Let us turn once again to the
word of God in that portion that we were considering this morning
at the end of the 52nd chapter in the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 52 and the last
three verses from verse 13. Behold my servant shall deal
prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled and be very high,
as many were astoned 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. Earlier then we were thinking
particularly of the servant, the servant of the Lord, behold
my servant. The same one, remember, that
we've spoken of several times here, there are those servant
passages, not always referring to Christ. We know how that Israel
was also the servant of the Lord, But it is primarily Christ who
is spoken of, back in chapter 42, Behold my servant, whom I
uphold, mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth, I have put my
spirit upon him. He shall bring forth judgment
to the Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor lift up,
nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed
shall he not break. And the smoking flack shall he
not quench, he shall bring forth judgment unto truth. And those words, as we said this
morning, are taken up there in Matthew 12 at verse 14 following. And we read as that they were
fulfilled in the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is
that one who is the true servant of the Lord. My servant says
God, mine elect. He is God's first elect in the
eternal covenant of Christ and all the election of Christ are
chosen in Him as we read in Ephesians chapter 1. Chosen in Him before
the foundation of the world. So when we think of Christ as
God's servant, God's first elect, we are to recognize that he is
truly a public person. And the work that he does, the
service that he renders to the Almighty is not only for himself,
he is a public person. And we were considering something
of his work this morning as we have it spoken of here. Behold
my servant shall deal prudently and I quoted then the way in
which John Brown the commentator paraphrases that expression in
explaining those words he says it means he shall wisely conduct
to a prosperous issue the work committed to him he shall deal
prudently he shall prosper prudently he shall wisely conduct the work
given to him in the eternal covenant and accomplish all that the Father
gave him to do. And so we have it in that portion
that we read, Philippians chapter 2, being found in fashion as
a man he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross. He was obedient to all the will
of the father. He ever did those things that
pleased his father. He obeyed all the commandments
of his father. And so he executed and finished
the work that the father had given him to do. And what was
that work? Well, remember how it's described by the church,
by believers, in the ensuing verses in the next chapter, chapter
53. Surely he hath borne our griefs, save ye leave us. He hath borne our griefs, and
carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten
of God, and afflicted. But he was wielded for our transgressions,
he was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. or we like sheep
have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way and the
Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Or this person, the
Lord Jesus Christ is one who is God's true servant, God's
first elect, what a work it is that he has accomplished and
in it he has pleased the Father. There at the end of verse 10
in chapter 53, the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his
hand. He shall save the travail of
his soul and shall be satisfied by his knowledge, shall my righteous
servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities.
He sees the fruit of all the work, all that he endures, all
the sufferings that are made upon him as he is made sin for
his people. He does not serve God in vain,
he does not suffer in vain, he sees of the travail of his soul
and he is satisfied. And so God is satisfied and God
is the one who is pleased then to exalt him in the resurrection.
and the ascension and his session now in glory at the right hand
of God, he shall be exalted and extolled and be very high. This is the great work that he
has done and this is the way in which the Father has honoured
the Son. In view of all that obedience,
we thought then of the work of the servant, but there is also
his person to take account of. Who is this person? Who is this
one who is a servant of the Lord? Is he not also the eternal Son
of God? The very God of very Gods, begotten,
not made of one substance, with the Father in the words of the
ancient Lycian creed. He is God. He is God manifest
in the flesh, that is the great mystery, the mystery of Godliness. God's was manifest in the flesh. Now he is spoken of in the Old
Testament, he is spoken of in the Psalms of course. Those wonderful
Messianic Psalms, remarkable works recorded there in the Old
Testament Scriptures. We have the record of all that
Jesus began both to do and to teach in the Gospels. We read
of his coming, his miraculous birth, the great mystery of the
Incarnation, we read of his life, the miracles he performed, the
ministry of the exorcise, we read of his dying upon the cross,
and previous to that all the agonies that he endured in the
Garden of Gethsemane as he contemplated that cruel death that he must
endure upon the cross. We read of his rising again from
the dead. All of these things are recorded
there in the fourfold gospel, are they not? But when we come
to the Psalms, the wonderful thing in those
Psalms is that at times the veil is drawn aside and we are permitted
to look into the very soul of Christ. That's the beauty of
the Psalms. Not so much the outward aspect
of his life here upon the earth and his sufferings, but we are
looking into his very soul. And all that transpires here
in the very depth of his being, that man, the Lord Jesus Christ. And all that a man is, is. The
psalmist says, Thou art fairer than the children of men. yon lovely man, that holy man, holy, harmless,
undefiled, separate from sinners, when we think of his person as
God-man. And is he not the one who is
also spoken of here in our text this evening, behold my servant,
shall deal prudently with the margin shall prosper prudently
he shall be exalted and extolled and be very high as many were
astoned at his visage was so marred more than any man and
his form more than the sons of men let us consider then something
of the disfiguring of this lovely man this wondrous man says Joseph
Hart, of whom we tell, is true Almighty God. And yet here we
read about how he was so sadly disfigured. And first of all,
to observe something of the extent of that disfiguring, as we have
it recorded here in the 14th verse. His visage was so marred
more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men." Notice
the emphatic language that the Prophet speaks. He is speaking
under the inspiration of the Spirit, as we said this morning,
here in the opening words. This is the portion that introduces
us to that remarkable prophecy of chapter 53, and it is God
who is speaking here. My servant, he says. The prophet
is but the mouthpiece of God. And what language is this that
is employed to describe what befalls this servant of the Lord? The language, I say, is so emphatic,
there's repetition, is there not? His visage, and then his
form, his vision. who is so mild more than any
man, his form more than the sons of men. But observe the expression
that we have here, more than it says, more than. There is
comparison here. He is compared with other men.
But there are no sufferings like his suffering. But interestingly,
this expression more than literally means away from. His visage was
so mild. Away from any man. His form away from the sons of
men. It's a complete negation that
we have in the words that have been used. He cannot be likened
to any other man. That's what he'd said. He is
taken away from humanity in that that he is suffering. And we
see it of course in the Psalm, Psalm 22, a Messianic Psalm.
What does he say there? I am a worm, a no man, a reproach
of me and despised of the people. You see here then something of
what must be the awful debts of the sufferings that this man
is having to endure, who being in the form of God, thought it
not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation. We read the words there in Philippians
2 and verse 7, he is in the form of God in verse 6, in other words
he is God. and equality with God is not
something that this one has to grasp after it is his, he is
God he is the eternal son of the eternal father, he is equal
to the father we confess three persons in one Godhead and equally
God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit but he made himself of no reputation. Those words at the beginning
of verse 7 in Philippians chapter 2 are controversial words. Some of you might well be aware
of that. What they call the Canotic Theorists. It's interesting to see how the
words are rendered in some other versions. For example, in the
new international version They render it like this, he made
himself nothing. He made himself nothing. In the Revised Standard Version,
which I suppose is not so popular as it once was, but in the Revised
Standard Version it reads, emptied himself. Now, there is a problem
with those renderings of those words. Made himself nothing,
emptied himself. It suggests, you see, that he
renounced his deity. And we're not saying that. The
hymn writer Charles Wesley has that line, emptied himself of
all but love. As if he emptied himself of every
aspect of his deity except the love that he bore to sinners.
But the language is dangerous. It's suggesting that in his suffering There was a
sense in which he ceased to be God. Well, he did not. He could
not empty himself of deity. And we would contend that the
way in which the Greek is rendered in our authorised version, with
that expression, made himself of no reputation, really brings
out what is being said. It's not saying that he emptied
himself. of his diatribe and ceased to
be God. But he clearly made himself of
no reputation. The wonderful thing is that that
expression is taken straight out of Tyndale's version. It's
the language of William Tyndale that we have there at the beginning
of that 7th verse in Philippians chapter 2. And when we take account
of the context there, isn't the apostle speaking there quite
clearly of humiliation, lowliness of mind. That's the context.
If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of
love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies
fulfill you, my joy, that ye be like-minded, having the same
love, being of one accord, of one mind, let nothing be done
through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind. Let each esteem other better
than themselves. Look not every man on his own
things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this
mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. And then he
goes on to speak of his deity, who being in the form of God,
thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself
of no reputation. The whole context then directs
us to the humility of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ took no
account of himself. That's what it says. Christ doesn't concern himself
about himself. He denies himself. This is the amazing thing, you
see. As many were astonished at his vision, was so marked
more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men. It goes on, does it not, in the
next chapter, verse 2, he hath no form nor comeliness. and when
we shall see him there is no beauty that we should desire. Oh how this man was so willing
to go the way of the cross, to endure all that contradiction
of sinners against himself, to bear all the wrath of God against
his own person there as he suffered and bled and died. We see then here something of
the disfiguring of the Lord Jesus Christ and the great extent of
those sufferings that he has to endure now in the second place. What is the reason? Why was it
so? Why did this man have to endure
such things? Remember, in the covenant of
grace he is God's servant. He is God's first elect. And
as the first elect, as the great covenant head of all his people,
all those who are chosen in him in the covenant, as such he is
a public person. He is the last Adam. I think it's the great Puritan,
Divine Thomas Goodwin who said that in God's sight there are
two men. There's the first Adam and there's
the last Adam. The first Adam is the head of
the human race and all by nature are in him. The last Adam is
the Lord Jesus Christ and there are those who by the grace of
God are in here. Now we have to examine ourselves
tonight. Which of those two men are we
in? Are we in the first Adam? That's
what we are by nature but ought to be by grace in the last Adam. Ought to know by faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ that that's where we are. We're in Christ
and Christ is in us. He is then a public person. We are told in 1 Corinthians
15, the first man is of the earth, earthly. The second man is the
Lord from heaven, 1 Corinthians 15, 47. The first man, the first man
is of the earth, earthly. And we are told, are we not,
of the creation of man in the opening words of Genesis as it's on the
sixth day of creation God made man. God said let us make man
in our image after our likeness. And in the second chapter of
Genesis we're given some detail with regards to the manner in
which man was created. He's of the earth, God takes
of the earth and forms and fashions a body and breathes into man's
nostrils the breath of life and he becomes a living soul. This
is the first man, he is of the earth and yet he is made in God's
image, he has a soul and it is there in the soul that we are
to discern the image of God in man. It is that that distinguishes
him from every other creature. But what of the first man? Well, you are familiar with the
history as we have it recorded in Genesis chapter 3. How he
transgressed the commandment of God, he sinned, he fell. The preacher says in Ecclesiastes
low, this only if I found God made man upright. But they have
sought out many inventions. The first man sinned, and we
all sinned in him. He is a public person. We all
sinned in him. He is the head of the human race.
And his sin is reckoned to our account, that first sin. And
we have received from him a fallen nature. We are born into the
world, dead in trespasses and sin. When Adam has a son, the
son is in his own image. The sinful son of a sinful father. This is the condition then of
the first man, the condition of those who are in the first
man. But what of the second man? What of the last Adam? We are
told when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth
his son. God's son. made of a woman or
remember the promise that God gives even there in all the darkness
of what we read in Genesis chapter 3 what God promises concerning
the seed of the woman how he says to Satan concerning
that seed he shall bruise thy head thou shalt bruise his heel
and so in the fullness of the time there's another man This is the Lord from Heaven.
God sent forth His Son, His only begotten Son, made of a woman,
it says. He is the seed of the woman.
He doesn't have a human father, because He is conceived by the
Holy Ghost in the womb of the Virgin Mary. He is the seed of
the woman. But He is a real man. always
a real man, as truly human as any of us are tonight. Let us
not lose sight of that blessed truth that Jesus of Nazareth
was a real man, real flesh and blood like we have. For as much
then as the children were partakers of flesh and blood, he likewise
took part of the same we're told in Hebrews chapter 2. He doesn't
take on him the nature of the angel, He is made a little lower
than the angels. Why? For the suffering of death.
He takes upon him the seed of Abraham. He identifies with Abraham
and Abraham's seed. That is the election of grace,
that is the faithful. Abraham is the father of the
faithful, the father of all them that believe. And he sees that
the Lord Jesus Christ is identified with, is it not? And he identifies with man as a sinful man. He is not identified
with Adam in the state of innocence. He identifies with man as a sinful
man. We are told of the ministry of
the prophet Ezekiel in chapter 3. Remember how he is called
to to minister to those who have been taken into exile. He's ministering
to those who are in captivity in Babylon. And in Exodus chapter
3 and verse 15 he tells us, I sat where they sat and remained there
astonished among them. He went, did his equal just where
the captives were and he sat where they were sitting and he
was astonished. But doesn't that indicate to
us what the Lord Jesus Christ has done? He comes where the
sinner is. That's the wonderful thing about
the Gospel. That the Lord Jesus Christ comes just where the sinner
is. He identifies himself with the
sinner. He is made of a woman, yes, but
he is also made under the law. Now he himself never transgresses
that holy law of God, in his life he is obedient. Obedient to every command of
God, he fulfills all righteousness, he ever does the things that
please his father, that's the life that he lives, that holy
life, that righteous life, that just life, that life in which
he is clearly separated from sinners because he's different
to them, He is a holy man, but when he is made under the law,
you see, he sits where they sit. He comes into their law place. He is their surety. He is the
surety of his people. And he lives for his people. And he dies for his people. He
is their substitute. We read of God sending his own
son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin. He comes then in the likeness
of sinful flesh. God has made Him to be sin for
us, who knew no sin. He knew no sin. But He has made
sin. He is in the sinner's place.
that the sinner might be made the righteousness of God in him. That's the blessed exchange,
is it not, that he's made in the gospel. All that glorious
work that Christ has done. He has taken to himself all the
sins of his people. They're all reckoned to his accounts,
the doctrine of imputation. They're all reckoned to his accounts.
And in exchange for all their sins, what does he give to his
people? His righteousness. All his righteousness
is imputed to their account. He becomes a sinner. They become
the righteous. That's what this man has done.
And all what a tremendous cost there was, here is the reason,
you see. the reason for what we read here
in verse 14 his visage was so marred more than any man and
his form more than the sons of men yes he suffers at the hands
of men cruel men, wicked men they take him and they crucify
him but God is in all of this God is visiting upon his person
that punishment that was the dessert of all those that were
given to him, chosen in him in the eternal covenant. He is suffering the punishment
that they should have suffered, bearing that penalty that was
their just dessert. And his soul is figured in it
all, you see. It's awful. It's awful what this
man has to endure, and yet such is the love that he bears towards
his people, having loved his own which were in the world,
we read in John 13, having loved his own which were in the world,
he loves them, unto the end. He's obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross, he loves the Father. And He shows His
love for the Father by doing all the will of the Father, obeying
all the commandments of the Father. But He shows His love also for
the people that the Father gave to Him. Because He will endure
the cross and despise the shame. And He will save His people from
their sins. Here is the reason then for what we read in the text concerning
his sad condition, his visage, so marred, and his form so marred. He's made sin for us, says the
Apostle. The extent then of the disfiguring,
the reason behind it, why it must be so, And then thirdly
and finally this evening, all the consideration, the consideration
of it. That opening word that we noted
this morning, the beginning of verse 13, Behold. It's a great
word, isn't it? Behold. We find it many times
in scripture, sometimes in the shortened form, just the two
letters Alo, Lo. But here we have it, Behold. And we believe. We believe, do
we not, that every word of scripture is the word of God. We believe
in plenary inspiration. That means that the Bible is
inspired from Genesis right through to Revelation. In some ways it's
better to speak of verbal inspiration. That means that we believe that
the very words In the original Hebrew and the Greek, Hebrew
of the Old Testament, Greek of the New Testament, we believe
the very words are just what God intended to be used, not
just that men are inspired in their thought patterns and they
express themselves in their own words. We don't say that, no,
we say the very words that they spoke and the words that they
wrote. In the Scriptures are the words of God, verbal inspiration. It's a doctrine that is much
despised. I was just this last week reading a little in the
life of I. W. Dale at Cars Lane Chapel in
Birmingham in the 19th century and he was what might be described
as a liberal evangelical. It was interesting, there was
a college there in Birmingham for the training of the Congregational
Ministers and interestingly there's a connection of course between
that college and there was an Academy of Gospels previous to
that. David Bogue, a Scotsman, an independent
minister was the pastor in Gospels in the late 18th early 19th century
and there was an academy associated with the church that he was pastor
of, the independent church there in Gosport and John Angell James
was a student at that particular academy and then he went to Carslane
Chapel in Birmingham and I. W. Dale succeeded him. Initially
they were exercising a joint pastorate at the end of Angell
James' long ministry and then eventually Dale became the sole
pastor after the death of Angell James. and whilst he was there
Angel James himself started a college, Spring Hill College but in the
1880s they wanted to move the college from Birmingham to Oxford
because then the universities of Oxford and Cambridge were
open to non-conformists previously you could only be an undergraduate
at Oxbridge if you were prepared to sign the 39 articles so non-conformists
were excluded from the universities but when the universities were
opened to non-conformists as well as Church of England people
they wanted to move this college from Birmingham, from Spring
Hill to Oxford and they did so and they called it Mansfield
College it's there today, Mansfield College Oxford It was originally
the Congregational College, it's just part of the University these
days. But the point was this, that
when they moved the college they drew up a new trustee. And in
the new trustee they changed their understanding of the doctrine
of scripture. No more was it required that
the members of the staff at Mansfield College, or the students who
were training there, no more was it required of them to accept
the doctrine of plenary inspiration. But their statements of faith
in their trustees spoke of the Bible containing the Word of
God. In other words, some of it is
the Word of God. Not all of it is the Word of God. It contains
the Word of God. But some of it is not to be recognized. Some of it is to be dismissed
as myth. Our men hate the doctrine, this
high doctrine of scripture, you see. But we are to contend for
it. We believe that this book is
God's book. And this is why when we come
together we read it diligently and we seek to preach from it
and to open up the meaning of it. This is why the word has
such a central place in all our act of worship. because we believe
that it's God's book and God speaks to us here in the scriptures
and every word is the word of God and this word, behold, is
God's word to us tonight. And what's the force of it? Well
it literally means gaze. Fix the eye. Rivet the attention. That's what God is saying to
us. That's how if you look at his word you see. That's how
we're to consider his servant. Behold, he says, my servant. And as we behold, what is the
outcome? As many were astonished. If we
would but look, what is it that we see? This is an archaic word,
astone. Astonic. I suppose really now
we'd say astonished. That would be the equivalent
to dying. As many were astonished at this. But it's interesting
to look at the archaic word as we have it here in the authorised
version. The stoning. Literally it means turned to
stone. Turned to stone. It's like the word petrified
in a sense. Petrified literally means to
convert to stone. From the words Petra, a rock
or a stone, of course the name Peter comes from that. But you
see the significance then of what we're reading. Many were
astonished. They were stunned, thunderstruck,
stupefied at the sight. They were turned to stone, they
were overwhelmed by the sight. That's what he's saying. It has an effect upon them. They're
not touched now with a feeling of sympathy when they see this
sight. That's not what's being suggested.
Rather, are they stunned in the sense that this is something
that they can't believe. It's aversion. It's rejection
that we have here. We can't really look at this
man. This man is He's no man. Such are the sufferings of this
man. So we have it, do we not, in
the next chapter of verse 2? When we shall see him, there
is no beauty. That we should desire him. Why
this man, you see, in his sufferings, in what he's enduring, not only
the contradiction of sinners, but the wrath of God, what's
being poured into his soul, the punishment of sin, And yet, we
are to behold Him. We are to look to Him. Look unto
me, He says, and be ye saved. There is salvation nowhere else
but looking to this man. Look unto me and be ye saved.
All the ends of the earth, I am God. And there is none else. In Hebrews 12 it is looking unto
Jesus, looking away from every other object. looking away, looking
only onto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, and then
he continues, consider him. Or consider him that endured
such contradiction of sinners against himself. And we need
friends to be those who would heed then the word of God, the
exhortation, the command of God. Behold, he says, my servants. Is he not the one who is set
before us in preaching? What is the great subject matter
of the preaching of the apostles? Paul can say when he writes to
the Galatians, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently
set forth, crucified among you. Now how was Jesus Christ evidently
set forth and crucified amongst the Galatians. It was in the
preaching of Paul. What was the subject matter of
his ministry? He tells the Corinthians, I determine
not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. We preach Christ crucified. This is how Christ is said before
us. It is in the preaching then that
we are to behold the Lord Jesus Christ. But it's not enough is
it that we're those who are hearing the preacher, hearing the word
with our natural ear. There needs to be an application
here, there needs to be that that is brought home into the
soul of men. And so in verse 15, so shall
he sprinkle many nations The king 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. How in the
preaching you see men's mouths have to be shut is in that part
of the ministry of the word of God, the preaching of the gospel.
That every mouth may be shut. We read in Romans 3.19 And all
the world become guilty before God. How men need to be brought to
see what they are, where they are as sinners before God. How
there needs to be that precious sprinkling. He shall sprinkle
many nations. All that blood is sprinkling.
It speaketh better things than the blood of Abel. It's the sprinkling
of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, is it not? It's the application
of all that he endured upon the cross, when his visage was so
marred, more than any man and his form more than the sons of
men, when his precious blood was shed, when he poured out
his soul unto death, when he died, that accursed death of
the cross. All to have that blood applied,
sprinkled. Having our hearts, Paul says,
sprinkled from an evil conscience. How we need that God then would
grant that, even as we look to Christ, as we seek to gaze upon
Him, as we fix our eyes, as our attention is altogether riveted
on this man, the second man, the Lord from Heaven, and our
desire, oh, that it might be so with each and every one of
you, The desire to be found in Him. Not having, Paul says, mine
own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through
the faith of Christ. The righteousness which is of
God through Him. Can you say tonight that that
is at least what you desire? You want to be in Him. You want
to believe in Him. You want to know that you are
not still in for only in that first man who is of the earth
earthen that you are in the second man the Lord from heaven and
he is all your desire all your salvation is there in him to
you he is all and to you he is in all behold my servant is God
shall deal prudently he shall be exalted and extolled and be
very high or he has exalted a prince and decided to give repentance
to Israel, the forgiveness of sins, that's where you go to
ask you to look to him as the author and finisher of faith.
This man of whom we read here in verse 14, many were astonished
at this, 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. God grant that we might consider
him who endured the contradiction of sinners against himself. Amen.