Rejoicing in Our Savior This Passover Season

I want to thank the Ensemble for the beautiful job they did with that special music. That's a beautiful song. Wonderful message. Well, brethren, why do we keep the Passover every year? Why is it so important to us? Why do we make references to the Passover observance sometimes several months in advance? I know I've done that four or five months in advance at times. Is it because we need to keep God's law more perfectly? Is it because we need to examine ourselves and see just how far short we're falling? Is it because we need to strive to be worthy so we may take the Passover in a worthy manner? Well, the answer is yes to all these questions. But we primarily take or observe the Passover every year because we have a Passover Lamb. We have a perfect sacrifice, a Messiah, a Savior who died for us and now lives for us. We should all be filled with tremendous gratitude for our Savior, this Passover season. And I'm sure that you are. I know that's how I feel when I come to Passover every year is just the gratitude knowing that I have a Savior. You know, that's very powerful. It's very meaningful. So, brethren, let's all rejoice in our Savior this coming Passover season. Let us be thankful to Him and for Him. Let us exalt Him. Let us praise Him. Let us bow before Him as our Heavenly Father would surely have us do. It's His Son. He loves His Son, His beloved Son. And let us be equally grateful to our Heavenly Father for His willingness to sacrifice His Son for us. Whenever we exalt, praise, and bow before the Son of God, we certainly are exalting and praising and bowing before the Son's Father, our Father. Jesus Christ, the Anointed One, is surely our elder brother, and together we worship the Father. But make no mistake, you and I are also to worship the Son, for He is truly God, and He is the Messiah. He is our Messiah according to the Father's will. So, yes, we are to keep God's law more perfectly. It's in our best interest, isn't it, when we learn to keep God's law more faithfully. There are tremendous blessings that come through keeping God's laws. When we examine ourselves, undoubtedly, we see that we need a Savior. We desperately need a Savior because we're all sinners. We've all sinned. We've all fallen short of the glory of God, and so we desperately need a Savior. And yes, we do need to strive to be worthy, even though, in one sense, we realize that none of us are really worthy to take the Passover. None of us are really worthy of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, but we also realize that God counts us worthy. He deems us worthy when He sees a repentant heart and a repentant mind. That's when God grants us forgiveness, and we are right with Him. So, let us now closely examine a prophecy of the Messiah that relates very directly to this coming Passover season and the joy that we should all have because of our perfect sacrifice, Jesus Christ. Let's go to Isaiah, chapter 53. Now, this is a prophecy that was given roughly 700 years, probably a little longer than that, before Christ. And it's amazing how many prophecies are fulfilled when we consider Jesus Christ and the fulfillment of all of these prophecies that we're going to go through in Isaiah, chapter 53. So, beginning in verse 1, the question is asked, Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

To whom is God opening minds? Where is their understanding upon the earth today? Well, it's with those that God is calling. He's opening the minds of His people as He calls them out of this world and shows them a better way, His way. For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant. Speaking of the Christ, He shall grow up before the Father as a tender plant, human, fleshly, weak in a sense, tender, planted in dry ground. And He has no form or comeliness. And when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him. God intentionally did not make Him seven feet tall. He didn't stand out in a crowd.

He wasn't that striking in His outward appearance. It says, He has no form or comeliness. And when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

Jesus felt deeply as a human being. He was compassionate as a hen who cares for her chicks. He is also, of course, the light of the world. He was acquainted with grief. He knows and understands what human beings go through. He was despised, and we esteemed Him not.

Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. No doubt those who were there at the crucifixion felt that He was perhaps the worst of the sinners.

Why else would He be on that cross? Why would He be crucified? Crucifixion was saved for the worst of the worst. But Jesus Christ was actually the best of the best. And He was there on our behalf. Jesus was crucified, and of course, people didn't understand what was happening. People cried out, crucify Him! Crucify Him! They didn't realize that He was truly the Son of God.

How could that possibly be? So continuing on here in chapter 53, He carried our sorrows, and we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. For He was wounded. He was pierced for our transgressions. For your transgressions, for my transgressions, Jesus Christ had to die. He had to die if we were going to have a Savior. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, so that we could have peace. Jesus Christ would have to suffer for us. He would have to die for us, so that we could be given the peace that we also desperately want and desire. And by His stripes, we are healed. And many of us have been healed because Jesus Christ was willing to go through that beating that was going to go through that horrible beating that He endured on the stake by His stripes. We are healed. Now, I'll just give you a couple references. You can write them down if you'd like. I'm not going to go through them, but no doubt it's talking about both physical healing as well as spiritual healing. In Matthew 8, chapter 16, verse 17, it refers more to the physical healing that comes through the sacrifice of Christ. And then in 1 Peter, chapter 2, verses 24 and 25, it speaks of a more spiritual reason and purpose and a spiritual healing that we have through Jesus Christ. Now, in verse 6, it says, all we like sheep have gone astray. We have gone our own way. That's human nature, isn't it? To want to do our own thing, to go our own way, to be stiff-necked, to be stubborn. That kind of goes with the territory. When you have flesh, that's something you have to deal with. So we, like sheep, have gone astray. We've gone our own way, and the Father has laid on Him. He's laid on the Savior, the Messiah, the iniquity of us all. What love the Father and Son have for us and for their plan of salvation for us. Christ, we know, was slain from the very foundations of the world. So there is a wonderful plan of salvation that God is working out, and we have been blessed and privileged to understand that plan of salvation. Frankly, not many people really understand the fullness of God's plan of salvation. Very few people on the earth grasp that. They don't get it. They haven't been called at this time to have that depth of understanding that God has called us to have. So that's a tremendous blessing that we have because we understand who Christ is. That He is indeed our Messiah. He was oppressed. Verse 7, He was oppressed and He was afflicted, but unlike us, He opened not His mouth. You know, oftentimes we do open our mouths. I know I certainly have, at times when under duress. It's not always easy to be silent, but Jesus Christ set that example for us. He was innocent. He was accepting. He was trusting. He was silent before His accusers, not because He was guilty of anything, because it was just the opposite. He wasn't helpless. He wasn't weak, but He was submissive to His Father's will.

And He was fulfilling this prophecy as well, this prophecy that we find here in Isaiah 53.

In verse 8, He was taken from prison and from judgment. We know that He was falsely accused, taken under custody, judged, and convicted, basically, unfairly and in a false manner.

It says, He was cut off from the land of the living, for the transgressions of my people He was stricken. Again, it goes back to your transgressions, my transgressions, everyone's transgressions, billions of people over the ages who have sinned against God and have broken His holy and righteous law. He was taken from prison again and judgment was declared upon Him. It says, Who will declare His generation? It says He was cut off from the land of the living.

Some commentaries say that this question, or the question, Who will declare His generation, is referring to the fact that He would never have any offspring, not physical offspring.

He's got lots of spiritual offspring, but He was not married, obviously. It was not the plan for Him to have children. And He was cut off from the land of the living, for the transgressions of my people He was stricken. Yes, we all have a part to play in Jesus Christ being stricken, being struck down, being crucified. It was a violent premature death. It was only in His 30s. It shouldn't be this way, although, yes, it should be this way because it was God's will. It was God's plan, and He was slain from the very foundation of the world. And God knows best. In verse 9, it says, And they made His grave with the wicked. He was crucified with other outlaws, criminals, but with the rich at His death, speaking undoubtedly of Joseph of Arimathea, who was a rich man who ended up putting Him in His tomb. Because He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth, did they understand that He was sacrificed and stricken again for the transgression of all people? Of course not. Verse 10, Yet it pleased the Eternal to bruise Him. He has put Him to grief.

When you make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Eternal shall prosper in His hand. Although Jesus had never sinned, had never done any violence, nor was any deceit found in His mouth, yet the Eternal willed to crush Him, and He has put Him to grief, the Eternal has made Him an offering for sin.

He died with the wicked and with the rich, and He paid the price for everyone, for all of us. Jesus shall see His seed, however. He shall prolong His days, and the purpose of the Eternal will prosper in His hand. All things will be fulfilled in our Savior, Jesus Christ. Verse 11, He shall see the labor of His soul and be satisfied by His knowledge. My righteous servant shall justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. Over and over, it stresses the point that it is Jesus Christ who bears your iniquities. My iniquities takes them upon Himself. According to the Father's will, the Father shall see all the Son must go through as our sacrifice, and He shall be fully satisfied. It was according to His will. It was done as He had ordained. And remember, He said, this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

He was always very well pleased with His Son. His Son said, nevertheless, not my will, but your will be done. And that's the example that is something that is hard to comprehend, being so submissive and so willing to do the will of someone else, of our Father in heaven, Jesus Christ, at that perfect example for us.

Now, I have a Son, and despite my Son's fault, I am still well pleased with Him. I love Him. How much more would our Heavenly Father love His Son? And when you stop to consider that in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, for eons they were together, the love that they had for each other, we can't even begin to comprehend it. I don't think there's any way our human minds can understand the love that they had for each other, but also the love they have for us. You know what it says in John chapter 3, For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him and obeys Him and follows Him, shall be given the gift of eternal life, shall live forever.

For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. So God is in the process of saving this world. He's not going to force anyone.

We all have free will. We can all choose, and we will all choose, ultimately, whether or not we will humble ourselves and surrender ourselves to God and to Jesus Christ and bow ourselves before them. The Scripture says that everyone will bow before Jesus Christ if they're to live forever, if they're to be in His kingdom. So this is an extremely meaningful period of time, isn't it? The Passover. We know that looking back to ancient Israel, the blood of the Lamb was put on the lintels and the doorposts of every home throughout the land of Israel. And the firstborn were passed over. They were spared, and God is sparing each and every one of us. And it's because we have that perfect Messiah. We have that perfect sacrifice for us. So the most important thing that we need to focus upon is the sacrifice of our Savior Jesus Christ and to rejoice in that sacrifice, to exalt our Savior Jesus Christ, to praise Him, to look to Him, to be grateful to Him, and also, of course, to His Father who gave Himself for us. So this is a very, very meaningful time. It's just so important that we get our minds right, you might say, and just really are filled with gratitude of the magnitude of the wonderful sacrifice of our Savior Jesus Christ. What that means to us, to our families, what it means to God's eternal family, for all eternity. Now, we're certainly sobered by the death of the Messiah. It's a memorial. When we come here on Passover evening, it is sobering. It is a memorial of the death of our Savior Jesus Christ, the perfect one, the one who didn't deserve to die, but the one who willingly gave Himself for us. So it's very meaningful whenever we go to a funeral service, a memorial service. It is sobering. You know, it really gets us to stop and think about our lives and how we live our lives.

The kind of example that we set, that's a good thing. So every year when we memorialize the death of our Savior, it should be very meaningful to us. It should encourage us to become more and more like our Savior Jesus Christ. That should be our great desire to become like Him, to emulate our Savior. We all know that we're saved by grace. We know that it's not our lawkeeping that will ever save us. Certainly, we should strive to obey God, to humble ourselves, to be submissive to Him, to surrender ourselves, to keep the commandments of God. But we are indeed saved by grace. And it's because we're willing to accept Jesus Christ as our personal Savior. When we baptize someone, we ask them two questions. Have you repented of your sins? And have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior? Those are two very important questions. We know we've all fallen short of keeping the law perfectly, so the only hope that we have is our acceptance of Jesus Christ as our Savior.

So it's just so meaningful to realize that it's because of God's graciousness that we are saved. Let's go to Philippians chapter 2. Let's read eight verses here, and I'm going to read this in the New International Version, which I don't usually use the NIV, but I do like some of the wording here, so I'm going to read it from the NIV. Verse 1, Therefore, if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, and of course we know this is Paul, he's talking to the Philippians, to the church in Philippi, and in many ways they were a good example, this church. They had brotherly love for each other, they cared for one another. Therefore, if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded. That's what all ministers, true ministers of God, want. We want to see everyone being like-minded. Having the mind of Christ, being like-minded, having the same love, being one in Spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. That's a tall order, isn't it? To do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, rather in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests. So he's saying, don't be so selfish, but we all have to battle with selfishness, don't we?

Not looking to your own interests, but each of you to the interests of the others.

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Jesus Christ. So when you deal with each other, strive to have the mind of Christ. Christ, we know, gave up his life for us. That's the kind of mindset we should have. Are we willing to give up our lives for each other? Are we willing to sacrifice? Are we willing to be a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is our reasonable service? So we should consider that we're all brothers and sisters in Christ, and we should follow the example of Jesus Christ, loving each other and being willing to lay our lives down for each other.

Certainly, we wash each other's feet on Passover evening. We're certainly willing to do that, aren't we? To humble ourselves, to wash each other's feet, and to show that we need each other. We help clean each other up when we set the right example for each other, when we love each other, and when we care for each other, and when we treat each other humbly and in a proper and godly way.

So in your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus, who being in very nature of God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage. Yes, he was all-powerful. Jesus Christ could have called down legions of angels. He had the power, but he didn't use the power.

He didn't use it because it wasn't the right thing to do. Who being in the very nature of God did not use it to his own advantage, he did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage. Rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant being made in human likeness. So he was very willing to serve. That's why he got down on his knees and washed their feet and set that example for them. Being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. Again, it was for the worst of the worst, but Jesus Christ was the best of the best. Yet he humbled himself and was crucified on the stake. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death. And he did that for you and for me. Now let's consider Hebrews 2. Hebrews 2, verse 10 through verse 15. Again, we carry this theme. Jesus Christ is the captain of our salvation. Hebrews chapter 2 will begin in verse 9. Hebrews chapter 2, verse 9.

But we see Jesus, who is made a little lower than the angels, for a little time lower than the angels, because he's made of flesh. For the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that he by the grace of God might taste death for everyone. It was his purpose to taste death for everyone. For it was fitting for him for whom are all things and by whom are all things, and bringing many sons to glory. That's what Christ is doing by sacrificing himself for us. He's making it possible that we may be glorified in due time. That we may put on the divine nature. That we may become like Jesus Christ, born into his family, into the family of God, bringing many sons to glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings, for both he who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason he is not ashamed to call them brethren. He is our elder brother. He calls us brothers and sisters.

We are brothers and sisters in Christ, saying, I will declare your name to my brethren. I will declare your name to my brethren. In the midst of the assembly, I will sing praise to you. And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, here am I and the children whom God has given me. We are the children that God has given to Jesus Christ. That's amazing, isn't it? We are also God's children. Jesus Christ was the firstborn among many brethren. We are counted in that number. God has called us, opened our minds when we were baptized, and we had hands laid upon us. We received God's Spirit to dwell in us, to sanctify us, to set us apart as a part of God's holy family.

Inasmuch then, verse 14, as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared in the same that through death he might destroy him who had the power of death. He did this to destroy the God of this world, to destroy the power that Satan the devil had over us.

Once we were prisoners, taken captive by the God of this world, but we've been freed. The truth will set us free. The sacrifice of Jesus Christ sets us free.

Through death he might destroy him who had the power of death. That is the devil and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. You know, the children of Israel were subject to bondage. They were in Egypt. They were in bondage. And we've all been in bondage to Satan the devil. For indeed he does not give aid to angels, but he does give aid to the seed of Abraham. Therefore, in all things, he had to be made like his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God to make propitiation or to become the mercy seat for the sins of the people. It is through the mercy of God that our sins are forgiven, for in that he himself has suffered, being tempted, he is able to aid those who are also tempted. Christ is our high priest. Notice verse 1, therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of our confession, Christ Jesus, who is faithful to him, who appointed him, as Moses was also faithful in all his house. Moses set a wonderful example of a human being, and he was willing to lay his life down for the children of Israel. He said, blot my name out, God, but don't kill these people. Moses showed that kind of love that we are to have, the kind of example that we are to set. For this one has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, and Moses really was counted worthy of a lot of glory through his example. He wasn't perfect by any means. We know he was not allowed to actually go into the promised land. He was able to see it. He will certainly be in the kingdom of God for eternity. For every house is built by someone, but he who built all things is God. And Moses, indeed, was faithful in all his house as a servant for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward. But Christ, as a son over his own house, whose house we are, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end. So we should be rejoicing in the hope that we have in our Savior Jesus Christ. So I think we've read enough. Read a little more than I actually intended to. Went into chapter 3 there. Again, Jesus Christ is the ultimate sacrifice, the only sacrifice anyone could ever need. The Bible says a lot about sacrifices and offerings, but Jesus Christ is so far above all other sacrifices, all other offerings that have ever been made. It is interesting that many animal sacrifices were made. They all pointed to that ultimate sacrifice, the shed blood of our Savior Jesus Christ. I find it ironic that pagan religions also worship to bow down and they offer sacrifices to pagan gods, to foreign gods. No wonder God was so upset with Israel who even did the same thing. They worship on the high places. They worship Baal.

And clearly God was their creator. He was their deliverer. He did miraculous wonders, plagues that struck and devastated Egypt. And yet the Israelites didn't get it. They didn't grasp it. We can be different because we are the Israel of God. We are the spiritual Israel, the ones that have the Spirit of God dwelling in us. And we are to be different. And we're to make much better choices than our forefathers did in that regard. Only a few. Joshua, Caleb, Moses, some set that example. Hebrews 11 gives some others that were men and women of faith. We also are to be men and women of faith.

I find it also ironic that after the law was given on Mount Sinai in Exodus chapter 20, Moses authorized or directed the children of Israel to make certain sacrifices and offerings to God. And of course there had been offerings before this, even since the time of Cain and Abel and certainly Abraham and during those times in the book of Genesis. But in Exodus 24, Moses authorized and directed the children of Israel to make sacrifices and offerings to God.

But it wasn't long after that that the children of Israel were making sacrifices to a golden calf.

Just a few chapters later in Exodus 32, it talks about Moses had not returned from the mountain, and they were anxious and they were afraid, and they also wanted to do what they wanted to do.

It says, the people sat down to eat and drink. They rose up to play before the golden image.

I find that extremely ironic that people would bow down before idols. You know, God makes such an issue out of idolatry. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall make unto thee no graven images. And yet, they just really did not get it. The vast majority of them. Again, a few because God's Spirit was working with and dwelling in a few, but not the vast majority. We are to be different. Let's go to Deuteronomy chapter 32 and let's consider what the scripture says here.

Speaking of his chosen people, the children of Israel, in Deuteronomy chapter 32 and verse 15, it uses the root Jeshuran for Israel. It says, But Jeshuran grew fat and kicked. They became fat and sassy, you might say. You grew fat, you grew thick, you are obese. Then he forsook God who made him, and scornfully esteemed the rock of his salvation, distain the rock of his salvation, distain the one who became Christ.

The eternal, they provoked him to jealousy with foreign gods. With abominations, they provoked him to anger. In verse 16, they sacrificed to demons, to malignant destroyers. That word really means, and that's what Satan is. He's a malignant destroyer, and his demons are malignant destroyers. They sacrificed to demons, not to God, to gods they did not know, to new gods, new arrivals that your fathers did not fear. The forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, they did not worship these demons. You know, there were many plagues that were poured out upon Egypt, plague after plague after plague, and it's my understanding that each of these plagues also had some relation to do with an Egyptian god.

You know, the god of flies, or the god of, you know, beasts and so forth. You know, the god of even fish and various frogs and things like that. They all, I actually have a sermon that I go into all of the names. I found that somewhere. All the names of the different gods of all those 10 plagues. One day I'll probably give that sermon. It's interesting, but it's just so ironic that people would worship.

You know, Romans 1.20 talks about how they worshiped the creation rather than the creator, and God gave them over to a reprobate mind. So let us never bow before anyone except our God, our Savior, Jesus Christ, and our Heavenly Father. In verse 18 of Deuteronomy 32, it says, "...of the rock who begot you, you are unmindful and have forgotten the God who fathered you. And when the Lord saw it, he spurned them because of the provocation of his sons and daughters.

And he said, I will hide my face from them. I will see what their end will be, for they are a perverse generation. They are children in whom is no faith." And that is the history of the children of Israel. "...They have provoked me to jealousy," in verse 21, "...by what is not God. They have moved me to anger by their foolish idols. But I will provoke them to jealousy by those who are not a nation. I will move them to anger by a foolish nation." God is going to certainly punish modern Israel in the future, just as he punished ancient Israel in the past.

They first they went into captivity in Assyria, then they went then the house of Judah went into captivity in Babylon. And God had had enough. You know, he had been merciful so many different times, but finally he had had enough and he allowed them to pay the price for their disobedience, for their rebellion, and for their sin. Again, we can do much better. And we have done better, I believe, as God's people. I don't see any of you out bowing before any gods. You know, at least we're not quite that far off the mark or off the target.

God has given us greater understanding. We are to be a holy people, sanctified and set apart for a holy purpose. And that brings us to Hebrews 7, verse 22. By so much more, Jesus has become a surety of a better covenant. We are under the new covenant.

Verse 23. Also, there were many priests because they were prevented by death from continuing. Speaking of human priests, but he, because he continues forever, he has an unchangeable priesthood, the priesthood of Melchizedek. Therefore, he is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. Jesus Christ lives to intercede for us. We can come before Christ because he knows our weakness. He knows our frailty. He was without sin, yet he was tempted in every point, as we've been tempted. Yet he was without sin. So, obviously, he did a lot better than we've done. So, continuing in verse 26. For such a high priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens, who does not need daily as those high priests to offer up sacrifices. Yes, they were required to offer up daily sacrifices, first for his own sins, and then for the peoples, for this he did once for all, when he offered up himself. Just, that was enough, the sacrifice of Christ. Verse 28. For the law appoints as high priests men who have weakness, but the word of the oath, which came after the law, appoints the Son, who has been perfected forever. Again, Jesus is the perfect, unblemished sacrifice. Now, let's consider a future prophecy given in the book of Jeremiah.

Along these lines, it says in Jeremiah chapter 33 verse 6, he says, Behold, Jeremiah chapter 33 and verse 6, Behold, I will bring it health and healing. I will heal them and reveal to them the abundance of peace and truth. And I will cause the captives of Judah and the captives of Israel to return, and will rebuild those places as at the first. So, we know there's a duality in prophecy oftentimes. There was a dual first fulfillment of this. There will be a latter fulfillment in the days ahead. I will cleanse them, verse 8, Jeremiah 33 verse 8, I will cleanse them from all their iniquity by which they have sinned against me, and I will pardon all their iniquities by which they have sinned and by which they have transgressed against me. This is a time coming. Now, God is doing that for us because we're called out and chosen at this time. This is our day of salvation, but God is going to do this for all Israel in His own time. I will pardon all their iniquities by which they have sinned. That is, of course, if they are willing to repent of those sins, if they have a repentant heart and repentant mind. God looks on the heart. Verse 9, then it shall be to me a name of joy, a praise, and an honor before all nations of the earth, who shall hear all the good that I do to them. God is going to do much good in the future. There is a hope for Israel and Judah in the future, for Jerusalem, and for all the nations of the earth, as it says in verse 9, who shall hear all the good that I do to them. They shall fear and tremble for all the goodness and all the prosperity that I provide for it. Verse 10, Thus says the Lord, again there shall be heard in this place, of which you say it is desolate without man and without beast, and that is going to happen again. It happened in the past. It will happen in the future. Jerusalem was devastated. They were taken captive to Israel, or I'm sorry, to Assyria and to Babylon, and it was a horrible situation. That will happen again in modern Israel. But in verse 11, it says, There will be a time when the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, is going to be heard. The voice of those who will say, Praise the Eternal of hosts, for the Lord is good, the Eternal is good, and his mercy endures forever. And of those who will bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the Eternal, he says, For I will cause the captives of the land to return as at the first. So there is hope for all people. There is hope for this nation, for this country of ours, and for this world, because eventually all who are repentant shall be forgiven. It says in verse 12, Thus says the Lord of hosts, In this place which is desolate, without man and without beast, and in all its cities there shall again be a dwelling place of shepherds, causing their flocks to lie down. And God will provide shepherds to take care of the flock, and there will be peace.

And now let's go to Psalm 51. This is David's Psalm of Repentance. Psalm 51, we'll just read a few verses. We'll start in verse 15. Psalm 51, verse 15. David says, O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall flow forth, show forth your praise. David was a man after God's own heart. David was extremely thankful to God for his mercy, for his forgiveness. David knew he was a sinner. There was no doubt. There's no doubt that we are sinners. There's no doubt that you are a sinner, that I am a sinner. David was a sinner, and he was very, very grateful that God was so merciful to him. He was stubborn for a time, wasn't he? He didn't see his sin right away, but he did come to repentance.

O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall show forth your praise, for you do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it. You do not delight in burnt offering. That isn't really what God has ever desired. He wants the living sacrifice. He wants us willing to obey God, and to follow God, and to follow Jesus Christ.

Verse 17, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. They are broken in a contrite heart, and these, O God, you will not despise. God will not despise a repentant heart and a repentant mind.

David prayed that prayer of repentance. He prayed, Father, don't take your spirit from me. He knew that he was in jeopardy. He had sinned greatly, and God could have decided to take that spirit away from him. He understood that, and he prayed, God, don't take your spirit from me. His heart was repentant. He did repent of that sin, and David, we know, will rule over Israel in the kingdom.

God forgave him. God was very merciful, and God is just as merciful to you and to me.

The scripture also says in Proverbs 21, verse 3, Proverbs 21, verse 3, To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the eternal than sacrifice. Talking about physical sacrifices, sacrificing of animals, shedding the blood of animals.

To do righteousness and justice is much more acceptable to the Lord than those types of sacrifices. That is what God wants. He wants us to be just in how we treat one another. He wants us to be righteous in how we live our lives. We should always strive to be more obedient, more faithful, more righteous. But again, let us focus on our wonderful Savior, Jesus Christ, this Passover season, first and foremost, not on ourselves. Let's focus on the Savior that we have. Let us all rejoice in our Savior this coming Passover season. Let us be thankful to Him and for Him. Let us thank Him many times between now and Passover evening. Let us exalt Him. Let us praise Him. Let us bow before Him, as our Heavenly Father would surely have us do. And let us be equally grateful to our Heavenly Father for His willingness to sacrifice His beloved Son for us. So, brethren, it is very, very important that we do turn to God at this time, that we do humble ourselves, and that we come here on Passover evening with the right spirit, with the right mind, the mind of our Savior, Jesus Christ.