The True Light
Isaiah 50
December 25, 2020
Isaiah 50 may be a little foreign to you as a whole,
But I’m confident that most of you probably recognized verse 6.
It is one of those passages typically referred to as
The “Suffering Servant” passages.
• It speaks of the Lord’s back being struck, His beard being plucked out, and His face being spit upon.
• And it certainly brings to the forefront of our minds the great suffering of Christ as He was crucified on our behalf.
But when you zoom out and read all of Isaiah 50
There is a much greater message
Than just the part about the Lord being abused in verse 6.
Isaiah 50 answers the question as to why Israel remains in darkness despite the fact that God’s Light has clearly shown.
It is a chapter that can then make a parallel application as to
Why the world lies in darkness despite the fact that Christ has come.
And the simple answer is because the world has rejected Christmas.
The boys and I went to Lubbock on Monday
• While we were there we went to get an oil change at Midas.
• I go there frequently and have developed a bit of a friendship with Tim the manager.
• He was sharing with me how many people this year have scowled at him, or even corrected him when he says “Merry Christmas” to them. Some frown, others correct him with a more politically correct “Happy Holidays”.
Look, it’s a stupid debate, and it speaks volumes to how petty, ignorant,
And literally stupid our society has become.
But it also explains why society is filled with such darkness and despair.
It is a lesson we should learn from Israel,
Because in Isaiah 50 they are in the same boat.
• In verse 10 we find people who “walk in darkness and has no light”
• In verse 11 we find that they have tried to make their own light source, but it
isn’t working.
They are learning the lesson that when you reject the true light,
Darkness is all you are left with.
And Isaiah 50 sets out to explain that to them.
You are aware that…
Isaiah likes the analogy of Christ as the Light of the World.
We’ve all read that FAMOUS PASSAGE in Isaiah 9.
Isaiah 9:2 “The people who walk in darkness Will see a great light; Those who live in a dark land, The light will shine on them.”
And then continuing:
Isaiah 9:6-7 “For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness From then on and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this.”
Isaiah had already announced that the light was coming.
It was coming in the form of this child who would be born to us.
• This “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace”
• He would be the world’s great light.
• He would bring about salvation.
And of course you know that
The gospel writers quickly seized upon Isaiah’s announcement.
Matthew explicitly referenced it:
Matthew 4:12-17 “Now when Jesus heard that John had been taken into custody, He withdrew into Galilee; and leaving Nazareth, He came and settled in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali. This was to fulfill what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet: “THE LAND OF ZEBULUN AND THE LAND OF NAPHTALI, BY THE WAY OF THE SEA, BEYOND THE JORDAN, GALILEE OF THE GENTILES — “THE PEOPLE WHO WERE SITTING IN DARKNESS SAW A GREAT LIGHT, AND THOSE WHO WERE SITTING IN THE LAND AND SHADOW OF DEATH, UPON THEM A LIGHT DAWNED.” From that time Jesus began to preach and say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
Matthew saw Jesus enter that region and he started jumping up and down,
“It’s Isaiah’s Light!!!”
JOHN didn’t quote Isaiah verbatim but it’s clear John was paying attention.
John 1:4-5 “In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.”
John 1:9 “There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.”
THEY ALL SAW IT.
The Light that Isaiah spoke of was Jesus.
THIS MORNING you see that Isaiah 9 was not the only time
That Isaiah spoke about this great Light.
He is also referenced in Isaiah 50,
But in Isaiah 50 THE TONE is not one of anticipation, but rather regret.
Here we have a chapter,
Not to people in darkness because the light hasn’t come,
But rather it is addressed to people in darkness
Because the light came and they rejected it.
And that, sadly, is a much more RELEVANT message, even to our day.
Our world in so many ways suffers not because light hasn’t come,
But because light has been rejected.
John 3:19-21 “This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. “For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. “But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.”
And yet, though the tone is somber, and the warning is real,
The very fact that the warning is issued reminds us that
The True Light is still shining and will transform your darkness if you’ll stop trying to light your own fire, and simply run to Him.
We can break it into 3 points
#1 THE REJECTION
Isaiah 50:1-3
Now, we don’t have time to lay the whole thing out for you this morning,
But I will tell you this.
• While Isaiah was written over 600 years before Christ arrived…
• And while this passage certainly was relevant to those in Isaiah’s day…
• This passage actually reaches way into the future…
Isaiah 50 clearly looks to the time of Christ.
Actually Isaiah 50 looks beyond the time of Christ.
Isaiah 50 through 66 actually looks to the future salvation of Israel.
You are aware that
• Christ came, Israel rejected Him, and thus was “broken off”.
• We now live in the time of the Gentiles,
• But we eagerly anticipate the day when Israel “looks on Him whom they have pierced” and returns to Christ and is saved.
Isaiah 50-66 points to that day.
• It speaks of why Israel was broken off
• It explains why their Christ was crucified
• It exposes their useless religion and the weight of their rebellion
• It continually calls them to Christ for salvation
• And ultimately we see them saved in Isaiah 64 when they acknowledge that their righteous deeds are filthy rags and they submit themselves to the Potter.
And it all culminates in chapter 66 with the “new heavens and new earth” that is promised upon Israel’s return to Christ.
Isaiah 66:22-24 “For just as the new heavens and the new earth Which I make will endure before Me,” declares the LORD, “So your offspring and your name will endure. “And it shall be from new moon to new moon And from sabbath to sabbath, All mankind will come to bow down before Me,” says the LORD. “Then they will go forth and look On the corpses of the men Who have transgressed against Me. For their worm will not die And their fire will not be quenched; And they will be an abhorrence to all mankind.”
I just show you that to let you know that Isaiah 50 kicks off a very enlightening and prophetic segment that all points to Christ.
AND IT BEGINS with a confrontation of why Israel has been broken off.
It begins with a confrontation as to why Israel has been hardened.
(1) “Thus says the LORD, “Where is the certificate of divorce By which I have sent your mother away? Or to whom of My creditors did I sell you? Behold, you were sold for your iniquities, And for your transgressions your mother was sent away.”
The separation and the chasm are obvious.
• Israel has been for all intents and purposes “divorced” and “sold” by God.
• Paul refers to it as having been “broken off”.
The question of verse 1 is WHY?
And the answer is: SIN
“you were sold for our iniquities, And for your transgressions your mother was sent away.”
It is a living picture of what Hosea speaks of.
• You’ve got here a harlot who has been sent away by her husband.
• (Now the good news, which Hosea also saw, was that God will one take her
back again to Himself)
But the point here is to first address why the break happened.
So Israel was sent away because of her sin.
WHAT SIN?
(2a) “Why was there no man when I came? When I called, why was there none to answer?”
There is a reference there to a rejection of God.
God came, and Israel rejected Him.
Now certainly there was application for the people in Isaiah’s day, who had rejected God continually, but verses 4-6 show us there is an even bigger rejection in view.
Christ came and they rejected Him.
And this is unbelievable since God has never done anything
To prove He was anything other than a great Savior.
(2b-3) “Is My hand so short that it cannot ransom? Or have I no power to deliver? Behold, I dry up the sea with My rebuke, I make the rivers a wilderness; Their fish stink for lack of water And die of thirst. I clothe the heavens with blackness And make sackcloth their covering.”
God merely questions why Israel would reject Him as a Savior?
Has His salvation ever been inadequate? (No)
• Do they not remember Him parting the Red Sea?
• Do they not remember Him stopping up the Jordan River?
• Do they not remember His plague of darkness in Egypt?
God’s salvation has always been tremendous,
But this time, when He came to save, they rejected Him.
Why?
The Rejection
#2 THE REDEEMER
Isaiah 50:4-9
Do you know what you get in those 6 verses?
You get the gospel.
The Incarnation
(4-5) “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. The Lord GOD has opened My ear; And I was not disobedient Nor did I turn back.”
Those verses speak very clearly
To the Christmas reality we celebrate this morning.
Namely that God became flesh and dwelt among us.
And again, I must remind you that when Isaiah speaks in the first person here, he is not talking about himself.
Remember that story about the salvation of the Ethiopian Eunuch who was reading Isaiah 53?
• Well when Philip approached him and began to discuss the passage, the
eunuch had one main question.
Acts 8:34-35 “The eunuch answered Philip and said, “Please tell me, of whom does the prophet say this? Of himself or of someone else?” Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this Scripture he preached Jesus to him.”
His question was: WHO IS THIS ABOUT?
Philip said: JESUS
That is true of the entire end of Isaiah.
This is Jesus.
And here we see Him become human,
• Even become a disciple of sorts.
• He walks through pain and hardship to learn how to sustain those who are weary.
That is what Hebrews continually talks about that because He suffered and was tempted He knows how to come to the aid of those who are tempted.
• We see Him obedient to God and we could talk about His ACTIVE OBEDIENCE where He perfectly fulfilled God’s Law.
We see how committed He was
To living a holy and obedient life as a human on earth.
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.”
A reference to the cruelty Christ suffered
During His arrest, trial, and ultimately His crucifixion.
But we also see reference to:
His Resurrection
(7-9) “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. 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.”
We could go much deeper into that passage
And even examine the trials that Jesus endured,
But you get the basic point that
While the world was condemning Him, God would vindicate Him.
The ultimate vindication would come in the form of resurrection from the dead.
Psalms 16:10 “For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol; Nor will You allow Your Holy One to undergo decay.”
But you see here the full gospel account.
THIS IS CHRIST.
And thus we also see
WHY HE WAS REJECTED when He came to save.
It is the same problem Isaiah will outline in 3 chapters.
Isaiah 53:1-3 “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 shoot, And like a root out of 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.”
He didn’t fit the mold.
He wasn’t the Savior they were looking for.
• They wanted a warrior to deliver them from Rome.
• He was a Lamb meant to deliver them from God’s wrath.
They didn’t want to be saved from sin and so they had no use for Him.
He came, but they rejected.
And the RESULT of that rejection has been DIVORCE.
The result of rejecting the Light has been darkness.
And while this passage has its direct application to Israel,
There is still application to be made to our world.
Christ is the Light of the World.
He is the Savior of all men, in the sense that He is the only Savior for men.
But if you reject the Light, then darkness is all you get.
• The darkness of sin and immorality…
• The darkness of depression and hopelessness…
• The darkness of ignorance and deception…
• The darkness of death and hell…
Only Christ changes that.
If you reject Him then darkness is all you get.
The Rejection, The Redeemer
#3 THE REQUIREMENT
Isaiah 50:10-11
Here is Isaiah’s solution.
Here is Isaiah’s invitation.
(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.”
This addresses the person who REALIZES they are in the darkness.
This is like the BLIND MAN in John 9 who knew he was blind.
• He knew he walked in darkness.
• He knew he had no light.
And the command to people in that condition is clear:
“Let him trust in the name of the LORD and rely on his God.”
• Do you want to leave the darkness of sin and immorality?
• Do you want to leave the darkness of depression and hopelessness?
• Do you want to leave the darkness of ignorance and deception?
• Do you want to leave the darkness of death and hell?
Then call on Christ and trust in Him as your Savior!
John 8:12 “Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”
John 12:35 “So Jesus said to them, “For a little while longer the Light is among you. Walk while you have the Light, so that darkness will not overtake you; he who walks in the darkness does not know where he goes.”
So this morning if you are in the darkness and you want to escape it.
• If you want your sin forgiven…
• If you want your hopelessness turned to joy…
• If you want ignorance turned to understanding…
• If you want death turned to life…
Then follow Christ; believe in Christ; call on Christ; trust in Christ.
That’s the instruction to those who know they are in darkness.
To those who are in darkness and DON’T KNOW IT,
There is a different invitation.
(11) “Behold, all you who kindle a fire, Who encircle yourselves with firebrands, Walk in the light of your fire And among the brands you have set ablaze. This you will have from My hand: You will lie down in torment.”
• This is a man in darkness who doesn’t know it.
• This is like the Pharisees who attacked Jesus for restoring the blind man’s sight.
John 9:39-41 “And Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, so that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind.” Those of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these things and said to Him, “We are not blind too, are we?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but since you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.”
These people in are in darkness, but they fail to see it.
WHY?
Because they have lit for themselves a false light.
That is to say they are trusting in something else to deliver them from the darkness.
• They trust in their good works…
• They trust in their religious deeds…
• They trust in their Jewish pedigree…
It is false light.
Which by the way Jesus is called “the true light”
These men have a false light.
They “kindle a fire”
And so the Lord tells them to “walk in the light of your fire”
That is to say, “good luck with that”
But the end result?
“This you will have from My hand; you will lie down in torment.”
It won’t work.
There has only ever been one way to escape the darkness.
And that is with the true light of Christ.
And that is what I want to encourage you with on this Christmas morning.
We live in a world that is bent on spiraling into darkness.
It can be a hopeless scene.
BUT THE DARKNESS IS NOT INEVITABLE.
2,000 years ago Christ took on human flesh.
• He was given “the tongue of disciples”
• And He knows how “to sustain the weary one with a word.”
• He “was not disobedient”,
• Nor did He “turn back”.
• Instead, He gave His “back to those who strike”.
• He gave His “cheeks to those who pluck out the beard;”
• He did not cover his “face from humiliation and spitting.”
In short, He came to save, and He did it perfectly.
He came to save you from sin.
Christmas is all about that Light coming into the world.
And if you will trust in Him, you too can escape the darkness and have the light of life.
John 1:9-13 “There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”
Merry Christmas.
