I think that would be really
nice. I just wanted to keep reminding you brethren. And also, when
is, when do we spring forward? Is that this Sunday? Is it the
first Sunday of March now or the second Sunday of March? We'll
just be aware of that, that that's coming up. Yeah, they changed it. They made
it so it's a lot later in the year. And then, you know, the
fall is later and spring is earlier. And then, and then we'll have
a meal. this Sunday. So we'll have the
Lord's Supper and then a meal afterwards, all right? Okay,
brother. We're going to open tonight's
worship with singing number 103 in the hardback. 103, One Day. One day when heaven was filled
with His praises, one day when sin was as black as could be,
Jesus came forth to be born of a virgin, dwelt among men, my
example is He. Living, He loved me. Dying, He saved me. Buried, He carried my sins far
away. Rising, He justified freely forever. One day, He's coming. Oh, glorious day. One day they
led Him up Calvary's mountain, One day they nailed Him to die
on the tree. Suffering anguish, despised and
rejected, Bearing our sins, my Redeemer is He. Living, He loved
me. Dying, He saved me. Buried, He carried my sins far
away. Rising, He justified freely forever. One day, He's coming, O glorious
day. One day they left him alone in
the garden. One day he rested from suffering
free. Angels came down o'er his tomb
to keep vigil. Hope of the hopeless, my Savior
is here. Living, He loved me. Dying, He saved me. Buried, He carried my sins far
away. Rising, He justified freely forever. One day, He's coming, O glorious
day. One day the grave could conceal
him no longer. One day the stone rolled away
from the door. Then he arose over death he had
conquered. Now is ascended my Lord evermore. Living, He loved me. Dying, He saved me. Buried, He carried my sins far
away. Rising, He justified freely forever. One day He's coming, O glorious
day. One day the trumpet will sound
for His coming. One day the skies with His glory
will shine. Wonderful day, my beloved one's
bringing. Glorious Savior, this Jesus is
mine. Living, He loved me. Dying, He saved me. Buried, He carried my sins far
away. Rising, He justified freely forever. One day He's coming, O glorious
day. Our second hymn will be number
168, Even Me, 168. Lord, I hear of showers of blessing,
Thou art scattering full and free. Showers the thirsty land
refreshing, Let some drops now fall on me. Even me, even me, Let Thy blessing
fall on me. Pass me not, O tender Savior,
let me love and cling to Thee. I am longing for Thy favor whilst
Thou calling, O call me. Even me, even me, let Thy blessing
fall on me. Pass me not, O mighty Spirit,
Thou canst make the blind to see. Witness, Sir, of Jesus'
merit, Speak the word of power to me. Even me, even me, Let
Thy blessing fall on me. Love of God so pure and changeless,
blood of Christ so rich and free. Grace of God so strong and boundless,
magnify them all in me. Even me, even me, let thy blessing
fall on me. Pass me not thy lost one bringing,
By my heart, O Lord, to thee. While the strings of life are
springing, Blessing others, O bless me. Even me, even me, Let thy
blessing fall on me. Thank you. Tonight's scripture reading will
be out of Psalm 71. Psalm 71, beginning with verse 1. In Thee, O Lord, do I put my
trust. Let me never be put to confusion
or to shame. Deliver me in Thy righteousness
and cause me to escape. Incline Thine ear unto me and
save me. Be Thou my strong habitation,
whereunto I may continually resort. Thou hast given commandment to
save me, for Thou art my rock and my fortress. Deliver me,
O God, out of the hand of the wicked, out of the hand of the
unrighteous and cruel man. For thou art my hope, O Lord God. Thou art my trust
from my youth. Stop there. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for giving
us an opportunity to be here once again hear the gospel of
your son. We ask that you'd give us your
spirit abundantly in each of our hearts that we might hear
the message of Christ and rejoice in him and put all our trust
and all our hope in him alone. We ask that you'd be with Eric
as he brings this message and as he studies from week to week,
give him what he needs We ask for all those who couldn't be
here tonight, all those that might be struggling or who are
sick, we ask that you'd be with them, bless them where they are.
We ask all this in Christ's name, amen. passage in a good hymn, even
me. When we were singing it, it just
reminded me of what a blessing it is that we may worship the
true and living God, and how easy it is to get into a pattern
of things and just do things without really thinking about
what we're doing, how we're gathered here to worship the Lord, and
and how good it is when the Lord blesses your heart to see what
you're singing and reading there in the word and cry out to him
in that moment, Lord, even me, help me, bless me, don't pass
me by while you're blessing your people, bless me and bless your
people, Lord. And so I'm thankful that we're
here tonight to worship the Lord, it's a mercy, truly a mercy. All right. Okay, let's turn to
Isaiah 45. Isaiah 45, and I want to look
at verses 11 through 17 with you tonight. Now, this chapter,
its primary focus is salvation of the Lord's people by the Lord
Jesus Christ. No surprise to us who love the
Lord and love his salvation that he's given to us freely. Now, maybe what confuses some
people is that it speaks of Cyrus. Cyrus is a pagan king of Persia
whom the Lord raised up to deliver his national Israel, the natural
seed of Abraham, Israel, he delivered them from their captivity by
Babylon. When Persia and Media conquered
Babylon, they had control and they released the Jews at the
appointed time to go back to Jerusalem to build the temple
to the Lord. But this deliverance is but a
type. It's a picture of our spiritual
deliverance by the Lord Jesus Christ who delivers us from our
sin and our great offense against the true and living God who created
us, who made us. And he's given us light and life
and liberty in himself. So as we go through this, I'm
gonna actually start with verse 17. And verse 17, it'll provide
the outline for our sections here. It says, but Israel shall
be saved. And that'll be our first point.
Israel shall be saved. And then we'll see that Israel
will be saved in the Lord. Alright? In the Lord. That's
our second point. And we are saved with an everlasting
salvation. There's our third point. And
finally, ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without
end. So I've titled this Israel's
Everlasting Salvation. Israel's Everlasting Salvation.
Okay? So What is the hope and the joy
of the believer? Well, first of all, it's founded
upon the Lord Jesus Christ. And our hope and our joy is that
our God has saved us for himself. We are his people. And that means
he's put away our sin and put away that which prevented us
from coming to him and standing before him, accepted of him. Our Savior has accomplished that
for us. He's done that for his people.
And so what the Lord does in his scripture is he constantly
affirms for us. so that we're reminded because
we do easily forget and grow fearful and get worried when
we're looking to self but he constantly affirms that we shall
be saved. When it comes to that point we're
already saved and when it comes to that point when he comes again
and raises us up We shall be saved. We're not going to be
turned away by the Lord. And that's what our text says
here. Verse 17, Israel shall be saved. Now, who is meant by
Israel? Who is this Israel that shall
be saved? Because if we're not Israel,
then what joy and rejoicing and gladness do we have in the fact
that Israel shall be saved? Well, the people that is meant
by this Israel, it's referring to spiritual Israel. Spiritual Israel, not the physical
descendants necessarily of Abraham but the spiritual descendants
of Abraham. Let's look at a few verses that
really bring this home and show us the truth of what I'm saying
to you. Look at Romans 9. Romans 9 and we're going to look
at verses 7 and 8 together. What we see in the scripture
is that our Lord's focus is that our salvation, the people of
God's salvation, is always in the Lord Jesus Christ. There's
not two peoples and two kinds of salvation. It's all one salvation
in the Lord Jesus Christ. When we fell in Adam, all men
were lost. All men fell and died spiritually
and lost fellowship with God. And the law was never going to
save a people. The law was never going to make
a people righteous because all the law can do is declare us
righteous or unrighteous. and when we all fell in Adam
we all became unrighteous. And so the salvation is in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now Romans 9, 7, and 8. Neither
because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children. See that? So it's not just because
they are physical descendants of Abraham that they are children
of God. But he says in Isaac shall thy
seed be called. So we already know that Abraham
had other children and they're taken out, but what does Paul
mean by in Isaac shall thy seed be called? Is he still talking
about the physical descendants of Abraham or is he talking about
a spiritual people that that are the the seed of Abraham that
the children of promise here mercy that is he's going to find
now Isaac and Isaac they which are the children of the flesh
or natural Israel right for example these are not the children of
God but the children of the promise are counted for the seed Isaac
was a promise of God to Abraham, right? He was a child of promise.
And yeah, he happened to be a physical descendant, but the focus here
is that the children of promise are the seed of Abraham. They
are the children of God. Now turn over to Galatians 3.
Galatians 3, and we'll go to verse 26. and read down to 29 together.
Galatians 3.26 and then just stay there in Galatians because
we're going to go to Galatians 6 afterwards, but Galatians 3.26.
Paul says, for ye, you chosen Jews and Gentiles, he's speaking
to all of them, Jew and Gentile, ye are all the children of God
by faith in Christ Jesus. So there's the delineating factor,
the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the one who makes a child
of God. Those in Christ are children
of the promise, those outside of Christ have no part with the
Father. Now verse 27, for as many of
you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. That's the only salvation, the
Lord Jesus Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek
There is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female,
for ye are all one in Christ Jesus." See that? There's neither
Jew nor Gentile or Greek. So all the divisions and walls
that man likes to put up to divide and segregate and section off
and do all these things, God just mows them right down with
the Lord Jesus Christ. He puts us all in the same pool
of need. We're all sinners, guilty of
offending God and sinning against Him, and if we're to be saved,
it's going to be in the Lord Jesus Christ. Doesn't matter
if you're descended from Abraham or not, it's by the Lord Jesus
Christ. Verse 29, And if ye be Christ's,
then are ye Abraham's seed and heirs according to The promise. See that? So even Greeks, even
Gentiles, if they believe, if they have faith, they are the
children of Abraham and they are the children of promise.
They're the heirs according to the promise that God gave to
Abraham and Isaac, right? We're just like Isaac, children
of promise. You see that? I pray the Lord blesses you to
see that. Now, Galatians 6, 14 through 16. Galatians 6, one
more passage here. Here he says, but God forbid
that I should glory. Does Paul have something to glory
him in the flesh? Well, he was circumcised the
eighth day. He was born to the tribe of Benjamin. He was a Pharisee of Pharisees,
a Hebrew of Hebrews. He kept the law perfectly. He
was blameless before the law, he said. But he says, God forbid
that I should glory. I'm not looking to the fact that
I'm physically descended from Abraham. I'm not glorying in
anything save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom
the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. So Paul
placed no value on the fact that he descended from Abraham physically.
That's what the Apostle says there. For in Christ Jesus neither
circumcision availeth anything, that would be the Jews, nor uncircumcision,
that would be the Gentiles, but a new creature. So it doesn't matter if we're
physically descended from Abraham and are a Jew or we're a Gentile,
neither one makes us more savable. All right, neither one helps
us any more before God. The only help we have is the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's all our glory, all our hope,
all our salvation. And he goes on to say in verse
16, and as many as walk according to this rule, This rule, peace
beyond them, those who want to boast in national Israel and
what God's doing with them and that's their glory, well, then
their glory isn't Christ. And he says there's no peace
for them. The peace of God is upon the Israel of God, those
who glory in the Lord Jesus Christ. Peace beyond them and mercy and
upon the Israel of God, who are the children of promise. It doesn't
matter if you're physically descended from Abraham. If your faith is
fixed in Christ, that true faith of the Spirit revealed in you,
a gift of God looking to his salvation, the Lord Jesus Christ,
you are the Israel of God. That's the scriptures. That's
what the scriptures teach us there. So there is a people of
God and they are the Israel of God and according to the scriptures
they are the blood-bought sons and daughters of God by the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's the one who's accomplished
this and the sacrifice of himself. Everything else is just vain
jangling of men and just putting up walls and divisions and dispensations
and all manner of things that have no bearing on the hope and
the comfort and the joy of the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. man takes exception with things
like that, right? They take exception with these
things, they take exception with the providences of God, right? Meaning they get angry with these
things, they're confused, they're not pleased with what God is
revealing to us. And so, and that can happen,
right? We can go through bitter and
tough times. And the Lord says, come to me
if you're confused or concerned or wondering, come and ask me. But the wicked, they just take
it and strive against their maker, right? They strive against and
they fight against him and God says, don't fight against me.
You can fight amongst yourselves, but don't fight with your creator
because I know what I'm doing and what I do is right and perfect.
Alright, so God's ways are contrary to man's ways. And he says now
back in our text in Isaiah 45 verse 11. He says, Thus saith the Lord, the
Holy One of Israel, and His Maker, Ask me of things to come concerning
my sons, and concerning the work of my hands, command ye me. All right, so when we don't understand
what the Lord is doing providentially, and we're moved to stirred up
in our hearts to to lay our our cares before him and cry out
to him. he's going to answer us and his
answer will be in the light of salvation for his people. He's going to reveal, he's going
to answer us in light of his salvation for his people. So
that when, what the Lord's saying is, when I respond to you, when
I give you the answer that you're seeking, you're going to understand
it in the light of my salvation. You're gonna see everything through
the lens of what I'm working for my people's good and their
salvation and the glory of my name, right? So in other words,
we're gonna see, Lord, you're working all things for good. to them that love God, to them
who are the called according to purpose. And according to
purpose, you're working your purpose as it pleases you. And that's how we're going to
see it. That's how we're going to be satisfied and comforted
and have understanding and a knowledge of what the Lord is doing rather
than interpreting everything the way the world interprets
it. All right, as though there's, you know, God wrestling with
the evil one and, you know, sometimes he wins and sometimes he loses.
And, you know, we've got to join the fight to help, you know,
push, get it over the line there because God can't do it himself. And so, you know, we're going
to, we're going to misinterpret what the Lord is doing. but he's
teaching us and revealing to us everything in the light of
what he's accomplished for us in the Lord Jesus Christ, all
right? So, you know, our Lord has been
telling us here in Isaiah, the 40s, right? In the chapters of
the 40s, it began with him saying, comfort ye, comfort ye my people,
right? Because the Lord, he's sending
his salvation to his people. and he is our comfort, and he's
our peace and our joy. And then a little later, he said
in Isaiah 43 verse one, he said, now thus sayeth the Lord that
created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, fear
not for I have redeemed thee. And I have called thee by thy
name, thou art mine. So that we understand in the
light of his scripture, right, of what everything that's going
on, we're being given a knowledge in Christ. We're being given
an understanding that it's our God who has created us, sovereignly
created us, doing as it pleases him, his purpose to have compassion
and mercy upon us. upon you, and not because of
any worth or value in you or me, but because it pleased him
to do so. And that's why he's gathered
you here, because he's created you, and he's the one who forms
you after the image of his son. Not after a superhuman in the
earth, right? And being some super person and
a super good person above all others. No, after the image,
in the image of the Lord Jesus Christ, that we're ever looking
to him and being fed and nourished and blessed by the Lord Jesus
Christ. And it's for those whom he's
redeemed, that blood purchased by the Lord Jesus Christ, sacrificing
himself to put away our sins, that we might be the righteousness
of God in Jesus Christ. And all that results in your
being called. That's why you've heard the gospel
and why God's given you faith to believe Christ and look to
him in spite of everything in the flesh, to trust Him. So now
with that spiritual understanding, he says in Isaiah 45, 12, I have
made the earth and created man upon it. I, even my hands, have
stretched out the heavens, and all their hosts have I commanded. And the creative man that our
Lord has his eye upon, that he's speaking of here, is Christ. He's speaking of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the one in whom he's accomplished all that we needed,
that we might have fellowship with God. And so this salvation,
brethren, is settled. It's settled. It's accomplished.
It's done. It's all in the Lord's hands
and it's secure and finished. And so Israel shall be saved. All right. And there's our first
point. Now let's see the salvation in the Lord. It says, but Israel
shall be saved in the Lord. And that's our confidence, right? It's not our confession. It's
not the changes in our lives. It's not any reformation that
we've done. Our confidence is in the Lord. He's, he's our salvation. That's
why we're so confident and assured because it's in the Lord. So
when our Lord, he speaks of our righteousness, it's all founded
in the Lord Jesus Christ, right? It's all of him. Even when we
do good works and works that that are loving to one another
and kind and gracious and generous to one another, we don't look
to those things as though it's our salvation or our justification
or anything that improves our standing with God. We know it's
our righteousness, our justification is in Christ alone. So verse
13 says, I have raised him up in righteousness. He's looking
to Christ. I've raised him up in righteousness,
and I will direct all his ways. He shall build my city, and he
shall let go my captives, not for price nor reward, saith the
Lord of hosts. So that's Christ. He's the one
who built the city. Cyrus didn't build the city of
Jerusalem. Christ builds the city, the new
heavenly Jerusalem from above. That's Christ's work. He's the
one who builds it, adding his citizens daily as it pleases
him. And he does this by setting us
free from our captivity. And there's nothing that we do
that can earn that. We can't purchase that or obtain
that, all right? You know, the temporal mercy
of being freed from captivity, as Israel was in the day of Cyrus
there, when he let them go, that's something, but that's nothing
to be compared to being set free spiritually. That's nothing compared
to what our Savior has done for us spiritually in setting us
free and delivering us from our spiritual captivity. And so we
read of Him and what He's accomplished in places like Isaiah 61 verse
1. This is Christ and it says, the
Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord hath anointed
me to preach good tidings unto the meek he hath appointed me
and sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives
and the opening of the prison to them that are bound." And
so all of these mercies we find are in the raising up of Christ,
it's in God appointing him to do this work, it's in God anointing
him for this work and blessing him with the fullness of the
Godhead bodily. And it's our God who blesses
us in our savior and has accomplished this salvation in him. And so
our Lord, he builds this city, right? He builds a city, which
is the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood. That's what he accomplished for
us on the cross. It's why he went to the cross
and allowed himself to be taken to go to the cross that he should
sacrifice himself to the father to make satisfaction for our
sins, to put away all our iniquities, to put away our rebellion, to
take away the offense that we might stand complete before God
in love and in fellowship with him. and it's not for price or
want of reward. He doesn't need anything from
us. He's not looking to us for anything. He's accomplished the
whole of it. All right, then we're told in
verse 17 that this salvation is with an everlasting salvation. And this speaks to our eternal
blessings in Christ. You're eternally blessed in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Our salvation It's as everlasting
as He is. Is God everlasting? Is the Savior
everlasting? Yes, and that's your salvation. It's an everlasting salvation.
In Romans 16, 26, our Lord is called the everlasting God, the
everlasting God, and He sends forth the everlasting gospel. Revelation 14 6 the everlasting
gospel and through this gospel we understand that our Savior
has given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace at
2nd Thessalonians 2 16 and we've received life everlasting from
our Savior and what he's accomplished that's 1st Timothy 1 16 and we
shall enter the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ, 2 Peter 1.11, through the blood of the everlasting
covenant. So we see it's it's everlasting. It's it's eternal. It's perfect. It doesn't mean that it'll be
preached forever Right, but the blessings right here on earth
one day our Lord is coming to to take us home and that gospel
word shall cease but the effects, the accomplishments, the blessings
of Christ for you are everlasting. It shall never end. It shall
never be put away because it's in Christ. And so this gospel
that we preach, this is what the Lord declares to us and conquers
His enemies. He conquers our hearts and subdues
our nature. He puts it away so that sin and
death no longer have dominion over us, but we are free to serve
the Lord. We're His slaves. We're His servants. We're servants of righteousness
now. Christ and so he's released us from this captivity and being
delivered by him we come and bow before him and worship him
and rejoice in him that's what we see in verse 14 there Isaiah
45 14 it's it's a long verse but I'll break it down as after
we read it thus saith the Lord the labor of Egypt and merchandise
of Ethiopia and of the Sabians, men of stature, shall come over
unto thee, and they shall be thine. They shall come after
thee, and chains they shall come over, and they shall fall down
unto thee, they shall make supplication unto thee, saying, Surely God
is in thee, and there is none else, there is no God, or no
other God beside thee. And so this is the effect that
the gospel has upon your hearts. You people of the nations scattered
throughout the nations. This is the effect of his gospel
upon you that are his people that he's gone out to seek. and
to save. And so you that hear it, it says
in chains, you shall come over. And what it's speaking of there
is that you and me, we've been subdued and conquered by his
grace. We come bound to him by irresistible
grace, drawing you and bring you to see what he's accomplished
for you. And so that by his power, we're
made willing in the day of his power, and then they shall fall
down unto thee, being made obedient to the gospel." We're made obedient
to the gospel, meaning we believe God. We trust Him. We hear His word and confess,
yes, Lord, this is our salvation. Christ is my salvation. He's
my hope, my God, my all. And so we come before Him, worshiping
Him, having awe and adoration for Him who did this for us in
mercy and compassion. in spite of who we are by nature,
in spite of us not deserving this salvation. Our God has done
all this for us. And so we, we thank him and worship
him for his unspeakable gift. All right. And then we bring
our labors and our goods, all we bring them to bear for the
furtherance of this gospel, that our God's gospel will go out
and do the same for others as he's done for us. That's what
that verse there, 14, is speaking about. Now, verse 15. Verily
thou art a God that hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the Savior. And our Lord did that, right?
He hid himself from the Gentile nations for hundreds of years,
right? They didn't know him or understand
him in any way, but he, in grace and mercy, revealed, made himself
known through the gospel. I'm going to read from Titus
3, 4-7 that speaks of this, of our Savior. We read there that
it was after that the kindness and love of God our Savior toward
man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done,
But according to his mercy, he saved us by the washing of regeneration
and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly
through Jesus Christ, our Savior, that being justified by his grace,
we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. So that's his word of comfort
to you, brethren, that the very fact that Christ came is God's
reconciliation to His people scattered throughout the world.
And so He's sending forth this proclamation to call us in, to
draw us into Him, to know Him, and to bow before Him and rejoice
in His salvation, the Lord Jesus Christ. All right, now, verse
16. Here's our final point here.
that the children of God are not ashamed. But verse 16 says,
they shall be ashamed and also confounded or confused, all of
them. They shall go to confusion together
that are makers of idols. There's so many people in the
world that are religious, even call themselves Christians and
name the name Christ. But as you hear them speak, They
speak a lot of their own goodness, and it's more or less a partnership
with them and the Lord Jesus Christ. He never goes beyond
example for them, right? He's just an example, a good
man. Maybe they even think he's God, but they don't understand
what he had to accomplish, and so they continue to speak of
and rejoice in their works and their righteousness, and that's
not salvation. That's not salvation by Christ. And the Lamb of God, whom God
sent to put away the sinners people, that works. That's hoping
and trusting in your own righteousness. So those who have made that idol
Jesus, or whatever the God is, whatever they're hoping in or
trusting in, that's an idol. And when they stand before God,
it doesn't matter how many good works they do here on the earth,
according to their mind, when they stand before God, they shall
be ashamed and confounded because they're trusting those things.
But, he says, you that trust Christ, you that have no righteousness
of your own, but Christ, you shall not be ashamed, you will
not be confounded. Verse 17, we'll read the whole
of it now. But Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting
salvation. Ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded,
world without end. It's an everlasting salvation.
and you shall never be ashamed. You that stand before God, you're
not going to hear God say, well, wait a minute. It was Christ
plus. And where's the plus? You're
supposed to do this here or do that there. No, you shall not
be ashamed. You're not going to be confused,
saying, scratching your head, saying, but I thought he said
that if I trusted Christ, that I would not be ashamed. You're
not going to scratch your head and be confounded. No, you're
going to be welcomed in. to his everlasting kingdom, hearing
his words say, well done, thou good and faithful servant, enter
into thy rest. Because he revealed salvation
in you, which is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's given
that to you, brethren. All right, so I'll close here
with Ephesians 3, 20 through 21. Now unto him that is able
to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according
to the power that worketh in us. Unto him be glory in the
church, by Jesus Christ, throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. So I pray the Lord bless
that word through your hearts. Let's close in prayer. Our gracious Lord, we thank you
for your mercy. We thank you, Lord, for this
great salvation that you've provided freely in your Son, Jesus Christ. Lord, we are weak in this flesh,
and we have no righteousness of our own. Lord, we look to
your Son, Jesus Christ, whom you've sent for this very purpose. to put away our sin, and to make
us stand righteous, justified, complete in him, that we may
have fellowship with you and be reconciled to our God. Lord,
we ask that you would have mercy upon us. Help us, Lord, that
are struggling, we that are weak and weary. Lord, have mercy. Heal our wounds, heal our sicknesses,
Lord, and keep us ever looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord,
we pray that you would establish your people here and that you
would call out many by your gospel of full, free, sovereign salvation
in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's in his name that we pray
and give thanks. Amen. Our closing hymn will be 296
out of the hardback 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 whatever you
call 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, Lo, a spring of joy I see, gushing from the rock
before me. Lo, 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. Let's go.