Let's turn in our Bibles to the
book of Isaiah chapter 53 Isaiah chapter 53 passage of scripture
that you're most of your very familiar with. But as you know
this chapter is a prophecy of a future event. The Lord gave
the prophet Isaiah this revelation this message about 700 years
before the birth of Christ. And Isaiah wrote it down. He starts out in verse one, who
has believed our report? That's our doctrine, our teaching,
our truth, the gospel. And then he launches in to the
power of God to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed. Now, when
the Bible uses the term the arm of the Lord, it's not speaking
of a literal arm like what we have arms and legs and all that. It's a metaphor for the power
of God. the power of God to whom is the
power of God revealed and he's going to show in whom or where
the power of God lies here and where it lies the power of God
is literally the person and the finished work of the Lord Jesus
Christ that's what this prophecy is all about over the book of
Romans chapter 1 and verse 16 Paul called the gospel the good
news of salvation by God's free and sovereign grace in Christ
he called it the power of God and the salvation and you know
that Greek word power there in the original is the same word
that we get our English word today dynamite and so that's
the powerful work of God to save his people. And so then Isaiah
back here in chapter 53, he launches into a description of the person
who Christ is and who he is. He's God and man in one person.
He's God in human flesh, the word made flesh dwelling among
us and the finished work of Christ in his obedience unto death on
the cross to save his people from their sins. As Daniel put
it in Daniel chapter 9, to make an end of sin, to finish the
transgression, to bring in everlasting righteousness. Now I want to
direct your attention here in the last three verses of this
passage. Look at verses 10, 11, and 12.
And what I want to do is focus on one phrase out of verse 11. We'll read it and then I'll show
you what I mean when we get there. It says, Yet it pleased the Lord
to bruise him. That is to bruise his son. It
pleased the father to bruise, which means to put him to death,
what it's talking about. And over there in verse 5, it
says he was bruised for our iniquity. In other words, the death of
Christ was a substitutionary death. He did not die on the
cross for anything that he had done wrong or for any sins that
he had committed. Because he was the sinless sacrifice
that was the nature of the sacrifice in the Old Testament. But yet
it pleased the Lord now that doesn't mean that God is some
kind of a masochist or sadist that wants to inflict pain. When
it says you please the Lord it simply means that that's what
it took to satisfy the very nature and being of God. And it's like
this, you know, we quote Romans 6, 23 quite often. It says, the
wages of sin is death. What are you talking about? Well,
you're talking about this is what sin deserves. In other words,
if the law is going to be satisfied and fulfilled, then the penalty
of the crime has to be accomplished. We don't see that much in our
courts today, but when it comes to God, He must do right. So
it satisfied the law and justice of God to bruise him to put Christ
to death. Now he says he had put him to
grief. That has to do with the suffering that he went through
the agony of his mind his soul his heart in his humanity what
he went through on the cross and well even up through the
cross every suffering that he went through that's indescribable.
And it says, and here's the reason, now look at this, he says, when
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, Christ was a sin offering. He was a sin bearer and a sin
offering, and he shall see his seed. Now the seed there is his
offspring. That's what it's talking about.
And what it's telling us is this, that when it says he shall see
his seed, what that means, He's going to see all of his offspring
come to full fruition. In other words, he's not going
to die in vain for anyone. And that, now that's, this is
an important thing here. The death of Christ, which is,
which is the establishment of righteousness, demands the salvation
of all for whom he bore that sin, bore their sins. For the wages of sin is death,
but the gift of God is salvation, eternal life through Jesus Christ
our Lord. In other words, death is something
we can earn. Why? Because we're sinners. We've
all sinned and come short of the glory of God. That means
we've missed the mark. What is the mark? Righteousness. So in
other words, in order for me to conquer death, which I can't
do in myself and you can't do, I have to find righteousness. Sin demands death, righteousness
demands life. I have sin, but I don't have
righteousness in myself. There's none righteous, no, not
one. There's none that do us good, no, not one. And so, how
am I going to find righteousness? Well, I have to find righteousness
right here. This is what Isaiah is saying
700 years before it was actually established in time on the earth.
My righteousness is not my own, it's His. And it's charged to
me as my sins were charged to him. His righteousness is charged
to me. And so everything in his death
ensures the salvation of his people. He didn't die in vain
for anyone. I grew up listening to that preacher
saying, did he die in vain for you? No, he didn't die in vain
for me. He didn't die in vain for anybody. His death is the
total completion of a work. So it says here, he shall see
his seed. In other words, and when we're
going, he said, he shall prolong his days. In other words, he's
not going to stay dead. He's going to be resurrected from
the dead. His death was a victory. His death was an accomplishment.
His death was not a failure. I remember back up years ago,
there was an old preacher up in Akron, Ohio. He used to be
on TV all over the place. And he was talking, it was around
Easter. And he was talking about the
passion, which refers to the death of Christ and they were
reenacting that and he was make he was preaching in a way to
make people feel sorry for Jesus. And then you know what I thought
when I thought about that I thought about Christ when he was when
he was on his way to Calvary to die for the sins of his sheep
and they were crying for him you remember what he did there
he turned to him he said don't weep for me he said weep for
yourself It's almost like saying, I'm not the problem. You're the
problem. He's going to the cross, not
so that you can feel sorry for him. Not that you can say, well,
you know what? Not as just a token of the love
of God. Now, his death on the cross was
the evidence of God's love for his people. Hearing his love.
Not that we love God. In other words, his love for
me is not conditioned on my love for him. It's not a response
to anything I do, or any performance that I have, or any feeling that
I have, or anything that I will, because my will is totally against
God unless he changes my will. But he said not that we love
God, but that he loved us and gave his son to be the propitiation. That's a big word that means
satisfaction for our sins. How did he satisfy for our sins? He died. on the cross to put
away our sins to satisfy the justice of God and to bring in
everlasting righteousness so that we who are his people could
be justified before God. And so he shall see his seed.
He shall prolong his days. Look at that. And he says, and
the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hands. Now, what
that means, the pleasure of the Lord. In other words, it's it's
not God wants to, but you won't let him or God wants to and can't.
Whatever God wants to is going to prosper in the hands of the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's what that means. In other
words, whatever God wills to do for his people, that's going
to happen. You know, people today, they
present God as some kind of a frustrated old grandfather who's just trying
to get people to live right and do right, and he just can't do
it. That's not the God of this book. The God of this book is
sovereign. And he's especially sovereign
in salvation. And whatever he wants to do in
the hand, he put in the hands of his son, the Lord Jesus Christ,
and it's going to happen. And I'll tell you what, when
we see that presented in the gospel and in the Bible, what
I tell people, do you want to be a part of that? I do. How
about you? Well look at verse 11 he says
he shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. Now the travail of the soul whenever
you see the word travail in scripture a lot of times that's connected
with a woman in childbirth. The woman like a woman that travail
and what they have what they're referring to is like the suffering
and the pain that a woman goes through and having a baby. And
what he's saying here is this, you know, for example, if a woman
suffers through the birth process, and then she has a child, but
the child doesn't live. And that's got to be a painful
thing for a woman to go through that. But what happens when the
woman suffers all that pain and sorrow and travail, and then
there's a healthy child. That's a joy, isn't it? And what
he's saying here, he's using that kind of analogy to say,
he shall see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied. Just
like a woman who has a healthy child. All that suffering is
worth it, you see. All that pain and sorrow that
she went through is worth it because there's that healthy
child. And that's the way Christ is on the cross. All the pain
and the suffering that he went through for the sins of his people
He's going to be satisfied. He's going to see the fruit of
that, the results of that, and that is the salvation of His
people. His name shall be called Jesus,
Matthew 121. For He, what? Shall save His
people from their sins. Not that He might. Not that He's
going to save you if you'll let Him. I'm going to tell you something. Anybody Christ saves, He saves
us in spite of ourselves. Keeps us in spite of ourselves.
And brings us to glory in spite of ourselves. And then it says
here, now here's the phrase I want you to see, by his knowledge
shall my righteous servant justify many, literally the many. How many? We don't know. But
it'll all work out in the end, won't it? It'll be there. And
he says, for he shall bear their iniquities. Now, this phrase,
by his knowledge, most commentators and scholars will change that
I believe from the original construction and what they'll say is by the
knowledge of him. He shall justify many and I believe
they got it wrong. And the reason is several reasons
for that. Now if you say by the knowledge of him. What you're
talking about there is when we come to a saving knowledge of
Christ in our conscience. We will see our justification
before God in Him based on His blood and His righteousness alone. And that's how sinners are saved.
You're not saved based on anything but what Christ accomplished
on the cross. And that's a message that spans
eternity and time. You see, this prophecy of this
event shows us that everything in eternity and time centers
on the cross. centers on the death of christ
as an accomplishment i love that in luke chapter nine the lord
took uh... peter and and uh... john and
james i don't know if james was there or not i had to go back
and look at it but he was on the mount of transfiguration
and it said that moses and elijah appeared now moses represents
the law the old covenant and what he's proven there is what
uh... What Paul wrote in Galatians 3, what the Lord said, the Lord
said in John chapter 5, he said, Moses wrote of me. You know,
the Jews took that law and turned it into a self-righteous system
of works, religion. Taste not, touch not, handle
not, do this, don't do that. And they measured righteousness
like most men and women today measure righteousness by what
you don't do. We don't do this, we don't do that, we don't watch
this, we don't watch that, we don't eat this, we don't, you
know, things like that. You can't measure righteousness
by what you do or what you don't do. And the reason is, is because
righteousness is perfection. And so when the Jews took the
law of Moses and perverted it, they lowered the standard. And
that's what people do today. Many of them in churches that
call themselves Christian, they lower the standard. Well, what
is the standard? Righteousness. Well, how do I know how to measure
righteousness? Well, the book of Acts tells
us in chapter 17, verse 31, When God commands all men everywhere
to repent, why? Because he has appointed a day
in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that
man whom he hath ordained. In other words, God has appointed
a man to be the measure of righteousness. And it's not me, it's not the
preacher. If it is, you're shooting way too low around here. It's not any man, any mere man. but by that man whom he hath
ordained, in that he hath given assurance unto all men, in that
he hath raised him from the dead." Now, who's that talking about?
Talking about the same one Isaiah's talking about here, the Lord
Jesus Christ. In other words, how good do you
have to be to get to heaven? Somebody says, well, I'm doing
my best. Well, I can guarantee your best isn't good enough.
The Bible says, That the best works of men are not good enough
to justify them or to make them righteous before a holy God.
Man at his best state is altogether what? Vanity. Nothing. Worthless. You can try and try. And the thing about it is, not
one act of obedience, if you could do it perfectly, which
you can't, we can't do anything perfectly. We can't measure up.
You see, that's the problem. That's why we need salvation.
That's why we need grace. But you see, if you could measure
up perfectly at one moment of your life, that's not enough
to atone for all the sins that you've committed in the fall,
and Adam you represent, and in your life. Can't do it. So what do you need? How good
do you have to be to get there? I'll tell you how good you have
to be. You have to be as good as Christ. Perfect. Just like the
fellow I was having lunch with one day, when I told him that,
he looked at me and he said, well, nobody can do that. And I said,
well, that's exactly right. That's why salvation is not by
worse. That's why salvation is not conditioned on you or me.
It's by Christ. It's by grace. It's conditioned
on His death. People say, I've heard people
say at funerals, well, I know they're in heaven because they
suffered so much in this life. Now listen to me. I hate to see
human suffering. I hate to suffer myself. I might
be selfish, but I hate it. You know, you do too. You don't
like to suffer. And I hate to see human suffering. Especially
children. I hate to see that. I mean, it
just breaks my heart. It tears me up. But let me tell you something. There's not any amount of suffering
that any human being can go through in this life to atone for one's
sin. You see, it doesn't take my suffering
to atone for my sin. It took the suffering of the
Son of God in human flesh. That's what it takes. As perfect
as Christ. And that's what he's saying here.
Now, when he says, by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify
many, what he's showing here is that God's way of justifying
sinners is based upon what Christ in Isaiah's day would accomplish
and in our day what he has already accomplished on the cross of
Calvary. And by his knowledge, this word
knowledge here is more than just an intellectual, mental knowing
of the truth. You can know something is true,
but not experience it. For example, I know that out
west there are the Rocky Mountains. And I know that's true. I have
no doubt that they're out there. People have told me, I've read
it in books, but I've never been there. I've never seen it for
myself. I've never experienced the grandeur
and the majesty of standing there and looking at those mountains.
Some of you probably have. And you know it better than I
do. I know it's true. But you know it in a way that
I don't know. Because you've been there and you've seen it.
You've seen the glory of it. The majesty of it. And this knowledge
here is the knowledge of one who's been there. It's the knowledge
of one who has experienced what he knows to be true. It's the
knowledge that Christ would gain by his work here on this earth.
You could just as well say it this way, by his experience shall
my righteous servant, the righteous servant being Christ, for he
is the only righteous servant, Jesus Christ the righteous, justify
perform that great work on Earth. Now this is what eternity and
time is all about. This is what God had in mind
before the foundation of the world, right here. What Isaiah
prophesied of 700 years before coming. What we look back and
2000 years ago had happened. And this is what Christ would
do. He would actually come and experience in time. what God
had already purpose and given by promise to the Old Testament
signs and what we have as a surety who has already performed the
work all of us together in Christ by his knowledge what he would
experience in as God and man in one person as God in human
flesh he would justify Christ would actually put away the sins
of his people that were charged to him. He became, listen, in
the everlasting covenant of grace, Christ was made the surety of
the covenant. Which means this, if you become
surety for a person, what you're saying is, well, if they can't
pay it, I'm responsible. That's like if you sign a note
and you co-sign. And you say, well, if they can't
pay it, I'll pay it. I'm responsible. Well, that's the way it is. Christ
was made our surety before the foundation of the world. He became
legally accountable for the sins of his sheep, he said. That's
what he called them in John chapter 10, before the foundation of
the world. But now the debt actually had
to be paid. What Christ became accountable
for before the foundation of the world, he had to actually
come in time and he had to actually pay that debt, didn't he? And that's what that's taught
by his knowledge. Shall my righteous servant justify many? Now, how's he going to do it?
What says he shall bear their iniquities? Now turn to Hebrews
chapter 2. I want to show you this. I believe this is the exact same
thing and it's saying here. Hebrews chapter 2. Look at verse 9. And this is
talking about the glory of Christ. And what he's talking about here
is, basically, it's, it's, you know, we look around. And if
we judged on a human level, things in this world, it almost like
it's just utter chaos. I mean, it's the way we look
at, you know, things out of control. We will sometimes say, you know,
wonder what's happening in this world, you know, how's it going?
But If you know Christ, if you know the God of the Bible, what
he's saying here is we have a different perspective on things. And here's
what he's saying, and I know this is things that we can't,
you know, somebody told me up home, they said, well, I just
can't wrap my mind around this. And I said, well, join the club.
You know, we're just so limited. But here's what he's saying.
God's in control of everything. Now, he is. We can't explain
all that and how it all works. He's not the author of sin. But
he's in control of everything. And if he's not in control of
everything, we just might as well close it up and go home.
But we see things through the person and work of Christ. Look
at verse 9. But we see Jesus. Now Jesus means what? Jehovah,
our Savior. And he says, Who was made a little
lower than the angels for the suffering of death. That is,
He had a human body. He had to because God cannot
die. So a body had to be prepared
for him a body without sin. And he that's why he was born
of a virgin a miraculous birth conceived in the womb of the
Virgin by the Holy Spirit and it said but he had to suffer
death and he says crowned with glory and honor. He died, and
he was buried, but he arose again the third day, and he ascended
unto the Father. He's now seated at the right
hand of the Father, ever living to make intercession for his
people, that he by the grace of God should taste death for
every man. Now, when it says every man,
the literal interpretation of that would be for every, just
for every, every one. Now, people look at that and
say, well, did he taste death for every man without exception?
he qualifies it and identify the every man or the everyone
in the following verses look at verse ten it says for it became
him that means it was appropriate it's it's like uh... uh... sometimes
when uh... when a person uh... uh... i never
knew we were up in a mall at home one time and there was a
there was a girl there just wore something that just she just
shouldn't have worn that Because it was not becoming to her. I'm not just picking on girls
because I've seen men wear things that aren't becoming to them
too. All right. And it wasn't appropriate. And
that's what this means. What he's going to say here was
becoming to him. And what he's talking about there
is the father. It's becoming to the father.
It was appropriate to who he is. His nature. And so it became
him for whom are all things look at verse 10 and by whom are all
things in bringing many sons unto glory. That's the every
one there. That's the every man who are the many sons that he
will bring glory. Not anybody in hell. But the
many sons. And then he says he says to make
the captain of their salvation. That's Christ look perfect through
suffering. Now Christ In himself is perfect. He didn't have to be made perfect,
but what does that mean? It means the completion of a
work. In other words, Christ. Being perfect in himself, he
had to come and finish the work. He, you know, when we cross in
John chapter 19, I believe it's verse 30. You know, one of his
sayings was what it is, what finished. It's completed. That's what this means. He had
to be made perfect in the sense that he had to complete the work
that he was given to do. He had to experience all the
suffering, all the agony, and all of the death that was due
unto the sins of his people. He said, I laid down my life
for who? For the sheep. John chapter 10. And he said, I'm going to bring
my sheep to me. He told me, he said, I've got some sheep that
are not of this Jewish foe. Them I must bring also. So he's completed the work. That's what that means. Perfect
through sufferings. And then look over in Hebrews
chapter five. Look at verse five. This is talking about the office
of a high priest. The high priest represented Israel
in the old coven. And he brought the blood of the
animal into the holiest of all the holy of holies and sprinkled
the blood above the mercy seat. One time a year on the day of
atonement, that was a picture of Christ going to the cross,
shedding his blood, presenting it before the father for the
salvation of his people. That was Christ who established
righteousness whereby God could be just and save a sinner like
me and like you. Now, where God had to be both
a righteous judge as well as what a loving father. Somebody
says, well, all I want to talk about is the love of God. You
know, I hear preachers say, there's a big, there's a preacher on
TV that fills a stadium and they were interviewing and they said,
they asked him, they said, why don't you ever talk about sin?
And he said, well, why should I ever want to talk about something
so negative? Well, I'll tell you what, that's like a guy who
goes into the doctor and he's got a pain. He doesn't know what
it is. And he goes into the doctor and
he sits there and he says, Doc, I've got this pain. And the doctor
says, well, let's not talk about that. That's negative. That's so negative, you know.
And we don't want to talk about anything. Let's talk about, how's
your hand feeling? Let's talk about your hand. You
know, it feels good. You see how stupid that is? I'm not just
trying to diss on people, but I'm telling you now, this is
the way it is. If you've got a pain, what do you want to find
out? You want to know what's causing that pain. And what's the cure? And that's why we talk about
sin. You know why? Because we've got the cure. And
the cure is the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the
cure. We're void of righteousness,
but I know where you can find one. And it's not in mom and
dad. It's not in joining church. It's
not in baptism. It's not in tithing. It's not
in anything you do. It's not in walking an aisle.
It's in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. That's what Isaiah is
saying back there. But look here in verse 5, he
says, So also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high
priest, but he that said unto him, Thou art my son, today have
I begotten thee. That's talking about, I believe,
his resurrection. And he said also in another place,
Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, who
in the days of his flesh, when he offered up prayers and supplications
with strong crying and tears unto him that was able, to save
him from death, and was heard in that he feared. Look at verse
8. Though he were a son, yet learned
he obedience by the things which he suffered, and being made perfect,
he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that
obey him. That's what this phrase back
in Isaiah 53 when it says by his knowledge is referring to
right there. In other words, Christ came and
when it says he learned obedience, It doesn't mean that he was at
first disobedient and had to be taught by a weapon like some
of our children have to be. What it means is that he by experience
obeyed the father. He actually did it. He actually
accomplished it in time in his own person. And he was made perfect
by the things which he suffered. In other words, he finished the
work that he was given to do. Now go back to Isaiah 53. That's
what it's talking about. By his experience, by his knowledge,
shall my righteous servant justify the many. We can see how God,
in his eternal mind, had this in mind the whole time. Whereby
he justified Abraham, justified Noah, Abel, and you can go on.
But the work had to be completed on earth. It had to be completed
in time. So we can also talk about justified
at the cross. justified by the cross. And then
it says, look here in verse 12. Let me read real quick and I'll
quit. Therefore, will I divide him a portion with the great
and he will divide the spoil with the strong. The analogy
there is like a battle. Like a king leading people in
the battle against a great enemy. And the king conquers the enemy. And then what the king shows
his greatness by his conquering and he divides the spoils with
his people and that's the way Christ is. He conquered sin on
the cross. He established righteousness
on the cross and he is glorified and honored because of what he
accomplished on the cross and we get the benefits. Every sinner
who comes to Christ for salvation Every sinner who, like that old
publican in the parable of Luke 18, beats on his breast and says,
God, be merciful to me, the sinner. He's going to divide with them
the spoils. And then it says, because he had poured out his
soul unto death. It's all based on his death.
Notice there, it doesn't say that he divided the spoils with
the strong. And our strength now is not in
ourselves. It's in Christ. Be strong in the power of the
Lord, the scripture says. He's our strength. When I'm weak,
I'm strong. Why? Because when I'm weak, I
see I'm totally dependent on Christ. So it says here, because
he poured out his soul unto death. It doesn't say here he divides,
he's great, and he divides the spoils with the strong because
they did anything. Did you see that? He didn't say
I'm dividing the spoils with you because you believe. He didn't
say because you believe. Are we to believe? Yes we are.
We're commanded to believe. But he doesn't divide the spoils
with us because we believe in fact the Bible teaches that our
believing is part of the spoils that he gives us faith is a gift
of God through Christ so he didn't divide the spoils with us that
is eternal life and all of its blessings because we did anything
it's because he hath poured out his soul unto death you see that
and he was numbered with the transgressors that means he identified
with his people in our name and in our nature, yet he was without
sin. And it says he bear the sin of many. Our sins were laid
on him, charged to him, just like if you run up a debt. See, sin in the Bible sometimes
is represented as a debt. You run up a debt. Well, he came
into the Father and he said, put the debt on my account. I'll
pay it. And made intercession for the
transgressors. He ever lives to make intercession
for his people.