Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. Through His Word, the Bible, God has clearly revealed Himself to us in vivid detail. And through Christ's sacrifice on the cross, our compassionate Creator has made a way for us to be drawn into caring community with Him. Today's message from Isaiah 42 shines light on who our God is and what a beautiful plan He has laid out for the children of men.
Let's listen in. This is part two from a message on Isaiah 42 that was first preached on April 14, 2013. It's part of a series from Isaiah 40 through 55 titled, Behold Your God. So Jesus Christ is this servant, like I said before, like verse nine says, we're looking back on what God had already told would be happening. Jesus Christ came as this servant, as the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity. And what did He come to do? The Son of Man came to do what?
Seek and to save that which was lost. You see, it is God in community because God is a community, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit living in perfect, eternal community with each other, the self-sufficient one, the self-existent one. And He draws and invites us into community with Him.
That's what you and I were created for. And therefore, as a caring community, He does the work necessary to draw us into fellowship with Himself. And it says here in verses three and four, He will bring forth justice. He will not fail nor be discouraged till He has established justice.
So He will bring forth and He will establish justice on the earth. You know, we celebrate a beautiful day today. You know, the grass is green. Well, at least most of my grass is green.
There's still some brown patches in it, but most of it's green. Everything is in bloom. Isn't it beautiful?
Oh, what a beautiful day. And yet, how many things are going on in life that just are not the way they ought to be? Whether it's in relationships, whether it's in wars and conflicts that are happening around the world, you know, you look out and you can watch two birds. And what are two birds?
Two birds are fighting each other. You know, something's awry here. Things are not the way they ought to be. But God is the one, as a caring community, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, God is at work establishing righteousness, justice, putting things in order according to His perfect character and purpose. And that is what He is going to do.
He has set that in order and He is going to accomplish that. And He has done that in history by giving us His Son, who came in grace and truth, and He's also given us His Spirit, who is the Spirit of truth and the Spirit of power. And this caring community is the God who is going to set everything in order. And how many people say today, you know, with all the things that are awry, everything that's wrong with this life, everything that's wrong with the world, all the injustice and all the oppression that is out there, how can you believe in a God who is all good and all powerful? He's either all good and isn't powerful enough to do anything about it, or He's powerful enough to do something about it, but He's not good because He doesn't do anything about it. I had lunch one day last week with a young man who said exactly that, and that was his argument.
But how many people believe, how many people talk like that? And yet God reveals to us in His Word that in His time frame, He is going to establish justice. Everything will put in order as it ought to be. This is our God, the God that we serve and that we worship. And the Incarnation teaches us something here because that's what's being prophesied in this chapter. The Incarnation, my servant whom He's foretelling, who is the second person of the Trinity, the Son of God, the Incarnation, the God-man, teaches us that God and shows us that God is uniquely competent to save, unlike any other possible object of trust. No other object of trust can save us and rescue us like this God can. He alone is competent to save. He has no rivals. He has no competitors.
He has no successors. This is what the Lord is teaching us through Isaiah chapter 42, and He has come to save and to rescue. That's why you look at verse 9. It's foretold in here at 700 B.C., but when we look at it, we're looking back at it because of the revelation that God has given us in the New Testament and specifically His Son, Jesus Christ.
All that points to just simply what? God's purpose will be realized. God's purpose will be realized, and we can count on that. Here's point number 3, verses 5 through 9, that God is a compassionate Creator. Not only is He a clear communicator, not only is He a caring community, but God is a compassionate Creator. It says in verse 5, thus says God the Lord, and then it introduces Him in three ways, and each one begins with who. Verse 5, who created the heavens, who spread forth the earth, who gives breath to the people and the spirit to those who walk in it. I, the Lord, He is the Creator. It is from Him that life in all created order come from. He is the source of all life, and as the source of all life then, in verse 6, it is the Father speaking to the Son, the one whom He refers to as My Servant in verse 1. In verse 6, the Father is speaking to the Son. He says, I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness.
I will hold your hand. I will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people, as a light to the Gentiles, to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from prison. You see His compassion there? What is He teaching us here? That though He is Creator, we are rebels. We have rebelled against Him, just as the people of Judah had and would, as the people of Israel did, and they're now scattered by the Assyrian Empire. And not long after that then, Babylon is going to come, and they are going to oppress Israel and take them captive.
Why? Because they have rebelled against God. They have walked away from their Creator, from their object of trust. And so He speaks here to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from prison. What is this blindness in this prison of which He speaks? I like what John Oswald says in his exposition of this chapter.
He says, By means of this servant, his son, God will deliver the people of earth from that darkness in which they are bound by their own self-idolatry. Insisting on making reality a mirror of ourselves, we have plunged ourselves into darkness. Not being self-originating, we nevertheless try to explain the origins of things in terms of ourselves. Not being self-existent, we try to explain the end of all things in terms of ourselves.
The result is predictable. Existence in an endless cycle that comes from nowhere and goes nowhere. That is the darkness and the bondage in which the whole world lives by its own choice. By its own choice.
Why? Because we're rebels. We have walked away from God. We have walked away from our source.
We've walked away from our Creator. I like what philosopher Theodore Roszak said. He couldn't bear what he called the coca-colonization of the world.
He hated the pseudo-science that claims to explain everything. Though a non-Christian, he said, without transcendence, the person shrivels. Without transcendence, the person shrivels.
That's so true. You see, because if we don't keep God in view, then all we have is ourselves as a reference point. And then all we become concerned with is the right here and the right now, the immediate gratification.
And without transcendence, the person shrivels. But God, as a compassionate Creator, has come to rescue us from that. He rescues us from that by communicating to us the big picture.
And by coming to us and talking to us in person. To rescue us from that prison and from that darkness. And what he tells us in this is that he will accomplish complete renewal of the created order. And we can count on that. He will accomplish complete renewal of the created order and we can count on that because his purpose will be accomplished.
Here's the fourth point. Look at verse 8 with me. I am the Lord, that is my name, and my glory I will not give to another, nor my praise to carved images. Our God is not only a clear communicator, not only a caring community, and not only a compassionate Creator, but our God is central command. Central command.
Let me tell you what I mean by that. The word central is important, but command is also very important because look what he says here. If you were to look at verse, beginning at verse 14, and God speaks of himself, how many times does he say the words, I will? Look at verse 15. I will lay waste the mountains. Middle of the verse, I will make the rivers coastlands.
I will dry up the pool. Verse 16, I will bring the blind. I will lead them in the paths. I will make darkness light.
These things I will do for them. By his command, things happen. And he has command over creation in spite of people's deafness, dullness, and degradation. And what is it that guides his command?
It is what we find in verse 21. The Lord is well pleased for his righteousness sake. His righteousness is the manifestation of his character and his purpose. God is central command. His command is what happens. His command is what rules, and he brings things into being by his command. Now, here's where he gets personal with Jacob.
Because God can do anything he wants to because he is a sovereign God. But Jacob was going to go into, Jacob meaning Judah, Israel, but specifically the tribe of Judah, was going to go into captivity. You say, that's a bad thing, right?
No, it's a good thing because they were being taught. They were being chastised. Thanks for joining us here at Delight in Grace. You've been listening to Rich Powell, the lead pastor at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. The Delight in Grace mission is to help you know that God designed you to realize your highest good and your deepest satisfaction in him, the one who is infinitely good. We hope you'll join us again on weekdays at 10 AM.
