Verse 8, thy watchman shall lift up the
voice, with the voice together shall they sing. For they shall see eye to eye
when the Lord shall bring again Zion. Break forth into joy, sing
together, ye waste places of Jerusalem. For the Lord hath
comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord hath made bare his holy
arm in the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth
shall see the salvation of our God. Depart ye, depart ye, go
ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing, go ye out of the
midst of her, be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord.
For you shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight, for
the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be
your reward. Behold, my servant shall deal
prudently, He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high. As many were astonished at thee,
his visage was so marred, more than any man, and his form more
than the sons of men. So shall he sprinkle many nations. The kings shall shut their mouths
at him, for that which had not been told them shall they see.
And that which they had not heard shall they consider. Let's pray. Thank you again, Lord, how comforting and how rich and beautiful
the language of your holy book. Show us again our Redeemer tonight. May he indeed be very high in
our estimation and in our praise and in our hearts. High and lifted up. May his name
be exalted and may we find in him our all and in all. Thank you for every blessing
that we have in him. Teach us by your grace, in his
name we pray, amen. So you'll remember now that we've
looked at chapter 52 with an eye to chapter 53. We're very
familiar with chapter 53. We quote it often and it's just,
it shines so brightly in the, especially among the chapters
of the Old Testament and its clarity concerning the cross
and what happened there and who hung there and who died and what
he accomplished when he died is so beautifully and so clearly
revealed. And in this chapter here we've
seen how that the message is exalted. He's talking about the
message. He's saying wake up in the beginning of it, wake
up. Because there's something that you've got to hear. Something's
about to happen that you've got to see. And that something is
what we see in chapter 53. And how beautiful are the feet
of them that tell it. You see, because their feet bring
them to you. By God, God sends them to you.
That's why their feet are beautiful to you Because God has sent him
on an errand To declare his gospel to set forth the glories of his
son And now here in in chapter 52 in the last part of it We see again the message notice
how it says thy watchman shall lift up the voice and Those who
are set in verse 7 to have beautiful feet because they come with those
feet to bring the good news of Christ, the gospel, and they're
called watchmen in this verse. Still talking about them. Still
saying wake up and listen. There's a message. There's something
you got to hear. And they are called here the
watchmen, and that's interesting. That teaches us something. In
Hebrews 13, 17, it says, obey them that have the rule over
you, that have by God's design the authority over you, and submit
yourselves, for they watch for your souls. Those who preach
the gospel watch for your souls as they that must give account.
That's why we're called watchmen, that they may do it with joy
and not with grief, for that is unprofitable for you. It's
God sending His gospel to you, His sheep, to us. And so we're called watchmen.
And the way that they watch, how do you watch for soul? How
do you protect somebody's soul? That sounds like big business,
doesn't it? How in the world are you going to do that? By
lifting up your voice. That's what it says. It's not
complicated. By lifting up your voice, by
telling what God said, that's how. That's how they do it, by
lifting up their voice. The watchman shall lift up the
voice. That's how they guard your soul. It's by that message
described in verse seven of good news, good tidings, that your
souls are safe. It tells of the refuge for your
soul, the Lord Jesus Christ. Colossians 121 and you that were
at one time alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works
yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through
death To present you holy and unblameable and unapprovable
in his sight if you continue in the faith Grounded and settled
and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which you
have heard There's your safety in that cup don't be moved away
from the message from the truth of Christ He is the refuge and
he's preached in this gospel Which was preached to every creature
which is under heaven where have I Paul and made a minister Paul
was one of those ones with beautiful feet and And it was the hope
of the gospel that he preached, that he exhorted, that we not
be moved away from. And notice the word, together. Back in our text, in verse 8. With the voice, together shall
they sing. All of them. We're all in it
together, aren't we? Notice it, they shall see eye
to eye. together and eye to eye. All those who have this message
from God preach this message from God. If you have a message
from God now, if you don't then I don't know you may go off on
all kinds of things. You may start trying to just
motivate people. We talked about this on the way
over here tonight. Churches have to motivate the
flesh because there's no you know that there's no understanding
of the gospel. There's no motivation. Christ
is our motivation. I don't have to tell you you
know be harping on you always to do what you need to do. Christ
is our motivation. But you know if you don't have
a message from God then You know, the scripture says, he that has
a dream, let him tell a dream. But whoever has a message from
God, let him tell that. And I'll tell you this, everybody
that has a message from God, they're not going to say anything
else because that message outshines everything else so brightly. Why would I talk about anything
else? I don't even like to make announcements. You know that
from the pulpit. I don't want to talk about anything
but Him. I'm not any good at it, and I wouldn't be able to
say a word about Him if it wasn't for God's grace. But if we all together raise
up our voice and sing of Him, tell forth the message we see
eye to eye, we agree. I hear those that preach the
gospel, you know what they say? They say Christ is all. I agree.
We see eye to eye on that. They say that your works are
completely worthless and your holy hope of righteousness before
God is Christ and what he did. I agree. They say that when Christ
died on Calvary he redeemed everybody he died for. I agree. The Lord bringing again Zion,
when he talks about that. That's how he does it. He brings. He said, if I be lifted
up, they're coming. I'm going to draw all to myself. How? By the message, by the lifting
up of Christ in the gospel. You see, we're talking about
the preaching of the gospel. How beautiful are their feet?
Why? Because of what they came to tell you. Wake up. What for? There's something you need to
hear. There's something you need to see. It's all leading up to chapter
53. Him bringing against Zion is
Him calling His church out of every kindred and tribe and nation
and tongue under heaven. And how does He do that? By that
gospel. By those watchmen lifting up
their voices. By the good news of Christ and
Him crucified and all who preach Him, they see eye to eye I'm
thankful for those with whom I see eye to eye. Boy, that's
rare. There's not very many who call
themselves preachers in this world that I see eye to eye with. Not many. Relatively few. But boy, I thank God for them.
You listen to those preachers with whom we have fellowship
and come and preach for us at times. We preach exactly the
same message. How is it possible? You think
about how these books, the books of this Bible, were written over
centuries by different men, and they all say exactly the same
thing. They're all heralding and exalting
the same person and teaching the same truth, the same doctrine. How is that even possible? How
can men agree on anything? Have you ever heard that in any
other area of life? Where anybody really agrees about
anything? You can say the sky is blue and somebody will argue
with you about it. They'll say, oh, it's not really blue. It
just looks that way because of this and that and some scientific
thing. You know what? It's blue. When I look at it,
it's blue. But there's a real argument against
that. We preach exactly... How can
we not disagree on anything? You think about that. It's incredible. Well, you know, one answer to
that is our message is so simple. It's just simple, isn't it? It's
the simplicity which is in Christ. And of course we preach by the
same Spirit. The same Spirit takes the things
of Christ and shows them to me, and shows them to others too,
and then shows them to you. And so we agree. I wrote an article
in the Bulletin. Most of you probably hopefully
got it on email this morning. about God's people just agree
we don't have anything to argue about if you've got something
to argue with me about you're in the wrong place go find somebody
that you agree with you know if you don't agree with God then
why would you want to I don't understand that about some people
Well, when I say that, you know, we do understand, don't we? If
it wasn't for grace, we'd argue about what color the sky is. What shape the earth is. If not for His grace, we'd be
arguing the other side of it, wouldn't we? And we'd actually
think that it matters. We are ambassadors of the same
King, and he gave us all one message. In verse 9, break forth
into joy, sing together, you waste places of Jerusalem. For
the Lord hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem. What a way to describe the gospel. God has done something. This
whole religious world is the gospel, their gospel, their so-called
gospel is God's trying to do something. That's not my gospel. My gospel is look what God did. Lookie here. God redeemed his
people. That's the gospel. Those who preach Christ are never
happier than when they're preaching Christ. I never feel better. I never make any sense otherwise.
I don't make any sense if you notice that unless I'm preaching. You get me talking about anything
else, break forth into joy. And those
who hear, who truly hear the gospel are never happier than
when they're hearing of Him. And the older you get, the more
that's true. We do indeed, Paul described
us this way, we worship God in the Spirit and we rejoice in
Christ Jesus. Philippians 3.3 Comfort, the
Lord hath comforted His people. The consolation of Israel. That's
what old Simeon, he was waiting for the consolation of Israel.
He's waiting for a person. He's the comfort of his people.
The Holy Spirit is called the Comforter. You know how he comforts?
He takes the things of the Lord Jesus Christ and shows them to
you. By these means. The gospel message is, fear not,
little flock. The kingdom is yours because
it, but why? Because you made a decision,
no? It is the father's good pleasure to give it to you. That's good
news, isn't it? I can't mess that up. If he wants
to give it to me and he does what he wants, I'm gonna have
it. I'm gonna have every blessing he has since he gave me his son. And then on what basis can we
have comfort in the matter of our sinfulness before God? And
that's the message in it. Come now and let us reason together.
What about your sins? How can I have any comfort about
that? Redemption. That's the last part of verse
9. God hath redeemed. He obtained eternal redemption
for us by the blood of His Son. I've got to have you turn to
Ephesians chapter 1. Please turn there with me We see we've seen
this passage of scripture so many times But I want you to
see that in the light of our text and how beautiful it is Now think about this He's saying comfort notice the
word comfort in our take the Lord hath comforted his people So think about that as we're
reading this, for Ephesians 1.3. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Does that comfort
you at all? That every blessing that God
can bestow is yours in Christ. There's not a single blessing
that you're going to miss because of Christ. That's comfort now. Look at the first four. According
as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world.
Well, there's a lot of people that hate that. You know how
I feel about that. Well, that's comforting. God
picked me out and said, I love you before the foundation of
the world. That's comforting. That we should be holy and without
blame before Him in love. Does it comfort you to know that
you're sinless and pure in the sight of God? Because He loves
you? Alright, verse 5. Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will. Is there any comfort for you
in the fact that everything about you is predetermined by God with
one goal in mind? To make you just like His Son. The victory is already won. To the praise of the glory of
His grace, verse 6, wherein He hath made us accepted. in the beloved. We come, Paul said, before his
throne with boldness. We have full acceptance with
God. Is it comforting at all to you
that you are accepted by God into his presence and favor?
Upon what basis is all of this comforting truth true? Verse
7, in whom we have redemption. Through His blood. Even the forgiveness
of sins according to the riches of His grace. You see that in
our text? Comfort. Comfort. The Lord hath
comforted His people. In what? On what basis? How?
He's redeemed them. That's how. He's redeemed them. Every comfort for the believer
is described there in that passage in Ephesians 1. And why? Redemption through his blood. Verse 10, back in our text, the
Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations
and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our
God. This is not the only place in
scripture where Christ is Described as the arm of the Lord the right
hand of God in the arm of the Lord in chapter 50 the next chapter
verse 1 to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed and Then what's
the next word he? He For he The arm of the Lord and all will
see him and what he does. It wasn't done in a corner, Paul
said. Everybody's going to see what he did. Everybody knows
who Jesus Christ is. But to some, God reveals it. To whom is the arm of the Lord
revealed? In chapter 52, it says everybody's going to see. And
they do, don't they? They do. But to whom is it revealed? Salvation is not sinners making
a decision. Salvation is God rolling up His
sleeve. He may bear His arm, so to speak,
and making His Son known and making known His grace and power
to save and exerting that power and that grace. He makes it known
by the preaching and by the revelation of His Son by His Holy Spirit
through the preaching what He did. And that's what this whole
text is about. In verse 11, Depart ye, depart
ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing. I'm pretty
sure this is what's being quoted in the New Testament where it
says, Come ye out from among them and be ye separate, saith
the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing. Religion teaches that
as all you've got to live a holy life Wait a minute. I thought we were
talking about Christ in this passage It's not hard to look
that up Come on. Now. That's what God is saying
there in the New Testament He's saying those who preach the gospel,
don't preach anything else. You're different. Come out from
among them, from this world, from this religious world. And
don't talk about anything. Everything but Christ is unclean. Everything but Christ is unacceptable
to God. Everything but that message.
Go ye out of the midst of her. Be ye clean that bear the vessels
of the Lord. That has reference to the priesthood.
They bore the vessels. They did the business in the
tabernacle with the vessels of the Lord. And that's an equivalent
to his preachers now. He doesn't have priests anymore.
Christ is our priest. Christ fulfilled that office.
We don't have priests. We have preachers. And it's talking
about them and what they do and saying, It's a call to those who preach,
who come with beautiful feet, who lift up their voices, to
not defile themselves with any doctrine contrary to that which
we have learned of God. I'm not talking about clean living,
and it's obvious that it's not. Of course we want to live to
honor Him. But I wouldn't describe my life as clean, would you? Religion's all about the outside
of the cup. That's what I'm saying. And they're
just missing it. They're just missing it. This is talking about the message.
Of course we want to, especially the ministers of Christ, should
be above reproach. The scripture teaches. That's
certainly true. But this is talking clearly about
the message. This whole chapter is talking
about the message. You that bear the vessels of
the Lord, Don't defile that message. The
message cannot be mixed with any of the unclean works of man
or reasoning of man, the deductions of man, the teaching for doctrines,
the commandments of men. That's unclean. That's unacceptable. That's what we see eye to eye
on and that Christ is all of the message. It's all Christ,
all grace, all the time. And then in verse 12, for you
shall not go out with haste. Now think about what this is
saying, nor go by flight. He's saying, you're not going
to, you're not going to, we'll talk about the rest, read the
rest of it. For the Lord will go before you and the God of Israel
will be your reward. All right. So think about this.
We don't go out with, with anxious fear, with, with in haste means
unsettled. with some kind of motivation
of the flesh and any kind of fear because of the fear of mannering
and necessity laid on us by men or by this world. God goes before
us and behind us and so we just marching. We go steady. That's what it's talking about
here. We're just following him. And we can't be attacked from
behind. The word re-reward means to gather or assemble. But in
this sense, it means to bring up the rear. You look at that.
That's what it means, to bring up the rear. The re-reward are
the guys bringing up the rear or person. As a company of soldiers
would march and there was a leader, there's somebody got to take
point. Somebody got to, don't they? but also a re-reward or someone
to make sure that they all kept up pace, that they all stayed
together, that they were all covered from attack from behind.
And also, those who might otherwise fall behind because of maybe
weakness or an injury or something were given what they needed and
brought forward with the rest. Somebody brings up the rear,
keeps everybody together. and protects. And God is both.
He's our leader. He's our protector. He's the
one that gathers us. He said, those that are weak
or with young, I'll carry you in my arms. He guides and keeps us. You see
that? And you see how it applies to
the first part of the verse. We're not anxious and hurried
and impetuous and that type of thing. It's hard to describe
that. But you see what it says. We don't make haste. We're not
just flying off the handle here. We have a direct, simple, clear
mission. And assurance of victory. I'm
not worried about it. I'm not just scrambling helter-skelter
or motivated by fear or reacting to the enemy. That would be a
good way to say it. We don't react to the enemy.
We follow in our leader. The more the enemies of Christ
in the book of Acts attacked the church, the more the gospel
was spread. We don't react to the enemy.
The enemy doesn't have any effect on the accomplishment of our
mission. Because of who's leading us and
who's bringing up the rear. I was going to read that to you,
Acts 8, 1 through 4. They persecuted those who preached
the gospel, and they scattered. They were scattered abroad, and
everywhere they went, what did they do? They preached the gospel. I like that. That's because of
who our leader is. In verse 13, behold, my servant
shall deal prudently. This is why it's a success right
here. Not my servants shall deal prudently. God's going to keep
us. He's going to make sure that we don't fall. But there's one who wins the
victory. One. And he just gives it to us. We're
just in on it. We're just in on it now. My servant
shall deal prudently. 53. Isaiah 53 again now. You see what this is building
up to. This is what it's be, he shall
be exalted and extolled and be very high. In this whole endeavor of the
preaching and the saving of God's people by the preaching of the
cross, the Lord will lead, the Lord will protect, and he will
win the victory. Single-handedly, and give us
the victory. We're just in on it. And I'm
so glad to be in on it. And you and I are going to reap
the spoils. He doesn't need anything. We do. We're the ones that reap. He's
going to get all the glory. And he will be exalted. And this
is why He'll be exalted, extolled, and
be very high. Think about this, exalted and
extolled, not just a repetition. Exalted is his position of authority. He shall be exalted. Do you remember
what he said in John 17? You've given me power over all
flesh. That's pretty high. That's the
top. Why? That I should give eternal
life. And in what context is He saying
that? He's going to the cross. That's what. The hour has come. The same is in our text. It's
about the cross and it's about His exaltation in that. He's exalted as the Redeemer.
The bloody Savior on the cross, it's written above His head.
This is the King. Here's God's King. Exalted. This is our text. Here's the
fulfillment of our text, both chapters 52 and 53 right here. These words spake Jesus and lifted
up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify
thy son, that thy son may also glorify thee as thou has given
him power over all flesh that he should give eternal. God has
redeemed his people. He shall give. Eternal life to
as many as thou has given him his people He has redeemed his
people And this is life eternal Here's their experience. This
is how they're going to experience. They're going to know you Even
your son whom thou has sent This is life eternal, that they
might know Thee, the only true God. How are they going to know
you? Here come those beautiful feet. How are they going to believe
on Him they don't know? How are they going to hear without
a preacher? You see how all this is? It's all Christ. That's the fulfillment of our
text right there. that they might know thee the only true God in
Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent to that end he says wake up somebody's coming with a message there's a bunch of somebody's
coming with that message and they all have the same message
because we all have the same hope this is his glorification Exalted
this is him being glorified. How is he glorified you remember
in John 13? You can write this down look
at it later if you want to I was gonna read you this too But John
13 26 to 31 you read it later and make sure I'm saying it right
right now, but here's what happened They were all the Lord said one
of you is gonna betray me And they all had failed him they
knew it and How many times did he say, how come you don't have
any faith? Have you been with me this long
and you don't know who I am? How many times had they shown
that their hope was not in their wisdom or their faith, but in
Him alone, in His kindness and longsuffering and mercy toward
them. They were reminded over and over, just like we are of
that. And so they said, Lord, is it me? They all began to say,
Lord, am I going to betray you? And then they, as they were at
that last supper, one of them said to, I believe, John, he
said, you ask him who it is, he'll tell you. You have a good
relation, y'all are, he'll tell you who it is. And John asked
him and he said, whoever I give the sop to once I've dipped it,
that's who it is. And he dipped the sop and he
gave it to Judas. And they still didn't know. They still didn't
understand. Judas was likely the most trusted
one he was the treasurer of the group And it says that the Lord said
to him when he handed him that sop he said what you're doing
do quickly Do it quickly And it says Judas went out and it
was night Well that says a lot right there
why would he even mention that it was night and Because what
a dark, dark thing when the Son of God was betrayed into the
hands of wicked men. What a dark thing. And yet, you
know what He said about it? Now is the Son of Man glorified. Now. Here we go. Now is the Son of Man glorified. Christ is the only true servant
of God My servant shall deal prudently He's the only one You
know why it says in Revelation 22 3 let me read you Revelation
22 3 it says and there shall be no more curse But the throne
of God and of the Lamb shall be in it and his servants plural
this time shall serve him and Why does it say that? Isn't that
what servants do? Haven't we always served him?
You know why it says that? Because it never has happened
until right there. We ain't served him yet. But
we're going to. Because of our text. My servant
shall deal prudently. And in him we are well-pleasing
in the sight of God. And one day in our very experience,
we're going to be just like Him. We're going to serve God like
He does. Once and for all, finally, we're going to do something that
He's worthy of. Won't that be wonderful? One of these days, I'm going
to do something right. It's never happened before. But he did. There is one who did always those
things that please his father and he is my righteousness. It's because of his dealings
my righteous servant, my servant shall deal prudently and therefore Therefore he's exalted notice
that his doings His dealings what he did And that word there Prudently You look that up Or
you don't have to I looked it up for you. You know what it
means. He's gonna prosper There we are in chapter 53 again The
pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. That's what he shall
deal prudently means. It means he's going to be successful. We use the word effectual. My
old preacher Jack Shanks used to say effectual. That's not
a word we use very much. It just simply means that he
got the job done. That's a pretty good definition.
He got the job done. That's what it's saying. Somebody
had to get it done. It wasn't going to be us, was
it? Oh, successful. And for that
reason, he's exalted. You listen to it now. For that
reason, being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself
and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
Wherefore, God hath also highly exalted him. That's why he's
exalted and extolled, because of Isaiah 53. Because of what
he accomplished on Calvary. You see why it's so repulsive
when people reduce that to him giving it his best shot, and
that's all, you know, he just made a good effort now, but salvation's
up to you. Are you kidding me? Because of what he did on Calvary,
we're going to sing his praises from now on. That's what he did. He didn't try anything. God has highly exalted him and
given him a name above every name because of what he accomplished
on Calvary. That at the name of Jesus, every
knee should bow. Of things in heaven and things
in earth. Well, he's God, isn't he? We already bowed to him.
Not as a man. as a man. Notice the name Jesus, that's
his name of humiliation, his human name. We're going to bow
at the throne of a man, the man Christ Jesus, the God man. That's
because of what he did. Every knee should bow of things
in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth and
that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to
the glory of God the Father. All of that beautiful language
about his glory and exaltation starts with this, the cross. He became obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross. That's what we're seeing in our
text. And that part about every tongue
confessing, that's the extolling part. He shall be exalted and
extolled, praised, lifted up in the hearts and with the voices
of his people. And he shall be very high above
everyone. And he shall be acknowledged
by everybody sooner or later. As such, verse 14, as many were
astonished at thee, astonished, of course, his visage was so
marred more than any man. You see this now? Exalted, extolled. So we get this picture of him
on his throne with his glory shining forth and his majesty
as the king. But don't forget. What John saw
when he saw what one of these days we're going to see when
John was given a revelation A look into heaven itself. You know
what he saw He that sat on the throne was as a lamb as it had
been slain marred more than any man, in
his form more than the sons of men. That doesn't sound like
success in the way that this world thinks of success. He's
going to deal prudently? What's this about him being marred? This describes his humiliation,
his death. He was so hated and abused and
beaten and wounded. Can you imagine? They beat him
with a reed and they punched him in the face with their fists.
And they pressed that crown of thorns down. He was swollen and
his flesh was torn. The word there, marred, it means
disfigured. Have you ever seen somebody that
was disfigured? We all have. And I confess to
you, it's hard to look at, isn't it? It's hard to look. I don't
want it to be. I want to sympathize with him
and I do. Somebody that was burned in the
war or mangled in some way. It's hard to look at sometimes. He was hard to look at. They
paint these pictures of him, you know, where, oh, it's sweet
little Jesus. It's an idol is what it is. Listen to this now. The word
means disfigured and it's from a root word that means destroyed. This is what it pleased God to
do to his son. He destroyed him. He did it in order to save me.
He destroyed his son. And that's how Christ won the
victory. That's how he was victorious.
That's how he was successful. That's how he led captivity captive
and destroyed every enemy of God and man. That's how he won
the victory over sin and death and Satan and hell by being destroyed
for my sin. And those who were astonished
in the text, there's all kinds of speculation about that. But
it's clear to me how horribly marred he was. It's astonishing
to look at. And that's why they were astonished. It means to be appalled, to be
stunned. And his people are astonished
also, but not in the same way that this world is. How astonishing
that one so high, so exalted, so extolled, could be brought
so low. Could not brought, but came so
low. Became obedient. He humbled himself,
it says there where we read a while ago. Being found in fashion as a man,
he humbled himself even further. What a humbling, what a coming
down it would be for God just to become a man. But he humbled
himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross. He submitted himself to being
destroyed, being disfigured and marred at the hands of wicked
men. But it pleased the Lord. It was
by the pleasure of his father that this took place. For the
salvation, for the redemption of his people. How astonishing that God would
destroy his only begotten well-beloved son for me. And look at the next word, verse
15. The very next word, little bitty
word, so. You know what that means? Like
that, by being destroyed, by being disfigured, by being marred
more than any man You know, they say that that means that he didn't
even look like a human being anymore. And that's kind of what
it sounds like, doesn't it? No man could possibly look like that. That's what it's saying, I'm
pretty sure. More than any man. So, like that. By that means
shall he sprinkle many nations. What a picture. What's he going
to sprinkle them with? Well look at him. Everywhere
you look there's blood. And what do we need? What's going
to do us any good but his blood? Anything else he sprinkles us
with? do much for us. But if you're sprinkled with
his blood, the king shall shut their mouth.
And of course, like in Psalm 2, it talks about the kings.
That's talking about, when it talks about even the most exalted,
even the most, you know, of the highest pedigree among us, that
means especially everybody else. It's including everybody, not
just King. Mouths are gonna be shut. Even those who you might
think would have something to say, a king, they're gonna shut
up when they see him. So, in this way like that by
being crushed and by his precious blood being raked from his back
and as it flowed down his face from that crown of thorns pressed
into his brow and as he was buffeted and smitten by that rod in the
face and as his hands and feet were nailed and at last his precious
side was pierced and all of his blood flowed all over the place.
What a picture. is presented to us in this verse
and his blood was so freely shed like that he sprinkled many nations,
his blood was applied to those out of every nation, kindred,
tribe and tongue. He's redeemed us to God, how?
By his blood. From where? Every nation, kindred,
you see what it's saying? Clear isn't it? Isn't that clear?
Because of the blood that he shed His elect out of every nation,
tribe, kindred, and tongue under heaven are gonna be splashed
with that blood. This is interesting now because
that word there, sprinkle, it means to spurt or spatter. What a graphic picture that is
when he is marred and disfigured and destroyed. Every nation of this earth is
gonna be spattered with that blood. And all of his elect are redeemed
by it, they're covered by it. As those who hated him cried
for his crucifixion, do you remember how they did it? They said this,
his blood be upon us and our children. And His blood was upon them in
guilt, upon their hands in guilt. And in symbol of their evil murder
of Him. But spiritually speaking, we
also cry, don't we, to Him. Lord, Thy blood be upon us and
upon our children in saving redemptive mercy. May the sin-cleansing power of
his precious blood be applied to us and our children. And I'll
tell you this, I don't know if it will be or not, whether it'll
be applied to my children or not, all of them, but I know
this, it's applied to his children, every one of them, every one
of them. One thing's for sure, his blood
and its sin-cleansing power and saving efficacy is upon every
sinner for whom he shed it. Every soul that he died to redeem,
every one of his elect whom he sanctified with it, Hebrews 10,
11, and every priest standeth daily ministering and offering
oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.
But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever,
sat down on the right hand of God from henceforth expecting
till his enemies be made his footstool, for by one offering
he hath perfected forever them that he sanctified. And we've
talked about before how that word perfected. It's the same
word he spoke from the cross. Perfect. It's finished. Same
word. And when who he is and what he
did is preached some mouths are going to be stopped. Isn't that
what Paul said? That every mouth may be stopped
and all the world become guilty before God. I tell you this, when you become
guilty before God, you know what's going to happen? You're going
to cry for mercy. Some are going to see what they
could not see before. See that there in the text? They're
going to see what they could never see before. They're going
to see how God can be just and justify a wretched, vile sinner
like me. I see that now. I never saw that
before. until that gospel was preached
until somebody with beautiful feet came where I was a few decades
ago now I see God's glory in the
face of the crucified son of God never saw that before until
a voice was lifted up in the wilderness And by God's grace
I heard, I heard the shepherd's voice in that voice and I followed
him. And by his grace, and by God's
grace through the arrival of that someone with beautiful feet,
through the preaching of this glorious one who was slain and
has redeemed his people unto God by his precious
blood, by that means, by that preaching, by that message, we
will be caused to consider That word there, the last part, that
means to discern, to perceive, to understand. The word consider
means, you know, we think of that as meaning just we're going
to think, I guess we'll think about it. That's not what it
means. It means you're going to understand. First John 5.20, And we know
that the Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding. that we may know Him that is
true, and we are in Him that is true, even in His Son, Jesus
Christ. This is the true God and eternal
life. Amen. Let's pray.