Isaiah chapter 52, chapter 53. I appreciate Steve reading my
text for me. They begin this chapter 53, I
think, in the wrong place. While these divisions are very
helpful to us, they're not inspired at all. If we didn't have them,
we'd have a dreadful time finding our text. If I told you to turn
to page 35 in the book of Isaiah and we'd go try to find the chapter
and so on, the division, you'd be hard pressed to find it. So
I appreciate the divisions of the chapters, but the chapter,
the subject really begins where Brother Steve began reading for
us in verse 13, Behold My Servant. As I was reading this chapter
the other day, I took time again to count the verses, to count
the times that the name of the Lord Jesus Christ was mentioned.
Brother Steve read to us 15 verses. And if you would like to count
them sometime, 55 times in these verses the name of Jesus Christ
is mentioned. He is referred to 3.5 times per
verse. Now I've often said this, if
you wrote a letter to me, and the volume was equivalent to
these 15 verses, and you mentioned yourself, 55 times it would be utterly ridiculous. But here the Spirit of God moves
upon this prophet. And continually, His heart and
His lips and His pen is upon this one glorious person. And that's my subject this morning,
just talking about Him. Just talking about Him. What a more wonderful person
could we think of, meditate upon, And take His holy name and gracious
and loving name upon our lips this morning. Just talking about
Him. It's not about me. I don't want
to hear about you. But I want to talk about Him.
Just talking about Him. Sometimes we read here that even
God made reference of Him. In verse 13 of chapter 42, Behold
My Servant. That's what the Father is referencing
Him. Consider My Servant. And then
in chapter 52, verse 11, the Father calls Him My Righteous
Servant. And then in chapter 52 and verse
14, somebody is speaking to Him. The Father addresses us to consider
My servant. But somebody here, the prophet,
or the Spirit, or the Father Himself, addresses Him personally. In verse 14, many were astounded
at Thee. Somebody is telling the Lord
Jesus. There's coming a time when many
are going to be astounded at you. They're going to look upon
you in utter amazement. They're going to be stunned.
And what's He speaking of here but His cross? Because go on
and look at it, at what He says. They'll be astounded at thee,
Lord Jesus, for your vestige was mired more than any man,
and your form more than the sons of man." He says your appearance,
your face, your form of your body will be so mired that when
they look upon you, they'll be stunned. They'll be embarrassed. They'll be ashamed. They'll be
wondering at what they see. You remember when the Lord Jesus
hung upon the cross and they smote upon their breasts. They
could not believe that He was even a man, that they had just
a few hours early cried, crucify Him, crucify Him. And it got
all out of their control. They wanted Him crucified, but
they had no idea it would be like this. And now they see Him,
Jesus of Nazareth, and there He hangs upon the cross, and
His face is black and it's blue. His tongue is swollen to His
jaws, and His beard has been plucked from His face. Blood
is running down in His eyes from the holes where the crowns had
been beat down upon His brow. blood running from his hands,
blood running from his feet, and his back had these long,
deep furrows in them. And they looked upon his countenance,
and he was pale. By his pain, his body had grown
weak. His heart had been crushed by
his sorrows. You could see it in his countenance.
And as they looked upon Him, they said, I've never seen anything
like this. And they slowed upon their breath,
and they were amazed at Him. And the amazing thing about this,
somebody here confronts the Lord Jesus with this, long before
it had ever happened to Him. They said, here's what's going
to happen to you. People are going to be amazed
at you. Your appearance is going to be
dreadful to look upon. This is what's going to happen.
And yet knowing all of these things that should come upon
him, he came anyway. Brothers and sisters, the garden
where he sweat drops of blood. The judgment hall where he was
stripped naked and mocked and whipped. The cross where His
heart was broken and melted like water within Him with our awful
sins in His body and God's awful judgment upon Him. None of those
things took Him by surprise. He knew it all beforehand. And
yet, knowing all things that should come upon Him, He come
anyway. Oh, what love! What determination! What courage this man, the Lord
Jesus Christ, has. Mostly these verses here are
speaking about Him. They're always speaking seemingly
in the third person, Him and His. They're talking about Him. Now, I want you this morning
to be for sure I want you to know for certain who these verses
are written about. So I want you to turn to Acts
chapter 8 with me. Look in Acts chapter 8 and verse
30. If you left here this morning
and you say, well, I think Bruce jumped to conclusions. I think
he just assumed that the prophet was speaking of Jesus of Nazareth. I don't believe that's him. Maybe
the prophet was talking about himself. Maybe he was talking
about some other prophet. How do you know that this is
speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, the Bible tells us that
that's who the prophet was speaking about. Look in Acts chapter 8
and look in verse 30. Look in verse 29. Here a man
by the name of Philip was told by the Spirit to go down here
in the desert, the wilderness. And here's why he was told to
go down there. There was a man from Ethiopia,
an eunuch. And he was reading from this
very text that I'm preaching from. And the Spirit in verse
29 said to Philip, Go near and join yourself to this chariot
that this man was riding in. And Philip ran thither to him,
and heard him read the prophet Isaiah, and said, Do you understand
what you are reading? And he said, How can I, except
some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he
would come up into the chariot and sit with him. And the place
of the scripture which he read was this, he was led as a sheep
to the slaughter, and like a lamb that is done before his shepherds,
so he opened not his mouth. In his humiliation, his judgment
was taken away. Who shall declare his generation?
For his life was taken from the earth. And the eunuch answered
Philip and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh this prophet? Of himself or somebody else? Then Philip opened his mouth
and began at the same Scripture and preached unto him Jesus." Who is Isaiah 53 about? It's about Jesus. It's about
Him. the son of Mary, born of a virgin,
Jesus of Nazareth. When Paul was struck down of
the Lord on the road to Damascus, and a voice spoke to him and
said, Why do you persecute me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord?
He says, I'm Jesus of Nazareth. That's who the prophet was speaking
of. Jesus. His name shall be called Jesus.
They took him up when he was eight days old into the temple
and circumcised him, and they called his name Jesus. There's
no doubt who the prophet was speaking of. But read on in verse
36. And they went on their way, and
they came to a certain water, and the eunuch said, Here is
water. What hinders me from being baptized? And Peter said, If you believe
with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe
that this Jesus that you preached unto me, Jesus Christ, is the
Son of God. Who's Isaiah 53 talking about? Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The Son of God. He's the Son
of Mary because He's Jesus. He has His nativity in this world
because He was born here of a woman. But He came down from heaven
because He's the Son of God. He was with the Father before
the world ever was. Glorify Me with your own self,
with the glory that I had with thee before the world was." He's
the Son of God. Unto us a child is born. There's Jesus. Mary took Him
out of the womb and said, this is my child. But unto us the
Son is given. The Son was not born. The child
was born. The Son of God was given. He
could not have been born because He is from everlasting. So here
we have Jesus, the Son of Mary, and we have Jesus, the Christ,
the Son of God. A child born and a Son given. God so loved the world, He gave
us His only begotten Son. The hymn writer said, Behold,
late in time He came, offspring of a virgin's womb, born as man
with men to dwell, Jesus our Emmanuel, God with us. Who is this speaking of? He is
speaking of Jesus, the Son of God. Look over with me in Isaiah
chapter 14. If you go back to my text, keep
turning to your left, and look in Isaiah chapter 14. Just talking
about Him. Just talking about Him. I think
if the Spirit was pleased to speak of this man 55 times in 15 verses, then there's
a cause for it. And if the Spirit points us to
Him, if the Spirit guides us to Him, then let us study Him. Let us talk about Him. Look in
chapter 7 and look in verse 14. The Lord Himself shall give you
a sign. Are we wanting a sign? Here it
is. Behold, a virgin shall conceive. and bear a son, and shall call
his name God with us." That's what that means, isn't it? Matthew chapter 1 interprets
this name Immanuel, God is with us. Who is this child? This is
God with us. We go around to different places
and we meet people and we shake hands with them. I'm so and so,
what's your name? Is that your child? I met a couple
of young kids last night and their parents. I said, is that
your son? What's his name? Well, can you
imagine asking Mary that? My name is Bruce Crabtree, Mary.
This is Clarence Poore. He's my friend. It's good to
meet you. Is that your child? This is my
child. What's his name? His name is
God with us. Do you think she ever introduced
him like that? She could have, because that's who he was. God
with us. Crawling around on the floor
in Mary's house. Sitting at the table eating.
Out in the carpenter's shop with his brothers and sisters. And
who is He? God with us. Twelve years old,
sitting in the temple, talking with these doctors of the law,
asking them questions, confounding them with His own answers. And
who is He? God with us. This is God with us. What better
subject to talk about than God with us? And look what He says
on chapter 9 about Him. In verse 6, look at this. This
is amazing. In verse 6, unto us a child is
born, unto us a son is given. Mary's child, God's son. And the government shall be upon
his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor
The mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace,
and of the increase of His government and His peace, there shall be
no end. Look where He sits, upon the
throne of David and upon His kingdom. Why? To order it and
to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth
even forever. The zeal of the Lord of Hosts
will perform it. The government is upon His shoulder. Do you know all governments,
all the governance of this world is put upon the Lord Jesus Christ? All these kingdoms that we see
rise throughout history, And all the kings and all the presidents
and all the governors that are raised up to rule in those kingdoms,
you know they do so by the authority and rule of Jesus Christ. Do
you know the king's heart is in his hands? Do you know our
president's heart is in his hands? and that he makes his move and
does what he does because the Lord Jesus Christ turns his heart. Do you realize that? This man,
Mary's child, the responsibility of upholding the empower of this
world has been put upon him in his care. There is no power but
of God. The powers that be are ordained
of God. And the Lord Jesus said, All
power is given to Me in heaven and in earth. No government rises
up, and no government continues, and no government falls but at
His command and His will. King Jesus, He is called the
Governor of the nations. What a name! What a title! O
Thou the King of Nations! Who is your King? I'll tell you
who He is. Jesus of Nazareth. Ain't that a wonderful statement?
The Kingdom is the Lord's. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Governor among the
nations. Those nations that attempt to
keep the light of the Gospel from their people. that want
His name and His gospel stopped at their borders. We don't want
to hear His name. We want Him to allow His Word
in our midst. He's their governor too. They won't own Him. They won't
bow to Him now, but they shall. That's who He is. Jesus the Governor. But He says here in verse 7,
of the increase of His government. He has a government also. The
kingdoms of this world are His. And He reigns over them, though
He does it so secretly. But here He has a kingdom. He has a government. That's upon
His shoulder. And He orders it. His kingdom. He establishes His kingdom. He upholds it. He protects it. He increases it, and He'll keep
His kingdom until all the kingdoms of men have been crushed, and
one kingdom alone is left standing that cannot be crushed or cannot
be shaken. He has a kingdom, and it's an
everlasting kingdom, and He's the ruler of it and the order
of it. Who is He? The Son of Mary. the Son of God. Just talking
about Him. Is it any wonder that He is continually
mentioned? All matters refer to Him. Everything concerns Him. Nothing else is worth knowing.
Nothing else is worth studying. Nothing else is worth talking
about but Him. In Him is hid all the treasures
of wisdom and knowledge. If you and I know anything spiritually,
anything savingly, if we know God, if we know the love of God,
if we know the grace of God, if we know anything savingly
about God in our heart, it's in Jesus Christ that we've learned
it. He is the mind, the gold mind of all wisdom and all knowledge. What if you went into a gold
mine? You went into a mine and at first you saw nothing. You
were just a poor man. But you saw this huge vein of
gold running along the wall. What would you do? Well, you'd
grab your pick and you'd go digging the gold, wouldn't you? I'll
be a rich man before I'm finished digging this. Look upon Jesus
Christ the same way, brothers and sisters. In Him are hid treasures
of wisdom and knowledge. He can make you wise unto salvation. He can give you the knowledge
of Himself. In Him dwells all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. in His glorious person. If you've
seen Him, you've seen God. If you've seen Him, you've seen
all of God. There is no God apart from Him,
outside of Him. He not only contains God, He
is God in His body. Ain't that wonderful? It pleased
the Father that in Him should all Fullness dwells. What does a poor sinner need?
What does a poor, wretched, vile sinner need but that is not in
Jesus Christ? You need grace. He is full of
it. You need salvation. Salvation
is of the Lord. He is full of it. He's well able
to give a poor sinner all he needs for time and eternity.
In Him dwells fullness. Live in water, He's full of it. It pleased the Father that in
Him, in Him, just talking about Him, just talking about Him. The article that we had in the
bulletin last week, where the statement was made by the man,
the Spirit's leading me to study other things apart from Christ.
Do you remember that statement? Remember the answer that Bunyan
gave him? What other things? What is there apart from Him?
There is nothing. He is all. Don't the Scripture
say that? Christ is all? Everybody else, everything else,
sinks into nothingness. You're nothing. I'm nothing. Less than nothing. And vanity. But Christ is all. Ain't that wonderful? Ain't that wonderful? I can't
get over him, can you? I used to think it was about
me. And then I thought it was about me and Him. But then finally,
God in grace taught me, no, it's all about Him. It's Him. Fifty-five times in fifteen verses,
the Spirit must be telling us something. It's about Him. He is all, Cautious 311. He is
all. Christ is to be worshipped as
all. Christ is to be studied as all. He is to be known as all. He
is to be trusted with all the heart. He is to be loved above
all. He is to be obeyed and no one
else. He is to be exalted and extolled
above all. All life is in Him, temporal
life and eternal life. All salvation is in Him. Israel
shall be saved in the Lord when they never last in salvation. All hope is in Him. He is the
ground of it. And He's the object of it. Christ
in you, the hope of glory. What's your hope, brothers and
sisters, when you leave this world? What's your hope at the
resurrection? Is it not being like Him? He
is the object of hope. And He's the righteousness that
justifies us. He's the robe that clothes the
shame of our nakedness. He is all. The Bible says we
are accepted in Him. The Father has accepted us in
Him. He favors us in Him. He will at last accept us unto
His house, His heaven, all in Jesus Christ. Why is the Lord
Jesus mentioned 55 times in these few verses? Why does he fill
the pages of the only book that God ever wrote? Because apart from Him, there
is nothing else. God knows nothing else. Apart
from Him, you and I are nothing. The only way we could possibly
count is being in Him. Whether it's elect angels or
elect men. Whether it's fallen angels or
reprobate men. Whether it's men in heaven or
men on this earth or men in hell. Whether it's those kingdoms that
have passed, these kingdoms that are present or all the kingdoms
to come. There is nothing, there is nothing
but Christ. He's everything. He's all. You're vanity, I'm vanity, this
life is vanity, and at best, with a small dust of the balance,
Christ is all. Christ is all. And God has appointed
a day in which everybody is going to acknowledge that, that He's
all. Christ shall speak, and the power
that's in His voice will waken the dead. And they'll all be
gathered before Him, in His presence, at His feet, and they will acknowledge
indeed that nothing else matters but Christ. There was no glory,
there was no mercy, there was no grace, there was no salvation,
there was no light, there was no life, there was nothing apart
from Him. And they'll bow their knee. And
they'll say, Jesus Christ is the Lord of all. And He is all. That's what we'll all say. I've
already did that. Some of you already did that,
haven't you? Christ is all. He's all. He's one with all His people.
He's one above His people. And Christ is all. It all pertains
to Him. So as you read this chapter,
brothers and sisters, remember who you're reading about. Remember
who you're reading about. Let me say something else, right
quickly. This being so, all I've said
being so, His name mentioned 55 times in 15 verses. The book is full of Him, this
person. That being so, we can say this
truthfully and honestly that the gospel, now listen to this,
this is so important, the gospel is not first and foremost about
what's been done. The gospel is not a bunch of
doctrines congregated together into a system of theology. The
gospel is not a bunch of facts. The gospel first and foremost
is this person, this glorious person. What has been done could have
only been done because of who He is. We preach Christ and Him crucified. We preach Christ and Him crucified. What's a crucifixion without
first having a Christ to be crucified? Paul wrote this in Romans chapter
1. Listen to this. He describes
himself as a servant of Jesus Christ. He said, I'm called to
be an apostle separated unto the Gospel of God which He had
promised before by His prophets in the Holy Scripture. We're
reading about it, aren't we? We're reading about the Gospel.
And what is the Gospel? He tells us, concerning His Son,
Jesus Christ. He doesn't even begin with what
Christ did. He begins with Christ Himself.
There's where we must begin, with Him. The Gospel is concerning His
person. You talk with some religious
people today, you talk with them. I had this happen to me just
the other day, talking with a person. And one of the first things they're
out to say is, I know that. Well, I believe that. Everybody
believes that. But it's not about that, is it?
It's not that. It's about a person. Yeah, you
may have been confronted with a system of theology, but it's
not about that. It's not a bunch of facts. It's
not any facts. It's about a person. The Lord
Jesus Christ. I know that, but do you know
Him? Oh, everybody believes that, but do you believe Him? It's
a person. It's a person. what He's done in the days of
His flesh. Jesus, the Son of God, who is
now in heaven on the right hand of the Majesty on high. It's about a person. What's been
done don't mean a thing. I'll tell you what matters. It's
who did it. It's who did it. We have to know
what He did. But we may talk about what He
did forever and not know who did it. We have to know Him. Oh, that I may know Him. You
don't flee to a doctrine. You flee to a person. You don't
pray to a doctrine. You pray to a person. Of whom
speaketh this man? Of himself or somebody else.
And He began at that Scripture and preached unto him a person. This glorious person. this mysterious, this wonderful
person, Immanuel, God with us. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. We beheld His glory, the glory
as of the only begotten of the Father, full, full of grace,
full of truth, full of power, full of pity, full of love. What in the world do you need
this moment? What do you need? He's full of it. You need life
eternal? This is life eternal. You need
to be saved from your sins? He saves from sin. You need to
be forgiven? He forgives all manner of sin.
He is full of everything you need for time and eternity. And sinners just go looking every
place. They just go looking every place. Wondering every place.
It's in Him, dear soul. It's in Him. And everything a
sinner needs for time and eternity, He's full of it. He's full of
it. I used to have a teacher, I've
told you about him, Sunday school teacher, years ago. And he had
this saying, I wish so many times that I could
go back. I was just a young Christian.
I wish I could go back and just stop him. Because he always said,
the gospel is the death, burial, and resurrection. That's what he said. The gospel
is the death, burial, and resurrection. Isn't it strange, isn't it very
telling that men can read this Bible and so dispense with the very
name and the very person that it talks about? and then mutter out these phrases
that become empty and useless to nobody? The gospel is not
the death, birth, and resurrection. The gospel is who died. How Christ died. Christ was buried. Christ rose. He is the gospel Well, we hid, as it were, our
faces from Him. We're still doing it, aren't
we? We're still doing it. If you and I want to read Isaiah
chapter 53 and get absolutely nothing out of it, and go away
as empty as we were when we began to read it, then read it apart
from knowing Him. Read it apart from seeing Him. But if you and I want our hearts
to be filled with wonder, if you and I want our hearts to
leap with joy and be filled with confidence, then ask the Holy
Spirit what the eunuch asked Philip. Preach to me, Jesus. Reveal to me, Jesus. Let me know,
Jesus. And then when you go here and
open this Bible up to this chapter, and you read this, He shall grow
up. Won't you be amazed? Because
you'll see who He is. That He's the Ancient of Days.
That He was from everlasting. And here He is growing up. And you'll sit in wonder as you
watch the Son of God grow up. And when you see Him upon the
cross, you'll see Him hanging there with your sins and your
iniquity. And you'll hear Him say, My God,
My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? And you with Martin Luther
will be filled with wonder and amazement about it all. My God,
you'll say, how can this be? God forsaken God. All brothers and sisters, may
God this morning, the Holy Spirit, open our hearts to know Him. I want to know Him. I don't want
to read. I don't want to preach. And I
don't want to die. and be punished of God for my
sin. I want to read, and I want to
know Him. And I want to preach, I want
to preach Him. I want you to know Him. May God
reveal Him to us. Let's pray.