WEBVTT 00:00:00.599 --> 00:00:06.669 And if you don't have a Bible or you would like to use the Pew Bible that's in front of you, you can turn to page 636. 00:00:06.669 --> 00:00:09.474 636. 00:00:09.474 --> 00:00:12.720 636. 00:00:12.720 --> 00:00:34.232 In the mid-1730s, john Wesley made his way across the Atlantic Ocean over to what was then the colony of Georgia. 00:00:34.232 --> 00:00:50.850 It was a very deep, informative and painful couple years for him, but God used the failure of his trip over to Georgia in order to prepare him for something grand and glorious. 00:00:50.850 --> 00:01:07.984 Wesley arrived full of spunk and vigor and determination, with a high hopes that he'd be able to evangelize the indigenous people that lived in that area and also to bring some spiritual revitalization to the English settlers who were there. 00:01:07.984 --> 00:01:26.572 The colony of Georgia was set up in order to populate, or to repatriate or patriate, I should say people who had been recently released from prison, and so the colony of Georgia was 70% male and the majority of which had a criminal record. 00:01:26.572 --> 00:01:48.581 Wesley was driven by an idea of trying to bring the church back to its primitive roots, to return to what he saw as the purity and discipline of that early days in which the church was in the world world. 00:01:48.581 --> 00:01:51.629 But his somewhat proud and very, very determined and even judgmental idealism ran smack up against reality. 00:01:51.629 --> 00:02:09.563 He struggled to connect with the indigenous populations and he did not find very much favor among the people that were there who were from England, and one of the most infamous episodes revolved around a lady that he was courting by the name of Sophia Hopke. 00:02:09.563 --> 00:02:25.592 He and Sophia met each other often and even had thoughts about marriage, but after Sophia married, another man came to church. 00:02:25.592 --> 00:02:39.652 Wesley sought to excommunicate her, and this obviously sparked a public outrage and even was filed in court. 00:02:39.652 --> 00:03:06.355 They wanted to imprison him for this, and because of this scandal, wesley turned tail and fled from the colony of Georgia and made his way onto a ship to head back to England, and he later wrote in his journal I came to America to convert the Indians, but oh, oh, who is going to convert me? 00:03:06.355 --> 00:03:13.551 That's a pretty raw confession, but it shows some of the spiritual crisis that he was in. 00:03:13.551 --> 00:03:18.270 And yet this failure was the soil for God's grace. 00:03:18.270 --> 00:03:49.362 After he returned to England, he made his way to London in a place called Aldersgate, which you can visit now it's the Museum of London, and there's a large statuary there of Wesley's journal that talks about the moment where he and a small group were in an upper room reading the introduction to Luther's commentary on the book of Galatians, and he found the saving grace of Jesus Christ flooding his heart with hope. 00:03:49.362 --> 00:03:55.534 This failure brought him to the Savior. 00:03:55.534 --> 00:04:11.126 This crushing defeat and this panic-stricken flee from prison at his lowest point in life brought him to the place where he saw, for the first time in his life, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:04:13.270 --> 00:04:19.170 Maybe you're here this morning and you might sense a little bit of something of what Wesley had gone through. 00:04:19.170 --> 00:04:23.283 Maybe you feel like your life has been a failure. 00:04:23.283 --> 00:04:29.694 Maybe there's something in your past, some weight, that still carries along with you in your mind. 00:04:29.694 --> 00:04:37.108 Or perhaps you're sensing some rejection from people that have been very important to you, whether they're in your family or at work. 00:04:37.108 --> 00:04:45.413 Maybe it's not even a dramatic something like Wesley's desire to excommunicate his old girlfriend. 00:04:45.413 --> 00:05:00.232 Maybe you're just feeling lost in the midst of a slow drain of weariness, feeling that your passion and your purpose has left you long ago as you have succumbed to the daily grind and demands of real life. 00:05:00.232 --> 00:05:15.324 Or maybe you've just been one of those ones who look at yourself and just say I really have never been in a place where I could serve, and I'm not sure I'm even capable of ever being a part of God's kingdom in any kind of contributive way. 00:05:17.509 --> 00:05:23.564 Well, the people of Israel and we're going to look at them in chapter 41 in just a moment would have felt exactly like all of that. 00:05:23.564 --> 00:05:25.166 41 in just a moment would have felt exactly like all of that. 00:05:25.166 --> 00:05:40.497 Here they are, exiles in Babylon, hundreds of miles away from their home, and the towers of Babylon are looming over them, showing them that they're really nothing but captives of this conquering nation. 00:05:40.497 --> 00:05:45.571 Their temple lies in ruins, their covenant promises are long gone, laying in the dust, and their story seems to be over. 00:05:45.571 --> 00:05:56.083 And their exile raises a haunting question, one that sometimes reverberates in our hearts has God moved on? 00:05:56.083 --> 00:05:58.048 Has God left me behind? 00:05:58.048 --> 00:06:01.115 Is he finished with me, with us? 00:06:01.115 --> 00:06:05.228 Certainly, these were the kind of questions that they were asking themselves. 00:06:06.401 --> 00:06:13.242 But in Isaiah, chapter 41, god speaks into that question, and he does so with thunder and tenderness. 00:06:13.242 --> 00:06:17.952 At the same time, he'll say to them in verse 9, and we'll look at it. 00:06:17.952 --> 00:06:22.048 You are my servant, I've chosen you and not cast you off. 00:06:22.048 --> 00:06:25.153 Fear not, for I'm with you. 00:06:25.153 --> 00:06:27.425 I will strengthen you. 00:06:27.425 --> 00:06:37.310 And, as we'll see, god is telling them in this chapter, and we're going to look at the first 20 verses today, that God isn't finished with them, not even close. 00:06:37.310 --> 00:06:55.225 He's going to transform their defeat into a renewed calling and he's going to take their situation, where they're nothing but full of weakness, into one in which they can find a reversal of grace and an empowerment to be able to accomplish God's good purposes. 00:06:55.225 --> 00:07:04.108 Now the full answer will come in chapter 42, where he points them to where that reversal is coming. 00:07:04.108 --> 00:07:13.512 Behold, my servant, the hope of Israel, is humming in chapter 41. 00:07:13.512 --> 00:07:16.829 Now I have to say something about chapter 41. 00:07:16.829 --> 00:07:21.091 It whispers more than it yells. 00:07:22.120 --> 00:07:29.762 There are themes in chapter 41 that are simply alluded to that get introduced more clearly in further chapters. 00:07:29.762 --> 00:07:32.148 As we look at this song of 40 to 55. 00:07:32.148 --> 00:07:42.180 And as they get introduced in later chapters, they get developed and they build and they move to a wondrous crescendo. 00:07:42.180 --> 00:07:50.547 So by the time we get to chapter 55, all of us will have just a great display of the symphony of God's mercies and grace. 00:07:50.547 --> 00:08:11.634 But in chapter 41, there's just little notes that get played as the symphony is moving along, just sort of giving us an introduction to some notations of God's grace that we're going to hear in clear and more vibrant and even louder ways as the chapters go. 00:08:13.120 --> 00:08:33.548 And one of the great motifs that gets introduced here, that gets whispered, is God's glorious plan of reversal, that the exiles are going to return, that they're going to be forgiven, and that the weak are going to be strengthened and the broken are going to be made whole again and the forgotten are going to be given God's purposes. 00:08:33.548 --> 00:08:43.932 All because the servant of the Lord is coming, the servant of the Lord who is spirit-filled and gentle and just and unstoppable in his mercy. 00:08:43.932 --> 00:08:54.743 The Gospels will reveal that servant as Jesus very, very clearly. 00:08:54.743 --> 00:09:08.667 But the book of Acts also tells us that what Jesus does as God's servant is now transferred to his people as part of the body of Christ, and that we take up even the roles and the responsibilities and the actions of the servant in our life here. 00:09:08.667 --> 00:09:10.671 But I'm getting way ahead of myself. 00:09:10.671 --> 00:09:14.567 That's more the crescendo of this glorious, glorious song. 00:09:14.567 --> 00:09:21.142 But let me say once again, what gets whispered here will be shouted soon. 00:09:21.142 --> 00:09:26.190 God is not finished yet, he just is not. 00:09:26.190 --> 00:09:39.303 And perhaps you felt too weak, too wounded, too weary, maybe even too wayward, for God to ever look upon your life and put you into a place of usefulness in his kingdom. 00:09:39.965 --> 00:09:43.289 Isaiah, chapter 41, is a great place for us to go. 00:09:43.289 --> 00:09:58.230 It was written for us in those exact moments and as we go through these 20 verses together, I want you to pick up how God brings these words of encouragement into the hearts of the people who are in exile. 00:09:58.230 --> 00:10:04.210 And the first thing I want us to notice in verse four verses is that God is not finished with his plan. 00:10:04.210 --> 00:10:08.482 He has not abandoned his plan for his people. 00:10:08.482 --> 00:10:13.076 Here and the chapter opens up like in a courtroom drama. 00:10:13.076 --> 00:10:15.782 Take a look at verse one, chapter 41. 00:10:15.782 --> 00:10:20.768 Be silent before me, coast and islands. 00:10:20.768 --> 00:10:33.470 Here the nations are summoned into silence and, unlike the usual pattern that we've seen in Isaiah, it's not Israel who's brought into the courtroom, it's the nations. 00:10:33.470 --> 00:10:45.794 And in this court case, god and the idols are put up one against the other for the purpose of determining who is really God, who is really in control of everything. 00:10:45.794 --> 00:10:58.432 And God calls these nations to listen to him as he compares himself to the idols and calls them to witness not only his sovereignty but also his purposes. 00:10:59.260 --> 00:11:00.525 Take a look at verse 2 and 4. 00:11:00.525 --> 00:11:03.307 He asks some questions here. 00:11:03.307 --> 00:11:08.150 Who has stirred up someone from the east In righteousness? 00:11:08.150 --> 00:11:09.302 He calls him to serve. 00:11:09.302 --> 00:11:13.649 The Lord hands nations over to him and he subdues kings. 00:11:13.649 --> 00:11:18.389 He makes them like dust with his sword, like wind-driven stubble with his bow. 00:11:18.389 --> 00:11:23.563 He pursues them, going on safely, hardly touching the path with his feet. 00:11:23.563 --> 00:11:27.962 And then another question who has performed and done this? 00:11:27.962 --> 00:11:30.768 Calling the generations from the beginning? 00:11:30.768 --> 00:11:40.947 These are rhetorical questions, questions with an obvious answer who is the one who controls people and nations? 00:11:40.947 --> 00:11:44.052 Who is the one that knows the end from the beginning? 00:11:44.052 --> 00:11:47.196 Only God, only Yahweh. 00:11:47.196 --> 00:11:58.794 And in verse four he makes that very clear I am the Lord, the first and with the last, I am he. 00:11:58.794 --> 00:12:03.095 You see, yahweh is not a God who reacts, he's a God who initiates. 00:12:03.095 --> 00:12:11.102 You see, yahweh is not a God who reacts, he's a God who initiates, and he is not given to the whims and wishes of the nations. 00:12:11.102 --> 00:12:14.851 He's driving the purposes of this world according to his own design. 00:12:14.851 --> 00:12:24.051 He is raising up kings, he is toppling nations, he is reordering the peoples according to his own purposes. 00:12:24.051 --> 00:12:34.410 And he mentions one man in verse 2, who has stirred up someone from the east. 00:12:34.410 --> 00:12:47.542 And then he goes on to describe this person who's going to have the nations handed over to him and who's going to subdue other kings like dust and stubble Again. 00:12:48.404 --> 00:12:55.389 Another one of those themes that the rest of this section of Isaiah is going to expand and develop. 00:12:55.389 --> 00:13:00.389 The symphony is just playing a little note or two. 00:13:00.389 --> 00:13:02.644 Who is this one? 00:13:02.644 --> 00:13:05.205 Well, in chapter 45, we find out. 00:13:05.205 --> 00:13:10.760 His name is Cyrus, whose right hand I've grasped. 00:13:10.760 --> 00:13:20.484 To subdue nations before him and disarm kings, it says in verse 1 of chapter 45, to open doors before him, and even city gates shall not be shut. 00:13:20.484 --> 00:13:31.085 The Lord has a plan, and here he's just whispering what that is that he's going to call a Persian king to topple the kingdom of Babylon. 00:13:33.710 --> 00:13:43.345 You see, this God, who knows all things, who holds the beginning and the end together in his wisdom and sovereign will, is not just part of the process, like the pagan gods are. 00:13:43.345 --> 00:13:55.369 He's the one who stands outside of time, who put the clock a ticking and who commands and directs its path and brings all time to an end. 00:13:55.369 --> 00:13:59.816 I am he, he says. 00:13:59.816 --> 00:14:04.451 And there he's making himself as the self-existent one. 00:14:04.451 --> 00:14:06.705 And there he's making himself as the self-existent one. 00:14:06.705 --> 00:14:10.351 He's reflecting that statement in Exodus, chapter 6, in verse 3. 00:14:10.351 --> 00:14:20.399 He is the one who is the great I am. 00:14:20.399 --> 00:14:33.298 You see, every other form is derivative of God, but he's the one who's had no beginning and no end. 00:14:33.298 --> 00:14:33.759 He simply is. 00:14:37.720 --> 00:14:38.221 Now, why does this matter? 00:14:38.221 --> 00:14:38.621 What is this point? 00:14:38.621 --> 00:14:52.331 Well, if God can reign over Cyrus and direct his path, if God can bring Cyrus to the place of conquering the Babylonians, then certainly, as you deduce through this argument the exiles are to hear this reverberating word he hasn't forgotten you either. 00:14:52.331 --> 00:14:55.426 You're not outside of his control. 00:14:55.426 --> 00:15:09.683 God here is appealing to his unique activity in history as an evidence that he alone is God, but he alone is God for purposes that include these people who are now in exile. 00:15:09.683 --> 00:15:21.852 And so, if he can move empires, he can certainly renew hearts, and if he can command history, he can sustain hope in these that are hopeless at this moment. 00:15:21.852 --> 00:15:27.985 And if he can stir up Cyrus, well, he can stir up any one of us. 00:15:27.985 --> 00:16:01.634 Actually and this is a note that we shouldn't miss, because we live in this world where it just feels like sometimes, history has taken a left turn and veered completely off course, where none of the things that we'd hoped for and thought were going to happen 10, 20 years ago are ever going to be met again, or perhaps where our own personal story has gone adrift and we find ourselves older, weaker, in positions of life where we never expected ourselves to be. 00:16:01.634 --> 00:16:04.846 But God hasn't abandoned us. 00:16:04.846 --> 00:16:08.269 He hasn't abandoned his plan and he's telling them here. 00:16:08.269 --> 00:16:10.768 He still can do these mighty things. 00:16:10.768 --> 00:16:22.970 Now, we may not always grasp what he's about, but one thing we can always trust is that he has a plan and we can trust him because he's not finished. 00:16:22.970 --> 00:16:24.695 He's not finished with human history. 00:16:24.695 --> 00:16:25.364 He's not finished with these people in exile and he's not finished. 00:16:25.364 --> 00:16:25.808 He's not finished with human history. 00:16:25.808 --> 00:16:29.126 He's not finished with these people in exile and he's not finished with us. 00:16:29.126 --> 00:16:48.929 Let's move forward, because he's going to expand this a bit more In the next three verses verses 5 to 7, not only does God show that he still has a plan, but he also gives strength, and here we see him compared to the idols who need nails. 00:16:50.160 --> 00:17:01.373 Verses 5 to 7, we see the nations in response to this glorious statement that Cyrus is going to be raised up in order to bring the Babylonians to the dust. 00:17:01.373 --> 00:17:05.326 The coast and the island see and are afraid. 00:17:05.326 --> 00:17:07.332 The whole earth trembles. 00:17:07.332 --> 00:17:11.903 They approach and arrive. 00:17:11.903 --> 00:17:21.762 What is the response of the people, these nations, when they hear that God is going to raise up a conqueror? 00:17:21.762 --> 00:17:27.614 They tremble and they quake and they shake at this terrifying news. 00:17:27.614 --> 00:17:29.625 But what can they do? 00:17:29.625 --> 00:17:36.653 They don't know a God who controls history because of righteousness. 00:17:36.653 --> 00:17:39.705 So what can they do? 00:17:39.705 --> 00:17:45.429 The only thing they know how to do, and that is to make a better God. 00:17:45.429 --> 00:17:48.104 That's what they do. 00:17:48.566 --> 00:17:49.308 Take a look at the verse. 00:17:49.308 --> 00:17:53.670 Each one helps the other and says take courage. 00:17:53.670 --> 00:17:56.920 The craftsman encourages the metal worker. 00:17:56.920 --> 00:18:08.931 The one who flattens with a hammer encourages the one who strikes the anvil, saying to the soldering it is good, and he fastens it with nails so that it will not fall over. 00:18:08.931 --> 00:18:19.833 And here Isaiah is talking about the complexity of the process, referring to four different kinds of craftsmen here that are needed to make gods. 00:18:19.833 --> 00:18:25.711 And so they build statues and they fortify their gods with nails so they don't topple over. 00:18:25.711 --> 00:18:30.368 It's pretty hard to make your maker, I guess. 00:18:30.368 --> 00:18:52.611 But this is the great reversal of idolatry Is that they're serving something they hoped would save them, but they're propping up their deities in the hope that these deities would prop them up. 00:18:52.611 --> 00:18:57.227 But that's not how God works. 00:18:57.227 --> 00:19:03.872 The true and living God doesn't need us putting nails in him to hold him up. 00:19:06.942 --> 00:19:09.068 And notice what they say to one another in verse 7. 00:19:09.068 --> 00:19:14.086 Saying of the soldering it is good? 00:19:14.086 --> 00:19:17.587 Is that word it is good? 00:19:17.587 --> 00:19:23.507 Looking at the handiwork that you've just completed, sounds somewhat familiar. 00:19:23.507 --> 00:19:31.628 Genesis, chapter 1, right, god said let there be, and there was. 00:19:31.628 --> 00:19:38.192 And when he looked on the creation on several of the days, he behold what had been made. 00:19:38.192 --> 00:19:42.613 And what would he say it is good. 00:19:42.613 --> 00:19:49.955 And now it's not the creator who's speaking over his work. 00:19:51.296 --> 00:20:19.971 These are humans echoing divine language when they're looking at the gods they've nailed down, and isaiah is using this taunting irony and sarcasm in order to tell them, tell the exiles, who God really is and who these things are Nothing but propped up pieces of wood and stone and metal. 00:20:19.971 --> 00:20:26.269 What a tragic place these nations are at. 00:20:26.269 --> 00:20:41.569 What a humiliation of humanity to have a rejection of the God who's made us in order to prop up a God that we could hold up for ourselves and perhaps might be able to do something for us. 00:20:41.569 --> 00:20:52.993 And this is that tragic comedy of sin that the false gods need to be helped and they can't help anyone. 00:20:52.993 --> 00:21:13.315 The Lord here is calling them and us to the recognition that he doesn't need reinforcements, that when God comes into your life and you begin to unpackage who God is, you're never going to find in the bottom of the box, may need some further construction. 00:21:13.315 --> 00:21:19.048 Right, you're never going to find that, with God, might require some assembly. 00:21:19.048 --> 00:21:26.432 God is all and all and complete. 00:21:26.432 --> 00:21:33.682 The idols need to be nailed down Today. 00:21:33.902 --> 00:21:36.730 Our idols don't come in wood and stone and metal. 00:21:36.730 --> 00:21:41.729 They show up every morning when we look in the mirror. 00:21:41.729 --> 00:21:50.679 We see ourselves and we try to prop up this idol that we're worshiping. 00:21:50.679 --> 00:22:03.229 We see ourselves and we try to prop up this idol that we're worshiping with achievement, with image projection, with control of people or surroundings around us, with a yearning and longing for approval. 00:22:03.229 --> 00:22:13.210 And so we build our brands, we craft our social personas. 00:22:13.210 --> 00:22:17.703 We all do something in an effort to make who we are a little more solid. 00:22:17.703 --> 00:22:23.480 And maybe, if people thought we were solid, we would be solid. 00:22:23.480 --> 00:22:30.019 Then maybe we could be in a position of strength and not the weakness that we feel deep within us. 00:22:30.019 --> 00:22:37.826 But when life quakes, idols fall. 00:22:37.826 --> 00:22:41.670 Things that you prop up, they deconstruct. 00:22:44.271 --> 00:22:50.376 There's a better foundation for life and it is in God who has come. 00:22:50.376 --> 00:23:03.288 It is in Jesus Christ, who called himself our rock, and he doesn't ask us to nail him down and to prop him up. 00:23:03.288 --> 00:23:08.486 He's actually come and even willingly took nails himself so that we might be freed. 00:23:08.486 --> 00:23:12.247 He doesn't need our efforts. 00:23:12.247 --> 00:23:21.884 He's coming to minister to us with mercy and grace and he invites us not to build up something that be worthy of him, but to come as we are. 00:23:21.884 --> 00:23:37.351 To come weak and worn and weary and even wayward, especially when we recognize we are and to rest in him Because he's telling us here he has a plan and he gives strength. 00:23:37.351 --> 00:23:38.824 He is not finished. 00:23:38.824 --> 00:23:40.670 He is not finished. 00:23:40.670 --> 00:23:49.782 And this comes into a beautiful, beautiful direct statement in verses 8 to 10, where he says to them you are not cast off. 00:23:49.782 --> 00:23:52.587 And God reaffirms his covenant love. 00:23:52.587 --> 00:23:56.323 Not only does he has not he abandoned his plan. 00:23:56.323 --> 00:24:00.932 Not only does he provide strength, but he also reaffirms his covenant love. 00:24:00.932 --> 00:24:03.102 Look at verses 8 to 10. 00:24:04.143 --> 00:24:13.855 But you, israel, my servant Jacob, whom I've chosen, descended of Abraham, my friend. 00:24:13.855 --> 00:24:18.711 I brought you from the ends of the earth and called you from its farthest corners. 00:24:18.711 --> 00:24:21.930 I've said to you you are my servant, I have chosen you. 00:24:21.930 --> 00:24:24.007 I haven't rejected you. 00:24:24.007 --> 00:24:26.926 Do not fear, for I'm with you. 00:24:26.926 --> 00:24:28.775 Do not be afraid, for I'm your God. 00:24:28.775 --> 00:24:29.163 I will strengthen you. 00:24:29.163 --> 00:24:29.483 I will rejected you, do not fear, for I'm with you. 00:24:29.483 --> 00:24:29.857 Do not be afraid, for I'm your God. 00:24:29.857 --> 00:24:35.970 I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will hold on to you with my righteous right hand. 00:24:35.970 --> 00:24:57.901 If there was ever any verse you wanted to put on your wall in your house, I think that should be one of them, because grace is breaking through here like the morning light does at the dawn, and he's speaking this glorious word to who Defeated? 00:24:57.980 --> 00:25:06.174 People scattered into Babylon from their home, with their temple left as nothing but rubble on the ground. 00:25:06.174 --> 00:25:07.982 Why? 00:25:07.982 --> 00:25:12.548 Because of their covenant infidelity, their disobedience to God over generations. 00:25:12.548 --> 00:25:18.306 God had every right to say well, you feel like your story's finished? 00:25:18.306 --> 00:25:26.279 It is, but he isn't saying that you are my servant. 00:25:26.279 --> 00:25:29.410 I have chosen you. 00:25:29.410 --> 00:25:32.086 I have not cast you off. 00:25:32.086 --> 00:25:41.547 This isn't just mere sentimentality, this is covenant language. 00:25:41.547 --> 00:25:50.309 And God is not telling them look, I'll give you another chance. 00:25:50.309 --> 00:25:56.511 He's calling them into a remembrance of who he is. 00:25:56.511 --> 00:26:00.307 I chose you. 00:26:00.307 --> 00:26:13.000 Now. 00:26:13.019 --> 00:26:18.031 Isaiah is speaking this in a time frame in which these people are still looking forward, where nations will rise and Babylon will conquer and they'll be captives. 00:26:18.031 --> 00:26:31.660 He's telling this to people who are still quaking under the hand of Assyria, not yet under the control of Babylon, and he's telling them even when they see the destruction of Assyria, not yet under the control of Babylon. 00:26:31.660 --> 00:27:01.307 And he's telling them, even when they see the destruction of it all, even when they see their temple rubble, even when they see themselves put in chains and captured and drug away from their home, even when they see themselves surrounded by the false gods in the high towers and walls of Babylon, that they should remember something God has not forgotten them, and he's not calling them to be strong, he's calling them simply to remember who he is. 00:27:01.307 --> 00:27:06.885 I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you. 00:27:06.885 --> 00:27:15.276 This is the gospel in prophetic form, isn't it? 00:27:15.276 --> 00:27:22.279 This is God not issuing a summons to humanity to try harder to be better. 00:27:22.279 --> 00:27:26.006 He's issuing a statement of invitation to trust him. 00:27:26.006 --> 00:27:38.000 And he's not commanding them to prove themselves, but rather to show to us how glorious his promises are. 00:27:38.000 --> 00:27:41.660 And so, with covenant voice, he binds his name to these people. 00:27:41.660 --> 00:27:59.180 You are my servant as a reminder that he hasn't erased his purposes for them, and he's going to continue to speak to them like this after they've long forgotten it. 00:27:59.180 --> 00:28:05.768 What a wonder this is, that this message of grace is meant to speak louder than their failure. 00:28:05.768 --> 00:28:15.635 And perhaps you're in a place right now where you've thought silence must mean abandonment. 00:28:15.635 --> 00:28:20.385 I feel adrift because I've been cut loose. 00:28:20.385 --> 00:28:21.488 But you're not cast off. 00:28:21.488 --> 00:28:24.191 These people weren't cast off. 00:28:24.191 --> 00:28:26.615 God was not finished with them. 00:28:26.615 --> 00:28:34.053 He was still going to form them, he was still going to use them, he was still going to be writing their story into his redemptive plan. 00:28:34.053 --> 00:28:38.971 And he can say that to any human today, anyone. 00:28:44.361 --> 00:28:46.785 Let's go to the next few verses 11 to 16. 00:28:46.785 --> 00:28:50.874 Not only has God not abandoned his plan, he upholds it. 00:28:50.874 --> 00:28:58.730 Not only does he give strength and not only does he reaffirm his covenant commitment, but he also turns worms into weapons. 00:28:58.730 --> 00:29:03.151 I love the picturesque phraseology in this section. 00:29:03.151 --> 00:29:06.323 Verse 14,. 00:29:06.323 --> 00:29:10.093 The reality of who Jacob is at this moment is spoken. 00:29:10.093 --> 00:29:12.425 You, worm Jacob. 00:29:12.425 --> 00:29:21.982 Next time you wake up in the morning and you look in the mirror, just go. 00:29:21.982 --> 00:29:23.263 You worm Jacob. 00:29:23.263 --> 00:29:29.828 But what does he say to the worm? 00:29:29.828 --> 00:29:37.653 Be sure that all who are enraged against you verse 11, will be ashamed and disgraced. 00:29:37.653 --> 00:29:41.336 All who contend with you will become as nothing and will perish. 00:29:41.336 --> 00:29:48.095 You'll look for those who contend with you, but you will not find them. 00:29:48.095 --> 00:29:59.255 Those who war against you will become absolutely nothing. 00:29:59.255 --> 00:30:00.460 Wow, god is promising deliverance. 00:30:00.460 --> 00:30:07.660 Not because Israel is strong, not because they've triumphed, but because he's with them. 00:30:08.339 --> 00:30:09.762 And this image becomes very, very tender and sweet in verse 13. 00:30:09.762 --> 00:30:18.045 I am the lord, your god, who holds your right hand, who says to you do not fear, I will help you, I. 00:30:18.045 --> 00:30:30.489 I do trust and hope that you've been in a place of weakness and frailty and temerousness of heart and you've had someone who's taken your hand and held it for you and said don't worry. 00:30:30.489 --> 00:30:45.527 And what an encouragement that is, that tender touch, that personal assurance that speaks past your ears into the depth of your heart. 00:30:45.527 --> 00:30:55.689 Here is the God who moves nations, who spoke the stars and the universe with a word into existence. 00:30:55.689 --> 00:31:00.721 And yet he says I'm going to be right next to you and I'm going to hold your hand. 00:31:00.721 --> 00:31:14.311 And he wants to steady that trembling, trembling fear that we might have, because he speaks to us with intimacy here. 00:31:16.540 --> 00:31:24.326 He says in verse 14, do not fear worm Jacob, I'm the one who helps you. 00:31:24.326 --> 00:31:29.431 And in verse 15, he talks about him threshing on the mountains. 00:31:29.431 --> 00:31:39.570 And he uses warrior language here just to show the dramatic change this worm becomes a weapon in God's hand. 00:31:39.570 --> 00:31:48.787 Not because a worm is sharp in and of itself Obviously it isn't but because God takes it up. 00:31:48.787 --> 00:31:52.465 And here's the shape of God's grace. 00:31:52.465 --> 00:32:10.414 He's not just comforting the weak, he's issuing a recommission that they're being put into his active plan and determination to do his purposes, that they're going to be instruments, not just held by his hand but used by his mighty arm. 00:32:10.414 --> 00:32:16.570 He's going to turn these trembling fingers into tools of deliverance. 00:32:16.570 --> 00:32:27.230 And when he calls him Worm Jacob, it's not simply to bring him to shame, but to show him just how dramatic God's transformation can be. 00:32:27.230 --> 00:32:33.339 Shame, but to show them just how dramatic God's transformation can be. 00:32:33.339 --> 00:32:42.096 Yes, they must have thought themselves diminished, disqualified, left desolate. 00:32:42.096 --> 00:32:44.123 God says I have something better here for you. 00:32:44.123 --> 00:32:49.515 I'm going to take you, I'm going to forgive you, I'm going to restore you. 00:32:49.515 --> 00:32:50.217 And I'm going to take you. 00:32:50.217 --> 00:32:52.800 I'm going to forgive you, I'm going to restore you and I'm going to use you. 00:32:52.800 --> 00:33:00.548 This is again the good news that God doesn't call us to self-improvement. 00:33:00.548 --> 00:33:04.392 He calls us as we are weak. 00:33:04.392 --> 00:33:08.477 He fills us as we are, are helpless, with his power. 00:33:08.477 --> 00:33:17.865 And then he takes us and sends us to do something that would be beyond us and impossible. 00:33:17.904 --> 00:33:32.218 Just had a talk yesterday with Kevin Cooney and I thought this beautiful, beautiful passage in light of that, here is a guy running around Garden City terrorizing the neighborhood. 00:33:32.218 --> 00:33:40.740 You know, a party animal. 00:33:40.740 --> 00:33:46.174 God captures him with grace and turns him into a servant of the gospel in a place halfway around the world where he looks like a monster in comparison to them. 00:33:46.174 --> 00:33:52.710 He looks like a monster in comparison to any of us too, but anyway, over there it's really, really apparent. 00:33:52.710 --> 00:34:11.188 And yet this guy, who could lift up boat engines with his arms and carry them off of the beach into the shed, is speaking with such grace and tenderness and softness of soul to talk about a savior that's forgiven him of his sins and can forgive them of theirs. 00:34:11.188 --> 00:34:25.849 And all of this is whisperings of a time when we'll see someone who does all of this, that servant in chapter 42 and other songs as we go to the end of chapter 55. 00:34:26.780 --> 00:34:39.240 This one that the gospels talk about is Jesus, who's come into this world not to conquer Rome with mighty weapons of human ability, but to crush sin. 00:34:39.240 --> 00:34:46.795 And he didn't come atop mountains to stake a claim that he owned the territory. 00:34:46.795 --> 00:34:50.443 He went to a cross so that he might be Lord of all the nations. 00:34:50.443 --> 00:34:54.530 You see, god's not finished. 00:34:54.530 --> 00:35:16.791 God's got a plan, and Isaiah is pushing these people forward, beyond themselves, to understand that that plan is there and that he has strength that none of the idols around them could ever know, and that he has covenant love that he's committed to and that he can take a worm and make it a weapon. 00:35:19.521 --> 00:35:21.949 This brings us to our last point, verses 17 to 20. 00:35:21.949 --> 00:35:29.572 The Lord has intentions beyond anyone's dreams. 00:35:29.572 --> 00:35:35.507 This is where it gets very clear. 00:35:35.507 --> 00:35:42.530 We've only been building up to this passage, but now we've reached the crescendo of God's mercy. 00:35:42.530 --> 00:36:03.224 He's speaking remind ourselves of this that he's speaking to people who are exiled in captives in a foreign land, imprisoned by a conquering people, because of their own covenant abandonment, because they were a people who had walked away from God. 00:36:03.224 --> 00:36:08.385 And they're now wondering if God is going to walk away from them. 00:36:08.385 --> 00:36:14.467 And he comes in these verses with promises so lush, so lavish. 00:36:14.467 --> 00:36:18.246 It sounds like Eden is breaking back into the world. 00:36:19.094 --> 00:36:20.181 Take a look at verse 17. 00:36:20.181 --> 00:36:24.181 The poor and the needy seek water, but there's none. 00:36:24.181 --> 00:36:25.525 Their tongues are parched with thirst. 00:36:25.525 --> 00:36:27.016 I will answer them. 00:36:27.016 --> 00:36:28.802 I am the God. 00:36:28.802 --> 00:36:30.324 I am the Lord, the God of Israel. 00:36:30.324 --> 00:36:31.547 I will not abandon them. 00:36:31.547 --> 00:36:36.463 I will open rivers on the barren heights and springs in the middle of the plains. 00:36:36.463 --> 00:36:40.677 I will turn the desert into a pool and dry land into springs. 00:36:40.677 --> 00:36:45.228 I will plant cedar, acacia, myrtle and olive trees in the wilderness. 00:36:45.228 --> 00:36:50.867 I will put juniper, elm and cypress trees together in the desert. 00:36:54.456 --> 00:37:00.815 This isn't just rescue, this isn't just let you back in the land. 00:37:00.815 --> 00:37:16.563 This is reversal of the curse, where the dry ground becomes a garden, where the arid wilderness becomes a witness of God's glorious growth, where the forsaken become fountains of life. 00:37:16.563 --> 00:37:23.347 And here God borrows the brush strokes of Genesis and paints a promise of a new creation. 00:37:23.347 --> 00:37:34.083 Where there was desolation, there's now abundance, and it's not just mere survival, it's joy and renewal and life. 00:37:34.083 --> 00:37:40.722 Why, why would he do this? 00:37:40.722 --> 00:38:14.762 Why would God, who is holy as he is, as holy other than everything that he's created, who is sovereign over the nations, would speak to these little people, who had been so disobedient to him, with such wondrous words of promise, to where the only thing he can bring into their minds that would help them connect is to give them a remembrance of the glories of a time when sin had not invaded the world and speaks of Eden restored? 00:38:14.762 --> 00:38:16.563 Why? 00:38:16.563 --> 00:38:19.086 Take a look at verse 20. 00:38:21.208 --> 00:38:29.740 So that all may see and know and consider and understand that the hand of the Lord has done this. 00:38:29.740 --> 00:39:05.704 The Holy One of Israel has created it, and so the Assyrians and the Babylonians and the Medes and the Persians and the Seleucids and the Greeks and the Romans and every other mighty power on earth might know that God has taken a frail, disobedient worm and preserved its existence. 00:39:05.704 --> 00:39:24.445 Nations have come and gone during the multitude of years, the generations of the Old Testament, but the people of Israel were still there. 00:39:24.445 --> 00:39:30.925 You see, this restoration is not just for relief. 00:39:30.925 --> 00:40:09.213 It's revelation to the world, designed to say something, to show, by the preservation of these people, that God has a plan, that he's going to keep, that he's got strength to enact it and to make it happen, and that he's going to speak to the undeserving words of great comfort, because the day was going to come when the whole earth would hear a message of grace through one Messiah of these people, jesus Christ, who's going to make all things new. 00:40:09.213 --> 00:40:24.744 And so this is where that rush of hope turns into a song that causes them to rise to and to stand up for and to open their hearts and their voices and their lungs and bellow with gladness. 00:40:24.744 --> 00:40:31.362 This is not just a change of address for these people Babylon back to Jerusalem. 00:40:31.362 --> 00:40:45.606 This is a new creation that God is offering, that he's going to make, and he uses these images of trees in the wilderness not just to assure them that they'll return, but a signpost of a glorious future. 00:40:47.376 --> 00:41:05.217 This garden in the desert, you see again, chapter 41 is only plunking off a few notes of a symphony of grace that's building, and here he's just showing the beginning of it all. 00:41:05.217 --> 00:41:26.141 It will move and grow and develop and rise in glorious, glorious concert as we learn more about the servant and more of what he'll bring and do in this world, that God's promises will take root and bloom and flourish. 00:41:26.141 --> 00:41:33.827 That servant will come, and we'll see in chapter 42, he won't come as a mighty conqueror, but as a gentle redeemer. 00:41:33.827 --> 00:41:44.679 He won't break the breezed root, he won't snuff out the smoldering wick and he's going to bring justice, gently and in the fullness of time. 00:41:44.679 --> 00:41:45.483 He'll be revealed. 00:41:45.483 --> 00:41:53.740 He's going to talk about a day when he will not only bring water to the desert, he'll be the water of life. 00:41:53.740 --> 00:41:58.625 That he will not only restore the land, he'll make all things new. 00:41:58.625 --> 00:42:00.963 That he'll not only end the land, he'll make all things new. 00:42:00.963 --> 00:42:03.614 That he'll not only end the exile, he'll call people home. 00:42:04.737 --> 00:42:19.282 And so here we are, to any of us who might feel forgotten today, any of us who look at our life and see only the expanse of a wasteland and wonder if God can still write beauty on our broken years. 00:42:19.282 --> 00:42:27.221 God is speaking to those same kind of people, because God's not finished. 00:42:27.221 --> 00:42:34.635 He moves in history and he holds the hands of the wounded. 00:42:34.635 --> 00:42:42.159 He raises up kings, yes, he levels mountains, yes, he renews deserts, but he also offers mercy to the undeserving. 00:42:42.159 --> 00:42:45.927 You see, he's not finished. 00:42:47.269 --> 00:43:10.380 And in just a few verses, in a couple weeks, we're going to hear these words behold my servant, the servant who will come, the one who bears God's spirit, the one who fulfills what the people of Israel couldn't, the one who embodies what all humanity was meant to be, the one who not only will suffer as we'll see in chapter 52 and 53, but also will succeed. 00:43:10.380 --> 00:43:38.228 His name is Jesus and, as we'll learn as we go through this, that that image of the servant also includes us, that he calls us bruised, small, overwhelmed, weak, weary, wayward, identifies us with this servant and calls us into a commission of mercy across these lands. 00:43:38.228 --> 00:43:42.123 You see, you may be fearing your story's ended? 00:43:42.123 --> 00:43:43.547 It hasn't. 00:43:43.547 --> 00:43:51.469 There's one place it continues, and that is in the welcoming invitation of a God of grace and mercy. 00:43:52.894 --> 00:43:56.762 If you feel like your hands are too tired and your soul's too thin, go to Jesus. 00:43:56.762 --> 00:44:05.661 There you will find him, and there you'll hear the voice of Isaiah speaking to you like it spoke to these people. 00:44:05.661 --> 00:44:07.706 You are my servant. 00:44:07.706 --> 00:44:09.809 I have chosen you. 00:44:09.809 --> 00:44:15.452 I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you. 00:44:15.452 --> 00:44:23.152 Let's pray, I will uphold you, let's pray. 00:44:23.355 --> 00:44:26.514 Father, we thank you for these glorious words. 00:44:27.295 --> 00:44:38.934 They're too profound and too beyond our comprehension for them to enter in simply with our mental capacities. 00:44:38.934 --> 00:44:45.708 For them to enter in simply with our mental capacities, we would find ourselves stunned at the shock of them all. 00:44:45.708 --> 00:45:01.217 And so, father, we pray that you, lord, would give us ears to hear, that you would open our hearts, as you did to others, to receive and believe this message. 00:45:01.217 --> 00:45:27.914 And I pray that, not only for those this morning who might be here, who don't know Christ as their Savior, but for all of us, no matter how long we've known, our sins are forgiven in Jesus, that we would receive what you say to us, far deeper than just mere mental interest. 00:45:27.914 --> 00:45:49.027 May it soak into our soul and strengthen our hearts with grace and supply energy to our hands so that, when we step into this afternoon and tomorrow and the days and weeks and months and years and decades ahead of us as long as we live, that we will be energized by the truth of who you are and what you tell us. 00:45:49.027 --> 00:45:54.534 And we ask this, father, for your glory's sake, in Christ's name, amen.