Grace OPC Sewickley PA

Sermon Book: Isaiah

The Spirit’s Threefold Work

This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Suffering Servant” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, April 19, 1987.

About this sermon

The Reformed doctrine of the Holy Spirit stands against readings that reduce the Spirit to feeling or experience. Across the servant songs the Spirit works in three ways at once, as the servant’s endowment, his mission, and the accomplishment of that mission. The Spirit’s work saturates Isaiah 40-66 as fully as the servant’s does.

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Sermon transcript

Tonight we are finishing our series on Isaiah 40-66. We have a couple of passages we like to read, and two of them are servant songs, and the other one has to do specifically with the doctrine of the Spirit according to Isaiah. We’ll start with the first servant’s song, we’ll end with the last servant’s song, and then we’ll take up a passage that deals specifically with the Spirit. First servant’s song, Isaiah 42, verses one through four. Hear the word of God.

Behold, my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one, in whom my soul delights. I have put my spirit upon him. He will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry out or raise his voice or make his voice heard in the street. A bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not extinguish. He will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not be disheartened or crushed, until he has established justice in the earth and the coastlands will wait expectantly for his law.

Then the last of the servant songs from Isaiah 61. The spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, to grant those who mourn in Zion, giving them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting, So they will be called Oaks of Righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified. Then from Isaiah chapter sixty-three, beginning with verse seven. I shall make mention of the lovingkindnesses of the Lord, the praises of the Lord, according to all that the Lord has granted us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which he has granted them according to his compassion and according to the multitude of his lovingkindnesses.

For he said, Surely they are my people. sons who will not deal falsely. So he became their savior. In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them. In his love and in his mercy he redeemed them, and he lifted them and carried them all the days of old. But they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit. Therefore he turned himself to become their enemy, and fought against them.

Then his people remembered the days of old, of Moses. Where is he who brought them up out of the sea with the shepherds of his flock? Where is he who put his Holy Spirit in the midst of them, who caused his glorious arm to go at the right hand of Moses, who divided the waters before them to make for himself an everlasting name, who led them through the depths Like the horse in the wilderness, they did not stumble. As the cattle which go down into the valley, the Spirit of the Lord gave them rest. So didst thou lead thy people to make for thyself a glorious name. Look down from heaven and see from thy holy and glorious habitation where are thy zeal and thy mighty deeds.

The stirrings of thy heart and thy compassion are not restrained toward me. For thou art our father, though Abraham does not know us, and Israel does not recognize us. Thou, O Lord, art our father. Our Redeemer from of old is thy name. Why, O Lord, dost thou cause us to stray from thy ways and harden our heart from fearing thee? Return for the sake of thy servants, the tribe of thy heritage. by holy people possessed by sanctuary for a little while our adversaries have brought it down. We have become like those over whom thou hast never ruled, like those who are not called by thy name.” Pray with me.

Now, Lord, under heaven, your word has echoed through the earth. Your people have heard, they have received strength from you and nourishment. Truly, they have been corrected, even straightened in their ways. And Lord, there have been those whom you would draw, you calling them, working mercy and delivering them from the terrors of sin and death. Truly, you have reconciled many in this day. throughout the world where your word has been preached, and you have redirected others that they might find the way of life.

And in that, Father, we rejoice, for we know that of assurity the day will come when they will find themselves upon the road of recovery, that road which is the way leading unto life. Father, may we commit ourselves to preaching May we commit ourselves to prayer on behalf of those that you raise up to declare your word to the ends of the earth, to the end of this age. We pray this in Christ’s name. Amen.

It’s difficult to say too much. about the Holy Spirit. I suppose that the Reformed Church has been charged, and possibly not without some justification, the Reformed Church has been charged with saying too little, too little about the Holy Spirit. As one seminarian once remarked, The trouble with the Reformed Church is that, to its way of thinking, the Holy Spirit is a book written by Abraham Titus.

Well, we could hope that such an assessment, such a judgment, is more the exception than the rule. And in defense of the Reformed Church, let me say, as is often the case, The negative judgment that is made is more because the Reformed Church is charged by its critics in failing to supply what they have expected, what they have wished for, what they have wanted. For example, someone comes within the tale of the Reformed Church, looking for certain styles of worship, certain demonstrations of spiritual power, spiritual gifts, and not finding these, according to their estimation, they judge that the Reformed Church, or this church, or that church, is devoid of the Holy Spirit altogether. I might just you that something of this judgment was made by the Presbyterian Church USA close to the turn of the century.

It was at that time that a suggestion was made that we were in need of a confessional revision, and in order to accommodate the spirit within the church at that time for confessional All of the moorings were pulled away from the church, those moorings which were strong in the spirit formerly, to the extent that a chapter on the Spirit of God was added to the Confession as an appendix. Many were outraged because they judged that such an addition simply failed to see what was obvious already in the Confession. For instance, of the shorter catechism questions that begin with question 29, asking about how the work of redemption accomplished by Christ is applied to believers.

And from that point on, you have a marvelous exposition of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, as the Reformed Church has always understood the Holy Spirit and His work. Does the reformed church preach the Spirit? Does the reformed church live in the power of the Spirit? Does the reformed church understand the Spirit’s ministry in our age?

Well, look at the doctrine of effectual calling. Look at the doctrine of God’s justifying, adopting, and sanctifying work, and the exposition of those doctrines in the catechism. as those doctrines are expounded in the confession. If understood properly or right, the Reformed Church has never been devoid of a proper teaching, understanding, grasp of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. But we need not simply think about the exposition of the word of redemption as it relates to the Spirit. We can go on to Question 88 in the Shorter Catechism that talks about the outward and ordinary means whereby we are benefited continually by Christ. And there again, as the catechism takes apart the doctrine of the word, sacraments, and prayer, the Holy Spirit is concentrated upon, and surely we must understand that the Holy Spirit is essential to the worship and life of the Reformed Church, if that church is understanding properly, implementing properly the doctrine that is embraced All right, well, while it may be that a mood comes upon the Church, even the Reformed Church, where the Holy Spirit doesn’t receive the attention that he is due, we need not think that the fault of the tradition, we need not think that the fault of the Reformed Church, for the Reformed Church has at its foundation a proper, a right understanding of the Spirit’s ministry in our day and age.

But I can’t remember any message which I have preached in my ministry here that specifically focused upon the Holy Spirit, specifically focused upon him.

We’ve just spent some time with messages that dealt with titles for Jesus, and we have spent some time looking at Isaiah 40-66, taking stock of the servant Psalms and the description of the servant of the Lord in these chapters. Maybe we could profit from a series on the Holy Spirit sometime in the future.

Towards that day, when we would venture such a series, we could make some observations tonight, closing out our study of these chapters in Isaiah, make some observations about the Holy Spirit and its importance to Isaiah. as Isaiah preaches and teaches Israel in his time. Now, to take up the spirit at this point certainly is not out of character from what we have concentrated upon in the servant’s psalms in these chapters. You might remember As we looked at the servant songs, we took a look at the servant songs last week, surveying them in some detail, and we looked, as you know, at the final servant song, the one we’ve read tonight from Isaiah 61. And with it, we connected the first of the servant songs, again, the one we’ve read tonight from Isaiah 42. We took note of features that sewed these two servant songs together, and one of those features is a very prominent place played by the Holy Spirit. In Isaiah 42, verse 1, we read, God here speaking, I have put my spirit upon him, upon my servant. And in Isaiah sixty-one, verse one, we see the servant himself speaking.

He says, the spirit of the Lord is upon me. In both of these verses, the spirit is viewed as an endowment, as a gift. God has given his spirit to his servant. and his servant has recognized and received the gift. He understands that gift to be the Spirit, he understands it to be that which is given by God, that which can be given only by God. But the Spirit is also viewed here as equipment, not just endowment, but equipment. More than an endowment indicating blessing, the spirit is equipment indicating mission. So blessing, gift, equipment, mission.

And you read about the mission of the servant in these respective servant songs. In the first servant song, it has to do with the fact that through the servant, justice is going to be brought to the nations. There’s going to be this universal grace granted to the nations through the ministry of the servant. He is also one who is going to bring his instruction, his teaching, according to some translations, his law. and the coastlands expectantly wait for this. They look unto him, and you might note the universalism, the proper universalism of Isaiah 40 through 66, that speaks repeatedly of the coastlands and the isles looking for the visitation of God.

For truly, in their heart of hearts, there’s really never been any solace given to them, and there is no other source of solace. in the final analysis, but God, and God delivers that solace to them through his servant, no less the nations than Israel.

Well, yes, there is endowment indicating blessing, gift given to the servant, but there is also that equipment which the Spirit Himself is, indicating mission and the fulfillment of that mission. In fact, the Spirit is essential endowment and essential equipment for the servant.

We rightly conclude that without the Spirit, the servant cannot operate, he cannot function, he cannot succeed, he cannot accomplish the mission. given him. Still, we can go even deeper. We can say this, that devoid of the Spirit, the servant actually has no mission. In other words, it is as if the mission is actually the Spirit’s mission, and unless the Spirit come, there is no mission for the servant. The servant is thus the servant of the Spirit’s mission. Without the Spirit, there is no mission, let alone that mission’s fulfillment. So great is the Spirit’s significance. You cannot overestimate the importance of the Spirit. But is it any wonder that the Spirit is so exalted by Isaiah, or by the Lord as he speaks through his prophet.

After all, note how Isaiah has begun this section. In chapter forty, take stock of what is said about the Spirit as this section commences. You note the twelve verses are struck by it. Probably have read this section over and over again yourself, because of how it confirms you in the presence and power of God, how it buoys you up through all types of trials, tribulations and distresses.

Yet here, what he says, verse twelve, who has measured the waters in the hollow of his and marked off the heavens by the span, and calculated the dust of the earth by the measure, and weighed the mountains in a balance, and the hills in a pair of scales.

Now, verse thirteen, who has directed the Spirit of the Lord? For as his counselor has informed him. Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord? For as his counselor has informed This couplet of the 13th verse, this couplet of lines, is meant to be read so that you understand the first line in keeping with the second. That is, the title given you in the first line, the Spirit of the Lord, is interchangeable with the pronoun him that ends the second line. So read, the Spirit of the Lord is equal to the Lord himself. That is the equation. That is the equation. You cannot overestimate the importance of the Spirit. For the Spirit, you see, assumes the stature of God. No less than the stature of God.

The Spirit, therefore, is no less significant to the servant’s mission. He is no less important to the servant’s endowment than the Lord God Himself. For it is by the Spirit that God gives the endowment. It is by the Spirit that the appropriate equipment is given to the servant to fulfill his mission. And as the Spirit has been viewed as essential endowment and equipment for the servant, he is no more or less essential to that endowment and equipment than God.

So far, the Holy Spirit in relationship to the servant of the Lord. The spirit is not just united to the server, not just identified with the servant, seen as that one by whom endowment and equipment come. He is not simply identified with God in Isaiah 40 through 66. He is also, we might note, spoken of in relationship to the Lord’s people, the servants.

First of all, in this regard, notice that the Holy Spirit was, and I understand, I underscore the past tense here, was given to the Lord’s people, was given to the Lord’s people. You might look At that passage, we read Isaiah 63. In the 11th verse of that 63rd chapter, we are told that God put his Holy Spirit in the midst of the people.

When? In the days of old. During the days of Moses. Presently, in Isaiah’s time, there is a deep sense of the Spirit’s absence. The Spirit seems to have withdrawn. In fact, we are told in the tenth verse of this chapter that the people have grieved. the Holy Spirit of God. Now that language should strike a responsive chord with us, because we realize that such language as that is taken up by the Apostle Paul in his New Testament letters. He warns against grieving the Holy Spirit. Well, where does he get that language? He doesn’t invent it. It’s not something that he’s thought up on his own. It isn’t a new idea. He’s lifted it right out of Isaiah 63.

The grieving of the Holy Spirit as its roots were Paul in the prophetic tradition from the time of Isaiah. Well, the people have grieved the Holy Spirit, and thus God has withdrawn himself from them. He has become, as it were, an enemy to them. Without God, without the Holy Spirit, the people are defenseless and incapable. They lack endowment. They lack blessing. You get the parallel? They lack power to fulfill their mission, their destiny.

What is their mission and destiny? Well, their mission and destiny was to have been a light before the world. They, witnesses, you see, to the greatness of their God. Through Him, He was to display before the world His incomparable magnificence. without God, without the Holy Spirit.

The people are defenseless, and they are without endowment, and they are without equipment. They are incapable of fulfilling their destiny, their mission, the fruit of which was rest in the inheritance promised them of God. You note how that is spoken of in the fourteenth verse of this chapter, directly in relationship to the Spirit of God. As the cattle which go down into the valley, the Spirit of God gave them rest, speaking of the children of Israel in times past. But now you see, that destiny, that inheritance, that blessing is in jeopardy because the people have grieved the Holy Spirit, they turned away from God, they have rejected Him and demonstrated their rejection through their disobedience. Having been made alive in the Spirit, they now fail to walk by the Spirit. Language again should sound familiar to it, because it’s lifted right out of Galatians 5. Having been made alive by the Spirit, they fail to walk in the Spirit, and thus greed the Spirit through their disobedience, their hardness of heart. What does this mean? What does this mean? The spirit, you say, is in search of another servant.

Israel fails. Israel fails, having been given the endowment, having been given the power Having been given the equipment, Israel fails as servant of the Lord, and thus she has proved herself useless. That is why there must be a new servant of the Lord. Why all these servant songs in Isaiah 40-66? Because the servant of the Lord, Jacob, The servant of the Lord, Israel, has fallen, and thus now, in light of that failure, the spirit in quest of another servant sees a new servant raised up. Of that servant, Isaiah speaks. This true servant of the Lord succeeds. He succeeds in the Spirit’s power, becoming through the Spirit the source of the people of God’s blessing.

Thus, in the face of Israel’s overwhelmingly tragic record, and because of the servant’s marvelous ministry on behalf of his people, We hear the Lord now say, and I’ll have you turn to it, chapter 44, verse 3. We hear the Lord say, chapter 44, verse 3. For I will pour out water on the thirsty land and streams on the dry ground. I will pour out my spirit on your offspring and my blessing on your descendants, and they will spring up among the grass like poplars by streams of water.”

Again, you can take stock of what he says. You have him speaking in the fifty-ninth chapter, the very last verse of that chapter. And as for me, Isaiah fifty-nine, verse twenty-one, and as for me, this is my covenant with them, says the Lord, my spirit which is upon you and my words which I have put in your mouth shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your offspring, nor from the mouth of your offspring offspring, says the Lord now and forever. You see.

Israel’s failure has been the opportunity of the servant’s success. But the servant’s success in the power of the spirit is not just simply a proper reception of the endowment intended for him. nor even a proper fulfillment of the mission given him. No, you see, his mission, his endowment, is unto the benefit that it affords us.

And thus, now, the endowment which is the servants in perfection and the fulfillment of the mission which is the servant’s imperfection, that is given to us. We, visited by the Spirit of God by root of the servant’s success, an endowment given us, speaking to us concerning eternal rest in the inheritance promised us, by God, our destiny, but also fulfillment of our mission, which is worshipping the Lord in spirit and in truth, and being such a worshipping people that a light shines from us that declares to all the marvelous excellences of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light.

The Spirit, endowment and equipment, essential, essential to our life, as essential as God himself. We are a people of the Spirit. He is ours, and all that he meant to the servant, he means to us. Let us pray. The blessing of the Spirit is not withheld from the sons of the servant. Rather, that blessing is given and that beyond measure. O Lord, may we, a people of the Spirit, delight in, revel in the endowment given us. May we enjoy this Spirit and delight in the Spirit.

And Father, may we realize that the Spirit, His ministry in us, is unto the end, that by us, in keeping with the pattern seen in the servant, Truly, your purpose would be accomplished to the ends of the earth. We a light, a light that goes forth from us, your worshiping people, our eye kept singular, concentrated upon you. May we therefore glorify you, we the recipients of your grand blessing, welcomed to the ministry whereby light goes forth from us to the ends of the earth, to the end of the age.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

April 19, 1987
From Suffering to Glory

This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Suffering Servant” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, April 12, 1987.

About this sermon

The five servant songs, reviewed together here, show a real progression: as the servant’s suffering grows more explicit, so does his glory, the two never separated. Christ’s own reading of this text in Luke 4 announces that progression as already fulfilled in himself. Our union is with the suffering servant in that glory, not merely in his suffering alone.

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Sermon transcript

Luke’s Gospel, chapter four. And we’ll begin reading with the 14th verse, we’ll read through verse 30. And Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit. And news about him spread through all the surrounding district. And he began teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all. And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he entered the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read.

And the book of the Prophet Isaiah was handed to him, and he opened the book and found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are downtrodden, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord. And he closed the book. And he gave it back to the attendant and sat down.

And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed upon him. And he began to say to them, Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. And all were speaking well of him and wondering at the gracious words that were falling from his lips. And they were saying, Is this not Joseph’s son? And he said to them, no doubt you will quote this proverb to me, physician, heal thyself.

Whatever we heard was done in Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well. And he said, truly, I say to you, no prophet is welcome in his hometown. But I say to you in truth, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah when the sky was shut up three years and six months. when a great famine came over all the land, and yet Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to Zarephath, to the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.

And all in the synagogue were filled with As they heard these things. And they rose up and they cast him out of the city and led him to the brow of the hill on which their city had been built in order to throw him down the cliff. But passing through their midst. He went his way. And then from Isaiah. Chapter 61.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners. to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God. To comfort all who mourn, to grant those who mourn in Zion, giving them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting, so they will be called Oaks of Righteousness, the planting of the Lord. that he may be glorified.

Today, our father, your word is proclaimed throughout all the year. Your people are gathering together in order to hear of the great and wonderful deeds accomplished by our God. And held forth before them and before us must be your Son, Jesus Christ. O Father, may it be true that as men and women, as your people wish for a revival of your church, for a revitalization of preaching within the church, that nothing less than that fullness of the gospel would be proclaimed, and no one else but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Lord, we ask that your church, strengthened with this message, would continue to abide under that covering of your grace and that sign of your favor. And Lord, in this fashion, may it please you to prosper her in that design and intent which you have granted her. We pray, Our Father, that you would strengthen us as we would give ourselves in prayer to this end. For Jesus’ sake, amen. It’s a long leap from the 53rd chapter of Isaiah to chapter 61. There is a reason for that long leap.

For chapter 61, the first three verses, is the last of the servant songs in. We have been looking. At those servant songs. The progress and development of the thought of the profit moving from the forty chapter as it sweeps on towards the sixty-six chapter of this prophecy. But along the way we have taken note. Specifically of the servant songs that appear.

I would like, of course, to have those servant songs, at least those servant songs etched in your mind. Of course, I realize that already the fifty-third chapter is well positioned for you. It is well positioned for the church. It is the longest, the most extensive, and I expect in some respects, the most glorious. But there are four other servant songs in this portion of Isaiah’s prophecy. Could you tell me where the first of the servant songs appears? We’ve been in this portion of Scripture for some time now. Could you tell me where that first servant song. Appears. Some of you know some of you look it up. Some of you are there. Coming through. It appears. In the forty second chapter.

It is a brief song of but four verses, and you may note that in style, in content, it doesn’t sound, in certain respects, much different from the last servant song that we read, the one we read this evening from Isaiah 61. In fact, you may Just flip back and forth from chapter forty two to sixty one and notice some of those similarities. Calling them to your attention. We’ll speak about those similarities and specifically the most outstanding in time. But let’s move on now having noted the first where. is the fact.

Now, if there was a lead from chapter fifty three chapter sixty one, there’s also a lead from the first servant song to the second. And you don’t find that second servant song until you arrive at chapter who knows forty nine. Chapter forty nine. Chapter forty nine has a more extensive song given you there. Moving through the first seven verses.

And a number of features there also assert themselves as the servant begins to speak for himself. He here begins to speak in the first person. and a number of things are said of him here that certainly increase our understanding of the servant and give us a much fuller appreciation of his first. The third servant song. Now I’ve heard it already spoken down here. It’s in the fiftieth chapter. Just turn the page. Third servant song is Chapter fifty, beginning with verse four, and moves at least through verse nine. There are arguments as to whether it goes further, but at least it goes through verse nine.

Again, you have the servant speaking in the first person. Very personal song, as he is speaking with regard to his own devotion, and as you note, it also has him speaking in the first person with regard to the suffering that he is to endure. This, in some respects, is as glorious a servant’s song as we have. Now, there’s a reason that I say that, Isaiah 53 notwithstanding, because as the servant is speaking here in the first person, You have him face-to-face with his oppressors, or with the oppression and the affliction that he is undergoing. And the stand of the servant at this point is so utterly remarkable, and so wonderfully, wonderfully glorious, that this song literally leaks out of Isaiah at you. and it leaps out at you in such a way as to catch you up in the servant’s expression.

He has been besieged, but he will not give ground. He has been oppressed and afflicted, but he will not cave in. The resoluteness of his faith is so utterly magnificent that it captures us, our spirits, We alive to him are drawn in by him, so as to be carried along with him in his stand.

You know what he said for the Lord. God helps me. Verse seven. Therefore, I am not disgraced. The disgrace is great. The humiliation extreme, but he doesn’t cave in. The Lord helps me. I’ve set my face like Flint. And I know that I shall not be ashamed. The ultimate vindication justification, the ultimate triumph of this servant undergoing this humiliation, is here portrayed for us.

He who vindicates me is near, verse eight. Who will contend with me? Now we launch into language that reminds us of Romans eight. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who has a case against me? Let him draw nigh to me. Behold, the Lord God helps me. Who is he who condemns me? Sounds like Romans eight, doesn’t it? Behold, they will all wear out like a garment. The moth will eat them.

Well, it’s hard not to get excited when you read that servant song, because it’s not simply a description of the justified servant of God, the coming Messiah. It is a description of everyone who belongs to that justified servant and shares in his justification. In other words, it is your description as well as his.

Well, that brings us, of course, to the fourth servant song, and we spent a great deal of time on this fourth one. It actually starts before Isaiah fifty three, it starts in the thirteenth chapter of Isaiah fifty two and runs on to the conclusion of that fifty third chapter. You know this chapter well, I know a number of you have spent time memorizing. That brings us to the fifth of the servant songs, the one that we read this evening in Isaiah 61. But now I want you to take stock of the suite of these songs as you move through them. There are particular features that come into play, and we’ve already made mention of some of them.

For instance, in some of these servant songs, the servant is described by a third party. It may be the Lord. It may be the prophet, as is the case in Isaiah 53. But the servant may as well describe himself, and so there are a number of I passages. We are struck by the way in which the servant speaks for himself.

So there are those features. And you might notice well, as you move through these songs, the progression with regard to how exactly This servant is described, and the ministry that ministry is described, which belongs to him. For instance, you will note in the first servant song, there is only the hint, the bare hint of suffering. In fact, if you read that initial servant song, the emphasis seems to be on the glory that belongs to this particular figure. Behold, my servant. whom I uphold, my chosen one, in whom my soul delights. I have put my spirit upon him.

He will bring forth justice to the nations.” But by the time you get down to verse four, after a description of his demeanor in the second and third verses, you have there the hint of the extremities he will undergo in in order to fulfill his ministry and his service to God.

He will not be disheartened or crushed. Now, you see, that is language that presupposes the threat of disheartenment and the threat of being crushed. It’s as if before all of the forces arrayed against him that are calculating his demise, that are conspiring to disheartened him that are conspiring to crush him.

He will not give ground. He will not be disheartened. He will not surrender. And thus. As certainly as he endures that. He will establish so verse four ends justice in the year. The coastline will be blessed as they expectantly look for his instruction. Well, the marvelous thing being suggested, and I said barely a hint.

Is that it surely as the servant is destined for that confrontation with the broken spirit, the crushed life. As surely as he is destined to be faced with that, and as surely as he shall be successful in facing those threats, so certainly will the things here spoken of him concerning his glory come to pass.

Did Jesus die? Was Jesus crucified? Do you believe what the Gospel tells you about Jesus being crushed, as it were, being threatened by disheartened, the attack upon his spirit? Do you believe those things? Well, as certainly as that happened, as certainly as Jesus was faced with those threats, as certainly as he was victorious there, so certainly shall the glory here describe. come about.

Can the people of God themselves then be depressed? Can they be depressed? By that I mean Can they be themselves depressed as they look out to the world or they look at the circumstances of the church? And they see that. Incalculable forces are set against them, powers that they don’t seem to have the strength to overcome. Will the church fail? The church will not fail any more than Jesus failed to withstand the threats that were arrayed against him. Now, as so far as it pertains to the success of God’s mission in the world and the success of his church, can we be depressed? Take heart. You may be thinking things don’t look very exciting. I’m not especially thrilled with what I observed. In fact, week by week, I’m more tempted to be depressed than encouraged. Now, get a hold of yourself. Have a good talk with yourself.

Take yourself to the servant’s arms. Look at them and be assured that as sure as Jesus died, so surely shall you try. As surely as Jesus stood his ground in death, so surely shall the people of God unto the end. Now you have the promise of God, and you have the cross of Jesus Christ undergirding you.

Now, don’t misunderstand me. I’m not especially a fan of that type of effervescent Christianity that doesn’t know when to quit smiling. And certainly there may be circumstances that come to you personally. There may be tremendous disappointments for you that give you some very, very distressing and even depressing moments.

But as far as it pertains to the triumph of God’s purpose and intent, be assured of the victory in Christ. Now, there’s therapy here for us all, even in those particular matters that may overtake us day by day, those little distresses and those impressions that come upon us. Because you see, if the way here, Matt, or the seventh, It’s the argument from the greater to the lesser. If the matters of eternity have been resolved, and the ultimate triumph of God’s Church is secure, then what about the littler matters that distress us day by day?

All right, well. There’s only the suggestion of suffering there in the first servant song, but as you move along, you see that that description of the suffering of the Messiah becomes. Fuller and more intense. You have the second servant song chapter forty nine. There are hints of it as you run down through those seven verses. You have even this voice of complaint taken up by the servant. It’s very strange. Verse four. But I said, I foiled in vain. I spent my strength for nothing in vanity, yet surely the justice due to me is with the Lord.

The opening of that verse, it says, if the servant is taking up the complaint of Israel Israel, who truly believes she has toiled in vain and spent her strength for nothing in vanity. But then, as the servant moves on, he moves into triumph. Yet surely the justice due to me is with the Lord, and my reward with my God. What Israel was incapable of saying, the servant says. The steadfastness of his confidence coming to expression there. But note in verse seven. Thus says the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel, and it’s only one to the despised one here. We’re beginning to hear something more about the distress that is coming to the one at four by the nation to the servant of rumors. And that will be expanded further.

You see, when you come to the third servant song. Now, in verse six, you hear, I gave my back, chapter 50, in verse six, I gave my back to those who strike me and my cheeks to those who pluck out the beard. I did not cover my face from humiliation and spitting.

And of course, over in chapter 53, the most extensive exposition of the suffering of the servant is given to you there. So there is a progression as you move through the songs in terms of the exposition of the suffering and humiliation that belongs to the servant of the Lord. And you know also that out of that 53rd chapter truly the reason for the humiliation is the sin of the people which the servant takes to himself he bearing it for them that they may be liberated, they may be set free. Well, that’s the humiliation that you, you see, also have the intensification of the glory.

And that glory moves through the servant songs, too. In the opening servant song, you see that blessing and glory in terms of what he receives. What does he receive in that initial servant song? We are told, Behold my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom my soul delights, I have put my spirit upon him. The glory is focused upon that spirit which the servant receives. The concentration is upon the spirit which the servant receives. The blessings are wrapped up in the spirit. You might note the similarity here between the first servant song and the last. That’s precisely what is said once more. The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me. The coming anointing of the servant, whereby the blessings which he has received are signified. And then there are the blessings which he gives.

And you will note that the emphasis here is not simply upon Israel. Truly, as you move into that sixty-first chapter, you have messages there given specifically to Zion, and we would have in mind there Israel herself, or the people of God, the Church, the Church constituted in the age of blessing. But no less now, you see, as you move through these servant songs in Isaiah forty through sixty-six, An emphasis falls upon the universality of blessing, that it’s not simply going to be to Israel, it’s going to be to all the nations, and thus the sweep of the glory of the servant as it moves out from the center in Israel to the ends of the earth, and all peoples are blessed by what God does in this world. Justice comes, life, salvation. redemption, not just for the Jews, but for the gentiles. Thomas read the servant songs are, and were, by Israel.

That’s why we read this evening, Luke chapter four. Jesus has now received, he has received the signification of the blessing that belongs to him as the servant of the Lord. He has received the Spirit, and he moves now through Galilee in the power of that Spirit, the concentration being upon that Spirit as the blessing, the sign of glory of the coming age of the servant, the Messianic age. but similar. As we hear Jesus then expound that passage from Isaiah sixty one in the synagogue in Nazareth. We hear him not only that the Scripture of which he has spoken is fulfilled in the hearing of the people, but also that the fullness of the blessing that only comes through the visitation of the Spirit upon him, the servant of the Lord, that has become available in the world.

Not just Israel, but hearkening back to the days of Elijah and Elisha, he points out to them the ultimate intention of God, which is to bring deliverance to the nation. be they of Sidon, be they of Syria, be they of Greece, be they of Rome, whatever the tongue, whatever the nation, to the ends of the earth. The spirit then, the concentration point for the blessings received by the servant and the blessings. Distributed by the. Note. Note what is. In the sixty first chapter. In the age of the spirit. We hear good news. For the.

Who are the afflicted? We hear good news for the poor. Who are the poor? The poor are those who wait patiently for the Lord, and recognize the Lord alone as their wealth. Good news comes to them because in the age of the spirit, the wait is over. The broken hearted are tended to.

The captive is set free. Freedom is proclaimed to prisoners, and the year of the Lord’s release is proclaimed throughout the land. You see, the age of the Spirit, the blessings that he gives, concentrate upon relief for those who have waited upon the Lord and also a liberty, a freedom in him, whereby they are not any longer subject.

That day of the Spirit has arrived. It has been inaugurated by Jesus Christ and the power of the Spirit. It progresses. So that unto the day of vengeance of our God. Comfort is granted to us who mourn. Garlands. Instead of ashes. The oil of gladness instead of tears. The cloak of praise. Instead of the spirit of thinking. And we like boats.

Are testaments of righteousness. planted by the Lord in order that in the end. He may be glorified, not just by the servants steadfastness. But by hours. So there you have it. It all comes full circle, doesn’t it? As you take stock of how the servant stands his ground in the face of intimidation and oppression. And then how we, by the grace of God, become, as it were, planted. Also. Standing our ground. The vindicated one. The source of our vindication. Truly.

As the day of vengeance of our Lord passes, we shall hear the words of God, Well done, thou good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. Father, you have moved us through. The servant songs. And we ask that we might be instructed well. By them. That we would see the greatness of the servant who bore our sins. That we might not have to bear them. That we may rejoice.

In his suffering. in that it means that he has taken away our suffering and torment insofar as it pertains to the torment and tyranny of sin. But Lord, as well as we are numbered with him and called to stand our ground in the face of affliction May our hearts rejoice, because He has triumphed, so shall we. He, therefore, Father, would not fear or tremble before men, and endow with Your Spirit the blessings that come from Him and the knowledge that your purpose is to bring your people, your elect, from the four corners of the earth. May we commit ourselves to the causes of the King, to the causes of the servant of the Lord. And may we rejoice in the certainties that are given us through our Savior, Jesus Christ.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

April 12, 1987
The Lion Who Is a Lamb

This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Suffering Servant” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, April 5, 1987.

About this sermon

Christ appears in Revelation 5 as both lion and lamb, an image that makes sense only after Isaiah has introduced his lamb. The lamb offends us more than we admit, because it shows weakness where we expect strength. The servant of 53:7-12 is that same silent lamb, and he dies so that God may exalt his own lambs.

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Sermon transcript

Tonight we are reading from Revelation chapter 5, and then we’ll be turning to Isaiah 53. in the right hand of him who sat on the throne, a book written inside and on the back, sealed up with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book and to break its seals? And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the book or to look into it. And I began to weep greatly because no one was found worthy to open the book or to look into it. And one of the elders said to me, stop weeping.

Behold, the lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has overcome so as to open the book and its seven seals. And I saw between the throne with the four living creatures and the elder a lamb standing, as it slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God, sent out into all the earth. And he came and he took it out of the right hand of him who sat on the throne. And when he had taken the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the lamb, having each one a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying, Worthy art thou to take the book and to break its seals, for thou wast slain, and it is purchased for God with thy blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and thou hast made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God, and they will reign upon the earth. and I looked and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders, and the number of them was myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing, and every created thing which is in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them I heard saying, To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.

And the four living creatures kept saying, Amen, and the elders fell down and worshiped.”

And then from Isaiah 53, beginning with verse 7, He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away, and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living? for the transgression of my people to whom the stroke was due. His grave was assigned to be with wicked men and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in his mouth.

But the Lord was pleased to crush him, putting him to grief. If he would render himself as a guilt offering, he will see his offspring, he will prolong his days. and the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in his hand. As a result of the anguish of his soul, he will see it and be satisfied. By his knowledge, the righteous one, my servant, will justify the many, as he will bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will allot him a portion with the great, and he will divide the booty with the strong, because he poured out himself to death and he was numbered with the transgressors, yet he himself bore the sin of many and interceded for the transgressors.

Our God, your word goes forth this day. How many the pulpits, how many the preachers and father that your word would be spoken of aright, and your servants, those whom you’ve called, that they may speak aright. Our prayer is for the truth of the gospel, that it be heard throughout the world. We glory in the fact that your church endures, and that by your power and through the promise of Christ your Son. And Lord, we ask that as it endures, truly it may be fed week by week from the word which you have given. We pray truly that you would raise up laborers for the harvest and that we would see the grand and glorious reaping of the harvest for yourself, for your glory, through Christ. Amen. There are a few things that are as grand. As the description of the Lord on his throne. As you have him portrayed for you. The fourth chapter of Revelation. As you move to that fifth chapter. You are also moved into a circumstance of conflict. or introduced at the opening of that chapter is the scroll, the book written inside and out, and sealed seven times over.

The problem is that there is no one to open the scroll, and possibly you are ahead of me in understanding the significance of that scroll, for you see the scroll is the purpose and the intention, the decree of God. If the scroll remains unopened, the decrees, the plan is without implementation. And therefore, when there is no one to open the scroll, the response of John is utter devastation. the purpose, the plan, the decree of God, his intention with regard to his elect, it will fail. It will not achieve implementation, and therefore John, as he perceives this scene, as he is made one who perceives the realities of heaven, as he is made then a witness of this drama, he is shattered. In the balance is not simply then the plan and purpose of God, but the salvation of the elect.

Where then will that worthy one come from? Who might he be? And as John weeps, there comes the counsel of a heavenly elder who says, stop your weeping now. Behold, the word here is similar to the counsel of another, one earlier, who stood beside the waters in the desert he too said, Behold. The elder in glory in heaven now says as well, Behold.

And he speaks here not of the Lamb, but of the Lion from the tribe of Judah, that root raised up out of David. So John is prepared. He’s prepared for the Lion. the one who will rule, the one who has authority, and the one who has power. He is prepared for that one to slide out into the scene of heaven. But as he looks, in verse six, he sees between the throne and the elders a lamb. This lion is a lamb. a lamb slain as if slain, and yet having all of the appointments of one who has power and authority, seven horns, seven eyes, the seven spirits of God going out from him over all the earth.

Here, then, is the worthy one. who shall break the seals and thus release the decree of God, the plan and purpose of God himself for the accomplishment of that plan to be sure in salvation of his elect. It is certain. As certain as the presence of the land. as certain as the fact that the lamb was slain and that that lamb is resident by the throne and even upon the throne of God.

But what an utterly incongruous image What an utterly incongruous image. The ruler, a lamb. The ruler, a lamb. How inappropriate the figure. For if we were to imagine a leader If we wish to see a lion, then we’ll hold out for the lion. Leadership, rule, authority and power as we understand it. As that after which we have sought, that which we have expected, it comes under the image of lions. It comes hardly under the image and figure of a lamb.

We admire the aggressiveness of a leader. We admire the drive. But when the image of this lamb intrudes, we’re face to face with an image that suggests opposite things. not aggressiveness, not drive, but just the reverse. And rather than an active personality, instead we are face-to-face with one who seems utterly passive.

What an utterly incongruous image. this lion made over in the form of a lamb. We are liable to be offended, offended indeed. We have spoken about the offense that arises out of Isaiah’s considerations in the fifty-third chapter of his prophecy. And truly, as we are face-to-face with this figure out of Revelation 5, similarly, we may be pushed to the point where we are offended as well.

Hardly a leader. Miss Lamb, passivity, that underscored but even more than the fact that he if that were not offense enough we are told that this lamb stands yes we can see in that the power of God to be sure and that subsequent to the fact that he has been slain this lamb has been slain not just passive not just receptive, not just non-aggressive, but this one has given himself over to death. What kind of leader is this? Are not the leaders of the world more interested in saving their lives than losing them? preserving their place in this world, not giving it up, holding on, not surrendering.

But here is the Lion of Judah. And what confusion he showers upon this age. Yet, how appropriate the image, despite its incongruity. How wonderfully appropriate. Thinking back, our minds flying, we take up the figure of the lamb, that lamb that was introduced into the history of God’s redemptive purposes. We spoke of it this morning out of Genesis twenty-two. Isaac prepared for sacrifice, the knife lifted, the voice out of heaven staying the hand.

Then the provision for the lamb caught in the thicket, the substitute, the lamb’s life for the child. We read later on, as God constitutes for himself a nation in Exodus chapter twelve, that on the eve before the departure of the children of Israel from Egypt, there in Egypt, the lamb is slain. The Passover lamb the lamb, once again a substitute for Israel’s firstborn, the blood of the lamb smeared upon the doorposts and the lentils of the houses of Israel, as the angel of death makes his way through the land, dishing out terror. And also, the sacrificial system of Israel and how that sacrificial system was punctuated with the offering of lambs, not just at the feasts, but every day, morning and evening, a lamb was offered as a whole burnt offering before the Lord. Once more, underscoring the substitutionary character of God’s provision for the people But there’s more to the image than just the substitute.

For you see, the Lamb comes as one innocent. The Lamb comes as one unblemished pure. The Lamb is given as full burnt offering, as I’ve already said. And this underscores the fact that in the offering of the Lamb, there is the symbol for a whole commitment. a whole commitment on to the Lord, nothing held back at all. And beyond the innocency and the totality that is symbolized in this lamb, there is the demeanor of meekness and loneliness associated with this beast.

How appropriate the image when we weave together the considerations that come to us out of the history of salvation. In the Lamb, then, the Lord finds an appropriate image. And in his role as the Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ chooses to portray himself as passive and gives himself over unto death a sacrifice for sin, yours and mine. Well, the appropriateness of the image of the Lamb But how appropriate is the choice of that image in relationship to lordship?

For you see, the elder tells John to expect the lion. And there appears the lamb. And it says, if now the image of the lion The image of that which is symbolic of power, authority, might and strength is overlaid with the figure of the Lamb. This image then of the Lamb ironically becomes expressive of the Lordship which Christ has.

Precisely, precisely in the fact that he is the Lamb, we begin to perceive the power and the sweep, the intensity and the depth of his Lordship. For you see, this Lord chooses, chooses the image of the Lamb. He chooses the image of the Lamb, and that as an expression of His sovereignty. So that, that He is a Lamb, educates us in His Lordship.

It is precisely in his act of giving himself over to death for sin that the character of his lordship is now underscored. For you see, it’s as if worlds are being set over against one another. In this world, lands don’t rule. But the vision that is given of John is of glory, and in glory, lambs rule.

The Lamb of God rules in the world to come, and that is the power, the force, the strength, the might of this use of the image of the Lamb as now it pertains to Lordship and begins to interpret Lordship for us. In the world, he didn’t appear to have any power at all. In the world, he appeared as nothing. In the world, he appears as one that people reject, abuse, scorn, ridicule. He’s one who before his tormentors remain silent, he doesn’t lift his hand against them, he doesn’t break the bruised reading, and he doesn’t extinguish the smoking brand.

It seems in this world, in this age, hardly a law But in the age to come, it is the Lamb, the Lamb who is the Lord. And understand the choices then made by this One who is the Lamb. For in deference to this world’s riches and its prosperity, He makes choices now by which He forsakes them.

In the name of a greater prosperity, in the name of things that endure forever, that last eternally. And that’s the significance, you see, of the sweep of that conclusion to Isaiah 53. If you look at it, verses seven through nine and then ten through twelve, you balance out those passages, you understand that the choices here being made by the servant of the Lord, this one who is the Lamb, is over against the prosperity and the wealth which this world offers in the name of something else altogether. All of this as an exposition of what you find in verse 13 of chapter 52.

Behold my servant, my servant will prosper. What will be his prosperity? Prosperity in this earth? No, he dies. He dies in this world. In this world he is numbered with the wicked in his death. and with the rich as well. So, verses 10 through 12 begin the exposition of the prosperity of the land. Surely the Lord was pleased to crush him, put him to He renders himself a guilt offering there, a reference to his sacrificial character, Dan the Lamb, as it were, taking center stage. But having done that, he will see his offspring. How many children has Christ? How large is house? How many mansions perpendicular? Is there enough room for. He will prolong the day. How do you prolong the days of one. Unless they are prolonged beyond.

To see that for which you live. Not for the things that are temporary and seen here, but those things that are not seen, which only He can give you, the Lamb, who is the Lord. And how it runs on, the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in you. Would you seek the benediction of God? Where else might you find it? in the one who lives forever, to distribute it to his people. As a result of the anguish of his soul, the Lord will see it, he will be satisfied by his knowledge, the righteous one, my servant, will vindicate, justify, declare righteous. Just so you can tell others in this world you’re right, and not wrong, something far grander, before the throne of God, you declared righteous, just, for the sake of the Lamb who died.

He bears the iniquities of his people. I’ve given him a portion with the great. He’ll divide all the booty, all of the spoil with the strong. He is the one who has triumphed, the Lamb. Ironically, numbered with the transgressors. but in numbering himself with the transgressors, he proves his might. This lamb proved the lion the Lord.

He bears the sins of many, and now he lives to make intercession for such as ourselves. Does a dead man intercede for anyone? No. The prosperity in view in 10 through 12 of Isaiah 53 is an eternal. One beyond this world. So now. Understand the mystery. Of the lion who is the land. What power. power seemingly fit for this world to make us kings here so that we construct? No. Not at all.

This lamb has gone before us. and he becomes our teacher and instructor concerning the true nature of the kingdom and prosperity, true prosperity that lasts forever, beyond death. What way for us, Lord, to our home above, but through the cross of Christ, that Lamb, that Lamb who took away the sin of the world? At what root for us except that root established by the Lord, who is the Lamb? by who has power to preserve us and to grant to us the realities of an eternal prosperity. Though we are counted as sheep for the slaughter all the day long, though our lot in this world may be the worst, may even follow literally the path of our Savior, may we be assured that in all these things we are more than conquerors, through Him who loved us, and that there is nothing in all creation, high or low, visible or invisible, that is able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

April 5, 1987
Hopelessness and Hope

This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Suffering Servant” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, March 8, 1987.

About this sermon

The servant’s humiliation, described in 52:14-15’s disfigured appearance, points directly at our own hopelessness apart from him. God’s means of saving the servant, and saving us through him, look impossible by any ordinary measure. Isaiah 11’s picture of the root from Jesse growing out of a stump makes the same point in miniature.

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Sermon transcript

Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit. And the Spirit of the Lord will rest on him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and strength, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. And he will delight in the fear of the Lord, and he will not judge by what he sees, nor make a decision by what his ears hear.

But with righteousness he will judge the poor and decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth, and he will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked. Also righteousness will be the belt about his loins, and faithfulness the belt about his waist. And the lamb will dwell, and the wolf will dwell with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a little boy will lead them. Also, the cow and the bear will graze, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, and the nursing child will play on the pole of the cobra. and the weaned child will put his hand into the viper’s den.

They will not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Then it will come about in that day that the nations will resort to the root of Jesse, who will stand as a standard for the peoples, and his resting place will be glory.” that it will happen on that day that the Lord will again recover the second time with his hand the remnant of his people who will remain from Assyria, Egypt, Hathorah, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Haman, and from the islands of the sea. And he will lift up a standard for the nations and will assemble the banished ones of Israel and will gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth Then the jealousy of Ephraim will depart, and those who harass Judah will be cut off. Ephraim will not be jealous of Judah, and Judah will not harass Ephraim. And they will swoop down on the slopes of the Philistines on the west. Together they will plunder the sons of the east.

They will possess Edom and Moab, and the sons of Ammon will be subject to them. and the Lord will utterly destroy the tongue of the sea of Egypt, and he will wave his hand over the river with his scorching wind, and he will strike it into seven streams and make men walk over dry shod. And there will be a highway from Assyria for the remnant of his people who will be left, just as there was for Israel in the day that they came up out of the land of Egypt. and Isaiah 53, verses 1 through 3.

Who has believed our message, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a tender plant and like a root out of a parched ground. He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon him appearance that we should be attracted to him. He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and like one from whom men hide their face, he was despised and we did not esteem him.

Our father, your word is heard throughout the world. It may well be that the word about us. Sounds forth as your word. A testimony concerning your greatness, a report of how your word has been received by us in our hearts. Truly throughout the world. It is similar for there are many congregations of your people who in receiving your word become, as it were, a message in themselves. Lord, may your epistles, your testament, be inscribed upon our hearts. May we be letters written by you.

We ask, Lord, now that our hearts open to receive well what you have to say for Jesus’ sake. Amen. I have been belaboring this passage a bit and don’t want to apologize for that, of course, But I wish to make the points that I have made again for you, at least in part, adding to what I have said some observations concerning these opening verses from Isaiah 53.

I think by now that it has been impressed upon you that Israel’s predicament is hopeless. Now I cannot say that with enough emphasis and none of us can receive that understanding truly its fullest impact. Do we live without hope? But surely we are not strangers to hopelessness.

We who have been born again by the gospel have hearts filled with hope. Yet, living as we do, do we not take stock of the circumstances out of which we were born? And do we not then rehearse again and again the testimony concerning our forgiveness? apart from the action of God on our behalf. Should I remind you of Ephesians chapter 2?

You are dead in your trespasses and sins, except for the grace of God manifest in Christ, whom God raised from the dead. the utter impossibility of our predicament, and that inscribed upon our minds, that being at the root of our own spiritual experience. That consideration, of course, arising out of what we know to be true concerning Israel and her predicament.

Her circumstance, her situation is utterly impossible. It’s not that you march into exile with hope of return. You march into exile as if walking into the jaws of death. And there is nothing stronger in all of the created order than death. That is the significance, you see, of the statement of Jesus when he is speaking to his disciples at Caesarea Philippi. making his promise to them concerning the future of the church. You may well read his promise along these lines, the gates of death will not prevail against my church. That is, the strongest thing in the entirety of the created order shall not prevail against Well, we look at Israel. These words, of course, here in Isaiah 53, written against the background of the demise of the ten northern tribes. The prospect for the southern tribes, just as dismal, the end being utterly impossible. Shall the people of God be restored? They cannot be. Shall they come back? No, they will not. Will death prevail?

Yes, it seems, except that God himself acts. But now you see, having taken in the impossibility of Judah’s Israel’s situation. The prophet moves on spokesman of God and describes to you the situation of the servant. The impossibility of Judah’s circumstance, the point of Israel If indeed that is impossible, and yet now God, by His prophet bringing word to His people, that they shall triumph nonetheless back by His doing.

He shall accomplish it, no one else. Will they have strength in and of themselves in Babylon? Will they have any power or might before the nations that take them captive? Are they not sold into slavery and unto death and dissolution? It is true, but God shall triumph, and they shall be congregated again upon Zion, and there prays God.” This, of course, by the power of His Word.

So, as we have said before, if this leaves people awestruck and dumbfounded, we move on and consider the estate of the servant described at the end of chapter 52. For even more astonishing will be the end of that servant. If the world stood in amazement at what happened to Israel in her they will even more so be amazed at what transpires in and to and through the servant. For if there has been humiliation experienced by Israel, the humiliation will be even greater, far greater, infinitely greater for the servant. If there has been a fall for Israel, she having fallen from the heights, how much greater the fall for the servant, and that margin, the seriousness, the incredible seriousness of the humiliation endured, undergone by the servant. He is more marred than anyone, simply because the distance between his glory and humiliation is greater than any.

Well, the circumstance and situation for the servant will also be one of impossibility. As it has been for the people, so it will be for the servant. He will undergo the impossibility of their circumstance and know it at its depths. But in the midst of it all, as the servant himself has confessed throughout these portions of Isaiah, he will put his trust in God alone.

Where might we look? Truly, where is our hope? Gazing upon ourselves, into ourselves, upon our conditions of heart and mind, we find nothing within ourselves that generates hope whatsoever. Our hope is God. facing the impossibility of arising from death is the servant who, because of the Lord now and the Lord’s vindication, he prospers.

But you see, as you move into chapter fifty-three, The impossibility of the circumstances facing the people at large is compounded. So not only are you facing the impossibility of their circumstance, they going into exile and there being no hope of life except through God. Now, as you take up the opening statements of the fifty-third chapter, you are confronted with the impossibility of something else.

Not just of life from the grave. Not just of being rescued from this death-dealing exile. But in the face of all that the Lord has said, even through his prophet, All of the promises that are here being spoken and articulated well. You are faced with the impossibility of belief. It will not just be a matter of you being rescued. It will be a matter of you even believing that you can be rescued.

For not even that much will be found in you who have believed our report and to whom is the arm of the Lord been revealed. Those two questions are shot as it were from a cannon. The blast is overwhelming. For it sounds as if in response to those questions, Isaiah in speaking them expects the answer to be, no one. maybe even better, who can believe? The impossibility of the people being regrouped, marched back westward from Babylon to the land. But then you see compounding the impossibility of Israel’s circumstance is the impossibility of belief within the people left to themselves.

Is there a reason why you are a Calvinist? Was it simply because you happened to find this church? You stumbled over it? Was it because you were raised in it? Has it gripped you? Has it gripped you, the reformed character of your testimony? Do you realize what you’re saying when you confess the fact that you are of the reformed faith?

We are not here simply speaking glibly about the impossibility of life out of death apart from the work of God. We are speaking about something even more serious than that. You cannot even believe unless it is granted to you from above. You can’t even take a step towards God unless He draws you. There is not an ounce of strength within you apart from what He is about within you.

Let this register upon you. Let it settle in. Do we pat ourselves on the back tonight because we have the good sense to come and hear the word? Do we congratulate ourselves because we have the good sense to accept the offer that’s given? And that somehow separates us from our neighbors.

I believe that that poor slob You can’t even believe apart from the work of God in you. Your faith, your faith is a gift of God. Let her impossibility of our circumstance then we thinking the power of death we cannot live apart from God but consider it as has been said often a dead man does nothing he doesn’t even believe therefore if we are to believe the report If we are to receive the revelation of a mighty and wonderful work of God, it must be through the work of God in our hearts. the theme of impossibility as we move down into the fifty-third chapter. First of all, with regard to the impossibility of our circumstance of that compound.

But we look at the servant himself, too, and this now being emphasized for us. Looking at that second verse of the fifty-third chapter. For he grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of parched ground. I’ve already suggested to you that the circumstance of the servant is impossible apart from God. And witness to that is given to us here by reference to the parched ground.

You’re looking at the desert. You’re looking at a situation circumstance that in the mind of the prophet as he speaks wherein it is impossible for life to come forth. It’s not just a strange occurrence, it’s an impossible occurrence. The root does not arise out of the harsh ground. Now the background in some regard for this is what we read in Isaiah 11 tonight. We heard there, in the opening of that chapter, about the branch, the stem coming out of the root of Jesse. And once more, the image is of a felled tree. The tree is dead. And the branch comes forth.

As with regard to the servant himself, the circumstance is utterly impossible. It is only God who brings life out of death. or just as this root spoken of in verse two of chapter fifty-three is seen against the arid background of the parched ground, so that branch is seen springing forth from the stump of Jesse. The marvelous transformation, so that now life is there in the place of death, and glory appears in the place where only humiliation was known formally. But the impossibility is underscored here, so as to stress the fact that the servant knows that infinitely.

There is something else here, too. For it’s as if we are dealing here with a double image in treating the tender shoot, the root, that appears in the dry, parched ground. Added to the impossibility of the servant’s restoration is the uselessness So the image here is not of a branch coming out of a stump, it’s of a runner. It’s of what has been called a sucker going out along the ground. A wild growth that saps from the plant, its strength, so utterly useless is it that it is to be cut off and thrown away.

And it is with that image, then, that the prophet proceeds. For he suggests to you now that the form of this one, this servant, who appears is as utterly useless. He is viewed as meaningless in the program and purpose of God. How can it be that God would ever place any value upon this one? How could it be that the one who takes this form, the one whose life appears in this manner. How can it be that God can place any value upon him?

So it is the impossibility becomes all the more complex. For you see, it is not just the fact that there is an impossible situation facing Israel. But it’s not just the fact that there is an impossible situation facing the servant, one that he takes to himself. There isn’t only an impossible situation facing us with regard to our belief. But now, as we look at the servant and his form, we say it is utterly impossible for the Lord of Glory, for the God that we know and have worshipped, It is utterly impossible for him to achieve his purposes through such a one as this.

And if you don’t get the snarl in your voice, you miss it. If the contempt is not there in your own voice as you speak, you miss it. The Prophet does not shy away here, you see, in speaking with first-person plural pronouns by which he includes himself, so that the contempt, the snarl, is in effect registering itself upon him, he being numbered with the people. who see the form of the servant as utterly contemptuous. You read the last part of the third verse.

It’s unfortunate that we allow some of these verses to stand as they do, for we don’t talk this way anymore. And the impact of the language is often lost to us. He was despised and we did not esteem him. What does that mean? We did not esteem him. It means this, we didn’t think anything of him. We viewed him as completely useless and meaningless for the accomplishment of God’s purposes.

Well, of course. There is a miracle already at work. There is the manifestation of the power of God already at work, for the prophet is speaking from the standpoint of faith, one obviously already visited by God, enabled to believe himself. And as you read it and you include yourself in the passage As you to speak with first-person plural pronouns, we are. As you speak in this fashion, you to have been moved. and that by God, out of the impossibility of your circumstance and situation, to believe that which is utterly impossible. And now, as surely as the Prophet, as the Prophet looks upon the form of this One and embraces Him as His own, you do the same.

And you own Him as your Savior, that One who has come to bear your griefs and carry your sorrows. That one stricken, smitten for you, afflicted, pierced through for your transgressions and crushed for your sins, recognizing full well that the chastisement that you deserve has fell, fallen upon him.

And you’ve been healed. You have been restored. The lost sheep have been sought out, found, and all of your iniquities have been laid upon the Lamb of God, this great, glorious, incomparable servant for your sakes. You have to love him. You have to love him. Now that your hearts have been moved by the work of God, given faith as a gift, the impossibility of your own believing removed.

You embrace the one who is marred beyond description. The one for whom you formerly had contempt, against whom you could only snort. The purposes of God reside in him alone. He being the focus of our hope and confidence. Life in the place of death. Righteousness in the place of sin. Glory in the place of judgment.

Have we not stood afar off, Lord? Snarling within ourselves, as it were, how could you save with such a one as this? For we did not esteem him. We viewed him as a worthless runner a worthless sucker draining strength from the true plant possibly which we considered ourselves to be but this root, this stem is our hope and you have made him glorious Our Father, before the impossibility of our circumstance, now made plain to us afresh that nothing is impossible with you, certainly not our salvation.

That being completely and fully a work done by you because of your inexplicable grace. O Lord, May we grow up in all respects into the fullness of our Savior. And Lord, we pray that we would be at peace with the manner in which you have revealed him, the way in which you have brought our salvation to pass.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

March 8, 1987
Amazement at the Gospel

This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Suffering Servant” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, February 22, 1987.

About this sermon

Real amazement runs through Scripture’s great turning points, Isaac’s near-sacrifice, Lazarus’s tomb, Paul’s own conversion, and it belongs here too. Isaiah’s own amazement at Israel’s blindness sets the emotional register for the whole passage. The servant’s aloneness and rejection is the necessary road from death to life, not an unfortunate detour around it.

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Sermon transcript

Reading from Isaiah 52 verse 13 and into the 53rd chapter once more. Isaiah 52 verse 13. Behold, my servant will prosper. He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted. Just as many were astonished at you, my people, so his appearance was marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men. Thus he will sprinkle many nations. Kings will shut their mouths on account of him, for what had not been told them they will see, and what they had not heard they will understand.” has believed our message, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed. For he will grow up before him like a tender shoot and like a root out of a parched ground.

He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to him. He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and like one from whom men hide their face, he was despised and we did not esteem him. Surely our griefs he himself bore, and our sorrows he carried, yet we ourselves esteemed him, stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was pierced through for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities. The chastening of our well-being fell upon him, and by his scourging we are healed. All of us, like sheep, have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way, but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him.

That’s a marvelous thing, your word, our God. For we understand that it is the vehicle of your spirit and your spirit with the word brings life. O Lord, we ask that we might not simply read words on a page, that we would not simply hear words hanging in the air. We pray, rather, that our understanding of your word would never leave us with the dead letter. but with the Spirit and the fullness of that administration granted to us in Christ, for through that administration by the Spirit and Your Word we have been made alive. We pray, Lord, that Your Word this day may in fact accomplish Your purpose, that our hearts would assent unto that purpose, that you would accomplish your ends by the means you have appointed for your glory. We pray it in the name of Christ, the living word. Amen.

Isaiah 53 is meant to surprise you. Isaiah 53 is formed, written, it is communicated as a surprise. I’m not even certain that the word surprise actually captures what is going on here. It’s more as if something like an astonishment, a disarming amazement, is overtaking the Prophet as he speaks.

Surprise, maybe better, astonishment, amazement. who can believe our message, and to whom possibly could the arm of the Lord be revealed, given the substance and the character of the revelation that is in front of us. How would we calculate the weight of this surprise. How would you assess the power of what is being conveyed here? With what force would it register upon you? Well, think of those amazing things which the Lord has done.

Place yourself as a servant in the household of a wandering Aramean, tracing through the Middle East nearly 4000 years ago, living 13 centuries before Isaiah. He is a hundred years old. His wife is eighty. And as one scripture says about this couple, his own body was as good as dead, as was his wife’s womb. The situation is utterly impossible. Utterly, completely impossible.

But into the midst of that impossibility, and out of its impossibility, there comes a child born of promise, and that by the power of God. The child’s name. The child’s name is Isaac. His name means laughter. And you see, initially that laughter was a twitter. A somewhat embarrassed twitter at that. laughter that had within it a note of scorn and disbelief. But in the end, that laughter is filled with surprise and amazement and astonishment. So that we should read into that name, Isaac, all the amazement and astonishment it will bear. Isaac! Isaac! Literally life out of death. And are you not, as a member of that household, yourself amazed? How do you weigh the surprise, the amazing? Place yourself in Palestine 2,000 years later, outside of a house in Bethany.

The Lord of that house has died and is now four days gone and laid in a tomb. There is one man who approaches that scene and it seems as if for that man the family has waited. But now, he turns from the family to the tomb. He commands over all of the objections raised, that the stone be rolled back.

And he cries out, Lazarus, come! But Lazarus, he’s dead. Lazarus, come! But it’s impossible for Lazarus to come. And you, standing among all those who have gathered, possibly your cheeks with tears stained, look at this man with a deep sense of incredulity. And suddenly, Out of the darkness of the tomb, into the darkness of the entranceway, there appears the man, Lazarus, alive. The amazement! Are you not dumbstruck And overcome at the sight of this conveyed to you by the Spirit and through the Word, are you not overcome with emotion and joy? You are thrilled, amazed, astonished.

How do you weigh it? How do you calculate it? before you sit in Ephesus in the first century. A member of a congregation newly formed there, and to you now comes a letter from a man who means a great deal to you because it is by root of his ministry that you have been introduced to Jesus Christ. And this man says to you, emphatically, you were dead in your trespasses and sin.

But what amazement, what astonishment, when that same passage goes on to say, but even when we were dead in our transgressions, Christ made us alive together in him. the weight of that astonishment, amazement, surprise. Let the Scripture settle in upon you as you absorb the force and strength of what is being said here to Israel by God through His prophet, Isaiah.

There are a few psalms, like Psalm 126. When the Lord brought back the captive ones of Zion, we were like those who drank. Then our mouth filled. Then our mouth was filled with laughter. Remember Isaac Then our mouth was filled with laughter, our tongue with joyful shouting. Then they said among the nations, the Lord has done great things for them. The Lord has done great things for us. We are glad. We are amazed. We are astonished. We are surprised.

Feel then the power of that message through the prophet to his people. And how it is that the prophet, now a spokesman of God, cannot contain himself. He bursts forth in some of the finest poetry written in all the Old Testament. How lovely on the mountains are the feet of him who brings the good news. the tidings of good things.

You see, then, what is being said as this gospel is heralded by Isaiah. This gospel goes forth out against the background of the Assyrian devastation. You may notice what is said in verse four of chapter fifty-two. For, thus says the Lord God, my people went down at first into Egypt to reside there. Then the Assyrian oppressed them without cause. It is against the background of that Assyrian devastation and the fact that Jerusalem’s captivity now is inevitable. It is the matching of the Assyrian disaster with Jerusalem’s demise. that’s so overwhelmed already in Isaiah’s day, the Israel, the ten tribes of the north, have been removed and swallowed up by death and the same fate awaits Jerusalem, except except the Lord himself asserts to Jerusalem. verse six of chapter fifty-two. He dispenses his emissary with the message of his rule. Your God reigns, he says. He restores Zion, he comforts his people, verses seven through nine. He redeems Jerusalem, verse nine again.

These glad tidings burst out over a landscape of hopelessness. For Jerusalem is as good as dead, and as surely dead as the ten northern tribes. Her circumstance is beyond remedy. She is like unto a valley filled with human bones of many long deceased. But God’s Spirit is the wind, and he breathes upon those bones life, and they come together, sinews slap to them and flesh, and into them that spirit exhales the breath of life. Out of death comes life. And with Israel’s resurrection, out of the tomb of captivity, there is this amazement, astonishment, this absolute surprise.

Now note, that that amazement and astonishment is not reserved or restricted. It is not restricted to Israel. For the Prophet makes it clear that this amazement and astonishment, though it is something that is observed in Israel because of Israel, She who was dead is now alive. Nevertheless, the Lord has bared his holy arm in the sight of all of the nations, verse ten of chapter fifty-two, and concluding on with that verse, that all the ends of the earth may see the salvation of our God. So you see, what amazement, what astonishment there was for Israel is not restricted for her. It belongs to the earth, to the nations, and God is revealing himself before them. They shall see this wonder. And if there has been laughter in Israel, there shall be laughter as well amongst the Gentiles. amazement, astonishment in Israel, and yes, similarly, amazement, astonishment before the nations.

But the prophet isn’t done. For it’s hardly enough to point out to Israel and to the nations the amazing thing which God has done With regard to the captivity, there is yet a greater humiliation in God’s plan. There is yet a greater and more desperate humiliation in God’s plan than the captivity of Israel. and there is yet a more astonishing and more amazing thing to be accomplished by the Lord. Verse 13, Chapter 52. Into the midst of this consideration of Israel’s plight and subsequent release comes the presentation of Don’t miss out on the astonishment and amazement attached to him.

For the Prophet tells us that just as the world was amazed at Israel’s restoration, they will be amazed at the prosperity of the servant. But you see, The situation for the servant is even more complicated and even more desperate. For the Prophet goes on to say that his appearance will be marred more than any man, his form more than the sons of men. He, in an enigmatic phrase, speaks about him sprinkling the nations.

The nations, they are introduced again. By him, then, through him, in light of what is accomplished in him, kings will shut their mouths. What they had not been told, they will see. What they had not heard, they will understand. They will comprehend in light of the servants’ work. Before the nation, this one, humbled even further than the Jews going into captivity in Babylon, this one will be the means by which the nation is introduced into the Prophet’s message. Everything to this point, at least in our consideration of these passages, has been sweetness and light. amazement, astonishment, laughter, joy, gladness, these things are good news indeed.

But now the discordant note comes. Who believes our report? The arm of the Lord upon whom is it revealed. There’s a note of alarm and amazement and surprise in the process. But it’s an inversion of what we have been considering so far, because here you see, it’s not something positive, it’s something quite negative.

Who’s to read our message as if the only appropriate response to that question is, no one? No one. And the force of it is made even more gripping, as you see that these questions are directed not to the nations, as they have been dealt with at the conclusion of chapter 52, but to Israel. How amazing indeed Israel, having experienced her liberation from Babylon, She having been born out of a dead womb, she having all of that laughter and amazement and astonishment as part of her history, as part of her identity. But now we come to this description of the servant who is destined to prosper, who is destined to be exalted, and the prophet steps back in amazement himself and says, who has believed our report? No one. Not in Islam. They don’t believe. And why?

Because they never understood the meaning of the dead wound. And they never understood the meaning of the captivity. And they cannot, for the life of them, grasp the significance of their own humiliation. And now the servant of God strides onto the scene and he confronts them with themselves.

And what is their response? It isn’t amazement and astonishment and joy and gladness. It is hatred. Rejection. They cannot stand the sight of him. But even at that, we aren’t finished. Even then, we are not concluded. The amazement, the astonishment, is also wrapped up in the man himself here described, the servant. Who would have expected the servant of the Lord to look like this?

And what an offense he is! He appears as one who can’t even defend himself. He’s but a tender shoot. He’s a root appearing on a parched ground. There’s no hope for him at all. And what kind of form has he? One with regal carriage. He has no stately form. He has no majesty to speak of. That we should look on him. That we should even be attracted to him. What a surprise this servant is. He’s so surprising I don’t want anything to do with him. And how will a man without a people do anything? This one appears as one despised, forsaken of men, utterly solitary and alone.

Do you know anything about loneliness? Have you read stories of people who have been in prison? Has it been a part of your life? Maybe sometime in college? Nobody around. You’re convinced. Nobody cares. Utter solitude. You know something about rejection? the greatest weight upon people the fear of rejection not being accepted standing on the outside looking in what terror grabs a heart when confronted with such a prospect well here he is Jews hate solitude now in their community they might not like each other very much but they wouldn’t live without one another and they despise Solitude that is why they are known for their community spirit and character Nothing spells curse more to the Jew than utter complete isolation Well here he is The servant Not just rejected by the nation’s I mean, they’ve come off pretty well, given the end of chapter fifty-two. This one is rejected by his own people. Who can stand it? A man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, and like one from whom men hide their face, he’s despised.

And we thought nothing of him. But then you see, the amazement is taking hold once more as the Prophet goes on in verses 4 through 6 of that 53rd chapter. By this despised, forsaken, solitary figure, this man of sorrows, this one acquainted with Greece, he is the one who is bearing in himself our Greece, our sorrows.

This one stricken, smitten of God pierced through for what? My transgressions. Crushed for my iniquities. The well-being of my life and soul is won by a chastening exacted upon Him. He’s beaten and I am healed. I was the one who went astray. I turned to my own way. But the Lord has heaped upon him my iniquity, my sin. There is that amazement, that astonishment. Who’s believed our report? No one. There is that amazement and astonishment when we’re confronted with the visage of this servant.

But then, you see, as you move through it, Everything is becoming clear. The significance of that humiliation, born by Abraham and by Sarah, we begin to understand, and we comprehend the significance of Isaac. We know from inside out the meaning of the captivity in Egypt first, and then in Babylon later. We understand it. We understand it because it is now mediated to us, interpreted for us, through Christ the servant.

We are indeed purged by way of Him. Through Him we are cleansed and healed. We are made new so that rather than being buried in death with the stone rolled over our tomb, we are brought forth as Lazaruses to sing the praises of gladness in the light of day, astonished, amazed, cheered, delighted, and not a little surprised. Well then, the weight of the astonishment, the amazement, nothing less than this. Life. Out of death. Life. Out of death. It’s impossible. Oh no it’s not. Do you believe that?

Now we ask that your spirit sweep through us, urging us that we, devoid of doubt, would be filled with faith. We beseech you, Lord, that we, your people made alive, would laugh joyously in the face of death. and the threat of sin, we truly victors and victorious through the suffering servant, the Lord Jesus Christ.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

February 22, 1987
The Plural ‘Our’ of Isaiah 53

This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Suffering Servant” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, February 8, 1987.

About this sermon

The plural ‘our’ running through 53:1-6 matters more than it first appears, Isaiah counting himself among the very people needing the servant’s suffering. That servantlike humility mirrors the servant’s own. Matthew 20:28’s summary of the gospel, that Christ came to give his life a ransom for many, is simply this passage restated.

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Sermon transcript

Tonight we are reading from Isaiah chapter 52, verse 13, through chapter 53, verse 6. This is Isaiah 52, verse 13, through the first six verses of chapter 53. Behold, my servant will prosper, he will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted. Just as many were astonished at you, my people, so his appearance was marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men.

Thus he will sprinkle many nations, kings will shut their mouths on account of him, for what had not been told them, they will see, and what they had not heard they will understand. Who has believed our message, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he will grow up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of a parched ground.

He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to him. He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and like one from whom men hide their face, he was despised and we did esteem him not. Surely our grief he himself bore, and our sorrows he carried. Yet we ourselves esteemed him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted, but he was pierced through for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The chastening of our well-being fell upon him, and by his scourging we are healed. All of us, like sheep, have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way. But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him. It’s great.

So now on this day, our Lord, your word goes out especially. And father, beneath your sky, under your heavens that word echoes around the globe. We would pray on behalf of those who speak the word, and Lord, may your church be blessed by good and sound proclamation of the truth of the gospel. Indeed, may the good news go forth and may the feet of those who carry it be beautiful indeed. Our Father, we ask for the responsiveness of your people, that this too would be evident throughout the world, that your Church would be blessed in the fullness of that love of its Savior. O Lord, may that love grow more and more and may there be that abounding in grace perceived by us. And Lord, to this end, may we continue to hear your word and may we continue to pray that you would send laborers into your harvest.

We ask it in Christ’s name. Amen. Isaiah 53 begins with two questions. Who has believed our message and its parallel? To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? Now, in looking at these dual questions, it is important for us to grab hold of precisely who is asking these questions, and also attempt an answer at to whom they are directed.

With regard to the message itself, That message that goes out is nothing less than the good news of which we have been speaking, that good news that has been introduced to us with the 7th verse of the 52nd chapter. Now, it can be argued, of course, that the good news commences with chapter 40, and the word that goes forth from the prophet concerning comfort extended to the people of God. But specifically in this context, it is that good news that is spoken of in the seventh verse of the 52nd chapter. How lovely on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who announces peace and brings good news of well-being, who announces salvation and says to Zion, your God reigns. This good news, then, in this context, has its base in the promised deliverance of Israel, namely the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, the deliverance of Israel from the death of captivity.

Indeed, the ten northern tribes have already faced that fate. At the hands of the Assyrians, the threat has come south to Jerusalem and Judah. Even though Jerusalem is spared this threat, she now will not be spared a further threat, the threat of Babylon, the threat of the Chaldeans that looms on the horizon. The deliverance that is promised to Israel, therefore, comes against the certainty of death, wherein Israel will descend into the depths in her captivity in Babylon. The bearing of the arm of the Lord in the sight of the nation will be the return of the exiles, the restoration from captivity for Israel. Verse 10 of that 52nd chapter, the Lord has bared his holy arm. There you have language that is similar to what we find at the beginning of the 53rd in the sight of all the nations, all the ends of the earth, may see the salvation of our God.

But as astonishing as this deliverance, this salvation is. So now the prophet introduces something even more astounding, more astonishing for exceeding The deliverance and the marvel accompanying that deliverance that is overtaking Israel will be that which we observe in the servant introduced in verse thirteen. Behold, my servant will prosper. And this, this deliverance, this salvation that passes before our eyes in the servant, how remarkable a thing it will be when you see introducing the servant as he does, he means for us to see that servant against the background of the captivity that Israel herself has experienced. Understand the parallels then. As Israel goes into captivity and down into the depths of death, she shall be resurrected, she shall come out, she shall be brought to life again, and the sight of this will be astounding, and the nations themselves will be astonished.

But even more remarkable than this humiliation on the part of Israel and subsequent exaltation will be that which is observed in the server. Or what is overtaking Israel is merely a preparation for that which will transpire in the server. And more than the marring and the facing that has taken place in Israel, so will his marring and defacing be, or he will be marred and defaced more than any man is form, war, defaced, and marred than the sons of men. But, having been marred and defaced, having experienced death, he will be exalted.

Moving from humiliation to exaltation, he will prove to be the means for the purifying of the nations. Thus he will sprinkle many nations. And he will prove to be the reason for the speechlessness of kings, those high and lifted up, and the cause of faith among peoples of the earth. Thus he will sprinkle many nations. Kings will shut their mouths on account of him, for what had not been told them they will see, and what they had not heard they will understand.”

It’s a remarkable message. this good news that seems here to center in Israel, but also has this impact upon the nations as well. But it is precisely against the background of what appears to be a general acceptance by the Gentiles of this good news, this message spoken of by the prophet, that the questions that open chapter fifty-three are introduced. Now we might say, that these questions are quite simple and need not be complicated or compounded whatever. We might look at them simply and say that the one who speaks, the one who asks these questions is none other than the Prophet himself, the Prophet Isaiah. He, taking up the role here of the preacher, the preacher of good news, and his message including them, these questions which he directs towards a specific audience. We might also say that the question of the audience, those to whom the questions are directed, is not complicated, is a matter uncluttered, doesn’t need to be compounded at all, he simply has Israel in view, as the people of God rather indiscriminately considered in view. So the message goes out from the preacher Isaiah to the people Israel. But notice now, notice now, as this preacher, this prophet speaks, that he uses a specific form of address. Note its introduction. Who has believed our report? Who has believed our report?

As you move down through the first six verses of this chapter, you notice that this plural pronoun, first person plural pronoun, is used consistently throughout. Isaiah then, we have said, speaking as the prophet, speaking as the preacher, the messenger of the good news, but we take note of the plural pronouns and that causes us to pause.

Is Isaiah alone? Is Isaiah alone? Are there those who stand with him who are included in the plural pronouns used? Or what intent does the plural pronoun have? You will note that from verses 7 through 12, the plural pronouns drop out. But here, the address is very direct, and the plural pronouns are consistently used. Does Isaiah, in speaking, stand alone?

Or, asked differently, who would in fact stand with him? Well, there are three suggestions presented. First of all, it is suggested that Isaiah here is reflecting upon himself and a company, a very small band of preachers that have gathered around him in Jerusalem, that he is speaking here on behalf of that small company of disciples. If you were to turn back to Isaiah chapter 8 and notice the statements that are made there by the prophet, he there makes reference to those who stand with him.

Bind up the testimony, he says in verse sixteen, seal the law among my disciples. There it is. And I will wait for the Lord who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob. There’s judgment upon Israel. I will even look eagerly for God. I alone with these disciples, they with me looking expectantly. Verse eighteen. Behold, I and the children whom the Lord has given me are for signs and wonders in Israel from the Lord of hosts who dwells on Mount Zion.

So it is that we have this first suggestion then, that Isaiah here doesn’t speak by himself alone, but when he uses the plural pronouns, he has in view that select group of preachers that have gathered themselves around him as disciples to a master. And this small band then stands over against Israel as a whole. The company of Isaiah, his disciples, over against Israel as a whole. Now, this approach has a tremendous amount of power, for we realize as well, when Jesus appears on the scene, he gathers to himself disciples. most likely against the background of what appears here in Isaiah, and they become a small band that is set over against Israel as a whole, as if in this band, these disciples in relationship to their master, they are in effect bringing about a new Israel, intent upon serving God in purity, while Israel races on to destruction in apostasy.

So you see, there is power to that, and we may not exclude from Isaiah 53.1 that kind of a consideration.

In light of this, then, the hour, O you who are, of Isaiah 53.1 is thought to be Isaiah’s school of the prophets, who together with him are faithful to the Lord in a time of wholesale apostasy within the nation.

Suggestion number one. Suggestion number two. Here we are told that Isaiah is actually referring to an aggregate of Israelites beyond the mere band of disciples He is here being consistent with his theology of the remnant. That theology, that idea, that theme enunciated for us as early as the first chapter of the prophecy and carried on throughout. The notion of the remnant.

You remember one instance in which that idea of the remnant was introduced? That classic chapter, Isaiah 7? Isaiah is going to speak with King Ahaz, and accompanying him is his son. Do you remember his son’s name, spoken of in the third verse of that seventh chapter? Shir Jeshu. That was his name. What a name, huh? The son named Shir Jeshu. What does that name mean?

It means, a remnant shall return. A remnant shall return. theme of the remnant is as close at hand as the 51st chapter of this prophecy. If you look at chapter 51 and notice verse 11, see there the idea of the remnant. So the ransomed of the Lord will return. Verse 11, chapter 51. So the ransomed of the Lord will return and come with joyful shouting to Zion and everlasting joy will be on their heads they will obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing will flee away. So, the idea of the remnant. In other words, the plural hour, O-U-R, of chapter 53, verse 1, refers to those who return from the captivity, collectively considered who have then gone through that experience of deep, death-dealing humiliation, and now, through a resurrection out of the power of God, have embraced the good news in all of its depth. They then are the ones who speak in the prophet’s words.

Again, we cannot minimize the power of this consideration. In our own time, a theology of the remnant, the theme of the remnant, is played down. We are told that the Orthodox Presbyterian Church suffers from a remnant mentality. It thinks that it alone is faithful to the Lord in the midst of a sea of apostasy. It may well be that we could do with a good injection of remnant theology ourselves and the Church as well. For there’s nothing, nothing, out of the prophets and out of the testimony of the New Testament that tells us, suggests to us, that it’s time for us to lay aside a remnant identity for the people of God. Rather, we should understand that deeper and deeper as we live unto God.

And, surely, the remnant is related to the person of Jesus Christ. For, in fact, when the Lord Jesus appears, the remnant is reduced to one. Jesus Christ, the faithful remnant, and those who belong to Him by faith, called of the Father, join to Him. are a company who speak on behalf of the marvelous works of God, the good news issues forth from them, they having been ransomed from death and the ravages of sin.

So these two suggestions, with regard to the plural pronouns, our report in verse 1 of chapter 53, But there’s yet another, deeper, more comprehensive yet. It is suggested that we witness here in the plural pronouns introduced to us right away, that we witness here something of the impact of the person described. Now, hang with it a bit. Hang with it. It is suggested that we observe here something of the impact upon Isaiah of the person he is describing. The servant. The suffering servant of the Lord. This is as high as heaven, and as deep as Sheol. I might suggest to you that it is not a strange thought, nor something that is not found elsewhere in scripture.

In fact, I would contend with you that if you know the Apostle Paul well, you would find that this is a breathing of his heart at its very center. All right, we witness here, so say some, something of that impact upon Isaiah, of the very one he here describes. That is to say, the prophet Isaiah using these plural pronouns now throughout the first six verses, does so in order to demonstrate in his very person the effect of the one he describes. Now we are moving beyond a mere consideration of the gospel in terms of words, and even in terms of some marvelous transformation of reality through the events that have taken place in history. We’re now looking at the gospel as an internal renovator. The gospel is something that has the power to turn a man inside out. and make of him something that he would not be ordinarily. A constraint laid upon him that is unlike any constraint found anywhere. A power unparalleled. Unmatched. Literally as high as heaven. Deeper than shield. The veritable wisdom of God. Now, if you want to back up and consider Isaiah’s statements about the astounding character of Israel’s deliverance from Babylon, you are running into something that is far more astounding than that, and even more compelling and dramatic.

And so it is, as it has been suggested that now the Prophet uses the plural collective pronouns, first person plural, in order to demonstrate in his very person the effect of the one he describes. This he does. as if collecting within himself the full force of Israel’s identity and destiny. As if, in these words, then you find Israel’s definition and her goal, her reason for being, And the prophet, realizing that, is brought right up against his own significance, if there is to be meaning in me. And if I am to have significance in this world, within the context of Israel, in relationship to Israel and to Israel’s God, then such an understanding of myself can be found nowhere else than in my confrontation with this One that I describe. here, within myself, coming to bear upon me the full force of my identity and destiny. And apart from these considerations and the consideration of the one here described, I don’t know who I am, and I do not have the faintest idea where I’m going. His words then are spoken ideally, as if the ideal character of God’s people were coming to expression in Him, and now He’s collectively gathering them up in Himself. Our report, our message. We looked upon Him. We were not attracted. We did not esteem him, count him of any worth.

The ideal character for Israel, that which passes before the eyes of the Prophet, it being revealed to him, he having believed the message, that ideal character is nothing less than what we find in the servant himself. For you see, the prophet is being conformed to the servant. and is himself now constrained to number himself with the people.

It’s not Isaiah then, alone, over there by himself. It’s not even Isaiah with a bunch of his friends. It’s not even Isaiah in the midst of the remnant. It’s Isaiah collectively, drawing to himself as if by a magnet, all of Israel, and subsuming all of Israel within himself.

The prophet, in conformity to the servant, is himself constrained to number himself with the people. No haughty or self-righteous withdrawal into a cloak of smug satisfaction. Rather, the prophet in the company of the ideal Israel. Now, he in them, they in him, confesses, confesses, taking stock of the faithlessness that about the apostasy that is everywhere found, confesses his own repulsion at the sight of the You see it?

Is Isaiah repulsed himself at the sight of a servant? Or is it Israel that is repulsed, and now Isaiah numbers himself with them? But if this is the case, What is at work in Isaiah, but the spirit of the one of whom he speaks? For that servant of whom he speaks did precisely that.

The prophet then, in the company of faithless Israel, conducted his own repulsion at the sight of a certain person. Numbers himself with those who reject the service. Likewise, in verse three, he acknowledges that he with a faithless Israel ignored the service. Do we need go through verses four through six? The amazing ministry of grace in the prophet’s heart, there is even more obvious.

Our grief he bore, our sorrows he carried. We ourselves esteemed him stricken, smitten of God, rejected by God, afflicted He was pierced through for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities. The chastening of our well-being fell upon him by his scourgings. We are healed. All of us, like sheep, have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way. But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him.

Therefore, the Prophet’s intent is to see himself bound together with all of the people of Israel, not separated from them, either in a company of his select group of disciples or in the company of the surviving remnants. Rather, the Prophet, like the servant, humbles himself in such a way that he and the people are seen together. The servant, his willingness to do this, is born by the love of God and the love for his people. In actual fact, as we have already said, it is the spirit of the servant that Isaiah describes, which is at work in the prophet, enabling him to do this. But we notice, we notice something else. You see what that little word, our, does in the first verse? To be sure, it numbers the prophet with the people. It places the prophet on the level of the defiled people. the sinful people. And he views himself, out of his heart, as no better than them. But at the same time, there is an inversion. And grab hold of the inversion.

The message says the Prophet is our message. Do you see what the Prophet does? The humiliation of the prophet, in which he, in all honesty, sees himself as no better than the people, leads him to treat the people as if they were prophets with him. Because it’s our message. And just as honored as prophets before God. So that the humiliation of the prophet works the exaltation of the people.

And that’s exactly, that is precisely the explanation of Israel’s identity and destiny. The explanation of the identity and destiny of the people of God. I cannot emphasize too much to you, but the summation of the gospel according to Jesus Christ as it has its effect in us is that woe be to you who seek to be first and lord it over others. Rather, those who are to be first must be last, the servant of all. And that is the route to glory. The summation of the gospel is Matthew 20, 28. The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life for Manson for You see how it’s working itself out, even this glorious prophet Isaiah, who among us would place ourselves in his company.

Yet he numbers himself with us. And the numbering of the prophet by himself with us means our exaltation, because the graciousness in his heart means that he includes us now in the company of the prophet. He views us as such. Who has believed our report? Our report. So it is.

The ideal identity and destiny of the people of God speaks in the words of the Prophet That ideal identity and destiny of Israel has found expression, not just in the Prophet’s words, but in his life, in his entire outlook on life, in his disposition.

His heart is such that he gives himself up for the sake of the people. So much he loves I plead with you, if you have difficulty, if you have difficulty giving yourself up for the sake of others, the place to inspect is your heart and your love. Need I tell you this? If you love you’ll have no difficulty in giving yourself away for the sake of others. None whatsoever. Not that it won’t hurt, not that it won’t mean suffering, not that it won’t mean even a crushing But having counted the cost, realize the demand, you will find yourself willing. Why? Because you love. Because you love. And that is the heart of God. And that is the identity and destiny of God’s people.

I have three more pages here, but I won’t finish them out this evening. Just to say to you, in conclusion, that while these things that we’ve said this evening are true, I am convinced of and see it borne out in the life of Christ, and also in that Apostle Paracelanus Paul. I know these things are true, and there is this scope to the whole, the prophet’s humiliation, the people’s exaltation. Yet these questions have a discriminating role to play. Because in putting the questions before the people, on behalf of the people, the Prophet has introduced into the life of the people a question, a series of questions that discriminate within the people themselves.

Do you, in fact, find that readiness of soul to receive the message and to believe what the Lord has done? At the center of it all, you see, humiliation of the prophet, exaltation of the people, is the humiliation of Jesus Christ and the exaltation of him and his people in him, through the cross. Through the cross. The cross itself becomes the discriminating tool. To Israel, by and large, it is an offense. Even though it is Israel’s message, even though that is where the arm of the Lord has been bared, it is an embarrassment, an offense beyond description to Israel, so that these questions and that cross become the discriminating tool of God in his economy and in the salvation of his people. Now the cross has its full fruit in us, not just when we see that God has done something tremendous in history, but when we, like the prophet from so many centuries before, are actually molded and shaped by that cross. There is found glory. by the road of love. Love of God.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

February 8, 1987
Comfort After Failure

This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Suffering Servant” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, February 1, 1987.

About this sermon

Hezekiah’s failure in chapter 39 is exactly what paves the way for the comfort that opens chapter 40, judgment making room for grace rather than closing it off. Israel’s own failure runs the same course. The servant goes to real lengths for Israel’s good, the same strength described in 40:28-31 for those who wait on the Lord.

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Sermon transcript

Tonight we are, in a sense, preparing ourselves for descent into Isaiah 53 in earnest. We will read, however, Isaiah 40. I hope this isn’t too much of a backward move, but its intent is to summarize and pull together our thinking and preaching on the servant of the Lord as we then take on Isaiah 53. So Isaiah chapter 40. I might ask you to keep your finger in 40 and be ready to thumb through some of the chapters up to 53, and especially those that contain the servant’s songs that we’ve spoken of.

Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. Speak kindly to Jerusalem and call out to her that her warfare has ended, that her iniquity has been removed, that she has received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins. A voice is crying, clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness, make smooth in the desert a highway for our God. Let every valley be lifted up and every mountain and hill be made low, and let the rough ground become a plain and the rugged terrain a broad valley. Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed and all flesh will see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

A voice says, Call out. Then he answered, What shall I call out? All flesh is grass. And all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades. When the breath of the Lord blows upon it, surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades.

But the word of our God stands forever. Get yourself up on a high mountain, O Zion, bearer of good news. Lift up your voice mightily, O Jerusalem, bearer of good news. Lift it up, do not fear. Say to the cities of Judah, Here is your God. Behold, the Lord God will come with might, with his arm ruling for him. Behold, his reward is with him and his recompense before him. Like a shepherd, he will tend his flock. In his arm he will gather the lambs and carry them in his bosom. He will gently lead. the nursing youths.

Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and marked off the heavens by the span, and calculated the dust of the earth by the measure, and weighed the mountains in the balance, or the hills in a pair of scales? Who has directed the spirit of the Lord, or as his counselor has informed him, With whom did he consult and who gave him understanding? And who taught him in the path of justice and taught him knowledge and informed him of the way of understanding?

Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket and are regarded as a speck of dust on the scales. Behold, he lifts up the islands like fine dust. Even Lebanon is not enough to burn, nor its beasts enough for a burnt offering. All the nations are as nothing before him. They are regarded by him as less than nothing and meaningless. To whom, then, will you liken God, or what likeness will you compare with him?

As for the idol, a craftsman casts it, a goldsmith plates it with gold, and the silversmith fashions chains of silver. He is too impoverished He who is too impoverished for such an offering selects a tree that does not rot. He seeks out for himself a skillful craftsman to prepare an idol that will not hotter. Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been declared to you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?

It is he who sits above the vault of the earth. and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. It is he who reduces rulers to nothing, who makes the judges of the earth meaningless. Scarcely have they been planted, scarcely have they been sown, scarcely has their stock taken root in the earth, but he merely blows on them and they wither, and the storm carries them away like stubble.

To whom then will you liken me that I should be his equal, says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high and see who has created these stars. The one who leads forth their hosts by number, he calls them all by name. Because of the greatness of his might and the strength of his power, not one of them is missing.” Why do you say O Jacob, and assert, O Israel, my way is hidden from the Lord, and the justice due me escapes the notice of my God. Do you not know, have you not heard, the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, does not become weary or tired? His understanding is inscrutable.

He gives strength to the weary. And to him who lacks might, he increases power. Though youth grow weary and tired, and vigorous young men stumble badly, yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run and not get tired. They will walk and not become weary.

Father, we may well end our comments and words right at this point, for your word speaks of itself, and we pray to you here. Lord, we ask, therefore, that in the spirit of what has been said by you through your servant Isaiah, we may speak and listen tonight, and build us up, Lord, that our faith may not fail in the face of adversity or any other obstacle. We pray it in the name of the one whose faith did not fail, in the name of that one who persevered, the Lord Jesus Christ, your servant, par excellence. Amen.

The servant songs of Isaiah have been our theme, and appear in chapters forty through sixty-six. Some have said there are four in number, others have suggested five, if the opening verses of Isaiah sixty-one are counted. But the fourth, Isaiah fifty-three, is certainly the most famous of the servant songs. By the time we have arrived at this portion of the prophecy, we are prepared for it, to be sure, having given ear to all that has preceded, listening intently, especially to what has been said in the three previous servant songs.

But we have been prepared as well by the tone the tone throughout the prophecy, and we have been prepared specifically for what then appears before us in this prophecy by the tragedy that is recorded for us right before the chapter that we read this evening. I have pointed this out to you on occasion.

The tragedy involves the figure of Hezekiah, the king. In that thirty-ninth chapter of Isaiah, it is almost as if, humanly speaking, Hezekiah represented the last grand and great hope for Judah. However, in that thirty-ninth chapter, he crumbles under the weight of messianic delusion, and then congratulates himself that at least calamity has been stayed during his reign, even though it will be visited upon the reign of his children. In contrast, then, to this dismal end of Hezekiah, what the Lord has to say in the chapters that follow appear all the more glorious.

Added to their glory is the fact that Judah herself must be seen at a glance in the company of her king. The king’s history is Israel’s history. Israel’s guilt, she, like him, has brought upon her head the just deserts of all her sins. And that is precisely why The message of Isaiah 40 through 66 is so startling.

For as you look at the opening refrains of the 40th chapter, announced to you there is not what you might well have expected, namely judgment. Instead, announced to you is comfort. Announced to you is the cessation of warfare and hostility. God at war with his people. We are told, as we read down through that chapter, God is coming, God himself. Therefore, the imperative goes out. Make a highway for him, and when he comes, he comes with justice and with tenderness. His reward is with him, and like a shepherd he will tend his flock.

How shall we measure such a message as this? We will measure it in the terms of the prophecy itself, for this message is nothing less than gospel good news. What a magnificent word given by the Lord. But even this message now, the gospel, see it spoken of there in the ninth verse? Get yourself up into the high mountain, O Zion, bearer of good news of the gospel. Lift up your voice mightily, O Jerusalem, bearer of good news. Lift it up, don’t fear. Say to the cities of Judah, here is your God.”

But even this message, this magnificent message, as welcomed as we might think it would be, it is thoughtful of difficulties. The first difficulty is the people to whom it is directed. For these people have been ruined. Now there is an argument as to how it is they have been ruined and what the root of their ruination is. Are we to conclude that the root of their ruination is actually their idolatry? Some have suggested that. but it may well prove that the idolatry was merely the symptom of something far deeper, something more distressing yet in the heart of the people. You see, these people, to be sure, have been ruined. But how ruined?

They have been ruined by the failure of their faith, so that you see Isaiah chapter forty through sixty six with the servant of the Lord at the center is a call to faith. A review of the faith of Israel, the failure of her faith and the triumph of the faith of another.

Here, then, We are concerned with a divine reading. This is prophecy. This is the word of the Lord. What I mean to say by this is. It’s not that we find. Lack of religious awareness amongst the people. Lack of religion, religious devotion or even dutifulness on their part. but a divine reading of these people perceives within them a paralysis of heart. These people, despite their outward performance, are stricken in their hearts by unbelief. Their hidden questions of the heart are actually assaults upon God. against him and against his veracity. Hear what they say. Verse 27. My way, they say in their unbelief, my way is hidden from God and the justice duly escapes the notice of my God. What good is he?

It is precisely the same attitude of which I have repeatedly reminded you, appearing in Isaiah 49, verse 14, and we have used that as the foundational text for our preaching in our latest messages from this prophecy. That verse says, But Zion said, The Lord has forsaken me. and the Lord has forgotten me.” Here is the divine reading, the divine appraisal of the heart of Israel, the people of God. The failure of faith. So then, looking at Isaiah 40 once more, That failure of faith in and by Israel is responsible for the Lord’s remonstrance. From the twelfth verse on, he then, not so much in deference to the idols of the nations, but is an indictment against his faithless people. He reminds them of his greatness. of his incomparable nature, who has measured the waters in the hollows at hand? Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are regarded as a speck of dust on the scales. To whom will you liken God? Can you imagine it? What likeness will you compare with him? Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been declared to you from the beginning? So the remonstrance by God proceeds. Israel’s failure of faith necessitates God speaking in this way.

Because of their unbelief, Because of their unbelief, they are unprepared to believe what God is about to do. They can’t even receive the comfort. They cannot greet Him when He comes. Because they are stricken by the paralysis. of unbelief. My way is hidden from the Lord, and the justice duly escapes the notice of my God. And that being their habit of mind and heart, they will not, they will not receive even the message of comfort, even the gospel, the So it is the good news, the gospel receives no hearing. In their hearts, the people have given up on God.

But you see, there’s another factor that we must take into consideration as we make our way through these chapters and these verses. For as true as it is that Israel was to be that people of faith, ready, poised to receive the Lord at his coming, she was in that posture described as nothing less than the servant of the Lord, collectively, as a people.

And of this, the Lord repeatedly reminds her in this prophecy. Look, for example, to Isaiah 41, verses 8 and 9. “‘But you, Israel, my servant,’ he says, how the Lord describes the people as a whole, “‘but you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, descendant of Abraham, my friend, You whom I have taken from the ends of the earth and called from its remotest parts, and said unto you, You are my servant.” Israel was the servant of God, the servant of the Lord, for an appointed end. In order that she might be a witness to the Lord before the nations concerning the greatness of the Lord of heaven and earth, against all of the nations and their pretender gods, the idols, the strange deities of the alien lands. Look at Isaiah 43, verse 10.

You are my witnesses, declares the Lord. And my servant, there he is once more, my servant whom I have chosen, in order that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me there was no God formed, and there will be none. After me, I, even I, am the Lord, and there is no Savior besides me. It is I who have declared and saved and proclaimed, and there is no strange God among you. So you are my witnesses, declares the Lord. I and I am God.” Even from eternity I am he, and there is none who can deliver out of my hand. I act, and who can reverse it?”

Israel then, that one who was to receive God at his coming, but found now having a paralysis of unbelief in the heart, Israel, to be that servant intended to be the witness for God before the world. But not unlike Hezekiah out of Isaiah thirty nine, who failed in his own faithfulness and became faithless, Israel now proves to be no servant at all. As the Lord says in Chapter forty two verses nineteen and twenty, who is blind but my service? as the messenger whom I sent.

You have seen many things, but you do not observe them. Your ears are open, but none hears.” How pervasive. How pervasive the blindness, the deafness of Israel. How pervasive the paralysis of heart, the failure of faith. on Israel’s part. That pervasiveness ends in the realization that she has no one worthy to deliver the good news.

Not only will she not receive it, she has none who is worthy to deliver it. There is no messenger Think of the humility that this speaks of Isaiah himself, for he is also one who is counted unworthy, even as he is constrained to write down these words. And this presents us then with the second difficulty. The first being the people, and now the second being The Lord said to Zion chapter 41 verses 27-29, I will give a messenger of good news, but when I look, the opening of that declaring his intention, may be better read along these lines. I would give a messenger of good news, but when I look, there is no one and there is no counselor among them who, if I ask, can give an answer. Behold, all of them are false. Their works are worthless. Their molten images are wind and empty.

The inability of Israel as messenger is her inability as witness and as servant of the Lord. And in light of that failure, not just a failure of faith, but a failure of service, the Lord now introduces his servant, the true servant, the perfect servant. As you move on from the conclusion of the 41st chapter into the 42nd, and look at those first four verses, what a magnificent picture it is of the coming servant of the Lord, the one who steps into the bridge. Behold, as if with surprise, behold, even As you concluded the forty first chapter, and no one was there to be found who could present himself as the messenger of good news. Now, the Lord said that the opening of chapter forty two, behold, like the sun rising on the clearest of mornings. Behold, my servant, whom I oppose My chosen one in whom my soul delights, I have put my spirit upon him.

He will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry out or raise his voice, nor make his voice heard in the street. A bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not extinguish. He will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not be disheartened or crushed until he has established justice in the earth, and the coastlands will wait expectantly for his blood.”

However, as we prepare to enter Isaiah 53, we understand that the servant of God’s righteousness and that servant that has failed in her faith, Israel, are on a collision course. Because Israel is not poised to believe, because she is poised to reject, the true servant of God will be despised and abhorred by the nation. He will become a slave, abused and misused by the world.

Remember what is said in the second of the servant songs, those verses that open the forty-ninth chapter? Thus says the Lord, from the Redeemer of Israel and its Holy One to the despised one, notice Isaiah forty nine percent. To the one afforded by the nation, not plural, singular by the nation, what nation? The nation infected by the paralysis of unbelief. To the slave or servant of rulers.

Undergoing that humiliation, moving on to the promise of God, King shall see and rise princes also bow down. because of the Lord, who is the holy one of Israel, who has chosen you. The collision force between Israel, the faithless one and the true and perfect servant, the righteous one. But even in the collision The true servant of God does not resist.

Moving back to that forty-second chapter in the first of the servant songs, verses two and three, that enigmatic statement, he will not cry out or raise his voice or make his voice heard in the street. That’s not referring to the refusal on the part of the servant to speak about the glories of God. That refers to the fact that when he is persecuted, he does not raise his voice against his tormentors. A bruised greed he will not break, and a dimly burning wit he will not extinguish.

Such is his meekness and his humility. Such is his own trust. Then, what is said in that third servant song, Chapter fifty verses four through nine. You know what he says. For instance, in verse six. He deliberately. I gave my back to the smiters. And my cheeks to those who pluck out the beard, I did not cover my face from humiliation and spitting.

So it is, you see, that the servant of the Lord here depicted does not resist even in the midst of the collision that occurs between him and the faithless servant, paralyzed apart through unbelief. Why? Why doesn’t he resist? Because he is the champion of some sort of philosophy of non-resistance and pacifism? Because he is an ancient Gandhi or Martin Luther King Jr.?

No. that the servant does this. Provides for that faithless servant. The only hope. Of her healing. You see. The faithless servant Israel. Has spoiled has spoiled herself for service, because through that unbelief which she has now embraced, she has given up on God. And by doing that, she has revealed the tragic truth concerning her own art, the tragic flaws of her own character. And why has she done this? Because in the midst of a world in which there was suffering, in the midst of a world in which that suffering overtook her, in the midst of a world in which sin is a reality, a sin as true as the heart that she had beating within her own breast, in the midst of that world In which, yes, it seems as if God inordinately delayed his intervention before the face of calamity. She had concluded, God is worthless. Why hope again? Why trust?

But now you see, God finally sends forth the true servant. And the message of the coming servant comes within the context, within the womb of the message of the approach of God himself. Make a highway for him, he’s coming, and justice is with him. And this God and that servant give themselves over to all that has been undone in Israel. This God and that servant gives himself over to suffering and to sin, taking it to himself. He even gives himself over to the way of his own intervention. Precisely in the midst of all of this, the suffering, the distress, the calamity, the sin, the delay. The true servant, as that third servant song says, verse seven of chapter fifty, sets his faith like Flint. In the certain knowledge of his vindication and his justification from none other than God himself.

He who vindicates me, he who justifies me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up to each other. Who has a case against me? Let him draw near to me. Behold, the Lord God helps me. Who is he who condemns? Behold, they will all wear out like a garment, and the moth will eat one.” This servant, in chapter forty-nine, verse four, says, “…surely the justice due me is with the Lord, and my reward is with my God.” Rather than giving up on God, the servant remains perfectly faithful. He can do nothing else if the faithless ones are to have any hope. Their precise failure was giving up on God. What hope for them is there if this one also gives up on God? How glorious the source of salvation he becomes, if in the midst of all of the calamities that the people have undergone, he remains faithful.

On the cross, Jesus says, Lord, into thy hands I commit my spirit. And so it is, you know, as you move on through that servant song, Isaiah 53, and all of the talk about justification. This one who, in the midst of suffering sin and the delay of God’s intervention, remains faithful, he alone becomes the source of justification and the focus of the restoration of faith to all that have been faithless. they will be justified, vindicated, through, by, in, him, alone. Do you feel the power of the conclusion of Isaiah 40?

Some of you know it well and have rehearsed that section of scripture again and again for yourself. Maybe it was reinforced for you when you saw the movie Chariots of Fire and heard it read during the course of that movie. You see, the Lord concludes his case After Israel has presented her my way is hidden from the Lord, she says, and the justice do me escape the notice of my God comes back the Lord. Do you not know? Have you not heard the everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of the end of the earth? He doesn’t become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable.

Then it is that vindication comes to those who, in the spirit of the servant, wait upon the Lord. For God it is who gives power to the faint, and to them that have no might increases strength. Even the youth shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall. But they that wait upon the Lord in faith shall renew their strength.” and they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.

Our Father, teach us the lesson of Isaiah’s prophecy. Make it plain to us. O Lord, the paralysis of unbelief that had afflicted Israel called forth from you your mercy and grace, by which you supplied them the servant that they themselves had failed to be the servant that they lacked. And what a servant he is. For not only does he come as witness to you, and not only is he one who is marvelously pliant to your will and obedient from his very heart, but he also takes to himself the fullness of the faithlessness of his people in order to show them what it means to stand faithfully and to never give up on you.

O Lord, may we not give up on you. May we wait on the And though we be weak, may we gain strength. And though we have the tendency to fall and stumble, may we run as the wind. And live, Lord, mightily before you. Hear us, Lord. We would be servants, in and through and by.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

February 1, 1987
Behold, the Arm of the Lord

This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Suffering Servant” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, January 18, 1987.

About this sermon

‘Behold’ recurs across Isaiah at key turning points, in 52:13 as much as 41:27-42:1, always signaling something worth real attention. Israel’s own deliverance follows the same pattern God uses to deliver the servant himself. The cross is already present in 52:14-15’s disfigurement, prefiguring baptism, and in 53:1’s question about who has believed the report of the Lord’s arm.

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Sermon transcript

Tonight our scripture reading begins in Isaiah 52 verse 7 and continues through Isaiah 53 verse 1. This is Isaiah 52. Verse seven and following how lovely on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who announces peace and brings good news of happiness, who announces salvation and says to Zion, Your God reigns.

Listen, your watchmen lift up their voices, they shout joyfully together. for they will see with their own eyes when the Lord restores Zion. Break forth, shout joyfully together. You waste places of Jerusalem for the Lord has comforted his people. He has redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord has bared his holy arm in the sight of all the nations that all the ends of the earth may see the salvation of our God.

Depart, go out from there, touch nothing unclean, go out of the midst of her, purify yourselves, you who carry the vessels of the Lord. But you will not go out in haste, nor will you go out as fugitives, for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard. Behold, my servant will prosper He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted, just as many were astonished at you, my people.” So his appearance was marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men. Thus he will sprinkle many nations, kings will shut their mouths on account of him, For what had not been told them, they will see, and what they had not heard, they will understand.

Who has believed our message, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” Let’s pray. May your servant and the messenger whom you have sent pass well before our eyes, and may the message that comes forth of him, by him, through him in all that he has said and done, register well upon our hearts and souls. Lord, may this be life to us that we have believed the report We have received the message and seen, we have seen the bearing of your arm. It has been revealed to us. We pray these things, Lord, knowing that you make plain your intent to those of your choice. We would serve you, Lord, as chosen of you. Amen. We are now preparing for our. Ascent.

Into Isaiah, chapter fifty three. Concentrating this evening on verses thirteen through fifteen of chapter fifty two. And certainly by this route, providing introduction to that magnificent opening of the fifty third chapter. Who has believed our report, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

So it is, we look at the opening word of verse thirteen. The word that is intended to grab us as we take stock of him. The word, That word is intended to set in contrast that which now is spoken of from that which has been said formally to sections interrelated. However, that interrelatedness may not be all that apparent to us as we look at that thirteenth verse and think about the word before. It’s as if the Prophet, the Lord speaking through the Prophet, would grab hold of those who are listening to him and compel them to open their eyes.

Look, look, look at my servant. Well, look at my servant in relationship to what? Why is it appropriate for the Lord at this point to introduce his servant in this fashion? Behold! That word conveying the note of surprise? Behold! As if that note of astonishment should be itself injected into the word itself.

Behold, as if the servant now passes before the eye of those who are listening, and it is surprising to them that he should appear in this content. But that being the power of the presentation, for you see What the prophet has done, what the Lord through the prophet has done, is prepare us for the presentation of the servant. You might think of that first servant song back in chapter 42. The servant there in the first verse is introduced in the same way. Behold my servant. whom I appalled.

And that magnificent introduction of the servant stands so marvelously against what has been said at the conclusion of chapter forty-one. You remember how that chapter concludes formally, I said to Zion verse twenty seven behold, here they are, and to Jerusalem.

I will give a messenger of good news, a messenger of the gospel. But when I look, there is no one. And there is no counselor among them who, if I ask, can give an answer. Behold, all of them are false. Their works are worthless. Their molten images are wind and emptiness. And then, against the background of that, the Lord says, Behold, my servant. There wasn’t anyone. There was no one who could carry the message. There was no appropriate or worthy conveyor of the good news for gospel. When I looked At Zion, when I scanned Jerusalem, there was no one.

But in chapter forty-two, verse one, behold, my servant. Now we have, in the thirteenth verse of chapter fifty-two, behold my servant once more, and against what has been said from that seventh verse of that chapter through verse twelve. Again, as it was in the thirty forty first and forty second chapters, the issue is the good news and the messenger of the good news, as verse seven makes plain, but now brought into view is the fact that Israel, Jerusalem herself, has undergone severe humiliation.

Humiliation and subsequently, consequently, exaltation. Enslavement through exile and imprisonment Exaltation coming through the release granted by God, His work, the bearing of His arm in the sight of all the nations, that the ends of the earth may see the salvation of God.

So, in verse ten, these things spoken of there related to the exile experience of the children of Israel. The good news being that even though they go into exile, they shall be redeemed, they shall be saved. So you come to verses 11 and 12, as if spoken to the people in exile. As it is spoken to their leaders, their priest, the park, the park, get out from there, get out from the place of exile, touch nothing unclean. Go out from the midst of her purify yourself because you’re going home and you’re going to serve in the temple.

Once more, you carry the vessels of the Lord. That’s the substance of the good news. Go out in haste. You will go out in haste. You will rather rather you will not go out in haste, unlike the former deliverance from Egypt, when the people went out in haste. Here you will not go out in haste. You will go out methodically. You will go out in patience. You will go out at your leisure, not as fugitives. The Lord will go before you. He will be your rear guard. You will go out in safety and without harassment. You will not be pursued, and you will not be destroyed.

Such is the nature of the good news delivered to Jerusalem. But you see, woven within this message from the Prophet, which draws forth now that statement, is a reflection upon the condition of Israel herself. For there is an element of surprise with regard to her condition, her humiliation, and her subsequent exaltation.

The circumstance is such that Israel has no right to expect deliverance. She has no right to expect that she will be saved. In fact, so far removed from her mind should that be, that when taking stock of the matter as a whole, she should conclude that it is utterly impossible for her to be rescued. She cannot be rescued.

The exile is viewed as more than a momentary. Humiliation. To which can be supplied a proper remedy. Out of the resort reserves and resources of the. The circumstances such that you must read the exile as death. and deliverance from that utterly impossible humanly speaking. Therefore, the character of the good news.

If the humiliation that Israel is to experience is a death If there is no deliverance possible for her, then the news is good indeed, because the power of God alone sets her free, brings her up from the grave, sets her on high, makes her new, gives her life afresh. It’s more than a matter of perceiving the magnificence of God’s dealings with Israel. It’s more than taking stock of the surprise that should overtake Israel as she thinks about the message that the prophet is delivering to her. In the midst of this, The Lord, rather than having Israel go upon herself, calls attention to the servant.

For you see, it will be by root of the servant. Israel, in her servanthood, having been ruined. It will be by root of the servant. That deliverance will truly be effective. The one true servant faithful. You’re right. The one upon. The one to whom we can impute no. The one who is without offense. The one who is guilty of no transgression. The one who is perfect in his service to God. Behold, my servant, so that here you see Isaiah becomes the preacher, albeit by grace, the preacher of a glorious redemption, even more magnificent than that experience by Israel when she was delivered from exile.

He will read into that exilic deliverance something more magnificent yet. so that it becomes merely a pointer to something utterly grand under absolutely transcendent in its war and magnet. He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted. You see what the Lord is doing here in the message of Isaiah.

He’s taking the exaltation of the exilic people. They are restored, and now he begins to read the servant in precisely the same pattern. He speaks, first of all, of the exaltation of the servant, and then he works backwards to the humiliation. Behold, my servant will prosper. He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted. But then note what is said in verse fourteen.

Just as many speaking about the nations that observed, even those within Israel who are amazed, just as many were astonished at you, my people, when you were restored from exile, when you out of humiliation then came to enjoy exaltation, that having been utterly impossible, just as many were astonished at you, my people.” So, it goes on, and he takes now into consideration the humiliation of the servant, so his appearance was marred. He draws the parallel between the humiliation at this point, the humiliation experienced by the children of Israel in exile, and the experience of the servant who, in his union with his people, is marred and defaced and disfigured. So his appearance was marred more than any man, and here he sets apart the servant and make sure that his audience understands that the servant is the unique one.

There isn’t anyone like him, not any in Israel. He is marred more than any man. He is disfigured more than any man. Now, the disfiguring and the marring experienced by the servant of God is not to be thought of as simply physical, as if his body was rent apart more than anyone else that had ever lived on the face of the earth. You see, it’s a lesson in contrast. The disfigurement, the marring, is against the background of the status and standing of the servant. No one has fallen so far to think of it.

The servant of the Lord, more disfigured than he, having undergone that humiliation, makes more are disfigured than any who’s ever lived. But just as there was astonishment when Israel was restored from exile, how much more now is there astonishment when one is raised from the grave, when one is taken forth from the bonds of death When one comes out of the tomb, as is true of Christ, his appearance was marred, his form destroyed, more than all the sons of men.

But you note what is said next. Is there a concentration upon the priestly ministry of the children of Israel as they come forth out of Babylon as they are restored from exile? Isn’t that what’s concentrated upon in verses eleven and twelve? Touch no unclean thing. Go out of the midst of her. Cleanse yourselves, purify yourselves, you who carry the vessels of the Lord.

But more now than merely a purification of vessels. and the picture of purification of the Levitical order and the priestly called more than these purifications is the purification of the nation, the sprinkling of them. Thus, through the marring of my servant through his disfigurement, there will be a sprinkling for the nation. The nations themselves plans. Was it not through the sprinkling through the baptizing of the vessels that were to be brought into the tabernacle and the temple to the baptizing of the priest through the baptizing of the people that they were brought near to God’s altar there to stand before his presence and to present their offerings. Now you There is a latter-day sprinkling, and that sprinkling comes through the ministration of the One who is marred and disfigured. By root of His marring disfigurement, by root of His suffering and humiliation, He provides the means for the sprinkling of the nations to the ends of the earth. The nations will be drawn through the baptism that is effectual through Christ, the sprinkling of the many nations.

And what astonishment follows! Those who may have raged the kings of the earth, those who had their own arguments protested because of the sanctity of their own rule, importance, and position. They are awestruck, dumbstruck, they have nothing to say, they shut their mouths on account of him. So amazing is this one who rises from humiliation and death to life and exaltation. The word going out to the nations then, what they had not been told, they will see. What they had not understood or heard, rather what they had not heard, they will understand.

And what is it? that they see, and what is it that they understand? Can I ask you? The issues that stand at the conclusion of the fifteenth verse, what is it? What is it that they see? What is it that they understand? Is it plain to you? Is it clear? They see and they understand the cross.

They see and they understand that instrument of the marring of the servant of the Lord. That instrument of his disfigurement. They see and they understand the means by which he will sprinkle the nations and make them clean so they can approach God and offer sacrifice. The sacrifice of themselves in honor, in thanksgiving. to him. They see, they understand, the cross.

From humiliation to exaltation, so that at root, the exile experience of Israel and her deliverance is a preparation for a prefiguring of, a premonition of the coming humiliation and exaltation of the servant of the Lord. But who has believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?

Does it grab you now Can you see it? You’ve grown up with the cross all your life. and the astonishment that is spoken of here by Isaiah passes you by if you fail to meditate on the significance of what is being said. Don’t take it for granted. Don’t take it as that usual instruction that comes to you, that which you have been taught all of your life. Instead, take hold of what the prophet says here and live through the astonishment once more.

It is amazing. It is absolutely impossible. It can’t happen, but it did. and the focus of it, you see, all that God was doing from beginning to end was centered in that cross. Have I not been saying those things to you as I preached to you out of Matthew 5, endeavored out of the entirety of Matthew’s gospel to convince you that the law and the prophets have been always saying one thing, and that one thing is the cross of Christ. the cross of Christ. It doesn’t matter whether you’re talking about the Golden Rule or the Great Commandment.

At the center of it is the cross of Christ, the humiliation of the one who comes to serve. He waits upon the Lord, and in due time, he is exalted by God, because he trusts in Him. The Lord becomes the servant and is duly exalted. He who wishes to be greatest among you, let him become the servant of all. For the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for men. Who has believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? You see why the question is so appropriate as we march into Isaiah 53? What we have here is the incomparable description of the humiliation of the servant of the Lord, and it’s precisely that which proves to be such an offense to the people of Israel.

They not even understanding the significance of their exile, nor do they yet to this day. They have not comprehended the significance of what has overtaken them in the world. They do not understand why they suffered so. in this century, or in former centuries, they do not comprehend it because they will not come to grips with the cross of Christ.

It remains the offense and they hate it. And they are determined to make you pay for it. And that is the significance of all the propaganda that we get out of Jerusalem, out of Tel Aviv, out of New York. They are determined to make you pay for. The message that they cannot tolerate that they will not accept. Is the cross, and because of that, they don’t even understand their own history. What a tragedy. It makes the apostle Paul weep. Weep. And we should weep for them. Who has believed the report? To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? Have you believed the report? The report is the cross. Have you believed it? That’s the message.

The bearing of the arm of the Lord is the cross of Christ, the servant of God, the one marred through whom the nations are sprinkled, and we of the nations now are gathered, all of grace, all of God’s choice, that we might embrace in full the message of Isaiah 53. What a humiliation for us observing the humiliation of the servant, but what an incomparable exaltation. What matchless glory is ours through the cross. And the glorification of the servant of the Lord, our We know his name.

Jesus. Let’s pray. Our Father, we cannot commend ourselves, for we did not see, we did not understand. We have no right or claim to you, we of the nations gathered now. For we were apart from the commonwealth of Israel, we were alien to the promises of God.

But by route of. The cost of. Your servant your son. He having been marred and disfigured more than any man. We have been sprinkled with cleansed made clean that we might approach the sanctuary of the Lord. And how marvelous. How marvelous our approach, for we are instructed in that by him. What a glory! For the final sacrifice has been offered, and by the blood of that sacrifice we have been sprinkled. And Lord, now we, by your grace, have received the report Our eyes have been opened to behold the servant of the Lord. Bless us, Lord, our God, in our service of you, in light of the things we behold out of your word. Amen.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

January 18, 1987
What Makes a Good Preacher

This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Suffering Servant” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, January 11, 1987.

About this sermon

Isaiah 51:17-52:15 portrays the preacher’s ministry more fully than “beautiful feet” alone. The people lie under God’s judgment, staggering and degraded, yet God’s herald comes with his love and the news that their warfare has ended. He announces, “Your God reigns,” stirs the people to praise, and points to the coming salvation in the Servant. Paul draws on this text in Romans 10 to show that preaching is necessary. Love for God’s people, not revenge or rhetorical polish, must drive good preaching.

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Sermon transcript

We are reading first of all from Romans chapter 10. Romans chapter 10. And we will read the first 15 verses of this chapter. before looking at some verses in Isaiah. This is Paul speaking to the church at Rome. Brethren, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation. Speaking of the Jews here. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For not knowing about God’s righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God.

For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. For Moses writes that the man who practices the righteousness which is based on the law shall live by that righteousness. But the righteousness based on faith speaks thus. Do not say in your heart who will ascend into heaven, that is, to bring Christ down, or who will descend into the abyss, that is, to bring Christ up from the dead. But what it does say is this, the word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. For with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. For the Scripture says, whoever believes in him will not be disappointed, for there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is Lord of all. abounding in riches for all who call upon him.

For whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saying, How then shall they call upon him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him in whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent?

Just as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of those who bring glad tidings of good things.” And then from Isaiah chapter fifty-two, beginning with verse seven. We’ll begin where we ended in Romans. How lovely on the mountain are the feet of him who brings good news, who announces peace and brings good news of happiness, who announces salvation and says to Zion, Your God reigns.

Listen, you watchmen, your watchmen, lift up their voices. They shout joyfully together, for they will see with their own eyes when the Lord restores Zion.” Break forth, shout joyfully together, you waste places of Jerusalem for the Lord has comforted his people. He has redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord has bared his fully armed in the sight of all the nation that all the ends of the earth may see the salvation of our guard are gone.

Depart, go out from there, touch nothing unclean, go out of the midst of her, purify yourselves, you who carry the vessels of the Lord. But you will not go out in haste, nor will you go as fugitives, for the Lord will go before you and the God of Israel will be your rear guard. Behold, my servant will prosper.

He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted. Just as many were astounded at you, my people, so his appearance was marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men. Thus he will sprinkle many nations. Kings will shut their mouths on account of him, for what had not been told them they will see, and what they had not heard they will understand.”

Our Lord, it is your word that brings life, and Father, we would have your word and abide in that word. This is our salvation. This is our redemption. And Father, we ask that at the center of this matter, we will perceive the significance of your son, the living word, that we might perceive the glory of our God in the face of Jesus Christ. We pray it through Christ. Amen.

Now, beginning with Isaiah fifty one verse seventeen, beginning at that point, we have a number of pictures given us of the preacher and his ministry, the preacher and his ministry. Now, the first thing that we know about the preacher portrayed for us is his urgency. His urgency. Seemingly filled with a near desperation, he yells out at his audience. Note his words, verse seventeen in that fifty-first chapter. Rouse yourselves. Rouse yourselves. His urgency here matches the urgency of the Lord.

We have heard about that urgency in the Lord in the first eight verses of Isaiah 51. There, the Lord himself expresses his own desperation. as he reaches out to his people to gain their attention. But unlike what we might expect, as we listen to the words of the Lord and His constraining call, the Lord’s urgency is not so much the product of the certainty of coming judgment, as real as that coming judgment is. In other words, the Lord in His Word, the Lord in His urgent expression of salvation, grace, urgent expression whereby He compels the attention of the people That which compels him in his message is not so much the matter of judgment. Rather, the Lord’s urgency is born of love.

It is born of his love for his people. So it is that because of this love he bears his people He covets for his people the wonderful blessing that he describes there in the first eight verses of chapter 51. And so it is with the preacher. The preacher must be molded by the Lord. He must be molded by the Lord’s urgency and passion. these becoming determinative for his own ministry. So it is that the preacher must be driven by a love comparable to that of God, a love for the people of God, that first of all sees that people in wine for the Lord’s incomparable covenantal blessing. The preacher’s plea, his urgency, must be because he does not want the people to lose out in any regard.

To lose out in any regard. that glory that is promised. Not that God’s certain judgment also isn’t in view. Undoubtedly, it is. However, the theme of judgment cannot be the motivation. Since the urgency and urgency motivated by the theme of judgment becomes invariably infected by revenge and selfishness on the part of the preacher. He, given over even to the idea of personal vindication before those who have opposed or insulted him. Actually, the preacher must be driven by a love that perceives the fullness of God’s and wishes God’s people to have nothing less than that.

In this regard, it might be well to take stock of some sentiments that are expressed in the New Testament. You might think of the salutations in Paul’s letters, any of his letters would do, where He is speaking about the grace, mercy, and peace that he wishes to be the experience of a congregation to which he writes. You see, that salutation is not meant to be read quickly and forgotten. Rather, that salutation is an expression of the preacher’s heart. for he wishes nothing less for those people to whom he writes than the fullness of the grace and the peace of which he speaks.” So Paul writes those salutations with utter seriousness. Similarly, you may think of the benedictions that occur repeatedly in the writings of the Apostle.

We heard a benediction this morning. from Ephesians chapter three, the latter verses of that chapter. Paul here wishes for nothing less than that the saints at Ephesus be filled up to all the fullness of God. And then he continues, now to him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we can ask or think according to the power that works within us. To him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. But that word from the Apostle, that which we have ordinarily called a benediction, is as well a prayer.

For you see, the Apostle himself, the preacher before the people, wishes for them nothing less than what is expressed here, and the full benefit of everything that is spoken of. Thus it is with every preacher. every preacher who is patterned after the form of things that we find in Isaiah. That preacher is molded by God Himself, driven by a passion and urgency that arises from God, and that passion and urgency is founded upon God’s love for His people. and the fact that God does not wish for his people anything less than the best and the fullness of all eschatological blessing. And that then becomes the focus of every preacher who truly stands for the Lord.

He, too, loves the people of God and wishes for them nothing less than the fullness of those marvelous eschatological blessings. You may remember how Romans ten began, as Paul was speaking there concerning the Jews, his own countrymen after the flesh. He says to the Church of Rome, Brethren, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation. He wishes for them nothing less than that. Salvation being the fullness of God’s end-time blessings. So, the preacher, driven by love for the people of God, had a sincere wish that they would have everything God has intended for them.

This places something else also before us, before we move on. It places before us the centrality of eschatology. Now, that is a large and difficult word, and we’re not always clear about its meaning. But at the center of preaching, you see, is the message concerning the end times. That’s what the word eschatology means, end times. and the wonder of preaching is that it brings near to us. Being a ministration of God to us brings near to us the end-time blessings, so that the things that are described here by the Lord in the opening of chapter fifty-one, and spoken of later by the preacher himself from verse seventeen on, these, too, speak to us about end-time blessings, the glories of heaven. The glory of the final estate of the people of God, and God, you see, is saying he doesn’t want his people to miss out on any of those blessings.

The preacher, then, shaped by that constraint as he preaches. You may want to contrast preaching as you know it You may want to contrast the preachers that you know. You may want to think. You may want to scrutinize, make assessments. Does the preaching that you know, the preachers that you know, are they driven by a love for the people of God? and is there an urgency and a passion in them an urgency and a passion that the people of God would have everything God has intended them to have in the preaching and with the preachers that you know Is there that eschatological note, that word about glories that are certain? Is there that effort on the part of the creature to communicate to you the glories that await and the wonder of those glories? Now the next thing that we notice about the preacher as he is presented to us here in Isaiah. The next thing we notice is that the preacher, because of his love, is not put off by the condition of the Lord’s people.

You run through the verses here. Take stock of verses seventeen through twenty-three. How are the people of God portrayed here? Not very flatteringly. They are seen as under judgment, and that from the Lord’s hand. The way in which they are described places them in the most degrading light. As if being under God’s judgment weren’t enough, the people here are described as really stumbling dead beat drums. Their condition is the right and proper consequence of the way they have lived.

Nevertheless, the preacher comes with all that love of God, and in light of the glorious days envisioned, in light of the radiance of God’s redeeming love and grace, in light of what God now is doing for the sake of His people, the preacher pleads with the people to awaken from their stupor. So you see, the preacher, out of love and a sincere desire that God’s people experience His fullness, lives. He lives. So as to give himself over. To his to the people of God, regardless of how humiliating the descent for himself. But our description of the Preacher continues. We move on to the fifty-second chapter. The situation is compounded by the fact that in addition to Jerusalem being described as a dead drunk in the street, she is also depicted as a slave girl to whom now has come deliverance beyond what anyone could have dreamt of.

The preacher comes His appearance means the end of her shame and the beginning of her glory. Such is his message to her. Right into her prison cell, he comes and preaches to her, announcing to her her freedom. The message, then, of the preacher heard in the most desperate of circumstances.

The condition of the people They’re not being a drawback to the preacher as he considers the people themselves. Their condition not being a hindrance to him, rather he moving into that condition and administering the ointment of the gospel for the deliverance of those who are under judgment and those who are in bondage.

There is another thing you see, and that is the fact that the preacher brings the message of God’s vindication, of God’s justification, or the justification of his people. Notice how it works itself out here. Not that his people are not guilty, for indeed they are. They have been described as drunk in the streets, as in chains, in a slave’s prison, because of their own wickedness. Still, the preacher in his message sets forth the truth that God contends for his people.

Verse twenty-two of chapter fifty-one. And in so doing, The creature announces the great reversal, namely that even though his people are judged, even though they are viewed as unrighteous and full of sin under God’s just wrath and condemnation. Nevertheless, they are viewed now as righteous and innocent victims of their torment.

Notice verse twenty three of the fifty first chapter. How much this is true. The scene from three through six of chapter fifty two. Where we are most likely startled by what the Lord says. The preacher himself communicates these words from the Lord. The Lord. You’ve been bought and sold without reason. Lived in bondage without call. been taken into captivity without. Such tragedy for the people of God has meant the blasphemy of the Lord’s name. But now. The preacher. The Lord acts. The Lord himself arises and acts.

His actions are such that they seem to cast a completely different light on the situation. When God acts, it seems as if his people are wholly and completely innocent and have always been so, while their enemies alone have been guilty of wickedness and are alone to be judged. At the heart of this whole affair is the fact that the Lord has been at work to justify his own name, as much as to justify his people. So absolutely amazing is this that in its light, it is as if God’s people come to know him for the very first time. When God acts and reveals himself and so colors the situation as he does in this circumstance. Namely, by placing everything in a light as if it were true that his people had never said, and that their enemies are the only.

And have ever been. Think of. God treating us as if we had never. How utterly unthinkable. In fact, that truth is the proof that the gospel is true. So unthinkable is that thought that man himself could never come up with. It could never originate from within man, and it never has. It originates in God. It is utterly unthinkable. except as God himself has given ground for such thing. Is it any wonder, then, what then erupts in the marvelous lines that follow?

Truly, how lovely the feet of the preacher. Here the image has changed. We’ve moved from the city streets the attempt at rescuing drunks. We’ve moved from the prison cells and the attempt at releasing the slave girl to the image of a runner crossing the mountains, bringing with him good news, the message of peace, prosperity and happiness for a doomed city as a testimony to the eternal kingship of the Lord.

Truly, your God reigns,” says the preacher. And the preacher then goads the people to praise. The watchmen see the salvation as if it were coming with a cloud approaching the city walls, and those watchmen break out in glory. The desolate parts of the wasted city are commanded to exalt in the Lord, and thus they do. The ends of the earth see the salvation of the of the law that he had saved his feet.

As we move on in that description, how remarkable it is for brought near is the future day of the return from captivity, the return from exile versus eleven twelve. But even more remarkably now, as the preacher’s message is focusing itself even more truly All of the weight of it becomes focused upon the one who is identified as my servant.” That one hinted at here that he has imitated the life of the people, for as the people themselves have been marred and disfigured, so his appearance is marred more than any of them, his form more than any of the sons of men. It is suggested then that his marring is connected with sacrifice.

Rossi will sprinkle many nations. Is it his blood that is in view? Kings, subsequently, will shut their mouths on account of him. For what had not been told them, they will see. And what they had not heard, they will understand, as the message of the Lord’s servant goes forth at the center of preaching that is in keeping with what the Lord would have said. The preacher.

He is that one in whom the heart of the Lord should be revealed. In him there should be that epitome for the love of God’s people. There should be that desire to see the full blessing of God’s people resting upon them. There should be in him no hesitation before any form of humiliation, regardless of how low it takes him, as he makes himself one with the people of God. And his message should be one that has at its center the justification of God’s people, that they are put right with God through God’s actions, so that God sees his people no longer as sinners, but as righteous in his sight.

Just how this will be worked out, just how clearly and marvelously It will be worked out, is made clear to us by Isaiah 53 and the Song of the Suffering Servant. That then will set the tone for all preaching subsequently. For not only all those things that we have mentioned previously about the preacher’s message must be true, At the center of it all, must be the suffering servant of the Lord, the one who is described in Isaiah 53. Surely.

Surely, our grief, he himself wore our sorrows, he carried. Yet we ourselves esteemed him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. But he was pierced through for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The chastisement of our well-being fell upon him, and by his scourgings we are healed. All we, like sheep, have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way, but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall upon him.

Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we do thank you for the truth of your word and the message that comes forth for all who would stand and proclaim the good news of the gospel. May we be helped in our own assessments of preachers and preaching. May we not hesitate to draw from what you have said in Isaiah in order to make those assessments. Do bless your people with preachers and preaching that will be a help to them. Lord, truly, that the men might indeed stand out of the way, that you might stand in the way, that the people might see you for who you are. We pray these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

January 11, 1987
Rousing a Sleeping Israel

This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Suffering Servant” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, January 4, 1987.

About this sermon

The ready servant stands in sharp contrast to a slumbering people throughout this passage, wide awake where Israel is spiritually asleep. Isaiah’s own preaching is what rouses that sleeping people, not merely his prophetic vision. True freedom, set out across 52:1-10, comes through exactly that kind of preached word, not through Israel’s own effort.

More sermons from Isaiah · Browse all sermons

Sermon transcript

The reading begins with the 17th verse of Isaiah 51. We’ll be reading through verse 10 of chapter 52. Rouse yourself, arise, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the Lord’s hand the cup of His anger, the chalice of reeling you have drained to the dregs.

There is none to guide her among all the sons she has borne, nor is there one to take her by the hand among all the sons she has reared. These two things have befallen you. Who will mourn for you? The devastation and destruction, famine and sword, how shall I comfort you? Your sons have fainted. They lie helpless at the head of every street like an antelope in a net, full of the wrath of the Lord, the rebuke of your God. Please hear this, you afflicted.

You are drunk, but not with wine. Thus says your Lord, the Lord, even your God, who contends for his people. Behold, I have taken out of your hand the cup of reeling, the chalice of my anger. You will never drink it again. And I will put it into the hand of your tormentor. who have said to you, lie down that we may walk over you. You have even made your back like the ground and like the street for those who walk over it.

Awake, awake, clothe yourself in your strength, O Zion, clothe yourself in your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city, for the uncircumcised and the unclean will no more come into you. Shake yourself from the dust. Rise up, O captive Jerusalem. Loose yourself from the chains around your neck, O captive daughter of Zion.

For thus says the Lord, you were sold for nothing and you will be redeemed without money. For thus says the Lord your God. My people went down at first into Egypt to reside there. Then the Assyrian oppressed them without cause. Now, therefore, what do I have here, declares the Lord, seeing that my people have been taken away without cause. Again, the Lord declares, those who rule over them howl, and my name is continually blasphemed all day long. Therefore, my people shall know my name.

Therefore, in that day, I am the one who is speaking. Here am I. How lovely! On the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who announces peace and brings good news of happiness, who announces salvation and says to Zion, Your God reigns. Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices.

They shall joyfully together, for they will see with their own eyes when the Lord restores Zion, break forth Shout joyfully together, you waste places of Jerusalem, for the Lord has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord has bared his holy arm in the sight of all the nations, that all the ends of the earth may see the salvation of our God. Our Father, we do in fact yearn for that fullness of proclamation that is here spoken, giving anticipation of the wonderful and glorious proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and we pray our Father that as Isaiah himself was moved, we might be moved too, and as he would endeavor to reach those to whom he spoke, that similarly that would be the intention of this pulpit. We pray, our God, that you would bless your church with glorious and wondrous preaching that is worthy of you. We pray this in Christ’s name. Amen.

You will recall the last time I spoke to you about the servant of the Lord, I called attention to the images of slumber in this portion of Isaiah’s prophecy that we have been looking at presently. I noted, first of all, the servant himself. In chapter 50, verses 4 and 5, the servant himself who is there pictured as awakening morning by morning for the purpose of doing God’s will. It is, as I have said to you, an amazing picture that is given us there. He awakens me morning by morning. He awakens my ear to listen as a disciple. The image, of course, is of one who from his first conscious moment, awakening in the morning, is ready to do the Lord’s bidding. I also noted the people of God. in Isaiah 51, 1-8.

And although words about slumber are not used here directly, it is as if the people have been distracted, as if they are sleepwalking while the Lord himself clamors for their attention. Here, the contrast between the people described and the servant previously described. The Lord does not have to clamor for the attention of his servant, but here he pleads for the attention of his people. He strains to regain their attention by giving his people descriptions of the coming magnificent glory of the kingdom. In counter-distinction to the end of all things, the end of the heavens and the earth, the end of those who revile the children of God, the people of the Lord, so says God Himself, His salvation shall stand. his righteousness shall prevail.

That, Isaiah 51, 1-8. But such is the description, that the prophet, in the vein of that perfect servant of the Lord, proves at least at this point, that he at least is awake. He proves that he, at least, hears the Lord’s message. Isaiah is awake and listening. And as such, he gives response then to this message from the Lord, and the urgency with which the Lord himself has entreated the people, now lays hold of the prophet himself. He calls out boldly. Possibly we would react, at least initially, too boldly.

He calls out for the Lord to awaken, to awaken from his slumber. in verses nine through eleven. In other words, the prophet prays that the Lord will awaken and act, and act soon to bring to pass the fullness of all that he has spoken of in the previous verses. Far from a prayer born of impiety, therefore. This prayer by the Prophet is the Prophet’s way of asking, by kingdom come, and as well put in New Testament language, come Lord Jesus, even so quickly come. The Lord’s response to this prayer then follows, verses 12 through 16.

And that response comes in a way in which it cleverly intermingles the people and the prophet, so that the prophet is seen united to the people’s weakness in the initial verses, 12 and 13. but bend the people to the prophet’s calling, as if they are dressed up in prophet’s garb.

Verse sixteen. Against such a background, the Lord depicts the proximate, the near deliverance from exile. His comfort is mediated. Verse twelve. He is the one who comforts. His comfort is mediated in the name of that truth that says, you are my people, verse 16.

And truly, this has been the Lord’s suit all along, over against a people who has given up on the Lord, the Lord is insisting that they, regardless of what they are saying, are, in the end, his people and his promises shall be kept to them. But looking once more to the prophet. With the Lord’s response to his prayer in his grasp, The Prophet quite openly picks up the image of slumber once more. The image now of the sleeping people. And this quite directly, you see. Before it was implied, and now it is very direct.

The Prophet’s passion had been directed toward the Lord, so that he was driven to cry out in prayer. But now, in verse seventeen and following, his passion is directed toward the people. And with preaching of incredible power, he declares to Jerusalem the certainty of her future hope. That future hope, by way of the Prophet’s preaching, becomes the source of present urgency on the Prophet’s part, and comfort on the people’s part. But notice how forthright the Prophet is. He doesn’t avoid the truth about God’s dealings with his people, and he doesn’t avoid the truth about the people.

Their condition, again, under the image of slumber, is depicted as a drunken stupor. The image, however, may not be what we think. rather than were directed against Jerusalem for her sin as real as that it is. This word is actually intended to comfort Jerusalem because her chastisement is over. It is ended.

Surely She is seen as that one who has been made drunk by the Lord’s doing. It is the Lord who has forced into her hand the chalice of drunkenness and made her drain the cup. But she is not drunk on her own sins, but rather on the Lord’s judgment. she is full of the wrath of the Lord, and because of his judgments, she staggers, reels.

Given this description of her, and how it is intensified in verse 18, there is none to guide her among all the sons she has There’s no one to take her hand, among all the sons she’s reared. Who then is left? Who will mourn for her? How shall she be comforted? She is therefore thoroughly wasted. She is utterly incapable of helping herself.

What a truth this is, simply given the realities of what we know concerning drunkenness, period. Someone finds themselves in this kind of condition. Can they find the help they need within themselves? The help must come from elsewhere. She is incapable of helping herself. There is none to help her save the Lord, the Lord himself being her hope. The preacher, therefore, declares to this hopeless and helpless people their hope in God. And God is the one who will remove forever, because of his great love for her, the chalice of his anger. Those who have tormented Jerusalem in her weakened condition, they themselves now will be tormented as circumstances are reversed. But the powerful thing about this preaching is that it registers in the present. It registers in the present the yet future state. It draws into the present the yet future state.

And that on the basis of what God Himself has said. may well have experienced a modest deliverance during Isaiah’s lifetime when that city was delivered from the hands of Syria and Ephraim. Jerusalem may well have experienced a modest deliverance when that city was delivered from the hand of Sennacherib and the Assyrian horde.

Isaiah, however, is reaching out beyond any of these deliverances. He is reaching out to one even yet more distant, that of the exile, over a hundred years later and still further to that time when the chalice goes round no longer ever again. It is the end time, then, that is breaking in with the preaching of the prophet, a time in which the reeling of Jerusalem will be an impossibility, the drunkenness of the sons of Jerusalem an utter impossibility. Having seen this vision, of a coming day in which judgment will be removed and salvation will be full and free and complete.

Isaiah is driven, he is compelled, what can he do but preach? Here I am Lord, send me. Such a vision drives Isaiah to rouse the sleeping drunken Druze that she herself might be gripped by what is surely to come to pass. When the prophet calls on Jerusalem to rouse herself, he is not calling upon her to do something that she cannot do, something that she is incapable of doing, weak as she is. He is calling upon her to take hold of the hope that is hers, and it is the hope itself that raises her. Preaching brings into focus and into the present the future state promised God’s children. Preachers gripped by God are driven by that vision, their urgency is born of it, and because of that they are content with nothing less than grabbing hold of the lapels of the people of God and calling upon them in terms of the hope which alone can give them strength.

But the Prophet goes further. From the picture here at the end of chapter 51, a picture of Jerusalem the drunk, the Prophet, also here depicted at the end of chapter 51, is that one who is haunting the streets and reclaiming Jerusalem from the gutter. The Prophet now moves on and he describes the city as a sleeping slave. Verses 1 through 6 of chapter 52. The action of the Lord is such that by it the Prophet is transformed into the ambassador of a wonderful benefactor. a benefactor who has lost his charge and now is regaining that charge.

So it is that the ambassador arrives at the trading place before the slaves awake. So anxious is he. And it is this ambassador that awakens the slave girl. And as he awakens her, The thing to which he awakens her is her freedom. That’s the first thing that greets her in the morning. She is dressed, therefore, in ways no slave girl could imagine. Each piece of apparel testimony to her benefactor’s goodness. Nor is this a temporary deliverance for her. One that will be given up shortly. One which she can lose. One in which she will have to trade the apparel gained for the rags that she knew formerly. No. She is introduced into that which is permanent.

She rises from the dust. She is freed from her chains. She is no longer ravaged in the streets. by the uncircumcised and the unclean, who is her benefactor, but the Lord her God. And while she has been in her slave state, His name, His name has been abused amongst all her tormentors. But now His name through her freedom shall be vindicated and her freedom shall stand as a standard, shall be the standard.

This description then of the roused awakening people gives way to one of the most popular Old Testament texts, verses seven through eleven of chapter fifty-two. This text, in keeping with all that has gone on before, is concerned with the preaching of the word. It reminds us to be sure of the glory of that office. that belongs to preachers called. But it also reminds us of the incomparable character of the message born, a message that has its power in God, not the messenger. And that message, with its power, liberates. sets free. What kind of freedom may it be that preaching and the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ brings? Is it a temporary freedom born of the machinations of men?

Is it something contrived in the halls of government and justice in the nations of the world? that rises and falls as governments rise and fall? Is it something that could be known by slaves in Roman society, even though they had no political clout or freedom, as far as the world is concerned? Is it something that could be known by those who live at the very bottom of societies the world around? denied what the world counts political franchise. Or is it something that must be married to the political franchise.

Spoken out in one breath. Freedom of this world joined to freedom in the next. Can you be denied freedom in this world and still have the freedom of the gospel? Could you be living in an ancient society, say Jerusalem itself, and there, even though be oppressed, still know the freedom that the gospel brings? Can you live behind the Iron Curtain and be denied a thousand freedoms? politically, socially, economically, and still be a free man? That’s the victory, you see. For such freedom, societies, governments can never take from you. Such freedom is born of true preaching. People set free by the truth.

May the Lord be pleased to grant his Church preachers who have the urgency of Isaiah, grabbing hold of the people of the Lord calling upon them in terms of the hope that is there, that that hope may have its perfect fruit in them. And may the Lord be pleased as well to grant to the Church the discernment to recognize through preaching and through preachers. Let’s pray. Father, we would then have the freedom that is spoken of by the Prophet.

And while it was prefigured in deliverances from armies of the flesh and an exile in a foreign land, still, Father, it is true that the freedom that you grant stands above and beyond any of the oppressors and the oppressions that we might experience. Our freedom is secure in you. It is a freedom from the tearing of sin and the terror of death. It is a freedom into the children, the liberty of the children of God, which you have ordained that we should enjoy. Father, for freedom Christ has set us free.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

January 4, 1987