnt say, I will lift up the ensign. What he says is, you must go through the gates. You must prepare the way for the people. You must cast up the highway and gather out the stones and lift up an end sign for the people. Oh, that the Lord would help us in this matter. It's one thing to talk about Zion. It's one thing to talk about the purpose of the Lord. It's another thing to get down to the actual hard work that is involved in the service of God. If the salvation of Jerusalem and of Zion is to go forth as a lamp, as a torch that burns, are you concerned, concerned about this? I am. Are you? You really want to be in this? The most wonderful thing in the whole wide world will be to meet the Lord when he comes and to be able to know that by the grace of God, with all our thoughts and weaknesses and failings, we were involved by his grace in this whole work that is on his heart. [01:15:15] God give you that burden, and may he bring you to the place where theres a spiritual capacity for intercession and for really being with him. Shall we bow together in prayer? [01:15:34] Lord, weve talked about Zion tonight and the travail for Zion. And Lord were very glad that this travail is not our travel. It's thy travail. And, Lord, it's a travail that thou canst bring into our spirits by thy Holy spirit. [01:15:52] And Lord, we pray because we need divine illumination on a matter like this. Wilt thou take what has been said this evening and really write it on our hearts? Lord, let light be given on a number of things, O Lord, in our way individually, in our way, corporately. And, Lord, we pray that in some very real way for Richmond. It will be that that, Lord, it will be that thy righteousness will go forth as brightness and, Lord, thy salvation as a torch that burned. [01:16:33] Dear Lord, we need it in this town. Thou knowest all the unhappiness and sin and emptiness and aimlessness. And thou knowest, Lord, all the need amongst us who are born of thy spirit. Dear Lord, do this work. We pray, and we ask it together with thanksgiving in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.