All women, including pre-born baby girls, are created in the image of God. Discover the true war on women. www.godloveswomen.com That is www.godloveswomen.com Oh sovereign Lord, Oh, Father in heaven, we pray for more of your Holy Spirit. We pray that you give us your spirit of wisdom and revelation to know you better. Oh Lord, please reveal your word to us. We pray that you would look down from heaven and see the suffering of your church the wounds of your people. Lord, please see how we suffer under the isolation and the loneliness of being hated and despised by the world on account of your holy name. Please see the persecutions, the attacks that are carried out against your holy people, all the tears of your church, all of the suffering of your children. O Lord, You are the God who resists those who lift up the horn in their pride. You are the Lord who tears down the horn of the wicked. But You visit the meek and the humble You lift up the horn of the righteous. O Blessed Father, we are in such desperate need of Your love and Your grace and the revelation of Your glory. These are dark days where there is not very much light. These are days of famine. where people search for the Word of God, but there are very few places where it can be found. And so your children are hungry for the Holy Word with which you feed us. O God, please look down from heaven and visit us with your compassion. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. This is our third study of the condescension of Christmas. What it means for Christ to have condescended in the Incarnation. This time we go to Isaiah chapter 64. And we'll begin this morning with The very end of Isaiah, chapter 63, verse 19, and then through 64, verse 4. This is the Word of the Lord. We have become like those of old, over whom you never ruled, those who were never called by your name, O that you would rend the heavens, and that you would come down, that the mountains might shake at your presence, as fire burns brushwood, as fire causes water to boil, to make your name known to your adversaries, that the nations may tremble at your presence. When you did fearsome things for which we did not look, you came down, the mountains shook at your presence. For since the beginning of the world, men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, nor has the eye seen any god besides you, who acts for the one who waits for him." Thus far the reading of God's Holy Word. God is jealous for the sake of His name, by which His people are known. Yet His holy name is now blasphemed among the nations on account of the filthiness and idolatry of His professed people. Those who call themselves Christians, but only in pretense, now live like the heathen. They sacrifice to heathen idols, paying homage to the heathen ideologies of Darwin and Sanger. and they eat, drink, and make merry together, just like the heathen. So, if holiness adorns the name of the Lord, like jewels on a king's crown, then God's professed children, those who call themselves Christians but falsely, have stolen the jewels from the king's crown, sold them to cheap buyers, and used the proceeds to engage themselves with prostitutes. God's own professed people, who are called by His own name, no longer fear Him. Therefore, being mere pretenders, they have lost their landed titles and the inheritance of the Gospel, and they have been forced to witness the sanctuary of the holy ordinances of the Church, such as baptism, communion, head coverings, marriage, When you speak of marriage as an ordinance in the Church, both the definition of marriage, and the procreative purpose of marriage, being desecrated and demolished by the adversaries of the Church. So they have become, the Prophet says, like those who were never known by the Holy Name of the Lord. Isaiah 63.19 We have become like those of old, over whom you never ruled, those who were never called by your name." It is as if we were never called by your holy name, the way we act. How jealous is God for His own name. He brought His people out of Egypt for this very purpose. To make for Himself an everlasting name. He taught us to call Him Father, even though Abraham was ignorant of us and Israel does not acknowledge us. So how jealous, then, is God for His everlasting name? Well, He is so jealous that He will make known His name to His adversaries by coming down against them in His wrath, even in chapter 64, verse 2, as fire burns brushwood and as fire causes water to boil. That's the jealousy of God for His name. Yet, despite this divine jealousy for the divine name, we look about the professing church today, and we find that verse 7 is quite true of a large swath of the professing church. Isaiah 64, 7, there is no one who calls on His name, who stirs himself up to take hold of God. How jealous are you for God's holy name amidst His adversaries? Do you weep when His name is blasphemed and derided amongst the nations? How jealous are you for the name of Christ Jesus amongst the peoples of the world? When hardly anyone today trembles at His name and so fears His name, does this deeply grieve your spirit? Do you love the Lord by loving His holy name? Do you fear with a godly fear that since you are called by the name of Christian, you thus bear the name of Christ upon your forehead? Since you call upon the blessed divine name of the Savior in prayer, do you do so in holiness and in purity of heart? Is it your greatest longing of spirit that the name of the Lord Jesus Christ would be hallowed in every thought, contemplation, and desire of your heart, and also in every expression of speech which proceeds from your lips? We, the children of God, must call upon the name of the Lord in this dire hour. For the flock of the living God is being torn to pieces by ravenous wolves, who are false prophets and false teachers in the church. The entire church edifice, which is, according to 1 Timothy, the pillar and foundation of the truth, is being burned by the fires of novel biblical interpretations and egocentric moral relativism. The holy vessels of the Church's doctrine are being plundered by the Babylonian army divisions of scientific dogmatism and militant feminism and the new Freudian oligarchy. The state of the Church, then, is so dire that when we call upon the name of the Lord, we must follow the prophet Isaiah, in calling upon him to rend the heavens, and so to come down to us again. This is the prayer of the prophet, probably prayed with a great broken heart. Isaiah 64, 1-4, Oh, that you would rend the heavens, that you would come down, that the mountains might shake at your presence, as fire burns brushwood, as fire causes water to boil, to make your name known to your adversaries, that the nations may tremble at your presence. When you did fearsome things for which we did not look, you came down. The mountains shook at your presence, For since the beginning of the world, men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, nor has the eye seen any god besides you, who acts for the one who waits for him." So why does the Prophet call upon God to rend the heavens? Is this not so that the wicked will be judged under God's righteous wrath, and so the righteous will be set free from the oppression of their enemies? For when God comes to judge the earth in the Bible, in the fury of His wrath, this is what He will do. He will tear open the heavens, and they shall be rolled up, as it were, like a scroll. Isaiah 34, verse 4, all the hosts of heaven shall be dissolved and the heavens shall be rolled up like a scroll. All their hosts shall fall down as the leaf falls from the vine and as fruit falling from a fig tree. And Revelation 6, 14, then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up. And every mountain and island was moved out of its place. So the prophet Isaiah then is asking the Lord to tear open the heavens so that He, the Lord of glory, might step through them, coming down in the righteous indignation of His righteous judgments. So the picture is one of the galaxies in the night sky being shaken, and the skies themselves being rent open. so that the Lord of glory himself might come down to judge the wicked, and so to give a divine verdict in favor of the righteous who fear him. So the prayer is that the Lord of hosts would tear open the heavens so that He would come down and save them. Isaiah 31 verse 4, For thus the Lord has spoken to me, as a lion roars, and a young lion over his prey, when a multitude of shepherds is summoned against him, he will not be afraid of their voice, nor be disturbed by their noise. So the Lord of hosts will come down, to fight for Mount Zion and for its hill." And Micah 1, verse 3, "...for behold, the LORD is coming out of his place. He will come down and tread on the high places of the earth." So, we then also learn to pray in this manner. We cry out to the Lord in prayer, asking Him to rend the heavens and come down, in order to save us from our enemies, who oppress us and brutalize us. Psalm 144, 5-8, Bow down your heavens, O Lord, and come down, Touch the mountains, and they shall smoke. Flash forth lightning, and scatter them. Shoot out arrows, and destroy them. Search out your hand from above. Rescue me, and deliver me out of great waters, from the hand of foreigners, whose mouth speaks lying words, and whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood." And what will happen once the Lord actually does indeed come down? Then what will happen? Well, will not the mountains themselves shake? Will not the whole earth tremble in the presence of the Holy One of Israel? Isaiah 64, 1-3 again, Oh, that you would rend the heavens, that you would come down, that the mountains might shake at your presence, As fire burns brushwood, as fire causes water to boil, to make your name known to your adversaries, that the nations may tremble at your presence. When you did fearsome things for which we did not look, you came down, the mountains shook at your presence." How holy is God! He is so holy that when He rends the heavens and comes down, even the very mountains shake at His presence. Job 9, 5-6. Book of Job 9, 5-6. He removes the mountains, and they do not know when He overturns them in His anger. He shakes the earth out of its place, and its pillars tremble. This is what the Lord did for David. When David, out of the midst of his distress, cried to Him, the enemies of David were threatening to engulf him and even to put him to death. But the Lord came down for His servant David. And when He came down for David, the very hills were shaken. Psalm 18, 7-9, Then the earth shook and trembled, the foundations of the hills also quaked and were shaken, because he was angry. Smoke went up from his nostrils, and devouring fire from his mouth, coals were kindled by it. He bowed the heavens also, and came down with darkness under his feet. Beloved in Christ, Do you hear the fearsome holiness of God in those verses? Do you bow down in fear and awe of the sovereign power and holy fury of God, as you see the very mountains shaking before His presence? Do not these things cause your very soul to tremble in holy fear? Jeremiah trembled. Jeremiah 4.24, I beheld the mountains, and indeed they trembled, and all the hills moved back and forth. And again, Nahum, the book of Nahum, chapter 1, verse 5, the mountains quake before him, the hills melt, and the earth heaves at his presence. Yes, the world and all who dwell in it. And once more Habakkuk 3, 10 through 11, the mountain saw you and trembled. The overflowing of the water passed by. The deep uttered its voice and lifted its hands on high. The sun and moon stood still in their habitation. At the light of your arrows, they went at the shining of your glittering spear. We who know the Lord Jesus Christ know such things to be true. By faith we have heard them already. And also by faith we have seen them already. We know that such things happened in true history, as true historical events during the exodus of the Israelites out of Egypt. And we also know, with the full assurance of faith, that they will happen in the future. when God comes down to judge the living and the dead. But those who worship false gods, gods of their own making, have neither heard of such things with their ears, nor seen them with their eyes, because their false gods, the false gods of the heathen, cannot, they cannot, win the heavens. And they cannot come down, and they cannot cause the mountains to shake. Isaiah 64 verse 4, For since the beginning of the world, men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, nor has the eye seen any god besides you, who acts for the one who waits for him. Nevertheless, when the Gospel comes into the world, the Gospel comes secretly, in hidden fashion. To be sure, the Apostles heard, this was historical, this was not Gnostic, the Apostles heard, and saw, and looked upon, and touched, with their hands, the Word of Life. But still, the first coming of Christ, which was when Christ went to the heavens and came down to earth in the form of a vulnerable babe in the virgin's womb, came with a hidden wisdom. He came down from heaven, but His coming was hidden from the eyes of the wicked. He shook the heavens, but that shaking was hidden from their ears and from their eyes. Christ Jesus was the Son of God, having come down in true flesh and blood, and yet His coming was hidden from the eyes of unbelief." 1 Corinthians 2, 7-9. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew. For had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written, that is, in the 64th chapter of Isaiah, I has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love him. When Christ came down, the physical heavens were not rent, and the physical mountains did not shake. Yet when Christ was crucified, and so He breathes His last, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, and the physical earth quaked, and the physical rocks were split, Yet all of this was hidden from the eyes and the ears of the wicked. However, when Christ comes again for His second condescension, the physical heavens shall be rent, and the physical mountains shall be shaken until they fall into the sea. But then it will be too late for the wicked to be saved. For it is appointed for man to die once, and then to face judgment. And also he who shook Mount Sinai in the days of Moses, by his voice which spoke from heaven, has promised to come down on the last day, to shake not only the earth, but also heaven. Such that the wicked who will be shaken off from the earth, and will be cast headlong into the fiery pits of hell, shall roam the earth and terrorize it no more. Therefore, beloved church, be prepared for Christ to come down, to condescend at His second coming. Be prepared for it to happen most unexpectedly, like a thief in the night. Because the Jews expected him to come at his first coming in a conquering fashion, but instead he came unexpectedly in a suffering fashion. Yet now the multitudes of the earth, all the wicked of the earth, they now today expect him never to come conquering. They expect him now today to be seen, albeit allegorically, only in weakness and suffering. Keep him on the cross. Yet in truth he shall come down to earth again. He shall, not allegorically, but historically and bodily, in power and with great glory, pouring out his wrath upon idolaters and conquering the nations by dashing them to pieces like pottery and ruling them with an iron scepter. So are you then prepared for him to come down? even shaking the mountains as He comes. Is this how you pray? Do you pray in view of the hearts of the many growing cold, and in light of how the darkness of man's depraved deeds on earth has now grown exceedingly dark? They even hate the righteous and pursue them unto death, such that the righteous can hardly buy or sell on the earth. In light of those things, do you pray that God Most High, in the person of His only begotten Son, would rend the heavens and come down? Do you beg Him to come down and shake the mountains, and cause the hills to quiver, and conquer the nations, and judge all of the wickedness of the earth in His holy wrath? Is this not how the Prophet prayed? The prophet Isaiah prayed on behalf of the persecuted, suffering remnant in Israel during his own day. Is this not then how we should pray on behalf of God's persecuted, suffering children who are dispersed among the nations of the earth, but who shall be gathered from the four winds with great glory and jubilation on the day when Christ comes down to earth again? When He comes, He will gather His elect children in the safety and the peace of His holy city, the New Jerusalem. So, He teaches us to pray, Oh, that You would reign the heavens and come down. He shall come down. And that very soon. He shall come down. And yet, when He comes, He shall, Isaiah says, He shall be furious. Isaiah's God is a furious God towards unrepentant sinners. And so the people are not ready. In their iniquities, they are not prepared to face such an angry God. But He who is furious with the sins of His people Israel, is also He who is forbearing and long-suffering with them. And therefore, in His great compassion towards His sinful people, He will tarry yet a little while longer, so that they have ample time to repent and to be saved from their sins." Isaiah 64, 5-7. You meet Him who rejoices and does righteousness, who remembers you in your ways. You are indeed furious For we have sinned. In these ways we continue, and we need to be saved. But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags. We all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away, and there is no one who calls on your name, who stirs himself up to take hold of you, for you have hidden your face from us and have consumed us because of our iniquities. Whom shall God meet with favor on the day when he comes down again from heaven? Is it not He who does righteousness? Isn't that what the Prophet says? Isaiah 64, 5, you meet Him who rejoices and does righteousness, who remembers you in your ways. But then we ask, who then, if that's true, then who then can be saved? Because all of the righteousnesses of sinful man, which are all of the supposed righteous deeds of every man who is not yet born again, are, according to Isaiah, they are filthy rags." Isaiah 64, verse 6. But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags. We all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. So when the Lord looks down from heaven upon the sons of men, upon those who are not yet converted to Christ, and so who are not yet being made holy by the internal work of the Holy Spirit, what does He see? Well, He sees that they have all turned aside, that they have together become corrupt, that there is none who does good, no, not even one. The Mormons and Muslims alike may claim to perform righteous deeds, but all of their righteousnesses are like filthy rags, very much unclean. And therefore, the only hope for unregenerate man is that he could find the forgiveness of sins and thus have his uncleanness before God removed from him, by some glorious cleansing agent of sufficient sacrificial atonement. That is the only hope for sinful man." Isaiah 64, 6. But we are all like an unclean thing. In the Law of Moses, A woman's cyclical impurity made everything that she lied on or sat upon unclean. That's Leviticus 15.20. Everything was unclean. The prophet Isaiah then says that such is the nature of all sin. It makes even seemingly righteous deeds to be as unclean, filthy rags. For according to the prophet Haggai, The uncleanness of sin is so horrible that it's dreadfully contagious. Sin is so unclean that it makes the work of every sinner's hands, all of his work, unclean. And even the sacrificial offerings of sinners, it makes it to be unclean. You bring your sacrifices, your rams, your sheep, and they're unclean because of your sin. So how unclean is the nature of sin? Well, it's so unclean that even the Prophet Isaiah, himself such a holy and God-fearing man, even Isaiah recoils before God on account of the uncleanness of his people. For that uncleanness of sin has spread contagiously even to his own lips. Even the Prophet's lips have become unclean. Isaiah 6, 5, So I said, Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips. And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. All is filthiness. All is unclean. The dilemma of the uncleanness of sin is infinitely great. Job 14, verse 4, who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? No one. So again we ask, who then can be saved? If God is furious on account of all of man's uncleanness, then how can any man, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, escape God's divine fury. Isaiah 64, verse 9. Do not be furious, O Lord, do not be furious, O Lord, nor remember iniquity forever. Indeed, please look, we all are your people. Our hope is only in the supernatural washing and cleansing of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For in the Gospel we pray, Psalm 51-2, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me. That's what we pray. Cleanse me. from my sin." And in the Gospel, the Son of Man responds by healing the woman's unclean flow of blood and cleansing the unclean leper of his leprosy. And how is the Son of Man able to do that? To cleanse away the uncleanness of sin? Well, He does so by giving Himself, offering Himself as a wrath-appeasing sacrifice for the Church offering for her, on the cross, His own infinitely valuable blood. And in that manner alone, Christ is able to sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the Word. That was Ephesians 5.26. Oh, unbeliever. When we talk to the unbelievers, this is how we evangelize. When we evangelize, we say, Oh, unbeliever, have you been cleansed by the blood of Christ? Are your sins forgiven by the blood of the Savior? Is this cleansing marked by the true rebirth of the Holy Spirit? Are you having Having been washed in the supernatural outworking of this cleansing water of spiritual baptism through the Spirit of Christ, are you now dying to sin and living for righteousness? If not, we have to warn them, if not, then God is still furious with you on account of your iniquities, and you may claim righteousnesses of your own. But they are all like an unclean thing, and like filthy rags in God's holy sight. And therefore you are not ready for Him to rid the heavens and come down. And if He does so while you are yet unclean, then you can only expect for His holy angels to come down, take hold of you, and cast you in all of your uncleanness into the valley of unclean things. the valley of Gehenna, which is the place of hell, where all unclean things will be cast into the fire, and where all the wicked will be tormented with fire and brimstone, without relief, forever and ever. And therefore we plead with you, O unbeliever, to forsake the vileness of your sins, and to turn away from the uncleanness of your iniquities, and so to prostrate yourself before the merciful altar of God, which is the blood-stained cross of Jesus Christ at Calvary, because if you will confess your sins before Him, He is faithful and just to forgive you your sins and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. And even for those of us who have been cleansed, even Jesus said to Peter, you've had a bath. For those of us who have been cleansed through the washing of regeneration by the Holy Spirit, there is still a sanctifying work of suffering to be done in our lives so that we might become ready for Christ to come down. The prophet Daniel says that those who understand the gospel in the last days shall fall into persecutions and shall be purified and made white until the time of the end. And also the apostle Peter says that the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God so that we might be refined. before the coming of the great refiner's fire and his great launderer's soap. And therefore, dear brothers and sisters, we say, depart from Babylon. Depart from her. Go out from her wicked stadiums and concerts and theaters and malls and touch no unclean thing. Go out from the midst of her and be clean. you who bear the vessels of the Lord. For Christ is coming down to earth, and quickly, and when He comes, you want to be found spotless and clean. But then how shall we pray for the second coming of Christ? since Christ already has condescended to earth once. He's already come down once. In what manner shall we pray for him to condescend again for his second coming? Well, the prophet Isaiah prays by asking the Lord to look down. This is how he prays for the condescension of God. He asks God to look down from heaven so that he might see Not that God doesn't see, but He asks God to look down and see the plight of His afflicted people, and therefore to rend the heavens and come down. So this is how He prays, and we learn from Him, then, how to pray. Isaiah 64, verses 8 through 12. But now, O Lord... This is the prophet Isaiah praying. But now, O Lord, You are our Father, We are the clay, and you are our potter, and all we are the work of your hand. Do not be furious, O Lord, nor remember iniquity forever. Indeed, please look down, look down. We all are Your people. Your holy cities are a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation. Our holy and beautiful temple, where our fathers praised You, is burned up with fire, and all our pleasant things are laid waste. Will You restrain Yourself because of these things, O Lord? Will You hold Your peace and afflict us very severely? Formerly, in previous days, when God was the potter and Israel was the clay, the people of Israel were a stubborn and hardened clay. They refused to submit themselves to God in the obedience of faith. Isaiah 45.9, these are the former days. Isaiah 45.9, Woe to him who strives with his maker! Let the potsherds strive with the potsherds of the earth! Shall the clay say to him who forms it, What are you making? It's a rebellious clay. Or shall your handiwork say, He has no hands? But now, in these days, on account of Israel's great sufferings under God's wise chastisements and disciplines, the clay has been softened. Israel is now a repentant, submissive clay in the hand of the potter. Isaiah 64, 8, But now, O Lord, You are our Father, we are the clay, and You are potter. We're submitting now. And all we are the work of your hand." So the Prophet Isaiah then appeals in prayer, this is how he prays, he appeals in prayer to God's compassion. In light of Israel's horrific sufferings, wherein her holy and beautiful temple is burned with fire, and all of her desires are turned into ruins, will the Lord restrain Himself much longer? Will He not come quickly to rescue His hurting people? And so Isaiah prays that the Lord would look down upon the righteous, His greatly afflicted children, and therefore come down from heaven to save them. Isaiah 63, verse 15. This is chapter 63, not 64. Verse 15. Look down. There it is again. Look down from heaven. and see from your habitation, holy and glorious, where are your zeal and your strength, the yearning of your hearts and your mercies toward me? Are they restrained?" And again, 64-9, do not be furious, O Lord, nor remember iniquity forever. Indeed, please look down. We all are your people. And the Psalms are full of this kind of meek, desperate prayer. Namely, that God would look down from heaven upon the sufferings of His children. In the Psalms, the righteous cry out things like this. Psalm 10, 14, But you have seen, for you observe trouble and grief, to repay it by your hand. Psalm 33, 13-14, The Lord looks from heaven, He sees all the sons of men from the place of his dwelling. He looks on all the inhabitants of the earth. And then Psalm 80, 14, return, we beseech you, O God of hosts, look down from heaven and see. And again, Psalm 102, 19 through 20, for he looked down. from the height of his sanctuary from heaven, the Lord viewed the earth to hear the groaning of the prisoner, to release those appointed to death." This is how the Bible teaches us, who are suffering greatly in these last days, to pray for the Second Coming of Christ. When we suffer, how do we pray for Christ to come? This is what it teaches. It says, When you pray, pray, O Lord, look down from heaven. See our sufferings. And so it's no wonder then that Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, prayed in this manner. Lamentations 5 verse 1, Remember, O Lord, who has come upon us, or what has come upon us, these sufferings. Look down, look down, and behold our reproach. And the earliest church, which was the Church of the Apostles, and was greatly persecuted by the Jews, also prayed in this same manner, Acts 4.29, Now, Lord, look, that is, as if to say, look down from heaven on their threats, and grant your servants that with all boldness they may speak your word. Upon whom does the Lord of all look down from heaven? with favor? Is it not he who is afflicted and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at his word? Thus did not the Lord of heaven look down upon Mary, the Virgin, and regard her lowly state such that henceforth all generations would call her blessed? And when He looked down upon Mary as she prayed for herself and all of her suffering people, did He not act, and thus come down to save His people from their sins? Did not the Son of God both look down and subsequently come down into the lowliness of the manger, into the suffering of His own people, in the lowly form of the suffering servant of God. O beloved church, he who formerly looked down from heaven and then came down from heaven shall look down and come down again for a second condescension. The Lord is He who sees all and knows all. There's nothing hidden from the everywhere present eyes of God. And so even though you feel isolated and very much alone in your great sufferings, and it seems as if there is no one who understands your gospel tears and gospel afflictions and pains, the Lord your God is always looking down upon you. looking down from heaven, and His compassions toward you are infinitely strong and not at all restrained. The Lord loves His suffering children with an infinite, immeasurable love. So there will come a day, and that quickly, when His children from all the nations of the earth are found, all at once, crying out to Him in tears, O Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, look down from heaven upon our torrential sorrows. And He who looks down upon them shall say to His beloved Son, who sits at His right hand, It is enough. Their sufferings and afflictions for My name are enough. It is time. And then the last martyr will be brought in, and the last trumpet will sound, and the Lord himself shall come down from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and shall raise the dead in Christ, and gather all of us who are still alive and remain and shall take us under the glorious safety and protection of His eternal wing. And then, once heaven has come down to earth, we shall be known by His name, His blessed and holy name, and that name shall be written on our foreheads, never to be removed, unto His eternal glory and power and honor forever, for ages of ages. Amen. So as we now close and come once again to the Lord's table, We come praying this way this morning. We pray for God to look down upon His suffering people all around the world, His suffering Christians. And then, when the time is right, to come down one last time, to rend the heavens and come down. Before we come to the Lord's table, here's the doxology. Praise be to God, our Father, who looks down from heaven upon his chosen, suffering children. Praise be to our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall rend the heavens and come down to save us from our enemies. And that very soon. And praise be to the Holy Spirit, who convicts us who believe of the great uncleanness of our iniquities, but who also brings us to the eternal fountain of the blood of Christ, so that we might be made clean forever. Amen.