In studying this and in reading
this, it became very obvious to me what God intended for me
to bring to you this morning. It's the heart of the Gospel.
It is these words that encourages God's people. It's these words
that comfort the children of God. and it gives life. The same word gives life unto
the lost. Isn't that an amazing thing about
the gospel? If you're a believer, it comforts
your soul, it blesses your heart, and it's the same message that
saves someone lost that may hear it. What a God we serve. And His Word is good. It's good. It's my prayer this
morning, and I mean this in all sincerity, what an awesome responsibility
it is for a man to stand and proclaim God's Word. And I ask
you while I'm speaking that you might pray for me soundly in
your heart, and that the Lord might give me the words and the
liberty to expound this great text. You see, preachers want
to comfort God's people. Every week a brother Darwin stands
here, his desire in his soul is to comfort you. Isaiah 40
says, Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. That's
God's Word to His preachers. Comfort my people. Comfort my
people. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem. Cry unto her. Tell her that her
warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned. For
she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins. Now God taught me some time ago
that if you only hear me or any preacher, then you'll not hear
anything that will be profitable to your soul. Now, let me clarify
that. What I mean is this. You must
hear from God Himself. You must hear from Him. You don't
want to hear my words. You want to hear His words. Preachers
plant. Preachers water. But only God
can give the increase. That's a fact. That's a fact. The Apostle Paul said that very
clearly in 1 Corinthians. He said, then, neither is He
that planteth anything, neither is He that watereth anything,
but God that gives the increase. And He that planteth and that
watereth are one. What are they? They're just servants.
Unprofitable servants. God's able to raise up stones
to praise and worship Him. Do you know that? God don't need
us. We need Him. That's what most
men preach today. They preach a God that needs
you. It's dependent somehow upon you.
It wants to save you, but you've got to let it. That's not the
God of this Bible. It's not. Read your Bible. It's
not the God of the Bible. When we've done all that we're
to do, it's still unprofitable. God makes it profitable, doesn't
He? If we don't hear from God this morning, then we've met
in vain. May the God of all grace be pleased
to meet with us as we look at this word. Now I'm going to read
to you starting in verse 1, but my text will be found in verses
10 and 11. Isaiah 53 verse 1, Who hath believed
our report? And to whom is the arm of the
Lord revealed? For he, being Christ, shall grow
up before him as a tender plant, 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's 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 grieves, and carried our
sorrows, yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and
afflicted. But he was wounded for, look
at that word, our transgressions. He had none of his own, friends.
He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. He had none of his own. The chastisement
of our peace. That's what we talked about a
while ago, peace. Our peace was laid upon Him and
with His stripes we are healed. Let's talk about man for a woman.
The Scriptures say, all we like sheep have gone astray. We've
turned everyone to his own way. You know, I've raised five children,
and one thing that I didn't have to teach any of them, one word
I didn't have to teach one of them was, mine. That's mine. I don't care if it was a rock
or a box. If one wanted it, the other one
said, no, that's mine. That's the way we are. We've
all turned to our own way. We want our way. We want to do
things our way. We won't have this man to rule
over us in our hearts. 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. Have you ever thought about that?
When Christ stood before Pilate, He didn't say a word. Do you
know why? He's standing in my place. I was guilty. I deserved the condemnation,
the beating, the torture that He went through. He kept His
mouth closed because He was standing in my place, your place. We were guilty. We deserved what
He took. He openeth not his mouth. He
is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers
is dumbed, so he openeth 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." 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." Now here's,
these next two verses are my text, and I'm telling you that
unless God give you eyes to see this, you'll never see the beauty. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
him. he hath put him to grief. When thou hast made 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, Not everyone, many. For he shall bear their
iniquities. Now I have three little points
I want to give you, and I'll give them to you as we get to
them. But my first is, what was the first cause of our Lord's
death? Really, better said, or asked,
would be who was the first cause of our Lord's death? I heard
an old preacher say one time, he said, the first words in the
Bible says so much. The first four words in Genesis
1 and 1. In the beginning, God. That says it all, doesn't it?
In the beginning, God. Who was the first cause of our
Lord's death? God was. Oh, God was. He's the first cause of everything,
but especially the death of His Son. Romans 8.32 says that He
spared not His own Son, but He delivered Him up for us all.
How shall He, not with Him also freely give us all things? It
pleased the Lord to bruise Him. Do I understand that? No, ma'am,
I don't. I don't. I don't understand that,
but I believe it by His grace. I know that it's so. I know that
the first cause of our Savior's death was God. God spared not
His own Son. Listen, He was taken by wicked
hands, crucified, slain, but it was by the determined counsel
and foreknowledge of God. That's what Acts 2.23 says, "...him
being delivered by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of
God, you have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain."
I heard a man say one time, he said, I wish I'd have been there.
I would have kept him from crucifying him. And I said, oh my. No, you
wouldn't have. You'd have been yelling with
the rest of them. Crucify him. Crucify him. Release unto us
Barabbas. But crucify this Jesus. You want
to know something about the free will of man? The free will of
man took him by wicked hands and crucified the Lord of glory. Oh, I don't want... My free will
is nothing to talk about. It's the grace of God that delivered
His Son. It's by the foreknowledge of
God. God determined before the foundation of the world to give
His Son as a substitute for His people. That's right. He was
the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world is what Revelation
13 verse 8 says. And friends, if he was a lamb
slain before the foundation of the world, then he was slain
for some people before the foundation of the world. Now those of you
that have children, and there are several here this morning,
I want you to consider this amazing thought for a moment. Any and
every mother or father who has a heart, I know I hear on the
news today crazy things that people do to their children.
I know people that have mistreated their children. But if you have
a mind and a heart at all, consider this great thought of what God
did to His own son. About two years ago, my youngest
son, they found a brain tumor on his pituitary gland. And he
went to the eye doctor and it all happened so fast that he
lost his peripheral vision. And the doctor sent him directly
to a specialist and they said, yeah, we found a brain tumor
on your pituitary gland. And I mean, boom, they put him
in the hospital. And it was all I could do to
jump on a plane and get out there to where he was. And when I got
there and he laid in preparation before surgery, all I could think,
Honestly, I wish that could be me. That's my son. That's my son. Oh, it was no light thing, dear
friends, for God to deliver His Son. You think about your love
for yours, and you think how much infinitely more God loved
His Son. Oh, let me tell you, God delivered
His Son into the wicked hands of men, and they beat Him, and
they tortured Him, and they crucified Him. And Scripture says when
they were done with Him, He didn't even resemble a man. He did that for me. He did that
for you. We love the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let me ask you parents another question. Would you hand over
your precious child to die for a notorious criminal who had
sinned against you? Now I'm going to be honest with
you. I wouldn't. I'd say hang him. Hang him. But not God. While we were yet without strength,
Romans 5, 6 says, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. Notorious sinners, notorious
criminals, those who had never kept God's law. He delivered
him up and he died for the ungodly. You see, sin cannot go unpunished
because God isn't just God. His justice must be satisfied. His holy law is at stake. The
law of God must be kept perfectly. And I can't keep one little precept
of it. And the Scriptures tell me that
if I offended in one little precept, if I don't dot one little I across
one little T, that I'm guilty of the whole law. Guilty. And I am. The law of God must
be kept perfectly. No sinner can pay God's demand
of justice. You see, it requires perfection.
There's none that doeth good. No, not one. They've all gone
astray. They're all together unprofitable. David said, man in his best state
is altogether banished. Why you take the best of the
so-called best among men, and you put them all together and
bundle them up, and they're all together vanity. No sinner can pay God's demand
of justice. There's none that are just. There's
none that are righteous. We've all come short, way, way
short of the glory of God, Romans 3.23. Why? For we've all sinned.
Sin is not what I do, dear friends. Sin is what I am. I sin because
I'm a sinner, wretched, rotten, no good. And I'm just telling you part of
it. Do you know that passage of Scripture
in Genesis 6, 5? You don't have to turn there,
but look at it. It said, And God saw that the
wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination
of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Now for years I read that verse,
and I don't know why, I guess I just didn't see the L.Y. on
that, but I thought, okay, every imagination and thoughts of heart
was on evil continually. That's not what it says. It says
it was only evil continually. I've never thought a good thought,
not one that would be pleasing to God, not one that would bring
glory to Him. Men don't have a few good thoughts
and then think on evil. No, no. In the eyes of God, our
best thoughts are evil and only evil continually. The wickedness of man is so great
in the earth. And let me tell you something
else, it's great in the man. It wouldn't be great on the earth
if it wasn't great in the man. And every man and woman, every
imagination of the thoughts of their hearts, the Scripture says,
don't get mad at me, I'm not saying it, only evil. Why was
Christ beaten? Why was Christ tortured and slain? To please the Lord. You know
what it says? It pleased the Lord. Only our holy God is the first
cause of everything. And this doesn't excuse the wickedness
of man. Man is responsible. I've heard
men who've been preaching for years upon years that have faithfully
taught the gospel, and you've heard me mention Brother Mahan
and Brother Scott Richardson, and you know, I can sit here
and name several of them, and I'm going to tell you something.
I've heard them say many times, if you go to hell, it's your
fault. You're responsible. But if a man enters into the
glory of God and the Lord Jesus Christ, God did it. Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians
2 verses 7 and 8, but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery. Even the hidden wisdom which
God ordained before the world unto our glory, which none of
the princes of this world knew, for had they known it, they would
have not crucified the Lord of glory. A couple of minutes ago,
I read Acts 2.23 to you, which says, you've taken, and by wicked
hands, and you've crucified the Lord of glory. But never forget
this. Don't ever forget it now. It
was by the determination, counsel, and foreknowledge of God. God just let man have his way,
didn't He? But it was more than that. It was more than that. It was the Father's will and
pleasure. Oh, do you understand that, Brother
David? No, I don't understand it. But by God's grace, I believe
it. That's what the Word says. That's
what God's Word does say. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him. Oh, what amazing love! And it
was due to our sin, dear friends, and God bruised Him for our sin. That's the Gospel. Can you find
comfort in that? If you can, it's because God
has revealed to you this wonderful truth. It pleased the Lord to
bruise Him. If you can't enter into that
and find comfort in that, then you're still dead in trespasses
and sin. If God gives you eyes to see
the Scriptures in spirit and in truth, we talked about that,
you'll see beyond Roman cruelty in the death of our Lord. You'll
see beyond the Jewish malice, beyond their jealousy and envy
of the Son of God, you'll see the true decree of God fulfilled
by men who were ignorant but yet guilty instruments of God's
will and purpose. Oh, my. God's people see beyond that
Roman spear and those nails. You know, when I think of a nail,
I think even of a good-sized nail, you know, I think, well,
you know. Man, these were some nails. Like
railroad spikes. Nailed into the hands and the
feet of God. God, in the flesh. You've got
to look beyond those nails and that Roman spear, beyond the
Jewish blasphemy and the taunting. They said, if you saved others,
why don't you save yourself? They sat at the foot of Christ
and mocked Him and made fun of Him. Had two thieves on both
sides of Him. They were both railing Him and
saying horrible things. Because one of them changed his
tune, didn't he? That's a whole other message.
But let me tell you something. If you see the Lord crucified
in spirit and in truth, you'll see beyond Pilate, you'll see
beyond Herod, and you'll see all the way up to the sacred
fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins. And sinners
plunge beneath that flood. They lose all their guilty stains. God shows you, oh, it was by
the wicked hands of men that crucified the Lord of glory.
But it pleased the Lord to bruise him and to put him to grief. Oh, God is the first cause, dear
friend. God is the first cause of all
things. I can't help but to think about
Abraham every time that I read these verses. God commanded Abraham to sacrifice
his son. The Scripture said, his only
son. This was the Son of God that
God had promised him and gave him in his old age. This was the Son that he waited
for for years. And on the way to that place
of sacrifice, it seems as though Abraham didn't speak a word.
I thought about that. He didn't speak a word that I
can read. Why? His heart was too full of
pain. He was overwhelmed with grief. God had commanded him
to take his son, his only son, and slay him upon that mountain
as a sacrifice. And there they go together. I
can just picture them walking side by side. And I don't believe
the greatest artist of all time could capture the anguish of
Abraham's countenance. His only son. Only son. He was walking side by side with
that beloved son whom God had given him and he was going to
execute him. Oh, try to picture the scene. The third day of the
journey comes and the servants are told to stay at the foot
of the hill. And Abraham and his son Isaac went up unto the
mount. Now, can any mind imagine Abraham's
grief? It must have ripped his heart
out. When his son said to him, Father,
behold the fire and the wood. But where's the lamb? Where's the lamb for burnt off?
Can you conceive how He controlled His emotions, Abraham? And He
tearfully said those words which describe the Gospel, dear friends,
they describe it so well. He said, My son, God will provide
Himself a lamb. He didn't say God will provide
for Himself a Lamb. Is that what He said? He said
God will provide Himself a Lamb. God Himself will be the Lamb. Oh, and Isaac... In some ways, I believe, declares
that he's willing to die. He knew something was going on. Lord, where's the lamb? I see
the wood, I see the stones, I see the stuff to make the altar,
I see the fire, but where's the lamb? And Abraham took that knife
and he unsheathed it from his sheath and he holds it up and
he's ready to slay his only son. Can you imagine the pain and
the anguish? I can't. And in his heart and his mind,
he had already thrust that into his son's heart. And he hears
a commotion. And he looks and there's a ram
caught in the thicket. And that ram supplies the substitute. Oh, dear sinner, I want to take
you from this scene to a far greater one than that. That faith
and obedience that made Abraham willing to sacrifice his son,
God Himself did. He did. God had but one Son. That Son was his heart's delight.
God promised to deliver him up for our redemption, and God did
what He promised. You see, it pleased the Lord
to bruise him and to put him to grief. That was done that
Christ might suffer for the sins of chosen sinners. Can anyone
explain the greatness of that love? Oh, my words fail, fall
miserably short. There's no man that can explain
the greatness of that love which made the everlasting God sacrifice
His darling Son. God not only put His Son upon
the altar, but He actually did what Abraham only had intended
to do. God the Father thrust the sacrificial
knife of justice into His Son's heart. Oh, my friends, look there on
Galgotha's Hill and see the place where His only
Son hung dead upon the cross. There hangs Christ as the bleeding
victim, listen, of holy justice. Holy justice. Second thing, and
my last two will be brief. I'm almost done. Why did God
kill His Son? What was the reason for the Savior's
death? It was to make, verse 10 says,
his soul an offering for sin. One old writer said, God longed
to save, but if such a phrase may be allowed, justice tied
his hands. Now we know no man can tie God's
hand. I had a fellow tell me one time,
he said, oh, don't say that. He says, by the confession of
your mouth, he said, you're tying God's hand. And I said, buddy,
if I can tie God's hand, you better get ready to deal with
me on the day of judgment. I can't tie God's hands. But
justice, God's own justice, by His own namesake, God said, I
must be just. It's a necessity of God's nature
to be just. God desires to show mercy, and
mercy He shows, dear friends, but it's not at the expense of
His justice. Psalm 86 5 says, For thou, Lord,
art good and ready to forgive, and plenteous in mercy unto all
them that call upon thee. And that same old writer said,
Wisdom stepped in and said, It shall be done without compromising
God's justice. And love agreed with wisdom,
he wrote. Christ Jesus, the Son of God,
will stand in man's place. and he shall be offered upon
Mount Calvary instead of man." That's the reason God delivered
up and killed his son. Christ must suffer in the chosen
sinner's place. God's justice must be satisfied. The innocent was condemned. The
guilty was set free. Oh, now I'm telling you, if you're
a guilty sinner, that will bless your heart. if you're a guilty
setter. 2 Corinthians 5.21, what a verse
of Scripture. For He, God, hath made Him, Christ,
to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the
righteousness of God in Him. Christ knew no sin. There was
no sin in Him. He didn't have any of our sinful
desires or any of our evil inclinations. Though He was tempted in all
points like we are, yet without sin, the Scripture says. You
think of that and then you read this passage, He hath made Him
to be sin for us. Don't dwindle away the beauty
of Christ being made sin now. There are many that say today
that Christ was only made a sin offering, But to see the beauty
of the gospel of substitution, you've got to consider the second
part of that verse. He was made sin, who knew no
sin, that what we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Now listen, He made Him to be
as much sin as He makes us to be righteous. Was His sin just pasted on? If it was, then our righteousness
is just pasted on. No. He was made to be sin for
us. Now, I know the Lord never sinned,
but the beauty of the Gospel is just this. He became what
we were that we might become what He is. Oh, as you think of His pure,
sinless nature and perfect love, love Him as you see Him, bearing
the burden of sins, not His own. Okay, look at verse 5 again in
our text. But He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities,
not His own. The chastisement of our peace
was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep gone astray. We've turned everyone to His
own way. And the Lord hath laid on Him
the iniquity of us all. Our Lord cried, My God, My God,
why hast Thou forsaken Me? That was me that God forsook. He's my substitute. He's my surety. God smote Him as the greatest
sinner that ever lived, till His soul was exceedingly sorrowful,
even unto death. And that which was due to you
and me as sinners, Christ paid as the Lamb of God. That which
belonged to Christ, perfect righteousness. is graciously given to us, undeserving
sinners. Now, is that not the gospel?
Is that not substitution? Last thing when I'm done, the
result of substitution. Look at verse 11. Here's the
result. He shall see the travail of his
soul. Whose soul? Christ's soul. He'll
see the travail of it. And look at those next four words,
"...and shall be satisfied." God is satisfied. The result of Christ's substitution
is justification. I heard, well I tell you, if
I hadn't heard these other men, I wouldn't have much to preach,
would I? Justified, just as if I'd never sinned. That helped
me understand that word, and I've never forgotten. Justified,
just as if I'd never sinned. That's what it is. Brother Todd Nybert asked me
one time, he says, you know why The Lord looks upon you and He
doesn't see sin." And I tried to give the right answer, the
theological answer. I said, because Christ died for
my sin. He said, well, that's true, but that's not the answer
I'm looking for. And I took a couple more stabs
at it. And He said, the reason that God looks upon you and doesn't
see any sin is you don't have any! You don't have any. All my sin, all the sin of God's
elect, from the foundation of the world, now and the future. All my sin, past, present, and
future. Done away with. Gone. Far as
the east is from the west. You know, Russell, if you take
off that way east as far as you can go and I go as far as I can
west, we'll never meet. That's how far God has his forgetfulness
of our sins. As far as the east is from the
west. That's an eternal infinity. He shall see the travail of his
soul and be satisfied. Sin's removed. It's gone. It's done away with, Christ has
borne my iniquities. And the result of our Lord's
substitution is just this, God is satisfied. God is satisfied. He who is angry with the wicked
every day is now satisfied. This is the only place in Scripture
where the word satisfies is used in connection with God being
so. You can look at it. Get your accordance and look
at it. There are many passages that say the child of God shall
be satisfied. God's people shall be satisfied.
But this is the only passage that I can find that declares
God is satisfied. Why is He satisfied? It pleased the Lord to birth
Him and put Him to pray. He was made to be sin that we
might be made righteous in Him. God's law has been fulfilled,
and He's satisfied. He is most definitely satisfied
with His precious Son. And the most amazing thing that
has ever been told is the precious truth that now, in Christ, He's
satisfied with me. May we get a hold of that. May
God allow us to get a hold of that. Stop looking within and
look to Calvary and see God paying the sin debt for His people. Only in Christ, only by Christ,
and only through the Lord Jesus Christ is God satisfied.