The servant's discipline is revealed in Isaiah 50 as the Lord God equips him with a learned tongue to speak words in season to the weary. This discipline involves a constantly awakened ear for divine instruction, a submission to God's will symbolized by the opened ear of a perpetual servant, and a willingness to offer his body as a sacrifice, enduring shame and spitting without turning away. The servant's determined face, set like flint, and his assured heart of trust in the Lord demonstrate his commitment to fulfilling God's will, ultimately leading to immense rewards.
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Good morning. Shall we turn to Isaiah fifty this morning? The fifth chapter of Isaiah. Our next servant's song this morning will be from this lovely chapter. And we're going to read this morning from verse four, Isaiah fifty. The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should 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 the learned. The Lord God hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious. Neither turned away back. I gave my back to the smighters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair. I hid not 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. A little bless these.
few verses as we have read them together because it is his living word and he wants us to have it we're looking during these four mornings at the four songs of the servant as Isaiah records them passages written seven hundred years before the Lord Jesus came that portrayed his character as a servant And we have seen a few ways in which we ourselves should be more like him, and learning to serve others, learning to be under servants, so that we can bring glory to his name.
In chapter forty-two, the emphasis was on his character as servant, the song of the servant's character, and his character brought delight the heart of the Father or the heart of Jehovah in chapter forty nine that we looked at yesterday we saw the mission of his servant and his mission was to display Jehovah's glory our mission of course should be do the same today we want to look at the discipline of the servant and that is to proclaim Jehovah's Word And the key verse here is the Lord God has given me the tongue of the learner that I should show for, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary.
Now I'm sure a lot of you have opportunity to do that. We want to look first of all at how the Lord Jesus did it. For those of you that are interested in Isaiah and the general structure of the book, after the song in chapter forty-nine, where the servant's mission is brought out, then there is a period of singing. And you have lovely verses like verse thirteen, Sing, O heavens, and be joyful, O earth, and break forth into singing, O mountains. For the Lord has comforted his people, And that singing is followed by a cry of despair in verse fourteen.
But Zion said, The Lord has forsaken me, and my Lord has forgotten me. Of course, it's speaking of Israel, away in captivity, away in exile, not yet brought back into the land that they love, and into the place called Zion. And so the Lord answers their cry of despair with three questions. The first one is in verse fifteen. Can a woman forsake her sucking child? And the answer and explanation as follows says, Yes, a woman might even do that, although it's almost incomprehensible.
But God will never forsake his. And then another question comes in verse twenty-four. Shall the prey be taken from the mighty? And the idea there is, yes. It would be very difficult to take the prey from the mighty, but you shall never be taken from me, says the Lord. And the third question is in the first verse of chapter fifty. Where is the bill of your mother's divorcement, whom I have put away? And in this passage, God is seen as the father, and Zion as the mother, and the people as the children.
And because of the children's complaint and despair and so on, they are crying as if there was no hope of any reconciliation between God and his people viewed as man and wife in the allegory here. And now Jehovah challenges and said, wait a minute, was there ever a real divorce or was it just a temporary separation? I'm going to bring them back. It wasn't a divorce. It was a separation. And there's a time coming when there will be joy again. And in terms of bringing them back, he comes again into this next servant's song.
The song... of the servant's discipline, and he proclaims Jehovah's Word. One thing in these songs that begins to appear, and we haven't mentioned it yet, although if I'd had time yesterday, I would have. And that is an increasing view of the suffering of the servant. In the first song, there is no mention at all of suffering. in chapter forty two in chapter forty nine there's a brief mention we read it yesterday although I did not comment on it but in chapter forty nine there was a mention of him being despised of the people now in chapter fifty suffering comes much more fully into view And we see here an explicit mention of the suffering of the servant for his people.
And, of course, by the time you come to the end of chapter fifty-two and chapter fifty-three, which is the longest and all-encompassing one of the servant's songs, there the suffering of the Lord is central to the whole thing. But we shall see a little more of his suffering. here in chapter fifty now in these verses from verse four on the servant himself is speaking and you get some lovely insights into the private life of the Lord Jesus the words of the Lord himself a kind of description of his testimony as the sent one a description of of his obedience to him that sent him, and something of his suffering and of the vindication of what God is doing through him.
One more thing before I give you a little outline here, and that is one of the keys to this section is the term Lord God or Adonai Jehovah. Notice in verse four, the Lord God had given me. And then again in verse five, the Lord God has opened mine here. And then in verse seven, for the Lord God will help me. Therefore I shall not be confounded. And in verse nine, behold the Lord God will help me. Adonai Jehovah, a word expressing the utmost authority of Jehovah.
but it's also the language of prayer. Some of the great prayers in the Old Testament use this term in speaking to God. When Abraham is pleading with God for a son, Lord God, he says, what will you give me? That's it, Adonai Jehovah. And of course, Abraham received his son. Moses, when at the burning bush, he's arguing with God. Lord God, he says, I am not eloquent. Never mind, says the Lord Moses. You're my man, and I'm going to send you.
Joshua prays using the same phrase in the land of Canaan. Gideon uses this expression, Lord God. and so on. Right the way through the Old Testament it's like this. You could do a nice little study on the use of the word Adonai Jehovah in prayers of the Old Testament. But notice a few things now as we pass on through this little servant song this morning. The first thing I want you to notice in verse four is the tongue of the learned the tongue of the Lord, learned that the Lord God has given me the tongue of the learned.
Now here's an illustration from discipleship. Some of the translations have the tongue of a disciple, for that's really what it means. The word implies this discipleship, and it implies that the servant has fully learned and been thoroughly disciplined and trained and taught. And that is never more clearly seen anywhere in the universe than in the life of the Lord Jesus. He always did those things which he learned from the Father.
He always accomplished the perfect will of the Father. He was thoroughly disciplined, rising up a great while before day. He departed into a solitary place, and there prayed. And while he lived in an undisciplined world, and he sought to instruct undisciplined people called disciples, Peter, always blurting out, Thomas expressing his doubts, Judas, manipulating the money and so on right through all twelve of them. Yet he was always in perfect control, always disciplined.
The Lord God has given me the tongue of the learned, and there is no organ of the body which is more indicative of discipline than the tongue. do you ever have trouble with your tongues do you ever say things that you wish you had not said well I do I am a very cynical sarcastic kind of person and often things come out quickly that I wish had not come out at all the Lord had a disciplined tongue and of course that indicates the whole of the disciplined person that he was.
James said the tongue can no man tame. Now that's no cause to give up. Because what he goes on to say is that what man can't do, God can. We can have disciplined tongues. And with his disciplined tongue, he was given a word in season to him that is weary, right here in verse four. And the Lord Jesus, when he was on earth, ministered comfort to those who needed it. He ministered consolation. They could say of him, never man spake like this man.
There were words that brought joy and cheer to people who needed them. He could stretch out his arms and say, Come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. A word out of a disciplined tongue to those who needed him. And so here was the Lord, using his personality, using his tongue, disciplined as it was. using it for the glory of Jehovah and for the good of others. And in all kinds of different circumstances, he could minister to the sinful woman who washed and wiped his feet.
He could minister to the Syrophoenician woman, the Gentile way up there in Phoenicia. He could minister to the Samaritan woman at the well. He could minister to Martha or Mary, believing women in the home of their brother Lazarus and so on. Never a situation caught him off guard. His disciplined tongue ministered to those who needed him. All right, you'll notice something else here. Not only the tongue of the disciple, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary.
He wakened it morning by morning. he wakenedeth mine ear to hear is the learned. Here's another part of the body, and it's not the disciplined tongue this time, but the awakened ear, and it's awakened for instruction. He awakens me morning by morning. You see, the Lord Jesus was constantly alert for the voice of the Lord, the voice of the Father. And every morning there was that awakening up, listening for the voice of God as to what he had to say to him today.
And so for disciples today, we must have a listening ear as well as have a disciplined tongue. Sometimes we like to talk more than we like to listen. Have you ever been with people that just do not stop talking and you think I'd like to get a word in edgewise here, but I can't, and I'm tired listening? Well, the Lord wants us to be good listeners. My old grandfather, English Fleming, he was ninety-six when he finally died, and spoke and preached and so on right up until very shortly before he died. But he taught me, as a boy, that little old...
coplet or whatever you'd call it. The wise old owl sat on an oak. The more he heard, the less he spoke. The less he spoke, the more he heard. And then I can remember his finger pointing at me. And why aren't you like that little bird? Of course, the truth was he himself liked to talk. But what he liked to talk about was the Word of God. And he liked nothing better than for somebody to sit down and take two or three hours, if you please, just to listen to him. And he would sit quite happily and speak. A lovely man in many, many ways.
But we need people who will listen to the voice of God. Listening with the open Bible before them. Listening to what God has to say. And while we often tell young people that they need to have morning devotions, all of us, even us older people, need to be constantly listening to the voice of God. And it's easy, you know, to slip into attitudes of rather lackadaisical way toward the things of God. And particularly when you live in a Christian community. Because you think, well, we get the word at the meetings, and we get the word at the chapel.
Therefore, maybe I can just let this slip today. But the Lord has a personal word for us. We need to have opened ears. This was brought home to me once when I was in Korea, when I was in the Army in nineteen forty-five. And I used to spend my... mornings in the summertime. Korea is very hot in the summer and very cold in the winter. But in the summertime, I went up to a Japanese watchtower on the top of the hill, well, right on the very crest of the hill where the little shack I was living in was. And on this watchtower, I was alone, and I could see the people working in the fields below.
They were always up before me. And As I read the word of God and prayed, I had a very special verse from Habakkuk chapter two, verse four. It went like this. I will stand upon my watch and set me upon my tower, and I will watch to see what the Lord will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved. He awakeneth my ear, morning by morning, So there was the wakened ear. But the wakened ear is followed here in verse five by the opened ear of submission to Adonai Jehovah.
Did you notice that verse five? The Lord God hath opened mine ear. And this is the language of the bored ear of the Hebrew servant, the one who had the mark of perpetual servitude. He hath opened mine ear. and it is there for the servant with the opened ear was a servant who said I love my master I will not go free I will serve him forever and he submitted himself to nothing in life but the will of the master opened my ear That is committal to him.
The big deer in Psalm forty or, and in Leviticus twenty-one and other places in the Old Testament. And so here is that complete obedience. Hudson Taylor, who began the China Ammon mission, said, Our greatest mission is submission. That's where it all begins. He openeth mine ear. That's where we say thy will be done, not my will. And it ends there from, in the end of verse five, from no turning back.
Did you see that? There is no turning back. You know, we need this kind of altar. disciplined life in these days, giving ourselves to the Lord. We have problems with young people in Emmaus. One of the biggest problems with students today, and I suppose it's always been true, is that they are so undisciplined. They think they're spending a lot of time studying the Word of God, and yet their grades are low, and they can't understand it. And yet if you begin to examine their lives with them, and I often do this in the office, well, let's just go over today now.
Every minute will count. Let's see. Where did you spend your time? And without fail, I can find three or four hours a day that was just plain wasted. Just plain wasted. And so I challenge them. Do you want to discipline your life? I think it's wonderful even when those of us who are older are still disciplining our lives. Like Dr. King, still writing books, still disciplining himself to do that which he feels he can do as a ministry for the glory of God.
What are you disciplining yourself to do for God's glory? He opened the open ear here. submission. I have a quote here from Martin Lord Jones. He says, I defy you to read the life of any saint that has ever adorned the life of the church without seeing at once that the greatest characteristic in the life of that saint was discipline and order. Invariably, it's the universal characteristic of all the outstanding men and women of God. read about Henry Martin, David Brainerd, Wesley, Whitfield. They have all disciplined their lives and insisted on the need for this.
Obviously, it's something that's thoroughly scriptural and absolutely essential. Well, he opened my ear, the opened ear of submission. And then, notice in verse six, There's the given body of sacrifice. I gave my back to the smiters and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair. I hid not my face from shame and spitting. We often use these words at the Lord's table if we're meditating on some of the sufferings and the prophetic sufferings of the Lord Jesus.
And these are very true, and of course were fulfilled in a very real way in his own life. He did give his back to the smiters. He gave his cheeks to those that grabbed at his beard and smote him and pulled out his hair. He gave his face to humiliation and spitting. And who of us isn't touched when we think of our lovely Lord being mistreated in this way? And yet that was part of his discipline in his servant work.
He gave himself to this kind of ignominy and shame as part of his servant work. What a servant. What a servant he has. And we too are to present our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable unto God, which is our reasonable service. He gave himself for us. Can we do less? When we give ourselves for him, and the glory of it is that he is never any man's debtor at all.
When we took a tour of Israel, almost ten years ago now, we were with Frederick Tattford and with Les Rainey. In fact, we had a marvelous time for two full weeks in Israel. And we had Fred Tattford in front of us and Les and Grace Rainey behind us. And the poor bus driver who was trying to explain what was happening was somewhat frustrated because he had two better guides. giving him some competition. The bus driver had to shut up sometimes, and that was good. But we had lectures every evening on different aspects of prophecy from Frederick Tattford.
Marvelous mind for prophetic truth. And one of the stories he told was of a Middle Eastern sheikh who... had been seeking to try and help some poor people and coming across a poor man he stopped him and asked the poor man for some of his rice and the poor man felt very chagrin that the wealthy sheikh should be asking him for a little of what he had so little of anyway and Finally he said, why should I give to you when you have so much?
The man says, I'm simply asking that you give me some of your rice. Well, very reluctantly he picked up three grains of rice and put them into the hand of the servant of the sheikh. A little while later in preparing his rice, his own rice, for his evening meal. He noticed that there were three golden specks among his rice, and discovered that there were three grains of gold that had replaced the three grains that he had given.
And suddenly the truth dawned on him, and he smote himself on the breast and said, Oh, I wish I had given him my law. You see, God is never any man's debtor. He gives back to those who give to him. And then there is the set face of determination to do the will of Adonai Jehovah in the next verse. I set my face like a flint. You know that the Lord Jesus in Luke nine adopted these same words. As he set his face to go to Jerusalem, set his face as a flint, nothing would deter him.
And from the glory of the Mount of Transfiguration, he made his way straight toward what was to be suffering, and ultimately death, and sacrifice for him, or at least for us. He set his face as a flint. And of course we are to determine, to set our faces, to serve God, to accomplish His will. And then finally in verse seven to nine, and my time is gone, there is the assured heart and mind of trust in the Lord. Here is the song of the servant's discipline.
And it involves discomfort. It involves sacrifice. It involves suffering, but oh, what rewards as the servant himself found, who for the joy that was set before him endured such contradiction of sinners against himself. And that's to be our standard. For consider him, we are to consider him who endured such contradiction of sinners against himself. lest we be weary and faint in our minds, and we are to press on for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Shall we pray? Father, for this lovely passage that speaks so beautifully of the Savior and his discipline and his suffering for us. We pause to praise thee again this morning, but help us not to just understand what the words say, but help us to respond in our own hearts and lives as to how we too can be better servants and more like the perfect servant. Bless we pray your word as we may meditate on it today.