Thank you so much. Let's go back
to Isaiah chapter 42 this evening. Isaiah chapter 42. In the 41st
chapter of Isaiah God has set forth the uselessness
of the gods that Israel always fled to in their time of need. In fact, let me just show you
something. Go back into chapter 41. When God sent him, he's their
way. This is what they did. They ran
back to their idols. to their gods. In verse 6, they
helped everyone out his neighbor. Everyone said to his brother,
be of good courage. So the carpenter encouraged the
goldsmith, and he that smootheth with the hammer, him that smote
the anvil, saying, it is ready for the soldering. He fastened
it with nails that it should not be moved. But thou, Israel,
art my servant Jacob, whom I have chosen the seed of Abraham, my
friend." We're all natural idolaters. That's what we said this morning. And the Lord When he's going
to reveal the gospel to us, when he's going to show us mercy for
Christ's sake, he exposes to us the vanity, the deadness,
and the impotence of the idols that we have believed and worshipped
for all of these years. Later in chapter 41, the Lord
tells the people to bring forth their idols. We talked about
this a little bit this morning. He said, let them appear before
me and speak for themselves. God said, they need to do something. Can your idols do anything? Can
they do anything good? Can they do anything evil? And,
of course, an idol is just that. It's like the Apostle Paul said
in the book of 1 Corinthians. He said, we know an idol is nothing. It's nothing. And then the Lord says to His
people in verse 27, The first shall say to Zion..."
Who is the first? Just let me show you who this
is talking about. Go back to verse 4 of chapter
41. "...who hath wrought and done
it, calling the generations from the beginning, I the Lord the
first with the last, I am He." So he says here in verse 27,
"...the first shall say to Zion..." That is, the one who is first.
God shall say to Zion, God shall say to His people, God shall
say to the remnant according to the election of grace. God
shall say to His vessels of mercy when He's teaching them the gospel,
He says, behold, behold them. Behold the uselessness of these
idols. Behold their impotence. Behold
their deadness. Behold their inability to save,
their inability to come to your rescue. And then God says, He
tells them what He's going to do. And I will give to Jerusalem
one that bringeth good tidings. I'm going to give you somebody
who will get you out of the mess that you're in. Your idols can't
do it, though you fled to them. Though you ran to the gods that
you made, they can't help you. But I'm going to do something
for you. You're not going to do something for me. I'm going
to do something for you. I'm going to send the man, an
unusual man, the God-man. I'm going to give him to Jerusalem.
I'm going to give him to my people. And I'm going to give one that
bringeth good tidings. In fact, He not only brings good
tidings, He is good tidings. He is good tidings. Look over
at Isaiah chapter 61. Isaiah chapter 61. Here is the
Savior speaking. He says, The Spirit of the Lord
God is upon me. Verse 1, 61, 1. Because the Lord
hath anointed me to preach good tidings to the meek. What does
that mean? Good news. Good news. And we read over in the Gospels
that our Lord Jesus, He went forth preaching the Gospel. God
says back here in chapter 41 to His people, He says, Behold,
behold these useless gods. Now look at them, consider them.
They can't help you. They can't rescue you. They can't
save you. They're no mediator. They're
not a high priest. They have absolutely no worth
to you. They're no good to you. I'm going
to do something for you. I'm going to send somebody, I'm
going to give him to Jerusalem. He's the gift. Christ Jesus is
the gift. The gift that God gives to his
Jerusalem. That city of peace. One that
bringeth good tidings. Notice he says in verse 28, For
behold, for I beheld, he says, for I beheld, there was no man. Nobody who could help you. Even
among them there was no counselor that when I asked of them could
answer a word. There wasn't anybody who could
help you. There wasn't anybody who could
save you. There wasn't anybody who could
come to you in your awful dilemma. There was nobody. He says again in verse 29, Behold,
look and see and consider and examine. They are all vanity. They're all vanity and everyone
who worships these idols are vanity. He says their works are
nothing. Their molten images are wind
and confusion. They're wind and confusion. They're
vain and empty. That's what those words mean.
They're empty of life. They're empty of salvation. They're
empty of any grace. They're empty of any power. And
then the Lord says in chapter 42 verse 1, now behold my servant. I have told you to behold these
idols, to look at them, to consider them, to see them for what they
are. Now I sit before you, my servant,
and I want you to consider Him. I want you to see Him for who
He is, in all of His greatness, in all of His glory. I want you
to behold my servant. My servant, he says, whom I uphold. Mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth. I put my spirit upon him. He shall bring forth judgment
to the Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor lift up,
nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed
shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench. He shall bring forth judgment
unto truth." And then he says, he shall not fail, nor be discouraged. Till he hath said judgment in
the earth and the isles shall wait, shall trust for his law,
for his word. My subject this evening is the
successful servant. The successful servant. This
is the Lord Jesus. And oh, what a servant he was
to God. The Scripture says he thought
it not robbery to be equal with God. When he said he was the
Son of God, he wasn't taking a title to which he wasn't entitled. He was, is, and always shall
be the Son of God. But he made himself of no reputation. He took upon himself the form
of a servant. In fact, he humbled himself and
he became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore, God has highly exalted
him and given him a name which is above every name. And he says
here, Behold my servant. Behold my servant. Let's go through here and look
at these words that God the Father has to say to us. Behold my servant. Examine him. This is not a glance. This is not just take a quick
look at him and then look back to your idols. This is fasten
your attention on Jesus Christ the Lord. Look nowhere else. Look to nobody else. You've been
looking to all these false gods. They can't help you. Now I set
somebody before you who can help. Who does help. He's my servant
that I sent into the world. He's Jehovah's servant. Who does
the Father's will. He said, Lo, I come to do thy
will, O God. As we said this morning, He's
equal with God in every way. But He willingly subjected Himself
to the Father. To do the Father's will which
involved coming into this world of wickedness, of depravity,
of sin. And joining His deity with His
humanity. And in that body that God prepared
for Him to grow up in this old world, this cruel world. Obeying
the law of God which He was made under. And then to die under
the curse of the law. He had to do this in order to
put away our sins. He had to do this in order to
reconcile us unto God. God says, Behold My servant.
He faithfully did the service that I sent Him to do. Examine
Him. Look at Him very closely. And
be astonished at who He is. Be amazed at what He does. And
don't you find it to be so, you who are the people of God? As
you still behold God's servant, you're even more amazed than
you were back a few years ago. He just is so glorious. He's
so wonderful. He's so delightful in all of
His offices, in all of His attributes as God and man, as our Savior
and as Jehovah's servant. God says, behold Him. Behold
Him. Look at Him. He came from heaven
as God's servant to redeem, to reconcile God's people. He came to put away our sins. This servant came to bring in
everlasting righteousness. He's gone back to glory, God's
servant to make intercession for all of His people. This servant
sends his spirit to take the gospel to redeemed ones in the
time of love. This servant, he keeps and preserves
all of God's elect. He keeps us secure. This servant
rules the world to fulfill the Father's purpose. And this servant
will someday come back to this earth He'll raise all the bodies
of the dead, and all will be gathered before Him, and He shall
set in judgment upon the nations. He will divide the sheep from
the goats, and then after the goats have been disposed of,
He will present the sheep to His Father, these His brethren,
these that He has redeemed by His blood. And He'll say to the
Father, Behold, I and the children that Thou hast given Me, I'm
the faithful servant. I've finished the work that You
gave Me to do. Here they are. We're trophies
of His grace. Trophies of His grace. Go over
to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Here's the servant of Jehovah.
Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Look at the 22nd verse, 1 Corinthians
15 verse 22. For as in Adam all die, everybody
he represented died. 1 Corinthians 15 verse 22. For as in Adam all die, even
so in Christ shall all that he represented, all for whom he
was the surety, shall all be made alive. They shall be. But every man in his own order,
Christ the first fruits, afterward they that are Christ's at His
coming. And then cometh the end. Then
comes the very termination of time. Then comes the last thing
in a series. That word end means the last
in a series. Mark that in your Bible. That's
exactly what the word end means. The last in a series. When did
the series begin? In the covenant of grace. When
He was appointed to be Jehovah's servant, and He voluntarily accepted
that mission, the mission of saving His people from their
sins, and from eternity past to eternity future, it says,
then comes the end, the finish, the definite goal or point. Everything's pointing to that
goal. When all the family of God, redeemed by blood, robed
in righteousness, justified by imputed righteousness, and glorified
stand before the Father, then comes the end. The end of the
series, but the beginning of eternity. The beginning of eternity. Watch this. Then come at the
end when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the
Father." Here's the servant. He is still doing a faithful
service to Jehovah, to the Father, when He shall have put down all
rule and all authority and power, for He must reign, this God-man
must reign. He earned the right to reign
by His substitutionary death, by His successful work of redemption. He must reign till He hath put
all enemies under His feet. And the last enemy that shall
be destroyed is death. For he hath put all things under
his feet. But when he saith all things
are put under his feet, it is manifested that he is accepted
which did put all things under him. That is, he is still the
servant of Jehovah. And when all things shall be
subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject
unto him that put all things unto him, that God may be all
in all. This is the faithful servant.
The faithful servant. and all the jobs that the Father
gave Him, all the missions, and all the works that the Father
gave Him to do, primarily the work of redemption, but also
the work of intercession, the work of mediation, the work of
justifying, the work of sanctifying, the work of glorifying, all of
the works that the Father gave Him to do, He has done successfully. And God is all in all. Go back
here to Isaiah chapter 42 and this is what God says, behold
my servant. Behold my servant. And then he says this, behold
my servant whom I uphold. I uphold him. God holds him up before us. He holds him up before us in
His Word. Throughout this book, God upholds
Him. God lifts Him up in this book
throughout the Word of God. This is indeed a hymn book. It's
all about hymn. God holds Him up. He holds Him
up before us. He holds Him up before us as
the only Savior of sinners. He holds us up before Him as
the Redeemer of captive slaves. God holds Him up. God held him up during his days
of earthly journey. That shows the reality of his
manhood. God gave him strength to do all
that he did. To suffer all that he suffered. To successfully fulfill all that
needed to be done to save his people from their sins. throughout
all the time of His humiliation. The Lord Jesus was upheld and
sustained in His work by God the Father. He says, Whom I uphold. So real was His manhood that
as a man our Savior required the sustaining power of God. The strength of God sustained
Him in the wilderness of temptation. The strength of God sustained
Him in the Garden of Gethsemane. The strength of God sustained
Him when He hung on the cross, dying under the wrath of God. God says, Behold My servant whom
I uphold. And I'll give you another little
translation of this. One of the old writers, I like
to read every once in a while, John Trapp. Now will you ever
read John Trapp or not? But he said these words ought
to be translated this way, Behold my servant on whom I lean. And I like that. on whom I lean."
In other words, God the Father has leaned fully upon His Son
to do all of the work of salvation. He has trusted Him to save His
people from their sins. And the one upon whom God the
Father leans, that's the same one we lean upon. We lean upon
Christ Jesus, the very first one to trust the Son of God for
the salvation of His people was God the Father. Read again in
Ephesians chapter 1 and see if you don't come to that conclusion
in verse 12 where it says that we should be to the praise of
His glory who first trusted in Christ. The very first one who
trusted in Jesus Christ, who leaned the weight of the salvation
of all of His chosen people upon the Son of God, was the Father. The Father. God says, Behold
My Son, or Behold My Servant, on whom I lean. I lean on Him,
God says. It's all dependent upon Him. And it's always been dependent
upon Him. Salvation is not conditioned
upon something you must do. It's conditioned upon what the
Lord Jesus Christ did. It's only His blood. It's only
His righteousness. It's only His grace. It's only
His power. It's only His mercy. It's only
Christ Jesus. It's only Him. Only Him. Behold my servant whom I uphold. And then watch what he says.
Mine he lacked. The word strictly denotes somebody
who's chosen or set apart for a specific purpose. God says
behold my servant whom I uphold. who's been chosen by me to accomplish
this great work of mediation and salvation by his substitutionary
death upon the cross. In 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 20
we read, who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the
world but was manifest in these last times for you. God chose
his son first and then chose us in him. Go back and look in
chapter 41, verses 8 and 9. God says, but thou Israel, Isaiah
41, 8, but thou Israel art my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen,
the seed of Abraham my friend. Thou whom I have taken from the
ends of the earth, and called thee from the chief men thereof,
and said unto thee, Thou art my servant, I have chosen thee,
and not cast thee away." He chose us. He first of all chose Christ. He chose the Son of God. Christ
be my first elect, God said, and then chose us in Christ our
head. We're chosen people, chosen in
the blessed Savior. Notice the next expression, he
says, in whom my soul delighteth. The word delighteth, I love word
studies. If you look up the word delighted,
it's a word that was used in the Levitical law to refer to
the acceptance of a sacrifice offered to the Lord. As in Leviticus
chapter 1 and verse 4 where the same word here translated delighteth
is set forth as accepted. Leviticus 1, 4, and he shall
put his hand upon the head of the burnt offering and it shall
be accepted for him to make an atonement for him. Also in Leviticus
22, 21 and many other references as well, Leviticus chapter 22
and 21 says, it shall be perfect to be accepted. You see, whatever
sacrifice was offered to God in order for God to accept it,
It had to be delightful to Him. It had to be well-pleasing unto
Him, or He wouldn't accept it. So the words are tied together.
They're tied together. Our Lord Jesus, He came into
this world to be God's sacrifice for sin. The Lord would take
no delight in His sacrifice. He would not accept His sacrifice. His sacrifice would not have
delighted the Father. It would not have been acceptable
to the Father were it not a perfect sacrifice. A sinless sacrifice. Behold our Lord Jesus Christ. He was, He had to be perfect
and sinless and blameless and spotless. as the offering to
God, otherwise the father would never have accepted him. The
father said concerning his son, this is my beloved son in whom
I'm well pleased. And God accepts us in him. God delighted in his life. God
delighted in his sacrifice, Ephesians 5 and verse 2, and walk in love
as Christ also hath loved us and hath given himself for us
an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor. And then God says, I put my spirit
upon him. I put my spirit upon him, not
as the son of God considered as the son of God, For He is
one of the Trinity, equal with the Father and the Spirit, but
considered as the Mediator. As the Son of Man, He was filled
with the Spirit. He had the Spirit without measure. And the works that He did were
done by the presence of and the power of the Spirit who was with
Him. The Spirit of God rested upon
him, rested upon him without measure. The Spirit of God anointed
him for his work in the Old Testament, the three great offices of the
Old Testament. In order to go into those offices
officially, you had to be anointed. prophet, priest, and king. All
three offices required the anointing oil. Even so, our Lord Jesus
Christ is that prophet greater than Moses. He is that high priest
after the order of Melchizedek. He is the king, and as such,
he was anointed by the Spirit of God for those offices which
he held. Notice back, go back to Isaiah
chapter 11. Isaiah chapter 11. And I confess this is mysterious,
but it shows the reality of His manhood. Isaiah chapter 11 verse
1, There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and
a branch shall grow out of his roots. And the Spirit of the
Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom, the Spirit
of understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit
of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord, and shall make him
of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord. And he shall
not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after
the hearing of his ears." This is our Lord Jesus who was anointed
with the Holy Spirit. Go back to our text and let me
quickly move on. He says, I put my spirit upon
him. And then he says in verse one,
he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall bring
forth judgment to the Gentiles. This of course speaks of the
error of the gospel. Implemented when our Lord Jesus
came into this world, the gospel. The gospel was proclaimed. You
see, the gospel is based upon judgment or justice maintained
and satisfied. When we think about the gospel
of grace, it is not a message that says
God's justice has been set aside. That's not the gospel. The Gospel
says the justice of God has been satisfied, not set aside. It isn't that, well, God decided
He'd be merciful to some and He'd show justice to others.
God's got to be just no matter what He does. He's always got
to be just, but He shows mercy to us in a just way. For He's satisfied His justice.
in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. He shall bring forth
justice, judgment to the Gentiles. And then watch this in the second
verse. He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice
to be heard in the street. In other words, he shall not
be noisy, but quiet. He is not going to build his
kingdom in a violent way or in a contentious way. You read of
our Lord in His dealings with sinners. He behaved with great
humility and meekness. He didn't come into the world
amidst pomp and ceremony. There was no pageantry about
the Savior. There was no ceremonialism about
the Savior. And He didn't make a lot of noise
about the work that He came to do. When He performed miracles,
so often He'd tell people, just go home, don't tell anybody. He told His disciples, He said,
don't be like the hypocrites, they sound a trumpet when they
do a good deed, that they may be seen of men, because they
seek the praise and the glory of men. Rather, He said, when
you do your alms, don't let your left hand do what your right
hand, know what your right hand is doing. Our Lord went about
performing unnumbered miracles. And He prayed, He told his disciples,
he said, when you pray, don't be like the Pharisees. They love
to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the street,
that they may be seen of men. Verily, they have their reward.
He said, when you pray, go into your closet and shut the door.
You pray to your Father, which heareth and seeth in secret.
That's exactly what the Savior did. He didn't go out. He didn't
parade His holiness out down the street, go down and bow on
the street corner, get down on His knees and pray before everybody
so everybody would say, my, what a holy man. You know, when He
prayed, He went into the mountain. You want to seek God's face in
prayer? Get alone. Get alone with God. Get alone You see, our Lord Jesus,
He came to do His Father's will, and He came to do it in a quiet
way. He just went about His work.
And notice His tenderness, verse 3. A bruised reed shall He not
break, and the smoking flax shall He not quench. He shall bring
forth judgment unto truth. He was tender, He was compassionate,
and He was very kind. He wasn't overbearing with the
weak. He wasn't a cruel taskmaster. He wasn't a tyrant. He didn't
conduct himself like some sort of mean dictator. His demeanor
was not offensive to people. He was full of pity. He was full
of mercy. He was full of compassion. Let's
be that way. He was not overbearing. I know men in the pastorate We
must lead the congregation, but we're not driving the congregation. We're leading the congregation.
Leading the congregation. Let's be gentle. The Apostle
Paul said to the Thessalonians, in 1 Thessalonians 2 verse 7,
he said, we were gentle among you even as a nurse cherishes
her children. I'd like to tell some preachers
about that. I like to say to some preachers,
you don't need to be more like the Apostle Paul. He said he
was gentle among people. In 2 Timothy 2.24 he says, The
servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all
men, apt to teach, and patient. He said in Titus 3 in verse 2,
Speak evil of no man, to be not brawlers, but gentle, showing
all meekness unto all men. That's the way the Savior was.
I'm not saying we compromise the gospel in order to get along
with people. You know better than that. But
we are to do what the Apostle Paul said in Ephesians 4.15,
speaking the truth in love. That's the way the Savior did
it. Behold our Master, He was tender with people, He was patient,
and He was kind. I sure am glad He's patient with
me. I'm sure glad He's kind to me and compassionate to me. Because
you see in some ways and at different times certainly we're all like
the bruised reed, ready to break under the trials of life, We're
like the smoking flax. The flame is flickering. It seems
like it's just about ready to be extinguished. But our Lord
won't allow us to be broken. And He won't allow the flame
to go out. He holds us up by His might. He won't desert us. He won't
leave us in our weakness. And it says in verse 4, He shall
not fail nor be discouraged. He's a successful servant. He
shall not fail nor be discouraged till he has set judgment in the
earth and the isles shall wait for his law. Whatever it is that
the Lord Jesus undertook to do, of this much we may be certain.
He shall not fail. Don't you think that's a valid
conclusion, isn't it? Whatever He came to do, and whatever
He's doing now, and whatever He shall ever do, of this we
may be certain, because He's God Almighty, God over all, blessed
forever, He shall not fail, and He's not discouraged either.
He's not discouraged. If you listen to preachers today,
some preachers, false preachers, they proclaim A Savior who fails
and who's discouraged. The word fail means to grow dim,
to falter, to grow weak. That's not my Savior. He doesn't grow dim, He doesn't
falter, and He doesn't grow weak. And the word discouraged means
broken, bruised, and crushed. He's not discouraged. None can
hinder Him. None can stop Him. None can slow
Him down. None can speed Him up. Whatever
His determination is, whatever work it is that He has set out
to do, He shall complete that work and none shall hinder Him. None shall stay His hand and
none shall say unto Him, what doest thou? He does not grow
weak. He will never become disappointed.
He always exercises His sovereign will with effectual power and
strength. Oh yes, it is true that we're
set forth like bruised reeds and smoking flax, but not the
Savior. That's not Him. You know, when Isaiah wrote these
words, the work of Christ Jesus was yet in the future. And the words of Isaiah quoting
the Father, He shall not fail, and we look upon His work of
redemption, and we can say for sure, He didn't fail. He didn't
fail. You know how we know? His resurrection. His resurrection shows. His ascension
back to glory. That's the evidence He didn't
fail. When the Father said to Him,
Set Thou at My right hand till I make all of Your enemies Your
footstool. That's the proof. He didn't fail. He didn't fail. He's the successful
Savior. He said, Father, I finished the
work that You gave Me to do. On the cross we mark those glorious
words, it is finished. What was finished? All the Old
Testament types and shadows and pictures of His death and His
resurrection. What was finished? The work of
saving His people. The work of removing our sins
from us. The work of bringing in everlasting
righteousness. The work of crushing the head
of the serpent. The work of satisfying divine
justice was finished. The work of being made sin for
us that we might be made the righteousness of God was finished.
The work of redeeming us from the curse of the law by being
made a curse for us. And the result of that successful
work is this. The isles shall wait for His
law. To wait is to hope. It is to
trust. It is to depend upon His law
or His word. This is a sure result of the
successful work of Jesus Christ. His gospel shall go forth to
the isles. People scattered throughout the
world. And we trust His word. His word
comes to us in power. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. And that gospel word comes to
us and we're brought to believe it. We wait on His word. We wait
on his word. And he shall not fail to take
care of his people either. Now, we're safe and secure. He said, I give to my sheep everlasting
life. You got eternal life. And you're
never going to lose it. You didn't do anything to get
it, and he can't do anything to get rid of it or to undo what
he did. This is an everlasting salvation. He shall not fail to bring all
of the Father's elect ones safely home to glory. God says, behold,
my servant. He's already said, now you see
all these idols over here. You've inspected them. And haven't you inspected the
idols of the day? You hear preachers preach these
idols about how helpless and pitiful God is and God wants
to show you something. God's trying to tell you something.
And He's knocking on your door, won't you let Him in? Poor Jesus. Poor Jesus. He's leaning over
the banisters of heaven. He's weeping and crying because
sinners won't let Him have His will. That's an idol. God says, you
behold my servant. Not in defeat, but in victory. In victory. As that one who's
been exalted over all. Behold my servant. And my message
to you this evening is just like John the Baptist. Behold the
Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. Behold
God's servant. Behold the successful servant
of Jehovah. He shall not fail. If you forget everything else
I've said today, I hope that you'll remember those words.
God said, Behold my servant. He shall not fail. Somebody asks you tomorrow, what
did your preacher preach on yesterday? He preached on Jehovah's servant
and the Bible says he shall not fail. That's the only Savior
worth believing right now. You can rest your soul in his
care. He'll keep you safe forever and
ever. Well, let's get our psalm books