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Well, good evening, everyone. 
If you were paying attention or thinking as we sang all these 
hymns, the common theme of each one of these ones was the universal 
kingship of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, his universal dominion 
from sea to sea, to all the nations. And that is indeed our topic 
tonight. And from Isaiah chapter 42, So 
if you turn in your Bibles to Isaiah 42, one of the first servant 
songs that we find in the book of Isaiah. Look at the first 
13 verses this evening in Isaiah 42. I'll read the entire chapter 
though. So Isaiah chapter 42. Behold, 
my servant, whom I uphold, my elect one, in whom my soul delights. 
I have put my spirit upon him, and he will bring forth justice 
to the Gentiles. He will not cry out, nor raise 
his voice, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. A 
bruised reed he will not break, and smoking flax he will not 
quench. He will bring forth justice for truth. He will not fail, 
nor be discouraged, till he has established justice in the earth, 
and the coastlands shall wait for his law. Thus says God the 
Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread 
forth the earth and that which comes from it, who gives breath 
to the people on it and spirit to those who walk on it. I, the 
Lord, have called you in righteousness. I will hold your hand. I will 
keep you and give you as a covenant to the people. as a light to 
the Gentiles, to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the 
prison, those who sit in darkness from the prison house. I am the 
Lord, that is my name, and my glory I will not give to another, 
nor my praise to carved images. Behold, the former things have 
come to pass, and new things I declare. Before they spring 
forth, I tell you of them. Sing to the Lord a new song and 
His praise from the ends of the earth. You who go down to the 
sea and all that is in it, you coastlands and all you inhabitants 
of them. Let the wilderness and its cities lift up their voice. 
The villages that Kadar inhabits, let the inhabitants of Selah 
sing. Let them shout from the top of the mountains. Let them 
give glory to the Lord and declare His praise in the coastlands. 
The Lord shall go forth like a mighty man. He shall stir up 
his zeal like a man of war. He shall cry out, yes, shout 
aloud. He shall prevail against his enemies. I have held my peace 
a long time. I have been still and restrained 
myself. Now I will cry like a woman in labor. I will pant and gasp 
at once. I will lay waste the mountains 
and hills and dry up all their vegetation. I will make the rivers 
coastlands and I will dry up the pools. I will bring the blind 
by a way they did not know. I will lead them in paths they 
have not known. I will make darkness light before them and crooked 
places straight. These things I will do for them 
and not forsake them. They shall be turned back. They 
shall be greatly ashamed. who trust in carved images, who 
say to the molded images, you are our gods. Hear, you deaf, 
and look, you blind, that you may see who is blind but my servant, 
or deaf as my messenger whom I send, who is blind as he who 
is perfect, and blind as the Lord's servant, seeing many things, 
but you do not observe, opening the ears, but he does not hear. 
The Lord is well pleased for his righteousness' sake. He will 
exalt the law and make it honorable. But this is a people robbed and 
plundered. All of them are snared in holes. They are hidden in 
prison houses. They are for prey and no one delivers, for plunder 
and no one says, restore. Who among you will give ear to 
this? Who will listen and hear for the time to come? Who gave 
Jacob for plunder and Israel to the robbers? Was it not the 
Lord, He against whom we have sinned? For they would not walk 
in His ways, nor were they obedient to His law. Therefore He has 
poured on him the fury of His anger and the strength of battle. 
It has set him on fire all around. Yet he did not know, and it burned 
him. Yet he did not take it to heart. 
Amen. Let us pray. O Lord, we come 
before you again. Lord, we ask your blessing upon 
us as we come to this passage of Scripture. Lord, as we think 
of the sovereignty, the universal dominion of our Savior, the Lord 
Jesus Christ, your servant here whom you present to us in this 
song, in Isaiah. Lord, I pray that you would be 
pleased to bless us this evening, that it would be a means for 
the strengthening, the edifying of your people here, that it 
would be a means for the salvation of sinners, that it would be 
a means by which you call them out of darkness, by which you 
open the blind eyes and bring the light in the dark hearts 
and release those captives in prison. Lord, I pray that you 
would be pleased to bless us now. We pray for the ministry 
of your Spirit, and we pray this in the name of our Savior, the 
Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. So the greater context that this 
passage comes in begins in chapter 40 of Isaiah, chapter 40, 41 
here, and we see this cry to Jerusalem, or this comfort story 
that goes out in chapter 40, verse 1. Comfort, yes, comfort, 
my people, says your God. Speak comfort to Jerusalem and 
cry out to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is 
pardoned. So it's this, he's speaking to 
Jerusalem here, that this oppression by your enemies is going to come 
to an end, and that Yahweh himself is declaring this, that he's 
going to bring an end to this oppression. And then as he goes 
through, we see the futility of putting hope in other gods 
of the nations or in man, whatever it may be, but rather it's Yahweh 
is going to, he himself will see to it, he will ensure the 
deliverance of his people there. And then as we come to chapter 
42, then this is where Yahweh says, this is how I'm going to 
do it. And then we see this, you know, 
as the servant presented to us, the servant of Yahweh. So this passage here is what 
I call the commissioning of the servant of Yahweh. And we find 
We find first in verse 1-4 the presentation of the servant, 
in verses 5-9 we have the mission of the servant, and then in 10-13 
we have the victory of the servant of Yahweh. So, he begins then 
in verse 1, here he says, Behold, now in the Hebrew, This word, 
behold, indicates an element of surprise or an element of 
unexpectedness that he's going to present. There's something 
there that was not expected. We might say, well, I would have 
thought otherwise. But so that's kind of what the word behold 
indicates. That's coming, something unexpected there. So behold. 
And so he says, behold my servant whom I uphold, my elect one in 
whom my soul delights. So in the previous chapters we've 
seen Yahweh says, I'm going to be the one who saves you, who 
rescues you, who releases you from this oppression, this bondage. 
that you're in. I'm going to be your Redeemer, 
he says, back in chapter 41. I'm your Redeemer, your Holy 
One, the Holy One of Israel, he calls himself there. But here, 
he says, I will do it, but it's going to be through my servant, 
my servant whom I'm going to commission to do this task of 
redeeming you, of releasing you from this bond, is bringing an 
end to your warfare, your oppression. Now, so he presents his servant. 
So, behold my servant. Now, we understand, we know this, 
this, the servant here, the servant of Yahweh is the Messiah. He's 
the, the Lord Jesus Christ. We have that explicitly given 
in Matthew chapter 12, where Matthew applies this, this passage 
to our Lord Jesus Christ. So there's no, there's no, there's 
no question as to who is he, who is he speaking about here. 
He's speaking of, of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah. So, so he says my servant. Now, 
reference, referencing to his, his humanity in this instance, 
that the servant, he's referring to the human nature 
of our Savior, of the Messiah. We'll see later as we get to 
the end here that the Messiah is also Yahweh of Israel himself. 
But the servant, the fact that he's the servant here, is referencing 
his human nature and his mission. We can say there's an element 
of servant in the economy of redemption. Now, that's going 
to be outside the scope of this message. But primarily, just 
understand here, he's speaking of the human nature and both 
the earthly ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ, but also of the 
spiritual aspect of it as well. We'll see that as we get into 
this. So, my servant whom I uphold, he says here. Now, this is interesting 
here. This verb is the verb uphold. It could be either in the passive 
or the active, meaning that, you know, it could be the servant 
or Yahweh, the one being upheld, or Yahweh doing the upholding. 
We might think, like, what do you mean Yahweh is the one being 
upheld? Well, the idea here, and again, this Calvin and Gil, 
You know I have them on my side they present both of these both 
of these positions as well the active or the passive it could 
be so in this is so in the sense of You know my servant whom I 
will be upheld by would be a literal in the passive form their meaning 
is meaning my glory, my reputation, my sovereign dominion over this 
earth will be upheld by this servant. So it's a very legitimate 
translation when we understand that there. And I think when 
we see that in the previous chapters, we see it in this chapter as 
well, that Yahweh's glory His reputation, and not so much his 
reputation, I guess, but his dominion, he's upholding that in this redemption 
of his people, and bringing this dominion to all the nations. So it could be that. I've commissioned 
the servant to be the one who upholds my glory and upholds 
my dominion over all of creation. Could be that, it could be the 
act of, which is how our English Bibles translate it, whom I and 
I will uphold him. So Yahweh being the one doing 
the upholding there. I think that's probably, that's 
better. I think it fits the context better. In verse six, we see 
that. He says, I will hold your hand. 
He tells us here how he's going to do it in verse one, that I 
will put my spirit upon him. So the idea then that Yahweh 
is going to equip his servant to carry out this task and uphold 
him and be there to help him to guarantee the success of his 
mission. So we have both options. It could 
be either one. But again, I think it's the act of one Yahweh doing 
the upholding. So and then he calls him my my 
elect one or my chosen one and he doesn't worthy He doesn't 
use the word Messiah here the the Hebrew word Messiah We you 
know, we know that that means chosen that means anointed but 
that's not what the Hebrew word here is what it is here is um, 
it means chosen, but it it denotes an element of excellency or or 
virtue of something there's something about this one whom who he has 
chosen for this for this his excellency his virtue there's 
something about this person, this servant of Yahweh, that 
is excellent. And that is a reference to his 
person, as I said, the fact that he is the second person of the 
Trinity. He is Yahweh himself. Now, we'll see that fleshed out 
in more detail as we go through, but there's an element of virtue 
there about this person. something excellent, Him being 
Yahweh Himself. And that is why the Lord delights 
in Him, my elect one in whom my soul delights. We see that 
very clearly when we come to the New Testament, and we come 
to the baptism, we see the baptism of Christ at the baptism, which 
was Christ's formal commissioning, we could say, 
to do his task, then we hear the voice from heaven. Behold, 
this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. So we have 
that very clearly. We see that at his baptism. The 
father very pleased with the son for who he is and for the 
work that he's about to do. And that's also where we find 
at the baptism, that's where we find the fulfillment of the 
next line in this passage here. And I have put my spirit upon 
him at the Christ's baptism. That was, like I said, the beginning 
of his earthly ministry, the beginning of him carrying out 
this commission. And the spirit came upon him at his baptism. 
visibly there in the form of a dove. There was that special 
anointing of the Holy Spirit to enable the Christ, the Messiah, 
to fulfill his God-given task. So we have very clearly here 
this, the upholding Yahweh's, Yahweh upholding his spirit to 
perform, upholding his servant by his spirit to perform this 
task that he has given him. Because this is no ordinary task. This is what the servant What 
the servant is going to do, he says now in the next line, and 
this is where, if you remember what I said back about the word, 
behold, there's an element of surprise, something we would 
have thought, hmm, that's strange. You know, I wouldn't have thought 
that way, especially when given the context is to Jerusalem, 
I'm going to, you know, I'm going to bring an end to your warfare. 
And now he says here, how I'm going to do this, he says he's 
going to bring forth justice to the Gentiles. So we think, 
wow, that's strange. Well, again, as we see, the work 
of the Savior is not about national Israel. It's about to all the 
nations that Christ is going to make a kingdom for himself 
from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation. It's not limited 
to Israel. So that's where this element of surprise to a Jew 
reading this would have been, oh, he's going to bring justice 
to the Gentiles. It's important to understand 
here, the word justice in this context does not mean judgment. It's not Yahweh's going to, the 
servant is going to bring judgment to the Gentiles, but it's the 
idea of, it's justice, it's freedom from oppression, having one who 
rules righteously in truth and in justice. It's this freedom 
from oppression. And again, this is a new and 
a strange promise to the Jews in Isaiah's day. Righteous rule 
was limited to the nation of Israel. You can turn to Deuteronomy 
4 to see that. That the other nations were marked 
by unrighteous leaders, which goes back to what we talked about 
this morning. in terms of on the spiritual element behind 
it, in terms of what happened at Babel. But Deuteronomy chapter 
4 in verse 7, Here, he says, Yahweh speaking, he says, for 
what great nation is there that has a God so near to it as Yahweh, 
our God, is to us, and for whatever reason we may call upon him? 
And what great nation is there that has such statutes and righteous 
judgments as are in all this law which I set before you this 
day? So we can see that the nations 
around there are governed through tyranny, through oppression of 
the poor, murder of the innocent. We saw a lot of that in Psalm 
94 last week when we looked at that. But that's what marked 
these nations who were in darkness. And again, this is on a spiritual 
level. The Gentiles are in darkness, 
they're under the oppression of Satan, his devices, and being 
kept in darkness. Now, of course, this is There's 
a spiritual element behind it, but of course it fleshes itself 
out in their lives and their societies, to be sure. But Christ's 
job, Christ's task, the servant's task, is to bring freedom to 
them, to bring righteous rule to these poor Gentiles. Now, 
this is not in terms of an earthly kingdom. That's not what his 
role is here. He's not bringing an earthly 
kingdom with earthly leaders who are going to rule rule, you 
know, in justice and rule rightly there, but rather this is in 
terms of his spiritual kingdom, freedom from the kingdom of darkness, 
bringing them into his kingdom wherein righteousness dwells. 
The kingdom which is going to, which will, the inheritance at 
the end of the age, when the kingdom is complete, As Peter 
says, it's new heavens, it's new earth, wherein righteousness 
dwells. So that's the idea that's going on here. So when he says 
he's bringing it to the Gentiles, it's to those who are in darkness 
on a spiritual level. It's everyone across the board. 
We saw that this morning in our confession study with the concept 
of covenants and what happened when Adam sinned and broke that 
covenant. Adam was, we could say, was plunged 
into darkness. All of creation became part of 
this kingdom of darkness governed by Satan and his host and his 
armies and his hierarchy of beings. Now, Christ is coming to bring 
freedom from that and create a kingdom. A lot of this is a 
lot of overlap of what we looked at this morning in these things. So, that is what the servant 
is going to do. He's going to bring righteousness, 
justice to the Gentiles, Yahweh says here. So then he goes on 
to describe who this servant is here, in light of this. So 
first, we have the servant's humility in verse 2. He says, 
he will not cry out, nor raise his voice, nor cause his voice 
to be heard in the street. So he's speaking of his humility 
there. The Christ, he's not going to 
arrive like the next tyrannical leader, you know, and with much 
pomp and circumstance and splendor announcing his arrival and come 
in and destroy the people. We can imagine, you know, whoever 
it may be, you know, Alexander the Great or Merneptah or these 
Assyrian kings that would come in and decimate a place, much 
pomp and circumstance. That's not how the Messiah is 
going to go about his business. He's humble. He's here. He will 
not cry out. He will not raise his voice, 
nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. Now, we know this 
is referring to Christ's earthly ministry. And we know that because 
Matthew applies this passage in Matthew 12 to Christ. he's 
referring to the to the humility and to the compassion of the 
Savior he and then he quotes this as the fulfillment of that 
so and the purpose is there so that is that so that we don't 
form a an earthly conception of his of his kingdom and for 
the and for the Jews in his day when he when he came that they 
for them to to realize that he's this Messiah was not to bring 
in a national Kingdom there, but he was to bring in as he 
was to bring in building a spiritual kingdom out of those whom he 
would save from spiritual darkness So so he's he's he's he's he's 
humble his earthly ministry is one of humility and then in verse 
3 We have his compassion a bruised reed. He will not break and smoking 
flax. He will not quench So he's he's 
these are these this this bruised reed and smoking flax this refers 
to those who have been who've been Afflicted been oppressed 
those those who are in this in in darkness and have a and and 
see their see their their their Their state that they're in and 
they who have a desire for freedom from this darkness That's what 
he's that's what he's speaking to again. They're they're under 
this this rule of evil this oppression They see that they don't want 
to be in that darkness and and Christ is coming to to free them 
from that darkness. The concept is one of here where 
they realize they're in there. They can't save themselves, and 
they desire to be saved. That's who Christ has come here. It's one where he comes to give 
this spiritual healing and freedom. We saw how Matthew applies it 
to the compassion he had on the people in his earthly ministry 
and the healing that he gave to those people in terms of their 
illnesses and their things, but it's on a spiritual level, it's 
the same thing. It's those who are in oppression, those who 
have a desire who come to him for healing, for salvation, he 
will not break a bruised reed, one that's been bruised in this 
state of oppression. He will not come and break it, 
but rather he will rescue that bruised reed, and the smoking 
flax, he will not quench. Smoking flax referring to a candle 
wick. Here, that's a candle wick, that's 
smoldering. There's no hope. We could say 
there's no hope of salvation in themselves. Those who have 
no hope of salvation in themselves, Christ will not extinguish someone 
in that, who looks to Him for salvation from this darkness. 
He will not extinguish that. So, I think that's, if you're 
here tonight, you know, you feel like this broken reed, this smoldering 
wick, no hope of salvation in yourselves, no hope of freedom 
from the bondage of being in darkness, no hope of salvation 
in yourselves from this tyranny of Satan, which the Bible says 
that you are under, which will end in your destruction under 
the wrath of God for your rebellion against him. If that's you and 
you feel like you're a bruised reed or you're a smoking flax, 
then Christ is the answer. Christ came for sinners like 
that, for sinners who see their helplessness, who recognize their 
state in darkness, and He's come to rescue those from darkness, 
those who look to Him for their salvation. So believe on the 
Lord Jesus Christ, so look to Him, and you will be saved, says 
the Bible very clearly. But we'll move on here. In the 
end of verse 3, then we see the servant's determination. He will 
bring forth justice for truth. And then verse four, he will 
not fail nor be discouraged till he has established justice in 
the earth. So his determination. So he says 
here, he will bring forth justice for truth or justice unto truth. 
Now, the idea here is not one of the truthfulness, of the justice, 
whatever that may mean, but it is one of the certainty, like 
for certain, for truly, He will bring forth justice. That is 
the concept being conveyed here, that He will most certainly bring 
forth this justice to the earth here, this redemption from the 
kingdom of darkness. John Gill on that comments on 
that now he John Gill applies it on on an individual level 
Here he says but but rather so so again speaking of this, you 
know It's not talking about the truthfulness of this justice, 
but it's the certainty of it So he says but but rather it 
designs the the power of his spirit and grace Accompanying 
the word to the carrying on of his own work in the hearts of 
his people which though attended by many difficulties and discouragements 
shall go on and be performed. Grace will break through all 
obstructions and prove victorious at last." So again, Gill applies 
it on an individual level there, but we can also, we can apply 
it just corporately. Christ will build his kingdom, 
and grace will break through. Grace is by the means by which 
he's building his kingdom. Grace will break through all 
obstructions and prove victorious at last. So we see the certainty 
of it, and then we see the dedication of the servant to carry out this 
mission. He will not fail nor be discouraged 
until he has established justice in the earth. So the dedication 
there, we're just saying, 421 I believe, Christ shall have 
dominion over land and sea, earth's remotest regions shall his empire 
be. So that certainty of it, that he will persevere until 
he completes his kingdom. Turn to 1 Corinthians 15. 1 Corinthians 15, we see that. We just pick up in verse 23. 
No, verse 20, I guess. But now Christ has risen from 
the dead and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 
For since by man came death, by man also came the resurrection 
of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall 
be made alive, but each one in his own order. Christ the firstfruits, 
afterward those who are Christ's at his coming. Then comes the 
end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when he puts 
an end to all rule and all authority, and power, for he must reign 
till he has put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that 
will be destroyed is death." So we see that very clearly here 
as well in 1 Corinthians. The certainty of this, that Christ 
will reign until his mission is complete. He will complete 
this mission. He does not do a half job. He doesn't get halfway through 
building his kingdom and say, Lord, that's enough. I've rescued 
enough people and this is good enough. No, he will rescue every 
last one of his people from the kingdom of darkness. There's 
no half job there. So he will complete this God-given 
mission of the redemption of his people, rescuing them from 
darkness, calling them out of darkness into his marvelous light. And and then it says here and 
then the the the coastlands will will wait for his law So this 
is this is the coastlands here speaking of the of the the the 
far-off nations the ends of the earth We might say these that's 
that's generally what coastlands means in the Bible. So these 
these far-off nations they will wait for his law now wait here 
has the the the the concept of of Not only expecting it waiting 
for it, but also this embrace of it that they will that they're 
going to embrace his law his rule The Septuagint translation 
of this says that the gentiles shall trust in his name That's 
the the the Septuagint is what Matthew uses when he when he 
quotes it And so Matthew quotes that, or Matthew says, the Gentiles 
shall trust in his name. And that is the concept here 
of the coastlands waiting for his law or embracing his rule. So what we see here is the fulfillment 
of his mission, that Yahweh, as he presents the servant to 
us, he says he will fulfill this mission. The coastlands, the 
far-off nations will submit to his kingship. E.J. Young, on his commentary on this 
passage here, he quotes John Calvin. And John Calvin says, 
Christ was sent in order to bring the whole world under the authority 
of God and under obedience to him. So that was the mission 
of Christ, was to bring the whole world. That doesn't mean all 
people universally, but that means, well, it will in terms 
of the destruction of those who remain in rebellion. in the sense 
where they're put under the authority of God. But that's the role of 
Christ. We saw that in our morning sessions, 
the confession, and in our looking in 1 Peter chapter 2, the role 
of Adam. That was Adam's role, right? 
But Adam failed. Adam's role was to bring the 
whole world under the authority of God in obedience to him. Not 
from a fallen state, but from a neutral state, we could say. But now Christ comes. to restore 
all that, and Christ is successful in what he does. He brings his 
kingdom to the ends of the earth. So then we come to the mission, 
then, of the servant in verse 5. Thus says God, Yahweh, who 
created the heavens and stretched them out, So this is spoken to the servant 
now. This is the servant receiving his marching orders, his commission. gives him a reminder of who the 
one is that is giving this commission, who is the one who's commissioning 
him to do this. This is not given as a threat, saying, you know, 
I'm Yahweh, I'm sovereign, and you better do what you're told. This is given as a comfort here. And his emphasis, Yahweh's emphasis, 
is that I am the creator. He says to him, I'm going to 
send you to release the captives that are in prison, to conquer 
your people, the people whom I have given you, I'm going to 
send you to conquer them out of darkness, out of the kingdom 
of darkness. The kingdom of darkness is ruled by strong forces. We need to understand that. When 
we look at passages like this, the kingdom of darkness is ruled 
by strong forces, but I am Yahweh, the creator. Remember, these 
strong forces are only created I am the creator of them, and 
I will uphold you." So it's strengthening the faith of this servant, of 
the servant of Israel, strengthening him that he has Yahweh behind 
him, backing him, upholding him, Yahweh the creator, as he goes 
about to take on this mission of rescuing his people from darkness. 
So now I can imagine Jesus, in Jesus' human nature, as he read 
the Scriptures and as he learned of his role as mediator. Remember, Christ has a human 
nature in which he had to learn. Luke chapter 2 tells us that 
Christ grew in wisdom. He learned of his role as mediator 
by reading the Scriptures. And a passage like this would 
have been an incredible source of comfort to him as he comes 
here to realize that Yahweh, the Creator, is the one commissioning 
me and is the one behind me, is the one upholding me. And 
I think we see this evidenced in Matthew chapter 12. You can 
turn there for a minute. Matthew 12, this is the same, 
where we see this, we see the servant, we see him in his earthly 
ministry there, the casting or healing. Matthew quotes this 
passage in this Isaiah 42 passage there. And then after that, we 
have a demon being cast out. And then the Pharisees say to 
him, You're only doing this because you're on the side, you know, 
the same side as Satan. You're doing this by, you know, 
by Beelzebub. That's the only reason you can 
cast out demons. But Jesus says to them in verse 
28 and following, or before that, but then verse 28, that this 
is an evidence that the kingdom of God is here. Why would Satan 
cast out his own? But rather he's saying this is 
an evidence that the kingdom of God is here. As Christ casts 
out this demon, a very tangible evidence that he is here to destroy 
the works of the devil. And then look at verse 29 here, 
he says, How can one enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods 
unless he first binds the strong man and then he will plunder 
his house? So, what Jesus is saying in this 
verse is that he knows that Satan is bound. Satan is the strong 
man in what Jesus is referencing here. Satan is the strong man 
and Jesus is plundering his goods. But first, the strong man is 
bound, and then the goods are plundered. And that is what Jesus 
understands here. He realizes that Satan is bound, 
meaning that he's not all-powerful. He's bound or he's limited in 
his power. He's restricted in what he can 
do because he's a created being, but the kingdom of heaven The 
kingdom of God is ruled by Yahweh, the Creator. So that was the 
comfort that provided to the Messiah. And then back to Isaiah again, 
42, we're in verse six now. So verse five, we see that reminder 
of Yahweh as the creator. Now in verse six, I, Yahweh, 
have called you in righteousness and will hold your hand and I 
will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people, as 
a light to the Gentiles. So that reminder, I, Yahweh, 
the creator, I will uphold you. John Kelvin here, he says, Christ 
will be directed by the Father in such a manner that he shall 
have him as his protector and guardian, shall enjoy his assistance, 
and in short, shall feel his presence in all things. So that 
the Yahweh, the Creator there, calling him and upholding him, 
holding his hand. Now he says here that I will 
call you I've called you in righteousness. Another way to say that might 
be, I've called you unto righteousness. And John Gill says there that 
it's to bring an everlasting righteousness to his people. 
So I will call you unto righteousness, a righteousness, an everlasting 
righteousness that you will bring to your people. And I think that's 
the idea there, and it goes with this next line as well, that 
I will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people. Because that's what the New Covenant 
is. That's what we saw this morning 
in our study, that the New Covenant is that provision of a new mediator 
in the covenant of works, a new mediator between God and man, 
one whose righteousness is worthy of eternal life. So we know that 
comes through the fulfillment of the demands of the law, both 
in terms of curse-bearing for lawbreakers and in terms of living 
in complete obedience to that law, both of which Jesus did, 
we know, in his life. And that is in his life and his 
death. That through that righteousness that is how he is able to conquer 
people from darkness because he's atoned for their sin He's 
atoned for their rebellion against God and and therefore and therefore 
he is able to do that so I think that that is that is a That is 
a reference to that to the righteousness that Christ supplies there But 
then that but then the father says says to him. I will I will 
I will hold your hand and And in a sense, I will keep you, I'll protect you, I'll 
uphold you, so that you can achieve this righteousness. So that Satan 
cannot thwart your mission. That was, we see after Jesus' 
baptism, he was driven into the wilderness, and Satan did everything 
he could to thwart that mission of Christ by trying to get Christ 
to fall short of that righteousness, to get him to sin. tempted him 
there, but God upheld him through that temptation so that he could 
complete his mission and earn that righteousness there. And then he says, now I will 
give you as a light to the Gentiles. And then in verse 7 as well, 
to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the prison, 
those who sit in darkness from the prison house. Remember in 
the old covenant setting, the Jews were Yahweh's special people. We saw that this morning. They 
had the light, so to speak. The Gentiles lived in darkness. 
The Gentiles were under the rule of the various gods of the nations 
that the Bible talks about. So the servant is coming. He's 
bringing light to them. He's opening their eyes. He's 
freeing them from this oppression. this oppressive bondage to the 
kingdom of darkness. But this is, again, this is not 
happening on a national level here. This is, you know, the 
servant's role was not to grow the nation of Israel, make them 
a global nation. We've seen that already. His 
kingdom is a spiritual kingdom made up of those that he is saving 
from spiritual darkness. Isaiah, it is global to be sure. When I say, you know, when I 
say he's not making a global nation out of Israel, It's not 
a political nation, but it is a global kingdom to be sure. 
Isaiah 49 says, it's too small a thing for you to be my servant 
to the lost tribes of Jacob. I will also give you as a light 
for the Gentiles. So this global dominion over 
to the ends of the earth, that is the kingdom. those he rescues 
from spiritual darkness. And then it says here, those 
who are, he's going to open blind eyes, so he's going to those 
who are blind. So this could be referring to those who don't 
even realize how bad the darkness is, how bad it is, their state, 
that they're blind. To that it could be a reference 
to the depravity of man, the spiritual depravity of man, the 
fact that they hate God, they're in rebellion, they're blind to 
their They're blind to the darkness that they're in until Christ 
comes and conquers them out of that. It could be a reference 
to that. I think the primary emphasis 
in this passage, though, is not the depravity of man. We know 
the depravity of man is real. Men are spiritually blind. But 
the emphasis of the passage here is one of the servant who's breaking 
his people free from this bondage. and from this oppression of the 
kingdom of darkness, and who's bringing out prisoners from prison, 
he says here. So Christ's work is to free all 
those who look to Him for salvation. That is the emphasis of the passage 
here. Not so much on the blindness, 
the spiritual depravity. And again, so that's what Christ 
is doing. He's advancing His kingdom, the kingdom of heaven, 
to the ends of the earth, to the coastlands, as Isaiah says 
here. calling this multitude from every tribe, every tongue, 
people, and nation. They're from a universal kingdom, 
not of every person, but universal without distinction. And now, 
why is this his task? Why is he doing this? And the 
answer comes in verse 8. and Yahweh, that is my name, 
and my glory I will not give to another, nor my praise to 
carved images." So Yahweh is a creator, he created this earth, 
Yahweh requires the submission of all creation to him, and Yahweh 
will not tolerate any other, any created being, specifically 
these the gods of the nations, which is what the carved images 
is referring to there. We see in Deuteronomy 7, 25, 
12, 3, that these carved images are just a visible representation 
of the gods of the nations there. So that's what he's saying here. He's saying that Yahweh will 
not allow them to have any sort of type of authority over his 
earth. We know that for a time it's 
happened. We see that in verse 14. I've held my peace a long 
time. and restrain myself. So after the fall, yes, Satan 
has dominion over the earth. But Christ is coming to undo 
that, to destroy those enemies of Yahweh and bring back universal 
dominion over the earth. Now again, we know God is sovereign. 
God is sovereign over all things. God has dominion in that sense 
over everything. But in terms of the story of 
redemptive history and what is going on, what is taking place, 
that's how God has chosen to work this out. has this dominion, 
Satan has this power over the earth and Christ is coming to 
crush the head of the serpent. That's what the passage in Genesis 
3.15 is all about. Christ coming to destroy the 
serpent and to bring back this universal kingdom and destroy 
all those who reject him. And again, remember the Calvin 
quote that I quoted earlier, that Christ was sent in order 
to bring the whole world under the authority God and under obedience 
to him if you look at the servant song in in Isaiah 49 There's 
a there's a lot of parallels to this to this one and in Isaiah 
Isaiah 49 verse Verse 8 thus says the Lord in an acceptable 
time. I have heard you in the day of salvation I have helped 
you I will preserve you and give you as a covenant to the people 
of to restore the earth, to cause them to inherit the desolate 
heritage. So that is the role. He's restoring the earth to the 
sovereign dominion of Yahweh himself, and who is Christ, as 
we'll see at the end. Christ is Yahweh. And then we have the guarantee 
of this here. So John Calvin, again, I'll quote 
him, Calvin says, but since Satan, by amazing arts, endeavors to 
obscure this glory of God and to bestow it on men and on false 
gods, he, Yahweh, therefore testifies that he will not permit himself 
to be regarded as fickle or deceitful in his promises. So that's commenting 
on verse nine. Behold, the former things have 
come to pass, and new things I declare. Before they spring 
forth, I tell you. So Calvin, again, Hence here, 
so in this verse 9, we obtain a singular confirmation of our 
faith that the Lord never deceives, never swerves from his promise, 
and nothing can hinder what he has once determined. And that's 
what verse 9 is, that's what he's saying. The former things 
have come to pass in the sense that things that I'd prophesied, 
that I said would take place long ago, they've all come to 
pass, they've all taken place. And therefore, the new things 
that I declare before they happen, I tell you of them, but it's 
guaranteed. We find that in Joshua 24, verse 45, is an amazing verse 
there, just of the faithfulness of Yahweh and the fact that Yahweh, 
that his word will come to pass. Joshua 24, verse 45, it says, of not a word failed, let me 
find it here, of all the good things that, sorry, I have the wrong reference here, 
verse 40, wrote down the wrong reference, 
but not a word failed of all the good things that Yahweh, 
said had spoke to the sorry verse 21 verse 45 not a word failed 
of any good thing which the lord had spoken to the house of israel 
all came to pass that is the that's the faithfulness of Yahweh 
and that guarantee here that he gives in this uh in this um 
in in this um commissioning to to the servant that you know 
i've i've promised you this and in it i will i will bring it 
to pass i there's the the guarantee of of Yahweh that that he will 
that he will um that he will see this to the end. He will 
be there for the servant to uphold him. And then now we see the, 
we come to the victory of the servant in verses 10 through 
13. Verse 10, sing to the Lord a 
new song and his praise from the ends of the earth, you who 
go down to the sea and all that is in it, you coastlands and 
you inhabitants of them. So this is the evidence now of 
a successful mission of the servant. We have the ends of the earth 
are called to sing to sing this new song to Yahweh. It's a new song. Something has 
changed. And we know that's the successful 
mission of this, by which now those who are in darkness from 
all these nations are now in the light in His kingdom. They're 
praising Yahweh now. They're celebrating His victory, 
celebrating the fact that He liberated them from darkness. So he says, so you who go down 
to the sea and all that is in it. So that's all the nations 
to the west and to the north there. And then in verse 11, 
let the wilderness and its cities lift up their voice, the villages 
that Kadar inhabits. Let the inhabitants of Selah 
sing and let them shout from the top of the mountains. So 
those are the nations to the east and to the south. So that's 
the, here we see the gospel going to the ends of the earth. That 
just like Jesus said it would do, that he would build his kingdom 
through beginning with his apostles. They would be his witnesses, 
he said in Acts, you would be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, 
Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. And that's exactly, that's 
what it's referencing here. And that's what we see when we 
come to the New Testament, when we come to history. that this 
message is brought to the ends of the earth, to all the nations 
around there. History tells us that, well, we know from Acts, 
Peter was the one primarily who brought it to the lost tribes 
of Jacob. Paul was the one who brought 
it to the coastlands and to the islands, to all those who inhabit 
the sea, which is a reference to the islands. Their history 
tells us that Thomas took it east into the wilderness, all 
the way into India. Matthew took it south. But that 
was just the start of it. That was just the beginning of 
this there. And then Christ commissioned 
the church to take that gospel message to all the nations. So this is the evidence that 
it is a successful mission that we find here now. It's not over 
yet. We know so because Christ hasn't 
returned. Christ is still in heaven ruling and reigning. and from heaven orchestrating 
it and guiding his church to bring that message to all the 
ends of the earth, to build that kingdom. As the church marches 
through the ages, proclaiming the gospel, proclaiming the excellencies 
of the one who called them out of darkness into marvelous light. 
We saw that in Peter this morning. That's the role of the church, 
proclaiming the excellencies, the sovereignty of their king. Into you know to to to all the 
nations as Christ builds his kingdom That's what verse verse 
12 says there. Let them give glory to the Lord 
and declare his praise to in the coastlands, praising the 
Lord, declaring the excellencies of the one who brought them out 
of darkness into marvelous light. So he's saying, praise the Lord. He's rescued you. He saved you 
from this utter destruction that, because of your sinfulness, your 
rejection of Him, He saved you from the destruction that was 
coming your way. He saved you from Satan. Satan had you in 
his clutches. Satan was doing his best to keep 
you in the darkness, the Bible tells us, what he does to try 
and keep us blinded to the truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ. 
But Christ came and Christ conquered you, snatched you out of Satan's 
Satan's clutches, so praise Him. Give glory to Yahweh. Declare His praise in the coastlands. 
And then we come to verse 13. So you can see now how the servant 
and Yahweh have become one and the same in this In this song here now that that 
that you know, there's still a there's still a distinction 
between here in the sense that Christ, you know, economically 
and in his human nature, he's the servant. But yet, he is fully 
Yahweh himself. We see that now. Yahweh is the 
one who's the mighty man. So the servant was the one who 
was going to go. He was going to release the captive from prison. But 
here we find it's Yahweh. Yahweh, this warrior, the mighty, 
a mighty man. I like the translation warrior 
much better. That gives, that's the Hebrew 
word, gibbor. If you've ever heard that word, 
it's just, it's a warrior. That's who this servant is. He's a warrior. He's a man of 
war. We see that in Psalm 24 as well. Psalm 24 is the ascension psalm 
and it's the scene of the successful mission of the servant. It's the return from his successful 
mission as he ascends back into into heaven in psalm 24 verse 
8 it says so who is this king of glory he comes up to the gates 
of of heaven and the gates you know the gates uh the gates say 
who is who is this you know the the um the cry goes out you know 
the king of glory is coming in and then the the question is 
who well who is this king of glory of glory and then in verse 
8 it says the lord strong and and mighty or the word there 
is that is gabor the lord uh strong and a warrior the lord 
mighty in in the battle so so this is the So Christ is a warrior 
here. We turn to Revelation 19. We 
see, starting in verse 11, Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, 
a white horse, and he who sat on him was called Faithful. and 
true, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes 
were like a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns. 
He had a name written that no one knew except himself. He was 
clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and his name is called 
the Word of God. And the armies in heaven, clothed 
in fine linen, white and clean, followed him on white horses. 
Out of his mouth goes a sharp sword, and with that he should 
strike the nations, and he himself will rule them with a rod of 
iron. He himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of 
Almighty God. And he had on his robe and on 
his thigh a name written, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. So that is our Savior. That is 
our Christ. He's a warrior. We often think 
of Christ as gentle Jesus, meek and mild, in terms of his earthly 
ministry, as we saw in this passage. Yes, he was meek and mild. He 
was humble. He has compassion. on the people, 
but in terms of his spiritual, the spiritual battle that he 
is fighting against the kingdom of darkness, he is a warrior, 
and it goes on here in verse 13. So Yahweh, he's gonna go 
forth like a warrior, and it says he will stir up his zeal 
like a man of war. To put it into our, Language we might say he's gonna 
he's gonna pump himself up He's gonna stir up his zeal like a 
like a man of war and then he's gonna he'll he'll cry out He'll 
he'll raise raise a war cry is the is what the shout aloud? Indicates there. He's gonna cry 
out. He's gonna raise a war cry as he goes and conquers his people 
out of darkness and then and then and he will prevail against 
His enemies so so so that's that is our that is our Savior and 
just and just and just just just think about that There he you 
know in terms of what he's doing on a spiritual level and what 
he's done what he's done to us He's rescued us as a warrior 
war hero coming and conquering us out of darkness and and bringing 
us into into into his Kingdom leading us leading taking taking 
taking captivity captive The Bible says there that he rescued 
us brought us into his glorious kingdom that that kingdom That 
has that has no end that he and he is he is continuing to rescue 
his his people from the kingdom of darkness He's still that warrior. 
He's still that warrior on the on the white horse in Revelation 
riding force conquering and to conquer And as it says here, 
he will prevail over all his enemies. He will rescue all of 
his people out of darkness, and then he will destroy his enemies, 
those that remain in rebellion against him. He will destroy 
them. Satan and all his armies, we see that in Revelation, them 
being destroyed at the end of the age. And all who, not just 
Satan and the spiritual realm, but those those who continue, 
all who continue in rejection of Him, that Christ will destroy 
them. So Christ is building His kingdom. 
He's still doing that. And then comes the end, we read 
in 1 Corinthians 15. Then comes the end, when He delivers 
the kingdom to God the Father, and He puts an end to all rule, 
all authority, and all power, other than His own, there in 
1 Corinthians 15. What a day that will be. A glorious 
day to be part of that kingdom. When the servant presents that 
kingdom to the Father, and he says, mission complete. Here is this people. Of those 
who you gave to me, I have lost none. I have conquered every 
one of them out of darkness, and here they are. What a glorious 
day that will be. The universal dominion of our 
Savior. So that brings us to the end 
of this passage here. Just in conclusion, I think just be greatly 
encouraged by this. I think it goes without saying, 
really, that nothing should fire us up, if I can use that language, 
nothing should fire us up, as in our Christian lives, more 
than the thought of our Savior, our Savior as a warrior, stirring 
up his zeal like a man of war, and crying out this war cry, 
as He comes to rescue His people and to destroy His enemies. But again, what a warning that 
is, to not reject Him as well. That Christ, He will have dominion 
from sea to sea, and if you reject Him, He will prevail against 
His enemies. You will be destroyed along with 
Satan and along with his armies if you continue in rejection 
of Christ. But, as we find in the Word everywhere, 
God says in chapter 45, he says, look to me and be saved, all 
you ends of the earth. So that's whom Christ is going 
for, going out to all the ends of the earth. And God says, look 
to me and be saved. Trust in me. Look to me for salvation. Don't look to yourself, but look 
to me and you will be saved. All the ends of the earth. For 
I am God and there is no other. So do not reject Christ, but 
look to Him. You will be saved. He has come 
for those broken, bruised reeds, those who are in oppression. 
He will not come and break them, but rather He will save them. 
The smoking flax, He will not come and quench them, but He 
will restore them. He will bring them to life. So 
look to Him and be saved. So let us be greatly encouraged 
by that, brethren, that our Christ is warrior, He's King of kings, 
He's Lord of lords, as we saw in Revelation there. Let us be encouraged by that, 
and let us close in a word of prayer. Our Father in heaven, 
we do thank you and we praise you for passages of scripture 
like this that tell us something of who our Savior is. Lord, we 
thank you. We praise you for this. We praise 
you for His life, His death, His resurrection, by which this 
was all possible, by which He could rescue us from your justice, 
that your justice was not sacrificed in any way through this, but 
that He paid for those sins so that He could conquer us out 
of darkness. and bring us into his marvelous light, into his 
kingdom. So Lord, I thank you for that. I pray that your people 
here would be greatly encouraged by this as we go out into the 
week, into the world, a world that is fraught with evil and 
seems to be overrun by evil and darkness at every turn. But Lord, 
to know that our Savior is triumphant over all. He is king of kings, 
he is lord of lords, he will prevail over all his enemies. 
And Lord, he will bring us, he will present that kingdom to 
the Father at the end, and none will be snatched out of his hand. 
Lord, how we praise you for that. How this encourages us. I pray 
that you bless each one of us here as we go about our week, 
Lord. Lord, that you would be glorified in all that we do. 
And we pray this in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen. Well, 
we'll close with number 564. You can stand and sing 564 in 
closing, please. is all eternity Well, brethren, just a word in 
closing here. This is my last Sunday with you. I just want to say I've been 
very blessed the last several years. You all know our situation. We moved back here three and 
a half years ago to be part of a church here, a church that, 
for one, had an incredible pastor and mentor. That was a big reason. 
The other was a church that took seriously the qualifications 
of eldership, those types of things. So that has been a blessing. But just to be, or to have that 
confirmation, I guess, from the Lord that, as you voted, I hope, 
according to God's word, this is that confirmation, that that 
has been such a blessing for me to have that. So I thank you 
for that. I thank you just for the fellowship and the joy that 
it's been these past three and a half years here again with 
you all. But the other thing that I really appreciate about 
this church was the fact that week in and week out we pray 
for Mike in Surrey. We pray for Pastor Mike, that 
he would be, that the Lord would bless his ministry. I ask that you do the same. Sorry. I ask that you do the same for 
me as well, as I go to Armstrong to start a church. It's, you 
know, no easy task, but with just passages like what we looked 
at today in Scripture, Christ is building his church. We rejoice 
in that. That's what, you know, that's 
what we go on is these passages, but we need much prayer. So I 
ask that, you know, for Mike's been preaching for, I think, 
four or five years. Week in and week out, we pray 
from here. So I ask the same thing that you would pray for 
myself, for the church in Vernon as well, or Armstrong, that the 
Lord would just be pleased to bless us there. I will hopefully 
in the next few weeks update as things progress and we get 
going there. We are still trying to finalize 
names and things like that. We're having some issues with 
that. But I'll keep you updated. But again, I ask for your prayers. 
I thank you for I thank you for the fellowship. I thank you for 
just the blessing that as a church that you have been to myself, 
to Esther, and the family as well. So I'll leave you with 
the blessing of Aaron from Numbers chapter 6. The Lord bless you 
and keep you. The Lord make his face shine 
upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance 
upon you and give you peace. Amen. So you can close for a 
time of meditation. Thank you.