What Have You Done With Jesus? – Part 2
Isaiah 50:1-11 (4-9)
May 12, 2024
This morning we began this marvelous chapter
Where Christ is now addressing those who have rejected Him.
Indeed the remainder of the book of Isaiah
Is Christ addressing those who have rejected Him
And is His sermon calling them back to Himself.
I am convinced that in the end
• When you have those 144,000 Jewish evangelists or those 2 mighty witnesses in the tribulation preaching to the Jews,
• That many of their sermons will come straight from Isaiah 49-66.
These are the words of Jesus
To those who wouldn’t listen the first time He came.
As we said this morning,
Here we have Jesus addressing 4 different groups of people.
They are all identified by the way they responded to the call of Jesus,
And in several cases, the way they still respond.
Every man who has heard the gospel message of Jesus Christ
Is in one of these 4 camps.
We saw the first this morning:
#1 THE REBEL
Isaiah 50:1-3
We began with the observation that the nation of Israel
(referred to here as “your mother”)
Had been broken off or divorced.
We noticed also that the children had been sold to “creditors”.
AND THE QUESTION WAS THIS:
Why was your mother sent away and why were you sold to creditors?
And the answer to both questions was:
BECAUSE OF YOUR SIN.
(1b) “Behold, you were sold for your iniquities, And for your transgressions your mother was sent away.”
What has happened to Israel is not God’s fault, it is their fault.
WHAT WAS THIS GREAT SIN?
(2) “Why was there no man when I came? When I called, why was there none to answer?”
In short, their sin was the rejection of Christ when He came.
Jesus stated it very clearly:
Luke 11:23 “He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me, scatters.”
There is no middle ground of indifference.
You are either a servant or a rebel.
And the first group Jesus addressed were the rebels.
• They rejected the Lordship of Christ.
• They rejected His offer of salvation.
The consequence is they have been
Broken off, sent away, divorced, and sold to creditors.
And even the modern history of Israel bears this out.
• The Antisemitism that has existed in the world continues to exist
• And is actually even on the rise in our world again today.
While antisemitism is evil and while those who participate in it
will be severely punished by the Lord,
It is still true that the existence of it is part of God’s discipline on Israel
For their rebellion against His Son.
It does not go well for rebels.
We saw that this morning.
Tonight, let’s move to the second group.
#2 THE RIVAL
Isaiah 50:4-9
What you see in verses 4-7 is
A great Old Testament gospel account of Jesus Christ.
We see His person and His work there,
And we are certainly going to spend some time examining it.
But I do want you to see at the beginning here
Why we say that Christ is here addressing His rival.
In verses 4-6 Christ speaks of His earthly ministry.
• His coming, His obedience, His suffering and rejection…
But Christ also speaks of His vindication by the Father.
• We know God vindicated Christ in His resurrection.
• We know God vindicated Christ in His glorification to His right hand when Christ sent back the Holy Spirit.
• We know God is vindicating Christ daily through the preaching of the gospel
• And we know God will further vindicate Christ for He has promised that every knee will bow to Him.
God’s vindication of Christ is ongoing.
The preaching of Christ continues even today.
But it is the response to such vindication
That we see a second group of people emerge.
This group we call: THE RIVAL.
They are not only rebellious and have refused the gospel when offered,
But they take it a step further and seek to argue with Christ.
• They seek to discredit Him.
• They seek to dethrone Him.
• They seek to turn men from Him.
Certainly it is in response to His condemnation of their sin,
But they must discredit Christ in order to sooth their conscience.
SO THEY CONTINUALLY WAR.
And you see them specifically in verses 8-9
(8-9) “He who vindicates 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 Me? Behold, they will all wear out like a garment; The moth will eat them.”
Did you spot their aggression towards Christ?
• “Who will contend with Me?”
• “Who has a case against Me?”
• “Who is he who condemns Me?”
That is what we call a rival.
A rebel might have simply rejected and walked their own way,
But a rival is committed in their rebellion.
They are not content to simply disbelieve,
But they are ambitious to prove Him wrong
And to see to it that no one else believes in Him either.
They war and struggle against Christ.
They war and struggle against Christ’s ministers.
THIS IS A RIVAL.
And we will talk about them more in a minute,
But first we see 4 verses that make it clear to us what they war against.
When we say a rival is warring against Christ, well
WHAT IS IT THAT THEY ARE SEEKING TO DISPROVE?
• When they contend, we ask, “Contend with what?”
• When they build a case, we ask, “A case against what?”
• When they condemn, we ask, “Condemn Him for what?”
And those questions are answered in verses 4-7.
• This is who Christ is.
• This is what Christ did.
• This is what the rival wars against to try and disprove.
Hopefully you still have some recollection of this text from our Christmas Day service, but even if you don’t, let’s look at it tonight.
It is what Jesus declares about Himself
And it is what the contentious rival of Jesus wars against.
I think we broke it down into 5 points on Christmas, but we’ll just break into 4 here tonight.
1) HIS SYMPATHY (4)
“The Lord GOD has given Me the tongue of disciples, That I may know how to sustain the weary one with a word. He awakens Me morning by morning, He awakens My ear to listen as a disciple.”
Here we have that glorious event which you and I affectionately know as THE INCARNATION.
John described best:
John 1:14 “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
It is the story of Jesus Christ, the second person of the Godhead,
Relinquishing His glory and taking the form of a man
And embracing the role of a servant.
And here Jesus gave Himself a specific title in His incarnation
And it was the title of “disciple.”
• “The Lord GOD has given Me the tongue of disciples.”
• “He awakens My ear to listen as a disciple.”
“disciple” in the Hebrew is (lee-MOOD)
And it means “accustomed to” or “expert in” or “one taught”.
And it might seem strange that such a title would be applied to Christ,
Or that He would take this title for Himself.
AFTERALL,
• We know that He is God, the second person of the Godhead.
• We even see His omniscience on display at times during His earthly ministry.
For example:
John 2:24 “But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men,”
Matthew 9:4 “And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, “Why are you thinking evil in your hearts?”
• He knew Nathaniel under the fig tree.
• He knew Judas was an imposter.
• He knew when it was and was not His time.
• He knew the crucifixion and the resurrection would occur.
• He knew Judas would betray, Peter would deny, and the rest would scatter.
He was clearly omniscient deity.
So it seems strange that here the title would be “disciple” or learner.
The writer of Hebrews brings clarity:
Hebrews 5:7-10 “In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety. Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation, being designated by God as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.”
There is a mouthful of truth about Christ in that passage.
• We learn of His suffering in His prayers and crying and tears.
• And we see that God heard Him because of His piety (He was righteous).
• We learn that He was God’s Son.
But we also see that “He learned obedience from the things which He suffered.”
That of course is not factual obedience, but experiential obedience.
He is NOT LIKE a scholar who has read a book on farming,
But who has never picked up a hoe in his life.
HE GOT DOWN IN IT WITH US.
He learned it experientially.
He felt the toil, He felt the dread, He experienced the temptation.
And through that experience
He learned how to be a sympathetic priest.
Hebrews 2:17-18 “Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.”
Hebrews 4:15 “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.”
The incarnation is a loathsome notion to the Jew.
• They could not fathom how the God of the universe could or would belittle Himself so as to become human dwell among us.
BUT IT WAS NECESSARY.
• No one wants a priest who isn’t sympathetic.
• No one wants a priest who isn’t acceptable to God.
• No one wants a priest who doesn’t understand tears and crying to God.
Jesus became human and lived a human life to learn human suffering.
HE WAS A FAITHFUL DISCIPLE.
BUT HERE, the emphasis is not simply on the incarnation,
But on a specific role He earned through the incarnation.
Notice what He says about Himself in verse 4.
(4) “The Lord God has given Me the tongue of disciples, That I may know how to sustain the weary one with a word.”
The sympathy He gained is NOT JUST so that He will
Faithfully take our troubles to the Father on our behalf.
It is also so that He will know how to answer us in our struggles.
You’ll see this later, but the third group we’re going to talk about here in Isaiah 50 is “The Remnant”.
Isaiah 50:10 “Who is among you that fears the LORD, That obeys the voice of His servant, That walks in darkness and has no light? Let him trust in the name of the LORD and rely on his God.”
• They are believers.
• They “fear the LORD”
• They “obey the voice of His servant”
• But despite their faith they still “walk in darkness and have no light”
That is to say, THEY ARE WEARY.
Following Christ has made life difficult for them.
But Christ knows exactly “how to sustain the weary one with a word.”
In His human suffering He became a merciful and faithful High Priest.
He was awakened by God “morning by morning”
Because that’s how life works isn’t it.
To a certain degree part of life is simply the marathon of it.
• It hits you anew every day.
• It is ongoing.
• Part of doing it well is just to keep doing it.
Jesus learned all of that.
He experienced all of the human emotion in that.
He is sympathetic toward us.
And that is part of the good news of the gospel.
2) HIS SUBMISSION (5)
“The Lord GOD has opened My ear; And I was not disobedient Nor did I turn back.”
Revealing that God had “opened [His] ear”
Is a reference to His comprehension of the will of God.
• How many times do we hear Jesus say, “he who has ears let him hear”?
• We are certainly familiar with Isaiah’s prophecy regarding those “who keep on hearing, but do not comprehend”.
But the will of God was made perfectly clear to Jesus.
And Jesus always obeyed it.
John 5:19 “Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.”
John 8:26-29 “I have many things to speak and to judge concerning you, but He who sent Me is true; and the things which I heard from Him, these I speak to the world.” They did not realize that He had been speaking to them about the Father. So Jesus said, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me. “And He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him.”
This is another very important aspect of His incarnation.
On one hand, He is A PERFECT EXAMPLE for us.
• We are to follow Him.
• We are imitate Him.
• We are to strive to be conformed into His image.
• He is our head, He is our example in all things.
But even more than being our example,
We know that He is our righteousness.
• His obedience is vitally important because we are counting on Him imputing that righteousness to us.
We have discussed this before,
But it is always helpful to hit on it again from time to time.
When we discuss the obedience of Jesus, we do so in two categories.
HIS ACTIVE OBEDIENCE & HIS PASSIVE OBEDIENCE.
Active obedience refers to that which He actively and intentionally fulfilled.
Matthew 5:17 “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.”
His Passive obedience refers to which He willingly and freely endured.
Luke 22:42 “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.”
BOTH OF THOSE ARE ESSENTIAL
in order for Christ to be declared righteous by the Father.
ACTIVE OBEDIENCE:
We love the passage in Hebrews:
Hebrews 10:5-7 “Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says, “SACRIFICE AND OFFERING YOU HAVE NOT DESIRED, BUT A BODY YOU HAVE PREPARED FOR ME; IN WHOLE BURNT OFFERINGS AND sacrifices FOR SIN YOU HAVE TAKEN NO PLEASURE. “THEN I SAID, ‘BEHOLD, I HAVE COME (IN THE SCROLL OF THE BOOK IT IS WRITTEN OF ME) TO DO YOUR WILL, O GOD.’”
Christ came to fulfill all the requirements of the Law on our behalf.
• This is why He was born under the Law.
• This is why He was circumcised on the eighth day.
• This is why He submitted Himself to baptism.
He was obedient, He earned righteousness through His works.
And God declared Him to be righteous.
“I was not disobedient”
Hebrews 4:15 “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.”
PASSIVE OBEDIENCE
But we also read “Nor did I turn back.”
This speaks of His endurance in that Passive Obedience.
• He did not stop short.
• He did not quit.
• Even on the cross, in order to fulfill the Scriptures, He says, “I thirst” so that
He could get that drink of sour wine before He died.
He endured it all.
He fulfilled it all.
Hebrews 12:2 “who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Christ satisfied the righteous requirement of God on our behalf.
In His body He lived the righteous life that you and I could not live.
That is so important to our understanding of the gospel.
He came to BE our righteousness.
3) HIS SUFFERING (6)
“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.”
We are aware of this.
Mark 15:19 “They kept beating His head with a reed, and spitting on Him, and kneeling and bowing before Him.”
Matthew 26:67 “Then they spat in His face and beat Him with their fists; and others slapped Him,”
John 18:22 “When He had said this, one of the officers standing nearby struck Jesus, saying, “Is that the way You answer the high priest?”
This was a part of the atonement He would make for us.
TO BE CERTAIN the full force of the atonement
Is accomplished on the cross when the sun goes dark
And God pours out His wrath on sin.
But the human element of His suffering is part of the atonement too
For this is where we see the humiliation and shame and scorn
That our sin deserves.
Jesus DIDN’T go into a secluded place in the garden and bear God’s wrath outside of human view.
• Jesus suffered publicly.
• He bore shame and reproach and insults and mockery.
• He hung naked in humiliation.
That was part of the penalty of sin.
And Christ came to bear that on our behalf.
1 Peter 2:22-23 “WHO COMMITTED NO SIN, NOR WAS ANY DECEIT FOUND IN HIS MOUTH; and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously;”
When Jesus came He took the FULL fury of all the wrath we deserve.
• He fulfilled every command for us.
• He suffered every stroke of punishment for us.
• He left none of it undone.
There is no more command for us to fulfill in order to be righteous.
There is no more punishment to endure in order to be righteous.
JESUS ACCOMPLISHED IT ALL.
JESUS PAID IT ALL.
That is the message of the gospel.
2 Corinthians 5:21 “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
4) HIS SUPPORT (7)
“For the Lord GOD helps Me, Therefore, I am not disgraced; Therefore, I have set My face like flint, And I know that I will not be ashamed.”
We know about this help of God.
Isaiah 49:8 “Thus says the LORD, “In a favorable time I have answered You, And in a day of salvation I have helped You; And I will keep You and give You for a covenant of the people, To restore the land, to make them inherit the desolate heritages;”
We see God’s strength bounding through Him throughout His incarnation.
It is God that allows Jesus to “set My face like flint”
And never cater or bow to the pressure of the Pharisees.
It is God who stands with Jesus
That He might endure the pressure and trial of Pilate.
And when all surrounded Christ to mock Him and condemn Him to death,
It was God who stood by Him.
Psalms 118:10-14 “All nations surrounded me; In the name of the LORD I will surely cut them off. They surrounded me, yes, they surrounded me; In the name of the LORD I will surely cut them off. They surrounded me like bees; They were extinguished as a fire of thorns; In the name of the LORD I will surely cut them off. You pushed me violently so that I was falling, But the LORD helped me. The LORD is my strength and song, And He has become my salvation.”
It is THE GREAT PARADOX
Of the relationship between the Father and the Son on the cross.
On one hand Jesus is crying “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
• And that is because God is pouring out His wrath on Christ.
And yet on the other hand it is the Father who stands by His side and helps Him throughout the sacrifice.
And it is God who vindicated Jesus by raising Him from the dead.
Psalms 16:9-10 “Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoices; My flesh also will dwell securely. For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol; Nor will You allow Your Holy One to undergo decay.”
Not only that,
But it is God who ascended Jesus into heaven and seated Him at His right hand.
Psalms 2:7-9 “I will surely tell of the decree of the LORD: He said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You. ‘Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, And the very ends of the earth as Your possession. ‘You shall break them with a rod of iron, You shall shatter them like earthenware.’”
And the statement of Christ is clear and obvious.
“And I know that I will not be ashamed.”
Christ knows how this ends.
With Himself reigning upon the earth.
• He will return to judge the living and the dead.
• He will tread His enemies under His feat.
• He will reign forever and ever.
This has been decreed.
This has been determined.
Psalms 2:10-12 “Now therefore, O kings, show discernment; Take warning, O judges of the earth. Worship the LORD with reverence And rejoice with trembling. Do homage to the Son, that He not become angry, and you perish in the way, For His wrath may soon be kindled. How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!”
And that is a beautiful rendition of the gospel from Isaiah 50.
• Christ our sympathetic supporter.
• Christ our submissive standard.
• Christ our seasoned sufferer.
• Christ our steadfast soldier.
• Christ our successful savior.
BUT AS WE NOTED AT THE BEGINNING,
These are the very truths that His rivals oppose to this day.
• They deny His virgin birth.
• They deny His deity.
• They deny His sinlessness.
• They deny His atonement.
• They deny His resurrection.
• They deny His bodily return.
• They deny His role as High Priest.
WHY DO THEY DENY ALL THESE THINGS?
Because if the truths about Jesus are true
Then they are sinners and they need a Savior.
The only way to preserve their sin without condemnation
Is to prove Jesus a fraud.
• They must prove He is not from God.
• They must prove He was not sinless.
• They must prove He was not a substitutionary atonement.
• They must prove He was not raised.
• And on and on and on and on.
And so they fight against the truth of Christ.
We often seen rebels turn to rivals as the seek to keep their sin.
And this is what Jesus addresses in verses 8-9
(8-9) “He who vindicates 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 Me? Behold, they will all wear out like a garment; The moth will eat them.”
• You can “contend” if you want.
• You can build “a case” if you like.
• You can seek to “condemn” all day long.
But none of it will work.
• It did not work when Annas tried.
• It did not work when Caiaphas tried.
• It did not work when Herod tried.
• It did not work when Pilate tried.
They all supposed they had won because Jesus was dead.
But 3 days later God vindicated Him with the resurrection
And God vindicates Him still.
THE SIMPLE POINT?
ATTACKING JESUS WILL NOT WORK.
You can devote all your energy to warring against the truth of Jesus and you will not succeed.
• You can fight against His word.
• You can ignore His conviction.
• You can argue with His revealed truth.
But you will not win.
We know how this all ends.
Philippians 2:10-11 “so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
And Christ here reveals what EVERY RIVAL OF HIS CAN EXPECT.
We saw that the rebel was cut off and sent away and sold for their sin.
WHAT BECOMES OF THE RIVAL?
• What becomes of the one who argues with Christ and seeks to discredit and disprove Him?
• What happens to the one who despite the evidence refuses to submit to who Christ is?
(9b) “Behold, they will all wear out like a garment; The moth will eat them.”
Christ compares them to an old moth eat T-shirt.
It is a slow, but certain end.
You can chop on that tree all day long, but you will not get anywhere.
All you’re going to get is a dull axe and tired arms.
At the end of the day Christ will still be reigning
And you will end up in judgment.
It will do you no good to seek to disprove Christ.
The call is for you to submit to Him.
Psalms 118:22 “The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief corner stone.”
And here is our application this evening.
When you face Christ, the Bible says He is a double-edged sword
That exposes you inside and out.
• He will call you a sinner in need of a Savior.
• He will call you evil in need of righteousness.
• He will call you corrupt in need of forgiveness.
And He will offer to be that Savior.
• He will tell you how He came to earth as a human.
• He will tell you how He lived a righteous life.
• He will tell you how He fulfilled the Law.
• He will tell you how He suffered on the cross.
• He will tell you how He rose from the dead.
• And He will tell you that He did that to save you.
He will offer you His righteousness and His atonement.
You are forced to choose whose righteousness you’re going to trust in.
If you are willing to crush your own righteousness
• Then you will see in Jesus a sufficient and glorious Savior.
But if you are determined to keep your own righteousness
• Then you must discredit the claims of Christ and prove Him a phony.
And there are men who spend their whole lives seeking to do just that.
They think if they can prove that Jesus was not really a Savior,
Then it proves that they don’t really need one.
BUT THEY WILL FIGHT THAT BATTLE TO NO AVAIL.
And yet that is Israel today.
They may not have been the actual rebels at the cross yelling “Crucify”
But Scripture says through their ongoing rejection of Christ
They crucify Him to themselves.
Hebrews 6:4-6 “For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.”
By continually seeking to disprove Him.
By continually striving to contradict Him.
They set themselves up as His rival and there is no victory there.
CHRIST REIGNS.
Tonight, if you have been warring with Christ I invite you to stop.
If He has called you a sinner
• And you are in the process of arguing with Him, STOP.
If He has told you that you are list and need salvation,
• But you are arguing with Him, STOP.
If you would rather prove Jesus a fraud then admit you are one, STOP.
Quit fighting Him and submit to Him.
REBELS AND RIVALS DO NOT SURVIVE.
But those who confess their sins and run to Christ find salvation.
