Alright, brethren, we'll begin
for our lesson this morning. Let's turn to Isaiah chapter
41. Isaiah 41. We'll go to the Lord
before we begin. Our gracious Heavenly Father,
we pray, Lord, that You would be with us today, that You would
cause us to hear Your Word, give us faith to believe every word
that's spoken, Make us hear Christ's voice speaking into our heart.
Lift our affection away from this world to Christ above. And
cause us this day, Lord, to truly worship, truly worship. We ask
it in Christ's name. Amen. Alright, now, I said to you last
time, in chapter 40, is a marked change in the book of Isaiah. And what's interesting about
that is in those first 39 chapters, the Lord is speaking of judgment
and Israel at that time was not in captivity. They thought they
were free but they were, many were worshiping idol gods and
what have you. And they were really in bondage,
but they thought they were free. Thought they were free, thought
they were fat, in need of nothing, and God was speaking judgment
to them. Well, from Isaiah 40, Isaiah 40 is, Comfort ye, comfort
ye my people. It's the declaration that the
warfare is accomplished. that God has sent his son and
accomplished the warfare of his people, pardoned us from all
our iniquity, rewarded us double for all our sins. And from then
on, the message is a message of comfort. But most of, providentially,
most of the rest of the book of Isaiah, they're in physical
bondage. And yet your Lord's declaring
this great comfort And here's what's interesting about that.
Before the Lord speaks in our heart and reveals Christ to us,
we think we're free. And we're under judgment. The Lord is speaking judgment.
But when He reveals Christ to you, that's when we start seeing
Babylon all around us. and feel as though we're in captivity
to our sin nature, the world, and yet Christ declares the good
news in our heart that we're free in Him and by Him. You get what I'm saying? And
the Lord here is comforting His people. And He told His preacher,
comfort my people. And then all Isaiah's doing is
declaring the Word of the Lord. And look at how comforting this
Word is and what the Lord's declaring to His people. I'm going to begin
here and just go verse by verse in Isaiah 41. Christ, and I'll
tell you what the whole chapter is declaring. We won't get through
the whole chapter today, but this chapter is our King speaking,
Christ the King. And He's speaking to His Jacob. He's talking to His elect Jacobs,
His Israel. And he's holding up Abraham as
the example, showing us what he did for Abraham. And we could
see he did this with the Apostle Paul. We could apply it to any
of the Old Testament saints or New Testament saints. But he
declares this and then he shows the response of men left to themselves. what the nations did. And then
he comforts his people and he shows us why we have no reason
to fear. How he's going to use his people,
his church. So this is Christ our King declaring
he's the one that raises his people up from the dust. He's
the one that keeps us and saves us. He's the one that is going
to protect us and use us to preach his gospel. He's Christ our King. Now, I want you to see this.
First, the Lord begins like a judge calling order in a courtroom.
He says here, verse 1, Keep silence before me, O islands, and let
the people renew their strength. Let them come near and let them
speak. Let us come near together to
judgment. First, the Lord commands, Keep
silence before me, O islands, He is speaking here to the nations.
He says, keep silence before me. He is calling order in the
court. He is calling for silence like a judge would in a courtroom. And He is speaking to Gentiles
here. He is talking to those who do not know Him. He represents
the world who do not know Him. He is speaking here to Gentiles. Now in chapter 40, God promised
to renew the strength of His people. He promised He would
renew our strength. But here He calls for the unregenerate
and challenges them, you renew your strength. He says to them,
muster up all the strength you have and draw near and make your
case against Me. That's what the Lord is saying.
It's going to take all the strength a man has if he's going to try
to come up against God and make his case against God. but he's
going to fail because he doesn't have strength and he has no case
against the God of glory. does the speaking. And he holds
up Abraham as the example. I say it's Abraham because later
in verse 8 he says, thou Israel, speaking to his people, he says,
art my servant Jacob, whom I've chosen, the seed, the spiritual
children of Abraham my friend. That's who he's speaking to,
you and me, who are the elect of God, his spiritual seed. And he's saying, now look back
to your father, look back to Abraham, look back to him and
see what the Lord did. Now let's see this, verse 2. Verse 2, he says, who raised
up the righteous man from the east and called him to his foot,
gave the nations before him and made him rule over kings? He
gave them as the dust to His sword and as driven stubble to
His bow. He pursued them and passed safely
even by the way that He had not gone with His feet. Who hath
wrought and done it? That's our title. Who hath done
it? Who hath worked and done it? Calling the generations from
the beginning, I the Lord, the first and with the last, I am
He. He asked this question, who raised
up the righteous man from the east? And the Lord Jesus Christ,
our King, is speaking here. He said before Abraham was, I
am. He's always been the mediator
between God and his people. And he's the one that called
Abraham. He's the Lord, our God, our Savior who called Abraham.
And he said, who raised him up from the east? Who raised him
up? And he said, I've worked it,
I've done it. I called him from the beginning. He's holding Abraham
up here as the father of all God's elect among all the nations. Jew and Gentile, all those that
the Lord saves. Paul told us in Galatians that
if you've been called and given faith to believe on Christ, then
you're children of Abraham. the true spiritual seed of Abraham
and that's who he's showing you and me and he's showing it before
all the nations. He's declaring, look what I did
with Abraham. Look what I did with Abraham.
Abraham was a, he was a Gentile idolater. There was no such thing
as Israel at the time. He was just a Gentile idolater
living in Ur, worshipping his daddy's gods. He didn't have
the word of God, didn't know who God was. Just worshipping
the God of his imagination. And the Lord came and the Lord,
scripture says in Galatians, preached the gospel to him. Whether
he used a man, we don't know. It just says, It says he preached
before the Gospel of Abraham. And since he speaks here to the
Gentiles, this could apply, you could apply this to the Apostle
Paul. He's the first one the Lord raised up and sent to the
Gentile nations to preach the Gospel after Christ had come
and arisen. He sent Paul to the Gentile nations.
So you could look at Abraham or Paul. The case here is the
same with both of them. Paul was an idolater in the midst
of Israel. using God's word and the law,
but worshiping the works of his hands. Abraham, he's a Gentile
without the word of God out here worshiping the works of his hands,
imagining who God is in his mind, in his depraved mind. And Paul,
when he was sold, he's doing it using the word of God. Now
that covers all of us. whether you didn't have the word
of God and were just a heathen worshiping the idols of the imagination
and you know, everybody in this world says things like, well,
this is what I think. Everybody has an idea of who
God is. Or whether you were in religion
using the word of God. We were all lost, weren't we,
before God called us and couldn't know God. Could not bring ourselves
to know Him. So these men cover all God's
elect. He calls Abraham the righteous. But Scripture says there's none
righteous, no not one. There's none righteous, no not
one. We all sinned in Adam. We all became guilty in Adam.
We all sinned and came short of the glory of God. Why does
He call him the righteous man? Abraham and Paul and every chosen
child who Christ raises up are righteous only through God-given
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's right. Before the foundation
of the world, Christ raised up His people when He entered into
covenant with the Father that He would come forth and fulfill
all the law for His people. He raised us up right then in
covenant mercy. And then when He came forth,
made under the law, made of a woman, made under the law, and He served
the Father, and He was lifted up on the cross and made sin
for His people, He raised us up right then. We were in Him
on the cross and bore the wrath of God, bore the judgment of
God. That's how real we were one with Christ and how real
we bore the judgment of God. We were in Christ. Paul said,
I am crucified with Christ. We were raised up on that cross.
And then, because he justified his people, because he perfected
his people forever, he sent the gospel to us, and he quickened
us, and he raised us up out of the dust, he raised us up off
the dung heap, and set us among princes, giving us faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ. And it's through Christ and what
he did for us, Him giving you faith to trust Him. God imputes
the righteousness of Christ to us. And He's our righteousness.
That's why He calls Abraham the righteous man. Because Christ
is His righteousness. Notice where He called Abraham.
You could apply this to the Apostle Paul too. He called him to his
foot. He said, who called him to his
foot? Abraham and Paul and every sinner God caused. You know what
our problem is by nature? Pride. We're lifted up in pride. We think we're righteous. We
don't really think we need Christ. Not like the scripture says we
need Him. We think we can work out a little bit on our own.
Salvations of the Lord. You know what that means? That
means beginning to end. That means and everything in
between. That's what the Lord's declaring here. And what did
the Lord do for Abraham? He called him to his foot. He
brought him down. Saul was proud, riding on his
stallion and going to persecute God's people. And what did the
Lord do when he shined the light and he brought him down? He brought
him down to the dust. And he said, Saul, Saul, why
persecutest thou me? He brought him down. That's when
Paul, for the first time in his life, said, Lord, what wilt thou
have me to do? And the Lord sent him forth to
declare the gospel. And he didn't confer with flesh
and blood. He was under the dominion of Christ at that point. And
he did what Christ bid him to do. He called him to his foot.
That's where we got to be brought. Every preacher that Christ sends,
and you who he's called, that he's made witnesses of him. That's
what we are. We're called to bear witness
of Christ, to preach to this world that Christ is the savior
of his people. And every preacher and every
one of his witnesses he calls, he's gonna call us to his feet
to make us know we are sinners saved by the grace of God. You know why that's so vital?
Because if we're gonna know what it is to be a sinner, we have
to be made to know we are the sinner. If we're going to preach
only Christ as the only righteousness, the wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption of His people, we have to be made to see that
we're not the wisdom. We can't work out the righteousness.
We need Him to sanctify us. We need Him to redeem us. If
we're going to preach Christ, we have to be made to know He
is all to His people, made known that He's all to us. If we're
going to be able to bear with the infirmities of our brethren,
who are still sinners in their flesh, and will fall and need
someone to bear with their infirmities, we're going to have to know we're
the sinner. That's why the preacher Christ
is going to make him know he is the sinner. I'm convinced
the preacher the Lord uses was the greatest sinner of the whole
bunch. Because he's going to have to
preach Christ to sinners, and he's going to have to bear with
sinners. This is why the scripture says, Our Lord Jesus, the Son
of God, came down and was made flesh. not only that he might
reconcile us to God and put away our sin and be our righteousness
before God, but that he might also have him in touch with the
feeling of our infirmities, know and be able to comfort and succor
those that are his. And so it is with this preacher.
Christ then, look what it says here, He entered covenant with
Abraham. He said in verse 2, Christ gave the nations before
Him and made Him rule over kings. He gave them as the dust to His
sword and as driven stubble to His bow. And so Abraham pursued
them and passed safely. How do you know that's Him entering
covenant? Because that's what God promised
when He called Abraham. I'll give it to you from Genesis
15, 18, if you want to go home and look at it or if you want
to flip over there. But Genesis 15, 18, it says,
In the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram. He made
a covenant with him saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land. Unto thy seed have I given this
land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river
Euphrates. He gave the nations before him.
Now, go to Galatians 3. I do want you to turn here. I
want you to see this. Who is that seed? Look at this, Galatians 3, verse
16. He's making a promise to Abraham
and it says Galatians 3.16, Now to Abraham and his seed were
the promises made. And he saith not, And to seeds
as of many, but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ. You see, the promises that the
Lord made to Abraham were made to Christ as a surety before
they were revealed to Abraham. God the Father promised Christ
to give him a people and to give him all the inheritance. And he promised Christ to have
all the glory and Christ agreed to come and fulfill the covenant
for his people, to fulfill the law for his people. All things belong to Christ the
seed, and He's entered covenant with us, and just like He entered
His promise with Abraham, He makes you to know all things
are yours. That's what He told, that's what
Paul said, all things are yours. And you're Christ, and Christ
is God's. Why? Because He fulfilled everything
He promised the Father. All the promises of God are in
Him. Yes, and in Him, amen, to the praise of the glory of God.
So Christ made Abraham rule over kings. He gave them as the dust
to a sword and as driven stubble to his bow. He pursued them and
he passed safely. Remember whenever after Abraham
had fought with the kings of Sodom, he had 300 something men
and didn't lose any of them. And fought these mighty kings
and delivered lot. When he got finished, they offered
him They offered him some money and some of the spoil. And Abraham,
he just took what he needed for his men, but he said, I don't
want that. And the Lord appeared to him. He said, Fear not, Abram. I am thy shield and thy exceeding
great reward. The Lord told him, I am your
shield. I am your protector. I am your exceeding great reward.
I tell you something, if the Lord Jesus Christ has come, And
he's laid down his life and justified his people, and he has. They
can't perish. God is holy, and his justice
is satisfied. And not one for whom Christ died
can perish. Christ said, no man will pluck
them out of my hand. And so he led Abraham forth,
and he's showing us through Abraham what he does for his people.
He saves his people. He's using us to preach this
word, just like he used Abraham to bear witness of him. We're
looking at Abraham as a witness of what Christ did, and that's
what he's using you for in this world. that know him and I'll
tell you what he's going to do. He's going to keep you and protect
you because he's justified his people and he's going to have
his name declared and that's what he's going to do. He's going
to keep us. He's going to keep us. He did the same thing for
the Apostle Paul. Go to Acts 18. Let me show you
this in Acts 18. He called Paul and he sent him
forth and Paul comes to Corinth and there was some opposition
there. That was a big city. There was some opposition in
Corinth. And listen to what the Lord, Acts 18, 9, Then spake
the Lord to Paul in the night by vision, Be not afraid, but
speak, hold not thy peace, for I am with thee. And no man shall
sit on thee to hurt thee, for I have much people in this city.
And he continued there again six months, teaching the word
of God among them. Paul's weapons weren't carnal.
They weren't carnal. They were spiritual. They were
mighty through God. He's preaching the Gospel. He's
preaching the Gospel. And by the Spirit of God, that
His sword was the sword of the Spirit. He was preaching the
Word. And through the power of God,
the Lord was making His arrows hit the mark. His bow and His
arrow was the Gospel of Christ and the Lord was making that
arrow hit the mark. And as he preached the gospel, Christ went
forth conquering and to conquer in the hearts of those that were
his, in the hearts of those he redeemed. That's the picture
here. That's what he literally did
with Paul and that's the picture with Abraham. Christ gave the nations of the
Gentiles to Paul. How did he do it? By calling
out his people from among the nations. That's what he was promising
Abraham. I'm going to give you all the
nations, Abraham. Abraham was looking for a city
that has foundations whose builder and maker is God. He's not worried
about them nations over there in that little part of the world.
He's looking at a spiritual seed called out of all nations. He's
looking at the kingdom of God and the house of God and what
God was doing in calling His people out. That's the promise
that the Lord made to Him. That's the promise He's made
to you and me, to have Christ and to be part of that great
multitude Christ has redeemed. So by Christ's promise and by
His power and by His grace, what does His people do? Having this
promise of our Lord, that He's redeemed us, that He's the one
that called us and raised us up from the dust, that He's made
us righteous, He's promised I'm with you, I'm your shield, I'm
going to provide for you. Having this promise, what do
we do? We walk by faith. We walk by faith. trusting Christ to lead us. Look
there. He walked even by the way He
had not gone with His feet. You see that in Isaiah 41? He
walked even by the way He had not gone with His feet. What
does the Scripture say about that? Hebrews 11.8. Hebrews 11.8. This is what it says. By faith. by faith. Abraham, when he was
called to go out into a place which he should have to receive
for an inheritance, obeyed and he went. He went out not knowing
where he went. He had never been that way before. Now listen, Abraham lived 430
years before the law was given. 430 years before the law was
given at Sinai. You know what His rule was? Faith,
which works by love. That's the same rule every believer
is under. And you know who led Him? Christ led Him. You know
how He led Him? By the Spirit of God. Through
the Word, through the Gospel, according to His promise. That's
exactly how He's saving all His people. That's how He's leading
His people. The world don't believe this.
Most religion don't believe this. Most religion Though, you know,
our minions will say, God has no hands but your hands, no feet
but your feet. Well, most people in religion
that claims to believe the gospel, they won't make that statement,
but they believe it. Because they believe that they
have to be the rule over a man's faith, and have dominion over
his faith, and Lord over the Lord's people. Not so. Preach
this gospel. Was He able to call you? Was
He able to come to you a dead sinner who hated God and was
a rebel against God and wanted nothing to do with God? Was He
able to penetrate your heart and call you to faith in Him?
What did He use to do it? He used the gospel. Who did it? Christ did it through the Spirit
of the Lord, through the Spirit of God. You know how He's going to lead
His people? The same way. The same way. Faith looks to
Christ. You know the truth is, we are
just like Abraham. Every step you take, you have
never been this way before. When you think you have got it
figured out and you are familiar, the Lord has sent you some providence
to show you, you don't know what I am going to do next. You don't
know where I am leading you next. And He will make you walk by
faith. He is going to keep His people walking by faith, not
by sight. Not by sight. You walk by sight,
you will perish. You have to walk by faith, trusting
Christ the Lord. Trusting Christ the Lord. Christ
said in Isaiah 41.4, Who wrought it and did it? Who hath wrought
and done it? Calling the generations from
the beginning. I the Lord, the first and with the last. I am
He. He is all. Christ is all. Christ is all. He's Alpha and He's Omega. He's
the author and finisher of our faith. He was with the first
that He called and He'll be with the last that He called. And
He's with everyone in between. He's going to get the glory for
salvation. He's all. He's all. The Father is pleased
that all fullness dwell in Christ. That He get all preeminence.
He's all in the covenant. Scripture says He is the covenant,
and He's the messenger of the covenant, and He fulfilled the
covenant. Men want to preach the covenant
as a doctrine. My covenant is my Lord. My covenant
is Christ. He's the one that entered the
covenant. He's the one that fulfilled the covenant. He's the messenger
of the covenant, and every promise is sure in Him. My righteousness
is my Lord. My righteousness is a person.
What did Paul say about the Pharisees? They have a zeal of God, but
they have not submitted to the righteousness of God, because
Christ. They haven't submitted to Christ.
He's the righteousness of God. They stumble at that stumbling
stone. What was the stumbling stone?
Christ is all. He's all righteousness. He is
all righteousness. He is all the wisdom of His people. Of God is Christ made unto you
wisdom. We have to be made to see we're
not wisdom. We have to be made to stop looking
to our understanding and know Christ is our wisdom that's saving
us. And I'll tell you what He'll
do. When we start getting too proud
and thinking we're a little too wise, the Lord will work it to
where He'll show us just how foolish we still are. So He keeps
being our wisdom. He's all our righteousness and
all our sanctification and all our redemption. He's the one that fulfilled the
law. He's finished. He put away the sin of His people.
He is the righteousness. And He's our sanctification.
Who is it here? He's declaring it. Who called
Abraham? Who raised him up? Who separated
him out? Who consecrated him to Christ?
Who kept him consecrated to Christ? Christ did. Whenever Abraham
sinned, when he sinned with Hagar and didn't believe the promise
of the Lord, who was it that saved him from that? Who turned
him back? You know why we're not told that
Abraham had a preacher preaching to him? Because you look at Abraham. He didn't have the law. It's
not told that there was a man preaching to him. But we're told
the Lord appeared to him. And the Lord spoke to him. And
the Lord taught him in his heart. You know why? Because that's
how it is with me and you. He's using preachers today, but
it ain't the preacher doing it. It's the Lord doing it. He's
our sanctification. That's what the Hebrew writer
said, Hebrews 12. He's going to keep us partaking
of His holiness. Of His holiness. That thief on
the cross, Hebrews 12 says, follow after holiness without which
no man shall see the Lord. That includes everybody, doesn't
it? Without which no man shall see the Lord. You know how that
chapter begins? Run this race looking to Christ,
the author and finisher of our faith. That thief on the cross
had the holiness without which no man will see the Lord. Christ
was formed in him, a new man was created in him, in the righteousness
and holiness of Christ, with his feet and his hands nailed
to a cross. He makes his people holy. Just
like Adam made us sinners by corrupt seed, Christ makes us
holy by the incorruptible seed. And He keeps us looking all into
Him and following after Him. He keeps us in holiness. And He grows you in His grace
and in the knowledge of Him. But He's made us holy. When He
calls you, He's made you holy. In fact, He actually made you
holy and perfected you forever on the cross. by His will. We are going to see that in the
second hour of Hebrews 10. By the will, by the witch will
we are sanctified by the offering of Christ. Who hath wrought it
and done it? Calling the generations from
the beginning, I the Lord, the first and with the last, I am
He. He is all in adoption and preservation. He is all in resurrection and
glorification. He is all heaven to His people. Christ is. When Paul said that
in Colossians 3, he meant it. Christ is all and in all. Then the Lord declares what sinners
will do if left to themselves. I tell you what I'm going to
do. I'm going to come back and pick up here next time because I'm just about out of time for
this hour. But the Lord, He shows there
that they saw it and they feared, but they didn't fear God. Who
did they fear? They feared losing their works
and losing their stature in religion and they feared all these things
that they had accumulated and built up in their religion. Remember,
I'll go ahead and give you a word on it. Remember Demetrius the
silversmith? Look what it says they did, verse
6. They helped everyone his neighbor, and everyone said to his brother,
Be of good courage. So the carpenter encouraged the
goldsmith, and he that smoothed it with the hammer, him that
smoked with the anvil, saying, It's ready for the soldering.
He fasted it with the nails. It should not be moved. In other
words, if the Lord doesn't work this in the heart like He did
Abraham and like He did Paul, that's exactly what we'd do right
there. They went on worshiping the works of their hands. And
the example is Demetrius, the craftsman. You remember this
in Acts 19? It said he made idols for the
goddess Diana and it brought no small gain to him. He made
a lot of money making these idols for the goddess Diana. And when
Paul came preaching the gospel of Christ and saying Christ is
salvation, He got together all the craftsmen and he said, men,
y'all know we make our money this way. And if this gospel
is successful, then we're going to lose out. People are going
to turn from worshiping the goddess Diana and they're going to worship
this one called Jesus. Like Paul says, it's the Lord
and the King and the salvation. And so he stowed them up and
the whole town was in an uproar. Well, brethren, personal profit,
personal profit is always the reason men reject the gospel
of Christ. Those men actually made their
financial living from it. But I'm saying when the gospel
comes forth, if a man thinks he made himself be born again,
if he thinks he made himself righteous, if he thinks he made
himself holy, if he thinks he redeemed himself, the gospel
is going to steal away his refuge and take away his refuge and
what he thinks is his life. Just like Demetrius the craftsman. And that angers a man and he
won't have it. and he'll break from it and he'll
keep on going on worshiping his idol gods unless the Lord speaks
into the heart and breaks our heart and brings us down. That's
right. Christ said that. Look over at
John 3. John chapter 3. Christ said that. John 3 verse 18. He said, He that believeth on
Christ is not condemned. But he that believeth not is
condemned already because he's not believed in the name of the
only begotten Son of God. You see, the only way you're
not going to be under condemnation is in Christ through faith. Everybody outside of him is already
under condemnation. But look at the condemnation.
This is the condemnation. Christ the light is coming to
the world, and men love darkness rather than light because their
deeds were evil. For everyone that does evil hates
the light, neither comes to the light, lest his deeds should
be reproved. Listen, who was he talking to? He wasn't talking to a man whose
evil deeds was that he was out being a pimp or a pusher. He was talking to a man whose
evil deeds was in his religion. It is not your sin that's going
to keep you from Christ, it's your righteousness. It's thinking
that your deeds are good. And that's the evil deeds that
men will not come to Christ and confess their all sin. But look
here, but he that doeth truth, this is what Christ calls doing
truth. He that doeth truth cometh to
the light, he comes to Christ, that his deeds may be made manifest,
that they worked in God. What did Christ say in our text?
Who hath worked it? Who hath done it? He said, I've
done it. And when He calls you to Him, you come to Him and you
confess, all my works were brought in Christ. All of them were brought
in Christ. The sad thing is by nature we
are so defiled. Christ said men will stand before
Him in the day of judgment and say, and try to argue with Him. We did many wonderful works. You that know Him, you are not
going to argue with Him in that day. You're going to keep your
mouth shut, and you're going to want to be found. Paul said,
I don't want to be found having my own righteousness, which is
of the law. I want to be found having the righteousness of Christ
only. That's what his people want.
That's where we'll be found righteous. So look what he says to you that
are born of him. You that do truth, you that come
to Christ, this is what he says to you, verse 8. But thou, Israel,
art my servant, Jacob, whom I've chosen, the seed of Abraham my
friend, thou whom I've taken from the ends of the earth, and
called thee from the chief men thereof, and said to thee, thou
art my servant, I have chosen thee and not cast thee away.
And so he says, fear thou not, I'm with thee, Be not dismayed,
I am thy God. I will strengthen thee, yea,
I will help thee, yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand
of my righteousness. Behold, all they that were incensed
against thee shall be ashamed and confounded, they shall be
as nothing, and they that strive with thee shall perish. Thou
shalt seek them and shalt not find them, even them that contended
with thee. They that were against thee shall
be as nothing, as a thing of naught. For I, the Lord thy God,
will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, fear not, I will help
thee. Fear not, thou worm, Jacob, and
ye men of Israel. I will help thee, saith the Lord,
and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. And he goes on, says,
I'm going to use you to preach my gospel, make you a threshing
instrument. But I'm going to keep you the
whole way and save you until I'm finished using you and then
I'm bringing you to glory with me. That's our Lord, brethren.
He's all. The Lord has done it. The Lord
has done it. I want him to have that glory,
don't you? All right, let's go to Him. Our gracious Father,
we thank You for sending forth Your Son. We thank You, Father,
that You entrusted the whole work of salvation into His hand.
And we're thankful, Father, that He accomplished it. Lord, we're
thankful that You made us to know it, revealed Christ to us.
And we pray today, Lord, you send forth your spirit, quicken
us again, renew us. We pray, Lord, you call out your
lost sheep. We pray you send this gospel
forth in power. We pray for our sick brethren
and our different ones that are weak for various reasons. But
we pray, Lord, you be with them physically. But most of all,
we pray you bless them in spirit. Help them to know you in spirit
and be strengthened in spirit. Lord, we thank you for this word
of promise that you'll keep your people. Help us know in this
new year, Father, help us to remember. No matter what you're
pleased to bring to pass, you brought it to pass, and it's
your keeping and blessing your people. Forgive us, Lord, our
sins. Forgive us for doubting you.
Forgive us for our sinfulness and just our neglect and the
way we just keep looking to this world and ourselves. Lord, we
thank you that you save us by grace. In the name of our gracious
Redeemer, we ask these things. Amen.