This evening, our sermon text is Isaiah 50, verses 4 to 11, and that's found in page 777 in your pew Bibles. Isaiah 50, verses 4 to 11. Mahatma Gandhi, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr. Three men who were popular, charismatic leaders, who drew crowds wherever they went, adored by huge swaths of the general public, and these three men had their lives brutally and violently taken away from them. Here's the question before we dive into the text. What makes Christ's death and Christ's beating any different from their death? Was Jesus' death just another assassination? Friends, in another look at the glorious servant songs, we'll behold more of the glory of this servant Savior, this wonderful, marvelous God-man. We'll get a view of more of his heart, more of his ministry, and more of what that means for you and me. So let's read Isaiah chapter 50, verses 4 to 11 together. So beginning in verse 4. The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught that I may know how to sustain with the word him who is weary. Morning by morning he awakens. He awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught. The Lord God has opened my ear and I was not rebellious. I turned not backward. I gave my back to those who strike and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard. I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting, but the Lord God helps me. Therefore, I have not been disgraced. Therefore, I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame. He who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who is my adversary? Let him come near to me. Behold, the Lord God helps me. Who will declare me guilty? Behold, all of them will wear out like a garment. The moth will eat them up. Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the voice of his servant? Let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God. Behold, all you who kindle a fire, who equip yourselves with burning torches, walk by the light of your fire and by the torches that you have kindled. This you have from my hand. You shall lie down in torment. Let's go to the Lord briefly in prayer. Father, we pray that this word would go forth in power and that we would be changed by it. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Friends, in the first servant song we read some weeks ago, we saw something of the gentleness and tenderness of Christ our Savior, and His propping up justice in the earth. And in the second, we saw something of His mission from God. His sharp, sword-like mouth, Him being formed in the womb for a purpose, His discouragement as a servant, and then His being the light of salvation to the ends of the earth. And here we come to this third servant song and we see a further development of Christ's ministry and Christ's character. Friends, before we dive in, this is the point of Isaiah chapter 50, verses 4 to 11. This is the point. Look to Jesus Christ's bold, determined obedience in the midst of darkness and imitate him. I'll repeat that. The point of the passage is this. Look to Jesus Christ's bold, determined obedience in the midst of darkness and imitate him. Friends, we're going to look at Christ as we have in the previous sermons. At first it may seem that there's less application, but then we're going to directly learn to imitate the Savior. Specifically, if you're a Christian here and you're either in a time right now or expecting, as you should, to be in a time of darkness, living in despair, suffering as one of those living in godliness towards Christ. If right now you're experiencing despair, darkness, depression, feel you have no light, this passage is for you. Verse 10 specifically is for you. So this text can be divided into two parts, the servant's obedience and our duty of imitation. So verses 4 to 9, servant's obedience. Verse 10 to 11, imitating him. But we're going to look at the passage in three parts. And the first part is going to be the discipled servant from verses 4 to 5. Before we begin looking at that point, two preliminary observations. Number one, notice that term Lord God is repeated four times throughout the servant song. And we're going to get to that later, but just keep an eye on that. The fact that Lord God, Lord God, Lord God, Lord God is repeated throughout the song. And secondly, we've been making a practice of seeing why these servant songs aren't just talking about Israel, but about Jesus Christ himself. Well, we have encouragement that this is about Christ himself based on verse 10. It's not just Israel. Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the voice of his servant? The voice of Jesus Christ. The voice of this servant is a voice to be obeyed. We'd only say that about God himself. But let's look at verses 4 to 5, the discipled servant, and we begin again in chapter 50 with a description of Jesus' tongue, his mouth, the way he speaks. Look at that in verse 4. The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught that I may know how to sustain with the word him who is weary. The Lord has given Jesus Christ a tongue. Jesus Christ, morning by morning, we see in the text, is awakened and hears directly from his Father. And through that hearing, through that revelation of God, is given the tongue of the learned, or better yet, the tongue of discipleship. Jesus is given the tongue of a student. It's like a student privy, having access to great and deep knowledge from a teacher. Let's say you imagine some rabbi or priest, I know it's easy for us to imagine our heads, at the very end of a long corridor with some secret knowledge in your admitted entrance into that study. And day after day, morning after morning, he pours out secrets, revelation about God. Jesus Christ himself was privy and had access to that revelation. Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of Psalm 25, 14, which says, the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him. Jesus Christ was that one who perfectly feared God and in turn God gave him, morning by morning, his secrets. And look, saints, Jesus' ear is awakened to hear as those who are taught. He learns, and as we see in verse 4, he doesn't just hold on to that learning. It's not just that God reveals to him and he holds on to it. Jesus Christ himself, our great prophet, will not hold on, but shares with us what he has taught. Therefore, Jesus is the disciple of God, hearing from God morning by morning, given that tongue to speak to his people. Well, what has God taught Jesus Christ to say? What does the tongue of Jesus Christ do? Again, we saw in the first song, first it's not contemnatory, but gentle. Second, it's sword-like in its sharpness. And third, as we see in verse four, it's that tongue, that voice, that mouth that knows how to sustain with a word him who is weary. So friend, perhaps you found yourself here tonight, and I believe this can apply in two different ways. Perhaps you found yourself here tonight fatigued, one of those weary who are in need of a sustaining word from Christ. You're stooped low spiritually. You might even be dangerously close to throwing in the towel spiritually. Perhaps the sin that totters you over the edge was committed last night. Perhaps it was something this morning. Maybe it's something you've been struggling with for the past weeks or even months. Sin that you hate, sin that you loathe, you're parched spiritually. What kind of word does Jesus give to the spiritually weary and the spiritually parched? Friends, this Christ is this very servant who offers a sustaining, a strengthening Word. He doesn't want to destroy and He doesn't abandon. Friends, He enlivens. He strengthens and that through His Word. And this is part of His obedience. God himself commissions this servant to hear his words that he might sustain you who are spiritually weary here tonight with a word that enlivens them and strengthens them. Those of you who are feeling what we even prayed about today in the congregational prayer, the feeling of Romans 7, keenly feeling that you're dwelling in a body of death. Friends, Jesus Christ himself has a sustaining word for you. Friend, ask yourself this. Look in the past and all the kind of perils that you've encountered through your own backslidings, through your own faithlessness. Has Christ sustained you thus far? Has he ever taken you from spiritual peril or spiritual deadness or spiritual weariness and enlivened you according to his word? Do you have this enlivening experience with His Word? To summarize all that's come before in those servant songs, has His Word been gentle to you? Has it, as in Isaiah 49, cut you in conviction? And according to Isaiah 50, has it strengthened you? Has Jesus' words, have they enlivened you? Does the preached word do that to you? Does reading his word, hearing his voice do that? Or again, are our hearts calloused, hardened, used to and acquainted with walking in darkness and deadness and thinking that this is something of the normal Christian life or a mature Christian who's been through much? Friends, if that's you, Go to God tonight and pray with the psalmist in Psalm 119, 107, who cried out to God, I am afflicted very much. Quicken me, O Lord, according to your word. And friends, part of the power of being a part of a gospel church is the ability to have deliberate fellowship and discipleship with one another. Are you doing that? Are you sharing, sustaining words derived from the scripture, spiritual words with one another to sustain one another and strengthen one another? Friends, we might address a second group through this sort of ministry of Christ. Maybe you're here. and you're keenly conscious, you're aware of your separation from God. You know you've sinned against Him terribly. Maybe you've sat under the church, at this church, been a member here, but have never come into personal contact with the Lord Jesus Christ. And you're not experiencing necessarily habitual immorality and a calloused heart, but constant dealings from God of weariness, of trying to either prop up your own righteousness before God, trying to do the right thing before him and offer it up to him, or a constant weariness with the revelation of your sin and the destiny that God has for you, knowing that you are under just condemnation by God. Friend, Christian and non-Christian, we are either from sin or self-justification. This Christ is the Christ who offers a tender word like Matthew 11. Beginning in verse 28, Him calling the weary, the heavy laden, those under a conscious awareness of their sin or a conscious trying of propping up their own righteousness before Him, and is the one who says to you with a sustaining word, come to me all who are heavy laden and I will give you rest. This is the Christ of Isaiah 61 verses 1 to 3, the one who calls to those under a conscious awareness of their separation from God And he's the one anointed to bring good news to the poor, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening up of the prison to those who are bound. He proclaims the year of the Lord's favor to you, weary one, and comforts all of you who mourn. Friend, he wants to give you the garment of praise instead of your faint spirit, and the oil of gladness instead of your mourning. So why the succession of the tongue of the servant and the word of the servant and all of its enlivening effects? It's one long application to us to get under this word and all of its enlivening, empowering dealings with us. privately and corporately, get under the mending word, the sharp word, and the sustaining and strengthening word. These are Jesus's very words found in his scripture, and his words have marvelous We hasten on. More is said about our Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 5, that phrase again, the Lord God, the Adonai Yahweh, the Lord God opens up the ear of this servant. He opens up the ear of Jesus. And this Jesus, this servant, he didn't turn back. He wasn't rebellious. Friends, behold the obedience of Christ. Israel, it was said in Isaiah 6, the nation of Israel, would be like their idols. They would hear and they would not understand. They would see and not perceive. They couldn't hear. They were utter rebels before God because God had made covenant with them. And they continued to reject him over and over and over. And they'd become like the lifeless idols they'd worshipped. But this one, this Lord Jesus, The true Israel, as we talked about in Isaiah 49, his ear was opened and he truly obeyed. He truly listened. He truly followed. The true disciple, the true Israel, the true obedient one. And notice, Jesus himself, as verse five says, he turned not backward. He was not rebellious. Jesus Christ didn't backslide. Jesus Christ did not turn the other way. Jesus himself was not like Moses, that other prophet, doubting God's call from the burning bush, hesitating to go forward, saying, I can't go because of my weak speech, giving reason after reason to God to keep him from going to his people. He wasn't as David, who had covenanted with God. and then sinned grievously against him. He wasn't as this Israel as we talked already. He wasn't as Jonah, the one commissioned with the task of preaching to the Gentile nations and turning the other way. No, Jesus Christ was not like that. God commissions Jesus with a task and he takes it on unflinching. He won't budge. He won't turn back. And friends, every verse after this is just a further iteration of Jesus Christ's determined obedience to God. Friends, just a side note, comfort of comforts. The fact that we have turned back, though we have all gone our way perpetually, we have a prophet in our place, a mediator in our place, has met every demand. Even though we've shirked him, he did not turn back. We hasten on to the second point. What was this commission? What is the revelation and the manifestation of Jesus's obedience to God? What was it that Jesus Christ refused to turn his back on? So we come to our second point from verses six to nine, the beaten servant. Church, Jesus Christ obeys God. by being physically beaten. Read verse 6 with me again. I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard. I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting. And just to further buttress the point, just to get us under it even more, listen to these verses from the Gospels that I'll just read, detailing the physical humiliation, the beating, the scourging of Christ. They spit in his face and struck him. And some slapped him, saying, prophesy to us, you Christ. Who is it that struck you? They spit on him and took the reed and struck him on the head. And some began to spit on him and to cover his face and to strike him, saying, prophesy. And the guards received him with blows." Friends, when we hear Jesus our Lord being struck with blows, We're moved to our core, are we not? The creator, one who formed each one of these rebellious servants, either the Sanhedrin or the Roman soldiers, beaten, spit on, hit, receiving scourgings from his back. But think, let's get to the thrust of the text. What was Jesus' disposition? In other words, what was going on inside Jesus' heart in the midst of all this beating? In the midst of all this mocking, the spitting, the tearing off of the beard? What was going on inside Jesus Christ? How was He? First, Jesus gave. Jesus gave His body up in this way. wasn't seized from him. Jesus wasn't doing ministry, kind of doing his thing, and then Roman centurions, Jews, grabbed him and seized him unexpectedly and started to beat him with blows. Jesus himself gave up his body to those who would beat it. And friends, to answer that question at the beginning of the sermon, this is the one great difference among many between these mere men we talked about, Gandhi, Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., and the Lord Jesus Christ. His life wasn't seized from him, wasn't taken from him, wasn't stolen unexpectedly before the prime of life. He laid down His life out of perfect obedience to the Father. Listen to me from John 10, verse 17 to 18. This is what's happening right here. Jesus says in John 10, 17 to 18, for this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life, and I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again, this charge I received from my Father." So friends, if you're witnessing to an atheist, let's say you're evangelizing to them, maybe you'll hear the common objection, the cross, propitiation, atonement is divine child abuse, and that is absolutely absurd. Because this divine child, the son of God, gave himself. He wasn't compelled. He gave himself of his own will. He gave his cheeks. He gave his beard. He gave his back to be scourged. Friends, Jesus Christ offers it. He gives it up for sinners like you and me. Those who have sinned against him. Who have rebelled against him with high-handed rebellion. Jesus Christ for the faithless here tonight did not hide his face from disgrace and spitting. Uncompromising obedience to the Father for his glory and for our sake, he didn't hide it. He gives up his body for the disgraced, for the sin weary, and for the rebel. And he did it, dear friend, for you and me. And he goes in without shrinking an ounce back. He would not hide his face from disgrace and spitting. He gave his cheeks to those who pull the beard. He gave his back to those who strike. Here, he says, I offer it. Take it. And he did that. Friends. Look at, when you see the beaten Savior, when you see the Savior receiving scourgings, receiving blows, receiving spitting, and a torn beard, look to Him and see not only God's great love for you, but God's great hatred for your sin. Behold, an open manifestation of God's hatred for sin and God's dealing with sin. Further development of that is seen in Isaiah 53. But as an application of seeing the Christ being beaten and bruised, flee from your sins and mortify them, because God hates them, and cling to this loving and merciful God. We hasten on to verse 7. Look at verse 7. In the midst of all the beating, he's giving his back to those who strike. He's giving his beard to those who pluck it out. He hid not his face from disgrace and spitting. But look at verse 7, beginning with a but. I think the ESV gets this right. That but belongs there. Lest anyone think that this servant is being beaten for anything he's done, being beaten for his sin, his failure, But that but is a shift. And this is what Jesus says, the Lord God helps me. Therefore, though Jesus has gone through that experience of disgracing, he has not been disgraced. Because of the sustaining work of God. And because Jesus is convinced, as we see in verse eight, of his vindication, he who vindicates me is near. Not only is God being near, but a vindication being near. Because Jesus is convinced of his vindication, which is only his resurrection, his deliverance, he is not put to shame. And let's take another kind of zoom in to the heart of Christ. Look at what's going on inside Jesus, friends, in verse seven. Therefore, because of the help of God, for the sake of obedience, because it's the Lord's call, Jesus set his face like flint. Jesus set his face like flint. Jesus Christ was determined. You would think, and sometimes we get this from the movies we watch, God forbid, but the movies we watch or stories we read of depictions of the crucifixion, Jesus Christ would go trembling because of whips and hitting. Or maybe he has second guesses on the way to the cross. He's double-minded. Maybe he's going kicking and screaming. No, dear friends, Isaiah 50 makes it very, very clear. He set his face like a flint knowing that he would not be put to shame. Brothers and sisters, though every sacrifice, we might see it in our heads, the sacrifices that the priests had offered before they had slain them, would go kicking and screaming before their sacrifice. This son of God went forward, not kicking, not screaming, not wrangling, but with a face like Flint, determined to be beaten for his people. This very verse is quoted in the New Testament, quoted in Luke 9.51. This is what Luke says about Jesus's going to Jerusalem, the very place where he'd be convicted, the very place he'd experience that beating and suffering. Luke 9.51, when the days drew near for him to be taken up, Jesus set his face, Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem. Friends, every step Christ took towards the cross was one of the God-man whose face was set like flint, taking every step out of determined love and obedience to the Father and love for his people. Every step from going to Jerusalem, to enduring physical suffering, to even burying the sins of his people in his body on the tree, That whole event saw a Jesus setting his face like flint, determined to obey. And we see this practically in the way Jesus rebuffs every hindrance in the way of every step to Jerusalem. He takes every hindrance and he throws it away. Think about his time of temptation after 40 days of fasting before Satan. He tries to move him away from the cross. Matthew 4.9, I'll give you all this, all the nations, if you'll bow down to me. And Satan is rebuffed. Jesus explains to his disciples he has to go to Jerusalem to die. Peter says, far be it from you, Lord. This shall never happen to you. And Jesus says, get behind me, Satan. Satan is rebuffed. And even when he's on the cross, they tell him, if you're the Son of God, come down from the cross. And he doesn't budge. All this. to bear the sins of his people in flintiness, setting his face, bear their sins, and to obey God. Friends, if you've not closed with Christ, if you've not trusted in Jesus Christ, look to this one. who for his Father and for the sake of wicked sinners, like you and me, went to the cross and bore their sins, was buried, resurrected, and ascended at the right hand of God. Friends, if you'll trust in this one, he will save you. So, brothers and sisters, let's get away from any kind of sentimentalizing of Jesus' beating. True motions should come. Because of what Christ has done in our place, the things that we have deserved, he endured. But he was absolutely, unshakably determined in the midst of this beating. Is this a doubting Savior? No, it's a determined and strong Savior. And we'll touch on why as we analyze that text later. Listen to this quote from a Puritan named Stephen Sharnock who details Christ's crucifixion, Christ's beating, all that he had gone through for the people of God. Listen to Stephen Sharnock. To trust at God's smiling, he says, when he casts about us nothing but cords of love, it's not a case of difficulty. Every man has a strong impulse to this when God drops sweetness into him. Obedience is easy, but then is faith at the highest elevation. When a man can trust God though he kills him and wait upon him when he hides his face and drops hell from his hands, thus was our Savior's faith put to the trial by this proceeding. Yet he went forth conquering and to conquer and would not let go his hold. Though his father's beams were withdrawn and his bowels seemed contracted, the heavens overcast with darkness, and all the curses of the law let fly at him, he would still depend upon God for his help in his greatest passion. He said, the Lord God will help me, as he says in verse nine, in verse seven. In verse 10, who is among you that fears the Lord, that obeys the voice of his servant, that walks in darkness and sees no light? Let him trust in the name of the Lord and stay himself upon his God. He would not let the storm blow these concerns of the world out of his hand, which then were managed by him. In verse eight, we see a sudden shift in tone. This flinty savior starts to speak. In a new way, we're getting the image of a law court. Jesus enters into the court with his accusers, perhaps like those in the Sanhedrin. And you're almost getting the sense of Jesus looking those in the Sanhedrin that condemned him, or those Roman soldiers who'd mocked him and scourged him, and looks them in the face, squarely in the eyes of his accusers, into the eyes of the Sanhedrin. And he says to them, he who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Look at the confidence of the Savior in the midst of this law court. He defends himself boldly. He knows the resurrection, God's vindication is coming. He knows what God thinks, what God says. He knows he's in perfect submission to the Father and what God will do. So who is there to lay a charge against him? And in verse 8 we get the sense from That let us stand together, let him come near to me. You get a sense from that word that Jesus is making a determination in himself to go face to face with his accusers. He's telling them to come on, bring your best shot. And then in Jesus, in verse 9, again, that Lord God appearing again, the sovereign God. When you see that Lord with an uppercase L and an ORD in lowercase, generally in the Hebrew it means Adonai, the Lord, the Master, the sovereign God. And he says, the sovereign God helps me. Who will declare me guilty? And this, my friends, is an echo of Romans 8, 31 to 35, Paul's confident boast. If God is for us, who can be against us? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus was the one who died. More than that, who was raised, was at the right hand of God, who is interceding for us. And now we come to the last point of the passage. And in this, we're going to go back. We're going to go back. Passage shifts to the author, Isaiah. Saying, who among you fears the Lord and obeys the voice of his servant? Let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God. And then a warning to the wicked who kindle their own fire. So now Isaiah is addressing those who fear the Lord, those who obey the voice of his servant, those who obey the Lord Jesus Christ. Many of us here, tonight, I trust. And these are the opposite of those spoken of in verse 11. Though they walk in darkness, they're the ones that trust in and obey the voice of the servant. They're not the ones that kindle their own fire and their own light. Friends, if you're not relying on that light of the world and walking with Him and trusting in Him, but have a comfort from your own hands, a light and an illumination from your own hands, be sure of this. What Isaiah says, this you have from my hand, you shall lie down in torment. God will not suffer those who will not trust in Him. It will cause you to lie down in torment. And again, we make that gospel call. It can be avoided if you'll trust in the one who on the cross suffered the full torments and punishment of God's wrath for sinners. Trust in him tonight. So those who obey the Lord Jesus, back to verse 10. Those who fear the Lord are the very ones who may walk in darkness. What's meant here? Well, friends, I believe that what we're called to do with verse 10 is to look at the one, first of all, look at what verse 10 says, obviously, but secondly, look above at the one who feared the Lord and perfectly walked in darkness while having no light. All of Jesus' sufferings, all of his trials, all of his physical beatings and agonies done walking in the darkness, having no light, but trusting in the name of the Lord and relying on his God. Christian, if you're here tonight and you're determined to live godly in Christ Jesus, that's what Paul says, you will inevitably experience times of darkness. So friends, what lessons are there then? If we will experience times of darkness, or we're experiencing times of darkness presently, what lessons are there then in this text? And you have to understand, we're gonna talk just about what this text prescribes for us in dealing with darkness and suffering. But how do we walk in suffering and darkness the right way? This is important for us to listen to. Perhaps now you're experiencing opposition. You're seated here and you're going through some kind of opposition or spiritual attack, condemnation being brought powerfully to your souls, a lack of assurance, spiritual depression that is keen. Perhaps it's the withdrawal of God's favorable presence, withdrawal of the sense of God's face, either due to the consequences of sin or any other kind of spiritual darkness. You feel keenly that you yourself have no light. You're walking in darkness. What would God have for you to do? What would God have for me and you to do? We want to get this right because in the past, you might have walked in some degree of darkness and gotten it all wrong. We've all been there. But we want to do it right this time. And if you're in the midst of it, we want to obey Him and use gospel remedies, gospel promises for the sake of walking properly in darkness. were directed in the verse as to what we're to do, saints. Those walking in darkness are first called to trust in the name of the Lord. So first, to trust in the name of the Lord. What is this? What's the name of the Lord? We talked about this a while ago. The name of the Lord is the revelation of God's very character, his attributes, his person. Think of the most famous instance of God's declaring his name to someone. Exodus 34, five to seven, God tells Moses, Moses says, show me your glory. And God shows him who he is. He says, the Lord merciful, gracious. God says this, slow to anger, abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy, forgiving iniquity, but by no means clearing the guilty. So friends, if you are walking in darkness presently, your comfort, Your help in the midst of darkness, if it's persecution, if it's oppression, is clinging on to the name of God, who He is, the revelation of His being and character. If you're persecuted and oppressed, you grab on to what Exodus 34, for instance, says about God. God will by no means clear the guilty. Have you sinned and is God now hiding his face from you experientially? You cling to the promise that he's merciful, gracious, slow to anger, forgiving iniquity, that's who God is. Let the name of God, the revelation of him, be your anchor in the midst of darkness. Has a close relative died? You cling to the scriptures that say, shall not the judge of all the earth do what is just, do what is right? Christian in the dark, he doesn't just give this name for you to know intellectually. He gives this name, his name, his character, for you to trust in and as verse 9 says, for you to, or rather verse 10 says, the rest of verse 10, for you to rely on. Rely on, lean on, trust in His revealed character in the midst of darkness with all your might. Be acquainted with Him through preaching, through the Word, and you will find an able, mighty, powerful Savior able to strengthen you in the midst of darkness. Look to Jesus. and his model in one relying on the character and person of God even in this passage. What does he repeat over and over again in the scripture? What does he say again and again, four times? He calls his God Adonai Yahweh four times. Sovereign God, Lord God, Ruler God. And you've got to ask yourself, not only that it's important that this is being said four times, but why is this being said? Why this over and over again? Adonai Yahweh, Lord God, four times. Very unique for it to be repeated four times. This was no doubt Jesus Christ's ballast in the midst of persecution and in the midst of darkness. Jesus knows God has ordained this suffering. He rules over it. No doubt He will provide sufficient help through it. And do you call upon in the midst of your darkness, not just Yahweh, not just the Lord, but Adonai Yahweh, the sovereign master ruler Lord in the midst of your darkness. Is the sovereign Lord, the sovereign ruler Lord, your comfort, your ballast, your anchor? Imitate Jesus in this. God ordains it. He rules over me. He helps me. You cry out to this Adonai Yahweh, His name, which was Christ, trust, and rest, all throughout verses 4 to 9. Friends, if this God were not sovereign in the midst of your suffering, if He were not the master, He'd be totally incapable of aiding you in your trial of darkness. There would be no ultimate purpose for it. You remember Job, do you not? In the midst of all that suffering, God doesn't give Job an answer to the suffering. He doesn't give him a reason. He doesn't give us as the reader a reason as to why he's going through all that suffering. Instead, he gives him a view of his majesty and his glory. And friends, better than a reason, It would be good maybe for one temporary suffering and not for the other and you'd be grasping to another reason for each thing. It's better to trust in that majestic sovereign God who has purposes in every suffering for your growth, for your good, for his glory. And furthermore, look at what Jesus does, especially in verses eight and nine. because of his revelation of the truth and because of his refusal to let feelings crash over him and obscure his view of the truth of God's being near and of God's vindicating him. He laughs at his foes. No letting the darkness and his present circumstances dictate his feelings, no having it cause him to wallow in self-imposed agony. Feelings are a fickle thing, and in a dark period, they can obscure everything. Rather than being inundated with feeling, we're to be inundated with truth, and not with the crashing waves of our crashing, changing feelings. It's the truth, not feelings, that ought to be our ballast. And Jesus did this perfectly, fulfilling what we read in that call to worship in Psalm 16. He set the Lord always before him, and because the Lord was always before him, he shall not be moved. We're just sort of the last bunch here. Jesus knows his vindication is near, and the one who vindicates him is near. And remember, congregation, that this text is echoed in Romans 8, that who can condemn, who can lay a charge against God's elect? And you and I, dear Christian, can be as bold and confident about God's nearness and God's vindicating of us in the midst of suffering, not because we have Christ's obedient righteousness in terms of us walking obediently and perfectly in life. We are vindicated and we have that nearness of God who vindicated Christ because of His death, burial, and resurrection. And so we can echo with Christ who can condemn. We echo Paul's boast because of Christ's vindication. That end of Romans 8, His resurrection, His vindication, is our salvation and justification. And it's our confidence in the midst of all that Satan or enemies or those around you that cause you to doubt your salvation. cause you to do, to turn from Christ. As Christ the God-man was confident in his God and his care, so are we in and through Christ. He could be confident because of his perfect righteousness and we through his. And because of this enduring salvation and enduring Christ, what can man ultimately do? What can the darkness do? They will wear away. The moth will eat them up. Moreover, dear Christian, we don't just have a God to go to and the name of God to lean on. That would be comfort enough. We have a God, the God-man, Christ Jesus, the servant of Yahweh, who went through this darkness, the very one we're going to go through if we're Christians. He went through that very darkness Himself in the human flesh. Not only do you have the Adonai Yahweh, the sovereign Master Lord, you have a sympathetic, even risen High Priest God who has been through the darkness himself. He was touched with the feelings of his infirmities. So friends, let's take the anchor in darkness of the name of Yahweh and let us be prepared for our next bout of suffering. Take God's character with you. Take his name. Take the revelation of his person in the midst of accusation. Cling to the God who is near to you because of the beating of Christ and entrust yourself to his care. Take this verse as an anchor and a ballast with you. Amen. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for the Son of God as the one beaten for us, bearing our transgression and sin. And Father, we ask that you would give us a lesson in enduring darkness and suffering by trusting in your name and trusting in the God who has vindicated us because he has vindicated Christ and is therefore near us. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.