Well, come with me to Isaiah
chapter 44 and verses 21 to 28, which I've called A Call for
Consecration. A Call for Consecration. In 2
Corinthians, if I can get my pages to turn over, behave themselves. In 2 Corinthians chapter 13 and
verses 5 and 6, we read this. Examine yourselves whether ye
be in the faith. Prove your own selves. Know ye
not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except
ye be reprobates? But I trust that ye shall know
that ye are not reprobates. We're asked to examine ourselves. Paul says, examine yourselves,
whether ye be in the faith. Prove your own selves. Know ye
not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except
ye be reprobates? But he says, I've confidence
in you as believers that you are not reprobates. Are you a
believer? Let's ask ourselves this morning.
Are you a believer? Are you living in the good of
God's salvation? Or are you content just to drift
along, just to go through the motions of turning up on a Sunday
morning and gathering together and listening to the occasional
message? Content to be with believers, but not taking this thing too
far. You know, they say, oh, you can
go over the top with this salvation religion thing. You can take
it too seriously. Don't take it too seriously.
God tells us that we have to take it very seriously. You can't
be half-hearted about the things of God. You can't be half-hearted
about life and death, about eternity and heaven and hell. You see,
it's all or nothing. You cannot serve two masters.
You cannot serve God and the world, mammon. You cannot serve
two. You cannot sit on the fence.
You cannot be half-hearted. True belief, true saving faith,
is a love story. It really is. Read the Song of
Solomon. You see it clearly. A love story between Christ and
his people, his church. It's a willing bond service relationship. Paul, on a number of occasions,
called himself a willing bond servant of Jesus Christ. He wants
to be the servant of Jesus Christ. That's what he wanted to do.
True children of God want to be the servants of Christ. And
to be a servant of Christ is a truly blessed state to be in. It's not a servile state to be
in. It's not like so many of us are with our jobs, where effectively
we're wage slaves. They say they've abolished slavery.
It doesn't feel like that for many people working. Wage slaves,
we have to keep going to earn the same salary, to pay the big
mortgage, to pay all the other things that are necessary. No.
That doesn't feel like willing bond service, it's slavery, but
to be in Christ and to be a servant of Him is a blessed state to
be in. God in Christ, God as He is revealed
in Christ, for we can know Him no other way. He alone is the
way, the truth, and the life, and no man comes to the Father
but by Him. God in Christ is worthy of our
complete consecration. Is it not so? We know it in marriage,
don't we? If you see a marriage where the
two parties are coming together, and you suspect that one of them
isn't wholehearted about it, you think, that marriage has
got problems, that marriage isn't going to last. A true marriage,
which is but a picture of Christ's people and their Lord, that is
a picture of complete and utter dedication and devotion to one
another. you know, excluding all others.
There's no room for any adulterous relationship in true marriage. Christ is worthy of the complete
consecration of his people, but the flesh is weak and sinful. Don't we know it? He brings us
to know it more and more. He shows us more and more what
we are by nature in the flesh. How weak is the flesh? An old
hymn says, prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the
God I love. Take my heart, O take and seal
it, because if you don't seal it, I can't seal it myself. Seal
it from thy courts above. Now in Isaiah 44, verses 21 to
28, we have a call from God to his people for consecration,
devotion to his service. Will you take heed and commit
to his service? Do you remember Joshua, in Joshua
24, when he said to the people, choose you this day whom you
will serve, whether you're going to serve the idol gods of the
peoples around or the true God. And he said, but as for me and
my house, You will make up your own mind, I know, but as for
me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Total commitment. Total
commitment to the service of God. He calls, God calls for
his people. Who are his people? Those who
have professed commitment to his service. And those so far
uncommitted who are conscious of his call for The people that
God will call are His elect, chosen in Christ from before
the beginning of time. And some now are children of
wrath, even as others. They don't know that they're
amongst the people of God, and yet that call is to come. Those who have professed commitment
to His service, and those so far uncommitted, but who are
conscious that, is God calling me? Well, here's the call, to
remember, to return and to sing. Three things, remember, return,
and sing, in verses 21 to 23. In verse 21, remember, remember
these, O Jacob and Israel, for thou art my servants. Remember
these. Call to mind, remember, call
to mind. Think upon these things. You
know, one big indictment against the day, the age in which we
live is so few people really think seriously about anything. Everything is trivial. The mark
of a good gathering is that it was a good laugh. Don't worry,
I'm not saying that I'm miserable and I don't like to laugh. Of
course, it does us good to laugh as people, but that people ever
think seriously about things. Remember, remember these, O Jacob
and Israel. He's addressing, historically,
when? 700 or 800 years before Christ
came, his covenant people, Jacob and Israel. Jacob, the same one. Jacob, the sinner, the twister,
the scoundrel, the one who robbed his brother of his birthright,
who was made a prince with God, Israel. Sinners saved by grace
is who he's talking to. Not just the historical Jews,
the descendants of Abraham according to the flesh, but the Israel
of God, who are the descendants of Abraham according to having
the same faith as Abraham. That faith which looks to the
Lord Jesus Christ, the promised seed of the woman, who would
come and who would crush the serpent's head. for the salvation
of his people. The Israel of God, as Galatians
6.16 calls them, the elect multitude, the church of God, the total
church of God, the bride of Christ. What does he call his people
to remember? He's just been talking about
the futility of idols in the previous ten or so verses. He's been talking about the futility
of idols, the The lunacy of idols, you remember that story from
the missionary in Mexico, oh, what's his name? Gruver, Gruver,
Gruver, yeah. About the child who became a
Christian and destroyed the idols in his parents' house apart from
one, and he left the hammer next to the one remaining, and the
father was furious and asked, Who did this? Which one of you
did this?" And they all said, no, denied it. And he said to
the boy that actually did, did you do it? And he said, no, the
idol did it. Look, there's the hammer next to him. And the father
said, don't be ridiculous. You know the idol couldn't possibly
do that. And he said, well, that's exactly
what I've been trying to tell you. Idols can do nothing. Idols
are just the figments of your imagination. But the true God
is omnipotent over all things. Look at verse 24. Thus saith
the Lord, thy Redeemer, and He that formed thee from the womb,
I am the Lord that maketh all things, that stretcheth forth
the heavens alone, that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself. God is the One. The God with
whom we have to do, the God before whom we meet this morning, the
God whom we must meet when we die, for it's appointed to man
to die once, and then the judgment. He is the omnipotent creator
of all things. Unlike those futile idols, God
is the one who speaks, let there be light, and there was light.
Let this appear, and it appeared, and it was very good. He is sovereign
in all. He accomplishes His eternal purposes. Not only of creation, because
creation is just the backdrop for his greatest glory, which
is his grace in salvation. In Ephesians 1 verse 11, Paul
writes, in whom, in God, we have obtained an inheritance being
predestinated according to the purpose of him who works all
things after the counsel of his own will. What is it that determines
what God does? The counsel of his own will. the advice of His own will. He is the one who determines
things, and He is the one who sovereignly accomplishes all
things. Remember this, O you people of God, what an omnipotent
God we have. Look at verse 25, that frustrateth
the tokens of the liars, and maketh diviners mad, that turneth
wise men backward, and maketh their knowledge foolish. Is this
not the seals of the horses of revelation? You know, the white
horse of the gospel, the red horse of war, the black horse
of economic division, the pale horse of death that comes to
frustrate the kingdom of Satan, that frustrates the tokens of
liars. Satan is the chief liar. He was
a liar from the beginning. That makes the diviners mad,
those that think they can do things without God. That turns
the so-called wise men backward in their own foolishness. Those
that are wise in this world become foolish in the estimation of
God. Verse 26, that confirms the word
of his servant. He performs the word of his servant. Which servant? Supremely, our
Lord Jesus Christ. the suffering servant. He confirms
His Word because He is the Word who was in the beginning with
God and was God. And these words on this page
are His Word, inspired by different writers down different ages,
but by the one Holy Spirit to give that one message of salvation,
performing His Word. He confirms the Word of His servant. He performs the counsel of his
messengers. He raises up preachers and prophets
to preach, to give his message. And the message that they preach
comes true, and it has done. All the way down the ages it
has done. All that is yet to happen in this realm of history
is for Christ to come again, and for the end to come. And
it will come, as his word says it will come. And he says, thou
shalt be inhabited, Jerusalem. That says to Jerusalem, you shall
be inhabited. Historically, this was in the
age where Jerusalem was about to be overrun by Nebuchadnezzar
and the Chaldeans. And yet we have the promise of
the Medo-Persians to come and bring relief. and to end the
70 years of captivity, which Jeremiah speaks about, and to
bring back the people to Jerusalem, and to build again the walls
of the city in the days of Nehemiah, and the temple under Ezra the
priest, to do all of these things so that it shall literally, historically,
in those days, about 400 or 500 BC, be inhabited again as a proper
city, for there would Christ come. There would Christ come
at the due time, in the right way, in the right place. He would
come there into history at that time. But this is speaking about
more than just physical Jerusalem. It's talking about the new Jerusalem. It's talking about the kingdom
of God. It's talking about Zion, city
of our God. That city that has foundations,
whose builder and maker is God. That's the city that Abraham
and the patriarchs looked for. Not a physical city in the Middle
East, but just that which it pictured in a small way. The truth of God, His Kingdom,
Jerusalem, Zion, inhabited. Inhabited with what? With people. But people are sinners. How can
they inhabit the Kingdom of God? How can they inhabit the Jerusalem
of God? Only by redemption. Only by the
fact that He has saved them from their sins. Only by that fact
alone can it be that Jerusalem shall be inhabited. And He does
all things to accomplish His purposes. You see, God is not
sitting on the sidelines as history unfolds, wondering what will
happen next. That's what religion thinks.
But the truth is this. People of God, the truth is this.
God orders all things according to the counsel of his own will.
He works all things according to the counsel of his own will.
How is Jerusalem historically, as a picture only, going to be
inhabited as a picture of that which Christ will accomplish
in the church? How is it going to happen? God is going to direct
history. God is going to direct history
because God has ordained history. This is a couple of hundred years
before it happened. He says of Cyrus, who was Cyrus? He was the Medo-Persian ruler
who came and in the night of Belshazzar's feast, In Babylon,
when they were feasting and drinking and they were abusing and defiling
the temple vessels from Jerusalem that they had stolen from the
temple in Jerusalem, they were having a great big drinking party
and in their drunken debauchery, They were basically shaking their
fist in the face of the God of heaven when a finger came and
wrote on the wall, many, many tekel uphasin, which means you
have been weighed in the balances, Belshazzar. You have been weighed
in the balances and you have been found wanting. Do you know
that very night, exactly as it says in verse 1 of chapter 45,
I will loose the loins of kings to open before him the two leaved
gates. There were gates on the river
and that's how they got in when they were having their party
and they didn't realise. This was written, I don't know, I'm
no historian, but a couple of hundred years before it actually
happened. God said he had raised up Cyrus. This is the God with whom we
have to do. God who is supremely sovereign
over all things. The God in the minds of the vast
majority of people in this world is altogether too small. You thought, says one of the
psalmists, you thought that I was altogether one such as you. Our
God is high and lifted up and mighty. He is the one whose thoughts
are so much higher than our thoughts and weighs so much deeper than
our ways. He is the one. You wonder what's
happening in the world with all of the great political powers.
I'll tell you what's happening. Proverbs 21 verse 1, the king's
heart The heart of the ruler is in the hand of the Lord. As
the rivers of water, he turneth it whithersoever he will. This
is your God. Remember, O Jacob and Israel,
remember, O people of God, this is the God that you are called
to be consecrated to. This is the rightful ruler of
your heart. Will you remember him? Secondly,
what does he tell us to remember? He tells us to remember what
we are by nature and by grace. What we are by nature and by
grace. Look at chapter 51 of Isaiah,
just the first verse. Hearken to me, ye that follow
after righteousness. that seek the Lord, you that
seek the Lord. Look unto the rock whence ye
are hewn. Look unto that quarry of mankind,
if you like, out of which you have been taken as a stone for
the temple of the living God. And to the hole of the pit whence
you are digged. Do you know something? You're
a sinner. Down in a deep, miry pit. You are digged, if you're
a child of God, out of that hole. Out of that hole, that horrible
pit of miry clay, which is sin. If you're an object of God's
grace, you are digged sinner out of that hole. That's what
he says. In Ezekiel 16 and verse 6, God
says this to his people, to you and me if we profess to believe
him. When I passed by thee and saw
thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee, when thou wast
in thy blood, live. Yea, I said unto thee, when thou
wast in thy blood, live. Live. God says to us, dead in
trespasses and sins, in our own blood, mortally, fatally wounded
in our own blood because of sin. He said, when He passed by, live. And how did He say it? Because
He saved His people from their sins. Remember, He says, how
I saved you. Ephesians 2, you. has he quickened,
made alive. Live, I said to you when I saw
you polluted in your blood, live. You has he quickened, who were
dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past you walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the
children of disobedience. That's where you were That's
the pit in which you were, among whom also we all had our conversation
in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, exactly as others,
fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were,
by nature, the children of wrath, the children deserving of the
wrath of God, of the balancing judgment of God for sin, even
as everyone else, but God, but God who is rich in mercy for
his great love wherewith he loved us. God loved his people in Christ
with an everlasting love. He loved his people from before
the beginning of time. He chose his people in Christ
from before the beginning of time. He redeemed them in the
Lamb slain from the foundation of the world who in history had
to come when the fullness of the time was come. made of a
woman, made exactly like them. As the children are partakers
of flesh and blood, so He came, made in the likeness of sinful
flesh, that He might redeem His people, that He might pay the
penalty for sin, that He might satisfy justice. Even when we
were dead in sins, He has quickened us, made us alive together with
Christ. By grace, by the grace of Christ,
you are saved, not by your own will. And He's raised us up together
and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. As I
said in the prayer earlier, that's where the people of God, if you're
a child of God, You are even now, when John looked in Revelation
19, I saw much people in heaven. If you're a child of God, he
saw you there, outside of this time, seated in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come, he might show the
exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through
Christ Jesus, for by grace, I say, through faith, and that not of
yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, Lest any man
should boast. Remember what you were By nature
and by grace, from whence you were fallen. You know, have we
fallen, in Revelation 2, the letters to the churches from
the glorified Christ, and the first ones to Ephesus, and they've
done a lot that is very commendable, but he says, verse 4, I have
somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Well, do you know, that's a fatal
departure. That's a fatal departure. They
have left their first love. Remember, here's that word again,
therefore from whence thou art fallen and repent and do the
first works or else I will come quickly and remove thy candlestick
out of his place except thou repent. That first love, remember
from whence you are fallen. This is what we need to do, to
remember. Remember whose you are. You are
my servant, says God. Remember these, for thou art
my servant, I have formed thee. You're the work, the handiwork
of the living God. Remember whose you are. Paul
identified himself as God's servant in Acts 27 and verse 23, giving
testimony to his faith and his commission to preach, he said,
God, whose I am, I belong to God and whom I serve. I serve Him willingly. To serve
Him is my objective. This is the work of God. Verse
21, he says, Remember these, O Jacob and Israel, for thou
art my servant. I have formed thee, thou art
my servant. O Israel, thou shalt not be forgotten
of me. This is the work of God. And
as Jesus said to those who inquired of him, what should we do that
we do the work of God? Asking what laws should we obey
that we do the right thing to earn our own righteousness with
God? And Jesus said, no, no, no, this is the work of God. This is the work of God. If you're
to be right with me, this is the work of God. This is the
work of God. You are my servant. I have formed
you. You are my servant, O Israel. You are my work. This is the
work of God that you believe on Him whom He has sent. And
in believing, you have life. You have faith. You have life.
You have the life of God in your soul by faith, through belief,
through all that Christ has done. You are the work of God. In 1
Corinthians chapter 6 verses 19 and 20 we read this, you are
not your own. You know, don't live immorally
for you're not your own. You belong to God. You are bought
with a price. And you are remembered of God.
Thou shalt not be forgotten of me, he says. Child of God. The God to whom you should be
totally dedicated and consecrated says, you shall not be forgotten
of me. He will remember His eternal
covenant love for you, for He cannot forget it. He will remember
that covenant of saving grace, whereby Christ would come and
pay the penalty for the sins of His people, and the Holy Spirit
would come and bring quickening life and sanctifying grace into
the soul of His people. He will not forget the promises
he has made, that this day you shall be with me in paradise
to those who pass from this life of his people. He will not forget
his grace, for that is his greatest glory. Is not this the true God? And is not he the only one to
whom we should be totally dedicated? And yet the one who, if we're
honest, we have terribly neglected. Look then secondly at verse 22. He says, return. I have blotted
out as a thick cloud thy transgressions and a cloud thy sins. Return
unto me for I have redeemed thee. Would you be in a right relationship
with the living God? Hear his call. Return unto me. But how can I, as a sinner, come
to the holy God of Israel? How can I come to the One who
is holy, who dwells in unapproachable light? Because I'm a sinner,
as Isaiah 59 verse 2 says, your iniquities have separated between
you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you that
He will not hear. But look, what He has done with
the sins of His covenant people. Verse 22, I have blotted out
as a thick cloud thy transgressions, and as a cloud thy sins. Return
unto Me, for I have redeemed thee. He's blotted out the sins
of His people that would separate. He's blotted them out. They don't
exist anymore. He's indelibly removed them.
They cannot be read anymore. How has He done it? By redemption. What is redemption? It's the
payment of the price. It's the payment of the debt,
the sin debt to the just law of God. He has paid it in the
person and work of His Son, who was made the sin of His people.
that his people might be made the righteousness of God in him.
This is entirely consistent with his justice. God, by taking a
body, a human body and human flesh, flesh and blood that was
broken and shed, that's pictured in the bread and the wine that
we share in communion as we discern the body and blood of our Lord
Jesus Christ, accomplishing the redemption of his people. that
through which we receive the atonement, at-one-ment with God,
a body hast thou prepared for me, a body for Christ to come
and inhabit. And in that body, every sin of
his people was loaded into that body. As Peter tells us, 1 Peter
2.24, who his own self, Christ, bear our sins in his own body
on the tree, the tree, the cross of Calvary. He bore the sins
of his people on the cross of Calvary. He bore them. He bore
the guilt of them. He bore the condemnation of them.
He paid the debt of them. He shed his blood to satisfy
justice for them. The Lord, as Isaiah 53 verse
6 says, the Lord has laid on Him, Christ, the iniquity of
us all, of all His people. That's what it means. He's laid
on Him the iniquity of all His people, all their sins. My sin,
not in part, the bliss of this glorious thought, my sin, not
in part, but the whole, is nailed to His cross and I bear it no
more. It is that which he bore and
which the Psalms so often speak about. In Psalm 69, listen to
this, a Psalm of David. Save me, O God, for the waters
are coming to my soul. I sink in deep mire where there
is no standing. I am coming to deep waters where
the floods overflow me. I am weary of my crying. My throat
is dried. My eyes fail while I wait for
my God. They that hate Me without a cause
are more than the hairs of My head. They that would destroy
Me, being My enemies wrongfully, are mighty. Then I restored that
which I took not away. O God, Thou knowest My foolishness,
My guiltiness, and My sins are not hid from Thee. Yes, these
are the words of David. But I don't know what difficulty
David was going through at the time when he wrote these words,
but these are more than the words of David. These are the words
of the Lord Jesus Christ and his people in him as he bore
their sin on the cross of Calvary. My sins are not hid from thee. This is Christ speaking. Christ
himself never sinned one sin. He was perfect. He was the perfect,
spotless Lamb of God, yet He was made the sin of His people. And when He was made the sin
of His people, He doesn't say their sins, He says, My sins,
for they were made His. And He bore the guilt and responsibility
for them. And therefore, when He died for
them, the justice of God was fully and absolutely and forever
satisfied. He was made sin for His people,
so that His people might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
He was made the curse of sin, for cursed is everyone who does
not continue in all things written in the book of the law to do
them. But Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law.
How? By being made that curse for
us in our place as our substitute. Offended divine justice is satisfied
in him. The debt is fully discharged. The blood, the precious blood,
as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, has paid the
price. Know ye not, says Peter, that
ye are not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from
your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers?
But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without
blemish and without spot, Your sins are blotted out, blotted
out. In those days and in that time,
saith the Lord, Jeremiah 50 verse 20, the iniquity of Israel shall
be sought for, and there shall be none, because it's been blotted
out, and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found, for
I will pardon them whom I reserve. The lion of the tribe of Judah
has prevailed to open the seals of the book of God in the capacity
of a slain lamb. Jerusalem shall be inhabited
by justified sinners like us. Nothing stops us from returning. The veil of the temple is rent
from top to bottom by what Christ has done. Access is guaranteed. He says, return unto me for I
have redeemed thee. Come into his glorious rest.
Does this confirmation of what God has done in Christ, does
it excite your soul? In Revelation 5 verse 9, the
heavenly throng is excited by it. They sung a new song, saying,
Thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof.
This is Christ. For thou wast slain. This is
why he's worthy, because in the role of a Passover lamb, he was
slain and has redeemed us to God. What's paid the price? By
thy blood. Out of every kindred, not just
Jews, every kindred and tongue and people and nation. And therefore,
look at verse 23, sing, sing, O ye heavens. Verse 23, Jacob
is redeemed. The sinner is redeemed. and all creation rejoices in
redemption. If you turn to Romans chapter
8 and verse 18, in Romans chapter 8 we see a hint of this. This
is deep mystery, but nevertheless try and think about this. In
Romans 8 and verse 18, Paul says this, For the creature was made subject
to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who has subjected
the same in hope. Because the creature itself also
shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious
liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation
groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. not only
they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit,
even we ourselves, grown within ourselves, waiting for the adoption,
to wit, the redemption of our body. The whole of creation is
looking forward to the fulfillment of the redemption which Christ
has accomplished. The four beasts in Revelation
speak of that creation, longing to be renewed. I saw a new heaven
and a new earth coming down from God. The church, the dwelling
place of God with His people. The angels of God rejoice in
redemption. The angels of God. Christ didn't
redeem them. They either remained faithful
to God or they fell with Satan. But the ones that remain faithful
rejoice in redemption. They desire to look into these
things. In Luke 15 verse 7 Jesus said this, joy shall be in heaven
over one sinner that repenteth. And ransomed sinners themselves
rejoice in it. This is why we sing hymns of
praise to God. It's singing praise to God for
redemption accomplished, the finished work of redemption.
And thus God, it says here, God is glorified in Israel. How is
God glorified in Israel at the end of verse 23? Grace. is his greatest glory. Show me
your glory, said Moses to God, and God said, I will show you
my glory. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and
I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. God is
glorified in Israel. He is glorified in the salvation
of his people. He is glorified as his kingdom
is triumphant over all of the forces of satanic delusion, the
kingdom of Satan, the kingdom of Antichrist, which is the world
in which we live at its peak in these days. God is glorified
in Israel. Psalm 24 says this, lift up your
heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up ye everlasting doors,
and the King of glory shall come in. God glorified in Israel. Who is the King of glory? The
Lord, strong and mighty. When he went forth to battle,
at the cross of Calvary and defeated Satan, the Lord strong and mighty,
the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O ye gates,
and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory
shall come in. Who is the King of glory? The
Lord of hosts. He is the King of glory. The
Lord of hosts is Christ and his church. Behold, he says, I, Isaiah
8, 18 it is, and it's quoted again in Hebrews. Behold, I and
the children whom he, God, has given me. Coming into heaven
in glory, the kingdom of God triumphant. Have you, child of
God, have you one who perhaps is only just hearing the call
of God? Have you heard this call? Hosea
6 verse 1, come and let us return unto the Lord. Is that not our
commitment? Come, let us return to the Lord.
Hosea 14, one and two, O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God,
for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. Take with you words
and return to the Lord. Say unto him, take away all iniquity
and receive us graciously. Will you? We're going to partake
of communion shortly. Will you partake of communion,
those of you out there on the internet with us at this time?
be sure first to commit to return to God. discerning Christ's broken
body and his shed blood as redemption's immense and precious price. You
know, the redemption of a soul, it's too costly. No one is rich
enough, but God in Christ has redeemed his people from the
curse of the law by being made a curse for them. Will you hear
Hebrews 4 verse 7? Today, if you will hear his voice,
harden not your hearts. We'll now come to Communion,
but first of all, let's sing the first three verses of our
Communion hymn, which is number 820. Glory to God on high, our
peace is made with heaven.