Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53. What we have here is the suffering
servant and his victory. His assured victory. Now in this chapter we have the
heart of the gospel. Substitution. Satisfaction. This is not Jesus Christ dying
to make salvation a possibility, but to make it an absolute. He
absolutely, absolutely saved everyone for whom he died. He has saved, he is saving, and
he shall save. That's the better way to say
it. He said, not one sheep that the Father has given to me will
be lost. I will not lose one. He said,
I won't lose one. How many do you reckon the Father
has given to him? More than we can count, it says a number no
man can number. But he knows, he knows how many
there are. He knows his sheep by name. I
know them by name and they follow me. And I'll not lose one of
them. Isn't that good news? That's
such good news because I do so much during the day. There's
enough in my thoughts today to perish. But yet the Lord said,
I'll not lose one. Not even you, John. I won't lose
you. Or any of you. That's good news. In this chapter we have the sacrifice. We have propitiation. We have
reconciliation. We have redemption. We have victory. Victory. I tell you, I love,
when I read this chapter, it just puts everything in perspective
for me as far as this world. I see what's going on. I see
what's going on. The Lord has redeemed the people. He's calling them out. He's putting
down all rule and authority, and He's gonna bring every one
of them home. And all this other stuff that
goes on, That's his business. That's his business. But it gives
me great peace to know that my redemption is sure, and your
redemption is sure. Now, as I pointed out already
in verse 13 of chapter 52, we see that the servant, which is
the one spoken of in Isaiah 53, the servant, he is successful
It sets forth His success before it sets forth His sufferings.
Right up front, He lets us to know, as Isaiah said in Isaiah
42, My servant, God said in Isaiah 42, My servant shall not fail. He shall not fail, He cannot
fail, He will not fail. It's impossible for Him to fail.
My servant, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, he says here, "...who hath
believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?"
You know, this is spoken of as an indictment against Israel
for not believing the report. Paul mentions it over in Romans
chapter 10. Over there he mentions this very
thing right here. "...who hath believed our report,
and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?" Because it seems
like not many do, doesn't it? Israel right now, over there
in that nation, Israel, they rejected Christ, they turned
on Him, for the most part, for the most part, that nation has
never believed the gospel. Some have, there's a remnant,
there's a remnant that have. Most of them don't. Right now,
they still don't. They still don't believe it. But thank God He sent the gospel
to us. He sent it to us. And some of
us believe the report. Now, there's two questions asked
here. Who hath believed our report,
our message? It's a message of grace. It's
a message from God. Who hath believed it? And to
whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? That's the second question. Well,
the second question answers the first question. It answers the
first question. Who hath believed our report?
The one to whom the arm of the Lord is revealed. That's who
believes it. Nobody else believes it. No one
believes on the Lord Jesus Christ savingly until God reveals Him. Paul said, When it pleased God
who separated me from my mother's womb and revealed His Son in
me. That's when you will believe
the report. And nobody believes the report except those to whom
the Son has been revealed. There's got to be a revelation
of Christ in order for you to believe on Him. Henry used to
say this several times, you cannot believe on an unrevealed Christ.
You can't believe on someone you don't know. You can't do
it. Listen to Matthew 11, 25. At
that time, Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father,
Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from
the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Unto babes. And it just dawned
on me today, as I was reading that scripture, Every time God
reveals Christ to a sinner, that sinner is a babe in Christ. You
start out as a babe. You don't start out as a young
man, or an old man, or a mature man. You start out as a babe.
And He reveals it to babes. His babes. His babes. Listen to Luke 10.22. All things
are delivered to me of my Father. And no man knoweth who the Son
is, but the Father, and who the Father is, but the Son, and He
to whom the Son will reveal Him." There's got to be a revelation
of the Son of God. And that revelation is in the
sovereign hands of God. Nobody's going to figure it out.
It is asked in Job, who by searching can find out God? God is in heaven. You and I are on the earth. God,
His ways are higher than our ways. His thoughts are higher
than our thoughts. How are we going to find Him
out? There's one way we are going to find Him out. He's got to
reveal Himself. He's got to make Himself known.
Just like there was a time you didn't know me. There was a time
you didn't know me from anyone. And then there was a time you
met me. And now you really met me for almost seven years now. And now you know me and I know
you. There's a revelation. And that's what he's saying here.
Who hath believed the report? The ones to whom the arm of the
Lord is. The arm of the Lord is the power of God. His arm
represents power. Who's the power of God in salvation?
Jesus Christ. He's the power of God unto salvation.
That's what it says in Romans chapter 1, I believe. Now, in
verse 2, the servant spoken of here in this verse is spoken
of as a tender plant. As a tender plant. You see, the
one whose visage was marred more than any man is now spoken of. It's like watching, you ever
watch a movie? I know you've done this, you've
watched movies. You've watched where they start with the end.
And then they go back and start the beginning and they bring
you back up to the end. Well, here he has started with
the end, his success, and his visage being so marred, being
so beaten, and then now it takes us back and we start forward. Now he's going to say, this one
who was marred, the servant of the Lord, spoken of in chapter
52, whose visage was so marred, he's going to grow up first as
a tender plant. A baby, that's what he's talking
about, a tender plant. This is speaking of his humanity.
You see, the son is given, but the child is born. A body hast
thou prepared me. A body hast thou prepared me.
Subject to infirmities, subject to death, and he died. Subject to hunger and thirst,
he's a tender plant, you could bruise him. He's a tender plant. He could feel what we feel. He could feel it. We have a high
priest who can be touched with our infirmities. For in all points,
he was tempted like we are yet without sin. He's a tender, I love that word,
tender plant. He's not a hard, you know, there's
some people that are pretty hard people I've known in my life. But he's a tender plant. Tender. I've never thought of this before,
but approachable. Approachable. But that's speaking
of his humanity, is what it's speaking of. Subject to infirmities. And as a root out of dry ground,
he hath no form nor comeliness. And when we shall see him, and
we shall see Him when the servant is coming." That's what he's
saying. Isaiah is speaking to Israel here, and he's speaking
to us, but he's speaking to Israel right here. And he's saying,
when we shall see Him, because He's coming, the servant is coming.
There's no beauty that we should desire Him. He is set forth so
clearly right here to them. You know, they were looking for
this pompous king coming in, this Messiah, this one, just
take your breath when He walked in the room, and He's telling
them right here how He's coming. God's telling them how He's coming. He's like a root out of dry ground.
Israel was dry ground. The worship service was all but
nothing. The house of David was dry ground.
He was almost extinct. His parents were dry ground.
They were poor. He was poor. Yet out of this
dry ground, he prospered. Isn't that something? Out of
this dry, crusty ground where there's no fertilize, it's just
crusty old ground, he prospers and he's produced a lot of fruit.
and we're part of it. Right here's some of the fruit
out of that plant, out of that dry ground. That one little old
tender plant coming up, it doesn't look like much. You can literally
step on it and put it out. That tender plant did not look
like it could produce anything, especially in the ground it came
out of. But look what it's produced.
Millions and millions of believers. Sons of God. Sons and daughters
of God. And when we see Him, there's
no beauty that we should desire Him. I don't believe He was ugly.
I don't believe that. I don't believe He was ugly.
He knew no sin. I don't believe He was ugly. But I tell you this, He didn't
win the lottery when it comes to beauty. reason I said that, I was watching
a talk this model was giving. And she said, she said, and she
didn't say it arrogantly either. She was giving a talk about inequality. And she said, I won the lottery
when it came to beauty. She said, it has opened up all
these doors for me. I've won. She said, I am rich.
And she was not holding back. And she was talking about how
those who were not, didn't win that lottery, how unequal it
was for them. And I was impressed with her
talk. I was. But she said, I won the
lottery. The Lord didn't. And you know
what's interesting here? If you could create your own
body, What would you make it look like? John F. Kennedy Jr.? I think
he's one of the most handsome men that I've ever seen. If we had the opportunity to
make our body, he did. He made his own body. The Lord
made his own body as God. And he made it very insignificant. He made it in such a way that
there was no attention drawn to His appearance. Because His
beauty is His holiness. His beauty is His character.
That's where real beauty is. You know the Scripture says beauty
is vain. It's vain. I know someone comes to mind
that She won a big contest, and I
know her well. She can't get out of these selfies.
It's just like, I'm telling you the truth. She would be in a
company with the family around, a crowd, and be standing there
with everybody just taking selfies. Beauty's vain. And it's fading. It's fading. It's vain. There's no beauty we should be
attracted to Him. His beauty was all inside. I
just finished reading Leviticus, and I came through the end of
Exodus, and this morning I got to about chapter 5 in Leviticus. But I've gone through, yesterday
and today, I've gone through the tabernacle. You know all
the beauty in that tabernacle was on the inside? The gold. I mean, the ark made out of pure
gold, the curtains. I mean, you read that sometimes,
the curtains, how they were made and all that fine linen and with
fine needlework, it says, and it's scarlet and blue and the
beauty. But you know what was on the
outside of that tabernacle? Badger skin, the badger skin. Our Lord looked like any other
man. The tabernacle was covered with flesh. His tabernacle, Him. He's tabernacle among us. He's
our tabernacle. The beauty is on the inside.
And the beauty of every believer is on the inside. It's the work
of God in you. That's the beauty. That's the
beauty. I'll be so glad when this life
is over with and there's no more, oh, this is pretty, this is ugly.
I'll be glad when that's over with. when all of God's children
are beautiful, just absolutely beautiful. Get out of all this stupid peer
pressure. And then here we have here in
verse 3, His reception. Now, since there is no beauty
that we should desire Him, He's a root out of dry ground, He's
like a root out of dry ground, and He's like a tender plant
out of dry ground. You know his reception is not
going to be very good. It's not going to be very good. Poor people don't get received
very well. They don't. In an average congregation out
here, you let a wealthy man walk in, dressed up, well, come on
up here, sir. You let a poor man walk in, he
hardly gets recognized. He can sit in the back. Our Lord
showed His contempt for the riches of this world by being made poor. And He lived with the poor, and
He walked among the poor. He showed His contempt for the
rich by His conduct. But when He came, listen, here's
His reception, He's despised and rejected of men. That word
despised is very powerful. You ever been despised? I mean,
if somebody has despised me, I don't really know it. I mean,
I don't know. I mean, I'm not sure. I'm sure not everybody's
like me. But despised? I just despise
you? That's a powerful word there. Despised and rejected of men,
his own men, his own countrymen there, they rejected him. Jerusalem,
Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered you together as a hen
does gather her brood, but you would not. And the reason you
would not, you despise me." He despised because of his appearance,
his education, his crowd that ran with him, that was around
him. This man receives sinners and he eats with them. They would
be offended of me and you. They would be offended. Those
Pharisees would be offended of me and you. He's a man of sorrows. And that's
plural. That's plural. Sorrows. I tell you, every day, I think
every day, I'm not saying our Lord, He was not morose, He was
not mournful, but He knew sorrow and grief every day. If you see even one of your own
turn on you like Peter, doesn't that grieve you to your heart? Judas. Judas turned on me. He knew Judas was the son of
perdition. You know he called him, he says, friend? You betrayed
me with a kiss? He wept over Jerusalem. He wept
over that place. I already explained a lot of things. He's despised and rejected of
men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. They were his companions. It's like they were his companions.
When he got up in the morning, there they were, let's go. And we hid, as it were, our faces
from him, too embarrassed to be seen with him. Nicodemus came
to him by night. There's been all kind of conjectures
as to why, but he came by night. What this means is they turned away their face.
They didn't want to be identified with him. They didn't want to
be identified with him. This really happened. This happened. This is our Lord. This is a God
of heaven and earth. He was despised. And we esteemed
him not, we made nothing of him. That's what that means. We made
nothing of him. You know that? We made nothing of the Son of
God. And this world still makes nothing
of him. And that place over there, Israel, still makes nothing of
him. But you do. One time you didn't. One time
you didn't. But you do now. Some of you do. We hid our face in shame. It's like a poor person, you
don't want to be seen. It's somebody like a bad person
in a family tree, you don't want to talk about it. Turn from them. But now listen,
but surely, truly, here's the fact. Here's the fact. He hath borne our griefs. You
see the grief he has? They belong to us. They belong
to us. He came into this cesspool of
sin to a bunch of God-hating rabble, a bunch of God-hating
men and women. And He bore our griefs, the one
that belongs to us. He took them. You know, He showed
this in the Gospels when He healed many who were diseased. It says He healed many, and then
they quoted this verse right here. They quoted this verse. He bore our griefs and He carried
He carried, He never laid them down. He never forgot my sorrows. He never laid them down for a
second. He carried my sorrows all the
way to the cross. He carried our sorrows. Yet,
here's spiritual ignorance. And Israel should have known.
Yet, we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. Well, he was stricken, smitten
of God, but not for the reason they thought. He was stricken,
smitten of God for my sins. Brother, here's eternal security. Here's eternal security. He's
stricken, smitten of God for my sins. I don't have any. They're
gone. They're taken care of. They're
gone. I don't know any better way to
say that. They're gone. Let me read what Spurgeon said.
Spurgeon said he was also a man of sorrows, for the variety of
his woes he was a man not of sorrow only, but of sorrows.
All the sufferings of the body and of the soul were known to
him. The sorrows of the man who actively struggles to obey, the
sorrows of the man who sits still and passively endures, the sorrows
of the lofty he knew, For he was king of Israel, the sorrows
of the poor he knew, for he had not where to lay his head. Sorrows
relative and sorrows personal, sorrows mental and sorrows spiritual. Sorrows of all kinds and degrees
assailed him. Affliction emptied his quiver
upon him, making his heart the target for all conceivable woes. A man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. It's hard to imagine such a king
would bow to such a condescend to such a state and then allow
himself to get down under the load of all his subjects and
lift their burden and lift their burden. You remember the story
of Sansom? When he come out, he took the
gates, was it of Gaza? He took the gates, put them up
on his shoulders and took them up on the hill. Is that what
he did? That's a picture of Jesus Christ taking our sins, lifting
them up off of us, taking them on Calvary's hill, and putting
them away. That makes this special tonight. That makes this special. Taking
the bread and the wine. Verse 5, But he was wounded for
our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities. This includes all his sufferings,
what he's talking about. He's wounded for them, bruised
for them. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him, and with his stripes we're healed. Those punishments
by which our peace, our reconciliation to God was purchased, was fallen
on him. You have peace with God? Do you really believe you have
peace with God? You have it through Him. That's how you have it. through Him. And by His stripes,
we are healed. By His sufferings, we are saved.
I was reading some of Martin Luther this past week, and Martin
Luther would whip himself. He'd take a whip and whip his
back, whip and whip and whip. Thinking those stripes he's putting
on his back is going to atone for his sins. Thinking those
stripes on his back is going to pacify God. There's only one
whose stripes have healed us, and that's the stripes of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Every blow He took was for me.
Every time He took a pound of flesh, it was mine. It was for
my sins and my wretchedness. And the Lord, he said here, well,
I'm getting ahead of myself. He's given a description of us,
of God's elect there in verse six. All we like sheep have gone
astray. We have turned everyone to his
own way. It's interesting he doesn't say
all we like goats because he's not talking about goats. He's
talking about sheep that have gone astray. Lost sheep of the
house of Israel. We have all gone our own way
of sin and rebellion. Some things just hit me at the
weirdest times, but I thought of Bing Crosby. I'll do it my
way. Is it Bing Crosby? Who is that? Frank Sinatra. Yeah, I couldn't
think of which one it was. Frank Sinatra, I'll do it my way. Aren't you glad that God saved
us from that? There's a way, you read it tonight, there's
a way that seems right to man. But in the end thereof is destruction. We've gone our own way, our own
way of rebellion, our own way of sin. We've left the way of
God, the way of righteousness, and you know what the Lord did?
He took all that rebellion, all that sin, and all that hatred,
and He lifted it off us and laid it on His Son. Isn't that amazing? That's real
to me. Burdens are lifted at Calvary
because the burden was lifted off of you onto Him. And here's a thought. I know
I've got to move on here. There are some who believe that
Christ died for their sins up to the time they believe and
that after that you've got to make things right. He died for
all my sins before I was born. He made things right. A man said
to me one time, I hope I get it right. I said, you'll never
get it right. Jesus Christ got it right. He
got it right. The Lord laid on Him the iniquity
of us all, like all the rivers meet in the sea." All the rivers
of this earth, they meet in the sea. So all the sins of God's
elect were made to meet on Jesus Christ right there at Calvary.
I can't imagine, I mean, that's all the sins of all the elect
from beginning to end, they all met right there on that man,
Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. The Lamb of God. And we see here in verse 7 his
willingness to suffer. He was oppressed, inflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth. He didn't complain. He did not
complain. He did not try to get loose. He didn't try to defend himself.
He's brought as a lamb to the slaughter because he is the lamb
and he's going to the slaughter. He's the lamb of God and he's
going to the slaughter. And as a sheep before a shearer is done,
he opened not his mouth as they sheared him, so to speak. So to speak. He didn't say a
word. He didn't say a word. He opened
not his mouth. And here we have in verse 8 his
death. He was taken from prison and from judgment. Judgment was
taken away from him. They lied on him. And who shall
declare his generation? Who can describe the wickedness
of that generation that put him to death? He was cut off out of the land
of the living. He actually died. Jesus Christ actually died. The
son of God actually died on Calvary's tree. But he did it for the transgression
of my people. Was he stricken? Was he put to
death? Are you one of God's people?
Are you one of His children? He's put to death for you. Put
to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit. Delivered for
our offenses, but raised again for our justification. Boy, it'll be a good day to see
Him on it. Thank you, Lord. We thank Him now, but it'll be
a good day to actually walk and to be delivered into it. into
paradise, into His presence, and be able, face to face, to
say thank you. Thank you. You know that you're
only there by the grace of God, and by the person and work of
that man, Jesus Christ. And the only thing you want to
do is say, Lord, thank you. Thank you. And I want you to notice here
in verse 9, I'm going to wind this down, And he made his grave with
the wicked. In other words, he stood in line
with the wicked. He identified with the transgressors
like me and you. He identified with us. That's
what he's saying. He identified with us. He got in line with
us. You are not going to purposely get in a lineup. You're not going
to go down to the police station and say, let me in this lineup. Let me in this lineup. I'm going
to identify with John. He's standing there. I'm going
to stand right there with him. You ain't gonna stand in a lineup
unless you're forced to. But he purposely stood in line
with the wicked. But because of this, because
he knew no sin, he was with the rich in his death. Because he'd
done no violence in all of this, he'd done no violence. Peter picked a sword up and cut
the right ear off that man. He did violence. I mean, it was
in his heart to just kill that man. But the Lord never had that
in His heart. He'd done no violence. Neither
was any deceit in His mouth. He knew no sin. And though He
knew no sin, yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him. And the reason
it pleased the Lord to bruise Him is because it pleased the
Lord to make you His people. In making you His people, Jesus
Christ had to die. He had to die. He had to be put
to grief with the sword of justice. He had to be put to grief. When
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, remember what Abraham
and Isaac, remember that story? The father took Isaac and bound
him to the altar. God the father made the soul
of Jesus Christ, that sinless soul, a real soul, an offering
for our sins. The soul that sinneth shall surely
die. And he who knew no sin was made
to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him. He shall see his seed. He will
not lose one for whom he died. That's foolishness to think that.
He shall prolong his days, he'll never die again, death has no
more dominion over him, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper
in his hand." And that's exactly what's happening now. Do you
know that? That's exactly what's happening right now. The pleasure
of God is happening. The pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in his hand. It's prospering. And here in verse 11, "...he
shall see of the travail of the birth pains of his soul, And
He'll be satisfied because everyone for whom He has given birth to
will be there. And by His knowledge, by knowledge
of Him, are you justified? Justified by faith. And His knowledge
of us, He knows who He died for. He knows who He died for. He
knows why He died for. He knows He satisfied the law
of God for this multitude of people. And then He gives them
knowledge. and understanding. The Son of
God has come and given us an understanding, that we may know
Him as the truth, and we are in Him as the truth. And he says here, "...by His
knowledge shall my righteous servant..." He's back here at
His servant. "...justify many, for He will bear their iniquities."
Father, I died for Him. In His intercessions, I died
for Him. Father, I will that they be with me where I am, because
I died for Him. I died for Him, and I died for
this one, and this one, and this one, and all these. I died for
them. And you are cleared of all charges.
That's right, even that one too. Even that one too. He shall see the travail of his
soul and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge, am I righteous,
serving just by many? For he shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore, because of all the above, will I divide him a portion
with the great? Boy, this is what's coming. We
have a great, we have a good future. We have a great day coming.
I will divide him a portion with the great. Are you great? Now, you and I are going to say,
no, we're not. But God says we are in Christ
and he's going to divide the spoil, the spoil with the strong. Because here's why. Because he
poured out his soul unto death. He kept, now that's a powerful
statement. He had poured. If I stood here
with a glass of water and started pouring it out until there was
nothing in it, you'd really get the image of it. He poured out
His soul unto death. He kept back nothing in saving
us from our sins. He poured it all out. And He was numbered with us,
the transgressors. He stood in line with us. He
bared the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors. That's our salvation. That's
our salvation. We ought to know that chapter
by heart. That's our salvation. Substitution,
satisfaction. A suffering servant in his victory.