This evening I wish to preach
from the portion we read in Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 50 and we'll read
for our text verse 4. Isaiah chapter 50 verse 4. The Lord God hath given me the
tongue of the learned that I should know how to speak a word in season
to him that is weary. he wakeneth morning by morning,
he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned. Isaiah 50 and
verse 4. It specifically is the middle
part of this verse that I should know how to speak a word in season
to him that is weary. And we need to stay right at
the start that the one that is spoken of as me is the Lord Jesus
Christ. We could read it like this. The
Lord Jehovah, the Father, hath given Jesus the tongue of the
learned that, and he's speaking now as the Lord himself speaking,
that I should know, Jesus should know, how to speak a word in
season to him that is weary. This prophecy was written, spoken
some 750 years before the Lord Jesus Christ came upon this earth. But we have chapters like this
and many others like them that are pointing very clearly to
His coming and to what He should accomplish on the earth. This chapter is speaking especially
of his humanity. We would remember the Lord Jesus
Christ is the eternal God. He is one with the Father. He
is equal in power, in divinity, in eternity. He also was made
flesh and dwelt among us, taking into union with his divine nature
the seed of Abraham, a body and a soul like we have and voluntarily
submitting himself to his father and being dependent upon his
father for help, for grace, for wisdom, for everything. The nights
that he spent in prayer to his father was receiving this help
and this strength. As God, he had or the power of
his father. Great is the mystery of godliness,
God manifest in the flesh. But as a son he was obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God hath
highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every
name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow. We especially
can see this as prophesied of the Lord as we go further in
this chapter because we have in verse 6, I gave my back to
the smiters and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair,
I hid not my face from shame and spitting. And we have not
just here but in Psalm 129 as well where it speaks of the flowers ploughed upon my
back, appointing to when our Lord was scourged before he was
crucified." And so these prophecies were dealing with not just his
sufferings in general, but exactly how he was to suffer. So we may
be very clear that this is who is being spoken of here. 9. Behold, the Lord God will help
me, that is, help Jehovah. Who is he that shall condemn
me? 5. The Lord God hath opened mine
ear. I was not rebellious, neither
turned away back. And it is his righteousness,
his perfect life, his obedience that is put on the account of
a believer. So instead of all of their sins,
instead of their sinful life, they're seen before God, the
righteousness of Christ given or imputed to them. So we need
to be very clear when we come to this passage. This is a messianic
prophecy speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is in our text. He is the one that knows how
to speak a word in season to them that are weary. I would
also draw your attention to how this passage begins in verse
one. The Lord is speaking to Israel
at this time, which we're walking Well, they had at one season,
they had Hezekiah in Isaiah's time, but for the most part,
the nation was a rebellious nation. But God is highlighting, He's
asking them. And when we think in the word
of God, there's many times the illustration of marriage, that
Christ is the bridegroom, the church is the bride, they are
His people. And the Lord Jesus Christ came
forth from the Church of God. And so the question is asked
to this people, where is the bill of your mother's divorcement? In other words, I have not put
you away. I have not put away Israel. And then he asks again, which
of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? That is not
the case either. The reason why they are being
dealt with, why they are being chastened, is because of their
iniquities and sins. Behold, for your iniquities have
you sold yourselves, and for your transgression is your mother
put away." The church in the wilderness or in Israel at this
time. And then it goes on from there.
to pointing to the Creator, and where there is no man to deliver,
then comes the Lord Jesus Christ. And this, of course, is the Gospel. The people have sold themselves,
they have sinned, they are worthy of death, but in the Lord Jesus
Christ is forgiveness, is pardon, is a way of escape from the wrath
to come. is one thing to start in the
way of the Lord is another thing to continue. When we were at
school, we used to do long distance runs. And there were some of
them, starting on a three mile run, would start off as a sprint,
as if they were doing it just a 400 meter run. But then they
realized that they'd got to keep going for all of the whole distance. And that was a very different
thing. And the thing with the pilgrimage journey of God's people
is not only beginning as a believer, as a Christian, it is continuing,
it is following on. And in that way, when we have
in our texts that speaking of those that are weary, this is
one of the effects and one of the needs of the gospel to those
that are weary. I want to then look this evening
at three main headings. Firstly, him that is weary. Who are those that are spoken
of? If this word is going to be a
help and a comfort, then we need to know, does this include us? And then secondly, the Lord that
knows how to speak. There may be times with us we
want to tell someone something, But we don't know quite how to
do it. We don't want to wound them.
We want to say it in a kind way. But we want to be faithful. And
we know it's not just knowing what to say, but how to actually
say it. And here we have that the Lord
knows how to speak a word. And then thirdly, a word in season. That is, at the right time. Again,
there may be times we want to speak to someone, but we've got
to get the right time to speak to them. And this word that is
a word in season is the gospel, which is the reason why we read
the portion in Acts chapter 10, when Peter summarizes the gospel
in the short sermon that we have recorded, that we're so blessed,
the Gentiles in Cornelius' household. So I want to look first at him
that is weary. If we look at the definition
of weary, and especially in a spiritual sense, it is one that is spiritually
drained or sick of trying, one that is feeling defeated. And
we can bring this as well to things in the earth, things that
we go through, troubles in our life, troubles in our job, troubles
with family and with friends and all the things that may weigh
upon us so that we feel really weary. We have those of old saying, Lord, I
am oppressed, undertake for me. We have Job saying in the midst
of his trials that my soul is weary. of life. And the psalmist
is saying in Psalm 6, I am weary with my groaning and he's got
grief because of the hand of the Lord upon him. And we're
warned in Proverbs that we're not to be weary of God's correction. We're told in Hebrews 12 that
every son whom God receives, he corrects them. When he puts
a person into his family, then he Deals with them as a loving
father. He loves them, but he will correct
them and chasten them when they do things that are against the
word of God and walk out of the way. And we can get weary of
that. We can get tried of that. When
the Lord begins with a person, then on top of things that may
make them very weary in their life, the trials that everyone
has, we may have additional trials because the Lord gives spiritual
life and for the first time we realise that we are in the presence
of God and that we are sinners. We break the law of God and sin
then will be a weight to us, a burden to us because we cannot
cease from sin. Again in Hebrews 12, We have
the Lord saying there, you have not yet resisted unto blood,
striving against sin. Now however much we might strive
against sin, it's right that we do so, we won't gain the mastery
over it. We cannot help sin. And that's
why we need the gospel, we need the forgiveness of sins. But
that sense of it, the law of God is what the word says, is
a schoolmaster unto Christ. Sin is a transgression of the
law of God. The Apostle Paul, the writer
of many of the epistles in the New Testament, he before was
a Pharisee, a very religious man. And he said that, I was
alive without the law once. In other words, he thought he
was a very good religious man. But when the commandment came,
sin revived, and I died. And the Lord convicted him of
being a sinner through the commandment, thou shalt not covet, and thou
shalt not have. And he said, it wrought in me,
that commandment wrought in me all manner of evil concupiscence
or sexual desire. And that wrought him in as guilty
before God. One point, one breaking of the
law. And then he began to really pray, pray as the publican, God
be merciful to me a sinner. Then he began really to seek
for the mercy of God and forgiveness of God, not based upon his goodness,
but based upon the Lord Jesus Christ. But many, when they first
are awakened, when I was, when I was 19, and the Lord first
awakened me to my need, gave me eternal life, then I very
much was aware that I was breaking the law of God all the time. I thought if I wrote out the
commandments, if I wrote out a whole lot of rules as well,
and put them on a wall, then I could learn to do what was
right, and I wouldn't break the commandments, and now I'd be
acceptable to God. But that made it even worse,
because the rules were there, but I was still breaking them,
or breaking them even more. And when we feel like that, that
can make us weary when we try from day to day to cope with
the sin and breaking of the law of God. If you've read Bunyan's
Pilgrim's Progress, you'll know that Bunyan pictures his Christian
in the city of destruction. He realizes it is. And he seeks
to get relief from his burden. Well, the burden was his sins
that were on his back. And he tried every way that he
could to get loose from it. And he wasn't able to until he
came to the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. But Bunyan very
rightly portrays what a burden, what a wearisome it is in bearing
and feeling our own sins. The type of the children of Israel,
when the children of Israel were in Egypt and God brought them
out of Egypt into the wilderness, that wilderness journey is a
type of God leading his people from conversion right through
this world until they come to death, which is like the river
of Jordan, and to be brought then to heaven. With the children
of Israel, they found the way was very weary. It was a desert. There was no food there, there
was no water there, naturally. They were given it spiritually,
they were given it miraculously in the manna and the smitten
rock. But many times they murmured,
they complained, they found the way hard. And what we must say
regarding that, those that are weary, God has brought them to
feel these things to prepare them to hear the gospel. We do need preparing to hear
the word of God. Many people today, they don't
want to hear it. They've got a good job, they've
got a car, they've got health, and they've got strength. Why
do they need the gospel? Why do they need the word of
God? And they don't think of their eternal soul. They don't
think of eternity and what is beyond the grave. And because
of that, they don't want to hear. They say, depart from us. We
desire not the knowledge. of thy ways. And we are like
that. So we need to be prepared to
receive the Word. When our Lord told parables,
that is an earthly story with a spiritual meaning, after every
parable He said, He that hath an ear, let him hear. In other
words, not all people had an ear that could hear what was
being said. Many thought it was just a natural
story. But the disciples, they said, interpret to us the parable. Tell us what this means. And
the Lord told them what it meant. We think of with the children
of Israel in Elijah's day. And in that day, they were going
after idols, bail worship. And God sent a famine for three
and a half years. And that was to open their ear,
make them willing to go on to Mount Carmel and to have a trial
between the Baal God and the true and living God. We need
to be prepared. It's not how much trial we have,
how much weariness we have, how much rained in our mind and in
our affections and in our bodies we are, but is it enough to make
us to want to hear the word of God? Is it enough to make us
want to know about God's plan of salvation and of help from
that, instead of helping ourselves? One minister once said, if we
were able by our own mind to overcome our own sin, then we'd
have no need of Christ, we'd have no need of the Gospel, and
so And that effort towards that way, when God has a means to
bless a person, He will make sure in their own mind that they
do not succeed in making themselves, in their own eyes, a good person. One of our hymns says, Sinners
can say, and none but they, how precious is the Saviour. So him that is weary, This word,
this preparation, is for one then that the Lord will know
how to speak to. And may that be us, may we be
those that have an ear. The seven letters in the Revelation
to the churches, after every letter it is he that hath an
ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. Again,
it is one of the marks of being God's people. In John chapter
10, the Lord says, my sheep, they hear my voice and they follow
me. It's one mark of the people of
God, those that are saved, that they hear the voice of the Lord. Now may we be very clear, the
Bible that we have here is the inspired word of God. This is
how God speaks to his people. There's no other volume, there's
no other tradition or commentary. This is the word from Genesis
to Revelation, and it is what we are to preach in the ministry,
and it is what God speaks to his people. So I want to look
at our second point, the Lord knows how to speak. Already he
has known how to give the word. The Lord gave the word. Great
was the company of them that published it. Already we have
the Bible in our own tongue, in our own language and those
with other languages. They've been given that. We think
of the blessing at Pentecost and that we read of as the Holy
Ghost speaking in other tongues. The miracle was that They could
speak in a language that they had not learned. They could quickly,
miraculously speak that language, and other people could understand
it. And they were speaking the wonderful
things of God. It's vital that what is spoken
is to be understood. And that was the blessing that
we read of there in Acts. But the Lord knows how to speak. In the epistle Paul wrote to
the Thessalonians, he said that the word that came unto them
came not in word only, but in demonstration of the spirit and
of power. So it wasn't just the word that
was read. It was applied by the Holy Spirit
of God. When our Lord ascended up into
heaven, he said to his apostles, tarry in the city of Jerusalem
until he be endued with power from on high." Until the Holy
Spirit is given. Ten days afterwards, then came
Pentecost, then the Holy Spirit was given. And they could not,
they should not preach before that time because there wasn't
the promise blessing upon it. Right through from that time
to the end of the world, we have this promise. The Lord says that
if he be lifted up above the earth, that is, in the word of
God, Jesus Christ is preached, then all people, all his people,
will be drawn to that word, attracted to that word. We think of the
two that were on the way to Emmaus. They'd just seen the Lord crucified
and slain, and they couldn't understand what it was that had
happened. They were sad. They were weary.
They were walking on their journey, but the Lord drew near and began
to speak to them. And He spoke in all the Psalms
and all the Prophets, the things concerning Himself. It would
have been this chapter, the likes of this chapter, that He would
have spoken of, this is me. But they did not know Him. But
their heart was burning within them while He spoke to them. And then He at last revealed
Himself to them. And the Lord knew how to speak
to them. He knew what to say, and to change
their weariness and their trouble into joy. Sometimes we might
be like the friends that Job had, and they came to sympathise
with him and to comfort him, but he said in the end, miserable
comforters are ye all. They said the wrong things. And
many times we can be like that. We say the wrong things. God
knows, the Lord Jesus knows how to speak the right thing, how
to speak to his people. We might think, how is it that
I can be brought out of these doldrums? How can I be lifted
up? I'm so dejected, I'm so low,
I'm so despondent, I'm feeling so hopeless. However can this
be changed? The way it is changed by the
Lord is through the word of God. That is how he changes it, by
speaking the word of God to us, fastening that word into our
hearts, even on a natural way. We may hear many conversations,
many things spoken to us, but very little makes an impression
upon us or we remember it. But sometimes there are things
that we really remember They're very special words, and they
really help to us. We read, he sent his word and
healed them. The Lord gave the word. And again
and again, when the Lord was resisting Satan, his temptations,
it is written, it is written, all the time, going back to the
word of God. That is what loses the burdens
of the people of God That is why the word is to be preached,
authoritatively declared, that is why we gather together to
hear it preached, that the Lord will bless that word and use
it not just to feed our souls but also to comfort us and to
help us and many times we have in the prophecy of Isaiah, hear
those words of comfort in Isaiah 40, it begins, comfort ye, comfort
ye my people, saith your God, speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem,
cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished. And then at
the end of that chapter, we read that they that wait upon the
Lord shall renew their strength, They shall mount up with wings
as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk
and not faint. And the word before that, even
the youth shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall
utterly fail. And that's contrasted with those
that wait upon the Lord. Many times we might have ideas
as to how God will save us, how he'll bless us, how he will deliver
us out of a pit of despair or dejection, and many times that
idea is really wrong. Those of you here may remember
the account of Naaman the Syrian. He was a leper and in his household
was a little girl, a maid, that was captive from Israel. And
she said to him, and he was a great man in the Syrian army, that,
oh, that he was with the prophet in Israel, he would cure him
of his leprosy. So he went to the prophet. Well,
he made a mistake first. He went to the king. Then he
went to the prophet. But Elisha, he just sent a messenger
to him. And he said, you go to River
Jordan, and you wash seven times, and you'll be clean. And he was
angry. He wouldn't do it. He said, I
thought the man himself would come out and speak and say words
from his God, and are not the rivers in Syria much better than
the rivers in Israel anyway? And it was his own servants that
said to him, look, if the prophet had asked you to do some great
thing, would you not have done it? How much more when he just
says, go and wash and be clean? And so he did wash and was clean,
and he was healed. But the thing is, he already
had in his mind how he would be cleansed. He had in his mind
how he would be saved, and you might have as well. You think,
if I'm going to be saved, then this will happen, and this will
happen, and this will happen. But it doesn't happen in that
way at all. We have in John 3, the Lord's
insistent on the new birth. But what does the new birth look
like? You read chapter 4 in John. And you have four instances of
the new birth, and they're all different. They're all different. But there is a change from darkness
to life. One that is spiritually dead
to spiritually alive. They're given new ears and new
eyes. They see what they couldn't see
before. They hear what they couldn't hear before. And it is the Lord
that gives that. But it's in different ways. but it will all bring one to
hear the word of the Lord, to hear about the Lord Jesus Christ,
and to hear the way that relieves from those burdens, and the burden
of sin especially. So I want to then emphasize this,
leave that how the Lord speaks, and how the Lord delivers you,
and how the Lord helps you, leave that to Him. He knows how to
do it. He knows how to bring the word
and how to deliver. What would we think of if we
got a surgeon that was going to operate on us and we thought
that surgeon doesn't know how to do it? We think that that's
a ridiculous thing. If he is going to cure us, he
must know how, how to wield the knife. He doesn't rely on us
to do it. When you send the car to the
motor mechanic to get your car fixed, you don't have to stand
over the motor mechanic and tell him what to do. He knows what
to do. You just tell him what the problem
is, and he deals with it. And so in the things of God.
May we be like that in prayer, going before the Lord. Cast thy
burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee. Call upon
me in the day of trouble. I will deliver thee, and thou
shalt glorify me. These are the promises and the
invitations to come in prayer to the Lord, that he would speak
to us, that he would deliver us, and he would show us the
gospel. We want to then look thirdly
at a word in season, that is the gospel. A right time to speak. You mentioned about Elijah, God
waited three and a half years before he called them up to Mount
Carmel to do the test between Baal God and the Living God. Why that long? The Lord knew
it needed that long so that they'd be willing to put God on test. And the Lord knows what is needed
for us. And it is to be a word in season. It's the right time to then introduce
the gospel and introduce the way of escape. You think again
with the medical profession, if someone is being treated for
something, there needs to be the right time for it to be done. Time to take the tablets, time
to wait before an operation, time after an operation. The
timing is very important and it's in the right season that
the Lord does it. And he then brings the gospel. And of course, the gospel is
summarized in very different places in the Word of God. Some of the most beautiful, he
mentioned the gospel according to John and chapter 3, where
the Lord insists on the new birth. But he gives in that chapter
a beautiful illustration of the gospel as well. He goes back
to the wilderness, to Moses lifting up the serpent. As Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be
lifted up or crucified, that whosoever believeth in him should
not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world
that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. God sent not his son into the
world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might
be saved. And then we have with the portion
that we read in Acts, Peter summarizes it. He says, God anointed Jesus
of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power. who went about
doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil,
for God was with him. We are witnesses of all things
which he did, both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem,
who they slew and hanged on a tree. Him God raised up the third day."
That is the secret. In the death of the Lord, he
paid the debt that we could not pay. Without the shedding of
blood, there is no remission. He endured the wrath of God in
the place of his people. He gave to God what the law of
God demanded for his people. And the rising from the dead
shows that sacrifice was accepted. Our Lord did not need to die
himself. He was spotless. He was pure.
There was no sentence of death in him. But he died in the place
as a substitute for his people. His whole life was then to be
given to believers as a righteousness that should fit them for heaven
so they can stand in heaven unashamed in the righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ. We have another when Paul writes
to the Corinthians in his first epistle to them in chapter 15,
which is a beautiful chapter on the resurrection of Christ
and the resurrection of us, of our bodies, a new creation. And he then summarises the Gospel,
I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received,
how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according
to the Scriptures. And then he speaks of those that
saw him. The whole focus of the message
is that the obedience to the law and the satisfying of God
on our behalf is done by the Lord, not by us. It is finished,
the Lord said, and that is the hope of the people of God. Tis
Christ in my place. Tis He instead of me is seen
when I approach to God. This is good news to those who
have been trying to labour to fulfil the law. They have pointed
to the Gospel. It is fulfilled. The Lord Jesus
Christ has done it. It's not your works, but His. And it is the Lord that gives
faith to believe that. It is the Lord that, by the grace
of God, the free, unmerited favour of God, gives to His people as
they hear the word of God. He gives them faith to believe
it. And really the faith is right
at the beginning when they're convinced as sinners, when they
feel their guilt and feel their sinnership. And so it is a word
in season. It is a remedy. It is not the
malady. We're used to, in medical things,
if we want to find out what's wrong with us, You can have an
x-ray. You can have an MRI. You can
have a scan. Those things all tell what is
wrong with us. That is like the law of God tells
us what is wrong with us. But you don't go to those machines
to get healed. You go to a surgeon. You go to
a physician. And so you don't go to the law
to get healed. You go to Christ. And there is
salvation. There is healing. And there is
life from the dead. There is hope for poor sinners,
and there is for those that are weary, that rest. The Lord says,
come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I
will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart. Ye shall find rest
unto your souls. So our text and the main message
of it that I, the Lord Jesus Christ, should know how to speak
a word in season to him that is weary. And what a token for
good, what a blessing that is to a soul that receives such
a word through the ministry, through the word, and that word
will be a precious word, a word that really gives rest for the
soul. May the Lord add his blessing. Amen.