Isaiah chapter 53. Isaiah chapter 53. I want to share a couple of things
that I've been studying here of late. And I think one of the greatest
needs that I have personally as I study through the scripture
I like to read through the Bible and I know many of you do I like
to read through the Bible and then every once in a while I
stop and think about a certain passage but most the time I'm
just reading and I don't get sometimes everything that I should
get because preacher get up and start preaching and I look at
it and I say well I just read that why didn't I see that? Because
the Lord is revealing to us Himself all the time. I need that. I
need Him to reveal Himself to me every day, every moment of
every day, as I read the Scripture, to pray and ask the Lord to reveal
Himself. Because isn't this book all about
the Lord Jesus Christ? There's only one subject, only
one person that this book is about. And we need to be able
to see him in every page. But sometimes it takes a little
bit of time. The Lord said to his disciples
one time, I have many things to say to you, but you are not
able to bear them yet. So, as we study, and as we continue
to study, the Lord continues to reveal, and as we're able,
and the Lord puts that revelation in our minds and our hearts,
then we see it. Well, that's what here we have
in Isaiah 53, when he says, Who hath believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the
Lord revealed? Now who's believed the report?
The report goes out every Sunday in the gospel preaching churches,
those that have God sent men who are preaching the word of
God. The gospel goes out every Sunday, every Sunday morning,
every Sunday night, Wednesday night. sometimes during the week
in conferences and so on. And we get on Sermon Audio and
we listen to some of these preachers from different places who are
preaching the gospel and we listen to them as well. And we listen
to all the reporting that's going on. And by the way, that's all
we can do, isn't it? That's all we can do is report. That's what
witnessing is. That's what the gospel is. We
report what God said, what God did, what God is doing. That's
all we can do is report. Who hath believed our report?
And then to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? You'll not
believe the report until he reveals the arm of the Lord. And the
arm of the Lord is the Lord Jesus Christ. No other person. He's that arm. He's that power. He is that salvation. He is the
gospel. He is the actual report, witness,
gospel that we preach. And we'll not understand it.
We'll not know it. I remember when I first started
here several years ago, I visited with Peggy. We started dating
and I visited with her. And I heard Pastor Donnie preach. And I thought, well that's interesting.
Never heard that before. Been in church all my life. Spent
nearly 40 years in a fundamental Baptist circle. I'd never heard that. But I thought,
well now, I went home and I searched it out, and I said, well, what
he said was true. I'm going to go back and listen
to him again, and I heard him again. And I heard him several times,
and as in the hearing of several times, one time, the Lord said,
and it clicked, there's the truth. Now you know. Now you know who
I am. Now you know who you are because
of the ruin of the fall and you were ruined. Now you know what
Jesus Christ did for you on the cross. Now you know. And it became real to me. And I can say I believe the report
because the arm of the Lord was revealed. Who hath believed our
report? You see, nothing's going to happen
until the Lord reveals Himself. It's not going to happen. How's
He going to do that? Well, all we can do is report
the truth. We become reporters. Let me show
you something. Turn to 1 Corinthians 1. 1 Corinthians 1. See, any one of the preachers
who stand here and deliver the message that God has laid upon
their heart, whether it's like Brad this morning, what a good
message. I enjoyed that this morning. What a blessing. And
whether it's Obie or our pastor so many times, When we stand
up here and we speak the Word of God, you know what we're saying? We're saying what David said
in Psalm 66 verse 16. Come and hear, all ye that fear
God, and I will declare what He hath done for my soul. That's
all I can do. Declare what He has done for
my soul. Here in 1 Corinthians chapter
1, look at verse 17. Paul is speaking and says, "...for
Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not
with the wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be
made of none effect. For the preaching of the cross
is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved it
is the power of God." Look at verse 21. For after that, in
the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased
God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe." Now
how is the Lord going to reveal his arm today? Through the preaching
of the gospel. Through the preaching of the
gospel. I guess I could just stop there and we could just
all go home. I've studied too much to let you do that. I want to illustrate this. Turn
with me to Mark chapter 16. Mark chapter 16. Who hath believed
our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? Mark chapter 16. All four Gospels picture the
resurrection of Jesus Christ and some of the events surrounding
that resurrection. Mark 16 It says, and when the
Sabbath was passed, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James
and Salome had bought sweet spices that they might come and anoint
him. And very early in the morning, the first day of the week, they
came unto the sepulcher at the rising of the sun, and they said
among themselves, who shall roll us away the stone from the door
of the sepulcher? And when they looked, they saw
that the stone was rolled away. for it was very great. And entering
into the sepulcher, they saw a young man sitting on the right
side, clothed in a long white garment, and they were affrighted. And he said unto them, Be not
affrighted. Ye see Jesus of Nazareth, which
was crucified. He is risen, he is not here.
Behold the place where they laid him. But go your way, tell his
disciples and Peter that he goeth before you into Galilee, there
shall ye see him. as he said unto you and they
went out quickly and fled from the sepulcher and they ran just
as fast as they could so they could tell the disciples what
they had seen and heard look what it actually says for they
tremble and fled from the sepulcher for they trembled and were amazed
neither said they anything to any for they were afraid The young man had just told them
the message. The Lord Jesus, while they walked
with Him all through His ministry, and some of these women followed
Jesus wherever He went, they had heard Him say, destroy this
temple, and in three days I'll raise it again. And he was talking
about his body. He had talked about his resurrection.
He had talked about the fact that he was going to lay down
his life and take it up again. And here this young man says, here's the report. He's not here. He's risen. Go tell the disciples. And they were afraid and didn't tell him. Now praise
the Lord, there was one woman who did and we're coming to her.
Verse 9, And when Jesus was risen early
in the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene. Notice what he did. He appeared
first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils.
And what did she do once he appeared? He revealed himself to her. And
you remember how he did it, don't you? John chapter 20. She saw, she was all distraught
about Jesus not being in the grave and wondering if they had
taken him away. And there she saw somebody, she
assumed to be the gardener, and asked, where have you laid him?
Remember what Jesus did? He just turned to her and said,
Mary. That's all he had to say. And she turned and looked at
her Savior, because she heard His voice. He appeared to her. And she went, verse 10, and told
them that had been with Him, and they mourned and wept. And
when they heard that He was alive, and had been seen of her, guess
what they did? They didn't believe either, and
believed not. The message is given. The young
man told the message. Mary, to whom the Lord appeared,
has told the message. The women were afraid to tell
anything. Mary went and told the disciples, but they wouldn't
believe it. Well, that's not all. Read on,
verse 12. After that he appeared in another
form unto two of them as they walked and went into the country.
And they went and told it unto the residue. Neither believed they then. These two are the two that were
on the road to Emmaus. You remember their eyes were
holding that they couldn't see? and then after the Lord was having
supper with them he opened their eyes and they saw who it was
and they said, did not our hearts burn within us when we talked
to him? Wonder why we did not recognize
him then? It is because the strong arm
of the Lord had revealed himself to them and when he did Oh, rather than
stay a day's journey away from Jerusalem, rather than stay that night,
they took off and went running all the way back to Jerusalem
from Emmaus, through on the Emmaus Road. They got back to Jerusalem,
and they told the disciples, and they didn't believe them. They got a young man, the angel,
telling the message. Mary Magdalene telling the message.
You've got the two on the way to Emmaus telling the message. And so far, nobody, other disciples,
have believed anything. Does that boggle your mind? Not when you consider This body. This body of flesh. It's hard for us to believe anything
because belief in someone outside of ourselves is not natural,
is it? It's supernatural. It has to
be of God. Now verse 14. Afterward he appeared unto the
eleven, as they said it be, and upbraided them for their unbelief
and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which
had seen him after he was risen." Now the Lord Jesus met with the
disciples. First time he met with the disciples,
Thomas wasn't there, you remember? And the disciples, when Thomas
finally showed up, they said, Thomas, we saw the Lord. We actually saw the Lord. Mary's
seen the Lord. The two on the way to Emmaus
have seen the Lord. Now we've seen the Lord. He's
appeared to us. He's revealed Himself to us.
Thomas, we've seen the Lord. Remember what Thomas said? I
ain't gonna believe it. I won't believe it until I touch the
nail prints in his hand and thrust my hand into his spear-ribbon
side. I won't believe it until that
happens." Well, it wasn't long after that that all the disciples
were gathered together. And that's what we're reading
about here. They were all gathered together. And the Lord Jesus, He's already
appeared to the other ten. The Lord Jesus addresses Thomas.
speaks directly to Thomas. Thomas, look at my hands. You
want to touch these nail prints? Look at my side. You want to
thrust your hand on my side? And Thomas didn't do either one. He just said, My Lord and thy
God. Because he revealed himself,
Thomas knew. And then the Lord said something
He says, blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe. That's us who have been revealed
the gospel, the Lord Jesus Christ, the truth, through the preaching
of the gospel. Then he commissions them, says,
now you go into all the world, you start reporting. Who have
believed our report? Well, you start this reporting.
You start telling folk about this. You go to preach to those that
are the dry bones. You preach to those that are
weak. You preach to those that cannot help themselves at all. You sinner preach to sinners. You report the gospel of Jesus
Christ to them. It's like Ezekiel in the Valley
of the Dry Bones. Son of man, can these bones live?
Thou knowest, Lord. Well, preach to them. Prophesy to them. You speak
to those dry, dead bones. Ezekiel did. Prophesy to the
wind. And the Spirit of God blew upon
those bones, the rattling went on, the bones gathered together,
the sinew, and they came to life, and God breathed into them life. And you know what the first thing
happened? And then, it says, and then they
shall know the Lord. Who's believed our report? When
God does something, it will be believed. It will be believed
by the individual. When they were standing on the
mount, just before Jesus was getting ready to transfigure
before them, he opened their understanding. And he said, ye
shall be witnesses unto me. Now who's believed the report?
Let me tell you just a little bit about the report. Just so we know exactly, at least
tell you what I'm telling in the report, in the witness. Who's
believed that report? To whom is the arm of the Lord
revealed? The report is always the same. There is not a difference anywhere
in the gospel. Don't you like that? It's so
plain. There's only one way to tell the gospel. The Gospel is the substitutionary
death of Jesus Christ, the satisfaction that He provided to the Father
for our sins. Our sins are paid for. Redemption
and mercy and grace are ours. That's in the Gospel. And the
report is always the same. There's never a difference. Not only is it always the same,
but it's completed. There's not a thing you can add
to it. And never for any reason take away from it. But there's
not anything you can add to it. It is the same. It's completed. It's Jesus Christ. The same yesterday, today, and
forever. There are no alternatives to
the Gospel. There are not many ways to God. There's only one. There's only
one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one gospel, one spirit. It's
just one. There are no half ways about
it. Don't take your first step and God will meet you there. Now, folk, I'm here to tell you,
a lot of these things that our pastor says that people are saying
in some of these free will churches, I've said for many, many years. You make the first step and God
will meet you. You let go and let God. If you want God, just come on
to Him. Get out of that seat. Come down here and get on the
altar. That's not how God works. You
see, this report we have is a report of completion. It's already done. Salvation was done before the
world was ever begun. The gospel was started, purposed
in God before He ever made anything in this whole wide world. And what's interesting about
that is, I was in Him all the way back then. Didn't even know
it. Until one day, He revealed that
arm to me. And then I knew. I've been a sheep for all eternity. I've been a saint. for all eternity. I have been without sin for all
eternity in Christ. In Christ. He cried from the cross, it's
finished, it's done. That's why we determined to know
nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. There's only one gospel. Paul
talked to the Galatians and said, it marvels me, amazes me how
soon you are turned to another gospel. And then he adds these
words, which is not another. There's no other gospel. There's
only one. The report is always the same.
The report is a complete report that we're giving. Number two,
the report is exclusive. It's exclusive. One person. It's all about one person. Now there's a lot of people associated
with that one person, the Lord Jesus Christ, but it's all about
Him. It's all about Him. That's why Paul said in 1 Corinthians
1, I'll go back there again, 1 Corinthians 1, verse 23, But
we preach Christ crucified to the Jews a stumbling block, but
unto the Greeks foolishness, but unto them which are called,
both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom
of God. It's all about one person. It's
exclusive. And it's only for one people. God's people. Didn't he say to some people
one time that you believe not because you not believe in my
father. I've got the words all mixed
up but you know where I'm at. You're not of me. You won't have faith in me. It
was a statement of fact. It was not an aspiration. Well,
if I exercise enough faith, then maybe I can be a part of the
Lord Jesus Christ and his gospel. No. You can exercise all the faith
you want to, but unless he reveals himself, unless it's his faith
that he gives you, You'll not be part and parcel of His people. As a matter of fact, John chapter
6 tells us who His people are. John chapter 6, beginning with
verse 37. He says, All that the Father
giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I'll know
why it's cast out. For I came down from heaven not
to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me. And
this is the Father's will. You ever wanted to know what
the will of God is? Here it is. And this is the Father's will,
which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me, I should
lose nothing, but raise it up at the last day. And this is
the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the
Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life, and I
will raise him up at the last day. My sheep, hear my voice. Those given to Him. That's why this report is exclusive. Now, it's not exclusive in its
presentation. What man is there who knows who
God's sheep are? They're given to the Lord by
the Father Himself They're given by the preaching of the gospel
of Jesus Christ. And so we preach the gospel.
And we preach the gospel. And as we preach the gospel,
God's revelation comes. And one of God's sheep is made
to hear. Made to see. revealed the Lord
Jesus Christ. It's exclusive. But not everyone
believes. Turn with me back a page there,
John chapter 5. John chapter 5. Beginning with verse 31, our
Lord is speaking here, and He says, If I bear witness unto
myself, my witness is not true. There's another that bears witness
unto me, and I know that the witness which he witnesses of
me is true. Ye sin unto John, and he bear
witness unto the truth. But I receive not testimony from
man, but these things I say, that ye might be saved. He was
a burning and a shining light, and you were willing for a season
to rejoice in His light. But I have a greater witness
than that of John, for the works which the Father has given me
to finish, the same works that I do. Bear witness with me that
the Father has sent me, and the Father Himself has which hath
sent me, hath borne witness of me, ye have neither heard his
voice in any time, nor seen his shape, and ye have not his word
abiding in you, for whom he hath sent him ye believe not. Search the Scriptures, for in
them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which
testify of me. And ye will not come to me that
you might have life. It's an evident fact when the
gospel is preached many people don't respond to it. Why don't
they? Because the arm of the Lord has
not been revealed. Who has believed our report?
And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? You see, the report
is always the same. It's a completed report. The
report is an exclusive report. The report is an effective report. It will accomplish. It has power. The preaching of the gospel has
power. Paul tells us in Romans chapter
1, Verse 16, he makes it so plain,
when he says in Romans 1.16, For I am not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone
that believeth, to the Jew first. And also to the Greek, for therein
is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is
written, the just shall live by faith. When the arm of the
Lord is revealed, then we will believe the report. The sheep
will hear the voice. The gospel will do exactly what
God has purposed it to do. Brad read it for us this morning
in 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 9 where it says Speaking of Jesus Christ, who
hath saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according
to their works, but according to his own purpose and grace,
which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,
but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus
Christ, who hath abolished death and hath brought life and immortality
to light through the gospel. It's a powerful thing. It's an
effective thing. And it's done when it pleases
the Lord. Look at Galatians 1.15. Galatians
1.15. Paul speaking again says, but
when it pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb and
called me by His grace to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach
Him among the heathen, immediately I conferred not with flesh and
blood. Through the revelation of Jesus
Christ, when it pleased the Lord. And wasn't this our Lord's first
message? When the gospel is preached,
miracles are going to take place. I've come to this world. Let's
just look at it together. Luke chapter 4. His first message
as the God-man. Luke chapter 4. Verse 16. Look forward, verse 16. And Jesus
came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as his custom
was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood
up for to read. And there was delivered unto
him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book,
he found the place where it was written. That place is Isaiah
61, verses 1, 2, and 3. The Spirit of the Lord is upon
me because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. As we heard this morning, he
makes the poor rich. There's a miracle. It's effective. Miracles take place when the
gospel is preached to heal the brokenhearted. The brokenhearted
have healing. There's another miracle. It's
effective. It does something. There's the
deliverance of the captives. There's the recovering of the
sight to the blind. There's the setting at liberty,
them that are bruised. And what's he doing? He's preaching
the acceptable year of the Lord. Miracles take place. You see, the report is effective
and powerful. Because the report, first of
all, reveals who the Father is. He is holy. He is just. He is pure. so holy that in Isaiah chapter
6 Isaiah said the angels were hovering around the throne of
God and with three pairs of wings, twain, they covered their face,
their body, their feet. They would not even look upon
the holiness of God. from that throne. And from that
picture that Isaiah saw, he cries out, woe is me for I'm undone,
a man of unclean lips, in the midst of a nation of unclean
lips. It reveals who the Father is
and we need that revelation. The first thing we need to see
is who God is. Isn't that what the gospel does?
Isn't that what the preaching of the gospel does? It pictures
to us who God is. It reveals men as sinners because
once you see God and who He really is, you see yourself as you really
are. Not as what you do per se, but
as your whole attitude, your sin attitude. Your sin nature, who you are. And then the gospel, thank the
Lord, it goes one step further. It reveals who the Savior is.
Oh, I need that, don't you? I need to know who my Savior
is. I cannot save myself. I cannot do anything for myself. I need to know about the Savior's
sacrifice. I need to know that it was once
for all at the end of the world. I need to know that through His
sacrifice He sanctified and perfected His people. I need to know that He is the
sinner's substitute and I need a substitute. I can't do it myself. I can't get to heaven myself.
I can't be good myself. There's no good thing within
me. What could I do? I'm dead. What could I do? I'm blind. What could I see? I'm deaf. What could I hear? until God brings the miracle,
the gospel of Jesus Christ into your heart, my heart, my life. And I see He substituted Himself
for me. He took my place. All we like
sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone to His
own way and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He satisfied the Father. The
wrath of God is sentenced against the sinner. He must die the death,
the soul that sinneth, it shall die. The wrath of God is eternal
wrath because there's no way that anyone could pay for sin
and he will continue in sin for all eternity unless God reveals
his arm to him. He hears the report, the gospel
preached, and he hears that God the Father has been satisfied. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus. Just a couple more things and
I'll close. This report is a comforting report. Look at Isaiah chapter 40. Isaiah
chapter 40 Isaiah chapter 40 verses 1 and
2 Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably
to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished. The warfare is finished. We have no more fight. It's all
been done and he took all the fight out of all the foes. The warfare is accomplished.
That her iniquity is pardoned. For she has received of the Lord's
hand double for all her sins. The Lord laid on Him the iniquity
of Saul. And He satisfied the father.
And we've got the double portion. One final thing. This report
is the only report that actually glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ. I was flipping through some channels
this morning and maybe it was last night, I can't remember.
But we were flipping through some channels and they were having
some of these gospel sings. And they, I suppose, if I understand
it correctly, they were lifting holy hands to the Lord as they
were singing, dancing around, swaying and going on. And I asked
myself, who are they glorifying? It wasn't the Lord Jesus Christ.
Not in my estimation. What we do must glorify Him. But God forbid that I should
glory save in the cross for Jesus Christ. Christ is all and in all. There's where the glory belongs,
in Jesus Christ. And the Gospel, the report of
the Gospel, glorifies Jesus Christ and Him alone. There's no glory
for man in it. Though people try to put themselves
there. It's eternal. It's the everlasting
gospel. And let me just close with this
one last thing. We're going to see Him as He
is one day. And according to what John wrote,
We're going to be just like Him. The gospel is about one person.
And it's about His people. And one day, pardon me, no, forget
what I said there. One of these days, we're all
going to look just alike. Just like Him. Without sin. Glorified bodies. Forever and ever. Enjoying the
eternal gospel of Jesus Christ. All of us one together. Worshipping, praising the Lamb
forever. So Lord, reveal Thyself to me
every day. Reveal thyself to my family.
I can't do it. I can tell them the message,
but it's only as you reveal the truth to them will they hear
it and know it. And should you not reveal the
truth to them, as hard as it may seem to us, yet our Lord
is righteous no matter what. He never does anything wrong, even if he doesn't reveal himself
to them. But Lord, our prayer is, reveal
thyself to our family. Demands an answer, doesn't it?
Who's believed the report in your own heart? Have you? To
whom is the arm of the Lord revealed in your own heart? Answer the
question. Heavenly Father, we are so thankful
for your Word. The Gospel. The Gospel of our
salvation. The Gospel that is the power
of God unto salvation. Thank you, Lord, for giving us this opportunity again to hear
the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Reveal yourself to us. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Good night. Lord bless you. It's okay.