It has been very recently, I
had the privilege of having a meal with the two Mikes and with Brother
Duane. And I asked him when he was leaving
to go up north. And so we found out that he was
going to be here this Sunday. And I said, well, we've spent
some time since we've had the Lord's Supper. We'll have the
Lord's Supper. And so we're going to do that. And as a result of that conversation,
my message changed for this morning. We're not gonna be in the book
of Numbers. I know that you were excited about what Balaam was
going to do and how Balak is gonna, and all of that. We will
get to it. If there's not time, that's okay.
If there is time, we'll do it. But would you this morning turn
in your Bibles to the 53rd chapter of the book of Isaiah. The 53rd
chapter of the book of Isaiah. This is truly a chapter in the
Old Testament that lends itself so much to the service that the
Lord ordained at the close of his earthly ministry when he
partook of the Passover for the last time and said, this now
is null and void. And he instituted what we know
as the Lord's Supper. And that he said to us, and we'll
read that later, he said, as oft as you do this, do it in
remembrance of me. It's not to be show, it's not
show, it's a remembrance. But here in the 53rd chapter,
we have all of that is to be remembered when we come to that
time or every day of our life, it should be. The great prophet
Isaiah. He left us, God left us through
Isaiah a wonderful book, the entire prophecy of Isaiah. And
I've said this before with regard to the prophets of old, If you
are a believer, if you're a believer in Christ Jesus, if God has given
you the new birth, if you love God and you love His Word, then
this is the guy in the time that you'd want to go here because
he is getting a message from God. He's not just plabbering. He has a message of the Lord.
The Lord has given him this message to write. And much of it is not
very pleasant for Israel. And he brings that out here in
the first verse of Isaiah chapter 53. Who hath believed our report? Who hath believed our report? Who has believed the report that
God has been giving to the world, to the children of Israel from
the very beginning? Who has believed what God had
to say? And we might say, well, what
are you talking about? Who's believed that God has absolutely
created the heavens and the earth without any help? that no one
was there to counsel him. Who hath believed the report
that God created it exactly like he said he would, and he did
it in exactly seven days? Now, I've had people who say
they are believers in Christ. Jesus says, God just got it started,
and then he kind of turned it over. Or God, those seven days,
they just mean eons. They could be eons of time. I
have a tree in my yard that nothing grows under it. Why? Cause it's
shady. And I'll tell you, if we have
an eon of light and we have an eon of night, there's nothing
going to be growing on this earth. So who have believed the report? It was created in seven days
or six days. And on the seventh day, God rested.
It makes a big difference what you feel and believe about what
God has said about his word. And he says, who have believed
our report? Who believe the report of Noah?
And why was Noah necessarily in an ark? Why did God command
an ark to be made? Why did Noah build that ark?
And why were there only eight souls saved out of all the thousands
and thousands that were no doubt on the earth at the time? God
sent a great flood to destroy this world. Why? Because of great
sin, he did that. Who hath believed the report?
Oh, there was just a few floods around. And I'm about up to here
on the Missoula flood. You know, everybody has all these
kinds of conjectures, but it's answered by one thing. Now there's
no doubt been great floods. There's some people in the Southwest
about now going to get about two and a half times the moisture
that they average. That's going to be a lot. There's
going to be some lot of flooding going on at that time. But the
flood that happened in the day that we read about in Noah, what
covered this entire earth, and so deep. Now, it may not have
been when Mount Everest was there. This world is in constant change,
but everything was covered and everybody outside of that ark
was drowned, and there were eight souls saved out of that. 600
years of preaching, eight souls were saved. All right, who hath
believed our report? We just go down through time.
The thing that we find that Isaiah is talking about, who's believed
the report about Christ? Who's believed the report about
the Lord Jesus Christ? Whose son is he? Is he Joseph's
son or is he the son of God? Is he a man or is he God? Well, the mystery is that he
is the God man. Who has believed our report and
to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? Now, right off in this
verse of scripture, he shares two things. People by nature
don't believe the report. And number two, if you do believe
the report, it had to be revealed to you. It's not something that
we come along and believe on our own. We don't learn it from
our Sunday school teachers. We don't learn it from the preacher.
He is responsible for declaring the report. The Sunday school
teachers are responsible for declaring the report, but the
report to be revealed is only a mystery. And that revelation
comes by God alone and no one can reveal it unto us. We can't
understand God's report unless the Holy Spirit has revealed
God unto us, the Lord Jesus Christ unto us. Now we go down through
here and we find some things out about this Savior, about
the Lord Jesus Christ. For he hath grown up before him
as a tender plant. You know, the Lord shares with
us here as we read the scriptures that he is going to send his
son into this world. God, the heavenly father, is
going to send his co-equal, co-omnipotent, co-glorious son into this world
to do a ministry that mankind is not able to do on their own.
Isaiah is a witness to the total depravity of man because he admits
it about himself. Woe is me. Woe is me. He says, I'm undone. And then
the Lord delivers him from that undoneness and gives him glory
in Christ Jesus. He raised him from the spiritual
dead. He lifted him out of position
he wasn't by nature. He is in the horrible pit, in
the miry clay, and he's been lifted out and set up on the
solid rock and established his goings and put a song in his
heart. And part of that song is, I have to declare a message. God said, who will go for me?
Who will declare the report? Isaiah, earlier on, says, here
am I, said me, and go preach. How long do I preach? As long
as I tell you to preach, but I want you to be warned, nobody
is gonna listen to you. Boy, we got a serious problem. And then he answers it, to whom
is the arm of the Lord revealed? For he has grown up before him
as a tender plant, and out his root out of dry ground. He hath
no form, no comeliness, and when we shall see him, there is no
beauty that we should desire him. You know, this is quite
evident during his own personal ministry. When the Lord is upon
the earth, He had a gathering as long as he did what the gathering
wanted him to do. As long as he provided food for
them, as long as he healed their sick, as long as he did this,
he had a gathering. And then when he started preaching
the gospel, 5,000 men left him at one time. We don't want this. We want your bread, we want your
healing, but we don't want the serious stuff. The gospel, we
just cannot handle that. Well, it certainly reveals unto
us that even though the word belief is used with regard to
them, that they did not believe the report. They did not believe
what God had said about his son, that his mission to come to this
world was to, as we're gonna read down through here, was lay
down his life a ransom for many. That's his goal. That's his purpose.
And nothing was going to withhold him from doing that. He is showing
as he goes through his life and all the miracles that he performed,
and all of the people that he raised from the dead, and all
the food that he fed, that did not change one person's heart. It didn't change their lives.
It didn't change their heart. It filled their bellies. It made
them feel better. But it did not change their heart.
And this act is an act of God to whom is the arm of the Lord
revealed. He is despised and rejected of
men. You would think, you would think
that this one would not have that kind of reaction. That this
one that came down from heaven for the deliverance and salvation
of his people, that he would not be, what does it say, despised
and rejected of men. You know, I've said this before,
but it's becoming much more apparent as I age that when Jesus Christ
came down to this earth, he was walking in a literal cemetery. of people dead in trespasses
and sin. Now he's the only one that could
look around us. He's the only one that could
see the heart. The only one that could see who was there. He's
the only one that could say, as Judas would visit with him
and say, oh Lord, I love you so much. I love you so much.
He knew what was in his heart. And when the disciples, the 11
disciples said, is it I, is it I? He could look at them and
say, they are faithful brethren. They are faithful followers of
me, even though they'll despise me and refuse me and walk away. Surely, verse four, surely he
hath bore our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem
him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. You know, for
years I felt that way. In religion, we feel that way.
It wasn't necessary for him to do all that. I can do part of
it on myself. And that's why we get works involved in our
salvation. We try to do good things. We
make them count up. We say, my good works, that way
my bad works, and therefore I will have some position before God.
Oh yeah, he had to come for a few things, but not everything. You
know, when he reveals himself, we find out he had to come for
everything. There was nothing left out. There was nothing left
to us. There was nothing left to chance.
There was nothing left. He was not waiting for someone
to turn aside and look upon him because he's the one that turns
us. That's what the scriptures say. Turn me and I shall be turned. He makes us willing in the day
of His power. He's the one that has control
over the kings and all the riches of the world and the cattle on
a thousand hills. Believe His report? Do you believe
his report? That's what he said. He is the
sovereign king of all things. He rules and reigns. He is in
absolute control. And he said, all of this is happening
as prescribed by the covenant of grace. I came down to this
world and I shared with them myself and they had no care for
me. And then he said, but he was
wounded for our transgressions. We could have cared less in our
religious state. We could have cared less, but
there was no interest. When God, before he saves us,
he was wounded for my transgression? Well, there was a few things
that probably God needed to take care of, but most of it I could
take care of. My Sunday school teacher said,
all I have to ask is Jesus to forgive my sins and he'll take
care of it. Oh my goodness, that is separating apart from Him
having to go to the cross, though, because I can take care of that
by just confessing. Confess your sins to God and He'll take care
of it. My goodness, we don't even know what they are in reality
until they've been revealed to us. And then we find out it is
a monstrous case. It is an overwhelming case. It
is sin to the heart, to the core, that there's nothing good in
us. That's what God had to say about natural man. He said, there's
not one that comes and seeks after me. There's not one that's
looking for me. There's not one that cares about me. And yet
it tells us that there is one that came and 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. Who has believed
our report? Who's believed the report about
this kind of catastrophic thing in natural man? Who has believed
the report that there's this kind of serious problem with
natural man? And who's believed the report
that it takes the absolute sovereign king of all things, the Lord
Jesus Christ, to come in the flesh, to be born in the flesh,
to come the God-man, Emmanuel, to come and take care of the
problem? Well, those who had the arm of the Lord revealed
unto them realized that it is absolutely essential to have
this new birth or we'll not see him, not see his glory, not see
what he has done for us. Yeah, he took care of a few things.
Now, I've had preachers say to me, if I'd have been there, I
wouldn't have let it happen. We were there, we did let it
happen, and now we rejoice that it happened because that's the
way God is going to take care of the sin problem for his people. The death of Christ to take care
of a problem. Death in the garden is taken
care of by death of the Savior, the Lord Jesus. He was wounded,
and verse Six, all we like sheep. Yesterday we read part of that
passage over there in the book of Matthew that talks about that
great day when the Lord shall gather all peoples and he shall
separate the sheep from the goats. As a shepherd does divide his
sheep from the goats. There's a difference. They may
look the same when they're young, You know, there's some passages
in scripture talking about tares. If you read about tares, when
they're small growing up, they look identical to wheat. But
it is when they put on their fruit that you can tell the difference.
Well, goats and sheep may look an awful lot alike when they're
born. But as they mature, you find
that there's a difference, and the shepherd knows the difference,
and he will divide the sheep from the goats, and he'll put
the sheep on the right-hand side. Now, he said here, all we like
sheep have gone astray. We find out in the report. Now,
we can believe the report, or we can not believe the report,
but if it's revealed to us, we believe the report. We find out
that God has some sheep. We find out that God determined
to save some sheep. We find out that the sheep's
names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life before the foundation
of the world. We find out that there was a
shepherd called the Great Shepherd, the Chief Shepherd, the Everlasting
Shepherd. We know him as a lamb slain from
the foundation of the world. Now he has relationship to the
sheep. a lamb slain from the foundation of the world, and
he has some sheep. Now at times he calls them Jacob's
and Esau's, Isaac's and Ishmael's. He has names for them, goats
and sheep, but you know what? When it came to those sheep,
he was particularly interested in them because he was going
to lay down his life, a ransom for them. Now it is absolutely
not the report. There's nothing in the report
about this. There's nothing in the report
about this, that Jesus Christ's blood was shed and all the sins
were paid for, for those who go into the lake of fire. There's
no report on that. There's nothing in the word of
God that says that he paid for everybody's sins and there's
some that he paid for that are not going to be in heaven. There's
no report on that. Now people may believe that.
But they haven't believed the report. The report says, I lay
my life down for the sheep. The report says, I'm the good
shepherd. I give my life for the sheep. The report is, all
we like sheep have gone astray. But the world will say, Jesus
Christ's blood is not sufficient. He is a failure. And he has allowed
people that he died for to be on the left-hand side. Well,
that's not true. He's not a failure. He's an absolute
success and he saved all the people that he had in the Lamb's
Book of Life before the foundation of the world. We have turned
everyone to his own way. The sheep, before God saves us,
there's not a wits but an outside difference between sheep and
goats, not a wit. Our heart is deceitful above
all things and desperately wicked. Our heart is away from God. We
have not believed the report. We could care less. We're always
involved in some religion. We have those things that we
count on. We count on everything else except
Jesus Christ, blood, and righteousness. We count on our own works. But
when God brings us the gospel and God reveals his son in us,
then the report means something when we find out that God intended
to interfere in our life from before the foundation of the
world. He's gonna interfere with us. He said someday, just like
he did with Saul of Tarsus, Saul of Tarsus' life was interfered
with. He had great plans to go down
there and make some more notoriety as a religionist and capture
some of the people that believe the report. And he went down
to Damascus with the idea of capturing some more people that
believe the report. You know what they believed?
Jesus Christ came, laid down his life, a ransom for many,
went to the grave. He died, went to the grave, and
they would declare he rose again. You know, Brother Mike read in
there in the book of Acts chapter 2 this morning, I keep seeing
things I've never seen. You ever have that happen to
you? In that verse, it said, for it was not possible that
he could be holding to it. It was not possible that he would
remain in the grave, I said. Well, it's not possible that
he could be a sinner and it's not possible that he became a
sinner or could sin. It's not possible. It's not possible that he could
be holding to the grave. And those saints were declaring
that he is raised from the dead. He is at the right hand of the
father. And old Saul of Tarsus is so put out over that, that
he's going out doing his religious duty and arresting them and having
him brought before the same people that Jesus was brought before
and they would send out for their execution. We've laid on him, he hath laid,
and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of all the sheep. He was oppressed, verse seven,
and was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. It's interesting
there before Pilate. Are you the Messiah? Are you
the king? Thou sayest. He kept his mouth shut. You know
what he was doing? He was fasting. He was fasting. He opened not
his mouth. That pilot said, don't you know
I can do to you what I intend to do? And he said, Lord said,
you couldn't do anything except be given you. Who's in charge
here? It's been determined before the
foundation of the world that this one, Jesus Christ of Nazareth,
the son of God, born of a virgin, laid in a manger, raised up,
and at 30 years of age began his public ministry with the
idea of setting his face as a flint towards Jerusalem to lay down
his life, a ransom. Now what's that word, ransom?
It means payment. He's going to pay for their sins. How does he going to do that?
The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. Mike mentioned
about that imputed. What God did in a miraculous
way was to gather all the sins of all his people out of all
time past those present at that time. And we know that there
was one present at that time. He's the thief on the right-hand
side. He's the thief that Jesus said,
you'll be with me in paradise. And all the sins of his people
on this side of the cross, he was able to take them all as
one great big bulk. and impute them to his son. Now how he did that is beyond
my ability to believe or to think, but it is the report. He took
sins of people not yet born. He took people's sins who had
been in the grave for a thousand years. He took people's sins
who was present that day and God was able to impute them. What does it say? to put them
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, as a sheep before shears was done,
so he opened not his mouth. He was taken from prison and
from judgment. There's a passage of scripture
that Jesus spoke from the cross. that fulfills this verse of scripture. He was taken from prison. Now
that means he was taken out of where he had been placed. Now
if I owe a debt, and we don't so much have debtor's prisons
anymore, but they used to be all around us. If you got into
debt and couldn't pay, they just put you in prison. Now that seems
like an illogical thing to do. They won't even let you get a
job. But anyway, someone came by and paid your debt. You were
given a piece of paper on it. You carried it around and people
say, aren't you supposed to be in jail? Well, here, read this. And at the bottom was the Greek
word that we find the Lord Jesus Christ spoke from the cross.
It is finished. My debt has been paid. I'm out
free because it's paid. We have a contract. The church
has a contract, and at the bottom of the contract, it is finished. That's what the Lord Jesus Christ
spoke from the cross. It is finished. After those three
hours of suffering on the cross, having our sins imputed to him,
placed upon him, as it goes on to tell us here, He was taken
from prison and from judgment. Who shall declare his generation?
For he is cut off of the land of the living. For the transgression
of my people was he stricken. And then in verse 10, yet it
pleased the Lord to bruise him. You know, this is God Almighty
dealing with the sins of God's people. in his son, and his son
is the absolute and only substitute, and he has been imputed all the
sins of all of his people for all time, and he is going to
take care of them in such a way that they will not be found again. They will be as far as the east
is from the west. Another type of language that
the Bible uses, they shall be buried in the deepest sea. Another
type of Bible language about it, I've put them into my forgetfulness.
God is never ever gonna bring them up again. He will not challenge
us with them again. In fact, we find the Apostle
Paul was led by the Holy Spirit to write in the book of Romans,
who shall lay anything to the charge? And that means who shall
bring up any sin against those that Jesus Christ died for? Who
shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that
justifies. Oh, religion will bring this
up. You go to a dance, you're gonna
have to answer for that. You drink this, you're gonna
have to answer for that. You go there, you're gonna have to
answer for that. You go do this. You know, half my life, I was
scared to death. I didn't go there, but if I did,
I didn't drink that, but what if I did? And then I found out
that the Lord God Almighty, when he saves us, changes our want
to. We don't have to have laws about
it. The Holy Spirit is our guide. And then we find out that he's
taken care of it for time and for eternity, and he is able
to say to all those on the right hand, blessed are you, mine,
welcome to the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of
the world. And you know what in that line,
figuratively, metaphorically, however you want to look at it,
is everyone, And when they get into glory, every chair is filled,
and every trumpet is handed out. However, you know, there's so
much said, I can't imagine what it's going to be like. But I
know this, we'll spend eternity praising the one who still carries
the wounds for our redemption. Yet it pleased the Lord, verse
10, and bruised him, and yet put him to grief. when thou shalt
make his soul an offering for sin. That statement is almost like
that giant Sitka spruce that used to be out on the coast.
I told someone the other day, I think it was before we had
Tim, we were over there and it took, my entire family could
not reach around that Sitka spruce, it was so big. We tried, just
couldn't quite reach the other person. And that verse of scripture
is like that. I just can't, he, what does it
say? It made his soul an offering for
sin. His life was given as an offering
for sin. Voluntarily, his life was given
as an offering for sin. We go to the covenant of grace,
we find out that he was with great joy. For the joy that was
set before him endured the cross, despising the shame God said here in verse 11, he
shall see the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. God shall see the travail of
his son's soul and he shall be satisfied. How can he be just
and justifier? God is gonna be just. The soul
that sinneth, it must die. Sin must be paid for. There is
no way out. Sin must be paid for. And yet
we find out God can be just and justifier by imputing all our
sin to a substitute. And he did. And now he's satisfied. He's satisfied. Oh, I still sin. Yes, we do. We will sin till
the very last day, very last moment we breathe. We will sin. But the knowledge that God has
put that sin upon the Savior. Oh, people say, well, that just
gives people a license to sin. Not if you're saved, it doesn't. People say, well, if I believe
that, I'd go do it. Well, you know, you're going
to go do it anyway. That's not going to stop you.
But the grace of God, how merciful it is that God would restrain
his people. The love of Christ constrains
us. He shall see the travail of his
soul and shall be satisfied by his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many. What's that mean? They shall
be justified. They shall have no sin. It shall
be paid for. 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, he bare the sin of many, and
made intercession for the transgressors." How great and how plain it is. What's that mean? He took care
of it all. What does it mean? He said, it's
finished. What does it mean? He laid down
his life, a ransom. He paid for it in full. He is
the absolute savior of his people. Jonah was right. From the great
fish's belly, he said, salvation is of the Lord. No, it causes
me to rejoice when I hear about all that He's done on my behalf,
that I will not answer for one thing before God, that He has
taken care of it all. He has revealed His Son in me,
and this is what He does for every one of His children. He
does that. Now, we're going to have a picture
of that. He left us a picture. He never
said there is efficaciousness. in the wine or the bread. There's absolutely no saving
quality whatsoever in them. Your sins are not forgiven by
taking this. Sins are forgiven by the blood
of Christ. Sins are taken by the blood of Christ and nothing
else. It's not by this. It's not by the waters of baptism.
It is only His blood and righteousness that takes care of us. So the
question goes out. Who hath believed our report? Who's believed the report? Who's
believed the report? I have a very good friend who
pastors a church, and his daughter mentioned to him one time, Dad,
you don't think I'm saved, do you? And he said, no, I don't. Well, that might be a little
harsh, wouldn't it? Wouldn't you? Would that be a little harsh
to say? And she says, well, how do you know that? And he said
two things. Number one, you've never been
a sinner. Now we may have committed a sin,
but when it really becomes reality, we're a sinner before God. Sin
before him in Adam, sin before him in our actual life, and all
of that. Sinner by nature, practice, and
choice. And he said, number two, you
don't believe the report. She said, what report? This.
You don't believe the report. She had already told him that
she was doing things to be saved. Well, you don't believe the report
then. The report is, it's all been taken care of. The report
is, salvation's of the Lord. Report is, he's the one that
saves. Report is, he's the savior. Report is, there's a God in heaven
that took care of this before the foundation of the world.
We're just living it out. And the report is that everyone
that has this salvation shall be in heaven in glory. And those
who do not have this salvation will not be with him in heaven
in glory. Jacob, Esau, born to the same
family, same parents, same love given to them, same food, same
raiment, same everything, And God said, before they were born,
before they had done any good or evil, Jacob have I loved,
and Esau have I hated. Now I like what that old preacher
said. He said it in a much better way than I could. He could understand
completely why God would hate Esau. But he cannot understand
the grace that God could love Jacob, that God would love Jacob's
sinners who placed that load of sin on the Savior. With that, we're going to adjourn
to take the Lord's Supper. It is a picture. It's a type.
It's a shadow. They had many types, shadows,
and pictures in the Old Testament. We have two. we have the Lord's
Supper, we have baptism. Not ask us to do anymore. Baptism,
if you're saved when you're baptized, then you only have to do it once.
I had to be baptized twice because I had made a profession of faith,
went down in the water, came up the same. The Lord saved me,
and then I was baptized. Lord's Supper, he said, as oft
as you do it. As oft as you do it, what's that
mean? I'm gonna save you once, but you're gonna be in remembrance
of me many times. All right, Brother Mike and Brother
Mike, if you'll come at this time.