Isaiah 50

Turn to Isaiah chapter 50. Isaiah chapter 50. There are no rugby illustrations this morning.

Isaiah 50 · chapter mention Isaiah 50 · chapter mention

! And there is a company called Red Tapebusters. I don't know whether you know them. Red tapebusters,

! they go into bats for people who are battling bureaucracy to do away with red tape. So perhaps

you've got a parking ticket and you know that the traffic warden was wrong, but who's

going to believe it as low as you? Perhaps you've got a query with your bill and you spend

the whole week being passed from one automated voice to another. Well now you can ring or

email Red Tapebusters and they will sort it out for you. It's a great ministry, isn't

it? We should support that ministry as a church in a way. It's great to have someone who will

go into bat with you. It's great to have someone on your side when the odds against you are

insurmountable. When you're fighting a losing battle. And that is pretty much where Israel is

here in Isaiah. Or at least Isaiah can see that coming. And of course, when something like

that happens, when something terrible and devastating happens, well who do you blame? Who do you

blame when life goes wrong? If you go back to chapter 49 and verse 14, you'll see they blame

God. And it's often, isn't it, a knee-jerk reaction. Where was God on dot dot dot? You point the

finger at the finger at God and you blame God. In a sense, I want to say to you, I don't

think that's unreasonable. Four times from verses 4 to 11, God is called the sovereign Lord.

He is the sovereign Lord, the Lord God. And yet his people are in a lot of trouble. And if

God really is the Lord God, the sovereign God, and he's in control, why is all this happening

to his people? Why are his people about to be booted out of the land to exile in Babylon?

If God is in control, well it either must be his fault, or he's forgotten about it. He's

forsaken us in the words of 49 verse 14. That's what they were thinking. And the Lord's response

in Isaiah chapter 50, you'll notice, is, this is what he says to people who are murmuring

Isaiah 50 · chapter mention

or complaining about him. Verse 1, where's your mother's certificate of divorce? With

which I sent her away. God says to the people of Israel, go through the papers, go rifling

through the papers, and see if you can find a divorce certificate. You won't, because it's

not there. I have not divorced you. I am a covenant keeping God. I have not divorced you. What has

happened is you have divorced me. And that is what God is saying. I didn't sell you into

slavery. You sold yourself. You've actually got only yourself to blame. Very occasionally

you hear of children divorcing their parents. It's bizarre. It's so odd that it makes the

press. You can imagine kind of in extreme circumstances where that might be necessary. But it's bizarre.

It's unnatural. And yet here is God's people, and they have divorced themselves from God, their

loving Heavenly Father, by their rebellion and their sin and their idolatry. They've divorced

themselves from their loving Heavenly Father, and they will not listen. They will not hear

when he speaks. They will reply to his emails. They won't answer his calls. And when he sends

his prophets, they don't want to hear what he says. And you see, that is the explanation for

why the world is in the state it is. It's because we have divorced ourselves from the

living God. Not only that, we don't listen when he calls us. Like Adam in the garden.

Do you remember, immediately after the rebellion in the garden, God comes looking for Adam in

the garden and says, where are you? And Adam is hiding. He's run away. And so what is God's

answer to the problem? Well, it's not a philosophy, it's not a program. It's a person. And we've

seen that person introduced to us in these servant songs. Isaiah doesn't give him a name.

He just calls him a servant of the Lord. And for Isaiah, and for Israel, this figure is

mysterious. Who is the servant of the Lord if it's not Israel itself? Because the servant's

job was to restore Israel. It's not Cyrus, the pagan Persian king, who God will raise up

to deliver his people from Babylon. Because all Cyrus can do is return them to the land.

But there's something more needed, isn't there? We know that the problem is not just their

situation. Their problem is their sin. Their longing for repatriation. But God is looking

for repentance. And they want to come back to the land. But their need actually is to come

back to the Lord. And who's going to do that? And so Isaiah is shown 700 years before the

time. Before Christ. And so in Isaiah, you have a tracing of the one who is the king.

Isaiah looks down through the centuries. And he's shown what the servant looks like.

So that when the servant comes, you and I will be able to recognise him. And in this song,

the servant speaks and he tells us five things about himself. And then in verse 11, God speaks

to you and I about the servant. And he calls on us to follow him. So let's see what does

the servant say about himself. And I think chapter 50 is really sacred ground. We are taken

in Isaiah 50 into the inner consciousness of the Sermon of the Lord. We are given a glimpse

of the kind of relationship that exists between the Sovereign Lord God and his servant. Five

things. Number one, the servant speaks. The servant speaks. Can you see that in verse 4?

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. The servant's task is to minister to people. People who are hurting,

people who are weighed down with burdens that are too heavy to carry. And he speaks. And

he gives them hope and strength to sustain them. He doesn't lecture them. He doesn't

belittle them. He doesn't crush them. He doesn't demolish them. Can you see it? Verse 4,

The Sovereign Lord has given me an instructed tongue to speak the words that sustain the weary.

The servant is supremely concerned with the glory of God. But he is also concerned with your

struggles and my struggles. And so Jesus says, come unto me all you who labour and are heavy

laden. And I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am humble

in heart and you will find rest for yourselves. So the servant this morning knows what you need

to hear. And that's why it's so important to be here this morning. That's why it's so important

to be under the life-giving ministry of the word of God. That if you're burdened in your

Christian life and you are carrying some load, the last thing that you should do is distance

yourself from God's people, isn't it? It's very often the very thing that people do when

life gets tough, when there's lots of struggles, they stop coming to church. They pull away from

God's people. And we're not there as often as we used to be. And we're not listening to the

other words. But that is the very last thing that we should do because the servant of the

Lord has been given an instructed tongue to speak the very word that you need to hear this

morning. And it may be, isn't it, that the very thing that you need to hear in your life

this morning, you'll hear this morning. As the Bible is opened. Because what happens on a

Sunday morning is that it is not the preacher who is speaking to you. It is God's servant,

Jesus, through his ministers, who speaks when they open the Bible and preach the word of God.

How important it is to be under the healthy, life-giving preaching of the word of God.

I want to say, I want to kind of start a new policy this morning. That very often I get

asked, can I meet with you? Can we talk? And very often, those are my people who are

hardly ever here. As I want to say for the next little while, partly because I'm so

busy, but I want to say, come to church for four weeks, morning and evening, hear the word

and then I'm happy to meet with you. And I think that is, I think that is, is actually

biblical. Because it's as the word of God is ministered that you will find your problems

addressed, and mine. Because the servant of the Lord knows what you need to hear this

morning. The servant of the Lord has got a perfect understanding of your heart. He knows

what you're thinking, he knows your heartaches and your doubts and your fears. He's got

just the right word to sustain you. Now we know that, don't we? We know that from the

Gospels. You look at John chapter 3. And Nicodemus, the kind of archbishop of Jerusalem,

John 3 · chapter mention

all the weight of religion comes to see Jesus. What a weight to carry. John chapter 4, you've

John 4 · chapter mention

got the woman at the well. No one wants to know her. She's the woman with no name. She's

lived an empty, sordid lifestyle. She's been through broken relationships. And the sermon

of the Lord knows exactly which words to speak to her. To the religious teacher. He says,

what an ugly, horrible thing religion is. If all you've got is religion, you've not got

Christ. And you need to be rescued from that. And so Jesus has got your right words. He says,

Nicodemus, you're trying to pull yourself up by your bootstraps. But actually what you

need is you need something from outside of you. You need the life of God and the soul of

man. To the woman of the world who's so ostracized by her own community, who is lonely and unhappy.

Jesus has got just the right words. And so every time you read the Gospels, you find, don't

you, that beggars, rich men, tax collectors, the opposite ends of the spectrum, lawyers, criminals,

mothers, prostitutes, political zealots, the establishment, the poor. And the Sermon

of the Lord has got an instructive tongue. And so he knows the right words to speak into

people's lives. Think about it. It's an amazing thing. He's a guy in his early thirties.

He's never been trained in psychology. He's not a qualified counselor. And he speaks to

everyone, doesn't he? Old and young, married and single. And he invites them all and he

says, come, come unto me. Come unto me, all of you who are burden heavy laden. I've got

the words that you need to hear. It's remarkable. What did they say when they came here? Do you

know what they said? They said, nobody ever spoke like this man. We've got our counselors and

our pundits and our preachers and they caught this man and that authority that nobody ever

spoke like this man. What did the woman at the well when she went into that Samaritan village

in John 4 and she said, come and meet a man who told me everything I ever did. Come and

meet a man whose word penetrated my defenses. Isn't that why we invite people to church?

Isn't that why we want to happen? Now of course that is true, isn't it, of Jesus in a way

that it's not true of anyone else. But if you and I are followers of Jesus, if you and I

want to be servants of a servant of the Lord, surely we must learn to talk to people with

the same compassion and understanding. People with empty lives and people with broken relationships

and people with heavy burdens, they gather to Jesus, but they don't gather to us. That's

a great challenge. A group of Christians that can only really have a conversation with another

Christian and they don't need them to argue about it. There's that quote, isn't it, by the comedian, isn't it?

Why do people who've made a friend in Jesus find it so hard to make a friend with anyone else?

And I think there's something in that, isn't there?

But they clamour to Jesus. The sovereign Lord has given me an instructed tongue to speak the words that will sustain the weary.

Now how do you do that?

So notice the second thing. Can we see what the Sermon of the Lord, what he just tries to find himself?

He says morning by morning, he awakens me, he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught.

Not only does the Sermon of the Lord have an instructed tongue, he's got a listening ear.

And that goes together, isn't it? The servant can speak to others only because he's the greatest God.

And that gives us a great insight into the secret life of the Lord Jesus.

The private life of the Lord Jesus. According to verse 4, he hasn't gone on the alarm clock to wake him, God wakes him.

And every morning he wakes up. He says, what does God want me to do today? What lesson will God teach me today?

He is my Lord, I am his willing servant. What are my instructions for today? He's a listening servant.

And in verse 4, he's listening as one who wants to be taught.

God has hidden. He has hidden these things from the wise and the learned.

There are things that you can't learn with your IQ and from a textbook.

God has hidden these things from the Pharisees and the scribes, but he reveals them to little children.

And morning by morning, the servant wakes up like a little child and he's eager to learn from his father.

And every day he keeps that appointment with his sovereign Lord.

And so you remember at the start of Mark's Gospel where Jesus is absolute box office and they're clamouring for him.

And he's Simon's mother-in-law and the sick are coming banging down the door and he doesn't have a moment to himself.

And we're told very early in the morning while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went to a solitary place to pray.

And the disciples are looking for him everywhere.

And they say when they find him, everyone is looking for you.

But Jesus had an appointment to keep to me.

With God.

And before he speaks to anyone else, he speaks to his father and he listens and he learns from him.

And I want you to see that the way that it happened for Jesus is not very different from the way that it happens to us.

When he's in the wilderness being tempted and the devil comes to him and tries to get him to do that huge PR stunt, to get on TV.

What did Jesus say?

Jesus, what did he say? Hang on a minute, I'm having my quiet time.

No, what does he say?

No, he doesn't. He says, as it is written.

And he quotes Deuteronomy 8 verses 6-8.

Deuteronomy 8:6–8

Whether he was reading it that morning, I don't know.

But the point is this.

Jesus knew Deuteronomy.

He was listening to the voice of his father through Deuteronomy.

And when he says the Son of Man must go up to Jerusalem and be handed over to the Gentiles and suffer many things.

And he must die and he must be raised from the dead.

How did he know that?

How did Jesus know that?

Where did he get it from?

Did he kind of just have some kind of theological implant put into his head that he knew this?

No, of course not.

God speaks to him morning by morning through the word that he's written.

And even when the Father speaks to him directly,

do you notice that when the Father speaks to the Son directly,

at his baptism, at his transfiguration,

with a voice from heaven,

what does God speak to his Son?

He speaks to the Bible.

This is my Son,

Psalm 2.

This is my beloved Son,

Abraham and Isaac,

who has to be bound to the altar and be sacrificed.

This is him in whom I delight,

Isaiah 42.

Morning by morning,

day after day,

he searches the scripture as one who wants to be taught.

And that's why he can say,

I do nothing of my own.

I speak what the Father has told me.

These words you hear me say,

they are not my own,

they belong to the Father.

The one who has sent me is with me.

I always do what pleases him.

It's the language of the servant, isn't it?

It's the attitude of the servant.

The servant speaks,

and the servant listens.

And that is why he can speak,

couldn't he,

with such extraordinary power and accuracy.

His words were born out of his daily communion with God.

With his Father.

And he needed that.

So let me ask,

if the Lord Jesus Christ,

the perfect, sinless Son of God,

needed the discipline

of daily listening to God,

how can any of us say,

I'm actually just too busy for us?

There's no room in my life for that.

If the incarnate Word of God

cannot talk to others

without first listening to the Father,

can you?

The sermon's job, first of all,

is to listen.

You cannot speak to people about God

unless you're first speaking to God about people.

Maybe the apostolic priorities,

when they act six,

when they learn from Jesus,

we will give ourselves first,

to prayer,

and then to the ministry of the Word.

In our circles,

we pride ourselves

that we are Word-centered.

That's what we stand for.

And yet, let's be honest,

we see very few conversions.

And our words don't pierce the defenses.

And why is there so, so much preaching in this country

that has so little power?

Yes, it's accurate.

Yes, it's accurate.

Yes, it's not powerful.

And I wonder,

maybe it's because we're not listening.

And so again,

let me plead with you.

Let me plead with you

to make the prayer gather

at a time when we seek the Lord.

And if you're part of this church,

you should be there.

The sermon speaks,

the sermon listens.

Certainly the sermon obeys,

verse 5.

The Lord God has opened my ear

and I was not rebellious.

I turned not backwards.

Do you think he wanted to obey?

Do you?

Think of him in the wilderness.

He's been there six weeks without food.

A strong man can just about survive

without food for six weeks.

But only just.

He's crying out to the Father

to save his life

because he's at the point of death.

The devil's whispering in his ear,

it doesn't have to be like this, Jesus.

You don't have to go through

all the pain and the suffering.

I can give you what you want.

Did God promise you

the nations of the earth?

Look, here they are.

I can give you that.

Just bow down and worship me.

You don't need to go through

all the suffering and the pain.

It even cost you all that.

Don't you think that was

a real temptation for Jesus?

Don't you think that everything

in his humanity

would have wanted that?

It is written,

get behind me, Satan.

You shall worship the Lord God only.

It's not just some trite answer

from a textbook.

It is wrung out of him.

Or in the garden of Gethsemane,

on the ground,

shaking with fear.

View him prostrate

in the garden.

On the ground,

you'll make alive.

There he is shaking

with a black horror,

drops of blood.

Father,

Father, please.

Please,

I don't want to go through

with this.

If there is any other way,

please.

Nevertheless,

I've not drawn back.

I've not been rebellious.

Not my will,

but thine be done.

The obedience of Christ.

I've not drawn back.

I've not been rebellious

to say that.

It's a hymn of saying

when we walk with the Lord

in the light of his word.

In lots of ways,

there's a good chorus.

But the chorus goes like this.

Trust and obey,

for there's no other way

to be happy in Jesus

but to trust and obey.

Do you think Jesus

was happy in the garden?

Was he happy in the garden?

People say to me

this kind of madness.

You always know

it's God's will in your life

because you get

this sense of peace

about it.

The Bible might say that

but actually,

I've got a real sense of peace

about what I'm doing.

It doesn't feel wrong.

Do you think Jesus

had a sense of peace

in the garden,

that's how many?

Do you think

it felt right?

The servant speaks,

the servant listens,

the servant obeys,

and the servant suffers.

Verse 6.

I gave my back

to those who strike,

my cheeks to those

who pull out the ear.

I hid not my face

from disgrace and spitting.

That's where the obedience

of the servant led him.

It's hinted at in 42 and 49.

It's made explicit in 53.

But what we see here

is that the servant's

great task was to suffer

for his people.

And just notice

how he suffers.

Do you see the punishment?

I offered my back

to those who beat me.

It isn't just somebody

getting a kick in

in the street.

He's being judicially

sentenced and flogged.

He's stretched out

on a rack

like a common criminal.

It's a judicial,

horrible sentence.

He is literally

taking a beating.

For you.

And not only is there

punishment,

there's torture,

isn't there?

My cheeks to those

who pull out the beard.

It's beyond a Jewish,

a judicial sentence.

It shows the depth

of human depravity.

that human beings

took the most

beautiful

human life

that's ever lived

and they smashed it

on a cross.

And they treat it

with such disrespect

and there's humiliation

at the end of verse 6,

isn't it?

This is a man

who's humiliated.

I hid not my face

from disgrace

and spitting.

Has anyone ever

spat in your face?

It's happened once to me

during an open air.

It's absolutely

humiliating.

Can you see the contrast?

In chapter 42,

God the Father says,

look,

my servant

in whom I delight.

Behold,

my servant.

And the world says,

he is a joke.

Let's throw him

on the slag heap

of history.

He's an irrelevance.

Here he is

a convicted criminal.

God's servant,

the one who will

save the world,

the one who will

save his people

from their sins,

the one who will

restore them

into a right relationship

with God.

Beaten up.

Spat upon.

Crowds laughing.

And he does it

willingly.

Look at verse 6.

You see,

I gave my back.

This isn't just

some innocent bystander

who's been forced

into the situation

against his will.

Do you remember

John 10?

This is why

the Father loves me.

Because I laid

down my life.

No one takes it

from me.

I have the authority

to lay it down

and take it up again.

This is why

the Father loves me.

I lay down my life.

There's no virtue

in suffering

for suffering's sake.

But suffering

accepted

willingly

out of obedience

to God

is infinitely

precious.

Paul says,

let this mind

give you,

let this be

the model.

Let this be

the Christian mind.

Let him be

your role model.

That he did not

consider equality

with God

something to be

grasped

but made himself

nothing

taking the very

nature of a servant.

He humbled himself

becoming obedient

to death,

even death

on a cross.

That's the

Christian life.

ministers

have pity parties.

We go to our

conferences

and you see

you want to see

how hard my church is.

You want to see

how hard this is.

People can let you

down,

can't they?

You can be

disappointed.

Your family can

suffer.

You can be

misrepresented

as a Christian.

You can be

humiliated.

But what

did you expect?

Paul says,

I want to know

him and the

power of his

resurrection.

Well,

we can all do

without that

power.

I want to know

him and the

power of his

resurrection.

But why?

Why does

Paul say we

should know

the power of

the resurrection

so that we

can share in

his sufferings

and be like

him in his

death?

And that's

why we need

this supernatural

power of God

so that we

can be like

him in his

suffering and

his death.

Jesus said,

if you come

after me,

take up your

cross and

follow me.

The servant

speaks,

the servant

listens,

the servant

obeys and

the servant

suffers.

He's not

just the

humble listener

and the

gentle teacher,

but he's

also the

innocent

sufferer.

bearing shame

and scoffing

rude.

In my

place

condemned,

he stood.

Behold,

the man upon

a cross,

my sin upon

his shoulder,

ashamed,

I hear my

mocking verse.

The crowd

muster

scoffers.

He speaks,

he listens,

he obeys,

he suffers,

he trusts,

he trusts.

Verse 7.

He sees

beyond the

suffering,

doesn't he,

in verse 7.

And he

says,

he who

vindicated

me is

near.

He is

near.

Therefore,

I've not

been

disgraced.

But the

Lord helps

me.

Therefore,

I've not

been

disgraced.

The

sovereign

Lord will

see to it

that I

am not

disgraced.

Luke 9

tells us

what time

Jesus was

walking

towards

Jerusalem,

he sees

the city,

and there's

a real

look of

determination

in his

eyes,

and the

disciples

are

astonished.

It's

as if

they think

he's

really

going to

do it.

He's

going to

go to

Jerusalem.

He's

going to

walk

straight into

trouble.

He knows

it.

It's not

just spin.

He knows

what's going

to happen.

Now,

why would

anyone do

that?

Why would

anyone walk

deliberately

to their

own death?

well,

because he

says,

the Lord

helps me,

therefore I

have not

been

disgraced.

Verse 8,

he who

vindicates

me is

near.

Yes,

he will

be condemned

in the

courts of

men,

but he

will be

vindicated

in the

courts of

heaven.

Who will

contend with

me?

Let us

stand here.

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 moth

will eat

them up.

It's like

when Indiana

Jones in

the films,

he goes

into a

tomb,

and there's

a little

shroud,

and you

touch it,

and it's

like a

puff of

smoke.

Who are

those who

accuse me?

Who are

those who

sit in

his palace

like Pilate?

Herod,

and Rome,

what are

they like?

They are

like,

verse 9,

moth-eaten

garments.

You blow

on them

and they

disappear.

People go

to Rome

to visit

the ruins.

People

call their

dogs

Nero,

and their

sons

Paul.

Who are

those who

stand against

Jesus?

Who is

going to

accuse him?

Who will

stand against

him?

Islam

will not

stand before

him.

Buddha

bow his

chubby knees

to you.

And every

tongue will

confess.

And so I

don't know if

you're being

slandered or

persecuted or

written off by

society, but

you need to

know this,

all of that

will disintegrate

like a moth

on the day

of judgment.

And every

knee will

bow.

And so what

happened?

God reversed

the verdict,

didn't it?

They thought

we'll crucify

him with

wicked hands

and crucify

him.

You thought

we're

finished

with him.

We'll

remember

Jesus of

Nazareth

in ten

years'

time.

But this

same

Jesus,

the preaching

of Acts

tells us,

you took

and crucified

God,

raised him

from the

dead,

and made

him to

be the

Lord and

Christ.

And by

doing that

he served

notice that

one day,

on that

final day,

every knee

will bow

to him and

every tongue

confess that

Jesus Christ

is Lord.

Now look

with me again

at verses

eight and

nine.

Where have

you seen

them before?

Where have

you seen

them before?

They should

ring a

bow,

shouldn't

they?

Just look at

them again.

Who will

contend with

me?

who is my

adversary?

It's

Romans

eight.

Who will

bring any

charge against

God's elect?

If God is

for us,

who can be

against us?

In the

resurrection of

Jesus Christ,

not only is he

vindicated,

but because we

are united to

Christ,

we are

vindicated in

him.

He was

delivered for

our offenses.

He didn't

die for any

crime he

committed.

He was

delivered for

our offenses,

and raised

for our

justification.

As we

close,

there are

only two

responses you

can make to

this.

Verses 10

and 11,

you can go

the servant's

way,

and you can

follow him,

or you can

make a path

for yourself.

Who,

verses 10

and 11?

George

VI was

the present

queen's

father.

A genuine

Christian man,

he's the guy

from the

king's

speech.

And he

made a

very famous

speech,

you may

know it,

on Christmas

day,

1939,

three months

after Britain

declared war.

And he

said this,

I believe

from my

heart that the

cause which

binds together

our people

and our

gallant and

faithful allies

is the

cause of

Christian

civilization.

On no

other basis

can a true

civilization be

built.

Let us

remember that

through the

dark times

ahead of us,

and when we

are making

the peace

for which

all men

pray.

A new

year is at

hand,

we cannot

tell what

it will

bring.

If it

brings peace,

how thankful

we should all

be.

If it

brings

continued

struggle,

we shall

be undaunted.

In the

meantime,

I feel that

we shall

all find

courage with

the words

with which

I close.

I said to

the man

who stood

at the

gate of

the year,

give me

a light,

that I

may tread

safely into

the unknown.

And he

replied,

go out

into the

darkness,

and put

your hand

into the

hand of

God,

and that

shall be

to you

better than

light,

and safer

than a

known

way.

Isn't

that what

Isaiah is

saying in

verse 10?

Isaiah is

saying to

the exiles,

and he

says to

you and

I,

put your

hand into

the hand

of God,

and it

will be

to you

better than

light,

safer than

a known

way.

And when

you do

that,

when you

repent of

your

autonomy,

and when

you say,

Lord,

I am no

longer going

to run

my life,

I'm going

to allow

you,

by your

word and

spirit to

run my

life,

the lights

don't suddenly

switch on,

do they?

And as

a Christian,

we have to

say,

a lot of

the time,

you're still

in the

dark,

and there

are still

many dark

experiences.

They were

in exile in

Babylon,

but there is

bereavement,

and there is

despair,

and there is

depression,

and there is

loneliness in

the Christian

life.

But this

promise to

the exiles

is a

promise for

you and

I,

that as

life is

difficult,

like it

was for

them,

immersed in

alien culture,

fumbling

around the

corner,

they didn't

know what

was going

to happen

next,

but if

you put

your hand

into the

hand of

God,

it will

be better

to you

than a

known way,

better than

light.

church.

And if

you've never

done that,

will you

do it

this morning?

Will you

trust in

God to

follow his

sermon?

We have

the benefit

of hindsight.

Isaiah saw

palely,

didn't he?

But we

see in

fulfilment

that Jesus

is God's

servant,

who came

not to be

served,

but to

serve and

give his

life as a

ransom for

many.

So won't

you put

your hand

into his?

Because there

is an

alternative if

you will not

do that.

Can you see

that in

verse 11?

that if

you won't

trust him,

the only

person you

can trust

is yourself.

That,

yeah,

feel free,

kindle a

fire,

who equip

yourselves

with burning

torches,

walk by the

light of your

fire and

by the

torches

that you've

kindled.

This you

have from

my hand,

that you

shall lie

down in

torment.

That's the

alternative.

To live

life.

By your

own way.

To light

your own

torch.

To refuse

to put your

hand in

his hand,

to say we

can't trust

the servant.

To not

trust the

one who's

got the

words to

sustain you.

The one

who laid

down his

life for

you.

And you

can't trust

yourself to

him.

And so

you will

lie down

in torment.

And torment

means torment.

to light

your own

torch.

There are

only two

ways to

go.

And

whichever

way you

choose,

God will

give you

exactly what

you ask

for.

You can

either rely

on him,

and he

will take

you through

the darkness

of this

life safely,

or,

verse 10,

you choose

to ignore

him, live

by your

own light,

and he

will leave

you on

your own

now and

forever and

ever and

ever.

That's what

the Bible

means by

tell.

And it

is out of

darkness,

and it

is out of

torment.

And so I

plead with you

this morning.

You will

have no one

to blame

but yourself.

We receive

from the

Lord exactly

what we

ask for.

Trust in

him,

and you

will lie

down in

safety.

Trust in

yourself,

and you

will lie

down in

torment.

Let's

pray.

Let's

pray.

Let's

pray.