The sermon titled 'The Ear of the Learned' by Scott Brown explores Isaiah 50 and emphasizes the centrality of Jesus Christ in the prophecy, particularly in the context of the Babylonian captivity. Brown elucidates the metaphor of God's certificate of divorce to underscore that God has not abandoned His people, despite their hardships. The sermon highlights the importance of having the 'ear of the learned,' drawing on Jesus' example of obedient listening and speaking words of comfort. Brown discusses the suffering of Jesus as the servant who endured shame and adversity to fulfill God's will. He encourages believers to trust in God during trials, set their faces like flint against worldly temptations, and recognize Jesus as the source of true counsel and comfort.

What a blessed morning as we come to Isaiah 50. Thus says the Lord, where's the certificate of your mother's divorce? Whom I have put away, or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? For your iniquities you have sold yourselves, and for your transgressions your mother has been put away. Why when I came was there no man?

Why when I called was there none to answer? Is my hand shortened at all that it cannot redeem? Or have I no power to deliver? Indeed, with my rebuke, I dry up the sea. I make the rivers a wilderness, their fish stink because there is no water, and die of thirst.

I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering. The Lord God has given me the tongue of the learned that I should know how to speak a Word in season to him who is weary he awakens me morning by morning He awakens my ear to hear as the learned The Lord God has opened my ear and I was not rebellious, nor did I turn away. I gave my back to those who struck me and my cheeks to those who plucked out the beard. I did not hide my face from shame and spitting. For the Lord God will help me.

Therefore I will not be disgraced. Therefore I have set my face like a flint. And I know that I will not be ashamed. He is near who justifies me. Who will contend with me?

Let us stand together. Who is my adversary? Let him come near me. Surely the Lord God will help me. Who is he who will condemn me?

Indeed they will all grow old like a garment. The moth will eat them up. Who among you fears the Lord? Who obeys the voice of his servant? Who walks in darkness and has no light?

Let him trust in the name of the Lord and rely upon his God. Look, all you who kindle a fire, who encircle yourselves with sparks, walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks you have kindled. This you shall have from my hand. You shall lie down in torment. Let's pray.

Oh Lord, thank you for bringing us together this day. Oh, Lord, your name is great. Your mercy is great among us. No, Lord, your word is before us today and by your spirit, Lord, I pray for Mr Brown to come up and be quickened by your Spirit, Lord, to deliver this word to our ears and our minds and our heart. Lord, let us be open for these words, but not only opened, but to be ready to apply it to our lives and to the calling we have in this kingdom.

Oh Lord have mercy on us now. In Jesus name. Beginning in Isaiah 40 the prophet has been laying before us dozens of images, figures, pictures, words that would describe the Messiah. And he's laid this before us chapter after chapter after chapter. We're now in chapter 50, and the whole context of the declaration of the Lord Jesus Christ has as its backdrop the Babylonian captivity.

That God has sent his children in judgment into captivity in Babylon. And all of what he is saying here has been hanging on this historical reality of the Babylonian captivity. But there's more. Because nothing just stops at the Babylonian captivity There are images of the future images of the coming of the Savior the Lord Jesus Christ his life his death his resurrection and and his pouring out the Holy Spirit on all flesh and the bringing in the Gentiles, bringing in the pagans, the unwashed, the ones that do not know God at all and do not want to know God, God turns their hearts. So As we've been walking through this context beginning in chapter 40, you have this historical reality, but then you have the true meaning of this historical reality that really takes us into the future and the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Christ is absolutely the center of everything we have been reading about since chapter 40. And it's good that it is so because the most pressing question, the most central question in anyone's life is who is Jesus Christ to you? What do you think of him? What do you think of him in a time of trial like the Babylonian captivity? You know what When you're raising children and they're sitting in church, what are they thinking?

What are they thinking of Christ? Who is Christ to them? Who is Christ to you, the adult, the one who perhaps has children and is struggling with all the things that are going on, the trials and the tribulations that take place there. Who are you when you're newly married, when you're a new father or a mother, who is Christ to you? Who is he?

This is the most pivotal question. This is absolutely the most important question that can ever be asked, and it's really a question that we should be regularly asking ourselves. When you go to work every day, or you start at a company and you're pressed on every side. You've been put into prison. Who is Christ to you?

Who is he? Who is he to you today? And who has he been to you? You know, who is he to you here in the morning? Or who will he be to you in the evening in the times when disappointments and reversals happen in your life.

There's no more important question for every person in the world today is who is Christ and where are you at with him? And Isaiah chapter 50 answers this question, who is Christ? Who is the Messiah? And what is he doing? In this sense, this is such a critical text.

And of course, this isn't the first time we've encountered who is Jesus Christ, because Isaiah has been explaining him through these many, many ways. Now the context here needs to be paid attention to. God is answering a question that was posed in chapter 49, verse 14, and I think it's difficult to understand what's in chapter 50 without going back to chapter 49, verse 14, because Isaiah is answering the question that is raised here. And what we learn in Isaiah 49, 14 is that Zion, as a result of the troubles of her calamity, the trials, the disappointments, the horrible things that have come upon them, they're rejecting the idea that God will take care of His people. They've lost hope.

They've lost heart as a result of the trouble that they have been engaged in. And so verse 14 tells us that Zion feels forsaken. Verse 14 says, but Zion said, the Lord has forsaken me, and my Lord has forgotten me. This verse appears after a long discourse of the goodness of God and how God the Father and God the Son Have conspired to have mercy on his people that nothing can stop his mercy And and even though God states this to his people they come back in verse 14 and they say, the Lord has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me. And it brings us to this reality that this often happens to us In the time of our calamity, in the time of the Babylonian captivity, we might say God has forsaken me.

But it's not true, God has not forgotten his people. Now, from chapter 49, verse 14, through every section, all the way through chapter 52, verse 12, God is answering this question. There are over a dozen elements of his argument against this proposition, depending on how you count. I think I had 12 of them last week and he continues on and God just continues to pile up the reasons why they cannot come to the conclusion that God has forsaken them. He has not forsaken his people.

And so he's continuing to pile up these arguments. And so from chapter 49 verse 14 to chapter 52 verse 12, God is arguing with his people and he's affirming his love for them in the midst of their hardships, even their hardships that were the result of their sin. God remains devoted to his people. Even when their hardship can be directly tied to their disobedience, This is the mercy of God. And so God is explaining his mercy with one colorful image after another.

While the people of God are languishing in the Babylonian captivity, God is saying, I have not forgotten you. And so this is a prophecy that was designed for a number of purposes. One is to awaken his people in Babylon when they read it. Now this is written over a hundred years before the Babylonian captivity. God is preparing his people.

God is so kind to prepare his people. He gives us so much beforehand. And often we forget in the midst of the fire, of the trouble of the moment, what he told us beforehand. Isn't that the way it is with us? You know, you languish in some trouble that you got yourself into, and you forget that God taught you how to get through it a long time ago.

And so you have to go back, and you have to review. So in verse 14, we see that Zion feels forsaken. And then the arguments begin in verse 15 can a woman forget her nursing child and not have compassion on the son of her womb surely they may forget but I will not forget you so he gives us illustration of a mother who cannot forget her nursing child. And then he brings the argument that he's inscribed them on his hands in verse 16. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands.

And then the third argument there in the sequence is he speaks of their walls. Our walls are under God's watch fly. In other words, I'm always watching you. I'm always caring for you. I see you.

So he begins these arguments and he itemizes them over and over again. And now in this passage we're just continuing the argument. But in this passage right in the middle of it is one of the servant songs. And this is the third of four servant songs that you find in Isaiah. Isaiah 50 brings us to this one where the servant himself is explaining his obedience to his father and and his heart toward his father to listen to his father morning by morning and And so I've divided this passage of scripture into five sections as you can see but but recognize this is the third of four servant songs and they're worthy of study on their own by the way when the Ethiopian eunuch was going down the road and he was and Philip the evangelist came to him he was reading these songs and they were mind-bending he didn't understand him He couldn't figure out what they meant.

He's like we are in many ways as we read it, and we have to go very slow and read it very carefully and see the context. But Philip came up to his chariot and he explained to him that Jesus Christ was the Messiah, the one being spoken of here. So the first servant song is in chapter 42 verses 1 through 4. Behold my servant whom I uphold, my elect one in whom my soul delights, I have put my spirit on him. In The first servant song, he is the spirit-filled servant.

And the second one, which we find in chapter 49, one through six, he's the servant who saves. He tells the Gentiles what God is going to do to save them and restore them. He says that God is not going to be glorified enough in saving the Jews. He wants the Gentiles. The Jews are too small of a glory for him.

He wants to save the wretched of this world who have no knowledge of him at all. And then in the servant song that we have here, it's the servant who hears and the servant who comforts, who's obedient and he's faithful to his father. And Then this is a set up for the final one which begins in chapter 52 verse 12 and goes into chapter 53, the servant who suffers and who bears the sins. So those are the four servant songs. This is the whole context.

So in this third servant song, the term the Lord God appears prominently. And I would just like to make this passage very simple in the sense of having it ask a question, what kind of servant is he? What kind of servant is he? And when you learn what kind of servant he is, then you're instructed to understand how it is that you can go through trials like the Babylonian captivity. And the Jews will understand how ridiculous it is to say the Lord has forsaken me because he does not forsake his people.

So let's look at these first three verses. He has not abandoned his people. This is the kind of servant that he is. This is the kind of savior that he is. The words in verse one read like this, thus says the Lord, where is the certificate of your mother's divorce whom I have put away.

This is very much like the question in chapter 49, can a mother forget her nursing child? Now he says in a very similar way, where is the certificate of your mother's divorce whom I have put away? Or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? For your iniquities have sold yourselves, and for your transgressions your mother has been put away." So God is before the people of Israel and he's making a demand. He's saying, telling them, put up, show me the certificate.

Where is the certificate of divorce that I gave you? And the message is you don't have one. You don't have one. I have not abandoned you. You are in captivity, but I have not abandoned my people Judah.

And he uses these two metaphors, the Bill of Divorcement and the Letter of Creditors, as proof of a sale. Those are the two images that he uses. And he's saying, show me, show me the certificate, show me the credit, show me the letter of credit that said that I sold you. And they can't produce one because he has not sold he has not divorced them and he's answering this question that Zion said the Lord has forsaken me and my Lord has forgotten me and he's saying no You cannot say that I have divorced you." And he says in these verses, No, you've rejected me. I have not rejected you.

But he uses this imagery of divorce consistently in the prophets. In the Old Testament, God is married to Israel and Judah. And, of course, this imagery follows in the New Testament as the church is called the Bride of Christ, which is why in the Old Testament the unfaithfulness of Israel was called adultery because the relationship of God as his people is like a marriage. And so this language of divorces and certificates is relevant and it's appropriate. Now God did divorce the northern kingdom of Israel.

This is announced in Jeremiah chapter 3, verse 8, later on, where we read, then I saw that for all the causes for which backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a certificate of divorce. Yet her treacherous sister, Judah, did not fear but went and played the harlot also." So God did issue a certificate of divorce for the northern kingdom, for Israel. But here we learn that he did not issue this certificate of divorce to Judah. We'll know that Israel will not rise again. That's what Amos chapter five verses one and two says.

And this whole language of the certificate of divorce comes out of Deuteronomy chapter 24 verses 1 and 2 where the grounds of divorce are spoken of very clearly and what we find is that God keeps his logic and his law consistent in the New Testament when the Lord Jesus speaks of the grounds for divorce in a marriage. But in Jeremiah chapter 3 verse 8 it's very clearly stated that God divorced Israel, that God did give her a certificate of divorce as Deuteronomy 24, 1 and 2 requires. But Isaiah 51 and 3 affirms that he has not divorced Judah. He's never thrown them out. He asks for evidence.

No evidence is produced because it never happened. Judah was in exile. She was enduring a time of judgment in Babylon. Commentators call this a time of separation, but not a time of divorce. And here you find the distinction between Judah and Israel.

Judah is in the line of David. God does not divorce the line of David. God keeps the line of David alive. He is married to his people for all eternity. And he's faithful to keep his covenant.

And so, since there was no certificate of divorce, God could lawfully bring Judah back into his house. He could draw her with cords of love and he could coax her back into love Toward him and this is this is what he's doing here in this passage this temporary separation the Babylonian captivity was not a divorce It was a chastisement for sin a severe one one so severe that the people of God said, God has forgotten us. And God is saying, no, I haven't forgotten you. And they said, well, you divorced us. And he said, show me, show me the certificate of divorce.

Now there are many places that you can go in the prophets that speak of God's, God wooing his people back in Isaiah 59, 1 and 2, in Isaiah 55 verse 3, Isaiah 62, 11, Isaiah 63, 7. These are all appeals to the people of Judah to come to him because he has not divorced him, he is still calling them, he's still wooing them back even though they have committed adultery, spiritual adultery, he says even worse than Israel. How about that? I don't understand that. But that's the way that the prophet speaks of it.

That Judah was actually worse of a harlot than Israel and yet God did not divorce Judah. And so God is promising to preserve his line of David. You read about this in Amos chapter 9 verse 8. Behold the eyes of the Lord God are on the sinful kingdom and I will destroy it from the face of the earth, yet I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, says the Lord. For surely I will command and I will sift the house of Israel among all the nations as grain is sifted in a sieve, yet not the smallest grain shall fall to the ground.

All the sinners of my people shall die with the sword who say the calamity shall not overtake or confront us on that day I will raise up a tabernacle of David which has fallen down and Repair its damages. I will raise up its ruins and rebuild it as in the days of old." And so to confirm this in Isaiah 54, 5 we read, your husband is your maker. To confirm that Israel has been divorced. Hosea 2 2 says Israel is not my wife. So that's the scene that we have that God is proclaiming that he has not divorced them and then he moves to this image of the creditor.

This is the second metaphor. When a man got too deep in debt, he gave his grandchildren as payment, and here God is saying, show me the certificate, show me the record of the payment that you were sold. And of course none of these have come. And God explains the root of the problem in verse 2. It was not that God divorced Judah, But rather it was because Judah did not listen.

Verse 2, why then when I came was there no man? Why when I called was there none to answer? Is my hand shortened at all that it cannot redeem or have I no power to deliver and so what happened what really happened is not that God divorced or abandoned his people is that but rather that God called and he was ignored. That was the problem. And it just raises the question, you know, what do we do when God calls?

In the next section we'll see the Lord Jesus Christ and how he deals with the words of his father. But Judah did not listen. You know, Judah was not like Samuel who said, Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. Judah was not like David who in Psalm 27 said, When you said, seek my face, My heart said, Lord, your face I will seek." That's what had been lost in Judah. It was that listening ear, the desire to hear the voice of God and to speak the voice of God in the world.

You know, he came into his own and his own did not receive him. And they sinned and they fell into trouble. They are accusing God of abandoning them. But the problem was that their sins have separated them from him and they will not listen to him. And we learn that God sent many prophets to them, many messengers.

Second Chronicles 37 verses 16 and 17 make this very clear that God sent his prophets but they were scoffed at and then came Babylon and they were sent to Babylon as a result of this one thing, that they did not listen and they did not care for his laws. And that is why they have found themselves in Babylon. And then God speaks, he says, Indeed with my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness, their fish stink because there is no water, and die of thirst." And so here he speaks of the fact that he has not abandoned them. In fact, he's shown in many ways that he can rescue them and he gives us an example of the Red Sea, how he dried up the sea, this river in the wilderness and how they were rescued by the power of God. He uses this word indeed with my rebuke.

My rebuke I dry up the sea. This is a favorite term of Isaiah. He uses it several times. He always speaks of it in terms of his power over nature. That he can control everything and so he's just reminding them of that That that he delivered them from Egypt and then he continues with the same image imagery in verse 3 I clothe the heavens with blackness and I make sackcloth they're covering I I take this as as an illusion to to the the scene in the in the dead of night when the children of Israel were passing across the Red Sea and God and his power made it blackness and sackcloth for the armies of Egypt.

But the problem with their separation is not with God, it's with their sin. And God has been faithful. Now this language of the blackness and the sackcloth of their covering could be an illusion to the crucifixion because I'm confident that you'll find illusions to the crucifixion all the way through here. This is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ with his face like a flint towards Jerusalem to go and be crucified. And so this is in the far future.

God is speaking to his people of historical realities about spiritual matters that prevail during the time of Jesus Christ. And you know, the question is, you know, who is Christ to you? Is he your husband? Has he left you alone? Is there a distance?

If there's a distance, then it's because your sins are separating you. You have little zeal. Why? It's because you have little desire. Why?

It's simply because you do not regard Christ. It's not that God has abandoned you. It's that you have walked away from God. That is the reason for any distance. That's the reason for the great suffering that we have in time of trial is because our sins have separated us from Him.

And so in this in these first three verses no one is listening But there is one who will listen. God has provided one who will listen perfectly and we read about him in verses 4-5. And here we find ourselves in this servant song, this third servant song in the middle of this chapter. And in the first place, we learn that he's not abandoning his people. And now we learn that he comforts the weary.

Again, he's saying these things to the people who are in the Babylonian captivity, but he is also saying these things to those who live in the new covenant, who believe in Jesus Christ, who love him, who have taken him on and have devoted themselves to him, have repented of their sins. And here we find the Lord Jesus Christ is one who knows how to speak a word of season, a word in season to the weary. Verse 4, The Lord God has given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak, a word in season to him who is weary. He awakens me morning by morning. He awakens my ear to hear as the learned." So their Savior is a servant with a learned tongue.

In other words, he has a tongue that has been activated by instruction. The things that he says have come from what he has heard. That's the whole proposition here. And what he has learned gives him a tongue that knows how to speak a word of comfort to those who are weary. And this language is so beautiful.

His tongue is the tongue of the learned. The tongue of a disciple, literally. A disciple is a learner. If you're a disciple of Jesus Christ then it means that you become a learner. That's what it is to become a disciple.

To become a disciple maker is one who makes learners, who gathers people together to learn, And that's a disciple maker. But here, here that he has the tongue of the learned. In other words, he has a mouth that is activated by his learning. And so in order to have the tongue of a disciple, the first thing you must have is the ear of a listener. The one who learns is the one who is skilled with his tongue.

And you don't get the tongue of a disciple unless you have the ear of a disciple. And if you want to have the tongue of a disciple, there's no other way to have it than having the ear of a disciple. This is one of the most important things for a Christian to understand because we're placed in community we're placed in life together and we're together often and what what is it about our relationships when we are together and And here with the Lord Jesus Christ, he sets forth a pattern that we also should follow. And that is that if we would have a learned tongue, we would first of all have to have an open ear to the Lord. And it says here that the purpose of this, the purpose of his hearing, the purpose of the training of his tongue to speak a word is that he should know how to speak a word in season to him who is weary.

Now notice he's speaking in the first person. This is the only servant song where the Lord Jesus Christ, the servant himself, speaks in the first person. He's speaking very personally about his relationship with his father. And so he's speaking in the first person, that I should know how to speak a word. The Lord God has given me the tongue of the learned that I should know how to speak a word in season to him who is weary." And here we learn that because the Lord Jesus Christ is a learner, then it turns him into a comforter.

The servant is a wonderful counselor. We read about that already in Isaiah chapter 9. His name shall be called wonderful counselor, mighty God. And he knows how to sustain the weary. He knows how to sustain the weary with a word.

The Lord Jesus Christ listens to his father and he takes what his father has said and then he speaks a word to the weary and who are the weary? The weary are the captives in Babylon and the weary are those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's such a wonderful counselor. He knows how to sustain the weary with a word of authority. He's full of grace and truth.

He has the Word of God, which is the sword of the spirit that penetrates, that separates thoughts and intentions of the heart. He speaks to a bruised reed. He speaks to the weary. You know, what are you supposed to do when you encounter someone who is weary? It happens all the time, doesn't it?

And the weariness expresses it in different ways, but you know, what do you tell them? What do you tell the weary? Well, the Lord Jesus Christ knows what to tell the weary. There are many temptations that you have when you speak to the weary. One temptation might be presumption.

Another temptation might be over harshness. But here you don't get the impression that the Lord Jesus Christ is dealing with the weary by saying, just buck up. You know, he comes with a word that changes your heart. It changes your life. Jesus knows how to comfort the weary.

That's why he said, Come to me all you who are weary and heavy-laden and I will give you rest. The Apostle Paul speaks of the God who comforts the depressed. You know the other the other question here I think that that exists as an important thing to consider is where do you go when you need counsel? Where do you go? Do you go to the one who has a word for the weary?

Is that the place that you first go? Often people go to many unprofitable things to get their weariness fixed. I can make a long list. They go to their music, they go to their entertainments, they might go to their diversions, they might go get a bottle, they might take a pill, they might think that some food is going to fix them forever. But where do you go?

Where do you go? You know, some people come to you for counsel and they want something more helpful than what they've been already given. The Word of God, a Word of Jesus Christ. They want you to somehow have an insight into their life. They want you, another human being, to penetrate the thoughts and the intentions of their hearts.

They want you to diagnose them. And it's almost impossible for human beings to do that very well. Some are better at it than others. But it is possible for human beings to bring the right word, to bring the consolation from the great physician, to bring the word of God, to bring something that really will do damage to the weary soul to bring it out of its trouble. One of the things that we learn here is that the weary soul needs counsel from a certain kind of counselor, like the Lord Jesus Christ, who has the ear of a disciple and he's learned and so therefore he speaks the words of truth.

You know we need we need counsel that will go down into the deepest recesses of our hearts. We need counsel that deals with our conscience and unmasks what's really going on in our lives. We need the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the counselor. Christ has all of the counsel that we need.

And then he continues and he he says he awakens me morning by morning remember This is the Lord Jesus Christ. He's telling us about his relationship with his father. This is in the first person He's just telling you what his relationship with his father was like. He awakens me morning by morning. In other words, God the Father awakens God the Son morning by morning.

God the Father awakens God the son's ear to hear as the learned." And so there's this whole matter of the morning, there's this new word in the morning, a fresh word. You know, I was reading an article this week. Someone wrote, it was a very good article. And I think the title was something like, why you shouldn't grab your smartphone the first thing when you wake up in the morning. I know that's not the exact title, but that was kind of the idea.

And this was from a website, a conservative Christian website, and they said they did an extensive survey, and 47% of the people grabbed for their smartphone the very first thing when they wake up in the morning and he gives the reasons why they do that. But here you have this this this thing that happens when the Lord Jesus Christ awakes and I take this very literally the Lord Jesus Christ was a real person who awoke every morning and his father was instructing him. The book of Hebrews says that the Lord Jesus learned obedience and I take this that he learned obedience morning by morning. He was constantly looking to his father. You know, the Lord Jesus was known to depart early in the morning and pray to his father in Mark chapter 1 verse 35.

We read at this incredibly busy time, The people are looking for Jesus even early in the morning. They can't find him. They can't find him because it says, now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, he went out and departed to a solitary place. And there he prayed. And Simon and those who were with him searched for him and they found him and they said, everyone is looking for you.

It was a very busy life. The Lord Jesus at times didn't even have time to eat. But he did have time to learn from his father. Morning by morning. You know I love the part in that song, Great is thy faithfulness.

Morning by morning, new mercies I see, all I have needed Thy hand hath provided. Great is thy faithfulness. It's a picture of the faithfulness of God and his kindness in feeding us morning by morning. You know, David prayed In Psalm 143, let me hear your loving kindness in the morning, for I trust in you. Teach me the way in which I should go, for unto you I lift up my soul.

It was David's intention. It was a stated pattern to seek the Lord in the morning in Psalm 5 verses 2 & 3 He says give ear to my Voice oh Lord my King and my God for to you will I pray my voice? You will hear in the morning. O Lord in the morning will I direct my prayer unto you and will look up." This is what the Lord Jesus Christ has done. David is a type of Christ and he does what the Lord Jesus Christ does.

You know it was Moses who wrote Psalm 90 and he was very well aware of how important it was to seek the Lord in the morning and how satisfying it was, how gladdening it was, how transforming it was. And so he writes in Psalm 90 verse 14, "'Oh, satisfy us early with your mercy, "'that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad according to the days which you have afflicted us, the years in which we have seen evil. Let your work appear to your servants and your glory to their children. And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us and establish the work, establish our hands for us.

Yes, establish the work of our hands. Moses understood the need to be beautified in the morning. You know, I need a revival every morning. I'm dry, I need water, I need bread every morning. I need illumination.

I don't wake up right. It's always a struggle But there's one thing that can happen. He can put me a right If I would seek him in the morning If I would have the ear of a disciple, if I would have the tongue of a learner, that I would seek his face first in the morning to find food, to find water, to find joy, to find the happiness of the Lord Jesus Christ. I need that revival. It was a few years ago we recommended that the church read George Mueller's biography and he he talks about this in his biography.

He says, the first in great primary business to which I ought to attend every day was to have my soul happy in the Lord. The first thing to be concerned about was how I might get my soul into a happy state and how my inner man might be nourished. He said this, the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the Word of God and the meditation on it. That thus my heart might be comforted, encouraged, warned, reproved, instructed. And that thus, while meditating, my heart might be brought into experimental communion with the Lord.

That my inner man almost invariably is almost sensibly nourished and strengthened and that by breakfast time with rare occasions, with that by breakfast time, with rare exceptions, I am in a peaceful, if not a happy state of heart." And then he says, It is plain to me as anything that the first thing the child of God has to do morning by morning is to obtain food for the inner man. As the outward man is not fit for work for any length of time except we take food. And as this is one of the first things we do in the morning so it should be with the inner man and yet you know there are so many things that choke out the Word of God, the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches. These are the things that choke out the Word. We get so wrapped up in our own plans that we don't find ourselves under the instructional work of God.

We don't go to him. We'd rather pick up our smartphones so that we might be made smart when, in fact, we get duller and duller and duller. Our souls become less and less sensitive, less and less hungering in our hearts for Him. We are just reaping the consequences of reaping and sowing in that principle that's there. But the Lord Jesus Christ is the wonderful counselor.

And the Lord Jesus Christ was there at His Father's feet, morning by morning, and He speaks to His children in the same way. He calls his children to do the same thing. Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. Do you see the chain of command? God the Father speaks to the Son.

The Son speaks to the sons and daughters. Look in verse 5. He goes further. The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, nor did I turn away. The Lord God has opened my ear Here we we find that this is it was the power of God the power of God working in the heart of the Son of God And it was God who opened his ear.

You know, as God would open his ear, his heart was not rebellious. He says, I was not rebellious, nor did I turn away. In other words, he wanted to do the will of his father. He desired to fulfill every thought and intention of his father's desires for him. And so He said, I was not rebellious, nor did I turn away.

How often do we turn away? How often do we awaken in the morning, and we know how beneficial it is to turn to Him? And we turn to this unprofitable thing. And as a result, throughout the day, we don't have what we could have had. We don't have the tongue of the learned.

We have a tongue that flaps a lot, but not a tongue that speaks much wisdom. We have a tongue that might say a lot of things, it might be humorous, it might be interesting, it might be just fantastical, but it has no food, it has nothing of heaven in it. It has nothing that will cure the weary soul. It has nothing to turn anyone away from sin. It has no hope in it.

It has no joy in it. It just has a lot of us in it. Because when we awakened, we turned away. And in turning away from Him, we turned to ourselves and in doing so we were rebellious. We often just pass it off in the morning when we don't seek him.

We don't call it being rebellious. But here the ear of the Son of God is not rebellious it's hungering its desiring it wants it wants to be close and And therefore he had something to say. This is why his learning was an astonishment to the people who heard him. Even those who heard him at the age of 12 when he was reasoning in the temple, they were absolutely astonished at what he said. And in John chapter 7 we read that the Jews were amazed at his words and the Jews marveled saying, how does this man know letters having never studied?

Jesus answered them and said, My doctrine is not mine, but his who sent me. If anyone wants to do his will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak from my own authority. The Lord Jesus Christ was speaking from the authority of his Father and the people were marveling and he said, my doctrine is not mine. Where did I get it? I got it morning by morning.

I had the ear of a listener. I had the ear and the tongue of a disciple, one who desired to obey. This wisdom that the Lord Jesus Christ had came as a result of his humility. The apostle Paul explains why he was so wise. He says in Philippians 2, 8, and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death on the cross.

So he was a learner, his ear was open. Even as a young child he was learning from his father. As Hebrews 5-7 tells us that quote, though he was a son yet he learned obedience by the things which he suffered. And he did not turn away. He was an obedient son.

He wanted to glorify his father and everything. And you can find this all over, particularly the gospel of John. He did not want to do anything that was contrary to the glory of his father. That was the secret of his life. John 17, 4, he says, I have glorified you on the earth.

I have finished the work which you have given me to do. And now, O Father, glorify me together with yourself, with the glory with which I had with you before the world was." In John 6 verses 38 through 40 he says, "'For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me." This is what a disciple does. A disciple desires to do the will of his father. Jesus declares to his disciples that He was an obedient son in John chapter 8 verses 28 and 29. And Jesus said to them, When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and that I do nothing of myself.

But as my Father taught me, I speak these things, and he who sent me is with me. The Father has not left me alone, for I always do those things that please Him. As He spoke these words, many believed in Him. When the Lord Jesus Christ was tested severely in the Garden of Gethsemane, He said the same thing that He had said every morning of His life, not, My will, but Thine be done. That's the result of being a listener.

That's the result of having the tongue of a disciple. You know, Why don't we seek Him more than we do? We say it's because we're too busy, but is that the reason? Because everyone is busy. The Lord Jesus Christ was busy.

We're doing things all day long, but the question is, what are we doing? The apostle Paul made it clear to Timothy that disciplined exercise is necessary. 1 Timothy 4.7 we read, but reject profane and old wives' tales and exercise yourself toward godliness. For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things having promise of the life that now is of that which is to come. You know we do have people who who would not miss a workout to tune their physical body for anything in the world but they would miss their morning with God because exercise does profit a little but it doesn't profit a lot and what Paul is saying is that exercising yourself toward godliness profits much And so we have to have our priorities in line.

The Apostle Paul is not making an argument against bodily exercise. He is making an argument against over prioritizing bodily exercise over spiritual exercise, which is the most important. And so the question is, who is Christ to you? Who is Christ to you? Is he the one who comforts the weary?

Is he the one that you come to day by day? Is that who Christ is to you? Is he the one that you listen to? Is he the one that you long for his counsel? Is your ear the ear of the learned?

Are you turning your ear to him? Do you long for his counsel? And I just think it's true that if you're despondent and you're thinking that God has abandoned you, can you trace the problem to your own ears and to the things that you're listening to? Because what you listen to makes all the difference in the world. And here we find the Lord Jesus Christ as one with a listening ear to his Father.

And then he suffers, he suffers for his people. Not only does he comfort the weary, he suffers for his people. Verses 6 and 7. I gave my back to those who struck me and my cheeks to those who plucked out the beard. I did not hide my face from shame and spitting." And here the Lord Jesus Christ is saying that he's a suffering servant.

He was submissive to suffering, but not just suffering, shameful suffering. We learn later when we get to the last servant song in Isaiah 53 why he suffered. There's an elaboration of the suffering theme in Isaiah 53, but here he was submissive to the suffering. It was very intense. And so this is a prophecy of the Lord Jesus Christ's sufferings.

And here, God's servant will himself be weary. He will be wearied by his sufferings, and he'll endure weariness himself for those whom he died. And he was innocent. He was struck though he did nothing wrong. He paid a penalty that he was not guilty of.

And the Father did forsake him. He said, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? He was a suffering servant. And he was willing to walk in darkness the servant himself walked in darkness Jesus Christ was hated and it was dark so dark that he would cry out to his father that perhaps he had abandoned him in the same way that the people in Babylon felt like they had abandoned him. And the Lord Jesus Christ suffered in every way that you have suffered.

He was tempted in every way. The people in Babylon suffered but they did not suffer like Jesus Christ suffered. Christ suffered more as a pattern for them. God withdraws the light of his countenance from Christ, and Christ becomes a high priest who intercedes because he has compassion on those who seek him. And it says here that he did not hide his face.

We like to hide our face from spitting and shame. That's what we do. We want to do everything we can to hide ourselves from shame. Christ did not do that. Because he wanted to take your shame upon him.

We hide from shame. Christ takes our shame, which we try to hide from. And it says here that he set his face like a flint. And I know that I will not be ashamed." This is a prophecy of Christ's resolve to suffer the crucifixion. He intentionally made his way to the cross.

In Luke 9.51, we read of that story, but this is Christ resolutely going to the cross. You know, Spurgeon said, there was no flint in Jesus' heart, but there was flint in his head. He had resolved to face the suffering and the abuse and the rebuke and the abandonment of his disciples. His head was like flint, but his heart was a heart of flesh. His resolve to go to the cross was tested by offers of Babylon by the devil in the wilderness, his friends forsaking him, Peter rebuking him, his family rejecting him, his friend with whom he broke bread betrayed him, the religious establishment hated him, but he set his face like a flint, a flint against all the opposition.

Ezekiel chapter 3 verses 7 through 9 speaks of it. It would be good to read that in the afternoon. But the Lord Jesus Christ here is the sufferer and he is all we need. The Lord helps us even in our darkness. And the question is, who is Christ to you?

Do you see the greatness of your sin? Do you know how Christ suffered for you? Do you see him being bruised for your iniquities? Is he the suffering servant? Is he your suffering servant?

Have you believed that he's the Son of God, that he was sent to offer himself for you, to hang on the cross for you? Or do you think he just hung on the cross? Or do you think he hung on the cross for you? Was it for you, or was it just some general historical reality that you believed ever since you were a child? But did he hang on the cross for you?

Was he the suffering servant for your sins? Were your sins laid upon him or do you still hang on to your sins and pet them and still make friends with him? Or do you hate them and are glad to see them go and be atoned for by the Son of God. And then not only does he suffer for his people, he will be vindicated, verses eight and nine. God is near to him.

We read in verse eight, he is near who justifies me, who will contend with me. Let us stand together. Who is my adversary? Let him come near to me. Here the focus is on Christ's adversaries.

And there they are. They're in Babylon. They have adversaries. In Christ, the Lord is saying, I will win this war, I will win, I've not abandoned you. God will justify me, no one contending with me will stand.

Christ is reminding the captives that he's taking care of their adversaries in Babylon. He's the Lord of hosts. Anyone who stands with Christ will stand. He will defend you. He'll carry you through.

This is such a pivotal thing to understand in the society that we live in when the words of Jesus Christ, when the words of the Bible are so hated. We need to recognize that all those who stand against Christ will be destroyed. And that's why we ought to have like Christ had setting our face like flint, that all these abuses would bounce off of us because we know what will happen. Verse 9 gives this remarkable image of the moth. They will grow old like a garment.

The moth will eat them up. He takes the tiniest, lightest insect. He says the moth will bring them down. You're familiar with fabric moths. They're about a half an inch long.

They live like two to six months and they're gone. And he's saying They will be like an old garment that a moth will eat up. They'll be gone. They'll just disappear. He's speaking of his adversaries.

He's speaking of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And then finally, he will sustain those who are in darkness and torment those who walk in their and I'm sorry, he will sustain those who walk in darkness and He will torment those who walk in their own light. Verse 10, who among you fears the Lord? Now He's addressing, He's crying out, fear the Lord. Who obeys the voice of the servant?

Who walks in darkness and has no light. Let him trust in the name of the Lord and let him rely on his God." He's now addressing those who fear God and he's distinguishing them between them in verse 10 and the apostate in verse 11. He's speaking to the remnant in verse 10 and he's speaking to the rebellious and the apostate in verse 11. And he's appealing to them to trust in him and rely on him. The remnant.

Here's these words, who among you fears the Lord? Who obeys the voice of his servant? This is a call to fear and obey. In those dark times, they're walking in darkness, they're overwhelmed, they've lost hope. The darkness is so dark that it's too discouraging for them.

He's not talking about the darkness of unbelief. He's talking about the darkness of dark times. He's talking about the darkness that the people of God experienced, the true people of God experienced when they were in Babylon. You know the Baptist Confession in chapter 18 speaks of this. It says that true believers may have the assurance of their salvation shaken or diminished.

It might be lost for a while. They might fall into a particular sin. Their consciences might be wounded. They might be entertaining falsehoods. They might grieve the spirit.

They might fall into temptation. And as a result, they feel that God has withdrawn his presence. They feel they're walking in darkness. They feel they have little faith. They have no light.

That's who he's speaking to. He's encouraging him. He's saying, I've not abandoned you. I've not divorced you. They're preserved.

And then he reminds the apostate of the disastrous consequences of walking in their own light. You who are walking in your own light, pay attention. You who do not love the light of the Lord, recognize the truth of this. Look, all you who kindle a fire, who encircle yourselves with sparks, Walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks you have kindled. This you shall have from my hand.

You shall lie down in torment." He's speaking of the hard-hearted, desperate people who want to make their way in this world in their own way their own popularity their comfort their image in this present world is all that they care about they want to walk in their own light and he says if you want to walk in your light you will die in that light you will be You will be tormented in that light. You'll be warmed by your own ways and you'll be burned and tormented. Let me run through just some applications here. Number one, you should expect times of trial like the Babylonian captivity. God sometimes brings times of temptation.

He does bring times of sin among his people. He does chastise his people for their sins. They see the deceitfulness of their hearts. He humbles them. He takes them to Babylon and he puts them in a hard place so that they'll turn to him.

You should expect times of trial like Babylon, but here's what you what you can also expect, that Jesus Christ will have a word for the weary. He will sustain you. He will care for you in your Babylonian captivity. Number two, Christ not only died in our place, he also lived in our place. You know when we think of Christ we often marvel at his obedience and we say, oh, I want to be just like Christ.

You know, every victory of Christ is my moral obligation. And while that's true, we should imitate Christ. Imitation is only part of the reason for his obedience. One of the reasons for his obedience is that he lived in our place. He lived rightly when we could not live rightly.

There never was anyone who ever had a day where they perfectly listened to their Father in heaven. We've never had a day like that but Jesus Christ lived that day. He lived it for us. He had every day like that so that the days that that you see how short you fall, you know you have atonement, you have mercy from Jesus Christ. Because He did not just die in your place.

He also lived in your place. And then thirdly, set your face like a flint. Set your face like a flint against Babylon and Egypt and the riches of this world. Go preach the gospel. Find people who are lost.

Don't fear your losses. Don't worry about friends rejecting you. Don't think for a moment that it would be worth keeping the world and refuse to preach the gospel. Set your face like a flint and speak in Babylon. That's where we live now.

Number four, take heart. Babylon won't last. The judgment of the captivity won't last. The spiritual bondage of Babylon won't last. Christ will see to it.

He will put Babylon behind you. He will listen to his father and he will counsel you through your trials as you face your Babylonian captivity. He will sanctify you. He'll put Babylon behind you. And then finally, Who is Christ to you?

Is he one who has abandoned you? Is he the one who has a word in season, morning by morning? Is he who suffered for you? Is he the victor for you? Is he the one who sustains you in darkness or do you make up your own light?

And the answer really is in Isaiah 49 or 50 10 49 or 50 10 let him trust in the name of the Lord and rely upon his God Let's pray Oh Lord, I pray that you would give us such a heart to rely upon you, to have the ear of a disciple, the tongue of the learned, looking unto you, relying upon you, trusting in you for everything. Oh Lord, I pray you would give us faces like with Flint in the midst of a wicked and perverse generation. Amen.