Isaiah chapter 42. And the title of the message
this evening is Christ, the Never-Failing Servant. Christ, the Never-Failing
Servant. Isaiah chapter 42 and verse 1,
God says, Behold My servant, whom I uphold mine elect, in
whom my soul delighteth. I have put my spirit upon him,
he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles." And look down
in verse 4, he shall not fail nor be discouraged. Christ, the never failing servant.
Before we get to this passage, we need to include what went
before. If you look at the last three
verses of chapter 41, you'll notice this, that God tells Zion. He says in verse 27, The first
shall say to Zion, Behold, behold them, and I will give to Jerusalem
one that bringeth Good tidings. God's message to the church truly
is a message of good tidings. Isn't that what happened when
the angels came and they declared the coming of our Lord and Savior?
They said, behold, a Savior is born unto you. I bring unto you
good tidings of great joy. But truly, before good tidings
ever come, there must come the truth of ill tidings. Before
the good tidings come, there must be first an exposure to
the truth of sin. And that's what God does in verse
28. He said, for I beheld, and there was no man, even among
them, and there was no counselor. that when I asked of them could
not answer a word. Behold, they are all vanity. Their works are nothing. Their
molten images are wind and confusion. God who knows all things, God
who is all-powerful, says in these verses, He condescends
to use our language, and He says, I beheld, I looked down as though
as God stooped down with all of His insight and wisdom into
the hearts and souls of all men at one time. And God says, I've
looked at them all, and I've found no one, no one that could
bring you any good tidings. I found no one. The whole earth
is corrupt. God searches the hearts and tries
the reins and declares this is the result. There was no man,
not even among them. Not even among his elect. Not even among Zion. There was
not one man that was without sin. There was no counselor. This is the same as God says
in the days of Noah. Remember, God said that the every
thought of the imagination of the heart of man was evil continually. Now, what did God say after there
were only eight souls left on the face of His earth? What did
He say? He said, the thoughts of the
imagination of a man's heart from his youth is evil continually. The same thing. And even so it
is found in many scriptures that all have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. There is none righteous, no,
not one. There's none good. There's none
that understandeth. What does God say about men by
nature? He says, behold, they are all
vanity, empty, empty. There is none righteous. They're
all empty. Their works are of as nothing. Now, man by nature is wicked,
but he is not without religion. Isn't that so? Man by nature
is a religious creature. You can't find... I remember
reading one time of an archaeologist and he said you would sooner
find a civilization without a language as you would find one without
a religion. Man by nature is religious. Man by nature is a God factory. And therefore, because they make
gods after our own image and our own imagination, God says
of all the gods of men, they are nothing but hot air and confusion. That's what he said. They're
wind and confusion. And as a result of this, God
gives us verse 1 of our text. He says, don't behold men. Don't look to men. They're nothing. They can do you no good. Don't
look to the gods of men. Who does God tell you and I to
look to? He says, behold my servant. My servant. whom I uphold, mine
elect, in whom my soul delighteth. There is only one who God has
purposed and decreed to be for his people a message of good
tidings. I was reading in Mark before
I came out. Mark chapter 1, it says, in the beginning was the
gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The gospel is not a doctrine. It's not something, it's not
particular to a denomination or a creed or anything else. The gospel is a person. It is a person, the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is the gospel. Jesus is the one God has decreed
to His people good tidings. God says, don't look to the vanity
of men and their gods. The good tidings will come from
My servant, by looking to My servant. God says of all false
gods, they have hands, they have feet, they have mouths, but they
can't move, touch, or do anything. The gods of men He said, why
would anyone trust in them? If your God depends on you, your
God's too small. Your God's too small. If your
God depends on men, your God is much like you. My God is nothing
like that. My God is self-sufficient. My
God is self-reliant. My God is sovereign. Surely,
some of you say, well, preacher, I don't bow down to any gods
of wood or stone. But if I'll tell you this, if
you're trusting in your goodness, you're bowing to the God of self. If any man is trusting in himself,
he is bowing to himself as a false god. Those who look to themselves,
their God is their own self-righteousness. And I remember one preacher said
this, he said, the self-righteousness of man is about as worthless
as a warm bucket of spit. That's just so. That's your best. Your best and my best are worthless. Can't avail us anything before
God. Therefore, God commands sinners
to repent from their gods, repent from their works, repent from
their vanity, which is full of sin and death. And God says,
your covenant, the covenant that men make with works and with
men, is a covenant with death and hell, and their refuge is
one of lies. A man makes a covenant. I don't
know how many times I've heard this. Well, I've made my peace
with God. If you've made your peace with God, you are in a
refuge of lies. And your shelter will not shelter
you from the holy justice of God. But there's good news, because
there is a refuge. There is a refuge that shall
stand and has stood under the justice of God. That refuge is
God's servant, Jesus Christ. Behold, God says, I lay in sign
for a foundation of stone. A tried stone, a precious cornerstone,
listen, a sure foundation. God says, I lay down a sure foundation,
and he that believeth shall not make haste. In other words, those
who behold the servant of God, we're not going to run from this
servant. We're not going to move from
this foundation. We're not going to make any haste to get off
of it. He is all our salvation, and we rest on him. We won't
flee from this stone because he is the refuge that hides our
souls from the storm of God's justice. And this stone, this
sure foundation, is Jesus Christ, who God calls his servant. God calls his servant. This verse,
behold my servant. He is speaking of the Lord Jesus
Christ. How do we know this? Because
God hath not delighted in any of the sons of Adam. In this
servant God says of whom I uphold, mine elect, here it is, in whom
my soul delighteth. We know this is the son of God
because God has delighted in him from all eternity. Go over
to Proverbs chapter 8. Proverbs chapter 8. The Lord
Jesus Christ in this passage of Scripture, speaking as the
wisdom of God, He says in verse 22, The Lord possessed me in
the beginning of His way, before His works of old. I was set up
from everlasting, from the beginning, wherever the earth was. Skip down to verse 30, and it
says, I was with Him, as one brought
up with Him, and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always
before Him." Who is this one that rejoiced with His delight? Who was this that was possessed
of God? What does that mean? He was possessed.
It means that He was one with the Father. He is showing us
His unity. with the Father. He was one in
essence. He was one in will, one in purpose,
one in deity, one in glory, one in perfection. Jesus says this plainly, I and
my Father are one. And yet we know that He is distinct
because He says, I was set up. Set up to do what? Set up to
be the Christ, to be the servant of God. He was set up from eternity
to be the servant of God. This one that is the servant
of God. Look over to Isaiah chapter 6.
See how Isaiah sees Him first. He sees Him in chapter 6. He said, in the year the king
Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted
up, and His train, His glory filled the temple. Above it stood
the seraphims. each one having six wings with
two he covered his face with two he covered his feet and with
two he did fly and one cried to the other and said holy holy
holy is the lord of hosts the whole earth is full of his glory
and the post of the door moved at the voice of him that cried
and the house was filled with smoke Then said I, Woe is me. Who is this one that the seraphims
could not look on? It was the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the Son of God. The Son of God was the King,
the Lord of hosts, and His glory, His glory was full. It filled the temple. But now,
why then is The holy king of glory said to be the servant
of God. Why did God choose him? To become
a servant. Why would the eternal son of
God be made a servant? Even because this was the only
way that good tidings could be brought to us. This is the only
way. This is the only way that good
tidings could be brought to the people of Zion was that Christ,
the eternal Son of God, should be made a servant. A servant. Behold, this is the will of the
Father. The will of the Father is complete
salvation of His elect. This is God's eternal purpose.
This is God's eternal will. His eternal decree is that all
of His elect people should be saved. That all of His adopted
sons, which were His by sovereign free grace, that they should
all be made, listen, made holy. made holy. Well you can see this
in Ephesians. Ephesians chapter 1 and verse
3, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who
had blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ according as he had chosen us in Christ before the
foundation of the world. For what purpose? That We should
be made holy. The purpose of God was that His
elect should be made holy. This is God's will. This is the
will of the Father that they should be holy and without blame
before Him. Without blame. God's will is
that all of His elect should be made as holy and righteous
as God Himself. That's the will of God. The decree
of God was that the elect should be holy, that the Father had
put us in union with the Son even before the world began to
fulfill this. It was the will of God that Jesus
Christ should be the surety of his children, the guarantee of
their eternal salvation in a free covenant of grace. 2 Timothy
1.9 says, God who has called, who has saved us and called us
with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose
and grace. which was given us, given us
in Christ Jesus before the world began. Therefore we cry, hail sovereign
love that first began the scheme to rescue fallen man. Hail sovereign
free eternal grace that gave my soul a hiding place. Therefore, the Son, being one
with the Father, surely is of the same will and mind as the
Father. The Son was not made a servant
unwillingly. He says, Behold My willing servant. He was willing to be a servant
because God hath willed to save His people. They have the same
will. The will of the Father is the
will of the Son. And the father and son in the
covenant of grace agreed that he should become the servant
of God. Back over there in Proverbs chapter
8, just before he said I was possessed and set up, he was
telling about why he was set up. He said that I should give
them substance and treasure. That he should give his people
substance. Oh, friends, this world is no
substance, is it? There's no substance here. There's
no treasure here. Everything here is decay and
death and fleeting. But Christ says, I was set up
to give you eternal substance, an inheritance, incorruptible,
undefiled, that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you. This
is why he was to become a servant so that you might have substance.
What is the substance? What is your treasure? Your treasure
is eternal life. That's your treasure. Your inheritance
is heaven. Your inheritance is glory. Come, you blessed of my father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you. When was this kingdom
prepared? Before the foundation of the
world. He would cause us to inherit
true substance, eternal life. But in order for this to happen,
the Son of God must be made a servant. Therefore, the will of the Father
was to save the elect. The Son of God then must be made
a servant. in order to fulfill three things. He must fulfill righteousness. He must redeem his people and
he must justify them. This is the three things the
servant of God came to do. Jesus Christ came into the world
to save his people from their sins. Isn't that the announcement
when he came into the world? They said good tidings, great
joy, and what is it? His name shall be called Jehovah
Saves, for he shall save his people from their sins. What
does his people need? His people need righteousness,
they need redemption, and they need justification. These three
things the servant of God should provide. Now, the reason For
such a condescension as this was because of our failure. It was because of our failure.
Adam was set up by God to be a servant, wasn't he? He was
created a servant. He was God's creature. And God
put him in the garden, gave him every benefit. holiness, righteousness. He made him upright. He made
him head over all his creation. He was a servant of God. And
Adam was a representative. Adam was a representative. He
represented all his race. And I know when we talk about
Adam's representation, we often look down on him, don't we? I
know I do. I'm kind of mad at him. I kind
of get mad at him. I do. Man, why did you mess this
all up for us? He was the best of us. Do you
suppose any one of us would have done any better? No, we wouldn't have. He was
the best of us. and he rebelled against God. And by one man sinned
in the world, and death by sin. And so death passed upon all
men, for all have sinned in Adam. Therefore, therefore we all were
born dead in sin, born with a corrupt and depraved nature that was
completely opposed to God. The carnal mind is not subject
to the law of God. Listen, neither indeed can be. There ain't nothing you can do
to this flesh to make it subject. You get that? I don't care if
you cut yourself off from the rest of this world, this flesh
is just as corruptible as it was when you were born. This
flesh is just flesh. It doesn't get any better. It's opposed to God. It's opposed
to righteousness. Therefore, in Adam, to fulfill
the will of God, therefore, in order to fulfill the will of
God, which was to save and make us holy, you see, Jesus then
must have become a servant. He must have been made flesh. This is what we needed. This
is what we needed. We needed another representative. Therefore, in Hebrews 2.14 it
says, For as much as the children were partakers of flesh and blood,
listen, he also himself likewise took part in the same. The incarnation of the Son of
God was necessary. It was necessary. Do you not
suppose if there was another way, God would have done it? God wouldn't have sent His Son
into this world to be made like us, in the likeness of sinful
flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in His flesh, if there was
another way. There was no other way. This
is the way. This is the only way. That the
Son of God be made a servant. Why? Because man brought sin
into this world, even so by man must come righteousness. Isn't
that what he says in Romans chapter 5? He tells us this. He said,
for by one man's disobedience many were made sinners. Listen,
even so by the righteousness of one shall many be made righteous. By the obedience of one, which
is Jesus Christ. that Jesus should come into the
world and be a man, not the seed of Adam, which was corrupt, but
the seed of the woman, that he should come from the virgin's
womb, and as a body was conceived in fashion of the Holy Spirit. His birth was one of a kind,
friends. There was no other one born like
this. Our Lord says in Jeremiah, He said, I'm going to show you
a new thing. I'm going to show you a thing that ain't ever been
done before and ain't ever going to be done again. A woman shall
compass a man. In other words, a woman's seed
will come into the world. That thing created is the body,
the humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ that was to be fused with
His deity. The miraculous thing that happened
is that God came down and was manifest in the flesh. Galatians 4 verse 4 says, but
when the fullness of the time was come, God sent, God sent
His Son. To do what? To be a servant?
To be a servant. He sent forth His Son made of
a woman, made under the law to redeem. them that are under the
law. Can you not see this was the
mission of Christ? When He came into this world,
do you know that even from the womb He trusted God? That's what
it says in Scripture. Go to Psalm 22, and it says,
I trusted Thee from the womb. I trusted Thee from the womb. The will of the Father was the
work of the Son. The will of the Father was the
work of the servant. The work of the servant was to
obey the law of God as a representative man. Consider the greatness of
this. He came condescended to be made
one of us so that he should fulfill the law of God that we could
not in any wise do. This is what he did. He obeyed
the law in every jot and every tittle. He said this in Hebrews, it explains
this, Hebrews 10, he says, in the volume of the book, it is
written to me to do thy will, O God. You know, see, that's
a servant's attitude. That's a faithful servant's attitude.
This is the will of God, and I've come to do thy will, O God. and by his obedience to the law
in righteousness he taketh away the first what was the first
the first covenant the law he taketh away the law to establish
the second grace grace which is the everlasting righteousness
which he obtained for his elect behold that the face of Jesus
Christ was fixed in his mission. Let me ask you, was there anything
to move him off of his mission? Was there anything that could
tempt him away from his mission? No. He said to those that tried
to tempt him, he said, which of you convinces me of sin? Which
of you can move me off of my servant's track? Which one of
you can make me unfaithful? Satan found him faithful. Even
his enemies found him faithful. He was faithful to God always
and righteous in his mission. He set his face like a flint
and none could move him. To do what? To magnify the law
and make it honorable. Isn't that what he did? Isn't
that what the servant of God came to do? Magnify the law. I tell you what, I can't even
hardly look at the law. Because when I see the law, all
I see is my guilt. The law just exposes me for what
I am. But he magnified it and obeyed
it to its very core. And by doing so, listen, he has
obtained righteousness. Obtained it, grabbed it, and
brought it near. For himself, did he do this for
himself? No. He did this for us. He did this for his people. Because
you and I have not done one thing righteous, much less obtain the
righteousness of God. Yet, now what does the scripture
say? that none by the deeds of the
law shall be justified in his sight. But now the righteousness
of God, without the law, without the law, is manifest, being witnessed
by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God,
which is by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. The faithfulness
of the servant. Behold, God says, my servant,
my righteous servant, he's obtained righteousness. for all His people. Second of all, He also obtained
redemption. Redemption. This was the will
of God, that He should redeem His people from all their sins.
Look over in your text here in Isaiah chapter 42, look at verse
25. First go back, let's go back
to verse 22. This is just immediately after
he says he should magnify the law and make it honorable. He
says, but this people, this is a people robbed and spoiled.
They are all of them snared in holes. They are hid in prison
houses. They are for prey and none delivereth. For a spoil and none restore.
Who among you will give ear to this? Who will hearken and hear
for the time to come? who gave Jacob for a spoil, and
Israel for the robbers, did not the Lord, against whom we have
sinned? For they would not walk in His
ways, neither were they obedient to His laws." That's us, isn't
it? Aren't we a people robbed and spoiled of righteousness?
We're empty of righteousness. Are we a people ensnared in sin
and prey to Satan? Aren't we ones that have sinned
against our God? And has He not rightly judged
us in condemning our race to spiritual death? Was He not right?
You bet He was right. He was right to do that. Notice
in verse 25, He hath poured upon him the fury
of his anger. Now, I want you to notice the
switch. This is good for you to look for in Scripture sometimes. Look at this. They are people
robbed and spoiled. They are in prison houses. They,
they, they, they, and now notice him. I have turned my anger on
him, not them. Is that not wonderful? This is
the gospel message! That God has not turned, though
we were robbed, though we were spoiled, though we were in prison
houses, yet God turned His anger seeing that He has imputed our
sins to His blessed Son as He was crucified on the cross and
hung there bleeding and dying. I tell you that God says this,
that He who knew no sin was made sin for us. What a mystery! What a mystery! He who had no
sin, did no sin, thought no sin, even though he was made sin,
I tell you there was no thought of sin in his mind or heart. There was no sin there. And yet
he was made sin, so it became his own. And God came down in
justice and said, I pour out my fury on him. The fury that we deserved, Christ
endured. The fury that we deserve Christ
endured alone. God poured out his infinite wrath
on his holy son. Behold the servant of God. whose
face was set to obey the law of God, and not only did he in
righteousness obey, he also in his flesh died under the justice
of God to redeem us from our sins. You remember when Jesus told
his disciples, I must go and suffer. What was Peter's response? Oh Lord, far be it from you to
do that. Lord, save yourself. And he gave the hardest rebuke
to Peter he ever gave to any other man. Satan, get thee behind
me, Satan, for thou savorest not the things that be of God.
It was a matter dear to the Lord Jesus Christ's heart that he
should suffer. He was a faithful servant, and
He knew from His birth that He should go to the cross and die.
And when Peter said, Oh Lord, don't do that, He knew that was
impossible. What was His enemy's words on
the cross? His enemy's words were this, Others He saved, Himself
He cannot save. You know, that was true. That
was true. It's not that he didn't have
the power to save himself. Now, he had all the power to
save himself, but in order to save you, he could not save himself. He could not. In order to be
a faithful servant, he must have suffered and died. Behold the faithful servant who
could not save himself even because he desired to save you. It was his good will to save
you. Therefore, he could not save
himself. He willingly laid down his life
for who? The sheep. The sheep. I preached a message recently
a few months back called The Goats and the Sheep and how that
Christ died for his sheep, his elect. How he died for those
that the Father gave him and someone called me and told me
I was crazy. Someone called me and told me that I should get
that message and recant it. Repent against it. She said,
I had no scripture to back that up. Of course, I quoted all John
10. You could take John 10 and just that one passage alone.
Jesus said, I know my sheep and am known of mine. I lay down
my life for who? The sheep and other sheep I have,
which are not of this fold. Listen, them I also must bring. Do you not see that's a servant's
mentality? Them I also must bring. I must honor the will of God.
I must honor the purpose of God and bring in all my sheep. And there'll be one foal and
one shepherd. Jesus told those Pharisees, he
said, you don't believe because you're not of my sheep. The reason men do not believe
is because they're not his sheep. If they were his sheep, they
would believe. They would. Therefore, behold
the crucified servant on the cross. Listen, he was not an
unwilling victim, but he was there a victorious conqueror. Christ, in his humility on the
cross, in his humiliation, he accomplished the salvation of
all his people. He redeemed all of his sheep. And therefore, God says, behold,
my servant, mine elect, my beloved. shall not fail. Behold my servant, he shall not
fail. Do you realize this? I want you
to get a hold of this. If Jesus Christ failed to save
or failed to pay for all of the sins of His people, do you realize
He never would have come out of the grave? But He did come out of the grave.
What does that tell me? That tells me He justified us. He is risen for our what? Justification. Our justification. How is it that we know the servant
of God fulfilled the will of God to save us? Because the tomb
is empty. Because he is risen and ascended
and sits on the throne of God even now this night. He sits
on the throne of God because he did not fail. One of my favorite passages has
got to be Revelation. In Revelation chapter 5, And I beheld, and low in the midst
of the throne and the four beasts, in the midst of the elders, stood
a lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven
eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the
earth. Listen, he came And took the book. Do you get that? No man was able to look on the
book. But my Savior took the book. Why? Because he deserved the
book. Because he finished the work
as a faithful servant. Now he sits as a faithful high
priest and king. Ruling over all things. My Savior did not fail to provide
righteousness, He did not fail to redeem, and He did not fail
to justify everyone the Father had given Him. And listen to
me, He also, our text says, behold my servant, he shall not fail,
listen to this, nor be discouraged. Which one of us can honestly
say that we're not failures? I have failed to serve my God. I have failed to love the most
lovely of beings. And I tell you, I am easily discouraged. He said, not so with you. Are
you not discouraged? I am. But he's not. He is never discouraged. I like it when those 5,000, he
fed them, and then he turned and kind of just as though he
just left them there. He said, boys, get in the boat.
Get on over. We're leaving. And he said, Lord,
you know, there's 5,000 people here. It's a good start. No,
we're out of here. We're leaving. He went up in
the mountains, sent them out across the sea. He left them. And then when they came to Him,
He said, you know, what do you want? You're not mine. I'm not discouraged that none
of you believe. I'm not discouraged in that.
All that the Father giveth me shall come to me. And him that cometh to me, I
will in no wise cast out. Does that sound discouraging
to you? Why is it that you have come? Because he purposed for you to
come. Why is it you still come? Because he keeps you. How many will he lose? Not one. I'll tell you, he'll never be
at the end and say, oh man, I wish so-and-so was here. He'll never
say that. He'll never say that. There'll
be not one chair empty. I just read you, there are 12,
he said those elders, they said there were, he said in the midst of the Lamb, It mentioned the four beasts
and the elders, 24 elders, that's right, 24. I want to make sure
I got the number right. There were 24 elders and guess
how many thrones there were? There were 24 thrones for the
24 elders. In other words, there's not going
to be a musical chairs. You know, you did one of those
cake walks one time where they take away chairs, they play the
music and you walk around and then they take the chair. There's
not going to be one chair empty in glory. They'll all be full,
and there'll not be one vacant. Why? Behold, my servant, whom
I uphold, mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth, he shall
not fail nor be discouraged. Why? He's accomplished redemption.
Believer, you should not be discouraged because your Savior did not fail. You can fall down and you can
rest in that. Matter of fact, take it and wrap
it around you. Hang on with everything you've
got. And take heart that your Savior,
God's servant, didn't fail. And he won't fail to bring you
to himself. He won't. Listen to me. He can't fail. He can't. Isn't that the difference between
our God and the God of this modern age? Their God's always failing. Our God never fails. May God strengthen you with His
Spirit to behold His servant. He doesn't fail. I pray God will bless this to
you. Let's stand and be dismissed in prayer.