Well, let's pray. Father, these are truly amazing things to consider, and I pray that our hearts return back to these themes time and time again, to join our own hearts, our own longing to the longing that filled the hearts of the sons of Israel. They knew the desperation of their times. They knew that their suffering was brought on themselves by their own unfaithfulness. But they held fast to the faithfulness of their God. And they believed that in spite of all of their apparent hopelessness, exile, diaspora, the oppression of Gentile powers, the emptiness of the sanctuary, the emptiness of David's throne, that you would yet prove faithful, and somehow you would arise. The promise of Immanuel would be fulfilled. The God of Israel, who is the God of all the earth, would triumph, and he would restore all things. And Father, you required that The covenant children of Abraham live in that hope for century after century, and not with things getting better, but with things seeming to be in a hopeless state. But you required of them that faith and faithfulness. And so it is with us, Father, and how much more ought we to be a faithful people? For we have seen as a matter of historical fact your faithfulness to return and to put all things right. And now we live in the inaugurated kingdom in the hope that one day everything will be summed up in Jesus the Lord, the one who reigns with all authority in heaven and earth. How we ought to be a faithful people, how we ought to be a jubilant people, how we ought to be an assured and confident, resolute people. unshaken, unmoved, unperturbed by the apparent hopelessness of this world. Christ is Lord and we are his people and more than conquerors through him who loved us. We know, as Paul said, nothing in all creation can separate us from the love of our God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. I pray, Father, that that would be enough for us. And as we even consider the threshold of the kingdom and the great ministration of John the Baptist this morning, that these things would fill our hearts with resolute joy, with peace, that we would find a song of celebration and praise rising in our hearts. What a marvelous God we serve. Teach us, build us up, encourage us in our walk of faith. We ask these things in Jesus' name, amen. Well, as we've spent all these months kind of marching through the Old Testament and seeing the way in which God has been at work in his world and the purposes that he has for it, we saw that at the very outset in Genesis, God established Not the mechanics of how he created, but the purpose for the creation. The intent that he had, as we've said, to establish this thing called sacred space. That God would render the creation, his dwelling place, with his human image bearers at the center of that creation, being the point of his own presence and lordship and love, the mediating of his own grace and goodness and wisdom to the creation. And the fall represented human insistence on autonomy, and that autonomy brought death and desolation to the whole creation, right? Because if man is the interface between God and his creation, when the divine human relationship is fractured, then the relationship that God has with his creation is fractured. And this thing called the curse now came over the whole creation. Death, disintegration, was what marked the creation. And yet God promised that just as human beings had been the problem, human beings would be the solution. God would put all things right through a man. And that was appropriate that it would be that way. If man is the interface, if man is the presence, the wisdom, the administration of the lordship, the mind, the will of God in the creation, it makes sense that things would be put right through human mediation. through a human instrument, and that's what we see in the first three chapters of Genesis. And the rest of the salvation history, the rest of human history up to the coming of Christ, was God showing ever more clearly how it was that this would come about, what it is that he would do. And that history is what we find recorded in the scriptures. The scriptures that are Israel's scriptures are the story of that purpose and that work of God. that reached its climax with the coming of the Messiah himself. And as we've said so many times, that's the sense in which Jesus could say, all of the scriptures testify of me. It's not that you find Jesus hidden in every verse in the Old Testament, but that the Old Testament scriptures are recording the story of God's work in putting all things right in this man that he has appointed and that all comes to its climax with the coming of the Messiah himself and the messianic work. And what that means is that now as we even are transitioning into the New Testament, we have to be reading the New Testament Scriptures and the story they tell through the light of the Old Testament Scriptures. That's the way in which we have to read it. And the story that the Old Testament tells often you hear if you ask people what is the scheme of salvation or this this arrangement that God's put in place, they will tend to say creation, fall, redemption, renewal, consummation. And what's missing from that is in many ways the most important point because it's the point through which the others are understood, which is this issue of Israel. Creation, fall, Israel, or maybe more precisely, Abraham and the Abrahamic people. then comes this thing of redemption, renewal, and consummation. Israel sits at the very center of that, and we've seen that Israel in God's dealings with them through his covenant relationship with them, we see in that the unfolding of how it is that God is going to restore, what it is for him to restore all things. We see in his relationship with Israel a picture of what God's design is ultimately for his consummate kingdom, for his eschatological kingdom, for his relationship with the earth through his people. So we see this plan for sacred space through God's covenant relationship with Israel, which involves this thing of redemption, reconciliation, a mutual inhabitation, God dwelling with his human creatures, and the expanding of God's presence and rule to encompass the entire earth and all of its families. That's the plan that God had in mind from the beginning, and the gospel, the good news, is the proclamation that the time has come where God has arisen to do that very work. And in the Messiah, he has done that very thing. So we saw, again, moving through the Old Testament, that God disclosed that intent in its germinal form to Abraham when he called him out and pledged to him that through him and his descendants all the families of the earth would be blessed. Israel was that Abrahamic seed, that Abrahamic people who were to be that people on behalf of all the world. Israel's faithfulness as the covenant son was to testify to the world of who this God is such that when the world saw the son the world would see the father. Israel's faithful sonship was to be the instrument by which the knowledge of God would fill the whole earth. And that covenant kingdom, that covenant relationship that God established with the people of Israel as the Abrahamic people reached its natural realization, its earthly realization in David's kingdom. but immediately God makes a covenant with David that shows that the ultimate realization of his intent that was portrayed in his relationship with Israel, his ultimate design for a kingdom and a kingship that will encompass the whole world, that that reached beyond David and his kingdom to a son to come from David. And in fact we saw that What David's kingdom brings is not the realization of this ultimate, final, everlasting kingdom, but actually a downfall to the present form of the kingdom. The complete disassembling of that kingdom, the dissolution of that kingdom to the point where nothing of the Israelite kingdom remains. No son of David, no throne of David, no Israelites in the land, but exile, subjugation, Gentile domination, an empty house, and an empty throne. But through all of that and floating above all of that, continuing through all of that, we see in the prophets, even as we read this morning, God remained adamant that his design for his creation that was bound up by his own decree in Abraham and his descendants, that would be realized. God would arise at the appointed time and he would cause Israel to be Israel. So that by his power, Israel would at last fulfill its own election and its calling on behalf of the earth and its inhabitants. This is what Israel was waiting for. This is what those long centuries of exile were all about. And again, it's important to note even though the people returned to the land, even though they rebuilt the temple, even though they rebuilt the city, Israel remained in exile. Yahweh had not returned. The unfaithfulness, the alienation that caused Yahweh to depart from his sanctuary and him to send the people away had not been remedied. The temple was rebuilt, but it was empty. And the people themselves yet understood that they remained alienated from God. They were waiting for him to return and put all things right. And that becomes important even as we consider John the Baptist and this issue of repentance under the forgiveness of sins. And we'll talk about that. So God held out this promise to Israel and he expected that they would believe him and hold on to that. But in his mercy, as we've seen, he did set in front of them a signpost. He gave them a promise that before he would return at that appointed time, he would give to them a forerunner, an ambassador. who would come to them and would announce that the time of his return was at hand. And we didn't read it today. We've read it before, but I encourage you to go back and look at Luke 1. Remember, with the birth of John the Baptist, Zacharias, his father, who was a priest, he disbelieved that Elizabeth could have a child. His mouth was silenced. As soon as his mouth was opened at the birth of John, what did he do? Filled with the Holy Spirit, he began to proclaim, this is the time of Yahweh's visitation. Your birth, John, means that this is the time of Yahweh's visitation. You will go before the Lord to prepare his ways. to give to his people the knowledge of deliverance of salvation that is in the forgiveness of sins by virtue of the tender mercy of our God with which the sunrise from on high will visit us. That great doxology of Zacharias in the spirit is his proclamation of the significance of the birth of his son, John. He's the forerunner who's going ahead of the Lord. So God would send a forerunner to his people to announce his return to Zion and to prepare them to receive him and enter this kingdom that he was going to establish, that he promised to David. So this is at the beginning of that last section of Isaiah, the promise of an ambassador, one whose coming would signal Yahweh's return. And that would mean the end of the people's exile. If you think about the passages that we read from 40 and from 52, ending their exile, regathering them back, establishing his kingdom. The gospel writers who are telling the story of Jesus of Nazareth as this promised one, all of them begin with John the Baptist for that very reason. They begin with John the Baptist. If this is the time of Yahweh's return, then John must be announced first. The significance of John and his ministry must be established first. And so he comes as this ambassador, this forerunner individual, and sets the stage for the good news of the kingdom. Flip over to Mark's account. Mark has a very concentrated account. His gospel is very brief and it moves very quickly. He uses this adverb immediately, all the time, immediately, immediately. He moves along very quickly. So even his treatment of John and his ministry is very concentrated and concise. But here's how he begins his gospel. The beginning of the good news of Jesus, the Messiah, the son of God, as it is written in Isaiah the prophet, behold, I send my messenger before your face who will prepare your way. The voice of one crying in the wilderness, make ready the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, and all the country of Judea was going out to him and all the people of Jerusalem. They were being baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins. And he was preaching and saying, after me one is coming who is mightier than I. I'm not fit to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. And then he now has Jesus coming and being baptized by John. But now immediately look at the transition that comes. in verse 14. After John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming the good news of God, the gospel. What is he saying? The time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel, the good news. So you see how John's ministration sets the stage for the announcing of the kingdom to the people of Israel. It's a preparatory work that John undertakes. So he stood at the threshold of the inbreaking kingdom as the last of Israel's prophets. This is what Jesus says in Matthew 11. Remember John's in prison. He sends his disciples to Jesus to ask, are you the one? What Jesus is doing doesn't seem to comport with John's expectation of the Messiah and the messianic work. And so he's questioning, he's beginning to question, is this really the Messiah? And he sends his disciples to ask him, are you the one? And Jesus responds by pointing him back to Isaiah's prophecy. Essentially pointing John back to his own ministration. He says, go back and tell John the things that you see and hear. The blind see, the lame walk, the deaf hear. the dead are raised and the good news is proclaimed to the poor in spirit, to the poor, right? Go back and tell him. And blessed are those who are kept from stumbling over me. But then he says, what did you, when you went out to see John, what did you go to see? A rich man, a king in sumptuous clothes? No, you went to see a prophet and more than a prophet. For among men, there's never been one born who's greater than John the Baptist. And yet, whoever is least in the kingdom of God is greater than John. John stands at the threshold as the last and the greatest of Israel's prophets because he's the one who announced Yahweh's return to Zion. But he stood on this side of the kingdom. He announced its breaking in, but he dies before it's inaugurated in the Messiah himself. And that's what Jesus is getting at. So John was crucial He was the crucial hinge in this transition from the age that was from the failed and desolated kingdom of Israel to the inauguration of the kingdom that's tied to Yahweh's return. This great eschatological day that Israel had been hoping on, hoping in, that we read in Malachi. And so we see John's ministry then presented in terms of these two themes that we read from Isaiah and from Malachi. He represents, on the one hand, the forerunner who announces Yahweh's return to Zion to put all things right. But related to that, he also represents the return of Elijah. And we'll talk about that. And both of those are associated with this phenomenon called the Day of Yahweh. the day when Yahweh would arise to judge and that means that he will deal with things in truth and he will put right what is wrong. There's a positive and a negative side of the day of the Lord. It's judgment that refers to dealing with things that are out of whack, dealing with things that are wrong and putting them right. the day when Yahweh would return to judge and purge the earth and initiate its renewal. That day is what the psalmist was calling on the creation to celebrate. Yahweh is going to come and judge the earth. That's why I wanted to start with Psalm 98. So in terms of the forerunner idea, how does that function in Isaiah's prophecy? As I mentioned already, it introduces this last section of Isaiah's prophecy, 40 through 66, which brings to a climactic articulation the Lord's pledge to return to Zion to liberate and restore his covenant household, to renew the creation, and establish his everlasting kingdom. And in doing that, sitting at the center of that last section are these four servant songs. Isaiah has these four servant songs that identify a particular servant of Yahweh who is the very center of his own return and his triumphal work. So this forerunner is introduced then as announcing to Jerusalem that her long-awaited day of consolation and restoration is at hand. He announces to Israel that Yahweh is returning specifically to Jerusalem in that context, but he is come in doing that also to prepare the way for the Lord's return, to put all things right and to take up his reign. He's bringing a message of sure hope grounded in Yahweh's faithfulness. That's those verses that we read where another individual is called to make an announcement. Cry out. What shall I cry out? All flesh is grass and their glory is like the grass of the field. The grass withers, the flower falls when the breath of the Lord breathes on it." Well, what's the point of that other second announcement? It's that human power, human capacity will fail. It's finite. It's frail. but the word of our God stands forever. Yahweh has pledged this, he will do this and therefore Zion can be confident, Jerusalem can be confident that he will do this and therefore in that confidence she is to proclaim to the other cities of Judah that the Lord is coming to take his throne. That's what we read in Isaiah 40. So this return of God as I said is the focus of this last section of Isaiah with the servant motif at the center of it And it really is central, even as we're seeing in our Tuesday study, to understanding this last section of Isaiah, and specifically the return of the Lord. So in that section, what you see is Isaiah first identifying Israel as the servant. There's the fundamental understanding. Israel was the servant of Yahweh. Specifically in what sense? Israel was the one who through its faithful service to the Lord was to make him known to all the families of the earth. They were to serve his purpose to restore all things and gather it back to himself. That was Israel's role as servant, son, disciple, witness, instrument of the Lord's work of renewal. So Israel is presented as the servant first in that section, but a servant that has failed in its vocation. It's an unfaithful disciple. It's an unhearing disciple. It's an unfaithful witness. It joins with the nations in testifying against Yahweh rather than being a faithful witness. And I'll let you read these passages on your own. But that's the way the servant motif is introduced. Israel's the servant but a failed servant. And that leads into the first servant song in chapter 42 which introduces an anointed servant a spirit-filled Israel who would, in contrast to the nation, prove faithful to the covenant and its obligations. That first servant song is, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. This servant represented a faithful Israel, which itself implies that Israel is to be renewed. And with the eye toward that, Isaiah then announces God's intent to raise up this king, Persian King Cyrus, who will fulfill this mission of defeating the subjugating power. He'll defeat Babylon. He'll liberate the Judean exiles. He'll recover them back to Judea, and he'll decree the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the sanctuary. This is chapter 43 through 48 in Isaiah. Cyrus the Persian king as a prototypical messianic figure, the one who will do this great, liberating, restorative work. So it's interesting. God picks the greatest of the ancient Near Eastern kings to be his servant deliverer on behalf of his people, and he calls Isaiah to record that decree as a compelling depiction of this servant of whom Cyrus was a type. God calls Cyrus his Mashiach. He calls him his Messiah. He will do this messianic work. So Isaiah's treatment of Cyrus then flows into the second servant song, which is in chapter 49 of Isaiah, which reflects but also builds on the first servant song. It tells us that the coming servant deliverer whom Cyrus prefigured, that coming servant deliverer would restore Yahweh's covenant household and kingdom, but as fulfilling Israel's failed servanthood. You are Israel in whom I will save the remnant of Israel, but it's not enough that you should be my servant on behalf of Israel. I make you a covenant of the peoples that my salvation should go to the ends of the earth, Isaiah 49. This is my servant. You are my servant, Israel. So this servant we see from the second servant song would restore Israel in himself. And in that way, then, Israel could at last fulfill its role on behalf of mankind and the human vocation to be imaged sons on behalf of the whole creation. Then that follows into the third servant song in chapter 50, and that servant song introduces the theme of unjust suffering as the recompense that comes to the servant through his faithful discipleship. This servant who represents faithful Israel will be the servant that Israel the nation had failed to be, a true covenant son who is a devoted, well-taught disciple. But rather than his faithfulness being met with praise and grateful embrace, his faithfulness on behalf of the nation will be met with scorn, rejection, and open opposition. which again underscores the intractability of the nation's hostility and waywardness, its alienation from God. That then points toward the fourth and final servant song, which elaborates on the servant's unjust suffering, and it shows that the servant would suffer at Israel's hand as bearing their iniquity and guilt. This is the end of chapter 52 and then chapter 53, which we're all familiar with. He bears the iniquity and the sickness, the brokenness of the people. So through these four servant songs and the servant again as sitting at the center of this announcement of the forerunner that Yahweh's returning to Zion through all of this, my point is that we see how it was that Yahweh would restore Israel and renew the covenant relationship when he returned. He would do so through this servant who would embody Israel as both faithful son and guilty rebel. He would take up Israel's own unbelief and unfaithfulness, but as a faithful son. So the servant then that is the subject of these servant songs would deliver and heal Israel by bearing the nation's guilt and sickness in himself. And then through that Zion would be restored to again bear children for Yahweh. Children who this time would prove faithful. Remember that Zion had been stripped of her children, sent away. The multitude of them killed, but the rest of them were exiled, sent away. God sent away his covenant wife, in that sense, and stripped her of her children. But now, with this restoration through the work of the servant, she would be restored and bear faithful children. And faithful children means faithfulness in vocation, which means that Zion's sons will now, at last, fulfill their calling to be the light of the nations. so that this mother, Yahweh's covenant wife, will gather to herself children from every tribe, tongue, nation, and people. That's Isaiah 54 and 55. You see the gospel that it tells. So Yahweh would be satisfied in the servant's triumphal travail, and by it he would at last achieve his intent to be the father of a global family of image children through whom his presence and his glory would flood and earth that is set free from the curse. There's the good news. This is the good news that John was to announce, that this forerunner was to announce. So when we consider John's ministry, this is what lies behind it. And even as John's ministry focuses on Jesus, we have to see that in the light of this forerunner announcing Yahweh's return and his restorative work that are centered in this servant that he would raise up. So as I said, all the gospel writers introduced their accounts with John the baptizer, John the son of Zacharias, and they all show explicitly that he is that forerunner, all of them. when it's in all the Gospels, you know it's important, right? This is important to identifying not only that Jesus is the Messiah, but the sense in which he is the Messiah, the sense because he follows out from John's ministration. So John's mission then as this Isianic forerunner was to prepare the covenant household for Yahweh's return to remedy Israel's plight and inaugurate his kingdom. That's why John's ministry was a ministry of repentance. It's important to think about this in the way that I've been describing it because we tend to look at John's ministry and we say, okay, he was telling the people to repent. they were to think about all of the personal things, like going to confession before a priest, all the personal things that they've done wrong. And it's much more, his ministration is much more profound than that. The need of repentance is much more profound than that. That even becomes problematic in terms of why does Jesus go and undertake for himself, undergo this baptism of repentance, if he'd never done anything wrong? and we'll talk more about why that's the case. But this repentance is at the center of John's ministration. That's what his baptism signifies. But the issue is a reorienting of the hearts and the minds of the sons of Israel back to their God. They needed to rethink their relationship with the Lord, how they got into the predicament they were in, what it meant for the Lord to return and to liberate them and to restore them back to himself, for him to again return and take his place among them, to establish his kingdom, to finally bring to pass all the things that he had promised to the fathers. Remember again how The gospel writers record John's confrontation of the people. Do not begin to say to yourselves, we have Abraham as our father. God is able to raise up children for Abraham from these stones. He's pointing at the fact that they had a misguided confidence. We're Abraham's offspring. Our confidence, our hope is in the fact that we're the sons of Abraham. God's going to come back and vindicate us. And John is saying be very careful. And Jesus will say the same thing, right? Be very careful. Unbelief and unfaithfulness, waywardness of heart and mind, that was the essential sin from which Israel needed cleansing. And John's baptism spoke to this even as he baptized in the Jordan River out in the Judean wilderness. There was significance to where he did it. His baptism signified for Israel a new passage through the Jordan to dwell with Yahweh at last as faithful sons, the coming of the kingdom. Yahweh's return to liberate his people. In other words, ending Israel's exile. That's what this was all about. It demanded a new exodus, a new redemption from captivity, a new covenant relationship, a new entrance into Yahweh's sanctuary land. This is what the prophets were promising. And so John's ministry wasn't simply, you know, did you yell at your child? Oh, that's bad. You shouldn't do that. Did you drink too much alcohol? Oh, that's bad. You shouldn't do that. He was getting at the fundamental issue of covenantal sin, covenantal violation that had brought the exile, that had brought the alienation between God and his people. So John was confronting the sons of Israel with their obligation to become Israel indeed. And that's the sense in which he will even point at the Messiah and say there's how you become Israel indeed. And we'll talk more about that in the weeks coming ahead as we get into Jesus own ministration. But it was in that way by becoming Israel indeed that they would be prepared and suited to receive their God. For six centuries their forefathers had longed for that day, and now it had dawned. But would they recognize and be ready for Yahweh's visitation? Would they heed Malachi's warning to them? Remember the covenant. Remember the covenant. Behold, I am sending Elijah before the great and terrible day of the Lord. What could come is the cursing of the land with a curse, or the bringing on of the land, this curse that God had pledged all the way back to the time of Moses. So John confronted his countrymen with their need of repentance, a redirected mindset, a rethinking of everything, if they were going to be ready to embrace Yahweh at his return. So Israel stood at a crisis point that would determine their future fate. would they embrace, would they recognize and embrace the day of their visitation? And perhaps your minds are already going to Jesus weeping over Jerusalem when he says, you did not know the day of your visitation. They stood at a crisis point that would determine their future fate. This is the heart of Jesus' ministry to Israel. Will you return to Yahweh or will you not? And that's the sense in which John represented the return of Elijah. The Jews were expecting the return of Elijah, and they still set a chair for Elijah at Passover. Elijah will come before the Messiah. That's what Malachi said. God said, I am sending you my prophet Elijah before the great and dreadful day of the Lord. Yahweh had promised Elijah's return as part of that final plea to Israel. Those were his last words to Israel, the intent being that that return of Elijah would reunite the hearts of the patriarchs with their children. I've heard Malachi 4 used at parenting conferences and that sort of thing, and that's not the point. The returning of the hearts to the fathers of the children and the fathers, the fathers to the children and the children to the fathers is Israel being returned and reunited with the patriarchal fathers. Those who had walked faithfully with Yahweh, those who had believed him, those who had held onto his promises. In other words, them becoming Israelites indeed, sons of Abraham indeed. But as with Israel's previous crisis point, if you're familiar with Elijah's ministry, and I encourage you to go back and read First Kings 17 and 18, but Elijah emerged in Israel at the crisis point of the nation's life. Remember the Mount Carmel altercation? The climactic part of the crisis point in Israel's history? If Yahweh is God, serve him. If Baal is God, serve him. How long will you hesitate between two decisions? and God had shut up the heavens so that there was no rain that fell on Israel for three years as a sign to them that he was calling them to a moment of decision. And Jesus, as we'll see, draws on that very idea in relation to himself. Were there not many widows in Israel during the time of Elijah when they were dying of famine, no rain? and yet God sent Elijah to none of them but to a widow in Zarephath in Sidon, a Gentile. And were there not many lepers in Israel during the time of Elisha and yet none of them, God cleansed none of them except Naaman the Syrian. See, they knew exactly what Jesus was getting at. That was the synagogue in Nazareth. You're at another crisis point. This is another crisis point and your forefathers through this great altercation on Mount Carmel, pledged to follow Yahweh, the God of Israel, and they killed all the prophets of Baal, but it didn't last long. They failed their test. And so again, this second Elijah might also fail in his mission, leaving impenitent Israel to endure the curse Yahweh had warned would come upon their land. Behold, your house is left to you desolate. You did not know the day of your visitation." That's what's coming, right? Jesus is warning them. But John is the starting point of that warning. That's the sense in which he's the Elijah who was to come. He confronts the nation at the point of its decision. This is it. This is your crisis point. What you do now, that's the repentance he was calling them to. preparing them to receive Yahweh returning to them who in the person of the Messiah. And if they missed him, that was the end. That would be the end. So John was Yahweh's forerunner. He sits at the very hinge of this transition between the preparatory time and the fulfillment that comes in the Messiah. He's the last of the great prophets who heralds the coming of Yahweh and the coming of his kingdom. And he was commissioned to prepare an unencumbered pathway. That's the idea of a level path, you know, bringing down the high, the mountains and bringing up the low places and clearing a smooth pathway for Yahweh's entrance. But that would mean in preparing God's people to be ready and fit to receive him as they ought. And they would be a prepared people when they were reunited with their patriarchal fathers who had walked faithfully with their covenant God, believing him, trusting him. So John's presence signaled the day of Yahweh's visitation and his baptism challenged them to their own inescapable obligation of decision. And that's the sense then in which you see him pointing to the Messiah. And we'll move forward with all of that. But he identified Jesus as the Messiah. He yielded himself to that one and even in his ministration saw it as reaching its ultimate destiny in the Messiah and the messianic work. The servant who would come and himself embody the point of decision for the nation. So we enter into the Gospels on a high note, but also a note of foreboding. What will come? What will they do? And obviously that same obligation still stands to this day. You know, just kind of as a parting shot, people often say, well, you know, if we indeed believe that that Jesus, by his cross, made satisfaction not just for the human race, but for all of creation, if it truly was a universal atonement in that sense. If he reconciled all things in the heavens and the earth to God, then how can there be any judgment on the last day? If he has reconciled every human being to his Father, how can there be a judgment and a condemnation of the last day. It's this very thing. What have you done with this Messiah and with this new creation? Paul says, this is our gospel that God in Christ was reconciling the world to himself, not counting men's sins against him, And he entrusted us with this message of reconciliation whereby we plead with men, you be reconciled to God. Because this thing of salvation isn't just a legal reckoning, but a reconciling of our persons, our beings with God himself. It's a two directional thing. And so the lack of excuse and the severity of our judgment is in the fact that in Christ God has reconciled all things to himself. Will we own that reconciliation or will we insist on doing what man has always done which is establish his identity and his vocation and his religiousness and his manner of living a human life according to his own mind and his own notions? Will we be what God created us to be, as it is yes and amen in the Messiah? Or will we choose a self-actuated, self-initiated, self-determined existence? That's what the judgment of the last day is all about. Well, let me close in prayer, and then we'll close with this last song, another one of my favorites. But I think it speaks to what we've talked about today. Be Thou My Vision. Will God truly be our vision? Let me pray then. Father, I pray that with each passing day, with each passing week, that we do continue to grow in these things. I know speaking for myself, I just find such an increasing glory in my own heart. The more I contemplate these things and there is such a richness and a profoundness in your mind in this glorious, all-encompassing, intricate, marvelous work that has its yes and amen in Jesus our Lord. And so, Father, I pray for each one of us. and indeed for all of your people throughout the world, that we would, as the author of Hebrews exhorted his own audience, that we would grow up and move beyond issues of personal forgiveness and a baptism and basic understandings to become mature in the Messiah, to become a people transformed by the renewing of our minds. to be a people who grow up in all things into Him, a people who understand and who own and who strive to live out and live into and grow into this marvelous, all-encompassing renewal that has come in Christ our Lord. To truly be Christians by being truly owners and livers out of this new creation that has come in Him. That is the good news of a God who has inaugurated a renewal that will take everything into its grasp. And we are the living embodied gospel. We are the living embodied testifiers of that. May we preach Christ in that way. May we know him in that way. Father, all these things that you have done and been so careful to record for us, to give to us upon even us upon whom the ends of the ages have come. May we profit from them. As Paul said, all of these things are for our instruction. And may they instruct us in a proper way, in a life-giving way, in a transforming way. cause these things to continue to flood our hearts and minds with ever increasing understanding, with ever increasing profoundness, with an ever greater compulsion. We thank you for your great mercy. We thank you that you are the God who triumphs, that you are the God who has arisen to judge the earth. And if the created order, the trees, the stones, the hills are to sing your praises, I pray that it's so with us. May we have lives marked by praise. Thank you for each one here. Thank you for your goodness to each of us. Help us, give us grace to prove faithful with this great endowment. We ask in Jesus' name, amen.