Isaiah 51:9 - 52:12 - Awake, Awake

Turn to Isaiah.

Isaiah chapter 51.

Isaiah 51 · chapter mention

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Isaiah chapter 51.

Isaiah 51 · chapter mention

We've got a fair bit of scripture to cover today.

The passage we're going to look at as we continue on this journey through Isaiah is chapter 51, verse 9, down through chapter 52, verse number 12.

Isaiah 51:9

I'm not going to read that entire portion to start today, but I am going to read Isaiah 51, verse 9, all the way down through verse 22 of chapter 51.

Isaiah 51:9

So Isaiah 51 9 through 22, this is what God's Word says.

Wake up, wake up, arm of the Lord, clothe yourself with strength.

Wake up as in days past, as in generations long ago.

Wasn't it you who hacked Rahab to pieces, who pierced the sea monster?

Wasn't it you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, who made the seabed into a road for the redeemed to pass over?

And the ransomed of the Lord will return and come to Zion with singing, crowned with unending joy.

Joy and gladness will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee.

I am the one who comforts you.

Who are you that you should fear humans who die, or a son of man who has given up like grass?

But you have forgotten the Lord, your maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth.

You are in constant dread all day long because of the fury of the oppressor, who has set himself to destroy.

But where is the fury of the oppressor?

The prisoner is soon to be set free.

He will not die and go to the pit, and his food will not be lacking.

For I am the Lord your God who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar.

His name is the Lord of armies.

I have put my words in your mouth and covered you in the shadow of my hand, in order to plant the heavens, to found the earth, and to say to Zion, You are my people.

Stand up, Jerusalem.

You who have drunk the cup of his fury from the Lord's hand, you who have drunk the goblet to the dregs, the cup that causes people to stagger.

There is no one to guide her among all the children she's raised.

There is no one to take hold of her hand among all the offspring she has brought up.

These two things have happened to you.

Devastation and destruction, famine and sword.

Who will grieve for you?

How can I comfort you?

Your children have fainted.

They lie at the head of every street like an antelope and a net.

They are full of the Lord's fury, the rebuke of your God.

So listen to this.

Suffering and drunken one, but not with wine.

This is what your Lord says.

The Lord, even your God who defends his people.

Look, I have removed from your hand the cup that causes staggering.

That goblet, the cup of my fury.

You will never drink it again.

Let's pray again.

Lord, how can we come to you enough?

How can we plead with you enough for your aid, for your help?

Lord, save us.

Lord, be alert to listen to our cries today because we desperately need you.

In and of ourselves, we don't have light, we don't have strength, we don't have understanding, but in your light, we see light.

So shine on us today.

We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.

I went to a Christian college that had a good amount of rules.

That didn't bother me.

You know what did bother me?

People who snooze their alarms.

You're in a dorm room, a small dorm room with two other guys, and someone gets the bright idea.

I'm gonna get up at 5 a.m.

tomorrow to steady for the test.

5 a.m.

rolls around.

Beep, beep, beep, beep, smack, snore, 5.15 rolls around.

Beep, beep, beep, smack, snore.

By the time 6 30 a.m.

hits, I'm ready to take that alarm clock and throw it out the window.

Wake up already.

In our passage today, there are repeated calls for Israel to wake up.

And these are very serious calls.

Chapter 51, verse 17 repeats.

Wake up, wake up, chapter 52, verse 1, which we didn't read, says again, wake up, wake up.

God has many things that Israel needed to hear.

They're suffering under judgment from Assyria.

They're going to be brought under judgment from Babylon, but God had good news to share with them, and their spiritual lethargy put them in danger of missing God's good news.

The Apostle Paul offers a similar instruction to New Testament Christians.

Romans 13, verse 11 says, Besides this, since you know the time, it is already the hour for you to wake up from sleep.

Romans 13:11

Because now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.

Don't let spiritual apathy cause you to sleep and miss God's message.

I've heard this before.

Snooze.

My life is really just too difficult right now.

I just I just need some rest so I can just not focus on the problems in my life.

Snooze.

How long do I have to wait for God to fulfill his promises?

Snooze.

These are all temptations Israel could have been drawn to.

And they're temptations that we can indulge as well.

But don't sleep on God's message.

Wake up.

That's the message for today.

Wake up.

There's an urgency in this passage.

It's like it's like someone's grabbing our arm and shaking us.

Wake up, wake up.

And the passage gives us three reasons why we should wake up.

Here's the first reason.

We should wake up because God is working.

We should wake up because God is working.

Look at verse 9 of chapter 51.

Our passage begins with a call to wake up.

Although this call is directed to God if you look carefully.

Wake up, wake up, verse 9 of 51.

Arm of the Lord, clothe yourself with strength.

Wake up as in days past, as in generations long ago.

It almost sounds blasphemous, doesn't it?

Like Isaiah is grabbing God's arm and saying, Lord, are you too tired from your saving activity in the past that you don't see we got a great need right now?

Lord, wake up.

We know from Psalm 121, verse 4, God never slumbers or sleeps.

Psalms 121:4

And Isaiah knows that.

He's not trying to impugn the character of God.

But what Isaiah is doing is pleading with God to act on his promises.

God's given promises all throughout the book of Isaiah.

We saw even last week, earlier in chapter 51, God says, I'm going to bring the Garden of Eden from your wilderness.

I'm going to bring comfort to you.

I'm going to bring justice to the nations.

And Isaiah is saying, God, do all that you said you were going to do.

Arise and act on behalf of your people.

And then the Lord responds in verse 12, down through verse 16.

And God essentially reminds the prophets, Oh, I'm very much awake and at work.

You don't have to fear that.

He's been working in the past, our God.

He works in the present.

He'll work in the future.

And you notice the way verse 12 starts.

I.

What did verse 9 start with?

Awake, awake.

The double call to rise, and the Lord says, I, I.

One commentator points out this doubling comparison and says that the Lord is reiterating to Isaiah, I'm every bit as awake as you may need.

So as we think about how God works, we wake up because God is working.

How does he work?

I'm going to plot five movements of God's work in history from this passage.

We'll move through these.

But the first movement is creation.

Look at verse 13.

You have forgotten the Lord, your maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth.

If anyone really thought that God had forgotten or that he was sleeping or not working, it's because they don't understand God.

This is the God who merely spoke and galaxies spun out.

And he still sustains those galaxies.

Why is the earth lasted?

Because God set the earth on its foundations.

Yeah, this side of the fall, there is death in the world, but nothing's outside of God's control.

When the seas rise up and surge and roar, it's because God's the maker of the oceans.

Verse 15 calls us to God's creative work in stirring up the sea, and that brings us to the next movement of God's work.

So he's in creation, he works.

He also was at work in the Exodus.

I know there's a lot of things that take place between creation and the Exodus, but again, we're trying to hit on what is Isaiah highlighting here.

Look at the end of verse 9.

There's a rather strange statement, chapter 51, the end of verse 9.

Wasn't it you speaking of the Lord?

Wasn't it you who hacked Rahab to pieces?

Who pierced the sea monster?

When we think of Rahab, our minds might go, well, there's the Rahab that was in Jericho.

The Lord didn't hack her to pieces.

She had faith and got rescued and brought in to God's.

That's a different Rahab.

Who is this Rahab that God is hacking to pieces?

Well, there was already a big clue earlier in the book of Isaiah.

Isaiah 30, verse 7.

Isaiah 30:7

Egypt's help is completely worthless.

Therefore I call her Egypt, Rahab, who just sits.

So Egypt is compared to Rahab.

Egypt was like a big sea monster that was chasing Israel.

And what happened when God led Israel out and through the waters?

He caused the same waters that he created to collapse and crush the Egyptian army, Pharaoh, and his hosts.

He hacked that sea monster to pieces.

So God's work in creation connects to his work in the Exodus.

There's a spirit in creation hovering over the waters.

Here's God in the pillow and the fire with his people.

In the creation account, this serpentine-like creature tries to tempt the people of God, and it seems like he wins, and there's sin and death, and yet God says, I'm going to crush the serpent's head.

Then you come forward to the Exodus, and what's going on during that time, this serpentine-like Pharaoh with his staff is trying to stamp out the people of God, but God comes and crushes that giant serpent, Rahab.

So Isaiah picks up a pattern in God's working and creation into the Exodus, and he sees this pattern is going to happen again.

So that brings us to the third movement of God's work.

Return from exile.

Verse 11 of chapter 51.

The ransomed of the Lord will return and come to Zion with singing.

Yes, Assyria's going to have their captives.

Yes, Babylon's going to have their captives.

But Israel's coming back.

They're going to come back with singing.

What did Israel do when they came through the Red Sea?

They sang a song of victory and triumph.

What are they going to do when they come back eventually from Babylon?

They're going to be singing the victories and triumphs of the Lord as they march toward the promised land once again.

There's a lot of time between these events, but this pattern of creation and exodus and return from exile.

It's Isaiah's way under inspiration from God of encouraging the people to see that God is at work.

Is that the end of the story?

It's not.

I'm going to skip ahead to the fifth movement.

I'll come back to the fourth.

Don't worry.

We've got creation, Exodus, return from exile, and ultimately, God's going to work and bring about a whole new creation.

Look at verse 11.

We're told that people will be crowned with unending joy.

That sorrow and sighing will flee.

That sounds permanent.

Unending?

When the people came back from exile, there was rejoicing, but it but it was it was it really permanent?

There were people that were crying.

They remembered the temple from before, even though the temple was being rebuilt.

Permanent joy is reserved for the new creation.

Verse 16 points in this direction as well.

I've put my words in your mouth and covered you in the shadow of my hand in order to plant the heavens to found the earth.

It's something that God is going to be doing.

Well, didn't He already create the heavens and the earth?

He did, but the whole world is fallen.

Creation's groaning, longing to be made new.

God's going to plant it and establish it once again forever.

According to His promise, we look for a new heavens and a new earth where righteousness dwells.

So you've got the work of God coming full circle from creation to new creation.

You've got the exodus of Israel and their return from exile.

It's like this story within a story.

This is not an inception thing.

This is real history, okay?

And the story of Israel is meant to tell us about the story that God's going to do for the whole world.

His work in Israel's past is a work of what he's going to do ultimately for all those who truly know him.

So I said I left out that fourth step in God's work.

How do we get from return from exile to the new creation?

It's God's servant.

That fourth movement here is redemption.

Let me show you this.

Verse 12, I am the one who comforts you.

There's the Lord.

Verse 15, I am the Lord your God.

There is the Lord speaking again.

Verse 16 begins.

I, so still the Lord God speaking, have put my words in your mouth.

Whose mouth?

Well, perhaps Isaiah.

Certainly he was a prophet inspired by God.

That's true.

But the text says, God has put his words in your mouth in order to plant the heavens and found the earth.

Isaiah was a messenger of God.

Isaiah didn't bring about this eternal, permanent new creation.

So this has got to be someone else the Lord is speaking about here.

And throughout the last several chapters of Isaiah, we've been brought again and again to this figure called the servant.

It's not as explicit in this passage.

The fourth servant song.

So there's these different poetic descriptions of this character called the servant, his person, his work, will start the fourth servant song next week at the end of chapter 52.

But I take it here, the Lord is alluding to his servant.

The Lord's put his words in the mouth of his servants.

And even though Isaiah is a servant of God, and other people and even groups of people are servants of God, friends, there's one great servant of God that we've seen again and again.

It's the Lord Jesus Christ.

God has put his words in the Lord's mouth, and it's only Jesus that can bring about new creation.

But before he brings about new creation, he brings about redemption.

There's tokens of redemption throughout the verses that we read.

Verse 10, God calls his people the redeemed.

In verse 11, they're called the ransomed.

In verse 14, there are prisoners that will be set free.

Redeemed, ransomed, prisoners set free.

Yes, that language is used of God's work in the Old Testament to rescue Israel, but those types of descriptors often point forward to what God's going to do climactically in the person of Jesus Christ to bring about the redemption that's needed most, redemption from sin and slavery there.

The blood of the animals led Israel out of Egypt.

It's the blood of Jesus that gives us freedom from sin.

Jesus came, he said in Mark 10, 45, to give his life a ransom for many.

And how does the Lord bring about that redemption through his servant?

Look at verse 22.

This is what your Lord says, the Lord, even your God who defends his people.

Look, I have removed from your hand the cup that causes staggering.

That goblet, the cup of my fury, you will never drink it again.

God's wrath is compared to a beverage that is so strong it just leaves you sick and spinning.

And the Lord says, I'm gonna take the cup away from you.

Do you remember our Christ in the garden, his prayer?

Lord, if it's possible, let this cup pass from me.

Why would he use language like that?

What does a cup have to do with the wrath of God?

Because it's a comparison from the Old Testament.

And Jesus Himself is the one who drank all of the wrath of God so that we wouldn't have to, beloved.

It's an amazing thing that he would redeem sinners and he took it all.

There's not one drop left for us.

We just have to trust in him.

So wake up.

God is working.

Second reason we should wake up, and these last two reasons will be a little bit quicker than that first one.

But wake up, number two, because redemption draws near.

If you look at chapter 52, verse 1, here's God repeating this call.

Wake up, wake up, and then in the first six verses of chapter 52, God reiterates many of the things we already talked about with redemption and new Exodus.

But as you look through these verses, there's an increased urgency and a personal invitation to step into what God is doing in redemption.

So we could talk about God working from the 20,000-foot level of all the way from creation to new creation.

He's always at work.

But what does that look like for us today, right in the middle of God's redemption story?

Well, redemption is drawing near.

Verse number one, Jerusalem is told to put on beautiful garments.

This is verse one of chapter 52.

These may be priestly garments, that's what some commentators suggest.

And that would fit with the idea of unclean people being kept out of this holy city.

But if it's true that these are priestly garments, then it's all of Zion, all of Jerusalem, all of the people of God who can now put on these garments and be priests.

Not just the Levites.

What did the apostle Peter say?

You're a royal priesthood, a holy nation.

Redemption has drawn near.

We don't have to come through another human mediator.

We can come to God directly through the Lord Jesus Christ.

What a privilege that is.

Maybe it's both.

We're the bride and we're this kingdom of priests.

What a ceremony this is.

And then in verse 2 of chapter 52, there's the invitation to remove the bonds from the neck.

We don't have to wait.

Redemption's here.

If you're here today and you haven't embraced the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord's servant, what's keeping you from doing that?

Oh, the Lord wouldn't take me.

Oh yes, he would.

He's taken all of us.

We're sinners just like you.

Come and receive free grace.

If I come to the Lord, then I I'd have to live for him, and that means I'd have to give up.

Give up what?

The chains, the bonds, give up temporary, slight joys, and long frustrations in exchange for the wonder of knowing God?

That's not a trade.

Redemption is near.

It's near for you, friend, today.

And there's a beautiful word of assurance for us among all the assurances of this passage.

Verse number six, when God concludes this reiteration of his new Exodus work through Jesus and redemption coming to be here, verse six says, Therefore, my people will know my name.

They will know on that day, I am he who says, Here I am.

God came to Adam in the garden.

Where are you, Adam?

Adam had to eventually step forward and say, Well, I was I was hiding.

I sinned.

Genesis 22, verse 1 says that God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham, and Abraham says, Here I am.

Genesis 22:1

And Abraham did agree to sacrifice his son after he and his wife had already tried to have a child through their own means.

Genesis 31, 11, God appears to Jacob in a dream, and Jacob says, Here I am, Lord.

Jacob the deceiver.

Exodus 3 4.

God calls Moses from the burning bush, and Moses says, Here I am.

The same Moses that didn't make it into the promised land.

A very familiar passage for many of us.

God comes with a boy Samuel.

And Samuel says, Here I am, your servant's listening.

And Samuel gave God's message to the people.

And yet we learn he didn't do very well by his own sons in honoring the Lord.

Earlier in the book of Isaiah, who will I send?

Who will go for me?

Isaiah says, Here, here I am, send me.

And yet this is the same Isaiah who had to confess, woe is me.

I'm a man of unclean lips.

I live among a people of unclean lips.

All the while the Lord is stepping forward looking for a faithful covenant partner.

And all the while there's failures.

But the Lord's name is Redeemer.

And redemption draws near.

And here in verse 6 of chapter 52, there's a day coming when it's not a human partner that reports for duty and fails.

It's not a human partner who commits spiritual adultery and breaks the marriage covenant.

It is a human, yes, a true human, but it's none other than the Lord of glory.

And we find a wonderful fulfillment of this passage in Hebrews 2.13.

Listen to these words, put on the lips of Christ.

Here I am and the children God has given me.

Christ represents us.

He has come to fulfill all of the lack, all of the failures, and we belong to him.

Redemption is right here.

We have received it, can testify.

And we get to experience it together.

Christ is among us here.

Verse number six: my people, the plural will know my name.

They will know me on that day.

We're rejoicing together every Lord's day that Christ has drawn near to redeem us.

And doing it together is one of the things that makes it so special.

I'm going to take a little risk of distraction and give you an example.

Let's say you're at a Yankee playoff game.

Now stay with the techs.

Don't get too focused on what that's going on now.

Let's say you're at a Yankee playoff game and you come in and you see over in the corner of the food court, there's a guy over there with one hot dog.

He's got a little black and white TV.

That's kind of weird.

And you go into the stadium, you're cheering on the Yankees if you're a Yankee fan.

And the seventh inning stretch comes and you go out to the bathroom, and this guy's still sitting over there.

I gotta figure out what's going on.

So you go up to this guy, you say, excuse me, I had to ask.

What are you doing?

He's like, Oh, I'm just kind of watching the game here.

I'm I'm I'm a Yankees fan.

And you say, Well, did you did you sneak in?

Didn't you have to pay to get in?

And he said, Oh, yeah, yeah, I paid for my ticket.

I I I I wanted to be here.

I knew it was the right thing to do.

He said, Well, why are you out here?

Why don't you why don't you come in?

Is it a problem with your seat?

Well, we'll we'll get you into our row somehow.

And he says, Well, you know, just just for me, being a Yankees fan, it's it's a very personal thing.

You're missing half the joy of it.

Part of the gladness is being with everybody else cheering on the team, right?

Why would you want to stay home and watch a worship service online when we've got free front row tickets right here?

There's still four seats down here ready to be claimed.

And if you're if you're coming out of a sense of duty, I know I need to be there, we're glad you're here.

This is that's a great step.

But look around.

Take in the joy of what others are experiencing, what we trust is in your heart too.

Greet someone, hug someone, say amen to something, we're redeemed.

Wake up because God is working, wake up because redemption draws near.

And then the last reason we should wake up this morning wake up is because we have good news to share.

So we gather.

To worship this Lord, and then we go out to spread these good tidings.

Chapter 52, verses 7 and 8.

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of the heralds who proclaims peace, who brings good news of good things, who proclaims salvation, who says, To Zion, your God reigns.

The voices of your watchmen, they lift up their voices.

They shout for joy together.

Every eye will see when the Lord returns to Zion.

Freely we've received and freely we give.

We can't bring in God's redemption with our own strength, but we can testify to the work that God is doing and the redemption that is drawing near.

We can go out and say, the Lord reigns.

And in and of itself, the Lord reigns, only that is not good news, but the Lord reigns and there's good tidings of salvation.

There's a phrase in the middle of verse 7 of chapter 52.

If you're looking at uh Christian Standard Bible, that's the Pew Bible.

It says this person brings news of good things, or your Bible might say who brings good news of happiness.

I I like the King James Version here.

It captures the emphasis of the original.

The King James Version, if you have one of those Bibles, says this person bringeth good tidings of the good.

But there's been this double emphasis awake, awake, awake, awake.

And the Lord says, I, I comfort you.

And now here is this call.

Now when you go out, you better bring good news of the good.

Isn't that a beautiful repetition there to keep that emphasis?

And the last word for good that's used there is the very same word that's used way back in Genesis chapter 1 when God looked out over all that he had made and saw that it was all very good.

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

We get to go out and say, the Lord reigns, yes, the world is broken down, and yes, I'm a sinner, but the Lord's making all things new.

It's going to be good again for those who repent of their sins and trust in the work of Jesus Christ.

Come and receive it.

Are we known as people of good news?

That means at least two things.

It means first that we have to talk.

We have to speak.

And we can do that because the Lord has spoken to us.

So in chapter 51, verse 16, here's the servant saying, You are my people.

Now armed with that confidence, with that rest, we don't if the Lord owns us, it's okay how people respond.

We've got freedom to go out and say, Here's a message from God.

Please listen to it.

But we have to be willing to speak.

Micah, I I just I really let my actions do my talking for me.

Our actions don't say the Lord reigns and Jesus saves.

Don't get me wrong.

Our actions are important.

Our actions can provoke people to ask questions.

Our actions can adorn our message.

We certainly don't want to be all talk and no walk.

I'm not arguing for that.

But we have to be willing to open our mouths.

You know, heralds and watchmen, they said, well, talking's not really my thing.

Well, you're in the long wrong line of work if it's not really your thing.

It doesn't mean we'll all talk the exact same amount or in the same ways or same places, but we have to be willing to speak.

And then if we're going to be people that are known as people of good news, we have to be willing to speak.

But it doesn't mean we have to just talk.

When we talk, we have to get around to the good.

Are you hearing that?

We want to be people from our passage here in verses 7 to 10 who are just brimming with joyful good news.

You're in Times Square.

There's always that one guy out there.

God's gonna judge the wicked.

You have to say amen to that.

That's true.

Then you go into the MM store and you come out 20 minutes later and he's saying the same thing.

You're like, well, that that is true, but I'm not really sure if he understands the gospel because he never seems to get around to the good news.

We we have to get to the good.

So speak and get to the good news.

If you're at a parent meeting and you're talking with another parent and they say, Boy, the only hope for our kids is if we get some better teachers in this school, would you be willing to consider saying, you know, the real hope for our children is if they trust in Jesus Christ and He's an amazing Savior.

Can I just tell you more about Him?

If you're on Instagram or X or Facebook, and I stress if, don't feel guilty if you're not, but if you feel compelled to be on social media platforms and if you find a compulsion to speak about weighty matters, are you known as a person of good news?

Or are you known as the person who mainly or even only complains about all the bad things in the world?

Or the person who complains about how other people are complaining too much or not promoting what you think should be promoted or not promoted, be known as the good news gal.

Be known as the good news guy.

If they think you're a wacky good news guy or gal, that's all right.

But but don't be known as the Grinch Christian.

That's an oxymoron.

Remember, we said too that the story of Israel is really the story of the world.

So this news that's that's going out here, we want it to be going out into all places that all nations and everywhere might hear.

You see that in verse number 10.

And that's another beautiful thing about the we of all of this.

When we send out people like Kevin and Sarah or Chad and Emily.

That's that's in a sense us going out.

I I don't mean that that alleviates all of us from prayerfully considering, Lord, should I should I pick up and move somewhere for the sake of this good news?

It's good for us to consider that.

It certainly doesn't alleviate our call to to speak up in our own places of work and vocations here, but there's a sense in which these sent-out ones, when one member suffers, we all suffer.

When one member rejoices, we all rejoice.

When one member goes out, they're going out with the same message and the same pats on the back and prayers that our joy can be doubled.

That yes, we are spreading the good news to the ends of the earth.

Wake up.

Wake up because God is working, wake up because redemption draws near.

And wake up because we have good news to share.

We'll draw towards a conclusion with these last two verses in chapter 52 from our passage.

That's verses 11 and 12.

And then again, this wonderful fourth servant song will start next Sunday.

But these last two verses, there's another repetition.

Leave.

Leave.

Go out from there.

So, so yes, being awake, and then and then being on the move.

This reminds us of what Israel did when they came out of Egypt.

They took these precious metals that were eventually going to be dedicated to instruments for the Lord's service.

When Israel came out of Egypt, the Lord sheltered them all along their journey.

And there's a there's a call there.

Revelation picks up on this.

In Revelation 18, there's this portrait of the destruction of Babylon, this ungodly empire.

In Revelation 18:4, a voice says, Come out of her, my people.

Revelation 18:4

The call for us is come out.

It's not a geographic call.

Revelation 18.4 says, Come out of her so that you will not share in her sins.

So this is not a call for Christians in Russia to go to America or Christians in New York to go to North Carolina.

You're free to do that.

But but we're gonna be in Babylon and yet being awake and alert to the Lord and marching for him, don't we want to leave aside any remnant of sin that could be in our own hearts, that could keep us from the mission God's called us to?

We want to more and more reflect the values of our King, of the Lord Jesus.

And we're on this pilgrimage.

We're urging each other, stay awake, stay alert, he's coming again, and in the meantime, let's share that good news.

Let's pray.

Lord, we there's so much that we long to do for you, and we long to better know you that we wouldn't have such a fear of man that sometimes takes words from us.

We want to better grasp how all of Scripture fits together so wonderfully and shines a spotlight on your Son from heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Thank you.

Thank you that he has come.

Thank you that he has brought redemption.

Thank you that he's sanctifying us even now in services like this.

Lord, we praise you that we can even sing, and our singing is a way to announce the victory of God, that we sing, our God reigns.

And we're telling those here today who have come to this heavenly Mount Zion, this heavenly Jerusalem with all the spirits of the just men made perfect to this angelic assembly of the kingdom of heaven on earth.

What a glory it is to be here.

And we're singing and telling each other, our God reigns.

And let us be eager to publish these glad tidings, this good news of the good.

To take it with us as we go today.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.