Welcome to the audio ministry of God-Centered Universe with Pastor Timothy Phan. The following sermon was preached at Genesis Family Church in Denver, Colorado. Please join us as we open the Bible and continue trembling joyfully at God's Word. O Holy Father, our Creator and our God. Lord, there were 10 lepers. They cried out for mercy. You healed them. But only the one, only the foreigner, the Samaritan, came back, ran back, and fell at your feet and praised you and gave thanks to you. Our Holy Father, we pray that you would keep us from being like the nine. We confess that we were more than lepers. We had more than just a physical uncleanness. We were spiritually unclean. We were filthy in our sins. And you healed us and cleansed us and saved us through the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so we fall at your feet. We run back to give thanks to you. We bow down before you, Lord Jesus. We thank you that you've had mercy upon us. We pray now, Lord, for the oil of unity, how sweet it is when brothers dwell together in unity. It's like oil running down the head and the beard and the robe of Aaron. It's like dew, the dew of Hermon on the mountains of Israel. We pray for the oil of your Holy Spirit, the unity of your truth and your word in our midst, and we pray that you would make us one in your Son, Jesus Christ. Father, we We pray for those in our church family who are feeling the pains of the man of sorrows, who understand the sufferings of Christ and are feeling those sufferings right now. We pray that you would comfort, comfort your people who are suffering. Lord, as we open the Bible, your holy word, we pray that you'd show us the great hidden treasures of wisdom and knowledge that are all hidden in your Son, Jesus Christ. We pray in His holy name. Amen. Well, we'll start with Isaiah chapter 52, verse 13. And to begin with, we'll go through chapter 53, verse 1. This is the word of the Lord. Behold, my servant shall deal prudently. He shall be high and lifted up and be very exalted. just as many were astonished at you. So his visage was marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men. So he shall sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths at him, for what had not been told them they shall see, and what they had not heard they shall consider. Who has believed our reports? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? Let's further reading of God's holy word. God in ages past, from ancient times, purposefully kept hidden this servant, his servant, from the nations. He kept him hidden. But now in these last days God has revealed him to the nations. This hidden servant, he's a hidden servant, was foreordained before the foundation of the world. However, he was not made manifest to the nations until these last times. namely until the days of the church. And now in the times of the Gentiles, since we live in the days of the Gentiles, this hidden servant of God has been made manifest. He's been revealed to an elect remnant, to all of those who believe from every tribe and people and tongue and nation. He was kept hidden, now he's revealed. And he sprinkles many nations. Kings who have not been told about him suddenly come to see him and worship him. princes who have not heard about him suddenly begin to understand the good news about him. That is, just as the preaching of the prophet Daniel brought several of the kings of Babylon to their knees before the God of Israel, so too shall the preaching of the church in the times of the Gentiles bring many princes of many nations to bow down and worship before this hidden servant of God. And this shall happen in real living history. The Christian martyrs under the terrible Roman persecutions of the early 300s shall die while bearing witness to God's hidden servant. And within a few decades, Emperor Constantine and all of Rome with him will bow their knee to the servant, Patrick of Britain. shall preach to Ireland, casting out demons in the name of God's hidden servant, and almost all of Ireland will come to pay homage to this great servant." And then much later in history, Henry Martin. If you haven't heard about Henry Martin, you need to read about Henry Martin. Henry Martin will evangelize Indians and Persians alike in India, while David Brainerd will proclaim the gospel of God's hidden servant to the Native Americans in New Jersey. And consequently, over time, many thousands of Indians and Persians in India and Native Americans in America will pledge themselves to obey God's hidden servant as their own Lord. And even in China, even in China, once so closed off to the outside world, Robert Morrison will begin distributing to the Chinese people scriptures which they have not before read and news of a hidden servant about whom they have not before heard. And as a result of Morrison's labors and then followed up by Hudson Taylor's labors over the centuries, 10,000s upon 10,000s of Chinese people will come to worship this hidden servant. So he was kept hidden from the nations for a long time, but he is now being revealed to the nations under God's sovereign plan. Who has believed our report? To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? Well, the Jews, by and large, have not believed. It is the Gentiles to whom this servant has been revealed. And so Paul of Tarsus became the great apostle to the Gentiles because he knew that the hidden servant was to be revealed to them, to the Gentiles. Romans 15. 20 through 21 and so the Apostle says I have made it my aim to preach the gospel Not where Christ was named lest I should build on another man's foundation But as it is written he wants to go to all the nations who have not yet heard to whom he was not announced they shall see and Those who have not heard shall understand He is a hidden servant He indeed is foreordained before the foundation of the world, but he's also kept hidden for so many ages. Who is he? Who is the hidden servant of God? Who is this enigmatic servant? Well, the Lord God calls him in Isaiah 52, he calls him, my servant. God says he is my servant. Isaiah 52, 13, behold, my servant. shall deal prudently, he shall be high and lifted up and be very exalted. God calls him my servant, and this means that he is God's hidden servant, because in the middle of the book of Isaiah, right in those middle chapters, 40 through 55, right in the middle of the book of Isaiah, there is this enigmatic hidden servant. He appears throughout Isaiah 40 through 55, and he is God's servant, and God says he's the servant in whom I delight. We hear about him, but his identity in Isaiah 40 through 55 remains hidden in that section until we get to chapter 52 and 53. Here's Isaiah 42, verse 1. Here's where we meet the hidden servant of God in the book of Isaiah. Isaiah 42, verse 1. My servant, there he is. 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. So see, he's been hidden from the Gentiles, but now he will be revealed to the Gentiles. So once again, God's enigmatic hidden servant is to be a savior to Israel, for Israel to be sure, but also a light for the Gentiles. He comes with the Gentiles, Isaiah 49, five through six. And now the Lord says, who formed me from the womb to be his servant. to bring Jacob back to him so that Israel is gathered to him. For I shall be glorious in the eyes of the Lord and my God shall be my strength. Indeed, he says, it is too small a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel. I will also give you as a light to the Gentiles that you should be my salvation to the ends of the earth. Who is he? Who is God's hidden servant? Well, he reappears in the 50th chapter of Isaiah. And when we find him in Isaiah chapter 50, he is a servant who somehow must also be obeyed. Isaiah chapter 50, verse 10. Who among you fears the Lord? Who obeys the voice of his servant? who walks in darkness and has no light, let him trust in the name of the Lord and rely upon his God. And here, in the 50th chapter of Isaiah, where we see the hidden servant once again, we learn more about the servant. In specific, in the 50th chapter, we learn that he's not only a hidden servant, but also a suffering servant. It's in Isaiah chapter 50 that we find him to be a suffering servant. Isaiah 50, verse six, here's the servant speaking. I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who plucked out the beard. I did not hide my face from shame and spitting." This is God's hidden servant. Who is he? Well, somehow this hidden servant of God is to be equated in the book of Isaiah somehow with God himself. Somehow the hidden servant is equated with God himself. As a son is of the same nature as his father, so too is this hidden servant in the book of Isaiah of the same nature as God. It is as if God is the father and the servant is the son. Both are of a divine nature in the book of Isaiah. Both are essentially God. And we know this. We know that there's this mysterious equation between the servant and God because of the way Isaiah talks about him, the language that Isaiah uses to describe him. Isaiah, the prophet, describes the hidden servant in this language. He says, the servant will be high and lifted up. That's how he's described. Isaiah 52, 13, Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he, and this is speaking of the servant, he shall be high and lifted up. and very exalted. But this language, this language of high and lifted up is more than striking. This is heaven's shattering language and earth shaking language because this language describing the servant as high and lifted up is the exact same language that the Prophet Isaiah used to describe his throne room vision of God back in chapter 6. It's the exact same language Isaiah 6 1 through 3 in the year that King Uzziah died. I saw the Lord Sitting on a throne high and lifted up And the train of his robe filled the temple. Above it stood Seraphim. Each one had six wings. With two he covered his face. With two he covered his feet. And with two he flew. And one cried to another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. Who is high and lifted up? Well, in the sixth chapter of Isaiah, the Lord himself is high and lifted up, so much so that the Lord can cause the fierce, fiery throne room angels to quake with fear. But then in the 52nd chapter of Isaiah, God's hidden servant is described with the same language, high and lifted up. And therefore, therefore, the glory that Isaiah saw, that glory sitting on the throne of heaven, is the same glory that Isaiah now sees in the face of the hidden servant. This is a terrifyingly transcendent glory. This is a thrice holy divine glory. So why then, why then, is this divine glory hidden in the form of a servant? Can the sublime, unapproachable light of the glory of God really be cloaked in the guise of a servant? What are we to think, that God will come to us incognito, wrapping a towel around His waist and washing the feet of His disciples, much like a common house slave? Will the Almighty God come to shine our shoes? Will He condescend not only to take up human flesh, but even human flesh in the form of a servant? Listen very carefully to Philippians 2. Philippians 2, 5-7. If you hear it slowly, you'll hear the servant. Let this mind, Philippians 2, 5-7, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, being in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bond-servant, a hidden servant, bond-slave, taking the form of a bond-servant, and coming in the likeness of men." Do you have eyes to see this? Can you see this one? the very one who shut in the oceans with doors, he locked up the ocean with doors and who made clouds their garments, who alone has entered the springs of the seas and walked in search of the depths, who alone has entered the treasury of the snow and seen the treasury of hail, this God, can you see him, the one who commands the lightning bolts and numbers the clouds? Can you see him picking up a lowly carpenter's hammer? and assuming a humble servant's attire. Can you see God, even the Son of God, becoming a servant? God hides His glory in servanthood. He rebukes the proud by hiding His glory from them. He gives grace to the humble by revealing His glory to them. God is pleased to serve. God the Son is pleased to serve with His own sweat and blood. He serves the God-fearers of the nations. He comes for the Gentiles. He serves the God-fearing poor, persecuted, sick, widowed, orphaned, and afflicted. And yet He refuses to serve the wicked and all of their haughty idolatry and unbelief. He hides himself from those who love sin and who refuse to repent of their sin. So to some he's revealed, to some he is hidden. Can this really be? Is God the Son really a servant? Will he really hide his glory in servanthood? And if God the Son If God the Son is really a hidden servant, then will we not follow Him and become little servants? Should we chase the money and the prestige of the world? Should we not rather lower ourselves to become servants? Does not Christ Jesus hide his glory today amongst the lowliest of his servants? Where do you see the glory of Christ today? Is it not hidden amongst his lowly servants? Doesn't he look for lowly people and lowly servants and pour his glory into them so that he can hide his glory in them? Is not the glory of the gospel hidden even today amongst those who are rejected by the world? Is it not the lowly, frail, lonely, meek, persecuted, suffering, and quietly weeping saints whom God has chosen to be the vessels of the hidden treasure of the gospel of his glory? Well, Christian, if you deem yourself to be a failure, since you are, in truth, quite unimportant in the eyes of the world, Perhaps this is because you are ever so important in the eyes of God. You are His servant, His little hidden servant living amongst a wicked and adulterous generation. And He has chosen you to be a fragile earthen vessel in which to hide His glorious gospel. Therefore, O Christians, Keep on serving quietly, faithfully, with much godly suffering, and very much in secret. Keep serving in secret. Don't be ashamed to serve in secret. Your Father in heaven sees your spiritual service that is done for Him in secret, and He, your blessed Father, shall reward you. God's servant hides his glory. He carries with him a hidden glory, a divine glory. He comes to us incognito in the form of a servant. Yet beneath the humble frame of a man, this outward frame of a humbled man, lies this hidden majesty. But the majesty is hard to see. It can only be seen by faith, not by sight. because God has chosen to send His eternal Son to us with this uncomely form and this unassuming visage. You can't see the majesty of Christ just by looking at Him when Jesus of Nazareth is walking the streets of Galilee. You can't see it. He hides it. The majesty is hidden beneath this uncomely form and this unassuming visage. Isaiah 53, verse 2. for he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness. And when we see him, there is no visage that we should desire him. So Christ Jesus comes not as Joseph. He's not like Joseph. In the book of Genesis, Joseph is described as being handsome, both in form and in visage. Same words. Christ Jesus has no form, no visage, but Joseph is handsome in form and in visage. Genesis 39, 6, Thus he, Potiphar, left all he had in Joseph's hand, and he did not know what he had except for the bread which he ate, because Joseph was in control. And now Joseph was handsome in form and in visage. So Christ is not handsome like Joseph. He's not ruddy and handsome like David. Also in terms of a feminine counterpart for the women to relate, he's not desirable to look at as Rachel was. He's more like Leah and less like Rachel. Christ has no form or visage the way that Rachel did. Genesis 29, 17, Leah's eyes were delicate. She wasn't that pretty. But Rachel was beautiful of, same words, of form and visage. Christ has no form, no visage. Well, what then, shall people say of us that we think of our king as not being handsome? Shall they say of us that we worship a God whom we find undesirable? Well, spiritually speaking, may it never be. Spiritually speaking, we the church are his bride, and we find him, the Lord Jesus Christ, to be the handsomest of all kings, and the loveliest of all husbands. This is the Song of Solomon. Chapter five, verses 10 through 15. Spiritually speaking, this is Christ. My beloved is white and ruddy, chief among 10,000. His head is like the finest gold. His locks are wavy and black as a raven. His eyes are like doves by the rivers of waters, washed with milk and fitly set. His cheeks are like a bed of spices, banks of scented herbs. His lips are lilies dripping liquid myrrh. His hands are rods of gold set with beryl. His body is carved ivory inlaid with sapphires. His legs are pillars of marble set on bases of fine gold. His visage is like Lebanon, excellent as the cedars. Still, the majesty of Christ is a hidden majesty. In order to be foolishness to the Greeks and an offense to the Jews, he comes in the flesh with neither a handsome form nor a lovely visage. Instead, he is unwanted by the world. Like a young nursing baby boy, Christ is considered quite unimportant. like a shoot out of dry ground, like a nursing one. Christ is considered unimportant by the covetous Pharisees and the pompous politicians of Rome. No one cares about Christ. Or like a root out of dry ground, now the plant metaphor, like a root out of dry ground, he will indeed come as the root of Jesse. Isaiah 11 says, the root of Jesse will come, yet no one will notice him because of the unattractive dry ground of his humble poverty. They won't notice the root because of the environment. It's not wanted. It has no form, no visage. Who is the king of kings? Well, the world looks for billionaires wearing fancy suits. It turns its gaze upon proud warriors. whose muscles bulge. It seeks highly educated men with cunning political savvy to sit upon the thrones of its various nations. But Christ Jesus has none of these. Outwardly, he is a root out of dry ground, with no form or visage that we should desire him." But this is how God always works, isn't it? God judges not the outward appearance, but instead looks at the inner heart. 1 Samuel 16, 7, but the Lord said to Samuel, that is concerning David's oldest brother Eliab, do not look at his visage or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. He looks at the heart. But why does God choose to do this? Why does He reveal His hidden servant to the world with such a hidden majesty? Why does it have to be so hidden? Why does the glory of Christ Jesus have to be cloaked in such poor, unattractive flesh and bones, such that He has no form or visage that we would desire Him? Why does God do this? Well, notice the word desire. Take note of the word desire in chapter 53, verse 2. Isaiah 53 to again we note the word desire For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant literally as a as a nursing boy And as a root out of dry ground He has no form or comeliness and when we see him there is no visage. So he has no form no visage that we should Desire him No form no visage why so that we won't desire him. And I think that it's more than interesting to see that when the Lord God made the Garden of Eden, he made the good trees in the garden very much desirable. He made them to be desired. In fact, the book of Genesis says that the good trees in the Garden of Eden were literally desirable to the visage. Their visage was desirable in the garden. Genesis chapter 2 verse 9. And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is literally desirable to the visage. Their visage is desirable and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Yet of course something went very wrong in the Garden of Eden. Eve, the woman, chose to desire sin. rather than the good gifts of God. That is, instead of desiring the desirable trees of the good visage that had been given in the garden, the good trees of the garden, she chose rather to desire the one bad tree in the garden, which was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. She desires this. Genesis chapter three, verse six. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable, she desired it. to make one wise. She took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate." Why then does Christ come into the world with no form and no visage that we should desire Him? Well, I think He does this so that our hearts can be exposed. For those who love sin, and desire sin, wanting to be their own gods and wanting to determine for themselves what is good and what is evil, wanting to define good and evil according to their own liking. For those kinds of people, Christ makes himself very undesirable. He doesn't want to be desired by those kind of people. He will have no competing gods before him. He will not suffer people to worship both Him and mammon. And therefore, for those whose unrepentant desire is selfish pride and idolatry, they will only see Christ as a root out of dry ground and will never be made privy to His hidden majesty. They will never be allowed to see it. And this is a divine judgment against them. However, there are those who have the eyes to see Christ Jesus for who He really is. gazing at the impoverished, stricken, afflicted man from Nazareth, the God-fearing believers are enabled by the Holy Spirit to look into his eyes and to see the majesty that's hidden behind the eyes. They immediately see this and they tremble because they realize that this unattractive garb of the Nazarene is merely a cloak and beneath it. The God-fearing people see this. Beneath it is hidden an eternal glory and majesty so bright that it would blind all men were it allowed to shine in its full brightness. Some people see that. O Church of the Risen Christ, how do you look at Him? When you look at Him, what do you see? What kind of form and visage do you see when you look at Jesus? And so much of this depends upon a man's heart. If in your heart you desire sin more than God, then you will never see God rightly. You will think that sports events and luxury homes and gourmet cupcakes and reality television shows and social popularity are much more desirable than your father or mother's old page-worn Bible. You will trade the glory of the incorruptible God for an image of an ox that eats grass or a Buddha that cannot talk. or the kind of red equal sign that has the power to cast your whole body into hell. And what then should the local church look like if Jesus chooses to hide his majesty beneath this cloak having no form, no visage that the world would desire? What should the local church look like? Does it not anger God when the local church spends thousands and thousands of tithe dollars on its logo and overall electronic image, making sure that it is sociably marketable in this competing church growth race of the new trendy and widely popular churches. Is it not an abomination in the Lord's sight for church musicians to take on both the form and the visage of the idolatrous musicians of the world? Where are those believers today who truly understand the hidden majesty of the meekness of Christ? Where can one go to find the true gospel power of the Holy Spirit that works offline and without having to use an expensive video production to produce emotions? Where today are the pastors who know how to wax mighty, not in the leadership seminar where they are seen by men, but rather in the hidden prayer closet where they are considered of no reputation among men? Where are the Christian fathers and mothers of today? who know the hidden majesty of family-based discipleship, which is so scorned by the world, but is so honorable a calling in the kingdom of God. God takes his glory and hides it in meekness. The church ought to look like that. It ought to have no form or majesty that the world would desire it, so that the glory of God could be hidden within it. Jesus Christ is God's hidden servant. He possesses infinite majesty, and yet He comes in the flesh with no form or visage that we should desire this hidden majesty. And then, He suffers. He suffers greatly not for His own sins, but for our sins. He carries our sorrows, our griefs, and our sicknesses in His own body. and therefore He is not esteemed. He has no form, He has no visage, He suffers in the body for us and therefore He is not esteemed. We do not esteem Him. Isaiah 53, 3-4 He is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and we hid, as it were, our faces from Him. We didn't want to look at Him. He was despised and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. He possesses infinite majesty. But such majesty is hidden beneath this exterior of sorrows and sicknesses and sharp pains. And therefore, how do men esteem him? Well, they esteem him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. They count him as being cursed by God, much like Job, that persevering man of old. They esteem Christ as an alien and a stranger, a plagued man, struck with the painful boils of sinful men, who is to be avoided, lest the suffering prove to be contagious. Isn't that how it is when you look upon the suffering Christ? Well, I don't want to suffer. And you look away. He suffers. He is God's hidden servant because He is God's suffering servant. It is His suffering and that on our behalf which causes Him to be so despised by the world. Why does the world hate Him? Because He suffers. We don't want a suffering King. We don't want a suffering God. Isaiah 53 verse 4, He is despised. He's despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows. and acquainted with grief, and we hid, as it were, our faces from him. He was despised, and we did not esteem him. The world despises the poor man. The world loves the rich man. The world despises the poor man. The world won't even listen to the poor man he's despised. Ecclesiastes 9.16, Then I said, Wisdom is better than strength. Nevertheless, the poor man's wisdom is despised, and his words are not heard. Jesus Christ is God's hidden servant, but He is despised by men. He is the despised servant of God. Isaiah 49, verse 7. Thus says the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel, their Holy One, to Him whom man despises. This is God's servant. They despise Him. To Him whom man despises. To Him whom the nation abhors. To the servant of rulers. king shall see and rise princes also shall worship because of the Lord who is faithful the Holy One of Israel and he has chosen you and then Psalm 22 verses 6 through 8 but I am a worm and no man a reproach of men and despised by the people All those who see me ridicule me, they shoot out the lip, they shake the head saying, he trusted in the Lord, let him rescue him, let him deliver him since he delights in him. Why is he so despised? He is despised because he loves the Father and always speaks the words that the Father gives to him. The world hates him because the world hates his father first. He is hated without a cause. He is loathed by men only on account of his holy, divine nature, which tells men that their deeds are evil. This is why they devalue him at 30 pieces of silver. This is why they crucify him. They falsely accuse and murder Christ because in their rebellion against God, Their ultimate aim is to assassinate God. So here then at the cross of Golgotha, the glory of Christ is hidden in this most lamentable kind of way. The Son of God's glory is hidden beneath streams of blood and torrents of tears. For there is a cross-centered reason why He has no form or visage that we should desire Him." What does this mean, He has no form or no visage? Well, look to the cross. Namely, on the way to the cross, His form and visage, both His form and His visage have been beaten and marred beyond recognition. The hatred of men towards God has bludgeoned Jesus' form and visage to the point of being unrecognizable. So you don't want to miss the connection between Isaiah 52, verse 14 and Isaiah 53, the verse about no form and no visage. In Isaiah 52, verse 14, it says, Just as many were astonished at you, so his visage was marred more than any man and his form more than the sons of men." So in chapter 53, he has no form, no visage that we should desire him. Why? Well, because his visage was marred more than any man and his form more than the sons of men, meaning his visage and his form were beaten beyond recognition. His face was bludgeoned so that you could no longer recognize him. What kind of hidden glory is this? That the Lord of Lords would suffer such things at the hands of sinful men. For our sins, will He really allow them to twist a crown of thorns upon His own head? In order to absorb the wrath of God, for our sins in His body on the tree, will He really allow them to spit at Him, to strike Him in the face, and to pierce His hands and His feet? So hear it again, O sin-soaked mankind, and clasp your hand over your mouth when you hear it. Sinful man has hated God enough to beat his only begotten Son beyond recognition. Sinful humanity has marred his form and his visage until it is unrecognizable." One more time, Isaiah 52, 14, just as many were astonished at you, so his visage was marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men." This is where God chooses to hide His glory. The glory of God is hidden in the mutilated body of Jesus Christ on the cross. in him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And yet these treasures are now hidden in the pierced, crucified body of Jesus as he cries out in anguish, commits his spirit into the father's hands, breathes his last breath and gives up his spirit. Where does God choose to hide his glory today? He hides His glory in the suffering men and women who are His chosen children. When we as Christians are esteemed as fools for Christ's sake, when we go hungry and thirsty, are poorly clothed, are beaten and homeless, and when we are reviled, persecuted, and despised by men, being defamed, then God chooses to hide the glory of His gospel in us. The hidden glory of Christ fills up in our flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ. So, oh dear brother or sister, if you are suffering greatly today, remember that Christ has loved you enough to share His own hidden wounds with you. And that is an honor and a privilege. Do you see it then, oh beloved church, You see the hidden glory of God in God's hidden servant. He comes with hidden majesty since he wants us to desire him even in a state of his having no comeliness. He wants us to desire him even when there's nothing that the world would desire in him. He also comes suffering as a despised and rejected man of sorrows so that the glory of God might be hidden from the eyes of wicked men. and only revealed to those little children who see the greatness of His love for us in the greatness of His suffering for us. They, the wicked, see a blasphemer when they look at Jesus. We, the Christians, see the eternal Son of God bleeding for us as the sacrificial Lamb of God who takes away our sins. They see a cursed and dying man and so they despise Him. We see the Father when we see Jesus, and we come to the Father only through the wounds of Jesus. His glory is hidden in His sufferings, but we preach that one day, one final day, His glory will be revealed to all nations. Concerning the reprobate, the unveiling of this once-hidden glory will mean everlasting wrath and torment. But concerning us, His saints, the full revelation of His once-hidden glory will bring with it, when this hidden glory of Christ is finally revealed for all the world to see, this will bring with it our everlasting rest in Him, and it will evoke our everlasting praise to Him For when He comes and reveals His glory so that all can see it and it's no longer hidden, His once hidden glory will be hidden no more and we will see it in the full. Amen. So the Lord's table this morning reminds us of the hidden glory of God's servant, Jesus. All the hidden majesty of God, all the hidden glory of God is there at the cross in the suffering servant, in God's suffering servant. Before we come to the table, here's the doxology. Praise be to God our Father, who has given to His only begotten Son an eternally sure, even if hidden, seat of divine majesty. Praise be to our Lord Jesus Christ, who has hidden His eternal glory in His own wounds and in His own blood. And praise be to the Holy Spirit, who now hides the hidden glory of the gospel in the frail bodies of Christ's redeemed and chosen servants.