Again, Isaiah chapter 42. It struck me as I was sitting
here, how blessed I've already been this evening in our time
together and the prayers that have been offered on our behalf
for our Lord this evening, Brother Dale in the study and Eric out
here just a moment ago. We're just such blessings to
me. I appreciate that. Your public prayer is probably
the most difficult thing a man can be called upon to do. And
those prayers are just thanksgiving, rang through both of them, just
blessed me and encouraged me. And my prayer this evening is
that we'll leave here with thankful hearts. The title of the message
is Behold the Savior that God has sent. I know this. If our Lord will give us a view
and allow us to behold the Savior, He sent, we're gonna go home
a thankful people. How thankful I am for the Savior
that God sent. Now, as often as I possibly can,
I tell you to look to Christ. Because no matter who you are,
if you're a believer or an unbeliever, your need is to look to Christ.
You look to Christ for your salvation. You continue to look to Christ
for your salvation. You look to him for your comfort.
It doesn't matter who you are, if you're young or old, you're
rich or poor, you're educated, you're uneducated, you're white,
you're black, it doesn't matter. Look to Christ. Christ is all
you need, no matter who you are. And tonight I want us to look
and behold the Savior that God has sent. Now hold your place
here and look over Matthew chapter 12. Our text this evening, there's
no doubt that our text is a prophecy of Christ. In Matthew chapter 12, it's applied
directly to him. In verse 14, and the Pharisees went out and
held a council against him, how they might destroy him. But when
Jesus knew it, he withdrew himself from the fence And great multitudes
followed him, and he healed them all, and charged them that they
should not make him known. Can you imagine some of these
so-called healers today healing people and say, don't tell anybody?
You know, they put it on TV. Our Lord actually healed somebody
and said, don't you tell anybody, don't you make it known. And
he did it, that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by Isaiah the
prophet, saying, behold, my servant whom I've chosen, my beloved,
in whom my soul is well pleased. I'll put my spirit upon him,
and he will show judgment to the Gentiles. He should not strive
nor cry, neither should any man hear his voice in the streets.
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. It's like our Lord is telling
us, here I am. This prophecy is now fulfilled
in your eyes. Now look to him. And we know
for the most part, those Jews, they rejected the Lord Jesus
because he was not the king they were looking for. They were looking
for an earthly king. They rejected our Lord because
he was not the savior that they were looking for. They were looking
for a savior from all their earthly troubles. Now I know that's the
Savior the flesh wants, nothing's changed, that's still the Savior
the flesh wants today, someone who will help us and make us
rich and so forth in the earth, solve all of our earthly problems.
But now that's not the Savior we need. God in his mercy and
grace sent the Savior that we need, and that's the Savior I
want us to behold, not the one of man's imagination, but the
Savior that God sent, the Savior that we need. First of all, the
Savior that God has sent is sent to be a servant. Verse one of
Isaiah 42, behold my servant. Now Christ came to be God's servant. He's everything we need, everything
we're not. He came to be God's servant because
man cannot please God by our service to God. Now a servant,
if he's gonna please his master, He's gonna have to do what his
master tells him to do. Doesn't that make sense? Well,
we can't do that. Adam disobeyed God. Adam just
had one law. Adam, just one law, and he disobeyed
God. We do the same thing today. We're
not a servant that does what the Lord tells us to do. We wanna
do our own thing. A servant's not free to do his
own thing. He's gotta do what his master tells him to do. And
a servant, if he's gonna be a good servant, He's got to be faithful
to his master. Well, Adam was not faithful because
Adam wanted to serve himself. And that's our problem to this
day. The flesh wants to please itself and serve itself rather
than serve God. By nature, we cannot serve God
because by nature we're the servants of sin. Our Lord said you can't
serve two masters. We're the servants of sin. Well,
then how can we be set free from sin? God's people are set free
from their sin because the Lord Jesus Christ took our place.
He became the Father's servant to do for us what we cannot do
for ourselves, to serve God and please God in our stead. This
word servant here, behold my servant, it means a willing servant. It's like the bond slave. Remember
that bond slave? He served his master for X number
of years and the debt was paid. And when the time was up, he
said, I don't want to leave my master. He's a good master. I
love my master. And they took him down and put
a hole in his ear and put a ring in it so everybody would know
that's the bond slave. He's not there because he has
to be. He's there because he wants to be. He's there not because
he's serving out of fear of the law or because he's got some
sort of debt to pay, but he's serving because he loves his
master. That's our Lord Jesus Christ. He came as the willing
servant because he loved his father. Now look over in Philippians
chapter two. The Lord Jesus Christ is Lord
of all. And it's impossible for me to
say how truly high and lifted up and glorious the Lord Jesus
Christ really is. Yet in all of his glory, the
glory of his person, he humbled himself to do something very
amazing. He humbled himself to become a servant. Philippians
two verse five. 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, but made himself of no reputation,
and 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, even
the death of the cross." Hold your finger there and look over
Hebrews chapter 10. Now the Lord Jesus came as the
servant of his father. He's equal with the father in
every way because he is God. Yet he humbled himself to come
as a servant. And as a servant, he came for
this reason, to be the representative of his people, to do for his
people what we cannot do for ourselves. He came as a servant
to please his father. In Hebrews 10 verse seven, this
is what he said. Then said I, lo, I come, in the
volume of the book it's written of me, I come to do thy will,
O God. Above, when he said sacrifice
and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin, thou wouldst
not, neither has pleasure therein which are offered by the law.
Then said he, lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away
the first, that he may establish the second. Now that's what he
came to do. He came to please his father.
Well, did he do it? That's what he came to do, but
did he do it? Did Christ please his father by doing, as a servant,
everything the father required of him? Did Christ please his
father by obeying God's law perfectly? In every jot and every tittle,
did he? Look back to Hebrews chapter nine. Here's our answer.
Because of that sacrifice where he became obedient under the
death of the cross, wherefore God also hath highly exalted
him. and given him a name, which is
above every name, that the name of Jesus, every knee should bow
of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the
earth. And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord to the glory of God, the father. Christ did do what
he came to do. He did please his father and
the father has glorified him and magnified him because as
the servant, he pleased his father. Now remember what Christ did.
He did as a representative of his people. What he did, his
people did. Now you behold the Lord Jesus
Christ, God's servant, that servant who obeyed God's law perfectly.
You behold him and you know what you'll see? You'll see all your
righteousness. You behold Christ, your righteousness,
that servant who completely pleased God by obeying his law. Righteousness,
that's not something we can earn by doing better or doing, you
know, some service to the law. We can't keep the law, we're
servants of sin. The only way a sinner can be
made righteous is by being in Christ. So look to him. Look
in Romans chapter six. Look to him, he's all of our
righteousness. If you behold God's servant, you'll behold
your righteousness. Romans 6 verse 17. But God be thanked that you were
the servants of sin, but you obeyed from the heart that form
of doctrine which was delivered unto you. Being then made free
from sin, you became the servants of righteousness. That's how
we become the servants of righteousness, by being in Christ by faith.
Now it's Christ the servant, that's who saves. Look in Galatians
chapter 2. A servant has got to be faithful. First, the servant's got to do
what his master tells him to do. And secondly, the servant's
got to be faithful to serve his master. Well, Christ our Savior,
Christ God's servant was faithful in every way. And that's our
salvation. Galatians 2 verse 16. Knowing that a man is not justified
by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. Not just faith in Christ, but
by the faith of Jesus Christ. His faithfulness to do all that
the Father required. Even we have believed in Jesus
Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not
by the works of the law. For by the works of the law shall
no flesh be justified. But we will be justified in Christ
the servant who is faithful to do everything that the Father
required of him And that's our justification. He's faithful
to put away the sin of his people. Now you look to Christ. Behold
the Lord Jesus Christ as all of your salvation. Second, behold
the Savior sent by God who was upheld by God. He says here,
behold my servant whom I uphold. Now all men are fallen in Adam. Our sin has separated us from
God and in Adam we're falling. And I don't know how to describe
how far we've fallen other than to say this, we've fallen as
far down as we can possibly go. We can't go any further. And
the only way we'll ever be brought back up, the only way we'll ever
be held up is in Christ. Christ came to lift his people
up. Now look in Luke chapter 22.
This is one of these things Don't try to figure this out. You can't figure out God. You
just take this and believe it. Now, the Son of God, He didn't
need to be held up, did He? The Son of God does not need
to be helped in any way. He has all power. But the man,
Christ Jesus, He did need to be held up by the Father. The
man Christ Jesus needed to be strengthened to do the job that
the Father sent him to do. Now look here at Luke 22, verse
39. And he came out and went, as
he was wont, to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples also
followed him. And when he was at the place,
he said unto them, Pray that ye enter not into temptation.
And he was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast, and kneeled
down and prayed, saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this
cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but
thine be done. And there appeared an angel unto
him from heaven, strengthening him. The father sent an angel
because the man Christ Jesus needed to be strengthened so
that he would not be crushed under the weight of the sin of
his people. The man Christ Jesus needed to be strengthened so
he could suffer untold agony. as he suffered to put away the
sin of his people. The father strengthened the Savior. He sent him, he sent him with
a job to do, and he strengthened him to enable him to do the mission
that the father sent him to accomplish. And he did it. So now the father
has lifted up his son on high, given him a name which is above
every name. Now you look to Christ. He has all power. He has all the power it'll ever
take to save your sinful soul. He has all the power it'll ever
take to keep you. He has all the power it'll ever
take to comfort you. You look to Him. He's got the
power to save you. Third, behold the Savior of God's
sin. He's the elect Savior. Behold
my servant whom I uphold, mine elect. The Lord Jesus Christ
is God's elect. He's His chosen, appointed Savior. Now, we gotta begin where we
began. We gotta begin where man began,
in the garden. We all fell in Adam. When Adam
sinned, all men died. And all men are born into this
world under the eternal wrath and condemnation of God because
of what Adam did, because we're guilty in Adam. Now, it would
have been just for God to send every son of Adam to hell with
him. That would be just. Nobody could complain about it
because we're guilty. It would only be right. That
would be just. God would be just if he did that.
But God couldn't do that. God in his character could not
send every son of Adam into hell because while God is just, God
is also gracious. God is also merciful. God is
also loving. God has the capacity to love
sinners. So God chose to show His love
and His mercy by choosing, electing some of Adam's fallen race to
save. But now, if God's gonna save somebody, their sin must
be paid for. God can't ignore this issue of
their sin that's against Him. And not just anybody can pay
that price, can they? The only person who can pay that
price of the sin of God's elect is the Savior who was chosen
by the Father, the Savior who was elected by the Father. Before
there was a sinner, God already, His purpose and election began
with Him electing His Son to be the Savior of His people.
And the Father elected Christ. He elected Him to be the Redeemer.
He elected Him, chose Him, appointed Him to be the sacrifice, to be
the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world. The
Father elected Christ, chose Him to be the mediator between
God and man. The Father elected Christ to
be the head of the church. Look at Hebrews chapter 5. All these offices of the Lord
Jesus Christ were given to Him by the Father. The Father elected
Him, appointed Him to all these offices. Hebrews 5 verse 4. And no man taketh this honour
unto himself, being the high priest, but he that is called
of God, as was Aaron. So also Christ glorified not
himself to be made a high priest. But he that said unto him, Thou
art my son, today have I begotten thee. And he saith also in another
place, Thou art a priest for ever. after the order of Melchizedek. See how the father elected, he
chose the son to be the savior, to be the high priest of his
people who would offer that great sacrifice to put their sin away.
Now election, election, it has to do with Christ. Election always
has to do with Christ. In our text, this is the first
time the word elect is used in the Bible. And it's used referring
to Christ, who is the elect of God. Election always relates
to Christ. Christ is God's first elect.
And all of God's people are elect in Him. Look over 1 Peter 1. Peter gives us some very good
insight here. 1 Peter 1. In verse 2, Peter writing here
to these believers, strangers scattered throughout the world,
he says, you're elect according to the foreknowledge of God the
Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience
and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. See, election is
unto salvation. Election leads to this matter
of the sprinkling of the blood of Christ and the obedience of
faith. See, the Father, had to choose
the Savior. He had to choose the Savior who
could put away the sin of his people because fallen man never
would have chosen Christ. So God had to do it. And the
Father had to elect the people. He had to choose those people
to save because fallen man will never choose God, not unless
God chooses them first. So Christ is God's elect Savior. And he came to save and elect
people. He came to save a people who
could not save themselves. And that's what Peter's telling
us here, that Christ came to die for God's elect, those that
the Father gave him. And the Holy Spirit comes and
he applies the blood of Christ to the hearts of those people,
gives them faith in Christ. And brethren, they're saved. Now their salvation is complete. And I'll tell you, I, this is
something I know people love to argue about. They find out
that where you, where you attend and you, oh, you're a Calvinist
and they want to, the first thing they want to do is argue with
you about this matter of election. Well, I'll tell you when you'll
quit arguing about it. If somebody wants to argue with election
with you, don't argue. You can't convince them. Only
the Holy Spirit can. I'll tell you when you'll quit
arguing about God electing a people. You quit arguing when you see
you don't have any hope at all in yourself. The moment God shows
you you're not worthy of anything but damnation, immediately you'll
quit arguing by election and you start being thankful. You'll
start thanking God for it. Paul called election the election
of grace. This God choosing of people is
a manifestation of his grace and mercy and love to sinners.
But now remember, election always begins with Christ. And His people
are elect in Him. And you know, our Lord, when
He called His people, He called them the elect because they're
elect in Him. In Matthew 24, verse 31, our
Lord said this, talking about the last days. And He shall send
His angels with a great shout of a trumpet, and they shall
gather together His elect from the four wings. He didn't say,
I'll gather together my people. He is elect. That's how he refers
to his people. In the early church, they referred
to one another, not just as brother or sister or believers or children
of God. They referred to each other as
the elect. That's what Peter calls them.
You're elect, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.
In 1 Peter 5, verse 13, Peter says the church that is at Babylon
elected together with you, salutes you. In John, when he wrote in
2 John, he wrote to the elect lady and he referred to her elect
sister. This is how the church refers
to one another, as the elect. And thank God for his electing
grace. Election has to do with Christ. Election, God's divine election,
chose a people out of Adam's fallen race and took us out from
under Adam and put us in Christ so that we would be made what
He is. Now you behold the Lord Jesus Christ. He's God's chosen,
appointed, elected Savior. And you're complete in Him. You're
accepted and righteous in Him. Now you behold Him. Fourth, this
thrills my heart. Behold the Savior. who delighted
the Father. He says here in Isaiah 42 verse
one, in whom my soul delighteth. Now that's good news because
you and I have never done one thing that delighted the Father.
I mean, not just that pleased him, that delighted him. The
Holy God can only be displeased with us because of our sin, we're
servants of sin. Well, what's the father to do
then? He sent the savior that he would be pleased with. Nobody
can please him. No son of Adam can please him.
So God sent a savior who would please him. And the only savior
he could choose for the job was his own son. He did please the
father. In Proverbs chapter eight, Christ
speaks, speaking of when he was alone in eternity with the father,
nothing had been created. He was alone with the father.
And he said, at that time I was with the father and I was daily
his delight. The father saw, oh, I'm delighted
in my son. This is the one I'm going to
send who will delight me, who will please me. And as a man,
the Lord Jesus did just what he did in eternity past. As a
man, he still delighted his father. He delighted his father in every
way. And not just because he was his
son. You know, I'm a man of flesh. And I'm telling you, almost no
matter what my daughters do, I'm delighted in them. I mean,
just, you know, you parents understand. When we speak of the father,
the holy father, being delighted with his son, not just because
he's his son, He's delighted with his son, with the Lord Jesus,
with the Savior that he sent, because that man, Jesus of Nazareth,
always did what pleased his father. Always. Never one time did he
displease his father. He always obeyed the law. In thought, word, and deed, he
obeyed the law. The father was so pleased with
the Savior that he sent, he said so from heaven. He said, you
behold my son, in whom I'm well pleased. He delighted his father. I looked up this word delight
and it means, it does mean to be pleased with, but it means
more than that. It means to satisfy a debt and to reconcile. Now we're getting to the heart
of the matter. as a Savior God sent. He reconciled
his people. He brought them back to God.
And the only way he could bring his people back to God is by
paying the debt that they owed and pleasing the Father for them,
pleasing the Father in their stead. When Christ, the great
Lamb of God, hung on Calvary's tree and offered his blood before
the Father as a sacrifice for the sin of his people, that blood,
that sacrifice, that awful horrible, bloody, suffering sacrifice pleased
the Father. It pleased the Father so much,
He said, the debt's paid. Paid in full. Gone forever. The sacrifice of Christ pleased
the character of God. It pleased His holy requirements. It pleased His justice. And now,
the debt's gone. And the Father is just as delighted
every one of his people as he is with his own son. Now you
behold, the Savior that God sent, the Father is delighted with
him and he's delighted with you in him. Fifth, behold the Savior
who is God. He says here in our text, I put
my spirit upon him. Now this is important because
in Adam, we lost the presence of God. Adam was thrust out of
the presence of God because of his sin, and we were thrust out,
separated from God in him. But now in his mercy, in his
grace, in time past, God did send his spirit to the prophets,
didn't he? He sent his spirit to them so they could write the
Old Testament scriptures, so they could give us these prophecies
of Christ, and they could speak of Christ, but the spirit was
only with them for a time. Then he left, and they died.
God sent his spirit to the apostles. The Holy Spirit moved these men
to write the scriptures. They wrote the New Testament
scriptures so we'd have Christ revealed to us in the scripture,
but the spirit was just with those apostles for a time. Eventually
he left and they all died. God sends his spirit to his preachers
today. He does that so that we can study
God's word and so we can point centers to Christ. But we only
have that spirit for a time. And God sends his spirit to every
believer. If you're here tonight, you believe
Christ, God sent his spirit to you. He sent his spirit to you
as the comforter. He sent his spirit to you to
convince you of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. But now it'll
only be for a time. I want you to behold the Savior
that God sent. The Father gave Christ the spirit
without measure. And he gave him the spirit without
measure because the man, Jesus of Nazareth, is God. It's not
like he's God. He is God. And if the Savior
is God, now he cannot fail. I wish people would ever quit
talking about God wants to do something and can't. That's not
God. That's me. That's a man of this
earth. That's not God. God does what
he will. And his will is to save his elect
from their sin. Well, Christ came to do that.
He didn't fail because he's God. Look at the beginning of verse
four in our text. He shall not fail nor be discouraged. Now, not anybody can read that
statement and think that Christ died for somebody who's gonna
go to hell. It's not possible. He shall not fail nor be discouraged. He will have everyone he died
for. He will, there's not a chance
he'll lose one of them. He shall see of the travail of
his soul and he'll be satisfied. Now you behold with awe and wonder
that God became a man. Don't try to understand it. Don't
try to figure out how he could be God and how he could be a
man and could he sin or could he not? Don't try to figure that
out. I was talking to Brother Joe
Tara earlier this week, and I like the way he said it. He said,
when you meet a scripture like this, Christ is both God and
man. You just swallow it whole. You
don't try to figure it, just swallow it all. Just in awe and
wonder what God would do for sinful men and women like us.
Behold, with awe and wonder and thanksgiving, the Savior cannot
fail. If he died for you, your sin's
gone, and he'll have you with him forever in glory. You're
safe in the end. Behold the Savior who's God.
Then at the end of verse one, behold the justifying Savior.
He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. Now again, all
of us are under by nature the wrath and condemnation of God.
And we can't change that. We can't do something to justify
ourselves. We can't do anything to make
ourselves without sin. We can't satisfy God's holy demand. We're helpless. Somebody's got
to come do for us what we can't do for ourselves. That's why
God sent this Savior. That's why he sent Christ to
be our substitute. Christ the Savior, he went to
Calvary and he settled this matter of the debt of our sin once and
for all. And you know what he does now?
He comes to his people and he settles the matter in your heart.
He brings this settled judgment to the hearts of his people and
makes you not guilty because he's satisfied the law for you. And when I say behold the Savior,
now I'm telling you behold this great and glorious Savior. This is no small matter. He didn't
just come say a few Jews. He saved the Gentiles too. In
our study through the different books of the Bible, haven't we
seen that recently in the last few Sundays? How God called out
Rahab and how he called out Ruth. Two Gentiles. Now, I know God's
people in the Old Testament were Israel. This is his chosen people. But now he's always been calling
out some Gentiles. And thank God he calls out a
bunch of them now. God's grace extends to every
nation, every kindred, every tongue. Look here at verse four
in our text again. He shall not fail nor be discouraged
till he have set judgment in the earth and the isles shall
wait for his laws. Those isles are all the nations
of the earth. They're spread throughout all
the earth. His grace is going to extend to all those nations
and all those people will wait for his law, will wait for his
word. Well, all right. How are all those people gonna
hear of this Savior? This is the Savior God sent.
He sent him to just that little nation Israel 2,000 years ago,
but how are they gonna hear? Well, he'll see to it. And it
won't be hard for him to do. Look here at verse two. He shall
not cry nor lift up nor cause his voice to be heard in a street.
Now, all of us are deaf by nature, spiritually deaf. And what that
means is we can't hear Christ. We cannot understand Christ. We can't understand his gospel.
We can't love him. So the father sent a savior who
would be heard by his people. He gives his people ears to hear
and they all hear. And it's not hard for him to
do. You know, I mentioned earlier about these so-called, they're
fake, you know, healers, you know. I mean, you imagine if
they really, truly healed somebody and then said, don't you tell
anybody, just don't make, no, they'd want it on the news, they'd
want it on TV. Our Lord never did that, ever. He never raised a ruckus in order
to be heard, never. He never got a big band. He never had giveaways and great
big events to draw people to him. He never did that. He just
came and spoke to people in a common, ordinary voice. But what a voice. It was the
voice of God Almighty. And he spoke in just that regular
voice with just a simple message from God. But what a message,
the message of grace in Christ Jesus, a message of forgiveness
of sin, redemption from our sin in His blood, a message of righteousness
in Him, not through our own obedience to the law and the ceremonies,
but in Him. And our Savior does not have
to contend and fuss and fight with His elect in order to make
them hear and believe. He just says, come now. Let's reason together. Though
your sins be as scarlet, they'll be white as snow. And he makes
them willing. And they willingly bow and surrender
and submit to him. It's not hard for him. He'll
call them. And when he calls, they'll hear.
Then seventh, look at verse three. Behold, the life-giving Savior. A bruised wreath shall he not
break, and a smoking flask shall he not quench. He shall bring
forth judgment, unto truth. Now a bruised reed, that's a
stalk of a plant, it's been broken, or maybe it's, you know, it's
been masked or something, you know, and it's flattened out.
Well, that reed, that stem, it's gonna die. Whatever's out there
on the end of it, if there's some fruit already starting to
grow on it, it's gonna die. Because it's cut off from the
root, it can't get life to it from the root, it's gonna die.
That's a pretty good description of us by nature. We use the phrase
bruised by the fall. But don't let that fool you.
We're not just bruised. No, we're dead in the fall. But
you get the point about bruised by the fall. Well, how will that
bruised, dead reed ever get any life? It's already broken. It's
already separated from the root. How's it ever gonna live? Well,
there's only one way, in Christ. Now we can't generate any life
in ourselves. We can't mend this bruised reed. We can only have life in Christ. See, we're born dead in sin.
We're born this bruised reed. And not just bruised, remember,
it's a dead reed. This is why our Lord told Nicodemus,
you must be born again. You're a bruised reed. Your reed
is broken, separated from the vine. You're separated from the
root. You've got to be born again. Well, the Savior that God sent
comes giving life to his people in the new birth. He binds up
that bruised reed. He applies his blood to it and
gives it life in him. Now you come to him. Now you
look to him. And don't try to fix yourselves
up a little before you come to him. Don't try to make yourself
more presentable so he'll be more likely to accept you. Just
come as you are. Don't do something that you think
will make you more savable or easier to save than somebody
else before you come. Don't do that. Just come to Christ. Right now, where you are, and
this is very important, as you are. Right now, as you are, in
your filth, and your guilt, and your need, and your bruised,
wreaked self, you come to Christ. You look to Him. He'll cleanse
you, and He'll give you life. There's a song we sung Sunday
morning. Let not conscience make you linger, nor fitness fondly
dream. All the fitness he requires is
you feel your need of him. Come you weary, heavy laden,
bruised and mangled by the fall. If you tarry till you're better,
you'll never come at all. You come to Christ right now
as you are, and be made whole, and receive eternal life in him.
That bruised reed, he shall not break, And the smoking flax,
he should not quench. Now, smoking flax, it's a candle
wick. It's lost its oil. Especially
in the wintertime, Janet likes to burn these scented candles. I just sit there and watch them.
They burn over a course of time. They burn down, burn down, burn
down. Just a little bit left there in the bottom, and she
just wants to get all the smell good she can out of it. And eventually
that little bit of wick that's left, all it does is smoke. There's
just nothing left to burn anymore. There's no flame there, it's
just causing smoke to go out in the room. That's just smoking
flax. There's no flame to it, there's
no light to it, there's no smell good to it. All it's doing is
producing smoke. It's a smoke in God's nose. That's
what we are, a smoking flax. There's no light in us. There's
no oil in us. There's nothing pleasant about
us. We're smoking God's nose. It's that smoking flax is just
irritating. And when that's in a candle,
when Janet first opens it up, she always loves it. I mean,
she wouldn't have bought it unless she loved it. You know, it's a great
big old thing, you know. And by the time that thing gets done,
she just snuffs it out and without any remorse, she throws it away. Because at this point, it's an
irritant. That's what you and me deserve
by nature, just to be snuffed out and thrown away with no remorse. But God sent a savior. And that
smoking flax, it's an offense. We're offensive to God. And Christ
does not snuff out and throw his people away. Instead, he
gives them life. He gives them His light. They
have no light in themselves, but He gives them light. He's
our light. We don't have any oil. He gives
us the oil of His Spirit to make Him dwell in us so that we're
useful to Him. He does that, He makes His people
these lights in the world. So you can go out and show other
sinners the way to Christ. Behold the life-giving Savior.
And last, we've already seen this last one. Behold, the Savior
that God sent is the successful Savior. He shall not fail or
be discouraged. You reckon? How can the Savior
that we've just read about, seen described, how can he ever fail?
Gene, he can't. I mean, it's impossible. This
is the Savior that God sent to be the servant that would please
him. And he did please him. This is the Savior who is upheld
by the power of God. He's the Savior elected by God
to save His elect people. This is the Savior who delighted
His Father because He is God. This is the Savior who justifies
His people and gives them life, His life. He can't fail. Now you look to Him. He can't
fail. He saved all of His elect. He
saved all those that the Father gave Him. And I'm telling you,
He will have every one of them with Him in glory so that forever
we can behold His glory. Now look to Him. I don't care
who you are. You look to Him. No matter who you are, you look
to Him. He's all you need. He's all you'll
ever need. Look into Him. We'd be a whole
lot better off if we just start looking to the Savior that God
sent. Not trying to understand Him,
not trying to explain Him, not trying to make Him fit into our
box. Just look to the Savior that God sent in faith, in rest
in Him. Oh, that'd be good, wouldn't
it? Let's bow in prayer.