Now let's turn in our Bibles
to Isaiah chapter 53. This is the fifth message that
I'm preaching through this chapter that actually began back in Isaiah
chapter 52 and verse 13, dividing into five sections, three verses
each, under the heading of our suffering Savior. I began in
the Isaiah 52 13 through 15 and preached on the suffering of
our Savior. And of course, that's suffering
unto death. Because he was suffering the
wages of sin and the wages of sin is death. So it wasn't just
physical pain, even though that was excruciating unto him in
which he was involved, but he died. Jesus Christ, the good
shepherd, gave his life for the sheep. And then in the first
three verses of Isaiah 53, I dealt with our Savior's humiliation,
how he humbled himself to become a man and walk among sinful human
beings. He who was without sin, who is
God in human flesh, walked among people like us. And in doing
that, he was never contaminated with our sins. He was never corrupted
by our sin, but he was humiliated. Philippians
2 says, unto death even the death of the cross. In the book of
Hebrews chapter 12, it talks about he who suffered
such contradiction. And what I believe he's talking
about there is that the only sinless person who ever walked
this earth What did we do? We rejected him, we accused him
falsely, and we hanged him on a cross. The only sinless person
who ever walked, what a contradiction of sinners. And he suffered that
humiliation, didn't he? And then, in the last two sessions,
I preached from verses four through six on the cause of Christ's
suffering and the way made by our Savior's suffering. And then
today I'm going to preach on the next three, verses seven
through nine, and the title of this message is The Silence of
Our Suffering Savior. He opened not His mouth. He opened
not His mouth. And if anyone doubts that this
prophecy here is a direct reference to the Lord Jesus Christ, you
have but to look at all the times words from this passage are quoted
in the New Testament showing this glorious fact, and we've
seen quite a few of those. But that one that Brother Randy
just read, the verses that I'm gonna deal with today, that was
the particular passage that the Ethiopian was reading when Philip
was brought to him. I'm sure he was reading all of
Isaiah. This is what Philip heard, verse say, he was oppressed and
afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He's brought as a
lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before her shearers is
done, so he opened not his mouth. And that passage, Philip did
what? You remember the Ethiopian said,
who's he talking about? Is he talking about himself?
You know, there are people who believe that Isaiah is talking
about himself here, but he's not. Whoever the suffering servant
here is, in himself, he's an innocent sufferer. And Isaiah
would not have called himself an innocent sufferer, would he?
He said in Isaiah 6, woe is me, I'm undone. I'm a sinner. Some people say he's talking
about the nation Israel. Well, read Isaiah 1 and how Isaiah
describes the nation of Israel. Ah, sinful nation. That's what
we are. This is talking about Christ.
Jesus which means salvation Philip began at that same scripture
He preached unto him Jesus. He preached salvation Jehovah
who saved sinners by his grace Through the blood and righteousness
of Christ So we come to the silence of our suffering Savior, you
know throughout this whole chapter There are three and I want to
try I want to simplify things for myself as much as I can But
throughout this chapter, we see three major gospel truths that
are set forth about our Savior, our suffering Savior, our sovereign
Savior, that without which you have no gospel. And that's number
one, we see in this passage, Christ as the surety of his people. He's the surety. And what do
I mean by that? Well, he stood as being accountable
of the sin debt of his people. And it states it like this in
verse four, surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. It says in verse six, the Lord
hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. That speaks of the
sins of God's people imputed, charged, accounted to Christ.
He was made sin, 2 Corinthians 5.21 says. How was he made sin? God legally charged him with
the debt of the sins of his people. And as a result of that, we who
believe in him are made the righteousness of God in him. How are we made
the righteousness of God in him? God legally imputed his righteousness
to us. That's stated over here in verse
11 when it talks about, by his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many. His knowledge is his experience.
What that is saying is by what Christ experienced in his obedience
unto death, He justified many. God was able to forgive us of
our sins on a just ground, the blood of Christ. God is able
to accept us into his presence and bless us. Things are made
right with God based upon his righteousness imputed to us.
Now you know a lot of people are confused about that today.
A lot of people deny it, a lot of people hate it. Because they
say, well, you make salvation nothing but a legal matter. No,
no, that's just one point. The ground of his suffering unto
death was a legal act of imputation, the ground up, but that's not
all what happened to him. That's not the only thing that
happened to him. He was made sin legally, but that verse doesn't
describe everything that our Lord went through. We're made
the righteousness of God in him legally, but that doesn't describe
everything. That's the ground of our salvation.
That's the ground of our justification. But that's Christ our surety
right here. And without that, we have no
gospel, no salvation. The second thing is this, Christ
our substitute. Having our sins imputed, charged,
accounted to him, he had to do what was required to pay the
debt. And what did he have to do? He had to suffer, he had
to be made like unto his brethren, the scripture says. The word
had to become flesh and dwell among us. He had to keep the
law perfectly, every jot and tittle, no sin, no transgression,
no iniquity. and he had to suffer and to bleed
and to die on that cross to satisfy the justice of God. Again, he was wounded for our
transgressions. Oh, if the Holy Spirit ever brings
a sinner to see that, that'll sure rock your boat, won't it?
Christ our surety, Christ our substitute, who paid the debt
for us. It says here, the chastisement
of our peace was upon him. Whatever it took to make peace
between God and his people, his chosen people, his elect, it
was upon Christ. It wasn't upon you or me. Somebody
says, well, you need to make your peace with God. Sorry, Christ
already beat you to the punch there. He did it all. He paid the debt in full by his
death. And then the third thing is Christ
our Redeemer. And I talk about it every sermon. Christ accomplished the redemption
of his people. He didn't try to save them. He
didn't die for everyone without exception if they would seal
the deal by doing their part or cooperating, no sir. And that's
really set forth in the last three verses, which I'll get
to next week, Lord willing, but it's also set forth in the other
verses. He didn't die for anybody in
vain. His death is a propitiation, a sin-bearing sacrifice that
brought satisfaction to guarantee the salvation of all for whom
he died. That's what Christ did. He's
our Redeemer. He didn't just put out a blanket
pardon and say, well, if anybody accept it, no, no. Listen, His
death, His redemptive work on the cross, redeemed by the blood
of the cross, ruined by the fall, redeemed by the blood, guarantees
regeneration by the Spirit, that we'll be born again and believe
in Him. But let's look at these verses here. The silence of our
Savior's suffering. You've heard the term silence
is golden? Well, the Bible tells us the value of being a good
listener, not talking too much. Listen to just a few scriptures
on that issue. Ecclesiastes 5.3, for a dream
cometh through the multitude of business and a fool's voice
is known by multitude of words. You ever been there? Proverbs
10.19. In the multitude of words there
wanteth not sin, that he that refraineth his lips is wise. The Bible says in Proverbs 17,
28, even a fool when he holdeth his peace is counted wise. In
other words, if you don't open your mouth, nobody will know
we're fools. And he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of
understanding. One fella said this, he said,
there's two types of fools. He said, there's an old fool
and there's a young fool. Fella asked him, he said, what's
the difference? He said, well, old fool listens to his critics.
A young fool doesn't listen to anybody. He's too busy talking. James had a lot to say about
bridling the tongue. You can read that on your own.
We won't turn to James chapter three. Boy, he talks about the
tongue being a little member, but how it's set on fire of hell.
The tongue, it can destroy lives, can't it? Gossip, false accusations. Think about this, the tongue
that preaches a false gospel, is there anything worse than
that? You know what a false preacher
is? Now let me tell you something
now about a false preacher. I used to be one. He's fooled himself. He's deceived
himself. The people listen to him, but
he's deceived too. But that's soul murder. Think
about it. The broad way that leads to destruction. We can see this in the matter
of unwarranted criticism, gossip, and accusations, but mostly in
those who preach lies. Remember what Paul said about
the false preachers in Galatia. He said, if they come preaching
any other gospel than that which we have preached, let them be
anathema, let them be accursed. That's something, isn't it? You
know, it takes the power of God for us to bridle our tongues
and to learn when to speak and when to be silent. We hope that
as we grow, that that kind of wisdom will come with maturity.
But that being said, there are times that silence is no more
than compromising cowardice. Did you know that? There's times
when we should speak. Think about the Apostle Peter.
When he denied the Lord three times, he said very few words.
He said, hey, you're one of that fellow's disciples. He said,
I don't know. No, he said it again, one more
time. You're one of his followers. He said, I don't know him. And the third time, what did
he do? He added words. He cussed. I'm going to show
you I don't know him. Well, Peter was ashamed, wasn't
he? Heard the cock crow three times.
You think he would have done better? Don't open your mouth. I know
I wouldn't have. I'd have run like a scared rabbit.
That's what we are unless the Lord holds us in. We must never
forget Romans 10, 10, for with the heart man believeth unto
righteousness, believeth unto Christ, and with the mouth confession
is made unto salvation. That's when we open our mouths
concerning these issues of salvation, concerning the issue of who God
is, of who we are, God holy and just and righteous, and we're
sinners, and who Christ is, let's tell the truth. Let's speak the
truth. Let's not do like Satan and speak
peace where there is no peace. And we have to remember that
being a good listener is just as important as being a good
witness vocally. Christ told his disciples, be
careful what you hear and be careful how you hear. Now, when
our Lord spoke, it was never in vain, was it? He never spoke
vain words. He never spoke lies. He always
told the truth, no matter who it was, no matter who it offended.
Some people portray Christ as if he walked around just handing
out Hallmark cards to everybody, love notes. No. When he confronted
the self-righteous, what did he tell them? He said, you hypocrites,
you snakes. When he confronted sinners, he
told them the way of salvation for sinners. That's what we do. And here he is, look at verse
seven, Isaiah 50. He was oppressed and he was afflicted. He was driven to distress. Think
about him in the garden of Gethsemane, sweating great drops of blood,
saying, Lord, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Speaking
out of the infirmities of his humanity, sinless infirmities,
he wasn't disbelieving God there, he was suffering. You ever suffered? Suffered physically, suffered
mentally. I have and I'll probably go through
some more and you have too, haven't you? We don't always speak the
right things, but he did. Do you know from his days of
suffering all the way to his death, he never had a sinful
thought, a sinful motive, a sinful desire. He was made sin. That's our surety. Legally imputed, accounted with
our sin, but he was never corrupted or contaminated with our sins.
That's amazing, isn't it? He was afflicted. That means
he was hurt and ravaged. He was driven to distress. What
drove him? Now again, we recognize the role
of fallen sinful man in this work. It was because of the evil
of our heart. But remember, the Lord willingly
underwent this oppression and affliction, didn't he? Evil men
did only what God had before determined they'd do. We saw
that. And only what Christ himself allowed them to do. When they
came to take him. I mentioned this last week. When
they came to arrest him, he said, who are you looking for? They
said, we're looking for Jesus of Nazareth. He said, I am, and
they fell back. They could only do what he let
them do. Isn't that right? What motivated him? I'll tell
you what motivated him. The glory of his father. And his love for
his chosen people, his sheep. John 13 one says he loved his
own until the end. That is to the finishing of the
work. And what was that work? Suffering unto death for the
sins of his sheep imputed to him. Yet he opened not his mouth,
it says here. Now he spoke some things at his
trial, very few words, and he spoke very few words while he
was dying on that cross, the seven sayings of Christ. I preached
on them, you heard messages on them. But what this means is
this. He opened not his mouth, he spoke
not a word in defense of himself, as if he were to say, I don't
deserve what I'm getting. Because you know what? He deserved
every bit of it. Now does that shock you? Wait
a minute. Wasn't he the sinless sufferer? Yes. How did he deserve what
he was getting? Because of our sins imputed,
charged, accounted to him. That's why. And he knew that.
He agreed to do that before the foundation of the world. Put
it on my account, I'll repay it. That's what the language
is in Philemon as a picture, an illustration of Christ before
the Father. He willingly, he told his disciples,
you know, they tried to get him to stop, don't go to Jerusalem,
we know what they're gonna do with you down there. He said,
this is the reason I came here. He said, I laid down my life,
nobody takes it from me. John chapter 10. But he said,
I lay it down of myself. Yet he opened not his mouth in
defense of himself. And when he did speak, it was
not for himself, it was for the ones for whom he was dying. Father,
forgive them. They don't know what they do.
It is finished. But let me tell you about his
silence. His silence speaks volumes. Let me give you a few things.
Number one, speaks of his humility and submission to his father's
will. He said, I came not to do mine
own will, but the will of him which has sent me. Now that doesn't
mean that he's not God, and it doesn't mean that his will and
the father's will were at odds. It means that he was performing
a task as the suffering servant of the father. And what was that
task? To save his people from their
sins. He said, I've done that which I came to do. I finished
the work which you gave me to do. This was an act of the Father,
the Son, and the Spirit, but it's the Son who died. It's the
Son who was God in human flesh and who died. So it speaks of
his willingness to do what the Father commanded him to do. His
silence does. His silence speaks, secondly,
of his desire for the glory of the Father. Look at John chapter
17. Let me just read this to you. You turn there, John 17.
Listen to how he puts it in his high priestly prayer. And here, he's about to be arrested. He's been, since John chapter
13, teaching his disciples, and then he prays to the Father for
them, and he says in verse one, these words spake Jesus and lifted
up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come, the
time has come. Glorify thy son that thy son
also may glorify thee. See, that's his motive, the glory
of the Father, the glory of the Godhead. 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. Think about it. He says, and
this is life eternal that they might know thee the only true
God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. There's only one way
to know God, to please God, to be accepted with God, and that
is through the obedience unto death of his son. And that's
his blood. We're gonna be taking the wine
here. That symbolizes his blood. That's
redemption, folks. That's his righteousness imputed
to us. And so he says in verse four,
I have glorified thee on the earth. I have finished the work
which thou gavest me to do. It's all based upon an accomplished
work. It's not a work that's left open-ended. And that you
finish, No, it's an accomplished work, it's a perfection. That's
what it is. It's finished. So it speaks of
his desire to glorify the Father. His silence thirdly speaks of
his love for his people whom the Father gave to him. I mentioned
John 13 one. He loved his own until the end.
Listen to this, this is Romans five and verse eight. but God
commendeth his love toward us. Who's the us there? That's his
sheep, that's his elect, that's his church. In that while we
were yet sinners, Christ died for us. What does that mean?
That when Christ died for his people, there was absolutely
nothing in them or done by them to recommend them unto God. There
was no reason in myself that God should have chosen me before
the foundation of the world, that Christ should have died
for me. There's nothing in my, undeserving, can't earn it. That's what we are. Fourthly, his silence speaks
of his willingness to do what was required to accomplish this
glory of his father and the salvation of the father. He was made of
a woman. That's his sinless humanity. The son of God, unto us, Son,
a child is born, that's his humanity. A son is given, that's his deity.
He was made under the law, that means all of the curse of the
law, the guilt of my sins was laid upon him, made to meet on
him. Isaiah 53, six, the Lord hath
laid on him, made to meet on him the iniquity of us all. Who
are they all? All his sheep. There it is. He was willing to
do what was required. Yes, he said, if it be possible,
let this cup pass from me. But then he said, nevertheless,
thy will be done. Christ willingly submitted to
his father's will. He willingly submitted to the
law. He willingly submitted to the wicked deeds of human beings. Willingly was made flesh, willingly
gave himself over to wicked people. Even when he was falsely accused,
you know what the Pharisees did, they tried to falsely accuse
him, they even hired people to tell lies on him. He willingly said his face, the
Bible says he said his face like a flint to go to the cross and
suffer and bleed and die. Now listen to me on this last
point. His silence tells us, speaks of his actual guilt based
upon the sins of his sheep imputed to him. Was he guilty? Not because
of any sin that he committed. Not because of any sin imparted
or infused into him. Not because of any corruption
within himself. He was guilty because the Lord
laid on him the iniquity of us all. And as I said, a lot of
people are confused by that. Some preachers who either say
less than the scripture says about that or try to add something.
There's man's point of view and there's God's point of view.
From man's point of view, this was the most wicked, listen,
the death of Jesus Christ from man's point of view alone This
was the most wicked and unjust act of murder that had ever been
committed or ever will be committed. Christ, as I said, he was falsely
accused. We put a man on the cross who
was not guilty of the things that we accused him of. He was
totally innocent of the things that we evil people accused him
of. That's right. But from God's
point of view, This was the greatest and most glorious act, the most
just act, the rightest thing, the act of God to glorify himself
in the salvation of people that had ever been done up to that
time and ever will be done. The greatest thing. Think about
that. Was Christ guilty before God?
Yes, how? Because God had imputed to him
all the death of all the sins of all his people, and this is
how God could justly punish, forsake, and condemn his holy
and sinless son. That's how it was a just thing
when Christ looked and said, my God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? He wasn't asking a question.
He wasn't trying to find information there. He was making a point.
The father forsook the son. Why? Because of the sins of his
sheep laid on him. That's how real imputation is.
You know, these people say it's not real if it's just imputed
or illegal. Oh, no. How real was it? Think
about it. Matthew 27, 46, my God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me? That's how real it is. And why
is that so important? I'll tell you why, because God
must be honored. God must be glorified, even vindicated
in being pleased to bruise his son. Look over at verse 10, yet
it pleased the Lord to bruise him. What, pleased him? What is he, some kind of masochist?
Some kind of monster? No, he's a just God and a savior. He's a loving God whose love
is based on truth and justice. Jesus Christ was made under the
law because this was necessary for him to redeem them that were
under the law. We were under the law because of our sins,
our fallen Adam and our sins. He was under them not because
of his sins, but because of our sins imputed to him. And yes,
our sins did become his. In passages like Psalm 69, he
does talk about his sins, but it's only in the context, only
under the umbrella of the truth of our sins imputed to him. The
Bible says he's the spotless lamb of God. Well, look back at Isaiah 53.
It says, verse seven, he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter. Slaughtered
lamb. Think about it. And as a sheep
before her shears is done, so he opened not his mouth. He was
taken from prison and from judgment. By restraint and oppression and
by judgment, he was taken away. But remember now, he can only
be taken if he allowed it. And he did. Some say this could read by judgment
or sentence of death, he was taken from prison. And then it
says in verse eight, who shall declare his generation? One translation
says that that means that no one cared that he died without
descendants. Well, it's certainly true that descendants, children,
were very important, very, very important to the Israelites because
a common belief in Israel to the Jews was that they lived
on through their descendants. That's why it says he was cut
off out of the land of the living. One thing we need to understand
is that Christ had descendants. You know he had descendants?
Not physically, but spiritually. How do you know that? Well, look
over at verse 11. Well, look at verse 10. 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. That's his children. Down in
verse 11, he shall see of the travail of his soul, like a woman
travailing in childbirth. That's what his suffering under
death is likened to. Who are his children? His spiritual
children. He had no wife. I saw this movie
years ago talking about how he was married to Mary Magdalene,
that's bull. He had no wife, he had no physical
children, but out of his death comes the seed of Christ, his
children, all for whom he died, evidenced by their new birth
and by their faith in him. Others take this as meaning that
according to Jewish law, when one was facing execution, they
would allow someone to speak for him, but no one spoke for
the Savior. Everyone, even his disciples,
forsook him. That's right. He walked the winepress
of this suffering by himself. by himself purged our sins and
sat down at the right hand of the Father. By one offering he
hath perfected forever. And he was cut off out of the
land of the living. That means he really died. It
wasn't fake, it wasn't a hoax. It says here in verse eight,
the last line, for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
It was all for his people, it wasn't for himself. It was for
his people. Look at verse nine. He made his
grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death because
he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Sinful humanity appointed his
grave with the wicked. They said he was a malefactor.
We don't use that term today. But if you have anything to do
with the legal profession or law enforcement, let me tell
you what a malefactor is. It's a criminal. He was hung between two criminals
because they looked upon him. We looked upon him. I'm talking
about human beings by nature look upon him as a blasphemer. They intended to crucify him
and take his body out and throw it upon Gehenna. You know what
Gehenna was? That fire outside of Jerusalem.
Actually a bad part of Gehenna even. And let his body burn just
like a criminal. Let it be consumed. But you know
what? God overruled. And though he
made his grave with the wicked. And he died for the wicked. He
died for the ungodly. He was with the rich in his death.
Remember whose grave he was buried in? He was buried in the tomb
of Joseph of Arimathea, a tomb that had never been used. Joseph
of Arimathea, Nicodemus took him, had him prepared and put
him in that tomb, the tomb of a rich man. God overruled. You
know what I think he's teaching us there? His death was a victory. His death in his poverty is our riches. The riches of his grace. But
God, who is rich in mercy, wherewith he loved us. He died as one who was wicked,
but he was not wicked. He done no violence, no deception,
but now the humiliation and suffering, even death is over. It's finished,
he said. and his victorious burial shows
that he conquered the grave, his poverty and death is our
riches. He was cut off out of the land
of the living because sin demanded death. But he'd done no violence,
neither was any deceit in his mouth. And one thing we need
to understand, that all of this was for the glory of God, and
for the salvation of his people. Isn't that beautiful? The word
of God, all right.