Oh Sovereign Lord, We give thanks to you, O Lord. We sing that you are good because your loving kindness endures forever. O Father, let all of your redeemed say so. Those whom you have ransomed from the ends of the earth, from the east and the west, from the north and the south, let all your children rise up and say that your loving kindness endures forever. Oh Lord, you are the God who rescues us. When your people wandered in the wilderness and were desperate for food, hungry and starving in the wilderness, you fed them. You provided the miracle manna from heaven. when they were in chained because of their sins and you had handed them over to their captors and there were iron fetters on their feet. When they were oppressed, oh Lord, you delivered them and brought them out and cut through iron bars. When your people, oh Lord, were sick and facing the wasting disease, they were dying in their bodies. You sent your grace, O Lord, and healed them. When your servants were out on the ships of the sea, doing their work on the waves of the sea, and the storm came, and the great tempest came upon them, and the water sunk down to the depths, and then the waves rose up to the heights, and they were sure that they were going to die. You spoke and quieted the storm. You, O Father, calmed the waters of the sea. You are the God who takes a flowing river and turns it into dry ground. You take the flowing stream and dry it up and turn it into a wasteland. But you're the same God who takes the wasteland and causes water to flow in it. You're the King, the Lord Almighty, who can bring the garden in the wilderness, the flowing waters in the desert. Oh, sovereign Lord, When your people are small and weak and few in number, when your churches, O Lord, are oppressed and fragile, then you delight to rescue your people and show your mighty strength. O Lord, All of your children from all of the nations rise up and give thanks to you because your loving kindness endures forever. We pray that you would send forth your word as a light, even as a light to all of the nations. In Jesus' name, amen. So this morning, the book of the prophet Isaiah, chapter 42, verses, we'll start with verses six through 12, and then verse four. This is the word of the Lord. Isaiah 42, six through 12. I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness and will hold your hand. I will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people, as a light to the Gentiles. To open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the prison, those who sit in darkness from the prison house. I am the Lord. That is my name. And my glory I will not give to another, nor my praise to carved images. Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I declare. Before they spring forth, I tell you of them. Sing to the Lord a new song and his praise from the ends of the earth. You who go down to the sea and all that is in it, you coastlands and you inhabitants of them. Let the wilderness and its cities lift up their voice. The villages that Kedar inhabits Let the inhabitants of Selah sing. Let them shout from the top of the mountains. Let them give glory to the Lord and declare His praise in the coastlands. And then back in verse 4, Isaiah 42, 4. He will not fail nor be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth. and the coastlands shall wait for his law. Thus far the reading of God's holy word. God has decreed that a great light go forth from Israel and reach even the farthest coastlands of the earth. He is, after all, the one who made all of the nations of the earth and who has ordained their appointed times and boundaries. In doing so, he has separated many of the sons of Japheth, son of Noah, into all of the scattered coastland peoples of the Gentiles. God has ordained that a great light shine forth from Israel. so bright that its rays will touch even the farthest of the coastlands. Spraying forth from Israel, this light will rise not only upon the warm shores of Okinawa and Hong Kong, and not only upon the wintry, rocky beaches of Nova Scotia and Iceland, but even upon the most distant of the inhabited islands of the earth. So this is no doubt a missionary light in Isaiah chapter 42. Like the morning sunrise, it begins moving inland as soon as it first brightens the shore of any continent or island of the world. And so the coastlands in Isaiah 42 are merely a picture of all of the farthest nations of the earth, including the inland nations. It doesn't have to be on the coast. The point, therefore, is that prior to the gospel, all Gentile nations have been living in a terrible darkness. Their wickedness has plunged them into a thick darkness. And yet, for those who have eyes to see it, a great light is about to shine into their dark habitations. The coastlands will see this light. Isaiah 24, verse 15. Therefore glorify the Lord in the dawning light. The name of the Lord God of Israel in the coastlands of the sea. And Isaiah 51 verse five, my righteousness is near. My salvation has gone forth and my arms will judge the peoples. The coastlands will wait upon me and on my arm they will trust. In Isaiah's prophecy, God is going to send forth a bright missionary light to the farthest coastlands of the earth. This is a light for the nations, for the Gentiles. While the Jews in the main reject this light, the Gentiles shall be glad and glorify the word of the Lord in their hearts. Christ Jesus came first to Israel. The gospel is first. for the Jews. Yet our Lord always intended for His light to shine forth from Israel, touching even the most distant of the coastlands of the earth. And in the history of the church, then, we find exactly this. We find that Christ's light, which is the gospel of God, has been such a curiously inextinguishable light That it has never it has never been stopped people have hated the light and Persecuted the light but the more the unbelievers have attacked it the more it has spread When they accosted the light in Jerusalem it spread to Judea and then to Samaria when it went out from Antioch and subsequently was persecuted in Asia Minor, it quickly scattered to what is known today as modern France and modern Spain. From there it was persecuted and scattered all the more and yet even as it was scattered it lost none of its intensity. It went to Germany and then to England and from Germany and England it went to Ireland and Scotland. It also penetrated into inland Africa. and into inland India. It stretched far geographically and shown on Taiwan and Japan. It went boldly into China's deep interior. It reached the Native Americans living in the so-called new world. Oh, dear brethren, how do you view the overarching timeline of human history? Do you see it through a Darwinian lens, as it has been taught in the public schools, such that ancient humans are described as having been more or less brutish and unintelligent, whereas modern humans are seen as having evolved all the way to the apex of human intelligence? Or do you use a Marxist lens to evaluate human history, which is the typical college or university lens? through which lens the rise and fall of civilizations is seen as a constant war between enfranchised governments that promote a broad wealth disparity between rich and poor, and courageous social prophets who seek to correct that wealth disparity. Or, dear brethren, do you see human history through a biblical lens? such that the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on the face of the earth, and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord and hope that they might grow for him in their darkness, and thus find his light through the gospel of the glory of Christ. Human history's central purpose. Human history's central purpose. Is the salvation of sinful man through the light of the gospel of God. And thus the purpose of world evangelization. And the purpose of human history. Are one in the same end. There is then a light for the coastland. Yet what exactly is this light about which Isaiah prophesies? What kind of miraculous light is this, which shining in Israel, it must be miraculous because shining in Israel, it is bright enough to be seen even by those living at the farthest ends of the earth. That's a miraculous light. Well, surprisingly, this light does not begin as a bright light at all. Rather, the beginnings of this supernatural light are quite faint. As the prophecy begins, the light, this miraculous light, at the beginning of the prophecy is very much a dimly burning light. Isaiah 42, one through four, this is the very beginning of the chapter. Isaiah 42, one through four. Behold, my servant whom I uphold, my elect one in whom my soul delights, I have put my spirit upon him. He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles. He will not cry out nor raise his voice, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick. Dimly burning light. He will not quench. He will bring forth justice for truth. He will not fail nor be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth and the coastlands shall wait for his law. Upon Christ's first advent, the light of Christ Jesus does not come into the world with a kingly roar and with bright flashes of fire in the sky. He publicizes himself to no one. Jesus is born in a manger. He has neither a Trump Tower nor an internet fan page. There are no fireworks celebrating his baptism, but rather only a dove. And that's only visible to those who have the eyes of faith to see it. He preaches beneath no spotlight. And his image is never broadcast on a jumbotron screen. Rather, he is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He lives his whole life in a human body that is pain racked and persecuted. So his light is a faintly burning light, a dimly burning wick. The world is eager to snuff it out at any opportune time. Job 17, verse seven, my eye also has grown dim because of sorrow and all my members are like shadows. To the mere human eye, Isaiah's suffering servant is not a good prophetic candidate for the very light that will light up the entire world. This is not the NASA engineered space light of the century. Instead, this is a dim oil lamp crafted in antiquity, quickly running out of oil and constantly being bombarded with many ferocious winds. Or to put it another way, this is not the loud trumpet blast of a king with his army. Instead, Christ preaches his kingdom with a quiet groaning. He whispers. the secrets of his kingdom in the ears of his disciples. Our Lord Jesus does not raise his voice in the street. Instead, he suffers silently like a lamb led to the sacrificial altar. Isaiah 53 7, he was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before its shears is silent. So he opened not his mouth. This is the quiet Messiah. He is gentle and lowly in heart. This is the faintly burning wick of. The manger babe swaddled in the coldness of the night. The poor carpenter possibly struggling to provide financially for his widowed mother. and the outlawed teacher quietly instructing his disciples while the cross looms large over his head. He is not a blazing fire, but rather a dimly burning lamp. He is not a booming voice attended by all the senators of Rome, but rather he is a divine whisper easily drowned out by the roar of the great satanic winds that blow around him. However, we must not think that the voice of Christ shall never be heard by all of the globe. He is, after all, the Son of God. His voice is from everlasting to everlasting. When he speaks from his divine throne in heaven, the earth begins to tremble. When he utters his voice, the seas begin to roar and the skies begin to thunder, and therefore Christ at his second advent will not come quietly. He is ordained that at his second coming, he shall come like a lion with the kind of divine roar that will shake the heavens and all that are in them and the earth and all that is in it. Isaiah 42, 13, the Lord shall go forth like a mighty man. He shall stir up his zeal like a man of war. He shall cry out. Yes, shout aloud. He shall prevail against his enemy. Yes, the voice of Christ Jesus shall be heard. All nations shall tremble at his voice when he comes. They will hear his shout and the blaring thunder of that shout will turn skyscrapers to rubble. tall mountains into heaps of dust his voice shall be heard and his wrath shall be revealed first Thessalonians 4 16 for the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God And the dead in Christ will rise first. And then, Revelation 19, 17 through 18, Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he, and the he is the angel, not Christ, but of course the angel is a herald of Christ, cried with a loud voice, saying to all of the birds that fly in the midst of heaven, come and gather together for the supper of the great God, that you may eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them and the flesh of all people, free and slave, both small and great. Oh, beloved church. Do not forget. The great difference. between the first coming of Christ Jesus and his second coming. The one is quiet, humble, suffering, and saving. The other is full of booming thunder, roaring fire, blasting hailstones, and heavenly hosts of war. Do not confuse the two. In specific, do not think that the second coming of Christ will be just like the first. Remember that in this age of the harvesting of all nations, he has come not to destroy, but to save. And so, dear church, do not call down fire from heaven upon your current enemies. But at the same time, never mistake God's grace for any sort of divine passivity concerning human wickedness. The Lord God shall not be mocked. Christ quietly suffered for the sins of the world, but when he returns, it shall be with a roaring vengeance. such that all of the terrors of the divine wrath will fall upon those who have refused to repent of their idols and refuse to worship him as the Lord. And yet, in these days of the sufferings of the church. It is also good to remember that Christ first came to earth as a faintly burning wick. He himself suffered greatly. In turn, he came to comfort all of those who were suffering for the sake of righteousness. He himself was crushed by persecutions, and yet he promised never to crush a bruised reed. He himself was burning dimly. And yet he said that he would never extinguish a dimly burning wick. Oh, Christian, you who share in the sufferings of the Savior, the gospel comes to comfort the afflicted. Are you a bruised reed? The sovereignty of God has allowed you in love to be bruised for the sake of Christ. Yet however bruised you feel, know that the Spirit of God within you shall never allow you to break. Instead, Christ, by his spirit, shall use your bruises for his glory among the nations. And when he is finished employing your wounds for his everlastingly good purposes, he shall raise you up. In the end, you will no longer be a bruised reed ready to break, but rather you will be a mighty tree of righteousness whose roots are unshakable and whose trunk is as sturdy as the great pillars of God's temple in heaven. Again, oh hurting brother or sister, are you a faintly burning wick? Shut out from the society of men because of your righteous convictions? Are your eyes growing dim with the prolonged nature of your lonely suffering? Do your tears of sickness and sorrow and bereavement, which have come upon you but seem not to come so rapidly and forcefully upon the ungodly, threaten to drench the dimly burning flame of your faith and so extinguish it? Is the world against you and almost audibly laughing at you as you follow Christ, such that the cold winds of the world cause your little flame of faith to struggle for survival? Oh, dear weeping one, Christ Jesus our Lord shall not allow your light to be extinguished. Your Father in heaven will shield it from the wind and from the rain. His Holy Spirit will pour oil upon it the very moment that the devil rushes at it with the stormy gusts of his malicious blows. In the end, you will no longer be a dimly burning wick, ready to be snuffed out. but rather by the power of God, you will be an image bearing light brighter than the stars shining atop Mount Zion in the company of angels and of saints as a light of fully perfected holiness and thus abiding forever in the city of the living God. What kind of light is this? Which is bright enough to extend from Israel to all nations. This is the mysterious, faintly burning light of Christ. It comes in weakness. It comes in suffering. Yet God, in his wisdom, shows the radiance of his brightness through the ability of this weak, dimly burning light, that of the suffering servant, to reach all of the coastlands of the earth. And yet this is also a covenantal light. This is glad tidings for all nations. This then is a mystery revealed because in ancient times God's covenant was exclusive to Israel. His law, for example, was exclusive to Israel and thus not yet sent out with clear and gleaming light to all nations. Deuteronomy 4, 7 through 8, for what great nation is there that has God so near to it as the Lord our God is to us for whatever reason we may call upon him? And what great nation is there that has such statutes and righteous judgments as are in all this law, this law, which I set before you this day? Again, in ancient times, the law of God belonged to Israel. and was not given to the nations. Psalm 147, 19-20, he declares his word to Jacob, his statutes and his judgments, to Israel. He has not dealt thus with any nation. And as for his judgments, they have not known them. Praise the Lord. What would it mean then for the law to go out from Israel and to be given to the God-fearing people of all the nations. What would it be like for the Gentiles to be grafted into the covenant of God through the blood of Christ Jesus? Well, this is what it would be like. Isaiah 42, verse 6, I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness and will hold your hand. I will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people, as a light to the Gentiles. This is wondrous, mysterious work from God. This wondrous, mysterious light in Isaiah's prophecy is a covenantal light. The mystery revealed is that God's covenantal light will, in the last days, shine upon the Gentiles. They, the Gentiles, will be brought into the covenantal light of faith in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 3, verse 6, the mystery revealed is, Ephesians 3, 6, that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ through the gospel. This great bright light, bright enough to reach all of the farthest coastlands of the earth, is a covenantal light. It brings the Gentiles by way of repentance and faith into the covenantal light of God through Jesus Christ. Yes, and even more, it's a covenantal light specifically of justice. It brings the goodness of the justice of the law of Christ to the Gentiles. And in that law, it brings justice for the blind and justice for the captive. Isaiah 42, 6 through 7, I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness and will hold your hand. I will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people, as a light to the Gentiles, to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the prison, those who sit in darkness from the prison house. So this is a covenant, a light of justice. It brings God's justice to the nations. It declares His righteous laws and decrees to the peoples who have been living in a spiritual prison full of dark cells because of their idolatrous darkness. Isaiah 42 verse 1, Behold my servant whom I uphold, my elect one in whom my soul delights. I have put my spirit upon him. He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles. In Isaiah 42, 3 through 4, a bruised greed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench. He will bring forth justice for truth. He will not fail nor be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth, and the coastlands shall wait for his law, for his law. These coastlands are not unlike the Ninevites, They do not know their moral right hand from their moral left hand. They are steeped in darkness. Therefore, they need the covenantal light of Christ to shine upon them. So they wait for His law that they may walk in the light of God's covenantal justice. Isaiah 51, 4 through 5, listen to me, my people, and give ear to me, O my nation. For law will proceed from me, and I will make My justice rests as a light of the peoples. My righteousness is near, my salvation has gone forth, and my arms will judge the peoples, and the coastlands will wait upon me, and on my arm they will trust. The servant of God who is the Christ of God, who is the son of the living God, comes to bring this covenantal light of justice of the law of God to the Gentiles. This covenantal light heals the nations of their diseases. It casts out demons from those who have been oppressed by demons. It brings prisoners out of the prison cells of their captivity. This is the covenantal light of justice, which is the gospel for all nations. No longer will the nations live in ignorance of the Son of God. Now in the gospel, they are invited into his covenantal light of justice. And once that covenantal light of justice has come to reside in their midst, residing in the very local churches of all of the distant coastlands of the earth, now the whole world shall be accountable to that light. The coastland shall wait for his law. The covenantal light of his law shall be their hope. And therefore the church must never be ashamed of the covenantal light of the law of Christ. To be sure, the unbelievers of all nations shall war against the law. They shall try to intimidate us and say to us, your Bible says that homosexuality is a capital crime. Are you saying that homosexuality ought to be considered by law as a capital offense? Do you really believe this hateful book to be God's own word? And the compromised evangelicals, with all of their people-pleasing, man-centered theology, immediately will blush and say, oh, no, no, no, I would never say that. My Jesus would never say that. My Jesus is not judgmental. And then they will go on to confuse and distort the gospel, virtually denying the law of Christ altogether. But instead, those who fear God and love Christ ought to say with gravity, the law of Moses does indeed teach infallibly that not only homosexuals, but also all adulterers, and witches and sorcerers and idolaters and those who sacrifice children and all those who practice bestiality commit capital crimes against God and against human society. These sins are, according to the law, that grotesque and that heinous. Yet in the Newt Covenant, under the law of Christ. The gospel says to you that these sins are deserving of a much greater judgment than mere capital punishment. They are in the gospel such a perversion of his good creation and such an affront to the holiness of the laws of conscience, which he has written upon the hearts of all men. And so, so abhorrent to God, that they deserve the highest degree of the outpouring of his wrath in hell upon the unrepentant offenders and that everlastingly. And yet that is why God sends evangelists to them. To call them to repentance. For in the covenantal light of Christ, grace so abounds. Grace so abounds. that even the vilest of sinners can be washed, can be cleansed, and thus can be made new. That's what the God-fearing Christians ought to say when we're attacked and hated because of the law of Christ. It is in the law of Christ's covenantal light and nothing else that can rightly call sinners to true repentance. Be not ashamed of it, dear Christian. In the same manner, the world hates the idea that Christ's covenantal light of justice came to set people free from spiritual darkness. If you preach that, people will hate it. Western liberalism says, free Tibet. But by that phrase, it means free Tibet from Chinese rule. Yet the covenantal light of Christ's justice has an entirely different kind of liberation in mind for Tibet. It says, the gospel says, free Tibet from the dark, demonic, and thus cruel prison cells of Tibetan Buddhism. Free the people from the dark dungeons of those hideous idols and those oppressive lies. The covenantal light of Christ's justice breaks the fetters of idolatry. and opens the prison doors of wicked religions. It sets the souls of men free to worship the one true God who is revealed to us in Christ Jesus our Lord. So no more then, O Church, of being ashamed of the covenantal light of the gospel before a persecuting world. Yes, indeed, many people around us hate the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their wicked deeds will be exposed to be sure the law of Christ is holy, even as the light of Christ is holy. And so wicked men will hate that light and will hate us when we bear that light. Still, this is the one and only hope for all of the dark coastlands of the earth. There is yet a remnant of people amongst the nations of the earth who are indeed broken. humble, appointed for eternal life, and thus eager for the law of Christ to come to them, and who will, by the power of the Holy Spirit working through the gospel, be transferred out of the kingdom of darkness and into Christ's glorious kingdom of light. So we shall not then take this covenantal light, this holy gospel of Christ, and hide it under our beds. We shall not, for fear of being hated by the world, hide our light under the living room couch whenever unbelievers come into our homes. As Christ's disciples, we shall not try to hide our light far back in the most hidden corners of our garages so that we will not be hated by all men. Instead, we shall declare the justice of Christ shining ever so brightly through the covenantal light of the law of Christ We shall declare that this light has come and it is made sweet and desirable by the Spirit of Christ through the gospel of Christ. We shall declare it publicly in the streets for all to see. We shall bring this saving, liberating, covenantal light to all of those who are imprisoned in spiritual darkness and yet who are broken, humble, appointed for eternal life, and thus praying for the Lord of heaven to send them this very light. And so we say that this light, this gospel light of Christ is indeed luminous. It comes dimly into the world through the suffering servant of God, and yet Christ is divine. And so it has the brightness to reach the farthest coastlands of the world. It is also a covenant, a light of justice, teaching the law of Christ to the nations and setting individuals free from their sicknesses of sin and from their prison cells of idolatry. How then do we know when this light has finally reached the coastlands? Well, we know it when we see bright lights of praise. God's praise. shining like lighthouses on all of the coastlands of the earth. This is about the praise of God. Isaiah 42, 8, I am the Lord. That is my name and my glory. I will not give to another, nor my praise to carved images. God is jealous for His own glory and for His own praise. He will not share His praise with idols. He will not suffer His praise to be stolen from Him by false gods and by carved images. This is because God is zealous for His own praise. Isaiah 48 verse 9, For my name's sake I will defer my anger and for my praise. I will restrain it from you so that I do not cut you off. God is zealous for his praise among all nations. Therefore, when his great gospel light has reached the coastlands, what evidence of this shall we see? Shall we not see the bright light of God's praise beaming from the coastlands? Like big, bright cities on clearly seen hillsides, even visible to the darkness of the night, shall we not see God's praises lighting up the coastlands? Once an elect remnant of their citizens have embraced his gospel of the light of Christ. Here's verses 9 through 12, Isaiah 42, 9 through 12. Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I declare. Before they spring forth, I tell you of them. Sing to the Lord a new song and His praise. From the ends of the earth, you who go down to the sea, and all that is in it, you coastlands and you inhabitants of them, let the wilderness and its cities lift up their voice. the villages that Kedar inhabits, let the inhabitants of Selah sing, let them shout from the top of the mountains, let them give glory to the Lord and declare His praise in the coastlands. This is both why the light shines forth to the coastlands and the unspeakable blessing that it brings to the coastlands, namely, the providential necessity of God's name being praised by all of the nations of the earth. That is the purpose of human history. He, the Lord, is glorified when the elect peoples of the distant coastlands, who beforehand had never seen Christ Jesus, nor been told about him, all of a sudden see the light of Christ, embrace it, and begin praising God on account of it. At the same time, this is their own unspeakable blessing. Namely, that their souls are now allowed to rest and rejoice in the warm wondrous light of God's praises. Previously, they were tormented by their worship of demons. Yet now, having seen the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, they desire nothing else than to declare the praises of God. Since that act of praising God is the very fulfillment of their created purpose and thus the greatest delight of their everlasting souls. Oh, Christian, do not grow weary in praising God. Do not let Satan deceive you into thinking that the praises of God are burdensome or that they grow tired and weary over time. Never think that the magnificence of God's glory can be diminished. Never believe that the radiance of Christ's risen glory and heavenly light can grow dim. The praises of God truly searched out may never ever be exhausted. The excellencies and plaudits of Christ Jesus will never wear out or wear thin. God's glory is not battery powered as if it needed to be recharged. Christ's light is not nuclear powered as if it needed fuel. Instead, the radiant glory of God revealed in Christ Jesus only gets brighter and more resplendent and more astonishing the more that we grow in grace and in the knowledge of him. And when at last we see him face to face, we will see a divine countenance and radiance so lovely and so beyond ineffably pleasing to the eyes of our souls that we will immediately realize that there will be no chance of the glory of heaven ever growing faint or ever becoming dull. Oh, favored one of God, You who by your willful repentance towards God and your willful faith in God have been predestined into adoption through Jesus Christ into Him. This is both your created purpose and your highest joy. Namely, to praise God with all of the deepest depths of your inmost being At the same time, this is your best form of evangelism. Since your praises of God are the means by which his glory is declared to the coastlands, therefore, precious Christian, when you rise up with all of the redeemed and sing salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the lamb. And also you sing great and marvelous are your works, Lord God Almighty, just and true are your ways, O King of the Saints. And also you sing alleluia for the Lord God omnipotent reigns. Let us be glad and rejoice and give him glory for the marriage of the lamb has come and his wife has made herself ready. You are in the act of declaring God's praises, fulfilling your whole purpose of existence. For this is why the great light of Christ has come to the distant coastlands. to call you, even you, a former wretched creature, to enter into the everlasting joy of the praises of God. Christ the Lamb was slain for the sins of His children. Therefore, let all of the children of Christ praise Him. Christ, the light of the world is risen from the dead. Therefore, let this be our everlasting joy, even his everlasting praises. First Peter two nine, but you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people that you may proclaim the praises of him. Who called you out of darkness, into His marvelous light. And thus may it be in heaven, and thus it will be in heaven, with praises given to God the Father, and praises given to His eternal Son. Joy indescribable, mirth everlasting, praises unceasing, world without end. Amen. So as we close and come to the Lord's table this morning, we come as bruised reeds and as faintly burning wicks. But we also come rejoicing in Christ's covenantal light, the light of His covenantal justice. And so we come declaring His praises. Before we come, here's the doxology. Praise be to God, our Father, who shall not give his glory to another, nor his praise to idols. And praise be to the Lord Jesus Christ, who never allows one of his bruised reeds to break, and never allows one of his dimly burning wicks to be snuffed out. And praise be to the Holy Spirit, who has called us to this one exhilarating purpose, to declare God's praises to all of the peoples, everywhere.