WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.300 The passage, Corey read from Isaiah chapter 49. 00:00:03.300 --> 00:00:08.259 And as he said in the evening worship, we're looking at the servant songs of Isaiah 00:00:08.259 --> 00:00:14.859 which really speak to us, tell us more about Jesus than even the New Testament does in some ways. 00:00:14.859 --> 00:00:18.559 Gives us insight into the mind and the thinking of Jesus. 00:00:18.559 --> 00:00:20.940 And it's a good follow-on from this morning. 00:00:20.940 --> 00:00:23.240 We were speaking about having a servant heart 00:00:23.240 --> 00:00:28.719 and of course the ultimate servant is the Lord Jesus Christ and these are called the servant songs. 00:00:28.719 --> 00:00:33.920 And I hope they allow it speak into your circumstances and into your heart this evening 00:00:33.920 --> 00:00:38.159 as we celebrate the Lord's Supper together also. 00:00:38.159 --> 00:00:45.280 Now just by way of introduction you remember and Corey will have put everything into its context already. 00:00:45.280 --> 00:00:51.200 But this Isaiah was written in a time, or Isaiah wrote, prophesied in a time of chaos. 00:00:51.200 --> 00:00:56.200 Really times of political, social and spiritual turmoil. 00:00:56.200 --> 00:01:01.160 And he mentioned, I know because I listened to it, 00:01:01.160 --> 00:01:08.200 he spoke about the kingdoms, Israel and Judah, having split apart by this stage. 00:01:08.200 --> 00:01:14.120 And the Northern Kingdom had already fallen to Assyria at great world power. 00:01:14.120 --> 00:01:20.240 Judah was much smaller and it was surrounded by threatening world powers. 00:01:20.240 --> 00:01:25.719 And it was all political and also spiritually linked in together. 00:01:25.719 --> 00:01:32.039 And eventually their idolatry and their faithlessness brought them into exile themselves. 00:01:32.039 --> 00:01:39.799 They lost the heritage of the promised land and they were exiled into Babylon after Isaiah's time. 00:01:39.799 --> 00:01:46.120 But right through Isaiah's time these people were unwilling to put their trust in God, 00:01:46.120 --> 00:01:51.000 the covenant God who had redeemed their forefathers from slavery in Egypt 00:01:51.000 --> 00:01:54.280 and brought them into relationship with him. 00:01:54.280 --> 00:01:58.760 Sometimes they would rather go to just one of these other nations around about them 00:01:58.760 --> 00:02:02.920 to try and be strong, one of the nations like Egypt. 00:02:02.920 --> 00:02:05.719 Because everything seemed stacked against them. 00:02:05.719 --> 00:02:09.240 But they had no sense of peace in anything they did. 00:02:09.240 --> 00:02:15.560 And it's interesting that the last verse of the previous chapter that we read, God speaking, 00:02:15.560 --> 00:02:21.479 and he says, there is no peace, says the Lord for the wicked. 00:02:21.479 --> 00:02:27.799 And then at the end of another section, at the end of chapter 57, exactly the same words. 00:02:27.799 --> 00:02:33.399 Nine, eight chapters later, there is no peace, says my God for the wicked. 00:02:33.399 --> 00:02:36.120 So there's this lack of peace, okay? 00:02:36.120 --> 00:02:41.560 And we can relate sometimes to that whole concept of a lack of peace in our lives 00:02:41.560 --> 00:02:45.159 and sometimes a spiritual lack of peace. 00:02:45.159 --> 00:02:48.839 So the theme of the whole book is to come back to the living God. 00:02:48.840 --> 00:02:53.960 That's the message, as a people they had turned away from God and so he's saying, coming back. 00:02:53.960 --> 00:02:55.159 Come back rather. 00:02:55.159 --> 00:02:58.920 Because turning away from God, and this is very relevant and up to date, 00:02:58.920 --> 00:03:01.560 turning away from God is Christians in our lives. 00:03:01.560 --> 00:03:03.400 And for this people is never the answer. 00:03:04.120 --> 00:03:05.640 God's committed to them. 00:03:05.640 --> 00:03:06.920 God's incovenant with them. 00:03:06.920 --> 00:03:09.640 And he says, please start listening again. 00:03:10.439 --> 00:03:17.159 See the ugliness and the danger of wandering away from me as nations, as a nation, and as individuals. 00:03:17.159 --> 00:03:24.680 And of course that message, maybe not so much for nations, but for individuals within nations. 00:03:25.400 --> 00:03:32.519 It's this great, ongoing, relevant challenge, both to us as Christians or if you're here this evening, 00:03:32.519 --> 00:03:33.639 and you're not a Christian. 00:03:33.639 --> 00:03:40.039 The only place of absolute peace for you, the only peace for us in our lives of internal peace and security, 00:03:40.039 --> 00:03:46.759 is to recognize that we're to come back to God, put Him first in our lives, worship and serve Him 00:03:46.759 --> 00:03:49.159 with His recognizing who He is. 00:03:49.159 --> 00:03:55.639 And as Christians, we sit here tonight and we sit with a great weight on our shoulders 00:03:55.639 --> 00:03:56.919 that we are bought with a price. 00:03:57.719 --> 00:03:59.479 We are redeemed by the living God. 00:04:00.120 --> 00:04:04.359 And He's always encouraging that the Lord's Supper is always a great time because it's 00:04:04.359 --> 00:04:08.439 an encouragement to come back, to return to the Lord for who He is. 00:04:08.439 --> 00:04:13.239 So I want to just for a moment this evening, briefly, if I can, to look at God's Redeemer, 00:04:13.240 --> 00:04:17.079 as He's highlighted in the passage we read. 00:04:19.160 --> 00:04:23.480 We have here a prophecy of the servant of the Lord who's going to come and bring back the people, 00:04:23.480 --> 00:04:25.800 redeem them and be their Savior. 00:04:25.800 --> 00:04:37.960 Now, in a physical way, in a small way, that was in a short term way as it were, 00:04:37.959 --> 00:04:44.519 that was going to be a political Savior who was going to come and be the means by which they would 00:04:44.519 --> 00:04:47.959 come back to Jerusalem, back to the Promised Land. 00:04:47.959 --> 00:04:50.120 King called Cyrus was going to bring them. 00:04:50.120 --> 00:04:53.799 But it's a much bigger picture here of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. 00:04:53.799 --> 00:04:55.799 And we have, as Corrie mentioned last week, 00:04:55.799 --> 00:05:03.319 unparalleled insight into Jesus Christ in these servant songs from Isaiah, written 100 of years 00:05:03.319 --> 00:05:09.800 before Jesus lived in it. It says here at the beginning that Jesus, the servant, is the one who 00:05:09.800 --> 00:05:17.319 is going to be called Israel. You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified. 00:05:18.120 --> 00:05:22.039 So we have this name given to the Savior, to Jesus Christ. 00:05:22.839 --> 00:05:29.079 And we have this, pointing forward, by looking back, because do you know who Israel was? 00:05:29.079 --> 00:05:35.000 Israel was a nation. But before Israel was a nation, Israel was a person. 00:05:36.279 --> 00:05:41.800 Jacob was renamed Israel. Do you remember when he was renamed Israel? 00:05:44.039 --> 00:05:46.519 It was when he wrestled with God at Bethel. 00:05:47.240 --> 00:05:51.959 You see, you will no longer be called, Jacob, you will be called Israel because you have wrestled 00:05:51.959 --> 00:05:58.599 with God. You've contended with God. You've fought with God. And you've overcome this amazing 00:05:58.600 --> 00:06:05.640 passage. And so Israel, Jacob, had this great weight on his shoulder of carrying forward the 00:06:05.640 --> 00:06:13.960 promises made to Abraham, right through to him and his, those descendants after him. 00:06:14.680 --> 00:06:21.000 And he knew about God's commitment to save a people, Israel. And yet Israel, the nation, 00:06:21.000 --> 00:06:29.480 had up to this point just stumbled and fallen and fell, had let down their God. They needed a 00:06:29.480 --> 00:06:35.079 redeemer. They needed a Savior. They couldn't live up to what God demanded. Jacob couldn't live up 00:06:35.079 --> 00:06:41.639 to what God demanded, even as the one who wrestled with God. There was to be a true representative, 00:06:42.199 --> 00:06:47.399 Jesus Christ, this servant who would be called Israel, who would be the representative of his 00:06:47.399 --> 00:06:53.239 people. And he would be, he was called from the womb, as you were told in verse 1, the body of my 00:06:53.239 --> 00:06:59.799 mother, he named my name, from the body of my mother, he named my name. Speaking of this redeemer 00:06:59.799 --> 00:07:05.159 who would come, who would be the representative, the incarnate Son of God, who would be the 00:07:05.159 --> 00:07:12.120 representative of his people, born of a woman, a servant, a slave, as Corrie mentioned last week. 00:07:12.120 --> 00:07:19.240 He, servants, a kind of gentle, nice phrase in a sense, but Jesus was this great servant, slave, 00:07:20.040 --> 00:07:26.199 in whom God would reveal his glory, who would display his splendor in a slave. 00:07:27.560 --> 00:07:33.079 In the lowest of the low, it's a unique designation of the servant king who would come, 00:07:33.079 --> 00:07:39.319 who would submit as a servant, as the sin-bearer, who would, as it were, wrestle with God, 00:07:39.319 --> 00:07:46.759 God, taking his own name Israel on behalf of his people, speaking reverently and carefully there, 00:07:47.399 --> 00:07:55.000 with a divine willingness that he would stand and be the one who would be our Savior and our Lord. 00:07:56.839 --> 00:08:06.120 Because it goes on to speak of him as being the light of the world, the one who God has 00:08:06.120 --> 00:08:17.240 led to be in this amazing position of the ruler and the light of the world. He is so significant, 00:08:17.240 --> 00:08:24.600 I'm going to find it. Recognized in verses 4 to 7, it speaks of him, I have labored, 00:08:25.399 --> 00:08:27.399 oh no, I know, sorry I've got the wrong verse now. 00:08:27.399 --> 00:08:38.199 Yeah, sorry, verse 6, at the end of verse 6, I was prepared this in a different Bible, 00:08:39.240 --> 00:08:43.240 different pages, and it always confuses me, I should learn, I should learn to use the same one, 00:08:44.439 --> 00:08:49.319 I will make you as a light to the nations at the end of verse 6, that the salvation may reach 00:08:49.319 --> 00:08:54.360 the end of the earth. You've got this great recognition of the servant of the Lord who's 00:08:54.360 --> 00:09:05.720 coming as the light of the world, who wrestled with a perfect despondency before the living God, 00:09:06.279 --> 00:09:13.159 and who recognized that he was in this great position of being the Satan. Verse 4, he says, 00:09:13.159 --> 00:09:19.000 I've labored in vain, I've spent my strength for nothing and vanity, surely my right is with the 00:09:19.000 --> 00:09:25.399 Lord, my reckonset, penses with my God, and he was despised as we're spoken of, and abhorred. 00:09:26.600 --> 00:09:34.039 And it reminds me of his cry for Jerusalem, when he cries for Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, 00:09:34.039 --> 00:09:40.279 I longed for you. His mother hen longed for to gather chicken under her wings, but you were not 00:09:40.279 --> 00:09:48.919 willing, and yet in that rejection, that almost despondency, he recognized anew that God had a 00:09:48.919 --> 00:09:54.120 purpose, and God was speaking to him, and said, you're the light of the world, you will not just 00:09:55.240 --> 00:10:03.399 restore Judah, but you will be for the whole of the world. It's not enough for you just to be the 00:10:03.399 --> 00:10:10.279 servant of my people, but you'll be justice and a Savior for the whole of the world, and you're 00:10:10.279 --> 00:10:17.399 honored and chosen, you're the covenant God, and there is this great covenant, new covenant, 00:10:18.279 --> 00:10:27.879 in his blood that we recognize and we see and we know. So he's the light of the world, 00:10:27.879 --> 00:10:33.879 he's the one that offers restoration, speaks here about the end of desolation, that he'll set them 00:10:33.879 --> 00:10:40.759 free, and that they will know him and rejoice in him for who he is, and for what he's done. I know 00:10:40.759 --> 00:10:46.600 I turned two pages, that's why I'm struggling so badly. In the time of favor, I answered you in 00:10:46.600 --> 00:10:51.080 the days that I helped you, I will keep you, and you'll be a covenant for my people to establish the 00:10:51.080 --> 00:10:56.840 land to apportion the desolate heritages. He's going to be this covenant for his people, 00:10:56.840 --> 00:11:02.040 which we will remember when we say this is a new covenant in my blood, that the covenant is the 00:11:02.040 --> 00:11:08.840 person of the Lord Jesus Christ, and he offers this great recognition and hope and restoration. 00:11:09.399 --> 00:11:16.920 And verse 13, it tells us that he inspires praise, shout for joy, oh heavens and exalt the earth, 00:11:16.920 --> 00:11:23.240 break forth the mountains into singing, for the Lord is comforted as people, he will have compassion 00:11:23.240 --> 00:11:30.279 on his afflicted. So there's this great sense of rejoicing and the recognition of his comfort 00:11:30.279 --> 00:11:37.159 and his compassion. So it speaks in general terms of what he's coming to do, and how important 00:11:37.159 --> 00:11:42.360 and significant he is, and I'm sorry I completely lost my place there when I was looking at the wrong 00:11:42.360 --> 00:11:49.240 chapter, so I'm going to close that bit, okay, and I'm going to go on to just as we prepare for the 00:11:49.240 --> 00:11:57.000 Lord's Supper. We recognize that this speaks of Jesus Christ and it speaks of who he is and his 00:11:57.000 --> 00:12:01.639 relationship to the Father, and there's this ongoing conversation as it were between God the Father 00:12:01.639 --> 00:12:08.279 and God the Son in this passage, and they looked at very briefly. And we've got this great picture 00:12:08.279 --> 00:12:19.959 of a covenant, caring, servant, light redeemer who brings hope and who brings healing and who 00:12:19.959 --> 00:12:27.959 brings satisfaction, provision and guidance on our way home. I don't have time to go into more of that. 00:12:28.679 --> 00:12:37.159 But before we sit down at the Lord's Supper, I want to ask what your response is to this picture 00:12:37.159 --> 00:12:43.240 and the picture that Cori gave last week of Jesus Christ as God's servant and the description it 00:12:43.240 --> 00:12:50.839 gives here which I haven't really described well in any sense whatsoever, but is it generally when 00:12:50.839 --> 00:12:56.759 we look at God's Word and we come to God's Word, do we find His Word encouraging? Do we find these 00:12:56.759 --> 00:13:05.000 pictures inspiring? Or do we find them irrelevant? Because I think it's interesting to see the 00:13:05.000 --> 00:13:14.440 response of God's own people that we have in this chapter. The response isn't great to this 00:13:14.440 --> 00:13:18.840 comfort, this prophecy of comfort that Isaiah brings to their member, they're beleaguered, 00:13:19.480 --> 00:13:25.559 they feel things are difficult, they need to return to the Lord, and Isaiah gives them this great 00:13:25.559 --> 00:13:30.679 picture of the God who will redeem and who will save them, and their response in verse 14 is, 00:13:30.679 --> 00:13:37.319 the Lord has forsaken me. Zion said, the Lord has forsaken me, my Lord has forgotten me. 00:13:39.719 --> 00:13:47.239 It's underwhelming, isn't it? And is that the response we have to the living God at the core 00:13:47.239 --> 00:13:53.399 of your heart, at the core of your life? Do you look to God and say, well, I think the Lord 00:13:53.399 --> 00:14:01.559 is just abandoning me. I feel alone, I feel unspiritual, I feel it's much easier to trust 00:14:02.360 --> 00:14:08.919 things that I can see and feel in touch that are there tangibly. God is distant from me. 00:14:10.039 --> 00:14:16.039 Despite these words that have been given in prophecy, He's just far away. And I think often 00:14:16.039 --> 00:14:21.240 our response can be the same as Zion, the people of Judah's response, the Lord has forsaken me 00:14:21.240 --> 00:14:26.360 and the Lord has forgotten me. So just before we celebrate the Lord's support together, 00:14:26.919 --> 00:14:34.279 can I just remind you of the promise He goes on to give in verses 15 to 18, both to them and also to 00:14:34.279 --> 00:14:42.279 us. There are tremendous pictures to think about when you're at the Lord's table. However difficult 00:14:42.279 --> 00:14:48.039 your circumstances may be tonight. However cold you may feel your heart is towards God. 00:14:48.039 --> 00:14:57.879 We have here God, as it were, just simply trying to explain how much He cares, how much He loves. 00:14:57.879 --> 00:15:03.159 Have you ever been in that position with someone who doesn't believe you, but how much you love them? 00:15:03.799 --> 00:15:08.519 And you try and explain, you try and put into words just how much you love them, 00:15:09.879 --> 00:15:16.919 and you try and make it as clear and as passionate as possible. That's exactly what God is doing here. 00:15:16.919 --> 00:15:23.479 He's seen the response that, well, they just say the Lord has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me. 00:15:23.479 --> 00:15:31.079 And so He responds to them with a couple of great pictures to say, no, that's not the case. Please 00:15:32.039 --> 00:15:39.879 remember how much I care and how much I love you in your lives. And He uses a picture of a nursing 00:15:39.879 --> 00:15:52.600 mother, of a, can I say, a tattooed, engraved hand, and also the walls being before me. I'll 00:15:52.600 --> 00:15:59.399 just explain them very briefly. This great maternal picture we have of the living God. Can a mother, 00:15:59.399 --> 00:16:03.960 can a woman forget her nursing child that she should have no compassion on in verse 15, 00:16:03.960 --> 00:16:10.440 on the Son of the womb, even though she may forget, yet I will never forget you. So it's that 00:16:10.440 --> 00:16:17.639 maternal image again. It's used in the Bible quite often. The closest of all human links, really, 00:16:17.639 --> 00:16:25.639 isn't it? In many ways, that unique bond between the nursing mother and her child that she has 00:16:25.639 --> 00:16:35.080 birthed. She has birthed a life as flesh of my flesh. And there's this incredibly close and unique 00:16:35.080 --> 00:16:42.360 bond between mother and son and daughter. And God's using that picture. And He said, that's a human 00:16:42.360 --> 00:16:47.799 picture that you understand. And you can see, and He said, but even if a mother would, and because 00:16:47.799 --> 00:16:54.120 that happens, a mother, sometimes mothers do forget their children and fathers forget their children, 00:16:54.120 --> 00:16:59.240 remarkably, how could that be the case? But they do. And He said, even though they may forget, 00:16:59.240 --> 00:17:05.559 yet never will I forget you. God says, you are born. And as a Christian, you're born twice from me. 00:17:05.559 --> 00:17:10.759 I have born you twice. I've born you once in creation. And I've rebirthed you in salvation. 00:17:11.400 --> 00:17:19.640 I've paid, I've borne the cost, the birth pangs of salvation on the cross. I've paid the greatest 00:17:19.640 --> 00:17:27.960 of prices so that you can be born anew, born afresh, born again. And I've given you spiritual life. 00:17:27.960 --> 00:17:34.440 So we have this great picture of the Redeemer, who for us all this evening has given us a new life, 00:17:34.440 --> 00:17:45.640 who's rebirthed us. And as such, he has created us, recreated us in his image. What a great 00:17:45.640 --> 00:17:51.560 promise. God says, look, I'll never forget you. I can't possibly forget you. Whatever you're going 00:17:51.560 --> 00:17:56.759 through, please don't feel. Whatever it might be that it's because God has forgotten you. 00:17:58.360 --> 00:18:04.600 It may be that we don't understand, but He hasn't forgotten. He loves you. He loves you with this 00:18:04.600 --> 00:18:10.759 great, unique bond. What a great promise to take with us tonight and to meditate on at the table. 00:18:10.759 --> 00:18:17.879 But also, He goes on to further describe, He says, behold, I've engraved you on the palms 00:18:17.879 --> 00:18:26.599 of my hands. We are engraved, He says, I've engraved you. This is a tremendously strong picture 00:18:26.599 --> 00:18:33.480 of commitment, of God's commitment to us. The divine hands are the picture of His 00:18:33.480 --> 00:18:40.680 strength and of His activity. All that He does comes through His hands, as it were, 00:18:41.799 --> 00:18:47.880 the great source of His power and of His work. And He's therefore saying, all that I do, 00:18:48.680 --> 00:18:56.200 all that I sovereignly ordain to happen, I do so with you in mind, because you're right before me 00:18:56.200 --> 00:19:08.039 as I work. We're engraved in the palms of His hand this tremendously strong picture that He gives us 00:19:09.240 --> 00:19:17.080 hewn, as it were, into His hands, this image of His people always before Him. So even in the 00:19:17.080 --> 00:19:21.799 brokenness of the world in which we live, and maybe the brokenness of your experiences and of 00:19:21.799 --> 00:19:28.680 your life, He's saying, I will take them, because I'm sovereign and I'm king. And I will use them 00:19:28.680 --> 00:19:35.399 as you come under my shadow and in my wings, I will use them for good and for glory in your life, 00:19:35.960 --> 00:19:46.119 His palms. As He works, His palms are facing Him. It's a picture, the word is engraved, 00:19:46.119 --> 00:19:57.879 strong picture, costly, deliberate, permanent. And I think it ought to make us think of His 00:19:57.879 --> 00:20:08.199 nail pierced hands as the symbol of His work on our behalf. Thomas says, I doubt you, I doubt you, 00:20:08.199 --> 00:20:13.399 I doubt you are the risen same. Come, Thomas, look at my nail pierced hands. There's this great 00:20:13.400 --> 00:20:23.880 physical emblem of the cost of our salvation, and it's always before Him. And we are always before 00:20:23.880 --> 00:20:31.000 Him. There's never a moment when His people are not the focus and the centre of His attention, 00:20:31.000 --> 00:20:37.160 which is a great comfort and a great reality. And He goes on, thirdly, to say, your walls 00:20:37.160 --> 00:20:44.360 were continually before me, He's speaking there of Jerusalem, the great city of God and the walls. 00:20:44.360 --> 00:20:52.200 And these walls would soon be broken down. They'd be broken down and wrecked, because they'd abandon 00:20:52.200 --> 00:20:57.720 the city or they were taken captivity from the city, and the beautiful city of God would be in 00:20:57.720 --> 00:21:07.160 ruins. And yet, so it's kind of this picture that God has, that His beloved, His beloved Jerusalem, 00:21:07.160 --> 00:21:13.079 He doesn't see these broken down walls. He doesn't see what the destroyers have done, 00:21:13.880 --> 00:21:20.360 and what is laid waste. But He says, I see the walls, I see the finished picture. I see 00:21:20.359 --> 00:21:28.679 the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven as a bride prepared for a bridegroom, not the broken 00:21:28.679 --> 00:21:39.079 down walls of defeat and separation and destruction. He sees what we will be. He sees that finished 00:21:39.079 --> 00:21:50.039 city, that finished work, that beautiful prepared place that He has already made ready for us. 00:21:52.439 --> 00:21:58.599 And often we're worried about our future, aren't we? Well, where will I be in five years' time? 00:21:58.599 --> 00:22:02.359 Where will I be in ten years' time? What will my Christian life be like? What will happen when I 00:22:02.359 --> 00:22:08.519 get old? What happens after I get old? What happens when I die? All these questions. And He's saying, 00:22:08.519 --> 00:22:17.400 Luke, a nursing mother, I'll never forget you. You're there. You're always there. And I see the 00:22:17.400 --> 00:22:23.559 finished picture. I see way beyond even the grave. I have all these things, great words of comfort 00:22:23.559 --> 00:22:31.160 and great words of protection. And they are intensely personal for us. And we recognize 00:22:31.160 --> 00:22:40.519 that this is a picture of the Redeemer who is our Redeemer and our Savior and our Lord. And we 00:22:40.519 --> 00:22:45.080 remember Him this evening, and we remember Him around the table. And I hope you'll just take 00:22:45.080 --> 00:22:54.519 time to think on these great pictures, which He wants to convince us of who He is and of His care 00:22:54.519 --> 00:23:01.319 and of His love and of His protection. And I do implore you in your Christian life, if you're 00:23:01.319 --> 00:23:09.079 far from Him, if you doubt Him, if you're drifting from Him, hear His great words and come back to 00:23:09.079 --> 00:23:17.879 this is the place of safety and security in His company, in His presence, under His Word, with His 00:23:17.880 --> 00:23:27.240 people prayerfully following Him as Lord and Savior. And may the Lord's upper be a time for you, if 00:23:27.240 --> 00:23:48.599 that's the case, of returning to Him.