Michael Grisanti: I hope you're all doing well, resting in God's goodness.
Michael Grisanti: I often remind myself to look up.
Michael Grisanti: As we live life, whether it's in abundant times or challenging times, we have a great God who, as we look up, helps us realize that he is the best we have, and he does great work in us by strengthening and enabling us.
Michael Grisanti: I pray for myself and for others that God, through his spirit, would help us to be and to do more than we could be and do on our own, and he enables us to do that.
Michael Grisanti: Thankful to be here today.
Michael Grisanti: I enjoyed having Vic many years ago on an Israel trip and the fellowship we've enjoyed since then, and the joy of having Doug on the seminary trip a couple weeks ago and the blessing that was and, over the years, thinking about what God was doing here at your church.
Michael Grisanti: I'm also in the midst of the introduction details I would want you to know.
Michael Grisanti: My identity is.
Michael Grisanti: I'm a Christ follower First and foremost.
Michael Grisanti: I'm a lover of Martha Ann and I want to be faithful in that all my life, and I'm a lover of local churches, local assemblies that have people who are affiliated with it and put their shoulder to the task and are burdened with being a light in a dark world.
Michael Grisanti: I'm thankful, so praise God for your church and what God has been doing and what he'll yet do.
Michael Grisanti: May he be your strength as you seek to honor him in a desperately needy world.
Michael Grisanti: We're going to look at Isaiah 49 this morning.
Michael Grisanti: Salvation by God's servant is presented building on chapter 42 and the rest of the chapters 40 to 48.
Michael Grisanti: I would say just an aside as I think about something.
Michael Grisanti: I'm going to emphasize the various points in the sermon, the music.
Michael Grisanti: Thank you for preparing my heart and thinking about this truth and our brother's prayer.
Michael Grisanti: Talking about trusting God, I want to just highlight that our God is a faithful, reliable God.
Michael Grisanti: We aren't being called to trust in a loser, in a promise big and deliver nothing, god, and we should revel and rely on that good news that he is the one who will bring to pass all that he promises.
Michael Grisanti: So you, brothers and sisters, have been studying the book of Isaiah for some time.
Michael Grisanti: The first half of that book, which you finished a few weeks ago, I'm sure the prophet seemed to show Israel that they're doomed to thorough and final judgment.
Michael Grisanti: At the end of chapter 39, it looks like they're toast, never more to be seen again.
Michael Grisanti: But in clear contrast to that idea of total devastation which the prophet wasn't saying was the case, but it sure seemed like it because it was thorough the prophet opens chapter 40 with a message of greater restoration and hope.
Michael Grisanti: One writer said this that when one turns from the 39th to the 40th chapter it's like he steps out of the darkness of judgment into the light of salvation.
Michael Grisanti: So chapters 40 to 48, which pastor just finished last week, those chapters summarize the initial phase of God's promise to deliver his people from exile.
Michael Grisanti: I remember the historical scenario God's people in the land of promise, characterized by rebellion and covenant treachery for years and years and years.
Michael Grisanti: And eventually it comes to the point that God is going to bring covenant curse on them.
Michael Grisanti: And the epitome of covenant curse was the eviction of God's people from the land of promise.
Michael Grisanti: And the Babylonians were the one who his tools to do that.
Michael Grisanti: And so they're in Babylonian exile.
Michael Grisanti: But that's not the end of God's story, praise the Lord.
Michael Grisanti: In 40 to 48 he introduces chapter 40 and beyond that he's going to deliver them from that exile in an unparalleled way, a totally unexpected way.
Michael Grisanti: It seemed like no one could ever be able to open the Babylonians' fingers and get Israel out of there.
Michael Grisanti: But he's going to deliver his people in an initial way that provides a paradigm for what he's going to do in the future.
Michael Grisanti: And Isaiah, in those first eight chapters, presents that promise, deliverance kind of like a second Exodus, exodus out of Egypt, intervening in the most powerful empire, one of the most powerful empires of the world at the time.
Michael Grisanti: In the book of Exodus, having Egypt, egypt having the Hebrews, the Israelites in their clutches as slaves, they had a great thing going.
Michael Grisanti: They weren't going to let them go.
Michael Grisanti: Moses and Aaron appeared to the Pharaoh and said let the people of Yahweh, the covenant Lord, go.
Michael Grisanti: It was like who's he?
Michael Grisanti: And the Lord brought them out of Egypt in what we call the Exodus.
Michael Grisanti: This is kind of Exodus, second Exodus language the prophet Isaiah uses that God is going to make happen again, initially through Cyrus, and we'll see in our passage in an even more significant way down the road.
Michael Grisanti: So the prophet, in 40 to 48, describes the approach of a conqueror, eventually named as Cyrus.
Michael Grisanti: He'll do what everyone thought to be impossible defeat the Babylonian empire and free the Jews from the exile there.
Michael Grisanti: He's the Cyrus, is God's anointed one who helps bring that deliverance to pass.
Michael Grisanti: But in this new section we're just starting today, in chapter 49, 49 to 55 is the new section the prophet revealed through his writings that God would deal with the more serious problem of sin.
Michael Grisanti: It was in the prophet's heart already.
Michael Grisanti: He talked about in the first half of the book.
Michael Grisanti: But he's going to also, in addition to this physical deliverance of God's people from Babylon, he's going to address the problem of covenant treachery, sin, because that's going to be required for God to bring his ultimate plan to pass.
Michael Grisanti: And God's going to do.
Michael Grisanti: Yahweh, the covenant Lord, is going to do this by another servant of his, called Cyrus, an anointed one called by God to deliver his people from that Babylonian land of exile.
Michael Grisanti: It's going to be another servant, one of his, an anointed one, called the servant, who we come to know as the Messiah, according to New Testament truth.
Michael Grisanti: So the servant would not only take care of Israel's sin problem and this is one of the glorious truths of this chapter but that of the whole world.
Michael Grisanti: That was always in God's mind, but it becomes more apparent here.
Michael Grisanti: So Isaiah passed from dealing mainly with physical deliverance from Babylon's exile in 40 to 48 to dealing with a bigger deliverance that included salvation, not just for the Jews but for the entire world.
Michael Grisanti: Praise God for that.
Michael Grisanti: So this amazing God promises covenant people deliverance and restoration.
Michael Grisanti: In our passage for this morning, 49, 1 to 13, is a very important part of the message of the prophets, the second servant song.
Michael Grisanti: It builds, if you remember, back to chapter 42, and I'm going to review just a little bit.
Michael Grisanti: This builds on that and adds, fills out the kind of the biography and the ministry portfolio of this servant figure.
Michael Grisanti: It testifies to the worldwide task Yahweh has in mind for his servant.
Michael Grisanti: He's already commissioned this servant to impact Israel, yahweh's chosen people.
Michael Grisanti: He hinted in those first chapters, 40 to 48, that his impact on the Gentiles, because in chapter 42, he tossed out that the suffering servant would be, or the servant would be, a light to the nations.
Michael Grisanti: We'll hit that one again today.
Michael Grisanti: So the servant Psalm before us, 49, makes it absolutely clear that the Lord intends that his servant would impact his chosen people and the Gentiles throughout the world as part of his ultimate plan.
Michael Grisanti: Now we're not shocked by that right.
Michael Grisanti: As New Testament Christ followers, this may not be shocking for us, but for Old Testament Israel kind of used to being in the bullseye, in the center of God's plan.
Michael Grisanti: This had to rock their world a little bit what them too.
Michael Grisanti: But that's part of God's plan.
Michael Grisanti: God's chosen people may not have realized it, but they didn't deserve.
Michael Grisanti: They did not deserve any of Yahweh's abundant mercy, grace and patience.
Michael Grisanti: But still, regardless, the Lord is the incomparable God who is ever faithful to bring to pass what he had promised.
Michael Grisanti: He will bring to pass what he always intended to do, both for his chosen people restoring them to the land and a relationship with him and to the larger world that he created.
Michael Grisanti: And we're here today, many of us, as beneficiaries of that great plan.
Michael Grisanti: And, yes, part of that consummation of his plan involved his servant nation, but it also involves Gentiles of the world and it was going to come through the servant individual who we would come to know as the Messiah.
Michael Grisanti: So here's some key ideas of this passage, just to kind of lay down the central ideas to start, and we'll work through the passage.
Michael Grisanti: Yahweh, first of all, is a God who brings to pass all that he promises according to his plan.
Michael Grisanti: He is faithful and ever reliable.
Michael Grisanti: He does.
Michael Grisanti: He's not a promise big deliver nothing, god.
Michael Grisanti: He's a promise big deliver all.
Michael Grisanti: He said God, and according to this passage, isaiah 49, he will not only bring scores of Israelites to salvation and restore them to the land of promise, but he would also bring that same salvation to the larger world, to Gentiles, to us and others.
Michael Grisanti: Both will be able to receive that salvation in God's providence by repenting and believing.
Michael Grisanti: And there's a more immediate as well as ultimate deliverance God will bring about through the servant or the Messiah, and it's important to keep this in mind.
Michael Grisanti: We'll talk about it again.
Michael Grisanti: There's a near term and a far term impact of what the servant is going to do.
Michael Grisanti: So you're going to, we're going to see the faithfulness of God.
Michael Grisanti: He'll do all he promised and praise God.
Michael Grisanti: He does it in his behalf.
Michael Grisanti: So, having summarized this foundation, I wanted to stop and make sure you hang with me as we walk through the passage to get the big picture of what the prophet is saying.
Michael Grisanti: The prophet Isaiah, of course, wrote this servant song under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, hundreds of years before the Messiah's ministry on earth, and at several points we're reading through Isaiah 49.
Michael Grisanti: We'll read all the verses along the way.
Michael Grisanti: Sounds quite familiar to us in light of our New Testament knowledge.
Michael Grisanti: Yeah, this and this and this, I've heard this before in the New Testament.
Michael Grisanti: But the prophet adds to our understanding of God's script that he was writing, that Yahweh was writing for his son, the promised Messiah, and what it had significant and how it had significance in the near term as well as the far term.
Michael Grisanti: So he explains.
Michael Grisanti: Isaiah explains some of the issues related to the near term his first coming, the challenges of ministry to the Israelites and his transition of ministry to the Gentiles.
Michael Grisanti: He also looks toward the far term, the second coming, his future return to earth, where he's going to return to deliver his people from that larger exile four corners of the world for a purpose he's going to establish them in the land that he had promised them already in the Abrahamic and talked about in the Davidic covenants as well.
Michael Grisanti: The fourth servant song, which pastor will have the pleasure of teaching through, is what addresses that important climax of the Christ ministry in the first coming his redemptive death at Calvary and the burial nearby.
Michael Grisanti: That provides the grounds for their and our salvation today.
Michael Grisanti: So this is huge how the prophet Isaiah is helping lay the groundwork for an important part of what God intends to accomplish for his glory.
Michael Grisanti: So with that background in mind.
Michael Grisanti: Let's look at the chapter itself.
Michael Grisanti: I divide the chapter into two sections.
Michael Grisanti: First of all, the servant's calling and equipping, verses 1 to 6, his calling, verses 1 to 6, and then the culmination of the servant's ministry.
Michael Grisanti: That kind of leads to the second phase, verses 7 to 13.
Michael Grisanti: So let's think about the servant's calling and, by the way, throughout this servant song, the servant is speaking throughout the passage, but he quotes what Yahweh, the ultimate leader I would say God, the Father, in this capacity has said Verses 3 and 6 to 12,.
Michael Grisanti: We'll see that it's.
Michael Grisanti: And he says the Lord says it reminds us that he's the one who's in charge.
Michael Grisanti: He's bringing this plan to pass.
Michael Grisanti: This is not just a shoot from the hip deal.
Michael Grisanti: God is bringing his plan to pass.
Michael Grisanti: So first of all, under this, the servant's calling verses 1 to 6, verses 1 to 3, yahweh calls and prepares his servant for his worldwide ministry.
Michael Grisanti: Verse 1, coastlands listen to me, distant peoples, pay attention.
Michael Grisanti: He wants to address the inhabitants of the distant regions of the world.
Michael Grisanti: Yahweh is the incomparable God who is in charge of His world and His people and intended to impact all with salvation and wants the four corners of the world to hear.
Michael Grisanti: Pay attention.
Michael Grisanti: This is important.
Michael Grisanti: What the servant has to say will impact the entire world.
Michael Grisanti: It's a call to attention.
Michael Grisanti: So he calls the entire world to attention, first of all, and then, even before birth, the second half of verse 1 into verse 2.
Michael Grisanti: God chose and prepared his servant.
Michael Grisanti: Verse 1, the end of the verse the Lord called me before I was born.
Michael Grisanti: He named me while I was in my mother's womb.
Michael Grisanti: Both of these statements signified that the Lord Yahweh was writing his script for the world that the servant would accomplish.
Michael Grisanti: Writing that script of what the servant would accomplish.
Michael Grisanti: He's announcing this ahead of time.
Michael Grisanti: This is predictive.
Michael Grisanti: Now it's old news to us, but it's just significant to understand that God is the one who's writing the script and is the God who brings it to pass.
Michael Grisanti: God had a plan for a servant, announced here before birth, just as he did for the prophet Jeremiah.
Michael Grisanti: Jeremiah 1 4-5 called before his birth, the apostle Paul.
Michael Grisanti: Galatians 1 15 called to be an apostle before his birth.
Michael Grisanti: Yahweh chose his servant, but he also equips him.
Michael Grisanti: Verse 2, the servant describes for us that he not only chooses his servant but he equips him for his ministry.
Michael Grisanti: The servant describes, he's speaking.
Michael Grisanti: The servant is speaking to us describes the Lord's divine preparation of him for the work that God has planned for him to do, and we learn things about the servants of ministry through the preparation.
Michael Grisanti: Notice the unique flow of these four statements in verse 2.
Michael Grisanti: I'm going to put them into two categories.
Michael Grisanti: First line he made my words like a sharp sword.
Michael Grisanti: He hid me in the shadow of his hand.
Michael Grisanti: He made me like a sharpened arrow.
Michael Grisanti: He hid me in his quiver.
Michael Grisanti: So you can see with me that the first and the third lines go together, as do the second and the fourth ones.
Michael Grisanti: Here's what the first set of lines he made my words like a sharp sword.
Michael Grisanti: He made me like a sharpened arrow.
Michael Grisanti: These first lines signify a sharp sword and a sharpened or a polished arrow.
Michael Grisanti: First of all, with the sword, the Lord Yahweh would make the servant's mouth what he would say words like a sharp sword.
Michael Grisanti: He would be an effective spokesman for Yahweh.
Michael Grisanti: In various New Testament passages liken the word of God to a sharp sword Ephesians 6, 17,.
Michael Grisanti: Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit which is God's word Hebrews 4, 12,.
Michael Grisanti: For the word of God is living and effective and sharper than any double-edged sword, penetrating as far as the separation of the soul and spirit, joints and marrow.
Michael Grisanti: It is able to judge the ideas and the thoughts of the heart.
Michael Grisanti: So this idea that the Lord being likened to a sharp sword is telling us that God made this servant, his divine representative, like a sharp sword, to be effective, to impact, to communicate God's intentions effectively.
Michael Grisanti: He also the second part of that is it says that he made him like a polished or a sharpened arrow.
Michael Grisanti: An arrow like this either polished or sharpened, the word could go either way is trimmed, it's going to go into the target.
Michael Grisanti: It tells us that an arrow flies a good distance without distraction and impacts or penetrates its target.
Michael Grisanti: It would accomplish the intentions of the archer, god, who has set aside the servant.
Michael Grisanti: So the Lord not only chooses the servant, but he equips him for the task he will give him.
Michael Grisanti: So you have, on the one hand, the equipping task.
Michael Grisanti: He will make me like a sharp sword and he will make me like a sharpened or polished arrow.
Michael Grisanti: And the Lord also another set of lines about his divine preparation he hid me in the shadow of his hand, he hid me in his quiver.
Michael Grisanti: These clauses seem to emphasize that God, who is enabling and directing his servant will bring his ministry to bear on his audience at the right time.
Michael Grisanti: It's kind of like in the fullness of time Jesus came unveiled for his glory.
Michael Grisanti: The servant keeps the arrows in their sheath or the quiver until the right moment.
Michael Grisanti: As a result, they're more effective when God brings them to bear.
Michael Grisanti: God is the one who's calling the shots and how and when Jesus will minister to impact that world according to his intention.
Michael Grisanti: So, as a result of being revealed into God's time, they're more effective when he brings them to bear.
Michael Grisanti: So verses 1 and the verse 1 to verse 2 demonstrate the special place the servant had in God's plan.
Michael Grisanti: His whole life, from birth on, would accomplish what God intended and was guided by that great and powerful God.
Michael Grisanti: And all that we know about that great servant, through our own salvation, is the result of this intention of God to bring his plan to pass.
Michael Grisanti: The long promised Messiah wasn't an empty promise, but the Messiah came and lived perfectly and died and rose again and ascended to God's right hand to give us the salvation, the grounds for that, that we can enjoy today, praise God.
Michael Grisanti: So we also have the third point.
Michael Grisanti: You have this kind of call to all nations to hear and in this whole preparation and calling.
Michael Grisanti: Thirdly, the verse three the servant does what israel, the chosen nation, could never do.
Michael Grisanti: Verse three you are my servant, israel, through whom I will reveal my glory.
Michael Grisanti: This first blush, it seems like this verse is telling us that the servant should be identified.
Michael Grisanti: Think about who's the servant Seems to be saying.
Michael Grisanti: What's the nation of Israel?
Michael Grisanti: He says you are my servant, israel, through whom I'll reveal my glory.
Michael Grisanti: Identified as the nation of Israel, now exiled in Babylon in Isaiah's time frame.
Michael Grisanti: This is one of the big interpretive debates in Isaiah 40-55.
Michael Grisanti: Who's the servant?
Michael Grisanti: Is it an individual?
Michael Grisanti: Is it a collective?
Michael Grisanti: Who is it?
Michael Grisanti: There are all kinds of opinions.
Michael Grisanti: It would hurt you to think about all the variety and things that are there.
Michael Grisanti: I did my dissertation on this section and it's unimaginable.
Michael Grisanti: But praise God, the Bible is clear.
Michael Grisanti: But think with me about some other nearby verses that help just cut right through the question.
Michael Grisanti: To make it clear, in Isaiah 42, 18-19 and 43-10, exiled Israel is described as blind and deaf and fails to understand the Lord's purposes.
Michael Grisanti: That isn't the servant.
Michael Grisanti: Unlike the nation, the servant opens blind eyes Isaiah 42, 7, and delivers people from prison.
Michael Grisanti: Israel couldn't get their way out of a paper bag.
Michael Grisanti: I mean, they were rebellious and they were under divine punishment, but the servant is the one who's going to bring them out of that.
Michael Grisanti: In verses 5 and 6 of our chapter, this servant says he's been commissioned to reconcile the nation of Israel to God.
Michael Grisanti: So he must be distinct from the exiled nation.
Michael Grisanti: According to verse 8, he'll mediate a new covenant We'll talk about that later for the nation.
Michael Grisanti: He'll do that on behalf of the nation.
Michael Grisanti: Verses 9 to 13 describe the servant's role of leading God's people back to the promised land.
Michael Grisanti: My point here is that when you think about a verse like this that some could take as saying the nation of Israel is meant to be the servant identified here, good interpretation looks at the context.
Michael Grisanti: What are the things in the near and even a little bit farther context in the passage area?
Michael Grisanti: That helps see that the servant is clearly distinct from the nation of Israel.
Michael Grisanti: So there must be some other significance of the statement.
Michael Grisanti: You are Israel, and here's the one I would suggest.
Michael Grisanti: The servant can be referred to as Israel because he embodies God's ideal for his people, not because he is the nation of Israel.
Michael Grisanti: It's the function, not the identity, of Israel that's emphasized here.
Michael Grisanti: The servant will be all that the Lord intended that his chosen nation would be.
Michael Grisanti: He'll be quite unlike the exiled, rebellious, hard-hearted, worthy of covenant punishment nation which failed to fulfill God's promises.
Michael Grisanti: Yeah, the following verses are going to tell us that the servant will restore the wayward, exiled nation to God, but verse 3 is trying to emphasize that this servant will bring to fulfillment the role that God had given to his chosen people.
Michael Grisanti: He will represent God's character to the world in a flawless way.
Michael Grisanti: He'll epitomize If you wanted to know what a godly Israelite would be according to the Mosaic law the servant, jesus, the Messiah.
Michael Grisanti: And you see and I can't go down this road very far at all when you think about the Old Testament, even the Old Testament law God gave the Old Testament law to his people not to save them, not to give them any kind of spiritual stature.
Michael Grisanti: It was to give them a concrete understanding of how they could live their lives in the way that would advertise God's surpassing character to the watching world.
Michael Grisanti: Did you catch that?
Michael Grisanti: He wanted them to obey the Mosaic law in an inside-out fashion, heartfelt obedience, and he wanted them to know how to do that so they could advertise God's surpassing character to each other and to the watching world around them.
Michael Grisanti: Well, how'd that go?
Michael Grisanti: Well, the nation of Israel failed, right, they didn't do it.
Michael Grisanti: But guess what the servant will do?
Michael Grisanti: In all that he says and all that he does, he's going to be the perfect advertisement of an incomparable and amazing truth presenting God, and that's our Heavenly Father and our Savior.
Michael Grisanti: So in this way, israel, the servant being Israel through him God says, the servant is saying I will be glorified.
Michael Grisanti: Even though Israel failed in this mission, the servant would succeed.
Michael Grisanti: So the nation of Israel is not the servant referred to in chapter 29.
Michael Grisanti: Isaiah called the servant of Israel here to emphasize that he will epitomize Yahweh's expectations of his chosen people.
Michael Grisanti: He models what an ideal Israel would have looked like if they had pursued heartfelt loyalty to the Lord.
Michael Grisanti: Now, just a commercial.
Michael Grisanti: I would tell you that if you want to think about what God has called each one of us to do as Christ followers, that's job one.
Michael Grisanti: I need to live my life in a way because of heartfelt loyalty, obeying God in an inside-out fashion that those close to me and further out understand who God is better.
Michael Grisanti: We need to be advertisements for God's surpassing character.
Michael Grisanti: So each day when we wake up.
Michael Grisanti: Lord, help me, and I will tell you this I would always start close to home and move out.
Michael Grisanti: I do.
Michael Grisanti: I'm not doing it perfectly but, lord, I pray you'd help me to help Martha and my sweet wife understand God better because of the way I care for and pursue her.
Michael Grisanti: I want my kids to have thirst in their hearts and see who God is.
Michael Grisanti: Better by the way, I love and care for them and for their mom and on the circles go.
Michael Grisanti: And so here the servant, as called Israel here, because he correctly and perfectly modeled what God expected and who God was, and he did what Israel could not do.
Michael Grisanti: Now we're not going to do it as well as the servant did, but God's called us to that as well.
Michael Grisanti: So the Lord, verses one to three, calls and prepares the servant for his worldwide ministry.
Michael Grisanti: And then verse four the servant faces opposition but still trusts in Yahweh and his plan.
Michael Grisanti: Verse four here I'll read it, but I myself said so.
Michael Grisanti: The servant is talking for the most part, telling us things the Lord has said along the way.
Michael Grisanti: But this is the servant saying.
Michael Grisanti: I myself said I've labored in vain, I've spent my strength for nothing and futility.
Michael Grisanti: Yet my vindication is with the Lord and my reward is with my God.
Michael Grisanti: You know we're seeing the human side of Christ's ministry in that statement.
Michael Grisanti: These two verbs I've labored in vain and have spent my strength signifies the idea of exhausting labor.
Michael Grisanti: We might focus, and I'm a cup is three quarters full, guy right.
Michael Grisanti: We may focus and be encouraged by rightly so, the amazing teaching of Christ and as many miracles recorded in the gospel accounts.
Michael Grisanti: But that's not the whole story of Jesus's ministry.
Michael Grisanti: Throughout the gospels, jesus faced rejection, unbelief, prejudice and misunderstanding.
Michael Grisanti: Especially after the first year of his ministry, there was opposition at every turn.
Michael Grisanti: The religious leaders, the Pharisees and their kind had a monopoly in religious authority and had great influence over the majority of Israelites.
Michael Grisanti: Jesus and the apostles were always running into that Pharisaical wall.
Michael Grisanti: Those who genuinely followed Jesus and his teaching were far less numerous than the Israelite population.
Michael Grisanti: Jesus, in Luke 9, 41, cries out you, unbelieving and rebellious generation, how long will I be with you and put up with you?
Michael Grisanti: Mark 8, 21,.
Michael Grisanti: He was grieved by his own disciples' failure to understand Mark 14, 27,.
Michael Grisanti: He foresaw that most of his disciples would run away from him when the priestly authorities took him captive, gone and, of course, his suffering and death at the hands of the Romans, connived by the Jewish leaders, represents the epitome of the ministry challenges he faced.
Michael Grisanti: Luke 13, 34 to 35,.
Michael Grisanti: Toward the end of his ministry, we read about Jesus' lament over Jerusalem, jerusalem, jerusalem, she who kills the prophets, and stones of those who were sent to her.
Michael Grisanti: How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.
Michael Grisanti: And then he talks about the judgment that's coming John 1, 10-11,.
Michael Grisanti: He was in the world and the world was created through him, yet the world did not recognize him.
Michael Grisanti: He came to his own and his own people did not receive him.
Michael Grisanti: There may have been many times during the Messiah's ministry when it could have seemed like anybody watching that his ministry labors were almost for nothing.
Michael Grisanti: However, praise God, though Jesus may have experienced discouragement and opposition at times, he was never defeated.
Michael Grisanti: There were numerous great moments of heart-changing responses and spiritual growth.
Michael Grisanti: He impacted multitudes of people, performed significant miracles, taught God's truth with amazing clarity.
Michael Grisanti: There is good news to be blessed by, but this verse here is letting us know that there is great opposition.
Michael Grisanti: Even though there was opposition, the servant, the promised Messiah, trusted God, the Father, for the final outcome of his ministry.
Michael Grisanti: And this is where we can't get into it.
Michael Grisanti: But the divine and the human side, he's the God man, he's in human flesh.
Michael Grisanti: This is one of those manifestations of.
Michael Grisanti: He felt the opposition, the prejudice, the discrimination, the rejection.
Michael Grisanti: It was on his heart, but he didn't let that dominate his thought.
Michael Grisanti: It says he my vindication is with the Lord at the end of verse 4.
Michael Grisanti: My reward is with my God.
Michael Grisanti: He trusted his Father for the final outcome of his ministry.
Michael Grisanti: He was confident that God would prosper his ministry in the way and the time that he knew to be best.
Michael Grisanti: So the servant faces opposition but still trusts in Yahweh and his plan, verse 4.
Michael Grisanti: And that leads us to and, by the way, telling us about that opposition.
Michael Grisanti: Isn't that Jesus is a Debbie Downer or the cup is 1-8 full.
Michael Grisanti: He wants us to see the providential trigger, occasion for this move to do what God had always expected to expand the ministry of the servant to encompass the larger world.
Michael Grisanti: So verses 5 and 6, yahweh enlarges the servant's ministry to bring salvation to the Gentiles.
Michael Grisanti: We see in verse 5, there's a statement here and now, and when you see something like that in a passage you ought to think about.
Michael Grisanti: It's a transition, it's introducing a new section.
Michael Grisanti: He's building what was before.
Michael Grisanti: So, after the discouragement or the opposition that the servant would face, and now is telling us shift the gear.
Michael Grisanti: Something new is going to be presented.
Michael Grisanti: The servant is reminded all who have read Isaiah, isaiah's prophecy that Yahweh had commissioned him to be servant from birth in verses 1 and 2.
Michael Grisanti: And now this statement it talks about he's been opposed, and he tells us one of four times.
Michael Grisanti: When he says thus, says the Lord, and it just would tell you four times.
Michael Grisanti: It happens I'll draw your attention to them along the way, and part of the purpose of this statement is he wants to remind the reader, through the prophet Isaiah, that the incomparable God is the one directing the ministry of his ministry.
Michael Grisanti: Even through the hard times of opposition and rejection, god had a plan.
Michael Grisanti: The end of the story was different, so the rest of the verse, of verse 5, doesn't tell us right away what the Lord said.
Michael Grisanti: It reminds us, though, of who the servant was, in verse 5,.
Michael Grisanti: And now says the Lord, the one who formed me from the womb to be a servant, up in verse 2, to bring Jacob.
Michael Grisanti: And then he tells us a little bit about his plan, his initial plan, and that was phase one to bring Jacob back to him so that Israel might be gathered to him.
Michael Grisanti: So, even in Isaiah, but also in the time of the New Testament, how is Israel doing spiritually?
Michael Grisanti: Well, well, they're getting worse than an F.
Michael Grisanti: That's a grade right, I mean.
Michael Grisanti: They're rebellious and hard hearted, captured by the traditions of the Pharisees.
Michael Grisanti: And Jesus is sent to be able to bring Jacob back to him ultimately, and to regather Israel to him.
Michael Grisanti: And this is going to be done initially in the first coming, but more fully in the second coming.
Michael Grisanti: For I'm honored in the sight of the Lord.
Michael Grisanti: The servant is embracing all that God is doing.
Michael Grisanti: He's not rejecting, and God is my strength.
Michael Grisanti: He does it through the strength of the Lord.
Michael Grisanti: So this is going to be a great honor for the servant to be used this way.
Michael Grisanti: And then verse 6, the first part of the verse.
Michael Grisanti: The Lord implies that he has bigger plans for his servant.
Michael Grisanti: He says second time again who's in charge?
Michael Grisanti: Who's calling the shots?
Michael Grisanti: Who's giving him direction?
Michael Grisanti: The incomparable God.
Michael Grisanti: God is bringing his plan to pass.
Michael Grisanti: He says to the servant it is not enough for you to be my servant, it is not enough for you to be my servant, raising up the tribes of Jacob and restoring the protected ones of Israel.
Michael Grisanti: When he says this not enough Does not imply that Yahweh made a mistake in his original commission of the servant.
Michael Grisanti: And now it's like oops, plan B.
Michael Grisanti: We're seeing play out in this passage the reality of the servant, who we know as Jesus, the Messiah, ministering in a dark world with hard hearts not being welcomed.
Michael Grisanti: That is a providential occasion for God to move on, to filling out his revelation of his plan for the world.
Michael Grisanti: Numerous passages throughout the Bible and even in the book of Isaiah make it clear that he always intended to impact the Gentiles with his kingdom and the gospel.
Michael Grisanti: When God created mankind, he had all the inhabitants of the world in mind when he said let us make mankind as our image and according to our likeness and let them have dominion over all of the world.
Michael Grisanti: That was his plan all the time.
Michael Grisanti: Abraham and covenant.
Michael Grisanti: All about Abraham, no, and in him, what's going to happen?
Michael Grisanti: All of the families of the earth will be blessed.
Michael Grisanti: And then, even in Isaiah 45, just a couple chapters before verses 22 to 25, the Lord declared Turn to me and be saved all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is no other.
Michael Grisanti: By myself, I have sworn.
Michael Grisanti: The truth has gone out from my mouth a word that will not be revoked.
Michael Grisanti: Every knee will bow to me and every tongue will swear allegiance.
Michael Grisanti: So this is not new news, but it may have been ignored news by Israel and could have been shocking to them.
Michael Grisanti: Yahweh is progressively revealing his plan for the entire world through the ministry of the servant.
Michael Grisanti: He didn't make a mistake.
Michael Grisanti: He is progressively unveiling, writing the script he's writing in history as well as in the servant's ministry.
Michael Grisanti: And then there's a third part at the end of verse 6.
Michael Grisanti: So verse 5, he's the one verse 5, and now says the Lord, the servant's initial ministry to bring Jacob back to him so that Israel might be regathered to him.
Michael Grisanti: Second step we have verse 6, the first part.
Michael Grisanti: Not enough for you to be my servant.
Michael Grisanti: There is going to be.
Michael Grisanti: There's a granted issue of I have something more in mind for you.
Michael Grisanti: Not that the first part was mistaken.
Michael Grisanti: And in the end of verse 6, the Lord expands the scope of the servant's ministry.
Michael Grisanti: In verse 6.
Michael Grisanti: He says I will also make you a light for the nations, to be my salvation to the ends of the earth.
Michael Grisanti: Yahweh intended that the servant would provide redemption for the Jews and Gentiles throughout the world.
Michael Grisanti: So stay with me here.
Michael Grisanti: Let's just summarize the divinely chosen and prepared servant was originally commissioned to minister to the nation of Israel.
Michael Grisanti: That's who his people were.
Michael Grisanti: In the process of carrying out that ministry, the servant experienced opposition and even frustration.
Michael Grisanti: Trusting in Yahweh to do what is best, the servant received an enlarged commission to be a light to the Gentiles.
Michael Grisanti: Again, this is not the first time this entered the thought of God.
Michael Grisanti: This was how it's unveiled on the stage of human history.
Michael Grisanti: The Lord commissioned his servant not simply to restore Israel to fellowship with God, but also to bring salvation to all peoples, that is, to function as a light to the nations.
Michael Grisanti: The relationship with God available to Israel for generations in a direct way will be expanded to include Gentiles as direct recipients.
Michael Grisanti: Up until this time it had been kind of like in the back door, you know proselytes.
Michael Grisanti: At the outside here is Israel, and at the edges you had some Gentiles that embraced salvation by faith.
Michael Grisanti: But now it's going to be as Galatians says there's neither Jew nor gentle bond, nor free male nor female.
Michael Grisanti: There are those categories in the church.
Michael Grisanti: But it's even Stephen.
Michael Grisanti: The ground is level to the foot of the cross.
Michael Grisanti: And so in the New Testament, the passage you folks read this morning, our brother read Acts 13.
Michael Grisanti: I'll just read 46 to 49.
Michael Grisanti: Then Paul and Barnabas.
Michael Grisanti: They're out in this mission to a part of the world that included Jews and Gentiles.
Michael Grisanti: But there was to the Jew first, synagogue first, and then, when they got tossed out on the street, then they preached to the Gentiles and they wanted to make sure that the audience, especially the Jews, know this is God's plan.
Michael Grisanti: Then Paul of Barnabas boldly said it was necessary that God's message be spoken to you first, to the synagogue, to the Jews.
Michael Grisanti: But since you reject it and consider yourselves unworthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles.
Michael Grisanti: For this is what the Lord commanded us.
Michael Grisanti: I have made you a light for the Gentiles to bring salvation to the ends of the earth.
Michael Grisanti: When the Gentiles heard this, they rejoiced and glorified the message of the Lord and all who had been appointed to eternal life believed.
Michael Grisanti: So the message of the Lord spread throughout the whole region.
Michael Grisanti: So that's his calling.
Michael Grisanti: Verses one to six has an expanded ministry according to God's plan.
Michael Grisanti: Let's look at the culmination of the servant's ministry in verses 7 to 13.
Michael Grisanti: This one has been called and equipped, who is going to be able to epitomize God's character, as Israel had not done, and who would have this expanded ministry, always God's intention but unveiled at this moment to impact that larger world.
Michael Grisanti: So the culmination of the servant's ministry, verses 7 to 13.
Michael Grisanti: First of all, worldwide effectiveness verses 7 to 9.
Michael Grisanti: When I first came up here I thought I didn't see a clock at the back and I didn't think I had one up here so I could go as long as I wanted.
Michael Grisanti: I need to push this clock down, right?
Michael Grisanti: No, I heard there's a trap door here under me, so I don't want to go down with the alligators and the crocodiles underneath.
Michael Grisanti: All right, the worldwide effectiveness verses 7 to 9.
Michael Grisanti: And there's no doubt, by the way, that verse 7 is kind of like like a transition.
Michael Grisanti: It kind of rehashes a bit of this expanded ministry that God gave the servant, but he also is going to have this work with the Gentiles and then some future oriented truth.
Michael Grisanti: So there are a couple of things here.
Michael Grisanti: Verse 7 deals with the rejection and later recognition of the servant, old news.
Michael Grisanti: So this is the third.
Michael Grisanti: He says this is what the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel, his only one, says To one who is despised, to one abhorred by people, to a servant of rulers.
Michael Grisanti: That all kind of highlights back to the verse 4 that there were those.
Michael Grisanti: It was like empty, vain labor.
Michael Grisanti: It was like what was the ultimate impact?
Michael Grisanti: There were days in his earthly ministry, in his first coming, where despised, abhorred, rejected.
Michael Grisanti: And then he says to his servant though, and this is where seven transitions to what's going to follow here there's a coming, a day Kings will see and stand up and princes will bow down because of the Lord who is faithful, holy one of Israel.
Michael Grisanti: He has chosen you.
Michael Grisanti: The Lord is faithful.
Michael Grisanti: So the first phase of the ministry first coming true.
Michael Grisanti: Then, in the second part of verse 7, this rejection is followed by enthusiastic recognition of and submission to the servant by all levels of society, referring to a future day not given to us on a clock.
Michael Grisanti: But it's the second coming, when he comes to earth and there's going to be judgment of the wicked.
Michael Grisanti: There's going to be rejoicing, everybody kicking their heels and praising God.
Michael Grisanti: A big change is coming in the undetermined future.
Michael Grisanti: Kings will see, stand up, princes will bow down.
Michael Grisanti: The once despised servant will be worshipped by all leaders and nations of the world.
Michael Grisanti: They'll recognize what great things Yahweh is doing through the servant and will rise in admiration and respect.
Michael Grisanti: And what's going to trigger this transformation?
Michael Grisanti: It says kings will see stand up, princes will bow down.
Michael Grisanti: Because of the Lord, because of Yahweh, who is faithful, he brings His plan to pass.
Michael Grisanti: He does what he says.
Michael Grisanti: He's absolutely reliable.
Michael Grisanti: It wasn't failure in Jesus' ministry as you faced opposition.
Michael Grisanti: It was providential preparation for God unveiling another part of his plan.
Michael Grisanti: And now in the second coming, this part of verse 7, it's because he keeps bringing, progressively unveiling his plan for the world.
Michael Grisanti: It's on account of God's faithfulness to his servants, seen in the use of this one to accomplish great things, that occasions the response of these Gentile rulers and other leaders.
Michael Grisanti: Yahweh clearly demonstrates he is totally reliable, always faithful to bring what he promised to pass according to his plan.
Michael Grisanti: So verse 7 talks about the rejection and later recognition of the servant.
Michael Grisanti: Verses 8 to 9, we read about the servant and the covenant with Israel.
Michael Grisanti: Even though his chosen nation did not originally respond to the servant's ministry in entirety.
Michael Grisanti: There were those that did a lot who didn't.
Michael Grisanti: The servant has great things in store for his covenant people.
Michael Grisanti: Yet this is the fourth the Lord says in verse 8, which is again God's calling the shots.
Michael Grisanti: God is directing his plan to pass.
Michael Grisanti: This isn't accidental.
Michael Grisanti: This is what the Lord says, verse 8, I will answer you in a time of favor.
Michael Grisanti: I will help you.
Michael Grisanti: In the day of salvation, the covenant Lord declares that he will intervene in some future day to bring to pass his promises for his covenant people and we'll see for the entire world.
Michael Grisanti: Another translation offers an interesting perspective or emphasis.
Michael Grisanti: At the time I decide to show my favor.
Michael Grisanti: At the time I return to the earth and bring to pass the next phase of God's plan, I will respond to or answer you In the day of deliverance, I will help you.
Michael Grisanti: The prophet affirms that there will be an appointment, a divinely established time when Yahweh will intervene in human history.
Michael Grisanti: The first phase of this divine activity took place during his first coming, but will have even a greater and widely experienced impact at the time of his second coming.
Michael Grisanti: I know there's a lot here, but that's what Isaiah 49 gives me right.
Michael Grisanti: I just got to try to walk through it.
Michael Grisanti: So hang with me and if you have any questions, go ahead and ask Pastor Doug when he gets back.
Michael Grisanti: So I notice what Yahweh says he will do for and through his servant.
Michael Grisanti: This is huge In verse 8, I will answer you in a time of favor, I will help you in a time of salvation, I will keep you and I will appoint you to be a covenant for the people.
Michael Grisanti: But what is that?
Michael Grisanti: What do people refer to here?
Michael Grisanti: Well, is it Gentiles or Israel?
Michael Grisanti: And I would say in the context, time-wise, I don't want that trap door to fall.
Michael Grisanti: I think he's talking about first and foremost Israel, because of the verses following.
Michael Grisanti: We're talking about what God's going to do in restoring his people to the land of promise, but it has implications for all the Gentiles of the world.
Michael Grisanti: And what's the land of promise?
Michael Grisanti: But it has implications for all the Gentiles of the world.
Michael Grisanti: And what's the significance of this divinely assigned role as a covenant of the people?
Michael Grisanti: I think it's covenant mediator for the people.
Michael Grisanti: Now, on the one hand, this function of the servant is somewhat surprising.
Michael Grisanti: When the servant becomes the fulfillment of the covenant to the people, the mediator of the covenant, he is in part, proclaiming the continuity of God's covenant love to a people who are losers in many ways, who had every expectation that whatever relation they may have had with God in the past was toast.
Michael Grisanti: They were hopelessly gone.
Michael Grisanti: We're off his scope.
Michael Grisanti: We're under covenant treachery, dispersion around the world.
Michael Grisanti: He's forgotten about us?
Michael Grisanti: No, that's not the case.
Michael Grisanti: Many passages in the book of Isaiah clearly show that Israel's covenant relationship with Yahweh may have seemed non-existent in light of their constant rebellion and their rejection of a relationship with him, but their God is a God who wouldn't forget the covenant.
Michael Grisanti: In his role as the covenant of the people, the servant clearly demonstrates that, while Israel's relationship with Yahweh may have been interrupted covenant treachery, covenant punishment the end of the story may seem to have been done, it's all over.
Michael Grisanti: No, the servant clearly demonstrates that, while Israel's relationship with Yahweh may have been interrupted, a blessed relationship with the transcendent God is still possible.
Michael Grisanti: Through the servant, there is hope.
Michael Grisanti: I say this to our students all the time when you look at totally devastating and appropriate covenant judgment, that is never the end of God's story for His people, because he's unilaterally promised to bring His will to pass, which involves coming to earth, establishing a millennium, relocating His people to the land of promise, while he rules over the entire world and we're part of that too.
Michael Grisanti: It's not just Israel, and then the rest of us think it's a big part of God's ruling over the entire world, over the entire kingdom is in the little wedge of the world known as the promised land, is fulfilling what God promised to do and he's a promise big deliver, big God Alright.
Michael Grisanti: So the servant will be needed a renewed relationship with Yahweh.
Michael Grisanti: Those folks aren't out of his plan.
Michael Grisanti: He's trying to bring his plan to pass.
Michael Grisanti: It mediates those covenant blessings to God's firstborn people.
Michael Grisanti: But there's something else important to keep in mind and I need to hurry here.
Michael Grisanti: I just would say there's a first coming reality where the Lord is going to provide salvation, yes, through his death, burial, resurrection and ascension, to a number of Israelites of his day and a few Gentiles.
Michael Grisanti: But what happens after his death, burial, resurrection and ascension?
Michael Grisanti: About a month later, the church is inaugurated, and then it's the church is inaugurated, and then it's maybe at first, 98% Jews in the church in Jerusalem, handful of Gentiles.
Michael Grisanti: That just changes altogether because God's plan involves the world.
Michael Grisanti: So because the climax of the first coming of Jesus, the Messiah, death on the cross, burial, resurrection and ascension, the promised servant, his ministry, numerous individual Israelites would enjoy new covenant salvation.
Michael Grisanti: But remember that Isaiah 49 seems to be addressing a future, divinely appointed time and there's coming a day when there's going to be so many saved it'll be like all Israel is saved.
Michael Grisanti: Romans 11, 26.
Michael Grisanti: Domina, skip through some notes here.
Michael Grisanti: Verse 8 at the end he says, after being a covenant for the people to restore the land and that's where I think he's talking about restore his people to that promised land that they're evicted from right now and to make them possess the desolate inheritance.
Michael Grisanti: Saying to the prisoners come out.
Michael Grisanti: And to those who are in darkness show yourselves.
Michael Grisanti: They will feed along the pathways.
Michael Grisanti: Right now, my mountains into a road and my highways will be raised up.
Michael Grisanti: So these would come from far away, from the north and from the west and from the land of Sinim.
Michael Grisanti: It may be China, it may be Aswan in Egypt, but it's coming from a long way away from all the dimensions of the compass.
Michael Grisanti: So, just to summarize, the Lord is saying to them in verses 9-12, the idea of world we've talked about worldwide effectiveness, this is worldwide gathering.
Michael Grisanti: It sounds like Isaiah 11, 6.
Michael Grisanti: There will be a highway for the remnant of his people, as there was for Israel when they came up from the land of Egypt.
Michael Grisanti: A second exodus Isaiah 40, verse 4, as he introduces the idea, is going to bring them back from the land of exile, from the Babylonian land, to the land of promise.
Michael Grisanti: That may have seemed impossible.
Michael Grisanti: Nothing is going to prevent the accomplishment of that plan.
Michael Grisanti: There will be.
Michael Grisanti: Every valley will be lifted up and every mountain will be leveled.
Michael Grisanti: The uneven ground will become smooth and the rough places are plain.
Michael Grisanti: The point is in Isaiah 40, which in the initial sense has some horizons of fulfillment.
Michael Grisanti: In the initial sense he's saying getting you back to the promised land, out of the clutches of Babylon.
Michael Grisanti: It's going to happen, I'm going to make sure it happens.
Michael Grisanti: John the Baptist uses this to describe his preparatory ministry for Jesus.
Michael Grisanti: It's another kind of unique horizon of fulfillment.
Michael Grisanti: The ultimate consummation of that promise is referred to in this that when God comes to earth and he's going to establish his kingdom on earth and he has Jews scattered to the four corners of the world, in whatever way needed, he's going to bring them home.
Michael Grisanti: Nothing will prevent the fulfillment of God's plan.
Michael Grisanti: And so worldwide effectiveness verses 7 to 9, almost the very end and worldwide gathering 9 to 9 to 12.
Michael Grisanti: And then worldwide rejoicing, verse 13.
Michael Grisanti: Shout for joy you, heavens, earth rejoice.
Michael Grisanti: Heavens and earth.
Michael Grisanti: They're called the Marisms, like A to Z.
Michael Grisanti: It's everybody, every level of society.
Michael Grisanti: This is going to be loud and exciting.
Michael Grisanti: Mountains even break into joyful shouts, for the Lord has comforted his people and will have compassion on his afflicted ones.
Michael Grisanti: The prophet Isaiah calls on all peoples, jews and Gentiles, from every corner of the world, to erupt in enthusiastic praise to Yahweh.
Michael Grisanti: Heavens and earth all shout for joy, rejoice, break into joyful shouts.
Michael Grisanti: God's intervention in human history and providing redemption to his chosen people, as well as Gentiles who repent and embrace his salvation, should occasion and will occasion worldwide celebration.
Michael Grisanti: His actions on behalf of the humanity created in exact fulfillment of his plan, will prompt all observers to celebrate God's mercy toward his people.
Michael Grisanti: And we're on that team.
Michael Grisanti: Regardless of the difficulties of life we face, we're on the winning side.
Michael Grisanti: We trust this faithful one to bring his plan to pass for us and for those down the road.
Michael Grisanti: Just a conclusion here.
Michael Grisanti: Summarize, john, here, so that could go as long as I wanted.
Michael Grisanti: So, john, I'm taking you at your word.
Michael Grisanti: You're going to stop that trap door from getting me right.
Michael Grisanti: So, just to summarize, this servant in Isaiah 49 was divinely called and prepared for a significant ministry.
Michael Grisanti: At first, this ministry focused on God's chosen nation, israel.
Michael Grisanti: However, the servant's labors were met with a degree of failure.
Michael Grisanti: Instead of, the Lord, instead of diminishing his task, greatly enlarged it.
Michael Grisanti: And not only would this servant restore Yahweh's people, but he would also carry God's salvation to the ends of the earth.
Michael Grisanti: And we're here today, as beneficiaries of the light of salvation, also called to share it with those around us too.
Michael Grisanti: Although the servant had been treated despitefully, because of Yahweh's manifest faithfulness, totally reliably bringing his plan to pass, these same revilers of the same ilk at least will one day, at the time of his second coming, treat the servant with homage and respect.
Michael Grisanti: At the right moment in his own timing I'm not setting that here Yahweh will cause the servant to be the mediator of his covenant blessings as a result of his death and resurrection.
Michael Grisanti: In his first coming, the servant, or promised Messiah, provided the ground for the salvation of a growing number of needy sinners of Jesus' day.
Michael Grisanti: In the second coming, after the Messiah judges all unredeemed sinners, he will establish his millennium for believing Jews and Gentiles and will mediate that covenant salvation to uncountable scores of people who embrace salvation.
Michael Grisanti: This time, though, unlike his first coming, his task of restoring Israel will bring Israelites, hard-hearted and rebellious for centuries, into a vibrant relationship with their covenant God.
Michael Grisanti: He will install the believers of his chosen people in that land as part of what he's doing throughout the world, ruling over that kingdom.
Michael Grisanti: So, to his great glory, the incomparable God of Scripture will bring his plan for his created humanity to complete fulfillment and universal praise will resound.
Michael Grisanti: So here's just a couple things.
Michael Grisanti: Here's a concluding blessing to consider, something we can be encouraged by, as many other passages in Israel in the Old Testament about Israel and the Gentiles, demonstrate our God, the amazing and incomparable God, faithfully and reliably does all that he promises according to his plan.
Michael Grisanti: We know this in part because the Messiah came, promised a long time.
Michael Grisanti: God made it happen, provided the basis for our treasured salvation.
Michael Grisanti: Let's daily rejoice in the blessing of this faithful God and rest in his faithfulness as circumstances come our way that are kind of tough.
Michael Grisanti: Here's a concluding challenge to think about, and I would say first, is Jesus your Messiah, the one who came to earth and provides us with a life transforming gospel?
Michael Grisanti: Is he your Savior, your Messiah, your life transformer, putting your feet on the rock instead of on the miry clay, transforming you out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light?
Michael Grisanti: And if you're a Christ follower, is Jesus, the Messiah, the object of your daily obedience, your daily praise, your daily worship?
Michael Grisanti: Are you transformed daily by the gospel, by the servant Messiah, who came and will yet come to do amazing things?
Michael Grisanti: Let's pray, lord.
Michael Grisanti: I thank you so much for using crack clay vessels to present an amazing passage with halting words.
Michael Grisanti: I do pray you'd help me, help the brethren here and anybody who doesn't know who is your Savior, to consider you as the faithful God who brings His plan to pass, and that you, in your grace and your mercy, you are patient, like with Israel.
Michael Grisanti: You didn't write them off in the wake of their consistent rebellion.
Michael Grisanti: You know you provide your Son and you will bring them to yourself according to your timetable as they repent and believe.
Michael Grisanti: I do ask that we'd walk out of here as your children rejoicing.
Michael Grisanti: We've had aches along the way and bumps and challenges.
Michael Grisanti: You're totally reliable.
Michael Grisanti: We're trusting in the one who is absolutely faithful.
Michael Grisanti: Encourage us and then I pray that anyone here who doesn't know you is that Messiah Savior, help them to sense the weight of their sin and their unpreparedness for eternity, and talk to one of us about what it means to repent and believe and have the gospel transform their hearts.
Michael Grisanti: We pray this for your glory, in Jesus' name, amen.