Take your Bibles, if you will,

and open them to the book of Genesis.

We have been continuing our study

concerning worship,

and we’re going to be continuing that this

evening.

We’re gonna jump back into the Old

Testament.

We spent a little bit of time,

a couple of weeks in the New Testament.

We’re gonna spend a little bit more time

in the Old Testament looking

at some matters related to worship.

And ~ then we’ll deal with a few things.

But as we get into that, we’re actually

going to begin with some time

~ spent looking at some of the altars that

are in Genesis.

And then also ~ looking at some things

related to God’s sovereignty.

But let’s begin with a word of prayer and

then we’ll get into our study.

Our gracious Father in Heaven,

we come before you grateful for the day

you’ve blessed us with,

mindful of those who are ill,

those who are struggling with physical

maladies,

~ those who are

facing upcoming procedures and those who

are trying to recover from

~ diseases and and difficulties.

Lord, we pray that your healing hand be

upon them and that their health

and that their abilities be retained back

to their desired state.

Lord, we pray that you be with those who

are from this congregation that deal with

chronic disease and and hardship.

And Lord, we pray that you

Help them as well. Lord, we pray that you

be with this nation and this state.

We pray that you be with this region,

this city that we belong to. May we have

open doors of opportunity.

May the gospel have an influence

throughout this area and throughout this

country

and throughout the world. May we always

stand boldly for the truth.

And Lord, may we be firm in standing.

To say that we ought to worship you and

you alone.

Lord, we pray that you will forgive us

when we sin and fall short of your glory.

We pray that you will bless the work of

our hands and the labor

of this congregation and the opportunities

that it has.

And all of this we pray and ask in Jesus’

name.

Amen.

As you get into the book of Genesis,

you find in the beginning of chapter four,

we’ve noticed this briefly, the events of

Cain and Abel and the worship that

is offered there. Cain will offer of the

what?

Fruit of the ground. Abel will offer what?

All right, the firstborn of the flock.

~ now, one point to make, we’re not gonna

spend a lot of time dwelling

on that since we’ve already looked at it,

but one point to be made ~ is you find in

verse three

of Genesis four, and in the process of

time it came to pass that Cain brought

an offering of the fruit of the ground to

the Lord.

The one of the contrasts that we see in

the text between

What is stated about Abel’s sacrifice and

what is stated about Cain’s

is actually found in verse 4. So

generically being stated,

Cain offered of the fruit of the ground.

But when you notice verse 4, Abel also

brought of the firstborn

of the flock and of their fat,

and the Lord respected Abel and his

offering.

If you were to just examine the text.

You would say, okay, well, we could look

at the comparison or

the contrast of offerings. Cain offered of

the fruit of the ground.

Abel offered of the f ~ of the flock.

Cain, it doesn’t state whether his was the

first fruit of

the ground or not. Abel, it specifically

states that it

was the firstborn of the flock.

Track forward to the days of the Mosaic

Law,

and what does God require of the people?

The first of everything. All right,

turn to Exodus chapter twelve.

Exodus chapter 12, as the Israelites

are beginning to proceed or about to

proceed out of the land of Egypt,

there is the tenth and final plague,

which happens in chapter 11, and it is the

death of what?

The firstborn. In chapter 12,

you open up the text, and the Lord spoke

to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt,

saying,

This month shall be your beginning of

months,

and it shall be the first month of the

year to you.

Speak to all the children of Israel,

saying, On the tenth of this month every

man shall take for himself a lamb,

according to the house of his father,

a lamb for a household. And if the

household is too small for the lamb,

let him and his neighbor take to his

house,

let’s sorry, next to his house,

take it according to the number of the

persons.

According to each man’s need you shall

make your count for the lamb.

Your lamb shall be without blemish,

a male of the first year, you may take it

from the sheep or from the goats.

Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth

day of the same month,

then the whole assembly of the

congregation of Israel shall kill it at

twilight,

and they shall take some of the blood and

put it on the two doorposts,

and on the lintels of the house where they

eat it.

And they shall eat the flesh on that

night,

roasted in fire, and unleavened bread,

and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.

Do not eat it raw nor boiled with all at

all with water,

but roasted in fire, its head with its

legs and its entrails.

You shall let none of it remain until

morning,

and what remains of it until morning you

shall burn with fire,

and thus you shall eat it with your belt

on your waist,

your sandals on your feet, and your staff

in your hand,

so you shall eat it in haste. It is the

Lord’s Passover.

For I will pass through the land of Egypt

on that night,

and I will strike all the firstborn in the

land of Egypt,

both man and beast, and against all the

gods of Egypt I will execute judgment.

I am the Lord. Now the blood shall be a

sign for you on the houses where

you are, and when I see the blood I will

pass over you,

and the plague shall not be on you to

destroy you when I strike the land of

Egypt.

So this day shall be to you a memorial.

And you shall keep it as a feast to the

Lord throughout all your generations.

You shall keep it as a feast by

everlasting ordinance.

Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread.

On the first day you shall remove leaven

from your houses.

For whoever eats leavened bread from the

first day until the seventh day,

that person shall be cut off from Israel.

On the first day there shall be a holy

convocation.

On the seventh day there shall be a holy

convocation for you.

No manner of work shall be done on them,

but that which every one must ~ but that

which everyone must eat,

that only may be prepared for you.

So you shall observe the feast of

unleavened bread,

for on this day I have brought your armies

out of the land of Egypt.

Therefore you shall observe this day

throughout your generations

as an everlasting ordinance. In the first

month,

on the fourteenth day of the month at

evening,

you shall eat unleavened bread until the

twenty-first day of the month at evening.

For seven days no leaven shall be found in

your houses,

since whoever eats whoever eats what is

leavened,

that same person shall be cut off from the

congregation of Israel,

whether he is a stranger or a native of

the land.

You shall eat nothing leavened in all your

dwellings,

you shall eat unleavened bread.

Then Moses called for all the elders of

Israel and said to them,

Pick out and take lambs of yourself ~ for

yourselves according to your families,

and kill the Passover lamb.

And he gives them the instructions on what

they’re to do.

And verse 29 and 30, you have the death of

the firstborn.

Okay? As God brings this plague upon

Israel,

God institutes the Passover.

God creates the calendar for Israel all

over again.

Here’s the beginning of your year.

And in the beginning of your year,

on the tenth day, you’re going to do this.

And on this, the 14th day, you’re gonna do

this.

And on the 21st day, you’re going to do

this.

But it in the very first year,

the fundamental thing behind the Passover

was

the plague of the firstborn.

You step over to chapter 13, and God is

going

to consecrate the firstborn.

God is going to claim the firstborn of

Israel.

Forever. Notice chapter thirteen.

Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,

Consecrate to me all the firstborn,

whatever opens the womb from the children

of Israel,

both of man and beast, it is what?

Mine. Mine.

God is going to tell Israel, your

firstborn child,

it’s mine. Your firstborn lamb is mine.

Firstborn cow, it’s mine. Your firstborn

of everything.

Ultimately, when you follow this through

to the Mosaic ordinances,

the firstborn of every field, the first

fruits.

Belong to the Lord. Matter of fact,

there will be a feast of first fruits.

God is going to tell Israel, the first of

everything is mine.

It’s always interesting me when people in

the religious world talk about tithing.

They’ll say, Well, God commanded a tithe.

That is technically accurate in the Mosaic

law,

except it ignores the majority of what God

commanded.

Because God commanded

The first. And God commanded a tenth.

And God commanded special feasts.

And God commanded other things.

When you start adding it up, God God

actually commanded about 25%

of everything that came out of Israel.

Okay? So when you start doing the math,

like, no, ~ you just went with the easiest

one to calculate because it’s

in the name. It’s called a tenth,

it’s a tithe. But God commanded way more.

than 10% when it comes to Israel.

Now, when you look at this text,

you find an interesting detail with

Genesis 3 that what

God respected in what Abel did is Abel

offered

the first thing.

Abel, as he worships,

will offer to God what comes first.

And if he gives to God what comes first,

what is Abel by a token of doing that

saying about himself?

That God comes first. Because generally

speaking,

you’re going to give the thing that comes

first to whoever matters most.

So if you keep what is first and you give

God what is last,

then who’s most important? You are.

Because you gave to yourself first.

It’s one of the principles because we’re.

All of this discussion is not just to get

a history of worship,

it’s to establish what are the principles

that we worship by.

Well, when you think about the offering

that we give on the first day of the week,

should we be setting aside our offering

and setting aside what we offer

to the Lord as the first thing or what’s

left over?

I know when I present it that way,

everybody says, well, the first thing.

But do we actually do that? When we sit

down and look at the money that comes into

our lives, do we go, all right,

here’s the Lord’s. Now I gotta make

everything else work because

the Lord’s area is not going to get cut.

Now, step over, if you will,

to 2 Corinthians.

Paul, as he is writing to the church at

Corinth

Is going to discuss this very idea in the

discussion of what

he will say concerning.

The people in Macedonia, in that they not

only give first to God,

they give more than they could give to

God.

Second Corinthians chapter 8 and verse 1

Moreover,

brethren, we make known to you the grace

of God bestowed on churches of Macedonia,

that in great trial of affliction and

abundance of their joy,

their deep poverty abounded in riches of

their liberality.

For I bear them witness that according to

their ability.

Yes, and beyond their ability,

they were f freely willing, imploring us

with much urgency that

we should receive the gift and the

fellowship of the ministering of the

saints,

not only as we had hoped, but they first

gave themselves to the Lord,

and then to us by the will of God.

Paul says as he’s calling to mind what the

Macedonian Christians have done,

is he’s writing this letter from Macedonia

to the churches in Corinth.

He’s writing to them and says,

Hey, I you need to know what the church at

Macedonia did.

First of all, you need to know their

state.

They’re in deep poverty. As ~ as Jim

McGuigan would say over in

the book of Revelation, about one of the

churches that’s described as being poor

in the book of Revelation.

There’s two words in the Greek for poor.

There’s the one who’s poor, and then

there’s the people who are poor.

They have nothing. They don’t have a they

don’t have

a simple lack. They are destitute.

This idea is destitute. And yet Paul is in

their presence,

and Paul is telling them concerning the

state of the churches in Judea,

and Paul is telling them about the

willingness of the Corinthians to give,

and the Macedonians beg him. They plead

with him to accept their gift.

Paul says is essentially saying,

listen, we would have just reflect

rejected it out of right because they

don’t have

anything to give.

But given that they didn’t have anything

to give,

what they did is they gave of themselves

first.

They said, Well, we don’t have anything.

But we’ll go get something,

and then we’ll give it. So here you have a

group of people

who are already destitute, and they go get

something so they can give

it before they ever worry about their own

state.

This idea of putting God first.

Turn over first Corinthians chapter

sixteen.

First Corinthians chapter 16. Now

concerning the collection for the saints,

as I have given order to the churches of

Galatians,

so you must do also. On the first day of

the week,

let each one of you lay something aside,

storing up as he may prosper, that there

be no collections when I come.

Now, as Paul gave the instruction to the

Corinthians preceding the thing that he’s

writing about in Second Corinthians,

when he gave the initial instruction,

he says, All right.

Corinthians. I’ve given the churches to

the Order of Galatia.

I’ve told them what they’re supposed to be

doing in regards to this gift

to benefit the churches of Judea.

He says you collect it on the first day of

the week and you collect

it according to what?

As you have prospered. Now tie what you

have from

the Old Testament to what you have in the

New Testament.

God says the firstborn of everything is

mine.

What if you didn’t have anything born?

You have anything to give?

No. Wha what if the first ~ fruit of all

of your field belongs to the Lord and your

field doesn’t produce anything?

You have anything to give?

No. There are circumstances and there are

times where God’s

expectation is zero.

Because ten percent of zero is zero.

All right. We do the math on that one

pretty easy.

And this was an interesting discussion

that that came up when we were

in the school of preaching because one of

the instructors asked the question,

Is it ever appropriate on the first day of

the week to not give?

And the answer is yes. When you’ve not

prospered.

Because what God is saying is,

you give to me first. Now,

what we have to be careful about is when

we look at our bank account and go,

well, I ~ I I obligated myself to the

bank,

and I obligated myself to the company that

sells the boat,

and I obligated myself to the company that

sells the car,

and I obligated myself to the

To the company that sells the internet,

and I obligated myself to the company that

sells the cell phone.

So as a result of that, I don’t have

anything to give to the Lord.

That’s not gonna work out. Because what

you did is you said,

Well, the house is important and the boat

is important and the car

is important and the cell phone’s

important,

the internet’s important, but the Lord

needs to get what’s left.

Okay?

So as we consider going all the way from

Genesis 3 all the way forward,

there’s this fundamental idea in what God

says

is respected and acceptable when it comes

to worship.

And it is what is first.

Now, yes, Ava.

Absolutely. We’re we’re headed back to

Exodus thirteen because one

of the things that you saw already in the

text that we read in Exodus twelve

is that God said, Hey, everybody’s not

gonna give the same thing.

Because not everything is appropriate at

the same level.

He already mentioned, you know what,

for the number of some families,

they should give a lamb by themselves.

But there are other families that by

reason of number it is not appropriate

for them to give a lamb by themselves.

They and their neighbor can combine

together to give.

Okay? So in this, you have

God understanding circumstance.

Over in 1 Corinthians chapter 16,

Paul understands circumstance.

Over in 2 Corinthians chapter 8,

God and Paul both in in the writing of

this to the church

at Corinth are understanding circumstance.

But the principle behind the giving

is a manifestation of an attitude that

says,

God’s going to come first, as opposed to

God’s going to come last.

Turn ~ back to chapter 13 of Exodus.

In Exodus chapter thirteen

~ we’re going to start in verse eleven.

It shall be when the Lord brings you into

the land of the Canaanites,

as he swore to you and your fathers and

gives it to you.

Now, first thing to note, when does this

ordinance begin?

When they get into the land of Canaan.

This is not an ordinance that begins at

Mount Sinai.

This is not an ordinance that begins in a

forty year wilderness wandering.

This is an ordinance that begins when they

receive the land

God had promised them. Okay? So worth

pointing out,

but there are going to be some things that

occur along the way beforehand.

He says, It shall be the case when you

bring when the Lord brings you into

the land of the Canaanites, as he swore to

you and your fathers,

and gives it to you, that you shall set

apart to the Lord all that opens the womb.

That is, every firstborn that comes from

an animal which you have,

the males shall be the Lord’s.

But every firstborn of a donkey you shall

redeem with a lamb.

And if you will not redeem it,

then you shall break its neck.

And all the firstborn of man among your

sons you shall redeem.

So it shall be when your son asks you in

time to come,

saying, What is this? That you shall say

to him,

By strength of hand, the Lord brought us

out of Egypt,

out of the house of bondage. And it came

to pass when Pharaoh

was stubborn about letting us go,

that the Lord killed all the firstborn in

the land of Egypt,

both the firstborn of man and the

firstborn of beast,

therefore I sacrifice to the Lord all.

All males that open the womb, but all the

firstborn of my sons I redeem,

and it shall be as a sign on your hand and

as frontlets between your eyes,

for by strength of hand the Lord brought

us out of Egypt.

So God is going to essentially say,

firstborn of everything, beast of burden,

or one of your own children, if it’s a

firstborn male,

it belongs to me. Now

As you track forward in the text,

you’re going to find that God is going to

offer to Israel a substitute.

What is going to be the substitute for the

firstborn of every tribe?

That’s correct. The Levites. Essentially,

what is going to happen is God is going to

claim the Levitical tribe as his tribe.

So the Levites are going to be the

substitute.

And so every year, essentially,

what they were to do is they were to

number the number of Levites.

And then they were to number the people.

And they were to basically pay the

difference between the Levites and

the rest of the people.

So that the Levites stood as the

redemption of the firstborn.

But as we bring these thoughts to mind,

consider that God is saying,

the first belongs to me.

And you have that principle highlighted

highlighted already

in Genesis chapter four. It can is

consistently true.

All the way through the Old and the New

Testament.

Now I want to spend just a little bit of

time in the book of Isaiah.

We’re gonna begin in Isaiah chapter six,

and we’re going to consider the idea

of God’s sovereignty. When you think about

worship,

and when you think about this idea of

giving the first to the Lord,

someone might come along and say,

Well, why? I’m not an Israelite,

and God didn’t save my family out of

Egyptian bondage,

so why should I give the first to the

To the Lord. And the answer comes from who

God is.

It comes from the sovereignty of God.

~ that idea of a sovereign.

What what is a sovereign in a national

perspective?

Alright, something that stands on its own.

It generally speaking, you would be

considering even either a government

or a king or a queen. The sovereign is the

ruler over that

nation. Okay? They stand on their own,

and everyone else is subject to them.

That’s what we’re talking about.

Isaiah highlights in a number of passages

the sovereignty of.

The exclusive rule of God.

In Isaiah chapter six, beginning in verse

one,

we read, In the first 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.

And there and 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.

There’s a song that we sing that’s in our

psalm books.

Holy, holy, holy,

Lord God Almighty. When you examine that

song,

that song

Pertains to, it derives itself from Isaiah

and other passages,

but it pertains to the sovereignty of God.

The declaration from the seraphim here is

there’s nobody else like

God. There’s nobody that’s comparable to

God.

There’s nobody who is above God.

Notice what we read.

And the posts of the door were shaken by

the voice of him who cried out,

and the house was filled with smoke.

So I said to me, Woe is me, for I am

undone,

because I am a man of unclean lips,

and I dwell in the midst of a people of

unclean lips,

for my eyes have seen what? The king.

Isaiah in division,

as he sees this, he sees himself and he

says,

Woe is me!

Now, when Isaiah says this,

do you think Isaiah is saying,

you know what? I I I’m really just I’m not

a good Israelite.

I I I don’t do what the Lord says.

Generally speaking, I live a pretty

rebellious life against the Lord.

You think that’s what he means?

No. What Isaiah is saying is I’m looking

at myself and I’m looking at the Lord,

and we don’t compare.

I’m looking at his holiness and I don’t

match up.

I look at myself and I I realize I

am imperfect in comparison to someone who

is entirely perfect.

And Isaiah will proclaim himself to be a

man of unclean lips,

dwelling in the midst of a people of

unclean lips.

Then one of the seraphim flew to me,

having in his hand alive coal which had

taken which he had taken from

the tongs from the altar, and he touched

my mouth with it and said,

Behold this has touched your lips,

your iniquity is taken away, and your sin

purged.

As the Seraphim comes from the throne of

God,

he goes to the altar because the remember

the picture is happening in the temple.

Okay? So the if you were to try and

envision what Isaiah is seeing,

Isaiah is seeing in the vision,

here’s the temple, and here’s the place by

the way,

here’s the place in the holiest of holies

in the temple.

Here’s the throne of God. What represented

the throne of God that

had the seraphim over it in the temple in

Israel?

The Ark of the Covenant. When you think

about the Ark of the Covenant,

you have a box overlaid with gold with a

lid.

On the top of the lid you had the mercy

seat,

and over the mercy seat you had the

seraphim.

And so Isaiah in the vision is seeing the

temple,

not Israel’s temple. He’s seeing the

Lord’s temple.

He’s seeing the dwelling place of God.

He’s seeing the throne room of God.

Very reminiscent for those of us who are

in the Revelation class

of Revelation chapter 4 and chapter 5.

Isaiah sees the temple of God and he sees

the throne room of God and

he sees the seraphim, and the seraphim

flies from above the

throne of God and goes to the altar.

Takes one of the coals of the altar and

puts it on the mouth of Isaiah.

And he says, Essentially, you’re correct,

you’re right. Your lips are unclean.

But now I’ve taken your iniquity away.

I have made your lips holy.

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying,

Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?

As Isaiah is seeing this vision,

he hears a proclamation, he hears a

question from the Lord.

I’ve got a message, I need to send it

through somebody.

Who can I get to go for us?

Then I said, Here am I.

Send me. Another one of the songs in our

songbook.

Here am I. Send me. But Isaiah sees

the Lord in the vision.

And his immediate reaction is this

individual is

of such great holiness and of such great

power and such great position.

I am not worthy to be in his presence.

I am not worthy. My people are not worthy.

And none of us can open our mouth and

speak his words because of how holy it is.

And yet God will make the lips of Isaiah

holy.

And then God will say, Now I’m going to

use your lips.

Verse 9, he said, Go and tell this people,

keep on hearing, but do not understand.

Keep on seeing.

But do not perceive.

Now, Jesus used a phrase over and over and

over again,

He that has ears to hear,

let him hear. The message

to Isaiah is go cause their ears to be

closed.

You’re going to speak the message,

and they’re not going to listen.

You’re going to proclaim the holy message

from the Lord,

and they’re not going to hear you.

He says, Make the heart of this people

dull and their ears heavy,

shut their eyes, lest they see with their

eyes and hear with their ears

and understand with their heart and return

and be healed.

Wait a minute, Lord. Don’t you want them

to repent?

He did.

But the Lord knew the heart of the men.

And the Lord, knowing the heart of men,

knew that they weren’t going to repent.

But he was going to give them the message

anyway.

So in Isaiah 6,

you have the beginning of this picture,

and it’s all throughout Isaiah,

but we’re going to jump over to Isaiah

chapter 40.

You have the beginning picture of the

sovereignty of God.

So Isaiah chapter forty, we find more of

this picture.

In Isaiah chapter forty, verse one,

we read, Comfort, yes, comfort my people,

says the Lord. Speak comfort to Jerusalem

and cry out to her that

her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is

pardoned,

for she has received from the Lord’s hand

double for all her sins.

The voice of one crying in the wilderness,

prepare the way of the Lord, make straight

in the desert a highway for our God.

Every valley shall be exalted,

and every mountain and hill brought low,

the crooked places shall be made straight,

and the rough places smooth, the glory of

the Lord shall be revealed,

and all flesh shall see it together,

for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

Now Jesus is going to pray.

Appropriately and rightfully connect this

to the work of Elijah sorry

of John the Baptist. But Isaiah is told

to comfort Israel, and here’s the comfort

that is pronounced:

Israel, you’ve suffered, you’ve gone

through the hardship,

you’ve gone through exile, you’ve been

brought back,

you’ve received double for your sins.

Now I’m going to send myself.

To you. But given that the king is going

to show up,

there are some preparations that need to

be made.

There was day and time where quite often

politicians would travel

by railroad and they’d get on the train

and they’d make stops.

Quite often those stump speeches would be

made from the back of

the train where everybody could see them.

But there would, in many places where said

politician was popular,

there would be banners and preparations

and there’d be decorations

and everybody would be waiting to receive

the person

who is this important person.

You can think of the receptions that occur

down the streets of cities when

the team that

Is from that city wins the national

championship of this sport or that sport.

You can think back to the ticker tape

parades at the end of World War II.

You can think of all of these things that

help us to visualize what Isaiah

is being told here. What God tells Isaiah

is:

I’m coming through, and in preparation of

me arriving,

here’s what you need to do: every valley

needs to be lifted up.

And every mountain needs to be brought

low.

I need a straight path.

In preparation for my arrival.

Now, that in actuality,

in fulfillment, was going to be John the

Baptist preaching in the wilderness

and all Israel coming out to hear him.

And what did John tell all Israel

concerning who the Messiah was?

But it wasn’t him.

He was the voice of one crying in the

wilderness.

Make ready for the Lord.

Verse 6 The voice said,

Cry out, and he said, What shall I cry?

All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness

is like the flower of the field.

The grass withers, the flower fades away,

but the breath of the Lord bl because the

breath of the Lord blows on it,

surely the people are grass, the grass

withers,

the flower fades. But the word of our God

speaks.

Stands for ever.

God makes it clear I’m king,

I’m sovereign, I’m holy,

and when I speak, there’s nothing that

can stop my word coming to pass.

Interestingly, when you jump over to John

chapter 1,

what is it that John describes Jesus as?

The Word. In the beginning was the Word.

And the Word was with God, and the Word

was God.

The same was in the beginning with God.

All things were made by Him, and without

Him was not anything made that was made.

You get this picture of sovereignty.

God says, I’m King, I’m on the throne,

I’m holy, and I’m sending my word to you.

Okay? Go forward to chapter 42.

In Isaiah forty two.

In a prophecy concerning the Messiah,

we read, 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 feet to be heard in the

streets.

A bruised reed he will not break,

and smoking flax 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 coastland shall wait

for his law,

thus says the God, the Lord, who created

the heavens and stretched them out,

who spread forth the earth, and that which

comes from it,

who gives breath to the people on it,

and spirit to those who walk on it,

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,

for 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 coast lands and you inhabitants of

them,

let the wilderness and its cities lift up

their voices,

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.

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 enemies.

I have held my peace a long time.

I have been still and my r and restrained

myself.

Now I will cry like a woman in labor,

I will pant and gasp at once, and I will

lay waste the mountains and hills

and dry up all their vegetations,

I will make the rivers coastlands,

and I will dry up the pools.

I will bring the blind by a way they did

not know.

I will lead them in paths they have not

known.

I will make darkness light before them and

crooked places straight.

These things I will do for them and not

forsake them.

They shall be turned back. They shall be

greatly ashamed.

Who trust in carved images, who say to the

molded images,

You are our gods.

As Isaiah prophesies concerning the

servant,

the one who the Lord said he would send on

his behalf,

the one who was the creator,

the one who God says, This is mine,

I am him. As he speaks concerning him,

he says, I want you to understand,

I don’t give my glory.

to anyone else. I don’t give my glory to

another.

But as Jesus is raised up out of that

watery grave of baptism

in the Jordan River by John the Baptist,

what occurs?

All right. You have the spirit descending

like a dove and a voice from heaven

saying, This is my son.

You go forward to the Mount of

Transfiguration.

There on the mount, you hear,

This is my beloved son,

hear you him.

And that is in direct response

to Peter saying, We need to build an altar

to Moses and to Elijah.

And to Jesus, who were all present there

on the Mount of Transfiguration,

and God says, no, no, no, you don’t.

Because I don’t give my glory to anybody

else.

I didn’t give my glory to Elijah.

I didn’t give my glory to Moses.

But him.

He is my glory. Jesus said,

When you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the

Father.

All right, so as we examine this idea of

sovereignty and as we examine this idea

of worship, we understand there’s this

core idea that

God establishes I’m unique.

God isn’t like anybody else.

And no one else is like God. He is king of

God.

He is holy, he is sovereign, he is that

which should be worshipped,

and no one else should. And so when he

demands the first,

he’s demanding what is his. And when we

refuse it,

we’re stealing what is his. And we need to

be mindful as we consider.

How we worship and how we involve

ourselves in worship that

we are not the focus of worship.

He is. And we need to have more times and

more occasions where

we sit back and have the same mindset as

Isaiah,

woe is me. For I’m in the presence of God,

and I am not perfect.

But through his work I am made holy.

Okay? Thank you for your