Okay, if you'll take your Bibles
and turn with me to Isaiah chapter 53. Isaiah chapter 53. The title of the message this morning
is, The Savior, the Church, and the Message. The Savior, the
church, and the message. This morning, by the grace of
God, we will look at three chapters of Isaiah this morning. Isaiah
53, 54, and 55. And I do this because I want
us to see the connection of these chapters as they flow together. as they bring together the gospel
of Jesus Christ. They bring together the message
of the gospel of Jesus Christ and how it relates to His church
and what the message of the church is. And by the Holy Spirit, I
pray that He reveal this to us, the gospel of God's grace. Now,
Isaiah was written, we know, about 700 years. before the birth
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And yet Isaiah reads as though
it had taken place after the birth of Jesus Christ. Some call the book of Isaiah
the gospel according to Isaiah. And truly it is. And we'll see
that by the grace of God this morning. So in Isaiah chapter
53, I would point out the blessed Savior. The whole
chapter of Isaiah 53 regards the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Chapter 54 is the message of
God to the church. And Isaiah 55 is the message
of the church to lost sinners, to lost sinners. Now, first of all, in Isaiah
chapter, these blessed chapters, Isaiah 53, 54, and 55, I want
us to see the blessed gospel. So, first of all, Isaiah 53.
In this, we clearly see the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The writer, Isaiah, says, "...who
hath believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord
revealed." There is the substance of the chapter, the arm of the
Lord. The arm of the Lord is none other
than Jesus Christ. He is the arm, the strength of
God's salvation. You remember, they described
the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, that He delivered them
with a mighty arm. The arm of His strength. And
this is how He saves sinners. by the arm of his strength, by
Jesus Christ the Lord. And he says this about the Lord
Jesus, he said, he shall grow up before him as a tender plant,
as a root out of dry ground. This root, later in other scriptures,
it says that Jesus should be the root and offspring of Jesse. the root of Jesse and the offspring
of David. This shows us Jesus' deity in
that He is both the root of Jesse the creator of Jesse, and he
is to be the offspring of David. He is God and man. The Son of God and the Son of
Man. And notice how the Lord describes
him, he shall grow up as a tender plant. You see a plant growing
up in a desert and it comes up and it's so tender, you've got
to take care of it. This speaks of his humility. His humanity, how that He was
to be sustained in every way by God. Do you not see that the
Lord Jesus Christ, when He gave Himself, I tell you, He gave
all. In other words, when He was in
His mother's womb, the Scripture tells us, He depended, trusted
God from His mother's womb. As he lay on his mother's breast,
he trusted God for the milk. When he was in the desert, you
remember, he would not change those stones into bread, but
rather trusted God for his daily substance. It is hard for us
to understand that. To see that the Son of God was
helpless as a tender plant. The Scriptures tell us that even
His words, He depended on God for His very speech. His words. He said, these words are not
mine, but they are the Father's words. He depended on Him. This shows us His dependence.
Behold, Jesus Christ, the all-powerful Son of God, truly, truly became
man. dependent upon God, and Christ
says that he was meek and lowly in heart. He was a sinless man,
a man loved of God, and yet he depended on God for
his very substance and being. Jesus' whole life, the scripture
here tells us, he was despised and rejected of men, a man of
sorrows and acquainted with grief, Our Lord Jesus Christ, consider
this. You know, we often say that,
well, if this person were just good, you know, if this person
were just the perfect, if my wife was just perfect, then I
would be happy. You know what? If she was perfect,
I would be angry at her because I'm not perfect. The Lord Jesus
Christ was perfect in every way. And this, rather in inviting
to natural man, it was repelling to natural man. He was despised,
though he were a tender plant, dependent upon God for everything. And yet man despised him. They hated him. He was a man
of sorrows and very familiar with grief. Very familiar, acquainted
with it. When He walked upon the earth,
there was nothing about Him that was attractive. Notice this. It says that there was no form
or comeliness. There's no beauty in Him that
we should desire Him. There was nothing carnally about
the Lord Jesus Christ, as though the pictures depict Him with
a halo above His head, as though He was some kind of beautiful
creature. No, there was nothing. He was
a common man. He was to be common. They said,
is this not the carpenter's son? They didn't see anything in Him
that was of any beauty. And listen to me, even so it
is today, as I declare Jesus Christ to you, I know that some
of you have no desire for Him. There are some who have no desire.
He is not beautiful. He is not pleasant. And you have
no desire to know Him. Therefore, you despise Him. You hide your face from Him.
But behold, his purpose was to be despised. These men despised Him because
they wanted to. And yet it was the purpose of
God that He should be despised, rejected of men, because He was
lifted up on the cross by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge
of God. In order to be our substitute,
He must have been despised. Isn't this wonderful how God
displays His sovereignty and at the same time man's responsibility? I'll tell you what, had Judas
not betrayed our Lord, we would not have a salvation. But yet
Judas' sin was still his sin. And he's in hell today because
of his sin. Yet God used that. God determined
to use that for our salvation. Behold now the Son of God who
was crucified and bore our iniquities, our transgressions, and our sins
in his own body. See that in verse four. Surely
he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we did
esteem him stricken and smitten of God and afflicted. But he
was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed. Behold, he was wounded for our
transgressions. Consider that we have sinned. May God instill that in every
one of us to know that we have sinned. We have sinned. We have rebelled against God.
We deserve the wrath and justice of God. If I were to go to God
and demand of God my just reward, He should give me hell. That's what I and my sin have
deserved, is hell. Yet my Savior, the Lord Jesus
Christ, stood in our place And notice how he stood there, how
he was wounded for our transgressions. Verse 7, verse 6 says, We all
like sheep have gone astray and turned everyone to his own way.
And the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was
oppressed and he was afflicted. Notice how he endured this. Yet
he opened not his mouth. Do you not see the greatness
of that? When you are wounded through
no fault of your own, who among us has ever borne that in silence? I tell you, I complain even when
I deserve it. But consider him. Consider that
He opened not His mouth. Consider their false accusations
against Him. Consider their blasphemy against
Him. And yet He remained silent. Why? Because He was to endure
the true accusations against us. Those accusations that they
laid against Him, they were false against Him, but they were true
against us. We blaspheme. We tried to rob God of His glory. They were true accusations. But
see, Him being our substitute, He took those accusations. He took those accusations in
silence, without complaint. This shows us His love for us.
This shows us His great love in that He did not complain.
He willingly took our sins. And as the Lamb of God, the Chosen
and Anointed One of God, He was chosen to make an atonement for
our sins by His blood. In verse 10, look at that. Yet
it pleased the Lord to bruise him. God hath put Christ to grief. And when thou, God, shall make
his soul, Christ's soul, an offering for sin, he shall see his seed,
he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in his hands. God shall see the travail of
his soul and shall be satisfied. I'll tell you what. God could never be pleased with
the death of the wicked. God is never pleased with the
death of the wicked. He says that in Ezekiel 33. He
says the Lord hath no pleasure. Hath no pleasure in the death
of the wicked. What does that mean? It means
that the wicked's punishment is forever because justice is
never satisfied with it. God can find no pleasure in the
death of the wicked because their death cannot satisfy God's justice. That's why hell is forever, because
they cannot pay for one sin, much less the multitude of millions
of sins that they've committed. Yet, I like this, it pleased
God to crush him. This tells us that the death
of the Savior is the only death that was pleasing to God. It
was the only death that actually satisfied God's justice. That's it. This is the only death
that satisfied God's justice was the death of His Holy Son. Behold, now the death of the
Son of God is pleasing to God. It pleased God to crush him,
to make his soul an offering for sin, because when God saw
his travail, the travail of his soul, He said, when he shall
see the travail of his soul, he shall be, what? Satisfied. I tell you what, I don't fully
know what it is to be satisfied, do you? Seems like I'm never satisfied. But praise God, my salvation
does not depend on my satisfaction, but God's. Therefore, when the
lovely Son of God bore our sins in His own body, the sweet smell
of His sacrifice ascended to the nostrils of God, and when
it was done, when sin was forever put away, He said, it is enough. I'm satisfied. He's exhausted
my justice. Sin has been forever paid for. Therefore, as the victor over
sin and having satisfied the justice of God for all those
he died for, now Jesus Christ is risen to the right hand of
God. And notice what he says. He said, to divide. He said,
I will divide him a portion with the great and he shall divide
the spoil with the strong. Isn't that what he's doing in
glory? Dividing the spoils of his victory. His victory over
sin and death and hell, He says that in John chapter 17. John
chapter 17, in His high priestly prayer, the Lord Jesus said, Father,
the hour has come. Glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son
may glorify Thee, as Thou hast given Him power over all flesh,
that He should give, here's a spoil, eternal life. That's a spoil,
isn't it? That's the result of His victory. Eternal life to as many as thou
hast given Him. And this eternal life, and this
is eternal life. Here's another spoil, that they
might know the only true God in Jesus Christ whom thou hast
sent. Do you know Him? Do you trust Him? Do you believe
on Him? That's a spoil of His victory
that He divides with you. He gives that to you. I have glorified Thee on the
earth. I have finished the work. See, salvation is a finished
work. Salvation is not something that we continually add to. Salvation
is a finished work. It's a done deal. This is the
work of my Savior, my Lord, and my God. He has finished the work
of salvation forever. Finished it. And He divides it
with His people. Second of all, now then at 54,
this is the message to the church. This is the message of God to
the church, which is a message of joy and comfort. Joy and comfort. You believer, do you need joy
and comfort? Because I sure do. I sure do. I need joy and comfort. And notice
the first words out of his mouth. After having accomplished redemption,
here's the words. Sing! Sing. Sing, O barren, thou that didst
not bear. Break forth into singing and
cry aloud, Thou that didst not travail with child, for more
are the children of the desolate than children of married wives,
saith the Lord. And what does this have to do
with the church? We who believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, we who by the grace and power of God, listen, we have
been given life. Isn't that what a pregnant woman
is? One who bears life inside of
her body? But it says that we are barren. Is that not true of us? By nature,
is that not true of us? Are we not barren of life by
nature? Yes, we were born barren. We were born without righteousness. We were born dead in our sins. And yet, God says to those who
are barren in themselves, sing. You who are empty of life, sing
because I'm going to put life in you. This is what God does
for His church. He puts life into the barren
womb of our soul. And He gives us the righteousness
of God. This is the promise. This is the result of the Savior's
death. Life. Life to the barren. And all those who are pregnant
with self-righteousness, they're described here as the married
wife. They're the ones that seem to
be satisfied in their own self, who think they have life in themselves. These are the ones that are married
to the law. They shall be cast out into outer
darkness. Isn't that what the Lord says
to those when he divides the nations? You remember those on
his right hand are his sheep, and those on the left are his
goats. And he says to those who are his, he said, when I was
hungry, you fed me. When I was naked, you clothed
me. When I was sick and in prison, you visited me. And the answer
of the righteous is, Lord, when? When have we ever done any of
that for you? He said, you've done unto the least of these
my children, you've done unto me. And then he says to those
who are being cast out, he said, when I was hungry, you didn't
feed me, you didn't clothe me, you didn't visit me. And they
said, Lord, when did we not do those things for you? We always
did those things for you. He said, get out, I never knew
you. You see, they were pregnant with their own righteousness.
And God, if you're pregnant with your own righteousness, if you're
content to live in your own righteousness, God will cast you out. But us, who are barren of righteousness,
we get to sing. We get to sing. Because He's
going to put life into His people. He's going to give us life. And notice what He calls us.
Look at this in verse 4, verse 5. For thy maker is thine husband. The Lord of hosts is his name,
and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, the God of the whole
earth shall he be called. For the Lord hath called thee
as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth,
when thou wast refused. You remember Ruth. Remember in
the book of Ruth how that Boaz desired to have Ruth as his wife
and to restore, to redeem the family of Naomi. But there was
one that stood in his way. There was a nearer kinsman, and
he came before the council with that nearer kinsman. And he said
to him, would you redeem Naomi's line? And the man said, yeah,
sure I will. I'll redeem it. And he said,
yes, but if you redeem it, you've also got to buy Ruth. You've
got to marry the Moabites. And he said, oh, well, I can't
do it. Because if I marry that heathen woman, then I would ruin
my own heritage. Is that not the law? That's a
great picture of the law. The law, if there was a possibility
of being saved by the law, then life should have come by the
law if it was possible. But it's not possible because
we are sinners, because we have failed. The law cannot redeem. It cannot redeem. It has refused
to redeem us, lest it defile itself. Therefore, Jesus Christ, our
Boaz, our near kinsman Redeemer, has redeemed His bride, His church,
and He has made with her a covenant. Notice this. He says in verse
7, for a small moment I have forsaken thee, but with great
mercies will I gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face
from thee for a moment, but with loving kindness will I have mercy
on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer. For this is as the waters of
Noah unto me. For as I have sworn in the waters
of Noah should no more go over the earth, so have I sworn that
I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee." Oh, how blessed is the promise
that God, who for a short time showed us His wrath. Isn't that what He did when He
exposed our sin? Did He not for a moment, for
the time between our birth and our conversion, that moment,
it seemed as though He hid His face from us. As though He would
kill us. It seemed as though His wrath
should swallow us up. And He said, for a moment I showed
you that. And then I come in in mercy.
I come in in loving kindness. And this is the covenant that
He made. Even as the covenant of Noah. The covenant of Noah. Consider that. The justice and
wrath of God reigned down upon all men. But those who were in the ark
were safe. It rained on them just as much
as it rained on the others. But it didn't touch them because
they were in the ark. And so it is with us. You, believer
in Christ, consider the covenant that God has made because you
are in Christ. And He endured the wrath of God
for us. When God had dried up the justice,
when the waters were dried up, He said, I promise, no more.
It will never come on you again. Even so it is with us. God promises
us that His wrath is finished. His justice is satisfied. And He says as it is with Noah,
not one drop of justice will fall on you. Not one. Not one. Behold, child of God, you are
safe because Christ has endured the wrath of God. And notice
he said, for the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed,
but my kindness shall not depart from thee. Neither shall the
covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy
on thee. Consider this, the earth will be destroyed again. Not
by water, by fire. This world and all that's in
it is going to be destroyed. There is no doubt about this.
God promises it will come. But even though the mountains
that seem firm are going to be removed, God says, of my mercy,
my covenant will not be moved. It will not be moved. My kindness
shall not depart from thee. Is that not a blessing, a promise
of God? And it will not depart from us
because of our foundation. Look at this. He says, O thou
afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I
will lay thy stones with fair colors and lay thy foundation
with Sapphire. Behold Jesus Christ, your foundation. This is it. Is this not 700 years
before the Lord Jesus Christ was born this was written? And
yet I tell you, this is just as real to me right now because
I'm afflicted, I'm tossed. Are you not tossed? Are you not
troubled? Are you not afflicted? Yes, God's
people, His church, He said you would be afflicted. But I'll
tell you this, it doesn't matter how much you are tossed, because
your foundation is never tossed. Your foundation is sure. And
it doesn't move. Christ is immutable. He is unchangeable. And so is his covenant of mercy,
his covenant of grace. We shall not be moved. Why? Because the foundation's
not moved. I like when David, he wrote that
in his psalm. He said, first of all, he said,
the Lord is my rock. I shall not greatly be moved.
See, David knew he was weak. He knew he was a man tossed to
and fro, but through confidence in the word and promises of God,
he said, I shall not be moved off this rock. I won't be moved. because my rock is not moved.
This is the gospel to the church. The terror of the wicked shall
not come upon you. That's what he says down in verse
14. In righteousness shalt thou be
established. Thou shalt be far from oppression. for thou shalt not fear, and
from terror, for it shall not come nigh thee. Did you hear that? God says, you are far from oppression. Don't be afraid. You who are
in Christ, you are far from the terror of the wicked. You see
Christ having endured the justice of God, seeing that God cannot
demand twice payment. You are free, free from the terror
and wrath of God if you are in Christ. You are free, absolutely
free, completely free. Jesus said, if the Son shall
make you free, you shall be free indeed. Free from the justice
of God, free from the condemnation of sin, free from the power of
sin, and one day, free from the very presence of sin. You shall be free. Is this not
the song of the church? We've seen our Redeemer, the
tender plant that grew up, the one who bore our sins in His
own body, the one who accomplished redemption, satisfied the justice
of God. In chapter 54, we see the rejoicing
of the church, who is barren in themselves. God gives them
life, marries them, says, I'm your husband, I'm your Redeemer. Gives them a covenant, even the
one of Noah, says, I won't bring wrath on you. You're free. Free. And now then lastly, notice
in chapter 55, the message of the church. The message of the
church. In verse 17 of 54, it says, no
weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper. And every
tongue that shall rise up against thee in judgment shall be condemned.
This is the heritage This is the inheritance of the servants
of the Lord. And their righteousness is of
Me. Is that your desire? Is that
your hope? Do you desire to have the righteousness
of God? Do you long to be saved completely,
absolutely free from all condemnation? Because this only belongs to
the elect. This only belongs to the church.
This only belongs to his bride, to his sheep. Are you one of them? If you are, then you will hear
the message of the church. I did. This message in chapter
55 is the message I heard. It is the message God uses. It
is the gospel message that God gives to His men. Paul said,
We do beseech you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. This is the message. If you go
back to 53, notice this, that Isaiah said this in verse 1,
Who hath believed our report? He didn't say, Who hath believed
God's report? Although it is God's report. Paul says many times, he says,
it's my gospel. My gospel. It is both God's gospel,
and I tell you, if you believe, it's your gospel. It's yours. It's my gospel. And as the church
of God, we are given the commission of our Lord Jesus Christ. And
he says, go you into all the world and preach the gospel to
every creature. And here it is. Look at verse
1. Ho! That means stop. Stop what you're
doing and listen. This is a message of attention
that needs great attention. It's very important. There's
nothing else you can think of right now that's more important
than this. Nothing. Nothing. Ho! Everyone. This is a general call, isn't
it? You just heard, I know you heard me. Some people say that
people in the street can hear me. You can hear me. And I said, everyone, oh, everyone,
this message is general. It goes out to all men. And as
soon as it hits your ears, and you pay attention. But I tell
you, this message, though it is general, is very specific
as to who it's for. This message may touch everyone's
ears, but this message is not necessarily for everyone. What
do I mean by that? Notice that this message is conditional. Oh, everyone that thirsteth. You see how it narrows? It brings
it down, doesn't it? Well, I'm not thirsty. I'm not
talking to you. The gospel is for the thirsty.
Thirsty for what? Righteousness. Blessed is the man that hungers
and thirsts after what? Righteousness. Righteousness. Oh, everyone that is thirsty,
we are calling the thirsty souls to drink spiritual water. Friends, Jesus, in like fashion,
said, Come unto Me. Now that came out to everyone
that heard that. He said, Come to Me. But then
He qualified it, you that are weary and heavy laden. You that
are burdened by sin, you that are burdened by the law, he says,
come to me and I'll give you rest. I'll give you rest. And so we preach, come you who are dead. This gospel message is to dead
sinners who need life. Thirsty sinners who need righteousness. And we say, come, not to the
preacher, not to the church. We say, come to Christ, the water
of life. You remember that woman at the
well, Jesus asked for water and she said, why is it you're asking
water of me? He said, if you knew who it was
that asked you for water, you would ask of him and he would
give you The water of life. The message of the gospel is
to those who are thirsty for life and righteousness. Now then,
he says also, he that hath no money, not only to the thirsty,
but to the bankrupt. To the bankrupt. You who say, I'm thirsty for
salvation. I'm thirsty for salvation that's
in Christ, but I have somewhat to add. I've got something to
add to this. Well, again, he's not talking
to you. If you've got somewhat to add to salvation, he's not
speaking to you. I tell you, he is speaking only
to those who are bankrupt in sin. You remember in the Church of
Galatia, false teachers came in, and they said, believe on
Jesus Christ. But they added one condition. You must be circumcised. And what did Paul say about that
gospel? He said, that's not the gospel. That's another gospel. He said to them, if you add one
thing in circumcision, he said, Christ shall profit you nothing. Do you see? You've got to come
empty. You've got to come with nothing.
You've got to have nothing to pay. That's who is called. Are you that person? Are you
thirsty for righteousness? Are you bankrupt? Are you empty
with no righteousness of your own? Then you are welcome to
come. You are commanded to come. Come. You that have no money,
come you buy. and eat, yea, come by wine and
milk without money and without price. What is that speaking
of? It is the blood and flesh of Jesus Christ. He said, my
flesh is meat indeed and my blood is drink indeed. This is spiritual
language. It's not the flesh. It's not
this Lord's table that he was talking about. It is a spiritual
He said, these words I speak, they are spirit and they are
truth. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood shall never hunger and never thirst. For what? Righteousness. Righteousness. Come with no money,
come empty. And listen, all who come as such will be given life. Incline thine ear and come to
me. Here and your soul shall live. I like the definite language
of Holy Scripture. It's not perhaps. There's no
chance here. All who come to Christ will have
life. This is a promise of God. This is the promise of the Scriptures.
You will have life here, and your soul shall live. And I will
make with you an everlasting covenant, even the sure mercies
of David. What is this? But His revelation
of the covenant. I speak often of the elect of
God, how that salvation is an eternal matter, settled in heaven
forever by God. that God has chosen a people,
and Christ has come to the earth and redeemed those people, and
the Spirit of God shall call those people. How do I know I
am one of those? Have you believed? Because faith is the evidence
of that, not the cause. Faith is never the cause of election. Faith is never the cause of life. Faith is always the result. God
gives faith because of His covenant of grace. And therefore, boasting
is excluded. We get no boasting rights. because faith is a gift of God. Do you believe? See, faith, being a grace of
God, it's not mere faith. It's not just a decision that
we've made. No, grace, it is a gift of the
holy God to sinners. Don't think little of your faith,
even though your faith is little. Don't think little of it. Because
faith is a gift. And only God can give it. And
if I have it, I have him. And if I have him, I have everything. May God show us our Savior. May
God reveal to us the result of His work that we should see. And may He open our minds and
hearts to preach this gospel to every creature. It is my hope
that God would reach down and save His people from their sins. And you know what? He will. He
will. He'll even use this worthless
vessel to do it. He'll use us. Is that not great? May God ever reveal this to us.