Isaiah 50:4-11, The Third Servant Song

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Isaiah 50:4-11 The Third Servant Song

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Isaiah chapter 50 starting in verse 4 hear the word of the Lord The Lord God has given me the tongue of the of those who are taught
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That I may know how to sustain with a word him who was weary Morning by morning he awakens
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He awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught the Lord God has opened my ear and I was not rebellious.
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I turned not backward I gave my back to those who strike and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard
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I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting But the Lord God helps me
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Therefore I have not been disgraced Therefore I have set my face like a flint and I know that I shall not be put to shame
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He who vindicates me is near who will contend with me. Let us stand up together
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Who is my adversary let him come near to me behold the Lord God helps me who will declare me guilty
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Behold all of them will wear out like a garment The moth will eat them up who among you fears the
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Lord and obeys the voice of his servant Let him who walks in darkness and has no light
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Trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God Behold all you who kindle a fire who equip yourselves with burning torches
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Walk by the light of your fire and by the torches that you have kindled This you have from my hand you shall lie down in torment
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May the Lord add his blessings to the reading of his Holy Word. Well, how do you react?
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To a challenge maybe does that provoke you to do your best if someone says you don't have what it takes to do
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Whatever make it on the basketball team Run a 5k learning musical instrument
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Qualify for what get a PhD and our DED and nursing start a business or whatever it is
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How do you respond? To that challenge just discourage. Okay, you're right. I'm gonna quit maybe these days
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You know, our heads have been so full of you could do whatever you set your mind to you you got this
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That kind of positive talk. Maybe hardly anyone talks like that anymore when I was a kid they did You know when
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I went out for the track team, the coach tried to talk me out of it You know, we have enough mile runners. We don't need you. I'm gonna do it
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Anyway, that's anyone talk like that anymore Maybe we've been taught not to never discourage anyone from doing sometimes people need to be discouraged from doing some things because they're just not
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Really good at them. Did you ever say I dare you I bet you can't Maybe we need to be challenged more.
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So we will react with determination to prove them wrong Some people can be provoked to do all kinds of things if they're challenged sometimes some crazy things
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They shouldn't be doing but that's beside the point I was once challenged in the middle of a 5k race by a guy from Southeast, Missouri State settled in his jersey
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Who boasted that I couldn't stay with him? We were running side -by -side after I wouldn't let him cut in on front of me in the middle of a three 3 .1
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mile race And he turned to me and said I can last longer than you bud And I reacted to that challenge and beat him running my best time ever.
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What's it for him? I never would have ran so fast. Maybe you react better to encouragement though It's a lot of people need encouragement.
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You can do it If you work hard You can make the team or run a 5k or learn to play the violin or become a doctor or whatever if you set your mind
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To it some of us react much better to encouragement. I think we all need encouragement time to time to being believed in We need affirmation.
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There's something important about seeing the promises The promise of what you can have what you can do
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That moves us to turn those promises into reality How do you react to criticism?
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None of us likes to be criticized because it shows we're not perfect that we need to we need to work on something We don't like that, right?
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We like to say I'm fine as I am I don't work on anything But if our goal is to grow and we're humble enough to realize that we aren't perfect and that criticism that the criticism is given
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Helpfully that often is a key factor then shouldn't we react well to it shouldn't we
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We saw last year about this time if you remember give a sermon about the role of the pastor that his role is in least in part
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Remember preach the word reprove Rebuke and that is in part to criticize.
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I'd like to be paid to be an official critic. That's kind of part of my job I'm paid to criticize you How you like that, huh, but some people think it's their role to criticize the pastor that's the odd thing at least in If I can be ethnic here
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And I've noticed often that the same people who think it's their role to criticize the pastor are the ones if you criticize them
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Boy, they don't like that at all. They don't respond well at all to that They'll write letters sit down with the pastor.
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Tell him just you know We're gonna set him straight tell him what he's doing wrong And if he dares to start set them straight with a word or whatever
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They are aghast They can't believe it. How dare you talk to me like that? You're a man of God You're supposed to be telling me how great
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I am that you react badly How do we act to suffering? to hardship
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To the prospect that that to get some goal. It's going to be hard You mean you can do it, but it's gonna be really hard You know,
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I told you before I remember I was I've looked into becoming a missionary with it China little mission.
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What do they call now? OMF yeah, and the guy told me it's very hard and you have to learn
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Mandarin and I thought no way I can't do that I can't learn Mandarin. It's not gonna work. My brain will not accept
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Mandarin Not now, maybe it would have if I was two years old, but not now. Do you want to quit? Do you want to pull back?
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Do you want to take the easy way out? You know, we're all made to react to pain by pulling away from it.
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That's our natural instinct This is built into us. We recoil from suffering put your hand on a hot stove. Your instinct is pull back right away, right?
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That's what pain is for pain is given to us by God to tell us to pull away from what is hurting us
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And it's useful for that. But sometimes we have to be willing to lean into the pain
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To push through it Right Brian would probably could tell you if you if you want to get in shape
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You'll have to go through the pain a Good workout. I know this for running is structured, right?
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You warm up you stretch you you kind of first maybe if you're running a long run You've just a few miles are easy, but you get you to a place where you're in pain
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You get to a while and you're just exhausted. You don't want to go on any further Maybe there's a big hill coming. I don't want to go up that hill
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I want to stop I want to go home and your body's screaming for you to stop But if you want to be the best athlete you can be it's at that moment that's the key moment then
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You have to push through You have to lean in to the pain Maybe if you want to finish an advanced education
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Some pain you got to lean into you got to Get to endure some long nights some really boring books some tedious papers
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Rachel's going. Yeah If you want to grow a successful business, it will require you suffering some long hours putting up with some demanding customers
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Making yourself do what needs to be done to get people to buy from you Maybe some things you just you don't want to do but it's not gonna flow your way
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You have to you have to endure it. Sometimes you have to push through the pain How do you react to Christ?
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How does he react to you? with acceptance Really are you sure but based on what?
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How does he react to the father? Well, we see that here in the third servant song in three major parts first the response of the servant
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Second the resolve of the servant and finally the reverence for the servant
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How do you react? How does the servant react to the Lord he calls him here
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You notice Lord God and if you notice the God is all capitalized You see a lot of places where Lord is all capitalized here
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It's Lord is not but God is and that's because Lord is translating the
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Hebrew word out of nigh which means master or Lord In Hebrew and the
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God is translated the word Yahweh or you know I am like really old in the burning bush translate it and so you put those two together
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Lord God some versions have sovereign Lord. That's probably pretty good. In other words, he's the ultimate
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Lord He's the king of the universe. You're my God. You're my Lord the servant reacts well to the sovereign
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Lord He recognizes the sovereignty the absolute control of the sovereign Lord.
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He listens to his teaching And because of that the servant himself is a good teacher.
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He's a skilled effective Speaker, you know, we don't you know, we don't have recordings of Jesus.
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I wish we did when that mean great But you can tell him his writings powerful teaching
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He didn't get that from just from practicing in the synagogue or with you know learning from the teachers in the temple when he was 12 years old is sure those may have been instruments
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God used to help train his teaching ministry as he grew and wisdom and in skills, but But it was he knows here.
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He says it's from the sovereign Lord That he you know that all good gifts ultimately come from the sovereign
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Lord who was in charge And Controlling all of those experiences that have honed his teaching ministry so that he says the sovereign
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Lord has given me the tongue of Those who are wise so those who are taught
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Otherwise, he's taught me how to teach He's taught me how to give wisdom
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God has done that made him an effective speaker that he might Quote know how to sustain with the word
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Him who is weary Can you sustain people with a word how to speak remember the previous and the first servant song?
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how to speak to those smoldering wicks to those bruised reeds Those people who are weak
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Maybe they've been abused. Maybe they've just been they just now realize what their own sin has been doing to them
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You're near to being crushed if you come on too strong and He's skilled not just in holding our attention
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Being an effective communicator But also in speaking the truth in love and calling the weary to himself
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You can almost you can almost hear it right in that path you passage in Matthew 11 Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest for I am meek and lowly in heart
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Can't you just hear that? sustaining the weary with a word still echoes 2 ,000 years later
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He can sustain those us weary with a word. That's why earlier in Isaiah. He was called remember from way back
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Isaiah chapter 11 I think he's a wonderful counselor
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You're not just a mediocre counselor. He's a wonderful one How does he react to the weary the broken?
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Well with patience with healing with the right soothing words
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How do you react to the father And the second half of verse 4 he says morning by morning
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He awakens he awakens my ear To hear as those who are taught
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He reacts as a listener Every every morning during those hidden years in obscurity.
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Jesus was taught by the father. He was quick to listen he heard and Learned he listened he says as those who are taught
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With it with a teachable attitude unlike so many now who? Who even go to church maybe read their
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Bible day for the purpose of not for the purpose of being taught But for the purpose of finding the ammunition they want to use to back up whatever it is
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They believe now have their opinions now affirmed never an idea that they need to be taught They wake up all the time.
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They open their Bible with that attitude. What can I do to find? I know what I believe. I'm gonna look for the passages that show To support it, but I already believe
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Even though Jesus here Jesus the opposite of that the serpent is even though he was perfect as a man He had to be taught and he was able to be taught because he know he needed to be taught
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So he grew in wisdom. That's what Luke says about him. He grew in wisdom That means he was he gained more of it by being taught while people who can't be taught
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They can't grow in wisdom no matter how long they live They just never grow in wisdom They age and stay as ignorant and the stubborn and as foolish as they were when they were young As an elderly neighbor once told me when you stop learning you stop living
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He says in verse 5 the Lord God again to the sovereign Lord has opened my ear You know pull out the stops out of your plugs out of your ear
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He's made it possible for him to hear to learn to be teachable Often in Scripture, we're told to have soft
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Teachable hearts. We'll see a little bit later in Acts the Bereans they were more noble because they searched the
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Scriptures they were teachable Yeah, that's still so lacking And so we need to make it our prayer that the sovereign
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Lord Would open our ears So that we'd not be stiff -necked, you know resistant.
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I know what I believe I know What what it is what I'm gonna do have closed ears unteachable
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We will not be arrogant know -it -alls Quickly dismissing anything that we don't really understand
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Only wanting to have our opinions affirmed Reacting with the kind of a smug dismissiveness. Well, they know they're not even reformed like us.
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We're smarter than they are Anything that's new challenging the servant was not like that instead the servant heard the leading of the father and was not
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Rebellious he's in verse 5. I turn not backward and turn around and turn away. He didn't draw back
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He didn't recoil in horror Even when the father showed him that he was going to Jerusalem to die
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You know after after Peter saw and confessed in Matthew 16 That Jesus was the
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Christ the anointed one and Jesus said to him the father has revealed this to you And Jesus began to show the disciples after that happened
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Jesus began to show the disciples that he was going to suffer and be killed and and finally be raised that it was through suffering
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That he'd be exalted They couldn't believe him That was against everything
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These disciples have been taught from there with youth that what the Messiah was going to be the
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Messiah was going to be this Glorious King who would arise like David and rule over a new
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Jerusalem a new kingdom and bring them back on top Again, that's who the Messiah is.
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Don't you know that Jesus? We've been taught that since we were little kids and Peter was so sure of what he already believed so resistant to being taught
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He took Jesus aside. Come here. Jesus. Come on. Let me set you straight and He began to rebuke it says in Matthew 16.
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He began to rebuke Jesus He was rebuking and to get a picture of that some guy.
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Come on Jesus. I'll tell you what's what? Here's a buking and teaching Jesus so sure of himself was he that's people who are not willing to be taught but Jesus responded and maybe remember he's the one that Knows the right words at the right time most of the time often is to be gentle words
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But sometimes you need some blunt words. Remember what Jesus said wake him up Get behind me
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Satan The man who just before I've been given a revelation from God about about who Jesus was
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With now getting a revelation from Satan to try to hinder Jesus to make him pull back
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From where the father was leading him to be rebellious to God's plan That's what Satan was trying to do make him rebellious like Adam and Eve were rebellious, but he wouldn't pull back
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He leaned into he leaned into the pain on that Palm Sunday The crowds hailed him coming into Jerusalem as their soon -to -be king to save them save them
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What they thought was their biggest enemy Roman domination Jesus received their praise because he was indeed coming to Jerusalem to save them from their
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Biggest enemy their real one And he wasn't pulling back from that At that first Lord's Supper on Thursday He said he earnestly desired to eat this
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Passover with them to turn it into the Lord's Supper as a way of Remembering what he was about to get to do to give his body and blood
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He was leaning in to the suffering said he said I earnestly desire to have this with you
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To remember his own suffering Now sure he was tempted to pull back His time got closer
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At Gethsemane he prayed that the suffering would be taken from him that he not have to go through it If there was any other way
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He wanted to take it any other way than the way of the cross if it was possible
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By any other way to save his people if it was possible he wanted that but still he wasn't rebellious
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He didn't pull back. He didn't say no. I won't go there He then in verse 6 says he he he gave
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His back to those who strike notice that clearly it doesn't just say his back was struck or that he was beaten
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It says he gave himself to that he actively Deliberately gave himself to the suffering the abuse that violent men wanted to pour out on him.
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He wasn't What happened to him and it's his trial and his beatings and his crucifixion
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He wasn't overtaken by events that just spiraled out of control that he didn't know were happening
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It wasn't the crucifixion of Christ and all that happened around that wasn't
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Injustice claiming another just helpless victim. Oh, it was human injustice. All right getting another victim, but he wasn't helpless
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He gave himself to it purposefully He gave himself to those says he who pull out the beard goes to cruel sadistic abusers
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Ever really for no reason You know those soldiers that they were just let loose on it
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Just showed their nature for no reason they didn't have to do it It's not much of their duty and just in their minds there would there was no reason the father was behind it
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Yeah, he said but from a human point of view, there was no reason and it's up there their brutality Just they wanted to dish out pain.
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They were that kind that liked to do that and he gave himself to it to physical torment and this now in the third servant song is the first revelation
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That he will suffer physically No, no in the last one the second servant song chapter 49.
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He suffers rejection on popularity abandonment The feeling that all his work has been for nothing But until this until this passage here
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Nothing about being bodily abused Having his back lashed and tormentors yanking out his beard, but now now it comes now we see it
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Jesus knew that he was going to Jerusalem He knew what he was going there for on that first Palm Sunday as people were shouting
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Hosanna Save now he thought it was a triumph. He knew what he was going for Because he was open to being taught by the father
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He'd probably been taught from this very passage. He's seen it and know that this was talking about him
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What he was going to have to give himself to him You know the one the servant who is upheld the one who doesn't break bruised reeds or smother smoldering wits the one with the word of God sharp as a
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The sharpest sword coming out of his mouth who will still see himself forsaken and tempted to think that has all been in vain
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Now he sees that he'll have to turn his back To the lash.
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He'll have to give himself to torture he says at the end of verse 5
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I Hid not my face What was it he didn't try to hide from it
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To it to avoid it to hope it would pass him by Right. He could have just not gone to Jerusalem for that Passover.
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That would have been an easy way to escape it But he didn't hide from it. He didn't hide his face not even from disgrace and spitting
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He wouldn't dodge being humiliated Insulted mocked and spat upon He could call down legions of angels to get him out
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If he wanted he could have easily talked his way out this from a human perspective Pop I just pilot wanted an excuse any excuse he could get to let him go if only
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Jesus would play along Say the right things Jesus. Don't you see I'm trying to let you go.
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He's thinking Say the right things But he wouldn't
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He wouldn't take any of the easy ways out The response of the servant to the leading of the father to the cross was to say
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Not my will But yours be done Next at verses 7 to 9 the servant reacts with resolve
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How think about this how is he able to see because he can see it now from this passage
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Jesus had almost certainly read this passage and in knew this is about him. He could see
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That when he as he comes into Jerusalem on that Palm Sunday That what awaits him there
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Despite the the shouting Hosanna and the waving of palm branches and laying their cloths in front of him on the ground the the apparent
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I'm receiving him as a conquering King that what really awaits him is not the accolades of crowds
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But lashes on his back a plucked beard Not to mention all the torment described in the fourth the last
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Servant song in Isaiah 53 that famous one for the torment is so bad there were asked
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Who has believed I report Who would believe this
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This is so Hideous. It's so horrible Who would believe it?
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He won't hide his face from abuse, but he'll be so badly abused The people will hide their face from him
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How was he able to see that think imagine in Jesus's mind? Sees that he knows what he's coming for him as he's
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Cheered in Jerusalem on that Palm Sunday. He knows what's coming How's he able to see that?
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It would be wounded and crushed that the striking of his back on his back won't just be fist But in Isaiah 53 stripes that he was going to the grave by the end of this week
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He could see that How was he able to see that to hear it from the father and yet still?
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Not step back not recoil from it Walk willingly into it
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How is that possible? What he says in verse 7 the the
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Lord God the Sovereign Lord Helps me
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He helps me He helps me go to the cross
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Because of that Because the father upheld him enable him
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Set the joy before him the promise of what awaits Because of that he endured the cross despised the shame suffered the disgrace of dying on a cross but not the disgrace of pulling back from the father's will because of that now
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He is exalted and with a vision of that exaltation ahead He says in verse 7.
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I have set my face like a flint absolute determination resolve
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Luke chapter 9 verse 51 says when the days drew near for him to be taken up. He set his face to go to Jerusalem Jesus was at that point at the pinnacle
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He was popular Thousands were coming from far away to see him Everybody was saying good things about him the local
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King wanted to see him He's given a preview of his glory and yet he determines this not to stay on the mountaintop with Moses and Elijah But to go by way of the cross and he went from a mountaintop of glory to one with a cross and he didn't pull back
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You know, we we don't know that we set our face toward my comfort enjoyment
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Whatever serves us best The career the family the good times Whatever we recoil from what's hard Because our comfort is our goal he for the joy set before him
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Determined to give up all the popularity the success of his great ministry all the the power and the glory and the comfort here
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And here and now that he could have turned easily have turned his following into he could have harnessed the support
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That he had into palaces into armies into victory now
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But instead he set his face like a flint
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The resolve of the servant was to go to the cross to save his people
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For that he says at the end of verse 7 He knows that he will not ultimately be put to shame
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He will indeed he will be glorified. He'll be lifted up. He'll draw all kinds of people to himself
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Eventually every knee will bow. Everyone will confess that he is Lord. He will be vindicated proven, right?
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By God by raising him from the dead and making him Lord of all the father proves him, right?
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He justifies him before all people and he is the father is near him upholding him through all
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That he suffers So If he's justified by God You know, he asked who can contend with me who can contend with him who can take him on Yes in verse 8 in other words
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If God is for him Who can be against him? Who's going to accuse him of doing wrong?
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Who could show him that he said that there's something wrong about him? The judge of all the of all the earth has proven him right vindicated him by raising him from the dead.
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So knowing that The vindication was was waiting for him on the other side of the cross at the resurrection
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He could have resolve he could act he could set his faith he could come into Jerusalem hearing the hosannas knowing that all those people
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Cheering now waving their palm branches. They would turn against him. He knew all that and That he would go to the cross for the joy
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Set before him So with resolve he says Who will contend with me?
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In other words Bring it on You want a piece of me? Yeah, you want a piece of me?
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God is on my side Who vindicates he's the one who vindicates me so who can stand against me?
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Right? Who's gonna be? His adversary his accuser who has anything that you can show against him anybody
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Satan maybe what's Satan have on him? Right nothing Satan's the accuser what's he have to accuse
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Jesus of nothing He challenged here the servant Jesus challenges anyone in all the universe
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Even Satan at the end of verse 8 anyone got anything on me. I couldn't ask that here man
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All of you have probably something on me But here the servant
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Jesus challenges everybody in all of history for all time Satan himself
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Got anything on me. Let him come near to me. Bring it on. I dare you Who could say that Who could challenge everyone in the universe to dare accuse me of anything again in verse 9?
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Behold, look at this the Lord God the Sovereign Lord Helps me
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He Raises him up for our justification the servant challenges who will declare me guilty
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Show anything I've ever done that I'm guilty of Anybody anybody anybody got anything on me?
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The priests and the Pharisees tried as hard as they could to find something on Jesus something truthful to condemn him with They couldn't three times
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Pontius Pilate declared him innocent He's the only sent Jesus to die because he gave in caved into the pressure of the mob
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Here's the servant asked the whole universe anyone got anything something anything against me
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Bring it out. Now you have it No one does He has no skeleton in his closet nothing to be ashamed of No sin of his own to have to die for Where are we in all this?
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If we believe in him We are in him. We are in Christ.
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God is also the one who vindicates us not because we're sinless like the servant but because we're seen as in the servant as If we were him, so the
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Sovereign Lord helps us too and we can say if God is for us Who can be against us?
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Who could bring any charge? against us the elect Not because we don't sure we have things that can have that have offended
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God, but it's all been paid for It's God who justifies us makes us right vindicates us who can condemn us who can declare us guilty crisis already
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Has already been declared guilty on our behalf. So we have no more guilt to be held against us so we can't be separated from the love of Christ Tribulation or distress or persecution or hunger or poverty or bankruptcy or danger all the weapons of the world
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Can't destroy us because in all those things we are more than conquerors through him in him
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Who loved us? No, bring it on So behold look at this all of them all of our accusers
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All the things that are against us all our enemies death rulers demonic powers
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Anything now present Anything that will ever come, you know, just cover all the bases here
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Anything high anything low anything in all of creation all of it Won't be able to separate us from God's love because the sin that used to separate us has been taken away by the servant
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So look at all those things Think about all those things the death the rulers the demonic powers all of them.
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He says they'll wear out They're like they're temporary even death itself
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It's temporary They're like a garment hung in the closet eaten up by moths
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It's gonna be eaten up after a while first little holes and then eventually be disappear all the things we fear so much
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The things we spend so much time Avoiding maybe our whole lives trying to get away from the death
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We want to put off as long as possible good medical care and nutrition and exercise the powers -that -be
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That we don't want to offend, you know tax day tomorrow. You better file your taxes You don't want to get fined by the
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IRS Whatever the poverty the hunger that we work to keep away Wake up every day for a job because we don't want to be out in the street hungry
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Whatever it is, we fear and are driven by all of them will be devoured all of them will be gone eventually only the
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Sovereign Lord The servant God in all his fullness and we who are in him
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Will be left That's why the servant could see the cross Even from that the pinnacle of that mount of transfiguration the peak of his glory
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He could set his face like a flint to go to the cross He knew that the
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Sovereign Lord was with him and that this world is passing away That's the resolve of the servant now
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How do how do you? react to him We've seen how the servant reacted to the father the
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Sovereign Lord. He was teachable He didn't turn back from following where he was leading even if that meant having to turn his back to the lash
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And he didn't turn away from having his beard plucked. He was resolved confident that the
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Lord was on his side And so no one could be against him How do you react to him?
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with reverence or with self -reliance He's speaking to us now in verse 10 verse 10 and 11.
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This is to us to the whole world to all of history Who among you? Here who among you fears the
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Lord To fear the Lord is to believe him if you fear what he says in his word, you know that he's holy that though he keeps sure he keeps steadfast covenant love to thousands of his people, but He will by no means clear the guilty that he visits judgment on unrepentant sinners
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That you're better off having you're better off gouging out of your eye or cutting off your hand than having your whole body be sent into Hell where the torment will never end if you really believe what he says and Who he is
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Then you reverence him That will be your natural reaction if you believe you will tremble at his word
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Just tremble that the thought you might even accidentally break it That you'll take it too lightly and offend him
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You won't use grace as an excuse to sin Now someone say but I thought we were saved through faith.
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Not what not works Yes, you are through faith alone But if your faith doesn't produce fear of God It's not real faith
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It's just like if you believe High voltage wires are full of electricity. They're turned on You fear them.
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You may think they're useful You like having electricity around but you fear it and I could casually pick it up play with it
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If you believe him You'll fear him faith is fearing and Fearing is obeying you know if you were about to eat a a perfect Juicy steak there.
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It is set before you're hungry set it before you and then I come along and I say don't eat that steak It's poisoned
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What you do next Will depend on whether you believe me if you believe me
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You'll fear eating the steak because you'll believe it's poisoned and You'll obey
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You won't eat the steak It's how faith leads to fear at least to obedience
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That's why Paul talks about the obedience of faith in the book of Romans My James says faith without works about without be obedience is dead and John chapter 3 verse 36.
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It says notice this Whoever believes the Son has eternal life
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Right, we know that I hope Whoever believes the Son believes the
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Son has eternal life. Now, what's the opposite of belief? Unbelief well the rest of the verse says whoever does not
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Obey the Son When you expect him when you said not believe there, but he says obey
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Disobedience is the opposite of faith because unbelief shows itself in Disobedience you don't believe you don't obey which means that faith
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Shows itself in obedience Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life Whoever does not obey the
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Son Shall not see life, but the wrath of God rest on him now if you believe that If the father has given you ears to hear so that you're taught and you hear that not believing in the
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Son Means that his his wrath that the judgment the the fierce anger of God rest on you and Now you believe that Then you will fear him you will tremble at his word and obey
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Well, the servant is calling in verse 10 Who among you? Fears the
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Lord who? and here comes the reaction an
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Expression of that faith and that fear if you fear the Lord and obeys the voice of his servant
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Jesus Who who does that who fears the Lord and obeys you if you're walking and living and Darkness, and he doesn't mean in sin and unbelief here means you don't know what's coming life is
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Thrown you some things you don't like and things are difficult. You don't know what's next It's hard you don't know what's going on you can't see the next step
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Then he says trust in the name of the Lord the name of Jesus rely on your
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God Even when it's dark When it's very dark trust in the
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Lord your God Remember the definition of faith taking the next step even when you can't see the whole staircase.
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Sometimes you can't even see the next step The ways of obedience May be refusing to be unequally yoked with an unbeliever
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I mean if that means having to live alone, you can't see that I can't see I can see how I can do that Well the ways of obedience brings days of darkness
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It does When you don't know What the next day will bring you can't see that next step whether you can even make it to the next day
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But trust God through those dark days there will be dark nights of the soul some terrible things
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I Hope it never happens to any of you, but sometimes it will it might terrible things loss of a child a horrible diagnosis
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Betrayals and you'll wonder if you could take another step if you can make it to the next day
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Here he tells us Remember, he's the one who sustains the weary with a word
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Here's his word Keep walking by faith through the darkness
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Hear the father say When it's dark to you hear him say
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Darkness is as light to me react with reverence and rest
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But look out if you kindle a fire not willing to trust
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Him to make the next step so you make your own light So you don't have to walk by faith. You'll opt for a do -it -yourself light
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Maybe security and money so you don't have to rely on God You can rely on your bank account, right?
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That'll clear your money will show you that you don't have to worry about anything your cash And you can rely on your relationship or your family that'll provide light for me we think
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We might rely on the government or an employer Something other than trusting God to get us through to the next day you equip yourself with torches in verse 11 the key word there
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I think being yourself You equip yourself. It's all Do -it -yourself
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Self -reliance some try to provide light for the next step by horoscopes and mediums and superstitions
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Hopefully Christians no better than that, but they can still try to find replacements for relying on God by relying on spouse on money on income
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That's why they can't close their business to go to church because they're relying on their money coming in. That's what most important They're they're trying to walk by the light of their own fire instead of by faith and depending on something from their own hand
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Maybe even their own religion their own morality and good works or their baptism their church attendance something from them something in my hands
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I must bring We often think other than relying in total faith on our
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God to that that lack of faith the servant promises in that last sentence of chapter 50
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This you have for my hand This is what the servant says this is this is what's coming from me
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This is what I'm going to give you if you don't depend on the sovereign Lord You shall lie down in torment
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You're going to hell So now do you fear the
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Lord do you react with reverence for the servant That's the only rational response isn't it the only thing that makes sense it's a reverence him
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He's speaking to you to sustain you with his word Has the Lord opened your ears to hear it to hear what he's saying?
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He gave his back to be struck for you his beard to be plucked for you
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He didn't pull back from the shame and the spitting so that the perfect life a life
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He could challenge the whole world to expose it showed me a single flaw That that right life could be attributed to you
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So now because of that Attributed his righteousness his right life attribute you to you now you can boast like him
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If God is for me Who can be against me? so he could be the one who vindicates you too and When all the earth and all the universe and even death itself is is worn out and undone
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There will be no guilt Separating you from the sovereign
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Lord How do you react to that with faith