Now this evening, we're going
to take a look at Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53, and the whole chapter
is about Christ and Him crucified. It's about Christ, our substitute.
Christ, our substitute. Who needs a substitute? We do.
were sinners, our substitute satisfied God in every way. Satisfied the law of God, as
I've often said. Every precept of the law, he
magnified it. He honored the law of God. Every
precept of that law, seven, eight hundred precepts they say of
that law, he magnified every one of them. His obedience unto
death, unto the law, honoring all those precepts is our righteousness
before God. He established that for us. And
then the Lord Jesus Christ dies for our sin as our substitute. And we can't put away our sin.
I can't make an atonement for our sin, and I can't make an
atonement for your sin, nor can you. The blood of bulls and goats
cannot put away sin. But the sacrifice of this one
man, one sacrifice, perfected forever them that are sanctified
by that one offering. That one offering is the Lord
Jesus Christ who put away our sin. Isaiah and all the prophets,
they all bear witness to the Lord Jesus Christ, who He is
and what He's done. Now, we begin with the question,
who? Who hath believed this doctrine
of substitution satisfaction? Who hath believed this report?
Now, this is not the report of Isaiah. Isaiah pens the words,
but he's just a reporter. He's just reporting the facts
that God gives him. about the coming of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And the marginal reference on
that word report is doctrine. In other words, the question
is this, who had believed the doctrine of God, the gospel of
God, concerning the Lord Jesus Christ? Who believed that report? As many as were ordained to eternal
life. What'd they do? They believed.
They believed the gospel. We only believe the gospel according
to the working of his mighty power. The gospel comes to us
by revelation. God reveals, he takes the word
of God through the power of God the Holy Spirit. He takes the
things of God and reveals them unto us. So who hath believed
this report? His elect, his chosen, those
to whom he is pleased to reveal himself. unto us, and then to
whom, to who, who believed this report? His elect. To whom is
the power, that word there, arm, is power. To whom is the power
of the Lord revealed? He's hid these things from the
wise and prudent and revealed them unto his babes. The gospel doesn't come by, knowing
the gospel doesn't come by education. It comes by revelation. He has
to take the things, the Holy Spirit has to take the things
of Christ and then show them to us, reveal them to us. The
carnal mind will not receive the things of God. The natural
man, Christ crucified as a substitute, Paul called that foolishness.
The preaching of the cross to those who are perishing. Foolishness! But unto us which are saved,
it's the power of God, the wisdom of God, the glory of God. So
who has believed our report? Well, not many. But I'm glad
that it says not any, because His people do. We believe according
to the working of His mighty power. The arm of the Lord, the
power of the Lord has been revealed unto us. And the gospel we know
is called what? What did Paul call it when he
said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel? The power of God and
the salvation. It's the power of God. And we
need, we need, our God is not, not weak and impotent. We're
weak and impotent. Our God has all power. All power,
he said, is given to me in heaven and earth. The Father had given
him power over all flesh. You remember his prayer in John
17, 2? The Father had given him power over all flesh, that he
should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. Now, verse 2 talks about the
coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah that was
promised all the way back in Genesis chapter 3, the woman
seed. that would bruise a serpent's
head. And the Lord Jesus Christ, when he was manifest in the flesh,
there in Bethlehem as the babe, for he shall grow up before him
as a tender plant. He was a little, tiny, helpless
infant They're laying in a manger. He shall grow up before Him as
a tender plant. The Lord Jesus Christ was a real
man. He remained what He was. He remained
what He was. Eternal, holy, infinite, sovereign
God and became what He was not. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. He was a real man. You remember
we studied it 1 Timothy chapter 3, without controversy,
great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. That's who this one is, and that's
what gives power and glory and merit to everything he did. He
said, when you've seen me, you've seen the Father. I am my Father
and one. So, he shall grow up before him
as a tender plant, as a root out of a dry ground. He hath
no form. no comeliness, no beauty, and
when we see him, there's no beauty that we should desire him. The
Lord Jesus Christ. Now, we see these pictures, and
Hollywood makes movies about biblical times, and they sort
of portray this man, Jesus of Nazareth, as some kind of special-looking
man, or had a special-looking appearance about him. He was
an ordinary man. He was an ordinary man. And when
we see him, naturally speaking, there's no beauty. There's no
beauty in him. There's no glory in him. Just naturally looking at him.
You remember Potip brought him forth before that crowd and said,
behold your king? There he is. Remember what they
said? We don't have no king. Away with him. We have no king
but Caesar. So they saw no beauty in him
at all. But those who believe the gospel,
he is altogether lovely. We see his beauty, don't we?
By his revelation, we see the beauty of his person, who he
is. God Almighty. We see the beauty of his humility. Although he thought it not robbery
to be equal with God, he took upon himself the form of a servant. That's the beauty of his humility.
We see the beauty of his obedience even unto death. We see the beauty
of his faithfulness, but by nature we don't see that. There's no
beauty in him at all that we should desire him. You know what
he does when God convicts us of our sin? He shows us that
he is altogether lovely, and he makes himself to us irresistible. He has irresistible beauty to
those to whom he calls. To you who believe, he is precious. And when He makes us willing
in the day of His power, He shows His real beauty unto us, and
we desire Him. We desire to be one with Him.
We love Him, bow to Him, believe Him, submit to Him as everything
in salvation. Now, He came unto His own, and
His own received Him not. Verse 3, He despised, He despised
and rejected of men. Now that was true in that day.
It's true in our day too. I'm not talking about this peanut
God, this peanut Jesus, this Jesus that religious people talk
about. That's another. Paul called it
another Jesus. He talked about the sovereign
Christ of God. The Lord Jesus Christ who does
what he will, with whom he will, when he will, the sovereign Christ
of God that cannot fail, that does all God's pleasure whatsoever
the Lord please, that's what he does. Men by nature despise
and reject that Savior. Left to ourselves now. That's
true. The carnal mind, and the reason
behind that is our depravity. The carnal mind is enmity against
God. That word enmity, you remember
Romans 8, 7, is deep-seated, deep-rooted hatred. He's despised
and rejected. They said, away with that man.
Give us Barabbas. Crucify him. Give us Barabbas. And then it says there, he's
a man of sorrows. Now, we don't know anything about
the kind of sorrow that the Lord Jesus Christ endured. I mean,
the apostles had some measure of sorrow, but nobody, he was
a man of sorrow. Tempted and tested like in all
points, like as we are yet without sin. God had one son without
sin. He's a sinless one. had no son
without sorrow. He's a man of sorrows. And he's
acquainted, he's acquainted with our grief. He's acquainted with
grief. He knows what it is to be really
tempted. The devil tempted him like we've
never been tempted. The devil hounded him for 40
days and found nothing in him. But he was a man of sorrows.
He was acquainted with grief. He was a man of sorrows all his
life. Those 33 years that he lived
among men as a God-man mediator, he knew sorrow after sorrow after
sorrow and very well acquainted with grief. Not only on the cross,
but prior to that, he was hated and hunted and pounded, persecuted,
and we hid, as it were, our faces from him. He was despised and
we esteemed him not. Now that's our natural estimation
of what every man thinks of the true Christ of God. We don't
esteem him. We ridicule him. We say away
with him. He truly was despised among men,
wasn't he? They called him a winebibber.
They called him a gluttonous man. They called him, they said,
you're the prince of devils. when he said, I am my father,
one. They said, well, who are you? You're that carpenter from Nazareth,
and you call yourself God, one with God? He was despised among
men, and it says there, we esteemed him not. Left to ourselves, even yet today,
we would despise him, reject him, and we would not esteem
him. Would we? We would not worship
Him as God. We worship the Lord Jesus Christ
as God. Because He is. He is. Now look at verse 4. Look at
verse 4. Surely, truly, only, He hath
borne our griefs. Now He's carrying our grief,
our sorrow. We did esteem him stricken, smitten
of God, and afflicted. The reason behind his suffering
and griefs, and here we see the heartbeat of the gospel, he suffered
for his people, carrying their burdens, their sin, their guilt,
and their iniquity. Peter writes about it this way,
he bare our sin in his own body on the tree. God made Him to
be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. He was smitten of God, afflicted,
because our sin was laid on Him. Our sin was laid on Him. It says
that in the last part of verse 6. The Lord laid on Him the iniquity
of us all. The Lord laid on Him our sin,
our iniquity. And then it says down in the
last part of verse 12, He bared the sin of many. He bears the
sin of many. So the reason He's afflicted
and smitten of God is because He's carrying our sin. The Lord
made Him to be sin for us. The Lord Jesus Christ died as
a sinner's substitute for His people and made complete atonement
and satisfaction for their sin. God said, so complete and total
was the atonement, the blood atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ,
that He says, about the people, the elect of God. He said, their
sin and their iniquity will I remember no more. You remember Psalm 103,
as far as the east is from the west, so far has He separated
our sin from us. So He fully and totally made
complete satisfaction as our substitute. Those two key words.
My pastor used to say, learn those two words and you'll learn
the gospel. Substitution, satisfaction. He satisfied God's law and justice
on our behalf. You see, God demands a payment. Justice has to be satisfied. He's not, our God is not an unjust
judge. Now, even over here in the courthouse,
if a judge acts contrary to the law and sets a guilty man free,
he would be unjust, wouldn't he? But our God, when He saves
sinners, He does it in a way that honors His justice because
the Lord Jesus Christ paid our sin debt. Therefore, He can be
just and the justifier. He can be a just God and Savior.
That's the beauty of the gospel. Surely He hath borne our grief,
carried our sorrow, yet left to ourselves. We wouldn't esteem
Him. We did esteem Him stricken and
smitten of God and afflicted. And certainly He was afflicted
of God. It says that in verse 10, yet
it pleased the Lord to bruise Him. With this stripes we are
healed. You see that in verse five? He
was wounded for our transgression. Now he had no sin of his own.
He's a spotless lamb of God. The only reason he's wounded
for sin is because our transgression were made to be his. He was wounded,
bruised for our transgression. He was bruised for our iniquities. Our transgressions are against
God. Our iniquities, our sin is against
God. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him and with his stripes we are healed. We are healed. Now he's not talking about physical
healing. He's talking about spiritual healing. He made peace for us. He made peace with God. How did
he make peace? With his own blood. He made peace
for us with his own blood and with his crucifixion, with his
suffering, with his satisfaction, with his substitutionary work
for us, we are healed. In Him dwells all the fullness
of a Godhead bodily, and we are complete in Him. Completely healed. We're completely made righteous.
We're completely, we have our sin completely, totally, fully
put away. We're healed. by the atonement
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Having took away our sin, he
was delivered for our offenses and raised again because he justified
us. Therefore, being justified by
faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now look at verse six. Oh, we like sheep. The sheep
went astray. We went astray as soon as we
were born. You remember the psalmist said, as soon as we were born,
we went astray, speaking lies. We were born lost. We were born
dead in sin. All we like sheep. Now, we are
his sheep. We are the people of his pasture
and the sheep of his hand. All we like sheep have gone astray. In Adam we died. In Adam we sinned. We've all sinned to come short
of the glory of God. And we've turned everyone to
His own way. I'm going to do my own thing.
Just leave me alone. Our own way. There's a way that
seems right unto men, and the end of that way is death. We
didn't turn to His way. We turned everyone to our own
way. the broad way that leads to destruction. It's only by
his grace that he puts us on the narrow way. It's only by
the grace of God that we enter into the door of the sheepfold. The Lord had laid on him the
iniquity of us all, of us all. Now, does that mean that Christ
died for all the sins of all men? No, that means he died for
all the sin of the sheep. Read the verse, all we like sheep
have gone astray. And the Lord laid on him the
iniquity of all us like sheep. Now, this is so important and
it's not being picky on a point of doctrine. This is the key
to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the effectual
atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ. If he died for all the
sin of all men, okay, that's what most people say, right?
We call that universal redemption. Most people in religion say that
Christ died for all the sin of all men. If that's so, then no
one can be condemned, because if they are, then his atoning
work is a failure. You see the argument there? But
more than that, the Word of God says that he laid down his life
for the sheep. The Word of God says, it says
down here in the next verse, for the transgression of my people
was he stricken. Call his name Jesus, he shall
save his people from their sin. He loved the church and gave
himself for it. So there's so many scriptures
that teach what we call particular redemption or definite atonement. His work can't be a failure because
of who he is. You see that? You understand
that, don't you? Who did Christ die for? His elect. Who will
be saved? His elect. His chosen. That's
what the Word of God teaches, and that's what we believe. That's
what the faith of God delects. They believe the Gospel. Oh,
we like sheep, we've gone astray. We've turned everyone to his
own way. And the Lord, you see, we were lost. The Good Shepherd
came and found us. He put us on His shoulder, and
He carried us home to glory. That's what He does. He was,
verse 7, He was oppressed and He was afflicted. Yet he opened
not his mouth. He didn't open up his mouth to
justify what was going on, to justify anything that he had
done. When they accused him, he didn't
try to justify himself because he was guilty of our sin. He
is brought as a lamb to the slaughter. This is the Lamb of God. The
Lamb of God that John said, behold, the Lamb of God that taketh away
our sin. This is the Lamb of God. Do you
remember what we studied in the Revelation? He's a lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. He's brought as a lamb to the
slaughter. This is God's sacrifice for sin. He is the appointed sacrifice
for the appointed people at the appointed time. Him being delivered
by the determinant counsel for knowledge of God. As a sheep before her shearers
is dumb, he didn't open his mouth. He willingly laid down his life
for us. Our Lord said, no man takes my
life from me. Remember? I have power to lay
it down. I have power to take it again.
This commandment have I received in my father. He was taken from
prison and from judgment. You remember when they came to
arrest him in the garden? John 18, I believe it is. When they
came to arrest him in the garden and he said, whom do you seek? And they said, well, we're looking
for Jesus of Nazareth. We're going to arrest him. Remember
what he said? I am. What happened to those
fellas? They fell over backwards. You
see, he willingly gave himself to God's justice. Who shall declare
his generation? Well, his church. He said to
his church when he ascended in glory, go into all the world
and preach the gospel to every creature. He was cut off out
of the land of the living. He died a real horrible, painful,
under the wrath of God for our sin, cut off. He died. He died for our sin according
to scripture. And he was buried. Buried to
give evidence. You don't bury living people,
not normally. You bury the dead. The Lord Jesus
Christ died a real death because he was guilty for our sin. They buried him, he's cut off
out of the land of the living, and it was for the transgression
of the people. There's those people again, my
people, my church, my elect. Verse 9, he died a violent death
at the hands of wicked, violent men. Although he had done no
sin, knew no sin, he had done no violence. He had no sin, knew
no sin, and did no sin. He made his grave with the wicked.
They buried him in a borrowed tomb. Think of that, he was born
in a borrowed manger, from the cradle to the grave, he was a
man of sorrow, and he was buried in a borrowed tomb. And yet he's
the Lord of all things. He made his grave with the wicked
and with the rich in his death. Although he had done no violence,
neither was any deceit in his mouth. Every word he spoke was
absolute truth. Remember, he said, the word that
I speak unto you, they're not mine, but my father which sent
me. It's impossible for God to lie. Every word he spoke, there
was no deceit. No disguise in his words. He
spoke absolute truth. We can't do that. I've got a
preacher friend of mine who says, it says, the only time that I
speak the absolute truth is when I say, thus saith the Lord. His words absolute truth. There was no deceit in his mouth
because he had no sin. Now, here's the amazing thing
of the gospel. Yet, verse 10, you see it? Yet,
it pleased Jehovah, the Lord, God Almighty, to bruise the son. It pleased God to do so. Now,
I've often said this. We know it pleased Pilate and
Herod. They wanted to get rid of this
man of Jesus. They considered him a troublemaker.
We know it pleased Herod and Pilate. We know it pleased the
Pharisees and the Sadducees. They lined up false witnesses
to lie against him. We know it pleased them and we
know it pleased the Romans to crucify him. They delighted in
putting a, you know, they crucified thousands and thousands of Jews.
It was just another day of fun for them to nail a Jew to a tree
and crucify him. But it wasn't what men did that's
our hope. It pleased God to bruise him. You see that? God planned the
cross from all eternity. He's a lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. God planned the cross, presided
over the cross. Who was in charge? Who was in
charge that day? Pilate thought he was in charge. And Pilate said to the Lord, don't
you answer me? Don't you know that I'm somebody?
And the Lord said, you don't have any power at all unless
my father gives it to you. God planned the cross, presided
over everything that happened that day in fulfillment of Scripture. Everything that happened to the
Lord Jesus Christ was prophesied in the Old Testament. Read Psalm
22 sometime. God participated, He planned
it, presided over it, and He participated in afflicting His
dear Son. Because Yet it pleased the Lord
to bruise him. He put him to grief when thou
shalt make his soul an offering for sin. He shall see his seed,
he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in his hand." You see, it pleased God to bruise him.
It's what God was doing at the cross. That's our hope. It's
not what wicked men did. Wicked men couldn't lay the iniquity
of God's elect upon Him. Pilate couldn't do that. The
Roman government couldn't do that. God made Him to be sin
for us. It's what God was doing at the
cross. That's our hope, is it not? It pleased the Lord to bruise
Him. God put Him to grief because
His soul was made an offering for sin. He was actually made
guilty for our sin. In His person, He never committed
sin. He's a spotless Lamb of God.
But our sin was made to be His by an act of Almighty God. God will now shall make His soul
an offering for sin. Who did that? God did. God laid
on Him the iniquity of us all. He shall see His seed. That's
His people. He shall prolong His days. He
did die. But he didn't stay dead. He said,
I'm he that liveth and was dead. You remember Revelation 1.18? I'm he that liveth and was dead.
Behold, I'm alive forevermore. And I have the keys to hell and
death. He shall prolong his days. The pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in his hand. I love that statement. The pleasure
of the Lord. Everything he does, he prospers
in. He's a lion of the tribe of Judah
that hath prevailed. Remember we studied in Revelation
5, one of the elders said unto me, Weep not, behold the lion
of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, hath prevailed to open
the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof. prevailed to honor
the law of God, prevailed to put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself, he prevailed to crush Satan's power, he prevailed to
save his people from their sin. The pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in his hand. The death of the Lord Jesus Christ
was not a defeat, was it? A victory. A lot of people in
that day thought, well, we're done with this man. We've killed
him. We're going to put him in a grave. Third day, he walked
out of that grave, signifying that God was satisfied with what
he did, with the shedding of his blood, putting away our sin.
The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper. Prosper. Everything he does, he prospers. He knows nothing of failure.
He knows a lot about agony, but it's not the agony of defeat.
It's the agony of victory. Victory. Verse 11, he shall see
the travail of his soul, and he shall be satisfied. That's
that other word, substitution satisfaction. He satisfied God's
every jot and tittle of the law of God. Our Lord said, I didn't
come to destroy the law and the prophet. I came to satisfy it. I came to honor it. By His knowledge
shall my righteous servant justify many, justified freely by His
grace through the redeeming blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
is the righteous servant of God. God's servant. By His knowledge
shall my righteous servant justify many." We're justified by His
grace. Who can lay anything to the charge
of God's delect? It's God that justifies. Who
can condemn us? Christ is already paid the sin
debt. For He shall bear the... My righteous servant shall justify
many, for He shall bear their iniquities. Again, you can't
read this with any kind of honesty and come away from this saying
that Christ died for all the sins of all men. It's just not
there. Now, why would preachers try
to make the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ? Why would
they try to preach a universal redemption rather than a particular
redemption? Why would they do that? Because
when you preach a definite atonement and particular redemption, it's
offensive to the natural man. So what they want to do, they
say, well, God loves everybody. Christ died for everybody. God
tried to save you, but you won't let him, poor God. You see, that's
another gospel. The love of God is in the Lord
Jesus Christ. He died for his people. And God
doesn't try to save anybody. He saved His people from their
sin by that one atonement. For He shall bear their iniquities
and He knows His sheep. He said, My sheep, I know them
and they follow Me. The foundation of God standeth
sure having this seal. We're going to study that Sunday
morning. Lord willing, the foundation of God standeth sure having this
seal. The Lord knoweth them that are
His. Therefore, verse 12 in closing,
Therefore will I divide him, notice the word a portion has
been added, God said I'll divide him the great, with the great. We are his inheritance, the church
is his inheritance, we are his portion. He shall divide the
spoil of the strong, And he did that. He conquered every enemy.
He conquered every foe. Defeated every foe. We've seen
that in the Revelation study, haven't we? And then, in closing,
it gives four things there. Because he's a victory. He has the victory because, number
one, he poured out his soul unto death. He died a real death. He poured out his soul unto death. Number two, he was numbered with
transgressor. He said, this is a faithful saying,
worthy of all acceptation. He came to save sinners. He was
numbered with transgressor. He died between two thieves.
It's a miracle that one of those thieves had a revelation of the
glory of Christ. And the gospel had said to him,
Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom, remember me.
And the Lord said, this day you're going to be with me in paradise.
That other thief cursed and died. That's a good
example of sovereign grace. What made the difference between
those two thieves? One repented and believed, the
other cursed and died. What made the difference? It
wasn't in the man. God's sovereign grace made the
difference. Those three crosses, they say,
those three crosses, one died for sin, That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
One died in his sin. That's that unrepentant thief. And one died to sin. The thief
that was taken to glory. Because he had poured out his
soul into death, he was numbered with transgressors. He bared
the sin of many. And he makes intercession for
transgressors. We have right now one that's
seated I think about this all the time, especially when I pray. Not only when we pray together
as an assembly, when we come to worship, but in my private
prayer and devotion, When I pray, I think about the Lord, the God-man
mediator. Think about this. He's a real
man, came forth from the tomb with a glorified body, lived
among men 40 days, ascended to glory, they watched him go up,
and he's seated in the heavenlies right now on the throne of God,
wherever that is. But it's actual, it's real, he's
a real man, and he ever lived to intercede for us. We have
a mediator, one God, one mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ. So when
we pray, we pray to the Father in the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ and He mediates for us. He is the intercessor. He presents
our prayers to the Father washed in His blood. He made intercession
for transgressors.