Isaiah 42, hear God speak, and
he says this, 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 unto the Gentiles. Here the Lord
is speaking, and he says to us, Stop. Consider. Behold My Servant. That's the title of my message
this morning, Behold My Servant. Behold My Servant. This is the
subject of my message this morning and I hope it every time I preach
to you. That has always been my message. Behold the Servant of God. Behold the Lord Jesus Christ. We know that this is the Lord
Jesus Christ. And so God here says, set aside
your thoughts. Set aside all the things that
would distract you and stop. Consider this, My servant, My
servant, this is the Lord Jesus Christ and we know it's Christ
because He is the only one who served God completely. and perfectly. He is the only
one to whom God said, I put my spirit upon him. He was given
the spirit of God without measure. Now consider the servant, that
who he is. He is the son of God. He who is one with the Father
and the Spirit. John says, In the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. And all things were made by Him,
and not anything was made without Him. And so then the question,
it begs the question, how, if He is God, how then can He be
a servant? If Christ Jesus is God, one with
the Father and Spirit, how then could God call Him a servant? Now there are some religions
who see this text and they question the deity of Christ. Surely He
could not be God and a servant, so He must be a lesser God. That's not what Christ said about
Himself. Christ told those Pharisees, He said, Before Abraham was,
I am. And they knew exactly what He
was saying, I am God. And they took up stones to stone
Him. But just as equally damning a
heresy is to believe that He's God, but not man. There are some
religions that believe that He is God, but that He was not really
a man. He took upon him just a likeness
of man and that he was not really a man. John tells us in 1 John
chapter 4, every spirit that confesseth not that Christ is
come in the flesh is, he said, it is not of God but is a spirit
of antichrist. So as we behold the servant of
God we must behold him in his person. He is God. and he is man. He is God and
he is man. Now, I have for us this morning
three points. The first point is I want to
show you the character of a servant. Christ became a servant. There
are three things about a servant that he must fulfill. Three characteristics. And then I want to show us why
he became a servant. What was the purpose of him,
who is God, becoming a servant? And then we want to see the result
of his being a servant. So first of all, three characteristics.
First of all, a servant must leave all at the calling of his
master. The servant must leave all at
the calling of his master. Now, when Christ became a servant,
he did not take this upon himself, but he was called to it. He was
called to it. Look what God says, Behold my
servant whom I uphold, mine elect. Christ was chosen to be the servant. of God. Just like you see in
Hebrews, a high priest doesn't take that upon himself, that
office. But he's chosen. He's chosen
to it. And so Christ, we must see that
this servant of God was chosen to be a servant. He was chosen
to be a servant from all eternity. He was God's elect. And it is
a great honor. It is not derogatory to say he
was a servant of God. It is the highest thing to be
a servant of God. He was chosen to this and he
took it willingly. And notice that God trusted Christ
to be a servant. In choosing Christ, He trusted
Him to fulfill His sovereign will. Therefore God says, look
at him, stop, consider my servant. Behold, there is none like him.
There is none like this servant. Why? This servant was chosen
by me, God said. He was chosen by me to fulfill
my will. And therefore he left all. As
a servant, Christ left all to fulfill the will of him who chose
him. All men by nature surely should
be servants of God. We all should serve God. Yet
because of our nature, because we were born in sin, none of
us serve God. And behold, Jesus Christ, who
is himself God, very God, and yet he humbled himself and took
upon him the form of a servant. Paul says in Philippians chapter
2 and verse 6, who being in the form of God, the nature of God,
thought it not robbery to be equal with God. It wasn't robbery
for him to take that glory, yet We know this, he made of himself
no reputation and took upon him what? The nature of a servant. And being found in fashion as
a man, what did he do? He humbled himself. He left all
to be a servant. How low did Christ stoop? How much did Christ leave to
become a servant? As a man, he served not himself. He served not himself. He served
God completely. When Satan tempted him to bow
down to him, and he said this, it is written, thou shalt worship
the Lord thy God, and him alone shalt thou serve. This is what
Christ came to do. He came to serve God. Therefore the scripture says
he said in that in verse 2 he said he shall not cry nor lift
up nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. Why? He
was a servant. He was worthy. He was worthy
to be praised. Yet he did not come to serve,
to be served. He came to serve. Matthew chapter
20 and verse 28, he said, the son of man has come not to minister,
to be ministered to, but to minister and give his life a ransom for
many. Secondly, a servant does the
will of his master and only the will of his master. Did Jesus Christ not perform
the will of God? In that same passage in Philippians
it said, being found in fashion and manner, he humbled himself
and became obedient. How obedient was Christ? He was obedient even unto death. None of us could say that about
ourselves. None of us have been obedient, yet Christ is. He as a servant humbled himself
and obeyed God perfectly, completely in righteousness and all His
laws and decrees. He who is worthy of our obedience
himself became obedient. He said that in Hebrews 10. He
said, ìLo, I come. In the volume of the book it
is written of me to do thy will, O God.î Behold, the Word of God
was a lamp to his feet and a light to his path, and he has sworn
to be the servant of God and keep all the law of God. As a matter of fact, in this
same passage here in verse 19, it says, Who is blind but my
servant, and deaf is my messenger that I send? Who is blind is
he that is perfect, and blind as the Lord's servant, seeing
many things, but thou observest not, opening the ears, but heareth
not. The Lord is well pleased for
his righteousness sake. He will magnify the law and make
it honorable. He came to do the will of God.
You remember that night when our Lord was betrayed and they
came to take him. Peter took out his sword and
he cut off that priest. He said, no, they're not going
to take you. And the Lord said, put it up.
He said, the cup that my father had given me, shall I not drink
it? You see, it was not possible that he should fail at being
a servant. God gave him this cup, the dregs
of our sins, the wrath of God. He said, shall I not obey my
master and drink it? And so even in his hour of suffering,
he did obey God. He is the only obedient servant. Thirdly, a servant will be content
with what his master gives him. A servant must be called to it
and leave all. He must do the will of his master
and he must be content. Now, Jesus Christ being the eternal
son of God, all things were made by him and for him. And how should one that he willfully
become a servant? I like that little hymn. We don't
I don't know the tune to it. I read it more like a poem. How
should a king come? Even a commoner understands He
should come for his houses and come for his lands. He should
come on a pure white horse in the prime of day and the trump
should blow and the crowds make way. That's how it's done. That's
how a king should come. But how did our king come? Our
king come in the lowest form. He was born of a virgin's womb
to the poorest of men. and he walked upon this earth,
he owned nothing. Isn't that something? He owned
no home. He sought no money. He sought no fame. Why? Because he was fully happy and
content with whatever God gave him. He was content. When Satan tempted
him with that bread, remember he had been, I did this, tried
to do this fasting thing, you know, I try to lose weight. And,
well, you let me go one day without food and I'm suffering. The Lord
went 40 days. And that's astounding. Why? Because the Spirit of the
Lord was upon him and drove him into the wilderness to do that.
He was obedient not to eat. And when Satan tempted him, if
you're the son of God, take that stone and make it bread. You
let me fast one day, if I had a power to make stones bread,
I'd do it. Not this servant. He said, man
shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth
out of the mouth of God. Behold my servant. Is there any
like this servant? None of us could compare to this
servant. Our Lord Jesus Christ was the
servant of God. And therefore in contentment,
he had no fear in his eyes. He had no doubt in his heart,
but he trusted God for everything. This is astounding because none
of us do this. None of us trust God like that. He did. He was the servant of God. And so when he came to that faithful
night, he said, oh, father, if it be possible, let this cup
pass for me. Nevertheless, nevertheless, because I'm the servant. Not
my will be done, but I will. So then this morning, behold,
that Christ Jesus is the servant of God. Now, why? We see fits the bill as a servant. He was chosen. He did the will
of God only. He depended upon God. He trusted
God. Why? Why was he made this servant? Look at verse 6 and it tells
us the purpose of God in making him a servant. He said, I the Lord have called
thee in righteousness and will hold thine hand and will keep
thee and give thee for a covenant of the people for a light of
the Gentiles to open the blind eyes. to bring out the prisoners
from the prison and them that are in darkness out of the prison
house. First of all, he said, I called
you to be a servant for this reason, that I might give you
for a covenant for the people. Covenant. This is why Christ
was made a servant. It is because of a covenant. You know, God is going to deal
with men, every man, based on a covenant. Every man's dealt
with in a covenant. You remember Adam, our father
who represented all of us, he was a federal head and God made
a covenant with Adam. He said, In the day thou eatest
thereof, thou shalt surely die. Now, as long as he did not eat,
this was the covenant. If he did not eat, He would maintain
his perfection. But God said in that covenant,
it's a covenant of works. If you fail, you'll die. And we know that he did. When
Adam failed that covenant, not only did he die, but his whole
race, these blind prisoners, that's what we became. This is
who we are. By nature, we are blind prisoners. We are blind and enslaved to
sin. We are blind to see our own corruption
and need of righteousness. We man has a very skewed vision
of righteousness and he doesn't understand righteousness. Most
men believe sincerity is righteousness. If I'm just sincere, then that
should count for righteousness. No, it doesn't. And so we go
about like Adam. Adam immediately when he died,
he began to try to cover his sin, cover his nakedness. Why? With the works of his hands. That's what we do. We are full of sin from the crown
of our head to the sole of our feet. And there is nothing but
wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. That's who we are. And so religion comes in and
what does it try to do? It tries to patch up the old
man. Stop doing that. Start doing
this and God will accept you. If you do this and you fill in
the blank, then God will accept you. They try to patch up the flesh. Try to make us moral by performing
religious deeds. But two things that false religion
can't do is it can't produce righteousness and it can't pay
for sin. No matter what you do, you cannot
make yourself righteous. No matter what you offer, no
matter how much you sacrifice, you cannot pay for sin. The law of God is very clear
and unbending. In order for a man to be accepted
of God, he must be perfect. He must be perfect. Yet we blindly
run, striving to maintain that covenant of works that we already
failed. The covenant of works has already failed in Adam. Consider this, if you were able,
from this point forward to not sin. Period. You are capable from this moment.
You say, okay, from now on, I'm not going to sin anymore. And
say it were possible. Does that make you accepted with
God? No, because you've already broken the law. You've already
broken the law. And so then the law is no means
of salvation. Paul said, by the law is the
knowledge of sin. How do you know sin? Well, by the law. In Romans 3, it says the law
has this purpose, that every mouth may be stopped and all
the world become guilty before God. You want to know what the
law does? It just shows me my guilt. It exposes my guilt. It can't help me. It can't save
me. It can't make me righteous. God
said the soul that sinneth, it shall surely die. Pastor, we've all sinned. Yeah. Is there any hope? Yes. Behold my servant. This is the
hope for sinners. Behold the covenant, the covenant
not of works but of grace. The hope is in the servant of
God who God has given for a covenant. See God in mercy beforehand made
a covenant not with man but for man. I like this, he didn't make
a covenant with me, he made a covenant for me. Him and his son made
a covenant Him and His servant made a covenant. What's the covenant? To save His people. God chose
a people, a remnant that He would save, and He gave them to His
servant, Christ. Christ became our surety. You remember, that's what happened to Benjamin. Judah, he became
a covenant, a surety. That's a picture of Christ. He
said, I will be surety for them. That's what a servant of God
said. I will be surety, and if I bring them not again, let me
bear the blame. So why then was he called? This is why Christ was called.
Look back at your text. He said, I, the Lord, have called
the unrighteous. righteousness behold God's elect
stand in need of righteousness that they cannot provide for
themselves therefore he said I call my servant in righteousness
that he should perform righteousness you know Christ didn't come to
destroy the law he came to fulfill it He said He's going to magnify,
we just read that, He's going to magnify the law and make it
honorable. This is what the servant of God
was to do in this covenant, provide righteousness. He said, I came
not to destroy the law, but to fulfill. So He came not to do His own
will, but the will of the Father, and that was to provide righteousness
by fulfilling the law. In Romans 8, In verse three he
said, for what the law could not do, in that it was weak through
the flesh. God sending his own son in the
likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, what'd he do? Condemned
sin in the flesh for this reason, that the righteousness of the
law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh,
but after the spirit. Those of us who walk by faith,
and not by law. We walk by faith. You see, the righteousness of
the law is fulfilled in us. How? By the servant's righteousness. But not only this covenant was
for righteousness, but also for the atonement of sin, for redemption. Christ came to be a servant for
righteousness for that covenant of righteousness but also a covenant
of atonement to establish judgment in the
earth that's what he's called for he says in verse 4 shall not
fail nor be discouraged till they have set judgment in the
earth and so here God says this in
this matter of atonement I will hold thy hand I will hold thy hand. It speaks
of God sustaining his son in the flesh and how it was that
God delivered his son to death. In Acts chapter two, the apostle
Peter said, who being delivered by the determinant counsel and
foreknowledge of God. This was no accident. I would
often think about those Pharisees when they said, hey, we can't
kill him on the Passover. Oh no, you will kill him on the
Passover. You will. Why? Because this is a determined
counsel of God that Christ should die for the sins of his people. Go to 2 Corinthians chapter five. Oh yeah, 2 Corinthians chapter
five. See by these two things, by this,
righteousness, the obedience of the servant, and by the death
of the servant, God had a purpose in this covenant, and that is
to reconcile us to God. Look at this in verse 19, to
wit, God was in Christ, what? Reconciling the world unto himself,
not charging, not imputing their trespasses to them. Isn't that
astounding? that God can be holy and just
and yet He willed not to impute my trespasses, charge me with
my sin. That was my sin. I did it. I
confess the guilt of it. And yet God says, I'm not going
to charge you with that. Not imputing their trespasses
to them. He hath committed to us the word
of reconciliation. Now we are ambassadors for Christ.
As though God did beseech you by us, we pray you, in Christ's
stead, be you reconciled to God. Now how is that possible? On
what grounds? I am guilty. How is that possible? He should not charge me with
my sin. Here's the grounds. Four. He
hath made him to be sin for us. Who knew? No. How is that possible? How is that possible? It's an
astounding event at Calvary's cross that God. God not only God could not charge
him with sin unless God made him to be sin. Can't charge an
innocent person. The word impute, that's what
it means, to charge. God says, you sinner, I'm not going to
charge you with your sin. Instead, I'm going to make Him
to be sin for us and charge Him. Who knew no sin? Isn't that something? For this purpose that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. It seems backwards. I'm righteous? What he made me. How? By taking my sin and making it
to be Christ. And there at Calvary, the servant
of God endured the full measure of God's wrath for my sin. This is the covenant of mercy
that He reconciled us to God. Behold the servant of God who
is given a covenant for the people. Behold the mercy and grace of
God to put us in union with Christ, His servant, so that His righteousness
is now mine. His payment for sin is now mine. This is the covenant. that God
gave for his servant. This is why he became a servant,
to fulfill the covenant. And the third point is this,
was he successful? Behold, that Jesus Christ was
successful in his work. Lo, I come to do thy will, O
God. And the volume of the book is
written to me to do thy will, O God. And we know this, by the
witch will, by the will of God, we are sanctified, holy, through the offering of the body
of Christ once for all. See, Christ came to do the will
of God, which was to fulfill the covenant in righteousness,
and by his obedience to death, he fulfilled the covenant. And
notice, look at verse 4. It tells us this. I believe this
is 700 years before the Lord Jesus Christ came into the world
to do this. And God already purposed it.
He told you of his success. He said, Behold my servant. Why?
He shall not fail. He shall not fail nor be discouraged. He shall not fail nor be discouraged. So Christ came to lay down his
life for his sheep, and he did not fail in securing the salvation
of his sheep. He said that in John chapter 10. Let's see, John chapter 10. In verse 27, he said, my sheep
hear my voice. and I know them and they follow
me and I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. The father which gave them me
is greater than all and no man is able to pluck them out of
my father's hand. I and my father are one. Does
that sound as though he was on the fence as to his success? Christ was always sure of His
success. He was always sure of His success.
And in John 6, He said, All that the Father giveth Me shall come
to Me. Isn't this astounding? This should do away with all
Arminian thoughts and religion. It should just disappear. Who's
going to come to Christ? All that the Father giveth Me.
They're going to come to Me. And when they do, There is no reason I'm going
to cast them out. There's no way I'm going to cast
them out. Why? For I came down from heaven to
be a servant, not to do mine own will, but the will of Him
that sent me. And this is the Father's will, which hath sent
me, said the servant, that of all He hath given me, I should
lose nothing. But raise it up again at the
last day. In verse 40 he said, This is
the will of him that sent me, that everyone that seeth the
Son and believeth on him may have everlasting life, and I
will raise him up to the last day. You see, you see the promise
is given in verse 37 of that John 6. All that the Father hath
given me shall come to me, and when they do, I won't cast them
out. Then here's the covenant surety of it. I'm not going to
lose them. And here's the experience of
it. Verse 40 was the experience. This is the will of the Father.
That they actually come. This is the purpose of the Father.
That at the appointed time, when they come, they're going to see
me. They're going to believe on me. And that's the promise we have
back in our text. Now look at this in your text. Same promise. Same promise in verse 7. After
he fulfilled righteousness in this covenant, after he made
the atonement, God raised him from the dead, listen, for this
purpose, to open the blind eyes. To bring out the prisoners from
the prison and them that sit in darkness out of the prison
house. This is very similar to the first
message our Lord Jesus Christ preached In Luke chapter four, referring
back to Isaiah 61, he said, the spirit of the Lord is upon me
to preach the gospel to the poor, to deliver the captives, to give
recovery of sight to the blind. Sin hath blinded and enslaved
us by nature, Men are blind to see their need
of a Savior. They are blind to see their need
of Christ. They're not only blind, they're
enslaved. It's not only they cannot see.
If they could see, they wouldn't do it. They are unwilling. They're
enslaved to sin. Remember what Jesus said to those
Pharisees, those self-righteous men. He said this. He said, if
you were blind, then you should see. But because you say, we
see, your sin remains. See, Christ didn't come to save
the righteous. He came to save sinners. See, all His people
confess, we're sinners. We confess, I'm blind. I confess
that I'm a prisoner and need deliverance. This is the work
of the Spirit of God upon the heart of men to show us our need. And then what does He do? He
gives us sight. He gives us sight. He sets us free. You know what
real freedom is? is to believe on the son of God.
You cannot believe on the son of God. You are enslaved until
he frees you. When he frees you, there's nothing
else you can do. There's nothing else you can
do. But believe. And trust. This is the power of God. To
give sight. And how does he do this? He does
this through the message. Behold, my servant. And what
else do those who have been given sight, to those of us who have
been freed, is there any other thing we desire to hear? I want to hear again about the
servant of God that delivered me. I want to praise him. And I know everything in my flesh
is pulling me in the opposite direction. The world is pulling
me in the opposite direction. Satan is pulling me in the opposite
direction. But in my heart, I want to serve the servant of
God. I desire to be like the servant
of God, to obey Him, to serve Him. obey His law. And this is great, when He frees
us we become servants. I am now free to serve. I am free to serve. And what
is the law of the servant now? Now that the servant of God has
made us free, what is our law? What is our rule of life? Simply this, to believe on the
Son of God, to fully, completely trust Him. I tell you what, Providence sometimes
is dark, and we can't see why, why this pain. Can't see how this is gonna work
out to my good, I just can't see it. It is then we have to lean completely
and trust completely on God. Just like he did what he did. And I'm thankful that my salvation
is not dependent upon my my faith. My faith is. At times, it's at best, my faith
at times is unbelief. is so mixed with unbelief. I
believe, Lord help thou my unbelief. So I don't trust my faith. I
trust the object of my faith. I trust the servant of God. He
was chosen of God. He left all. He fulfilled the
will of God perfectly. What was that will? It was the
covenant. of righteousness and atonement.
He fulfilled it perfectly. When he said it's finished, friends,
it's finished. God raised him from the dead
to prove it, show you. And then he sent his spirit to you
blind, deaf, dumb sinners. That's what he did. And he opened
my heart to see my sin. And he showed me the servant. I don't know about you, but every
time I read this book, Christ is all. Christ is all in this
book. I was talking to a man yesterday
afternoon, and he was telling me about what he is going to
hear in his church, and I started talking to him about Christ in
the Old Testament, and it's kind of astounding to them. They don't,
when I told him, You know, the Passover lamb was a picture of
Christ. And he goes, what's a picture? What do you mean by that? I don't
understand that. What in the world are you going
to church for? If you ain't heard that, you need to leave. God, Christ said in the volume
of the book it's written of me. Beginning in Moses and all the
prophets expanded to them and all the scriptures, what? Things
concerning himself. Everything in this book's about
Christ. Therefore God said to you, listen, behold, my servant. In him is life. In him is peace
with God. Ain't no peace in the world. Peace with God. Pray that God bless us with this
and feed us.