In our text this morning, Isaiah
52, in the last three verses, we will note the exaltation,
humiliation, and then success of our blessed Redeemer, the
Lord Jesus Christ. And actually, the chapter division
is unfortunate to where it's at,
It should continue on from verse 13 of chapter 52, right into
53. So Lord willing, when we get
to that next week, we'll look at it. We'll start reading that
way. But we're going to take these three verses as they're
written and look at a few things. He says, behold, my servant shall
deal prudently. He shall be exalted and extolled. and be very high. As many were
astounded at thee, his visage was so marred more than any man,
and his form more than the sons of men. So shall he sprinkle
many nations, the kings shall shut their mouths at him, for
that which had not been told them shall they see, And that
which they had not heard shall they consider. Now Paul tells
us in Romans, this last verse over in, I had it written down
here. in Romans 15 that this is speaking
obviously of the New Testament. This is the gospel age when the
gospel shall be revealed to the Gentiles and through the preaching
of the gospel They shall believe and enter in. And so we know
that this passage is speaking about the gospel. We know that
this passage is speaking about the Lord Jesus Christ. In verse
13, we start right off to behold the servant, behold my servant,
behold my servant. Turn back in Isaiah to chapter
42. That's why I said this morning
that this text deals with three things that can deal with our
Lord. His first verse is exaltation. The second verse is horrible
suffering and humiliation and then the success that would follow
because of the things which he underwent at the hands of sinful
men. Chapter 42, Isaiah writes similarly,
Behold my servant. whom I uphold, mine elect, in
whom my soul delights, I have put my spirit upon him, he shall
bring forth judgment to the Gentiles." That's speaking of the Lord Jesus
Christ there as this verse 13 in the 52nd chapter of Isaiah
is also speaking about the Lord Jesus Christ. He says, Behold
my servant. And there's a few things he says
about the Lord Jesus Christ that we are to behold. We are to observe.
We are to stand back and see and wonder and glory in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Behold my servant. First, he shall deal prudently. He shall deal prudently. That
is in a sensible and wise manner. He dealt wisely in his decree
to seek and to save his people. Behold, my servant shall deal
wisely." The fact that God the Father decreed to save any of
the sons and daughters of Adam's race is amazing, but the way
and the manner in which He did it, the wisdom in which He did
it, to decree to seek and to save His people who, just like
anyone else, full of sin, full of crimes and hatred against
God, but God in His wisdom Wisdom set forth in the servant,
the Lord Jesus Christ, dealt prudently in the manner in which
the Father had given him the task to redeem his people. And
sensible, as far as God is concerned, because it was going to be through
the blood of the just one that sinners would be made whole. Now, no other religion, no other religious order other than Christianity,
this is very specific to Christianity, is that it would be the death
of an innocent to cover the guilty and then be raised from the dead
to justify those for whom he came to save. You don't have
that in Buddhism, you don't have that in Muhammad, you don't have
that in anything other than the gospel concerning Christ. He, my servant, behold, my servant
shall deal prudently, wisely and sensibly, sensibly. There's no other way. There's
no other name given among men whereby we must be saved. The
Lord Jesus Christ. No other way. And any other message
or any other method other than free sovereign grace, the blood
of an innocent covering the guilty, the substitutionary work of the
Lord Jesus Christ, any other message that is put forth by
any religion, it is not sensible and it is not wise, it is not
prudent, but rather it is foolish and damning. It is foolish and
damning to behold any other servant for the salvation of our souls
than the servant, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, if you have a marginal
reading, that word deal prudently is also, if you have a marginal
reading, it means to prosper. It means to prosper. Christ will prosper. Behold,
my servant shall prosper. Now, to those who understand
the gospel, to those who have tasted that the Lord is gracious,
this is just as This is absolutely true. We understand this. He
will succeed in his birth, he succeeded in his life, and he
succeeds in his death for his church to the redeeming of our
souls. Prosper. Behold my servant shall
prosper. To me that says that all that
he did is without failure. All that he did is without error
and without resistance. That is, it can't be thwarted.
His worth and his work for his people cannot be a failure. There is no error in it and it
cannot be thwarted. Behold, my servant shall do prudently. And because the Lord shall prosper
in the hearts of his chosen elect people, he will be three things
to us. And we will do these three things
for him. Exalted, extolled, and very high. That's what he says
in this passage. Look again at verse 13. Behold,
my servant shall deal prudently. He shall prosper. He shall be
exalted, and extolled, and be very high. Exalted. Exalted by the Father. Doesn't this book tell us that
Christ was given a name? The Father gave the Son a name
above every name. Exalted by His people, we gather
together to hear of Him, to exalt Him, to know Him, to worship
Him, and adore Him, because He's exalted in our hearts, because
He's prospered, because He's dealt with us prudently, and
He's dealt with the law prudently, and He's dealt with the Father.
Prudently So he's exalted by the father exalted by his people
and Exalted in and by the gospel when we preach the gospel if
the gospel is preached correctly Christ is Exalted He has the
preeminence. We don't want to hear about any
other. We don't want to hear about ourselves You don't want
to come here to hear about the preacher We want to hear And that's what's
so important. When Bruce stands up here, I
stand up here, and when you listen, it is done in the manner in which
we lose ourselves in Him, Christ. And that He's exalted. And that
His name is honored and praised. Now the other day I was watching
a history channel for a little time and there was a documentary
on Jim Jones, the people's temple thing. They all moved out there
to Jonestown and they all had a mass suicide. And they had
actual footage and they had all these different things. But I
listened. There was one comment that made it to set the whole
thing in motion as far as I was concerned. They said that he
used to preach from the Bible. Now, you remember his interpretation,
but they said he used to preach from the Bible. But the more
power and authority that he had over people's lives, they said
he started he started preaching about himself. He started preaching himself.
When he first started out, he used to use the Bible a whole
lot more, but as he gained power and notoriety and influence,
he started talking more about himself. And I thought that's
the way it is with every false preacher and false prophet and
false gospel. It relieves this book and starts
to speak about denominational things or historical things,
but mainly promotes self, promotes self. True preaching exalts Christ
and Him crucified because that's the subject, that's the theme,
and that's what they're being faithful for, faithful to. And then they were showing different
things about it. He would call these white night
meetings. And he'd get everybody up out
of bed at like 2 in the morning. And he would just keep on going. You know that I always protect
you. I want you to be... And he said
this. They had actual audio. He said, I want you to be like
me. I want you to have faith like me. I want you to have love
like me. I want you to... And he just kept on saying, me,
me, me. Well, secondly, because Christ
prospers in the hearts of His people, not only is He exalted,
but He's extolled, and that word is simply to be lifted up. He
is lifted up beyond anything and everything else. You know,
if we don't have Christ, we perish. Desire to live for him were of
all people most miserable. He is not Part of our life Christ
is our life. He is our peace. He is our hope
He is lifted up above everything and beyond everything else And
then thirdly it says in our in our verse here and be very high
Very high turn to Colossians chapter 1 God highly esteems them We love
and worship him only by his grace and so therefore the son would
have the same position in our hearts and our minds as the father
Colossians chapter 1 starting verse 13 to see that it's speaking
about Christ who has delivered us from the power of darkness
and Translated us into the kingdom of his dear son the Lord Jesus
Christ in whom Christ is We have redemption through His blood,
even the forgiveness of sins, who Christ is the image of the
invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. For by Christ
were all things created, that in heaven and in earth, visible
and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities
or powers, all things were created by Him and for Him, and He is
before all things. And by him all things consist,
and he, Christ, is the head of the body, the church, who is
the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things
Christ might have the preeminence. I would say that's very high.
That's very high. And I know we have to continually
exhort one another and rebuke and encourage. But one thing
that's blessed about the people of grace, the only people that
there is, the people of the grace who believe in God's gospel and
believe in God himself and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, is
they desire to give and to love and to worship and to glorify
him. Not like today's religion where the preacher's always got
to be doing something and on them and calling and all these
different things. The Lord makes his people willing
in the day of his power. And I know the flesh is still
within and we still have to be encouraged and reminded things.
But the love of Christ constrains us because he is exalted in us,
extolled, and he's very high. And someone who is your beloved
does not, we do not have to sit there and continually pound or
reward or do all these gimmicks that modern religion does to
keep the people faithful. If Christ can't keep his people
faithful, preachers won't. Preachers won't. Secondly, let's
look at this Christ humiliation, verse 14. We never, ever make
light of the physical abuse that the Lord Jesus Christ, however,
that was just a small portion of the experience of humiliation
that the Lord underwent will never fully understand the spiritual
and internal humiliation that the Lord underwent at the hands
of his Father. When he cried at the cross, My
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Because he was the Son, the
only begotten Son. So read this verse in wonder,
in horror, in amazement of the mighty grace of God to the likes
of you and me. As many were astounded, astonished. They were astonished at Him when
He hung on the cross. Why? Because His visage, His
outward appearance was so marred more than any man. Well, you
said the thieves hanging on the cross, they got beat. They got
this. Yeah, they got tortured too.
But His visage was marred more than any man. It doesn't matter
what the historians say. This book tells us it was marred
more than any man and his form more than the sons of men. Because
before he hung on that cross, they beat him, they scourged
him. He got whipped with that whip
that had those bones in there. His flesh was ripped out of his
back. The crown of thorns was upon him. He was punched. He
was spit upon. He was mocked. But we got these pictures. of this pretty blue-eyed Jew
hanging on a cross with a little droplet of blood coming out from
a crown of thorns. Behold my servant, his visage
was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons
of men. O wonder of wonders! that the
Son of God must endure such savagery at our hands, such disgusting
hate and vengeance by the religious leaders of his day, in order
to fulfill all righteousness and give mercy to the likes of
you and me." When he says more than any man, surely the reason is twofold.
One, Because we are that sinful and that separated from good
and from God, that Christ must endure such things. And secondly,
because God is that holy and just and pure, and He must judge
sin on whomever He sees it. And our iniquities, as we'll
find when we go into Isaiah 53, the Lord God laid on Him the
iniquity of every one of his sheep, every one of his people. God does not judge sin like we
do, and in that final day this will be shown and demonstrated
by his mighty wrath. Verse 15, such humiliation truly
affords great success. Look at what he says in verse
15. So, because the son, the servant, dealt prudently, because
he was so humiliated, because God was so honored in the things
that he put the son through, and the son willingly laid down
his life to obey the decrees and laws and justice of God,
and also to satisfy the sins that were laid to our charge,
So shall he sprinkle many nations. Turn to Ezekiel 36. We looked
at this not too long ago. Sprinkle as in Ezekiel 36 and
verse 25. Sprinkle as in covering and washing. Not as an insignificant method
of purification, but as a very significant. It's just the way
it's worded. Look at Ezekiel 36 and verse
25. God says, Then will I sprinkle
clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your
filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse you. That's
the type of sprinkling. When Christ poured out His soul
unto death, poured His life out, His lifeblood out, He cleansed
many nations. Many nations. Many, not all. It is never intended by God to
save or call all people throughout all time. It was never His intention,
and it's not found in this book, where He gave His life for all,
redeemed all, or loved all. It's not found in this book.
It's many. many. They're called the remnant
by the free election of grace. Paul talks a lot about this as
we've seen in the book of Romans. But also, he does what he does,
that the kings shall shut their mouths at him, for that which
had not been told them shall they see, and that which they
had not heard shall they consider. Mouths will be shut and glorious
things considered when God redeems by His grace. When He calls a
sinner unto repentance, many, yes, you can't number how many
of those are going to be saved. They're like the sand of the
sea, the stars in the heaven. But it's not all. But it's many. It's many. And those for whom
He calls, God will be so manifested and seen as Lord of Lords and
the King of Kings that all miles shall be stopped and he will
be acknowledged for who he is and what he has accomplished.
That's what that's saying there in the closing section of this
passage. There'll be no debate about who
he is and how he's redeemed. There'll be no rebuttal and there'll
be no doubt. How do I know this? Because Paul
tells us the same things. In closing, turn to Philippians
chapter 2. Philippians chapter 2. Let's just start in verse 5. Our main
passage we want to look at is verses 9 through 11. Let this mind be in you, which
also was in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought
it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation,
and took upon him the form of a servant, and that's what we've
been talking about, behold my servant, and was made in the
likeness of men, and being found in the fashion of a man, he humbled
himself, we spoke of that, and became obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross, which is more significant then than
it is now to us, the death of the cross, the horrible, despicable
death of the cross, but it was ordained of God. Wherefore, this
is what we want to look at, God also hath highly exalted him,
and given him a name which is above every name, that at the
name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven things
in earth and things under the earth and that every tongue should
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the
Father every tongue is going to be made to confess whether
in mercy or in judgment But there'll be no doubt, no rebuttal, no
debate that He is the Messiah, the conquering, ruling, sovereign
of the universe. May that time of confession and
repentance be given to us this day, all for the glory of God's
servant, Jesus the Christ. in his mercy. Bruce, would you
close us please?