Still have your Bibles open there.
Look with me again at Isaiah chapter 40. Titled the message, what shall
I cry? You know, these verses have often
been called the threefold cry of evangelism. And this gives
us the cry of every servant of God. These verses give us the
message that every servant of God preaches. These three points
will be found in every gospel message. Now they may not, and
almost certainly will not, most of the time be named points,
but you'll find them in every gospel message. Just like you
don't always see the foundation of a building. You came in here
this morning, Nobody's seeing the foundation of this building.
Nobody's checking it out. But you know it's there, right?
These three points may not exactly be named, but they'll be in every
gospel message. All flesh is grass. Our flesh
is just as good as grass. The word of the Lord endureth
forever, and behold, you're gone. Those three things will be in
every gospel message. These verses tell us what the
message is and they also tell us how God's servant is to preach
the message. He's to do it urgently. The voice
said, cry, cry, make yourself heard because it's so important
for people to hear this message. So here's the first point, the
first cry of evangelism. The voice said in verse six,
the voice said, cry. I was sitting up here thinking,
what man in his right mind would get up and do what you're getting
ready to do? To open the Word of Almighty
God and talk to souls who are on
their way to eternity. What man in his right mind would
do such a thing. Well, that's the one that God
calls. And he tells him, go, and the servant goes willingly,
just like Isaiah said, he said, here am I, send me. And the voice
said, cry. And you know, my first thought
is, who am I to be the one doing the crying? Who am I the one
to be doing the preaching? And second of all, what am I
gonna cry? What's the message that you'd
have your people hear? Well, the first thing is this,
all flesh is grass. Verse six, the voice said, cry.
And he said, what shall I cry? Here's what you cry. All flesh
is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is at the flower of the
field. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, because the spirit
of the Lord bloweth upon it. Surely the people is grass. Now every time we hear the gospel
preached, we have to hear this, all flesh is grass. And you know,
when we talk about grass, I'm not talking about nice, smooth,
you know, green, lush grass that you find on a golf course. I'm
not even talking about just, you know, grass that's in your
backyard where, you know, you've spread some fertilizer, some
weed eaters and stuff, you know, to keep the weeds out. Our flesh
is not even as nice as crabgrass. We're just weeds. That's what
we are. Good for nothing weeds. If you
care at all about your lawn, you know, I pretty much just
I don't want to make tall grass short and be done with it, you
know, but if you care much about your lawn, you spend a good bit
of time trying to get rid of weeds, don't you? You see weeds
come up, you just can't stand it. Weeds can grow anywhere. I mean, a crack of a sidewalk,
a weed can grow. This summer, you see a weed popping
up in a crack of a sidewalk, you just look at that and you
think, that's me. You see that weed growing up
in your sidewalk, it just offends you. You just pick that thing
up, you just ruin the look of my landscaping. You just remember,
that's me. All I am is a weed. All I'm good
for is to be plucked up and thrown away. Our flesh is no better
than a weed. And I don't care who you are,
you're no more valuable, no more useful than a weed. I don't care
what you've done or what you haven't done. You're just a weed. No matter who you are, no matter
what you've experienced, all you are is a weed. And you're
not going to last very long either. You know, this flesh will look
pretty good for a while. It can. But it won't last. It's not going
to last. Very soon, it's going to look
ugly and diseased and decayed. For some reason, I've started
getting ads popping up on my computer, how to get rid of age
spots. I mean, people spend a lot of
money trying to make that look better, don't they? I mean, businesses
sell billions of dollars worth of stuff trying to make this
flesh not look as bad as it really is. And you know what? Before you know it, all that's
going to be left of our flesh is dust. I mean, that's what
we are, dust. And what that means is this,
there's no goodness in our flesh. Physically and especially spiritually,
there is no good in our flesh. No good, no spiritual good can
come from our flesh. Look at Romans chapter three.
Our flesh can't produce anything good, can't produce anything
righteous. There's no spiritual goodness
or soundness in us, none whatsoever. Romans 3, verse 10. As it is written, there's none
righteous, no, not one. There's none that understandeth.
There's none that seeketh after God. You think, well, I seek
after God only because he sought you first. By nature, there's
none that seeketh after God. They're all gone out of the way.
They're together become unprofitable. You just add us all up together,
we're still unprofitable. There's none that doeth good,
no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulcher,
just our throat's an open grave. With their tongues they've used
to see, the poison of asps is under their lips, whose mouth
is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed
blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way
of peace, if they not known. There's no fear of God before
their eyes. Now we know that what things whoever the law saith,
that saith to them who are under the law, that every mouth may
be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law, by the deeds of the law, by the motions and doing of the
law in this flesh, there shall no flesh be justified in his
sight. For by the law is the knowledge
of sin. Now that's a right ugly picture,
isn't it? But that's us by nature. That's what our flesh is. The
flesh can't do anything to please God. Any more than a weed growing
up in your yard would please you. We can't keep the law well
enough to please God. We can't be righteous enough,
we can't be religious enough, and we can't be moral enough
to please God. We can't do anything. I mean,
we can't do one blessed thing to even get God to save us. We
can't do something to make God accept us in his presence. The
only thing that our works will do is damn us. That's the only
thing our works will do. We're dead in sin and we've been
dead a long time. Look over our page at Romans
chapter five. We've been dead in sin ever since
Adam sinned in the garden. Romans five verse 12. Wherefore as by one man's sin
entered into the world and death by sin, so death passed upon
all men for that all have sinned. And properly translated that
is in whom all sinned. You know, it's not like Adam
sinned and we weren't there and God just charged Adam's sin to
us. No, we did sin in Adam. In who? All sin. Adam was our
representative and we did what Adam did. When Adam sinned, so
did we. And when Adam died spiritually,
so did we. We've been spiritually dead more than 6,000 years now.
Now you take all this together, here's what it's teaching, the
total depravity of man. We're totally sinful, 100% sinful. Everything that we are is sin. Everything we do is sin. Everything
we are and everything we do deserves the wrath of God. Now here's
why that truth must be found in every gospel message, because
it's the only accurate description of you and me. We're gonna preach
God's gospel, we gotta tell the truth, don't we? The only accurate
description of us is that we're completely and totally sinful. Somebody's got to tell us that
our flesh is grass. Somebody's got to tell us that
our flesh is useless, so we quit putting confidence in ourselves.
Somebody's got to tell us who and what we are. Somebody's got
to tell us we're incapable of earning a righteousness before
God. Until somebody tells us that, we'll never be totally
dependent on Christ to save us, will we? See, man's total depravity,
all flesh is grass. It's got to be in every gospel
message because we'll never seek Christ until the Lord teaches
us our flesh is useless. That's the only way we'll ever
seek Christ. We won't seek Christ until the Lord teaches us we
need somebody else to do all the saving for us because we
can't do anything for ourselves. That's why I always hammer home
this point. All flesh is grass. It's impossible
to paint the picture of what we are by nature, to paint the
picture of our flesh, too lost, too dead, or too sinful. It can't
be done. All flesh is nothing but useless
grass, and pretty soon, you're gonna have to burn it up. That's
what you're gonna have to do with it. That's all it's good
for. And since all it's good for, all it's fit for is the
burning, don't put any trust in it. In yours or anybody else's. That was Isaiah's problem, wasn't
it? He put his trust in your eye. He thought your eye was
something else until the Lord struck him with leprosy. Don't
put any trust in your flesh or anybody else's. It's all useless. Useless grass. That's all it
is. We need somebody else to be goodness
for us. We need somebody else to be the
righteousness for us. We need somebody else to do the
choosing for us. We need somebody else to do the
calling and the drawing for us. We need somebody else to save
us because we can't do it ourselves. That must be found in every gospel
message. All right, number two, the message
that we preach must agree with all the word of God. Look back
in our text, Isaiah 40, verse eight. The grass withereth, the
flower fadeth, but the word of our God shall stay in forever. Now our messages must be from
the word of God, or it's not the gospel. I'm not being overly picky here,
but now, if it's not from this book, directly from this book,
it's not the gospel. I was in a service one time where
a man got up and he opened up the hymn book. And he used the
hymn book as his text. Nobody's Bible was ever opened.
He used the hymn book as his text. Now it's a good hymn. Don't
get me wrong, it was a good hymn. But we don't get our messages
from the words of men. Only from the word of God. We
don't preach the ideas of men. This is a real danger. To take
something that I think, here's something that I think, this
is a pet peeve of mine, this is something, and then go to
the word of God to prove it. I mean, you can prove almost
any wicked thing by twisting the word of God and taking it
out of context. You wanna find out what you believe? You wanna find out what the truth
is? Go to the word of God and what it says, believe it. Go
to the word of God, what that says, that's the truth. We don't
preach emotion. I frequently get emotional when
I preach because this is a heart work, this is a heart matter,
this is a matter of love and trust in the Lord, but now we
don't play on emotion. We preach thus saith the Lord.
This is what God says. We don't preach using man's logic,
you know, A plus B equals C, so C has to be true. Now the
gospel's logical, but we don't preach logic. We preach the word
of God. What did Paul tell young Timothy?
Timothy preached the word. In season, out of season. Whether
people like it or they don't like it, Timothy preached the
word. What we must know is what God
says. That's what we must know. And
when we preach from a passage of scripture, we're to give the
meaning of that scripture. This is what this scripture means.
And you want me to tell you what the meaning is? Before you even
turn to any passage, you want me to tell you what the meaning
is? It's Christ. That's the meaning of every passage
of Scripture. I know that God gave the law. I promise you, God did not give
you the law so you'd know how to live. We just read that the
Apostle Paul said, by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be
justified. God gave you the law so you're guilty. You know why
God gave you the law? To point you to Christ. Every
passage of scripture all teaches us Christ. And if the meaning,
the meaning that we preach, when we turn to a passage of scripture,
I preach Christ to you. I tell you, this is what this
passage means. That meaning must agree with all the rest of the
scriptures, or it's not so. Because the scriptures never
contradict themselves. The scriptures always say the
same thing. The scriptures are always teaching
us and pointing us to Christ. So the meaning that we give has
to agree with all of the scriptures. And if the meaning some preacher
gives you doesn't agree with the rest of scripture, then he's
wrong. The meaning he's giving you is
wrong. If you'll turn to 2 Peter 3, I'm going to give you an example
of this, because this is something that you hear quite frequently. The belief of most men and women
in this world is that Christ died for everybody. He died to
give you a chance to be saved. Now, if you'll just accept him,
you know, you'll be saved. And if you don't accept him,
you know, don't you feel sorry for poor Jesus? He shed his blood
in vain, shed his blood for you, but you wouldn't accept him.
So you got to go to hell. You know, don't you feel sorry
for Jesus? Christ died for everybody. Second Peter chapter three, verse
nine. This is one of the verses that
they just pluck this verse out without looking at anything around
it and they say that's what this means, Christ died for everybody.
2 Peter 3, 9. The Lord is not slack concerning
his promise, as some men count slackness, but is long-suffering
to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should
come to repentance. Now, like I said, many people
say that verse means Christ died for everybody because God don't
want to damn everybody. God wants to save everybody, but he couldn't
do it because men wouldn't accept it. That's what they say. Now,
is that true? Is that true? Well, the only
reason we can find out if that's true or not is what does the
rest of scripture say? Now, either mark your place or
hold your place there and look at Matthew chapter 13. Matthew chapter 13. beginning in verse 40, this is
the Lord here talking about the end of the earth. As therefore
the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it be in
the end of this world. The Son of Man shall send forth
his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things
that offend, and them which do iniquity, and shall cast them
into the furnace of fire. There shall be wailing and gnashing
of teeth. The Lord is willing to cast those
people into hell, but they perish. He's willing to, he commanded
his angels to do it. Now look over at the book of
Jude, Jude verse 14. And Enoch also, the seventh from
Adam, prophesied of these. saying, behold, the Lord cometh
with 10,000 of his saints to execute judgment upon all and
to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly
deeds which they have ungodly committed and of all their hard
speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. The
Lord is willing to come and have those people perish, wasn't he?
He's gonna execute judgment upon them. Every time that the Lord
There's a scripture, speak of the Lord, casting the wicked
into hell. It's never done reluctantly. That's just two examples. You
can find many more. Now, God's not happy to damn
anyone, but His justice is satisfied when He does it. His justice
is satisfied. So back in 2 Peter 3, what does
verse 9 mean then? If it doesn't mean that God wants
to save everybody, that Christ died for everybody, what does
it mean? Well, let's read and find out.
What saith the Lord? Who's the usward that Peter's
talking about? He says here, the Lord is not
slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness,
but is long suffering to usward, and not willing that any should
perish. Well, who's the usward? And who's the any? Well, it's
the people that this letter is addressed to. Look back in chapter
one of 2 Peter. These are the people that Peter's
writing to. Simon Peter, a servant and apostle
of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith
with us. The us are those who all have
been given this like the same precious faith. That's the us.
And it's given to them through the righteousness of God and
our savior, Jesus Christ. Grace and peace be multiplied
unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. According as his divine power
hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness. The us are those that God's given
spiritual life to. He's given all those things that
pertain unto godliness through the knowledge of him that have
called us to glory and virtue. The us are those that the Lord's
called to himself, whereby are given unto us exceeding great
and precious promises, that by these ye might be made partakers
of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that's
in the world through us. The us are those who've been
born again. They've been made partakers of
the divine nature. They've been born of the seed
of the word of God. That's the us. It's God's people. It's God's elect. It's those
that he's called to Christ. God's not willing that any of
those people should perish. And they won't either. They won't,
because Christ died for them. Christ put their sin away. There's
no reason God's justice would condemn them. You see that? So
we're to preach the word of God. Thus sayeth the Lord. Our message
has to agree with all the rest of the scriptures because all
of the scriptures speak of Christ. And when we preach the word,
we're to preach the written word, but we're also to preach the
incarnate word because Christ, the incarnate word, is the written
word. He's the subject of all the written
word of God. And I tell you the way to preach
the written word is by preaching Christ. the Word who was made
flesh. John 1.1 says, in the beginning
was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. That Word is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is God. He's the Word. This is how God speaks to me.
This is how God speaks to his people, it's by his Son, the
Lord Jesus Christ. So if you had preached the Word
of God, you must preach Christ. And Isaiah says that back in
our text, Look at the end of verse eight again. But the word
of our God shall stand forever. Now there's no question that
this written word is gonna stand as long as this world stands.
The written word of God will stand. But I tell you what Isaiah
is really talking about there is our Lord Jesus Christ. He's
the word that shall stand forever. I wouldn't imagine we're gonna
need this red word anymore, we're in the presence of the incarnate
word, would you? He's gonna stand forever. And that means salvation
in Christ is eternal. That means that Christ can never
fail. His salvation, his righteousness,
his purpose to save his people can never fail. He is the sovereign,
successful savior of his people. Now Christ must be the subject.
every message we preach. If it's not, it's not the gospel.
Christ has to be the introduction. He has to be every point of the
message, and he must be the conclusion of every message. The conclusion
of every message that you hear must drive you to trust Christ,
to look to him, to rest in him. That's the conclusion of every
gospel message. And if that's not true, it's
not the gospel. Now, since Christ is going to stay in forever,
Everyone who's in Christ is going to stand forever too. Now that's
a stark contrast to the flesh, isn't it? The flesh is just going
to last for a little while. The Spirit of the Lord is going
to blow upon it and it's gone. But everybody in Christ is going
to stand forever. Now that truth has to be in every
gospel message. We have to be told Christ will
stand forever. He's the shelter that will stand
forever. We have to be told that. The
only shelter that will protect us from God's wrath is the Lord
Jesus Christ. There's complete and utter safety.
There's eternal salvation found in Him because He stands forever. We know He's gonna stand forever
because He already stood. He already withstood the storm
of God's wrath against the sin of His people, didn't He? He's
the safe hiding place. Look back a few pages, Isaiah
chapter 32. Isaiah told us this too. Verse one. Behold, a king shall reign in
righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment, and a man shall
be as a hiding place from the wind, and a man shall be a covert
from the tempest, as rivers of water in a dry place, as a shadow
of a great rock in a weary lane. A man's going to be the hiding
place from the storm of God's wrath. Who is that man? Who is
that hiding place? Tell me about him so I can run
to him. It's Christ. It's Christ the Savior, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Jesus of Nazareth, Mary's virgin-born
son, is that hiding place. Now that's why we preach Christ.
He's the only Savior. He's the only message that will
last. He's the only message that will save. Christ is the only
message that will comfort. I don't care how long this earth
lasts until Christ returns. Christ is gonna be the only good
news that can be preached to dead sinful flesh. He's the only
good news. Christ is the only savior of
dead grass. Now look to him, trust him. And
that's the third thing that Isaiah tells us. Here's the third thing
about the The third point of the cry of evangelism, there's
a goal. There's a goal. When I preach to you, I sit in
my study, and I prepare. I pray, I study, I beg God to
show me the message for His people in this hour. And I think of
you. I just go through. I told you
this before. I'm so glad everybody sits in
the same place all the time. I can just start over here with Alec
and go all the way over to me. I get everybody. I think about
you. And I got a goal. I got a goal. I'm not just getting up here,
fulfilling my two hours on Sunday, preaching and saying I'm done
with that. There's a goal. It's that Christ be so glorified
that you see Him and you believe. That's my goal. My goal is that
those of you who are in deep waters, that Christ will be so
glorified that you'll see Him and your heart will be comforted.
That's my goal. I tell Gentists all the time,
you got to have a goal. I mean, I got a goal for everything. It's just crazy. It's crazy.
Or you know how it is. You just got a goal, but you're
crazy. I got a goal in this. The goal of the gospel message
is that sinners see and believe Christ. Look what Isaiah says,
verse nine. O Zion that bring us good tidings,
get thee up into the high mountain. O Jerusalem that bring us good
tidings, lift up thy voice with strength. Lift it up, be not
afraid. Say unto the cities of Judah,
behold your God. Now we preach Christ. Isaiah
says you get up into a place where you can be heard and you
lift up your voice. You cry as loud as you can so
the people will hear. Look to Christ. Cry, be insistent
on preaching Christ as clearly as you can over and over and
over again. And don't be afraid. Don't be
afraid of the reaction of the flesh. Of course, the flesh is
going to hate the gospel, but don't be afraid of it. It's just
grass anyway. Don't be afraid of persecution and hatred. If
you preach Christ, it's coming. You mark it down. It's coming. but it's coming from a world
that's perishing anyway. Don't ever be afraid that the
message of Christ, Christ alone, don't ever be afraid that's not
enough to save the lost. You don't have to manipulate
the message of Christ to make it tasteful to the flesh. Just
preach Christ. Just preach the word of God.
All flesh is grass, trust Christ. You preach Christ, don't ever
be afraid that Christ alone is not enough to save. You don't
have to manipulate people. Just preach Christ and don't
ever be afraid that any of God's elect are not gonna hear and
believe. I promise you, they will hear. I don't have to see
to it, God will see to it. And remember, now this is a message
of comfort. Remember, see what he says here
in verse one? This is God crying to Isaiah
and all his preachers, comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith
your God. That's why we cry to God's people,
behold your God, so you'll be comforted. Oh, if we see Christ, if we see
him, not as I've made him up, not as some emotional picture
somebody tries to paint, but if we see him as he is in his
word, God's people will be comforted every time. And look how the
Lord describes himself, verse 10. Behold, the Lord God will
come a strong hand His arms shall rule for him. Behold, his reward
is with him, and his work before him. The first thing we see when
we behold Christ is the successful Savior. Isaiah said in his day,
700 years before Christ was born, he said he will come. Today we
preach he has come. He has come, he's coming back.
And when Christ came, Isaiah said his work was before him. Now what was his work? Well,
it wasn't to reform Israel, was it? It wasn't to reform religion. It wasn't to get rid of the empire
of Rome. His work was the work of redemption. That's the work the father gave
him to do, and he did it. He came and he accomplished that
work. He accomplished the salvation of everybody that he came to
save. And I know that's so because
he came with a strong arm. He came mighty to save. There's no doubt He was able
to do the job. He's mighty to save. He saved
everybody He intended to save. Now that's so comforting, isn't
it? He is so mighty, He cannot fail to save sinners. He can't
fail. And He saved His people by becoming
what they are. So He could make His people what
He is. Remember, all flesh is grass. All our flesh is is worthless
grass. And the eternal God took on him
the likeness of human flesh. He clothed himself for a little
while in grass so that he could save men and women who are made
of flesh. And since he's mighty to save,
he was clothed in the flesh, wasn't he? But he was still mighty
to save. He got the job done. Now that
message will draw sinners to him. And at the very same time,
it will comfort the heart of God's people. Now the second
thing we see when we behold our God is Christ the Savior is the
reward of his people. Isaiah said when he comes his
reward is with him. Well what's the reward? What's
the reward he's bringing with him? It's himself. It's himself. The reward came
when Christ came because Christ is the reward. You will never
find one time in scripture the word rewards plural. ever refer
to a believer, never. It's always to the wicked. Scripture
never speaks about rewards in heaven. Every time the scripture
speaks of a reward to believers, it's always singular and always
means the same thing. It always means the Lord Jesus
Christ, always. In Genesis chapter 15, verse
one, this is the very first time the word reward is in scripture.
God said to Abram, fear not, I am thy shield, and I am thy
exceeding great reward. Christ is the reward. In Matthew
5, verse 12, the Lord said, rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great
is your reward, singular, your reward in heaven. What's the
reward in heaven? It's Christ. It's Christ. The reward of faith is to see
Christ as he is. We see him through a glass dimly
now, but just that sight's enough to make me believe him. Just
that sight, seeing him dimly by faith, that's enough to make
me loving. That's enough to make me worship him. Oh, how it's
gonna be when you see him face to face. David said, I'll be
satisfied when I awaken thy likeness. Oh my goodness. To awaken Christ's
likeness? To see him with nothing in between? To worship him forever? That's
the reward. The reward is being washed from
your sin in the blood of Christ, being made the righteousness
of God in Him, in Christ. The reward is one day to see
Him and be like Him. Now you mark this down. That's
how this thing is going to end for every believer. It's always
going to end up for everyone that Christ came to save, waking
in His image or waking in His presence, being perfectly conformed
to His image. Does that comfort your heart?
See, the only way that can comfort your heart is if it's all dependent
on Christ. If you've got to earn your way
to get there, you've got to earn rewards in heaven. You've got
to earn your way out of the slums of heaven into the mansions of
heaven. If you've got to earn enough crowns that you're fit
to be in Christ's presence, there's no comfort there. But if it's
all in Christ. And the reward is Christ. The
reward's not streets of gold. The reward's not pearly gates.
The reward's not having a bigger house than your neighbor. The
reward is Christ. That's a message of comfort,
isn't it? And here's the third thing that
we see when we behold our God. It's the compassion. The compassion
of Christ our Savior. We're not just preaching dry,
dead doctrine here. This is the compassion of the
Savior. Verse 11. He shall feed his flock
like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with
his arm and carry them in his bosom. He shall gently lead those
that are with young. Christ does all the work of a
shepherd for his people. Just like Jacob said in his deathbed,
God shepherded me my whole life long. Christ has a flock that
God gave him. Oh, they're little. They're not
much to look at. They're grass by nature, but
he loves that flock. He loves them so much, he came
to die for them. The great shepherd of the sheep
came to seek and to save that which is lost. And when Christ
our shepherd finds the sheep, that lost sheep that he went
over hill and dale to find, you know what he does? He feeds them.
He feeds them with himself. He feeds them with the bread
of life. When they're too weak to go on, he carries them gently
in his bosom. and they're safe in his bosom
because he's holding them with that strong hand. And when Christ
finds his sheep, he gently leads them. He doesn't kick them, he
doesn't scream and yell at them for going the wrong way. He has
compassion on his sheep. He knows that we're dust, he
knows we're grass. He remembers our frame. He knows
we're too dumb to be left by ourselves. We can't be left to
our own devices. We're dirty, we're stinky, we're
prone to wander, but he has compassion on his sheep. and He gently leads
them with His power and with His grace. Oh, that's our shepherd. That's the shepherd, our Savior.
Behold your God. Behold the Savior. Now, like
I told you, it's my goal that you see Christ and believe
Him. That's why I keep preaching to you. Do you see Him? Do you see Him? Do you see what a powerful, this
is how He's described in His Word, a powerful, successful,
compassionate Savior that He is. This is Him and it is where
I read about Him to you. It is where I preached to you,
best I can in the gospel. Do you see Him? Doesn't this
make you want to run to Him? Doesn't it make you want to trust
Him? He's trustworthy. Well, I pray it so. If the Spirit
will give you eyes to see Him, your heart is gonna be comforted.
This is exactly what God told us to do. Comfort ye, comfort
ye, my people. All right, let's bow together.
Our Father, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You for allowing
us to look into it this morning. Father, we thank You for giving
us such a clear description of who You are and how You're pleased
to save sinners like us from our sin. Father, we thank you
for such a gospel that declares the only Savior of sinners. How
we thank you that you remember our frame. You know better than
we do, we're nothing but grass. Father, I pray you'd take pity
on us, that you'd be compassionate, that you'd gently lead us and
guide us, that you'd be pleased in your infinite mercy and grace
to reveal Christ to each heart here this morning. Father, give
us faith to believe and rest in our Lord Jesus Christ. Comfort
the hearts of your people, Father, with this message of who our
Savior is. Give us rest and peace and a
good hope in Christ our Savior. Father, it's in his name, for
his sake we pray, amen. All right, Chris.