Friends of mine gave me a copy
of an old hymnal first published in 1779. And it is filled with Newton,
John Newton songs and a few other writers. And that came out of
that hymnal. written by Newton and Austin
wrote the music to that. It's a beautiful song, great
blessing. Thank you for that. Isaiah chapter 42, this morning. I direct your attention really
to just the first three words of chapter 42 where the Lord
Jehovah says, Behold my servant. Here is a divine command. That's the subject for today,
a divine command. Behold my servant. Let me make a couple of statements
before I really get into the very heart of the message. The
first is this, the Lord Jesus, Jesus Christ himself, is God
over all, blessed forever, and in all things he is equal to
both the Father and the Spirit. That has to be established. Our
Savior is God. Scripture says in 1 John chapter
5 and verse 7, there are three that bear record in heaven. And those three are the Father,
the Word, and the Holy Ghost. These three are one. He's God. If He's not God, He
can't save us. If He's not God, He couldn't
meet the demands of God. If He's not God, He wouldn't
have known what God required for our salvation. He's God. I know this in the scriptures,
the names of God are given to Him. In John 1 and verse 1, we
read, In the beginning was the Word, The Word was with God,
and the Word was God. The Word was God. John begins
his gospel narrative, the fourth gospel, he begins it with that
important statement. Because it was the design of
God, God the Spirit, in giving John the words of the fourth
narrative, the gospel narrative, It was the design of the Spirit
of God to set forth the deity of Jesus of Nazareth. In Romans
chapter 9 and verse 5 we read, who is over all, over all, God
blessed forever. He's over all. That one who died
for our sins is over all. He's God. We read toward the
end of the Gospel of John, after our Lord's resurrection, Thomas
saw Him and fell before Him and said, My Lord and my God. Nathanael said to Him back in
John the first chapter, Thou art the Son of God. God the Father
said to him, this is recorded in Hebrews chapter 1 and verse
8, God the Father said, Thy throne, O God, is forever. God called
him God. Do you get that? God called him God. The Apostle Paul said of the
redemptive work of the Savior, He said He purchased the church
with His own blood, but He worded it this way, He said the church
of God which He purchased with His own blood. That is God's
church, the redeemed, the elect of the ages. God purchased our
redemption with His own blood. We read in 1 Timothy 3.16, God was
manifest in the flesh. John wrote in 1 John 5.20, we
are in Him that is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal
life. When writing of the second coming
of the Savior, the Apostle Paul said in Titus chapter 2 and verse
13, the appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. And in this same book that we're
in this morning, in chapter 9 and verse 6, Isaiah says one of His
names is the Mighty God. The names of God are given to
Him. He's God. Secondly, the attributes
of God are given to Him. He is said to be eternal. There
in that passage in Isaiah 9, 6, His names are Wonderful, Counselor,
the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. And that expression, the Everlasting
Father, is quite literally the Father of Eternity. Immutability
belongs to Him. That means He doesn't change. Hebrews 13, 8, Jesus Christ the
same yesterday, today, and forever. The same writer in Hebrews said
in chapter 1, verses 11 and 12 of the heavens and the earth,
They shall wax old as doth a garment, and as a vesture thou shalt fold
them up. They shall be changed, but thou
art the same. of my presence belongs to Him. He said to His disciples, lo,
I am with you always, even to the end of the world. He says
to His children, He says, where two or three are gathered together
in My name, there am I in the midst of them. And all over the
world today, saints of God are meeting together for worship.
They're meeting in the name of the Lord Jesus. They're meeting
to worship Him, to adore Him, to listen to His gospel preached. And as they meet together, and
as we meet together here, the Savior says, I am with you. He is omnipresent. He said in Matthew 28 and verse
20, or excuse me, John chapter 3 and verse 13, He says, No man
hath ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven,
even the Son of Man which is in heaven. Even when He was on
earth, He was still in heaven. How can that possibly be? He
is God. He is God. Omniscience belongs
to Him. That is unlimited knowledge. The Lord Jesus knew the thoughts
of men when He was on this earth. In the second chapter of John,
the scripture says He knew all men. Literally, He knew all. and needed not that any should
testify of man, for he knew what was in man. He knows all. He knows you. He knows me. He knows our thoughts. He knows
our words. He knows our thoughts before
we think them. He knows our words before we
speak them. He is omniscient. He knows all
things. David said in Psalm 139, and
indeed this is David's son speaking, He knows the words that are in
our tongue. All things are naked and open
before the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. In Revelation
2 and 23, He says to the church at Thyatira, I am He which searcheth
the reins and the hearts. Simon Peter appealed to his omniscience. He appealed to the all-knowing
Savior as that One who knows the secrets of men's hearts.
And He said to Him, Lord, Thou knowest all things. Thou knowest that I love Thee. And then the attribute of omnipotence
belongs to Him. That is, He has all power. Again
in Isaiah 9, 6, he is referred to as the mighty God. And he said to his disciples
in Matthew chapter 28, before he sent them out to preach the
gospel, he said, all power is given unto me in heaven and in
earth. I say the names of God are given
to him. The attributes of God belong
to Him. And thirdly, divine works, the
works of God are attributed to Him. The work of creation. John says all things were made
by Him. And without Him was not anything
made that was made. John chapter 1 and verse 3. The Apostle Paul says in Colossians
chapter 1 and verse 16, By Him all things were created that
are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible. Creation belongs to Him. The
work of providence belongs to Him. That is, He is directing
all things to the end that He Himself purposed. In Hebrews
chapter 1 and verse 3 we read, He upholds all things by the
word of His power. And in Colossians chapter 1,
by Him all things consist. That means all things are held
together by Him. He's guiding and directing and
holding all things. And thirdly, salvation belongs
to Him. The giving of spiritual life
is attributed to Him. John 5, 21, the Son quickeneth
whom He will. And the final resurrection, that
life, the physical life that our Lord is going to restore
to all men, that is attributed to Him. John 5 and 25, the hour
is coming in which all that are in the graves shall hear His
voice and shall come forth. The works of creation, the work
of providence, the work of salvation, the work of resurrection is attributed
to Him. And then fourthly, divine worship
was commanded to be rendered to Him. In Hebrews chapter 1,
the Father spoke to the angels. The angels were commanded to
worship Him. Hebrews 1.6, when He bringeth
in the first begotten into the world, He saith, let all the
angels of God worship Him. He is worthy of worship because
He is God. So the first statement I want
to make and I want you to understand is that Jesus of Nazareth, our
Savior, is God. He's not a god. He is God. The Jews understood
His claim to deity. Our Lord had healed a man who
had been sick for 38 years. In John chapter 5, He healed
him on the Sabbath day. Our Lord, when the Jews accused
Him of violating the Sabbath day, Our Lord said to them, My
Father worketh hitherto and I work. And then they picked up stones
to stone Him because they knew what He meant when He said God
was His Father. He was saying, I'm God. I'm the
Son of God. He was Himself claiming deity. Here's the second statement. In order to redeem us, in order
to save us from our sins, in order to wash us in His blood,
and robe us in His righteousness, in order that we would be everlastingly
accepted to the Father, saved by free and sovereign grace,
consistent with justice. In order to save God's elect,
this everlasting God, this mighty God, this glorious God, He voluntarily
became Jehovah's servant. He became Jehovah's servant in
the covenant of grace before the world began in order to save
us from our sins. And God the Father speaks these
words of command. Oh, may God the Spirit enable
us to hear them. He says, Behold My Servant. Behold My Servant. The Son of God, though truly
divine and entitled to divine honors and worship, He humbled
Himself. He took upon Himself human flesh. He took upon Himself a body.
He said in Hebrews chapter 10, a body thou hast prepared me. A body and a soul. And as a result
of that union with human nature, He came into this world and was
born made under the law. The Scripture says in Galatians
chapter 4, He was made under the law in the fullness of time.
God sent forth His Son made under the law to redeem them that were
under the law. This was absolutely necessary. He had to be God, but He had
to be made under the law. In other words, He had to be
flesh and blood and bones like we are. God can't die. But the wages of sin is death. Well then, how are we to be saved? How are we then to be redeemed? How are we to be reconciled to
God? God over all, blessed forever,
was made flesh, born into this world of a virgin. free from
any contamination of sin. And throughout his life he lived
under the law. The law examined him as he kept
every jot and tittle of it. He was the absolutely perfect
man and he was therefore qualified as the God-man. to be our substitute,
to be our savior, to go to the cross as our substitute, as God's
sacrifice for sin, as that worthy sin offering. And he laid down
his life to God for us. as the servant of Jehovah, the
Son of God, was sent on a mission. And oh, we love that verse, and
we shall quote it yet many, many more times. If God gives us breath
while we're on this earth, we shall say, Thou shalt call His
name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. O blessed name of Jesus! Who is Jesus? He's God over all,
blessed forever, and He's one of us. He's the Son of Man. The Son of God joined Himself
to human flesh for the express purpose of saving those whom
the Father gave Him in the covenant of grace, those the Father entrusted
to Him from old eternity. And in order to save these people,
He voluntarily took upon Himself the form of a servant. Philippians
chapter 2 says that. And in this very passage of Scripture,
in Isaiah chapter 42, the first four words of verse number 4,
He shall not fail. Behold My servant, God says,
He shall not fail. God sent him into this world
to put away the sins of his people. God sent him into this world
to reconcile us to God. God sent him into this world
to satisfy divine justice that demanded death. God sent Him
in this world to do something about our unrighteousness. God sent Him into this world
to work out a perfect righteousness for all of His people. And the
word of Jehovah is this, He shall not fail. Well, He can't fail. He's God. He's God. We've already established
that. God can't fail. Whatever God
sets out to do, He will do it triumphantly. God can't be defeated. God can't be overtaken. God can't
be frustrated. Whatever God's will is, that's
exactly what's going to happen. And He sent His Son into this
world, and here's a divine command, Behold My servant, he shall not
fail. Take those words with you when
you go home today. File them away in your memory
banks. Hide them in your heart. Hide
them in your heart. Behold God's servant. He shall
not fail. He didn't fail. He couldn't fail. He successfully did the work
that the Father gave Him to do. Oh, this is a divine command. Behold My servant. These are
the words of God Himself. Behold My servant. Not just glance
at Him. Not merely take notice of Him. Behold Him. You see, there were
a lot of people who saw Him with their physical eyes when He was
on this earth, but they were no better for it. It is said of the Pharisees,
of the Jewish leaders, when our Lord was suffering and bleeding
and dying and sitting there, sitting, they watched Him there.
They watched Him on the cross. But it wasn't a behold that resulted
in their salvation. They just looked at Him. They
looked at Him. Thousands apparently lined the
road going into Jerusalem as He had made His triumphant entry
into the city of Jerusalem in fulfillment of Old Testament
prophecy. They said, Hosanna to the King
of David, to the Son of David. Many people saw Him. But it isn't
seeing Him with these eyes, it's beholding Him from the heart. Out of neediness. A neediness
that you've got, but a neediness God has to make you aware of. Behold my servant. This is a
divine command. A divine command. Now, let me show you how this
ties in together. with chapter 41. The Jews had
been beholding false gods. That's who they'd been looking
to. They'd been looking to false gods. And our Lord, He tells
them in chapter 41, I'm God. I'm God. Look at verse number
10. Chapter 41. He says, Fear thou
not, for I am with thee. Be not dismayed, for I am thy
God. I am thy God. I am God. These are idols. They are pretend gods. I am God. I will strengthen thee. Yea,
I will help thee. Yea, I will uphold thee with
the right hand of my righteousness. I am God. And then later in the chapter,
as Brother Ron read to us, the Lord challenges the people to
bring forth their idols, to bring forth their little G-O-D-S, and
demonstrate if they had any deity-like qualities. Look what he says
in verse 22. Now, remember, these are people
who have been infected, infected with idol worship. And we must
understand this, every man and every woman is an idolater by
nature. Okay? That's just a fact. We're
religious by nature. We're not irreligious. We're
religious by nature, but it's a religion of error. And we're all worshippers, but
we're worshippers of man-made gods, the result of our own imaginations. The root word is image. We worship
images of our own thoughts. And this is what Israel did.
They were infected with idolatry. And idolatry is such a serious
infection that nobody can cure it but God
himself. That's how serious it is. Nobody
can cure idolatry. Nobody can show you that the
God you've been worshiping is an idol, a figment of your imagination,
absolutely helpless, a God that can do nothing for you. Nobody
can destroy your God except the God of glory. He's got to do
that. He's got to kill your little
God. And here is Jehovah. He says,
I am God. And He says to Israel in verse
22, He says, let them bring them forth. Bring forth your gods. And show us what will happen.
Let your God, bring your idols, bring your gods and let them
manifest to us what's going to happen in the future. Let them show us the former things. Let them go back and say, you
know, I have this on record that I predicted this would happen
and it actually came to pass. Bring forth your gods and tell
them to do that. That we may consider them, look
at verse 22, and know the latter end of them, or declare for us
things for to come, things that have not yet happened. Can your
God tell the future? Can your gods do that? Now our
God does. The God of the Bible does. Go
over to chapter 46, and this was an issue that God had with
Israel. And it's an issue that God still
has with all the world today. He says, I'm the Lord, worship
Me. But we worship idols. We're idol
worshipers. Look at what the Lord says over
here in Isaiah 46, 10 and 11. In fact, back up to verse 5,
chapter 46. He says, to whom will you liken
me and make me equal and compare me that we may be like? They
lavish gold out of a bag. They weigh silver in the balance. They hire a goldsmith. He maketh
it a god. They fall down, yea, they worship. And then they pick up their god
and put him up on the shoulder. and they carry him. They set
him in his place and that's where he stands. He'll stay right there
until you move him. Yea, one shall cry unto him,
yet he can't answer, nor save him out of his trouble. Your
God, when you cry to Him, He can't answer you and He can't
save you. He can't rescue you. You see,
I don't need a God that I can put up on my shoulder. I need
a God who'll put me up on His shoulder. I need a God who'll
carry me. If your God is a God you carry
around, you got the wrong God. And that's the God most people
worship today. They worship Gods that they can
carry around on their own shoulders. They worship Gods that need them.
And you know the old saying, it goes back years and years
ago, God has no eyes but your eyes, and no hands but your hands,
and no feet but your feet. And I say of such a God, that's
a pitiful God. Man, if all He's got is me, if
that's all He's got? If the only strength He's got
is my strength? If the only ability He's got
is my ability? Pitiful, poor God! The Lord says,
you get your craftsmen out and they make you up a beautiful
God. And then you put Him up on your shoulder and you take
Him and you set Him down and He'll stay right there until
you move Him again. And He can't save you. He can't
save anybody. Look what He says in verse 8,
Remember this, show yourselves men, bring it again, bring it
again to mine, oh you transgressors. Remember the former things of
old. For I am God. There is none else. I am God.
There is none like Me. This is what God does, declaring
the end from the beginning. From the very beginning, He declared
all the way to the end. And from ancient times, the things
that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand. You bring forth your gods that
can talk like that. You bring forth your gods that
has willed things to happen and those things come to pass. God
says, My counsel shall stand. I will do all my pleasure. Calling
a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executed my counsel
from a far country. Yea, I have spoken it. I will
also bring it to pass. I have purposed it. I will also
do it. Back up to chapter 45 and look
at verse number 20. And just to show you what the
context is about, that it's the same context, look at 45, 16. They shall be ashamed and also
confounded, all of them, they shall go to confusion, that is,
they'll be disgraced, they're brought to reproach together,
that are makers of idols. They can't help you. He says
in verse number 20, "...assemble yourselves and come drawn near
together, ye that are escaped of the nations." They have no
knowledge that set up the wood of their graven image and pray
unto a God that cannot save. And there are multitudes of people
in this city and in nearby cities and towns. They are calling on
gods today that cannot save. They can't save. Why in the world
you call on a God that can't save? Because you're an idolater. And you love a God that you can
manipulate. You love a God that you can ultimately
have the power over. See, that's not the God of the
Bible. The God of the Bible, you don't have any power over
Him. He's got all power over all flesh, the Lord Jesus Christ,
God's Son. He said, I have all power over
all flesh to give eternal life to as many as thou hast given
me. Now He's got all power. And the saddest thing is to see
people and their people in our families. I have people in my
family like this. You got people in your family,
they're calling on a God today. They're sincere. I don't doubt
their sincerity. They're zealous. I don't doubt
there's evil. But they're idolaters, and you
tell them they're an idolater, you're going to have a fight
on your hands. And you see, this is the If I could say it this way, the
awfulness of the work of the minister, the difficult work
of the minister is in setting forth our God. We've got to kill
another man's God. We've got to slay your God's.
We've got to show you God's got to show you. through the preaching
of the Word, that the God you've been worshipping all these years
is just an idol. That's all He is. He's just an
idol. He can't help you. He can't save
you. Why in the world would you call
on a God that can't come to your rescue? A God who needs your
will. He needs your cooperation. That's
a wrong God. You're an idolater. You're an
idolater. All the ignorance that just pervades
our society today. Men don't know who God is. Let's tell them. Let's tell them
who God is. Let's be honest with people.
The Lord says, go back over here in chapter 41, He said, bring
your gods in. Bring your gods in. Let's see
if they can tell the future. Tell you, our God speaks of things
before they ever happen. Oh yeah. In fact, our God spoke
of the fall before it ever happened. He told Adam, in the day thou
eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. He didn't say if you eat,
he said in the day you eat. Our God said it was going to
happen before it ever happened. And you know what? Sure enough,
it happened. And 4,000 years before the Lord
Jesus Christ was born of a virgin, He said, the seed of the woman
is coming. He's going to crush the head
of the serpent. That's 4,000 years before it
ever happened. And the years slowly ticked by
and people said, where is the promise of His coming? Just wait. And in the fullness of the time,
He came. In due time, Christ died for
the ungodly. In due time, when our debt was
due and payable. You know what it means to have
a bill that comes due. You get a bill in the mail that
says due April the 1st. Got to be paid. Our debt was
payable. God required the payment to be
made 2,000 years ago. And our Lord Jesus came and He
died exactly on schedule and paid our debt of sin. in due
time. And God spoke about that a long
time before it ever happened. In fact, right here in Isaiah,
Isaiah chapter 53, hundreds of years before the Lord Jesus came,
God said His wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our
iniquities is what He laid on Isaiah's heart to write. The
chastisement of our peace was upon Him and with His stripes
we are healed. And it all happened just exactly
the way the prophet of God said it was going to happen. Born
in Bethlehem's manger. For safety, Joseph and Mary had
to take Him over into Egypt. All of these things were fulfilled
just exactly like God spoke them. And God says here in Isaiah 42,
now you bring your gods in. Let's see what they got to say.
What was that? Oh, I believe your God can't
speak. He's got a mouth, but He can't
speak. He's got eyes, but He can't see.
He's got ears, but He can't hear. Read Psalm 115. And He said,
those that make them are just like them. You are as dead as your God is.
You are as helpless as your God is. Listen to what God says. Look
at verse 24. Chapter 41. No, verse 23. He says, "...show the things
that are to come hereafter, that we may know that your God..."
Yeah, do good. Do something. Do something good
or do something evil. Just do something. You sure do
look pretty. You're made out of gold and silver
and there you sit. Well, do something. Do something
good. Well, do something evil. You
can't do anything. It's like Dagon. The Philistines captured the
Ark of God. They put the Ark of God in with
Dagon. There's Dagon, the god of the
Philistines. Oh, he's so mighty. They set
him right there, and there he sat. The Ark of God represented the
presence of God. They come in the next morning,
and he's knocked over. Who knocked over? Our God. I
tell you, if your God can be knocked over, if somebody can
shove your God over, You sure are in trouble." Then the next
day just broke him up. And they said, I believe it's
just the God of the Ark of the Covenant. I think we'll just
get rid of this. We'll send this away. Can't do
anything good. Can't do anything evil. You see,
the Lord issues this challenge. This challenge. And then he says
in verse 24, Behold, you are nothing. You people who worship
these gods, you are nothing. And your work is of naught. Your
work is nothing. An abomination is he that chooses
you. Here is this God that is set
there. I tell you, those who choose that God, God said, you
are an abomination. You don't worship the one true
and living God. You worship a stump. You worship
a rock. You worship the invention of
man. But God says, wait though. I've raised up one from the north
and he shall come. He's coming. On the surface,
this is about Cyrus. But deeper, this is about God's
servant. From the rising of the sun shall
he call upon my name, and he shall come upon princes as upon
mortar, as the potter treadeth the clay." The potter is coming!
That's Christ Jesus. Who hath declared from the beginning
that ye may know? I have. And before time that
we may say, He is righteous, God has. Yea, there is none that
showeth it manifested, there is none that declare it, yea,
there is none that heareth your words. The first shall say to
Zion, and that's literally He who is the first and the last. This is the Lord. The Lord shall
say to Zion, Behold them, behold them, behold all your gods. Now
take a good look at it, really consider your gods. absolutely
helpless, absolutely without any ability to help you, they
can't save you, they can't rescue you, they can't speak, they can't
do anything good, they can't do anything evil. Behold, behold
them! Take a good, long, hard look
at your God! Well, that's what I say to everybody
today. Take a good, long, hard look
at the God you worship! you better inspect him closely.
If he's not omnipotent, if he's not sovereign over all men, if
he's not the potter and everybody else is the clay, you better
just destroy your God, because it can't help you, it can't save
you. And now look at verse 29. He
says, Behold, they are all vanity. Their works are nothing. Their
molten images are wind and confusion. Now watch it. He has said, Behold,
behold them. Behold, behold your false gods. Look at them closely. inspect
them, examine them, consider their attributes, their qualities,
and this is what you'll find. They're failures. And then he
says, now, behold my servant. That's what ties this all together.
Behold my servant. And God says, I'll tell you something
about him. He shall not fail. He shall not fail. And that's
going to be our subject tonight. Tonight. May God enable us to
worship the true God in spirit and in truth through the Lord
Jesus, the only Savior, the only Mediator, the only Redeemer,
the only one who can bring us to God. He's got to be both God
and man.