Well then our text today comes from Hebrews 11 and verse 20. It's on page 1178 of the Church Bible. Hebrews 11 and verse 20. By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. Now we're working our way through this great chapter which gives to us witnesses along the way of life. who are exhorting us to continue to run with endurance the race set before us, to look to Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. And here we see the faith of Isaac. And besides what's already been said about the patriarchs, this is the only verse that there is about Isaac. By faith, Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. Now, we've read from two chapters, Genesis 25 and Genesis 27. And that shows us this blessing that he gave to Jacob and to Esau. Now, of course, we read there about the great birth prophecy, the birth oracle about the two in Rebekah's womb, the twins. They were struggling in the womb. And Rebecca who had been barren and who had pleaded to God for a child is really concerned about the behaviour of these children in the womb. The wrestling that was going on within. Is this normal? Perhaps there was great pain for her. And so she goes to the Lord to enquire what is happening. And there she receives the oracle. And particularly, it's the last portion of the oracle that's important. The older shall serve the younger. Jacob shall be the one who will be above Esau. Esau will have to serve his brother. That's an interesting thing for her to hear. And no doubt she told it to Isaac. No doubt it was well known in the family at this time. But in the course of time, as Jacob and Esau grew up, we see that this oracle is acted out, but not particularly in the best way, not particularly with faith. There isn't an acceptance that God has spoken and it's good in our eyes. No, rather we see Jacob deceiving and we see Esau despising. his blessings. And so really in these stories, no one seems to come across particularly well. In fact, we see the family of God sinning against him in various ways. We saw it in chapter 25, when Esau sells his birthright to Jacob. He comes in exhausted from hunting in the field, and he is famished. He feels himself on the point of death. Now, of course, he wasn't really on the point of death. He could have taken time and sought to prepare food himself, but out of laziness and out of despising his birthright, he sells it to Jacob. It shows he did not appreciate the standing that he had. Now, a birthright, what is that? Well, it was the right of the firstborn son to inherit off his father. We, perhaps, in our world are more used to a father dividing his inheritance amongst his children, and perhaps doing so fairly. Perhaps a certain percentage goes to each one. But that's not the way it was in these days. The oldest son inherited the vast proportion. the father's possessions. Now that's an important thing for us to remember, this theme of the firstborn as being the one who inherits of the father. You see, the Bible uses the word firstborn in other places also. Think about Colossians chapter 1, where it speaks about the Lord Jesus being the firstborn of all creation. and the firstborn from the dead. It's important that we understand what those mean, because when you get the cults coming to your door, they will try to tell you they mean something different. They will try to tell you that Jesus was the firstborn of all creation, and that means that he was the first to be born, that he was the first created thing. But we must reject that, because Christ is, as the Father and as the Spirit, eternal. He had no beginning. and he shall have no end. When it says Jesus is the firstborn over all creation, it means that he has the right over creation. All things have been made through him and for him. He is the firstborn, the one who inherits all things, the one who possesses all things. It is His by right, and Christ did not despise that right. When it says He's the firstborn from the dead, same thing. He inherits all things. They belong to Him as His possession, particularly because of His mediation, because He laid down His own life. Well, then the Father glorifies Him with the glory which He had before the world was. We are not to look at the title firstborn and to consider that it always means the first one to be born chronologically. No, it's a title spoken of the inheritance, the birthright. And so in a sense here, although Jacob was the secondborn, he becomes the firstborn. As he gets the birthright, he takes on that position, and he takes on that title in the family. Esau has been careless. and he's despised it and he's sold it. But then we see in chapter 27 that it goes further. We see that Jacob tricks his father. And no doubt this passage is well known to you. Rebecca overhears Isaac's plan. Isaac secretly wants to bless Esau, his favorite son. He loves Esau because Esau goes out hunting and brings back game for him. Now Isaac here, we can't whitewash what he does. Isaac here is doing the wrong thing. Isaac no doubt knew the birth oracle. He knew that the older one should serve the younger. But Isaac here looks with favoritism at his son Esau and seeks secretly to bless him. He doesn't call the whole family in to say, I'm going to do a solemn duty on behalf of God. I am going to bless the firstborn. He doesn't do it openly. He seeks to do it secretly. And it only so happens that Rebecca overhears and calls Jacob. She pleads with her son to deceive the father. Now, of course, this is a shameful act to lie. The Lord hates lying lips. It's shameful that Jacob did this. And notice in chapter 27, not only does he deceive his father, but he does so on multiple occasions. His father asks him, who are you? He says, I'm Esau. His father asks, are you sure? I am. Even his father asks him, how have you come back so quickly? And what does he say? The Lord has given me success. What a terrible lie to say. He's gone out and killed some of the kids of the goats. He hasn't gone hunting at all. And yet he says, God has given me success. He lies and he blasphemes in it. No one in this chapter comes across well. And yet, it is Jacob who is blessed. And you see the blessing there in verses 27 to 29. It's the covenant blessing that Isaac gives to him. But the question that we're left with from Hebrews 11 and verse 20, if it was by trickery and deceit that Isaac blessed Jacob, How can the writer to the Hebrews say, by faith, Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come? It doesn't seem to line up, does it? The Genesis account shows us a family who is in chaos, lying and deceiving, secrecy, and all sorts of things. But Hebrews 11 says, by faith, Isaac blessed. How so? Well, I want to give two reasons why Isaac can still be spoken of as acting in faith, even in what he does. And the first one is that faith is always accompanied by infirmities and weakness and defilement. Even our best works still contain in them filthiness, Even the best that we can offer to God still has sin in it. And even our repentance needs to be repented of. We do sin and fall short of the glory of God. Now, perhaps when you were converted, you were converted through conviction of sin, and you saw sins that you had committed, and you saw them as wicked, and you said, against you, you only, have I sinned. And you saw that God's punishment off you for those sins was just. But then, as you grow in your faith, you begin to see that it's not merely those sins against God which are wrong. You see also your sins of omission. You see just how far short you fall. In fact, you see how little you give to God that he deserves, how lax you are in the duties that we must have towards him in secret, in prayer, in reading the scriptures, in praising his name, in examining ourselves. Just how far short we fall. And then perhaps, as you grow even more, you begin to see further how much sin there is in you. You begin to see that even your best works fall far short. You see, there's that progression. On the one hand, the first, you see that there is sin in you and that it's wicked. In the second, you see sins of omission, how far short you fall. But in the third case, you're seeing that even those things you do are not good enough. Our best works are still defiant before God. And so Isaac here, in what he does, it's easy in the Genesis account. to see the defilement. It's easy to see the favoritism that he showed to Esau over Jacob. In fact, it's hinted at in many ways in what it says in the first part of chapter 27, verse one. It came to pass when Isaac was old and his eyes were so dim that he could not see. His eyes were so dim. Now that's a fact. That's a fact of something that really happened. His eyes truly were dim. He didn't have the luxury of our world, where he could go and get glasses in order to help him see in old age. His eyes were dim. And that sets the stage for the deceit, that Jacob will come in and he won't recognise him. But is there not something more in those words? His eyes were so dim. Does it not show us the spiritual state of his soul? The eyes speak of understanding. They were dim. See, it's not just in this place that it speaks of the eyes being dim. In fact, throughout the scriptures, we see hints of it. And in Isaiah 32, it says, the eyes of those who see will not grow dim, and the ears of those who hear will listen. And there it's speaking of that spiritual understanding. You hear through your ears, but not everyone hears truly. Jesus said, let him who has ears to hear, let him hear. You see, not everyone who listens understands. Not everyone who listens truly sees. And so in a congregation like this, there can be dim eyes. And our eyes can become dim at times, even though we have faith. We can become weak. We can become lax. And so it was for Isaac. His eyes were dim physically, but his eyes were also dim spiritually. And yet, as we see, Hebrews calls him, or says that by faith he blessed. And we see the faith even in chapter 27 of Genesis. Because by faith he gave the covenant blessings. Notice in verses 27 to 29 that what he gives to Jacob, now granted he thinks it's Esau, but what he gives to Jacob is a covenant blessing. It's the blessing that he's heard was given to Abraham his father. It's the blessing that his father Abraham Impressed upon him from an early age. It's not Ishmael who will be blessed It's you you are the son of the covenant and look there at the blessing It says surely the smell of my son is like the smell of a field which the Lord God give you of the Jew of heaven, and of the fatness of the earth, and plenty of grain and wine. Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be master over your brethren, and let your mother's sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be those who bless you. That's the same. That's the same covenant as God had given to Abraham. Curse be those who curse you, bless be those who bless you. The blessing there of having a land and of having other nations serving him, that was a covenant blessing that was given to Abraham and it's been given to Isaac. And now Isaac is blessing his son with it. You see, there is still faith. He is deluded, he's deceived, he thinks he's blessing Esau, but he still gives the covenant blessings because he believes that God is. God is real, God exists. And the faith is greater, perhaps, than we give it credit for. Because Isaac had no prospect of seeing these blessings come to pass. Remember that faith is the evidence of things not seen. And so Isaac here believes things that are future, that they shall come to pass, but he's no prospect of seeing them. There's no hope for the nations around him that they will serve him. There's no hope that he shall be a blessing and they shall all be cursed. No, Isaac can't see that. It's too far off in the future for him. and yet he believes it. By faith he accepts it, and by faith he blesses. He gives the blessing. So friends, there is faith in this chapter. But just like Isaac, like his eyes had grown dim, so too even his spirituality has grown dim and faint. But I want us to receive some comfort from that. Our best acts of faith, our best works, are still defiled. They're still polluted. Our righteousness is as filthy rags. They're mixed with the weaknesses of the human flesh. They're mixed with the imperfections that come from our nature. And as well as that, even Christians, your best works cannot stand in the day of judgment. before God. That's something we should accept. It's a solemn thing. And yet God is pleased to accept us. And he is pleased to accept our works through the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's the key difference. It is through Christ and through him alone that we and our works are accepted. Unless we commit ourselves to Christ, we shall not stand. Unless we're found in him, We shall not stand, we shall receive the punishment which is due to us for our sins, because we have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. The wages of sin is death. But yet, in our justification, we see that God pardons sin and he is pleased to accept only for the righteousness of Christ, because of what he has done, his perfect death and his perfect life. But it's not only that we are accepted in Christ, it's also that our works are accepted in Christ. And the two are both marvelous things. Our best works are defiant and polluted, and yet in Christ, reward us for what we do. Can you think of anything more gracious than that? When God rewards us, it's not because of our merit. It's not because we deserve to be rewarded. God rewards in grace because our best works are defiled before him and imperfect. And yet he is pleased to look at our sincere acts of of worship, of sincere acts of prayer, of reading the scriptures, of witnessing, of hospitality, whatever the good work is, he is pleased to look at those and to accept them in Christ Jesus. And more than that, to reward them. We don't deserve such things. And so it is that Isaac, who sinned grievously here, Yet even still the writer to the Hebrews says, by faith Isaac blessed. You see, his faith, although it's polluted, because it's sincere, it is rewarded. It is classified as true faith. And he is accepted, and his works are accepted also. Now that's a comfort for Christians, but it's not a comfort for everyone. You see, some could listen to what I've just said and they could say, well, since God is gracious, if I continue to live my life as I do and try to do as many good works as I can to help as many people as I can, then in the end, God will accept me because he is gracious and he'll turn a blind eye to my faults and my failings. Friends, if you take comfort down these lines, you've completely misunderstood me. I have tried to make it clear, it is only in Christ that you can be accepted. If you turn your back upon Christ and despise Him and reject Him, neither you nor your works shall be accepted. They shall remain filthy rags before Him. And God, as we would do before a filthy rag, will turn His nose away in disgust from you, from your person, and from your works. There is nothing that we can do in our own strength that is acceptable in the sight of the holy, holy, holy God. For he has purer eyes than to behold evil. There is no comfort for the world in what we see here. It's not a case that you can say, well, my good deeds outweigh my bad, or even my bad may outweigh my good, but even still God will receive me graciously. Not so. Unless you're in Christ, you shall not be received. Unless your faith is in him, your work shall be counted as sin and unrighteousness. But there is a comfort here for Christians. But again, I want to distinguish. It's not a comfort that leads to an excuse. It's a comfort for your past sins and failings. It's a comfort for your past imperfections. It's not a comfort to set you up as an excuse to continue to live in sin. You see, perhaps the devil brings his fiery darts against you to try to bring doubts into your mind and bring despair because you look back and you see the times that you failed your Lord and your God and how you mourn those things, how you're ashamed of those things. How you look back and you see not merely little imperfections, but you see grievous sins. That your righteousness truly is a filthy rags. But friends, if you're in Christ, if you're in Christ, there is comfort here. Faith is accepted. You're accepted in the Beloved, in the Redeemer. And that's a good thing. It's a beautiful thing. But that's comfort for your past. Don't take it into the future and say, well, since it doesn't really matter how I live, since God will accept me in Christ anyway, it doesn't matter, I can do whatever I want. And he will still say at the end, by faith, such and such a person did this and that. Friends, it's not a comfort that leads to an excuse into license to live the way we want. Rather, we should take it as an exhortation. Yes, God forgives and cleanses and accepts in Christ, but even still, our duty is to be good and diligent and faithful servants before him. So that's the first thing I want us to see. How can we call Isaac what he did, faith? Well first, it is the nature of our faith that it's accompanied by weakness and by imperfection. But the second thing we see is that faith overcomes. Faith overcomes the flesh. Faith overcomes sin and it's triumphant in the end. Isaac, no doubt about it, had sought to secretly subvert. He had sought to bless Esau privately instead of obeying what God's oracle had said. And yet, what do we learn after he learned his mistake? What do we see? He finds out that he's blessed, in his mind, the wrong son. He has not blessed the one he wanted to bless, and he trembles greatly over it. He shakes. He is so moved by it. What does he do? Does he change the blessing? Does he retract it? Does he take it away from Jacob and give it to Esau? No. He yields to the will of God. He accepts that what God has done is right, and he justifies God In fact, what we see is that Esau comes to him and pleads with bitter tears that one more blessing, just one blessing. And what does he give him? Well, look at verses 39 and 40, and you'll see it there. Compare this to the covenantal blessing he gave to Jacob. Verse 39, behold, your dwelling shall be of the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above. By your sword you shall live, and you shall serve your brother, and it shall come to pass when you become restless that you shall break his yoke from your neck. Now, what sort of blessing is that? It's not the world's greatest blessing, is it? It's a blessing. of a curse. It's a blessing that says you shall live by the sword. It's a blessing that says you shall serve Jacob. It's a blessing that confirms what Isaac has already done. And the blessing that's contained in it, the fatness of the earth, is only a temporal blessing. It's only a blessing in this earth. It's not a spiritual blessing. It's not one that transcends into the next life. And even at the end there, when it says that you shall break the yoke from your neck, you shall at some time in the future escape from your brother's dominance over you, even still it's not a promise that it shall be forever. In fact, when the Edomites, who were the descendants of Esau, when they do break the yoke, it's only for a short time. And in fact, we sing in some of the Psalms against the Edomites, and they receive an even greater curse as a result of their treachery against their brother, Jacob. The blessing is not a blessing of the covenant. Isaac does not take what belonged to Abraham before him and what belonged to him and pass that on to Esau. No, he confirms what he has done. He does not give the covenantal blessing. And in fact, if you look at the chapter 28, which we didn't read. When Isaac has discovered his mistake, not only does he confirm it to Esau, but he confirms it to Jacob. Because there you see in verse three, he blesses Jacob again. May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you that you may be an assembly of people and give you the blessing of Abraham to you and your descendants with you, that you may inherit the land in which you are a stranger, which God gave to Abraham. How can we call what Isaac did faith? How can the writer of the Hebrews say it? We've seen it's been mixed with imperfections as your faith and my faith is. We see also that his faith overcame. He confirmed what God had done. He yielded to the superior and sovereign will of God and therefore he blesses Jacob again. Weakness within us can prevail for a time. The flesh can prevail within us for a time. But Christians, it's the regenerate part that overcomes. It's faith that prevails in the end. The Lord's purpose is to sanctify us and to sanctify us completely. And so his intention for us is that faith will indeed win in the battle. As the flesh lusts and wages war against the spirit, it's the spirit who wins. And so it was for Isaac. The writer to the Hebrews can say, by faith Isaac blessed because Isaac's faith overcame in the end. And that's true for you and for me. We may in our past have sinned against God and our best works may have been so imperfect that we're even ashamed of them. Friends, our faith is to overcome. That's the exhortation. Continue to run with endurance. Don't shrink back to perdition. Let your faith overcome. Now I want to just see a few things in which we see Isaac yielding to God's will. Three things. First of all, he yields to God's decree of election. God had said, the older shall serve the younger. Later on in scripture we see, Jacob have I loved, Esau I have hidden. And Isaac yields to this. Isaac accepts, acquiesces to God's holy will. All right. Election is not a word that receives much favor in the Christian church today. It's quite surprising that that's the case, since it's a biblical word. You can understand how certain words, which are theological words and good words, how they can fall out of favor because they're not biblical words. You can almost understand that. But election is a biblical word. It's used. How many times does it speak about God's people as being the elect of God. But many in the church call it a cold doctrine, a fatalistic doctrine, one that removes man's free will. But friends, it stands in Scripture. Do you accept it? God can have mercy on whomever he will have mercy. He will have compassion on whomever he will have compassion. And what is man to argue against God? What is man to stand and say, this person should have received mercy and not that person? Who are we to say that? We are the clay, and he is the potter. Does the Creator not have rights over his creation? Does he not have the right to make vessels for mercy and vessels for wrath? The Lord is able to do these things, and the Lord has done these things, and it's best for us simply to accept it. to accept and say the will of God be done. Isaac had to come to understand this decree of election. God had spoken it, the older shall serve the younger. And despite his best efforts, Isaac could not change it. It was true and it stood. And so afterwards, he yields to it. And that's why we can say he had faith. He yields to God. Now, we don't know who is elect and who's not elect. There's not a mark on your forehead to say you're elect and you're not. And sometimes we get into trouble about this, looking at other people, perhaps, and judging whether they're elect or reprobate. We can't do that. But yet we should accept that God's decree does stand. We shouldn't look back too much to try to see, am I elect? We shouldn't look too much into the secret of God, because the secret things belong to the Lord, but the things which are revealed belong to us and to our children. We should be looking to see, am I putting my faith in Christ? Am I repenting of my sin? Am I seeking to live a life holy before him? In these ways we see if we are elect or not. Not by looking into the secret things, but looking into the revealed things. So that's the first thing. Isaac came to accept election. And as hard as that must have been for him, granted that both of these were his sons, he accepts that. The second thing he accepts is that salvation is by grace and not by merit. He could have said to Jacob, you do not deserve this blessing because you've tricked me. He could have sought to do everything in his power to remove the blessing and bring a curse upon him for his lies and his deception. Jacob did not deserve at all a single blessing from God or from his father, but yet he receives it and Isaac does not remove it. Salvation is by grace and not merit. Oh, how he would have loved earlier to have given the blessing to Esau, who in his eyes merited it because Esau went and hunted game and brought it back and prepared it for him. But no, the blessing would belong to Jacob. You see, salvation is by grace alone. And how many of you were like Jacob? How many of you were deceivers and tricksters and liars? How many of you were engaged in the works of the flesh? How many of you did not deserve the blessing of the covenant? and yet God chose to give it to you. It's by grace that we are saved and not by works. Where then is boasting, it is excluded. God's grace works like this today. He is free to do it. His election is not because of what he foresees. It's not that he looks into our lives in the future and he sees this person will become worthy of my grace, therefore I will give the grace. No, it's all of his sovereign good pleasure and of his grace. Isaac yields to this. He accepts what God has done in giving grace to Jacob is good. And then the third thing is really that Isaac yields to the spiritual element in this, that he yields to the fact that there's a need for regeneration. You see, Isaac sees that the blessings of the covenant do not automatically pass through the DNA. The blessings of the covenant do not automatically pass from father to son. Some go on to everlasting life, but some do not. The covenant promises are not for the physical seed, but for the spiritual seed. And so it is that the blessing goes to Jacob and not Esau. Romans 9 picks up on this. You can look and you can see how in the generation previously, it was Isaac chosen and not Ishmael. And you can perhaps understand that and you can say, well, Isaac was the child of both Abraham and Sarah. So that's good. Ishmael was the son of the bond woman. So no wonder he was not chosen. No wonder he's not the spiritual seeker. Look at Jacob and Esau, twins, both in the womb at the same time, equally children of Isaac, equally children of Rebekah. Both grew up in the same house, both grew up under the same discipline, both grew up in this way, and yet one is chosen and the other is left behind. And so it is that Isaac yields to God's will in this. that it's not the physical seed who receive the blessing, but the spiritual seed. Of course, I know that for some of you, you have children who have not believed at this time. I'm not saying at all that we are to yield to God's will in the sense of saying, well, that means they're not elect, it means that they have not received salvation, and therefore it means that they are physical seed and not spiritual seed. We can't see that and we can't say that. You see, these things have not been revealed to us in the way they were to Isaac. Isaac was told, the older shall serve the younger. You haven't been told that. And so until the death of your child, there is still hope. And there's still a gracious hope. And in fact, the covenant calls you to pray earnestly in that hope that the Lord would remember them. There is more hope for you. But this is a word of warning for any who have grown up in the faith, who have grown up in the church, and who are more like Esau, who have despised their birthright, who have despised their position, and who have sold it for a pot of stew. How many there are in our island exactly like Esau? So many people who grew up learning the word of God and singing the Psalms, and learning their catechism. And that was theirs to inherit. It was theirs. In a sense, they possessed it, children of the covenant. And yet they've despised it, rejected it, and gone away from it. And even though Esau is seen here as one who bitterly cries out for mercy in the end, it wasn't true repentance at all. And we see that in the scriptures. Don't waste what opportunities you've been given. Don't waste what precious privileges God has given to you in your upbringing. He put you into that family for a particular reason. He let you hear the sermons you heard for a particular reason. Are you going to believe in the gospel? Or are you gonna be like Pharaoh, whose heart was hardened The Lord does have mercy on whomever he will have mercy, and he does have compassion on whomever he will have compassion, and he does make vessels of wrath and vessels of mercy, but that does not mean that you sit back and say, well, I'm to do nothing about it. You're to press into the kingdom. If it's only the spiritual seed which inherit the promises, are you going to make sure that you are in that spiritual seed? and not simply a physical seat. Press in by faith. Press in by faith and all these things shall be yours because by faith you become heirs of God and co-heirs with Jesus Christ. Not one of us deserves these blessings but they can be yours by grace according to the promise. And so friends, the writer of the Hebrews looks at these chapters in Genesis. And in a sense, some might say he sees them through rose-tinted glasses, because he sees faith perhaps where we don't see faith. But he sees rightly. He does see faith where there is faith. And it's a word of encouragement to us in our own day. Perhaps where you feel like your faith is weak, where you look and you see your imperfections. God is pleased to reward even what is imperfect in Christ. God is pleased to accept graciously. But also faith overcomes in the end. And that's a blessed thing. that the Lord not only gives faith, but he gives persevering faith. You see, the exhortation to the Hebrews was to continue in the faith, but if God has given faith, he gives real, genuine, persevering faith that does press on to the very finish line, because it looks to Jesus, it looks to him. So here we have Isaac, perhaps not the most radiant gem, perhaps not the brightest in this great cloud of witnesses, but yet do not think he's one that we can identify with very readily as we see our own perfections and our own weak faith. Amen. Let's stand and pray. O Lord, our God, we bless you that faith is the gift of God. and not of works, lest we should boast. We thank you that you are so gracious to give it to many of us here. And we pray that you would help us in the midst of weakness, in the midst of imperfections, to still seek after you each day, that our faith would overcome and that it would be dominant over even our sins. O Lord, how can you accept what we do? How can you accept our worship even this day? How can you accept our prayers unless they be given to you through Christ? And so we thank you for him. We bless you for his finished work, that his righteousness is perfect and sufficient for us. We thank you that his mediation means that you accept even our works. And we pray, Lord our God, that you would always look at us in him. We pray that you would bless us, then, each one. If you have given faith, strengthen it. And if you have not yet given faith, O Lord, would you not in your grace bring the spirit of conviction, that we would each one make sure that we are find like Jacob and not like Esau. For we pray in Jesus' name, amen. We'll conclude singing once again from Psalm 31. Psalm 31 in verse 10 to verse 14. Here we see faith in the midst of weakness. Of course, we saw earlier how it relates to the Lord Jesus Christ. In the midst of his weakness, he still cried out into thine hands, I do commit my spirit. But here we see in verse 10, in a sense it's not speaking of Christ anymore, for it speaks of the sin that is in us. Because my life with grief is spent, my years with sighs and groans, my strength doth fail, and for my sin consumed are my bones. We see in us the weaknesses and the imperfections and the sins. But then look down at verse 14, and it cries out to God, but as for me, O Lord, my trust upon thee I did lay, and I to thee, thou art my God, did confidently say. There's the faith which overcomes in the end. So we'll sing from verse 10 to verse 14. Let's stand and sing praise to God. Because my life with Him is spent, my years with sighs and groans, my strength to live and for my sake. He wants to lay down my bones. I want that. all my foes, and to my friends I'll fear, and specially reproach the foolish land where my neighbors knear. When they resolve from me so I am forlorn. As men are bound, all mind when dead, I like a broken heart. O slander die, O many-eared, dear kabbalah! Against women, consul, and war, you gave my life away. Trust for me, O Lord, my trust, only I will bear. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.