Isaiah chapter 49, we'll talk
about God's faithful servant. That's my subject, God's faithful
servant. And I think what I'm going to
do, in fact I'm pretty sure this is what I'm going to do, at least
I'm going to give it my best shot. I'm going to introduce
this chapter to you in this message. And then this evening, we'll
kind of get into the heart of it before we have the Lord's
Supper this evening. Now, let's start this way. On the surface, this is about
God's word of promise that He would deliver Judah out of Babylonian
bondage. They had been taken into bondage
because of their own transgressions, because of their own sinfulness. And God has said that he's going
to deliver them from their captivity. They got themselves into this
mess, but God's going to get them out of it. And in that we
see a beautiful picture of our great salvation that we have
in Christ Jesus. We got ourselves in the mess
that we're in, and we're sure enough in a mess, aren't we?
Adam fell willfully. He willfully sinned against God.
We read in the New Testament that Eve was deceived, but not
Adam. Adam willfully, he willfully
defied God's Word. He willfully rebelled. He fell
into sin and Here's the thing of it, we know that when Adam
fell into sin, that had an awful, awful devastating result upon
all the rest of us. Everybody he represented, we
all fell into sin. So we got ourselves into this
mess of sin and misery and degradation and deserving of the wrath of
God, deserving of condemnation. Thankfully, salvations of the
Lord. He's going to get his people
out of this mess, this jam that we're in. Because one thing's
sure, we can't get ourselves out of it. We can't lift ourselves
up out of the miry clay. We can't meet the demands of
the law. What does the law demand? The
law demands perfection. The law demands absolute obedience. And the law says if there's not
absolute obedience, there has to be death. Well, we can't obey
the law. We're lawbreakers. God's law
has found us guilty. Guilty. Guilty as charged. What's the penalty for breaking
God's law? Death. Well, Christ Jesus came
into the world. He obeyed the law. He kept the
law. Every jot, every title of the
law, everything the law demanded, he was up to the task. The law
of God examined him, found no fault in him. Well, he kept the
law, but wait, the penalty for the law has got to be paid for
the Lord's people. What is that penalty? It's death.
It's death. The soul that sinned shall die.
Christ Jesus died for our sins according to the Scriptures.
He arose again the third day according to the Scriptures.
That's how God gets us out of this mess. Redemption by the
sin-atoning blood of the Savior. So we got ourselves into this
captivity. Captivity to Satan. Captivity
and bondage to God's law. We can't, we can't get ourselves
out of the captivity. And I'll tell you this, our depravity
is so bad we don't want to get out. We have no desire to get
out of the captivity. In fact, we don't even know that
we're captive. We're running around inside of
a jail cell saying, I'm free, I'm free. No, you're not free. Man says, I've got a free will.
No, you don't have a free will. Your free will can't cure a toothache,
much less free your soul from your sin, much less much less
deliver you from the bondage of Satan. So the Lord has to
do something and thankfully He does. He's already done it. He's
already done it. The redemptive work of our Lord
Jesus. Now, as I say on the surface,
this scripture then is about God's word that He would deliver
Judah. out of their Babylonian bondage
and he would bring that deliverance about by a man by the name of
Cyrus. Cyrus was a Persian king. He
would be the great conqueror of Babylon. And then after he conquered Babylon,
he made a decree that the Jews go back to Jerusalem, all the
exiles go back to Jerusalem. He released them to go back.
He said, rebuild your temple and worship your God. You see,
our Lord Jesus, He's releasing the captives today, even in our
life, to even you. You who are dead in sin, He's
quickened you. You who are brought to faith,
He's relieved you of your captivity. He's released you from your bondage. He's freed you to worship the
Lord and He's bringing you home to glory, to worship at the temple
of God. Christ is that temple. He is
the living temple of God. He's the one in whom the glory
of God shines brightly and we worship God in the temple of
the Lord. So the Lord's going to use this
man Cyrus to bring about this deliverance. And I'll show you
this. Look at chapter, go to 45. Go back to chapter 45 in
verse 28. I'm sorry, let me look at 44,
28 and then chapter 45 in verse 1. Chapter 44, the last verse of
the chapter, verse 28, that saith of Cyrus, God says of Cyrus,
he is my shepherd and he shall perform all my pleasure, even
saying to Jerusalem, saying to the city of God, thou shalt be
built. and to the temple thy foundation
shall be laid." And you see our Lord Jesus in this passage of
Scripture. Cyrus is a picture of our Savior,
our Savior who is the Shepherd. He's the Good Shepherd, He's
the Great Shepherd, He's the Chief Shepherd. He does all of
God's pleasure. He does all of God's will. Even
saying to Jerusalem, even saying to the people of God, you shall
be built, the city of God shall be built. Our Lord said, I will
build My church. The gates of hell shall not prevail
against it. What's our Lord doing today?
He's bringing His church together. He's gathering His people together
from the four corners of the world, bringing them together
to worship Him. Bringing them together to worship
the Lord our God in spirit and in truth. He says, thou shalt
be built unto the temple, thy foundation shall be laid. Then
look at chapter 45 and verse 1. Thus saith the Lord to his
anointing, to Cyrus, Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to
subdue nations before him, and I will loose the loins of kings
to open before him the two lead gates, and the gates shall not
be shut. I will go out before him. I will
make the crooked places straight. I will break in pieces the gates
of brass and cut in sunder the bars of iron." And on and on
he goes, God's promises to Cyrus as to how He will use him. And
see in this a great picture, a lovely picture of our Lord
Jesus and all of the promises of God that are in Him that are
yea and amen. And they shall all be fulfilled. So I say the historical significance
back over here in chapter number 49 is indeed significant. But we need to go beyond the
historical. We need to go beyond the mere
literal reading of the passage and seeing it a wonderful picture
of our Savior. Our Savior who came into this
world to deliver the captives. We want to see God's faithful
servant. God's faithful servant, the Lord
Jesus. And we know that Cyrus was a
servant of the Lord. But he pictured the servant of
the Lord, even Christ Jesus, our Savior. And even as God used
this man Cyrus to bring the nation of Judah out of Babylonian captivity,
so the Son of God is used by Jehovah. servant of Jehovah. He's the servant of God and God
uses him in order to bring his people out of captivity, to save
his people from their sins and bring them out of spiritual darkness
into the light, the glorious light of the gospel of Christ
Jesus. Our Lord Jesus came to perform
service to the Father. He is the Father's Faithful servant. Faithful servant. It's several
times in Isaiah's prophecy that he speaks of our Savior as being
the servant of the Lord. In fact, and I had you go back
to Isaiah 49, but go back to Isaiah chapter 42. Because there
is in the book of Isaiah a steady reference to our Savior as being
God's servant. Isaiah chapter 42, look at verse
1. God the Father says, Behold My
servant, My servant whom I uphold. Well, who is this servant? God says, He's Mine elect. in whom my soul delighteth. This is my beloved Son, in whom
I am well pleased. The Father said, I have put my
spirit upon Him, and He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles."
Here's the faithful servant of God and God says, Behold My Servant. God says to me, Behold My Servant. God says to you, Behold My Servant. God says to everyone who reads
these words, Behold My Servant. He says to believers, Behold
My Servant. He says to unbelievers, Behold
My Servant. He says to those who are saved,
Behold My servant. He says to the lost, Behold My
servant. Behold My servant. Behold Him
how? Behold Him as God. Behold Him
as man. Behold Him as the all-sufficient
Savior. Behold Him as the all-sufficient
sacrifice for sin. Behold Him as the wisdom and
the righteousness and the sanctification and the redemption that you need.
Behold Him with the eye of faith. The Lord will say here in this
same book, look unto Me and be ye saved, all ye ends of the
earth, for I am God. John the Baptist said of our
Savior, he said to his disciples, Behold the Lamb of God that taketh
away the sin of the world. And here, God the Father speaks
to all of us. And He says, Behold My servant. Let every eye behold Him as the
one that they need, as the one who is Jehovah's servant. He
is indeed God's servant. God says, Behold My servant. He came to do the Father's will.
He said, Lo, I come to do Thy will. In the volume of the book
it is written in me. As He was entering into this
world, He came with a very conscious knowledge that He was coming
to do the Father's will, to do the Father's will of redemption,
to do the Father's will of reconciliation, to do the Father's will of establishing
righteousness for His people, to do the Father's will of dying
and shedding His blood for the full remission of the sins of
all of His people. Lo, I come to do Thy will. I
delight to do thy will, O God," he said in another passage. He
is Jehovah's servant. He willingly, he voluntarily
subjected himself to the will of God and the work of God and
the law of God as our representative. By His subjection to the Father
as the perfect servant of Jehovah, and in His obedience to the Father's
will, He gave us an outstanding example to follow. Let this mind
be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. Let us be servants to
our God. Let us devote our lives as the
people of the Lord, as redeemed children, as those who have been
adopted into God's family, as those who have been forgiven
of all of our sins, as those who are robed in the garments
of God's righteousness. Let us willingly go to the Father
and say, O Father, I am Thy willing servant. What would You have
me to do? This is the example the Savior
set before us. And you'll notice in this passage
of Scripture that God says, He's mine elect. God chose Him for
the work that He was to perform. Our Savior didn't thrust Himself
into this work, but He was called and chosen of God for the work
of salvation, for the work of saving His people from their
sins. The Father saw that His Son was the only one suitable
for the task. The Father saw that His Son was
the only one qualified to save His people from their sins. The
Father saw that the Son of God was the only one who could possibly
meet every demand of the law and rescue all of God's people
from their sins. He is God's elect. He's the first
of God's elect, and when God chose Him, He then chose us in
Him. But make sure you understand,
He's the first elect of God. God chose Him for this service.
As the God-man, He was set up and foreordained as the Lamb
of God, who Himself He was slain by the hand of God in the purpose
of God before the world was ever made. This servant of the Lord,
He was chosen. He was chosen to be the mediator
between God and men. He was chosen to be the representative
and the head of an elect race. He was chosen to be the redeemer
of a people who were in debt to divine justice and had nothing
with which they could pay. He was chosen and ordained to
be the foundation and the cornerstone of God's temple A temple made
up of living stones of which Christ Himself is the very foundation. He is the Servant of God. Go
back to Isaiah chapter 49 and indeed in this chapter our Savior
is referred to as being the Servant of Jehovah. Here is our Lord
speaking. Isaiah chapter 49 verse 3, He
said unto me, the Father said unto me, Thou art my servant,
Thou art my servant, O Israel. You say, well, He's talking about
Jacob there. No, He's talking about Christ
Jesus, who is the Israel of God. That is, he is the one who is
head of his family. Just like Jacob, whose name God
gave him another name, Israel. He had wrestled with God and
prevailed. Our Lord Jesus has prevailed
over all of our enemies. He is our great Israel and he
is the head of all of his covenant people. He is the head of his
elect. God says to him, Thou art my
servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified. And our Lord Jesus
Christ has glorified the Father. And you read there at the very
beginning of John chapter 17 how He had glorified the Father's
name. He had glorified Him in His life. He had glorified Him in His words. He had glorified Him in His actions. And He glorified Him in His death
when He willingly laid down His life to be the sacrifice for
the sins of all of His people, the sins that had been imputed
to His account. God said, He is the one in whom
I will be glorified. Look at verse 5. And now thus
saith the Lord that formed me from the womb, to be his servant,
to be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him, and we are all
the sons of Jacob. He is bringing all the sons of
Jacob to God. Though Israel be not gathered
yet, shall I be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and my God
shall be my strength. Look at verse 6. And he said,
it is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise
up the tribes of Judah. And that expression, light thing,
means that's not enough. It's not enough that I should
be the servant or that thou shouldest be the servant to raise up the
tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserve of Israel. I will
also give thee for a light to the Gentiles. that thou mayest
be my salvation unto the ends of the earth. God says it's not
enough that you'll be the Savior of a remnant according to the
election of grace out of the nation of Israel. That's not
enough. Now that's glorious in itself, but the Father says that's
not enough or that's not all. But you're also the Savior of
a remnant according to the election of grace out of all the Gentiles. You're my servant. That's what
He says. You're My servant to raise these
up. Notice what He says in verse
7, Thus saith the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel, and His Holy One,
to Him whom man despiseth. The Scripture says in John chapter
1, He came unto His own, and His own received Him. Men despised
him. Isaiah chapter 53 says he was
despised and rejected of men. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah,
the Redeemer of Israel and His Holy One, to Him whom man despiseth,
to Him whom the nation abhorreth, to a servant of rulers. Behold
our Savior, who was by Himself the King of kings and the Lord
of lords, God over all, blessed forever, but He stooped to be
the servant, the servant of the kings of the earth. And He says,
kings shall see and arise, and princes also shall worship because
of the Lord that is faithful to His covenant promise, and
the Holy One of Israel, and He shall choose thee. You'll serve
kings for a while, you'll serve men for a while, and indeed our
Lord was a servant. He told His disciples, I didn't
come to be ministered to, I came to minister. I came to serve. I didn't come for you to do something
for me, I came to do something for you. He is the servant. He is Jehovah's servant and in
the service of Jehovah, He served His people. But God says, I give
you this word, someday the kings of the earth whom you serve,
they will serve you. And indeed they will because
someday every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. He's Jehovah's servant. Look
at Isaiah chapter 50. Isaiah chapter 50. Look at verse number 10. Who is among you that feareth
the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of His servant? His servant who
is Christ Jesus. Look at Isaiah chapter 52, the
next chapter in verse 13. God the Father says again, Behold
My servant. Same thing He said back in chapter
42, Behold My servant. shall deal prudently. He shall
be exalted and extolled and be very high." He'll be exalted
and extolled and be very high on the basis of finishing the
work of redemption that the Father gave Him to do. Look at Isaiah
chapter 53 and verse 11. This is Jehovah's servant, God's
servant. Chapter 53 and verse 11. He shall
see the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge
shall my righteous servant..." He's not just a servant, he's
God's righteous servant. He is the only servant who is
righteous in and of Himself. He is inherently righteous. You see, we are the servants
of God, His people. We are His willing servants and
we are righteous before God. But the righteousness we have
is the righteousness of another. It's the righteousness of the
Lord Jesus Christ freely imputed or charged or credited to our
account. But Christ Jesus Himself He is
inherently the righteous servant, absolutely perfect and glorious
in every way, in every way. He was chosen of God to be the
deliverer of the people of God. This servant, He promised in
the covenant of grace that He would come and redeem His people. He would meet all the demands
of the law for us and then bear the wrath of God in our stead
in order to save us from our sin. Let's look at it in Bible words
here and look in Philippians the second chapter. The book
of Philippians chapter 2. Look at verse 5, we'll begin
at verse 5, Philippians chapter 2 and verse 5. Let this mind be in you, which
was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, thought
it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation
and took upon himself the form of a servant. and was made in
the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man, he
humbled himself and became obedient unto death." Well, how far did
that obedience extend? How far did that obedience go? All the way to death. All the
way to death. Anything short of obedience unto
death would never save a sinner. Anything short of obedience unto
death would never put one's sin away. Anything short of death
would never establish everlasting righteousness for us. His obedience
must be through His life and unto and including His death. He must lay down His life for
the sheep to satisfy every demand of God's broken law. And He was
obedient all the way to death, even the death, the awful, excruciatingly
painful, humiliating death of the cross. Wherefore, God hath also highly exalted
this servant, He has given him a name which
is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee
should bow, of things in heaven and things in earth and things
under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. He died so that God might be
just and the justifier of everybody who believes on Jesus. Well, as you go back to the book
of Isaiah, let me make two statements that need to be made, and I think
they need to be made at this point. Number one, let's establish
this, that Jesus of Nazareth is Himself God over all, blessed
forever, in all things equal to and one with the Father and
the Spirit that needs to be established. He is God the Son. He is the
second person of the Trinity. 1 John 5, 7 says there are three
that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word and the Holy
Ghost and these three are one. Jesus of Nazareth is himself
God over all. He is the eternal Son of the
eternal Father. He is divine. He's the only begotten
Son of God. He's the eternal Son of the eternal
Father, as I've said. He is not in any way, shape,
or form less than God. He's equal with God in every
single way. He is God. He is God. He's not less than God in His
glory. He's not less than God in His
ability, in His omnipotence, in His power. And He's not less
than God in His sovereign authority. He is God. Everything that the
Father is, the Son is. Everything that the Spirit is,
the Son is. These three are one. When our
Lord revealed Himself after His resurrection to His disciples,
and you'll remember Thomas wasn't with them, And the next time
they gathered, Thomas gathered with them. And our Lord, he said
to them when he met with them and Thomas was there, he said,
peace be unto you. Then he looked over toward Thomas
and he said, Thomas, reach hither thy finger and behold my hands. Reach hither thy hand, thrust
it into my side. Be not faithless, but believe
Him. You know what Thomas said? He
answered and said, My Lord and my God. You're my Lord and you're my
God. Now, if Jesus of Nazareth had
not been the Lord, if He had not been God, And knowing, as
we know, he was absolutely jealous for God's glory. If he had not
been God, he would have rebuked Thomas. He would have said to
Thomas, don't talk like that. You must only render glory such
as this, words of praise such as you've uttered. You should
only utter these to God. But he didn't correct him because
Thomas was absolutely correct. He is my Lord and He is my God. Nobody less than the Lord, nobody
less than God could do the work of redemption. Nobody less than
God, nobody less than the Lord could handle the sin problem.
Nobody less than God, nobody less than the Lord could endure
infinite punishment for our sins. Only God could dish out infinite
punishment and only God could endure it. Only God could drink
the infinite God. He alone could drink the cup
of God's wrath right down to its last bitter dregs, to its
last drop. Drink it dry! Only God could
do that. He's God. These folks running
around out here saying he's a son of God, he's sort of like God,
they're rebels against God's Word. They don't know the God
of the Bible because people who know the God of the Bible bow
and worship Jesus Christ and say like Thomas, my Lord and
my God. That thief who believed, He glanced
over toward that one on the middle cross and he said, Lord, remember
me. He didn't get rebuked either.
The Savior said, today you'll be with me in paradise. That's
the Lord talking. That's God talking. Only God
can talk like that. Our Savior healed a man and then
He said to him, Thy sins which are many are all forgiven. The
Pharisees said, Who can forgive sins but God alone? There you
go. There you go. Who can forgive
sins but God alone? This man forgives sins? Well,
let's see. He must be God then. He must
be God. Jesus Christ is God. He permitted
worship. He not only permitted worship,
He demands worship. That's the first thing. He's
God. Here's the second thing. In order to redeem, in order
to save God's elect, the Lord Jesus, God's own Son, He voluntarily
had to become Jehovah's servant in the covenant of grace before
the world began. in order to save His chosen people
from their sins. Though equal with God, it was
absolutely necessary that He humble Himself, take on human
flesh, be made in the likeness of sinful flesh, as we read to
begin the service from Romans chapter 8. And in that flesh
He must condemn sin. He voluntarily became what He
was not before, a man, and yet He never ceased to be all that
He was before, God. He is the God-man. There is an
indissolvable union now. Ever since, there is an indissolvable
union between God and man in the person of Jesus Christ. There
will never be a division of Jesus from God. He is always the God-man. He was when He came. He was when
He died. He was when He was buried. He
was when He arose again, when He ascended back to glory. And
still He is today the God-man. And when He comes again, He will
come again the God-man. The angel said to His disciples
who watched Him ascend into heaven, Why stand ye here gazing up into
heaven? This same Jesus shall so come
again in like manner as you have seen Him go." Well, who did they see go up
into heaven? The God-man. Who's coming back
for us someday to gather us, to gather unto Himself? The God-man. The God-man. And this is a great
encouragement to us because, first of all, He who's coming
back for us is the one who came the first time for us. He's God.
And it's a great encouragement to us that He's man. There's
a man in glory this morning. There's a man in heaven this
morning, seated at the right hand of the Father, and he is
not one iota less than God Himself. He's the God-man. That's my elder
brother. That's my Savior. Nobody else
could help me but the God-man. Nobody else could save me but
the God-man. Oh, what a mysterious union exists
between God and man in Christ Jesus. Now, let me give you this. From Isaiah chapter 49 all the
way to the end of chapter 57. Don't worry, we're not going to do
a verse-by-verse exposition of it this morning. But from Isaiah
chapter 49 to the end of Isaiah chapter 57, here's the theme. Jehovah's faithful servant. That's what the theme is. From
chapter 49 through chapter 57. This is a general theme that
runs through here. Our Lord Jesus as the servant. You'll see His person. You'll
see His work. You'll see his offices, you'll
see the salvation that he came to accomplish. Now, I'll break
it down further for you. And I'll give you this and then
we'll quit for this morning. As you look from Isaiah chapter
49 through 57, that section breaks down three ways. It's very simple. And we know it's about Jehovah's
servant. But it breaks down even further.
And while there's a little bit of overlapping, here's the basic
breakdown of Isaiah chapter 49 through 57. Isaiah chapter 49
going to chapter 52 and verse 12. Here's the subject. The servant is God's prophet. He's the prophet. He's the prophet. He's the one who speaks to us.
What does a prophet do? A prophet is God's spokesman.
God's spokesman to us. Moses wrote about the prophet.
And here from Isaiah chapter 49 verse 1 through chapter 52
and verse 12, here's God's prophet, here's the servant, he's the
servant of God as the prophet and he speaks to us. Like chapter
49, how does it begin? Listen O Isles unto me. That's
the prophet speaking. He's God's spokesman. You see,
God's not going to speak to nor be spoken to by any man except
through a mediator and the one who speaks to us from God, the
one who is the mouthpiece of God, the one by whom God addresses
Himself to sinners is Jesus Christ the Lord, Jehovah's servant.
He's the prophet of God. And He says, listen, O Isles,
I've got something to say. He's God's prophet. When the
Father speaks to him, as we'll go into in more detail this evening,
look at verse 9. Here's what the Father says,
"...that thou mayest say to the prisoners..." That's what a prophet
does, he speaks. "...that thou mayest say to the
prisoners, go forth, and to them who are in darkness, show yourselves."
This is the prophet speaking. Go over to chapter 51, here's
the prophet speaking. He says in chapter 51 and verse
1, hearken to me. Listen to me, I'm God's spokesman. Go down to verse 4, hearken unto
me, O my people. Verse 7, hearken unto me. Down in verse 17, he says, awake,
awake. Chapter 52 and verse 1 again,
He says, Awake, awake, awake, put on my strength those eyes.
Here is the prophet of God speaking. And that is the theme. From chapter
49 into chapter 52 and verse 12. Well then from chapter 52
and verse 13 through the end of chapter 54, This sets forth
the servant in his priestly office. He's the priest. We find that the servant is the
priest. He's not only the prophet, he is the priest. And we see
the happy results of his priestly work. It's at the end of chapter 52
and then in chapter 53 we read of the sufferings of our Lord
Jesus. What was the duty of a priest? It was to do business with God
for people. To present the sacrifices. But
what sacrifice did the Lord Jesus present to the Father? The sacrifice
of Himself. He is both the priest and the
offering Himself. And we see that in chapter 52
verse 13 through chapter 54 and verse 17. Here we read of the sufferings
of Messiah and the glory that should follow. And as God's priest,
he deals with God on our behalf. Don't you glad you got somebody
to deal with God for you? Somebody to speak to God for
you? Somebody to present himself to
God for you? And then I'll give you this and
I'll quit in chapter 55 and verse 1 through the end of chapter
57. Of course, you've got it now. Here we see the servant
of the Lord in his kingly office. In other words, servant doesn't
appear in these chapters. Still, we see him as that servant. We see Him as that perfect servant
who provides for all of the needs of His people. And who has the
authority to provide for all of the needs of His people? One
who is the King. One whose royal prerogative it
is to give to those who are in need. Chapter 55. Look at this. You know this passage. Look at verse 1. Oh, everyone
that thirsteth, come to the waters. And he that hath no money, come
ye, buy and eat, yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and
without price." Who speaks this? The king speaks this. Are you
thirsty? Come and drink. No money needed. You can't buy this. This is free. This is free grace. In fact,
he says, wherefore do you spend money for that which isn't bread,
and your labor for that which doesn't satisfy? Hear what the
king says, incline your ear, verse 3, incline your ear, listen
to me, come unto me here and your soul shall live. And look what it says in verse
4, here's what the father says, behold, I've given him for a
witness to the people, a leader and a commander. I've given him
to be your king. You know who our king is? He's
God's faithful servant. He is the one who met every demand
that God laid to every stipulation for our salvation. He met them
all. God is highly exalted in Him. And He is the King. He is
our King. He is our Sovereign. Here pretty soon people are going
to start singing joy to the world. He rules the world. Yes, He does. He rules the world with truth
and grace. Who rules the world? Not baby
Jesus. The Lord of glory rules the world.
He was a baby, but He's not a baby anymore. We worship Him. He's
the God-man Christ Jesus. He's God's faithful servant who
rendered to God the service that satisfied Him in every possible
way. And He's our prophet, our priest,
and He's our King. And we bow and we worship Him.