Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. According to the Bible, God is holy and just, necessarily opposing evil, including the evil that runs through the heart of every person. God is also full of compassion and tender love.
He's deeply moved by our broken and lost state. But how can His justice and compassion meet? Well, the two are most beautifully displayed to us in the person of Jesus Christ. The Son of God bearing the just wrath and punishment that was meant for man.
Why? Because of His great love for us and for His Father. What a Savior!
Let's take a closer look at His character in this message from Isaiah 49. You are listening to part 2 of a message that was first preached on June 2, 2013 at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. When they're tearing apart the plastic piece by piece by piece and this newborn emerges and it's laying there helpless, what does that do to you? What kind of emotion does that well up inside of a person?
Indeed, many, many, many offers of taking the child and adopting the child were offered that day. But what do you want to do when you see that child helpless and trapped in the sewer drain? You want to pick it up, you want to clean it, you want to embrace it, you want to close it and keep it warm and love it. Loved ones, behold the compassion of God because that's how He sees us. He sees us trapped in that sewer drain. He doesn't just see us as victims of our own devices but He looks at us and He sees a cherished life that He loves. The Lord has comforted His people and will have compassion on His afflicted. The word is used twice in the first 13 verses of Isaiah chapter 49 in the New King James is translated mercy. It is the word racham, it is synonymous with the word pity, often translated compassion, sometimes mercy. But the word racham is this, it is a deep tender love rooted in a natural bond. A deep tender love rooted in a natural bond and this is the compassion of God. The same compassion that a mother would feel and by the way that Chinese newborn is back with its mother, she says it fell down by accident.
With the sense of desperation that there is over there, one never knows. But this is the compassion of God to see this cherished life trapped in a sewer drain. Here's how the Lord illustrates that. Look with me at verse 15. Can a woman forget her nursing child and not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yet I will not forget you.
The Lord says surely they may forget and you know what, sometimes unbelievably among humans it does and can happen. But God says I can't do that. You are too cherished in my sight for me not to be moved by your plight. And so the tender deep love rooted in a natural bond, what is that natural bond? It is this, the natural bond is the fact that you and I were created for God in His image. We were designed for relation to Him.
That is the very purpose of our existence. With that understanding we know that God is deeply moved by the plight of our sinfulness, victims of our own devices, infants, helpless infants trapped in the sewer drain. Oswald puts it this way, this word racham is God's tenderness and His ability to be touched by the pain and grief of His people. Jeremiah was a prophet who realized the things that Isaiah was prophesying. He was telling them about the destruction of Jerusalem. Isaiah was talking about coming back and Jeremiah was warning the people it's going to happen.
And he witnessed the destruction of Jerusalem and as he was watching Jerusalem and the temple burn to the ground, the prophet Isaiah wrote the book of Lamentations. And here's what he says about the mercy of God in the book of Lamentations. Lamentations 3.22, through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed because His compassion fail not. Verse 32, though He causes grief yet He will show compassion according to the multitude of His mercies. You see God is a compassionate God. He is moved by the plight of our sinfulness.
This presents us then, if we were to look at this from a human perspective, there seems to be a divine dilemma here, doesn't there? His God is a holy God, He is holy other, He is beyond the realm of imperfection and weakness and impurity. He is a holy God in that He is unfailingly good and must necessarily oppose evil, that which is contrary to His character and purpose.
He is also a holy God in that He is unfailingly faithful to His own character and purpose and to His promises. But you have the holiness of God who opposes that evil and yet the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every one of us. How can His justice and His compassion meet?
From our perspective that seems to be a dilemma. And this, by the way, is the difference between Jehovah, the God of Israel, and Allah, the God of Islam, which is reflected in the actions of His people. Because Jehovah, the God of Israel, has compassion on those who've gotten themselves into the trouble by their own rebellion and as victims of their own devices. But Allah, the God of Islam, who doesn't show compassion, but His people say, we have compassion on the widows and the orphans, but if somebody gets themselves into trouble, trouble by their own lack of wisdom and their own devices, we have no responsibility towards them at all in terms of compassion and mercy, none.
But God is a compassionate God. We see then that there seems to be a dilemma here between the justice of God, the holiness of God, and the compassion of God. Here's where chapter 49 comes in.
We are introduced to someone in chapter 49. We are introduced to the chosen servant in whom God will be glorified. The chosen servant in whom God will be glorified is the suffering Messiah, that suffering servant. He by the way is the speaker of these first 13 verses of Isaiah 49. You say, wait a minute, he says, you are my servant, O Israel.
You know why? That's because in Jesus Christ, all of God's expectations of Israel were realized in the person of Jesus Christ. He is the perfect Israel, the perfect example of a sinless life, of a life obedient to God. So chapters 49 and following, all attention is given to this servant.
Why? Because this is a God thing. This rescue is a God thing. This compassion is a God thing. Even though his people, though helpless, they deserve judgment, but yet God is a compassionate God.
And we see that it is a God thing. Look with me at verse 23 at the very end of the verse. Then you will know that I am the Lord, for they shall not be ashamed who wait for me. Verse 26, all flesh, the end of the verse, all flesh shall know that I, the Lord, am your savior and your redeemer, the mighty one of Jacob. So all attention now is given to the servant.
Why is that? Because we can look back in history and recognize the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy. Because you know what? We're headed toward Isaiah 52 and 53, aren't we? And we can see that this chosen servant is the one in whom God will be glorified. And that servant has a name, and he walked among us in history. And what we learn from this, according to the tender mercies of God, and the fact that he is a compassionate God, is this, self-giving love is the Trinity's signature. Self-giving love is the Trinity's signature. The most well-known verse in all of Scripture says it well, doesn't it? For God so, what, loved the world that he did what, gave his only son.
Self-giving love is the Trinity's signature. Even to us who deserved his judgment, he was compassionate. He was moved by the plight of our sinful oppression. And Osgina says this, he says he came to earth in order to identify with our anguish. In that way, God was moved. In other words, he doesn't just sit in glory and feel compassion.
No, he is moved, and he's moved to act. And we see that portrayed in verses 9 and 10 of Isaiah 49. Verse 9, that you may say to the prisoners, go forth to those who are in darkness.
Show yourselves. Be free. You are oppressed by your sinfulness, but I am going to set you free out of the devouring lion's grip.
We're the ones that jumped into the dead. And God says, I'm going to rescue out of it and be free from that. Verse 10, they shall neither hunger nor thirst, neither heat nor sun shall strike them. For he who has mercy on them will lead them. That word mercy is this word racham, which means his tender, loving compassion. We see this fulfilled as it was in the New Testament because this chosen servant who will bring God glory came and he brought glory to God. And it says in verse 10, for he who has mercy on them will lead them. 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 a.m.
