Isaiah 53, as important as I
felt last Wednesday night's message was and how beneficial it was
to us, it's more. Isaiah 53. Well, let's begin in chapter
52, verse 13. There really should be no chapter division
there. Chapter 52, verse 13, Behold,
my servant shall deal prudently. He shall be exalted, and extolled,
and be very high. As many were astonished at this,
his visage was so marked more than any man, and his form more
than the sons of men. So shall he sprinkle to anoint
many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths
to him, for that which had not been told them shall they see,
and that which they had not heard shall they consider. Who hath
believed our Lord, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For he shall grow up before the
Lord as a tender plant, and as a root out of the dry ground. He hath no form, no comeliness,
and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire
him. He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and
acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces
from him. He was despised, and we esteemed
him not. Sure, he had borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken,
smitten with God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquity. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. Oh, we like sheep have gone astray
and turned every one to his own way. And the Lord had laid on
him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth. He's brought as a lamb to the
slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is done, so he opened
not his mouth. He was taken from prison, from
judgment, and who shall declare his generation? He was cut off
out of the land of the living, for the transgression of my people
was he stricken. And he made his grave with the
wicked. and with the rich in his debt, because he had done
no violence, neither was there any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleads the Lord to bruise
him. He, the Lord, hath put him to
grief. When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he
shall see his sin. He shall prolong his days, and
the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hands. He shall
see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied. By his
knowledge shall my righteous servant justify death, for he
shall bear their iniquity. Therefore will I divide him a
portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the
strong, because he hath poured out his soul unto death." And
he was numbered with transgressors, and he bared the sin of men,
and made intercession for the transgressors." Okay, praise. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you once again for this
honor, this privilege. Thank you for Thank you for bringing us here.
Thank you for overruling the flesh and every circumstance
that hinders us. And yet, still, we have this
law, this warring in our members. The flesh lusts up against the Spirit
so that we cannot do the things that we would. So we ask that
you would give us your Holy Spirit. You said that you would, for
those that ask for him. With man, this kind of worship
is impossible. But with Thee, only with Thee is it possible.
So we ask that You would bless us, as our brother has already
asked. We ask Him to give us ears to
hear, hearts more than ears, but hearts to receive the Word. Lord, send forth Your Word in
power. The Word which speaks of Christ, the Incarnate Word. Send it forth in power and regenerate,
quicken. Lord, let the preacher be as
that pole upon which the surface was lifted up. This one and every
other tonight that attempts this great task. Who is sufficient
for these things? to Him, not cause us to look
to Him. Be ye saved, all ends of the
earth. Forgive us the first hands that
have been before us. Forgive us through Christ, the
one we pray. Again, we ask for our brother's
safety and well-being, and all, all who are Thank you for the
freedom and peace, safety that we enjoy here by your sovereign
power and grace. We thank you. Let us not take
it for granted, nor those who fight to ensure it. Again, we
ask that you forgive us our sins and conform us to the image of
Christ that we have asked to be born in his name. Amen. This hymn was written On a cross crucified,
in great sorrow he died. The giver of life was me. Yet my Lord was despised and
rejected. Amen. This Jesus of Calvary. He was wounded for our transgression. He will cruise around in his
good time. Surely he'll hear at home
all our songs. My stripes are healed. He has healed my sick soul, laid
me at rest with hope. He did the same for me. He's the same yesterday, and
today, and for ever. The healer of souls
is He. He was wounded for our transgressions, He was through for our iniquity. Surely He hath pulled all our
sorrows away. And by His stripes we are healed
Alright, let's go back to Isaiah 53 Sunday morning I told you the
story of Brother Barnard dealing with that young rebellious lady. Remember? Perhaps someone wasn't
here. But in a church where Brother
Barnard was holding a meeting, there was a young rebellious
woman in her early twenties. And as people did back then,
everyone went to the services. And she came, obviously not interested. Had a scowl on her face, I've
seen many times when preaching. And the young girl's, the young
lady's parents came up to the Barnard after and asked Brother
Barnard if he would speak to their daughter. And he agreed
to. They told him a little bit about
her and her rebellion and her wild ways. And Brother Barnard
went up to that young lady, and all he said to her was, Young
lady, I want you to go home tonight.
and get in your closet, and ask the Lord to show you yourself."
He said, I doubled off there. Ask the Lord. He's a grubs old
fellow in person. Well, a little while went by
before the martyr came back to that same congregation, and That
young lady was there, and she was distraught. She was torn
up. Torn up. And the parents, the
same parents, came up to Bo Barnard afterward and said, Bo Barnard,
ever since you left, our daughter has been in a bad way. Would you talk to her? And he
said, I would. And he went up to her, and this
is all he said. He said, young lady, I want you
to go home tonight, and get in your closet, somewhere alone,
and ask the Lord to show you himself, to show you the Lord
Jesus Christ. He said, I doubled down there. And he'll be back sometime later."
And she was beside herself with joy and happiness indeed, down
near the front rejoicing in the gospel. So what I want to do tonight...
See, what Brother Barnard knew was that that young lady would
be under the sound of the gospel.
That's what the Lord uses to speak to people, to convict of
sin. That's what we need, every one
of us. Very few people know that they're
sinners, and this gospel is of sinners. Mercy is for the guilty. Very few people feel that way,
that they're guilty. Grace is for those who haven't,
the poor, the needy. And this is the first thing the Lord
does when he saves someone, is reveal their guilt. The Lord
said that. When the Holy Spirit convinces
someone, it convinces them of sin. Not other people's sin,
but their own sin. that they've lived a whole life
without giving God a thought, and He's just freely and abundantly
blessed them, and they haven't given Him thought, haven't worshipped
Him, haven't thanked Him, and they rebel against that mercy
and love and grace and kindness, and they're convicted of their
sin. God shows them something, just a little bit of their evil
heart and it begins to plague them, to where the faith finally comes to the Lord in
repentance. Repentance is the need. It always
is, has been the need. This is what our Lord came preaching. This is what all the prophets
came preaching. Repentance. Repentance for God,
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Repentance. This repentance is
an admission of a problem. You know, there's no road to
recovery unless there's an admission of a great problem. Psychologists
will deal with people along those lines, but yet they don't want
people to feel guilty if you blame everybody else. Blame everybody
else for your problem, but nevertheless you've got to admit there's a
problem. Well, the Lord doesn't blame us. The Lord calls us to
blame ourselves. When we finally begin to place
all the blame squarely on ourselves, and come to the great position,
the healer of souls, and pour out our hearts before Him and
tell Him, I've got an uncured problem, and it's called me. How? How does the Lord heal? Well, back,
our Lord, in John 3, everyone quotes John 3, 16. Well, Martin
used to say, the gospel's not in John 3, 16, it's in John 3, 14. He said,
"...as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness," There's a
story in the Old Testament of the people
that were rebellious against God, sinners against God with
such mercy and grace. And God sent fireous serpents
into the camp, and it bit them, and they were dying. They were
dying from the wound they received. And then
the Lord told, and they all knew it. And then the Lord told Moses,
He said, You fashion a serpent out of brass and put it on a
pole. And you lift it up as high as
you can, and everyone's saved. And whosoever
looks on that serpent will live. Now, most of you know what
that's talking about. It's talking about Christ crucified. He said,
if I be lifted up, and all these serpent-bit people that are dying
of this deadly disease called sin, See, Christ was made in
the likeness of sinful flesh. He was made a sinner for those
sins, and placed on that cross, and
God lifts him up for all to look to as they feel. And this is
how healing comes. Now, let's look. Let's hope the
Lord calls someone to look to Him. I wrote a statement. I always
pray that way. I like that. He says, before
we pray, He said, let's look to the Lord. That's what faith
is. Looking to Him for everything. Looking to Him. We're looking
to You. We're looking to You for all, for everything. Verse 1 says in Chapter 53, Who
hath believed our report? To whom is the arm of the Lord
revealed? Who hath believed our report? Who believes this gospel? If
you have, then you've been healed. If you will, you will be healed.
Every one of us, you see. Look unto me, and then you'll
be saved, the Lord said. All the ends of the earth. Anyone. Anyone. Look to Him. To whom
is the arm of the Lord revealed? I like this. The arm of the Lord. Look at chapter 52, verse 10.
It says, The Lord hath made bare His holy arm in the eyes of all
men. See, God is Spirit. God is Spirit. No man has seen
God at any time. But man, the only begotten Son. to his God, equal with the Father.
He hath declared it. He came. He was made flesh and
dwelt among us. God is spirit, yes, but he has
an arm, and it's the arm of Christ. He
has feet, where Christ blesses them. Has hands, where Christ's
hands. Christ is the bodily manifestation. In him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily flesh. I always remember when I was
a young child, asking my dad to show me the biceps. That's
what made Barry's arm. I'm not going to show you. He's
48 years old. I might have him 20 years ago. Hannah thought I had the biggest
arm on earth. That's the way I thought about
my dad. Show me, show us your muscle, dad. My dad's muscle
was bigger than me. He was beating over the whole
world. Well, our father can. And thus, our Lord, the Lord
Jesus Christ, is the arm of God. And he bared it to show us his
all-powerfulness. He said all authority is given
unto him. So he came. He's the power of
God. He's the saving strength of God.
Revealed to us. The Lord revealed him. Many in
him. Verse 2. This is all about him. I want you to see all the way
down through here. Notice how it sticks out. Him. Him. Him. He. He. Him. Him. He. He. He. This is
all about him. It's all about Him. For he shall
grow up before the Lord, before God, as a tender plant, as a
root out of a dry grain. He hath no form, no covenant,
as a root. And when we shall see Him, we
see Him in the flesh, there's no beauty that we should desire.
You grow up as a tender plant, as a root out of dry ground. Now, this is fresh on my mind.
I went to the nursery not long ago and purchased a vine to plant. And that vine was hidden, covered
up, and I thought, I don't know, this thing doesn't like it at
all. And it was just a twig sticking out of a box. One of these Madison
produced things. And I took it home and got the
pot, put it in the pot, and there it was, a twig. Just a little
twig. And days went by, and it seemed
legal to me. So one day, it starts
cracking. Now, Lord Jesus Christ had small beginnings, that is,
on this earth. He had no beginning, really.
He has no father or mother, really. No beginning of days. He's a
priest forever, that's the word of Melchizedek. He's the Eternal
One. But when He came to this earth,
He was planted, a combine, in a woman's womb. It took nine
months like any other child. Oh, that's the firing of God's
plan. God said, I plan to bind him. I plan to bind him in my
opinion. Small beginnings. When we see
him, it says, there's no beauty that we should desire in him.
There's no form or cumbleness. There was nothing remarkable
about his form. extraordinary about him at all.
Very plain looking, very ordinary looking. No beauty, no facial beauty,
no beauty that he should be appealing to the flesh. Nothing desirable
about him. There's a story in the Old Testament,
1 Samuel, of Samuel the prophet coming to Bethlehem. The Lord
told him to go, but he is going to choose the king. The Lord
had a king, a man after his own heart, and Samuel was to go to
the house of Jesse. and anoint this king of the Lord. Well, Jack Saber didn't know
who it was. He didn't know. He just went where the Lord told
him. And he told Jesse and the people, and they came. And so
Jesse had eight sons, fine young men, and big scrappy boys, most
of them. And so Jesse and Samuel had those
boys parade before Samuel. The first one came in, the oldest,
perhaps the tallest, best looking, looks like his father. That's
who his dad wanted him to be. And the Lord said, no. And on and on that went through
seven sons. And each one of them, Samuel
and Jesse both thought, surely the Lord's anointing is among
them. Look at him, he's tall, dark, and handsome. Look at him,
he's really appealing. Look at him, he'd make a fine
king. And the Lord said, no, none of them are like him. Don't
look on the outward countenance, the Lord said. The Lord seeth
not as man seeth. Man looketh on the outward countenance,
but the Lord looketh on the heart. So Samuel said, is this all the
sun? Is this all of it? And Jason said, no, no, there's
a young lad. There's a young lad out on the
hillside. He's a shepherd. And Samuel, he had a proper shepherd. Yeah, but he's a dreamer. He's a dreamer. All he does is
spin around and write poetry. And sing. To no one. He just sings to no
one. He sings to the stars. Thinker, huh? Yeah, he's the
youngest. He's not, he's not much. He's just a ruddy little thing. So they brought in David. And
as soon as he walked in, I told the Lord, I said, Rise, you're
in the presence of the King. I'm anointed, this is for you.
So look on out again for that Lord, though he was not. And
if you look with me, just in your mind's eye, imagination,
back several, couple thousand years ago, in a little Jewish
carpenter shop, There's a skinny little 12-year-old boy sweeping
the floor. This is it. Let's thank God. The King of Kings and Lord of
Lords. Now, yes. The Lord tells us that we should
desire it, but the Lord is highly pleased. Verse 3, He despised
and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, a quaint with grief,
and we hid as it were our faces from him, as unworthy of our
names. He was despised and we esteemed
and not. That same young man, David, one
time there were two armies facing each other, the army of Israel
and the army of the Philistine, in a vast battle. And out in the middle of these
Two armies was a huge giant, you know the story, Goliath,
who was shaking his fist at God's people and at God's people, defying
God and defying God's people, taunting, ridiculing, jeering,
and the whole Israelite army was afraid of him, scared of
him. A huge man, a monstrous man.
David's brothers were there. They were there, but they were
sniveling and cackling about their fate. Saul, the king on
the throne, was scared of this stuff. Well, along comes that
same boy, bringing cheese on a cart. Bread and cheese, and
a little donkey cart. He comes walking out. And you
see about his brother. Feed him. Take care of him. This
fellow's faithful as he's saying. He said. Isn't that a picture? But anyway,
he came up and he told his brother And David began to ask people,
what's going on here? Who is that guy? Why does he
keep a pie in the arm as a living man? How can this go on like
this? What's he not going to do about
it? He just stand here? What have he done to the man
that takes care of that pie? And his oldest brother came up
to him and said, you little squirt, what are you doing here? I know
you. Spies and rejected. Get out of
here. Get on. What did you do with
those sheep? He's supposed to be taken care of. A young David looked his older
brother in the eye and he said, this is not a cause. This is not a cause. That's what I want to look at
tonight. The cause of Christ. The cause of Christ. Why you
mean? Why came? A man of sorrows, it
says, acquainted with grief. Why was the Lord a man of sorrows
acquainted with grief? Because of the cause that He
came to endure and forfeit. The cause that filled Him with
sorrow and grief. It was not a political cause.
It was not a social cause. It was not a mere sentimental
cause. It's because of sin. the dire consequences of sin
that is ravishing human race. Let me see if I can
explain it. God Almighty, in the beginning, God Almighty
said, let us make man. Let us make man. Who's talking
now? God the Father, God the Son. Come on now, this is the most
important thing you'll ever hear. Everybody here. God said let
us make man. God the Father, God the Son,
God the Holy Spirit. Christ was there. In the beginning
was the Word. The Word was with God. The Word
was God. Without Him was not anything
made which was made. All things were made by Him.
Christ. He said, let us make man so God
made Adam and Eve in the likeness of God, in the image of God,
upright, holy, harmless, undefiled, naked, but pure, absolutely pure,
decent, full of integrity, like God, lovely, kind, tender, Grateful. Thankful. Sweet. Precious. And then one day the serpent. And sin entered that man and
woman. Then those sweet, kind, beautiful,
smiling, loving, tender, caring, pure, decent, honest man and
woman, begin to hate each other. They had their first argument. Their smiles turned to gnashing their
teeth at one another. Beautiful, loving countenance,
sweet, kind countenance, like our Lord must have had. Beautiful,
countenance turned If it wasn't for the mercy and
grace of God, we'd be killing each other right now. When he saw
his lovely wife, the flesh of my flesh, it wasn't long after
he read it. Get rid of her. It's all her
fault. It's her fault. What's happened? And not long after that, they
had children. They were so happy. So happy. And Adam came out in the field
one day, and there lay his son with his brain bashed out. And then the whole human race
began to degenerate into a cesspool of enmity, of hate, and malice,
and wrath, and anger, and envy, and jealousy, until the Lord
looked down from heaven to see if there were any that could
understand. And he said, there's none righteous, no, not one.
They're all together become filthy, stinking. This whole human race
stinks to me, God says. Stinks to me. Not fit for any land. God said,
I want to, I want to destroy man. But God, God is rich in mercy. God is
mercy. And God is love. And His greatest
love is sovereign love, unmerited love, love for the loved unloved,
mercy for the guilty, pardon for the guilty. God Almighty, for His
glory, for the glory of His mercy, for the glory of His love, for
the glory of His grace, for the glory of His person, set His
love on a vast number. If He had just done, if He had
just set His love on water, if He had just purposed to save
Adam, that's it. Oh, that would have been merciful. But God purposed to save a vast
number, which no man can know, of these sinful Worm, dying worm. Woken up in my study the other
morning, and in the, in that pyracantha bush was a bunch of
those bad worms. You got them yet? What good are they to you? They're worms. That's what God
calls us. All He's really trying to tell us is worms. You look
at them, and I looked at them, and they were just in that web,
caught in a web, and it's a good thing, caught in a web, they're
all in that web, and they were just writhing all over one another,
just wiggling and writhing on, just a second below the tree. That's what God sees in this
human race. When He looks down there, and
you know, literally, people are literally writhing all over one
another. Man has become altogether filthy.
He's getting naked again, without shame. But God purposed to save some
of these despicable creatures. God purposed to spare some of
them. God purposed to change them from worms to butterflies,
to a metamorphosis, if you will, a regeneration, to conform them,
to restore them, to restore them to that holy image that Adam
and Eve once had, said much better than that. Make them in the express
image of God, in the image of Christ himself. A perfect Christ. How is he going to do it? How
is God going to do all of this? One man is going to do it all. There's been zillions of people
on this earth. Zillions of creatures live on
this planet. One man is going to do the whole
thing. By himself. One man. One man. And he was with God
from the beginning, the Son of God, the express image of God.
And the Father purposed this, and the Son agreed in that council,
that covenant council. The Son agreed to come to this
earth as a man and live like Adam, but as a second God deals
with two creatures, two men on this earth. In Adam, first Adam,
all died. This whole human race is in full
of this leprosy. In Adam, all died and under the
wrath of God. Unless they're found in the second
Adam. The second Adam, that is the
second man. Created, not created, but in
the expressed image of God. He gave Him a body. He was always
with the Father. But He gave Him a body to inhabit,
the second Adam, the covenant head, the head of His people,
come to live on this planet as a man. Why? To show us how? The Father can't do it. He can't
even begin to do it. He came to do this for us now.
He's a covenant head, he's the substitute, he's the representative,
he's the daisyman, he's the representative, he's the one. Interspecific,
mediator, Christ, that's what Christ meant. The one who came
to do all that he did for his people. The Christ. And He came to fulfill God's
perfect law, which man broke, which Adam broke, which we break
daily, hourly, every moment. He came to live for God's glory. And the Scripture says, in Christ.
If somehow we can be found in Christ, we'll be born again. But that what Christ did will
be charged by our family. Now this is a mystery, no man
can adequately describe it. But what Christ did, he did it
for these people he represented. He charged it to them, they're
found in him. But now God, you've heard all
this before. But God must punish sin. You've
got to do something about sin. God is holy. God is just. God
must punish sin. He said, I will by no means clear
the guilty. The crimes that we've committed
have to be paid for. Sin has to be killed. Remember
that story of old Mad Dog Shep? You've got to kill him, or he'll
kill you. Sin has to be killed, has to
be mortified. And for this cause, for this
cause, This is the cause, that he might
be made sin for us. I've told you that there's one
verse of Scripture that contains the gospel. 2 Corinthians 5,
I told you in memory. You can tell anybody the gospel
from that verse. For he, God, hath made him, Christ, to be
sin for us, for he who knew no sin. Sinners want that we might
be made for righteousness, O God. For this cause Christ came into
the world, to live, to bring in an everlasting righteousness,
without possibility of failure, and charge it to His people,
and to die, to bear their iniquities, to die as a substitute for guilty
sin, for those ones God says love. And this is the sorrow,
this is the grief that I can't explain, that our Lord endured. A man of sorrow indeed. He wasn't
sorrowful because of the same person, because he didn't know
the outcome. Like us, you know, we're sad
because we just don't see the end coming. He knew the end coming.
The grief he had was not because he didn't get his way or this
and that, you know, like us, you know. We cry over everything. We have grief over many things.
It causes grief. The least sadness causes sadness
and grief, which we should not be grieving. So the Lord was
thankful. The Lord was content. The Lord
Jesus Christ was not sorrowful in that sense, but He's sorrowful
at the... When He was at Lazarus' tomb,
when He was at Lazarus' tomb, Lazarus whom he loved, Mary and
Martha whom he loved. And he came, and he knew what
he was going to do, didn't he? The Lord knew he purposely stayed
away so that he would raise that man. But when he came, the whole
neighborhood, everybody loved Lazarus, and everybody was weeping
and wailing, and sisters were weeping and wailing, and Lazarus
was sinking, they thought, and dead. And it says Jesus wept. And I believe, and so many believe,
that the Lord was weeping over it all, over all that sin had
done to His creation. All that sin had done to man. Well, and He bore this inexpressible
sorrow and grief so that we would not
bear it someday, so that we would not bear eternal sorrow, that
people right now bear an eternal sorrow and grief. Well, it says, surely,
verse 4, he hath borne our griefs, see that, and carried our sorrows,
yet we do esteem him strictly and submit him to God. Do you
remember how, when the Lord hung on the cross, the people said,
Let's see if God will have it. He's calling on God. Let's see
if God will have it. We have seen Him submit to the
stricken of God and afflicted. But it says He was wounded for
our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquity.
That's what sin does to us. That's what sin does to a person.
It wounds, bruises, batters. That's what it did to the human
race. A man that's been, like that fellow that was laying in
the ditch, you know, that the Good Samaritan came by? And he
was beaten beyond recognition. Wounded and bruised and lying
in a gutter. And dying. And then the Good
Samaritan came by. Who's that? That's the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Good Samaritan. And the way the Lord did that,
The way the Lord healed us was switch places. He was wounded and bruised for
our iniquity. The chastisement of our peace
was upon Him. That is, a weapon we should get
at the hands of God. He took it. With His stripes,
we're healed. God has to witness. You spare
the rod, you spoil the child. If we spare the rod, our children
are going to go wild. God chastens those He loves.
God punishes sin, too. This rod was the rod of God's
wrath against sin. God must punish sin. God is just. He must punish sin. And the chastisement,
the whipping that we deserve, that's what the Lord took. I
know nearly everyone in here has heard this story, but I hope
someone has. Years ago, it's supposed to be
a true story, years ago, in a little one-room schoolhouse in the mountains
of southeastern Kentucky, a young undue schoolteacher came to this
little one-room schoolhouse, and he was a rough one, like
all of them were in Appalachia. And he thought if I, and they
had children of all ages, you had big old strapping farm boys,
coal miner boys, and young kids. And he thought, I'm going to
have to get some, I'm going to have to have some rule here,
some order right off. I can see that. They're going
to really take advantage of it. So the first day, he told the
whole class, he said, I'm going to set down some rules. And I said, he said, what I want
you to do is I want you to make the rules. And rules broken have
to have punishment, or they're no good. If you don't punish
broken rules, what good are rules? Huh? So you all make the rules. So they began to raise their
hand. No testing. No testing. What's the punishment? No lying. No lying. No throwing anything on it. We had no stealing. Somebody
said, what's the plan? No stealing. Somebody said, ten
licks across the bare back of the rock. The teacher said, how severe is it? Ten licks. Across the back, very back to
the rod. Everybody agree with that? Yeah? Okay. You know the rule? So one day, a
big old scrappy boy named John, one of those barn boys, came
up to the teacher, big John, bigger than anybody, and he said,
Teacher, somebody stole my lunch. He said, OK, I'll take care of
it. So he began to make inquiry. And he finally found out it was
a little boy named Jimmy. One of the smallest, skinny little
boy, always wore a coat. Poor little fellow. Little Jimmy. So the teacher brought Little
Jimmy up before the whole class. And he said, Little Jimmy, you
steal Big John's lunch. He said, yes sir, I did. He said, take off your coat, Jimmy. Jimmy said, teacher, don't, don't,
you can give me a lick, but don't take the tape off. Take off,
you know, the roof, across the bare back, in, in there. Took
off his coat, ready for a shower. So the teacher took that rod,
back then they used to use a rod, literally. He said, I know who
that is, Jimmy. And he pulled that rod back to
get old Jimmy and big Johnny. Don't you, teacher, don't you
hit me instead. The rules have to be punished,
broken rules. He can't take it. Hit me instead. I took off his leg and buried
his arm in the ground. The teacher began to scratch. Nine times, ten times, the rod
broke. And everybody else didn't. Little Jimmy went running up,
threw his arm around Big John and said, Big John, I love you,
forget it. Take it. My. By his truck. The chastisement of our case,
necessary for peace with God, was laid on Him. The Lord laid
it on Him. Verse 6, all we like sheep have
gone astray. Ignorant sheep headed for disaster. Easy prey for a wolf and a lion
and a bear. Yet, it says, we went astray
willingly, turned our own way. We've turned everyone his own
way. It's not like we're, that's where the type ends. Little Jimmy made
me, but we're willing rebellious. We're willing to rebel against
God. Turned our own way, away from
God. Well, here's the cause of Christ. It says, The Lord hath
laid on him the iniquity of us all. The Lord hath laid on him,
laid on his strong back, the iniquity of us all. He's all
our salvation is on his back. Aren't you glad? The Lord hath
laid on him the iniquity of us all. All the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed, freedom, and he was afflicted, yet it opened
not his mouth. I like this. He's brought as a lamb to the
slaughter. The Lord is God's lamb. Behold the Lamb of God.
He's brought as a lamb to the slaughter, the Passover lamb.
And as the sheep before her shearers is done, so he opened not his
mouth. I've seen this sung on, not in
person, but I've seen sheep sheared on film anyway. They pretty much take it. They
know once they've been apprehended, once they've been laid hold on
by a strong man, then they pretty much just give up. And submit
to them and cheer. And they don't cry too much. They cry, but they cheer. But
our Lord, you remember, our Lord standing before Pilate. And I know where stood the poor
pilot and all his accusers. They accused him of everything.
Being a blasphemer, glutton, a wine-lipper, and on and on.
They accused him of just being a sinner. He and him is no sin. He is not
guilty. This is the just one. This is
the holy one. This is the only one. This is
the only one on earth. This is the only one on earth
who's not guilty of anything. Up there it says he'd done no
violence. He was in his feet and his mouth.
Nothing. Nothing. Guilty of nothing. Yet they accuse
him of everything. Every wrong. And you know what
he did? He didn't say a word. He did not defend himself. He
stood there and took it on. Have you ever been falsely accused? Did you take it very well? Did
you take it quietly? Did you argue on your own behalf?
You know, we're guilty of most accusations. You and I are guilty of most things. People accuse
us of something. Well, it might be a false accusation,
but they didn't bring us a real story, which is worse than what
they accuse us of. If our lives could be exposed
before everyone, we'd be guilty of the most heinous crime. We're
guilty of most accusations, and what do we do? We begin to argue.
We begin to lie. We begin to justify ourselves,
but Christ didn't say what. Because he's me. He's standing there for me. The Lord has laid on him. Mind
you, I'm guilty. And whatever I can say, I'm guilty.
I have nothing to say. I can't justify myself. Guilty. Aren't you glad, Nancy, that
he's picked up a side? I'm not guilty. I won't have
that. I won't take it. He's me. He's you. He opened up his mouth. Verse
8 says he was taken from prison, from judgment. Who should I declare
his generation? He's cut off out of the land
of the living. That is, he died. Why? He didn't deserve it for the
transgression of my people. The soul of the sinner must surely
die. So God made his soul, it says in verse 10, his soul was
an offering to sin. You can't see the real sufferings
of Christ. Nobody can depict that. His soul suffered. God
made his soul. Separation from God, no man can
slay that. People say, I'm going through
hell. The worst thing on this earth
would be like heaven. We really need heaven. He was
taken from prison, and everything old, worthless, no good, and
cheap of sinners went free. Everything relaxed. Went free. The Lord was cut off, executed.
Why? Why was He executed? For the
transgression of my people. God's people. Who did Christ
die for? Not every human being. For God's people. For God's people. God's chosen
people. Because everyone Christ died for goes free. Justice demands
it. The blood paid for their sins.
Every one of them. Past, present, future. And the
blood ensures that they were in, believe, and so on. My people,
my chosen people, my elect. And he made his grave, verse
9, he made his grave with the wicked. He was killed as a common
criminal. Yet, with the rich in his day,
God saw to it. And I like that, you like this
thing. I've never really fully understood that. But I think,
though the Lord was killed as a common criminal, and that's
who went to the cross, that's who they crucified back then,
the worst criminals, thieves and murderers rapists and robbers
and this and that and the other. The common, the worst criminals
were put on crosses, crucified, slow agonizing deaths. Cheap
sinners were crucified, cheap sinners. And though he was killed as a
common criminal, yet God saw to it that they would not desecrate
his body and throw it into some a shallow grave or whatever.
He's going to be put in a rich man's tomb. One no man has ever, nobody deserves
laying in that. They're going to put him in this
tomb no man's laid in before. A rich man's tomb with a great stone
rolled over it and a guard that's a century standing up. Ass. That makes sense doesn't it?
in honor of his son. You know, we saw them, the horror
of those despicable, savage, vile men execute some hostages,
you know, and then degrade their body and drag it through. That's
a phew! God said, I'm not going to do that to my son. When the man came by with this
iron bar to crush his leg, God wouldn't allow it. Not a bone of him shall be broken. And not putting in any ordinary
sin. Well, who was it that killed Christ anyway? Look at verse 10. It says, It
pleased the Lord that it was him. God killed him. There's been a big argument,
hasn't there? There's been a big argument. Who killed Christ?
Jews? Who killed? Mormons? Who killed?
God killed. Yeah, men took, with wicked hands,
took and crucified the Lord of glory, but they bent what God
determined before to be bent. God killed. He pleased the Lord
to ruin. Now, you know the Lord didn't take pleasure in Christ's
suffering. You know that. It's not saying
that. The Lord's not pleased with our Lord's suffering and
anguish. He's angry. Why? It has to happen. And surely the father agreed
over his son's suffering. Yes, you know he did, as Abraham
took that knife back. They wasn't going to please him
to plunge that knife in his lovely son.