I've entitled the message for
this evening, Christ numbered with transgressors. Now that's
about an amazing thing as you or I could ever think of or get
hold of. Christ numbered with transgressors. What's a transgressor? It's the
one who commits the transgressions. Sin is the transgression of the
law. And Christ was numbered with
the transgressors. May God condescend by His Spirit
to teach me and you just what that means. Verse 25 of our text, and it
was the third hour, 9 a.m., And they crucified him. I think it is amazing how brief
that description is. They crucified him. Not much is given by way of detail,
but this, they crucified him. And the superscription of his
accusation And this is what he was accused of. This is why he
was crucified. Here's the accusation brought
against him, the King of the Jews. He is the King of the Jews. Now that was looked upon as competition
with Caesar. Nevertheless, he is Caesar's
king. He is king of the Jews. He's king of everybody, but he's
most especially the king of the Jews. And let me remind you,
the Jews are not those people in the Middle East. The Jews
are every believer. I'm a Jew, a true Jew. Every
believer is a true Jew. God doesn't have one program
for Israel and the other program for regular believers or non-Israelites. No, every believer is a true
Jew. And with him they crucify two
thieves. The one on his right hand and
the other on his left, I'm not gonna say much about that. We're
going to spend a couple of messages considering this thing of being
crucified between two thieves in the next couple of weeks.
But look what it says in verse 28, and the scripture was fulfilled. Which saith, and he was numbered. with the transgressors. He said in Luke chapter 22 verse
37, before Gethsemane's garden, for I say unto you that that
that is written must yet be accomplished in me. And he was reckoned among
the transgressors. He says that about himself before
going to the cross. And when Mark Let's just know
what happened. This is a summary of what was
taking place on the cross. If you and I would understand
the cross, we must understand this. He was numbered with the
transgressors. Now the scripture he refers to
that was fulfilled is found in the gospel of Isaiah chapter
53, the 12th verse 700 years before it took place. Isaiah says he was numbered with
the transgressors. Now language means something.
The Bible says things in certain ways and it means something.
And in that statement, he was numbered with the transgressors.
Numbers, numbered is in the perfect tense. That means perfectly completed. Now that was written 700 years
before it took place. And yet when the inspired writer
speaks of him being numbered with the transgressors, it's
spoken of in a way that says it's already been done. It's
already been accomplished before it even happened. How could that
be? Well, in Revelation chapter 13,
verse eight, It says that he is the lamb slain, and that word
slain is in the perfect tense. The lamb having been slain. Perfectly completed, never to
be repeated. You know, the whole Bible is
interpreted in light of that verse of scripture. Think about
that. The creation of the world is
only understood in light of that verse of scripture before time
ever began. When there was no creation, when
there was no space, he was the lamb having been slain from the
foundation of the world. And this passage of scripture
gives us the summary of the cross. Now look back up in verse 22
of Mark chapter 15. And they bring him the Lord Jesus
unto the place of Golgotha, which is being interpreted the place
of a skull. Different reasons are given for
this name. It was a place of execution, and after they would
crucify somebody, they'd just throw their body away, and they
wouldn't bother to bury them. And you would have skulls laying
around, skeletons. They didn't give these people
who were crucified a decent burial. They'd just throw them away.
Others have said that this hill was formed in the shape of the
skull. I don't know where the name comes from, but that's what
it's called. The place of a skull, verse 23.
And they give him to drink wine mingled with myrrh. Now, most
writers say that this was an offer of an anesthetic to dull
the pain that was ahead. Was it? I don't know. I don't
know. It seems like these men were
so cruel that they would want him to feel every bit of the
pain. But whether it was or not, he
received it not. You see, this was his passion
and he was not going to dull the pain. He knew exactly what
he was doing. And look what verse 24 says.
And when they had crucified him, They parted his garments, casting
lots upon them, what every man should take. Now, this is spoken
of in Psalm 22, verse 18. They parted my garments, and
for my vesture, they cast lots. You know, it's amazing all the
events of the cross were foretold in the Old Testament, everything,
the crucifixion. This was the Roman means of execution. And the scripture says in Deuteronomy,
cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. It was God's purpose
for this one to be hanging on a tree. Verse 25 and the third
hour, 9 a.m., they crucified him. And the superscription of
his accusation was written over, the king of the Jews, And with
him they crucified two thieves, the one on his right hand and
the other on his left. And in doing that, the scripture
was fulfilled, which saith, and he was numbered with the transgressors. Now this word numbered is a very
important word. The word is a verb. It's not
an adjective. I don't know how many times I've
heard preachers, maybe I myself have done it, speak of imputed
righteousness. You won't find that in the Bible.
I've heard of imparted righteousness. You won't find that in the Bible.
I've heard of positional righteousness. You won't find that in the Bible
either. There's one righteousness, and no adjective is needed to
describe it. Righteousness. Christ's righteousness. Imputed. Imputed is a verb. There's only one righteousness.
It needs no adjective. The righteousness of Jesus Christ.
His righteousness is the only righteousness. And he speaks
of righteousness imputed. And that word means to count,
to compute, to number, to be included in a census, to reckon,
to judge, the word has to do with reality. And let me give
you an illustration. If I reckon $1,000 is in my bank
account, the reason I reckon $1,000 is in my bank account
is because $1,000 is in my bank account. If I reckon there's $1,000 in
my bank account and there's not, I've deceived myself, haven't
I? I've deceived myself. You see, this thing of reckoning
has to do with reality. The reason I reckon the $1,000
is in my account is because that's what's in it. And if I try to
write a check for more than that, you think the bank is going to
say, well, you don't meant well. No. If I make it for more than
$1,000, it won't be any good. That's what this thing of reckoning
means. It has to do with reality. It refers to a fact. Now here's
a scripture that I think will help us to understand this. Paul
said in Romans 6, 11, reckon yourselves. Same word. Reckon
yourselves to be dead indeed to sin. But alive unto God. through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now the only reason that he would
tell us to reckon ourselves to be dead indeed to sin is for
this one reason. We are. Every believer is actually
dead to sin. Sin has nothing to say to me.
No way it can condemn me. I stand before God's law without
sin because of Christ being numbered transgressor and what he accomplished
on Calvary Street. You see, this has to do with
facts. It's not some kind of numbers game. The reason I'm
called upon to reckon myself dead indeed to sin is because
I am in fact dead. Dead indeed to sin. Christ put away my sin. It has
nothing to say to me. It cannot be brought up against
me in any form. Now, what I would like to do
for the remainder of this message is go to Isaiah 53, where this
scripture is quoted. Now, this is a scripture we ought
to spend a lot of time in frequently. Isaiah 53. This is the great prophecy concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ and his death on Calvary's tree. And
God says in verse 12, therefore will I divide him a portion with
the great and he shall divide the small with the strong because
he had poured out his soul unto death. And here it was, here
it is, he was numbered with the transgressors. Notice it doesn't
say he will be numbered with the transgressors, it says he
was. numbered with the transgressors. Now let's see. Uh, what led Isaiah
to make this statement in this Isaiah chapter 53 without question,
there's no more important scripture in all the word of God than Isaiah
53. Now let's begin in verse one. Isaiah begins with a lament. Who have believed our report? I think Isaiah at that time felt
like so very few believed the gospel. And he's actually acting
like nobody does. Who has believed? Who has believed
our report? But he answers that in the next
statement. And to whom is the arm of the
Lord revealed? That's who's believed the report.
Those who have had the arm of the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ,
his strong right arm revealed. If you are a saved individual,
it is because God himself has revealed himself to you. That's why you know Him. You
wouldn't know Him if it wasn't for the fact that He was pleased
in His mercy to reveal Himself to you. Verse two. Now this is speaking, I believe,
of the first 30 years of the Lord's life. I think verse three
is speaking of the last three years of His public ministry.
But this is beautiful to think about. The first 30 years of
the Lord's life. For he shall grow up before him. Thinking of the father watching
his son grow. Isn't that beautiful? He shall
grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of dry
ground He hath no form nor comeliness, and when we shall see Him, there
is no beauty that we should desire in Him. You know, when people
would look at the Lord Jesus Christ, they were not impressed.
There's no beauty about him, nothing unusual about him. He
was just an everyday Joe as far as the way he looked. There wasn't
anything impressive. I have no idea how tall he was,
what he was built like, what he looked like, nobody else does,
but if you would have saw him, you wouldn't have been impressed.
You wouldn't have thought, that must be the son of God, look
at him. You would have thought nothing like that. What I thought
of was the tabernacle. I love to think of that tabernacle
being out in the wilderness, and you know what it was covered
with? Badger skin. When's the last time you saw
a badger? That's not very attractive covering, is it? And I have no
doubt that I could see the Amalekites and the Hittites maybe up on
a hill looking down upon the camp of the children of Israel,
the children of Moab, and saying, What's the deal? There's nothing
impressive about that thing. It's covered with badger skin.
They didn't understand the dazzling Shekinah glory that was on the
inside. They couldn't see that. They
couldn't see. It was unimpressive. There is
no form nor comeliness. And we, when we shall see him,
there's no beauty that we should desire him. Now this I believe
is what is referring to his three publicly years of ministry. He
is despised and rejected of men, a man of
sorrows and acquainted, deeply acquainted with grief. Now, while
he was in the flesh the whole time, he knew what was ahead
of him. And it wasn't just the dread
of the physical pain of the cross, it was the dread of being cut
off by his father, being left alone, no longer having the smile
of his father, having nothing but the awful frown of his father,
not having his father's presence when he was made sin. And you
know that that stood as a burden to him every single day of his
life, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Look at the way men
hated him. Everybody was against him. Everybody,
if there was anybody, turned thumbs down on him. He was despised. He was rejected of men. How disappointing
his apostles, his disciples, were so often. I mean, when he
was on the cross, where were they? They had forsook him and
fled, denying that they even knew him. He was a man of sorrows,
acquainted with grief, and we hid, as it were, our faces from
him. You know what that means? We
didn't want to be identified with him. If we saw him, we ducked our head.
We didn't want to be identified with this man of sorrows. He
was despised, and I hope this will produce a tear, if not,
in our physical eyes and our heart, and we esteemed him not. What? worse could be said about
any of us than that. We had no esteem for the Lord
Jesus Christ. That lets us know what human
sin is. It's low thoughts of him. Now, he goes on in verse four
to tell the story of the cross. And I love the way Isaiah begins
with this word, surely. Surely. Oh, thank God for that word,
surely. We read of the sure mercies of
David. We read of the everlasting covenant
ordered in all things and sure. Now, this is sure. This is sure. Nothing is more
sure than this. I like a sure thing, don't you?
This is sure. Surely he hath borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows. Now, I've got to ask this question. Surely he hath borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows. Who's the hour? That's an important
thing for us to consider. Who is the hour? Does that mean
he bore everybody's griefs? Every son of Adam to ever live?
And yet some of those people are in hell because they didn't
believe? Is that what that's saying? Well,
if that is what it's saying, his death was meaningless to
them. And salvation is by works. It's not what he did. It's what
you do with what he did. And that's a treacherous, there's
no truth to that. Jesus Christ died for the elect.
He died for his seed. He died for his people. He died
for those who the father gave him. And to say anything else
is to make his death utterly meaningless. You know, the redeemed
love redemption, don't they? The redeemed love his particular
saving, successful redemption. And the only reason somebody
wouldn't love it is because they're not redeemed. If you die not
loving it, you'll prove you're not redeemed. The redeemed love
his successful redemption. That's who this hour is referring
to. Surely he hath borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows." This is what he did as the substitute
of his people. This is his heel being bruised. And yet here's what we thought
about all of this. Yet, in spite of what he was doing until God
revealed himself to us, yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten
of God. and afflicted. We had such a
low opinion of him, he's getting what he had coming. Verse 5,
but, nevertheless, in spite of our
wickedness, he was wounded. That word is pierced. Pierced. They pierced his hands and feet.
They pierced his side with a spear. But he was wounded, he was pierced
for our transgressions. He was bruised, he was crushed
for our iniquities. You see, the reason he died is
because my sin became. His sin. Every sin I ever committed, all
the sins of all the people He died for became His sins. Now, God can do this. God can take my sin and take
it away from me and give it to his son to where he bears my
sins in his own body on the tree. And he can take the very righteousness
and merits of his son and give it to me so it's mine. That's
what's going on. He was wounded, pierced for our
transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace,
the only way we'll have peace is through his chastisement.
Now the only thing, now I have peace, right now I have peace. And here's what gives me peace.
God's at peace with me for Christ's sake. That's the only thing that
gives me peace. It's not I have peace because
of anything I'm doing or because I'm a preacher or because I read
the Bible or because I'm fighting well against sin. The only thing
that gives me peace is that everything God requires of me, I have because
of what Christ did on Calvary Street. The only peace I have
is through His chastisement, Him bearing those stripes. The
chastisement of our peace was upon Him and with His stripes,
We're healed. And notice once again, the writer
does not say, with his stripes we will be healed. He said, with
his stripes we are healed. And when Peter quotes this, in
1 Peter chapter 224, he says, by whose stripes you were healed. You were healed. Now, All of us have been sick
before, and I don't think any of us have ever experienced immediate
healing. One day you feel better, another
day you feel a little better. It might take months, maybe you've
gone through surgery, whatever. Gradual, gradual. But the moment
Christ said, it is finished, I was healed. I was saved by what He did. It doesn't have anything to do
with my works. Now listen to me. It doesn't
have anything to do with my works. It has only to do with His work. I am healed. Now look at this confession of
sin in verse six. Isaiah says, all we like sheep
have gone astray. We've turned everyone to his
own way. Now, only a sheep can go astray. A
goat cannot go astray. All we like sheep All sheep stray
so easily. They get lost so easily. They can't find their way back.
All we, Isaiah is speaking as a spokesman for all of God's
sheep, all of God's elect. All we, like sheep, have gone
astray. Every one of us have turned on
our own way. Now, when I sin, when you sin,
When I go astray, when you go astray, you know why we did it?
Because that's what we wanted to do. That's the bottom line. We've turned everyone to his
own way. My sin is all my fault. I can't blame God's sovereignty. I can't blame my circumstances.
I can't blame you. I'm no victim. You know, I can't
stand being around victims. Nothing's ever their fault. All
my sin is all my fault. And it's the same way with you. All we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone to his
own way. Now that's the confession of
sin. May the Lord enable us to confess this even now. And here
is our hope, the Lord. hath laid, made to meet on him
the iniquity of us all. Now, how does that happen? God did it. The Lord laid upon
him the iniquity of us all. of us all. I'll never forget
hearing a preacher one time, and he had been caught up, this
had been a long time ago, he'd been caught up in some kind of
scandal, and he said, well, I took that sin and put it under the
blood. I thought, oh, you can do that? No, you can't. The only one who can put my sin
under the blood is God himself. And the Lord hath laid on him
the iniquity of us all. Verse seven, He was oppressed
and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the
slaughter and as a sheep before her shears is dumb, so he openeth
not his mouth. Now that's pointed out in the
New Testament when he stood before his accusers and they made those
accusations against him. He didn't try to defend himself.
Why? Because he knew he was numbered
with the transgressors. He said that before the cross,
didn't he? He said that in Gethsemane's garden. It's yet to happen that
I'm to be numbered among the transgressors. And he didn't
defend himself because he knew he was guilty. Guilty as charged. And he really was. He bore my
sin. He bore the guilt of my sin.
He took full responsibility. He took ownership of my sin and
therefore he opened not his mouth. Verse eight, he was taken from
prison. And that word is also translated
by oppression. He was taken from, he was oppressed,
and he was taken from prison, and he was taken from judgment.
His judgment was unjust. And who should declare his generation?
Who's going to protest against this? For he was cut off out
of the land of the living for the transgression of my people
was he stricken. It was an unjust trial. It was
oppression. There was nothing right about
it. And yet he was cut off. He was put to death. He died. He was taken out of the land
of the living. And Isaiah reminds us, here's why, for the transgression
of my people. You know what Christ was doing? He was doing for his people.
And that's another thing that just amazes me to think about
this. When Jesus Christ was being stricken
by God. He had me on His heart. He was doing this for me. This was not generic. This wasn't
for everybody and what you do can make what He did work. Not
at all. This is for His people. Thou
shalt call His name Jesus for He shall save His people. from their sins. Verse nine, and he made his grave
with the wicked and with the rich in his death. You know,
the scripture even points out he was buried in a rich man's
tomb. Joseph of Arimathea, and he died
with two very wicked men, malfactors, evil doers. 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.
Isaiah reminds us that all of our guilt was charged to him.
He himself never sinned. He did no sin. And even while He was on the
cross bearing the sins of the elect, He Himself never sinned. He's the spotless Son of God. There was no deceit in His mouth
even while all this was going on. Yet, verse 10, It pleased
the Lord to crush him. Now don't miss that word, please.
Now that's not talking about some kind of sadistic pleasure.
Not at all. But this was God's will. This
was God's purpose. This is why he came into the
world in the first place, to be crushed under the wrath of
God, to put away the sins of his people so they would be his
bride throughout eternity, perfect and holy. And it pleased the
Lord to crush him. It was the Father's good pleasure. It pleased the Lord to crush
him. He, had put him to grief. Many hands were raised to wound
him. None would interpose to save,
but the deepest stroke that pierced him was the stroke that justice
gave. The justice of God. He is the one to put him to grief. When thou shalt make his soul
and offering for sin. Now in the Hebrew, that word
offering for sin is one word. And the first time it comes up
in the scripture, it is translated guiltiness. It's often also translated
sin, just sin. This is the Old Testament account
of 2 Corinthians 5.21. For he hath made him sin. for us who knew no sin, that
we might be made the righteousness of God in him. When thou shalt
make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, the
elect of God. He shall prolong his days. He's
gonna be raised from the dead, and those days are forever. He's
a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. He never dies. Those Old Testament priests,
every one of them died, every one of them. This one never dies. He is the priest after the order
of Melchizedek with the power of an endless life. And the pleasure
of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall not fail nor
be discouraged. He said, all that the Father
giveth 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 has given me, I should
lose nothing. The pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in his hand. He, verse 11, shall see the travail
of his soul that's what was going on on the
cross the travail of his soul God the Father is satisfied with
what Jesus Christ did Jesus Christ the Lord is satisfied
with what he did. God the Holy Spirit is infinitely
satisfied with what Jesus Christ did. Are you? Are you? I am. He shall see of the travail
of his soul and shall be satisfied by his knowledge. Shall my righteous
servant Justify many. Justify many. That's what he
did on Calvary's tree. He justified many. Everybody
he died for, they're justified. They stand before God without
guilt. They stand before God having
never sinned. And here's why. For he shall
bear their iniquities. Therefore, will I divide him
a portion with the great. Now that's not saying he gets
to be in the midst of the great people. This is talking about
the numerous, the great multitude that he died for. He died for
many. That's not saying now he gets
to be with me, this great person. I'm not saying that at all. He
died for his people. Therefore will I divide him a
portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the
numerous, is the word, the strong. And here's why. Because he hath
poured out his soul unto death. Why did he do that? Because he
was numbered with the transgressors. And here's how he did that. He
bare. He bare the sin of many. And he made intercession for
the transgressors. Now what's that mean? That means
right now, there is a man in glory. My redeemer. The one who loved
me. and gave himself for me. And he stands before his father
as my representative. Now his intercession is not like,
well, I committed the same sin for the thousandth time, and
he says, oh, let him get by again. No, not at all. He stands before
my father and before his father And his father sees me as altogether
perfect, because he is my intercessor. And you read that, wherefore
he is able to save them to the uttermost that come to God by
him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. Aren't you thankful he was numbered
with the transgressors? Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you that you
numbered your son with the transgressors that by your grace makes us have
some idea of what was going on on Calvary Street. He was numbered
with the transgressors. And Lord, how we thank you that
he put those transgressions away and that every one of your people
stand before you without seeing how we thank you. In Christ's
name, we pray. Amen.