Turn in your Bibles this morning
to Isaiah chapter 42. And I'll just read one verse
in the beginning. That is the first verse. Behold
My servant, whom I uphold, Mine elect, in whom My soul delighteth. I have put my Spirit upon Him,
and He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles." There is much
more in this text than one would ever be able to cover in a lifetime. And when I say much more, I mean
much more of Christ in His glorious person and work. But I want to
talk to you about Christ who is here as well as elsewhere
described as Jehovah's Servant. Jehovah's Servant. And the first thing that struck
me in this verse is how that He begins this statement with
the word, Behold. This is God speaking. This is God commanding. He says, Behold. And I thought about it, the authority
of a word spoken depends on the authority of the one who speaks
it. This is Almighty God who says,
Behold. And in the context of this book
of Isaiah, where there is so much idolatry, and now there
have been prophesied so many judgments that are to come upon
the people. And so God in His mercy calls
on them to behold. But it's also the way it is in
our day. when every one of us by nature
would rather look to anything and everything but Christ. To a generation who looks constantly
to idols, that looks to gods that cannot save, that looks
to all the worldly helps of men, that looks to all the trinkets
and pleasures of this world, and who look to self. He says, Behold. That word precedes a number of
important things in this book. He said, Behold, a virgin shall
conceive. And then when we get to the New
Testament, we hear John the Baptist saying, Behold the Lamb of God
that takes away the sin of the world. And behold here means
to look with an eye of investigation, to look with an eye of examination. It means to look so as to consider
and to think about. And he fixes this statement on
one. Because he immediately says,
behold my servant. And he could say that at this
very time. long before Christ came, because
He had always been Jehovah's Servant in this sense. He was right then, and He always
will be. He is at this hour. As a matter of fact, in Revelation,
we hear Him described as the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. He's God's appointed servant. He is calling us to look to Him
rather than ourselves. Look to Him rather than to the
things of this life. Rather than to the things of
religion. He says, Behold My servant. Singular. One servant. And He says this in light of
the fact that He speaks as the God with whom we all have to
do. And by that I mean, He speaks
as God as He is to us as we are. A greater to a lesser. The Holy One to nothing but sin. Almighty power to nothing but
weakness. He says, Behold, My servant."
And He calls upon us to consider and to think about Christ in
this office and work as a servant. You say, how do you know He's
not talking about Cyrus here, or Isaiah here, or somebody like
that? Well, hold your place. And turn
over to Matthew chapter 12. I'll give you just one instance
of this. Matthew chapter 12, where our
Lord calls upon those who were around Him not to make Him known
after having just spoken to these Pharisees who obviously did not
know Him. He says in verse 17, that it
might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet,
saying, Behold, my servant, whom I have chosen, My Beloved, in
whom my soul is well pleased, I will put my Spirit upon Him,
and He shall show judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not strive
nor cry, neither shall any man hear His voice in the streets."
That is, He will not be an open, showy, flashy in his revelation. A bruised reed shall he not break,
and smoking flax shall he not quench, till he send forth judgment
unto victory. And in his name shall the Gentiles
trust." So what Christ is saying here is that He is at that hour
the very fulfillment of that Scripture and prophecy of Isaiah,
and He is undoubtedly the one Isaiah is speaking about that
the Spirit of God calls His servant. And if you think about it, the
title of servant is a title that is associated with labor. It's a name that is associated
with work and task. And when you read in the Old
Testament, it describes those priests, those Old Testament
priests as doing a service to God. As a matter of fact, all
the offices that we read about in the Old Testament, not only
priest, but also prophet and king, in these offices, it was
in service to God. It was considered a work. And God has many servants, as
we have read oftentimes in the Scriptures, and also even in
this day, but there was only one servant that could do this
work. His service is about a particular
work. And the very fact that he takes
to himself, as well as God appoints him to it, the fact that He identifies
him with this work of carrying out and accomplishing this servant,
it does not mean that he is less than the Father. Some use this
very thing wherein Christ is called the Servant or Jehovah's
Servant to in some way make Him lower than the Father. But he does this service in a
full equality with the Father, but he takes on this role of
a servant and carries out this work, accomplishing the work
that the Father appointed him to. They take such passages as
this, and others such as this one in John 14, when our Lord
says, "'Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away and come
again unto you. If you love Me, you would rejoice
because I said I go to the Father, for My Father is greater than
I.'" In what sense is he speaking now? He is speaking there as
Jehovah's servant. Because he had just said, almost
immediately before that, I and my Father are one. He says, my
Father is greater than I, speaking in His humanity of the fact that
He now has come in human flesh. He has been humbled and become
a man in order to act as Jehovah's servant and carry out and do
a particular work. Turn over to John chapter 6. Listen to him in John chapter
6, beginning in verse 38. He says, "...for I came down,"
and you can hear His submission to the will and work of the Father
in this, "...for I came down from heaven, not to do mine own
will, but the will of Him that sent me." And this is the will. of Him that sent me, that every
one which seeth the Son, and believeth on Him, may have everlasting
life, and I will raise him up at the last day." This is the
will of Him that sent me, that everyone that seeth the Son believes
on Him, that they have everlasting life, and I'll raise them up
at the last day." In other words, this is all about something that
Jehovah's Servant does because the Father's will and the Servant's
work They're in a complete harmony with each other. I know what
men say. They say that the servant did
one thing, the Father desires another thing, the Spirit is
trying to accomplish something else, but that's not true. The
will of the Father is the same as the work of the Son. And even
the very name by which He is called, which is Jesus, that
very name speaks of a work. It means Jehovah saves, or Jehovah
the Savior. In other words, it speaks not
only of His person, but it speaks also of His work, that He comes
as Jehovah Jesus in order to do something and accomplish something. As a matter of fact, if you remember,
He demonstrated this in a public picture. When he got up at that
meal, and he took the basin and the towel, and he went around
and washed and dried the disciples' feet, and then he says this,
I am among you as one that serves. He says in Matthew's Gospel,
that as the Son of Man, He came not to be ministered to or served,
but He came to serve and to give His life a ransom for many. And he is not only spoken of
here in our text, he is also pictured in this role so many
times, in so many types and pictures, but one of those pictures is
the man Joseph. You remember Joseph? Joseph. is described as he was there
in Potiphar's house. He was described in this way. It says, "...and his master saw
that the Lord was with him, and that the Lord made all that he
did prosper in his hand." He was constantly involved in the
household duties and had the charge over everything in the
household. And his master noticed that everything
he did, the Lord prospered him in it. And so, when we get a
little farther in Isaiah, and we begin to read in that chapter
that sets him forth in this servant's role, maybe the clearest and
the most humbled of any text in Isaiah 53, it says, "...yet
it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief."
When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall
see his seed, he shall prolong his days." And note this, the
same thing is said for Christ in his work as a servant, as
was said of Joseph in his work. And the pleasure of the Lord
shall prosper in His hand." You see, since this work was to save
a people, since this work was to save men, He must first become
a man, and the very slightest imperfection the least taint
of sin, the least weakness as far as obedience to God was concerned,
any little thing would have excluded him from being this acceptable
servant and excluded him from being able to accomplish it. And that's why God said, Behold
My servant. My servant." You see, as I said,
this work that Christ as Jehovah's servant came into this world
to do and accomplish, it is the work of salvation. So that if He fails to accomplish
that work, or if He fails to save every one of those that
He came to save, Then he's a failure. He's a failure. And the glory
of Christ as Jehovah's Servant, as the Savior of His people,
that glory depends solely on Him saving everyone that He purposed
to save. It's not like men seem to think
that His glory is in saving every person in the world. or His glory
lies in Him some way making it possible for them to be saved? The glory of Jehovah's servant
lies in this, that He carries out the actual task of saving
every one of those who are described as being given to Him by the
Father. He carries out the task. And it is the work of saving
God's elect. And it is the work of doing it
in a way that glorifies God. In a way that is consistent with
God as He is. You see the reason men and women
have a problem with the work of Christ. It is because of their
ignorance of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and
an ignorance of what He said concerning His own purpose and
grace. He came to do this specific work. And he is, as Isaiah records
here, God saying it, he is that one who is also described, this
servant, as mine elect, my chosen. The one that Peter describes
as chosen of God and precious, because all election God's choice
of all His people is inseparably joined to His choice of His servant. I like what the old hymn writer
said. He said, this is what God says in essence, Christ be my
first elect, He said, then chose our souls in Christ our Head. When he chose Christ at one and
the same time before the world ever was, he chose this people
that he gave the work to, which was to save this people, these
elect, from all their sins. Turn over to Ephesians chapter
1. We've read this Many times. But think about it in this light. Here is God saying of Christ,
calling Him my servant and referring to Him as mine elect. There is no election of God,
no choice of God of sinners to salvation apart from Christ. Now listen to what He says in
Ephesians 1 verse 3. He says, "...blessed be the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us."
Too late for anybody to say that God cannot do this. He has already
blessed this people, blessed us with all spiritual blessings,
every one of them, in heavenly places in Christ, according as
He hath chosen us in Him." He chose us in Him. And that means
that whatever Jehovah's Servant, whatever work it is for Him to
do, it is inseparably joined to these who were chosen in Him,
And whatever He does, and whatever He accomplishes, He does so,
and they also do so in Him, in Christ. He says, "...according
as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world."
He chose Christ. He chose His Son, the eternal
Son of God. He made Him Jehovah's Servant. And so, He not only includes
in this choice the choice of the Servant Himself, but the
choice of all those that He would do this work for at the same
time. They are His elect. And this
work of salvation is not some kind of mystery or mystical thing,
but it is an actual work that was carried out very publicly. Somebody said, well, what was
that? Was it the fact that he lived a perfect life? That's
joined to it, but that's not it. Was it that he gave an excellent
teaching? Was it that he stood morally
upright or as a keeper of the law? All these things. What is
it that the Scripture emphasizes that Jehovah's servant came to
do? What is his work? Turn over to
Philippians chapter 2. Philippians chapter 2, the apostle. is giving to all the Lord's people,
to believers, the great example of being a servant, of how we're
to deal with each other, what we're to be to each other. Not
lords over each other, but servants to each other. Look at what he
says in Philippians chapter 2 and verse 5. He says, "...let this
mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in
the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God."
In other words, in what he's about to say, he reminds us in
the very beginning of what the thought is, that in no way does
Christ become less than the Father. He said he's equal with God. Now, I've just told you so many
times, I know you're tired of hearing it, but there's only
one way to be equal with God, and that's to be God. But listen
to what he says. He says, now as a man, he made
himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of what? A servant. He humbled himself
and became a servant. I'm talking about the Lord of
Glory. I'm talking about that one that
we read about in Psalm 24. The Lord of Hosts is His name. And yet He humbles Himself to
the lowest thing, first becoming a man, and then doing a work
that requires the ultimate sacrifice. He took upon Him the form of
a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. And being found
in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient
unto death." Not just an ordinary death. You see, when men and
women talk about the death of Christ so lightly, Or they engage
in this idolatry that seems to actually minimize his death,
does minimize his death. They forget something, the first
of which is the one who died. And not only that, but they forget
also what is described here as a part of this humiliation, which
is not just death, but the death of the cross. The death of the
cross is the death of a sinless man for sins. The death of the cross is a public
display of the greatest disfavor of God ever unleashed against
a man. The death of the cross is the
death of a cursed one. is every one that hangs on a
tree. He humbled himself, and he became
a servant, and became obedient, obedient unto death, even the
death of the cross, because this work was a work of our redemption. When you see those priests in
the Old Testament doing that service to God. And as they do
that service, they do that work representing those people before
God. In their work, their daily labor,
there is a constant shedding of blood and giving the life
of an innocent one to make atonement for the sins of the people. They
did it every day. They did it again and again.
Why? to establish that principle which
we have to find out, and that is that without the shedding
of blood, without the pouring out of an innocent, perfect life
before the justice of God, there is no remission of sins. There is no forgiveness of sins. You see, Christ, The man Christ
Jesus is the only one the Holy God can accept, therefore His
work is the only work God can accept. Why? Because the Lord
had said to those priests and those people over and over again,
as this service of the tabernacle was carried out, He said, don't
bring a sacrifice that is halt or blind or disformed or disfigured. It has to be perfect to be accepted. And there was not a perfect man
in Adam's race. Not a perfect man. in any way. Not one who ever could please
God. And that brings us to what else
he says about him. He says of his servant, his elect
one, the one that he upholds or sets forth, he says, in whom
my soul delights. Can God look upon any person
in this world, in themselves, and say, I delight in Him? No. Man has this fallen nature
of sin, and from that fallen nature, he seems to try to think
that he'll be able to do some works that God will accept. But how can one who is not good
in themselves, who is nothing but sin in themselves, How can
we ever, being those things, do anything that would please
God? Works religion comes along, tells
a sinner just what they want to hear, tells them that if they
do this, that, and the other, if they do this work, God will
accept them and bless them. If that were possible, Jehovah's
servant would never have come. If righteousness comes by the
law, if it comes to us through a principle of our obedience
to law or our doing some work, He said, then Christ, He died
in vain, but of Jehovah's servant. Those who trust Him, they don't
have to go out into eternity wondering if they've done enough
good or if they've not done enough bad. That's what he's saying. He's saying, quit looking at
yourself and look, behold, my servant in whom I delight in
him. Several times, God spoke audibly
from heaven and declared this very thing. At the baptism of
our Lord, on the Mount of Transfiguration, He says, this is my well-beloved
Son in whom I am well pleased. The only way that we ever please
God is looking to His servant, looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, only in Christ does
any sinner please God, but God is without a doubt pleased with
all who are in Christ, all who look to Him alone, because He's
made unto us righteousness. Look over in Isaiah 52. Isaiah
52, and look down at verse 13. Here it is again. He says, Behold
My servant. Behold, not just My servant in
his person, but behold what he has done, what he will do. Behold,
My servant shall deal prudently or wisely. He shall be exalted
and extolled and be very high. You see, the Lord not only announces
His Servant. He not only speaks of His Servant
in all that He is in Himself, but He speaks that as a Servant,
as the Servant of Jehovah, He's going to be absolutely successful. Have you ever been given a task
and there's a long list, some of you husbands know about these
what we call honey-do lists, And your wife gives you these
lists of little things that need to be done around the house,
and you get busy, and you work, and you're doing all that. You
think you've got everything done. And invariably, she's going to
say, but what about this? You didn't actually do it all.
That will never be said of Jehovah's servant. The Scripture says,
He shall not fail. He shall be very high. He shall be exalted. He shall be all these things
extolled, because He's going to be an absolute success. As a matter of fact, that's maybe
the greatest way that you distinguish Jehovah's servant from Antichrist. They say, that this one that
Paul calls another Jesus, that He did this and He did all...
They make it sound so great, but if He didn't finish it...
If he didn't do everything God said he was sent to do, if he
didn't accomplish all the will of the Father, if he did not
carry out successfully all the purpose of God, especially in
the salvation of his people, he's not Jehovah's servant. He's
not Jehovah's servant. because His work is described
as the work of righteousness. As a matter of fact, His work
is the only work of righteousness. Jeremiah says, "...the Lord hath
brought forth our righteousness. Come, and let us declare in Zion
the work of the Lord our God." That's what Zion proclaims. That's
what God's people believe. They believe that our righteousness
is the work of the Lord. Daniel said that Messiah would
bring in everlasting righteousness by being cut off. He bring in this everlasting
righteousness, make it manifest by His suffering and death for
sin, by His work, and not a mixture of our works and His works. So
that Paul writes to Titus a wonderful verse. He writes this, and it
is so contrary to the message of religion in our day, it is
so contrary to our natural thinking, He writes and he says in Titus
3 and verse 5, he says, "...not by works of righteousness which
we have done." Not. You think we would understand
that, don't you? You think that we could take
that to heart and mind. Not. not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us." You
say, well, if God is righteous, what work would be the basis? That work of righteousness that
Jehovah's Servant accomplished. Paul writing to the Ephesians,
"'For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves,
it's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.'"
I said there were a lot of pictures of Christ as Jehovah's Servant
and His accomplishing this work. But a great one is this man Solomon. You see, Solomon is a type of
Christ. And so in 2 Chronicles, we find
this written by the Spirit of God. It says, Now all the work
of Solomon was prepared unto the day of the foundation of
the house of the Lord, and until it was finished. So the house of the Lord was
perfected thee. He said, Solomon, from the beginning
to the end, till it was finished, and the house of the Lord perfected
all his work. And that's what the Lord's people
are described as. They're described as the work
of God, for we are His workmanship, They're described as that building,
the temple wherein God dwells. And Christ never, as Jehovah's
servant, failed in any point or stopped at any point until
the work of perfecting them is finished. For He hath perfected
forever by one offering, by one work, He hath perfected them
forever." Well, our Lord said as He prayed to the Father, I
have glorified Thee on the earth, I have finished the work which
Thou gavest Me to do. And this is a thought. And that
is that in becoming Jehovah's servant, he also became the servant
of Jehovah's people. He says that he bore in his body
all their sins. That he carries all their burdens
himself. That they are to cast all their
cares on Him, because He cares for them. He became their servant. And then if you look back just
quickly in Isaiah 42, at that last phrase, in verse 1, He says,
And He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. To the Gentiles. And it's as if to say that God
will not only do what He's pledged and promised to do to His people
amidst the Jews, but even greater than that maybe, He'll do a work
for these Gentiles also. He shall bring forth judgment
to the Gentiles. Now that word judgment there,
And in some other places here, in Isaiah especially, has more
to do with an announcement of God's law and decree. And when I say His law, I'm talking
about how that word is used with regard to His Word. In other
words, he will not simply have this good news for a few people
here amongst the Jews, he'll have this good news, this judgment
proclaimed amongst the Gentiles. Nobody had ever heard of that. That means that since most likely
everybody in this service today is, in that sense, a Gentile,
that means that the servant's work would cause good news to
go out to a people not only of the Jews, but also of the Gentiles. How could a Gentile These who
are in a sense described as strangers to the promise. They were a people viewed as
vile, heathens. How could they ever have any
good news? They have good news because Jehovah has accomplished
the work. He has accomplished the work
of our salvation, the work of righteousness called judgment
here because the gospel is founded on justice. The gospel is a declaration
of how a just God can be a Savior to sinners among Jews and Gentiles. In the Hebrew, it dwells mostly
on His producing it, and when you read in Matthew 12, the word
there in the Greek, it has to do more of the announcing of
it. Look over in Isaiah 49. And he said, it is a light thing
that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob
and to restore the preserved of Israel. And it seems like
what he's stating here is a comparison here. And that is, compared to
the people amongst the Gentiles that he would save, the number
of the Jews would be a smaller thing. He says, I will also give
thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation
unto the end of the earth. He'll be salvation to a people
out of every kindred and tribe and tongue and people. He'll
be the cause of the gospel. He'll be the cause of them hearing
and receiving good news. His work. And then look back
one more verse at Isaiah 32. Isaiah 32. I want you to listen
to this verse. Verse 17, "...and the work of
righteousness, Christ and what He did. The work
of righteousness shall be peace. He's already made peace with
God for His people. He's already done that work of
reconciling us unto Him, unto God. But look at this, and the
effect of righteousness, the work of righteousness will be
peace. And the effect of righteousness,
quietness, and assurance forever. We have no assurance, can have
no assurance, when we look anywhere other than to Jehovah's servant. He did the service. He accomplished
the work. He humbled himself as a servant
and became obedient unto the death of the cross. He accomplished
this work of righteousness. And when we look to Him, when
we look to the peace that He made by the blood of His cross,
quietness. You need any quietness? I need
a lot of it these days. His work, the work of righteousness,
will be peace. and the effect of it, quietness
and assurance forever. He says, and my people shall
dwell in a peaceful habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in
quiet resting places. Would to God He'd enable us to
hear Him. He said the Gentiles will wait
for His law. That's what His people, His elect
among the Gentiles, when they come into this world without
even knowing it, that's what they're waiting for. The news
of what Jehovah's Servant has already done. How that He has
pleased God, and how that in Him we receive and believe this
good news. Father, this day we give You
thanks. for Your servant, the One who
pleased You in our behalf, the One who did the work that we
could not do, the work of righteousness, the One who satisfied Your holy
justice in the matter of all our sins, the One in whom we
are made the righteousness of God, the One who is our peace,
calls us Lord, to look to Him, calls us to know that resting
and that quietness of mind and soul, heart, and that assurance,
that assurance that arises out of believing on Him alone. We plead the Servant's work. We thank You for Him. Grant that
we might know Him. For we pray in Christ's name,
Amen.