The Chosen Servant of Jehovah

Well, the book of Isaiah contains many, many prophecies about the coming of the Messiah. And last week we looked at one of the best known prophecies in Isaiah 7 14.

Behold, the Lord himself shall give you a sign and shall a virgin shall conceive and bring forth a son and you shall call his name Emmanuel. Today, we're going to take up one of the lesser known prophecies. In fact, it's the first of four servant songs all found in Isaiah in the last half, the last not quite half, less than half, but the last section of the book of Isaiah. Most of you know that Isaiah is divided into two sections. Chapters 1 through 39 is Section 1, chapters 40 through 66 is Section 2, and all of these four servant songs are found in Section 2. You'll find one in Chapter 42 that we're looking at today, another in Chapter 49, a third in Chapter 50, and a fourth in Chapter 53. Only the one in Chapter 53 is well known among the people of God, and that one is very well known. Isaiah 53, who has believed our report and to whom shall the arm of the Lord be revealed and so forth are great sections. But that's the fourth of the four servant songs.

But there are three that are not quite as well known, and we want to remedy that to some extent by working our way through those over the next three Sundays before Christmas. Beginning today in Chapter 42, the servant of Jehovah, this is sometimes called, or these four songs are sometimes called. Or if you prefer the servant of Yahweh, the more modern rendering of the highest name of God. Or some even prefer the servant of the Lord.

Whatever you want to call it, that's what you find here, four sections that emphasize that the coming Messiah is a servant, indeed the servant, the servant par excellence of the Lord God Almighty. Now it may seem strange to us to think of Jesus as a servant. We recognize that some emphasize his humanity to the neglect of his deity, and so we always try to keep in mind, yes, he is a man, was a man, walked on the earth as a man, but he is Almighty God. And so as Almighty God, it's difficult to think of him as a servant, but in fact the Bible wants us to think that way. As Paul tells us in Philippians Chapter 2, let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a man, and was made in the likeness of man, and being in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

Wherefore God has also highly exalted him. There's a reference to his servitude. And throughout the Gospels you find Jesus from time to time saying, I did not come to bring, to do my will, but to do my Father's will. I am a servant carrying out the wishes of my master. And that is exactly what you find in Isaiah Chapter 42, that the coming Messiah is in fact the servant of Jehovah. And so we're going to break down this section into five parts, beginning with the servant's introduction in verse 1, which is kind of a summary or overview of the rest of the passage. And secondly, the servant's manner in verses 2 and 3. Third, his accomplishments in verse 4. Fourth, his enablement in verses 5 through 9. And finally, his praise in verses 10 through 12. Back to verse 1.

Here's where it's all introduced. And here you find encapsulated many of the things that are said about him in greater detail in the verses to follow. But we read, Behold, my servant. These are obviously the words of Almighty God through the prophet Isaiah. Behold, my servant whom I uphold. My elect one in whom my soul delights. I have put my spirit upon him.

He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles. And thus the Messiah is introduced as a servant, opening that description by the word behold. Christ used the word behold in the New Testament a number of times, and we have been taught to pay attention when Jesus says behold and something of a special impact or import is coming. And the same is true in the book of Isaiah.

We find behold a number of times in the book, and whenever behold is there to introduce a statement, God wants us to pay special attention to that particular statement. Be prepared to hear a great message. Behold, stop what you're doing. Listen up. Perk up your ears.

Don't be distracted. An amazing truth is about to be revealed. Behold, my servant. And that, as I say, is astonishing. Now, Isaiah has actually referred to a servant prior to this reference to the Messiah being a servant when he has in this book called Israel God's servant.

You don't have to turn far to find that. You'll find that in chapter 41, verse 8. But you, Israel, are my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the descendants of Abraham, my friend, you whom I have taken from the ends of the earth and called from its farthest regions and said to you, you are my servant. I have chosen you and have not cast you away. Fear not, I am with you.

Now we come to familiar words that we love to appropriate. Fear not, I am with you. Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you.

Yes, I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand, spoken by the Lord God Almighty in regard to the nation of Israel, called here his servant. And indeed they were. You find similar language of a pagan king by the name of Cyrus, surprisingly, in chapter 44, the last verse, and the first verse of chapter 45. Chapter 44 ends with this statement, who says of Cyrus, he is my shepherd, and here he's not called a servant, he's called his shepherd, but when you read the description of him, you realize that he is in fact the servant of Jehovah, who says of Cyrus, he is my shepherd, and he shall perform all my pleasure.

He's going to do what I direct him to do. That's the role of a servant. Saying to Jerusalem, you shall be built, and to the temple, your foundation shall be laid. Now why, after the destruction of the Babylonian captivity, conquest and captivity for God's righteous punishment upon Israel by one pagan king of Babylon, why was it that the next mighty emperor that came along reversed all of that, rebuilt the temple, rebuilt Jerusalem, how amazing is that?

Why would a pagan king do that? Because he is the servant of Jehovah, and he does what Jehovah tells him to do. Chapter 45, verse 1, continues that thought. Thus says the Lord to his anointed.

That's pretty strong language. Cyrus is my anointed, my anointed one. You'd think that would be reserved for Christ.

Or to the priests who are anointed with oil and so forth. To his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held, language similar to what we see of the Messiah in chapter 42. To subdue nations before him, to loose the armor of kings, to open before him the double doors so that the gates will not be shut. I will go before you and make the crooked places straight.

I will break in pieces the gates of bronze and cut the bars of iron. Why was Cyrus so successful in his military conquests and his becoming the emperor of the next greatest empire after the Babylonian empire? And something that really wasn't expected. Nobody saw that coming. It just came almost out of nowhere that the Medes and the Persians came in and conquered mighty Babylon. How could that happen? It doesn't even seem to be militarily possible and yet it did.

How did that happen? Because God was with them, because God willed it, because God was using him, because God used him to chase in Babylon because of their treatment of Israel and on and on it goes. And just a reminder that God is sovereign. He not only has willing servants like the one we're seeing in chapter 42, but he also has in some cases unwilling servants and in some cases people who you would expect to have no desire to be his servant, but somehow his spirit works within them to give them that desire and they want to do surprising things. They want to do things like rebuild the Jewish temple of all things, rebuild Jerusalem of all things. They want to do it.

Why? Because God willed that it be done and he uses that particular instrument to accomplish his will. But the greatest servant of all is the one that we read about in chapter 42. Behold my servant. Messiah is God's servant. Messiah is God's greatest servant. Messiah is God's only perfect servant. Messiah is God's only sinless servant. Messiah is the only servant who always in every detail, gladly, willingly, and perfectly does the Father's will. No other servant can that be spoken of. Israel was God's servant, but oh how they sinned. Cyrus was God's servant, but he was still a pagan idol worshiper. Messiah is God's servant and he obeys God perfectly.

He is introduced as a servant. He's introduced also in verse 1 as a chosen vessel. My elect one.

My chosen one. This language is used in different ways throughout the Bible as you already know. Israel was God's elect nation. The church is God's elect people. Israel was God's physically elect people. The church is God's spiritually elect people. But Christ is his one chosen servant. The others are a group of people, right? A nation made up of many people.

A church made up of many people. A Messiah, one. My chosen one in whom my soul delights. There's the reference to his perfect obedience.

As we read that language in Matthew, during the baptism of Christ, the Spirit descended upon him like a dove and from heaven God said, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. There's nothing in him that displeases me. He is perfect. He is sinless.

He is obedient in every way. He is, as we read here, my elect one. I don't want to get sidetracked on the doctrine of election, or maybe I should say the doctrines of election because there are, as I've already pointed out, more than one group of people that are designated as the elect of God in one way or another. But it simply boils down to this. As God will tell us later in this passage, God is the creator of everything. God gives everything life that has life. God is therefore the rightful ruler of everything. It's God's right to do what he pleases in keeping with his righteousness and justice. And God therefore has a right to choose certain ones for certain purposes if it pleases him. It surprises me that sometimes people who object mightily against the doctrine of election to salvation don't seem to see anything wrong with God's election of Israel.

I remember having a conversation years ago with someone about this. What does this mean, this verse about God's election to salvation of the Bible? Oh, that's referring to Israel.

Well, obviously it's not. So you have no trouble in having God sovereignly choose one nation and pouring out blessings upon them that he does not give to any other nation, including his word, his prophets, his salvation, which most of the world never knows anything about because God did not choose to give it to them, but he chooses to give it to this nation because that's his right, that's his prerogative. You don't seem to have any problem with that, but you seem to have a problem with his choosing a people for his own name's sake.

What's the difference really? God is sovereign. It's his prerogative. If we're going to worship God as he truly is, if we're going to worship God in the greatness of his majesty and power and wisdom and honor him as he truly deserves to be honored, we are going to have to honor him in his sovereign choices, and this servant is his elect one, chosen one. So he's introduced as a servant. He's introduced as a chosen vessel.

He's introduced as an empowered agent. I will put my spirit upon him. God the Father bestows God the Holy Spirit upon his son, Jesus. We'll see more about that in a moment. That, of course, also took place at his baptism. The Spirit descended from heaven in the form of a dove and descended upon him. But the amazing thing is to realize that this servant of Jehovah needs the Spirit of God in order to accomplish his work. Turn that over in your mind and we'll get back to it in a moment. He's also introduced as a transformer.

What have I said so far? A servant, a chosen vessel, an empowered agent, a transformer, a transforming agent who will bring forth justice. Something that the peoples of the earth have been trying to accomplish ever since there have been people on the earth and can't manage to get it done. Justice is the desire of everyone. We want to see true justice prevail and justice never gets accomplished.

Why not? Because we're sinful. We can't see what true justice is. We can't, we can't administrate true justice because of sinful people who take advantage of others and on and on and on it goes. But this one will bring true justice. You want to stop and say, Hallelujah, even so come Lord Jesus.

We're looking for that, aren't we? And there's no doubt that Isaiah 42 is talking about Jesus Christ. If you don't see that already, let me just read a passage from Matthew 12. Verse 17, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet saying, Listen, behold, my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved in whom my soul is well pleased. I will put my spirit upon him and he will declare justice to the Gentiles. He will not quarrel nor cry out, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break and a smoking flax he will not quench till he sends forth justice to victory and in his name Gentiles will trust. That seals it.

No more argument. This is Jesus in Isaiah 42. But moving from the introduction of Messiah to the manner of Messiah in verses two and three. And here we read of this one, he will not cry out nor raise his voice, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street.

A bruised reed he will not break and smoking flax he will not quench. He will bring forth justice for truth. Just read it in Matthew 12.

We read it again in Isaiah 42. This tells us how he's going to carry out his work upon the earth. His manner, his demeanor, his bearing, his approach.

I think it can be summarized in three words. His manner is number one, quiet. Number two, gentle.

And number three, principled. He's going to go about his work quietly. He will not cry aloud nor raise his voice. He is meek. He is modest. He is unassuming. He is not loud and boisterous. He does not rudely accost people. He rarely raises his voice. You can find it two or three occasions and only two or three in the Gospels where Jesus lifted up his voice and cried aloud as in the temple in John chapter 7 and so forth.

But you won't find that very often. He rarely raises his voice. He rarely shouts. He is not brash. He is not intrusive. He does not call attention to himself. He does not trample over people. He does not shout them down.

He teaches and converses quietly and respectfully and in a mannerly way. So if we want to be like Christ, and that is what we're supposed to be, right? We're to become like Christ, then maybe we should practice being more quiet, more mannerly. There's a concept among some of God's people that the way to get things done is to just bulldoze people. You see a lot of that in politics on both sides of the divide.

We're going to outshout the other ones. Well, that's the way the world does things. That's not the way Messiah does things. That's not the way Christ does things. That's not the way the followers of Christ should do things. We don't want somebody who can shout the other side down and bulldoze over them. We want someone who with truth, as a powerful weapon, quietly goes about his work, teaching what is true and allowing that powerful truth to accomplish God's purpose. It doesn't need shouting and bulldozing. In fact, it isn't served by that at all.

That is antagonistic to truth and the progress of justice. I'm really tempted to get off into some more politics. I really need to restrain myself. Pull that holding back strap, will you please? I will refrain. He is quiet. Number two, he is gentle. We read, and this is figurative language, a bruised reed. He will not break a smoking flax.

He will not quench. A bruised reed. A reed is a fairly flexible, weak plant in the first place. Then when you take a reed that's already been bent, it's already been crushed.

It's a bruised reed. It's very weak and fragile. That's speaking of people. Those are the kind of people that in this world are often crushed by those who bulldoze others. And take advantage of others. And because they're so easily taken advantage of, then many people will take advantage of them. And so they just get beaten down and down and down again and again.

But the Messiah doesn't treat them that way. A bruised reed, he will not break. For him, a bruised reed, a person who is broken down, whether by sin and guilt, whether by infirmity, whether by oppression, whether by poverty, whether by illness, whatever it may be, a bruised reed by him is going to be tenderly protected and strengthened by this Messiah. A bruised reed, he will not break. And smoking flax, he will not quench.

It's another word picture of virtually the same truth. A smoking flax, back in the days when people had lanterns, which we seldom have today, but it had a wick and you had to keep trimming the wick and feeding oil. Or if you didn't, pretty soon that wick would just kind of burn to a crisp and burn out. It would smoke before it was completely gone. And then when it quit smoking, you know that there's no fire left.

That's a smoking flax. In other words, weak, fragile, nearly exhausted. And again, speaking of people who are like that, who for whatever reason have come to the place in life where they have become weak and fragile and nearly exhausted.

They've given, nearly given up on everything and anything. And again, those are often the ones that are taken advantage of by the stronger ones in this world, but not by Messiah, not by this servant of Jehovah. People like that, he's going to put his hands around and shelter them. He's going to fan that smoking wick. He's going to feed it some more oil. He's going to revive the flame. He's going to revive the life and the hope within people like that. His manner is quiet. His manner is gentle. And third, his manner is principled, going to the last part of verse 3.

He will bring forth justice for truth. His philosophy of life is not whatever works is right. If it works, it's right. If it advances my cause, then it's the right thing to do.

No, not necessarily. Not whatever works is right, but whatever is right must be done, whether it seems to work or not. That's the way God looks at it. That's the way his servant looks at it. In our world, people say, beat them at their own game.

They do this, we'll do the same thing, only stronger and better. But Messiah emphasizes justice and truth. In other words, justice based upon truth.

Justice that is truly just because it is founded upon the truth of Almighty God. He's principled. He has an other worldly way of working. He's working upon truth. He's working upon principle. And eventually it will be seen that that is the way that truly works.

All the others are shortcuts that short circuit the progress of truth and justice and righteousness. And he knows that. And so all of his work is saturated with the truth of God's word and brings about true justice.

That's his manner. Third, his accomplishments. Verse four, he will not fail nor be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth and the coastland shall wait for his law. He's going to be successful in his accomplishments. And this particular passage doesn't get into detail into exactly what he's going to do as Messiah to die as a substitute in the place of sinners. But it does make it clear that he's going to accomplish the purpose for which God sends him. And verse four tells us how he's going to do that and what he's going to accomplish. And first of all, it tells us how he's going to be successful. He will not fail nor be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth. How is he so successful? By two things. By perseverance and by confidence. Perseverance. He will not quit.

He will not fail. We tend to get discouraged and quit. That's why we have to be admonished. Be not weary in well-doing, for in due season you shall reap if you faint not. We are so prone to giving up.

It's no use. We get discouraged. We quit. This one never will, never will, never will. He continues to persevere until the work is accomplished. And he does so with confidence. He will not be discouraged, will not succumb to discouragement, although he has every reason to do so. Will not be overwhelmed by his enormous task, even though he's got the most enormous task that has ever been assigned to anyone. Is not deterred by the enormity of his opposition.

And again, his opposition is greater than that which anyone else has ever known. But he's confident in the victory that has been promised to him by his Heavenly Father who sends him to do this work. And thus, he will continue on.

Successfully, he will persevere in confidence. But what is it that he's going to accomplish? And in general terms, without getting into all the details of the atonement, in general terms, this is what he's going to accomplish. He's going to establish justice in the earth and the coastland shall wait for his law. He establishes justice.

Now this is about the third time that this has been mentioned, if you've been paying attention. Justice and truth. Justice and righteousness.

Justice established. Justice as defined by truth, God's word. Justice, which is only truly achieved by truth, the truth of God's word. Justice, which is truth, which is righteousness, which means justice according to God's standards, which is applied to everybody equally every time. And this has to begin with the gospel proclamation.

I think at this point I will tiptoe a little bit into what's going on politically in our world today, because we need to understand this. Are there injustices in this world? Yes.

More than I can count. Should they be addressed? Yes. But you don't accomplish justice for, say, one group of oppressed people by flipping things over and oppressing another group of people. That's not justice.

That's just, you had your turn and now I have mine. Isn't it baffling how anyone can't see the inconsistency in protecting to the utmost certain favored minorities, whatever race, whatever economic level, whatever sexuality they may be? Well, these people are endangered. They are oppressed.

You can't say anything negative about them. You can't allow anything to be said on campus by anyone who has a different opinion. You've got to protect them unless they feel threatened, unless they feel bullied. But here's a group of people, the Jews, we see this flaring up right now, who are unquestionably one of the most oppressed groups in all the world. It's perfectly OK to holler insults at them, far worse than that, to declare that you want their annihilation.

And oh, we can't stop that. That's freedom of speech protected by the First Amendment. Now, what's the consistency in that? How do you how do you establish justice for these people who have been oppressed by further oppressing these people who have been oppressed? How is that justice? That's not justice based upon truth. And we'll never have justice if we don't base it upon truth. But there is, sadly, one common denominator that actually does make this consistent, though it doesn't seem so to us because we don't think this way. And the people who do this aren't always thinking what they actually are doing.

But I'll tell you what the consistency is. It is an underlying rebellion against God and the Bible and against the Christian religion. So we will favor the LGBT crowd because God condemns them and we will hate the Jews because God has chosen them. Anything that God does, we will do the opposite.

Anything that God forbids, we insist upon doing. That's the consistency in all of this. But you think you're going to establish justice that way? All you're doing is just making it worse and worse and worse and worse because you can't get the justice apart from truth. Even so, come Lord Jesus, who will establish justice in all the world based upon truth and righteousness.

That's what we need. And until that comes, we will never have justice in this world. And so he establishes justice and he extends truth to the coastlands who wait for his law.

The coastlands is a reference to islands, remote places, little islands where just a few people live. But his truth will reach them. And they're going to be waiting for his law, not because the natural man is interested in truth and light, but because the Holy Spirit has gone before the message of the gospel and prepared them to desire and to receive the truth.

That's what's going on. And because the servant of Isaiah 42 works through his servants, his people that he has chosen, then we are likewise assured of victory, just like he is. But then we move on number four to his enablement in verses five through nine.

And this obviously is referring to humanity, referring to Jesus Christ in regard to his humanity. In his deity, he doesn't need any of this. He is God. But in his incarnation, in his human nature, he needs help to accomplish all this. But God will enable him. Verses five and six. God will protect him. Verse six. God will direct him. Verses six through nine.

Can we go through this quickly? God will enable him. Verse five. Thus says the Lord God.

God, are you able to do this? God who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread forth the earth and that which comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk on it. A God who can do all that can enable his servant to accomplish his task. I, the Lord. This one in verse five. I, the Lord. Verse six. Have called you in righteousness and will hold your hand and will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people, as a light to the gentiles, to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the prison.

Those who sit in darkness from the prison house. I am the Lord. That is my name and my glory.

I will not give to another, nor my praise to carved images. Behold, the former things have come to pass. Things that have been prophesied before that have already been accomplished, demonstrating God's ability to foretell the future. Behold, the former things have come to pass and new things, I declare, before they spring forth.

I tell you of them. That's the God we're talking about. Can he uphold and enable his servant? I have no question about it.

God will enable him, for he is the creator of everything, the author of life, the only true God. The God. Literally, the definite article is there in the original. The God, the Lord. There's only one. If you're not worshiping this one, then you're not worshiping God. But this God, the only God, the powerful God, the omnipotent God, the eternal God, the omniscient God will enable him. And furthermore, God will protect him.

I will keep you, we read in verse six. He'll protect him from his adversaries. He will protect him from opposition that would keep him from accomplishing his work. And beyond that, God will direct him into what he is to do in verses six through nine. God will direct him to establish a new covenant.

He will become the mediator of the new covenant. God gave a covenant to Abraham, which was all encompassing, and in thee, not only your descendants, your seed, but in you shall all the families of the earth be blessed. But that covenant had a certain reference to the physical descendants of Abraham, and they grabbed onto that covenant and ignored the part that extended beyond the physical seed. And they grabbed, they claimed that covenant for themselves and ignored its application to all the world. And so along came Moses with his covenant, and that covenant did center upon that nation specifically. But Jesus said, when I come, the Father says that when my servant, the Messiah comes, he will establish a covenant with all peoples, with all the nations, the new covenant. This is my covenant, which is shed for you. This cup is the New Testament in my covenant. Just one of the many reasons why we ought to be obedient to observe the Lord's table and these symbols that he has given us and to be reminded of this covenant, which he established with his blood and which is for all nations. And so the Abrahamic covenant focused into the Mosaic covenant, but then it broadened out in the new covenant to all the nations, to all the world. All nations will benefit from this servant's work. So I don't know if this sermon is a Christmas message or a missions month message.

It's both. For in his coming, Christ becomes the savior of the world, of all nations. God will direct him to establish a new covenant. God will direct him to enlightened darkened hearts.

How will people who are in total darkness, how are they going to be able to comprehend the light? Well, God will enable him to do that. God will enable him to open blind eyes. How will people who are blind to be able to see, spiritually blind, be able to see the truth of the gospel? They won't unless God does a work in their hearts. But God says, I will do that work. I will enable him to be successful in opening blinded eyes.

The blind eyes that Jesus opened in physical miracles was only a lesson to point to a greater truth of his opening blinded spiritual eyes that they might see the gospel. They might see Christ, that they might see the truth about their sins and condemnation and come to Christ. I will direct him to free enslaved captives, not those who are literally in prison, though that does happen sometimes and it's wonderful when it does, but something far greater than that. Those who are bound by the chains of sin, those who are enslaved by sin, those who are held captive by Satan. This one will free them.

At least many of them. How can he do that? Almighty God will enable him to do that. To exalt divine glory and to reveal new truth and he's got a lot of new truth to reveal. That brings us finally to his praise, verses 10 through 12. When we understand all of that, we feel like praising God, don't we? For God's people?

Well, do it. Verse 10, sing to the Lord a new song and his praise from the ends of the earth. You who go down to the sea, you coastlands, inhabitants of them, let the wilderness and its cities lift up their voice, the villages and on it goes.

Let them shout from the top of the mountains. Let them give glory to the Lord and declare his praise in the coastlands. His praise in all the earth. His praise shall be heard by sea dwellers. Those who dwell along the coast, those who dwell in islands, by desert dwellers who are a long ways from the sea, by mountain dwellers. All of these are mentioned in the verses I just read. By village dwellers, people who are in little towns and places.

By city dwellers, people who live in the big cities. In short, everyone and every place is invited, yes, is instructed to give praise to the God who sends his servant to accomplish these things. By all the earth, by all people.

Why isn't that being done now? Because of sin, because of rebellion, because of resistance, because of unbelief. Because hearts are ungrateful to the God who gives them life and all other blessings.

Because hearts are unregenerate. But this one changes dead hearts. This one changes ungrateful hearts.

This one cleanses sinful hearts. This one enables people to honor and praise the Lord and gives them a desire to do so. By his saving grace now and by the glorification of his people through all eternity who will be able to praise him perfectly without one wrong thought, without one weakness, without one blemish, without anything to hinder perfect praise. And so this section is all about the perfect servant of Jehovah. Jesus came as a servant, God's servant. And we therefore must understand our place as servants, Christ's servants. And to be good servants of Christ, we must learn the meekness and humility of Christ.

Let's work on it. To be Christ's servants, we must recognize the enormity of our God-given task, but adopt the courage that he had and persevering faithfulness which he displayed to take his task to its conclusion. We, like him, must recognize our need for divine enablement because if Jesus couldn't accomplish this without God's help, then surely we can't accomplish what we've been assigned to do without God's help.

But of course he's promised it to us. Let's look to him for it and let's do his work in his power and let's do his work in his truth instead of trying to succeed in our ways that are contrary to his. We must rest upon his promise of guaranteed success and for any who have never been regenerated by the Spirit of God, you must recognize your need of Christ and trust in him.

Go to him. Receive the forgiveness that he has promised. Embrace the Savior who cleanses from sin.

May God help you to do it. Oh Father, thank you for this beautiful portrait of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who came from heaven's glory into this squalid earth to live that perfect life of obedience that we have not and could not live. To die that shameful death that we deserve to die.

Who rose victorious from the grave demonstrating who he is and who sits even now upon the throne in heaven awaiting his coming back to earth. Oh Lord God, we worship you. We praise you. We sing your honor and glory. We endeavor to serve you faithfully. Help us. We can't do it by ourselves. Help us to do so, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen.