Isaiah chapter 9 and we're turning back to Isaiah for this evening's message and to chapter 9 and I want to read from verse 1 and I'll finish at verse 12 so it's a short reading this evening I'm sure when you turn to the passage there's a very familiar verse in verse 6 before us we're not looking at that but verse 3 instead and yet we're going to read through to verse 12 so Isaiah chapter 9 and reading from verse 1 please nevertheless the dear miss shall not be such as was in her vexation when at the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali and afterward did more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea beyond Jordan in Galilee of the nations. The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light. They that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. Thou hast multiplied the nation, and not increased the joy. They joy before thee according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian. For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood, but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire. For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, that his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end. Upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom to order it and to establish it with judgement and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this the Lord sent a word into Jacob and it hath lighted upon Israel and all the people shall know even Ephraim and the inhabitant of Samaria that say in the pride and stoutness of heart the bricks are fallen down but we will build with hewn stones the sycamores are cut down but we will change them into cedars therefore the Lord shall set up the adversaries of Rezin against him and join his enemies together the Assyrians before and the Philistines behind and they shall devour Israel with open mouth for all this his anger is not turned away but his hand is stretched out still and I'll finish there at verse 12 we know that Lord will be pleased to bless his word to our hearts for his own name Isaiah 9, verse 3, and in that last piece there, we heard about heaven's joy, and I want us to think about the harvest joy this evening, the joy of harvest, which is mentioned in verse 3. Thou hast multiplied the nation and not increased the joy. They joy before thee according to the joy in harvest. And as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. Let's seek the Lord together in prayer around His word, please. Thank you. Lord, we thank Thee for the songs that we have heard from the Girls of the Youth Fellowship. Bless them as they have come to minister to us. We thank Thee for the guidance and the vision which Thou art unto us, our instruction, and we pray that Thou would be ever our guide and our teacher. So when we come now to Thy Word, we are mindful that we need to be all taught of the Lord and guided according to Thy Word. I pray thou to help me Lord, cleanse me from all sin as we assemble and ascend up to the hill of the Lord. May it be with pure hearts, may it be with clean hands, and may it be with the eye to the glory of God. And may thy presence now make one with us in here, this place of worship, for we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. The expression of joy in any given life is always one of those happy sights to witness and so we can probably think of a whole list of things where we start to rejoice over and be glad and if we go through the predictable things and the special things of life, when the baby is born of course, there's great joy, there's the anticipation of the baby being born and and everything's going to be okay and is the mother okay and so forth and not too much thought for the father, by the way, that's probably right. And then the baby comes and there's joy and that joy goes through the entirety of that child's life. You see the milestones being met and the toddler walks and the toddler grows up and becomes an older person, teenager, a young adult and all the progressions of life and you see the joy in the parent's face. Now I know I'm masking the grief but I'm just trying to make a one-sided point this evening when it comes to the joy of a child. And then there's the joy of love and relationships and marriage and so many things like this. And then also you can look at joy in a different way. It's almost an ironic way of looking at joy when something is recovered. The joy of finding something, the joy of relief. And I direct your thoughts to think of, of course, the great parable in Luke where we read of the recovery of the lost sheep and the lost coin and the lost son. And we find how there is a unifying factor within that chapter that there is the expression of joy. There is joy in heaven, there is joy in the presence of angels, and it is joy that is expressed in the presence of God because of the recovery of a soul. And if we are to be true to ourselves, one of the greatest reasons for anyone to rejoice is the salvation of a sinner. It gladdens us, it rejoices us. We say one who was lost is found, they were blind and they see. And so when you think of joy as a truth, it weaves its way throughout the Word of God. You read the Psalms and you will find many times a reference to joy, rejoicing and so forth. Our Lord Jesus Christ, while also being the man of sorrows, and there was much grief and sorrow within his life because of the sin that was around him and because of the fact that he was rejected of his own, we do find occasions where the Lord Jesus Christ rejoiced within his own spirit and within his own self. And of course, one of the features of the Christian life is to rejoice throughout tribulation. And this is where it becomes more taxing and certainly more difficult. Indeed so much is joy before us in the word of God that the Apostle Paul in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 16 just simply says rejoice evermore. That's the way he encapsulates this great and this grand theme before us this evening. Now here in Isaiah 9 verse 3 we're given an illustration A way by which we can liken our joy of our life as believers to something else that we are witnessing this weekend. And of course it's the joy of harvest. And the words are there before us in verse 3. They shall joy before thee according to the joy in harvest. So here is a very clear and a very good illustration for us to amplify this joy in our life this evening. and it will become clear this evening as we go through our message, that while a life of rejoicing is to be the experience of a believer, we know, we should know by experience, it does not mean that it is a life of ease. Far from it. As I said, it is a thorough test, and I emphasise those words to you, a thorough test of our spiritual character, of our spiritual integrity, of our life as God's people, when we are going through adversity, that we are still able to rejoice in those things that we ought to. I always think, and it's my own personal conviction, that that particular truth should be defined very carefully. Because we are not going down the line where we say that when we're going through turmoil and difficult situations that we should necessarily always have a smile upon our face. or we should never express grief or mourn over bereavement and loss and so forth. Of course, we know that's legitimate. It's scriptures do such things. The way for me that I often have looked at the subject is to think of a stormy sea where the storms are raging and the waves are crashing down. That's the turmoil. That's the trouble. But what do you find underneath? There's calm. There's peace. That's joy. In 1 Peter 1 verse 6, Peter, when he deals with the believers in reference to their own tribulation, he says, wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season. So he says, you rejoice, but this is what you're suffering now. Ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations. Now, what is it that Peter is referring to when he says, wherein ye greatly rejoice? He refers to the promise of incorruptible life, an inheritance ahead of us, undefiled, one that cannot pass away, one that is reserved by God himself in heaven for us. He refers to the grand theme that we are kept by the power of God and upon those truths, he says, that's wherein you rejoice. Although for the present, you suffer. So for me that's the angle that you should always contemplate that matter of rejoicing despite the present tribulation. It is a rejoicing of those spiritual interests and benefits we have by way of Christ and his work. Now, all of this is before us, I believe, in our verse, in our passage of scripture, including the end of Isaiah chapter 8, as we shall see, where we have the joy of harvest that follows a winter of darkness, if you will. And that's why I intend to look at the joy of harvest this evening. First of all, I want you to notice simply how it is a welcomed joy. It's something we welcome. If you look at verse 1 and verse 2, It brings to us the context here. And what I'm going to say here is of a sort of sorrowful nature in a sense when we're dealing with the bleakness of Israel's day. It's very similar to what we looked at yesterday in the morning and maybe that's just a timely reminder of how often God's people had to be reminded of these type of things. I may say to you this evening, if you're the Lord's child, that it may be that You're going through a situation in life where you think to yourself, my life could not get any worse than what it is right now. May not be the case, but for some it is. For those of you that are not saved, it's most likely the case. We all experience those times where it seems bleak and it seems grim and it seems a life full of despair as if there's no way out of this turmoil and this trouble. It's a difficult place to be in, where it feels as if we are overwhelmed. It's such a horrible feeling when you are overwhelmed, as if you've drowned or felt like you've drowned and that's the idea that the overwhelming of things, it's restricting the oxygen that you need to breathe, it's suffocating you. And there's a sense of being so overwhelmed that you are full of despair that there's nowhere to turn and nothing you can do. And of course in those moments the last thing that you're thinking about is joy and rejoicing. And for our context here that's what we have before us, a very bleak picture. But then in the midst of this we have the introduction of great relief. Isaiah 9 verse 1 begins with that glorious word, nevertheless. And how many times can we, as the Lord's people, draw comfort from just taking time to think about just one word. Just one word in the Bible. And will we stop for a moment this evening and give our hearts to think about this first word here, nevertheless. In spite of all that, Regardless of all that was taking place, that's the idea of this word, nevertheless. And here now, as I said, is a welcome joy, but it follows that gloomy reality that we have to face up to. We need to face up to. And what was the gloomy reality for Israel? Well, we know from their own sins that there was an abandoning, in a sense, They felt all was wrong and always dim. As we read in verse 21 of chapter 8 and in verse 22, there's trouble, there's darkness, there's dimness of anguish and they're driven to darkness. And it's all of their own making at this particular setting. It's all their own fault. And at times those experiences are of our own making and we have to face up to that. It's our own sin that's done it. But then we also know, at times, it's means by which the Lord is perfecting us. The Lord is allowing us to pass through dark valleys in which we cannot walk, but we're seeking to stay near to God and walk in His ways, and we don't know quite why our circumstances are not carrying up with these promises of God always being with us. So the explanation of the dimness and the anguish, while it's very clear cut here in Isaiah chapter 8 and 9, in other senses it's not always clear cut. But what I want you to think about is this introduction of the word nevertheless. These things weren't good. Do you know how bad things were for Israel in their own spiritual state? Look at verse 21 of chapter 8. At the end they were cursing their king. And then read this. and their God. You'd say, I would never do that. I would never curse God. That might be the case, but when we start growing cold of the Lord, we might start questioning the Lord and His ways. We might start disregarding the leadings of the Lord and while we would never openly curse Him, maybe we would. I don't know how far someone can go in that sense, but it's possible. But for Israel, that's their depth of their dimness of anguish. They looked to their king, they cursed their king and they cut a straw, they looked upward, they looked towards the earth, they looked all around them and they couldn't find any way in which there was going to be a solution or an answer because the problem was they had not looked inwardly. That's where the problem lay. And how challenging that is to all of our hearts this evening. But the Lord furnishes this lovely promise in chapter 9 verse 1, nevertheless, what a welcome note this was. A way of setting things right. A way of providing the answer that was necessary. And one way in which the Lord brings their thoughts to attention is by drawing them to consider how their experience at that present moment was actually not as bad as things had been in the past. For example, if you read verse 1 again of chapter 9, you will find references to the vexation that came upon the land of Zebulun and the land of Nathalai. And afterwards, if more grievously afflicted by the way of the sea, these were regions that were remote areas, they were north-eastern tribes that lay the westerly direction of the Jordan. And because of their situation, they were very closely exposed to neighbouring enemies, so in a sense they were very near to danger. Later on, the area became known as Upper and Lower Galilee. And in the past, you will find I think it's in the book of Kings, I can't remember the actual reference, where the Lord cuts them short. He cuts his people short, he reduces them by way of number, by way of influence and power. It was a tragic time in their past history and the Lord refers to a time where they were lightly afflicted and then there was a more grievous afflicting of their lives and for me that's telling. The Lord, when he does start to chasten us, he doesn't begin in a severe way. There's a light afflicting and then there's a more grievous afflicting because he's kind to us. He's gracious to us. And so here the Lord draws their thoughts to consider this. Nevertheless, the dimwit shall not be as was in her vexation. Though you have dimwits now, it was worse before. And so what we have there is a putting of things into perspective, into their rightful place. It was a grim scene, but the reality was it is not as bad as it could have been. and as things once were. And then the dawning of the light is brought before them into verse two. So one way of handling anguish, and of course the way in which we can handle anguish in our life and despair and trouble and so forth, is by doing that principle of reflection and putting things into perspective and remembering maybe things aren't bad now as they used to be or other times in which I've experienced and the Lord has brought me through those. That's one way of dealing with it. And another way, in a more positive way, is then to contemplate the promises that God furnishes afterwards. And so in verse 2, the people that walked in darkness have seen a great light. Do you know the intriguing thing here in this first scripture that we have before us is that the reference is clearly a reference to the Messiah, to Jesus Christ our Lord. And it doesn't take a theologian to work that out this evening. You can just read into verse 6 and you'll see the promise of the coming of Christ, a child is born and then we have those glorious titles which are given to him, wonderful counsellor and so forth. So here the light that's going to dawn upon the nation is a light which actually was going to take place years ahead of them. And if we're going by the length of Isaiah of course we're dealing there with more than six, seven hundred years. when the true fulfilling of that promise was going to come to pass and be a reality, when they would see the light, the people walking in darkness, seeing the light of the coming of Jesus Christ. And upon that matter, we know on the authority of Matthew 4, verses 13 to 17, that that is a fulfilling of our passage of Scripture here. So that's something that we're not making up this evening. It's a reference to Christ. But what I want you to think about is the way in which it is communicated to the people here. The people that walked in darkness have seen, but in their present situation they hadn't seen. It's the way in which Isaiah often writes, it's brought out more emphatically in Isaiah 53 where he speaks in a particular tense Whereas you might think things are done, but they're not done. But the idea is to convey certainty. So this was something that was years ahead of them. Not decades, but hundreds of years. But it was true. God was going to fulfil his word. You see, joy isn't always the product of what we have right now. But as I have indicated yesterday morning, there is sometimes that gradual means by which God brings it to us. It is not invested into tangible, material things, but we can enjoy when we look at those promises that He's given to us. That's why I referred to Peter, because Peter draws on the promise of things to come, on the promise of being kept by the power of God, so that they might rejoice despite their present situation. And if I may use the harvest analogy again this evening, we must think of the coming of Jesus Christ as the means by which you will see the greatest display of joy in the lives of God's people and yet at the same time the greatest display of grief that will ring the human heart. Because there will be the joy of the one who will come and plunge the sickening and reap a harvest of his people unto himself. But by the very nature of that action, there's going to be a dividing of wheat and of tare to heaven and hell. And so with the joy of the coming of Christ, it is going to be a heartbreaking time for those who are lost. Those of us in the Lord, we welcome it even so, we say, come Lord Jesus. And for when we look at the passage this evening, we have a welcome joy, don't we? I'm sure we're in this situation this evening, we welcome this. Lord, let that joy flood my heart. Let me be a child of God that is able to rejoice in tribulation. Let me be that child who can joy in God. and thereby testify and witness to the work of grace in my life. It is certainly a sanctified joy, this joy of harvest. And by a sanctified joy, it makes us realise that it's a different kind of joy to what people have who are not the Lord's people. So where do we see this in our text? We won't be saying it, but it's in the passage of scripture, well I trust it is. Look at verse 3, Thou hast multiplied the nation, now look at this, and not increased the joy. They joy before thee, it seems like a contradiction. Not increase the joy, but then they joy before thee, according to the joy in harvest. Well the reference to the joy that is not increasing there is the joy of the ungodly. the joy of the godless, the joy of those and their sin. You see, the reference to light is before us here in verse 2, which we know is the fulfilling of Christ. And that produces a holy and a godly joy within the heart of the Lord's people. And that joy, by its very definition, is something that is an opposite. to carnal, sinful pleasure and joy. And we have to remind ourselves that there is a degree of pleasure in the world. Sometimes people say, well there's no pleasure in sin. There is pleasure in sin. Of course there is. That's why people want it. And there is a joy in the world. People have that joy. We don't go around and see people who are not Christians and who are continually miserable and they don't laugh and don't joke and so forth. They do have their own sense of joy. And of course they have their own pleasure in their sins. And if we're all honest with ourselves, we know there is that pleasure in sin. The Bible defines it as a pleasure of sin for a season. That's why it's so hard. That's why the pearl in the illuminant of the world is such a difficult one, not just for young people, but for everyone. But the joy of God is something far greater, something that transcends that temporal, passing, limited joy in the world. It's much like what the Lord touches upon in John 14 when he was dealing with his own disciples and the apostles, the 11 that were left. Of course, Judas had betrayed them and gone off at that stage. And so here were 11 trembling apostles, they're fearful, they're hearing about the Lord going to leave. they're anticipating persecution, they're fearing for their lives and the Lord in those marvellous chapters begins to give to them means by which they can comfort themselves and one of the ways is to assure them that he was going to leave peace with them but when he makes this known in John 14 verse 27 he says peace I leave with you my peace I give unto you not as the world giveth And it's a very interesting thought there, it means the world gives a counterfeit peace. There is a peace and a joy and all the rest which is found in this world that is counterfeit, that is not anything in relation to the gospel of Christ, but it's there. And it's a trap, and it's a snare. And the Lord says, I'm not going to try to merge my peace with the world's peace. Isn't that an interesting thought? Nowhere in the Bible will you find that we are to try to Christianise the things of this world. There is the Lord's peace, and there's what the world gives, and they're different. And he says, my peace I give unto you, and it's the same with joy. And then there's also a legitimate joy which can be referred to. There's joy which is harmless, not sinful. There's joy that we experience when we look out and we see creation, as the girls were singing about this evening. And the joy of seeing the decoration here in the church and the joy, as I said, of birth and of parenthood and relationships and all these things that are legitimate but, in a sense, are not dealing with the gospel or that spiritual nature. But we rejoice in them. And it's right to do that. Yet the joy now that is being increased here is that communion with God, that fellowship with God, the increase of joy in relation to the coming of Christ and the blessings of the Gospel that fall upon the Church of Christ. It's a joy that is found when we're right with God. Are we right with the Lord this evening? Are we His people? Is the joy of the Lord our strength throughout all of the weaknesses that we experience? And that is what we have to be concerned with. And this joy which we have here, it was the reference to an increased nation. So this sanctified joy as a different kind of joy, as a reference to God and a reference to an increase that was going to come. Now this means that prior to this there was a cutting short, but now the increase is going to come. Verse 3, that has multiplied the nation and not increased the joy. So Lord you have built the nation up, you've increased the people of God, but you haven't allowed the joys of the ungodly to increase alongside it. You've increased your people. And the increase of the church of Christ follows a period where the Lord cuts short. How does the Lord work within his church? You will find when you follow church history that the Lord will often deal in ways by which he will prune, he will cut, he will tend to his vine and his vineyard. And even though this becomes most likely one of the most difficult experiences within the work of God, when you start to see the pruning, and you start to see some people fading away and others not walking as they should, and we can almost come to a place and we start to despair what's happening and where is everyone going? And people not living as they should, but maybe, just maybe, it's a precursor to something better. Should we just look at it like that for a moment? Maybe it's the pleasure of the Lord that He's sifting and trying and pruning and removing away because He has in plan and in store for us a time of increase. A time of advancing. And for me, that's the means by which God so often works. He works like that when we're saved, doesn't He? He doesn't say come ahead with all of your sin. Come ahead, here's the straight gate and the narrow way, but like Pilgrim you can take all of your burdens and all of your sin with you and we'll cram you through and we'll take the sins with you to heaven. The Lord says there has to be a laying of the burden and a forsaking of the sin and a cutting off of the old ways. And it's fascinating even to make that point here with our Lord Jesus Christ in reference here. What was the light that shone upon a darker nation? What was it that he preached? The first message, repent and believe the gospel. We don't need to bow the knee to pressures that are around us. To try to mould and fashion a message That's going to make people comfortable, but Christians, it doesn't happen. There is an increasing and it follows, they're cutting. That's the way the Lord works. And then there will be a rejoicing before God. They shall joy before thee according to the joy and harvest. That's the thought here. The joy is before the Lord. It's in his presence, it's before his face, we could say. And that means it's an act of adoration and of gratitude and of thanksgiving. I always remember whenever I was first converted, and even at the time I actually was a little bit annoyed by what this man said to me, looking back now after being saved for a number of years, I know he was right. And I came through the door and told someone I was saved and he just said, have you thanked God for it? And I was sort of maybe thinking, well, I'm going to get a pat on my back here. You know, I'm saved and they're going to get an arm around me and everyone's going to be happy. But actually the first thing that was said to me was, have you thanked God? And I'm glad that that was said to me because it convicted me. I should be thanking God for this. And there should be adoration, and there should be thanksgiving. And that's the mindset and the attitude of the believer. And it's the antithesis of all that we have seen before. The ungrateful, the unthankful, the spoilt people here who are in the dimness of their anguish. How ungrateful they were. The Lord is not pleased with us when we're not thankful. A thankful heart, we come before his presence rejoicing. And that's what it means by sanctified joy. It gives glory to God. And lastly, as we draw to a close, it is then a rewarding joy. Now, it's a ridiculous thing to reject the idea that we do not get the satisfaction from completing things in life. I'm a firm believer that there are ways in which we can be satisfied with completing challenges. So, this could range from Probably my level of a 12-piece jigsaw, which when I get to piece 11, the tongue comes out and I'm concentrating, trying to get the right piece in place. I don't know, all the way through to making Noah's Ark out of matchsticks. So you could have a variation of challenges that we all enjoy in life and there's satisfaction. You finish homework, you finish a study, you finish a dissertation or a thesis and you finish a project, whatever it may be. And there's satisfaction in what you do, and that's undeniable. We're not going to start denying these things and say, well, I'm not really satisfied, because that's where competitiveness comes in. All of us, probably more than men, there is that competitive streak within us. And it's part of human nature. I'd even go as far as saying that before the fall, that this was something that was witnessed. Adam was still working the ground before the fall. But we know that it wasn't with toil and sweat and with a cursed ground. And I assume that there was immense joy when Adam was working the ground. And I would even go as far as saying in relation to creation that when God sees the works of His hands and all that He has done, He says it is very good. Good in reference, of course, to its perfection and without the curse being upon it, but good in the sense of its completion. by resting on the Sabbath. And so the sense of reward is something that we all know and experience. And there's joy here. And the joy is one of rewarding. Verse 3, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. I recently read a children's book, that's the height of my ability. It was just a story I had to read to one of the kids. And it was one that I've not read for so long. And you know when you start doing that reflection, it means you're getting old. So that means I'm getting old. I start thinking back to when I was younger and it was the story of the large turnip that grew. And the man tried to dig the turnip up and he couldn't get it out of the ground and everyone started to come from the family. start to pull him on the back and then they got the big turnip and they made the stew and they all sat around and had this bowl of stew. I remember as a child sitting there reading a book and thinking, well that stew looks really nice on the paper, sort of a blob of orange on the paper, but for me it looked quite nice and satisfying. But the point I'm making is that it was a means of reward, they all poured together And there's nothing greater when it comes to joy in the life of a church when the people of God are reaping, are reaping the blessings of reward because they are one with the other as they serve God within the work of his body. There's nothing greater than to see it. Nothing greater than you can rejoice when you see your sister or brother blessed by God or we see other churches going on with God because we're part of that one body, are we not? And this reward is a result of hard labour. It is those that have worked the ground and have done the hard months and have sown and tended and they reap. And so the believer, the necessity is laid upon each of us to to put our hands to the plough to do it. I don't know any of you this evening that well, so I can probably say this more pointedly than if I did, but maybe you're contented with the thought, well everyone else is doing something, so I don't need to. That's not a good thing, that's not healthy. Everyone else is doing outreach, they can do it, I can't. And one thing I learnt from those young people who came to do the outreach is that they could all do something. And while they could express their fears of talking to a Muslim, or talking to a Hindu, or talking to a Buddhist, or talking to an atheist, or speaking in the open air, or talking to children, and while they were reserved they all had that same desire to try and do it and be willing to be used by God. And may the Lord never be pleased with a state of mind within our church since nomination, where we all start looking around at everyone else and saying, well, they're doing it, so I don't need to do it. This joy of harvest comes when all of the people of God, they pour together, they labour together, and it's hard work through the difficult times. Through those challenging times. But you keep doing it. And you support your brother and your sister. You hold them up. And in 1 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 8 and 9, Paul says, They are he that planted, he that watereth. They are one. They are not different. They are one. They belong to the same body. And every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour. For we are labourers together with God. Ye are God's husbandry. Ye are God's building. It is inexcusable that any of us who profess to be the Lord's would ever sit idle and be careless and have no concern. There's no excuse. Those of you who are not saved this evening, there's hard work for you. What do you mean? We're not saved by our works? Of course we're not saved by our works. But that doesn't mean that the Gospel does not lay a charge before the unconverted sinner. Because the charge is to seek the Lord. The charge is to come. The charge is to trust. The charge is to seek Him with your whole heart. We're not to think as if we can just sit back, arms crossed, and say, well, salvation is going to come to me. as I am and just leave me as I am and I'll just stay there. But no, seek the Lord while he may be found. And call upon him while he is near. And then the reward of hard labour is, I believe, ultimately in reference to Christ and I'll finish with this. Isaiah 53, verse 10 and 11. And as the Lord's people, let's be encouraged by this. Christ shall see his seed. He shall prolong his days. And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. You need to say that to yourself every time you go to serve the Lord. He shall see it. He will be satisfied. And it's not true that all follows the hard toil of our Lord, or the burden he bore, the sufferings that he endured. Would any of our grief ever compare to his grief? And whatever of any of our tribulations ever compare to the great tribulation that was born in His soul, in His body on the cross as He died there for our sins. And while our Saviour there cried, why hast thou forsaken me? There is in a sense a means by which it was the pleasure of God to bruise His Son. And it was the delight and the will of the Son to be bruised off the Father, because He sees you, He sees the travail of His soul, He sees the souls that are His, and He's satisfied. What will be your reward of joy? It begins by being Christ's, and when you're converted, this joy in heaven. May the Lord be pleased to rejoice over our salvation. May He bless His Word to our hearts. Amen.