God's Servant Shall Be Successful
He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for his law. (Isaiah 42:4)
It helps us serve the Lord more effectively when we understand the sovereignty and extraordinary wisdom and power of the Lord God Almighty. Salvation is of the Lord. Foreknowledge, predestination, and election play important roles in the program of redemption and restoration.
It is difficult for us humans to find the balance between our efforts and the sovereignty of God. If God has all authority and power, why is it necessary for us to seek God with all our strength? Why must we pray so fervently and consistently for God, who knows all things, to perform His own will? Yet both sovereignty on God's part and diligence on our part are built into God's plan of redemption in Christ.
After we have done all we can we begin to doubt the outcome. We become discouraged. The task appears to be impossible. Wickedness increases in the earth after all of our efforts. It is during such times as these that we need to call to mind the awesome majesty of the Lord. All that is written shall come to pass precisely as God has stated.
Christ never shall fail because God Almighty has declared He shall not fail. No matter how tumultuous the conditions of the earth may become, no matter how wickedness may flower and grow to mature fruit, no matter how the nations may rage and the people imagine foolish, fruitless things, the Kingdom of God shall come to the earth.
God's will shall be performed on the earth to the same extent it is performed at the highest level of Heaven. Christ shall be King of kings and Lord of lords both in the heavens and on the earth.
Sometimes it appears as though our wrestling against evil spirits results merely in a compromise at best, in defeat at worst. Sometimes it seems as though the devil will inherit the earth and most of the peoples of the earth.
But such is not the case. God Almighty has a plan, a blueprint, a master schedule. Every person, every event, every circumstance, every thing, is moving along according to the knowledge and will of the Most High God. God is certain of what He is doing. He understands completely the outcome of what is taking place in the heavens and on the earth. Nothing ever takes God by surprise.
We may ask, if God is sovereign, if He can perform His will, why does He allow sin and anguish to continue in the earth?
God never causes anyone to sin. God is not the author of sin. God did not cause Adam and Eve to sin but He understood fully that they would. God easily could have prevented their sinning by sending an angel, but He did not do so.
The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was put in the garden by the Lord (Genesis 2:9). God knew that the first people would fall and that the result would be thousands of years of agony, labor, frustration, ugliness, rebellion, insanity, and death.
God is God. God is not a man, He is God. His wisdom is infinitely greater than ours. The eternal plan of God took into account that the first humans would sin and that every one of Adam and Eve's descendants would be born with a lawless personality.
The Divine program of redemption includes the creation of a royal priesthood. God is creating judges and kings who are destined to govern the works of God's hands, and each member of such a ruling priesthood must be perfected in obedience in the midst of temptation.
Out of the human travail of the centuries God will bring forth innumerable relationships, creatures, and things of incomprehensible value and glory.
Of one fact we can be certain: God is good; there is none good but God.
God is righteous in all He does. God is equitable. God is true. God is holy. God is merciful. God loves us and is not willing that any should perish but desires that all come to repentance. The death of God's only begotten Son on the cross of Calvary teaches us of the compassion of God toward mankind. There is no fault in the Lord God or in Christ, His Son.
When a man sets out to build a house he works with hammer and saw. It is well that wood cannot talk or there would be moaning and complaining all the while that the carpenter was working: "Quit sawing on me! Please don't drive any more nails in me! Ouch, that planing hurts!"
We are dearer to God than wood is to a carpenter. (What carpenter would give his life for his wood?) But the Scripture does state that God is a builder (Hebrews 3:4). It states also that God is the potter and we are the clay (Romans 9:21).
No doubt wood and clay have little comprehension why the carpenter or the potter do what they do. So it is that God's dealings with the universe and with the individual person are as far above our understanding as a carpenter's understanding is above that of his wood. We must learn to trust in God in His goodness, in His perfect knowledge of the details of our life.
When pain is necessary for our perfecting, God will cause pain to come to us. It cannot be helped. Character, like precious stones, is formed under pressure and heat.
The Scripture informs us that those whom God foreknew He also predestined to be changed into the image of His Son. All things and events in the universe are working toward the end of shaping the brothers of Christ into His image.
By stressing foreknowledge and election we are not teaching that it is of God that some people wallow in the filth of immorality or that this is what God desires. What we are stating is that God knows how people will react and He plans accordingly. No matter how mankind may reject God, God slowly and with certainty is moving toward the establishment of His Kingdom, His will, in the earth.
Even when we come to accept fully the concept of Divine sovereignty we are, nevertheless, to continue letting God know the desires of our heart. If we are abiding in Christ we can ask what we will and it shall be done. Therefore let us never give up. We shall receive our heart's desire if we will do the Lord's will with rejoicing. Let us ask in faith, nothing doubting, and the Lord God shall bring to pass what we are requesting.
The Book of Revelation describes the years that will follow our day, even to the rebellion of Gog and Magog at the end of the thousand-year period. Those people have not been born as yet! Here is an example of the Divine foreknowledge and predestination.
God has spoken concerning you, dear reader. He knew you before the creation of the world. The Spirit of God has opened your eyes and granted you repentance unto life. God gave His Son to die in your place.
God already has provided the solution for every problem you ever will encounter, the escape from every snare the adversary will set for you, the wisdom and strength to overcome every tribulation and testing that ever will befall you. God has called you, justified you, and glorified you. There is a plan for your life.
God gave His Son for you. Will He not, therefore, add to you every blessing, fulfilling the desires of your heart? Will He not with Christ freely give you all things?
But you must be diligent if you are to be successful in laying hold on the inheritance to which the Lord God has called you. All the Messianic promises are for those who are an integral part of the Servant of the Lord, for those who are abiding in Christ and in whom Christ is being formed. However, you continually must grasp that for which you have been grasped.
Our great salvation always remains an opportunity; it never is a foregone conclusion. We must match God's calling with a corresponding zeal if we expect to attain fully to the inheritance to which we have been called in Christ.
Christ will succeed in bringing justice to the peoples of the earth. The islands of the sea will wait for His law. There will be no failure, no discouragement for the Servant of the Lord.
Why is it there can be no failures in the life and ministry of the Servant of the Lord? How can we be sure that even our mistakes and shortcomings will work for our good as we follow on to know the Lord? How do we know that one day God's will shall be performed in the earth as it is in Heaven? How can we be certain all wicked spirits will be cast into the Lake of Fire and that even the memory of sin will be erased from mankind?
We are confident of all these things because of who God is and what God has stated.
As to who God Is:
Thus saith God the Lord, he that created the heavens, and stretched them out; he that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it; he that giveth breath unto the people on it, and spirit to them that walk therein: (Isaiah 42:5)
And as to what God has stated:
I the Lord have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles [nations]; To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house. (Isaiah 42:6,7)
There is no doubt about it. God will bring to pass exactly what he has stated. When we are baptized into the Body of Christ by the Holy Spirit we are baptized into the Conqueror. No matter how low we may be brought, no matter how discouragements may mount up against us, no matter how weak we may become, no matter how bleak, grim, and oppressive the future may appear, we yet shall reign in glory with Christ.
We do not have to strive. We do not have to force people or circumstances. We do not have to fret ourselves because of those who are bringing their wicked plans to fruition and who appear to prosper in their lawlessness. We are not obligated to become dismayed and fearful because of the world situation. We are not required to rush about in panic and distraction.
If we are in Christ we are in the Conqueror. We are in the one true Vine. We are abiding in Him who possesses all the authority, all the power, all the promises, all of the Word and will of God Almighty.
Christ cannot, shall not, fail.
You shall not fail if you are in Him.
Christ never shall fail or be discouraged. The Day most assuredly will come when justice and truth have been firmly established throughout the entire earth and the peoples of the islands of the sea are lifting their hearts expectantly in joyous anticipation of the knowledge of God being brought to them by the Servant of the Lord.
Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. (Hebrews 10:35,36)