The text this evening is verses four through nine, although we will talk about the entirety of the chapter to some extent. But the servant song itself is in verses four through nine, and I think I can show that to you. So let's read it, Isaiah chapter 50, starting at verse four. The Lord God has given me the tongue of disciples that I may know how to sustain the weary one with a word. He awakens me morning by morning. He awakens my ear to listen as a disciple. The Lord God has opened my ear and I was not disobedient, nor did I turn back. I gave my back to those who strike me, my cheeks to those who pluck out the beard. I did not cover my face from humiliation and spitting. For the Lord God helps me. Therefore, I am not disgraced. Therefore, have I set my face like flint, and I know that I will not be ashamed. He who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up to each other. Who has a case against me? Let him draw near to me. Behold, the Lord God helps me. Who condemns me? Behold, they will all wear out like a garment. The moth will eat them. Now to help grasp this third servant song in Isaiah, I want you to remember that there are two related lines of thought that are being addressed at the same time. Through the prophet Isaiah, God is speaking to two audiences at once. One is near in time to Isaiah, and one is far distant from him. In the near case, The message is to be heard by those Jews who are living in Babylonian captivity. God sent this message through his prophet Isaiah to those whose sin had broken their relationship with him. He assures them that God is ready, willing, and able to retrieve and to restore them. In the far case, the same words include a message to all of those who were captive to sin. God sends this message through Isaiah to show that sin has broken our relationship with him, and he is ready, willing, and able to retrieve and to restore us, and he has designed a method to accomplish that salvation through his chosen servants. Now here's how this third servant song develops. Back in chapter 49, the Lord promises deliverance for the captives and calls for them and for all creation really to respond to that plan of salvation with faith and with rejoicing. But suffice it to say, faith and rejoicing was not the response that he received. Look back at chapter 49 for just a moment. Let's say, verses 13 and 14, you see this call for rejoicing. Shout for joy, O heavens, and rejoice, O earth. Break forth into joyful shouting, O mountains, for the Lord has comforted his people and will have compassion on his afflicted. But read verse 14. But Zion said, the Lord has forsaken me. The Lord has forgotten me. This accusation that they make, instead of praising and rejoicing, the accusation they make is that the Lord has forgotten them, that he has abandoned them. And that accusation must be answered. And so the covenant relationship between Yahweh and Israel in the Old Testament is frequently compared to a marriage. They had promised to be committed and faithful to one another. And so if it's true what they're saying there in Isaiah 49 verse 14, if it's true that the Lord has abandoned them, then they're making an accusation that essentially says that Yahweh is like a deadbeat husband who's walked out on his wife and family. So the first three verses of Isaiah chapter 50, just before our text, give the Lord's two-part response to that accusation. And because we're going to focus on the servant song, I'm not going to get into a lot of detail with the first three verses, but I want to give a basic explanation of them so you see what leads into our text. This two-part response begins in verse one of chapter 50. Thus says the Lord, Where is the certificate of divorce by which I have sent your mother away? Or to whom of my creditors did I sell you? Behold, you were sold for your iniquities and for your transgressions. Your mother was sent away." So following that illustration of a marriage relationship, Yahweh asks, look, if I abandoned your mother Israel, show me the divorce papers. Or maybe you think that I fell into debt and so I divorced the mother and I took the children and I sold them into slavery in order to pay off my debt. If that's the case, to which of my debtors could I owe anything? You know, the Lord's not unfaithful to Israel and the maker of heaven and earth who claims and has made all things as his own is not and cannot be in debt to anyone. And so the last half of verse one, he answers for them. It's your iniquities. It's your sin. It's your transgression. The children of Israel had made themselves slaves and their mother Israel was unfaithful to God, not the other way around. And so first God addresses this accusation by showing his relationship, his feelings toward the nation. And then he answers with the nation's feelings towards God. the last part of, actually the first part of verse two, Isaiah 50 verse two. Why was there no man when I came, when I called, why was there none to answer? And so instead of allowing them to compare him to a deadbeat dad who had abandoned his wife and family, the Lord takes that very illustration and turns it back around on his accusers. He says, essentially, picture a man who comes home unexpectedly to an empty house and begins calling out for his family. God asks, why when I came, was there nobody there? Why did nobody answer when I called? Let's get this story straight. I did not abandon you. You abandoned me. It was you who left. And so God answers his own questions, giving some clarity to this problem. It was the unfaithfulness and disobedience of Israel, which damaged this covenant relationship and ruined it. But despite their disobedience, God is ready, willing, and able to restore these very sinful people, reconciling them to himself, through his own power. The rest of verses two and three, you can just look at those verses. Essentially it says God's strong enough to redeem them, powerful enough to rescue them. If it takes him rerouting rivers and drying up sea beds so that all the fish are left stinking and drying in the sun, their gills gasping for air, he's willing to do that. If it takes him turning the sky black and making the whole earth mourn in sackcloth, he's willing to do that. So that's the context of this servant song. In the near term, God is ready, willing, and able to reconcile sinful Israel to himself. But the greater story that's being told, even as this story is being told, is that far term God's plan to address the root cause of this separation. The root cause of sinfulness found in the heart of mankind, their unfaithfulness and disobedience that breaks our relationship with God. It is going to be corrected by the servant of God who comes in perfect faithfulness and obedience in our place, reconciling, restoring sinners to the Father. Jesus the Messiah will come and He alone will reconcile the unfaithful and disobedient by being faithful and obedient in their place. I want you to think on this as we look at the passage and His role as the obedient servant Jesus will set the standard for every servant of God to follow his example. And we'll see this in three ways in this song in verses four through nine. We'll see that the servant listens obediently in verses four and five. The servant suffers willingly in verse six. And the servant trusts confidently in verses seven through nine. And we'll see in each one of those three points, he sets the standard for every servant of God to follow his example. So let's see the first point. The servant listens obediently in verses four and five. Verses four and five says, the Lord God has given me the tongue of disciples that I may know how to sustain the weary one with a word. He awakens me morning by morning. He awakens my ear to listen as a disciple. The Lord God has opened my ear and I was not disobedient, nor did I turn back. Now, it's interesting, and I've tried to point this out as we go through these songs, it's interesting how the voice of these servant songs changes from one to the other. In the first servant song, in Isaiah 42, it was the voice of Yahweh, Father God, who was speaking, behold my servant, look at him. And the second one in Isaiah 49, the servant was speaking to others, right? The servant speaks, listen to me, you coastlands, pay attention, you people from afar. Now in this third song, it's the voice of the servant speaking again, but the audience has changed. Verses four through nine, they take the form of what's called a soliloquy, someone speaking to themselves. The servant is speaking to himself and allowing us to overhear. And immediately what we should overhear is that the character of this servant is so much different than the character of the faithless people that he's come to save. The people have been muttering to themselves about God saying, well, he's, God has been unfaithful to the nation. He's abandoned us. He's forsaken us. But this perfect servant, you hear him as he's speaking and he's continually bragging on God's goodness. All through this song, the servant is calling him Lord God. Now the word Lord here in this text, is Adonai, or Adon is how it's used here, means Lord and Master. This is one of those unique passages in which the covenant name of God, Yahweh, is translated as God. And so you'll note, if you're using the NASB, you'll see that God is in all caps. So the servant is always calling the father Adon Yahweh, the Lord and Master Yahweh. The NIV, which is one of my least favorite translations, does, I think, a serviceable job here in translating this as the sovereign Lord. In verse four, you'll see Adon Yahweh gives me what to speak. In verse five, the Lord God opens my ears to hear his word. In verse seven, the Lord God will help me. In verse nine, Adon Yahweh, the sovereign Lord, will keep helping me. You can see the servant's obedience just in the loving and reverent way he speaks about the Lord God. Remember, he meets our disobedience with his obedience in our place. He's come to live this faithful and obedient life that we failed to. And so right away, we see this great contrast in the way that he speaks, the way that he thinks, and in fact, the way that he listens obediently. That's what those verses are about. Remember, Remember up in verses one through three, those who had been separated from God said it was God's fault that he'd abandoned them. And God answers that accusation in verse two by saying, well, when I came, why wasn't anybody there? When I called, why wasn't anybody listening? But now here's this contrast in verses four and five. The servant says, I'm listening. At the end of verse four, it's the voice of God that wakes him up every morning, right? He awakens my ear to listen as a disciple or to hear like a learner. If Israel would have listened to God and learned from his words, they would still have a loving relationship with him. But instead, back in chapter 48, verse eight, God says, essentially, you didn't want to hear, you didn't want to know, you wouldn't open your ears. They were rebellious. But what about this servant? He's not rebellious. He's obedient. Verse five, the Lord God has opened my ear and I was not disobedient, nor did I turn back. This promised servant of God says he listens to the voice of the Father. He is obedient to the voice of God. He'll listen. He'll not turn back when he's told to do something. Jesus here is described in the role of the servant as an obedient disciple. And the word disciple might seem odd to us to take and apply to Jesus, but it's just a word that means follower. He's an obedient disciple of the Father. He is a learner from the Father. And we see this in the Gospels. In the Gospels, he learns so much and so well that at 12 years old in the temple, he's stumping the religious leaders with God's truth. And when he begins his ministry, he speaks with such learned wisdom that the people kept saying, where does a carpenter from Nazareth get this wisdom from? And the answer is plain. Jesus himself answered them and said, the words I speak are not my own. Speak what the Father has given me. So the end of verse four, there's such a vivid picture of the father and this master teacher relationship. Essentially, you can picture a rabbi who would come in and wake up his son or wake up his servant every morning and say, okay, get up. It's time to listen. It's time to learn. So he said, there's a model here for us to follow, not simply in listening to God, but also in the way that the servant is described as listening to God. Listen, your Bible reading and prayer are best done in the morning. I'm not going to get legalistic about it and say, well, you're a bad disciple. You're a lousy Christian if you don't, you know, do your Bible reading and prayer in the morning. But I will say it's the best practice to set aside time early. Jesus is the servant here in Isaiah 50, and it's him who's saying, well, he wakes me every morning. He wakes my ear to listen as a disciple. Psalm five, verse three says, in the morning, O Lord, you'll hear my voice in the morning. I'll order my prayer to you and eagerly watch. And isn't that what we see Jesus doing in the gospels? This is more than just poetic hyperbole. In the Gospel of Mark, as Mark presents Jesus as the perfect servant of God, it is in the very first chapter of Mark that you hear him. He wakes up in the morning, a long time before daybreak. He rises up for prayer and communion with the Father. If you follow that example, you will set aside time early each day to be in communion with God, and other things will not get in the way of it, so that he will speak to you through his word, and you will speak to him in prayer. The other model we learn in this text is that only an obedient listener can be an informed speaker. Listen, you have nothing to say on behalf of God until you listen to God through his word. Only an obedient listener can be an informed speaker. Most of verses four and five talk about Jesus being that obedient listener. But the very first phrase of verse four shows how that obedient listening was put into practice. He says, the Lord God has given me the tongue to speak, the tongue of disciples that I may know how to sustain the weary one with a word. Now y'all, It's gonna tax your memory to remember the other servant songs, but there's this great contrast here. Remember last time in Isaiah 49 verse two, it described the servant as, you know, he's made my mouth like a sharp sword. And we said the promise seemed to be that his words would include a piercing sharp speech. They would cut like a knife. But now the message is amended to include, the Lord's given me the tongue of disciples. That is, he'll not only listen like a disciple of God, he will speak like a disciple of God for the purpose, he says in verse four, that I may know how to sustain the weary one with a word. So the servant of God in Isaiah is described as having sharp, cutting words and comforting, encouraging words from the same servant. Y'all, the truth will do both of those things. Some of you know that I used to be a newspaper reporter and editor back years ago, but there's a saying in the newspaper industry that telling the truth will be a comfort to the afflicted and it will be an affliction to the comfortable. Isn't this what we see in the very character of God himself? Didn't we just think the beginning of this chapter, didn't the beginning of this chapter cut like a knife when you hear God's word saying, well, if I abandon you, where's the divorce papers? You know what happened? I came and you weren't there. I called and you didn't answer. You left me. But the same God who spoke those searing words also quickly amended them with soothing words. To say, I can take you back. What obstacle would I not overcome in order to take you back and reconcile you? Jesus the servant is the same way. He receives the words of the father and he speaks the words of the father. And if you want to see Jesus being that very way, where he's speaking with words that are both searing and soothing, you can just go read Matthew chapter 23. You'll hear him talk to the scribes and Pharisees and call them hypocrites, blind guides, whitewashed graves filled with rotting corpses and dead men's bones. And yet at the end of that speech, he is still crying, shouting through tears, Jerusalem, how many times I would have gathered you together to protect you and you wouldn't come. The obedient servant here, He sets a high bar for us to follow if we're to be obedient servants of God. We have to be obedient listeners so that we can be informed speakers. Not listening to your deceitful, wicked heart. Not listening to the voice of the sinful world around you. Not dreaming dreams. He listens to the Word. And if we listen to the word and we speak his word, then we'll be like our father in heaven. We'll be followers of our savior, Jesus, speaking through the spirit, wise words to the world around us that are sometimes searing and sometimes soothing, telling others that there is both goodness and severity with God, that he'll judge rebellious sinners in his wrath, but that he loves, he loves to restore them through his son. This obedient servant of Adon Yahweh will pick up the words of the father like that and speak both bluntly and compassionately because he's listened obediently. Second, the servant suffers willingly. Look at verse six. In the former servant song, there was There was starting to be some hints that this messianic servant would not simply ride onto the scene unopposed and triumphant and victorious in the eyes of everybody who saw them. Remember chapter 49 verse 4, I've toiled in vain, I've spent my strength for nothing and for vanity. Now Isaiah's message picks up and expands on the sadness of this ministry to some extent. The opposition is going to do worse than simply reject him. They're going to violently oppose him. Look at verse six. I gave my back to those who strike me and my cheeks to those who pluck out the beard. I did not cover my face from humiliation and spitting. He suffers willingly. And there's three specific forms of suffering that get mentioned there. First is I gave my back to those who strike me, or I gave my back to the smiters. This is evidently a prophecy of the Lord being scourged by Roman authorities. The gospels record how Pontius Pilate handed Jesus over to a cohort of Roman soldiers, ordering them to abuse him, to torture him, to pound a crown of nail thorns into his head, to beat him with a staff, to abuse him with scourging. It was nothing short of torture. That scourging, the device of torture was called an announce or a cat of nine tails. It would have several strands onto a whip with pieces of bone or iron or sharpened bronze attached to the end of these leather strips. And the victim would be stripped of his clothes and either stretched upward against a pillar with his back exposed or tied down over a post. hands tied so he'd have no means to defend himself. And the beating would commence with a whip coming across and sometimes getting stuck in the flesh and having to be ripped out and tearing flesh along with it. And don't think of the Jewish tradition of, well, you know, we know the Jewish tradition. They only gave 39 lashes. It was not Jewish people who were administering that. The Roman method included four to six soldiers taking turns, swinging away until they were tired and hand it to the next person until all the soldiers were exhausted. It was not uncommon for someone to die as a result of that. The second form of suffering here in verse six is, he gave his cheeks to those who pluck out the beard. And interestingly enough, the gospels don't give a specific record of this happening, but there's no reason to doubt that it did, because Isaiah says that it did. There's two different occasions which are likely for this. The first would have been at the high priest's house immediately after Jesus's arrest. They spent the night alternatively questioning him and punching him in the face. It's very possible they also ripped out hands full of beard in the process. It would be painful. It would also be incredibly embarrassing. That's a sign of masculinity for a Jewish man. The other possibility is that the Roman soldiers would have yanked out Beard as they tortured him. This painful and shameful torture likely contributes to what the final servant song is going to tell us, that he was barred beyond recognition. And we'll, Lord willing, talk about that tomorrow night. The third form of suffering, he says, is, I did not cover my face from humiliation and spitting. That is actually fulfilled horrifically in three different moments. In the Jewish trial at the high priest's house, he was mocked and punched in the face. During the torture by the Romans, they played a game the Roman soldiers liked to play called mock king with him. They put a crown of thorns on his head and handed him a staff and then took his false king staff and struck him with it. getting down and spitting in his face, kneeling, saying, yo, hail to the king of the Jews. Third, this also may describe just the shame of the cross itself, where Jesus was left open and exposed and mocked and derided by the crowd. The gospels tell us the religious leaders came by and were making faces at him as he died. As shocking as this scourging and beard-ripping and mocking is, it doesn't even touch the surface of what is yet going to happen. Each of Isaiah's servant songs sort of advance the story of that anguish and torment a little further until you get the curtain of suffering is finally drawn back and shown in Isaiah 53. where he's revealed in all the fullness of his glory, shedding his very life's blood. And yet along the way, there's always two truths to remember. First, he is wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities. The stripes from the whip that when he gave his back to the smiters, as he says here, it's with his stripes that we're healed. He suffers the punishment that we deserve. The very context of this song is telling us he is obedient and he is faithful, taking the place of the disobedient and the unfaithful. When you think earlier before the song, up in verses two and three, where Yahweh is saying, what would I not be willing to do to restore you? Listen, it's not just about drying up rivers and having fish there gasping for breath. It's not just about turning the sky black and having the earth in sackcloth. Sending his own son to suffer this way is what he's willing to do to reconcile us. He's always willing in this. The servant is the very Lord of glory. Even as he's crucified, Jesus is Adon Yahweh, the sovereign Lord himself. They could have not touched him if not for the fact that, as he says here, he gave his back to those who strike him. He gave his life a ransom for many. We'll see tomorrow night. Listen to the voice of the servant, the humiliation, the spitting. He says, I didn't cover my face from it. He suffered willingly. He listens obediently. He suffers willingly. And third, the servant trusts confidently. Look at verse seven. For the Lord God helps me. Therefore, I am not disgraced. Therefore, have I set my face like flint, and I know that I will not be ashamed. As you read this servant song, something should stand out that tells you exactly why there is such confident trust, because the servant is filled with faith and confident trust, because he knows that the sovereign Lord is forever faithful and always trustworthy. As he speaks to himself, have you ever had to talk to yourself as some horrific thing in your life is approaching and you know you can't avoid it and you just have to talk to yourself? As he speaks to himself here, he speaks to himself about the nature of God. The sovereignty, the total power of God is the theme in this entire chapter. He's almighty to save. He wakes up his disciples every day. He opens their ears. He gives them words to speak. So the servant here displays confident trust through his suffering because, verse seven, the Lord God helps me. So in verse six, he suffers willingly giving his back to the smiters, those who strike him, giving his cheeks to those who would pluck out the beard, not covering his face from the humiliation and the spitting and the mocking. Why does he do that? Well, he says in verse seven, because the Lord God helps me, therefore I am not disgraced. I know that I'm not gonna be ashamed. It's this confidence and trust that lends the servant the strength to endure that suffering. And so he says in verse 7, therefore, because of that, I have set my face like flint. And that is not a common phrase for us nowadays. But the word flint is describing a hard rock. The idea is a description of tenacity, a description of absolute determination, rock steady, immovable resolve. Luke uses a similar phrase of Jesus in Luke 9 51, where it says, when the days were approaching for his ascension, he was determined, literally the words there mean he set his face to go to Jerusalem with a rock steady resolve to be obedient to the father. because he trusts the Father confidently. Mark's gospel describes that moment as Jesus walking ahead and the disciples seeing the expression and the determination of Jesus, and that the disciples followed him in fear. He knew the time had come, he knew the place was set, and he'd set his resolve to march to that end in obedience and submission. And get this, at every point, When the time comes where each one of us would have wriggled and squirmed and looked for a way out, he was determined to march toward the cross, toward this shame, toward the suffering, completely confident in what the end result would be, that it would not be his shame. Jesus continually told his disciples, I have to go to Jerusalem and be arrested and killed in order to draw all men to myself. We can hear that message in Isaiah based on verse six. The message is I know suffering awaits, there's scourging, there's ripping out my beard, there's spitting and shame, but I know Adon Yahweh helps me, I'm not gonna be disgraced. And because of that, I can have rock steady determination to be obedient. confident the suffering and pain are not going to be the last word. He is certain that there is glory beyond the cross. And why? Why is he so certain? Well, he says in verse eight and nine, he who vindicates me is near, who will contend with me, let us stand up to each other. Who has a case against me? Let him draw near to me. Behold, the Lord God helps me. Who is he who condemns me? Behold, they will all wear out like a garment. The moth will eat them. The servant knows that he is going to be declared righteous by the sovereign Lord. So much like the voice of Yahweh in verses one through three, the servant begins issuing his own challenging questions. Right? You want to contend with me? Come on. Let's go to the ultimate judge. You wanna be my enemy? Let's stand up to each other and see who's left standing. Because Adon Yahweh is with me. He's going to help me. You can't condemn me. You're gonna be like worn out, moth-eaten clothes, right? Opposing this servant of God is to offer nothing but pointless claims full of holes and ready to be destroyed. Verses seven through nine aren't just a description of the confident trust of the servant. It's issuing a challenge. The servant is issuing a challenge. And listen, you are going to take a side. Whose side is it going to be? You might wanna shy away from taking the side of the servant who you know, he gets scourged, he gets abused, he gets mocked. But ultimately, when we stand before the judge of all the earth, it's this obedient servant who is declared righteous. Unless you identify by faith with his suffering and shame, and know that he willingly endured it for you, you are going to endure God's wrath. Trust this servant, Jesus, who does righteously all the things that you've done badly, right? He listens obediently. He suffers willingly. He trusts confidently. The servant song ends in verse nine. And the reason I say it ends in verse nine is because, as we said, it's a soliloquy. He's talking to himself and the voice changes after verse nine. But it's my prayer that you walk away from this text just amazed at the graciousness of God, who lovingly calls his people to be reconciled to him, even offering his son as the obedient servant in their place, promising it here in detail 700 years before it happens. But even though the servant song is done, the message in Isaiah 50 is not done. It is as if Adon Yahweh has allowed us to listen to his servant's thoughts in our text in verses four through nine. And then the sovereign Lord steps back into the narrative when that servant song is finished. And in verses 10 and 11, he speaks. He makes all the application we need for this message in verses 10 and 11, calling people to faith and issuing a stern warning. It is the voice of the Adon Yahweh, the Lord God, who says in verse 10, who is among you that fears the Lord, that obeys the voice of his servants, that walks in darkness and has no light. Let him trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God. because this servant is not just an object to be marveled at. He is a message to be obeyed. He's the example to follow. Do you have fear? Do you have reverential awe of God? Then obey the servant of God. He says, don't trust in your own righteousness because you're unfaithful, you're disobedient. Trust in this promise of God's servant who is faithful and obedient in your place. That's one option. Look at verse 11. Behold, all you who kindle a fire, who encircle yourselves with firebrands, walk in the light of your fire, and among the brands you have set ablaze, this you will have from my hand. You will lie down in torment. In verses 10 and 11, the Lord God breaks down all humanity into two types of people. In verse 10, when you look at verse 10, again, there are those who recognize, he says, that they're in darkness and that they need light. And the response to that reality is to fear the Lord, to obey the voice of his servant, to trusting and relying on God alone. And the context will tell us that leads to the restoration that the Lord God promised up in verses two and three. The other kind of person in verse 11 is also in darkness. But when you look at verse 11, just look at it. Their answer to that darkness is to enlighten themselves with fires of their own making. They light a fire, he says. In verse 11, they surround themselves with burning torches of their own creation. And yet they are no better equipped to face the darkness than they were before. And God says, if that is what you have done with your hands, Right, if you've used your hands to light your own fire, you think you're gonna provide your own enlightenment. This is what you'll receive from my hand. You will lie down in torment. The people who reject the servant and refuse to rely on God by surrounding themselves with fires of their own making will ultimately learn just how inadequate they are when God surrounds them with eternal fires of his own making. It's hard to imagine that that verse is not a warning of hell. The end, he says, was going to be torment. Praise God, there is another path to follow. You can follow the life of God's perfect servant, trusting him through faith, because he's done righteously all the things that we've done badly. He sets the standard for every servant of God to follow and follow that path in faith. And you will be a servant who listens obediently to God and suffers willingly for God and trust confidently in God. You will be a disciple, a learner, receiving the word of God, speaking the word of God, and be a follower of the Lord God's obedient servant, Jesus.