July 13, 2025 • 46 mins
When 65,000 strangers spontaneously sing together at a concert, they tap into something profoundly human – our deep desire for collective expression and belonging. But in Isaiah 42:10-17, the prophet envisions something far more profound: a worldwide chorus erupting in praise because the servant of the Lord has come.
This powerful passage reveals a "new song" unlike any before – not merely fresh lyrics, but an anthem that transforms those previously under judgment into participants in jubilant praise. From coastlands to deserts, from mountaintops to seas, Isaiah summons diverse peoples to join this universal celebration. The prophecy isn't just about music; it's about mission – God's redemptive purpose breaking geographical, ethnic, and spiritual barriers.
The text presents fascinating contrasts: a servant who doesn't "cry out or shout" yet also "roars aloud" as a warrior; a God who has "kept silent" through ages but now erupts like "a woman in labor." These paradoxes reveal the multifaceted nature of divine redemption – gentle yet powerful, patient yet decisive. The servant doesn't come to crush but to guide, turning "darkness to light" and making "rough places into level ground."
For those feeling heaven's silence, this passage offers profound comfort. Divine quietness isn't desertion but preparation for "a crescendo of grace." Just as the world waited millennia for the servant's first revelation, we now anticipate his full revelation with hopeful patience, knowing our present sufferings "are not worthy to be compared to the glory that will be revealed."
Have you joined this worldwide chorus? Have you exchanged blindness for sight, wandering for purpose? The invitation stands – turn from false hopes and trust the servant who has come to lead you into unfamiliar places of grace and wonder. When he moves in hearts, praise naturally follows, reverberating with redemption that others cannot help but notice.
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Doug McMasters (00:00):
Let's take our Bible and go to the book of
Isaiah, chapter 42.
If you have a church Bible infront of you and prefer to turn
there, you can go to page 638.
638, and you'll find Isaiah,chapter 42.
We're going to be looking atverses 10 through 17, and I'd
(00:21):
like to read it and then pray.
Sing a new song to the Lord.
Sing his praise from the endsof the earth.
You who go down to the sea withall that fills it.
You coast in islands with yourinhabitants.
Let the desert and its cityshout, the settlements where
Kadar dwells cry aloud.
Let the inhabitants of Silasing for joy.
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Let them cry out from themountaintops.
Let them give glory to the Lordand declare his praise in the
coast and islands.
The Lord advances like a warrior, he stirs up his zeal like a
soldier.
He shouts, he roars aloud, heprevails over his enemies.
I have kept silent from agespast.
(01:04):
I've been quiet and restrainedmyself, but now I will groan
like a woman in labor, gaspingbreathlessly.
I will lay waste mountains andhills and dry up all their
vegetation.
I will turn rivers into islandsand dry up marshes.
I will lead the blind by a waythey did not know.
I will guide them on paths theyhave not known.
I will turn darkness to lightin front of them and rough
(01:26):
places into level ground.
This is what I will do for themand I will not abandon them.
They will be turned back andutterly ashamed those who trust
in an idol and say to a castimage you are our gods.
Let's pray, fathers, we hearthis word.
We pray that you would presentyourself in all of your glory to
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us, so that we may take up thissong, a song of praise to you,
and we ask this in Christ's name, amen.
In June 1982, I was stationed inEngland and joined some friends
of mine at a Queen concert atMilton Keyes Bowl.
It was an outdoor concertgathering together about 65,000
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people.
One of the defining momentsnear the end of the concert was
when Freddie Mercury, the leadsinger for the group, walked to
the front of the stage and ledall of us in a song we Will, we
Will Rock you.
And we sang it together.
There was no rehearsal, therewas just a sea of strangers all
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gathered together to sing thisone song, and that moment
captures something that is verydeeply human for all of us,
across cultures and generations.
We sing together.
There's a lot of things that wesing together.
We sing at concerts, we laughand sing at karaoke nights,
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military marches, nationalanthems, even countrywide songs.
They give us a sense ofcollective identity in one way
or another.
Sometimes we find unity ofvoice in protest songs or team
songs or school chants.
All of these things areexpressions of unity and
celebration in some way, andthey awaken within us a
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knowledge that we're not alone.
We join our voices together,that there's something in the
melody that reverberatesbelonging within us.
And here in Isaiah, chapter 42,isaiah taps into that impulse
and the prophet doesn't call fora soloist.
He invites the coastlands andthe wilderness and the mountains
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and the sea to erupt in song.
Why?
Because a servant has come.
We looked at this last week,but I'd like for us to rehearse
this a little bit and just lookback and read together what
Isaiah starts out with in thischapter.
He introduces the servant to usin the first four verses.
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This is my servant, Istrengthen him, this is my
chosen one, I delight in him, Iput my spirit on him and he will
bring justice to the nations.
He will not cry out or shout ormake his voice heard in the
streets, he will not break abruised reed and he will not put
out a smoking wick.
(04:23):
He will faithfully bringjustice.
He will not grow weak ordiscouraged until he's
established justice on the earth, the coast and the islands will
wait for his instruction.
And after introducing thisservant to us, the next verses
commission that servant.
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This is what God, the Lord,says.
I want you to be a covenant forthe people and a light for the
nations, in order to open blindeyes and bring out prisoners
from the dungeon and thosesitting in darkness from the
prison house.
I am the Lord.
That is my name, and I will notgive my glory to another or my
praise to idols.
The past events have indeedhappened.
(05:19):
Now I declare new events.
I announce them to you beforethey occur.
Now I declare new events.
I announce them to you beforethey occur.
So why this song?
From coastland to seas, tomountaintops, to deserts?
Because the servant of the Lordhas come, the proclamation of
this one who's going to bringGod's purposes into this world,
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who's going to show the tendermercies of God's heart, who's
going to be showing how justiceis established, the one who's
going to be the covenant for thepeople and the one who's going
to restore that which is brokenand lost, and so when God moves
with this redemptive power, theonly fitting response is a
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worldwide song of praise.
Believing people all over liftup their voice.
And what Freddie Mercury andQueen catalyzed in a stadium
that I went to some 40 years ago, for only a few minutes Isaiah
speaks about and envisions as aneternal chorus, and not just in
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a little stadium, buteverywhere.
It's something not manufacturedby men, but summoned from
heaven itself, and so thismorning I want us to look at
this, and we're going to find itin three movements.
We're going to begin withpraise and then proclamation and
then promise, and we're goingto notice that these three
things complement and highlightthe work of the servant song in
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the first part of Isaiah 42.
Let's begin with praise.
In verses 10 to 12, we'recalled to praise, and it's in
many ways a beautiful passage ofScripture, and I want to
highlight a couple things here.
One is it's first of all and Iwant to highlight a couple
things here One is it's first ofall, an unprecedented song.
It's an unprecedented song, younotice, in verse 10, here sing
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a new song to the Lord.
Well, what's new about it, youmight be asking, and there's
several things that we could saythat it might be, but I want to
start off by saying what itisn't first.
First of all, isaiah in chapter42 and verse 10 is not offering
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us a proof text to churches tobe continually adding new songs
to the corporate number of songsthat we sing together.
He's not doing that Now.
There's nothing wrong with that.
We sang a new song this morning.
Many of us sang a song a fewminutes ago that we had never
sung before, and we increasethat number of songs that we
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sing as a church slowly andmethodically and purposely, year
by year.
But that's not what Isaiah istalking about here.
Others say that we should singnew songs for new mercies that
arise within our life, thatthere is a way that God has
acted today that he didn't actyesterday for us personally and
we should elicit from us somenew praise, and that is
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absolutely right.
Our responses should be asequally varied as God's mercies
are, and they are wonderfullynew every morning.
But again, that's not whatIsaiah is talking about here.
What Isaiah means when he sayslift up a new song is that he's
talking about singing a songthat the world has never sung
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before A song of jubilation, asong about a servant who's come
to bring redemption to thisworld that's been introduced and
commissioned in the life ofthis servant.
Now, this is a song that reallyought to have been sung before.
There really should have beenPsalm 96, which we looked at
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together just a moment ago.
The people of Israel were tosing a new song to the Lord and
let the whole earth sing to theLord.
But instead of declaring theglory of the Lord, the people of
Israel often went to the othernations and asked them how to
sing songs to their idols, andthey joined together with them
(09:22):
in that syncretistic worship.
But here Isaiah is seeing theservant has come and instead of
the people of Israel singingsolos, instead of them singing
syncretistically with thenations about other gods, what
we find is a complement of allthe world joined together in a
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new song that the Jew andGentile together.
There is the message of lifeand redemption and forgiveness.
It's a song sung because it's anew, new message for this world
, but it's also, as I'veindicated, a song sung by people
that have never sung the songsof Yahweh before.
(10:06):
As God's redemptive purposesunfold in human history through
the servant who's coming, allpeople all over the world will
take up this new song and giveit voice like they've never done
before.
And so in 1983, just a yearafter 1982, in that concert
(10:26):
where I sang we Will Rock youwith 65,000 other people, god,
in His wondrous mercy, took ayoung airman, transformed his
heart and I began to sing songsI had never sung before.
I sang.
Christ is the solid rock onwhich I stand, and I didn't just
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sing in an outdoor arena of65,000 people.
My voice joined with amultitude all over this earth,
and not just in this generation,but everyone since Christ rose
from the dead.
Christ rose from the dead.
(11:09):
This is the wonder that we havean anthem of praise to the
Messiah, not only of the Jews,but to all people.
And this is why I wanted tohighlight just a little bit more
this glorious song of praise.
It's not just an unprecedentedsong, it's a universal song, and
this is the focus that theseverses give to us.
This passage highlights thissummons for a global celebration
(11:30):
, an eruption of a new song fromevery corner that covers sea
and desert and canyons andvillages and mountaintops.
Now notice a few things here.
First of all, the geographicspread.
It begins with a call for thewhole earth, the ends of the
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earth, in verse 10.
Now imagine you will, isaiah,some grand conductor, as he
speaks to the orchestra of theworld and he calls the whole
world to lift up its voice insong.
And as the music begins, isaiahbegins to move over to the wind
section and he says those whogo down to the sea, all that
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fills it.
And then he moves over to thebrass section and he says the
islands and their inhabitants.
And then he looks over at thepercussions and asks them to
sort of lift up their sound amidthe symphony.
And he says the deserts and itscities.
And then he looks to the stringinstruments and says you who
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play on the mountaintops, joinin the song.
But it's not just a geographicspread, it's an ethnic diversity
that's here.
Notice the number of names thatare listed.
He talks about Kadar, he talksabout Salah, he talks about the
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islands.
Kadar was the nomadicIshmaelite tribes in Arabia and
their tents and their flockstook them away from the place of
worship in Jerusalem.
Silah is modern-day Petra, theEdomites, the capital city of
that place, entangled into thehills southeast of Jerusalem.
(13:21):
And then the islands Tyre andSidon come quickly to mind when
we talk about that.
But this isn't just ageographical description and
it's not just an ethnicdiversity.
It is something that all ofthem have in common.
All of them are peoplecondemned but now invited.
(13:43):
And if we've been payingattention to the book of Isaiah,
these names are familiar to us.
We've heard about Kadar, we'veheard about Salah, we've heard
about the islands Tyre and Sidon, and so the invitation finds
its greatest importance here,because this invitation to
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praise is a message of the goodnews that even those who were
previously under judgment arenow able to sing the song of
salvation.
The sea and the mountaintopsWell, isaiah has talked about
both the sea and themountaintops.
He said that Mount Zion will bethe highest of the mountains
(14:25):
among all the mountains in theworld.
What was he talking about?
Well, obviously, mount Zion isnot the tallest mountain in the
world, but it is the highestplace of praise to God, because
the high places is where theywould worship.
The sea the sea was emblematicof chaos and destruction.
(14:47):
The sea the sea was emblematicof chaos and destruction, and he
says that the sea will be aplace of order, a place of joy
and not fear.
Tyre and Sidon the inhabitantsof the coastlands In Isaiah 23,.
A pronouncement concerning Tyre.
(15:08):
Wail ships of Tarshish, foryour haven has been destroyed.
A message of doom, but now amessage of invitation.
The Edomites in Isaiah 34 andverse 5.
When my sword is drunk, it'sfilled in the heavens.
It will then come down on Edomand on the people I've set apart
for destruction.
The people of Edom are nowcalled to sing Kadar.
(15:34):
In Isaiah 21 and verse 16,.
The Lord has said this to mewithin one year as a hired
worker counts years all of theglory of Kadar will be gone.
Those warnings have now shiftedto welcome these people who
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were once under God's wrath arenow under God's summon to joyful
hope.
And then all the nations Isaiah34, 2,.
The Lord is angry with all thenations, furious with all their
enemies.
He will set them apart fordestruction, giving them over to
slaughter.
But now judgment is given wayto grace.
(16:18):
Now the servant, as he's come,is opening up a global
transformation.
And so, when we read all of thistogether, what we're reading is
a new song that's envisioned,in which there will be, if I can
put it this way, a doxologicalrevolution.
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There will be a whole group ofpeople all over the world
singing something that's neverbeen sung in this world before
Praise to God for hisdeliverance, with united voices,
from deserts to seas, fromstronghold to rebellion, to
heights of revelation.
Every voice is summoned to cryout in praise to God because
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it's a hymn of new beginnings.
It's a vision of worship that'sbroken down geographical and
ethnic and sin barriers, so thatwe can unite our hearts all
over the world.
Jesus said to a woman insamaria who had told him he said
(17:22):
well, we worship on thismountain and you say you must
worship in jerusalem.
And he said I want you to hearsomething.
The day is coming and has nowarrived when the Father is
seeking out true worshipers whowill worship him in spirit and
in truth, and it won't beconfined to this mountain or to
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that mountain, it's going to beall over the world.
Jesus came and he brought thisprophecy song into reality.
That's why it's a new song,that's the newness of the new
song.
And this is not just ageographical expression of
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praise, it's an eschatologicalexpression of praise.
You go to the book ofRevelation and you find in the
eternal heavens, above all ofthe chaos of this earth, in the
peaceable, joyous place of thethrone, room of God, people
singing and what are theysinging?
I saw a vast multitude fromevery nation, tribe and people
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and language which no man couldnumber Sorry, freddie Mercury,
god's got you beat Standingbefore the throne and before the
Lamb, and they were clothed inwhite robes, with palm branches
in their hands, and they criedout with a loud voice Salvation
belongs to our God, who isseated on the throne, and to the
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Lamb.
This is a new song, a new songfor a new era, because a servant
has come.
You know, when we sing songs,we often can't sing them because
we're not a part of it.
At the end of that concert,freddie Mercury led the group in
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another song God Save the Queen.
I didn't sing that song, buthere's a song that no people, no
person if they're believing inthe Lord would ever feel foreign
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to, because this is our song,it's all of our song, and it
doesn't matter where we wereborn, it doesn't matter what
accent we have, it doesn'tmatter what shade our skin is,
it doesn't matter what economicpeg we have on the scale, it
doesn't matter how educated weare, it doesn't matter a wit, it
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doesn't matter if we grew upworshiping idols or sitting
under the sound of evangelicalpreaching, a believing heart,
wherever it's at, joins intothis song, because it's all of
our songs.
We proclaim this message.
But, church, I want to saysomething to us.
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This is not just a song ofpraise, it's not just music
we're talking about here.
This is mission, this is ourmessage of mission.
Jesus, before he left this world, in the ascension, said that
there was going to be aproclamation about him to all
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the nations.
Go, therefore, teach allnations.
And so the gospel spread inActs, chapter one.
It speaks about it fromJerusalem to Judea, to Samaria,
to the uttermost parts of theearth.
You see, this is not only amessage that the servant brings
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in, a message that we sing, it'sa message that we proclaim.
It's a message that we proclaimbecause it's mission as much as
it is music, and our missionshould have the lilt of song to
it, a joyful heart and voicewho's felt and senses the
eternal forgiveness of God,singing to people under the
condemnation and guilt of theirsin and telling them and
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inviting them in see the servant.
He can make all things new andhe can make you new too.
Paul, when he preached thegospel to the Gentiles,
connected himself to this very,very servant song, this one and
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one that we'll look at in Isaiah49.
In Isaiah 49, in verse 6, theLord speaks to the servant and
says it's not enough for you tobe my servant raising up the
tribes of Jacob and restoringthe protected ones of Israel.
I will also make you a lightfor the nations, to be my
salvation to the ends of theearth.
(22:11):
That's Isaiah 49.6.
Simeon, in Luke, chapter 2,when he spoke about the baby
Jesus, said this is a light ofrevelation to the nations.
And then, when Paul, in Acts,chapter 13, took up the voice of
the gospel and began toproclaim it to people that
(22:33):
weren't Jewish, to speak it tothe Gentiles, he said about
himself I have made you a lightto the Gentiles that you may
bring salvation to the ends ofthe earth.
You see, this movement ispivotal.
Why are we still here?
So that others could join thechorus, so people might see our
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glad celebration of God inChrist bringing us life and
forgiveness, so that they couldfeel and sense and understand,
through our testimony and ourpraise, that they too could be a
part of this global movement oflife.
The servant has come and he'sbringing praise around this
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world.
And as the day dawned on thisSunday, as it awakened for each
of the passing movements aroundthis globe, people in every,
every time zone, began to liftup their hearts.
And we're just simply a part ofthat great wave, aren't we?
Well, this praise turns toproclamation in verse 13.
(23:49):
The Lord advances like a warrior, he stirs up his zeal like a
soldier.
He shouts, he roars aloud, heprevails over his enemies, and
I'm sure this could have been agreat deal of comfort to those
who were surrounded by theirenemies.
Isaiah speaking to hisgeneration, isaiah speaking
about a future generation thatwould be captive in Babylon.
(24:10):
And so to hear the message thatthe Lord is advancing like a
warrior, that he's stirring uphis zeal like a man of war, well
, they've trembled under theiron of Assyrian Babylon, and
boy wouldn't it be great ifAssyrian Babylon could tremble
under the iron of the Lord.
And boy wouldn't it be great ifAssyria and Babylon could
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tremble under the iron of theLord.
But the Lord is warring, not forconquest, not for dominance,
but for justice and redemption.
He's not risen like a warrior.
He's risen like a warriorBecause of imperial hunger.
He's risen as a warrior withredemptive purpose, and this is
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why he sent his servant Toreveal the tender mercies of God
, to establish justice and makepeople right in this world, in
order to be a covenant for thepeople, in order to restore that
which is broken and wrong.
You see, he's marching mightilyas a warrior, not in order to
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squash people, but to save them.
He shouts, yes, he roars, butremember he's also the same
servant that verse 2 says hewill not cry out or shout aloud
in the streets.
And this is the wondrous paradoxof God's power.
He makes light of the powers ofthis world in the establishment
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of his weakest moment.
When the rulers of this worldhad crucified the Lord Jesus on
the cross, they sat there withsmug face, thinking they had won
.
They sat there with smug face,thinking they had won, but they
had just nailed their doomBecause God wasn't finished,
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because in Jesus' weakest moment, death, he destroyed the one
who has the power of death, thatis the devil.
And through death he's madedead people alive.
And in his death he came andtook up his life and
demonstrated his power overdeath itself.
(26:26):
The true king has risen not tocrush but to redeem, and his
roar is a shout of deliverance.
And it will prevail.
It will prevail, as Isaiah herespeaks about in this
proclamation.
It's a promise.
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Whatever rises up against theservant in that generation, in
the day of Christ himself or inour generation, it will not
overcome, it will not prevail.
Be it idolatry or injustice ornationalistic fervor or the
domineering of a dictator, theywill not prevail.
(27:11):
They will not overcome thepurposes of God to bring
redemption to people all overthe world.
And so, as believers, we don'thave to cower in fear when this
world is filled with iniquity.
We don't have to hole up andwait and just say come now, lord
Jesus, quit.
(27:31):
It's really horrible here, no,we stand as sheep led to a
slaughter, yes, but ineverything we're more than
conquerors, through him wholoved us, because his victory is
not dependent on favorableconditions.
His victory is dependent uponhis very character to keep His
(27:55):
promise.
And he will.
And that leads us to the lastsection.
Here, this song of praise, thestatement of proclamation by
Isaiah himself, is now God addsHis voice, god adds a voice of
promise in verses 14 to 17.
(28:18):
I have kept silent from agespast.
I have been quiet andrestrained myself, but now I
will groan like a woman in labor, gasping breathlessly.
I will groan like a woman inlabor gasping breathlessly.
(28:40):
Royals had the privilege ofbeing in rooms where those
sounds have echoed all fourwalls and even beyond.
As a labor and delivery nurse,I've had the opportunity twice
to go into those rooms and heardmy own wife make her cries.
And if I told her, like look,you're being a little loud, I'm
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not sure I would have been inthe room very much longer.
She couldn't help but make avoice when the time came.
And here the Lord uses that asa metaphor about silence and yet
shouting.
2000 BC thereabouts.
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Think about that.
4000 years ago, god speaks toone man, one solitary soul on
this earth, and he says to him Iwill bless those who bless you
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and I will curse those who treatyou with contempt, and all the
peoples on the earth will beblessed through you.
And from that point in time,4,000 years ago, there were
little episodes of revelationand understanding of the peoples
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who began to see God at workamong the children of this man,
abraham.
There was a movement here orthere, an awakening by a Pharaoh
, a discovery by a Rahab, anunderstanding by a Ruth, pockets
(30:29):
here and pockets there, butstill the voice was quiet to the
nations, most of them gone onin their ignorance, continuing
to worship the idols that theyhad done, thinking little of the
people of Israel, largelybecause of the way they acted.
The voice of revelation wasquiet as generations of people
(30:52):
came and left, as they stumbledthrough time and entered into
eternity.
But God's restraint wasn'tindifference, it was preparation
purpose.
And the labor pains would sooncome when the eruption of this
action of God would unveilitself, of this action of God
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would unveil itself.
And so, in the book of Galatians, when the time came to
completion, god sent his son,born of a woman, born under the
law, to redeem those under thelaw so that they might receive
the adoption as sons.
The time has come for God toshout.
(31:33):
The time has come for God toshout.
The time has come for him tosay the birthing is happening,
the awakening is here.
The nations are to hear.
The people waited.
They waited in hope for the daywould come when there would be
(31:54):
one who could fully, fullyrepresent the purposes of God in
this world, the one who coulddeclare, fully, embody even the
very tender mercies and heart ofGod, the one who could be and
bring justice, the one whohimself would be a covenant,
keeping promise for the people,the one who would be able to
(32:18):
restore that which is broken.
And so when Jesus came intothis world, he was all of that.
And now the song is awakeningand the chorus is rising and the
symphony is here, because theorchestra is now playing, and
it's playing in the mountaintopsand the valleys and the
coastlands and the deserts, andit's playing with these people
(32:42):
and those, because all of us cannow sing a song of redemption,
because this servant has come,and he comes with the threads of
thought of a new exodus, andnot just the people of Israel
from the clutches of Egypt, butfrom those who are ensnangled in
(33:03):
the domain of darkness, intothe glorious light of the gospel
of Jesus Christ, this one who'sdelivered us from the prince of
the power of the air, thespirit who's now working in the
children of disobedience, thoseof us who have been willing
captives, carrying out ourfleshly desires and the
inclinations of our flesh andthoughts, by nature children of
(33:24):
wrath, who now can say by thegrace of God, we're children of
the living God.
This is why he says I'll leadthe blind by a way they did not
know.
I will guide them on pathsthey've not known.
I will turn darkness to lightin front of them, in rough
places, into level ground.
(33:45):
Is God leading you into newplaces of light?
Is he directing your steps intonew wonders of his mercy and
grace?
Are you still plodding throughlife thinking that you'll get by
by your own ingenuity orperhaps luck or circumstance?
Here the Lord says that he willtake you and he'll bring you
(34:09):
into unfamiliar places, buthe'll be alongside you all the
way Paul used this metaphor in 2Corinthians.
For our gospel is veiled.
It's veiled to those who areperishing In their case.
The God of this age has blindedthe minds of unbelievers to
(34:29):
keep them from seeing the lightof the gospel, of the glory of
Christ, who is the image of God.
We're not proclaiming ourselves, but Jesus is Lord and
ourselves as your servants forJesus' sake.
For God said let light shineout of darkness.
Has shone in our hearts to givethe light of the knowledge of
God's glory in the face of JesusChrist.
(34:51):
This is all good news, but wehave to look at the passage one
more time, because the promisesof God come with a very deep and
important and vital sense ofreality Verse 15.
(35:14):
I will lay waste mountains andhills and dry up all their
vegetation.
I will turn rivers into islandsand dry up their marshes verse
17 they will be turned back andutterly ashamed those who trust
in an idol and say to a castimage you are our gods.
When the servant comes, he'sgoing to expose humanity.
(35:39):
We're all going to be dividedinto two groups.
We're not going to be dividedup into our geographical
settlements, our ethnic identity.
We're going to be left into twogroups.
Those who were once blind butare now led to light by God are
(36:06):
those who continue to persist inthat darkness and will be left
to face the consequences oftheir refusal.
The scriptures tell us here thatin the face of God's advance,
any false hope will fail and itwill crumble and it will come
(36:28):
under judgment.
But Isaiah invites us to laydown these lesser and false
hopes and to come to the one whopromises us all of this.
And so this song, this songsings because the servant moves
(36:49):
and Isaiah, chapter 42, verses10 to 17, takes us into a
breathtaking movement of Godwith global praise, and it
swells with Isaiah'sproclamation of how God is going
to act and prevail.
And then it lands with Godhimself joining voice with
(37:10):
unshakable promise.
And when the servant comes, hiscoming may, yes, be quiet in
the beginning, but it won't staythat way.
It's going to reverberate allaround the world, so that those
in the deserts and themountaintops and the islands and
the seas will know it, becausewhen the servant comes, the
(37:35):
silence will begin to sing andthe stillness will begin to roar
and the blindness will finditself in glorious heavenly
light.
You see, this is not justprophetic poetry, it's gospel,
it's a message of good news,it's a movement of God's
redemptive purposes, andwhenever this servant moves in
(37:58):
hearts, praise breaks out.
We can't help but sing, and so Iwant to make an appeal to each
of us in several different ways.
Perhaps you're here thismorning, and this is the first
time you've ever heard thismessage before this invitation
to a song that you've never sungbefore, there was a day when I
sat in a pew and I heard someonespeak, just as I'm doing right
(38:23):
now, and for the very first timein my life, something awakened
within my heart to move towardGod instead of away from him,
and to understand somethingabout him that I needed, because
I had a realization in my heartthat I was a sinner like I had
never understood it before and Ineeded to know if there was any
(38:46):
hope for me, because I knew Godwas God and I wasn't, and he
was a judge and I wouldn't beable to stand before him with
any excuse that would prevail.
Perhaps you're here in thatsame position.
Hear these words the servanthas come to take the blind and
(39:08):
lead them to light, to takethose who are lost and lead them
down a pathway.
And he promises not to do itfor any other reason, but
because he wants to.
You see, he's not over heresaying the only way you can come
to me is if you possess light.
He grants it, he gives it.
So what do you need to do?
(39:30):
Realize that you're in darkness, realize your path is wandering
, realize you are indisobedience, and turn to the
one who is life and light andsay be my Lord and Savior.
May this servant, jesus Christ,be my life.
Perhaps you've been coming tochurch for a long time.
(39:51):
Maybe you grew up in thischurch, maybe you're still
growing up in this church, butthere's a difference between
being familiar with church life,and even familiar with
preaching, and understanding thenewness of life in Jesus Christ
.
You might know the lyrics ofthe songs of Zion.
(40:11):
You might know the rituals, youmight know the language, but
does your heart know the Savior?
You see, false hopes will notprevail before the Holy God.
He will bring down those whostill cling to idols.
So if you're trusting intradition or trusting in
(40:35):
achievement, so if you'retrusting in tradition or
trusting in achievement, ortrusting in moral behavior, or
trusting in simply being aroundthe church itself, it won't do
it for you.
Instead, hear the warming,wrapping embrace of grace that's
here.
That's here Again.
(40:59):
I want to point out for us thatthis song is tied to the
servant's movement, and ourmovement is tied to the
servant's movement, and our songis to be joined together with
those around the world, becausethis is meant to be a global
proclamation of praise.
This is a message of divinecompassion and love and mercy,
(41:23):
and if the Lord is going tostand and roar, we need to speak
.
If he's going to lead, we muststep out into those places,
because the mission of thegospel is not an option.
It's the very heartbeat of Godhimself.
It's right here.
And so we're not here to buildsafe sanctuaries for ourself,
(41:51):
but we are to step out and tocarry the victorious song of
grace in every place around thisworld, and it's something we do
together, sending people likeKevin and Sarah out on the other
side of the world, chad orEmily or others.
It's also something we do.
We sing the song of grace amonga dying people that we work
(42:12):
with and live among and meet oreven live with in our home.
But I also want to say somethingto those of us who are perhaps
weary, feeling the silence ofheaven, the neglect of hope,
discouraged, perhaps.
(42:32):
Listen to what the Lord sayshere.
Discouraged, perhaps, listen towhat the Lord says here.
I have kept silent from agespast and I've been quiet,
restrained myself, but now Iwill groan.
God's silences are not God'sdesertions.
The quietness of revelationover the course of thousands of
(42:54):
years was not God's neglect ofthis world, but God's
preparation for a crescendo ofgrace.
And if that's something on aglobal scale, you better believe
it's something on a personallevel as well.
There are things in our lifethat we don't understand,
(43:14):
seasons that seem to be long,full of waiting and wanting and
weariness.
We groan for that day.
But the scriptures tell us thatthis is an experience of life
in the complex of this world, inwhich the new creation is
interjected but the old is stillhere.
(43:35):
And so we live in the midst ofthis tension of the already, but
the not yet.
But the scriptures tell us thatthe day is going to come, when
there's going to be a revealingof the revelation of the sons of
God, in which the wholecreation is going to feel a
liberation from that captivity,and all who wait and long and
(44:00):
hope for that day will sing thesong of victory as well.
So yes, we wait, and yes it'sweary, and yes it feels at times
like silence.
But just as the world waitedfor the coming of the servant in
its first revelation, so theworld still waits in
(44:22):
anticipation for that coming dayof the full revelation of Jesus
Christ himself.
And when that revelation comes,the new heaven and the new
earth will come ablaze with lifeand light and all of these
things.
As Paul said, I consider thesufferings of this present time
(44:43):
to not be worthy to be comparedto the glory that will be
revealed within us.
So if you're here this morning,waiting, weary, wounded, so if
you're here this morning,waiting, weary, wounded, just
wait with hope.
You're not forgotten.
(45:03):
The Lord will again cry outwith a shout, with the voice of
an archangel, with the trump ofGod and the dead in Christ shall
rise and we will be caught uptogether with him to meet the
Lord in the air.
Let's pray, father, may ourvoice join together now in song
(45:27):
to you.
I pray, father, that this mightbe for some in this room the
first time they've sang from theheart a song of salvation,
because you've awakened them inthis moment to first time
they've sang from the heart asong of salvation, because
you've awakened them in thismoment to turn to the Savior, to
flee from sin and to flee toChrist, to turn away from those
things that they've held as dearand precious in order to have
(45:48):
Christ in him alone.
Pray, father, that you might beable to cause the weary to be
strengthened with anunderstanding of your glorious
promise and to sing with greatervoice in this next song than
they sang in the previous oneswe've lifted.
And, lord, I pray that as weexit this place in just a few
(46:09):
moments, may we leave with asong in our heart that
strengthens our steps andreverberates with redemption, so
that others might see andunderstand and look and wonder
and ask what is the hope thatresides within you, and may we,
(46:30):
with reverence and gentleness,speak of Christ, our Savior, the
servant who's come, and we praythis in Christ's name Amen.
Let's take our Bible and go to the book of
Isaiah, chapter 42.
If you have a church Bible infront of you and prefer to turn
there, you can go to page 638.
638, and you'll find Isaiah,chapter 42.
We're going to be looking atverses 10 through 17, and I'd
(00:21):
like to read it and then pray.
Sing a new song to the Lord.
Sing his praise from the endsof the earth.
You who go down to the sea withall that fills it.
You coast in islands with yourinhabitants.
Let the desert and its cityshout, the settlements where
Kadar dwells cry aloud.
Let the inhabitants of Silasing for joy.
(00:44):
Let them cry out from themountaintops.
Let them give glory to the Lordand declare his praise in the
coast and islands.
The Lord advances like a warrior, he stirs up his zeal like a
soldier.
He shouts, he roars aloud, heprevails over his enemies.
I have kept silent from agespast.
(01:04):
I've been quiet and restrainedmyself, but now I will groan
like a woman in labor, gaspingbreathlessly.
I will lay waste mountains andhills and dry up all their
vegetation.
I will turn rivers into islandsand dry up marshes.
I will lead the blind by a waythey did not know.
I will guide them on paths theyhave not known.
I will turn darkness to lightin front of them and rough
(01:26):
places into level ground.
This is what I will do for themand I will not abandon them.
They will be turned back andutterly ashamed those who trust
in an idol and say to a castimage you are our gods.
Let's pray, fathers, we hearthis word.
We pray that you would presentyourself in all of your glory to
(01:47):
us, so that we may take up thissong, a song of praise to you,
and we ask this in Christ's name, amen.
In June 1982, I was stationed inEngland and joined some friends
of mine at a Queen concert atMilton Keyes Bowl.
It was an outdoor concertgathering together about 65,000
(02:10):
people.
One of the defining momentsnear the end of the concert was
when Freddie Mercury, the leadsinger for the group, walked to
the front of the stage and ledall of us in a song we Will, we
Will Rock you.
And we sang it together.
There was no rehearsal, therewas just a sea of strangers all
(02:32):
gathered together to sing thisone song, and that moment
captures something that is verydeeply human for all of us,
across cultures and generations.
We sing together.
There's a lot of things that wesing together.
We sing at concerts, we laughand sing at karaoke nights,
(02:53):
military marches, nationalanthems, even countrywide songs.
They give us a sense ofcollective identity in one way
or another.
Sometimes we find unity ofvoice in protest songs or team
songs or school chants.
All of these things areexpressions of unity and
celebration in some way, andthey awaken within us a
(03:17):
knowledge that we're not alone.
We join our voices together,that there's something in the
melody that reverberatesbelonging within us.
And here in Isaiah, chapter 42,isaiah taps into that impulse
and the prophet doesn't call fora soloist.
He invites the coastlands andthe wilderness and the mountains
(03:42):
and the sea to erupt in song.
Why?
Because a servant has come.
We looked at this last week,but I'd like for us to rehearse
this a little bit and just lookback and read together what
Isaiah starts out with in thischapter.
He introduces the servant to usin the first four verses.
(04:02):
This is my servant, Istrengthen him, this is my
chosen one, I delight in him, Iput my spirit on him and he will
bring justice to the nations.
He will not cry out or shout ormake his voice heard in the
streets, he will not break abruised reed and he will not put
out a smoking wick.
(04:23):
He will faithfully bringjustice.
He will not grow weak ordiscouraged until he's
established justice on the earth, the coast and the islands will
wait for his instruction.
And after introducing thisservant to us, the next verses
commission that servant.
(04:58):
This is what God, the Lord,says.
I want you to be a covenant forthe people and a light for the
nations, in order to open blindeyes and bring out prisoners
from the dungeon and thosesitting in darkness from the
prison house.
I am the Lord.
That is my name, and I will notgive my glory to another or my
praise to idols.
The past events have indeedhappened.
(05:19):
Now I declare new events.
I announce them to you beforethey occur.
Now I declare new events.
I announce them to you beforethey occur.
So why this song?
From coastland to seas, tomountaintops, to deserts?
Because the servant of the Lordhas come, the proclamation of
this one who's going to bringGod's purposes into this world,
(05:39):
who's going to show the tendermercies of God's heart, who's
going to be showing how justiceis established, the one who's
going to be the covenant for thepeople and the one who's going
to restore that which is brokenand lost, and so when God moves
with this redemptive power, theonly fitting response is a
(06:00):
worldwide song of praise.
Believing people all over liftup their voice.
And what Freddie Mercury andQueen catalyzed in a stadium
that I went to some 40 years ago, for only a few minutes Isaiah
speaks about and envisions as aneternal chorus, and not just in
(06:22):
a little stadium, buteverywhere.
It's something not manufacturedby men, but summoned from
heaven itself, and so thismorning I want us to look at
this, and we're going to find itin three movements.
We're going to begin withpraise and then proclamation and
then promise, and we're goingto notice that these three
things complement and highlightthe work of the servant song in
(06:48):
the first part of Isaiah 42.
Let's begin with praise.
In verses 10 to 12, we'recalled to praise, and it's in
many ways a beautiful passage ofScripture, and I want to
highlight a couple things here.
One is it's first of all and Iwant to highlight a couple
things here One is it's first ofall, an unprecedented song.
It's an unprecedented song, younotice, in verse 10, here sing
(07:12):
a new song to the Lord.
Well, what's new about it, youmight be asking, and there's
several things that we could saythat it might be, but I want to
start off by saying what itisn't first.
First of all, isaiah in chapter42 and verse 10 is not offering
(07:33):
us a proof text to churches tobe continually adding new songs
to the corporate number of songsthat we sing together.
He's not doing that Now.
There's nothing wrong with that.
We sang a new song this morning.
Many of us sang a song a fewminutes ago that we had never
sung before, and we increasethat number of songs that we
(07:54):
sing as a church slowly andmethodically and purposely, year
by year.
But that's not what Isaiah istalking about here.
Others say that we should singnew songs for new mercies that
arise within our life, thatthere is a way that God has
acted today that he didn't actyesterday for us personally and
we should elicit from us somenew praise, and that is
(08:16):
absolutely right.
Our responses should be asequally varied as God's mercies
are, and they are wonderfullynew every morning.
But again, that's not whatIsaiah is talking about here.
What Isaiah means when he sayslift up a new song is that he's
talking about singing a songthat the world has never sung
(08:39):
before A song of jubilation, asong about a servant who's come
to bring redemption to thisworld that's been introduced and
commissioned in the life ofthis servant.
Now, this is a song that reallyought to have been sung before.
There really should have beenPsalm 96, which we looked at
(09:01):
together just a moment ago.
The people of Israel were tosing a new song to the Lord and
let the whole earth sing to theLord.
But instead of declaring theglory of the Lord, the people of
Israel often went to the othernations and asked them how to
sing songs to their idols, andthey joined together with them
(09:22):
in that syncretistic worship.
But here Isaiah is seeing theservant has come and instead of
the people of Israel singingsolos, instead of them singing
syncretistically with thenations about other gods, what
we find is a complement of allthe world joined together in a
(09:43):
new song that the Jew andGentile together.
There is the message of lifeand redemption and forgiveness.
It's a song sung because it's anew, new message for this world
, but it's also, as I'veindicated, a song sung by people
that have never sung the songsof Yahweh before.
(10:06):
As God's redemptive purposesunfold in human history through
the servant who's coming, allpeople all over the world will
take up this new song and giveit voice like they've never done
before.
And so in 1983, just a yearafter 1982, in that concert
(10:26):
where I sang we Will Rock youwith 65,000 other people, god,
in His wondrous mercy, took ayoung airman, transformed his
heart and I began to sing songsI had never sung before.
I sang.
Christ is the solid rock onwhich I stand, and I didn't just
(10:48):
sing in an outdoor arena of65,000 people.
My voice joined with amultitude all over this earth,
and not just in this generation,but everyone since Christ rose
from the dead.
Christ rose from the dead.
(11:09):
This is the wonder that we havean anthem of praise to the
Messiah, not only of the Jews,but to all people.
And this is why I wanted tohighlight just a little bit more
this glorious song of praise.
It's not just an unprecedentedsong, it's a universal song, and
this is the focus that theseverses give to us.
This passage highlights thissummons for a global celebration
(11:30):
, an eruption of a new song fromevery corner that covers sea
and desert and canyons andvillages and mountaintops.
Now notice a few things here.
First of all, the geographicspread.
It begins with a call for thewhole earth, the ends of the
(11:51):
earth, in verse 10.
Now imagine you will, isaiah,some grand conductor, as he
speaks to the orchestra of theworld and he calls the whole
world to lift up its voice insong.
And as the music begins, isaiahbegins to move over to the wind
section and he says those whogo down to the sea, all that
(12:17):
fills it.
And then he moves over to thebrass section and he says the
islands and their inhabitants.
And then he looks over at thepercussions and asks them to
sort of lift up their sound amidthe symphony.
And he says the deserts and itscities.
And then he looks to the stringinstruments and says you who
(12:39):
play on the mountaintops, joinin the song.
But it's not just a geographicspread, it's an ethnic diversity
that's here.
Notice the number of names thatare listed.
He talks about Kadar, he talksabout Salah, he talks about the
(12:59):
islands.
Kadar was the nomadicIshmaelite tribes in Arabia and
their tents and their flockstook them away from the place of
worship in Jerusalem.
Silah is modern-day Petra, theEdomites, the capital city of
that place, entangled into thehills southeast of Jerusalem.
(13:21):
And then the islands Tyre andSidon come quickly to mind when
we talk about that.
But this isn't just ageographical description and
it's not just an ethnicdiversity.
It is something that all ofthem have in common.
All of them are peoplecondemned but now invited.
(13:43):
And if we've been payingattention to the book of Isaiah,
these names are familiar to us.
We've heard about Kadar, we'veheard about Salah, we've heard
about the islands Tyre and Sidon, and so the invitation finds
its greatest importance here,because this invitation to
(14:04):
praise is a message of the goodnews that even those who were
previously under judgment arenow able to sing the song of
salvation.
The sea and the mountaintopsWell, isaiah has talked about
both the sea and themountaintops.
He said that Mount Zion will bethe highest of the mountains
(14:25):
among all the mountains in theworld.
What was he talking about?
Well, obviously, mount Zion isnot the tallest mountain in the
world, but it is the highestplace of praise to God, because
the high places is where theywould worship.
The sea the sea was emblematicof chaos and destruction.
(14:47):
The sea the sea was emblematicof chaos and destruction, and he
says that the sea will be aplace of order, a place of joy
and not fear.
Tyre and Sidon the inhabitantsof the coastlands In Isaiah 23,.
A pronouncement concerning Tyre.
(15:08):
Wail ships of Tarshish, foryour haven has been destroyed.
A message of doom, but now amessage of invitation.
The Edomites in Isaiah 34 andverse 5.
When my sword is drunk, it'sfilled in the heavens.
It will then come down on Edomand on the people I've set apart
for destruction.
The people of Edom are nowcalled to sing Kadar.
(15:34):
In Isaiah 21 and verse 16,.
The Lord has said this to mewithin one year as a hired
worker counts years all of theglory of Kadar will be gone.
Those warnings have now shiftedto welcome these people who
(15:57):
were once under God's wrath arenow under God's summon to joyful
hope.
And then all the nations Isaiah34, 2,.
The Lord is angry with all thenations, furious with all their
enemies.
He will set them apart fordestruction, giving them over to
slaughter.
But now judgment is given wayto grace.
(16:18):
Now the servant, as he's come,is opening up a global
transformation.
And so, when we read all of thistogether, what we're reading is
a new song that's envisioned,in which there will be, if I can
put it this way, a doxologicalrevolution.
(16:39):
There will be a whole group ofpeople all over the world
singing something that's neverbeen sung in this world before
Praise to God for hisdeliverance, with united voices,
from deserts to seas, fromstronghold to rebellion, to
heights of revelation.
Every voice is summoned to cryout in praise to God because
(17:02):
it's a hymn of new beginnings.
It's a vision of worship that'sbroken down geographical and
ethnic and sin barriers, so thatwe can unite our hearts all
over the world.
Jesus said to a woman insamaria who had told him he said
(17:22):
well, we worship on thismountain and you say you must
worship in jerusalem.
And he said I want you to hearsomething.
The day is coming and has nowarrived when the Father is
seeking out true worshipers whowill worship him in spirit and
in truth, and it won't beconfined to this mountain or to
(17:45):
that mountain, it's going to beall over the world.
Jesus came and he brought thisprophecy song into reality.
That's why it's a new song,that's the newness of the new
song.
And this is not just ageographical expression of
(18:08):
praise, it's an eschatologicalexpression of praise.
You go to the book ofRevelation and you find in the
eternal heavens, above all ofthe chaos of this earth, in the
peaceable, joyous place of thethrone, room of God, people
singing and what are theysinging?
I saw a vast multitude fromevery nation, tribe and people
(18:30):
and language which no man couldnumber Sorry, freddie Mercury,
god's got you beat Standingbefore the throne and before the
Lamb, and they were clothed inwhite robes, with palm branches
in their hands, and they criedout with a loud voice Salvation
belongs to our God, who isseated on the throne, and to the
(18:51):
Lamb.
This is a new song, a new songfor a new era, because a servant
has come.
You know, when we sing songs,we often can't sing them because
we're not a part of it.
At the end of that concert,freddie Mercury led the group in
(19:13):
another song God Save the Queen.
I didn't sing that song, buthere's a song that no people, no
person if they're believing inthe Lord would ever feel foreign
(19:34):
to, because this is our song,it's all of our song, and it
doesn't matter where we wereborn, it doesn't matter what
accent we have, it doesn'tmatter what shade our skin is,
it doesn't matter what economicpeg we have on the scale, it
doesn't matter how educated weare, it doesn't matter a wit, it
(19:58):
doesn't matter if we grew upworshiping idols or sitting
under the sound of evangelicalpreaching, a believing heart,
wherever it's at, joins intothis song, because it's all of
our songs.
We proclaim this message.
But, church, I want to saysomething to us.
(20:19):
This is not just a song ofpraise, it's not just music
we're talking about here.
This is mission, this is ourmessage of mission.
Jesus, before he left this world, in the ascension, said that
there was going to be aproclamation about him to all
(20:42):
the nations.
Go, therefore, teach allnations.
And so the gospel spread inActs, chapter one.
It speaks about it fromJerusalem to Judea, to Samaria,
to the uttermost parts of theearth.
You see, this is not only amessage that the servant brings
(21:06):
in, a message that we sing, it'sa message that we proclaim.
It's a message that we proclaimbecause it's mission as much as
it is music, and our missionshould have the lilt of song to
it, a joyful heart and voicewho's felt and senses the
eternal forgiveness of God,singing to people under the
condemnation and guilt of theirsin and telling them and
(21:28):
inviting them in see the servant.
He can make all things new andhe can make you new too.
Paul, when he preached thegospel to the Gentiles,
connected himself to this very,very servant song, this one and
(21:50):
one that we'll look at in Isaiah49.
In Isaiah 49, in verse 6, theLord speaks to the servant and
says it's not enough for you tobe my servant raising up the
tribes of Jacob and restoringthe protected ones of Israel.
I will also make you a lightfor the nations, to be my
salvation to the ends of theearth.
(22:11):
That's Isaiah 49.6.
Simeon, in Luke, chapter 2,when he spoke about the baby
Jesus, said this is a light ofrevelation to the nations.
And then, when Paul, in Acts,chapter 13, took up the voice of
the gospel and began toproclaim it to people that
(22:33):
weren't Jewish, to speak it tothe Gentiles, he said about
himself I have made you a lightto the Gentiles that you may
bring salvation to the ends ofthe earth.
You see, this movement ispivotal.
Why are we still here?
So that others could join thechorus, so people might see our
(22:58):
glad celebration of God inChrist bringing us life and
forgiveness, so that they couldfeel and sense and understand,
through our testimony and ourpraise, that they too could be a
part of this global movement oflife.
The servant has come and he'sbringing praise around this
(23:21):
world.
And as the day dawned on thisSunday, as it awakened for each
of the passing movements aroundthis globe, people in every,
every time zone, began to liftup their hearts.
And we're just simply a part ofthat great wave, aren't we?
Well, this praise turns toproclamation in verse 13.
(23:49):
The Lord advances like a warrior, he stirs up his zeal like a
soldier.
He shouts, he roars aloud, heprevails over his enemies, and
I'm sure this could have been agreat deal of comfort to those
who were surrounded by theirenemies.
Isaiah speaking to hisgeneration, isaiah speaking
about a future generation thatwould be captive in Babylon.
(24:10):
And so to hear the message thatthe Lord is advancing like a
warrior, that he's stirring uphis zeal like a man of war, well
, they've trembled under theiron of Assyrian Babylon, and
boy wouldn't it be great ifAssyrian Babylon could tremble
under the iron of the Lord.
And boy wouldn't it be great ifAssyria and Babylon could
(24:33):
tremble under the iron of theLord.
But the Lord is warring, not forconquest, not for dominance,
but for justice and redemption.
He's not risen like a warrior.
He's risen like a warriorBecause of imperial hunger.
He's risen as a warrior withredemptive purpose, and this is
(24:55):
why he sent his servant Toreveal the tender mercies of God
, to establish justice and makepeople right in this world, in
order to be a covenant for thepeople, in order to restore that
which is broken and wrong.
You see, he's marching mightilyas a warrior, not in order to
(25:16):
squash people, but to save them.
He shouts, yes, he roars, butremember he's also the same
servant that verse 2 says hewill not cry out or shout aloud
in the streets.
And this is the wondrous paradoxof God's power.
He makes light of the powers ofthis world in the establishment
(25:41):
of his weakest moment.
When the rulers of this worldhad crucified the Lord Jesus on
the cross, they sat there withsmug face, thinking they had won
.
They sat there with smug face,thinking they had won, but they
had just nailed their doomBecause God wasn't finished,
(26:04):
because in Jesus' weakest moment, death, he destroyed the one
who has the power of death, thatis the devil.
And through death he's madedead people alive.
And in his death he came andtook up his life and
demonstrated his power overdeath itself.
(26:26):
The true king has risen not tocrush but to redeem, and his
roar is a shout of deliverance.
And it will prevail.
It will prevail, as Isaiah herespeaks about in this
proclamation.
It's a promise.
(26:47):
Whatever rises up against theservant in that generation, in
the day of Christ himself or inour generation, it will not
overcome, it will not prevail.
Be it idolatry or injustice ornationalistic fervor or the
domineering of a dictator, theywill not prevail.
(27:11):
They will not overcome thepurposes of God to bring
redemption to people all overthe world.
And so, as believers, we don'thave to cower in fear when this
world is filled with iniquity.
We don't have to hole up andwait and just say come now, lord
Jesus, quit.
(27:31):
It's really horrible here, no,we stand as sheep led to a
slaughter, yes, but ineverything we're more than
conquerors, through him wholoved us, because his victory is
not dependent on favorableconditions.
His victory is dependent uponhis very character to keep His
(27:55):
promise.
And he will.
And that leads us to the lastsection.
Here, this song of praise, thestatement of proclamation by
Isaiah himself, is now God addsHis voice, god adds a voice of
promise in verses 14 to 17.
(28:18):
I have kept silent from agespast.
I have been quiet andrestrained myself, but now I
will groan like a woman in labor, gasping breathlessly.
I will groan like a woman inlabor gasping breathlessly.
(28:40):
Royals had the privilege ofbeing in rooms where those
sounds have echoed all fourwalls and even beyond.
As a labor and delivery nurse,I've had the opportunity twice
to go into those rooms and heardmy own wife make her cries.
And if I told her, like look,you're being a little loud, I'm
(29:00):
not sure I would have been inthe room very much longer.
She couldn't help but make avoice when the time came.
And here the Lord uses that asa metaphor about silence and yet
shouting.
2000 BC thereabouts.
(29:21):
Think about that.
4000 years ago, god speaks toone man, one solitary soul on
this earth, and he says to him Iwill bless those who bless you
(29:42):
and I will curse those who treatyou with contempt, and all the
peoples on the earth will beblessed through you.
And from that point in time,4,000 years ago, there were
little episodes of revelationand understanding of the peoples
(30:05):
who began to see God at workamong the children of this man,
abraham.
There was a movement here orthere, an awakening by a Pharaoh
, a discovery by a Rahab, anunderstanding by a Ruth, pockets
(30:29):
here and pockets there, butstill the voice was quiet to the
nations, most of them gone onin their ignorance, continuing
to worship the idols that theyhad done, thinking little of the
people of Israel, largelybecause of the way they acted.
The voice of revelation wasquiet as generations of people
(30:52):
came and left, as they stumbledthrough time and entered into
eternity.
But God's restraint wasn'tindifference, it was preparation
purpose.
And the labor pains would sooncome when the eruption of this
action of God would unveilitself, of this action of God
(31:13):
would unveil itself.
And so, in the book of Galatians, when the time came to
completion, god sent his son,born of a woman, born under the
law, to redeem those under thelaw so that they might receive
the adoption as sons.
The time has come for God toshout.
(31:33):
The time has come for God toshout.
The time has come for him tosay the birthing is happening,
the awakening is here.
The nations are to hear.
The people waited.
They waited in hope for the daywould come when there would be
(31:54):
one who could fully, fullyrepresent the purposes of God in
this world, the one who coulddeclare, fully, embody even the
very tender mercies and heart ofGod, the one who could be and
bring justice, the one whohimself would be a covenant,
keeping promise for the people,the one who would be able to
(32:18):
restore that which is broken.
And so when Jesus came intothis world, he was all of that.
And now the song is awakeningand the chorus is rising and the
symphony is here, because theorchestra is now playing, and
it's playing in the mountaintopsand the valleys and the
coastlands and the deserts, andit's playing with these people
(32:42):
and those, because all of us cannow sing a song of redemption,
because this servant has come,and he comes with the threads of
thought of a new exodus, andnot just the people of Israel
from the clutches of Egypt, butfrom those who are ensnangled in
(33:03):
the domain of darkness, intothe glorious light of the gospel
of Jesus Christ, this one who'sdelivered us from the prince of
the power of the air, thespirit who's now working in the
children of disobedience, thoseof us who have been willing
captives, carrying out ourfleshly desires and the
inclinations of our flesh andthoughts, by nature children of
(33:24):
wrath, who now can say by thegrace of God, we're children of
the living God.
This is why he says I'll leadthe blind by a way they did not
know.
I will guide them on pathsthey've not known.
I will turn darkness to lightin front of them, in rough
places, into level ground.
(33:45):
Is God leading you into newplaces of light?
Is he directing your steps intonew wonders of his mercy and
grace?
Are you still plodding throughlife thinking that you'll get by
by your own ingenuity orperhaps luck or circumstance?
Here the Lord says that he willtake you and he'll bring you
(34:09):
into unfamiliar places, buthe'll be alongside you all the
way Paul used this metaphor in 2Corinthians.
For our gospel is veiled.
It's veiled to those who areperishing In their case.
The God of this age has blindedthe minds of unbelievers to
(34:29):
keep them from seeing the lightof the gospel, of the glory of
Christ, who is the image of God.
We're not proclaiming ourselves, but Jesus is Lord and
ourselves as your servants forJesus' sake.
For God said let light shineout of darkness.
Has shone in our hearts to givethe light of the knowledge of
God's glory in the face of JesusChrist.
(34:51):
This is all good news, but wehave to look at the passage one
more time, because the promisesof God come with a very deep and
important and vital sense ofreality Verse 15.
(35:14):
I will lay waste mountains andhills and dry up all their
vegetation.
I will turn rivers into islandsand dry up their marshes verse
17 they will be turned back andutterly ashamed those who trust
in an idol and say to a castimage you are our gods.
When the servant comes, he'sgoing to expose humanity.
(35:39):
We're all going to be dividedinto two groups.
We're not going to be dividedup into our geographical
settlements, our ethnic identity.
We're going to be left into twogroups.
Those who were once blind butare now led to light by God are
(36:06):
those who continue to persist inthat darkness and will be left
to face the consequences oftheir refusal.
The scriptures tell us here thatin the face of God's advance,
any false hope will fail and itwill crumble and it will come
(36:28):
under judgment.
But Isaiah invites us to laydown these lesser and false
hopes and to come to the one whopromises us all of this.
And so this song, this songsings because the servant moves
(36:49):
and Isaiah, chapter 42, verses10 to 17, takes us into a
breathtaking movement of Godwith global praise, and it
swells with Isaiah'sproclamation of how God is going
to act and prevail.
And then it lands with Godhimself joining voice with
(37:10):
unshakable promise.
And when the servant comes, hiscoming may, yes, be quiet in
the beginning, but it won't staythat way.
It's going to reverberate allaround the world, so that those
in the deserts and themountaintops and the islands and
the seas will know it, becausewhen the servant comes, the
(37:35):
silence will begin to sing andthe stillness will begin to roar
and the blindness will finditself in glorious heavenly
light.
You see, this is not justprophetic poetry, it's gospel,
it's a message of good news,it's a movement of God's
redemptive purposes, andwhenever this servant moves in
(37:58):
hearts, praise breaks out.
We can't help but sing, and so Iwant to make an appeal to each
of us in several different ways.
Perhaps you're here thismorning, and this is the first
time you've ever heard thismessage before this invitation
to a song that you've never sungbefore, there was a day when I
sat in a pew and I heard someonespeak, just as I'm doing right
(38:23):
now, and for the very first timein my life, something awakened
within my heart to move towardGod instead of away from him,
and to understand somethingabout him that I needed, because
I had a realization in my heartthat I was a sinner like I had
never understood it before and Ineeded to know if there was any
(38:46):
hope for me, because I knew Godwas God and I wasn't, and he
was a judge and I wouldn't beable to stand before him with
any excuse that would prevail.
Perhaps you're here in thatsame position.
Hear these words the servanthas come to take the blind and
(39:08):
lead them to light, to takethose who are lost and lead them
down a pathway.
And he promises not to do itfor any other reason, but
because he wants to.
You see, he's not over heresaying the only way you can come
to me is if you possess light.
He grants it, he gives it.
So what do you need to do?
(39:30):
Realize that you're in darkness, realize your path is wandering
, realize you are indisobedience, and turn to the
one who is life and light andsay be my Lord and Savior.
May this servant, jesus Christ,be my life.
Perhaps you've been coming tochurch for a long time.
(39:51):
Maybe you grew up in thischurch, maybe you're still
growing up in this church, butthere's a difference between
being familiar with church life,and even familiar with
preaching, and understanding thenewness of life in Jesus Christ
.
You might know the lyrics ofthe songs of Zion.
(40:11):
You might know the rituals, youmight know the language, but
does your heart know the Savior?
You see, false hopes will notprevail before the Holy God.
He will bring down those whostill cling to idols.
So if you're trusting intradition or trusting in
(40:35):
achievement, so if you'retrusting in tradition or
trusting in achievement, ortrusting in moral behavior, or
trusting in simply being aroundthe church itself, it won't do
it for you.
Instead, hear the warming,wrapping embrace of grace that's
here.
That's here Again.
(40:59):
I want to point out for us thatthis song is tied to the
servant's movement, and ourmovement is tied to the
servant's movement, and our songis to be joined together with
those around the world, becausethis is meant to be a global
proclamation of praise.
This is a message of divinecompassion and love and mercy,
(41:23):
and if the Lord is going tostand and roar, we need to speak
.
If he's going to lead, we muststep out into those places,
because the mission of thegospel is not an option.
It's the very heartbeat of Godhimself.
It's right here.
And so we're not here to buildsafe sanctuaries for ourself,
(41:51):
but we are to step out and tocarry the victorious song of
grace in every place around thisworld, and it's something we do
together, sending people likeKevin and Sarah out on the other
side of the world, chad orEmily or others.
It's also something we do.
We sing the song of grace amonga dying people that we work
(42:12):
with and live among and meet oreven live with in our home.
But I also want to say somethingto those of us who are perhaps
weary, feeling the silence ofheaven, the neglect of hope,
discouraged, perhaps.
(42:32):
Listen to what the Lord sayshere.
Discouraged, perhaps, listen towhat the Lord says here.
I have kept silent from agespast and I've been quiet,
restrained myself, but now Iwill groan.
God's silences are not God'sdesertions.
The quietness of revelationover the course of thousands of
(42:54):
years was not God's neglect ofthis world, but God's
preparation for a crescendo ofgrace.
And if that's something on aglobal scale, you better believe
it's something on a personallevel as well.
There are things in our lifethat we don't understand,
(43:14):
seasons that seem to be long,full of waiting and wanting and
weariness.
We groan for that day.
But the scriptures tell us thatthis is an experience of life
in the complex of this world, inwhich the new creation is
interjected but the old is stillhere.
(43:35):
And so we live in the midst ofthis tension of the already, but
the not yet.
But the scriptures tell us thatthe day is going to come, when
there's going to be a revealingof the revelation of the sons of
God, in which the wholecreation is going to feel a
liberation from that captivity,and all who wait and long and
(44:00):
hope for that day will sing thesong of victory as well.
So yes, we wait, and yes it'sweary, and yes it feels at times
like silence.
But just as the world waitedfor the coming of the servant in
its first revelation, so theworld still waits in
(44:22):
anticipation for that coming dayof the full revelation of Jesus
Christ himself.
And when that revelation comes,the new heaven and the new
earth will come ablaze with lifeand light and all of these
things.
As Paul said, I consider thesufferings of this present time
(44:43):
to not be worthy to be comparedto the glory that will be
revealed within us.
So if you're here this morning,waiting, weary, wounded, so if
you're here this morning,waiting, weary, wounded, just
wait with hope.
You're not forgotten.
(45:03):
The Lord will again cry outwith a shout, with the voice of
an archangel, with the trump ofGod and the dead in Christ shall
rise and we will be caught uptogether with him to meet the
Lord in the air.
Let's pray, father, may ourvoice join together now in song
(45:27):
to you.
I pray, father, that this mightbe for some in this room the
first time they've sang from theheart a song of salvation,
because you've awakened them inthis moment to first time
they've sang from the heart asong of salvation, because
you've awakened them in thismoment to turn to the Savior, to
flee from sin and to flee toChrist, to turn away from those
things that they've held as dearand precious in order to have
(45:48):
Christ in him alone.
Pray, father, that you might beable to cause the weary to be
strengthened with anunderstanding of your glorious
promise and to sing with greatervoice in this next song than
they sang in the previous oneswe've lifted.
And, lord, I pray that as weexit this place in just a few
(46:09):
moments, may we leave with asong in our heart that
strengthens our steps andreverberates with redemption, so
that others might see andunderstand and look and wonder
and ask what is the hope thatresides within you, and may we,
(46:30):
with reverence and gentleness,speak of Christ, our Savior, the
servant who's come, and we praythis in Christ's name Amen.
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