and hear a voice declaring over
the melee, you need Jesus. And they'd say, we need him gone. We need him put out of business.
We need him dead. We don't want anything to do
with him. We'll not have this man to reign over us. You need
Jesus, they say. Let me ask you this. Do you need
Jesus? Do you need the Lord Jesus Christ?
Do you need Christ? You know if you do, but I don't. God knows if you do, but I don't. All I can get up here and do
is flap my gums together and tell you some things that I know
about Jesus Christ, but that's all I can do. and telling you when I have no earthly idea whether
you do or do not like what I'm telling you, I don't know whether
you're thirsty. I could say, take this water.
You're thirsty. But if you're slaked, you don't
want the water, do you? I could say to you, take this
food. You're hungry. You ain't hungry. You don't want
that food. hunger, thirst, need. These are
things realized individually by people in themselves and it's
not broadcast. I know what I have, but I don't know if you want
it. I know what I have, but I don't
know if you're interested in what I have. but I'm gonna tell you anyway.
I'm gonna tell you some things. The title of my message tonight
is Something For You. Maybe. Maybe. I hope you want it, but
I don't know. Turn to Isaiah chapter 52. Isaiah
chapter 52. Now we're gonna cover a little
bit of scripture here, but I'm not gonna be, I'm not gonna take
a long time, don't wanna take Gary's time. In Isaiah chapter 52 in verse
seven begins a treatise, a work of poetry, of rhyme and reason
that ends in chapter 54 in the last verse. And that's what we're
gonna look at tonight. I'm gonna tell you about someone
I'm going to tell you about some things that someone did. Now,
I don't know whether you're interested or not, but I'm going to tell
you anyway, because that's what my job is. In Isaiah chapter
52 in verse 7, this is quoted in Romans 10 and called the gospel
by Paul the apostle. It says, how beautiful upon the
mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings and
publisheth peace. that publishers speak. Now you
can't publish something that ain't done. You can't publish
something that ain't finished. You have to finish a book in
order to publish it. You take a half a book to a publisher,
he says, I ain't publishing that. You got to finish it. Peace is
established. Peace is done. So this is a publishing
of that peace, that publishes peace, that bringeth good tidings.
You can't bring something that doesn't exist. You can only bring
it if it does exist. In the New Testament, the word
bring sometimes is the same word as gospel. Did you know that?
When the angels announced the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ,
they said, we bring you good tidings. Look it up. Bring and
good tidings is the same word. But you can't bring something
if you don't have something. And so the preaching of the gospel
is the bringing of good that publishes salvation. Again, a
word that means nothing if it's not accomplished. It publishes
salvation. That saith unto Zion, thy God
reigneth. The person I'm telling you about
is the Sovereign Lord over all. God Almighty. What does that
mean? Simply it means that He rules
everything. He rules everything. He begins
and ends all things. He doesn't give account of His
matters to anyone. He is out of control. because
he is in control of all things. He's out of control. He is the
first cause of all things. If we really believe that, if
I really believe that, you know I wouldn't gripe near as much
as I do. I wouldn't hold on to the past, wouldn't worry about
looking to the future. If I could just believe that
God's the first cause of all things. The first God, our God
is sovereign, and the God that's being spoken of is the Lord Jesus
Christ, because He's the only God we know. In Him dwelleth
the fullness of the Godhead bodily. We don't know any other God.
The Spirit that He gives unto us is the Spirit of Christ. He
said that, I'm going to go away, and when I come to you, it's
Christ's other self, if you will. He's the sovereign God. And then
the sovereign God has redeemed his people. Look at verse nine.
Break forth into joy. Sing together ye waste places
of Jerusalem. For the Lord hath comforted his
people. He hath redeemed Jerusalem. He's redeemed them. So this is
the sovereign God who has actually redeemed his people. That's why
we call him a redeemer. That's a title that actually
fits. If he'd just given his best shot, we could call him
a somebody applying for a job. But we couldn't call him a redeemer,
but the reason he is, this person redeemed, that is bought and
paid for, took off the slave market, never to put on the slave
market again, his people. The Lord hath redeemed Jerusalem.
Then in verses 13 and 14, the sovereign God has redeemed his
people by the vicious and violent death of his servant, who is
also himself. His servant is the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's His darling Son, the One
who left glory and came down here in the likeness of sinful
flesh, as you read in the study with the men. His darling Son
died a vicious, ignominious suffering and death. And you know, it's the only absolute
success recorded in human history. Think about it. We might ourselves
be considered a success, but you know, as we get older, we
realize we're not that much of a success, and what we have gained,
we can't take with us. We're going to leave it to somebody
else. Is that success? The only success story in all of humanity
from Adam and Eve to the last person spoken of in the revelation
of the Lord Jesus Christ till it's all over with and he winds
it up, the one success story is this story. The Lord Jesus
Christ, what does it say about Him? Look at verse 13 and 14.
Behold my servant, my servant, he shall deal prudently. That
word, it actually, it's a double word. It means to prosper prosperously. He prospers prosperously. He
shall be exalted and extolled and he shall be very high. so
high that he's at the right hand of the Father on high. As many
as were started at thee, his visage was so marred more than
any man that his form more than the sons of men. This was a violent,
violent suffering that he went through at the hands of men.
And in those three hours of darkness, we don't know what he went through.
That's why God cut off the lights. Because the one thing about you
and I, we know nothing. And I mean, get this in your
head. When you see an earthquake, you say, oh my God's judging
us, God's wrath. You don't know anything about
God's wrath. I don't know anything about God's wrath. When God showed
His wrath, He covered up the sun so nobody could see how bad
it is. We don't have any idea. One man
knows. The man Christ Jesus. He alone
was the fellow of God who took the sword of justice and it was
plunged into his bosom. He alone knows that. Nobody else
knows anything. That sword has never come out
again. It came out one time in human history. 2,000 years ago
on Calvary Street. The sword of justice plunged
into the heart of our Savior. That's who I'm talking about.
That's who I'm talking about. Then in Isaiah chapter 53 in
verse 2 it says, his son's not a rock star. He's not a rock
star. For he shall grow up before him
as a tender plant and as a root out of dry ground and he has
no form nor comeliness and when we shall see him there is no
beauty that we should desire in him. Not like these pictures
you buy at Walmart. Just not like that. I don't know
who that Caucasian guy is. But he's got red hair. He kind
of looks like a... In fact, one time I was at Wal-Mart
a few years ago. And I'd been busting wood and
I was in an old flannel shirt and bib overalls and my beard
was pretty long. I hadn't trimmed it in a while.
My hair was kind of over my ears. Yeah, I was still a preacher.
But I looked like that and I was going to Wal-Mart. And this lady
was doing a spiel about selling some jewelry. And this woman
came up pushing a cart with two kids in the cart and one kid
outside the cart. And the kid looked back at me
and looked at his mom and he looked back at me and he said,
Mom, it's Jesus. He had seen the picture, you see.
And I didn't know what to do. I just put my hand on his head
and said, Bless your son. Jesus Christ was a Jewish man.
I don't know what he looked like, but I know this. You wouldn't
give him a second look and neither would I. There is no beauty in
him. no comeliness that men should
desire him. Verse 3 said he was a person
who appeared to be wore out all the time. He was 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. Not like that guy everybody likes
today, is it? If he showed up tonight here,
nobody would want to have anything to do with him because of his
physical appearance was such that he was not pleasant to look
upon. This one I'm talking about was no rock star. He was no rock
star. The weight that he bears is not
even his own. It's not even His own. Look at
verses 4 and 5. Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried
our sorrows. We did esteem Him smitten, stricken of God. But
He was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities.
And the chastisement of our peace that obtained our peace was upon
Him, and with His stripes we are healed. The weight that He
bears is not His own. He carries them, is acquainted
with them, is familiar with them, wears them. And He was wearing
them before the cross. He was wearing them when He sweat,
as it were, great drops of blood in Gethsemane when He cried unto
the Father. If it be possible, let this come pass from me. He
was worn down with our grief and our sorrows. We looked at
Him and said, man, He's sorrowful and full of grief. No, He's not.
We are. And our sins were laid upon Him.
That's imputation. Our sins were made to meet on
the Lord Jesus Christ. Despised and rejected on my behalf. on your behalf. The sins and
iniquities of His people were laid on Him as if He were guilty,
but He was not. He was not guilty. Then in verse
8, He has all this calamity to fall upon Him voluntarily for
His elect. It says in the last phrase, For
My people was He stricken and smitten of God and afflicted. For My people for the elect of
God. And then our Lord puts a yet
in the whole thing. Verse 10, Though he suffered
the worst that men could do, and he did. It says yet, it pleased the Lord to bruise
him. So when it talked about being
bruised for our iniquities, that's the bruising it's talking about.
It pleased the Lord to bruise him. It was the Lord who put
him to grieve. God said, I put him to grieve.
I laid all this on him. Now it was taken voluntarily
by the Lord Jesus Christ, but this was a transaction between
God the Father and God the Son. There's something else required
for God to be pleased, for it says it pleased the Lord. And
when it's talking about it, it means it satisfied him. It propitiated
God. He pleased the Lord, and it's
more to pleasing Him evidently than physical sufferings, because
thousands of lambs and bullocks had been slain and physically
suffered, and it never did anything. In fact, our Lord, when He was
accounting that which was done under the law in Hebrews chapter
10, He says, For it is not possible that the blood of boars and goats
should take away sins. Wherefore, when He cometh into
the world, He saith, Sacrifice an offering, and thou wouldst
not. But a body hast thou prepared,
Lord, in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin, thou hast
no pleasure, thou hast no satisfaction. Yet it satisfied the Lord to
bruise him. Satisfied the Lord. Why? Because
he did something that physical suffering can't do. And his physical
sufferings were awful. And they were real, and no man
suffered like him. But let me tell you, even though
Mel Gibson made a movie about it, his physical sufferings did
not save our soul. When he made his soul, what's
that? I give up. Don't ask me because
I don't fully understand. He made his soul an offering
for sin. His soul evidently was the requirement
that God be satisfied only by the offering of a man's soul. Nothing short of that would do,
because when the sins and iniquities of His people were laid on Him,
they were made to meet on Him before God, He must then, as
their representative, bear the penalty for sin. And Scripture
says the penalty for sin is death. The wages of sin is death, the
soul that sinneth it shall die. Now He never sinned. And yet
God treated Him as if He were the essence of sin, whatever
that is. He was not a sinner. He was sin. He was not corrupt. Before God,
He was corruption. I don't understand that. Can't
begin to understand it. But when He was made to be sin
for us, it's a lot bigger than anything we can come up with.
A lot bigger. He must bear the penalty for
sin. And that penalty is death. He
offered His soul and the sacrifice necessary to be paid what he
did and he paid what he did not owe and it was an unqualified
success for it says when I like that little word I like when
God puts those little prepositions and things you know what when
when when he had made his soul an offering for sin he shall
see his seed when Jesus Christ hung on that cross and agonies
and bloods his eyes were not fixed on that cross His heart
was not fixed on that cross. His mind was not fixed on that
cross. He's looking out through eternity and through time. And
He's seeing you. His eyes are on you. He's seeing
you. He's seeing His people. His seed. He would say later, Behold I
the children that thou hast given me. They're not ashamed to call
Him brethren. He said, For the joy set before
Him He endured the cross, discounting, disowning, disregarding the shame,
and is now sitting down on the right hand of the Father. He
saw His seed. His seed. Who are they? Well,
in chapter 1, they're called a remnant, according to the election
of grace. A remnant. That's all they were.
That's all they were. His seed. And it says, the pleasure,
the Lord's pleasure, And that's talking about His purpose, prospers
or succeeds in the hands of Christ. The pleasure of the Lord prospered
in His hand. What's the pleasure of the Lord?
Whatever He wants to do. Our Lord is in the heaven. He has
done whatsoever He has pleased, sayeth the scripture. Sayeth
the scripture. In Isaiah 46, it says He does
all His pleasure. In 1 Samuel 12, 22, it says it
pleased the Lord to make you His people. And in Luke 35 he said to his
people, or Luke 12 rather, he said to his people, Fear not,
little flock. It's the Lord's pleasure to give
you the kingdom. You reckon you got the kingdom?
I reckon you do. Because the Lord always does
His pleasure. Prospers and succeeds in His
hands. You see, God has put all things
in Christ's hands. Scott Richardson used to say,
All God's eggs are in one basket. And that's what it said. John
the Baptist said, God loves his son and he's put all things in
his hand. Now, if you're a thing or you're
a thing and I'm a thing, then we're all there. Everything's
there. They're all in his hand. And
he's given him authority over all flesh that he might give
eternal life to as many as God has given him. All those that
are in Christ's hands, among those are his elect and they
have been ordained to eternal life and they will believe and
they're in the Lord's hands and it's going to prosper. It's going
to be alright. And in verse 11 is a glorious representation
of the accomplishment of our Lord. The accomplishment of our
Lord's suffering and death. It says this, He shall see of
the travail of His soul. Don't forget that little word
of. Of the travail of His soul and
shall be satisfied. Shall be satisfied. By his knowledge
shall my righteous servant justify many, because or for he shall
bear their iniquities. He shall see of the travail of
his soul. You know what travail is? It's birth pains. Men don't
want to know anything about it. Secretly, women wish we did,
but we don't. Women who had children understand
the concept of travail. They understand that it's a great
pain that they can't explain what it is. They can't tell you
how bad it was. But it's bad. I saw Debbie have a contraction
one time when Sarah was born. They brought her out in the hall.
Back then, men couldn't go in the birth room. And that night,
32 babies were born, because it was a full moon. So the doctor
gave her a shot to slow her down. But they brought her out in the
hall. I said, hey, honey, how you feeling? She went. I said, roll
her back in. It was bad. It was bad. Travail. You know what travail
is? It's a perfect picture substitution.
Perfect picture. The pains of birth are suffered
by the mother. The child does not suffer at
all. That's substitution. Plain and simple. She suffers
that the child could live. That's why she suffers. Her suffering
issues the child into the land of the living. She does not suffer
for herself. She suffers for her child. This
is substitution. The second application is the
doctrine of the new birth. Christ travailed in his soul
and the result was that all for whom he suffered were born to
eternal life. Every one of them. The satisfaction of travail resides
solely and completely and only in a live birth. Only then can the travail be
called satisfactory. That's the meaning of the little
word of here. It means from. Here it means
that he is satisfied with what came from his travail. Everyone
for whom Christ's travail is born from above and lives forever in the presence of Almighty God
fully accepted because of what Christ did. The travail of Christ
has never known a miscarriage and thirdly In the travail of
Christ, or in the travail of a mother, the baby is entirely
passive. It's just shot out into the world.
The cold, cruel world. You mothers, why did y'all do
that to us? A cold, cruel world. Totally passive. You know when
they're born, they don't even know they're born. They're still asleep until somebody
shakes them or hits them on the fanny and makes them wake up
and cry that they don't know anything. Totally passive. They
don't ask their mother to be born. They don't counsel with
their parents to be born. They're just born. So is everyone that's
born of God. And it says, By His knowledge,
that is skill and expertise shall my righteous servant justify.
That means clear of any, clear of every sin. He shall justify
many for For or because he shall bear their iniquities. That's
why they're justified. He bore their iniquities. Those for whom
he bore their iniquities are justified. You can take it and
turn it around any way you want to, but that's it. For whom,
who, forever, who? Christ died. They're justified. Because he bore their iniquities.
Their iniquities have been borne away. They've been put away.
They've been cast behind God's back. They're as far as the east
is from the west. They're at the bottom of the sea. These
all metaphorical languages say they're nowhere. Our sins do
not exist before Almighty God, because they were born away by
Jesus Christ. Then in verse 12 is a declaration of the result
of Christ's accomplishment and precisely what He accomplished.
Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall
divide the small with the strong, refers to His exaltation. Back
in chapter 52 in verse 3 it says, Behold, my servant shall be deal
prudently, he shall be exalted, and he shall be very high. Our
brother just read it in the office while ago, Philippians chapter
2. Being found in the fashion of man who became obedient even
to the death of the cross, wherefore God has highly exalted him and
given him a name, a name that is above every name, that at
the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue confess
of things on earth, things in heaven, and things on earth,
that he's the Lord. to the glory of the Father. For
to this end He both died, rose, and revived, that He might be
the Lord of the living and the dead. And He is. He's the Lord. The word because here refers
to why He was exalted, and four things are set forth. He hath
poured out His soul unto death. And that's what we celebrate.
That's what we talk about. That's what happens when we preach
the gospel. Or we talk about abundant life. We talk about
the joy of life, we talk about eternal life, but that eternal
life happens because of a death. When we take the Lord's table,
we show forth His death until He comes again. When we go into
the baptismal waters, that pictures our death in Jesus Christ and
our resurrection in justification with Jesus Christ and even our
exaltation to sit in heavenly places in Jesus Christ. This
is a religion of death. Everybody is religion, everybody
else's religion is about life. Work hard to live a better life,
be a good person, have a better life. Ours is about death. Walk
into that small little 15 by 15 foot cubicle called the holiest
of all, the holy place. Isn't it all shiny and pretty
with ornate curtains? There's this thing that's got
a gold covering on it with two cherubims facing each other made
out of gold. It's made out of wood and there's
curtains in there. When you look, it's all stained
brown. Everything's brown. It smells
like copper. You know why? Ain't nothing happens
in there but death. The Lamb's blood is sprinkled
in there. all over the place. The priest
put it on himself. Everything, everything's covered
in blood. This is a religion of death and
we rejoice in it! Because he's exalted because
he poured out his soul unto death. Unto death. He did it. This is his doing. It's his pouring. It's his soul and it's his death.
All of it. Said he was numbered with the
transgressors. He died between two malefactors. He was numbered
with the transgressors when he was born into the likeness of
sinful flesh. Excuse me, he died under the
penalty of sin. He was numbered with the transgressors
when they took his name in a census, tax census for Rome. And it says
he bared the sins of many. How many? All of them. All of
the many, whoever they are. He has authority over all flesh
to give life to as many as God has given him. In Acts chapter
13, Paul's preaching to the Jews, telling them about Jesus Christ,
saying, by this man, you can be forgiven all sins which couldn't
be forgiven under the law now. And they said, we don't want
to hear that. We like them tables of stone. We like this priesthood.
We don't want to hear none of that. And he said, OK. All right. You don't think yourself worthy
of eternal life? I'm going to take this message to the Gentiles. Oh my
goodness. And the Jews got upset about
that, but not the Gentiles. They got happy. Now their happiness
in most part I think was the fact that the Jews finally got
their comeuppance. I really think that. And the
language kind of says that. But it says they rejoiced in
the word of the Lord. What Paul said. I'm taking it
to the Gentiles. They loved it. They rejoiced
in the word of the Lord. All of them rejoiced in the word
of the Lord. And then there's a caveat. There's a holy disclaimer. A holy disclaimer. You know what
a disclaimer is, don't you? It's when they tell you to take this
drug on TV. They say this will make you feel better and cure
your liver. But your brain may fall out. Your leg may fall off. That's the disclaimer. There's
a disclaimer. And all the Gentiles rejoice
to hear the word of the Lord. Here's the disclaimer. And as
many as were ordained to eternal life believe. Everyone! And that word prografo is not
proreso. Another word used for predestination.
This word is prografo. It means written to life. Written
word in the Lamb's Book of Life from the foundation of the world.
And we get to glory in that day of judgment. You know, a lot
of religious people say, oh, I'm afraid of that day. I'm afraid
that's going to happen. But you can see, if you're a
child of God, you're not going to be judged out of those books
that are opened up. That's for lost people. That's for hell. That's for Satan. That's for
the lake of fire. Another book's going to be opened. It's not
a book of judgment. James Ferguson Byrd. That's what it's going to be.
Your name. It's a roll call. You ain't going
to fear the judgment, because as Christ is, so are we in the
world. That's what the word says. But your name is going to be
called. And you're not going to hide. You're not going to
smell to see if you smell like sulfur. You're going to raise
your hand and say, well, here, Lord. You're not ashamed to call
me brother. I'm one of your children. as many as were written to life,
believed. And quickly. He said, He bared
the sins of many and made intercession for the transgressors. He made
intercession. He stood in their room and stayed.
That's what the scriptures teach. Who can lay anything Any charge
against the elect of God, it's God who justifies it. Who is
he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea,
rather is risen again, is even now making intercession for us
before God. He's our great intercessor. In
fact, his whole life was a life of intercession. You can't explain
him coming down here to this earth and leaving glory apart
from the concept of intercession. He did it for us. Then in chapter
54 in verse 1, it says, The Lord redeemed his people, and those
redeemed people shall sing with joy because of something they
had nothing to do with. Their salvation. Imagine that,
rejoicing in something that you didn't accomplish. That don't
seem right. It don't. But you see, there
is a way to see what's right in the men, but at the end of
those ways is the ways of death. This is right because God says
it's right. Sing, O barren. You mean I couldn't
produce anything? No, you're barren. Sing, O barren,
thou that did not bear. Break forth into singing, and
cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child. For more are the children of
the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the
Lord. You didn't have anything to do with your salvation. Nothing.
Zero, zilch, nada. You didn't have anything to do
with it. Religion, it said, no, it can't be, it can't be. And
we say, oh, yeah, oh, yeah. The elect said, that's how it
had to be. Because I couldn't do nothing. I was barren. I could
not travail. What a thought. Happy bunch of
crazy people about something you had nothing to do with. Verse 5, the elect of the
bride of Christ. Chapter 14 or chapter 54. For thy maker is thy husband. The Lord of hosts is his name.
And our Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, the God of the whole
earth, shall He be called. You're the bride of Christ. Ain't
not a shame, do you? You know why? Because there ain't
a spot in you, not a wrinkle or any such thing. If you're
here, you're without spot and without blemish, all together,
all together before God. Imagine that. He says unto you,
Thou art fair, my beloved. There is no spot in thee. Then in verse 13, the Lord said,
Thou shalt be taught of God. And what they shall be taught
will bring them to Christ. That's what it says in John 46
where this is quoted. For the Lord says it is written,
They shall all be taught of the Father. And all that have learned
and been taught of the Father come to the Lord Jesus Christ.
If God teaches you, that's where you're going to end up. And what
they are taught will persuade them that they have peace. You
see, peace has been published in the gospel. And we have peace. We have peace. Why? We have peace
because of the blood of the cross. Colossians 1.20. He had purchased
our peace by the blood of the cross. We have peace with God.
We're reconciled to God. God's not mad at us. God's not
standing around the corner waiting to thump us on the head if we
do something stupid. We're going to do stupid stuff.
Our heads would be mush if that were the case. Accept it. Accept it. There's no spot in me. We're
taught of the Father. Verse 14, the Lord's people will
be established in righteousness. It says, in righteousness shall
they be established. Thou shalt be far from oppression,
thou shalt not fear, or from terror, or for it shall not come
near thee. That's the promise of God. And
all the promises are yea and amen in the Lord Jesus Christ. Established in righteousness.
His righteousness. I'll quote this verse, though
our brothers are going to preach from it in a minute. I'll let
it be part of your text. He was made to be sin, who knew
no sin, that we might be made the very righteousness of God
in Him. And then verse 17 says, No weapon
that is formed against thee shall prosper in every tongue. that shall rise against thee
in judgment, thou shalt condemn." Thou shalt condemn. No weapon. That's what it means. People will come against you.
They'll draw out the sword of the law, they'll draw out the
cloak of religion, they'll do all those things, but they don't
matter. No weapon formed against you is going to prosper. This
is a promise to God's people. And not only that, They know
where their righteousness is. They know no doubt about that.
Their righteousness, it says, is of me, saith the Lord. Their righteousness is the Lord
Jesus Christ. There you have it. I've told
you about somebody and something he did and the result of what
he did. There you have it. What do you
think? What do you think? Do you need this? Does this make
you hungry or thirsty? Does it? Chapter 55, verse 1. Ho! Know what that word means? A little teeny word. It means
you are at the point. What does that mean? You've heard
the gospel. And we know it's a savor of life
and a savor of the dead. We know it smells good to some,
it smells bad to others. Oh, you're at the point. You've
heard the gospel. You've heard the gospel. Everyone that is at thirst, come
to the waters. He that hath no money, come ye
buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without
money, without price. If you need it, You're thirsty. Don't let nothing stand in your
way. God bless you.