Good evening, let's stand and
open this evening's worship service by singing Rock of Ages, 126.
Rock of Ages. Rock of Ages, cleft for me, Let
me hide myself in thee. Let the water and the blood From
thy wounded side which flow, Be of sin the double cure, Save
from wrath and make me pure. Could my tears forever flow? Could my zeal no longer know? These for sin could not atone,
Thou must save and Thou alone. In my hand no price I bring,
Simply to Thy cross I cling. While I draw this fleeting breath,
when my eyes shall close in death, when I rise to worlds unknown,
and behold me on thy throne, rock of ages, cleft for me, let
me hide myself in thee. Thank you. I would like to read Psalm 93.
Psalm 93. The Lord reigneth. He is clothed
with majesty. The Lord is clothed with strength.
wherewith he hath girded himself. The world also is established,
that it cannot be moved. Thy throne is established of
old, thou art from everlasting. The floods hath lifted up, O
Lord, the floods hath lifted up their voice, the floods lift
up their waves. The Lord on high is mightier
than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of
the sea. Thy testimonies are very sure. Holiness becometh
thine house, O Lord, for ever. Let's pray. Our heavenly, merciful
Father, we thank you for assembling us once again this evening and
providing us, Lord, this great opportunity to hear the glorious
gospel declared to us from thy word. Father, we thank you for
calling out, for saving a sheep which are sinners. with no hope
in themselves, but yet, Lord, you have taken reasons out of
yourself, and you have chosen a people unto yourself, and you
will call all these people out. And Lord, remember our loved
ones also. Father, with you, all things
are possible. And if it would please you, Lord,
will you call out our loved ones also? Give them, Lord, a hunger
and a thirst after righteousness, which is the Lord Jesus Christ.
Father, remember us in mercy as a local assembly. We thank
you, Lord, for what we have. It is a great blessing. And Father,
will you continue to watch over us and provide for us and continue,
Lord, to be with Eric Continue, Lord, to give him the strength
and the wisdom to deliver these messages to us. Remember him,
Lord, this evening. Each time is a new time. Father,
will you pour out your blessed spirit upon him and give him
freedom to declare the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And remember us as hearers, Lord. Give us a hunger. increase our faith and give us
rest for our souls. Father, remember us in mercy.
Remember those also, Lord, who are of this assembly, who suffer
from difficulties with their health. Father, you know all
things perfectly. Will you give them comfort, which
only you can give? Comfort them in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And Lord, give them strength for their bodies, that they may
once again come in with us and worship you. Father, give us
what we need this evening, that we may praise your mighty and
holy name for Jesus' sake alone, amen. Let's sing 125, Jesus paid it
all, 125. Hear the Savior say, Thy strength
indeed is small. Child of weakness, watch and
pray, Find in me thine all in all. Jesus paid it all, All to
Him I owe. Sin hath left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow. Lord, now indeed I find thy power,
and thine alone can change the leper's spots and melt the heart
of stone. Jesus paid it all, all to him
I owe. Sin hath left a crimson stain,
he washed it white as snow. For nothing good have I whereby
thy grace to claim. I'll wash my garments white in
the blood of Calvary's Lamb. Jesus paid it all, all to Him
I owe. Sin hath left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow. And when before the throne I
stand in Him complete, Jesus died my soul to save, my lips
shall still repeat. Jesus paid it all, all to Him
I owe. Sin hath left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow. Thank you. Alright brethren, take your Bibles
and let's turn to Isaiah chapter 53. Last week we began this chapter
of Isaiah. And we saw how that it's a glorious
testament of our God's ability to accomplish His will and His
purpose in His Son, Jesus Christ. And the will and purpose of God
in Christ is to glorify the Son. and for the Son to redeem a people
to himself that God has chosen in love and put in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now this chapter, it speaks of
our Lord Jesus Christ from start to finish. And that's true of
all the scriptures. And here in this chapter, it's
testifying to us of our Lord's sufferings and his death It declares
what He accomplished for His people and the glory that should
follow. The glory that should follow
our Lord, what the Lord our God should do for His Son in glorifying
Him and exalting Him and in extolling Him in our hearts. And our Lord
Jesus Christ, what we see is that He undertook for us for
His people, He came as our surety. He came as our surety, meaning
that He came and paid all our debts that we owe to Holy God. And He did this by the sacrifice
of Himself, through His shed blood and by laying down his
life there on the cross as our substitute, and in doing that,
he accomplished our redemption. He purchased us, delivering us
from eternal death and delivered us into the salvation of our
God, just as our Lord purposed it to be done for us. And having
accomplished this redemption for all his people, Jew and Gentile,
the prophet says that our Lord, he declares this glorious good
news, this glorious testimony for us to hear and to rejoice
in and be glad in what our God has done for us. I titled this
message, Have I an Interest in Christ? Do I have an interest
in Christ? Do I have an interest in His
blood and this salvation work that He's accomplished for His
people? And we pick that up right in
the first verse that we're looking at, verse 6, Isaiah 53, 6. Let's read it. All we like sheep
have gone astray. We have turned every one to his
own way. and the Lord hath laid on Him
the iniquity of us all. This verse here, it brings us
to consider, do I have an interest in this Savior? Do I have an
interest in the Christ? Do I have an interest in His
death and resurrection? Is the Lord speaking of me here?
We hear the glorious good news. Many, many people come and they
hear the good news of what Christ has accomplished for his people. We hear of his sufferings. We
hear that he suffered for our sin and our iniquities. That's
what we hear. We hear this declared. And that
His blood is the covering sufficient to cover my sin, to obtain forgiveness
for me with holy God. And we know in reading our Lord's
word that there is a definite people. There's a people whom
Christ came to accomplish this work for. We speak of it in,
we use an acronym usually to describe these points. The acronym
is TULIP, the flower TULIP, T-U-L-I-P. And T stands for, T stands for
our depravity, total depravity. U for our, for unconditional
election. L stands for limited atonement. I like to use the word definite
atonement. Some people use particular atonement. I is irresistible grace. And P is perseverance of the
saints. And these stand together. And what we understand that our
Savior came for a definite people. His atonement When they use the
word limited atonement, it's not to bring down what he accomplished,
but rather to specify who, for whom he laid down his life and
shed his blood. And we see this through the pronouns
that are used in the scripture. We see this in understanding
whom, for whom our Lord gave his life for. Because the word
traces out that God did this for a people, for a particular
people, a people whom he chose and did this for. And so when
Isaiah is writing these words, when he preached these words
and he's writing these words, he has a specific people in mind. He's writing this to a particular
people. And the people that he's writing
to are people who have been given ears, to hear what the Spirit
says to the churches. Look at verses 4 and 5 and we
see these pronouns pronounced to us in these verses. Verse
4, Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken,
smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him. And with his stripes, we are
healed." And so these pronouns, our and we, it's speaking of
a very particular people. It's speaking to a particular
people whom the Lord did this work for, and he's speaking to
those people. So for whom did Christ die? We
know in reading the scriptures that our God has a chosen elect
people. Ephesians 1.4, for example, says
that it's according as God hath chosen us in Christ before the
world began. So we see that God has a chosen
people, that he committed to the care of the Lord Jesus Christ,
that Christ should redeem that people. And we know that, we
know them, because we don't know who it is, but we know them when
faith, the fruits of the spirit, is made evident in his people.
He bears the fruit, he reveals faith in his people. And his
people believe the Lord Jesus Christ. And his word says that
we follow Christ. And he that follows Christ shall
not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. So we see these fruits that the
Spirit bears in his people. And Acts 13, 48 declares this. This is where Paul and Barnabas
are preaching the gospel to the Jews that were assembled. And
there was also many Greeks interested in hearing this word. And the
Jews began to contradict Paul and argue against what Paul and
Barnabas were saying, and they wouldn't hear it. And so Paul
and Barnabas said, well, seeing that you guys refuse this thing,
We are going to turn and preach this gospel to the Gentiles.
Acts 13.48 says, When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and
glorified the word of the Lord, and as many as were ordained
to eternal life, believed. So we see from the scriptures
that God has a people whom He has ordained to this salvation. There's a particular people.
So we know that there's, in general, the truth is that there's a particular
people for whom Christ died and for whom his fruits are born
in them. And so that helps us to understand
when we read these scriptures in Isaiah 53, and he's talking
about our and we, that he's writing to this particular people for
whom Christ gave his life. So the question for the sinner
is, do I have an interest in the death and resurrection of
Christ? A lot of people, when they hear of the Lord's limited
atonement for his election, they get caught up trying to answer
that question for themselves. Well, am I elect? And they just
try to satisfy that by asking that question, well, am I the
elect? That's really not the question is, do you have an interest
in what Christ has accomplished for his people? Are you a sinner? Are you the sinner? who cannot
save themselves and needs the blood of Christ. The prophet
says in verse 6, back in our text, all we like sheep have
gone astray and we have turned everyone to his own way and the
Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. Are you the sinner? Are you the sinner who's gone
astray? Are you lost in sin and in darkness and unbelief and
doing your own thing, just partaking of your sins and iniquities and
trespassing against the knowledge of God? The man who says, I'm
no sinner, I don't need a savior. He didn't die for my sins. Well,
for that one, we have no word of encouragement for them. They
testify themselves that they have no interest in Christ. And Paul said to such who speak
like that, when he was speaking to the Jews back there in Acts
chapter 13, In the same manner, we say the same thing to others
who have no interest in what Christ has accomplished and what
he came to do. They see no need for his blood
and for his salvation. And Paul said to them, seeing
ye put it from you and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting
life, lo, we turn to the sinners. Paul said we turn to the Gentiles,
but he meant those that are interested, those that need to hear, those
that want to hear, those that are hungering and thirsting for
the righteousness of God. And they hear what Christ has
accomplished and they believe. And in the same manner, lo, we
turn to the sinners. We turn to those who are sinners
and have offended holy God and are bankrupt of any righteousness.
They hear the glorious testimony, the glorious report of what Christ
has accomplished for His people, and they believe. They believe
that He's sufficient to cover all their sins, and that He's
all that God requires to stand faultless before His throne in
that day of judgment. And so every one of us has gone
astray and every one of us has turned to his own way. But do
you hear and believe the testimony of God of what Christ has done
for sinners, for his people in redeeming them and recovering
them out of their prison, out of their darkness. He's found
them that were lost. And so our Lord does that. And
so these who believe, they testify that they are the like sheep
of whom Isaiah speaks of here in this scripture. We're the
ones who rebelled against God. We're the ones who did our own
thing. We're the ones who would not hear and went our own way
and did our own thing until the Lord God in grace and mercy arrested
our souls and caused us to hear. and to know this is salvation,
this is my Savior, this is my God. And so we here, as wandering
sheep who were lost, the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity
of us all, us who went astray, us who could not do anything
for ourselves and would not. And so all who look to Christ
for salvation, they shall be saved. They have eternal life. And all who will not look to
Christ, they testify against themselves that they have no
interest in the blood of Christ. It wasn't shed for them and they
will therefore die in their sins. As our Lord said to the Jews
in John chapter 8, if you do not believe that I am, you shall
die in your sins. Because man without Christ has
no covering, no atonement, no forgiveness with God. They stand before God in their
own sins. And they must answer for them
and give account for them and they shall bear the punishment
of their sin and iniquity. And so the reason that we sinners
look to Christ, well, it's by grace. It is by grace. But what
I mean is that our God, he's ordained his son as the Christ,
the Christ of God. Our God has ordained his son
to come in the covenant of grace, to fulfill the covenant of grace
for his people, to do all the work for his people. Because
we cannot do it. We will not do it. We can't and
we won't, but Christ came and he fulfilled all the work while
we were yet enemies of God. And he did everything necessary
to obtain eternal forgiveness and sanctification and righteousness
for his people. And so our Savior came as the servant
to bear the burden of his people and to die in their place as
their substitute. Now that last statement there
in verse six, Isaiah 53, six, it declares this very thing.
The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. And if you
have a King James version in the margin, it says there that
the Lord hath made the iniquity of us all to meet on him. And so Christ was the one sent
to bear the burden, to whom God would gather the sins of his
people and bring them to meet on the Lord Jesus Christ as our
substitute. He went to the cross bearing
our sins. Now, in doing that, we read in
verse 7, Isaiah 53, 7, Christ was oppressed and he was afflicted. Yet he opened not his mouth,
He's brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before
her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. And so we understand
that our Lord was brought here. He went here willingly, brought
by our God to the cross, but it wasn't for any crimes or any
wickedness that He had done. He committed no sin. And with
that understanding, we understand that our Lord, he went to the
cross as the shorty. He went there for another. He
went there for the sins of his people as their shorty, as one
to pay their debts. And so the Spirit is revealing
this to you, his people that believe, to give you comfort
and to give you assurance. that all your sins have been
taken care of by the Lord. He's put them away. You are forgiven. You hear and believe Christ because
you are the Lord's. And you rejoice in His salvation.
And you rejoice in what your Savior has done. And so the Spirit
is giving us comfort in these words and confidence in Christ
who is our Savior. That we may look to Him and trust
Him for everything. Now this phrase, he was oppressed
and he was afflicted, means it's speaking of when our God laid
the sins of his people upon Christ. And God demanded satisfaction
be made for those sins. He laid them on Christ and demanded
that satisfaction be made. And Christ, your Savior, made
satisfaction. He's satisfied the holy justice
of God and paying every debt owed for those sins. And that he did willingly. He
did willingly, he paid the price for those sins that were imputed
to him by God the Father. Second Corinthians 5.21 says,
for God hath made Christ to be sin for us who knew no sin, Christ
who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him. And so that our God has imputed
the righteousness of Christ to us because Christ has purged
us of our sins and made us righteous in His blood. Now in all this
suffering, we see that Christ, He did it willingly and obediently. He bore the wrath of God and
He did nothing to deliver Himself. He was pleased to do this. He
went willingly. He was obedient to the Father
in this for you, His bride, for you that believe on Him. You
know, Christ, he never tried to deliver himself from going
to the cross. He never tried to justify himself
to the people in order to deliver himself from going to the cross. When he was speaking to those
Jews in John chapter eight, in verse 26, he said, I have many
things to say and to judge of you, but he that sent me is true. And I speak to the world those
things which I have heard of him. And so he was careful to
stay right on script of what the father had spoken to him
to say. And that's exactly what he said,
so that nothing would come in the way of him going to the cross
as the lamb of God for his people. And the things that he did say
at the same time were actually meant to reveal, to search out
his lost sheep and to reveal faith in them. So they heard
his word. They saw his works, and they
heard his word, and they believed. And they trusted him. And he
kept them. And he keeps them by his spirit. And so we see that. While the
Lord did nothing to deliver Himself out of the hands of wicked men,
yet His words were so kind and gracious and loving to His people
in calling them out and making us to see what a glorious Savior,
what a glorious, wonderful Savior our Lord is and what He's accomplished
for us. And so the very goal of our Savior
was always to go to the cross. That was his purpose. It was
always to go to the cross. And he was determined to fulfill
that very purpose. And so there was nothing that
was going to stop that at all. So in the appointed hour, while
he's there being unjustly judged by the Jews and by the Gentiles
when he went. And so before then, we read that
he opened not his mouth. He said nothing that would deliver
him, nothing. And that's because he's the lamb
slain from the foundation of the world. These things are so
and they must be so. And so as the lamb, he was brought
to the slaughter and he silently and obediently bore the wrath
of God against himself. And that was all according to
the will of God, his father. for you, for you that believe. Now it says in Acts 2.23, Him,
Christ, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge
of God, ye have taken Him by wicked hands, have crucified
and slain. And so we see that our God He
brought this to pass. This was the will of God, it
was the will of Christ to fulfill the will of God, and it was all
done according to the will and purpose of God. And the will
of God was to cut off Christ. for the people. It was to cut
him off. Isaiah 53 verse 8, he was taken
from prison and from judgment. We see that he was falsely accused
by the Jews and charged by the Jews. And who shall declare his
generation? We declare. We declare. We that
believe, who are born of his spirit, we declare the glorious
good news of what our Savior did, because we're made his offspring
by his Spirit. For he was cut off out of the
land of the living. Christ died for us, and therefore
we live. For the transgression of my people
was he stricken." So again, it wasn't because of anything that
he did, but it was our sins that he was bearing in the place of
his people. And therefore, our God forgives
us because there's no sin to answer for. There's nothing left
undone. It's all been completed by our
Lord and Savior. Now, Christ gave his life. And
what we see here in this passage is the humiliation of our Lord,
the humility of him and the humiliation of our Savior to humble himself,
to come in the flesh and to do this servant work for his people. He did the whole thing from start
to finish. He did he did it all in order
to give us life. And when he was praying to the
father as the high priest, he said he tells us that God has
given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life
to as many as God had given to him. And so that's what He was
doing, the whole purpose of our Lord. So all that Christ did
for us, in this humiliation of the flesh, in coming as the servant
and being made sin and dying the death of His people, it was
to obtain that life for us. to deliver us from that eternal
death, to take us out from the punishment that was ours, that
we had accrued and built up by our mountain of sin and death. And so Christ did that. And so
it was for the transgression of my people was he stricken,
meaning the stroke of God's justice fell upon Christ, that you, the
sheep of God, would go free. and be delivered from the stroke
of his justice. Now, in the next verse, Isaiah,
he beholds that Christ's death and burial, which he died, was
between two thieves. And then he was buried in a rich
man's tomb. And it serves to show us the
greatness, the breadth, the width and the breadth of the love of
our God and what he accomplished for us in salvation. He's declaring that there's none
too low, there's none too wicked to be saved, and there's none
too rich or too great to not need this salvation. But everyone
If they're to be saved, we must come through the Lord Jesus Christ. And so the Lord's declaring here
that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. There's none except. Christ is
the savior of all. Doesn't matter your background,
who you are. Every one of his people needs
that are to be saved, his people, they need this salvation, they
need this blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And all who come to Christ
will never be turned away. Look at verse nine. And he made
his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death, because
he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. And so we see that the death
of our Lord provided the fit sacrifice, exactly what was needed
to deliver His people. And so, look to Christ, come
to Christ, because all who look to Him shall find forgiveness. Our God is satisfied with Christ. Why would you try to come any
other way? when the Lord our God is satisfied
in what he's provided for us in his son. He had done no violence,
neither was any deceit in his mouth. He did nothing wrong.
And we see here how that our Savior humbled himself as the
servant in order to accomplish that work which we do not, in
order to accomplish salvation which we do not deserve. We do
not deserve. Now we read in the next verses,
verse 10, even though we don't deserve it, yet it pleased the
Lord to bruise him. And the Lord's telling us there's
more going on here than what man purposed to do to Christ.
Our God purposed to do a work for his people in Christ. It
pleased the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief. Thou
shalt make his soul an offering for sin. He shall see his seed. He shall prolong his days. And
the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. And so, again, we see that bruising,
which is a picture of him bearing the stroke of God in his perfect
justice, which fell upon Christ, and that bruise being the collection,
the gathering of the blood of Christ to that spot to cover,
to atone for and to cover your sin, that it's put away. and the Lord Jesus Christ. And
God is pleased to do this. It was His very will and purpose.
for his people, that he may be kind and gracious to those elect
chosen people that he put in Christ before the foundation
of the world. It's the pleasure of the Lord.
And it required the death of Christ to remove the offense
and the stain of our sin. That's how corrupt, how evil,
how vile our works are, how far astray we've gone. and how indifferent
we are to the true and living God who deserves our worship
and praise. But in Adam, and in this sinful
flesh, We won't do it until the Lord fills us with his spirit,
washing us in the blood of Christ, giving us a new heart, giving
us a desire for Christ, a need for the blood of the Savior.
He does that. He transforms us. It says in
Romans 5, verses 8 and 10, 8 through 10, but God commendeth his love
toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for
us. Much more than being now justified
by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if
when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death
of His Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. So there's a definite people.
And there's a people with a definite outcome of salvation. A definite
people with a definite outcome of salvation. Our Lord hasn't
lost a soul. He's lost none for whom He did
this work for. all that he suffered for, he
accomplished their salvation. It says, when thou shalt make
his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed. So our Savior did nothing in
vain. He did nothing in vain. He died
for a chosen elect seed of grace. And verse 11 says this, he shall
see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. By his
knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many, for he
shall bear their iniquities. And so this declares to us that
there is a new birth, which shall be wrought in the hearts of his
people. They're going to be turned. They're
going to be born of that incorruptible seed of Christ. They're going
to hear the word. Faith cometh by hearing the word
of God. And he blesses that word to his
people for them to hear. And by faith being wrought in
them by the spirit, they believe that word which is declared to
them. And so Christ, he suffered. to
obtain this new birth for His people. And we're born again
because of the travail of our Savior. The picture there is
a mother who's travailing in labor to bring forth the birth
of her child. And that's what Christ did. He
travailed. He bore the labor in order to
bring forth His children, the birth of His children. And in labor, who suffers? The
baby, the child, or the mother? The mother does. She's the one
suffering in travail and in labor. So it is with your Lord and Savior. He's the one who bore the suffering,
who bore the labor and the travail in order to obtain your birth
in the appointed time. He delivered you in that hour
and so it is there's an appointed hour for you to hear and to believe
unto the saving of your soul. And so Christ is satisfied. He's satisfied. He's never lost
a one. He's not failed to bring forth one for whom he's labored
and travailed for. And so this is why we declare
there's a definite atonement. There's a definite atonement.
There's a particular people for whom Christ wrought this work
for, to obtain their salvation so that He is the successful
Savior. He's not failed once. And therefore,
because he's done this work, our Lord is exalted by the Father. He's accomplished it all, and
the Father has exalted him. Verse 12, therefore will I divide
him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil
with the strong, because he hath poured out his soul unto death,
and he was numbered with the transgressors. He bared the sin
of many and made intercession for the transgressors. And so
He is exalted because of these following accomplishments. He
gives us four statements here, four accomplishments. We'll list
them out here. First, He hath poured out His
soul unto death. And we're told in the scriptures
in Ezekiel 18 that the soul that sinneth, it shall die. And so Christ He died the death
of His people. He died in their place. He took
that death for their sins so that we should live forever unto
our God. And second, He was numbered with
the transgressors. And that's why you and I who
are sinners, who are made sinners, who are made to see that we are
the sinner, we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. We are saved
by His blood and we have hope in Him. because Christ was willingly
numbered with us, the transgressors. And he bared the sin of many,
he bore that sin to carry it off, to carry it far, far away. never to be seen again it's put
away in the Lord Jesus Christ and he made intercession for
the transgressors so that all for whom he did this they shall
hear they shall believe they shall be wrought and born in
the kingdom of our God hearing the the glorious good news the
good report of our savior and believing him trusting him. And so we say these things, you
know, it's not to encourage a false confession or profession in Christ,
but it's to encourage the sinner, the one who has sinned against
God, the one who has broken his law, the one who has no righteousness,
that they would see and consider these things. and behold the
glory of our God and his son, Jesus Christ. And I say those
words because in Isaiah 52, verse 15, we read that Christ shall
sprinkle many nations. The king shall shut their mouths
at him for that which had not been told, which had not been
told them shall they see. And that which they had not heard
shall they consider. No man can tell you these things,
and no man can convince you to believe these things, and yet
by the glory and power of our God, he makes his people to see
and to consider. Lord, do I have an interest in
these things? Is it for me that you laid down
your life, that you travailed and suffered and were oppressed
and afflicted for me? Lord, have mercy on me. Be gracious
to me. Wash me in your blood, Lord. And so that's why the Lord declares
these glorious words. And we would hear this report,
this glorious report, and that we would rejoice in the Lord
Jesus Christ and call upon Him, looking to Him, believing on
Him, having hope in God, in the Son, Jesus Christ, whom He sent
for this very purpose. And Peter tells us, to him give
all the prophets witness that through his name, whosoever believeth
in him shall receive remission of sins, or forgiveness of their
sins. I pray the Lord bless that word
to the hearts of his people, that they look to Christ. Amen. Let's close in prayer. Our gracious
Lord, we thank you, Father, for your glorious report and your
Son, Jesus Christ, make all your people to know the interest that
you give to your people alone in Christ, that we would have
an interest in His death, burial, and resurrection, that we would
be counted among that number for whom you lay down your life,
that we would be recovered from our wandering in and delivered
out of darkness and the prison of death that we would be brought
into the kingdom of light, the kingdom of your son, and be born
of his labors and his work, that we may know our God and rejoice
in the salvation of our Savior. It's in the name of our Lord
and Savior, Jesus Christ, we pray this. Amen. Let's all stand and sing a closing
hymn, 446, Satisfied, 446. My life long I had painted For
a drink from some clear spring That I hope would quench the
burning Of the thirst I felt within. Hallelujah, I have found
Him Whom my soul so long has prayed Jesus satisfies my longings,
through His blood I now am saved. Leaning on the husk around me,
till my strength was almost gone, longed my soul for something
better, only still to hunger on. Hallelujah, I have found
Him whom my soul so long has craved. Jesus satisfies my longings,
through His blood I now am saved. For I was and sought for riches,
Something that would satisfy. But the dust I gathered round
me Only mocked my soul-set cry. Alleluia, I have found Him, whom
my soul so long has craved. Jesus satisfies my longing, through
His blood I now am saved. Well of water ever springing,
Bread of life so rich and free, Untold wealth that never faileth,
My Redeemer is to me. Alleluia! I have found Him, Who my soul
so long has craved, Jesus satisfies my longings, through His blood
I now am saved. Thank you.