This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Welcome back for day five of week five of our look to the book of Isaiah. We've
been starting a look this week at what God has to say to us about His vision for
comfort in our lives. A different kind of comfort.

An entirely different kind of comfort. The kind of comfort that leans on God,
that rests in God. As we turn to Isaiah chapter 42, we turn to the first of what
are called Isaiah's servant songs or suffering servant songs.

There are four of them in the book of Isaiah. Chapter 42, 49, 50, and then in 52
to 53. And they are songs about a servant who is an entirely different kind of
leader.

A servant who suffers and yet is also a king, a Lord, a Messiah. By the time we
get to the last of these songs in chapter 53, it's going to be as clear as a
bell that this servant is Jesus Christ. And this first song tells us three
things that Jesus will do for us.

You want to be comforted in this world by God's grace, by God's strength, His
power, then it's going to come through Jesus Christ. Now these are things that
you might not at first think of that you need for God's comfort in your life. Or
they may be things that are obvious to you every day.

These are three areas where Jesus Christ wants to come into our lives and as
God's servant bring God's comfort into our lives. Number one, the servant this
song tells us will bring justice. Isaiah 42, 1 to 4, "Here is my servant whom I
uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight.

I will put my spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations. He will
not shout or cry out or raise his voice in the streets, a bruised reed he will
not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will
bring forth justice.

He will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth. In
his teaching the islands will put their hope. " Now the idea of the islands that
we've been reading these last few days that's the furthest reaches that you
could go out to.

Everyone's going to put their hope in him. Notice in these verses that the
source of the strength of this servant is going to be the Spirit of God. And
notice also it talks about the fact that he's the one in whom I delight.

These words remind us of Jesus's baptism where God's spirit descends on Jesus
and the Father says this is my son in whom I delight, in whom I am well pleased.
In many ways the fulfillment of this first verse in chapter 42. The following
verses talk about a different kind of justice.

The kind of justice that we all long for in our hearts. Three specific ways he
talks about justice here. He uses the word three times.

First he says it's a justice that's brought entirely to the nations. Our ideas
of justice tend to be limited but God's justice is given to all. It's universal
or it's offered to all.

It's more, God's justice is more than the right verdict in one particular
courtroom or even the protection of those who are victimized in one particular
country. As important as that is and is important those are just a taste of the
complete justice that God wants to work. God's justice involves setting the
heart of every person right with him.

It's not just getting the right verdict, not just getting the right result, it's
the rightness that comes into our hearts. Everyone living in right relationship
with him. That would be true justice and that's what Jesus offers us because of
the cross.

He took the just punishment for all of our sins so that all of us can be
forgiven by trusting in him. Justice is offered to the nations and live in
relationship with him. The Bible calls this being justified.

God's justice is seen in our lives because Jesus justifies us because of what
was done at the cross. Now that does not mean that we don't want to see justice
done in the circumstances of this world. We are to do, we are to be the hands
and feet of Jesus but it begins and ends with the justification that God gives
us in Jesus Christ through the cross.

That's the power of God's justice. Our ideas are limited. God's idea is all
about his power at the cross.

And then he talks in these verses about a second truth concerning justice. He
says justice grows out of faithfulness. It grows out of the faithfulness of the
leadership of Jesus and it's interesting you see he he says he doesn't have to
shout to get justice.

In fact this kind of justice won't even crush the weakest weed. It won't even
put out a flickering candle. The world's brand of justice it often destroys with
the weak getting caught up in the punishment of the powerful when justice is
done because we don't know how to sort it out.

Jesus does and so the faithful justice of Jesus it's it's a gentle justice. It
brings us to him even in our deepest hurts. Just when I feel like the candle of
hope is about to flicker out he gently breathes it back into life.

That's his justice. Justice out of that faithfulness of his love. Justice that's
given to all, offered to all.

And then there's this justice truth that is also in these verses that reminds us
that justice is going to be established by Jesus Christ. A perfect and complete
justice. It will be done in the end.

He will not falter until he establishes justice. God will completely and
perfectly finish this world in justice and we're going to live in that justice
for all eternity. There's nothing that needs to be judged that will not be
judged.

There's nothing that because of Jesus Christ has been judged that will not be
forgiven. That's going to be the eternity that we live in. God's going to finish
it.

He's going to close the books on justice. That is the hope that we live in
because of Jesus Christ. So everything we do is out of that hope.

The servant will be God's justice. Second truth about the servant in these
verses is that the servant will be a covenant. The servant will be a covenant.

Verses five to six. This is what the Lord says. The creator of the heavens who
stretches them out, who spreads out the earth with all that springs from it, who
gives breath to its people and life to those who walk in it.

I the Lord have called you in righteousness. I will take hold of your hand. He's
speaking to a servant here now.

I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and I will make you to be a
covenant for the people. This servant will not just bring a covenant, an
agreement between us and God, a commitment between us and God.

He will be a covenant. Now the Hebrew word used for covenant here is bereith and
if you look back at the pictures of covenant in the Old Testament you see that
behind this is the picture of the idea of the cutting of the flesh. Sometimes
they would cut an animal in two, put it in its two parts and walk between it as
an expression, between those two parts as an expression of the fact that this
covenant was sealed.

I know that sounds gross to us. So why would they do that? Because God was
looking forward to something.

As they talked about this word, as they recognized a covenant in that day, they
had no idea that this was exactly how Jesus would become our covenant. By the
cutting of the flesh, the cutting of the whip, the nails, the sword. Hebrews 9
15 says this, "For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that
those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, now that he
has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first
covenant.

" First covenant is the law, the new covenant is grace in Jesus Christ. The new
agreement is that because of the death of Jesus Christ you and I have life, you
and I have forgiveness. That's what's being pictured here in Isaiah chapter 42
as he looks forward to Jesus Christ in his first servant song.

The servant will be a covenant, the servant will be God's justice, and then
finally the servant will be a light. "I the Lord," verse 6 to 7, "I the Lord
have called you in righteousness. I will take hold of your hand.

I will keep you and make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the
Gentiles, to open the eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison, and to
release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness. " Light for the Gentiles.
That is radical thinking, that's prophetic truth that could only come from God
through Isaiah.

The hope here is not just for Israel, it's for all people, all nations. Jesus is
the light of the world. John 8-12, when Jesus spoke again to the people he said,
"I am the light of the world.

Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.
" You need the comfort that comes from God's justice, the comfort that comes
from God's covenant, and now the comfort that comes from God's light. He brings
to light the hidden things in our lives, but then he brings to light the
forgiveness that only he can give, and then we walk in that light.

We don't have to walk in darkness anymore, stumbling around. We walk in the
light. So we are comforted by the fact that our sins are forgiven, the judgment
is finished, we're comforted by the fact that the agreement is given, that he's
said to us, "You and I now live in this relationship with him," and we're
comforted by the fact that he gives us his light to walk in in everyday life.

Now I've said a couple of times that this comfort clearly comes from Jesus
Christ. How do I get that comfort in my daily life? Well, back at verse one he
says, "Look at my servant.

" You get that comfort by looking at Jesus Christ. Now just as a reminder that
these words are clearly about Jesus Christ, I want to read for you Matthew 12,
15 to 21. "Aware of this, Jesus withdrew from that place, and a large crowd
followed him, and he healed all who were ill.

He warned them not to tell others about him. This was to fulfill what was spoken
through the prophet Isaiah. 'Here is my servant whom I have chosen, the one whom
I love and whom I delight.

I will put my spirit on him. He will proclaim justice to the nations. He will
not quarrel or cry out.

No one will hear his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, and
a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. Tell he has brought justice through to
victory.

In his name the nations will put their hope. " So Matthew reminds us that these
words from Isaiah are clearly about Jesus Christ, and you and I clearly need the
hope that only he can give. In his name the nations will put their hope.

So right now put your hope in him. Just say to him in prayer, "Jesus Christ, I
put my hope in you. I put my hope in you for justice.

I can't create justice in this world, but you can. I certainly can't create
justice in my life, but you have justified me through the cross. Thank you.

I put my hope in your covenant, not in the old covenant of trying to put myself
right with you by doing good things by some law, but in the new covenant of your
grace poured out of me in Jesus Christ. And I put my hope in your light. I don't
want to walk in darkness, my selfishness, the things I want to do.

I don't walk in your light what you've given Jesus Christ. So just as you are
the light of the world, I pray that you would bring light even through my life
to this world as I follow you. Let people see your light in me today, Jesus.

I pray that not based on anything good that I have done, but on the power that
you have. I ask this in your name, Jesus. Amen.

Well join us next week. We're going to continue to look at God's powerful
comfort seen in the book of Isaiah.