Behold My Servant
First B Jackson
2018-12-02

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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Good morning, everybody. How are you this morning? Good morning. Hey, Crystal. How are you?

Yeah. Yeah. So let's sing them in from the vestibule. Actually, we're going to sing our piano player up before too long but if you would stand, all you faithful, if you'd stand, how about oh come all you faithful, hymn number 249. I'm going to invite Scott up forward if you would.

In Cowboy Gold, sorry. Oh Come All You Faithful. Hymn number 249. We'll sing all three verses, I think. Amen.

If I go tell it on the mountain that we have more of a chance to do this than most people because we have a mountain. Right? Go tell it on the mountain.

Go tell it on the mountain everywhere go tell it on the mountain that Jesus Christ is Amen.

There are a bunch of folks that wore their ski gear to the first service and now they are gone to tell it on the mountain. Yep. That's the truth. Y'all can have a seat. I'm going to go through quite a few announcements.

Actually, more than usual. We are still meeting and eating for Monday nights at First Beat. Where are we tomorrow, Carl? James three, wisdom that comes from God, meal, music, and a message. Felix and Guadalupe are cooking tomorrow night.

Posole, it's wonderful. So, if you want to have a good comfort food type meal, that'll be tomorrow night, 06:00 meal music and a message from Carl. Tomorrow night at six, 06:15, it's a soft start. Awana starts more punctual than we do. And it's 06:00 here in this room.

We have Awana because kids matter to God. We'll pour scripture into their minds to reach their hearts. Youth group. The actual time that youth group happens where we all get together here is on 06:30 to eight on Tuesday but there are little studies that are happening among the youth. Some of em during the first service downstairs and some of em happening at various times and in various places.

If you wanna know more about what's going on in youth ministry, that's the guy and that's the number to call right there and he wants for you to know his number. That's why I put it on the screen. Get in touch with him if you want to talk about youth ministry. Anything from sixth to twelfth grade or anything related to it. Youth ministry is bigger than just Tuesday night at 06:30 to eight but it is that too.

Children's, Christmas, choir. Nancy, you have anything that you want to add to this? Fantastic. Alright. Alright.

The next couple of Sundays we'll be practicing and then the one after that you'll be singing. So two weeks full of practices and maybe a couple more. There'll be on the twenty third, we'll have children's choir, in the morning on Sunday morning. We'll still have our Christmas Eve services, Christmas Eve 04:30 and six as we usually do. But for the children's Christmas choir, volunteers are still being accepted accepted.

Caroling and the chili cook off. So Christmas caroling and a chili cook off here happens next Sunday at 04:30. So we'll start the caroling right out here, gather up on our hayride, whatever we assemble to go around town. And then by about six, we'll be back in here testing and sampling various chilis from around the valley and the world. And then we'll we'll have the contest there.

But caroling and a chili cook off next Sunday, 04:30 and six. Monday night, this is tomorrow, tomorrow night, mister Christmas tree. This is a young life event, and they've done it for two years before here, and this is the third year. If you haven't been a part of it or haven't gone to see it, it is a spectacle to behold. It's a lot of fun like young life is a lot of fun.

But the mister trip Christmas tree pageant, there's a guy from each high school class that competes and the audience votes for the winner. So, it's a very participatory and fun event involving high school kids from all the different churches and really, not really churches, it's just all the different kids in that age range. It's fun. Every First Friday, whether you knew it or not, First Friday Fellowship has been happening here where people get together and do crafts, and they do that down in the fellowship hall. Now, if you think, I'd love to hang out with the gals, it's mostly ladies.

It doesn't have to be, but it's mostly it used to be the First Friday Female Fellowship, but we've dropped one of the Fs. It was just too much. It's in the Fellowship Hall, December 7, six to eight because it's the first Friday. Each first Friday, they get together six to eight and they do. Some people bring cross stitch, some bring quilting squares, some people bring their sewing machine, the full nine yards of fabric, everything.

They actually do this. But that's First Friday Fellowship Craft Night and that's happening this coming Friday. This may be a new one to you. We have been kinda investigating doing not a mission trip, but a tour trip. First be friends and people that kinda are are here in this valley going to Israel together.

So we've picked the dates and we have scheduled we've held our place, put it that way, for 25 people. Nick has been doing all of the legwork and investigation, and he's the one that knows all the details. So if you think that you would like to go to Israel with your friends from First Bee in 2019, March 23 to April 3 is when we're talking about going, and you can see the bulletin and it'll get you in touch with Nick. If you're thinking you might go, please let him know sooner rather than later, so that we can kind of get a plan together and get you cost and all that sort of stuff. It's not a mission trip, so it's not a it's not the same way that we normally have done mission trips.

We've done tons of those in the last six years, but I don't know of any tour that we've taken since I've been here. So that's a Israel study tour or Israel tour 2019. The Angel Tree is out there again. You all know the tree last week when you came in, it was decorated and all the balls and the finery, all of the stuff all over it. But now there are little white tags hanging from it and hanging from these other little creatures, the cardboard creatures on the wall.

And these tags, if you'll grab one of those, it has on it an item, usually an item, but maybe more than one that is for a needy family in this area. These are all local folks that are in some sort of need this Christmas, and it is the help provide Christmas gifts for the most part. And you can look around and sample what's out there. You don't have to just grab one, but you can think about it and it'll tell you, you know, if the boy is seven years old or a girl nine years old. And then think about it, pray about it, and grab something for them.

That's good. Tanya is the coordinator for that event. My wife, Tanya. And so, she's the one who drew up the cards with help from several volunteers and when the gifts are ready to come back in, we're asking that people bring them back before the twentieth if possible, and then we can start the distribution to folks. And so Tanya is the main contact there.

If you have any questions, you can ask her. And joy to the world. This is this is about the ladies Christmas luncheon. So this is the we think since it's been a big event at Snow King, it's been four or five years. And the theme this year is Joy to the World.

It's a ladies Christmas luncheon, December 12 at twelve noon. It'll be twelve noon to 2PM in the Grand Ballroom up at Snow King like it has been for the past two years. It also, three years, but we also have childcare available here at First Beast starting at 11:15 and going until about 02:15 so that people that want to go but have kids can go and pay attention. So, if you want to go, please do RSVP to Nancy Irwin. There are some invitations right out here on the your right, my left, on the outside there.

And there are some invitations that are in envelopes already if you'd like to give one to a friend in hopes that they might come. So there's no cost, it's a free event. They will accept donations, but it's not required. I think that covers everything for that. If there's any more information about anything, it should be in that bulletin that you got on your way in.

Did I forget anything? Good. Hearing none. Prayer quest and all other announcements are in the bulletin and I'm going to skip the greeting one another right now and get us to the advent. So, advent is this is the first Sunday in Advent and I have our beloved volunteers coming forward right now.

Judy and Samantha.

Today is the first Sunday in Advent. We light the first candle, the candle of hope. We have hope because of the faithful promises of God. He sent his son and we receive our savior, a savior born to redeem the world from sin and death.

Romans fifteen thirteen. May the now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

That's an illustration right there. I promise it is. Would y'all we usually stand and greet one another but I I heard the first sermon. Would y'all just wanna go forward and sing? Sing joy to the world.

We can greet afterwards. How about that? Would you stand with us and we'll sing joy to the world?

Love and wonders of his love wonders of his love How

about hallelujah?

I want some more verses to that one. I love that.

There was one more.

There was a little bit. Skip it up. Yep. This is a good worshipful song. Amen.

Hallelujah. Amen. Y'all can have a seat and kind of invite the frontline team to come forward. Would y'all pray with me? God, we thank you for this season, the time we start looking towards your coming lord.

I I particularly at time, we look back on your first coming but we're looking forward to your second, lord. This time in between and the already salvation has already been accomplished for all who would ever believe before you and after you all look into that central event of all human history, the cross at Calvary. It's already happened lord but that complete fulfillment of the second coming and that great and mighty day of the Lord. We live in the land between and the times between those two. God, I pray that we would surrender and we would come and we would be faithful and that we would be obedient servants of yours and that we would take part in the kingdom of God and that our lives would bring others into fellowship with you.

God, I pray that we would introduce them to our savior and he would become theirs too. Lord, we do that in a lot of different ways with our word and with our deed but with our giving, lord, we pray that you would use these funds, these resources financially that are put into these plates that you would amplify and magnify them lord to do your kingdom's work that you would get a lot out of what goes into these plates and that you would do the work here in Jackson, in this county, in this state, in this nation, but lord, to the coastlands as our text says today, meaning, to the very ends of the earth. In Jesus name, I pray, islands and all. Amen. So, last week, we went through all of the book of first Peter, every single 105 verses we did, every single one of em.

That was probably an ambitious project by the pastor when we had three verses left to finish our chronological study through the book, you know, but we went ahead and did those three and one hundred and two more. And that was a lot. But this week we have a shorter passage and we'll get to it in just a minute. Normally, what we've been doing for the last five and a half years is going forward one little bit at a time, usually a paragraph at a time going forward in the New Testament. And then when we finish one book, I usually do a transition between that one and the next one, and we go straight into the next.

That's that's it. What I've chosen to do this time, we're gonna take a little break from that just for the next four Sundays in this Christmas season. It's Advent. I don't usually break away until the last Sunday because I like the progression of going through and keeping context and all that but we're going to go and do a rewind here for a bit and go back to the Old Testament, okay? So, this week is going to be Isaiah 42 and Isaiah 42 is from, you know, this Isaiah is an amazing prophet.

I mentioned him several times in the past couple of months because as we're studying first Peter, Peter quotes him multiple times. There are several places where he quotes the Old Testament and his favorite of the Old Testament prophets is Isaiah. He mentions a couple others, but mainly it's Isaiah. And if you look in Matthew, his favorite is Isaiah. If you look because there's so much, especially in the latter part of Isaiah that is broadcasting and forecasting and predicting the New Testament.

And when they have seen it, they put the dots together and they start quoting from predictive prophecy. Okay, are you with me? So there are four, most people say four, and there's one other that qualifies in every way except for it doesn't say servant. But there are four servant passages in Isaiah. We've got four Sundays building up to Christmas, and I think we're gonna take a servant passage each week.

So, these are somewhat poetic and they're beautiful. I think all of them. The first of the servant passages is Isaiah 42, and this is what it looks like. So that's all the verses that we're gonna cover right there today. There are only nine of them.

I have them separated out poetically, but it's a unit. It kinda, most people would say, yeah, one through nine is a continuous line of thought like a paragraph. I'm gonna read it all first. I don't always do that, but I'm gonna read it all first off of this. I know you can't read it from where you are.

You don't even need to try. We're going through it one verse at a time anyway but I want you to hear it. So, if you want to close your eyes, that's fine. I want you to hear it and I'll try to kind of illustrate a bit as we go. Behold, my servant, capital M means it's God speaking and capital S means Jesus, okay?

Behold, my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one, chosen one. How many movies and how many books and how many video games and how many things have been marketed to us that are the chosen one. Neo and the Matrix, y'all might not be there but there are lots of other chosen one type things. It's one of the stories that is continuously retold that there's only one who could fit this whether it's Frodo and the Lord of the Rings or one of those sort of people that's the chosen one but this is the chosen one, okay? This is the Messiah, Meshiach, Messiah.

My chosen one. God chose him. In whom my soul, the the soul of God, my soul delights. I have put my spirit upon him and he will bring forth justice to the nations and he will not cry out or raise his voice nor make his voice heard in the street. A bruised reed, he will not break and a dimly burning wick.

Did y'all see when this thing started a few minutes ago? And it was dimly burning and we were all going, lord, I don't want it to go out. I don't want it to go out. Now, we could've just put it out, cleaned off the wax, cleaned off the wick, started over. A dimly burning wick, he will not extinguish.

Ain't that beautiful? Comes back. He will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not be disheartened or crushed and he has established until he has established justice in the Earth and the coastlands will wait expectantly for his law or reign or governance. Thus, says God the Lord who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and its offspring, who gives breath to the people on it, and spirit to those who walk in it.

This is what God says. I am the Lord. I have called you in righteousness and I will also uphold you and the you there is capital. Capital Y. It's talking about Jesus.

God has chosen him to be the one to walk the path of righteousness and live in every way tempted as we are tempted but without sin so that he could be the one. I will will also hold you by the hand and I will watch over you and I will appoint you as a covenant to the people. We're going to go into communion before the end of this service, before the end of the sermon. Really, we're going to go into communion and I'll say that this is the new covenant in my blood is what Jesus said and he was appointed by God almighty to be that new covenant to the people and a light to the nations to open blind eyes and to bring out prisoners from the dungeon and those who dwell in darkness from the prison. I am the Lord.

That is my name. I will not give my glory to another nor my praise to graven images. Behold, the former things have come to pass and now I declare new things before they spring forth. I proclaim them to you. Now, that last line claims predictive prophecy.

It claims that there is something that Isaiah is writing that is going to come to pass that has not yet come to pass, okay? Predictive prophecy. It all matters about whether you believe that that is even possible or not as to how you read this whole segment of scripture, the suffering servant. It doesn't say suffering here as much but in 53, he's definitely suffering and that's the last of the passages we'll study before Christmas. The servant passages.

So, I want to this sounds kind of hopeful. It's nice. We're talking about Christmas. We know we're looking at Jesus. We're looking at him as a servant.

He said, I came to serve and not be served and so when we look at this, we probably need a little background information on Isaiah to really for this to land because as Christians, we read it immediately and we know it's Jesus, then, it's Jesus. Of course, but think about where these folks were when they were hearing from Isaiah. Isaiah prophesied during the reign of four different kings and the one where he was called was Uzziah and in the day that king Uzziah died, Isaiah came face to face with God. He saw him. He saw the cherubim and the Seraphim and they had six wings and two covered their eyes and two covered their feet and with two they flew and they sung, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty and he saw that and that was when he was called and he immediately saw his the holiness of God and his own sin and then he set him forth self forth as a servant.

His heart attitude was changed and he was called to be God's mouthpiece. God called Isaiah to serve him in the year that King Uzziah died which was seven thirty nine BC. Seven thirty nine years before Christ, okay? BC and he served for fifty three years. So, he's a prophet over the span of fifty three years.

Isaiah, his name alone means, the Lord is salvation. If you spoke Hebrew, you would hear Isaiah and hear it in there. The Lord is salvation. The book is 66 chapters long and the first one through 35, the first 35 are about judgment. Primarily, they have to do with the kingdom of Assyria but it's something that has already come to pass and there are details, lots of details, historical details about God's judgment.

Now, I want you to think, we're hitting the middle of the story when we hear this. 36 through 39 is a historical bridge. So that tells with really accurate historical details what's happening in between Assyria's portion in this and Babylon's portion in this. Babylon is coming. Last week, we had Peter mentioned in Babylon and he actually was tying this really closely together too with Isaiah being his favorite prophet and Babylon was the real nation that the Israelites were exiled to.

They were the big cat that whipped the little mouse of Israel. The historical bridge there leads up to chapters 40 through 66 and that's the last part of Isaiah. I broke this down intentionally like this because there's obviously thematic difference between the first 35, those middle three, and the last 26. The last 26 have to do with Babylon, the Babylonian captivity, and eventual deliverance. Okay, are you with me?

It's kind of heady but I'm not going to do this for very long. We're getting into the text in just a minute. Thank you. Deliverance. Deliverance is the theme and if you remember Isaiah 40, you know, he shall mount up with wings like eagles.

He shall run and not be weary. He shall walk not faint. That that passage is from Isaiah 40 and comfort oh comfort my people, Israel is the way that that starts off and it is more comforting and speaking of deliverance for that last 26 chapters. If you were to say, what is Isaiah about in one sentence? I think that this would probably come close to it.

It's about judgement and deliverance both from and his favorite name for God in the whole book is the holy one of Israel. He uses it over and over and over again. So, judgement from God and deliverance from God that both of those things spring. God is just but he is also merciful. So, judgement and deliverance from the holy one of Israel and the servant passages, this is actually a slide I borrowed from Brian Beyer who is my professor in seminary and this morning, I had not put my sermon into the drop box into the computer back there and Blake got here and he put the whole class slides for this class that I was sitting in.

You do not want to hear that and we do not have time for that. But this, the servant passages, the way we look at it, we see chosen by God and led by God's spirit and from this perspective, we say, oh yeah, there's that guy with a beard standing next to a guy and ready, you know, animal skin clothing and he's got a dove hovering over his head. That's Jesus at the moment of his baptism right before his ministry, obviously. To us, that's what we think and we look back and see it in Isaiah, you know, our good shepherd. He was chosen by God and God said, I would put my spirit on him and in that dove coming down and the voice from heaven, he said, this is my son.

This is my chosen one, right? This is the one. In whom I'm well pleased and he set his spirit upon him and so it's obvious to us what it is. Matthew mentions and quotes Isaiah forty two one and two actually or three and four that he would quietly bring in God's kingdom and so we see that fulfillment in Jesus Christ but I want to step back just a minute and before I get into the text and there it is, I I want to set the scene a little bit because we as Americans probably have a harder time putting ourself in the position that Israel was in at this time. Now, collectively, as a nation and then personally, I wanna break it down two different ways.

As a nation, most of the times when we have fought wars, we have felt obviously justified and that we should, but they have not been on our soil. Does that make sense? So we have fought in other places and we have not ever had anybody come in here and have war on our territory. And if you think about that, most of us in this room remember 09/11/2001, and we remember what it's like to be attacked on your own. Even if you live in Wyoming and New York, we still felt like that was our own.

I was in Mexico at the time, and it still felt like they were attacking me and so, if you are Israel, you'd know that you're the chosen people of God. You've been taught that from the very literally first breath that you breathe. People are whispering in your ear God's name and you know that you are chosen of God. You're his people. Now, for those of you who grew up in church, if you've known since you were in Awana or since you were in Sunday school, you've known that God was for you and not against you and those of you who have trusted in him, you've been either baptized and then confirmed and then or you've been believed and then been baptized or whatever.

You grow up as a child of God and knowing that you're a chosen one of God because you accepted his gracious invitation. Or whether you just grown up as an American and you know that feeling of American exceptionalism that we most of us carry. If you become under attack, Now, Israel's a little bitty country ever look at on a map. It's not a big place but they have fought some really huge powers all around them throughout the ages and whipped them bad, you know, and the history before this Babylonian captivity, the history was God will raise us up and God will give us the victory and he did over and over and over and over again. Now, they got their tails whipped every once in a while.

It was, if you fear, things don't go well but if you act in faith, things go very well and if you listen and obey, things go well and if you disregard, things don't go so well and that's the old covenant. That's the way it worked. If you will be my people, I will be your God.

For those of us who grew up in

church, I'm going back and forth nationally and personally. For those of us who have grown up and feeling the protection of God and feeling like he was in our life and then all of a sudden, it feels like I'm getting beat up from every side and I don't have the same kind of foundation that I thought I had and it seems like God is against me. That's the position that they were in. Does that make sense? They had been whipped on their own soil and humbled and then exiled, pulled out of that, and pulled away, and did not know that they would ever be able to come back from it.

Does that make sense? So, where is God and what's going on? Do you know the the song the Psalm one thirty seven, by the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down and there we wept when we remembered Zion, our hometown. It's hard for us as Americans, I think, to get there but I'm trying to get you there. Are you there?

Are we there? It's tough because they've been removed from all that they knew and thought was holy and who are these godless ones to come against us and then we're struggling through it and we're in captivity and we're hurting. Alright. Why has God not intervened? So, the first 35 chapters are about judgement and it's telling the story that got us to this place and then this historical bridge says and this is where we are And then 40 through 66 says, but this is where we're going.

Now, the span from chapter one to chapter 66 is about two hundred years. As history goes, it's about two hundred years. And I believe that one man wrote this book. Well, one man wrote this book because he knew history and then, he was God's servant that had been called by him, seen the holiness cleansed of his sin, and used as God's mouthpiece and he shared predictive prophecy for the last 26 chapters down to using names and so, Cyrus, the great king, right? Cyrus was forecast by Isaiah way before Cyrus ever was born and so, if you look at that and you are trusting in God and believing that God knows the end from the beginning and he can prophesy through his prophet whatever he wants to.

There's no problem there but for people who have removed the supernatural from the Bible or from God's attributes, they think that at least two people and maybe three people wrote this book. It was somebody who wrote about this part of the history, somebody else wrote this middle part, and somebody else wrote this other, and they wrote it after Cyrus was around and pretended that they were predicting. If you have eliminated already the possibility of God's prophecy, then you won't believe it and you'll say there's one as pseudo Isaiah, Deuteronomy, Isaiah, and you know, whatever. Three different ones. No.

One man wrote this book and it was a man that surrendered to the will of God because he saw the holiness of God and recognized his own sin. So, here we go. This is the text. It's one and two to begin with. Behold, my servant, God saying, Jesus, right there.

Behold, my servant whom I uphold. Jesus was upheld by almighty God. As he was found in this place as a man. My chosen one. It is exclusive.

He is the only one. My chosen one, Messiah. Messiah, Jesus. He is the only one. Now, I know in our society that smacks of exclusion and it smacks of exception and that it's only one.

No, no, no. It is that he is the only one. That's the reason that he has said it. My servant whom I uphold in my chosen one and whom my soul delights. The soul of God almighty delights in Jesus.

I have put my spirit upon him. What do all of the gospel say that he walked in the power of the spirit. He walked and was without sin and that doesn't happen in the flesh. That has to be availed by the spirit, the spirit of God. I have put my spirit upon him and he will bring forth justice to the nations.

Now, the will is significant. He will bring forth justice to the nations. Are y'all seeing justice right now in the nations? No. Are y'all watching the same news I'm watching?

There is no justice, right? I mean, that's I heard the bells on Christmas day. Peace, peace, but there's no peace. You hear that and you go, there's no lion laying down with the lamb and people go sometimes to great lengths to say, there must be two messiahs. In fact, the one Jewish in the Targum then to the present, one Jewish interpretation of this is that there must be two messiahs.

One of em was a military rooter and one of em is going to be someone who comes and brings peace. But when you don't believe in what is set forth from beforehand, you have to make it work. You figure it out. Behold my servant whom I uphold my chosen one and whom my soul delights. I've put my spirit upon him and he will bring forth justice to the nations.

If you have a King James, maybe a New King James too. It might say judgment instead of justice but it's based on the character of God. God's judgment is just. It is right. If he should choose to mercifully forgive, that is within his righteousness and his justice, okay?

He will bring forth or establish justice to the nations. The word for nations is all those outside of the Jews, okay? So, he's bringing forth not just, he not just the God of the Jews which they'd always say, he is our God. He's not your God. He's our God and they had hoarded that blessing in a lot of ways but he will bring forth justice to those outside of us.

So, he's not just the God of Jews and not just their captors, the Babylonians. He is the just, the God, the just God of all of the nations whether they know it or not. He will not cry out or raise his voice. Now, these two lines nor make his voice heard in the street. Those two are quoted in Matthew.

He said, Jesus did not come about building up a kingdom here and setting about on a campaign. Jesus walked every moment in the power of the spirit and he taught humbly and people thronged to him but he did so quietly. It was a quiet revolution that started with that one man and those few disciples and a few more and a few more and it has continued forth to this day because Christ is still building his church and church. You are the body of Christ. You are the one that is the servant of God on earth at this moment.

He will not cry out or raise his voice. It is not grandstanding. Jesus never did that, not at his trial and not ever. He did not grandstand. Nor make his voice heard in the street.

In fact, Matthew tells the story about how gently Jesus did it. He said, when he healed people and he healed a bunch of people, he said, don't tell anybody. Don't tell anybody. What I'm doing? I'm not coming to grandstand or to gang crowds.

I'm coming to walk in the power of the spirit all the way to the cross. Don't don't make a big deal about it. At that time, he was accomplishing our salvation. A bruised reed, he will not break. Now, personally, if you feel like you're being attacked on your own, the soil of your heart, the one that you know that you had given to Jesus long ago and right now, you're going through it and I know some of y'all are because this week, this week has been in the bleak mid winter, okay?

It's been this time where people have been coming and saying, I'm hurting. I'm hurting because of this. Sometimes, it's because of my own sin. That's one way and then others is because of someone else's sin. I'm hurting because our loved ones and relatives are starting to fade and hurt because of the loss of a loved one.

There are lots of different ways that we can be hurting. I'm preoccupied or I'm over worked, or I'm under whatever. A bruised reed. If you feel like you're a bruised reed you ever seen an Easter lily that has kind of a bruise and it starts to wilt right at that place? A bruised reed, he will not break.

He is gentle. Very, very gentle. And a dimly burning wick, he will not extinguish. He won't just throw you away to start over, okay? If you're his,

he's not going to extinguish you.

A dimly burning wick will not extinguish. He will faithfully bring forth justice and somebody did stop me between like I said and said, in my Bible, it says, judgement but again, the judgment of God is just and he will bring it forth. The will in the future there, we are living and I prayed this. I alluded to it just praying for the offering. We live in between the time of Jesus's coming and his second coming and so we're looking forward to a time when the lion will lay down with the lamb but right now, that's not happening, right?

It can happen in the church. We can get along with people that desperate groups that don't normally get along can get along if they both recognize their shortfall and limitation and come to the cross of Christ with equal footing and go forward with unity because of his blood. He will forthfully bring, he will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not be disheartened or crushed until he has established justice in the Earth. Now, he established that on Calvary.

He did and it is finished and he said it was finished and he meant it was finished. So, he's already accomplished salvation for everyone who would ever believe from the beginning of human history to the very end of human history. They all look back to the center point which is Christ giving himself on the cross. He until he had established or laid the foundation for justice in the Earth and the coastlands, the outer lying most parts will wait expectantly for his governance, for his law, for his rule, and he shall reign forever and ever from Handel's Messiah or from the things that we said this morning. He rules the world with truth and grace and makes the nations prove, right?

The coastlands, the uttermost parts will wait expectantly for his governance. Verse five, thus says the Lord God or thus says God the Lord. He who created the heavens and stretched them out. He who spread out the earth and its offspring. Every living thing that is on the earth, God made.

He's talking about creation there and creation is talking about him. According to Psalm 19, day after day, night after night, he pours forth knowledge and there is no language where it cannot be understood. Spread out the earth and its offspring and he gives breath to the people that are walking on it and spirit to those who are walking in it. He gives us life and he gives us spirit. And he says this, I am the Lord.

I have called you. So, this is God saying, I have called you, Jesus, in righteousness and I will also hold you, Jesus, by the hand and I will watch over you and I will appoint you as a covenant to the people. As a covenant to the people points to this new covenant, like I said, that that Jeremiah also had forecasted ahead of time and Jeremiah said that there would come a day where there would be a new covenant. Joel said the same thing. Isaiah says this thing thing.

There's a covenant to the people and as a light to the nation. Now, if you look at the light to the nations, remember Jesus said, I am the light of the world. Right? City on a hill can't be hidden. I'm the light of the world.

Don't put it under a basket but he also said to them, those disciples there and I think he says to us today, you are the light of the world. You're the body of Christ that continues on this Earth and we should be a light to the nations. Our missions committee and our missionaries are seeking to show the light of God and reflect the light of God to the nations. All of those who are outside of God's chosen people. As a light to the nations.

Am the Lord. I've called you in righteousness. I will also hold you by the hand and I'll watch over you and I'll appoint you as a covenant to the people and as a light to the nations. To open blind eyes. Are there some things about yourself that you are beginning to see that you didn't see?

No, there are in the first service because that's my come right to the front afterwards and said, there's something about myself that I've just recently seen that is just dreadfully sinful and I had never considered it before. I said, well, God's opening your eyes and he's doing that because you're humbling yourself like we talked about a few weeks ago. Humble yourselves, stay sober and alert, and resist the devil and God will perfect and confirm and establish and strengthen. To bring out prisoners from the dungeon. We are going to be enslaved by something.

Either we will be enslaved by our own sin and selfishness or we'll be slaves of the cross and carry forth a message of hope and deliverance and those who dwell in darkness from the prison and then we get this little middle part here. This verse eight, I am the Lord that is my name. I will not give my glory to another nor my praise to graven images. Now, there are folks who see that I will not give my glory to another and they think, well, God is just kind of a megalomaniac, isn't he? Mighty full of himself.

Well, you're judging in human terms. If you're thinking that because God actually deserves all of the praise and all of the glory. I mentioned Isaiah's meeting God in the holiness, holiest place and his robe filled the area and there was smoke and there were cherubim and seraphim and they were singing, holy, holy, holy is the Lord, God almighty. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty. The earth is full of his glory.

Glory is the earthly manifestation of God's holiness. God is utterly different. He is utterly other and he is utterly worthy. When we sang just a minute ago, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. We're we're ascribing to Ephes, to him, to God.

The the worship and the praise and the glory and we want for not just our words but our life to glorify God. Remember when Jesus came to him in the garden, he said, the hour has come. Glorify your servant. He's pointing back to these passages. Glorify your servant so that I may glorify you so that your actual fame will be manifest to the world and they will know you are holy other and you do not act in the same way that they act and you do not do things the same way.

Calling, calling out for the glory of God and God deserves it. So, I got another one that came up this morning in my head during the first service. My grandfather had a a lot of sayings and one of em was this, he said, if you can brag without lying, go ahead and brag. Does that make sense? His point, I think, sometimes I don't know his point.

I had another story I'll tell you about later. But anyway, this this if you can brag without lying, ahead and brag because most of us, most of the time, if we're bragging, we're lying at the same time, right? It's like, I had so many points in this basketball game and that's been twenty five years. I imagine they're gonna look this up. It goes from 19 to 27 to, I had 35 points in a basketball game.

Or you know what? I think I could whoop that boy with one arm tied behind my back. I'd like to see that. You get your left hand beat off that way. Just that's not cool.

This whole thing, if you can brag without lying, go ahead and brag. God says, I will not give my glory to another. Because no one else deserves it. Last week's sermon and the few weeks before and the one that Carl's got coming up next week, I'm pretty sure says that God resists the proud but he gives grace to the humble. You know, when he says he resists the proud, it is because he will not give his glory to another and when you ascribe to yourself the goodness and the attributes of God, he resists that because he deserves the glory and we do not.

Norm, I praise to graven images. There are so many different places but where they talk about you build a god out of metal or out of stone or out of wood and then you have to put a little card up underneath it to keep it from toppling, right? I will not give praise to those graven images. Behold, the former things have come to pass. There are things that led up to this point, he's saying, and now, I am declaring new things.

So, right there, he's saying, I am predicting right here what is going to come to pass and it has some amazing. There are not as many historical details as there are in chapters one through 35 or 36 through 39 but 40 to 66, those name names and then they came to be. It is a predictive prophecy about the coming of the hopeful one, the Messiah. He says right now, now I declare new things before they spring forth, I proclaim them to you. The gospel writers all point back to Isaiah because they're saying this is what he's talking about.

This life of Jesus, it ticks every box for Isaiah. Now, we do acknowledge that we're living in the lands between. Justice has not been completely established among all of the nations. But within our hearts, those who have surrendered to Christ, he is beginning the process and he's working with us as we submit our will to his. We will be just and we will be walking in the spirit.

I think that's the last slide for right now. Actually, the last of this passage that I was going to sing is for a new song that we sang this morning in the in the first service. Would you mind if I kind of end with, you know what? I'll end with it after communion. Let's do that.

Can I get the frontline team to come forward? And as y'all distribute, I want to I want to go through something. God, I thank you for this morning. I thank you for this meaningful symbol that we're about to take part in and this symbol lord of your body and blood given on our behalf, lord. Would you bless this little cracker that each one of us when we partake lord.

We are to remember your life well lived. Remember the example that you made and lord with the blood that was spilled. Lord, would you bless as we distribute this this morning? For each person who would partake, this is a completely open table. So, if you have believed in Jesus, you're welcome to partake.

I don't care your denominational background or affiliation. You believe in Jesus. But if you don't, Lord, if there are any here who have not trusted in you, I pray Lord that they would let this pass, but that their life would be touched by another life in the room, and that you would call them by your servant, to trust in Jesus. In Jesus name, we do what you will this morning. Amen.

Amen. And on the night that Jesus was betrayed after supper, he took bread and after giving thanks, he broke it and he said to his disciples that were there, this is my body which is given for you. Take this and eat and do it in remembrance. Lord God, I thank you for your life well lived in that body that was broken, that tree. The cross of Calvary where your blood was spilled.

Lord, you went there willingly in submission to the fathers with for our justification, for our redemption, for our cleanse, for our sanctification. In Jesus name, I pray that you bless as we partake of this little meaningful symbol, the grape juice and a little plastic cup. That is pointing back to Jesus' blood. Jesus name, In the same way that he had taken the bread, he took the cup after supper and he said, this is the new covenant in my blood. Now, the old things have passed away, Isaiah says, and the new things are being declared and these are things which will spring forth.

Jesus was calling back to that when he told his disciples and he tells us right now that this is the new and exclusive covenant in his blood. Take this and drink and do it in remembrance of me, Christ said, to his disciples and to us today. Amen. So, going along with that, Judy, I think we're going skip the last song if that's alright. I want I want you to hear the text of a song because I think it hits this this sermon right where it is.

It's an old an English hymn from the eighteen seventies but Carl did a new version of it this morning in the in the first service and then I'll close with the benediction right up there. The Isaiah forty two ten. In the bleak midwinter, how many how many y'all know that song? In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan, earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone, snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow. In the bleak midwinter, long ago.

That promise that Isaiah had made was seven hundred years before the birth of Christ. It's a long winter. Our God, heaven cannot hold him nor earth sustain. Heaven and earth shall flee away when he comes to reign. When he brings that judgment and that justice, heaven and earth shall flee away when he comes to reign in the bleak midwinter.

A stable place sufficed the Lord God almighty, Jesus Christ and so, I'll close with this. If you would stand. Sing to the Lord a new song, sing his praise from the end of the earth. You who go down to the sea and all that is in it, you islands, none of us is an island. Okay.

Gather together and be the body. Seek justice and seek the things that make for peace. You islands and those who dwell on them, singing to the Lord a new song and sing his praise from the ends of the earth. Would you do that and go and be body of Christ? In Jesus name, amen.