Isaiah 53. Well, we come to the
last segment here of this prophecy that God gave to the prophet
Isaiah to give to the nation, the people to whom he was preaching.
And this is the last segment, which began, this prophecy began
back, you remember, in Isaiah 52, verse 13. Isaiah 52, 13 through 15, the
suffering of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ and his suffering
for the sins of his people. And Isaiah 53, one through three,
was our Savior's humiliation. He humbled himself and became
obedient, obedient even unto death, even the death of the
cross. And then Isaiah 53, four through six, which related the
cause of our Christ's suffering. Surely he hath borne our griefs. All our iniquity was laid upon
him. That's the sins of God's chosen
people laid upon Christ, imputed to him. That's why he suffered.
That's how he could justly suffer under the wrath of God. He, the
innocent, sacrificed, but was made sin, made guilty, made a
curse, because of our sins accounted to him. And that's an amazing
thing. And of course, we're gonna see
today that that's the way that we who are sinful in ourselves
are accepted of God because of his righteousness imputed to
us, charged to us in justification. And then last week in Isaiah
53, six through nine, the silence of our Savior's suffering. He opened not his mouth. And
that's the reason he wouldn't defend himself, because he knew
that this is the purpose for which he came, to die on the
cross. But we're going to see today
the success of our suffering Savior. In his death, there's
victory. In his death, there's success.
And I want you to notice something. You know, many who call themselves
Christian today, who talk about the blood, who talk about the
cross, who talk about the death of Christ, they really don't
understand the dynamics behind the death of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And when I'm talking about that, think about it. Think about these
questions. Who is Jesus Christ? Well, he is God, manifest in
the flesh. We always preach his person,
who he is. He is the son given, the child
born, He is Mary's son in his humanity, the son of God in his
deity, and that's who he is. That's the kind of person that
it took to save his people from their sins. His name shall be
called Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins, and
then his name shall be called Emmanuel, which being interpreted
is God with us. And these are the basic ABCs
of Christian doctrine. You cannot believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ and call upon his name if you deny either his deity
or his sinless humanity. And then secondly, why did Jesus
Christ suffer and die on the cross? Exactly why did he do
that? It was not to be a martyr. It was not to be a good example.
Even though he was a martyr, he was a good example. He is.
But that's not why he died. It was not just an expression
of love, even though it is the greatest expression of God's
love for his people, isn't it? Herein is love. Not that we love
God, but that he loved us and gave his son to be the propitiation
for our sins. But why did he die? He died to
save his people from their sins. That's why he died. He died for
his people. those that the Father gave to
him. He died because their sins, as we said, were charged, laid
to his charge. He said, put it on my account,
I'll repay it. He died under the justice of
God. And then thirdly, what did he actually accomplish by his
death on the cross? Now this, this is the key, this
is one of the keys to understanding the gospel. The gospel is not
what Christ attempted to do if you would let him. It's what
he actually did do, and I thought about this in our hymn. If you
wanna see the theme of this message, it's expressed in the chorus
of this hymn. It says, sing, oh, sing of my Redeemer. With
his blood, what did he do? He purchased me. That's redemption. That means he bought, whoever
he died for, he bought them, he owns them. That's what that
means. He paid the price, and the price
was his blood. With his blood, he purchased
me. His blood was the payment for our sins. And then it says,
on the cross, now listen to this, he did what? He sealed my pardon. That's right, he sealed it. He
didn't make it some kind of an open-ended blessing that if you
would cooperate, somebody says, well, you gotta receive it. No,
he sealed it, you will receive it. That's what the scripture
teaches. And then it says, paid the debt.
And if the debt's paid, what does that mean? It means he made
me free. That's the theme of this message.
What would you do if a bill collector called you or came to your house
and demanded payment on a debt that you'd already paid? It's
already been paid. Would they have any legal grounds
upon you? No. You'd say, get out of here.
You don't have anything on me, my debt's paid. Now that applies
to all for whom Christ died as evidenced by their being brought
to faith in Christ. The debt's paid. Now, if the
debt collector that came to your house came back with the Doherty
County or Lee County Sheriff and said, now arrest him and
put him in jail, Would you say that's a just thing if the sheriff
went along with that? Well, no, that's unjust. That's
what most people think of when they think about God. They say,
well, if you don't receive it, you've got to pay the debt yourself. No, the debt's paid. And that's
what it is. He sealed my pardon. The debt's
paid. He made me free. When I ask these
questions, who is Jesus Christ? Why did he suffer? What did he
actually accomplish? You know, your answer to those
questions shows what gospel you believe, whether it's a true
gospel or a false gospel. Now God's word reveals that Jesus
Christ, who is God manifest in the flesh, as the great high
priest of his people, whom God gave to him before the foundation
of the world, and everything I'm telling you is backed up
by the word of God, which you don't, and I don't have the freedom
to say I'm gonna take this part, but I'm gonna ignore or deny
this part. You understand what I'm saying? We don't have that
luxury. It's not a luxury, is it? You
can't, you see, I told the, in our Bible study this morning,
I said, we do ourselves no spiritual or eternal good when we say,
well, now I'm gonna believe this part, but now this part of the
word of God I'm gonna ignore or deny. This is God's revelation
to his people. And so he is the great high priest
for his people whom God gave to him, offered the sacrifice
of himself for his people, and this sacrifice forever removed
their sins so that their sins cannot be charged or imputed
to them. But they are only charged with
his righteousness, imputed, charged to them. And the problem of man
finds its divine solution in the ministry of this suffering
servant here. God's servant, the Messiah. And
it's through him and the work that he accomplished on Calvary
for his people that we have peace with God. And this peace means
that God is reconciled to his people and his people reconciled
to him by the blood of the cross. And that's what God the Holy
Spirit brings his people to believe. That's how we have this peace
within our hearts, by the power of the Spirit who drives us to
see that peace was already accomplished on the tree, on Calvary. And this peace is something that
God gives to those who believe in our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ, and it's peace that's freely given to us like all blessings
of salvation. God and sinners are reconciled
upon the same ground of peace. God made him to be sin for us
Christ who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. That's it. And so we see that
all, and it's the work of God, by his grace through the Lord
Jesus Christ and applied by the Holy Spirit to bring us sinners
to be at peace with God through faith in Christ, to make us willing
to come to him. And so we see that all of salvation,
the ground of it, the results of it, it's of the Lord. It's
His work. And of course, that includes
the suffering of our Savior on the cross. Did you know that?
This is God's work. Christ's suffering on that cross. We know that sinful people, sinful
humanity, accused Him wrongfully. abused him terribly, arrested
him illegally, and murdered him. That's what we did. With wicked
hands, the scripture says, Acts chapter two. But here's the key. Behind all of that wicked work,
the greatest, we could say that was the greatest act of injustice
that man has ever committed on this earth. The only person who
ever walked this earth and never committed a sin, never had a
sinful thought, a sinful desire, or a sinful goal, the only person,
what did we do? We hanged him on that cross,
murdered him. But here's something that we
need to see. Behind all of that, in the shame
of human history, is the eternal purpose and glory and the sovereign
work of the Lord. Now stand amazed. Oh no, that
makes God a monster. Stand amazed. That's what we
ought to do, in awe. No, it doesn't make God a monster,
it makes him a just God. Well, look at it. First of all,
the glory of God accomplished by our Savior's suffering. I'm
gonna give you a parallel New Testament verse for this. It's
in John 17, so if you wanna read this along with me, just turn
over there and put your finger there, and we'll get to that
in just a moment. And here's what I'm talking about.
The glory of God accomplished. Oh yeah, the sinfulness of man.
It was there too. We did it by wicked hands, but
it was all the work of God for His glory, according to His purpose. Let me read first of all Isaiah
53 10. Listen to it. Yet it pleased
the Lord to bruise Him. Know what that word bruise means?
It means crush. It pleased the Lord to crush
his son. The word Lord there is Jehovah,
the God of salvation. Verse 10, he hath put him to
grief. God put him to grief. When thou
shalt make his soul an offering for sin. God made him an offering
for sin. See that? That's the glory of
God in our Savior's suffering. This was all the plan and the
work of God. What am I saying? I'm saying
the death of Christ was the work of God. The death of Christ is
the work of God. Evil men did what they wanted
to do, but it was God all along doing this great work for his
people, overruling our sinfulness for his purpose. You see, before
the foundation of the world, it was spoken of this way, 2
Timothy 1.9, that God gave us salvation in Jesus Christ before
the world began. The Bible tells us that before
the world began, there was a book. It's called the Lamb's Book of
Life, in which all the names of his people were written, and
it's called the Lamb's Slain. from the foundation of the world,
before this world was ever created. He says it pleased the Lord to
bruise him. What does this pleasure mean? Does that mean God is some kind
of a sadistic monster who takes pleasure in giving out pain?
No, not at all. It means that it glorifies God. It honors God. It works out his
purpose for his people. He says, you remember when Christ
was baptized, when he began his earthly ministry, the father
spoke from heaven and said, this is my beloved son in whom I am
well pleased. It's that which God delights.
Behold my servant whom I'm uphold, mine elect in whom my soul delighteth. You see, God's glory hinges upon
Christ's suffering unto death to ensure the salvation of all
for whom he died and arose again the third day. Listen to what
he says here in verse 10. He shall see his seed. What is his seed? Listen, he
shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure
of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Who are his seed? That's his offspring. That's
the fruit of his work. Sometimes called his brethren,
sometimes called his sheep, sometimes called his church. Who are his
seed? Well, that's one reason I had
Brother Jim read that Psalm 22 back here. You know, this Psalm
22 is an interesting psalm. Don't worry, I'll get to John
17 in just a moment. But this Psalm 22 is an interesting
psalm. You see how it started out? My
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Who said that? Well, Christ said that on the
cross, didn't he? Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani. Speaking
in the original language. My God, why had God forsaken
him? Because of the sins of his people
charged to his account. That legal separation, and that's
mind boggling. I really can't even describe
that. I know why it happened, but I really can't describe the
workings of it in theological terms or even human language. The father forsaking the son. It's amazing. We were talking
about his suffering, the suffering and the agony that he went through.
Look at that verse six of Psalm 22, but I am a worm. You know,
the word worm, there's an interesting word. It refers to the Hebrew,
it's called Tola. And it refers to the worm that
they used to make the red dye. of the priestly robes and the
curtains of the tabernacle and all of that. It's the same word
that is translated in the book of Isaiah 1 and verse 18, crimson. Though your sins be, though they
be crimson, they'll be white as snow. And it's a picture of
the death of Christ shedding his blood. You know, whenever
the word worm is used for us, you know what it is, it's not
this word, it's the word for maggot. Did you know that? In fact, you'll see that, I think
it's Job 19 or Job 25, I think. It's one of those short passages
where he said, he talked about the, he used the word worm, the
word worm is translated worm twice. One is for us, that's
we're maggots. The other is the Tola, talking
about Christ dying for his people. And how many times are passages
out of this Psalm 22 quoted in the New Testament referring to
Christ? Think about it. It's amazing,
isn't it? They parted my garments, he said. Cast lots over my garments. But
here's the point that I wanted to make today. This Psalm 22,
you know, David himself was going through some hard trials, especially
when Saul was after him. And so these things have a limited
application to David, but David was a type of Christ. Their spiritual
and eternal application only refers to Christ, our Savior.
And look at the last two verses of Psalm 22. Listen to what he
says. Verse 30, a seed shall serve him. Who's that seed? That's his children. That's the
ones for whom he died. It shall be accounted to the
Lord for a generation. They shall come and shall declare
what? His righteousness. unto a people
that shall be born. Some say, well, that's talking
about born in the future. I think it's talking about the new birth.
That he hath done this. He shall see his seed, back here
in Isaiah 53.10. He's not gonna have any stillborn
children. All for whom he died, he will see them. He will be
with them. All for whom he suffered. First
John 3.9 says that his seed remain in him. That's talking about
his children. We'll always be in Christ. And that's evidenced by our faith
in him. Sometimes we don't act like we're in Christ. But we're
in him. And he keeps us. It says here
he shall prolong his days. I believe that's speaking of
his resurrection. He's going to die, he's gonna suffer, he's
going to bleed, pour out his soul, his blood as an offering
for sin. He's going to die, he's going
to be buried, but he's gonna prolong, God's gonna prolong
his days. He's gonna be raised from the
dead. Why? Well, the Bible says he
was raised from the dead because of our justification. because
he accomplished the work. What is justification? It means
our sins are forgiven and we're made righteous in the sight of
God. How could we perish? He told John, I'm he that liveth
and was dead and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And
have the keys of hell and of death. It says here, the pleasure
of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. There's that word pleasure
again. That's the pleasure of God's
glory. The pleasure of God's purpose and will. This is God's
will accomplished. The Bible says God's not willing
that any of them should perish. That's exactly right. Here's
who he's talking about. His seed. Not everybody without
exception. Well look there at John 17. This
is the parallel to that verse 10. Verse one. These words spoke
Jesus, lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the
hour has come. Glorify thy son, that thy son also may glorify
thee. You see why it pleased the Lord
to bruise him? He knew what was going on. Christ did. He knew he was there to glorify
the Father. through the Son, whom would be
glorified. And look at what he says in verse
two. As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should
give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. You see,
that's where the glory of God lies. Not just in Christ dying
in and of itself, but the fruit. He shall see his seed. Verse
three, and this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the
only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent, that all
of his people, all of his seed might know God in a saving way,
that they might come to faith in Christ and repentance of dead
works. And he says, and it's all based
on this, look at verse four, I have glorified thee on the
earth, I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. Based
upon his finished work. Look back at Isaiah 53, look
at verse 11. Here's secondly is the justification
of all his people based on his suffering. Now the parallel verse
in the New Testament to this would be Hebrews chapter two,
chapter two and verse 10. But let me say this, listen to
what it says here in Isaiah 53 11. He shall see of the travail
of his soul and shall be satisfied. Travail there is a word that
they use for a woman in childbirth. Suffering in that childbirth
to be satisfied by seeing a beautiful, healthy, living child. And that's
what is Christ's death. He suffered that travail. And all that he suffered, and
he won't be disappointed. He's not a failure. He'll be
satisfied, just like that mother who's satisfied when God brings
forth that living, healthy child from her womb. All for whom he
died and arose are justified in him and shall be saved. He
was delivered for our offenses, he was raised again because of
our justification. And look at this, it says in
verse 11, by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify
many. Now, some translate that, they
say, by the knowledge of him shall my servant justify many.
And it's certainly true that God's people will be brought
to be knowledgeable of Christ through the gospel by the Holy
Spirit. But that's not what this is saying. By his knowledge,
and if you'll look at Hebrews 2 and verse 10, it's the same
thing that's being said right here in verse 10 of Hebrews 2. It says here in verse 10, for
it became him for whom are all things and by whom are all things
in bringing many sons unto glory, that's his seed, to make the
captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. Now what
that's talking about is the captain of our salvation completed the
work through his sufferings. And when you look at Isaiah 53,
by his knowledge, shall my righteous servant justify many, his knowledge
means what he experienced, what he came to know by experience
as a suffering suffering in his humanity, God and man in one
person, but suffering in his humanity by his knowledge, by
his experience. What did he do? He justified
many. How do you know he's talking
about that? Well, look at the next line. For he shall bear their
iniquities. In other words, it was his experience
bearing our iniquities in his suffering under death that brought
about the ground upon which God justified his people. That's
what it's talking about. By what he experienced. What
he experienced was what no other person has ever experienced.
Think about it. He knew his people. And he justified
them. That means their sins are forgiven. Based on what? By what? Listen to me. If you're one of
Christ's sheep, if you're one of that seed, evidenced by your
faith in him, that's how it's evidenced. Do you believe in
the Lord Jesus Christ? That's a gift from God. Have
you repented of dead works and idolatry, left everything else
behind, even your religion, before you came to know him by the power
of his grace? Think about it. You're justified. You're forgiven of all your sins.
Now, based on what? What you've experienced? No,
based on what he experienced. Based upon his blood. It's the
blood of Jesus Christ by which God washes us clean from all
our sins. We're declared righteous before God. That's what justification
is. Based upon what we experienced?
No, based upon what he experienced. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many for he shall bear their iniquities. And then
lastly, here we have the exaltation of Christ because of his suffering
for his people. And the parallel New Testament
verse would be Philippians chapter two on this one. And that's where
he's talking about how he became obedient unto death, even the
death of the cross in Philippians chapter two, the work of Christ
in that sense. And here's what he's saying,
look at Isaiah 53, 12. Therefore will I divide him a
portion with the great and he shall divide the spoil with the
strong. There's some different views of how this is interpreted,
several which do no damage to the gospel. Several meanings. Some say, well, it means just
as the great and the strong conquer and collect their portion, their
booty here on earth, Christ, who appeared weak and defeated,
will be greater than them all. And he is greater than them all.
In fact, the Bible says there are kings on this earth. Christ
is the king of kings. He's the Lord of lords. It also
could refer to the fact that those who on earth seem great
and strong in the eyes of men will ultimately be his portion,
his spoil, his booty. And that's what Philippians chapter
two says. It says that, verse 10, that
at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow of things in heaven,
things in earth, things under the earth. Every tongue should
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father.
That's what's ultimately gonna happen. They're gonna be his
footstool, the scripture says. It could also refer to Christ's
people. As many, great and strong, not
in ourselves, but great and strong in Him. And He's gonna divide a portion.
The spoil, which is the riches of His mercy and grace to us.
You know, Paul made this statement in 2 Corinthians 12. He said,
when I'm weak, I'm strong. Now how is that possible? Well,
when I see my inadequacy, my weakness, my impotence, that
brings me to rely on Christ even more. And that's greatness there. So could mean either one of those.
But either way, it speaks of his victory. His death was a
victory. And it says why? Verse 12 of
Isaiah 53, because he had poured out his soul unto death. He was
numbered with the transgressors. Again, our sins imputed him,
his righteousness imputed us. And he bare the sin of many.
Who are the many? It's his seed. And made intercession
for the transgressors. Right now, Christ is in glory,
making intercession for his people. And you see the emphasis here
is on the work of Christ. It's not on any work done by
us and not in any work done in us, not even our faith. It's
not our faith that makes Christ successful in our salvation. It's his work that makes it successful
to bring us to faith. That's the difference. And his
work as he continues as our intercessor, this is how he preserves us and
keeps us under glory with no possibility of failure. Isn't
that something? The glory of the cross is the
value and power of who Christ is and what Christ accomplished
and the fruit that he produces, which is he shall see his seed. All of that. No sinner, listen to this, and
I'll conclude with this. No sinner goes free as if God
overlooks his sin but every sin must be paid for to the uttermost
farthing. And Jesus Christ has done it
and our salvation which we receive is a righteous just salvation
based upon his righteousness imputed. A righteous and just
God justly gives us the forgiveness of sins and a complete perfect
right standing before him because Christ has offered the satisfaction
of himself to the justice of God. And this is where mercy
and truth are met together. This is where righteousness and
peace have kissed each other. This is where a seed shall serve
him. And this is the pleasure and
glory and honor of the Lord. Amen. All right.