All right, I'm going to read
our text, and then we'll begin. So our text is Isaiah chapter
60, verses 1 through 7. Arise, shine, for thy light has
come. and the glory of the Lord is
risen upon thee. For behold, the darkness shall
cover the earth, and gross darkness the people. But the Lord shall
arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And
the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness
of thy rising. Lift up thine eyes round about,
and see all they gather themselves together. They come to thee. Thy sons shall come from far,
and thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side. Then thou shalt
see and flow together, and thine heart shall fear and be enlarged,
because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee. the forces of the Gentiles shall
come unto thee. The multitude of camels shall
cover thee, the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah, all they from
Sheba shall come. They shall bring gold and incense,
and they shall show forth the praises of the Lord. All the
flocks of Kedar shall be gathered together unto thee. The Rams
of Nibioth shall minister unto thee. They shall come up with
acceptance on mine altar, and I will glorify the house of my
glory. Let's pray. Our gracious Lord,
we thank you, Father, for gathering us together tonight. Lord, that
you would meet with us in our Savior, and that you would bless
the hearts and minds of your people to hear your word, to
be fed your gospel, to see our Savior, Jesus Christ, who loved
us and died for us, that we might live unto thee. Lord, we thank
you for this hour in which we We come to worship you. We thank
you for one another. We thank you, Lord, for this
body. We thank you for the love that
you've put in our hearts for our Savior and for one another. And Lord, we pray that you would
continue to bless this work here, that you would edify our hearts,
turn our eyes and our hearts upon the Lord Jesus Christ. And Lord, we pray for our brethren
that are sick or troubled. Lord, whatever it is that ails
them or makes them sick or worried, Father, that you would minister
grace to our hearts, that you would heal our diseases and our
sicknesses, Lord. Help us to get well and to have
the strength to come and be able to worship our God with your
people. Lord, we know that all things
are of your grace. everything we have is by the
gift of our God. And so we look to you for our
strength, our help, our all. And Lord, we pray this in the
name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. Let's all stand and sing an opening
hymn, number 265. We have an anchor, 265. Will your anchor hold in the
storms of life, When the clouds unfold their wings of strife? When the strong tides lift and
the cables strain, Will your anchor drift or her firm remain? We have an anchor that keeps
the soul Steadfast and sure while the billows roll Fastened to
the rock which cannot move Grounded firm and deep in the Savior's
love It is safely mured till the storm withstand, Fort is
well secured by the Saviour's hand. Though the tempest rage
and the wild winds blow, Not an angry wave shall o'erbark
flow. We have an anchor that keeps
the soul Steadfast and sure while the billows roll Fastened to
the rock which cannot move Grounded firm and deep in the Savior's
love When our eyes behold through the gathering night, The city
of gold, our harbor bright, We shall anchor fast by the heavenly
shore, With the storms all past forevermore. We have an anchor that keeps
the soul Steadfast and sure while the billows roll Fastened to
the rock which cannot move Grounded firm and deep in the Savior's
love I would like to read from Mark
4, starting with verse 30, Mark
4. I think I wrote down the wrong
verse, but anyway, let's start in 17. Mark 4, 17. When Jesus heard it, He saith
unto them, They that are whole have no need of a physician,
but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance. And the disciples of John and
the Pharisees used to fast. And they come and they say unto
him, why do the disciples of John and the Pharisees fast?
But thy disciples fast not. And Jesus said unto them, can
the children of the bride chamber fast while the bridegroom is
with them? As long as they have a bridegroom with them, they
cannot fast. But the days will come when the
bridegroom shall be taken away from them. and then shall they
fast in those days. No man also seweth a piece of
new cloth on an old garment, else the new piece that filled
it up taketh away from the old and the rent. and the rent is
made worse. And no man putteth new wine in
old bottles, else the new wine doth burst the bottles, and the
wine is spilled, and the bottles will be marred. But new wine
must be put into new bottles. And it came to pass that he went
through the cornfields on the Sabbath day, and his disciples
began as they went to pluck the ears of corn. And the Pharisee
said unto him, Behold, why do they on the sabbath day that
which is not lawful? And he said unto them, Have you
never read what David did when he had need and wasn't hungered,
he and they that were with him? How he went into the house of
God in the days of Abiathar, the high priest, and did eat
the showbread, which is not lawful to eat, but for the priests,
and gave also to them which were with him. and he said unto them,
the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath.
Therefore, the son of man is the Lord also of the Sabbath.
Let's pray. Our heavenly, merciful Father,
we do thank you. Once again, Lord, you are allowing
us to assemble together. And Lord, what a great, great
blessing this is, that from week to week you permit us, Lord,
to come together to hear your word declared, that we may hear
this good news time and again. Father, we thank you for this
full and free salvation for sinners. Father, will you remember Brother
Eric this evening where he stands before us? Lord, pour out your
spirit upon him and give him freedom, Lord, in speaking, that
he may declare the unsearchable riches of the Lord Jesus Christ. and that we may have an appetite
and hunger in our souls. Lord, you know exactly what we
need this evening once again. And Lord, will you give us, increase
our rest in the Lord Jesus Christ, strengthen our faith. And Lord,
will you remember also those that listen consistently online.
Lord, remember them where they are and bless them, Lord, and
strengthen them. And remember all of us, Lord,
as we make up this local assembly. Once again, Lord, we pray for
those that are ill and struggling. You know everything perfectly.
And Lord, if it would please thee, will you add to this assembly?
Lord, will you call out our loved ones? And will you give them
also a hunger and a thirst after thee? Lord, remember us this
evening. Pour out your grace and spirit
upon us. For Jesus' sake alone, amen. Let's sing 352, Jesus lover of
my soul, 352. Jesus, lover of my soul, let
me to thy bosom fly. While the nearer waters roll,
while the tempest still is high, hide me, O my Savior, hide. ? Till the storm of life is past
? ? Safe into the haven guide ? ? O receive my soul at last
? ? Other refuge have I none ? ? Hangs my helpless soul on
thee ? ? Believe I'll leave me not alone ? ? Still support and
comfort me ? ? All my trust on thee is staid ? ? All my help
from thee I bring ? Cover my defenseless head with the shadow
of Thy wing. Thou, O Christ, art all I want,
more than all in Thee I find. Raise the fallen, cheer the faint,
heal the sick and lead the blind. Just and holy is thy name. I am all unrighteousness. False and full of sin I am, outward
full of truth and grace. The last one a cappella. ? Plenteous
grace with thee is found ? ? Grace to cover all my sin ? ? Let the
healing streams abound ? ? Make and keep me pure within ? ? Thou
of life the fountain art ? Thank you. All right, be turning to Isaiah
chapter 60. That'll be our text tonight,
Isaiah chapter 60. I want to begin by reading verses
one through three together. It says, arise, shine, for thy
light has come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For behold, the darkness shall
cover the earth, and gross darkness the people. There's a sense there
of a thick, fat lard just flowing over them so that it's just covering
their ears and their eyes, and they're just in darkness. And
they don't hear, they don't see, they don't feel anything. But the Lord shall arise upon
thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to
thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising." Now, when this
passage is read, it's generally understood or it's generally
read by us in such a way that we think, oh, the Lord's speaking
to me, to the church here. He's got words to say to me,
and there's certainly, we can see in this passage here, a distinguishing
of God's grace for His people who are separated out from that
darkness, that gross darkness that keeps us shut up from hearing
the glorious truth and grace of our Lord. And so we can see
things like that, but Our Lord, He meets with His people in the
Mediator. He meets with His people in His
Son. And that's where He comes and
speaks to us. And that's how we know the true
and living God. God who is Spirit. We know Him
through the Son, and so any gracious words that we appropriate to
ourselves, that we read and say, oh, that's speaking to me, we
understand, by the grace of God, that these words are first spoken
to Christ. These words are spoken by the
true and living God to the Son as the mediator of his people. And so, this is done by our Lord,
and we'll see some examples in scripture, other examples in
other scriptures, where the Lord does this in speaking to Christ,
our mediator, but the Lord does this in a gracious manner so
that our eyes are turned not on self but our eyes are turned
to look to behold the servant of God the one whom he sent to
bless his people in where the Lord will meet with us and be
gracious to us and that's good news for sinners that's good
news for us who stumble, and fall, and sin, and trespass against
the Lord, and make mistakes, and do other foolish things.
That's good news, because the Lord meets with us in the Son,
where He will be gracious to us, where He'll remember our
sins no more, because they've been put away by the blood of
Jesus Christ. And so we look to our Lord for
our light. We look to our Lord for our understanding
because that's how we have light. That's how we have understanding.
He is our wisdom. He's made our all to us. Turn
over to Ephesians chapter 5. Ephesians chapter 5 and I just
want to look at verse 14 first. We'll look at a couple verses
there, but verse 14. And here we read, Wherefore he
saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and
Christ shall give thee light. Now this word is clearly spoken
to the church. And it comes as a word to awaken
the church out of her sleep. And she looks around, and she
begins to see that she's surrounded by enemies. She's surrounded
by enemies. And in her carelessness, she
finds herself in an evil day, in a day and in a time when when
the enemies of the Lord's people would devour her. But the Lord
awakens her, and we see that it's Christ. She's awakened to
behold Christ, where it says, and Christ shall give thee light. And so we're always being turned
to the Lord who is our light. We receive the light of God. We receive the knowledge of God
in the face of Jesus Christ, of Jesus Christ. Now, as you
read a little further in Ephesians 5, verse 15 and 16, Paul says,
see then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming
the time. taking care for the time that
you have because the days are evil. I just want to jump over
to 1st Peter here. Why don't you turn to 1st Peter
5. Peter uses very similar language. How we just kept reading on Paul,
what the Spirit gave to Paul in Ephesians chapter 5. We find
that Peter and Paul had the same spirit when they're writing this. Because Paul, as you go further
down in Ephesians 5, you can read it later tonight, he speaks
of sobriety. He speaks of sobriety. And this
is where Peter begins in 1 Peter 5, verse 8. And Peter says, be
sober. Have the mind of the spirit.
of the mind of the spirit, be vigilant because your adversary,
the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he
may devour. And so our Lord does speak to
the church with the word of his command, and it will be heard
by the church and attended to by the church by the glory and
power of our God. But in all these words here,
in this word that the Lord speaks to us, we see that our light
and our walk, the wisdom that we have, the sobriety that we
have, the vigilance that we have, the awareness, the protection,
the care, and the keeping that is ours is all in the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's where God meets with us.
That's where The Spirit of God, that's where our Father meets
with us, is in the Son, the one in whom we are received and made
whole and brought to our Father. So when we read a passage like
this in Matthew 5, verse 16, and it says, let your light so
shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify
your Father which is in heaven. Well, then we understand that
that light which is spoken of here, that we are to let shine,
that others may see it, it's the Lord Jesus Christ. It speaks
of Christ, because we are but a reflection of the grace of
our Lord toward us. We're a reflection of His forgiveness,
of His mercy, of His patience, of His grace, of His kindness
toward us. We're a reflection of His glorious
light. And so that word in Matthew 5.16
is very similar to the word spoken to us by Paul in Ephesians 4.29
when he said that it may minister grace unto the hearers. In other words, that which we
do It's to minister grace unto the hearers. Now, we don't have
any light of ourselves. The light isn't us. And we don't
have any grace of ourselves to give to others. But the light
and the grace which we have, which has been given to us, is
the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom we walk, in whom we trust, in
whom we believe. that He is our salvation, that
He loved us, that He gave Himself for us and has called us to Himself
so that we now walk in the light and the grace of our Lord and
Savior, trusting Him, speaking of Him, believing Him, and others
see that. And what they see is not us,
but Christ living in me. It's Christ that liveth in me,
who loved me and gave Himself for me, Paul said. So this brings
me to circle back to the beginning of our passage in Isaiah 60,
where to hear the Lord's word spoken to the Son of God as the
mediator of his people. So I want to read it again, and
this time I want your minds, your hearts and minds to be looking
for Christ, to read these words knowing this is spoken to my
Lord and Savior. the one in whom I stand complete
and whole before Holy God. So, verse 1, Arise, shine, for
thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee,
upon our Savior. For behold, the darkness shall
cover the earth, and gross darkness the people, but the Lord shall
arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee, and
the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness
of thy rising." So we can see many good things there. We could
see how this speaks to the church, but it can have no fulfillment
for the church, and to the church, and in the church, except it
first be accomplished in our Savior, in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the life spring of all our
blessings. We receive of the Lord and are
blessed of the Lord because Christ is our Savior and the Father
is well pleased with Him. We're blessed with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 1 3. So, beginning
here, let me just show you how that our Lord, there's examples
where our Lord addresses His people by speaking to the mediator. You read these words and you
say, He's speaking to me. Oh wait, He's speaking to the
Lord. This is the Lord that He's speaking
to, and me in the Lord. Look at Isaiah 42. Look at Isaiah
42, verses six and seven. He says, I, the Lord, have called
thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep
thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of
the Gentiles, to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners
from the prison, and then that sit in darkness out of the prison
house. And so here we see the calling
of the Lord. We see the calling of the Lord,
the Son of God, as the mediator of His people. The Lord says,
I will hold thine hand and I will keep thee. And what we're given
to see there is, well, why does Christ need the Lord to hold
His hand and to keep Him? And that shows us the great humility
that our Savior took upon Him when He took off His heavenly
glory and came in the flesh And so perfectly did he do that,
that even the Jews who saw him and interacted with him and spoke
to him, though they saw this was a man who spoke like no other
man, yet they didn't see the glory of God. They didn't see
that this was someone different than they were. They saw a man. clothed in the weakness of the
flesh, one who was not comely, so that they should desire Him,
or follow after Him, or believe Him, or think anything of Him,
but they despised Him, and they rejected Him, and they just pushed
Him aside. That's how humbly our Lord came,
so that this flesh didn't see Jesus as we see Him. They didn't
see Christ the Savior. They just saw a man to be despised,
a man who challenged their authority and their position and their
power. And so our Savior leaned upon
the Lord perfectly, the way we should lean upon our God and
trust Him perfectly. But because of the weakness of
this flesh, we have no power or strength or ability in us,
of us, of our own selves, of these fleshly carnal works. But
Christ came perfectly, perfectly. And he leaned, he trusted on
the Father so perfectly, so wonderfully, fulfilling the will of the Father
and that righteously. So in him, in that passage there,
we see that he is the covenant of grace for us. He fulfilled
the covenant of grace. The covenant of grace is ratified
for us by the blood of Jesus Christ. He paid the purchase
price that we would be brought in to fellowship with our God
in grace. Not because we earned it, not
because we're worthy of it, not because we've turned our lives
around and repented and done a perfect 180 so that we never
do those things which we once did. It's not for anything that
we've done, not for any works of righteousness that we have
done, but for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ, that this
covenant is established for us. We're familiar with that passage
in Jeremiah 31, verses 31 through 34, that speak of the Lord's
covenant for us, where he will be gracious to us. But I just
want to quote the end of that passage, the latter end of verse
34, where the Lord says, I will forgive their iniquity and I
will remember their sin no more. This is accomplished for us.
The reason why our God forgives us of our sins and remembers
our iniquities no more is because the blood of Christ was shed
for us. he shed his blood, he poured
out his blood to put away our sin so that by his blood our
sins are purged and we're dead to that law because everything
that the law had against us, that full accounting of the law
which was against us, Christ satisfied the justice of the
law fully. perfectly. He paid the price. The debt that we owed is paid
in full by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And through Him,
we died to the law so that the law has nothing more to say to
us. We don't continue now walking and living under the law. We're
delivered from the penalty of sin. We're delivered from that
death that we might live unto God. we might live unto him. That is not in fear and worry
and being afraid to die and trying to do good works to outdo the
bad works that we've done. That's not how we live. We live
rejoicing in the Lord Jesus Christ, not looking to use that as some
excuse to sin, but we trust him. We believe him. And when we when
we go astray, the Lord brings us back, turns our hearts and
causes us to cry out, Lord, forgive me. forgive me for my sin, forgive
me for being so foolish, forgive me for wandering away, keep me
Lord, keep me, keep me. So the Lord does that for His
people. So that's how God forgives us of our iniquity. That's how
He remembers our sin no more. It's because He gave His Son
who gave himself as our eternal sacrifice to make an atonement
for our sin, that God might be just and justifier of them which
believeth in Jesus. Now, one more passage where we
see the Lord speaking to Christ as our mediator. Turn over to
Isaiah 49. In Isaiah 49, These verses also, they speak
of Christ, and they describe the blessings that are ours in
Christ. But notice, he says in verse
three, he said unto me, thou art my servant, O Israel, in
whom I will be glorified. And I remember when we went through
this passage, This is Christ. He's speaking to Christ, and
he calls Christ Israel. That's how one we are with the
Savior. So this is speaking to Christ
as our covenant head, the one in whom we now stand whole before
God. Drop down to the middle of verse
6. middle of verse 6 where he says,
I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles that thou mayest
be my salvation unto the end of the earth. See how that's
Christ? That's Christ. Thus saith the
Lord, the Redeemer of Israel, and His Holy One, to Him whom
man despiseth, to Him whom the nation abhorreth, to a servant
of rulers, kings shall see and arise, princes also shall worship
because of the Lord that is faithful, and the Holy One of Israel, and
He shall choose thee. Thus saith the Lord, in an acceptable
time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped
thee. And I will preserve thee, and
give thee for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth,
to cause to inherit the desolate heritages, that thou mayest say
to the prisoners, go forth. To them that are in darkness,
show yourselves. They shall feed in the ways,
and their pasture shall be in all high places. And so we see
again, this is Christ. He's speaking to Christ when
he speaks to us. Because we do take that gospel
word, we take that good news, and we do carry it into this
dark world. But it's not by our carrying
it. It's not by our works. It's by
the power and glory of the Lord who takes that word and effectually
gives it life in the hearts of his people, bringing forth light
and salvation and hope and faith in the Son of God, the mediator,
the Savior whom God has sent. So when you read verse 1 as God's
church, you're given to hear the blessed words which are spoken
to our Savior in his rising again from the dead. when he rose from
the dead. Look at these words in the light
of his resurrection. Arise, shine, for thy light has
come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. He accomplished
that work which he came to do. And the Lord says, arise, shine,
thy light has come. He did the work which I sent
you to do perfectly. Rise up, rise up. And the power
of God raised Christ from the dead. Just as we read in Acts
13.30, but God raised him from the dead. So following along
with me, I want to look at some verses in John concerning the
glorification of Christ and see how that speaks to our Lord's
resurrection. Go to John 7. John 7 and let's look at verse
39. It says, But this spake he of the
Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive, for the
Holy Ghost was not yet given because that Jesus was not yet
glorified. We look at the miracles and the
power that attended our Lord while he was here in the flesh,
but this word makes a distinction for us, showing us that the power
that he had in the flesh versus the power and the glory which
was his in his resurrection and ascension. We see what glorious
power he has seated upon the throne of God. He makes intercession
for the people. He sends his spirit who gives
us light and life and the knowledge of him. We see his glory in the
resurrection. Now go to John chapter 12. John
12 verse 16. These things understood not as
disciples at the first, but when Jesus was glorified, then remembered
they that these things were written of him, and that they had done
these things unto him. Now we just saw this last Sunday
in John chapter 2 verse 22 a very similar word construct to what
we just read. How at the timing of when the
disciples remembered. When they remembered. The verse
we saw on Sunday was, when therefore he was risen from the dead, his
disciples remembered. He remembered. So we see that
relation, that connection to His resurrection, to His glorification
in the hearts and the minds of His people because His power
came with such glory and power that they saw and beheld the
glory of our Savior. Now, in another scripture, Go
back to John 12, verse 23. John 12, 23. It had gotten to
the point when Christ was ministering there, and the people were really
going wild over Christ. And it had gotten to the point
where fame of Him spread far, far even beyond the borders of
Israel, so that there were Greeks there that asked to see Jesus. They asked to see Jesus. And
our Lord said at the end of verse 23, the hour has come that the
Son of Man should be glorified. Alright, turn over to John 13
with that in mind. John 13 verse 31 and 32. This
is now after Judas it goes out to betray Christ.
And it says, therefore, when he was gone out, Jesus said,
now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him.
If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself
and shall straightway glorify him. And the Lord's speaking
here of his crucifixion. which will lead to his resurrection,
but he's speaking of the crucifixion, and certainly our Lord is glorified
in his crucifixion, what he accomplished for us in his crucifixion. Paul said, God forbid that I
should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by
whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. The
crucifixion of our Savior, what He did for us as our sacrifice
there on the cross, is glorious. and it's wonderful what He did. My point only is this, is that
His glory is testified to of what He did there on the cross.
It's testified to and witnessed to what He did in His resurrection
and His ascension glory. That's how we know that what
He did is so glorious and wonderful, because He rose from the dead.
God justified what He did. He said, What you saw there was
my son giving his life for your sins. And he saved you and delivered
you. And I've raised him from the
dead that you should know that you are justified by the Savior. You're justified by my son. And when he rose again and ascended
up to the Father and seated with the Father, that's when they
sent the Holy Spirit down as a gift to make known to the people
what the Son had done, so that even we who weren't eyewitnesses
to his resurrection, and those who were eyewitnesses have long
been sleeping in the grave, yet even we, by the power and glory
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, have heard their word
which they preached and recorded for us by the grace and glory
of God, so that we too believe the word which they have spoken.
That's power. That's glorious power revealed
in the Son. And so by the glory of our Savior,
He is the light of His people. And he's the one that sets the
people free. He's the one that opens the prison
door. We're the prisoners. We were
the ones in darkness. We were the ones crippled and
lame and unable to take ourselves out of there. We didn't even
know what we were in. But Christ came with his shining
glory and made it known to us what we are. and who he is and
he gave us faith in life and said rise up, walk on out. And
we rose up and walked on out of that prison and now follow
the Lord Jesus Christ. Following him we do not walk
in darkness but now have the light of life all by the promise
of his glory and power, all by his grace and glory. And so Brethren, we rejoice in
Him. All right, let's go back to Isaiah
60. Isaiah 60. Verse 2 says, For behold, the
darkness shall cover the earth and gross darkness the people,
but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and His glory shall be
seen upon thee. You know, there was such darkness
upon the Jews that they crucified the Lord. This darkness is the
darkness that's upon us by nature so that we did not see Christ.
Acts 3, 13 through 15. Peter says there, the God of
Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers,
hath glorified his son Jesus, whom ye delivered up, and denied
him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let
him go. But ye denied the Holy One, and the just, and desired
a murderer to be granted unto you, and killed the Prince of
life, whom God hath raised from the dead, whereof we are witnesses. And that's the wicked spirit,
the blind spirit, the thick, gross darkness that is upon us
by nature that we can't even see the glory of the Lord. We couldn't see his glory. We
couldn't see who he was in the flesh so that we crucified him
and demanded a murderer be delivered rather than him. all according
to the determinate will and counsel of God. But the one that delivers
his people out from those strong cords of darkness is the Lord
Jesus Christ. Otherwise, we'd continue in that
darkness, and we'd go down that path. As Isaiah 49.9 says, that
thou mayest say to the prisoners, go forth. To them that are in
darkness, show yourselves. We didn't deserve it, but our
Savior comes in mercy and says, go forth. I've set you free.
I've set you free. You condemned me in your flesh.
You despised me. You sinned against me and rebelled
against me every day. Go forth. I've forgiven you. My blood has covered your sins
and set you free. You're forgiven. Go free. Even people who you think would
never, never believe the gospel, who would never hear, never care
to hear it, even they are saved by the Lord's grace. That's witnessed
in verse three, in his drawing of the Gentile nations to himself,
and the Gentiles shall come to thy light and kings to the brightness
of thy rising. The Gentiles We that sat in darkness
are drawn by the Good News which is attended to by the Spirit
so that it comes to our hearts with power so that we hear it
and we receive it and we believe the Word that the Lord has spoken
through His Son Jesus Christ. And so by the sending of the
Spirit that gives power to his word and gives power to our hearts
to give us faith and life in the sun, that's how we come to
the light. And that's how we're drawn to
the brightness of his rising. Now what follows in the rest
of these verses is a mingling of descriptions concerning Christ
and his body, which is the church. And so the church is seen receiving
these blessings of the Lord, receiving those whom the Lord
is bringing into the body. And so we see the power of our
Savior in delivering his people out of the kingdom of darkness
and bringing them into the kingdom of light. Look at verses four
and five. Lift up thine eyes round about
and see, all they gather themselves together. They come to thee,
thy sons shall come from far, and thy daughters shall be nursed
at thy side. Then thou shalt see and flow
together, and thine heart shall fear, it shall be in awe and
struck with amazement, and be enlarged because the abundance
of the sea shall be converted unto thee. The forces of the
Gentiles shall come unto thee. And so you can see there the
remnant of grace just flowing in to the church, just coming
to Christ, flowing to Him because of the glorious good news. And
certainly that's what we see this day, 2,000 years later,
the church is largely made up of Gentile believers. There's
very few Jews according to the flesh, but the Gentiles have
rushed and have come in believing the Lord's Word. Verse 6, the
multitude of camels shall cover thee, the dromedaries of Midian
and Ephah, all they from Sheba shall come They shall bring gold
and incense and they shall show forth the praises of the Lord. And we actually saw that prophecy
fulfilled when the wise men came bearing gifts of gold and incense
to Christ the Savior at his birth. or near there. It says in Matthew
2 verse 11, And when they were come into the house, they saw
the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down and worshipped
him. And when they had opened their
treasures, they presented unto him gifts, gold and frankincense
and myrrh. Now verse 7 adds, All the flocks
of Kedar shall be gathered together unto thee. The rams of Nebioth
shall minister unto thee. They shall come up with acceptance
on mine altar, and I will glorify the house of my glory." Those
words there that we come up and find acceptance upon the altar. Our acceptance with the Father
is through Jesus Christ, who offered himself up to the Father
on the cross. That's where we find acceptance,
is there in the cross. And he says, I will glorify the
house of my glory. So that brethren, we that believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ are a testimony, a testament to His
glorious power and what He's done for His people who couldn't
save themselves, people who had no interest, people who sat in
darkness, gross darkness, but now believe the truth of God
and now have flowed to the Lord all by His grace. We believe,
and it's not by this flesh. Your faith and your hope in the
Savior is not a work of the flesh. It's a work of God. It's a work
of the Son of God, who loved you and gave himself for you
and has sent his Spirit to take of the things of Christ, of his
seed, and to give life to you, who now believe and trust him
You that believe are the house of his glory. And he says, I
will glorify the house of my glory. I'll bring in my people. I'll feed them with my word. I'll feed them with Christ, the
bread and wine that sustains my people. So rejoice in your
Lord. Rejoice in him and give thanks
to God for his glorious Savior in the Son. Amen. All right, let's pray. Our gracious
Lord, we thank you, Father, for your grace and mercy. Lord, we
struggle to say the words to rightly describe the praise and
the honor that you deserve. Lord, you deserve everything, our heart,
our love, our mind, our strength, our all, and how weak we are,
how insufficient we are in ourselves. But Lord, help us, help us to
praise your name, to give thanks, to lean on you as our Savior
leaned upon you and served you faithfully. Lord, help us. Help
us to walk by faith. Help us to walk continually after
our Lord. Keep us, Lord, lest we wander
away and go astray and get off into vain, worthless things,
Lord. Keep us, because we do love you. And we are thankful. And we see
your glory and power and what you've done for sinners like
us. Lord, thank you. Thank you and we pray that you
would help us to continue to exalt you, to lift you up, to
speak of your glorious works and of your glorious power, of
your love for us, of your gifts of faith and spiritual blessings
which you've given to us. Lord, thank you. And Father,
we pray for our brethren. We pray for one another that
you would help us. help us in our service to one
another, help us in just our love and friendship and fellowship
that we have with one another. Lord, make us mindful of each
other and help us to be able to just be there for one another
through various difficulties and times. We pray that you would
help those that are struggling to heal and to get well. Lord,
we think of Scott. We pray that you would heal his
wound, that he could continue to do other things and to get
better and more self-sufficient from the doctors and the various
things. Lord, we pray for my aunt who's
struggling with the healing of her knee, that you would help
her to be able to walk and go up and down stairs and get to
treatment safely. And Lord, that you would be with
Johnny, who's not feeling well, that you would be with Ron, whose
fingers are still hurting him, Lord. And Lord, there's so many
ailments and weaknesses and difficulties that we have, and many that have
never even been expressed to another. But Lord, you know,
keep us tender, loving you, seeking you always. Thank you for your
goodness and kindness and patience with us. It's in Christ's name
we pray and give thanks. Amen. All right, brother. Let's all stand and sing 255
Blessed Assurance. 255. Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. Oh, what a foretaste of glory
divine. Heir of salvation, purchase of
God. Born of His Spirit, washed in
His blood. This is my story, this is my
song, Praising my Saviour all the day long. This is my story,
this is my song, Praising my Saviour all the day long. Perfect submission, perfect delight. Visions of rapture now burst
on my sight. Angels descending brink from
above. Echoes of mercy, whispers of
love. This is my story, this is my
song. ? Praising my Savior all the
day long ? ? This is my story, this is my song ? ? Praising
my Savior all the day long ? ? Perfect submission, all is at rest ?
? I in my Savior am happy and blessed ? ? Watching and waiting,
looking above ? ? Filled with His goodness, lost in His love
? ? This is my story, this is my song ? ? Praising my Savior
all the day long ? ? This is my story, this is my song ? Praising
my Savior all the day long.