Come back to Isaiah 52. Isaiah,
as we have seen over the last few weeks, has been giving words
of comfort. He says in chapter 40, Comfort
ye, comfort ye my people, faithful of God. He's been giving words
of comfort to Israel. And the Israel that he's giving
this comfort to is everyone that believes God. Not just that nation,
that little nation called Israel, but the true Israel of God. That's
who he's talking to. That's who this really applies
to. The true Israel of God. Paul said, we are the circumcision.
We are the true Israel of God, which worship God in the spirit
and have no confidence in the flesh. That's the true Israel
of God. You who believe the gospel. You
are a true Jew. You are the true circumcision
before God. So he's been giving words of
comfort, and he's been telling them that God would deliver them,
that he would not leave them captive, he would not leave his
people in captivity. God will not do that. He's been
speaking words of comfort. Now here he tells who is going
to deliver. See, in Isaiah 42, he spoke of
his servant. And every now and then, in speaking
these words of comfort, this name comes up, my servant. This
is the one that's going to deliver you. This is how I'm going to
do it. And that's what we want to see
tonight. This is the way it's going to happen. I'm going to
deliver you by my servant. And he's going to deliver you,
listen, not just from some fleshly enemies like the Babylonians,
That's no challenge from God to deliver me out of the hands
of another man. My real enemies, my real enemy is sin, self. I am my worst enemy. I learned
that some time ago after hearing the gospel. I learned that one
of my worst enemies is me. I am my worst problem. If I could
take care of me, I could get rid of a whole lot of problems,
a whole lot of But he's going to take care of sin and the curse
of the law? That's real. I know many people
don't think a thing about the curse of the law. They don't
think any more about it than that dude driving down Interstate
64 going 80 miles an hour. I don't get caught, so what?
That's about the attitude this world has. And I'm telling you
this, the curse of the law is real and it's going to catch
up. with everyone outside of Christ
one day. He's going to catch up with me. But he's going to deliver a multitude
of sinners. And I want to be in that number.
I want to be in that number that he delivers from this curse.
And he's going to deliver from the power of Satan. He's going
to do that. Now he says in verse 1, Behold,
my servant shall yield He shall deal wisely, for he is the wisdom
of God." My servant is the wisdom of God. He's the wisdom of God. He will deal wisely, and he shall
be very attentive and alert to the will of God. He said, my
meat is to do the will of him that sent me. He said in another
place, He wakeneth my ear morning by morning." He's very attentive
to the will and purpose of God on behalf of you who believe
in the gospel, on your behalf. Very attentive to God's will
concerning you. And it says here, "...and he
shall prosper." That's good news, isn't it? He shall prosper. As it says over in verse 10,
"...the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand, I
don't know all that there is to know about the pleasure of
the Lord, but I do know this. Samuel said it pleased God to
make you his people, and making you his people is going to prosper
in his hands. And to put in the way of sin,
in the satisfying of his justice, he shall prosper. He'll not fail
at this. He shall not fail in his work
of redemption. He shall not fail in his work
of saving this multitude of sinners that the Father gave to him.
He will not fail. He will prosper in it, and he will set the captive free. One day we will know what it
really is to be free, free from sin, free from its presence,
free from all evil, free from sin. any attacks of Satan free. We know some who have left our
congregation, whom the Lord has taken home, they're free. They're
free. Taken off the battlefield. I
think of that every time one of the Lord's servants dies,
one of his children, when he takes them home, I think they're
really free now. They're free of this body of
pain. They're free of this body of sin. Free. We'll know what that word really
means. He shall set the captive free, and he shall be exalted,
it says, and extolled. He shall be exalted by his God
and Father. The servant, spoken of here,
is now, right now, as I talk and as you listen, he is right
now seated at God's right hand. I mean, there is a physical person,
man. That's what he said, he said,
touch me, a spirit has to knock flesh and bone. There is a real
physical man sitting at God's right hand, the servant, the
Lord's servant. The man, the God-man, Christ
Jesus, that was despised and rejected of men is now exalted
at the Father's right hand. The work is finished. He went
home, and he said, God has exalted his son. This was the apostles' message
in Acts, as they went about preaching the gospel, as we've been looking
at that. That God hath raised him from
the dead, and exalted him at his right hand. I tell you this,
we are not praying to an imagination. There's a lot of people who pray
to nothing more than their imagination. We are praying to one who's real,
and who sees at God's right hand, and who makes intercession for
us. That's real. All things have been put into
the hands of God's servant. Don't you look over at Philippians.
We've read this many times, but let's read it again. Philippians
chapter two. In Philippians chapter 2, look
in verse 5, let this mind, this attitude, be in you, which was
also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it
not robbery to be equal with God, because he was, but made
himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant. It was not beneath him. He did
not find it beneath him to serve his father, to take upon him
the form of a servant. God was never so honored as when
his son served. And he was made, it says, 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, things in
earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should
confess that Jesus Christ, God's servant, is Lord to the glory
of God the Father. He said, He shall be exalted
and exalted. He's exalted by God the Father
and extolled by men. That's what we're doing tonight.
We are here extolling, worshiping, lifting up the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He is truly worshiped by men
and angels. God said, let all the angels
worship him. Let all men worship him. I know all men don't, but I tell
you this, there are some that do. There are some men and women
right here that worship. the Lord Jesus Christ. We worship
Him. And someday He will be exalted
by all in that new heaven and new earth. He'll receive perfect
worship, perfect worship. And it says here in verse 13,
"...and be very high." Even though He made Himself of no reputation,
He did not go around trying, He did not try to get a name
for Himself. Men that I've ever known are
trying to somehow get a name for themselves, somehow get some
kind of reputation, whether it's being good at this or good at
that or whatever. When the Son of God, God's servant, came into
this world, he sought no reputation. He sought the honor and glory
of his Father in everything he did, everything. But I tell you this. God's going
to make a reputation for him. God's going to make a reputation.
He said every knee's going to bow and every tongue's going
to confess that he's Lord to the glory of God the Father.
He's going to give him a reputation. That man that was despised and
rejected, that man that will carry grief and sorrow, that
man is going to have a reputation. He's going to be highly exalted.
God the Father is going to speak to us. He's going to speak to
us. He's going to be higher than the kings of the earth. Then
it says, As many were astonished at thee. They were absolutely
astonished at him. They were astonished at his words
when he spoke. They said, How knoweth this man
letters, having never learned? They were astonished when he
was twelve years old, standing in the temple, absolutely dumbfounding
those scribes and pharisees. They were dumbfounded by him.
They couldn't answer him. The wisdom of God, 12-year-old
kids standing here, the wisdom of God speaking to them, they
were just dumbfounded. They were astonished at his words.
They said, never a man spake like this man. Well, they got
that right. Never a man spake like this man.
And they were astonished at his miracles. You can imagine some of the things. Lazarus! Lazarus, come out! Come out of that grave! They'd
have astonished you if you'd have been standing there. Bob Ram or something. That would
have been astonishing, really. You see somebody that you know
was dead. Dead long enough to where he
was stinking, smelling up the place. And he says, come out
of there. That was astonishing. The disciples
on that boat one day, the wind and the rain, and it was raging,
and they were scared. They thought they was going to
die. They said, don't you care that we perish? And he stood up and
he said, be still. Can you imagine being on that boat
and seeing that? Can you imagine a storm, a raging storm about
to sink your boat, and by his word, it stops? They said, what manner of man
is this that even the winds and the sea obey? I wish I would
get that amazed about it. I wish that I would get so amazed
about it that I would be consumed with it every day. I wish you
would too. What manner of man? I tell you
what manner of man it is. It's God. It's God's man. It's
God's servant right here. This is God. He healed all manner
of diseases. He told that man with the wizard
hand, he said, stretch forth your hand. And he did. He gave sight to the blind. To
the lame, he enabled them to walk. They were astonished at
the miracles that they saw. They were astonished at his birth.
Is this the Messiah? Born to such parents, born in
poverty, can this be the Messiah? They were astonished at his birth,
and they were astonished at his dress, common. When they looked
at him, there was no beauty that they should desire. This is the
Son of God. If you and I were able to see
him physically when he walked on this earth, we would not be
impressed with him. You would not be impressed. He
said there was no beauty that we should desire. And they were
astonished, he says, at his visage, at his appearance. I believe this. I believe before
he gets to where it says it's so marred, but I believe that
where he was under such grief and such sorrow, that we can't
comprehend. You know, we've had some grief,
and we've had some sorrow. I mean, we've experienced some
of that, and some people have experienced it more than others.
But he experienced grief perfectly, to the fullest extent. God cuts
our grief off. He lets our grief go so far,
because we can't handle it in this planet. He took the full
measure of grief. He took the full measure of sorrow. He knew what that was. He took
the full measure of it. And I tell you this, I think
it had an effect on his appearance. You ever see someone that's been
under a lot of grief? You ever see someone that's been under
a lot of sorrow, and it ages them, doesn't it? It makes them
look like they're 10, 15, 20 years older, if they've been
under a lot of it for a long time. And I believe that's part
of it. I believe when he was 30 years
old, he probably looked This is just my guess at it, but because
of the sorrow and the grief that he constantly carried, not once
in a while, and it was not just one person, this was all the
elect of God. He carried every sorrow I had.
He carried every sorrow every believer has. He carried that
sorrow. Can you imagine what a load,
can you imagine what a load this man carried? And he carried it
to the fullest extent, and he carried it every day, every minute
of the day. It never let up. I'm telling
you, the sorrow and grief never let up on him. They were astonished, astonished
at his vision, at his appearance. And it says that he was so mourned,
so mourned. When they got done with him,
and they nailed him to the cross, his body was so mutilated, I
believe it was so mutilated, that he was unrecognizable. I
believe it was that bad. Because it said his vigi was
so marred more than any, it said more than any man, more than
any man that had ever been saved. And he was whipped, His back
was lacerated. They slapped him. They pulled
the hair off his face. Took that crown of thorns and
just, and they hit him. They busted him. They said, tell
us, tell us who hit you. Have you ever seen anybody beaten
up? Have you ever seen anybody in the, I've seen it growing
up in the hospital. I've seen a few guys beaten up.
I saw a guy beat up one time and I thought, man, looked like
a truck hit him. I mean, his face was swollen and black eyes. When they got done with him,
when they were finished and they knelt into that cross, it didn't
look like the same man. That's how much pain and suffering,
and I can't describe this because there was more soul suffering
than physical suffering. He bore our sins in his body
on the tree. We can't even comprehend that. When they saw him hanging on
the cross, they were astonished at his beaten, stripped, bleeding
body. And, you know why that was done? In
verse fifteen, so shall he sprinkle many nations. There's a tree, I was reading
this the other night, and I should have written it down. There's
a tree over in history, over in that land, a balsam tree,
I think it's called. They can split it, and you get
that balm, they call it the balm of Gilead, and that was a healing
balm. They could use it on things.
You've heard of the balm of Gilead. When he shed his blood, there's
the balm of Gilead. There's the healing stream right
there. There's a fountain filled with blood. blood of God's servant. Where sinners can plunge beneath
that flood and wash all their guilty stains. So shall he sprinkle
many... Listen, not just one little nation.
Not just that one little nation called Israel. So shall he sprinkle
many nations. We are a part of that sprinkling. We are benefactors of the sprinkling
of the blood of God's servant. Here we sit, believing God, and
I believe God, and I believe God, the Lord's revealed the
gospel to me, I believe He's revealed the gospel to you, and you believe
the gospel. And I tell you what, this blood
right here is sprinkled on our carpet. You know why you have
a clear conscience? If you have one at all, if you
have a real clear conscience, now I'm talking about a real
one, it's because of this right here. God's cleansed. He's cleansed. With his blood he shall sprinkle
many nations, and kings shall shut their mouths at him." Astonished
still, when God reveals who this man is, even kings. You know, it says, not many mighty,
not many noble, but does not say not any. And there are some
kings, Gentile kings of this earth. He says here, they'll
shut their mouths at him. Now, I know we haven't seen many
do that, but I tell you what, we haven't seen the end yet either
have we? Who knows what will happen here? Who knows? But he
said, kings shall shut their mouth at him. When the gospel
is revealed, even kings will shut up and bow to him. Even
the great men of the earth will have to bow to God's service. Now, he says here, and I'm not
going to handle all these verses. We have time, but it would take
too long. But he says here now in verse
1, Now who hath believed our report? And to whom is the arm
of the Lord revealed? Now this verse is quoted two
times. Once by our Lord in John 12,
and once by Paul in Romans 10 verse 16. And it's quoted as
a complaint from Isaiah to the Lord. He said, Lord, who hath
believed our report? Isaiah is complaining here. He
said, Who hath believed our report? Who has believed this message
of grace and mercy and complete redemption by God's servant? Who has believed it? I know this,
not many have. Not many of those Jews, that
Jewish nation, not many did. And you know this, not many in
this day believe this report. Not many. I don't run into anybody
on the street. I've worked in three or four
different places, factories. And I've never ran into anyone
that told me this gospel. I haven't. That's the honest
truth. I've not run into anyone that sat down and talked to me
about this gospel written here in Isaiah 53. Not many. Not many. But I tell you, there
are some that do believe. I'll tell you why they believe.
Because the arm of the Lord has been revealed to them. God set them apart. and revealed
the gospel to them. Now he says here, for he shall
grow up, my servant will grow up as a tender plant. They didn't
expect that. They didn't expect that at all. It has a root out
of dry grass, like an old dry cracked root out in the sun.
He has no form or comeliness. There's nothing about him that
would attract us. And when we shall see him, there's no beauty
that would attract us. You would think, now, that the
Son of God, God's servant, coming into this world, that that would
be the most beautiful person there ever was. Wouldn't you
think that? Well, if he didn't have to bear our sins, it would
have been that way. If you take away our sins, it would have
been that way. But he's despised and rejected of men. He's a man
of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were,
our faces from Him. We were ashamed of Him. It didn't
have anything to do with Him. Now, if you'll notice here, Isaiah
includes himself, doesn't he? Isaiah does not say, and you
hid your face from Him, and you despised Him, and you rejected
Him. No, he says this, we. He includes himself, because
he knows that this servant is dying for God's children, for
God's people, for God's elect. And he believes he's among that
number. And he, Isaiah here, he includes himself, we esteemed
him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows, yet we, not you, we, did esteem him
strictly as spitting of God in the flesh. But God's servant
was wounded. They took that spear and they
drove it in his side. They took the nails and hammered
them through his hand. They took the nails and hammered
him through. He was actually wounded. I caused
his death. When I look at that, I think,
I'm the cause of his death. And I know that God's the first
cause of all things. And God chose sinners to save
in Christ. And when we look at him on that
cross, I'm the reason he had to die. and the reason he had
to die. He was wounded by our transgressions.
He was bruised, beaten for our iniquities. The chastisement
and the torment of our peace was upon him and with his stripes. Oh, those stripes on his back,
those stripes where he was whipped, that whip that lacerated his
back, laid his back wide open. That's my healing. That's my
healing. Now, all of us like sheep gone
astray, we've turned everyone to our own way. The Lord hath
laid on his servant the iniquity of us all. Who's us? His elect. You know that. You
know that. He's not talking about every
son of Adam. If he did that, no one would be lost. But he
laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed more than
any man was ever oppressed. He was afflicted, yet he opened
not his mouth, willing to do this, willing for this to happen
to him. He opened not his mouth. He was brought as a lamb to the
slaughter, and as a sheep before her shears his dung, so he opened
not his mouth in rebellion. He opened not his mouth in protest. He was silent. Every time he
was taken a blow, he never said a word. When they hung him on
the cross, he said he never threatened them. He didn't say, I'll get
you. I'll get you, but it's no use.
He said, Father, forgive me. They don't know what they're
doing. Isn't that amazing? Isn't that amazing? Forgive these
bunch of wretches. These bunch of God-hating rebels,
they don't know what's going on. They don't know what's happening. We do now. Many of them do now. He said they don't know what's
going on at all. He openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison and
from judgment. Who shall declare his generation?
I tell you this, I don't know all the meanings of this. But
who shall declare that number that shall be saved by his suffering
and blood and death? Who can number that generation? He was cut off out of the land
of the living, and here's the reason why. For the transgression
of my people, my elect, was he, was my servant, He made his grave with the wicked,
identified with us, and with the rich and his dead.
Because he had done no violence, neither was there any deceit
in his mouth. Yet, even though he had done
no violence, and yet there was no deceit in his mouth, yet it
pleased the Lord to bruise him. Now listen, he wasn't just bruised
by a bunch of upset Jews and Romans. He was bruised by God. Now I could hit you, you could
hit me, and we could give each other a bruise. Now what if God
hit you with a full blow? What kind of bruise is that?
God Almighty, justice, drew back. And with the force of almighty
power, bruised him. Bruised him, it says. Yet it
pleased the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief. Who put him to grief? You see,
all the Jews put him to grief. And they did. It was a grief
just to be around them, I'm sure. Just a grief to be around people
like God. But he said, thou shalt, thou
shalt. He had put him to grief. God
put him to grief. You know, he can take something
from us and cause us to grieve. But he made him something. He
made him to be sin. And then put him to hell. He
took hell. That's what he did. Put him to
grief. When thou shalt make his soul
an offering for sin, when he does that, and after that's over
with, after this dark hour is over with, he shall see his sins,
the ones he's dying for, the ones he's being bruised for,
the ones whose sins he carries. He shall prolong his days. That's
right, he's everlasting. He's not dead now. This man is
not dead now. He's alive forevermore. And the
pleasure, that's what's going on right now. The Redeemer has
died. He cried his finish. He went
back to the Father. He's seated at God's right hand.
And now, the pleasure of the Lord is in his hands. of the Lord shall prosper, it
says, shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail,
of the birth pains of his soul. That's right, you and I cause
him a lot of pain. We cause him a lot of birth pains.
These women, mothers, know something about that. We cause his soul
birth pains. He's given birth to us. That's
what it was like, giving birth to us. And this is what it took.
This is what it took for you and I to be born of God. This
had to happen. And when this happens, he shall
be satisfied. You know why? He will not have
any stillborn children. None. I had a great aunt. Had 14 kids. Eight of them died. Most of them at birth. Some of
them were stillborn. Some of them died a little later. There's no way she could have
been satisfied. That can't happen. A woman who
carries that for nine months, and then that happens. But listen,
he shall be satisfied. He won't have any stillborn children.
None of them will die. None of them will perish. By
his knowledge, his infinite knowledge, shall my righteous servant justify
me. And he knows who he died for. He knows why he died and
for whom he died. For here's the reason why. He
shall bear their nick. He bore our sins in his body
on the cross. He was made to be sin, it says,
for us. It says our sins were laid, the iniquity of us all
was laid on him. He took our sins in himself and
suffered the consequences of it. It's like I thought about
this today when I was down visiting Annie and I came back home and
I was looking at this, I thought as an example, What if I were
able to walk in that room and go over to Andy and take everything
that's wrong with me and pull it into myself, and him get up
and walk out of there? That's what he did. I can't explain
it, but he took my sins. It says he bore my sins in his
body. Somehow he took them into himself.
He bore the penalty of it, and I was set free. And every one
of his people said, that's the truth. He shall bear, not just
the legal aspect of it, but I mean the actual bearing, penalty,
suffering of it. He knows it. Therefore, he says,
will I divide him a portion with the grain. And he shall divide
the spoil with the straw. That's us. He's made us straw.
We are made strong in him, because he hath poured out his soul unto
death, just like I would take this water and pour it out. He
took his soul and poured it out unto death. And he was numbered with the
transgressors. He got in line. He got in the
same line I'm in. There's a whole line of transgressors,
and he walked over and stood in that line that had a curse
written all the way down. Because there's a curse over
the head of that whole line, and he purposely and willingly
stepped in that line. In fact, he didn't just step
in the line, he went to the head of the line, and he took the
whole run of it. That's what he did. He bared
the sin of many and made intercession. He prayed. He prayed. Who'd he pray for? Good people? He prayed for believers? We weren't
believers then. He said he prayed for transgressors.
Those whom he died for were transgressors. And he said, Father, forgive
me. Forgive me. And you know what?
He did. He did. Okay, Mark.