Turn to Isaiah chapter 40. As you also glance at the screen, you can see the will illustration that for about four decades has been a structure or a way to structure the local church that we've basically followed. Now, all illustrations of Bible truths have their weaknesses. The will has its weaknesses, but we ask those who partner with us or that we plant to be committed to these things.
And the most important, the foundational element of a structure or a function of the local church is the hub of the will, which is preaching the Word. Nothing else matters if that's not right. Let me say that again. Nothing else matters if that's not right. You may have creative arts and drama and special effects and all kinds of stuff that people might be wowed and amused by and come to see, but if the preaching of the Word is not right, nothing else matters. There's a foundation under all of that, and that is, do we joy in Christ? Do we treasure Christ? Do we love Christ? And to that end, I've designed this conference that we might feast on Jesus.
And my assignment that I gave myself is to preach on Christ, the preeminent servant. So we'll go to Isaiah. Did I say chapter 40?
I've been doing that the whole time I've studied this because I looked at that a long time. Chapter 50. Isaiah chapter 50.
And let's read the whole chapter right quick. Jesus, the preeminent servant. To whom of my creditors did I sell you? Behold, you were sold for your iniquities, and for your transgressions your mother was sent away. Why was there no man when I called? And when I called, why was there none to answer?
Is my hand so short that it cannot ransom? Or have I no power to deliver? Behold, I drop the sea with my rebuke. I make the rivers a wilderness.
Their fish stink for lack of water and die of thirst. I clothe the heavens with blackness and make sackcloth for their clothing. The Lord has given me the tongue of disciples, that I may know how to sustain the weary one with the Word. He awakens me morning by morning. He awakens my ear to listen as a disciple. The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not disobedient, nor did I turn back. I gave my back to those who strike me, my cheeks to those who pluck out the beard, and I did not cover my face from humiliation and spitting. For the Lord God helps me, therefore I am not disgraced.
Therefore I have set my face like flint, and I know that I will not be ashamed. He who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up to each other.
Who has a case against me? Let him draw near to me. Behold, the Lord God helps me. He who isn't, who condemns me.
Behold, they will all wear out like a garment, the moth will eat them. Who is among you that fears the Lord, that obeys the voice of his servant, that walks in darkness and has no light? Let him trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God. Behold, all you who kindle a fire, who encircle yourselves with firebrands, walk in the light of your fire, and among the brands you have set ablaze, this you will have from my hand, you will lie down in torment. God has always wanted a people as a collectivity, a people who are his servant, a people that would love him, that would treasure him, that would joy in him, that would walk in his truth and accurately project him to the world and therefore bring him glory. A people that would be his for all time and for all eternity. Now going over to the New Testament, we have the apostles. And these apostles take off across the known world and they begin preaching the gospel and assembling in groups God's called out ones. What the Greek word ekklesia translated church means, God's called out ones. So they have these groups of these God called out ones in Jerusalem and Antioch, Damascus, Lydda, Joppa, Caesarea, Iconium, Derbe, Lystra, Rome, Corinth, Galatia, Ephesians, Colossae, Crete, and many, many other places. And each collective group, each local church, was made up of servants of God, but the Bible views each church as a servant of God. As 1 Corinthians 12 tells us, the local church is one, but has many members.
And all the members are there, but they're as one body, Paul writes to the Corinthians. So though they're individual servants of God, he views the collectivity, the people as the servant of God. Now looking back on Israel, God viewed Israel, the nation, as one. They were his servant in the world. Now they were made up of many individual Israelis and families and tribes, if you will, but they were all collectively one servant of God. God called Abraham to be the father of this great nation, that this nation would be his servant, that this nation would honor him, this nation would be his light to the world, this nation would bring his blessing to the world, i.e.
even salvation to the world, and therefore glorify him. But Israel failed as God's servant. I believe, like Oswald, who wrote a great commentary on Isaiah, that the theme of Isaiah is, quote, the servant of God.
And there's two sides to this coin. God created Israel, they were called by his name, they were to be his servant, but again, they failed. So God tells us throughout Isaiah, very particularly here and in other chapters, since you Israel have failed me, I will just have to raise up my own servant. I'll raise up another one, and where you Israel failed, he will not fail.
By the way, he cannot fail. Jesus Christ is this one, this Messiah, and Jesus Christ is alone a true servant of God. There's never been another, only him, on the face of the earth. But God wants a people. So through this one true servant, Jesus Christ, God forms a people, because you can be a servant of God if you are in the true servant of God, Jesus Christ. Actually, a key insight, I believe, is 1 Timothy 3.16. 1 Timothy 3.16, we can't unpack this and take much time, but here Paul writing to Timothy says, by common confession great is the mystery of godliness. The point is, we all agree that from time in memoriam, men have struggled with, how do we become godly? That is, fully godly before a true and holy God. Some scholars say you can translate that word godliness as piety.
How can we work? Are there laws we can keep, rituals we can perform, ceremonies we can attend to that will make us a true godly one? Been a mystery for all the ages, but now the mystery is solved. What they could see dimly through the Old Testament shadows and types and figures, now on this side of Calvary is very clear. The next word in our text, by common confession great is the mystery of godliness. He who was revealed in the flesh. 1 Timothy 3.16, Jesus is the one who came from heaven and came and put on flesh. Jesus was vindicated in the spirit. In other words, only Jesus was filled with the spirit and truly walked in the spirit. He was the one who was seen by the angels, the text says. He dwelled in honor among the purity and the holiness of the heavenly realm and the angelic beings.
Then he came down and condescended. He was proclaimed among the nations, even the Gentile world. He's been believed on and is still being believed on in the world, and then he was taken up to glory. So you see, Jesus is the only true religious one who's ever lived. He's the only true godly one who's ever lived. He's the only true pious one who's ever lived. He's the only true servant of God that's ever lived. And you can be a servant of God only in him. Only in Jesus. But all who trust in him and all who believe in him, they become a true follower of religion. There was, I think, a blue jean company that came out years ago, and they called themselves True Religion.
What they meant was authentic. Jesus was the only authentic religious man there ever was, and we can become authentic in him. We become pious in him. We become godly before the Father in him, and we become true servants in him. He's the only true one. We have to be in him.
But now let's go back to this chapter, chapter 50. This portrayal of the true preeminent servant of God. Indeed, again, the only servant of God.
Three main points in our outline of the chapter. Roman number one, notice first the unfaithful servant. The unfaithful servant in verses one and three. Before we begin to unpack it, let's remind ourselves of what God said to Israel in Deuteronomy 10, 15, and 17. He says, Yet on your fathers did the Lord set his affection to love them, and he chose their descendants after them, even you above all the people as it is to this day.
So notice this expression. God chose to show a special affection and love and favor on Israel. What a privilege.
What a blessing they had. Deuteronomy 10, 20, and 21. You shall fear the Lord your God. You shall serve him and cling to him.
Verse 21. He is your praise, and he is your God who's done great and awesome things for you, which your eyes have seen. And then going back to Genesis 12, when God called Abraham from Ur of the Chaldees, he said to them, I'm calling you, and I will bless you, and I will make you a blessing.
I'm calling you for a purpose. You're going to be my servant so that you can reflect me to the world. In another passage, he talks about a light to the nations, Isaiah 42. Not just a blessing, but my true light.
Send out thy light in thy truth, the psalmist writes. But Israel failed. So we have in verses 133 something that looks like a courtroom setting, where God is indeed the prosecuting attorney, and he brings these indictments against Israel because instead of being a true and faithful servant, instead of being an instrument in God's hand to bless the nations, to send out God's light to the nations, they had rebelled themselves and began to worship the idols and the gods of the dark nations around them. You talk about an inverse complex here.
You talk about upside down. Not only did they not shine the light, they participated in dark pagan idolatries. Then on top of that, they blame Jehovah for this separation, this problem between them and their God. They blame God for being a covenant breaker, if you will. They say he's responsible for the breach in the relationship. So God brings them into court, if you will, and brings this indictment. A, in our outline, notice the questions they cannot answer. These are rhetorical.
Notice how he words it here. First of all, in verse one. Thus says the Lord, where is the certificate of divorce? Now we know from Deuteronomy 24, verse one, that if a man in Israel divorced his wife, he had to have legal bounds, if you will, a legal standing. He had to write out a writ of divorcement. Then he could send her away. Then there's a separation. Here's what God's saying. Where's the written legally bound certificate of divorce that you can be away from me and chasing after others?
The point is, there is none. Then he says, to whom of my creditors did I sell you in verse one? Now we know that although God did approve of it, it did happen in Israel that sometimes when you owed a debt, you could sell a son or daughter to someone to pay your creditors. God says, who did I sell you to so that you belong to somebody else now like you're acting like you belong to someone else?
Rhetorical question. God didn't do that. It's not his fault.
It didn't happen. Then in verse one, the last part, behold, you were sold for your iniquities and for your transgression. Your mother was sent away. In other words, I have temporarily allowed you to go into this sin and this bondage and this rebellion because of your own sin and rebellion.
But it's not my fault. Then look at verse two. He said, I tried to call you back. Why was there no man when I came?
When I called, why has there been none to answer? I sent prophet after prophet after prophet and you have not listened to them. Then he goes on in verse two, he said, was my hand so short that it cannot ransom?
I believe that's sort of a sarcastic tone. What's the problem Israel? Is your true God, the God who created you and made you and has delivered you from bondage and has provided for you, is my hand so short that I can't take care of you any longer, that you had to turn to another? Now we go to the second thing, not only some questions they cannot answer, but some statements they cannot deny. His point in the last part of verse two and going in verse three is you've seen my power and authority. You can't deny that. So when you go after other gods, you know who you're leaving behind.
You know what you're doing. So we see there beginning, if you will, in verse three or the last part of verse two, I should say, behold, I drop the sea with my rebuke. I make the rivers of wilderness. These are all the plagues, the supernatural wonders he brought against Egypt to deliver the Jews out of Egyptian bondage. So they've seen his mighty power.
Their fish stink for lack of water and die thirst, another plague that he brought against Egypt. And I clothe the heavens with blackness and make sackcloth for their covering. So you've seen the rebutes, he says, that I brought upon Egypt on your behalf. God says, I've ordained you in this earth to be a light to the nations. I've ordained you as my servant to be a blessing to the nations. I've ordained you as my servant to be the purveyor of Yahweh's salvation to all the world, to the ends of the earth. But Israel was an unfaithful servant.
She failed, even to the point of turning to the dark idols of surrounding nations and turning their back on the light of their God. Israel, the unfaithful servant. But now we come to verse four, down through verse nine, and let's talk about Jesus, the faithful servant. Jesus, the faithful servant.
Notice the contrast here between Israel, the unfaithful, and Jesus, the faithful. First of all, in our outline A, notice the communion of Jesus, this faithful servant, with his father. The communion with his father. Notice how he says there in verse four, the Lord has given me. The idea is God has gifted me for this special, unusual work that he's assigned me to do. That he's given me the tongue of disciples. In other words, I will faithfully learn. I have faithfully learned from my father, and I can faithfully give his truth out, his light, his blessings out to others. Verse four, the next part. That I may know how to sustain the weary one with the word.
What a powerful statement. I know how to sustain the weary. I've learned from my father something, and now I can bring it to the world that's full of weary ones. The Jews were weary under the burden of the law, that they were all lawbreakers.
And then the Gentiles were weary under the bondage and the strongholds and the wickedness of their sins. But this servant says, I've been with my father. I've listened to him. I obey him only, and I've learned how to bring the word to the weary ones. My friend, that's the gospel. That's the gospel. That's what a weary world needs. So he says, as the father's servant, I was sent to do my father's will to save the children with this word that would go forth and to secure and keep the children all the way to glorification. But I think this is so beautiful here. Look at the next phrase in verse four.
Notice this is beyond just a cold classroom setting. As he learns, he says, he awakens me morning by morning. What a sweet intimacy. He awakens my ear to listen as a disciple. That is sweet communion between God the Father and God the Son, Jesus Christ. It reminds me of John 17, where our Lord is giving his high priestly prayer before he goes to the cross. And he said, Father, I came forth from you.
He says, I am in you and you are in me. And then he says, Father, you love me before the foundation of the world. Communion. Only Jesus had that kind of communion with the Father.
Now, we could try for a million years with the most brilliant investigative minds that mankind has ever produced, and we will never grasp the communion of God the Father and God the Son. He only had one desire, and that is to carry out his Father's will. He hears God. He hears him clearly as the disciple of God, and he can project the message clearly to the world. Be in our outline, not only the communion with the Father, but notice his commitment to suffer as a faithful servant.
His commitment to suffer. Look at verse five, if you will. As he said, the Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not disobedient, and I did not turn back.
There's a weightiness, an awesomeness, a depth of suffering, degradation, shame, and humiliation. But quickly, this faithful servant said, the weight of that was on me, but I did not shrink back from it at all. I was faithful.
I was obedient through all the suffering. And what a stark contrast this is to the unfaithfulness of Israel. It was just a little while, and God didn't do everything they wanted, so they went a-whoring after the idols of the pagan nations, but not this servant.
The cost included great suffering. As he says in verse six, if you will, I gave my back to those who strike me. This was fulfilled, of course, Matthew 27, verse 26. Then he released Barabbas for them, but after having Jesus scourged, that's the fulfillment of this verse, I gave my back to those who strike me. He handed him over to be crucified. And then the rest of verse six, and my cheeks to those who pluck out the beard, and I did not cover my face from humiliation and spitting. Graphic, shameful degradation cast upon him, Matthew 26, 67.
We see the fulfillment of this. Then they spat in his face and beat him with their fists, and others slapped him. In verse six, there's two words that he says, I gave my back to those who strike me. I think the idea there is, I wasn't forced to do it. It was voluntary, and I understood that suffering was not just a part of my faithfulness to the Father's will. It was foundational to my role as a faithful servant and to my Father's will. John 10, 17 talks about how he voluntarily, I gave, he says, voluntarily gave himself. John 10, 17, for this reason, the Father loves me.
Why? Because I'm a faithful servant. He told me what I was to do, and so I laid down my life so that I might take it again. And then verse seven, if you will, in our text.
Therefore, I have set my face like flint, and I know that I will not be ashamed. Totally sold out, set my face firmly toward the cross and the suffering. Luke 9, 51 tells us when the days were approaching for his ascension, he was determined, set his face like flint, if you will, to go to Jerusalem. Why was he able to show and live out such all-encompassing devotion and servitude?
Well, we've seen his communion with the Father, that certainly had a part, his commitment to the Father's will, even including the suffering. But also his confidence, his confidence in his Father's help and vindication. There's a triumphant note here that comes out as we look at verse seven. For the Lord God helps me, he says. For the Lord God helps me, therefore I am not disgraced. The suffering may be heavy, the shame and disgrace is not easy, but I know in the future things for me are going to be all the more glorious. Verse eight, he says, he who vindicates me is near. I know my God will help me, and I know my God will vindicate me. As a practical note for us, we heard Igor's testimony of disciplining these members, and those times are difficult, and they're agonizing, and they're suffering, and there's lost sleep, and there's bouts of depression.
But we can know our God will help us, and our God will vindicate us, if we're doing what we're doing for his glory and according to his word and his will. I found this somewhere, Michael Faraday, the brilliant scientific genius of his day. As he was nearing the end of his life, a friend stood by Michael Faraday and said, Well, what is your speculation now?
Faraday replied in astonishment, I have no speculation. I know whom I have believed, and my soul rests upon certainties. That's where Jesus was. He knew this father.
He could trust him to help him and to vindicate him. Verse seven, he says, I know I'll not be ashamed. There's coming a future glory for me. Isaiah 53, verse 10, but the Lord was pleased to crush him, putting him to grief if he would render himself as a guilt offering. He will see his offspring.
I'm glad, because I'm one of those. He will see his offspring. He will prolong his days, and the good pleasure of the Lord, the Lord's will, the Lord's purpose will prosper in his hands. The premier person, the preeminent person is Jesus Christ, and the premier work of Christ is saving and securing his church, so he will see his offspring. And all who come against him will fail.
Look at verse eight, the last part. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up to each other. Who has a case against me?
Let him draw me. In other words, come on, bring your charge. Come into the courtroom setting, lay out your evidence.
Didn't the New Testament tell us? I find no fault in him. He said, there is no charge. You can't find any failure in me. Leopold in his commentary has this little paragraph. A rare measure of steadfastness is displayed here. A steadfastness not based on inflated opinions of self, but upon a divinely wrought certainty necessary for the fulfillment of a task assigned by the servant's Lord. It must be admitted that the servant depicted is a very striking figure whose potential is met fully only in Jesus Christ.
So we have Israel, the unfaithful servant. Then we have Jesus, the only true, the only faithful servant. Now, Roman numeral three, let's notice the faithful servant is able to save. The faithful servant is able to save. Look at it there, if you will, in verses 10 and 11.
Well, first of all, A in our outline, look at the powerful and gracious invitation. Look at verse 10. Who is among you that fears the Lord? Who is that that obeys the voice of his servant, that servant that walks in darkness and has no light?
Let him trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God. It's almost like the Lord is speaking. He said, are there any takers?
Anybody who fears the name of the Lord? I'm offering it. It's out there.
Would you like to partake of it? I think there's a key to salvation here. And he says it there in the middle of verse 10, as he says, that walks in darkness and has no light. Brother, you cannot be saved till you know you walk in darkness and in and of yourself you have no light. But when you get there and you say it's all darkness and there's no light for me from within or from without me or from the world, there's nothing. Then there's hope.
Then there's hope. This is one of the clearest gospel passages I've ever seen. This is when you can be saved. It's a key to salvation.
Listen to the message of the one true faithful preeminent servant of God, Jesus Christ. John 5 24. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word.
Isn't that what he said here? Who is among you who fears the Lord, who obeys the voice of his servant and believes on him who sent me? He has eternal life and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into light. He says, come out to the light, the light of truth that I have, the light of hope that I can give you, the light of pardon and forgiveness of sin and freedom that I can offer you. So he says, I have this powerful and gracious invitation as God's one and only true servant. Secondly, note the consequence of neglecting the faithful servant.
The consequence of neglecting the faithful servant. Look at verse 11. Behold, all you who kindle a fire. They used torches and fires in their pagan worship ceremonies, and that's what they'd begun to do, is join up in those practices, incantations, mantras, and all the other involved in the pagan idolatry worship that they begin to embrace. Who encircle yourselves with firebrands, he says, verse 11, and walk in the light of your fire. They have been a Bahu who did the same thing, did they not? They lifted up the incense their way.
They walked in. Have you heard these people lately that says, well, that's not my truth. There is no my truth. There is no your truth.
There's only truth. But we are so prone to create our own light, and that's what he's saying. You're walking in your own light amongst the fiery ceremonies of pagan idolatry, and you're not paying attention to the light.
So here you are prancing around in your ceremonies, worshiping false gods, but let me tell you something. You may pass by my light, but you will not pass by my fire. These folks were frolicking, if you will, in the fire of their error, and they were indicted for it. The fire of their guilt, and they were indicted about their guilt, and they were without excuse. The fire of their hopelessness.
There was no hope in what they were embracing. And then lastly, the fire of their torment. The justice due them will come. Look at verse 11 in the last part. In this you will have from my hand, you will lie down in torment. I can't help but think that the Lord is saying here, you like fire? You like these fanciful pagan ceremonies with all the fire and the torches? I've got some fire for you, and if you don't turn, if you neglect me, God's one true faithful servant, you will lie down in the torment.
By the way, not of your fire, but of my fire. We can't know a lot about hell, but I do believe God's there, and that's what makes hell hell is because God's there. He's there in his wrath. He's there in his righteous indignation. He's there in his torment and vengeance.
He said, you'll lie down in my fire. Such a powerful portrait of Jesus in his second coming when he comes to judge the world. Isaiah 50 gives us a powerful layout of the gospel of Jesus Christ. But if he is passed by for salvation, he pledges that you will visit him in condemnation. Now, of course, as the preeminent servant of God, the premier work of Jesus the servant of God is to save and secure the children. He does this through the cross. He does this through the spirit that he sends from the Father to seal the children and secure the children, and he will, as one final act of being the premier servant of God, he will fulfill his role as God's premier, only true, faithful servant. 1 Corinthians 15, 24 and 28.
Well, if I was strong enough, I'd just raise this pulpit over my head and run around this room about three times. Then comes the end when he hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when he has abolished all rule and all authority and power, when all things are subjected to him, then the son himself also will be subjected to the one who subjected all things to him so that God may be all in all. That phrase up there in verse 24 again, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father. Hear Jesus, the last official act of his mediatorial servant role to the Father. I give it to you, Father.
I yield it up to you. Do you know what is the crown jewel of the kingdom the son will give to the Father? The church in all of her glory as she's clothed in his righteousness to have wholly glorified bodies.
Now we're no longer individual local churches, but one great, glorious, glorified church. When his mediatorial servant role is finished, he'll not do any of these things anymore because there's nothing more to do. He's an effectual Savior. He's effectually, fully, completely, perfectly done the task, finished the role God gave him as the servant, as the redeeming, saving servant. So after presenting the perfected, glorified bride of the church to the Father, then metaphorically speaking, the mediator servant Jesus will take off the mediator servant robe and he will put on a kingly robe. Revelation 22, 3 says that in that new, glorious, eternal reign, there will be the throne of God and of the Lamb. And then the faithful, preeminent servant will be the faithful, preeminent king, ruler, and Lord. God of very God, co-equal with God the Father, ruling and reigning with his people and his glorified church forever and ever and ever. He is the preeminent servant.
