In January this year, you may have read where there was a 53-year-old woman who lived in southwest Missouri who purposed, planned, and then performed the death of her 25-year-old son by slipping antifreeze into his beverage. Not only that, she killed her husband and tried to kill her daughter, for which another daughter helped her purpose, plan, and then carry out the execution of her son, 25 years old. When you read her plea of guilt, she would say, It was a mistake. It's all kinds of bad consequences that have resulted. I've ruined everything." But you get the sense in her words that she's kind of satisfied with it. Her justification was her son was worse than a pest. So what do you do with pests? I guess you take them out. She seemed to be somewhat pleased even though she acknowledged the wrongness of it and the consequences that would follow. Now there are some words we could use to describe such actions, malicious, evil, diabolical, despicable. And maybe you have a few words yourself. But I ask you this morning, what would you call it when God does the very same thing? Turn to Isaiah 53 verse 10. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief, when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hands. He shall see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities." The word pleasure means to delight to have favor in what happened, to will it, to choose it, to like it. Is that not similar? Here's a 33-year-old son, not a 25-year-old son. And who performed the execution? He put him to grief. Now, of course, immediately we would say, we call that righteous. But why? Why is the same action on behalf of one woman, sinful, evil, and she's incarcerated? But then when God does the very same thing, we call it right. I want to answer that question this morning along with other questions and answers we find in verses 10 and 11 as we entitle this message, It Pleased the Lord. It Pleased the Lord. Now one part of that answer is obviously in the outcome of the bruising, which means to crush to pieces, to destroy. And that's what God by His own pen says He did to His Son and that's what we know the New Testament teaches us. The outcome of this offering and this pleasure in bruising Him is threefold in verse 10, He shall see His seed, that's the posterity result, offspring. He shall prolong His days, that's the perennial result, as in perennial plants, they just keep going on and on every year, eternal resurrection. And then there's the progressive result, the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper a progressive advancement in His hand, the righteous servant. The hand is a place of work and skill. So it doesn't say that the Lord is pleased with His prosperity, that could be true, but it says the pleasure of the Lord is prospering in His hand, in His work. It's still going on today. Now the second word, pleasure, is the noun for the verb in the first word, pleasure. So there's no appreciable difference in the two words. So the pleasure of the Lord in bruising is the pleasure of the Lord in prospering, or that's being prospered in the hand of the servant. So it's about outcomes, but when we back that word to the first word, it seems to be that God had some kind of pleasure in the bruising itself. And that's what we want to answer and pose, first of all, this morning. What is this pleasure? How is it right and how is it wrong for us, acting under similar circumstances? Even God Himself in the Decalogue says, Thou shalt not kill, but we find He kills. I kill and make alive, Deuteronomy 32. And these apparent contradictions and these tensions in the Bible that when we see them, we should ask, we should probe, we should seek out answers from Scripture because God tells you not to do what He Himself will do, has does and will continue to do. He kills by His own admission. So let's look at the same P words that we introduced in the woman's execution as with God's execution. First of all, God planned it. He planned to bruise His Son. Now the prophecy itself proves He planned it because the instruments of the execution don't even exist yet. They don't even know they're part of the plan and they will not acknowledge that it was part of the plan for them to bruise the Son. That's amazing. Every prophecy, for the most part, that we come to involves people that will fulfill it in the future that do not know they're part of the plan. except the Lord Jesus Christ. When He fulfilled prophecy, He knew it. He did it on purpose. But all other actors and performers in this plan had no knowledge. When God speaks of His plan in the Old and New Testament, He typically uses the English word, counsel, as in Psalm 33. The counsel of the Lord standeth forever His thoughts to all generations. His plan just keeps going and going through the generations. In Acts 2, verse 23, Peter speaking there said that God had delivered His Son by the determinate counsel and His foreknowledge and they by wicked hands had crucified. Determinate counsel was a deliberate plan, His counsel. He was delivered by that plan. Acts 4.28 says that when all these players, we call them, actors acting out of the wickedness of their own heart, gather together against the holy child Jesus, Luke records as the early church got great assurance and comfort and strength from this reality that they were gathered together to do whatsoever God's hand and His counsel determined before that they would do. before is way before, way before Isaiah 53, way before the world began because Jesus was a lamb, according to Revelation, that was slaughtered before the world began. How do you slaughter someone in the purpose of God before the world began if it's not a plan to carry it out when the world's created and Jesus comes into the world? All this telling us, like the woman, God planned the execution of His 33-year-old son. But yet God says it's right and not wrong. Secondly, He performed it. He put him to grief. He, personal pronoun, God did it. That means that the prophecy of Genesis 3.15 that we just read, it, the seed of the serpent shall bruise his heel. is God's bruising. Not two different bruisings, one bruising, the heel is the cross, the serpent bites the heel on the cross, and when he bites, that is God's bite because it's the same bruising. Right? That's where you say, Amen? Yes. Amen. Why is that not wrong? When the Jews bruise Him, pierce Him, wound Him, That is God's piercing, wounding, hurting Him. When the Romans in Acts 4.28 pierce Him, bruise Him, scourge Him, crush Him, that is God's piercing, wounding, bruising, crushing. These are not two different bruising, it's the same bruising. God performed it. Now we know from the rest of the Bible in our study of the book of Isaiah, these chapters we're looking at, that the bruising of God does not mean that He's the cause of the evil in the sense that He made them do it, meaning that He put evil in their hearts. But God is the primary cause in this sense. You know, there's two definitions of cause. We define words, we must define words so we understand what each other is saying. There is a cause that says something that arises. In other words, a cause can be something that happens that an action arises out of it. Okay? So in that sense, God is the primary cause of everything that happened, like this. What was the cause of Joseph's brothers hating him? Well, the secondary cause was hatred. It was there in the heart. What was the primary cause of that hatred arising and acting to sell Joseph? Two dreams. Who gave him the dreams? God did. Why? For a series of events to take place for which God was over everyone. What's the primary cause? God's good dream that He gave to Joseph which was true and right and happened for which an action arose which was sinful. They hated Him. Is God evil because He does good and man responds with iniquity? No. And thereby God is the primary cause in that way of Joseph's going to Egypt. Had He not given him that dream, that would not have happened. For which you say, I get it, I get it, what you're saying is God does this because He wants people to do evil, right? Wrong. We're plowing our way to the answer of why it's not wrong. Because Genesis 50-20 tells us why. God is not after the evil, He's after something else. He told His brothers after the years, 22 years had passed by, He said, as for you, you thought, you weaved, you fabricated, you meshed together evil. But God meant, same word, we've fabricated it, your evil. Why? He just wanted you to do evil? No. Unto good. God hates every man's evil. And when he suffers it and is the primary cause, meaning that when he acts good and holy and right, that actions arise that are wrong, it's not because he wants the evil, it's because he's after the good. He's always after the good. To save much people alive as it was that day, which ultimately was the people going into Egypt, being incarcerated so that they could be redeemed and God be glorified, right? Jesus himself was crucified because of the truth that he spoke. Everything he said, everything he did, every miracle he performed was a kind of cause for an action toward him that was rooted in hatred. He didn't put the hatred there. He's not that cause. He just simply spoke and people went ballistic. Is Jesus the cause of man's evil? No. But He was what gave rise to it by speaking purposefully, truly, and understanding the result would be His own crucifixion, Matthew 26. They get all the witnesses, they don't agree, they're frustrated, say, don't you say anything? This whole counsel, this court, this trial. Jesus wouldn't say a word, they're so frustrated. Finally He speaks of a truth. You shall see the Son of Man come in clouds of glory, rent His clothes. What further word do we have? He's blasphemous and they took Him off to be crucified and on trial to Pilate. If Jesus had not spoken that which was true and that which was good, the hatred that was already there, He didn't put it there, would not have arisen to bring about His own bruising. So God is not after evil, but God knows every man's heart and what's already there. And if God were to say, well I can't act, can't do anything holy because as soon as I do, somebody's going to be evil and when they get evil, people are going to charge me wrongly, that's not the God of heaven. Sometimes we think we've got to put on sanitized gloves to handle the Scripture, you know. God has on gloves and with evil He sort of, you know, can't deal with it, but He's using it. He was performing the crucifixion by using the evil. in such a way that he says, I'm doing this, in one sense, and in one sense we know he wasn't doing and performing the evil itself. And so we've got to have these categories in our mind for looking at text like this so we come away baffled or come away with the wrong idea about God. He planned it, He performed it, but He also purposed it. What was His intent? Now let's back up a little bit and see what God says about this and verse in Isaiah 44 when He tells us about His pleasure in Cyrus, which prefigures Jesus as the coming shepherd. Cyrus will perform the pleasure of God. He's going to redeem. He's going to go in as a single-handed redeemer. and release the people from bondage. That's a prefiguring of Jesus. Even though Cyrus is nothing like Jesus, we see that the imagery here in Isaiah 44 and other places we've seen is that of prefiguring the coming Messiah and His work. So Isaiah 44, verse 28, Isaiah 44, 28, that saith of Cyrus, that is God says of this man Cyrus that's coming in the future, many, many years in the future, He is My shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure," that could be translated purpose too. even saying to Jerusalem, thou shalt be built, and to the temple your foundation shall be laid." Now is that the pleasure of God, really? I mean, you like architecture, you like old buildings in Jerusalem, you like to, you know, fixer-upper kind of thing, going into Jerusalem, make this look good, get the open concept and all this stuff we like to see. Is that really what pleases Him? That's what He says. You're going to build Jerusalem and you're going to lay the foundation of the temple. Not exactly. Because Psalm 102 verse 16, I believe, says, when the Lord shall build up Zion, Zion is synonymous with Jerusalem. When he does that, he shall appear in his glory. The pleasure that God has in building is his glory. in Jerusalem through the redemption that's going to take place through Cyrus's sword. But now the coming shepherd, for which Cyrus prefigures, does something different with his sword. Now Cyrus goes in with a sword and a bow and he subdues and he conquers and he kills, but Jesus takes the sword, the sword of God in Zechariah 12, and God says, away go my sword against my shepherd. So he takes it in the heart. He gets subdued, He gets conquered, He gets killed with the sword of God. A little different kind of redemption, right? And God is going to find pleasure in this execution that He says, awake My sword against My shepherd, the man who is My fellow or equal, and I will turn My hands toward the little ones, the believers. What is so pleasurable about this bruising? It is when He builds up Zion, He shall appear. in His glory. That's the good God always works toward. Did not Jesus say in John 2, 19, destroy this temple and in three days I'll raise it up? What temple? His body. So God comes in and He levels the temple with the sword of His justice and it gets raised up. And God's pleasure is in the bruising and the outcome, both in verse 10 of Isaiah 53. But then in Isaiah 46 we see some further information about where this glory is moving and what makes it right for God to do this and wrong for anybody else. You can't kill, God can. Why? Because of His glory and because of His righteousness. Isaiah 46 verse 9. Remember the former things of old, for I am God and there is none else. I am God and there is none like Me," verse 10, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times of things that are not yet done, saying, my counsel, my plan shall stand and I will do all my pleasure. What is that pleasure? Verse 11, calling a ravenous bird, Cyrus, from the east, the man that executeth. He plans it, he performs it, he purposes it and it happens. This man is going to execute his counsel from a far country, yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass. I have purposed it, I will do it. So where is this moving? Verse 12, hearken unto me ye stout-hearted that are far from righteousness. Verse 13, I bring near my righteousness. Now we said at the outset, the reason God can kill, because when He kills, He's doing it righteously. When any other person kills, you're doing it unrighteously because of where your pleasure is and where His is. So if God is bringing His righteousness near, it's far off, He's going to bring the Redeemer near, Cyrus, His salvation shall not delay or procrastinate and I will place salvation, this righteousness, where? In Zion for Israel, my glory. So God's righteousness in purposing, being pleased with it, performing it, bringing this redemption, this righteousness, means when God is acting righteous and bringing it near in salvation, He's acting for His glory. That's what always makes it righteous and never wrong, because God never acts unrighteously, which means He never acts apart from the good of His glory. Genesis 5020, Isaiah 5310, and all throughout the Bible. By definition, God is right when He kills, so long as He kills according to His pleasure, which means He's doing it rightly, which means He's doing it for His glory. The woman killed according to her pleasure that she performed and planned and purposed. It was unrighteous because it was for herself and not God. And anybody that acts apart from God is unrighteous and sinning, because that's the definition of unrighteousness in the Bible. So now let's backtrack one more place to Isaiah 42 and bring this together in the cross where the pleasure is of God and it's bruising. That's right, it's right. Verse 21 of Isaiah 42, we looked at this verse earlier. Isaiah 42, 21, the Lord is well pleased for His righteousness sake...now we bring the pleasure of God and the righteousness of God together, we know we're bringing the glory of God. God is well pleased for His righteousness sake, He will magnify the law and make it or make Him honorable. The law is a reflection of God's glory and when He magnifies it, He's magnifying Himself. And when He magnifies the law in Himself, He's doing it out of the pleasure over His righteousness. Now how will this all come together in the bruising of the son? First of all, it's righteous because Jesus was not a legally innocent man. Totally unrighteous for God to kill an innocent man. They don't exist except for one. But he became sin. He became as a transgressor. Is it right for a judge to condemn a criminal according to law? Yes. Law magnified. But then the devil's bruising is right because he bruised Jesus for the... Right? He bruised Him. So the devil was right because, you know, he was carrying out God's law. Wrong. What was his pleasure? Wickedness Self-serving lust John 844 you're of your father the devil and the lust of your father you will do What does the devil want to be exalted? To be supreme above God. That's unrighteous What does God want to be seen as exalted and glorious? That's right. And so God is well pleased for his righteousness sake and his righteousness was seen in the measure of His love for His glory in the bruising of His Son. I mean, just how committed is God, anyway, to this holiness thing and this law? Oh, I killed my son. Okay. You're committed. How do we measure the love of God for His holiness and His pleasure in righteousness? He bruised His Son, righteously, because He was aiming at the law, He was aiming at His own holiness when Jesus became sin. And Romans 3 says, He declared that He was right in the forbearance of sins that are past, and He declares His righteousness now in those that believe in the Son, Jesus Christ, because the gospel is a revelation of God's righteousness. What is that? How much He loves holiness and will preserve, honor, protect and magnify that holiness through the slaughter of His own Son. That's what makes it right. And that's what makes everything else wrong. because of our will, our pleasures, our desires, our darkness, our nature, everything we do is self-serving pleasures, self-seeking satisfaction. Secondly, if God did that as a measure of what He loves, we look at the cross and we see His pleasure there because it's a measure of His hatred. What is the measure of God's hatred for your sin? He killed His Son. That's pretty strong. He killed His only begotten Son. That's how passionately He hates sin, even the sin He allows, hates it. He magnifies the law because the law says He rewards righteousness and He visits iniquity on transgressors. And He did both in Jesus. He visited our iniquity, our transgressions in the shepherd and He rewarded His personal righteousness with a resurrection. all showing God's passion and the measure of what He loves and what He hates. God was so pleased with this bruising because that's what Jesus loves and hates. Hebrews 1.9, speaking about Jesus, you have loved righteousness and hated iniquity, just like the Father. That's why you were crucified. Therefore God, even thy God, has anointed thee with a joy or oil of gladness above your fellows. Anoint him as a king. He's glad. Why are you so glad, God? Because I take pleasure in that when my son was bruised, he loved righteousness and hated iniquity. And the iniquity was not his own. It was yours. And so God's pleasure in the bruising is in the sacrifice itself, not in the pain of it, not just, hey, it's in this event, but in the measure of His love, the measure of His hatred, the measure of His holiness, and the measure of the Son's love and hatred. And so God said, I'm glad over what you're glad about, Jesus, and that's my righteousness and my glory. Because you hate what I hate, you love what I love. So God is righteous, and every time He kills in the Bible, you watch, He's killing according to that standard. His own glory, His own righteousness, and what He loves above everything. Next, I want you to see His pleasure in the Son's offering itself, and you find this in the next part. It pleased the Lord to bruise Him, He hath put Him to grief, when thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin. This speaks of the guilt offering, the word sin, which is primarily about satisfying a debt. God's pleasure in the bruising of His Son was that the Son was offering Himself as a guilt offering. And that pleased God. It was truly a free will offering. Truly, truly. Now if you're astute and you're looking at this passage, you would look at the word make and you would say, that doesn't sound like freedom to me. I know that word very well. That's a word of slavery, isn't it? You make me do it, Mom. Just make, make, make. Right? Make is a bondage word, not a free word. What does this mean here? You make me clean my room. You make me do this. That's bondage, that's not freedom. But when we consider the New Testament, We see that Jesus says Himself through the writings of Paul and the apostles that He was doing it of Himself. For example, Galatians 1.4, who gave Himself for our sins. He gave Himself for your sins. That's a statement of freedom. He did this. Or Galatians 2.20, I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life that I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. What better language of freedom can you find? Jesus wanted you to do that. I gave myself. I poured out myself. I was willing. And that pleases God. Or there's Titus 2.14, "...who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquities." Paul says he gave himself to that tax. He was willing in Godless pleasing. Or 1 Timothy 2.6, "...who gave himself as a ransom." Christ paid. A ransom involves three things human to human. Wealth, willingness, worth. And that's why they kidnap, you know, rich kids for the sake of it. A lot of welfare. So if your parents have the wealth, you can pay the ransom. Second, willingness. Is it worth it? Now, that's a lot of money for this kid, right? This kid. That's a lot of money. It's only a willing ransom if there's world in the person. There's a relationship. And so a parent would say, you just name the price. I don't care what it is. A little different, God-to-man. In one sense, God does not have enough wealth to pay for that stuff. But what I mean by that is in gold and silver. He doesn't have enough quality. Quantities. He can create from nothing. He can create all the gold and silver he wants, but there's no quality in the gold and silver. It won't work. That kind of wealth won't do it. It takes the wealth of blood of a person. that is willing. He's willing to ransom because He gave Himself for you. He's willing, and the worth is not the object of sinner, it is the glory of God. Amen. For which Jesus is the righteous servant because that was His aim. The worth of the person is in the choice of God as a bride for the Son. That's what gives you worth. It's all about Jesus. You know, the assurance of this is that God is so passionate and so pleased with the death of his son, then is he not pleased with the purchase that he brought about? In some sense, we find God in Isaiah 62 being delighted and pleased with his bride, with his people. How strong is God's delight in having you as his people? Just as strong as the measure of his love for his homies. That is astounding. It's amazing. Not intrusive value, the value of God's choice, the value of Jesus' blood, the value of that blood applied on you, the value of faith in Jesus. He's just as passionately committed to you as he is to his own holiness, because Jesus as a mediator brought the two together. That is sustaining. In times of doubt, in times of sorrow, Sometimes I'm thinking God has forgotten me. He cannot. Can a woman forget a certain child? Does she want to have compassion on the child of a woman? Yes. God can never forget. You're so valuable. No. A ransom. The aim of it. And the value assigned to you by the blood of the Lord Jesus. Do you know how privileged you are? But now I have to deal with this word make, because I see all those verses, but it still says you're gonna make him good, you're gonna make his soul. Turn to John chapter 10, Jesus uses a similar word, and speaks of his freedom, but he uses the word must, and must is like make. I must go to school, I must go to work, I must clean my room, I must do the dishes, I must clean the bathroom. We understand that that is typically a must of slavery. They must know. But Jesus uses this word concerning himself. How is this pleasing to God if Jesus says, I must go get killed, I must go sacrifice, I must do it for these people. So look at John chapter 10 verse 16. Other sheep I have which are not of this fold, them also I must bring. I have to, I must. And they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one foal and one shepherd. Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I may take it again." Now wait a minute. Verse 17 speaks of freedom. The Lord is pleased with the offering of the Son, because He lays down His life by Himself. No man takes it from Him, and He takes it up by Himself. No man takes it up from Him. That's a statement of absolute freedom. Why the must now? You don't seem to fit. I must, I must, I must. Well, it's a kind of must of John 4, when John the same writer writes, Jews must need to go through Samaria. Must! Now, no Jews must go through Samaria, because they needed to. They would go the long way around to go north, because they did not want to be associated with the half-breed. Right. Now, Jews are not saying, look, I'm lost, I'm tired, I'm thirsty, I'm hot, I want to go to the shore, I must need to go through there. There's another kind of must. Yeah. You see, he must go to a well, he must ask for water, he must have a conversation, he must confront an adulterous woman. He must talk about worship. He must bring her to worship because she's a sheep that He must bring. But the must of John 4, 24 is a must like this. It's the must of the parent telling his son, you must go into that kitchen and you must eat. Yes, I must. My food is to do the will of Him that sent me. I have food to eat that you know not of. I must go to Samaria because I must eat there. I must be satisfied there. I must move on in the will of God because I must have joy in Him. I must pursue His will. I must do it out of love for God and the love of that adulterous Did you get up this morning and say, I must go to church. I must read the Bible. I must pray. I must serve. I must, I must, I must. Does God find pleasure in that kind of must? Oh, no. Now, let's just be honest. Do we have those kind of must? Oh, yes. God's not casting us away. He knows we struggle with those kind of must. But he doesn't want us to stay here. So if you're just here because you must be here, keep must being here, but pray and ask that you would please the Father with a must that says, my food, I'm hungry, I'm thirsty, I need you, Jesus, and that's why I'm coming to church. I must preach today. Oh boy, that could be the wrong must. I must, you know. I must. And thou shalt make His solemn offering for sin. That's the father's perspective, but that's the son's perspective of freedom. He loves it. He yearned for it. He wanted it. And so God was pleased with his bruising. And that perspective too. And the next, what else is he pleased with? In our text, he's pleased with the outcomes. We noted those. When we outset the message, we look at them again in Isaiah 53. God is pleased with the results, we could say. We please the Lord to bruise Him. When He makes His sole offering for sin, He shall see His seed. Jesus shall see His seed. He shall extend His days forever. And the pleasure of the Lord shall advance progressively in His Kingdom. First, He shall see His seed. The word seed means offspring. He shall see Him. God's pleased with the outcome of the bruising The Savior said He will see, He will experience, He will enjoy in the transgender, the offspring. Now when does a mother enjoy her offspring? When does a mother please with the offspring? When she successfully brings them to birth. Without that, she doesn't see it. She doesn't experience it. She doesn't enjoy the thing, the offspring. God's pleasure in the Son is not the future of offspring, not the hopes of offspring, it's that He shall see, He shall enjoy His family. Because He will adopt them into the family, and He will bring them by birth into the family, by spiritual birth, and He will see them. Face to face, as we sing. John 1, 11, 12, and 13 tells us, He came into His own, and His own received Him not. They didn't embrace Him. They didn't see Him as glorious. They didn't love Him. They didn't want Him. They didn't seize Him in a way that's spiritual. But as many as received Him, to them gave He the power of the right to be called. children, also the sons of God. Even as many as believe on His name. So notice that believing in verse 12 is synonymous with receiving in the previous verse. As many as receive Him, as many as believe on Him, receiving and believing is synonymous. So believing is not just a brain pile, right? It's a soul issue. Receive Him. See Him. Because the fact that Jesus will see his offspring means that the offspring will be brought to birth successfully so that they can see. You know, that's the whole idea of the Bruce. If Jesus doesn't see his offspring, why would God be pleased with a failed Messiah? You wouldn't be pleased with such. That's why we go to the coaches, man. You know, you keep losing. You're out of here. Why? Nobody wants a failed Messiah. Does God, when His glory is at stake, When the whole issue of the bruising is to glorify His name through the offspring, nobody shall see a successful spiritual growth. He will bring them to enjoy Him. John 13 says this is how. Which will pour not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of men. We're going to have some children, so we're going to know how it works. If you're just going to choose it, know how it works. Parents are going to choose it for them. Friends are going to choose it for friends. Know how to love the name of God. Amen. And so as many as were given to the Son, just as many He died for, just as many will be brought to spiritual birth, and will see and enjoy Jesus by faith. Amen. That pleases God. He loves that because His glory is secure in the ashram. Secondly, He shall prolong His days, which means He will live forever. Jesus raised the third day. How does that please God? Because He's going to secure your resurrection. He did. Jesus died to have us, to raise us up so that we would live with Him forever. That pleases God because He doesn't want a 50% rank on His return. Who's pleased with that? I'm going to give you a million dollars. You just get like $100,000 back from me, okay? And lose the rest. He shall see His seed. He shall prolong His days, which means the offspring shall be prolonged with the Son. That pleases God. That's success. God's pleased with the success of the servant here. And then finally, the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Here's the hand on the side, he's resurrected, he's seated at the right hand of the Father, and now he's doing this work of advancing progressively the pleasure of God in the morning and the night. That's his righteousness, that's his glory. How does that relate to you? Where is Jesus doing this work? All over the planet. He had put all things under His feet and gave Him the big head over all things of the church, which is His body. The fullness of Him that is filling the universe all in all. He's using you, the church, to advance the pleasure of the world by you giving glory to the Lord in your salvation I'm sure you didn't rob Jesus of Jesus Christ. You remember this, didn't you? Because when Jesus is going to work, the head's going to use his body. That's what I do. I don't know if you, you know, maybe these magicians can pull the body apart from the head and all that, but Jesus works through the body. And so he's filling, he's progressively advancing the glory of the Lord in the earth through people, through sinners in the church. And God is pleased with that because he's made you his people, your hands. a sovereign grace, and therefore God is pleased with the bruising, He's pleased with the offering, He's pleased with the results. When we trust Him, beloved, hard as it may be in the grass, when we are trusting Jesus, He's pleased with you. When by faith you're living, In the Son of God, on the Son of God, by the Son of God, glory abhors your Father by His pleasure in you, as He relates to His pleasure in the Son, as He relates to His pleasure over His own glory, holiness. Do you please God? Do you trust Him? Have you seen Him? Do you love Him? Have you devoted your life to Jesus?