"Songs of the Savior - Given for Our Vindication" Isaiah 50 Sunday Morning Worship Service

Why don't you take your Bibles now and open to Isaiah and chapter 50, our passage for this morning?

Isaiah chapter 50.

Isaiah 50 · chapter mention

As you're returning in your Bibles, let me remind you that we do have evening service.

Again, we have a number of more evening services before we take a break for the summer.

So tonight, 515, the children's choir will be singing.

Pastor Tom Joyce will be preaching on Revelation in chapter 4.

We invite you back, 5.15 for our evening service, where we will close the Lord's Day in fellowship together.

This morning our passage is Isaiah chapter 50.

Isaiah 50 · chapter mention

So let us begin our time by reading from God's Word.

Follow with me as I read our passage.

Beginning in verse 4.

Hear God's word.

The Lord Yahweh 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.

He awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught.

The Lord Yahweh has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious.

I turned not backwards.

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.

The Lord Yahweh 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 me.

Behold, the Lord Yahweh helps me, who will declare me guilty?

Behold, all of them wear out like a garment, the moth will eat them up.

Who among you fears Yahweh and obeys the voice of his servant?

Let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the name of Yahweh and rely on his God.

Behold, all you who kindle a fire, who equip yourselves with burning torches, walk by the light of your fire, and by the torches that you have kindled, this you have from my hand.

You shall lie down in torment.

This is God's word.

Well, in the month of May, we've been walking through a series of prophetic passages in the book of Isaiah.

These are poetic songs that display for us a mysterious servant figure that the New Testament authors repeatedly identify as the Lord Jesus.

In the last two Sundays, we've walked through Isaiah 42 and 49.

Next Sunday evening, we will look together at Isaiah 53.

Isaiah 53 is perhaps the most famous Old Testament text among Christians, and some of the texts that we've looked at in the last two weeks, in very famous lines, repeated and quoted frequently in the New Testament, but tucked between these towering Old Testament passages is Isaiah 50.

A less known but profound passage that displays for us the Lord Jesus.

And in particular, this song begins to bring this servant and his work of suffering to the fore.

So appropriately, as we will take of the Lord's table together this morning, let's look together Isaiah chapter 50 and behold a servant who suffers on our behalf, ultimately for our vindication.

Isaiah 50 · chapter mention

As we walk through this passage, what we'll see is Prophet Isaiah gives us the three main realities about this servant that he would like to set before our eyes.

Notice down in your Bibles, look at verse 4 with me.

A text reads, The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with the word him who is weary.

Morning by morning he awakens, he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught.

You notice that there is a mission that is given to the servant.

The mission is to sustain him who is weary, and that ought to ring a bell.

It sounds very similar to the mission that we have seen in the previous servant songs.

Isaiah 42 and verse 3 said that the servant would accomplish God's justice in the world, restore what is wrong in the world, and bring a kingdom of perfect righteousness and justice, and that he would do it on behalf of those who are hopeless and weary.

In particular, I'd like you to note that this text tells us that the servant enjoys perfect union in his will and his work with God.

Notice what is emphasized in verse 4 is at the beginning and end, it's repeated.

Verse 4, look it down again.

It says, The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught, and at the end of the verse, I hear as those who are taught.

So the emphasis there is that there's some instruction that is going on.

What does that mean?

This word taught is just it's a simple word for taught, but the particular context that Isaiah employs it in throughout the book tells us that he's specifically talking about the content of God's will, being instructed and having knowledge and having your will joined to God's will.

So Isaiah 8 and chapter 8 and verse 16 speaks of God's servants who are instructed so that they know God's will through the Torah, through God's instruction, through the Scripture.

But this individual servant is said in a blanket statement way to be taught by God.

That is, this servant has knowledge of God's will in perfection.

His will is perfectly united to God's will.

Moreover, not only is his will perfectly united to God's will, but his work is perfectly united to God's work.

Notice what his work is in this text.

We said it a moment ago.

It's to sustain with the word him who is weary.

But that should sound familiar to us.

If you're reading through the prophet Isaiah, you come to chapter 40, a major chapter in his book, and at the end of that passage, we hear some very, to us rather famous words.

Isaiah 40 and verse 29 says that the Lord gives power to the faint.

To him who's weary, he increases strength.

Even youth shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted, but they who wait for the Lord renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not be faint.

The Lord does this work of sovereignly saving and sustaining his people, and now the servant is said to do it.

The servant is doing the Lord's work.

He's perfectly united to the Lord in his work.

So what you see in this text is a unique individual, perfectly united to God in his will and his work.

Then in the New Testament, the Lord Jesus, who the New Testament authors identify as the servant, describes himself in exactly these terms: united to God in his will and his work.

For example, in John in chapter 5, a very important text in which Jesus is engaging in a dialogue with disciples and skeptics alike, he says that I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing.

For whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise.

Jesus is perfectly united to God in his work.

And later in that conversation, he says, I can do nothing of my own, but as I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will, but the will of him who sent me.

Jesus is perfectly united to the Father in His will.

Perfectly united to God in His will and in His work.

And the Jews who are hearing this dialogue rightly understand that Jesus is making himself out to be equal to God.

But that's the way this servant is described before us as well.

A unique servant, perfectly united to God in his will and his work.

But I also want you to see in this text that the prophet Isaiah is not merely interested in giving us some ontological propositions for us to consider.

He's not just talking about the nature and the essence of Jesus, as incredible and stunning as it is, he also wants us to grapple with a practical ramification of that reality.

Notice at the end of verse 4, the servant says, morning by morning, he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught.

You see what's happening there is that as the servant who has forever been united to the Father in his will and his work, sent into the world to accomplish a work, to accomplish a mission, is maintaining this perfect union with God.

Morning by morning, he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught.

In other words, as the Lord Jesus in the New Testament comes into the world, the Son of God, the eternal God, becomes incarnate, takes on human nature, and becomes truly man, he maintains his perfect union with God.

And you ask the question, how does he do it?

Practically, as a now human, does he maintain relationship and union with God?

He awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught.

What we see again and again as we read through the life of Jesus in the Gospels is that practically he maintains that union with God through Scripture and prayer.

For example, right from the beginning of Mark's portrayal of Jesus, Mark chapter 1 and verse 35 portrays Jesus after having healed many people over the course of a long night.

Mark 1 · chapter mention

Mark says that very early in the morning, Jesus rose, went out to a desolate place, and prayed.

And as you walk through the rest of Jesus' life, at every turn, he is sustained by and meditating on and empowered by Scripture.

When he is tempted in Matthew in chapter 4, he responds with Scripture.

When he teaches and instructs, he does it on the basis of Scripture.

When he prays to the Father, in John chapter 17, we're given a glimpse into that divine dialogue between Father and Son, and he prays on the basis of Scripture.

John 17 · chapter mention

I want this to be accomplished that the Scripture may be fulfilled.

And in his hour of greatest trial on the cross, what comes out is Psalm 22.

He's pouring forth scripture.

Prayer and scripture in his incarnation become the means by which he maintains union and communion with his Father that he's enjoyed forever.

Forever he's enjoyed union with the Father, united in work, united in will, because they are one.

I and the Father are one.

But as he takes on humanity, he applies practical means to maintain it.

You know what is set before us in this verse is an encouragement to take hold of the same means.

As our Savior, who eternally enjoyed union with the Father, became a human and took hold of these means, he supplies us with the example for how we too might enjoy something of union with God.

In other words, according to Scripture, prayer and Bible study are not mere pedantry that Christians do just to check a box, but rather they are the divinely appointed means God has given us to enjoy something of the union, relationship, and joy that Jesus experienced in his relationship with the Father.

What is set before us in this text is an instructed servant from whom we might learn.

But this text, this song, this poem doesn't stop with just setting before us an instructed servant.

It also wants to tell us of his obedience.

That's the second thing we see in this poem.

We see an obedient servant, and that begins in verse 5.

Verse 5 really turns a corner and begins to tell us about the suffering that he would endure in the course of his mission.

So look at verse 5 with me.

Verse 5 reads, The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, I turned not backwards.

What you find in this verse is the negative part of the servant's obedience to the Lord's will.

It says that he did not rebel.

I was not rebellious.

That places this servant in a category unto himself.

There's no other servant of whom this could be said.

Run through your mind.

According to the Bible, who are the servants of the Lord?

And the first who would come to my mind would be the people Israel, the nation of Israel called to be the Lord's servant, and yet from the beginning of their history they rebel.

And there are individuals who God rises to prominence to fulfill a particular office and function who are called his servants.

Abraham is God's servant, and yet Isaiah 43, 17 says, Your first father sinned.

Abraham rebelled.

Moses holds perhaps greatest prominence in the Old Testament as an individual.

And yet Numbers chapter 25 said, He rebelled and so was barred from entering the promised land.

Numbers 25 · chapter mention

David is a particular servant of the Lord, a man even after God's own heart, and yet do we even need to go into detail about his lying, murderous adultery?

Every servant has rebelled.

But one, this servant is in a category unto himself.

He was not rebellious.

But do you know that only describes half of his obedience?

Chapter rather verse five says that he was not rebellious, but verse six gives us the other side of the coin.

Not only was he not rebellious, but positively he was active in his obedience.

Look at verse six.

Notice the active language in this verse.

Verse six reads, 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.

You see that active language?

I chose to, I actively gave my back.

I actively chose to engage in and endure suffering.

Here is a major difference between merely passively just not rebelling and actively obeying.

There is a big difference between those two things.

You learn this very quickly when you become a parent.

One of my children, who will remain nameless for the moment, has decided that there are only three foods worthy of her little tummy.

Strawberries, milk, and of course ice cream.

And it will shock some of you to find out the Francis eat more than those three foods.

So sometimes at dinner, food will be placed before her and she knows the family rules.

You will obey and you will eat your food.

And so she doesn't rebel, she doesn't protest, there's no back talk.

She picks up her spoon and she kind of piddles about, trying to scoop up.

Oop, missed it again.

Finally she gets it on the spoon and slowly moves it to her mouth.

Where it remains for 15 minutes and eventually is chewed and swallowed.

Is that obedience?

I mean, it's not act of rebellion, but it's not act of obedience either, is it?

And of course, we grow out of this kind of childish manifestation of this reality, but we don't entirely grow out of this in our relationship with the Lord, do we?

No, God, I will not do that.

That verse, I will not, I will not obey that.

And yet we may not actively rebel against it, but neither do we actively obey it.

You see, this servant didn't just not rebel, he did obey perfectly, actively, all the time.

He always did the will of God.

He delighted to do the will of God.

His will was one with the Father, and so he always did it.

Jesus says in John in chapter 4, I have food you know not of.

My food is to do the will of him who sent me, even if it entails suffering.

Because his will is one with God, he would obey him to complete everything the Father desired, even giving his back to those who strike, and his cheeks to those who pull out the beard.

In fact, Jesus even goes farther.

In John in chapter 10 and verse 18, he says, I lay down my life.

I lay down my life that I may take it up again.

No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.

I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again.

I this command I received from my Father.

Jesus chose to die for his people.

He chose to obey the will of God to redeem a people for his glory, enduring the suffering that that would entail.

He chose to do it.

He wanted to redeem his people, even at the cost of his life.

You know, as I contemplate this verse, I'm reminded of the gospel writer Luke, the conversation that he records between Jesus and his disciples at the Last Supper.

He records a particular detail that the other writers don't include.

Luke records Jesus saying to his disciples, I have earnestly desired to share this meal with you before I suffer for you.

In fact, the language that Luke records Jesus using, I earnestly desired.

It's powerful, powerful language.

Epitumia, epitumesa.

It's this redundant expression.

It's almost like you could translate it.

It's a powerful word for desire that typically we translate lust.

We don't want to render it as lust in Luke 22 because we don't want to say Jesus was lusting.

So we render it earnestly desired, but you could translate it.

That is, Jesus is expressing urgent, powerful, deep longing to fulfill his father's will and redeem his people, even if it meant suffering.

He's not a reluctant savior.

That's the servant that's displayed for us in this text.

An obedient, suffering, saving servant.

But Isaiah does not stop there.

He's depicted for us an instructed servant in relationship with God, an obedient servant suffering for his people, but he ends with a victorious and vindicated servant.

That's the third thing we see in this text.

A vindicated servant.

Notice with me in verse 7.

Let's just read through this text, and what we see is that there's a trans uh a change in the focus from the servant's action to God's action.

Look at verse 7.

The Lord God helps me, therefore I have not been disgraced, therefore I've 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's my adversary?

Let him come near me.

Behold, the Lord God helps me.

Who will declare me guilty?

Behold, all of them will wear out like a garment, and a moth will eat them up.

You see the repetition at the beginning and end of this refrain.

The Lord helps me, and in verse 9, the Lord helps me.

We're focusing now on the Lord's action.

The Father and Son are one in their divine activity, but they play distinct roles.

The Son suffering and the Father vindicating the Son through his suffering.

But before we move on from this text, I want to point out a little bit of attention that ought to be in your mind as you read this.

See, we read verse 6 a moment ago.

And verse 6, if you notice, the end of that verse, the servant says, I hid not my face from disgrace.

He experienced disgrace.

But then verse 7 seems to reverse that.

But the Lord God helps me, verse 7, therefore I have not been disgraced.

I have been disgraced, I've not been disgraced.

Which is it?

I think it's helpful to remember what the Bible's even talking about when it uses a word like disgrace or shame is the way that may be translated in your English version.

Typically in American setting, American social setting, we think of shame as kind of a horizontal thing.

Shame is that alienation from your horizontal community when you do something that community considers to be shameful, bad, wrong.

You begin to experience this when you're a kid and you do something that your friends look down on, it's not cool, and you feel alienation from your friends, and it happens all the way through your life.

When you do something that your community does not accept, you feel shamed, isolated, alienated from them.

And the Bible sometimes uses the word shame to speak of this kind of social isolation.

But sometimes it uses the word shame not to speak of this horizontal alienation but of vertical alienation.

Sometimes it speaks of shame from God's perspective.

God, because he is holy and righteous by his very nature, looks upon anything that is wrong or evil and hates it.

There is a shame.

In a vertical sense, in which we do something that is evil or wrong in God's eyes because it violates his nature and law, and that alienates us from God.

I think that's what's being described here.

In verse 6, the servant willingly endures the shame of his people.

He takes upon himself those things that alienate them from God, that separate them from God, and he suffers for them and exhausts the wrath and the penalty that those wrongs deserve.

And out the other side of that, the Lord God vindicates him and removes the shame and removes the alienation and restores him to relationship and union.

He vindicates the Son through his suffering.

This is a servant who endured your shame, your alienation, and through it God vindicated him, declared him to be righteous, and restored him to union.

And that, of course, is summarized for us in Hebrews in chapter 12, verse 2, that says Jesus, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and then sat down at the right hand of the throne of God, where he reigns with all authority in heaven and on earth, in perfect union with his Father.

He's a vindicated servant.

And this is the servant that Isaiah displays for us.

Instructed, obedient, vindicated.

But verse 10 takes a turn.

And I want you to notice verse 10.

Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the voice of his servant?

How are you going to respond to this servant?

You've seen the picture.

How will you respond to it?

Is the question now.

Here's the way that the servant tells us we ought to respond.

Let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God.

That's the response is to trust in him, to rely on him, to embrace him, to hear his word, to hear the message about him, and believe it.

Now you might ask, I think you ought to ask, this text doesn't tell us anything about what happens to people who do trust in this servant, who do trust in the Lord.

But if you keep reading through the book of Isaiah, you do get a picture of what is in store for such people.

And so to close our time, I think it would be helpful to run forward in our Bibles a couple chapters to Isaiah and 54.

So flip ahead a couple of pages to Isaiah and chapter 54.

What you find in chapter 54 is a command, an urgent command for the whole creation to break into song because God's salvation in this vision, this prophetic vision, is finally being completed.

And what we see is that there are people who trusted in the Lord experiencing the blessings of the salvation the servant has bought for them.

We get a little snapshot of what's in store for those who trust the Lord.

So notice down in verse 4 of chapter 54.

Verse 4 reads, Fear not, for you will not be ashamed.

Do not be confounded, for you will not be disgraced.

That's it.

Because the servant endured our disgrace, endured our shame for us, all who trust in him have their shame removed, can be restored to fellowship with God, can be, as we'll see in verse 13.

So look there in verse 13.

Verse 13 reads, All your children shall be taught by the Lord, and great shall be the peace of your children.

Chapter 50, there was a singular individual who was instructed by the Lord, who knew the Lord's will, who was one with the Lord, who had perfect relationship and union with him.

But now this says, All those who trust in him will share in that union, will know God's will, will be brought into relationship with him.

And the vision concludes, verse 17.

Look down at your Bibles, verse 17.

No weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed.

You shall refute every tongue that rises against you in judgment.

This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, their vindication from me, declares the Lord.

All those who trust in this servant will be likewise vindicated with them.

As he came through his suffering and was vindicated and exalted by the Lord, so he will bring with him everyone who trusts in him.

Is this tied to Jesus?

And the answer is certainly yes.

And I think it would be helpful before we share in the Lord's table to look at that text.

So turn as we close to John chapter 6.

John 6 · chapter mention

John chapter 6 is, of course, the famous passage in which Jesus feeds the 5,000 miraculously with a few loaves.

John 6 · chapter mention

And after that miracle, a crowd of people begin to follow Jesus, asking for more bread, and Jesus tells them, You're seeking the wrong bread.

I am the bread of life.

I've come down from heaven, and everyone who believes in me will have eternal life, and I'll raise him up on the last day.

That sounds crazy.

And so this crowd of disciples and skeptics begin to grumble.

And we'll pick up the story in John chapter 6.

John 6 · chapter mention

Look at verse 41.

Verse 41 reads.

So the Jews grumbled about him because he said, I am the bread that came down from heaven.

They said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?

How does he now say, I've come down from heaven?

Jesus answered them, Do not grumble among yourselves, for no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day.

Now listen to this, verse 45.

It is written in the prophets, and they will all be taught by God.

That's Isaiah 54, 13 that we just read.

They will all have union and relationship with God.

And how will that happen?

Verse 45.

Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me.

That's how.

That salvation, a union with God Himself comes when you come to Jesus.

When you come to Jesus, you begin to experience a union with God that will culminate when Isaiah 54 is completed in our future.

When you come to Jesus, your disgrace, your shame, your alienation from God is removed.

Union with him is restored.

And we enjoy a foretaste of what's coming.

That's what we're here to celebrate this morning in the Lord's table.

Let's go before Him in prayer.

Father, we are in awe of the reality that this servant, who we know is the Lord Jesus, is exalted, has forever been exalted in a way we cannot fathom, perfectly united to you in will and work, and yet he emptied himself, taking on the form of a slave, even to the point of suffering and death on our behalf.

Lord, we're in awe of Christ.

And we ask now, as we share in the Lord's table, that you would open the eyes of our hearts afresh, to behold him anew, to love him and treasure him.

Lord, restore our faith, renew us, invigorate us, to love him and to follow him.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

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