Micah McCormick: Turn to Isaiah chapter 6.
Micah McCormick: Isaiah 6.
Micah McCormick: Really grateful to Pastor Doug for choosing this book.
Micah McCormick: Today is our last message in the book of Isaiah, and we'll be starting up in Titus in a couple of weeks.
Micah McCormick: So we won't be only in chapter 6 today, but we want to use Isaiah 6 as a window into our review of the book this morning.
Micah McCormick: Isaiah chapter 6.
Micah McCormick: This is God's word.
Micah McCormick: In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne, and the hem of his robe filled the temple.
Micah McCormick: Seraphim were standing above him.
Micah McCormick: They each had six wings.
Micah McCormick: With two they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew.
Micah McCormick: And one called to another holy, holy, holy is the Lord of armies, his glory fills the whole earth.
Micah McCormick: The foundations of the doorways shook at the sound of their voices, and the temple was filled with smoke.
Micah McCormick: Then I said, Woe was me, for I am ruined because I am a man of unclean lips, and live among a people of unclean lips, and because my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of armies.
Micah McCormick: Then one of the seraphim flew to me, and in his hand was a glowing coal that he had taken from the altar with tongs.
Micah McCormick: He touched my mouth with it and said, Now that this has touched your lips, your iniquity is removed and your sin is atoned for.
Micah McCormick: Then I heard the voice of the Lord asking, Who will I send?
Micah McCormick: Who will go for us?
Micah McCormick: I said, Here I am, send me.
Micah McCormick: And he replied, Go.
Micah McCormick: Say to these people, Keep listening, but do not understand.
Micah McCormick: Keep looking, but do not perceive.
Micah McCormick: Make the minds of these people dull, deafen their ears and blind their eyes, otherwise they might see with their eyes and hear with their ears, understand with their minds, turn back and be healed.
Micah McCormick: Then I said, Until when, Lord?
Micah McCormick: And he replied, Until cities lie in ruins without inhabitants.
Micah McCormick: Houses are without people, the land is ruined and desolate.
Micah McCormick: And the Lord drives the people far away, leaving great emptiness in the land.
Micah McCormick: Though a tenth will remain in the land, it will be burned again, like the terebinth or the oak that leaves a stump when felled.
Micah McCormick: The holy seed is the stump.
Micah McCormick: Lord, again, we just want to ask for your help.
Micah McCormick: We're so conscious that our words don't profit anything if the Spirit is not giving life.
Micah McCormick: So please, Spirit of God, we're weak.
Micah McCormick: Help us, help me as I speak, help us as we all listen to this word.
Micah McCormick: Thank you again for it.
Micah McCormick: In Jesus' name.
Micah McCormick: Amen.
Micah McCormick: When Doug introduced this book of the Bible, Isaiah, to us just over a year ago, about a year and a half ago now, he said, I hope Isaiah becomes your friend.
Micah McCormick: I think for many of us it has.
Micah McCormick: I hope it's become a lifelong friend.
Micah McCormick: And a year can seem like a long time to be in one book of the Bible.
Micah McCormick: If you're new to our church, or perhaps you haven't been in a church before that preaches through books of the Bible, let me just briefly explain that practice.
Micah McCormick: There's a lot of faithful ways to do a sermon series.
Micah McCormick: The most important thing is preach the word.
Micah McCormick: Don't add anything to it, don't take anything away from it.
Micah McCormick: We do have in Acts 20 Paul's example of preaching the whole counsel of God.
Micah McCormick: There are examples in the Old Testament of the priests reading sequentially from the law and explaining it for the people.
Micah McCormick: And preaching through books of the Bible helps us in some ways.
Micah McCormick: It helps us to make sure that we're staying on track and really getting the whole message of the book.
Micah McCormick: It helps us make sure that we're carefully considering the context of each passage so that we're not just sort of imposing our ideas on the text, but drawing out the sermon from the text itself.
Micah McCormick: And it does, it helps preachers.
Micah McCormick: Today that's me.
Micah McCormick: It helps us because we have to preach what the text says.
Micah McCormick: I can't just preach on topics I like or verses I like.
Micah McCormick: I've got to preach on whatever Scripture says so I can trust God in that.
Micah McCormick: So as we look back over Isaiah, 66 chapters, over 50 sermons, how do we summarize the book of Isaiah?
Micah McCormick: Here's our summary for today.
Micah McCormick: The Holy God brings salvation through his servant.
Micah McCormick: That's what Isaiah is all about.
Micah McCormick: The Holy God brings salvation through his servant.
Micah McCormick: I'll say it one more time.
Micah McCormick: The Holy God brings salvation through his servant.
Micah McCormick: And when we think about it that way, we see this is a book that's very relevant for us.
Micah McCormick: Has God's character changed since Isaiah was written?
Micah McCormick: Not at all.
Micah McCormick: Has our need of salvation changed?
Micah McCormick: No.
Micah McCormick: Has the glory of his servant diminished?
Micah McCormick: Not even a little bit.
Micah McCormick: Yes, there's some challenges in this book, but when we keep that big idea in mind, we're going to have so much that's there and true and good and necessary for us.
Micah McCormick: So I'm gonna break that main idea, that main theme, into three parts.
Micah McCormick: First part, the holy God.
Micah McCormick: Second part, the holy God who brings salvation.
Micah McCormick: And then the third part, the holy God who brings salvation through his servant.
Micah McCormick: So hopefully breaking it up like that will help us better understand and reflect on all that we've encountered here in Isaiah.
Micah McCormick: We can't actually encounter and reflect on all of it, but we'll hit some of the highlights.
Micah McCormick: So part number one, the holy God.
Micah McCormick: Isaiah's a prophet.
Micah McCormick: Prophets are given this task to speak on behalf of God.
Micah McCormick: They deliver his message.
Micah McCormick: And the God who speaks through Isaiah is the God.
Micah McCormick: Look again at verse number one here of chapter six.
Micah McCormick: In the year that King Uzziah died, Isaiah says, I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne.
Micah McCormick: Isaiah doesn't see one God among many.
Micah McCormick: He doesn't see a Greek or Roman pantheon of gods.
Micah McCormick: He sees the one true and living God.
Micah McCormick: Repeatedly throughout Isaiah, God contrasts his unique authority with all the so-called fake and phony gods.
Micah McCormick: Isaiah 44, verse 6.
Micah McCormick: This is what the Lord, the King of Israel, and its Redeemer, the Lord of armies, says, I am the first and I am the last.
Micah McCormick: There is no God but me.
Micah McCormick: Isaiah 40, verses 18 and 19.
Micah McCormick: With whom will you compare God?
Micah McCormick: What likeness will you set up for comparison with him?
Micah McCormick: An idol?
Micah McCormick: Something a smelter cast and a metalworker plates with gold?
Micah McCormick: Isaiah 44, 8 through 11.
Micah McCormick: Don't be startled or afraid.
Micah McCormick: Have I not told you and declared it long ago?
Micah McCormick: You are my witnesses.
Micah McCormick: Is there any God but me?
Micah McCormick: There is no other rock.
Micah McCormick: I do not know any.
Micah McCormick: All who make idols are nothing, and what they treasure benefits no one.
Micah McCormick: Their witnesses do not see or know anything.
Micah McCormick: They will be put to shame.
Micah McCormick: Isaiah sees the Lord high and lifted up, and the book of Isaiah calls us to reckon with the one living God, the supreme over all things.
Micah McCormick: You might say, well, yes and amen.
Micah McCormick: Okay, I believe that.
Micah McCormick: There's only one God.
Micah McCormick: Don't own any idols.
Micah McCormick: Not so fast.
Micah McCormick: An idol can really be anything that might functionally step in at times and take the place of God in our lives.
Micah McCormick: So Martin Lloyd-Jones says, an idol is anything in our lives that occupies the place that should be occupied by God alone.
Micah McCormick: Anything that seems to me essential.
Micah McCormick: An idol is anything by which I live and on which I depend.
Micah McCormick: What do you hope most about?
Micah McCormick: What do you trust in?
Micah McCormick: Where do you go for comfort and refuge?
Micah McCormick: Those things can reveal the idols of our hearts.
Micah McCormick: And when we stop and think about it, the idols of our hearts are just as foolish as the idols of Isaiah's day.
Micah McCormick: You're working.
Micah McCormick: Work is difficult.
Micah McCormick: There are challenges at work.
Micah McCormick: And your mind is fixed on one thing.
Micah McCormick: If I can just make it to the weekend and binge watch my favorite TV show, things will be looking up.
Micah McCormick: Now, what is your favorite TV show?
Micah McCormick: How is that going to help you at work?
Micah McCormick: It's not going to help you a lick.
Micah McCormick: Say, well, yeah, but it kind of makes me feel a little better.
Micah McCormick: It makes me feel like things are looking up.
Micah McCormick: Yeah, alright.
Micah McCormick: And for other people, having a block of wood on the mantle makes them feel like, okay, things are in place, it's filling up.
Micah McCormick: It's a similar kind of idea.
Micah McCormick: God is the only one who can ultimately fill our tank with meaning.
Micah McCormick: There's only one God, and He is the holy God.
Micah McCormick: So here in chapter 6, when Isaiah encounters God, verse 3 says there are angels surrounding the throne, calling to one another, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of armies.
Micah McCormick: This encounter must have impacted Isaiah deeply because throughout Isaiah, this book, he, the author, refers to God as the holy one of Israel.
Micah McCormick: Over 20 times.
Micah McCormick: The rest of the Old Testament uses that phrase less than 10 times.
Micah McCormick: But Isaiah encountered a God who was holy, holy, holy.
Micah McCormick: What does it mean that God is holy?
Micah McCormick: We sing about it.
Micah McCormick: We just sang today a song very biblical, drawn right from the pages of Scripture here, holy, holy, holy.
Micah McCormick: What does that mean?
Micah McCormick: Holiness has the idea of devotion, consecration.
Micah McCormick: Someone or something is set apart for a particular purpose.
Micah McCormick: So the objects in the tabernacle and the temple were holy.
Micah McCormick: They were set apart for that particular service of worship.
Micah McCormick: The priests as well were devoted to God and to his service.
Micah McCormick: Remember when God came to Moses and said, The place you're standing is holy ground?
Micah McCormick: And then he goes on to say, I'm going to take my people and bring them out to worship me on this mountain.
Micah McCormick: Like, Moses, you thought this was your father's father-in-law's shepherding mountain.
Micah McCormick: I've got another purpose for it.
Micah McCormick: It's going to be devoted to me and to my people.
Micah McCormick: So for God Himself to be holy means that he is devoted to his own name and his own glory above everything else.
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Micah McCormick: C.
Micah McCormick: Sproull said that the failure of modern evangelicalism is the failure to understand the holiness of God.
Micah McCormick: Here in Isaiah 6, Isaiah runs into a problem, and it reflects the problem of Israel throughout the entire book.
Micah McCormick: God is holy, holy, holy, high, and lifted up.
Micah McCormick: How can he be the holy one of Israel?
Micah McCormick: How can the holy God dwell with unholy people?
Micah McCormick: Verse number five expresses this problem powerfully.
Micah McCormick: Listen to Isaiah's words as he's inspired by God and truly confessing from his own soul.
Micah McCormick: Then I said, Woe is me, for I am ruined, because I'm a man of unclean lips, and live among a people of unclean lips, because my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of armies.
Micah McCormick: It's a problem.
Micah McCormick: And that very problem leads us to the next big part of the message.
Micah McCormick: The holy God brings salvation.
Micah McCormick: Look at verses 6 and 7.
Micah McCormick: God graciously responds to Isaiah's predicament.
Micah McCormick: Then one of the seraphim flew to me, and in his hand was a glowing coal he had taken from the altar with tongs.
Micah McCormick: He touched my mouth and said, Now this has touched your lips, your iniquity is removed, and your sin is atoned for.
Micah McCormick: But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love, saved us by his grace.
Micah McCormick: And when Isaiah shows us that this holy God brings salvation, Isaiah unveils to us the heart of God, the compassionate and merciful heart of God.
Micah McCormick: Isaiah 30, 18.
Micah McCormick: Therefore, the Lord is waiting to show you mercy.
Micah McCormick: Indeed, your husband is your Maker.
Micah McCormick: His name is the Lord of armies, and the Holy One of Israel is your redeemer.
Micah McCormick: He is called the God of the whole earth, for the Lord is called you like a wife deserted and wounded in spirit.
Micah McCormick: A wife of one's youth when she is rejected, says your God, I deserted you for a brief moment, but I will take you back with abundant compassion.
Micah McCormick: God doesn't save grudgingly or sparingly.
Micah McCormick: God brings salvation not just for Israel, he brings it for the world.
Micah McCormick: Isaiah 12, 4 and 5.
Micah McCormick: And on that day you will say, Give thanks to the Lord, proclaim his name, make his works known among the peoples, declare that his name is exalted, sing to the Lord, for he has done glorious things.
Micah McCormick: Let this be known throughout the earth.
Micah McCormick: God is saving people from every place.
Micah McCormick: Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, New Hyde Park, Richmond Hill.
Micah McCormick: This is a glorious God of mercy who brings salvation far and wide.
Micah McCormick: All the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God.
Micah McCormick: Now, when Isaiah speaks of salvation over and over and over in this book, he speaks about salvation in different ways.
Micah McCormick: Let's try to keep in mind something that Pastor Dud brought out as a tool for us when we read through the book of Isaiah and we listen to it, and that's this idea of three horizons.
Micah McCormick: Or you could think of it as sort of successive mountain ranges.
Micah McCormick: The first horizon is the horizon or the mountain range of Isaiah's own day.
Micah McCormick: The people are going to be uh in trouble with Assyria, Babylon, they will come back from exile.
Micah McCormick: God will save them from exile.
Micah McCormick: That's that first horizon.
Micah McCormick: The second horizon from Isaiah's vantage point is looking forward to the coming of Jesus Christ.
Micah McCormick: That's the spiritual salvation that Israel and the world most need.
Micah McCormick: Salvation and restored communion with God.
Micah McCormick: And then the third horizon that's looking forward, even from our perspective, to a future where God's going to make all things new and finish his grand work of salvation once and for all.
Micah McCormick: So it can be difficult because when Isaiah speaks of this glorious salvation and hope, it's not always easy to see if he's speaking about that first horizon of his own day or that second horizon, that second mountain range of the coming of Jesus Christ, or the consummation of all things.
Micah McCormick: Or whether he's speaking about two of them or three of them compressed together.
Micah McCormick: But that is the way the Bible works at times.
Micah McCormick: Things that happened in Israel's history become a kind of picture prophecy of later history.
Micah McCormick: Events.
Micah McCormick: Types is a word that we would use.
Micah McCormick: But that just means a picture prophecy.
Micah McCormick: Something happens in Israel's life.
Micah McCormick: Think of all the lambs that were slaughtered year after year.
Micah McCormick: And then behold, the Lamb of God.
Micah McCormick: Ah, that was pointing me forward to something greater.
Micah McCormick: So keep that in mind when we think about Isaiah and his proclamation of God's saving mercies.
Micah McCormick: God's salvation doesn't come to the exclusion of his judgment.
Micah McCormick: Again, we find that throughout the book of Isaiah.
Micah McCormick: And even his smaller judgments throughout history, like his smaller acts of salvation, point to a great and final judgment to come for all who reject and refuse him.
Micah McCormick: So the last main part of our message today, how does God bring salvation?
Micah McCormick: The Holy One of Israel.
Micah McCormick: He's sure going to do it.
Micah McCormick: We see in this passage, he gives Isaiah this glowing coal, but that's that's not really sufficient.
Micah McCormick: Without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sin.
Micah McCormick: So the Holy God brings salvation, he does it through his servant.
Micah McCormick: That's what we have to see.
Micah McCormick: There's many servants in the book of Isaiah.
Micah McCormick: So again, this is one of the things that's a little tricky for us to track, but to give you some examples, in Isaiah chapter 20, Isaiah himself is called a servant of God.
Micah McCormick: In Isaiah 45, a foreign king is called God's servant.
Micah McCormick: In chapter 41, the whole nation of Israel is called God's servant.
Micah McCormick: Now, here in chapter 6, I said we were using this chapter as kind of a window into the book, we don't find Isaiah explicitly called a servant, but he does function that way.
Micah McCormick: Look at verse 8.
Micah McCormick: I heard the voice of the Lord asking, Who will I send?
Micah McCormick: Who will go for us?
Micah McCormick: I said, Here I am, send me.
Micah McCormick: The master calls, the servant answers.
Micah McCormick: But Isaiah, the servant, he's just the messenger.
Micah McCormick: He announces God's salvation, he himself can't bring God's salvation.
Micah McCormick: A foreign king, though used as God's pawn, can't bring ultimate salvation.
Micah McCormick: Even the nation of Israel can't ultimately bring salvation.
Micah McCormick: And though it's not spelled out in great detail here in chapter 6, you really need all of the book of Isaiah to start seeing how God's going to bring about this salvation through his servant.
Micah McCormick: There's a clue for us, even here.
Micah McCormick: Look at verse 13.
Micah McCormick: Though a tenth will remain in the land, it will be burned again like the terebinth or the oak that leaves a stump when felled.
Micah McCormick: The holy seed is the stump.
Micah McCormick: This is one of those verses that at first reading you're like, I'm not, I don't, I don't know why he says that, but let's give some attention to it.
Micah McCormick: It's gonna give some rewards here.
Micah McCormick: So what Isaiah is saying is God is gonna bring judgment, but it's not total judgment.
Micah McCormick: There's gonna be a remnant, a group of leftover survivors.
Micah McCormick: That's where he says a tenth will remain.
Micah McCormick: So you have a tree that's cut down, but the stump and the seed are still there.
Micah McCormick: And if you just got the stump and the seed, it could grow and blossom again.
Micah McCormick: There's some kind of hope for salvation here.
Micah McCormick: Let's keep working on this, right?
Micah McCormick: In the Bible, nations are often compared to trees.
Micah McCormick: So Ezekiel 17, for example, compares Israel to a tree.
Micah McCormick: But they're a tree that never seems to bloom properly.
Micah McCormick: They're pruned and pruned, and yet you get to John the Baptist and he says, Oh, you think you have Abraham as your father?
Micah McCormick: You brood of vipers?
Micah McCormick: Now the axe is laid to the root of the tree.
Micah McCormick: That doesn't sound good.
Micah McCormick: Is Isaiah 6 13 this verse, is that all that Isaiah has to say about roots and stumps?
Micah McCormick: No.
Micah McCormick: Listen to Isaiah 11, verse 1.
Micah McCormick: Then a shoot will grow from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit.
Micah McCormick: Jesse is David's father.
Micah McCormick: But Jesse's long dead when Isaiah gives this prophecy.
Micah McCormick: David's long dead when Isaiah gives this prophecy.
Micah McCormick: But Isaiah is saying, from the line of David, there's going to come another root, another branch that will yet grow again.
Micah McCormick: Righteousness will be a belt around his hips, and faithfulness a belt around his waist.
Micah McCormick: And there's even more.
Micah McCormick: Here in Isaiah 6, verse 13 ends with this phrase the holy seed is the stump.
Micah McCormick: Who did Isaiah encounter?
Micah McCormick: The God who is holy, holy, holy.
Micah McCormick: But if this is if this is talking about Israel only or exclusively, it's not going to be going well.
Micah McCormick: They're going to get uprooted and struck down.
Micah McCormick: And yet, God Himself can supply the holiness that he requires.
Micah McCormick: And we hear this language of oaks and stumps and seeds, and we've got botanical imagery in our minds, and we should have that in our minds.
Micah McCormick: But this word seed, it's a word that's not only used of plants or tree seeds, it's used of human beings, of offspring.
Micah McCormick: This is the same word when God promises Eve her seed will crush the serpent's head.
Micah McCormick: And the Old Testament traces the story of that promised seed.
Micah McCormick: And here's Isaiah so powerfully bringing together this hope of restoration of a promised seed that's going to be provided by God Himself.
Micah McCormick: He could pack a lot into one verse.
Micah McCormick: God's the ultimate author.
Micah McCormick: So it's going to take the whole book to help fill this out.
Micah McCormick: But what does all of this have to do with God's servant?
Micah McCormick: In the book of Isaiah, the language of a servant is more common than the language of seed and the language of stump.
Micah McCormick: But there's a connection here.
Micah McCormick: Israel's failure to be the righteous stump corresponds to their failure to be the righteous servant.
Micah McCormick: Isaiah's inability to be the ultimate holy seed and offspring of David, that corresponds with Isaiah's inability to be the final and climactic servant of God.
Micah McCormick: Isaiah takes up this message of the servant multiple times in the book, Isaiah 42, 49, 50, 53.
Micah McCormick: We looked at four different servant songs.
Micah McCormick: And this servant brings God's righteousness.
Micah McCormick: He showcases the compassionate heart of God.
Micah McCormick: So if the message of Isaiah 52, 7 is the good news that God reigns, then the message of these triumphant servant songs is that a glorious servant is coming and bringing salvation once and for all.
Micah McCormick: Let's turn over to Isaiah 53.
Micah McCormick: I know you've been here in Isaiah 6.
Micah McCormick: We've been listening to a lot of different verses from Isaiah.
Micah McCormick: Turn to Isaiah 53.
Micah McCormick: It's one of the most well-known passages in Isaiah, and it's the final servant song.
Micah McCormick: Notice verse number 2.
Micah McCormick: He grew up before him, this servant, like a young plant, and like a root out of the dry ground.
Micah McCormick: There's just further connection of this servant who is the root of David.
Micah McCormick: Look down to the middle of verse 10.
Micah McCormick: He will see his seed.
Micah McCormick: So Jesus is the ultimate offspring.
Micah McCormick: And those who are of faith are blessed together with the Lord Jesus Christ, part of this holy seed.
Micah McCormick: We become part of the family of God.
Micah McCormick: When Isaiah sings these servant songs, yes, they're songs of celebration, but they're songs of sorrow.
Micah McCormick: There's this sort of two-beat rhythm of these songs.
Micah McCormick: It's suffering, glory.
Micah McCormick: Suffering and glory.
Micah McCormick: And you can see that here in verse number five.
Micah McCormick: He was pierced because of our rebellion.
Micah McCormick: Verse 6, the Lord punished him, laying on him human iniquity.
Micah McCormick: Verse number seven, he is the Lamb led to the slaughter, suffering, suffering, suffering.
Micah McCormick: And it's vicarious suffering.
Micah McCormick: That just means he was suffering in the place of other people.
Micah McCormick: He himself committed no sin, no iniquity was found in his mouth, but he was suffering for the people of God.
Micah McCormick: That's how God accomplishes salvation through a suffering servant.
Micah McCormick: Now, what about glory?
Micah McCormick: But verse number 10 says he will prolong his days.
Micah McCormick: So death's not going to have the last word.
Micah McCormick: In verse 12, he will be given the many as a portion.
Micah McCormick: Psalm 2, he receives the inheritance of nations.
Micah McCormick: And I know I had you turn to Isaiah 53, but this servant song actually begins back in Isaiah 52.
Micah McCormick: Look back to Isaiah 52, verse 13 of how the song begins.
Micah McCormick: See, my servant will be successful.
Micah McCormick: There's doubt about Israel accomplishing the work.
Micah McCormick: There's doubt about David and Isaiah.
Micah McCormick: There's no doubt about God's servant's son.
Micah McCormick: Jesus will be successful.
Micah McCormick: The nations will bow down and worship him.
Micah McCormick: He will be raised and lifted up and greatly exalted.
Micah McCormick: Yes, he was lifted up on a cruel cross.
Micah McCormick: Now he's lifted up to the highest heavens to receive all glory and honor and thanks and blessing and power.
Micah McCormick: Friends, brothers and sisters, this is the message of Isaiah.
Micah McCormick: The Holy God brings salvation through his servant.
Micah McCormick: This is how one writer puts it.
Micah McCormick: The prophecy spans the era from Isaiah till the final consummation as it unfolds God's plan for the redemption of his people.
Micah McCormick: The meaning of the name Isaiah sums up the prophecy.
Micah McCormick: Yahweh is salvation.
Micah McCormick: Over the last twelve plus years on Sunday mornings, we've been in New Testament books more often than Old Testament books.
Micah McCormick: And all scripture is given by God's inspiration.
Micah McCormick: You can't go wrong preaching any book of the Bible.
Micah McCormick: For some people, the New Testament is a little easier to understand, and it points maybe a little more directly and clearly to God's servant son, Jesus Christ.
Micah McCormick: But we have to realize you can't fully appreciate the New Testament without the Old Testament.
Micah McCormick: When Jesus began his public ministry in Luke chapter 4, he quotes from Isaiah 61 to say, well, just give me Jesus.
Micah McCormick: Well, Jesus himself says you gotta understand Isaiah if you're gonna understand me and my message and my work.
Micah McCormick: So we don't want to just go this far into the Bible.
Micah McCormick: We want to go farther and farther.
Micah McCormick: And because God is the divine author, I mean, there's a depth, there's an ocean of depth that we have yet to see in Isaiah, in Luke, in Philippians, and in every other book of the Bible.
Micah McCormick: So read and keep reading and pray that the Spirit of God would open your eyes to see the glorious things that are here.
Micah McCormick: Let me give you one final example of reading Isaiah in light of the entire Bible.
Micah McCormick: How can we meditate on this servant of the Lord who brings salvation?
Micah McCormick: And how can we meditate on him in this suffering and glory?
Micah McCormick: These two lenses that come up over and over in these servant songs.
Micah McCormick: Well, let's again try to think about those three horizons.
Micah McCormick: Yet God brought them back to the land.
Micah McCormick: Yet God allowed them to rebuild the temple.
Micah McCormick: He was going to do that.
Micah McCormick: There's impartial, but a measure of glory.
Micah McCormick: But God is urging his people to look forward to the day of the Messiah, the day when that true root of David grows from the tree.
Micah McCormick: And in the coming of Jesus Christ, we have a servant, the very servant from heaven.
Micah McCormick: He came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.
Micah McCormick: He's a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.
Micah McCormick: He knew what it was to suffer.
Micah McCormick: But what about glory?
Micah McCormick: The grave couldn't keep him from rising again.
Micah McCormick: Living, he loved us.
Micah McCormick: He's carried our sins far away.
Micah McCormick: So what about our lives?
Micah McCormick: You servants of God, your master proclaim.
Micah McCormick: God calls us to be servants.
Micah McCormick: And you know what that means?
Micah McCormick: There's going to be suffering.
Micah McCormick: Expect it.
Micah McCormick: Israel deserved their suffering.
Micah McCormick: We can't say about the suffering in our lives that we don't deserve it.
Micah McCormick: I mean, we're all unprofitable servants if we're going to be very narrow about it.
Micah McCormick: And yet, because we belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, suffering is not going to have the final word in our lives.
Micah McCormick: God may not save us from difficulties here.
Micah McCormick: But there's glory.
Micah McCormick: Tears are going to be wiped away.
Micah McCormick: Sorrow and suffering will be forever behind us.
Micah McCormick: I started to say the rear view mirror, but there's not even going to be a rear view mirror.
Micah McCormick: We won't have to look and see anything that caused those tears.
Micah McCormick: It's glory, glory, glory in Emmanuel's land.
Micah McCormick: This is because the Lord does it.
Micah McCormick: Romans 8.
Micah McCormick: Those he justified, he also glorified.
Micah McCormick: It's a done deal.
Micah McCormick: There's justification in the present, and there's suffering in the present, but there's full glory in the future.
Micah McCormick: I am convinced that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.
Micah McCormick: And Paul even says in Romans, quotes Isaiah all the time in Romans, but he talks about how all of creation is eagerly waiting for the revelation of the glory of the children of God.
Micah McCormick: Because when we get our final glory, then the whole creation gets its glory as well.
Micah McCormick: Isaiah gives us this vantage point to be able to take in all of life and history for the work that God is doing.
Micah McCormick: And that's a vantage point that we want to take with us into the world as God's servants.
Micah McCormick: Let me close with these words from Isaiah 45, verse 22.
Micah McCormick: Listen to this call.
Micah McCormick: Turn to me and be saved.
Micah McCormick: All the ends of the earth.
Micah McCormick: For I am God and there is no other.
Micah McCormick: Let's pray.
Micah McCormick: Lord, how can we do justice to the riches, the tapestry, the food, the building blocks, the sure foundation that's found in Scripture?
Micah McCormick: We can't do justice to it.
Micah McCormick: We can drink a little of this truth.
Micah McCormick: We can eat the bread that's the bread of life, and yet our souls are craving more.
Micah McCormick: And so thank you again that we've been able to consider this book for so many months now.
Micah McCormick: We pray that you would cause it to be changing us, that we would come back to it with eyes that are newly appreciative, newly eager to see how much more is here, how much your word ties together.
Micah McCormick: This glorious God who's designed all things.
Micah McCormick: We marvel at your wisdom.
Micah McCormick: We marvel at the plan of your salvation.
Micah McCormick: And we ask you, Lord, help us to suffer well.
Micah McCormick: Help us not to suffer with complaints.
Micah McCormick: And help us to be servants who are eager to proclaim good news, who are eager to tell people that we meet with love and with earnestness.
Micah McCormick: There's a holy God.
Micah McCormick: Oh, but but he brings salvation.
Micah McCormick: And it's not by works of righteousness that we've done, it's his mercy.
Micah McCormick: It's the mercy of his servant.
Micah McCormick: Thank you, O Christ, for serving us, for laying down your life for us, for living the life that we could never live.
Micah McCormick: And as we prepare to worship you now by remembering these wonderful and precious elements, give us hearts of meekness, hearts of renewed worship, and hearts that anticipate the glory that is yet to come.
Micah McCormick: In Jesus' name.
Micah McCormick: Amen.
Micah McCormick: Let's stand.