WEBVTT 00:00:00.800 --> 00:00:04.799 Thank you, choir and orchestra, for leading us so well in worship this morning. 00:00:05.360 --> 00:00:09.519 Thank you for thankful for our brothers and sisters who've come to worship with us this morning. 00:00:12.240 --> 00:00:14.960 This morning we'll be in the book of Isaiah in chapter 42. 00:00:15.039 --> 00:00:21.760 For the next few weeks, our pastor Jesse Johnson will be out of town leading a tour in Israel with some members from our congregation. 00:00:21.839 --> 00:00:26.879 And this coming week we'll be in Los Angeles to attend the graduation ceremony of the Master Seminary. 00:00:26.960 --> 00:00:31.760 As you know, Emmanuel Bible Church hosts a distance location for the Master Seminary. 00:00:31.920 --> 00:00:37.600 We have about 15 students studying for gospel ministry, and this year we're celebrating our first graduating class. 00:00:38.000 --> 00:00:41.439 Four men from that seminary are graduating. 00:00:46.320 --> 00:00:51.280 Because of the ministry of this church, they've been trained up and they are ready to launch into further gospel ministry. 00:00:51.359 --> 00:01:02.960 So would you be praying for our pastor and for those men this week as they get to celebrate that ceremony, that they'd be encouraged and they'd come back filled with zeal to serve the Lord in this church and in the church churches that they serve in in this area. 00:01:03.759 --> 00:01:10.799 This morning we'll be examining a text in Isaiah, and so would you begin our time this morning by turning your attention to God's word with me? 00:01:10.879 --> 00:01:12.319 Let me read our passage. 00:01:20.480 --> 00:01:25.359 Behold my servant whom I uphold, my chosen in whom my soul delights. 00:01:25.599 --> 00:01:27.519 I put my spirit upon him. 00:01:27.840 --> 00:01:30.319 He will bring forth justice to the nations. 00:01:30.560 --> 00:01:38.560 He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice or make it heard in the street, a bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench. 00:01:38.879 --> 00:01:41.359 He will faithfully bring forth justice. 00:01:41.680 --> 00:01:48.079 He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth, and the coastlands wait for his law. 00:01:48.319 --> 00:01:57.359 Thus says God Yahweh, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it, and spirit to those who walk on it. 00:01:57.599 --> 00:01:58.959 I am Yahweh. 00:01:59.200 --> 00:02:01.120 I've called you in righteousness. 00:02:01.280 --> 00:02:03.359 I'll take you by the hand and keep you. 00:02:03.519 --> 00:02:13.599 I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, and from the prison those who sit in darkness. 00:02:13.840 --> 00:02:18.560 I am Yahweh, that is my name, my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols. 00:02:18.719 --> 00:02:25.199 Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare, before they spring forth, I tell you of them. 00:02:25.759 --> 00:02:27.120 This is God's word. 00:02:28.159 --> 00:02:39.039 Well, for the next few Sundays, we're going to explore a series of passages in the closing chapters of Isaiah's great book of prophecy that depict a mysterious servant. 00:02:39.520 --> 00:02:47.680 These passages, Isaiah 42 for this morning, and in the coming weeks, chapter 49, 50, and 53, have traditionally been called the servant songs. 00:02:47.919 --> 00:02:51.759 They are poetic texts that display our Savior. 00:02:52.159 --> 00:03:03.360 And they're repeatedly referred to in the New Testament, alluded to, quoted, and the New Testament writers identify this mysterious servant as none other than the Lord Jesus Himself. 00:03:03.840 --> 00:03:13.439 But though the New Testament writers often refer to these texts, if we were to only examine them in the New Testament, we would actually miss much that these texts have to teach us about our Lord. 00:03:15.360 --> 00:03:26.000 So by discuss excuse me, so by exploring these texts in their Isaiah context, we'll really have a new vista opened up for us by which to behold the glory of Jesus. 00:03:26.240 --> 00:03:28.159 Maybe you could think of these texts a bit like this. 00:03:28.240 --> 00:03:37.599 If you were to go up and down the eastern seaboard, hitting all of the major, highly trafficked, scenic views, you'd be amazed at the glory of God's creation and what you would see. 00:03:37.759 --> 00:03:43.120 And yet, if you only hit the most trafficked locations, you would miss some of the most beautiful views. 00:03:43.280 --> 00:03:46.400 Some of the most beautiful views would be off the beaten trail. 00:03:46.879 --> 00:03:59.439 Maybe you could think of these texts a little bit like that: leaving some of the typical texts that we go to to behold Jesus and finding embedded within this ancient prophecy poems that display the glory of Jesus. 00:03:59.759 --> 00:04:09.439 This morning I want to look into Isaiah chapter 42 with you, and we'll find that this text displays for us that our Savior is a liberating Savior. 00:04:09.680 --> 00:04:10.879 A liberating Savior. 00:04:11.039 --> 00:04:12.800 And we'll look at this text under four headings. 00:04:12.960 --> 00:04:23.600 This text is going to show us the servant, his mission to bring forth justice to the world, the means, that is, he'll bring us into a covenant, and the results, your liberation for God's glory. 00:04:23.759 --> 00:04:25.839 We'll walk through the text under those four headings. 00:04:26.000 --> 00:04:27.680 Let's begin with that first point. 00:04:27.920 --> 00:04:29.279 Let's look at the servant. 00:04:29.439 --> 00:04:31.680 Notice in verse 1, he is upheld for us. 00:04:31.759 --> 00:04:32.639 So look at verse 1. 00:04:32.720 --> 00:04:35.360 Let's ask some questions about who is the servant. 00:04:35.600 --> 00:04:37.680 Look in your Bibles at verse 1. 00:04:37.920 --> 00:04:42.399 And we read, Behold my servant whom I uphold, my chosen in whom my soul delights. 00:04:42.480 --> 00:04:47.040 I've put my spirit upon him, and he will bring forth justice to the nations. 00:04:47.360 --> 00:04:51.920 Now I want to make a number of observations about the servant in this text this morning, but let's begin with this. 00:04:52.160 --> 00:04:59.439 If you'll notice carefully, this text really joins two seemingly opposed qualities in this person. 00:05:00.319 --> 00:05:05.839 Notice at the end of verse 1, we find that this servant is going to bring forth justice to the nations. 00:05:06.079 --> 00:05:11.439 Justice is a theme throughout Scripture, and it's especially an office that a king would execute. 00:05:11.600 --> 00:05:19.120 A king is charged with the duty to bring justice to his society, to put down evildoers, to establish equity in his society. 00:05:19.279 --> 00:05:26.160 And this servant is going to bring forth divine justice to the nations, not just in a community, but to the entire globe. 00:05:26.319 --> 00:05:29.519 He'll establish God's just rule on the earth. 00:05:29.759 --> 00:05:35.680 In other words, this servant is really a king with divine exalted power. 00:05:35.839 --> 00:05:38.560 This is a high individual. 00:05:39.199 --> 00:05:43.120 And at the same time, he's exceedingly lowly. 00:05:43.519 --> 00:05:52.560 Notice in verse 3, the servant is described as one who a bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench. 00:05:52.639 --> 00:05:54.959 And we'll examine this verse in more detail in a moment. 00:05:55.120 --> 00:06:05.680 But for now, notice that this servant, with his exalted divine power to execute justice, is going to do it on behalf of the hopeless and the lowly. 00:06:20.079 --> 00:06:29.360 I mean, this isn't this what every politician and athlete is doing when they go for a publicity shoot in the hospitals or in a care center. 00:06:29.839 --> 00:06:38.480 Is we are in awe of someone who is high and of a dignified status coming down to identify with those who are seemingly lower than them. 00:06:38.720 --> 00:06:53.199 And when you see that not just done for publicity's sake, but done genuinely, a person who has power and status, genuinely lowering himself to identify with and serve someone who seems lower than him, that's admirable. 00:06:53.600 --> 00:06:58.480 And yet, what we see on a human level is just a faint whisper of this servant. 00:06:58.720 --> 00:07:05.199 Because this servant is coming from divine heights, infinite heights, and plummeting to the lowest of lows. 00:07:06.000 --> 00:07:13.120 You know, this the 18th century pastor and American intellectual Jonathan Edwards preached my favorite sermon that I've ever read from him. 00:07:13.360 --> 00:07:16.639 It's called The Excellencies of Jesus Christ. 00:07:16.959 --> 00:07:28.639 And he describes in that sermon that over and over in Scripture, what the New Testament sets before us is, in his words, an admirable conjunction of diverse excellencies in Jesus Christ. 00:07:28.800 --> 00:07:30.079 How about that for a sentence? 00:07:30.800 --> 00:07:34.800 An admirable conjunction of diverse excellencies in Jesus Christ. 00:07:34.959 --> 00:07:40.800 That is, you get both justice and grace. 00:07:41.439 --> 00:07:43.600 You get strength and weakness. 00:07:44.800 --> 00:07:47.600 You get power and you get meekness. 00:07:47.759 --> 00:07:52.399 And here you get height and humble humility. 00:07:53.839 --> 00:07:55.839 This is an incredible figure. 00:07:56.160 --> 00:08:08.160 This person set before us in Isaiah 42, verse 1, is described as being higher than the kings of the earth, of divine status, higher than anything in the created universe. 00:08:08.319 --> 00:08:12.959 His power is unsearchable, his wisdom is unlimited, his riches are infinite. 00:08:13.199 --> 00:08:15.360 There is nothing that you could possibly add to him. 00:08:15.600 --> 00:08:16.879 He has no need for us. 00:08:17.040 --> 00:08:19.600 He didn't create us because he was lonely or needed anything. 00:08:19.759 --> 00:08:24.240 And when we worship him or give him glory, we don't add anything to him that he did not already have. 00:08:24.399 --> 00:08:32.639 This is one who is beyond our searching, beyond our comprehension, who holds all of the nations and all of the created world like a drop in the palm of his hand. 00:08:33.279 --> 00:08:39.039 This person then is described as becoming infinitely humble and associating with the lowly. 00:08:39.200 --> 00:08:47.279 There is no one so low, so outcast, so despised, yea so wicked, that he won't identify with them and even say, Come unto me. 00:08:47.440 --> 00:08:55.360 And even beyond that, come underneath them, taking on the form of a slave to bear their burdens, bear their sins, and make them right with God. 00:08:55.919 --> 00:09:00.159 Highness and humility perfectly joined in this servant. 00:09:01.360 --> 00:09:03.360 This is a person like no other. 00:09:05.679 --> 00:09:11.600 But the text doesn't stop there in displaying this unique figure. 00:09:12.000 --> 00:09:20.320 We also see that not only is there this incredible conjunction of highness and humility, but this text also describes a person in unique relationship with God. 00:09:20.639 --> 00:09:21.840 Unique relationship with God. 00:09:22.000 --> 00:09:28.240 Notice again in verse 1, look down at your Bibles at verse 1, we find, Behold, my servant announces God. 00:09:28.320 --> 00:09:30.240 This is God, Yahweh Himself speaking. 00:09:30.320 --> 00:09:36.240 He says, Whom I uphold, my chosen, get this, in whom my soul delights. 00:09:36.480 --> 00:09:39.840 I have put my spirit upon him. 00:09:41.600 --> 00:09:43.759 In whom my soul delights. 00:09:43.919 --> 00:09:50.000 That's intense poetic language to describe the joy that God has in this servant. 00:09:50.240 --> 00:09:52.480 This is really actually unique language in Scripture. 00:09:52.559 --> 00:09:54.000 Now the verb delight isn't unique. 00:09:54.080 --> 00:09:56.559 God says over and over, He delights in His people. 00:09:57.120 --> 00:09:59.679 For example, we see that over and over in the Psalms. 00:09:59.919 --> 00:10:19.200 David says in 1 Chronicles chapter 28 and verse 4 that God delighted to choose him and make him king, but not this kind of language where this text says that God's whole soul, his whole being, his whole divine essence delights in, is satisfied, enjoys this person. 00:10:19.840 --> 00:10:22.639 Whole personed enjoyment of the servant. 00:10:22.799 --> 00:10:29.200 This person is of such status, such glory, such wonder that God Himself is satisfied in him. 00:10:30.399 --> 00:10:50.960 We see this coming to the fore even more in the New Testament, in the baptism of Jesus recorded for us in Matthew chapter 3, as Jesus comes up from the waters of baptism, it says in that text that the Holy Spirit descends like a dove to reside on him, and God's voice is heard from heaven audibly declaring, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. 00:10:51.120 --> 00:10:56.000 This one is of such glory that forever I have been satisfied in him. 00:11:18.320 --> 00:11:25.679 And in whom I'm well pleased comes from our text, Isaiah 42, which describes a humble servant identifying with the lowly. 00:11:55.919 --> 00:12:03.120 Now, having made some of these observations, I think we can now ask a question, the question we all should ask when we read a text like this, who is this? 00:12:03.360 --> 00:12:05.519 I hope that it sounds a bit like a redundant question. 00:12:05.679 --> 00:12:06.159 Who is this? 00:12:06.320 --> 00:12:07.120 It's the Lord Jesus. 00:12:07.279 --> 00:12:12.159 The New Testament tells us we've been just parsing out this passage, and it seems quite obvious. 00:12:12.399 --> 00:12:15.919 And yet, this has been a controversy in the history of interpretation. 00:12:16.240 --> 00:12:17.440 Who is the servant? 00:12:18.159 --> 00:12:28.559 It has been said repeatedly that the servant really isn't an individual, it's the believing community of Israel. 00:12:28.799 --> 00:12:30.960 There's a couple reasons that would be given for that. 00:12:31.360 --> 00:12:48.879 One would be in Isaiah chapter 11, which describes this king who's gonna come and establish justice in the nations, where we see that God has declared in Isaiah 11 that there's going to be a king who will establish justice in the nations, but he's not gonna be weak, he's gonna be strong and execute God's will with power. 00:12:49.759 --> 00:12:56.879 Then Isaiah 42 says that there's going to be justice, but it's going to be through a servant who's humble and lowly. 00:12:57.120 --> 00:13:00.240 And it doesn't seem like those two can be the same person. 00:13:00.480 --> 00:13:04.559 So this must be the believing community somehow participating in that. 00:13:05.120 --> 00:13:10.960 Moreover, this term my servant isn't exclusively used for an individual, it's also used for Israel as a community. 00:13:11.039 --> 00:13:22.559 Just flip back in your Bibles to Isaiah 41 and verse 8, 41 and verse 8, just a page over in your Bible, in Isaiah 41 and verse 8, the same language is used for Israel. 00:13:22.799 --> 00:13:28.720 Verse 8, but you, Israel, my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham, my friend. 00:13:28.879 --> 00:13:30.799 That's the same language used to describe Israel. 00:13:30.960 --> 00:13:37.759 And even in chapter 42, after our text, at the end of this same chapter, chapter 42 and verse 19, listen to this language. 00:13:38.000 --> 00:13:41.519 Who is blind but my servant, or deaf as my messenger whom I send? 00:13:41.600 --> 00:13:44.559 Who is blind as my dedicated one, or blind as the servant of the Lord? 00:13:44.720 --> 00:13:45.279 Same language. 00:13:45.360 --> 00:13:48.240 How do I know that's Jacob or Israel that God's referring to? 00:13:48.399 --> 00:13:49.919 Well, because of verse 24. 00:13:50.080 --> 00:13:53.120 Who gave up Jacob to the looter and Israel to the plunderers? 00:13:53.600 --> 00:13:56.559 There, the servant is explicitly identified as Israel. 00:13:56.720 --> 00:14:07.519 So you see, this same term, my servant, is being used interchangeably to refer to a community, a group of people, or I'm arguing, an individual. 00:14:08.000 --> 00:14:13.039 So how do I know that this is indeed, in our passage, an individual, not the community? 00:14:14.240 --> 00:14:23.279 Well, we'll see this even more clearly as we go through the servant songs, that this person is doing a work to bring the community back to God. 00:14:23.440 --> 00:14:24.879 He can't be the community. 00:14:25.120 --> 00:14:27.679 He's bringing the community to God in Isaiah 49. 00:14:27.759 --> 00:14:31.120 Isaiah 53, verse 8 says, He's stricken for the transgression of my people. 00:14:31.200 --> 00:14:33.679 He's suffering and dying on behalf of the community. 00:14:33.759 --> 00:14:35.279 He's not the community, he's not the group. 00:14:35.440 --> 00:14:36.720 He's an individual. 00:14:37.039 --> 00:14:39.200 And even in this text, look at verse 7. 00:14:39.440 --> 00:14:43.360 Verse 7 in your text says that this servant is going to open the eyes that are blind. 00:14:43.440 --> 00:14:48.399 But then the text I just read, verse 19, the servant Israel, the group, is blind. 00:14:49.200 --> 00:14:51.039 In other words, this can't be the group. 00:14:51.120 --> 00:14:55.600 This is the individual who is acting for the group to bring them to God. 00:14:57.679 --> 00:15:04.639 See, there's a concept that we need to have when we are reading texts like this that at first appear to be a bit confusing or contradictory. 00:15:05.200 --> 00:15:09.120 A concept in biblical interpretation is often called corporate solidarity. 00:15:09.200 --> 00:15:22.960 It's a fancy word just to speak of a very common concept that we use in everyday life of an individual being so united to, joined to, a group or a community of people that he can act for them and represent them. 00:15:23.279 --> 00:15:29.279 So we do this in politics when an individual is so united to a country, he represents them and acts on their behalf. 00:15:29.440 --> 00:15:35.679 We do this in sports, when a captain is so identified and united to his team that he acts on their behalf. 00:15:35.919 --> 00:15:40.080 A father is so united to, identified with his family, that he acts on their behalf. 00:15:40.240 --> 00:15:50.000 And here we have an individual who is so united to the people Israel that he acts for them on their behalf to do what they can't do and bring them to God. 00:15:52.240 --> 00:15:55.360 Now, we've made some interpretive observations. 00:15:55.519 --> 00:15:58.000 Let's zoom out and see what we've discovered. 00:15:59.440 --> 00:16:00.720 See what this verse is doing? 00:16:03.120 --> 00:16:04.480 This is the gospel. 00:16:06.480 --> 00:16:14.879 The God of the universe has forever delighted, wholehearted, whole-personed, infinite delight in his son. 00:16:16.080 --> 00:16:17.840 And he chose to give him. 00:16:18.320 --> 00:16:42.320 And the Son of infinite heights and of infinite glory chose to plummet to infinite depths, to identify with sinful people, to take on your nature so that you could become a partaker of his divine nature, to bear your sorrows so you could enter into his joy, to suffer under the wrath you deserve, so you could enter into the favors that he deserves. 00:16:42.639 --> 00:16:51.120 This is the gospel of God giving his son and plummeting down to enter into and identify with you and represent you to bring you to God. 00:16:51.360 --> 00:17:10.960 So, what it means to be a Christian then is to put your faith in Jesus, and when you become a Christian, your life becomes so identified with Jesus Christ that God can look at you and see you as joined to Jesus in such a way that this announcement, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased, now applies to you. 00:17:12.400 --> 00:17:26.079 All of the favor that God has forever been infinitely been placing upon his son, now he places on you all of God's favor, all of his love, all of his delight is now fixed on you because you are in his son. 00:17:29.119 --> 00:17:31.440 All through this servant. 00:17:31.759 --> 00:17:37.599 This is your servant who identifies with you and brings you to God. 00:17:38.000 --> 00:17:46.799 This is a servant in Isaiah 42, but we should move on because the text also tells us about his mission and what he intends to do in the world. 00:17:47.119 --> 00:17:51.440 And his mission we'll find in verses 2 through 4 is to execute justice. 00:17:51.680 --> 00:17:52.240 Justice. 00:17:52.480 --> 00:18:11.839 Now I want to read verses 2 through 4, but I want you to read very closely with me because in verses 2 through 4, Isaiah is describing the mission of the servant, and he's doing it using a Hebraic poetic device called a kiasm, in which you repeat the same idea at the beginning and the end of the poem, and you sandwich an idea in the middle in order to highlight it. 00:18:12.079 --> 00:18:17.039 So I'm going to read through the text and then I'll try to piece this together for you, and we'll make some observations along the way. 00:18:17.119 --> 00:18:18.319 So look down at your Bibles. 00:18:18.400 --> 00:18:20.400 Let's begin at the end of verse 1. 00:18:20.559 --> 00:18:25.039 And I the end of verse 1 reads this He will bring forth justice to the nations. 00:18:25.279 --> 00:18:29.279 He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice or make it heard in the street. 00:18:29.440 --> 00:18:30.559 Here's the middle of it. 00:18:34.559 --> 00:18:36.240 And now we're back to some repetition. 00:18:36.480 --> 00:18:38.559 He will faithfully bring forth justice. 00:18:38.720 --> 00:18:45.519 He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth, and the coastlands wait for his law. 00:18:45.759 --> 00:18:47.200 Now, did you see that? 00:18:47.599 --> 00:18:49.279 I'm going to walk walk you through. 00:18:49.359 --> 00:18:50.079 There's three layers here. 00:18:50.160 --> 00:18:54.079 There's an outer layer, an inner layer, and a sandwich, the meat in the middle. 00:18:54.400 --> 00:18:56.240 The outer layer is in verse 1. 00:18:56.480 --> 00:18:58.799 He will bring forth justice to the nations. 00:18:59.039 --> 00:19:01.599 Exhaustive earth covering justice. 00:19:01.680 --> 00:19:06.000 And that's picked up in verse 4, till he's established justice in the earth and the coastlands. 00:19:06.079 --> 00:19:09.680 The coastlands are the far-flung parts of the world, await his law. 00:19:10.079 --> 00:19:14.880 That's repeated to tell us that the extent of his mission is global justice. 00:19:15.200 --> 00:19:17.519 Then there's an inner layer, which is in verse 2. 00:19:17.680 --> 00:19:21.039 He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice or made it heard in the streets. 00:19:21.200 --> 00:19:30.240 Those verbs are used repeatedly in the book of Isaiah to describe people who have failed in their mission, failed to live up to God's standards, and so will be judged. 00:19:30.319 --> 00:19:31.519 And they cry out. 00:19:31.759 --> 00:19:34.640 And this text is saying this servant will not fail. 00:19:34.880 --> 00:19:37.039 He will succeed, so he won't have to cry out. 00:19:37.200 --> 00:19:39.119 And that's repeated at the end of verse 3. 00:19:39.279 --> 00:19:41.200 He will faithfully bring forth justice. 00:19:41.359 --> 00:19:42.640 He'll succeed in doing it. 00:19:42.799 --> 00:19:45.599 So the outer layer, it's going to be exhaustive justice. 00:19:45.759 --> 00:19:48.160 The inner layer, he will succeed in doing this. 00:19:48.319 --> 00:19:49.200 And now the inside. 00:19:49.359 --> 00:19:51.519 What is it that Isaiah wants to draw our attention to? 00:19:51.680 --> 00:19:52.640 It's in verse 3. 00:19:52.720 --> 00:19:54.400 Look at verse 3 in your Bible. 00:19:56.960 --> 00:20:02.400 A bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench. 00:20:02.559 --> 00:20:04.960 He will faithfully bring forth justice. 00:20:05.680 --> 00:20:14.640 What's in the middle is that this exalted divine servant is going to bring forth universal justice for the hopeless. 00:20:15.839 --> 00:20:20.799 He identifies with the lowly and he executes justice for them. 00:20:22.480 --> 00:20:32.000 Now that's this the uh the structure of this poem, but I want to maybe flesh this out just a bit more because this concept of justice is a massive concept. 00:20:32.240 --> 00:20:37.599 And I think perhaps to kind of get our arms around it, it would be good to look at a famous text that I've already referenced. 00:20:37.680 --> 00:20:38.640 It's Isaiah 11. 00:20:38.720 --> 00:20:40.799 So flip in your Bibles to Isaiah 11. 00:20:41.039 --> 00:20:42.319 Isaiah chapter 11. 00:20:42.400 --> 00:20:44.400 I want to read a couple verses from there. 00:20:44.640 --> 00:20:52.160 What we find in Isaiah 11 is a description of an individual who is going to bring justice to the world. 00:20:52.400 --> 00:20:55.599 Now the context of this is just biblical context. 00:20:56.799 --> 00:21:03.839 The key text in the Bible that describes to us the effects of sin in the world is Genesis chapter 3 upon entrance of sin into the world. 00:21:04.079 --> 00:21:06.400 Humanity's relationship with God is severed, right? 00:21:06.480 --> 00:21:06.960 We know this. 00:21:07.119 --> 00:21:08.880 This is what we teach our children in Sunday school. 00:21:08.960 --> 00:21:13.200 And yet the Bible doesn't just describe a singular relationship for which we were created. 00:21:13.279 --> 00:21:17.279 That is, God didn't just make us to know him and glorify him and worship him. 00:21:17.440 --> 00:21:18.640 That's our chief end. 00:21:19.440 --> 00:21:22.480 But he didn't just make us for that, he made other people too. 00:21:22.720 --> 00:21:27.759 And so he also made us not just for this vertical relation, but for relationships with other people. 00:21:28.799 --> 00:21:31.200 And for relationship with his created world. 00:21:31.359 --> 00:21:36.720 Humanity was created to steward God's creation and to maximize its created potential. 00:21:36.960 --> 00:21:40.559 And when sin entered into the world, all three of those relationships were broken. 00:21:40.720 --> 00:21:46.799 Our relationship with God was severed so that we're born into the world with sin in our hearts, separated from God, alienated from him. 00:21:47.200 --> 00:21:52.799 And because of sin, our relationships are fractured, and there are wars, and there are fighting and there's gossiping. 00:21:52.960 --> 00:21:59.839 And our relationship with the world is broken because God has placed a curse on this fallen world so that it fights back, and there are torments. 00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:02.880 Tornadoes and tsunamis and disasters. 00:22:03.279 --> 00:22:09.359 So our world is replete with death, destruction, and disaster and pain. 00:22:09.599 --> 00:22:20.400 But God has promised in Scripture that there's a day when He will reverse all the effects of sin, and He will bring in an edenic paradise where all of our relationships will be restored. 00:22:20.559 --> 00:22:24.240 And the person who's going to do this is described in Isaiah 11. 00:22:24.400 --> 00:22:25.680 Let me introduce him to you. 00:22:25.839 --> 00:22:29.119 Look at verse 1 in your text, down in Isaiah chapter 11, verse 1. 00:22:29.359 --> 00:22:35.680 There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, that is a descendant of David, so he'll be a king. 00:22:35.920 --> 00:22:47.839 And a branch from his roots shall bear fruit, and the spirit of the Lord, that sounds like Isaiah 42, the spirit of the Lord shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. 00:22:48.000 --> 00:22:58.640 And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord, and he shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear, but with righteousness he sh he shall judge the poor and decide with equity for the meek of the earth. 00:22:58.799 --> 00:23:03.680 He shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. 00:23:03.839 --> 00:23:07.920 The righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins. 00:23:08.160 --> 00:23:14.480 This divine king is going to come and execute God's will on the earth comprehensively. 00:23:14.799 --> 00:23:23.359 The following verses tell us the results of this promised divine king's reign, and it's going to be the restoration of the entire world. 00:23:23.599 --> 00:23:24.640 Look at verse six. 00:23:25.119 --> 00:23:33.680 These following verses contain that poetic language that you've heard even if you haven't read this text in a while, probably in your high school literary classes about lions laying down with lambs. 00:23:34.319 --> 00:23:36.000 This is the text that that comes from. 00:23:36.240 --> 00:23:44.960 Verse six reads The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together, and the little child shall lead them. 00:23:45.119 --> 00:23:50.799 The cow and the bear shall graze, and the young shall lie down together, and their and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 00:23:50.960 --> 00:23:57.119 The nursing child shall play over the whole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put out his hand on the adder's den. 00:23:57.839 --> 00:23:58.960 You see what's happening? 00:23:59.200 --> 00:24:02.000 Restoration of our relationship with the created world. 00:24:02.160 --> 00:24:08.160 The created world is set right so that there is no more destruction. 00:24:08.240 --> 00:24:09.599 The earth doesn't fight back anymore. 00:24:09.759 --> 00:24:10.799 Animals are in harmony. 00:24:10.880 --> 00:24:11.839 Nature is in harmony. 00:24:12.000 --> 00:24:16.000 Everything is operating rightly as God originally intended it before sin. 00:24:16.720 --> 00:24:20.880 The next verse says that our horizontal relationships with humanity will also be restored. 00:24:21.039 --> 00:24:26.000 Verse 9, they shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain. 00:24:26.160 --> 00:24:30.240 And then this, the end of this verse tells us our relationship with the Lord restored. 00:24:30.480 --> 00:24:34.960 The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as waters cover the sea. 00:24:35.119 --> 00:24:36.400 Do you see what this is promising? 00:24:36.640 --> 00:24:44.000 This divine king is going to return, is going to come, and he's going to recreate the world. 00:24:44.640 --> 00:24:51.759 An identic paradise is God originally intended it, where righteousness characterizes all relationships. 00:24:52.880 --> 00:24:58.640 Isaiah 42, you can return to that text, is saying this servant is going to do that. 00:24:59.359 --> 00:25:04.880 A comprehensive recreation of the world where everything is made right. 00:25:05.279 --> 00:25:15.839 But the particular contribution Isaiah 42 wants to make to our understanding of this is right in the middle that he's going to do it for bruised reeds and faintly burning wicks. 00:25:16.880 --> 00:25:19.279 Let me flesh out this metaphor for you a bit. 00:25:20.880 --> 00:25:22.079 Bruised reed. 00:25:22.720 --> 00:25:25.839 It's kind of a it's a poetic and wonderful translation. 00:25:25.920 --> 00:25:28.079 It's not a great liter literal translation. 00:25:28.240 --> 00:25:31.359 The word bruised means break, something that's destroyed. 00:25:31.680 --> 00:25:32.960 But bruised reed sounds so good. 00:25:33.039 --> 00:25:34.160 Who would change that? 00:25:35.440 --> 00:25:46.319 A reed is a slender, high-growing stalk that has a seed-bearing head, and if it were to break, it would snap and it would wave around in the wind. 00:25:46.480 --> 00:25:48.000 It would never bear seeds again. 00:25:48.240 --> 00:25:49.839 There's no coming back from that. 00:25:50.000 --> 00:25:50.880 It's hopeless. 00:25:50.960 --> 00:25:51.920 It's gone. 00:25:52.160 --> 00:26:01.119 And a faintly burning wick is a candle that's on its last bit of glowing and the smoke is beginning to come to signal it's about to extinguish. 00:26:01.279 --> 00:26:02.480 And candles don't come back from that. 00:26:02.559 --> 00:26:05.200 They don't just get some more vigor and go, oh, just push a little harder. 00:26:05.279 --> 00:26:05.680 That's done. 00:26:05.759 --> 00:26:06.559 It's over. 00:26:07.519 --> 00:26:10.720 In other words, this is describing hopeless people. 00:26:11.200 --> 00:26:20.240 And I know that this is referring to people because Isaiah uses these same metaphors a number of places in his prophecies, and he uses it to refer to people and God's dealing with them. 00:26:20.400 --> 00:26:25.759 For example, Isaiah 43 in verse 17 describes God's conquest of the Egyptian army. 00:26:26.079 --> 00:26:29.519 Moses leads the Israelites out of Egypt through the Red Sea. 00:26:30.559 --> 00:26:37.279 Sea parts, Israel crosses through, Pharaoh's army enters, and God causes the sea to crush them. 00:26:37.440 --> 00:26:41.519 And Isaiah says, that was like God putting out a candle. 00:26:43.359 --> 00:26:46.640 That's how easily God wiped out an army. 00:26:47.920 --> 00:26:51.920 And now this text says, yes, this servant is that same exalted Lord. 00:26:52.319 --> 00:26:56.000 He can snuff out an army as easily as you would extinguish a candle flame. 00:26:57.519 --> 00:26:59.599 But he loves the lowly. 00:26:59.920 --> 00:27:05.200 And he chooses instead of to extinguish them to identify with them and heal them. 00:27:06.720 --> 00:27:08.880 This is an incredible, unique person. 00:27:09.200 --> 00:27:16.319 I think what we ought to learn from this is that we ought to learn that Jesus loves sinners. 00:27:16.640 --> 00:27:19.759 Jesus loves hopeless cases. 00:27:20.720 --> 00:27:23.119 Jesus loves sinners who have sinned against God. 00:27:23.200 --> 00:27:26.400 And once you have sinned against God, you can't undo that. 00:27:26.960 --> 00:27:31.839 Once you have dug a hole and you're in debt to God, you can't pay it back. 00:27:32.000 --> 00:27:34.880 Everything that you could try to give him, you already owed him in the first place. 00:27:35.119 --> 00:27:37.359 Once you sinned, you can't go back, you're a broken reed. 00:27:37.440 --> 00:27:38.799 And Jesus loves sinners. 00:27:38.880 --> 00:27:44.960 He loves to restore them, to identify with them, to bear their wrath, to remove their sin and restore them to God. 00:27:45.920 --> 00:27:48.720 And Jesus loves battered saints. 00:27:49.279 --> 00:28:02.480 And during the trials of this world, lacking wisdom, burdened by the weight of their ongoing struggle with sin, Jesus loves hopeless, lowly, faintly burning wicks. 00:28:03.359 --> 00:28:08.480 Scripture tells us that this Savior heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. 00:28:09.039 --> 00:28:14.640 What we ought to learn from this text is that no matter where you're at, you can come to Jesus. 00:28:15.440 --> 00:28:21.279 This text says that Jesus will not extinguish the f the smoking wick, so neither should you try to extinguish yourself. 00:28:22.000 --> 00:28:24.400 You can come to Jesus. 00:28:25.359 --> 00:28:27.359 He is a friend of sinners. 00:28:28.640 --> 00:28:36.880 This text tells us about the servant, his highness and his lowliness, his mission to bring about justice for the hopeless. 00:28:37.200 --> 00:28:42.880 But this text also tells us something about the means, the way that he will do this. 00:28:42.960 --> 00:28:44.559 And this is actually quite important. 00:28:44.799 --> 00:28:46.400 I'm going to read verses five and six. 00:28:46.480 --> 00:28:52.160 I won't then I want to try to tease out a little bit of a problem in this text that maybe you've already or already not identified. 00:28:52.319 --> 00:28:53.920 Let's read verses five and six. 00:28:54.160 --> 00:29:03.519 Verse five says, Thus says God, Yahweh, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it. 00:29:03.680 --> 00:29:05.920 I am Yahweh, I've called you in righteousness. 00:29:06.079 --> 00:29:07.839 I will take you by the hand and keep you. 00:29:08.000 --> 00:29:13.039 I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations. 00:29:13.279 --> 00:29:14.079 Problem solved. 00:29:14.240 --> 00:29:15.359 Do you see the problem? 00:29:17.119 --> 00:29:27.759 We've just been talking about this righteous, divine king that this prophecy says is going to come and is going to restore the world and bring about an endemic paradise. 00:29:27.839 --> 00:29:42.319 But did you catch in Isaiah chapter 11, and just common sense would tell us that if God is going to bring about a world where there is no more evil, a world of perfect righteousness, then he has to destroy evil. 00:29:42.559 --> 00:29:46.480 Isaiah chapter 11 says that he will destroy the wicked with the breath of his mouth. 00:29:46.640 --> 00:29:50.000 Well, if we're honest, that's who we are. 00:29:50.240 --> 00:29:51.279 We are the wicked. 00:29:51.359 --> 00:29:52.960 We're in that category. 00:29:53.200 --> 00:29:54.480 We have broken God's law. 00:29:54.559 --> 00:29:55.920 We don't meet God's standards. 00:29:56.079 --> 00:30:04.880 If God is going to rid the world of evil and bring about a perfect righteous paradise, you know he's not just going to destroy the evil around us in society that we don't like. 00:30:05.119 --> 00:30:08.000 He won't operate on anybody's particular party platform. 00:30:08.160 --> 00:30:11.839 He's going to operate out of his own perfect holy character. 00:30:12.079 --> 00:30:21.599 So he won't just extinguish the wickedness outside of you that you don't like, he will also judge what's inside of you that you do like. 00:30:22.720 --> 00:30:28.079 If this righteous king is going to strike the wicked, then all of us will be struck down. 00:30:28.559 --> 00:30:34.559 How then, how then can he create a perfect world and bring sinners into it? 00:30:38.319 --> 00:30:40.880 Verse 6 is the solution to that problem. 00:30:41.680 --> 00:30:49.119 God says at the end of verse 6, I am going to make you a covenant for the people, a light for the nations. 00:30:49.440 --> 00:30:54.559 Now, covenant is a way of relating to God, and this is going to be a covenant of light. 00:30:54.799 --> 00:30:55.680 What does that mean? 00:30:56.799 --> 00:31:02.720 Light is used over and over in Scripture, and particularly by Isaiah, as a metaphor for salvation. 00:31:02.960 --> 00:31:06.319 In other words, this is a covenant of salvation. 00:31:07.279 --> 00:31:09.759 And Jesus fleshes this out, and we'll see this. 00:31:09.839 --> 00:31:15.440 In fact, this text gets repeated again in verse 40 chapter 49, so we'll flesh this out more in coming weeks. 00:31:15.680 --> 00:31:30.079 But Jesus tells us in his Last Supper in the upper room with his disciples the night before he's crucified that he has come to inaugurate a new covenant of salvation and forgiveness of sins by my blood. 00:31:30.400 --> 00:31:36.079 That's the way that God can bring sinners into a righteous kingdom without judging them. 00:31:36.799 --> 00:31:39.759 Is that Jesus comes to be judged for them first. 00:31:47.680 --> 00:31:51.119 But I don't have to just tell you because the next verse tells us just that. 00:31:51.519 --> 00:31:53.039 Let's hurry on to the last point. 00:31:53.680 --> 00:32:01.279 We've seen a servant and his mission to establish justice, the means is a covenant of salvation where he forgives our sins and brings us into his eternal paradise. 00:32:01.359 --> 00:32:04.799 And the last thing this text tells us are the results of that. 00:32:05.039 --> 00:32:07.440 The results of that are first your liberation. 00:32:07.599 --> 00:32:09.839 Notice this verse in verse 7. 00:32:10.240 --> 00:32:11.359 Verse 7 reads this. 00:32:11.440 --> 00:32:12.640 Look down at your your Bibles. 00:32:12.880 --> 00:32:15.440 This is a really wild verse. 00:32:15.839 --> 00:32:25.519 Verse 7 says that this servant is going to bring a covenant of salvation to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness. 00:32:26.880 --> 00:32:31.920 To bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison, those who sit in darkness. 00:32:32.079 --> 00:32:44.880 Now, when I study and I prepare for, study God's Word, and I'm preparing a message and I'm going to teach it, sometimes, just maybe it's because I'm a millennial, there are verses that just jump out as Twitter worthy. 00:32:46.079 --> 00:32:51.279 Maybe this is a reason why I choose not to engage in Twitter, but this is that verse. 00:32:51.519 --> 00:32:52.319 This is that verse. 00:32:52.480 --> 00:32:54.240 This is, you gotta tweet this. 00:32:54.799 --> 00:33:03.839 How many times have you heard this preached in which the dungeon is identified as a genuine felt need that you're experiencing right now? 00:33:04.880 --> 00:33:06.079 Whatever that might be. 00:33:06.240 --> 00:33:09.920 A family issue, a financial issue, a health issue? 00:33:11.119 --> 00:33:13.440 And I like to think that I could get loud enough. 00:33:13.599 --> 00:33:15.359 I'm young enough and got some power in my lungs. 00:33:15.440 --> 00:33:27.839 I could get loud enough that if I identified the dungeon as the felt need that you have in your life right now, and I promise that Jesus is going to liberate you from that, if I get loud enough that even some of the most stoic of you would give me an amen. 00:33:29.119 --> 00:33:35.680 The trouble with that kind of preaching, though, is that that's not necessarily the promise that God's giving to you in this verse. 00:33:36.079 --> 00:33:41.200 Now make no mistake, God is giving you an incredible promise in this text. 00:33:41.359 --> 00:33:47.680 But it's not necessarily to free you from the real experience needs right now. 00:33:49.519 --> 00:33:51.759 So what is it that he's promising in this text? 00:33:53.039 --> 00:33:54.400 Look at that verse one more time. 00:33:54.559 --> 00:34:00.960 He's going to bring out of the prison, bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness. 00:34:01.119 --> 00:34:05.119 See this collection of words prisoners, dungeon, prison, sitting in darkness. 00:34:05.599 --> 00:34:11.119 There's one other text, just one other text in all of Scripture that brings together all those terms. 00:34:11.280 --> 00:34:15.360 And it's used by the prophet Isaiah at the end of Isaiah chapter 24. 00:34:15.679 --> 00:34:18.000 You can turn there if you like, but I'll just read it for you. 00:34:18.159 --> 00:34:24.639 Isaiah chapter 24 is a prophecy of the end of the world in which God judges the entire world. 00:34:25.199 --> 00:34:31.360 This particular chapter is referred to over and over at the book of Revelation, referring to the final judgment. 00:34:31.440 --> 00:34:36.559 And the culminating verse in Isaiah 24 describing the final judgment reads like this. 00:34:37.119 --> 00:34:48.159 On that day the Lord will punish the host of heaven and all its inhabitants, and they'll be gathered together as prisoners in a pit, and they'll be shut up in a prison, and after many days they will be punished. 00:34:48.320 --> 00:34:49.840 That's describing the final judgment. 00:34:49.920 --> 00:34:52.000 That's Revelation 19 and 20. 00:34:52.559 --> 00:35:04.960 And then the finale is the moon will be confounded and the sun ashamed, and Yahweh of hosts on Mount Zion will reign in Jerusalem, and his glory will be before his elders, and that's Revelation 21 and 22. 00:35:05.519 --> 00:35:20.559 You see, the prison to which Isaiah is referring in his prophecy about the servant is not just our felt needs, as real as they are, and the scripture has so much to say about the way God deals with us and our felt needs, but this particular promise is talking about a greater need. 00:35:20.800 --> 00:35:30.800 It is talking about the prison of eternal condemnation, the prison to which we all ought rightly to be resigned because we have violated the holy character of God. 00:35:31.519 --> 00:35:42.320 And if that's indeed what this text is referring to, the prison of eternal condemnation, then that means the liberation that the servant offers is eternal liberation, infinite liberation. 00:35:43.119 --> 00:35:56.239 This text is saying that the God of the universe, who dwells beyond all time, space, and matter, is willing to plummet not just into this created world, but into the prison of divine punishment and rescue us. 00:35:56.480 --> 00:36:12.000 He's willing to come down underneath us and shield us from the wrath we deserve, scoop us out of that prison and launch us back up to the heights from whence he came to unite us with the Father and the Spirit to enjoy divine communion with God forever. 00:36:12.239 --> 00:36:13.920 That's the liberation. 00:36:17.360 --> 00:36:29.679 And do you know that if you are liberated by this Savior, He has rescued you from hell and He is taking you to heaven and on the way, you may bypass some of the pleasures of this world. 00:36:30.559 --> 00:36:34.800 He may not have it in His will to have the American dream for us. 00:36:35.440 --> 00:36:37.519 But we're going somewhere better. 00:36:38.400 --> 00:36:52.480 And some of us, because of this announcement, because of this liberation, we will be liberated from holding on to and hoarding the pleasures of this world that are fleeting because we're going somewhere better. 00:36:52.880 --> 00:37:01.280 He's rescued us from something worse than this world could ever threaten us with, and he's taking us somewhere better than this world could ever offer us. 00:37:01.440 --> 00:37:02.880 That's his liberation. 00:37:03.840 --> 00:37:13.679