I'm going to read verses 1 all
the way down to verse 12. It says, Who hath believed our report,
and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For he shall grow
up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of a dry ground.
He hath no form nor comeliness, and when we shall see him, there
is no beauty, that we should desire him. He is despised and
rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and
we hid, as it were, our faces from him. He was despised and
we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten
of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions,
he was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep
have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way, and
the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed
and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought
as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before his shearers
is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. He was taken from prison
and from judgment, and who shall declare his generation? For he
was cut off out of the land of the living, for the transgression
of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the
wicked and with the rich, and his death, because he hath done
no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. 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. He shall prolong his days, and
the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall
see the travail of his soul, and he shall be satisfied. By
his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many, for he
shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a
portion with the great. And he shall divide the spoil
with the strong, because he hath poured out his soul unto death,
and he was numbered with the transgressors. And he bared the
sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors. Heavenly
Father, we come this morning and we just thank you so much
for Christ Jesus. We thank you for the Word of
God who reveals Christ to us. And we thank you for the Spirit
of God who teaches us and gives us hearing ears, seeing eyes. who opens up our understanding
to be able to know the things of God that spiritually discern
that we in our flesh cannot ever understand rightly. Lord, we
just thank you for the day that we have together. We thank you
for these brethren that are here, these sisters. Lord, we thank
you for the opportunities that we always have to come and to
worship together as we gather as a church. Lord, we just are
grateful for that privilege that we still have. And Lord, we just
pray that you would continue to grant us that freedom in this
country to be able to freely assemble together and worship
you. Lord, we thank you for the rain
that you brought us last night. It was very much needed, and
we just thank you for that. And we thank you now for the
time that we have together around your word. We pray, Lord, that
you would speak to us. We ask that your Holy Spirit
be among us. that he would grant me clarity
of thought and mind, that he would give me the words to say.
Father, that he would keep me to the truth and keep me from
error. Lord, I pray for these that are
here, that you might speak and minister to them. I ask, Lord,
that you just might edify your people. Lord, I pray for those
that may be your elect among us, that you have yet to grant
repentance and faith. Lord, that they might turn and
trust in you. They might look to you solely
for their salvation, Father. And then we pray that they, in
obedience to your command, might come and that they might present
themselves and profess Christ Jesus publicly and that they
might be baptized and added to the church. Lord, we just ask
that you just might grant those things in your sovereign will,
if that be your will. Lord, we thank you for all that
you do for us. We thank you for your blessings
that you've given to us. in this life and as a church
as well. Lord, we pray for those that
are out here in Joplin who are your sheep. You desire to hear
the truth of your sovereign grace in Christ Jesus. We ask Lord
that you would bring them and gather them to your fold here. Lord, that they might not only
be edified by the truth, but Lord, that they might join in
the labors of spreading the gospel in our community and wherever
that you might see fit to take us. Lord, we just thank you so
much for all that you do and all that you are. You are great
and wonderful and mighty. You are holy and without blame.
But yet you are also full of judgment and that you are true
and righteous and that sin will be punished. And we know that
you will, in Christ, punish all your elect, which you have already
done. Lord, that has already been laid to their account. But
Father, there comes a day that we look forward to that all the
wicked will be gathered and they will be judged in sin and death. Hell, Satan, all the demons will
be cast in the eternal torment, and then we will be with Christ
forever. And we pray come quickly, Lord Jesus. So be with us now
and help us that we might worship you as you would have Isaiah 53, we're going to be
looking at this today, brethren, and I actually had my mind set
on looking at Philippians chapter 2, if you want to just kind of
keep your hand there in Isaiah 53 and turn to Philippians chapter
2. I was actually looking at, maybe
speaking this morning on Philippians chapter 2 in verse starting in verse five. I just
want to read this and I'll tell you where my mind went and how
I think that the Lord was directing me to other things than what
I wanted to do. In verse five it says, let this
mind being you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in
the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God,
but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of
a servant, and was made in the likeness of men, and being found
in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto
death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath
highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every
name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things
in heaven, and things in the earth, and things under the earth.
and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is
Lord to the glory of God the Father. That was what I was actually
going to preach on this morning, but as I got to looking at that
this morning and studying on that a little more and kind of
trying to expand some verses dealing with the content of this,
what really stuck out to me is this seventh verse, but he made
himself of no reputation and took upon himself the form of
a servant and was made in the likeness of man and became obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross. And as I began to
look at that, my mind went to Isaiah 53 because here we see
the suffering servant that God had laid our iniquities upon
in full detail, matter of fact. And so I began reading through
Isaiah 53 this morning whenever I Went down to study after I
got ready and the more I kind of contemplated on this, the
more it just seemed that this was what the Lord was wanting
me to dwell upon. I bring up Philippians because
of this. A lot of people think that in
verse 7, when it says, well actually in verse 6, it says, who being
in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with
God. Y'all see that verse there? You see what it says? It says
that even though he was, or who being in the form of God, thought
it not robbery to be equal with God. The newer translations that
are out there says that, said that who being in the form of
God thought equality with God was something that could not
be grasped. And that's just totally opposite of what this verse says.
Jesus said, hey, me being equal with God, that's not robbing
God of any glory or blasphemy. You know, they charged Jesus
with blasphemy because he claimed to be God. And they said, you're
a mere man, claim to be God. And he's saying, you know, me
being a mere man, not a merman, or what's the guy on Spongebob? Mermaid man. A mare, M-E-R-E,
a mare man. A common man, okay? You being a common man, how can
you make yourself to be God? Well, Jesus, while he was man,
he was not a common man. He was God-man. And so that's
what this is saying right here, that Jesus didn't think that
it was robbery to claim to be God, even though He was clothed
with humanity, because He was clothed with humanity in His
role as becoming the servant. He was serving God in the purpose
of redemption by coming as the elect's substitute. And He came
in their fashion. He came in their form. He assumed
a body like them. He assumed a body of the elect. Now, I believe that this body
was given to him before the foundation of the world. I believe that
he took on manhood before the foundation of the world as he
stood as our surety, as the only mediator between God and man
at that time. And I believe that that which
was already given manhood was born of a virgin. And I believe
that the Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary and that what was formed
in her or was made in her was that very man, Christ Jesus,
who God had before the foundation of the world possessed and set
up before anything was created. And so I believe in the virgin
birth. I believe that he was born of
Mary. I don't believe that he received anything from Mary.
As far as his manhood is concerned, otherwise he would be of the
earth earthy, where the Bible says he was the man from heaven,
that he was spiritual. But that's another subject for
another day. My point is that he made himself
of no reputation comes right after that, and in those other
translations that say that he thought equality with God is
something that could not be grasped. It then says, but made himself
of no reputation, and then they take that as he divested himself,
or he laid down all of his godhood to come as man. And that's not
what happened. Christ never did divest himself
of any of his godly characters or attributes. He was fully God. Even though he was man, he was
fully God. He was still omnipotent. He was
still omniscient. He was still the Lord of all. He still had power over death
and hell, and he had power over the demons. He had creative power. He had power to be able to kill
and to make alive. He had all the powers of God.
He had all the attributes that God has. He was without sin. He was perfect. He was righteous.
He was holy. He had all the attributes of
God. Yet the Bible says that he made
himself of no reputation. That means he didn't pump himself
up. He didn't come as the religious leaders did. He didn't come on
display as making something known of himself. but he came in a
lowly way. He came in the fashion of a man,
for one, and not only that, he came as a man who was not really
stirring a lot of stuff or bringing a lot of attention to himself.
He came in a meagerly way. He was born in a manger. Now,
we've grown up in this day and age where we've made this to
look like some, you know, really cool thing that, you know, Jesus
was in this little hut with a little manger and some nice little straw
there and he was laying there and everything was perfect. Listen,
he was in a barn, in a stable where they kept animals and fed
animals and animals pooped and all that kind of stuff in there.
That's where he was born. He was born in a manger and that
manger is what they put the hay in for the animals to eat out
of. That's what a manger is. A manger
is not a cradle for a baby. A manger is a place for where
they put junk for the animals to eat. And that's where he was
laid. And that's where he was. That's
how he came. Right after that, they had to
leave and flee to Egypt because Herod was trying to kill him.
And there they stayed there for several years and then they came
back and at that point then he was raised as a carpenter's son
living in Galilee. place of nowhere, of no importance
to the people of those days and around that area. It was insignificant. Matter of fact, Galilee, Nazareth,
all those areas over there, I mean, they even said, you know, can
anything good come from that place? Whenever they heard about
this man coming from there, anything good come from there? He came
with no reputation. He didn't build himself up and
make himself look known like the Pharisees and like the Sadducees
and all those religious leaders did, walking around in their
big regal robes and making themselves look good with all their jewels
and crowns and things that they wore and all the stuff that they
betrayed themselves to make them look important. Jesus didn't
come like that. And he made himself a known reputation. But it says,
and being found in the fashion of man, he humbled himself. And
that's what this whole 53rd Psalm is all about, is the fact that
Jesus made himself of no reputation because it pleased the Lord to
send him in such a way. It pleased God to take on flesh
and to come as us, his elect, and be the substitute for us,
to live in our place, so that righteousness could be established,
and so that it could be imputed to all His elect, and so that
His death would also be the penalty paid for every sin that His people
had ever committed. And so Christ came in that fashion,
in that way. He didn't say, I'm going to lay
down my godhood so I can come and be man. No, it was God who
stooped and became a servant himself, first and foremost,
he became a servant to God in serving God's purpose of election
and serving God's eternal purpose of redemption of his people,
which is God's purpose of election. But he was serving God's purpose. But in doing so, he also came
and was a servant unto his own people. He came to serve them
as their mediator, as their intercessor, as their substitute. And that's
what we find here. Look at verse one. It says, who
has believed our report and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? That is a great question. Whenever
we understand that throughout all of the Old Testament time,
what the people of the New Testament time had in mind that the Old
Testament time preachers were preaching was that there was
this great Messiah who was going to come into them. He was going
to come in regal robes. and that he was going to come
with a rod of iron and he was going to come in this majestic
and magnificent way and destroy all their enemies and take Israel
who had now become just a clustered little group of people there
in the Middle East who the Romans were oppressing and that every
other group of people around them had oppressed them, the
Babylonians and everybody else who had oppressed them for years,
the Egyptians, All these people who had oppressed them for years
and years and years, they were going to be destroyed and Christ
was going to come and lift Israel out of the oppression and set
them on thrones and make them priests, kings over the nations. And they were going to rule with
Christ with a rod of iron and they were going to be prestigious
and everyone was going to bow to them. And listen, that's still
the mentality of the Zionists. That's still the mentality of
dispensationalists. who believe that one of these
days all that's going to transpire in days in future. But what Messiah
was, was not what they thought. And whenever Messiah came in
that meek and lowly way who had no reputation, they's like What
are you talking about? That's our Savior. That's not
our Savior. You mean to tell me this man
from Galilee, this guy that has nothing, doesn't even have his
own home. The Bible says that foxes have holes, birds have
nests, but he doesn't have any place to lay his head. He doesn't
have anywhere to call his own. Doesn't have any money. Doesn't
have any of that stuff. Doesn't have any fancy clothes.
He hasn't been called, doesn't have a doctorate degree. All
he is is just this lowly man from Galilee. You're telling
me that's our Messiah? And besides that, this man has
now been taken and been charged with blasphemy from our religious
leaders? I think our religious leaders know. They study the
Word of God and they've been to seminary. They know what the
Bible says and they know what our Messiah is going to be like
and so they have told us that this man's a blasphemer so we
probably ought to listen to them because they know the scriptures
better than anybody else. And this man has been taken and
has been beaten and even the Romans think this man deserves
to die. Which we found out Pilate really
didn't think he needed to die. But yet he put him up there anyway.
And here he is hanging on a cross. The Bible says that curse is
anything that hangs on a tree. That's our Messiah? Our Messiah
is the one that's hanging on a tree? How can that be? That can't be our Messiah. And
you're telling me that by Him dying that I can be saved? That I'm saved by that? By that
man hanging on a tree? That's how I'm saved? And I don't
have to do nothing? Surely that's not true. Our religious
leaders have told us our whole entire life that we have to be
holy and we have to be righteous and that we have to strive for
perfection and that we have to do everything that the law tells
us to do so that we can be accepted by God and that we can be kept
by God because if we don't then we lose it. And so you're telling me all
I have to do is trust that what this lowly man from Galilee who's
hanging on that tree that He is my Savior and that what He
has done is all I need to trust in? Who hath believed our report?
Who hath believed that this thing can be the gospel? You're telling
me the gospel is there was a man who hung on a tree and died and
resurrected and that's all I just have to believe that what He
did is all and I don't have to do anything? See, brethren, that's
where our flesh, that's where our Adamic nature comes in. Our Adamic nature always, always,
always wants to look at self-righteousness instead of Christ's righteousness.
It always wants to think that salvation comes by something
that I have to accomplish or someone who I have to be in order
to be accepted or kept by God. And so that question is a very
profound question. Who hath believed our report? And the answer to that, as I've
mentioned to you guys and preached here often, the answer to that
report is the second question that is asked. It's found in
the second question that is asked. Who hath believed our report
and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? The ones who believe
the report that Christ alone is our righteousness are the
ones to whom the arm of the Lord has been revealed. The power
of the Lord. The arm of the Lord speaks of
the power of the Lord. The power of God. And the Bible
says that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. The good
news of what? Of Jesus alone for righteousness. The gospel is about a person.
It isn't about a duty or an action that you do. The gospel is not
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. That's
not the gospel. The gospel was actually preached
before Peter ever said believe and be baptized or believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. The gospel was
preached before that. And the people whose ears had
been opened and eyes had been opened and heart had been had
been made anew, the old heart taken out and the new heart put
in, whenever that person who had been converted of God, given
spiritual understanding, spiritual eyes, spiritual ears, whenever
that person had been quickened of God to be able to know these
things, whenever that gospel was preached, the question was,
well, what must we do? as is just about everybody's
question always is, is what do we have to do? Why? Because that's
the first thing that the flesh thinks to do. Well, obviously
we have to do something if we're going to get that. We have to
do something for it. And the thing that Paul, that
Peter, that James, that John, that all the apostles, that all
the evangelists of that first church, that all the churches
that Christ has preserved through every generation down to our
day continues to declare in the Good News or in the Gospel is,
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, you're saved. Because the only ones who believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ are those who have been saved. See,
what must I do to be saved? Nothing. But if you believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ, you're saved. See, you don't do anything
to get saved. Saved is something that happens
to you, and therefore, fruits come from that salvation you
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. First is salvation secured by
Christ Jesus. Then there is belief upon Christ,
which is granted and given by Jesus. Jesus gives us that. But see, people can't believe
that. They can't believe that unless the arm of the Lord is
revealed. Who shall believe our report,
and unto whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? Well, the arm
of the Lord is revealed to those who are His. The Bible says that
all the elect of God are going to come to Him, are going to
be given to believe that He has granted unto them repentance
and faith, that He has given unto them a measure of faith,
and that that faith is a gift of God. It's not of works. It's not of our own doing. It
isn't something that the natural man has. The natural man does
not have faith that believes on the Lord Jesus Christ. That
is a spiritual gift that is given to spiritual people who have
been given spiritual life from the Spirit of God alone. Who have believed our report
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed. That's who
will believe the report. And now he's going to give us
the report, though. Now he's going to tell us what the report
is. Look at verse two. For he shall grow up before him as a
tender plant and as a root out of dry ground. What is that talking
about? Well, let's talk about the Lord
Jesus again in this calmly nature, this nature. What is the word
calmly mean? Something that's not extravagant,
right? In extravagance. OK, he he came with no No form
or no comeliness, no extravagance, no pomp and circumstance, no
pomp and glory. He wasn't a man that everyone
was going, hey, boy, that's a good-looking guy. Hey, man, that guy, he looks
like somebody we could trust. He looks like somebody we could
follow. No, there wasn't nothing about him that even seemed to
be, he just was common, what he was. He says, for he shall
grow up before Him, before God, as a tender plant and as a root
out of dry ground. Now, what's the illustration
that God is trying to point to us here? Well, you would think
God coming into the world would come with, again, pomp and glory,
right? Here's the King of kings, the
Lord of lords, the God of the universe, the creator of all
things, and He is coming into His creation. But yet, he didn't
come with all that stuff. He came humbled as a servant. He came clothed with humanity. And just like, you know, out
here in our yard, it's been dry, it rained last night, which we
needed tremendously, but our yard has been dry as a bone. And I mean, it's just been, the
grass has been crispy, the ground is just hard, and it hasn't had
any water on it. But yet, whenever a blade of
grass or whatever it is that's growing first comes up out of
that dry ground, it doesn't come out full of fruit or vegetables
or whatever is growing on it, flowers, right? My wife, she
has flowers, she has vegetables and plants and stuff. and everything,
whenever she plants that and those things start coming out,
although she's gotten to the point now where she goes and
buys her plants already planted and halfway grown, but some of
them she plants. But whenever she plants those
plants, what happens is first comes the, first comes the little
leaf, or the stalk, or first comes the, just the little blade,
then the stalk, than the fruit, right? The blade comes out. Whenever it comes out, you almost
can't even tell what it's going to be. It's just plain. It's just a plain blade that
comes out. Well, that's what the Lord is
trying to get us to understand here, is whenever Jesus come,
He didn't come in all this pomp and glory. He came robed as a
servant. He came in comeliness, with no
comeliness. It says, and when we shall see
Him, There is no beauty that we should even desire him. He was despised and rejected
of men. We know that during his life
here, he was despised and rejected of his own people. They didn't
want to have anything to do with him. They rejected him, especially
the religious leaders. They rejected him. It says that
he was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Often we see in the
Scriptures how the Lord, while He was here, was full of sorrows
for the things that He saw. The unbelief that was in the
people. The unbelief in His own people. His elect that, you know, can
you imagine? Peter, His right-hand man. whom
he had promised the Lord. It don't matter what happens,
Lord. I'm always going to be here right beside you. I'm going
to take care of you. Nothing's going to happen to
you. And Jesus told him, he said,
you know, you don't even know what you're talking about. He
said, tonight, before the cock crows three times by morning,
you're going to deny him, or by the time the cock crows, you're
going to deny him three times. He's like, I can't let her be.
I ain't never going to, you know. But what happened? Exactly what
the Lord said. Can you imagine Christ at that
very point whenever he was being tried and convicted among these
men who were blaspheming him and telling lies and untruths
about him? And whenever Peter was asked,
hey, don't you know this man? Weren't you one of his followers?
And he rejected him once, rejected him twice. Third time the Bible
says he rejected him with cursing. I mean, it wasn't just, hey,
I don't know that man. It was like with cursings. You
know, GDU, I don't know this effing man. Whatever the cursings
was, I don't know what he said, but, you know, he did it with
cursings, you know. Can you imagine that? Being the
Lord. Can you imagine? Here's your
deepest friends all scattering in your time of crucifixion and
your being beat and crucified. And everyone that you know, everyone
that you love, everyone that you've invested three and a half
years of teaching and nurturing and just being there for them,
healing the sick, healing the blind, raising the dead, doing
all these miraculous things and pointing people to God, telling
them about their salvation. And yet here at the The time
that Christ was at the point of despair, not despair, He wasn't
in despair, but He truly was in a point where He was rejected,
full of sorrow, and all of His friends left Him. He was despised, and we esteemed
Him. No, we didn't make anything of
Him. Look at verse 4. He said, He had borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows. See, here's the very nature of
His substitution for us. The Bible says in James that
He was tempted like us. That in every facet He was tempted
like us, yet without sin. He knows exactly what it means
to be like us. He has felt our sorrow. He has
felt our grief. He has felt our hardships. He
has felt our limitations, so to speak. He knows what it's like to be
who we are, except without sin. He never knew sin. He never was
sinful. He never had a sinful thought.
He never had a sinful nature urging him to involve himself
in sinful activity. Just a side note, the temptations
that Christ endured was not temptations to try to get him to sin, and
those temptations that were given him, he could have actually indulged
in if he wanted to. Those temptations, and people
will say, well, then it wasn't true temptation if he couldn't
have sinned, which I will clearly say, Christ could never have
sinned. Christ could never have sinned.
He's impeccable. The folks say that that makes his temptation
by the devil and the temptations that he faced while on earth
are worthless, useless, because what good is having the temptation
if you never could engage yourself in it? It's just, you know, useless
temptation. Brethren, the reason the temptations
were given to Christ is to show the validity of who he is. is
to show that He is without sin and therefore qualified to be
our Savior, qualified to be our Master, our sin-bearer, because
only a spotless Lamb can be saved. And what did we see by the religious
Pharisees? We seen on the outside men who
had kept the law, who looked righteous, who might be considered
without sin. but yet Jesus exposed them, saying
that inside, you may on the outside look like whitewashed sepulchers,
you may look clean and without sin on the outside, but inside
are dead men's bones. You are dead on the inside. There
is sin inwardly, even though you might clean yourself up on
the outside, there is sin on the inside, and therefore you
are still wicked and in need of salvation. See, that's why
the law can never do anything for us. because the flesh is
weak. We can't do anything. The flesh is full of sin and
that's all it can do. Whether it's outward sin or inward
sin, it's all sin in the flesh. It's all we can do. And so Christ,
Him enduring those temptations was not to endure so that He
can like, and I really would like to do that, but I'm not
because I want to stay true to God and I want to, you know,
be a great example to my people. He did stay true to God, and
He is an example to His people, but it's an example of God in
the flesh. See, we can have confidence that
Jesus Christ is God because temptation could find nothing in Him. The
Bible says that Satan and temptation found nothing in Him. What does
that mean when the Bible says that? It found nothing in Him.
It means there was no sin to tempt. The Bible, there was no
lust to tempt. The Bible says in James, how
is a man drawn away in sin? It says that he is drawn away
by his own lusts. And whenever that lust is conceived,
it bringeth forth sin. See, Jesus could have never sinned
because he never had lust in his heart. He never had anything
in there for sin to tempt, for Satan to tempt, for the things
of this world to tempt. He was perfect and holy and righteous.
He was God. There was no unrighteousness
in Him. There was no sinfulness in Him.
Therefore, His temptations prove this is the Messiah. This is
God manifested in the flesh. This is our suffering substitute,
the perfect Lamb of God. He had borne our griefs and carried
our sorrows. So in all of that, in Him coming
and experiencing all the things that He has experienced on our
behalf for us, yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God,
and afflicted. That's how the people looked
at Him. Look at that. Whenever He was
hanging on the cross, remember? He was hanging on the cross.
They were blaspheming Him. They were laughing at Him, mocking
Him. If you are the Son of God, come
down off that cross. He saved others. How come He
can't save Himself? They just esteemed Him as stricken
and smitten of God, another afflicted man. But look at verse 5. But he was
wounded for our transgressions. He wasn't wounded because he
was some stricken and smitten person. For nothing. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was on that cross for us. He was bruised for our iniquities. He wasn't there for his own.
or for anything that he had done. He wasn't there because he broke
the law and therefore needed to be punished by the religious
people or Rome. Rome couldn't find nothing wrong
with him. The religious leaders really couldn't find nothing
wrong with him so they had to plant false accusations against
him. They just didn't want, they wanted
him out of the way. He was a burden under their saddle. He was a hindrance to their mission
to keep power over the people. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon Him. What does that
mean, the chastisement of our peace? That means that the Lord
was chastened or the Lord experienced that punishment so that we might
have peace. The chastisement of our peace
was upon Him. And with His stripes, we are
healed. Now, I want to make a side note
here. That verse there, Isaiah 53, 5, is often used, especially
by the charismatics and the faith healers and the TV preachers
and all that kind of stuff. This verse is used to say that
by the stripes on Jesus' back, by His crucifixion, that He has
purchased healing for everybody, that if we will just have faith
and pray for that healing, that God will heal us of every infirmity
that we might have because by His stripes we are healed. So
we just have to believe that. If we believe that, then we'll
be healed. That's what all these faith healers are using this
verse for. But brethren, this is not talking about physical
healing as far as an ailment. If I've got, you know, diabetes,
if I have enough faith that by His stripes He's healed those
diabetes, I just need to believe it. Do I believe that Jesus can heal
my diabetes without me taking a pill or going and doing anything
else? Absolutely I do. Does God do miraculous healing? Absolutely He does. I believe
that He can heal and do whatever He wants to do. But is that what
this verse is talking about? No, it's not. We are not guaranteed
healing in the crucifixion of Jesus. in a physical way. Matter of fact, many times we've
seen in the Bible there were men who were sick, who were needy,
who were people of God. Paul left one of his friends
who was sick, who Paul himself could have, he was an apostle,
he could have healed him, but he didn't. Left him sick, told
Timothy, Take a little wine with your stomach when you don't feel
good. It'll help you. Preachers tell people to drink
wine. Bible says it's alright. Healing is not guaranteed because
Christ died. What is this talking about? How
are we healed? We're healed in the spiritual
way. We're healed in the fact that we are the ones who have
transgressed God. We are the ones who have had
iniquities. And God has healed us of that
by causing us to be born again. He has given us eternal life. He has caused us to be something
other than this outward Adamic shell. It says, all we like sheep have
gone astray. We have turned everyone to his
own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. Every one of God's elect, just
like the reprobate, have had their conversation or had their
lifestyle in sin. And by the flesh, we continue
to sin. Many times, we sin sins that
just like the people out there who are reprobates, they sin
sins. We pray that the Lord continues to restrain those sins. We pray
that the Lord will give us a heart and a mind to desire righteousness
and holiness. But the fact remains that this
flesh can do nothing but sin. And it's only by God's overcoming
power that He restrains us from doing any more sinning than we
would normally do. We have all gone astray. Every
elect child of grace has gone astray. But God has laid all
those iniquities upon Christ. Everyone. Verse 7 says, He was
oppressed, He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth.
He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before
her shearers is done. So He opened not His mouth. That
right there was a prophecy about Christ. All this is a prophecy
about Christ. That right there is a prophecy about Christ and
that actually came true. The Bible tells us in the New
Testament that whenever he was being tried, that he didn't defend
himself. Whenever they were railing all
their accusations against him, he never did open up his mouth
and say, that's not true. No, no. Let me tell you the truth.
Let me set you straight. He didn't do that. The only time
that he opened up his mouth and said anything during all those
proceedings is they wanted to know directly. Are you who you say you are? Jesus told him the truth. Whenever
Pilate questioned him, he didn't answer nothing, but whenever
he started saying, don't you know that I have power to keep
you or release you? And Jesus said, you don't have
any power except what's been given to you by my father in
heaven. He never did defend himself. He never did try to retaliate.
He never did debate these guys. Listen, he could have said every
one of them. As a matter of fact, he could have just spoke the
word and all of them could have disintegrated right before him. But he never
said anything. Why? Because the purpose of God
according to election, in God's eternal purpose, was that Christ
come and die. God purposed the death of Christ
by these wicked men's hands. God purposed evil so that Christ
would be evil evilly, if you allow me that word, evilly, wickedly
taken and killed. Although the Bible tells us that
no man killed and he gave up his life. He didn't die from
the triage of the sufferings of his wounds. The Bible says
that he gave up the ghost. Whenever he had suffered to the
point, whenever he experienced all of God's wrath and there
was nothing more to be done, he cried, it is finished. So there was no more need for
him to continue in the way that he was going to endure any more
pain because he had taken everything, whatever it was. Was it the pain
of the cross? I don't know. Was it the weight
of the load that he was taking, bearing upon the sins, and God's
turning his back upon him for that allotted amount of time
that God turned his back and darkness fell upon the earth?
Was that the weight of the load? And once that was done, I don't
know. I don't know the full spectrum of how it was. All I know is
what Christ did in his death satisfied God's wrath. And whenever
it was completely filled up to the point where God was satisfied,
Jesus said, it is finished. And at that point, there's no
need to continue on with the suffering. He gave up the ghost
and that body that he inhabited, it died. The soldiers didn't kill him.
The whippings on the back didn't kill him. The nails through his
arms didn't kill him. They didn't break his legs like
they did the other guys. He died by giving up his ghost,
by removing himself from the body. Now he resurrected, no doubt
about that. That body came forth out of the
grave, no doubt about that. But the Bible says that he gave
up the ghost. He says, He was taken from prison
and from judgment, and who shall declare his generation? What's that mean? He was taken
from prison and from judgment, and who shall declare his generation?
That don't even seem like it goes together. It don't make
any sense. Have you ever thought about that? He was taken from
judgment and from prison and taken to what? Well, the verse
right before, as a sheep led to the slaughter, right? A lamb
led to the slaughter. He was taken to be killed. And
what was the promise? Well, the promise to Abraham
was by your one seed, there was going to be thousands of seeds
from every nation. But yet right here and at Jesus's
time, this was only being done among the Jews. Some Gentiles
had been included. But primarily, this was to the
Jews. The Gospel hadn't went out to the nations. And so, what
about the promise to Abraham? Where's his seed going to be? Who's going to declare or who's
going to proclaim this to his seed? Where's his seed going
to be? Where's the generation that's
going to come from this man? Why does he ask that question?
Well, look at the next part of that. For he was cut off out
of the land of the living. Well, obviously he can't have
a seed if he's dead. If I would have died in 1995,
none of you kids would have been here. My seed wouldn't have been here.
Why? Because my first child was born
in 2000. If I would have died in 1995,
none of my seed would be made manifest. That's the question
here. Where's this seed that's going to be as many as the sands
of the shore, the stars in the heavens, that no man can number,
that is going to be from every tribe, language, tongue? How
is that going to be declared if this man dies? For he was cut off out of the
land of the living for the transgressions of my people." Whose people? Is it everyone in the world?
No, it was for the transgression of my people. Whenever we look
back and he said that he died for the transgressors, when he bore the iniquities of
the transgressors, everyone wants to say, well, hey, everybody's
the transgressor. Everyone from Adam is a transgressor.
So that means he died for everybody. But lookie here. He says that
he, for the transgressions of my people, was he stricken. His
people are the ones that he loved before the foundation of the
world, who he gave to Christ, who Christ assumed the role of
mediator and intercessor and substitute, surety for, and he
received them and they were united to him. He became their advocate. He
says, and 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. We know that to be true as well.
His grave was among the wicked. They went out and buried him
among the wicked. However, it was from a rich man's tomb that
he was buried. Remember Joseph of Arimathea? He was the one who went and pled
for the body of Jesus. And he was a rich man, a well-known
man. And Joseph of Arimathea gave
his tomb that he had for Jesus to be buried in. And that's where
they laid Jesus. So it says here, he made his
grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death. because he had done no violence.
Now, there's probably more to that than I understand, but on
the surface, we know that to be true. And with the rich, or
excuse me, because he had done no violence, neither was any
deceit found in his mouth. So here again, we see that Jesus
was wrongly beaten and crucified because there was never any violence
nor deceit found in him. But look at verse 10. Yet, and
all that, all this wrongdoing, all this stuff that was happening
with Christ, Him taking on the form of a servant, Him coming
in fleshly robes, Him coming and being without any pomp and
glory, Him coming and being despised and rejected and feeling our
afflictions and our sorrows and taking upon Himself our sins
and being beat and rejected and scorned and blasphemed and scoffed
at and mocked and nailed to a cross, the Bible says, yet it pleased
the Lord to do this, to bruise Him. He hath put Him to grief. See why those wicked men by their
wicked hands took Jesus and put Him through this grief, the Bible
says ultimately it was the Lord who put Him to grief. You see
that there? I hope that all those who think
that God doesn't predestinate and bring about sin and evil
in this world by His providence can understand that whenever
people preach these things, and they want to immediately jump
to, well, you made God to be the author of sin. What does
that mean? The Bible doesn't ever say that.
What does that mean? You have to tell me what that
means. If you mean that God becomes a sinner, absolutely, He never
becomes a sinner. I will stand beside you and fight
that fight all day, every day. God in no way, shape, or form
has ever sinned, will ever sin, or can ever sin. Everything that
He does is holy and righteous. Even if what He does is holy
and righteous, and even what we do that He tells us not to
do, that He can do, what we do might be sin. Or is sin. But
it says here, He hath put him to grief. When thou, who's thou
the Lord? That's being talked to here.
When the Lord shall make His soul an offering for sin. He shall see His seed. Here we
go. Through the death, through the
burial, and through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, that's how His
seed. You remember the question? Who
shall declare His generation? What's going to come of the seed?
How is His seed going to be perpetuated through all the earth if He dies? You know the Bible teaches a
principle. It says, unless a grain of wheat
falls into the ground and dies, it standeth alone, it abideth
alone. But if it dies, it will bring
forth fruit. Whenever you put a seed into
the ground, that decaying and that rotting of that seed, that's
what breaks forth and brings forth that little shoot of new
life. And out of that little shoot, what happens? Whenever
your mom plants a tomato plant out here and out of that thing
shoots this little shoot, out of that one seed that's planted,
what happens? You get how many tomatoes? A
lot of tomatoes. And what's inside those tomatoes? More seeds. How many seeds do
you think is in a tomato about that big? A bunch. Let's just
say 20 seeds. There's usually more than that. How many tomatoes do you think
is in that one seed among those 20? Much less than 20. Let's say
that one seed produces 20, but now you've got 20 seeds. 20 seeds
producing 20, that's 400, right? Now we got 400 out of one seed. And more on that, you know, more
than that. Unless a grain of wheat falls
in the ground and dies, it abideth alone. Unless Christ Jesus came
and died, there could be no resurrection. And if there is no resurrection,
then all is dead. If there is no resurrection,
there is no life. Jesus said, if Christ raiseth
not, then all of our faith is in vain because Christ is still
dead. But it is in that resurrection that it shows forth not only
that God accepted this sacrifice, but in that resurrection we raised
to newness of life in Him. We raised and eternal life was
given by Christ. That's where the seeds came.
The little shoot out of the ground. He came in a physical way as
a shoot coming out of the ground calmly and nothing. But whenever
he, as a seed, was buried in the ground after dying the death
that he died and was raised, that brought forth fruit. That's
why every one of us who are the elect of God are here today.
That's why any of the elect of God are who they are, who have
ever been given faith in Christ Jesus. Because the one seed died
and was raised. All the seeds have died and were
raised and are bringing forth fruit unto God. Look what it
says here. It pleads the Lord to bruise
him and put him to grief when thou shalt make his soul an offering
for sin. He shall see his seed. So see,
through the death of Christ, God sees his seed. It's going
to continue on. He shall prolong his days and
the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hands. Not one
of those seeds, not one of those elect, not one of those children
of God will not be brought forth. Every child will be brought forth
to believe, to come to him and will be returned. Jesus said,
all that you have given me, I have lost none. All that the Father
hath given me shall come to me, and all that come to me I will
in no wise cast out, but I will raise them up at the last day. He shall see the travail of his
soul, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord
shall prosper in his hand." The pleasure of the Lord was the
redemption of his people, of the elect of God. The pleasure
of the Lord was that we should be saved. And through Christ
we were, brethren. Look at verse 11. He shall see
the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. God's wrath was
satisfied through the travail of Christ on the cross. He shall see the travail of his
soul and shall be satisfied. Therefore, we could place probably
in there, But it says, by his knowledge shall my righteous
servant, there's that word. That's probably why the Lord
directed me to Isaiah 53 from Philippians 3. He humbled himself
as a servant. And here we see, therefore, or
by his knowledge, shall my righteous servant justify many, for he
shall bear their iniquities. Is He going to justify everybody
through His death? No. He's going to justify many. Who are the many? The ones that
He talked about just before that. The ones that are what? His people. The transgressions of His people
was the reason that He died. Therefore, by that death, dying
for them, He justifies the same people that He died for. Everybody
for whom Christ died receives the benefit for why Christ died.
Christ died to justify them. So if He died to justify them,
if God accepts that sacrifice, which we know that the Bible
says that He did, then He, or excuse me, then they are justified. So we have to take two sides,
one of two sides here. You either have the side that
we preach, that there is the elect that God has chosen before
the foundation of the world, And they're the only ones who
will receive salvation. And the rest will be damned. And those are the only ones for
whom Christ died. Those are the only ones for whom
God shed his, set his love upon. And therefore that Christ died
for, and therefore will be saved. Them and only them. And God is
sovereignly right to do so, or sovereignly, sovereign to do
so. His right to do that is His and
His alone. But then you have the opposite
end. If Christ dies for everybody
and Christ's death justifies those for whom He died, then
everybody is justified. Therefore, everybody is being
saved. Everybody's saved. Every man,
woman, child that has ever lived on the face of the earth from
Adam until Jesus comes again will be saved. That's the other
end. You say, well, wait a minute.
What about the in-between part? Well, the in-between part is
what we call, in theological terms, Arminianism. But it's
completely and totally unbiblical. Because the Bible clearly teaches
that Christ died as a substitute. Therefore, everyone for whom
Christ substitutes receives the benefits of the substitution. So either it's some people get
it, or all people get it, but this middle point that Arminians
take, where Christ died, but not everybody for whom Christ
died is going to get the benefit of it, but not everybody is going
to be saved, and not just a few are going to get it. Only those
who choose to get it are going to get it. That's not found in
the Bible anywhere. Now we know that the Bible teaches
that it can't be this, everybody being saved, because the Bible
clearly teaches that there have been those who have already died
and departed and are separated from God. Remember Jesus talking
about the rich man and Lazarus? And the rich man lived abundantly
in this life, but whenever he died, he died and went to hell. And Lazarus, who didn't have
anything, The Lord saved him. He went to be with the Lord. And the rich man lifted up his
eyes in hell, said, man, can you take a drop of water and
drop it on my tongue for I'm tormented in these flames? I
said, can't do it. I don't want to do it. Can Lazarus
just give me a little water? No. In your day, you had all
the things you wanted, all the things you needed. Lazarus had
nothing. Now he's gone to his reward and
he's got everything. You've got nothing. Can you show me just a little mercy?
Can't do that. The Bible teaches that there
will be people in hell. The very fact that the Bible
teaches that there will be people in hell says that this universal
salvation is untrue. And this Armenian view that says
that Christ died and some of the people for whom Christ died
may end up in hell is untrue because there is no place in
the scripture that teaches that anybody for whom Christ died
will not receive the benefits of his death. Nowhere in scripture
can you find that. Anywhere. Therefore, God has a people,
and this is exactly what it's saying here, My righteous servant
justify many for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will
I divide him a portion with the great and shall divide the spoil
with the strong." This is the inheritance. We talk about this
all the time, the inheritance of God. And the Bible says that
we are heirs. We are joint heirs with Christ
Jesus. The spoils that go to Christ,
guess what? We get to share in those. He
had poured out His soul unto death, and He was numbered with
the transgressors, and He bared the sin, here it is again, of
many. He didn't bare the sin of everyone, but He bore the
sin of many, and He made intercession for the transgressors. What transgressors? His people. The transgressions
of His people. Therefore, the transgressors
are the ones who are His people. Those are the ones that He died
for. He died for them. He made intercession for them.
So what did the suffering servant do? He suffered. He took on the wrath of God upon
himself. He took our sins upon himself,
but he experienced the full wrath of God and through that justified
the many. Now turn with me if you would,
and I want to tie this back to Philippians. was for some reason
the Lord had me thinking about that beforehand and took me to
Isaiah. But let's go back to Philippians
chapter 2. It says in verse 8 of being found
in fashion as a man, he humbled himself. He was found in fashion
as a man, as we just read. Why was he in the fashion of
a man? Because he came as the substitute
for the transgressor. He had to be in the form of a
transgressor to make substitution as a transgressor, even though
he never transgressed. It says, "...being in the form
and fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of
the cross." But look at verse 9, "...wherefore God hath highly
exalted him, and given Him a name which is above every name, that
at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, things in heaven,
things in earth, and things on earth, that every tongue should
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord." Brethren, it is through
Christ's humiliation, through His coming down and taking Himself
of no reputation, that we were justified. But by that, God not
only justified us, but He glorified His Son. Because by that crucifixion,
by that being obedient unto death and the death of the cross, the
Lord now highly exalts Him and has given Him a name above every
name. And there will come a day when every knee shall bow and
every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. To the glory of God. Man, anybody
got any questions or anything you'd like to add? Any comments? All right. Gracious Father, we thank you
once again for this day, and we thank you for the Lord Jesus
Christ. We thank you for the perfect salvation, Lord, that
has been your eternal purpose before the ages began. We thank
you for Christ and his humanity. as he came and took on the form
of a servant. We thank you, Lord Jesus, for
all that you do, all that you do for us on our behalf and for
the righteousness that is ours because of you. We thank the
Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ sent from God that comes to us
and reveals these things, giving us faith to believe upon them,
letting us know that we are his testifying with our spirit that
we are Christ's and that the benefits that Christ has died
for we have received in Christ. Lord, may we ever be mindful
of those things and may we be found faithful walking in the
spirit by walking in faith with what Christ has done on our behalf.
Lord, may we never look to our own understanding, may we never
look to our own flesh and the works thereof for righteousness,
May we never rely upon self-righteousness, self-holiness, but may we always
keep in view the wonderful works of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
Those are the things that you looked for. Those are the things
that you accepted. And those are the things that
justified us so that there is therefore now no condemnation.
There is remission of sin. There is never any more need
for forgiveness because all has been forgiven and that there
is no charge that can be laid to your elect. What a wonderful,
perfect salvation. And we thank Christ for it in
His name that we pray. Amen.