The Servant of the Lord

We're looking at chapter 42. You can find the pages printed

for you there of the where you can find that in the red Bibles

and the chairs around you. We have jumped back into our

study of this incredible book of the Bible, Isaiah.

We are in kind of the last section of the book, chapters 40

through 66, and we've talked about how the tone of these

chapters is quite a bit different than the first part of

the book of Isaiah. There's still some comments here

addressing Israel's disobedience, but the focus is

much more on the hope that is to come for God's people as the

Lord sends his Messiah to rescue them and to redeem them.

And we've talked about the fact that in this last section of

Isaiah, Isaiah, through the work of the Holy Spirit is actually

talking and and proclaiming to those that were in exile, even

though that won't fully happen until after Isaiah is dead and

gone, pointing them to the hope that they are to have in the

Messiah. Today's passage we are going to

hear the first of what are usually referred to as the

servant songs, the pointing God's people to this wonderful

servant that is to come, and what that means for us God's

people. So listen as I read to you from

Isaiah chapter 42, beginning in verse one.

Isaiah 42 · chapter mention

Behold my Servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, and whom my

soul delights. I have put my spirit upon him.

He will bring forth justice to the nations.

He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice or make it heard in

the street. A bruised Reed He will not

break, and a faintly burning Wick he will not quench.

He will faithfully bring forth justice.

He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has

established justice in the earth and the coastlands wait for his

law. Thus says God the Lord, who

created the heavens and stretched them out to spread out

the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the

people on it, and spirit to those who walk in it.

I am the Lord. I have called you in

righteousness. I will take you by the hand and

keep you. I will give you as a covenant

for the people, a light for the nations to open the eyes that

are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from

the prison, those who sit in darkness.

I am the Lord, that is my name. My glory I give to no other, nor

my praise to carved idols. Behold, the former things have

come to pass, and new things I now declare.

Before they spring forth, I tell you of them.

Sing to the Lord a new song, His praise from the end of the

earth. You who go down to the sea and

all that fills at the coastlands and their inhabitants, let the

desert and its cities lift up their voice.

The villages that Qatar inhabits, let the inhabitants of

Sayla sing for joy. Let them shout from the top of

the mountains. Let them give glory to the Lord

and declare His praise. In the coastlands.

The Lord goes out like a mighty man, like a man of war.

He stirs up his zeal, He cries out, he shouts aloud, He shows

himself mighty against his foes. For a long time I have held my

peace. I have kept still and restrained

myself. Now I will cry out like a woman

in labor. I will gasp and pant.

I will lay waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their

vegetation. I will turn the rivers into

islands and dry up the pools, and I will lead the blind in a

way that they do not know, in paths that they have not known.

I will guide them. I will turn the darkness before

them into light, the rough places into level ground.

These are the things I do, and I do not forsake them.

They are turned back and utterly put to shame.

Who trust in carved idols, Who say to metal images You are our

gods, hear you deaf and look you blind that you may see?

Who is blind but my servant, or deaf as my messenger, whom I

send? Who is blind as my dedicated

one, or blind as the servants of the Lord?

He sees many things but does not observe them.

His ears are open, but he does not hear.

The Lord was pleased for His righteousness sake to magnify

His law and make it glorious. But this is a people plundered

and looted. They are all of them, trapped in

holes and hidden in prisons. They've become plunder with none

to rescue, spoil with none to say restore.

Who will? Who among you will give ear to

this? We'll attend and listen for the

time to come. Who gave up Jacob to the looter,

and Israel to the plunderers? Was it not the Lord against whom

we have sinned, and whose ways they would not walk, and whose

law they would not obey? So he poured out on him the heat

of his anger and the might of battle.

It set him on fire all around, but he did not understand.

It burned him up, but he did not take it to heart.

Let's pray together. Father in heaven, we pray that

the same Holy Spirit that was at work in Isaiah, bringing him

along to pen the words that we've just read, the same Holy

Spirit who has preserved Your word over these many, many

years. We pray for that Holy Spirit to

be at work in US right now in this room.

In these moments, even as we read your word, help us to

understand it. Give us an understanding that

moves us to a greater love for you and a greater desire to

serve and to obey you. This we ask in Jesus name, Amen.

Every Sunday that you come and walk into our sanctuary, you

walk past, you walk through the beautiful art display that's in

the foyer. The Vessels of Grace display was

created by our own Eric Van Wyk using some of his father's

pottery with woodwork done by Randy Kennick.

It serves us in a number of ways, but one of the ways is by

reminding us of who we are. We are like fragile pottery.

We are like jars of clay, full of cracks, broken pieces.

We are imperfect and broken. It also reminds us about God's

work in US, that through Christ we are made whole, that our

cracks and our broken pieces are filled with God's grace and

power and goodness. As we come into the sanctuary,

we see those pieces. It reminds us that God cares for

us. He tends to us.

He restores us and redeems us. We are vessels of God's grace.

It also reminds us of what we read in verse 3, a bruised Reed

he will not break, and a faintly burning Wick he will not quench.

Every time that you see the vessels of grace project in the

foyer, every time that you pass through it on your way into the

sanctuary, it should fill you with incredible hope because it

reminds you of who you are, and it reminds you of God's work in

US. Ultimately, it reminds us of the

great servant that the Lord sent to redeem us, to fill us with

his grace and love. Now, it is true that we are

different than the people that Isaiah was writing to then.

These words that we've read, we are not in exile in some foreign

place under God's judgment. We're not waiting for this

promised Messiah, this promised servant to come for the first

time. But we do have many things in

common with the people that read these words, heard these words

for the first time. We, we are waiting for the

Servant to come, not the first time, but the second time at the

end of time. And we are waiting now in a

place that is not our ultimate and final home.

We are foreigners. We are pilgrims and exiles in

this place. And just as God's people that

Isaiah wrote to needed hope and reminders of God's grace as they

waited, as they waited to be rescued and restored and

redeemed, so too God's people today waiting for the return of

the Servant need to be filled with hope and strength and

reminded of God's grace and God's love.

So let's take a few moments and look at Isaiah 42 and see

several of the things that are are given to us about this

promised servant. Let's look and see who he is,

what he does, why he had to do it, and what the right response

to him is. Then we'll finish by asking, So

what with some take homes for us.

So first of all, who is the servant?

Well, if you know the book of Isaiah, then you know that in

just a few chapters we are going to hear about this man named

Cyrus and he is called a servant of the Lord.

It would be, he would be the means by which God's people

would be released from exile. Cyrus would be the king of

Persia, and he would send a decree out for the people to go

back to the promised land. But as we're reading here in

chapter 42 about the servant to come, we know that this servant

being described here in chapter 42 is not Cyrus, who will be

called a servant in a few more chapters.

Cyrus's character and achievements are very different

from the servant who is described here in chapter 42.

It's also the case that Israel and Judah as nations are

referred to as the Lord's servants as well.

In fact, we'll see that that's is what they are called at the

end of our verses for today in chapter 42.

But we also know that there's a clear description here of this

servant that is very different from Israel and Judah as a

nation. Just look and see how this

servant is described. First one, he is upheld by the

Lord. He is in the grip of the Lord.

He is sustained by the Lord. Also in verse one, we're told

that he is the chosen one of the Lord.

The Hebrew word that is used there for chosen 1 is used in

the Old Testament exclusively for being in a relationship with

the Lord God Almighty. Again, in verse one we see that

the Lord delights in this servant.

It is the delight of the Lord's soul.

Again, in verse one, the spirit of the Lord is upon him.

And at the end of verse one, we see that he's given a mission

which we'll come back to in just a minute.

Verse 2:00 we we are told that the servant will not, will, will

not come with great fanfare and parades.

He will come quietly and humbly and modestly.

Verse three, He will come not to destroy, but to save and to

preserve. He he comes with a caring

concern for the vulnerable and those who are in need.

Verse 4, the servant will never grow tired, will never become

weary. He won't get discouraged.

And then at the end of verse 6, we have this wonderful word that

the servant will be a covenant for the people.

That in this servant will be the essence of the covenant

relationship between God and His people.

This servant would be the fulfillment of the covenant.

He is the one who fulfills the covenant.

He will be the one through whom the Lord will secure redemption

of His people as He had promised, all the way back to

Adam and Eve and Noah and Abraham and Moses and David.

And in verses 5 through 9, we read that the servants will have

the full support of the Lord God Almighty, the Creator of the

heavens and earth. We read Yahweh Himself will take

and keep this servant. Yahweh, the one whose glory is

given to no one else, will be at work in and through this servant

to accomplish His purposes, to bring to pass new things, things

that will spring forth. This servant has the support and

the backing and the power of the Lord God Almighty.

There's no question who this servant is.

This servant is the ultimate and greatest servant that is Jesus.

In fact, the way that verse one begins is probably meant to

point us to Jesus's baptism in Matthew chapter 3.

Matthew 3 · chapter mention

As the Father put the Holy Spirit on the Son, so here the

Spirit of the Lord is put upon this servant.

And in verses one through three, they are quoted in Matthew

Matthew 12 · chapter mention

chapter 12, specifically being applied to Jesus, the ultimate

and the greatest servant that is prophesied by Isaiah in the 8th

century BC. He's pointing to no one less

than Jesus, the Lord Jesus Christ.

And what does this servant do? The servant of the Lord is given

a mission. The mission is mentioned three

times in the 1st 4 verses. The end of verse 1.

He will bring forth justice to the nations.

The end of verse three He will be He will faithfully bring

forth justice. The end of verse 4.

Till He has established justice in the earth and the coastlands,

wait for His law. This servant had a mission.

He was coming to bring justice, and not just for God's people,

but for the nation's, a global justice.

Now certainly it's referring to bringing fairness and

impartiality and the restoration of wrongdoing.

All, all the things that we think about when we hear the

word justice. But the Hebrew word here has a

greater breadth of meaning than just impartiality and fairness.

This word in the Hebrew Misha, it occurs 30 times in Psalm 119,

and if you know anything about Psalm 119, it is all about God's

word 30 times. In that Psalm we hear the Hebrew

word for justice. It occurs 20 times in the book

of Deuteronomy, which is the book about the law of God.

We even see justice and law being juxtaposed together at the

end of verse 4 in our passage here.

So this servant is coming to bring justice, but it is not

just fairness and impartiality. He is coming to bring God's

Word, God's decrees, God's law to the nations.

He will establish the Word of God among all peoples.

He will bring justice and equity and fairness.

He will make all things wrong right.

He will bring righteousness and he will declare and establish

the word of God for all. That's part of his mission.

But you can see another part of his mission in verse 7.

He's coming to open the eyes that are blind to bring out the

prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison, those who sit in

darkness. This is also part of the mission

of the servant. He is coming to open the eyes of

the blind, to bring prisoners out from the dungeon, those who

sit in prisons that are full of darkness.

This is clearly a reference to work, to the work of Jesus and

opening the eyes of those who can't see to see who he really

is. That he is fully God and fully

man. That he is the ultimate prophet,

priest and king. That he is the King of kings and

the Lord of Lords. That he is the long promised

Messiah, the one who came to crush the serpent.

Jesus came to free people from their slavery and their bondage

to sin, to release them from the dark prisons of their sin and

idolatry and disobedience and unrighteousness.

And we know from the teachings of the New Testament that He did

all of that through His life and death and resurrection, through

His life of perfect love and obedience to His Father, Through

His willing and voluntary death on the cross as a sacrifice,

Through taking our sin and God's wrath for our sin on Himself and

paying for it all through His death, crediting us with His

perfect righteousness that we could never earn for ourselves.

He opens our eyes. He opens our ears.

He rescues us from the dungeon of darkness that is our sin and

is our heart. This is what the servant of the

Lord does and did. But notice why the servant needs

to do this. You can see that in verses 18

through 25, Isaiah points out why the servant had to do this

work, why he was sent on this mission.

Now it's interesting because in these last verses of chapter 42,

a servant is mentioned again. But as you read the whole

passage of verses 18 through 25, you see that he's now changed

from this ultimate servant that he's described for us in verses

one through 9. And now he's talking about his

servants in terms of the nation of Israel and Judah.

He refers to them as such throughout the passage.

It's clearly a different servant.

This servant isn't able to open the eyes of the blind or to give

hearing to the deaf because they themselves are blind and deaf.

They need to be given hearing and sight.

Verse 20. They have seen many things.

He says The Lord has revealed Himself to them through his

word, through his miracles, by rescuing them from Egypt, by

giving them the promised land, by preserving them from the

nations who wanted to destroy them.

They've seen many things, he says, but they haven't observed

them. They haven't truly taken them in

and believed and been changed by what they've seen.

God's people that Isaiah is writing to, he says, have been

plundered and looted. In verse 22, they're trapped in

holes, they're hidden in prisons, they are in need of

rescuing and restoration. Verse 24 the Lord gave his

people up to be conquered and taken into exile because of

their sin, because of not walking in the ways of the Lord,

because of not obeying the the word of God.

Verse 25 the Lord pours out the heat of his anger and the might

of his battle upon his people. And even then, he says they

didn't get it and they didn't take it to heart.

This is why the servant had to come.

This is why he needed to be sent with the mission that he had,

because God's people then were blind and deaf to the beauty and

the goodness and the faithfulness and the grace and

the love and the holiness of God.

But that's not just true for the people that Isaiah was writing

to. The servant needed to come and

accomplish his mission because God's people today, God's people

in this room are blind and deaf to the Word of God, to His law,

His beauty, goodness, faithfulness, grace, His love,

His Holiness, because we do the things that He tells us not to

do, and we fail to do the things that He commands us to do.

Because we don't love the Lord God Almighty with all of our

hearts, strength and mind, and we don't love our neighbors as

ourselves because we haven't kept the 10 commandments

outwardly in our actions and especially not inwardly in our

hearts. This ultimate Savior or servant

of the Lord, the Lord Jesus himself, He had to become.

He had to come on His mission because of our sin, because of

your sin, because of my sin. This is how personal it is.

You can imagine Jesus hanging on the cross, enduring the wrath

and the judgement of the Father, feeling forsaken by His Father

for your specific sins, for my specific sins.

He knows us by name. He knows our sin by name, and He

endured the wrath and the judgment and the justice of God,

and He suffered as the ultimate servant for you and for me.

That leads us to reflect on what the right and proper response to

the Servant is as we meditate on who He is and we meditate on

what He has accomplished and why He had to accomplish it.

Not just for people so long ago that were blind and deaf, but

for the people in this room that are blind and deaf.

As we meditate on that Servant, what is the right response?

Well, how does Isaiah respond? Verses one through 9, he talks

about the Servant, who He is and what he does.

And then what does Isaiah do as we move to to verse 10?

Sing to the Lord a new song. He says his praise from the end

of the earth. You who go down to the sea and

all that fills at the coastlands and their inhabitants.

Let the desert and its cities lift up their voice.

The villages that Kedar inhabits.

Let the inhabitants of Sayla sing for joy.

Let them shout from the top of the mountains.

Let them give glory to the Lord. Declare his praise in the

coastlands. What's the right, what's the

proper, what's the necessary response to the servant?

It is the praise and the worship of the Lord.

It is to sing Him a new song that we would be that people

should be brought to Him from the ends of the earth and fill

up their voices and sing for joy to to shout from the mountain

tops the praise of our God and give glory to the Lord,

declaring His praise to the uttermost, uttermost parts of

creation. Is that what the coming of the

servant makes you do? Is that the response to the

servants of the Lord and His work for you?

Our worship with God's people on the Lord's Day or whenever we

worship it should never be dry and dusty and boring.

We we should never think of it that way.

As we pass through the vessels of grace and we enter into the

sanctuary of the Lord, as we assemble with brothers and

sisters in Christ, as we remember who we are and we

remember what the Lord has accomplished for us and in us

through His servant, we should be moved in our hearts and our

minds and our spirits and our bodies to praise and to worship

and to glorify the Lord. Our worship of the Lord should

flow out of our relationship with the Lord.

And it should be a living, heartfelt devotional singing of

a new song, shouting from the mountaintops, the praise of our

God. If that's not your heart, then

it probably means that we aren't really reflecting and meditating

on this Servant, who He is and what He's accomplished and why

He had to accomplish it. If that's not us, we need to

come back to the Scriptures, places like Isaiah 42, and be

reminded of this wonderful Servant once again, How much the

Lord loves us. So what?

Let's finish with a few applications.

The first is simply this question.

Do you know the Servant? Do you know the servant?

Maybe you're here today and you know that you don't really know

him. You may know about him, but you

don't really know him. If that's glad, if that's you,

we're glad that you're here with us today.

We are glad that you are hearing the Word of God and having a

chance to reflect on it, hearing about Jesus, who he is and what

he did and and what he is doing. But don't stop there.

Pray to the Lord and ask him to open your eyes and your ears to

see and to hear the servant, the Lord Jesus.

Talk to God's people that are here.

Talk to one of the elders, talk to one of the pastors.

Get to know the ultimate servant.

Believe in Him, put your hope and trust in Him.

Start a relationship with Him. Do you know the Servant?

Secondly, we must hope in the sovereign work of the Servant.

I thought Isaiah tells us plainly and clearly that this

Servant, the Lord Jesus, is fully capable of opening the

eyes of the blind, opening the ears of the deaf.

Many of us have loved ones, family members, friends, Co

workers who don't know and believe in Jesus.

Some of us have family members and friends who have walked away

from Jesus, who've walked away from the church.

We're not following Jesus who are living lives like the

prodigal in Luke's gospel. Don't lose hope.

The servant Jesus opens the eyes of the blind and the ears of the

deaf. Deaf.

There is no heart that is so hardened that the servant Jesus

can't melt it with his love and His grace.

Do not lose hope. Don't stop praying and crying

out to the Lord for him to be at work and your friends and family

and loved ones. But there's another reason why

we must hope in the sovereign work of the servant.

It's because a bruised Reed He will not break.

A faintly burning Wick He will not quench.

Some of us find ourselves in seasons when we feel like a

bruised Reed, when we feel like a faintly burning Wick.

We feel fragile and easily broken, easily snuffed out,

vulnerable, at a loss. Don't lose hope.

The servant doesn't break bruised reeds.

The servant doesn't quench faintly burning Wicks.

Our servant cares for us and serves us and restores us and

strengthens us and motivates us. Don't lose hope.

Hope in the sovereign work of the servant.

Thirdly, the leaders of the Church should follow the model

of the servant. The leaders of the church should

take away something from the description that we have of this

servant, the one who ultimately and perfectly serves his people.

The the servants and the shepherds of the church should

learn from the model of the greater and the ultimate servant

and shepherd. How has he been described for us

in this chapter? Well, he's not loud and

bothersome. He doesn't put the spotlight on

himself. He serves quietly and humbly.

He seeks to bring forth justice in the full meaning of that

word, not just for God's people, but for the nations he serves

with fairness and equity and impartiality.

And he brings the Word of God to the people.

He has gentle and kind care for those that he serves, not

breaking or quenching them. He doesn't grow weary in the

work that God gives him to do, and he doesn't get discouraged.

He opens the eyes of the blind and leads prisoners that are

stuck in the dark dungeons into freedom and light.

Now this is the ultimate servant Jesus.

He does all of those things and is all of those things

perfectly. The leaders and the servants of

the church will never do or be those things perfectly, but it

is a good model for us what we should strive to be like.

What we should strive to do is we serve the people of the

church. What are the descriptions of

this ultimate servant, his, his being and his doing that you

need to work on as a leader in the church?

Fourthly and lastly, do you have a care for the nations?

It's clear from Isaiah 42 that the Lord, this, the servant have

a concern for the nations. We see that concern throughout

the Old Testament and we see it even more clearly and boldly in

the New Testament, especially in the life and the ministry of

Jesus. Think about the Great Commission

that he gave to his disciples. He said go there for and make

disciples of all nations. That was the Lord's calling, not

just on his disciples in the 1st century.

That is the Lord's calling on his disciples in every

generation. It's Our Calling as God's

disciples today. We need to have a concern and a

care for the nations. What are some ways that you can

strengthen your care for the nations?

Well, you know, one of the things you could do very easily

is come to our monthly prayer meeting.

We, we spend an hour once a month praying for the people

that are going to the nations, the people that are taking the

gospel to the nations. You could come to the prayer

meeting. That's one way you could

strengthen your concern for the nations.

You could get on the newsletter lists of the missionaries and

the ministries that we support as a church so that you could be

hearing about the, the prayer request that they have and you

could be lifting those things before the throne of mercy on

their behalf. You could join our global

outreach committee or our local outreach committee.

You could attend the Global Outreach Conference that's

coming up in a few weeks. You could become a financial

partner with someone that is taking God's Word to the

nations. You could go visit some of the

missionaries that we support or join, join in on a missions trip

to go and to serve with people who are taking the gospel to the

nations. You could go out to Crow Creek,

the nation of the Lakota and Dakota people, and take the

gospel to the nations. Do what you can to strengthen

your concern for the nations because our God has a concern

for the nations. Our servant, the Lord Jesus has

a concern for the nations, so God's people should have a

concern for the nations as well. Let's pray together.