Who Has Believed Our Report?

Please open your scriptures, please, to the Suffering Servant passage, Isaiah chapter 52, verse 13 through chapter 53.

Let us ask the Lord's blessing upon our time. Our gracious Heavenly Father, once again, as we have but these few moments to look into your word, we ask that during this time you would be with us, that you would open our hearts and minds, that once again we would truly show proper appreciation for what you have given to us in these words that confirm us in our faith, that show your control, your providence in history.

Lord, the truthfulness of your word be with us now, we pray in Christ's name. We continue our examination of the

Suffering Servant passage that we began this morning. We began with Isaiah 52, verse 13.

We have looked rather briefly through these first few verses, and we now come to the 53rd chapter specifically with the question being asked, who has believed our report or our message, and to whom has the arm of the

Lord been revealed? We saw that this is a text that is quoted more than once in the context of the

New Testament. The New Testament writer is seeing this, in essence, as a prophecy of the rejection of many people amongst the people of Israel of the work of the

Messiah himself. Once again, showing they saw this entire text as being of the Messiah.

But then here we have, and we won't have time to develop this, but if you are desirous of, in your own study, getting more deeply into the themes of the book of Isaiah, I think you would find it to be extremely interesting and well worth the examination.

To look at some of the texts, especially the connection between chapter 53 and Isaiah chapter 6, because in Isaiah chapter 6, you have

Isaiah's call to the prophetic ministry. And remember, part and parcel of that calling was, you're going to go out, you're going to do this, but I am going to cause their ears to be deaf, and I'm going to cause them to not hear, because I'm bringing judgment upon them.

Those same themes come into the New Testament. And I think it's, while it's extremely unpopular today to have judgment themes in that sense, to talk about God bringing judgment upon a people or upon a nation, even in the context of giving people ears so as to not hear.

I think it's important that we think about how often this took place in history, not only in the old covenant, but the fact that the apostles saw this taking place even in their own ministry.

In fact, I feel compelled to just expand upon this just for a moment for our sake. I mentioned just briefly this morning the fact that a very recent

Gallup poll indicated that our society, a majority in our nation now support the profanation, the abomination of marriage called same -sex marriage.

And a constant theme in my thinking is, how are we as Christians to live in a nation that is clearly under the wrath of God, that has closed its eyes to such bright light as the gospel has shed upon this society?

How can we live faithfully in this context? I think it is something that every single one of us, I don't care what you do,

I don't care what your calling is, if you live in this society, student, blue -collar worker, white -collar worker, educator, housewife,

I don't care where you are, I don't care how old you are. You have to ask yourself the question, if I'm a follower of Jesus Christ, how do

I follow Him faithfully in the context of God's judgment coming upon my nation?

And so the fact that there are these themes, that there are times when God calls us to proclaim

His message even in the midst of judgment, even when we know that the majority of the people, that maybe even the vast majority of the people to whom we speak, will not only turn a cold shoulder or a deaf ear, they may be violent in response.

We have many brothers and sisters around the world that face this every day. It's called living in an Islamic country.

Living in Pakistan or places like that, we pray for these people, but what about us? We need to think about these things and recognize we are not the first ones to face this.

And God's people have been faithful. God's people have found Him to be faithful to them in the midst of those situations many times before.

And so it starts off with the question, who has believed? To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

And I think we'd answer that question today, the faithful remnant. There's always that faithful remnant and it's always the

Lord that reserves that remnant who will believe the message and will see that the arm of the

Lord has been revealed. For He grew up before him like a tender shoot and like a root out of parched ground,

He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon Him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.

Jesus, unlike very many of the popular presentations of Him today, did not glow when

He walked down the city streets of Jerusalem. There was one time that happened, but it was an unusual situation.

It was the Mount of Transfiguration when the Son was in the presence of the Father and there were only three witnesses. But Jesus worked in a carpenter shop.

Jesus grew up in a small little town that has hardly made any mark upon history whatsoever.

And so Jesus does not come in the form that many people expected. And this suffering servant, again, shows the contrast between the stately grandeur of the

Messiah who rules over the nations. And yet now we have this suffering servant.

He is like a tender root, like a root out of the parched ground. Now, you and I are seeing roots out of the parched ground all the time these days.

They're called weeds. And no matter what we do, they keep coming back. I mean, the number of noxious chemicals

I've sprayed on my backyard is amazing. And I think there are some of the weeds that are coming up back there that like Roundup.

I really think they just, hmm, give me some more. And they grow bigger and eat my house or something. But it's just these things that come up.

At first, you sort of see this little thing. It's like, I'm not even going to bother squirting that one. That's not, you know.

And three days later, you come out and it has eaten the cat. I mean, it's just, it's huge. It's massive. Don't amazing happen.

But when you first see it, it's like, I won't even give a second thought. That's what a root out of a parched ground. It's a little tender shoot.

Nothing. We're not talking about the stately cedars and over in California and things like that.

Just a little thing. He has no stately form or majesty. We should look upon him. He's not like, it's not like in the

Old Testament. Where you have some of the kings that are, you know, head and shoulders above the others.

You know, Saul is this, this Erun Hu. He's something else. No, that's not, that's not how

Jesus came. That's not how this suffering servant came. There was no appearance that we should be attracted to him.

So there is something plain about this suffering servant. And yet, there's also the way that people responded to him.

He was despised and forsaken of man, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And like one from whom men hide their face, he was despised and we did not esteem him.

Now, in that culture, to treat someone like this means that you were convinced this was a wrongdoer.

This was a person who had done something. He was not worthy of the normal honor that would be given to almost anyone.

In fact, as we think about that in the days of Jesus, who were treated, in a society, who would you treat this way?

Republicans, sinners, well -known people, the prostitutes, despised and forsaken of men.

Now, some people say, well, this proves it can't be Jesus because he had many, many followers. There were great crowds that followed him.

Yeah, very fickle crowds. Crowds that wanted to see miracles.

Crowds that wanted to be entertained. But when it came down to crowds that actually understood what he was saying and followed him for what he said, really?

120 people in the upper room? No. Instead, there would be those who would say away with him at the end of his ministry.

His blood be upon us and upon our children. He was despised and we did not esteem him.

Who's the we? Well, I suppose in the immediate context, if we're looking at fulfillment, we did not esteem him would be first and foremost the people of God because notice it says, surely our griefs he himself bore and our sorrows he carried.

But I think it goes beyond just simply a Jewish fulfillment to all of mankind.

Even to this day, is not the suffering servant treated in this way by many?

Not just atheists and people who are open in their disbelief, but sometimes I wonder if he's not despised and forsaken of men more amongst the religious than anybody else.

He was despised. We did not esteem him. Surely our griefs he himself bore and our sorrows he carried.

Yet we ourselves esteemed him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. So there is the suffering servant somehow bears our griefs.

He carries our sorrows. Now, this is you've seen this so many times. I don't even have to explain it to you, though I will.

Anyways, in the Hebrew language has something called parallelism. And it is a mechanism whereby the language allows you to express in fuller color what it is you want to say.

And so you repeat yourself using different terms and different terminology so as to expand on your point.

The reason I say I don't need to explain it to you is if you've read the Old Testament almost at all, you've encountered it so many times that your mind has already become accustomed to it.

In fact, sometimes we don't pay as close attention to it as we should because of the fact that we've seen it so often.

And so our griefs he bore, our sorrows he carried. How? Again, who would this suffering servant be?

How could any one person carry our griefs, carry our sorrows?

There's something substitutionary here. There's some mechanism whereby this suffering servant is able to enter into our deficit, the things that we lack.

How can this be? I mean, again, thinking about the ways that this text has been viewed. Could it be said by the world that this is what the nation of Israel has done?

No. They have plenty of griefs and sorrows of their own. Jeremiah, well, he certainly had lots of griefs and sorrows, but he didn't bear them.

He didn't carry them away. What does it mean to bear them? What does it mean to carry them?

And while he does this, while he does this, those whose griefs he bears and sorrows he carries, yet we esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted.

And again, that speaks very directly to a settled conclusion on the part of those who are observing him.

God's judgment is upon him. Now, what could possibly happen that would cause people to say

God has afflicted him? God has struck him down.

He's been smitten of God. Is not even to this day one of the primary objections of the

Jewish people to Jesus being the Messiah, the Mashiach, the Anointed One?

Is it not the very statement of Scripture, he who hangs upon a tree is cursed?

My Muslim friends cite the same text. Jesus might be that they accept him as the Messiah. They don't know what

Messiah means. But they don't necessarily accept him as a sin bearing savior.

And one of the reasons is, well, of course, they reject he died upon the cross. And the reason they reject that is he hung upon a tree, cursed of God.

And the Jews say he was hung upon a tree because he was cursed of God.

We esteemed him stricken, smitten of God, afflicted. We looked on the outward and said that could happen to someone.

Remember, remember the idea the disciples had when they saw the blind man? Who sinned? This man or his parents?

He'd be born blind. What was Jesus' response? Neither one. You see, the mindset was if you experience this, if you experience the rejection of men, you experience these kinds of things that God must be against you.

It does make me wonder how often Job got read in the synagogue. But that's how people, again, tradition overriding

Scripture. How for 700 years were the next words understood?

But he was pierced through for our transgressions.

He was crushed for our iniquities. The chastening for our well -being fell upon him.

And by his scourging, we are healed. Again, we read these words and we simply cannot separate them from our

New Testament fulfillment. It's impossible for us to step back.

But if we can at least make the effort pierce through for our transgression.

This is a righteous servant and somehow he's standing in the gap.

There's something substitutionary going on here. These are our transgressions.

There's nothing here about, well, God's just simply forgotten about our transgressions.

He's just, no, these are our transgressions and they bring the wrath of God.

They are our iniquities and he is crushed for them. There is a substitution here.

But then notice the first half of the verse, it's what he experiences.

He's pierced. He's crushed for our transgressions and our iniquities. And then the second half of the verse, the chastening for our well -being fell upon him.

The chastening for our well -being fell upon him. You want to guess what that Hebrew word for well -being is?

Shalom. Shalom. We all know what shalom means, right?

Shalom means peace. Peace. You think that wasn't behind Paul's thinking when he said to the

Romans, therefore, having been justified by faith, we have what?

Peace with God. True shalom. The chastening for our shalom fell upon him and by his scourging, we are healed.

First two lines, what happens to him in regards to sin. Second two lines, the positive benefit to us, shalom and healing.

The chastening and scourging necessary for those things, we can't bear that.

We're under the penalty of the law. What is being said about the nature of the suffering servant that he can undergo these things in our place so that his suffering results in our shalom and in our healing?

Who must the suffering servant be? What must his character be? Then you have the confession.

All of us, like sheep, have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way.

But Yahweh has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him. Now here, you have words of confession.

There are many people who will not say these words. There are many people who will not make confession of sin.

But here you have people who recognize, like sheep, we've gone astray. Sheep always need a shepherd because sheep are always going astray.

Sheep do not have inborn GPS capabilities. There's no question about it.

We don't need to even go into that. We've all heard the story over and over again. That's why the good shepherd has to keep the flock together. But each of us has turned to his own way.

Rather than the way of God, rather than following the straight path, each of us, in our own wisdom, turns to our own way.

But Yahweh has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him.

Now, lest you be thinking as a theologian, these are the words of the confessors.

In other words, those who recognize that we, like sheep, have gone astray, those of us who know we've gone our own way, those are the ones whose iniquity has fallen upon him.

But there's that substitutionary idea again. This concept of iniquity.

It's real iniquity. It's our iniquity. And yet, somehow,

Yahweh can take this iniquity and it falls upon him.

It's placed upon him. Bearing, carrying, falling upon him. All words of substitution.

All words of transfer. Yes, we've gone our own way.

We've gone away from God. But it's God who has provided the way by causing the iniquity of us all to fall on this suffering servant.

The result is he was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth like a lamb that is led to slaughter and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers.

So, he did not open his mouth. Now, there are some who would say, ah, well, you see,

Jesus did answer Pilate. Or Jesus talked to Pilate. Or Jesus answered questions of, this can't be

Jesus. That's one of the weakest arguments I've ever heard, to be perfectly honest with you.

Especially if someone who says, actually, this is a nation of Israel. Yeah, they've been real silent. No. He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth like a lamb that is led to slaughter and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers.

So, he did not open his mouth. What does that mean? That means he did not object to that which

God had brought into his experience. Yes, he prayed in the garden if it be possible.

But when the experience took place, he knew it was necessary.

He did not protest his innocence. He did not do as so many would do and cry out, what you're doing is wrong.

Stop this now. And indeed, he knew that he had the authority and the power to bring judgment to bear even at that point.

I could ask my father and he'd give me a legion of angels. But no, he did not say, oh, you need to understand what you're doing.

Oh, you're going to be bringing destruction upon... No. He was oppressed. He was afflicted.

Yet, he did not open his mouth proclaiming his innocence. In that way, by oppression and judgment, he was taken away.

And as for his generation who considered that he was cut off by the land of living for the transgression of my people to whom the stroke was due.

How many different ways, 700 years before Christ, can we talk about substitution?

By oppression and judgment, he was taken away. Oppression and judgment, the abuse of power found amongst the

Jewish leaders and amongst the Romans. And clearly, this one dies.

And as for his generation who considered that he was cut off out of the land of living. This one dies.

Keep that in mind because I think we even have some elements of the resurrection found here as well in light of what's going to be coming right after this.

He was cut off out of the land of the living. Why? For the transgression of my people to whom the stroke was due.

The transgression of my people. It's real sin. Somehow, his being cut off out of the land of the living allows him to bear the stroke that was due to my people.

And this sort of makes it difficult again to figure out how anybody can say this is about Israel. How can

Israel be cut off out of the land of the living, the transgression of Israel to whom the stroke was due? There's no transfer there.

There's no substitution there. It makes no sense. This is obviously a singular individual, the suffering servant, who's cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression of my people to whom the stroke was due.

Somehow, this suffering servant's death does not change the fact that he was cut off out deals with the transgressions of God's people.

Now, we've been working through Hebrews. We've been working through a book written about 750 years later.

And so, we see in its fullness what is here prophesied long before the events actually take place.

And so, it's okay to be amazed at the fulfillment, but it's also necessary for us to keep trying to listen to this as it was originally spoken and think about what would the people have heard?

What could they have understood? It's easy for us to stand back and look backwards and go, oh, they should have seen this.

Clearly, there's the first coming of the Messiah, and he's got the redemptive work and the suffering Messiah, and because of this, it brings about peace to the people of God, and then he's coming again.

That's easy for us. It wasn't so easy for them. He was cut off out of the land of the living.

He dies, and he does so for the transgression of my people. I mean, what else can it mean?

His grave was assigned with wicked men, yet he was with a rich man in his death.

You know, I didn't ask. The one time

I had an opportunity, you may recall about a decade ago now. Yeah, it was a decade ago now.

I debated one of the leading open theists in the world today at the

Reformed Theological Seminary down in Florida, Orlando. It would have been a good question to ask.

How can you believe that God does not know the reactions of creatures in the future?

Hence, God does not know what the future is going to be. When you have stuff like this in the prophetic scriptures,

I mean, surely my opponent must have believed that Isaiah 53 was about the Messiah. How in the world could you say 700 years earlier, his grave was assigned with wicked men, yet he was with a rich man in his death?

Think about all the different decisions that came together to have Jesus dying with wicked men on either side of him.

And yet Joseph of Arimathea comes along and they use his tomb. I mean, if there isn't a sovereign decree of God, how could you ever have anything as far as prophecy goes?

And if that sovereign decree of God is not exhaustive in its detail, how do you get this? It's amazing.

His grave was assigned with wicked men, yet he was with a rich man in his death because he had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in his mouth.

Not one of the objections I've been listening. I've been listening to a lot of Jewish anti -missionary apologetics recently.

One of the reasons being that my Muslim friends borrow from them all the time. And one of the objections, they'll say, this can't be

Jesus. You know why? Because he drove the people out of the temple with a whip. So he did violence.

Well, of course, if you actually look at this term violence as it's used in the Old Testament. Well, first of all,

Jesus wasn't being violent and cleansing the temple. He didn't wrap a whip around somebody's neck and kill them or anything like that.

In fact, the whip would probably be more used to get the animals going than the people going. I don't know if someone comes at me with a whip.

I'm not waiting around to find out what it feels like. But violence in this sense is almost always sinful violence.

Violence such as murder and thievery and robbery and that kind of violent overthrow of governmental authorities and things like that, which

Jesus, of course, did not do. And so he's done no violence.

He's assigned his grave with wicked men. He was with a rich man in his death.

Nor is there any deceit in his mouth. He always spoke truthfully, even before Pilate.

But Yahweh was pleased to crush him. Yahweh was pleased to crush him, putting him to grief.

Father, if it is possible, it's not. It is necessary.

Jesus humbles himself. The triune God is involved.

The Spirit bears him up. The triune God is involved in bringing about redemption. And Yahweh was pleased to crush him, putting him to grief.

But having done so, notice what it says. If he would render himself an asham, an asham, a guilt offering.

How does he do that? He can't be guilty.

To render himself as an asham, the only one who can do that is one who is pure.

The only one who can do that is one who has no deceit in his mouth. Who has done no violence. Therefore, he is not one of those who has gone astray.

He is not one of those who has iniquities to be atoned for. We are being told something about the nature of this suffering servant.

There is something about him that allows him to be, to render himself, to give himself as an asham.

And I love seeing how it's rendered here. He would render himself. As Paul put it, he made himself of no reputation.

The voluntariness of Christ's self -sacrificial work.

When he does this, he will see his offspring. He will prolong his days and the good pleasure of the

Lord will prosper in his hand. Now, wait a minute. Wait a minute.

What? Cut off out of the land of living. No generation.

His grave. He will see his offspring and prolong his days. How does that work?

There's only one way to make that work, folks. That's called resurrection. Either that or just simply say, well, we can't make heads or tails out of it.

No. If he would render himself as an asham, a guilt offering, he will see his offspring.

And of course, one of the objections is, he never had any kids. How can he see his offspring?

Well, if you can go directly from rendering himself as a guilt offering to whether he has kids or not, you're not really following the context anyways.

He renders himself as a guilt offering. That means he has borne our iniquities, our griefs, our sorrows, our transgressions.

As a result, who is created?

Who is given life? The people of God.

We are the result of his life -giving act.

He sees, it's literally his seed, the result of what comes from his action.

And he prolongs his days. What are we called in the New Testament? The body of Christ.

The body of Christ. And what does he do? He lives in us by his

Spirit. He will prolong his days and the good pleasure of Yahweh will prosper in his hand.

Is that not what the Church is the fulfillment of?

As a result of the anguish of his soul, Gethsemane and Calvary.

He will see it and he will be satiated, satisfied.

It's a word that can refer to that wonderful feeling you can have when you you have just a wonderful meal and you are fully satisfied.

You push away from the table. You know, maybe the waitress comes or something like that and leave room for dessert.

Are you kidding? Can't even think about it. Fully satisfied. Nothing left.

As a result of the anguish of his soul, he will see it, more resurrection, and he will be satisfied.

It is finished. Not partially done.

I did my best job. Too bad I couldn't get that done. Almost got that done.

You know, that's normally how we do things. But he will see it and he will be satisfied.

Now, I love this next phrase. By his knowledge, the righteous one, my servant will justify the many as he will bear their iniquities.

Now, what you don't see in that is partly because of the way we translate English. It doesn't come out real well.

But it's literally, by his knowledge, Zadik, Zadik.

That is, it's Yazdik, Zadik. The same root as yours.

Zadikah means righteousness. So, it is the Zadik servant who will

Yazdik, justify, make righteous. So, my righteous servant will make righteous.

We use different words and so we sort of miss the play on words that are there. By his knowledge, the righteous servant, my righteous one, will righteous, make righteous, many.

How will he do this? How will the suffering servant, the righteous one, justify, make righteous, many?

By substitution. He will bear their iniquities. He will bear their iniquities.

It is amazing for me to report to you today, folks, that there is a major movement afoot amongst many quasi -evangelical groups to question the validity and reality of substitutionary atonement categories in the

Bible. The only way you can do that is if you no longer believe

Old Testament passages like this have anything to do with the fulfillment in the New. I mean, how many times have we seen substitution so far?

How does justification take place? Through the work of the suffering servant in bearing their iniquities.

Every system that says that we somehow do something to gain our justification, well, that is not even in accordance with the prophetic

Scriptures announcing the coming work of Christ, let alone the explanation of those things found in the

New Testament. By his knowledge, the righteous one, my servant, will not simply make justification a possibility.

He is the one who will justify. Isn't it interesting that God is described as the

God who justifies in Romans chapter 4? And how does he do so? The work of the

Messiah. Therefore, what do we see in the

New Testament? What do we see in the beautiful Carmen Christian, Philippians 2, 5 -11? Because he humbled himself, became obedient to death, death on a cross, therefore also

God highly exalted him. That is always the pathway. Humility leading to exaltation.

Therefore, I will allot him a portion with the great and he will divide the booty with the strong because he poured out himself to death and was numbered with the transgressors, yet he himself bore the sin of many and interceded for the transgressors.

I said this morning, it's like one of the apostles sat down after the events of Calvary and the resurrection and the outpouring of the

Holy Spirit there in that first year and wrote these words, looking back with the vivid memory of the crucifixion in his mind.

They were written 700 years before that. God will give him this exalted position.

Why? Because he poured out himself to death. He humbled himself.

He did not consider equality with God something to be held on to at all costs, but made himself of no reputation.

He humbled himself. He poured out himself to death.

He was numbered with the transgressors. Crucified between two thieves.

Crucifixion only for the worst of transgressors. He who's hung upon a tree is cursed, yet he himself bore the sin of many and interceded for the transgressors.

Do we even here find a hint of the full work of Christ, even in the sense of the intercession that we've been seeing the fullness of in Hebrews?

How could it be? Now, I just pause for a moment to point out, if there was ever any place, the scriptures could have concluded forever the issue of the extent of the atonement, the specific purpose of God the

Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit in the death of Christ in regards to the specific redemption of sins.

Could have taken care of that right here. And yet, over and over again, it's been

Rabim, the many. Not every single human being on the planet. He himself bore the sin of many.

And isn't it amazing that's directly connected to and interceded for. Have we not seen in the book of Hebrews, intercession, the work of the high priest, together, same audience, same effect, here it is 700 years before the events that are explained to us in Hebrews.

I don't know about you, but I cannot possibly conceive of any time in the future in my life, no matter how much

I studied it, no matter how many times I preached upon it, that I could ever look at a text like this and not just stand back in absolute awe.

I mean, we have barely scratched the surface. But to me, there is something so utterly amazing.

I'm amazed that I stand upon the other side of the earth from where these events took place.

I am amazed that I do so thousands of years later.

And yet I possess the very words that were written down almost 3 ,000 years ago, about 2 ,700 years ago.

I possess them not only in my language, I possess them in the original language. That's providence.

And then I possess these words and I have the rest of Scripture, which allows me to see the fulfillment of these things.

And all of this is brought right down and applied to me. So that I can know that I truly have peace with God.

That what I'm told in the New Testament, yes, it's truth. Isn't that why when Jesus was resurrected,

Luke chapter 24, what does it say in verse 45? He opened their minds so they might understand the

Scriptures. He grounded His disciples in the reality that the law and the prophets had all pointed to Him.

Wouldn't you have loved to have been in that group the first time

Jesus began going through the suffering servant passage? I bet it was one of the first ones.

Oh, to hear that. Given that Peter so often cites the text, he was listening closely.

He was listening closely. But you know what? Well, that would have been an awesome privilege.

It's just as awesome. That we have these words today. We have the same

Spirit that opened their hearts and minds. We can't sit back and go, yeah, boy, if I had heard

Jesus say that, that really would have made me excited. Don't we have the very same

Spirit that indwelt them? It's okay.

Reformed Baptists can be excited about these things too. I hope, as you think about these words,

I hope the next time we read this text before the Lord's Supper, it won't just be, oh yeah,

Isaiah 53. Yeah, here's some stuff about the crucifixion. I hope the thought will always be in your mind, oh, for 700 years, men read these words and they pondered and they wondered.

I get to read these words and I get to rejoice in their fulfillment. I get to rejoice in the peace the peace that He brought about by His work.

He brought about my justification. He bore my transgressions.

He bore my iniquities and He brought me peace.

I hope that is what you consider at that time. I know for me, once again, thinking about these words has confirmed me and strengthened my faith once again.

And the sovereignty of God, the reality of His Word, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Let's pray together. Our gracious and sovereign

Heavenly Father, we truly are amazed. Amazed at Your sovereign decree whereby

You have chosen to glorify Yourself through the Gospel. That You have created this universe and this world to display

Your glory, yes, and it does that. But to go so far beyond that, to enter into Your own creation, to bring about a special people redeemed through Your own work.

Oh, blessed Holy Spirit, help us to understand right upon our hearts Your truth. Lord Jesus Christ, we thank

You for Your condescension that You Yourself bore our transgressions, our sins, and Your body upon the tree.

Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we thank You for this beautiful Gospel. And we would pray that if there be any in the sound of my voice in this room this evening, or any who by other means will watch or listen to these few words

I have shared, oh, we would pray that You would show

Yourself powerful, that You would reveal Yourself to Your people, that You would work that mighty miracle of taking out a heart of stone and giving a heart of flesh, that You would glorify

Yourself in the salvation of those very people whose redemption

You purchased so long ago. We thank You for Your Word.

We thank You for the Gospel that gives us peace. We ask as we go out this week, we would be as people who truly understand the price that was paid for the peace that we have with You, that we would rejoice in it and serve