If you would open your Bibles
with me to the book of First Corinthians. First Corinthians. As you're turning, if you had
trouble getting here this morning because you didn't know this
end of Hurricane Road is closed, I apologize. I sent out a text
to everybody. Apparently most people did not
get it. So I am very sorry about that. And, uh, Looks like old
Frank is going to pay the price for that this morning. Chris
Kermes was going to lead the singing, and he must know I got
my tax, couldn't figure out how to get here, so you and me both
are stuck with me leading the singing. So I apologize. I don't know what happened, but
that's the way it goes. We want to remember Brother Eric
Floyd, who's preaching in Wheelersburg this morning. And I did receive
word last night, little Lynn Harrell did come home from her
surgery yesterday, she is still in some post-surgical pain. Oh,
that just grieves my heart to think about a little one in that.
So let's remember her and her mama and daddy in prayer. 1 Corinthians
1, beginning in verse 21. For after that in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom, by its wisdom, knew not God.
It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching, to save them that
believe. For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after
wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified.
We preach not just that Christ died on the cross, but what did
he accomplish when he was crucified? Why was he crucified? What is
the result of his crucifixion? We preach Christ crucified. Under
the Jews, a stumbling block, and under the Greeks, foolishness.
But under them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ,
the power of God, and the wisdom of God. We'll end our reading
there. All right, let's stand and sing
our call to worship together. The blood of Christ, thy spotless
Lamb, O God, is all my plea. I have no merit of my own which
I can bring to thee. No sacrifice save His who bore
my sins upon the tree. No other plea which lips could
speak could intercede for me. O wondrous cross, O precious
blood, O death by which I live! The sinless one for me made sin,
eternal life. You may be seated. Now let's turn to number 39, page number 39,
This Is My Father's World. This is my father's world and
to my listening ears All nature sings and round me rings the
music of the spheres. This is my Father's world, I
rest me in the thought Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas,
His hand the wonders wrought. This is my Father's world. The birds, their carols raise. The morning light, the lily white,
declare their Maker's praise. This is my Father's world He
shines in all that's fair In the rustling grass I hear Him
pass He speaks to me everywhere This is my Father's world Oh,
let me ne'er forget That though the wrong seems oft so strong,
God is the ruler yet. This is my Father's Word. The battle is not done. Jesus, who died, shall be satisfied,
and earth and heaven be one. If you would turn your Bibles
to Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 53. 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 of a dry ground. He hath no form or 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 did esteem 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 hath 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
shears his dung. So he openeth not his mouth.
He was stricken 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 his
people was he stricken. 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. Yet it pleased
the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him, 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 seed, he
shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper
in his hands. He shall see the travail of his
soul and shall be satisfied by his knowledge. Shall my righteous
service justify many where he shall bear their iniquities?
Therefore, will I divide him a portion with the great and
he should divide the spoil with the strong because he has poured
out his soul into death. He was numbered with the transgressors
and he bear the sins of many and made intercession for the
transgressors. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we thank
you, Lord, this morning for your word. For these are truly the
words of eternal life. And it's only by these words
that we have the faith in which we have to believe. No other
means is there, but by these words can we call upon his name
and be saved. No other means. And we thank
you, Lord, and we pray this morning that we would look to him. He
is our only means in which we can and will enter into the kingdom
of God. There's no other means but by
his dying. His dying, his death, burial,
and resurrection can we enter into eternal life. So we pray
this morning, Lord, for your word, the words in which you
have laid on our pastor's heart, we pray, Lord, That we would
receive these words with a love in which only you
have sent forth. Only you have manifested this
love to us by your gospel. And we pray that these words
would be made effectual to us this morning. And we hear them
in an effectual way. That we would leave here singing
and dancing in our hearts the peace and the love and the joy
which this brings to us. So we pray Lord, we pray these
things not only for ourselves, but we pray these things for
our loved ones, Lord, each and every one of them. Pray that
they know these things also. We pray Lord, those in whom you
have brought into this, these trials and tribulations, these
infirmities, these afflictions, we pray for them, Lord. We pray
your healing hand. We have so many here in this
congregation. We have so many in our families,
Lord, our loved ones who have been suffering these fleshly
bodies. We pray your presence, Lord,
with them. We pray that you would give them the understanding of
knowing that they must look to him, the one and only true physician,
the one whom can and will heal these things. Now we pray these
things, Lord, in Christ's name and for his sake only. Amen. Hopefully you still have your
The Bible's open there at Isaiah 53. That's where our text is
gonna be from this morning. I've titled the message, Who
Hath Believed Our Report? That's the way Isaiah begins
this great chapter. Who hath believed our report?
And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? Now our report,
that's the message that we preach. The word report that Isaiah uses
means our doctrine. It's our teaching. It also means
our tidings. The gospel that we preach is
good tidings. It's good news for sinners. What a blessing to be able to
have a place where we can hear that gospel preached. What a
blessing. It's a burden, but what a great blessing it is to
be enabled by God to preach that message. And this message, our
doctrine, Our tidings, it's very, very narrow. We preach Christ. That's why I read that passage
to open the scripture in 1 Corinthians. We preach Christ. That's who
we preach. Who he is. What did he do? Why did he do it? And where is
he now? That's who we preach. If you understand those things
about who he is, God's revealed Christ to you. Our good tidings
are this. that sinners are made righteous,
made perfectly righteous by Christ's obedience to the law. You don't
have to obey the law in order to make yourself righteous because
you can't do it. Christ did that for his people. Our doctrine,
our teaching, our tidings is that righteousness is received
through faith in Christ. God gives you faith and you believe
Christ. It's not by words, it's by faith,
by trusting Christ. Our report This message that
comes directly from God is that salvation is by grace alone.
It's through faith alone. Salvation is free for sinners. I mean, your soul is the most
precious, priceless thing that you have. The salvation of that
soul is free to you and me. It's free because Christ earned
that salvation for his people, and he gives it to them freely.
It's free to you because Christ paid the debt for you. and He
gives it to you freely. The price we could never pay,
Christ paid with His own blood. And He gives that salvation to
His people freely. Our message is all Christ and
Him crucified. Our report tells us what it is
that Christ accomplished when He died and rose again for His
people. And our constant cry is, now
look to Him. Trust Him. Look to Him. Look
to him because salvation is not found in something you do. I
know there's lots of people lying and telling you that, but salvation
is not in something you do. Salvation is something that Christ
does for you and in you. Now you look to him. You ask
him. It's all in him. He's done it all. Well, that
takes the burden off. That takes the burden of the
law off, doesn't it? That takes the pressure off. I mean, you
know what's pressure? Trying to do something you can't
do. Have you ever tried to do something you can't do? That
pressure is frustrating. Looking to Christ takes all the
pressure off, doesn't it? Now that is God's message. That's God's message, that salvation
is in his son. By God's grace, that's the message
that we preach. Every time God gives us an opportunity,
this is the message we preach. We preach it to everyone, everyone. because everyone should believe
this message. I remember Brother Henry saying
one time, I preach and I expect you to believe it. I expect you
to, because it's true. Everybody should believe this
message, shouldn't they? Because it's God's message for
sinners. Almighty God has sent a message
to this world of grace for sinners. It should be believed, shouldn't
it? Should be. I'll tell you what every single
one of God's preachers wonder. We wonder the same thing that
Isaiah wondered. Who has believed? Who's believed? I mean, who's really believed
Christ? Has anybody? Has anybody really believed Christ?
Has anybody believed this gospel that we preach? I mean, have
they really believed it or did they just show up because we
live in the Bible Belt, you know? Has anybody? Have I? Have you? I mean, it's a good
question to ask, isn't it? Well, in this chapter, Isaiah
gives us four marks of God-given faith. Everybody that God saves,
they will see these four marks. This has been my experience.
Number one, who has believed our report? Well, it's everyone
that by faith sees that Christ came into flesh to save them. Look at verse two. For he shall
grow up before him as a tender plant, as a root out of a dry
ground. He has no form nor comeliness,
and when we shall see him, there's no beauty that we should desire
him. Now, when the Son of God was born in human flesh, he became
a real man in every way. He started out just like all
of us started out. He started out as an embryo,
a microscopic embryo in Mary's womb. That's how the Son of God
in the flesh started out. David, in Psalm 139, talked about
being fearfully and wonderfully made. That's true of all of us,
isn't it? I mean, we're fearfully and wonderfully
made. It really is a miracle every
time a baby's born in it. It's a miracle. But I'll tell
you what David was really talking about. He was talking about the
Lord Jesus Christ, the son of David. He was fearfully and wonderfully
made. The ancient of days. became a
babe of days, became an embryo in the womb of a virgin. And
when Mary's first born boy was born, he was a real baby. He was a real baby. He was completely
dependent upon his mother to take care of him. And if she
hadn't taken care of him, he'd have died as an infant. If she
didn't feed him, he'd have died. If she didn't watch out for him,
he'd have died. He was truly dependent upon his
mother, a real baby. And yet at the same time, she
was completely dependent on her baby to give her life and wisdom
and the ability to take care of him. Isn't that a, that is
a wonderful mystery, isn't it? Just makes you smile. God, only
God could do something like this. It's miraculous. And as that
baby grew, he looked like every other baby. He looked like every
other toddler. He looked like every other little
boy. He looked like every other teenager. He looked like every
other man. There was nothing special about
his physical appearance that would make the world want him
to be our savior or our king. Actually, the opposite was true,
wasn't it? The Lord Jesus was unattractive
to the natural man. I promise you this. He's not
six foot four with these beautiful blue eyes and this perfect skin.
No, sir. He was unattractive to the natural
man. The people who saw the Lord Jesus thought he was a common,
ordinary man. We know you. We know your mother
and father. We've seen you working in the
carpenter shop. He was a real man. All throughout his earthly
life, the Lord of glory in human flesh, he limited himself to
the power of human flesh. He limited himself to do for
himself only what the rest of us can do for ourselves. Now,
he's the son of God. He's got all power in heaven
and earth, doesn't he? All power. He can do anything that he desires,
but never one time did he perform a miracle for his own benefit.
He performed a miracle to help others, to be merciful to others,
but he never one time performed a miracle for his own benefit.
When he was hungry, what did he do? He sent his disciples
into town to buy food. He didn't create it. You know,
he didn't take a boy's lunch and create food for himself and
his disciples like he did for that hungry crowd. When he saw
them as sheep not having a shepherd, he created food to feed them,
didn't he? But not for himself. When he was hungry, he sent his
disciples to buy food. When he was thirsty, the creator
did not create a glass of water for himself. He asked a sinful
woman to draw water and give him a drink of water. He did
that because that's what you and me would have to do. The
Savior did all that so that he would be a real man. Because
if we're going to have a representative, it's got to be a real man. God can't be my representative.
God's spirit, I'm flesh. God can't be my representative.
If I'm going to be saved by a representative man, he's got to be a real man.
So the Son of God became a real man. He was made under the law
so that he could obey the law as the representative for his
people. God made the first man Adam with the same nature that
all of us have. We all came from Adam. We all
have his nature, his flesh, so that Adam would be our representative. We all would do what Adam, our
representative, did. And here's a clear picture or
evidence of that. God gave Adam one law, one rule. Don't eat of that tree for the
knowledge of good and evil. And when Eve ate it, nothing
happened. She was in her representative
Adam the same way you and me are. She was in Adam. But when
Adam ate the fruit, the whole human race died. We all died
in Adam because we all did what Adam did. We sinned in Adam. So when Adam died, we did too.
Because Adam was our representative. Adam is the one that separated
us from God. Now, the only way we can be made righteous, the
only way we can be brought back to God and be saved from our
sin is if another representative man comes along and undoes for
his people what Adam did to them. Another representative man has
to do it. So God the Father made his son flesh, so he'd be the
second Adam. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
second representative man in all of his race, all of God's
elect, all those that the Father gave the Son to save, they all
did what their representative did. Just as surely as we did
what Adam did, God's people have done what Christ did, because
we're in him, he's our representative. When Christ obeyed the law, so
did all of his people. That's the only way you and I
could ever keep the law, is by being in Christ. Christ is our
representative and he kept it for us. And the Lord Jesus could
do that for his people because he was made a real man. He is
made with our nature, yet without sin. So he could be our representative. And since he's a real man, he
also can be made sin for his people. Sin can't be transferred
to God, can it? But it can be transferred to
another man. And since he was a real man, sin could be transferred
by the father from his people to his son. And since the son
was a real man, he could suffer and die in the place of his people. God can't die, can he? But a
man can. So God the son was made flesh,
made to be a man, so he could suffer and die for the sins of
his people, to satisfy God's justice against the sin of his
people. Now everyone who's been given saving faith in Christ,
they believe on that man, the God man, the son of God and the
son of man. He became flesh to do for me
what I could never do for myself. That's the one I'm trusting to
be my salvation. The only way a sinner like me
could be justified is if Christ died for me. The only way a sinner
like me could ever be righteous is if Christ obeyed the law for
me. That's what Christ did when he came in the flesh. And everybody
that God saved believes that. All right, number two, who has
believed our report? Has anybody believed our gospel?
Well, I'll tell you who has. Real sinners who need a real
savior. This message is not for the self-righteous.
This message is not for those who are, you know, pretty good.
This message is for sinners, real sinners. Verse three says,
he was 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. Now like I said a minute
ago, when Adam fell in the garden, we all fell in him. We all sinned
when Adam sinned, we all became sinners when Adam sinned. Sinners who can do nothing but
sin. The only thing we can do is sin. Because the only nature that
our fathers had to pass on to us was the nature of Adam. It's a dead, sinful nature. And
all it can do is sin. And I know this. We commit so
many different sins, don't we? We call, you know, different
acts. We do all so many different sins.
It's just astounding. How many ways we found sin, isn't
it? That's what we are. But you know
what our greatest sin is? I mean the whopper of them all.
It's unbelief. It's unbelief. It's our refusal,
our obstinate refusal to trust Christ because we want to trust
something, just anything that we do. I mean with that, we want
to trust, just give me something. Give me some credit. Human beings,
the fallen sin nature that we have insists on doing at least
something to contribute to our salvation. That's the greatest sin. The sin of unbelief is the only
sin that will damn anybody. The only one. And our sin nature
is revealed by what we think of Christ. Now that's where the
rubber meets the road. What think ye of Christ? That's the question. And I tell
you by nature what we think. We think, eh, he's not much. He's not much. That's why our children think
Frank drones on forever and ever and ever and this is so boring.
It's because by nature we don't think he's much. And since we
don't think he's much, we hate him. We despise him. The reason men don't believe
the gospel, it's not because they don't understand. Now you
all are smart, intelligent, capable people. You understand the words
that I'm saying to you. You understand these ideas and
these concepts. You understand what I'm saying.
The gospel's not hard to understand. Our children understand the gospel.
The reason men don't believe the gospel is because they hate
Christ. The reason people reject this gospel and reject Christ
and don't believe on Him is because we don't esteem Christ to be
worthy of us. See, we've got everything backwards.
We don't esteem Him to be worthy of us. And this is what happened
when our Lord came in the flesh. He came to the Jews, He came
unto His own, and what happened? His own received Him not. They
hid their faces from Him. They just kept refusing to see. They just kept refusing, kept
refusing, kept refusing, until the Lord gave them to judicial
blindness, so that as a nation, they cannot see Him to this day.
They can't. The Lord gave them judicial blindness. But now listen. I don't think anybody here is
part of national Israel. And that's not really, you know,
the point. I want you to understand, I'm
not saying God won't save a Jew, absolutely he will, absolutely.
But as a nation, they're in judicial blindness. But that's not really
the issue for you and me, is it? The people who lived during
our Lord's earthly ministry are not the only ones who despised
and rejected Christ. You and I do the same thing and
worse, worse, today, when we hear Christ preached and refuse
to believe on it. We're sinning against greater light. Now we
have the completed Word of God. Now we see the finished work
of Christ. We sin against greater light today, when we refuse to
believe on it when we hear him preach. Oh, I understood what
the preacher said, I'm just not gonna believe it. By nature, I understand this,
we can't see Christ. I understand that. We're spiritually
blind. But to make matters worse, we
refuse to see. by hiding our eyes. We refuse
to see. My little grandson, he does things
that he knows, you know, he's not supposed to do them, but
he likes it, you know, to do them anyway. And his mama starts
coming and telling him, don't do that. You know what he does?
He scoots around so he can't see her. And then he turns and smiles
at her like, what? I wasn't doing anything. That's what we do. We turn. We turn our face from
God Almighty so that I won't see. That is the clearest evidence
of our sin nature. It's our refusal to see. We just
don't even want to make eye contact with him, do we? Now, if I have
a sin nature and I can't do anything but sin, then this is just obvious. If I can't do anything but sin,
then I can't do anything to atone for my sin. I can't do anything
to save myself. And if God has saved you, I tell
you the first thing he showed you, you're in trouble. You're in trouble. God showed
you you're a sinner and you don't have any hope in anything that
you can do. There's no hope in you. Before
God saves anyone, he shows you, you're in trouble. And He shows
you how much you need Christ to come and do for you what you
can't do for yourself. I need Christ to come and obey
the law for me. I need Him to die for me. I need
Him to call me. I need Him to give me grace.
I need Him. If God saves somebody, their
only hope is in Christ. Their only hope. It's not in
my obedience, it's His. It's in his sacrifice. If God
saved us, now this is a gospel that's good news for real sinners.
God has taught us our need of Christ. All right, number three. Who has believed our report?
Everyone for whom Christ died. Verse four says, surely he hath
borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem
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
were healed. Now before God created anything,
the Father gave a people to his son to save. Those people are
God's elect. Scripture calls them God's sheep.
The Savior calls them my people, my children. The Father gave
those people to his son. And not one of those people can
ever perish. Not one of them. It's impossible
for them to be lost because the blood of Christ paid for their
sin. And it would be unjust and unholy for the father to condemn
them if Christ has already paid for their sin. Their sin that's
been paid. So God's justice, God's character,
His holiness demands that those people be given eternal life
and they can never be condemned. And not one of God's like, I
know we're born lost, aren't we? We're born as these sheep
that Isaiah talks about have gone astray. We've turned everyone
to his own way. We're born as those wandering
lost sheep. But Christ the Savior, he suffered
and died for those people to put their sin away, to pay for
their sin debt. And now he lives so that he goes and finds every
one of those lost sheep. He'll go find them. He'll go
find them. He'll reveal himself to them in the preaching of the
gospel. He'll find them and he'll bring them home. Christ died
to purchase their salvation and he lives to apply that salvation
to their hearts. Like verse six says, we've all
gone astray. We've turned everyone to his
own way. See, that's our problem. We're trying to find our own
way instead of God's way. And the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all. Now that word born up there in
verse four, surely has born our griefs. That word means to lift
off. to lift off. The burden is there
and Christ lifted it off and he took it away. He lifted their
sin, the sin of his people off of him and he put it all on him. He took it all into his own body
upon the tree. Look over 2 Corinthians chapter
5. We quote this verse in nearly
every message we preach, but let's look at it. This is God's
word, let's look at it. This is what this verse means,
how he had borne our griefs. For he, God the Father, hath
made him sin. Not just to be sin, those words
to be have been added by the translators. The Father made
his son sin for us. Him who knew no sin, that we
might be made the righteousness of God in him. Christ bore the
sin of his people because the father made his son sin. Didn't make him a sinner, he
made him sin. He made him a mass of sin, all
of the sin of all of his people in one place, in one person upon
Calvary's tree. And when the father made his
son sin, he punished his son fully for that sin. He punished
him as sin itself. All the holy wrath of God poured
out upon him. Now that is the one and only
way our sin can be taken away from us and be purged. It's by
Christ being made sin for us. People argue about that all they
want. I don't got no time for you if you wanna argue about
that. That's the only hope a sinner has. Christ has made sin for
me. That's the only way my sin cannot be on me. is that the
Father put it on Christ, and He put it away with His precious
blood. And if the sin of God's elect
is purged, then there is absolutely no reason a holy God will ever
condemn them. You see, Christ did all this
great work as a substitute for somebody in particular, a specific
people. Isaiah said, He hath borne our
griefs. He's carried our sorrows. He
was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was on Him. And by His stripes,
we are healed. That's not talking about just
everybody in the whole human race. That's talking about specific
people, isn't it? Well, who is the are? Who is the we there? It's God's elect. It's all those
that the Father gave His Son to save. And here's the result
of all that, for that Christ obedience. His death for that
specific people, here's the result of it. Peace with God. God's not angry with his people
anymore. You know why? He poured out all
that anger and all that fury, all that punishment, all that
chastisement, he poured it out upon his son. Now God's justice
is satisfied. Christ, our sacrifice, did not
die. He did not give up the ghost and die until the price had been
paid. And when justice was satisfied,
then and only then, he gave up the ghost. There's no more need
for suffering. The price has been paid. So what's
left? Peace with God. God's not angry
anymore. Now our souls are defiled, they're
diseased by sin, but the death of Christ has healed healed us
from all of our sin sickness. I tell you this often, sin is
not just a breaking of the rules. It's not just, well, I broke
the law and now this is on the books. It's a disease. It's a
disease that kills the soul. But by his stripes, we're healed,
healed, made whole, given eternal life in Christ. And all those
people that the father gave to his son, they're going to hear
the gospel. You know, the Savior's out seeking them. He's going
to bring them to the place where the gospel's preached, and he's
going to find them. He's going to reveal himself
to them, and they're going to believe. The Holy Spirit will
see to it. Don't you worry. You know, I
told you about every preacher asking this question. Who's believed
our report? Does it do any good? Does the
preaching of the gospel, does it do any good for anybody? or
don't you worry, it will. God will see to it. God will
see to it. He'll bring his people and they'll
hear, they'll believe. All right, lastly, who hath believed
our report? It's everybody who trusts in
the victorious, successful Savior. Verse seven, he was oppressed
and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He has
brought us a lamb to the slaughter, and a sheep before her shearers
is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. He didn't protest. He
went willingly, didn't he? He was taken from prison and
from judgment. Who shall declare his generation? For he was cut
off out of the land of the living, for the transgression of my people.
Who? My people. God's elect, the people
that the father gave the son, for the transgression of my people
was he stricken. And he made his grave with the
wicked, and with the rich in his death, because he had done
no violence. Neither was there any deceit in his mouth. He has
made sin, but he's a sinless savior, wasn't he? There's no
deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
him. It pleased the Lord to crush
him. He hath put him to grief, but now shall 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 hands. He shall see the travail of his
soul and shall be satisfied by his knowledge of my righteous
servant justify many for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore,
while I divide him a portion with the great and he should
divide the spoil with the strong because he had poured out his
soul into death and he was numbered with the transgressors and he
bear the sin of many and he made intercession for the transgressors. Everyone who trusts the Christ
of the Bible. I'm not talking about another
Jesus that Paul says is being preached. Anybody who trusts
the Christ of the Bible, as he's been pleased to reveal himself
to us in his word, they can never be lost. Because the Christ of
the Bible, the Christ that this book declares unto us, he cannot
fail. He can't fail. He can't be discouraged. His blood put away all of the
sin of all of his people, and he will have all of them with
him in glory. He's not gonna suffer for somebody,
go through those birth pains for that, and then see them be
stillborn. No, he will have them with him in glory. And you know
how I know that so? Because Christ the Savior, the
one who suffered and died and rose again, he's the reigning
king. He's already defeated all of
his enemies. Already he has defeated them. So none of his enemies
can pluck his people from his hand. Isaiah writes here, it
pleased the Lord to bruise him. It pleased the Father's holy
character to crush his, that's what that word bruise means,
to crush his son. His son was made sin for his
people. But now, the Father's justice is satisfied because
of the death of Christ, our sin bearer. And I know that. I know he's going to save his
people. I know he'll have them all, but he will have everyone
that the father gave him. He'll have everyone he suffered
and died for at Calvary. God's elect can never perish. They can never be condemned because
our substitute was already condemned for our iniquities. He made them
without sin. That's what justified means.
It means without sin. He justified many. He justified
all of his people. So they can never be condemned.
They can never perish. This is what Isaiah tells us.
He shall, there's no doubt about it. He shall see his seed. He
shall see the travail of his soul. See, it pleased the Lord
to bruise him. It pleased the father to crush
his son. That was his pleasure. It pleased
his justice. It pleased his holiness. It pleased his hatred of sin.
But you know what else it pleased? The death of Christ also pleased
the Father's mercy. It pleased the Father's grace.
See, the death of Christ, it pleased the Father. Now it made
him right to show mercy to sinners like you and me. The pleasure
of the Lord is going to prosper in the hand of Christ. You know
what the pleasure of the Lord is? The salvation of his people. They're going to be saved. they're
gonna come to faith in Christ. The Spirit's gonna bring them
to that. Christ died and then he rose again, and he ascended
back to the Father, where right now he makes intercession for
those transgressors. See, he took their sin. He makes
intercession for them. And you know how he does it?
How does he make intercession for those transgressors that
he suffered and died for? Showing the Father the scars
in his hands, in his feet, in his side. Those scars say Christ
was sacrificed. He died and he rose again. Those scars say justice is satisfied. That's how he makes intercession
for his people. And everyone who has Christ revealed to them
that way, that savior, that reigning victorious king, those people
believe our report. They believe our preaching of
Christ and they rejoice in it. Tell me more of him. Tell me
more of him. It's my prayer that you and me
both believe him. Believe him. He was believed
to our report. There is nothing I desire more in this world than to see you believe on Christ,
to see the Spirit give you faith in Christ. I feel responsible
for you. I'm not responsible to save your
soul. I can't touch your soul, but
I'm responsible to preach Christ to you. And there's nothing I
want more. If he's going to be pleased to
reveal himself to us, this is how he's going to do it. The
preaching of his words. Gary said in his prayer, this
is the only way we can know you. is preaching his word. Well, by God's grace, that's
what we'll keep doing. All right, let's bow together. Our Father, how we thank you
for this high, glorious mountain that's in the mountain range
of your word, such a clear, clear declaration of Christ our Savior.
Father, I pray that you bless your word as it's been preached. Father, take your word and apply
it to the hearts of your people, that we might see Christ, that
we might believe in him, that we might come to him, that we
might continue trusting him, continue looking, continue looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. And Father, I ask
you for this great blessing for us here. These poor sinners here,
Father, that you'd save us, that you keep us, that you teach us,
that you'd be our teacher, that you continue to bless us with
your word. This is a great blessing for ourselves. It's a blessing
we do not deserve. But father, for your great namesake,
would you get glory to your name by saving us here? Father, it's in Christ's name
for his sake and his glory. We pray. Amen. Well, this is a fitting song
for us to close that message. Page number 477. Let's stand
together and sing at Calvary. Years I spent in vanity and pride,
Caring not my Lord was crucified, Knowing not it was for me He
died on Calvary. Mercy there was great and grace
was free. Pardon there was multiplied to
me. There my burdened soul found
liberty at Calvary. By God's word at last my sin
I learned, Then I trembled at the law I'd spurned, Till my
guilty soul imploring turned to Calvary. Mercy there was great and grace
was free. Pardon there was multiplied to
me. There my burdened soul found
liberty at Calvary. Now I owe to Jesus everything. Now I gladly own Him as my King. Now my raptured soul can only
sing of Calvary. Mercy there was great and grace
was free. Pardon there was multiplied to
me. There my burdened soul found
liberty at Calvary. O the love that drew salvation's
plan, O the grace that brought it down to man, O the mighty
gulf that God did span at Calvary. Mercy there was great and grace
was free. Pardon there was multiplied to
me. There my burdened soul found
liberty at Calvary.