The Lord Jesus in Isaiah 50:4-10

Isaiah chapter 50, we'll read from verse 4. The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I may know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary. He wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as I learned. The Lord God hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back.

I gave my back to the smiters, my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair. I hidden up my face from shame and spitting. For the Lord God will help me, therefore shall I not be confounded.

Therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed. He is near that justifieth me, who will contend with me, let us stand together. Who is mine adversary, let him come near to me.

Behold, the Lord God will help me. Who is he that will condemn me? Though they all shall wax old as a garment, the moth shall eat them up. Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant? That walketh in darkness and hath no light? Let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God.

And that's all I wish to read. I trust God will bless what we've heard already, and his holy word. I want to think about the Lord Jesus as we just finish before the gospel.

I want to think as we stand in the school of the Lord Jesus as a pupil, or as you like, of the Lord Jesus as a disciple, or as we've read here, of the Lord Jesus as a learner. I want you to think with me of a daily awakening, a daily arena, a daily advance. I want to think about the curriculum, the conflict, and the courtroom.

A courtroom that would lead to a coronation, and to the Lord Jesus vindicated and exalted, crowned with glory and honor. I want you to think with me about the loveliness, the loveliness of the Lord Jesus. And I want you to think with me about the lowliness of the Lord Jesus.

And I want you to think with me about the loftiness of the Lord Jesus. And I want to challenge you tonight. I want to challenge the young, and I want to challenge the older.

I want to think of likeness to the Lord Jesus. I'm going to do that as fast as I can. A daily awakening.

I'm just going to give you it the way it has appealed to me. You and I, we are Christians. We are believers.

In the book of Acts, the disciples were called Christians first at Antioch. A disciple is a learner. A disciple is one whose affections are wrapped around his master.

A disciple is one who listens, and who learns, and who looks at the master, and who observes the master. A disciple is one who seeks to obey that which he is being taught, to carry it out in his life. And it's mainly due, not fully, but mainly due to the fact that he loves his master.

His whole affection, his whole heart, his whole love going out to the master, the one who is teaching him, the one who is leading him, the one who he is following. You and I, we are disciples. We are Christians.

We are followers. We are learners. We are pupils.

But I want you to think with me that there was one who was here, and in his loveliness, he was a disciple. And there was a daily awakening. There was something that was progressive and continual.

There was a discipline in his life that every morning, and the picture is one of a live-in tutor, or a live-in master, or a live-in schoolteacher, if you like, and he awakens before the rest of the household, and he goes to the pupil, or he goes to the disciple, and he awakens the disciple, and he teaches him from the curriculum for the day. And that disciple, he follows the teaching, and he follows seeking to carry out what he is learning. And I thought, you know, wouldn't it be like, lovely, wouldn't it be lovely to be, as you think of the Lord Jesus, the loveliness of the Lord Jesus, how he could speak a word in season.

We think of the mother whose heart was broken, she'd lost her husband already, and now she'd lost her boy. And the Lord Jesus could draw near with a word, woman weep not. Wouldn't it be lovely, as we think of the Lord Jesus and his loveliness, as a leper came to him, that man who maybe for years hadn't felt the touch of another human hand, and he fell down before him, beseeching him, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.

And listen to the Lord Jesus, as he stretches out his hand and touches him, he says, I will. Wouldn't it be lovely for you and I just to have the right word at the right time? Maybe it's a soul, and they're seeking salvation, and they're weary trying to find a way to heaven. And we would just have the right word for them.

Wouldn't it be great, wouldn't it be lovely if we just had the right word for that broken-hearted father, or that broken-hearted mother, and their child is wayward, or the parent whose son or daughter that they had taught and brought up, and they've left the assembly, and they're away in Bypass Meadow, and you just have a word for them. How are we going to get it? There's a daily awakening. There's a daily spending time with the master.

There's a daily listening to his word. There's a daily getting alone with him. Wouldn't it be great if you could get up and give a word at a conference for some soul in the gathering? You just don't get that overnight.

The Lord would teach you, and he would bring you along, and he would nurture you, and he would educate you. I wonder if there's one here, and I'm calling you a disciple. Have you got a teachable spirit? Oh, we think of the loveliness of the Lord Jesus.

As a disciple, he had a teachable spirit. The Bible tells us that he learned obedience by the things that he suffered. He was always obedient, but there was something about him here.

He was willing, and he was obedient, and he always did those things that pleased the Father. There was a daily awakening as we follow the pathway of the Lord Jesus through the Gospels. Oh, the loveliness of the Lord Jesus, just with a word and season for that weary soul.

But there was a daily arena. It wasn't every day that the Lord Jesus was smitten on his back. It wasn't every day that the Lord Jesus had the hair plucked off his cheek.

It wasn't every day that the Lord Jesus had some foul spit planted on his face. But as he moved here in lowliness, that was the atmosphere. That was the spirit that was against him.

He was despised and rejected of men. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and there was that daily opposition to the Lord Jesus Christ. He was in a scene down here where men opposed him, where men hated him without a cause, where his holy, righteous life exposed their sinful, wicked condition, and they didn't like it, and they hated it, and they hated him.

But as they listened to the Master, there was a day came with that opened ear, with that willingness, with that teachable spirit, and I'm using the picture of the disciple. There was a day came when he heard, today is the day that you will give your back to the smiters. Today is the day that you will give your cheeks to them that plucked off the hair.

Today is the day when you will have a spittle planted in your face. What does it say about him? It says here, I was not rebellious, I was not disobedient, neither turned away back. He learned what it was to obey in the midst of opposition, in the midst of hardship, in the midst of conflict, in the midst of persecution, in the midst of hatred.

The Lord Jesus knew what it was going to cost him. He knew what it would mean for him, and listen, the Lord Jesus was not disobedient, he was not rebellious, he didn't turn away back. The Lord Jesus willingly, he gave his back to the smiters.

He gave his cheeks to them that plucked off their, he gave his face to them that planted that foul spittle upon him. Let me challenge everyone here today, are you a good weather Christian? Are you a good weather disciple? Is it great to be saved when everything is smooth sailing and everything is calm and there's no opposition? Let me ask you, is the Lord asking you to do something and you're rebellious and you're disobedient? Holiness of the Lord Jesus willing to obey no matter what the cost. Some of us have paid a cost to come outside the camp.

Some of us have paid a cost, a price to gather to his name, to be baptized, to be identified with him. Some of us have paid a price to go outside the camp onto his dear name. We shut our back, we shut the door on the place we come out of, never to go back through the door again, just to go on and to obey.

Let me challenge you, is that your spirit today? Yes, you've been saved. Are you prepared to step into the waters of baptism? You say, but the ridicule and the opposition, oh, read these verses again as we think about the Lord Jesus. Are you prepared to, to leave that place that you come from? That's, that's unscriptural.

Are you prepared to be identified with the name of the Lord Jesus, to gather onto his dear name outside the camp, to be identified with the center, the Lord Jesus, and gather with his people around him in assembly testimony? Oh, there was a daily arena where the Lord Jesus battled his way, reverently speaking, as he obeyed the master out of love, out of affection. But there was a daily advance and daily he advanced and daily he went on and daily he was learning and daily he was growing and daily he was obeying until at last he came to Calvary and there he led down his life for you and for me. We haven't time to go into it, but there's a courtroom scene.

And he says, the Lord God will help me. Therefore, shall I not be confounded or disgraced? He'll not be ashamed. He knows that the God will vindicate him and justify him.

And he knows that he's going to be raised from the dead. He's prepared to become obedient on the death, even the death of the cross. For he knows that his hope is sure and certain and steadfast.

It's based on the Lord is God. And he's prepared to take a step continually day by day and go all the way to the cross. And he knows God will vindicate him in resurrection glory.

The near vindication about there's a future vindication. And he knows one day that he will, he will have a coronation, not just a resurrection and an ascension, but a coronation. And he will be crowned King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

There's a daily advancement. What about you? What about me? Are we prepared to obey him at the cost with our hopes steadfast on God? Here's the challenge. Who is among you that fears the Lord? That in obeying the voice of his servant, taking a daily step by step of obedience.

And you're, you're leaving one thing and you're, you're, you're coming to another and then you're going on to another. And you just don't know where the next step will take you or the opposition that you'll face or the, or the conflict that will be there. Here's a word for you.

Let him trust in the name of the Lord and rely upon his God. I want to tell you this, God vindicated the Lord Jesus in resurrection. The God will vindicate the Lord Jesus in coronation.

It's a day coming when he will be crowned King of King and Lord of Lords. I was thinking of William Bowden came from this country, highly intellectual and academic. I think it was Yale college.

He went to, he had a great career ahead of him, but God was calling him. And so we left all the people said he was a mad. He was a fool.

He left all to become a missionary in China. He first went to Egypt to learn language and learn some of the customs of the people. He was going to be amongst.

And there he took L and there he died. And as the people gathered his belongings, they find a diary and written on the day that he discovered that he had a terminal illness. This is what he wrote.

No reserve, no retreat, no regret. Wouldn't it be like nice to look back over life and to say, no reserve. I've given my all, no retreat.

I haven't turned back. No regrets. Wouldn't it be great to be like the Lord Jesus.

What about you today? A daily awakening, a daily arena, a daily advance. May God bless his works.