I would like you to turn in your Bibles this morning to the passage that will frame, at least start our study.
! And after we look at this passage just for a moment, we're going to go to the Isaiah text that will dominate the remainder of our time together.
Turn in your Bibles, if you would, to Luke chapter 24. Luke chapter 24.
Beginning there in verse 13, let me read the passage to you. You follow along in your own copy, if you would, please.
That very day, verse 13, two of them were going to the village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem.
And they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened.
While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him.
And he said to them, what is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk?
And they stood still, looking sad.
Then one of them named Cleopas answered him, are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened here these days?
And he said to them, what things?
And they said to him, concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet, mighty indeed, and word before God and all the people.
And how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death and crucified him.
But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.
Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened.
Moreover, some women in our company amazed us.
They were at the tomb early in the morning, and when they did not find his body, they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive.
Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the woman had said, but him they did not see.
And he said to them, O foolish ones and slow of heart, not to believe all the prophets have spoken.
Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?
And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them all the scriptures, the things concerning himself.
I want you to turn over to Isaiah chapter 49.
I wasn't on the road to Emmaus, nor were you.
But the scriptures tell us that what Jesus did when these dear men were disconsolate and discouraged in the face of the problem of the day,
he reminded them of what God had already promised and done and its relationship to our salvation.
I want to remind you as we get into this passage this morning of another passage that is the very, very start to the gospel truth.
And you go back in your thinking, if you would, to Genesis chapter 3, verse 15.
Remember after the fall, and you can imagine how dark a day that must have been for Adam and Eve
as they realized that they had sinned against the infinite holy glory of God
and they had caused this breach in their relationship and communion.
God had told them up front and in advance, if you do this, you're going to die.
And after they had eaten the fruit, they hid and heard his voice
and must have labored deeply in their soul as they considered what was next.
God comes to them and he speaks to them these words.
He starts out early and he says this, speaking to the serpent,
he lets the serpent know the consequences of being involved in all of this.
And then he says to the serpent, he says,
He will bruise your head and you will bruise his heel.
That is the start of the story that finds us this morning considering this passage in Isaiah chapter 49
in which the reality of our Savior and his coming in the flesh to be our substitute
and sacrifice for our sins is played out for us.
Let me read the passage to you there in Isaiah chapter 49 verse 1.
It says,
We're looking here, first of all, at the servant that is called,
Lord Jesus Christ.
It speaks of him here and lets us know that right at the very beginning,
God makes it clear that he is the one that is calling his son to become our Savior
and bringing him into the world to be exactly that.
I appreciate the fact that here in the text it says,
Listen to me.
We've all heard those words, haven't we?
On more than one occasion when our parents are trying to give us clear instruction
and we're maybe not paying attention,
I know that one of the things that worked for us,
and I've watched other parents do it as well,
say,
Look in my eyes.
Have you ever done that?
Look in my eyes.
You know that if the kid is not looking,
probably not paying attention.
And here is the Holy Spirit saying to the nation of Israel,
Listen, this is important.
You better pick up on this.
And it's particularly appropriate when you stop and think about the background
to which this verse sets or behind what is behind this passage.
Go back just one verse, if you will, to Isaiah chapter 48 and look at verse 22.
Look at that passage.
There is no peace, says the Lord, for the wicked.
You want to live a disobedient, ungodly, wicked life.
Mark this verse as an absolute certain prophecy as how things will play out.
There is no peace for the wicked.
Against that backdrop, we find the Holy Spirit says to Isaiah,
Write these words.
Listen to me, O coastlands,
And give attention, you peoples afar.
It's kind of an announcement that God has something to say.
And one of the things I appreciate is our God tells us in advance what He's going to do.
You can't do that, can you?
How many of you would say,
Well, I'm going to do this after the service is over.
And the truth of the matter is, you can't say that.
Now, you could say it this way,
If the Lord wills.
How many of you do that?
I'm going to go have lunch at,
Well, if the Lord wills.
Only God, sovereign and absolute power,
Can say with absolute certainty,
This is what is going to happen.
And so here is God telling us,
I'm going to be doing something,
And you need to pay attention to this,
Because it is something that is going to be a declaration of my power and authority,
And my ability to save.
I want you to think with me as well about the fact that not only can God tell us what's going to happen in the future,
But it sets Him so far apart from what the rest of the world is like,
And what idolatry is like.
Go back just for a moment.
You're there in Isaiah 49,
But go back to Isaiah chapter 48,
Verse 3 through 5.
This is one of several different places in the book of Isaiah,
And you will find other places similar in the scriptures,
Where God sets Himself apart from idolatry,
From idols,
By letting people know that He is the only one who can tell us in advance what's going to happen.
Look at verse 3.
Isn't that interesting?
God telling His people,
Before it ever happened,
This is exactly how it's going to play out.
Give you an illustration of that.
Remember when God predicted to Abraham
That His offspring was going to spend time in Egypt,
And eventually come out and come into the promised land?
And sure enough,
When did it happen?
Exactly on the time that God had stipulated that it would.
You remember when Daniel was reading in the scriptures,
And he realized that the time of the captivity had been fulfilled,
And God was going to fulfill His promise.
He had complete confidence that the God who predicted and prophesied what was going to happen
Would bring it about.
Here in Isaiah 48,
He says,
Listen,
I did it and it came to pass.
Because I know that you are obstinate,
And your neck is an iron sinew,
And your forehead brass,
I declared them to you from of old,
Before they came to pass,
I announced them to you,
Lest you should say,
My idol did them,
My carved image,
And my metal image commanded them.
You see,
God tells us ahead of time what He is going to do,
And one of the values of that is that it sets Him apart from every other source of information,
And every other individual.
Only God can tell us how the story ends.
And it's important to remember that.
Coming back now,
As you would,
To the passage in Isaiah chapter 49,
After we read this statement,
That He called me from my womb,
From the body of my mother,
He named my name,
We find there an indication that
That supports the issue of the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He,
God,
Second person of the Trinity,
Came here and became entirely flesh.
He became a man,
And He became a man so that He could die in our place for our sins.
Now I want you to understand this.
I want everybody here to pick up on this and track it.
Sin produces consequence.
Do you understand that?
It says in Scripture,
The soul that sins shall die.
There is a penalty for sin.
There are some of you sitting here this morning that are thinking to yourself,
Well, I am getting away with what I'm doing.
It's quite all right.
Let me tell you,
Don't mistake the patience of God for indifference to sin.
God deals with sin.
And the fact of the matter is that every single one of us will have to satisfy the debt that our sin has created,
Either by trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ as the substitution for our sin,
Or by spending eternity in hell,
Suffering the consequence of our rebellion against Him.
Do you understand what I'm saying?
Jesus came in the flesh to be the substitute and to die in your place.
He satisfied the wrath of God against your sin.
And as we read here in Isaiah chapter 49, it says,
The Lord called me from the womb, from the body of my mother.
He named my name.
God appointed the Lord Jesus to be our Savior from eternity past.
And Isaiah indicates the reality of Christ's coming in the flesh to be our substitute.
Incidentally, on Easter,
Pastor Shearer, Pastor Andrew,
I'm trying to make an adjustment, Pastor.
You should have started out with that.
Well, we had so many Andrews around here.
It was tough.
I understand.
It's Pastor Andrew in the future.
Tim, remember that, please.
Okay.
Pastor Andrew is going to preach on Isaiah 53,
And it's going to be a wonderful passage in which we see the Lord Jesus suffering for us.
Just phenomenal.
Here is Isaiah making it clear
Let me bring up another part that I want you to look at here.
God would bring salvation through the birth of our Savior.
It's important to see it there.
God would do that.
The promise in Genesis.
The promise in Isaiah 9.
The promise fulfilled with the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And the promise brought to full fruition in the work of Christ on the cross.
Jesus, our Savior, by virtue of dying in our place and satisfying the debt of our sin.
Now, I want you to look, if you will, also at what it says there in verse 2.
He made my mouth like a sharp sword.
In the shadow of his hand he hid me.
He made me a polished arrow.
In his quiver he hid me away.
Question.
What's that talking about?
The picture that we generally have of Jesus is pretty soft and cuddly, right?
Pretty nice.
I mean, he's wonderful.
And he is.
So what is all this about?
What is a sword for?
It's not for paring your fingernails.
What is an arrow for?
It's not for decoration on a wall.
An arrow and a sword are means of death.
And here is the Holy Spirit saying to us in relationship to Christ and his coming,
He made my mouth like a sharp sword.
How will the words of Christ be a sharp sword?
For one thing, we know that they were sharp,
particularly during his earthly time here when he was dealing with sinners,
the Pharisees, etc., and bringing rebuke and bringing indictment against their hardened hearts.
But I want you to think a little bit further with me of what this issue of the sharpness of his word
has to do with salvation and with judgment.
Think with me just for a moment what it says over in Hebrews 4, verse 12.
For the word of God...
Can anybody finish it off for me?
For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword,
piercing to the division of soul and spirit,
of joints and of marrow,
and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
One of the things that I have found over and over again as the most effective means of ministry
is the authority and the supremacy of the word of God.
It is the thing the Holy Spirit uses to convict us of the darkness and the hardness of our heart.
And here, early in this exposure of the reality of our Lord Jesus Christ coming to be the Savior of the world,
we are told that He also will be the sword and the arrow.
Now, why is it hidden?
Hidden in this sense that it's not fully revealed,
but the day is coming when it will be fully revealed.
And when will that be?
I want you to turn in your Bible just for a moment over to Revelation chapter 19.
Revelation chapter 19,
verse 15 and 21.
From His mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations,
and He will rule them with a rod of iron.
Verse 21.
And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies gathered to make war against Him,
who is sitting on the horse and against His army.
And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet,
who in its presence had done the signs by which He deceived those who had received the mark of the beast
and those who worshipped His image.
These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur,
and the rest were slain by the sword that came from the mouth of Him who is sitting on the horse.
Think about how the story ends.
We live in a messy, broken, hard, sinful world,
and yet we revel in the fact that our Savior,
who is the one who has shown mercy and grace to us,
will someday deal with the rebel and with the disobedient,
and He is going to punish them with absolute certainty.
And here in Isaiah, we understand that He will have a sword and an arrow.
I want you to turn now, and we're just going to take a quick look at this portion,
but I want you to recognize in verses 13 through 26 that what we find here,
beginning there in verse 13,
A general rule of Bible understanding is paying attention to context.
Now, why do I say that?
Because the people who are being spoken to have bearing on the message that is being heard.
Third, simplest illustration would be when there are four or five young people standing around,
and you hear someone say,
Come here.
Everybody looks around to see,
Well, who are you talking to?
When you see the parent standing over there saying,
Come here,
who do you think the parent is talking to?
The child that they have birthed and have authority on.
Hey, come here.
And so context is important.
And we look at this passage,
and here in the following statements,
we are going to find God makes it clear that He is going to keep His promise
to the nation of Israel.
But Zion said,
The Lord has forsaken me.
My Lord has forgotten me.
Can you imagine Zion saying that?
Struggling as they were,
burdened down with sin,
enduring the chastisement of God,
and kind of thinking,
Well, God really doesn't care.
No, no, no.
He hasn't broken His covenant
or His promises with the nation of Israel.
And when we look at this,
I want you to understand
that it assures us that He will keep His promises with us.
One of the reasons that Tim Knoyer
has great confidence
that when he dies,
he is going to go from this place
to that place
is because God keeps His promises.
How do I know He's done it?
But I see what He's doing,
what He has done,
and what He's doing with the nation of Israel,
and I have confidence
that if He keeps promises with them,
He's keeping promises with me.
And I rest in that.
Now, I want you to look at Isaiah 50, verse 4.
I've skipped over down,
all the way down to 26 there,
if you follow along with me.
But I want you to look in particular
at Isaiah 50, verse 4.
The Lord has given me
the tongue of those who are taught
that I may know how to sustain with a word
him who is weary.
Morning by morning,
He awakens,
He awakens my ear
to hear as those who are taught.
What we find in this passage
is the preparation.
We saw, first of all,
the call of Christ.
Now we see the preparation of Christ.
I want you to think with me
just for a moment.
Remember when Jesus was a little boy,
what was it, 12 years old,
and He was in the temple
and He was teaching.
How did that go?
How did it go?
Any of you young people here, 12?
I need a 12-year-old
to just raise their hand.
Titus!
It's a Titus!
Jeffrey, how old are you?
Ah, you're close.
Molly?
I was thinking that.
And you're just sitting there
trying to hide behind Grandma
and you're just not getting there, okay?
Would you do me a favor, Titus?
Would you please stand just for a second, please?
Please, thank you.
Thank you.
Molly, if I'm going to do it to Titus,
thank you, please, please, please.
Okay, turn around, face the crowd.
Okay, thank you.
I want you to imagine a 12-year-old...
Have a seat.
I want you to imagine a 12-year-old
disputing with the Supreme Court.
Do you follow that?
You're into that, right?
Okay.
Molly and Titus, well chosen.
I didn't realize this would happen this way,
but, you know, hey, here is Jesus
having a discussion with the scribes and Pharisees
and how does that go?
They're amazed.
They're blown away.
Well, he just had this natural ability
to know Scriptures.
What he did have was the full measure of the Holy Spirit
and time that he spent incessantly in the Word of God.
That is a great comfort to me
because what it tells me is I can learn the Scriptures
with the enabling of the Holy Spirit
in a similar fashion to Christ.
You look at this passage and it says,
The Lord has given me the tongue of those who are taught.
It's better to be taught before you say anything.
Would you agree with that?
How many of you have spoken before you've been taught?
I have been taught on many occasions
and the more I'm taught, the less I wish I would say.
Here it says,
The Lord has given me the tongue of those who are taught
that I may know how to sustain with the Word
him who is weary.
What was the purpose that we find here in this passage
to the teaching that Jesus received?
It was so that he would be more effective
in ministering to brokenhearted and grieving people.
I want you to imagine with me just for a moment
what it must have been like to be Jesus.
Having devotions in the morning,
getting up fairly early,
in the quiet of the morning,
just beginning to read the Scriptures.
And by the way, did he have the New Testament?
What's the answer?
Nope.
He had the Old Testament.
He had the Pentateuch.
He had the prophets.
He had the Psalms.
And as he's reading in these things,
just imagine what it must have been like for him
as he's reading his way through
to get into the book of Isaiah
and begin thinking,
Whoa, that gives me cold chills
to think what he must have felt like, right?
Whoa, this is me.
Not me.
But Jesus discovering the reality
of the divine plan of God in the flesh.
He learned from day to day.
And he learned for the sake of other people.
Let me encourage you to think with me
just for a moment here
that this text tells us the purpose
of God's gifting to Jesus.
Why did Jesus receive the word here in this passage?
So that I may know to sustain with a word
him who is weary.
That I will know how to answer
the brokenhearted and the grieved of spirit,
the one who is burdened,
that I will know the right things to say.
In Proverbs, it says that
as, I think it's,
as apples of gold in a chalice of silver,
so are the words of the wise.
How many of you have been comforted by people
who say the right thing at the right time?
When your heart is broken
and a person brings to you
the sweetness of the scripture
and lifts your conscience and your heart,
here we find that Jesus learned the word
and that was God's purpose.
But we also find that the text tells us
the process that Jesus went through to get that.
Look what it says.
Morning by morning,
he awakens my ear to hear
as those who are taught.
When are you going to learn the word?
By osmosis.
Osmosis is a very important principle
to hold on to spiritually.
It's the transfer through a membrane
from a place of lesser density
or a greater density
to a lesser density.
Did I get it right?
Someone help me out here.
I think I lost you all on that one.
We'll take biology off the map
as well as math.
Okay.
You don't learn the word
just by sitting around passively
and showing up periodically at church
and kind of,
well, okay.
You know, it's trying to...
No.
Morning by morning,
he opens my ear to hear.
Why?
Does it happen that way?
Because there is a conscious
and deliberate desire
to know what God has to say
for the sake of his glory
and for the good of other people.
So let me ask you a practical question.
If this is a description
of the Lord Jesus Christ
in preparing his heart
for the purpose of ministry to others,
how closely does it match
your daily morning pattern?
Fair question?
How closely does it match
your daily morning pattern?
The blessings that Jesus received
in his daily time in the Word
were actually for others,
to be shared with others.
And I would say that our blessings
that we receive
should be patterned
in the same fashion
to be a blessing to other people.
I'm afraid there are sometimes people
who are Dead Sea saints.
You know what the Dead Sea is?
It's a place where water and minerals
and all that kind of comes in
and just evaporates.
It doesn't do anything.
It doesn't move on.
It's right there it is.
Dead Sea saints are those
who kind of occasionally
sit and soak,
but it never really ends up
helping them to be productive
and serving and a blessing
to other people.
Well, let's come to one other piece
as we look at this passage,
and let's look at a servant
that is committed.
In Isaiah chapter 50,
we'll go to verse 7.
The Lord God helps me.
Therefore, I am not disgraced.
Therefore, I have set my face
like a flint,
and I know that I shall not
be put to shame.
He who vindicates me is near.
Who will contend with me?
Let us stand up together.
Who is my adversary?
Let him come near to me.
Behold, the Lord God helps me,
and who will declare me guilty?
What we find here
in the remainder of this passage
is we find a picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ
dealing with the adversity
that went with the ministry
that he had.
Earlier in verse 6,
it says this,
I gave my back
to those who strike
and my cheeks
to those who pull out the beard.
I hid not my face
from disgrace and spitting.
Can you imagine the picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ
during his judgment
when he was falsely betrayed
and he was falsely accused
and then he was so vilely mistreated?
Described for us there
in verse 6.
And yet in the face
of all that adversity,
how did he handle it?
How did he deal
with the challenge
that he was enduring?
He was committed to his call
and to his purpose
and his mission,
and he was not overwhelmed by it.
I gave my back
to those who strike
and my cheeks
to those who pull out the beard.
I hid not my face
from disgrace and spitting.
And I want you to imagine
with me just for a moment,
here is the Lord Jesus Christ
standing in for you and me
and enduring
the absolute brutality
of what he went through
during that time
of hardship and suffering.
And how did he do it?
What was his attitude?
It says there,
I have set my face
like a flint.
Think about that.
There was not a shadow of turning.
There was not a moment of doubt.
There was not a pause
in Christ's heart
as he marched resolutely
towards Jerusalem
knowing fully
that in Jerusalem
was going to be
his crucifixion,
knowing what was going to happen,
knowing that all those people
that he'd ministered to
were going to turn against him.
Within days of crying out
in adoration
and welcoming him
in,
Hosanna, Hosanna,
they were going to cry,
crucify him,
crucify him.
And every one of those
completely thoughtless
to the ministry
that he had come to accomplish.
And yet,
in the face of all of that,
what we find here
is these reverses
reflect on how Jesus
suffered for us.
And he suffered for us
without any hesitation,
without any backing away from it.
He willingly pursued it
with our salvation in mind.
That's what he was doing.
Now,
if he was willing to do that for us,
does that leave you any reason
to believe that he will hesitate
to do whatever else
needs to be done for you?
What's the answer?
Absolutely not.
If he was willing to suffer
such shame
and such indignity
and such physical hardship
and then the burden of your sin
for your salvation,
he will do all that is needed
to bring you home to glory.
He will take care of the journey
that you have in front of you.
And so I want you to know
that you can trust Jesus
because of his faithfulness
and suffering.
He stood the course for you
and he stood the course for me
and he can be trusted.
Let me come to one other thing
that I held off
in bringing to your attention earlier
and I want you to go back
to Isaiah chapter 49,
verse 5 and 6.
Isaiah chapter 49,
verse 5 and 6.
I want you to follow along with me
as I read the passage.
And now the Lord says,
he who formed me from the womb
to be a servant,
to bring Jacob back to him
and that Israel might be gathered to him
for I am honored in the eyes of the Lord
and my God has become my strength.
He says,
it is too light a thing
that you should be my servant
to raise up the tribes of Jacob
and to bring back the preserved of Israel.
Do you know what that's saying?
Yes,
the Lord Jesus
and his purposes
include the nation of Israel
and salvation
and all you have to do
is read Romans chapter 9, 10 and 11
to kind of get a flavor
for how that's going to play out.
But mark what it says
in the last two lines there.
I will make you a light for the nations
that my salvation may reach
to the end of the earth.
Do you know what that's saying?
Go back if you will with me.
He says, verse 6,
it is too light a thing
that you should be my servant
to raise up the tribes of Jacob.
That's easy peasy.
No big thing.
I got it.
Christ,
the Messiah,
a blessing
to raise up the tribes of Jacob
to bring about
blessing to the nation of Israel
to bring about
the fulfillment
of the covenant promises
that God made to the nation.
But,
is that the end of the story?
Is that all that God is going to do?
Not at all.
I will make you a light
for the nations
that my salvation
may reach to the end
of the earth.
That encourages me.
Because,
the Lord Jesus Christ
came into the world
not only to be
a blessing
to the nation of Israel
and to believers
in the land,
but also
to be a blessing
to the uttermost ends
of the earth.
All,
all
open
to the gospel message.
And here is Jesus
being the Savior
of the entire world.
So,
let me ask you
a question.
This morning,
as you think about
the Lord Jesus Christ,
I trust that one of the things
that is clear in your mind
is what He came to do.
My question is this,
if He came to die
for your sins
and He has satisfied
the judgment of God
upon your soul
for your rebellious heart,
the question is,
have you believed in Him
and put your faith
in what He has done for you?
I had a very interesting
conversation
earlier this week
with an individual
regarding the matter
of salvation
and came down to,
well,
so,
what gives you confidence
in where you're going
to spend eternity?
Well,
I really don't know.
I love that statement
because I can then recite
what it says in 1 John,
these things are written,
what?
That you might know.
God's in the business
of making things clear.
Wouldn't you agree with that?
It's not like,
well,
I'm not so sure.
I'm hoping I can make it.
No,
no,
no.
God says,
I have made things clear.
Salvation is through
the finished work of Christ
who came into the world
to pay the debt
for our sins
and offer salvation
to all who believe.
And so,
let me put it to you
very plainly.
If you are here today
and you do not know Christ,
now is the hour,
now is the time
to come to grips
with the darkness
of your heart
and realize
that you will never
be able to save yourself
by your own good works.
That the judgment
of a holy God
will fall upon
the absolute imperfection
and hardness
of your heart
and condemn you
to eternity.
and yet,
God sent His Son
born of a virgin
in the flesh
to die for my sins
and to die for yours
and salvation
can be had
by believing
in what Jesus
did for you
on the cross.
Let's close in prayer.
Our Father God,
we are thankful
that we have
the Scriptures
in hand
and we can read
here in the text
centuries before
the Lord Jesus Christ
came
clear indication
of His birth,
of His preparation
for ministry,
and the resolute spirit
with which He endured
the cross
for our sakes.
This morning,
we who know
the Lord Jesus Christ
rejoice
in that victorious truth
and we know
that the adversity
and the difficulties
we face
in the day
in front of us
are nothing
compared to the glory
to be had
in the life to come.
We're confident
in the victory
that is yours
and the victory
that we enjoy
because of you.
And Father,
we pray also
this morning
for those that are here
that do not know
the Lord Jesus Christ
that this morning
the Spirit
would rest upon
their soul
and bring conviction
to them
and they would be
drawn to repent
and believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ
alone.
And we ask this
in Jesus' name.
Amen.