Thank you very much. If Josh
had kept going with that introduction, I would have thought I was attending
my own funeral. It is an incredible joy to be
here. A special blessing to follow
my dear friend, Dr. Steve Lawson, and to talk about
the greatest person in the universe, the greatest subject of all subjects,
our Lord. Jesus Christ. No matter how much I study about
Christ or preach about Christ, He is utterly and completely
inexhaustible. So much of my life has focused
on the Gospels. About 25 years of my preaching
out of half a century has been through the Gospels. And many,
many years then going back to write commentaries on the four
Gospels. And of course, everything else
in the Bible points to Christ. The Old Testament anticipates
the coming of Christ. The Gospel records His arrival,
His life, and ministry. The book of Acts, the subject
is His Gospel being preached to the world. Then the epistles
explain the meaning of His life, death, resurrection, ascension,
and coronation. And the book of Revelation looks
forward to His second coming. So, this is the book about the
glorious Son of God. No matter what we say, we can
barely touch the hem of the garment of the glorious incarnate One. But for us on this occasion tonight,
I want to go to the first gospel, and it's not Matthew. It's Isaiah
53. So I want you to take your Bible
and turn to Isaiah 53. It has been called the first
gospel because it is the full account of the life of the servant
of Jehovah, the slave of Jehovah, the Messiah, the Son of God,
the Lord Jesus Christ. In my mind, Isaiah 53 not only
gives us the biography of Christ, but it is the single greatest
text. to verify and validate the divine
inspiration of the Bible. Isaiah 53 is the most comprehensive,
the most profound revelation of the significance of salvation
through the death of Christ anywhere in Holy Scripture. It has no
New Testament parallel. It is the greatest, most thorough
explanation of the theology of the atonement, substitutionary
atonement, vicarious atonement, sacrificial atonement. It explains
more concisely and thoroughly the meaning of the death of the
Messiah, the servant, the Son of God. It has no other parallel
in Scripture. It really is where we… are first
introduced to gospel language. In fact, the gospel language
of Isaiah 53 more precisely and briefly explains the meaning
of the gospel than any particular passage in the New Testament. wouldn't have the full understanding
that we do of the meaning of the death of Christ if we didn't
know what was said about his death 700 centuries before he
arrived. The 53rd chapter of Isaiah is
the source of many hymns that we sing, like, O sacred head
now wounded, like man of sorrows, alas, and did my Savior bleed. I lay my sins on Jesus. Hail, thou once despised Jesus,
stricken, smitten, and afflicted. What a friend we have in Jesus.
I was a wandering sheep, Christ triumphant, ever reigning. To
the spiritual, he never said a mumbling word. A song of love
unknown, when I survey the wondrous cross, oh, for a thousand tongues
to sing, crown Him with many crowns, what wondrous love is
this." All of that comes out of Isaiah 53, refers back to
it. Isaiah 53 has stunning predictions,
so special, so complex that only God could have authored this
seven centuries before it happened. A German commentator in 1866
said this, Isaiah 53 is the most central, the deepest, and the
loftiest text that prophecy has ever achieved. Luther said, this
text is so important, every Christian should memorize it. And I would
commend that to you. The New Testament writers refer
to almost every line in Isaiah 53. The scope of this chapter
is staggering. It sweeps from eternity past
to eternity future. It goes from the eternal Trinity
down to the Son's incarnation, the Son's humiliation, the son's
rejection, injustice, conviction, sentence, execution, resurrection,
ascension, intercession, exaltation, and coronation. It's all here.
It goes from before creation to the new creation in the eternal
kingdom. In fact, if all the New Testament
epistles were lost, There is sufficient revelation of the
gospel here to save sinners. It was Isaiah 53 that the eunuch
was reading when he ran into Philip in Acts 8. From that, Philip preached Jesus. This chapter is so clearly presenting
our Lord Jesus Christ that the Jews refuse to read it in their
regular synagogue readings. They skip over it. Isaiah 53
has been called the torture chamber of rabbis. Isaiah 53 has been called the
guilty conscience of the Jews. There is a riddle in the Old
Testament. It is the religious riddle of
all riddles, really. We can find it expressed in Exodus
chapter 34, and I pose it to you as the question that true
religion must answer. Here it is. Exodus 34.6, the Lord passed
by in front of him, in front of Moses, and proclaimed, The
Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger,
and abounding in loving kindness and truth, who keeps loving kindness
for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin, yet he
will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. Therein lies the ultimate question
of salvation. How can God be compassionate,
gracious, slow to anger, abounding in chesed, loving kindness, and
truth, and forgive sins, transgressions,
and iniquity, and still not leave the guilty unpunished? How can God be, in the language
of Paul, just and the justifier of sinners? There is the greatest
question that can ever be asked and answered.
How can a sinner be right with a holy God? This revelation from
God answers that most critical of all questions raised there
in Exodus 34. Isaiah 53 is the answer to that.
Now, all religion purports to answer the question, how can
those who offend God be made right with God? That is why religion
exists. It doesn't exist for its moral
values. It exists always to bridge the gap between those
who offend a deity and that deity so that the offenders can somehow
mitigate the hostility and the anger of the deity. All religion
purports to answer the question, how can a sinner be made right
with God? If religion answers that question
wrongly, it is demonic. It is hellish. All answers but this answer as
recorded in Isaiah 53 and the rest of Scripture are doctrines
of demons. This is the question that religion
must answer. How can sinners be made right
with God? A couple of more notes about
this chapter. It is enigmatic. We're actually
going to start in 52, verse 13. The chapter is enigmatic. It
is, first of all, horrifically sad. It is a chapter of crushing
sorrow. It is a chapter that produces
immense grief, overwhelming grief, profound grief, without historical
parallel. The grief that is being expressed
in this chapter is the greatest expression of grief in all of
redemptive history. It exceeds any other scene in
the Old Testament or the New Testament for its sorrow. It
is heartbreaking. But secondly, this chapter is
gloriously joyous, and therein lies its enigmatic character.
It is a revelation of incomparable joy and unparalleled blessing. In the wonderful design of God,
he gave this revelation to Isaiah. And in a special providence in
the organization of the book of Isaiah, he put it in the very
heart of this book. There are five chapters, 49,
50, 52, or 49, 50, actually go back to 42, 42, 49, 50, 52, 53, that all introduce the slave
of Jehovah, the servant of Jehovah, the Messiah. This chapter is
the most detailed revelation of the servant of God or the
slave of Jehovah. Now, in Isaiah, like the Bible,
there is a division. There are 39 chapters of judgment
and 27 chapters of salvation. So, it's broken down in that
sense, like the Old Testament and the New Testament, 39 and
27. In the 27 chapters that look at salvation, there are three
sections of nine, nine, nine, and nine. There is the first
of the nine chapters in the second section deals with the salvation
of Israel in the world, Israel's deliverance, Israel's preservation. The last nine chapters deal with
the creation of salvation in its fullest and final sense,
ending up in the new heaven and the new earth. So you have the
salvation of Israel, the salvation of the world. In the middle nine
chapters, you have personal salvation, the salvation that Messiah brings
to the human heart. In the middle of that last section
is chapter 53. And in the middle of chapter
53, the very center of 53, are verses 4 through 6, which define the substitutionary,
vicarious atonement of Jesus Christ. It's as if the Holy Spirit
providentially took the book of Isaiah and just funneled it
down to the most salient verses related to the gospel. It is a masterpiece of divine
inspiration and revelation, and it is a wonder of providence
as well. Now, clearly, it's about the
Lord Jesus Christ, but it is not a prediction of His coming. That might surprise you, but
I'll show you why we know that. It is not a prediction of His
coming, and you'll see that. So let's begin with those thoughts
in mind back in chapter 52, verse 13, with the startling slave
of Jehovah. And here we begin to see the
enigma in this person. Behold, my servant will prosper.
He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted, just as
many were astonished at you, my people. So his appearance
was marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons
of men. Thus he will startle," better
translation, many nations, kings will shut their mouths on account
of him, for what had not been told them they will see, and
what they had not heard they will understand. Now, here you
have, before you get to chapter 53, a divine introduction. This is the first person, and
this is God speaking. Behold, my servant, the Messiah. This is God. God is introducing
this prophecy and telling us it is about the servant of Jehovah. And he describes, first of all,
the astonishing revelation of the servant of Jehovah. Here's
the first thing we learn. He will prosper. He will succeed. He will accomplish God's purpose. We see also in verse 13 that
he will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted. That language
is very specific. That is the same exact language
as Isaiah 6. And the same three Hebrew words
in Isaiah 6 refer to God, high and lifted up on His throne.
Exact same language describing God in Isaiah 6, here is used
to describe the servant of Jehovah, the Son of God, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And even the New Testament writers
tell us that even in Isaiah 6, the vision of God was a vision
of the Son as well. So we learn that the servant
of the Lord will succeed, and the servant of the Lord will
be God. We quickly learn also not only
about an astonishing revelation, but an astonishing humiliation.
Just as many were astonished at you, my people, following
the story of Israel was a pretty astonishing thing in itself.
So His appearance was marred more than any man and His form
more than the sons of men." Now we know that He is not only God,
as clearly laid out by the language of verse 13, but He is a man,
and He is a man who is humiliated down to the level where He is
marred more than any man. How is it that Jesus is marred
more than any man, scarred, wounded, degraded in His form? more than
the sons of men. No one has ever sunk as low as
he has." That is a startling and enigmatic way to compare
that with the previous verse. He will be disfigured. He will
be distorted. He will be repulsive. He will
be at the level of no other human being in terms of his debasement. Then in verse 15, the enigma
continues, he is exalted. He will startle many nations.
Kings will shut their mouths on account of him. He will silence
the monarchs of the world. For what had not been told them,
they will see. What they had not heard, they
will understand. Comes as God, comes as man, he is lowered to
the lowest and most devast level more than any other human being
who ever lived. And yet, he takes over the entire
world and astonishes the kings of the world. Read Psalm 2. This is an astonishing prophecy
of the glory of Christ, the humiliation of Christ, and the glorification
of Christ. As God, he becomes man, is humiliated,
and then reigns over the entire creation. Equal to God, yet humbled
like no one else, and yet exalted over all. This is God's personal
introduction to the servant, the Messiah. Who is he? Well, now we come
to chapter 53. Just listen to this language.
Who has believed our message? To whom has the arm of the Lord
been revealed? For he grew up before him like a tender shoot
and like a root out of parched ground. He has no stately form
or majesty that we should look upon him nor appearance that
we should be attracted to him. He was despised and forsaken
of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And like
one from whom men hide their face, he was despised and we
did not esteem him. Surely our griefs he himself
bore. And our sorrows he carried, yet
we ourselves esteemed him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
But he was pierced through for our transgressions, he was crushed
for our iniquities. The chastening for our well-being
fell upon him, and by his scourging we are healed. All of us, like
sheep, have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his
own way, but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall
on him. He was oppressed and he was afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth like a lamb that is led to slaughter
and like a sheep that is silent before its shearer, so he did
not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment, he
was taken away. And as for his generation, who
considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living
for the transgression of my people to whom the stroke was due? His
grave was assigned with wicked men. Yet he was with a rich man
in his death, because he had done no violence, nor was there
any deceit in his mouth. But the Lord was pleased to crush
him, putting him to grief, if he would render himself as a
guilt offering. He will see his offspring, he
will prolong his days, and the good pleasure of the Lord will
prosper in his hands. As a result of the anguish of
his soul, he will see it and be satisfied." I'm going to stop
there. This is the most comprehensive
revelation of the Messiah on the pages of the Old Testament.
It's literally overwhelming. But it's not a prophecy of his
life and death, though they are features in this revelation. Why do I say that? Please notice,
we went from God speaking in verses 13 to 15 to another speaker
starting in verse 1, and it's plural. So we have a group speaking,
who has believed our messages, we, our, us, the pronouns all
of a sudden become plural. There's another startling reality
here, and that is that the verbs are not in the future tense.
It doesn't say, we will not believe the message He brings us. We
will not acknowledge the arm of the Lord. He will grow up
like a tenor shoot?" No, no future verbs are here. They're all past
tense. They're all past tense. Who is
speaking? And why are they speaking in
the past tense? The answer is this, Israel is
speaking. Not the Israel of old, and not the present Israel, but
a future Israel. What is that to say? Listen to
the prophecy of Zechariah chapter 12 and verse 10 and following. Here is the prophecy of the future
salvation of Israel. We should be familiar with it. If I can find the page here.
Chapter 12 and verse 10, I will pour out on the house of David
in the future and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace
and of supplication, and then this, so they will look on me
whom they have pierced. Future prediction of Israel's
salvation. The house of David, the inhabitants
of Jerusalem, The Spirit of grace and supplication, they will look
on me whom they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as
one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over
him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn. In that day, there
will be great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning of Hadad Ramon
on the plain of Megiddo. The land will mourn, every family
by itself, the family of the house of David by itself and
their wives by themselves, family of the house of Nathan by itself
and their wives by themselves, the family of the house of Levi
by itself and their wives by themselves, family of the Shimeites
by itself and their wives by themselves, all the families
that remain, every family by itself and their wives by themselves. In that day, chapter 13, verse
1, a fountain will be opened for the house of David and for
the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for impurity. That's a prophecy of the salvation
of Israel. That's a prophecy of the future
salvation of Israel. The time is going to come in
the future when they look on the one they pierced and mourn
for him as an only son. This prophecy, back to Isaiah
53, looks at that event. It looks forward to the repentance
of Israel in the future, and it is Israel that looks back
and says, he was pierced for our transgressions. This looks at the future salvation
of Israel. That is why this is so terrifyingly,
tragically sad, because that has not happened, which means
generation after generation after generation of Jews have passed
into eternity in full rejection of the Messiah. The sorrow bound up in this event
in the future, will be the sorrow of human history, the sorrow
of the ages and ages and ages and ages of Jewish rejection
of God and His Messiah. The sadness of looking back at
the centuries and the rejection of the blessed Messiah. In that day, the repentance,
as Zechariah says, will sweep across Israel. And these will be their words.
This is the salvation confession of a future generation of Jews
who will be brought to salvation when God fulfills His promise
to bring the new covenant of salvation as Ezekiel and Jeremiah
promised to the people of Israel. This is what they will say. Let's
listen to this confession. Here's what they'll say. Verse
1, who has believed literally the message given to us? To whom
has the arm of the Lord been revealed? What they're going
to say to begin with is this, who believed it? Who believed
the report that came to us from the prophets all the way to John
the Baptist? From the Son of God himself,
God who spoke Hebrews 1, many ways, who then spoke in his Son. But who believed it? And who
saw the revelation of the arm of the Lord? The arm of the Lord
is the strength and power of God, referred to back in chapter
52, verse 10. Jesus came not only with a revelation
from God about himself, but he came with power from God. And
what they're saying is nobody believed the message. This is
the beginning of their confession. We didn't believe, our people
didn't believe, and they continued in unbelief. And no matter what
he did by way of miracle power, they didn't see in it the arm
of the Lord. Why? Why so many centuries Millennia
of rejection. Why? Well, first of all, because
of his contemptuous origin. Look at verse 2. For he grew
up before him like a tender shoot. Tender shoot is a sucker branch. He was like a sucker branch.
He was a nothing. He was like that sucker branch.
that a farmer whacks off the tree because all it does is suck
up fruitless life. Sucker branch. He was also like a dry root in
the ground, a root out of parched ground that's only going to trip
somebody up and cause somebody to fall and be injured. with
no stately birth, with no social status. He was an absolute, utter
nobody from Nazareth. Is not this the carpenter, the
son of Joseph and Mary? This is a sucker branch. This
is a dry root. He had contemptible origins,
nothing noble about his origin. He had a contemptible appearance.
He had no stately form or majesty. that we should look upon Him.
He certainly didn't have a medieval halo over His head. There was nothing about His appearance
that we would be attracted to Him. No royal birth, no royal
bearing, no majesty, common, lowly. He was nothing. He was
nobody. That is not what they thought
the Messiah would be when He came. He had a contemptible origin. He had a contemptible appearance.
And he actually had a contemptible life. Look at verse 3, he was
despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. And like one from whom men hide
their face, he was despised and we did not esteem him. He was irrelevant. He was more
than that, he was repulsive. It says twice that he was despised. treated with hatred. That hatred has continued through
Jewish history. You go a little further into
the writings of the Jews, and you read that the name Yeshua,
Jesus, was changed in Jewish literature to Yeshu. That's an
acrostic meaning, let his name be blotted out. He is called
in Jewish literature, the transgressor. He is called Telui, the hanged
one. He is called Yeshua Ben-Panera,
the illegitimate son of a Roman soldier who got a Jewish girl
pregnant. He was despised and forsaken
of men. Ben Yish, men of nobility, men
of renown, men of power, men of rank, the leaders of Israel. None of the power elite, in fact,
the power elite said he did what he did by the power of Beelzebub.
They killed him. They killed his followers. It
is ludicrous to assume that this was, in fact, the Messiah. And by the way, they didn't need
a suffering Messiah. They were righteous in their
own works. So the sum of it is, at the end
of verse 3, we didn't esteem Him. He didn't exist. He had no place
in our world. In the future, Israel will look
back and they will confess their utter rejection of Christ. He didn't fit their messianic
view. He didn't fit it. Still the way it is. I had an
interview on a number of years ago now, can't
think just exactly how many years with Ben Shapiro, and he had
the same idea. It's unacceptable that Jesus
could possibly be the long-awaited Messiah of Israel. That's where
their confession begins. He didn't fit our Messianic theology. We weren't looking for a Savior. We didn't need a Savior. But in the future, their eyes
will be opened, and they will look back on the one who came
to be that Savior. After that deep and crushing
admission, after that repentance comes faith in verses 4 to 6.
Now we see it. Look at verse 4. Surely our griefs,
referring to outward calamities, He bore. Our sorrows, referring
to inward pain, He carried. He was carrying our griefs. He was carrying our sorrows.
And yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God,
and afflicted. We thought God was punishing
Him for being a blasphemer. Stricken means to hit violently. Smitten, to beat even to death. afflicted, debased, and degraded. And we thought we were doing
God's work. We thought we were the instruments
of God to strike Him, smite Him, and afflict Him. But it's a very important transition
in verse 5. Now we see. He wasn't put to death because
He was a blasphemer. He was pierced through for our
transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The chastening for our well-being
fell upon Him, and by His scourging, we are healed. This is the confession,
pierced, as specifically it says the Messiah would be in Psalm
22. Crushed, which means trampled,
chastened, which is the only Hebrew word for punished. He
was pierced and crushed and punished for our transgressions, for our
iniquities. This is the great confession
that Israel will one day make. It all happened as chastening for our well-being,
not His, as scourging for our healing. This is the revelation
that will come to Israel and is the saving revelation that
comes to every sinner when they are converted. And it is this,
that Jesus died in our place. Every sinner has to see that
to be saved. Every sinner has to recognize that my griefs and
my sorrows are the result of my transgressions and my iniquities,
my violations, that's the word transgression, my iniquities,
my perversions, and recognize that for those,
Christ was stricken, smitten, afflicted, pierced, crushed,
and punished. There is no more complete description
of substitutionary vicarious atonement anywhere on the pages
of Scripture. That was all for our sinful deeds. But look, there's more in verse
6. We have a problem underlying our sinful deeds. Verse 6, all
of us like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his
own way, but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall
on him. Here, he's not talking about our deeds, he's talking
about our nature. And he moves to this issue of nature by using
sheep as an illustration. Sheep go astray. That's their
nature. Not only do we have behavior
problems, we have nature problems. We have nature problems. Psalm
51, I was basically conceived and born in iniquity. Placed on Jesus in his death
were not only my transgressions and my perversions and my sins,
but my sin nature. which essentially means that
from the time I'm born until I die, sin will be a reality
in my life to some degree. All of that, all that my nature
is in its fallenness, all the behaviors of my life, God caused to fall on Him. This is how you have to understand
the cross. When Israel repents in the future
and when they look on the one whom they've pierced and they
start to mourn, and out of their mourning comes the truths of
Isaiah 53, they will be accurate in their soteriology. They will understand that the
death of Jesus Christ was a substitutionary vicarious death God made him
who knew no sin to be sin for us. This is a startling servant,
a scorned servant, and the substitute. There's more in verse 7. A submissive
servant. He was oppressed, which speaks
of his illegal trial. Literally in Hebrew, he allowed
himself to be abused. He allowed himself to be abused. This is the very likely reference
to his beating with scourges. He allowed that pre-cross abuse. And through it all, he didn't
open his mouth. He was silent. He didn't speak. He said, no
one takes my life from me. I lay it down of myself. He did
not speak. He was silent, did not open his
mouth. He was led like a sheep to slaughter. I've had the occasion in New
Zealand to watch sheep go to slaughter silently. Christ before his accusers, silent. Innocent people always protest. He was silent. In the Talmud,
it says that the Jews didn't crucify Jesus for 40 days after
their trial because they gave 40 days for anyone to come and
speak in his defense, and no one came in 40 days. That's a
lie. That's a lie. He was taken away
by oppression and judgment. He went immediately from oppression
and illegal trial, to judgment, a verdict, to being taken away
and then being cut off. There were no 40 days. He went from arrest and sentence
to execution. Why? The end of verse 8, for
the transgression of my people to whom the stroke was due. You
should never ever have to be confused about the substitutionary
vicarious atoning death of Jesus Christ in the place of sinners. He became sin for us who knew
no sin. Verse 9 describes his burial,
his grave. He went to a grave. As a criminal,
he should have been thrown into Gehenna and just burned with
the trash. But his grave was assigned with wicked men. That's
where it should have been. What that means is he was assigned
to go where the criminals go, take them down off the cross
and throw them in the burning fires of Gehenna, where criminals and dead animals
go. But Psalm 16, it also said about
him that his flesh would never see corruption. And so, in the
purposes of God, he was assigned to die in the trash heap, yet he was with a rich man in
his death. Who's that? Matthew 27, Joseph of Arimathea
came and claimed his body, Luke 23, because he had done no violence,
nor was there any deceit in his mouth." That's the first positive
word in this chapter. This is the first time things
start going in the direction that we think they should. This
is the first time there's any relief from the horrible, unbelievable,
incomprehensible, unparalleled sadness because he had done no violence.
There was no deceit in his mouth. He was perfectly sinless, and
this is the first step upward. Verse 10, the Lord was pleased,
not pleased with the agony, not pleased with the suffering, but
pleased with the atonement. The Lord was pleased to crush
him, putting him to grief. The devil didn't kill Jesus.
Jews didn't kill Jesus. Romans didn't kill Jesus. God
killed him. God killed him by loading him
up with all the sins of all the peoples or all of human history
who would ever be redeemed. And he paid the penalty in full
for all those sins. He took the full wrath of God
for all the sins of all who would ever believe, and he did it in
a period of darkness of about three hours. And you ask, how
could he absorb eternal punishment for all the people who have ever
believed through all of human history and do it in three hours?
And the answer is because he's an infinite person. But when it was over, it was
over. And he was not going to wind up on the dump because he
had done no violence, there was no deceit in his mouth. He didn't
become a sinner as some of the charismatic preachers have said
through the years. He didn't become a sinner. He was as pure, sinless, holy,
harmless, and undefiled on the cross as he was before and after.
The Lord was pleased to crush him putting him to grief, and
I love this, because he would render himself as a guilt offering,
a satisfaction, a propitiation. He rendered himself as a guilt
offering. In other words, God was propitiated. God was satisfied. God was satisfied. He did not die a martyr's death
under grace. He died a sinner's death under
law. In order that He might pay in
full the penalty for our sins, He was a guilt offering, and
that guilt offering satisfied God. And then in the middle of verse
10, there is a shocking statement. He will see His offspring. He
will prolong His days. and the good pleasure of the
Lord will prosper in his hand." You have him dead, crushed as a guilt offering. What do you mean he will see
his offspring? Quite a statement. Think about that. Now that I'm
at the age I'm at, and the Lord is giving us another generation
of precious little children, I have three little great-grandsons
from a couple of months to almost two. I look into their little
faces, and I hold them in my arms, and I wonder what their
life will become. I'll never see the fulfillment
of their life. People often say to me, this
is really a sad time for them to be born. And my response is,
no, it's not. It's God's time for them to be born. He has a
purpose for them. I will only see my offspring
if they come to heaven. So far, the Lord has been very
gracious with our family, but I don't have any guarantee that
I'm going to see my offspring. The only way Jesus could see
his offspring would be a resurrection, right? A resurrection. He will be raised. That's the
implication. He will see his offspring. He
will prolong his days. Therein is the resurrection. He will see every successive
generation of his beloved, redeemed children. And the good pleasure
of the Lord will prosper in his hand. That is the affirmation of the
resurrection. So we have gone from seeing the Son of God high and
lifted up in chapter 52, verse 13, as He was on the throne of
Isaiah 6. We've come down to His incarnation. We've seen His life and His rejection. We've seen His trial. We've seen His sentence. We've
seen His death. We've seen His resurrection. And now we hear that God is pleased,
and by God's good pleasure, Christ will prosper. But there's
more. Not only is God satisfied, look
at verse 11. As a result of the anguish of
his soul, he will see and be satisfied. Writer of Hebrews
says, he went to the cross, endured the cross for the joy that was
set before him. What is the joy that was set
before him? His offspring. His soul is satisfied
eternally. He will be surrounded by those
he purchased in his death. full satisfaction, which is to
say that Christ will spend eternity with all whom He has redeemed. No one will fall through the
cracks. All that the Father gives to me will come to me and I will
lose none, but raise them all in the last day. And then this marvelous confession
ends. Halfway through verse 11, and
God speaks. By his knowledge, the righteous
one, my servant will justify the many as he will bear their
iniquities. God affirms substitutionary vicarious
atonement. This is now God speaking again
as he did at the start. identifying the righteous one,
my servant, my slave, the Messiah. God is satisfied, Christ is satisfied,
and many will be justified by the knowledge of the righteous
one, the Lord Jesus Christ. There's no salvation in any other
name. And God sovereignly rewards him. Verse 12, I will allot him a
portion with the great. He will divide the booty with
the strong. In other words, I will lavish on him all the fullness
of my inheritance, and along with him all those who belong
to him, all the joint heirs, because he poured out himself
to death. He was numbered with the transgressors.
That doesn't mean He was crucified in the middle of two thieves.
That means He was counted with the transgressors by bearing
the sins of all whose sins were placed on Him and whose punishment
He endured. That's what comes next. What
does it mean He was numbered with the transgressors? It means
He bore the sin of many and interceded for the transgressors. There
you have the ascension of Christ. He receives a portion with the
great. He is exalted. You have the coronation of Christ,
which was alluded to back in verse 15, where He will come
to startle many and He will reign as King of kings and Lord of
lords. This is God's divine affirmation
of the salvation confession from verse 1 to the middle of verse
11. So here, as I said at the very
beginning, you have the first gospel. And by the way, in verse 12,
I will allot him a portion with the great, literally the many,
the many, those who have been redeemed, He will divide the booty with
the strong, or He will divide His portion with the redeemed. So, the section of Scripture
we've looked at goes from heaven to earth to heaven, from glory
to shame to glory, from life to death to life, for us. And one day, one day,
for the nation Israel, and God will keep that promise. And I
say, hallelujah, what a Savior. Amen? Let's pray. Father, we acknowledge that this
is overwhelming to us. the veracity of Scripture, laying
out the details of the life of Christ, seven centuries before
he was ever born, that describes the meaning of his death and
resurrection, that describes the necessary
confession the sinner must make and the affirmation of the way
of salvation through the substitutionary atonement of the blessed servant
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for the glory of your
gospel. I thank you, Lord, that perhaps
more than in the past, this chapter is circulating among Jewish people
in Israel. Thank you, Lord, for giving them the gift of this
chapter in this generation. And we would pray for the salvation
of Israel. But until that day in your plan,
we pray that this same confession will be made by sinners worldwide,
that you will use us to proclaim it, that they will come to the
one whom they rejected, confess their rejection, and embrace
him as the one who died in their place and rose for their eternal
life. Thank you for the glory of your
word, which literally overwhelms us with its supernatural character. May we love the truth written
and the truth incarnate. and proclaim both for your glory. Amen.