Good morning. If you would open
your Bibles with me for our scripture reading to Psalm 91. Psalm 91. He that dwelleth in the secret
place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the
Almighty. I will say of the Lord, he is my refuge and my fortress,
my God. In him will I trust. Surely he
should deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from
the noisome pestilence. He should cover thee with his
feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust. His truth should
be thy shield and buckler. Thou shalt not be afraid for
the terror by night, nor the arrow that flyeth by day, nor
the pestilence that walketh in darkness, nor for the destruction
that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy
side, and 10,000 at thy right hand, but it shall not come nigh
thee. Only with thine eye shalt thou
behold and see the reward of the wicked, because thou hast
made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most high thy habitation.
There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come
nigh thy dwelling, for he shall give his angels charge over thee
to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their
hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. Thou shalt tread
upon the lion and adder. The young lion and the dragon
shalt thou trample under feet. Because he has set his love upon
me, therefore will I deliver him. I will set him on high because
he hath known my name. He should call upon me and I
will answer him. I'll be with him in trouble.
I will deliver him and honor him. With long life will I satisfy
him and show him my salvation. Let's bow together in prayer. Our great God, our holy, sovereign,
merciful and just Heavenly Father, we bow in your presence this
morning. We bow, giving thanks for another opportunity to hear
your word preached. Father, we bow, giving thanks
for the Lord Jesus Christ. We bow, giving thanks for the
gospel of Christ that you have given us to believe, that you've
given us to preach, the good tidings of our Lord Jesus Christ
that you have sent to us and given us the faith to believe
and given us this privilege to preach. And Father, this morning
I beg of thee that you would bless this time of worship. Bless
your word as it goes forth. Bless it to your glory, Father.
Bless it to the hearts of your people to save your people, to
feed and edify your people, to comfort the hearts of your people. Father, we pray for our world
at this difficult time, the time of this pandemic. Father, I beg
of thee that you would send relief, that you'd send healing, that
you would preserve and protect your people from this sickness
at this time. Father, we know that all things
are of thee. We know that you have sent this
for your purpose, according to your eternal will and purpose,
your direction. And Father, we know that thou
canst deliver, and we pray that you would see fit in your good
providence to deliver our land from this plague and to enable
your people to once again meet together and to worship you together,
to lift up our voices of praise and thanksgiving together. Father,
in this difficult time, you have still blessed your people. We're
thankful for the good news of our new baby girl who is on the
way. Father, we pray that you give
her a safe delivery. Bless Lindy, especially at this
time, and give her a safe delivery of this new baby. And bless Alec
and Lindy as they take this new baby into their home when she
comes and give them much wisdom and grace in being parents for
this child. We pray that she would be brought
forth into a much safer world than the one we have right now.
And Father, above all, Above all, we beg mercy for her soul.
Oh, God, be merciful to our children, we pray. We pray, Father, a special
blessing at this time for your people that you brought into
the valley, trouble and trial. Comfort their hearts with your
presence. Deliver when it could be thy will. Father, we ask you
to forgive us of our many sins and failures and see us and hear
us only in our Lord Jesus Christ. For it's in His blessed name
that we pray and give thanks. Amen. Now, a week or two ago, this
message was born in my heart. I was talking on the phone to
my dear friend, Pastor Marvin Stoniker. Marvin said that at
this difficult time and we cannot meet together face to face to
worship. He said, Frank, we were called to preach. We must find
a way to fulfill God's charge to us. to comfort God's people. And I agree wholeheartedly. But
now, how do we do that? How do we comfort the hearts
of God's people? Well, I can comfort the hearts
of God's people by reminding you that this virus, just like
every other trial that we have ever come across, ever faced
and been through, this thing is not random, nor does it come
to us by bad luck. It is under the direct control
of our God. It's been set directly by our
God, who does all things well. Even if we get this disease,
He has done all things well. We cannot comfort God's people
by telling them, you don't have to worry about this virus, you're
not gonna get it. Because that would be false comfort,
and if I would tell you that and you would get it, your faith
would be ruined. Look again at the passage that
we just read in Psalm 91, beginning in verse five. Thou should not
be afraid for the terror by night, nor the arrow that flyeth by
day, nor the pestilence that walketh in darkness, nor for
the destruction that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall
follow at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand, but it shall
not come nigh thee. Only with thine eyes shalt thou
behold and see the reward of the wicked, because thou hast
made the Lord which is my refuge, even the most high thy habitation.
There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come
nigh thy dwelling. Now the psalmist here is not
talking about the plagues and sicknesses and disasters and
wars of this world. He's not talking about that.
After David wrote this psalm, Israel suffered those things
many different times. So if that's what he meant, God's
word was not true. No, this is talking about God's
judgment against sin. Here's the comfort for God's
people. You're not going to be judged for your sin if you're
hiding in Christ. You're not going to be judged
for your sin if you're in Christ, because He was already judged for you.
He already suffered and died for you. That's why you're free,
free from worry, free from the plague and judgment, the arrow
of God's justice. It's not coming for you if you're
hiding in Christ, because Christ, your substitute, has already
suffered that for you. Now, that's the comfort that
God's Word, all through God's Word, this is the comfort that
God's Word gives to His people, no matter what happens to our
bodies. It's well with our souls. There's
many times it's not well with our bodies, but it's well with
our souls. The songwriter wrote, though Satan should buffet, the
trial should come. Let this blessed assurance control
that Christ hath regarded my helpless estate and shed his
own blood for my soul. My sin, oh, the bliss of this
glorious thought, my sin not in part, but the whole is nailed
to the cross and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord, praise
the Lord, O my soul. It may not be well with our bodies,
but if you believe Christ, it's well with your soul. That's how
God's people are comforted. God's people have their heart
comforted through the forgiveness of our sin, through the blood,
the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. And if you'll turn in
your Bibles now with me to Isaiah chapter 40, I want to show you
this comfort for the hearts of God's people through the forgiveness
of our sin, through the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, from
the scripture that Brother Stoniker was referring to when he and
I talked. Here is the charge to God's preachers, Isaiah chapter
40, verse 1. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,
saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem
and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished. Tell her her
iniquity is pardoned. For she hath received of the
Lord's hand double. for all of her sins. God commands
His servant, this is our charge, to comfort the hearts of God's
people and then He tells us exactly what to say to comfort the hearts
of God's people. And I want to give you three
points of great comfort for the hearts of God's people from our
text this morning. Number one is this, God's people
belong to God. He calls them My people. You belong to God, that comforts
your heart. God's people belong to God. He owns them, lock, stock
and barrel, they belong to Him. First, God's people belong to
God because He chose them to be His in divine election. Now you take a minute to think
about the glory of that thought, the comfort of that thought.
Almighty God chose a specific people. to be his people. He
chose them out of all of Adam's fallen race to be his people.
He chose those people to be his people because he loved them. He set his love upon those sinful
people and he chose to redeem those people. He chose to reveal
himself to those people and in his people they belong to him
because he chose them. He made them his. Now that comforts
my heart. God's people belong to Him secondly
because God the Son came in the flesh to save God's people and
to bring them back to God. God's elect have a need to be
brought back to God because they were lost in Adam. All men, God's
elect included, sinned in Adam, our representative. We did what
Adam did. When Adam sinned, we did too.
We were made sinners in Adam and his disobedience. So we're
in Adam. So when Adam was thrust out of
God's presence, you and I were too. And God's son came in the
flesh so he could be the second Adam, so he could come and be
the representative of God's elect. And what the Lord Jesus Christ
did in the flesh, God's people did too. Just like we did what
Adam did. If we're in Christ, we did what
he did in the person of our representative. When Christ obeyed the law, so
did we. When Christ pleased the Father, so did we. When Christ
came into the presence of the Father, so did we, because we're
in him. Adam, by his disobedience, made
everyone he represented to be sinners. Christ, by his obedience,
made everyone that he represented to be righteous. And God's going
to accept righteous people back into his presence. Christ came
to bring his people back to God, to undo for them everything that
Adam did to them. And he did, he got the job done.
Christ came and he redeemed his people from their sin. He redeemed
them, he bought them. He bought them back from the
curse of the law by being made a curse for them, by being made
sin for them, by taking their sin debt and making it his and
paying that debt with his suffering, his death, the shedding of his
precious blood when he was sacrificed for the sins of God's people.
And by his sacrifice, Christ justified his people. He made
them to have no sin. He made them righteous. He hath
made Him sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made
the righteousness of God in Him. By His obedience, by His sacrifice,
Christ made His people righteous, and God will accept righteous
people back into His presence. That's why Christ came, to bring
His people back to God. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ, by
His blood, He bought His people. They're not their own, they've
been bought with a price, bought with a precious blood of Christ.
Christ bought those people so they belong to Him. They rightfully
belong to Him. Christ redeemed His people from
sin by paying the redemption price for their sin, by suffering
and dying in their place. Christ redeemed. He delivered
His people from the bondage to the law by keeping the law for
them. Christ delivered. He redeemed His people from the
fear of death by dying in their place. Now He did that for His
people. Those people that He loves, the
people that the Father gave them to save, and they're all redeemed. They're all brought back to God
because they belong to Christ. That comforts my heart. Then
thirdly, God's people belong to God because God the Holy Spirit
dwells in them. He's taken possession of them
by dwelling in their hearts. God the Holy Spirit gives God's
people a new birth. a new nature, and he rules in
their hearts by dwelling in them. That's how they belong. Wherever
God dwells, he owns the place. Now he's taken possession of
his people by dwelling in their hearts. And if you look at John,
the book of John chapter 16, this is what the Holy Spirit
does when he comes to God's people. Those people that belong to him,
he reveals Christ to the hearts of God's people. John chapter
16. Verse 7, the Savior says, nevertheless,
I tell you the truth. It is expedient for you that
I go away. For if I go not away, the comforter
will not come unto you. But if I depart, I will send
him unto you. Now it's expedient. It is necessary
that Christ go away, that he suffer and die for the sins of
his people. It's necessary because now the
spirit can come. and he can comfort the hearts
of God's people. He's got comfort to apply now,
because now the Spirit has blood to apply. He has life to give. He has righteousness to apply,
righteousness to reveal. He has comfort to give to God's
people because their sin is forgiven. He says here in verse 8, when
he has come, the Comforter, the Spirit, when he has come, he
will reprove the world of sin, of righteousness and of judgment,
of sin, because they believe not on me. Now the Holy Spirit
convinces God's people that they're sinners, that they're sinners
because they have a sin nature and they're sin. They're convinced
of this has been put away by the sacrifice of Christ. Verse
10, he said, the Spirit will convince all of my people of
righteousness because I go to my father and you see me no more.
The Holy Spirit convinces God's people. They don't have any righteousness
of their own. Christ is their righteousness, and we know He's
righteous, He's accepted because He's gone back to the Father.
And we have too. In Him, Christ is our righteousness. He made His people righteous
when He suffered and died for the sins of His people. We know
He did. Because after He was risen, the Father accepted Him
back into glory. Then in verse 11, the Holy Spirit
convinces God's people of judgment. Because the Prince of this world
is judged. The Holy Spirit convinces God's
people. They don't have to have any fear
of death. They don't have any fear of judgment
that will follow death because Christ has already been judged
for them. He's already died in their place. They don't have
to die. Their substitute has died in
their place and their substitute has risen again, ascended back
to the Father. And that tells us that His sacrifice
paid for all the sin of everyone that belongs to God. All that
the Father gave to Christ, He put their sin away. And here's
how the Holy Spirit is the comforter, how he comforts the hearts of
God's people. It's by showing them Christ, by showing God's
people that their salvation has been fully accomplished in our
Lord Jesus Christ. That's how God comforts the hearts
of his people. Now, this will comfort the hearts
of God's people. Almighty God has obligated himself to save
his people. He's obligated himself to save
the people that belong to him. Now that comforts my heart because
all of the responsibility for the salvation and the security
of my soul is on God, not on me. It's all dependent upon God's
purpose, not mine. And God's purpose for his people
is good. Look back at the book of Jeremiah.
Jeremiah chapter 29. In verse 11, Jeremiah 29, 11,
For I know the thoughts that I think towards you, saith the
Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected
end. Now God's people have an expected
end because of God's thoughts, His purpose for His people. And
the trials, the tribulation, the suffering of this life, the
worry, the fear, everything involved with all the suffering because
of sin in this life All those trials, everything that happens
is part of God's eternal purpose for His people, the thoughts
that God has for His people. And those thoughts are not evil.
Now, they may be painful to this flesh, but God says they're not
evil. They're thoughts of good. They're thoughts of peace to
bring His people to the end that they expect. God's people, the
end that we expect is eternal glory with Christ. That is the
end of God's people, and it's not a presumption to expect that. because that's what God's promised
his people. And they're going to have it
because they belong to God. God's people belong to him and
he's not going to let anything bad happen to their souls. And
that comforts the hearts of God's people. All right, number two,
here's the second word of comfort from our text. God has a message
for his people, a message that will comfort their hearts. And
God has sent his servants to declare that message. to comfort
the hearts of his people. That message is the message of
the gospel, the gospel of Christ. God uses the gospel to save his
people. He uses the gospel to reveal
himself to his people and to save his people. It's pleased
God by the foolishness of preaching. What the flesh says is foolishness. God used that preaching to save
them that believe, to save all those that belong to God. God
sends that gospel specifically to his people. and he gives them
a heart to believe it, to believe Christ when they hear that gospel
preached. That gospel is how God saves his people. He doesn't
use any other message, any other means. It's the preaching of
the gospel God uses to save his people. And God uses the preaching
of that very same gospel to comfort the hearts of his people. God's
people need to be comforted. God knows that. He knows the
world in which we live. He knows the body of sinful flesh
in which we live. God knows His people need to
be comforted. I wish more of God's preachers knew that. God's
people don't need to be whipped into shape and beaten by the
law so that they act better. God's people need to be comforted.
God's people don't need to be wildly impressed with with the
intelligence and the well-spoken message of the preacher. They
need to be comforted. Their hearts need to be comforted.
God's people don't need to be sent on a guilt trip to get them
to serve God better. They don't need to be bribed
into serving God better. The hearts of God's people need
to be comforted. And God's servant comforts God's
people by speaking to their heart. The word comfortably that Isaiah
uses there means to speak to the heart. God's servant comforts
God's people by speaking to the heart. He doesn't comfort God's
people by promising them better things in this life. He doesn't
comfort the flesh of God's people by healing them or taking away
the pain and suffering of this life. He doesn't promise them
a life of riches and ease and that's not how he comforts them.
If he tries to do that, he's going to fail because all flesh
suffers because of sin. All flesh does. It can't be stopped
because of sin. All flesh suffers because of
sin. Thank God He's given us doctors and nurses. Doctors and
nurses can do everything within their power, all their education,
everything that they know to use to alleviate the suffering
of the flesh. Thank God for them. Thank God
for them. Their job, the job of doctors and nurses, is to
comfort, alleviate the suffering of the flesh. But that's not
the job of God's preacher. The job of God's preacher is
to comfort the hearts of God's people by speaking to that new
heart of faith that God has given them in the new birth. Comfort
for God's people comes from the very same gospel that God used
to save them in the first place. Salvation comes through faith
in Christ. So does comfort. It comes through
faith in Christ. Salvation comes when we hear
Our iniquity is pardoned in Christ. So does comfort. Comfort for
the hearts of God's people comes from hearing our iniquity is
pardoned in the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse two tells God's preachers,
you cry into my people. Here's what you say to comfort
their hearts. You cry into her. Your iniquity is pardoned. God
has pardoned your iniquity. He has put it away. My brothers
and sisters, please listen to me. If your sin has been pardoned
by God, your heart's comforted. Your heart's comforted. If God
has forgiven your sin, God's not angry anymore and God accepts
you. The worst thing that trouble
in this life can do is to cause our sinful flesh to die. And
God will do that, not to us, but for us one day. Cause this
sinful flesh to die so we can go and be with Christ. will be
with Him because our iniquity is pardoned. And our God gives
His people some real comfort here. He says salvation comes
when we hear our iniquity is pardoned. Comfort comes when we hear the
very same thing. When we hear that we have received
of the Lord's hand double. Double for all of our sins. That's
what He says at the end of verse 2. He says, you tell her. Tell
my people. She hath received of the Lord's
hand double for all her sins." Double. Now what does that mean? We know this. The Lord Jesus
Christ paid the sin debt of His people. He took that debt and
He paid it in full. That bill is stamped, paid in
full, stamped with the blood of Christ, sealed with the blood
of Christ. The debt's paid. But if all Christ did for me
is to pay my sin debt, I'd still be poor, miserable, wretched,
and naked. So Christ, he's not going to
leave his people. Now these people belong to him.
He loves them. He's not going to leave them
poor and miserable and wretched and naked. Christ gives his people
double for all of their sin. First, he pays their sin debt.
Second, he makes them rich. Pays their debt. Second, he makes
them rich. He makes them rich and righteous.
He makes them rich in life, eternal life, spiritual life. He makes
them rich in holiness. He makes them rich in righteousness
so that they're the righteousness of God in Him. Christ gives His
people double for all of their sin. You think back to the crucifixion
of our Savior. After He'd given up the ghost,
He cried, it is finished. He hung His head and He gave
up the ghost. That Roman soldier came, And he was being instructed
to break the legs of those three men who were being crucified
so they'd die all the sooner. He came to that man on the middle
cross. He was already dead. No need to break his legs. But
out of pure meanness, that Roman soldier took his spear and ran
it through the side of the Savior. And the Apostle John said, I
was there. I saw it. And out of his side,
out of the side of the Savior, John said, flowed blood and water.
From the side of the wounded side of the Savior came forth
the double cure, blood to justify, blood to pay the sin debt of
God's people and water to sanctify, water to wash them and to make
them holy. Out of Christ's wounded side
came the double cure. This is how God gives his people
double for all their sin. Christ paid the sin debt of his
people and then he made it where they can't sin anymore, where
they can't rack up another sin debt. He gave them double. He made it so that their sin
debt is paid, and He made it so they can't sin anymore and
rack up any more debt. He gave them double for all of
their sin. Oh, that comforts my heart. That
comforts my heart. And that comforts your heart,
too, if you know Christ. Now this comfort, you know, we
can't cry, peace, peace, where there is no peace. We can't give
somebody comfort where there is no comfort to give. This comfort
is for God's people. This comfort is for the hearts
of the people that belong to God. This comfort is for people
who know Christ, who believe Christ, because Christ is the
only place of comfort. You know, if we don't have Christ,
there's no comfort for our souls. Brother Henry said, we cannot
comfort where God has not converted. There's no comfort outside of
Christ. Oh, but if we're in Christ, we have all comfort. Because
in Christ, we've received double for all of our sin. In Christ,
we've received the double cure. That's the message that God's
given us to preach to God's people. There's salvation in Christ.
There's the double cure in Christ. Our comfort is had by hearing
of Christ the Savior. He has put away the iniquity
of his people. And here's the third word of
comfort. The war's over. You cry unto her. Her warfare
is accomplished. God tells His servants to cry
to His people, the war's over. The war's over because the enemy
is defeated. At Calvary, the Savior cried,
it is finished. And that was a shout of victory.
That was not a shout of defeat by the Savior saying, well, my
life is finished and it's taken in front of me, there's nothing
else I can do. No, He meant, this is the cry of victory. It's
the cry of victory because the sacrifice for sin It's finished. There'll be no more offering
for sin. Sin has been put away. It is finished, the Savior said.
He completely, utterly, fully finished everything the Father
gave Him to do. He saved all that the Father
sent Him to save. And my friends, the cry of the
Savior from Calvary echoes down through the ages. It comes to
us today as comfort for the hearts of God's people. It is finished. Every enemy is defeated. Oh,
at Calvary, the battle did rage. The battle against sin raged. And Christ, our mighty conqueror,
he won the battle by washing all of the sin of everybody that
belonged to him. He washed all of their sin away by his precious
blood. He won the battle. The battle
against Satan did rage. Satan did bruise his heel, but
Christ won the battle. by crushing Satan's head. When
Christ put away the sin of his people, he put away the power
of Satan to accuse them. No more could they be accused
of sin. No more can they be pulled away
from Christ. He redeemed them from their sin.
He won the battle. The war is over. Every enemy
is defeated. Now you listen to me right now.
The war is over. God has made the terms of peace. Now you surrender. Right now,
you surrender. You rest. You find rest and you
find salvation for your soul by believing Christ and surrendering
to Him. And you find rest and comfort
for your soul. You find salvation for your soul
by surrendering to Christ. You find comfort for your soul
by continuing to surrender, by continuing to believe Christ
and to rely on Him. The war is over. Now have peace. Come to Christ and have peace.
Much to the chagrin of my family, I like to watch war movies. I
watch them over and over and over again. What those soldiers
have done in the history of our country, fighting for the freedom
of our country, utterly astounds me. It's utterly their valor,
their bravery, what they gave of themselves for this country
amazes me. And I can just imagine the joy
that those soldiers felt. They're down in a foxhole under
constant fire from the enemy. They're living in horrible conditions. They've watched their friends,
their buddies, suffer and die. Just that enemy just constantly
out there threatening them. What joy they must have felt
when somebody came up to them and reached a hand down and said,
come up out of the foxhole. Let me pull you up out of there.
The war's over, buddy. The war's over. Get out of here. You're discharged from this man's
army and you go home to your loving family. You go home to
a warm bed and clean sheets. You go home and enjoy a home-cooked
meal sitting around the kitchen table with your family. No more
of these K-rations down there in the mud. Go home and have
a home-cooked meal. Sit down with your family. Go
to a place of peace and safety and quiet where people love you
They're not shooting at you anymore. Can you imagine the joy, the
comfort of heart those soldiers felt when they heard that? I
bet none of them wanted to stay in the foxhole, did they? The
war's over. There's peace. I can go home.
There's no more battles to fight. Leave me out of here. I'm going
home. I'm going home where there's
peace. All that was left, the war's over. All that's left for
those poor soldiers is peace to enjoy. Now, if you have not yet believed
on the Lord Jesus Christ, I'm going to tell you one more time.
Right now, where you sit, you come to Christ. You surrender
to Him and have salvation for your soul. One of my favorite
songs, the songwriter wrote this chorus, it's finished. It's finished.
The battle is over. It's finished. There should be
no more war. It's finished. The end of all conflict is finished. Jesus is Lord. Oh, but in my heart, in my heart,
the battle was raging. Not all prisoners of war had
come home. They were battlefields of my own making. I didn't know
the war had been won. And then I heard that the king
of all ages had fought all my battles for me and that victory
was mine for the claiming. And now, oh praise his name,
I'm free. That gives new meaning to that
chorus, doesn't it? Now I'm free. Oh, the king, he's fought all
my battles for me. He won the war. It's finished.
The battle's over. It's finished. There should be
no more war. It's finished. The end of all
conflict. It's finished in Jesus as Lord.
Now you come to Christ and believe. You surrender to Christ and have
salvation for your soul. Those of you who have believed
on Christ, Let me one more time encourage you to continue to
trust him. Continue to trust and rely on
him. Don't start relying on the arm of the flesh now. Continue
to trust him. The war is over. Now you trust
him. You trust our mighty conqueror.
When we say the war is over, that does not mean that the believer
is going to have a life of peace, ease and pleasure in this life.
Just the opposite. The war is over. But the believer's
life is going to be full of trouble, trial, hardship, times of brokenheartedness. But you take comfort. The war's
over. Take comfort. The war's over.
The victory has been won. One day, the final enemy will
be defeated. When we close our eyes in death,
the final enemy will be defeated. The death of a believer It's
not a defeat, it's victory. You know why it's victory? Because
we'll never die again. It's victory because when we
close our eyes in this life, we're going to open our eyes
in glory. We're going to open our eyes
beholding the face of our Lord Jesus Christ. And then we'll
see the troubles of this life for what they really were. They
were light afflictions. They're light afflictions because
the war's over. The victory has been won. So
continue trusting Christ. Continue looking to Him. Continue
relying on Him. Find your comfort, your comfort
of heart in our Lord Jesus Christ who has assured the victory for
His people. I pray God bless that to your
heart and use it to comfort the hearts of God's people. Let's
bow together. Our great God, Father, we beg
of Thee that You bless Your Word. Bless Your Word to the hearts
of Your people, to comfort the hearts of Your people by revealing
to us the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, the awe, the wonder that
God would set His affection on wretched nobodies, nothings,
sinners like us, and redeem them by the sacrifice of his darling
son. Father, let us find our comfort, the comfort of heart
in the Holy Spirit revealing to us the Lord Jesus Christ and
aim us to see him and believe on him, to rest on him. Oh, Father,
how we thank you for this gospel that you've given us, the gospel
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, cause us to be faithful.
to preach this gospel, the gospel of our Savior to our generation
and our day. And Father, we beg of you that
you bless it, bless it to your glory in these dark and difficult
days. Father, give us a special revelation
of your glory, we pray. And how you save your people
and keep your people that nothing that happens in this world can
for a moment delay your purpose of redemption and ultimate glorification
for your people. Father, how we thank you, cause
us to rest in our Lord Jesus Christ, to look to him and him
alone. It's in his precious name we
pray and give thanks. Amen. Till next time, may the
Lord bless you.