Good evening. We're going to
open tonight's service starting with standing and singing number
112 in the hardback, 112. Blessed Redeemer. Of Calvary's mountain, one dreadful
morn, While Christ my Savior weary and worn, Facing for sinners
death on the cross, that he shall save them from endless loss. Blessed Redeemer, precious Redeemer,
seems now I see him on Calvary's tree, wounded and bleeding, for
sinners pleading, blind and unheeding, dying for me. Father forgive them, thus did
he pray. Meanwhile his lifeblood flowed
fast away. Praying for sinners while in
such woe, No one but Jesus ever loved so. Blessed Redeemer, precious
Redeemer, seems now I see Him on Calvary's tree. Wounded and bleeding, for sinners
pleading, blind and unheeding, dying for me. For I love Him, Savior and Friend. How can my praises ever find
end? Through endless numbered all
heaven's shore, My tongue shall praise Him forevermore. Blessed Redeemer, precious Redeemer,
seems now I see Him on Calvary's tree. Wounded and bleeding, poor
sinners bleeding, blind and unheeding, dying for me. Our second hymn will be Holy,
Holy, Holy. Number 70. Number 70. Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty. Early in the morning our song
shall rise to Thee. Holy, holy, holy, merciful and
mighty, God in three Persons, blessed Trinity. Holy, holy, holy, all the saints
adore thee, casting down their golden crowns around the glassy
sea. Cherubim and seraphim falling
down before thee, which were dead evermore shall be. Holy, holy, holy, though the
darkness hide thee, though the eye of sinful men thy glory may
not see. Only Thou art holy, there is
none beside Thee, perfect in power, in love, and purity. Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty
All Thy works shall praise Thy name in earth and sky and sea
Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty, God in three Persons,
blessed Trinity. All right, for scripture, let's
turn to John chapter 17. This passage that we'll be looking
at, verses three through six, is an outline of what we'll be
seeing in Isaiah 48 tonight. John chapter 17, verse three.
Our Lord says to His Father in prayer, this is life eternal,
that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ
whom Thou hast sent. I have glorified Thee on the
earth. I have finished the work which
Thou gavest Me to do. And now, O Father, Glorify thou
me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee
before the world was. I have manifested thy name unto
the men which thou gavest me out of the world. Thine they
were, and thou gavest them me, and they have kept thy word. Let's pray. Our gracious, holy,
Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank You for Your grace, Your mercy,
Your kindness in speaking to us life by the voice of Your
Son, causing us to hear Him speak, receiving of Him life eternal,
receiving of Him Thy Holy Spirit, who gives us life, who makes
us alive unto our God, to hear Him, to believe Him, to trust
Him, to commit all our hearts, our very souls into His hand,
even as Thou hast committed all our salvation into the hands
of Your Son. Lord, we thank you for your wisdom,
for your grace, for your awesome work, which you've accomplished
for your people completely. Lord, we're unworthy. We did nothing to deserve this.
It's completely of your grace. Help us to speak of your grace,
to boast in you, to encourage one another and speak of these
things of what our God has done for us. that others may know
that indeed we are children of God, not trusting in anything of ourselves,
but only of your provision of salvation in your son, Jesus
Christ. Lord, help us. We pray that you
bless this assembly with your spirit. We pray that you would
stir in our hearts, help us to hear the gospel, help us to receive
and believe it, to be comforted and taught of our Lord. Help
us, Lord. Give to us to hear your voice. It's in the name of our Savior
that we pray these things. And Lord, we think of our brethren
who are sick, who aren't doing well. We think of Johnny who
doesn't feel good. We think of Scott who needs to
get his treatment done, Lord, and having trouble. Father, we
pray for them and ask that you be merciful. Heal their bodies. Lord, we pray for all our brethren
that You would speak to us that you would indeed unite us in
the bonds of fellowship and love of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
We know with you all things are possible. And so we trust you
and rejoice to see your hand and work done in our midst, in
our hearts, and in this area. It's in Christ's name we pray
and give thanks. Amen. Our text is Isaiah 48 and I want
to look at verses 12 through 17 with you. Here in these verses, our God
speaks to his people in a very personal way. He's speaking personally
to you that believe his son. Now, previously, we saw how our
God dealt graciously with his people in verses nine through
11. And he did this on purpose because
he refined them with his son with the blood of his son Jesus
Christ through his death on the cross have him having gone through
the furnace of affliction for his people and having given them
life he now speaks to you and he teaches you in in the heart
what he would have you to hear that he would bless you and comfort
you and strengthen you in his salvation by his voice. Now in our text this evening,
our Lord speaks to his people three times. Three times. Look at verse 12 at the beginning.
He says, hearken unto me. Then in verse 14, he says, all
ye assemble yourselves and hear. And finally, in verse 16, he
says, come ye near unto me, hear ye this. He's speaking to us. He will have us to hear him and
he gives us and understanding of who He is. He's revealing
to us what He has accomplished in and for His people. So these words in this text,
they're meant as a comfort to you. They're meant for you to
hear them, to rest in the Lord, your God, who saved you, who
accomplished this salvation, and He's bringing it to your
hearts with words of comfort and assurance. This salvation
is not by random chance. It's according to purpose. It's according to purpose which
God has determined for you, his people, before the foundation
of the world. Therefore, this salvation shall
not fail and it will not come to an end for you, his people,
for whom he shed his blood and put away your sin, making you
righteous and accepted with your God. Now, in verses 12 and 13,
he speaks to his people as their sovereign, as their creator who
designed their salvation from the very beginning, before the
foundation of the earth was laid, In verses 14 and 15 he speaks
to his people as their savior and deliverer from all their
enemies and declares that he has satisfied the holy justice
of God. And then in verses 16 and 17
he speaks to his people as their mediator. He speaks words of
comfort, revealing his accomplishments to you and your heart through
a continued relationship and fellowship with your God. So
each point is personally to you that believe him. I've titled
this message, My Savior Speaks to Me. My Savior Speaks to Me. All right, so let's begin now.
Our Lord, having purchased his fallen child, speaks to that
child in verse 12 and says, hearken unto me, O Jacob and Israel,
my called. I am he, I am the first, I also
am the last. Your God has fulfilled his covenant
of eternal grace with you. He's fulfilled everything necessary. And our Lord here reveals His
first, His sovereign power over all flesh. Your Lord is not only
the Creator, but He's sovereignly controlling all things. Nothing
is outside of His control. Nothing can derail His will and
purpose for you, His people. All things are working according
to His will and purpose. He sovereignly controls all things
because He is God. He sovereignly controls all things
because He is God, and He purposed to save a chosen people. It's his purpose to save a people
whom he chose, whom he elected to this salvation in his son. And he's purposed to work all
things for their good to their end to be saved, to be eternally
secure in Christ. Nothing can take you away from
what he's accomplished in his son, Jesus Christ. He says, hearken
unto me. hear me, listen to my words. He says, you're the rebellious
wayward Jacob whom I've touched and whom I've named Israel. I put your step out of joint
so that you don't walk the way of this world. You're my Israel. You're my people. He says, you
are my call. You're my called. And I was thinking
about that. There's a lot of people in this
world. A lot of people have come and
gone in this world, but there is a people of the Lord whom
he continuously calls his own, whom he seeks out and makes them
his own people, whom he calls my called. Many never heard that
calling of the Lord. Many never heard his voice, but
there is a people whom the Lord continuously calls out to himself. He said back in Deuteronomy 14.2,
around 4,000 years ago, he said, For thou art an holy people unto
the Lord thy God, and the Lord hath chosen thee to be a peculiar
people unto himself above all the nations that are upon the
earth. And then again, about 2,000 years
ago, Peter, 1 Peter 2.9, he said, ye are a chosen generation, a
royal priesthood, and holy nation. peculiar people, that ye should
show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness
into his marvelous light." The Lord is not going to be deterred
from calling His people, from effecting His salvation in His
Son in their hearts, because they are the elect people whom
He chose to and purpose to save, purpose to give them life in
His Son. Turn over to Ephesians 1. Ephesians
1 and we'll just look at verses 5 and 11 and we see here the
sovereignty of our Lord to save His people. Ephesians 1.5, having
predestinated us, there's that chosen people, there's that called
people, us, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will. verse 11 in whom also we there's
his called people we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated
according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after
the counsel of his own will. So our adoption and our obtaining
an inheritance is predestinated according to the will of God. If God purposes to do a thing,
can he fail to do it? Not if he's God. Not if he's
God, and this is the true and living God, what he purposes
that he shall bring to pass. He's the eternal God implementing
and executing his sovereign will. And sovereign means that he's
absolute ruler. No one can say to him, what are
you doing? Why are you doing that? You can't
do that. No one can stop him from doing his will. He's doing
exactly as he pleases. And that means that even the
works and the will of man, whatever he does, whatever he tries to
do to stop the will of God, The man will not have his way, but
the sovereign ruler, your God, shall have his way among the
people. He says in verse 12, I am he. I chose you. I redeemed you. I sought you out and called you. I am the first. I also am the
last. How does he know that he's the
last? How can he say that he's the
last? Well, because he is the sovereign. Not only does he declare the
end from the beginning, but what he's saying there is nothing
can change my will and my purpose. I am the last, he says, and nothing's
gonna change that. No man, no enemy can come against
my will and my purpose. He's sovereign God. Then the
Lord reveals His purpose in creating the heavens and the earth. Now
before I show you that, I just want to say a couple things on
this. Paul says over in Romans 1.20,
he says, the invisible things of God from the creation of the
world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that
are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they, are
without excuse." And Paul's saying there that fallen, wicked man,
yet in darkness, even he knows that God created the heavens
and the earth. But I said to you, your God is
speaking to you personally. He's speaking to you personally.
He's delivered you from darkness. So he's declaring something here
in this verse more than what the heathen in darkness knows. He's not trying to convince you
of that which you already know. You know and believe that God,
by His Son, created the heavens and the earth. What He's revealing
to you here is that this whole creation was created for the
purpose of glorifying and revealing His own Son. for glorifying Him
and the salvation of His chosen people. That's why this world
was created. It was to glorify Him. The foundations of the earth
were laid for Christ's sake. If all a man doesn't know that,
but you know that because He reveals it to you. It's for His
sake, the God-man mediator of His people. Your God says, hearken
unto me, my call. Behold, I've created the heavens
and the earth to glorify my Son, your Redeemer. So creation isn't
just some random happenstance made up of chance and statistics
and probabilities or evolution. Everything is on purpose for
Christ's glory to reveal the mediator between God and men,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at verse 13 with that in
mind now. mine hand also hath laid the
foundation of the earth." I want you to see, your Lord would have
you to see that foundation is speaking of Christ. He is the
foundation. As Paul said in 1 Corinthians
3.11, other foundation. can no man lay than that which
is laid, Jesus Christ. He is the foundation. So from its very foundation,
this earth declares Christ. It declares to us, this is all
for the glory of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He says,
in my right hand, The margin there speaks of the palm of my
right hand spanning the heavens so that all heaven and earth
sees the palm of his hand which was pierced for you his children,
pierced to put away your sin. His hand spanned the heavens,
and all His people see and know He died for me. He laid down
His life for me. He created the heavens and the
earth to lay down His life that I might glory in God my Savior
and rejoice in His salvation. And so your God declares He has
created all things, and for His pleasure they are and were created,
Revelation 4.11. It all speaks and declares Him
from the very foundation. That's what God's revealing to
you. If all a man knows God created the heavens and the earth, He's
saying to you, it was created to reveal and glorify my Son
from the very foundation of it, the very beginning. Then he says
there at the end, I'll just speak briefly on this, he says, when
I call on to them, they stand up together. When I was in business,
the way we would describe the implementation of a new system,
when we were putting in a new database, switching out an old
database, putting in a new, completely new database system or a new
program to manage people's hours or workflows. It was called standing
up a system. And in business, when that's
done, it takes a lot of planning. sometimes over a year of planning
if a lot of workflows and people's jobs are impacted. They have
to rewrite their jobs. There's an executive in the company
appointed to oversee it and have directors and managers and key
personnel working on it. And it's expensive. They hire
consultants, sometimes whole firms that are specialized in
standing up that particular system. And I remember when I was in
school for computer programming, they said that anytime a company
stands up a new system like that, do you know how many are successful?
Only 25%. are successful. That means three-quarters
roll it back having failed unable to implement the new system.
They might get it part way and realize this stinks, this isn't
working out for us at all." And they go back to what they had.
Having spent millions of dollars, having spent millions of man
hours on it, they fail. Over and over. I saw it in my
own company. Many projects go up and down
and it's a black eye on the executive who sponsored it and everything
like that. It doesn't look good for those people that pushed
forward. But your God says, when I call unto them, they stand
up. They stand up and it's of no
loss to His resources. They stand up together. That's
true of His creation. When He created the heavens and
the earth, it all stood up. And that's true of salvation
for His people. When He commands it, when He
determines it to be so, you are stood up as one of the Lord's. It's effectual, nothing can stop
him from doing it because we're the call, we're his call and
we are made willing in the day of his power. All right, next
our Lord says in verse 14, this is now seeing our Lord, our deliverer
from our enemies. Now he speaks to us regarding
our deliverance. Verse 14, all ye assemble yourselves
and hear. This is the spirit of your God,
stirring the heart of his people, your hearts, to draw you out,
to assemble you to hear him speak. And what do we hear our Lord
speak to us when he assembles us together? The gospel of his
son, Jesus Christ. were assembled by His Spirit,
drawing us together to hear the glories and the praises of Jesus
Christ. The Lord asks, which among them
hath declared these things? The preaching of the gospel is
humbling to the flesh of man. It's humbling. The Lord says,
who's declared this? Not me. I didn't know this. I
was ignorant and foolish and in darkness until the Lord revealed
His light in me, until the Lord delivered me from my prison in
bondage to my enemies, kept shut up from the things of God. Who
declared this? Not me. It didn't even enter
our minds until the Spirit made it known. So who declares these
things? the Son of God. The Son of God
speaks these words into our hearts. He's the one who reveals to us
his gospel. He reveals the covenant of God's
grace, that it's not by works of righteousness, which we have
done. It's not according to the law. It's not according to my
will that we're saved. It's according to His will and
His purpose. It's according to His grace that
in spite of all my sin and filthiness, my God loved me and called me
and drew me out. And that's what He's revealed
in each of your hearts. And so He reveals how the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Ghost all covenanted together in purpose
to save a people by the Son who came as their surety. to pay the debt His people owe,
to accomplish their salvation, to provide everything, because
we could provide nothing. Our Savior did that. And it says,
the Lord hath loved Him, He loves the Son, and the Son reveals
to us the completion of His salvation, all done and accomplished in
Him. Christ did what is impossible for us to do as men. And he did that which is only
possible with God. Christ did that. He accomplished
that salvation perfectly. He destroyed the bondage that
we were in held by our enemies, sin, death, and the evil one. And that's pictured in the destruction
of Babylon. And he subdues the sins which
overflow and overrun our sinful heart. That's pictured in his
subduing of the Chaldeans. So our Lord declares what Christ
did in that next sentence. He will do his pleasure on Babylon. He destroyed them and broke that
bondage, that captivity that his people were in, setting them
free. And his arm shall be on the Chaldeans, subduing them,
ruling over them now. That's what your Lord does. And
when he says that Christ will do all his pleasure on Babylon
and his arm shall be on the Chaldeans, it speaks to your God's complete
trust and confidence in the Son. He committed all your salvation,
your eternal souls were given into the hands of Jesus Christ
to accomplish that work. He committed the whole work to
the Son to do faithfully to triumph over all our enemies to deliver
the people unto the father that he chose he delivered his people
it was all committed to christ so as our mediator our eternal
souls were placed in his hands he all was committed entirely
to his pleasure and his pleasure was executed on babylon and the
chaldeans perfectly the lord will not leave the deliverance
of our souls to man, to man's pleasure to work out and figure
out and try and work a salvation. Not at all. He gave it entirely
into the hands of his son because we won't deliver ourselves. We
can't deliver ourselves. We don't even want to deliver
ourselves. Our savior did that work himself.
All right. One place in scripture where we see this failure of
man actually displayed to us, shown to us, is in Joash, the
king of Israel. Elijah, the prophet, was speaking
to Joash, the king of Israel. And he gave him some arrows and
said, smite the ground with these arrows. And he hit the ground
three times with that group of arrows. And then he stopped.
and were told that the man of God was angry with him and said
thou should have smitten five or six times then hadst thou
smitten Syria till thou hadst consumed it whereas now thou
shalt smite Syria but three times. Joash didn't get the job done. We never get the job done. We don't ever conquer our sin. We never conquer our enemies.
We cannot deliver ourselves. We're just like Joash, always
coming up short because what's our pleasure is not the accomplished
salvation, the will of our God to save his people, but Christ
came and He executed His pleasure on Babylon perfectly. God committed
to Him because He fully destroyed our enemies. He fully delivered
us from the bondage of sin and death. We're delivered, He conquered
our enemies. But that's not all that Christ
did in completing our salvation. Our God says that His Son His
Son satisfied His holy justice for His people. God is satisfied. God is pleased with you, His
people. It's all finished. The Lord receives
you in the blood of His Son, Jesus Christ. nothing remains
for us to do. Christ paid it all. It's all
done. He says there in verse 15, I
even I have spoken, yea, I have called him, I have brought him,
and he shall make his way prosperous. Meaning your God is satisfied
with the atonement made by the Son. I'm going to read Isaiah
53 verses 10 and 11, which show that God is satisfied and pleased
with the atonement of his son. It says, it pleased the Lord
to bruise him. He hath put him to grief. When
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. 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 your Lord, he finished
the work and your God is satisfied. with what Christ accomplished
for you, his people. And we are now the righteousness
of God in him and are received of our Lord. Next, we see the
third point where my mediator speaks. Our Lord has prevailed
for us, and now our Mediator, as our Mediator, speaks to us. He speaks to us. Now, a Mediator
is one who reconciles the differences between two specific parties,
and Christ is the Mediator between God and men. between God and
men. And I say men because that's
exactly how Paul worded it very carefully in 1 Timothy 2.5. For
there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man,
Christ Jesus. And it says men, not man. I was looking up in Bible dictionaries,
they try to sneak that in, that Christ is the mediator between
God and man. as though it's God and mankind,
but it's very specific. It's for a particular people.
It's for his called people. It's for his Jacob, his Israel,
those whom he loved and chose for himself. So men, meaning
a particular group, a particular people, of men, of his people
that he's done this work for. So Christ is called the mediator
of the New Covenant and the New Testament and that means that
he, it's been given to his hand to reveal it to us, to you that
are his called out ones by the will and purpose of God in grace. He's revealing to us it's all
of grace. He's assuring us that it's all
of grace. Now I want to give you seven,
quick, seven, seven things in these last two verses that your,
that Christ your mediator speaks to you, that he is revealing
to you continually, revealing to you as your mediator, comforting
your heart with these words. First, Christ your mediator,
your God and mediator, is the voice that speaks into your heart. He's the voice that you hear
speaking to you. Verse 16 begins, come ye near
unto me, hear ye this. His voice is the voice that you
hear. There was a time when our God
spoke by the prophets to the people, but now in these last
days hath spoken unto us by his son, whom he appointed heir of
all things, by whom also he made the world. So Christ, your God
and mediator, speaks. You hear his voice. You that
believe, you hear his voice in your heart. Second, Christ your
mediator speaks the gospel plainly to you. He reveals his gospel
to you. He says there in the middle of
verse 16, I have not spoken in secret from the beginning, from
the time that it was, there am I. Now that's the language regarding
the wisdom of God, which was with God in the beginning when
he created the heavens and the earth. and Christ. is of God
made unto us wisdom. He's the wisdom of the child
of God, and he's not speaking to us in parables, meaning that
in his body, in his assembled people, there's not one boasting
of what they did for the Lord, how that they were a missionary
in Africa or Asia, and that's why the Lord has saved them.
There's not one boasting of the night they walked the aisle and
gave their heart to Jesus. There's not some boasting of
having some shrine or statue in their house that they pray
to each week and touch the toes of that statue and that that's
their righteousness. Every one of us speaks and boasts
in the blood of Jesus Christ because he reveals his gospel
to us. He shows us it's not our works
of righteousness, it's not my faith, it's his work. And the
faith I have is given to me of him to see, to understand, to
behold these things that my God has done for me. And so his people, by his grace
and power, know whom they have believed. Just like Paul said,
I know whom I have believed. I know that I can trust Him whom
I've committed to Him against that day. It's all committed
to Him and that's the testimony of His people. We've committed
the whole thing into His hands. We believe Him. We have no other
backup plan or anything. It's all in Christ's hands just
as the Father committed it all to Christ's hands. And he makes
this known to us by revelation, by his spirit, giving us life
to hear him. Third, Christ, your mediator,
came in the flesh to obtain your eternal life. It says there at
the end of verse 16, and now the Lord God in his spirit hath
sent me. That's because we children are
partakers of the flesh and blood. And so he himself likewise took
part of the same that through death, He might destroy him that
hath the power of death, that is, the devil. Fourth, Christ,
your mediator, has eternally secured you. Your life, your
eternal life, is right now safe and secure with Christ, your
Savior. The beginning of verse 17, Thus
saith the Lord thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. What he's saying there, the Holy
One of Israel, is He's your holiness. He is your very holiness. He is our righteousness with
the Father. Our sin is covered with his blood
and nothing can remove his blood from us. Nothing can remove that
covering of his blood. We are forever and eternally
his people. He said in John 10, 28, I give
unto my sheep eternal life and they shall never perish. neither
shall any man pluck them out of my hand. Fifth, Christ your
mediator turns your eyes upon him continually, saying, in the
middle of verse 17, I am the Lord thy God. When he speaks, he turns you
away from all the distractions of the world and all the trinkets
and folly of this world, saying, I am the Lord your God. and he
takes our eyes off of those things and sets them on our Lord. It says there, Hebrews 12, two,
looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Sixth, Christ your mediator teaches
and grows you. We feed now upon his flesh, we
drink his blood. blood. And that means that we're
feeding upon the pure gospel of our Savior. That's what satisfies
us. That's what nourishes us because
we know that that's his word and that's what he's given to
us. That's our salvation right there and we hunger to hear that. He says there, verse 17 I am
the Lord thy God which teacheth thee to profit so that your Lord
is blessing you he's blessing you his people to hear him he
teaches you the blessing and comfort of his gospel in your
heart you're satisfied with him you're satisfied with with his
blood knowing that this is exactly what my God has provided for
me. And he encourages you with that
word. He comforts you with what he's
accomplished for you. John 6 45 says, it's written
in the prophets and they shall be all taught of God. Every man
therefore that hath heard and hath learned of the father cometh
unto me. so that he is, his life is for
our profit. He is our treasure. We are comforted
in him and he did that work for us. All right, now, did I read? Yeah, I did read that, okay.
Number seven, Christ your mediator now leads you. He's bringing
you home. to his loving arms. He says there,
I am the Lord thy God which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest
go. Our Lord says to us, I am the
way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father but
by me. So he's leading you safely home. Nothing's going to take that
away. And this is what your Savior speaks into your heart. He's
the one in whom we are saved. For in him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, and ye are complete in him, which is
the head of all principality and power. So just to quick summarize
it, Christ your mediator speaks to you, his people, his child. He speaks the gospel plainly
to you. He's revealing it to you so that
you know he is your salvation. Third, he came in the flesh to
work your righteousness, to accomplish your salvation and your righteousness.
Fourth, he makes you to know that you are perfectly secure
and safe in him And then fifth, he keeps turning your eyes back
to him. When we look at this world, he
turns us back to him. Sixth, having made you his own,
he continually feeds you and teaches you the gospel. And seventh,
he's leading you home into his loving arms. I pray he bless
you to hear his voice, that you come face to face with the salvation
your God so wisely provided for his people in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Amen. Let's close in prayer. Our gracious
Lord, we thank you, Father, that you speak to us, that you speak
to us by your Son, Jesus Christ. Lord, we thank you that you have
drawn us near, and Lord, that you teach us continually all
things that bless and comfort us, to know that this is not
random, but Lord, you've, you created the heavens and the earth
for this very purpose, to work our salvation. You did that in
destroying our enemies and in reconciling us to our God. And
now, as our mediator, you continue to speak to us. You speak these
words of comfort into our heart. You make us to know our Savior,
to hear Him, to love Him, to rejoice in Him. Father, keep
us, keep our hearts, keep us ever looking and trusting in
You. We know, Lord, that You are able.
We see in us nothing good, but Lord, we're so thankful for Your
mercy in Your Son, Jesus Christ. Lord, we pray that you bless
this people, bless this body, that you would draw out your
people and establish your work here in this part of the country.
It's in Christ's name we pray and give thanks. Amen. Closing hymn will be 296, All
the Way My Savior Leads Me. All the way my Savior leads me,
what have I to ask beside? Can I doubt His tender mercy,
who through life has been my guide? Heavenly peace, divinest
comfort, here by faith in Him to dwell. For I know what e'er
befall me, Jesus doeth all things well. For I know what e'er befall
me, Jesus doeth all things well. All the way my Savior leads me,
cheers each winding path I tread, gives me grace for every trial,
feeds me with the living bread. Though my weary steps may falter,
and my soul a thirst may be, Gushing from the rock before
me, blow a spring of joy I see. Gushing from the rock before
me, blow a spring of joy I see. All the way my Savior leads me,
O the fullness of His love. Perfect rest to me is promised
in my Father's house above. When my spirit, clothed immortal,
Wings its flight to realms of day, This my song through endless
ages Jesus led me all the way. This my song through endless
ages, Jesus led me all the way.