All right, if you take your Bibles
now and turn with me to Isaiah chapter 42. Isaiah chapter 42. Text will be found in verses one through
four. The scripture says, behold, my
servant, whom I uphold, mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth. I have put my spirit upon him. He shall bring forth judgment
to the Gentiles. He shall not cry nor lift up
nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed
shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench. He
shall bring forth judgment unto truth. He shall not fail nor be discouraged. till they have set judgment in
the earth, and the isles shall wait for his law. Is there a
speaker moving up there? Let me turn this one down just
a little bit. Maybe I could move it away a
little bit. Maybe breathing into it. Is it? Okay. We got that? It's turned off. Can you still
hear it on the audio? Okay. Good to go. Okay. Thank you.
You're still making that noise. Okay. Different sound. Okay. All right. I've entitled this
message, Christ, the never failing servant, the never failing servant. Now, this time of year, everybody
is going to talk about Christ coming into this world. Well,
we're going to show you that he came into this world for a
very particular reason. It's not just he came into the
world so that men should admire his generosity or admire that
he came to be an example for others. Which of you could follow
that example? We can't. He came for this one
purpose, to be a servant. To be a servant. And God says,
Behold My servant. Now in the last part of chapter
41, God here declares a promise in verse 27. He says to Zion,
He says, Behold, behold them, and I will give to Jerusalem
one that bringeth good tidings. I'm going to give them one that
has a message of hope, a message of salvation. And the remaining
verses, 28 and 29, he says, For I beheld, and there was no man,
there was none among them, there was no counselor, and when I
asked of them, could not answer a word. He said, in other words,
God in all of his omniscience looked down and said, there's
nobody to help. There's nobody among men that
could save my people. There's no counselor, not even
among them. It's the same thing he did in
Genesis when he looked down upon the face of all mankind and he
said this, that every thought of the imagination of man's heart
was only evil continually. Even so it is found in many scriptures,
this one, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Isaiah 41, 29 says, they all
are vanity. Their works are nothing. Look
at that. He said, behold, they are all vanity. Their works are
nothing. Their molten images are wind and confusion. God looked
even among their religions and found what? Nothing but wind
and confusion. Man by nature is not irreligious. He is a religious being. He's
a God factory. In other words, men always make
up a God of their own imagination. They say, I think God's like
this. Well, I don't believe that. That says it here, but I don't
think God's like that. Okay, well, you just imagined
a God. You know what your God's like? He's like the wind. He
ain't nothing. God says he's nothing but wind
and confusion. Therefore, in our chapter, he
says, look, put away your religious works. They're vanity. Put away
your self-righteousness. It's vanity. Put away your God. He is nothing but wind and confusion. There's nothing. Listen, behold
my servant. Behold my servant, whom I oppose. mine elect whom my soul delighteth."
This is the one by whom God has purposed and decreed to bring
good tidings by his servant. God says, don't look to the vanity
of your gods or the works of your will. Your God and religion,
your self-righteousness, Scott Richardson used to say about
our righteousness, he said, your righteousness is about as worthless
as a warm bucket of spit. You take all your good deeds
and you put them together and they will be worthless. Not worthless
to other men. They might be good to me or to
somebody else. They're not going to stand before
God. Therefore, God commands the sinner
to repent from his God, to repent from his works. And what? Behold my servant. God says in an earlier part of
this, in chapter 28, He tells us, Behold, I lay in Zion a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone. And listen, everyone that believes
on Him, listen, they're not going to make haste. They're not going
to want to leave. When you find refuge in this
stone, in this person, in my servant, you're not going to
want to leave. You the believer, do you want
to leave? Is there any place you want to go? What Peter said,
to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal
life. This stone is the servant of God. And so who is this servant
of God? We know it's Jesus Christ. When
he says, behold my servant, he is talking about Jesus Christ.
Look in Matthew chapter 12 and this is a plain revelation of
this. Matthew chapter 12 and verse 17. The Jews went out and held, 14,
the Jews went out and held counsel how they might destroy and Jesus
knew it. He withdrew himself from thence and a great multitude
followed him and he healed them all and charged them that they
should not make him known that it might be fulfilled. which
was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, behold, my servant, whom I have
chosen, my beloved in whom my soul is well pleased. You see, this is Jesus Christ.
So when I say behold my servant, God says that he's telling you
to look to Christ. He's telling you to look to Jesus
Christ. Now, because God hath delighted,
hath not delighted in any of the sons of Adam, The only one
that we know he has delighted in is Christ. He alone is the
delight of the Father. Over in Proverbs chapter 8, in Proverbs chapter 8, this is Christ
speaking in prophecy here. He says in verse 22, He said,
The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His way before His
works of old. I was set up from everlasting
from the beginning of the earth wherever the earth was. Now look in verse 30. Then I
was by Him when He possessed me and when He set me up. Look,
I was by Him, I was brought up with Him, and I was daily His
delight. rejoicing always before him,
rejoicing in the habitable parts of the earth, and my delight
were with the sons of man. See, Jesus Christ was always
the Father's delight. Why can we say this? Because
he was one with the Father. Because Jesus Christ himself
is God, equal with the Father. Jesus said this, I and my Father
are one. one in will, one in purpose,
one in every attribute. Yet, we know this, they are distinct
in their persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And so when
the Lord Jesus Christ pre-incarnate comes down, He comes to Isaiah
in chapter 6, and Isaiah sees it. And what does Isaiah see? Isaiah says, I beheld the glory
of the Lord. His train filled the temple. His glory filled the temple.
He came down as deity, as majesty. He saw His glory. He saw those
seraphims who covered their head and covered their feet and were
not worthy to be in His presence, crying, Holy, Holy, Holy Lord
God Almighty. The earth is full of His glory.
So we see this servant. by nature, delighted because
he is God. But why would the King of Glory
become a servant? Why must the King of Glory become
a servant? Why must the Son of God, equal
with the Father in glory, be made subject to the will of God? Even because this was the only
way he could bring good tidings. Remember he promised good tidings.
This is the only way he could bring good tidings. Is that his
son should be made a servant. And what was the will of the
father? You think of a servant. What's
the purpose of a servant? Is to obey the will of his master.
That's the whole life of a servant is spent to obey the will of
his master. God being the master had a will,
a purpose for this. This was no accidental thing.
This was on purpose. What was the will of the father?
It was even the salvation of his elect. That's the will of
God. Did not Paul praise him for this
in Ephesians 1? He said, blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ. He praised the Father. Why? Because the work of the
Father was election, according as He had chosen us in Christ
before the foundation of the world. Now, what did He choose
us for? What is the purpose of His election?
That we should be holy. That's the will. That's the will
of God. You want to know what the will
of God is? That's it. I can't tell you the will of God in Providence.
I can't tell you what, when we leave, if we leave here, I don't
know what's going to happen. Whatever happens is the will
of God. I know that. But I could tell you the sovereign
will and purpose of God for every providence that happens in this
world. And that is that his people should
be made holy. His people should be made holy.
and without blame before him in love. This is why he chose
us in love, having predestined us under the adoption of children.
Now, here's how this is vital. Three words by Jesus Christ. That's how. How did God will
to make me holy? He will to make me holy by Jesus
Christ, by him becoming a servant. Therefore, the will of the Father
was to save his elect, that the Son of God then must be made
a servant for three things." Now, these are going to be my
points for three things. This is the will of the Father
concerning the elect. This is the work of the servant
concerning the elect. First of all, his work was to
obtain righteousness for the elect. Second, he was to obtain
redemption for the elect. And thirdly, he was to apply
this righteousness and redemption to the elect by calling them. This is the reason for him coming
into this world. Consider the condescension. We
think about the birth of Christ How far did he come down? You know, you make us ruler over
very little, and if we have to come down, we're quite upset. You get a job as a boss, and
you're doing pretty well, and then all of a sudden, you said,
no, no. You come down, you'd be the lowest. You're CEO, and
all of a sudden, you brought down sweeping floors. That's
nowhere near what happened here. Friends, the Lord of all the
earth, the creator and sustainer of all things, condescended to
become a man. The lowest of men. He didn't
come into a... He was part of a royal line,
but yet his royal line was at the very bottom. condescended. Why? Because of
our failure. That's why. Because our representative
failed. Because Adam sinned. And when
Adam sinned, we all died. When he sinned, we died. Therefore, we were born dead
in sins and there was no hope for us to obtain this for ourselves.
Therefore, in order to fulfill his will, God sent Christ to
become a servant. to be made flesh, to become a second Adam, a second
Adam. So now this morning behold the
object of all hope and the mediator of the eternal covenant, the
servant of God. The son of God was made flesh
for the purpose of representing the elect. The apostle in Hebrews
says, for as much as the children were partakers of flesh and blood,
he also likewise took part in the same. Why was it necessary? People celebrate his coming into
this world, but they have no idea why he came. The incarnation of the Son of
God was necessary so that he should be made a servant. In order for the son to be made
a servant, he must humble himself to become lower than the angels. Why? To deliver us from the power
of death. That was the purpose. It was
by man that sin came, and it must be by man that salvation
be established. A representative. that Christ should come into
the world as a man, not the seed of Adam, but rather the seed
of the woman, to escape the corruption. You and I didn't escape the corruption,
did we? We didn't escape the corruption. We all are sons of Adam, but
this man was no son of Adam. The scripture tells us in Jeremiah
31 and verse 22 that God says, I'm going to show you a new thing.
Something that ain't ever been done before. Something that ain't
ever going to be done again. A woman shall compass a man.
Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son. And what was
the purpose of him becoming the servant? To do the will of God. And what was the will of God?
That you and I be made holy. That's the will of God. I did
this, first of all, by obtaining righteousness. By obtaining righteousness. Look at that in Hebrews. I want
to show you that he came to do the will of God. Hebrews chapter
10. Behold my servant, he has come
to do my will. Look at verse 7. This is what
the servant said. He said, Lo, I come in the volume
of the book it is written of me to do thy will, O God. To do thy will, O God. Above
when he said, sacrifice an offering and burn offering and offering
for sin, thou wouldest not neither had pleasure therein, which are
offered by the law. What does he say in there? He
said, I'm not satisfied with the offerings of the law. I'm
not satisfied with your obedience to the law. Then he said, lo,
I come to do thy will, O God. What does he do? He take it the
way of the first. What's the first? The law, the
law that we transgress, the law that we sin. He takes that away. And what does he establish? That
he may establish the second covenant, a covenant of mercy, a covenant
of grace, not of works. And he said this, by the which
will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Christ
once for all. See, Christ Jesus came into this
world, first of all, to obey the law as a man. Obey the law. When people think of the law,
all they think about is the Ten Commandments, but there's much
more in the law than just that. That encompasses the law of man's
heart, his actions toward God, and his actions toward each other.
Christ did not fulfill just that part of the law. He fulfilled
every part of the law. In thought, in word, in deed,
he did everything according to the law. And he did this as a
representative man, as a representative. And I want you to know how serious
the Lord took his work. How serious was he in his work? The face of Jesus Christ was
unmovable in his mission. We do things, we have plans and
purposes, but there are times in our life we just fickle. We
just do things off the cuff. We just kind of, well, man, I'd
like to go over here and do this. Without thought, without any,
we just do it. Christ never did anything except
the will of God. Every action he performed was
according to the will of God. And he was unmovable in this.
He said, I came down from heaven to do the will of my Father. That's what I came to do. In Luke chapter 12 and verse
50, the scripture, he says, how am I straightened until this
be accomplished? The word straightened means fixed.
How am I set like steel until this is done? There was nothing the Lord did
accidentally. I can't imagine that. I have
no experience in that. Do you? I don't have any experience
in that. Everything He did on purpose. He did according to
the will and law of God. Look back at your text and see
this. Go back to chapter 42 of Isaiah. Look at verse 20. This is speaking of His servant,
seeing many things, but thou observest not, opening the ears,
but thou hearest not. In other words, sin is all around
Him, but it never gets in Him. Even when He hears it, when you
and I hear something sinful, it goes into our sinful minds
and sinful thoughts come out. It never happened to Him. He
sees everything. He hears everything, but he really,
he don't, sin never enters into it. And look what he says. He
said, the Lord is well pleased for his righteousness sake. He
will magnify the law and make it honorable. Believer in Jesus
Christ, I want you to rejoice this morning because the righteousness
you need, Jesus Christ himself fulfilled. All of it. All of it. God was completely well pleased
with his obedience. Even because he was well pleased
with our representatives, even so he is well pleased with us. Behold, how the elect then are
made holy by no work of their own. Look what he says about
us in verse 22. He said, but this people That's
not true of you. He magnified the law and make
it honorable. But look what you did. You robbed and spoiled. They are all of them snared in
holes. They are hid in prison houses.
They are a prey and none delivereth for a spoil and none sayeth restore. Who among you will give ear to
this and who will hearken and hear for the time to come? Who
gave Jacob to the spoil and Israel to the robbers? Did not the Lord. He against whom he had sinned,
for they would not walk in his ways, neither were obedient unto
his law." See what he says about us? He's talking about the elect,
talking about Jacob. That's you and me. He said, we
were people robbed and spoiled. We were snared. We were enslaved. We were a prey. None could deliver
us. We could not deliver ourselves.
Now, who did this to us? Who brought us down? Well, Adam
sinned, but it was the judgment of God that condemned us to this
place. It was the judgment of God. It
was God, in just judgment, that killed Adam and all his race. What do you think God owes you? What do you think God owes you? I'm going to tell you what God
owes you. He owes you hell. That's all. All that you deserve
is hell. That's it. That's very unpopular,
isn't it? That's an unpopular thought. Why does he do this? Because
we have never obeyed him. We have never obeyed. Therefore,
sinner, come and bow down to the one that can provide righteousness
you need. Bow down as one in need of righteousness
and look to his servant. Why? He fulfilled all the righteousness
of God. Look at Romans chapter 3 and
verse 22. The scripture says, even the
righteousness of God which is by the faith of Jesus
Christ. You see the servant's work? By
his faithful obedience, he merited the righteousness of God by himself.
He did it. All of it. Not just skin of the
teeth righteousness. We're talking about the righteousness
of God. How righteous is God? How righteous
is God? That's how righteous Jesus Christ
was as a man. He was the righteousness of God.
He earned it. He merited it by his obedience. But notice he did not do it for
himself. He was already righteous, wasn't
he? Wasn't he already righteous before he came into the world?
Why must the servant of God be righteous as a man? Look what
it says. The righteousness of God by the
faith of Jesus Christ. Here it is. to all and upon all
them that believe." It was in order to give the righteousness
of God to us who believe. To us who trust in the servant
of God, that righteousness of God is now mine. See the necessity of his work? I had no righteousness. I could
perform no righteousness. Therefore, he made righteousness
for me. Second of all, he must perform
the work of redemption. He must perform the work of redemption. The will of God was that his
people should be redeemed and that his justice should be satisfied. Notice in Isaiah chapter 22,
again, look over chapter 42. Look at verse 25 now. And for 22 through 24, he says
they them. Listen, he said, this people
is robbed. They are in a snare. They are
hid as for a prey who among who among you will give ear to this.
He said, who gave Jacob for a spoil Israel to robbers? They, they,
they. But look now in 25, he changes
from plural to singular. Therefore, he, God, hath poured
upon him, singular, the fury of his anger, the strength
of battle. Who is this referring to? Myself. You robbed, you, could not deliver
yourself. You were ensnared. I'm going
to lay on him my fury. It was upon the servant of God
that God purposed to pour out his justice. Behold, the servant
of God who was whose face was set not only to
obey the law of God, but to satisfy the justice of God for the sins
of his people. Consider when Jesus told his
disciples how he must go and suffer. What did Peter say? Oh,
Lord, be it far from me. Don't do that. And what did he tell Peter? He
said, get thee behind me, Satan, for thou savest not the things
of God. What are the things of God? What
was the will of God? That he should die. He knew this
from the beginning, that he should die, that he should die. The flesh, like Satan, despises
the things of God. But Christ honored it. Was this
not the words of his enemies? He saved others, himself he cannot
save. Now Christ was not absent of
power to save himself, was he? He said, if I prayed my father,
he would send 12 legions of angels. When they arrested him, he said,
if I pray the father, he'll send 12 legions of angels to deliver
me. He told Pilate, he said, thou
could hast no power over me except to be given thee. So he had power
to save himself, but listen, he could not save himself and
us. The servant of God could not
save himself even because it was the will of the Father that
he save his people by his death. By his death. Therefore the fury
of God had fallen upon him. Jesus must have been set on fire
round about. Why? Because he was made sin
for us who knew no sin. Yet, what does it say? It says,
look, it says, and it burned Look at that in verse 25. He
said, I will pour out upon him my fury, the fury of his anger
and the strength of battle, and it has set him on fire round
about, yet he knew it not, and it burned him, yet he laid it
not to heart. In other words, consider this,
he was made sin for us, yet he was not consumed. He was like that burning bush.
Moses saw in the wilderness that bush was on fire and yet it was
not consumed. What was consumed at the cross?
Our sin. Our sin was consumed. The justice
of God poured out on Jesus Christ. It poured out on him for what
purpose? For the salvation of his elect.
Now then, listen to me very carefully. Christ did not die for everyone. He died for His people. Remember
what I read at the beginning of our worship service this morning? Thou shalt call His name Jesus,
for He shall save who? Who is He going to save? Who
is it? The prophecy is very specific.
His people. What is He going to save them
from? Their sins. That's why you've got to call
them Jehovah's Saves. Jesus told us this plainly, I
laid down my life for the sheep. Those sheep that were given to
him of the Father. I preached this message a long
time ago. I think it was on a radio broadcast
we had a long time ago and a woman called me and told me how crazy
I was. She told me I was crazy because Christ didn't die just
for his sheep. I think the title of the message
was Sheep and Goats. And I asked the question, did Christ die
for sheep and the goats? No, he died for his sheep. She
told me I was crazy. I had no scripture at all. Obviously,
she didn't even listen to the text. So I took her to John chapter
10 and Jesus told us. He said, I laid down my life
for the sheep. He said, I know my sheep. and
am known of mine, I lay down my life for who? The sheep. Other
sheep I have which are not of this fold, them I also must bring,
and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and
one shepherd." Jesus told those Pharisees, he said, you believe
not because you are not of my sheep. I told you the Lord never did
anything on accident. Those words were not accidental. They were
not accidentally misplaced or put in the wrong order. He didn't
say, you're not my sheep because you don't believe. He said, you
don't believe because you're not of my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, I know
them, I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish,
neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. For the Father
which gave them me is greater than all. No man is able to pluck
them out of his hand. So we see that Christ is very
specific in his death, that he died for his sheep, his people. And behold the servant of God. I want you to know this, you
that believe, just as He did not fail to give you His righteousness,
make righteousness for you, He did not fail to redeem you. He
did not fail. His redemption was no failure.
It was victorious. Behold the crucified servant
upon the cross, was no unwilling victim of unjust men, but he
was a willing victim to suffer the fury of God's wrath to redeem
his people. Therefore, we preach to you a
successful servant who has redeemed all of his people." The scriptures
are plain. He said, Behold my servant, verse
4, he shall not fail. He shall not fail. Listen, if there is any Savior,
any Messiah who has tried to redeem but failed, He is no Savior
at all. If He is trying to redeem you,
that is not the man of this prophecy. That is not the servant of God
of this prophecy. This prophecy is clear. He shall
not fail. Anyone who preaches a failed
redeemer is a false prophet. Why? He shall not fail. Eric, if he redeemed you and
you die in your sins, he failed. What else can you say? We know that's not true. Therefore,
we preach the true servant of God has finished the work. has
perfectly done the work. Why? Because the servant of God
said it himself. He said, Father, I have finished
the work which you gave me to do. Therefore, glorify me with
the glory I had with you. All power is given unto me in
heaven and in earth. For what purpose? To give eternal
life to as many as thou hast given me. I am a successful Savior,
victorious Savior. When Christ died and gave up
the ghost, what were his words? It is finished. That was his
word. His work was to provide righteousness. He did not fail. His work was
to provide redemption. He said, it's finished. I did
not fail. And what's the evidence of that?
God raised him from the dead. You know the significance of
that resurrection, that if one sin remained. Remember, all of
our sins were put on him. He was made sin for us. He suffered
under the righteousness of God and died. If one sin remained,
God could not raise him from the dead. God would not be just to raise
him from the dead if one sin remained. But the victory is this, no sin
remained. This is the glory of his death,
that he perfectly did it. It's perfect in every part. He finished the work. God raised
him from the dead and set him on the throne of heaven. Because God has raised him from
the dead, we have this hope that he alone has fulfilled our redemption. Back in Hebrews chapter 10, it
says, for by His one offering. Listen, our redemption is by
His one offering. Not His offering plus your contribution. If you add anything to His righteousness
or His redemption, you've defiled it. Well, I think that Jesus
did His part, but then I have to do mine. No, you defile it
when you do that. All we can do is sin. Every righteous
deed that we've ever done is mixed with sin. Okay. Anybody that desires to
bring their work before God, name one that you'll take to
it. Name one that you'll say, okay, God, here's this work.
I'm going to earn heaven based on this. Name it. You would be ashamed. You should
be ashamed if you brought anything at all. But we who believe on Him, this
is our rest. This is my hope. When I stand
before God, I will be fully clothed in His righteousness alone. I
don't have any more. It's all His. And my sins are
going to be gone because He paid the price for them. I love it. I love the justice of God, don't
you? I do. Because God cannot justly demand
twice payment for sin. Isn't that right? God cannot demand payment at
my surety's hand and then again at mine. And because his success, he actually
accomplished my redemption. It says, by his one offering,
he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. And lastly,
the work of Jesus Christ was to call his people to actually
apply this. Because when his people are born
into this world, they have none of this. We're born just like
everyone else. There's no difference between
his elect and the rest. Nothing. We're all born dead
in sin. You cannot distinguish between
us and the rest. I remember Spurgeon had that
man come up to him and say, you know, look, preacher, if God
has elect people and Christ only died for them, and they're only,
them are going to be saved, then why preach? He said, sir, if
you would kindly point out the elect to me, I will only preach
to them. I don't know who they are. I have no clue. And it's
not for me to distinguish. You know why? I get it wrong. He said, let the tares grow up
with the wheat. Why? Because you'll pull out the wrong ones.
It's not for me to determine who the elect are and who aren't.
But I know this, everyone that He has chosen, everyone that
He has performed righteousness for, everyone that He has redeemed,
He will call them without fail. Man, how do you know all that?
The servant said it. Go to John 6. Look at verse 37. He said, all that the father
giveth me, what are they going to do? What will they do? Shall come to me. And when they come, how is he
going to treat them? How will he treat the sinner
that comes to him? I will in no wise cast out. That's not what I deserved when
I came to Him. Matter of fact, when I came to
Him, I was so afraid that He would reject me. Why? I deserved to be rejected. When I came to Him, there was
no way He was going to cast me out. Why? Because the Father
had given me to Him. He purposed that I should...
I didn't know that at the time. I didn't know that. But I came to Him seeking righteousness
and redemption. You know what? He didn't cast
me out. Why? It was the Father's will. Look at that. He said,
For I came down from heaven not to do mine own will, but the
will of Him that sent me to be a servant. And just in case you don't have
to guess what the Father's will is, He tells you. And this is
the Father's will which is sent me. That of all He hath given
me, I should lose nothing. So the question is, how many
will the servant lose? Tell me. How many will he lose? A successful servant loses nothing.
And that's exactly what he said. I will lose nothing. But I will
raise all of them up at the last day. And notice now the experience
of everyone given to the Father. He says, And this is the will
of Him that sent me. That they experience it. This is my promise. This is what
I came to do and I'm going to do it. Now then, this is the
experience of it. This is the Father's will which
hath sent me, that of all he hath given me I should lose nothing.
Raise it up again to the last day. Verse 40, And this is the
will of him that sent me, that every one that seeth the Son,
and believeth on him, have everlasting life. Do you see the Son? Do you see the Son? Do you see the servant of God? Do you see the perfection of
His righteousness? Do you see the perfect redemption
of His blood? Do you see that? Do you believe
that? Seeeth the Son and believeth on Him may have everlasting life
and I will raise Him up at the last day. So herein is the promise of God.
that the work of Jesus Christ should be accomplished in every
elect sinner. And this is the evidence of my
election. My morality is not the evidence of my election because
in any given moment you're not going to see morality. My obedience to church ordinances
and all of these things That's not the evidence of my election,
my righteousness, and my redemption. What's the evidence? Faith in
Jesus Christ is the evidence of all those things. Why? Because faith itself is a gift
of God and not of works. Ephesians 2.8. It's a gift of
God and not of works. Why? Lest anyone would brag about
it. If I got faith on my own, I have
something to glory in. I got something to brag about.
But faith is not of my own, it is a gift of God, so I have nothing
to brag about. For we are His workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works. Will the believer do good works?
Yes! Is there anything you want to
do but good works? I mean, I want to. Paul says, he says, to do
good, I want to, but how to perform that which is good, I find not.
I want to. Man, everything I do, I can't
have any glory in it. But faith in Jesus Christ is
the evidence and the fulfillment. Behold the Savior that we preach. is a successful Savior and every
one of His people are willing to believe. Are you willing to
believe? Alright, who made you willing? You or Him? Did that will come from you?
Or was it a gift and by the power of the Spirit of God? Which is
it? Because His people are made willing in the day of His power. Psalm 110 verse 3. Thy people
shall be willing. Does that sound iffy to you?
Does that sound like He cast it out and rolled the dice and
hoped? No. Thy people shall be willing. Why? My servant shall not fail
nor be discouraged. Is He discouraged? I'm discouraged
a lot. I'm discouraged. I'm discouraged
that the whole world won't hear this message. I'm discouraged.
He's not. The church of Jesus Christ is
always full. You understand that? It's always full. Never empty. It's always full. There are many yet that have
not believed. That's why we're still here, in case you're wondering.
Why we're still here? Because many of our brethren
have not yet come. This gives me a joyful thought.
When the last one believes, it's over. You got that? When the last believer believes,
when the last one he chose comes to faith in Christ, we're gone. It's over. He comes back. And he establishes righteousness
and judgment in the earth, not just in the hearts of his people,
but he cast out all sin and we serve him forever. See, I don't see the. The fulfillment
of what he's done yet. I don't see the fullness of what
the servant of God has accomplished yet. But he promises this, we
will. We will see it. It's done. And so then all the hope of his
people rests on the servant. My hope of heaven is in the servant. What is your hope of heaven?
When you die and you will. I mean, it's just so. Except
he comes back during your lifetime, you will die, period. What is
your hope of standing before God? Mine is the servant of God. That's my hope. When I mean hope,
I don't mean wish. That's my confidence. I have
confidence in the servant of God. I have no confidence in
me. I have confidence in his righteousness.
I have confidence in his redemption. I have confidence in his calling.
And I have confidence of this. He's going to keep us. He said,
I'll raise it up again to the last day. What does that mean?
He's going to keep us until the last day. Peter said we are kept, 1 Peter
1, 5, we are kept. You that believe, why are you
still here? Why do you still believe? Because
you're kept. You are kept by the power of
God. You know why? That's the only
thing to keep you. If God left you to keep yourself,
we would fail. I'm thankful the servant is successful. He shall not fail. Is there anything happening right
now that he's failed in? I look at Providence and boy,
I see it seems like everything's failing. It's not. He's no failure. He is moving all things for the
salvation of his people. That means you that believe everything
Christ is doing He is doing for your good and salvation. Behold the servant of God, he
shall not fail. I hope that's the good, I know
that's the good tidings God intended. Is that good tidings to you?
What is if you're a sinner? It's good tidings of great joy. Behold my servant, I pray God
will bless this, stand and be dismissed.