I want to read from Isaiah chapter
53. I'm going to begin reading in verse
4. My Bible has that little symbol
just to the right of verse 4, which means it's supposed to
be a new paragraph. But it's all related. Isaiah 53 and verse four, 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 hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the
slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened
not his mouth. 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 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 him to grief. When
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed,
he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in his hand. He shall see the travail of his
soul and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a
portion with the great and he shall divide the spoil with the
strong Because he have poured out his soul unto death and he
was numbered with the transgressors and he bear the sin of many and
made intercession for the transgressors I Was gonna stop at verse 6,
but I have to read that I can't help it I As far as I'm concerned, this
is one of the greatest chapters in the Bible. We say it, and
we say it because we mean it. This is a book of Christ, this
Bible that we have. We say it because it's true. And this chapter in particular
lays out some of the things that our Lord went through for the
redemption of his people. I have a subject for this sermon. It's called substitution. Substitution. We talk about it, we use the
word, we preach about it. Because it is, I wrote important,
no, it's vital. The substitution of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Our redemption was accomplished
by the substitutionary work God manifest in the flesh Because
Jesus Christ was and is the substitute for his people By this substitution the Holy
God is shown as both just and justifier of them which believe
in Jesus and And here in particular, verses four through six of Isaiah
53, the doctrine, the truth of the substitutionary death of
the Lord Jesus Christ is laid out for us now in prophecy. You understand? This, Isaiah
53, and Walter, I think you said this once, and it hit me. This is not type. This is not
metaphor. This is prophecy. These are the
words of the Lord given to the prophet Isaiah to write down
as moved by the spirit of God and this is concerning the work
of the Messiah who was to come at that time. The intriguing
thing about this is when you read this, Isaiah wrote this
in the past tense. It hadn't happened yet when he
wrote this down. but he, enabled by God, was given
the word that this was just as sure as if it already had been
done, but it was going to be done. And he writes it in the
past tense, even though it hasn't happened then, but it has happened
now, so we do talk about it in the past tense. Surely he hath
borne our sorrows, our griefs, and carried, past tense, our
sorrows, And we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God and
afflicted. But I got three things here that
I want to talk about. First of all, the description
of Christ's sufferings. Second, the cause of Christ's
sufferings. And third, the fruit and benefit
of Christ's sufferings. Now these three things are scattered
in diverse expressions throughout these three verses and on then
through the chapter. But verse four says, surely he
hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem
him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. You know, this is not the first
thing people think about when they think about Jesus Christ.
And I'm using the word people as a whole. And in particular,
even religious people. Because in this chapter, here
are some of the words used to describe the Lord of glory. No
beauty, no comeliness. Despised, not esteemed. Grief, sorrow, stricken, smitten,
afflicted, wounded, bruised, chastised, stripes, iniquity,
oppressed, judgment, cut off, travail, and numbered with the
transgressors. That's not what the average Sunday
morning service is about. But when we speak, and Paul put
it this way, I determined to know nothing among you save what
Jesus Christ and him crucified. This is the way he was treated
on this planet. It's not that he wasn't worthy
of esteem, he's worthy of the best esteem, of all esteem. But we didn't esteem him. We thought, and that's what the
word esteemed means, we thought he was stricken of God as a malefactor. He was numbered with the transgressors. He talked to one of them while
he was on that cross and told him today thou shalt be with
me in paradise. But those people back then, all
they had to answer Pilate was, Crucify him. Crucify him. Crucify him. And I'll tell you
this, if I was back there, if you were back there, we'd have
done the same thing. Because without all this, we
wouldn't be gathered here today. We wouldn't be gathered to worship
the one whom the world still hates. They hated him and they
still hate him. When he was here, the overwhelming
majority of people considered him the light of the world to
be a malefactor. I like that word, I can't help
it. I don't know why, I just like saying malefactor. When
you look it up, it's a good word. It means one who does evil. They
thought Jesus Christ was an evildoer. They perceived him as being stricken,
struck down by God. And he was, but not for the reasons
they thought. He was smitten of God. But that didn't absolve them
of it. Acts chapter two says it plainly. I'm going to read
it because I don't want to mess it up. Verse 23, him being delivered
by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have
taken him by wicked hands, have crucified and slain. They did
it according to the determinate counsel and the foreknowledge
of God, but they still had wicked hands doing it. This was all in the counsel and
the purpose and according to the will of the Father. And we
are to rejoice in this. They cried out, he saved others,
himself he cannot save. They cried that out at the crucifixion.
And they're half right and they're half wrong. He did save others. And it's not that himself he
could not save, he cannot save, it was himself he would not save. He was there willingly fulfilling
the purpose and the work and the will of the father. He told his disciples, don't
fight. I can call 12 legions of angels
right now, and he could. And if you want to know the definition
of overkill, it's 100 Roman soldiers versus 12 legions of angels. That's the definition of overkill.
But he wouldn't do it. For this cause and to this hour,
I came into this world. To what? To suffer. To suffer
for the sins of his people. Verse five, 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. In this one verse, we see the
sufferings and the benefits and the cause. It says he was wounded, literally
that means to bore a hole. not to be bored, to bore a hole. Figuratively, it means profaned. Not only was our Lord betrayed
by one of his disciples, he was abandoned by the rest of them. Peter followed and then Peter
denied. John followed, but he followed
afar off. All the rest of them, we don't
have a word about. Our Lord was completely and totally
alone in this. And that's the way it was supposed
to be. That whither I go is thou can't
come yet. That means more than most people
think. He was despised and rejected
of men. He was wounded for our transgressions. And to be honest, whenever usually
the scripture uses that word wounded, it means wounded unto
death. Bruised means battered and broken
physically, not to mention mentally. They tried. They tried to humiliate
our Lord. And in essence, in their eyes,
they did humiliate. They put a robe on him, first
they put a blindfold on him and then they smacked him in the
face and they said, hey, who hit you, prophesy. They put a
robe on him and a crown of thorns. They scourged him with a whip,
beat his back bloody. Chastisement of our peace was
upon him, chastise. Now that word actually does mean
what chastisement means. It's punishment with correction
as the goal. Our Lord didn't need correction.
We do, we did, we do, and we always will until we awaken his
likeness. But the chastisement he had,
and then it says with his stripes. And basically when it's talking
about stripes, it's talking about scars. Not only the nail prints in his
hand and his feet, but that scourge on his back. The scars from the
crown of thorns on his head that drew blood. These are some of the sufferings
of our Lord Jesus Christ. And this doesn't even take into
account, this part here doesn't even take into account being
on that cross and our Lord saying, my God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? We don't know what it's like
to be forsaken of God because we don't know God the way Christ
knew the Father. And he has promised to never
leave us and never forsake us. And we might think we feel forsaken
sometimes, but that's us. Our Lord Jesus Christ knew he
was forsaken by God the Father. And justly so. Because the Lord
had laid upon him the iniquity of us all. So these are some of the descriptions
here in verse five. Wounded, bruised, chastised,
and stripes, scarred. And the conclusion for this is
that God made him sin for us. Because in this verse we see
the cause of Christ's sufferings. He was wounded, what? For our
transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. And the chastisement of our peace
was upon Him. He did this for us. Yes, it was according to the
determinate counsel and the foreknowledge of God, but it was for our sins
that was laid on him. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. Those words are scripture. They
have never changed and they never will change. We have all sinned and come short
of the glory of God. But praise God He hath made him
to be sin, or he hath made him sin for us. Our transgressions, our rebellion,
and the word actually means revolt. Revolution against God. Our transgression of the law
and his Christ. Our iniquities. Our perversity,
our evil, our sin. And our chastisement, I said it,
we need correction. Mason, we couldn't take the punishment
though. We couldn't take the punishment
needed for correction. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him. Believers are corrected and righteous
now in God's sight in Christ Paul has a summary in 1st Corinthians
15 and verse 3 says for I delivered unto you first of all that Which
I also received how that Christ died for our sins According to
the scriptures One of those scriptures is Isaiah 53 He was buried and that he rose
again the third day according to the scriptures. Because, for he hath made him to be sin
for us. And you can leave that to be
out. For he hath made him sin for us. What? Who knew no sin. He was numbered among the transgressors.
He was considered a malefactor, but he was not a sinner. The Lord made him sin, but that
does not make Jesus Christ a sinner. He is not. He never was. But the Lord did make him sin. With a purpose. That He hath
made him sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him. Believers are corrected. Chastisement
of our peace was upon him. And now in God's sight and in
Christ, we are righteous. That brings up and is one of
the first fruits and benefits of Christ's sufferings. Like
I said, I got nothing new today. Three things here because those chosen in Christ
do benefit from the sufferings of the Lamb of God. We have peace, we are healed,
and we have his righteousness. In context, our peace has been
purchased. The chastisement of our peace,
and it's our peace, was upon him. Now, he is our peace, and
in him we have peace with God. That is just the most amazing
statement in the world. A fallen sinner who's still sinning is at peace with God. And more
importantly, God is at peace with him. He's the offended party. He's the one that sin is against.
But in Christ, who is our peace, We have peace with God. And it doesn't matter whether
you feel it or not. Your feelings come and your feelings
go. Yes, sometimes I do feel the peace more than others. No,
sometimes, and no, sometimes I don't feel it. But it's not up to me. I didn't
make peace with God. He made peace with me through
the blood of His Son, through the sufferings of His Son. It's
not up to me. Praise God, thank God it's not
up to me. It's not up to you. Believe Him. Then it says, by His stripes,
what? We are healed. We are healed. We're healed. How can I say that? Well, first of all, if you are
born from above, if you've been brought into Christ, you are
alive unto God. You were dead in trespasses and
sins. And if you don't think that's
healing, you don't know what healing is. There's all these people running
around saying, oh, you can be healthy and wealthy and all that
stuff. No, no, no. You need to be alive who are
dead. They think that's the easy part.
Always come up here and pray the sinner's prayer. God will
give you grace. Really? Really? They don't understand. And the reason
I can say they don't understand it, because I can tell, they
don't preach it, they don't teach it, they don't believe it. That
it takes the power of God to raise one dead sinner back to
life. It takes his voice saying unto
them, live. And they live. By his stripes, we are healed. By what he suffered, we are healed. We were dead in sins, and we
were quickened together with Christ. And now, another way we're healed,
we are to reckon ourselves to be dead unto sin. We're healed. We're healed. Job 33 and verse 24 put it this
way. Then he is gracious unto him
and saith, deliver him. Deliver him. What? From going
down to the pit. Why? Why should anyone be delivered
from going down into the pit? Why should any sinner be delivered
from going down in the pit? I have found a ransom. Literally, a cover, figuratively,
it means I have found the redemption price. It's in Isaiah 53. By his stripes, we are healed
now. Isaiah wrote this in the past
tense, but he's saying it here, we are healed now. In verse six we see who is the
first cause of substitution and thereby the cause of salvation. All we like sheep have gone astray,
we have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord hath laid
on him the iniquity of us all. First point is we went astray
and we liked it that way. We turned to our own way. We
turned that way. Why? Because we wanted to go
that way. That's the definition of going
astray, or gone astray. It's not just going against God's
will, although it is, it's just going your own way. Well, naturally, we can't go
any other way than our own way. Walter, I listened to your message
when you were at Rocky Mount, and that's a very, very, very,
very valid point. We're not talking about morality
here or immorality. No, we're talking about sin. Our own way is sin. Now, as far as the world sees
our own way, they may think it's nice and moral. Now some people
may think it's immoral. Morality and immorality is a
matter of people's opinion. It changes. The morality of ancient
Greece is not the morality that we deal with today. And I can
tell you this, the morality we're dealing with today, and what
is this, 2016, is not the same thing as I dealt with in 1986.
Things have changed. But I can tell you this, sin
has not changed. Morality will change. I remember
the moral majority, Mason, Jerry Falwell and that bunch. And I
remember thinking at the time that I was part of the immoral
minority, I suppose. I don't know, but morality changes. This book does not change. This
book does not speak of moral or immoral. This book speaks
of sin and righteousness. Because we can go some people's
own way, which is going astray. Some people's going astray is
going to church. There's a broad road that leads
to destruction. They don't think it leads to
destruction, but it does. And many are on it. Our good deeds are still our
own way and it's still going astray. Now, how many people
really understand that? Well, I can tell you who can
understand that. Only those who have been brought in to the straight
gate and the narrow way. because those on the Broadway
don't get it. And the reason they don't get
it is because they think they got it. But here is the cause of substitution. And the Lord hath laid on him
the iniquity of us all. How was this redemption accomplished? Well, it's the Lord's redemption.
It's the Lord's salvation. The Lord hath laid on him. There's the answer. What did
I read before? For he hath made him sin for
us. I did not lay one sin on Jesus
Christ. You did not lay one sin on Jesus
Christ. The Lord hath laid on him the
iniquity of us all. And that's the point. That is
redemption. It's the work of the Father and
of the Son and of the Spirit. It's the work of God and not
of man. Totally. completely, perfectly
done. Jesus is the Lamb of God, slain
from before the foundation of the world. Yes, He is my Lamb. Yes, He is your Lamb, if you
believe Him. But before any of that ever started,
He is the Lamb of God. The Lord hath laid on him the
iniquity of us all, for he hath made him sin for us. God did it, praise to his holy
name. He did it and Jesus willingly
took it. Lovingly took it. Let's be specific. Isaiah 53
is very specific. He took what? The iniquity. What did the Lord lay on him?
The iniquity of everybody. Come on. I mean, you know, seriously,
we're surrounded by this. There are people who will fight
you over this statement. or what they call my interpretation
of this statement. All I'm doing is reading what
it says. You understand? By his stripes
we are healed. The Lord hath laid on him the
iniquity of us all. All these verses are connected. This is all one account, one
prophecy. There's no beauty that we should
desire him. He has borne our griefs. He has
carried our sorrows. He was wounded for our transgression.
He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him and with his stripes who we are healed. This is all one group of people.
Whoever it is, okay? Wherever you want to put the
definition. I'm gonna put the definition where God says to
put it, but I know people will say, well this is everybody in
the world. Well then, with his stripes they're all healed. I mean that's it. It has to be. Because the Lord hath laid on
him the iniquity of what? Us all. So if all the sin of
all the people was laid on Christ, They don't owe any debt, just
like we don't owe any debt. No one owes any debt, and that's
a lie. That's all you can have, is universal
salvation. And that's not what this book
teaches. This is still right down the line, and then when
you get down to it at the end, he even tells you a little more,
he says what? He bare the sin of, what? Many. And you can look
at that word, guess what? It's many. It ain't all. This is the work of God, for
the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. By His stripes we are healed. This is the substitutionary work
of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. Peter put it this way, who, speaking
of Christ, his own self, his own self, bear our sins, what? In his body, in his body, on
the tree. For what purpose? That. We, being dead to sins, should
live unto righteousness. And he's reading this. Peter's
quoting parts of Isaiah 53. By whose stripes ye were healed.
He impersonalized it further. By whose stripes ye were healed. For ye were a sheep going astray. This is 1 Peter 2, 24 and 25. For ye were as sheep going astray,
but are now returned unto the shepherd and bishop of your souls. You were chosen in Christ before
the foundation of the world, and now you are returned unto
the shepherd and bishop of your souls, the good shepherd, our
Lord Jesus Christ, who bear in his body, what? Our sins. Our sins. By his stripes, we
are healed. Our bodies are not perfected
yet, but Peter goes on to tell you a little bit about how this
salvation ain't complete yet. It's ready to be revealed in
the last time, but we are kept by the power of God through faith
unto salvation, the complete salvation. This world ain't all
there is. There's gonna be more healing.
But right now, we are healed by his stripes, by his work,
by the Lord laying on him the iniquity of us all. Now I know,
in a hurry, I know how this is preached in the world. I know
exactly how the religious world uses this, Isaiah 53. Oh, He's done so much for us. Can't
you do something for Him? Won't you just believe Him? I'm sorry, I threw in the southern
accent. This is why and how it's preached all around us, okay?
And I'm gonna tell you something, God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit
Don't need our sympathy. We need his grace. We need his
mercy. We need his power. We need his
work. That's what people do. Say, oh
Lord Jesus, he suffered all this stuff. Don't you feel sorry for
him? Won't you believe in him? He did all this for you. You
will never know what he has done for you until he shows you who
he is. He will heal you. It's guaranteed. If you're one of these peoples
whose sorrows he had, whose griefs he carried, was bruised for our
iniquities, the chastisement of our peace, if you're one of
those, he'll bring you to know what
he has done for you. and you'll thank God for it. Isaiah asked it at the very first
verse. I didn't read it on purpose. Who hath believed our report? And the answer is his own question. And to whom is the arm of the
Lord, what? Revealed. Revealed. It takes a revelation from God
to know about the substitution of the work of Jesus Christ. We believers, those in Christ
now, who were sinners, who were chosen in Christ before the foundation
of the world, everyone chosen in Christ before the foundation
of the world needed a substitute. And God manifests in the flesh,
came down, and literally became our substitute. It had to happen. It had to happen. The price had
to be paid to satisfy a just God and a savior. The wages of sin is death. And I'll be even more specific.
The wages of sin is one death. And it's either yours or it's
Christ's. One death. This is an individual
thing. It's one death. It's either the
death of Christ for many, for many, or it's yours. I want the Lamb of God. The Lord hath laid on him the
iniquities of us all. And by his wounds, his bruises,
his chastisement, his stripes, we are healed. I thank God for that. Our Heavenly
Father, we are thankful again for this time and this place.
Lord be with Walter as he comes to speak to us. Be good to those who love you. You always are, but make us know
it. Make us know what you have done for us, what
you are doing for us because we are so caught up in this world. And our senses are so dulled
that sometimes we can't see the forest for the trees and we can't
see the forest for the fog. Help us, Lord. In Christ's name,
we pray. Amen.