Let's take our Bibles once again
and turn with me to the book of Isaiah chapter 42. Isaiah chapter 42. I'm going to actually be looking
at verse 16, but I'm going to deal with a few of the other
verses in this passage. I've entitled this message, What
Christ Does for His Sheep. You say, well, that's everything.
Yeah. But you know, if by the grace
of God, I'm taught to behold the glorious beauty of God's
mercy according to His covenant of grace in Christ. Mercy to this poor, needy, helpless
creature. The older I get, the more I realize
what I don't know. I just find myself, Lord help
me, I don't know what to ask for, I don't know how to pray. Thanks be unto God, the Spirit
helpeth our infirmities. Isn't it wonderful to know that
salvation is of the Lord? Salvation is of the Lord. I need
a Savior. I need a Savior. I need a Savior.
I need one to rescue me. If by the grace of God I'm made
to see something, though I see through a glass darkly, but if
I see something of God's compassion, then I'm a blessed man, I'm a
happy man. I know just enough about man's depravity to say
that I know, I agree, I agree. I don't know the depth of it,
but I agree that I know that I died in Adam. I know that. I know just enough
about God's grace and mercy and this poor wretched worm to know,
I know this. I can't please God. I know that
in myself. I know that. And I thank God
that He's shown me that. I need to be instructed by God's
Spirit. I need to be taught. I know that
in the garden I didn't just kind of stumble and Adam and kind
of trip up and still possess somewhat of a possibility or
some kind of an ability to do. I know that. I know that to die
spiritually, I know this at least in my head, and I believe God's
taught me this in my heart, that I know that man's total being
was corrupted. My will, my desire, my love,
whatever you want to say, whatever you want to talk about, whatever.
I know that it was immediately dead. It was dead. There was nothing. Nothing there. I know that man was captured,
arraigned, convicted. You're a sinner. You're a rebel
against God. And corruption immediately began
to work in Adam. He died spiritually and began
to die physically. He desired now to hide himself
from God Now he wanted to provide his own covering for God for
his rebellion. He never rebelled against God. And immediately, as soon as he
rebelled against God, he got him some fig leaves, got him
a limb off of a tree, and started taking some limbs, some leaves,
trying to make him an apron. Oh, miserable state! of man as he's born in Adam. Spiritually lame on both of his
feet, dead to do anything about it, blind to his need. I don't even know what I need.
Please God, how? What can I do? What can I do?
I believe this Scripture right here, Isaiah 1, 5-6. The whole
head's sick. I mean, that's anything I can
think of, imagine, desire. The whole heart's faint. The
sole of the foot, even to the head, there's no soundness. But
wounds and bruises and putrefying sores, they've not been closed
up, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. Man
born in Adam is a miserable creature. He's dead. He's dead. And it's only by the grace of
God that he even knows it. Man outside of Christ, unregenerate,
unregenerate, he does not believe that he's dead. He doesn't believe
that. He doesn't believe that. He believes
that somehow he's got some ability to do something. I may not be
as bad as the other one. I agree I might be a little,
but I'm not as bad as others. I'm not like this man. I tithe. I do all these things fast. I do something. But a believer says this about
himself. That old man, old wretched. man that I am." You'll never
get an argument out of a believer about how wretched he is. A believer
will tell you. But then he'll tell you, he'll
say, you don't know the half of it. You think you think, you
know you don't know. You don't know. He's blind and
he claims to see. He's deaf and he claims to hear.
The heart is deceitful above all things, and it's desperately
wicked. Who can know it? The carnal heart is going to
lie to you every time. It's going to lie to you about
the sovereignty of God. It's going to lie to you about
the justice of God. It's going to lie to you about
Christ, about Him being the particular Redeemer of His people. It's
going to lie to you about your depravity. He's going to lie
to you and tell you that God's wanting you to do something for
Him. But the passage today in Isaiah
42 sets forth the will and the purpose of God. It sets forth
the grace of God that we were talking about in that first message
today. It talks about what Almighty
God does for His people in Christ. Now I want us just to consider,
just for a few minutes, Isaiah 42. 42 verse 1, this is what
the Lord says, Behold my servant, whom I uphold, mine elect, and
whom my soul delighteth. I have put my spirit upon him. And he shall bring forth judgment
to the Gentiles." Now, behold the Lord Jesus Christ, the servant
of Jehovah. Here's what the servant, God's
elect, God's redeemer, Behold Him, look upon Him, look and
live. Like that brazen serpent. Moses,
yeah, made that brazen serpent, put it on a pole. Whoever looked,
lived if they were bitten by a fiery serpent. I've said before,
somebody said, you mean all they had to do was look? Yeah, but
spiritually, if you realize that a man is spiritually blind, If
he can see and looks to that slain redeemer, slain for sinners,
he's going to live. He already lives. He's alive. Behold my servant, my mediator. Behold my priest. Behold the one in whom I delight. and whom I've chosen, all of
my people." What's He going to do? He's going to bring forth
judgment to the Gentiles. What does that mean? He's going
to bring and declare the gospel. That is, God's judgment of all
things. He's going to bring forth judgment.
He's going to bring forth what God says is so. That's what He's
saying. He's going to bring forth God's
will and God's purpose and God's pleasure. He's going to bring
forth judgment. Look at verse 2. He shall not
cry, nor lift up, nor cause His voice to be heard in the street.
He's not going to behave in a contentious way and walk disobediently before
His Father. He's going to walk with humility.
accomplishing the Father's will. He's not going to cry, lift up,
or cause His voice to be heard. He says, the things that you
hear me say. Who told Him those things? His
Father. He said, the things that I speak,
the things I've heard of my Father. He humbled Himself. I mean, realize
who we're talking about. God's servant. God Himself. God the Son, the Word, made flesh,
made Himself of no reputation. Verse 3, a bruised reed shall
He not break, and smoking flax shall He not quench. He shall
bring forth judgment unto truth. A bruised reed. That's us by
nature. Smoking flax. He's not going
to forsake or break that. Those made to see themselves
for who they are as being born in Adam, the Lord has given His
Word. He's going to bring forth His
people. He's going to bring His elect.
He shall bring forth judgment unto the truth. That is, He's
going to bring God's will and God's purpose to victory. That's what that means. He's
going to be victorious. He is the mighty God. We're more
than conquerors through Him who loved us, gave Himself for us. He shall not fail. nor be discouraged
till he have set judgment in the earth, and the isles shall
wait for his law. He shall not fail for lack of
strength in the work given him by the Father." Look at verse
1. Why is he not going to fail?
Behold my servant whom I uphold. God Almighty upholds him. And he humbled himself under
the mighty hand of God his Father in the accomplishment of the
work of redemption. God's people cry hallelujah.
What a Savior. Man of sorrows. He says he's
not going to fail, not going to be discouraged as to all of
his enemies. He came unto His own, His own
received Him not. He was hated, rejected. He's not going to be discouraged,
He's not going to be broken as to the weight of sin that He
must bear. Just think, the eternal guilt,
the eternal weight of the judgment, let me say it like this, of the
guilt that was due His people. You take all of God's elect,
all of those given Him for the foundation of the world, and
here He is, He's answering for them. I can't even answer for
my own. I can't bear up under that weight.
I can't do it. I just can't do it. But He's
not going to be broken as to the weight that He must bear.
He's going to bear The eternal weight of eternal judgment that
was due His people because they sinned against an eternal God,
and He satisfied eternal judgment for all of His elect by one sacrifice. By one sacrifice for sin. What a sacrifice. What a Savior! What a Savior,
Neil! What a Savior! That Almighty God could pour
out eternal wrath and one sacrifice for sin. He hath perfected forever Them that are sanctified, set
apart by God. What a sacrifice! What a Savior! He shall not fail nor be discouraged
till He set judgment in the earth and the isles shall wait for
His law. Till He set judgment in the earth,
till He fully satisfied the justice of God for the sins of His people. Lord Jesus was given a work by
the Father. He was given a commission, and
He was bound to it. Here's the work. He summed it
up. John 6. I'll read it. John 6, 39, 40.
Here's the work. Here's everything. This is why
He came. This is the Father's will which has sent Me, that
of all which He hath given Me. Notice how many times you hear,
election. Election. Election. From all which He's given me,
I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last
day. This is the will of Him that sent me, that everyone which
seeth the Son and believeth on Him, and again, remember, don't
let the wiles of the devil tell you, well, everybody's believing
on... I'm talking about believe on Him and have no confidence
in you. Believe on Him. The salvation
is of the Lord. The salvation is by grace. It
has nothing to do with me. This is the will of Him that
sent me, everyone that sees the Son, and believeth on Him. May He have everlasting life,
and I'll raise Him up the last day. Now as to the fulfillment
of the Father's will, I want you to listen. I'm just going
to look at four things, four promises, four things that the
Lord said I've done. The Father said under the inspiration
of God's Spirit, you behold My servant. Now you look at Him. One I uphold, mine elect. One
I'm well pleased with. Now here's the four things, the
four promises that He said in Isaiah 42. Verse 16, here's what he said. Number one, and I will bring
the blind by way that they knew not, that they perceived not. Now here is the servant of Jehovah,
the Lord Jesus Christ, and he speaks of himself as the great
shepherd of the sheep. I'm going to bring them by a way that they knew not. His people are blind. I'm going to bring
the blind. You know, if I can't see, I'm
going to have to have somebody lead me. I'm going to have to
have some help. I'm going to have to have one
that will take me and keep me and guide me. I'm blind to the
obstacles. I'm blind to the obstacles of
the journey. I'm blind to the need of my soul. I'm blind to
God's demand for righteousness. What do we know? I'm going to
bring the blind by way that they knew not. In Adam's fall, You
can't perceive the way to God. This right here is the reason
that you read in the Scriptures that everybody did that which
was right in their own eyes. Well, I think you ought to do
this. Well, I think you ought to do this. Well, this is what I
think you ought to do. You know the reason men say that?
Because we're blind. We don't know. Can you imagine? You take a blind man, I mean,
I'm talking about somebody physically blind, and what you do is you
tell him, say, now listen, I'm going to get you to do something
for me. Now we're here in Fairmont, West
Virginia, and I need you to go to Franklin, Tennessee, and here's
your map. And you're on your own. I'm going to bring the blind
by way that they can't perceive, that they knew not. We need spiritual
eyes. We need spiritual ears. But Jehovah
has sent the Lord Jesus Christ as our shepherd. You give me
spiritual eyes, Pat, and spiritual ears, and I still don't know
the way. I've got to follow Him. You know, if I don't know where
I'm going, and I'm driving behind you, and you know where you're
going, and I know that you know where you're going, it doesn't
really matter to me what the exit signs say. You know what
I'm looking at? I'm watching the back of your
car. If you turn, I'm turning. If you stop, I'm stopping. If
you go, I'm going. Because I don't know the way.
I don't know how to get there. Somebody can tell me something
here in Fairmont and I've been here just long enough to know
that I still don't know where I'm going. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know the
slang of some of the... There's places that people call
things around here that they're not marked like that. It's just
not marked. I read the signs and nobody knows
what I'm talking about. I'm going to bring the blind.
I'm not going to send them. I don't need Him to send me.
I'm blind. I'm blind to my need. But I tell you what, by eyes
of faith, I see Him. I see Him. If He doesn't bring
me, I tell you this, rest assured, no man cometh to the Father but
by me. How am I going to go? Only by
Him do I have hope. And of Him it must be said, Hebrews
2.13, Behold, I and the children which God hath given Me, I brought
them. Can you imagine finding yourself
standing before God Almighty, brought there by the Shepherd?
And then we say, you know what? Thanks be unto God that He brought
me here. I'd have never made this. I'd
have never made this. And then he said, secondly, in
verse 16, I will lead them in paths that they've not known. Paths of righteousness. Paths by faith. Paths of truth. Listen to Psalm, again, I'll
read Psalm 23. It's the 23rd Psalm. The Lord is my shepherd. Listen
to this. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth
me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake. I want to walk before God rightly. I do. I want to. I want to be a believer that walks consistently
with the profession that I make. I want to. I want to. But I can
tell you this, everything that I see myself doing is mixed with
sin and unbelief. I know that there's a new man
there. It's created in righteousness, Christ in you, the hope of glory. But I need to be led in paths
that I don't know. Here's a path. Listen to this
path. Tell me if you could have figured
this out. Having predestinated us unto
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself. Now buddy, there's a path right
there. God Almighty predestinated me, determined the end result,
the destination beforehand, because I was chosen to be His Son. Now are you the sons of God.
It doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know this. When
He appears, when we see Him face to face, we're going to be like
Him. Now that's a path that I've just not known. I couldn't choose
myself, I couldn't make myself a son. He said, I will bring
the blind by way that they knew not, I'll lead them in paths
that they have not known. How do we walk? We walk by faith. According to God's Scriptures,
according to the providence of Almighty God as He directs, leads,
moves, It gives us a heart to believe Him. The Spirit of God
teaches us. Those are paths that you and
I just don't know. My sheep hear my voice and I
know them. They follow me. Every believer
readily admits, I did not and I could not mark out the path
to life eternal for myself. How could I have done that? that they've not known. God chose
them. Christ redeemed them. The Spirit
of God regenerated them, seals them, keeps them, teaches them. God's going to bring them to
Himself by Jesus Christ. What a path! What a path! I didn't know. I must be led
by Him who loved me and gave Himself. Oh Lord Jesus, The great
Shepherd of the sheep, O the Servant of Jehovah, the One in
whom the Father delighteth, the One that worketh all things after
the counsel of His will, lead me, lead me in paths of righteousness
for Your name's sake. He says back in verse 16, He
said, I will make darkness light before them and crooked, things
straight. You know, back in the Old Testament
and in the wilderness, the Lord, in guiding His people, had a
pillar of a cloud and a pillar of a fire. At night, that pillar
of fire was light to them, warmth to them. A pillar of a cloud. I mean, out there in the desert,
Shaded on. Out there in the hot sun, can
you imagine over there? Just a little bit of shade. You
know, you get out there in the hot, hot sun, and you just walk
in shade under a shade tree, and all of a sudden the temperature
just drops. Can you imagine? The mercy of
God, I'm going to make darkness to be light to them. Darkness
in the Scriptures, not just the Old Testament, usually has reference
to ignorance. Ignorance, you know. Look, John
12, 35. I'll read this to you. John 12,
35. Then Jesus said unto them, Yet a little while is the light
with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness come
upon you. For he that walketh in darkness
knoweth not whether he goeth." He that walks in ignorance, he
doesn't know. He said, but I'm going to make
things that are unknown to you, crooked things. I'm going to
make those straight, and things that are unknown, I'm going to
make you to know them, to understand them. Here the Lord reveals that
for His people He's going to make us see by faith that He's
working all things for good. Working all things together for
good to them that love God. Them who are the called according
to His purpose. He's going to take Things that
are darkness to us or crooked are perceived to be darkness. What's God doing? What's He doing? These crooked or dark things
that we look at at first and they seem to be contrary, adverse to our way. How can this be for my good? How can this be something that
is going to work together for good? He said, I'm going to make
darkness light before them. Now I will admit, I often say
that I look back and I can see some things The Lord was pleased
to send me through or cause me to go through that I can look
back now and say, you know, I may not have seen it in the present,
but I can tell you this by faith. He gives us understanding to
know concerning His mercy and grace in the midst of our trials. It's always there. It's always
there. Even in the midst of chastisement,
trials, and troubles, and tribulations, still, a believer, those trials
that are grievous, often they're grievous, they're hard, they're
tough, and you think, how? How? But still, God Almighty
says, I'm going to make darkness light before them, and crooked
things are going to be straight. And I believe you're going to
say, Lord, You know. You know. Lord, You said You'd never leave
me. You're never going to forsake me. I know that. I don't understand
what's going on right now. But I'm so glad You're here.
I'm just so glad I have Your Word. I'm glad I have Your promise.
I'm thankful. And I'm thankful that You give
me a heart to believe You and to rest. Lord, help me. We, by the grace of God, are
going to be made to say this light affliction is but for a
moment and worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight
of glory. I know that. Even in the midst
of those crooked things, He said, I'm going to make them a level
place. Straight. Being yoked to Him,
He said, you know, take my yoke upon you, my burden, light, light. And then he says in closing,
these things will I do unto them, and look at this, and not forsake
them. Not forsake them. Isaiah chapter 41. Isaiah 41
and verse 10 says this, Fear thou not. Now brethren, we need to hear
this. Lord, give us understanding right
here. Fear thou not, for I am with
thee. If the Spirit of God brings that
to my memory, in the midst of whatever we're going through.
Now listen. Now here's some comfort right
here. Be not dismayed, for I am thy God. I'm your God. I'm going
to be your God. You're going to be my people.
I will help. Thee, I will help you. Yea, I will uphold thee with
the right hand of my righteousness. Look at verse 13. For I, the
Lord thy God, will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not, I
will help thee. A few years ago, Sarah and Jimmy,
my daughter and her husband brought the kids up. It was around Halloween
and we went up to Morgantown next to Gabriel Brothers there
in Morgantown. And they had this little Halloween
place where you could go in there and buy costumes and stuff. But
they had this little maze if you wanted to walk through it,
you know. And you got in there and Jack,
Jackson, little grandson, he said, Papa, will you go in there
with me? I said, oh yeah, yeah, we'll go. I said, no big deal,
no big deal. Well, we walked in this little
room and I'm telling you, I mean, you could see. You could see
there's a little room. You open that door right there
and just, the guy said, just open the door. And he said, just
go right on through. He said, you'll come out the
other side. You get in there and all of a
sudden that door closes behind you and it's pitch black. And
whenever you touch the wall, it had a little electric shock
to it. Look, I didn't want to touch
a wall and I couldn't see. I'm walking and I may walk into
the wall and you've got to touch it. And that Jackson held my
hand and, He got into the wall too. And he was right behind
me. I mean, if somebody's going to
get shocked, Papa's going to get shocked. And I'm telling
you, Jackson, for I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand,
saying unto thee, fear not. I will help thee. Now Carl, I can go to bed at
night on that one. What the Lord has done for His
people, behold my servant, mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth. The Lord said, I'm going to bring
you. I'm going to bring you. I'm going
to keep you. I'm going to lead you, and I'm
not going to forsake you. Bless these words, our heart,
for Christ's sake.