I'd like to continue with Isaiah
42. I looked at this a couple of
weeks ago when we considered the Lord's servant. So in verse 1 it says, Behold
my servant, whom I uphold, mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth. I have put my spirit upon him.
He shall bring forth judgement to the Gentiles. Our Lord Jesus
is that servant, isn't He? If we only talk of Him this evening
then that will be sufficient for us. But of course we looked
at that verse, verse 19. Who is blind but my servant? Or deaf as my messenger that
I sent? Who is blind as he that is perfect? And blind as the Lord's servant,
seeing many things, but thou observest not, opening the ears,
but he heareth not. The Lord is well pleased for
His righteousness sake. He will magnify the law and make
it honourable. So we ask how is it that the
Lord's servant, His perfect servant, could be described as being blind
and deaf? Clearly this description, if
it refers to the Lord Jesus, which it does, then these attributes
of blindness and deathless are glorious attributes. We're so
easily distracted, aren't we? Perhaps we have good intentions
to do this and to do that, but we are fickle and frail creatures.
The cares of this life call out to us continually, don't they?
this world and all its troubles so often overcomes us. But what
did the Lord Jesus say in John 16? He says, In this world ye
shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome
the world. Verse 19, Who is blind but my
servant, or deaf as my messenger that I sent? Lord Jesus is this
blind and deaf servant. He was blind and deaf to the
obstacles that were causing him to divert from his path of redemption.
blind and deaf to anything or anyone that would seek to turn
him, and with infallible determination our Saviour must finish the work
He came to do. He set his face like flint, as
Isaiah quickly says. He would not be deterred and
he wouldn't be distracted. He was unbending in his mission
and he would not be swayed. The religion of his day sought
his life. and he knew it was so. Yet our
Saviour, he went forward, didn't he, without a turn left or a
turn right. So from the very beginning of
his public ministry the devil was at work, wasn't he, to test
his resolve. In Matthew 4 we read, Jesus led
up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil, and
when he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights he was after wood and
hungered." So I suspect none of us here have actually ever
really known what it is to hunger 40 days and 40 nights. Lord Jesus
was indeed God. Yes, he was a man, wasn't he,
just as you and I, but such was his poor condition that afterwards,
after the temptation of the devil, the angels came and ministered
to him. And so it was deliberate timing,
wasn't it, that the devil came at his weakest moment and tempted
him. He answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live
by bread alone, but by every word that pursuiteth out of the
mouth of God. Of course the devil went on tempting
the Lord Jesus in many other ways. He was tried. The Lord
Jesus was tried in his flesh beyond our comprehension, but
not for a moment, not in thought or word or deed did the Lord
Jesus ever relinquish anything to Satan. He was not discouraged. He was blind and deaf to the
allurements of the devil. He was lucid at all times. He
heard and saw everything, everything in his flesh. And that's where
the text says it, doesn't it? Seeing many things, but thou
observest not. Opening the ears, but he heareth
not. So the scriptures are fulfilled
in our Lord Jesus continually. Verse 4 says, He shall not fail.
He shall be victorious. He shall not fail nor be discouraged. The question is asked there,
it's a rhetorical question. Who is blind to see that is perfect
and blind as the Lord's servant? Is there any other that is as
perfect like this servant? Is there any other capable of
undertaking such a work? You might remember in Revelation
5, we had that great vision of John in Revelation 5 Revelation 5 we read, And I saw
in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written
within and on the back side sealed with seven seals. And I saw a
strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to
open the book and to loose the seals thereof? And no man in
heaven nor in earth nor under the earth was able to open the
book, neither to look thereon. And I wept much, because no man
was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to
look thereon. And one of the elders saith unto
me, Weep not. Behold, the Lion, the tribe of
Judah, the root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and
to loose the seven seals thereof. The question in our text is who
is blind as he that is perfect, and blind as the Lord's servant?
The answer is there is no other as He. Only this one, the Lion
of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, only He of whom the
prophets spoke. He alone has prevailed, God's
perfect servant. Here in verse 21 is declaration
of the Lord regarding His perfect servant. I would like to just
spend some time looking at this. 21. The Lord is well pleased
for His righteousness sake. He will magnify the law and make
it honourable. The Lord is well pleased. He
is well pleased with all that He is and He is well pleased
with all that He has ever done. God spoke from heaven concerning
him in Mark 1. He said, Thou art my beloved
Son, in whom I am well pleased. Psalm 7 verse 11 says that God
is angry with the wicked every day. But with this man and only
this man the Lord is well pleased. The Lord is well pleased with
His holy life, not our imaginary holy life. The Lord is well pleased
with His obedience. The Lord is well pleased with
His righteousness, not our imaginary righteousness. He is well pleased
with His atonement. because it completely satisfies
the divine justice of our God. He is well pleased in his Son. The scripture says, This is my
beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Of course God is well
pleased with his Son isn't he? He is well pleased in his Son
as well. This is my beloved Son in whom
I am well pleased. God is well pleased in His Son. That is, that which is in Him
is well pleasing to God. And if you are in Christ, God
is well pleased with you. The pleasure of the Lord is in
His Son, isn't it? And here is an important truth
that you understand. If God is to be well pleased
with anyone at all, it must be on those grounds. It must be
on the grounds of being in His Son. no matter how selfless a
person may be, no matter how virtuous, generous, no matter
how religious, no matter how zealous. God is well pleased only in himself,
in Christ. So we see this great truth spoken
of time and time again in Ephesians 1. If you just turn there for
a moment, Of all the 23 verses in Ephesians
1, at least 12 times we are told that everything is in Christ
in one way or another. Let me just read some of them
out very quickly and summarise these. Verse 1, the letter is
addressed isn't it? It is addressed to the faithful
in Christ Jesus. Verse 3, All spiritual blessings
are in Christ. 4. He has chosen us in Him before
the foundation of the world. 6. He hath made us accepted in
the Beloved. 7. Our redemption is in Him. 9. The mystery of His will has
been purposed and made known in Himself. 10. All things will
be gathered together in Him. 11. It is in Him in whom we have
obtained an inheritance. 12. It is God the Father who
first trusted in Him. 13. He is the one in whom we
also trust. 15. Our faith, and faith is in
the Lord Jesus. 20. He is the mighty power of
God that has been wrought in Christ. Everything that God has for sinners
is in Christ. Everything that God requires
of sinners is in Christ and everything that God gives to sinners is
in Christ Jesus. So we love to declare that, don't
we? We love to declare it. To look
away from yourself and to look to Christ for everything. Everything
we need and everything we could possibly need and desire is in
Him. The Lord is well pleased for
His righteousness sake. It is yet another attribute,
isn't it, that we love to declare. His righteousness. What a great
subject that is. Men do love to talk about righteousness,
don't they? They love to talk about righteousness,
but the righteousness they so often refer to is most often
their own righteousness. that the Lord Jesus' righteousness
is the only righteousness there actually is, the righteousness
of God. Righteousness of men is imaginary.
It is a pretense though that many indulge in. And that's our
big problem, isn't it? Big problem. Self-righteousness. And when it comes to righteousness
the plain fact is that we just don't have any. Almost every
time I prepare a message I find myself repeating those verses
in Romans 3, that description of the natural man under sin. In Romans 3 verse 10 it says,
As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth.
There is none that seeketh after God. What about doing? They are all out of their way. They together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good,
no not one. So where do we find righteousness? But more importantly, how do
we find and obtain that righteousness that we so desperately need?
We cannot produce righteousness because the righteousness we
are talking about, the righteousness that the Scriptures talk about
is a perfect righteousness. In Galatians 2.21 we know that
if it were possible for men to gain righteousness for themselves
then Christ died in vain. This week I read the comments
of a church minister many of us here know, and he asked his
followers this question. He asked them to think of this
and he says, how is righteousness on display in my life? How is
righteousness on display in my life? I don't know about you,
but I don't have righteousness in my pocket. May the Lord continuously
cause us to see that our pockets are empty and we don't have any
righteousness. In Luke 18 we know that men come
to God in either one of two ways. They either come like the self-righteous
Pharisee or they come like the self-loathing publican. All men
are self-righteous by nature, aren't they? It is the family
disease of Adam. But if the Lord opens our eyes
to His goodness, we won't speak any more of our goodness, will
we? If He opens our understanding to who He is, then we wouldn't
promote ourselves any more. So the desire to display righteousness
is really nothing more than a display of self-righteousness. It is
a pretended righteousness and it is an ignorance of the righteousness
of God. Romans 10.3 says, For they, being
ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish
their own righteousness, they have not submitted themselves
unto the righteousness of God. Asked that publican about his
righteousness and he would deny it in a moment wouldn't he? To
put it in pride, may the Lord have mercy on me a sinner, he
wouldn't even look up to heaven so presumptuously. But the Lord
Jesus declared of that man that he went down to his house justified
rather than the other. It is the solemn truth though,
isn't it? If you look to yourself for righteousness or if you look
to others for righteousness you will die in your sins. It is
that sobering. The Lord Jesus said to those
unbelieving Jews, I told you that you would die in your sins
unless you believe that I am He. You will die in your sins.
He said it twice in one breath. You will die in your sins unless
you believe that I am He. You will die in your sins. So
who is he? The Lord Jesus himself is the
righteousness of God. He is all the righteousness there
is. Do you believe him to be the righteousness of God or can
you answer righteousness to that yourself? 2 Corinthians 4 says
the God of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers to keep
them from seeing the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ
who is the image of God. We desperately need righteousness,
don't we? May the Lord teach us where righteousness
actually comes from. The Lord Jesus is the only righteousness
of God. The Apostle Paul told us and
bid us to look away from the done of our own works and look
to Christ in faith. In Philippians 3, I'll just read
3 verses out for you. In 3 he says
this, For what things were gained to me, says Paul, those are counted
lost to Christ. I am doubtless and I count all
things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do
count them but done, that I may win Christ and be found in Him,
not having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that
which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which
is of God by faith. We need nothing more and nothing
less than the righteousness of God. The glory of God demands
perfect righteousness, not just our best efforts. Scripture is
clear, isn't it? All sin has fallen short of the
glory of God. So we have a sin problem. For
some people that sin problem is a work in progress. They are
just making progress on it all the time. And to the extent they
are making progress, to that extent that they are ridding
themselves of their sins, to that extent they don't need a
saviour, do they? But to those that know the truth,
To those that know that sin is all they are and sin is all they
do. To those that know they were
completely ruined by the fall of Adam. To those that know that
redemption must come by blood. To those whom the Spirit of God
regenerates and makes alive. It is for those that God has
sent a Saviour to put away sin and not to put away sin, but
to make us righteous. It is a two-fold operation of
God, isn't it? To be rid of sin is so necessary,
but also we need to be clothed in righteousness, with His righteousness. 2 Corinthians 5.21 What a grand
verse that explains this truth. Let me read it to you. God hath
made him to do sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be
made the righteousness of God in him. Some of those words are
in italics. To be is in italics. So it could be read, for He hath
made Him sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made
the righteousness of God in Him. What an amazing statement that
is, that the Lord Jesus Christ was made sin for us. That great divine exchange, our
sins for His righteousness, You might remember in Leviticus 16
the Israelites observed that Day of Atonement and so they
took a goat and they called that the scope goat and it's used
to typify that great transfer, that transfer of sin from the
people to the goat which typifies sin being transferred from us
to Christ. The goat was taken away far over
the horizon never to return again. That is the picture of Christ,
isn't it, taking away our sin. But those Old Testament sacrifices,
they were really just a type in a picture, weren't they, of
the expiation of sin. They were just a shadow. They
weren't the reality. Christ was the reality of those
sacrifices. He was the fulfilment of them.
Once he fulfilled them, no longer was there any need for such sacrifices. So when we read in Hebrews we
read that every priest stood ministering and offering often
times the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. But
this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever,
sat down on the right hand of God From henceforth expecting
till his enemies be made his footstool, for by one offering
he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified." So the
Lord Jesus Christ is the reality of those pictures and types and
shadows, isn't He? He is the fulfilment of those
sacrifices. By His one perfect sacrifice
offered one time our sins were taken away forever. So we read
in Romans 8 verse 1, There is now no condemnation to them which
are in Christ Jesus. The law of God no longer condemns
us. Christ our perfect substitute
performed the law perfectly on our behalf. So verse 21 our text
goes on to say, He will magnify the law and make it honourable. The Lord Jesus came not to abolish
the law but to fulfil it. Romans 7 tells us that the law
is holy and the commandment holy, just and good. The Lord Jesus
will magnify the law. He obeyed all its precepts and
all its principles at all times and he would demonstrate that
the law of God was perfect and just. He would demonstrate the
rightness of the law. All we ever do is break the law
and dishonour it. He would magnify the law and
make it honourable. He made the Law of God honourable
because He honoured and fulfilled the Law of God Himself. Everything
our Saviour did as a man, He did according to the Law. Nothing
in the Law would be diminished, rather He would magnify the Law. So the Lord Jesus came into this
world to save His people from their sins. And to this end he
willingly put himself under the law, subject to the law in all
things as a man. And why? Because God cannot justify
the guilty except on the grounds of strict justice. For God to
be righteous and just, righteousness must be maintained and justice
must be satisfied. In Galatians 4 we read that the
Lord Jesus was made under the law to redeem them that were
under the law. He submitted to all the ordinances
and institutions of the law as a man and he did so that he might
fulfil the law on our behalf and bring it to an honourable
end. So how can fallen, guilty, depraved sinners like us meet
the demands of God's holy law? How can we escape the justice
of God and the wrath of God? The scripture tells us plainly,
believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. He is
the end of the law for righteousness. The law has no power over us. It no longer condemns us. He is our substitute, the slain
and all in Him respectively as their representative head are
now dead to the law. Blessed be that man, our Lord
Jesus Christ. that by virtue of His righteousness
and that by virtue of His obedience God is well pleased He has performed
all things for us. May the Lord bless this Word
to us. Amen.