Our text tonight is Isaiah chapter 49, verses 1 to 6, and that's found in page 765 in your pew Bibles. Isaiah 49, chapters 1 to 6. I wonder if in the midst of some project you've undertaken, maybe it's the putting up of the Christmas tree, cleaning up of the house for guests for Thanksgiving, some home renovation, you've ever said something to yourself like this. It's useless. I give up. There's no point. Maybe it's something even more serious, something spiritual, a spiritual desire. a family member, a son or daughter, a co-worker, a friend. Brothers and sisters, if you've felt that feeling, know that Christ has felt that feeling more intensely, but felt that feeling of discouragement with you. Jesus Christ was not a stoic. It's dangerous to just say Jesus Christ was anything, but because Jesus Christ, if anyone is Jesus Christ, is right now seated at the right hand of the Father, alive right now. But during His ministry, He experienced all range of emotions. He experienced tears, rejoicing in the Holy Spirit. He got angry. And one of those very things He'd experienced powerfully in His ministry was deep discouragement. In that trajectory, as we'll see in a moment in Isaiah 49, of saving his people, being commissioned, this glorious servant of Yahweh, Jesus Christ felt deep discouragement. So again, the second of the sermons of the servant of the Lord, Isaiah 49, verses 1 to 6, read with me. The servant speaks, "'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've spent my strength for nothing and 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 a servant, to bring back Jacob to him and that Israel might be gathered to him, for I am honored in the eyes of the Lord and my God has become my strength, he says, It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel. I will make you as a light for the nations that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth. Thus far, let's go to the Lord one more time in prayer. Lord, we thank you for your word. We pray that your word would go forth in power. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. looking at this second servant song. Here's the point of the passage. Look to God's glorious servant who though discouraged will be God's salvation and a light to the far off nations. I'll repeat the point. Point of the passage. Look to God's glorious servant who, though discouraged, will be God's salvation and a light to the far-off nations. So here's what we're going to do tonight, brothers and sisters. Once again, we're going to behold Christ and Isaiah. And if we're looking for life-changing application for tonight, It's this, let's look at the glorious person of the Son of God. If you're a Christian here, that's what you want. You want to see Jesus Christ and all that He is implies for you and me. And if you're not a Christian here, if you've not personally put your trust in the Son of God, It's to turn from your sins and to look savingly at the face of this glorious servant. So we'll look at Christ in Isaiah 49, verses 1 to 6, and three points. From the first three verses, it's the sublime servant. From verse 4, it's the discouraged servant. And then from verse 5 to 6, it's the saving servant. So first, the sublime servant from that first verse. And before we begin to kind of dive into it, I think it's necessary again to explain why this is talking about Jesus and not the nation of Israel. Many people might come to you and say, well this isn't talking about Jews or other liberal Christians, even some evangelical Christians might say this passage isn't talking about Jesus but the nation of Israel. And there's a few ways you can kind of counter this. For one, in verse 3, this Israel is the one in whom God shares his glory. I don't think we'd say that about a nation, that God would share or display his glory through a nation. Secondly, that this servant brings back the tribes of Jacob to God. Now think with me for a moment. Is it logical for Israel to bring back Israel to God? I don't think that's possible. It's a logical inconsistency. And third, this servant is a light to the far ends of the earth and the sense of the Hebrew, he's the salvation that reaches to the ends of the earth. You and I would never say of ourselves that we're God's salvation to the ends of the earth. The nation of Israel itself wouldn't say that. We are the salvation. Look to us to be saved. But Christ may. So you can refute that kind of thing by pointing to those verses. What makes this Savior so sublime? We begin with verse 1. A call from Christ to the far nations and the coastlands. Remember that ending of that sermon from a couple weeks ago, Isaiah 42.4. Jesus establishing justice in the coastlands. And Jesus is calling out to those far out nations saying, listen, listen up, give attention. You peoples are far from the grace of God. Those that don't know God's law, those that have not come to a saving knowledge of Yahweh. And if that's you tonight, know that Christ is calling you specifically to listen up. Perk up your ears. Listen to what Christ has to say. So again, what does this servant say to us about himself? What makes this servant so sublime, so glorious? Well, the first thing that's said about this servant is that he's called from the womb. Verse 1, the Lord called me from the womb, from the body of my mother. He named my name. This servant, though more than a mere man, we've seen that from verses 3 and verses 6, has dwelt, has had as his chamber the womb of a woman. This servant more than a mere man, and this is good, good news, has taken on flesh, has gone into the womb of a woman, and has given a name, not just the name of servant, not just a general name, but a name specifically from God as he's in the womb. What does that make you think of? that ought to have your mind go to that name given to him by Gabriel, denominated to him by an angel from heaven, the name of Jesus, which means that this glorious servant is named for he will save his people from their sins. So this glorious servant, it's good news, is enclosed within the womb of a woman to take on flesh, son of God, becoming man to redeem man and bring him to God. What glory! And He has been housed in the womb of a woman to save His people from their sins. This is the message of Christmas, by the way. Born that man, no more may die. Good news! This servant, the Son of God, in a womb to take on flesh that He might save. Poor sinners, needy sinners. So that's the first thing we see of the servant housed in a womb. Name from God, Jesus, the one who shall save his people from their sins. But secondly, something about the mouth of the servant. Isaiah 42 too. He made my mouth like a sharp sword. If we can harken back to Isaiah 42, We remember that something is said about Jesus's or the servant's voice there, that he's one who doesn't lift up his voice, cry aloud, beat down people, condemn people with his words. And here we have another insight about the mouth of the servant, the words of the servant, and that's that his mouth is as a sharp sword. And we see this in Revelation 1.16, that sharp sword coming from Christ. But this servant, we can say, more than a man, has a sharp sword emanating from his mouth, which means that this servant is given the very words of God. Remember what the scriptures say about God's word. We all know this verse. Hebrews 4.12, just listen. For the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating to the division of soul and spirit." This servant's words were those sword-like words of the Word of God. The very words that proceed out of God's mouth were the words of this servant. And brothers and sisters, is this not true of Christ's ministry at large? You read the Gospels. Were not His words, yes, comforting, encouraging, soft, non-condemnatory, but at the same time revealing, opening, cutting, convicting, and powerful, unraveling. Think about these few instances where Christ's words were used as a sharpsword. Think about Matthew 22, the Pharisees, the scribes interrogate Christ. He asks them, how can the Messiah be David's son and David's Lord in Matthew 22? What happens? The Pharisees, the scribes, they're speechless. They're revealed, they have nothing to say, the sharpness, the revealingness, the cuttingness of Christ's words. Think about the rich young ruler justifying himself before Christ. He gives him one word. One phrase that reveals all his self-justification. He has no words to say. He walks away. He's silent. Think about when the Pharisees and the scribes interrogate Jesus about the baptism of John. They ask him rather, what authority does Christ do the things he does? By what authority? And Jesus asks them about the baptism of John. Is it from heaven or earth in Luke 20? And they couldn't answer. They're speechless. They know if they say one thing, the crowds will be against them. If they say another, they're committing error. They walk away speechless. Think about it on another level. His woes to the Pharisees for their hypocrisy. His even saying to the Pharisees boldly in John 8, 44, your father is the devil. So Jesus is the comforter, brothers and sisters. But if we go through the scriptures, we see this sharp-like tongue. This sharp-like mouth that speaks just the right words to reveal the sinfulness, the helplessness, to convict sinners for the purpose of bringing them to himself. And reading through the Gospels, seeing Christ's wisdom in his words, the power of his words, you might be thinking, man, to be there with Jesus, to hear his very words, to be cut open like that, I'd love to be there. And friends, the good news for us, for you and me, is that we have, we hold, the very words that proceed out of the mouth of God. Those very sword-like words that divide between soul and spirit, they're His words. And you can be exposed to that cutting, exposing, and even healing word. Now, it's that Bible in front of you. So friend, the exhortation would be to get acquainted with the voice of Christ, contained, which is the word of God, the voice of the one whose mouth is like a sharp sword. Friends, let me ask you, have you ever been exposed by the word of God? In your private devotions, let's say, you open the word of God in the morning, and you find yourself struck hit by a certain verse, convicted to soul and spirit, undone before the presence of God. Or maybe a scripture, a text, powerfully applied to you, with you throughout the day, God speaking to you, God powerfully dealing with you. On another level, I'm sure that all Christians here could testify of that. Have you heard that voice of the living word recently? When was the last time you yourself were ministered to by this powerful word, Christ's sword-like word coming from his mouth? Friends, Jesus still speaks sharply through his word with this mouth of a sword. And if we're not experiencing this dividingness or this comfort or the power of the word of God coming forth from the scriptures, either through preaching or through reading the word, problem is not in the one whose mouth is like a sword, the problem is in us. Our dull hearts, our rocky hearts, dull and hardened through sin or lukewarmness. Friends, if that's us, Know that that's not God's design for us to go from fiery, innocent Christianity to just a kind of normal Christianity where we're reading the word of God, doing our duties, remaining unaffected like seed being thrown upon stone and springing out. God's desire is for us to take greater and greater leaps and heights of being acquainted with Christ's sword-like word emanating from his mouth. So friends, confess it to God, ask Him, and I have to do this as well at times, we all do, to ask God to melt our heart of stone that we might be powerfully hearing God's Word. Get under, friends, this Word's powerful activity for freedom from sin, for salvation if you've never experienced it. know that a personal dealing with the Lord Jesus Christ through the Word of God is the regular experience of the people of God or ought to be. Very well, briefly, the third thing we notice about this servant is that he's a polished arrow hid away In verse 3, he's hid in the shadow of the hand of God. And this isn't just talking about the fact that Jesus is hidden or not put in plain view of the people of God. It's talking about the fact that God himself protects and preserves the servant. This servant has a commission. He's commissioned with a task. And as long as he's commissioned with that task, this God protects him. Not only protects him, deploys him like an arrow to accomplish his task of defeating Satan, defeating the wiles of the enemy. So Jesus Christ is that polished arrow, protected to decisively destroy Satan's work. And in verse three, God speaks in. So these truths about the servant are lumped together and then finally God jumps in, he crashes in and this is what he has to say about the servant on top of what's already been said. God says about this servant, the Lord Jesus Christ, he said to me, you are my servant Israel in whom or through whom, the Hebrew is more accurate with, in whom my glory will be displayed. Now you might be a little bit confused as I was the first time I read this. Jesus-Israel, how does that kind of go together? How can Jesus, what on earth does it mean for Jesus to be Israel? Well, friends, Israel messed up royally. They messed up over and over and over again in the Old Testament. Israel was given a commission by God to display, to show forth the truth of His glory, the truth of His Word to the nations. What does Israel do? Instead of causing the nations to be conformed to the image of Yahweh, Israel itself becomes conformed to the nations. Israel begins to worship idols, offer child sacrifice, commit all sorts of sin. And God sends Israel into exile. He disciplines them. And here they are in exile, languishing, without their temple, without their land. Will God destroy Israel? And the good news is from this verse, no. Instead of destroying Israel, God raises up a representative for Israel, the true Israel. Though the nation, the nation of Israel, has disobeyed God time and time again, the true Israel, the Son of God, will never disobey Him, never rebel against Him. A rebellious, sinful nation, Israel, has a sinless, perfect representative as savior and mediator. Israel failed its task. This Israel will perfectly accomplish that Israel's task. And friends, this is good, good news for you and me. We ourselves, as Israel, have been commissioned as those created in the image of God to obey God, to walk with Him, to shine forth His image across the earth, and we've rebelled against Him. But God has raised up this Israel in our stead. Though Israel was exiled, sent into a different land for their own sins, Jesus Christ was sent into the exile of death for the sins of you and me, for the sins of Israel. If you yourself will believe in this exiled and resurrected Christ who bore the sins of sinners, was buried, was raised and ascended at the right hand of God. If you look to Him and trust in Him, God will save you. He will give you the perfect righteousness of this Israel of God. So that's the good news. Though Israel exiled because of her sin, this true Israel in our stead lives the perfect life, fulfills God's commission, and is the one we are to trust in. And lastly, briefly, He's the one God displays His glory in. We see that in verse 3. God displays His glory, shares His glory with this servant. So we can see that this servanthood is a high, high privilege. It's a high calling. It's a distinct honor. And yet, in verse 4, a sudden shift. The servant speaking, but. Really, in the midst of all this glorious truth, a but. The servant says, but I said, and this is the second point that discouraged servant. Servant says, but I said I have labored in vain. I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity. It surely my right is with the Lord and my recompense with my God. Friends, Jesus in ministry, though he was called with such a glorious calling, though he was called with such a noble calling, was discouraged. He was really discouraged with his ministry. And this phrase here emphasizes what Jesus felt was, for a moment, the utter emptiness and futility of his work. Jesus came, think about it, Jesus came to Israel. He came to his own, the Jews, and they did not receive him. We'll go into a bit more detail about that. But notice the words here, nothing and vanity. One of those words in the Hebrew, Futility is the same kind of word used for the world in Genesis 1 without form and void. It's like Jesus's ministry is a mass of Play-Doh next to the Taj Mahal. It's this kind of shapelessness, it's pointless. And then the other word used for that emptiness, the nothing. It's suggestive of breath in winter cold, winter's coming. And if you just sort of breathe out and vapor emits from your mouth, it's here and it's gone immediately. It's real uselessness, utter futility. You get the sense that Christ himself thought of his ministry like, say, you build an elaborate sandcastle on the beach right by the shore. You build it and you put all your kind of effort into it, but it itself is flimsy. And then the shores come and crash it and destroy it. And it's here today and gone the next moment. Now, when we read this, that Jesus felt this way, we feel strange, do we not? Could Jesus really feel like this? Could Jesus really feel that his ministry was futile, vain, useless? Well, friend, you have to remember that Jesus is truly God. that Jesus is also truly man. He's sinless, yet truly man. He had a human, emotional life. We talked about that in the intro. He cried real tears. He really experienced discouragement. He really experienced futility. Think about the comfort of what Hebrews tells us that Jesus Christ was touched with. He was acquainted with all our weaknesses, yet without sin. Now reading this, I was very, very convicted. Because you find here a real laboring savior who hinges everything upon the advancement of the kingdom of God. He puts everything, all his eggs in that basket. And because of that, he experiences real discouragement, real futility, feelings of futility. Here in John 4, he sent his disciples to get food to eat. He's starving. And yet he presses forward to witness to the Samaritan woman. He tells them, my food is to do the will of him who sent me. And in the midst of this labor, in the midst of him putting his all upon the altar of God, so much apparent fruitfulness, fruitlessness, discouragement because of the constant laboring Christ did for God's sake. It made me look at myself. How comfortable am I? How much am I putting myself off from putting my full self on the altar of God because of fear of discouragement? And do I experience these emotions at all? Putting myself, putting yourself fully for God's cause to the point where we are discouraged when we don't see real lasting fruit? We might analyze ourselves here. How convicting is this about the Savior? Many of us are not discouraged spiritually because we're not really laboring with all our hearts, and we'll never be able to labor perfectly like the Savior. But let's imitate Him in our fervent evangelism towards our neighbors, our family members, our coworkers. Do we have this earnest desire with Christ to see all converted, to see real, lasting fruit? Or are we so comfortable that we could give or take spiritual fruitfulness and effectiveness? It isn't really all that important to us. And again, when I'm pointing at all of you, there's three fingers pointing at me. May God help us all, like Christ. to put our all upon the altar of God. Let's petition Him for greater grace and greater power to labor with all our pantings and breathings, with everything in us, like the Savior, for God's cause. We go back to that discouragement that Christ was privy to. Again, think back to His life, all the various discouragements that Christ would have experienced. When He fed the multitudes in John 6, It tells them that they must eat of his flesh and drink of his blood. Many of his disciples leave him and never come back. The religious elite of the day disbelieved him, demanded signs of him, would not believe him, tried to entrap him. So you have those concentric circles. It's the nation and the Pharisees, but even inwardly, the faithlessness of his disciples. He tells them, he cries out in Matthew 17, 17, a foolish and perverse generation. They abandon him as he's on the way to the cross. To the Jews themselves, Jesus reveals his glory in John 8. He says, before Abraham was, I am. And they seek to stone him. Jesus wept. His heart was moved for his people. They were like sheep, they were harassed as those who had no shepherd. The Greek of Matthew 9, Jesus being moved, spoke nidzomai as this, his inward bowels being moved towards those sheep. And he came to those and those own received him not. He was invested and then apparent fruitfulness. So Jesus experienced deep, habitual discouragement concerning his ministry. I've labored in vain. I've spent my strength for nothing and vanity. So friend, if you've spent energy, prayers, preaching towards family members, coworkers, friends with little to no fruit, maybe you have a son or daughter, not a Christian, you've preached them, you've prayed, no fruit. Friend, Jesus has been there. Jesus has been right there, real, felt discouragement in his heart at apparent fruitlessness, at what seemed like utter uselessness, in the midst of his commission to save, intense discouragement. So we might ask this question because the text addresses it. How did Jesus deal with this discouragement? How did Jesus deal with feelings of despondency? I'm doing all this labor, I'm not seeing work, it's all futility. How did he deal with it? Because he does deal with it. It's one thing to feel it. It's another thing to let yourself stew in it, and then to become sinfully despondent. He dealt with it, but how? Months, years of praying, of preaching, with no immediate fruit. And this is what Jesus did. He did this one thing according to the verse, and we'd be wise to do this. Verse 4. that yet, it flips, yet surely my right, the Hebrew, my judgment, my justice is with the Lord and my recompense, my reward, with God. The Lord Jesus did this one thing. He did this. He realized that spiritual success is not determined by fruit, not determined by visible results, but by the work itself. Friend, the smile of God, our obedience to God's commands is the determiner of our success, not apparent, visible fruit. So Jesus preaches that to himself here, my judgment is with God. It's not with this apparent fruitlessness. Friends, God makes the final judgment concerning Christ's work and concerning our work, not man, and not fruit. And friends, there's many noble men and women of God who labor in shade that no one knows, who've prayed for years, who've not seen conversion in their family, in their church, with their co-workers. They're unknown. yet well known. They aren't remarkable in the world's eyes or even Christendom's eyes. Notice Christianity. We glorify people for the number of conversions they see and the apparent fruit. They're not seen as much. Pastors of small churches, mothers of children who are obstinate and rebellious. No one really cares about them. But in Christ's eyes, in God's eyes, because of their persistence, because of their perseverance, because of their obeying this command, they're precious. These hidden men and women of God are unknown, but on that last day, their works will be made evident, and they will hear from Christ, well done, good and faithful servant. So friend, if like Christ, you are laboring in obscurity, you're trying to be faithful, you're trying to seek God's face, but seeing little fruit as he did, and feeling discouragement, obviously at a lower level than the sinless son of God, but feeling despondent, you're in good company. Do what Christ did. Don't despair for long. Trust in the one who makes the final judgment of your work. Have eternity stamped upon your eyeballs and trust in him to make the final pronouncement of what you've done. Friends, though this feeling of discouragement is not sin, it's to be dealt with as Jesus dealt with it. We'll feel it if we give ourselves up to God completely. If we don't, we won't. But we must do away with it that we might be useful vessels for his cause. So, Jesus felt real lasting discouragement. The Jews reject him. Much of his ministry was met with apparent fruitlessness. But he rebuts this discouragement with truth. Preach this truth to yourself. Why art thou cast down, O my soul? Say it to yourself. Tell yourself it's the judgment of God, his last proclamation on that work. Now the last point, the saving servant. This passage is going somewhere. We talked about his sublimity and then his discouragement, but it's leading towards his salvation of the world. The servant reminds himself in verse five of the calling God has given him. He says it, he's formed me from the womb, I'm honored in his eyes, he's my strength. And then in the wake of the servant's discouragement and self-encouragement, the Lord breaks in. And this is what he says to his son. In verse six, it is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preservative of Israel. It'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." It's too small a thing, the Father is saying to Christ, for Christ to be raised up for the salvation of the remnant of Israel alone. It's too light. It's too inconsequential. God makes Christ the light and the salvation of the far-off nations. God makes Christ the salvation of far off peoples, nations, and Gentiles. And friends, we ought to behold the missionary heart of God. God's heart is, and His love is as large and as wide as His missionary reach to the ends of the earth. And this is part of Christ's ministry, what He says of Himself again and again. According to Luke, he's the sunrise, Jesus Christ, that visits from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide sinners' feet into the way of peace. He's the light of revelation for the Gentiles, as we read in the call to worship. The servant is, as this very Christ in John 8 tells us, the light of the world. And you and I, brothers and sisters, We were as these Gentile far-off nations, indeed we are of these Gentile far-off nations, in distant nations, in self-imposed darkness. We're the ones who have been groping in darkness, seeking pleasure, not knowing the truth, not walking by light, tripping constantly, having no place for truth. We can read this and we can sentimentalize it, can't we? Gentiles in darkness. Oh, poor Gentiles. They're in the darkness. How nice, you know, Christ brings out this light to the far off nations. Not just Israel, but also the Gentiles. But friends, this is a self-imposed darkness. It's not just a darkness that they're, oh, pour me in. It's not like when we hear about innocent prisoners being put into, you know, isolation, and we feel bad for them, we want the release. But this is the kind of darkness that a rebellious prisoner would be put in, into isolation. It's a darkness that's self-imposed. And friends, this is you and me apart from Christ. This is who we were in our own darkness, in our own prison cell. But look at God's generous heart. Not only will He raise up a stoop down Israel, it's too little a work for Him. He makes Jesus Christ, the Son of God, a light to the nations and a light to those far off. The dark, the self-oppressed, those that have through sin brought themselves in chains from all their wickedness. He is the light of the world. And whoever follows him and knows something of that light being shown in their hearts will walk in that light, walk in that truth. So friends, the question, obvious question, obvious implication of this verse, has the one who said, let there be light, shown his light in your heart? Have you been converted? Have you gone from being enchained, enslaved to sin, to having Christ's blazing light and knowledge of the gospel, regeneration, his spirit in you, breaking the chains, and Jesus Christ himself being your cherished possession and your salvation? Friends, have you known what Charles Wesley talks about in And Can It Be, that great hymn? He says these words and he can't help but think about this passage. Long my imprisoned spirit lay fast bound in sin and nature's night. Thine eye diffused a quickening ray. I woke the dungeon flamed with light. My chains fell off. My heart was free. I rose, went forth, and followed Thee. Friends, have you experienced that? Have you experienced the saving light of Christ dawning upon you? Yes, the sharp-mouthed one, the arrow, the one who inhabited a womb named Jesus who would save his people from their sins. He came to be a light to distant, far-off nations, Gentiles, far-off people. It's Isaiah 49.9, just a few verses down. What God says, saying to the prisoners, come out to those who are in darkness, appear. They shall feed along the ways. On all bare heights shall be their pasture. Friends, we call upon you. If you don't know Christ, if you've not trusted in him, I'm sure there's at least one here who's not closed with Christ. Believe on him. Look to this light and be saved. And lastly, we see. This is the whole point of missions. This is why missions, brothers and sisters, goes on. And this is why the call to missions is a wonderful call. Whenever you see bustling missionaries going about preaching the gospel, you're seeing the visible heart of God preaching His gospel to the ends of the earth. And the Lord Christ is still up to this work even now. He loves to save those in the dark, those inhabitants of the ends of the earth. We'll close with this. He's been reading of a missionary named John Payton from Scotland who went to this dark island named Vanuatu, the coastlands, the end of the earth. He felt this call. This is what he found when he went there. He said their worship was entirely a service of fear, its aim being to propitiate this or that evil spirit, to prevent calamity or to secure revenge. They deified their chiefs so that almost every village or tribe had its own sacred man. They exercise an extraordinary influence for evil, these village or tribal priests, and were believed to have the disposal of life and death through their sacred ceremonies. They also worship the spirits of departed ancestors and heroes through their material idols of wood and stone. They feared the spirits and sought their aid, especially seeking to propitiate those who presided over war and peace, famine and plenty, health and sickness, destruction and prosperity, life and death. Their whole worship was one of slavish fear, and so far as ever I could learn, they had no idea of a God of mercy or grace. That was those inhabitants. And friends, that might be you. Not uncivilized like them, perhaps, but in chain by vain philosophies, what we heard about this morning. Darkened by materialism, by pride, by your life apart from Christ. You are in need of this day spring as much as they are. This hopeless condition, yet the light of the world used Taten as a means to turn an island upside down. Listen to this story of one dying convert from the island. A chief named Cahuilla, this is what he says. He said, farewell Missy, I am very near death now. We will meet again in Jesus and with Jesus. Payton's assistant sustains him, takes him to the graves, he lays him down there, and that man sleeps with Jesus. And this is what John Payton says, and there, my faithful assistant Abraham buried him beside his wife and children. Thus died a man who had been a cannibal chief. but by the grace of God and the love of Jesus, changed, transfigured into a character of light and beauty. What think ye of this, ye skeptics, as to the reality of conversion? I knew that day, and I know now, that there is one soul at least from Tanna to sing the glories of Jesus in heaven, and oh, the rapture when I meet him there. Friends, that's the point of missions. And Christ, this light is being upheld even now. Trust in this glorious servant, the light of the world, the light to the far out nations, the servant of God. Look to him and be saved. Will you trust in him savingly tonight? Let's pray. Lord God, we thank you for your word. We thank you that Jesus Christ is the suffering servant who was discouraged and yet leapt back up, did all your commission, saved your people, and was a light to the far off nations, a light of salvation to those in the dark. Lord, there may be some in here in dark, in sin. We ask that Jesus' light would shine forth in their hearts and save them. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.