The LORD and his worm servant

[0:00] Amen. If you have a Bible, please could you turn to Isaiah 42.! What is the unique thing about the God of the Bible?

[0:36] This is the God who is the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's who he is. That's one way of knowing exactly who he is. Another truth, another unique truth about this God is that he is the creator of heaven and earth.

[0:54] And that's a big thing to say. He's the creator of the heavens and the earth. Meaning he is outside this creation. He's not part of it. He's outside it. He was there before it. He's not part of it.

[1:08] And he is distinguished from all other gods because all other gods are part of this creation. They are either angels or demons or they're just made up by people or they're carved images or they are ideas.

[1:23] But they are created. And our God is the creator. These other gods are made up gods and they are inside the system.

[1:34] And the God of the Bible is outside the system. The gods of the nations are part of the system. They cannot control the system.

[1:45] And they cannot predict anything apart from what the system normally does. They're just part of the machine that they're, if I can put it that way, that they're talking about.

[1:55] Whereas the God of the Bible is outside. And he can control things. He can bring things in that nobody would have predicted. And that is part of his uniqueness as the real God.

[2:08] And that's one of the things that Isaiah is going to be saying. This is the real God. This is the God who is not part of this creation, dreamt up, made up, but who existed before everything else and who is in control of everything.

[2:22] That's one of the notes that will be sounded in these chapters that we look at. So let me try and take us through this. We've been looking at the plan of the Lord and the glory of the Lord.

[2:36] And we learn that the Lord has a plan to bless all the nations of the world. So we didn't have any Visigoths here this morning. I don't think we've got Visigoths, but we've got a number of different nationalities.

[2:50] And God has a plan for all the nations of the world. And he promised that he would do this in a particular way, through a particular channel. That being through Abraham, whom he picked on and blessed and said, in your descendants, all the families of the earth will be blessed.

[3:12] And we looked particularly last time at three servants that he would be using in this purpose. And they all look the same.

[3:23] I've used the same outline for each visually, because there's a great similarity between these servants. But we looked at the victorious servant. And we'll come back to look at this sort of war-making, unstoppable servant in due course.

[3:36] Then we also looked last time, do you remember, at the worm servant? You might want to just check that. It is in chapter 41, verse 14. Do not be afraid, O worm Jacob, O little Israel.

[3:52] So I've drawn a worm. It's sort of quite a visual and sticks in the memory. So this servant is the worm servant. And that's the servant we're going to be looking at this morning.

[4:05] There's a third servant, who again seems linked but different to the other two. And this is the ideal servant. And he's the one who's referred to in Isaiah 42, verse 1.

[4:18] Here is my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight. I will put my spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nation. So this is what I've called the ideal servant.

[4:31] And this servant turns out to be linked to the others. And on reflection from my notes from yesterday, I thought, actually there's a really subtle link that might come across this morning.

[4:45] But this servant is the key servant to the others. But we're not looking at him today. We're looking at the worm servant. So the worm servant is the one in chapter 42, verse 18.

[5:00] Here you deaf, you blind, and see who is blind but my servant. And there's a lot of words about this servant which we're going to look at. Before we get quite into that, I want to talk about appropriation.

[5:11] Okay, appropriation. Appropriation means when you say, this is mine. So if you happen to be sitting where you're sharing a hymn book, and the hymn book goes into the slot in the chair in front, and your neighbor thought, that's mine.

[5:30] And then next time we sing, you grab it and sing from it, you will have appropriated that hymn book. Of course, you said, oh, it's mine. And your neighbor might say, well, in all Christian grace, it's mine.

[5:41] Okay, so this is appropriation. And there's a big question, who can appropriate the words of this prophecy?

[5:52] Who can say, this is mine? So let me just sketch out the nature of this question. So number one, can all the nations say, this is mine, this business about the servant?

[6:06] And I'm going to say the answer is no, because the nations are differentiated from this servant. This servant is called Israel and Jacob, and we have to start with what the text says.

[6:20] So the nations can't automatically say, this is mine, because the text actually says, it's addressed to Israel and Jacob. So there's a thing going on there.

[6:32] It's said to Israel and Jacob. And the nations, according to Isaiah, are the ones with the idols. They are the ones who are completely mistaken about who God is and sinfully mistaken.

[6:48] They're the ones with the made-up gods, and we'll see the idols referred to as we go through. So you're going to say, okay, so is this actually an ethnic thing? And this is referring to the physical descendants of Abraham.

[7:01] And I'm going to say, no, that doesn't work either. If you go along into chapter 44, verse 3, for example, it says, I will pour out my spirit on your offspring.

[7:16] I will pour out my spirit on your offspring. So it isn't just ethnic. It's spiritual. So the people who can appropriate this, as I hope to show, are the people who are spiritually enabled to do that.

[7:33] So is it the nations? Doesn't seem to be the nations. Is it all Israel according to the flesh? Answer knows. So who is it? And answer number three would be none of the above.

[7:46] And the answer would be, we'll have to wait and see. Because as we go through this, I'm going to ask you, do you think you can appropriate this? Can you take the step of saying, that applies to me?

[8:00] So, question of appropriation. I want to say seven things about this servant. I'm not going to go through all the texts, but there are things that pop up to the surface.

[8:13] So number one, the servant starts off in utter failure. So 42, verse 18, refers to this servant, this worm servant, and says, this servant is blind.

[8:26] This servant, verse 19, is deaf. They can't see, and they can't hear.

[8:36] Who is blind like the one committed to me, and blind? The servant of the Lord. They are deaf and blind. And it says, you've seen many things, but you paid no attention.

[8:48] Your ears are open, but you hear nothing. And there's a straight off, a complete failure of perception of this servant. They don't get it about God.

[9:00] He speaks to them, but it just bounces off. He shows them things, but they don't see it. So there is a complete lack of spiritual perception. And this is a people, verse 22, plundered and looted.

[9:17] So they are without treasure. They've had their treasure taken away from them. They're poor. They've become impoverished somehow, it says here. And it also refers to them as being trapped, plundered and looted, trapped in pits, hidden away in prisons.

[9:34] They've become plunder with no one to rescue them. They're imprisoned. They're discarded. Nobody comes to rescue them. That's the state of these people. And obviously, he's thinking, in the first instance, of the exiles who have been sent into Babylon.

[9:51] And there they are, basically imprisoned, abandoned. But he says there's something more to it than just geography. They're spiritually deaf and blind to God.

[10:02] They're helpless and hopeless. There's no one to rescue them. And end of verse 22, no one to say, send them back. So they're in a complete spiritual catastrophe.

[10:18] If you look at verse 24, there's another description of them. You have not called upon me, O Jacob, or wearied yourselves for me. O Israel, you have not brought me sheep for burnt offerings, nor honoured me with your sacrifices.

[10:32] I have not burdened you with grain offerings, or wearied you with demands for incense. You have not brought any fragrant calamus for me, or lavished on me the fat of your sacrifices.

[10:43] But you've burdened me with your sins and wearied me with your offences. So this is a people who are indifferent to God.

[10:55] They don't offer him anything. They don't thank him for anything. They don't seek him for anything. They're unconcerned for his favour and all they bring to God is tons of sin.

[11:08] And that's number one about this people. The starting point is their utter spiritual failures. Spiritually imprisoned.

[11:20] Spiritually stupid. And all they have to their credit is a load of sin. So let me first ask you whether you could identify yourself as that, or having been that, or having started off in that place.

[11:36] because for somebody who's a Christian they would say yes. It was true of them and it's true of me. That's, I was, how helpless and hopeless we sinners had been if he never had loved us till cleansed from our sin.

[11:53] Once I was blind but now I see. Once I was deaf but now he's opened my ears. So step one, might you appropriate this?

[12:05] This is that the servant starts off in utter failure. Right. Number two, second thing about the servant. He is the object of the Lord's advance notice and advance planning.

[12:21] And there's quite a bit about this. Let me pick out a few verses. Chapter 43 verse 9. God is in contest with the idols and the gods of the other nations and he says this.

[12:35] He says, now tell me which of you, sorry, 43 verse 9, all the nations gather together and the peoples of the people, which of them foretold this and proclaim to us the former things?

[12:51] Let them bring in their witnesses to prove they were right so that others may hear it and say it is true. And God is challenging them.

[13:01] Which of you, which of your gods is so outside the system that you can foretell things? And the answer is not a single one. The idols are just rubbish because they can't foretell anything.

[13:14] They're part of the system themselves. 43, 18. Forget the former things. Do not dwell on the past. See now I am doing a new thing.

[13:27] Now it springs up. Do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland. And again God says I'm doing something new.

[13:38] It's not a sort of just a replay of things that you could have predicted. This comes in as a new thing. I've done things in the past and now I'm doing a new thing.

[13:51] It's going to be a new covenant incidentally. 43, 19. I am doing a new thing. 44, verse 8. Do not tremble.

[14:04] Do not be afraid. This is still addressed to the worm servant. Did I not proclaim this and foretell it long ago? You are my witnesses.

[14:15] Is there any God beside me? No, there is no other rock. I know not one. All who make idols are nothing and the things they treasure are worthless. So again, that idea, can the idols predict this?

[14:30] And the answer is no, they most certainly can't. And one of the things that God is saying is that you, his people, not only see this happening to someone else but it happens to you.

[14:43] So you become part of it and you become witnesses because you can say, I was there. I saw it. It happened to me. I saw it with my own eyes. You are my witnesses is one of the things that is going to be repeated in this section.

[14:58] So God is planning this and controlling it and predicting it and we might just pause and say, I wonder how long ago God planned this.

[15:11] And I would like to refer you to something that the Apostle Paul says from his clarity of the New Testament perspective when he says in Ephesians 1 verse 4 this is how long ago actually it was planned for he, God, excuse me, chose us in Christ before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.

[15:46] In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ in accordance with his pleasure and will to the praise of his glorious grace which he has freely given us in the one he loves.

[16:05] And Paul will say, I can tell you about this planning. This planning goes so far back that it's before even God made the world.

[16:16] God has in mind, the people that he speaks this comfort to, he's had it in mind not just so many years BC, but he's had it before the world was made.

[16:30] And what a thought that is. That if you were in a position to appropriate this, you could be saying, here's an amazing thing, before the world was made, he had me in his mind.

[16:49] He was thinking about me. He was thinking how he might redeem me. He was thinking about how he might do a new thing in my life which wasn't part of the course of this world but which came in new from outside.

[17:05] It's an amazing thought, isn't it? That he should plan that far in advance. That was number two. number three. This worm servant is the object of the Lord's unique activity.

[17:20] So let me do a word here. So there's a word synergy. I don't know, that used in business, synergy, where two things work together. The syn bit, S-Y-N, means together and the urgy presumably means working, synergy.

[17:36] That's where two things work together. The opposite of synergy is monogy, meaning one thing working by itself.

[17:49] So you get the word monogism, means working entirely alone. And the chapters here refer to a God who says, I do this, I don't need your help, I don't get your help, I do this entirely on my own.

[18:07] So verse 43, 10b, says, you are my witnesses, 43, 10b, and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he.

[18:22] Before me no God was formed, nor will there be one after me. I, even I, am the Lord, and apart from me there is no saviour.

[18:34] I have revealed and saved and proclaimed I and not some foreign God among you, you are my witnesses, declares the Lord, that I am God, yes and from ancient days I am he, I'm getting into my next point, I have to be careful, no one can deliver out of my hand, when I act who can reverse it, is monergism, God says I alone am the saviour.

[19:02] If you're going to look for salvation, don't look for, you know, get a team of gods on board, you go to the one God who alone can save, turn to me and be saved, apart from me there is no saviour.

[19:19] And this strong statement, verse 13, when I act who can reverse it, yeah, when I act, says God, who can reverse it, who can, who can, who's a rival to sort of countermand me, when I act, who can reverse it.

[19:39] 44 verse 6, 44 verse 6, this is what the Lord, Israel's King and Redeemer, the Almighty, the Lord Almighty says, I am the first and I am the last, and apart from me there is no God, who then is like me, let him proclaim it, let him declare and lay out before me, etc., etc., God says, I'm the one, I'm the only one who is in this role as creator, and I'm the one who controls the system and nobody else, everybody else is locked inside it, I am the first and I am the last, and apart from me there is no God, that's what it says, why did I put that, I just wanted to put something about human guilt and responsibility, we do have responsibility, but don't, let's bow before the sovereignty of

[20:47] God, okay, we've committed sins, we've made mistakes, things have gone wrong in our lives and goodness knows how many of them are our own fault, but look what God says, he says, I am the saviour, I don't let you stop my plan, don't even let your sins stop my plan, because I am the God who saves, and when I act no one can stop it, this is what the Christian theologians would call grace, meaning he acts and the way that he saves is by grace, he saved me, and when we get to heaven, we won't, I don't think, I hope not, be saying well thank you God for saving me, sort of at least 50%, we'll be saying thank you God for saving me 100%, we won't be saying well thank you God for the synergy,

[21:49] I mean you did your bit, I did my bit, worked together as a team, God will say I don't want you to think of it that way, even the good things that you do are a gift from me, even those things I've put inside you and then I congratulate you for it and as Augustine would say that's grace upon grace, it's all by grace, I am the saviour says God, that was number, what was that number three, this is number four, the servant is the object of the Lord's sovereign action, so this is a word sovereign, you will have heard this word in conjunction with the debate about the political matter beginning with the letter B, sovereignty, it means the ability to rule and Christian theology uses the word sovereign to do with God to mean the absoluteness of his rule, he doesn't share his rule and

[22:51] I'd like you to notice the number of sovereign type words that are used, look at chapter 43, this is what the Lord says to his worm servant, I created you O Jacob, he who formed you O Israel, fear not for I have redeemed you, I have summoned you by name, 43, 21, you are the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise, these are all sovereign words, they're saying that God says, I did these sovereign actions to form this people myself and God gets 100% of the credit, I created them, I formed this people, I redeemed this people, I, as he says, I formed to proclaim my praise, so these people would be saying thank you

[23:55] Lord for what you've done for me, I never deserved it, I never had the idea of it, I wasn't looking for it, you came into my life, you woke me up, you turned me round, you gave me a new heart and I started to cry out to you, save me, but I only cried that because you put it in me in the first place, this is the people I formed, chapter 44 verse 1, he says, listen Jacob my servant whom I have chosen, so many actions that God does sovereignly on his people, I thought I'd pick out some of the things where he says he will do something because the I wills of the Bible are of deep comfort to God's people, so what did I have?

[24:43] In chapter 43 verse 2, when you pass through the waters I will be with you, is that not a comforting declaration to his worm servant, when you pass through the deep waters I will be with you, I know people here have passed through deep waters, bereavement, disappointment, heartache, loss, it's part of our condition here isn't it, in this world, but God says I will be with you, that's a cast iron promise from God, when you pass through the rivers they will not sweep over you, when you walk through the fire you will not be burned, because God says I will be with you, chapter 43 verse 6, I will say to the north give them up and to the south do not hold them back, bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth and everyone who is called by my name whom I created for my glory, so there's an I will there and God is depicted as a sort of gathering in of exiles, but the

[25:56] Lord Jesus would take this for the gathering in of his converts and he'll say to the north I will say to the north give them up and to the south do not hold them back, so God is saying I'm going to say let them go to the north and to the south bring them back and there's something sovereign about God's declaration, that's what he will do, that's his power at work and when he says let them go nobody can hold on to them, when he says give them back nobody can hold on to them, verse 43 14, I will send to Babylon and bring down as fugitives all the Babylonians in the ships in which they took pride, in other words even Babylon with all its power can't stop God bringing his people back to himself and that is a true truth, that no power in this world can stop

[27:09] God claiming his people back from darkness into his kingdom, no prison is strong enough to hold them if God says let them go, is that right?

[27:21] Yeah, another I will, 4325, 4325, you burden me with your sins but I even I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake and remembers your sins no more, well it's not quite an I will but I'll sort of preach his license, pretend it says I will, I will remember your sins no more, it's a promise from God, so God remembers things, he also forgets things and he says I've completely forgotten about your sins, something has happened so I will not bring that up as an issue again, sins blotted out, dealt with, in the past, forgotten, your sins I will remember no more, I changed the grammar slightly to fit in didn't I, 44 verse 3,

[28:22] I will pour water on the thirsty land and streams on the dry ground, I will pour out my spirit on your offspring and my blessing on your descendants, so a promise of, I think we come to this in a moment, but things that God says I will do, I don't have to ask your permission, I value your prayers but I'm not hampered by your prayer or not, I will do it, I've got my plans and I will do it, see this is the God of the Bible and he is an almighty, an amazing God, is he not?

[29:03] So these are all I wills of kindness or grace and they're all wills of sovereignty and rule and you could put those together and call it sovereign grace, good name for a publishing company or good, I think there's a good name for a record company, isn't there, called sovereign grace music, that's where it comes from because God's grace rules.

[29:28] That's another amazing thought. Number five, oh dear what happened to all the clicking, never mind, this servant is the object of the Lord's deep commitment, so there is a commitment that God makes and some of this I'm repeating but you can see why it's worth repeating, 43 verse 2, I will be with you, that's a commitment, ongoing for today and tomorrow and God says you can count on me, I will be with you.

[30:02] I think God's commitments are quite special and remarkable, aren't they? We look back and thank God for his patience in the past but we rather think I've been so fickle and useless in the past, I wonder whether God will give up on me tomorrow and these verses tell us actually God has made a commitment to this worm servant, I will be with you, the fire will not burn you.

[30:36] In fact I'm so committed to you, chapter 43 verse 3, that I've given Egypt for your ransom, Cush and Sheba in your stead. I've, I'm so committed to you that I've, as it were, sacrificed peoples for you, nations for you, I will bring your children, which I didn't put down the reference, it was somewhere in there.

[31:07] this, I am trying to get to the idea of God being for his people, decisively, committedly for his people.

[31:22] The Apostle Paul in the New Testament will take this thought as a Christian and he will re-express it and re-assert it as a Christian and he will say, if God is for us, who can be against us?

[31:44] There's a song that says, I can't even remember the tune, but it says, who, who, who? The answer is nobody, nobody, nobody. This strong commitment from God, you see it in these passages, do you get the thought of that?

[32:01] I will be with you. It isn't that you thank me for the past, but you're not too sure you encounter me for the future. But God says, I am committed to you.

[32:14] Who are we that God should be committed to us? I mean, we think a lot about whether we're committed to him, but this is saying, no, just get this bit first, I'm committed to you. I'm committed to you.

[32:27] My dear sort of mentor, predecessor, Les Hill, talked about these understandings.

[32:39] He would have called it the doctrines of grace or the teachings about grace. And he would say how important it is to learn the art of personal application of the doctrines of grace.

[32:51] How important it is for us as believers to assess our struggles, our trials, the things that seem to knock us back and knock us down and hinder us and everything else.

[33:06] To look at that through the lens of the teachings that God will be with us. And to make a personal application of the doctrines of grace.

[33:17] So we say, you know, such and such a terrible thing has happened to me. How shall I interpret that? Shall I interpret it that God has changed his mind and is now against me and hates me?

[33:29] And the immediate answer has to be that is completely wrong. That can't be the right interpretation. How then should I interpret this? That God has allowed this thing, the sovereign God has allowed or even brought this thing into my life so that I can learn something.

[33:48] So that I can become more like him. He wouldn't allow it any other way because he is committed. to me. Something which I think is an art, something that I think takes time to learn, but a valuable art to learn, a personal application of the doctrines of grace.

[34:14] That was five. Six. The Lord acts towards this worm servant redemptively. Now, what do I mean by redemption? redemption. There was a film called The Scrimscraw Shank Redemption.

[34:28] Was it? What was it? Shawshank Redemption. Yes. It was about somebody in prison and he escaped, wasn't it? So something good happened out of it at the end.

[34:42] When I say redemption, I mean something that remedies damage, loss, hurt, cost.

[34:52] There's loads of movies that are made about damage, loss, hurt and cost. But it's very difficult to find something redemptive which will say, here is something which acts in this world to remedy damage, to remedy loss, to mend and heal hurt, to repay, to make better after a cost.

[35:23] But the Lord acts redemptively. That's a precious thing in this world. I mean there are redemptive acts in this world by God's grace. Some hurts can be healed and some bitterness can be sweetened.

[35:38] But the Lord is the master, redeemer and he says that's what he is. You see it in chapter 43 verse 3. I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Saviour.

[35:58] That's what God does. I save. And he said in chapter 43 verse 2, I have redeemed you.

[36:11] He's the redeemer, the mender, the buyer back. all of these things. So if you were building a church in Manhattan, that would be a good name for the church, wouldn't it?

[36:25] Maybe somebody's already had that idea. Chapter 43 verse 25. 43, 25. I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake and remembers your sins no more.

[36:44] So there's the most damaging thing of all, sin. And God says, I act redemptively and I take the stain of sin and the damage of sin and the corrosion of sin and I blot it out.

[37:01] I neutralize that stain, I neutralize that corrosion and I blot out and I begin to rebuild and I begin to heal in the lives of the worm's servant.

[37:13] Can you appropriate that? That is how God acts. I know some of you have suffered hugely in the past. I know things have been corrosive and damaging, even perhaps something that you're experiencing now, but God is the redeemer.

[37:31] He says that doesn't have to mark permanently in your life so that that hurt is never healed and that damage is never undone.

[37:41] because I'm the redeemer, says God. How brilliant that is. We're no longer prisoners of the past so I can never get past that because God is the one who acts redemptively.

[37:56] 44.22 44.22 I have swept away your offences like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist.

[38:08] What a brilliant picture that is. live in a hot country, you get a cloud, cloudiness in the morning and then a little while later it's all been disappeared.

[38:19] You can't see it anymore. We had that when we were in a hotel room in, where were we? Where's my wife? Where were we in Spain? Where were we?

[38:31] Seville. Yeah, we looked out in the morning and there was sort of mistiness on the horizon and you look out a bit later and it's all gone. God says, that's how I deal with your sins. You can see them and then I just sweep them away.

[38:43] Where is it? They've gone. Isn't that wonderful? He acts redemptively. What a breathtaking privilege that God will say of the worm servant people.

[38:55] I blot out your sins, I wipe them away like they'll be. Sin is usually a stain that you can't get rid of but God says, that's in and just, it just disappears like the morning mist.

[39:12] He acts redemptively, number six. Number seven, the Lord pours out his spirit on this servant. So I've now got to chapter 44 and this is still this worm servant.

[39:27] But this brings in a note that I think hasn't particularly been sounded before. Chapter 44, But now listen, O Jacob, my servant Israel, whom I have chosen.

[39:40] This is what the Lord says, he who made you, he who formed you in the womb, he who will help you. Do not be afraid, O Jacob, my servant Jezrein, whom I have chosen. I will pour water on the thirsty land and streams on the dry ground.

[39:56] I will pour out my spirit on your offspring and my blessing on your descendants and they will spring up like grass in a meadow, like poplar trees by flowing streams.

[40:07] And one will say, I belong to the Lord. And another will call himself by the name of Jacob. And still another will write on his hand, the Lord's, and take the name Israel.

[40:17] So he says, do not be afraid, this is what I'm going to do. Where there is dehydration, I will pour out on thirsty ground on people, my spirit.

[40:35] And thus they name themselves Israel. You notice it's not an ethnic thing. It seems to hint that even if you were Italian and the Lord brought his spirit on you, you could say, I belong, I'm part of this.

[40:57] Or even, even if you're English, that if the Lord poured out his spirit on you, you could say, this is me, I'm part of this. The thirsty bit, I, perhaps this is an idiosyncrasy of mine, I don't think it's about the intensity of personal desire, I don't think it's brought about by intense emotional desire, but it's saying it's a cure for spiritual dehydration.

[41:23] First meaning parched, meaning desiccated, meaning dehydrated, meaning like those pictures you see of a camel carcass in the desert where you can recognize the bones and see some of the dried up sinews and that is just one dead camel.

[41:40] And the Lord says, that I can cure. Take dried up dead people, pour my spirit on them and they come alive. Isn't that a brilliant thing?

[41:52] But spiritual life where it was all dead and dried up. That was the seventh thing about this servant. So there are the seven things.

[42:05] The servant starts off as being a complete failure. The servant is somebody who amazingly is part of God's previous plan, pre-existing plan.

[42:18] The servant is somebody on whom the Lord acts and he alone. The servant is somebody who receives sovereign grace. The servant is somebody to whom God is deeply committed.

[42:33] The servant is somebody whom God redeems and takes away his sins. The servant is the one who receives the gift of the Lord's spirit.

[42:44] spirit. And I wish I'd remember to do the clicking on this. How do you think anybody could appropriate that?

[42:55] What would you say was the key to that? And I'm going to say the key to this is actually Jesus Christ. The key to this is, well, how does, how are sinners saved?

[43:10] Saved. And this is Jews and non-Jews. And the New Testament is going to say actually both of those are sinners. And both can be redeemed through the blood of Jesus.

[43:25] And the matter of the long planning, well, Paul is going to say actually the long planning is something hidden in God, in Jesus Christ himself.

[43:37] Chosen, remember what Paul said, in Christ. Christ. So this other servant is the key here. And who is the one who comes to do this redeeming? Well, it's Jesus the Son.

[43:50] Who is the one who comes therefore with multiple promises attached to him, with multiple prophecies attached to him, that you could say of all these promises that we've been through, we've just sort of scratched the surface of them, they're all Jesus, they're all to do with him, that he is the key and if you have him you have all these promises applied to you.

[44:15] He's the one in whom there is redemption and he's the one who pours out the Spirit. That's what he came to do. It says that in the beginning of the Gospels, isn't it? This one who is baptized in the Spirit or receives the Spirit is the one who will baptize in the Spirit.

[44:30] So, I want to invite you to appropriate these verses and to be somebody who could say the worm servant that we did, I would be very happy to have that as a badge on my front.

[44:47] Worm servant, yes. Who can say that? Who can say exactly and precisely the people who can say Jesus is my Lord and Savior?

[44:58] There isn't anybody who is the worm servant who doesn't have Jesus and there isn't anybody who has Jesus who isn't the worm servant. The answer is found in Jesus Christ.

[45:10] The key is do you have him? That's the key. Do you have him? Let me just differentiate that. That's not the same thing as saying do you come to church regularly? That's geography.

[45:23] Coming, but having Jesus is relationship. Do you have have him in relationship? And that means you've got to talk to him. That means you've got to listen to him.

[45:35] That means you need to do some exchange with him and say to him Lord, I want to have these things. At the moment all I've got is the geography. I sit in the same room as other people who have it but what I want is the reality of this.

[45:49] Can you do that? Show me what I need. What do I need to bring to you? How do I need to turn my life to you? How can you help me with that? Don't stop talking to the Lord until you've got that sorted out.

[46:02] The answer is found in Jesus Christ. And let me freely offer Jesus to you and say there's a promise that if you have him you will have all these blessings. It's not to do with ethnicity.

[46:13] It's not to do with the moral failure in your life. You know, you've got a ton of sin. Okay, well that's what the servant had. But you bring that to the Lord and all the wonder of everything that's said here can be yours.

[46:28] And I say like the section ends with praise. It says, shout for joy O heavens for the Lord has done this. Shout aloud O earth beneath.

[46:40] Burst into song you mountains you forests and all you trees for the Lord has redeemed Jacob and he displays his glory in Israel. I think we would say amen to that wouldn't we?

[46:52] Let's sing a song together.