To God be the glory, great things He hath done. So loved He the world that He gave us His Son. Join us now for Call to Worship, dedicated to presenting the truth of God's Word. Call to Worship is sponsored by Zion Chapel of Holland. Tell me the old, old story of unseen things above, of Jesus and his glory, of Jesus and his love. Tell me the story simply as to a little child. For I am weak and weary, and helpless and defiled. Tell me the old, old story Of unseen things above Of Jesus and His glory Of Jesus and His love Tell me the story simply As to a little child For I am weak and weary And helpless and defiled Tell me the old, old story Tell me the old, old story Tell me the old, old story of Jesus and His love. Tell me the story slowly that I may take with Him that wonderful redemption God's remedy for sin. Tell me the story of them, for I forget so soon. The early dew of morning has passed away at noon. Tell me the old, old story. Tell me the old, old story. Tell me the old, old story of Jesus and his love. Tell me your story softly with earnest taunts and praise. Remember life loves sinners. whom Jesus came to save. Tell me the story, always, if you would really mean, in any time of trouble, a comforter to me. Tell me the old, old story. Tell me the old, old story. Tell me the old, old story of Jesus and His love. Tell me the same old story, when you have cause to fear, that this world's empty glory is causing me to fear. Yes, and that world's glory is coming on my soul. Tell me the old, old story Christ Jesus makes me whole. Tell me the old, old story. Tell me the old, old story. Tell me the old, old story of Jesus and his wife. Reading from God's Holy Word as we find it from the pen of Isaiah, chapter 52, the last part, and chapter 53, the first part. Isaiah 52, verse 13. Behold, my servant shall deal prudently. He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high. As many were astoned at thee, his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men. So shall he sprinkle many nations, the king shall shut their mouths at him, for that which hath not been told them shall they see, and that which they have not heard shall they consider. Who hath believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground. He hath no form nor comeliness, and when we shall see him there is no pity that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid as it were our faces from him, he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. All we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned every one his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shears is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment, and who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off out of the land of the living. For the transgression of my people was he stricken, and he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him, and he hath put him to grief. When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, and he shall prolong his days. and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and divide him the spoil with the strong, because he hath poured out his soul unto death. and was numbered with the transgressors, and he bear the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. As we have opportunity now to come before the Lord in prayer, how thankful we can be that the Lord Jesus is on the right hand of the Father, making intercession. We can ask him not only to pray for us, but to teach us to pray in His name and faith and according to His will. Lord Jesus, we do come to the Father by Thee, and Father, we do come to Thee through Christ. We pray also for the Holy Spirit to enable us to pray in the Spirit and be led by the Spirit. We pray, Father, Thou wilt send the Spirit in such a way that he will take the things of Christ and show them to us, that we will not leave him as one church, where Lord Jesus taught us to have to say, behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man will open to me, I will come in and sup with him and he with me. We give thanks for thy call, but we see the terribleness of those who had the door shut, and it was not at that time open. We pray that we might see that this is a word to the church and not just a word to the world. And we pray that we might realize it could be true today for us. And if it is, Lord Jesus chastened us and rebuke us as that church was. And often as Israel and Judah were chastened and rebuked and described, even as such examples that we were not to do likewise to murmur as they murmured. We think of all the times there were in unbelief and how we read, they believed not thy word. We pray that many might hear this word of the gospel today and that many might by father, your word and spirit be led to believe on the Lord Jesus, thy son, and to be saved, to give the glory, the glory of thy grace. We pray also father for the temporal needs of those in suffering, the homeless, the hungry, the war-torn lands, the sorrowing, the lonesome, the broken homes, the sick, the injured. All these, Father, we pray that in mercy, thou would look upon them and give what is needed. Give, teaching and chastening through these things that many might say it was good for me to have been afflicted. And even with the psalmist, before I was afflicted, I went astray. But through the affliction can be brought back. And we pray that it might be done for thy glory. and for the good of the church, and then that the church can be a salt and a light again in this nation and the world through Christ, amen. Looking at this message once again from Isaiah. Isaiah, who could also write earlier in the 52nd chapter, How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of them that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation, that saith unto Zion, thy God reigneth. What a privilege it is both to preach the gospel, to hear the gospel. Not everyone has that privilege. Many do not even have it outwardly, and many that do hear it in the letter, do not have ears to hear and hearts to understand. Many have, I fear, in the church grown cold. As I mentioned last week, one that has been preaching the gospel for a number of years said there are fewer in this past year that are seeing the Lord in his ministry than in any other time in previous years. How sad if we're turning away from the Lord and there are not that number that there should be turning to the Lord, both of the young and of those that have not believed still in their older years. I think of the time of the great awakening. There was a woman in her seventies who for the first time really saw and understood and believed the word as it was in the holy scriptures. She first thought she had never read that before, certain things, and then she realized she had read it, but it had not sunk into her heart. She had not realized the meaning of it, the blessing of it. If we think of the blessing, faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. I hope you have faith to believe that this is the message from God of his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, in this 53rd chapter of Isaiah. Even if you have not believed it to the saving of your soul, I hope you believe that like William Webberforce, when he realized his sin, He saw, as he said, the deep guilt and the black ingratitude of my past life forced itself upon me in the strongest colors. I condemn myself for having wasted my precious time and opportunities and talents. He longed to find peace with God. And then listen to this. Though he may not have had the comforting faith, the pardoning faith yet at that time, this is what he knew. He now knew that it could only come through Christ. We must come to him. He must come to us. Only when God gives us his son will we know peace with God. I think of one man who said, God gave me Christ. We don't always show our thankfulness. We don't always honor God as we should, as the Corinthians remained babes, carnal, had divisions. Paul had to reprove them strongly. Thankfully, they did repent, but not everyone repents as they did. And we need to today, where we have heard the gospel, and especially those who profess to have believed the gospel, and us who have the privilege to preach the gospel, we have had the most given. How beautiful are the, upon the mountains are the feet of him that publishes good tidings. But if we misuse the pulpit, if we misuse being given the privilege to bring that message, we haven't given much. But as the Lord Jesus said, to whom much has been given, much will be required. To whom much has been given will be bitten with many stripes. How terribly sad for any and all that have had this message of Isaiah 53 given these last 2,700 years. how many have read it, how many have heard it, and how many have died without believing it to the saving of their soul. How many there are today that probably could quote it, many parts of it, and yet have not believed it in such a way. As Christ has said, the gospel must be preached to every creature, and this is the gospel. This is the gospel as Isaiah is preaching it. And when Christ says it must be preached to every creature, he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be damned. Yes, many have believed it and been baptized. Some who have been baptized were killed because they were baptized. We have had, sadly, worse division than the Corinthians had. We need to be told even more strongly. We're carnal, awful, unbelievable, and yet true, sadly true. Oh, how much the church has to repent of. We know the nation isn't repenting. We wonder what's the matter with the leaders. We wonder why we're having leaders as we do, running for office. Are we still like Isaiah wrote? Who hath believed our report? to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed. In all those sad words, the last part of the second verse, and when we shall see him, when we read of him, when we hear of him, we ought to form in our mind who he is. We are told the Son of God, the creator of the world. We are told in the fullness of time, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem them that were under the law. And then when we see that, some have seen him bodily, but we can see him spiritually. As Paul said to the Galatians, I don't think Christ was there, but Paul said, of Christ, he was crucified among you. Evidently, Paul set forth the crucifixion so plainly that they could picture it in their minds, the happening of it. People draw pictures of Christ. People draw pictures of the crucifixion. They never saw the crucifixion. Nobody took a photo of it that they could copy it. It was just in their mind formed a picture and drew it and say, this is what it was like. Every one of us can have that in our mind. who this Son of God is, who this one that Isaiah so often calls the Lord of Hosts. He speaks of God and His Redeemer, the Lord of Hosts, the Redeemer, the Redeemer, redeems the people from their sin. Redeems them so they don't have to continue in life and die and go to hell Where everyone is headed until taken away from that path As Paul said to those and I was just walked according the course of this world Among whom we all had our conversation. Do you know it? Have you learned it? Conversation even from behind the pulpit, can be hypocritical, can be blind. Many heard this message from Isaiah for 700 years before Christ came. Isaiah wrote, Paul wrote later, Though the number of Israel is as the sand of the sea for multitude, a remnant shall be saved. Like people that make clothing, buy it by the yard. When there's less than a yard left, it's a remnant. It's a small piece. That's how God describes these people that had this message. Yes, already to Abraham was the gospel preached. Read it. Genesis 12, verse three. In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. In Genesis 12, three, there we read, and thee shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. Later, after Abraham offered up Isaac, God gave him the message in just a little fuller way. In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. And God repeated those words to Isaac and he repeated them to Jacob. And Paul could write to the Galatian church and it's recorded in Galatians chapter three, verse eight to Abraham was the gospel preached. Abraham, those thousand years before this had this message. Noah, We aren't told when he got it, we aren't told how he knew it, but we know that after Noah came out of the ark, first of all, when he went on the ark, he said, of every clean beast, thou shalt take thee by sevens, the male and his female, and of the beasts that are not clean, by two, the male and his female. Then after the flood, we read, Noah built an altar unto the Lord and took of every clean baste and every clean fowl and offered burnt offerings on the altar. All those burnt offerings were pictures, types, the shadow of Christ coming. All those lambs offered Some say by the million. When the Lord Jesus did come, John the Baptist could say, behold, the lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. He took on the form of a man. He became like a lamb. He was described here by Isaiah in verse seven, He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. Christ, the Son of God, like a lamb, is brought before the slaughter. as a sheep before shears is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. Have you believed it to the saving of your soul? Have you had the blessing, as John could say? First the sad words, he came unto his own, and his own received him not. You may have been born in a family, in a church that you were told you were God's own. You may have had that pronounced over you as a baby, but did you receive Christ by faith as a lost sinner? Right after that, we read John chapter one, but as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believed on his name. No longer our own name, no longer the name of a church, no longer the name of any man who believed on him, him alone. Alone, alone. Anything with it, we don't believe in him. The time before the Great Awakening, men were believing in their own works. It was called Arminianism. There are different forms of Arminianism. Arminius was a Dutch theologian and Arminians generally Their error is believing on what we did. Some of them through works, some of them by the law, some of them legalistically, some of them simply by the fact that I believed in Christ. That's the reason why I am saved and others aren't. But listen to the rest of that message of John. To as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name, who were born not of blood, not of your parents, not of the will of the flesh, not of your own works, nor the will of man, not by our so-called free will, which is bound in sin. As we read here, when we saw him, there was no beauty that we should desire him. That's you and me. I know it. I learned it. And only when we learn it in repentance, God teaching us, will God give us Christ for the pardon of our sin. And as we said, to them gave a power to become the sons, and we could say daughters as well, of God. Thanks for listening to Call to Worship. If you have questions or comments regarding today's program, you can write to Zion Chapel, 937 Royce Avenue, Holland, Michigan, 49423. or their email address is worship at calltoworship.org. For more information on Call to Worship and its ministry, check out their website, www.calltoworship.org. Listen again next week at this time for Call to Worship. ♪ Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, praise the Lord, ♪ Let the earth hear His voice. ♪ Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, praise the Lord, ♪ Let the people rejoice.