Hope for the Nations

Let me ask you to open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 12. Matthew 12, we're going consecutively through the book of Matthew, and today come to Matthew 12, verses 15 through 21. Last time we saw that Jesus was in conflict with the Pharisees over the rules and regulations of the Sabbath. We saw that in the first 14 verses of Matthew chapter 12. The Pharisees are unable to answer the brilliant teaching of Jesus, and we read in verse 14 of Matthew 12, but the Pharisees went out, that is out of the synagogue where Jesus had healed a man with a withered hand. They went out and conspired against him how to destroy him. Such is the hatred of the religious leaders that although they're unable to answer the teaching of Jesus, and although the power of God is demonstrated at their very midst, they leave the synagogue and they conspire to kill Jesus.

He has exposed their hypocrisy, he has exposed their self-interest, he has composed their lack of compassion and mercy, and they're full of hatred. And they leave Jesus. Can you imagine being in the very presence of Jesus in a synagogue and you're full of such hatred, you're so opposed to the person and teaching of Jesus that you walk out from his very presence. That can happen to us today, can't it?

People do that all the time. We leave the very presence of God. Now for those of us who have not rejected Jesus, for those of us who are followers of Jesus Christ, we're going to learn today, to learn more, we're going to learn more about Jesus. I want you to see Jesus, I want you to hear him so that we may love him, we may worship him and serve him more and more, and as we're occupied with Jesus, something marvelous happens, something supernatural happens, we'll become more and more like him. That is, we want to keep our eyes on Jesus. And that's difficult for us in this world. There's so many distractions from our society, there's so many problems out there, and also so many problems within our own hearts and within our own situations, but we've been reminding ourselves and will remind ourselves from this passage that Jesus is our only hope.

Our hope is Jesus. Now let me read Matthew 12, verses 15 through 21. This is an intriguing passage.

On the face of it, you think it's not very relevant for us today, I want to suggest it is very, very relevant. Also, I should have mentioned, if you want to take off your masks now, please do so, otherwise keep them in during the singing and as we come in and out, do keep your mask on. Matthew, chapter 12, verse 15. Jesus, aware of this, that is aware that the Pharisees had left the synagogue and they're conspiring to kill him, he's aware of this, he withdrew from there and many followed him and he healed them all and ordered them not to make him known. This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah. We've seen before that Matthew loves to quote the Old Testament scriptures. And he gives this magnificent quotation from Isaiah 42.

Here it is. This is to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah, behold my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased. I will put my spirit upon him and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles.

He will not quarrel or cry aloud, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets. A bruise read he will not break and the smouldering wick he will not quench until he brings justice to victory and in his name the Gentiles will hope. I want to learn with you this morning three main things about Jesus from this passage. First of all, Jesus is God's chosen servant. I want you to think about that because Jesus is God, he's the son of God but when he comes in his incarnation, when he comes into this world he comes as God's chosen servant. Verse 18 quoting from Isaiah 42, behold my servant whom I have chosen.

So Jesus comes in fulfillment of a prophecy that one of the Old Testament prophets called Isaiah made 750 years before the time. I want us to read that, if you can find that in your Bibles, Isaiah 42. One of my goals, one of our goals at Calvary Church is to teach you the Bible and to learn the books of the Bible and to learn how to find these passages.

You may struggle a bit, please don't be embarrassed. There's an index at the beginning and the more you use your Bible, obviously, the more you will find these passages. Now here it is in Isaiah 42, I'm going to read the passage as it's found in Isaiah, the passage which Matthew quotes in Matthew chapter 12. Here it is, behold my servant whom I uphold, my chosen in whom my soul delights. I have put my spirit upon him, he will bring justice to the nations.

He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice or make it hard in the street. A bruised reed he will not break and a faintly burning wick he will not quench, he will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth.

And the coastlands wait for his law. There it is, as Jesus comes, he comes in fulfillment of this prophecy and he comes as God's chosen servant. Behold my servant whom I have chosen. And when Jesus comes into this world, he says, I came not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. Hebrews chapter 10 verse 7 says, behold I've come to do your will O God as it is written of me in the scroll of the book. So when our Lord Jesus Christ comes into time and space and is born in Bethlehem and grows up into maturity as we see him, he comes to do the Father's will. He is God's chosen servant. Paul writes of our Lord in this way of Jesus.

He says though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant being born in the likeness of men. Do you enjoy being a servant? I love to be served, quite honestly. But do you enjoy serving? Do you enjoy serving people who look down on you?

Would you enjoy serving people who are going to reject you and say nasty things about you? This is the Lord. He's God's chosen servant. And Matthew 12 verse 18, behold my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased.

When you read these words, what do you think of? Well if you've been following the series of Matthew, your mind goes back to the end of Matthew chapter 3 in that beautiful scene when our Lord Jesus is baptized and God the Father says from an open heaven as John the Baptist is baptizing Jesus, this is my son, my well beloved in whom I am well pleased. Incidentally God still says of those who are baptized that he is well pleased.

They are obeying as we heard. They are obeying the Lord. And so God the Father looks on his son and says this is my son, the one that I love and I am well pleased. That is the Father always delights in the son. This is the perfect son, God's perfect servant. And then we read in verse 18, I will put my Spirit upon him and we see that at the baptism of Jesus as the Spirit of God in the form of a dove comes down from heaven and lights on God's chosen servant and is authenticating and anointing Jesus as the true Messiah. He is the Lord from heaven, chosen by God, delighting, the Father delights in him and the Spirit comes upon him, all in fulfillment of that Old Testament Spirit. And the Messiahship of Jesus, the fact that Jesus is the Messiah is authenticated by his authoritative teaching and by his mighty works. Look again at verse 15, Jesus aware of this withdrew from there, that is from the synagogue, and many followed him and he healed them all.

No one is turned away. No case is too difficult for Jesus. Our medical profession is wonderful, but they can't cure everything. They've been scrambling now all over the world for months to find a cure for COVID-19. We trust they have finally got a cure, we'll see, but with Jesus there is no problem whether it's COVID-19 or any other disease, he heals every single person.

Why? Here is a demonstration in front of those who have eyes to see and ears to hear that Jesus is no ordinary person. He's the Christ.

He's the Son of God. He heals the leper. He gives sight to the blind.

He causes the mute to speak, the lame to walk. Yes, he raises the dead. He heals them all. And sometimes I ask, does Jesus still heal today? Jesus' power to heal is undiminished. It neither increases nor decreases.

It neither evolves nor devolves. He is the same yesterday to day and forever. And at Calvary Church, we are constantly praying for those who are sick. Every single day, we get notified at Calvary Church that someone is sick, even now. So during this week, I was praying for the sick, some who are very, very sick. And our elders have prayer and anointing following the pattern of James chapter 5 where people are prayed for where they're anointed with oil, and we believe that the prayer of faith can heal the sick. We believe that with God, nothing is impossible.

However, this is very important to observe. To demand healing from God is a denial of his sovereignty. It is an assertion of our autonomy. Who's in charge? Who's in control? Calvary Church, you, me, elders, pastors, though God is in control. And our faith is to be in God. Please notice. Our faith is to be in God, not in the power of our belief to always get what we want.

Only children demand always to get what they want. The Apostle Paul had his thorn in the flesh. The Apostle Paul left Trophimus ill at Miletus according to 2 Timothy chapter 4.

And we don't believe in the so-called faith healers. Have you seen them on television? The Lord Jesus in Matthew chapter 7 denounced the false prophets. You know what he called them?

He called them ravenous wolves. They exploit the vulnerable. They take money from the vulnerable. And we see that today, don't we? People who profess that they can heal everything provided you send in the money to them.

Can I say don't be deceived by these devious and flattering words. When we talk about healing, the question is not a matter of God's power. God's power is infinite. God can do anything he wants in a split second. And I've seen and many of you have seen God work miracles. We believe that God can do anything he wants.

He's sovereign. He can heal in an instant. And this is what Jesus is doing. But when we talk about healing, it's not just a matter of God's power, it's a matter of God's purposes. And at the cross, our Lord Jesus Christ broke the power of sin, but sin is still with us. At the cross, our Lord Jesus took our pain and sickness, but we still suffer and become ill. At the cross, our Lord Jesus Christ conquered death, but we still die. Followers of Jesus, devout followers of Jesus still die. Yes, Jesus conquered death.

Yes, the bonds of sin are broken. Yes, God does answer prayer in accordance with his will, but it may not be God's will for sickness to be healed at this time. You say, how do we know?

The answer is we don't know. That God's purposes are inscrutable. We've prayed for people and have seen them healed. We've prayed with faith to God and we've seen people die.

That's the reality. And some say, well, the Bible says there is healing in the atonement. Of course there's healing in atonement. But we must understand the full impact of all of the blessings and benefits of our salvation is still future. We still await our final complete and perfect salvation. Do you know what heaven is? Heaven is a place where there's no death, no hospitals, no terminal illness, no tears, no mourning.

But when brothers and sisters were not yet in heaven, we're on earth. And on this earth there is suffering. There is pain. There is confusion. There's difficulty.

There's sometimes excruciating pain. And what are we to do as the people of God? We are to pray for one another. We're to pray with faith.

We're to encourage one another. And we believe that God sometimes in his purposes chooses to intervene in a supernatural way and bring healing. And in other cases for which we do not understand, people die. My older brother, as you know, six years ago suddenly got a brain tumor. And we prayed and we prayed and he prayed. And he had lived a consistent life since a little boy, a man who walked with God. And we said, why didn't God heal him?

The answer is I don't know. But they do know this, he's safely home. And that those who have this hope in Jesus Christ, we know that nothing can take that way. Now here in our Lord's incarnation to establish that he is the true Messiah, because it was prophesied that the Messiah would heal, notice he does what the so-called faith healers doesn't, never does. He healed them all. No tough cases for Jesus.

He heals them all. You see some of the crowd want a celebrity. That's why in verse 18 he ordered them not to make him known. And some people then and now are only attracted to Jesus for what they can get from Jesus. They want the loaves and fishes.

They want the healing. Is that why you're attracted to Jesus? Are you attracted to Jesus for what you can get? A job, health, money, marriage, personal happiness, is that why you're following Jesus?

There's nothing wrong with these desires but they miss the basic issue. You see our greatest need, your greatest need and your greatest desires should be spiritual, forgiveness of our sins, our relationship with God, becoming more and more like Jesus, living in obedience to God, humbling ourselves and believing as we heard in the testimonies that God's way is perfect. And is there anyone here who would be so proud to say that you always understand God's ways?

No. God's ways are mysterious. God works out his purposes.

He works in a mysterious way, his wonders to perform. And sometimes God reveals his will to us and we certainly have God's will revealed to us perfectly in Scripture but in our personal circumstances, what God wants from you and from me is to trust him. Whether in the light or in the dark, whether on the top of the mountain or whether in the valley, our hope is still to be in Jesus Christ and we're to trust him irrespective of the surrounding circumstances because our hope is in Christ alone. And as we do that, our faith deepens. Our faith increases. And you say, I wish my faith was stronger.

Listen. Listen to what Jesus is saying. I want to hold up Christ to you today, the magnificent Christ.

I want you to see him. Do you see him as God's chosen servant? Secondly, Jesus is the suffering servant. Now here in Matthew chapter 12, Matthew is quoting from the first of what we call four servant songs in Isaiah. In Isaiah, there are four songs as it were, prophesying of the coming of the Messiah.

This is the first of them. And all of these songs find their fulfillment in Jesus Christ. The most familiar of these songs is Isaiah 52 and 53. Many of you have heard part of it when it talks about Jesus coming who is despised and rejected by men.

A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. When God's son comes to earth, he comes as God's chosen servant who always pleases his Father, but he comes as a suffering servant. That was difficult for the disciples, wasn't it? That was difficult for John the Baptist, who when he's in prison questioned, is this really the Messiah?

It doesn't seem to be working out as we thought it was. To them, the Messiah would be a military conqueror. The Messiah would be one who would free them from the Romans.

The Messiah would there and then set himself up as King of Israel, King of the Kings, set up his messianic kingdom on earth. And the very idea that the Messiah would suffer, the very idea that the Messiah would be killed and that pagans and their own people would take him and nail him to a cross and crucify him, that was unimaginable. I mean, who wants a Messiah like that? Who wants to follow a man who's going to end up dead on a cross? But he comes as a suffering servant. You see, we have to understand as we follow him, we're following one who suffered. And don't be surprised therefore in your life when there is suffering. But notice, Isaiah is saying in Matthew's quoting that when the Messiah comes, yes in his suffering, yes as he's rejected by the religious establishment who conspire to kill him, he comes with gentleness. He comes with humility. We learned at the end of Matthew chapter 11 that Jesus describes himself as one who is lowly and gentle in heart. The Pharisees are plotting to kill him. Jesus is God. He's all powerful.

What does he do? Have a confrontation with them? No, he withdraws from their hostility. In the context of Isaiah 42, Isaiah refers to the pagan conqueror, Cyrus, who tramples on rulers as on mortar as the potter treads clay. Yes, that pagan ruler stamps on people he hurts people, but our Savior comes with gentleness. And verse 16, he orders them not to make him known.

We call that the Messianic secret. Jesus doesn't want people to follow him for the wrong reasons. He's not a publicity seeker. Can you imagine the so-called faith healer today or the Christian celebrity today who does something fantastic, seemingly does a little miracle, does something really cute and cool and say, well, don't tell people about that.

No, it would immediately be put on social media, wouldn't it, with a strong financial pitch. But Jesus doesn't come like that. He comes with humility. He doesn't want to be known as a kind of spiritual magician.

He doesn't want people following him for the wrong reasons. He doesn't want them coming to him for the loaves and the fishes. No, he comes as a suffering servant. But those with eyes to see, those who have spiritual ears will see and hear the glory of God in Jesus Christ.

Those who don't repent like the Pharisees continue to be blinded. No, he doesn't come as a military ruler. Notice verse 19, he will not quarrel or cry aloud, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets. He's not a protester.

You don't see Jesus out there protesting. He's not confrontational in the face of opposition. No, no one is stronger than our Lord, but he withdraws with gentleness. He's gentle. He's patient.

He doesn't get involved in fruitless arguments or quarrels. No, he treats the marginalized, the downtrodden, the broken, the stumbling with love and grace. By the way, there's a lesson there for us. Why is it that even followers of Jesus get drawn in to the hostile and crude rhetoric of social media? As followers of Jesus, we're to be known as gentle.

We're to be known as gracious. Not harsh. Not fighting.

Not returning evil with evil. You say, well I've got strong convictions. No one has stronger convictions than the Lord Jesus.

There's a time to speak, but there's a time to be silent. And Jesus does not quarrel or cry aloud. Notice verse 20, a bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not quench. A reed in those days, we have a picture of one, a reed in those days could be turned into a kind of flute. A little boy could cut the reed and put a few holes in it and make it as a flute. But once the reed is bruised, once there's a bend in it, there's no use, you can't play the thing and so it's thrown away. Here it is, says Jesus, says the prophecy, a smoldering wick he will not quench. They used all lamps, they had that wick, but there comes a time when the wick isn't working very well and it brings out smoke and black soot and it's not any use and you throw it away. What can you do with a used wick?

Nothing other than throwing it away. But when the Messiah comes, he doesn't break the bruised reed, he doesn't quench the smoldering wick. You say, what does that mean? It means this, that when Jesus comes, he doesn't break the bruised.

He doesn't quench the smoldering. Those who are poor, those who are broken, those who are bruised by this world and bruised by sin, the wonderful Messiah, the Lord from heaven, he doesn't reject such people. That's what the legalistic scribes and Pharisees do.

When you don't live up to their expectations, they throw you out, they want nothing to do with you. But when the Messiah comes, he doesn't break people. He comes to heal the broken. He comes to bring grace and love and forgiveness to the bruised. You see, our Savior comes to worship. He comes in seeming weakness and he comes to suffer. Turn over to Matthew chapter 16, we'll see this. Matthew 16 verse 21, from that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed. And on the third day he raised.

He's going to suffer. Chapter 27, Matthew 27 verse 27, then the soldiers of the governors took Jesus into the governor's headquarters and they gathered the whole battalion before him and they stripped him. Have you ever been stripped?

Imagine how humiliating that is. They stripped the Savior and they put a scarlet robe on him. They're mocking him, aren't they? And twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him, they mocked him saying, Hail, King of the Jews. This is God incarnate, the Almighty God. And they spit on him and took the reed and struck him on the head.

You ever had anyone spit at you? And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him and led him away to crucify him. That's our Savior. He comes as the suffering Savior. John chapter 18, turn there with me. Glad you brought your Bible with you today.

John 18, he's before Pilate. We're establishing that the Lord Jesus Christ comes to suffer. This is his mission, to suffer for sins. To suffer so that you and me can have this hope of the Gospel and have our sins forgiven. John 18, verse 36, Jesus answered, my kingdom is not of this world.

Please remember this in the present state of our country. Our kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting that I might not be delivered over to the Jews, but my kingdom is not from this world. And then in 1 Peter, 1 Peter chapter 2, I read from 1 Peter 1, 1 Peter chapter 2, towards the end of the New Testament, the Apostle Peter, one of the disciples of Jesus, is writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

And he says in 1 Peter 2, verse 21, for to this you have been called because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return. He's not a shouter. You ever been reviled?

I don't know about you, but when someone says things about me, I want to retaliate. Not our Savior. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued in trusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness by his wounds you have been healed. How beautiful that our Savior comes to suffer.

You're bruised, you're broken, you've made a really mess of your life, have you? Come to Jesus. This is why he comes. He comes to take our guilt, our shame, our suffering, and he takes it on himself.

Bruised and broken. Jesus will not reject you. People might reject you. We might even reject you, but Jesus will not reject you. He comes for this reason. He comes as the hope of the nations. He doesn't break the bruise reed.

He doesn't quench the smoldering wick. He invites us to come to him for salvation, for forgiveness, rest, and hope. He's God's chosen servant. He's the suffering servant, and he is victorious.

Why? Because he not only suffers for our sins, not only is he crucified and buried, he rises from the dead. This is why we began by reading about the living hope that we have, and in Jesus Christ then, because of who he is and his magnificent work, he is our hope, and he is the hope for the nations. Look at the end of verse 18. He will proclaim justice to the nations. That word nations, Greek word ethnos, from which we get ethnicity, it could be translated as it is in some translations as the nations. There is Israel, and there are the nations, the Gentiles. And when he comes, he brings hope, he brings justice not only to Israel, but to the nations. And in Isaiah 42 verse 4, the term is translated as coastlands, referring to lands far from Israel itself.

And what does he do? He's going to proclaim justice. The end of verse 20, until he brings justice to victory. A lot of talk today about justice, isn't there? Social justice, economic justice, legal justice, and we all long for that. We all want justice, don't we? But what is this justice?

What does this mean in verses 18 and 20? What is this justice? It's very interesting that the word in Hebrew used in Isaiah 20, used in Isaiah 42 verse 4, translated justice, it says there till he's established justice in the earth.

That same word in Hebrew is used in Exodus 26 verse 30 for the blueprint God gave for the tabernacle to be built. So what is justice? What is this justice that Jesus brings to the earth? It's God's blueprint. God's blueprint for us. God's blueprint for you as an individual. God's blueprint for us as a society.

God's blueprint for the world. Isaiah 42 verse 4, the coastlands wait for the law. Habakkuk 1 verse 4, so the law is paralyzed and justice never goes forth for the wicked surround the righteous, so justice goes forth perverted. When God is forgotten, when we do things our own way, as we're tending to do in our own lives, in our own homes, in our own society, when we do things our own way, there is a perversion of justice. What is justice?

When the rule of law is observed. The rule of God is observed. And now in Jesus Christ, the kingdom of God is coming.

Remember John the Baptist, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And now in Jesus, the kingdom of God has come. He is the King. He's God's chosen servant. He's the suffering servant.

And He brings God's plan to us. In Jesus Christ, there is justice. In Jesus Christ, when we follow the Lord Jesus Christ, then there will be justice in the world.

And this better world that we all long for, it will not come through our own efforts, although we certainly should work to improve our world. But when will there be real justice for this world? When our Lord Jesus Christ returns, returns with power and great glory. And the Lord Jesus Christ as King Jesus, when He returns the second time, He will institute perfect justice and perfect righteousness. Habakkuk says, the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Can you imagine that in the messianic kingdom?

When Jesus Christ returns on this earth, perfect justice. Until He brings justice to victory and in His name, verse 21, the Gentiles will hope. Yes, we sang, Jesus is the hope of the nations. Our Lord Jesus said salvation is from the Jews. The blessings we receive as Gentiles, as non-Jews flow from our Messiah who is Jewish. Never forget that Jesus was Jewish.

He is the Jewish Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why, incidentally, followers of Jesus must never be anti-Semitic. Genesis 12, those who bless Israel will be blessed. Those who dishonor Israel will be cursed. And no, the church has not replaced Israel.

At Calvary, we don't subscribe to replacement theology. We believe there is a future for Israel as a nation. Jesus is the hope for Israel and praise God in the benevolence of God and in the grace of God. He's also the hope not just for Israel, He's the hope for the nations and He's hope for people like you and me. Hear it again, 1 Peter 1.3, according to His great mercy, you don't deserve this, do you?

Of course you don't. According to His great mercy, He's caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. And no one is excluded from this hope. It comes not just to Israel but to all of the nations. And so at the end of Matthew, our Lord Jesus Christ commands His disciples to go and make disciples of all of the nations.

Why? Our hope is only Jesus. He's the only hope. And every nation and every person needs to hear this message, this message of Jesus, that He's God's chosen servant. That He's a suffering servant who comes to atone for the sins of His people. That He's the hope of the nations. My question to you is, do you know this Jesus? No, He's not a political agitator.

He's not a protester. He doesn't want people to follow Him just for what they can get from Him. He wants us to love Him. He comes as our Savior. He comes on as Lord of all and He calls on you and me voluntarily to bow the knee to Him. One day when He returns, every knee will bow, every tongue will confess. But now, in grace, He wants you voluntarily to turn from your sin and to embrace Him and say, Lord, save me.

I want to follow You for the rest of my life. He's our only hope. Some of you are here today and your life is a right mess, isn't it? You've embraced the darkness. You've tasted of the darkness.

Your life is a mess and you don't have hope. I want to present Jesus Christ to you as the only hope. Will you trust Him? Will you believe in Him? Will you cry out to Him to save you and to look forward to that day, that wonderful day when the Lord Jesus Christ will return as King of Kings and Lord of Lords? He'll execute justice, righteousness and wholeness throughout the whole world.

Yes, He's coming back and the nation's hope in Him. Make sure your hope is in God's wonderful Son, the hope of the nations. This message that Jesus saves, it reverberates around the whole world.

A message not just for the Jewish nation, a message not just for Americans, a message for every single person, that this message that Jesus saves, that Jesus is Lord, reverberates around the world and one great day, and we sang on that with that wonderful song He is worthy, One Great Day. With all those He has ransomed from His blood, we will come together from every tribe and language and people and nation and praise God, in His grace I'll be there to sing worthy is the Lamb. Worship Him, love Him, serve Him with all of your heart, He is your only hope. Help us to do that our Father and our God.

So easy for us to put our hope and our trust in ourselves and other people and other things. May each person here know Christ as their only hope. And we thank you for this message that we can proclaim that Jesus saves. That there is salvation and no one else. That Jesus is our only hope in all of our life and in death and for all of eternity and we pray, I pray, that every single person here will join that redeemed, that great crowd in the future. Everyone ransomed by the blood of Jesus singing worthy is the Lamb. Help us now Father to respond with humility, with love, with praise, with service, in Christ's name. Amen.