Isaiah, chapter 52, and our text
will be found in verse 13. Isaiah, chapter 52, and verse
13. The title of the message is,
The Servant of God. The Servant of God. In verse 13, it says, Behold,
my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled,
and be very high." Be very high. I want us to see that this part
of verse 13, down through verse 15, a lot of the commentators
had stated that this rightly should go with Isaiah chapter
53. that these are, this is a new
division of the text here. But I want us to go back just
a little bit and see some things that lead up to God's announcement
of his servant. The purpose of God announcing
this gospel message to us which is, behold my servant. Here in
the word of God we may receive strength and comfort The strength
and comfort of God here is given to every believer in Christ,
to all those who are afflicted, to every believer who is oppressed,
to all that are of spiritual Israel who stagger about in this
life like a drunken man, suffering and afflicted because of sin,
because of the persecution of man. God says, God says in verse
1 to you, here it is, awake, wake up, wake up, awake, awake,
put on thy strength, O Zion. Put on thy beautiful garments,
O Jerusalem, weak and weary, wounded and oppressed sinner,
saved by the grace of God. He says to you, Awake, shake
off thyself from the dust. Arise and sit down. Arise and sit down, O Jerusalem. Loose thyself from the bands
of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion. Oh, how Satan loves to accuse
the brethren. Oh, how our conscience loves
to accuse us. They say to our soul, stay down. You're not worthy of life. Our enemy and our conscience
says, you're too sinful. You cannot be a child of God.
Look at what you've done. Has your conscience not said
that to you? Has the enemy not thrown that dart at your heart
and saying, how is it possible for you, wicked as you are, to
be a child of God? But I tell you, the Holy Spirit
says to you who believe, wake up. Get up, for Christ is the
strength of your life. Your life is in Christ. It's not in you. It's not because
of you. Christ is your salvation. Therefore,
Christ is your strength. How can I get up? You can get
up because Christ is your strength. Christ is the strength of your
life. Shake off the dust of this world. Shake off the cares of
this life and put on the robe of righteousness that He Himself
has woven together for you. Put it on. We put on the righteousness
of the Son of God. How? By faith, believing, trusting
in Him, resting in Him. For thus saith the Lord, you
have sold yourselves, verse 3, you have sold yourselves for
nothing. And ye shall be redeemed without money. Yes, you and I
have sold ourselves for nothing. Yes, we did sin, and by nature
we're dead in trespasses and sin, worthy of nothing but hell. That is true. That is true. Every believer acknowledges that.
But we have been redeemed. not by money, not with anything
of this world, we have been redeemed by the precious blood of the
Savior, of Jesus Christ. Sin has promised us pleasure,
promised us peace, promised us satisfaction. What has sin delivered? Nothing. It delivers nothing,
it promises. But we by nature are sold under
sin, wrapped in its chains, and cannot redeem ourselves. The
justice of God demanded more than money, and it could only
be satisfied with a blood offering. A blood offering. The only thing
to satisfy your conscience, the only thing to quench the fiery
darts of the accusations of Satan, the only way for you to get up
and shake off the cares of this world, is to look to the precious
blood of Jesus Christ. Sinner, what doth God require
of you for redemption? Not the blood of bulls and goats,
not even the blood of what you hold dear, not even the blood
of your firstborn, nothing but the blood of Jesus. Therein lies
redemption. in the blood of Jesus, the only
blood that can redeem fallen sinners, and the only blood that
fallen sinners who believe in Christ, who are saved by grace,
the only blood we trust in is in the blood of the Savior, the
blood of Jesus Christ. Therefore, my people, you shall
know my name. Therefore, they shall know that
in the day that I that in that day that I am He that doth speak. Do you know God? Do you know
Him? The only way you're going to
know Him is by Jesus Christ. The only way to know Him is by
Jesus Christ. The only way that we know that
God is. The only way we can understand
how God redeems a sinner is by faith in Jesus Christ. By looking to Christ. How do sinners know this? How
do they hear this? Well, look at verse 7. How beautiful
upon the mountains are the feet of Him that bringeth good tidings,
that publishes peace, and bringeth good tidings of good, that publishes
salvation, and saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth. God has declared that His people
shall know Him. and therefore he has determined
the means by which his people know him, and it is through the
preaching of the gospel. This is the verse that the apostle
uses in Romans when he says, How beautiful it would be to
them that preach the gospel of peace. He's talking about preachers
of the gospel. It is through preaching of the
free and sovereign grace of God that sinners hear, and by this
they hear. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing. by the Word of God. This is why the Apostle Paul
in Corinthians said, I determine not to know anything among you
save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And all the saints of God, every
saint of God, look at this, the watchman shall lift, in verse
8, lift up their voice and with the voice together shall they
sing. For they shall see eye to eye.
when the Lord shall bring again Zion. Every believer sees eye
to eye. We see eye to eye on this matter
of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We see this as the only means
of God's salvation. We see this as it is the power
of God unto righteousness to everyone that believe it. We
see this We who believe, who preach the Gospel, and you who
hear the Gospel, we all see eye to eye on this. We have one heart,
one mind, one spirit, and we all desire one thing, to hear
the Gospel of Christ. We don't desire to hear anything
else. Do you desire to come and hear anything else? Is there
any other message that you would desire to hear? We sing for joy for Jesus. is the perfect and sinless Son
of God, and He has redeemed us by His blood. This is the message. Jesus is the arm of the Lord
that is revealed. He is the salvation of God. In
the next chapter, the prophet said, Who hath believed our report?
You know what? I don't know who hath believed our reports. I
want everyone to believe this report. I want everyone who hears
this to believe it. But I know this, that it must
be of God. If anyone's to hear this message,
it must be revealed to him of God. This is the concern of every
preacher and witness of Christ that men would hear. Would to
God this place was full of believers. I didn't say full of the world.
I don't want the world in the church. It's enough to have sinners saved
by grace in the church, isn't it? But I long for God's people
to come and hear the gospel and to believe on Him. And this comes
by preaching the gospel. And this is the gospel that is
presented to us in verse 13. The gospel message of God. How is it that we would awake
and shake off the dust of this world? God says, You must behold. Behold my servant. My servant. This is how we gain
strength. This is how we become encouraged.
This is how we become confident. This is how our hope and faith
are made strong. By looking, beholding the servant
of God. Behold. And this text, I love
this, it divides itself easily into three points. First of all,
the servant of God. He says, behold my servant. Second
of all, my servant shall deal prudently. A prudent servant. And third, the exaltation. He shall be exalted and extolled
and be very high. So those are my three points.
First of all, the servant of God. Stop for a moment. And may God the Holy Spirit show
you His servant. May God show you His servant. The servitude of Jesus Christ. May He show us the humiliation
of our blessed Savior. May He show us the condescension
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Who else but Jesus Christ is
the only faithful servant of God? Are you such a faithful
servant that you would call yourself that? No. We wouldn't call ourselves
that had He not said something about it. He calls us faithful
because He was faithful. He's the faithful servant of
God. In Isaiah 42, God says, Behold My servant, whom I uphold. Mine elect. Mine elect. This servant of God was one that
was elected of God, chosen of God. This was the purpose of
God from the beginning that the Son of God should be made the
servant of God. For what purpose? Why should
the Son of God be made the servant of God? For the salvation of
His elect. This is the purpose. That God
had an elect people that He would save. And because He would save
His people, He chose His Son to be the only servant. The only faithful and true servant. Look at Ephesians 1. Ephesians
1. Ephesians 1 in verse 4. According,
as He hath chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the
world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him,
in love having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to Himself. according to the good pleasure
of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein
He, God the Father, hath made us accepted in the beloved God
the Son. Therefore, all of the elect of
God were in Christ, who was always, if I can say that word always
in regards to eternity, We use the word eternity past. Well,
really, eternity. That's the only way we can see
it, is eternity past. From eternity past, God chose
His Son to be His servant. Why? To save His elect people. To make them accepted before
God. To make them holy and without
blame. It was by the divine covenant
of grace that the Son accepted, the Son accepted responsibility
for the saving of the elect people. He agreed to be their representative. The word representative is very
important because I'll tell you, God only deals with men in a
representative. God has always, throughout the
Scripture, dealt with men in representation. And I'll tell
you that God's first representation of man was Adam. The first one
we see in Scripture was Adam. In 1 Corinthians 15, 21 it says,
For since by man came death, By man came also the resurrection
from the dead, for as in Adam all die. Adam was the first of
us, and I tell you, Adam was the best of us. We kind of look
down at Adam. I know we do. We see Adam and
we just say, how could you? How could you? I tell you, Adam
was the best of us. He was the best because he was
holy. He was the best because He was
in a perfect state, a perfect environment. He had perfect communion
with God. Adam was the best of us. He had
the perfect mate. He had everything that we never
have. So truly, He was the best of
us and in the best condition of all of us. But being the best,
He still could not maintain His righteousness. If you think you could have done
any better, you're just fooling yourself. You've deceived yourself.
Adam was the best of men, and when he fell, he disobeyed God. Truly, the sentence of death
immediately came upon Adam. God said, In the day thou eatest
thereof, thou shalt surely die. And the scriptures prove this.
In Romans 5.12 it says, Wherefore as by one man sin entered into
the world, and death by sin, so death passed upon all men. How do you know that? How is
that so that you said that my children are born dead in sin?
How is it that you're saying I'm born dead in sin? Because,
here's the proof, for all have sinned. There's the proof. You
want to know if you're born dead in sin? Have you sinned? There
it is. You've got your answer. God dealt
with us in a representative man, and when Adam failed, the entire
human race was ruined. Not one of us escaped. Not one. Therefore, God, who purposed
to choose, purposed that Adam be the first represented man, we also see this, that God will
also save us by a representative man. A representative man. This is good news for sinners. This is great news for sinners
that God would save us by another man. By another representative
man, Jesus Christ. In that same text in Romans in
verse 18, it says, Therefore, as by the offense of one judgment
came upon all men to condemnation, even so by the righteousness
of one, the free gift upon all men unto justification of life.
For as by one man's disobedience, Many were made sinners. So by
the obedience of one, the obedience of one, shall many be made righteous. This is the gospel. Jesus was
purposed to be the representative of all of God's elect. And therefore,
the first prophecy, what was the first prophecy that God gave
to sinners? It was the seed of the woman. You and I are seed of the man. We are seeds of Adam. We are
in a fallen posterity. But yet God, by His grace, had
already, before Adam's sin, had already had a representative
man that we knew nothing about. Jesus Christ, He had already
chosen him to be the seed of the woman, to crush the head
of the serpent, to destroy the works of the devil. He purposed that the Son of God
should be a representative. But in order for this to happen,
if Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, was to be our representative,
how is that possible except He be made a man? By man came sin. Even so must by man come righteousness. The Son of God must be made a
servant. a man. John says that the Word, the eternal Word, condescended
to be made flesh and dwell among us. This was foretold of God in several
places. Go ahead and go back to look
just back a few pages to Isaiah chapter 42. I already mentioned
this, but we'll read it anyway. Isaiah 42 and verse 1. See this. 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. Mine elect in
whom my soul delighted." Who is that? Well, that's the same
person in Proverbs chapter 8 that speaks of wisdom. He said, before
the world was, I was daily his delight. The delight was the
Son. The Son always was his delight. And now then we see that God
had purposed to make him a servant. Go over to chapter 49 and verse 5. This shows us that he would be
a man, that the servant of God whom he elected, whom he chose,
whom he delighted in, this tells us that the Lord saith, And now
saith the Lord, that formed me from the womb to be his servant,
to bring Jacob again to him. O Israel, be not gathered, yet
shall I be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and my God shall
be my strength. And he said, It is a light thing
that thou shouldest be my servant. to raise up the tribes of Jacob,
and to restore the preserved of Israel, the elect. I will
also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest
be my salvation to the end of the earth. This is none other
than the servant of God, Jesus Christ. He alone is God's salvation
to the end of the earth. Go to Zechariah. second-to-last book, Zechariah
in the Old Testament, Zechariah chapter 3 and verse 8. Here now, O Joshua the high priest,
thou and thy fellows that sit before thee, where they are men
wondered at, for behold, I will bring forth my servant the branch
For behold, the stone that I have laid before Joshua, upon one
stone shall be seven eyes. Behold, I will engrave the graving
thereof, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity
of that land." In what? In one day. Who else removed the iniquity
of the land? Who else removed the iniquity
of the people of God in one day but the Lord Jesus Christ? He
is the servant of God. He is the branch. Jesus was made
flesh so that He might be a faithful high priest. What does a high
priest do? What's the purpose of a high
priest? Well, they're to offer gifts and sacrifices to God for
the people. The high priest, he took the
blood of that animal, he drained it into a bowl, and he went in
to the Holy of Holies, sprinkling it on the mercy seat. For what? For the sins of the people. He represented the people. Jesus Christ is a servant of
God who is to be a faithful high priest and represent God's people. First of all, the servant of
God represented the people in righteousness. You and I lack
righteousness. There's a problem, a huge problem. God will not accept us except
we be righteous. We must be as righteous as God.
You can't be a little less righteous than God. You must be as righteous
as God. God says, Be ye holy, even as
I am holy. Therefore, God sent his servant
to obtain righteousness for the people. Back in Isaiah chapter
42 again. in verse 19. He's describing his servant and
he says, God says, who is blind but my servant? or deaf as my
messenger that I sent? Who is blind as he that is perfect,
and blind as the Lord's servant, seeing many things? But thou
observest not, opening the ears, but he heareth not. What is he
saying? He's saying that he is blind and deaf to sin. He cannot
sin. My servant is blind and deaf
to sin. Now, we are blind and deaf to
righteousness, but he was blind and deaf to sin. He said, the
Lord is well pleased for his righteousness sake. He will magnify
the law and make it honorable. This was the work of the servant.
When God sent his son, his work was to obey the law of God perfectly. The servant of God who is the
God-man mediator, who being in the form of God thought it not
robbery to be equal with God, but what? But made of himself
no reputation. That is so contradictory to our
own nature, isn't it? Our nature is to make a big deal
of ourselves. His nature, being sinless, was
to glorify God. And he did that by making himself,
he took upon himself the form of a servant. Why? Because he was made in the likeness
of man, being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself.
Have you ever read in the New Testament where the Lord healed
somebody and he would tell them, now don't you tell anybody, Isn't that amazing to us? Because
I'll tell you what, if one of us healed somebody, we'd be out
telling everybody. It's just the human nature. But
He was so opposite of us because He was righteous. He humbled
Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross. Believer, consider His humiliation. If you want to be
strengthened, if you want to be encouraged, then you should
consider His humiliation. You should consider how far in
love He condescended to save you. Believer, our Lord Jesus Christ
was rich. He was rich in value, worthy
of glory, forever content with the Father and the Spirit, and
yet for your sakes He became poor. He who was rich, for your
sakes, became poor. Jesus became the poorest of men,
a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. He was a man without
sin, holy, harmless, and undefiled. He was a man that showed the
greatest love toward God and toward men. And yet, He was hated. hated. He was despised and rejected. He was mocked and hated above
all men. Think of the poverty. Consider this, that they wanted
a murderer rather than Him. How low is that? I know when
the kids, they picking people. You don't want to be the last
one picked. You didn't want to be that last
one. I'll tell you what, you're the last one because everybody
esteemed you less than everybody else. Isn't that right? Well
Jesus Christ was esteemed less than a murderer and yet he was
the most humble of men. Jesus was a man who trusted God
in all things, spoke the word of God, and yet he was the poorest
and suffered the most. Why? That for your sakes. That through his poverty you
might be made rich. Through the poverty of God's
servant, believers, we have been made rich in righteousness. Rich. Rich! Therefore, by the deeds of the
law shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law
is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of
God without the law is manifest, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets, even the righteousness of God, which is by the faithfulness,
by the faith of Jesus Christ. It's by his obedience we have
righteousness. And secondly, the servant of
God not only obtained righteousness, but redemption. Jesus was not only the servant
of God to obtain righteousness by His obedience, but redemption. Look back in your text. In verse 14 it says, Many were
astonished at Thee. I'll tell you, you'll be amazed
at how many times the word astonished, that word there, astonished,
it means astonished. But if you were to go in the
New Testament and see how many times they were astonished at
Him. They were astonished at His Word. But I tell you, this
was the most astonishing thing. His visage was so marred more
than any man. And His form more than the sons
of man. This tells us of the great suffering
of Jesus that was far greater and more devastating than our
puny minds can understand. Though He may have suffered such
physical pains as He did, yet Jesus suffered infinitely more
because it was magnified by His righteousness. He was the righteous
servant of God, and yet He was falsely accused. He was the righteous
servant of God, and yet He was unjustly despised. He was the
righteous servant, and yet He was physically beaten, spat on,
stripped, robed in mockery of His majesty and deity, wearing
a crown of thorns and a scepter of a reed. Truly, in his physical sufferings,
he was marred more than any man. He was despised more, hated more. But what tore him most was not
his flesh, it was the suffering of his soul. He shall make his
soul an offering for sin. The greatest agony that Christ
endured was being made sin for us who knew no sin. Consider Him, consider Him who bore your sins in His own body on the tree. Oh, the agony of His righteous
soul to drink down the bitter dregs of our sins. Just think about this. The very
thought of this caused our Lord Jesus in the garden to say, My
soul is exceedingly, that means surrounded, exceedingly, abundantly
surrounded with sorrowful, even unto death. It caused him three
times to fall on his face before God, asking that the cup be passed
from him. And it was so grievous to his
thought that the sweats of his body were drops of blood. Have you ever agonized over anything
like that? In Psalm 69 he says, I sink down
in the mire where there is no standing. I come up into deep
waters where the floods overflow me. I am weary of my crying.
My throat is dried. My eyes fail while I wait for
my God. They that hate me without a cause
are more than the hairs of mine head. They which destroy me,
being mine enemies, wrongfully are mighty. Then I restored that
which I took not away. O God, thou knowest my foolishness,
and my sin is not hid from thee. Let not them that wait on thee,
O Lord of hosts, be ashamed for my sake. Let not those that seek
thee be confounded for my sake, O God of Israel. Because for
thy sake I have borne reproach. Shame hath covered my face. These
are the words of our Savior on the cross. These are His agonies. These are the struggles that
He bore our sins in His own body, who knew no sin. He says in Psalm 22, verse 6,
But I am a worm and no man. This is the words of the Son
of God. a reproach of men and despised
of the people. Never did any man suffer such
grief and sorrow and pain as the Lord Jesus Christ when He
bore our sins. Believer, do you feel faint in
your mind? Then awake and put on the strength
of Christ. Do you feel grief and suffering
that you think you can't bear? then behold the servant of God
and consider his sufferings, so that you may not faint in
your minds. Doesn't his sufferings make our
sufferings seem so small? Did he not endure the greatest?
Can we not endure the least? Consider his sufferings, so that
you don't faint in your minds and become weary. Consider the
servant. Consider his sufferings. This
is the work of the servant of God to be the surety, to be the
representative of God's elect and to provide both righteousness
and atonement. Believer, be assured of this.
Not only was Jesus Christ the servant of God, but second of
all, He was a prudent servant. A prudent. This word prudent
is very important in our text. If you look at that, He said,
Behold, My servants shall deal prudently. The word is very important.
It means successful. Good success. In other words,
My servants shall have good success. In His obedience to the law, God says in Isaiah 42 verse 4,
he says, He, my servant, shall not fail nor be discouraged. In his obedience to the law,
Christ did not fail but was prudent. He had good success in obeying
the law of God. Behold the prudency of God's
servant in his death. Jesus has forever redeemed his
people from their sins. Look at Isaiah 53 across the
page. Isaiah 53 in verse 10. Yet it
pleased the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief. When
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed,
he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of
his soul and be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. Notice how many times the word
shall is in that. That's a definite thing. He says my servant shall
do prosperous. He shall be prosperous in his
work. In Daniel chapter 9 it says, He shall put away, make
an end of sin, iniquity, and transgression. This success of Christ's death
was an exclamation, was an exclamation of His on the cross when He said,
It is finished. What does that mean? What means it's finished? Yeah,
what does that mean? It means it's finished. It's
done. The work of the servant has been done. Salvation's accomplished. But I'll tell you, it was accomplished
at the cross, but it was manifest at the resurrection. The resurrection. Our Savior's not dead. Our Savior's
not dead. He's alive. He's risen from the
dead. He is risen, and God has proved
by His resurrection that His work was successful. It says, therefore, we were buried
with Him in baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised
from the dead by the glory of the Father. He was raised because
He glorified God. He glorified God. And therefore,
God has called Him from the grave, and the Spirit has justified
Him. Death could no longer hold our Savior. His work had been
finished. Salvation accomplished. Believer,
death to us. Death to us should be nothing
more than an entrance into glory. Death has lost all its power,
all its sting, because Christ has been raised from the dead.
You worry about death? then you should look at the servant
of God and behold that he has dealt prudently. He has accomplished
salvation and we see that by his resurrection from the dead. And thirdly, not only has he
dealt prudently and accomplished our salvation, but God has exalted
his servant and given him a name above every name. Look at that
back in your text. It says this, Behold, my servant
shall deal prudently. He shall be successful. He shall
be exalted and extolled and be very high. The scripture says
in Philippians 2 that he has given a name above every name,
that at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow. Isn't that amazing? Every knee shall bow. Those people
who are so bold now, they're so bold to say that God doesn't
even exist, they'll bow down to Christ. they will bow the
knee to this Christ. Every king that ever lived and
ever will come, every high and powerful man shall bow down to
this name, because God hath already exalted him and given him a name
above every name. And every knee should bow. We
who believe on Christ rejoice, because our Savior is a successful
Savior. Our hope and confidence does
not rest in ourselves, not in our merit, our exercise of religion
or will, but we trust. We trust in Jesus Christ who
saved us from our sins. We trust the servant of God who
has been exalted. We trust in Him who has given
all glory and dominion over all things. And this is so. We trust His Word will also be
successful. Do you trust His Word to be successful? Look at the last verse of this
in 52 of Isaiah. so shall he sprinkle many nations. The kings shall shut their mouths
at him, for that which had not been told them shall they see,
and that which they had not heard they shall consider." God's gospel,
just like his servant, will be successful. The Scripture tells us about
God's Word. It says, My Word that goeth forth
out of my mouth, it shall accomplish the thing whereunto I send it. You should be confident that
God's Word is doing exactly what God determined it to do. I should
be confident that God's Word is going out just like He purposed
it to go out. And I know this, I am assured
of this, that all of His elect will come to Him. If He's sitting
on the throne, the servant of God's exalted, He's successful,
I know this, everyone that He died for, He will come in time
to them and they will be saved without a doubt. Without a doubt. If they're His, they will come
to Him. And so I say, sinner, Believe. Trust in Christ. And there's
fullness of joy, fullness of strength. Trust in Him. Behold the servant of God, the
successful servant of God, the exalted servant of God. I pray that God give you strength
in this.