Good evening. Let's stand and
begin our evening service by standing and singing, Revive
Us Again, 485, Revive Us Again. We praise Thee, O God, for the
Son of Thy love, Lord Jesus, who died and is now gone above. Alleluia, Thine the glory. Alleluia, Amen. Alleluia, Thine the glory. Revive us again. We praise thee, O God, for the
Spirit of life, who has shown us our Savior and scattered our
night. Alleluia, thine the glory. Alleluia, amen. Alleluia, thine the glory. Revive us again. All glory and praise to the Lamb
that was slain, who has borne all our sins and has cleansed
every stain. Alleluia, thine the glory. Alleluia, amen. Alleluia, thine the glory. Revive us again. Revive us again. Fill each heart with thy love. May each soul be rekindled with
fire from above. Hallelujah, thine the glory. Hallelujah, amen. Hallelujah, thine the glory. Revive us again. Thank you. I'm going to grab
my Bible. I would like to read Joshua 4,
Joshua 4. And it came to pass When all
the people were clean, passed over Jordan, that the Lord spake
unto Joshua, saying, Take you 12 men out of the people, out
of every tribe a man, and command ye them, saying, Take you hence
out of the midst of Jordan, out of the place where the priest's
feet stood firm, 12 stones, and ye shall carry them over with
you, and leave them in the lodging place where ye shall lodge this
night. Then Joshua called the twelve
men whom he had prepared of the children of Israel out of every
tribe a man. And Joshua said unto them, Pass
over before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of the
Jordan, and take you up every man of you a stone upon his shoulder,
according unto the number of the tribes of the children of
Israel. that this may be a sign among you, that when your children
ask their fathers in time to come, saying, what mean ye by
these stones? Then you shall answer them that
the waters of Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant
of the Lord when it passed over Jordan. The waters of Jordan
were cut off, and these stones shall be for a memorial unto
the children of Israel forever. And the children of Israel did
so as Joshua commanded, and took up twelve stones out of the midst
of Jordan, as the Lord spake unto Joshua according to the
number of the tribes of the children of Israel, and carried them over
with them unto the place where they lodged, and laid them down
there. And Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of Jordan,
in the place where the feet of the priests which bear the ark
of the covenant stood, and they are there unto this day. for
the priests which bear the ark stood in the midst of Jordan
until everything was finished that the Lord commanded Joshua
to speak unto the people according to all that Moses commanded Joshua
and the people hasted and passed over. And it came to pass when
all the people were clean passed over that the ark of the Lord
passed over and the priests in the presence of the people. And
the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and half of the
tribe of Manasseh passed over armed before the children of
Israel as Moses spake unto them. About 40,000 prepared for war
passed over before the Lord unto battle to the plains of Jericho. On that day the Lord magnified
Joshua in the sight of all Israel and they feared him as they feared
Moses all the days of his life. And the Lord spake unto Joshua
saying, the priests that bear the Ark of the Testimony, that
they come up out of Jordan. Joshua therefore commanded the
priests, saying, Come ye up out of Jordan. And it came to pass,
when the priests that bear the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord
were come up out of the midst of Jordan, and the soles of the
priests' feet were lifted up onto dry land, that the waters
of Jordan returned unto their place, and flowed over all his
banks as they did before. And the people came up out of
Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and encamped in
Gilgal in the east border of Jericho. And those twelve stones
which they took out of the Jordan did Joshua pitch in Gilgal. And he spake unto the children
of Israel, saying, When your children shall ask their fathers
in time to come, saying, What mean these stones? Then ye shall
let your children know, saying, Israel came over this Jordan
on dry land. For the Lord your God dried up
the waters of Jordan from before you until you were passed over,
as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up from
before us until we were gone over, that all the people of
the earth might know the hand of the Lord, that it is mighty,
that ye might fear the Lord your God forever. Let's pray. Our merciful and heavenly Father,
we thank you for allowing us to assemble together. Father,
we thank you for this great opportunity where we can hear the gospel
declared unto us. Father, will you be with Brother
Eric this evening? Remember him, Lord, in mercy.
that he may not have to stand up here by himself. But Father,
will you pour out your mighty spirit upon him, and will you
give him the words to speak that you will have us to hear. Give
us, Lord, an appetite and a hunger that we may once again see the
Lord Jesus Christ, and that we may be comforted, and that we
may find rest for our souls. For Father, you know, we are
often burdened with this old flesh, which is so fearful and
unbelieving. But yet, Father, we thank you
for this great gift of faith, where we can behold the Lord
Jesus Christ in his glory and in his fullness, that we are
sanctified and redeemed in him. Father, will you strengthen our
faith this evening? And remember those, Lord, that
listen on the internet and however they hear these messages. Father,
will you bless them where they are? And remember Brother Scott
and also others, Lord, that assemble here that couldn't be with us
this evening. Father, remember us and strengthen
us, encourage us, and Father, if it would please you, will
you add to these numbers that we may be a pillar and ground
in this community of the truth, the Lord Jesus Christ. Father,
have mercy upon us, for Jesus' sake alone, amen. Let's sing
number 50, Fairest Lord Jesus, number 50. Harris, Lord Jesus, ruler of
all nature, O Thou of God and man the Son, thee will I I honor now my soul's glory,
joy, and crown. Fair are the meadows, fair still
the woodlands, robed in the blooming garb of spring. Jesus is fairer, Jesus is purer,
who makes the woeful heart to sing. Fair is the sunshine, fair
still the moonlight, and all the twinkling starry host. Jesus shines brighter, Jesus
shines purer than all the angels heaven can boast. ? Beautiful Savior ? ? Lord of
the nations ? ? Son of God and Son of Man ? ? Glory and honor,
praise, adoration ? ? Now and forevermore be ? Good evening. Brethren, let's take our Bibles
and turn to Isaiah chapter 52. We'll look at Isaiah 52 and we'll
see the last three verses of this chapter, verses 13 through
15. Many have noted that They go
very well with the next chapter and feel that they probably would
have been more appropriate tied to chapter 53, but it doesn't
really matter. We see and we know that this
is of the Lord Jesus Christ. And our eyes are set here upon
our Lord, picking up in verse 13, and what it says here concerning
Him. we're pointed to Christ because
He is the Messiah. And that's what Christ means.
Christ is the Greek form of the Jewish word, Messiah. And when
we speak of Christ, the Messiah, we're looking at Him as the mediator
between God and men. He is the God-man mediator who
stands in the gap between holy God and sinful man. because man has no righteousness
and nothing to reconcile himself to the Father. We have nothing
to boast of. But our Lord sent His Son, Jesus
Christ, in whom we boast, in whom we make glory and rejoice. And so Christ, as the mediator,
as the Savior, as the Lamb of God, the sacrifice for the people,
He comes as a servant. The Son of God comes as the servant
of God. and He comes to serve the people
of God. He's the servant. He's your servant. You that believe, He came as
your servant to lay down His life, to do that heavy, hard
labor that was impossible for us to do. Our Savior came as
a servant and did that in service to His God, and He wondrously
accomplished our salvation. He wondrously accomplished our
salvation so that now God the Father exalts Him. He has exalted Him on high and
given Him a name which is above every name that is named, that
at His name every knee should bow and every tongue confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord and our God has extolled Him in our
hearts. He's lifted up in our hearts
because of the pouring out of His Spirit who reveals His name
to us, makes Him known to us, makes us to know what He's done
for me, the sinner. I'm the sinner. I'm the filthy
one, the vile one, the wretched one, the one not worthy of God
to take notice of me except to destroy me. and to punish me
for my sins. But in mercy He sent His darling
Son to lay down His life for sinners. Sinners like you and
me, unworthy, corrupt, defiled, vile sinners who hated God and
warred against Him, yet He sent His Son to to lay down His life,
to put away the sin, to put away the enmity, and to put away the
wrath of God for us, and taking away that eternal death which
was ours by inheritance, He gives us eternal life in Himself, in
Christ our Savior. And so, now being exalted, He
pours out His Holy Spirit, upon us, who comes and seeks us out
and draws us to the hearing of the gospel, making us to hear
and receive and believe the word of our God, and to know, Lord,
you're my Savior, you did that for me, and put away my sins
so that he is exalted in our hearts. Why did God do this? Why did holy God send his son
to accomplish our salvation? Aren't we able to do something?
Aren't we able to bring forth a sacrifice of ourselves, a sacrifice
of our lives and labor to do good works and to make ourselves
pleasing and acceptable to God? Isn't there something that we
can do to atone for our sins? According to Christ's coming
in the flesh and Him laying His life down for us, the answer
is no. No, there's nothing that we can
do to save ourselves. There's nothing that we can do
to atone for our sins. That's why Christ came. Because
we are spiritually dead, in darkness, in prison, shut up to the things
of God, having no knowledge of Him, walking about in ignorance,
being dead, spiritually dead in trespasses and sins, and having
no fellowship with God. And yet God sent His Son and
blessed Him. And He faithfully served the
Father well in all things. putting away our sin, and he
now having the keys of life and death, of heaven and hell, he
comes and opens the prison door for each of you, shining his
light in there and says, come forth. Sinner, show yourself. Come into the light. And by the
word of His power we arise in faith and come forth into the
light and glory of our Savior, rejoicing in Him. I've titled
this message, Marred More Than Any Man. Marred More Than Any
Man. In the beginning here, we'll
spend some time looking at these verses expositionally. We'll
see what they're saying. We'll see how how exalted our
Savior is, how glorious He is. But I want to close tonight with
why God sent His Son, because sometimes when we look at these
verses expositionally, we can lose focus as to what it means
for us. Why did God do this? Why did
He send His Son? And we'll see three reasons in
summary. We'll speak to these things,
but we'll wrap these up in summary there at the end of why God sent
His Son. In short, I'll just say it's
because we are sinners, because God has a people whom He loves,
and to exalt His Son, the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, in
our hearts, that we should worship Him forever and ever, and glory
in Him. Those are the three reasons that
we'll see. So here in verse 13, Isaiah 52, 13, our Lord turns
our attention to his servant, the Lord Jesus Christ, the choice
servant of God. Behold, my servant shall deal
prudently. He shall be exalted and extolled
and be very high. This dealing prudently, it means
that he's going to prosper in his work. He's successful. He does not fail. He accomplishes
the very work and purpose that God has sent him to do. In Isaiah 53 11, we'll look at
some verses, we'll pull them from that chapter. Isaiah 53
11, we're told, of our Lord that He shall see
of the travail of His soul, His labor, His sacrifice, and He
shall be satisfied. He's not going to be disappointed.
He's not failing. He doesn't fail. By His knowledge
shall my righteous servant justify many. Our Lord, when He was on
the cross, Doing the work of the sacrifice, doing the work
as our Shorty, the work as our Savior, His final words were,
It is finished. He finished the work that He
came to do. You that look to Him, be encouraged
and rejoice the work is finished. It's all accomplished successfully
by the Lord Jesus Christ. And our God justified His Christ. He justified His servant in raising
Him from the dead, declaring, well done, well done. He's the
good and faithful servant. He has done well in all things. and pleased the Father well in
all things. And so He raised Him from the
dead, in whom we that believe in Him, in whom our faith is
fixed, we that believe Him, we're justified also. Paul says it
very succinctly, very nicely in Romans 4.25, speaking of Christ
saying He was delivered for our offenses, our sins, and our iniquities,
and was raised again for our justification. So the Father
justified Him in raising Him from the dead, and we in Him,
living in Him and by Him, are justified by the Father. You're righteous. Well done. thou good and faithful servant."
We hear those words because of Christ. We hear those words in
Christ because He is the good and faithful servant of God,
His Father. And so Christ is exalted even
now raised up to the right hand of the throne of God where he's
ruling and reigning and implementing the will of his father that is
sending forth his gospel to the ends of the earth and and delivering
all his lost sheep from death and darkness bringing us into
the light of Christ and making us by his grace with a willing
heart to follow and our Savior, to follow Him, that we should
know Him who is light and truth and perfect and glorious in all
His ways. And so Christ, therefore, is
extolled in our hearts. Meaning that when we speak of
Him, when we think of Him, what we are and who He is and what
He's done, He is our salvation. He is our life. He is the hope
that we now have to stand before God and why we don't fear to
die and lay down our lives. Because we're reconciled to the
Father. Our Savior has saved us. He's
accomplished that salvation. And so He's glorified in our
hearts when we think of Him, and He's glorified before men
when we confess Him to others, declaring not what we've done
for the Lord, but what He's done for me, what He's done for me. And so our Lord is now very high,
very high. His person, His name is above
every name. Turn over to Philippians chapter
2. Philippians chapter 2, and we'll
read verses 9 through 11, but just stay right there because
I'm going to come back and read a couple other verses from Philippians
2 quickly. Philippians 2 verses 9 through
11. Because he's the faithful servant,
God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which
is above every name. that at the name of Jesus every
knee should bow, of things in heaven and things in earth and
things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. And so we
see our Savior hath prospered. He hath dealt prudently. He is the successful Savior. And now this successful, exalted
Lord and Savior, He's witnessed and seen when we compare His
glory and His being lifted up with His abasement. how low He was brought, how low
of a servant He really is, what He did to accomplish our salvation. And I'm talking about our Lord's
humiliation in taking upon Him flesh, in taking upon Him flesh
that He should be the fit sacrifice for His people, and that He should
come and lay down His life to accomplish our redemption. He did this not for good people. He didn't do this for righteous
people. He laid down his life for sinners.
He laid down his life for people who thought nothing of him, thought
lightly of him, if at all, and despised him and hated him. That's where we were. We're the
corrupt, vile sinner. He's talking about people like
you and me. That's who Christ did this for.
Philippians 2, 7 and 8, He made Himself of no reputation, and
took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness
of men. And being found in fashion as
a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross. And we begin to understand how
low our Lord went, how low He stooped for us to accomplish
this redemption when we consider what His glory was with the Father
before He even came. We see His exaltation now. We see that He's seated at the
right hand of the throne of God, ruling and reigning and doing
all That pleases Him. He's implementing the will of
the Father throughout the earth in the kingdom of our God. And we get a sense as to just
how low He came, especially when we look at a verse like John
17, verse five, where our Lord says, now, O Father, glorify
thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with
thee before the world was. So the glory we understand and
hear of how He's exalted and He's above every name that is
named, He had that glory before the world was. And that's the
glory He set aside. That's the glory He laid aside
and took on Him flesh, humbled Himself, taking upon flesh, just
like you and me, and came and served the Father well in all
things for undeserving sinners like me. and like you, who have
been shown what criminals we are, how evil we are and how
we've been toward our God. And so he was always most glorious. He's the beloved son of God. And yet he took the lowest place
to serve his brethren. Verse 14, Isaiah 52, verse 14. As many as were astonied at thee,
or astonished at thee, or silenced, as many were had their mouths
closed, so that we couldn't boast of anything. We were astonished
at thee. His visage was so marred more
than any man, and his form more than the sons of men. What are
they astonished by? They're astonished by Jesus Christ. We see that. They're astonished
by Christ and the reason that's given here is it's His visage. It's His form. It's so marred
more than any man or the sons of men. Now that word marred
means to be disfigured. It means to be disfigured. That is, and the visage is His
face and the form refers to His body. Now Oftentimes we hear
this, and it is true, that our Savior was beaten and marred
and disfigured physically. We've heard it. We can imagine
it and understand that because you think about the night of
His crucifixion without any sleep and being utterly exhausted,
just mentally being put through what he was put through in the
trials and how they beat him and mistreated him and punched
him and treated him wrongly. And then with the Gentiles, he
was whipped and beaten and scourged. And not only that, but for three
years, he had been laboring in the kingdom of God. for the people
getting very little sleep, very little nourishment, very little
of any rest and comfort at all. And all that he did with that
is one thing. And then to think how our Savior
bore the sins and the infirmities of the people whom he healed
and whom he was delivering from their sins. How that he bore
our sin on the cross before the Father bearing our wrath, our
punishment, and our judgment. being forsaken of the Father. And so you can imagine just what
that would do to somebody. Not one person sins, all the
sins of His chosen elect people whom God purposed to save from
the foundation of the world. He bore all that So I wouldn't
be surprised if his face was contorted and distorted and disfigured
and marred, his body and face. That wouldn't surprise me at
all. The psalmist gives a description
of our Lord on the cross. This is Christ speaking in Psalm
22, verse 14 and 15. He says, I am poured out like
water and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax. it's melted in the midst of my
bowels, my strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue
cleaveth to my jaws, and thou hast brought me into the dust
of death." So we see how our Lord was emptied
and brought very low for His people. We see that in that regard. But what I believe the Lord is
showing us here is that none, none ever took the place so low
as our Savior took for you and me that believe Him. For you
that hope in Christ and look to Him and call Him Savior, Lord. my salvation, Christ took the
lowest place, the lowest form of a servant, that he came to
die, not just for one, but for every single child of God's grace. every one of them, He bore that
lowest place, dying in their place to obtain eternal forgiveness,
to deliver us from the wrath, the just wrath of God, and to
give us an inheritance, to give us life in Himself. And so we see that Christ, who
is the very eternal Son of God, the most beautiful, the most
glorious, He that's in the bosom of the Father. You know, when
it says His visage and His form, it includes with it one that
is comely, one that is beautiful, one that is lovely and esteemed
and glorious, mighty, strong, the most glorious one of all.
He that had everything laid all that aside and became the most
marred of every one of us, from the greatest position to the
absolute lowest position for his people. That's the disfigurement. That's the marring. Because for
all of us, who of us could ever imagine? None of us have ever
seen anyone fall from so great a height and go to so low as
what Christ did willingly as the servant of God to serve His
people in obtaining their forgiveness, in obtaining our life and restoring
us, reconciling us to the Father. You know, it says there in verse
15 that kings shut their mouths at Him. meaning there's not a
king. Because there's been throughout
history, right, there's been kings, people in mighty positions
that have fallen very hard, very far from grace, so to speak,
humanly speaking. We've fallen, there's a lot of
people that were highly esteemed in the eyes of men who fell in
sin and in trouble and in foolishness that they worked themselves and
just plummeted right down to the bottom and were were not
welcome and not looked upon favorably in society. You could think of
Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar was a mighty king. And yet, in Daniel 4, you could
read about him, how that because of his pride lifting him up,
the Lord took the heart of a man out of him and gave him the heart
of a beast and said, you're now going to be wet with the dew
of heaven, like cattle. You're going to go out and eat
grass like the oxen. You're going to be driven off
and despised by the people for seven years. And then after seven
years, he was restored. But he went from that greatness
and he went down very far. And Saul, look at Saul. Saul
was the first king there, the first human king there in Israel,
and he fell. He had to be run through by one
of the sword carrying kids so that the Philistines didn't get
him. Even David, a man after God's own heart, sinned mightily. in slaying Uriah and taking his
wife and committing adultery with her. And he sinned against
God. And he was driven out from his country. And even Hezekiah
was troubled for his pride and foolishness. And there's many
cases of men falling, but they justly When you look at them,
they all brought it upon themselves. And when we fall, we bring it
upon ourselves for our sin and our foolishness. When we look
at it, there's nothing that we can say, why is this happening
to me? I get it. I understand why. I'm troubled. The dying thief on the cross
said, we indeed justly are here. We're here justly. For we receive
the due reward of our deeds, but this man hath done nothing
amiss." And so here's Christ on the cross as the sacrifice
of his people suffering for the sins of many, the sins of all
his people, not for his sins. He did nothing wrong. He's not
there as the sinner, but he died as the sinner. But he committed
no sin. He's perfect, righteous, holy,
spotless, unblameable. He obeyed the Father perfectly
in all things. And yet Isaiah 53 5 says, 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 this brings me to my second
point is our accomplished redemption, what Christ accomplished for
us. We see here that the sins of the people were laid upon
him. He went to the cross bearing
the sin of his people and to bear their punishment, to pay
the debt that we owed to God that we could not pay with our
lives. We would be there eternally paying
the debt that we've accrued because of our sins. And so as the sacrifice
of his people, he laid down his life, and he took it up again,
and now gives us life and light and liberty in the Son, in him. We're told in verse 15, Isaiah
52, 15, so shall he sprinkle many nations. The kings shall
shut their mouths at him, for that which had not been told
them shall they see. And that which they had not heard
shall they consider. And so we see there that every
wound, every bruise, every rod that beat upon his body, every
stripe that was laid upon his back, that was ours. That was
ours. But he bore it for you, his people. He bore your punishment and wrath
to make you righteous, a righteousness Christ the righteousness of our
God it says in 2nd Corinthians 5 21 for he hath God hath made
him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made
the righteousness of God in him and him our Lord did that and
so Christ is our very righteousness Christ is our very acceptance
with the Father And because we are Christ's, he now has poured
out his spirit upon us. And he seeks us out, gathering
us in, separating us by his sanctifying power, separating us unto the
gospel and bringing us to the obedience of Christ, to behold
what he's done and behold it with understanding that that
was for me. That was for me, what he did
there. I don't deserve this, but he's accomplished my salvation. And so he reveals faith in us,
whereby we look to the Savior, savingly look to the Savior,
believing, that was for me, Lord, and I need that salvation. Thank
you, Lord. And so we're reconciled to the
Father in him, the enmities put away, the hatred we had by nature
is all removed in our Savior. And we see that he did this because
he first loved us. He first loved us, not because
we loved him, but in love and mercy, he came and laid down
his life and washes us clean with his blood. All right, so
what do we learn from all this? Why did God send his son? We're told that this was the
will and purpose of God to do this. In Acts 2.23, it says that
Christ being delivered by the determinant counsel and for knowledge
of God. God did this, and then men with
wicked hands took him, crucified, and slew him unjustly for no
cause. They slew him. And we're told
in Isaiah 53 10 that it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He hath
put him, Christ, to grief, when thou shalt make his soul an offering
for sin. So what does it mean that God
would send His Son, His only begotten Son, He that was in
the bosom of the Father, why did God send His Son? Well, first thing to understand,
three things I'll give you and then we'll close. Our Lord is
showing us that we are sinners, that we cannot work a righteousness
of our own. We can't keep the law. We can't
keep religion. We can't keep ourselves good
and unspotted from this world because this sin, I mean, this
flesh is sin. This flesh is vile and full of
lusts and always looking out for itself. We serve ourselves. this flesh and so we needed a
Savior. Our God has shown us we needed
a Savior. Galatians 2 16, knowing that
a man is not justified by the works of the law but by the faith
of Jesus Christ. Even we have believed in Jesus
Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not
by the works of the law for by the works of the law shall no
flesh be justified. And so our Lord is making us
to know our need of Him, making us to see that He is the fit
sacrifice, making us to know that he loved, of his love for
us, and he works in us repentance and turns us from dead works
religion and having confidence in ourselves and the things we
do under the law or in religion or in the name of God, that's
not salvation. Salvation is the Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul said, I'm crucified
with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. In the life which I now live,
I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave
himself for me. And that leads very nicely into
the second reason why our God sent his Son is to show us his
love for us, his love for a people, a chosen people that he purposed
to redeem before the foundation of the world. We read in John
3 verses 15 through 17, that whosoever believeth on Christ
should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world
that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son to condemn
the world, but that the world through him might be saved. And
so we see the love of our God in the sending of His Son to
lay down His life for us and successfully accomplish our salvation,
our redemption. He purposed that we should know
this love that He has for us. Ephesians 1, 4, and 5 says that
it's according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation
of the world that we should be holy and without blame before
Him in love. that we should be without blame,
without shame, without guilt, without fear, but that we would
know him and love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will.
So we see God is showing us that we're sinners, that we need his
salvation, and he's showing us his great love for us. And third,
he's He's purposed to send his son in order to magnify and to
exalt him, to glorify him, and to extol him in our hearts that
we should worship and glory in him, not boasting of ourselves,
not looking to what we've done, but looking to him who is our
salvation and says, look to me and be ye saved, all ye ends
of the earth. For I'm God and there's none
else. None else, he says. And so we see that this very
thing, how that the children of God in heaven, glory in Christ. Revelation five, verses nine
and 10. And here, notice that in this verse, it will describe
who the world is, who they are that make up that world for whom
God loves and gave his son. They sung a new song saying,
thou art worthy. to take the book, and to open
the seals thereof. For thou wast slain, and hast
redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue,
and people, and nation. That's the world that God loves,
some from every tongue, people, kindred, and nation. He sent
his Son to lay down his life for them, and has made us unto
our God kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth. And so through all of this we're
astonished at the great love of our God. To behold Him who
is the most lovely among us. Him who is far more lovely than
anything we can even imagine. Him who is beautiful and handsome
and comely and perfect. The perfection. of our God, that
He who is the fullness of the Godhead bodily, laid down His
glory, and took up that humility, that humiliation of our flesh,
and served His Father, served us by laying down His life, bearing
that heavy load being crushed by it, but holding it up that
He would bear up under the wrath of God and consume the wrath
of God fully in His person. That we should not have a single
drop of it, but go free in Him. And so we rejoice in Him. the
most lovely. I'll read this from Romans 5,
8-10 and then we'll close. But God commendeth his love toward
us, and 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. Amen. Let's close in prayer breath. Our glorious Lord, we thank You,
Father, for Your love, for Your kindness
toward us. for the salvation you've given
to us and your son. Lord, we see and know and confess
that we're not worthy. We've done nothing to earn your
favor. It's all of your grace. And we
thank you, Lord, for laying aside your glory and taking upon you
flesh to work this salvation as our savior. and for going
so low, stooping so low, lower than we would ever have done. And Lord, we thank you for so
marring your visage and marring your form to go so low. We thank you, Lord. And we thank
you for making this known to us. Forgive us for our hardness
and coldness and inability to enter in. to the fullness of
what you've done. But Lord, we thank you for your
love. We thank you for your calling. We thank you for your spirit
and for your leading and teaching and keeping us. Lord, we pray
that you would pour out your spirit upon us, that you would
bless this people, that you would bless this body, and that you
would indeed draw out your people from around the community, Lord. Surely you have your sheep here.
Bring them in and feed your sheep. We pray in Christ's name. Amen. Let's stand and sing a closing
hymn 118, When I survey the wondrous cross. Then I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of Glory died My richest gain I count
but loss And pour contempt on all my pride Orbited Lord, that
I should boast, Save in the death of Christ my God, All the vain
things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to His blood. Deep from his head, his hands,
his feet, Sorrow and love flow mingled down. Did e'er such love and sorrow
meet, Or thorns compose so rich a crown? Where the realm of nature,
mine, That were a present far too small, Love so amazing, so
divine, Demands my soul, my life, my all. Thank you.