Doug McMasters: Well, good morning, beloved.
Doug McMasters: Good morning.
Doug McMasters: Let's take our Bibles and go to the book of Isaiah, chapter 53.
Doug McMasters: If you're visiting with us, you'll find a Bible in front of you in the pew.
Doug McMasters: And you can turn to page 650.
Doug McMasters: 650.
Doug McMasters: Let me take you back to December 20th, 1995.
Doug McMasters: American Airlines Flight 965 was making a trip from Miami to Cali, Columbia.
Doug McMasters: And it looked like it was just going to be a routine flight.
Doug McMasters: Passengers were relaxed, the crew was experienced, the weather was clear.
Doug McMasters: But as the plane approached its destination, something went terribly wrong.
Doug McMasters: The aircraft's waypoints had been uh programmed, and there was wrong information inside uh the navigation system.
Doug McMasters: And the plane began to veer off course and began to move in a direct uh movement toward the mountains.
Doug McMasters: And as they descended, the onboard ground proximity warning system suddenly blurted out terrain! Terrain! Pull up! Pull up! A voice cut through all the chatter of the cockpit and interrupted everybody.
Doug McMasters: And the crew was instantly disoriented, and they didn't realize how close to the mountains they actually were, and they didn't respond in time, sadly.
Doug McMasters: And tragically, just a few days before Christmas, 159 people lost their lives.
Doug McMasters: It's very sobering.
Doug McMasters: But here's one of the most sobering parts is that warning system worked.
Doug McMasters: It made very clear, loud statements about what to do.
Doug McMasters: But the crew, situational awareness, wasn't able to comprehend just how close to tragedy they were and why they were getting the messages that were there.
Doug McMasters: And they didn't heed the warning in time to the loss of all those people.
Doug McMasters: For the past few weeks, we've been working through Isaiah chapter 53, but let's back up just a little bit into Isaiah chapter 51 and just notice some statements that are made there very quickly.
Doug McMasters: Verse 1, chapter 51, listen to me.
Doug McMasters: The end in the middle of verse 1, look to the rock.
Doug McMasters: Verse 2, look to Abraham.
Doug McMasters: Verse 4, pay attention to me.
Doug McMasters: Verse 6, look to the heavens, verse 7, listen to me, verse 17.
Doug McMasters: Wake yourself, wake yourself.
Doug McMasters: Verse 21.
Doug McMasters: So listen to this.
Doug McMasters: Chapter 52, verse 1.
Doug McMasters: Wake up, wake up.
Doug McMasters: God has his early warning system blaring.
Doug McMasters: God is saying, listen, wake up, look here.
Doug McMasters: But what does he want us to pay attention to?
Doug McMasters: Chapter 52 and verse 13.
Doug McMasters: See or look or behold my servant will be successful.
Doug McMasters: He will be raised and lifted up and greatly exalted.
Doug McMasters: You would think after all those warnings that all these people had been rattled with, pay attention, look, listen, pulled out of their beds, yanked out of their living rooms, called out of their fields, brought away from all of their duties, were to gaze expectantly at God and say, What is it?
Doug McMasters: What is it?
Doug McMasters: What do you want me to hear?
Doug McMasters: But what happened?
Doug McMasters: What happened in Isaiah's day?
Doug McMasters: What happened in Jesus' day is found in chapter 53 and verse 1.
Doug McMasters: Who has believed what we've heard?
Doug McMasters: And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
Doug McMasters: Nobody was listening.
Doug McMasters: Nobody was paying attention.
Doug McMasters: The warning system is blaring.
Doug McMasters: Pull up! Pull up.
Doug McMasters: The question is, it's our day now.
Doug McMasters: Are we listening?
Doug McMasters: And so before we step into the final stanza of Isaiah 53, this fourth servant song, let's remember where we've been.
Doug McMasters: Last week we traced this ark of the servant, this descent from divine glory down into silent obedience and putting himself under divine justice.
Doug McMasters: When we looked last week at this, we saw that the servant was not merely a man of sorrows, he was the arm of the Lord.
Doug McMasters: He was the visible expression of God's redemptive strength.
Doug McMasters: And instead of clutching to the prerogatives of deity, this arm of the Lord descended in submission to the Father's will.
Doug McMasters: And in that submission found himself despised and rejected and not valued.
Doug McMasters: And his silence, as we saw, was not one just of meekness and weakness.
Doug McMasters: It was one of willing submission.
Doug McMasters: Because it's what the Father wanted him to do.
Doug McMasters: And he was cut off from the land of the living, and he bore our iniquities with silence.
Doug McMasters: We saw this ark, this descent from glory to death.
Doug McMasters: And we understood that this descent, as we looked into the New Testament, was not only descriptive of Christ, but it was also formative for our lives and shaping how we're to think of ourselves in this world.
Doug McMasters: The servant's posture becomes our pattern.
Doug McMasters: His silence teaches us to trust.
Doug McMasters: His suffering teaches us to endure.
Doug McMasters: His obedience teaches us to submit to the will of God, even if it costs us a lot.
Doug McMasters: Or everything.
Doug McMasters: But like I said last week, that's not the end.
Doug McMasters: It's not the end of this arc.
Doug McMasters: It's not the end of the story.
Doug McMasters: Today we come into the radiant conclusion of Isaiah's fourth servant song.
Doug McMasters: Last week we stood at the foot of the cross and we stood there in silence as we watched a submissive Savior.
Doug McMasters: But today we're going to lift our eyes up.
Doug McMasters: We're going to lift our eyes up to the ascending Christ and the reigning King.
Doug McMasters: Because that ark that began in glory and descended down even to death doesn't stop there.
Doug McMasters: It rises.
Doug McMasters: Unstoppable.
Doug McMasters: And it moves toward exaltation, enthronement, and eternal glory.
Doug McMasters: And so if we're listening, we're going to hear something astounding.
Doug McMasters: We're going to hear something beyond our ability to comprehend, but how sweet to our soul.
Doug McMasters: Because the scriptures say, eye has not seen, nor is ear heard, nor is it entered into the hearts of people, the things God has prepared for those who love Him.
Doug McMasters: If we're listening, we're going to capture something beyond our ability to comprehend.
Doug McMasters: Wonderful, life-giving, spectacular in its content.
Doug McMasters: Because we're going to follow the Savior still into a place where he's risen, reigning, and redeeming his people.
Doug McMasters: So let's wake up.
Doug McMasters: Let's listen.
Doug McMasters: Let's learn.
Doug McMasters: Let's watch the Savior as he steps into the fullness of his mission.
Doug McMasters: And let's trace the final moments and movements of this ark.
Doug McMasters: The first thing I want us to recognize is that we are going to view a risen Savior.
Doug McMasters: Let's take a look at verse 10 of chapter 53.
Doug McMasters: In our study of this, we've walked through the crushing of this servant, pierced, rejected, silent before his accusers.
Doug McMasters: And verse 10 brings us into that.
Doug McMasters: Yet the Lord was pleased to crush him severely when you made him a guilt offering.
Doug McMasters: But the rest of the verse continues.
Doug McMasters: He shall see his offspring.
Doug McMasters: He will prolong his days, and by his hand the Lord's pleasure will be accomplished.
Doug McMasters: The ark moves now very quickly and suddenly into a new direction.
Doug McMasters: Until this time, it started there and it's descended and descended and descended into trouble and rejection, into opposition, and what seems like utter defeat.
Doug McMasters: But now it turns and it moves swiftly upward.
Doug McMasters: This is victory.
Doug McMasters: I dare say this is resurrection from the grave.
Doug McMasters: And let's look at verse 10 and just follow the couple phrases in there because they're so important for us to learn.
Doug McMasters: We'll start with the phrase, he shall prolong his days.
Doug McMasters: Now, in the old covenant, this phrase of prolonging days was a term or a phrase of covenantal blessing.
Doug McMasters: Long life.
Doug McMasters: Listen to a few passages out of the book of Deuteronomy.
Doug McMasters: Deuteronomy 5.33.
Doug McMasters: Follow the whole instruction the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live, prosper, and have a long life in the land you will possess.
Doug McMasters: Chapter 6 and verse 2.
Doug McMasters: Do this so that you may fear the Lord your God all the days of your life by keeping all his statutes and commands I'm giving you, your son and your grandson, and so that you may have a long life.
Doug McMasters: Deuteronomy 30 in verse 20.
Doug McMasters: Almost word for word, what we see here in Isaiah 53.
Doug McMasters: Love the Lord your God, obey him, remain faithful to him, for he is your life, and he will prolong your days.
Doug McMasters: As you live in the land, the Lord swore to give your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Doug McMasters: This phrase, prolonging days, is a term used of those who are remaining faithful in the covenant, and they'll receive the blessings of their attachment to the Lord in obedience.
Doug McMasters: But here it seems so out of place.
Doug McMasters: Why is this so out of place?
Doug McMasters: Because the prolonged his days follows the statement that this person's dead.
Doug McMasters: Two verses earlier, he was taken away because of oppression and judgment, and he was cut off from the land of the living.
Doug McMasters: And he was what assigned a grave in verse nine.
Doug McMasters: And verse nine says, at his death.
Doug McMasters: How do you prolong the days of a dead man?
Doug McMasters: You don't born April twentieth, eighteen seventy-three, died some indeterminate amount of time because maybe, just maybe his days will be prolonged.
Doug McMasters: No, there's there's etched in stone there a date.
Doug McMasters: But not this one.
Doug McMasters: This servant dies, but this servant will see the prolonging of his days.
Doug McMasters: This is exactly what we see in the New Testament: a declaration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Doug McMasters: Acts 2, Peter preaching at Pentecost.
Doug McMasters: God raised him up, loosening the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by them.
Doug McMasters: And he quotes just a couple verses later, Psalm 16 and verse 10 You will not abandon my soul to the grave, nor will you let your holy ones see corruption.
Doug McMasters: The resurrection.
Doug McMasters: Revelation 118, I died, and behold, I live, Jesus says, and I have the keys of death and Hades.
Doug McMasters: Here is one of the clearest prophecies of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Doug McMasters: And it's not a comment that speaks of a myth or a metaphor.
Doug McMasters: This is not, you know, the spring coming out of the barrenness of winter.
Doug McMasters: You know, new life follows our difficulties and troubles.
Doug McMasters: Life springs anew in these wondrous cycles.
Doug McMasters: No, this is not the recycled pattern of dying and rising gods from pagan lore or dying and rising of seasons.
Doug McMasters: This is not a symbol of seasonal renewal or cosmic rhythms.
Doug McMasters: This is a real person in real history who really rose from the dead.
Doug McMasters: And it gives us hope because we are real people in real history who lay our real loved ones in a grave.
Doug McMasters: But the grave cannot hold this one.
Doug McMasters: The grave cannot hold Jesus.
Doug McMasters: And the prophecy is because he so willingly took on the descent, in order to fulfill the will of the Father, in order to give himself on the behalf of others, he would have his days prolonged.
Doug McMasters: And then that leads us to the next phrase.
Doug McMasters: Or as it says in the CSB, the Lord's pleasure will be accomplished.
Doug McMasters: This is not just poetic flourish.
Doug McMasters: It is poetic flourish, but it is talking about mission accomplished.
Doug McMasters: He came to do exactly what the Father called him to do.
Doug McMasters: In fact, in John 6, he says that I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.
Doug McMasters: And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it on the last day.
Doug McMasters: And we'll look at that in just a moment.
Doug McMasters: What is this verse telling us?
Doug McMasters: That the resurrection is at the guarantee that the servant has actually accomplished exactly what the Father's redemptive plan entails.
Doug McMasters: He has secured righteousness for others, and this servant is going to reign.
Doug McMasters: And this is exactly what the beginning of this song hints at in chapter 52 and verse 13, when it says, My servant shall act wisely, he shall be high and lifted up and shall be exalted.
Doug McMasters: This is exactly why Paul in Philippians 2 pulls this chapter out, and he gives you the essence of it.
Doug McMasters: And he talks about Jesus who didn't hold on to the prerogatives of deity, but in love descended in obedience into the place of death, even at death on the cross.
Doug McMasters: But also that God highly exalted him and given him a name that is above every name.
Doug McMasters: And here's why.
Doug McMasters: Hebrews 1:3.
Doug McMasters: After making purifications for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, exalted and enthroned.
Doug McMasters: Now, what does all this mean for us?
Doug McMasters: It means a lot of very important things for us, actually.
Doug McMasters: First of all, it validates the cross.
Doug McMasters: The resurrection is God's declaration that the Savior's suffering was acceptable and accepted.
Doug McMasters: Without the resurrection, the cross is just a tragedy.
Doug McMasters: But with the resurrection, the cross is a triumph.
Doug McMasters: And what does this mean for us?
Doug McMasters: That our forgiveness is not just a wish.
Doug McMasters: It means it's an accomplishment that Christ has gotten for us.
Doug McMasters: That his death was not just sufficient, but successful for all who believe on him.
Doug McMasters: And if you're here this morning and wondering if God could forgive your sins ever, oh, you don't know what I'm like.
Doug McMasters: Oh, you don't know the things that I've done.
Doug McMasters: Oh, the things that run through my mind.
Doug McMasters: Oh, you don't know.
Doug McMasters: Look at the empty tomb.
Doug McMasters: Look there.
Doug McMasters: It's empty.
Doug McMasters: Because that Savior conquered sin and death.
Doug McMasters: And he wants to bring you with him into the realms of God's presence.
Doug McMasters: The second thing it does for us is it guarantees our justification.
Doug McMasters: Romans 4 25.
Doug McMasters: Listen to these words.
Doug McMasters: That Christ was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.
Doug McMasters: Now we'll look at this a little more in just a second.
Doug McMasters: But the resurrection is the seal that is deemed us righteous before the holy judge.
Doug McMasters: We're not only forgiven, we're declared righteous in God's sight.
Doug McMasters: How do we know that?
Doug McMasters: Because of the resurrection of Christ.
Doug McMasters: It also inaugurates a new creation.
Doug McMasters: In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul calls Christ the first fruits, meaning that his resurrection is the beginning of a new humanity, that death is defeated and new life has begun.
Doug McMasters: And so if you're in Christ, you are part of that new creation.
Doug McMasters: The new has come.
Doug McMasters: You are now in membership of a brand new created order that's been inaugurated by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Doug McMasters: It also assures us of our future resurrection, also.
Doug McMasters: Because He lives, we live.
Doug McMasters: The servant's prolonged days become our eternal days.
Doug McMasters: But it also assures us that resurrection is our destination.
Doug McMasters: The servant's resurrection was not only his vindication, it's our future.
Doug McMasters: For those who follow the ark of Christ who walk the path of humility, obedience, and yes, even sometimes suffering, there's always a tendency to it, a promise, a promise that will rise.
Doug McMasters: This is why Paul, at the end of a discussion about the resurrection, said to the believers in Corinth, Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast and movable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as you know your labor will never be in vain in the Lord.
Doug McMasters: Ever.
Doug McMasters: You see, our service and our suffering is never wasted.
Doug McMasters: Our submission is never forgotten.
Doug McMasters: And our hardships are never the final word.
Doug McMasters: Ever.
Doug McMasters: Because Christ rose, will rise.
Doug McMasters: And so in the middle of the ark, like many of us are right at the moment, part of this downward slope where it feels like where is the bottom?
Doug McMasters: We can carry on.
Doug McMasters: We can carry on through that low spot, even if it means years, because of a savior who himself was faithful in obscurity and patient in affliction and joyful for the hope that was set before him.
Doug McMasters: And if we are following the ark of Christ, we too can sit in the midst of that, patient in hope.
Doug McMasters: The hope of what?
Doug McMasters: The rest of the ark.
Doug McMasters: The rest of it heading up into glory.
Doug McMasters: So Paul said, I consider the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing to the glory that'll be revealed within us.
Doug McMasters: That's resurrection life.
Doug McMasters: That's the fullness of Christ that we're talking about.
Doug McMasters: Yes, the servant was crushed, but he was not conquered.
Doug McMasters: Yes, he died, but he lives, and his days have been prolonged.
Doug McMasters: And the ark of Christ into this place is not just a model, but our destiny as well.
Doug McMasters: Now let's take it a little deeper.
Doug McMasters: The risen servant doesn't rise alone, he rises to see his offspring.
Doug McMasters: And that leads us to the second point of the justifying servant.
Doug McMasters: Take a look at verse 10.
Doug McMasters: He will see his seed or see his offspring.
Doug McMasters: Again, this is covenantal language.
Doug McMasters: In the blessings of the old covenant, if you were faithful and faithfully obeying them, you would see prolonging days such that you would see your children and your children's children.
Doug McMasters: We're like, yeah, it's 2025.
Doug McMasters: We got modern medicine.
Doug McMasters: You know, we can we can we can keep a lot of people alive for a long time that are just barely existing.
Doug McMasters: Not back then you couldn't.
Doug McMasters: But if you were a part of the covenant and there was covenant, covenant, faith, and fidelity, God says, I'll give you long life.
Doug McMasters: I'll give you the ability to see your children grow.
Doug McMasters: I'll give you the ability to see your grandchildren grow.
Doug McMasters: And so here, this servant is going to see his offspring.
Doug McMasters: But he didn't have any children.
Doug McMasters: He was cut off from the land of the living.
Doug McMasters: He died single.
Doug McMasters: What does it mean?
Doug McMasters: He's going to see his offspring.
Doug McMasters: It means that though he dies, and through his death, there's going to be a new people born.
Doug McMasters: There's going to be a new family.
Doug McMasters: There's going to be a redeemed community.
Doug McMasters: There's going to be a people justified by grace.
Doug McMasters: The Apostle Paul in Galatians 3 connects all of this back to some very early chapters in the Bible, Genesis chapter 12, in which Abraham was shown a promise that though he didn't have any offspring at that time, that he was past the days when he and his wife could conceive in all human possibility, that he too would see an offspring.
Doug McMasters: And the Apostle Paul said this.
Doug McMasters: Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring, referring to one and to your offspring who is Christ.
Doug McMasters: Galatians 3 16.
Doug McMasters: So Christ is given this offspring promise.
Doug McMasters: But he dies without children.
Doug McMasters: What children is he going to see?
Doug McMasters: Well, Paul's not finished with his argument in Galatians 3, because in verse 29 he says, if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise.
Doug McMasters: The people who believe in Christ, whether Jew or Gentile, who have the faith that Abraham had to believe God's promises in the face of all impossibilities, would be his children.
Doug McMasters: The children of Christ.
Doug McMasters: And so Isaiah here is pointing to this moment when the resurrected Christ, this risen servant, will gather a justified people that were not born of the flesh, but born of the spirit.
Doug McMasters: And so the shape of his reward was not land or riches or power.
Doug McMasters: Sorry, prosperity preachers, you're going the wrong direction.
Doug McMasters: He was going to receive a people, a people who were once far off, but now brought near.
Doug McMasters: A people who were once sinners, but are now declared righteous.
Doug McMasters: A people who were without God and without hope in this world, but are now called the children of God.
Doug McMasters: How?
Doug McMasters: After his anguish, he will see light and be satisfied.
Doug McMasters: And by his knowledge, my righteous servant will justify many, and he will carry their iniquities.
Doug McMasters: This is the heart of the gospel right here.
Doug McMasters: This is that the Lord would have an offspring that are gathered on account of his bearing their iniquities, on account of the fact that he has made them accounted as righteous.
Doug McMasters: Not because they've earned it, not because they've cleaned themselves up, but because the servant has stood in their place for them.
Doug McMasters: And because the servant stood in our place, if we're in Christ, we're going to stand in his place in glory, in his eternal place.
Doug McMasters: Presence.
Doug McMasters: Paul in Romans 5 and verse 9 said, Since therefore we have now been justified by his blood, much more we shall be saved by him from the wrath of God.
Doug McMasters: And again, 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 21, for our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might be made the righteousness of God.
Doug McMasters: This is not abstract theology.
Doug McMasters: This is personal redemption and this is particular redemption.
Doug McMasters: Because Jesus wasn't just making salvation a possibility, he was purchasing a people, he was taking their place and making them his offspring.
Doug McMasters: He died to gather a people, and the people would be his reward.
Doug McMasters: Verse 6 tells us who those people are.
Doug McMasters: All we like sheep have gone astray.
Doug McMasters: We've turned everyone to his own way.
Doug McMasters: But verse 10 tells us that the wandering ones are now welcomed, and the rebels are now redeemed.
Doug McMasters: And this is why Hebrews 12, 2 says, For the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross.
Doug McMasters: Again, what does this tell us?
Doug McMasters: This tells us that justification is a gift of God, not a reward.
Doug McMasters: It says here, the servant makes many to be accounted righteous.
Doug McMasters: This is legal language.
Doug McMasters: And the activity of that being accounted righteous is not ours to do, but his.
Doug McMasters: He doesn't descend into the background after accomplishing this work.
Doug McMasters: He is exalted, and he reigns.
Doug McMasters: And as it be started here in verse 13 of chapter 52, it says that kings will shut their mouths.
Doug McMasters: Verse 15, rather, kings will shut their mouths, for they will see him who they've not been told, and understand him whom they've not heard.
Doug McMasters: What does this reigning king do now?
Doug McMasters: Well, first of all, he intercedes for the transgressors.
Doug McMasters: This Savior continues his ministry.
Doug McMasters: He bore the sins of many, and he did that on the cross.
Doug McMasters: Luke 22, 37 quotes this verse.
Doug McMasters: When Jesus said, For I tell you the scriptures must be fulfilled in me, and he was numbered with the transgressors.
Doug McMasters: But now a phrase is added.
Doug McMasters: He makes intercession for them, not just numbered among the transgressors, but interceding for them.
Doug McMasters: And so Hebrews, the writer, says, He is able to save to the uttermost all those who draw near by him, because he always lives to make intercession for them.
Doug McMasters: This Savior who descended into death on the cross has been vindicated in his resurrection, who has been granted a people, and his ministry in the present days is on behalf of them still, because he intercedes for them.
Doug McMasters: What does that mean?
Doug McMasters: There's no limit to his saving power.
Doug McMasters: There's no sin too deep, there's no shame so lasting, there's no weakness so persistent that he can't save to the uttermost all those who come to him.
Doug McMasters: In verse 2, or that, or not verse 2, back to chapter 53 in the verse 12.
Doug McMasters: I will give him the many as a portion, and he'll receive the mighty as spoil.
Doug McMasters: Another translation puts it this way: He will divide the spoil with the strong.
Doug McMasters: This is battlefield imagery.
Doug McMasters: And this is telling us that the war is over, and that the victory has been won.
Doug McMasters: And it tells us that the servant is the one who is the victor.
Doug McMasters: And he gathers the spoils.
Doug McMasters: Now, how did he win this fight?
Doug McMasters: Not with sword, not with spear, but in silence, submissiveness, and suffering.
Doug McMasters: He poured his soul out to death.
Doug McMasters: But he won.
Doug McMasters: And here's the irony of ironies, the divine irony of all ironies, that in his weakest moment, death on the cross, Jesus crushed the powers of darkness.
Doug McMasters: He crushed them.
Doug McMasters: Colossians 2.
Doug McMasters: He has erased the certificate of debt with its obligations that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it away, nailing it to his cross.
Doug McMasters: He has disarmed the rulers and authorities and disgraced them publicly, and he has triumphed over them in him, in the crucified Savior.
Doug McMasters: And now risen, he's ascended on high and led a host of captives captive and gave gifts to people.
Doug McMasters: This is not only a reigning king, this is a rich and rewarding and benevolent and generous king.
Doug McMasters: Because he doesn't clutch to those riches, he pours them out freely to his people.
Doug McMasters: About believers in just a second.
Doug McMasters: But if you're here this morning and you don't know Christ, I want to let you know that this king has conquered sin and death.
Doug McMasters: And he is calling you to bow to him, not in fear, but in faith, to trust this king.
Doug McMasters: If he could win this rich reward through his obedience to the Father's will in the giving up of himself on the behalf of people just like you, you turn to him, he will save you to the uttermost, just like he saves any of us to the uttermost.
Doug McMasters: And so put your sword down.
Doug McMasters: Put your sword down of self-will and self-assertion, of resistance against God, because you're fighting a God who loves people just like you.
Doug McMasters: You're fighting the very one who had souls written on his heart when he was nailed to the cross.
Doug McMasters: You're fighting against the one who said, I lay my life down.
Doug McMasters: And I'm not calling the righteous, but sinners.
Doug McMasters: You give him your sword.
Doug McMasters: Submit to this king.
Doug McMasters: He'll receive you.
Doug McMasters: One last note about this.
Doug McMasters: The servant's glory.
Doug McMasters: And this arc of Christ-likeness that we've talked about.
Doug McMasters: Believer, you're not fighting for victory.
Doug McMasters: Christians in our day are not fighting for victory.
Doug McMasters: Do you hear me?
Doug McMasters: We don't have to align ourselves with other people who have power and influence as though we needed to find victory.
Doug McMasters: We have a savior who's already won.
Doug McMasters: Okay?
Doug McMasters: We are living in victory.
Doug McMasters: We don't need to find it.
Doug McMasters: We trace this ark.
Doug McMasters: And God's people are following that ark.
Doug McMasters: And yes, our life is in the midst of the bottom of it, but the ark isn't finished yet.
Doug McMasters: Okay?
Doug McMasters: It's not.
Doug McMasters: Here is the completion.
Doug McMasters: This isn't just Christ's ark into glory and exaltation and enthronement.
Doug McMasters: It's ours as believers.
Doug McMasters: It's ours.
Doug McMasters: You can clap.
Doug McMasters: You should.
Doug McMasters: My servant shall act wisely, he will be high and lifted up and shall be exalted.
Doug McMasters: And that exaltation is not just for Christ alone.
Doug McMasters: It's for Christ's people.
Doug McMasters: Paul said in Romans 8:17, if we suffer with him, we shall also be glorified with him.
Doug McMasters: 1 Peter 1 6, though now for a little while you may have to suffer grief and all kinds of trials.
Doug McMasters: For a little while, these trials result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
Doug McMasters: The ark bends upward.
Doug McMasters: The suffering's real, but so is the glory.
Doug McMasters: And Peter doesn't limit this to abstract theology and submission to unjust authority in 1 Peter 2.
Doug McMasters: He tells us that Christ's resurrection is the vindication of our hope.
Doug McMasters: In marriage, he calls for humility and gentleness, but you see a rich reward, heirs together of the grace of life.
Doug McMasters: In community life, he urges us to bless others even when wronged.
Doug McMasters: Why?
Doug McMasters: Because the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous.
Doug McMasters: In leadership in 1 Peter 5, don't do it out of selfish ambition.
Doug McMasters: Don't do it for gain or reward.
Doug McMasters: Be examples to the flock.
Doug McMasters: Give yourself wholly to God's people.
Doug McMasters: Serve them gently, warmly, godly.
Doug McMasters: Then what?
Doug McMasters: When the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.
Doug McMasters: First Peter 5:10.
Doug McMasters: After you've suffered a little while, the God of all grace will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.
Doug McMasters: He will set you on a solid place.
Doug McMasters: This is the ark.
Doug McMasters: This is not quiet submission forever.
Doug McMasters: This is not suffering without end.
Doug McMasters: This is the glory of Christ, restored, confirmed, strengthened, established, reigning with Him.
Doug McMasters: Don't lose heart at the bottom of the ark.
Doug McMasters: You're not going to stay there.
Doug McMasters: You're not.
Doug McMasters: Lift your eyes into the throne room of the heavens.
Doug McMasters: And last night, I'll tell you what.
Doug McMasters: Ethan brought us there.
Doug McMasters: And he was braver than all of us.
Doug McMasters: He sang without a compliment.
Doug McMasters: I am not going to do that.
Doug McMasters: But I want to repeat those words if I can't repeat the way he said them.
Doug McMasters: Here is Christ in cosmic celebration.
Doug McMasters: Okay?
unknown: Okay.
Doug McMasters: Cosmic celebration.
Doug McMasters: The Lion of Judah.
Doug McMasters: Who is also the slain lamb.
Doug McMasters: Standing at the center of heaven's worship.
Doug McMasters: Right?
Doug McMasters: Is that not the image?
Doug McMasters: Yeah?
Doug McMasters: Yeah.
Doug McMasters: And he takes the scroll, the scroll of what?
Doug McMasters: The title deed to the heavens and the earth.
Doug McMasters: All of God's design and purposes and plans that none of us could grab a hold of.
Doug McMasters: And he takes it from the hand of him who sits on the throne, and all creation erupts.
Doug McMasters: You are worthy to take the scroll and to open the seals because you were slain.
Doug McMasters: And your blood, with your blood, you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation.
Doug McMasters: Does that not sound like Isaiah 53?
Doug McMasters: Of course it does.
Doug McMasters: But this is not just exaltation that we're talking about of the Lamb.
Doug McMasters: This is enthronement.
Doug McMasters: Okay?
Doug McMasters: This is not just him being honored.
Doug McMasters: This is him being crowned.
Doug McMasters: Okay?
Doug McMasters: But the glory is not solitary.
Doug McMasters: You have made them to be a kingdom and priest to serve our God and they will reign.
Doug McMasters: His people reign too.
Doug McMasters: This is the ark fulfilled.
Doug McMasters: We're not spectators of his triumph.
Doug McMasters: We're participants in his triumph.
Doug McMasters: We're not just merely forgiven, we're going to be enthroned as well.
Doug McMasters: Whatever that looks like.
Doug McMasters: The Lamb reigns, and those who are redeemed by his blood will reign with him.
Doug McMasters: And so this is the crescendo of the Christian.
Doug McMasters: From sorrow to song, from wounds to worship, and from the cross to the crown.
Doug McMasters: It's ours.
Doug McMasters: The will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.
Doug McMasters: And so behold, look.
Doug McMasters: My servant.
Doug McMasters: Keep your eyes fixed on Christ.
Doug McMasters: Keep your eye on him.
Doug McMasters: Maybe look at him for the first time.
Doug McMasters: But look at Jesus.
Doug McMasters: And hear all of those sounds.
Doug McMasters: Listen.
Doug McMasters: Look.
Doug McMasters: Wake up.
Doug McMasters: Rouse yourself.
Doug McMasters: Pay attention.
Doug McMasters: Because God's going to do something none of us could believe.
Doug McMasters: But do it he did.
Doug McMasters: And does it he still.
Doug McMasters: And the day will be when we'll be with him in that place.
Doug McMasters: Let's pray.
Doug McMasters: Father, we do want to behold your servant, Jesus.
Doug McMasters: He who started high and lifted up, yet became pierced and crushed for us, is so wondrously risen and reigning.
Doug McMasters: And we see the arc of his mission.
Doug McMasters: To let go of heaven's glories, to come to this world of woe and sorrow, to be brought to death in order to gain in triumph a song out of that silence and life out of that death.
Doug McMasters: And Lord, not only do we want to behold the servant, Father, in naked trust and in dangerous acceptance, we accept the early bend of that ark.
Doug McMasters: We accept the path of humility.
Doug McMasters: We accept the possibility of the sting of rejection.
Doug McMasters: And we accept the weight of obedience to suffering.
Doug McMasters: We want to follow the Savior who is numbered with the transgressors and who poured out his soul to death.
Doug McMasters: Teach us, Father, to walk as he walked, to suffer with him, to serve like him, to speak as he speaks.
Doug McMasters: Let our lives be shaped by his cross, but Lord, may we have always in our heart that we'll be lifted by his resurrection.
Doug McMasters: And so let us be conformed to his image, even when this world doesn't understand.
Doug McMasters: Help us never to shrink from the early bends of this ark, the humility, the rejection, the submission.
Doug McMasters: But Lord, help us not to be left there and to linger there.
Doug McMasters: Let us remember that He was raised for our justification and that He reigns to give us hope, and He intercedes, and therefore we're never alone.
Doug McMasters: So lift our eyes to the end of that ark, to the hope that is set before us, to the day when we'll stand in His presence without blemish and with great joy.
Doug McMasters: And so may we say now, in anticipation of that day, to our only God and Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority before all time, now and forever.
Doug McMasters: Amen.
Doug McMasters: Let's sing.
unknown: Let's sing.