The Servant’s Trust in the Lord Pt. 2 – Isaiah 49:3-6

The Servant’s Trust in the Lord, Pt.2

Isaiah 49:3-6

Introduction:

• Isaiah is writing in: 8th century addressing His message of chs.40-55 to the 6th century Jews, in the assumption: they’re in exile.
• God has had enough of their sin, and He’s kept His promises in 28-29, to drive Israel out and into exile.
• Isaiah has given: Exiles Two Examples in 1-39 of Trusting: Lord
  • 1) Ahaz who faced an enemy invasion by not Trusting: Lord
  • 2) Hezekiah who faced greater invasion, by trusting: Lord
• Now the exiles are faced with Two Problems to be resolved:
  • 1) Who will restore exiled Israel (Jews) back to the Land?
  • 2) Who will restore sinful Israel (Jews) back to their God?
• 40-55 present Two Resolutions, to these Two Problems
  • 40-48, Exiled Israel will be Restored to: Land of Israel, by the Lord their God, thru K. Cyrus.
  • 49-55, Sinful Israel will be Restored to God, thru: Life, Ministry, Suffering & Death of: Lord’s Servant: Christ.
• In Isaiah 49, Isaiah writes as: Lord’s Servant His Service
• 1) He’s recounted the Servant’s Preparation for Service
  • He was Called, Named, Made-Prepared for Service
• 2) He told us the Servant’s Purpose in Service to Glorify God
• 3) He’s told us Servant’s Practice–Work to Proclaim God’s Word

The Message of Isaiah to the 8th cent. Judahites & 6th cent. Exiles

• 1st) Will Jews-Israel Trust: Lord to Restore them to the land
• 2nd) Will they Trust: Lord to Restore their Sinful selves to Him

The Message of Isaiah to Us, 21st cent. Gentiles:

• 1st) Will we, a sinful rebellious people, Trust: Lord to save us from God’s wrath, thru the suffering of the Lord’s Servant: Christ?
• 2nd, Will we, as saved, adopted servants, Trust: Lord,
  • in following the Servant’s example, he left for us?
• It’s one thing to trust: Lord when: way is smooth & straight-forw’d
• It’s easy to trust the Lord, when the ministry is growing,
  • …when friends & family are listening & responding
  • …when co-workers are sympathetic, understanding and will give a hearing to our faith
• What about when: path is steep & windy; the way hard & narrow?
• what about when our world becomes antagonistic?
• what about when our society and culture disregards, dismisses, or even sneers and mocks our faith in God?
• what about when our ministry is suffer. fr. shrinkage not growth?
• what about when friends, family leave, abandon; they want little-nothing to do with us becoz of our faith in God?
• That requires a greater, deeper Faith, a faith tested by fire.

[Read again: Isaiah 49:1-6]

First question to answer: Who is the Servant, O Israel referr. to?

• Jesus Christ is: True Israel of God, But how do we know 4 sure?
• Notice in 3, there’s a form of parallelism, My Servant || Israel
• Notice also in 6 Israel-Servant is going to-gather, to-restore and to-save Jacob & Israel-nation to God – Impossible for anyone but the Suffering Servant of the Lord to do that: Christ
• Jesus Christ is the perfect ideal Israel that nation should have been, but could not be because of their fallen sinful humanity
• Hosea, in 2:11, speaking for God, said of the nation… “When Israel was a child, I loved him, And out of Egypt I called My son.
• Matthew in 2:15, quotes same text to describe Jesus, that…
  • “he was there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, “Out of Egypt I called My Son.”
• Matthew identifies Jesus as God’s Son: Israel.
• And so the Christ, the True Israel of God came as The Lord’s Servant to be, to all the nations incl. Jews, what they couldn’t be

• In vs.3, He came having His Mouth prepared as a sharp sword
• He came proclaiming: Word of God-Truth to lost sheep of Israel
• His mouth was a sharp sword which pierced into and cut the hearts of men, He laid open all their… all our sin and unrighteousness.
• Christ’s preaching, teaching, and answers levelled the playing field of all men, onto our faces before God; truth declared; sin exposed!
• Surely such a powerful, sharp sword would always know… success
• Surely at his teaching; with His parables; with His miracles to display to all that He is the Approved of God, He would know unlimited success…. But no…           This brings us to 1st

1st) Trusting the Lord thru the Servant’s “Futility” [Read vs.4]

• Christ saw his ministry grow from few to many/multitudes
• He started out on his own, He was baptised, He was tempted…
• He came preaching; He called disciples, He Contin. to preach.
• He healed diseases & preached; and crowds began to grow & follow
• He cast out demons & preached; and greater crowds followed Him
• He cleansed lepers & preached; and soon He was limited to wide open places & preaching fr boats, lest: crowds crush/trample Him
• He Raised: dead, Performed Miracles, fed thousands, & preached
• It was any servant’s ideal desired great success story!

• But, His family did not believe Him, thought He was out of his mind
• His home town and home church tried to push him off a cliff
• The Pharisees did not believe Him, they hated & plotted to kill
• The Crowds pursued Him, mostly looking for healing & free bread
• His preaching of God’s Truth had an effect: Division and Rejection
• They rejected Him, becoz their deeds: evil & they Loved Darkness
• He preached, but there’s little visible, lasting repentance
• Listen to these pivotal vss. from John 6 – describing decline…
  • In2 a great multitude followed Him,
  • In60, His teaching was too hard to accept
  • In 66 many disciples went back & walked w/ Him no more.
  • In67, Jesus said to 12, “Do you also want to go away?”
• Grt. Multitudes to 12… w/ quest. re: even their commitment
• During his last meal w/ His disciples, One left early to betray Him
• At end of Gethsemane’s Suffering, All 12 Disciples forsook & fled
• At the hour of His greatest need, the deepest suffering of His soul, on the cross, He knew abandonment like no other man….
  • His Govt had turned him over to the Roman Military
  • Military had knowingly scourged & crucified: innocent man
  • The Religious leaders did not comfort, they mocked
  • 12 Disciples had all fled, 1 betrayed him & 1 denied him: 3x
  • His fellow condemned: mocked Him, altho one turned to Him
  • His Father, to exact justice, had to forsake Him.
• No wonder, as he recounts his Ministry, he can write….
  • In4 Then I said, ‘I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and in vain;
• Now certainly Christ did Not mean His labour to Redeem, to Save, to Gather the elect of God, to His Father – He knew that success
• But, He’s certainly speaking of His 3yrs of public ministry –
• Christ came & entered: experience of humanity to fullest extent
• Christ is certainly far more than any mere man, being truly God, but He is also truly man, knowing all we know, yet w/o sin

In His Humanity He knew: tiredness, hunger, pain, & weakness

• He knew vulnerability and the frustration of seeming futile work,
• Yet Christ, the Lord’s Servant cont. faithfully, He finish’d: Work

• He is: Lord’s Servant & We are his servants, to follow His example
• So, How will you & I handled such ups-downs in our lives of service
• Will we Trust: Lord & Stay faithful to live & to preach the truth,
  • when the human, visible results seem 2 B little or nothing
• Will we Trust: Lord & Stay faithful: When: Crowds begin to leave
  • When friends-family think that we’re nuts…
  • When all have abandoned & we’re left standing alone?
• Will we Trust: Lord & Stay faithful,
  • When it seems we’re labouring in vain & for nothing
• 4:1-2, Let a man so consider us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. ² Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful.
• Faithfulness is not only required when all is going well,
• Faithfulness is required when all is going pair-shaped
• And that is exactly what Christ demonstrated,
  • He was faithful to His God, His Role & Mission, regardless.

• Beloved, we have the Immense comfort of a Suffering Saviour…
• who knew all & far more of what we face, ministering 2 pagan world
• We Trust the Lord thru Seeming Futility,
  • by Fastening our Eyes on Christ,
  • by Looking to See His example, to see His steadfastness
  • by Remembering and Trusting God for: Results & Reward
  • By Trusting God 4 Strength to continue faithfully Serving
  • Let’s consider those last two

2nd) Trusting The Lord for the Servant’s Reward [Read vs.4]

• Notice Servant’s Faith in God for the Results & the Reward
• Notice Vs.4, Yet surely my just reward is with the Lord, And my work-recompense is with my God.
• “Yet” in Full and Total Contrast to what he has just said
• His Faith enabled him to continue, even tho he felt the futility
• “surely”. We define faith fr. 11:1: Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence (assurance) of things not seen.
• Christ knew and was convinced of His calling & His work…
  • Christ knew He had been called, vs.1
  • Christ knew He had been named by God
  • Christ knew He has been sharpened – prepared
  • Christ knew His Words were Truth that must be listened to
  • Christ knew He had Obediently finished all His Father’s wk.
  • Christ knew he’d diligently, faithfuly, executed His Service
• Christ also knew and was convinced of God’s Promise of Reward
• His Faith was in God, He knew the psalmist’s words:
• Psalm 18:20 The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness; According to the cleanness of my hands He has recompensed me.
• He knew: hope 58:11, “Surely there is a reward 4 the righteous
• In 2:9-11, Paul gives us the great answer to Christ’s Faith
• Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, ¹⁰ that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, ¹¹ and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
• 12:2, says that… “for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
• Christ endured the futility and the cross, in the Hope, the confidence of His being Glorified, Notice Vs.5,
• He laboured not only for the purpose of glorifying God, He laboured knowing He would be glorified by God
• He had faith in God for the Results of Service, & for the Reward

• So what do we do, what is our response: Faith, Trusting God when the journey, the way, the path is narrow, is steep, is difficult.
• 12:1–2, in full says: Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
• We look in faith to God for the Result of Service & for its Reward
• We look in faith to Christ who set the example for faithfulness and was rewarded, and
• we follow His Example in relying on God for the strength to Serve

3rd) Trusting the Lord for the Servant’s Strength [Read vs.5]

• The 1st part repeats His calling and purpose
• The later part is His strength to serve

18th century London Pastor John Gill: “God shall be my (His) strength; to keep up his spirits under all discouragements; to protect him from his enemies; to support him in his work as man; to carry him through it, and enable him completely to perform it, as he promised he would, and as he did.”

• The psalmist in Psalm 89:20–21 says the Lord: “…found My servant David; With My holy oil I have anointed him, ²¹ With whom My hand shall be established; Also My arm shall strengthen him.
• Christ knew the promise of God’s hand & arm to strengthen Him
• He knew that God had made Him strong for service: Psalm 80:17 Let Your hand be upon the man of Your right hand, Upon the son of man whom You made strong for Yourself.
• Christ knew the strengthening, enabling hand of God to uphold, to protect, to support Him thru the whole course of His Service.
• And we, Lord’s chosen, Spirit-filled, yet weak, struggling servants
• We also have the great promise of God’s strength to enable us to remain faithful through-out the whole course of our service…
• …even when the way is narrow the track is steep and windy and the work of ministry to friends, family, neighbours, co-workers, etc seems futile and pointless,
• Even when they hate us, abuse us, mock and despise us….
  • We Trust & Fasten our eyes on Christ – He is our example
  • We Trust & Remember the God who promised our reward
  • We Trust & Lean our weight on His arm & continue faithfully in the strength, only He Provides:

Listen to the Word of God, Give attention to Scripture:

• Psalm 28:7–8⁷ The Lord is my strength and my shield; My heart ¹trusted in Him, and I am ²helped; Therefore my heart greatly ³rejoices, And with my song I will ⁴praise ⁸ The Lord is their strength, And He is the saving refuge of His anointed.
  • The Lord is the refuge of His anbointed, includes us
  • I trusted, I’m helped, I rejoiced & I will praise Him
• Psalm 37:39³⁹ But the salvation of the righteous is from the Lord; He is their strength in the time of trouble.
  • Good times & tough; troubled & calm, He is our Strength
• Habakkuk 3:19¹⁹ The Lord God is my strength; He will make my feet like deer’s feet, And He will make me walk on my high hills.
  • God is our strength to enable us to walk quickly, to walk in high places, amongst God’s people, in God’s presence
• Lastly, this wonderful passage that deals so well with Servant’s Trust the Lord in Difficult Times: Isaiah 40:28–31²⁸ Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the Lord, The Creator of the ends of the earth, Neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. ²⁹ He gives ¹power to the weak, And to those who have no might He ²increases strength. ³⁰ Even the youths shall faint and be weary, And the young men shall utterly fall, ³¹ But those who wait on (trust-in) the Lord, Shall ³renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.

What is the Message for us?

• Will we trust in the Lord, as we follow His example, not merely in the glory days of service, but through the valleys of the darkest shadows of service, Knowing he is with us, thru it all…

Will we Trust & Fasten our eyes on Christ our example

• Trust & Remember God’s Promised Reward for faithfulness
• Trust & Lean our weight on God, to continue in His strength

When we do,

• We know that God will be glorified in all our service
• We know that we are presenting Christ to the pagan world
• We know we’ll rise up on eagles wings; run w/o weariness; we walk w/o fainting, we’ll finish the race, Faithful to the End.