Christ Listened to His Father to Save Those Who Listen to Him (Isaiah Sermon 57)

The scripture says, “I will praise you, O Lord, because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” And as I was thinking about Isaiah 50, I focused specifically on the capacity of hearing. The human ear is a stunning marvel of God’s creation. It is just incredible what we can hear. The range of decibel levels of very quiet sounds like you could imagine a quiet whisper or the breathing of a newborn on the chest of a mother or a father, just those tiny sounds that you can hear all the way up to something deafening, like a jet airplane flying right overhead. My father grew up in a house in Miami, Florida, and somewhere in there they built Miami International Airport, about a mile from my father’s childhood home. And I remember sleeping or trying to, in that house and the jets would be about 100 feet over that house. And the rattling of the windows and things falling off the walls. I guess they learned after a while not to put things that would fall off the walls on the walls, but just the deafening roar of the jet airplanes.

And so, the range of human hearing is just astonishing. One of the most amazing aspects of the ear is its ability to selectively hear certain sounds. Like you could be in a crowded room with music playing and all kinds of conversations going on and you’re able to zero in on one person and their conversation and hear specifically what they’re saying to you. Or a mother at a crowded playground can hear her child crying over the din of all kinds of play and laughter, and all kinds of things. Even in the middle of a conversation she may be having with another mother, she’s like, “Wait a minute.” And she’s listening and she can hear the child crying. And I find that amazing. We can zero in, or you could listen to a symphony orchestra, and there are just dozens and dozens, maybe even 100 instruments and you can focus on a specific instrument and listen to just that melodic line from the oboe or from a trumpet, or something like that, or the base and it’s just beautiful.

God made the ear to hear. And the wide range of the sounds that we can hear from the general rustling of leaves that a breeze makes, all the way up to the awesome power of a thunder, lightning storm, it’s just incredible. Now, you heard Kurt say just a moment ago, this incredible verse, Romans 10:17, God has ordained hearing as the way by which the saving message of the Gospel enters our lives. “Faith comes by hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.” But we are able, sadly, to tune out God’s word and not listen to it. It can come to us so powerfully and we’re still able in some very tragic way, to turn a deaf ear to what God is saying. Now the unifying theme, I believe, the angle I’m going to take today from Isaiah 50 is that of hearing.

We’re going to see how God again and again, spoke to the nation of Israel but they didn’t listen. He called out to them and they didn’t listen. And because they would not listen, he sent them away into exile. And this is the very thing that God had told the prophet Isaiah would happen. You remember back in that famous chapter Isaiah 6, the year that King Uzziah died, he saw the Lord in that whole calling of Isaiah into ministry, “Whom shall I send and who will go for us?” “Here am I, send me.”

“Alright, well, what’s the mission? What’s the message?” He said, “Go and tell this people: ‘be ever-hearing but never understanding, be ever-seeing, but never perceiving. Make the heart of this people callous, make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise, they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn and be healed.'” Isaiah was told that the nation’s refusal to listen to God, would result in the total destruction of their country. In Isaiah 6, 11 and 12, he said, “For how long, O Lord?” And he answered, “Until the cities lie ruined and without inhabitant. Until the houses are left deserted, and the fields ruined and ravaged. Until the Lord has sent everyone far away.” That’s exile.

So, their failure to listen to God’s word would result in the destruction of their land and exile. Now we’re going to see in Isaiah 50, this problem is addressed. Only now, God is speaking across 100 plus years to the remnant that’s there in Babylon, explaining again and making very clear how they came to be there, why they were there. And he zeroes in on the fact that their ancestors refused to listen to God. But in the middle of this incredible chapter, someone pops up and the connection between verse 3 and 4 is not so clear. But out of nowhere, someone pops up and speaks to us directly in the first person. And this individual characterizes himself as one who perfectly listens to God, who listens to everything God says and obeys everything he tells him to do.

And he’s willing to listen even if it means terrible suffering for himself. Even being beaten on his back and having his beard plucked out. And he would do this to save a people from their own failure to listen to God. Those people would be saved out of their hardness of heart into a whole new pattern of obedience to God in the pattern that he displayed for us. Their hearts of stone would be removed, their hearts of submissive yielded-ness to God by His Spirit would be given to them and everything would change. Instead of spiritual deafness, they would be characterized as he was by perfect listening to God and perfect obedience to him.

So Isaiah 50 is about listening, because it ends in the last two verses, with a challenge. The text brings us to a fork in the road and says, “Who are you going to listen to? Are you going to fear the Lord and listen to His servant, Christ, or are you going to walk by your own lights and by your own wisdom? And if you do, you will lie down in torment.” That’s the whole chapter. So now let’s look at it in detail. And I pray and I already have prayed and I will continue to pray that God would give you ears, to hear. How many times did Jesus say that? He who has ears, let him hear, he wants you to listen today. So I pray that this would hit you in a way that would be memorable and would transform you.

I. A Nation Who Refused to Listen Sent into Exile (vs. 1-3)

So at the beginning in verses one through three, we have a nation who refused to listen sent into exile. And it begins with this question in verse 1, this is what the Lord says, “Where is your mother’s certificate of divorce with which I sent her away or to which of my creditors did I sell you? Because of your sins, you were sold, because of your transgressions your mother was sent away.” So God is speaking here, through Isaiah the prophet across 100 plus years to the exiles in Babylon, explaining how it came to be that they’re there and not in their own promised land.

And he uses this image of marriage and divorce which will be very familiar to those of you that have read a lot of the prophets, the Old Testament, the image of Israel as God’s wife. And in some way, God had married Israel, but Israel was adulterous, Israel was unfaithful to her husband. He’s using this image of marriage. In Jeremiah two, he says there, “I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me and followed me in the desert.” Israel was holy to the Lord. Many times in the prophets we have this image.

But God is saying that Zion, her mother, Israel’s mother, the ancestors, were sent away, put away, by her husband because of their wickedness and because of their sins. He also uses the image of slavery, “To which of my creditors did I sell you?” He says. So they are, as though they were a wife put away there, as though they were children that were sold into slavery to pay a debt. But it’s interesting how he asks, “Can you rummage and go find the certificate of divorce? You’re not going to be able to find it. And actually, I didn’t sell you to anyone. You’re still mine. I didn’t owe anybody anything, and I can bring you back any time I want. And I can renew our love relationship, any time I choose.”

That’s what he’s saying, but what he’s doing is he’s cutting off a self-righteous, forgetfulness and a self-pity among these people saying, “Understand you are there because you sinned. You’re in the trouble you’re in because you sinned.” You know There’s a proverb that says, “A man’s own folly ruins his life, but his heart rages against the Lord.” Does ever characterize you? You do some really stupid or perhaps even immoral sinful things, you get into deep trouble because of it, and you’re raged that God doesn’t love you. It’s not true, your own sins have caused this problem for you, that’s why you’re in the problem that you’re in. And then God goes to say, “Look, it happened specifically because you refuse to listen to me.”

Look what he says in verse 2, “When I came, why was there no one? When I called why was there no one to answer?” God goes into the issue that Israel would not listen to Him, when He spoke to them. They refused to listen. “I called out to you, and you didn’t answer me. Why were you so spiritually deaf? When I summoned you why didn’t you come and obey me?” Now, how did God do that? Well, he spoke to His people through His servants, the prophets, and again and again, God sent prophets to Israel and again and again, they refused to listen. At the end of the whole history of this as Israel is about to be sent away, or was being sent away in the Babylonian exile in 2 Chronicles 36:16-17 it says that the Lord sent word to them through His messengers again and again because he had pity on them, but they mocked God’s messengers, they despised His words and they scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord was aroused, and there was no remedy. And so he brought against them, the king of Babylon.

That’s the message. And it’s the very thing that Jesus taught about in Matthew 21, you remember? The Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who planted a vineyard and he built a watch tower in it, and a wine press and put a wall around it and then he rented the vineyard to some tenant farmers and he went away. And in due time, he sent some messengers to the tenant farmers to collect the fruit, but they seized the messengers, they beat them and killed them. So he said, “I called out to you, and you did not answer, you did not listen.” But yet, even still, God is every bit as powerful as he ever was when he established them in the Promised Land.

He hasn’t lost his strength, he hasn’t lost his power, he can still do all of the same things. Look at verses two and three, he says, “Was my arm too short to ransom you? Do I lack the strength to rescue you? By a mere rebuke I dry up the sea. I turn rivers into a desert, their fish rot for lack of water, and die of thirst. I clothe the sky with darkness and make sackcloth its covering.” God is omnipotent, he can do anything. He’s bringing their minds back to how God made a way through the Red Sea, or how he made the fish die during the plague, you remember how he turned the water into blood and all the fish died there in Egypt? God can still do all of those same things. He can go to war on behalf of Israel and rescue them. God is every bit as powerful now as he ever was.

And his arm is not too short to ransom us. That’s an image. A number of years ago, I heard a black preacher back in the 19th century, whatever, said, “Your arm’s too short to box with God.” Think about that. You ever picture like a world-class heavyweight champion and there’s some six-year-old who’s really mad at him and he wants to get at him and he’s got him like by the forehead just holding them there with a smile on his face. And here’s this little kid trying to do this, trying to punch this big man and the man just smile and hold him off. Your arm is too short to box with God.

What does that mean? You lack the power. God is omnipotent. How could you try to take God on? Well turn it around, He said, “My arm’s not too short, I can do anything I want. My arm is not shortened at all,” and is sovereign power. He can still do anything and everything that he willed to do. “So why is it you’re not listening to me? Why is it you’re not calling on me in the day of trouble?” That’s what he’s saying to them.

II. A Servant Who Listened Perfectly Sent as Savior (vs. 4-9)

Now, suddenly, right in the text, in verses 4 through 9, we have this suffering servant pop up. And it’s kind of like that’s the way it was in history, too. Jesus just popped up in history. In the fullness of time, when God said it was time, he just came. And so it is, I believe, Isaiah 54 through 9 is talking about Jesus. And actually it’s not even talking about Jesus, it’s Jesus talking to us. He’s speaking in the first person.

Now, I know it’s possible you can read this as though this is Isaiah, the prophet, speaking and I know that Isaiah was faithful and listened to God, and all that, and all the prophets were and I accept that. But in that way, Isaiah was just a type and a shadow of Christ’s perfect obedience to the Father. Jesus is the perfect prophet fulfilling all of those prophetic images. So ultimately, this is Jesus speaking to us. And he speaks in verse 4 of his perfect obedience. Look what he says here. “The sovereign Lord has given me an instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me, morning by morning awakens my ear to listen like one being taught.” So here we have a direct contrast between Israel that’s hard of hearing, people of God, who aren’t listening to God and this servant that’s perfectly listening to him.

Israel was sent into exile because they refused to listen to God. And when later, he would return them from the exile and bring them back to the promised land, they would still be characterized by the same hardness of hearing. So God must send a Savior, the suffering servant, to listen to him on their behalf, and to obey God on their behalf and to suffer on their behalf and die on their behalf. And at the center of the suffering servant’s life is a listening ear and a submissive heart. That’s the center of Christ saving work, a listening ear and a submissive heart.

Jesus is speaking to us in verses 4 through 9, we hear his word centuries before he was born of the virgin Mary, and was wrapped up in swaddling clothes and laid in the manger. Centuries before any of that happened, before he was presented to Israel as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, centuries before any of the ministry of miracles, and incredible teachings, and before he died on the cross and before he rose again, before any of that, he’s speaking to us. And these verses give us as no other verses do, you’re not going to find anything like this, even in the Gospels, an amazing insight into the intimacy of Jesus’ relationship with his Father, of his love relationship with his Father. Verse 4 says that God the Father has given him an instructed tongue. Jesus’ words were a perfect medicine for a world sick with sin. Jesus said the Father taught him what to say. Specifically the word that would sustain the weary. Is that you today? Do you need a word from Jesus? Are you weary? Are you weary and heavy-laden? Are you weary and struggling? Jesus knows the word to sustain you. And he learned it from his Father, the Father taught him what to say to sustain the weary.

And we go beyond this to look at the details of Jesus’ private devotional life. He says the Father wakens him morning by morning, wakens his ear to listen like one being taught. And now we come to the infinite mystery of the incarnation. Here we have the perfect submission of God the Son to God the Father. In heaven, God the Son, neither slumbers nor sleeps, ever, doesn’t need to sleep. On earth, he had to be wakened morning by morning. In heaven, Jesus knows everything, always has and always will.

Like I said, a number of months ago in another sermon, I love this statement. Has it ever occurred to you that nothing’s ever occurred to God? I love that statement. God doesn’t have anything pop in his head. It was already there. That’s what omniscience is all about. Jesus is omniscient, in heaven, he doesn’t learn anything in heaven. But the infinite mystery of the incarnation is that Jesus learned things on earth. There were things he didn’t know. So when he was an infant, he was what he appeared to be, an infant who couldn’t say a word, wrapped in swaddling cloths laid in the manger completely powerless. And he had to learn things. It says in Luke 2:52, Jesus  “grew in wisdom and stature and favor with God and men.” So he’s just throughout his life, he’s learning things, he’s growing in his understanding. It says also in Hebrews 5 that although he was a Son, Jesus learned obedience from what he suffered. So that directly connects Jesus with the verb learn. He learned things.

That should blow your mind, circuit breakers just popping off, that’s the mind-blowing circuit breakers. Just I can’t understand how can he be God which means omniscient and learn things? I don’t know. But that’s what we’re celebrating at Christmas time, isn’t it? The incarnation and the mystery? And so, he’s learning things and this gets into the practicalities of even his daily quiet time. If you looked at Mark 1:35 later, but this is what it says, “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place where he prayed.” So that’s his morning quiet time, very early he goes to a private place where he can listen to his father, and his father talked to him and shared things with him predominantly from Scripture, but also what he would face that day.

And Jesus’ enemies were astonished at His teaching, and at His learning. I remember how in John 7:15-16, Jesus’ enemies were amazed and said, “How did this man get such learning?…” He never studied at our university? We looked through the enrollment records and he was never there. So how did he get all this advanced learning?” Jesus said these words, “My teaching is not my own. It came from Him who sent me.” Do you hear that? The father taught me all the things that I know. In John 14:24, He said, “The word you hear is not mine but it is from the Father who sent me.” No one in history ever spoke like this man, no one. Do you remember the time that the temple police went off to arrest Jesus? I love that story. And they come back empty-handed and dazed, amazed, right?

I think they might have gotten his autograph if he gave it, I don’t think he would give it, but they were just amazed. They said, “Where is he?” They said, “No one ever spoke like this man.” In direct fulfillment of verse four of this chapter, his words were amazingly comforting to broken-hearted sinners. For example, he said to a paralyzed man who had faith, he said, “Take heart son, your sins are forgiven.” Isn’t that comforting? How would you love to hear that from the judge of all the earth? “Take heart son, your sins are forgiven.” In the same chapter, to a woman had been chronically ill with bleeding, he said, “Take heart daughter, your faith has healed you.”

He knew the word that sustained the weary, especially this one, most famously, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” So every morning, the father awaken Jesus is here to listen and he would be trained what to say to bring comfort and consolation to sinners. And so there’s this beautiful summary statement of all this in John 12:49-50, he says this, “I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me, commanded me what to say and how to say it. I know that His command leads to eternal life, so whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say.” So Jesus literally was given his script by the Father, and He says in John 6:63, “The words that I speak are Spirit and they are life.” So as we listen to Jesus speaking these words, they are spirit and life for us. And so Isaiah 50, verse four, ushers us into a secret chamber of Jesus’ quiet times and how the father taught him what to say to broken-hearted sinners. But verse five and six talk about his obedience to that.

Look at it again, “The Sovereign Lord has opened my ears, and I have not been rebellious, I have not drawn back. I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard. I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting.” Not only did the Father give Jesus’ words to say but he also gave him works to do, and Jesus did all of them, all of them. So verse five shows Jesus’ submission to obey the Father’s will. “The Lord has opened my ears,” that’s an obedient heart. “I have not been rebellious, I’ve not drawn back.” I did whatever the Father told me to do, that’s what I did.

He was a servant to the Father and he did the works the Father gave him to do. I love at the end of his ministry, before he goes to the cross, but in anticipation of his own obedience at the cross, he says in John 17:4 directly to the Father, “I have brought you glory on earth by completing all the work you gave me to do.” Wouldn’t you love to be able to say that to God for just one day? Just one day, “I have brought you glory today by doing everything you told me to do.” I’m still looking for that one perfect day, maybe you are too. Jesus had a perfect life, he was obedient to everything the Father told him to do. He says in John 8:29, “The one who sent me is with me, he’s not left me alone for I always do what pleases Him.” Now, the ultimate degree of that was his willingness to suffer for us, to suffer in our place as our substitute.

He was not rebellious, he did not draw back. And the perfect picture of this was Gethsemane. You remember how in Gethsemane Jesus is brought right to the brink of the cross and the Father metaphorically offering him the cup of wrath, the cup of judgment, the cup of death, he says, “Will you drink it?” “Going a little farther, He fell with His face to the ground and He prayed, ‘My Father if it is possible, let this cup be taken from me, yet not as I will, but as you will.'” That’s the spirit of this. “I was not rebellious. I didn’t draw back. I drank the cup you gave to me.” A couple verses later, it says he went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away, unless I drink it, may your will be done.”

And so the prophecy here in verse six speaks plainly of the suffering that Christ would have to go through to save us from our sins. He didn’t refuse the suffering, he offered his back to those who beat him, he offered his cheeks to those who plucked out his beard, he didn’t hide his holy face from mocking and spitting. Here, we have the humble savior led like a lamb to the slaughter. All of this abuse would come to him and it was all part of his atoning work. Jesus took our sins on Himself, and with it came all of this abuse that sinners deserve, and he did not refuse it, but humbly submitted to it, and no one in history has ever been more obedient to Scripture than Jesus.

Perfectly obedient. Do you remember how Peter tried to rescue him with his sword and he was going to fight and he says, “Put your sword away for all who draw the sword will die by the sword. Do you think I cannot call on my Father and he would at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?” Listen to the next word, though, “But how then would the Scripture be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?” “Scripture mandates that I die, and therefore I will die. I was not rebellious. I did not draw back. I went forward and died.”

And it says beautifully in Romans Chapter 5, “Just as through one man’s disobedience, that many were made sinners, so also through the one man’s obedience that many are made righteous.” Find your salvation in Jesus’ perfect obedience to what he heard from the Father to do.

Now, verses seven through nine speak of Jesus’ vindication by God, “Because the Sovereign Lord helps me, I will not be disgraced. Therefore I have set my face like flint, and I know I will not be put to shame. He who vindicates me is near who then will bring charges against me? Let us face each other. Who is my accuser? Let him confront me. It is the sovereign Lord, who helps me, who is he that will condemn me? They will all wear out like a garment, the moths will eat them up.”

So, the ultimate end of the suffering servant is not disgrace, but total complete absolute vindication by Almighty God. Isn’t that awesome? Vindication, not shame or disgrace, absolute vindication. The circumstances described in verses six show an astonishing level of abuse which would sum up with abject degradation. People spitting at you, plucking out beard, stripping you, beating your back. But the servant refused to be ashamed. Think about Hebrews 12:2, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising its shame and sat down at the right hand of the throne of Heaven.” Now what does despise mean? Is that I thought little of it, it’s nothing to me, the shame is nothing to me, I get to win a people for God, I get to save them from hell and therefore the shame is as nothing compared to that.

And so he says, “I’m not going to be ashamed.” He sets His face like flint and he goes to the cross and God totally vindicated Jesus by His glorious resurrection from the dead. The tomb was empty on the third day, that’s his vindication by God. And He raises him up through the clouds, through the sky, through the heavenly realms, up to the very highest pinnacle of power, and sits Him down at the right hand of Almighty God. Now who is ready to accuse Him at that place? Who’s going to stand in front of Him and bring any accusation against God, at that point?

Who’s going to accuse him? They’re going to wear out like garment, the moth will eat them up. Now, isn’t it amazing that the Apostle Paul borrows these exact same words and applies them not to Christ, but to us? He applies these same words to us, God’s elect. Listen to what he says in Romans 8:33-34, he says, this should sound very familiar to you, this is Romans 8 now, not Isaiah 50, “Who will bring any charges against those whom God has chosen?” That’s the elect. “It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus who died, more than that was raised to life, is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.” All of this honor, and security and protection that we have in our forgiveness comes from Christ’s atonement and resurrection because we are in His exaltation.

We are in Christ, and therefore we are at the right hand of God in Him, and we are protected and no one can accuse us and therefore, there is now no condemnation for those of us who are in Christ Jesus, that’s awesome. And so His resurrection is our vindication. It says in Romans 4:25, “He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.” It’s an interesting verse because it links our justification to Christ’s resurrection, not death there. And so, we are vindicated completely by Christ’s resurrection, and that’s awesome. So, to sum up verses four through nine, we have presented very clearly for the first time in Isaiah the suffering of the servant. He’s perfectly obedient to His Father, He knows the word that sustains the weary and he doesn’t hide his face from mocking and spitting or his back from beating. This is the suffering servant.

III. A Key Question: Will You Listen to the Servant or to Yourself? (vs. 10-11)

Now we are brought to a fork in the road in the text. The key question for you, who are you going to listen to? Are you going to listen to the servant of the Lord, as He speaks to you, or will you listen to yourself? Those are the options. So look what he says in verse 10, “Who among you fears the Lord, and obeys the word of His servant? Let him who walks in the dark, who has no light, trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God.” So it all comes down to this, do you fear the Lord and will you listen to his servant as he speaks to you? As his servant, Christ speaks the Gospel to you will you listen to that and be saved? Romans 10:17 says, “Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message and the message is heard through the word of Christ.” Christ is speaking the kingdom to you, he’s speaking forgiveness to you, he’s telling you to repent and believe the gospel. Mark 1:15, “Will you fear the Lord and listen to his servant?”

Apart from Him, we are walking in the dark. Apart from Him, we have no light, apart from Him, we’re lost, we’re in sin and we need a savior. Do you know this to be true of yourself? If so, God’s already worked grace in you, he’s already shown you who you are. Come out of darkness into the light of salvation. Jesus said in 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 have the light of life.” Colossians 1:13 says, “He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us over into the Kingdom of the Beloved Son.” Rescued from darkness.

So listen to the word of the servant and come, or, you can do verse 11. And what does verse 11 say? “But now, all you who light fires and provide yourself with torches, flaming torches, go, walk in the light of the torches you have set ablaze.” Go ahead and do that, go ahead, light your own fires, walk by your own lights, walk by your own wisdom, figure it out on your own, don’t listen to the servant, don’t walk in the light of Christ, just do your own thing, be confident in your own righteousness, say, “I don’t need a savior.” I saw a bumper sticker about two months ago, that said, “Born right the first time.” Wow, immediately it was like a slap in the face, but not for me. Whoever put that on was slapping their own self in the face. You must be born again. But this person said, “No, I don’t need that, I don’t need that, I’m fine.” So, this text is odd in that it’s commanding you to go ahead and do that then. “I’m going to give you over to it, go ahead and walk in the light of your own torch. Go ahead and figure it out on your own, go ahead and save yourself. This is what you’ll get from my hand. You will lie down in torment.” That’s the final word of Isaiah 50, it’s a warning to us. I can’t read this except to hear Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths.”

IV. Applications

So what should we do with this text? Well, can I urge you, be very, very careful how you listen to the Word of God. Jesus said that in Luke 8:18, “Consider carefully how you listen.” Your soul depends on how you listen to God’s Word. Remember the parable of The Seed and the Soils? Are you the rocky soil, the hard soil, are you the thorny soil, or you’re the good soil, what are you? What do you do when you hear the word of God?

Secondly, thank God that Jesus obeyed, listened to the Father on your behalf, thank him for that, worship him during this Christmas season, Oh, believer, Oh, Christian, just say, “Thank you for listening to the father for me, for my salvation. Thank you that in you, no one will bring any accusation against me. Thank you that I’m free from condemnation, I’m free from Satan standing to accuse me, I’m free from that. Your vindication has become my vindication. Thank you Jesus, thank you for that.”

Thirdly, have a quiet time, like Jesus did. Can I just use a how much more argument? If he needed a quiet time, how much more do you? He wasn’t messed up, like we are, we’re messed up. We could argue we needed even more than he did, but he had them even better than we did. So very early in the morning, a great while before dawn, am I pinching on you a bit here? A great while before dawn, what would that be about 5:00 AM? A great while before dawn? Okay, when it’s quiet, when it’s dark, when there’s no one going to bother you, have a quiet time. Get the Scripture open and listen like one being taught, like Jesus did. And don’t be merely a hearer of the word, but like Jesus in verse six, do what it says, even if it hurts you, even if it costs you something.

And if I can just plead with you if you’re here outside of faith in Christ, if you’re lost, can I just plead with you not to walk in the light of your own intellect, in your own salvation, in your own righteousness? Can I plead with you to take that torch you lit that you consider your own guiding light and throw it down into a bucket of water or into the ocean and say, “I am lost. I’m lost. I don’t know what I’m doing, I don’t know where I’m going. I don’t know what’s going to happen to me when I die, I need a savior. Jesus, be for me the light of the world. I need your light.” Call on Him and He will save you.

Don’t leave here in the darkness. And finally let’s be willing as a church, to suffer, to not hide our face from mocking and spitting and beatings, for the sake of the gospel. Let’s be willing to evangelize lost people. There are people surrounding us every day like the person who put that bumper sticker on the car, people surrounding us thinking these thoughts, they need a savior. And they are among the hardest to reach on earth, because they’ve heard it so many times. We are here to reach them. Let’s be willing to suffer as Jesus did, lower level, but let’s be willing to suffer.

Let’s be willing to suffer financially, what Kurt said, “Let’s sacrifice financially, as never before, for the sake of missions.” Let’s not know that there are brothers and sisters fully-trained ready to go, but they’re not going because of funding. That might actually be the clearest application of 2nd Peter 3, “Looking forward to the day of God, and speed it’s coming,” how? Give money because those folks will be unleashed and unreached people groups will hear. Let’s walk in the light of the Lord, as He’s given it to us in the scripture, close with me in prayer.

The human ear is a stunning marvel of God’s creation!

The softest audible sound has an energy equivalent to that given off by a 50-watt light bulb at a distance of 3000 miles. The movement involved here is sub- microscopic – it displaces the eardrum by a distance of one-tenth the diameter of a hydrogen atom1. This is one four-millionth part of the diameter of a fine silk thread. It is a response to a sound pressure change of one billionth of atmospheric pressure (10^-9 atm).

It can also respond meaningfully to sounds up to 10 trillion (1013) times greater in intensity, at the threshold of pain. This range of response is so vast that a rock band playing at 90dB is actually producing sounds a billion times more intense than the softest whisper.

One of the most amazing aspects of the ear is its ability to listen selectively to a whole array of sounds… it can single something out and focus on it. In a crowded room full of laughing, talking people and noisy music, you can zero in on a conversation you’re having with one person. A mother can hear her child cry in a crowded playground full of other kids and their parents. When listening to a symphony orchestra, you can focus on one instrument among a hundred—the flute or the oboe or the violin soloist.

GOD MADE THE EAR TO HEAR… and He filled the world with amazing sounds… the powerful sounds of an electrical storm, with deep rolling thunder… the delicate sound of a newborn breathing softly in her sleep on your chest… and everything in between.

Amazingly, God has chosen the organ of hearing—the ear—to be the way by which our sinful souls are saved… “Faith comes by hearing the word…” But we are able to TUNE OUT God’s word, to hear its sounds but not listen to its message.

The unifying theme of this brief chapter is listening to God. Again and again, God spoke to Israel through the prophets. Again and again, they refused to listen to Him. Isaiah the prophet was commissioned by God in chapter 6 to go to a people, and God warned Isaiah ahead of time that they would NOT LISTEN to him:

Isaiah 6:8-10 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!” 9 He said, “Go and tell this people: “‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’ 10 Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”

Isaiah was told that their refusal to listen would result in their destruction:

Isaiah 6:11-12 Then I said, “For how long, O Lord?” And he answered: “Until the cities lie ruined and without inhabitant, until the houses are left deserted and the fields ruined and ravaged, 12 until the LORD has sent everyone far away and the land is utterly forsaken.

So we’re going to see in Isaiah 50, the same problem is addressed… only now, God is speaking to the remnant that were sent away to Babylon, into exile… explaining WHY their fathers and mothers were exiled… and warning them to listen.

But the chapter also points to Someone who would listen perfectly to God… and that someone is the coming Messiah, Jesus Christ. He would listen on our behalf… listen perfectly to God, listen to everything God told Him to do or say… listen with a perfectly submissive and obedient heart… listen even to the point of death, even death on a cross.

He would do this to save a people for Himself… but those people would be saved OUT OF THEIR HARDNESS OF HEART INTO A WHOLE NEW PATTERN OF OBEDIENCE TO GOD… their hearts of stone would be removed and hearts of submissive yieldedness to God would be replaced. And instead of spiritual DEAFNESS, they would be characterized at last by the same LISTENING EARS that characterized their Savior

Again and again, Jesus Christ called on his hearers to consider carefully how they listen to God’s word (Luke 8:18), and often finished his teachings with the words, “Anyone who has ears should listen!”

Isaiah 50 is about LISTENING… The chapter begins with God speaking to the Jewish nation, explaining the reasons for the exile—what they were and what they weren’t—and it all came down to their failure to listen to God when he called. The chapter continues with a remarkable section of prophecy exposing the heart of the ministry of the Servant of the Lord— Jesus Christ. The essence was his perfect commitment to listen to everything his Father told him and to obey him even to the point of death on a cross. Along with that was Jesus’ perfect teachings, and the sweet sustenance his words give to the weary. The chapter ends with a fork in the road; will you listen to the Servant or will you listen to your own wisdom. The ends of those divergent roads couldn’t be more infinitely separated: heaven for those who trust in the Servant’s words, and hell for those who don’t.

I pray you will hear Christ speaking to you now through its words!

I.   A Nation Who Refused to Listen Sent into Exile (vs. 1-3)

A.   Israel Not Divorced, Only Sent Away for Sin (vs.1)

Isaiah 50:1 This is what the LORD says: “Where is your mother’s certificate of divorce with which I sent her away? Or to which of my creditors did I sell you? Because of your sins you were sold; because of your transgressions your mother was sent away.

1.  God is speaking to the Exiles languishing in Babylon, explaining why their fathers and mothers were exiled

2.  Note: Remember that Isaiah the prophet is writing these amazing words 125 years at least before the exile even happened!

3.  Isaiah is using a common metaphor for the relationship between God and His people: MARRIAGE… Israel is the spouse of God, and had been unfaithful to Him, running after other gods

a.  Jeremiah would use this image powerfully

Jeremiah 2:2-3 “‘I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me and followed me through the desert, through a land not sown. 3 Israel was holy to the LORD

b.  Ezekiel 16 used this same image… God finding Jerusalem and marrying her

c.  Hosea the prophet was commanded to marry Gomer, a prostitute, to act out how betrayed God felt at Israel’s idolatry

4.  God is saying that Zion (their mother) was sent away because of her sins

5.  It was important for the exiles and the future generations of Jews to remember this and know it… Israel was not the victim… Israel was being punished for sin

6.  BUT God had not cast her off utterly nor finally divorced her…

7.  He is telling them to go rummage through the registry of deeds and see if they can find a certificate of divorce… there IS NONE

8.  Neither will they find that God had SOLD HER to another master and now had no legal claim on her… Israel STILL BELONGED TO GOD

B.   Israel Refused to Listen to the Sovereign God (vs. 2)

Isaiah 50:2 When I came, why was there no one? When I called, why was there no one to answer? Was my arm too short to ransom you? Do I lack the strength to rescue you? By a mere rebuke I dry up the sea, I turn rivers into a desert; their fish rot for lack of water and die of thirst.

1.  Now God develops plainly the sin pattern that led to the exile… they REFUSED TO LISTEN when God spoke to them through the prophets

2.  WHY DID NO ONE ANSWER ME when I called?? Why are you so spiritually deaf? When I summoned you to come and obey, why did no one come???

C.   God Still Omnipotent and Able to Save (vs. 2-3)

Isaiah 50:2-3 Was my arm too short to ransom you? Do I lack the strength to rescue you? By a mere rebuke I dry up the sea, I turn rivers into a desert; their fish rot for lack of water and die of thirst. I clothe the sky with darkness and make sackcloth its covering.”

1.  The Exile did not happen because God was not strong enough to prevent it… it wasn’t as though God could defeat the Egyptians and the Assyrians, but the Babylonians were just too strong for Him

2.  AND He wants them to know He is still powerful enough to rescue them from the exile and bring them back to Judea

3.  God reminds them of His awesome power! He can still rescue them, even from the bondage of exile to Babylon… He can still do what He did when He rescued them from bondage in Egypt…. By the Red Sea crossing

4.  GOD CAN STILL DO ALL THAT!!! He is every bit as powerful after the seventy year exile as He was centuries ago!

II.   A Servant Who Listened Perfectly Sent as Savior (vs. 4-9)

A.   The Servant Speaks of His Perfect Obedience (vs. 4)

Isaiah 50:4 The Sovereign LORD has given me an instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught.

1.  By direct contrast, we have the Servant of the Lord…

2.  Israel was sent into exile because they refused to listen to God

3.  And when He rescues them from Exile, they will still be rebellious and willful and unwilling to listen to the Lord

4.  So God must send a Savior, the Suffering Servant, to listen on their behalf, obey God on their behalf, suffer on their behalf, die on their behalf

5.  At the center of the Suffering Servant’s life is a LISTENING EAR, a SUBMISSIVE HEART

6.  Jesus is speaking to us in verses 4-9… we hear His words centuries before He was born of the Virgin Mary! Centuries before He was wrapped in swaddling cloths and laid in the manger… centuries before He was presented to Israel as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world… centuries before He began He ministry of miracles and parables and disciples…

7.  These verses give us an AMAZING INSIGHT into the intimacy of His relationship with His heavenly Father… how submissively He listened to everything the Father told Him to do, even to the point of suffering great persecution for the words He spoke

8.  Verse 4: Jesus says that God the Father has given him AN INSTRUCTED TONGUE… Jesus’ words were perfect medicine for a world sick with sin

9.  Jesus says the Father TAUGHT HIM WHAT TO SAY… and specifically the WORD THAT SUSTAINS THE WEARY

10.  We go beyond this to look at the details of Jesus’ private devotional life… He says the Father WAKENS HIM MORNING BY MORNING, and WAKENS HIS EAR TO LISTEN LIKE ONE BEING TAUGHT

11.  Here we have the perfect submission of God the Son to God the Father… and the aspects of His incarnation

a.  In heaven, God the Son neither slumbers nor sleeps

b.  BUT ON EARTH, Jesus got tired and had to sleep…

c.  But every morning, Jesus awoke while it was still dark… and went to a remote place and had His quiet time with the Father… and that time set up everything He was to do that day

Mark 1:35 Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.

The Father TAUGHT Jesus every day of His life!! What an amazing concept… Jesus was GOD, but He still had to LEARN

Luke 2:52 And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.
Throughout His life, Jesus learned directly from the Father—He learned the Scriptures, right interpretation of passages, how to instruct the people, what to say to everything… He learned morning by morning

Jesus’ enemies were AMAZED at His teaching:

John 7:15-16 The Jews were amazed and asked, “How did this man get such learning without having studied?” 16 Jesus answered, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from him who sent me.

So, the Father taught Him his doctrine… and specific words to say:

John 14:24, “The word that you hear is not mine but is from the Father who sent me.”

No one in history has spoken like this man, as even the temple police who were sent to arrest him testified (John 7:46).

And in direct fulfillment of verse 4 of this chapter, his words were amazingly comforting to brokenhearted sinners. For example, he said to a paralyzed man who had faith,

“Have courage, son, your sins are forgiven.” (Matthew 9:2)

Later in that same chapter, he said to a chronically sick woman whom the Father had healed directly,

“Have courage, daughter, your faith has healed you.” (Matthew 9:22)

And to the human race, crushed by sin and guilt, fearing eternal condemnation, he said

“Come to Me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28)

The summary statement:

John 12:49-50 I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it. 50 I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say.”

12.  Jesus’ words are ASTONISHING… they are “spirit” and they are “life” (John 6:63)

13.  Isaiah 50:4 ushers us into the secret chamber of Jesus’ quiet times, and how the Father taught Him what to say to broken-hearted sinners

B.   The Servant Speaks of His Humble Submission to Abuse (vs. 5-6)

Isaiah 50:5-6 The Sovereign LORD has opened my ears, and I have not been rebellious; I have not drawn back. I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting.

1.  Not only did the Father give Jesus words to say; He also gave Him works to do

2.  Verse 5 shows Jesus’ SUBMISSION to OBEY the Father’s will

3.  “Opened ears” refers to a submissive heart, an obedient heart

John 5:36 the very work that the Father has given me to finish, and which I am doing, testifies that the Father has sent me.

John 17:4 I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.

John 8:29 The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him.

4.  The Father’s commands led to GREAT SUFFERING… and in verse 5, Jesus says He was not rebellious, He did not DRAW BACK

5.  Perfect picture of this: Gethsemane

Matthew 26:39 Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”

Matthew 26:42 He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.”

6.  The prophecy in Isaiah 50:6 speaks plainly of the suffering the Christ would have to go through to save us from our sins

a.  He didn’t refuse the suffering

b.  He offered His back to those who beat Him

c.  He offered His cheeks to those who pulled out His beard

d.  He did not hide His holy face from mocking and spitting…

7.  Here we have the humble Savior, led like a lamb to the slaughter… all of this abuse would come on Him… and it was all part of His atoning work

8.  Jesus took our sins on Himself, and with it came all the abuse such sinners deserve… He did not refuse it but humbly submitted to it

C.   The Servant Speaks of His Vindication by God (vs. 7-9)

Isaiah 50:7-9 Because the Sovereign LORD helps me, I will not be disgraced.
Therefore have I set my face like flint, and I know I will not be put to shame. He who vindicates me is near. Who then will bring charges against me? Let us face each other! Who is my accuser? Let him confront me! It is the Sovereign LORD who helps me. Who is he that will condemn me? They will all wear out like a garment; the moths will eat them up.

1.  The ultimate end of the Suffering Servant is not disgrace but total vindication

2.  The circumstances described plainly in verse 6 show an astonishing level of abuse which would have amounted to ABJECT DEGRADATION… how humiliating is it to be spat upon, to have your face smashed and your beard plucked out… to be stripped and have your back beaten

3.  But the Servant refuses to be shamed… He is helped by His Father and will not be disgraced but finally vindicated in the end!!

Hebrews 12:2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

“Despised” = thought very little of the shame!!!!

4.  So He sets His face like flint and refuses to stop in His atoning work…

5.  God totally vindicated Jesus by His resurrection from the dead, and His ascension into glory, and His being seated at the right hand of God the Father

6.  At that place of infinite honor and glory, WHO WOULD DARE ACCUSE HIM? WHO WOULD DARE CONFRONT HIM? WHO WOULD DARE CONDEMN HIM?

7.  Amazingly these are the very words Paul uses to speak of OUR vindication too, our freedom from condemnation

Romans 8:33-34 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died– more than that, who was raised to life– is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.

8.  All of this honor and security comes from Christ’s atonement and resurrection, and to us because we are IN CHRIST!!

9.  His resurrection IS our vindication!!!

Romans 4:25 He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.

To sum up verses 4-9, we have presented very clearly for the first time the SUFFERING SERVANT who is perfectly obedient to His Father and who knows the word to sustain the weary…

He listened to His Father to work a salvation for His people….

III.   A Key Question: Will You Listen to the Servant or to Yourself? (vs. 10-11)

A.   All Who Have Ears to Hear the Servant Will Lean on God (vs. 10)

Isaiah 50:10 Who among you fears the LORD and obeys the word of his servant? Let him who walks in the dark, who has no light, trust in the name of the LORD and rely on his God.

1.  It all comes down to this: we are brought to this key decision… who are we going to listen to??

2.  On the one hand, in verse 10, we have those who FEAR THE LORD and OBEY THE WORD OF HIS SERVANT

a.  The “obey the word of His Servant” = listen to the words Jesus speaks to us from the Father

b.  His words are life… they are salvation… and all who listen to those words by faith will be saved

Romans 10:17 Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.

John 6:45 It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me.

3.  If you are walking in the dark… if you have no light… you are LOST… you are IN SIN and need a Savior

4.  If you KNOW THIS TO BE TRUE OF YOU, God has already worked a marvelous thing in your heart

5.  Come out of darkness into the light of salvation

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.”

Colossians 1:13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves

B.   All Who Try to Walk by their Own Light Will Be Tormented (vs. 11)

Isaiah 50:11 But now, all you who light fires and provide yourselves with flaming torches, go, walk in the light of your fires and of the torches you have set ablaze. This is what you shall receive from my hand: You will lie down in torment.

1.  The chapter ends with a warning to all those who are confident in their own light… confident in their own truth, their own inner thoughts and patterns… confident they know the truth and don’t need Jesus or any other Savior to help them

2.  God warns them to go ahead and walk by their own lights and follow their own ways… to live by their own set of values and to follow their own wisdom, their own ideas

3.  God warns them that if they do, they will receive TORMENT from His hand… they will LIE DOWN IN TORMENT… final judgment for those who know best

IV.   Applications

A.   Be Very Careful How You Listen

Luke 8:18 Therefore consider carefully how you listen.

That was said after the parable of the seed and sower… 1) seed sown on path; 2) seed sown on rocky soil; 3) seed sown among the thorns; 4) seed sown on good soil

Luke 8:15 But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.

What happens to the word of God that He sows in your life? How you do listen? Are you like Israel:

Isaiah 6:9-10 “‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’ 10 Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”

Or do you take to heart the seed of the word and bring forth a harvest?

B.   Thank God that Jesus Obeyed on Your Behalf!

Justification by faith… He listened and obeyed, suffered and died so that you could be counted righteous in Him

Delight in the security of justification that Jesus won Know that His vindication is YOURS:

Romans 8:33-34 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died– more than that, who was raised to life– is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.

Though we want to be as submissive and obedient as Jesus, we must do so knowing that God sees us IN CHRIST at every moment… His obedience has won for you a standing of perfect righteousness if you come to Christ

C.   Quiet Times Like Jesus

Jesus’ patterns are an example for us too

He never went a day without beginning with His Father… He awoke very early every day and went to a secluded place to meet with God

He went with a willing heart, an eager ear

He went to learn words from the Father… so He could then turn and give them to others

Isaiah 50:4 The Sovereign LORD has given me an instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught.

Do you do this? And when you hear God speak to you, do you listen with a willing

D.   A Final Appeal to Come to Christ

Do not rely on your own wisdom, your own way of thinking!! Flee the wrath to come and rest in Christ’s sufferings for you!

Listen to the word of the Servant, Jesus, and find salvation in Him!

The sufferings of Christ described here in detail point to the truth of the gospel…

Matthew 26:67-68 Then they spit in his face and struck him with their fists. Others slapped him 68 and said, “Prophesy to us, Christ. Who hit you?”

John 19:1-3 Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. 2 The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe 3 and went up to him again and again, saying, “Hail, king of the Jews!” And they struck him in the face.

The fact that all of this was predicted seven centuries before Christ came should prove to you the truth of it… God is calling on you to forsake your own wisdom and trust in His Son!