That is a beautiful hymn, isn't
it? Now, I'm going to be preaching
from Isaiah 53, and I'm going to take my time going through
this chapter, so I'm not going to try to do it all in one message. Actually, tonight we're going
to begin in Isaiah 52. But I want to read a passage,
another passage from the Old Testament to you, and just comment
on it as an introduction. And it's in Acts chapter 8. Turn
to Acts chapter 8. Now, if I had to give a title
to all these messages, as we're going through basically Isaiah
52 verse 13 through all of Isaiah 53, the title would be, Christ
Suffering Unto Victory. Because that's the subject of
this passage. It's such a full passage of Scripture.
If anybody wants to know the heart of the gospel, the gospel
of God's grace, how God saves sinners, this is one of the passages
that you could go to in the Old Testament. How God is just, and
He must be just, but how God is just to justify the ungodly. Isaiah, back in Isaiah chapter
45, identified God set him apart in the preaching of the truth
as a just God and a Savior. How can God be both a just God
and a Savior, a righteous judge and judge according to truth,
which He always does, and yet be a loving, merciful, gracious
Father to a sinner like me or sinners like you? How can that
be? Because those two things, in our minds, from man's viewpoint,
and you can see this in man's natural way of religion, those
two things cancel each other out, don't they? Most religion
today that comes in the name of Christianity either has a
God who is just without mercy or a God who is merciful without
justice. But He must be both. Now, how
can He be that? Now, we've been talking about
prophecy. Isaiah was a prophet. That doesn't mean necessarily
that everything he said was cast into the future or that he foretold
the future. It means mainly that he foretold
or told forth, rather, the Word of God. And that's what he was. Some of that involved the future.
He's been speaking to Jerusalem of the future, the time when
they would be in exile in Babylon. But he told them that God would
not forget them. God would not forsake them. that
there was going to be a time of great restoration, and that
Jerusalem and Israel, Judah, the southern kingdom, would come
back into their homeland. They would rebuild the temple
and rebuild the city, and there would be a glorious time, and
it was. Later on, you can read about that in the book of Nehemiah
and the book of Ezra, under Zerubbabel the governor, and under Ezra
the scribe, under Nehemiah the prophet, and how they came together
and how that temple was rebuilt, the temple of Zerubbabel. Well,
all of that was a type and a picture and a foreshadowing of a greater
restoration. The restoration of spiritual
Israel, God's people, Christ's sheep, out of every tribe, kindred,
tongue, and nation, that they would be redeemed, they would
be restored, and ultimately be glorified. Now, how is all that
going to be accomplished? That's the question. Well, Isaiah
52 and 53 answers that question. All of that's going to be accomplished
by the work of one person. Now, that's amazing. Not an army. Now, the God of hosts, the Lord
of hosts would be involved in this. He's the Lord of a great
army. But He wasn't going to send a great army or a great
company of angels to accomplish this. And it would not be by
a king who would come on a white horse with an army, splitting
the clouds and wielding a sword and conquering their earthly
enemies, such as it would be the Roman Empire or the Babylonian
Empire at this time. It's not going to be that way.
It's going to be by someone who man could not even imagine. could come and accomplish such
a task. I mean, this man, this one, this one person is going
to accomplish the eternal salvation of a multitude which no man can
number. Eternal salvation. You mean one
guy is going to do that? One person. And he would tell
them, he would tell them, don't you be blasphemous toward this
person. He's not just a guy. He's a glorious person. And when
he comes, he's not going to come like you think he'll come. Now,
look at Acts chapter 8. It says in verse 26, it says,
The angel of the Lord spake unto Philip. Philip was an evangelist.
He was one of the first ones called out. And he said, Arise
and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from
Jerusalem unto Gaza, or Gaza, which is desert. And he arose,
and when, and behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch, a great authority
under Tandese, queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasures."
This is an important man. And he had come to Jerusalem
for the worship. He had come to worship according
to the ways of the Jewish scriptures, the law of Moses. And he was
returning, verse 28, and sitting in his chariot, he read, Isaiah,
or Isaiah the prophet. Then the Spirit said unto Philip,
Go near, and join thyself to this chariot. And Philip ran
thither, or ran there, to him, and heard him read from the prophet
Isaiah, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest, or do
you understand what you are reading? And the Ethiopian said, verse
31, How can I except some man should guide me? And he desired
Philip that he would come up and sit with him, And 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 openeth
he not his mouth. And in his humiliation his judgment
was taken away, and who shall declare his generation? For his
life is taken from the earth." Now that's from Isaiah 53, as
you well know. And the eunuch answered Philip,
and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? Of
himself, is Isaiah talking about himself, or of some other man? Now you think about today, what
do people think when they read a passage like that? Well, this
fellow didn't know until somebody come along, sent of God, and
showed him, and it says in verse 35, Then Philip opened his mouth,
and began at the same scripture, he didn't He didn't turn to another
scripture, but at the very same scripture, he began, and preached
unto him Jesus, God our Savior, Jehovah our Savior. And it says,
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 He is the Son of God." And they commanded the
church to stand still. Both he and Philip went down
into the water. The man was baptized, confessing his faith in Christ.
Philip, right there in Isaiah 53. Now go back to Isaiah 52. There are two dominant figures
of Old Testament prophecy that our Lord often applied to Himself. Now there are more than two,
don't get me wrong, there's a bunch. But sometimes, this is how he
referred to himself. He referred to himself often
as the Servant of Jehovah. The Servant of Jehovah. We've
been reading in Isaiah the prophet, the Servant songs, the songs
of the Servant. That's Christ. The Servant who
came to serve His Father. To do the will of His Father.
who subjected himself in a way that we really cannot understand
in order to save his people from our sins. He came to suffer. He told his disciples, he said
this, he said, even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered
unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many,
a payment price, a redemption price. Did you notice what he
said there? He said, the Son of Man came
not to be ministered unto, but to minister. I wish I could get
that through my head. You see, I enjoy being ministered
unto. But many times I don't get much
enjoyment out of ministering. But our Lord, He came not to
be ministered unto. Do you know He's the only one
in the history of humankind? And I say humankind because He
said the Son of Man. He was referring to His humanity.
In accordance with his deity there, he was taking his rightful
place in identifying with his people. But he's the only one
in the history of humankind who deserves to be ministered unto. I'm telling you the truth. In
that, he was preaching the gospel of God's grace. He came to do
the work. He came to do a job. He came
to fulfill responsibilities that only he had. These responsibilities
were placed upon his shoulders before the world began. In the
everlasting covenant of grace, when God chose a people and gave
them to his Son, they were given, we were given to him. And it
was all by right of sovereign choice that God made. And that's
an amazing thing. We can't really understand that.
We can sit around and argue about it. We can sit around and wonder
why. But it doesn't do us any good. We won't get the answers.
We'll just end up parting company when we shouldn't. He came to
minister unto, how? To give his life a ransom for
many. How many? However many he redeems. However many he gives life. This
is the gospel of representation. He represented a people. He didn't
come here as a private person. He didn't come here on his own
just to do his own thing. He came here as the representative
of all those people that God gave him, placed upon his shoulder
and within his heart. This is the gospel of substitution. If you want to know about real
substitution, Don't go around trying to climb into the psychology
of our Lord or even the theology of the cross in such a way as
to go beyond the scripture. Just read what God says. Read
Isaiah 53. There's a good definition of
substitution. What that means is this. It simply
means that not only did he represent us before God as our High Priest,
but he himself was the sacrificial lamb. who took our place under
the justice of God and took the full punishment of the wrath
of God which we earned and which we deserved. Now, that's right. He is our sin-bearer. He is our
sin-offering. And yes, the Bible says in 2
Corinthians 5.21, he was made sin. That's true. How was he
made sin? Well, the Scripture tells us
right here in Isaiah 53. All our sins were laid upon Him. That is, God charged the demerit
of our sins to the person of Christ. And so He went under
the wrath of His Father for the sins of His people. He had no
sin, and He knew no sin, and no sin was infused into Him.
But He went there for sin as our substitute. And then here
we have the great doctrine of imputation taught, right here
in Isaiah 53. He became legally accountable
for my debt. It was charged to him. So that
I could be accountable for his righteousness charged to me.
And that's an amazing exchange, isn't it? So there's the servant
of Jehovah. And he often called himself,
he was the servant. He came to minister, to serve.
And then the second dominant figure that he often used to
refer to himself was the Son of Man. I want you to look at
the book of Daniel, chapter 7. He is the Son of Man. Now, when
he refers to himself as the Son of Man, or whenever he is called
the Son of Man in the Old Testament, that is not to deny his deity. What it is is to show that in
order for him to be our representative and our substitute, and come
under the law of God for our sins, He had to be both God and
man. He had to be fully human in every
way. Now, we're going to see that
in Isaiah 53. The things that are spoken of in Isaiah 53, and
this is an amazing thing about this passage, is that there are
things there that could only be said of one who is fully God. And yet there are things there
that it could only be said of one who is fully man. So it's
almost like either this is one person who is both God and man,
or it's two different people, or two different beings. Well,
it's not two different beings. It's one person. When Philip
opened his mouth and preached to the Ethiopian, he preached
unto him what? Jesus, one person, who is God-man,
God our Savior. Look at Daniel chapter 7, look
at verse 13. Daniel, one of his night visions,
that's a dream that God gave him. He said, I saw in the night
visions, and behold, one like the Son of Man, came with the
clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days, and they
brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion
and glory and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages
should serve him. His dominion is everlasting dominion,
which shall not pass away, and his kingdom, that which shall
not be destroyed." Now what's said of the Son of Man there,
and what's said of Him in Isaiah 53, instead of the same person. He is both God and man. And we
see that all the way through the Scripture. As a result of
his suffering, he shall reign. As a result of his suffering,
his people shall be saved. And when that name that Philip
preached to the Ethiopian eunuch was first revealed to Joseph,
Here's the way it was put by the angel of the Lord. He said,
His name shall be called Jesus, for He shall save His people
from their sins. And if you ever wonder if He's
able, He went on to say, His name shall be called Emmanuel,
which being interpreted as God with us. Now with that in mind,
go back to Isaiah chapter 52. Now if you want to see the divisions
of this chapter, of this section, it really comes in three verse
sections. all the way from Isaiah 52 verse
13. You have three verses there, 13, 14, and 15. And then the
first three verses of Isaiah 53 is a paragraph. And then the
next three verses. And some put a paragraph division
between 6 and 7. You don't have to. But 6, 7,
and 8, or 7, 8, and 9, rather, do form sort of another thought.
And then you have the last three verses. All of them come under
this heading. Christ the suffering Servant,
the Servant of God, the Son of Man. Christ suffering unto victory. This is not a suffering defeat.
That's one thing we need to understand starting now. And that's why
He introduces it, the first three verses here, Isaiah 52, 13, 14,
and 15. This is His destiny of glory
right here in these three verses. Here's the announcement of the
Servant. Now, here's what He's saying now. You remember, He
called them to faith in Christ and repentance of dead works.
in verses 9 and 10 of Isaiah 52. He's calling the people to
repentance. Trust in the Lord. And especially look to Him for
eternal salvation in the promised Messiah. Now, how's all of this
salvation going to be accomplished? Well, there's one who was set
up from everlasting who has a destiny of glory. Look at him. Listen
to what he says here. He says, Behold my servant, the
servant of the Lord. The Servant of Jehovah. He's
coming. That's what He's saying. Behold,
He's coming. He's not here yet. He hasn't done His work yet.
But He's going to be here. And it's sure and certain that
He's going to come. Behold My Servant. The whole Old Testament
is set up this way. Christ is coming. And every Old
Testament believer, true believer, who's been regenerated and converted
by the Holy Spirit, born again by the Spirit, looked forward
to his coming and his finishing his work. Their whole salvation,
the salvation of Abel, was wrapped up in the promise of his coming
and his finishing his work. That is why Abel brought a lamb,
shedding blood, testifying that I am looking for someone to come,
someone to shed blood in my stead as my substitute, the Lamb of
God. This is what Abraham rejoiced
to see. Abraham rejoiced to see the day
of Christ, and he saw it, and he was glad. He's coming. David said, this is all my salvation,
and it's ordered in all things and sure. Why? Not because he
was conditioned on David. His house was in shambles. His
kingdom was in shambles. David was a weak, weak, sinful
man. Even as a man after God's own
heart, that's what he was. But he said, this is all my salvation. This is the covenant God's made
with me. Even the sure mercies of David,
Isaiah calls them in Isaiah 55. Why are they the sure mercies
of David? Because he wasn't speaking of David personally. He was speaking
of David typically, the Son of David, the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's why they were the sure mercies. Not doubtful mercies. Not mercies that were conditioned
on me and you or them. Not even on the best of them,
but the sure mercies of David. Behold my servant, look to him,
this is what salvation is, beholding the servant of Jehovah. And he says, behold my servant
shall deal prudently. Now another way of saying that,
just in plain, he shall prosper. You heard that. That's what that
means. He shall prosper. In other words,
this servant of Jehovah is going to be successful in what he comes
to do. He's not going to fail. Back
over, I think it's in Isaiah 42, he said this when he was
speaking of the servant of Jehovah. And he says in verse 4 of Isaiah
42, "...he shall not fail, nor be discouraged, till he have
set judgment in the earth, and the isles shall wait for his
law." That's what that means when it says, He shall deal prudently. He shall be successful. He'll
be victorious. This is His destiny. In other
words, this is not a shot in the dark. This is not God's plan
B because plan A failed. This is God's purpose from the
beginning. Before this world was ever created,
before the Garden of Eden was ever put here on this earth,
before Adam ever fell, this was God's purpose right here. to
send this servant who shall deal prudently." And what that means,
he's not going to be a defeated reformer. He's not going to be
just an example. He said, Paul wrote in Philippians
chapter 2, he said, here's how successful he is, or he is and
is going to be. Every knee's going to bow and
every tongue's going to confess that he's Lord. There's not going
to be one molecule in this universe that's not going to bow to the
sovereign Lord who completed this work. He goes on, he says,
he shall be exalted. He shall be extolled. That's
praised. Praise is coming his way. Praise
was already there in the Old Testament in the hearts of his
people. Abel praised him when he brought
the Lamb. Cain refused to praise him when
he brought his own work. The same way today. Sinners who
come to God seeking salvation by their works, they're not praising
God, they're praising themselves. They're extolling themselves.
But this servant, now a servant is one who has a work to do.
That's what a servant is by definition. If you don't have a work to do,
you're not a servant. You're not in service. So this
service who has this work to do, he's going to be successful.
He's going to be exalted. God said he'll set him on high,
give him a name which is above every name. Now listen to him.
As God absolutely considered, he already had a name which is
above every name. He's the Alpha and the Omega.
No beginning, no end. But here, the servant will be
exalted and given a name which is above every name based upon
the fact that he does the work that he was given to do. And
you remember when he came, he kept telling his disciples, he
said, this is why I came. This is why. You know, he'd tell
them about his going to Jerusalem and being arrested, suffering,
dying and being raised again the third day. And they were
in their weakness. They'd say, oh, no. He said,
shall I not drink the cup? We studied that a couple of weeks
ago. Shall I not drink the cup that God the Father has given
me? He shed his face like a flint to do this work. So he's going
to be exalted. He's going to be seated at the
right hand of God. And no one who has a work unfinished
will be seated at the right hand of God. That was pictured in
the Old Testament tabernacle. When the priests would go about
doing their work, there was never any chairs in that tabernacle.
And the reason is because their work was to be done continually.
Their work was an earthly work. Their work was always an incomplete
work. Their work was always a work
that had to be done over and over and over again. But the
Bible says in Hebrews chapter 10 that by one offering, this
man, this servant, by one offering has sanctified forever them that
God set apart. He cleansed us by His one sacrifice
for sin. So He'll be extolled. He'll be
praised. He'll be very high. Look at verse
14. It says, "...as many were astonished
at Thee." That's a strange word. Astonished. You know what it
means? Some translations say astonished. And that's okay. But a better word for it would
be this. As many as were stunned. What happens to you when you
get stunned? I hear them talking about these stunned guns now.
You know, where they shot people and just render them, you know,
on the ground. As many as were stunned. It's
almost like turning the stone. So this is a good word. As many
as were stunned at thee. At this servant. And what the
stunning is, I believe, refers more to the lowliness of his
estate and the magnitude of his suffering, because that's what
Isaiah 53 is going to start dealing with here. And it says, as many
as were stunned, his visage, that would be like his face,
how he appeared, how you saw him, his visage was so marred
more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men. at
the stunning suffering that he went through, but then also the
victory that came out of that, that awful suffering. They'd
be stunned at it. I'm sure that Pilate and the
Roman Empire, they felt like that when they put Jesus of Nazareth
on the cross and the Jewish Sanhedrin and the Pharisees and the Sadducees,
And the unbelieving Gentiles, when they put Jesus of Nazareth
on the cross, I'll guarantee you they thought that would be
the end of it. And when it wasn't the end of it, they were stunned.
And they've been stunned ever since. His visage was marred more than
any man. He wasn't even recognizable as
a human being, some say. Think of his influence. The influence
that Jesus Christ has had all over this world. Now, I know
that there are many, many counterfeits. There are many false churches.
There are many unbelievers. But thank God there's a remnant.
And you know what? There always has been. And until
the Lord comes back again, there will be. But you think of even
the influence that He's had even over the unbelieving world. You
know, it's His world. He's in control. Listen to it. There was a man who dwelt in
the East centuries ago And now I cannot look at a sheep or a
sparrow, a lily or a cornfield, a raven or a sunset, a vineyard
or a mountain without thinking of him. If this be not to be
divine, what is it? What power? Who is this servant? Who is it? Look at verse 15.
He says, He shall sprinkle many nations. That's how far his influence
is going to go. Now that sprinkling, is a reference
to the sprinkling of the blood. You know, when Moses, when he
came down out of the mountain and read the law, they sacrificed
the lamb and he took the hyssop and he sprinkled the blood. The
high priest, he took the hyssop and he sprinkled the blood. The
blood was sprinkled over the mercy seat. At the cross of Calvary, Christ
put away our sins by the shedding of his blood. And then in every
heart, in every conscience that the Holy Spirit comes to in divine,
sovereign power in the new birth, He sprinkles that blood on our
hearts and on our consciences, showing us that guilt has been
removed and we have a righteousness in the person and work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Well, He's going to sprinkle
many nations. His ministry, the servant here has a ministry.
His ministry was not confined to one specific group, like the
Jews. It was to go out through all
nations. God has a people out of every
tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation. And the kings shall shut their
mouths at him. Now, we don't know specifically
about what he's talking about as far as which king and what
king, but I know this. I know this. That even kings
have had their mouths closed under the sovereign hand of this
servant. He is the king of kings. The
Bible says he's the potentate of potentates. Now don't think
of a lodge when you hear that. There's no man who is a potentate.
You know what potentate means? It means all-powerful. That's
what potentate means. It means all-powerful. There's
only one potentate, this servant right here, the Lord Jesus Christ.
He said in his high priestly prayer in John 17, he said, Father,
he said, glorify thou me with the glory which I had with thee
before the world was. Based on what? He said, to do
what? He said that I may give eternal
life to as many as thou hast given me. Why? Because he finished
the work which he gave him to do. So the king shall shut their
mouths at him. He says, "...for that which had
not been told them shall they see, and that which they had
not heard shall they consider." They're going to hear things
they never heard before. They're going to be told things that
were never told before. We're going to hear the gospel.
That's what it's talking about. They're going to hear the gospel,
which is the power of God unto salvation. Now that's His destiny
of glory. He didn't come, listen, this
servant didn't come to try to save anybody. Put that out of
your mind. That is not in this book. You
never have a picture or a description or even allusion to this servant
trying to save anybody. Somebody said, well, he's trying
to save you if you'll just let him. That's not in this book.
That was concocted by a bunch of guys who wanted to get people
down the aisle so they could have numbers and put up on the
wall. He's not trying to save anybody.
He shall save his people from their sin. That's what that means. That's his destiny of glory.
Now look at Isaiah 53. Here's his life of humiliation.
Now in order to accomplish his destiny of glory, here's what
he's got to go through. This is what's got to happen.
Now let me just read the first three verses and we'll come back
to this on Wednesday night and go through it some more. But
here's his life of humiliation. Here's the rejection of the servant.
Isaiah starts out in verse 1. Who hath believed our report?
That's our doctrine. That's our gospel. That's what
our report is. We have a report. The report is of this servant,
who he is, what he did, why he did it, where he is now. It's
the gospel of God's grace. It's how God is just to justify
the ungodly. Now, who's going to believe it?
And then he says, to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?
Who is the arm of the Lord? That's God's power. Who is the
power of God in the salvation? Christ is, and Him crucified.
His burial, His resurrection, His ascension unto the Father.
His sovereign hand to provide for us and to keep us and preserve
us. He's coming back again. He is the power of God. He's
the embodiment of the power of God. It's Christ who saves. To whom is the arm of the Lord
revealed? To whom is Christ revealed? Has Christ been revealed to you?
Has He been revealed to me? Well, here's who He is now. If
He's been revealed to you, here's who He is. Look at verse 2. He
says, for he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, like a
tender, weak baby, unknown in his youth except to his heavenly
Father before him. And yet there were some who did
know him. He was revealed to Simeon. Who was it Simeon held? He didn't hold an adult. He held
an infant, a baby. He was brought to the temple
on the eighth day to be circumcised. Simeon held that baby, that tender
baby, and he held that baby up and he said, I'm ready to die
now, God, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation. Simeon, it
was revealed to him, wasn't it? The arm of the Lord was revealed
to Simeon. One revealed to Herod. When he
heard about the birth, what did he do? He made a decree that
all the firstborn male children in Israel, in Judea, to be killed. It wasn't revealed to him. But
you see, the power of God was still active, even though it
wasn't revealed to Herod, because you know what? Herod wasn't successful
in his plans. He didn't get to the Christ child.
He was revealed to his parents. He was revealed, but he was a
tender plant. And it says he grew up before
him, before his father, with all the weakness of an infant.
With all the weakness of human flesh, he had to be suckled by
his mother. He had all the things that babies
go through, and he had to go through them, you see, in the
weaknesses and the infirmities of the flesh. But you see, in
all that time, it was the Father and the Spirit who protected
him in those days. Listen, he had no place to be
born, but they found a place. He had no place to lay his head.
And as I said, Herod would have killed him. Herod was the sovereign
king in that day, but he couldn't do it. Look at verse 2 again. He says he grew up before him
as a tender plant, as a root out of a dry ground. The Bible
says in Isaiah chapter 11 and verse 10 that he was the root
of Jesse, came from the flesh according to the seed of David.
Jesse was David's father. But he came out of his own nation.
And when he came out of his own nation, what condition was his
own nation in? A dry ground. That's referring
to the place of his birth, his nation. Religious but lost. Ceremony but nothing but death. Dry religion. That's what they
had. That's what they were involved
in. If you want to see a good description of Israel in the
day that our Lord was born according to human flesh, Go back and read
Isaiah chapter 1. That's a good description of
it. Religious but lost. You think about it. He was of
the kingly line of Judah. Of the seed of David. But that
line had become so lost in that day that, as I said, he had no
place to lay his head. He was of the kingly line. But
he was born in a manger, in a stall. It says here, He had no form
nor comeliness. That is, no beauty that we should
desire Him. That was His outward appearance.
Christ is not to be viewed by outward appearance, visions,
dreams, pictures, crucifixes. Christ is to be viewed by faith.
Who is Jesus Christ? Whatever the Word of God says
He is. You see, our faith is in Christ as He's identified
and distinguished in this Word here. Not as some guy paints
Him. You know, most people's view
of Jesus Christ was created not by God, but Leonardo da Vinci. The Last Supper. And when you
think about Jesus, that's what you think of it. I can't get it out of my head.
I wish I could. That's not Jesus Christ. Nobody knows what He
looked like. But who is He? We know exactly
who He is better than if we had a picture. Because He's the Son
of God incarnate. He's Jehovah our Savior. He's
the Lord our righteousness, Jehovah Sid Canu. He is the Lord who
is ever-present. He is the Lord all-powerful.
He is the Lord who redeemed us by the shedding of His blood.
He is the Lord who justified us before God by His work on
the cross. He is the Lord who finished the
work, who arose again the third day, who ascended unto the Father
and sat down at the right hand. of the Father on high, ever living
to make intercession for us. He's the Lord who keeps us, provides
for us. He's the Lord who's coming again
in the clouds to gather us. But now, as far as His earthly
appearance, His human appearance, there was no beauty, no comeliness. He says, and when we shall see
Him, there's no beauty that we should desire Him. In other words,
He didn't have that charismatic movie star presence that everybody
looked for. He just didn't have it. In verse
3, here's a good description of man by nature right here.
Chapter 3, or verse 3. He's despised and rejected of
men. Now here's what the Bible teaches.
If God would leave us alone and leave us to our own desires and
our own thoughts and our own will, this is us. Christ is despised
and rejected of men. Not only rejected, but despised. That means hated. He's hated
of men. Christ said, He that is not for
Me is against Me. You see, He came into His own
nation and His own nation received Him not. He was despised. He was held in contempt. He was
rejected of men. He told His earthly half-brothers,
He said that Those who are not with me are
against me." And he said, men hate me. He was a man of sorrows. Listen to this. This is something.
You mean this one who is going to be extolled? This one who
is going to be glorified and praised? He is a man of sorrows. He is acquainted with grief,
it says. That means he suffered, and he
sorrowed, he wept, he got hungry, he grew tired. That's all to
his sinless humanity. He suffered under the sorrow
and burdens of unbelief, not his own, but the unbelief of
his people. And we hid, as it were, our faces
from him. You know what that means? That
means we could not look upon him favorably. It doesn't mean
we were running and hiding from him. It means we could not look
upon Him favorably, and it said He was despised, and we esteemed
Him not. We didn't value Him. We didn't
value Him. That's us by nature. So you see,
if God brings you or me to see the glory of His Son, the Lord
Jesus Christ, and His finished work, the value of His blood. The Bible says, "...unto you
therefore which believe," what? He is precious. If you can say
that from your heart of hearts, then you know you're a walking,
talking miracle of God's grace. Did you know that? That's what
you are. That's what a sinner saved by
the grace of God is. He or she is a walking, talking
miracle of God's grace. If He's given you a heart that
doesn't despise the Lord Jesus Christ, and you see the value
of His righteousness and His person, then you're a miracle of God's
grace. That's being born again. You've come from despising Him
to loving Him. You've come from rejecting Him
to submitting to Him. Worshipping. Praising. That's
a miracle of God's grace. That's His success. That's the
victory of our successful Savior. Well, we'll pick up there next
time.