Doug McMasters: Let's take our Bible and go to the book of Isaiah.
Doug McMasters: The book of Isaiah.
Doug McMasters: If you don't have a Bible, you might find one in front of you, a little red one like this one, and if you go to page 600, you'll see the beginning of the book of Isaiah.
Doug McMasters: And if you can just flip over several more pages, you'll find Isaiah, chapter 50.
Doug McMasters: And an invitation to you if you don't have a Bible, and you need a Bible please feel free to take that one that's in front of you as a gift from us.
Doug McMasters: If you already have a Bible, just use your own Bible.
Doug McMasters: History is filled with a lot of remarkable individuals, people of courage, conviction, compassion.
Doug McMasters: We admire their resolve, we admire their sacrifice.
Doug McMasters: We admire even their brilliance.
Doug McMasters: I think about people like Abraham Lincoln, with his moral clarity to lead our country through a time of civil war.
Doug McMasters: I think of Winston Churchill, who rallied the West in order to fight the axis of evil.
Doug McMasters: Those men, their clarity and resolve, stand as testimonies to what it means to be firm under pressure.
Doug McMasters: History has also given us a number of examples of compassion.
Doug McMasters: Florence Nightingale, for instance, would walk the dim corridors of wartime hospitals with a lamp in her hand and tend to those who were wounded with care and compassion.
Doug McMasters: Her nightly rounds earned her the name the Lady with the Lamp.
Doug McMasters: What a glorious statement.
Doug McMasters: Tireless in her pursuit of hygiene and her reforms led to a drop in mortality rates in those wartime hospitals from 40 to 2%, and her work has reshaped modern nursing to this day.
Doug McMasters: But even the courage or the compassion that we see in these individuals, as noble as it is, is not enough to fix the human condition, or the compassion that we see in these individuals, as noble as it is, is not enough to fix the human condition.
Doug McMasters: Compassion and courage and conviction, beautiful characteristics, all but not enough.
Doug McMasters: Even the noblest of lives, those who are marked truly by sacrifice, by wisdom, by resolve, by compassion, cannot fully accomplish what we were ultimately designed to be and to do.
Doug McMasters: Our best efforts, as Westminster Confession speaks, fall short of glorifying God and enjoying Him forever.
Doug McMasters: No matter our effort, no matter how noble, no matter how purposeful it might be, we find ourselves faltering.
Doug McMasters: Our obedience can waver, our courage can bow, and that's why the introduction to the theme that we're going to be looking at today in Isaiah 50 is so striking.
Doug McMasters: We're going to be looking at the servant in Isaiah's song here.
Doug McMasters: It's a small section that runs from verses 4 to 9 of chapter 50.
Doug McMasters: But in it we're introduced to a figure who embodies perfect obedience, who endures suffering with dignity and, more vitally, lives life wholly within divine purpose.
Doug McMasters: He speaks with wisdom, he listens with humility, he walks a path of submission and his life leads to that of vindication.
Doug McMasters: And as we go through this passage, we're going to learn more about this servant of the Lord.
Doug McMasters: Before we do, however, we need to discover just who we're looking at here.
Doug McMasters: When we read the book of Isaiah, we're introduced to this idea of someone and some people being the servant of the Lord.
Doug McMasters: Isaiah, the prophet's called the servant of the Lord, cyrus, a Persian king, is called the servant of the Lord, and the nation of Israel also is called the servant, and in this section that we're looking at that started in chapter 40 and runs to chapter 55, the word servant occurs over 20 times in these chapters and often it refers to the nation of Israel.
Doug McMasters: For example, isaiah 41 and verse 8.
Doug McMasters: Let me just read it for you.
Doug McMasters: But you, israel, my servant Jacob, whom I've chosen.
Doug McMasters: Obviously clearly, israel is the servant in that passage.
Doug McMasters: But when we read chapter 40 to 55, we also learn something else about the nation of Israel.
Doug McMasters: Chapter 42, they're called blind and deaf.
Doug McMasters: Chapter 42, in verse 22, they're called plundered and exiled.
Doug McMasters: And in chapter 43, we 42, isaiah 49, here in Isaiah 50, and Isaiah 52, 53, these known as the servant songs we meet someone else, we meet an individual who stands with Israel and yet also stands apart from Israel.
Doug McMasters: In these four poetic passages, the servant is no longer the nation but an individual.
Doug McMasters: This servant listens, the servant obeys, the servant suffers and ultimately this servant obeys, the servant suffers and ultimately the servant succeeds.
Doug McMasters: And what Isaiah is doing with these four servant songs is extremely profound and we shouldn't miss this.
Doug McMasters: Back in the book of Genesis, god spoke promises to one man named Abram, and those promises passed from Abraham to his son, to his grandson and on, until those promises became embodied in promises to a nation.
Doug McMasters: Here the story turns.
Doug McMasters: The identity of servant that the nation was to be is now moved from national identity to individual responsibility.
Doug McMasters: Here it moves from a failing nation to a faithful son of Israel, the servant of the Lord.
Doug McMasters: This servant comes from Israel and yet stands apart from Israel in order to represent Israel and also to rescue Israel.
Doug McMasters: And this one will succeed where the nation has failed.
Doug McMasters: This one will rescue and redeem, wonderfully, not only Israel but the world.
Doug McMasters: In Isaiah, chapter 50 and verses four to nine, we're going to hear his voice, a voice that sustains the weary, a voice that obeys without resistance, a voice that trusts the Lord with unwavering resolve, despite the opposition and the suffering.
Doug McMasters: This is, as I will argue, christ, the true servant, the faithful son, the redeemer that all of us need.
Doug McMasters: And this is why Isaiah's servant is so compelling.
Doug McMasters: He's not here merely to display human greatness.
Doug McMasters: He's here to embody divine purpose, and that purpose is to save those of us who aren't faithful, who aren't obedient, who aren't trustworthy.
Doug McMasters: He is the faithful son who accomplishes what Israel could not.
Doug McMasters: And in Isaiah, chapter 40, verses 4 to 9, we're giving a rare and intimate glimpse into the servant's own voice.
Doug McMasters: Let's read it and listen to it.
Doug McMasters: The Lord has opened my ear and I was not rebellious.
Doug McMasters: I did not turn back.
Doug McMasters: I gave my back to those who beat me my cheeks, to those who tore out my beard.
Doug McMasters: I did not hide my face from scorn and spitting.
Doug McMasters: The Lord, god, will help me.
Doug McMasters: Therefore, I have not been humiliated.
Doug McMasters: Therefore, I have set my face like a flint and I know I will not be put to shame.
Doug McMasters: The one who vindicates me is near.
Doug McMasters: Let us confront each other.
Doug McMasters: Who has a case against me?
Doug McMasters: Let him come near me.
Doug McMasters: In truth, the Lord, god will help me.
Doug McMasters: Who will condemn me?
Doug McMasters: Indeed, all of them will wear out like a garment A moth will devour them.
Doug McMasters: Garment a moth will devour them.
Doug McMasters: This is not Isaiah speaking, and this is not even a general declaration from the Lord.
Doug McMasters: This is the servant himself, describing his mission, describing his mindset and describing his unwavering trust in the Father.
Doug McMasters: And as we listen to him, we're going to trace seven qualities that mark his obedience and reveal his heart.
Doug McMasters: We're going to see wisdom of speech, a receptivity of heart, a willing spirit, submissiveness to suffering, a trusting frame, a focused determination and a confident boldness, and all of it leading to a vindicated life, a life not crushed by suffering, a life that is crowned with God's help and approval.
Doug McMasters: So let's walk through this passage.
Doug McMasters: Obviously, I'm going to move through each of these points fairly quickly, but they're glorious to examine.
Doug McMasters: Let's listen to what the servant says about himself.
Doug McMasters: Glorious to examine.
Doug McMasters: Let's listen to what the servant says about himself.
Doug McMasters: First of all, wisdom of speech, found in verse four in the first part.
Doug McMasters: The Lord has given me the tongue of those who are instructed to know how to sustain the weary with a word.
Doug McMasters: Isaiah's servant here says that he's not given mere eloquence of speech, but divine insight and restorative compassion to sustain the weary with a word.
Doug McMasters: His words are not simply given to him to be ornaments of beauty, but rather are meant to be medicinal.
Doug McMasters: He knows how to speak to the weary and he knows how to do so, not because he simply observed them, but he's entered in to those sufferings.
Doug McMasters: And this, of course, finds its fullest expression in Christ himself, even at the beginning of his ministry.
Doug McMasters: In Luke, chapter 4 and verse 22, the people there in the synagogue listening to Christ speak from the book of Isaiah said that they were all speaking well of him and all amazed with listen to this, the gracious words that came from his mouth.
Doug McMasters: His speech, even at the beginning of his public ministry, was marked by grace, truth and yes, authority.
Doug McMasters: In Mark, chapter 1, verse 22, the people listening to Christ were astonished at his teaching because he was teaching them as one who had authority and not as the scribes.
Doug McMasters: But Christ's speech was more than just informational.
Doug McMasters: It was meant to transform, to be able to speak to those who are weary.
Doug McMasters: And we see a great example of that in John, chapter 4, where Jesus speaks to a woman at the well.
Doug McMasters: She came to that place alone, shunned by the rest of the village.
Doug McMasters: She came burdened with shame and isolation, and Jesus began a conversation with her, not with condemnation, but to awaken her to her real need by speaking about her physical desire for water.
Doug McMasters: And so he moved from the physical to the spiritual and offered her the living water of Christ himself.
Doug McMasters: And his words moved her heart.
Doug McMasters: And his words moved her heart, and at the end of that conversation she left her jar behind and ran to tell others and said Come, see a man who's told me everything that I've ever done.
Doug McMasters: See, jesus spoke to her in such a way that she welcomed what he had to say.
Doug McMasters: He sustains the weary.
Doug McMasters: Now let's think about ourselves for just a moment.
Doug McMasters: We often speak words that wound rather than help the weary.
Doug McMasters: Our tongues, rather than being instruments of healing, are often, too often, instruments of pride and selfishness, deceit and even destruction.
Doug McMasters: The book of James says the tongue can no man tame, and he gives a rather poignant conclusion to what the tongue is.
Doug McMasters: It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
Doug McMasters: Instead of lifting up the broken, we silence them.
Doug McMasters: Instead of speaking truth, we trade in flattery.
Doug McMasters: Rather than offering hope, we speak words of cynicism.
Doug McMasters: We don't naturally know how to speak words to the weary that give them hope.
Doug McMasters: But Christ does.
Doug McMasters: He speaks not only correctly with speech, but he also speaks to redeem our hearts.
Doug McMasters: And Isaiah here presents Jesus as one who is a well-taught disciple, a learned person, a scholar, who is wholly devoted to God.
Doug McMasters: And how different he is from those that we find in places of politic and rule around the world.
Doug McMasters: There are very few philosopher kings in the history of humanity, but here the servant of the Lord is given the tongue of those who are taught the instructed tongue, and Isaiah is pointing us to a servant who is wise, who knows the ways of God, who's not only loving but competent, who's wise enough to know how to help us when we are at the lowest point of our life.
Doug McMasters: And for us who are believers, this means that Christ's current ministry is here for us, to continue to sustain us when we feel dry or distant.
Doug McMasters: That same voice who calmed the storms and who called Lazarus out of the grave, is the same voice that speaks the word into our hearts.
Doug McMasters: Lazarus out of the grave is the same voice that speaks the word into our hearts.
Doug McMasters: He knows what to say and he says it with love.
Doug McMasters: And if you're here this morning and you don't know Christ as your Savior, this same voice speaks to you with invitation.
Doug McMasters: You hear a lot of voices, I'm sure, a lot of voices reverberating in your history and perhaps speaking into your present, and they could be voices of shame, voices that are trying to confuse or voices that are trying to manipulate you.
Doug McMasters: But I can tell you something about Jesus he will never do any of those things.
Doug McMasters: His voice is the one true voice that can restore the weakest and the most broken among us.
Doug McMasters: Where everyone else fails, he is able to sustain the weary with a word.
Doug McMasters: When we find ourselves broken by our sin or the sins of others, when we find ourselves wearied with life and all of its pressures and hardships, he is able to uphold the weakest among us.
Doug McMasters: Jesus is here not to crush us but to call us to himself, and he knows our weariness and he knows how to give us rest.
Doug McMasters: And this is why he said with such wondrous invitation Come unto me all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Doug McMasters: The second thing that this servant says about himself is that he has a receptive heart.
Doug McMasters: Look at chapter 50 and verse 4.
Doug McMasters: In the last part of this verse, the Lord has given me the tongue of those who are instructed to know how to sustain the weary with the word.
Doug McMasters: But listen to the last part.
Doug McMasters: He awakens me each morning.
Doug McMasters: He awakens my ear to listen, like those being instructed.
Doug McMasters: What is the servant saying about himself here?
Doug McMasters: He's saying that his strength is not self-generated, that it flows from the posture of daily dependence upon God.
Doug McMasters: Morning by morning, his ears are awakened and he listens to God, not as some casual observer, but as one careful to tune himself to God, who's willing to bend to his will and words, who's attentive, humble and teachable.
Doug McMasters: And this is not weakness, this is a foundation of divine wisdom and obedience.
Doug McMasters: Weakness, this is a foundation of divine wisdom and obedience.
Doug McMasters: And in the life of Jesus that receptive heart is unmistakable.
Doug McMasters: He gave himself fully to the ministry of submitting his heart with attention to God.
Doug McMasters: Mark, chapter 1, verse 35, very early in the morning, while it was still dark.
Doug McMasters: He got up, went out and made his way to a deserted place and there was praying.
Doug McMasters: And every time when you read the Gospels you find Jesus about to enter into a major event.
Doug McMasters: The Gospel writers are careful to record that Jesus would pray before those things.
Doug McMasters: He sought the Father before engaging the crowds.
Doug McMasters: He sought the Father before choosing the twelve.
Doug McMasters: He sought the Father before facing the cross.
Doug McMasters: He set his heart in a posture of humility and dependence to listen to the Father.
Doug McMasters: We're not naturally teachable people.
Doug McMasters: We're prone to self-reliance and spiritual deafness.
Doug McMasters: Isaiah 30, verse 9, speaking about the nation in visual, said that there are people who are rebellious, unwilling to listen to the Lord's instructions.
Doug McMasters: What an indictment.
Doug McMasters: But all of us, we prefer our own wisdom, we prefer our own way, we prefer our own voice, and our ears are often closed to God's Word and our hearts are often hardened to the work of the spirit.
Doug McMasters: But Jesus listened perfectly.
Doug McMasters: In John, chapter 5 and verse 19, he said this the son is not able to do anything on his own, but only what he sees the father doing.
Doug McMasters: For whatever the father does, the Son likewise does these things.
Doug McMasters: There's not even a paper width of difference between what the Father wanted and what the Son was willing to open his heart to.
Doug McMasters: He listened, he discerned, he obeyed and his heart was aligned with the Father's will.
Doug McMasters: And his ministry flows from this communion and this compassion that we see in this fourth verse.
Doug McMasters: And this is so vital to us today, because we need a ministry that seeks to sustain and supply, in which thought and study and insight come.
Doug McMasters: But we're filled with examples of condemning ministries.
Doug McMasters: And, believe you me, a finger-pointing ministry is easy to have.
Doug McMasters: But to be able to serve in such a way that you supply care and wisdom and grace means that you need to be thoughtful, dependent, humble and attuned to God and His Word.
Doug McMasters: And here Jesus is in every way.
Doug McMasters: One striking example of that is found in John 11, where, before he brings Lazarus alive out of the tomb, he prays and he says Father, I thank you that you heard me.
Doug McMasters: I know that you always hear me.
Doug McMasters: Even in moments of miraculous power, he's offering himself in dependence to the Father and operating from his supply.
Doug McMasters: We're invited into that same rhythm, morning by morning, with our ears awakened and our heart attuned.
Doug McMasters: You see, christ's receptivity is for us as his mission, but it's also there for us as believers, as our model.
Doug McMasters: As our model, because in a world of noise and distraction and finger pointing at every level and at the highest level of our society and politic that's full of posturing and self-reliance, there needs to be a people on earth that have cultivated a listening posture, who move from God's word to this world's society.
Doug McMasters: See, scripture is not just a resource, but it's a necessary link for us in our relationship with the Lord and our relationship with others.
Doug McMasters: And if you're here this morning and you don't know Christ, know this Christ is not aloof or detached from your situation at all.
Doug McMasters: He's deeply engaged in the Father's will and that Father's will includes you, the Father's will, and that Father's will includes you.
Doug McMasters: His attention to the Father means he knows your name, he knows your need, he knows your story in every twist and turn of it, and he has listened to the Father so that he might be the instrument of life for all who believe on Him.
Doug McMasters: Let's keep moving.
Doug McMasters: Verse 5, a willing spirit.
Doug McMasters: A willing spirit.
Doug McMasters: The Lord, God, has opened my ear and I was not rebellious.
Doug McMasters: I did not turn back.
Doug McMasters: The servant here is saying that his obedience is not forced but freely offered.
Doug McMasters: He obeys without resistance, unlike us.
Doug McMasters: From Eden on we have been resistive to the will of God.
Doug McMasters: We resist his commands, we question his goodness, we choose our own paths.
Doug McMasters: No wonder the book of Romans says all we have turned away and alike have become unprofitable.
Doug McMasters: There is none who does good, no, not one.
Doug McMasters: It's an indictment that we all share together.
Doug McMasters: Our wills are bent inward.
Doug McMasters: But Jesus did not turn back.
Doug McMasters: His ear is open not just to hear but to respond, not to retreat, not to give himself in passive compliance, but in active surrender to the will of God.
Doug McMasters: And so the servant here says that he's embracing the will of God with a spirit that is willing in every way.
Doug McMasters: And in the life of Jesus we see this most vividly.
Doug McMasters: In Gethsemane, that little garden, and as the weight of the cross pressed upon him, he said there, father, if you're willing, take this cup from me.
Doug McMasters: Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done.
Doug McMasters: And that moment was a moment of holy resolve.
Doug McMasters: He didn't turn his back.
Doug McMasters: He chose obedience, knowing full well what it would cost him.
Doug McMasters: Hebrews, chapter 10.
Doug McMasters: He speaks about himself there.
Doug McMasters: See, it is written about me in the scroll.
Doug McMasters: I have come to do your will, o God.
Doug McMasters: His entire life shaped by that kind of willingness.
Doug McMasters: From his birth to his baptism, to his final breath, jesus lived in full submission to the Father.
Doug McMasters: For us, this gives us great assurance.
Doug McMasters: Jesus obeyed perfectly, not reluctantly.
Doug McMasters: He obeyed willingly, and his obedience is credited to us.
Doug McMasters: How can we stand accepted before a holy God?
Doug McMasters: Not because we are that willing or we are that submissive, but because he is.
Doug McMasters: And wonderfully, the Spirit now works within us to shape and to mold these once rebel hearts into receptive ones, to take this heart which was once full of stone, and turn it into the malleable workings of flesh.
Doug McMasters: The Spirit does that in the new covenant.
Doug McMasters: But here's something else I want you to hear.
Doug McMasters: If you're here this morning, you don't know, christ is your Savior.
Doug McMasters: Jesus was not only attentive to the cries of the Father and the speech of the Father.
Doug McMasters: To do those things, he's also extending himself to the broken, to the outcast, to the unclean.
Doug McMasters: And one leper came to him in Matthew, chapter 8 and said Lord, if you're willing, you can make me clean.
Doug McMasters: And what did Jesus say to him?
Doug McMasters: I am willing.
Doug McMasters: Jesus bowed to this weak cry for help and said that's exactly why I'm here.
Doug McMasters: You see, you don't have to earn your way to God.
Doug McMasters: Jesus has already walked that path.
Doug McMasters: His willingness means you're welcome and you find everything in Him.
Doug McMasters: And you find everything in him.
Doug McMasters: I could stop on each of these and preach a whole sermon, but I've told myself I was going to move through them.
Doug McMasters: So move we must.
Doug McMasters: Verse six a submission to suffering.
Doug McMasters: I gave my back to those who beat me and my cheeks to those who tore out my beard.
Doug McMasters: I did not hide my face from scorn and spitting.
Doug McMasters: This is a rather vivid prophecy, isn't it?
Doug McMasters: But it's a prophecy of voluntary suffering, voluntary suffering.
Doug McMasters: The servant here is seen not resisting the abuse but offering himself to it, and he's not flinching or fleeing.
Doug McMasters: He's actually submitting to it, and he's not doing it as a helpless victim either.
Doug McMasters: You can feel, even in these words behind it, that there's a purpose behind all of that.
Doug McMasters: His suffering is not incidental and, as we'll see, it's meant to be redemptive.
Doug McMasters: In Matthew, chapter 26, verses 67 and 68.
Doug McMasters: Speaking about the kind of suffering Christ himself received, it says they spat in his face and beat him.
Doug McMasters: Others slapped him and said prophesy to us, messiah, who was it that hit you?
Doug McMasters: Mockery, humiliation, violence.
Doug McMasters: It all unfolded just as Isaiah said it would.
Doug McMasters: Mockery, humiliation, violence it all unfolded just as Isaiah said it would, but Jesus never retaliated.
Doug McMasters: In John, chapter 10 and verse 18, he reveals his heart of submission.
Doug McMasters: No one takes my life from me, but I lay it down of my own.
Doug McMasters: I have the right to lay it down and I have the right to take it up again, and I've received this command from the Father.
Doug McMasters: You see, the mocking, the humiliation, the violence, they weren't in control.
Doug McMasters: There's a powerful example of that is Jesus stood silent before Pilate, matthew 27.
Doug McMasters: He did not answer him.
Doug McMasters: Jesus did not answer Pilate Even on one charge, so that the governor was quite amazed.
Doug McMasters: Now remember, this is the one who could have called a legion of angels and I don't mean those cute little cherubs, you know, with little harps and white robes and tiny wings flubs.
Doug McMasters: You know, with little harps and white robes and tiny wings fluttering.
Doug McMasters: You know, angels in the Bible mean warriors of God.
Doug McMasters: He could have called 12 legions of warriors, but instead he chose to endure the injustice.
Doug McMasters: You see, his silence was not weakness, it was strength under control, it was submission with a purpose.
Doug McMasters: And Jesus submitted himself to that suffering, dealing with the bitterness and the despair that others were trying to foist upon him, but we we were.
Doug McMasters: We recoil from pain, we demand comfort, especially in America.
Doug McMasters: If there's one word to describe the American culture, it's comfort.
Doug McMasters: Try parking in England, you'll understand.
Doug McMasters: And we question God's love whenever things don't go the way we thought they should.
Doug McMasters: We don't suffer redemptively, we suffer resentfully, and in the Bible we see that Job's friends misinterpreting what's happening, israel grumbling in the wilderness, all kinds of examples.
Doug McMasters: Interpreting what's happening, israel grumbling in the wilderness, all kinds of examples.
Doug McMasters: But Jesus bore our griefs and carried our sorrows.
Doug McMasters: He took suffering in order to invite us into himself, even when our path is dark.
Doug McMasters: He knows, for all of us, the sting that comes from betrayal.
Doug McMasters: He knows what it means to feel that gnawing, irreconcilable ache of injustice, and he knows how the weight of shame lays upon all of us.
Doug McMasters: But he submitted himself to suffering so that we might be received, because he was suffering not just as an example and not just as a caregiver, but as a substitute for us, in order to receive all the wrath that God would justly lay upon each and every one of us, so that we might hear these wonderful words there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, wow.
Doug McMasters: And so he walked through affliction in order to bring us to glory.
Doug McMasters: His pain was not pointless.
Doug McMasters: It was purposeful for our salvation.
Doug McMasters: He did not hide his face from scorn so that the Father might receive us with joy.
Doug McMasters: He bore the shame so we could be restored.
Doug McMasters: He suffered for sinners so that they might be counted as righteous in the eyes of a holy God.
Doug McMasters: He was bruised so we could be healed.
Doug McMasters: This leads us to verse 7.
Doug McMasters: In a trusting frame, the Lord, god, will help me.
Doug McMasters: Therefore, I've not been humiliated.
Doug McMasters: Jesus entrusted himself to the father.
Doug McMasters: We, we struggle to trust, we're anxious, we're fearful and we're often quick to rely upon ourselves.
Doug McMasters: In Psalm 78, the Lord there recounts Israel's failure to trust God, and the indictment in verse 22 of Psalm 78 says this they did not believe God or rely upon his salvation.
Doug McMasters: This they did not believe God or rely upon his salvation.
Doug McMasters: I want you to listen well to this, because this marks this passage.
Doug McMasters: We often measure God's goodness by our circumstances.
Doug McMasters: Do you hear that we often measure God's goodness by our circumstances, not His character?
Doug McMasters: Right, jesus marked God's goodness by His character, not the circumstances.
Doug McMasters: Jesus here is trusting perfectly, even in betrayal, even in injustice and even in death itself.
Doug McMasters: And it's that trust that secures our hope, that invites us to rest, because he is obedient and submissive to the full for every one of us who believe on him.
Doug McMasters: Now notice when he did give himself to that.
Doug McMasters: He did not retaliate.
Doug McMasters: The Lord will help me.
Doug McMasters: Therefore, I've not been humiliated.
Doug McMasters: The Lord will help me.
Doug McMasters: Therefore, I've not been humiliated.
Doug McMasters: He didn't retaliate with power and he didn't defend himself with words.
Doug McMasters: He trusted the Father to eventually vindicate his righteousness, and there's a striking example of it from Pilate In John, chapter 19,.
Doug McMasters: Pilate says where are you from?
Doug McMasters: Jesus doesn't answer.
Doug McMasters: Pilate says don't you know that I have the authority to release you or crucify you?
Doug McMasters: What did Jesus say?
Doug McMasters: You have no authority over me at all if it hadn't been given you from above.
Doug McMasters: Wow, imagine that saying that to the governor of New York.
Doug McMasters: Imagine that saying that to the governor of New York.
Doug McMasters: He trusted the Father's sovereignty perfectly, even when he was face-to-face with the most powerful person in the land at that moment, and when he was on the cross.
Doug McMasters: Instead of saying why me, father, into your hands, I commit my spirit, even with his last breath, even in death, he rested in the Father's care For all of us.
Doug McMasters: This is the anchor of the kind of confidence we can have with God, because in Christ, in this perfect servant, in this representative of what Israel was meant to be, not only the people of Israel but people from all over this earth can find hope and life and welcome and redemption.
Doug McMasters: You see some of the implications of this.
Doug McMasters: Our dignity is not defined by the world's accolades and welcome.
Doug McMasters: Our dignity is defined by what we secure in Christ, as he gave himself to the Father.
Doug McMasters: But again, a sermon that needs to be preached.
Doug McMasters: Let's continue.
Doug McMasters: There's not only this trust, but a focused determination found in verse 7.
Doug McMasters: At the very end of it I have set my face like a flint and I know I will not be put to shame.
Doug McMasters: Now here's again this flavor of resolve that the servant is not distracted by the opposition, he's not discouraged by the suffering.
Doug McMasters: His face is set like a flint, unyielding, unwavering to the mission that's in front of him.
Doug McMasters: And he knows that path is costly, but he walks it with purpose.
Doug McMasters: His determination is not fueled by pride.
Doug McMasters: The beginning of the verse tells us that it is by trust in the one who will vindicate him.
Doug McMasters: And boy does this find direct statements in the gospels, in Luke, chapter nine and verse 51.
Doug McMasters: When the days were coming to a close for him to be taken up, he determined a journey to Jerusalem.
Doug McMasters: He set his face toward Jerusalem.
Doug McMasters: Exactly what this verse is saying.
Doug McMasters: We're easily distracted.
Doug McMasters: We're easily discouraged.
Doug McMasters: We can waver in our convictions.
Doug McMasters: We can compromise under pressure.
Doug McMasters: We can abandon mission for comfort.
Doug McMasters: We can be like Demas, who loved this present world.
Doug McMasters: Israel turned very quickly to idols.
Doug McMasters: None of us are resolute like this, but Jesus is.
Doug McMasters: Jesus is resolute, with a determination fueled by love and anchored in trust in the Father, and he doesn't swerve.
Doug McMasters: He sets his face like a flint to Jerusalem, knowing what lays ahead of him Betrayal, mockery, crucifixion, death.
Doug McMasters: And yet he doesn't shrink back.
Doug McMasters: His heart was set on what Redemption.
Doug McMasters: Who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame.
Doug McMasters: And even if those who would seek to shake and rattle him were as close as his dearest friends, he was resolved to continue on.
Doug McMasters: And in Matthew, when Peter rebuked Jesus, after giving one of the most glowing confessions about who he was, jesus said to him get behind me, satan.
Doug McMasters: You're a hindrance to me, because you're not thinking about God's concerns, but human concerns.
Doug McMasters: Even the most well-meaning objection of his closest friend could not knock him one degree off of his resolve to go to Jerusalem and the cross.
Doug McMasters: And so we follow a Savior who did not waver.
Doug McMasters: We follow one who walked the road of rejection, who was determined to give us encouragement.
Doug McMasters: So, brothers and sisters, whenever we face trials, whenever we face distractions, whenever we face discouragements, remember God is not calling us to be the forerunner blazing the trail.
Doug McMasters: Jesus has already done that.
Doug McMasters: He's simply calling us to walk in His steps.
Doug McMasters: Done that.
Doug McMasters: He's simply calling us to walk in His steps, to follow Him.
Doug McMasters: And how much easier it is to walk a path already worn than it is to try to break one that's never been touched.
Doug McMasters: And if you're here this morning and you don't know Christ, this is the Savior's determination to save undeserving people.
Doug McMasters: He has made a mission of bringing himself to the cross.
Doug McMasters: It's not an accident, terrible as it was.
Doug McMasters: It was meant and purposed by God and carried out by his Son.
Doug McMasters: He has set his face toward that cross so that he might free sinners, just like every one of us are.
Doug McMasters: This leads us, in verse 8, to a confident boldness the one who vindicates me is near.
Doug McMasters: Who will contend with me?
Doug McMasters: Let us confront each other.
Doug McMasters: Who has a case against me?
Doug McMasters: Let him come near me Now.
Doug McMasters: That's boldness, not arrogance.
Doug McMasters: We've already defined what brought this boldness.
Doug McMasters: This confidence is rooted in God's closeness and proximity to him, in his obedience and dependence and ear and submission to the Word of God, and he invites the accusers to step forward, not because he's trying to puff out his chest in some manly arrogance, but because he's innocent and he's going to be up his chest in some manly arrogance, but because he's innocent and he's going to be upheld by God, the Father and in his trials.
Doug McMasters: This is seen very clearly in John 18, jesus, knowing that everything that was about to happen to him, went out and said to those in the garden who were about to arrest him who is it that you're seeking?
Doug McMasters: Jesus of Nazareth?
Doug McMasters: They replied.
Doug McMasters: And what did he say?
Doug McMasters: I am he.
Doug McMasters: Judas, who betrayed him, is also standing there with them.
Doug McMasters: And when Jesus told them I am he, they stepped back and fell to the ground.
Doug McMasters: Why?
Doug McMasters: Well, probably because, like any of us, he probably would have turned tail and ran, or would have told some lie or tried to obfuscate in some way in order to hide himself from what was about to happen.
Doug McMasters: But Jesus stood there and said you're looking for me here.
Doug McMasters: I am Right here Again, before Pilate.
Doug McMasters: Pilate's comment don't you know?
Doug McMasters: Don't you know that I have the power to release or crucify you?
Doug McMasters: And Jesus said yeah, no, you don't.
Doug McMasters: You know that I have the power to release or crucify you?
Doug McMasters: And Jesus said, yeah, no, you don't Any power you think you have, and that you actually have.
Doug McMasters: Came to you from the Father, and I trust him.
Doug McMasters: He didn't plead, he didn't protest, he didn't speak the truth with compromise, but with determined composure, knowing that he would be vindicated by the Father.
Doug McMasters: We are not like that.
Doug McMasters: We are fearful when judgment comes.
Doug McMasters: We hide our failures, we shift the blame.
Doug McMasters: We are like Adam and Eve.
Doug McMasters: As soon as we discover something's wrong, we run and we try to grab some little fig leaf and think that covers all of the problem.
Doug McMasters: But it doesn't.
Doug McMasters: Peter denied we're not naturally bold, but Jesus here, unashamed, unafraid, standing before Pilate, before the Sanhedrin, with divine assurance, and because we're united with Christ, we can do the same.
Doug McMasters: In Romans, chapter 8, paul poses this question who can bring an accusation against God's elect?
Doug McMasters: God is the one who justifies.
Doug McMasters: Who is the one who condemns Jesus?
Doug McMasters: Christ is the one who died even more, who has been raised.
Doug McMasters: He also is at the right hand of God and intercedes for us.
Doug McMasters: We don't have to cower in our culture today.
Doug McMasters: We don't have to give in to the confusion.
Doug McMasters: Yes, it may be as costly as what Christ suffered, but there's vindication to come.
Doug McMasters: And if you're here as an unbeliever, it's only right for you to fear judgment, especially if that judgment comes from a holy God and speaks to your eternity.
Doug McMasters: You have every good reason to be afraid of that.
Doug McMasters: But you also should see this that God sent His only Son, the Servant that we're looking at here, so that whoever believes on him should not perish but have everlasting life.
Doug McMasters: He is offering the grace of reception and forgiveness.
Doug McMasters: But the day will come when that voice of salvation which is happening today, that voice of salvation which is happening today, will be closed off and there will be no other option but to give an account to that, that holy God, that you were good enough or better than, or sincere enough or did enough to reconcile yourself with him.
Doug McMasters: But if you say my hope, my only hope, and the only thing I bring is Christ and Him alone.
Doug McMasters: I guarantee you that whoever is in the Son has life, but whoever is not in the Son does not have life.
Doug McMasters: And this leads us, these seven characteristics that the servant is speaking about himself leads us to the final one, in verse 9, of a vindicated life.
Doug McMasters: In truth, the Lord will help me.
Doug McMasters: Who will condemn me?
Doug McMasters: Indeed, all of them will wear out like a garment.
Doug McMasters: A moth will devour them.
Doug McMasters: The servant has spoken from his heart about himself, and here he speaks about his life being finally and fully vindicated, not by human approval but by divine affirmation.
Doug McMasters: Though he's scorned and opposed, he will not be condemned.
Doug McMasters: His enemies will fade and yet he will stand.
Doug McMasters: The servant knows that his vindication will not be immediate, but it will be ultimate, and that is important.
Doug McMasters: Here and when we see the life of Jesus, we recognize that his vindication came in the resurrection.
Doug McMasters: We recognize that his vindication came in the resurrection.
Doug McMasters: The apostles preaching about him in Acts, chapter 2, said God raised him up, ending the pains of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by death, because death wasn't the victor over him.
Doug McMasters: The cross was not the end, it was a means to bring deliverance and death was not the destruction of Jesus.
Doug McMasters: The resurrection was only the beginning of his vindication.
Doug McMasters: And that's why in Philippians 2 it says For this reason, god has highly exalted him and given him a name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus.
Doug McMasters: Christ is Lord to the glory of God, the Father.
Doug McMasters: All of his enemies sin, death, satan.
Doug McMasters: None of them will stand before him as victor.
Doug McMasters: They're all defeated in Christ, and he defeated them in his weakest moment, death itself.
Doug McMasters: This is the foundation of all of our hope.
Doug McMasters: This is why the scriptures tell us there's no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, because if we are in Christ, yes, we fall into wonderful covering of his perfect obedience and his submissive death, but we also fall into him and union with him in his glorious resurrection and his vindication throughout eternity.
Doug McMasters: And this is why, when the father received Jesus from the grave, putting his stamp of approval over all of his life, his submissive death, so he puts his stamp of redemption and reconciliation and vindication upon all his children.
Doug McMasters: Because Christ rose, we too shall rise.
Doug McMasters: We've listened to a voice, we've spent time hearing him.
Doug McMasters: Christ himself speaks with wisdom, obeying with humility, suffering with purpose and trusting with unwavering resolve.
Doug McMasters: He didn't turn his back, he didn't hide his face and because of it all we can stand in the Lord's presence without condemnation.
Doug McMasters: But I want to tell you something this is not just a portrait to admire.
Doug McMasters: We didn't just walk into a museum and say what a beautiful picture of Jesus.
Doug McMasters: Isn't that wonderful?
Doug McMasters: What would you like to do for lunch?
Doug McMasters: You know this is not what this is.
Doug McMasters: This is a savior to trust.
Doug McMasters: Isaiah is not just describing some idealized humanity, a human figure, a moral example, something that we might be able to aspire to.
Doug McMasters: No, he's unveiling the character, the one who is utterly faithful for us who are the utterly faithless, who speaks with wisdom and listens with humility and obeys without resistance and suffers with purpose.
Doug McMasters: For us it's not just a mirror of virtue, it is salvation in Christ himself.
Doug McMasters: His faithfulness stands in two ways it exposes us, but it also welcomes us.
Doug McMasters: There's a reason why Peter, when he got a better understanding of who Jesus was, it also welcomes us.
Doug McMasters: There's a reason why Peter, when he got a better understanding of who Jesus was, says depart from me, lord.
Doug McMasters: I am an unworthy, wicked man.
Doug McMasters: But there's also a reason why Peter said to whom else shall we go For?
Doug McMasters: You have the words of life, and I hope all of us have felt both of those things this morning, because Jesus is that glorious, but Jesus is also that gracious, it's magnificent.
Doug McMasters: Receive him, live in him, wonder in him and praise him.
Doug McMasters: Let's pray, oh, father, thank you.
Doug McMasters: Thank you for this servant, your son, the Savior, who speaks to the weary with sustaining words, who listens with humble heart and who obeys with an unwavering resolve.
Doug McMasters: Father, we praise you for his wisdom, his willingness, his submission, his trust.
Doug McMasters: We marvel at his determination, his boldness, and we're so grateful for his vindication.
Doug McMasters: We thank you that Christ endured shame so that we might be clothed with grace, that he was willing to be condemned so that we might be declared righteous, that he was forsaken so that we might be brought near and that he was ultimately vindicated so that we might be able to stand under shamed ourself.
Doug McMasters: Father, we pray that, as believers in Christ, we would learn to listen as he listened, to speak as he spoke and to walk as he walked, that his life would shape ours and, father, I pray for those that haven't yet trusted him today.
Doug McMasters: Pray for those that haven't yet trusted Him today.
Doug McMasters: May they see Christ not just as a teacher and a model, but a Savior, a Redeemer.
Doug McMasters: I pray, father, they would rest in the promise that no one can be condemned who comes to you through Christ.
Doug McMasters: Jesus and Father, we pray this in His name, amen.