What can it be? If you will,
turn with me tonight to the book of Isaiah chapter 42. Isaiah
chapter 42. The title of my message is A
Glorious Sight. And I take that from the first
three words. Behold, my servant, a glorious
sight. Behold, my servant, whom I uphold,
mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth. I have put my spirit upon him.
He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not
cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised wreath shall he not
break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench. He shall bring
forth judgment unto truth. He shall not fail, nor be discouraged,
till he have set judgment in the earth, and the isles shall
wait for his law. Thus saith God the Lord, he that
created the heavens and stretched them out, he that spread forth
the earth and that which cometh out of it, he that giveth breath
unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein,
I the Lord have called thee in righteousness and will hold thine
hand. and will keep thee and give thee
for a covenant of the people for a light of the Gentiles.
They open the blind eyes to bring out the prisoners from the prison
and them that set in darkness out of the prison house. I am the Lord, that is my name,
and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise
to graven images. In these verses that I've just
read, we have read together, it is God who is speaking. It is God who says, behold, my
servant. It is God who is speaking and
he is speaking of his servant, that is the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I believe that is apparent
to everyone who reads this part of the word of God, that it's
God who's speaking. that he's speaking of his servant,
the Lord Jesus Christ. But just a few things that we
see in these verses about him, and if you will, keep your places
here, but turn to Matthew chapter 12. There can be no question
that God is speaking of the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ. Luke in
Matthew chapter 12 beginning with verse 14. And remember we
just read these words in Isaiah 42. 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." Now here in Matthew 12, beginning with verse 14,
then the Pharisees went out and held a council against him, how
they might destroy him. But when Jesus knew, he withdrew
himself from thence, and great multitudes followed him, and
he healed them all, and charged them that they should not make
him known. that it might be fulfilled which
was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, behold, my servant, whom
I have chosen, my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased,
I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall show judgment to
the Gentiles. He shall not strive nor cry,
neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets, A bruised
reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench,
till he send forth judgment unto victory, and in his name shall
the Gentiles trust. So that's without doubt. It's God speaking, and he's speaking
of the Lord Jesus Christ. But really, I want to speak to
us tonight from the words in verse six. I, the Lord, have
called thee in righteousness. I will hold thy hand, I will
keep thee, and I will give thee for a covenant of the people,
for a light of the Gentiles. These words of my text are words
of God spoken to his servant, Jesus Christ. And we have four
divisions here, and I'm going to touch on each one of them,
but mainly I want to speak to us on the last, focus on the
last. First, I have called thee in
righteousness. I have called thee in righteousness. The Lord Jesus Christ is no usurper. He was called and sent to this
work, this work of righteousness. I think of that verse in Hebrews
which speaks about the priest when the prophet, or the apostle
rather, said, no man taketh this office upon himself. In other
words, a person doesn't just get up one day under that old
dispensation and say, I want to be a priest. I want to be
a priest. I want to be the high priest.
man had to be called to that office. And the Lord Jesus Christ
was called to this office to be the servant of the Lord God
Almighty. In 1 John 4 9 we read, And this was manifested,
the love of God toward us, because God sent God sent his only begotten
son into the world that we might live through him. I have called
thee in righteousness. God called him. God sent him
for this work to be the savior of his people. And the mention
of righteousness speaks to us of these three things. When God,
speaking to his son, said, I've called thee in righteousness,
first of all, it reminds us that Jesus Christ is the righteous. In 1 John 2, in verse 1, if any
man sin, we have an advocate with the Father. Who is he? Jesus
Christ, the righteous. He's the righteous one, the holy
one of God. Number two, we know that he came
according to the prophecy in Daniel to bring in an everlasting
righteousness. He came to provide a righteousness
for you and for me and for every believer. I mentioned in the
message this morning that one day that you will stand before
the justice of God naked. And I didn't mean without any
clothes, but I'm speaking about the fact that you will stand
there without any answer unless you are clothed, not naked, but
clothed with the righteousness that he provides. That best robe. You remember in the parable of
the prodigal son, when he came home, how he was received. And one of the things the father
said is, bring forth the best robe. Not just any robe. Not just any robe will do. You
bring forth the best robe. And that's the robe, my friends,
that you're clothed with tonight if you know Him as your Lord
and Savior. It's the best robe. Couldn't
be any better. Perfect righteousness. And the third thing this reminds
us of, He came to execute God's righteous purpose in saving His
people. So that's the first thing this
text tells us. I have called thee in righteousness.
The second thing is, I will hold thy hand. God speaking to the
servant, the Lord Jesus Christ promises that he would hold his
hand. In other words, he would be with
him, to support him, that he would not forsake him, he would
not leave him. And one example of this promise
being fulfilled that occurs to me is, When our Lord, after he
was baptized, remember he, this one gospel writer, I think it's
Mark, said he was driven by the spirit, driven by the spirit
into the wilderness, and he was there 40 days and 40 nights fasting. Well, how's that possible? How's
that possible that a man can fast for 40 days and 40 nights? God was with him. That's how
God promised to hold his hand, to be with him. And all through
his earthly ministry, as we read in the Gospels, we find the Father
was with him. In John chapter eight and verse
29, the Lord Jesus says, and he that sent me is with me. He was sent by the Father to
be the Savior. He that sent me is with me, the
Father hath not left me alone, for I do always those things
that please him. I will hold thy hand. And third,
I will keep thee. You see how this text divides
itself into these four divisions. First, I've called thee in righteousness. Second, I will hold thy hand.
Third, I will keep thee. Now we read in the gospels of
the many times that God kept him. He kept him, first of all,
when just born. Remember, Herod gave that command
because the wise men had come seeking him who was born king
of the Jews. And Herod questioned the priest
and they said, well, he's to be born in Bethlehem. And Herod
told those men, you go, and when you find him, you come back and
let me know. I want to worship him also. Remember
what our Lord called him? A fox. You go and tell that fox,
as though this was when the Lord was older, of course, as though
he would be afraid of Herod. But Herod was a wicked man. He
was an evil man. And he gave the commandment that
all the boys, the young boys, less, I believe it was, than
three years old and less, they should all be slain in all that
vicinity of Bethlehem. There's wickedness in this world,
folks. I mean, how could anyone question
that when you read this despot? Give a command. I mean, you look
at little children, one years, two years, three years old, and
I know they're not innocent in the sense that they're not tainted
with original sin. I understand that, but if anyone
would be considered innocent, it would be those little babies,
wouldn't it? And just to give a command. I mean, hatred, evil,
kill them. What was he trying to do? He
was trying to kill The man child, Jesus Christ. But God kept him. As he had promised, God kept
him. God in a dream told Joseph, take
the boy and his mother and go into Egypt. And of course, Joseph
did that and he was delivered. How many times do we read in
the gospels? Look with me in Luke, just a
moment. Luke chapter four. Luke chapter four. How many times
in the gospel do we see how God kept him? Luke chapter four in verse 18. The spirit of the Lord is upon
me. This is the Lord reading. After
he was baptized, he returned to Nazareth, the city in which
he had lived, entered into the synagogue. They gave him the
scroll and asked him to read, and he found the place where
this was written. What a picture, huh? We have
the living word reading the written word. The spirit of the Lord
is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the
poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight
to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach
the acceptable year of the Lord. You know, the people, they marveled
at his speech as he read this passage of scripture. And then
when he He illustrated the truth of God's
sovereign grace by telling them that there were many widows in
the days of Elijah, but God didn't send the prophet to any widow
in Israel. He sent the prophet to a Gentile
woman, and she was sustained, remember, by that barrel that
was almost empty and that cruise of oil that was almost gone.
For three and a half years, I believe it was. And there were many lepers
in the day of Naaman. God didn't cleanse any of them
in the days of Elisha. God didn't cleanse any of them,
but he cleansed the Gentile, Naaman. Well, what's the reaction? Well, you know, look down to
verse 28, Luke chapter 24. And all they in the synagogue,
when they heard these things, I tell you, nothing stirs up
the natural man's hatred of God like the sovereignty of God. You can preach, consider the
lilies of the field, how they sow not. And yet Solomon in all of his
glory was not arrayed like these lilies and nobody's gonna get
mad at you. Preacher, nobody's gonna get
mad about that. Talk about his good works of
feeding thousands of people. Oh yeah, nobody's gonna get excited
over that. But you talk about the truth
that God is sovereign and the dispensation of his grace. And natural man bows up. I know I did. I just be honest. I know I did. You say, well,
why do you preach or why do you even talk about the sovereignty
of God if you know it's going to make people mad? Because people
need to be broken. God breaks everyone before he
heals a person. He kills, he slays before he
makes a life. Men need to hear that God is
not waiting on you. God doesn't need you. He doesn't
need me. We need him. We need him. That kind of knocks the starch
out of a man. Takes away the pride. And God
hates a proud look. And they all, in the synagogue,
when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, and rose
up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow
of the hill whereon their city was built, that, here's their
intention, they might cast him down headlong, but God promised,
I will keep thee. But he, passing through the midst
of them, went on his way. In the Gospel of John, I don't
know, I think it's four or five times we read these words. His hour was not yet come. They took up stones to stone
him. His hour was not yet come. And do you know you have the
same promise? Every child of God, we all have
the same promise that the Lord will keep us and keep our life
until the time that he has fixed for our death. You read Job chapter
14 and it's very apparent. There's a limit. and you can't
pass over it. Your life is in His hands just
as the Lord's life, Lord Jesus Christ was in His hands and He
had that promise. You have that promise. I will
not leave thee nor forsake thee. Now, here we go forth. I will give thee for a covenant
of the people for light of the Gentiles. I want us to think
a little bit now about this covenant. In the scripture, this covenant
is called by different names. It's called an everlasting covenant. It's called a covenant of life
and peace. It's called a new covenant. It
is an everlasting covenant for it was made in eternity. It was made before God created
the heavens and the earth. It was made before any angels
were created. It is an everlasting covenant
when only God existed. It is a covenant of life and
peace for it is only through this covenant that men who are
born dead in sins may have eternal life given and have peace with
God. It's called a new covenant because
to men it was revealed after the old covenant. The old covenant
was given to Adam in the Garden of Eden and it was a covenant
of works. Do this and live. And of course, we know that he
represented all men and he broke that covenant. But this new covenant
was then revealed. And another reason it's referred
to as a new covenant, it'll never grow old. It'll never wax old
and vanish away. It's everlastingly new, a new
covenant. We usually refer to this as a
covenant of grace. And while we don't find that
term in the scripture, everything about this covenant speaks of
grace. Everything. Everything in this
covenant magnifies the grace of God that is his unmerited
favor to men and women. Now our text tells us that Christ,
look at the text. I hope you still have your Bible
open here to Isaiah chapter 42. But look again, if you will,
in that verse six. I the Lord have called thee in
righteousness and will hold thine hand and will keep thee and give
thee, I will give thee for a covenant unto the people. Our text says
that God gave the Lord Jesus Christ as a covenant of the people. And it does so because this covenant
concerns him. He's everything in this covenant. He's a messenger of the covenant. He's a mediator of the covenant. He's a surety of the covenant.
and he is the confirmer of the covenant. Let's look at these
verses that tell us this. Let's go to the last book in
the Old Testament, Malachi chapter three. Malachi chapter three and verse
one. And here we have the God-man
speaking, the servant of Jehovah speaking. Behold, I will send
my messenger and he shall prepare the way before me. Now, who is
that? That's John the Baptist, isn't
it? It was John the Baptist who came
before Christ. He shall prepare the way before
me, and the Lord, whom you seek, shall suddenly come to his temple. Even, here it is, the messenger
of the covenant, whom you delight in, behold, he shall come, saith
the Lord. A messenger makes something known. He makes something known. And
by Christ's coming, he has made known or revealed, brought to
light, this everlasting covenant. We never would have known the
truth of this covenant had not the Lord Jesus Christ came and
revealed this covenant unto us. He's the messenger of the covenant. Second, and let's go to Hebrews,
Hebrews chapter seven. He's the surety of the covenant. Hebrews chapter seven and verse 22. By so much, Hebrews 7 and verse
22, by so much was Jesus made a surety of a better covenant. A better covenant. Now the word
surety, what does that word mean? Literally,
it means one that draws near. One that draws near. And the
thought, the picture is the Lord Jesus Christ drew near, drew
near his father in that council of peace and became the savior
and redeemer of his chosen people. He drew near and if we might
say struck hands with the father. I mentioned this morning that
we had to have that big pine tree taken down last week. I
didn't want to, but the Beatles got it. It was dead. A man came
and gave me a price, and I was afraid he might change his mind.
I said, let's shake hands on it. He said, you said that like
you think I might change my mind. I said, you got it. I want to
keep you to your word. Well, that's the term that's
used concerning the father and the son also, that the son struck
hands with the father, the father struck hands with the son, that
he would come in the fullness of the time and he would be liable
for all the sins of his people. He would pay the sin debt. of
every one that the Father gave unto him in this everlasting
covenant. He made satisfaction. Aren't
you glad tonight to know that you don't have a sin debt if
you're a child of God? I'm not going to ask for a show
of signs or a show of hands. How many people in here tonight
are in debt in some way, maybe for your house or your car or
something or another? I'm sure all of us have been
and are, many of us are, no doubt. I don't know about you, but every
time I went into debt, I mean, the payment might be 36 months
for a car or something like that. I did my best always to pay that
thing off as fast as I could. I don't like to be in debt. And
I know on a house, you have a 30-year mortgage, and you start doubling
up on those payments. Many of you do. So you can get
out of that. Think about a sin debt, what
we owe God Almighty. And we have nothing to pay. Don't
you love that parable that our Lord told in that Pharisee's
house? There's two debtors, one man
owed 50 pence, one man owed 500 pence. You said that's a big
difference. Yes, but really there was no difference because neither
one of them could pay. Man owed 500 pence, he couldn't
pay. The man owed 50 pence, he couldn't
pay. And He frankly, our Lord said,
He frankly, that word frankly, He freely, He freely gave them
both, forgave them both. How could He do that? How could
God freely forgive you and forgive me? Because of our surety, because
He paid the debt. All right, let's look at another
thing here, Hebrews 9. He's a confirmer. of the covenant. So he's a mediator, he's a surety. I missed one, a mediator. Let's
look in Hebrews 8 verse 6. But now hath he obtained a more
excellent ministry by how much also he is the mediator of a
better covenant. I like that definite article,
don't you? The mediator. There ain't but
one. Oh man, come up with all these
other people you're supposed to pray to and ask for help and
all. There's only one mediator between
God and man, the man, Christ Jesus. He's the mediator of this
covenant, the mediator of this covenant. And we know that as
mediator, he has these three offices. He's the prophet, he's
the priest, and he's the king. Yes, mediator between God and
man. Perfect mediator. You know, you
need a mediator when you've got two sides that have a difference. And the difference was our sin
between us and God. And he's the perfect mediator
because he's both God and man. He can lay hand upon God, he
can lay hand upon you. He's the mediator of this covenant.
Number four, he's the confirmer. Look in chapter nine of Hebrews. You say, why? Why do you suppose
that the book of Hebrews, the letter of Hebrews, speaks so
much about this covenant? Because it was written to Hebrews. Hebrews that were being tempted
and tested to turn back. to leave the gospel. And the
apostle, the writer, is showing how that what we have is so much
greater, so much better than anything that Jewish dispensation
gave unto men. Hebrews 9 and verse 15. And for this cause, he is the
mediator of the New Testament. You see here, The same word is
translated testament that in every other place that we've
seen and where you find the word covenant, same word, but here
it is translated testament because he is going to liken this covenant
to a man's last will and testament. Many of you, you have a will. And if you want to change it
tomorrow morning, you're free to do so. But once you die, your
will cannot be changed. And when Christ shed his blood,
he confirmed this covenant, and it can never be changed. That
by means of death for the redemption of the transgressions that were
under the First Testament, They which are called might receive
the promise of eternal inheritance. For where a testament is, there
must also of necessity be the death of the testator. If a man doesn't die, his will
may be in a safety deposit box or something like that. But it's
not in effect, and it will not be put into effect until he dies. And until the Lord Jesus Christ
died, these blessings were not sure to his people. And the purpose
of God, they were always sure, I understand that. But this testament
had to be sealed with his blood. That's the reason when he instituted
the Lord's Supper, he said, this is my blood of the New Testament,
which is shed for many for the remission of sins. All right,
now I want you to go back to Isaiah, just a minute. Taking
too long, but look back to Isaiah 55 this time. Isaiah 55 and verse one, ho, ho, everyone that thirsts. That's a pretty big word, isn't
it? Everyone. Everyone that thirsteth. Come
ye 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. Wherefore do you spend
money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which
satisfeth not? Hearken diligently unto me, and
eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself
in fatness. Incline your ear, and come unto
me here, and your soul shall live, and I will make an everlasting
covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. This everlasting
covenant was made with men in Christ in eternity, but it is
made manifest to those who hear and come, hear and believe in
the Lord Jesus Christ, and God says, I will make an everlasting
covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. What does that mean, the sure
mercies of David? Well, it's the sure mercies of
Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ, in several
places in the Old Testament, is called by the name of David.
He was David's son. Now, David, it's your mercies
of David. What are these? Well, there's
so many of them. Your justification, your sanctification,
your reconciliation. All of these mercies are yours. They come to you. And they're
called mercies, they're blessings. But they're called mercies. Why? Because we realize they
come to us by the mercy, the grace of God. We don't deserve
it. We certainly do not earn it,
merit it. It's a mercy. I read a message
this past week entitled God's Darling Attribute. Mercy. Mercy. Oh, the mercy of God. Well, I pray the Lord will bless
his word and help us to be thankful for this covenant. There's no
salvation outside the covenant. When you hear someone say, well,
I believe God is a covenant God, I do too. I do too. And I thank him for this new
everlasting covenant. of life and peace. Amen. Let's sing a hymn, Bill.