This blessed chapter of Scripture
reveals most plainly the character and the glory of Christ in His
humanity and suffering. In this chapter we see most clearly,
in all the Old Testament prophecies, a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. So that when men look at this,
they cannot be mistaken as to who Christ is. You cannot be
mistaken. Now in Isaiah 53, the prophet,
this prophet was sent of God. He was sent of God to reveal
to Israel a report, a message. And this message that Isaiah
was giving them up to this point was a message of hope. A message
of deliverance for captive Israel. It was a message that's revealed
to us. Look back in the previous chapter.
And in verse 7, he says, How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of Him that bringeth good tidings. that publisheth
peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publishes salvation,
that saith to Zion... Listen, this is the message of
every gospel preacher. This is the message of deliverance. This is the message of hope.
This is the message of forgiveness and mercy for sinners. This is
it. Thy God reigneth. This is the
message. This is the message of every
believing gospel preacher. Thy God reigneth. And listen
what He will do. In verse 8, He said, 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. So what is the message?
Thy God reigneth. What is the message? The God
that reigneth shall bring forth Zion. That's the message. And
how will He do it? How will God deliver His people? He tells us in the very next
verse. Break forth into joy, sing together, you waste places
of Jerusalem. For the Lord hath comforted his
people, he hath redeemed them. How shall the God of heaven,
how shall he deliver and bring forth Zion from captivity? Redemption! Redemption is the message that
we preach. And not only by redemption, but
notice this in verse 10, he said, The Lord hath made bare, hath
revealed His holy arm in the eyes of all the nations and all
the ends of the earth, shall see the salvation of our God. So what is this saying? The message
of those who preach the gospel is, Thy God reigneth. Thy God
shall deliver His people. How? By redemption. and through
revelation. He will reveal it to them. And notice the order of that.
That's wonderful. It's a beautiful order, isn't
it? God reigneth. God is the one who makes choice
among us. God is the one who elects His
people. God has promised salvation from
eternity. How shall it be accomplished?
By the redemption of Jesus Christ. And how shall it be delivered
to the people? through the revelation of the
gospel, by the preaching of the gospel. This is how God does
it. Believer in Christ, listen, thy
God reigneth. Is that not a glorious message
to your heart? Thy God reigneth! And here is the message, the
message of good tidings and salvation, not for all men without exception,
but for Zion, for His people. He says, He shall bring forth
not the whole world, not all men without exception. He'll
bring forth who? Zion. That's our message. He'll
bring forth His elect. And what will His elect do when
they hear of that redemption? They shall sing. They shall rejoice
in this message. Now this message of deliverance,
just in this physical sense of Israel. Now we know this, God
reigned over Israel as well as He did Babylon, right? He reigned
over all things, reigned over all people. But do you suppose
this message was joyful to Babylon? Do you suppose this message was
happy and good tidings of good to Babylon? No, it wasn't. In the previous chapter, he said,
that cup of my fury I will give to them. My cup of fury I will
give to them. No. And I'll tell you, neither
do the vessels of wrath fitted for destruction enjoy this message.
Now that God reigns over them, make no mistake about it, they
hate Him, they despise Him, but He reigns over them. Yet they
will not rejoice and sing with us. They will not rejoice with
Zion. Jude calls them those who are
ordained. to this condemnation. Ungodly
men turning the grace of God into wantonness, lasciviousness. These filthy dreamers despise
the message of God's free grace. They always despise it. How can
you tell them that despise the message? They're the ones who
always want to add something to it. That's how you can tell. They say, oh, grace, that sounds
good, but... No, you despise it. You hate
it. If you want to add a but and then you put your work in
there, you despise this message. But we don't. We say, oh, how
beautiful are the feet of them who preach the gospel of peace,
who bring glad tidings of good things. Good things. We rejoice
in this message. Thy God reigneth. Because our
God who reigns hath chosen a people, He has redeemed those people,
and His Spirit even now will call them to faith in Christ
alone. Faith in Christ. And He says
this, He says He will make bare His holy arm, He will make them
see the salvation of our God. We who believe on Christ know
this. I know this. He is the arm of
the Lord. Now what does that mean? Because
we know God does not have such an arm as we have. This is a
condescension of God to use language that we can understand. What
He means is strength. Strength! The strength of God's
salvation is Jesus Christ. The cornerstone, the one who
bears all the weight of our salvation is Jesus Christ alone. Does that not give you light
shoulders? Believer, it should give you
light shoulders. All that weight you put on yourself
every single day should lift off your shoulders because it
doesn't rest on us. It rests on Him. Him and Him
alone. He is all our salvation. And
this is the revelation of God that we rejoice in. And you know
what? When a man believes on that,
believes that gospel, believes on the arm of the Lord, This is what Isaiah said. He
said, thy watchman shall lift up the voice. with the voice
together shall they sing. You know what? I'm preaching,
but you who believe, you identify with this. You know this. I'm
not telling you anything you don't know. I'm not giving you
a new revelation. I'm telling you what we've already
has been revealed to us. And what does he say? They shall
see eye to eye. Now, I see eye to eye with you,
don't we? We see eye to eye with this matter. Jesus is the Christ,
the Son of God. He is all our salvation. That's
what happens when a man is saved. Now then, this evening, I want
to ask you the same question. This was the report of Isaiah.
The Lord reigneth. Zion shall be delivered. How?
By redemption and revelation. Now then, who's believed that?
That's what he's asking. Who hath believed our report? He's asking God. He's talking
to the Lord. He said, Lord, who has believed
our report? You know, this report I got is
God's report. It's just as much God's as it
is mine. It's my report. It's His report.
He gave it to us. And I'm just reporting. I'm telling
you the message. Now, who has believed it? To whom? This is who believed
it. To whom the arm of the Lord is revealed. That's who. To whom
is this arm of the Lord revealed? To whom is Christ revealed? Do you know and believe on Jesus
Christ? Do you know and believe on Jesus
Christ? Now, for you to believe on Jesus
Christ, Paul says this, how can you call on him in whom you have
not heard? Does that not just make plain
poor sense? You can't call on somebody you've
never heard of. And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sinned? See, God sends men. Men preach the gospel. Men
hear of Jesus Christ. Then men believe on Him. Whom
they have what? Heard. Heard. So you cannot believe
or call on Christ that you've never heard. And if a man has never heard
of Jesus Christ, how can he believe on Him? How can he call? And
if he can't call, If he doesn't know him, and he can't call on
him, how in the world can he be saved? He can't. He can't. If he's never heard of Christ,
he's never believed on Christ, and he's not saved. Now, I declare
unto you this, that in our generation, there are very few that have
ever heard of Jesus Christ. Now, I want you to let that settle
in. There are very few who have ever
heard of Jesus Christ. Well, then you'll say to me,
well, preacher, what do you mean by that? Because I know this,
everybody in America has heard of Jesus Christ. I'm sure that
you can go, you can't go two blocks without seeing a church
building. And when you see them, look how
large these buildings are. Look at the crosses on there.
Surely they know of Jesus Christ. Surely they've heard of Him. How can you say that there are
only few? I say so. Listen to me very carefully. I say so because the Jesus that
is being preached in this generation is not the Christ of God. That Jesus being preached in
the average pulpit, in the average Sunday school class, and talked
about by the average religious people of this generation, is
not Jesus Christ. He is a false Christ. How do you know that he's a false
Christ? How can you say something? Because
I have the Word of God right here that describes the arm of
the Lord for us. So we don't have to speculate
who he is. I don't have to speculate, I
don't have to guess. God's Word plainly reveals who
Christ is. So there's no misunderstanding. There's no misunderstanding of
who He is. And that's my purpose tonight.
My purpose tonight is to declare, simply declare who Christ is,
that you may believe on Him. That you may believe on Him.
And that's exactly what Isaiah does in this prophecy, is he
declares plainly who Christ is. That you may believe our report. That you may believe and have
the arm of the Lord revealed to you. Now then, first of all,
he describes Him in this way. He says, For he shall grow up
before Him, before Him, as a tender plant, as a root out of dry ground."
This word, before Him, it means in the face of. In the face of. He shall grow up before Him.
God. That's the Him He's talking about.
He shall grow up before Him. Before God. Before the face of
God. And it also means before a time. Before a time. That is, this
one, this arm of the Lord, this salvation of Israel, was before
the face of God and was one with God. That's what I'm declaring
to you tonight, that Jesus Christ is God. Not a god. God. God Very God. That's who Jesus Christ is. The
arm of the Lord is God. Very God. Go to John chapter
1. John chapter 1. And if you want to know the key
to the book of John is this, the deity of Christ. This is
what his purpose was. There were people in his day
declaring that Jesus wasn't God. He was just a man. He was a good
man, a good prophet, son of God, but he wasn't God. And John says,
hogwash. Let me tell you who he really
was. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were made by Him and
without Him was not anything made. Well, preacher, you know,
it says Logos. That means Word. It doesn't mean
Son. It means it was Jesus Christ. How do you know that? Verse 14,
And the Word was made flesh. So we know that it's speaking
of the Son of God. We know it's speaking of Jesus.
was with the Father and the Spirit, and He was God, one with them. He was God, a very God. In Colossians, Paul says this
in Colossians 1, he says, Who is the image of the invisible
God? The firstborn of every creature,
for by Him were all things created that were in heaven, that are
in earth, visible and invisible, whether it be thrones or dominions
or principalities or powers. All things were created by Him
and for Him. And He is before all things,
and by Him all things consist. Does that leave any speculation
as to who Jesus Christ is? He is God, a very God. And in,
you know, just for good measure, in 1 Timothy, 1 Timothy chapter
3, verse 16, Paul says this without controversy. This is without
argument. You see, I don't come to debate.
I just come to declare. That's what preaching is. It's
declaration. It's not a debate. It's not a
question-answer broadcast. This is a declaration. Without
controversy. Without debate. Great is the
mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. That should end all doubt and
controversy about this matter. Jesus is God. He's one with the
Father in spirit, equal with the Father in spirit. This Jesus
whom we preach is no mere man alone, nor was He God pretending
to be man. We're not saying that either. But this is the eternal Son of
God in human flesh. He is God, a very God. He was with God and He was God. John says that there are three
that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Spirit. And these three are one. One God, yet three distinct persons
in the Godhead. And each one of the persons of
the Godhead has his part in salvation. The Father chose a people. The Son redeems His people, and
the Spirit calls and keeps His people. See how God is all in. All in in this matter of salvation. Therefore, believer, the Father
chose us, and He purposed that Jesus Christ, His Son, that we
should be made holy and be redeemed from our sins by Him. by Him. Over in the book of Proverbs,
the wise man Through inspiration of the Holy Spirit was moved
to write even the words of Christ, who is the personification of
wisdom. He says this, the Lord possessed
me in the beginning of His way. This word possessed means He
begat me in the beginning of His way. When was the beginning
of God's way? It's an eternal beginning. There
was never a beginning. There always was. And so therefore
we see that He is the eternally begotten Son of God. And He says in the very next
verse, He says, I was set up. The eternal begotten Son was
set up by God to perform a work, to do something. And that work
was to be the delight of the Father. He was set up to please
God. To please God. Well, He was God. Why should He be set up to please
God? Because His delight was with
the sons of men. The delight of the Son of God
was with us. And we in Him delight the Father. This is what God has purposed
that through Him we should be accepted in the Beloved. That's in Ephesians 1. Go over there real fast. Go over
to Ephesians 1. And just to notice again, this
is not something new for you. You know this very well. Notice how many times he says,
in Christ, in Christ. That we are given all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places. Where? In Christ. According as
he hath chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world.
That we should be made holy and without blame before him in love,
having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus
Christ. That's what he was set up for.
To himself according to the good pleasure of his will, to the
praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted,
where? In Christ. In Christ. It was the purpose of God that
in Christ should all the fullness dwell. In Christ. And behold now Christ, the Christ
of God, who is the eternal Son of God, into whose hands were
given the full responsibility of God's glory and the salvation
of His elect. Behold Him, He is God. He is
God. Paul calls him this. who is God blessed forever. Forever. Second of all, the Son
of God is also become the Son of Man. This is who the arm of
the Lord is. He is made flesh and dwelt among
us." Go back to your text and see this. He not only grew up
before Him from eternity, was He set up, the Son of God set
up to be our Redeemer. He grew up before Him as a tender
plant. This is talking about His humanity
now. His humanity. And as a root out
of dry ground. Why does He use this word tender
plant? Do you realize how fragile humanity
is? We really don't. I imagine we'd
walk around in total fear every second of the day if we knew
how frail we were. One cell goes wrong, cancer,
boom, we're done. One blood clot Shoots to our
brain, we're done. It's frail. It's tender. And
behold, Jesus Christ became a tender plant. He became a man. That's who I'm talking about. The arm of the Lord is God of
very God who became man, very man. And as a man, He trusted
God with His very life. Every second of every day, the
Son of God is a tender plant under the care and nurturing
of God. You realize when he was hungry,
40 days and 40 nights he did without food. And there he was
in the desert, and he could have easily made those stones bread
at Satan's temptation. But he said no. Why? He was a tender plant under the
care of God. And only if God were to give
him those stones made bread, that's the only way he would
have ever took them. Because he trusted God. And listen to this, as a man,
I want you to understand this, he became a man for a reason.
Because God is going to deal with every one of us in a representative. God deals with every man in another
man, by the representation of another man. Adam was created
in perfect upright man, the best of us, and according to the will
of God he represented all of us. Therefore, when he sinned,
he died spiritually under the justice of God, we also sinned
and died with him as a representative man. Wherefore, as by one man's
sin entered into the world, and death by sin, so death passed
upon all men. For all have sinned. You see,
we all sinned in a representative. I'll tell you what, anybody that
deny the total and complete depravity of man denies not only the Word
of God, but his own experience. Just matter of fact, if he denies
depravity, he proves it by denying it. He denies it, denies the
Word of God, denies his own experience that he cannot not sin. Man cannot not sin. All he does is sin. which only
proves our representation in Adam. But when Adam represented
his people, even so did God purpose that Christ should represent
His people. And therefore He must become
a man. He must come into the world to
restore what He did not take away. What did Adam take away? He took away all righteousness
from us. He took away all glory from us.
He took away all our relationship with God. And what did Christ
come to do? As a man, He came to reconcile
us to God, to restore. He was the repairer of the breach. There was a breach. And who did God send to repair
the breach? The man, Jesus Christ. That's
who I'm preaching. The God-man. As by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners, even so by the obedience of one man
shall many be made righteous. Righteous. And this is that root
that was out of dry ground. This, no doubt, speaks of his
lineage, that he should come from Abraham, from Isaac, from
Jacob. Remember, that's the promise
of God. In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.
But then you come to Judah and he says, Not the scepter shall
not part from judah until shiloh comes until the messiah comes
then you get to david and he says Thy son He said i'm gonna
put thy son and thy line on the throne and he's speaking of christ
But consider how low when jesus came into the world how low was
david's line? He couldn't even get a room at
the at the uh, the motel eight. He couldn't even get a room.
They couldn't even get Hey, we're David's line. Who cares? Nobody
cared. His line was so low, it was a
root out of dry ground. God says He's a tender plant.
Man says He's nothing but a weed. That's what He said in the appearance
of man. And so what does the Scripture tell us when He comes
into the world? He said they shall have no form
or comeliness that we should see Him. when we shall see Him. There is no beauty that we should
desire Him. He is despised and rejected of
men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it
were, our faces from Him. He was despised and we esteemed
Him not. Behold, the God-man, when He
came into the world, He came in the virgin's womb,
and he said, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. This Christ of God was tempted
of Satan, tried of men and God, and found perfect. That's who I'm preaching. I'm
preaching the only perfect man, Jesus Christ, who is God, very
God, and man, very man. Yet, he was despised. He was rejected and acquainted
with grief, and we hid our face from him. John says, when he
came into his own, his own received him not. Yet He came anyway. He came, the Son of God was made
flesh to fulfill and accomplish the will and work of God, and
this is the will of God, that He should save His people from
their sins. That's why He came. He came to
save His people. Matthew 1 and verse 21, Thou
shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save. The Christ I'm preaching is God and man who came to do
the will and work of God, and this is it, to save His people
from their sins. Listen, friends, in our day,
the Jesus of this generation is not despised, is He? The Jesus of this generation
is not hated, even because he doesn't resemble the Son of God. Most preach a Christ that came
blindly in hopes of saving some saving men. He came into the
world to make salvation possible for all men and is now wringing
His hands, hoping that some men will make His work effectual.
That's not the Christ we preach. That's not the Christ we preach.
And if that's the Christ that men believe, they believe in
a false Christ that doesn't exist. Why? Because I'm telling you,
Christ came to save His people from their sins. That's what
He came to do. I'm telling you, I'm declaring
it to the Word of God. That's what He said. And look
at this in verse 4, surely. This is without question. Surely, this is why he came. He hath borne our griefs and
carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten of God,
and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgression. He was bruised for our iniquities,
and the chastisement of our peace was upon Him. And with His stripes
we are healed. You see why He came into this
world? He came to fulfill what we could not. He came to fulfill
the law of God that we failed. He came to fulfill righteousness
for His people and redemption by His death. He was stricken,
smitten of God, and afflicted. He suffered poverty, hunger,
rejection, hatred of men, and eventually the cruel cross. Why? Because we like sheep have gone
astray and turned everyone to his own way. This is why he came,
because his elect were of the lost race of Adam, and they needed
his salvation, and he purposed to give it to them. And so he
came. And we all were sinners by nature,
but look at this. And the Lord hath laid on him
the iniquity of us all." Isn't that what Paul said? That while
we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly. Jesus Christ,
the Lord, hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. Behold, herein lies the gospel
message, even one word, substitution. Substitution. That God took all
of the sins of His people took all of the guilt, all of the
reproach, all of the shame, and in one act of divine right and
justice, he imputed, he transferred that to his holy Son, and he
died under the justice of God for our sins. Yet he himself knew no sin. Now, I've just stepped off the
precipice into the abyss because I don't fully grasp it. I'm not
meant to. I'm meant to believe it, to trust
it. In fact, while he was on the
cross, you know this, you won't find one sin he committed. Even
while he was made sin, you won't see it. Yet for us Christ was
made sin, and wounded for our transgression, bruised for our
iniquities, and the chastisement of our peace was upon Him. Behold,
in the holy sight of God, Jesus bare our sins in His own body
on the tree. In His own body on the tree.
There was no sin in Him. Yet our sins transferred, imputed
to him, God said, Awake, O sword, and smite against my shepherd,
against the man that is my fellow, my equal. Smite the shepherd,
and the sheep shall be scattered, and I will turn my hands to the
little ones. So we have the arm of the Lord,
who is God. He is God manifest in the flesh. He came to do the work of God
which is to save his people from their sins. The last thing I
want you to ask is this. Was Christ successful? Was Christ successful? You listen to me very carefully.
The Christ of this book is always successful. Always. In everything, He is victorious. And especially in the work of
saving His people. Any Christ that is not victorious
is not Christ. Look at your text. Verse 10. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
him. He hath put him to grief. When thou shalt make his soul
an offering for sin, he shall see his seed. Do you not get the importance
of this? When God killed His Holy Son, when He had charged
our sins, do you not realize He saw us? We were in Him when He died. Our representative. He shall
see His seed. And then what? He shall prolong
His day. In other words, He'll raise Him
from the dead, sit Him on the throne of glory, and the pleasure
of the Lord shall prosper in His hands. What is happening
right now? The pleasure of the Lord is prospering in His hands.
He's doing all things after the counsel of His own will. You
know what He's doing right now? He is saving His people from
their sins. That's what He's doing. He is
seated on the throne. And listen, He might be. He might see the travail of his
soul and he might be satisfied. Is that what your text says?
If you will just accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, then
he'll be successful. Then God will be satisfied. No.
My friends, this I'm going to tell you this as an aside because
I really want you to go back and read and you'll be blessed.
I want you to see that the interchanging tenses that Isaiah uses in this
book, in this chapter. Notice, he shall grow up before
him as a tender plant. He is despised. In other words,
it's past tense. He goes from future tense to
past tense to future tense to past tense. It's as though Isaiah
were transported to the very place and saw this. And what
did he say? He shall be satisfied. Oh, my friends, how this should
thrill our souls that God is satisfied with Christ's offering. He's satisfied. He's pleased. He's pleased with his one offering
for sin. "...he shall see of the travail
of his soul, and be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify..." Listen. "...many..." Not everyone. I tell you, if Jesus died for
everyone, everyone would go to heaven. That's just plain and
simple. If he died for everyone, everyone
would go to heaven. But you know who he died for?
Many. And you know who they are? They
are everyone that know him. Paul said, I know whom I have
believed. Has God revealed his holy arm
to you? Then you might have great confidence. You might have great assurance. because Christ is successful
he has redeemed you therefore I will divide him a
portion with the great and he shall divide the spoil with the
strong All friends, He has divided His
inheritance with you. He who is heir of all things
has made you heir of all things. Because He poured out His soul
to death, He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bared
the sin, just in case you missed it, of who? Many. Many. and made intercession. Who are
these many? They're transgressors. They're
transgressors. If you believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, it is by the grace of God. It is because God revealed
Him to you. This is not because of your superabundant
brain or intelligence. We know that. This is because
He revealed. Christ to you. And what should we do? Believe. Believe Him. Have you believed the report? And to whom is this arm of the
Lord, the Christ, revealed? You know, we believe that Christ
died for whomsoever will. I do. I believe he died for whomsoever
will believe. I just don't believe he died
for whosoever won't. I just don't believe that. That's
because the scripture testifies to that fact. Oh, if you can
believe, believe. And in believing, give thanks
to the grace of God alone. For Christ, our Savior, is successful.
May God bless this to your hearts. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer.