We're going to Isaiah chapter
53, and we'll read from verse one.
Isaiah 53 and verse one. 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 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 her shearers
is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison
and from judgment, and who shall declare his generation? 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 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 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 of the travail of
his soul and 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
bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. The Apostle Peter tells the church
how in the Old Testament, the Spirit of Christ in the prophets,
that is in prophets such as Isaiah and in such as this prophecy,
how that the Spirit of Christ in the prophets testified beforehand
the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow. And I'm sure that Peter had in
mind such passages as this wonderful chapter 53 of Isaiah. I mentioned in my little introduction
yesterday that it is the Everest of Christology in the Old Testament. It supplies not only a detailed
foretelling of the events in Christ's life, the life of the Lord Jesus, it
speaks of particular incidents, particular events, the times,
the life and times of the Lord Jesus Christ, especially as he
approached the cross. But also in this chapter, because
I'm not going to think too much about those events today, but
in this chapter we have a clear and explicit explanation presented
to us for the reason for all that the Lord endured. as our
surety and in his office as mediator and in his role as redeemer. And what I want to stress for
us in the context of the overview of this Book of Isaiah is that
here the prophets understood and presented and taught the
hearers, the listeners, the readers of their own age what it was
that they were to anticipate and expect and believe in concerning
the Messiah. Here the explanation is provided. This is as fine an explanation
dare I say, of the meaning and purpose of the death of the Lord
Jesus Christ on the cross as is found in the Gospels and the
Epistles of Paul. Isaiah was behind no one in his
appreciation of the significance of the work of Jesus Christ for
his people. I have said in the past that
I believe it to be a good measure of a person's understanding of
gospel doctrine. How they are able to speak about
the cross. What they understand about what
happened on the cross and what transpired during those three
hours of darkness. It's key to knowing what a person
believes if they have an understanding of what happened at the cross. And Isaiah tells us that God's
righteous servant, that is the Messiah that these people looked
forward to, that is the Lord Jesus Christ because Christ and
Messiah is just the same word in different languages. Isaiah tells us that the Messiah
was bruised for our iniquities. And he tells us that by his stripes
we are healed. And he says that the Lord hath
laid on him the iniquity of us all, for he shall bear their
iniquities. Here Isaiah was teaching his
age, teaching the Old Testament saints, the Old Testament believers,
and teaching all the generations that would follow, including
us, because we look into the Scriptures and we find the meaning
of the Lord's death from this passage as we do from the New
Testament. Here Isaiah was teaching these
believers the spiritual purpose and meaning of Christ's suffering
and death. Here, they and we learn that
we have a substitute and a representative, a holy, spotless, obedient servant
standing in the place of sinners, bearing their guilt, carrying
their sin, enduring the punishment that they ought to have endured. And here we also learn about
the imputation of sin, from the guilty to the just, and the transfer
of righteousness from the holy one to the sinner. This is the
heart of the gospel. This is the essence of Christ's
work upon the cross, and it was written with clarity, accuracy,
and honesty by Isaiah 700 years BC. Written to the remnant people. Written to them in their pre-exile
days. for their comfort and encouragement
and help through all the problems and all the loss and all the
sadness and the sorrow that they would experience, written for
their spiritual growth and edification and comfort, written for them
to believe that they might have faith in the Messiah that was
yet to come. Let us move from Isaiah's writing
forward to the time of the Lord Jesus Christ and shortly thereafter. 750 years after Isaiah wrote
these things, there was a man travelling in a chariot on the
road between Jerusalem and Gaza. That's a pretty tough road to
travel right now and here this man was travelling on that very
same road, the road between Jerusalem and Gaza and he was an Ethiopian. He was an important man, he was
an important man in the court of Queen Candace of Ethiopia
and he had been to Jerusalem to worship. And as he journeyed
in his chariot, he read the prophet Isaiah. He read the words that
had been written so many hundreds of years before and he read this
very passage that we have just read together today. Acts chapter
8 and verse 32 tells us this. The place of the scripture which
he read was this. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter
and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so he opened not his
mouth. And when that Ethiopian man read
this verse, when he came to this verse, he was puzzled. He was
puzzled about who this verse was referring to. Well, the Lord would not have
this Ethiopian remain ignorant. So he sent an evangelist, he
sent a preacher, he sent Philip, the evangelist, to meet this
man and as his chariot passed along that road from Jerusalem
to Gaza, Philip ran at the side of the chariot and he called
up to the man as he read, do you understand what you're reading? The man replied, How can I, except
some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he
would come up and sit with him, and asked of him, Whom speaketh
the prophet this, of himself, or of some other man? And we
read in verse 35 of chapter 8 of Acts, Then Philip opened his
mouth, and began at the same place, and preached unto him
Jesus. It's Jesus that's in this passage
in Isaiah 53. And it's my intention that today
we too discover or rediscover the Lord Jesus in this passage. And perhaps be reminded of what
our Old Testament brothers and sisters knew and believed concerning
the Messiah. And also, If the Lord will direct
us to have occasion to thank him, that while very few today,
as in Isaiah's day, seem interested in hearing, far less believing,
this report of Jesus Christ, the suffering servant and his
work of redemption, that the Lord has been gracious to open
our eyes and our ears to believe his wonderful gospel, the gospel
of free grace in Christ. So I've got three headings. Again,
they're not evenly divided, so don't worry about the time. Three
headings that I want to leave with you. I want us to think
about Christ, the Messiah who suffers for our sin. Christ,
who justifies our souls. And thirdly, Christ who intercedes
for his church. So these three points, and just
before I move into that, the first one, let me make this by
way of perhaps introduction to all three. I want us to notice
the particular attention that Isaiah gives to the humility
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Saviour, the Messiah, with
great humility came into the world as an insignificant, weak
nobody, a little shoot in a dry ground. And the Lord lived a
life of poverty, frailty, and obscurity. He came as a servant
under covenant obligation to God, And as such, as a servant
was from start to finish, one who lived his life in perfect
conformity to his father's will, well-pleasing to him who looks
upon the heart. But for that humility, the Lord
Jesus Christ was humiliated. to men who look only on the outward
appearances. There was nothing desirable to
be found in him. Isaiah tells us he was despised
and rejected of men throughout his whole life. Men and women
saw no power in him, no benefit, no usefulness in him. What they
saw was a man of sorrows, a man acquainted with grief. A man
racked with pain and filled with sickness and disease. A man possessing
no earthly advantage or outstanding qualities. A poor, pitiful, even
a disconcerting person upon whom they were reluctant even to look. His appearance being so marred
We hid, as it were, our faces from him. And I think that this
is important because I think there's something quite profound
in what Isaiah is saying here. I don't think it necessarily
means that Jesus was outwardly, in his complexion, that he was
ugly or offensive to look at. But what Isaiah is stressing
here is that there was something about the Lord Jesus Christ that
caused people to recoil from him. And then the prophet explains
why the servant appears as he does. His ugliness or the lack
of beauty is not his own, it's ours. The distaste we feel looking
at him is a reflection of our own corruption. All that we despised and rejected
in him came from us. It was because our sin, our iniquity,
our transgressions were laid on him that he appeared to be
so mean, so awful, so repulsive. And this realisation lies at
the heart of spiritual understanding. Unless we understand the corruption
of our own heart, unless we are made to see the corruption of
our own heart, until we discover the sickness in our soul, the
source of all our sorrow, until we see what it is to be fallen
in our nature, We will never see Christ properly. He will always be an offence
to us until we understand that offensiveness is actually ours. We'll never discover our need
of him and we'll never desire the accomplishments of his suffering
and his death until we see ourselves as we really are. Now, we've already noted that
Isaiah has introduced the subject here of representation and substitution. And it's as though he is saying
to these Old Testament believers, the Messiah you are waiting for
is not the conquering king that you imagine. He's a sacrificial
lamb. And that lamb, though spotless
in himself, is the one on whom all sin, and guilt, and iniquity,
and transgression, and sickness, and filth, and grief, and sorrow,
and all these abhorrent qualities of God's elect have to be laid. He says to his Old Testament
readers, you're longing for a Messiah, but when you first see him, you're
not gonna like what you see. And this leads Isaiah to explain
the spiritual and eternal nature of what the Lord Jesus Christ
would do. So here are these three points
then, and I'm going to move through them. The first one you'll remember
was this, that Christ was the Messiah who suffers for our sin.
And I think the power of Isaiah's language and the multiplicity
of the expressions that he uses in this chapter to describe the
work of Christ is really quite amazing. Here he is viewing Christ's
work as our representative and our substitute and these two
features are key to the proper understanding of the gospel.
Preachers who advocate universal atonement and thereafter man's
free will, they neither see Christ dying representatively for his
church, nor substitutionally for our sins. That doesn't come
into their understanding. When the Lord Jesus offered Himself
on the altar of God's wrath, He effectually accomplished redemption
for His people. He reconciled them to God because
He was there in their place. He was the Lamb on the altar
instead of them. He died in our stead. On the cross, Christ bore God's
judgment against our sin, so that once it was paid for, it
was paid forever and it was taken away. Now, the idea, the non-biblical,
the unscriptural idea of universal atonement, that the Lord Jesus
Christ died for everyone without exception, universal atonement,
demolishes the meaning of what Isaiah is telling the people
here. Christ's redemption was real. He paid with precious blood the
price of his purchased people's sin. No more, no less. He did not make salvation possible
for everyone. He did not supply a provisional
payment, a flexible open check, waiting to see how many would
take up this supposed offer of salvation. Isaiah uses at least
eight different concrete constructions to convey the truth of Christ's
effectual redemption. Quickly. The Lord Jesus Christ,
says Isaiah, has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. What
does that say? It says that our griefs, our
offences against God, our sorrows, our sin, our spiritual sickness
was actually placed on Christ and carried by him. Secondly, he was wounded for
our transgressions. What does that say? It says that
the piercing and the bloodletting was for and in response to our
breaches of God's holy law. Thirdly, he says he was bruised
for our iniquities. The blows that he received in
his body, whether it was from the soldiers, whether it was
from the Pharisees, or those greater blows that he endured
in his soul from the rod of God's wrath, corresponded to the sins
that we have committed. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him. He was chastened, he was punished. The punishment that removed and
satisfied, and the Bible word is propitiated, God's wrath against
us was laid directly upon the Lord Jesus Christ as our representative
and substitute. Fifthly, to list a few examples,
Isaiah says our iniquity was laid on him. Paul says, he who
knew no sin was made sin for us. Where is Paul getting that
theology? Well, I don't doubt from his
understanding of the Old Testament scriptures and his reading of
Isaiah 53, just as Peter did. he carried our sin. It was imputed
to him and God's wrath really, justly, lawfully fell upon him
because he was guilty in our place. For the transgression of the
elect was he stricken, says Isaiah. Christ was struck by God on account
of the sin of God's chosen people. Be in no doubt, Isaiah believed
in limited atonement. There is a correspondence, a
correlation between the blows Christ received and the sins
that he carried. One for one. One for one. Isaiah is saying the same thing
over and over again, but the repetition is a reinforcement. It emphasizes with clarity. He
says, his soul is an offering for sin. When Christ stood surety
in the covenant of peace for the debts and obligations of
his bride, he promised to pay to the last penny whatever was
required to settle her account and pay her debts, to clear the
offences that she had committed against God. And Christ's soul
was offered. Christ's life was the ransom. Christ's blood was the price
that was paid. and just to round off the eight
that I've selected, he was numbered with the transgressors and bear
the sin of many. Two thieves were crucified with
Christ, but Christ being numbered with the transgressors means
not those two thieves, but that he was representing his church
as the head of his body and the husband of his bride when he
died there on the cross. He bore the sins of many. doesn't
say he bore the sins of everyone. Those who would suggest such
a thing are speaking contrary to the Word of God. They are
speaking contrary to the testimony. He bore the sins of many, but
the many whose sins he bore were those that were committed into
his care. in the everlasting covenant and
for whom he is substitute and surety. Let these clear statements
from Isaiah reinforce our commitment to distinguishing grace and particular
redemption. Let them reinforce our allegiance
to the scriptural teaching of Christ's representative headship. substitutionary atonement, the
very heart of the gospel and the heart of the covenant of
grace. But not only did Isaiah and his
generation understand Christ's representative and substitutionary
work, but they also understood that their souls were justified
as a result of that. And this is our second point.
This is connected with what has gone before clearly because it's
all part of the one passage and argument that Isaiah is presenting
here. But Christ's representative work,
his representation, was sufficient. It was accepted by God. His atonement accomplished its
purpose. His blood was accepted in payment
of our debt. It cleansed our sin, it purged
our souls, and it made us right with God. Listen, we insist,
we insist on the success of Christ's work. Anything less is insufficient
for our need. Anything less than a successful
work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross won't do us any
good. He did not fail to bring the
many sons for whom he died to glory. He did not lose one that
he died to save. Our gospel is chalk and cheese
from the universal atonement and the claims of free willers
who say that Christ died to make provision for everyone but actually
didn't save anyone because something is yet required from man in order
to effect the work. Our rightness with God, our righteousness
in the sight of God was earned by the successful accomplishment
of Christ's covenant obligations on the cross. especially, says Isaiah, his
bearing the iniquity of his people. It's that which is at the heart
of our peace and reconciliation, our righteousness with God, our
justification. By the Saviour's sacrifice, his
work is fulfilled. By what he did on the cross,
his work is fulfilled. It's a finished work. Therefore,
Under the terms of the covenant, under the terms of the covenant,
the promised covenant blessings of righteousness and justification
flow freely to Christ's people. Christ knew, Christ believed,
Christ trusted His Father to deliver the righteousness promised
to the people purchased for the price paid. He entered into a
deal, he entered into a contract. He made a contract, a covenant
with his father and having completed his part of the bargain, the
Lord Jesus Christ believed and trusted that the father would
complete his and justify those for whom he had died. Isaiah
knew it, he wrote it down and the Old Testament believers,
the remnant people believed it. And the Father did. All that
was promised to Christ in the everlasting covenant upon the
successful accomplishment of his task is certain and sure. God cannot lie. The Father says,
I will divide him a portion with the great and Christ shall have
his reward. With those he has delivered,
he shall share his reward. He redeemed and he justified
us. and we his bride shall with our
husband be granted all the blessings of glory as heirs and joint heirs
together. And finally, here's my last point,
and with this I'm done. And it's not a big one. Christ
the Messiah intercedes for his church. So Christ suffered for
his church, Christ justified his church, and now thirdly,
Christ intercedes for his church. Christ, the Messiah did, in his
death, intercede for us with God. As our representative, he
mediated. There is one mediator between
God and man, the man Christ Jesus. In his death, he mediated between
God and man and reconciled us to his Father. Now, in this sense,
our intercession is as accomplished as our redemption, as our justification,
as our sanctification. It's a finished work. However,
there's a sweet addendum, a sweet PS to this point as well. While we are once and forever
reconciled to God by the death of the sun, Yet the Holy Spirit
would have us know, and he would have us know that the Lord Jesus
Christ continues to audibly, practically, day by day, in an
ongoing way, he continues to represent his church and people
in heaven as our advocate. And the Apostle Paul speaks of
Jesus Christ in his priestly office appearing in the presence
of God for us. And Paul does so to encourage
sinners like us who are aware of our own unworthiness, who
are aware of our own sin, who fall daily, who sin daily, who
grieve in our own souls daily because of the unworthiness of
our flesh and the sinfulness of our being, who desire to go
to the Lord for fresh, reinforcements, fresh affirmations of his cleansing
power. And so for our need, for our
sake, the Apostle Paul tells us that we can come boldly to
the throne of grace for mercy day by day. Because why? And
this is the verse really that I'm emphasising. for he ever
liveth to make intercession for them. And he is able to save
to the uttermost all that come to God by him. He's speaking
about the church, he's speaking about believers, he's speaking
about those who come day by day, feeling the weight of our flesh
and the unworthiness that it carries with us. The old man
and the battles we fight and the troubles and the trials and
the hardship that we face. Brothers and sisters, this is
for you and me. This is the Lord encouraging
us day by day. Isaiah has told us what Christ
has done. It's done, it's a finished work.
But the Apostle Paul, the Holy Spirit, and dare I say, Isaiah
himself, tells the church, keep on coming. Keep on coming to
the Saviour because He is an able intercessor for us day by
day. Our Lord Jesus Christ knows all
our needs. He has experienced all our sin. He has felt all our sicknesses. He knows our sorrow and our grief
and our pain and he is able to sympathise and to comfort and
to console and to encourage us in all our own troubles. He intercedes for us to alleviate
and to lessen the sharpness of our trials and our suffering
and our rebukes and our pain. Brothers and sisters, I'm finished,
I'm done. Our blessings in Jesus Christ
are farther reaching than we realise. and far greater, I am
sure, than we make use of daily for help and support. May the
Lord teach us to trust Him more and to ask for more day by day. Amen. May the Lord bless these
thoughts to us.