Turn with me if you would now
to Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53. We are going to observe
the Lord's table tonight. This is one of the two ordinances
that the Lord gave to us to openly show our union with Him. He gave us two ordinances to
outwardly, openly, physically illustrate and show our union
with Him. Both ordinances together, these
ordinances are so wise, just so wise. Both of these together
physically illustrate the complete union that God's people have
with Christ. The first ordinance that he gave
was baptism. And that represents us in him. That's what baptism is. We go
down into the water. It surrounds us. It covers us. It represents us
being in Him. In His body, in His blood, in
His work, in His life, in His death, in His burial, in His
resurrection, in Him. We are in Him. Wherever He goes, we go. Whatever
He does, we do. We are in Him. Our union with Christ consists
of us being found in Him. But it also consists of Him being
found in us. Christ in us is the hope of glory. That's our union, us in Him. Him in us. And that is fully,
completely pictured in the two ordinances that the Lord gave
to us. With baptism, we are in something. And with the Lord's
table, something is in us. And it's beautiful. It's truly
beautiful. Now, because of what they represent,
both of these ordinances are for believers. because of what
they represent. Both of these ordinances are
for God's people. That's who they were given to.
Those are the only people who should observe them. Believers,
neither one of these should be taken lightly. Neither one of them, neither
one of those two ordinances should be taken lightly because of what
they represent. They are the physical acknowledgements
of our hope before God. And in observing either one of
them, whether it's baptism or whether it's the Lord's table,
if the Lord leads us to observe one, what we are saying in it
is, and what we are doing in it is, is we are letting everyone
know, I believe. This is what's in my heart. And
I want it to come out. It comes out of my mouth. It
comes out of everything pertaining to me and what the Lord has done
for me. I believe. In observing one of
the two ordinances, we're saying, I believe God. I believe God's
Word. I believe the declaration of the
gospel that He's given. I don't believe man on the matter. I believe God on the matter.
And that right there is the very thing that Isaiah 53 opens with. That's the very thing. If you
look at verse one, it says, who hath believed our report? That's how it starts. That's
who this is to. That's who this is about. As
we read down through this, when he says words like our, And we, he's speaking of believers,
he's speaking of believers. When he mentions my people at
the end of verse eight, he's speaking of God's believers,
those whose faith is in Christ. Those who deep in their heart
with absolute sincerity cry out to the Lord God saying, You are
all I have. You're all I have. And the Lord puts us in positions
that tries that faith and proves to us that that is the cry of
our heart. You're all I have. You're just
all I have. If I don't have you, I have nothing. Faith is the substance of things
hoped for. It is the evidence of things
not seen. Salvation, eternal life. All of God's people are believers. All of God's people are or will
become in His time, by His Spirit, believers. They can sincerely
confess, I believe, every one of them, I believe. Well, believe what? Believe what? What do God's people believe?
To say, I'm a believer. What does that mean? What do
God's people believe? Verse one says, the report. The report that God gave to his
prophets and his Psalm writers and his apostles, they all were
given and they all have written the exact same report. All of
them. And now that they have given
it, their question goes out to every sinner that hears it. Who
believes it? The report is given. And now
the question is asked, who believes it? Who hath believed our report? That's who this message is to.
And that's who the gospel is for. That's who the ordinances
are for. Whoever God has caused to believe
his word. Turn with me if you would to
Acts chapter 8. Acts chapter 8 verse 26 it says, And the angel of the Lord spake
unto Philip saying, arise and go toward the South unto the
way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert. And
he arose and went and behold a man of Ethiopia and eunuch
of great authority under Candace, or Candace, queen of the Ethiopians,
who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem
for to worship, was returning and sitting in his chariot, read
Isaiah the prophet. Then the spirit said unto Philip,
go near and join thyself to this chariot. And Philip ran thither
to him and heard him read the prophet Isaiah and said, understandest
thou what thou readest? And he said, how can I except
some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he
would come up and sit with him. The place of the scripture which
he read was this. He was led as a sheep to the
slaughter, and like a lamb done before his shearer, so opened
he not his mouth. In his humiliation, his judgment
was taken away, and who shall declare his generation? for his
life is taken from the earth. And the eunuch answered Philip
and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this, of
himself or of some other man? Then Philip opened his mouth
and began at the same scripture and preached unto him Jesus.
And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water
and the eunuch said, see, here is water. What doth hinder me
to be baptized? And Philip said, if thou believest
with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Philip said, if you believe
with all your heart, that eunuch said, here's water, can I take
part in the ordinance God has given? And Philip said, if you
truly believe, with all your heart that this is the Christ.
This is the Messiah come down. This is the Savior of His people. This is the Redeemer. This is
the promise of God. If you believe He's your only
hope, He's all you have before the judgment throne of God, you
may. And he said, I believe Jesus
Christ is the Son of God. Turn with me over to 1 John chapter
5. 1 John 5 verse 7, it says, For
there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word,
and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one. And there are
three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and
the blood, and these three agree in one. If we receive the witness
of men, the witness of God is greater, the report. The report,
if we receive the report of men, the report of God is greater
for this is the witness of God, which he hath testified of his
son. He that believeth on the son
of God hath the witness in himself. He that believeth not God hath
made him a liar because he believeth not the record, the report. that God gave of His Son. And this is the record that God
hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. It's not in the law. It's not
in man of any way, shape, or form. This life is in His Son. Verse 12 says, he that hath the
Son hath life. He that says, the Son of God
is all I have. Not He that hath the Son plus
whatever man wants to add to it. He that has the Son. What
do you have? What is your hope? The Son of
God. He that hath the Son hath life. And he that hath not the Son
of God hath not life. Verse 13, He said, These things
have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son
of God. that you may know that you have
eternal life, and that you may believe on the name of the Son
of God." He said, I've written this witness, this record, this
report to you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that
you may know that you have eternal life. God's people believe the
witness, record, the report of the Son of God. That's how they
know they have eternal life. And this right here is absolute
truth. The only reason they know they
have eternal life is because they believe the report. That's
the only reason. They sure don't know it because
of anything they see in themselves. As a matter of fact, God's people
don't see anything in themselves but sin. When they turn their
eyes within, all is dark and vain and wild. If anything, God's people say,
I don't know how I could possibly be counted among His chosen. I don't see anything in myself.
I don't see how I could take part in His eternal life. Nothing
here bears the evidence. Nothing in this flesh bears the
evidence of taking part of eternal life. But thank God this doesn't
say that God's people know they have eternal life because they
see something in themselves or they even believe God chose them.
It says they know they have eternal life because they believe everything
it says about Christ. That's why. Ask a believer, ask
a believer, do you believe that God chose to save you? Do you believe God elected you? Do you believe you are among
the chosen elect of God? This is what a believer will
say. That's his business. Who He chose is His business. But I'll tell you what I do believe.
I believe God the Father elected a particular people to save from
the foundation of the world. And I believe that every one
of those people were sinners. And I know and am convinced and
believe that I'm a sinner. And I know and believe that Jesus
Christ died and paid all the debt of every soul that the Father
chose. Wiped it all clean. I believe
that by the sacrifice of Himself, and when He spilled His own blood,
He put away all the sin from all the people that the Father
chose to save. I believe that the Spirit of God will come to
every single one of them and reveal Christ to them. Reveal
who Christ is and what He did for them. And I believe all of
them, every single one of them. Am I one of them? That's His
business. But I believe every single one
of them will be kept by the power of God all the way to glory. I believe God's report. I believe God's report and this
is what God's report says. He that believes God's report
hath eternal life. Faith is the evidence of eternal
life. Believers believe every word
that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Just like David said
in Psalm 51, if He judges me for my sin, He's right in doing
so. That's His business. And if He
chooses to have mercy on me by that sacrifice of Himself, then
I'll praise Him forever for doing it. I'll praise Him forever. But either way, that's His business.
And I just believe what the Word has to say about Him. Now if
God causes one of His own to believe the report that He has
given concerning Christ, that faith, believing is faith. That faith in that record concerning
Christ, it won't be because of anything in the sinner. That
faith is not of the sinner's doing, that's of God's doing. If we believe this report, That
belief is not of ourselves, that's the gift of God. Now go back
with me to Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53 verse 1 says, who hath
believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the
Lord revealed? The arm of the Lord is Christ.
To whom is Christ revealed? Who will believe the report?
Whoever God reveals the report to. It's God's business. God has given us the report right
here in Isaiah 53. All we're going to do is read
it. We're just going to read the report and we're going to
see if God has revealed it to us and caused us to believe it.
I pray so. I truly pray so. If come the
end of this, we can honestly say from the depths of our souls,
I believe that. If we can say that, then when
this message is over, we will confess it together in one of
the ordinances that He's given to us. Verse 1 says, Who hath
believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the
Lord revealed? For He, that's Christ, shall
grow up before him, God the Father, and man, all, he shall grow up
before all. As a tender plant and as a root
out of dry ground, he hath no form nor comeliness, and when
we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire
him. Man, in all of his sinful darkness,
he didn't see anything in Christ that caused man to desire him,
but God did. He saw the beauty, he saw the
glory, he was well pleased. Verse three says, 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. The report says we hid our faces
from him. It says we despised him and esteemed
him not." Now this is what it is to be a believer of the Word.
The natural flesh says, that's talking about somebody else. That's what the flesh says, that's
talking about somebody else. But that doesn't say somebody
else did it. Isaiah wasn't even alive when
our Lord walked this earth. Isaiah was long gone by that
point. But He didn't write they, He didn't say they hid as it
were their faces from Him. He was despised and they esteemed
Him not. He said we. That was us, that's talking about
us, all of God's people. A child of God will say, I believe
that. I believe it was my very own
sin against Him that hung Him there. Verse 4 says, Surely He
hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem
Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. In spite of us,
that's what He did for us. Our sinful flesh wanted Him to
be stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. Verse 5 says,
But He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon Him and with His stripes we are healed. He came and He
took what was coming to us. He came and He took it for us. While man in all of his ignorance
and all of his foolishness and sin, he thinks he's earned a
reward with God, he has no idea that he's actually earned wrath
from God. But Christ came and while we
were turning our back on Him, While we were despising Him,
while we were rejecting Him, He was bearing our punishment
for us. Verse six says, all we like sheep have gone astray.
We have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord hath laid
on him the iniquity of us all. While we were turning to our
own way, God the Father was laying even that Even that, while they
were carrying our Lord to the cross, crying, crucify Him. Even
that. In that moment, He said, Father,
forgive them. They know not what they do. Even that very sin, that was
laid on Christ for us. Verse 7, it says, He was oppressed
and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth. He is brought
as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before her shearers
is dumb, so he opened not his mouth." Why didn't he defend
himself? It's because with our sin on
him, he couldn't. He could not. God made him to
be guilty. Verse 8, he was taken from prison
and from judgment, and who shall declare his generation? For he
was cut off out of the land of the living, For the transgression
of my people was he stricken. He died. He sovereignly, willingly
died, bearing the sin of his people. He said, no man takes
my life from me. I lay it down of my own. I lay it down myself. He sovereignly,
willingly said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.
And having said thus, he gave up the ghost. It is appointed
unto man once to die. And for every soul that the Father
placed in Christ, in that union of being in Him, that's where
the sinner died. That's where all of God's chosen
people once died. And now it's over. It's over. It is finished. Judgment is settled. Punishment is settled. Death
is settled. It's over. Verse 9 says, And
he made his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death,
because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit found
in his mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
him. God did this to Christ. The father
did this to his son. Man did not have his way with
the Lord of glory. Man only did what God predetermined
for to be done. Verse 10 says, 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. He shall prolong his days and
the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall
see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. Our children
this morning in the Sunday school class, they were learning about
the veil in the temple being rent and why it was rent. And it's because God was satisfied. God was satisfied. The Jews had
all those laws for all those years, and they were committing
all those sacrifices, and they had this veil separating the
holy place from the holy of holies. And God said, no one but my high
priest comes in. And every time they sacrificed
an animal, they were crying, God needs to be satisfied. Every
time they were saying, God needs to be satisfied. We have sinned
and God needs to be satisfied. And when Christ died, God said,
I'm satisfied. And the veil was open and the
payment was made. Christ was raised from the dead
because God was satisfied. And if God was satisfied with
Christ's payment for our sin, if God was satisfied with Him,
He's satisfied with us. in and through everything he
did to put away our sin. Verse 11 says, he shall see of
the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge
shall my righteous servant justify many for he shall bear their
iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a
portion with the great and he shall divide the spoil with the
strong because he hath poured out his soul unto death. And
he was numbered with the transgressors, and he bare the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors. The father said,
because of everything that Christ my son has accomplished, because he made intercession
for my people, I'm gonna divide his inheritance among them. They
get the inheritance with him. And he also said, he is the inheritance. Verse 12 says, therefore will
I divide him. He is their portion. Because
of what he did for them, they're going to get him. He's going
to get them. They're going to get him. It's an eternal union. It's going to never be dissolved. Now, besides sin and rebellion,
Besides despising Him and rejecting Him and being the cause of His
punishment and the cause of His death, what role did we play
in that? Besides those wicked, evil things,
what role did we play in our salvation? None. He did it all. He accomplished it all. He paid
it all, all the debt we owed. Sin had left a crimson stain,
but he by himself alone washed it white as snow. That's the
report. That's the report that God has
given. And now the question through
Isaiah is, who believes it? Who believes it? If God has caused
us to truly, sincerely say, I believe that. then let's confess it together
in his table. All right? Brother William, you
come and read for us.