God helping me to do my very best this morning. I want to turn you to Isaiah. If you've been a Christian a long time, the fourth servant song will be very familiar to you. It may not be familiar to everybody. In Isaiah, it begins in chapter 52 and goes through the entirety of chapter 53. The chapter division is meaningless at this point. I want to read it in its entirety, and then we will look at the first stanza, the first section, the end of chapter 52. So chapter 52 and verse 13. Behold, my servant shall deal prudently. He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high. Just as many were astonished at you, so his visage was marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men. So shall he sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths at him, for what had not been told them they shall see, and what they have not heard they shall consider. Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness. And when we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid as it were our faces from him. He was despised. and we did not esteem him. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace was upon him. And by his stripes we are healed. Oh, we like sheep. have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted. Yet he opened not his mouth. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before its shearers is silent. So he opened not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment. And who will declare his generation? For he was cut off from the land of the living. For the transgressions of my people, he was stricken. They made his grave with the wicked, but with the rich at his death. Because he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. It has put him to grief. When you make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see the labor, sorry, he shall see the labor of his soul and be satisfied. By his knowledge, my righteous servant shall justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul unto death, and he was numbered with the transgressors, and he bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors. Let's pray. Once again, our God, we come with thankfulness to you for you've given us the scriptures and we pray that you will fulfill the purpose for which you've given those scriptures to make us wise unto salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. And as we see him portrayed in these prophecies, we pray, our God, that our faith may be strengthened and our love to him increased and our hope firmly established. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. When Moses reminded the people of God, of what had happened 40 years before in his final sermon, Book of Deuteronomy, he reminded them on several occasions that they had been slaves in Egypt. God brought you out, he said, from the land of Egypt. And he did so by his mighty hand and his outstretched arm. God's arm, God's hand, what does that convey to you? It should convey two things, God's presence. with his people and particularly God's power. It is God, as it were, flexing his muscles, as it were, rolling up his sleeves in order to display his power and his strength. It is interesting in the chapters previous to the one we're looking at this morning, Isaiah reminds the people of his day, of what had happened those hundreds of years before. In chapter 51 and verse 9, Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord. Awake as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Are you not the arm that cut Rahab, that's a way of speaking of Egypt, cut Rahab apart and wounded the serpent? Are you not the one who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, that made the deaths of the sea a road for the redeemed to cross over, the parting of the waters of the Red Sea? So the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing, with everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness. Sorrow and sighing shall be no more. What Isaiah is doing effectively is saying, God has not changed. The same God is present with us and the same power is at work. And he's calling upon God here in Chapter 51 to awake and to display his glory and his power. That is against the dire forecast in Chapter 39 that was given to Hezekiah. The Babylon, the great superpower of the day would come and would take the people captive and would destroy Jerusalem and the temple. Why was that the case? Well, it was because of the flagrant apostasy of the people of God. They had refused God, refused the way of peace. They've reached the point where they have forfeited their right to be the people of God. And Isaiah's peers might well have concluded, well, then God has given up on us. That's the end of it. God is finished with us. Spiritual darkness. had descended upon Judah and upon Israel, the Northern Kingdom. They were soon to be taken away captive by the Gentile nations. But that would be a wrong conclusion. And Isaiah is put on the scene by God in order to say to the people of God, but not only to the people of God, but to the Gentile nations, that God was about to flex his muscles once again. God was about to show his powerful presence among the nations and even to the nation of Judah and of Israel. God has an answer to what he will do. And here it is in chapter 52 in the fullest form that it is found in Isaiah's prophecy. Behold, my servant shall deal prudently. He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high. Here is God's answer. Here is God present with his people. Here is God's power again at work and will continue to work. This is a prophecy without any question about the Lord Jesus Christ. And the first thing that we are told here in this first three verses, this first stanza, this first section of this servant song, I'll mention the others later on, is the total triumph, the total triumph of God's servant. He shall deal prudently. He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high. Now, Isaiah has a few favorite words. Behold is one of them. Some modern translations leave it out. I don't understand that. It's not just an irrelevant word. It's a way of God saying, give me your ears. Give me your eyes. I want you to hear what I'm saying. I want you to see what I will do. I want your full attention. I want your ears, but I want your minds. I want your hearts. I want your consciences. I have good news for you and for the nations of the world. Behold my servant. He identifies him. My servant. My servant, this is the one that I will send. This is the one that I will raise up. He belongs to me. He does my will. He fulfills my purposes. No one else. And he is going to appear for you and for the nations. Now, this is the fourth servant song in the prophet Isaiah. I have a suspicion that there are more, but traditionally there are four. In the first servant song in chapter 42, verses one to four, the servant is introduced, my servant, and he has a mission to complete. We're told he would be successful as we are here. In chapter 49 and verses one to seven in the second servant song, this time there is a focus on the difficulties that he will face. The third servant song in chapter 50, verses four to nine, the servant speaks of his suffering, the suffering that he would undergo, but no reason is given for that suffering. Here, in this fourth and longest servant song, it is made utterly clear and plain. He will suffer, and why he will suffer, and how he will suffer. And it is very clear from this fourth servant song that the one who is described here as my servant is none other than the eternal Son of God. who took our nature, the Lord Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God, and we are told he will prosper, he will succeed, he will triumph totally and completely. Behold, look at him, my servant, he shall deal prudently. That is in the best translation probably. The better translation would be he will be successful. He will be effective. He will accomplish everything as my servant that I've set him out to do. There is a very real sense in which you can say that he is the arm of the Lord. When God flexes his muscles, he sends his son, Jesus Christ, into this world. He has come to bring salvation. He has come to display the power of salvation. He has come to do battle with the forces of evil. Pastor Jeremy read earlier from Revelation 13, the two beasts, the one from the land, the one from the sea and the one on the land. He will triumph over them. That's what the book of Revelation is about. The lamb wins and here is the lamb, my servant. But the servant knows what he is about. He knows what he is to do and he does it and he will bring total success. He will do and perform the will of the one who sent him. despite all appearances to the contrary. And there are plenty of appearances to the contrary in this world. They were there in Isaiah's day. They were there in the day when our Lord was here upon earth. They were there in the days of the apostles and have been there ever since down to this present day and will remain until the end of this age. But the servant, my servant, will be successful. What does that imply? What is Isaiah saying? Well, he spells it out again in chapter 53 and verse 10. where he says there, the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. It's the same word prosper. He will succeed. Later on in the Gospels, we read of some of the words of Jesus Christ when he was on the cross. And the sixth word on the cross was one word in the original language, tethelestai. Not that means a great deal to many of you. It's translated, it is finished. The work which I have come to do is completed. I have triumphed. He spoke that word from the cross following his sufferings and his death on the cross, the shedding of his blood. That death guaranteed atonement for sin, pardon for sinners, ultimately, not just for Israel, but for all the nations of the world. This was a gospel and a servant who will be preached to the nations of the world. His work was accomplished. His work was done. all the elect of Israel, all the elect down through the ages from among the nations of the world, all those to whom the father had given him, all those the father had given to him would be saved, would be redeemed. That is the triumph. He will come and bring salvation, redemption for his people and the nations of the world are included among those people. And notice it is not only. Through his death, but he speaks here of his being exalted, extolled and very high. What's that a reference to? It is not a reference to his resurrection, to his ascension and to his exaltation. He will triumph. Death will not conquer him. He will conquer death and sin, the serpent, the nations. all the false beasts and prophets and unparalleled exaltation. There is nothing like it anywhere else in human history. That is being prophesied by Isaiah six, 700 years before Jesus Christ came into this world. but it extends beyond to our present day and until the day when Jesus Christ returns. You may remember how Peter on the day of Pentecost, as he preached, he spoke of the Jesus whom God has raised up and exalted to the right hand of the Father. You may remember what Paul says in Philippians chapter two, following his humiliation, God has highly exalted him, Jesus Christ, giving him a name which is above every name, that the name of Jesus, every knee should bow. He will triumph. No one will stand in his way. And it's vital that we remember that in our day and age. We can sometimes lose sight of the Lord Jesus Christ and what God's plan and purpose is in him. He is God's servant and he will accomplish God's saving purposes. He will bring salvation, he will bring redemption. There are our hopes and expectations in Christ, God's servant. That's what God will accomplish. That's how God will flex his muscles in this world. He will bring redemption. He will bring salvation to this world, to his people. And it will be among all the nations of the world. We're representative of that this morning. But there are times when it clearly did not appear to be the case. Because we see secondly, the deep suffering that God's servant must undergo. The deep suffering that God must undergo. What a contrast we read in verse 14. just as many were astonished at you, so his visage, his face, was marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men. His exaltation is unparalleled, and the degradation that he suffered is unparalleled. so much so that you look at him in his suffering you think there's no way he's God's servant no way that's impossible he will be an enigma that means it will leave you open mouthed it will leave you scratching your head and saying what's going on here I don't understand it it doesn't make any sense You'll be shaking your head. It's a total mystery. God's servant. Many are astonished at you. The kings are silenced. They have nothing to say when they look upon the sufferings of this servant. He's taken from extreme exaltation to deep degradation. Makes you think. There's no way he would be suffering for the sins of his people. He's suffering because he is a sinner. He's being punished for his own sins. That's what it says in verse three. He was despised and we did not esteem him. We didn't think anything of him. We didn't think twice about him in terms of being the savior. Just look at him, says Isaiah. His face was marred more than any man, his form more than the sons of men. He's utterly disfigured. It leads to people being appalled at what they see, this disfigurement. It's the word used when people looked upon the city of Tyre and saw it utterly destroyed in Ezekiel. It's a word that is used to describe Woman who has lost her husband Devastated Devastated It's like the effects of a tsunami that obliterates everything And I sorry says you've never seen anything like this I There's no wonder then that people misunderstood his sufferings because they were unique. His appearance, his face, his visage, and his form. Here is one solitary suffering savior. And he no longer appears to be a man. You barely recognize him as such. no longer resembles a man. What Isaiah is doing is explaining here to us, declaring to us the extreme nature of his sufferings. Think of Christ when he came to this earth. The sufferings that he was to endure. A crushed, bedraggled figure. bloodied figure. He'd been scourged. A crown of thorns had been put upon his head. He'd been beaten. He wasn't strong enough to carry his own cross. People stepped back and said, God's servant? You must be joking. You cannot be serious. There is no way that this could be God's servant. Rather it's someone who has been punished for their own failings and their own sins. But Isaiah is giving us a summary here of what he's going to explain more fully in chapter 53. And the third thing that we see here is the stunned reaction of the kings. Who are these kings? They're Gentiles. They're Gentiles. Isaiah has a lot to say about the gathering of the Gentile nations. These are the people like the Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Egyptians. These are the nations of our own day. God's purposes of salvation are very prominent in Isaiah. And verse 15 tells us briefly what he will explain more fully, as I say, in the remainder of this fourth servant song. But notice what we are told there in verse 15. This servant in his sufferings will sprinkle many nations. Now, I'm not going to delay you on the various interpretations of this. I'm convinced it means sprinkle. But not everybody agrees with that. You find some say startled. But I think when you get to the bottom of the thing is much the same thing. He will sprinkle many nations. What is that referring to? It's referring to the work of a priest. sprinkling with oil, with water, with blood. What did that represent in the Old Testament? Go back to the book of Leviticus and you'll find it represented cleansing, water cleanses, the blood that was shed by the sacrifices and sprinkled, it is for cleansing, This suffering servant will, through his suffering, sprinkle many nations. He will bring cleansing from sin. It's an act of purification. We're told in verse 8 of chapter 53, he was cut off from the land of the living. For the transgressions of my people, he was stricken. Here's the explanation. He was stricken. He suffered. This disfigurement that left him barely recognizable as a man was actually the means that God was using to bring cleansing for the nations. How can you explain that? Who would ever believe that? But this is the work of my servant. This is what he is going to do, says Isaiah. My servant, my people, their transgressions, he is going to cleanse them from their sin. What you have here in chapter 53 is what we call in shorthand, theological shorthand, penal substitutionary atonement. Let me explain that. Penal means a penalty. He's paying a penalty, not for his own sins, but for the sins of his people. Remember the hymn, a penalty was paid and pardon brought, and sinners lost at last to him were brought. It's substitutionary. And it's an atonement. It deals effectively with sin. So there is pardon. There is forgiveness. There is reconciliation. There is justification. The kings are flummoxed. They're flabbergasted. They'll shut their mouths at him because they've never seen anything like it before. Yet at the same time we are told, what has not been told them, they will see. They've never seen anything like this before, but they will see it and what they have not heard, they shall consider. They will look upon him and begin to realize This is the Messiah. This is the suffering servant of God. This is the one who also died for them. It's an enigma. The servant is an enigma. Humanly speaking, you cannot explain it, but God declares it. And God explains his own enigma. Here it is in the word of God. The truth will dawn upon these Gentile kings. The truth will dawn upon a multitude of men, women, boys, and girls. Because it is God's salvation. It's God's redeeming plan and purpose. It is God declaring, this is the way in which I forgive transgression. This is the way in which I save my people. It is through my servant, but he is going to suffer in a way that is indescribable. But through that suffering and through that death, he will provide atonement for sin. He will provide cleansing. The remaining four stanzas will explain that to you more fully. So we see the stunned reaction of these kings. We've seen the utter degradation and suffering of the servant. We've been told that he will triumph. But let me ask you this morning as we work towards a conclusion, what is your reaction to this apparent enigma that God is explaining to us. He's not leaving us in the dark. He's explaining what he will do so that we would understand and so that we might be saved from our sins. This gospel that is proclaimed here is being preached and will be preached until Jesus Christ comes. Here is the one who has suffered utter degradation. Now he's exalted. Now he's extolled. Now he's lifted up very high. You've never heard anything like that before, have you, anyway? You don't read about it in any book. You don't read about it in any annals of history. You don't hear about it on the TV. You won't find it anywhere on the internet, unless you've got a man who's opening up the word of God. in a faithful way? This is something that God declares. It's God's servant. This is God's message. This is God as we're drawing the curtain back so that we might gaze upon his servant and wonder at the salvation, at the redemption that has been provided for us, lost and guilty sinners. and Isaiah sets it forth with amazing clarity. When you read these verses, it's like reading parts of the New Testament. You could be forgiven if you didn't know, you could be forgiven and say, this is the New Testament scriptures being read to us. I think it's true to say, I need to check this, but I think I'm right in saying that every verse in this fourth servant's song, bar one, is found quoted in the New Testament, or alluded to in the New Testament, and sometimes several times, many times. So it is significant that we understand this as pointing to Our redemption, because it is pointing to our Redeemer, Jesus Christ. No human being could ever have produced a story like this. No sinful creature could ever produce anything comparable to what we find in this chapter. Here is God's servant, shattering the darkness, shattering the gloom, dealing with the sin on the one hand of Judah and Israel, who have forsaken God and broken his covenant, and amazingly, dealing with the Gentile nations, who have been given over to idolatry. They are in an even darker place than Israel and Judah. Yet here is God's servant and God's salvation. Now, what is your response? What is your reaction? Here is God's provision for your salvation, for your redemption in the person of Jesus Christ, the servant of God. Through his sufferings, through his death, through his final exaltation. He's now alive. He is at the right hand of his father. And he's there in the embodiment of all his saving power. He's able and he is willing to save you from your sins, to wash you clean, to sprinkle you. You need to be sprinkled. You need to be cleansed. from your sins, and it is only the blood of Christ that can do that. I'm pointing you to the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, how do you come to this Christ? You don't come to Christ because you know you're elect. You don't come to Christ because you say, well, I know he died for my sins. You come to Christ as a lost, guilty sinner and cast yourself upon Christ in order to be saved from your sins. All you need to do if you're not a Christian this morning is to come to Christ. To come to God's servant. Atonement has been made. Redemption has been purchased. Cleansing is provided. You need do nothing except lay hold upon Christ and entrust yourself, lost and guilty to him. And I tell you, he will save you. That's his promise. That's his great work. That's what Isaiah is telling us here. 700 years before Christ came into the world and died on that cross, he's telling us this. And here we are, 2024, reading these words. Three millennia later, they're still true. This is God's gospel. This is God's servant. Have you come to Christ? He's not offering you the possibility of salvation. He's offering you himself and full salvation here and now. It's accomplished. He's done it. All you need do is reach out with your hand and grasp it. I can't put it more plainer than that. You're called to believe and to trust in this one. And if you are a believer in Christ, then as you hear these things again, You need to be reminded again and again and again of these things. Because there are events and circumstances that drive these things far from our minds. There are fears and there are doubts. There are anxieties. We get weary, we get tired, we are forgetful. What do we need to do? We need to go back simply to Christ. And what a reassurance it is to find these things, not only in our New Testament scriptures, hundreds of years before, they're prophesied. And they've come to pass. And our salvation is bound up, not with what we feel or what we think, it's bound up with what God has done in Jesus Christ, his Son. So brethren, sisters, don't let your faith in God's servant waver. If it is weak and frail this morning, strengthen your faith by laying hold again of this Christ. I pray that before we preach the sermon, that God would make us wise to salvation through faith in his son, Jesus Christ. That's what this is about. Be strong then, be steadfast, trusting in Christ and in Christ alone. Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, successfully. He will triumph. He has been exalted. He is extolled. He is very high. He is our Redeemer, yours, mine. Blessed be His name. Let's pray.