Well, good morning. Grace to you and peace from God, our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Pray with me. Oh God, from whom all good proceeds. Grant that by your inspiration we may think those things that are right and by your merciful guiding do them. through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen. Imagine with me for a moment, if you can, that the sun and the stars and the planets and the moon were people. Imagine them being brought into existence and God saying, son, go there. Spin this fast and this hot. Stars go to these exact spots and burn this bright. Planets go to your places. Spin at this angle, at this speed and circle the sun. and moons, you, do the same around each of the planets. And then, these celestial bodies did these exact things. A few thousand years go by, and they begin to wonder if their Creator knew what He was doing. Earth starts listening to a podcast by Jupiter or Mercury who begin to call God's knowledge into question. And they advise earth to tilt just a little more and spin just a little faster, because in their experience, that's worked for them. Eventually, Pluto catches wind of this and cries out to earth, remember what God said. But earth tells Pluto, that Jupiter's gravitas is quite mesmerizing, and he's got 74 more moons than you. Earth continues, Mercury's experience is much more like mine than you could ever understand, Pluto, and he's much closer to the action than you are. And so Earth says, He's gonna try to mix in a little of Jupiter's advice on axis angles and adopt Mercury's insights on the rate of rotation that works best for him. Besides, says Earth to Pluto, who knows if you're really a planet anyway? I don't. Pluto begs one last time and he opens the book of creation at which Earth scoffs. The sun has never burned this hot, and the stars have never felt this dim. So what relevance does that book have on our modern reality? So Earth rejects Pluto, and the book of creation goes his own way, listens instead to Jupiter and Mercury, tilts just a little, spins just a little, And then before everyone or anyone knows it, the entire Milky Way galaxy is destroyed. Now we listen to that story and we dismiss it because, you know, suns and stars and planets and moons aren't people. They're not sentient. They're not volitional creatures. And yet these celestial bodies, are more obedient to God's commands than sometimes even His children. Is it any wonder creation groans because of us? All the way from the garden to Isaiah through Christ and into today, God has given His Word to His people and called them to remember what He has said. And yet His own children are consistently so mesmerized with the gravitas of the powers around them and so caught up in their own light and momentary experiences. They think they've only tilted just a little and spun a little faster. And yet before they know it, everything around them has been destroyed. as it was in the beginning, is now, and we pray never will be so among us. Today we're going to open up God's Word in Isaiah 50, and we're going to listen to the third servant song, where we'll get some insight into how the servant of the Lord copes with the rejection of the rebellions. And so, saints of Reformation Covenant Church, if you're willing and able, I invite you to stand to honor the reading of God's most holy word from Isaiah 50 and then John 15, where in both places we will hear from the servant of the Lord. Hear God's word. The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught that I may know how to sustain with a 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. The Lord God helps me. Therefore, I've not been disgraced. Therefore, I've 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's 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. So 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've kindled. This you have from My hand. You shall lie down in torment." And now from John 15. Remember the word that I said to you. A servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of My name, because they do not know Him who sent Me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my father also. If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and have hated both me and my father. But the word that is written in their law must be fulfilled. They hated me without cause. This is the word of the Lord. O God, add Your blessing to the reading and the hearing and the preaching of Your Word, and grant us all the grace to trust and obey You and all the church said. Amen. Please be seated. Well, this is the third of what are four servant songs in the book of Isaiah. In chapter 42, we heard the father sing about how he delights in his servant who will bring justice without breaking bruised reeds or snuffing out faintly burning wicks. The father saying, behold, my servant whom I uphold, my chosen in whom my soul delights. I've put my spirit upon him. He will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice or make it heard in the street. A bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench. He will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not go faint or be discouraged until he has established justice in the earth and the coastlands wait on his law. Last week, we heard the servant himself sing about his power and how he would perfectly glorify the Lord. 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, and the shadow of his hand he hid me. He made me a polished arrow and in his quiver he hid me away and he said to me, you are my servant in whom I will be glorified. He said, it is too light a thing that you should be called my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and bring back the preserved of Israel. I will make you as a light for the nations so that my salvation may reach the end of the earth. This week, we've just again heard the servant himself sing this time about the means by which he would proclaim the coming of the new heavens and the new earth, albeit a proclamation that would largely land on deaf ears. God's chosen servant in these songs comes as a king, as a prophet, and as a priest. And this week, it's the prophetic coming that I would like us to spend some time on. So we're gonna see how rebellious people treat the prophets of the Lord and who they're actually treating this way when they reject his prophets, and then we'll wrap up with a call to hear the call of the servant at the end of this song, lest we end up like those who reject him. If you look in the first few verses in chapter 50, we have a sort of prelude to the song where Yahweh is bringing another rebuke to Judah, not just for their insolence, but for the insolence of their mothers. Right around this same time that Isaiah is prophesying to Judah, you remember, Hosea is living out this prophecy in the northern kingdom, Israel. There, God called Hosea to marry Gomer, a woman who continued to run into the arms of other lovers. This pictured the way Israel consistently treated her husband, Yahweh. and we'll put this theme on steroids in Ezekiel, but Israel is continually said to have played the whore with other nations and their ideas and their gods. They continue to break their marriage vows at Sinai. And so God divorces Israel and sends her away by raising up the Assyrians to overthrow her. Now this is something Judah might be tempted to become self-righteous at. And so here, God reminds Judah that just like her mother Israel, she is not without guilt. Israel can't complain, for she was the adulteress. But neither can Judah complain for undergoing her judgment because the amount of debt they had run up for their sin required that they be sold into slavery. God had sent prophet after prophet after prophet. But they continued to reject not just the prophets. But in rejecting the prophets, the people reveal that they are choosing to reject God. This has always been the case. When God's people reject God's faithful prophets and choose false ones, God assures the prophet that it isn't them that's being rejected. God told this to Moses. The first prophet, and he says this explicitly to the prophet Samuel. In 1 Samuel 8, when the people demanded a king like the surrounding nations, Samuel was despondent. He was a faithful prophet. And he knew the pain and the torment that would come upon these people if God gave them what they asked for. He was so broken, in fact, the word that's used is He was shattered at their request. He cried out to God. And God said to Samuel, give them what they're asking for. No, they have not rejected you. They've rejected Me as their King. He then goes on to explain to Samuel that there is a direct correlation to the way that his people treat his prophets and the way that they treat him. If they think lowly of God, they think lowly of His prophets. And if they reject His prophets, they're really rejecting Him. All the prophet can do is what God called, consecrated, and commissioned them to do. Bring forth His word in season and out of season. This was Isaiah's experience, was it not? In chapter 6, we read of Isaiah's calling. How he was brought into the Lord's presence. And how he cried out that he was unfit to let the Word of the Lord come out of his mouth. Because he was a man of unclean lips. And he dwelt amongst a people of unclean lips. The very instruments God was going to use to prophesy through Isaiah, Isaiah said were insufficient for the task. And so we're told God consecrated Isaiah. He sent an angel to cleanse his lips and he commissioned Isaiah to go out and preach the gospel to people even though they would refuse to listen. And that's exactly what Isaiah did. For over 50 years, Isaiah preached to Judah. Now there were glimpses of light as the people would repent for a moment and show signs of life, but ultimately they would decide they weren't interested in hearing what Isaiah had to say, and thus they weren't interested in hearing what God had to say. Now according to our admittedly low standards, 50 years is unfathomable. I heard about a pretty successful pastor last week, and a good pastor. He said he usually stays at a church for six years. Six years was enough time for him to be new enough that people were excited to hear what he had to say and put some of it into practice. But after about six years, they got tired of hearing him and grew cold and began to tune him out. It's time to leave, hand the baton off to another pastor who maybe can take the ball a little further down the road. I just make sports metaphors, don't ever do that. I'm embarrassed. Now his six years is actually two years longer than the average senior pastor's stay. So for Isaiah to be faithful for 50 years in preaching to a people never wanting to see, never wanting to hear, I would say was a pretty faithful ministry. I would imagine if Isaiah had an iPhone This servant song here in verse 4-11 would be on repeat as he cried himself to sleep because he so thoroughly identified with it. It's haunting like Johnny Cash. Haunting the prophet, but stoking his flames to stay the course one more day. The Lord God has given me. the tongue of those who are taught, so that I can sustain with a word him who's weary. Morning by morning he awakens me. He awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught. The Lord God has opened my ear. I was not rebellious. I turned not backward. And as he's being sawn in half, Like so many prophets before and martyrs after, you can imagine Him singing. I've given my back to those who strike, my cheeks to those who pull out the beard. I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting. The Lord God helps me. I've not been disgraced. I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame. He who vindicates me is near. Brothers and sisters, the words, He who vindicates me is near, is sometimes the only words that can comfort those who are suffering justly for being faithful to the Lord. From Noah, to Moses, to Samuel, to Isaiah, through Malachi, throughout all time, having been rejected and mocked and scorned, the only comfort that is sometimes with God's people is the Lord God helps me. He who vindicates me is here. Now I'm going to confess something to you. Now I'm not sure if this is the case or not, but if I know the temptations of my own heart, if all God ever did was send other people to do His bidding, Send other people to bring His Word. Send other people to bear rejection and mockery and scorn. I think I would have been tempted to waver. Perhaps it's my weakness. Perhaps it's my pride. It's why God saw fit to let me be born this side of Christ. You see, it's true that God told His servants that if and when His people rejected them, they're rejecting Him. But in fulfilling this servant song Himself, that's even more true. For in the coming of the One who first sung this song, it wasn't just theory and it wasn't just by extension that in rejecting God's messengers, people reject God. For it is in the coming of the eternal, infinite, glorious servant of the Lord to take on flesh, it wasn't just another messenger they were rejecting. In rejecting Jesus, the perfect servant, the perfect prophet, the people really were rejecting God Himself. as beautifully as Isaiah may have sounded in singing this song, no prophet could sing it like Jesus. It was obvious to anyone who heard Him speak, even to His enemies, that Jesus was unlike any messenger God had ever sent. In verse 2 here in Isaiah 50, God says that it is by His rebuke He dries up the sea. God makes the rivers a desert. Fish stink because of lack of water. And people die of thirst because of their sin. And in John 7, on the last, eighth Sunday of the great water rite at the Feast of Booths, Jesus stands up and He says, if anyone thirsts, let him come to Me. Whoever believes in Me, let him drink. For as the Scripture has said, out of My heart will flow streams of living water." We're told that when some people heard these words, some of the people said, this is the prophet. This is the Christ. We're even told that some of the enemies of the Lord who were supposed to arrest Jesus came back to the religious leaders and said they couldn't do it because no one has ever spoke like this man. People ask Jesus, how can You possibly say such things? He says, the Son only does what He sees the Father do. Whatever the Father does, the Son does. The Father loves the Son and shows Him all that He's doing. The Father has given Him all judgment so that all may honor the Son as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has passed from death to life. Yes, Moses and Samuel and Isaiah could sing this servant song, but no one could sing it like Jesus. God's chosen servant. The servant He upheld. The one in whom His soul delights. The one in whom He poured His Spirit upon and who would bring forth justice to the nations. And yet, though God had spoken, The very Word of God came to sustain those who were weary and heavy laden. Do you think the people listened? They dared not admit they needed this Word. Just like every stiff-necked people before them, they rejected Him. And though, just like in the song, He set His face like a flint, they struck His back. They pulled out His beard and they crucified the Lord of glory. They rejected the prophet. They rejected His God. They rejected God. And after Christ's death and resurrection and ascension, they continued in their hard-heartedness as Stephen condemns those people, not just for rejecting the prophet, but for rejecting the righteous one. Stephen preaches and says, you stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the righteous one, whom you have now betrayed and murdered. You received the law as delivered by angels and didn't keep it. No sooner was Stephen finished proclaiming the Lordship of Christ were Jesus' words in our New Testament reading fulfilled, that those who follow after Christ would suffer the same fate as he would. For the same ones who had rejected Moses and Samuel and Isaiah and John rejected Stephen. And in rejecting Moses and the prophets, they proved they wouldn't even listen if a man were to rise from the dead. These men commenced to stone Stephen for being a faithful messenger to a crooked and rebellious generation. Now next week we'll hear the final song of the servant in Isaiah and we'll spend some more time meditating on what it's like for him to suffer and for you to suffer with him. But that's not how this song in Isaiah 50 wraps up. So we want to make sure we're doing justice to the tone of this song. The perfect servant of the Lord was vindicated for he lived a perfect life of obedience rose from the dead and ascended to his rightful place. But the question remains before us today as it did before the Judahites and Isaiahs. Who among you fears the Lord? Who among you obeys the voice of his servant? The Lord has given a word to sustain those of us who are weary. But if you fear them and their gods out there more than you fear the God of heaven and earth, like our forefathers before us, you will reap what you sow. The servant of the Lord closes out this chapter with a consistent theme. He will give you what you want. Verse 10 here in chapter 50 is a call to let anyone who is walking in the darkness of sin and death in the old creation to heed the word of the prophet. Come into the light. Trust the name of the Lord, which is Jesus, and rely on his God. The eternal servant of the Lord, in this song, is the only word that can sustain the weary. God of God, light of light, who came into the world. In him was and is light, and that light is the light of men. The prophet John was not the light, but he bore witness about the light. that all who come to him out of the darkness and into his marvelous light are granted the amazing privilege of reflecting his light as the light of the world. But the same is true after Christ as before Christ. It's only those who come out of darkness into his light. There are others, there are outright rebels, and there are the pridefully religious that think they have their own light. They have their own glory, their own wisdom. And here in Isaiah 50, you're said to have kindled their own fires. Verse 11 is a warning for them and by extension, you. Beware of all who kindle their own fires, who think themselves wise and enlightened apart from the word of God. The servant of the Lord warns, continue to walk by the light of your own fire. Continue to live by the way that seems right to you, the way not illumined by the word and the spirit, and God will give you exactly what you continue to follow. Rather than be weary, and humble, and contrite, and clinging to Jesus for light, trusting the light of the word of God revealed by his servants. He says you perceive, he perceives that you prefer to walk by your own light. You're in torment now, whether you know it or not, and in all likelihood, you do not. And so you'll lie down in torment. Not because you hate the darkness and wanted to come into the light. but because you love the darkness and hate the light. God will give you what you want, his light or your own. Oh man, do I love the darkness? You may be asking. So ask yourselves, who do you trust more? Your yard man? Your blog and your podcast are the Lord Jesus. Who are you quicker to obey, your mechanic, your doctor, your midwife, or the Lord? What do you think about when you're not thinking about anything at all? What do you meditate on day and night? Your boyfriend and girlfriend? Your job, your team? The law of the Lord. And we're not all called to be prophets like Isaiah or apostles like Stephen or teachers like Timothy. So we don't all have to have the tongue as those who are taught. And maybe you are not sure how to sustain the weary with the word, but how do you treat those who are and those who do? If you've lived during the time of Moses, or Samuel, or Isaiah, or Jesus, or Timothy's day, how would you have responded to the ones God consecrated and commissioned to bring you the word of life? Now I think I know how I would answer for most of you, because you've been a delight to me. And it's a joy to watch over your souls, but just in case I don't know what's in your heart, I'll leave it between you and the Lord. Our Father, we've heard wonderful things out of your word. We praise you for revealing Christ by promise and shadow in the Old Testament, and for revealing him as the fulfillment of all these things in the new. Give us your spirit that we might understand these words in the fullness of your truth, as you have revealed Him to us in the person and work of Jesus, who with you and the Holy Spirit be all honor and glory, now and forever. Amen.