The Faithfulness of the Servant and the Trust of the Believer

Invite you to take your Bibles and turn with me to the Old

Testament book of Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 50.

Isaiah 50 · chapter mention

I believe that's on page 611. If you're using the red Bibles

and the chairs around you, if you haven't been at Trinity very

long, then you probably don't know this, that we've been

working our way through the book of Isaiah.

We took a pause in November as we went through Advent, and then

we've had some guests, preachers, but we're picking up

where we left off. We finished Isaiah 49 in

November. And so today we're going to be

looking at Isaiah chapter 50. Invite you to read along as I

Isaiah 50 · chapter mention

read this to you, read you God's Word.

Thus says the Lord. Where is your mother's

certificate of divorce, with which I sent her away, Or which

of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you?

Behold, for your iniquities you were sold, and for your

transgressions your mother was sent away.

Why, when I came, was there no man?

Why, when I called, was there no one to answer?

Is my hand shortened that it cannot redeem, or have I no

power to deliver? Behold, by my rebuke I dry up

the sea, I make the rivers a desert.

Their fish stink for lack of water and die of thirst.

I clothe the heavens with blackness and make sackcloth

their covering. 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 morning by morning he awakens.

He awakens. My ear to hear is those who are

taught. The Lord God has opened my ear,

and I was not rebellious. I turned not backward.

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. But the Lord God 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 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. Who among you fears the Lord and

obeys the voice of the servant? Let him who walks in darkness

and has no light, trust in the name of the Lord 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.

Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for your

word, for giving it to us. We pray that as we read it and

as we reflect on it, that through the work of your Holy

Spirit, you would open our eyes to see what you want us to see.

That you would teach us what you want to teach us.

But above all, Father, we pray that you would change us through

your word, through the work of the Holy Spirit, for we ask it

in Jesus name, Amen. What's the difference between

cheap grace and costly grace? What's the difference between

cheap grace of God and costly grace of God?

Cheap grace as God loves his people, but at no cost to

himself. Costly grace is that God loves

his people at a great cost, at the greatest cost to Himself.

Jesus came into this world as the ultimate servant, and he

suffered and he gave everything for his people, even his own

very life. This is one of the great truths

that we see here from Isaiah 50 today.

And as we meditate on God's costly grace, how it cost him

everything, we should be moved to love him more deeply and to

trust him more faithfully and to rely on him more, more

consistently. That's what Isaiah 50 tells us

today. To get there, let's look at the

passage and let's consider three things, the continued rebellion

of God's people, the faithfulness of the servants of

the Lord, and the call to trust and obey.

And then let's ask, So what? What does this mean for us

today? Now before we jump into the

passage for today, it's been a little while since we finished

Isaiah 49. It was on November the 23rd.

Let's remind ourselves of some of the background, some of the

context of this book. We're told that it was written

by a man named Isaiah. We don't know much about him.

We're told that he was the son of Amos.

We don't know anything about Amos.

We're told that he was married and had children, and he

ministered in the second-half of the 8th century BC, probably

starting his ministry around the seven 40s or seven 30s BC, and

he prophesied for some 40 or 50 years.

The Kingdom of Israel had split. At that point.

There was a northern Kingdom named Israel in a southern

Kingdom named Judah, and Isaiah lived and ministered in the

southern Kingdom of Judah. He also addressed the northern

Kingdom of Israel, and he also addressed the nations around

Israel and Judah. He was a contemporary with the

prophet Hosea who also ministered in Judah.

Isaiah's Hebrew is beautiful and complex.

There's poetry, alliteration, metaphors, analogy, word play,

and the section that we're in now, chapters 40 through 66 is

some of the most beautiful poetry in all of Scripture or

maybe anywhere. We also know why Isaiah was

called the prophecy as the book began.

You may remember we we read of of a court scene, a courtroom

scene. A jury is called to assemble.

Charges are laid. God's people have rebelled

against the Lord and broken the covenant, covenant relationship.

Their, their religion is heartless.

Their worship is empty ritual. There's a lack of justice and

care for the poor and the oppressed, and they worship

idols. A verdict is announced, they are

guilty and a sentence is given. Judgment is coming.

For the northern Kingdom of Israel, they were would be

conquered and taken into exile by Assyria.

And 7:22 for the southern Kingdom of Judah, they would be

conquered and taken into exile by Babylon in 586.

Throughout the beginning part of the book, in chapters one

through 39, it's filled with all of these woes and judgements to

God's people. Judgement is coming.

But even in the midst of all of the judgement we read in the

first part of Isaiah, there are words of hope that are sprinkled

in. Ultimately, God would not

abandon His people. He would not leave them or

forsake them forever. If there is no repentance on the

part of the people, if they don't turn back to the Lord,

then yes, judgement is coming and they would be taken into

exile. But the Lord would bring his

people back, He would preserve a remnant of his people, and

ultimately he would send the great servant Messiah to save

his people from their sins. As we have transitioned to the

last half of the book of Isaiah, Isaiah is primarily addressing

in these chapters a future Judah, those who were in exile

in Babylon. And what we've seen and what we

will continue to see is the movement is from condemnation

and judgment to a focus on hope and comfort for the people of

God. There is great news about a

promised Servant who was to come, who would suffer, but who

would rescue and redeem God's people.

These servant songs that we're looking at here in Isaiah point

us to a greater and an ultimate and a better servant that was to

come, ultimately being fulfilled in Christ.

Our chapter today, chapter 50, contains the third of the

servants songs, but notice how it starts.

It starts with the continued rebellion of God's people.

You can see that in verses one through three.

You may remember from when we looked at Isaiah 49, God's

people in exile in Babylon felt and thought that God had left

them, that God had abandoned them, and even though the Lord

reminded them again and again of His promise of redemption, they

believed that they were forsaken.

The Lord insisted to them that that was not the case, that He

was faithful to His promises and He indeed would rescue and

redeem His people. But Judah didn't believe it.

So as we come to chapter 50, verse one, we see that God gives

them proof. He gave them two illustrations

here in verse one to prove his point.

He's not abandoned his people. He has not forsaken his people.

The first illustration in verse one was from divorce.

In Deuteronomy chapter 24, instructions are given for a man

Deuteronomy 24 · chapter mention

if he divorces his wife, he was required to issue a certificate

of divorce. That's how it was ratified.

That's what made it official. And here in Isaiah 50, beginning

in verse one, it's as if God is saying, if you think that I've

divorced you, if you think that I have left you, that I have

abandoned you, where is your certificate of divorce?

You don't have one because it doesn't exist.

You are still my beloved bride. The the second illustration is

someone who is in debt to another and they are put into

servitude to them to pay off their debt and the Lord asks

which creditor have you been sold to?

You can't tell me because there isn't 1.

You haven't been abandoned into eternal servitude.

They're in exile not because God abandoned them.

But notice he does tell them why they're in exile.

The end of verse one. It was because of their

iniquities. It was because of their

transgressions. That's what caused them to go

into exile, not because God abandoned them.

The word here for iniquities has the sense of the inner sinful

hearts, and the word transgressions has the sense of

outward willful disobedience. It was because of their sinful

hearts and their sinful actions that they are in exile, not

because God has abandoned them. And in verses 2 and three, God

goes on to say, I am completely capable.

I am completely able to rescue and to redeem you.

The Lord is powerful enough. The Lord is sovereign to save

his people. His his arm is not too short to

save his people. And so he asks at the beginning

of verse 2. So why don't you respond when I

call out? Why do none of you respond

literally? He says.

No one answers the call. That's a dramatic contrast with

what comes next. The faithfulness of the servant

of the Lord could see that in verses 4 through 9.

These these verses 4 through 9 are considered considered the

third of the the servant songs in Isaiah.

We have one more servant song coming in chapters 52 and 53.

Now the the servant here is not identified until we get to verse

10, but there we're told that these words here that are being

spoken are being spoken by the servant of the Lord.

We've seen several times in these servant songs that the

servant of the Lord can have an immediate human reference.

King Cyrus was referred to as a servant of the Lord.

He was the one who would release people from Babylon to go back

to the promised land. But we have seen over and over

again in these servant songs that they always have a larger,

bigger reference. They always point us to a

coming, greater and and better and ultimate servant who will

come and redeem His people. You can see that as we look at

the description of the servant here in verses 4 through 6.

First of all, notice how this servant refers to the Lord 4

times. He calls him the Lord God.

You see it in verse 4, verse 5, verse 7 and verse 9.

That can be translated as the sovereign Lord, and it has the

sense of the closest possible relationship between the

servants and God. It also has the sense of

absolute certainty of success in the mission of the servant.

And in verse 4, we, in contrast to the people of Judah who do

not answer the call of the Lord, hear the servant is faithful.

He is the faithful mouthpiece of the Lord.

Each morning we're told the Lord speaks to him and gives him the

message that is to be proclaimed.

And the servant faithfully listens.

Notice his words. He speaks the Lord's words as a

gentle counsellor to the weary. He says the servant is caring

and compassionate. Verse 5 we're told that the

servant listens to the Lord his his ears are open to hear.

He does not rebel. He does not turn back from the

Lord. Again in dramatic contrast to

God's people in exile who didn't open their ears, who didn't

listen to the Lord, who did rebel and turn away from the

Lord. This servant is faithful to the

Lord in all the ways that God's people have failed to do so.

Verse 6 For we see the servant described as one who would

endure great suffering. We're told he would be stricken,

his beard ripped from his cheeks.

Now that certainly would be painful, but it's also a sign of

disgrace and shame. And notice the Servant wouldn't

shirk back from the suffering. He he embraces it as part of his

calling and his mission. He he gave his back to those who

would strike him, His cheeks to those who would pull his beard

out. He would not hide his face from

disgrace. He would not hide from people

spitting on him, but would faithfully endure suffering.

That's the description of the Servants.

And notice that we're also told how he was able to endure such

suffering. You can see it in verses 7

through 9. Verse 7.

He trusted in the Lord who helps him.

He knew that he was not disgraced or forsaken.

He knew he was not put to shame as if the Lord had abandoned

him. He was able, we are told, to set

his face like Flint to stay focused on his mission.

He was driven to accomplish the purpose for which he was called.

He was able to endure the suffering, as we read in verses

8:00 and 9:00, because he knows the Lord is near to him.

The Lord will vindicate the servants, he says.

Who will contend with the Lord's servant?

Who would be his adversary? Who would call him guilty?

The Lord God is his helper. The Lord God would vindicate the

servants. All those who oppose the

servant, we read, will be worn out like old garments, eaten up

like moths. Eat clothes the servant loves

that serves and loves the Lord faithful.

He even endures incredible suffering and shame.

And he's able to do so because the Lord is faithful and

strengthens His servant and vindicates his servant and

defeats the enemies of His servant.

Then notice how the chapter ends in verses 10 and 11.

It's a call, call to trust and obey the Lord.

Look at verses 10 and 11. Who among you fears the Lord and

obeys the voice of His servant? Let him who walks in darkness

and has no light, trust in the name of the Lord 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.

You hear the call. The call is to trust, to fear

the Lord, and to obey the voice of the servant.

Notice we're told here there are only two kinds of people.

The first kind of people are described at the end of verse

10. These are people who walk in the

darkness of this world and don't have any light of their own.

But even in the midst of the uncertainty and maybe even the

fear of the darkness, they trust in the name of the Lord and rely

on God. And notice they trust on the

name of the Lord. And in your Bibles, there the

Lord is in all capital letters. They trust in Yahweh.

They trust in the covenant, keeping promise, keeping God.

They don't look to other things to give them meaning.

They don't. They don't look to other things

to bring light into their lives. They trust and they rely on God.

The second kind of people are described in verse 11.

Rather than trusting and relying on the Lord to protect and

sustain them in the darkness of the world, they kindle their own

fires. They walk by the light of their

own torches. They look to their own devices

and self-sufficiency to bring light into their darkness,

rather than trusting and relying on the lights of God's truth and

grace. And notice we're told what the

end of that second kind of people is.

Again in verse 11, the Lord's hand will bring judgment on

them. We're told they will lie down in

torment where there has the sense of grief and displeasure

and pain, the pains of sin under God's curse for not following

the Lord. So what do we do with this

passage today? What does this mean for us?

Well, first of all, it means we should love the servants.

We should love the servants. I said earlier in the Servant

that the Servant songs in Isaiah point us to a greater, better,

ultimate Servant and ultimately to Jesus.

But don't just take my word for it.

Matthew chapter 12. Matthew specifically says that

Matthew 12 · chapter mention

Jesus is the fulfillment of the Servant song in Isaiah 42 and in

Acts chapter 8 we read the story about the Ethiopian eunuch who

Acts 8 · chapter mention

had the Bible opened and he was reading from Isaiah 53, the

servant song in Isaiah 53. And Philip comes by and he stops

Philip and he asks who is this talking about?

And Philip says this is about Jesus.

You can also just see how this points to Christ by considering

the description of this servant here in verses 4 through 6.

He he's in deep, close relationship with the Lord.

The Lord gives him his word that The servant listens to the word,

he hears it, he speaks it. Think of all the times that

Jesus spoke the word of the Lord.

How many times did he say it is written?

The servant ministers to the weary.

The heavy laden sounds much like our.

Assurance of grace earlier in the service.

Jesus says, come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden,

and I will give you rest. The servant is a gentle

counsellor, compassionate and caring to the hurting, to the

weary, to the worn down. He's faithful in his calling.

He does not rebel. He does not turn away from the

Lord, but he faithfully serves. He endures incredible suffering.

He is stricken and spit on and disgraced and shamed, but he

doesn't turn away from it. He embraces it as part of his

mission, and he is faithful in the midst of the suffering.

That may remind you of Luke chapter 24.

Luke 24 · chapter mention

After Jesus's resurrection, he was walking on the road to

Emmaus, and he came across two men who didn't recognize who he

was. And eventually Jesus revealed

himself to him and he said, didn't you know, I had to come

and suffer, to go to the cross and be crucified and killed.

The servant, the servant of the Lord is ultimately Jesus.

And the more brothers and sisters in Christ, the more that

we see the beauty of the story of Scripture, the story of our

suffering servant Jesus. The more that we see all that he

endured for us, all that he experienced so that we never

will have to, The more that we see how he took on the wrath and

the judgment and the justice of God that was poured out on him

so that we would never have to face it, the more we should be

moved to love our servant Jesus, the more that we become

saturated with the story of the gospel and God's grace to us,

the more we should be moved to love our servant Jesus.

Do you love Jesus? Oh, never perfectly, always in

flawed ways. But do you genuinely love the

servant Jesus? If we do love Him, then

secondly, we should obey the voice of the servant.

That's what it says at the beginning of verse 8.

Obey the voice. The beginning of verse 10.

Excuse me, to obey the voice of the servant.

We can obey the voice of the servant a couple ways.

First, we can obey the voice of the servant by living like he

lived, by following his model, having the heart of a gentle

counsellor, seeking to love and to serve the weary, speaking the

comfort of God's Word and the comfort of the gospel to those

who are weary and worn out and are hurting.

Are we people like that? Do we care for the hurting and

the weary, those needing help? Do we?

Do we see people like that? Do we look for them?

Do we move toward them with gentle, caring compassion?

Jesus did. Jesus does.

We can obey his voice by seeking to live like he did.

But remember, his model wasn't only a gentle compassion for the

weary. The servant also lived with

unmoving focus. We're told the servant didn't

turn back from the Lord. He didn't draw back.

He didn't run away. But he set his face like a Flint

toward faithfully following the Lord.

He trusted the Lord with His vindication.

His His identity is so firmly focused in the Lord that he

could be resolute and unmoving and focused even in the midst of

incredible suffering. Thankfully, we are not called to

go through the kind of suffering that our Savior went through,

but we can still obey His voice by having our identity so

anchored in the Lord that when we are called to go through

seasons of difficulty and challenges and suffering and

even possibly persecution, that we won't turn back.

That we will trust in the Lord as our vindicator, That He will

give us the strength to persevere.

So we can obey the voice of the servant by following His model

of living in life, being gentle, compassionate, caring people for

the weary and those in need, having our identity so anchored

in the Lord that there's an unmoving resoluteness in the

midst of the storms of life. But we can also obey the voice

of our servant by literally listening to what he tells us.

How does our servant Jesus speak to us today?

Through the Word of God. That's how we hear the voice of

our servants, the voice of servant Jesus.

It's through the Word of God. Think.

Think of how much Jesus immersed himself in the Word of God.

Think of all the times that he quoted from the Scriptures.

He quoted from at least 24 of the 39 books of the Old

Testament. Think of how many times he used

the Scripture to argue with his opponents.

Every time he was tempted by Satan in the wilderness he

responded with it is written, it is written, it is written in

Matthew chapter 5, Jesus in Jesus sermon on the mount, he

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

says not an iota, not a dot will pass away from the word of God.

The iota is the smallest of Greek.

The Greek letters A dot or a jot or a tiddle was the smallest

part of a letter. Jesus was immersed in God's

word. He used it in his ministry.

He used to argue with the used to argue with the religious

leaders. He used it in moments when he

was suffering. Brothers and sisters in Christ,

how much more so should we immerse ourselves in the Word of

God? This is how our servant Jesus

speaks to us. It's how we can hear Him and and

and obey His voice. Are we immersing ourself in the

Word of God? It's how we can listen and obey.

Obey the voice of our servants. Lastly, we should trust and rely

on the Lord. That was the call at the end of

verse 10. Trust the Lord, Trust Yahweh,

our faithful covenant, keeping promise, keeping God, and rely

on the Lord rather than living in the midst of darkness of this

world and seeking out our own devices and our self-sufficiency

and a light supply from the world.

We are called to live in the darkness of this world, trusting

the Lord and relying on God, His light of truth and grace.

That's true for us if the darkness that we go through is

of our own doing, if the darkness is because of our own

sin that we have produced in our own lives.

In the midst of that kind of darkness, we are to trust that

the Lord in His ways are better than our sin, to trust that the

how the Lord says I should live is better than how I think or

want to live, and to trust Him and rely on Him.

But it's also true if the darkness that we experience is

because of the sinfulness and the fallenness of this world

that we live in. When we look around and we see

the darkness of injustice, we see such a lack of concern for

the sanctity of human life from conception to the grave.

When we hear of wars and rumours of wars.

When we see the political unrest and violence.

When we hear of Christian brothers and sisters around the

world who are enduring incredible persecution and

suffering. When we see what is right and

true being called wrong and not true, in the midst of the

darkness of this fallen, sinful world, we must not despair or be

undone or lose hope. We are to trust and rely on the

Lord, the One who the servants in Isaiah 50 called the Lord

God, the Sovereign Almighty. He is on the throne, He is

sovereign, He is in control, and He is working all things for His

purposes. He will shine His light of truth

and grace into the darkness of our lives and the darkness of

this world. So let's trust and rely on the

Lord. Let's pray together.

Father, we thank You for the beauty of Your Word, how You

have woven the story of Your pursuit of Your people, our

redemption, the history of our salvation throughout it, even in

a little place like Isaiah 50, where we see the promise of this

ultimate servant that's coming, and that has now come and it's

coming again. Father, we do pray that You,

through your Holy Spirit, we take Your Word and form and

shape us into the people of Your delight.

Make us more and more the people that you want us to be, that we

might serve you faithfully and well.

Draw us into even deeper fellowship with yourself, Deepen

our understanding of the gospel, deepen our understanding of your

love for us, and so spur us on to greater good work, good

works. All this we ask in Jesus name,

Amen.