Open your Bibles at Isaiah chapter fifty. I will not immediately read it, because ultimately we shall have done so. Most artists, when they are painting a picture, put in the dark background first, and on that dark background they superimpose their brighter colors in order to throw the colors into relief. And after they have completed the picture, they send it up for exhibition, and people look at it and respond to it in differing ways. Some are affected by it and touched favorably by it. Others are contemptuous of it. Now I want us to think of that chapter, this chapter, in that way. In verses one to three we have the ba- dark background. We'll read them in a few minutes. And in verses four down to verse nine we have the various colors superimposed on the dark background, constituting a very touching, pathetic picture. And in verses ten to eleven, we have the exhibition of that picture and the reaction on two kinds of people. It's always a good thing to get a way whereby we can remember the contents of a chapter, and this has been useful to me for many and many a year, and I hope that it'll prove useful to you. Verses one to three, the dark background, verses four to nine, the bright colors superimposed upon it that constitute the picture, and verses 10 to eleven, the exhibition and the reaction on two kinds of people. Let us read verses one to three and see what they have to say. Thus says the Lord, where is the bill of your mother's divorcement, whom, and understood as you say, I have put away? Or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? You think I ran into debt and I had to turn you into money in order to discharge the debts of my creditors? Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves. I didn't sell you, you sold yourselves. And for your in- transgressions is your mother put away. Wherefore, when I came, now note the pronoun I, and the I is the Lord of verse one, And we know well enough here we have the spirit of prophecy. It is the person of Christ who puts these questions and of whom the chapter speaks, so that there is an incidental evidence of the identity of the Lord Jesus with Jehovah. One of those incidental evidences of his deity. Wherefore, when I came, was there no man? Was there no man to welcome me? When I called, was there none to answer me, to make a response? Is my hand shortened at all that it cannot redeem? Or have I no power to deliver? Behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea. I make the rivers a wilderness. Their fish stinketh because there is no water, and dieth for thirst. I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering. That certainly is a very dark background. It may be that there is some unconverted person in this company this evening, and we always wish to give a hearty welcome to such people. You're thoroughly welcome at a meeting like this. And it may well be that here's a word from the Lord who is speaking to you direct this evening. So I'm going to reread these verses and to make some further comments, which I want you specially to heed. Let's go back. Thus saith the Lord, where is the bill of your mother's divorcement, whom, as you say, I put away? Or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? You are separated from me, and you are sold to your iniquities, separated and sold. That's the position of the unsaved sinner. That was the position of the prodigal who had gone into the far country. He was far off, to use the words of Ephesians chapter two, Without God and without hope in the world, separated, and God wasn't responsible for it. The sinner was responsible for it. Sold to his sins. Ahab, there was none equal to him in his day who had sold himself to do iniquity. Note these words here. Behold, for your iniquities have you sold yourselves. And you gave yourselves over, and you can't blame me for selling you. He that sinneth is a slave of sin, and the one who sins becomes the servant of the devil, and he has sold himself to an alien master. And I didn't sell you. Separated and sold. For your transgressions is your mother put away. And notice your transgressions. You are to blame. God is very pathetic about this. He doesn't virtually say, well, you are separated and you are sold, and it's your own fault, and you can't, I can't do anything about it, and you must put up with the consequences. For in verse two, he came. He came in the person of his son. For when the Lord Jesus was here, it was God manifest in flesh, and he came in order to seek people who were far off, and he came in order to recover people who were sold to their sin. But see what the verse says. Wherefore, when I came, was there no man to welcome me? There was no room for him in the inn. He can go in the stable. There's no place for him in the inn. Why was it when God was manifested in flesh, there wasn't a person to welcome him? This is the question that's raised. And why was it when I called, there was none to answer? For when the Lord Jesus was here, he said, come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. And you'll never read that anyone came in response to that. In the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood up and cried, if any man thirst, let him come to me, and out of his inward parts will flow rivers of living water. But that's not followed by a crowd rushing to him in order to get inward satisfaction. Why was it when I called, there was no one to respond to me? He puts further questions. Is my hand shortened at all that it cannot be, it cannot redeem? Do you think you've gone too far away that I can't reach you, so my hand is shortened that I can't redeem? You think you're too far off? Or have I no power to deliver? Do you think you're too firmly held that I can't get you out of the grip of the one to whom you're sold? Let me remind you of what I can do. What I can do is this. Behold, at my rebuke, I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness, their fish stinketh because there is no water and drieth the thirst. I- I call it drought. And I've got power in the heavens, and I can restrain the rain, and the fish in the sea die, and there's a drought upon the land. More than that, I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering, and I can call a flood. I've got power in heaven, and I've got power on earth. Don't you think that I can release you, although you've sold yourselves? And don't you think that I can bring you back, although you're separated? Why will, will you tell me, why is it when I came then, and when now the gospel is preached so frequently, when I call, why is it there's no response? And when I come to you, why don't you say, oh, come to my heart, Lord Jesus, there's room in my heart for thee? And why is it for so long a time I've had to say, behold, I stand at the door and knock, and you've kept me outside? I think we shall all agree that that's a very dark background. But that's the background of this picture, because superimposed upon it, we shall discover that there are some very pathetic and beautiful colors, colors that relate to none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. I repeat that he could, had he so wished, for God is love, and he could never have so wished, but God could, had he so wished, have just to given us over and abandoned us and said, well, they're irresponsible, they won't listen to me, and they won't welcome me. I shall give them up. But no, no. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, and the advent and the work and the death of the Lord Jesus constitute the details of the picture that we are now to consider from verses four down to verse nine. I want you to notice it. For it is a picture that has to do with the life of the Lord Jesus. It has to do with his death, and it has to do with his resurrection. Many a times have I said, and we were saying it last week at Largs, that the gospel is historic in its nature, and it's evangelistic in its message, and it's universal in its scope. It's historic because it's based on history, touching a person who lived here and died here and was raised here, and so on. Look at the verse four. The Lord God has given me, and here we have two persons in the Godhead speaking of one the other. The Lord God has given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary. He openeth mine ear, awakeneth, he openeth, he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the law, as the learned. This was the character of the Lord Jesus when he was here. He sustained with words the one that was weary. There was the widow of Nain. She had lost her husband. She had lost her only son. And only two words were spoken by the Lord Jesus. No promise was given to her, but he sustained that widow with the two words, weep not. He had other words for those that were weary. We've all heard the words, I presume, come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest unto your souls. Those two sisters who were so distressed because of the sickness and ultimate death of their brother Lazarus were comforted by words in season that sustained them by the words that fell from the lips of the Lord Jesus, for never man spake like that man. And he said to Martha, I am the resurrection and the life. Don't you worry, Martha. I know Lazarus is dead. I am the resurrection. I can get him out of the grave and death. And I am the life. I can keep you from going into it. He that liveth and believeth in me, though he have died like Lazarus has, yet shall live, and he that is living and believing in me like you too are, will never die. Do you believe this? She responded, I believe because you're the Son of God. If anybody else had said that, I couldn't have believed it, but because of who you are, I believe it. And we all know, I trust, the comforting words that fell from the lips of one whose ear was opened morning by morning to hear what the Father would say to him that he might transmit to the needs of others. When it was on the question of being tempted by the devil in the wilderness, I rather suspect that his reading from the scripture for that day was Deuteronomy chapter six and up to chapter eight, For he only quoted from those chapters, and each of the temptations that the devil brought to him, the Lord Jesus said, it is written, it is written, it is written, quoting from scripture. The Lord God has given me the tongue of the learned. He took the humble place of listening to his father and learning the father's will, that I should know how to speak a word in season or sustain with words the one that is weary. He wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned. And then one day it was, uh, told him that the will of the Father was that he was to go to Calvary. And now verses seven down to verse, uh, verse, verse five, rather, verses five and six speak of the exercise in view of the oncoming death, following a life that has been lived according to verse five. The Lord God hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned I away back. 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, 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. And here we have the death of our blessed Lord Jesus. He had listened as the learner. My meat and my drink is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his work. I came not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. Higher up in heaven he had said, lo, I come to do thy will, oh my God. And when now in the garden of Gethsemane, it was near that he would be crucified. Three times he said, Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. And using four words that are found nowhere else in scripture, Luke tells us that being in an agony, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was, as it were, great drops of blood falling to the ground. And he said, Father, if it's possible, if there can be found a way out whereby the will of God can be met and the righteous claims of God against the sinner can be satisfied, other than my going to the cross, let it be done. Nevertheless, I don't go back on my action, my decision. Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done. In heaven I said, lo, I've come to do thy will. And so we read here, I was not rebellious. And when that morning came that he had to go to the cross, for it was a divine necessity, he must suffer, he must die. When that divine necessity was near to the day, I was not rebellious, neither turned I away back. The Lord Jesus could have gone back to heaven. Nobody ever challenged his right to enter heaven, for he was absolutely holy, harmless, undefiled, perfectly according to the Father's will. He had done no sin, and in him was no sin. He was experimentally the sinless one, and his right to be in heaven could not be e- effectively challenged. But I didn't turn away back. I gave my back to the smiters, my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair, and that wasn't in an aggravating mood, more or less inviting them to do what they did. He hid not his face from shame and spitting. He set his face like a flint to go all the way to Calvary and to fulfill to the last the will of God and to drain to the last dark drop the cup of judgment that he personally did not deserve. Doesn't that color on the dark canvas of verses one to three touch you? A perfect life of listening to God's word morning by morning, morning by morning, and regulating his behavior by it, and resisting the temptation of the devil through it, and speaking words of comfort to weary souls from it, that this acquaintance with the word of God and the conformity of his life to that word, for he hid God's word in his heart with the result that he did not sin against God, that this perfect person should have met in middle life such a tragic end as it appeared to the eyes of men, that he was so cruelly treated that men tore the hair from his cheek, made furrows on his back, spat in his face, and he didn't resist them. He didn't deserve it, but he didn't resist them. Why was he, where was the, lay the source of his confidence? We must read on now, for verse eleven— verse 7 tells us, for the Lord God will help me, therefore I shall 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 shall condemn me? Lo, they all shall wax old as a garment. The moth shall eat them up. Now I want you to notice in that section the word help, and the words not be ashamed, and the word justified. Think of our blessed Lord when he was dying, and put it side by side with the scripture, he was crucified in weakness. Not a ne- a nece- uh, a weakness that was compelled to be experienced by him, but a voluntary weakness where he wouldn't resist his enemies. He allowed them to do it. He was crucified in weakness. He appeared to be helpless. All his friends forsook him. The disciples forsook him and fled. He was alone, like a sparrow on the housetop, like a pelican in the wilderness, all alone and abandoned by God, mystery of mystery, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? I can understand others leaving me, but why hast thou? And he could understand God forsaking others, but why me? All the pathos of it all. Yet he didn't turn away back. He set his face like a flint. He went right on to the end, and with a triumphant cry, he said, it's finished! And he dismissed his spirit of his own volition. He bowed his head, a word that means he laid his head down as on a pillow, because he knew he had finished the work that the Father had given him to do. Father, into thy hand I commend my spirit. And he was going into an experience that he had never had before, and into an experience that personally he did not deserve, and into an experience that he was going through on the behalf of guilty sinners. Why, wherein lay his confidence? I know the Lord God will help me. I know that I shall not be ashamed. I know that he'll justify me. The third day he was raised from the dead. And if you read Romans chapter one, the first four verses, you will see that the resurrection of the Lord Jesus was the vindication of his claims. For he was put to death on a double account. The first count was that he made himself a king, although he was born a king. The other count was that he made himself the son of God, which he didn't make himself. He eternally was that. But when he was raised from the dead, both of those claims were vindicated, and he was shown to be not guilty of treason and not guilty of blasphemy, but both his claims to be king and son were valid, and God justified him. And God having justified him, he was not ashamed. Not ashamed. He stood there as vindicated. The Lord God helped him. For I say reverently, what is weaker than a dead man in the grave? A living dog is better than a dead lion, but here we've got a dead man in the grave. What is weaker? But on the first day of the week, the Lord Jesus was raised by the glory of the Father, and the Lord God helped him, brought him out of the grave, gave him a glorified body, and he lives by the power of an indissoluble life. Christ is raised from the dead, vindicated as to his claims, justified despite the fact that he was condemned by those that were divinely judges, and helped despite the fact that he was crucified in weakness. There's your picture. You've been, been with me through verses one to three, the dark background. We poor sinners, sold to sin, separated from God. And God comes and calls to us, and we don't respond. God comes to, uh, uh, be welcomed by us, but we shut the door against him. And he raises the question, now why is it? Do you think I can't help you? Do you think that I have no power to reach you? Look, this is what I've done. I've sent my son, and he lived amongst you as nobody else lived, and he died in the midst of you as nobody else died, and he was raised again from the dead and vindicated as nobody else has been. What a picture. What do you think of that picture? Let us look at our last two verses, for it is the day of exhibition, and we are going now to look at the picture, and there are some who will be very touched by it. I know I've been into, uh, art galleries. There are some pictures that leave me cold. There are some pictures that leave me indignant. I wish they weren't on the walls of the galleries. There are some pictures that bring tears to my eyes. Here's a picture. How do you react to it? Look at our verse ten. Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant? Now, shall we stop there for a minute? Who is there among you in this company that fears the Lord? I believe that the moral declin- declining in this country is due to the fact that the fear of the Lord has been abandoned by the mass of the people. We should be in the fear of the Lord all the day long. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Who is among you that fears the Lord, that obeys the voice of his servant, and you read his word, and you do like the Lord Jesus did. You say virtually, what says my Lord to his servant? And you obey the voice of his servant, but you are brought into circumstances that you are walking in darkness and you have no light. Well, is there someone here like that? You see, we who minister God's word to a congregation like this have to shoot arrows at ventures and have to make statements, hoping that the Spirit of God will use them in sundry varied cases. And I may be speaking to someone who is in a position of darkness, and you say, well, it's all dark before me, and I can't see my way out. I have no light whatsoever upon it. I'm not talking about those that are unsaved. Those that are unsaved, it's all darkness before you, and you have no light, and there's a message in that picture for you. But I'm talking now immediately to the Lord's people who are in circumstances of darkness and have no light. Well, may I ask you to look at that picture once more. And there was someone who was in darkness, three hours of darkness. He feared the Lord, oh yes. We are told in Hebrews chapter five, in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong cryings and tears unto him that was able to save him out of death, he was heard because he feared God. And although he wasn't immediately heard on the resurrection morning, it was plain that he was heard on account of his piety. And who is among you that fears the Lord? Well, look at the picture. There's a somebody who feared the Lord. And there's a somebody who was in darkness. Don't say that it was a mere three hours. For for him, between whose soul and his God there had never come a shadow before, there was these three hours of mystical darkness that rung from his heart the cry, my God, my God, why didst thou give me up? He had no light in that time. Who is there among you that fears the Lord? And yet you are walking in darkness and has no light. Let him look at the picture and trust in his God and remember what the Lord Jesus said right at the end before he went into death. Father, into thy hand I commend my spirit. I've never had this experience before, but he trusted his God, and he went into that, uh, experience of death in implicit confidence. Look at the picture, and if you're in darkness and you have no light upon your circumstances, do what is stated in this verse, uh, which is before us. Let him trust in the name of the Lord and stay upon his God. You know what it is to stay upon a person. Someone who is very weak puts all their weight upon the strong arm of somebody near them. Let me encourage anybody here that's in a circumstance like that to do that. But, uh, there are others who look at the picture and couldn't care less, and they're not moved by it. I dare say we've all been in art galleries and have seen some pictures and moved on because they don't move us, and we're very contemptuous of them and so on. Here's some who are looking at this picture. Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks, walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks that you've kindled. And you think you've got adequate light by the sparks of a fire? Well, you're not touched by that picture, and it doesn't move you, and you're quite satisfied to kindle your own fire and seek your own warmth and be indifferent to the one who suffered on that cross for you. Well, God's last word to you is this: This you shall have of my hand. You lie down in sorrow and regret it. The Lord bless his word. word.