Now, let's turn back to Isaiah
chapter 42. Now, all Scripture, all the inspired,
verbally inspired Word of God is a grand testimony to the glory
and the beauty and the power of God to save us by His Son,
the Lord Jesus Christ, And from the very first promise of the
gospel back in Genesis chapter 3 all the way to the last chapter
of the book of Revelation, this book is a book of Christ. We
read in John chapter 5 where the Lord himself pointed that
out to his hearers who claimed to be and were looked upon as
the experts of Scripture. the doctors of theology, the
Pharisees and the scribes. And he told them there, he said,
search the scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal
life, for they are they which testify of me. And I don't believe
that you can carry that too far. I don't believe that you can
overdo coming to any passage in the context that it is given
by revelation from God. and coming to that point where
we see the glory and the beauty and the power of Christ and Him
crucified and what He accomplished. In the Old Testament, what He
would accomplish, and then in the New Testament, the epistles,
what He did accomplish. But here in Isaiah, this portion
of Scripture that we're getting ready to embark upon, chapter
42, and we've already seen some of it back in chapter 40. I believe
we're coming upon some of the most precious and glorious passages
of Scripture that give us so much detail of that glory and
that beauty and that power of Christ. This chapter here is
the beginning. What we're going to talk about
tonight is the beginning of what is commonly known as the servant
songs, the songs of the servant. There are four of them. This
is one of them. There's another in Isaiah chapter
49, then chapter 50, and then the last one is Isaiah 52, the
end of that chapter, and the one that you're probably most
familiar with, Isaiah 53. The Servant Song. The Suffering
Substitute. The Suffering Servant. And they
are just so full of gospel truth and comfort for God's people.
Incidentally, I had somebody ask me, this past week, if I
thought that Isaiah wrote the whole book of Isaiah or just
part of the book of Isaiah, usually back then these prophets had
scribes who recorded things for them. We're told, for example,
Jeremiah had a scribe named Baruch who wrote what Jeremiah told
him as Jeremiah was inspired by God. And Isaiah may have had
some scribes too. But the answer to that question
is, yes, I do believe God used Isaiah to write the whole book.
The reason that people argue about stuff like that, and if
you're ever confronted like this, this is just a bit of information
that you can give them, is that there's such a change of tone
between, for example, Isaiah 39 and Isaiah 40. The first 39
chapters of Isaiah is pretty harsh. You know, even how the
book starts out, you know, when he's comparing Jerusalem to Sodom
and Gomorrah. And then it gets, he builds on
that throughout. But you've got to understand,
I mean, let me ask you this question. If you have children, have you
ever changed your tone with your children on given occasions? Are there times that you give
them the hugs and the praise and the love? Then there are
times when you have to say, now that's enough. Well, sure there
are. Well, Isaiah was the same way. And the first 39 chapters of
Isaiah, of course, is taken up with a rebellious people who
are about to be punished under the chastisement of God from
the Assyrian onslaught, the Assyrian army. But then from Isaiah chapter
40 up to the middle section of that book, it's spoken to a people
later on. who are burdened down in bondage
and who see their need of mercy and of deliverance and grace.
And I liken it to our Lord, how he dealt with the Pharisees.
He looked at them, he said, you snakes, you hypocrites. But then when he dealt with the
people at large, his people, he said, come unto me, all ye
that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. He changed
his tone. He had his harshest words for
the self-righteous, proud religionists, didn't he? But when he came upon
a poor, downtrodden, weak, impotent sinner, he reached out the hand
of love. And that's the same way we see
here in the book of Isaiah. So I've entitled this message,
The Servant of Jehovah. And I had Craig read the first
nine verses, but I don't believe I'm going to get past verse four
tonight. So if I labor on the first few verses here, don't
sit there. I know how the human mind works now. Don't sit there
and say, now, when is he going to get to verse 7, 8, 9? It'll
be at a later message, all right? Because there's just so much
here. But as I said, this is the first of the four servant
songs in Isaiah. And it speaks of a servant. It
speaks of the servant of God. The really only true servant
of God in this capacity who has been given a mission by the Lord. He's been given a mission. And
this is the great work of the Lord in behalf of His elect,
known as spiritual Israel. And I'll prove to you that he's
talking about spiritual Israel just by the repetition of two
words here, and that is the word Gentiles. He saw that. He spoke
of the Gentiles, and he speaks of them down in verse 6. And
what he's talking about is God's chosen people out of every tribe,
kindred, tongue, and nation. And these verses speak of the
work of the servant to save spiritual Israel, the spiritual seed of
Abraham, the children of the promise, those whom he redeems
by his blood, and those whom he calls by his power. In Isaiah chapter 41, you might
recall, the Lord called forth the Gentile nations for judgment,
pay attention, and He brought their idols up on trial. But
here in this chapter, we have the work of the servant of the
Lord, though, that will benefit even the Gentile nations. Behold
my servant, whom I have uphold, verse 1, mine elect, in whom
my soul delighteth, I put my spirit upon him, he shall bring
forth judgment. Now, that means justice to the
Gentiles. He's going to bring forth justice,
even to the Gentiles. We do not understand how offensive
that statement was to the Jews of Isaiah's day. That was an
offensive statement. He would bring forth justice
to the Gentiles? You mean those Gentile dogs? Those idolaters? Those sinners? And this gives us a clue concerning
John the Baptist's message when he arrived on the scene and preparing
the way of the Lord and he said, Behold the Lamb of God which
taketh away or literally beareth away the sins of the world. He
wasn't talking about all individuals without exception there. He was
talking about God's people all over the world out of every tribe
and nation, Jew and Gentile. That was no new message. when
John preached it. That was an Old Testament message.
But many of the Jews missed it because of their own personal
prejudices against the Gentiles. Many of the prophets suffered.
Isaiah himself suffered because he preached that message, that
the servant of Jehovah, who would be none other than the Messiah,
the anointed one, the one set up from everlasting in the covenant
of grace, chosen himself of God, who himself is God, who would
become human in the sense that he would take upon himself human
flesh without sin and walk this world as God's man. And he would
save his people from their sins. And that includes God's people
out of the Gentile nations. And that was an offensive message
back then. Isaiah was murdered over that,
preaching grace and preaching salvation for sinners. But the
work of the servant of the Lord will benefit the nations. And
I'll tell you what, there's no people that ought to be more
grateful and thankful for that message than us. That's right. Because that's exactly what we
are, Gentiles. And here's the promise of salvation
for Gentiles. The last verse of chapter 41,
if you'll look at it, verse 29, begins with this word, Behold. Now, this is not a glance. Now,
whatever he's going to say, don't just glance at this. Don't give
this a passing glance. And he says, you look at this
and you consider it and you think about this long and hard. This
is something that's so important that you cannot slip by it or
let it slip by you. And then look how he begins verse
1 of chapter 42. Behold. And all of that's connected
together by the one grand Behold, as we spoke of John the Baptist,
behold the Lamb of God. Behold Him. Consider Him. The nations are to behold, in
chapter 41, that their idols are worthless and useless and
impotent and nothing but death. But here, in chapter 42, they're
to behold the servant of the Lord who saves His people and
blesses them eternally. That's what we're going to do
here in a few minutes when we take the Lord's Supper. We're
going to behold the Lamb of God, the servant of Jehovah, fresh. In these first four verses, the
Lord gives Isaiah a word that speaks of his servant, and that's
what I want to deal with. In the next few verses, he speaks
to his servant, and we'll deal with that later. But here's the
message. of the first four verses, and
that's this. The Lord's servant, the servant of Jehovah, he shall
not fail. He shall not fail. He says that
in verse four. He shall not fail, and he won't
even be discouraged. He won't even be broken. Look
at verse one. He says, Behold my servant. That
calls attention to Christ himself, the servant. Look to Him. Consider
Him. Rest in Him. Focus your attention
upon Him. He is the All in All. He's the
Alpha and the Omega. Everything in eternity and time
centers upon Him and what He would accomplish for His people.
Behold Him in His Word, as He said, as I quoted earlier, these
are they that testify of Me, He said. Behold Him in His Word.
Behold Him with the eye of faith. Run the race of grace looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Behold Him in the
ordinances, the ordinance of baptism. Behold Christ. Who is
to be baptized? Those who are saved by the grace
of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. What are they doing in baptism?
They're identifying with Him. They're identifying with His
people. They're testifying in a physical way of the great salvation
that the servant of Jehovah has already accomplished and applied
to them freely, given to them. Behold him in the ordinance of
the Lord's Supper." Paul, when he instructed the Corinthian
church on taking the Lord's Supper, he repeated what the Lord told
his disciples when they took the unleavened bread and drank
the wine. He said, this do in remembrance
of me. This is a memorial supper. Behold
him, that's what he's saying. He said, and in doing this, we
do show the Lord's death until he comes. And then here comes
John the Baptist on the scene, and he says, Behold the Lamb
of God which taketh away the sins of the world. Behold his
humility. Turn over to Philippians chapter
2 with me. He says, Behold my servant. Now
you understand now that the one that he is identifying here as
the servant is the very Lord of glory. Now, that's an amazing
thing, that Christ, the second person of the Trinity, the eternal
Son of God who created this world and by whom all things consist,
that He would lower Himself, and that's just what He did,
that He would be humiliated to the point of being called a servant. He's the sovereign Savior. He's the sovereign Lord of glory.
He sits upon the throne and does as He will and as He pleases. So behold his humility. Now why
did he do such a thing? He did it because he loved his
Father, and he loved his people. He came as the Lord's servant. He came to do the will of his
Father, and he did it voluntarily. of his own will, subjecting himself
to the will and work and law of God as our representative,
the representative of a people who aren't even worthy to stoop
down and to untie his shoes. That's who he did it for. You
wouldn't serve somebody like that, but he did. I wouldn't
serve somebody like that. I'm too proud, but he did. You
see, he came down, and I'll tell you what, if we were ever to
stoop down to serve somebody like that, it would not be condescension
on our part, it'd just be us taking our rightful place in
the dirt. That's exactly right, where we belong, by nature and
by practice. He humbled himself to wash the
disciples' feet. And when one of them recognized
the paradox of such a thing, Realizing this is the Lord of
Glory, and he said, Lord, you're not going to wash my feet. I
should be washing your feet. Here's what he told Peter when
he said that in John 13. He said, If I wash thee not,
thou hast no part with me. And what he was saying there
is this. If he didn't do his work as a servant, we would have
no part with him. We'd have no salvation. Look
at Philippians 2 and verse 5. It says, 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." Now what
that verse is saying, sometimes we get bogged down in the words
there when it says form of God. It's not talking about a form
like some kind of a phantom or some kind of a mold. But what
that is actually saying in the original language is that He
is God. Therefore, for Him to claim to
be God, it was not stealing from God. You might notice down there
in Isaiah chapter 42, when Craig read that, that God said, I will
not share my glory. You see that? God will not share
his glory. Well, you see, if a man or any
creature claims to be God or anything like God in his attributes
or in his nature, that's robbing God of his glory, and he won't
share that. But when Christ stood before
them and said, before Abraham was, I am, and when Christ stood
and looked at a sinner and said, thy sins be forgiven thee, which
is something that only God can do, he was not robbing God. It wasn't robbery for him because
he's equal to God. He is God in every attribute
of nature. And then it says in verse 7,
but made himself of no reputation. and took upon him the form of
a servant." He became a servant. "...and was made in the likeness
of men." And it always says it that way because he's separate
from sinners. And it says, "...and being found
in fashion as a man. So he humbled himself and became
obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." What a humiliation. What a stooping down. And then
he goes on to say that's why God exalted him, because he finished
his work. Look back at Isaiah 42. He says
in verse 1, Behold, my servant whom I uphold. Throughout the
time of his humiliation, Christ was upheld and sustained in his
work by the Father. The Father upheld him. And he
was upheld and sustained by the Spirit without measure. That's
referring to his humanity, because in his humanity, he suffered
all of the infirmities and weaknesses of the flesh that you and I suffer.
The only difference between you and him and me and him is he
was without sin. And in the wilderness of temptation,
he was upheld by the Father and by the Spirit without measure.
In the Garden of Gethsemane, when his humanity was being burdened
down with the impending sufferings that he was going to go through
on the cross, he was upheld by the Father and by the Spirit
without measure. Upheld and strengthened by God.
On the cross, as he sustained the wrath of God for our sins,
not for his own, but for our sins, His human nature was upheld
by his divine nature so that he did not sink beneath the load
of guilt and sin and sorrow until the work was finished. He drank
damnation dry. Now, no human being could ever
do that. That's why hell is eternal. No human being can drink damnation
dry. No human being can pay the full
penalty of sin. But this man who is God did just
that. Isn't that something to think
about? He bore the wrath of God, all of it, for his people until
justice could demand no more, bearing out its full weight upon
him. Now this phrase, whom I uphold, there are some translations that
translate it this way. It would go like this, Behold
my servant upon whom I lean, meaning the Father leaning upon
him. And if that's the case, it would be this, it would be
showing the purpose of God in placing all of his glory and
all of his confidence and all of the salvation of his people
squarely upon the person of his Son as the surety and Savior
of his people. If you want to read about that
in detail, read the whole first chapter of the book of Ephesians,
because that's what that's talking about. And what that simply means
is this. God the Father engaged all that
he is in his purpose in eternity and in the process of time to
save his people by Jesus Christ. And that's why salvation is sure
and certain. Paul wrote of it in 2 Corinthians
5.19 when he said, God was in Christ, reconciling the world
unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath
committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Look at it again
in verse 42. Behold my servant, whom I uphold,
mine elect. Behold how he is Jehovah's choice,
the choice servant, mine elect. He was called and chosen of God
to do the work. It was always necessary that
he come in time, as God purposed it before the foundation of the
world. And it was always sure and certain that he would come
and accomplish in time all that the Father had given him to do.
God commissioned it, purposed it. And he was set up and foreordained
as God-man, the Lamb of God, slain from the foundation of
the world. He was chosen to be the one mediator between God
and men. He was chosen to be the one sacrifice God could accept
for the remission of sins. No other sacrifice would do,
not even the blood of bulls and goats. He was chosen to be the
head of a chosen race. He's our representative. He was
chosen to be our substitute, our surety, our Savior. He was chosen to be the foundation
and the chief cornerstone of His church. He's the choice servant. God the Father was and is well
pleased with His Son. Look here. He says, He says,
In whom my soul delighteth. The Bible says in Colossians
1 and 19, for it pleased the Father that in him, in this person,
the God-man should all fullness dwell. In Matthew chapter 3 and
verse 17, upon his baptism, which began the start of his public
ministry on this earth, the Father spoke from heaven. And you remember
what he said? This is my beloved son in whom
I am well pleased. And the Spirit descended upon
him in the form of a dove. In the book of Isaiah, chapter
53, in verse 10, speaking of Christ on the cross, finishing
His work, drinking that damnation dry, making an end of sin and
establishing righteousness, it's stated this way in verse 10,
it says, Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him. It was God's pleasure. That doesn't mean that God is
some sort of sick, sadistic monster. What that simply means is that
the glory of God resided in the person and finished work of Christ,
so that all the work that was accomplished to the praise of
the glory of His grace and the salvation of His people was established
and settled." Right there at Calvary. And the Lord God is
delighted, and think about this now, because this is what this
means to us. Can God be pleased with me? Can God be pleased with you?
I don't have any problem seeing how God could be pleased with
His servant, the Lord Jesus Christ. But can He be pleased with me?
Can He be pleased with you? My friend, the only way that
He can be is as we are considered in the Lord Jesus Christ. The
only way that He can be is as I am washed in the blood of the
crucified one. Blessed be the fountain. There
is a fountain filled with blood. drawn from Immanuel's veins,
God with us, and sinners plunge beneath that flood, lose all
their guilty stain. If I stand before God, clothed
in the righteousness of His Son, God is well pleased with me. And it has nothing to do with
my works or my efforts. It has everything to do with
His Son. We are accepted in the Beloved. If God delights in His
Son, and He does, He delights in every son, every daughter
that's in Him. And therefore, we who behold
Him, we're well pleased. with Him, aren't we? We're delighted
with our Savior and His finished work at Calvary. We can say with
the Apostle Paul, God forbid that I should glory save in the
cross. Now, that's what we should be testifying of when we take
the unleavened bread and the wine. An understanding that helps us
to receive God's favor in Christ instead of trying to give Him
a reason to delight His soul in us. You know, that's what
religion does. Religion spends its time trying
to get us to find a reason or to do something to get God to
be pleased with us. There are a lot of people who
try to earn the approval of God instead of just simply resting
in Christ and realizing that God's favor and God's approval
is His free gift in His Son in whom He is well pleased, in whom
He delights. And so we rest in Him. because
he's chosen and elected to delight his soul in his Son. Look at
the last line, verse 1 of 42. He says, I have put my Spirit
upon him. As I said before, as a man, Christ
was filled with the Holy Spirit without measure. This is that
holy anointing that qualified him to be our prophet, priest,
and king. He said it in Luke chapter 4
when he stood in his hometown synagogue in Nazareth. And he
stood up there, and let me just read this to you. They read from
the book of Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 61. And they were all quiet, and
he stood up, and here's what he said in verse 18. As he read
from that passage, he said, "'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.
He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the
captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty
To them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of
the Lord. And he closed the book, and he
gave it again to the minister, and he sat down, and the eyes
of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them,
this day, today is this scripture fulfilled in your ears, before
your ears. He was anointed and given that
place. before the foundation of the
world. And then it says here in Isaiah 42, 1, He shall bring
forth judgment or justice to the Gentiles. God has a people
out of every tribe and nation all over this world, Jew and
Gentile. They are known in the scripture
as spiritual Israel. They are known as the children
of the promise. They are known as the elect,
the chosen of God. They are known as the redeemed
of God. They are known as the justified,
or the just one, or the righteous ones. They are known as sinners
saved by the grace of God. And Christ will, in time, bring
forth the ground of justification for both." Now, that's what Isaiah
is saying. They're justified by what Christ would come and
do in the future to Isaiah. We see it as already accomplished.
His shed blood and His righteousness imputed He bore our sins on the
tree. Our sins were charged to his
account. And he died for those sins and
brought forth righteousness to be charged to our account. And
that's how he brings forth justice both to Jew and Gentile. But
the Gentile was mentioned specifically here because you remember back
in Isaiah chapter 41, God called the nations to present their
case for idolatry. Well, here's the case for God's
way of salvation. Here's the right way. All of
the sins of God's elect were made to meet upon the Lord of
glory, the servant of Jehovah. And he received God's judgment
for all our sins. Look at verse 21 of chapter 42.
It says, the Lord is well pleased for his righteousness sake. And
what is that righteousness that he speaks of here? It says, he
will magnify the law and make it honorable. Now God was pleased
right then with his people for his righteousness sake, but it
was always based upon what Christ would come and do in his person
and work to magnify the law and make it honorable. Now that tells
us something here. There is no way that any sinner,
anyone born of Adam, can magnify the law and make it honorable
by his best efforts to keep the law. I mean, you can do your
dead-level best. You can just make a resolution
today and say, I'm going to do my best to love my neighbors,
myself, to love God perfectly. And you may, in the eyes of men,
you may make a good try of it. But you still haven't even come
close to magnifying the law of God and making it honorable.
Because, you see, you're a creature. You're a sinful creature. I'm
a sinful creature. But when the Lord of glory, when
the servant of Jehovah, When the Son of God came down and
was made under the law, made of a woman, made under the law,
to redeem them that were under the law, in His obedience unto
death, He magnified the law. He made the law honorable, for
He satisfied its justice, and He kept its precepts. He magnified
the law and made it honorable by his obedience to its demands
in his life and by his satisfaction to its justice in his death.
And I'll tell you what, he's still bringing forth justice
to the Gentiles in the preaching of the gospel. For it is the
declaration of the very righteousness of God. It's the declaration
of how God saves sinners through Christ. Now look at verse 2.
He says in verse 2 of Isaiah 42, "...he shall not cry, nor
lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street." What
he's speaking of here is the meek, humble, quiet spirit of
our Lord in doing the work of a servant. He didn't complain.
He didn't raise a ruckus. He didn't bring about insurrection.
He didn't get out in the street and say, come on boys, let's
get our weapons together. We're going to be zealots and
we're going to overthrow Caesar and the Roman government. He
didn't complain. He didn't cry. He didn't lift
up or even cause his voice to be heard in opposition or in
dissatisfaction of even the least part of the work that he came
to do. He didn't say, now Father, do
I really have to get down there and wash those guys' feet? He
didn't say that at all. He told them, he said, if I don't
do it, you have no part in me. That's the way we are, isn't
it? We say, you mean I really got to do that? You mean I've
got to love that guy? Or I've got to love that woman?
Or I've got to put up with that bunch? Or they've got to put
up with me? But he didn't do that. He was
willing and ready to do his work. He was appointed for his work
by God the Father, but he was never forced to do it or compelled
to be obedient. He voluntarily subjected himself
to his Father's will. He came into this world, this
dirty, rotten, wretched world, the Son of God came into this
world. He gave up Himself to His enemies to be crucified.
He said, no man takes my life from me. He said, I'll lay it
down of myself. He allowed them to spit on Him, to whip Him,
to put a crown of thorns on His head, to deride Him and accuse
Him. We called Him a malefactor, a
blasphemer, and He stood there and took it, willingly. for the
salvation of his people. He suffered all the agonies of
the cross. He laid down his life and died
for his people. Why? Because he loved his Father
and because he loved his people. He said, the Good Shepherd giveth
his life for the sheep. In John 13, it said he loved
his own, his own people. to the end, to the finishing
of the work. He came in a quiet, meek, and
humble way, not to assert Himself, but for His Father's glory and
for the salvation of His people. And on the cross, now listen
to me, on the cross, He did not cry out for vengeance, but He
said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. So He didn't cry. Look at verse
3. It says, A bruised reed shall
He not break. And the smoking flax shall he
not quench, he shall bring forth judgment unto truth." Now, this
is speaking of how he deals with his people. This is another reference
to his gentleness and his mercy and his compassion towards sinners. Oh, he had the harshest of words
to say against the self-righteous religionists, didn't he? But
when he found the sinner, when he found one of his sheep, think
about it. You know, a reed is a fairly
fragile plant. Yet if a reed is bruised, the
servant will handle it so gently that he'll not break it. We'd
break it, wouldn't we? We'd go in with the mowing signs
and just cut them all down and then we'll count heads when we're
done. No, he didn't do that. He didn't
break the bruised reed. That conscience that's been bruised
by the Holy Spirit because of our sins, We know our frame,
we're convicted. What does Christ do? He comes
and He deals gently with that bruised reed. And He soothes
it, gives it His mercy. And then, instead the servant
will, when he finds that flax, and what this is, the smoking
flax, it's like a candle wick or the wick of a lamp that has
that little spark and it's about to go out and you see the smoke
come up. And instead of quenching that fire, he won't quench it
to extinguishing. Instead, the servant, he'll gently
blow on the smoking flax, fanning it into a flame again. And that's
a picture of the Holy Spirit's work in us to bring us to a saving
knowledge of Christ. You know, we often feel like
God is really dealing rough with us. You know that I do. I know
you do too. Our weaknesses and our failures.
But you know what? Just the opposite is true. He
deals with us gently and tenderly, helping us along until the bruised
reed is strong and the smoking flax is in full flame. We call
ourselves Christians, but if you're like me, sometimes you're
desperately ashamed of how dimly your light burns. I feel like
in my life there's more smoke than fire quite a bit of the
time. So little prayer, so little real
testimony, so much depression, so much discouragement, so much
downtrodden, oh, woe is me. But the Lord, you know what?
If you're His, He won't extinguish you. He won't extinguish you. He'll make that flame burn brighter
by the trials that He sends us in His way and in His time. Christ
sees the value of the bruised reed, even when no one else can.
And usually we don't. We don't see the value of the
bruised reed. We just say, get over it! Get over it! Christ doesn't do
that. He sees the value of the bruised
reed. He can make, as one writer said, beautiful music from a
bruised reed as he puts strength in it. And though a smoking flax
used for a wick on an oil lamp is good for nothing, Christ knows
its value for what it can be when He refreshes it with the
oil of His Spirit, and He gives and restores the joy of salvation
and the assurance of His grace. Many of us are like the bruised
reed. We need to be strengthened with might through His Spirit
in the inner man. Others are like the smoking flax,
and we can only burn brightly for the Lord again when we're
drenched with the oil of His Spirit and His grace. But I'll
tell you what, remember this. It's of the Lord's mercies that
were not consumed, because his compassions fail not. He said,
for I am the Lord, I change not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob,
you're not consumed. I'll tell you what, our Lord
knows something about sorrow and pain, problems. He knows something about that.
Paul wrote in Hebrews 5, 1, for every high priest taken from
among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God,
that he may offer gifts and sacrifices for sin, who can have compassion
on the ignorant and on them that are out of the way, for that
he himself also is compassed with infirmity. Our Lord knew
that. He knew it. Look at verse 4.
He shall not fail nor be discouraged till he hath set justice in the
earth. and the isle shall wait for his law. Christ, the promised
Messiah, will be successful in all that he was successful in
all that he set out to do. He is successful. Triumphant
in everything he undertakes to do as the servant of Jehovah.
With Christ, who is our Savior, now listen to me, with Christ
and him crucified, failure is an impossibility. It cannot happen. There was a fellow out in Chicago,
a preacher, who said that hell was a monument to the failure
of Christ to save his people. My friend, that's not the servant
of Jehovah. That's not the Christ of the
Bible. No, sir. Hell is not a monument to his
failure. Hell is a monument to his justice
against sin. This is how God could justify
His elect in the Old Testament even before Christ came into
the world and went to the cross, because it was always sure and
certain that He would accomplish it, that He would settle the
issue. And God saw it all the time.
Well, He has come in time. He had to come in time. He established
righteousness. He redeemed His people. And those
for whom He has established righteousness shall wait to hear His word.
That's what He says here. Look at verse 4. And the isles
shall wait for His law. His word, that's what it's talking
about. A generation shall serve Him. His redeemed one shall be
saved. On the cross, He cried, it's finished. Now, how do we
know He accomplished what He set out to do? To make an end
to sin, to finish the transgression, to bring in everlasting righteousness. I'll tell you how He was raised
from the dead. He's the living servant of Jehovah. Christ bought and paid for His
church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.
Not one soul for whom he lived and died, was buried, and rose
again the third day shall ever perish. He said, All that the
Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me
I will in no wise cast out. And this is the will of him that
sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing,
but should raise it up again at the last day." He is successful
in what he has done, and he is successful in what he will do.
You know, when Isaiah wrote these words, he was looking into the
future, as I told you, and said, he said, he shall not fail. Now
we look back to the past and we say he has not failed. He
didn't fail to fulfill all the Old Testament scriptures, prophecies,
and types. He didn't fail to establish perfect
righteousness. He didn't fail to redeem his
people. He didn't fail to put away sin by the sacrifice of
himself. And I'll tell you something,
any kind of redemption other than this particular successful
redemption that presents Christ as a failure is a false gospel. To say that Christ suffered to
redeem those who are finally lost is to declare exactly what
that old preacher out there said, that it's a monumental failure.
But that cannot be. Christ has not failed. He didn't
fail to crush the serpent's head. I'll tell you something else. He's never failed. Listen to
me very carefully. He has never failed and he will
never fail to receive any sinner who comes to him begging for
mercy. Somebody said, well, where does that leave me? This thing
about, where does it leave me? I'll tell you exactly where it
leaves you. It leaves you where you need to be. At the mercy
of God. Where else do you want to be?
On your own? You say, well, I'll stand on
my own two feet. I'll be the captain of my own
deck. No, sir. You need, I need to be at God's
mercy. And if you ever see that and
ever come to that, you'll beg for mercy, and I guarantee he'll
save you. He already has. Isn't that right? He shall not fail. Listen to
this, and I'll close. He shall not fail to save every
soul given him into the covenant of grace. He shall not fail to
sovereignly rule all things for the good of his people. He shall
not fail to keep his own unto the final glory. He shall not
fail to present us faultless before the presence of his glory.
And he shall not fail to come again and make all things new. He shall not fail. He's the servant
of Jehovah. All right. Now, I'm going to
ask the men if they will come and begin to prepare and serve
the Lord's table. We'll go ahead and serve the
bread. And Marty is going to play some music while they do
that.