Turn to Isaiah chapter 50. Isaiah chapter 50. There are no rugby illustrations this morning.
! And there is a company called Red Tapebusters. I don't know whether you know them. Red tapebusters,
! they go into bats for people who are battling bureaucracy to do away with red tape. So perhaps
you've got a parking ticket and you know that the traffic warden was wrong, but who's
going to believe it as low as you? Perhaps you've got a query with your bill and you spend
the whole week being passed from one automated voice to another. Well now you can ring or
email Red Tapebusters and they will sort it out for you. It's a great ministry, isn't
it? We should support that ministry as a church in a way. It's great to have someone who will
go into bat with you. It's great to have someone on your side when the odds against you are
insurmountable. When you're fighting a losing battle. And that is pretty much where Israel is
here in Isaiah. Or at least Isaiah can see that coming. And of course, when something like
that happens, when something terrible and devastating happens, well who do you blame? Who do you
blame when life goes wrong? If you go back to chapter 49 and verse 14, you'll see they blame
God. And it's often, isn't it, a knee-jerk reaction. Where was God on dot dot dot? You point the
finger at the finger at God and you blame God. In a sense, I want to say to you, I don't
think that's unreasonable. Four times from verses 4 to 11, God is called the sovereign Lord.
He is the sovereign Lord, the Lord God. And yet his people are in a lot of trouble. And if
God really is the Lord God, the sovereign God, and he's in control, why is all this happening
to his people? Why are his people about to be booted out of the land to exile in Babylon?
If God is in control, well it either must be his fault, or he's forgotten about it. He's
forsaken us in the words of 49 verse 14. That's what they were thinking. And the Lord's response
in Isaiah chapter 50, you'll notice, is, this is what he says to people who are murmuring
or complaining about him. Verse 1, where's your mother's certificate of divorce? With
which I sent her away. God says to the people of Israel, go through the papers, go rifling
through the papers, and see if you can find a divorce certificate. You won't, because it's
not there. I have not divorced you. I am a covenant keeping God. I have not divorced you. What has
happened is you have divorced me. And that is what God is saying. I didn't sell you into
slavery. You sold yourself. You've actually got only yourself to blame. Very occasionally
you hear of children divorcing their parents. It's bizarre. It's so odd that it makes the
press. You can imagine kind of in extreme circumstances where that might be necessary. But it's bizarre.
It's unnatural. And yet here is God's people, and they have divorced themselves from God, their
loving Heavenly Father, by their rebellion and their sin and their idolatry. They've divorced
themselves from their loving Heavenly Father, and they will not listen. They will not hear
when he speaks. They will reply to his emails. They won't answer his calls. And when he sends
his prophets, they don't want to hear what he says. And you see, that is the explanation for
why the world is in the state it is. It's because we have divorced ourselves from the
living God. Not only that, we don't listen when he calls us. Like Adam in the garden.
Do you remember, immediately after the rebellion in the garden, God comes looking for Adam in
the garden and says, where are you? And Adam is hiding. He's run away. And so what is God's
answer to the problem? Well, it's not a philosophy, it's not a program. It's a person. And we've
seen that person introduced to us in these servant songs. Isaiah doesn't give him a name.
He just calls him a servant of the Lord. And for Isaiah, and for Israel, this figure is
mysterious. Who is the servant of the Lord if it's not Israel itself? Because the servant's
job was to restore Israel. It's not Cyrus, the pagan Persian king, who God will raise up
to deliver his people from Babylon. Because all Cyrus can do is return them to the land.
But there's something more needed, isn't there? We know that the problem is not just their
situation. Their problem is their sin. Their longing for repatriation. But God is looking
for repentance. And they want to come back to the land. But their need actually is to come
back to the Lord. And who's going to do that? And so Isaiah is shown 700 years before the
time. Before Christ. And so in Isaiah, you have a tracing of the one who is the king.
Isaiah looks down through the centuries. And he's shown what the servant looks like.
So that when the servant comes, you and I will be able to recognise him. And in this song,
the servant speaks and he tells us five things about himself. And then in verse 11, God speaks
to you and I about the servant. And he calls on us to follow him. So let's see what does
the servant say about himself. And I think chapter 50 is really sacred ground. We are taken
in Isaiah 50 into the inner consciousness of the Sermon of the Lord. We are given a glimpse
of the kind of relationship that exists between the Sovereign Lord God and his servant. Five
things. Number one, the servant speaks. The servant speaks. Can you see that in verse 4?
The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught. That I may know how to sustain
with a word him who is weary. The servant's task is to minister to people. People who are hurting,
people who are weighed down with burdens that are too heavy to carry. And he speaks. And
he gives them hope and strength to sustain them. He doesn't lecture them. He doesn't
belittle them. He doesn't crush them. He doesn't demolish them. Can you see it? Verse 4,
The Sovereign Lord has given me an instructed tongue to speak the words that sustain the weary.
The servant is supremely concerned with the glory of God. But he is also concerned with your
struggles and my struggles. And so Jesus says, come unto me all you who labour and are heavy
laden. And I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am humble
in heart and you will find rest for yourselves. So the servant this morning knows what you need
to hear. And that's why it's so important to be here this morning. That's why it's so important
to be under the life-giving ministry of the word of God. That if you're burdened in your
Christian life and you are carrying some load, the last thing that you should do is distance
yourself from God's people, isn't it? It's very often the very thing that people do when
life gets tough, when there's lots of struggles, they stop coming to church. They pull away from
God's people. And we're not there as often as we used to be. And we're not listening to the
other words. But that is the very last thing that we should do because the servant of the
Lord has been given an instructed tongue to speak the very word that you need to hear this
morning. And it may be, isn't it, that the very thing that you need to hear in your life
this morning, you'll hear this morning. As the Bible is opened. Because what happens on a
Sunday morning is that it is not the preacher who is speaking to you. It is God's servant,
Jesus, through his ministers, who speaks when they open the Bible and preach the word of God.
How important it is to be under the healthy, life-giving preaching of the word of God.
I want to say, I want to kind of start a new policy this morning. That very often I get
asked, can I meet with you? Can we talk? And very often, those are my people who are
hardly ever here. As I want to say for the next little while, partly because I'm so
busy, but I want to say, come to church for four weeks, morning and evening, hear the word
and then I'm happy to meet with you. And I think that is, I think that is, is actually
biblical. Because it's as the word of God is ministered that you will find your problems
addressed, and mine. Because the servant of the Lord knows what you need to hear this
morning. The servant of the Lord has got a perfect understanding of your heart. He knows
what you're thinking, he knows your heartaches and your doubts and your fears. He's got
just the right word to sustain you. Now we know that, don't we? We know that from the
Gospels. You look at John chapter 3. And Nicodemus, the kind of archbishop of Jerusalem,
all the weight of religion comes to see Jesus. What a weight to carry. John chapter 4, you've
got the woman at the well. No one wants to know her. She's the woman with no name. She's
lived an empty, sordid lifestyle. She's been through broken relationships. And the sermon
of the Lord knows exactly which words to speak to her. To the religious teacher. He says,
what an ugly, horrible thing religion is. If all you've got is religion, you've not got
Christ. And you need to be rescued from that. And so Jesus has got your right words. He says,
Nicodemus, you're trying to pull yourself up by your bootstraps. But actually what you
need is you need something from outside of you. You need the life of God and the soul of
man. To the woman of the world who's so ostracized by her own community, who is lonely and unhappy.
Jesus has got just the right words. And so every time you read the Gospels, you find, don't
you, that beggars, rich men, tax collectors, the opposite ends of the spectrum, lawyers, criminals,
mothers, prostitutes, political zealots, the establishment, the poor. And the Sermon
of the Lord has got an instructive tongue. And so he knows the right words to speak into
people's lives. Think about it. It's an amazing thing. He's a guy in his early thirties.
He's never been trained in psychology. He's not a qualified counselor. And he speaks to
everyone, doesn't he? Old and young, married and single. And he invites them all and he
says, come, come unto me. Come unto me, all of you who are burden heavy laden. I've got
the words that you need to hear. It's remarkable. What did they say when they came here? Do you
know what they said? They said, nobody ever spoke like this man. We've got our counselors and
our pundits and our preachers and they caught this man and that authority that nobody ever
spoke like this man. What did the woman at the well when she went into that Samaritan village
in John 4 and she said, come and meet a man who told me everything I ever did. Come and
meet a man whose word penetrated my defenses. Isn't that why we invite people to church?
Isn't that why we want to happen? Now of course that is true, isn't it, of Jesus in a way
that it's not true of anyone else. But if you and I are followers of Jesus, if you and I
want to be servants of a servant of the Lord, surely we must learn to talk to people with
the same compassion and understanding. People with empty lives and people with broken relationships
and people with heavy burdens, they gather to Jesus, but they don't gather to us. That's
a great challenge. A group of Christians that can only really have a conversation with another
Christian and they don't need them to argue about it. There's that quote, isn't it, by the comedian, isn't it?
Why do people who've made a friend in Jesus find it so hard to make a friend with anyone else?
And I think there's something in that, isn't there?
But they clamour to Jesus. The sovereign Lord has given me an instructed tongue to speak the words that will sustain the weary.
Now how do you do that?
So notice the second thing. Can we see what the Sermon of the Lord, what he just tries to find himself?
He says morning by morning, he awakens me, he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught.
Not only does the Sermon of the Lord have an instructed tongue, he's got a listening ear.
And that goes together, isn't it? The servant can speak to others only because he's the greatest God.
And that gives us a great insight into the secret life of the Lord Jesus.
The private life of the Lord Jesus. According to verse 4, he hasn't gone on the alarm clock to wake him, God wakes him.
And every morning he wakes up. He says, what does God want me to do today? What lesson will God teach me today?
He is my Lord, I am his willing servant. What are my instructions for today? He's a listening servant.
And in verse 4, he's listening as one who wants to be taught.
God has hidden. He has hidden these things from the wise and the learned.
There are things that you can't learn with your IQ and from a textbook.
God has hidden these things from the Pharisees and the scribes, but he reveals them to little children.
And morning by morning, the servant wakes up like a little child and he's eager to learn from his father.
And every day he keeps that appointment with his sovereign Lord.
And so you remember at the start of Mark's Gospel where Jesus is absolute box office and they're clamouring for him.
And he's Simon's mother-in-law and the sick are coming banging down the door and he doesn't have a moment to himself.
And we're told very early in the morning while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went to a solitary place to pray.
And the disciples are looking for him everywhere.
And they say when they find him, everyone is looking for you.
But Jesus had an appointment to keep to me.
With God.
And before he speaks to anyone else, he speaks to his father and he listens and he learns from him.
And I want you to see that the way that it happened for Jesus is not very different from the way that it happens to us.
When he's in the wilderness being tempted and the devil comes to him and tries to get him to do that huge PR stunt, to get on TV.
What did Jesus say?
Jesus, what did he say? Hang on a minute, I'm having my quiet time.
No, what does he say?
No, he doesn't. He says, as it is written.
And he quotes Deuteronomy 8 verses 6-8.
Whether he was reading it that morning, I don't know.
But the point is this.
Jesus knew Deuteronomy.
He was listening to the voice of his father through Deuteronomy.
And when he says the Son of Man must go up to Jerusalem and be handed over to the Gentiles and suffer many things.
And he must die and he must be raised from the dead.
How did he know that?
How did Jesus know that?
Where did he get it from?
Did he kind of just have some kind of theological implant put into his head that he knew this?
No, of course not.
God speaks to him morning by morning through the word that he's written.
And even when the Father speaks to him directly,
do you notice that when the Father speaks to the Son directly,
at his baptism, at his transfiguration,
with a voice from heaven,
what does God speak to his Son?
He speaks to the Bible.
This is my Son,
Psalm 2.
This is my beloved Son,
Abraham and Isaac,
who has to be bound to the altar and be sacrificed.
This is him in whom I delight,
Isaiah 42.
Morning by morning,
day after day,
he searches the scripture as one who wants to be taught.
And that's why he can say,
I do nothing of my own.
I speak what the Father has told me.
These words you hear me say,
they are not my own,
they belong to the Father.
The one who has sent me is with me.
I always do what pleases him.
It's the language of the servant, isn't it?
It's the attitude of the servant.
The servant speaks,
and the servant listens.
And that is why he can speak,
couldn't he,
with such extraordinary power and accuracy.
His words were born out of his daily communion with God.
With his Father.
And he needed that.
So let me ask,
if the Lord Jesus Christ,
the perfect, sinless Son of God,
needed the discipline
of daily listening to God,
how can any of us say,
I'm actually just too busy for us?
There's no room in my life for that.
If the incarnate Word of God
cannot talk to others
without first listening to the Father,
can you?
The sermon's job, first of all,
is to listen.
You cannot speak to people about God
unless you're first speaking to God about people.
Maybe the apostolic priorities,
when they act six,
when they learn from Jesus,
we will give ourselves first,
to prayer,
and then to the ministry of the Word.
In our circles,
we pride ourselves
that we are Word-centered.
That's what we stand for.
And yet, let's be honest,
we see very few conversions.
And our words don't pierce the defenses.
And why is there so, so much preaching in this country
that has so little power?
Yes, it's accurate.
Yes, it's not powerful.
And I wonder,
maybe it's because we're not listening.
And so again,
let me plead with you.
Let me plead with you
to make the prayer gather
at a time when we seek the Lord.
And if you're part of this church,
you should be there.
The sermon speaks,
the sermon listens.
Certainly the sermon obeys,
verse 5.
The Lord God has opened my ear
and I was not rebellious.
I turned not backwards.
Do you think he wanted to obey?
Do you?
Think of him in the wilderness.
He's been there six weeks without food.
A strong man can just about survive
without food for six weeks.
But only just.
He's crying out to the Father
to save his life
because he's at the point of death.
The devil's whispering in his ear,
it doesn't have to be like this, Jesus.
You don't have to go through
all the pain and the suffering.
I can give you what you want.
Did God promise you
the nations of the earth?
Look, here they are.
I can give you that.
Just bow down and worship me.
You don't need to go through
all the suffering and the pain.
It even cost you all that.
Don't you think that was
a real temptation for Jesus?
Don't you think that everything
in his humanity
would have wanted that?
It is written,
get behind me, Satan.
You shall worship the Lord God only.
It's not just some trite answer
from a textbook.
It is wrung out of him.
Or in the garden of Gethsemane,
on the ground,
shaking with fear.
View him prostrate
in the garden.
On the ground,
you'll make alive.
There he is shaking
with a black horror,
drops of blood.
Father,
Father, please.
Please,
I don't want to go through
with this.
If there is any other way,
please.
Nevertheless,
I've not drawn back.
I've not been rebellious.
Not my will,
but thine be done.
The obedience of Christ.
I've not drawn back.
I've not been rebellious
to say that.
It's a hymn of saying
when we walk with the Lord
in the light of his word.
In lots of ways,
there's a good chorus.
But the chorus goes like this.
Trust and obey,
for there's no other way
to be happy in Jesus
but to trust and obey.
Do you think Jesus
was happy in the garden?
Was he happy in the garden?
People say to me
this kind of madness.
You always know
it's God's will in your life
because you get
this sense of peace
about it.
The Bible might say that
but actually,
I've got a real sense of peace
about what I'm doing.
It doesn't feel wrong.
Do you think Jesus
had a sense of peace
in the garden,
that's how many?
Do you think
it felt right?
The servant speaks,
the servant listens,
the servant obeys,
and the servant suffers.
Verse 6.
I gave my back
to those who strike,
my cheeks to those
who pull out the ear.
I hid not my face
from disgrace and spitting.
That's where the obedience
of the servant led him.
It's hinted at in 42 and 49.
It's made explicit in 53.
But what we see here
is that the servant's
great task was to suffer
for his people.
And just notice
how he suffers.
Do you see the punishment?
I offered my back
to those who beat me.
It isn't just somebody
getting a kick in
in the street.
He's being judicially
sentenced and flogged.
He's stretched out
on a rack
like a common criminal.
It's a judicial,
horrible sentence.
He is literally
taking a beating.
For you.
And not only is there
punishment,
there's torture,
isn't there?
My cheeks to those
who pull out the beard.
It's beyond a Jewish,
a judicial sentence.
It shows the depth
of human depravity.
that human beings
took the most
beautiful
human life
that's ever lived
and they smashed it
on a cross.
And they treat it
with such disrespect
and there's humiliation
at the end of verse 6,
isn't it?
This is a man
who's humiliated.
I hid not my face
from disgrace
and spitting.
Has anyone ever
spat in your face?
It's happened once to me
during an open air.
It's absolutely
humiliating.
Can you see the contrast?
In chapter 42,
God the Father says,
look,
my servant
in whom I delight.
Behold,
my servant.
And the world says,
he is a joke.
Let's throw him
on the slag heap
of history.
He's an irrelevance.
Here he is
a convicted criminal.
God's servant,
the one who will
save the world,
the one who will
save his people
from their sins,
the one who will
restore them
into a right relationship
with God.
Beaten up.
Spat upon.
Crowds laughing.
And he does it
willingly.
Look at verse 6.
You see,
I gave my back.
This isn't just
some innocent bystander
who's been forced
into the situation
against his will.
Do you remember
John 10?
This is why
the Father loves me.
Because I laid
down my life.
No one takes it
from me.
I have the authority
to lay it down
and take it up again.
This is why
the Father loves me.
I lay down my life.
There's no virtue
in suffering
for suffering's sake.
But suffering
accepted
willingly
out of obedience
to God
is infinitely
precious.
Paul says,
let this mind
give you,
let this be
the model.
Let this be
the Christian mind.
Let him be
your role model.
That he did not
consider equality
with God
something to be
grasped
but made himself
nothing
taking the very
nature of a servant.
He humbled himself
becoming obedient
to death,
even death
on a cross.
That's the
Christian life.
ministers
have pity parties.
We go to our
conferences
and you see
you want to see
how hard my church is.
You want to see
how hard this is.
People can let you
down,
can't they?
You can be
disappointed.
Your family can
suffer.
You can be
misrepresented
as a Christian.
You can be
humiliated.
But what
did you expect?
Paul says,
I want to know
him and the
power of his
resurrection.
Well,
we can all do
without that
power.
I want to know
him and the
power of his
resurrection.
But why?
Why does
Paul say we
should know
the power of
the resurrection
so that we
can share in
his sufferings
and be like
him in his
death?
And that's
why we need
this supernatural
power of God
so that we
can be like
him in his
suffering and
his death.
Jesus said,
if you come
after me,
take up your
cross and
follow me.
The servant
speaks,
the servant
listens,
the servant
obeys and
the servant
suffers.
He's not
just the
humble listener
and the
gentle teacher,
but he's
also the
innocent
sufferer.
bearing shame
and scoffing
rude.
In my
place
condemned,
he stood.
Behold,
the man upon
a cross,
my sin upon
his shoulder,
ashamed,
I hear my
mocking verse.
The crowd
muster
scoffers.
He speaks,
he listens,
he obeys,
he suffers,
he trusts,
he trusts.
Verse 7.
He sees
beyond the
suffering,
doesn't he,
in verse 7.
And he
says,
he who
vindicated
me is
near.
He is
near.
Therefore,
I've not
been
disgraced.
But the
Lord helps
me.
Therefore,
I've not
been
disgraced.
The
sovereign
Lord will
see to it
that I
am not
disgraced.
Luke 9
tells us
what time
Jesus was
walking
towards
Jerusalem,
he sees
the city,
and there's
a real
look of
determination
in his
eyes,
and the
disciples
are
astonished.
It's
as if
they think
he's
really
going to
do it.
He's
going to
go to
Jerusalem.
He's
going to
walk
straight into
trouble.
He knows
it.
It's not
just spin.
He knows
what's going
to happen.
Now,
why would
anyone do
that?
Why would
anyone walk
deliberately
to their
own death?
well,
because he
says,
the Lord
helps me,
therefore I
have not
been
disgraced.
Verse 8,
he who
vindicates
me is
near.
Yes,
he will
be condemned
in the
courts of
men,
but he
will be
vindicated
in the
courts of
heaven.
Who will
contend with
me?
Let us
stand here.
Who is
my adversary?
Let him
come near
to me.
Behold,
the Lord
God
helps me.
Who will
declare me
guilty?
Behold,
all of
them will
wear out
like a
garment.
The moth
will eat
them up.
It's like
when Indiana
Jones in
the films,
he goes
into a
tomb,
and there's
a little
shroud,
and you
touch it,
and it's
like a
puff of
smoke.
Who are
those who
accuse me?
Who are
those who
sit in
his palace
like Pilate?
Herod,
and Rome,
what are
they like?
They are
like,
verse 9,
moth-eaten
garments.
You blow
on them
and they
disappear.
People go
to Rome
to visit
the ruins.
People
call their
dogs
Nero,
and their
sons
Paul.
Who are
those who
stand against
Jesus?
Who is
going to
accuse him?
Who will
stand against
him?
Islam
will not
stand before
him.
Buddha
bow his
chubby knees
to you.
And every
tongue will
confess.
And so I
don't know if
you're being
slandered or
persecuted or
written off by
society, but
you need to
know this,
all of that
will disintegrate
like a moth
on the day
of judgment.
And every
knee will
bow.
And so what
happened?
God reversed
the verdict,
didn't it?
They thought
we'll crucify
him with
wicked hands
and crucify
him.
You thought
we're
finished
with him.
We'll
remember
Jesus of
Nazareth
in ten
years'
time.
But this
same
Jesus,
the preaching
of Acts
tells us,
you took
and crucified
God,
raised him
from the
dead,
and made
him to
be the
Lord and
Christ.
And by
doing that
he served
notice that
one day,
on that
final day,
every knee
will bow
to him and
every tongue
confess that
Jesus Christ
is Lord.
Now look
with me again
at verses
eight and
nine.
Where have
you seen
them before?
Where have
you seen
them before?
They should
ring a
bow,
shouldn't
they?
Just look at
them again.
Who will
contend with
me?
who is my
adversary?
It's
Romans
eight.
Who will
bring any
charge against
God's elect?
If God is
for us,
who can be
against us?
In the
resurrection of
Jesus Christ,
not only is he
vindicated,
but because we
are united to
Christ,
we are
vindicated in
him.
He was
delivered for
our offenses.
He didn't
die for any
crime he
committed.
He was
delivered for
our offenses,
and raised
for our
justification.
As we
close,
there are
only two
responses you
can make to
this.
Verses 10
and 11,
you can go
the servant's
way,
and you can
follow him,
or you can
make a path
for yourself.
Who,
verses 10
and 11?
George
VI was
the present
queen's
father.
A genuine
Christian man,
he's the guy
from the
king's
speech.
And he
made a
very famous
speech,
you may
know it,
on Christmas
day,
1939,
three months
after Britain
declared war.
And he
said this,
I believe
from my
heart that the
cause which
binds together
our people
and our
gallant and
faithful allies
is the
cause of
Christian
civilization.
On no
other basis
can a true
civilization be
built.
Let us
remember that
through the
dark times
ahead of us,
and when we
are making
the peace
for which
all men
pray.
A new
year is at
hand,
we cannot
tell what
it will
bring.
If it
brings peace,
how thankful
we should all
be.
If it
brings
continued
struggle,
we shall
be undaunted.
In the
meantime,
I feel that
we shall
all find
courage with
the words
with which
I close.
I said to
the man
who stood
at the
gate of
the year,
give me
a light,
that I
may tread
safely into
the unknown.
And he
replied,
go out
into the
darkness,
and put
your hand
into the
hand of
God,
and that
shall be
to you
better than
light,
and safer
than a
known
way.
Isn't
that what
Isaiah is
saying in
verse 10?
Isaiah is
saying to
the exiles,
and he
says to
you and
I,
put your
hand into
the hand
of God,
and it
will be
to you
better than
light,
safer than
a known
way.
And when
you do
that,
when you
repent of
your
autonomy,
and when
you say,
Lord,
I am no
longer going
to run
my life,
I'm going
to allow
you,
by your
word and
spirit to
run my
life,
the lights
don't suddenly
switch on,
do they?
And as
a Christian,
we have to
say,
a lot of
the time,
you're still
in the
dark,
and there
are still
many dark
experiences.
They were
in exile in
Babylon,
but there is
bereavement,
and there is
despair,
and there is
depression,
and there is
loneliness in
the Christian
life.
But this
promise to
the exiles
is a
promise for
you and
I,
that as
life is
difficult,
like it
was for
them,
immersed in
alien culture,
fumbling
around the
corner,
they didn't
know what
was going
to happen
next,
but if
you put
your hand
into the
hand of
God,
it will
be better
to you
than a
known way,
better than
light.
church.
And if
you've never
done that,
will you
do it
this morning?
Will you
trust in
God to
follow his
sermon?
We have
the benefit
of hindsight.
Isaiah saw
palely,
didn't he?
But we
see in
fulfilment
that Jesus
is God's
servant,
who came
not to be
served,
but to
serve and
give his
life as a
ransom for
many.
So won't
you put
your hand
into his?
Because there
is an
alternative if
you will not
do that.
Can you see
that in
verse 11?
that if
you won't
trust him,
the only
person you
can trust
is yourself.
That,
yeah,
feel free,
kindle a
fire,
who equip
yourselves
with burning
torches,
walk by the
light of your
fire and
by the
torches
that you've
kindled.
This you
have from
my hand,
that you
shall lie
down in
torment.
That's the
alternative.
To live
life.
By your
own way.
To light
your own
torch.
To refuse
to put your
hand in
his hand,
to say we
can't trust
the servant.
To not
trust the
one who's
got the
words to
sustain you.
The one
who laid
down his
life for
you.
And you
can't trust
yourself to
him.
And so
you will
lie down
in torment.
And torment
means torment.
to light
your own
torch.
There are
only two
ways to
go.
And
whichever
way you
choose,
God will
give you
exactly what
you ask
for.
You can
either rely
on him,
and he
will take
you through
the darkness
of this
life safely,
or,
verse 10,
you choose
to ignore
him, live
by your
own light,
and he
will leave
you on
your own
now and
forever and
ever and
ever.
That's what
the Bible
means by
tell.
And it
is out of
darkness,
and it
is out of
torment.
And so I
plead with you
this morning.
You will
have no one
to blame
but yourself.
We receive
from the
Lord exactly
what we
ask for.
Trust in
him,
and you
will lie
down in
safety.
Trust in
yourself,
and you
will lie
down in
torment.
Let's
pray.
Let's
pray.
Let's
pray.