1. "But commitments and promises are only as good as the person making them. God's people have a similar view of their relationship to God. Dismissive of sin, unaware of the gravity of their disobedience, enticed by the things of this world."

2. "So what do people do when they're too weak to follow God? What do God's people do when they're unable to do what God has called them to do? What do God's people do when they're too blind to know they aren't following him? What does God do?"

3. "Wicked kings welcome bruised and fragile people so they can step on them. Wicked kings break people's spirits. This servant came to bind up the brokenhearted. This servant didn't come to imprison people, but to empty prisons. Jesus didn't come to step on people. He came to step on the head of the serpent."

4. "God's not saying the servant will proclaim a new covenant. Did you catch that? This servant is the new covenant."

5. "Our sin is that bad. We are that blind. And if you're not following Christ, you're living in a dungeon."

6. "If you're a flickering wick and you feel like you're about to be snuffed out, God's promised that he won't. And guess who's keeping your flame flickering? His Spirit. And look who started that flame. Jesus Christ. Who's putting that thing out?"

7. "Although Christ will not break bruised reeds, he is willing to be bruised and broken for us. Although Christ will not quench faintly burning wicks, he himself will be quenched on the cross. Christ took the bruising. He took the breaking. He allowed himself to be quenched as God poured out his wrath on him."

8. "God confronting us in our sin and snatching that idol from our grasp is the most loving thing he can do. Him flipping on the light switch of his glory to expose the darkness is the kindest thing he can do."

9. "We can see a little bit of Hinduism in our hearts, can't we? A little bit of polytheism in our practices. We love God and the applause of man. We love God and our careers. We love God. And God in his kindness, will confront the idols in your hearts by oftentimes bringing us through a wilderness of sorts, a captivity, so he can turn the darkness into light so he can make those rough places smooth."

10. "I don't know about you, but I oftentimes need to be reminded I'm not a self sufficient oak. We're reeds planted in the marsh of God's grace, tended by our loving Savior, Jesus Christ."

Observation Questions

1. Read Isaiah 42:1–2. What does God say about His servant (how He relates to him, what He has put on him, and how this servant carries himself in public)?
2. In Isaiah 42:3–4, what images are used to describe the servant’s treatment of weak people, and how long will he continue his work of bringing justice?
3. Looking at Isaiah 42:5–7, how does God describe Himself, and what specific tasks does He say He will accomplish through His servant?
4. In Isaiah 42:8–9, what does God say about His name and His glory, and what does He say about “former things” and “new things”?
5. According to Isaiah 42:10–12, who is called to sing a new song to the Lord, and what different places and groups are named?
6. In Isaiah 42:18–25, how are God’s people described (their seeing and hearing, their condition, and what has happened to them), and who does verse 24 say gave them over to plunder?

Interpretation Questions

1. Based on Isaiah 42:1–4, why is it significant that God delights in this servant and puts His Spirit upon him, and how does this relate to the sermon’s point that this servant is ultimately Jesus?
2. How does the servant in verses 1–7 differ from the “servant” described in verses 18–25, and what does this contrast teach us about Israel’s failure and Christ’s faithfulness?
3. In verses 6–7, God says He will give the servant “as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations.” What does it mean that the servant is not only a messenger of a covenant but the covenant itself?
4. Verses 13–17 picture God as a warrior, a woman in labor, and a guide for the blind. What do these three images together teach about the seriousness of sin and the costliness and intensity of God’s saving work?
5. In light of verses 22–25 and the sermon, why is God’s discipline (even exile and suffering) presented as both judgment and a loving attempt to wake His people up?

Application Questions

1. Isaiah 42:3 says the servant will not break a bruised reed or quench a faintly burning wick. Where do you feel “bruised” or “faint” right now, and how might trusting this gentle servant change how you talk to God about that area?
2. The sermon described Israel’s blindness and deafness (vv. 18–20) as a warning for us. What are one or two “idols” (good things that have become ultimate things) that may be quietly hardening your heart, and how could you begin to loosen your grip on them this week?
3. God promises to lead the blind, turn darkness into light, and make rough places level (v. 16). Where in your current circumstances do you most need to believe that God is actually doing this, and what concrete step of obedience or trust could you take in that area?
4. If God often shows His love by disciplining His children (vv. 24–25; Hebrews 12), how might that reframe a present hardship in your life, and how could your small group or church family support you as you respond to God in it?
5. Isaiah 42 calls the whole earth to sing a new song (vv. 10–12). How could you more intentionally declare God’s praise this week—at home, at work, or with non-Christian friends—so that your life says to Him, “I’m yours”?

Additional Bible Reading

1. Matthew 12:15–21 — Matthew quotes Isaiah 42:1–4 to show that Jesus’ quiet, compassionate ministry fulfills the prophecy of the servant who brings justice without breaking bruised reeds.
2. Luke 2:25–32 — Simeon, led by the Spirit, identifies the infant Jesus as “a light for revelation to the Gentiles,” echoing Isaiah 42:6–7 about the servant as a light to the nations.
3. Isaiah 52:13–53:12 — This “servant song” further unfolds how the servant suffers, is wounded, and bears sin to bring healing and righteousness to God’s people.
4. Ephesians 1:3–14 — Paul explains how believers are chosen in Christ, redeemed by His blood, and sealed with the Holy Spirit, echoing the sermon’s theme of God’s “sealed” promises in His servant.
5. Hebrews 12:3–11 — This passage teaches that God’s loving discipline proves we are His children and produces holiness, reinforcing the sermon’s emphasis on God confronting our idols and blindness.

Sermon Main Topics

I. Signed: God Gives Signs of His Servant's Coming (Isaiah 42:1-4)

II. Sealed: God Has Sealed His Servant's Coming by His Power (Isaiah 42:5-9)

III. Delivered: God Has Delivered His People from Darkness (Isaiah 42:13-17)

IV. I'm Yours: The World's Response to God's Servant (Isaiah 42:10-12, 18-25)

V. Trusting God Through Difficult Seasons

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Detailed Sermon Outline

Like a fool, I went and stayed too long. Now I'm wondering if your love's still strong. Here I am, signed, sealed, delivered.

Oh man, y'all really know that. Okay. Then that time I went and said goodbye, now I'm back and not ashamed to cry. I've done a lot of foolish things that didn't really mean. Seen a lot of things in this old world.

When I touch them, they mean nothing, girl. Signed, sealed, delivered, I'm yours. Maybe you've heard this song before. Obviously you have. It's pretty catchy, right?

It's usually played at weddings or other celebratory events. You know, as upbeat and happy as it is, Stevie Wonder's writing a cheap apology of sorts to a woman he's been unfaithful to.

The song downplays his unfaithfulness and the severity of leaving a woman that he's committed to so he can see what else is out there.

He's promising to change, he's guaranteeing it like a letter that's been signed, sealed, delivered, it's final.

But commitments and promises are only as good as the person making them.

God's people have a similar view of their relationship to God. Dismissive of sin, unaware of the gravity of their disobedience, enticed by the things of this world, pledging to change by pointing to their determination to be better, to be more faithful. But commitments and promises are only as good as the person making them. Is that a cycle you see in your own life? Maybe you're not a Christian and you're here this morning because you messed up pretty big this week.

And this service is an attempt to make things right, to show God that you've changed. Maybe you're a Christian and you're caught in this cycle of what feels like cheap repentance and unfaithfulness. As determined as you are each week to say, I've changed, that's the last time its final sign sealed delivered all of me is yours, there's a tinge of guilt and shame in the pit of your stomach again.

And maybe there's part of you that still wants to do it.

So what do people do when they're too weak to follow God? What do God's people do when they're unable to do what God has called them to do?

What do God's people do when they're too blind to know they aren't following Him? What does God do? Turning your Bibles to Isaiah chapter 42, and that's page 602 in the red pew Bible. If you have a super giant large print Bible like me, that's page 1,456.

Isaiah has been prophesying judgment for Israel's idolatry from chapter 6 to 39. God's people have continued in patterns of sin, and this book is God's response to their unfaithfulness. God warns them of this coming judgment and exile if they keep following false gods. And this is where we're at this morning. Chapters 40 through 66 speak God's words of comfort to his people who will be in exile some 200 years later because of their sin.

So we're two chapters into hope after 33 chapters of judgment.

How can we know this comfort is true? Well, commitments and promises are only as good as the person making them. Signed, sealed, delivered. Isaiah 42, I'll begin in verse 1. Behold, My Servant whom I uphold, My chosen in whom My soul delights.

I have put my spirit upon him. He will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice or make it heard in the street. A bruised reed he will not break and a faintly burning wick he will not quench. He will faithfully bring forth justice.

He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth and the coastlands wait for his law. Thus says God, the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it, and spirit to those who walk in it, I am the Lord. I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people, A light for the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness. I am the Lord, that is my name. My glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols.

Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare. Before they spring forth, I tell you of them. Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise from the end of the earth, you who go down to the sea and all that fills it, the coastlands and their inhabitants. Let the desert and its cities lift up their voice, the villages that Kedar inhabits. Let the habitants of Sela sing for joy, let them shout from the top of the mountains, let them give glory to the Lord and declare his praise in the coastlands.

The Lord goes out like a mighty man, like a man of war. He stirs up his zeal. He cries out, he shouts aloud. He shows himself mighty against his foes. For a long time I have held my peace.

I have kept still and restrained myself. Now I will cry out like a woman in labor. I will gasp and pant. I will lay waste mountains and hills and dry up their vegetation.

I will turn the rivers into islands and dry up the pools. And I will lead the blind in a way they do not know, in paths that they have not known. I will guide them. I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground. These are the things I do, and I do not forsake them.

They are turned back and utterly put to shame who trust in carved idols. Who say to metal images, you, are our gods. Hear, you deaf, and look, you blind, that you may see. Who is blind but my servant, or deaf as my messenger whom I send? Who is blind as my dedicated one, or blind as the servant of the Lord?

He sees many things, but does not observe them. His ears are open, but he does not hear. The Lord was pleased for his righteousness sake to magnify his law and make it glorious. But this is a people plundered and looted. They are all of them trapped in holes and hidden in prisons.

They have become plunder with none to rescue. Spoil with none to say, restore. Who among you will give ear to this? Will attend and listen for the time to come. Who gave up Jacob to the looter and Israel to the plunderers?

Was it not the Lord against whom we have sinned and whose ways they would not walk and whose law they would not obey?

So he poured on him the heat of his anger and the might of battle. It set him on fire all around, but he did not understand. It burned him up, but he did not take it to heart. So where are we going this morning? What's the outline?

Because I know so many of you like a good outline. Here we go. Point number one, signed. This is verses 1 through 4. God gives us the signs of his servants coming.

Signed, verses 1 through 4. Number two, sealed. Verses 5 through 9. God has sealed his servants coming.

Point number three, delivered, verses 13 through 17, God has delivered His people from darkness, delivered. And the last one, can you guess what it is? I'm Yours, verses 10 through 12 and 18 through 25. I'm not going to tell you what this one's about, you've got to stick around for it. I'm Yours, verses 10 through 12, 18 through 25.

Signs, verses 1 through 4. God gives us signs of his servants coming. For years, God's been telling his people he's gonna send a king, and now he's telling his people, I'm gonna send a servant. But God, we want a king like those other nations. I mean, really, it'd be great if we could wipe out Assyria, Babylon, and maybe this time around, maybe the Egyptians could be our slaves.

I mean, we would love some pyramids in Jerusalem.

Now all of a sudden we've got a servant, a gentle servant who doesn't promote himself, who doesn't bring judgment, but instead brings justice. And not just to Israel, but to our enemies, those Gentiles. Who is this servant? Well, it's Israel. Wait a hold up.

There's a disconnect here. How can the servant of verses 1 through 4 be the same servant at verses 18 through 25. Well, there's a bit of a problem because in verses 18 through 25, Isaiah makes it pretty clear that Israel's not that servant. From the start, there's a clear contrast between the servant that God is pleased with and the blind servant who will be sent to exile. Verses 1 through 4 is what God's people should have been.

In verses 18 onwards is who they really are. Israel was called to be God's servant, to be a light to the nations, but they were in darkness. This new servant's part of four new prophecies, which are called the Servant Songs in the next few chapters. Isaiah is drawing our attention away from God's original servant, Israel, to a new servant. The servant that's mentioned in these four passages is distinctly different from Israel.

And in the New Testament, the prophecy of this new servant is fulfilled in Christ. Throughout this sermon, we're gonna see how those scriptures are fulfilled and affirmed as various gospels interpret this chapter specifically as being fulfilled in Christ. So God has given us signs of his servant's coming. Starting off, this servant is commissioned very differently than others in the past. God is upholding this servant.

God has chosen this servant. The very soul of God delights in this servant. The phrase I have put my spirit upon him is echoed in the account of Jesus' baptism in Matthew 3 that we read for our antiphonal reading. In the phrase, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Is a clear reference back to Isaiah 42 as well.

God is the one commissioning his servant and commissioning his son. God is affirming this very calling by putting his spirit on him and telling those listening that Jesus is his son, that he's well pleased with him. So imagine Jesus being baptized, surrounded by people, and God speaks out and says, Hey, that servant that you've been waiting for, the one I've chosen, the one whom I delight in, the one I have put my spirit in, The one who brings justice to the ends of the earth. The one who will not grow faint or grow weary, this is him. This is the one that you've been waiting for from Isaiah chapter 42.

Richard Sibbes explains it this way. The Father gives a commission to Christ, the Spirit furnishes it, and Christ executes the office of mediator. Our redemption is founded in all three persons of the Trinity.

God's authority is what sends this servant to accomplish this task of bringing justice. Justice is mentioned three times in the first seven verses. Verse 1, the servant will bring justice to the nations. Verse 3, he'll faithfully bring forth justice. Verse 4, and establish justice to the furthest parts of the earth.

Isaiah is highlighting that God is choosing this servant as an instrument to establish perfect justice to the ends of this earth. The servant's mission is to bring justice to the nations. This isn't just judicial fairness to making all things right, although that's part of it. But he will faithfully proclaim the truth of God's kingdom. This servant will bring forth justice.

It will be a revelation, something that's not achieved by human effort. Justice, that's the job of a king.

A king with power, but the person doing this is a servant. This servant is the one who gets the results of a king, justice, but doesn't use the methods of a king. Israel keeps missing this. They keep looking for a king, for a savior, for a messiah that will establish their kingdom by their means. Free them from Babylon.

Free them from the Romans. They have it in their own mind what kind of savior will come and what kind of justice he'll bring. So how will this servant establish a worldwide justice? Isaiah tells us in verse 2 by things he won't do. He will not cry out, shout.

He will not break bruised reeds or put out smoldering wicks and he will not grow faint or be discouraged.

This doesn't mean that this servant is going to be weak or ineffective, but it means that he won't come in a threatening or aggressive manner. He will protect the lowly, crushed reed and will not snuff out the flickering wick. How will he do this?

Quietly. Matthew cites these verses in 12:15-21 as a fulfillment of this prophecy in describing Jesus' ministry. If you want to hear more about that, you can come back tonight for our service and Wilson Ramsey will be preaching on it. Jesus is performing miracles. The Pharisees were conspiring on how to kill Jesus.

So Jesus withdrew, told people, hey, don't tell anyone that I healed you. And Matthew says in verse 17, this was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah. How does his servant bring justice to the whole world? He gives suffering people their lives back. And he doesn't use his success to take advantage of the bruised and broken.

Wicked kings welcome bruised and fragile people so they can step on them. Wicked kings break people's spirits. This servant came to bind up the brokenhearted. This servant didn't come to imprison people, but to empty prisons. Jesus didn't come to step on people, he came to step on the head of the serpent.

This servant won't lose God's Spirit like the ones that have come in the past, like Saul. This servant won't compromise on his definition of justice like every other king we've had. This servant won't use his power for selfish gain to take advantage of the weak. Like David. This servant won't break a reed out of frustration against a rock to get his own way like Moses.

This servant won't grow discouraged or fatigued in the mission that God is sending him on like Jonah. This servant will be the definition of perfect justice. He will be the definition of what it means to be spirit-filled. This servant will be the definition of patience and tenderness. This servant is Jesus Christ.

God has given us the signs of this servant's coming so that we can know it's not us. And it hasn't been anyone else that has come in history.

But God is also guaranteeing his servants coming by his power, sealed. Point number two, sealed. This is verses five through nine. God has sealed his servants coming by his own power.

He guarantees that he will send his servant by pointing us to his power and how he will use his power. Listen to what he says, I am the Lord. I have called you. He's speaking to the servant. I will take you by the hand.

I will keep you. I will give my servant as a covenant to be a light for the Gentiles, to open the eyes of the blind, to bring out prisoners. I give my glory to no other and I will tell you of future things that will happen. God's giving us his power as a guarantee for the success of his servant. And God first points us to his power as a creator, the one who creates the earth, the one who gives breath to people in verse five.

And then in verse six, God assures Israel that he's called his servant in righteousness and he actually takes his servant by the hand and keeps his servant.

He's guaranteeing the servant's success by his presence and power. Commitments and promises are only as good as the person making them. The servant sounds too good to be true. How do we know he'll be this way? Well, how does God use his power?

He sends his servant as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations to open blind eyes. God's not saying this servant will proclaim a new covenant. Did you catch that? This servant is the new covenant. The Holy Spirit confirms this in Luke 2:32.

A priest named Simeon has been promised by God that he won't see death until he sees the Messiah. Well, guess who walks in to be dedicated, well, not carried in to be dedicated one day in the temple? It's Jesus. Simeon's filled with the Spirit. Spirit tells him.

He takes the baby into his arms and he proclaims, For my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for the glory to you, people Israel. He quotes Isaiah 42:6, proclaiming the fulfillment of this prophecy that God's people have been waiting on for hundreds of years.

It's another fulfillment from the very beginning of Jesus's life on earth that he came to be a light for revelation to the nations. God never deceives, he never swerves from his promises, and there's nothing that can hinder what he says he will do. Our sin is that bad. We are that blind. And if you're not following Christ, you're living in a dungeon.

But through Christ, God's showing how committed he is to leading us into light by opening our eyes. First Peter 29 says that he made his people his own so that we may proclaim the excellencies of him who called us out of darkness into marvelous light. Once we were not His people, but now we are. We have now received mercy. We get to bring this light to the nations.

We get to participate in the opening of the eyes of the blind from the furthest parts of the earth. Isaiah ends this section with one more sign of God's power. We tend to put our confidence in what's immediately in front of us. I know that I do. Look at verse 9.

The former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare before they spring forth, I tell you of them.

God's recalling these earlier predictions. He's reminding his people that he's fulfilled them. And this should give them confidence that he's going to do what he says he's going to do.

But he's saying, I know you. So I'm going to do another thing so that you'll believe me. So what this verse is specifically talking about is that God's giving us a verifiable short-term prediction by predicting the coming of Cyrus, a Persian king who will free the people from Babylon. And that happened not too long after this is spoken. A short-term prediction helps his people believe his long-term prediction of worldwide worship through the new covenant of Christ.

God's saying, if I kept my word about Cyrus, then you can believe I'm going to keep my word about my servant. So God continues to point his people to his power as a seal that he'll bring his servant to be a covenant and a light to the nations. For those of us that are in Christ, he continues to give us a seal, a guarantee, a down payment for what he's promised us. Mark 14:24, During the Lord's Supper, before Christ is crucified, he tells his disciples that, this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. Later in John 10:27, Jesus says that he gives us eternal life and that we'll never perish.

Why? Because no one can snatch us from his hand. My Father who has given them to Me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand. I and the Father are one. God sends Jesus as the covenant.

Jesus' blood seals the covenant. The Father and the Son keep us, and no one is getting through their hands.

What about Ephesians 1? He says that those of us who have heard the word, the truth, the gospel of our salvation and believed in Christ are sealed with the promised Holy Spirit who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it. If you're a flickering wick and you feel like you're about to be snuffed out, God's promised that he won't. And guess who's keeping your flame flickering?

His spirit. And look who started that flame. Jesus Christ. Who's putting that thing out?

This inheritance that his people will receive one day. Y'all know where I'm going with this. Guess who's guarding it? Guess where it's being kept? First Peter says it's being kept in heaven by God's power, guarded through faith.

God's guarantee is sealed by his power, but his spirit also guarantees it and Jesus guarantees it. So we've got God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the Trinity are doing this work together. They're the ones commissioning, they're the ones covenanting and the ones keeping.

In the same way that God guarantees His servants success by His presence and faithfulness, He's also guaranteeing those same things for us today. He's created us. He's given us breath. He's called us. He will take us by the hand.

He will do new things. What are those new things?

God's going to remove the obstacles that cause our blindness. Delivered. This is verses 13 through 17. God has delivered His people from darkness by removing the obstacles to our belief. Let's read verses 13 through 17 one more time.

The Lord goes out like a mighty man. Like a man of war, He stirs up His zeal. He cries out, He shouts aloud. He shows himself mighty against his foes. For a long time I've held my peace.

I've kept still and restrained myself. Now I will cry out like a woman in labor. I will gasp and pant. I will lay waste mountains and hills and dry up their vegetation. I will turn the rivers into islands and dry up the pools.

I will lead the blind in a way they do not know in paths that they have not known. I will guide them. I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground. These are the things I do and I do not forsake them. They are turned back and utterly put to shame who trust in carved idols, who say to metal images, you are our gods.

How serious is God about sin? How committed is he to saving and redeeming his people?

How committed is he to removing the obstacles of our unbelief? Taking care of sin takes strength, strategy, and victory. We see this in his comparison to a man going to war. Leading the blind in a way they don't know takes patience and a willingness to withstand pain in order to bring new life. We see this in 14 in his comparison with a woman going into labor.

Turning the rough places into level ground requires devastation. We see this in 15. The language used in these comparisons undergirds what he's doing in verse 16. How difficult will it be to lead the blind? How painful will it be to turn darkness into light?

How agonizing will it be to turn rough places into level ground?

As difficult as war, as painful as childbirth, as disorienting as a natural disaster.

Our sin is that serious.

To what lengths is God willing to go to save His people?

He's willing to pour out every ounce of wrath on His Son.

Although Christ will not break bruised reeds, He is willing to be bruised and broken for us. Although Christ will not quench faintly burning wicks, He Himself will be quenched on the cross. Christ took the bruising, He took the breaking, He allowed Himself to be quenched as God God poured out his wrath on him. Isaiah 53:7 says he was oppressed and afflicted, but he did not open his mouth like a lamb led to the slaughter. Romans 8:32 says that God did not spare his own son, but gave him up for all.

Second Corinthians 5:21 says that for our sake, God made his son to be sin. Who knew no sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God. And here's the full circle on the servant part. Philippians 2 says that Christ emptied himself and took the form of a servant, humbled himself to the point of death on a cross. This is the servant, the Son of God, in whom we have hope.

Jesus came to do what we couldn't do. How determined is God to deliver his people by removing obstacles? He sacrificed his own son. He poured out his wrath and judgment on Christ. The cross is a picture of God's righteous judgment and his incredible love.

But if you continue in the path of idolatry, If you continue in the path of being an enemy of God, verse 17 says that we will be utterly put to shame, destroyed.

You will taste His wrath.

If you're not a Christian today, God wants, delights, to bring you out of darkness. He wants to do a new work in your life. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. He sent his son so that you can be reconciled with him.

For those of us that have put our faith in Christ for salvation, that's our story, right? God opened our eyes. He sought us out, the ones that are blind. He overcame our incomprehension. He removed the barriers to our belief.

And He doesn't cause any of us to stumble by making the rough places level.

But sometimes we look to the left or the right.

Sometimes those rough places look attractive. The darkness seems to promise a little bit more. You ever found yourself there? Maybe you were there this morning.

He knows.

He will lead you. He will guide you. He will turn the darkness to light. Verse 16 says that these are the things He does. He does not forsake them.

Gardner C. Taylor says that God doesn't save us by flattering us, but by opposing us. God will continue to confront us in our sin with the zeal of a man going to war or the patience of a woman giving birth. God confronting us in our sin and snatching that idol from our grasp is the most loving thing He can do.

Him flipping on the light switch of His glory to expose the darkness is the kindest thing He can do.

God's judgment on our lives? Him allowing us to worship that idol? Him not confronting us?

Oh church, you don't want to be there.

Him exposing you, someone finding out, you getting caught, He must love you. In Hebrews 12 the author says that if you're experiencing the discipline of God, guess what? That's amazing news. Do you know why? Because that means you're His son or His daughter.

That means He loves you.

Oh, but isn't it painful?

It will feel like war. It might be long and drawn out like childbirth.

It's probably going to be disorienting like a natural disaster. But later, here's a promise for you, it will yield the peaceful fruit of righteousness. Now, kids out there, think about the last time you got in trouble for something. Okay? Probably had a long conversation about a bad attitude, or you hit somebody, you stole something, you talked back to somebody, you did something you knew you shouldn't have done, and there's probably some of you that still don't know you shouldn't have done it.

But what was going through your mind while your parents were, whatever they do for discipline in your house, confronting you? Wow, thanks mom and dad, thanks for disciplining me. What a sign of love, commitment, and security. I feel so much closer to you right now. But God's discipline is for our good and reminds us of his love for us.

God is reminding you over and over again that he's committed to removing the obstacles to our belief. At times it's painful, but he's doing it so that you will loosen your grasp on sin. So that you can proclaim with the nations, I'm yours. I'm yours. Last point, verses 10 through 12 and 18 through 25.

What should the world's response be to God's servant coming to rid the world of idol worship and to faithfully and tenderly establish justice? Verses 10 through 12 call on the people of the earth to sing a new song of praise.

For this great salvation. People will respond with a resounding I'm yours to the ends of the furthest reaches of the earth in total surrender. Verse 10, sing to the Lord a new song. Verse 11, let the extremes of the world, those in the deserts, those in the cities, lift up their voices and sing for joy. Verse 12, let the nations give him glory and declare his praise in the coastlands.

One day, the whole world will see who God is. One day, people from the furthest reaches of the earth will have their eyes opened as they worship God in all His glory. One day, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

But that day isn't today. And that's not where Isaiah 42 leaves us. Look at verse 18. Instead of surrender to God with a joyful I'm yours, Israel responds with who's there?

Israel is blind, Israel is deaf. God's people have seen many things but they don't observe them. Their ears are open but they don't hear the truth. Look at verse 18 again. What is God doing to His people?

He's calling out to them again. Here, look. Verse 21 says that He's magnified His law. He's made it glorious. He's trying to get their attention.

But God's people aren't listening. They're not looking. The willful blindness of Israel is more despicable than the blindness of the Gentiles. Because God has made His law glorious in Israel's midst for hundreds of years.

Now all people are blind to the truth of God. But Israel, they should have seen more clearly than anyone else. They had His law. God revealed Himself to them through it. Israel should have seen and known God because of His law and the rich history of His faithfulness for hundreds of years.

But they didn't. They brought judgment on themselves. God reminds them again in verse 24 that their idolatry is serious. He's taking it personal. They're sinning against Him.

Israel will now be delivered up by the Lord as consequences for their sin, but remaining without comprehension. Isaiah is warning them of their coming exile in Babylon in which they're going to be plundered, looted, and imprisoned. Not just spiritually like verse 7 talks about, but literally. Verse 24, the Lord says that their captivity is because of their refusal to walk in his ways or obey his laws.

This captivity is my discipline in your life to wake you up from your disobedience and sin. Look at verse 25. Isaiah says, the Lord's anger burned against him, Israel, but he, Israel, did not take it to heart.

Even in the exiles of the past, Israel has shown that they're not very good at paying attention. Even when the disciplines of God confront them, they're too blind to take it to heart.

In order for the world to erupt in worship, God will continue to confront people in their sin.

He will not grow weary or discouraged. He will not confront in a way that will not break or quench. He will not stop. He is relentless like a warrior. He's as resolute and focused as a mother bringing her child into the world.

Even today, God may be relentlessly confronting you in your sin, exposing your blindness, exposing the idols of your heart.

If you're not a Christian, the Bible is clear that you're blind, unable to see your sin and a need for a Savior. It's only through Christ that you can turn from your sins Be saved and trust in him for salvation. God alone can open your eyes. It's a supernatural work done by a spirit. For those of us that are Christians, do you remember that you used to be blind?

Do you remember that you weren't just blind, but you were a blind enemy of God sitting in a dungeon? 2 Peter 1:9 says that if we forget what we've been saved from, we become ineffective. And then he lists some qualities that might be slipping in our lives like self-control, brotherly affection. If we forget how great of a salvation we have, our hearts can easily fall back into those areas of blindness. That'd be a good question for those who know you well.

Do you see areas of blindness in my life? Do you perceive any idols that I'm holding onto? I'd encourage you to spend some time in prayer this week asking God that. Lord, what areas am I blind to? What idols am I becoming like, deaf and blind?

What's hardening my heart?

Martin Lloyd Jones describes an idol as anything that excites or attracts us so easily that we effortlessly give it our time, attention, or money. Those two words excites and effortlessly, that scares me. What excites your heart effortlessly? Usually they're good things that become ultimate things. Our desire becomes a deity.

When we were serving as missionaries in India, we rarely had resistance to people believing that there's a God or that Jesus is a God. I mean, there's three million some-odd gods in Hinduism. They could have missed one, right? But to say that Jesus is the only way to God, to say that there is only one God, well, that's where the resistance happens.

And that's where the resistance happens in our hearts too.

We can see a little bit of Hinduism in our hearts, can't we? A little bit of polytheism in our practices.

We love God and the applause of man. We love God and our careers.

We love God and God in his kindness will confront the idols in your hearts by oftentimes bringing us through a wilderness of sorts, a captivity, so he can turn the darkness into light, so he can make those rough places smooth. He'll use difficult things to show you areas that you're blind to.

My wife and I just celebrated 19 years of marriage a couple weeks ago and we were just going over those years and thinking about various seasons we've had. There were several years where our family went through a season of what felt like darkness. And to be honest, internally I felt looted, plundered, and trapped.

From a new persistent illness, to a failed adoption, to the sudden loss of a parent, to physical threats of violence from our evangelistic witness.

Every six months there was a risk that we would get kicked out of the country, two sudden international moves.

Our hearts felt like they were being laid waste.

You ever felt that before? Maybe you feel that today. Richard Sibbes describes his experiences in our lives this way. After conversion, we oftentimes need bruising so that reeds may know themselves to be reeds and not oaks. That was good, right?

Even reeds need bruising. By reason of the remainder of sin in our nature, and so let us see that we live by mercy. I don't know about you, but I oftentimes need to be reminded I'm not a self-sufficient oak.

We're reeds planted in the marsh of God's grace tended by our loving Savior Jesus Christ. I don't know why God brings us through the things He chooses to, but if you're like me, you need help trusting Him in those hard seasons. Trust His signs, trust His seal, trust His deliverance. You're His.

Take His hand as He leads you, sometimes through deep gloom, sometimes through Eden.

By still waters or troubled sea, place your hand in his. And when your task on earth is done, when by his grace the victory's won, even death's cold wave you will not flee, since God through Jordan leads me. Signed, sealed, delivered, we're his. Let's pray.

Father, how hard it is to see what you're doing. Have mercy on us. Save the lost, encourage the faint-hearted, please. We find ourselves a little too much like the Israelites, seeing but not observing, hearts hardened by idols, blind and deaf to seeing all that you're doing. Give us the grace to see that you're doing a new work in our hearts.

You're transforming us from one degree of glory to the next. Help us to see that you will not break us, that you will not snuff us out. Help us to rest on the promise that you will not grow faint or be discouraged. And your love for us. Thank you for leading us.

In Jesus' name, amen.