♪ you you you Yeah. So, Mm. Mm. ♪ ♪ ♪ . . ♪ ♪ so so so so so The 89th Psalm we're turning to this morning and commencing with. It causes us to think about God's mercies to us. over the past. Psalm 89 is page 83, sorry, 81 in the hymnal. God's mercies I will ever sing, and with my mouth I shall thy faithfulness make to be known to generations old. For mercy shall be built, said I, forever to endure thy faithfulness, even in the heavens thou wilt establish sure. So Psalm 89, And we're singing the first eight verses of the psalm as we stand to worship. ♪ The nations love. ♪ ♪ Our praises shall we bestow, forever to adore. ♪ shall stay, and to my soul and to my heart I lay this song of love. ♪ And death. ♪ ♪ When the ages of our fathers' time ♪ ♪ Have ended in a short experience, ♪ ♪ This day we open our eyes, ♪ ♪ O hear the angelic horn, filled the world with hosts in celebration. To this we pour now our blessings, all things that might be known. ♪ We pray and we thank you, O Holy Spirit ♪ ♪ We sing of your glory ♪ ♪ And we cheer for your contribution ♪ ♪ With all our spirit and heart ♪ Amen. We're going to bow together in prayer and wait upon the Lord today. Our eternal God and our gracious Heavenly Father, We bow this Sabbath morning in Thy holy presence, coming in the Savior's worthy and precious and all-prevailing name. There is but one way into Thy presence, and it is through the merit of Jesus Christ. He is the way, the truth, and the life, and no man cometh unto the Father but by Him. And today, Lord, we decry any trust in our own righteousness, anything that we have done, anything that we are, Lord, none of these things will find acceptance before Thee. We acknowledge our sinnership. We are sinners by nature and practice, defiled and unclean, corrupt in Thy sight, corrupting. And Lord, we thank Thee today for a Savior. We rejoice in the work of Jesus Christ and the merit that He provides for sinners, that robe of righteousness, that garment of salvation. that is freely granted to all who come and receive it from Him. We thank Thee that there is a wedding garment that has been provided for us to come to the marriage supper of the Lamb. And we bless Thee today for each one in this house who can testify that they have indeed come and received of that robe of righteousness. And today, Lord, we're clothed upon with Jesus Christ. we can enter in and be accepted then before Thee. It covers all our sinfulness, hides all our uncleanness. O Father, we thank Thee that we are accepted as righteous in Thy sight, which is something beyond our expectation, something beyond our full comprehension, that we who are unrighteous can be made righteous and accepted as righteous. O Father, We bless Thee today for the work of Jesus Christ, and we come this day of remembrance to Thee, acknowledging Thy goodness, remembering the sacrifice today, Lord, of many who either gave their lives for the cause of liberty and freedom or suffered injury in seeking to maintain those liberties. And today we pray that Thou will indeed help us to remember. We come also to remember the Savior. We come, Lord, to gather around this table at the end of this meeting to remember what Jesus Christ has done for us, the greatest of all acts of liberty and freedom. For He gave His life that we would be set free from the bondage of sin, from the prison house of Satan, the one who had taken us captive at His will. We thank Thee for the liberty that there is today in Jesus Christ, and we rejoice in that liberty. And we would lift up our prayers as we have been doing in this opening psalm and acknowledge the greatness of Thy mercies. O Lord, how rich those mercies are, how extensive they are. They reach down to the very depths of sin and bring up a sinner out of the mire and out of the fearful pit. They set us on the rock, Christ Jesus. Those mercies, O Lord, extend a way out into eternity ahead of us. The mercies of God are everlasting. Lord, they're unfailing. There will never be a time when they will cease. O Lord, we praise Thee for the greatness of God's mercies. And we pray today that we might come with thankful hearts to give Thee praise. Towering amongst us today be one of our number, bless us all who gather. Remember those who are not with us today, those who are unwell, laid aside, some who are in hospital today or some who are in nursing homes today, others in their own home, Lord, and they would love to be here and otherwise they would be because of infirmity and weakness of the body. sickness, they're laid aside, we pray that Thou will minister to them. Be their portion, we ask of Thee. Encourage them, we pray, Lord. We ask that they might know the good hand of the Lord upon them, and we pray that Thou will strengthen them and bless them and meet them at the point of their need. Work amongst those who are unconverted. Lord, they are sick with sin, and how great is that sickness. Lord, that's a sickness unto eternal death. we pray that they might come to know the Savior, save our loved ones, work in our family circles, those who are often prayed for, long prayed for. Wilt Thou not work by Thy mighty power and draw them unto Thyself? May we even hear today, Lord, of souls coming to Christ in family circles, blessed throughout this day. Remember the meeting in the nursing home in the afternoon. Remember the youth meeting tonight as well as it will take place. Lord, be amongst us this day. We commit our way now to Thee, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. 752 is going to be our offering hymn in a moment, and at the close of that hymn we're going to have our act of remembrance as well. O God, our help in ages past is the hymn that we are going to sing in a moment. as you're turning that up, 752, we do bid you welcome this morning to the house of God. We're glad to see you, and pray the Lord will be amongst us and bless us today. And those who are tuning in online, we welcome you also, and pray that the Lord will bless each one of us. It is Remembrance Sunday. We do want to remember those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice in giving their lives to maintain religious and freedom and liberty, and those who have been injured as well. And in our own land, that has certainly been the case, and there are those today who still sorrow and who miss loved ones and who have injuries, physical and mental, from the times of trouble. So, we do want to remember today. We'll be doing that at the end of this hymn. We'll ask you to remain standing. There is observance of the Lord's Table at the close of the meeting as well. If you know the Lord and you're walking with the Savior, well then, it's the Lord who invites you to come and to remember Him in His own appointed way. There is the meeting in the Glebe Road Nursing Home then this afternoon. That's at 2 p.m. 6.30 is our prayer time. 7 o'clock is our evening gospel service. I'll be preaching at that, and then following on from that is our youth meeting, quarter to nine. Our youth meeting will be taking place, so do remember that, young people. And just when we're on the point of youth, there is a youth council outreach that has been planned for the Christmas market over the next number of weeks, Saturday the 15th of November and then Saturday the 6th of December. And that's going to be commencing at 3 p.m. So we've been asked to make that known to you young people. If you wish to be involved in that, no doubt there'll be more information sent out as to where you meet. But those two Saturdays are set aside by the Youth Council to do some outreach at the Christmas market down in Belfast. And then this incoming week, Wednesday night, is our midweek meeting. My brother Christopher Orr will be taking that meeting. He'll be speaking at it. It's going to be a deputation for him. We haven't had that yet through this college year. He's into his last college year. So he'll be speaking. There'll be a special offering on Wednesday night. So remember that, please. Thursday night, brethren, there is the church committee meeting. Quarter to eight we want to start. So if you can seek to be there, I appreciate some are coming home from work, but we will seek to start and others can join us slightly after that. But quarter to eight, we will commence. our church committee meeting. Friday night, there is the Bible Club. Remember that. There is the rota on the table. So again, if you can fill that in, please, and help with that, that would be much appreciated. Services next Lord's Day, Sabbath School at 10, 11, 30, and 7 are the services preceded by the times of prayer. God willing, I'll be preaching at those meetings. In the morning time, we're going to be thinking about God's Word to our royal house. you think of our own royal house and what they have engaged in and the troubles that have come upon them, the Lord's Word has something to say as to why. And therefore, we're going to consider that, God willing, next Lord's Day morning. from His Word with that theme in mind. Do remember those who are sick and unwell. There is a number who are laid aside. Some who've been in hospital had surgery this week. Some who are still in hospital at present. Some who are going to have surgery this incoming week. So please remember all those who have been unwell and are unwell and laid aside. the Lord will raise them up and strengthen them and do them good. Just a couple more announcements. The appeal for Jamaica, I mentioned that. it's a fortnight ago now, how you can contribute to that. There were details put up on the WhatsApp group. So the Mission Board wants to thank all those who have contributed to that. There's 11,200 and around 30 pounds had come in by Friday night when that was reported at Presbytery. So thank you very much if you've contributed to that. If you want to contribute to supporting the work and the brethren and sisters there in the work in Jamaica, It's Little London is where the work is in Jamaica. If you have any desire to know exactly where it is or knowledge of Jamaica, that's where the work is. And the building was, part of the building was severely damaged and around that area. So the mission board along with the North American mission board are seeking to help and get some funds to them to support them. So they appreciate all who have contributed to that. At Presbyterian Friday night there were some details set out as well regarding marking the 75th anniversary of our denomination. That's coming next year. I'm not going to go through all of that now this morning, but maybe some night in the prayer meeting we'll mention some of those things that are going to mark that occasion, both marking it, and also having evangelistic thrust to it as well. So, you can keep that in mind, and we'll say a little bit more about that as time goes by. I think that's all the announcements for now. They're all in the will of the Lord. We're going to keep our seats for the opening few verses of this hymn, 752. O God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come, our shelter from the stormy blast, and our eternal home. And then we'll stand for the latter part of the hymn, and then if you would remain standing, please. If you can, if you do need to take a seat, that's understandable, but if you can remain standing at the end of the hymn, we're going to have our act of remembering. 752. The children from Missouri once said, the saints of the table. Salvation is thine, O God, the power in this issue. Okay, we're going to stand for verses four, five, and six. A thousand ages in thy sight are like an evening gone. And then if you can remain standing when we conclude. ♪ Tell the angels in the sky ♪ ♪ Lord, I'm coming home ♪ ♪ Your cross will wash your face and mind ♪ ♪ Before the rising sun ♪ ♪ I'm coming home, I'm coming home ♪ ♪ There's always shelter there ♪ ♪ Thank God for all the hearts that weep ♪ ♪ Hearts that weep open wide ♪ to oppose us and our eternal goal. today to remember those who have suffered in two world wars and in other conflicts involving our nation, also those who have suffered in the troubles in our own little province and who still bear those scars and have those memories. And we're going to take just a few moments now to stand and wait in silence as we remember that sacrifice. They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old. Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them. Our Heavenly Father, we stand in silence in remembrance of the sacrifice of many, We are those who benefit from their sacrifice. The privileges that we are even exercising this very morning as we gather in this house of worship were dearly bought, bought by the blood of others, the lives of others. The sacrifice that they made, whether in giving their lives itself or in suffering many injuries, And there's those we're conscious today, Lord, who live still with those injuries, those memories. There's those today who miss loved ones because of lives taken away by terrorists in their own little province. And today, Lord, we remember the sacrifice. Thou would have us to remember. We acknowledge that, O Lord, how oftentimes The Word of God teaches us to remember, to bring to mind, to recall the past. And certainly today, Lord, is a day for remembering and recalling the past. And we pray that You will meet the need of those who do stand in need today, those who do have such memories and even such injuries. We pray that Thou would draw alongside and minister to such, and we pray that Thou would help us not to forget. And as we've been singing in the closing verse of this hymn, Lord, we make a prayer, we make a plea to Thee to safeguard the liberties that we enjoy. We believe, Lord, we see those liberties being watered down and removed. We pray, Lord, that Thou would come and have mercy on our land and nation. We weep for our nation, for it has forgotten Thee, O Lord, long forgotten Thee. We pray that there would be a recovery in those things that ought to be dear to us as a nation. We pray, Lord, that Thou will come visit us once again. Hear our prayer now, we humbly ask, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. You can take your seat. We're turning to the Word of God, to Isaiah chapter 40. We want to read from the 18th verse of this chapter down to the conclusion, and then we're turning over a page so in your Bible to chapter 42 and picking up our studies that we have been engaged in on Communion Sundays. So, Isaiah chapter 40, and we're reading from the 18th verse here. It's a portion that sets before us something of the greatness of God So, Isaiah chapter 40, and we're reading from verse 18, "'To whom then will ye liken God, or what likeness will ye compare unto him? The workman melteth the graven image, and the goldsmith spreadeth it over with gold, and casteth silver chains He that is so impoverished that he hath no oblation chooseth a tree, but will not rot. He seeketh unto him a cunning workman to prepare a graven image that shall not be moved. Have ye not known? Have ye not heard? Hath it not been told you from the beginning? Have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth. The inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers. that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in, that bringeth the princes to nothing, he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity. Yea, they shall not be planted, yea, they shall not be sown, yea, their stock shall not take root in the earth, and he shall also blow upon them, and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble. To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal, saith the Holy One? Lift up your eyes on high, and behold, who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number? He calleth them all by names, by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power, not one faileth. Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, my way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God? Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? There is no searching of His understanding. He giveth power to the faint, And to them that have no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint." And then if you go over to chapter 42, want to read verses 5, 6, and 7. These are the verses that we want to come to this morning. Here is Isaiah chapter 42, and you'll immediately see the connection as to why we have read that 40th chapter. Chapter 42 now, verse 5, "'Thus saith God the Lord, He that created the heavens and stretched them out, He that spread forth the earth and that which cometh out of it, He that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein. '" I the Lord have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles, to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house." Amen. We'll end there at verse 7. We know the Lord will add His blessing to the reading of His Word today to all of our hearts. We'll bow together in prayer briefly as we ask the Lord for His help. Our Father, we thank Thee for Thy Word that we have read, and as we come now to meditate upon it, we pray for help. Open to us the Scriptures. Give us understanding of them. We pray that as we read these words and now think upon them and what they say to us, We pray, Lord, that Thy truth will enter into our hearts. Make it sanctifying truth. Make it saving truth for those who know not the Lord today. We pray, Lord, that will prepare our hearts for coming around this communion table in a moment or so. We pray, Lord, that we might rejoice in Thee, our God. So hear us now, close us in with Thyself, grant to us that help that we need. Lord, I need help to preach today. Grant that now, I humbly ask. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. One feature of the prophecy of Isaiah is the frequency of the term, my servant. And we have pointed out that sixteen times in this prophecy you will find those words, my servant. And there is one particular servant that the Lord would have us to consider. And it's there at the start of this portion, Isaiah 42, Behold My servant whom I uphold. Those words are also repeated in Isaiah chapter 52 verse 13. Again, there is an exhortation there, Behold My servant. And that is what we have been seeking to do. over this last little period, seeking to behold the Lord's servant. And that word, behold, has the sense of stopping and considering, pondering something. It's not just a casual look as you go on about your business, whatever it might be, and you just casually look at something and glance at it and, well, maybe you take it in or maybe you don't take it in because your mind is occupied with other things. word here has the suggestion of stopping and pondering and considering at length. So evidently, there are some things the Lord would have us to consider about His servant, and that is what we have been seeking to highlight. First of all, we considered the call for Jehovah's perfect servant. the beginning there, there is a need established as to why the Lord is bringing forth His servant and would have us to consider Him. And that is because of the abject failure of the Lord's original servant, the nation of Israel, the people of Israel. And we have pointed out that verse further down the chapter there in verse 18 and 19. Hear ye deaf and look ye blind that ye may see. Who is blind but my servant? And evidently, the servant there in view is a different servant. He's not saying that about his own dear son. He sent into the world. How could He? Because that would not be true, and God does not lie. And then He goes on at the end of that verse 19 as well to speak about the blindness of the Lord's servant. And it's not Messiah. It's not Jehovah's Son. It's referring to Israel, the original servant that the Lord chose, and ought to have been a witness for Him in the earth, but wasn't then the Lord says, well, I'm going to send another servant. He's going to do far greater things. He's going to bring about salvation. Israel could never bring about their own salvation or the salvation of anyone else, but the Lord is going now to send another servant. who will be even greater. So there is the call for Jehovah's Servant. Then we thought about the character of Jehovah's Servant. And there's four things that were mentioned there in verse 1. He'll be upheld. He was elected or chosen. He was delighted in. He was granted the Spirit without measure. So there is the character of Jehovah's Servant. And then we have spent quite a while working through six statements there that are found at the end of verse 1 right the way through to the end of verse 4 that set out something of the conduct of Jehovah's Servant. He'll bring forth judgment to the Gentiles, it says. He'll not cry, nor lift up his, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed shall he not break, the smoking flax shall he not quench. He'll bring forth judgment unto truth. He shall not feel nor be discouraged till he have set judgment in the earth. And then the last one that we were considering, the isles shall wait for His law. So there are six statements there that refer to His conduct. These are the things that He is going to do. That brings us on then now to verses 5, 6, and 7. They can be taken together as a section on their own. And what you have here is the commissioning of Jehovah's perfect servant. the commissioning of Jehovah's perfect servant. And that is what we want to come to think about this morning, the Lord commissioning him, sending him forth into the world what the Scriptures have to say about us. So, the Lord is calling us to behold Him, and then the Lord is highlighting those particular points that He would have us to consider. He's not leaving that to our own imaginations and our own thoughts and says, well, now you consider Him, but you make up your mind as to what you want to consider about Him, because human nature would be such that we would miss what it is the Lord would be emphasizing about His servant. the Lord tells us here in His Word. And I want you, first of all, with regards to this commissioning of Jehovah's Servant, I want you to notice there in verse 5 that He is commissioned by the highest authority. He is commissioned by the highest authority. In verse 5, it says, Thus saith God the Lord. And remember that word Lord is Jehovah, where you have the word Lord in capital letters like that. It's the name Jehovah. Jews would not utter the name Jehovah. It was an unutterable name. They believed it was so holy a name, so magnificent a name that they would never would never utter it, and they would substitute the word Lord for the name Jehovah, and that is something that is carried over into our English Bible as well, and that's why it's not the word Jehovah. There's a few places where you have it, but the vast majority of times you have substituted the word Lord, and that was the practice among the Jews. In fact, the Hebrew scribes when they came to write out the letters. There's four letters in the name Jehovah. There's no vowels, remember, in Hebrew. So, there's only four letters in the name Jehovah. In fact, that's sometimes, they call it the tetragrammaton, the four-letter name for God. it's the word Jehovah. And when they would come in the Scriptures, when they were copying them out by hand, and they would come to that divine name, it was the practice of the Hebrew scribes to actually go and wash from head to toe, and then come back and write out those four letters. Such regard and such respect today for the name Jehovah. And if that name appeared twice in a verse or multiple times in a chapter, every time, they would go and wash from head to toe before they would copy out that divine name. There's other names for God in His Word, but Jehovah is the preeminent name for God. Jehovah is the name of our God. And I think, Christian, we ought to call Him by that. It's more than just saying, oh, He's our God. He's Jehovah God. He's Jehovah God. The heathen may have their gods, and there are other, those false gods of Allah that Muslims worship and all the gods of Hinduism. There's many false gods. Well, the true and living God, our God, is Jehovah. And we ought to call Him by that great and holy name. So, here is this divine name that is given to us here in verse 5. Lord, or God Jehovah, He that created the heavens and stretched them out, He that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it, He that giveth breath unto the people therein, and the Spirit, and Spirit to them that walk therein. I the Lord, I Jehovah, So, there is an authority that is here presented to us, the highest of authority. Now, the Lord is in the practice of doing this. For example, if you go over a few pages in the other direction in the book of Isaiah to chapter 45, and the beginning of that chapter speaks about Cyrus, who was going to be the Medo-Persian king that was going to permit Israel to go back and build the temple. And He is mentioned here in Isaiah chapter 45 as the servant of the Lord. And it's particularly verses 11 and 12 that we want to come to. Thus saith the Lord, again Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, And as Maker, ask of me things concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands. Command ye me. I have made the heavens, and created man upon it. I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their hosts have I commanded." Now, the context in which you find those words is beginning at chapter 1 of this verse. verse 1 of this chapter, sorry, is, as I say, Cyrus. And he, in a sense, is a type of Jehovah's Servant. He's a picture. He's somebody the Lord has chosen, because you'll see there from verse 1 of chapter 45, thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus. And the word anointed is the word Messiah. So, there's some individuals who were chosen or anointed of God, and if you want to call the Messiah with a low-case m, then there is the Messiah, Jehovah's servant that we're thinking about. But there's a whole lot of individuals in the Scriptures who were, if you want to call them, lesser messiahs. Every prophet, priest, and king in Israel were anointed. And that's what the word messiah means, anointed one. The word Christ is the equivalent in the New Testament language, and it means anointed. So, here's an individual who is anointed, Cyrus, and the Lord has him singled out for a particular work. He's going to be the heathen king. The Lord's going to put it into his heart to permit Israel to go back from captivity when the 70 years of captivity were up, and permit them to build a temple. And here's Isaiah speaking about long before it ever came to pass. The 70 years' captivity hasn't even started. That only started in Jeremiah's time. we're even thinking about prior to the days of the captivity starting, and the Lord has already named the man, named the king, and He says, He's my servant, and this is what He's going to do. He's going to permit you to go back. But the authority for all of this, who is it that says this? Who is it that brings all of this about? There is this thought in verses 11 and 12 then of the Creator God, Jehovah God, So when the Lord wants to put His authority upon something, that it will most certainly come to pass, here is how He does it. He declares Himself to be Jehovah God, the Creator God, the One who has made the heavens and the earth. that's what we find him doing here in Isaiah chapter 42 and verse 5 when he is commissioning his servant. He speaks of himself as the individual who is Jehovah God and who is the maker of the heavens and the earth. And you can go through those clauses one by one that you have there in verse 5. He created the heavens and stretched them out So the One who's going to commission this servant of His to come forth into the world is the One who first stretched out the heavens and made them out of nothing. We acknowledge Him today as Creator. And that is very important, Christian, when we come to think about the matter of redemption. Creation is important. Because if there isn't a first Adam, a literal first Adam, How can there be a second Adam? And Jesus Christ is called the second Adam. Remember, Jesus Christ is called the second Adam. So if there is no first Adam, if there's no creation, if there's no first man who was a representative man in the garden, representing all of humanity and fell and brought sin and the curse of sin upon all the world, if there's no first Adam, how can there be a second Adam? was also a representative man, representing His people on the cross and dying for His people there on the cross. So, creation is important in the great scheme of redemption. In fact, when you go over to the book of Hebrews, it is there set down as the first principle of faith. In Hebrews chapter 11, And that great chapter of faith, and we think of various individuals that are mentioned there, but before you come upon any individual that's mentioned in Hebrews chapter 11, we read in verse 3, through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. There's the first principle of faith. You must accept creation. you much must accept creation. So, it's not a matter of saying, well, creation, whether you believe in creation or not doesn't really matter. It does matter. It does matter. It's the first principle of faith. And if you don't get past the first principle of faith, how could you say, I believe in anything else to do with the Lord? Because it impacts upon redemption. The Creator God who created the heavens and the earth and put man in the earth, put a first man in the earth, and made him a representative man, the first Adam, and told him, if you obey, you'll secure eternal life for all your posterity. If you disobey, not only will you bring death upon yourself, you will bring the curse of sin upon the world, and you will bring death upon all your posterity. And in Adam, we all die. Isn't that what Paul said in Romans? In Adam we all die. We were in Adam, in the loins of Adam. We committed that first sin. We are guilty of that first sin because the judgment for that first sin is passed upon us, which is death. So, we must be guilty of the sin or else God would be unjust. If God was to pass the consequences of a sin upon you or me and we didn't commit it, that would be unjust. So, if God passes the consequences of the first sin unto you and me, which is death, you and me had to be guilty for the first sin. And we believe we were in Adam. As Paul tells us in Romans, we died in Adam. So when we think about the Lord commissioning His servant here to come into the world and what He's going to do in the world, He puts this authority upon it. But there is a connection with the servant's greatest work greatest work is going to be that of redemption, redeeming a people unto Himself, and it's the Creator God who sends His servant to do so. And He wants us to acknowledge that and to remember that today, and we do. Afresh today, we want to declare we believe in creation, literal six-day creation out of nothing, recent creation, The Lord puts His authority upon the sending forth of His servant in this regard, and He tells us that He is the One who stretched out the heavens. It's like a canopy over the earth. There's much that you can follow on through in that, and it's not our purpose this morning to do that, but if you do go back to Genesis, there was a canopy that was stretched over the earth, a vapor canopy. Remember, there was no rain that fell as we understand rain up until the time of Noah. And Noah was well into the history of the world by the time the flood came, well into the history of the world. And up until the time of Noah, there was no rain, not as we understand rainfall. There was a vapor that went up from the surface of the earth and watered the whole earth. opening chapters of Genesis tells us, there was nothing like rainfall. That required the physical conditions that came about after the flood in order to have currents and the movement of air and moisture and rainfall. But up until that time, there was no rainfall. So, literally, the Lord did stretch out the heavens as a canopy over the earth. That is a study all in its own. And he goes on to say that he spread out the earth here as well, the length and the breadth of it. He made it for man. Verse 5 tells us, and all that comes off it, the grass, the green herb, the trees, the fruit, everything that the earth has produced, the Lord has ordained that to be so. We acknowledge that at harvest time. man has his bit to do, his labor on the earth, but it is God who gives the increase. It's God who has promised harvest time will come for the world. It speaks there about a people that He has given breath to in verse 5, a people that He has given breath to, and also a people that He has given Spirit to. So, not just that they're going to become a living identity, a living entity, they're going to become a living soul. And again, in Genesis, we read about how God breathed into the first man, and He became a living soul, a living soul. I know you and I see the body and the physical, but primarily we are living souls. We are living souls. And that means we are eternal. The soul is eternal. We are not like the brute beast. The brute beast does not have a soul. It has life. It has even the breath of life. God made the creatures and gave them life, but they do not have a soul. They are not eternal. The creature dies. All those animals in the animal kingdom die, and that is the end of them. But man is different. I even heard it this week on the radio. I was listening to something, and one of the presenters said, oh, we are mammals. We are not mammals. That's evolutionary to think that and say that, that we are mammals. We are not. There may be things that we have that are characteristic of mammals, but we are not. We are a separate being. We are a separate being, a human being created by God. people in whom God has put a Spirit. That is one of the things that Paul taught on Mars Hill. If you remember how he was taken up to Mars Hill, and he had preached the resurrection, the bodily resurrection, Greek philosophers believed in life after death. It was more reincarnation, a form of it, that they would have believed in. But here was Paul and the others coming along, and they were preaching the rising of the body, the resurrection from the grave of the body, and that was something entirely new to the world. They had never heard that before. And those in Athens who were interested in some new thing, well, suddenly latched on to what they had heard from Paul, here's something new. And as you know there in Acts 17, Paul was taken up to Mars Hill, and he was given the opportunity to speak. And he started, and it's interesting to follow how he taught a people who didn't know anything about the God of heaven. He started with creation. Maybe we should go over to that portion. It wasn't my intention to do that this morning, but let's go over to Acts 17 and just notice that. Because we live in such a world when we evangelize. And therefore, we surely can learn much from that passage in Acts 17. There was a time when the Christian church was evangelizing the people who knew the Word of God. who knew the background, who knew that God had created and even believed that God had created the world. But today, you know that if you're witnessing to work colleagues or neighbors or friends or others that you come into contact with, we're witnessing to a people who know nothing of the gospel, who know nothing of the Word of God, who don't believe in creation. And it's the belief in creation that gives authority for the gospel. gospel is an invitation of that there is no doubt, come to the Lord, but it's also a command, repent and be baptized, repent and believe is the commands of the gospel. Well, to give a command, you must have authority to do so. And that authority goes back to the fact God is Creator, God is Lawgiver, God is Judge. And it's interesting to notice the difference in how Paul preached to the Jews in the Jewish synagogue, and then how he preached to ungodly heathen Gentiles, and how he presented the gospel to them. When he went into the Jewish synagogue, he immediately took up the Scriptures, and he opened it, and he started preaching Christ out of the Old Testament. because they had a background in the Old Testament. They knew what it taught. They accepted God as Creator. So he had already a foundation to build on. But when he went up to Mars Hill that day and they asked him and gave him the opportunity to preach, Paul didn't immediately launch into the resurrection. That was the point that they had picked up on, the bodily resurrection. That's not Paul's first topic. Look at what he says in Acts 17. Verse 22 is where the section begins. It says, Paul stood in the midst of Mars Hill. Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. For as I passed by and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription to the unknown God, whom therefore ye ignorantly worship. Him declare I unto you. It was the practice among the Greeks to worship many gods. The gods that they had conquered, they would honor all of those gods, but they often had the belief, well, we don't know all the gods, and we haven't conquered all the gods, but we don't want to grieve them or offend them. So they would have an altar like this one to the unknown God, and they would worship on that altar and offer sacrifice on that altar, wanting to appease gods that they didn't know, but they didn't want to offend. So, Paul latches onto this and uses this as his starting. Here's his point of connection. Here's his point of connection. Here's his point of relevance. He says, look, I have seen it, and they would all have been aware of it. He says, now I'm going to tell you who this God is. You tell me you don't know Him. It's on your altar that you don't know Him. Well, I'm going to tell you who He is. And where does he start? Verse 24, God that made the world. and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands." Paul begins with creation. He begins by setting down the very basis, because here's his authority for all that he's going to command. Because when he gets further down the chapter, he tells them, God commands you to repent. He commands all men everywhere to repent. But how can he make that statement if he doesn't have authority for saying it? So he's going to establish his authority. His authority, God's authority, and Paul is His messenger, His ambassador, He's going to establish that authority by saying to these Athenians, I'm going to tell you about the Creator. I'm going to tell you about the Individual who made the world and all that are in it. And you can go down through those next number of verses And I would suggest to you that we are right down to verse 29 before Paul starts in any way to talk about the gospel. He has set down the case for God having made of one blood all who are on the earth. All blood. There's a great argument against racism, but that's another topic entirely. The point I'm making here is that when Paul wants to establish authority for preaching the command, repent and believe the gospel, he takes them back to creation. When we go back here to Isaiah 42, and Jehovah, God, is seeking to set down the authority, commission His servant, His Son to go into the world, He reminds us of His position as Creator. This is where He starts. Creation is important. God who made the world, Jehovah God who made the world is absolutely important. And surely anything that passes for either religion or education or knowledge in this day and age that bypasses the truth of God as Creator is defective. And we live in an age where belief in creation is minimal. It's not looked upon as being scientific. We have moved beyond such foolishness to believe in creation. Well, believing in creation is as scientific as believing in evolution, and more scientific than believing in evolution. But here's this authority being established, and there is the reminder in all of this that there is a people on the earth who have a soul, a spirit, we know that those individuals are perishing, as we'll come on to see here as this section unfolds. So, we acknowledge God today as Creator. We acknowledge Him as the highest authority. He has made us. That's why He can command us. That's why He commands us to repent today and believe the gospel. God has made you. He holds the breath that we breathe. We are His offspring. Paul was quoting their heathen poets in Acts 17, but even they had a semblance of the truth in them. We are His offspring. He has made us. We are His. Therefore, He can command us, and He does command us today to repent. He can do with us as He pleases. We live in a world where people rail against God as if God owes them something or as if God should be doing what they want Him to do. It's the other way around. God can do with us as He pleases. And Christian, it's important that we remember that, that we yield under whatever He sends our way. Who are we to argue against God? Who are we to tell God He's doing something that is not wise or wrong, or He ought to change just for you or me? He is Creator. He has made us. He can do with us as He pleases. He can save whom He pleases, and He will. And He can choose not to save whom He pleases, and He will. There's nothing that riles people, Christian people and people that have some semblance of the knowledge of the gospel, as that truth of election. God chooses whom He saves and whom He doesn't. He chooses that. God has chosen to save a people. That people will be saved, come what may, every single one of them whom He has chosen. But He hasn't chosen to save everybody. He makes that abundantly clear, because if He had, they would be saved then, or else we believe in a frustrated God who's not omnipotent. If we believe that God somehow chose to save everybody and everybody's not saved, what kind of a God is that then we believe in? We believe in a sovereign God. Creator God, who has made the world, and He does with it as He pleases. And He has sent His Son into the world, His servant, and He has sent Him into the world with the highest commission. The God who is Creator, who has made the world, sends His Son into the world. And you can set alongside that Savior's own message when He was here in the world, particularly in John's Gospel, because John sets out there oftentimes more than the miracles that the Savior did or even the parables that Jesus taught. More often it's His sermons that are set out by John, and there is that connection between Him and His Father. I and my Father are one, He says. I have come to do my Father's will. And the Savior was again and again emphasizing the relationship with His Father, that the Father had sent Him, the Father had given Him a work to do, had commissioned Him, and that He was going to do it. He said, I am straightened until it is accomplished. I am shut in. I have been given this work, this task, and I am shut in, as that word straightened means, until it is accomplished. But this is all set out in Isaiah. These are things the Lord would have you and me to consider about His servant. He comes with the highest authority. We're going to finish here this morning on that point, and I'll underscore this. Here is the command to repent and believe the gospel. You who are unconverted, you young people, if you're not converted, here's God's command to you this morning. You ought to repent. You ought to turn to Christ. God has made you. He sustains the life in your body. You are not here by mistake. You do not live here of yourself. None of us do that. You're here because God put you here, made you, gave you a soul, breathed into you as He breathed into Adam. And He commands us all to repent. and to turn and believe the gospel. Now, have you obeyed Him, or are you in disobedience to God? If you disobeyed your parents, well, that would be wrong. But what of disobeying God? If your parents command you to do something, or a teacher in school commands you to do something, or somebody else who's got authority over you, requested and directed you to do something, and you didn't do it, well, there's a consequence. Well, what about disobeying God? What about not obeying Him when He commands us to repent and believe the gospel, believe on His Son whom He has sent into the world? Is there not a consequence? There is. There is an eternal consequence if we do not come and believe on Him. So may we regard and respect that authority and recognize it today and unashamedly declare we believe in our Creator God because it impacts upon the second Adam coming into the world and the work that he did for a people to save them that we want to come and remember this morning. May the Lord bless His Word. We'll come back to this, these verses 6 and 7. on another occasion, God willing. Let's unite in prayer. Our Father, we do acknowledge Thee today as Creator. Thou art Jehovah God. Thou art the One who has stretched out the heavens. Thou hast made the earth. Thou hast put man in the earth. Thou hast breathed into us. We are Spirit. Lord, we are not like the beast of the field, but we are different. We have a soul, and that soul needs to be saved. because of sin that has come into the world. And we thank Thee today there is a Savior. And Lord, each one who has come to Christ rejoices in that truth, that there is a Savior, that there was a second Adam. But Lord, there's those amongst us who are not saved, and we pray for them. We pray Thou will bring them to Christ, whoever they might be. O Lord, save them by Thy grace. Save the young people amongst us, the children that are amongst us. Save amongst our families, we pray. Oh, bring them to Christ, we ask. Lord, may they heed that command to repent and believe the gospel. Have mercy on us, tarry with us, be with those who would take their leave off us as we continue around this communion table. Grant us Thy presence, we humbly pray, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. 663, we're going to sing as we conclude our service and come to our time of communion. 663 is page 443. On that same night, Lord Jesus, in which thou wast betrayed, when without cause man's hatred against thee was displayed, we hear thy gracious accents. This do remember me. With joyful hearts responding, we would remember thee." 663. We're going to sing the first two verses of this hymn. Standing to sing in conclusion. Let's start. ♪ Sing praises to God the King of angels ♪ ♪ Sing praises to God the King of angels ♪ ♪ With joyful voices sounding ♪ ♪ We proudly welcome thee ♪ ♪ We thank the Father, the Fatherless ♪ ♪ Which from His heaven above ♪ ♪ O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming? ♪