Okay. you Okay. Okay. Okay. you so so so so StSq2 2.60 so so so Well good evening. Welcome once again to Community Presbyterian Church. Just a couple of announcements once again as they were this morning. Remember there's a family night this coming Wednesday at 630. You can find the insert in your bulletin. And next Sunday we will be celebrating communion here in this church. And at 8.45, there will be a service where masks are required. And at 10 a.m., the normal time, there will be a regularly called service. So keep those things in mind. Well, please stand as our God calls us to worship today, tonight, from his word in Psalm 100. Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come into his presence with singing. Know that the Lord, he is God. It is he who made us, and we are his. We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him. Bless his name, for the Lord is good. His steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations. People of God, let's go before him and call on him for help this evening. Almighty God and Heavenly Father, we come to you this evening and respond to your call to worship you. And we ascribe to you the glory and strength that are due to your name as we worship you in the splendor of your holiness. Reveal yourself to us tonight, Father, in the name of your Son. For to him you have delivered all things, and no one knows you except in him. Truly our help is in your name, you who made heaven and earth. For to you, Father, together with the Son and the Holy Spirit, one God from all eternity and to all eternity, be glory, wisdom, power, and dominion both now and forevermore. Well, people of God, our God greets us this evening from his word in 2 Peter, saying, may grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. I'd ask you to remain standing for our hymn of praise. This evening we'll be singing number 247 from the Trinity Psalter hymnal. O God, our Redeemer, number 247. Through grace, O God, our Redeemer, we thank you. In grateful emotion, our tithe we pay. We lay it before you, we kneel and adore you. We bless your holy name and the praises we sing. ♪ We watch as you unite your relative hearts ♪ ♪ To a guiding family ♪ ♪ When there is hope to lead us, let strength remain us ♪ ♪ And rigor come upon our path all the day ♪ ♪ We watch as you unite your relative hearts ♪ We offer you praise, O land of dreams. Your stars are bright, your stars are bright in sight. You are great in the world. For our confession of faith this evening, we'll be reciting together the Nicene Creed. You can find this on page 852 in the back of your Trinity Psalter hymnal, page 852, one of the wonderful creeds of the faith. Christian, what do you believe? I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth. and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made. who for us men and our salvation came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, and was made man, and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate. He suffered and was buried. In the third day he rose again, according to the Scriptures. and ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of the Father. And he shall come again with glory to judge the living and the dead, whose kingdom shall have no end. And I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified, who spoke by the prophets. And I believe in one holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church. I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins, and I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen. Please be seated. As we continue reading through the Psalms, this evening we'll be reading Psalm 143. We'll be using the ESV, and so if that is not what you have with you, you can find this on page 523 of the Pew Bibles. Psalm 143. I'll read the odd verses, and if you would respond with the even verses. A Psalm of David. Hear my prayer, O Lord, give ear to my pleas for mercy. In your faithfulness, answer me in your righteousness. For the enemy has pursued my soul. He has crushed my life to the ground. He has made me sit in darkness like those long dead. My spirit faints within me. My heart within me is appalled. I remember the days of old. I meditate on all that you have done. I ponder the work of your hands. I stretch out my hands to you. My soul thirsts for you like a parched land. Answer me quickly, O Lord. My spirit fails. Hide not your face from me, lest I be like those who go down to the pit. in the morning of your steadfast love, for in you I trust. Make me know the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul. Deliver me from my enemies, O Lord. I have fled to you for refuge. Teach me to do your will, for you are my God. Let your good spirit lead me on level ground. For your name's sake, O Lord, preserve my life. In your righteousness, bring my soul out of trouble. In your steadfast love, you will cut off my enemies, and you will destroy all the adversaries of my soul, for I am your servant. For our corresponding psalm this evening, we'll be singing setting A, of Psalm 143. Hear now my prayer, O Lord. 143a. ♪ In righteousness and truth we do believe ♪ ♪ We do not judge thee in your spirit ♪ ♪ For in your presence God is right ♪ ♪ Come and attend with me ♪ ♪ And proceed to the ground where darkness prevails ♪ O Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, O Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, O Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, My spirit fails, O Lord. Come quickly to my side. Hide not from me your face as to the pit I slide. Let morning bring your love anew, for I have put my trust in you. To you, my God and all my soul, shall be a way to go. I am your Son, and you are my Saviour now and forever. Lead me, O God, and do your will. May your voice be heard. The Lord is with thee, and I am with thee, Lord. In righteousness we give our song of praise. Oh, shall I, oh shall I, oh shall I, oh shall I, oh shall I, oh shall I, oh shall I, oh shall I, oh shall I, oh shall I, oh shall I, oh shall I, oh shall I, oh shall I, oh shall I, oh shall I, oh shall I, oh shall I, oh shall I, oh shall I, oh shall I, oh shall I, oh shall I, oh shall I, oh shall I, oh shall I, oh shall I, oh shall I, oh shall I, oh shall I, oh shall I, oh shall I, oh shall I, oh shall I, oh shall I, oh shall I, oh shall I, oh shall I, oh shall I, oh shall I, oh shall I, oh shall I, oh shall I, oh shall I, oh shall I, oh shall I, oh shall I, oh shall I, oh shall I, oh shall Please join me in prayer. Gracious God and Heavenly Father, on this first Sunday of the new year, we come to you with praise and thanksgiving. We praise you because you are the creator God, the almighty, the unchanging one. You created the lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from night and for signs and for seasons, for days and for years. You are not bound by time, but in the repetition of the seasons, in the temporal movement from one year to the next, we see your faithfulness. You are our sustainer and protector. Nothing exists independent of you. Apart from your will, grace, and power, we would not be. After having delivered Noah and his family, you declared that while the earth remains, seed time and harvest, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease. And through your prophet, you promised that only if your covenant with the day and night could be broken, only then would your covenant with your people be broken. As we see the sun rise in the morning and set in the evening, as year follows year, we praise and thank you for your steadfast love and faithfulness. You are the God of our salvation, and we thank you for your grace and mercy. Through the weeks of Advent, we anticipated celebrating Jesus' birth. Though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped. That he would empty himself and take on our flesh, conceived by the Spirit yet born of the Virgin, is a wonder. That he would die on the cross, bearing our sins, that we would live is beyond comprehension. Thank you, God, for your indescribable gift. Thank you that having given his life for ours, he was raised to life and ascended to your right hand. Thank you that having ascended, he sent the helper, the spirit of truth, giving us the assurance and comfort that he is always with us. The coming year is unknown to us, Lord. Your word reminds us that we don't know what tomorrow will bring. But because you are with us, we have assurance even amidst uncertainty. Help us then to remember and to trust. Even as we begin the year anticipating times of joy and satisfaction, for some of us, times of sorrow and disappointment seem nearer and more certain. Your purposes are not always clear to us, but you are our father and you care for your children. Keep us from thinking that our circumstances are a measure of your love. We do not know why some experience sickness, hardship, and trial, while others do not. But we do know that it is you who makes a man mute or deaf, seeing or blind. It is you who gives particular abilities and withholds others. And we know that you are good. We ask that you sanctify us, that your will be done in our lives and that you lead us. But at times we assume that sanctification will be easy and that the path you have for us will be smooth and safe and comfortable. Help us, God, to trust in you. As we begin the year, help us to believe that you walk with us and lead us through the dark valleys as well as by the quiet streams. Let your rod and your staff be a comfort to us always. We do pray that things will go well for us, and when they do, Father, let us rejoice together with thanksgiving to your honor and glory. When things are hard and in times of struggle, let us help one another, mourning with those who mourn and bearing one another's burdens, and let us remain thankful. believing that you are working for our good. Fix our eyes and hearts on things above, believing that already our lives are hidden with Christ in God. Father, we pray for the church, that your spirit will guide and guard her and that through the preaching of your word, many will hear and be brought into your kingdom. We pray for missionaries, for those serving in faraway lands and for those serving here at home. We pray for the persecuted church, We pray for physical and material well-being, but even more, for spiritual health and protection. We pray for the purity of the church. Protect her and us from false teachers and false gospels. Guide the ministers of your word to speak your truth, training your people in faith, doctrine, and godliness. Let your church be salt and light to the world that many would be brought in. We pray for the churches around us, for Covenant and Emanuel URC and for Good Shepherd Presbyterian. We pray for the Living Hope Church Plant and for the work being done in Bella Creek. We pray for Pastor Marcus, that you'll lead him in his efforts. We pray for this church, Lord, for community. Thank you for Pastor Jonathan and for Carrie Ann and their family. Thank you for faithful preaching of your word and for pastoral care. Bring them safely home again. Thank you for Reverend Smith and his leading on this day. We pray for the ongoing women's Bible and book studies, and for the family Bible study and catechism quest that will be starting soon, for the upcoming inquirers class, and for all that will attend. Father, with the Muhlenbergs and Novaks, we eagerly await the birth of their children. We pray for safe and healthy deliveries and for the joy of new life. We pray for the Pelagras and Bakuses, that you will be with them through their pregnancies, guarding mother and child and preparing fathers and families. We pray for Carrie Ann's father, Bryce, and for Kathy, that you will be with them through Bryce's recovery and that you will enable them to care well for one another. Thank you that Greg's surgery was successful. We pray for him that his recovery will go well. We pray for our country, Lord, and for President Biden, the Congress, and the courts. We pray for the many suffering from recent storms and from wildfires. We pray for relief from the pandemic here and throughout the world. Father, in your word, we read of Simeon and Anna. Hundreds of years after the prophecies, they waited patiently, expectantly for the coming of the Messiah. Give us expectant hearts, Lord, as we wait for his return. The world may ask, where is the promise of his coming? But let us trust and believe, and with all the saints, pray for that glorious day. We pray all this in the name of our Savior and King. Amen. I'll ask the deacons now to come forward for the giving of tithes and offerings. Please stand if you are able for our hymn of preparation. This evening we'll be singing number 267, O Christ, Our Hope, Our Heart's Desire, number 267. ♪ We sing your heavenly king ♪ ♪ The crowns of your beauty and love ♪ ♪ We joyfully worship you ♪ O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming? And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Amen. Well, let's pray and ask for God's help once again. Our Father in heaven, we thank you once again for your word. We thank you for this, your day that you have given to us to rest, to hear from you and to respond to you in our gratitude. We ask Lord that as we hear your word proclaimed and read this afternoon, this evening, that you would send your spirit to illumine us. We know father that all of your word in the old as well as the new testaments points to Christ and we would, we pray that we would see more of him tonight and it's in his name that we pray. Amen. Well, turn with me, if you would, to the book of Isaiah, the book of Isaiah and chapter 49. I'll begin reading in verse 1 and our text will go through verse 7. Isaiah 49, starting in verse 1. Listen to me, O coastlands, and give attention, you peoples, from afar. The Lord called me from the womb. From the body of my mother, he named my name. 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. And he said to me, you are my servant Israel, in whom I will be glorified. But I said, I've labored in vain. I have spent my strength for nothing in vanity. Yet surely my right is with the Lord and my recompense with my God. And now the Lord says, he who formed me from the womb to be his 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, is it 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? I will make you as a light for the nations that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth. Thus says the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel and His Holy One, to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nation, the servant of rulers. kings shall see and arise, princes and they shall prostrate themselves, because of the Lord who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel who has chosen you." And this ends the reading of God's holy and inspired word. May he bless it to us. Well, we come to Isaiah 49, perhaps a passage in Isaiah that's somewhat familiar, but that's still somewhat unfamiliar to us at the same time. Isaiah 49 is the second of four songs that we find in this section of Isaiah, what we can call servant songs. The most familiar of these, of course, would have to be Isaiah 53, where we read words like, all 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. It's a passage that really speaks to us, doesn't it, of our Lord and who he is and what he did for us. If we were to turn to Luke 24 and read in verses 25 through 26, we'd hear these words. And he, being Jesus, said to them, O foolish ones and slow of heart to believe all that 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 in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. Clearly, Jesus, as he's reading the Old Testament, sees that it is prophesying of him, that it is speaking about him and what he was coming to do. As we heard this morning, the Apostle Paul in Romans 10 argued that if someone objected to his doctrine of the gospel, the glorious gospel of Christ, it's because that person did not understand the Old Testament. that all the Bible really points us to Christ, points us to the Savior who was to come and who did come to save his people. And few passages really in the Old Testament are more clear about this than these servant songs in Isaiah 42, 49, 50, and then chapters 52 and 53. But we can ask, really, what role do these songs play in the book of Isaiah? Why are they here? What are they doing? What was the purpose of them? After all, we know something about Isaiah, probably most of us, those of us at least who were born and raised in the church. It's a very familiar Old Testament prophet, probably the most familiar prophet to us. We know the story of Isaiah 6, of course, how Isaiah was in the temple and saw a vision of the Lord, holy, holy, holy, high, and lifted up and seated on the throne, and the train of his robe filled the temple. And the serif were worshiping him and serving him there in holiness. We read all kinds of different verses in Isaiah and we're familiar. In fact, if we were to begin reading at the beginning of Matthew and read through the end of Revelation, the entire New Testament, we'd see that Isaiah was cited over 600 times. It's a very important book, not only for the Old Testament, but for the New Testament as well. And back in Isaiah chapter six, Isaiah was called by God to be his prophet. He was commissioned by God to be his prophet. We can ask really at this point, what is a prophet? Boys and girls, maybe you've heard of a prophet and you think, well, it's just someone who tells the future or someone who can tell me what's going to happen in a hundred years or a thousand years or something along those lines. And certainly there was that aspect in prophets that God would often give them a message of what was to come, but there was more to being a prophet than that. A prophet really was a messenger of God, a mouthpiece of God, someone who was called into God's presence. into his inner courtroom, into his inner circle, and commissioned, sent as his messenger, and given the message directly from God. In the same way that in that ancient world a king would bring a messenger to his throne room and give him the message to send either to his people or to his enemies, that's what Yahweh, the Lord God of Israel, did with his prophets. And essentially what they were to Israel were lawyers. They were basically covenant lawyers. Remember, Israel had agreed when they came to Mount Sinai, all these things we will do. And if we were to read through the historical books, we see that all these things they have not done. That they have failed, they have sinned, they have broken God's law, but what they have done and what they have not done, just as we have even today. And as God gave them promises that if you do well in the land, it will go well for you. And if you do sinfully in the land, then the curses will fall upon you. He sent his prophets, his covenant lawyers. Basically what God was doing when he began sending the prophets was he was suing his people. He was saying, you have failed. You have not done what you have promised to do. And the holy, holy, holy God could not abide that. He could not let them stay in his holy land in the midst of his holy presence with their sinfulness and their uncleanness and their impurity. And so generally what he would do is he'd give his prophets two kinds of words. He'd give them the woes, W-O-E-S, often as we find it translated in our English translation. And a woe was basically a judgment is coming on you, curse it are you. And it would come in the context of sin and the wrath of God that was coming as a deserved response to that sin. But he'd also give his prophets words of blessed are. We heard even this morning, blessed are the feet of those who come proclaiming the gospel of peace. The blessed ours were, as you might guess, blessings, words of good news, words of comfort and hope and joy. And so all throughout Isaiah, all throughout all the prophets, you find these two words coming and going, first one word and then the other. That judgment is coming on sin, and Isaiah is very clear about that, but you also see in the midst of all this very many blessings. In fact, that the gospel is coming, and as you begin to read Isaiah, you begin to see, well, this is God himself who is going to come, as we'll see even in our text tonight. When we come to this point in Isaiah, in Isaiah 49, God has already told his people in Judah that they will go into exile. Israel's already been in exile by this point. And he's told Judah that it's too late, it's too late to turn back. You are going to go into exile, but I will bring you back. I will bring you back out of the land into which I send you. He will bring his people back from exile, and this is the backdrop to the even greater salvation that he's promising, the work of the servants of the Lord. Now that might seem a little bit strange to us, that what Isaiah is saying to the people of God through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in this servant song, this prophecy of Christ, is that really and truly the problem is sin. into ancient Judah, that might have seemed like a strange thing to say, perhaps. After all, Assyria had come through and wiped out their brothers and sisters to the north, and Babylon would soon be coming to take them. It might seem like other nations, those people out there, were the problem. But Isaiah 49 makes it very clear that the core problem is sin. In Isaiah 49 through 57, we have descriptions of God's rescue of a remnant from exile, but it won't just be a remnant from Israel and Judah. God promises to bring a salvation to the ends of the earth, and that, in and of itself, is probably the most shocking, or at least one of the most shocking things in the entire prophetical book. And so here Isaiah is proclaiming hope in the servant who would come and bring the salvation to the ends of the earth. This servant theme is not really used again very much after chapter 53, but in this section it's very important. So tonight we'll see three things especially. We'll see the God of the servant, secondly we'll see the goal of the servant, and finally we'll see the glory of the servant. The God of the servant, the goal of the servant, and the glory of the servant. And through all of this, One thing, hopefully, will become very, very clear. That because the servant of God succeeded and was glorified by God as a result, then all the earth can look to him for salvation. So our first point is eating the God of the servant. Notice with me again, verses one and two. Listen to me, O coastlands, and give attention, you peoples from afar. The Lord called me from the womb. From the body of my mother, he named my name. 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." Well, we see, first of all, the Lord who calls the servant, the God who calls the servant. And if we're to turn to other passages like Jeremiah 1.5, we could learn the prehistory or the prologue of every prophet. We would read, Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. And before you were born, I consecrated you. I appointed you a prophet to the nations. A prophet was chosen and called by God before he was even born. Before he had even come into existence, he was called to be Yahweh's messenger. And we see here from the beginning of this servant song that this coming servant, this coming great one, whoever he is, they will not know that for some time. But whoever this coming great one will be, will be called as a prophet from his mother's womb. He will be called before he was born. And this really isn't the first time we've heard about this in Isaiah either. Many of the familiar passages in Isaiah, especially those that come around Christmas time, speak to this idea of someone being born into the world as something that we haven't really seen before. We think of Isaiah 7, 14, Or we think of chapter 9, verse 6, And the government shall be upon his shoulders, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. And these two passages, like this passage here in Isaiah 49 tonight, tell us that someone is coming, that someone is going to be born, someone who is called by God and set apart for his purpose, and that his coming is glorious. His coming is unlike anything really anyone has ever seen before or will ever see again. Oftentimes in the Old Testament we see Christ by what is there. We see a prophet or a priest or a king or a sacrifice or a tabernacle and we realize that's pointing to Jesus and what He would do, who He would be as He came for us. But often, perhaps almost as often in the Old Testament, we see Christ by what is missing. that we need a child to be born, to be set apart, to be the ultimate prophet, priest, and king, and sacrifice, and tabernacle for us. And as Isaiah is prophesying of the coming judgment, of the coming exile of the people of God because of their sin, he begins to set forth this prophet as the answer. This is what has been missing. a servant who would obey, a servant who would glorify God in what he was to do. We know, of course, this was ultimately fulfilled by Christ. He was the one born of a virgin and named Jesus, our Savior, because he saved his people from their sins. But that's getting a little ahead of ourselves here. We'll come to that in just a minute. But what we see here from the beginning of this song is that this servant will be born with a grand calling. God will set him apart for a specific and wonderful purpose. And this is a calling he receives from Yahweh himself, from the Lord. But we see right away in this song that things are a little bit surprising because Yahweh, the Lord, is not presented only as the God of the Israelites. Perhaps they were tempted to think that, and maybe for good reason, that the nations around them worshipped and served other gods, idols, gods and goddesses made out of wood and of stone that cannot save. But they worshiped Yahweh, and perhaps that began to make them think, well, maybe we're a little bit special. We see that certainly by the time we come to the New Testament, don't we? And many of the interactions that Jesus has with his people in the Gospels. Well, we're Jewish. We were born descendants of Abraham, and so God owes this to us. And perhaps we don't do that in the same way with our ethnicity, but perhaps it's a little bit uncomfortable. Perhaps we've been born and raised in the church, and we've had many wonderful blessings provided to us, but perhaps we begin to think, well, we're of the people of God, we're in the church. We were born here, we were baptized here, we were raised here, we've been to Sunday school and catechism and church services again and again and again, and so God certainly owes us something. But what the servant song does is it turns that thinking, it takes it and it turns it on its head. Notice how this song opens in verse one. That may not mean much to us on this side of the world, thousands of years later, speaking another language, but to the ancient people of Judah, that would have been very clear. What he's saying here is non-Israelites, non-Jewish people. He's calling out really to the whole world, to the coastlands, to those who are not physically descended from Abraham, to those who are people from afar. He's calling out to Gentiles, far beyond the people of Judah, far beyond perhaps what they would even expect for the servant to come and proclaim. Now, it's somewhat uncommon for a prophet to address the whole world. Oftentimes in the Old Testament, the prophet would come to Israel or to Judah, but sometimes they would address the larger world around them. But not very often. And absolutely no prophet would take these exact words on his lips. Because remember, the prophet's job was to proclaim, thus saith the Lord, as we hear it in the old King James translation. This is what God has said, this is what God has said to me to say to you. It's what he has given to me to turn around and give to you. But it wouldn't be quite right for any of them to say in this same way, listen to me. Now listen itself is common enough in the prophets. Listen to what the Lord says and things like that. And so we can safely say that this servant is coming in the line of prophets, that he is the greatest prophet But as we look at what's translated in our English as, to me, listen to me, if we were to trace that throughout Isaiah, we would see that it's only used sparingly. Only used a handful of times, and every single time other than Isaiah 49, it's used of Yahweh. Yahweh is the only one who has the right to say, listen to me. But we find it here on the words of the servant, don't we? Listen to me, O coastlands, give attention, you peoples from afar. The Lord called me from the womb. That doesn't make any sense unless something new is going to happen. It is not something that Isaiah would say or Jeremiah or Ezekiel would say. It's not something that any of God's merely human prophets would say, unless there's something extraordinary going on here. How can the servant, after all, address them, address the whole earth, as only the Lord of all creation could address the whole earth? This is beyond the ability of a mere prophet. It's beyond the ability of a mere human, no matter who it is. And so we begin to see that this servant is going to be greater. This servant is going to be something That's very much unlooked for in many ways. Very surprising, very shocking, and very, very powerful. So what we have here is a servant called by God the Lord to be a prophet, and this servant grabs your attention. Boys and girls, have you ever heard a man or a woman yelling through a bullhorn? It can be a very loud thing. It can wake you up in the middle of the night. It can really shake you. Perhaps you can even feel it in your chest. And whether or not you like what is said, you can't help but hear what is said. The person with the bullhorn doesn't give you an option. It's coming into your ears whether you like it or not. Well, this is basically what the prophet here is doing. What this great servant is doing is he's proclaiming these things not only to Judah and to Israel, but to the coastlands and to the people from afar. And this, of course, is what Israel expected to some degree. They expected a greater prophet to come. In Deuteronomy 18, Moses told the people, as he's getting ready to hand off the reins to Joshua, as he's getting ready to die before they enter the promised land, he tells them, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that the Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers. It is to him you shall listen." But as we continue to read through the Old Testament, especially as we come to places like this in the Second Servant Song, we realize that this great prophet is going to be the greatest prophet. That not only is he like Moses, that he far exceeds Moses in every possible way. Think of what happened on the Mount of Transfiguration. As Jesus appeared there in glory alongside Moses and Elijah, he was greater than either of them. What are Moses and Elijah? They're prophets. Christ was the greatest prophet because he did not just take what he had heard and give it to the people, he was Yahweh himself. He's the Lord of glory, come to his people. He's greater than any prophet. He's the one who sent the prophets and yet he comes as a prophet. As Hebrews 1 tells us, long ago at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son. And the servants we read about in Isaiah 49, this is God's very son. And he comes bringing God's truth to us. And as we heard this morning that where the gospel, the word of God is faithfully proclaimed, that it's Christ himself who speaks each and every Lord's day, we can ask as we're gathered here, this is the Lord speaking. This is the servant proclaiming God's truth, not only to the Jews, but to Gentiles like many of us. And the question is, are you listening to him? Are you hearing what he's saying? Are you hearing what he proclaims to you? That he is the faithful servant, the one who is perfectly obedient. We see here in verse 2 that beyond bringing God's truth, Isaiah is telling us something very surprising. Notice with me again 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. And the servant is proclaimed to be basically like two different kinds of weapons of war in the ancient world, a sword, something that you would use when you're up close, and an arrow that you'd use when you were far away. But both this sword and this arrow are concealed, they're hidden. They're not right out there in the open. They're not there until they need to be used. It reminds us perhaps, doesn't it, of Judges chapter three. We read the story of Ehud and Eglon. And what does Ehud do as a left-handed man? He brings in a dagger into the king's throne room. He puts it on the opposite leg that they would expect for a right-handed man. And because the dagger is concealed until the last possible moment, it's the most effective. What Isaiah seems to be doing here is saying that Christ is concealed until the exact right moment. That this servant is going to come and he's going to be hidden from view until he's so close that he can't help but do what he is meant to do. And this servant and his message were hidden until the time was right. And then he burst onto the scene. Isn't this how God often works? in a way that's unexpected, unlooked for, undeserved. It's what we see again and again in the Bible, in the scriptures that God presents to us. And we can also say, isn't it odd that Christ's word is proclaimed or is presented here as a sword? It reminds us of Hebrews 4, verse 12. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Clearly the authors of the Hebrews and the prophet Isaiah are trying to present something to us here, presenting a servant, a savior, a Christ, a Messiah who comes with weapons of war, who himself is a weapon of war. But this is not the war that we expect. It's not the kind of war that we're used to. It's certainly not the kind of war that the ancient people of Israel and Judah would have thought was necessary. What this is is word warfare. A sword is effective when it's sharp, an arrow is effective when it's polished and smooth and can't have any resistance as it's flying through the air. What Isaiah is telling us is that this servant's word is effective. That no one escapes it, that it does what it was meant to do and it appears at a time when it's very much unexpected. There's really no defense against it. We know, of course, in the Gospels, as we read, that Jesus was mostly concealed until he came to the Jordan to be baptized by John, until the beginning of his public ministry. He was hidden. He was not out in the open, necessarily, although certain people had known him, had seen him, had understood, as Simeon and Anna had done, as the Magi, as the shepherds had known, that he was the Messiah, the greater Joshua, who had come to save his people. He was not out in the open. He was concealed. He was hidden in a very real way. But then the Word Himself, the Word of God Incarnate came to His people, to the Jews and to the Gentiles, to the coastlands and to the people who are far off, the whole world. The ultimate prophetic Word came in human form. And have you ever stopped to think about that? that one of the things God promises to his people again and again and again in the Old Testament is that they will know him, that his word will come to them, that he will raise up a prophet like Moses from among their brothers, that this servant will come to them, and then one day 2,000 years ago in a backwater part of the Roman Empire, that happens. That the reason that we're here today is because the concealed servant was revealed. That he came as the obedient one. That even today he speaks to us, and the God who sent the servant, and who is the servant, is still grabbing our attention. But we see also our second point this evening, the goal of the servant in verses three through six. And he said to me, you are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified. But I said, I've labored in vain. I have spent my strength for nothing in vanity. Yet surely my right is with the Lord and my recompense with my God. And now the Lord says, he who formed me from the womb to be his 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, is it too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserve of Israel? I will make you as a light for the nations that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth. So we can ask, why did this servant need to come? Well, because no one had obeyed in this way before. In verse 3 we read that Christ is the new Israel. He will succeed where the old Israel failed. The old Israel was meant to be a kingdom of priests, a holy nation set apart to God, and they failed miserably. Even as Adam had failed in the garden, Israel failed in the new garden, in the promised land that was flowing with milk and honey. And that God's servant, again and again and again and again, as He proclaims different servants and calls them and sends them out throughout the Old Testament, fail and fail and fail and fail. Some subtly, some spectacularly. But what He's saying is He is going to send a servant who does not fail. He is going to send a servant who succeeds in a wonderful way. Everything that is said of Israel as a servant can ultimately be fulfilled only in this coming greater servant. And this servant's ultimate goal was to glorify God. This is the goal of creation. And ever since the fall and the introduction of sin and the curse and condemnation and wrath, that's been the goal of redemption as well. So he comes to bring God glory. He comes to glorify the one who sent him. And he comes to do this in a very specific way, by saving God's people. He came to save in verses 5 and 6. It helps us to remember, does it not, during this time as we're just so closely removed from the Christmas season. As we still have the decorations up around us, we're still thinking through those things. Perhaps our trees are still up at home. We can remember that this baby boy, born 2,000 years ago, was not born to stay a baby. He was born to grow up. He was born to live a perfect life for his people as the only truly obedient perfect servant. And he was born to die in their place and to rise again for them. And how does God talk about salvation here? By using Exodus language. He's going to bring the people back. He's bringing Israel back. He's bringing Judah back. The remnant is going to come back. An ancient Israelite would have thought of the word salvation or redemption in one way. Redemption from Egypt, salvation through the Exodus, where God redeemed his people from slavery and destroyed their oppressors and brought them through dry ground in the middle of the Red Sea and to his holy mountain, ultimately into his holy land, into Canaan. What God says this servant is going to do is going to be very similar and yet different in an important respect. He's going to bring the people back not through the water and not from Egypt. He's going to bring them back from Babylon and Persia and he's going to bring them back through the desert. One thing that we find again and again in Isaiah is that the path for God will be made straight and level. the path through the wilderness, the path through the desert, because God is going to come and do a great work, even greater than what he did in Exodus, when he brought his people out of Egypt. So this is what the servant was meant to do, but we can ask then, how does he do it? He certainly seems to fail in verse 4 as we read, but I said, I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing in vanity. Yet we know that he succeeds. The rest of this verse shows us that he knows that God is his right hand, his strength. And in the verses to come, God proclaims that he will use this servant definitively to bring back his people to accomplish what he sent him to do. We don't have all the information here. Isaiah and the people to whom he was prophesying could not have known all that this meant, but what they could understand was through what seemed like failure, What seemed like defeat, the servant would bring about victory. The servant would bring about salvation for his people. In the words of one old reformer from the 1500s, Christ had to be utterly humbled or forsaken by God so that we would not be forsaken by God ourselves. This is how he did it. We see he is a suffering servant and not just an obedient servant. And finally, we see the glory of the servant in verse 7, our final point this evening. And thus says the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel and His Holy One, to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nation, the servant of rulers. Kings shall see and arise, princes and they shall prostrate themselves because of the Lord who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel who has chosen you. In many ways, verse 7 functions as a bridge between verses 1 through 6 on the one hand and verses 8 through 12 on the other. We see here that this servant is one who was despised by man. He is one deeply despised, abhorred by the nation, the servants of rulers. This servant came first as the suffering servant. This is even more clear in Isaiah 53, the very last of the servant songs, and it begins to really raise uncomfortable questions in our minds if we really think about it, doesn't it? After all, who is this servant? This servant is the one who can declare to the coastlands and to the people far off, not only listen, but listen to me. It's not yet clear in this point in the Old Testament how this will happen, but it's very clear that this servant in some way is Yahweh. This servant is the God who created all things, who is the La Covenant Lord of Israel, who is coming, and yet he's coming as a suffering servant, as a servant who brings victory out of what seems like defeat. And why did he suffer? So that God would be glorified and his people would be redeemed. And in verse 7 we see one of the great reversals in Scripture. Doesn't God often work this way? That something seems to be going one way and all of a sudden out of nowhere, out of left field we could say, humanly speaking, everything is flipped on its head. princes and kings bowing to a servant. It was initially fulfilled when this powerful men from the east, the Magi came and bowed down in Bethlehem in a little town of not much power to a baby in a manger. But ultimately, this will be fulfilled at his second coming. We think of passages like Philippians 2, 9-11, And this is what will happen on the last day as Christ returns, that kings and princes will bow down to Him And once again, not only will it be Israel and Judah who are saved. Notice with me again in verse 7. To one abhorred by the nation, the servants of rulers, kings shall see and arise, princes and they shall prostrate themselves because of the Lord who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel who has chosen you, its kings and princes from all over. Israel doesn't have kings and princes at this point. And he has just told us in verse 6, And the salvation is not a narrow thing. As we saw this morning, it's not God being miserly and only pouring out his blessings on just a few. What he's doing is he's proclaiming that this servant will come and he will succeed where Israel failed and because of that the light will go out to all the nations, to all the world. And I can go out on a limb and say that the vast majority of those here tonight are probably not Jewish physically. Not physical descendants of Abraham. And yet, We're gathered here together. We're gathered to hear the word of this servant, which he proclaims. We're here because this servant came and obeyed in our place, and in Adam's place, and in Israel's place, and in the place of everyone who would trust in him, and he obeyed perfectly. Because he suffered for us, and even when it seemed like defeat had been worked upon him, he brought through it victory. and because he has been glorified by God. We see that the servant's work will be rewarded. The servant glorified God, and so God promises to glorify the servant. It reminds us, for instance, of John chapter 17, that famous prayer of Christ that we know as the high priestly prayer, where Jesus says, I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. So this is our hope. The only reason we'll be glorified in the new heavens and the new earth on the last day is because Jesus, the servant, the blessed one, the coming one in Isaiah's day, came and went before us. He has been resurrected as the firstfruits of the harvest according to 1 Corinthians 15. As Isaiah says here, I will make you as a light for the nations that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth. And as we pray, as we send out missionaries, we know that's happening, and it's happening even here. We have a tendency, perhaps, as we close, to think, as modern day Americans, that we're the center, and the ends of the earth is everywhere that's farthest away from us. But from Isaiah's perspective, from the perspective of ancient Israel, who really did not even know that we existed here in this place, we are the ends of the earth. We are farther away than they even knew existed, farther away than they could have imagined, and yet this servant's work has been done so perfectly and it's been proclaimed so broadly that it's even come to us here today. And if you're here tonight and you're trusting in someone other than this servant, other than this Christ, this Messiah, this Lord and Savior, then the message of Isaiah 49 of this coming servant is very simple, that you should repent and believe the gospel. Because every knee will one day bow to Him. Whether it's through faith here and now, or through judgment on the last day. And if you're here trusting in Christ, then look at Isaiah 49 and take comfort, because you are not the servant. perhaps one of the greatest, most comforting messages that we could hear, that we ourselves are not the one on whom our salvation rests. That God sent the servant and God himself is the servant who came and succeeded where everyone failed, where we would have failed if we were put in the same place. And because of that, this message of salvation has come to you today in West Michigan, thousands of years later, on the other side of the world to a people speaking a different language and a different culture, the servant is still active. The servant has been glorified and the servant has sent out the spirit that he has been given. Because this servant succeeded and was glorified by God, all the earth can look to him for salvation. For there's no other name under heaven by which men can be saved than the name of the great servant, Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you once again for this servant song that strikes us in some ways as odd. It's certainly different than what we're used to as modern day Americans. But we thank you, Lord, that we can begin to understand what it is that your spirit inspired the prophet Isaiah to write. We thank you, Lord, that you promised in days gone by that this servant, Jesus Christ, would come. We thank you that he did come freely, willingly. We thank you, Lord, that he has won the victory for us, even when defeat seems sure. And we thank you, Lord, that we can take comfort in this, and that we can know that one day kings and princes in every tribe, nation, and tongue will bow down to him. We pray, Lord, that your Holy Spirit would comfort us with these words and apply them to us as we leave this place tonight. For it's in Christ's name that we pray. Amen. Well, our psalm of response is Trinity Psalter, hymnal number 138B. With grateful heart, my thanks I bring, please stand to sing 138B. With grateful heart, my thanks I bring, and praise you for your truth and grace. For truth and grace together shine in your most holy, worthy mind. In your most holy, worthy mind. I cried to you, and you did say, your word of grace knew who you'd be. The kings of earth shall thank you more, for they have heard your wonders cry. Yea, those who come with songs of praise for great and glorious are great, for great and glorious ♪ O Lord enthroned in glory bright ♪ ♪ You reign above in heavenly high ♪ ♪ The proud in vain your favor see ♪ ♪ A firm mercy for you be ♪ ♪ The trouble of my pathway be ♪ ♪ You will revive and strengthen me ♪ ♪ You will revive and strengthen me ♪ will stretch forth your mighty arm to save you when my foes are gone. The work you have for me begun shall by your grace be fully done. Your mercy shall forever be, O Lord, my Maker, think on me. O Lord, my Maker, think on me. Amen. Well, let me pray a prayer of blessing for us as we depart into our weeks. Our Father in heaven, may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all. We pray this in Christ's holy name by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Yeah, yeah. Okay, that's right. You have to leave it open. You have to do it. We're going to have to do it. We're going to have to do it. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. I know, but Star Wars is going to come really early for people, so I've been tweeting that.