Alright, thank you Sarah. Let's
turn in our Bibles to Isaiah chapter 42. Our subject is the
saving commandment. The saving commandment. Whenever
men and women hear the word commandment, they generally begin to think
of Mount Sinai, think of their works. But there is one commandment
called in scripture the Holy Commandment. It's one commandment
and it's called the Holy Commandment. It has two parts to it, but it's
one commandment. And this commandment doesn't
come from Mount Sinai, it comes from Mount Zion. This commandment
is effectual when it comes from God and it's spoken into the
heart. It's how we believe. It's how
we believe. It's how God's people are made
righteous. It's how we're saved. Whenever
we're in need of being corrected, it's how we are corrected. Everything is in this command.
Everything regarding salvation and our perseverance is in this
command. And my prayer to God is that
He would speak this commandment in our hearts today. If a person
is a sinner, lost and undone, or if they're a believer and
a burden with the cares of this world, with their sins, with
various trials, If God speaks this commandment in our heart,
if he speaks this commandment, the things of this earth will
go strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. This
is it. Concerning Christ Jesus, his
son, God commands, verse one, behold my servant. That's the holy commandment.
Behold my servant. Speaking of Christ, he says,
Behold my servant whom I uphold, mine elect in whom my soul delighteth. I have put my spirit upon him.
He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not
cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street.
A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flack shall he
not quench. He shall bring forth judgment
unto truth. He shall not fail, nor be discouraged,
till he hath set judgment in the earth, and the owls shall
wait for his law. This is the saving command. God
holds up his son. He holds him up. He set him forth. And he holds him up. And he says,
Behold my servant whom I uphold. Behold my servant whom I uphold.
The son of God, equal with God, thought it not robbery to be
equal with God, but he took the form of a servant. and was made
in the likeness of men. This speaks of Him as the mediator.
That's how He is the servant. As the Son of God, He's God.
But as the God-man mediator, He's the servant of God. And
He took the form of a servant. And He's not just a servant.
He's the servant. He's not just a servant of God.
He's the servant of God. He's the servant in whom all
All other servants of God are complete and accepted. God the
Father upheld him, he strengthened him while he walked this earth,
but God upholds him in the sense that God has set him forth and
exalted him and held him up for all to see. And God commands,
behold my servant. In Romans 3.25, speaking of Him
holding Him up or setting Him forth, in Romans 3.25 it says,
Christ is He whom God has set forth. He set Him forth. He set Him forth to be a propitiation
through faith in His blood to declare His righteousness. To
declare God's righteousness for the remission of sins that are
passed through the forbearance of God. To declare how God can
be just and uphold his law and honor his law and justify his
people. He set him forth. He set him
forth. God is so well pleased with Christ. He is so well pleased with Christ
because He is holy in His person. He is righteous in His person.
He finished the whole work the Father gave Him to do. And in
doing that, He highly exalted God. And God held Him up. God exalted Him to the right
hand of God. And the scripture says, wherefore,
he highly exalted the father. And the scripture says, wherefore,
God also hath highly exalted him. He's upheld him and given
him a name above every name. That is some kind of title. Think about that. He gave him
a name above every name. That at the name of Jesus, every
knee shall bow And every tongue shall confess that he is the
Lord, the glory of God the Father. And praise God the Father. And
why do we praise God the Father? Because the Father chose him. He chose him. Look here, he says,
he's mine elect. He's mine elect. God the Father
is pleased for the Lord Jesus Christ to have all preeminence.
And He is the preeminent elect of God. The Son is. For sinners
who hate the truth of election and reject and despise the truth
of election, you can't do that without despising and rejecting
the first elect. And the first elect is Christ.
The preeminent choice of God. God the Father first elected
Christ to manifest God's righteousness, to uphold His law, to honor His
name, to manifest who God is. He chose Christ to do this, to
be the salvation of His people. And then God elected His people
in Christ. He chose His people in Christ.
And God the Father is He who first trusted Christ. He trusted
Him with the glory of His name. He trusted Him with the salvation
of His people. He first trusted Christ. That's
what Ephesians 1.11 is saying. In whom we have obtained an inheritance
being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh
all things after the counsel of His own will, that we should
be to the praise of His glory who first trusted in Christ. God first trusted Christ. He
first trusted Christ. In eternity, before anything
was made, He elected a people by grace in His preeminent elect
Son, the Lord Jesus. And God declares here that it's
Christ with whom He is delighted. He said, He's my elect and whom
my soul delighteth. You take the Pharisees, they're
like so many in the world today, they were like me and you when
we were dead in our sins, like we sadly can be now, even now,
because we still have this self-righteous sin nature with us. But they
were going about trying to establish their own righteousness by the
works of the law. And they were doing everything
they did to be seen of men. They kept coming to Christ and
asking our Lord Jesus questions to try to entangle Him so they
could justify before men why they would not believe on Him.
That's the whole purpose of why they kept on trying to find something
to condemn Him. And they were saying by all of
that, behold us, we're the servants of God. And God declares He has
one servant. He has one servant who is the
delight of his soul. Now he's delighted with all his
people in Christ, but he has one servant who by himself, by
his faithfulness to God, is the delight of God's soul. And that's
Christ. That's the word Jesus Christ.
Behold my servant whom I uphold, mine elect, and whom my soul
delighteth. Several times God said this,
several times when Christ walked this earth, several times He
said it. At our Lord's baptism, when the Spirit of God descended
on Him like a dove, God the Father spoke from heaven and He said,
Thou art My beloved Son, in Thee I am well pleased. Christ took
Peter and the others up into the mount, And there appeared
Moses and Elijah, and Peter wanted to build three monuments there
to them. And the Lord spoke, and Peter
hid his face, and the Lord walked over and touched him and said,
Fear not. And when he looked up, he saw
no man save the Lord Jesus Christ. And if God says, behold my servant,
and He speaks that into the heart of somebody here today, you will
behold no man but the Lord Jesus Christ. We won't see ourselves
as being righteous anymore. We won't see ourselves as being
wise and holy and our own redeemer anymore. We'll see one. We'll see God's servant in whom
God is delighted. And when God speaks that in our
heart, He makes us delighted with Him. He makes us to be delighted
with him. Anybody that's exalted themselves
is God's servant. That's what we always need. We need God to speak and say,
behold my servant whom I uphold, mine elect and whom my soul delighteth. This is my beloved son in whom
I'm well pleased. Hear ye him. That's what God
spoke in the mount. When they heard that voice and
they hit their faith, God said, this is my son in whom I'm well
pleased. Hear ye him. Hear ye him. That's the saving command. When that command comes, you
know what happens? Every time, without fail, you
hear Christ and you look to Christ. And salvation's in a look. Salvation
is entirely in a look. That's believing. That's what
we're talking about. Believing on Him. Believing on
Him. Now, secondly, I want you to
see the two things here that the Father sent Christ forth
to accomplish, and this is why he is so well pleased with Christ.
The Lord Jesus alone is salvation. He is the one that God the Father
sent forth into this world to establish his people in perfect
righteousness. He's the one to establish us
in righteousness. He said in verse one, he said,
I put my spirit upon him. He shall bring forth judgment
to the Gentiles. God the Father chose him to be
the Christ before the world was made. He chose Him in eternity,
set Him up in eternity to be the Christ before He made anything.
But at our Lord's baptism, when the Spirit descended upon Him,
that was God the Father publicly anointing the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what Christ means, anointed. Messiah is anointed. And that
was what that was, Him anointing Him publicly, showing everyone,
this is Him. That's why He spoke and said,
this is my Son, whom I'm well pleased. hear Him. And the Lord
Jesus Christ came to do just what He said that day. When He
went to John, John said, I need to be baptized of you. Can you
imagine how John felt? Can you imagine if Christ came
and wanted you to baptize Him? And John said, I need to be baptized
of you. And the Lord said, thus it behooves
us to fulfill all righteousness. He was fulfilling all righteousness
for us, for God's elect. That's what He came to do, to
fulfill all righteousness. Go over to Isaiah 49. This is
Christ declaring what the Father said to Him. He's declaring right
here what the Father said to him, what the Father sent him
forth to accomplish. He said in Isaiah 49 and verse
3, He said unto me, thou art my servant, O Israel, in whom
I will be glorified. In verse six, he said, it's a
like thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the
tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved of Israel. I will
also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest
be my salvation unto the end of the earth. That's what our
Lord Jesus was sent forth to do, to be the salvation, the
righteousness of His people, to give us life, to bring us
to Him and bring us safely to God the Father, blameless in
Him. I've put my spirit upon Him.
He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. To bring forth
judgment. Now, first of all, that involves
what Christ did for His people. to bring forth judgment is to
establish the law, is to perfectly fulfill the law in perfect faithfulness
to God and to completely, totally justify His people who must die
because we're sinners. That's what Christ came to accomplish,
to bring in a perfect righteousness for us completely, totally justifies
from all our sins. Now there's not one fallen son
of Adam who could accomplish that. We died in Adam. We fell in Adam. We became just
rotten sinners in Adam and none of us could accomplish that.
We could not. The Lord Jesus alone is the righteous
servant of God. He's the righteousness of God.
He's the righteousness of his people. The Lord Jesus alone. False religion when they speak
of election and foreknowledge, they speak of it as God looking
down through time and seeing who would believe and that's
why He chose them. Well, look what God says. Look
back at Isaiah 41 and verse 28. And this really is an unfortunate
chapter division because this goes together. This goes together. Isaiah 41, 28, I beheld And there was no man, even among
them, and there was no counselor that when I asked of them could
answer a word. Behold, they are all vanity,
and their works are nothing. Their molten images are wind
and confusion. Behold my servant, whom I uphold,
mine elect, and whom my soul delighteth. I've put my spirit
upon him. He shall bring forth judgment
to the Gentiles. Before I forget this, I don't
have this in my notes, but why does he say he shall bring forth
judgment to the Gentiles? Didn't he bring forth judgment
to his elect in Israel as well? He did, but you know, before
God established national Israel, there was nothing but Gentiles.
That's all there was. And the Lord Jesus came first
to his elect in Israel. He came first to the lost sheep
of the house of Israel. And when he finished with Israel
in 70 A.D. and destroyed the nation, this
nation that exists now is the work of men. That's the work
of men. That's established by men, that
political nation. There's nothing now but elect
Gentiles. It doesn't matter if they're
from Israel, or France, or England, or United States. They just elect
Gentiles. Just like they were before He
even made an Israel. And it's what Paul was saying
in Romans 11. Whenever the Lord has called the last elect out
from among the nations, out from among the Gentiles, then all
His spiritual Israel will be saved. That's it. We're not saved because we're
from a particular nation. You weren't saved because you're
from Mercer County or Pennsylvania or wherever. We're saved by grace. We're saved by grace. But our Lord Jesus accomplished
judgment for His people. He came forth as a man to represent
men. A man fell, a man sinned, it
had to be a man that's going to obey God and establish righteousness
and make his people righteous. There's just the first Adam and
the last Adam. We're either going to be found
in the first Adam or the last Adam. And the Lord Jesus Christ
is the last Adam. He's the head and substitute
and representative of everybody the Father entrusted to Him. Chose by grace and gave to Christ. And Christ came forth as a man
and took upon Him the seed of Abraham. That's God's people. And He made
Himself under the law. The God who gave the law became
a man under the law and the God-man obeyed his own law in the place
of his people. Do you imagine that God is going
to let me and you glory and boast that we fulfilled the law of
God when God's own Son came down to accomplish that work for His
people? and having fulfilled all righteousness,
having obeyed God in every way constantly from conception all
the way to the cross. Our Lord then went to Gethsemane,
was made sin for His people. And this one who was the spotless
Lamb of God bore the wrath and curse of God with the sin of
His people on Him. And He absolutely, thoroughly
satisfied the justice of God toward us. We died in Him. It's not as if we died in Him,
brethren. We died in Him. Paul didn't say,
it's as if I'm crucified with Christ. He said, I am crucified
with Christ. I am risen with Christ. We were
in Christ and we died. Oh, if we could get that. This
is the thing that we, you know, whenever we're down and we're
cast down because of our sin and we see the sinfulness of
our flesh, it takes God to say, behold my servant and turn you
to Christ and renew that inward man to know your old man died
in Christ at Calvary. died in him. Justice is satisfied. He established judgment. He declared
the righteousness of God. He declared how God is just and
he justified his people. He's just and he's the justifier.
He honored the law and he justified his people. That's what he accomplished. That's why God's well pleased
with him. Look down at Isaiah 42, look
down at verse 21. The Lord is well pleased for
His righteousness sake. He is still talking about Christ
His servant. He is well pleased for His righteousness
sake. He will magnify the law and make
it honorable. You know, you have to look to
the cross to see what it took to magnify the law and make it
honorable. This is what the Lord said when
He gave the law in Deuteronomy 10.12. He said, Now is for what
doth thy God require of thee? Here's what God requires of you
and me. If He's going to receive us and
say He's well pleased with us, this is what He requires of us.
To fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all His ways, and
to love Him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart
and with all thy soul, to keep the commandments of the Lord
and His statutes." Let's see if anybody's done it. You know
the Ten Commandments. What's the eleventh one? Can
anybody here name me that one right off the top of your head?
You don't even know what it is, I bet. There's more than ten. There's over 600. And Christ
obeyed perfectly. He said, I do always those things
that please Him. And then He went to the cross
and bore the curse and the wrath of God in our place because God's
elect did not please Him. And that's what it took to justify
us. So now, if God's elect, He's made His people righteous
in Him. You know what He says of us and
ourselves? He says, you were the servants
of sin. You were the servants of sin. That's why we couldn't be looked
to to do this work. That's why it had to be the Lord
Jesus Christ. Holy God. We're talking about
holy God. We're talking about God who knows
what's in the heart. You and me can fool each other
outwardly. We can't fool God. God's looking on the heart. And
Christ was holy in the heart. He was righteous in His heart.
Everything He did was from a pure motive. Always pleasing the Father. always pleased Him. So He trusted
it all to His Son. Isaiah 59, let's look there real
quick, Isaiah 59 and verse 16. He said, He saw there was no
man. and wondered that there was no
intercessor. Therefore his arm brought salvation to him, and
his righteousness sustained him. For he put on righteousness as
a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation upon his head, and
he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with
zeal as with a cloak. That's what our Lord Jesus did,
and He's that righteousness. He established judgment for His
people. He accomplished the work. He
didn't come and make it possible. He accomplished it. He accomplished
it. He justified His people. There's
a people in this world right now, you sitting here that He's
called or justified before God. That's far more than just as
if I never sinned. That means there is no record
ever of any sin before God. Before the all-knowing, all-seeing
God, no record. I blotted them out, He said.
I will not remember them, He said. They can be searched for
and they won't be found, God said. I pardon whom I reserve. They're gone. They're gone. And there's a people walking
around in this world right now today that don't yet know Him,
that are lost and blind. Some are probably out doing many
wonderful works and thinking they're pleasing God and thinking
God's well pleased with them. And they don't know God and they
don't know they're the servants of sin. They don't know that
what they're doing in doing those many wonderful works is nothing
but glorified sin. And God hates it. but because Christ justified
him, he's going to do this next thing. Here's the next thing
he came to do. There's another work the Father
entrusted to Christ, the work of preaching the gospel and the
work of establishing judgment in the heart of his elect. spiritual
discernment, so that we behold Christ and we believe on Him
as our only righteousness. He says here in verse 2, He shall
not cry, nor lift up, nor cause His voice to be heard in the
street. A bruised reed shall He not break, and a smoking flax
shall He not quench. He shall bring forth judgment
unto truth. He shall not fail, nor be discouraged,
shall He have set judgment in the earth, and the owl shall
wait for His law. Christ is the perfect preacher.
He's the perfect preacher. He's the prophet, priest, and
king of His people. He did what He teaches His preachers
to do. And He's even the righteousness
of His preachers in our preaching. He really is. He fulfilled the
office of prophet in perfect righteousness. He really did. That's what He's saying here.
He did not cry. nor lift up, nor did He cause
His voice to be heard in the street." This doesn't refer to
the volume of His voice. It doesn't refer to the fact
that He preached publicly in a street, in a synagogue. It
means our Lord didn't debate with men. He didn't wrangle with
men. He didn't exalt Himself over
others by striving and disputing and debating doctrine with men.
He was not contentious. He was not boastful of himself.
He didn't exalt himself, lift himself up over others using
his doctrine and miracles and in any way promote himself. None
of that. He obeyed God his Father. He's
the servant now. He's the perfect preacher when
He walked this earth and He served God perfectly as the Holy Prophet
of God. He simply proclaimed the Word
of God with no sin in Him whatsoever. And He trusted the Father. He
prayed to the Father and He trusted the Father to draw His elect
to Him. That's what He tells His preachers
to do. Preach My Word. pray to me to bless it, and wait
on me to bless it. That's it. Now listen, he said
in John 7, 16, he said, my doctrine is not mine, but his has sent
me. You get what he's saying? He preached what the Father sent
him to preach. That's what he did. He said,
he that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory. He said, but he
that seeks his glory that sent him. The same is true and no
unrighteousness is in him. That's Christ, the perfect preacher,
the prophet. He said in John 6.37, all that
the Father giveth me shall come to me. That's his perfect faith. He preached the word the Father
gave him to preach. Well, didn't he have power to
quicken? Yes, he did. He had power to
silence a storm. But as the servant of God, he's
faithfully trusting the Father while he walked this earth. And
he said, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and
him that cometh to me I will no wise cast out, for I came
down from heaven not to do mine own will, but the will of him
that sent me. He said, no man can come to me
except the Father which has sent me drawing. And I'll raise him
up at the last day. It's written in the prophets.
He believed God. He said it's written in the prophets. They shall all be taught of God. Every man, therefore, that hath
heard and hath learned of the Father, been taught by the Father.
He comes to me. You see, He didn't cry and lift
up and wrangle and be contentious with men. He didn't have to.
He preached the Word of God and He trusted the Father to bless
it and draw His people to Him. We see that's the meaning. If
you go back, go to Matthew 12, I want you to see this. That's
the meaning if you go to Matthew 12 and look at it in the context
to where He fulfilled this prophecy. Matthew 12 verse 14. He fulfilled
it his whole life, but this is where it says he fulfilled it. After the Pharisees accused him
of breaking the Sabbath because he plucked corn and gave it to
his hungry disciples on the Sabbath day, And then he went into the
synagogue and healed a lame man, a man with a withered hand, and
they accused him of breaking the Sabbath. And it says in verse
14, then the Pharisees went out and held a council against him,
how they might destroy him. But when Jesus knew, he withdrew
himself from them. He just withdrew from them. He
declared the Word of God to them, but then he didn't strive, he
just withdrew from them. And great multitudes followed
him, and he healed them all. And he charged them that they
should not make him known. He was not self-promoting at
all. that it might be fulfilled, which
was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, Behold my servant, whom
I have chosen, my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased,
I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall show judgment to
the Gentiles. He shall not strive nor cry,
neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets. A bruised
reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench,
till he send forth judgment unto victory, and in his name shall
the Gentiles trust. See there verse 19, he shall
not strive. He's not going to strive with
men. When he speaks of not breaking the bruised reed, not quenching
the smoking flax, of course that applies to his weak disciples,
his true people. Mr. Spurgeon applied that to
the Scribes and Pharisees and I don't know if that text actually
applies to them but I know this is true. He could have broken
them and snuffed them out just like that. That's all he had
to do. And he didn't worry about trying
to meet them and argue doctrine and straighten them out. He just
preached the gospel. He is that gospel. You want to
expose crookedness, just preach Christ. You want to see a crooked
stick, lay a straight one down beside it. And he just preached
the gospel. And he left them and he just
went and ministered to his true chosen bruised wreaths and smoking
flags. Was tender with them. And he
taught them the gospel. That was his humility, that was
his meekness as the righteous prophet, son of God. He trusted the Father in perfection
representing his people. So he preached only the Word
of God. He prayed to the Father to bless it. And he waited on
the Lord to draw his elect to him. And by this, he set judgment
in the earth in the hearts of his people. He set spiritual
discernment in the hearts of his people. He called out his
apostles and established the gospel in the earth in spirit
and in truth. That's what Christ accomplished. Truly a bruised reed he shall
not break, and smoking flecks shall he not quench. He shall
bring forth judgment unto truth, Matthew said, till he send forth
judgment unto victory. What's the victory? Faith is
the victory. That's what it means, till he
gives spiritual discernment and faith. It makes you trust Him
who is the victor in whom we're more than conquerors. That's
what He does. It says at the end of verse 4,
"...and the owls shall wait for His law," Matthew 12 said, "...and
in His name shall the Gentiles trust." He's talking about putting
judgment in the heart. Spiritual discernment in the
heart to see two things. Everything about me is grass.
I am the sinner. And to see, He's God, my Savior,
my righteousness, my wisdom, my holiness, my redemption, my
all. That's what He's working in the
hearts of His people. While He walked this earth, He
preached the gospel in perfect righteousness, setting forth.
He is the one way, declaring the sinners, unless they eat
His flesh and drink His blood, unless they behold God's righteous
servant and believe on Him, they have no life in them. Because
they have no righteousness. Righteousness and life are the
same. He dealt tenderly with His elect
and He accomplished setting judgment in the hearts of His people in
Him. Now, now, He's risen to the right hand of the Father
and all power in heaven and earth is given to Him as the prophet,
priest, and king. He's sending forth the gospel.
And He prayed to the Father and sent forth the Holy Spirit. And
He is successfully right now sending that gospel to His people
and calling out His people no matter how the devil's got his
gates raised up and trying to block and trying to keep the
gospel out, Christ, the gates of hell will not prevail against
Christ and His gospel. Remember when he sent forth his
disciples into the world to preach the gospel, he based it on this,
all power in heaven and earth is given unto me. So you go forth
and preach the gospel. You're going to suffer, you're
going to be rejected, you're going to be despised, because
the Lord was. He said, but all power is mine. You trust me and you go preach
my gospel. Our doctrine's not our own. We're
preaching Christ as He commands. We're preaching Christ. What
does God say here? What does He say right here?
What's the command? Behold My servant. That's why we preach
Christ and be crucified. God said, Behold My servant.
Hear Him. Look to Him. Trust Him. So we
preach Christ just like He commanded. And He commands us not to go
forth and try to make disciples. Not to try to baptize, Paul said. God, he didn't send me forth
to baptize. Well, I thought he told us to
make disciples. Yeah, but not until he's made
them a disciple. When he's called them, then you
teach them, but don't go out and try to make people believe
because you know what you'll do? You'll water the gospel down
and take the edge off of it to try to make that happen. That's
not what we're sent to do. We're sent to declare his glory.
That's it. whether he saves one or he saves
a thousand or he don't save anybody, like Jeremiah. We pray to him, send the Spirit,
bless the Word, because we can't make it effectual. He's the only
one that can send forth this Word in power and bless it and
call his people out. And so we wait on him to do it.
And here's the thing about his preacher, just like Christ was
the perfect preacher and perfect righteousness. He is the righteousness
of His preachers. In our preaching, we don't preach
without sin. We don't do anything in perfection
like He did. He's the righteousness of His
preachers. And then He went to the cross and put away all our
sin for not preaching and ministering in perfect righteousness. He's
righteousness for all His people in every way. And He sends the Holy Spirit
and He puts judgment in the heart of His people. He said, when
the Spirits come, He'll convince my people of sin because they
believe not on Me. There's only one way our sins
are put away. That's when He gives you faith
to look to Christ only. That's where our sins are put
away. He said, this Holy Spirit will
convince them of righteousness because I go to my Father. He
was raised again for our justification. By Him sitting at the right hand
of God, we know He accomplished what He came to do. He is the
righteousness of His people, and He will convince His people
of judgment. He went to that cross and crushed
the serpent's head by taking away all the sin of His people
and making us perfectly righteous. The devil don't have a thing
to accuse us with anymore. And be sure to get this last
word. Verse 4, He shall not fail nor be discouraged till He's
accomplished this. Our Lord Jesus didn't fail in
doing His work for us. He made us the righteousness
of God in Him. And He shall not fail to work
this in the heart of His people. He will call out every single
elect, redeemed child because He bought them. He purchased
them. They're His blood-bought children. Behold the servant
of God. Behold Him. Behold Him. He's the cure all the time in
every situation. Whether it's Him first calling
us and making us to behold Him, this is the saving command, Behold
My Servant. Or if we're a believer and we're
troubled and we're cast down, it's always the same command
that saves us, Behold My Servant. And He turns you back to Christ,
and when you see Him, you know everything is fine. I'm complete
in Him. Everything's fine. He's ruling
everything. Everything's fine. Let's go to
Him. Our gracious God and our Father,
we thank you for this word. Thank you for sending forth your
son. Thank you that your people have
a perfect righteousness. Thank you for establishing judgment
in our heart to know Christ, to know you. to believe on you. And Lord, we pray you work this
in your people. We pray you call out your lost
sheep and that you work it in those that already believe you,
that are troubled, that you make us behold Christ and know we're
more more, more, more than conquerors through Him that loved us. Help
us remember this, Lord, and help us to always be looking to Him. Forgive us, Lord, for looking
at ourselves, for looking at one another, for looking at the
waves and everything else and trying to do things by the wisdom
and works of our hand. Lord, we thank You that You're
going to save Your people and never let us go. We ask you to bless it to us
now, Lord. In Christ's name we pray, amen.