Once again, we welcome this dear
friend and speaker of the gospel to our pulpit. We had him in
1992, 93, and 95. And I hope this is not the last
time we'll have you. I do too. All right, brother.
God bless you. I love you, brother. Thank you.
Well, good morning. I give honor to our God. We've
sung of him already, holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty. And we honor the living God,
Father, Son, and Spirit, the one eternal true God, and the
trinity of his blessed and sacred persons. I'm so glad to see each
of you. I'm thankful for the weekend
of fellowship that God has privileged my wife and me to have with you
in our time together. It's been a blessing, and we
have been so grateful to God for the privilege of renewing
fellowship with you. Back in the 90s we had the privilege
of coming to the area those three times that God granted and it
was rich and it seems as though there was never a hiatus, there
was never an interval of time in between. We just picked up
where the sweet fellowship ended and started again, and we praise
God for that. And I do thank the Lord for His
goodness to us. I want to invite you this morning
to turn with me to Isaiah, please, the book of Isaiah, And I want
to direct your attention to chapter 53. While you're turning, allow
me to say thank you once again for the kind hospitality we've
enjoyed, the things that have been ours to enjoy with you and
from you, and I appreciate it so very much. God so often manifests
and displays his goodness through his people, and he has done that
to us once again, and we're so very grateful. I want to read
the whole of this chapter 53. We could actually go back to
verse 13 of chapter 52 where this Song of the Servant begins,
the picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, especially in His sufferings
as our substitute. We'll read, though, beginning
at verse 1 of chapter 53. I'll read down to the end of
the chapter, but I want to lift before you verse 10 this morning
in the will of our God. We read in verse 1 of Isaiah
53, Who hath believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the
Lord revealed? For he shall grow up before him
as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground. he hath
no form nor comeliness, and 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. Surely he hath borne our griefs,
and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem him stricken, 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 with his stripes we are healed. All 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. 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 openeth
not his mouth. 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. 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 in his mouth. yet it pleased
the Lord to bruise him. He hath put into 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 travel 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 spoiled with the strong, because he hath poured out his
soul unto death, and he was numbered with the transgressors, and he
bared the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
May our God bless this portion to our souls, to the honor of
His Son of whom these words speak, and to the glory of His name.
Let's pray. Father, we ask you, in the name
of thy worthy Son, of whom we read here, In these words, you
gave Isaiah of Jerusalem 700 years before our Savior appeared
in the flesh, born of a virgin womb. Father, how we thank you
for what is pictured here of the sufferings of thy Son, but
also of the success that was his in that work of his cross. Father, we bless you today, we
magnify you, and we ask you, Father, in the name of thy Son,
to glorify him in us. all that should speak to any
that are without him today, bringing them, Father, by faith and repentance
in regeneration to believe on the Son. Father, we ask it in
his worthy name, amen. Well, as we look at these words
of Isaiah 53, again, specifically, I direct your attention to verse
10. As I do, by way of a title, I would give you this, Behold
My Servant. If you go back to chapter 52,
verse 13, you'll find that those words begin that verse. God says,
Behold, my servant shall deal prudently. He shall be exalted,
and extolled, and be very high. And then back in chapter 42,
we have the first of those specific prophecies that are servant prophecies. In verse 1 of chapter 42 of Isaiah
we read, 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. God is introducing
the Lord Jesus Christ here as His servant. We want to say more
about that in just a moment, but I want to first of all point
out something to you that marks Isaiah's prophecies earlier. and that is relating to the person
of the servant. In a real sense, earlier in Isaiah,
the Messiah, the Lord Jesus, as he's presented prophetically,
is seen as the king, and in being set forth as king, he is seen
not only to be a king of David's line, but also, as Psalm 110.1
presents him, he's also David's Lord, as well as David's son. For the one who's announced to
the house of David is shown clearly to be God. If you would just
notice that with me from a few passages earlier in Isaiah. First
of all, the prophecy of his virgin birth in chapter seven, verse
14. Look with me if you would there,
you don't have to. You take it through the ear gate
if you only, not through the eye gate, but hear these words. And God is speaking here to King
Ahaz, who is the ungodly king of the line of David over Judah. And as God tells him to ask for
a sign that that kingdom will continue beyond Ahaz's day, when
it was threatened. And God as well speaks of the
coming one of David's line. God says this in verse 14, therefore,
714, therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold,
a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his
name Immanuel. Now Matthew tells us, as you'll
remember, in Matthew 1.23, that name means God with us. Because this child that would
be born of the virgin is uniquely God and man. He's God and man. The nature of deity, the nature
of humanity, united in one person. And that is absolutely essential
to the work that He would do as Messiah. He has to be God. Oh, so many don't recognize that. There are those who come knocking
on your door, usually on a Saturday morning at most inopportune time,
and they tell you they're witnesses of Jehovah. But they're not,
because the Jehovah they're witnessing of is not Jesus. They don't recognize
Him as being fully Jehovah God. But brothers and sisters, the
Savior that sinners have in need is Jehovah. Even here, he's called
Immanuel, God with us. Look over with me, please, in
chapter 9, verse 6, another of these prophecies of Immanuel,
the virgin born one. And as Isaiah, by inspiration,
speaks of him again in Isaiah 9, 6, he says, For unto us a
child is born, unto us a son is given. Notice that. He's the
child born, But he's the son given. How is he the son given
as a child born? Because he was the eternal son
of God. The son God gave as our Lord
spoke to Nicodemus in John 3.16. But then notice what follows.
And the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall
be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting
Father, the Prince of Peace. That's our Savior. He is in His
glorious person, not only the child born as man of a virgin
womb, but He's also the Son given, who is mighty God. In those words,
everlasting Father. In the Hebrew, could be understood,
Father of Eternity. Hallelujah. That's our Savior. We point that out because Isaiah
was given to see. Some say, oh, you won't find
Christ in the Old Testament. Ah, here we have the, we see
that lie betrayed. Here he is, but Isaiah not only
saw Christ, Isaiah saw him as the New Testament presents him,
both God and man. And that was the anticipation
of the Old Testament, that the Messiah would not just be a man
born of David's line, but he would also be David's Lord as
well, Jehovah in his being. Now, let me ask you to notice
one more example of this as we think about the person of the
servant that is presented later in Isaiah, and that is in chapter
11, please. Notice with me what Isaiah, by
inspiration, says in verse 1, and then I want you to drop down
with me to verse 10. In verse 1 we read of our Savior,
the Messiah here, and there shall come forth a rod out of the stem
of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. Now here's
the picture that ends chapter 10. The kingdoms of men have
been cut down like trees. And out of the fallen stump of
David's kingdom, there's gonna come a rod of Jesse. Who was
Jesse? David's father. There's gonna
be a shoot that sprouts out. Some of you run into that when
you cut down a tree. You think, I'm done with it.
But all of a sudden, those sprouts show. Well, he's the sprout from
Jesse's trunk, the fallen stump of Jesse. But then drop down
to verse 10. Here Isaiah by inspiration says,
and in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall
stand for an instant of the people, to it shall the Gentiles seek,
and his rest shall be glorious. Now what is amazing here is,
the root of Jesse is also the rod of Jesse. I don't know if
Isaiah's readers, when they heard this said, I don't know if they
ask him, I can't do the Jewish schtick too well, but I don't
know, brother Isaiah. Which is he? Is he the rod or
is he the root? And Isaiah would have answered
him like I did one time when I preached at Layton Chapel Baptist
Church, there between, not far from Brother Rupert, years ago
when I was a young man, and that's almost 50 years ago. We had preached
there and I was asked by the wife of Deacon Jesse Benson in
the church, Brother David, do you want cornbread or bread or
biscuits? And I said, yes. They would have
asked, is he the rod or is he the root? And Isaiah would have
said, yes. He's the rod, for in his humanity,
he comes from Jesse. But he's the root of Jesse, in
that he's the root of every one of us. We all take our origin
from him, for he is Jehovah the creator. He's the Savior, who
because He's God in man is able to be the Savior. This is the
one that Isaiah presents in those opening words, but then as we
come to chapters 42 and following, He who is God in man is presented
as Jehovah's servant. And that's specifically important
Because while there are many in the Old Testament who are
called the servant of the Lord, this one is the servant of the
Lord above all others. He is the one, if you will, the
servant of the Lord par excellence. He's the one who is the preeminent
servant. Because as we survey the lives
of some of those Old Testament servants, they were marked by
flaw and failure. Moses is one of those who's called
the servant of Jehovah, and yet we know Moses' resume. He was
not permitted to enter the promised land because he did not halla
the Lord's name before Israel when he struck the rock when
God said, speak to it. He's a servant, but he's a flawed
servant. David was called the servant
of the Lord, and yet we know that David was marked by flaw
and failure. It's writ large in Scripture.
He had failed. He wasn't a perfect servant,
nor was Job. Job, we read, is the servant
of the Lord. Everyone who'd been the Lord's servant on the Old
Testament was one who was fraught by failure. But oh, this servant,
this one, God speaks of it and says of him, in him, my soul
is well pleased. In him, my soul delights. And he's the one in whom all
the other servants are found to be perfect. You and I will
never be perfect on our own. Even in our best day, there's
enough sin in us to start hell all over again. But thank God,
this is the perfect servant of Jehovah. He's presented in that
way by Isaiah, that presentation of the Lord Jesus Christ in his
perfection, in his glory, as the one who, born of a virgin
womb, lived perfectly. Just listen to some of the things
he said in his humanity. When his disciples, as they're
passing through Samaria, and they stop at Sychar by a well,
his disciples are sent on a grocery buying mission. Now they were
sent to do more than buy food, the Lord Jesus tells them, when
they get back. But as they're there, bringing
back the food, they've got the groceries, they say, Master,
eat. And he says, I have meat to eat
that ye know not of. If you and I lived on that, we'd
starve to death. But he's the Son of God, whose
meat was to do the will of his Father. That was his whole delight. He says, in fact, in the volume
of the book, it's written of me, Psalm 40, behold, I come
to do thy will, O God. That's our perfect Savior. Later
he would say, as he spoke to some Jews who wanted to accost
him, he said to them in John 8, 29, He that has sent me is
with me. The Father hath not left me alone,
for I do always those things that please Him. Brothers and
sisters, that's the servant here that never erred. Thought, word,
deed, attitude, motive, intention, he never erred. Every one of
us are guilty in all those respects, but he's the guiltless, the sinless
Son of God. He measures up to God's demand
I don't. I fall so short. I can't meet
his demand, but I'm glad for the one who took on our flesh
and blood without sin, so that he might, by a virgin womb as
a man, live to do what we could not do. By his obedience, brothers
and sisters, his acts of obedience, he measured up fully to everything
God demands. He loved God with all his whole
soul, mind, and strength. He loved his neighbors himself.
Every one of us felt those two of the greatest commandments,
but he didn't. He's Jehovah's servant, I tell
you. And the Father says to us, behold my servant. But I want
you as you go back with me to chapter 53, please, to notice
particularly those words of verse 10, sometimes I believe we're so,
we're so familiar with the Gospel that things don't shock us like
they should when we read the Bible. There are statements that
are made that we've become so familiar with, they're, as it
were, in a wrong way common to us to the point that we don't
say, what? And I think we have a statement
in verse 10 in the light of what we just said about the servant's
perfection as he's presented there. Listen to these words
of verse 10. Speaking of the servant, Isaiah
writes, by inspiration, yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. he hath put him to grief. And
then Isaiah breaks out in prayer, when thou shalt make his soul
an offering for sin, he shall see a seed, he shall prolong
his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his
hand. Here we see the reality that
is spoken of concerning the punishment of the servant and the suffering
that he endured. And Isaiah, it's march this whole
passage back to 52, 13. Just look with me there, if you
will. In the words of verse 14, notice of chapter 52, what is
said there. Isaiah writes, as many were astonished
at thee. That is astonished. His visage,
speaking of his face, his countenance, his visage was so marred more
than any man, and his form more than the sons of men. Listen
to those words. the place of our Lord mangled,
his form marred. Why? Because Jehovah has been
pleased to bruise his servant. You and I can't put that together
I think fully, but when we think about it in terms of him and
what he's doing, and Isaiah goes on to trace it out for us in
chapter 53 as he tells us in those words, we esteemed him
stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But then they were
brought to see the truth, as it was in the words of verse
5. 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. Did you notice
the substitution there? Let me reread it, if you will. And when I took my first years
of Greek, we had a professor at Campbell College, Dr. Kranji
Burnsford Arp. I love Dr. Arp. He passed, and
I don't know where he is. He said Greek was the language
of heaven. I hope he found out, but I'm afraid he didn't. But
Dr. Arp, When we would mispronounce
a Greek word, he'd say, ah, Mr. Morris, you put the emphasis
on the wrong syllable. I want to put some emphasis on
the syllables, please, in verse 5 as we read it again. 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. Did I emphasize this sufficiently?
You see, the Him in us, the wonderful exchange that takes place in
the gospel with the sinless one. Jehovah's pleasing servant is
struck for sinners. And it pleased the Lord to bruise
him. There's a great hymn that I think
speaks so well of this. I've mentioned it a couple of
times in the course of this past week, Stricken, Smitten, and
Afflicted. Some of you may remember that
hymn and you'll remember there's a stanza that says, Tell me ye
who hear him groaning, was there ever grief like his? Friends
through fear his cause disowning, foes insulting his distress,
many hands were raised to wound him, none would interpose to
save, but the deepest stroke that pierced him was the stroke
that justice gave. Who gave that stroke of justice?
His father. who gave that stroke that brought
him down to the pit for our sakes, the Father. Why? Because the
sinless Son of God had become by divine appointment and divine
purpose and agree in covenant, he had become our sin-bearer
surety and substitute. And if you and I were to be brought
to glory, he would have to taste his horrors for us on the cross. and the wrath of God was poured
out on him in a way that was immeasurable. I can't figure
it. I can't wrap my mind around it.
Thank God I'll never be able to. I'll never know hell's horrors
because in his infinite soul he paid the price fully as he
took the sin and debt of his people and paid not only their
sin debt but their hell penalty at the cross. That's what Isaiah
is talking about. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him. And then he goes on to expand
on it. He has put him to grief. You mean the one in chapter 42
that he said, Behold my servant whom I uphold, mine elect, and
whom my soul is well pleased? The father was pleased to bruise
his well-pleasing one? Yes. He was pleased to put him
to grief. He was pleased to do what you
and I, thank God, who know him, you and I who are, by God's grace,
we know that he bore our sin, debt, and hell penalty. You and
I will never know the reality of what it is to hear those words,
depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire. I never knew
you. We'll instead hear those words
Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared
for you from the foundation of the world." What will that be? And it will only be because of
the sufferings of this servant, Jehovah's sinless servant. only
because He took our place. He was willing to bear what was
not His to pay for us who owed a debt we could not pay. We did
not have the ability to pay it. We could not have paid it in
eternity in hell. That's why hell's eternal. We
would never finish paying the debt. But on the cross, the one
who cried, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Could
cry, it is finished! Hallelujah! Tetelestai! Pagan fool! The sin's debt is
paid by the blood of the darling Son of God, the sinless one. I was about to say I'm sorry
for getting excited, but I'm not. I'm tickled to death at
the blessed sign. But at the same time, there's
almost that bittersweet about it that I have to cry out like
Mr. Watts did, alas, did my Savior
bleed. Did my sovereign die? Would he
devote that sacred head for such a worm as I? There's a sorrow
that's mingled with it because I think of what he bore for me,
that he might ransom me, that he might pay the debt that was
due. And the father bruised his son. The father put him to grief.
And when you wonder what it's all about, the Spirit of God
doesn't leave us to wonder. in verse 10, for Isaiah breaks
out in prayer. I know it's translated differently
in some other translations, but in the King James we read it
as an address to God, when thou shalt make his soul an offering
for sin. And here Isaiah, as he breaks
out, he uses a word that is highly significant in our King James
translation. That word, those words, offering
for sin, are one word in the Hebrew scriptures. It's the word
asham. Now, I know you went through
Leviticus before going through Numbers, and as you were going
through Leviticus, I know Brother Norm and I were talking about
the richness of that book. You know, so many people get
to Leviticus when they're reading through the Bible in a year,
and they think, I don't know if I'm going to make it. but
oh, how rich it is when it points to our Savior as it does. And
brothers and sisters, one of the offerings, you remember there
was the burnt offering mentioned first, and then the meal offering,
and then, or meat offering as the King James calls it, then
there was the, fellowship offering, peace offering. And then there
was the offering that is called the sin offering. And then there
was the guilt offering. The word for the guilt offering
in Hebrew is the word asham that is here translated offering for
sin in verse 10. And Isaiah's saying, when you
make his soul an asham, a guilt offering, Now both of those last
offerings we mentioned from Leviticus, the five offerings, both of them
are significant. They were the sin offering and
the guilt offering. And that sin offering is actually
in the Hebrew the same word as the word for sin, chata. We talked
about it on Friday night, the word that speaks of missing the
mark. And what it speaks of is this fact, that when the offerer
brought that sin offering and laid his hand upon it, in the
mind of Jehovah, that offering became the sin of the worshipper. Now, of course, the blood of
bulls and goats could not take away sin. But every one of those
animals offered was a promissory, someone's coming who will take
away sin. And the Baptist pointed him out
on the banks of Jordan when he said, behold, the Lamb of God
that taketh away the sin of the world. And brothers and sisters,
that one appeared. And when the Lord Jesus Christ
mounted the cross and made it an altar of sacrifice, when he
did that, the Father looked on him as though he were sin. He was not a sinner. He was not
marked by sin. But when He had imputed to Himself
our sins, the Father dealt with Him as though He were our sin.
But not only that, He's not just the Hakka, He's also the Asham. The Father looked at the guilt
of our sin, and He said, That is placed on My Son as well.
And He laid to His Son all the guilt of our sinful record. And that's why Paul can say in
Romans 8.1, there is therefore now no condemnation to them that
are in Christ Jesus. Some dear children of God, the
devil has a playground with you. He can bring up those sins of
the past and you let him start beating you up. When he does
that, just remember what the poet said. Though the restless
foe accuses, sins recounting like a flood, every charge my
God refuses, Christ is answered with His blood. I hear the accuser
roar of ills that I have done. I know them well and thousands
more. Jehovah findeth none. Brothers
and sisters, all our sins laid on Jesus means that we don't
have to carry them anymore. Hallelujah. He has paid in full
the debt and all who trust Him, there is no condemnation. And
Isaiah here picks up that great theme of those offerings and
how this servant would satisfy, would bring it to himself, bring
in fulfillment to himself. He would bring the end of those
offerings as he becomes our hatah and our asham, our sin offering,
our guilt offering. And the father judges his son,
pleased to bruise him as though he were our sin and he were our
guilt. though he were sinless as his
servant." Good news. That, by the way, is what propitiation
means. It means that the sins that we
have done that have caused God's anger, hot, holy, righteous anger
against us, that has now been taken by Christ, that very anger.
I like to think of it this way. I was preaching at a Bible camp
up in Boone, North Carolina, some some years back, and I use this
illustration, I feel the Lord brought it to me, that every
son and daughter of Adam in the world are born with a target
on them. Every son and daughter of Adam.
And that target is a bullseye for the wrath of God. But brothers
and sisters, what the Lord Jesus did at the cross is He took the
target, the bullseye that was on every one of His people, and
He placed it on Himself, and the wrath that should have been
blown us to hell, literally, I'm saying that not irreverently,
I'm saying literally, the wrath that should have blown us to
hell fell on Him, and that wrath is now satisfied. No hot holy
anger does God bear against his people. Israel is singing about
it in Isaiah chapter 12 when she says, Lord, I will praise
thee. Thou wast angry with me, but
thine anger is turned away. Every child of God can sing that.
And it's interesting in chapter five and in chapters nine through
11, you see that phrase, for all this is anger is not turned
away, but his hand is stretched out still. but then we hear him
singing, I'll praise you, your anger's turned away. How can
he say that? Because of what the servant does
right here, because of the work of the servant. Brothers and
sisters, then we see the, the punishment of the servant in
those first three phrases of verse ten, but I want you to
look with me please further. what I would present to you is
the, the prize of the servant. That is, we see a suffering in
the first three verses, now we see the success of the servant
in verses ten, if you want to, D, E, and F. I know that's going
to be easy, right? But in that last three phrases
of verse ten, we see the success of the servant. Notice again
the verse, read it with me in its entirety in your mind. Yet
it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief. Now notice the phrase, 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. Three things, Isaiah says, will
happen when his soul is made an offering for sin. Now, I don't
want to take you back to the days of grammar school, because
I loved grammar, by the way. I was one of those odd birds.
But when it introduces a circumstantial clause, it can't stand alone. If I said, when I went to the
dowels, and I'll stop there, you'd know that that wasn't a
complete sentence. If I said, when I went to the
dowels, I had some fellowship with God's dear people, then
that would be a complete sentence. When Isaiah says, when thou shalt
make his soul an offering for sin, that's not a complete sentence.
There's gotta be something that follows that circumstantial clause,
and there are three things, at least, that Isaiah speaks of
here, that follow that. you make his soul an offering
for sin, Isaiah says, to the Jehovah, who was the father who
was pleased to bruise him, when thou shalt make his soul an offering
for sin, first of all, he shall see his seed. Who are they? This seed, I'm one of them too,
brother, thank God. His seed or his people. His seed,
just as Adam had a seed, and all in Adam fell, Christ has
a seed. Him, he the second Adam, has
a seed. But this seed was given him before
the world began. That's the way John speaks of
them. The Lord Jesus speaks of them. Father, I will that they
whom thou hast given me be with me where I am. But if we who
are sinful are to be where He is, He's going to have to deal
with our sin. But because He has dealt with
our sin, because He's been made an offering for sin, He will
see His seed. And it goes on to say in verse
11, He will see the travel of His soul and He'll be satisfied. Oh, I can't figure that one out,
because we're the travail, but he's going to be satisfied. He's
going to one day say about them, Hebrews 2 quotes it from the
books of the Old Testament. Behold, I and the children whom
thou hast given me, won't be a son or daughter of missing.
I like the way Brother Mahan said it one time. He said, there's
plenty of room in heaven, but no vacancies. you think about
that a while. Plenty of room in heaven, but
there won't be a door and mansion, oh, John didn't make it. No. Everyone he died to redeem, he
shall see his seed. The pleasure of the Lord will
prosper in his hand, and he shall prolong his days. Now, I inverted
those, but I just want to make sure you get the point. He shall
see His seed. Let me ask you to go back to
Psalm 22, which is another Old Testament prediction of the cross
of Christ, David prophetically takes upon himself the words
of great, David's greater son, the Messiah, in the words there
brothers and sisters of Psalm 22, we read this in those last
verses. Psalm 22, please notice with
me, verse 30. I want to read verse 29 in conjunction
just to give you a contrast there. Psalm 22 verse 29 says, All they
that be fat upon the earth shall eat and worship. All they that
go down to the dust shall bow before him. That's what Philippians
2 says, Every knee will bow, and none shall, can keep alive
his own soul. You and I cannot provide or ransom
ourselves. It has to be provided by God.
But then notice verse 30, A seed shall serve him. It shall be
accounted to the Lord for a generation. They shall come, and what are
they gonna declare? They shall declare his righteousness
unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done it. That's
what we preach, a he done it gospel. He did it, it's finished. Done is the work that saves.
Once and forever done, hallelujah. That's what's on the lips of
his seed. Well, I reckon I'm good enough
to make it in. You won't hear that from His
seed. You'll hear His seed declare,
I could never have made it in, but I'm in because of Him. I'd have never got to glory,
but I'm going there because of Him. His righteousness. In fact, He is my righteousness. I stand completed. That, brothers
and sisters, that is the testimony of his seed, and he will see
his seed. There won't be one of that seed
for whom he died who'll be absent from the glory when all the shouting's
over. Hallelujah. Really, the shouting
will just begin, won't it? It's all over but the shouting.
We'll be glorifying him. He shall see His seed then. He'll
have a posterity. He'll have a people. Christ did
not labor in the birth pangs of death to bring forth the stillborn,
brothers and sisters. I don't say that in any way to
be unkind to anyone who may have
experienced that in the way of our listeners. But Christ's work
at the cross was not a miscarriage. He'll bring every son to glory.
That's what Hebrews 2.10 says, for it became him, that is, it
was becoming or fitting to him, for whom are all things and by
whom are all things. In bringing many sons to glory,
to do what? Make the captain of their salvation
perfect through suffering. That's just another way of saying
what Isaiah says here. Every son brought to glory who
was, for whom Christ was made perfect in suffering. Every son. Not only that, brothers and sisters,
there's not only the posterity, there's also that prolonging
of his days that Isaiah mentions. If you want to think of it this
way, perpetuity, he shall prolong his days. He did not die to stay
dead. Joseph of Arimathea could have
put an ad in the Jerusalem Gazette, tombs slightly used for rent
or sale. Somebody showed up, how long
was it occupied? Only three days. Well, what happened? Well, the occupant checked out.
Christ checked in to check out, brothers and sisters. And he
shall prolong his days. And right now, living on high,
he is seated in glorious session at the right hand of the Father,
making intercession for us. What love he has! Not only did
he give himself for us, but even now, he's interceding for us,
both actively and passively. I'm glad for that, because you
know, he told Simon before he went to the cross, he said, Simon,
Simon, behold, Satan, if desired to have thee, that he may sift
thee as wheat. Luke 22, 31. I'm glad that he's
praying for me. My prayers are nothing against
the devil, but he gets hurt every time he prays. That's what he
said at the tomb of Lazarus. Father, I thank thee that thou
hearest me always. Brothers and sisters, if you're
saved, you're on His prayer list. Hallelujah. He prolongs His days. They go on and on and on. But
not only that, it tells us, the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper
in His hand. In other words, God's full will
is going to be carried out by the executor of His will, the
Lord Jesus Christ. And you know what? That's good
news, because you and I who are saved are in His will. Some of
you remember Brother Ward. I know you were there back in
91 when he preached in the, I believe it was 91, he preached in the
camp. When we moved to York right before
that in 90, Brother Ward would come up to Pittsburgh to a place
called Library. If anybody's been there in this
meeting, I'd love to know it. If anybody's watching remotely,
Library's a little Burr on the south side of Pittsburgh. And
Brother Ward was preaching there while we were living in York,
so I drove the four or so hours out to visit with him. And while
we were in the motel room, that next day after I had attended
service, we were going to service that night and then driving back
home, Brother Ward loved mysteries, and he especially loved Perry
Mason. And one of the cable stations was, they had a Perry Mason episode
on him. You know, it seems there's always
a murder in Perry Mason. And so Perry and his crew were
there, they were talking about the murder, and they were trying
to decide a motive for the murder. And I can't remember if it was
Della or Perry said, well, it may have been a will. And whoever
said that, they answered. But the decedent was intestate. In other words, the person who
died did not have a will. Well, Brother Ward had just made
a visit to the bathroom, and he was coming out of the bathroom,
and I looked at him and said, aren't you glad our Lord didn't
die intestate? He looked at me and said, you
better leave that alone, brother. He was gonna get happy if I picked
that bone too much, you know. But our Lord, when He died, had
a will in place. It's called the New Covenant.
But the only way it could be ratified is to be for the testator,
the maker of the covenant, the will to die. And that's what
He did. He died, and what are those terms
of the covenant? One of the most blessed to me,
there are others, is their sins and iniquities. I will remember
no more. Hallelujah. But here's the thing. I remember
Henry one time telling in a message he preached about a person who
had died and I think they'd seen him on television and they'd
left him some of their estate in his will. But the descendants
of the deceited, they went to court and had it thrown out.
But here's the good news, brothers and sisters. He shall prolong
his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in hand."
When he died to ratify the will, he got up to make sure its terms
are fully carried out. And everything the Father, Jehovah,
is pleased to do, Jehovah Jesus is going to carry out. He's going
to execute it. And what He taught us to pray
in that prayer we commonly but probably wrongly call the Lord's
Prayer, in that prayer He taught us to pray, you remember how
He began? Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be
done on earth as it is in heaven. Brothers and sisters, those petitions
He taught us to pray, He is going to bring to pass because the
Hallelujah. It's going to prosper in his
hand. History looks dark right now. Don't worry, child of God. Jesus is going to fix it. And
John said, I saw a new heaven and a new earth. Hallelujah.
Peter says, where dwelleth righteousness? Oh, there's a new world coming.
Jesus is going to make sure of it because the pleasure of the
Lord shall prosper in his hand and the earth shall be full of
the knowledge of the glory of God. Hallelujah. As the waters
cover the sea. because the pleasure of the Lord
shall prosper in His hand." I'm so glad. Let me close by asking
one thing. Are these things yours? Thank God, I'm glad I'm able
to say I know so many of you are my believing brothers and
sisters. But if today these things are not yours, I would say to
you, run to Christ. But brother David, I don't know
if I'm elect. You'll never know if you're elect
if you don't run to Christ. The greatest evidence you can
have of election is run into Jesus. Run on now. Run to Christ! Don't deny Him! Demise may mean
perishing. Run to Christ. Lay hold of Him
by faith. Lay hold of Him in repentance.
And He'll meet with you in mercy. How do I know that? Because He
said so. John 6.37, He said, All that
the Father giveth me shall come to me. And then He went on to
say, And him that cometh to me, I'll in no wise cast doubt. Ain't that good news? Oh, I'm
afraid if I come to Jesus, he won't receive me. You don't believe
he's a liar, do you? Him that cometh to me, I will
no way turn thumbs down on him. And I know that so, because like
the prodigal son, I wandered from the father. But when, by
the sovereign grace of God, I came home, the Father didn't wait
for me to get to the door and give my prepared speech. He ran
to me. Old men in the Orient don't run.
They walk stately, but He ran. He came, and He didn't just kiss
me. The Greek is kataphaleo. He smothered me with kisses.
That's the way He welcomes sinners. I know it because that's the
way He welcomed me. He's good to His Word, I tell
you. I'd say to you tonight, today, I preach long, it might
seem like night, but it's not. I'd say to you today, come to
Christ. Do not let the Word depart, nor
close thine eyes against the light. For sin hath hardened
not your heart. Be saved by trusting Christ.