Well, if you have your Bibles turned to Isaiah 42 It's very good to be back with you it's always a It's always really a joy to spend time with Scott. I think that What he just said about our Lord we really do see in Scott a real happiness Want to see it in my own soul more? In 1995 I Was finishing my last year of my master's degree and I had just resigned from a difficult pastorate the short pastorate my short my first pastorate and I would describe it as a three-year pastor that demonstrated my complete inability to do good to souls Finishing up at seminary things were financially tight. We had two little children at that time under the age of two, and I was going to seminary full-time and working late into the evening and sleeping about five hours or four hours a night Hardest year of our marriage. I was really a pretty unpleasant person to be around Children and wife put up with me but I couldn't hardly stand myself and needless to say it was a time where I had become very spiritually dry When I came to the Bible I was impressed with men like Elijah for his boldness john the baptist But if you would ask me what I really thought about jesus of nazareth Being a christian.

I would have said he is uh, he's well, he's everything he's all in all but in truth. I was disinterested in my own king I Really think that I could have described myself the way Rutherford described Christians when they drift from Christ he said we dwell far from the well and We complain dryly of our dryness But we are rather dry than thirsty and that was me Well, I packed my family up we went to the little country of Wales and I had a chance to study the first generation of the 18th century Calvinistic Methodist which sounds like a quite a contradiction to us but that's George Whitfield in the crew with him and The influence that the 17th century Puritan writings had upon him. So as you can imagine it was it was really It was really a great field of study to deal with your own heart But I was determined that before we return three years later I would not come back having studied for three years in the Great Awakening or the evangelical revival I would not come back with as cold a heart as I had arrived in Britain So I sent myself to study the humanity of Christ the pastor's wife where we were in Britain challenged the ladies and one of the Bible studies and said that she wished that they would all determine to get to know Jesus of Nazareth better than they knew any other person and I heard that through my wife and it really inflamed my imagination So I did I set myself to study the person the humanity in particular of Jesus of Nazareth And I intended to go through the Gospels after all that's where we have that original footage But I didn't get through the Gospels because God was so kind to me that for those three years I never got through to the end of the Gospel of John.

It was as if phrase by phrase. It wasn't just the Gospel of John. It was a meeting place between my soul and Christ. What captivates your heart about religion? What brings you here tonight?

I mean, the theme that has been chosen for us is such a superior theme. But are we really ready to appreciate it of course we can look at the person of Christ as a servant from the New Testament We're gonna look at him as a servant We could see him acting out all That we were told he would do in the Gospels even in the book of Acts and we even get glimpses of Christ activity in the book of Revelation We get expert commentary and the epistles explaining the things that we've just seen Things that every Christian is banking all their hope on But I want us to look at what we might consider for the Christian. It's like going through the old family photos all right now, I know we have them all on phones and And they're all digital now But if you can remember digging through grandparents photo albums or into boxes of old photos, and you pull up old photos of your parents or your grandparents, and you can't believe the hairdos, you can't believe the glasses, you can't believe grandma ever looked that young. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna look back at the old family photos, the descriptions of Jesus Christ, the sketches, the black and white photos.

They're not quite as crisp and clear as the New Testament, but when we go from the New Testament to the old, all the detail is supplied. And I want us to look at Christ in one of those old photos now We're going to be looking at Isaiah 42. It's actually the first of a four part Song or four songs about the suffering servant 42 49 50 and 53 Now Christmas isn't too far away. It'd be a wonderful study for your own soul, starting about the 1st of December, just to begin a long soak in those four songs. Obviously 53 is the best known among us.

Christ on the cross, saving his people, conquering death. What a wonderful picture. But how did he become a fit priest for us? How did he reach the place where he's the sinless lamb of God. What about the act of obedience that preceded the passive or the life that was moment by moment offered up for the pleasure of the father long before the cross was the choice.

So we see that in 42, 49 and 50. Now these are a progressive revelation. In other words, It's as if God has sent the Prophet to us and he's going to lead us along and he's going to lead us to four Different rooms and Each room he throws the door wide open and he lets you look in and he explains what you're seeing But it's only part of the picture and each door gives you a better and clearer view Now I have a kind of an assignment for us tonight when we look at chapter 42 of Isaiah verses 1 through 8 in particular We know that this is about Christ and if you're a Christian then as soon as you begin to read this section the temptation is to interrupt the prophet and to say to Isaiah Like a child in class in Sunday school that wants to prove that they know it say oh, I know who that is. It's my king It's my Savior and You begin immediately to fill in all the detail with the New Testament knowledge you have. Don't do that tonight.

The real benefit of Isaiah 42 is not that you're gonna get new information you've never heard before, but it's that God has provided Isaiah himself to reintroduce us to our Savior So I think that we would all agree Myself in particular that Isaiah will make a much better teacher tonight for us than we would for ourselves So if we immediately stop and say well, I already know who he's talking about Then what happens is we tend to interject into the passage Things that we do already know about christ and we don't we run the risk of not really learning anything new So we want to go along slowly and let Isaiah just stroll through these verses with us. All right Now chapter 42 verse 1 begins with the word behold. I'm reading from the New American Standard behold my servant Now it's a command But there are commands in Scripture that are so pleasant that we tend to think that they're kind of like dessert after dinner They're not the meat and potatoes of Christianity. They're the wonderful extras. And so it's not as if Disobeying this command we would be in really hot water with God unlike perhaps the Ten Commandments Well, I certainly wouldn't ignore the command not to commit adultery not to murder not to steal Etc.

But what about the command to behold the servant? Do we take that with all the force of a royal command? We find this in other places in the book of Isaiah Back in chapter 40 look back there in verse 9 If you know anything about isaiah the first 39 chapters are pretty gloomy There's a lot in there about the coming judgment of god on the nations and on his own drifting idolatrous people but chapter 40. It's such a stark Turn it's like isaiah takes us around a corner and chapter 40 through 66 We have 27 chapters in which isaiah gives us. Such a clear view of the hope of the coming of the Messiah That we call Isaiah the evangelist of the Old Testament So in chapter 40 the hope begins there in verse 9 get yourself up on a high mountain Oh Zion bearer of good news Lift up your voice mightily Oh Jerusalem bearer of good news lifted up Do not fear say to the cities of Judah here is your God and in the Hebrew It's the same word as behold behold your God Now what follows then of course in chapter 42 is a is the beginning of a very specific description of exactly?

Who this God is and it's not just God in the abstract. It is God the Son But before we get to that there is another command look at chapter 41 verse 24 and verse 29 the same command to behold is Repeated but this time we're looking at a very different object, and this is a look that must be given before we can look at Christ. Verse 24, behold, you are of no account, and your works amounts to nothing. He who chooses you is an abomination Now what's he talking about? Chapter 41 is comparing God to the idols of the nations the the idols that Israel's embraced So in Verse 24 God says in chapter 40 look Behold your God chapter 42 behold God comes in the person of a servant But in chapter 41 before you can really benefit from a look at Christ.

You must have One You must make one other look. I want you to look at the emptiness of idolatry verse 24 and Verse 29 the emptiness of the idol makers behold all of them are false their works are worthless their molten images are wind and Emptiness now, let's just stop and ask ourselves this question. Why would God in the process of turning our eyes away from ourselves and to his son and giving us all this description of the person and labors of Jesus Christ things that we Absolutely needed to be rescued and we need for joy for satisfaction for fullness for holiness Why would God have you stop and before you look at Christ look at idols and look at idol worshippers? Well, there are many reasons but for the sake of time, let's just take one The human soul is not infinite And you do not have room to gaze on all the things we would normally gaze on apart from Christ and Then have a look at Christ also in other words if your life is full of things that are already satisfying the soul things that you wake up for things that you look forward to three things that form your identity And they are not Jesus Christ Then these things become fillers and when it comes to looking at Christ you have no room for him It's like fallow ground.

That's not plowed and it's covered in the old weeds that have grown back. It's been a long time since you've ripped them out. And so sermon after sermon about the person of Jesus Christ comes and there is an intellectual appreciation. Thank you for the new information. There is perhaps an emotional movement.

I really liked that, but there is no distinct alteration in our life. How many times would I have to say to God, I have come to passages that unfold the superior charms of Christ, and I have gone away intellectually and emotionally moved, but I am no different. Is it because I forgot this important look John? Take a long look at your favorite idols John look at yourself as You hold those idols in your hand. The idols are nothing And your hand is full of nothingness There are many foul things in this world that we can fill up on things that we would never tell anyone and I don't suppose that any of us is free from that But there are also so many good things.

Here's what I found. The best gifts of God to his people, if we are not careful, become the most popular idol of our hearts. Friendships. A church we really appreciate. Family, kids, spouse.

Think about it. It's not good for man to be alone. God makes Eve She is perfectly designed to be his companion for life, but she makes a terrible God. I Am so grateful that God does not withdraw his kindness from us just because we prove so untrustworthy but if we're to be really benefited this week if our lives are to be more like Christ if Perhaps for you. This is the first time you meet Christ then there must be this look Think of the things you're filling your soul with and lay them aside for a moment so that there's room for a look at Christ.

Well let's take chapter 42 in verse one to verse four, We have the peculiar privilege tonight of listening to god speak to us About his servant centuries before he became one of us to rescue us What would the father say to you About his son if you could just sit before him and say God if you just could tell me one thing Could you just tell me a little bit about your son? What do you think of him? Well here you have an example and Then in verses 5 through 9 We have another privilege. We are allowed to listen to the father speak to the son. What does God say to the son that holds the son to the course?

What kind of things does the God man lay a hold of by faith? What these things are intimately connected with our rescue So verses 1 through 4 what he says about his servant verses 5 through 9 what he says to the servant well verse 1 behold my servant. It's a surprising object for the hope of humanity, isn't it? I mean, up to chapter 40, things have been pretty bleak. And Israel has hoped in a number of things other than God, including other nations, treaties, false idols.

And so God has declared the doom that they're headed toward, but before it comes, long before the book of Lamentations has to be written, Isaiah 42, God says, this is the cure for humanity. This is the cure for my people. Look away from yourselves. Look away from your idols. Look away from all your clever schemes to fix your life and look here.

And we look out the window, so to speak, and we're shocked. We would say to God, if we're honest, All I see is a common worker Am I missing something? Behold my servant Who notices servants now we don't use that phrase in our culture do we we don't talk about masters and servants But we did we do talk about employers and employees and some Jobs really feel like the lowest types of service some jobs you do And no matter how well you do them, you feel that nobody notices you. You go to a hotel, you enjoy the fact that you don't have to clean up after yourself. You know, you can just relax and you leave in the morning if you're there for more than one day.

You come back and it's just, you know, magical elves have shown up and have made the room perfect and then you see the ladies walking down the hall and you know that They're the ones that clean the room. Do do we ever know their names? Do we ever talk to them? It's not as if you would say I'm more important than them. It's just that you just wouldn't think.

When we look at the cure for humanity, it's such a blow to our pride. Here's who will save people like you, a common worker, a servant, but no servant ever like him. Look down at verse eight. I am the Lord. That is my name.

I will not give my glory to another, nor my praise to graven images. We know that one of the fundamental aspects of the one true living God is that he is jealous of his glory and he doesn't share it with anyone else and yet in chapter 42 49 50 and 53 we see him promising the servant that All mankind will be brought to him. Kings and princes will fall down and give him glory. How can it be that a common servant will be given glory, shared glory with the father? And of course we understand the answer that the servant is God, God the son.

Look at how he describes him. Behold my servant whom I uphold. The Hebrew word there isn't just to hold the hand like you do with your child, but it's to grip them. I will hold this man tightly. There is no possibility that he will fail in his task He is my chosen one isaiah goes on to say in whom I delight chosen or the same word that we use for elected or election.

Now here is the great election. Here's the, when we're thinking of the doctrine of God's choices Mysterious as it is. It's very clear in Scripture that God loved a people before he even created a people that God promised a people to his son before he created those people And that's what I would call the secondary aspect of election. Ephesians chapter one, Romans chapter eight, John chapter six, John chapter 10, et cetera. And we get all worked up about that sometimes in churches, perhaps that bothers you.

I remember preaching in the first church that I mentioned earlier and going through the gospel of John. So we hit chapter six and I knew this was going to be very unpopular. And so we talked about God's right to love a people who were unlovely, who loved them freely, to love them as he chose to love them, to choose them, to draw them, to rescue them. And an angry church member caught me afterwards and said, well, what if he hadn't have chosen me? That's not my God.

And I could have told her from her life that I had watched for three years, I would have agreed it was not her God. I don't mean that facetiously. No matter what I said to her I couldn't move her There is a secondary election god has the right to love a people who are unlovely And he doesn't ask us our opinion on it. But that if that bothers you set that aside for a moment Let's go to the primary election here behold my servant the one I uphold my chosen one in eternity past if we might just put it in very simple language look at whom he chooses He lays his hand on the shoulders of his son and the son has been chosen to be the champion of his own enemies What is he chosen for for the humiliation of a joining deity to humanity We're so proud and self-impressed. We can't imagine anyone wouldn't want to be like us He was chosen for the suffering of this life and to be the sin bearer on the on the cross to be the curse that is that all the wrath of God would be infinitely unleashed upon the son, that he would be treated by the father as if his heart had harbored the favorite lusts that you've harbored.

That as if he had treasured that arrogance that we've treasured as if he had reveled in rebellion and given sanctuary to every foul unbelieving thought and So he's crushed on the cross That's what he was chosen for Peter tells us he was foreknown or for ordained for all of this before the creation of the world behold my servant whom I uphold my chosen one Contrast that by the way to the secondary to the to God's choice of a bride for his son. Whom did he choose? Every one of them. Ugly, foul, raging against him. For what were they chosen?

Every possible everlasting happiness It says the chosen one is also the delight of the Father which Scott mentioned Is this a superfluous description if you say well, of course if he's the chosen one He must be the delight but that's not always the case. Imagine a work environment. All right, so let's say the one of the one of the company managers comes and he gathers his group of workers together and he says, look, we've just got news from corporate, got a new project, we need to do this. This is our timeframe. Okay, guys, we're really behind the eight ball on this one.

Let's really get to work now I'm gonna need four or five of you to just drop what you're doing start work on this project and I'm gonna choose I'm gonna Choose Joe Joe's gonna head it and there's this kind of groan through the whole group and The the manager senses it and he says look let's just be honest Joe. Nobody likes you You're you're miserable to work with you're a jerk, right? But you're the best qualified for the job so Joe I'm choosing you, it's not because we like you. Was that the Father's choice of the Son? We read when Christ in Matthew chapter three is baptized, the voice from heaven, This is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased You do understand the significance of the timing of that at the baptism.

Jesus is visibly uniting himself with his Sinful people that he's going to rescue he is Now one he's not only one of them by nature, but by his ministerial choice He will be the mediator of these people and as one who has visibly United himself to them at the beginning of his ministry The father looks on the son and he delights in the son not just because He's the perfect eternal son not just because he's a perfect man, but he because he is the perfect eternal son I'm perfect man who is doing the will of the Father he is embracing the work of mediation Is that when the father first delighted in him? I Mean I will give you all the money I have in my left hand pocket, which is nothing All right, one time I said this at church and a kid got ten dollars off me. It was terrible All right, because he answered my question not this question but maybe you could answer this question when did the father first delight in the Sun when was the first humanly speaking look of the father at the Sun and he says to himself he is everything I delight in well there never was a first was there there is an eternal triune God.

And the Father has always delighted in the Son beyond measure. And the son has always loved to give back to the father and the spirit as well a perfect inner trinitarian love This is the one that was chosen the delighted and delighted in Look at what he says next It says I have put my spirit upon him look back to Isaiah chapter 11 in Isaiah 11 we have one of those passages that sometimes gets limited to Christmas It's a description of the work of the Spirit in the coming Messiah. True God, yes, but also fully man, and in his self-limitation, that great mystery, he is dependent upon the Spirit to accomplish all the will of the father and we read this in verse 2 of isaiah 11 The spirit of the lord will rest on him the spirit of wisdom and understanding The spirit of counsel and strength by the way, those are military terms of military counsel and military strength the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord six things Every one of them given to Christ Infinitely And if only one of them was missing we might say Christ would not have been a sufficient Savior for us So he is sent with the fullness of the Spirit now, let's look at the task He will bring forth justice to the nations.

What a task justice or the cognitive word righteousness justice and righteousness same word in the Hebrew we just use different English words depending on the context Christ will bring justice to the nations. He will set all things right, but also we can say Christ will bring righteousness to the nations he will make men and women and children right and we know How in Romans chapter 1 we read this wonderful statement from Paul Talking about the gospel. He's not ashamed of it No He's not ashamed to bring the gospel that simple message even to the heart of the Roman Empire Verse 17 for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith and the Greek word revealed It's much more aggressive than our English word We might feel like Paul is just saying I want to come to Rome and I want to go ahead and lay it out in Front of you So you can view it clearly But the Greek word is an aggressive word You could almost say this for in the gospel the righteousness of God is unleashed It is actively revealed. It comes with an irresistible might It invades homes and cities and nations It rescues old and young it goes to the Citadel of God's enemies like the university Or the wealthy or the powerful You remember where Paul was writing and says, greet those who are in Caesar's household.

Caesar hopes to crush the church. God sends righteousness into his household. We think of CS Lewis in the pinnacle of academia, mocking God as an atheist and God sends righteousness and conquer see us Lewis and God even sends righteousness into evangelical churches today where men and women have gathered all of God's commands and use them as a ladder to build ourselves up and God breaks through all of that shellac in religion and rescues us. He will bring righteousness to the nations. Yes, through the gospel now and ultimately, even in his wrath, but in the description of the coming king to reconquer his continent, so to speak.

In verses two and three, we find some very unique descriptions. If We think of Christ's work as a general sent from the king Back to earth in a sense to conquer this place If we think of that we see Christ here and he lands on the borders of the country he's going to conquer and look at verse 2 & 3 He will not cry out nor raise his voice nor make his voice heard in the street humility Do you remember when his brothers taunted him and said if you really are the big shock that you say you are or that they say you are, why don't you just go right to Jerusalem? It's Passover time, lots of people there. Why don't you stand up and make a big show there? How many times did Christ heal?

And the word in the Greek is shocking he angrily Warned the people do not tell anyone what I've done Stern Not long ago when I first started pastoring An older man came to me and said, you know He was a pastor and he said really I know that you think that humility is good and it is good But he said really pastors also need to have pride Because the world is not really attracted to a humble person. The world is attracted to proud people. So there needs to be a certain amount of pride in the pastor Well, that's true, isn't it? But God's not attracted to pride and he is the only person you can't afford To have skip your church meetings The conqueror is Humble, but look at verse 3 a bruised reed. He will not break a dimly burning wick He will not extinguish he will faithfully bring forth justice when a man comes to conquer a nation and his armies are behind him and the rage of war is in him which we'll see in the last part of this passage and The battle cry escapes his lips Do you expect the man who lands on the beaches to see a reed growing along the edge of the water, which is bent over?

Do you expect him to suddenly cry out to his armies and tell them to stop so that he can go over and mend the reed to push it back up straight And to wrap it and bind it so it can grow again Do you expect him in his war councils if you imagine you know ancient world He's in a tent his generals or his lieutenants are around them and they bring candles and set it out on the map table and they're describing tomorrow's campaign and one of the candles is just flickering and The Kings instead of saying what fool brought me a candle that flickers Instead he says wait a minute and he goes and he trims the wick so it'll burn brightly look Christian the description here It's poetical Have you ever been a bruised reed? Have you ever been crushed by things outwardly to the point that you feel God, I just don't see why you would even be able to love a person like me. I don't think I'm of any use in the kingdom. And you're afraid that in God's great world dominion plans that he'll brush you aside. No, he stops and he mends the bruised reed.

Have you ever been a smoldering Christian within? Sins Have nearly choked out that little flame of grace But God stops and deals with you so that you burn brightly again Now the wonderful contrast is in verse four. He will not be disheartened or crushed. Now that's the same two Hebrew words for bruised and dimly burning. He heals bruised reeds.

He Trims dimly burning wicks, but he cannot be bruised he cannot smolder No matter how many enemies arraign themselves against him no matter What struggles might be within and questions in his soul And you see that particularly in the next song 49 when he says to the father everything I've done has been for nothing No matter what happens this one who is gentle with you is not gentle with his enemies and he cannot be bruised and he cannot be snuffed out. Now let's look at what the father says to the son, verses five through nine. Thus says the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and its offspring, 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 also hold you by the hand and watch over you. And I will appoint you as a covenant to the people, as a light to the nations, to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the dungeon and those who dwell in darkness from the prison." So very quickly, he mentions again that he's the one that holds them by his hand. Who is it? And The one who's holding describes himself. The father describes himself to the son, the incomparable creator.

Back in chapter 40 in verse 12, he says that he holds all the water of the earth's oceans and seas and rivers In the little hollow of his hand and the mountains of the earth are just a little dust on the scale that's the hand that holds our Redeemer and He repeats that he will hold him He will watch over him and then he adds new information here and he will give him as a covenant to the people a Covenant of grace a living contract between the offended king and the offending sinner. Why does God express himself in these covenants? Well, I think very simply two things that we could say. One is that we have very, We have very fuzzy vision. We're short-sighted and we need god to spell out in the small print of a covenant in a contract All that he is to his people And we need it not just on a sheet, but we need it in a contract form because our weak faith How many times have we come back to God in prayer, wondering, would he hear me again?

Am I still welcome at the mercy seat? Will I find the door slammed against me for my many repeated sins, for my cold heart, my slack, poor dying rate of Christianity. No. How do I know that? Because he gave it to me in a contract so that my weak faith has something to rest on much more firm than my devotion.

But notice here, He doesn't say this. I will send you to explain the new covenant. Of course christ did I will send you to inaugurate the new covenant. Of course, he did read hebrews But here he says more than that. I will send you as the Covenant All the substance of all the hope of the New Covenant is in the person He does not give us anything outside of the person.

He doesn't give us packages, a package of grace, of forgiveness, patience, faithfulness. He gives us himself in the person of his son. Christ is the treasurer of heaven and he is the treasure of heaven. And we come again and again and we draw upon him Or as the Song of Solomon says who is this coming up out of the wilderness? Leaning on her beloved.

It's us What is the contract include Well, I wish we had time to go over the fine print, but you have it, don't you? Between the pages of Genesis and Revelation. Have you ever given a good look at that? I mean, I wish We could be half as greedy with the new covenant as we would be if we were told that a that a relative that we barely knew who was very wealthy has included us in the will and Trying not to seem too eager we say to the lawyer would it be? Appropriate for me to look at the small print of that?

Go to God daily, throw open the scriptures, shut your door, get on your knees and say to him, I have no right to this agreement, but you've done it for your own glory. And so I want to ask you, could you explain it again to me? The fine print of the covenant, just two things are mentioned here. He will give light and He will give opened eyes to see the light He will free prisoners who are held in darkness Let me ask you have you ever felt that way have you ever felt that that was you if you haven't I? Think you have good reason to doubt that you've ever met him because this is the only contract So there isn't a contract for people that aren't so Dim-sided aren't so blind spiritually There isn't a Contract that Christ brings for those that see things just well enough on their own and they're not really in a cell of sin But for those who would say to God Jesus son of David have mercy on me And if he were to turn to you and say what do you want me to do for you?

Oh god, if you would do anything would you open my eyes to see the beauty of your son? So that I understand why would anybody give up everything they can touch and feel For a jesus they haven't yet seen How can I rejoice with joy unspeakable today? I just don't see it. But you can open blind eyes and I am in a prison. Well, other saviors have promised so much.

Morality comes, knocks on the door of your prison you say I knew there was a way out of this wretched self-destroying lifestyle and so you become very moral And you read a lot of books on the different areas of life that you can improve in But morality leads you to a deeper dungeon and then religion comes and you say well if anybody can get me out Religion will get me out and it leads you to a deeper dungeon and Christ comes and you may be tempted to think that he's like the others, but he is not. And he brings you out and up and into the freedom of living for someone bigger than yourself. Let me give you just two applications. First, there is a great joy here. As Scott mentioned, the link between Christ, Christ likeness and happiness.

Now I don't think that joy is our God, but we certainly would be a very dishonoring group of people if all we had was a list of rules and no delight in our King. Let me give you what I think is the greatest joy of this passage. It's not what you get Christian from the savior. That's secondary. Not long ago, I was just reading through this passage in my own quiet time and aware again of how unlike Jesus Christ, John Snyder is and how much when I look in the mirror of scripture, how much remains of the old John and wondering will he be there always?

And when will he be laid aside and only the image of Christ seen? And then I was reading through Isaiah 42 looking for hope for people like me and what struck me primarily was this We who loved the Lord because he first loved us Find it our great joy to see that not everyone has dishonored him Read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. Read your heroes of the Bible, your Abrahams, your Davids, whoever you read, Every one of them is flawed. Every one of them, God the Father, would have to, apart from the work of the Son, say, I have no delight in you. It's not just what you do, it's what you are that is bent.

But there is one person who has always given our god all that he delights to receive from a man As a child as a teenager as an adult in thoughts and words and responses and desires and yearnings in his emotions, in his choices, what he did do, what he refused to do. Every time from the right motive, the father looked upon the son and found infinite delight. There is a satisfied God in heaven Secondarily every believer is Rescued not because of you've got faith and at least you committed yourself to the right God but because that God took you and your Gave you faith and United you to a son and being woven together with him He wraps his robe of righteousness around you and the father is Satisfied the law of God looks at every believer and has nothing more to ask because of Christ. And every possible spiritual blessing is ours in him. And the father is not perpetually disappointed with us.

A second application and then we're finished. Here's a great test. By the way, if you ever fear that this servant maybe just isn't enough for a sinner like you, look at verse 13. At the very end of the song It says this the lord will go forth like a warrior Can you imagine god going to war? What does it look like when god goes to war?

He will arouse his zeal. What does it look like when God is full of zeal? Like a man of war, he will utter a shout. What does it sound like when God shouts on the field of battle, he will raise a war cry. He will prevail against his enemies.

Who's it talking about? It's talking about the Lord Jesus Christ. Think of Psalm 110, where at the end of that wonderful Psalm, God is at the right hand of the sun as he comes and takes the field of battle. And the world is spread with the corpses of his enemies who refused his grace if you ever look in the mirror and think to yourself that sin will never be fully laid low Go back to Isaiah 42 verse 13 and plead with God. God go forth like a warrior again, arouse your zeal, shout like a man of war on the field of battle, raise a cry and prevail against even this long seated tyrant of my heart I Wouldn't let him alone until he did Well the last application That was extra Is a good test.

How do you know if you're really getting your Christology, right? Right. There's a lot of Christology being written today books on Christ very helpful in depth Revisiting old writers old themes updating it for us clarity warmth It's a good day How do you know that your Christology is on the right page? It's on the right road. Here's a good test verse 10, 11, and 12.

It's the response of Isaiah's heart. It's the response that Isaiah says all creation ought to have so, you know You got your theology right when this is the result verse 10 sing to the Lord a new song Sing is praised from the end of the earth you who go down To the sea and all that is in it you Islands and those who dwell on them Let the wilderness and its cities lift up their voices the settlements where Kadar Inhabits let the inhabitants of Silla sing aloud let them shout For joy from the tops of the mountains let them give glory to the Lord and declare his praise in the coastlands I'm no poet If I tried to write a hymn, it would be a very private matter. All right, I would never let anybody see it but you know your Christology is right when all your biblical theology is when your theology your views of Jesus are being fashioned and informed by these passages and Then just when you get really grown up and theologically clear your heart overpowers your brain and says this is the stuff of song, not just intellect. And you want to sing, you want to write new songs, and you want to say to the whole world, unbeliever or believer, you just don't understand every molecule of creation ought to raise its voice and praise that God's servant has come.

Everything will be put right now. A medieval Bible translator, Richard Roll, after an extraordinary experience of God's grace in his own soul said this, from that point forward, I was compelled to sing what I once only said. Is that you? I am compelled to sing the doctrine of Christ, which I once could so calmly say, well, may the Lord make it true of us. Let's pray.

Our glorious King, having given us your son, Lord, don't stop. Give us eyes to see hearts held captive in a will freed from the tyranny of self to live for the highest prince Until we are gathered with every other believer at the end To see him clothed with his glory and to receive a glorification from that to ourselves. When faith and repentance are laid aside and love endures, we ask it in Christ's name, amen.