For two days, I've been humming
that song. Because the title of our message
this evening is Waiting and Rejoicing. And when I came up with the title,
ever since, I've been humming that song. Chance says I have a story for
everything. I still remember the first day I ever heard that
song. It was a Wednesday night. Desi Maynor sang it. When she
got to that line, The one that taught me how to beg at his feet.
At the table of grace, he gave me a seat. I almost forgot to
breathe. I just overwhelmed. It was so
good. Thank you. Thank you, Mike. All
right. Isaiah chapter 25. The message
of our text this evening is everyone who truly waits on the Lord will
rejoice. Everyone who truly longs for
the Lord, eventually they will see him and they will rejoice
in his salvation. And we'll begin in verse nine.
And it should be said in that day, lo, this is our God. We've waited for him and he will
save us. This is the Lord. We've waited
for him. We will be glad and rejoice in
his salvation. It should be said in that day,
That day is the day that Isaiah talked about in the previous
three verses we looked at it last week. This is the day of
feasting at the table of our Lord. It's the day when Christ
destroys that veil that separates us from God and we see God and
we enjoy his presence. It's the day when Christ swallows
up death in victory. It's the day when Christ dries
every tear of his people. Now, this is not just one day.
This is the many days of grace that God's elect enjoy. This
is the many days in the life of a believer, the many days
of grace that all come together and culminate in that day when
the Lord returns. And then there'll just be one
eternal day with him. And I want us to look at just
a few of those days. First, in that day, this is the
day of salvation. This is the day when the Lord
first reveals Himself to us in saving faith. In that day, we'll
say, this is our God. Now I see Him. This is our God. By faith I see the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is my Savior. He's all my
hope. Now I see. And we'll also say
in that day, we've waited for Him. Now before the Lord saves
us, We're going to quit our works. We're going to quit trusting
in all of our works. We're going to quit trusting in our efforts
to save ourselves. And we're going to have to be
still, and we're going to have to wait on the Lord to save us.
The Lord's going to teach us, and he teaches us this lesson,
and then he teaches us this lesson over and over again, doesn't
he, that we're totally dependent on him. We are totally dependent
on Christ to save us. And He teaches us that lesson
so that when He does reveal Himself to us in this day of salvation,
we'll give Him all the glory and all the credit for our salvation.
So wait on the Lord. Now we can't save ourselves,
can we? Then we have to wait on Him. Salvation, Scripture
says, is of the Lord. We must wait on Him. If we're
going to be saved, Christ is going to have to save us by Himself,
so we must wait on Him to save us. But now wait in confidence. Isaiah says, he will save, we've
waited for him, and he will save us. Christ is the savior of sinners. And he will save every sinner
who needs saving. So wait on him. Are you a sinner? Then wait on him to save you.
Wait on him to do what he said he'd do. He said he'd save sinners,
and it's his word that gives us the confidence to wait on
him. He said he'll save sinners. Wait on him in confidence because
of his word. Wait on him in confidence because
of his character. Robert Hawker says this word
save is the same root word as Jesus or Savior. Wait confidently
then for the Lord to save because we're not waiting for just anyone.
We're waiting for the Lord Jesus Christ who came into this world
to save sinners of whom I'm chief. Then wait on him confidently.
Wait on him to do what he said he'd do. Wait on him to do what
his character is. He's the savior of sinners. You
can trust him. Wait on him confidently. And
when the Holy Spirit comes in power and reveals Christ to us
and reveals Christ in us, we'll be glad and we will rejoice. Isaiah says we'll be glad and
we'll rejoice in His salvation. Not just any salvation now, this
is His salvation. It's the salvation that Christ
gives His people. It's salvation in Him that's
found only in Him. It's His salvation. He purposed
it in eternity past. He came to earth in the fullness
of time and he accomplished it as a man, as a representative
of his people. And at his appointed time of
love, he's the one who gives it to his people. It's his salvation. We will be glad and rejoice in
his salvation. Now there'd be no reason to rejoice
if this salvation was left up to me. If I had to save myself,
if I had to gain it by walking an aisle or meeting whatever
criteria man had, if I had to get it by what I do, y'all shouldn't
be rejoicing and I shouldn't either because I'll lose it again.
I mean, I promise you I will. But if Christ saved me, I'll
be glad and rejoice in His salvation because it's sure. This day,
the day of rejoicing, the day that we've waited for is the
day of salvation. Secondly, this day, it's the day of refreshing. Now this is what we've been looking
at in our study of Song of Solomon. Those days that Solomon talks
about as days of springtime. Springtime comes after the winter.
And in those days of winter, the spiritual winter in our heart
when it's It's cold and it's dark and it feels like everything's
dead. We long for this day when the
Lord comes to brighten everything up and warm everything up, cause
everything to bud and spring to life again. We'll wait on
Him confidently. He's coming. Look at Psalm 85. He's coming to revive His people
again. In Psalm 85, Verse five. Will thou be angry with us forever?
Will thou draw thine anger to all generations? Will thou not
revive us again, that thy people may rejoice in thee? Show us
thy mercy, O Lord, and grant us thy salvation. I will hear
what God the Lord will speak, for he will speak peace unto
his people and to his saints, but let them not turn again to
folly. Surely, here it is, His salvation is nigh them that fear
Him, that glory may dwell in our land. Mercy and truth are
met together. Righteousness and peace have
kitched each other. Truth shall spring out of the earth, and
righteousness shall look down from heaven. Yea, the Lord shall
give that which is good, and our land shall yield her increase. Right now, it seems like it's
wintertime and it's dead, but He's coming to revive His people.
Our land shall yield her increase. Righteousness shall go before
him and shall set us in the way of his steps. Look over Habakkuk. It's right after the book of
Nahum, Habakkuk chapter three. Habakkuk here talks about, it's
a day in wintertime. It's a spiritual winter. Everything
looks dead, nothing's growing. It's a time, seems like, of just
famine and dearth in the land. In Habakkuk 3, verse 17, although
the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the
vines, the labor of the olive shall fail, and the field shall
yield no meat. The flocks shall be cut off from
the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls. This is
a deep spiritual winter. You wait on the Lord. I will
rejoice in the Lord. I will join the God of my salvation. His salvation is my salvation.
He's talking about the same salvation. The Lord God is my strength,
and he will make my feet like hinds feet. Right now, everything's
dead. No life, no energy. The Lord's my strength. He'll
make my feet like hinds feet. He'll make me to walk upon mine
high places. He's coming again to revive his
people. Now when will they come? Well,
I don't know. But I know our times of winter,
they seem so long. Just like our seasons. Do you
know winter is the exact same space of time as spring? Spring
seems it's like, you know, that long, and winter seems like this
long, doesn't it? Our times of winter seem like they last so
long. But now remember this, they're
only temporary. It's just temporary. And our
God's gonna make sure that winter lasts just long enough so that
we long for Him, that we see our need of Him. And we know
these times are only temporary. We know that because of the character
of our Savior. The Lord will not cast off His
people, which He foreknew. He's going to come again and
revive His people and give them a time of springtime, just like
what the bride said she experienced in the Song of Solomon. And when
He comes, after this time of winter that makes us long for
Him, when He comes, we'll say, oh, this is what I've been waiting
for. I've been waiting for this time
with Him. I've been waiting for this time
of communion with my Savior. I've been waiting for this time
to enjoy His presence and bask in a sense of His love and being
able to worship Him. This is what I've been waiting
for. This is what makes my heart glad. And our Savior will come
to us. And when He comes, wintertime's
over. Now He's coming. Winter's not
going to last forever. Just wait on it. This day of refreshing
is coming. And when He comes, we'll rejoice.
Third, this day is the day of trial, the day when trial ends. Now just like every trial has
an appointed beginning, You know, a trial has an appointed end,
too. It has an exact time that God has appointed for it to end,
and it won't last one moment longer than he's appointed. And
the trial's not sent to harm us. The trial sent us to teach
us something, to teach us something we need to know by ourselves.
It's sent to burn off all the dross that's supposed to be burned
off. And when that's accomplished, when we've learned what we're
supposed to learn, when the dross is burned off, then our Lord's
gonna be pleased to bring the end to the trial. Now he's gonna
bring the end. Wait on him. Just wait on him. Wait on him like Job waited on
him. Job said, though he slay me, yet will I trust him. Now
I'm gonna keep waiting and looking to him. Look at Psalm 138. Wait on the Lord confidently.
The trial is painful. It wouldn't be a trial if it
wasn't painful. but it will not bring death to my soul. Psalm
138, verse seven. Though I walk in the midst of
trouble, thou wilt revive me. That day, the day that the trial
ends, thou wilt revive me. Thou shalt stretch forth thine
hand against the wrath of mine enemies, and thy right hand shall
save me. The Lord will perfect that which
concerneth me. Thy mercy, O Lord, endureth forever. Forsake not the work, of thine
own hands." Well, the Lord will answer that prayer. He's not
going to forsake the work of his own hands. You think he's
left you all alone in the fire of trial. He hasn't. He's not
forsaken the work of his own hands. He's just leaving it in
that fire just long enough until the dross is burned off and the
gold becomes more precious. And when we think we can't take
it one more second, then the Lord's going to appear. He appears
and we'll be glad and we'll rejoice in his salvation. Even if the
pain and the suffering does not end, when he appears, we'll be
glad and we'll rejoice because we see Christ. And that's all
we long for is to see him. And when the day of the trial
finally does come to an end and we see how the Lord delivered
us, oh, we'll rejoice not just in the deliverance from the trial,
but when we see how he's delivered us, we will even rejoice in the
trial itself. That's right. Now you look back
over your own life. During the midst of any trial,
it's a time of suffering, and you're miserable, and you're
thankful when the Lord brings an end to it. But when you get
past it a little ways, you've matured, you've grown a little
bit, and you look back, you say, oh, that trial was good for me. I give thanks even for the trial.
That's why David said, it's good for me that I've been afflicted.
How can he say that? because he said, I learned by
statutes. I learned something about my Lord, about my Savior,
about who Christ is. So it was good for me that I've
been afflicted. Look at Romans chapter five. Paul says the same
thing in Romans five. Romans five, verse three. And not only so, But we glory
in tribulations also. We glory in trials also. Why? Knowing that tribulation
worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope. And hope maketh not ashamed,
because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy
Ghost, which is given to us. That's why we say we can rejoice
even in the trial. And when that trial ends, we'll
say, this is our God. He delivered me. like only God
can, and we'll rejoice and be glad in His salvation. And fourthly,
this is the day when our Savior returns. Now He's going to return
for all of His people. It could be this is the day that
He comes for me and the death of my body. Or it could be this
is the day he comes and he takes his, he returns again, he judges
the earth in righteousness, he takes his people home to be with
him, and he casts the unbeliever into hell. We read that in 2
Thessalonians 1, to open the service. But either way, whichever
it is, in that day, that's the day he came for me, whichever
day that is. And believers long for that day.
how we long for that day. There's no fear of that day,
because perfect love casteth out fear. And because of his
perfect love for us, there's no fear in that day. We long
as believers, we long for that day when Christ returns. Because
in that day, we're finally going to be made without sin. Now the
blood of Christ has already cleansed us from all sin. Isn't that what
scripture says? The blood of Christ cleanses us from all sin.
But we haven't experienced that yet in our corrupt flesh. We
have not experienced the freedom from sin. But we will when Christ
returns. When He returns, we're gonna
be given a new, perfect body without sin. So we long for that
day. Believers long for that day when
Christ returns because when He returns, we're finally gonna
see Him. Finally gonna see Him. Now if
you believe, you've seen him. You see him in his word. You
see him when the gospel is preached, don't you? By faith, we see him. Hell, that's a pretty dim view,
isn't it? That's a pretty dim view. It's through a glass darkly. But by his grace, we do see him. But when Christ returns, that
dark glass is done away. Faith is gonna be done away,
and we are going to see the Lord Jesus Christ face-to-face. My goodness, we long for that
day. If I'm gone just a few days,
I long to see Jan's face again. I've seen her face-to-face. How
much more do we long to see the face of our Savior? That's why
we long for His return. And we long for His return because
in that day that Christ returns, We are going to be made just
like Christ. In 1 Corinthians 15, 51, Paul
says, now, we should not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. Look at 1 John 3. Well, changed
how? Changed into what? In 1 John
3, verse 2, John tells us, Behold now, right now, at this
very minute, are we the sons of God. But it does not yet appear
what we shall be, does it? It doesn't look like it all the
time right now. It doesn't yet appear what we shall be. But
we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him. For we shall see him as he is. That's the heart's desire of
every believer. That song Mike sang. At the end
of it, he shall be heaven for me. Heaven is not streets of
gold and pearly gates and living in a big mansion. You're floating
around on a cloud. You don't have to work or worry about money.
That's not heaven. Heaven is to be with Christ and
to be like Christ. That's heaven. And that's what
the believer longs for. Now, I know men scoff at the
return of Christ. They scoff at the end of this
present world. There's been a, I don't know
what channel it's on, but I see it on my digital cable. I channel surf a lot, so I see,
I know what's on. And there's this series, they're
trying to explain away all of the mysteries of the Bible. They're
trying to explain away the parting of the Red Sea. They're trying
to explain away the Ark of Noah. They're trying to explain away
the birth of Christ. There wasn't a star hanging over
a manger in Bethlehem. They're trying to explain that
away. You know why they're trying to explain that away? Because
if those things are true, Christ is coming again, and I'm going
to have to answer to him. And men want to try to disprove
this. They're scoffing at the return of Christ. But I'm telling
you what, He's coming again. He is coming just like He said
He'd come. You think about those Old Testament
saints, all the way to Abel. Abel longed for the appearance,
the first appearance of the Messiah. His mother and father told him
about the seed of woman. They told him about that man
who's coming. for the appearance of the Savior. You think how
Moses and David and Solomon and all the prophets, they longed
for that first appearance, the first coming of the Messiah.
It was a long time coming, wasn't it? They looked a long time.
They waited a long time, but they knew he was coming. And
after a long time of darkness, just suddenly, he appeared. There's Simeon, he's in the temple
doing what he always does, just going, and suddenly his world
stopped. And he spoke with joy for all
those Old Testament saints that for years had been longing and
looking and waiting for him. Simeon said, now mine eyes have
seen thy salvation. Simeon wasn't talking about a
cute baby, was he? He was talking about God's salvation. He saw
him. That's who he was waiting for.
He suddenly appeared. Well, here we are 2000 years
later, the new Testament saints are longing for the same thing.
We're just long. We're longing for the appearance
of the same person. We're just longing for a second appearance.
We're longing for our savior to come again. And it's been
a long time. We've been looking for him a
long time. Right after our Lord ascended back on high, they kept
thinking he's coming any time. We've been looking for him a
long time. You know, God's way of reckoning, he'd just been
gone two days. It's not been very long. A thousand years is
as a day. He'd just been gone two days.
But he's coming again. And one day, suddenly, just like
it was for Simeon, we're going about our normal, everyday lives,
and suddenly, the Savior's gonna appear the second time. And we're
going to say the same thing Simeon did while I'm going home. For mine eyes have seen thy salvation.
I've seen my Savior. I've been made just like him.
And we'll be glad and we'll rejoice. How glad and full of rejoicing
we'll be. And believers also long for this
day when Christ returns. Because in that day we'll be
vindicated. All those who ridicule us and
make fun of us for believing this Christ now, all those who
ridicule us for believing this gospel now, they say, you don't
believe that stuff, do you? And that day they'll see Christ
as He is too. And we'll be vindicated. And
we'll say, lo, this is our God. This is the one we've been preaching.
This is the one we've been telling you about. We've waited for Him.
And now He's here. We're going to rejoice and be
glad in His salvation. Behold, this is our God. Here he is, he's come, this is
our God. Now you look at him. All these different, I don't
call them preachers, these fellas that get up and talk about the
Bible and talk about Jesus, they preach a Jesus, he's another
Jesus. They preach a God, he's another
God, he's an idol. Listen to their message and then
listen to the message of the gospel. The God that's declared
in the gospel, He acts like God would act. The God who's declared
in the scriptures, in the gospel that we preach, He saves just
like God would save. God chose a people out of Adam's
fallen race just because He would. That's what God would do just
because that's His will. That's what God would do. God
loves sinners. And he sent his son to redeem
them while they were yet sinners. They never did anything to deserve
it. He sent his son to redeem them while they're yet sinners.
And he gives life, spiritual life to his people through the
preaching of his son. Gives them the new birth through
the preaching of his word. And God saves his people like
God saves. Injustice. God punished the sins
of his people. by punishing Christ their substitute. So they're saved in justice.
Their sin's paid for. This is justice. And you know
God will damn people like God would do. He's gonna damn them
in justice. We read that in 2 Thessalonians. They refused to bow to Christ.
They refused to give up their righteousness and beg for mercy
in justice. God's gonna damn them. Now look
at verse 10. This is what he's talking about
in verse 10. For in this mountain shall the hand of the Lord rest,
and Moab shall be trodden down under him, even as straw is trodden
down for the dunghill. When Christ returns, God is gonna
stretch out his hand in judgment. We read in Exodus how God stretched
out his hand over Egypt in justice. One day he's gonna stretch out
his hand over the world. And God's hand is gonna destroy
Moab. Now Moab is a picture of the
curse of man's sin. It's the curse of man's works.
This man, Moab, who was born, started this whole tribe of the
Moabites. He was born from an incestuous
relationship between Lot and his daughter, right after Sodom
was destroyed. And his daughter thought, you
know, we better get our father drunk and lie with him because
God's destroying the whole world. And she looked at what's happening
to Sodom, she thought God's destroying the whole world, the whole race
is going to be destroyed. If I don't take action, if I
don't do something, that's trusting in the works of the flesh, not
trusting in the mercy of God. Well, God's going to stretch
out His arm and destroy all that just as easily as the ox treads
down straw on the dunghill. That's what man's works are.
They're dung. They deserve for God to destroy
them. So He's going to, in His justice, trod them down. He's
going to do it easily. He's going to stretch out His
hand against them. But Isaiah said God's hand is
going to be still. His hand is going to rest in
this mountain. Now we looked at that last week.
This mountain is Mount Zion. It's God's church. His hand rests
over his people. Just like a parent carries her
hand around her arm right around Sam. That's how a parent, her
hand is resting there. That's what our Father is going
to do. His hand is going to rest over his people. He's going to
put his arm of protection around his people. It's an arm of love
that's going to be around the shoulders of his children. The
almighty hand of our Savior is going to be resting over his
people in love, touching them in affection. His hand is going
to be over his people, resting in his people, providing for
them. His hand is going to be over
his people. His hand is going to be in their
heart, comforting their heart, giving them peace. His hand's
going to be over His people, guiding them and protecting them.
Now why will the hand of God be at rest in His people, in
this mountain? But it's going to be very active
in the destruction of Moab because the hand of God's justice has
already been turned on Christ our substitute. God's justice
is satisfied. There's no reason for Him to
be angry anymore. So His hand rests in mercy upon His people. Isn't that God saving like God
would save? In a holy manner. In a manner that's consistent
with His holy character. God saves people in holiness. And God damns people in holiness
too. Because this is what their sin deserves. God also acts like
God when He saves His people in absolute power. And when He
damns people in absolute power. Look at verse 11. That's how
God does things in absolute power. He shall spread forth his hand
in the midst of them, as he that swimmeth spreadeth forth his
hands to swim. And he shall bring down their
pride together with the spoils of their hands. And the fortress
of the high fort of thy walls shall he bring down. Lay low
and bring to the ground, even to the dust." When God comes
to judge, he's going to separate the sheep from the goats, the
sheep to his right hand. the goats to his left. He's going
to move that just as easily. He's going to make that division
just as easily as you move your hands through water. That water
offers no resistance. You just move your hands right
through it. Michael Phelps, I thought about swimming. Michael Phelps
makes swimming look easy. I mean, you see that guy just
going through the water. I mean, his body just gliding
along on top of the water. I watch those Olympics thinking,
I'm going to start swimming for exercise. I go down, swim one
lap, and I'm huffing and puffing. This is nothing like what Michael
Phelps is doing. He makes swimming look easy.
He just moves his hands through that water like it's nothing
because that guy is powerful. His body is built for swimming. Our God's going to come and he's
going to dispense of his enemies so easily because he has all
power. is absolute sovereign power. He's going to bring down the
pride of his enemies, and they're going to spend eternity being
ashamed of what they were once proud of. Every fortress and
stronghold of man is going to be destroyed just as easily as
you move your hands through water. Their covenant with hell is going
to be disannulled. They're just going to be wiped
flat. Now that's God judging in absolute power. But you know,
God saves his people in absolute sovereign power, and I'm thankful. Aren't you thankful? It took
the power of God to save me. It takes the power of God to
save any sinner. No matter how hard we try, we
can't save ourselves. You parents, can you save your
children? No matter how hard we try, we
can't. We don't have that kind of power. Our God does. We can't
make our friends and neighbors and loved ones who don't believe,
we can't make them believe. We can talk to them until they're
blue in the face, but we can't make them believe because we
don't have the power to give a new heart of faith. We can't
do a heart transplant. God gives a new heart. We don't
even have the power to decide when a fleshly baby's born, much
less cause the new birth to happen. We don't have that kind of power.
We can't make someone see. We can preach the gospel to them,
and we ought to. And we ought to work hard at
being able to preach the gospel clearly and simply so people
understand exactly what we're saying. We can do that. But even if they can understand
what we're saying, we can't make them believe it. We can't make
them see Christ because we don't have the power to give the eyes
of faith. We can't make someone love Christ. We don't have that kind of power.
You know, it's hard enough to court your wife when she's your
girlfriend, you're courting her. I mean, you put everything you've
got into making her love you. I mean, it's all you can do.
Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. We can't do that
with men. We certainly can't make men love
God. We can't make men love Christ.
We don't have that kind of power. But our Savior has all power
in heaven and earth, and He shall save His people from their sin.
There's no obstacle that's going to stand in His way that's going
to stop Him from saving His people. And there's obstacles. People,
they're born with a heart full of pride, full of sin and wretchedness. They're born far away from God
and left to themselves, they're going further and further and
further away from God. But God reaches out, just like
you reach your hands through the water. And He reaches through
and lays hold of His people in grace. He's got the power to
stop them on their mad rush to hell. He's got power to show
them their sin and their guilt and their shame. And when God
moves in grace and power, it takes the power of God to do
this. We're ashamed of what we used to be proud of. We used
to be so proud of our religion. We used to be so proud of our
doing, just like Saul of Tarsus. Oh, Saul of Tarsus, he's a proud
fellow. He's proud of what he'd done. Later on when he wrote, he's
ashamed of it, wasn't he? He's ashamed. He said, I'm not
worthy to be called an apostle because of what I did. I'm ashamed.
That's God coming in power. When God comes in his power,
we count all that we used to be proud of as dung. And then
our Savior lifts us off the dunghill and sets us among princes. The
one that taught me how to beg at his feet. In that dunghill,
he lifted me up. At the table of grace He gave
me a seat. Now we've got all these defenses built up by nature. But when our Savior comes in
His power, all of our defenses are brought down. Look at 2 Corinthians
chapter 10. Our Redeemer tears down strongholds
through the preaching of His gospel. 2 Corinthians 10 verse
3. For though we walk in the flesh,
we do not war after the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare
are not carnal, but they're mighty through God to the pulling down
of strongholds, casting down imaginations, and every high
thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing
into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. How
does that happen? It's through the preaching of
the gospel. And when our strongholds, when they're destroyed, and we're
left in the dust, then our Savior in great mercy picks us up off
the dust. Look at Job chapter 42. This
is our last scripture we'll look at. Job chapter 42, verse 6. Now verse 5, Job says, I've heard
of thee by the hearing of the ear. And that hearing by the
hearing of the ear, that's hearing the preacher preach. That's with
the natural understanding. That's hearing. I've heard of
thee by the hearing of the ear. But now mine eye seeth thee.
The eye of faith that you gave me, now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore, I abhor myself." See,
we're not going to abhor ourselves until we see Christ. And once
we see Christ, I abhor myself and I repent in dust and ashes. And after Job repented in dust
and ashes, now that he's in the ashes worshiping the Lord, look
at what happened to him in verse 10. And the Lord turned the captivity
of Job when he prayed for his friends. Also the Lord gave Job
twice as much as he had before. That is a picture of the believer
being restored in Christ. We're restored even better than
we were in Adam. In Adam, we had a righteousness
that could be lost. Adam proved it. He lost it. In
Christ, we have a righteousness that can never be lost. So in
that day, in the day that he puts us in the dust and reveals
himself to us, he gives us a sight of him, in that day, we'll say,
Behold, everybody stop and look, this is our God. We've waited
for him and he will save us. This is the Lord, Jehovah, and
we've waited for him. We'll be glad and rejoice in
his salvation. I hope the Lord will bless that
to our hearts and to his glory. Let's bow in prayer. Father, how we thank you for
this, the precious promises of your word. How we thank you for
your precious promise. You will come in mercy and grace
and power, the power to forgive sin, the power to give life to
the dead, the power to give a new heart of faith and belief that
looks to Christ and clings to Christ. How we thank you that
you promised you'd come to your people in that day, in the day
that you've appointed for their salvation, to reveal yourself
to them. Father, I pray that you'd make
today that day, that you'd reveal yourself to your people. How
we thank you that you've promised us to give us times of refreshing,
that you don't leave us alone to our own devices, but that
you'll come to us in that day. Give us a time of refreshing,
that the day of trial will have an end because you promised it
and you purposed it. And how we thank you that you're
coming again. You're coming again to put an
end to this world, to create new heavens and a new earth wherein
dwells righteousness, where all your people are gathered together
in one great throne, singing your praises, seeing you face
to face, being made just like Christ. We'll be glad and rejoice. We're glad and rejoice looking
forward to it. glad we'll be, how full of rejoicing
we'll be in that day. Father, until that day, we pray
that you'd fill our lives with these days of your grace and
your mercy. Don't leave us alone, we pray.
Fill us with days where we can come together and have your word
open to us and worship you in the power of the spirit and peace
and unity together. We're thankful that you've given
us this gospel to preach. Make us faithful, Father, to
preach it and continue to bless it for your great namesake and
for the good of your people. It's in that name which is above
every name, that name we love, the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
For his sake and for his glory, we pray. Amen.