Open your Bibles with me to the
book of Isaiah chapter 53. Isaiah chapter 53. My text this morning
is the first three verses of Isaiah 53, which is a prophecy
of the coming Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the great and
glorious work that he would accomplish for his people, the people to
whom God gave him, given to Christ before the foundation of the
world. And the purpose of this prophecy in Isaiah's day to the
people of Israel, or the people specifically of Judah and Jerusalem,
was to show them that there was no hope, there was and is absolutely
no hope of salvation, of salvation from sin, no hope of deliverance,
no hope of eternal life and glory, no hope of a right relationship
with God in themselves or in any of their allies, but the
hope of salvation could only come from God through the one
whom he promised to send from the very beginning to save his
people from their sins. And this is, this speaks of Christ. And this whole section, as I
told you last week, under the heading of the sufferings of
our Savior, well, today we're gonna talk about our Savior's
humiliation. And this whole section is like
in verses, like a poem, stanzas, you might say. And each one is
three verses. It began back in verse 13 of
chapter 52, behold my servant, that's the servant of the Lord,
that's Christ, as the servant of Jehovah, the servant of the
covenant, the one upon whom all of the conditions and requirements
and stipulations of the covenant of salvation were placed. And
it says he shall deal prudently, he shall prosper, He shall be
successful. He shall be exalted and extolled
and be very high. Whatever it is He's going to
do and whatever it takes for Him to go through that and do
that, the end result of that was He's going to be exalted
and He's going to be extolled. He's going to be very high. As
we look back upon the sufferings of our Savior, we know that what
he went through was something that we can't even describe in
his suffering unto death. But even out of that, even out
of that shame and humiliation, he was exalted. He was extolled and be very high. That old preacher one time preached
a message that I love the outline. He was talking about Christ being
lifted up from John chapter 12, where the Lord said, and I, if
I be lifted up, will draw all unto me. And he's talking about
how Christ must first be lifted up on that cross to put away
our sins, to establish the only righteousness whereupon God could
be just to justify the ungodly. Then he said, secondly, Christ
must be lifted up in the preaching of the gospel. You don't hear
a lot of that today. You hear a lot about men being
lifted up and extolled and bragged on. Everything's around man. Everything's about man. But the
preaching of the gospel exalts Christ. That's what I want to
do. I want to lift him up. I want
to show you the glory of Christ. I don't want to show you the
beauty of my own eloquence, or the funny stories that I can
tell, or the experiences that I could use to emotionally rip
you apart. I want to tell you about Christ.
The glory of his person, the power of his finished work, and
then thirdly, the old preacher said, he must be lifted up within
our hearts by the power of the spirit. For salvation, to believe. Well, here in Isaiah 53, these
first three verses, it speaks of our Savior's humiliation. Listen to what he says. He starts
out in a very strange way here. And you've got to consider this,
the prophet Isaiah, all the preachers of the gospel, we have the greatest,
the wisest, the most glorious message that could ever be delivered
on this earth. This is it, folks. I'm telling
you, it's not because I'm up here. If it's Brother Mark or
Brother Randy or Brother Jim or Brother Jason, whoever's up
here preaching the gospel, it's the greatest message you'll ever
hear. Today is the greatest message
you'll ever hear. Next week will be the greatest
message you'll ever hear. I may fumble through some of
it sometimes. But it's still, the message is
still the same. The salvation of sinners by God's
grace through the Lord Jesus Christ, that glorious person.
And Isaiah had that message. And yet look how he starts it
out. This is how the Lord speaks to his prophet and tells him
to approach these people with this question. Look at it. Who
hath believed our report? That word report, you may have
it in your concordance. It could be doctrine. It could
be our hearing. Faith comes by hearing and hearing
by the word of God. Who's believing what we say?
And then he says, to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?
Now that's how he starts the evangelistic message. And through
the prophet Isaiah, the Lord makes it clear. Here's what he
tells him. Here's what he's saying to Isaiah.
The only ones who will believe the gospel that we're preaching
are those whom God is sovereignly pleased to reveal himself. You know what that teaches us?
It teaches us three things. Number one, It teaches us that
we do not have the power to save or convert anybody. If I preach the same gospel that
I've preached over 30 years, but if today, let's say I preach
it like I've never preached it before, the most eloquent sermon
I've ever preached, I still don't have the power to save you from
your sins. I don't even have the power to
save me from my sins. I don't have that power. I can't
convert you. I can't give you a new heart.
I can't raise you from the dead. I'm talking about spiritually.
I can't give you faith to believe it. I can tell you, you should
believe it. You need to believe it. It's the only thing to believe. And if you don't believe it,
you'll be damned. I can tell you, but I can't make you believe
it. Somebody said if I could, I'd
convert the whole world. Probably we wouldn't, because
there's people we don't like. That's us, isn't it? I hope we wouldn't be that way,
but we can't do it. Who hath believed our report?
Basically, the prophet is coming to the end of his rope on this
thing. because he's been preaching for quite a while in Jerusalem,
the holy city, and nobody wants to hear what he has to say. That's
the problem. You remember back in chapter
one, here's what he said. This is Isaiah 1.9. He said, except the Lord of Sabaoth. That's a term that means the
Lord who cannot fail. The Lord of a great army means
the Lord who is invincible. You see, God, he is always successful
to do what he sets out to do. He never fails. You know, have you ever heard
preachers stand at the end of an aisle and they'll tell people,
won't you accept him as your savior? Did he die for you in
vain? You ever heard a preacher say
that? Well, let me tell you something. The Lord of Sabaoth didn't die
for anybody in vain. My preaching may be vain, but really it's not in vain according
to the Lord because we're successful whether anybody believes it or
not, according to Paul in 2 Corinthians 9. If we preach Christ, we're
successful. I had a preacher ask me, he said,
He said, we only preach to the elect. And I said, really? I
said, how do you know that? He said, well, you wouldn't go
out there and water a dead stand of grass, would you? I said,
well, I would if the Lord told me to. That's what I told him. I said, would you go preach to
a valley of dead, dry bones? Can these bones live? You know,
Lord. The Lord knows right now who
in this crowd right here believes what I'm preaching, and who He's
gonna bring to believe. You see, we're to preach to everyone
and anyone who will listen. But only God can give them a
new heart. And in Isaiah's day, very few
believed. Back there in that Isaiah 1-9, except the Lord of
Sabaoth. Except He save a small remnant
We'd all perish like Sodom and Gomorrah, he said. The Lord told his disciples,
he said, straight is the gate, narrow is the way, and few be
there that find it. How few, I don't know. But broad
is the gate, or the road, and many be on that road. That's the way it is. You know who the arm of the Lord
is? You know the arm is a metaphor for God's power. God's reach. He can reach and power. You know
who that is? That's Christ. Christ is the
arm of the Lord. He is the power of God and the
wisdom of God. Secondly, it tells us this. That
God does have a people whom he will give faith. He's going to
reveal himself to somebody. I'm confident of that. Paul went throughout the Gentile
regions preaching the gospel, running from people who wanted
to kill him, putting chains, and he told young Timothy, he
said, I'm doing this for the elect's sake. God has a people. He's even got some here in Albany
and surrounding areas. And you know what he's gonna
do? He's gonna reveal himself. The arm of the Lord's gonna be,
Christ is gonna be revealed to them. But it's gonna be under
the preaching of the gospel. Who hath believed our report?
What is our report? That's our message. People aren't saved under a false
gospel. The Holy Spirit is the spirit
of truth. God is the God of truth. Christ
is the truth. The way, the truth, and the life. God does have a people whom he
will give faith, and that refutes the ignorance of those who think
faith is a power within every person. The Spirit's work is
necessary. You must be born again, or you
can't see or hear the kingdom of God. It is God who gives us
faith to believe in Christ. Paul said, unto you it is given
on the behalf of Christ. Not only to suffer, but not only
to believe, but also to suffer. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves is the gift of God. Not of works,
lest any man should boast. And then the third thing it teaches
us is this, that it's not our business to get into the numbers
game. Our business is to preach and
witness the gospel to everyone and anyone who will listen. As I said, we're successful when
Christ is preached. Well, what is this doctrine?
What is this revelation, this arm of the Lord? It's his power
to save. It's the glory of Christ in his
person, God in human flesh without sin. It's the power of his finished
work on the cross as the surety, the substitute, the redeemer
of his people. It's the revelation of the light.
Christ said, I'm the light of the world. And do you know by
nature, that's a light that we all hate. And the reason we hate
it, because it exposes that what we highly esteem and value is
nothing but an abomination to God. It's the revelation of the
righteousness of God, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel of
Christ. It's the power of God unto salvation to everyone that
believeth, to the Jew first and the Greek also, for therein is
the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith as it is
written, the just shall live by faith. What is the righteousness
of God? It's the merits, the value, the
worthiness of the obedience unto death of Christ to save his people
from their sins and to establish the only righteousness whereby
God could be just and justify an ungodly sinner. Now here's
the point. What did it take for Christ to
accomplish that for his people? And there's one thing I want
to point out to you about this chapter. It's really interesting
and you can go back and you can read it this way. In Isaiah 53,
if you start at verse two, And you go through verse nine, all
of the verbs, I'm not going to give you an English lesson, but
I hope you know what a verb is. But all of the verbs are in the
original language, in past tense. They're in past tense. As if
it had already happened in time. But none of this has happened
in time. Isaiah prophesied about 700 years before Christ actually
came in time. And yet it's related in the originals,
Isaiah preached it to the people in his language as if it had
already happened. Now why is that? I'll tell you
why. Because there was absolutely
no possibility that it couldn't happen. It was a done deal in
the eternal, immutable, sovereign mind of God. That's right. That's comforting. That's comforting. This wasn't
a shot in the dark. Salvation was not God's plan
B. Well, he tried it with Adam,
that didn't work. Then he tried it with Moses, that didn't work.
Now he's gonna go, no, no, no, no. It was his plan before this
world was ever, before he ever stood on nothing and spoke to
nothing and created something. It was God's plan and purpose
to save his people from their sins this way. So you go through
and read it that way. It's all past tense. In other
words, it would be like verse two, for he shall grow up. He has grown up. He grew up. That's the way it is. Salvation
and the justification of all of God's elect before and after
the time of the cross has always been based on what Christ would
accomplish on the cross in time. And you know what that involves?
Well, in these verses it speaks of his humiliation. And there
are three things that set forth his humiliation, and this was
all leading up to the ultimate humiliation, which was what Brother
Wade just read in Philippians 2.5. What he spoke here in Philippians,
when he said Christ made himself of no reputation, he humbled
himself, all of that, and became obedient unto death, even the
death of the cross. What a humiliation. What ultimate
humiliation he suffered. You ever been humiliated? It's
no fun, is it? But you know, it comes from the
root word that same root word is humbled. Well, Christ humbled
himself. And he had to humble himself
because he made a promise before the foundation of the world.
He's the servant of the covenant. He told his disciples. It behooved
him to suffer. He was obligated to suffer. It
says that he had to be, it behooved him to be made like unto his
brethren. He was indebted. Our sins were charged to him. Our sin debt was put upon his
account and he had to pay it. But now he was not forced to
do it against his will. He told him, he said, I laid
down my life that I might take it again. No man taketh it from
me. He said, I lay it down of myself. Think about it. You remember
when he was in the garden at the end of his suffering there
in the garden, the soldiers came to get him. He said, who do you
seek? And they said, we seek Jesus
of Nazareth. And he said, I am. Remember what happened? What
happened to him? They all fell back. You see, he was willingly, voluntarily
doing this. He was under obligation because
of the promise he made, because of the conditions of the salvation
of his people, but he did it willingly, voluntarily. He was
not taken by force. Remember when he stood before
Pilate? Pilate said, what's wrong with you? Don't you know I have
power to let you go or to put you in jail? And Christ said,
you don't have one sniggling of power except what was given
you from above. Well, what was his first humiliation?
Look at it, verse two. It says, for he shall grow up
before him, and I believe that's talking about before God, as
a tender plant." In that phrase, what we have there is his condescension
to be made like unto his brethren. Christ, the Son of God, the second
person of the triune God, had made himself subject to the infirmities
and limitations of physical existence. Why? that he might be a merciful
and faithful high priest for his people and make reconciliation
for their sins. He condescended, think about
this. He condescended to be conceived
in the womb of the virgin by the power of the spirit. He condescended
to occupy that womb for the time allotted to his birth. He condescended to come forth
and be laid in a manger. You know what a manger is, don't
you? It's a feed trough for animals. The Bible says in Luke chapter
two and verse 40, the child grew and waxed or grew strong in spirit,
filled with wisdom and the grace of God was upon him. How do you
explain that? That's mind boggling. He grew. He grew from an infant into a
man. The Lord of Glory, the creator
of this world did that. The God who never changes. How
do you explain it? The only way I can tell you is
He's both God and man in one person and those things that
apply to His humanity can be described that way. In Luke 2.52
it says, He increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with
God and man. If you read Proverbs 8, you see
the personification of wisdom, which is Christ. And yet here
it says he grew in wisdom. That was part of his humiliation.
He occupied a human body without sin. He knew hunger. He knew
weariness. He knew sorrow. Bible says he
wept. You've wept, haven't you? He knew pain. All of these were
sinless infirmities. That's what they were, showing
the weaknesses of created humanity. Without sin, the Bible says that
he was tempted as we are, yet without sin. Listen, he wasn't
a sinner. He never made a sinner. He wasn't
corrupted with sin. The Bible says here in Isaiah
53, three, he was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. He was not born in sin as we
are. He was not born spiritually dead
as we are. But he dwelt among a people who
were born in sin and death. When he began suffering, the
burden of sins of his people imputed to him. You remember
in the garden, he sweat great drops of blood. Said, Lord, if
it be possible, let this cup pass from me, but nevertheless,
thy will be done. That was him speaking out of
the suffering of his humanity. All of this was a part of him
being the servant of Jehovah, the servant of the covenant,
the servant of the people, because our sins were imputed to him.
And keep this in mind, everything that Isaiah describes here, Isaiah
53 about his humiliation and his suffering was due to one
thing the sins of his people Charged to him. He was made sin. That's what 2nd Corinthians 5
21 says He wasn't made a sinner. He didn't become a sinner He
wasn't corrupted in his mind and heart and his soul for our
sins with our sins He remained holy, harmless, undefiled, separate
from sinners in himself, yet he was justly punished for all
the sins of his people charged to him. He was guilty. He was cursed. Somebody said
he deserved what he got. Well, based upon our sin imputed,
you can say that. But he really, in himself and
what he did, he kept the law. He fulfilled it. He didn't deserve
it. Even the old thief said that. Didn't he, when the Lord converted
him? He said, we're getting, he told the other thing, we're
getting what we deserve. This man have done nothing amiss. It says here, secondly, that
he condescended to be born in a shameful place. Look at verse
two. Not only did he grow up before
him as a tender plant, but as a root out of a dry ground. What
was that? You know, root out of a dry garden.
You know, normally, I'm not a farmer, but I know some of y'all have
planted stuff, planted flowers. Normally roots derive benefits
from the ground to help them grow. But here's a root that
received absolutely no benefits from the ground that he was in.
Christ derived no benefit from the world or his natural descent. But he still grew, it says there. He'd grow up as a tender plant
and as a root out of a dry ground. How did he grow? Well, the Bible
says that he was given the spirit without measure. He was not born in earthly glory
of Rome. He was not born in the esteemed
culture of Greece. He was born in a land forsaken
and in bondage. A land that used to be flowing
with milk and honey, but look at where it was when he was born.
Dry, dead, conquered, bondage. Like all earthly nations, the
nation he was born into was a sinful nation. Isaiah said that in chapter
one. He said, ah, sinful nation. He said, this is how sinful we
are. And he's talking about their religion too now. He said, from
the top of your head to the sole of your foot, you're full of
putrefying sores. That's a metaphor to show their
sinfulness and our sinfulness. He did not come with splendor
and ceremony through the clouds on a white horse bearing a sword.
He did not come as a royal prince or a mighty philosopher bringing
diplomas and PhDs and MDs and DDs. Dr. Twiddle DD, he was a carpenter
from Nazareth. Can there anything good come
out of Nazareth? Nathaniel asking John 1 46. He derived nothing from his followers,
even his true followers. He didn't derive anything from
us. In his humanity, he was the descendant of kings, but the
kingly line had been so depleted that by this time to where there
was nothing royal about it, even the man who was on the throne
of Israel at that time was an Edomite, Herod. He was born in
Bethlehem. As I said, laid in a feeding
trough. Few recognized the reality of who he really was. The shepherds
did because God revealed the arm of the Lord to them. Few
days later, a fellow named Simeon recognized it, because God had
revealed the arm of the Lord to him. Two years later, the
wise men recognized it, because God revealed the arm of the Lord
to them. But old Herod, he didn't see it, did he? He said, no,
we got to have all the male children, two years old and under, killed. Christ condescended to live among
and with sinners. What a contradiction. We read
over there in the opening, Isaiah, in Hebrews chapter 12, that he
endured such contradiction of sinners. Sinners. He did not go to Rome or Jerusalem
immediately to look for Dr. So-and-so or Reverend such-and-such. He went to the Sea of Galilee
and laid his hand on a few fishermen. And think about this. He called
a tax collector to follow him. They became what they are because
Christ made them what they are, those disciples. He did not become
what he is because they made him. So I've heard preachers
say, make him your Lord. You're too late. He's already
there. Maybe you don't know it and never
will bow to it, but you will one day. Every knee's gonna bow.
Every tongue's gonna confess. He who is holy, harmless, undefiled,
and separate from sinners, walked and ate with publicans and sinners.
Yet he did not become one of them, nor did he condone their
sin. He told the truth. He said, I've come to call sinners
to repentance. He was not corrupted or contaminated
with sin. He was made sin, but only by
imputation, only by a legal act of God charging him with the
debt of our sins, but not by any impartation or infusion of
sin. At the crucifixion, all men,
even the Jews who were looking for the Messiah, rejected him.
He was a root in a dry ground. And then thirdly, he condescended
to dwell among people who did not know him and who naturally
hate him. Look back there at Isaiah 53. It says in verse two, he hath
no form nor comeliness, and when we shall see him, there's no
beauty, that we should desire him. That's talking about his
outward physical appearance. It was nothing special or anything
that would naturally draw us to it. He was not like some charismatic
movie star or preacher, popular religious figure. He didn't have
a glow about him. The only time he ever had a glow
about him was on the Mount of Transfiguration and he revealed
himself to a few of his disciples and that was a vision. He didn't
have a halo, neither do the angels by the way. But he was in himself
the most glorious person ever born and ever to walk this earth.
But by nature we did not and do not see the glory of who he
really is. Look at verse three. He's despised
and rejected of men. A man of sorrows acquainted with
grief and we hid as our faces from him. That means we turned
away from him, wouldn't even look at him. He was despised
and we esteemed him not. Herod mocked him. The Pharisees
said that he had a devil and in the end, all the people cried
crucify. Even some who claimed to believe
in him would not confess him because they were ashamed of
him. He was despised, rejected, and hated. You know why he was?
Because of his doctrine. It wasn't because he healed people.
It wasn't because he fed people. It wasn't because he raised them
from the dead. It was because he told them that they were sinners
and had no righteousness before holy God. It's because he told
them that all of their efforts and all of their heritage was
an abomination before God. That which is highly esteemed
among men is an abomination to God. He told them that salvation
is by grace, not of your works. He told them they were in bondage.
He told them they had nothing to recommend themselves unto
God. He told him the only way that God will save, receive,
bless, accept, and commune with sinners was through him by the
merits of his blood and righteousness alone. That's what he told him. and all of your experiences and
all of your law keeping and all of your dreams and your visions
and all of your human wisdom and philosophy, it is absolutely
evil in the sight of God. That's what Christ told them.
Here comes the light. Men love darkness and hate the
light because their deeds are evil. That which they highly
esteemed and applaud and brag on and think recommends them
unto God is evil because it dishonors God, it denies God, it denies
His grace, it denies Christ. Why did he suffer such humiliation? What was it all about? Well,
he said at his baptism, suffered to be so that we can fulfill
all righteousness. That's why he did it. to fulfill
all righteousness, to secure the eternal salvation of all
his people. Christ was truly a man of sorrows.
Why a man of sorrows? Well, because man has broken
God's law and it's by man, this man, that the breach is repaired.
As in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. As God manifest in the flesh,
he came to die. to establish for his people the
only righteousness which God will accept, that which God imputes
to his people and from which he gives life and power through
which the arm of the Lord is revealed. And it's through that
one who suffered such indescribable humiliation. But because of that,
he was extolled and highly exalted. raised from the dead. Why? Because
he finished the work. He settled the matter. He paid
the debt in full. He satisfied the law and justice
of God. His merits ensures and secures
the entire salvation of all his people for whom he suffered this
humiliation. The ultimate humiliation death
of the cross. Why did he do it? To put away
my sins. To establish that righteousness
whereby God could be just and justify me, an ungodly sinner.