In the sermon 'Delighting in the Son of God', Scott Brown focuses on Isaiah 42, emphasizing God's delight in His Son, Jesus Christ, and contrasting Him with the futility of idols. Brown highlights the unique characteristics of Jesus, such as His gentleness, mercy, and role as a servant who brings justice and restoration. The sermon underscores the Trinitarian nature of God, with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit portrayed in the text. Brown calls for believers to delight in Jesus, especially on the Sabbath, viewing it as a day of delight centered on Christ. The sermon also discusses the covenantal role of Jesus, His empowerment by the Spirit, and His mission to bring light and justice to the Gentiles. Brown contrasts the worthlessness of idols with the glory of Christ, urging believers to forsake idolatry and delight in the Son of God, whose success is guaranteed by God's promises.

If you would please remain standing as the sermon text is read before the preaching of the word from Isaiah chapter 42. Elect one in whom my soul delights. I have put my spirit upon him. He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles. He will not cry out nor raise his voice nor cause his voice to be heard in the street.

A bruised reed he will not break and a smoking flax he will not quench. He will bring forth justice for truth. He will not fail nor be discouraged, till he has established justice on earth, and the coastland shall wait for his law. Thus says God the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread forth the earth and that which comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it. I the Lord have called you in righteousness and I will hold your hand.

I will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people, as a light to the Gentiles, to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the prison, Those who sit in darkness from the prison house, I am the Lord, that is my name, and my glory I will not give to another, nor my praise to carved images. Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I declare. Before they spring forth, I tell you of them. Sing to the Lord a new song and his praise from the ends of the earth you who go down to the sea and all that is in it you Coastlands and you inhabitants of them let's pray Lord we thank you for this text We thank you for your word that you share it with us. We ask that you would guide Scott as he brings his words to us, the Lord's words that he's studied, and we ask that you would help it to pierce our hearts and change hearts and minds, help us to understand you more.

We ask this in Jesus' name, amen. If you came here today to behold the beauty of Christ and to meditate on His glory, to delight in the Lord Jesus Christ on the day of delight here the Sabbath day Then this section in Isaiah 42 1 through 9 It'll be a marvelous help to you as you seek to place all of your delight in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. We have a window into delight, but it's the delight of God in His Son. We have a picture of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit all here in this passage of Scripture and it's a disclosure really of the heart of God for His Son. So Isaiah 42 is teaching us how God delights in his Son, in how he sees his Son as such a delightful servant, a Savior, a Restorer.

He's gentle, he's merciful, he's victorious, he's empowered, He's full of light. And so it's a shift, as you can see here. You know, Isaiah has been belittling the idols. He's been talking dirt on the idols, exposing how ridiculous it is to have an idol and secondly to be an idolater. And so as we get to the end of chapter 41, there's this constant belittling of the idols.

And then Isaiah shifts to a completely different scene, from the unprofitability of the idols to the delight of a father. And this is a picture of the delight of God the Father and God the Son. And this is perhaps one reason why Isaiah is called the fifth gospel, because it discloses the glory and the beauty of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, written 700 years before Christ. And yet, we see the prophecies that have been fulfilled already, that have taken place in our own span of history. And that's why verse nine and verse 10 are written the way that they are, because they just, they lodge the reality that God has prophesied the work of his Son and it has been fulfilled.

Now chapter 42 also brings us to the very first of four servant songs that are in Isaiah. Chapter 42 is the first one and then we find another one in 49, another one in 50, and then perhaps the pinnacle of all the servant songs, Isaiah 53, that great passage of scripture that speaks of Jesus Christ as the suffering servant. But in the context here, Isaiah has been arguing with Judah concerning two things, the futility of idols, and secondly, the unprofitability of idolaters. And he has just at the very end of chapter 41 been telling us that idolatry, it just unravels your manhood, it makes your counsel worthless. And that's why the last verses of chapter 41 read, beginning of verse 28, "'For I looked and there was no man.

In other words, this is what happens to the culture. There's no man, it just strips of manhood. And then, But there was no counselor. It also just sucks the wisdom right out of you. And so then Isaiah writes, Who then, when I asked them then, could answer a word?

Indeed, they are all worthless. Their works are nothing. Their molded images are wind and confusion. So that's the context of what we find in verse one of chapter 42. He's attacking idolatry.

He's comparing and contrasting the idols with the living God. He's identifying and illustrating how different God is in goodness and in wisdom and in love and blessing. And he's telling us the truth about worldliness and the idols that promote it. And that in the kingdom of the idols, there's only triviality and worthlessness and deception and heartache and disappointment and wind and confusion. And you'll be embarrassed by your idols, by the way.

He's already said that in another chapter earlier on. But in chapter 42, there's this dramatic contrast. I just hope you can see the transition that's being made here that Isaiah is bringing us to. And he brings us the remedy to the idolatry and The unprofitability and the emptiness of idolatry has a cure and It's found in the word behold Behold the Son of God The Son of God is the cure for idolatry. Beholding His beauty is the magnetic force that pulls us out of our unprofitability and the things that have so gripped us.

And God in His mercy gives us a lifetime by slowly extracting the idols from us. He's so kind to take us in that direction. But here, you know, God is glorifying his son. He's turning our minds to the son of God. We're beholding his glory here in this passage.

And God the Father himself is declaring the glory of his son. You know, at the beginning of the Gospel of John, John says, we beheld as glory, glory as the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. And so this chapter is a disclosure of the glory of the Son of God. And you see the gentleness of Christ and the power of Christ. And here in this text, the servant takes the world's stage and he reveals salvation to the world.

And so I've been considering this, you know, all week as such a good and helpful guide for us as we enter into the Sabbath day, as we enter into what Isaiah speaks of as the day of delight. And our delight on this day is dependent on one thing. It's the placement of our delight, delighting in the Son of God. You know, I was talking to my family about this earlier in the week and how sometimes the day of delight can seem so exhausting and how you can get to the end of the day and you're just exhausted But there there's there's one one particular reason why it can be so exhausting Because Jesus Christ was not the center of the delight. If you can make him the center of your delight on the Sabbath day, it won't be an exhausting day quite like it can be if you've forgotten him and you're just kind of moving through the motions of this day that God has designed for delight.

Let me give you a sense of the structure of this portion that we're going to go through. First of all, I think overall you see that God is glorifying his son. That's the primary thing that's happening here in these verses. But in verses 1 through 4, God is speaking of his son, and then in verses 5 through 7, he's actually speaking to his son. But in both of these sections, he's glorifying his son, And then in verses 8 and 9 he speaks of himself and what he is doing and why he is doing it.

So that's the basic flow and structure of the text here. And it's a hymn of praise. It's beautiful. And Isaiah breaks into praise in verse 10. It's hard to extract verse 10 from 1 through 9.

And so this is why it reads, sing to the Lord a new song and his praise from the ends of the earth, you who go down to the sea and all that is in it, you coastlands and you inhabitants of them. So as God, as God praises his sons, as he brings out the glory, the luster of all of his beauty, then there's this command to sing, to sing to the Lord a new song. And I think that's the bridge from the section that we're covering today and the section that we'll cover next week. Sing to the Lord a new song. And I think that's the bridge from the section that we're covering today and the section that we'll cover next week.

Sing to the Lord a new song. And so we ought to be able to do that today. That today and the day of delight, it would be a day of singing of the delights of the Son of God and all of his glory. And so you can see my general outline in front of you if you have one. The first seven verses is God glorifying his son.

Verse eight is God revealing His motive for His delight in His Son. And then finally God gives His guarantee for the success of His Son in verse 9. And then in verse 10, there's a call to sing, to sing of the Son. So let's begin with this first section, God is glorifying His Son. And we see a very clear picture of the Holy Trinity, God the Father and God the Son, and then we'll see also the Spirit all wrapped up in verse 1.

This is a Trinitarian verse. Those who would deny the Trinity should just read verse 1 because it's all there. The argument is presented. And the first thing that we learn about the Son as God glorifies His Son is that he's a different servant. He's a different servant.

He opens with the word, behold. This is contrasted with chapter 41. In chapter 41, we read, behold the idols. Now, he's saying, now behold the sun. Behold something that is so different compared to the idols.

Behold the beauty and the glory of the sun. There is none like him. And this is a presentation of a contrast here. And so there's this different kind of servant that exists here. Jesus Christ is is a different kind of servant.

He's nothing like the idols at all. In Mark chapter 10, the Lord Jesus Christ called people to Himself and He said, you know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles Lord it over them and their great ones exercise authority over them yet It shall not be so among you but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant and whoever desires to be first shall be slave of all for even the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. The Son of God is a different kind of servant. He comes to serve. Now with the idols, you serve your idols, But the Son of God does serve His people.

He is a servant of God, and He serves the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is a very different kind of a servant. Here in this verse the Lord calls him my servant. He is in a serving role and he's our elder brother and he's as our elder brother he's leading us back to service. We're so caught up in ourselves, we're so self-obsessed, we're always serving ourselves And Jesus Christ rescues us from our life of self-centeredness, and He teaches us how to serve.

He's a very different kind of a servant. The idols just teach you to love yourself and serve yourself, but Jesus Christ is such a different kind of a servant. He teaches you how to serve. He's the servant who rules, and he's the ruler who serves. And so he's a very, very different kind of a servant.

This is why in John chapter 6, 38, the Lord Jesus Christ says, "'For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me." He is serving his father and he is giving his life as a ransom to serve his own church. The King of the universe becomes the servant of all and he calls his servants to serve one another. And you learn from him in his service by the way that he relates to his own father. Because he's serving his father. In John 5 verse 30 he says, I can of myself do nothing, as I hear I judge, and my judgment is righteous.

Because I do not seek my own will, but the will of the Father who sent me." So he's a very different kind of a servant. It's not hard to delight in such a different servant as it is the Lord Jesus Christ here on this day of delight. And then he is a servant who is upheld. It says, Behold my servant whom I uphold. The Lord is upholding him.

He's not like an idol. He does not work in his own strength. He's dependent, He's humble, He's lowered Himself, and His humility is rewarded by His Father. Humility always has its reward with God, because God is opposed to the proud, but He gives grace to the humble. He upholds the humble servant here.

God is upholding all those who humble themselves before His mighty hand. You know, it's not hard to delight in such a servant that is upheld on this day of delight. He is a servant who is being upheld by his Father. And when you think about your relationship with God the Son, Remember that if you love the Son and the Son is in you, then the Father who upholds the Son also upholds you. And this logic can flow through most of what we read here, that what God has done for His Son, He also does for His Son's servants.

Because we are in Christ, we have been grafted into Him, He is in us and we are in Him. The upholding of God the Father for His Son is simultaneously an upholding of those who are called according to his purpose and who love him. And thirdly, he is a chosen servant. He's called my elect one. The Lord places emphasis on election here in this verse and also all throughout the prophecy of Isaiah.

Election is a prominent doctrine, Isaiah. You find it in chapter 44 verse 21 and verse 24. You find it in chapter 45 verse 11 and chapter 48 verse 12. You find it in chapter 49 verse 7 verse 13 and you find it in chapter 55 verse 5. This is the doctrine of election And at the same time you find God choosing his son and you also find the very same language used for the election of his son's servants.

God elects his son and he elects his son's servants. You read this in chapter 44 verses 1 and 2, yet here now, O Jacob, my servant. So now the subject is Jacob and Israel, and he says, Whom I have chosen. Thus says the Lord, who made you, informed you from the womb, who will help you, fear not, O Jacob my servant, and you Jeshurun whom I have chosen, for I will pour water on him who is thirsty and floods on the dry ground. I will pour my spirit on your descendants and my blessing on your offspring." Here God is electing his son but also all through Isaiah God is also electing the sons servants And so these things are applicable.

You see it in the very next chapter as well where God elects His Son's servants. In chapter 43, verse one, "'I have called you by name, you are mine. He's not speaking of Jesus Christ the Son of God, he is speaking about the servants of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who have believed in him and who have repented and have turned to him. You know, God chose his son and he chooses his son's servants, not because they are special, but because he loved them. It's shocking to think that God would choose people like us.

It's scandalous that he would save people like us. Think about your background for a minute. Even the most well-washed, nicely laundered background brings no hope for salvation. And yet God loved us while we were yet sinners. He elected us.

Election is the most wonderful doctrine because it tells you that it's not dependent upon you. Your salvation depends on God. It tells you that He is so kind that He would rescue you. It does not exalt your goodness. It exalts His loving kindness.

And it ought to be the most comforting doctrine to you because it is in His election that brings forth His preserving you. He elects you and He keeps you. You are kept not by your own righteousness, but you're kept by the electing power of the love of God. Elections should comfort us, should not discomfort us. It should just show us how kind God is to elect people like we are.

It shouldn't be too hard to delight in such a chosen elected servant on a day like today. And then number four, he's the beloved servant In whom my soul delights. We're still in verse 1 Here God is delighting in his servant in whom he delights the Lord the Lord delights in him And the Father, as he delights in the Son, he also delights in his Son's servants. That's why you read in John chapter 15, as the Father loved me, says the Lord Jesus, as the Father loved me. So there Jesus is just affirming What Isaiah has just said in verse 1, that his father delights in him and loves him.

He says, as the father loves me, I also have loved you. Abide in my love. And so this love that the God the Father has for His Son is also designed to teach us of His love for us. It's not hard to delight in such a beloved servant in the way that the Father delights in him. And God, He's created this day for delight, for this very same kind of delight.

Why do we gather? Why do we do this? We gather to delight in the Son of God and all of His love. And what does that mean? I mean, John 15 actually spells it out, what it means.

He says, as I have loved you, abide in my love. And what does that look like? He continues in verse 10 to tell us what it looks like. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may remain in you and that your joy may be full.

This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do whatever I command you." And so this love has meaning. It has meat. This love does something.

The Father delights in the Son, and the Son delights to do the will of the Father. And the Son's servants are loved by the Son and delight to do the will of the Son. That's the link between God and man. It's a link of delight. It's delight that links it all together.

It's desire to do the will of God the Father. That is the true nature of delight. And here's what everyone needs to understand. And it might be one of the most misunderstood things in the world. There can be no true delight without obedience to the will of the Son of God.

You might think, why is delight deluding me? Why can I not find delight in the things that God has brought to me? There's only one reason, and that is you've not delighted in obedience. Now there may be some other edge reasons for things like this, but the heart of the matter is most of the time, and I think that there are exceptions, the heart of the matter regarding our inability to delight has its roots in our lack of desire to obey. We still want to obey the voices in our own heads, and as a result there's no delight.

But here, the Father delights in the Son because the Son delights to do the will of the Father, and the delight of the servants of the Son is dependent upon their obeying the commandments of the Son. This is the basis of our day of delight. We come together, we relish His laws, we delight in His ways and His people, and this is how we are able to delight in such a day as this. And then, number five, he's an anointed servant. Again, you know, don't lose the train of thought here.

God is delighting in his Son. He's glorifying his Son with every phrase that we're covering here. He's an anointed servant. In verse one it says, I have put my spirit upon him. So this is an anointing.

It's an anointing by the Holy Spirit. This is again, as I said before, this is an aspect of the doctrine of the Trinity that the Lord has elected his son and he has poured his spirit out upon his son. You have three distinct persons. You have a father who is one person and he has a son and his son has the spirit resting upon him whom the father has sent to rest upon him so you have three persons of the Trinity You know you cannot make sense of Many of the narratives and many of the didactic sections of scripture Unless you understand that God the father and God the son and gun that God the Holy Spirit are three distinct persons It just makes if they're all one this phrase makes no sense at all. In Isaiah chapter 11, we already encountered this idea that the Son of God is the man of the Spirit.

In chapter 11, verse 2, we read, There shall come forth a rod from the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him. The Spirit of wisdom and understanding. The Spirit of counsel and might. The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.

So here, this is the Lord Jesus Christ being filled with the Spirit. And what God has done in order to bless sinful mankind is that he has poured out his spirit, but it's not a nebulous thing at all, because what God has done is he's poured out his spirit upon his Son, and his Son speaks the words of prophecy to his sons and the son reveals the words of revelation to his apostles and have his apostles deliver the word which is God breathed. You get the connection here? This is about divine revelation. This is about inerrancy.

This is about the sufficiency of scripture. Scripture is breathed from God. It's breathed out from the Father to the Son, to the apostles and the prophets, and delivered to us. God was speaking through his Son. God in times past spoke through his prophets, but in present time he speaks through his son.

And it's through his son that we get Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Romans, Galatians, Ephesians, and all the way to the end of the New Testament. It's God breathe. But this is the basis of it right here. He is an anointed servant. And so we have this delight today to be ministered to by this anointed servant.

He's speaking his word to us. We've been reading the things that he has breathed. All scripture is given by inspiration of God. God breathed. And it's profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.

So he's an anointed servant. He's speaking to us today through his word. And then he is also a restoring servant. He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles. He's a restoring servant.

I'm correlating the idea of justice in this context to the idea of restoration because There are different facets of the meaning of justice, of mishfat in Hebrew. And what he is speaking of here is that something will happen to the Gentiles, that his social order will be established. When Jesus Christ is Lord, all heaven breaks loose. It's justice. It's setting all things wrong right.

It's bringing them into a right proportion. It's taking all the scattered and dislocated and destroyed things and bringing restoration to them, bringing them under His justice, His righteousness. He's reorienting things. And so that's why I've used the word he is a restoring servant. He will bring justice to the Gentiles.

And this is what God is doing to us. We're the Gentiles, right? God is bringing justice to us. He's taking the wrong thoughts that we've had all of our lives, the ridiculous patterns, the unprofitable ways, and He's making them right. He's sorting them out.

He's separating the wheat from the chaff in our thinking. He's helping us to base our lives not on wood, hay, and stubble, but gold and silver and precious jewels. He's reorienting us. And none of us are perfect, you know. But we are being restored.

And he's bringing forth justice to the Gentiles. That is what is happening in this church right now. We shouldn't be so discouraged because God is doing this. He absolutely is. When we get to verse 9 and 10, we'll say that he's staking his covenant promise upon this.

He is doing this in his church. It's such a blessing to be part of a church because Jesus Christ is bringing forth justice to the Gentiles, the filthy, unwashed, wrong-thinking Gentiles that have a past and a whole lot of baggage. And God is sorting it out. What a blessing that is. Number seven, he's a gentle servant.

Verse two. Oh, we're in verse two. How about that? He will not cry out nor raise his voice, nor cause his voice to be heard in the streets. He will not cry out.

Now, What does this mean? Well, I'm saying that it means he's a gentle servant. This could refer to the servant's sensitivity and tenderness, his gentleness. Now, no one can take this to mean that he is absolutely silent. But this is a figurative picture of the character of his communication.

And he's not the guy yelling and cajoling. He's not a shock jock. He's not a brute force manipulator. He's gentle. Like he said of himself in Matthew 11, you know, I'm gentle and humble and hard, and you'll find rest for your souls.

This is what he is like. Some have thought that he is gentle this way to those whose hearts are softened and turned toward him, but he's much harder on those who are unrepentant. It may also mean that he does not speak his own words. He speaks his father's words. In other words, he will not cry out or raise his voice or cause his voice.

In other words, he's not raising his own voice, he's raising the voice of his father. It quite possibly could be net. But I think the general opinion among those who interpret this verse is that It's a disclosure of his gentleness. He's not a hard manipulative person who is just going to wrap you around with his powerful and brutal argumentation. He's not like that at all.

This is who we delight in today. He's a gentle servant. He speaks to us. He comes with a still, small voice. The wind blows where it wishes.

And we're changed. Number eight, he's a merciful servant, verse three. A bruised reed he will not break, and smoking flax he will not quench. He will bring forth justice for truth. So in his justice, he does not crush the weak.

This is so significant. I'm sure many of you are aware of Richard Sibbs, who wrote a brilliant short book called A Bruised Read. It's beautiful. You should read it. Go read it.

It's just so encouraging. But this verse is just acknowledging what happens to his people. Remember, he is speaking of, God is speaking of what his son does with his servants, his bruised servants, his smoking, flickering wicks that are out there. What does Jesus Christ do to these people? What does he do?

You know, we're all bruised reeds. All of us are damaged goods. All of us have experience to bruising. It takes place through different things, through losses, through defilements, through hurts, through offenses, through attacks, through disappointments, all kinds of things. And as a result, we can be like bruised reeds.

We engage in sinful activities that hurt us, hurt us terribly. They defile us, they change our lives, and we end up bruised. This is a picture of the people of God. This is the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ has a particular way with his church, and this is his way.

A bruised reed he will not break, a smoking flax he will not quench. He will bring forth justice for truth. Now I don't know how to describe this any better than John Gill so I'm just going to read it to you. The tenderness of Christ to weak and ignorant persons is here and in the next clause expressed, by whom young converts or weak believers seem to be designed who are compared to a read because worthless with respect to God, whom they cannot profit. And in the view of men who reckon them as nothing, and in themselves and in their own view who judge themselves unworthy of the least mercies and because they are weak not only as all men are of which weakness of which weakness they are sensible, but they are weak in grace, especially in faith, and have little hope, their love is the strongest.

And because they are wavering like a reed, tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine, and shaken with the temptations of Satan, and disturbed with many doubts and fears, and are like the bruised reed that is squeezed and almost broke to pieces and so of no use. These are broken in heart, under a sense of sin and unworthiness, whose spirits are bruised and wounded with it, and whose hearts are contrite on account of it. On these Christ does not lay his iron rod, but holds out the golden scepter of His grace to them. He does not call them to service and sufferings beyond their strength, but strengthens, supports, and upholds them with the right hand of His righteousness. He binds up their broken hearts, having poured in a balm of Gilead, His own blood, and the wine and oil of His love.

He encourages them in their application to Him for salvation and manifests His pardoning grace and restores comforts to them and revives their souls. This is the bruised read. This is actually very clearly fulfilled in Matthew chapter 12 verse 15 through 21. The Lord Jesus Christ is going about, He's healing the sick. And the Pharisees hate what He's doing, and they actually hate the sick.

And Jesus Christ quotes this verse, and he tells them how merciful he is toward the sick and he's contrasting their hatred and their lack of love with his own love and right he quotes this verse a bruised reed he will not break, a smoking flax he will not quench. I'm reading from Matthew 12. And then right after that, it says, then one was brought to him who is demon possessed, blind and mute, and he healed him so that the blind and the mute man both spoke and saw, and all the multitudes were amazed and said, Could this be the son of David? You know here the Lord Jesus Christ demonstrates His tenderness and mercy on a demon-possessed person. Have you ever known a demon-possessed person?

Have you ever had some sense of it in your own life? This is Jesus Christ toward those who are broken. He says the servant does two things for the weak. Two things. First, the servant supports the reeds.

They're weak and bent over, and he supports them. He holds them up. They think that they're completely useless but he doesn't and he's holding them up. And second, the servant doesn't let the wick go out. This is the perseverance of the saints.

He doesn't let the wick go out even though it's smoking, it has no profit, it gives no light, it just brings a noxious odor and smoke into the room. Even if you reach that place and you are a child of God, Jesus Christ will sustain your spark. He will not let you go out. Maybe that's where you are today. You feel like your light is about to go out.

But Jesus Christ is a faithful shepherd. He's such a good servant. No one is too far gone. He's bringing justice to the Gentiles. He's doing it.

It says that he will bring forth justice for truth. Now this just gives us further insight on how he deals with the smoking flax and the bent reed. He brings forth justice for truth. He's merciful. He is bringing forth justice.

He is reorienting. But he's doing it according to truth. The only real hope for the bent reed and the smoking flax is the truth, to begin to refill with the truth. And this is why it's so wonderful for us that Jesus Christ is full of grace and truth. Not just grace and not just truth, but grace and truth.

You know, grace without truth is licentiousness, and truth without grace is a loveless brutality. It really is. People think truth is brutality. No, truth without grace is brutality. The Lord Jesus Christ is so kind to His people.

It's not hard to delight in such a merciful servant who's bringing us both grace and truth so that justice might be restored to us. And then number nine, he's a victorious servant. Verse four, he will not fail nor be discouraged till he is established justice in the earth and the coastlands shall wait for his law. Now, there's something that we should see in this language here. In verses three and four, there's the use of the same word, but in English it's translated different, Okay?

And here's where it is. In verse 3, a bruised reed, he uses the word ratsatz, the bruised reed, ratsatz. And then in verse 4, it says he will, and there he's speaking about the people of God. But then in verse four he's speaking of Jesus Christ the Son, and he says, He will not be discouraged. Ratzatz, same word.

So the bruised reed has a corresponding strength in the Son of God. While the reed is bruised, the Son is not. That's the logic in verses 3 and 4. The Son fulfills the lack of the saint. While the reed is bruised, the Son of God is not discouraged.

And this is the doctrine of the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ. But even further, and more clearly, it's a disclosure of the doctrine of the perfection of Jesus Christ. It's Christ's perfections that stand before God, not our bruisedness. We're not seen by God primarily on the basis of our bruises, but we're seen on the basis of His bruises and His victory because he did not ever sin. And then it says, the coastlands will wait for his law.

There's such a blessing in his law. The great hope for the bruised reed is always the law of God. And they will be blessed by the law of God. And number 10, He's an empowered servant, verses 5 and 6. Thus says God the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread forth the earth and all and that which comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk on it." Here we have this language again of how Jesus Christ the Son of God is empowered and so are his sons empowered as they walk.

There's this flow through of life from God the Father to the Son and into the believer. This is what happens when you are saved. There's a river of life that's opened up that empowers you, that changes your whole view and strength for anything and everything. Now notice this is an inter-trinitarian conversation here. The father is speaking to his son, and there are four participles here in this verse 5.

Created, stretched, spread. This is what God will do. And then there's his breath, the word of God being God breathed. And then in verse six, you see just how fortified the servant is. Verse six, I the Lord have called you in righteousness, we're back to election, I've called you in righteousness and will hold your hand.

Here the Father is holding the hand of the Son of God. And here he's hearkening to the humanity of Christ. He's living in the presence of his father and his father is holding his hand His father delights in him and he holds his hand, you know There's something about holding hands that's kind of magical in it Like can you remember the very first time you held the hand of your wife? Wow, I remember it. I can remember it like it was yesterday.

There's just something about holding a hand that is so remarkable and so defining. It was for me. It's incredibly defining. And that's why there's this girl sitting right up front here. But God is holding the hand of his Son.

And we'll learn in Isaiah that God is also holding the hand of the Son's servants, because the Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father are holding the hand of the saints in Isaiah. In Isaiah chapter 41 we see it, we saw it, well we saw it just recently, verse 8 in chapter 41, but you Israel are my servant. So also, by the way, servant is going to be used for the Lord Jesus Christ and the people of God all throughout Isaiah. You're going to read the word servant, you're always going to have to ask, which servant is this? Is it Christ or is it the people of God?

But in chapter 41, he's speaking of the people of God, and he says, I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Here, God is holding the hands of the servants, of the Son of God. God is holding his son's hand, and he's holding his son's servant's hand. You see this in Psalm chapter 63 as well, where David is speaking and he says, My soul follows hard after you, your right hand upholds me.

In Psalm 139, the very same thing, he says, you've hedged me in behind and before. You've laid your hand upon me. In Psalm 138, verse 7, he says, Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you will revive me. You will stretch out your hand. Your right hand will save me.

This is your Savior. He's holding your hand. He holds your hand all throughout your life. He walks with me, He talks with me, He tells me I am His own. And He holds out His hand.

He does one of the most remarkable and defining things. Psalm 1832 through 35 says the very same thing. He's holding your hand. You know how easy it is to lose a sense of God's presence that He's holding your hand. You know I've been very grateful to read this this week because I've thought of His holding my hand so many times.

It's helped me to know his presence a little bit more, just to be reminded of that. He's holding his son's hand, and he's holding my hand. Number 11, he's a covenantal servant. Verses six and seven. I will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people.

So here the Son of God is a covenant. He is the covenant, okay? A covenant is a deal. It's a pledge. And here, you know, the covenants of God are unbreakable.

So Jesus Christ becomes the unbreakable covenant. He not only declares the covenant, but He is the covenant. He is the pledge. He gave his life as a ransom for many, a payment to secure the covenant. He gave his blood.

That's why the Lord Jesus, that's why we read that the cup is a new covenant in his blood. That his body is a symbol of the covenant, his body and his blood and the bread that we partake of in the Lord's Supper is symbolic of this covenant. In the Old Covenant, it was symbolized by the blood of bulls and goats. In the New Covenant, it's the blood of Jesus Christ and Christ alone. And that's why in the Lord's Supper, this language exists.

He says, this cup is the new covenant in my blood, this do as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. This is an eternal covenant. This is why at the very end of the book of Hebrews, there's this final prayer, Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead through the blood of the everlasting covenant. That great shepherd of the sheep. Christ died on the cross, he shed his blood, he was buried and raised from the dead to proclaim that whoever believes in him will have a covenant and he'll have everlasting life because it is an everlasting covenant.

And he says this covenant is a light to the Gentiles. So it's covenant, but it's also light. He is the covenant, and He is the light. The purpose of the covenant is to bring the light of life into this confused, empty, broken paganism of the Gentiles. To give them something that they can hang on forever something true and good not like an idol that totters or that has to be taken care of all the time.

Jesus Christ said I am the light of the world He who follows me shall not walk in darkness." And then it says that he is a servant who opens blind eyes in the prison. To open blind eyes to bring out prisoners from the prison, those who sit in darkness from the prison house. This is about rescuing people from darkness. This is why David could say, where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?

If I ascend to heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. And if I say, Surely the darkness shall fall on me, even the night shall be light about me. Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from you, but the night shines as the day.

The darkness and the light are both alike to you. This is rescue from darkness. He's holding your hand, and He's pouring out His light in your darkness. He's a light to the Gentiles. And then after God is praising His Son, after God is glorifying His Son, delighting in His Son, and giving us all kinds of language to see how one might delight in the most delightful thing in the world.

Then God tells us why. Why is He doing this? And it fits into the whole context, you'll see it, that we've been walking through in Isaiah. You'll see how this connects to chapter 41 in the idolatry that's disclosed there. He says, I am the Lord, that is my name, and my glory I will not give to another, nor my praise to carved images.

This is why he is glorifying his son. He's glorifying his son for two reasons. Reason number one, he does not give his glory to another. His glory is reserved for his son and for those whose hands his son holds. This is the object of his glory.

He is going to glorify his son and the second reason is that he does not praise carved images. He's glorifying his son to teach us not to praise carved images, to not to praise and pet and appreciate and congratulate our idols, our unprofitable things, to stop praising them, to stop petting them, to stop appreciating them, to stop applauding them, to stop celebrating the celebrities and start celebrating the Son of God, to rescue us from the dimness of our hopes. Do we praise the carved images? Do we celebrate the celebrities? Do we expend our praise toward things that are not worthy of our praise?

You know, this is the most important thing in all of life. And by the way, just by way of application, this is one of the most important issues for parents. Parents have got to make sure that they do not allow the people of their household to praise and celebrate the celebrities, but their praise is reserved for Jesus Christ. Some of you are allowing so much praise for the unprofitable idols and celebrities of this world, and I just want to urge you to turn back from that. It's so socially acceptable, but it is not acceptable to God.

And God is declaring that he will not praise the idols and you should not praise the idols either. You should not praise the corrupt and bankrupt and unprofitable idols of this world and give your mind and your time to them because God will destroy them and He will destroy every part of you that has been invested in them. God will not give His praise to the idols. He says it so clearly. And then finally God gives his guarantee for the success of his son In verse 9 behold the former things have come to pass in other words.

He's saying I've prophesied things that have come to pass My word is true every bit of it comes true Do not think for a minute Do not treat me like the idols. What I say comes true. And then he says, and new things I declare. Before they spring forth, I tell them. I tell you of them.

And what he is saying is that he is guaranteeing the success of his word and therefore the success of his son. These things will come to pass. So shall He speak, and so shall He act. He does not speak wind and confusion. He does not totter in the storm.

He speaks with clarity and perfection, and all of his words are fulfilled. And he will declare new things. Just you wait and see. God is telling his people all that they need to know about their past, and their present, and their future. But He's saying, just you wait and see.

What I'm saying will come to pass. And He will bring it to pass through His Son. And that's why He says, and new things I declare, before they spring forth, I will tell you of them." He's speaking of the coming of the Son of God. He's speaking of the Word made flesh, full of grace and truth. He's speaking of the healer, the redeemer, the suffering servant who will come and save the unwashed Gentiles, us, of our sins.

And the only appropriate response finds itself in verse 10, Sing to the Lord a new song and his praise from the ends of the earth, you who go down to the sea and all that is in it, you coastlands and you inhabitants of them." So here we are, we're in the coastlands, we are the coastlands, we are the Gentiles, And as we enter into this day of delight, and I would just like you to consider this message as an introduction to our day of delight. Sing to the Lord a new song. Glorify the Son. It is the greatest thing that a human being can do. It is the most life-giving thing.

And how important it is for us to turn from praising the idols and turn to praising the Son of God. Let's pray. Oh Lord, we see your delight in your Son, your love for Him, your tenderness toward Him and His toward you, His desire to keep your law and to delight in you. Oh Lord, that you would give us such a day today, a day of delight, delighting in you, knowing your delight in us. You're holding our hand.

You're upholding us. You're sustaining us. You're restoring us. Your gentleness toward us. Your empowerment toward us through your word and your victory which you