to Isaiah chapter 50. Isaiah chapter 50 on page 611 of the Black Pew Bible. Tonight we continue thinking about the coming of Jesus in the prophet Isaiah as we have been. Isaiah describes the promised Messiah in great detail so that Israel and the nations reading the book, hearing the word, wouldn't know him when he comes and could put their hopes in then waiting for his coming.
And so what we see is how trustworthy and reliable God is in promising Jesus and how trustworthy and reliable Jesus is in fulfilling the promise and how trustworthy and reliable this word is. So at this time of year as some are wanting to cast doubts upon the whole story of Christmas and maybe your brain explodes with how to answer the experts who deny these things turn again to Isaiah. All these promises given 700 years and that's a fact and it's indisputed that all this was written before Jesus came and remind yourself this is a trustworthy word and he's a trustworthy savior. God promised Christmas and Christmas came and we've seen a number of things in our study.
We looked at Isaiah chapter 9 that the Messiah to be given is given as a child, a son and he would be called the Prince of Peace. We saw in Isaiah chapter 11 that he'll be the descendant of Jesse. He'll be a sapling that will sprout as it were from the stump of the line of the family of Jesse. Just when it looks like Jesse's line is cut off or burned down and all that's left is stumped.
So a shoot will sprout and he'll be a new and better king David. And then we saw last time in Isaiah chapter 42 that this king who's coming is also a servant, that the Lord God is completely pleased with him and the way that he'll come is quietly not shouting others down and the way that he'll come is gently so that a bruised reed he will not break. The faintly flickering wick he won't extinguish. He's altogether different than people might have imagined and yet this is who Jesus is and tonight we turn to Isaiah 50 to hear more of the description about this king who is a servant.
This king who is a servant will see tonight is a faithful disciple. He's the ideal follower of the one true God of Israel. Let me invite you to give your attention to Isaiah 50 verses 4 3 9 this is the word of God. The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary.
Morning by morning he awakens me. He awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught. The Lord God has opened my ear and I was not rebellious. I turned not backward.
I gave my back to those who strike and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard. I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting. But the Lord God helps me. Therefore I have not been disgraced.
Therefore I have set my face like a flint and I know that I shall not be put to shame. He who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together.
Who is my adversary? Let him come near to me. Behold the Lord God helps me. Who will declare me guilty?
Behold all of them will wear out like a garment. The maw will eat them Amen. This is God's Word. May he write it on our hearts.
Let's go to prayer. Father, grant that your Word would be like a light to our path, a lamp to our feet. You bless us, teach us, guide us, help us to see Jesus, exalt him before us, grant us, strengthen faith or true faith even for the first time in him. In Jesus name I pray.
Amen. The problem for the Lord's people, wherever they are, is sometimes weariness. We get weary and worn out from the long journey of following God in a troubled world. Sometimes that weariness and being worn out can make you depressed.
And when you're depressed you might grow doubtful that God loves you, that God cares for you. That's how some in Israel felt and that's the ones to whom this promise was first given. If you were to just turn back to chapter 49 verse 14, but Zion said, this is what they're saying, the Lord is forsaken me. My Lord has forgotten me.
Do you hear them? God has cast us off. They're saying he's finished with us. He's done with us.
He doesn't care about us anymore. Why are they saying that? Well, the context of Isaiah, again, you remember is that the prophet is predicting that very shortly the Assyrians are going to come and wipe them out. And after that, the Babylonians are going to come and wipe them out.
There's going to be this massive double invasion and the temple's going to be destroyed. The worship of the people of God is going to be destroyed. Families are going to be ripped apart. People are going to be exiled or killed and their whole life is going to be ruined.
And it's never going to be the same again, even after they're allowed to return from exile. The glory of the temple and the glory of the nation under David and Solomon will never be as bright. And so they were easily concerned about that. And many of them were saying, well, if this is going to happen, then God doesn't love us.
God doesn't care about us. He's forsaken us. That's what they're going to be saying. They were discouraged.
And likewise, some of us may be discouraged. Certainly Christians experience times of discouragement. And maybe for us, it's our family circumstances and the holiday heightens that. It's the loss of a loved one and the holiday is heightened for us.
Or maybe it's not so much of those things, but financial trouble. Maybe it's financial insecurity. It's the never ending bills and repairs that just keep coming relentlessly. Maybe it's discouraged in our relationships.
Maybe the dissatisfaction of a marriage. That's not what it ought to be or we long for it to be. Maybe it's the dissatisfaction or the disfavor of a friend a long time. For all kinds of reasons, we get discouraged in our journey.
And we wonder in our circumstances, does the Lord really care about me? And so we can't help but thinking times. Even believers in Jesus, we think to ourselves in the quietness of our hearts. So don't deny that sometimes you do.
Don't pretend that it fates it. Face it like these Israelites had to face it. The Lord has forsaken me, we say. The Lord has forgotten me.
Now is that true? And what's God's replied to them? What's God's replied to us? Well, look at his reply.
That verse was in chapter 49 verse 14. And relentlessly over the end of chapter 49 at 51, 52, and 53. It's one long sustained argument, multiple arguments within it. But an answer to that discouragement, it's God's assurance or reassurance of them that no, he has not forsaken them, but yes, he does still love and care for them.
And so relentlessly in response to their doubts, he says, now listen, now listen, think about these things. And here in chapter 50 verses 49, we have one part of his answer to them. It's about the server that he is sending on their behalf. It's about the servant for the weary.
And I want to highlight three things in the text with you this evening and how do you think about this servant for the weary? In the first place at verse 4, he tells you that this servant is a disciple skilled in God's Word. In verses 5 and 6, he's the sufferer, submissive to God's will. And then in verses 7 to 9, he's the believer certain of God's help.
He's the disciple skilled in God's Word. He's a sufferer, submissive to God's will and he's a believer, certain of God's help. Think about those with me in the first place, he says, the Lord has given me the tongue of those who were taught that I may know how to sustain with the Word, him who is weary. Morning by morning, he awakens me.
He awakens my ear to hear those who were taught. So Isaiah here speaks of one who has a word to speak, and yet it's not Isaiah speaking, it's in first person, I, me, my, and verses 10 and 11 make it clear that this is the servant himself speaking. And he's speaking of what he knows. He isn't ignorant, he isn't dumb, he isn't just spouting off, but he's skilled because his tongue, as it speaks, is the tongue of one who's been taught, he says.
That's what a disciple is, a disciple is one who learns, disciples one who is taught, a disciple of Jesus is one who has taken Jesus to be their teacher, and they're following him from this is what Jesus is. You can't have a tongue of a disciple unless you first have the ear of a disciple. If I need, if I'm going to speak for God, I need to first be listening to God, and that's what this one is doing. Morning by morning he awakens me, he says, and you know that this was so true, the Lord Jesus when he came, and it's fascinating when you consider the Lord Jesus coming, because he's God in the flesh.
And of course he's God, he's the eternal son of God, he knows all things in terms of his deity, he's omniscient. There's nothing he doesn't know because he is God, and God knows everything there is. So, according to his divine mind, of course, he's omniscient, but in terms of his humanity, he's a real human added to a divine nature in person. He's got a real human nature, he's a real human mind, and in accordance with his human mind, he grew, he learned, he studied, he memorized God's word.
He didn't know all things, he wasn't omniscient in accordance with his humanity, so he could say about the hour of the Second Coming, no man knows, only the Father knows. He's speaking of course in accordance with his humanity. And so Jesus did come, and where do we find him from his early days? We find him in the temple.
He's sitting around talking with the Pharisees and the scribes, and he's listening to them, Luke chapter two tells us, he's listening to them, and he's asking them questions, and it says, all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. Jesus learned God's word, and he memorized that word, and they employed that word. You remember when he went out into the wilderness at the time of his introduction into public ministry as the Son of God. He went into the wilderness, led by the Spirit of God, to be tempted by the devil.
And what did he do? Time and again, he answered the devil's lies with the truth of God's word, quoting the book of Deuteronomy, and he used it skillfully. Charles Spurgeon says this, in the 19th century when liberals were tearing Deuteronomy apart and saying it couldn't possibly be written by one author, Spurgeon says it was the devil getting back at Deuteronomy because of the use Jesus made of it against him in the wilderness. But Jesus was skilled in the word, and it was absolutely necessary that he be so, because it was given to him, the scripture in Isaiah 50 says, to know how to support with a word, him who is weary.
I know he says how to sustain the weary with my word. This is life-giving word. God's word is like that. You know how this is even on a human level.
Words can make you or break you at times. We say sticks or stones can break, my bones may never hurt you, but we know that isn't true. Names can really punch and pinch and cause pain. But likewise, words can be extraordinarily encouraging and uplifting and helpful.
Soldiers in the war between the states said on numerous occasions by those who studied that the male they received made all the difference. Wrote, one Minnesota private, I can live a month now without eating. I have five letters from my dear wife. That word from her was better than food, he's saying.
I can go on now, it's sustaining. Well, in a much more important way, of course, he is saying here in Isaiah that I support the weary with a word. When you are exhausted, when you are hanging by your fingernails, you have a Savior who can support you with his word. When it's a fresh word, morning by morning, he awakens me.
It's not old, it's not stale, and Jesus uses it to help his people. It's a wonderful story about Andrew Bonner, the Scottish preacher in his diary for September, October 15th, Saturday, October 15th, 1864. He wrote these words, last night, my dear Isabella was taken from me. This is his wife who'd been married for about 17 years.
She had just given birth to a child and for a few hours struggled, and then she was gone. And he writes, I had been reading between dinner and tea earlier in the day in that gap. I had been reading my usual verse. It was name one verse seven.
The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble. He knows those who take refuge in him. Oh, he says, little did I think how I would need it half an hour later, but it was just the word that sustained him through trouble. It wasn't necessarily a happy word, but it was a word that gave him help.
It didn't take away the stomach, maybe, but it supported him. I was saying a white, 19th century preacher at St. George Church in Scotland, Edinburgh. He went to visit one of his congregation members, a man named Dr.
Carmen, who was 80 years old. Dr. Carmen was an esteemed member of a legal profession. Dr.
White actually went to visit him to talk about some business he had with him. And when they finished speaking, Dr. Carmen cleared the desk off of all the papers, and then he leaned across it. And he looked at his pastor and his friend, and he said to him, have you got any word for an old sinner?
And that kind of took Dr. White back because he wasn't expecting it in the first place. And everybody saw Dr. Carmen as a godly man, and he wasn't a godly man, and a godly man on the verge of glory.
And here he is asking about a word to help an old sinner. And so he said, have you got any word for an old sinner? And then suddenly what came to mind for Dr. Alexander White was a verse he'd been giving to other people that day that he had read that day.
Mike at chapter 7 verse 18 in the King James Version says this, it ends with, he delighted in mercy. Speaking of God, he delighted in mercy. And he left him with just that phrase. The next morning he got a letter from Dr.
Carson, which told how he had been passing through a season of deep inward darkness, and how those four words had left him, that his pastor had left him, had sent a flood of light into that darkness and encouraged his soul, banishing that darkness from him, and just days later he went on to glory without this and into a much greater light. It was a fresh word for the need of the hour, it was God's word, and here's the servant in Isaiah, Jesus as we know fulfilling it, the true prophet of God who takes the word of God and applies it just exactly as you need to keep you from fully and finally falling, but to lift you in your discouragement. And likewise we might say, like this servant, so this is our calling, and it may be your calling into a greater or lesser saying that you yourself are called by the Lord to have a word from God's word to help others. May we be like this disciple attentive to this word, having ears to hear, that we might be helpful to others, but he, predominantly, is the servant, the disciple skilled in the word.
That's the first thing you see about him, the second is this, he's a sufferer submissive to God's will. You see that in verses five and six, he says, the Lord God has opened my ear and I was not rebellious, not an opening of the ear, and that's an expression for not just, I heard the word, but I heard it, listened to it, paid attention to it, and used it and did it. I obey, don't close your ears to me, the parent will say to the kids, meaning you're not going to hear what I'm going to say, I'm going to make sure you hear it, but I want you to actually pay attention to the council and use it or listen to the command and the obedient to it. Well here, he's got an open ear, the Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, I turned not backward, verse six, I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard, I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting.
So it's a statement of his submission, I'm not going to rebel, I didn't rebel, and submission to what the suffering ordained for him by God. I didn't run from the trouble, I didn't turn my back from what God had called me to, I gave my back to those who wanted to strike it, but I didn't run, I didn't take evasive action to avoid, because this is what God had willed for me to come as a king to be sure, but first of all to suffer on behalf of my people. And so I let them strike my cheeks, I let them mock me and insult me and pluck out the beard and spit in my face, and I will let them flog my back as the gospel writers pointedly tell us. Mark 15, Jesus here scourged, Jesus, the whole army lined up and spat in his face, suffered public scorn, humiliation, verbal abuse.
The Jesus we celebrate at Christmas who humbled himself to be born in a manger is the same Jesus who humbled himself to hang on across. And this word is given to the people that I say is day and to us, and we recognize Jesus in it, they have the hope that this one would come, but how would this have helped them? What would it have meant to them? How would it have benefited them?
Well, notice what they would have gleaned from it. If they didn't know exactly when they serve it would come, they knew that the servant coming would minister and he would minister as one who himself had suffered. He would give a word to the weary to sustain them, but he himself would know the experience of weariness, of trouble, of discouragement, of mockery, of hatred. He wouldn't be removed from it, hidden from it, but he would face it.
So he would no trouble from the inside out. Like the rest of you, I want to know the trouble from the outside. Looking in, there's a, I don't know if you like it since a humor or not, but Gary Larson wrote the far side comic for years and years. He's got this one where he's got the three little pigs and you can picture them inside the house and the big bad wolf is outside the window looking in at the three little pigs.
The wolf's face is ravenous, right? He's thinking, you know, poor tenderloin, you know, let me add it. And then inside the house with the three little pigs is a couple. And the man is standing at the door, he's speaking out, he says, it's George and Harriet Miller just visiting for coffee.
We're coming out. We don't want any trouble. They don't want to get eaten by the big bad wolf. They want to be on the outside, right?
Not on the inside where the trouble is going to be. And that's how I want to be, but the servant here doesn't duck from being on the inside of the experience of trouble. And that adds weight and it adds, it adds sober importance and tremendous encouragement to the ministry of the word that he brings to us. Because he's not aloof.
He's taking the story of Johnny Erickson Tada, right? In 2010, she was diagnosed with cancer. This is a woman who for 43 years to that point had been a quadriplegic, basically imprisoned in a wheelchair. She's diagnosed with breast cancer and she says this, I want to assure you that I am genuinely content to receive from God whatever he deems fit for me.
That has punched. There's something about having a quadriplegic speaking to you from her chair about the sovereignty of God and her content with his sovereign providence in her life that has impact. You begin to think it must be true. It can be true for me.
And it is true. So there's a clout that comes here because this servant has suffered and no one has suffered more intensely or paid a greater price for obedience than Jesus did. He's the perfect disciple and he's submissive to God's will. You can trust what he is saying.
The last thing I want you to see is also he's the believer certain of God's help. In verses 7 to 9, in spite of his suffering, he goes on believing, he keeps on believing and as an example, the believers to do the same. How does he do so? How does he go on?
Why does he grow weary and turn back? Why does he not rebel and say, I've had it. That's in and I'm out of here. Well, verse 7, but the Lord God helps me.
Verse 9, behold, the Lord God helps me. Therefore I have not been disgraced. Therefore I have set my face like a flint. It's this confidence and the Lord's help to him and for him.
He's trusting that help and his certain knowledge that help is there for him that enables him to go on in the face of his suffering. When you find that in Luke chapter 9 verse 51, this is the case with Jesus. It says when the days dream near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. Jesus knew the hour was coming that it was just days away from him being killed and placed in a grave before he should be exalted.
And he knew it and he set his face to move forward. How did he do that? Because he trusted that the Lord God was his aid and his help. It helped him to go to the cross.
And there's a kind of a kind of defiance to this faith. You can hear it in the in the questions of verses 8 and 9. Notice the questions here. He says, my vindicator is near me or my justifier is with me.
So he says, let's go to court. Who will contend with me? He asks, who challenges me? Come on, let's stand up together.
Stand up and challenge me. Or who's my adversary or my prosecutor here? Bring it on. Bring the charges against me.
Let him come near to me. Who will declare me guilty? Who's going to be the judge in this case? You see the way the questions are phrased here.
He's absolutely confident of his own innocence and he's absolutely confident of his victory here. These are questions that don't express doubt. They express certainty. Like when you're talking to somebody and a question is raised and the answer is so obvious somebody might say in response, well, he's the Pope Catholic.
Well, yes, of course the Pope is back at Catholic. We all know that. It's a certainty, right? I mean, this is the kind of certainty with which these questions are asked.
And it's a statement of absolute confidence. And these questions ought to remind us, pardon me, the questions raised by the Apostle Paul in that glorious chapter in Romans 8. You remember in chapter 8 at the beginning of verse 31, he says, if God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also along with him graciously give us all things?
Who shall bring a charge against God's elect or against God's chosen? It's not answered. The implied answer is no one will. He goes on to say, God who justifies us, if asked the question, will God bring a charge against him?
No, God's the one who acquits you. He's not bringing charges. Are you crazy? You're not guilty in Jesus.
He's not charging you here. Who will condemn? Paul says, what Jesus? It's always just to say, are you kidding me?
The one who died for me to save me is now to turn around and condemn me? No, he bore my condemnation. He was raised for my justification. Paul goes on to say, he who always lives in his seat for me was raised from the dead and interseeds for us.
What is Jesus Paul is saying? Is he going to speak out about the size of his mouth? With one side of his mouth? He's going to say, hey, there's no condemnation for you.
I bore your condemnation. I'll intercedead for you. I'll speak well on your behalf. I'll guarantee you got blessings.
With the other side of his mouth, he's going to condemn me. Never. God is this kid's a friend of God about you. So then Paul says, who or what can separation on the love of God in Christ Jesus?
Answer. No one. Nothing. I'm sure that neither death nor life, angels nor demons, things present, things to come, nor powers nor rulers, nor height nor death, nor anything else in all creation can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
And all that can be true for us because he was condemned in our place. You see how certain this is and how certain in Isaiah this servant is that God, Lord God Almighty, is for him and helps him accomplish the work he is called to do. He looks to God for that help. William Guthrie, another Scottish pastor, it's an out of Scottish pastors this evening, died in 1665.
Near the time of his death, he said, I know I shall die in the Lord. It was a context to that. He's 45 years old. He has a disease that was very painful and came in waves upon him.
So strong that friends had to hold him down because he was writhing in agony. It was so bad. And in that context, he said, though I should die mad, yet I know I shall die in the Lord. I may be driven out of my mind, he says, yet I know I shall not be driven away from the Lord, he says.
And so I say to you, I don't know how deep your trouble or how deep your discouragement or weariness is in following the Lord. But what God offers to you and for you in your weariness is a servant who skilled in God's word and knows how to sustain the weary with a word. And God offers you a suffering servant submissive to God's will such that he would be obedient even to the point of death, death on a cross to take the judgment your sin deserves, that there might be no condemnation for you, a servant here, a believer who always looked to the Lord for help, even when you have failed to do so, that he might always help you and he can. Let's be people who look to him.
Let's pray. Father, thank you for Jesus, our great high priest who was like us in every way yet without sin, if you pass through the heavens and thank you that we can appeal to him, that he always lives to intercede for us and that there is mercy and grace to help in time of need, from your throne of grace. Come to our aid in Jesus' name when you ask it. Amen.
Let's stand and sing and praise of the Lord.