Isaiah 42:18–53

0:00 Good morning everybody. Let me invite you to take a Bible and turn over to Isaiah 42. That's where we're going to be starting this morning as we continue this study of the book of the prophet Isaiah. What we're about to do for the next few minutes, that's a euphemism, is dive into an almost 3,000 year old book that was written in the Middle East by a prophet that we know was named Isaiah. Now, why are we doing that?

0:31 I mean, there's several hundred people that are gathered here. You knew this was coming, most of you, and yet you came anyway to come study 11 1⁄2 chapters of a 3,000-year-old prophetic book. Why do we do that? Well, if you're new to Third Avenue, let me tell you why we do it. The reason we do it is because we as a church, as a people who have put our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, believe that this book right here, with all 66 sections of it, we call those books too, this book right here is the Word of God written. We believe that it's true and inerrant in every word that it says. And we believe that it contains everything necessary for us to be brought first to salvation in Jesus Christ from our sins.

1:06 And then that it contains everything necessary for us to live faithfully to him. So every week when we gather here, we open up this book to a particular section. Lately it's been in Isaiah. And basically I read sections of the Bible to you, the congregation. I do my best to try to explain what they mean and how they all fit together. And then we talk about how those sections apply to our lives. And what we believe as we do that is that the Holy Spirit is working to bring life in us. To help us recover from the past week and get ready for the next week. We believe that he's pointing out sin that we need to repent of.

1:39 We believe that he's bringing people to faith in Jesus Christ. And that people are going from death to life and darkness to light. And all that happens through God's word. So we've been for the last few weeks in the book of Isaiah. And that's where we're going to be again today. It's been a little bit. It's been about a month since we've been in Isaiah, three weeks or so, three Sundays. So let me remind you of just basic facts about the book, right? Here's the basic stuff about Isaiah. The book was written, it's 66 chapters long, right? All of that was written and compiled by the prophet Isaiah about 700 years before the birth of Jesus.

2:11 So, you know, you do all the math and you come up with something like 2,720 years old. That's how old this book is. The book consists of prophecies that Isaiah made primarily to the southern kingdom of Judah, though the northern kingdom of Israel has its part to play too, as we've seen making our way through the book. And essentially the message Isaiah brings to the southern kingdom and also kind of to the northern kingdom, though less so, is a message of hope in the midst of difficulty.

2:42 Hope to a beleaguered nation in a very dangerous situation. So why is it dangerous? Well, because the northern kingdom, which had sort of broken away in a civil war from the main body of the nation. The northern kingdom is right on the cusp of being completely destroyed by the Assyrian Empire. This guy, the king named Sennacherib, is about to sweep down into the northern countries with his ginormous armies. And he's going to absolutely destroy the northern kingdom, take its people off into captivity, and basically scatter them throughout the nations and breed them away.

3:13 So if you've ever heard the phrase, the lost 10 tribes of Israel, that's what it's talking about. Because 10 of the 12 tribes of Israel got conquered by Assyria, carried off and just scattered into the nations and they blew away like chaff. There was nothing left of them. And that's about to happen when Isaiah is writing his book. In fact, it happened during Isaiah's lifetime. The southern kingdom is not in much better shape. Because it's only about a century or so away from itself being invaded and defeated and dragged off into captivity. not this time by the Assyrians, but by the Babylonians who come across the desert from the east. So it's a rough and tumble time. It's a dangerous time both for the north and for the south. And Isaiah's message when he steps into this whole thing is essentially, listen, no matter how tough it gets, no matter how hopeless everything may seem as you see these empires crushing down on you from every direction, God is still pursuing his purposes. And he's still going to bring history to the crashing end that he intends for it. His Messiah is going to be

4:17 on the throne. If you remember, Isaiah breaks down into three main sections. Let's do this together from chapters 1 through 37. You've got the book of the, yep, the king from 38 to 55, the book of the the suffering servant, and then from 56 to 66, the book of the, yep, those are three big sections. Book of the coming king, book of the suffering servant, and then book of the anointed conqueror. So you've got three big sections. And each of those figures, you remember how this works, the grand narrative of Isaiah, like the twist at the end of the movie.

4:51 All three of those figures, king, servant, conqueror, they're all great savior figures of Israel, right? They save God's people in various ways. But what you start to see, the twist at the end as you look at it, is that they're not three figures. they're actually all the same figured and that's what's supposed to blow your mind as you start to read this book and you realize wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, the servant is exactly the same as the king and the conqueror is the same as the servant and the king, they're all one person and it's this divine royal messiah divine royal king who suffers in the place of his people ultimately dies as we're going to see today in their place so that they themselves don't have to raise your hand if you've ever been to a medieval cathedral Anybody ever been to a cathedral?

5:35 Yeah, a lot of you. I've been to a couple of them. England, where have I been? I don't know, Spain, Czech Republic. Been to some medieval cathedrals. And when you walk into these buildings that are 1,000, sometimes 1,300 years old, what they're meant to do is blow your mind with the majesty of their architecture. Your eyes immediately go up to the ceiling or up to the rosette window in stained glass up at the top. And the whole thing is supposed to just imbue you with this sense of majesty.

6:08 And what you notice as you walk around one of these cathedrals is that they are exquisitely structured. You've got the pillars along this side and then the nave in the center, the vaulted ceiling, the stained glass windows. And then you have the chapels on various sides and usually they have tombs in them or something like that. But they're designed to make you see the intricacy of their architecture and to realize this is something beautiful. I don't know if you've ever read the book Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. I love that book. Ken Follett, he writes these huge sort of historical fiction books, and one of them is called The Pillars of the Earth.

6:41 Here's how he describes, or one of the characters anyway in this book. Here's how he describes standing in a cathedral. He says, the way to appreciate a cathedral is to stand alone in the nave. The nave is the big central portion of it. The building is designed to uplift the soul. It is calculated to make a person feel insignificant. If he is any judge at all of architecture, he will feel humbled, but not crushed. He will feel fear, but not terror. The vast size of the place will make him feel puny, but not contemptible.

7:18 I love that description, and I love cathedrals. And man, Isaiah's book is a cathedral. It's not just the majesty of it either. I mean, a lot of books of the Bible have this majesty to them. Like, you walk into them, and, you know, even if they're not exquisitely structured like Jeremiah. Jeremiah's not a cathedral. Jeremiah's more like a Jackson Pollock painting, right? It's got a majesty to it, but it's just gigantic blotches of color and theme that are shot against the canvas of Jeremiah's book. It's just like red, boom, you know, and then forgiveness, judgment, it's a Jackson Pollock painting.

7:52 Isaiah's not like that at all. Isaiah's a cathedral. Every piece of it fits together, and as you wander around in the various sections of it, you can almost feel yourself walking around in the rooms of this vast, exquisitely designed building. I hope you've noticed that as we've made our way through the book. I mean, hence these handouts that I have to give you just about every week. Because you can see that every single section of this thing, not only is it exquisitely structured as a whole, but even the various rooms of it, the various sections of it, have this amazing structure.

8:24 And I think that's especially true here as we start to look at these 11 1⁄2 chapters. So let's, I'm not going to read 11 1⁄2 chapters. That would just take too long. But I am going to take you through the structure of these 11 1⁄2 chapters. So grab this handout right here. You either picked it up when you came in or it was stuffed into your bulletin, one of the two. You'll notice this one's a little bit different because it's a whole page, right? Normally they've been half a page. But I wanted to show you two things on this one. So take it out and look at it with me.

8:55 On the left-hand side, sort of the one with the smaller box, right? Outline of Isaiah 38 to 55. This is giving you an outline. That side of the page is giving you an outline of the entire second section of Isaiah. The book of the servant. The book of the serving servant. That's what it's giving you. It's the structure of the whole thing. And what you can see in that, if you remember from several weeks ago, is that basically it's made up of five sections. You see them there? One, two, three, four, five. Three of them are in gray because we're not talking about them today, right?

9:25 That's why they're there. But it's five sections. And basically, if you remember, each one of those sections has kind of two sides like a coin, which you can see. So if you look at number one there, historical example, basically the two sides of the coin there are good Hezekiah and bad Hezekiah, chapter 38, 39. The second one, a promise of comfort, you've got two sides of the coin, comfort to Israel, comfort to the nations. And let's get down to the other gray one, number five there. two proclamations of redemption in chapter 54 and 55, a proclamation of redemption to Israel, a proclamation of redemption to the nations. So you see how it's working? It's just, it's little, it's little coins. Each one of them has two sides, and there are five of them that make up this whole big book of the suffering servant. Well, today, last time we looked at numbers one and two, today we're going to be looking at numbers three and four. So just take a look at it in the little box on the left-hand side. You can see the two sides of each of these coins. You've got two promises of redemption. God is going to redeem his people from captivity, like earthly, the captivity in Babylon that I was talking about. He's going to do that. But then more importantly,

10:29 he's going to redeem his people from sin. So it's redemption from captivity, redemption from sin. The fourth one that we're also going to look at today is that he's going to accomplish those two redemptions by means of two redeemers. One of them is King Cyrus of Persia, who's going to release them from Babylon. And the other one is the suffering servant of the Lord, who's going to forgive them of sin. So that's the basic structure of the whole thing. And if you kind of know where the brakes are, you can read this section of Isaiah and you can realize, oh, I'm in the section now where God is promising to redeem his people from captivity. And then you can realize, okay, now I'm starting the next side of that coin, which is he's talking about redeeming them from sin. You can sort of start to see the logic of it. Well, let's look at it in a little more detail because these two sections, three and four, work really in exactly the same way. They're completely parallel to each other. They each tell a story, kind of two stories, and they do it in perfect parallel. So move over to the big gray box now on the right-hand side.

11:26 You can see that the head, it's just like double-clicking it, right? It got bigger, right? So it's like on paper you're doing this to your phone, right? That's what we're doing. So you got number three, two promises of redemption, then number four to redeemers. And what I want you to see is that these sections work in perfect parallel with each other. So look under number three there. On the one side, you've got redemption from captivity. That's the first side of the coin. Second side, you've got redemption from sin. And the way God talks about those two redemptions is in exact parallel with one of them. It's like the same story being told in both of them. So look at the A's there. Israel's sin led to national captivity, the totality of Israel's sin. So both stories start with Israel has messed this up.

12:11 It's about their sin. Second thing is the promise to redeem, right? God will rescue Israel from captivity. He will forgive Israel of sin. So you've got Israel's sin. Nevertheless, God is going to do this thing. Then C, you've got the question, well, who can do this? Can the idols redeem from captivity? Can the idols redeem from sin? No. And in both of these sections, you get the Lord contrasted with idols. He's the only one that can redeem from captivity. He's the only one that can redeem from sin. And then finally, in the D sections, it happens. He redeems them from Babylon. He redeems them from sin. So you see how the same story is being told in both of them? It's just a different focus of each one. It's Israel's messed up. God's going to save him. He's the only one that can save him. He saves him. That's what happens in that first section. Okay, look at four. Slightly more complicated, but really not much. Two redeemers that are going to carry these things out.

13:04 Cyrus of Persia is going to redeem them from captivity to Babylon. And the suffering servant, that's Jesus, it turns out, is going to redeem them from sin. And then the same thing happens. You have this story that's told. You get the two redeemers named, right? Cyrus named in commission. The servant named in commission. Then you get God's assurance to those agents of success. So first he says, Cyrus, you're really going to succeed at this. And then the servant, interestingly, says, I am going to succeed at this, right? Then you have letter C in both cases where Israel, the people that are supposed to be being saved, go, eh, don't know about this.

13:39 This doesn't seem good to us. So Israel's doubt. And then you have D, God's reassurance. Then you have the E's where they work kind of like this, right? So you have Babylon going from throne to dust, from power to being destroyed. And then you've got Jerusalem going from dust to the throne. So Babylon's destroyed and Jerusalem is exalted. And then in the last piece of each one, you have the thing actually happens. They're actually released from Babylon, and they are actually redeemed and forgiven of sin. So it's the same story, right?

14:09 Agent named, God assures success, Israel doubts it, God reassures them. The thing sort of starts to happen, right? As Babylon is destroyed and Jerusalem is exalted, and then it happens. You're redeemed from Babylon, and you're redeemed from sin. So, you know, I think if you can see that, what happens is that this whole section of Isaiah goes from just being a bowl of mashed potatoes to a very well-balanced sword that's got a point. And what would be the point that God is trying to teach his people by flipping back and forth like this?

14:43 You think you need redemption from captivity, I think you need redemption from sin. You think you need Cyrus, though you don't like him and you reject him, I think you need the servant, and ironically, you're going to reject him too. Do you see what he's saying to them? He's saying to them that, look, you Israelites think you know what you need from me. You think you need redemption from captivity, but I'm telling you, you've got a deeper need than that. Yeah, Cyrus of Persia can come along and rescue you from Babylon, and you're not even going to like that. You're going to reject my agent of salvation in that realm. But what you really need is the servant to come and save you from sin.

15:23 And, of course, you're going to end up rejecting that Savior, too. So the main idea, here's the main idea of the whole thing. God is absolutely able and willing to save. God is absolutely able and willing to save. But not in the way you might expect or even want. God is absolutely willing or able and willing to save, but not in the way you might expect or even want. So here's what we're going to do. We're going to look at this passage in two points. You're going to want to have this part of this handout in front of you the entire time.

15:53 And we're just going to kind of break down that main idea. And those two points are going to correspond to each one of those big things. So point number one, God is absolutely able and willing to save. And that's going to apply to the first number three up there. Two promises of redemption. And then number two, but not in the way you might expect or want. So second section there about two redeemers. Okay, let's dive into it. Point number one, looking at that number three there. God is absolutely able and willing to save. You probably, if you've looked at it closely, you'll notice that this section actually begins in the middle of chapter 42, at 42.18.

16:31 That is a sadly unfortunate and yet typical thing that we have to deal with in this part of Isaiah. The chapter divisions, which are not inspired, they were put together by a bishop in like the 1200s or something. The chapter divisions are mostly useless for understanding the structure of this thing. The monk just missed it. He just didn't see it, and he messed up the chapters. So you might even do better just to scratch them out and start from quite literal scratch. Use this if you want to know the structure of it. The last part of what we were looking at last time, like the last little section, ended, if you remember, you can look up at the end of, you know, chapter 42, verses 10 through 17.

17:09 It ended with this new song that was being sung by the nations as God promised to comfort them. But obviously, something big changes at verse 18 of 42. There is no more song of praise here. And you kind of got to be able to see that. You go from happy to not happy really abruptly in verse 18. What you've got here instead is a message from God that what's about to happen to them being dragged off to Babylon in captivity is their own fault.

17:42 It's happening to them because of their sins. So let's look at a few verses of it. Verse 18. He says, Hear, you deaf, and look, you blind, that you may see. Who is blind but my servant? Or deaf is my messenger, whom I send. He's talking to Israel there. He sees many things but doesn't observe them. His ears are open but he doesn't hear. The Lord was pleased for his righteousness' sake, to magnify his law and make it glorious. But this is a people plundered and looted. They are all of them trapped in holes and hidden in prisons. They've become plunder with none to rescue, spoil with none to say restore.

18:13 Who among you will give ear to this, will attend and listen for the time to come? Who gave up Jacob to the looter and Israel to the plunderers? Was it not the Lord against whom we have sinned, in whose ways they would not walk, in whose law they wouldn't obey? So he poured on him the heat of his anger and the might of battle. It set him on fire all around, but he did not understand. It burned him up, but he did not take it to heart. I mean, that's bad. They got burned up, and yet they didn't take it to heart.

18:43 They're guilty of sin. And yet look what comes in the very next verse, 43.1. But now, thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel, fear not, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by name. You are mine. Let's skip down to verse 5 even. Fear not, for I'm with you. I'll bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you. I'll say to the north, give up, and to the south, do not withhold.

19:15 Bring my sons from afar, and my daughters from the end of the earth, everyone who's called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made. Do you see what he's saying there, in that section? He's saying, yes, you're guilty. You're guilty of all that sin that caused you to be scattered among the nations and carried off to Babylon, and yet I'm going to bring you home. I'm going to bring you home in spite of what you did. It's incredible what he does there. Well, from there, you can, you know, just kind of follow along in your handout in the Bible.

19:47 Basically, what happens there, if you look at the C section there, the Lord contrasted with idols. Basically, God asserts that only he can do this kind of salvation. No idol can do it. And then you go on down through 43, say 21, he basically does it. He brings them out of captivity in Babylon, saves them in a kind of second exodus. Through that section, you've got a lot of Exodus language that happens because he's bringing his people out of slavery. So great, right? I mean, it's awesome. God saves his people. Only he can do it. They're sinners, and yet he saves them.

20:18 He brings them out of captivity in Babylon. But look what happens in 43-22. 43-22. I did all of this, he says, at the end of 21 there. I've done all of this stuff. I'm going to be honored even by the wild beasts, he says in 20. But look at 22. Yet you did not call upon me, O Jacob, but you have been weary of me, O Israel. You've not brought me your sheep for burnt offerings or honored me with your sacrifices. I've not burdened you with offerings or wearied you with frankincense.

20:51 You've not brought me sweet cane with money or satisfied me with the fat of your sacrifices, but you have burdened me with your sins. You have wearied me with your iniquities. I mean, you see the thing that God is charging his people with. He's saying, look, you should have been rejoicing in me like the jackals, like the ostriches. You should have been rejoicing in me because of what I've done. But you didn't. Instead of praising me for this great salvation that only I can bring about, you sin against me.

21:23 Do you notice all that in 22 to 24? You didn't call upon me. I've not burdened, 23, end of 23, I've not burdened you with offerings or wearied you with frankincense. And then end of 24, you've burdened me with your sins. That's a fascinating little play on words there. Because what God is saying is, look, I've not burdened you. It's the same word that's used in Exodus for enslavement. So I have not enslaved you with a bunch of rules that you have to keep. I haven't done that. I haven't enslaved you. What you've managed to do, though, is enslave me with your empty rituals and sins.

21:59 It's fascinating, isn't it? I mean, that's kind of the thing about ritual. It's kind of the thing about what we do together as a religious community. Because we have rituals, right? I mean, we just, we do. We have rituals here at Third Avenue. We gather together every week. We sing songs. We pray. We read scripture. We have the sermon. Once a month we do the Lord's Supper. Our order of service is basically the same every single week. And that's the thing about ritual, is that when it is imbued with a heart of devotion to God, ritual and liturgy and structure in worship is beautiful and good.

22:43 It's like the meter of poetry or music, that when you have that structure and you pour language into it, the language becomes all the more powerful and all the more beautiful because it is structured by the music or the meter. Same thing with liturgy. When you have a liturgy or when you have religious rituals in place and you pour a heart devoted to God into those structures, it becomes all the more powerful because it focuses that devotion like a laser. It's not just a kerosene explosion, just boom, you know, just some feelings of emotion.

23:15 It's devotion that's structured by the Word of God and by the songs that we sing. It becomes beautiful. But when you just do ritual, for ritual's sake, when you just do a structure or a schedule for a structure or a schedule's sake, when you say the words or sing the songs or listen to the sermons but have no love for God, ritual becomes ugly. It becomes empty and hollow. In fact, if you think about what God says by saying, you've burdened me, you've enslaved me.

23:46 When you have empty ritual, that's essentially an attempt by you to enslave God. God, I will go through the motions on this, And what I will expect of you is this, this, this, and this. Even slaved me, God says. And that's exactly the state Israel had gotten herself into at this point. Even despite God's action of saving them from Babylon, her heart was empty of love for him. It was devoid of devotion. And yet. I mean, again, it's the same logic that we saw a minute ago.

24:19 And yet. Look at 43.25. and yet you I mean it's right on the heels right 24 you've burdened me with your sins you've tried to enslave me you've wearied me with your iniquities and yet 25 I I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake and I will not remember your sins and then move down to 44 5 the end of that little section this one will say I am the Lord's another one will call on the name of Jacob, and another will write on his hand, the Lord's, and name himself by the hand of Israel.

24:55 They're his in spite of it all. It ought to blow your mind. The fact that 25 comes on the heels of 24 ought to absolutely blow your mind. Because Christian, you need to understand that your salvation is of exactly the same, and yet nevertheless, despite them, character that Israel's was. When God saves a Christian, it is utterly unexpected. It is utterly undeserved. It is an and yet spoken over your life.

25:30 Listen, there's no sinner in the world, no sinner in the world that is saved by God looking at their life and saying, and therefore, you are mine. Nobody is saved in that way. It is always, for you, for me, all of us, It is always God looks at our lives and then has to say, and yet, nevertheless, despite everything, I'm going to save him. Friends, some of you need to hear that this morning because you are so sunk in your own sin and the awareness of it and your own cold heartedness that you've convinced yourself basically that you'll never be able to get to a place where you're going to be worthy to call yourself a Christian.

26:17 you've convinced yourself of that. Well, I've got awesome news for you today. And here's the awesome news. It's true. You're never going to get to that place. You're never. Not one of us is ever going to be to the place where we can say, you know what, I am worthy to be called a Christian. I am worthy to be called a son or a daughter of God. You're just not. You're not ever going to get there. So give up on that. But the really great news is that if you'll turn in trust to Jesus in faith, That he really does save hopeless sinners like you?

26:51 You know what will happen? If you turn in faith to Jesus, you know what's going to happen? Well, I'll tell you the first thing that's going to happen is that all the demons of hell are going to screech and shriek about all your sins and all your failings. There's going to be a hurricane of accusations swirling up from the pits of hell and from the depths of your own conscience. Every accusation of every demon of hell is going to come up. Every guilt-inducing failure of your conscience is going to come up. And friend, every single thing that they say is going to be true.

27:27 The demons say true things. They say true things about Jesus. They say true things about you. And everything they shriek at you, everything your conscience shrieks at you about why you're unworthy and morally bankrupt and spiritually hopeless is going to be true every bit of it and you know what Jesus will say when he hears it you know what Jesus will say when the hurricane comes shrieking out of hell what Jesus is going to say as you kneel there asking for mercy is he's going to say to them all yes it's all true everything you're screeching every accusation you're making it's all true and yet I came to seek and save that which was lost oh friends some of you need to hear that so badly this morning some of you need to just some of you have just been listening to the devil and listening to your conscience and letting that beat you down you know what you need to do you need to turn and agree with them yes I'm everything that you say Satan everything every bit of it conscience I'm everything that you say

28:29 yes yes yes I got no mitigating factors no excuses nothing and yet Jesus died to save me and so I'm his son And so I'm his daughter. So be quiet. Jesus came to seek and save that which was lost. Even though they never deserved a bit of it. Well, the next thing that happens through the rest of 44 is that God makes the point that only he can accomplish this kind of salvation.

29:02 Basically to look for it in any other place is just madness. So if you look at 44, right, verse 6 there is where it starts. Besides me, there is no God. Throughout the whole book of Isaiah, there have been these little moments where God has basically mocked the false gods of the nations. He mocks the idols. He calls them to account. He basically embarrasses them because they can't do anything. Remember that? I believe it was the last time we were together in Isaiah. God says, all of you idols, all you false gods, do something. Like tell me the future.

29:33 For that matter, tell me something that happened in the past. For that matter, tell me anything, like say a word. Do something, do anything, do good, do evil. Like stretch out your arm and do something. And you're like, well, they can't stretch their arms out because their little wooden arms are stuck to their wooden bodies, right? They can't do anything because they're nothing. And throughout the book, God's been making this polemic against them. They just can't act. Well, here in 44, through the rest of chapter 44, that mockery of the idols reaches its climax. And this chapter 44 right here, from 6 all the way to the end, Now, this chapter 44 is easily one of the most scathing and you might even say funny chapters of the Bible.

30:14 Because God is absolutely just roasting the idols. I mean, if you were to take out your phone and search your memes for sick burn, see what comes up there? That's how you're supposed to be reacting at the end of this chapter. Like, oh, that's what you're supposed to be doing at the end of this chapter. Anyway, it's really worth reading some of it. So let me read you some of it because it's genuinely scathing. So verse 6, chapter 44, verse 6. Remember, God's making the point.

30:46 Only I can save you like this. So thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts. I am the first and I am the last. Besides me, there is no God. Who is like me? Let him proclaim it. Let him declare and set it before me. Since I appointed an ancient people, let them declare what is to come and what will happen. In other words, you can't because you're nothing. So he says in verse 8, Fear not, nor be afraid. Have I not told you from of old and declared it? And you are my witnesses. Is there a God besides me? There is no rock I know, not any. And then he breaks into it. All who fashion idols are nothing, and the things they delight in do not profit.

31:19 Their witnesses neither see nor know that they may be put to shame. Who fashions a God or cast an idol that is profitable for nothing? Behold, all his companions shall be put to shame, and the craftsmen are only human. Let them all assemble, let them stand forth. They shall be terrified. They shall be put to shame together. And then the mockery really starts. The ironsmith takes a cutting tool and works it over the coals. He fashions it with hammers and works it with his strong arm. He becomes hungry and his strength fails. He drinks no water and is faint. He's not very smart. The carpenter stretches a line.

31:51 He marks it out with a pencil. He shapes it with planes and marks it with a compass. He shapes it into the figure of a man with the beauty of a man to dwell in the house of a man. He cuts down cedars or he chooses a cypress tree or an oak. It doesn't really matter. Let's it grow strong among the trees of the forest. He plants a cedar. The rain nourishes it. And then it becomes fuel for a man. He takes a part of it and warms himself. He kindles a fire and bakes bread. And he also makes a god and worships it. He makes it an idol and falls down before it. Half of it he burns in the fire. Over the half he eats meat.

32:22 He roasts it and is satisfied. Also he warms himself and says, Aha, I am warm. I am warm. I have seen the fire. And then the rest of it he makes into a god, his idol, And falls down to it and worships it. He prays to it and says, deliver me for you are my God. It's insane what he's saying this guy does. You take a tree, cut it down, cut it in half. Do the most important thing, which is warm yourself and eat your meat and all the rest of it. And say, I mean, it's a very funny line. Aha, I am warm. I have seen the fire.

32:52 Right? It's just, it's so cartoonish. And then it's not even that he takes the carefully set aside half of the wood in order to make his idol. The word is just the rest of it, the remainder, the part that he didn't use for the more important stuff. He turns it into a God and he bows down before it and asks it to deliver him. And God is saying, it is absurd. But who's absurd? Who's absurd? Is it the idol that's absurd? Yes. But the problem isn't just the absurdity of the idols, is it?

33:26 It's the stupidity of the people doing the worshiping. And in those last few verses there, starting in 18, that's where this missile finally lands in this assault on the idols. It doesn't land on the idols themselves. Who cares, really? I mean, who cares about the idols? They're nothing. No, it lands on the people who stupidly worship them. So look at 18. They know not, nor do they discern, for he shut their eyes so they can't see in their hearts so they can't understand. No one thinks, nor is there knowledge or discernment to say, half of it I burned in the fire.

33:59 I also baked bread on its coals. I roasted meat and have eaten. And should I really make an abomination of the rest of it? Should I really fall down and worship this block of wood? He feeds on ashes. A deluded heart has led him astray and he cannot deliver himself or say, is there not a lie in my right hand? I mean, that kind of dumb heartedness. God just backhands it away. He feeds on ashes.

34:32 And imagine that. Get in your fireplace. He feeds on ashes. Worthless. But not God's people. And that's where this section ends. Because if people don't worship idols because their trust is in the living God, their destiny is not to be choked on ashes, but to be redeemed. You can see it there in 21 through 23. 22, I've blotted out your transgressions. Return to me, I've redeemed you. 23, sing, O heavens, for the Lord has done it.

35:02 Shout, O depths of the earth. There's a lot of things we can learn from this, but I think one of the most important things to see here in this section is both God's ability to save and his determination to save his people in spite of themselves. In fact, the whole point is basically to say to his people, look, you're sunk, you're hopeless, you're bankrupt, but I can save you. I alone can save you, and I will, despite everything. And that's a powerful combination, isn't it?

35:34 Ability and determination. If you only had one but not the other, we'd be in trouble, right? If God were able to save, but he didn't really want to, we'd be in trouble. If he wanted to save, but he didn't have the ability to, we'd be equally in trouble. But when you take ability and determination and stick them together, there's a reason to trust God. He can do it, and he wants to do it. Now, I think there are a lot of Christians who struggle with that wants to part. Who fight with doubt to the point of wondering every day whether God really has saved you or whether he's doing it reluctantly.

36:06 Or whether he's just holding his nose as you come into his presence because Jesus sort of insists that he does. But friend, if that's you, if you struggle with that kind of doubt about God's love for you and his determination to save you, there's hope to be found here. There's rest in just knowing how deep is God's determination to save. In fact, if you wrote down the title of this point, God is able and willing to save, I want you to scratch out the word willing and write determined above it. It's not just that he's barely willing. It's that he's determined to save his people.

36:38 Look, I know doubt can come from a whole lot of different directions. You can wonder if there's enough fruit in your life. You can wonder why you keep falling again and again and again in your fight against sin. You can wonder how you can possibly be saved if you keep sinning. You can wonder why your heart doesn't feel more love or joy for God or whatever it is. All those things are worth considering, but they're not nearly worth considering as much as it is worth considering God's determination to save his people. See, that thought right there is what blunts the force of doubt in your life.

37:11 When doubt starts to creep in from whatever source, what you need to do is remember your heavenly father's unstoppable, white, hot passion to save his people. Look, it is not. And I know it's presented like this. lot of times to Christians, but it is not as if God is sitting on his throne with his legs crossed, picking his teeth, and he says, you know what? Open the doors and let's see who comes in. And then we're left outside on the threshold thinking, I don't know if I should come in. Am I worthy to walk through those doors? I mean, that's the God of the universe up there picking his teeth.

37:44 Should I walk in or should I not walk in? Have I grown enough fruit? Have I fought off enough sin? Have I told enough people about Jesus? Have I, have I, have I, have I? You see the problem with that? You see the problem with that? It's ultimately faith in self, not faith in God. But thank God he didn't just sit there and say, open the doors and let's see who comes. He didn't just open the door of the throne room. He came crashing through it with fire in his eyes, determined to save his people at all cost.

38:18 And the way you beat doubt, the way you cut its root is to believe that that's true and then trust God because of that. You're never, ever, ever, not once ever in your life going to defeat any kind of doubt that you may struggle with by writing up a checklist and seeing how you measure up against it. Do I have enough fruit? Check. Didn't sin badly? Check. Good spiritual conversations? Check. Great. I'm feeling really saved today because of what I did. No, what you're doing there is you're finding security in yourself. You're finding security in what you've done, but that's not faith in God.

38:50 At best, that's faith in self. Faith is believing God for what he has said. That he is able and passionately determined to save. And resting on that and staking your life on it. You know, it's funny. We've spent a lot of time in Isaiah because it comes up over and over again. God's determination to judge sin. He says it over and over again in the book. I am determined to judge sin. I'm determined to judge sin. I will judge sin, right? That's most of the book of the King. I think a whole lot of Christians find it easier to believe God's promise that he's going to judge sin than they do his promise that he's going to save sinners.

39:35 But friends, they're both promises, and they're both from the same God. I will judge sin. It's promise number one. But everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Promise to. Don't believe one of those more than you believe the other one. So God is able and determined to forgive. Point number two, but this is big, big point number two. We're moving down to the two redeemers section now, but not in the way you might expect or even one.

40:09 You can see from the handout there that the next big section, two redeemers, starts right there again in the middle of chapter 44, runs all the way through chapter 53. I think it's pretty easy to see how it works. I mean, we've already talked about this. God has set up two redemptions, right? One from Babylon, redemption from Babylon. The other one, redemption from sin. And now he spends this whole section talking about the two redeemers who are going to make that happen. So the first one, the one who's going to redeem them from captivity in Babylon, his name is this king of Persia named Cyrus. And he gets quite the introduction.

40:41 So look at the beginning of this section, chapter 44, verse 24. He gets an amazing introduction, this guy. Here's how it starts. Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, who formed you from the womb. I am the Lord who made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself, who frustrates the signs of liars, and makes fools of diviners, who turns wise men back and makes their knowledge foolish, who confirms the word of his servant and fulfills the counsel of his messengers, who says of Jerusalem, she shall be inhabited in the cities of Judah. They shall be built, and I will raise up the nations. Who says to the deep, be dry, I will dry up your rivers.

41:13 And all of that is preamble to this. who says of Cyrus, he is my shepherd, and he shall fulfill all my purpose. Saying of Jerusalem, she shall be built, and of the temple your foundation shall be laid. Now let me tell you something mind-blowing about this and about Cyrus. Isaiah writes this, complete with Cyrus' first name, 130 years before Cyrus is even born. It's incredible, isn't it?

41:43 I mean, this guy's probably great-grandparents are not even born yet, and yet here's God telling us his name. How can that be? Well, some scholars say, look, because he names him, I mean, because he literally gives his name, he must have known about him, so this has to have been written later than we all think it was. It was written after Cyrus came on the scene and became a big deal. But friends, there's absolutely no evidence for that at all.

42:17 In fact, the only evidence that ever gets pushed forward for thinking that this little section was written much later is basically, but, but, but, my evidence is that he couldn't have known his name. But of course he could. He's God. He knows things. I mean, it just puts the lie to this whole idea that we dealt with some years ago of open theism where basically God doesn't really know the future or control the future. He's just sort of working out. He's like a master chess player, but he doesn't really know about the free decisions that people are going to make.

42:49 He just blows it out of the water. How many free decisions had to be made for this little baby to be born? Think about those. And get the name Cyrus. So many of them in God without a problem goes, it's going to be Cyrus. Not Byrus or Dyrus, but Cyrus. Right? The father is not going to even just misspeak when he says his name. It's going to be Cyrus. Friends, that's only a difficult concept if you just flat reject everything that Isaiah has been saying about God from the very beginning.

43:20 But for those who believe what Isaiah has been saying about God, it's not a difficult thing at all that God would say his name is going to be Cyrus. Well, at any rate, this guy Cyrus is God's agent for bringing about salvation from Babylon. And he gets high praise from God in the next section that runs through 45a. We're not going to read that, but basically what it's saying is that this is a huge deal. The fact that Cyrus is going to conquer Babylon and then let the captive people come back to their land, it's a huge salvation that God accomplishes. But at the end of all that praise for Cyrus and talking about what a big deal it's going to be, look what happens in verse 9, 45, 9.

44:00 Woe to him who strives with him who formed him, a pot among earthen pots. Does the clay say to him who forms it, what are you making, or your work has no hand? Now, there's a big change there because we go from praising Cyrus to God now rebuking somebody, right? Who are you to talk back to me? Who are you, a pot, to tell the potter that he's not doing a good job making the pot, right? The potter made you. So what's happened? Well, you got to read between the lines a little bit. But basically, as you read on through the rest of the chapter, you realize that what's happening is that the people of Israel get word that this pagan Gentile king of Persia is going to rescue them from captivity in Babylon.

44:36 And they are not happy about this arrangement at all. They don't like it. Why are you having a Gentile king be our savior? This is your big plan, God? Like you've been talking about all of this salvation from Babylon. And your big plan is to have this violent, nasty dog of a Gentile king be our savior? So God lets him have it. Why do you question me? And then in 13, if you look, he just kind of reiterates his determination to save them. And through Cyrus.

45:10 Well, we're not going to look at it in too much detail. But basically, if you just let your eye wander through the rest of 45 and on through 46, and you look at your hand out there, that's C and D, basically. What God's doing is basically reassuring his people. He's telling them that, yes, I understand. I understand you don't want to be saved by a Gentile king. But be reassured, please, that you are still at the center of my plans. That's what's going on there. But as you read the rest of 45 and 46, the one thing that you notice in the midst of all this reassurance, like you're still my people, you're still in covenant with me, it's all this stuff.

45:45 You also start to notice that God is still really irritated with them for rejecting his plan, for rebelling, for not listening. He's really irritated. So look at the last thing he says to them, 46, 12, and 13. He says, listen to me, you stubborn of heart, you who are far from righteousness. I bring near my righteousness. It's not far off, and my salvation will not delay. I will put my salvation where you want it, in Zion, for Israel, you, my glory. I mean, it's just a mashup of emotions, right? I mean, it's basically, listen up, you thick, sculled rebels.

46:20 You are still my glory, okay? That's basically what he's saying there. Well, then through 47, 48, it happens. Cyrus conquers Babylon, casts her down in the dust. That's 47. And then in 48, you finally have the Israelite captives being freed from Babylon. They're sent back to their own land. We're not going to read it all. Just look at the last little bit, 4820. Here's kind of the final payoff. Go out from Babylon. Flee from Chaldea.

46:50 That's Babylon. Declare this with a shout of joy. Proclaim it. Send it out to the end of the earth. Say, the Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob. They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts. He made water flow from them. They split through. That's Exodus imagery, right? You remember that? So he's saying this is a new second exodus. But 48 has the same thing going on that 45 and 46 have going on. Basically, again and again and again, the Lord calls Israel names. He calls them obstinate. He calls them stiff-necked. He said, you hold on to the name Israel and the name Yahweh, but not of right and not in righteousness.

47:25 Like, you forfeited the right and the ability to have my name or even to have the name Israel. He just waxes them. In verses 9 through 11, he makes it clear to them, look, I'm not saving you because you're any big stuff. I'm saving you because I'm not going to give my glory to another. And if I let you be destroyed, that's going to redound to my unglory. That's why I'm doing this, he says, not you. So he just lets them have it. And then look how this whole section ends. After 21, this exodus from Babylon, look what happens.

47:58 48-22, this is how it ends. Israel is released from Babylon, but the Lord looking after them now is sort of, as they head off to the land, he's looking after them, kind of shaking his head in silence. And he says in 22, there is no peace for the wicked. You're released. You're out. But you're wicked. And you have no peace. I mean, all along, think about it, all along, their greatest problem was not their physical captivity.

48:31 It wasn't their earthly circumstances. Their biggest problem was their sin. And in the end, they got everything they wanted, but nothing that they needed. And that is such a common problem for us as humans, isn't it? We think we know exactly what we need. We think we know precisely what would make us happy and secure and content and fulfilled. And we are always 100% entirely wrong about that. I don't know if any of you have seen the new Netflix series Untold. One of the stories that's told in there is of a football player, Texas A&M, named Johnny Manziel.

49:06 Tells a story of how he just hit unimaginable heights of success in college football. He won the Heisman Trophy. He got drafted into the NFL. And he says in that Netflix documentary, he says, I was a 19-year-old kid with $100,000 stuffed under the mattress. It was awesome. But then he says after a moment, But when I got everything that I wanted, I think I was the most empty I ever felt inside. Friend, what do you think you need?

49:41 Look, I promise you this right now. Whatever just came to your mind when I asked that question, what do you think you need? It's not what you need. Whatever just came to your mind, it's not what you need. And if you get it, I promise you'll eventually look around like Johnny Manziel, like the people of Israel, and realize that you're feeding on ashes. So what do you need? I can tell you what you need. You need more than that, that's for sure. And Isaiah answers that in this last section.

50:13 So starting in 49, God introduces again this figure of the servant. We're not going to look at everything in detail. You can see in the handout, it tracks very parallel to the section about Cyrus. But I do want to look at this intro of the servant, chapter 49, verse 1. Look at this. This is the servant speaking. He shows up without any introduction, but really quickly you figure out that that's who he is. Listen to me, O coastlands. 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.

50:44 In the shadow of his hand, he hid me. It goes on and on. Look at verse 5. And now the Lord says he who formed me from the womb to be a servant to bring Jacob back to him and that Israel might be gathered to him for I am honored in the eyes of the Lord and my God has become my strength. He says it is too light a thing. God says to the servant it's too light a thing that you should be my servant just to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserve of Israel. So because that's too light a thing I will make you as a light for the nations that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.

51:16 A couple of things to notice there, just a couple of details. First, look at how it starts. Verse 1, listen to me. It's a servant speaking. Incredible authority. He stands up in front of the nations of the world and says, listen to me. Cyrus never does that. Cyrus never speaks. He never says a word. He's moved around by God like a chess piece on the board. But the servant stands in his own authority and calls the nations to listen. Let's look for a minute at what he does. Flip over a couple pages to the sort of last, you know, you can run down through there.

51:50 You can see what happens. Israel doesn't like the idea. God reassures them. All of that happens. Jerusalem is brought, you know, from the dust to the throne. All that happens. But I want you to look at the last part of it. 52.13. This is when God actually delivers on his promise to save them from their sins. Behold, my servant shall act wisely. He shall be high and lifted up and shall be exalted.

52:21 That phrase, high and lifted up, why does that ring a bell? The servant of the Lord shall be high and lifted up. Why does that ring a bell? In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord high and lifted up. There are only two other times where that phrase is used in Isaiah. Isaiah 6, I saw the Lord high and lifted up. And another time in 57, when the Lord himself is called the high and lifted up one.

52:54 You see what that's saying? You see what that's saying? Christians did not make up the idea that Jesus is God. That's what Isaiah is saying there. As many were astonished at you, his appearance was so marred beyond human semblance and his form, Beyond that of the children of mankind, so shall he sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths because of him. From that which he has not been told them, they see. And that which they have not heard, they understand. Who has believed what they heard from us? To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

53:26 For he grew up before him like a young plant, like a root out of dry ground. He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men. Wait, what, what? A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and as one from whom men hide their faces, He was despised and we esteemed him not. He's God. He's high and lifted up. The arm of the Lord is being revealed in him and yet he's despised. Why? We look at verses 4 to 6.

53:58 It contains, I think, one of the clearest presentations of the gospel of Jesus Christ in the entire Old Testament. Arguably one of the clearest explanations of the gospel in the entire Bible because it tells why the servant is so afflicted. It tells why he suffers. Look at it. Surely, it says, 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 crushed for our iniquities.

54:28 Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. And with his stripes, we are healed. 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. What do you learn from there? You learn a few things. Number one, you learn that he's not suffering for his own sins. It's not that the servant did something wrong. No, he's righteous before God. But he's suffering again and again and again for us, for our iniquities, for us. His stripes have brought us healing. He's suffering for his people.

55:02 Another thing you see here is that he gets no help in this. It's not like we contribute something. No, he's the one who's active, and we're the ones that are receiving the benefits. He bore our griefs and carried our sorrows, and all we did was esteem him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. He was wounded for our transgressions. With his stripes, we are healed. All we did is like sheep go astray. We turned to our own way. But the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. You want to know something else you learned? That ultimately this whole thing, this whole gospel of Jesus Christ, of Jesus dying in the place of his people in order that they might not have to die, is the doing of God.

55:43 Nobody else God. Look at verses 4 and 5. I think if you look at that, you can see that verse 4 and verse 5 each have sort of four lines to them. So you've got surely and yet smitten, right, in verse 4. Those are the beginnings of the four lines. And then in five, you've got but, he, upon, and then and. So you have this structure in four and five of dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, right? That's what it's doing. It's lulling you into a kind of, you know, rhythm.

56:14 Look at six, though. Now, it's tricky because it's messing with your mind by dividing it like it does. But it's really only three lines. You've got all, we, and then this double long one that's not two lines, one line that's double long. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. So do you see what that's trying to do? It's trying to catch your attention because the way it feels is... Dump, dump, dump, dump, dump, dump, dump, dump, dump, dump, dump, dump.

56:51 And what's it trying to catch your attention with? The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. O Christ, what burdens bow thy head. My load was laid on thee. Thou was so stricken of thy God, and now there is no load for me. Look, friends, one of Israel's, we're finishing.

57:22 One of Israel's worst mistakes was that they thought they knew exactly what they needed from God. They thought they needed release from captivity. but what they really needed even once they got it what they really needed was not just released from some earthly circumstances it was forgiveness of sins my friend think about it what do you what did you come in here and what are you leaving here thinking you need I don't want to stand here and tell you that those needs are unimportant in all likelihood they are very important but what you need more than anything what is a need that is deeper than any other what is a more pressing need than any other is your need to be forgiven of sin. And God is offering it to you this morning in the face of the suffering servant of Jesus Christ. And if you'll come to him in faith, if you'll come to him in trust, if you'll come to him in repentance, you can say to him something like this, Jesus, I can't. I can't bear my own griefs. I can't carry

58:24 my own sorrows. I can't endure what my sins deserve, and I can't suffer what my iniquity demands, but you did it all in my place. You were rejected so that I could have peace. You were pierced so that I could be healed. Those were my transgressions, but they were your wounds. It was my iniquity, but it was your suffering. It was my sin. It was your sorrow. And yet, Jesus, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that your punishment brought my peace, and your stripes won my healing. It was your suffering.

58:55 But it was my salvation. It was your grief, but my joy. It was your blood, my forgiveness, your death, my life. Friends, that's what faith means. It means recognizing your total bankruptcy before God, your complete inability to save yourself, the hopelessness of ever winning forgiveness for yourself. And then coming to Jesus, the suffering servant, as the only one who can give it. Friend, if you're not a Christian, but you realize this morning your need to be forgiven of sins, it's not hard. There's nothing to earn.

59:27 Jesus has already earned everything you need. That's why we are so passive in Isaiah 53. We don't do anything. He does it all. What you need to do is just turn your heart away from sin and toward him in faith, in trust, and in reliance. And even right there in your seat, right now, this morning, you can turn away from sin and say, Look, Jesus, I can't save myself. I'm trusting you to do it for me. So here's my question as we close. What on earth is stopping you from doing that right now?

59:59 Let's pray. Our Lord Jesus, we praise you and honor you today as the great Savior, the suffering servant who gave your life so that we might live. All of those who would put their trust and their faith in you throughout all time and places and eternity. Our Lord God, we pray that if there are any here today who don't know you, that they wouldn't know you by the time they leave this building today. And Father, for those of us who do know you, those who are struggling with sin, those who are struggling with doubt, Lord, we pray that they'd be able to look into your face, into your eyes, and find comfort and forgiveness and security in the face of the suffering servant of God.

1:00:44 We pray all of that in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you.