Okay, Isaiah chapter 25. Now, we've been going through
this study, the previous 24 chapters, and we've seen, I don't know
how many chapters it's been, but it's been a while, that the
Lord has given Isaiah a burden, or he's given Isaiah a message
for several different nations. And you'll notice as we've gone
through this study, the message was the same, basically, to everyone. Isaiah's message was God's judgment
against sin is coming and the only hiding place is the Lord
Jesus Christ. God's judgment against sin will
come sweeping through and it will destroy everything in its
path. Now, this is a message not just
for the people of Isaiah's day. This is a message for you and
me. This is a message that we must hear and we must believe. All of us are sinners. We're
sinners, born sinners, and we deserve God's eternal wrath against
our sin, our sin that's against Him. But in His mercy, God provided
the Savior of sinners, His own Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. And salvation in Christ is sure
and it's certain. So come to Christ. Flee to Him. Hide in Him. Seek forgiveness
of your sin in Christ. Don't seek forgiveness or acceptance
in anything you do. Don't seek acceptance or forgiveness
in anything about you. Seek forgiveness. Seek to be
accepted. Find a refuge in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And do it right now. Today's
the day of salvation. Now that's been the message that
we have seen in these previous chapters. Now in chapter 25 there's
a change. Now seems to me like begins the
response of God's people who have heard this message. And
it's a response that sounds a whole lot like a psalm. As I've been
studying this this week, it felt like I was studying the psalm.
I hope I don't do this. You may hear me say, David says,
because this sounds just like a psalm. See if you don't hear
that as we look at these first five verses. But I titled the
message, I will exalt my God. Isaiah says in verse 1, O LORD,
thou art my God, I will exalt thee. I will praise thy name,
for thou hast done wonderful things. Thy counsels of old are
faithfulness and truth. I will exalt thee. Now we can't
exalt God any more than he's already exalted. God's already
exalted above all. But we exalt God by giving Him
the glory that's due His name, that's due unto Him. We exalt
God by taking no glory to ourselves at all, giving it all to Him.
We exalt God by believing Him. We exalt God simply by believing
the testimony that He's given us concerning His Son and believing
Him. We exalt God when we stir up
other people to exalt God. And that's what I hope to do
this evening, stir up your heart to exalt our God. And Isaiah
says, I will exalt thee first of all, because thou art my God. He says, O Lord, capital L, capital
O, capital R, capital D, Jehovah, thou art my God. Jehovah, Savior,
is my God. My Savior is my God. The Lord Jesus Christ is God. He is fully equal with the Father
because He is God. It's not like He's God. He's not God in some lesser manner. He is God. Now, He's God in human
flesh, but He is God. And because He's God, my Savior
cannot fail. It's impossible for Him to fail.
He's God. If He says, I'm forgiven, Gene,
I'm forgiven. I'm forgiven in Him. I'm cleansed
by His blood from all my sin because it's the blood of God.
I'm made righteous in Him because of who He is. He is my righteousness. And I am determined to exalt
everything that I know about our Lord Jesus Christ, my Lord
and my Savior. I will exalt His incarnation. I know at this time of year this
is something that's on everyone's mind. I'm fully confident that our
Lord was not born at this time of year. Certainly He was not
born on December 25th. But like we say all the time,
anything that makes people think about the incarnation of Christ
is a good thing. I'm glad people at this time
at least think that whatever day it was. God became a man. God was born a baby to poor parents
who couldn't get a room in the inn, who were in a barn, and
they laid that precious child in a horse trough. How much more
salted can you get than that? God became a man. But here's the miracle that causes
my heart to exalt my God. God became a man for this purpose,
to be my Savior. He became a man to be the Savior
of sinners like me. Are you a sinner? If you are,
that's good news. God became a man to save sinners. I'll exalt His incarnation. I'll
exalt His righteousness. The man Jesus of Nazareth. He
obeyed God's law perfectly, both outwardly and also in thought,
in heart, in intent, in motive. He not only kept the commandments
of the law, he loved God while doing it. It was a joy to him.
If I keep any law, any law, it's a burden to me. It was a joy
to our Lord. No one else has ever done that.
I'll exalt His name. And here's another miracle. I
will exalt. God imputed that perfect obedience
of Christ to all of His people. He imputed that obedience to
me. So God sees me as the very one
who kept God's law perfectly. I will exalt God because He can
do that. And I'll exalt God because He
did that for somebody like me. I'll exalt my God. I'll exalt
the sacrifice of Christ. That is an historical fact that
Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, died on the cross about 2,000
years ago. And when we talk of His death,
we don't talk of the death of our Lord as just a fact. I will exalt my Savior in His
death because His substitutionary death won the victory over sin,
over hell, and over death. The death of Christ was not for
sins he committed. Christ died as a substitute for
sinners. The perfect holy son of God was
made to be sin for his people. Their sin was taken from them. And it was put on Christ, charged
to Christ. And those sins, look in Psalm
40, those sins became his sins. Someone asked me the other day
about how real is this imputation of sin to Christ. All I know
is what God's Word says. Those sins of God's elect became
His. See if I can't show you that.
Psalm 40, verse 6. Sacrifice and offering thou didst
not desire. Mine ears hast thou opened. Burnt
offering and sin offering hast thou not required. Then said
I, Lo, I come, and the volume of the book it is written of
me. I delight to do thy will, O my God. Yea, thy law is within
my heart. I have preached righteousness
in the great congregation. Lo, I have not refrained my lips.
O Lord, thou knowest. I have not hid thy righteousness
within my heart. I have declared thy faithfulness
and thy salvation. I have not concealed thy lovingkindness
and thy truth from the great congregation." Is anybody in
this room have any doubt who is speaking there? It's Christ,
isn't it? We're told that in the New Testament.
This is Christ speaking. Lo, I come. In the volume of
the book, it's written to me. Christ is speaking. Look what
he says in verse 11. We haven't changed speakers.
He's still speaking. Withhold not thy tender mercies from me,
O Lord. Let thy loving kindness and thy
truth continually preserve me. For innumerable evils have compassed
me about. The iniquities of my people have
taken hold upon me. Not what it says, is it? My iniquities
have taken hold upon me so that I am not able to look up. They
are more than the hairs of my head. Therefore, my heart faileth
me. The sins of God's elect became
Christ's. And injustice, the Father killed
Him for it. His death was the death of a
substitute being sacrificed for the sins of His people. I will
exalt my Lord in his sacrifice. I'll exalt my Savior in his death
because his death put my sin away. The only hope I have of
being justified, being made without sins, is that when Christ died,
his blood was shed to pay for my sins and washed my sin away. And because Christ died for me,
I will never die. The death of Christ was the death
of death to his people. I will exalt him in his death.
I'll exalt Christ in his resurrection. Now Christ did die for the sins
of his people, but he was raised again because his blood put all
that sin away. And I will exalt Christ in his
resurrection because he was raised again for the justification of
his people as proof, positive, they're justified. I will exalt
Christ in his ascension on high." Now, it's just right that the
Lord Jesus Christ be exalted back to the throne of heaven.
That's only right. He finished the work the Father
gave him to do. He fully saved everyone the Father
gave him in the covenant of grace. He ought to sit on the throne
of glory. It's only right. But the miracle
that makes my heart exalting is Christ's back on high to sit
on the throne, eternally making intercession for His people.
I will exalt Him. He ascended on high to intercede
with the Father for me. I'll exalt Him. I'll exalt Christ
in His return. Now, I know He's coming again
because He said He is. And when He comes again, His
glory will be seen by everyone. Now, some will see that glory
in fear and trembling. They'll call on the mountains
to fall on them. They won't have a refuge. And some will see that
glory in great joy, in great anticipation. This is what we
long to see, because when I see him, I'll be just like him. Brother
Roy tells me, I hope I live long enough. I hope I'm still living
when the Lord returns. I love to see that glory. Him
coming in the clouds. What glory that's going to be.
I don't know if we'll be here or not when he comes back, but
he's coming back. And when he returns, he's going
to return for this purpose. To gather all of his people together.
To be with him forever. Never to be separated again.
I will exalt my God in his return. And I'll exalt Christ for this
reason. We don't have to wait until he returns to enjoy his
presence. He promised. Didn't he promise where two or
three are gathered together in my name? There am I in the midst
of them. We have his presence. Now I grant
you it's not as glorious and face to face as it will be someday. But we have his presence right
now. And I will exalt Christ that
he blesses his word. He blesses the preaching of his
word to say and to comfort and to edify His people. I will exalt
Him. And if you're going to preach
the gospel, you better learn how to exalt the name of Christ.
So Isaiah says, I will praise thy name. I will praise the name,
exalt the name of my God. Now, we can only praise God in
faith. The only way we can exalt His
name is in faith. By believing that name, that
God uses to describe Himself and His Word. And God uses many
different names to describe Himself and His Word. And a believer
will exalt every one of them. Jehovah Sidkenu, the Lord my
righteousness, how I will exalt Jehovah Sidkenu. I have no righteousness
of my own. If I'm going to be righteous,
it's going to be in Him. The Lord my righteousness. Jehovah-Raya,
the Lord my Shepherd. Oh, how I'll praise my Shepherd.
How I'll exalt the name of my Shepherd. I'm the dumbest of
the dumb. Sheep will wander off and get
lost and fall in the water. I need a Shepherd to keep me
from myself. I need a Shepherd to lead me
to the green pastures and the still waters. I will praise the
name Jehovah-Raya, the Lord's my Shepherd. I won't be lost
and I won't want if the Lord's my shepherd. Jehovah-Jireh. The Lord will provide. We're
going to look here in a minute at poor and needy. Oh, I'm poor
and needy. Are you poor and needy? If you're
poor and needy, you praise the name Jehovah-Jireh. He will provide
everything God requires and everything I need. Jehovah-Rapha. The Lord that healeth thee. I
will exalt that name. I'm nothing but wounds and bruises
and putrefying sores from the tip of my head to the sole of
my foot. I will exalt the name of Jehovah Raper, the Lord who
healeth thee, gives thee spiritual life. That's the name that's
above every name. The name of our Lord. And anyone
who has been given God-given faith praises those names. Because
those names tell me who God is and tells me what He's done for
me in Christ. I will exalt and praise His name. Secondly, I'll exalt my God because
of all the wonderful things He's done. Isaiah says, for thou hast
done wonderful things. What do you think about the wonderful
things God's done? Wonderful things in creation.
The way this world is made and the way nature works together,
Men are still discovering new ways how nature works together. That shows me God's wisdom and
God's power. Only God could do that. It's
so wonderful. God's done wonderful things in
Providence. You know, every event of the
history of this world that have all worked together to bring
us to this point. You know, none of those things
were happy accidents. Not one of them. Every one of
those events was God working out His wonderful providence
to glorify His Son and to save His people out of this creation.
Everything God does is wonderful. His name is wonderful, so everything
He does is wonderful. But we see how truly wonderful
God is when we see His wonders in salvation. God's covenant
of grace is wonderful. What wonderful love, love that
causes us to wonder that God would choose to show mercy to
sinners, to save sinners by the sacrifice of His Son. That's
wonderful. God sending His Son to accomplish
the salvation of His elect is wonderful. God didn't send somebody
else. He sent His own Son to accomplish
the salvation of His people. That's wonderful. God accomplishing
the salvation of His elect through the sacrifice of His Son. That's
wonderful. I don't know that I can think
of anything I'd sacrifice my children for. Can you? God sacrificed
His Son to save His people. That's wonderful. God choosing to be pleased to
stay disrelected of preaching of the Gospel. That's wonderful. God giving life and faith in
the new birth. That's wonderful. When a new
man is born who loves God and trusts Christ. The only thing
you can say about that is that's wonderful. Only God can do that.
I will exalt my God because of all the wonderful things He's
done. And I'll exalt my God because of His eternal counsel. Isaiah
says, Thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth. Now,
my Savior is my God. And my Savior is my King, the
King of Kings, who rules over every detail after the counsel
of His own will. Now, everything that's ever happened
in time has happened because God purposed it to happen. before
time began. Let me explain that. Everything that happens, happens
because God purposed it to happen before the creation of the world.
Now that means God determined everything that He would ever
do in time before He created the world. Then He created the
world. Then God did everything He said
He was going to do. Just exactly like He said He
was going to do it. So everything that happens because God determined
before creation that it would happen. That's why it happens.
Now that applies to everything. You can't take that too far.
It applies to everything. That breath I just took was determined
by God before the foundation of the world. God determined
large events of the world. God determined when kings would
reign and he determined when their reign would end. And God
determined, the same God for the same purpose, determined
when a peasant farmer nobody ever heard of, when he'd be born,
when he'd farm, when he'd have a good harvest and when he'd
have a bad harvest and when he'd die. The same God purposed that
for his will. God determined something as minor
as the weather for every day in every spot on the earth. And
he determined that before he created the world. In the end,
God sent that weather. I saw this story yesterday, and
I called Jane and said, come look at this. This is something.
Revolutionary War. I'd never heard this story before.
Early in the war, Washington's army was trapped in Brooklyn.
Behind them and to their right was the sea. To the left was
a river, and the sea was the East River, and the sea was filled
with the British Navy. And in an array in front of them,
was the British Army. They're surrounded. The revolution
is over. The British Navy is going to
sail into the East River. They've got them completely surrounded.
And if Washington doesn't surrender, they're going to kill every one
of them. The revolution's over. Then a strange thing happened.
A strong, very strange, west wind began to blow. And it blew
all day and all night long. so that the British Navy was
not able to sail into the East River. In Washington, they gathered
together all these little boats and rowboats and all these little
things, and his army went across that river in the dead of night,
and the British army never knew they were escaping. And they
crossed over into Manhattan and escaped up to the north. I wonder
where that wind came from. Oh, this country ought to bow. We owe our very existence to
God. He even did it by the weather.
Even by the weather. And the same God, for the same
purpose, His own eternal purpose, determined the exact temperature
in Ashland, Kentucky today, December 17, 2014. Now, I know the temperature
today. does not seem nearly as important
as when Washington's army was trapped during the revolution.
But God determined them both just the same for His purpose. Everything that happens in time
happens because God's fulfilling His purpose before time began.
Look over a few pages of Isaiah 46. See if that's not so. Everything that happens in time
is simply God fulfilling His purpose before time began. So
God's promise is just as sure as an act that God's already
done. Isaiah 46 verse 9. Now you remember
the former things of old. For I am God and there's none
else. I am God and there's none like me. Declaring the end from
the beginning. And from ancient times of things
that are not yet done, saying my counsel shall stand. I will
do all my pleasure. Calling a ravenous bird from
the east. the man that executed my counsel from a far country.
Yea, I've spoken it. I'll also bring it to pass. I've
purposed it. I will also do it." Bob, I reckon everything is right
on schedule, don't you? Everything that happens in time
happens according to God's eternal purpose. And I will especially
exalt my God for His counsel and His purpose. of redemption. God purposed in Himself, before
the foundation of the world, He purposed in Himself to save
a people. He chose those people and He's
going to save them through the sacrifice and through the righteousness
of His Son. Then God creates the world. Time rolls on. Adam fell. Time rolls on. You and I are
born. Is God going to change His mind? When he sees how horrible,
how rotten, how black and defiled with sin we are, is God going
to change His mind? When He sees we're so rebellious
we're not worth it, is He going to change His mind? No, He's
not. Why not? Because God's faithful. He is faithful that promised. And not only all thy counsels,
Isaiah says, are faithfulness and truth, God's not only faithful
to keep His promise, God's true to His character when He saves
sinners. Now, that's not just a doctrinal
point that we make about the character of God. That's the
believer's confidence that God is true to His character when
He saves sinners. When God saves a sinner, He doesn't
set holiness and justice aside. He doesn't just ignore our sin. God saves sinners by satisfying
His holiness. and by satisfying his justice,
by punishing Christ our substitute for our sin. And he makes his
people righteous through the righteousness of Christ. He causes
a new man to be born who's righteous, who's holy, who cannot sin. Now a salvation like that, that's
accomplished in truth, can never be lost. So if God's the one
who saved you, you are truly saved. from all of your sin,
and you'll never face God's wrath. Ever. And we preach that Gospel
for this reason, so that God will be exalted. If He's exalted
in your eyes, you'll come to Him. If God enables you to hear
His Gospel with the ear of faith, and He's exalted in your ear,
you'll come running. That's why we preach that Gospel.
Fourth, I'll exalt my God for His conquering grace. For thou hast made of a city
an heap, of a defense city a ruin, a palace of strangers to be no
city. It shall never be built." Now this verse can, and it does,
apply to God's eternal judgment when Christ returns to judge
the earth in righteousness. And God's judgment against sin
will be eternal. There will be no escaping it.
There will be no rebuilding from it. Every religious defense,
every religious refuge man has ever made up it's going to be
turned into a garbage heap. It'll be useless. Now that verse
applies to this. But it also applies to the conquering
grace of our God. When God comes in mercy, and
He conquers His elect, He destroys everything we used to trust in.
It just makes it a garbage heap. When God comes in power, That
self-righteousness we used to trust in, now we see it for what
it is. And it's destroyed. It's a garbage
heap. The Apostle Paul called it dung. Now, if anybody could trust in
his own righteousness, it was Saul of Tarsus. His own obedience
to the law. And Paul thought he'd done it.
Saul did. Saul thought he'd done that. He thought he was righteous.
And then God came in power. And all those things that Saul
counted as gain, Paul counted his loss. He said, they're done. Why? God made it a garbage heap.
That's why. When God comes in power, our
goodness is seen for what it is. It's nothing. I don't have
any goodness. And that makes me in the situation
where the only person I can trust is Christ, because I have no
goodness. When God comes in power, our flesh is seen for what it
is. It'll never be anything but flesh.
So, I've got no confidence in the flesh. The only place I have
any confidence is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I say those
things are destroyed. But every believer knows this.
Our self-righteousness is not destroyed. It rebuilds itself
every day. Our flesh is not destroyed. So
it's constantly seeing goodness in our flesh. It's constantly
seeing goodness where there is none. But those things will never
rule again in the heart of a believer. Not once God comes in power it
won't. Christ takes the throne and that new heart He gives and
those things, while they're not destroyed yet, they don't rule.
And one day they will be destroyed. And we won't deal with sin. We
won't deal with self-righteousness. We won't deal with this flesh
any more. I will exalt. My God, for His
conquering grace. Fifth, I will exalt my God for
His strength. Verse 3, Therefore shall the
strong people glorify Thee. The city of the terrible nations
shall fear Thee. Now our Lord has all strength.
He has all might. He is God. So we exalt Him for
that, don't we? And we exalt Him because our
God in His mercy has made His people strong in Him. Now here's
the miracle that we exalt. We're not strong in ourselves.
The Lord doesn't make us strong in ourselves. You know, like
Popeye eats a can of spinach and suddenly he's strong. He's
strong in himself. That's not the way a believer
is made strong, not with a magic pill. God makes his people strong
by magnifying our weakness. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter
12. God makes his people strong by magnifying our weakness. so
that we'll trust in Christ more fully, and then we'll be strong. 2 Corinthians 12, verse 7. And lest I should be exalted
above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there is
given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet
me, lest I should be exalted above measure. Now, this was
not a pleasant thing. For this thing I have besought
the Lord thrice, three times, that it might depart from me.
And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee, for my
strength is made perfect in your weakness. Most gladly, therefore,
will I rather glory in my infirmities, if the power of Christ may rest
upon me. Therefore, I take pleasure in
infirmities, and in reproaches, and in necessities, and in persecutions,
and in distresses for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then
I am strong. When God reveals to me how weak
I am, then I am strong. Because now I am forced to rest
in Christ. I'll exalt my God for strength.
6. I'll exalt my God for his compassion to the poor and needy.
Verse 4. For thou hast been a strength
to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress. A refuge
from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the
terrible ones is as a storm against the wall. Now you know one of
the complaints about all the human suffering that was caused
by Hurricane Katrina is how the poor people suffered. The poor
and needy didn't have a shelter. They didn't have a place to go.
They didn't have anywhere to hide or get help. And human governments
do that. They overlook the poor and needy
and they don't have any help. Not God our King. He takes special
interest in the poor and needy. He ignores those who are strong
in themselves. And His eye is upon the poor and needy. So our
God, not only does He provide a shelter from the storm of God's
wrath against our sin, but God made His own Son to be our hiding
place. So that all of His wrath against
the sin of the poor and needy was poured out upon Christ our
hiding place. And we're safe in Him. We're
safe in His strength. He could stand up to that wrath.
You and I can't. But He did in His strength. And
we find shelter in Him. Our God is a shelter from the
storm of wrath against sin. And He's a shelter from the blast
of the terrible ones. And who are these terrible ones
He talks about here? Well, they're all those who hate
God. They roar. Like the wind and the waves of
the sea roar in a storm. They roar. But all they do is
hit a wall. The wind and the waves. All they
do is hit a wall. What happens when a wave hits
a wall? Brick wall. Stone wall. It's unaffected. Not a little ship. It can get
blown every which way. It might get capsized and sink. But not the wall. A wall is unaffected. And that wall is our God. He is unaffected by the roar
of the terrible ones. You and I get mighty upset about
them. He doesn't. He's unaffected. And we hide
in Him. And as long as we hide in Him,
we'll be unaffected. He is our safety and our refuge
if we're poor and needy. I will exalt Him for His compassion
to the poor and needy. And last, I will exalt my God
for his justice. Verse 5, Thou shalt bring down
the noise of strangers, as the heat in a dry place, even the
heat with the shadow of a cloud, the branch of the terrible ones,
shall be brought low. I will exalt my God who brought
me low. When Isaiah here talks about
the noise of strangers, that's all the songs we sing about ourselves,
glorifying ourselves, talking about how good we are. Well,
I'll exalt my God. He brought me low. He made those
songs to stop when he had mercy on me. And I will exalt my God. He had mercy on me, but he still
poured out his strict justice upon my sin when he punished
Christ, my substitute. That's how God has mercy on sinners. By punishing Christ, our substitute
for all of our sin and having mercy on us. But now listen,
this mercy is not for everyone. He's not being merciful to everyone
here, is he? He's not being merciful to the
terrible ones. Now these terrible ones, that's
man in our nature. We are terrible in our nature. Adam's nature is terrible. It's sinful. It's rebellious.
It's dead. You can't do anything with it.
You can't change it. You can't educate it. You can't
threaten it into line. Rebellious and sinful and dead.
And that's how we're all born. Terrible. And we'll stay terrible. Unless God does something for
us in mercy. Now those who refuse to bow to
Christ. Those who refuse to surrender their self-righteousness and
surrender their self-reliance. God will meet them on their terms.
He will. Now if they refuse to surrender,
God will meet them on their terms. They're noisy now. They mock
and make fun of God's people now. But when Christ returns,
God's people are going to be vindicated. Those mockers are
going to be brought low. Their songs are going to be silenced.
Their waves and their wind will be silenced. Now we don't rejoice
in their damnation now. Now we weep. And brethren, we
ought to weep. Now we ought to weep. I mentioned
at the close of my message Sunday, I didn't have this in my notes,
so I didn't hit it as clearly as I wish I would have, and I
didn't put it in my notes now. It just came to me, so I'll probably
go home and suppress it again. When I spoke about unity, that
we have unity with each other, it's not an us against them mentality. It's not an us against them mentality. It's not us against the false
religion. I mean, it is in a way, but we
don't mock them. We don't, we don't ridicule them. We don't make fun of them like
they make fun of us. Our hearts ought to be broken
for them. That's where I'd be. That's where I'd be if it wasn't
for God's mercy. We ought to weep for them now.
We ought to be the ones trying to preach Christ to We ought
to be the one pointing them to the refuge for the poor and needy.
Maybe God will be merciful. If He is, it's going to be through
the preaching of His word, I can tell you that. Maybe, if they
hear the gospel, they'll quit opposing themselves and they'll
surrender to Christ. Maybe they will. If they do,
we'll rejoice. If they don't, we'll weep. But
in that day, in the day that Christ returns, we'll rejoice. When God sends people to hell
and He does it in justice, we'll rejoice. Now we will. Even people
that we know will rejoice. And that seems hard to imagine
now. And we can't do that now. You
know why? It's this flesh. We're still
dragging it around. But then it'll be different.
Because then we'll be in a perfect body. We'll know perfectly. And
in that day, we will exalt our God perfectly. We'll see how
He's done everything perfectly. And we'll see Him as He is. And
we will exalt Him perfectly. And until that day, I am determined
to exalt Christ as much as I can. At every opportunity, as much
as He gives me any breath, I'm determined to exalt His name
now. And look forward to the day I
do it perfectly. One day, we'll do it perfectly. And I won't go home and be depressed
because I didn't make my point right. We'll do it perfectly.
But until then, we're going to keep doing it. As imperfectly
as it may be, we're going to keep exalting our God. He's worthy
of me. Alright, let's bow in prayer. Our great God, we do exalt Thy
Name. We exalt our God. Lord, how thankful we are that
because of your purpose, your purpose of mercy and grace to
your people and your Son, that we can call you our God. Not just that you're the God
of heaven and earth, you are. The God of all creation, you
are. The God of all providence ruling
and reigning over every detail in your universe, you are. How precious it is to our hearts
that as your children we can call you our God. And we exalt
thy name. We exalt who you are. And Father,
we pray that you bless your word as it's preached. Cause your
word to reach effectually to the heart. Stir up our hearts to exalt our
God. He is worthy of all exaltation. It's in your precious name, the
precious exalted name of your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. We
pray and give thanks.