We're gonna be in the Old Testament
today At least that's sort of gonna be our focus point If you know anything about reading
the Old Testament You have to read it in light
of the New Testament So we're gonna spend a lot of time flipping
back and forth between Isaiah chapter 53 and various places
in the New Testament But we will begin in Isaiah chapter 53. This
is one of the great prophetic texts that we have concerning
the work of the promised Messiah. Chapter 53 verse 1, the prophet
begins, who has believed what he has heard from us? And to
whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up
before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground. He had no form or majesty that
we should look at him and no beauty that we should desire
him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and
acquainted with grief. And as one from whom men hide
their faces, he was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely
he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed
him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced
for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement
that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray.
We have turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord has laid
on him the iniquity of us all. We'll read more as we get into
this. But I'm going to tell you up front that this passage is
about Jesus the Christ. This prophecy from Isaiah is
a statement of the gospel. The very same gospel that we
believe today. People often ask the question,
what about the people of God of the Old Testament? How are
they saved? They're saved by faith in the promise of the Christ.
They're saved by faith in this prophecy from Isaiah. They are
saved by faith in the promise that there would come one who
would bear their iniquity, who would take their sin. But since this is about Christ,
and we know more about Christ than even the prophet Isaiah
did, we're gonna look to the New Testament in order to understand
more deeply the words of the prophet here than Israel did
then. So I told you this is about Jesus.
So the first thing I want you to understand is that Jesus was
Jewish, right? Jesus was indisputably, undeniably
a Jew. The Gospel of Matthew wastes
no time in establishing the Jewishness of Jesus. The very first verse
says, on account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, son of
David, the son of Abraham. Matthew places Jesus as a direct
descendant of David, the greatest Israelite king, and Abraham,
the grandfather of Israel, or Jacob. So by birth, Jesus is
a Jew. The Gospel of Luke has a genealogy
as well, and it agrees with Matthew when it says that Jesus is a
son of David and a son of Abraham. So how Jewish was Jesus really? He was Jewish by blood. But how
Jewish was Jesus really? Luke chapter two says, after
eight days had passed, it was time to circumcise the child.
He was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he
was conceived in the womb. When the time came for their
purification, according to the law of Moses, they brought him
up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord as it is written
in the law of the Lord. Every firstborn male shall be
designated as holy to the Lord. They offered a sacrifice according
to what is stated in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtle
doves or two young pigeons. From Jesus' birth, Joseph and
Mary raised him in a thoroughly Jewish household. They raised
him in accordance with the law of God. Jesus' parents journeyed
to Jerusalem every year for the festival of the Passover. When
Jesus was 12, he stayed behind in the temple to teach and be
taught by the priests. Luke writes, they found him,
which is Jesus, in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening
to them and asking them questions, and all who heard him were amazed
at his understanding and his answers. Not only were Jesus'
parents Jewish and thoroughly Jewish, Jesus, at the age of
12, had a intimate and deep knowledge of the Jewish scripture, so much
so that he taught the teachers of Israel. Twelve years old. We can conclusively say that
Jesus was intimately Jewish by birth and creed. This brings me to my first point. that I want to get out of Isaiah
53, and that is that the Judaism that Jesus experienced was indisputably
dead, a false religion. In John chapter 8, we have this
episode of Jesus interacting with the Pharisees, the teachers
of Israel, the Jews in the temple. It's a pretty big section, but
I'll read it. I want you to understand, even though Jesus was Jewish,
Jesus was a Jew by blood and by creed, that the Judaism of
the day, the Judaism that Jesus was raised in, was a false religion. And Jesus calls it so here in
John chapter 8, starting in verse 39. Abraham is our father. Right?
This is an appeal to Christ as, you know, one of their brothers.
We're Jews. You're a Jew. Abraham is our
father. We have the same father. Jesus
said to them, if you were Abraham's children, you would be doing
the works Abraham did. But now you seek to kill me,
a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is
not what Abraham did. You're doing the works your father
did. They said to him, not understanding
what he was talking about, right? He says, you're doing the works
your father did. And they said, we're not born of sexual immorality.
We have one father, God. They thought that Jesus was talking
about their own dad, right? Jesus said to them, if God were
your father, you would love me. For I came from God and I am
here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. Why do you not
understand what I say? Rhetorical question, he knows
the answer. It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your father, the devil,
and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from
the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is
no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character,
for he is a liar and the father of lies." Notice he calls them
sons of Satan, and calls Satan the father of lies. He calls
them lies and liars. Which one of you convicts me
of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? Whoever
is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not
hear them is that you are not of God. He's saying this in the
temple, the temple of Judaism. He's saying
these things to the priests, the teachers of Judaism. It goes on, they have more conversation
where they come up with more stupid things to accuse Jesus
of, like, well, you must have a demon, right? The very end,
in verse 59 of chapter 8, it says, they picked up stones to
throw at him. But Jesus hid himself and went
out of the temple. I was reading John 8, preparing
for this, and I noticed something that didn't really connect in
my mind until just this week. They picked up stones to stone
him in the temple. They were in the temple, and
they had a pile of rocks for stoning people. Right? Jerry, you, Luke, Mike,
y'all told your pastor, you know, I think there's some things that
maybe the Bible doesn't agree with what you're teaching. Right? If you were in this temple, he
would have picked up rocks to kill you. Some of you have experienced
this as you have been in churches that did not teach scripture. We're not faithful to scripture. You approached and you asked
questions, hey, are you sure this is what scripture teaches? And you received a rebuke, words, proverbial stones that
they had laying around in the church. Now what does this have to do
with Isaiah 53? He grew up before him like a
young plant and like a root out of dry ground. What do you find
in dry ground? Stones. Jesus is life, a root
out of the dry ground that was Judaism. The religion of Judaism in Jesus'
day was dead, dry, lifeless ground. And out of that dead, dry, lifeless
ground sprung forth life, the Christ. Judaism is dead, and so is every
religion which imitates its formula. Right? The Judaism of Christ's
day was, I am righteous because of what I have done. Right? The
Judaism of Abraham was, I have faith in God, and God has counted
me righteous by his grace. That was not the Judaism that
Jesus taught against. So passionately, throughout the
Gospels, that Judaism said, you have to do these works. It was
concerned about strange things like, how far can I walk on Sunday? I'm righteous because I didn't
walk too far. I walked just far enough to not
be work. It's righteous because I have
obeyed the law. Jesus says, unless your righteousness
exceeds the righteousness of the Pharisees, you will not see
the kingdom of God. Jesus was life born out of the
death that was Judaism. He had no form or majesty that
we should look at him, no beauty that we should desire him. The Jews had this idea that the
coming Messiah, the promised Messiah, would be this powerful
king that would wage war against Rome. And they got there by reading
some prophecies in the Old Testament, very literally and ignoring other
prophecies. I wrote in my notes that this
sounds a little bit like dispensationalism. Think of David. What happens
in 1 Samuel 16, you've got David. David is both a type and an anti-type
of Christ. There are some ways in which
David represents Christ. We look at David and say, yes,
that embodies in a human insufficient way something that we see perfected
in Christ. But there are other things about
David where you look at David and you say, no, that's definitely
not Jesus, right? I mean, you know, David defeated
Goliath, right? That is typological of, you know,
Christ defeating death, hell, and the grave. David steals a
married woman and kills her husband. Jesus doesn't, right? David is
both a type and an anti-type of Christ. But Judaism missed the point
when they read Isaiah 53 here. He had no form or majesty that
we should look at him and no beauty that we should desire
him. They wanted someone to come and take David's throne back
from Caesar. Someone who would wage war. And
they say, the Messiah is going to be like David. 1 Samuel 16, Samuel goes to the
house of Jesse. As the Lord said, King's there. Go get him, right? He told him,
it's going to be the short one. I don't care what he looks like.
It's not the outward appearance, right? It's the inward, the content
of their character, the content of their heart. So Samuel goes
to Jesse's house. He's talking to Jesse. He's like,
hey, I'm here to pick up the king of Israel. And Jesse's like,
oh, that's probably my oldest son right here, big, strong lad.
And Samuel's like, no, that's not him. And Jesse goes through
all of his sons, thinking that the next one would be worthy
as the king of Israel. And Samuel's like, you got any
more sons? Like, that's it? And Jesse's
like, oh, we got the runt out back, right? The little one,
David. Now it tells us something about
David that makes him anti-typical of Christ. Something that Isaiah
53 points out as a characteristic, something we know about Jesus
that David does not represent at all. It says in, I think it's
verse 10 of 1 Samuel 16, David was ruddy and he had beautiful
eyes and he was handsome. The Christ had no form of majesty
that we should look at. No beauty that we should desire
him. None of the Jews looked at Jesus
and said, look at that good looking charismatic man. I'm going to
follow him. They said that man just called
the sons of Satan. Let's kill him. Right? We got this idea from Jeremiah
33. Thus says the Lord, David shall never lack a man to sit
on the throne of the house of Israel. Jesus has no form of majesty
that we should look at him in our sin and desire anything. There's nothing about faith.
There's nothing about the gospel. that we should look upon and
desire in our sinful flesh. Right? I mean, the idea of not,
you know, suffering the judgment of God is attractive to sinful
flesh, but that same sinful flesh tells you that you are not worthy
of the judgment of God. The flesh of the unconverted
man does not understand that his works are evil and wicked. The flesh of the unconverted
man does not understand that he deserves the judgment of God. And as we will see moving forward
in Isaiah 53, the judgment of God is a promise that cannot
be broken. The unconverted man looks at
himself and says, I'm righteous. The unconverted man says, I have
earned God's favor. I've done something. I've taken
care of it. And this is true of all false
religions and people who say they have no religion, right? Anyone that says, I have done
something to earn God's favor, to merit God's grace, even if
they don't use those words, right? I've spoken with people who grew
up in church their whole lives. And you ask them, how do you
know you're saved? What is the gospel to you? What
does it mean to you that you have salvation? And they will
say things like, I was baptized, right? I've been a member of
the Methodist Church for 31 years. Those things are not salvation.
Those things are works that you did. And if you look to those
things as the source of your salvation,
the reason why you are saved, you don't know the gospel. The gospel is that Christ has
secured eternal redemption. The gospel is that Christ died,
suffered the wrath of God. The gospel is that he has borne
our griefs and carried our sorrows. The gospel is that he was pierced
for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Any other gospel is Judaism.
Any other gospel is dry ground. With plenty of stones laying
around to choke out life, right? But we see this, just as Christ
was life, born out of the dead ground of Judaism. That's exactly
how we are all saved, who are saved, right? Death, the dry
ground of our wicked souls. The spirit breathes life. So I told you Isaiah 53 is about
the work of Christ. It is a prophecy of the cross. It explains to us exactly what
happens on the cross. So I'll tell you this, there
are three demands. The cross makes three demands,
as explained here in Isaiah 53. There are three things that the
cross demands of us, of the world, of God. We see them here in 53,
starting in 53 verse 5. But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement
that brought us peace. The work of Christ demands peace. This is one thing the Jews got
wrong. They were at war, in some sense, with Rome. I mean, they
were subject to Rome. Rome won. There was not peace
between the Jews and the Romans. They looked at Isaiah and said,
the coming Messiah is going to establish peace between us and
Rome. The coming Messiah is going to
kick Rome out and let us have our land back. And there will
be peace. That is the peace that Judaism
seeks and still seeks to this day out of Isaiah 53. That's not the peace that it's
talking about. In Romans 3, Paul has this section,
verses 10 through 18, where Paul describes the natural man. He
describes man in his natural state. man apart from God. Meaning if God just leaves him
alone, this is what man is. Verse 17 of Romans 3, the way
of peace they have not known. Now this does encompass the idea
of, you know, our relationships, right? The way of peace they
have not known. When we are unconverted, we may
have some good relationships, but in our sin, It is never a
truly peaceful relationship in the way that we can have in the
church, right? I can have peace with my brothers
and sisters here in the church. And when there is no peace, scripture
outlines a way for me to reestablish peace, to reconcile with you,
right? Call it church discipline. The one who is apart from God,
the way of peace he has not known. So here, in Isaiah 53, we have
this idea that the cross establishes peace, the cross demands peace.
It demands a change from being the person described in Romans
3, 10-18. I'm intentionally using the forceful
language of demanding something. You'll see why soon enough. The cross demands a second thing.
It says, with his stripes we are healed. There at the beginning
of verse 5, he's pierced for our transgressions, he's crushed
for our iniquities. There are many who will tell
you that Jesus died so that you could have health in your body.
There are many that can tell you, you know, Jesus died and
if you have just enough faith in that, you'll be healthy and
you'll be wealthy. Judaism has taken another form. We call it prosperity, right? The prosperity gospel as it is
called. It's Judaism. It's refried Judaism,
right? Judaism says, I am righteous.
I did all these works. The prosperity gospel says, I
am rich. God must love me. If I'm not rich, my faith isn't
big enough. I need to work to have stronger faith. I'm sick in my body. I'm ill. I must not have had enough faith. It's just Judaism again. That's not the healing that it's
talking about. If you're in Christ, moments before your death, you will lay there healed. The healing that the cross demands
is the healing of your wicked soul. The correction of Adam's
curse. The healing of the death that
you receive from your father, Adam. Romans 8, it says that
the mind that is set on the flesh is death. The mind that is set
on the flesh cannot please God. The cross demands a healing from
this death. The cross secures this eternal
healing. And we know if we read Revelation
that, you know, when this body dies, if I am in Christ, After judgment, when it has all
been said and done, I will be a new creation. I will be given
a new body, free of the curse, the blemish of sin. This is the healing that the
cross secures. It's not temporary. It is not for you right now. It is for your soul for eternity. The cross secures, demands an
eternal healing of the soul. To contrast this in Romans 3, Paul speaks of the nature of
man again in a temporal sense. Their feet are swift to shed
blood, ruin, and misery. Before you were in Christ, your
feet were swift to shed blood. In your path was ruin and misery. Now, there is some measure in which
being in Christ changes what your life looks like here, right? While there is no guarantee that
you will receive physical healing in your Body, there is a measure
of grace poured out so that maybe your feet are a little bit slower
to shed blood. Right? I mean, we're not perfect. You don't quit shedding blood.
Your sin, your flesh, it still lives even as you continue to
put it to death by the power of the Spirit every day. You still sin. But a day is fast approaching
when that will no longer be the case. When judgment has been had, and
God the Father looks upon you and sees the righteousness of
Christ, you will be blameless before him. You'll be created
anew. new body, new heaven, new earth,
in perfect communion with God forever. Now, the cross demands something from
God. It might sound weird to phrase
it that way. It might be strange to say, you
know, someone makes demands of the Father. Who has the authority
to make a demand of the creator of the universe? The creator
of the universe does, right? Cross demands something from
God. 53 verse 10. It was the will of the Lord to
crush him. He has put him to grief. When his soul makes an offering
for guilt, he shall see his offspring, he shall prolong his days. Out
of the anguish of his soul, he shall see and be satisfied. By
his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to
be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. On the cross, there is a transaction
that happens. There is an exchange that happens. God the Father is obliged to
carry it out. God the Father is demanded by
God the Son on the cross. The work of Christ on the cross
demands propitiation from the Father. The blood of Christ cries out
to God and declares sinners righteous. The demand of the cross is that
the wrath of God be satisfied. And to be clear, this was the
plan from the beginning, before the beginning of time. Ephesians 1.4, even as he has
chose us in him before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless. God cannot arbitrarily decide
that you are holy and blameless. Because that would be injustice.
That would be unrighteousness. It is unrighteous and wicked
for a judge to declare blameless one who is guilty. So if we've been chosen in Christ
from before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless,
then there must be something in the decree of God that grounds
that. Something that allows that to
be a righteous decree. and that is the infallible decree
of Christ's work on the cross. God can say before the foundation
of the world that we will be holy and blameless because God
decreed before the foundation of the world that Christ would be crushed
for our sins. This was not plan B, as it is
often said. It's a popular thing to say.
I've heard too many preachers make the claim. The gospel was
plan B, because plan A was Adam just chilling in the garden. He only had one rule. He didn't
really know what sin was, but the one rule, that was plan A. Just do your thing, Adam. Just
don't eat the tree. It's not plan A. Before the foundation of the
world, God decreed that Adam would eat of that tree. Before the foundation of the
world, God decreed that He would judge the wicked. That He would
make known the glory of His justice in the judgment of the unrighteous. In order to make known the riches
of His mercy. for his people. Before the foundation of the
world, God the Father made a deal with God the Son, that the Son
would be given a bride, that he would be given a people to
call his own. And he was charged with dying
for them. He was charged with satisfying
the father's wrath on their behalf. In exchange, the son would be
glorified. The son would be given the glory
that he had with the father from eternity. This is what was promised
Christ. He speaks of this in John 17,
right? The high priestly prayer the
night before his death. He says, give to me my glory. Right there in John 17, God the
Son makes a demand of God the Father. When Jesus spoke these words,
he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has
come. Glorify your Son, that the Son
may glorify you. Christ makes this demand of the
Father because He knows the law, because He wrote it. Christ was righteous, not just
because He obeyed the law. Christ was not righteous because
He was really good at obeying all 613 commandments of the Old
Testament. Jesus Christ is the very righteousness
of God. It is his nature. It is his being. It is his person. He is righteousness. The law is what it is because
of who Christ is. Since you have given him your
son authority over all flesh to give eternal life to all whom
you have given him. That was the exchange. Christ
does the work in exchange for authority to give eternal life
to all he was given. The cross demands salvation for the people of God. So we can ask some questions. Actually, let's flip over to
Romans 14. I just want to give you an idea of what you're missing
out by not being under the judgment
of God. Revelation 14. This is the wrath
of God that the cross satisfies. Another angel Verse nine, another
angel, a third, followed them saying with a loud voice, if
anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark
on his forehead or on his hand, he also will drink the wine of
God's wrath. Does that imagery remind you
of anything? The wine of God's wrath. What
did Jesus say at his last supper? This is my blood. poured out
for you. Throughout scripture, wine is
used as an image, a representation of wrath. And when you drink
that wine, you drink wrath. He also will drink the wine of
God's wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger. And
he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of
the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of
their torment goes up forever and ever. And they have no rest
day or night, these worshippers of the beast and its image and
whoever receives the mark of its name. Fear not. You are not in danger
of Revelation 14, 9 through 11. from any vaccine, or microchip,
or tattoo, or anything of that nature. Revelation 14, 9-11 is
speaking of refried, twice-baked Judaism. Right? Where's the mark go? Right? If you worship the beast, okay.
The teachers of Israel, Jesus called them what? Sons of Satan. They worshipped the beast. What
about this mark? Mark on your forehead or on your
hand. What do you do with your head?
You have wicked thoughts. What do you do with your hands?
Wicked deeds. If you want to put apple pay
in your wrist, go for it. It's okay. You will not drink the wine of
God's wrath for that. If you're in Christ, you will
not drink the wine of God's wrath at all. The cross satisfies this wrath. This is the difference between
God's people and everyone else in eternity. The cross demands
that this wrath be satisfied. for God's people. So we ask the
question, who are God's people? For whom did Christ die? So we're going to sort of hit
this at three levels. We're going to hit a surface level, quick and dirty answer
to the question. Then we're going to get a little
deeper. Romans 3, 23 and 25. Something of a story I want to
tell you. I rarely do stories. Really, my stories are like,
I heard a dude say this wrong thing one time. Here's what the
Bible says. That's this story. I was speaking with a man who, something of a very intellectual, he's Arminian. He rejects what
we call the doctrines of grace. a long time of, you know, back
and forth, exploring scripture. He did something very interesting.
He conceded to me that the doctrines of grace are pretty clearly put
forth in the writings of Paul. You know, in my mind, I'm thinking,
alright, that's gotta be a win, right? No. He was able to intellectually
assent to the feasibility, the reasonableness of my exposition
of Paul in his mind. But he didn't believe it. And the
reason I know that is because his rebuttal was not, I was thinking
that I'd hear one of two things, right? OK, I buy it. I believe
it. I'll go correct the rest of my
theology, right? Or I was expecting him to keep working to find a
reason to disagree with it, right? No, he conceded. He's like, yeah,
it's pretty clear in Paul. His problem was that he couldn't
find it in the rest of the Bible. And that is exactly what we would
expect of the unconverted mind, right? He was so committed to his theology
for the sake of his theology, and not for the sake of Scripture,
that when he saw in his mind that Scripture taught that what he believed was a false
gospel, he said, I'm just going to ignore that part. He told
me to go find it in the Old Testament. So here we are in Isaiah 53. talking about what the cross
demands from us and from God. So to sort of, you know, connect
the last dots, right, we said that the cross demands this stuff.
The cross actually causes this stuff to happen. The cross is
effectual for bringing peace and healing and the satisfaction
of God's wrath. So, for who? Starting in Romans 3, we've got
sort of the surface level answer. Romans 3, verse 23, for all have
sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified
by his grace as a gift. through the redemption that is
in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by
his blood, to be received by faith. So the first surface level
answer we can give, for whom did Christ die? Well, those who
have faith, right? It's right there, black and white,
Romans 3.25. But we can and we need to go
deeper than this, right? This is just an observation about
the gospel. We say, Jesus died for the ones
who have faith. That's an observation about the
gospel. That itself is not the gospel. If ever you answer the question
to someone, for whom did Christ die, your answer should be the
gospel. If you're going to answer that question adequately, the
entire gospel will be contained in your answer. So, 1 Corinthians 2 sort of demands
more details than just, you know, Christ died for the ones who
have faith. 1 Corinthians 2, verse 14, the natural person
does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are
folly to him. He is not able to understand
them because they are spiritually discerned, right? If you say,
you know, Jesus died for the ones who have faith, and we're
like, okay, where's this faith coming from, right? It seems like an after-the-fact
answer to the question. Where does this faith come from?
Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 2 it doesn't come from the man,
right? The natural person does not accept the Spirit of God.
If you are the natural person, You cannot have faith. You might not. It's really hard.
The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God,
for they are folly to him. He is not able to understand
them because they are spiritually discerned. Romans 8, I've already mentioned
that. The mind that is set on the flesh cannot please God. It's not enough to just tell
the natural person, just have faith. Right, I like to make the distinction,
it's an important distinction to understand. There's a difference
between the gospel and the call of the gospel, right? The call
of the gospel is where you say, If you have faith in the gospel,
then you will be saved, right? That itself is not the gospel.
The gospel is Christ, his person, his work, what he did. The gospel
is that Christ satisfied God's wrath. And then after he died, he was
resurrected back to life on the third day. The call of the gospel is where
you call someone to believe that, right? So where does this faith come
from? Ephesians 2. Ephesians 2 verse 8. For by grace you have been saved. through faith. This is not of
your own doing, it is the gift of God. Okay, so we've got our
second level answer to the question, for whom did Christ die? Christ
died for the ones that God gives faith. Right? Not only did Christ die for the
ones who have faith, Where did that faith come from? Christ
died for the ones that God gives this faith. This faith is the
gift of God. Because you didn't have any on
your own. You didn't have any. You couldn't
muster up any on your own. You had to be given this faith. And so we're still missing a
piece here, right? There's one more part of this
question. Who does God give faith to? John chapter 10. John chapter 10 verse 3. The
sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name
and leads them out. Verse 14, I am the good shepherd,
this is Jesus speaking, I am the good shepherd. I know my
own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me, and I
know the Father, I lay down my life for the sheep. Jesus knows those who are his. It's not that Jesus knows of
those who are his, or knows about those who are his. Jesus knows
his sheep in the most deep and intimate sense of the word. And if you don't believe me about
how this knowledge is different from what I know, like I know
James, right? We've spent many hours hanging
out in the office, doing yard work, all kinds of stuff. I know
James, okay? The way Jesus knows James is
the same way that Jesus knows the Father. Right? Just as the Father knows
me and I know the Father. That is how Jesus knows his sheep. In what way does Jesus know the
Father? In the most intimate, deeply relational way possible. And he has done so for all eternity. Jesus has known the Father for
eternity in that same way before the foundation of the world by
the eternal decree of God. Jesus has known his sheep. And
it is for them that he lays down his life. So back to that question, is
the gospel plan A or plan B? The cross is necessary. It can't be plan B because even
in plan A, it was still necessary. Even in Adam was supposed to
just hang out with God the whole time. Even in that, Adam was
not righteous. in the way that God is righteous.
Adam, before he sinned, was not righteous in the way that you
and I are righteous. Adam, before he sinned, was righteous
on his own merits, but he was righteous because he obeyed a
law. He was righteous because he obeyed
a word that did not and could not make him
righteous according to the standards of God. He was good. Very good, even. But there's a righteousness that
God demands that Adam could never have for himself. That Adam could
never have by himself. This makes the cross necessary. Because the righteousness that
we have is not our righteousness. It is a righteousness better
than the righteousness of Adam. It is the righteousness that
Adam had after he sinned. It is the righteousness that
Adam had by the grace of God through Adam's faith. It is the
righteousness that we have by the grace of God through our
faith. We are righteous, not with a righteous obedience to
any law, Not even with Christ's righteous obedience to the law,
we are righteous with the very righteousness of God himself,
because of the cross. The cross is the only way that
that righteousness is had, because God demands justice.
Remember I told you at the very beginning, God can't just arbitrarily
decide that you are holy and blameless. He demands an exchange. His justice
must be satisfied. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 10, for we must all appear
before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may receive
what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or
evil. Each one must appear before God to be judged. Romans 3 19 through 20 says that
every man will be held accountable to God. God has promised us justice. Not only is he justice and his
justice must be satisfied because he's just and righteous. He has
promised to be just. And scripture reveals why he
demands this justice, right? I told you, he is justice. He loves justice. Isaiah 61,
verse 8. Let's see. Isaiah 61, verse 8.
For I, the Lord, love justice. I hate robbery and wrong. I will
faithfully give them their recompense and I will make an everlasting
covenant with them. God loves justice. It is a part of his nature. It is who he is. Just as God is justice, he is
merciful. is merciful on his sheep. He promises salvation to his
sheep. He works that out in time through
the power of his Holy Spirit in regenerating our wicked souls. God has not changed, right? God has not changed. God cannot
change. Just as he demanded justice in
the Old Testament, he demands justice in the New Testament.
I always love it how people talk about, you know, that's the God
of the Old Testament, which, you know, it's the same God.
But, you know, God changed. He doesn't do that anymore. He's
nice now. You know, people say, only God
can judge me. That doesn't make it better.
That's worse than me judging you, right? God has promised to breathe life
into his people. He cannot fail. Ezekiel 36, I have spoken and
I will do it, declares the Lord. Not only has God promised to
save his people, He's promised to preserve us,
right? Romans 8, 38-39, I am sure, Paul
says. He gives that list of all the
things that can separate us from the love of Christ, right? I
am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers,
nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height,
nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able
to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Nothing else in all creation.
What can separate you from the love of Christ? Nothing. People like to clap back at Romans
8 by saying, well, God's not on that list. And there's another list in John
6. that rounds it out. This is the
will of Him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all
that He has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this
is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son
and believes in Him should have eternal life, and I will raise
Him up on the last day." Nothing you can do can lose your
salvation. Nothing God can do can lose your
salvation if you are in Christ. Whoever believes has eternal
life. Eternal life. If I say I have eternal life,
that's a statement about the future. It's a statement about
eternity. If I lose that, and now I don't
have eternal life, it means that I was wrong when I said I had
eternal life. You can't say you have eternal
life and then lose it because it means you were wrong the first
time, right? The one who believes has eternal
life. And all of this is demanded by
the cross. All of this because it was the
will of the Lord to crush him. all of this that Judaism saw. And they said, nope. We want
a pretty, handsome, ruddy, beautiful-eyed king. He was oppressed, and he was
afflicted. And they said, not my king. He opened not his mouth. like a lamb that is led to the
slaughter and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
he opened not his mouth. And Judaism said, that doesn't
sound like David at all. By oppression and judgment, he
was taken away. And as for his generation who
considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people, They made his grave
with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he
had done no violence and there was no deceit in his mouth. Jews didn't want that king. Jews wanted a king that would take Rome's wives and kill their
husbands, like David. Jesus would go on to make peace. We see this in Revelation. The peace that Judaism wanted
will come. Rome will be judged. But make no mistake, so will
the nation of Israel. Revelation chapter 19. The warrior that Israel wanted
makes an appearance. I saw heaven opened and behold
a white horse. The one sitting on it called faithful and true
and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of
fire and on his head are many diadems and he has a name written
that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped
in blood, and the name by which he is called is the Word of God. The armies of heaven arrayed
in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses.
From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down
the nations. He will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread
the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.
And on his robe and on his thigh he has a name, King of Kings
and Lord of Lords. That's the king that Israel wanted. That's the king that the Pharisees
wanted. And they wanted him to do that to Rome. And Judaism of today has similar
desires, right? The Judaism of today called conservative Christianity. They
want this Jesus to rule Russia. They want this Jesus to rule
the Democrats. But this Jesus, this King of
Kings, this Lord of Lords, will strike down every nation. And he will judge every man,
every woman, every child. And he will look upon some that
he has called his people. He will see his own righteousness. The rest will receive justice. That's what Isaiah 53 was talking
about. The Jews missed it. But thanks be to God that he
has given us grace upon grace, gifted us faith where we had
no faith. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your
grace that never ends. your grace that is sure, your
grace that is sweet. And we thank you and we praise
you that you saw fit to crush your own son. That you saw fit
to satisfy your justice on our behalf. And that by that work on the
cross, You have demanded peace. You have secured for us a peace.
Peace with you, peace with you, the judge, and peace with one
another. Peace with our brothers and sisters
in Christ. And we thank you that this work
of Christ has secured for us healing. And if not healing in
our bodies now, healing in our bodies forever. healing of our
wicked souls. God, I thank you for your word.
That it so clearly reveals your glory and your redemption. God, I thank you for this church. God, be with us. Continue to
bless us. We pray these things in the name
of Christ. Amen.