Pray with me, please. Gracious
and merciful Father. Dear Lord, we praise you for
your love, that love that you have shown to us in sending poor
sinners like us to save you. Teach us, we pray, more of Christ. Teach us more that we might love
you more. O dear Father, show us the work
of redemption which Christ accomplished on the cross for us, that we
might love you with our whole hearts, body, mind, and soul.
Enable me, dear Lord, to speak your words of comfort to your
people, that they might leave this place looking to Christ,
trusting Christ, loving Christ. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
If you close your Bibles, would you open them again, please?
Isaiah chapter 53. We're looking primarily at verse
10 and a little bit of 11, but I want to read verses 10 to 12. This morning at 9.30 I asked
those that were here a question, and I want to ask you a similar
question now. What happened at Calvary? Did
the Lord Jesus Christ redeem us from our sin, or did He only
make us redeemable? Did He actually put away our
sin, or did He just make it possible for our sins to be put away?
Did the Lamb of God reconcile us to God, or did He only make
us reconcilable? Did He justify His people, or
did He simply make it possible for them to be justified? Did
Christ effectually secure the salvation of those for whom He
died? Or did He only make salvation a possibility for them? Did the incarnate Son of God
actually make atonement for sin by the shedding of His blood?
Or did He just make a stab at it? I pray you can hear the Word
of God as it was spoken by the mouth of His prophet Isaiah.
Here is a true, divinely inspired description of the Sanatonian
sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ and its results. In Isaiah 53,
beginning in verse 10, the prophet said this, and he is talking
about Jesus Christ. He said, Yet it pleased the Lord
to bruise him, to bruise Christ. He hath put him to grief, when
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. He, that's Jesus Christ,
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 everybody, but 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 transgressors."
As I read that, did you catch that phrase, he shall be satisfied? How I love God's words of promise.
his shells and his wills. Let me state it as emphatically
as I possibly can. He, the Son of God, our glorious
substitute, our great sin offering, our divine Savior, the one who
did and the only one who could die in our place at Calvary,
he shall without a doubt, without the possibility of hindrance,
most assuredly be satisfied fully, completely, eternally, he shall
be satisfied. Jesus Christ was satisfied with
the terms of redemption which were proposed to him as our surety
in the covenant of grace before the world was made. He is satisfied
with his purchased possession of his bride, the church. He
is satisfied with himself as a ransom price for the satisfaction
of justice for many and he shall be satisfied with us. Isaiah
53 verses 10 to 12 is an inspired declaration of the complete effectual
redemption which was fully accomplished by Jehovah's righteous servant
Jesus Christ, our substitute and Savior, was and undefeated
and is an undefeatable Savior. It is written in God's Word,
He shall not fail. He was, He shall be satisfied. The Son of God can't ever be
frustrated in His purpose, defeated in His design, or hindered in
His work. Christ was not conquered at Calvary. He conquered. He didn't die as
a helpless victim of circumstances. Jesus Christ willingly died as
the Lord of all things and as the one who rules all circumstances. And Jesus Christ, our Savior,
will not be defeated ever. Oh no. He shall see of the travail
of his soul. and he shall be satisfied. The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ
will never be discovered to be a miscarriage or fail to accomplish
fully the will of God. The Lion of the tribe of Judah
must prevail because he is Almighty God. Our text is a proclamation
of the infallible and glorious success of Christ's atonement
which I think is an important topic for us to meditate on this
morning. Because the one thing that characterizes every messenger
of Satan is a denial of the complete success of Christ's atonement. The one point of doctrine about
which all false prophets agree is this. They all deny that every
soul for whom Christ died shall be saved. They may give lip service
to Bible doctrine and to Bible terms. They may talk about Jesus. But they deny the very foundation
of the gospel, which is substitution. Jesus Christ died as a substitute
for his people, and he did accomplish atonement for their sins. The
modern day prophets of Baal preach about a redemption which doesn't
redeem anyone. They preach about an atonement
that doesn't atone for anything, and a salvation that doesn't
save anyone. They only preach about the possibility
of redemption, about the possibility of atonement, and the possibility
of grace, and about the possibility of salvation. Today we are told
by many preachers that the sacrificial blood of the Lord Jesus Christ
does not in itself secure or accomplish the salvation of anyone,
but that Christ's death only made salvation possible for everyone. We are told that the blood of
Christ becomes effectual only by man's faith, by man's deciding
to believe on Jesus, or by some act of man's free will. But that's
not only false doctrine, it's complete heresy. Because that's
not what God's Word says at all. That's not the teaching of God
in this book, this book which is the Word of God. I'd like
for you to keep your Bibles open, please, to Isaiah 53 and verses
10 to 12, because what I intend to do this morning is to go word
by word through each of these verses, at least verses 10 and
11. And I pray that the Holy Spirit
would enable me to show you what He's given me this week. God doesn't tell us about a frustrated
Christ. He tells us about a satisfied
Christ. Christ isn't our helper, He's
our Savior. Jesus Christ isn't our partner
in salvation, but He's the author and finisher of our salvation.
When Jesus Christ died on the cross, when He died as the substitute
for His people, our salvation was accomplished. It was accomplished
fully and completely. And you know that if Christ died
for you, you'll know it, because God gives you the faith to believe
it. Look first at Isaiah 53 and verse
10. The Word of God says, Yet it
pleased the Lord to bruise him, and he hath put him to grief. Our Savior died by the hand of
God. I don't know how much you think
about that. but he died at the hand of God. He died at the hand
of God according to the will of God and for the glory of God. Although our Lord Jesus Christ
knew no sin, the Lord God was pleased to bruise him in the
place of sinners to atone for their sin. It's true that our
Redeemer was crucified by the hands of wicked men, but he was
delivered to their hands by the will of God. In Acts 2, verse
23, Peter says to some Jewish men about Christ that Him, Jesus
Christ, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge
of God, you have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and
slain. But please understand this. Those wicked men did nothing
except what God Himself had purposed and determined before to be done.
In Acts 4 verses 27 and 28 it says, For of a truth against
thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and
Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were
gathered together, and this is why they gathered together, for
to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel, in other words,
whatsoever God's hand and God's counsel determined before to
be done. The death of Christ was not an
accident. It wasn't even an afterthought.
The death of Christ was in the mind and the heart of God from
everlasting. In Revelation 13, verse 8, it
says, And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him.
They shall worship the beast of Satan. They shall worship
Satan, whose names are not written in the Book of Life of the Lamb
slain from the foundation of the world. The eye of faith looks
beyond all the evil intentions of the Jews, beyond the weakness
of Pilate and the Roman cross, and faith traces the death of
Christ back to its original source. The original source and the cause
of Christ's death was in the will and heart of God himself. Not as an evil act, but as a
loving, merciful, and gracious act to save his people from their
sin. Romans 5 verse 8 tells us this
clearly, it says, but God commended his love towards us, and that
while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And 1 John 4 verses
9 and 10 says that in this, in Christ's death, in this was manifested
the love of God towards us, because that God sent his only begotten
Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love,
Not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son
to be the propitiation for our sins. If the Holy Spirit is your
teacher, then you know, by God-given faith, that the Lord Jesus Christ
died according to the purpose, decree, and will of God. 1 Peter 1, verses 18-21 says,
For as much as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible
things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received
by tradition from your fathers, but you were redeemed with the
precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without
spot, who barely was foreordained before the foundation of the
world, but was manifest in these last times for you. who by Him,
who by God, do believe in God that raised Him up from the dead
and gave Him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God. Christ is revealed so that your
faith and your hope might be in God. Not in yourself, but
in God. And in Acts 13, verses 28 and
29, it says about these men who judged and crucified Christ,
it says, And though they found no cause of death in him, though
they hadn't found him guilty, they found no cause of death
in him. Yet desired they Pilate, they asked Pilate, that he should
be slain. And when they had filled all
that was written of him, they took him down from the tree and
laid him in a sepulcher. They laid Christ in a grave.
Now don't misunderstand me. I would not dare to impute to
God the sin and the guilt of the crime of Christ's death.
God allowed wicked men to do exactly what they wanted to do
in their hearts. God didn't force them to do what
they did, but a sovereign God did absolutely govern and control
their actions, and He used them to accomplish His own purpose
of grace towards His elect. There wasn't a single action.
Not a single circumstance or pain involved in the Savior's
death which came to pass except that it all happened by the decree
of God. God sent His Son to die on the
cross. Now you may find this truth of
God to be offensive to you, but predestination is a foundation
truth of Holy Scripture. God Almighty has written a lot
in his book about his sovereign will and absolute predestination. In Revelation 5, the apostle
says, as he looked into heaven, and I saw in the right hand of
him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside
and sealed with seven seals. Nothing escapes the will, the
purpose, the decree, or the power of God. Everything that comes
to pass in time was ordained by God in eternity. You can be
sure that Almighty God who feeds the sparrows, clothes the lilies,
numbers the hairs of our head, you can be sure that he left
nothing to chance or to circumstance regarding the life and death
of his dear son. And the death of Christ is at
the very core of predestination. Christ's death is the center
and the mainspring on which God fashioned all of His other purposes. Christ's death is the foundation
on which the structure of God's decrees were built. Jesus Christ
is the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world because
it pleased the Lord to bruise Him. Long before there was a
sinner, God provided a Savior. Before the sheep went astray,
God made Christ our shepherd. Before we fell in the first Adam,
we stood in the last Adam. Before we ever broke God's law,
Christ was our ransom. Before we became polluted with
sin, Christ was our cleansing fountain. Long before we incurred
the debt of sin, Christ stood as our surety to pay our debt.
Before we were cursed by the law, Christ was our Redeemer.
And before we died in Christ, Christ was our resurrection and
our life. On Palm Sunday and every day
during the year, we should remember that the King of Kings and Lord
of Lords, the Son of God, was sent into this world by his Father
to die for us. because the Lord God loved us
with an everlasting love. In Jeremiah 31 verse 3, the prophet
says that the Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea,
I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving
kindness have I drawn thee. In John 3.16 it says, For God
so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. And
in John 13 verse 1 it says, Now therefore the feast of the Passover,
when Jesus knew that his hour was come, that he should depart
out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were
in the world, he loved them unto the end. And 1 John 4 verses
9 and 10 says that in this was manifest the love of God toward
us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world,
that we might live through him, hearing His love, not that we
love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation
for our sins. So predestination means, to those
who trust Christ, that in eternity past, the Father loved us and
sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins, and that the Son
loved us and came to die in our place as our substitute. So the
Holy Spirit of God loved us and formed the holy humanity of Christ
in the womb of the Virgin to be a sacrifice for our sins. That was the purpose for the
birth of Christ. As Paul said in Galatians 2.20,
He loved me and gave himself for me. No wonder believers love
God's predestination. Do you love God's predestination?
It's a wonderful thing. If you believe God's word, then
you will also believe that the Lord Jesus Christ came into the
world to die in order to accomplish his father's will because that's
what God's word says in the fullness of time God the Father took his
dear son from his bosom and God freely delivered him up for us
all and in that we see God's love for us clearly here in his
love Christ died for us the offended judge took his only his own holy
son whom he dearly loved and he gave him up to suffer the
pains of hell to accomplish the redemption of our souls in order
to save traitors and rebels who would never love him in return
except that he created the love of Christ in them or in us and
understand this too our Lord Jesus Christ voluntarily laid
down his life for us as our substitute. When Isaiah 53 says in verse
10 that it pleased the Lord to bruise him, we shouldn't ever
forget that he is the Lord God who did the bruising, as well
as he is the one who was bruised. Christ was not a forced surety
for us, but he was a willing surety a willing servant, a willing
Savior, a willing substitute, and a willing sacrifice for our
sin. Let's look at some of the scriptures
that tell us these things. In Psalm 40, verses 6 to 8, Christ
says to God that sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire.
Mine ears hast thou opened, burnt offering and sin offering hast
thou not required. Then said I, then Christ said,
Lo, I come in the volume of the book. It's written of me. I delight
to do thy will, he says to his father. O my God, yea, thy law
is within my heart. And in Proverbs 8, verses 23
to 31, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ says to us, I was set
up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth
was. When there were no depths, I was brought forth. When there
were no fountains abounding with water, Before the mountains were
settled, before the hills was I brought forth. While as yet
he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part
of the dust of the world, when he prepared the heavens, I was
there, and when he set a compass upon the face of the depth, When
He established the clouds above, when He strengthened the fountains
of the deep, when He gave to the sea His decree that the waters
should not pass His commandment, when He appointed the fountains
of the earth, then I was by Him as one brought up with Him, and
I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him, rejoicing
in the habitable part of His earth, and my delights were with
the Son of Man." Then in Isaiah 50 verses 5 to 7, Christ Jesus
says, The Lord God hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious,
neither turned away back. I gave my back to the smiters,
and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair. I hid not my face
from shame and spitting, for the Lord God will help me. Therefore
shall I not be confounded. Therefore have I set my face
like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed." And
Jesus went to the cross to die for the sins of his people. And
in John 10 verse 17 our Savior says, Therefore doth my Father
love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.
And in Hebrews 12 verse 2 it says, Looking unto Jesus, the
author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set
before him endured the cross. despising the shame, and is set
down at the right hand of the throne of God. Yes, Scripture
clearly tells us that it was for the love of His people, it
was for the joy that was set before Him that Christ endured
the cross. And yet, at the same time, Christ's
death on the cross was an unutterable agony. And that agony of Christ's
death on the cross was inflicted on Him by His Father's own hand. That shows us a love that I can't
begin to understand. Can you understand it? If you
can, I pray that you might explain it to me. That agony, that pain
and that suffering was inflicted on Him by His Father's own hand. We read in Psalm 22 about the
terrible agonies that Christ endured as he hung up on the
cross suffering the wrath of God. And it seems to me that
those woes were aggravated by the fact that it was his father's
hand that was turned on his own dear son in wrath. And it was
done. It was done at the very height
of his obedience. He was never more obedient than
when he went to the cross and he was perfectly obedient. but
it pleased the Lord to bruise him. And oh how he bruised him! Christ died a violent death to
save his people from their sin. His death couldn't have happened
by natural causes because Christ was punished as our substitute
for our sin. He had to die as a victim. He had to die as a sacrifice. And so he died a terrible, painful
death, tormented in both body and in soul. He was beaten and
he was crucified. Jesus Christ in death was forsaken
by friends and mocked by men. Although he was without sin,
Jesus Christ was made to be sin for us. He was forsaken by God
his Father and it was done willingly and by the holy righteous and
just God for the satisfaction of justice. Our Redeemer died
a horribly shameful death and yet he endured the cross despising
the shame. Jesus Christ died as a shameful
man in a shameful condition. He was naked and he was cursed. I pray you can understand this
and that as a believer it shows you the love of God. The Son
of God died a cursed death as it is written, cursed is everyone
that hangeth on a tree. Our great Savior died a slow
and lingering death and he did it. He did it willingly so that
we might have life. Others who died in the crucifixion
gradually grew weaker as they suffered. But Christ was full
of life all the way to the end and then he gave up the ghost. Others were given gall and myrrh
to stupefy or to numb their senses. But Jesus Christ was given gall
and vinegar to intensify his pains and that was all done by
God willingly to save us from our sin. And then to also add
to Christ's suffering in all of his pains and agonies There
was no one to help him, not even a sympathetic soul to look on
him with pity. And yet Christ suffered and died
a cruel death, willingly to save his people, those people that
he loved, giving his life for theirs. I beg you, think of these
things and see God's love in these things. That love that
was for you that Christ suffered and died. Here is the cause of
our Savior's death. Christ died to save us. It was the purpose of God to
save us. It was the love of God for us
that sent Christ to the cross to die for us. It was the grace
of God to us which caused Jesus Christ to go willingly to die
for us. It pleased the Lord to bruise
Him. He had put Him to grief. And now, look at the next line
in Isaiah 53 verse 10. It says, Where thou shalt make
his soul an offering for sin. Why did the Lord of glory endure
such a death as this? The Lord God bruised his son
and put him to grief on that cursed tree because he had to
make his soul an offering for sin in order to atone for our
sin. Christ died so that we might
live. He had to die. He had to be a sacrifice. And
that's where we see the love of God for us. It's not so much
in his suffering, but it's in why he suffered that we see his
love. Christ died as he did. He had
to die as he did so that he might be a suitable substitute and
a satisfactory sin offering to God for the sins of his people.
Let me give you four reasons for the crucifixion of Christ.
Four reasons why the Lord Jesus Christ died that painful, shameful,
and humiliating death on the cross. First, Christ died the
death of the cross because he must bear the sin of the law
in his death if he would save us. Galatians 3 verse 13 says
that Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being
made a curse for us, for it is written, Cursed is everyone that
hangeth on a tree. And in Deuteronomy 21, verses
22 and 23, it says, And if a man have committed a sin worthy of
death, and he is to be put to death, thou hang him on a tree. His body shall not remain all
night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that
day. For he that is hanged is accursed
of God, that thy land be not defiled. which the Lord thy God
giveth thee for inheritance." Christ Jesus had to die because
his people were cursed by sin. Second, the Lord Jesus had died
the horrible death on the cross to fulfill the Old Testament
types as the sin offering. Those sacrifices in the Old Testament
were always lifted up on an altar before God. That brazen serpent
was lifted up on a pole, but Most of the sacrifices were lifted
up on an altar before God. Even so, God's great sin offering,
the true sin offering had to be lifted up because God in the
types and pictures had promised sinners the Savior to wash them
and to make them clean. Those sin offerings you see pictured
Christ, every single one of them. Numbers 19 verse 9 says, And
a man that is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer, and
lay them up without the camp in a clean place, and it shall
be kept." Who shall it be kept for? For the congregation of
the children of Israel for a water of separation. It is a purification
for sin. And in John 3.14 Jesus says,
And as Moses lifted up the servant in the wilderness, even so must
the Son of Man be lifted up. And in John 12.32 he says, And
if I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men
unto me. Third, our Savior died on that
cursed tree to fulfill the Old Testament prophecies concerning
his death. In Psalm 22 verse 16, which was
written long before it happened, Christ Jesus says, They have
pierced my hands and my feet. And in Zechariah 12.10 he says,
they shall look on me whom they have pierced. Christ had to die
because God had not only promised that a Savior would die for the
sins of his people, but God had predestinated it. Fourth, and
maybe for us it is the most important reason of all, the Lord Jesus
endured the death of the cross for us as our substitute. so
that God might be both just and the justifier of all who trust
Him. In Romans 3 verse 24 to 26 it
says, Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus, whom God has sent forth to be a propitiation
through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for
the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance
of God, To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness,
that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth
in Jesus." And in Psalm 85, verses 10 and 11, it says that mercy
and truth are met together. Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other. Truth shall spring out of the
earth, and righteousness shall look down from heaven. And Proverbs
16, 7 says, When a man's ways please the
Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him. And
in Isaiah 45.20 God says, Assemble yourselves and come. Draw near
together ye that are escaped of the nations. They have no
knowledge to set up the wood of the graven image and pray
unto a God that cannot save. Jesus Christ had to die because
God is a merciful God. God is a God who loves his people. And there is no other name by
which we are saved. And so it pleased God to make
his enemies to be at peace with him through faith. I pray that
you can see with a believing heart that God has no pleasure
in the death of the wicked, and yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
him. It pleased God to bruise his dear son in order to save
his people from their sin. What a glorious God who would
sacrifice his dear son for rebellious sinners such as those that Christ
died for. That's a love that's beyond my
understanding. Now beginning with this next
sentence in Isaiah 53 verse 10 and going through the rest of
the chapter Isaiah shows us what a certain just and inevitable
results of Christ's death must be. Don't ever think that the
results of Christ's death are uncertain. They never were. It was a certainty. What happened
as a result of Christ's death, what happens as a result of Christ's
death is a certainty. The Armenian, the free willers
as Don Fortner would call them, because of what they believe,
and it is because of what they believe, is forced to say that
there are no sure and certain results from Christ's death.
They have to say that because their God isn't a sovereign God.
Everything is left to chance for them. Everything depends
for them on what men do. Everything is determined by man's
will and by chance and by luck. The outcome of nothing is certain. And what they believe is nothing
but blasphemy. Because in these next lines of
verse 10, God, the Holy Spirit, tells us exactly what the results
of Christ's death will be. It is written, and what it means
is, He shall not fail. Our Lord's death was not a gamble.
It's not a roll of the dice which left our salvation to chance.
Christ's effectually accomplished absolutely everything that He
came here to do. And so here in Isaiah 53 verse
10 we see the infallible effect of Christ's atonement. It was
a success, a complete and perfect success. A sovereign almighty
God said about Christ, He shall see His seed. We don't have to
guess who His seed are. Christ's seed are the generation
that will serve Him for God's glory. They are the whole body
of God's elect. Psalm 22 verse 30 says the seed
shall serve him. It shall be accounted to the
Lord for a generation. Christ Jesus their Savior will
see them, every one of them. He'll see them justified and
regenerated and sanctified and glorified. He shall see his seed. In John 12 verse 24 Jesus said,
Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into
the ground and die, it abideth alone. But if it die, it bringeth
forth much fruit. And then, skipping to verse 32
of John 12, Jesus said, And I, if I be lifted up from the earth,
will draw, not might draw, but will draw all men unto me. Then as we continue to read in
Isaiah 53, verse 10 says, he shall prolong his days." Now
that simply means that once Christ has, by his death, fully satisfied
the justice of God and put away the sins of his people, all of
their sins, he will be raised up from the dead to declare in
the most public, undeniable manner possible that all, everyone for
whom Christ died, all are forever justified. Romans 4.25 says that
it was our Savior Jesus Christ who was delivered for our offenses
and was raised up again for our justification. And being raised
from the dead, Jesus Christ shall then be exalted and glorified
to give eternal life to all his redeemed ones. In John 17 verse
2, Jesus prayed about himself to his father and he said that
as thou hast given him, talking about himself, as thou hast given
him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to
as many as thou hast given him. And in Romans 14.9 it says that
to this end Christ both died and rose and revived that he
might be Lord both of the dead and living. And then the next
phrase of Isaiah 53 says and the pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in his hand. Again please notice this word
shall. I just love these words will
and shall. Everything that God wants to
have done shall be done by the risen, exalted, glorified Jesus
Christ. All of the pleasure of God's
eternal purpose is being and shall be fully accomplished by
Jesus in obedient service to His Father. In Revelation 10,
verse 1, the Apostle John said, And I saw another mighty angel
come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud, and a rainbow was
upon his head. And his face was as it were the
sun, and his feet were as pillars of fire." That's the Lord Jesus
Christ our Savior, isn't it? And in Romans 8 verses 28 to
31 it says, And we know that all things work together for
good to them that love God, to them that are called according
to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, He
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that
he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom
he did predestinate, then he also called, and whom he called,
then he also justified, and whom he justified, then he also glorified. What shall we then say to these
saints? Well, if God be for us, who can be against us?" Now moving
on to verse 11 of Isaiah 53, it says about Jesus Christ, He
shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied."
There's that word, shall, again, isn't it? I love that word. I love that word because I know
that if God says it shall, then it's going to happen. If He says
it will happen, it's going to happen. That's my God. Is that
your God? I know it shall happen when God
says, I will. Twice the word shall is used
in this sentence. The Holy Spirit intends for us,
I think, to understand that there is absolutely no uncertainty
at all about what the consequences of Christ's atonement are. God
will never allow the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ to fail.
Christ's atonement for the sins of his people will accomplish
their salvation and their justification. God is talking about a satisfied
Savior. Not a frustrated false God, but
a satisfied Savior. A false God can't do what He
promises to do. But God says, I will and I shall. And He does and He accomplishes
what He says that He will do. When the Word of God talks about
the satisfaction of Christ, it's talking about two things. Christ
making satisfaction and Christ being satisfied. As Galatians
3.13 says, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law,
being made a curse for us. For it is written, Cursed is
everyone that hangeth on a tree. And in 1 John 1 verse 9 it says
that if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. By
His one offering for sin, our Redeemer, has completely satisfied
all of the law and justice of God. By His sin atoning death
as our substitute, our Savior has satisfied all of the types
and shadows and prophecies of the Old Testament Scriptures
and He has, as God said that He would, He has saved His people
from their sins. God kept his promise in Genesis
3.15 when he said to Satan, I will put enmity, I will put Christ,
I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy
seed and her seed and it shall, Christ shall, bruise thy head
and thou shalt bruise his heel. And everything that Psalm 22
and Isaiah 53 prophesied happened just as God said that they would
happen. Every type and every picture was fulfilled by Christ
just as God promised would happen. Noah's Ark was a picture of Christ
which saved God's people. God provided himself a lamb just
as Abraham promised Isaac that he would. And every Passover
lamb was another promise that the Lamb of God would save his
people from their sin just as the brazen serpent lifted up,
saved the people from that bite of sin when they looked to the
brazen serpent for healing. The crucified Christ, who was
presented to sinners in the gospel of God's word, satisfied all
the demands of a guilty conscience, all of the needs of a convicted
sinner, and all of the desires of a renewed heart when sinners
looked to Christ by faith. As Hebrews 9 verses 12 to 14
says about Christ, Neither by the blood of goats and calves,
but by His own blood, He entered in once into the holy place,
having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls
and goats, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctify
it to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood
of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without
spot, to God, how much more would it purge your conscience from
dead works to serve the living God? The Son of God shall be
satisfied with his ransomed people. I take that to mean that our
Redeemer shall be satisfied with the results of his sin-atoning
work as our substitute. He shall be satisfied because
they shall all be saved. Think of that. they shall all
be saved every single one that Christ died for shall be saved
and Christ shall be satisfied Christ was satisfied with his
work when it was done in John 17 for he said to his father
I have glorified thee on the earth I have finished the work
which thou gavest me to do and he came to save his people from
their sin that work was his work of being righteous and on the
cross Jesus said it is finished Christ's redemption work was
finished and he was satisfied with it. And Christ is satisfied
with his present position and work as our great High Priest.
In 1 John 2, verses 1 and 2, the Spirit of Christ says, My
little children, these things I write unto you, that you sin
not. And if any man sin, if you do sin, we have an advocate with
the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And he is the propitiation
for our sins, and not of ours only, but also for the sins of
the whole world. All that will come to him shall
be saved. And the Son of God shall be satisfied
when he sees his seed, all of his seed, completely saved. In
John 6, verses 37 to 40, Christ said, All that the Father giveth
to me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no
wise cast out. For I came down from heaven not
to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this
is the Father's will which has sent me, that of all which he
hath given me I should lose nothing, I should not lose a single one
of them, but should rise it up again at the last day. And this
is the will of him that sent me, that everyone which seeth
the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life, and
I will raise him up at the last day." And our Lord and Savior
shall be satisfied in the day of that great and glorious resurrection
day. And on that day nothing will
satisfy Christ short of complete salvation of His people. When
both Christ and His saints shall be satisfied together in Christ
and He in them. Even so, Lord Jesus, come quickly. Amen. Turn in your hymnals now, please.
To hymn number 110, O for a closer walk with God. Let's stand as
we sing.