Thank you, please be seated. In our prayers, we would also remember Pastor John and Sister Tanya. Pastor John is, well, they both are sick. In fact, he was scheduled to preach today and unable to do so because of sickness. And I've been thinking about putting in an application for Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer as much as I've been blowing my nose. The way it feels so. Maybe the Lord will bless and we could. Study his word together and honor our Christ honor Christ. Ask you to take a copy of the Word of God and open to the book of Isaiah. In particular, Chapter 42 Isaiah Chapter 42. The prophecy of Isaiah has been referred to as the Mount Everest of the prophets. It's called this very prominent mountain, the Mount Everest of the prophets, in part because of its reflection in the New Testament. There are 66, the number will vary a little bit, but about 66 direct quotes, quotations in the New Testament from the book of Isaiah. If you're familiar with the Blue Letter Bible, you look in it, they will cite some 160, more than 160. references in the New Testament that might be direct quotes or allusions to whatever, but from the prophecy of Isaiah. As you read through the New Testament you will notice that Jesus quoted Isaiah. You will note that Peter and Paul quoted Isaiah. You will note that Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John quote Isaiah. Now if you were to try to count the number of times that Isaiah is mentioned by name, it comes up to be some 22 times that his very name is mentioned in the New Testament. Compare that to the other major prophets. Jeremiah is mentioned three times, Daniel is mentioned once, and Ezekiel is not mentioned. by name. So we begin to see why Isaiah might be called the Mount Everest of the prophets. And to further explore that thought we would ask, well, why is Isaiah so prominent in the New Testament? Why do we have so many direct quotations? Why so many references and so forth that are found by Isaiah in the New Testament? And I think the best way to answer that is by saying that the book of Isaiah is Messiah-saturated. It is Messiah-saturated. And we go to it often for this time of the year for Christmas. We quote from Isaiah, we read from Isaiah. We've preached series of messages before from the book of Isaiah during Christmas time. Alec Mottyer in his commentary on Isaiah wrote that, quote, it's built around three messianic portraits. And each of these portraits, he says, are meant as facets of the one messianic person. But in chapters 1 through 37 of Isaiah, he said we have the Messiah presented as the king. In chapters 38 through 55, we have the Messiah presented as the servant. In chapters 55 through 66, the Messiah is presented as the anointed conqueror. Now, central in these portraits that Isaiah gives us of the Messiah, central in that are what is called the servant songs. The servant songs. There are four servant songs. They probably were not sung, but by song what is meant is there is this section, these sections in Isaiah that are poetically arranged that are about the Messiah, the servant. And that's why they're called the songs, the servant songs. So there are four of these, and we plan hopefully through the month of December, to consider these four servant songs. They're from chapter 42, 49, 50, and 53. And I like to think of them like layers. Sometimes we used to use maps in some of our Bible studies we've done here, and the maps would be on transparencies, and you'd have a base map. You lay down that base map and it gives you the outline and some bold, prominent points. Then you could take another map, a layer, and lay over that one, and it would match it, but it would give you more information, more detail in another one. That's kind of the way I think of these servant songs. They just lay layer on layer on layer on layer. Each of them stands independent, but together, They are this wonderful picture of the Lord's servant, the Messiah. So with that in mind, I want us to look at Isaiah 42. I'm going to read the first 10 verses, first part of verse 10, and we'll stop there. Our focus primarily will be on the first four verses. However, we're going to work backwards and forward a little bit, God willing, but I want to read now from the Word of God, Isaiah 42, so please follow in your copy of the Scriptures and may we hear God's Word. Behold, my servant whom I uphold, my chosen in whom my soul delights. I have put my spirit upon him. He will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice or make it heard in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench. He will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth and the coastlands wait for his law. Thus says God the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it. who gives breath to the people on it, and spirit to those who walk in it. I am the Lord. I have called you in righteousness. I will take you by the hand and keep you. I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prisons, those who sit in darkness, I am the Lord, that is my name. My glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols. Behold, the former things have come to pass. The new things I now declare. Before they spring forth, I tell you of them. Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise from the end of the earth. May God be pleased to bless the reading of his word and let his people say, He would join with me, please, at this time for further prayer. Holy Father, we would pause now after reading your word and thank you for it. And we would lift it up before you in our minds and hearts. And pray that you would be pleased to break it and bless it to your people. Christ would be exalted. that your people would be nurtured, the church, Lord, would be encouraged and strengthened and instructed. We also pray that for those present that know not Christ, that make no profession of faith, who have doubts perhaps of the existence of God and doubts about their own salvation, Pray, Father, that you would be pleased to reveal your servant, Jesus Christ, to them for the saving of their souls and to your glory and praise. We ask in the blessed name of Jesus our Savior. Amen. Well, I want you to note that in the verses that we have read, particularly the first four verses that we have read, there's but one commandment. There's information, but there's only one command, and the command is to behold my servant. That is God the Father in the first person speaking. Behold God's servant. That is the command that we have in this passage. John Gill wrote that this prophecy is ushered in with a behold, exciting attention to what is said as of the greatest importance. And I would suggest that everything in this text that we want to consider is meant to identify and magnify that servant. Of course, the big question when you begin to study the servant songs, the big question is who is the servant that the Lord says for us to behold that is being spoken of in these various passages in Isaiah? In the April 10, 2013 table talk, I want to give you a quote from that issue of the table talk. Quote, controversy has raged over the years as to the subject of these servant songs. Some contend that they are about King Cyrus of Persia because Isaiah speaks of Cyrus as one who does God's will, Isaiah 44 and Isaiah 45. Jews argue that the servant songs tell the story of the people of Israel. Isaiah describes God's Old Covenant people as His servant, Isaiah 41, 44, 45. Christians, of course, believe that the servant song revealed the work of Jesus, the Messiah. And it is true that if you look at the word servant as it references to the Lord's servant, that that is used widely in Scripture. In Psalm 1911, the people of God are referred to as the servant of the Lord. In Exodus 411, Moses is the servant of the Lord. In Exodus 32, 13, the patriarchs are the servant of the Lord. In 1 Kings 8, David is called the servant of the Lord. In Jeremiah 27, Nebuchadnezzar is called the servant of the Lord. Cyrus is referred to as the servant, but he is doing God's will. Darius, I think, would be the same way, doing the will of God. There's a lot of ideas when you come to who is this servant that Isaiah is speaking about. And if you remember what Peter wrote about the prophets, in 1 Peter 1, verses 10 through 12, Peter said of the prophets, they did not understand of who they were writing. They didn't know the person they were writing about, or even the time that they necessarily were writing about. So I doubt Isaiah himself fully knew the identity of the servant of whom he's writing. But how blessed are we? We can. And we don't have to imagine it. We don't have to be creative in our answer. We don't have to get into these debates and arguments with those that want to say, well, it's Israel or it's Cyrus or it's this one or that one. If we don't understand something in Scripture, what are we to do? Our confession talks about that you take a passage that's not as clear and you go to a passage that is clearer and you get the meaning and understanding from that. And it says at the end of the day, the settlement of all controversy, where we finally land to get our answer, whether it be disputes about something in the scripture or somewhere else, the final answer is the scripture itself. So with that in mind, turn to Matthew chapter 12. Matthew 12, verse 15. And it starts out with Jesus aware of this, and what He's aware of is the Pharisees conspiring to destroy Him. And it says, Jesus, aware of this, withdrew from there, and many followed Him, and He healed them all and ordered them not to make Him known. This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah. Why did He do what He did? to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah, and what does he quote? "'Behold, my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased, I will put my spirit upon him, he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles,' and so on. He quotes Isaiah 42. And so Jesus Knowing that the Pharisees would take him, arrest him, he tells the people not to make him known. He withdraws to a quiet place in order that the prophecy of Isaiah 42 would be fulfilled. Point. I don't need to get that debate about who's being spoken about. The scripture tells me it's Jesus Christ, the Son of God. That's who is the servant of the Lord. Now what I want to notice with you today, trying to follow this single command to behold my servant, Jesus Christ, I want us to notice his preeminence, what I'll call his person, and thirdly what I'll refer to as his purpose. Try to make it easy for us to remember his preeminence, his person, and his purpose. Now let's begin with the servant's preeminence. Behold, my servant. Now, if you look back in chapter 41, you'll see four times that we're told to behold something. In fact, in verse 29, this is the real contrast that's being set up for us. And I want to go back and do a little contextual consideration, a little historical consideration with you. But notice in verse 29, Behold, they are all a delusion. Their works are nothing. Their metal images are empty wind. Behold, my servant. You see the contrast it set up. This is the problem sometimes where we just try to separate according to chapter numbers. So we have two beholds, one about idols, false gods, and their vanity. And the second, behold, is about the Lord's servant, the Messiah, Jesus Christ. Now we have these four beholds in the chapter 41, one in verse 11, one in verse 15, one in verse 24, one in verse 29. I think the one in verses 11 and 15, the behold there is to take notice of the nations of Israel and all the various nations of the earth. We'll talk more about that in a moment. But just consider Israel and consider the nations of And then in 24 and 29, the behold is primarily about idols and false gods of these people. Israel themselves who was guilty time and again of idolatry. And the nations of the earth. Behold their gods. So let's think now for a moment about the historical context here. Now you'll recall, and you can read this in 2 Kings 16-22, that would be your place to go to in the Bible to read a lot of the background history of Isaiah. But you'll recall that Isaiah is a pre-exile prophet. He prophesied prior to the Babylonian captivity. In Isaiah 6, verse 1, we have a record of Isaiah's calling. And there we read, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord. I lifted up. And what's so important about the year that King Uzziah died? That's the year that God commissions Isaiah. And then if you dig into Uzziah a little bit, you begin to understand this man had been king for like 50 or 60 years. How many presidents have you known in your lifetime? We change every four or eight years, at least eight years. Well, here they had one man who was the head of the nation for generations, at least two. And when he died, that was a national tragedy. This was a big thing in the year that Uzziah died. And in that very year, God commissions Isaiah and he says, and I saw the Lord. King of Kings high and lifted up and sitting on his throne. And so it's in that year that Isaiah, excuse me, is commissioned. And Isaiah then ministers for about 60 years. And the time of his ministry is a very tumultuous time in the life of Judah. They witnessed the rise of the Assyrians. And we'll look at that. It mentions, maybe I'll remember to mention it, but it's those from the north. You witness the rise of the Assyrian power, and they are a terrible, terrible enemy. Read Habakkuk. Habakkuk deals with the Assyrians and then the Babylonians. Habakkuk says, when I saw them, my knees trembled, my stomach was upset, my bones were loose. These were a terrible warring people. And so Isaiah sees the rise of the Assyrians, he sees the fall of the northern kingdom, Israel, as it falls into their hands. He will witness the growing influence of Babylon, that nation from the east that God will call out, that will conquer the Assyrians and eventually Judah itself and send them into captivity. Isaiah ministers to a nation that's in a crisis, it's in spiritual decline, it's a time of shifting world powers and looming threat of exile. In fact, you could almost take the headlines out of a paper, the news today, and go with everything except worrying about being exiled, and go, wow, does our time fit his time? Look at the shifts, look at the truly seismic shifts that happen in world governments and the unsettlement of the time. That's Isaiah's time. And it's also a time where Judah is just racing down a road to spiritual darkness. Hezekiah, if you begin in Isaiah chapter 36 through 39, Hezekiah is king. Hezekiah is being pressed by the Egyptians to form an alliance between Judah and Egypt so they can withstand the Assyrian power. And Isaiah tells Hezekiah, don't do that. God will help us, don't do that. Hezekiah gives in to political pressure. He makes an alliance with Egypt. And I don't know why, it's one of those questions you look at in history and go, why do they do that? And they rebel against Assyria. And then it doesn't turn out very well. Assyria will come. Generals and kings will come. They will quash the rebellion. They'll mock their gods. In order to pay tribute, they strip the religious artifacts they have of their gold and of their wealth to try to pay the tribute to the king of Assyria to stop, don't keep pressing on. and they'll stand at the gates and they'll mock Israel's God. Mocking. Isaiah 38 and 39, let me back up to Isaiah 38. In Isaiah 38 and 39, God tells Hezekiah, put your house in order, you're not gonna live, you're gonna die. And he turns his face to the wall and he prays and then God sends Isaiah before he even gets out of the king's house. He turns him around and sends him back to the king with a message. Kings heard your prayer. You're not going to die yet. You got 15 years. And so as a cause happy about that. Well, Babylon now is the rising power and they send envoys to Congratulate Hezekiah that he's better and things are going to go okay. And then in one of those other foolish actions, Hezekiah welcomes the envoy of Babylon, takes him in and shows him all the wealth of the kingdom. And Isaiah asked him after, they said, what did you show these people? And Hezekiah said, I showed them everything. I didn't withhold anything. I showed them all my wealth. And Isaiah said, well, This kingdom is falling. God is going to bring an end to it. Not in your life you'll live, but your sons will be taken out in captivity. And so Isaiah 38 and 39 or prophecies of doom and destruction, of Judah falling, of the Babylonian captivity, and then you hit chapter 40, and you need this breath of fresh air. You get to chapter 40, you step out of the darkness into the light, and Isaiah's looking forward, and he's prophesying about future events, and he notes that God will do a new work which will be accomplished by his servant. That brings us to 41. 41 and 42 are a unit. Chapter 41 opens with a courtroom scene. Listen to me in silence, O Coastlands. Let the peoples renew their strength. Let them approach and let them speak. Let us together draw near for judgment. It's a courtroom scene. The court is being called to order. In fact, silence is demanded of them at one point. They're not to speak anymore. Jehovah is the judge. He's sitting in judgment. And the nations of the earth, including Israel, are to are being summoned to appear at the court. Now, the case. That is being heard, really, verse two and verse 25, and the case is this, who controls history? Where did the Assyrians who raised up the Assyrians, who's going to send the Babylonians? Is this something that happened? The case is who is Lord of history and God is saying, I'm Lord of history, I'm the one that raised the people up, the Assyrians from the north, I'm the one that brought them from the east, the Babylonians. The nations and the kings of the nations of the earth are Jehovah's servants. They are doing Jehovah's bidding. Then the charge. So that's the case. Then the charge that is made is in chapter 41 verses 5 through 7 and the charge is that the people in fear turn to their false gods and the victors in their triumph give the credit and honor to their false gods. Who's in control? Jehovah? Kings are their false gods. And then in verses 21 through 29 of chapter 41, the evidence is given. And the evidence is that all gods and all idols are nothing. They are futile. They are a delusion. It is God who calls the kings forth. And these idols are just dumb pieces of wood that they nail down and they bow and they give servants to. And they are nothing. They're worse than nothing. These terrible nations, these kings that are so bloodthirsty are God's pawns. They are accomplishing his purpose. And these nations, their kings, their armies, their gods, their idols are all but empty wind. Thus, he'll say in forty one, twenty nine. Behold. They are a delusion. Their works are nothing. Their metal images are empty wind. And then in 42, one through four, we have the verdict. And that's where our focus is on this first song, this first servant song. And the verdict is, behold my servant. In contrast to all this other, look at my servant. And there's a declaration of his preeminence. So let's look at the person. Now let's notice the grammatical distinction here in 42. You notice that the primary pronoun in the first part of verse one is I. Jehovah speaking. I uphold. I have put my spirit upon. The he that's being referred to here is the servant. That he will bring forth justice. He will not cry aloud. He will not break a bruise. The I is Jehovah, I will do this. And it underscores the servant's person. Who is this person? What do we know about the Lord's servant, Jehovah's servant? How is he described? Well, he's described as the one whom Jehovah upholds, verse one. Behold my servant whom I uphold. Now the word here means a strong word and it means to grip fast. The Lord protects his servant. Our minds run to psalms, for example, and you see this later when Jesus is on the pinnacle of the temple and Satan's tempting him to cast himself down and he quotes this psalm to him. Psalm 91 says, For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone. He is upheld, he is supported, he is firmly gripped by Jehovah. Secondly, we find out that this servant whom the Lord upholds is the Lord's chosen in whom he delights. And generally when we preach about election or teach about election, rightly so, we emphasize what's called unconditional election. And that means that God doesn't choose people based on their goodness or their works or their righteousness or their choice, but the choice of God in the election is based upon God's goodness, God's purpose, God's righteousness, not mine. But here, we're not talking about you or me. Here, the one chosen is his servant, it's Christ, and it's his delight. You know, you don't have to necessarily like something to choose it. About every four years when we vote, sometimes I hold my nose and vote. I don't vote because I like the person and go, oh, why aren't they so great? But I might vote for person A because I think they're a lesser evil than person B. So you don't have to like what you choose. But in this case, God says not only does he like, but he delights. His delight is in his servant. He loves his servant. His delight is in him. And then we're told that the Lord's spirit is upon him. Well, we know that if you read the Bible, you know that the spirit of God was given for vocational purposes. For example, the men who were called to adorn the tabernacle. We're told that the spirit of God was given to them and they were wonderful craftsmen that could work with gold and silver and form the things that God commanded to be on his tabernacle. We know that King Saul, God gives his spirit to Saul that he may be king, that he can serve as a king over the nation of Israel. But we know that the spirit given in vocational purposes doesn't always remain because we read a King Saul that the spirit of God left him. He was given Not for salvation purposes, but he was given for vocational purposes, that he would serve as king. When he failed, he messed up, he rebelled against God, God withdrew his Holy Spirit. But we know upon the Lord Jesus Christ, the Spirit was given without measure. John 334 says, For he whom God has sent utters the words of God or he gives the spirit without measure. Now, next, let's notice the negatives and the positives here. Notice verse. Verse one, a he will bring forth justice. Verse two, he will not cry aloud. He will not break a bruised reed. Verse 3b, he will bring forth justice. Verse 4, he will not grow faint or be discouraged. And then to that, of course, he will, until he has, he will establish justice in the nations. The negatives here, he will not do, he will not cry aloud, he will not lift up his voice, he will not make himself heard in the streets, he will not break a bruised reed, he will not quench a faintly burning wick, he will not grow faint and be discouraged, but he will bring forth justice. And one of the things as I read and studied this and read various people on it as well is to note the servant's humble, unpretentious, but resolute nature. And this is a very sharp contrast to worldly leaders that we see in chapter 41. It's in sharp contrast to worldly conquerors and the frenzy of the worship of idols. The Lord's servant is meek, and his work advances not by sword or swagger, but quietly and resolutely. Unlike the kings of the heathens and the pagans and even Israel that's spoken about in chapter 41, unlike their kings and generals who would have their likeness inscribed on coins or buildings or sculptures, the Lord's servant, there's no picture of him, there's no building that bears his inscription. There's no coin that we look at from antiquity go, oh, look, here's the likeness of Jesus. Oh, we can see the likeness of Caesar, but not of Christ. That's not where he stamps his image. His image is stamped on the hearts. Of sinful people, and he conforms them into the image of God. This king is not like other kings in his kingdom. Is not like the other kingdoms in the world. Now, three times we're told, and this is what he will do, told what he will not do, and there's more about that we could say, but I'm gonna leave that alone. But we're told three times what he will do. And you know when you find something in triple in the Hebrew, it really brought emphasis to that point. And so three times we're told here what he will do. He will establish justice. He will establish justice. He will establish justice. That's what he will do. So verse one, verse three and verse four. Now, remember, our scene is a courtroom scene. That's our. Context, our scene here in this passage. But in scripture, particularly when we think about God, is justice. It's not the same as in a court of law, but it's something much greater and fuller. A court of law has authority to punish somebody, but it has no power to transform. If someone were to break into your home, destroy your belongings, and either injure or even kill someone that you love, and they're caught, and you go to court, and the DA says to you, we are gonna get you justice. We're gonna pursue this to the full extent of the law. Well, they can punish them, but they can never make retribution to you for what you've lost. It's gone. That person may die in prison, they may be executed for killing or harming one of your loved ones, but that will not bring back the person that you love. They are gone. Retribution cannot be made. So when we think about he will establish justice, he will establish justice, he will establish justice, we're not talking merely about punishment. And I think often that's where our minds get frozen. And I have tried to examine this carefully over the last few days since I've known him to preach it. Just thinking about this justice, justice, justice. And we often get the first leaf of it right, And we think of judgment, and some translations have judgment. He'll do judgment. And judgment is, well, there'll be, yes, the reward of the righteous, and there'll be the destruction of the wicked. That's justice. But often I think we get stuck there, and we only think of it in the way of the evildoer will be punished, and that's justice. Well, that's true to a point. But it's not the totality of the Lord's servant and what he will do. There's a commercial. It's a company called, I think it's called Surf Pro. Have you ever seen their commercials? They will show a business, I think one of them's got like a hospital or something, and something will happen, like a storm or a fire or something will happen, and the building will just be destroyed. And then ServPro will come in, and they'll fix it up, and their tagline is, it's like it never happened. Like it never happened. And when I think of, he will establish justice, What is it that Christ, the Lord's servant, will do? And when he finishes, it's like it never happened. Actually, it's better. Adam. In creation, God appointed Adam to represent him to be his representative on the earth. It was man that God chose to be his representative, but he failed. Then God grew so weary of the wickedness of men, he decided to erase the wickedness from the face of the earth to get rid of unrighteousness. And he was going to bring a flood, but the Bible says he chose Noah. And it was through Noah that righteousness was to go on, that humanity was to continue. But Noah failed. Oh, yes, he came through the flood. But on the other side of it, sin is still there. Then God chose Israel, He brings Abram from a far country. From him He raises up Israel and establishes a theocracy, and in this theocracy God's name will be praised, they will be different from all the nations of the earth, they will represent God before the world. But they failed. In fact, the Bible says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Adam failed. The patriarchs failed. The law failed because of the weakness of man. Israel failed. Nations and governments of the world have failed. I have failed. You have failed. You and I together have come short of the glory of God. but the Lord's servant will faithfully bring forth justice. Not only will he punish the evildoer, but he will right the wrong, he will restore life in the way that it was intended. So much more on this that we can dig out, but this is sufficient for today. Just a couple of closing thoughts. This is not a new thought with me, but I want to make it again. I really try to make this thought when preaching from the Sermon on the Mount, of how our Lord is counter-cultural. Counter-cultural. He's against the culture. And in the case of the Sermon on the Mount, you see it time and again where he says, you have heard it has been said, but I say to you. And you think that if you know, just to be angry, that you haven't broken the law if you haven't really killed somebody, but just to be angry, you're guilty of breaking the law. He's running against what's accepted, the norm, the culture. Our Lord's servant is very unlike our culture. Pastor Tyler and I were recently talking about and discussing how our cultural culture is a loud and brash culture. And you see it everywhere in every facet of our culture. You see it in music. I love to hear good singing. I like to watch America's Got Talent sometimes. And I've heard people with beautiful voices, but it's like singing a song in a beautiful way is not enough. At the end of it are some notes I've got to scream out, and I move from singing into screaming, and I've got to do all these things with my voice. Just singing the song in a beautiful, proper manner is not enough. We've got to add to that. The national anthem. I mean, how many times have you heard people stand up and sing it, and you go, what did I just hear? Sports. I love to watch college football. I do. That's my vice, I suppose. I love to watch college football. But I'm sick. It makes me hurt. You know, a guy, he makes a good tackle, and he gets up, and he struts around. And you go, you know, your team's only down by 50 points. What are you strutting about? Or they run a touchdown, and oh, I used to love the way Herschel Walker did. He ran in, he'd turn around, walk out, hand the ball to the referee, and trot off the field. And he's like, okay, he's a great athlete. Politics. My word. The only way to get noticed in politics today is to say whatever outlandish thing you can say about somebody and repeat it and be brash, brash, brash about it. That's what I need. Those are the people that get all the news time. Makes you wonder sometimes if there are any honest lawmakers that are actually making laws like they should be. Religion. I won't go there, I will mention it, but you know Israel, God fed Israel with manna, angel food. And you know what happened? Eventually they said, our souls loathe this light bread. And I think of religion and it's like, it's not enough that the gospel be preached, that we sing hymns, we observe the Lord's Supper. No, we've got to embellish that. We've got to add to, we've got to be louder and brasher. You recall 1st Kings chapter 19 when God passed by the prophet Elijah and Elijah was in the cave. You recall that? Let me read that to you. 1st Kings 19 11. And he said, go out and stand on the mount before the Lord and behold, the Lord passed by. And a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broken pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind, an earthquake. But the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake, a fire. But the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire, the sound of a low whisper. And when Elijah heard it, the whisper. He wrapped his face in his cloak and he went out and he stood at the entrance of the cave and God. But. God was not in the clamor. but in the still, small voice. And we live in a culture that's full of clamor. You want enough hits on your YouTube page or whatever it is, say something brash. Say something outlandish, whether it be politics, sports, religion, whatever it is. Be as brash as you can and you'll get more hits. Isaiah 42, Jehovah says, Behold My servant. He will establish justice. He will establish justice. He will establish justice. He will not give up. He will not be moved away from that end, that goal, he will establish justice. But in establishing justice, him that I have put my spirit upon, he's not gonna cry aloud, he's not gonna lift up his voice, he's not gonna break a bruised reed, he's not gonna blow out a faintly lit candle, but he's gonna bring forth justice. But not in this way our culture goes. Brothers and sisters, we all need to heed the command of Psalm 46, 10. Be still and know I am God. And I've said to people before, if you don't think you have the time for that, God can arrange it. He can arrange it. He can put you so that all you have is to be still. And so into the chaos of our culture, like into the chaos of the culture in the day of Isaiah, into the fears of our loneliness, into the darkness of our grief, into weight of our sickness, into the despair of our sin, Jehovah declares, behold my servant. He's the one to look to. He's not like the world. He's not like the culture. It's not all his fault, it's God's. My servant will bring forth justice. May God bless us as we consider that. And let's pray together, ask the Lord's blessings. Father, again, we approach thy throne asking for your mercy upon us, asking, Lord, for you to bless the word that has been read and spoken, that it could go forth and accomplish your end and your purpose. Speak to the heart of the lonely, the depressed, those that are grieving. Speak to Lord those that are struggling with assurance of salvation. Speak to those, Father, that seem overwhelmed by this world that we live in and all of its clamor. Speak quietly into our hearts. Help us, Lord, to trust in your servant. Speak, Father, we pray to the mind and heart of the sinner. It's trusting in self. It's far away from Christ. Change their heart and mind and transform their lives, Lord, not just in punishment. But Lord, in restoration. Restore them to the image of God, eventually, that you have been created into. Forgive us of our sins. Bless us, Lord, in the continued services we ask in Jesus' blessed name. Amen. Stand together and sing him praise.