Isa 48:16+17, "Come near to Me, listen to this: From the first I have not spoken in secret, From the time it took place, I was there. And now the Lord God has sent Me, and His Spirit." Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; "I am the Lord your God, who teaches you to profit, Who leads you in the way you should go. 
      This wonderful Easter morning, listen to the Lord as He details, in His Word, the whole essence and result of that which we are celebrating this very day. In all actuality, we continually rejoice in the truth of what was established by the Lord’s working power through the Only Begotten Son’s death and resurrection. This is a truth that needs to be brought forth in the entire manner in which we think, act, and sojourn on this earth. Jesus was crucified and resurrected in the full course of the plan and the purpose of God to establish a living relationship with those whom He has now made members of His very family. This is through our adoption as His most beloved sons and daughters in Jesus Christ. 
	As we read, at the very beginning of this morning’s passage in Isaiah 48, God acted in full accordance with that which He had ordained from before man was put on the face of the earth. God has made known the need for salvation in the heart of man every day since the fall of Adam in the Garden. There has been no hiding the fact that we need to have redemption. It is the matter of our selves which always gets in the way. We want to do it on our own without the need for God to interfere with our ideas and our concepts and our hopes and our imaginations. 
The absolute truth is that only God can save us! Only He has made the way of our salvation! That is through the redemption plan that was always in place. God needed to bring us to the condition of heart and mind in which we would look to Him and call out to Him. He needs to humble us until we no longer seek to make everything revolve around us and our feeble and useless ways of impotent self-righteousness. It has to be centered in Him and from Him and through Him and by Him, Alone. All the focus of our beings needs to become set on the way that He works to bring us to the place in our lives which shows our utter necessity for Him to save us!
Isa 48:3-7, "I declared the former things long ago And they went forth from My mouth, and I proclaimed them. Suddenly I acted, and they came to pass. "Because I know that you are obstinate, And your neck is an iron sinew, And your forehead bronze, Therefore I declared them to you long ago, Before they took place I proclaimed them to you, Lest you should say, 'My idol has done them, And my graven image and my molten image have commanded them.' "You have heard; look at all this. And you, will you not declare it? I proclaim to you new things from this time, Even hidden things which you have not known. "They are created now and not long ago; And before today you have not heard them, Lest you should say, 'Behold, I knew them.' 
  	The only way of salvation was to send to earth The Only Begotten Son of God to live a perfect life. That could never be done by anyone born under the sinful nature of fallen man. Then, after fulfilling all the perfect work of full obedience to the Law, He allowed Himself to be hung on the cross. He had no stain of sin and yet He was accursed by the guilt and shame of those whom He came to save. Jesus died a horribly violent and most undeserved death, a prolonged, agonizingly slow and tormented suffocation being nailed to that roughhewn cross of His crucifixion. Then, after being dead for those three days, He rose from that grave and was glorified by the Father on high. In His exaltation He raised up all those who would but believe upon Him and call out to Him as both Savior and Lord. 
	Jesus, when He was on earth, never hid the fact that it was through Him that this salvation would be set into place. Everything He did was only through the blessing and in obedience to the Father. Accordingly, He commissioned His disciples, in Matt 28:18-20, to go forth and preach the Gospel message of the eternal salvation that was now at hand. This was in the power and the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is the Godhead, all working together for the sake of those the Son came to redeem unto and into the eternal family of God. 
	Matt 28:18-20, And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."   
	Earlier, this redemption through the work of God was preached at the very onset of His earthly ministry. Jesus never hid what was taking place and why it was taking place. He used the Word of God, as recorded in Luke 4:14-21, to highlight the fact that what was being done had been ordained from ages upon ages ago. All scripture was being fulfilled in His earthly mission as the expressed heart of God’s love to mankind.
	Luke 4:14-21, And Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit; and news about Him spread through all the surrounding district. And He began teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all. And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read. And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book, and found the place where it was written, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, And recovery of sight to the blind, To set free those who are downtrodden, To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord." And He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed upon Him. And He began to say to them, "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." 
    	Later, in this same chapter of Luke, verses 42-44, Jesus made it very evident that the good news was to be spread far and wide. He needed to preach the message of the salvation of God, not just in the community of His earthly home, but to all to whom He could reach by teaching in all the synagogues of Judea. 
Luke 4:42-44, And when day came, He departed and went to a lonely place; and the multitudes were searching for Him, and came to Him, and tried to keep Him from going away from them. But He said to them, "I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, for I was sent for this purpose." And He kept on preaching in the synagogues of Judea. 
	The crowning work of the ministry of the Lord was proclaimed in the High Priestly prayer as recorded in John 17. It is here that everything is put forth in the conversation between Father and Son as recorded by the Holy Spirit for the fulfillment of all that would bring forth the salvation of humanity. Jesus freely talked with the Father about the fact that everything was being accomplished in accordance with the plan that God; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit had established long before the creation of time was established. In verses 1-5 of this 17th Chapter, Christ outlined what was at hand through His imminent earthly death and glorious resurrection.
	John 17:1-5, These things Jesus spoke; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify Thy Son, that the Son may glorify Thee, even as Thou gavest Him authority over all mankind, that to all whom Thou hast given Him, He may give eternal life. "And this is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent. "I glorified Thee on the earth, having accomplished the work which Thou hast given Me to do. "And now, glorify Thou Me together with Thyself, Father, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was. 
	In the very next Chapter, the religious leadership of Jerusalem accused Jesus of hiding His true intentions. The fact was declared, by Jesus, that He had never hidden that which was at hand, as in verses 19+20.
	John 18:19+20, The high priest therefore questioned Jesus about His disciples, and about His teaching. Jesus answered him, "I have spoken openly to the world; I always taught in synagogues, and in the temple, where all the Jews come together; and I spoke nothing in secret. 
	After His vicious, undeserved, and vile crucifixion, followed three days later by His glorious and all together victorious resurrection, Jesus gathered together His disciples. He prepared them for what was ahead in their proclamation of the Good News of His Triumphant deliverance from Sin and the effects of sin in the lives of those who would choose to believe in Him. This is recorded for us in Acts 1:3-8. He made known, post resurrection, the truth that He lived pre-resurrection. This was the great plan of salvation for all who would call upon Him and choose to place their trust and their hope in His tremendous and incomparable redemption. The only means of salvation was established by His Omnipotent defeat of all that would oppose the adoption of men into the direct family of God on high through the covering of His spilt blood of righteousness.
	Acts 1:3-8, To these He also presented Himself alive, after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days, and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God. And gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, "Which," He said, "you heard of from Me; for John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now." And so when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, "Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?" He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth." 
	The Apostle Paul details the way in which our lives are fully changed by the salvation power of Christ Jesus. As we turn our lives over to Him and ask Him to be both our Savior and Lord, we will know the full impact as proclaimed in Rom 8:1-18. Please open to this wondrous and awesome declaration of who we are now in Jesus Christ because of the victory evidenced on that very first Easter morning. This is a concise outline of what Jesus has done, through the power of the Holy Spirit, in full accordance with the plan and purpose of the Father’s love for you and me from even before eternity was put into place.
	Rom 8:1-18, There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so; and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. And if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you. So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh —  for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba! Father!" The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
	Please turn to the Apostle’s First Letter to the Church at Corinth, Chapter 2, verses 4-16. This expresses the detailed working power of God on our behalf to cause us to become much more than just men and women on this earth. We have been translated into the full chronicle of what God has done, is doing, and will forever accomplish in the perfect work of the Only Begotten of the Father.
	1 Cor 2:4-16, And my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God. Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away; but we speak God's wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom, which God predestined before the ages to our glory; the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory; but just as it is written, "Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, And which have not entered the heart of man, All that God has prepared for those who love Him." For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man, which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no man. For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he should instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ. 
	The outcome of this glorious and triumphant and accomplished and now-realized powerful working of God on our behalf is that as specified in Gal 4:1-6. This complete and perfect work of the Love of God was not just to save such as ourselves, who had no other hope, no other means of salvation, no other possible manner of dealing with the deadness of our old selves. No! Salvation is the means of establishing the living relationship desired by God from ages upon ages ago. It is our birth into an eternity spent as the very heritage of God. We are in His presence and partaking of His Divine Promises of everlasting glorification because we are now made His Own Beloved in Jesus Our Christ.
	Gal 4:1-6, Now I say, as long as the heir is a child, he does not differ at all from a slave although he is owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by the father. So also we, while we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world. But when the fulness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, in order that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" 
	The reality of the work of Jesus, in both His death and His resurrection, must never be considered with anything other than the full honor that He, Alone, deserves for what He has accomplished! We have been changed, by His death and His resurrection, from those who were lost and dead in sin, into the very people in whom the love of God is both accomplished and perfected! He now works to bring forth every expression unto others of what He has done in our lives. It is never to our credit in any manner, but always to the glory and the praise of the Lord Most Exalted on High.
	Please turn to the first Letter of John and we will read together 1 John 4:13-5:12. Here we are given the detailed working of the Holy Spirit to bring forth the ever increasingly true witness of the love of God manifested in Jesus Christ and fulfilled in our lives day by day.
	1 John 4:13-5:12, By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. And we have beheld and bear witness that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. And we have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this, love is perfected with us, that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. We love, because He first loved us. If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also. Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God; and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome. For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world — our faith. And who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? This is the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ; not with the water only, but with the water and with the blood. And it is the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that bear witness, the Spirit and the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement. If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for the witness of God is this, that He has borne witness concerning His Son. The one who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself; the one who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the witness that God has borne concerning His Son. And the witness is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. 
    	We draw this wondrous time in the Word of God, this Easter morning, to a close with the testimony of Jesus, Himself, as recorded in Rev 22:16+17. He makes it fully known that all that He suffered has brought into place a life and a union with God. He gave His life for us because He loved us with a love unending. We give our lives unto Him because He first loved us and we desire to express that entirety of our hearts unto Him. We find our source of being in the living and loving relationship that is now ours with God because of the death and resurrection of Our Lord. This is all the freely offered gift of the water of life that is now ours, today and evermore. 
	Rev 22:16+17, "I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things for the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright morning star." And the Spirit and the bride say, "Come." And let the one who hears say, "Come." And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost. So be it!
"Come near to Me, listen to this: From the first I have not spoken in secret, From the time it took place, I was there. And now the Lord God has sent Me, and His Spirit." Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; "I am the Lord your God, who teaches you to profit, Who leads you in the way you should go. Amen. 

	This morning’s benediction is 2 Cor 5:20+21. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were entreating through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Amen.