Acts chapter 8, where we read
for our reading the most clear example of the sovereign and
amazing grace of God. The last time we saw how that
the hand of God's providence, which is simply God controlling
all things, to carry out his purpose and glorify his name
and save his people. But we saw how the hand of God
brings this man Philip, who himself is not an apostle, but who is
a deacon. And he brings him now into this
desert place and brings also to that same place And at that
same hour, this one who is described as the Ethiopian eunuch. If you stop and think about it
for just a minute, we cannot even really begin to comprehend
all the details, all the events, all the things that were necessary
to bring them together on this particular occasion. But here they are. And it is
neither chance, nor fate, nor luck, nor any other such foolish
man-made notion. It is the will and it is the
purpose of God. And it is that purpose of grace
which the apostle says was given us in Christ before the world
began. Why does God go to such trouble? Why does He use this particular
messenger? It is simply because He would. It is simply because it is His
way. And such instances as this show
us the real truth as to what Peter is saying in his second
epistle, when he says, the Lord is not slack concerning his promise,
as some men count slackness, but is long-suffering to us-ward,
such as this unit. such as every one of his people,
not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."
The heart of God is so much after his people that he will do anything
and everything necessary to save them. He says in Isaiah 43, For
I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Savior. I gave Egypt for thy ransom,
Ethiopia and Sheba for thee, since thou wast precious in my
sight, thou hast been honorable, and I have loved thee, therefore
will I give men for thee, and people for thy life." That's
what God says concerning His people. And here God the Spirit
has first directed Philip to go down into this place called
Gaza. And not only that, he has begun
a work in the heart of this Ethiopian eunuch. And he will bring them
together for this purpose of revealing to him the truth as
it is in Jesus. So the question is, since Philip
has undergone all of this, since God has brought these two men
together, what will Philip preach? What will Philip preach? That's my message this morning.
What will he preach? And I say that not only concerning
Philip and this Ethiopian, But I say it concerning every individual
that God sends his messenger to with the message of life,
what will he preach? Then somebody says, of course,
he'll preach the gospel. And he will surely preach the
gospel, but what is the gospel? What is the gospel? And not only
that, what is central to the gospel? What is essential to
the gospel? And you might could ask that
question to a lot of folks and get a lot of different answers. But I have to say, to simply
make it as concise as I possibly can, that the gospel is a message
about the man Christ Jesus. As a matter of fact, providence,
God in his providence brought this man Philip with simply one
message. If you look back at verse 5 of
chapter 8 here in the book of Acts, It says, Then Philip went
down to the city of Samaria. What did he do? And preached
Christ unto them. But when you look here in the
text that we're looking at this morning, down in verse 35, it
says, Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same
scripture and preached unto him Jesus. Now there are many, many
people in our day especially that would give to that statement
a very hearty amen. They would say, that that is
exactly what we need to do. Just preach Jesus. All we have to do, or all Philip
would have had to have done, in light of what most seem to
believe in our day, is just walk up into that chariot with that
Ethiopian and spoke the name Jesus and said, Believe on Him. But if you look at this text
of scripture, what we find is that he began at that same scripture
and preached unto him Jesus. What scripture did he begin at
and out of that scripture preach to this eunuch, the Lord Jesus
Christ? If you look back in verse 32,
it says that the Ethiopian was reading from this manuscript,
no doubt, this scroll of the scripture, and he tells us exactly
that prophet that he was reading from. The place of the scripture
which he read was this. He was led as a sheep to the
slaughter, and like a lamb dumbed before his shearer, so opened
he not his mouth. In his humiliation his judgment
was taken away, and who shall declare his generation? For his
life is taken from the earth. And the eunuch answered Philip
and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? Of himself, or of some other
man." Now, what he did by this very clear example was, he did
not simply preach just the name of Jesus. But what he did was
he, from those Old Testament Scriptures, and that is exactly
what he was using here, from that passage there in the prophet
Isaiah, it says, from that very place, he opened his mouth and
he preached unto him Jesus. Look over in 1 Corinthians chapter
15. Because in 1 Corinthians chapter
15, we find the Apostle Paul showing us that that was his
way of preaching. 1 Corinthians 15. He says, moreover brethren, I
declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also
you have received, and wherein you stand, by which also you
are saved, if you keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless
you have believed in vain." Paul says, I preached unto you the
gospel. But the problem was, Paul would
be one of the men that God used to give us the New Testament
Scriptures. And so, without the whole canon
of Scripture already given, already made known and manifest, how
was it that Paul, not having the New Testament Scriptures,
preached the Gospel to him? Well, he preached the same way
that Philip preached. He says, for I delivered unto
you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died
for our sins according to the Scriptures. This had to be the
Old Testament Scriptures. He says, and that he was buried,
and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. So here is Philip and also Paul,
and they are preaching the gospel, and they're using the Old Testament
Scriptures. They're preaching the life, the
death, the burial, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and they're
using the Old Testament Scriptures. But then again, that was the
same way of preaching that Christ used. Christ himself used that
very same way in Luke chapter 24 when he met those disciples
and revealed himself to them on the road to Emmaus. Listen
to what he says in Luke 24. And beginning at Moses and all
the prophets He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures, in
all the Old Testament Scriptures, the things concerning Himself. And then a little bit later on,
when He met a larger group of His disciples in a room, made
Himself known to them in that same chapter in verses 44 and
45, it says that He said unto them, These are the words which
I spake unto you while I was yet with you, that all things
must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses."
That's the first five books of the Old Testament. And in the
prophets and in the Psalms concerning me, then opened he their understanding
that they might understand the scripture. So whether it be the
Old Testament Scriptures or the New Testament Scriptures, this
is the book that is the revelation of none other than the Lord Jesus
Christ. And so when Philip is asked to
join with this unit and to help him some way understand the Scriptures,
Philip did not waste his time entertaining him. He did not
look at this man and say, well, he's of a different social class
than I am or a different race even than I am, so I need to
wait just a little bit and make some preparation. Maybe I need
to dress more like him. Maybe I need to speak in terms
more like he's more readily willing to receive. He didn't start by
giving him some historical information about the church or telling him
some long discord about an old preacher or writer somewhere.
You see, the truth of the matter is there's an urgency about the
gospel. It isn't like we're going to
be here in this life for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of
years. It isn't like that we'll have
all the time we need to hear and to think about the gospel.
When Philip stood up in that chariot and took that scroll
and began to read, he began to preach to him, I believe, in
an urgency because time was short and this man was an eternity-bound
soul. who would be going out to meet
God. And everyone who dies, dies daily,
dies without hope, dies without God, if they die without the
Lord Jesus. He didn't have a message of politics
for the youth. He didn't have a message that
was based on moral issues. He didn't have entertaining singing
so that he might be softened up to receive the message. It says that he joined himself
to the eunuch, and from the same scripture that he was reading
from, he preached unto him. He was reading from the prophet
Isaiah. And we're made to know some things
about this. We're made to know without any
doubt that Jesus Christ is the one that Isaiah was speaking
about. As a matter of fact, the Lord
Jesus Christ himself made reference, quoted that first verse of that
same chapter, and so did the Apostle Paul in Romans in talking
about Christ. It is all about the Lord Jesus
Christ. The gospel which Isaiah called
our report has to do with the man Christ Jesus. Now we don't even have to wonder,
although in Isaiah's day there was no chapter or verse. But
you and I are not left to wonder what part or portion of that
prophet's writings we ought to look at, because the scriptures
show us that he was reading from what we now know to be Isaiah,
Turn over to Isaiah chapter 53. You see, when Isaiah begins in
that first chapter, he refers to the gospel which he is about
to set forth as clearly as anywhere you'll find it in the Old Testament,
but he calls it our report. Now, if you look at a Hebrew
dictionary, if you try to find out something about what that
word, report, means, what he's saying there is, who hath believed
our doctrine? And yet so many people in our
day, they say, we don't want you to preach doctrine, we just
want you to preach Jesus. But as we find everywhere in
this book, we find that the gospel of Jesus Christ is called by
the Apostle John and others, the doctrine of Christ. You cannot preach the gospel
of Christ without preaching the doctrine of Christ. And so he
calls this gospel that he is being led by the Spirit to show
so very much of, even in these Old Testament passages, he calls
it our report. We've got a report to make. We've
got a doctrine to set forth. We've got a sound doctrine to
preach. And what you find is when you
read the 53rd chapter of Isaiah is that Philip preached from
that same passage Christ in the same character that Isaiah did. He sets him forth in his redemptive
character. Now I can tell you this, you
can say a lot about Jesus Christ and it not be the gospel. You
can set him forth as an example, which he surely was, or you can
set him forth as a teacher, which he surely was, or a martyr, or
a host of other things, but at the very heart of that which
he said was the glory which he had with the Father before the
world was, that has to do with the Lord Jesus Christ in his
character as the Redeemer. What did he say when he began
to talk about how all the scriptures were about him? He said, in light
of all that the prophet said, if you really look and have understanding
about what the prophet said, he said, ought not the Christ
what? First to have suffered, and then
to enter into his glory. In other words, that which precedes
this particular glory of Christ, this glory that is beyond his
glory as God himself, that glory is his glory in this character
of the Redeemer, of the sacrifice and Savior of his people. Look down in our passage in Isaiah
53. Who hath believed our report,
and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For he shall grow
up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of a dry ground. He hath no form nor comeliness,
and when we shall see him there is no beauty that we should desire
him. He is despised and rejected of
men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and we hid, as it
were, our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed
him." Not. Now he doesn't wait around. He
doesn't give a lot of unnecessary information. But he, being led
in the Spirit, goes immediately into that which is central to
and characteristic of the Messiah that is to come, and it has to
do with how he is not appealing to us by nature, but he's come
not simply to be an earthly king, but to suffer. You see, that's
what messed the Jews up so bad. They're wanting an earthly king.
They're wanting physical deliverance. They're wanting a life of ease. They're wanting to be treated
specially in the flesh. But here is the Christ. Here
is this Jesus who comes in human flesh and He has no more outward
appeal than any other person. Do you remember there was a song
that said something like this? Let others see Jesus in you. The truth of the matter is, they
didn't see Jesus in Jesus. But He's not come for the purpose
that men by nature thought. He's come, and He's come to suffer
and to die. So, Isaiah, and Philip, and Paul,
and every other true gospel preacher, preaches Christ crucified. You leave off the death of Christ,
You can say the name of Jesus all you want to, and you won't
even be close to the gospel. He preached Christ crucified. Paul, saying it like this, he
says, for I determined not to know anything among you save
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. You say, well, what if he had
not been reading Isaiah 53? It wouldn't have mattered. Because
this whole book is about Jesus Christ and him crucified. If
he'd been in Genesis talking about the land that Abel offered
up in sacrifice to God, he could have preached Christ crucified.
If he'd have been there with Noah in the ark, he could have
preached Christ crucified, wherever it is. It is as Paul says, for
the preaching of the cross is to them that are perishing foolishness,
but unto us which are being saved it is the power of God. We don't
ever find anything better. We don't ever get any news that's
better than what we find in the crucified Christ. You see, he
did not try to make Christ appealing to the natural man. And he did
not try to sneak up on him with the gospel. He did not try to
smooth off the rough edges of the divine truth about God. He
preached the true beauty of Christ. The Scriptures talk about some
beholding the King in His beauty. What is the beauty of the Lord
Jesus Christ? Well, His beauty, as Isaiah shows
us there, was not in His natural face. Let me ask you this. In
all these renditions, all these paintings and portraits of somebody
they call Jesus, have you ever seen them paint an ugly Jesus?
Oh no. Has a radiance about Him. Has
maybe even a little shiny glow around Him. Has all these nice
features. Warmth of face. But Isaiah said,
the truth is, There's not anything about him, humanly speaking,
that would make him appealing to us. But that's okay. Because
his beauty is in what he accomplished. And it is a beauty that none
can see, that none can know, that none can value. There is
nothing about him that we can love unless God is pleased to
reveal to us who he is. and what he's done. He hath no
form nor comeliness that we should desire. And that's because of
our blindness. What does he say our blindness
is like? He says we hid as it were our
faces from him. It's a willing, willful blindness. We hid, as it were, our faces
from Him. He was despised, and we esteemed
Him not. They lived day by day, side by
side with the Lord Jesus Christ. They watched Him. They scrutinized
Him. And when He began to do the miraculous,
they said, this is just Mary and Joseph's son. But He not
only preached Jesus in His redemptive character, He preached Christ
in His character as the substitute. The substitute. Look back down
at verse 4 in Isaiah 53. I like the way that fourth verse
begins. Surely, surely, surely he hath
borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem
him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded
for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep
have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his
own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. Now why is he suffering? Why
is he dying? He says we looked at him, and
we have such notions as a man who gets punished in that manner
and that fashion dies at death of the cross. What an awful criminal
he must be. God surely did that. But his
suffering is for sins not his own. His suffering is for sins
that are said to be laid on him. His suffering is for all the
sins of all his people for all time. Paul saying, he was made
sin for us. Now, why did he die? He died
because of imputation. Say, what in the world is that?
Well, it's not just a Bible word, it's a Bible doctrine. It means
that he died because as the substitute of his people, the Lord, as it
says in our text, laid on him, that is, made him to be responsible
for, to pay the debt for, all of the sins of all these people
He represents. If you had read in the Old Testament
about the sin offering, the peace offering, all these offerings,
the offerings where the offer was to, or the priest was to
lay his hands on the head of the sacrifier and confess the
sin, you wouldn't have any problem understanding what that meant.
The Lord laid on him, or charged to his account, or held him responsible
for the sins of his people. He's not suffering here and dying
for his sin. He had no sin. He knew no sin. He's suffering here in the place
of sinners for their sin. He's bearing our transgression,
he's bruised for our iniquity, he's wounded for our transgression,
and the chastisement of our peace was upon him. Peter says it this
way, through his own self, bear our sins in his own body on the
tree. that we being dead to sins should
live under righteousness by whose stripes you were healed. Not you can be healed. Not you
can be healed if you believe enough. But the sickness that
he's talking about here is the sickness of sin. He says you
were healed because he bears every stripe, every blow of divine
justice that with you were the sins of his people, he bore that
responsibility and that penalty on the tree in his own Peter
again. For Christ also hath once suffered
for sins, the just for the unjust. How did he have to suffer? As
the just one. Why does he suffer? For the unjust. that he might bring us to God,
being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit.
Paul says, but God commended his love toward us in that while
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us in our place. Again, he says he was delivered
for our offenses and was raised again for our justification. You see, he preached that all
of this happened according to the will of God, and most particularly,
under the justice of God. He truly is stricken, smitten,
and afflicted of God. And you hear, when on that cross
he cries out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? God
forsaking God. Ask that question to get information
from the Father. He makes that cry so that His
people might know that He did really, and truly, and genuinely,
and fully, and eternally bear all their sins away in His Body
of the Truth. When our God laid on Him our
iniquity, And he turns the eye of his holiness away from his
son, and calls the sword of Joseph to awake, O sword, and smite
the shepherd, just like when they came to get him in the garden.
They said, who are you looking for? They said, Jesus of Nazareth. He said, I'm he. But if you're
going to take me, let these go. That's the way divine justice
is. If he's going to take Christ, All those Christ represents,
they must go free. They must go free. Because he's
dying as the substitute. And not only that, Philip preaches
that he does so in a voluntary submission. Verse 7. He was oppressed
and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He's brought
as a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep before her shears
is done, so He opened not His mouth. Remember God, He says,
well, those Roman soldiers are responsible for that. No. Or
the Jews are responsible for that. Or this one, or Pilate,
or that one. No. He dies as a willing substitute. He lays down His life. He gives His life in the place
of His people. He says in John 10, As the Father
knoweth me, even so know I the Father, and I lay down my life
for the sheep. No man takes it from me, but
I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down.
I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received
of my Father. Christ said it's an uncommon
thing when even a friend will give his life for a free man.
But here is the Lord of glory that is in love, willingly, freely,
without force, without coercion, without anything. He loves somebody
good enough to come into this world and yield himself up to
the death of the cross. And how could we ever preach
the gospel without preaching as Isaiah and as Philip did that
Christ's death is a particular sacrifice, is a particular satisfaction
for the elect of God, for that people that he chose in Christ
before the world began. He preached Jesus in this particular
redemption. Now, I don't agree with everything
Mr. Spurgeon says, but I will agree
with him on one thing. He said if there was not another
verse in all the Bible, to show and to teach the truth of particular
redemption. He'd have to believe it based
on this one verse. Look at verse 8. He was taken
from prison and from judgment, and who shall declare his generation? He's supposed to have a lineage. He's supposed to have a people.
And yet he's gone to this cross to die. Who's going to declare
his generation? For he was cut off out of the
land of the living. And you notice this last statement. For the transgression of my people
was he stricken. Who does he die for? Who does
he die in the place of? Who is he stricken of God for? For the transgression of God's
people. When he has that willing and
voluntary substitute and sacrifice lays down his life, he said,
I lay down my life for the sheep. I give my life for the sheep. Now let me say this, there are
many people who will say that Christ died for sinners, and
he did. And there are many people who
will say that he died for all who believe, which he did. But we are withholding something
that in God's wisdom He has declared without reservation if we fail
to say that He died particularly for the sins of His people. This universal redemption is
really no redemption at all. If God loved everybody, Christ
died for everybody, and the Spirit of God is trying to save everybody,
there's only one thing that makes those three points absolutely
successful. And it's the big eye of a sinner. God is not going to leave the
work that He has chosen to glorify Himself most on. He's not going
to leave that. up to the fallen, pickled, sinful
wills of a bunch of sinners. But we're afraid to tell people
this. We're afraid they might feel excluded. They might be
excluded. I don't have any news for them
anyway. He said, I lay down my life for the sheep, and my sheep
hear my voice, and they follow me. That's good news to God's
sheep. He laid down His life for me. But yet we're wiser than God. And one of the first things that
are spoken about Jesus of Nazareth, the thing that is spoken of Him
when there's a discussion about what He is to be named, His very
name, Jesus, that's as forth about as clear as it can be when
they're told, Thou shalt call His name Jesus. For he shall
save his people from their sins. Not try to. Not make them savable. Not help them along the way.
He shall, without any doubt or possibility of failure, save
eternally, completely, his people from all their sins. That's Jesus. Paul tells those Ephesian elders,
he says, take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the
flock over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers
to feed the church of God which he hath purchased with his blood. Who did he purchase with his
blood? The church. Then Paul again, when he writes
to the Ephesians, he says, husbands, love your wives, even as Christ
also loved the church and gave himself for it." I don't imagine
there are too many wives who think that he's teaching universal
love to husbands who love everybody's life, do you? He said, husbands,
love your wives, particularly, specially, devotedly, sacrificially,
as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. He preached
Jesus in his sinless perfection. Verse 9, it says, And he made
his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death, because
he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Number one thing God requires
for a sacrifice. It must be perfect to be chipped. He had to be the one who knew
no sin, He had to be the one who's described as harmless,
holy, and undefiled. And he had to be the one who
presided himself without spot to God. No spot. No seat. Because that's what God required. And he does all this on purpose. Look at verse 10. Yet it pleased
the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief." You
mean God did that? Absolutely. Absolutely. When thou shalt make his soul
an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong
his day, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his
hand. The purpose of God. The will
of God. You see, the truth is, Christ
doing, performing the will of God in every detail, that's our
salvation. That's our hope. Peter, when
he preaches, oh me, these in our day preachers have such a
wisdom that evidently they think is above God. When Peter, on
the day of Pentecost, than have just taken and crucified the
Lord Jesus Christ. And he stands up there on the
day of Pentecost and he says to those who hear, Him being
delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God, you've taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain. God will hold this race accountable. for by wicked hands taking and
slaying his son. But he's not going to give them
the credit for doing it. Understand that? He's not going
to let them have the credit. He says it happened according
to the determinate counsel and ordination of God. God did it. Pleased the Lord to do it. Made
his soul an offering for sin. As a matter of fact, Peter goes
on. He says, the kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers
were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ,
for of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed,
both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people
of Israel were gathered together, Here's a crowd that hated one
another. They were all such bigots against
each other. They loathed and despised each
other. But they all agreed on one thing,
and that was this natural hatred in their heart for the Son of
God. But He said, they were gathered
together for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined
before it to be done. Some folks seem to think that
when Christ is hanging on that cross, the whole world is out
of control right then. No way. The one whose hands are
nailed to that cross, do at that very moment hold the scepter
of righteousness in a solemn sway over everything, every event,
every person in the whole world right then. And then there's
one thing he surely preached Jesus asked. And that was as
an absolute success. I'm telling you, the Lord Jesus
Christ is an absolute success. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
him. He hath put him to grief, for
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. He shall see his sea. He's going to have that generation. 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 iniquity. Therefore will I divide him a
portion with the great, and he shall divide the small with the
strong, because he hath poured out his soul unto death. And
he was numbered with the transgressors, and he bare the sin of many,
and he made intercession for the transgressors. Now there's
not one statement in all those verses that speak of possibilities
or are in any way conditional. There are things that in some
respect at that time were not done, and yet they're already
spoken of as being done. Why? Because he cannot say. He's going to do. He is, right
now, an absolute success. He's going to make the purpose
and will of God to be accomplished in His hand. He's going to justify
many. He's going to bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will divide him
a portion with the great, and he shall divide the small with
the strong because of what he's done. Who gets the spoils? The victor. The victor. And this
victor is said to share his spoils. He shares them with his seed.
He shares them with his people. He entered into that holy place
and actually obtained eternal redemption. Paul says, by one
man's obedience, the many were made righteous. He says, when
he had by himself purged our sins, he sat down at the right
hand of the majesty on high. He finished the work. God accepted
the work. It's a done deal. Well, I just
hope this unit will accept this. How ridiculous. You think that
God has done all he's done? Even in time does all that he
does just to leave it to a foolish sinner that his purpose from
old eternity was to save, even if it means to save him from
himself. It's not going to happen. It
says in verse 36 of Acts 8, And as they went on their way, they
came unto a certain water. And the eunuch said, See, here
is water. What doth hinder me to be baptized?
And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. That's an open confession
wherein this man is saying, I believe this man Jesus is that exact
one that Isaiah was talking about. He's the Son of God. He's the
Messiah. He's the Christ. He's the Savior. And he commanded the chariot
to stand still, and they went down both into the water. Pray
no strength in there, my friends. And they both went down into
the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized. What
did he confess in that baptism? His identification, confidence,
hope in, trust in the death, burial, resurrection of Christ. And when they were come up out
of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away, that
the eunuch saw him no more, and he went on his way rejoicing.
But Philip was founded as it is, and passing through, he preached
in all the cities till he came to see the real." What do you
think he preached? Preach Christ crucified. And everybody else
that's sin of God is going to preach Christ crucified. In that
character, in those details, and as that success, that Isaiah
sets him forth in Isaiah 53. I never wonder who I'm going
to preach. I struggle a lot how, from what
portion of Scripture, but I never wonder about who. God help us
to look to this Savior. We're saviors. He's an absolute
success. Father, this day we give you
thanks and praise and glory. What a glorious salvation! What
hope for sinners such as we are because of this Savior, your
Son, who has already borne the sin, paid the debt, lives and
rules and reigns to apply it. Thank you for sending us a messenger
to tell us the truth of the Gospel. Help us, we pray, for we ask
it in His name. Amy.