June 29, 2025 • 45 mins
Ever felt like your life's story has reached its final chapter? That your failures have disqualified you from God's purposes? This powerful exploration of Isaiah 41 speaks directly to those wrestling with feelings of abandonment and inadequacy.
The journey begins with John Wesley's crushing failure in Georgia—a missionary venture that ended in scandal and flight. Yet this very failure became the soil where God's grace took root, leading Wesley to his transformative Aldersgate experience. Similarly, the Israelites in Babylonian exile, surrounded by towering reminders of their defeat, questioned whether God had abandoned them forever.
Into this despair, God thunders with tenderness: "You are my servant, I have chosen you and not cast you off." These words aren't merely comfort—they're a radical recommissioning. God doesn't just forgive; He repurposes. He doesn't just rescue; He redeploys. The God who controls nations and moves kings doesn't need our strength; He offers His own.
Perhaps the most striking image comes when God addresses Israel as "worm Jacob" only to immediately promise their transformation into a threshing instrument. This dramatic reversal—from worm to weapon—happens not through self-improvement but divine empowerment. God doesn't call the qualified; He qualifies the called.
The promises crescendo with visions of deserts blooming into gardens and wilderness bursting with trees—not just restoration but re-creation. These aren't just promises of geographical return but glimpses of a new Eden breaking into our broken world through the coming Servant.
Whether you're recovering from failure, wrestling with weakness, or questioning your purpose, this message offers a profound truth: God isn't finished writing your story. His strength shines brightest through our weakness, and His purposes often find their fullest expression through those who feel most inadequate. Come discover how your greatest weakness might become your most powerful calling in God's redemptive plan.
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Doug McMasters (00:00):
And if you don't have a Bible or you would like
to use the Pew Bible that's infront of you, you can turn to
page 636.
636.
636.
In the mid-1730s, john Wesleymade his way across the Atlantic
(00:32):
Ocean over to what was then thecolony of Georgia.
It was a very deep, informativeand painful couple years for
him, but God used the failure ofhis trip over to Georgia in
order to prepare him forsomething grand and glorious.
Wesley arrived full of spunkand vigor and determination,
(00:58):
with a high hopes that he'd beable to evangelize the
indigenous people that lived inthat area and also to bring some
spiritual revitalization to theEnglish settlers who were there
.
The colony of Georgia was setup in order to populate, or to
repatriate or patriate, I shouldsay people who had been
recently released from prison,and so the colony of Georgia was
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70% male and the majority ofwhich had a criminal record.
Wesley was driven by an idea oftrying to bring the church back
to its primitive roots, toreturn to what he saw as the
purity and discipline of thatearly days in which the church
was in the world world.
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But his somewhat proud and very, very determined and even
judgmental idealism ran smack upagainst reality.
He struggled to connect withthe indigenous populations and
he did not find very much favoramong the people that were there
who were from England, and oneof the most infamous episodes
revolved around a lady that hewas courting by the name of
Sophia Hopke.
(02:09):
He and Sophia met each otheroften and even had thoughts
about marriage, but after Sophiamarried, another man came to
church.
Wesley sought to excommunicateher, and this obviously sparked
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a public outrage and even wasfiled in court.
They wanted to imprison him forthis, and because of this
scandal, wesley turned tail andfled from the colony of Georgia
and made his way onto a ship tohead back to England, and he
later wrote in his journal Icame to America to convert the
(03:01):
Indians, but oh, oh, who isgoing to convert me?
That's a pretty raw confession,but it shows some of the
spiritual crisis that he was in.
And yet this failure was thesoil for God's grace.
After he returned to England,he made his way to London in a
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place called Aldersgate, whichyou can visit now it's the
Museum of London, and there's alarge statuary there of Wesley's
journal that talks about themoment where he and a small
group were in an upper roomreading the introduction to
Luther's commentary on the bookof Galatians, and he found the
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saving grace of Jesus Christflooding his heart with hope.
This failure brought him to theSavior.
This crushing defeat and thispanic-stricken flee from prison
at his lowest point in lifebrought him to the place where
(04:07):
he saw, for the first time inhis life, the grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ.
Maybe you're here this morningand you might sense a little bit
of something of what Wesley hadgone through.
Maybe you feel like your lifehas been a failure.
Maybe there's something in yourpast, some weight, that still
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carries along with you in yourmind.
Or perhaps you're sensing somerejection from people that have
been very important to you,whether they're in your family
or at work.
Maybe it's not even a dramaticsomething like Wesley's desire
to excommunicate his oldgirlfriend.
Maybe you're just feeling lostin the midst of a slow drain of
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weariness, feeling that yourpassion and your purpose has
left you long ago as you havesuccumbed to the daily grind and
demands of real life.
Or maybe you've just been oneof those ones who look at
yourself and just say I reallyhave never been in a place where
I could serve, and I'm not sureI'm even capable of ever being
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a part of God's kingdom in anykind of contributive way.
Well, the people of Israel andwe're going to look at them in
chapter 41 in just a momentwould have felt exactly like all
of that.
41 in just a moment would havefelt exactly like all of that.
Here they are, exiles inBabylon, hundreds of miles away
from their home, and the towersof Babylon are looming over them
, showing them that they'rereally nothing but captives of
(05:39):
this conquering nation.
Their temple lies in ruins,their covenant promises are long
gone, laying in the dust, andtheir story seems to be over.
And their exile raises ahaunting question, one that
sometimes reverberates in ourhearts has God moved on?
Has God left me behind?
Is he finished with me, with us?
(06:01):
Certainly, these were the kindof questions that they were
asking themselves.
But in Isaiah, chapter 41, godspeaks into that question, and
he does so with thunder andtenderness.
At the same time, he'll say tothem in verse 9, and we'll look
at it.
You are my servant, I've chosenyou and not cast you off.
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Fear not, for I'm with you.
I will strengthen you.
And, as we'll see, god istelling them in this chapter,
and we're going to look at thefirst 20 verses today, that God
isn't finished with them, noteven close.
He's going to transform theirdefeat into a renewed calling
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and he's going to take theirsituation, where they're nothing
but full of weakness, into onein which they can find a
reversal of grace and anempowerment to be able to
accomplish God's good purposes.
Now the full answer will comein chapter 42, where he points
them to where that reversal iscoming.
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Behold, my servant, the hope ofIsrael, is humming in chapter
41.
Now I have to say somethingabout chapter 41.
It whispers more than it yells.
There are themes in chapter 41that are simply alluded to that
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get introduced more clearly infurther chapters.
As we look at this song of 40to 55.
And as they get introduced inlater chapters, they get
developed and they build andthey move to a wondrous
crescendo.
So by the time we get tochapter 55, all of us will have
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just a great display of thesymphony of God's mercies and
grace.
But in chapter 41, there's justlittle notes that get played as
the symphony is moving along,just sort of giving us an
introduction to some notationsof God's grace that we're going
to hear in clear and morevibrant and even louder ways as
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the chapters go.
And one of the great motifs thatgets introduced here, that gets
whispered, is God's gloriousplan of reversal, that the
exiles are going to return, thatthey're going to be forgiven,
and that the weak are going tobe strengthened and the broken
are going to be made whole againand the forgotten are going to
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be given God's purposes.
All because the servant of theLord is coming, the servant of
the Lord who is spirit-filledand gentle and just and
unstoppable in his mercy.
The Gospels will reveal thatservant as Jesus very, very
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clearly.
But the book of Acts also tellsus that what Jesus does as
God's servant is now transferredto his people as part of the
body of Christ, and that we takeup even the roles and the
responsibilities and the actionsof the servant in our life here
.
But I'm getting way ahead ofmyself.
That's more the crescendo ofthis glorious, glorious song.
But let me say once again, whatgets whispered here will be
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shouted soon.
God is not finished yet, hejust is not.
And perhaps you felt too weak,too wounded, too weary, maybe
even too wayward, for God toever look upon your life and put
you into a place of usefulnessin his kingdom.
Isaiah, chapter 41, is a greatplace for us to go.
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It was written for us in thoseexact moments and as we go
through these 20 verses together, I want you to pick up how God
brings these words ofencouragement into the hearts of
the people who are in exile.
And the first thing I want usto notice in verse four verses
is that God is not finished withhis plan.
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He has not abandoned his planfor his people.
Here and the chapter opens uplike in a courtroom drama.
Take a look at verse one,chapter 41.
Be silent before me, coast andislands.
Here the nations are summonedinto silence and, unlike the
(10:27):
usual pattern that we've seen inIsaiah, it's not Israel who's
brought into the courtroom, it'sthe nations.
And in this court case, god andthe idols are put up one
against the other for thepurpose of determining who is
really God, who is really incontrol of everything.
And God calls these nations tolisten to him as he compares
(10:51):
himself to the idols and callsthem to witness not only his
sovereignty but also hispurposes.
Take a look at verse 2 and 4.
He asks some questions here.
Who has stirred up someone fromthe east In righteousness?
He calls him to serve.
The Lord hands nations over tohim and he subdues kings.
(11:13):
He makes them like dust withhis sword, like wind-driven
stubble with his bow.
He pursues them, going onsafely, hardly touching the path
with his feet.
And then another question whohas performed and done this?
Calling the generations fromthe beginning?
These are rhetorical questions,questions with an obvious
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answer who is the one whocontrols people and nations?
Who is the one that knows theend from the beginning?
Only God, only Yahweh.
And in verse four he makes thatvery clear I am the Lord, the
first and with the last, I am he.
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You see, yahweh is not a Godwho reacts, he's a God who
initiates.
You see, yahweh is not a Godwho reacts, he's a God who
initiates, and he is not givento the whims and wishes of the
nations.
He's driving the purposes ofthis world according to his own
design.
He is raising up kings, he istoppling nations, he is
(12:20):
reordering the peoples accordingto his own purposes.
And he mentions one man inverse 2, who has stirred up
someone from the east.
And then he goes on to describethis person who's going to have
the nations handed over to himand who's going to subdue other
(12:42):
kings like dust and stubbleAgain.
Another one of those themes thatthe rest of this section of
Isaiah is going to expand anddevelop.
The symphony is just playing alittle note or two.
Who is this one?
Well, in chapter 45, we findout.
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His name is Cyrus, whose righthand I've grasped.
To subdue nations before himand disarm kings, it says in
verse 1 of chapter 45, to opendoors before him, and even city
gates shall not be shut.
The Lord has a plan, and herehe's just whispering what that
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is that he's going to call aPersian king to topple the
kingdom of Babylon.
You see, this God, who knows allthings, who holds the beginning
and the end together in hiswisdom and sovereign will, is
not just part of the process,like the pagan gods are.
He's the one who stands outsideof time, who put the clock a
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ticking and who commands anddirects its path and brings all
time to an end.
I am he, he says.
And there he's making himselfas the self-existent one.
And there he's making himselfas the self-existent one.
He's reflecting that statementin Exodus, chapter 6, in verse 3
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.
He is the one who is the greatI am.
You see, every other form isderivative of God, but he's the
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one who's had no beginning andno end.
He simply is.
Now, why does this matter?
What is this point?
Well, if God can reign overCyrus and direct his path, if
God can bring Cyrus to the placeof conquering the Babylonians,
then certainly, as you deducethrough this argument the exiles
are to hear this reverberatingword he hasn't forgotten you
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either.
You're not outside of hiscontrol.
God here is appealing to hisunique activity in history as an
evidence that he alone is God,but he alone is God for purposes
that include these people whoare now in exile.
And so, if he can move empires,he can certainly renew hearts,
(15:16):
and if he can command history,he can sustain hope in these
that are hopeless at this moment.
And if he can stir up Cyrus,well, he can stir up any one of
us.
Actually and this is a notethat we shouldn't miss, because
we live in this world where itjust feels like sometimes,
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history has taken a left turnand veered completely off course
, where none of the things thatwe'd hoped for and thought were
going to happen 10, 20 years agoare ever going to be met again,
or perhaps where our ownpersonal story has gone adrift
and we find ourselves older,weaker, in positions of life
(15:59):
where we never expectedourselves to be.
But God hasn't abandoned us.
He hasn't abandoned his planand he's telling them here.
He still can do these mightythings.
Now, we may not always graspwhat he's about, but one thing
we can always trust is that hehas a plan and we can trust him
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because he's not finished.
He's not finished with humanhistory.
He's not finished with thesepeople in exile and he's not
finished.
He's not finished with humanhistory.
He's not finished with thesepeople in exile and he's not
finished with us.
Let's move forward, becausehe's going to expand this a bit
more In the next three versesverses 5 to 7, not only does God
show that he still has a plan,but he also gives strength, and
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here we see him compared to theidols who need nails.
Verses 5 to 7, we see thenations in response to this
glorious statement that Cyrus isgoing to be raised up in order
to bring the Babylonians to thedust.
The coast and the island seeand are afraid.
The whole earth trembles.
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They approach and arrive.
What is the response of thepeople, these nations, when they
hear that God is going to raiseup a conqueror?
They tremble and they quake andthey shake at this terrifying
news.
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But what can they do?
They don't know a God whocontrols history because of
righteousness.
So what can they do?
The only thing they know how todo, and that is to make a
better God.
That's what they do.
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Take a look at the verse.
Each one helps the other andsays take courage.
The craftsman encourages themetal worker.
The one who flattens with ahammer encourages the one who
strikes the anvil, saying to thesoldering it is good, and he
fastens it with nails so that itwill not fall over.
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And here Isaiah is talkingabout the complexity of the
process, referring to fourdifferent kinds of craftsmen
here that are needed to makegods.
And so they build statues andthey fortify their gods with
nails so they don't topple over.
It's pretty hard to make yourmaker, I guess.
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But this is the great reversalof idolatry Is that they're
serving something they hopedwould save them, but they're
propping up their deities in thehope that these deities would
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prop them up.
But that's not how God works.
The true and living God doesn'tneed us putting nails in him to
hold him up.
And notice what they say to oneanother in verse 7.
Saying of the soldering it isgood?
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Is that word it is good?
Looking at the handiwork thatyou've just completed, sounds
somewhat familiar.
Genesis, chapter 1, right, godsaid let there be, and there was
.
And when he looked on thecreation on several of the days,
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he behold what had been made.
And what would he say it isgood.
And now it's not the creatorwho's speaking over his work.
These are humans echoing divinelanguage when they're looking at
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the gods they've nailed down,and isaiah is using this
taunting irony and sarcasm inorder to tell them, tell the
exiles, who God really is andwho these things are Nothing but
propped up pieces of wood andstone and metal.
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What a tragic place thesenations are at.
What a humiliation of humanityto have a rejection of the God
who's made us in order to propup a God that we could hold up
for ourselves and perhaps mightbe able to do something for us.
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And this is that tragic comedyof sin that the false gods need
to be helped and they can't helpanyone.
The Lord here is calling themand us to the recognition that
he doesn't need reinforcements,that when God comes into your
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life and you begin to unpackagewho God is, you're never going
to find in the bottom of the box, may need some further
construction.
Right, you're never going tofind that, with God, might
require some assembly.
God is all and all and complete.
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The idols need to be naileddown Today.
Our idols don't come in wood andstone and metal.
They show up every morning whenwe look in the mirror.
We see ourselves and we try toprop up this idol that we're
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worshiping.
We see ourselves and we try toprop up this idol that we're
worshiping with achievement,with image projection, with
control of people orsurroundings around us, with a
yearning and longing forapproval.
And so we build our brands, wecraft our social personas.
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We all do something in aneffort to make who we are a
little more solid.
And maybe, if people thought wewere solid, we would be solid.
Then maybe we could be in aposition of strength and not the
weakness that we feel deepwithin us.
But when life quakes, idolsfall.
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Things that you prop up, theydeconstruct.
There's a better foundation forlife and it is in God who has
come.
It is in Jesus Christ, whocalled himself our rock, and he
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doesn't ask us to nail him downand to prop him up.
He's actually come and evenwillingly took nails himself so
that we might be freed.
He doesn't need our efforts.
He's coming to minister to uswith mercy and grace and he
invites us not to build upsomething that be worthy of him,
but to come as we are.
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To come weak and worn and wearyand even wayward, especially
when we recognize we are and torest in him Because he's telling
us here he has a plan and hegives strength.
He is not finished.
He is not finished.
And this comes into a beautiful, beautiful direct statement in
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verses 8 to 10, where he says tothem you are not cast off.
And God reaffirms his covenantlove.
Not only does he has not heabandoned his plan.
Not only does he providestrength, but he also reaffirms
his covenant love.
Look at verses 8 to 10.
But you, israel, my servantJacob, whom I've chosen,
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descended of Abraham, my friend.
I brought you from the ends ofthe earth and called you from
its farthest corners.
I've said to you you are myservant, I have chosen you.
I haven't rejected you.
Do not fear, for I'm with you.
Do not be afraid, for I'm yourGod.
I will strengthen you.
I will rejected you, do notfear, for I'm with you.
Do not be afraid, for I'm yourGod.
I will strengthen you, I willhelp you, I will hold on to you
(24:33):
with my righteous right hand.
If there was ever any verse youwanted to put on your wall in
your house, I think that shouldbe one of them, because grace is
breaking through here like themorning light does at the dawn,
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and he's speaking this gloriousword to who Defeated?
People scattered into Babylonfrom their home, with their
temple left as nothing butrubble on the ground.
Why?
Because of their covenantinfidelity, their disobedience
to God over generations.
God had every right to say well, you feel like your story's
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finished?
It is, but he isn't saying thatyou are my servant.
I have chosen you.
I have not cast you off.
This isn't just meresentimentality, this is covenant
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language.
And God is not telling themlook, I'll give you another
chance.
He's calling them into aremembrance of who he is.
I chose you.
Now.
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Isaiah is speaking this in atime frame in which these people
are still looking forward,where nations will rise and
Babylon will conquer and they'llbe captives.
He's telling this to people whoare still quaking under the
hand of Assyria, not yet underthe control of Babylon, and he's
telling them even when they seethe destruction of Assyria, not
yet under the control ofBabylon.
And he's telling them, evenwhen they see the destruction of
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it all, even when they seetheir temple rubble, even when
they see themselves put inchains and captured and drug
away from their home, even whenthey see themselves surrounded
by the false gods in the hightowers and walls of Babylon,
that they should remembersomething God has not forgotten
them, and he's not calling themto be strong, he's calling them
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simply to remember who he is.
I will strengthen you, I willhelp you, I will uphold you.
This is the gospel in propheticform, isn't it?
This is God not issuing asummons to humanity to try
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harder to be better.
He's issuing a statement ofinvitation to trust him.
And he's not commanding them toprove themselves, but rather to
show to us how glorious hispromises are.
And so, with covenant voice, hebinds his name to these people.
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You are my servant as areminder that he hasn't erased
his purposes for them, and he'sgoing to continue to speak to
them like this after they'velong forgotten it.
What a wonder this is, thatthis message of grace is meant
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to speak louder than theirfailure.
And perhaps you're in a placeright now where you've thought
silence must mean abandonment.
I feel adrift because I've beencut loose.
But you're not cast off.
These people weren't cast off.
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God was not finished with them.
He was still going to form them, he was still going to use them
, he was still going to bewriting their story into his
redemptive plan.
And he can say that to anyhuman today, anyone.
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Let's go to the next few verses11 to 16.
Not only has God not abandonedhis plan, he upholds it.
Not only does he give strengthand not only does he reaffirm
his covenant commitment, but healso turns worms into weapons.
I love the picturesquephraseology in this section.
Verse 14,.
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The reality of who Jacob is atthis moment is spoken.
You, worm Jacob.
Next time you wake up in themorning and you look in the
mirror, just go.
You worm Jacob.
But what does he say to theworm?
(29:29):
Be sure that all who areenraged against you verse 11,
will be ashamed and disgraced.
All who contend with you willbecome as nothing and will
perish.
You'll look for those whocontend with you, but you will
not find them.
Those who war against you willbecome absolutely nothing.
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Wow, god is promisingdeliverance.
Not because Israel is strong,not because they've triumphed,
but because he's with them.
And this image becomes very,very tender and sweet in verse
13.
I am the lord, your god, whoholds your right hand, who says
to you do not fear, I will helpyou, I.
I do trust and hope that you'vebeen in a place of weakness and
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frailty and temerousness ofheart and you've had someone
who's taken your hand and heldit for you and said don't worry.
And what an encouragement thatis, that tender touch, that
personal assurance that speakspast your ears into the depth of
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your heart.
Here is the God who movesnations, who spoke the stars and
the universe with a word intoexistence.
And yet he says I'm going to beright next to you and I'm going
to hold your hand.
And he wants to steady thattrembling, trembling fear that
(31:09):
we might have, because he speaksto us with intimacy here.
He says in verse 14, do not fearworm Jacob, I'm the one who
helps you.
And in verse 15, he talks abouthim threshing on the mountains.
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And he uses warrior languagehere just to show the dramatic
change this worm becomes aweapon in God's hand.
Not because a worm is sharp inand of itself Obviously it isn't
but because God takes it up.
And here's the shape of God'sgrace.
(31:52):
He's not just comforting theweak, he's issuing a
recommission that they're beingput into his active plan and
determination to do his purposes, that they're going to be
instruments, not just held byhis hand but used by his mighty
arm.
He's going to turn thesetrembling fingers into tools of
(32:15):
deliverance.
And when he calls him WormJacob, it's not simply to bring
him to shame, but to show himjust how dramatic God's
transformation can be.
Shame, but to show them justhow dramatic God's
transformation can be.
Yes, they must have thoughtthemselves diminished,
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disqualified, left desolate.
God says I have somethingbetter here for you.
I'm going to take you, I'mgoing to forgive you, I'm going
to restore you.
And I'm going to take you.
I'm going to forgive you, I'mgoing to restore you and I'm
going to use you.
This is again the good newsthat God doesn't call us to
self-improvement.
He calls us as we are weak.
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He fills us as we are, arehelpless, with his power.
And then he takes us and sendsus to do something that would be
beyond us and impossible.
Just had a talk yesterday withKevin Cooney and I thought this
beautiful, beautiful passage inlight of that, here is a guy
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running around Garden Cityterrorizing the neighborhood.
You know, a party animal.
God captures him with grace andturns him into a servant of the
gospel in a place halfwayaround the world where he looks
like a monster in comparison tothem.
He looks like a monster incomparison to any of us too, but
(33:49):
anyway, over there it's really,really apparent.
And yet this guy, who couldlift up boat engines with his
arms and carry them off of thebeach into the shed, is speaking
with such grace and tendernessand softness of soul to talk
about a savior that's forgivenhim of his sins and can forgive
them of theirs.
(34:11):
And all of this is whisperingsof a time when we'll see someone
who does all of this, thatservant in chapter 42 and other
songs as we go to the end ofchapter 55.
This one that the gospels talkabout is Jesus, who's come into
this world not to conquer Romewith mighty weapons of human
(34:36):
ability, but to crush sin.
And he didn't come atopmountains to stake a claim that
he owned the territory.
He went to a cross so that hemight be Lord of all the nations
.
You see, god's not finished.
God's got a plan, and Isaiah ispushing these people forward,
(35:01):
beyond themselves, to understandthat that plan is there and
that he has strength that noneof the idols around them could
ever know, and that he hascovenant love that he's
committed to and that he cantake a worm and make it a weapon
.
This brings us to our last point, verses 17 to 20.
(35:21):
The Lord has intentions beyondanyone's dreams.
This is where it gets veryclear.
We've only been building up tothis passage, but now we've
reached the crescendo of God'smercy.
(35:42):
He's speaking remind ourselvesof this that he's speaking to
people who are exiled incaptives in a foreign land,
imprisoned by a conqueringpeople, because of their own
covenant abandonment, becausethey were a people who had
walked away from God.
(36:03):
And they're now wondering ifGod is going to walk away from
them.
And he comes in these verseswith promises so lush, so lavish
.
It sounds like Eden is breakingback into the world.
Take a look at verse 17.
The poor and the needy seekwater, but there's none.
(36:24):
Their tongues are parched withthirst.
I will answer them.
I am the God.
I am the Lord, the God ofIsrael.
I will not abandon them.
I will open rivers on thebarren heights and springs in
the middle of the plains.
I will turn the desert into apool and dry land into springs.
I will plant cedar, acacia,myrtle and olive trees in the
(36:44):
wilderness.
I will put juniper, elm andcypress trees together in the
desert.
This isn't just rescue, thisisn't just let you back in the
land.
This is reversal of the curse,where the dry ground becomes a
(37:08):
garden, where the aridwilderness becomes a witness of
God's glorious growth, where theforsaken become fountains of
life.
And here God borrows the brushstrokes of Genesis and paints a
promise of a new creation.
Where there was desolation,there's now abundance, and it's
(37:29):
not just mere survival, it's joyand renewal and life.
Why, why would he do this?
Why would God, who is holy ashe is, as holy other than
everything that he's created,who is sovereign over the
(37:50):
nations, would speak to theselittle people, who had been so
disobedient to him, with suchwondrous words of promise, to
where the only thing he canbring into their minds that
would help them connect is togive them a remembrance of the
glories of a time when sin hadnot invaded the world and speaks
(38:13):
of Eden restored?
Why?
Take a look at verse 20.
So that all may see and know andconsider and understand that
the hand of the Lord has donethis.
The Holy One of Israel hascreated it, and so the Assyrians
(38:40):
and the Babylonians and theMedes and the Persians and the
Seleucids and the Greeks and theRomans and every other mighty
power on earth might know thatGod has taken a frail,
(39:01):
disobedient worm and preservedits existence.
Nations have come and goneduring the multitude of years,
the generations of the OldTestament, but the people of
(39:21):
Israel were still there.
You see, this restoration isnot just for relief.
It's revelation to the world,designed to say something, to
show, by the preservation ofthese people, that God has a
plan, that he's going to keep,that he's got strength to enact
(39:44):
it and to make it happen, andthat he's going to speak to the
undeserving words of greatcomfort, because the day was
going to come when the wholeearth would hear a message of
grace through one Messiah ofthese people, jesus Christ,
(40:07):
who's going to make all thingsnew.
And so this is where that rushof hope turns into a song that
causes them to rise to and tostand up for and to open their
hearts and their voices andtheir lungs and bellow with
gladness.
This is not just a change ofaddress for these people Babylon
(40:30):
back to Jerusalem.
This is a new creation that Godis offering, that he's going to
make, and he uses these imagesof trees in the wilderness not
just to assure them that they'llreturn, but a signpost of a
glorious future.
This garden in the desert, yousee again, chapter 41 is only
(40:53):
plunking off a few notes of asymphony of grace that's
building, and here he's justshowing the beginning of it all.
It will move and grow anddevelop and rise in glorious,
glorious concert as we learnmore about the servant and more
(41:20):
of what he'll bring and do inthis world, that God's promises
will take root and bloom andflourish.
That servant will come, andwe'll see in chapter 42, he
won't come as a mighty conqueror, but as a gentle redeemer.
He won't break the breezed root, he won't snuff out the
smoldering wick and he's goingto bring justice, gently and in
(41:43):
the fullness of time.
He'll be revealed.
He's going to talk about a daywhen he will not only bring
water to the desert, he'll bethe water of life.
That he will not only restorethe land, he'll make all things
new.
That he'll not only end theland, he'll make all things new.
That he'll not only end theexile, he'll call people home.
(42:04):
And so here we are, to any of uswho might feel forgotten today,
any of us who look at our lifeand see only the expanse of a
wasteland and wonder if God canstill write beauty on our broken
years.
God is speaking to those samekind of people, because God's
(42:26):
not finished.
He moves in history and heholds the hands of the wounded.
He raises up kings, yes, helevels mountains, yes, he renews
deserts, but he also offersmercy to the undeserving.
You see, he's not finished.
(42:47):
And in just a few verses, in acouple weeks, we're going to
hear these words behold myservant, the servant who will
come, the one who bears God'sspirit, the one who fulfills
what the people of Israelcouldn't, the one who embodies
what all humanity was meant tobe, the one who not only will
suffer as we'll see in chapter52 and 53, but also will succeed
(43:10):
.
His name is Jesus and, as we'lllearn as we go through this,
that that image of the servantalso includes us, that he calls
us bruised, small, overwhelmed,weak, weary, wayward, identifies
(43:31):
us with this servant and callsus into a commission of mercy
across these lands.
You see, you may be fearingyour story's ended?
It hasn't.
There's one place it continues,and that is in the welcoming
invitation of a God of grace andmercy.
(43:52):
If you feel like your hands aretoo tired and your soul's too
thin, go to Jesus.
There you will find him, andthere you'll hear the voice of
Isaiah speaking to you like itspoke to these people.
You are my servant.
I have chosen you.
I will strengthen you, I willhelp you, I will uphold you.
(44:15):
Let's pray, I will uphold you,let's pray.
Father, we thank you for theseglorious words.
They're too profound and toobeyond our comprehension for
them to enter in simply with ourmental capacities.
(44:38):
For them to enter in simply withour mental capacities, we would
find ourselves stunned at theshock of them all.
And so, father, we pray thatyou, lord, would give us ears to
hear, that you would open ourhearts, as you did to others, to
(45:00):
receive and believe thismessage.
And I pray that, not only forthose this morning who might be
here, who don't know Christ astheir Savior, but for all of us,
no matter how long we've known,our sins are forgiven in Jesus,
that we would receive what yousay to us, far deeper than just
(45:26):
mere mental interest.
May it soak into our soul andstrengthen our hearts with grace
and supply energy to our handsso that, when we step into this
afternoon and tomorrow and thedays and weeks and months and
years and decades ahead of us aslong as we live, that we will
be energized by the truth of whoyou are and what you tell us.
(45:49):
And we ask this, father, foryour glory's sake, in Christ's
name, amen.
And if you don't have a Bible or you would like
to use the Pew Bible that's infront of you, you can turn to
page 636.
636.
636.
In the mid-1730s, john Wesleymade his way across the Atlantic
(00:32):
Ocean over to what was then thecolony of Georgia.
It was a very deep, informativeand painful couple years for
him, but God used the failure ofhis trip over to Georgia in
order to prepare him forsomething grand and glorious.
Wesley arrived full of spunkand vigor and determination,
(00:58):
with a high hopes that he'd beable to evangelize the
indigenous people that lived inthat area and also to bring some
spiritual revitalization to theEnglish settlers who were there
.
The colony of Georgia was setup in order to populate, or to
repatriate or patriate, I shouldsay people who had been
recently released from prison,and so the colony of Georgia was
(01:22):
70% male and the majority ofwhich had a criminal record.
Wesley was driven by an idea oftrying to bring the church back
to its primitive roots, toreturn to what he saw as the
purity and discipline of thatearly days in which the church
was in the world world.
(01:48):
But his somewhat proud and very, very determined and even
judgmental idealism ran smack upagainst reality.
He struggled to connect withthe indigenous populations and
he did not find very much favoramong the people that were there
who were from England, and oneof the most infamous episodes
revolved around a lady that hewas courting by the name of
Sophia Hopke.
(02:09):
He and Sophia met each otheroften and even had thoughts
about marriage, but after Sophiamarried, another man came to
church.
Wesley sought to excommunicateher, and this obviously sparked
(02:34):
a public outrage and even wasfiled in court.
They wanted to imprison him forthis, and because of this
scandal, wesley turned tail andfled from the colony of Georgia
and made his way onto a ship tohead back to England, and he
later wrote in his journal Icame to America to convert the
(03:01):
Indians, but oh, oh, who isgoing to convert me?
That's a pretty raw confession,but it shows some of the
spiritual crisis that he was in.
And yet this failure was thesoil for God's grace.
After he returned to England,he made his way to London in a
(03:23):
place called Aldersgate, whichyou can visit now it's the
Museum of London, and there's alarge statuary there of Wesley's
journal that talks about themoment where he and a small
group were in an upper roomreading the introduction to
Luther's commentary on the bookof Galatians, and he found the
(03:45):
saving grace of Jesus Christflooding his heart with hope.
This failure brought him to theSavior.
This crushing defeat and thispanic-stricken flee from prison
at his lowest point in lifebrought him to the place where
(04:07):
he saw, for the first time inhis life, the grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ.
Maybe you're here this morningand you might sense a little bit
of something of what Wesley hadgone through.
Maybe you feel like your lifehas been a failure.
Maybe there's something in yourpast, some weight, that still
(04:28):
carries along with you in yourmind.
Or perhaps you're sensing somerejection from people that have
been very important to you,whether they're in your family
or at work.
Maybe it's not even a dramaticsomething like Wesley's desire
to excommunicate his oldgirlfriend.
Maybe you're just feeling lostin the midst of a slow drain of
(04:50):
weariness, feeling that yourpassion and your purpose has
left you long ago as you havesuccumbed to the daily grind and
demands of real life.
Or maybe you've just been oneof those ones who look at
yourself and just say I reallyhave never been in a place where
I could serve, and I'm not sureI'm even capable of ever being
(05:12):
a part of God's kingdom in anykind of contributive way.
Well, the people of Israel andwe're going to look at them in
chapter 41 in just a momentwould have felt exactly like all
of that.
41 in just a moment would havefelt exactly like all of that.
Here they are, exiles inBabylon, hundreds of miles away
from their home, and the towersof Babylon are looming over them
, showing them that they'rereally nothing but captives of
(05:39):
this conquering nation.
Their temple lies in ruins,their covenant promises are long
gone, laying in the dust, andtheir story seems to be over.
And their exile raises ahaunting question, one that
sometimes reverberates in ourhearts has God moved on?
Has God left me behind?
Is he finished with me, with us?
(06:01):
Certainly, these were the kindof questions that they were
asking themselves.
But in Isaiah, chapter 41, godspeaks into that question, and
he does so with thunder andtenderness.
At the same time, he'll say tothem in verse 9, and we'll look
at it.
You are my servant, I've chosenyou and not cast you off.
(06:22):
Fear not, for I'm with you.
I will strengthen you.
And, as we'll see, god istelling them in this chapter,
and we're going to look at thefirst 20 verses today, that God
isn't finished with them, noteven close.
He's going to transform theirdefeat into a renewed calling
(06:43):
and he's going to take theirsituation, where they're nothing
but full of weakness, into onein which they can find a
reversal of grace and anempowerment to be able to
accomplish God's good purposes.
Now the full answer will comein chapter 42, where he points
them to where that reversal iscoming.
(07:04):
Behold, my servant, the hope ofIsrael, is humming in chapter
41.
Now I have to say somethingabout chapter 41.
It whispers more than it yells.
There are themes in chapter 41that are simply alluded to that
(07:26):
get introduced more clearly infurther chapters.
As we look at this song of 40to 55.
And as they get introduced inlater chapters, they get
developed and they build andthey move to a wondrous
crescendo.
So by the time we get tochapter 55, all of us will have
(07:46):
just a great display of thesymphony of God's mercies and
grace.
But in chapter 41, there's justlittle notes that get played as
the symphony is moving along,just sort of giving us an
introduction to some notationsof God's grace that we're going
to hear in clear and morevibrant and even louder ways as
(08:10):
the chapters go.
And one of the great motifs thatgets introduced here, that gets
whispered, is God's gloriousplan of reversal, that the
exiles are going to return, thatthey're going to be forgiven,
and that the weak are going tobe strengthened and the broken
are going to be made whole againand the forgotten are going to
(08:32):
be given God's purposes.
All because the servant of theLord is coming, the servant of
the Lord who is spirit-filledand gentle and just and
unstoppable in his mercy.
The Gospels will reveal thatservant as Jesus very, very
(08:54):
clearly.
But the book of Acts also tellsus that what Jesus does as
God's servant is now transferredto his people as part of the
body of Christ, and that we takeup even the roles and the
responsibilities and the actionsof the servant in our life here
.
But I'm getting way ahead ofmyself.
That's more the crescendo ofthis glorious, glorious song.
But let me say once again, whatgets whispered here will be
(09:20):
shouted soon.
God is not finished yet, hejust is not.
And perhaps you felt too weak,too wounded, too weary, maybe
even too wayward, for God toever look upon your life and put
you into a place of usefulnessin his kingdom.
Isaiah, chapter 41, is a greatplace for us to go.
(09:43):
It was written for us in thoseexact moments and as we go
through these 20 verses together, I want you to pick up how God
brings these words ofencouragement into the hearts of
the people who are in exile.
And the first thing I want usto notice in verse four verses
is that God is not finished withhis plan.
(10:04):
He has not abandoned his planfor his people.
Here and the chapter opens uplike in a courtroom drama.
Take a look at verse one,chapter 41.
Be silent before me, coast andislands.
Here the nations are summonedinto silence and, unlike the
(10:27):
usual pattern that we've seen inIsaiah, it's not Israel who's
brought into the courtroom, it'sthe nations.
And in this court case, god andthe idols are put up one
against the other for thepurpose of determining who is
really God, who is really incontrol of everything.
And God calls these nations tolisten to him as he compares
(10:51):
himself to the idols and callsthem to witness not only his
sovereignty but also hispurposes.
Take a look at verse 2 and 4.
He asks some questions here.
Who has stirred up someone fromthe east In righteousness?
He calls him to serve.
The Lord hands nations over tohim and he subdues kings.
(11:13):
He makes them like dust withhis sword, like wind-driven
stubble with his bow.
He pursues them, going onsafely, hardly touching the path
with his feet.
And then another question whohas performed and done this?
Calling the generations fromthe beginning?
These are rhetorical questions,questions with an obvious
(11:36):
answer who is the one whocontrols people and nations?
Who is the one that knows theend from the beginning?
Only God, only Yahweh.
And in verse four he makes thatvery clear I am the Lord, the
first and with the last, I am he.
(11:58):
You see, yahweh is not a Godwho reacts, he's a God who
initiates.
You see, yahweh is not a Godwho reacts, he's a God who
initiates, and he is not givento the whims and wishes of the
nations.
He's driving the purposes ofthis world according to his own
design.
He is raising up kings, he istoppling nations, he is
(12:20):
reordering the peoples accordingto his own purposes.
And he mentions one man inverse 2, who has stirred up
someone from the east.
And then he goes on to describethis person who's going to have
the nations handed over to himand who's going to subdue other
(12:42):
kings like dust and stubbleAgain.
Another one of those themes thatthe rest of this section of
Isaiah is going to expand anddevelop.
The symphony is just playing alittle note or two.
Who is this one?
Well, in chapter 45, we findout.
(13:05):
His name is Cyrus, whose righthand I've grasped.
To subdue nations before himand disarm kings, it says in
verse 1 of chapter 45, to opendoors before him, and even city
gates shall not be shut.
The Lord has a plan, and herehe's just whispering what that
(13:26):
is that he's going to call aPersian king to topple the
kingdom of Babylon.
You see, this God, who knows allthings, who holds the beginning
and the end together in hiswisdom and sovereign will, is
not just part of the process,like the pagan gods are.
He's the one who stands outsideof time, who put the clock a
(13:49):
ticking and who commands anddirects its path and brings all
time to an end.
I am he, he says.
And there he's making himselfas the self-existent one.
And there he's making himselfas the self-existent one.
He's reflecting that statementin Exodus, chapter 6, in verse 3
(14:10):
.
He is the one who is the greatI am.
You see, every other form isderivative of God, but he's the
(14:31):
one who's had no beginning andno end.
He simply is.
Now, why does this matter?
What is this point?
Well, if God can reign overCyrus and direct his path, if
God can bring Cyrus to the placeof conquering the Babylonians,
then certainly, as you deducethrough this argument the exiles
are to hear this reverberatingword he hasn't forgotten you
(14:52):
either.
You're not outside of hiscontrol.
God here is appealing to hisunique activity in history as an
evidence that he alone is God,but he alone is God for purposes
that include these people whoare now in exile.
And so, if he can move empires,he can certainly renew hearts,
(15:16):
and if he can command history,he can sustain hope in these
that are hopeless at this moment.
And if he can stir up Cyrus,well, he can stir up any one of
us.
Actually and this is a notethat we shouldn't miss, because
we live in this world where itjust feels like sometimes,
(15:36):
history has taken a left turnand veered completely off course
, where none of the things thatwe'd hoped for and thought were
going to happen 10, 20 years agoare ever going to be met again,
or perhaps where our ownpersonal story has gone adrift
and we find ourselves older,weaker, in positions of life
(15:59):
where we never expectedourselves to be.
But God hasn't abandoned us.
He hasn't abandoned his planand he's telling them here.
He still can do these mightythings.
Now, we may not always graspwhat he's about, but one thing
we can always trust is that hehas a plan and we can trust him
(16:21):
because he's not finished.
He's not finished with humanhistory.
He's not finished with thesepeople in exile and he's not
finished.
He's not finished with humanhistory.
He's not finished with thesepeople in exile and he's not
finished with us.
Let's move forward, becausehe's going to expand this a bit
more In the next three versesverses 5 to 7, not only does God
show that he still has a plan,but he also gives strength, and
(16:46):
here we see him compared to theidols who need nails.
Verses 5 to 7, we see thenations in response to this
glorious statement that Cyrus isgoing to be raised up in order
to bring the Babylonians to thedust.
The coast and the island seeand are afraid.
The whole earth trembles.
(17:07):
They approach and arrive.
What is the response of thepeople, these nations, when they
hear that God is going to raiseup a conqueror?
They tremble and they quake andthey shake at this terrifying
news.
(17:27):
But what can they do?
They don't know a God whocontrols history because of
righteousness.
So what can they do?
The only thing they know how todo, and that is to make a
better God.
That's what they do.
(17:48):
Take a look at the verse.
Each one helps the other andsays take courage.
The craftsman encourages themetal worker.
The one who flattens with ahammer encourages the one who
strikes the anvil, saying to thesoldering it is good, and he
fastens it with nails so that itwill not fall over.
(18:08):
And here Isaiah is talkingabout the complexity of the
process, referring to fourdifferent kinds of craftsmen
here that are needed to makegods.
And so they build statues andthey fortify their gods with
nails so they don't topple over.
It's pretty hard to make yourmaker, I guess.
(18:30):
But this is the great reversalof idolatry Is that they're
serving something they hopedwould save them, but they're
propping up their deities in thehope that these deities would
(18:51):
prop them up.
But that's not how God works.
The true and living God doesn'tneed us putting nails in him to
hold him up.
And notice what they say to oneanother in verse 7.
Saying of the soldering it isgood?
(19:14):
Is that word it is good?
Looking at the handiwork thatyou've just completed, sounds
somewhat familiar.
Genesis, chapter 1, right, godsaid let there be, and there was
.
And when he looked on thecreation on several of the days,
(19:36):
he behold what had been made.
And what would he say it isgood.
And now it's not the creatorwho's speaking over his work.
These are humans echoing divinelanguage when they're looking at
(19:57):
the gods they've nailed down,and isaiah is using this
taunting irony and sarcasm inorder to tell them, tell the
exiles, who God really is andwho these things are Nothing but
propped up pieces of wood andstone and metal.
(20:19):
What a tragic place thesenations are at.
What a humiliation of humanityto have a rejection of the God
who's made us in order to propup a God that we could hold up
for ourselves and perhaps mightbe able to do something for us.
(20:41):
And this is that tragic comedyof sin that the false gods need
to be helped and they can't helpanyone.
The Lord here is calling themand us to the recognition that
he doesn't need reinforcements,that when God comes into your
(21:04):
life and you begin to unpackagewho God is, you're never going
to find in the bottom of the box, may need some further
construction.
Right, you're never going tofind that, with God, might
require some assembly.
God is all and all and complete.
(21:26):
The idols need to be naileddown Today.
Our idols don't come in wood andstone and metal.
They show up every morning whenwe look in the mirror.
We see ourselves and we try toprop up this idol that we're
(21:50):
worshiping.
We see ourselves and we try toprop up this idol that we're
worshiping with achievement,with image projection, with
control of people orsurroundings around us, with a
yearning and longing forapproval.
And so we build our brands, wecraft our social personas.
(22:13):
We all do something in aneffort to make who we are a
little more solid.
And maybe, if people thought wewere solid, we would be solid.
Then maybe we could be in aposition of strength and not the
weakness that we feel deepwithin us.
But when life quakes, idolsfall.
(22:37):
Things that you prop up, theydeconstruct.
There's a better foundation forlife and it is in God who has
come.
It is in Jesus Christ, whocalled himself our rock, and he
(23:01):
doesn't ask us to nail him downand to prop him up.
He's actually come and evenwillingly took nails himself so
that we might be freed.
He doesn't need our efforts.
He's coming to minister to uswith mercy and grace and he
invites us not to build upsomething that be worthy of him,
but to come as we are.
(23:21):
To come weak and worn and wearyand even wayward, especially
when we recognize we are and torest in him Because he's telling
us here he has a plan and hegives strength.
He is not finished.
He is not finished.
And this comes into a beautiful, beautiful direct statement in
(23:46):
verses 8 to 10, where he says tothem you are not cast off.
And God reaffirms his covenantlove.
Not only does he has not heabandoned his plan.
Not only does he providestrength, but he also reaffirms
his covenant love.
Look at verses 8 to 10.
But you, israel, my servantJacob, whom I've chosen,
(24:11):
descended of Abraham, my friend.
I brought you from the ends ofthe earth and called you from
its farthest corners.
I've said to you you are myservant, I have chosen you.
I haven't rejected you.
Do not fear, for I'm with you.
Do not be afraid, for I'm yourGod.
I will strengthen you.
I will rejected you, do notfear, for I'm with you.
Do not be afraid, for I'm yourGod.
I will strengthen you, I willhelp you, I will hold on to you
(24:33):
with my righteous right hand.
If there was ever any verse youwanted to put on your wall in
your house, I think that shouldbe one of them, because grace is
breaking through here like themorning light does at the dawn,
(24:53):
and he's speaking this gloriousword to who Defeated?
People scattered into Babylonfrom their home, with their
temple left as nothing butrubble on the ground.
Why?
Because of their covenantinfidelity, their disobedience
to God over generations.
God had every right to say well, you feel like your story's
(25:17):
finished?
It is, but he isn't saying thatyou are my servant.
I have chosen you.
I have not cast you off.
This isn't just meresentimentality, this is covenant
(25:40):
language.
And God is not telling themlook, I'll give you another
chance.
He's calling them into aremembrance of who he is.
I chose you.
Now.
(26:13):
Isaiah is speaking this in atime frame in which these people
are still looking forward,where nations will rise and
Babylon will conquer and they'llbe captives.
He's telling this to people whoare still quaking under the
hand of Assyria, not yet underthe control of Babylon, and he's
telling them even when they seethe destruction of Assyria, not
yet under the control ofBabylon.
And he's telling them, evenwhen they see the destruction of
(26:36):
it all, even when they seetheir temple rubble, even when
they see themselves put inchains and captured and drug
away from their home, even whenthey see themselves surrounded
by the false gods in the hightowers and walls of Babylon,
that they should remembersomething God has not forgotten
them, and he's not calling themto be strong, he's calling them
(26:59):
simply to remember who he is.
I will strengthen you, I willhelp you, I will uphold you.
This is the gospel in propheticform, isn't it?
This is God not issuing asummons to humanity to try
(27:21):
harder to be better.
He's issuing a statement ofinvitation to trust him.
And he's not commanding them toprove themselves, but rather to
show to us how glorious hispromises are.
And so, with covenant voice, hebinds his name to these people.
(27:41):
You are my servant as areminder that he hasn't erased
his purposes for them, and he'sgoing to continue to speak to
them like this after they'velong forgotten it.
What a wonder this is, thatthis message of grace is meant
(28:03):
to speak louder than theirfailure.
And perhaps you're in a placeright now where you've thought
silence must mean abandonment.
I feel adrift because I've beencut loose.
But you're not cast off.
These people weren't cast off.
(28:24):
God was not finished with them.
He was still going to form them, he was still going to use them
, he was still going to bewriting their story into his
redemptive plan.
And he can say that to anyhuman today, anyone.
(28:44):
Let's go to the next few verses11 to 16.
Not only has God not abandonedhis plan, he upholds it.
Not only does he give strengthand not only does he reaffirm
his covenant commitment, but healso turns worms into weapons.
I love the picturesquephraseology in this section.
Verse 14,.
(29:06):
The reality of who Jacob is atthis moment is spoken.
You, worm Jacob.
Next time you wake up in themorning and you look in the
mirror, just go.
You worm Jacob.
But what does he say to theworm?
(29:29):
Be sure that all who areenraged against you verse 11,
will be ashamed and disgraced.
All who contend with you willbecome as nothing and will
perish.
You'll look for those whocontend with you, but you will
not find them.
Those who war against you willbecome absolutely nothing.
(29:59):
Wow, god is promisingdeliverance.
Not because Israel is strong,not because they've triumphed,
but because he's with them.
And this image becomes very,very tender and sweet in verse
13.
I am the lord, your god, whoholds your right hand, who says
to you do not fear, I will helpyou, I.
I do trust and hope that you'vebeen in a place of weakness and
(30:22):
frailty and temerousness ofheart and you've had someone
who's taken your hand and heldit for you and said don't worry.
And what an encouragement thatis, that tender touch, that
personal assurance that speakspast your ears into the depth of
(30:45):
your heart.
Here is the God who movesnations, who spoke the stars and
the universe with a word intoexistence.
And yet he says I'm going to beright next to you and I'm going
to hold your hand.
And he wants to steady thattrembling, trembling fear that
(31:09):
we might have, because he speaksto us with intimacy here.
He says in verse 14, do not fearworm Jacob, I'm the one who
helps you.
And in verse 15, he talks abouthim threshing on the mountains.
(31:29):
And he uses warrior languagehere just to show the dramatic
change this worm becomes aweapon in God's hand.
Not because a worm is sharp inand of itself Obviously it isn't
but because God takes it up.
And here's the shape of God'sgrace.
(31:52):
He's not just comforting theweak, he's issuing a
recommission that they're beingput into his active plan and
determination to do his purposes, that they're going to be
instruments, not just held byhis hand but used by his mighty
arm.
He's going to turn thesetrembling fingers into tools of
(32:15):
deliverance.
And when he calls him WormJacob, it's not simply to bring
him to shame, but to show himjust how dramatic God's
transformation can be.
Shame, but to show them justhow dramatic God's
transformation can be.
Yes, they must have thoughtthemselves diminished,
(32:41):
disqualified, left desolate.
God says I have somethingbetter here for you.
I'm going to take you, I'mgoing to forgive you, I'm going
to restore you.
And I'm going to take you.
I'm going to forgive you, I'mgoing to restore you and I'm
going to use you.
This is again the good newsthat God doesn't call us to
self-improvement.
He calls us as we are weak.
(33:04):
He fills us as we are, arehelpless, with his power.
And then he takes us and sendsus to do something that would be
beyond us and impossible.
Just had a talk yesterday withKevin Cooney and I thought this
beautiful, beautiful passage inlight of that, here is a guy
(33:29):
running around Garden Cityterrorizing the neighborhood.
You know, a party animal.
God captures him with grace andturns him into a servant of the
gospel in a place halfwayaround the world where he looks
like a monster in comparison tothem.
He looks like a monster incomparison to any of us too, but
(33:49):
anyway, over there it's really,really apparent.
And yet this guy, who couldlift up boat engines with his
arms and carry them off of thebeach into the shed, is speaking
with such grace and tendernessand softness of soul to talk
about a savior that's forgivenhim of his sins and can forgive
them of theirs.
(34:11):
And all of this is whisperingsof a time when we'll see someone
who does all of this, thatservant in chapter 42 and other
songs as we go to the end ofchapter 55.
This one that the gospels talkabout is Jesus, who's come into
this world not to conquer Romewith mighty weapons of human
(34:36):
ability, but to crush sin.
And he didn't come atopmountains to stake a claim that
he owned the territory.
He went to a cross so that hemight be Lord of all the nations
.
You see, god's not finished.
God's got a plan, and Isaiah ispushing these people forward,
(35:01):
beyond themselves, to understandthat that plan is there and
that he has strength that noneof the idols around them could
ever know, and that he hascovenant love that he's
committed to and that he cantake a worm and make it a weapon
.
This brings us to our last point, verses 17 to 20.
(35:21):
The Lord has intentions beyondanyone's dreams.
This is where it gets veryclear.
We've only been building up tothis passage, but now we've
reached the crescendo of God'smercy.
(35:42):
He's speaking remind ourselvesof this that he's speaking to
people who are exiled incaptives in a foreign land,
imprisoned by a conqueringpeople, because of their own
covenant abandonment, becausethey were a people who had
walked away from God.
(36:03):
And they're now wondering ifGod is going to walk away from
them.
And he comes in these verseswith promises so lush, so lavish
.
It sounds like Eden is breakingback into the world.
Take a look at verse 17.
The poor and the needy seekwater, but there's none.
(36:24):
Their tongues are parched withthirst.
I will answer them.
I am the God.
I am the Lord, the God ofIsrael.
I will not abandon them.
I will open rivers on thebarren heights and springs in
the middle of the plains.
I will turn the desert into apool and dry land into springs.
I will plant cedar, acacia,myrtle and olive trees in the
(36:44):
wilderness.
I will put juniper, elm andcypress trees together in the
desert.
This isn't just rescue, thisisn't just let you back in the
land.
This is reversal of the curse,where the dry ground becomes a
(37:08):
garden, where the aridwilderness becomes a witness of
God's glorious growth, where theforsaken become fountains of
life.
And here God borrows the brushstrokes of Genesis and paints a
promise of a new creation.
Where there was desolation,there's now abundance, and it's
(37:29):
not just mere survival, it's joyand renewal and life.
Why, why would he do this?
Why would God, who is holy ashe is, as holy other than
everything that he's created,who is sovereign over the
(37:50):
nations, would speak to theselittle people, who had been so
disobedient to him, with suchwondrous words of promise, to
where the only thing he canbring into their minds that
would help them connect is togive them a remembrance of the
glories of a time when sin hadnot invaded the world and speaks
(38:13):
of Eden restored?
Why?
Take a look at verse 20.
So that all may see and know andconsider and understand that
the hand of the Lord has donethis.
The Holy One of Israel hascreated it, and so the Assyrians
(38:40):
and the Babylonians and theMedes and the Persians and the
Seleucids and the Greeks and theRomans and every other mighty
power on earth might know thatGod has taken a frail,
(39:01):
disobedient worm and preservedits existence.
Nations have come and goneduring the multitude of years,
the generations of the OldTestament, but the people of
(39:21):
Israel were still there.
You see, this restoration isnot just for relief.
It's revelation to the world,designed to say something, to
show, by the preservation ofthese people, that God has a
plan, that he's going to keep,that he's got strength to enact
(39:44):
it and to make it happen, andthat he's going to speak to the
undeserving words of greatcomfort, because the day was
going to come when the wholeearth would hear a message of
grace through one Messiah ofthese people, jesus Christ,
(40:07):
who's going to make all thingsnew.
And so this is where that rushof hope turns into a song that
causes them to rise to and tostand up for and to open their
hearts and their voices andtheir lungs and bellow with
gladness.
This is not just a change ofaddress for these people Babylon
(40:30):
back to Jerusalem.
This is a new creation that Godis offering, that he's going to
make, and he uses these imagesof trees in the wilderness not
just to assure them that they'llreturn, but a signpost of a
glorious future.
This garden in the desert, yousee again, chapter 41 is only
(40:53):
plunking off a few notes of asymphony of grace that's
building, and here he's justshowing the beginning of it all.
It will move and grow anddevelop and rise in glorious,
glorious concert as we learnmore about the servant and more
(41:20):
of what he'll bring and do inthis world, that God's promises
will take root and bloom andflourish.
That servant will come, andwe'll see in chapter 42, he
won't come as a mighty conqueror, but as a gentle redeemer.
He won't break the breezed root, he won't snuff out the
smoldering wick and he's goingto bring justice, gently and in
(41:43):
the fullness of time.
He'll be revealed.
He's going to talk about a daywhen he will not only bring
water to the desert, he'll bethe water of life.
That he will not only restorethe land, he'll make all things
new.
That he'll not only end theland, he'll make all things new.
That he'll not only end theexile, he'll call people home.
(42:04):
And so here we are, to any of uswho might feel forgotten today,
any of us who look at our lifeand see only the expanse of a
wasteland and wonder if God canstill write beauty on our broken
years.
God is speaking to those samekind of people, because God's
(42:26):
not finished.
He moves in history and heholds the hands of the wounded.
He raises up kings, yes, helevels mountains, yes, he renews
deserts, but he also offersmercy to the undeserving.
You see, he's not finished.
(42:47):
And in just a few verses, in acouple weeks, we're going to
hear these words behold myservant, the servant who will
come, the one who bears God'sspirit, the one who fulfills
what the people of Israelcouldn't, the one who embodies
what all humanity was meant tobe, the one who not only will
suffer as we'll see in chapter52 and 53, but also will succeed
(43:10):
.
His name is Jesus and, as we'lllearn as we go through this,
that that image of the servantalso includes us, that he calls
us bruised, small, overwhelmed,weak, weary, wayward, identifies
(43:31):
us with this servant and callsus into a commission of mercy
across these lands.
You see, you may be fearingyour story's ended?
It hasn't.
There's one place it continues,and that is in the welcoming
invitation of a God of grace andmercy.
(43:52):
If you feel like your hands aretoo tired and your soul's too
thin, go to Jesus.
There you will find him, andthere you'll hear the voice of
Isaiah speaking to you like itspoke to these people.
You are my servant.
I have chosen you.
I will strengthen you, I willhelp you, I will uphold you.
(44:15):
Let's pray, I will uphold you,let's pray.
Father, we thank you for theseglorious words.
They're too profound and toobeyond our comprehension for
them to enter in simply with ourmental capacities.
(44:38):
For them to enter in simply withour mental capacities, we would
find ourselves stunned at theshock of them all.
And so, father, we pray thatyou, lord, would give us ears to
hear, that you would open ourhearts, as you did to others, to
(45:00):
receive and believe thismessage.
And I pray that, not only forthose this morning who might be
here, who don't know Christ astheir Savior, but for all of us,
no matter how long we've known,our sins are forgiven in Jesus,
that we would receive what yousay to us, far deeper than just
(45:26):
mere mental interest.
May it soak into our soul andstrengthen our hearts with grace
and supply energy to our handsso that, when we step into this
afternoon and tomorrow and thedays and weeks and months and
years and decades ahead of us aslong as we live, that we will
be energized by the truth of whoyou are and what you tell us.
(45:49):
And we ask this, father, foryour glory's sake, in Christ's
name, amen.
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