Hudson Taylor in China often prayed this prayer that I think is a good prayer for us. If you don't have this somewhere where you can get to it and you want me to email it to you, what I'll do is I'll email it to Andy and then he can send it to you if you want it. This is the prayer he prayed. Lord Jesus, make thyself to me a living, bright reality, more present to faith's vision keen than any outward object seen, more dear, more intimately nigh than even the sweetest earthly tie. Well, we've been looking at the servant that's come as the cure for sin's ruin. In chapter 42, I think we could sum it up as saying we're looking at the work of the humble servant. In chapter 49, we've looked at the work of a faithful servant, even in the face of apparent contradiction. But in chapter 50, we're looking at the work of the obedient servant. At the end of chapter 49, in verse 13, We have this great statement of hope in the refrain of the song, and it says this, So that's the response to chapter 49 and the faithfulness of Christ. But in the following verse, verse 14, we have this kind of the door is opening and we're seeing that there's a problem in Israel. Verse 14, but Zion said, the Lord has forsaken me and the Lord has forgotten me. What we're going to see in chapter 50 is that God is going to reveal the root of their problem. They are treacherous servants and they are misreading the situation. And God exposes these problems with three questions in verses 1, 2, and 3 of chapter 50. And then he's going to contrast the failed servant, Israel. What are you doing, Jill? Then he's going to contrast the failed servant, Israel, with the faithful servant, capital S, And we find Christ described in verses four and following, all right? So first let's look at the two servants contrasted, the failed servant in verses one, two, and three. And notice the three questions that are given, all right? Thus says the Lord, where, that's the first one. If you underline in your Bible, you can underline that. Where is the certificate of divorce by which I have sent your mother away? Or, to whom, second question, of my creditors did I sell you? Behold, you were sold for your iniquities, and for your transgressions your mother was sent away. Verse two, why, it's our third question, was there no man when I came, when I called, why was there no one to answer? Is my hand so short that it cannot ransom, or have I no power to deliver? Behold, I dry up the sea with my rebuke. I make the rivers a wilderness. Their fish stink for lack of water and die of thirst. I clothe the heavens with blackness and make their sackcloth their covering. Well, as we mentioned, Israel has, in the previous chapters, especially chapters one through five, the prophet has revealed that Israel has become idolatrous. She's been filled with idolatry and God has begun a process of disciplining her. In chapter one, it's so bad, he says, it's like a parent saying to a child, there's no place left on your body, I can discipline you. You're covered with bruises from head to toe. But Israel's unresponsive. And so we have these three questions. Let's look at them first. Where is the certificate of divorce? And so by implication, God is saying to his own people, you are acting like a woman who has been divorced. The whole nation is. You've gone about seeking a new husband. You're dating again. Of course, we're speaking of idolatry. In the book of Hosea, God says, you're taking everything that I give you and you're turning and you're devoting it wholeheartedly, sacrificially to your idols. But by implication, you are not divorced. You have a husband to whom you owe an exclusive love. The problem is you are adulterous. Second question, to whom of my creditors did I sell you? It's quite a shocking question, isn't it? Anthropomorphisms. Does God have a creditor? What bank does God bank with? Who does God borrow from? So God asked this question and the hyperbole here is, you know, gets beneath our armor. If I were ever indebted, Who would I sell you to, to pay off my debts? But you're acting like I have sold you. You're acting like you have another master. You only have one legitimate Lord. You only have one voice you have to follow, but you've become rebellious. Third question, why? Why was there no one when I came or when I visited? No one met me. When I called, no one responded. Now the problem here, there's a dual problem as I mentioned. It's not merely that Israel is adulterous or idolatrous and rebellious. It's that Israel is idolatrous and rebellious and ignorant of why God is dealing with her in a particular way. All these songs that Isaiah has given Israel are coming to them in the midst of a spiritual decline. and a period of discipline. Not understanding that, they're unresponsive. So he says to them that they've forgotten his power. Look at the second half of verse three. Is my hand so short? Do you think my hand has become short so that I can't reach out and deliver? Do you not remember that I dry up the sea, that I make the river a wilderness? Do you not remember I clothe the heavens with blackness? All of this is imagery from their own history of the Exodus. Did not God reach into Egypt, the mighty empire, and bring his children to himself? Did not God dry up the Red Sea so that they could walk over? Did he not dry up the Jordan so that they could pass into the Promised Land? Did he not cover Egypt with darkness? Even when they were escaping, you remember that they come up to the edge of the Red Sea, and they cry out because the Egyptian armies are behind them, and God puts a cloud of darkness between them and their enemies. If Israel would have remembered God, she would not have been unresponsive when he called. This has a lot to say to the evangelical church today. There are times where we find a spiritual drift, or as the Bible says, backsliders being filled with their old ways. And when this occurs in a church or in an individual, God lovingly enters into disciplinary action to get our attention, to make us feel the emptiness of sin. And we may feel the distance that results from an ongoing, unrepentant life of sin, and we misinterpret it, not really understanding God, as God becoming disgusted with his children, as God no longer loving his children, as perhaps an indifference in the heart of God toward you. And so you feel divorced. You feel sold. But in truth, While your heart may say quietly, I don't think God really loves me anymore. I don't really blame him, but I don't think he loves me anymore. In truth, God is presently loving you and the discipline and the emptiness you're feeling is one of the evidences of that. Hebrews chapter 12, he loves his children, he disciplines his children for the purpose of godliness. When we are adrift and we misunderstand the discipline, all right, things become worse. We forget the power of God to save. We forget to go back to preach to ourselves. Think of the incarnation. Think of the cross. Think of the work of God at Pentecost. Think of your own conversion. But when we despair, we look about for some other hope, another husband, another master. And so we become slow to meet God, reluctant to listen to God. The problem is not merely our sin and rebellion, but our unbelief. When you think about seeking the Lord, being responsive to God, generally there are two things we need. when we, at our church, when we have a prayer meeting, and when the prayer meeting becomes hard work, I have to stop and remind the people, there are two ways to motivate yourself to seek the Lord. I have tried other ways, but they're always ineffective. I have tried strong rebukes, and so right before the prayer meeting, years ago, when we first started the work, the people we would, gathered to pray and the people wouldn't pray and oh it just made me so angry you know and I would just sit down behind the pulpit where my seat is and I would tell God that's it God I quit I quit I'm going back to Wales I'm not going to pastor a church that won't even pray then I would gather the elders together and say to them none of you pray We just sit there. It's like three hours of silence, really, in 30 minutes. But it feels forever. Why don't you speak up? Next week, I think, OK, it'll be better. Not one of the others prays. I call them together again. What are you doing? All right? You can't motivate people like that to seek the Lord. But there are two things that do motivate us. To be reminded of our need. Needy people pray. Early American pastor Edward Payson gave this illustration. He said he had a man in his church that was very wealthy, and he had a lot of spare time, and he joined an acting troop in the town. And he got the part of a beggar. And so they all went to see him, and there he was. Everyone knew he's the wealthiest man in town, but there he was, he's dressed in rags, and he's begging someone for food lest he starve. And Payson said this, he did a great job, but you can never teach a rich man to beg like a starving man begs. Which kind of prayer meeting do you have? What kind of quiet time do you have? Are you the spiritually rich pretending to be a beggar? Or are you a beggar? If we can just stop and remind ourselves of our need, it does stir us to seek, but there's a second thing that's required. That's not enough. We must believe that because of the work of Christ, we have access to God, that he is willing, he is able. Doubt no more. that there is a Father in heaven, that even in the darkest times of the Christian life, even when it seems that He's all frowns toward us, there is love there, unalterable, immutable love, eternal love. Think about it, an eternal God loves you, an eternal God chooses you before the foundation of the world. Eternity means that God dwells above time, not just that He lasts a long time, not just that He's very old, He's timeless. That means that in all eternity, what we would consider eternity past, there has never been a moment that God has not had the believer on his heart. He has always delighted in the believer, in his people, in light of what he would send Christ to do. Remind yourself of that. It's not just that you're needy. He is willing and able. But during times of spiritual discipline, it is the second one, the willingness of God, the ability of God, that we really struggle to believe. Are you spiritually drifting at the present moment and experiencing the gracious discipline of God, but misinterpreting it as God's indifference towards you? So you can test this. Are you acting divorced or married spiritually? I mean, there is a difference. When you go to work, when you go into the shops, when you meet the other people around you, your neighbors, do you behave like a married person or like a single person? Are you acting as if you've been sold? Or in other words, are you behaving as one who is under authority or one who is a free agent, self-ruled? And not understanding the way God deals with his children, if you're under his disciplinary action, are you despairing? and thinking that because you're sick of yourself that God's probably also sick of you. I don't know if you use that term, but you understand what I mean. And you can tell that because you're slow to come to the Bible. You're easily distracted in the midst of opportunities to hear the word, and you're quick to leave. When was the last time Even when under the spiritual discipline of God, you were so aware of His love behind these difficulties and His ability, His arm, still strong, that you were motivated to seek Him early. You anticipated the opportunities to hear from Him. You were eager to respond, and you were slow to leave. I mean, surely every Christian knows the difference, right? In your own experience, there have been times where you wake up, periods in the life where your Bible sits there and you think, I know I should read my Bible, but you're reluctant. And if you kind of drag yourself to the Bible, you're quick to get out. You open it up, your mind starts to think of all the things you have to do today, you say a few words to God, you shut it and run on. And then there are other times, aware of your need and aware of God's willingness, you rush to the scriptures and you're reluctant to leave. So which is it for you? Well, this is a picture of the failed servant, Israel, acting divorced, sold, and unresponsive. Now let's look at the perfect picture of a servant in the person of Jesus Christ, verses 4 through 9. And we want to look very closely. Isaiah starts his description of the Messiah with the effect of his obedience, not the root of it. So it's different than what we'd say. So he looks at the Messiah and he says, look at the perfect servant. He doesn't tell you how he's a perfect servant at first. He says, look how it's evidenced. And he mentions that he has the right words. And then he talks about where he got those right words. So let's look at this, verse four. The Lord God, now this is the Messiah speaking. The Lord God has given me the tongue of disciples that I may know how to sustain the weary one with a word. Right? That's where he starts. Look at the effect of his perfect obedience. He has the right words to sustain the weary. Well, we talked already about Hebrews chapter one when it says that although God spoke in many times and in many ways in the past through prophets, now he's spoken in his son. But think about the testimony we find in scripture. What did his followers say? You have words of life. Where else will we go? Or what about the disciples on the road to Emmaus? Did not our hearts burn within us as he explained the scriptures? How many of us, how many of you could add your own testimony? Yes. No one has ever had words of comfort for me like him. There are Christians, there are friends, there's parents, family who love you. And when you go through a difficult time, they wish they could have the right words. Maybe they have great words, biblical words, but they can't seem to get in beyond the cloud of despair. But then at some point, God himself speaks to the heart. What about his enemies? Well, when they went to arrest him and came back empty-handed and the Pharisees said to them, where's this Jesus that we sent you to get? They said, well, no one ever spoke like this man. Where did Christ get the words from? You say, well, he's God. That's not the answer for this. We find in the New Testament that Jesus doesn't say to the people, I know what to say to you, I'm God. I just have this kind of antenna and I have a constant feed from the Father. No, we find that as a man, he humbles himself and he receives the words in the same way that you or I would have to receive them. Isaiah 50 gives a sketch of that. Now we'll look at that and then we'll jump to the New Testament. How did he know what to say? Look at the second half of verse four. He, that is the Father, He awakens me morning by morning. He awakens my ear to listen as a disciple. The Lord has opened my ear and I was not disobedient, nor did I turn back. Now, I want you to turn to the New Testament. Just keep your bookmark in chapter 50, but we're going to go to the Gospel of John. And in the Gospel of John, we have the clearest autobiographical descriptions of the son's relationship to the father. And I want you to see some of these that touch directly on his teaching, all right? John chapter 7, verse 16. John chapter 7, verse 16. So Jesus answered them and said, they're asking where does Christ get his teaching in verse 15, he's never been educated, didn't go to seminary, where'd you learn to talk that way? Verse 16, Jesus answered and said to them, my teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. All right, so that's fundamental. Jesus doesn't just say what he thinks will be right things to say, but there's a constant dependence on the Father, a yieldedness toward the Father, And by the work of the Spirit, the Son knows exactly what the Father would have Him to say. Look at John 8, verse 28. So Jesus said, When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing on my own initiative, but I speak the things as the Father taught me. Again, a very Precious insight, a window into the heart of Christ. Your Savior did not do anything on his own initiative while on earth. So how did you know what to say? Well, I said the things the Father, what? Taught me. Look at chapter eight, verse 38. I speak the things which I have seen with my Father. All right, there's another thing. Look at chapter eight, verse 40. But as it is, you're seeking to kill me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God. All right, let's look at chapter 12, verse 49. For I did not speak on my own initiative, but the Father himself who sent me has given me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak. You see the picture. There's a true humanity here. Yes, fully God, but fully man. And walking in a perfect harmony with the Father by depending upon the Spirit, the Lord Jesus can turn and say to them, I have not spoken on my own initiative. I don't give you my own clever teachings. I'm telling you what the Father gave me to tell you. These are things that I was taught by my Father, things which I have seen with my Father. When does that happen? Well, you remember Mark 1, verse 32, When evening came after the sun had set, they began bringing to him all who were ill and those who were demon-possessed. And the whole city had gathered at the door. And he healed many who were ill with various diseases and cast out many demons. He was not permitting the demons to speak because they knew who he was. Late night, then, very next verse, In the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went away to a secluded place and was praying there. What a picture. Back to Isaiah chapter 50. Morning by morning, the Father awakens me. Morning by morning, the Father opens my ears and I listen like a disciple, like a pupil. I sit at my Father's feet and I have now the words to comfort. You ever thought of reading the Bible, the Old Testament? You ever thought about reading it? And reading it with this in your thoughts, what would it have been like for Christ to read this passage? My Savior read it. The Psalms, the crying out, the agony. Some of the Psalms Christ couldn't have prayed. Psalm 51, the sinful, penitential Psalms. But when he reads it, How aware he must have been that his life, his perfect obedience that day, and his sacrificial death one day would make it so David could pray that. Morning by morning, your Savior, as the God-man, ransacks the scriptures and listens as a perfect disciple and his perfect responsiveness to the Father. One expression of that is, or one consequence of that is, that he has the words to say. He has words of life. Now, strangely, the perfect responsiveness of the Son is costly and it brings a reaction from the world. Look at verse 5 and 6. The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not disobedient, nor did I turn back. I gave my back to those who strike me, and my cheeks to those who pluck out the beard. I did not cover my face from humiliation and spitting. Now, if we did not have our New Testaments, we'd be really confused here. What's he talking about? But we know what he's talking about, doesn't he? We could summarize it like this. This is the life of Jesus of Nazareth, morning by morning. The Father wakes me up morning by morning, alone with Him. I hear, I'm taught, I see. One morning, it's clear, this is the day you will be the Lamb that carries the sin of your people. And when I heard that, I didn't turn back. I didn't hide my face. Morning by morning, 33 years. Every time he speaks to me, I don't turn away from the commands. I don't dodge those commands. I respond as the perfect servant. And when the cross comes, it's the same response. Let's think about that. In the Hebrew it says here, two words, he doesn't openly rebel and he doesn't secretly dodge. That's really what we have in verse five. I was not disobedient, that's rebellious, nor did I turn back, that's to step aside. All right, so two very different descriptions of how you can hear from the Lord and not be obedient. You can openly rebel. So God, as you're reading in the quiet times, as you're listening together to the preaching of his word as a church, You can come across a place where God is putting a finger on some area of your life and you just say, no, no, no, I will not follow you. But I don't find that to be the primary problem in a Christian. I find the second one to be much more problematic. And that is to sidestep or to just to allow the commandment to pass by you. So you're reading in your Bible, the Lord puts his finger on an area of your life and you kind of just gently step aside, look over here for a while. You ever have those kind of quiet times where you're still reading your three chapters per day, but you are not having a conversation with the author because you know that he continually says, we're going back to what I said last time. We're not moving forward until we talk about this. And so you just read through and for you, this book becomes just print on a page. And you blame the book or you come to church. And after a while you say to yourself, boy, Pastor Andy, he stinks at preaching lately. One time I asked my wife, was she getting much out of my preaching? I mean, I want to be helpful. She said, well, to be honest, I haven't gotten much out of it in the whole year. I said, why didn't you tell me? And then she goes, oh, I've been a nurse, I've been in Christ for the whole year, all right? So that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about coming, listening, and saying to yourself, I don't know, I just don't really get much out of church. Well, before you blame someone else, and it's not that pastors can't fail, but before you blame the church, before you blame your leadership, ask yourself, am I sidestepping a command? And I know what the Lord would say if I said to him, here I am sitting at your feet as a child before their father. The book is open. I don't have a list of questions for you. I'm just here. Say anything you want to say. I'm listening. But you wouldn't dare do that because you know what he would say. The Messiah never rebels against the Father. The Messiah never gently steps aside and allows any of the commands to just pass by. But what about us? Do you ever do that? Ask yourself these questions. Is God awakening you? And are you listening? All right, not in general. Let's just ask about today. this week. Now I know that we're on church holiday and that generally means that the children are all in the same room with you and it is difficult, and especially moms with young children, it is difficult to find a space in the day to meet with the Lord. But in light of the circumstances you're in, could you say, I'm a follower of Jesus Christ. Morning by morning the Father awakens me. Morning by morning He opens my ear and I respond. I don't rebel. I haven't sidestepped. If you want to see a picture of the complete consecration of Christ, you can go back to John's gospel and look at those passages where he describes this interiority of his relationship with the Father. So things like John chapter 4, my food is to do the will of him who sent me. By the way, when he says that, he proceeds it by saying, I have a food that you don't understand, Peter, James, John, all of you disciples. I find that extremely encouraging. I can say to the Lord, sometimes I don't know if I know anything about that food. Sometimes I think I just live for John, preach for John, raise my kids for John, go to spend my money for John, spend my hours for John. God, do I know anything about the life of Christ? Do I follow him? Have I even put my foot on the path where I see his footprints? But if I feel at times like I don't know anything about living on that reality, my food is to do the will of him who sent me. Well, I can't say to him, but you said that to men that didn't know anything. But when I see them later in the book of Acts, we wouldn't say that then, would we? Or in John chapter 6, I haven't come to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me. So I ask myself, John Snyder, why are you stepping out of bed this morning, you know, before the foot hits the floor? Why? Why? Why are you getting in the shower? Why are you putting your clothes on? Why? The path of Jesus Christ is clear. I haven't gotten up this morning to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. John chapter eight, Jesus says, I always do what pleases the father. Therefore, he says, I enjoy this uninterrupted nearness of God that he is always near me. We could go on. And the result being John chapter 17, in that great high priestly prayer, verse four, I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work which you've given me to do. Now all of that could describe the day in and day out life of our Savior weaving a perfect righteousness for his people. And that's the whole life, but of course, the consummation, the culmination of all of that is in John 14, 31, when he says to his disciples, after teaching them, if you love me, you will keep my commands. That's the basic reality. And then at the end of the chapter, he says, in order that the world may know that I love my father, as he has given me a commandment, let's get up and leave. I have to go do it. And that's my paraphrase. And he's talking about the cross. I'm going to the cross. Of course, it's to purchase his bride, gives himself for his church, but it's to show the world what it looks like to love God, to obey. How does he endure when God's communication to him is, today you will suffer infinitely for your people? How does he face that kind of a life? Verses 7, 8, and 9. For the Lord God helps me. Therefore, I am not disgraced. Therefore, I have set my face like flint. And I know that I will not be ashamed. He who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up to each other. Who has a case against me? Let him draw near to me. Behold, the Lord God helps me. Who is he who condemns me? Behold, they will all wear out like a garment. The moth will eat them. He entrusts himself to the Father all through the life, and he entrusts himself to the Father the day of the cross. I will not be disgraced. I will not be ashamed. The one that vindicates me is at hand. The picture is a court scene. Who can bring a case against Christ? Who can come to him and say, you're a fraud, and these claims you've made, they're empty? Well, people tried. Pilate tried Christ. What is truth? Are you a king? You know you're in my hands. Herod tried Christ. The Sanhedrin, the Pharisees, they tried Christ. all the enemies of this servant from the first century until he returns. It doesn't matter how many of them there are, how many like Psalm 2 gather together and hope that by the union of their forces, they might topple him. They cannot reach him on his throne and they will all be worn out like a garment and thrown away. What about in our lives? Christian, imagine all your doubts which come to you, and they accuse Christ to you. Is He really all He says He is? Is He all that faithful? Look at your life. How long will you continue to say these flowery statements about Jesus Christ? How long will you quote the hymnal when your life looks this way? All your doubts, well, they may conquer you, But one day they will face the Lord Jesus Christ and one after the next they will be worn out like a garment and thrown away. You'll never see them again. An eternity with a new body and a completed redemption. Us, Christ, every believer, no more enemies. Well, we've only started looking at the Lord Jesus Christ, and so Hudson Taylor's prayer is a great prayer. Make yourself to me a living, bright reality. I want you to be more clear and real to faith than anything I see with my eyes. Let me give you just a couple of applications for really the whole three sections. We are looking at the preparation of the Lamb of God, right? The humble general who lands on the shores, gentle, won't raise his voice on the city streets to draw attention to himself, yet he will bring justice to the earth. The faithful servant who, even in the midst of contradictions, does not despair, brings his heart's complaints to the Father, and hears from the father that it's not enough for him to rescue Israel, he's going to be sent to rescue the whole world. And here the obedient servant, who unlike Israel, in the darkest of times, not because of his sin, but because of the sin of those around him, even when the morning's lesson is the cross, he does not rebel, he does not step aside, but he sets his face like flint to do the pleasure of the father. We remember the New Testament. My father gave me this cup. What am I to do with it? Am I not to drink it? When we read these passages, we are reading a righteousness being fashioned for us. I can look over the last 24 hours and I can see enough reasons in my own soul to give up preaching. But if I give up preaching, I might as well just give up Christianity. It's the same lies. And then I come back to these songs about Christ, and I let my accusations crash against those songs, those doubts and fears. And like Amy Carmichael wrote in a poem, she described herself like a soldier on a field, fallen under the temptations and the and the attacks of the enemy. Her sword snapped underneath her body. She's face down in the mud. She looks up. There's the captain of the host. There's Christ. He looks at her. She fears disgust. But she says in his face, she reads the call to get up again. And so in this poem, she says, just give me a snapped sword. That's all I need. What about you? When you see these sketches of Jesus Christ, these are just pencil sketches. Go to the New Testament for the high definition. Do you lay all your hope here? One of my favorite poems, and I'm not really into that much poetry. I do like poetry, but I'm too lazy to be really into too much poetry. But I like a poem by Milton, Not Paradise Lost. I couldn't plow through it. I was in university. You had to read it. So I made it. But, uh, rough. Alright. He wrote another poem called Samson Agonistes, The Agony of Samson. And it's just a poetic retelling of the story of Samson. And in one of those places, Samson in the poem, Samson is in the Philistine prison. His hair is shorn, he's weak. He's humiliated. They march him out over and over. They praise Dagon, their God, for conquering the champion of Jehovah. They mock God because of Samson's sin. Samson's father comes to him in the poem, and Samson explains his hope. And in the midst of this long, Milton poem, he says, this is what Samson says, this only hope relieves me, that the strife With me hath end, I'm conquered. All the contest is now with God. Dagon, the Philistine god, has presumed me, overthrown, to enter list with God. Dagon must stoop. When I read of the faithfulness of the Messiah, and in verses seven through nine, how he says, every enemy will come against him in the heavenly court, and they will wear out as they rage against him. I think of that. This only hope relieves me that the strife with me has an end. All the contest now between the enemy is between, it's not between the enemy and me, it's enemy and God. It's the enemy and this Christ. Dagon, the Dagon's of our day have presumed since they overthrow John Snyder so easily to enter the battlefield with Christ. Our Dagon's must stoop. So all our hope is here, not just hope, adoration. In seminary, there was a professor, Dr. Reginald Barnard. I don't know if I've told you about him before. He was from Australia, and then Oxford, England, Spurgeon's College, then over to America. When I met him, he was in his 80s. He was my favorite professor at the seminary. I mean, to be honest, he could have been a flaming heretic, but the accent was beautiful, so I would have listened, all right? But he wasn't. He was a sweet believer. And he said to me, he said, when I was converted, age 14, my father was a pastor. He said, that's the only Christian books, we didn't have any good libraries around us, so I just read my father's library over and over. And he said this, I began to keep a record of every poem, every scripture, every comment in a commentary, every section of a sermon, which gave me the clearest views of Christ. And I started to write them down in my journals. And he said, that was at age 14, I'm still trying. He said, I have pursued the clearest views of the beauty of Christ for 70 years. But then he told me this, but when I stand before him, I fully expect seeing him on his throne to turn away and blush and say, I knew you were beautiful, but I had no idea you were this beautiful. Mrs. Haim once visited Mississippi, she and Mr. Haim, and he was preaching to the church, she was doing some ladies' meetings, and she said this to the ladies. Why not make it your determination to get to know Christ better than you know any other human? Why not? It doesn't matter what age you are. Go buy a journal. Pick up your phone, whatever you use. Begin to record those things that aid you most to see Him clearest. Last application. It's wonderful to fill our hearts with the thoughts of His righteousness, not mine, His loveliness, not the world's. But really, we're not Christian if we stop there. We are followers. So that means a follower, if I say to Andy, I'm going to follow you. Let's say that someone loses their mind and gives me the keys to their car and says, you drive home, all right? I don't know how to get back to Care Salem. I don't know how to get back to Cardiff. Well, follow Andy. What does a follower do? They watch and imitate. Where's Andy? Right there he is. Now I've got him in my sights. Now stay up. He turns right, I turn right. Slows down, I slow down. Speeds up, I've got to speed up. I can't lose him, I have to keep my eyes on him. It's a simple picture, isn't it? But is that your Christianity? Daily, looking at Christ, responding, following. Christ, I follow. So when we read chapter 42, 49, and 50, it's not just admiration and faith and hope and dependence. There's also the question, God, how do I follow that today so that the realities of Christ might be viewed through my simple life? Well, may the Lord help us. Let's sing.