SPEAKER_00: The description this morning is taken from the book of Isaiah.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah chapter 49, verses 1 through 13.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah 49 1 through 13.
SPEAKER_00: That's in your bulletin, so you can follow along on the screen from your Bibles.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah 49, verses 1 through 13.
SPEAKER_00: It reads as follows.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to me, O coastlands, and give attention, you peoples from afar.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord called you, called me from the womb.
SPEAKER_00: From the body of my mother, he named my name.
SPEAKER_00: He made my mouth like a sharp sword in the shadow of his hand, he hid me.
SPEAKER_00: He made me hit a polished arrow in his quiver, he hid me away.
SPEAKER_00: And he said to me, You are my servant Israel, in whom I will be glorified.
SPEAKER_00: But I said, I have labored in vain.
SPEAKER_00: I have spent my strength for nothing in vanity.
SPEAKER_00: Yet surely my right is with the Lord, and my recompense with my God.
SPEAKER_00: And now the Lord says, He who formed you from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him, and that Israel might be gathered to him, for I am honored in the eyes of the Lord, and my God has become my strength.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Is it too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel?
SPEAKER_00: I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: Thus says the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel, the whole and his holy one, the one deeply despised, abhorred by the nations, the servants of rulers, kings shall see and arise.
SPEAKER_00: Princes and they shall prostrate themselves, because the Lord, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.
SPEAKER_00: Thus says the Lord, in a time of favor I have answered you, in the day of salvation I have helped you.
SPEAKER_00: I will keep you and give you a covenant to the people as a covenant to the people to establish the land, to apportion the desolate heritages heritage, saying to the prisoners, Come out, and to those who are in darkness, appear.
SPEAKER_00: They shall feed along the ways on a bare on all bare heights shall be their pasture.
SPEAKER_00: They shall not hunger or thirst, neither shall scorching wind nor sun shall strike them, for he who has pity on them will lead them, and by springs of water will guide them.
SPEAKER_00: And I will make all my mountains a road, and my highways shall be raised up.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, these shall come at from afar, and behold, these from the north and from the west, and from the east, and from these and these from the land of Syene.
SPEAKER_00: Sing for joy, O heavens, and exalt, O earth.
SPEAKER_00: Break forth, O mountains, into singing.
SPEAKER_00: For the Lord has comforted his people and will have compassion on his afflicted.
SPEAKER_00: Let us pray.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we thank you for this time that we can spend in your word.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you for the hope that we have and that because of what Christ has done, that we can have life, that we can have peace, that we can have access to the Father.
SPEAKER_00: We pray, Lord, that as we explore your word this morning, that you would open our eyes, that we might behold wondrous things from your word.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you again, Lord, for this day.
SPEAKER_00: Bless your word.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Last week we began exploring the servant songs in the book of Isaiah.
SPEAKER_00: The book of Isaiah is written by the prophet Isaiah, and he was given the job and the responsibility to prophesy to the nation of Israel of the coming judgment.
SPEAKER_00: And all throughout the book of Isaiah, you hear these words of judgment and of woe, because the nation, the people, have been walking in rebellion against God.
SPEAKER_00: God had given them time after time after time to repent, to get their act together, to get their lives together, and they refused to do so.
SPEAKER_00: And eventually God sent the nations of Assyria and the Babylonians to take them into captivity.
SPEAKER_00: But in the midst of the prophetic word that Isaiah gives, there's always these words and these messages of hope that God has not fully or totally abandoned the children of the people of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: You see this even in Isaiah's call in chapter 6 and verse 8, he says this.
SPEAKER_00: He says, And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?
SPEAKER_00: Then I said, Here I am, send me.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, Go and say to the people, Keep on hearing, but do not understand.
SPEAKER_00: Keep on seeing, but do not perceive.
SPEAKER_00: Make the heart of this people dull and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes, lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.
SPEAKER_00: Then I said, How long, O Lord?
SPEAKER_00: And he said, Until the cities lie waste without inhabitants, the house without people, and the land is desolate.
SPEAKER_00: So he gives them a message.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Look, this is what you're going to do.
SPEAKER_00: You're going to proclaim judgment on the people, and your words will be a heart, have a hardening effect on them.
SPEAKER_00: They will hear and they will see, but they won't perceive.
SPEAKER_00: And Isaiah says, Well, how long am I supposed to preach this message?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, most times when a person stands up to preach and speak, you want to have a nice reception.
SPEAKER_00: You don't want people walking out the door and saying, I don't want to hear that.
SPEAKER_00: Well, that's exactly the impact and the effect that it had on the nation of Israel as he was proclaiming the judgment to come.
SPEAKER_00: But in the midst of that, even in his calling, God says, There's still hope.
SPEAKER_00: Notice what happened when he says in verse 13.
SPEAKER_00: And though a tenth remain in it, it will be burned again like a perebinth or an oak, whose stump remains when it is felled.
SPEAKER_00: The holy seed is its stump.
SPEAKER_00: Even though God was proclaiming judgment on the nation of Israel, even though God was telling them that they were going to be taken captive, he says, I'm not totally abandoning you.
SPEAKER_00: Beloved, that's good news.
SPEAKER_00: That's good news to know that even though they were in rebellion, God still was going to proclaim and keep his promises that he made.
SPEAKER_00: He made these promises years ago, centuries ago, even with the with Abraham, when he told Abraham, in you, all the nations of the earth will be blessed.
SPEAKER_00: God says, even though they are walking with me, I will still keep my promises.
SPEAKER_00: So glad to know that that God's promise keeping isn't dependent on who I am.
SPEAKER_00: That he's the faithful one, he's the one who keeps his word, he's the one who says that I will do, and he carries it out.
SPEAKER_00: So you see, in the midst of judgment, there's there's hope.
SPEAKER_00: But but elsewhere in chapter 9, we see that same thing as he's speaking about the judgment that is to come.
SPEAKER_00: He gives us more of an indicator and indications as who is this one that will come?
SPEAKER_00: What's he going to be like?
SPEAKER_00: What will he do?
SPEAKER_00: How is how are we to understand this one that will come and will be a deliverer for the nation of Israel?
SPEAKER_00: In Isaiah chapter 9, he says this in verse 6 for unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, the government shall be upon the shoulders, and his name shall be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
SPEAKER_00: Of the increase of his government and of his and of peace, there will be no end.
SPEAKER_00: On the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore, the zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
SPEAKER_00: So all throughout chapters 1 through 39 of the book of Isaiah, he is warning them and he's letting them know judgment is going to come.
SPEAKER_00: And I just want to say this to us as believers, as Christians.
SPEAKER_00: The word of God tells us, don't be deceived, God is not mocked.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever a man sows, he will also reap.
SPEAKER_00: Don't think just because we're Christians and we're walking and you're living your life, that if you decide to do your own thing and live your own way, that God is not going to chastise and bring judgment in your life.
SPEAKER_00: As a matter of fact, he tells us in Hebrews, if he doesn't do that, if you are out there living away in any old kind of way you want to live, and if God does not bring judgment, he says, then you are not sons.
SPEAKER_00: One of the signs of knowing that we are indeed children of God and the sons and the daughters of God is that when we sin, God doesn't just let you and I do our own thing.
SPEAKER_00: There's judgment there.
SPEAKER_00: But in the midst of this, there is hope.
SPEAKER_00: But in chapter 40, there's this turn, there's this shift in the message of the book of Isaiah.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, he's speaking of judgment, but chapter 40, there's a shift where Isaiah begins to let them know that he says in verse 1, he says, Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
SPEAKER_00: Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and cry to her, that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins.
SPEAKER_00: A voice cries in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make straight the straight in the desert a highway to our God.
SPEAKER_00: Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and even an uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places plain, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.
SPEAKER_00: See, he says, Look, there's a comfort that I want you to give to the people.
SPEAKER_00: The message shifts from judgment to comfort.
SPEAKER_00: And what he wants them to know is that God, in the midst of your rebellion, in the midst of your sinfulness, in the midst of me judging, I have not forgotten you.
SPEAKER_00: And I want you to understand that I am a God who will care for you, who will comfort you, who will bring about all that you need to have in your life.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to do that.
SPEAKER_00: And so he says, Comfort my people.
SPEAKER_00: So in this section of Isaiah, that's pastored last week, Pastor Josh, we began to look at these servant songs.
SPEAKER_00: Who is this one that would come?
SPEAKER_00: What is he going to be like?
SPEAKER_00: How will we recognize him?
SPEAKER_00: How will we know that this is the one that the Father had sent to bring deliverance to a nation and to a people who are in rebellion?
SPEAKER_00: Last week in chapter 42, the apost uh Pastor Josh reminded us of the that he was the one who would be the judge and who judges the nations, and he would challenge us to admire his person.
SPEAKER_00: He reminded us that he was the one who was beloved of the Father and to admire his person, to love his disposition, and the rejoice in the fulfillment of his saving activity.
SPEAKER_00: We looked at that last week in Isaiah 42, but this week in chapter 49, we're we're discovering something else about this one that the Father will send.
SPEAKER_00: He tells us that he will be the true Israel who would be called to restore Israel from his rebellion and from its evilness.
SPEAKER_00: And then also he lets us know that he would be the one who would reach out and pull from the Gentiles a people unto himself.
SPEAKER_00: This is what he would be like, and this is what they were to look for.
SPEAKER_00: So he is the true Israel.
SPEAKER_00: If you look in verse 3 of Isaiah 49, it says this, and he said to me, You are my servant Israel, in whom I will be glorified.
SPEAKER_00: And so he he starts out and he says, Look, you are, and he's speaking to someone, he says, You're my servant Israel, and in you I will be glorified.
SPEAKER_00: Now, now he he he wasn't being glorified in the nation of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: As a matter of fact, the nation of Israel were just running wild.
SPEAKER_00: They were they were living all kinds of ways.
SPEAKER_00: They were living in rebellion, chasing after idols, chasing after after wicked things, and and and failing to obey the commands of the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: And so and so he he could not have been talking about you as a nation are my Israel, because they were in rebellion.
SPEAKER_00: But there's someone special, there's something unique about this one is whom he is calling.
SPEAKER_00: He said to me, You are my servant Israel, in whom I will be glorified.
SPEAKER_00: I think we can get some insight as to who this one is if we go to the New Testament in the book of Acts.
SPEAKER_00: And in the New Testament, oftentimes the New Testament writers will interpret what we read in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: And in the story in the New Testament, in the book of Acts, in chapter 8, you have the story of the Ethiopian eunuch.
SPEAKER_00: There's this man who is reading the Isaiah scroll, and he's reading the scroll, and he's trying to figure out, okay, well, well, who is this one that this writer is speaking about?
SPEAKER_00: How am I to understand this?
SPEAKER_00: And and he was reading and he was going over this and he and he just couldn't get it and didn't understand it.
SPEAKER_00: And God, through the power of the Spirit, says to Philip, he says, Look, there's a man in the chariot.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to go up to that man, and I want you to sit with him, and I want you to speak to him.
SPEAKER_00: And so Philip goes up to this chariot.
SPEAKER_00: And so he says in verse, and it says in verse uh 30 31, he says to the man, he says, Do you understand what you are reading?
SPEAKER_00: And he said to him, How can I, unless someone guides me?
SPEAKER_00: And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.
SPEAKER_00: Now the passage of scripture that he was reading was this like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he opened not his mouth.
SPEAKER_00: In his humiliation, justice was denied him.
SPEAKER_00: Who can who can describe his generation?
SPEAKER_00: For in his life, for his life is taken away from the earth.
SPEAKER_00: And the eunuch said to Philip, About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this?
SPEAKER_00: About himself or about someone else?
SPEAKER_00: So he's reading this passage, which is one of the servant songs in the book of Isaiah, and he's asking Philip, he says, Philip, who's who's he talking about?
SPEAKER_00: Is this is he talking about himself, the guy who wrote this, Isaiah?
SPEAKER_00: Is he speaking of himself or is he speaking about someone else?
SPEAKER_00: And Philip responds in verse 35 of Acts chapter 8.
SPEAKER_00: Then Philip opened his mouth and beginning with this scripture, he told him the good news about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Beloved, the thing that we have to understand here is that what God has done and what God was promising the people of Israel, he was saying to them, This you as a nation have failed to carry out all that I have asked you to do.
SPEAKER_00: When God called the nation of Israel out of Egypt, he called them unto themselves.
SPEAKER_00: They were to be a witness to the nations, they were to be a voice to the nations, pointing them back to the one and only true God.
SPEAKER_00: What happened with them is they got out there and they got to doing all that the other nations began to do.
SPEAKER_00: They became synchronistic in their worship.
SPEAKER_00: They were worshiping Babel and all the other gods that were in there, out there in the world, and they failed to carry out the responsibility and the calling that God had on their lives.
SPEAKER_00: But what God said is that look, I'm no longer going to leave that up to you.
SPEAKER_00: You've made it abundantly clear to me that you are unable to do that on your own.
SPEAKER_00: I am going to do for you what you cannot do and what you are unable to do for yourselves.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to raise up one who will truly carry out the commands that I have given him.
SPEAKER_00: That I've there will be the true Israel, that will be the true voice crying out there and bringing all men unto me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to do what you're unable to do.
SPEAKER_00: And what we see in the nation of Israel, if you if you read the Old Testament, you'll see a people that keep trying to get it right.
SPEAKER_00: They keep trying to please God and they keep failing over and over and over again.
SPEAKER_00: And God continues to draw them up and to pull them to himself and deliver them.
SPEAKER_00: But they keep trying over and over and over, and they can never get it right.
SPEAKER_00: And I think what we're seeing in the Old Testament and in the people in the nation of Israel is God saying to you and I that you and I are unable and incapable of in and of ourselves to please a holy and a true God.
SPEAKER_00: Beloved, God, God requires perfection.
SPEAKER_00: You know, his requirement is not that you get close.
SPEAKER_00: He's not saying I want you to get it happy.
SPEAKER_00: You know, do do the best you can.
SPEAKER_00: No, he says, Be ye holy, for I am holy.
SPEAKER_00: And the nation of Israel over and over again failed to carry that out, failed to live up to the standard that God had.
SPEAKER_00: And the scriptures are clear the wages of sin is death.
SPEAKER_00: If you sin, you die.
SPEAKER_00: And God in his grace says, look, they're never gonna get it right.
SPEAKER_00: They're never gonna figure this out.
SPEAKER_00: They've tried, they've and let me ask you, to ask ourselves, our own selves this week, how well did you do this week?
SPEAKER_00: How perfect was your life this week?
SPEAKER_00: Any any perfect weeks this week?
SPEAKER_00: Anybody get it all right?
SPEAKER_00: No one?
SPEAKER_00: Surely there's one.
SPEAKER_00: You see the problem that we have?
SPEAKER_00: You see the situation that we're in?
SPEAKER_00: That if God requires perfection, and if you're none of us lived it out, then how in the world are we going to have, as we read in our scripture this morning, how are you gonna get access to the Father?
SPEAKER_00: How are you gonna have peace with God?
SPEAKER_00: If God requires perfection, if God requires complete and total holiness, there's no compromise on that.
SPEAKER_00: If that's what he requires, and if this week none of us pull that off, then how in the world do you stand in the presence of a holy God?
SPEAKER_00: How is that gonna happen?
SPEAKER_00: Well, he says in his grace, I'll raise one up for you.
SPEAKER_00: I'll raise one up who will do all that I have asked him to do, and then what will happen is that as he lives that perfect in that holy life, there will be that great exchange where he takes on my sin and you get his righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: So that when you stand before the Father, it will not ultimately be because of how well you did this week or how well you lived this Christian life, because we will never get it right completely and totally.
SPEAKER_00: That doesn't mean that we don't strive for holiness, but what it does mean is that we are resting and what Christ has done on our behalf.
SPEAKER_00: And so he says he raises him up.
SPEAKER_00: He's the true Israel, he's the truly one, he's the one that God commissions to go and to bring the people back.
SPEAKER_00: He's the only one that can do that.
SPEAKER_00: And beloved, we ought to be grateful for that.
SPEAKER_00: Because if it was resting on you, if it were resting on me, you and I would never get access to God.
SPEAKER_00: Never.
SPEAKER_00: And so, what does he do in his mercy and his grace?
SPEAKER_00: He says, I will send one who will do that for them.
SPEAKER_00: And so not only does he restore Israel, not only does he raise up one who will come and will draw all of Israel unto himself, but God is not, he wants to expand that.
SPEAKER_00: Notice what he says.
SPEAKER_00: Further on in verse 6, he says in Isaiah 49, he says, Is it too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel?
SPEAKER_00: I will make you as a light for the nations.
SPEAKER_00: He's not just content with drawing Israel, his those people whom he have called and he has showed his love on back in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: But he says, I'm going out to all the nations.
SPEAKER_00: Remember what a promise that he gave to Abraham?
SPEAKER_00: He told Abraham, He says, I'm going to bless you, and in you all the nations of the world will be blessed.
SPEAKER_00: God in his love and his mercy, if God had not in his grace decided to go to the nations to draw them into himself, you and I would not be here today.
SPEAKER_00: Beloved, understand something that the reason why Gentiles are in the family of God, the reason why you and I have a seat at the table, the reason why you and I can have access to God is because God sent Jesus to go to the nations and the poor folks from every tribe, every nation, every ethnicity, every every social and economic.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't dependent on how much money you had.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't care about where you went to school, he doesn't care about who your mother is or your father is, your sisters, brothers, or cousins, doesn't care, none of that matters.
SPEAKER_00: He by grace draws from every tribe and every nation and brings us unto himself.
SPEAKER_00: That's a gracious act of God.
SPEAKER_00: If again, if he does not do that, you don't get in.
SPEAKER_00: And what he does is by his grace, he raises up one, a servant of God, to a people that were in and in rebellion, and he draws them unto himself graciously.
SPEAKER_00: It's not because we deserved it, it's not because of where we live, it's not because of the money you make.
SPEAKER_00: None of that has anything to do with his calling and his drawing you.
SPEAKER_00: As a matter of fact, even Israel as a nation, when God called them, and Deuteronomy says, Look, he said, Why have I loved you?
SPEAKER_00: He said, I love you because I love you.
SPEAKER_00: He said, But no, but why?
SPEAKER_00: You know, come on, come on.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, guys, give me the reasons why you you love me.
SPEAKER_00: I love you because I love you.
SPEAKER_00: It has nothing to do with who you are.
SPEAKER_00: It's fully, totally an act of grace.
SPEAKER_00: An act of mercy.
SPEAKER_00: That you and I, if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, that the reason why you are is because by his sovereign grace and mercy, he called you by name.
SPEAKER_00: That speaks to our passage of scripture this morning in our scripture reading.
SPEAKER_00: Romans chapter 5.
SPEAKER_00: It speaks about this.
SPEAKER_00: It says in Romans chapter 5, therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we haven't been justified because of your money.
SPEAKER_00: You haven't been justified because you're Presbyterians.
SPEAKER_00: You haven't been justified because you, you know, you went to a certain school or your mother, your father.
SPEAKER_00: That's not why you've been justified.
SPEAKER_00: You haven't been justified because of how good you've lived this Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: You are justified by faith and what Jesus has done on yours and my behalf.
SPEAKER_00: That's how we are justified.
SPEAKER_00: You are justified by faith.
SPEAKER_00: We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: You see, he justifies us, and now there's peace.
SPEAKER_00: Before you and I were believers in Jesus Christ, before a person gets saved, you understand that you are an enemy of God.
SPEAKER_00: You understand that there's warfare going on between you and God.
SPEAKER_00: And a lot of times you hear that and we say to ourselves, I don't particularly think I believe that.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'm not mad at God, and I don't particularly think God is angry with me.
SPEAKER_00: We don't feel it.
SPEAKER_00: But the truth of the matter is that if a person does not embrace Christ as his Savior, you are at enmity with God.
SPEAKER_00: And there's no peace.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're sitting here this morning and you don't know Jesus as your Savior, you understand that that sermon that Jonathan Edwards preached about sinners in the hands of an angry God, you understand that if you were to die this morning without Christ, you would spend an eternity away from Him.
SPEAKER_00: But He in His grace is giving you another day to hear.
SPEAKER_00: And so not only do we have peace with God, but He says, through Him we have also obtained us access by faith into the grace in which we stand and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: We have faith, we have peace, we have access.
SPEAKER_00: This is what God was promising back way then with Isaiah when he said that my servant will come and he will draw Israel unto himself, and he will go and he will draw the nations unto himself.
SPEAKER_00: He was promising that he would give us access to a God that we could not access on our own strength or our own power.
SPEAKER_00: And so he says as we move further down in this passage, he says, For while we were still sin, we were still weak, verse 6.
SPEAKER_00: At the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
SPEAKER_00: For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would even dare to die.
SPEAKER_00: But God chose his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
SPEAKER_00: Beloved, the glory of the gospel is that he didn't say to you and I, I'll die for you, but you're gonna have to get yourself together first.
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna have to prove it to me first.
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna have to show me you've got to give me something to work with here.
SPEAKER_00: You know, if I'm going to, if I'm going to give my life for you, I gotta see some something worthwhile to work with.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what he said.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what he did.
SPEAKER_00: He says, look, while I was still rebelling against him, while I still was shaking my fist in his face, while I was still ignoring his word and his commands, while I was still hating him, he said, I will die for me.
SPEAKER_00: He would die for me and for you.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't wait for you to get your act together.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't sit in heaven and said, Well, okay, well, I'll give him, he's got a couple of years, and you know, I'll give him two or three years.
SPEAKER_00: And if he can get himself together in two or three years, we're good to go.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what happened here.
SPEAKER_00: He even came to his own people.
SPEAKER_00: He came to his creation and they rebelled against him.
SPEAKER_00: They rejected him and they hung him on a cross, and yet he died anyway.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, what grace.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, what love.
SPEAKER_00: And even when you look at Israel as a nation, as rebellious as they were, and as evil as they were living, that God would, in the midst of that, say, I will still care for you.
SPEAKER_00: And he's done and said the same thing to you and I.
SPEAKER_00: You understand that you know, if you've made it this far in life, and all all of the all of those those potential dangerous situations before you got saved that you was running around acting crazy and God spared your life.
SPEAKER_00: Or even now, if you're here this morning and and you're running wild and you're just doing your own thing, and you don't really want God and need God, do you understand that that you're you're living dangerously because he holds your life in his hands?
SPEAKER_00: You don't get up every morning because of who you are, or because you're healthy or your heart.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what happens.
SPEAKER_00: And what we see here in this passage of scripture, we see here is that while we were still sinners, he died for us.
SPEAKER_00: He says, for one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would be even there to die.
SPEAKER_00: But God shows his love while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
SPEAKER_00: Since therefore we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
SPEAKER_00: For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son.
SPEAKER_00: Much more now that we are reconciled shall we be saved by his life.
SPEAKER_00: More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we now have received reconciliation.
SPEAKER_00: Beloved, what God has done for us is just absolutely amazing.
SPEAKER_00: What he has accomplished for us is just absolutely mind-boggling.
SPEAKER_00: That he would take a people and a creation and a nation of individuals that are in absolute rebellion against him.
SPEAKER_00: And that he would say, I'm gonna die for them.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna draw them unto myself.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not I'm not I'm not asking them for their money, I'm not asking them for their skills, and I'm going to do for them all that uh that God requires for them to do.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna give that to them as a gift of faith.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna take all of their raggedy mess upon myself.
SPEAKER_00: Now, there may be believers here this morning, if you're here this morning and and you have not really, you just like, okay, here's another Christmas, another Christmas stories, and you know, we've heard these sermons over and over again, and you fail to see the grace of God in the midst of this.
SPEAKER_00: Our prayer for us this morning is that God would would renew in our hearts a love, a sense of gratitude for all that he has done on our behalf.
SPEAKER_00: And there may be someone here this morning, you're not a believer in Jesus Christ, you just happen to come in here, or your mom made you come, or whoever, your husband made you come, or whatever, your wife.
SPEAKER_00: And you're like, ah, please understand what he's done and the mercy that he is showing you even now.
SPEAKER_00: That he's giving you an opportunity to hear the gospel, to hear the good news that that your your good your works are never going to save you, and that he sent Jesus to die on your behalf that you might have life eternal, and all you have to do is believe by faith and put your trust in him.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, Sins are forgiven, peace is granted, access is given to the Father.
SPEAKER_00: I pray this day.
SPEAKER_00: We pray this morning that our hearts would be renewed and that our hearts would be changed.
SPEAKER_00: Let us pray.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we thank you for your word as we look at these servant songs that you recognize that you there's a people that you had called, and they were totally unable to carry out what you had called them to do.
SPEAKER_00: And you could have just written them off and said, that's it, I'm done.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna be bothered with them anymore.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just not gonna, but you and your mercy and your grace, and because you are faithful and uh and a covenant-keeping God, you continue to pursue in a pride a way so that we might have life eternal.
SPEAKER_00: I pray for believers, us as believers, Lord, that you would you would give us joy as we reflect on all that you have done for us.
SPEAKER_00: And then I pray, Lord, for those who may not know you as their Savior.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, may they not leave here this morning without embracing you as their Savior, recognizing all that you have done for them in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name we pray with thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.