Let's turn to Isaiah 53. Someone asked an old preacher, is your creed in print? And he replied, very definitely,
my creed's in print. It's the 53rd chapter of Isaiah.
That's my creed. For my creed is Christ Jesus,
Son of God, Son of Man, Sin of God, Christ my substitute, Christ
my sin offering, Christ my successful and satisfied and seated Savior. It's all there, my creed, Isaiah
53. And the Lord God, when he would
call and save the Ethiopian eunuch, a lot of scripture that man could
have been reading. But the Lord God laid upon his
heart to read and study Isaiah 53. That's what he was reading
when the Lord sent the preacher, Philip. to interpret what the man was
reading. He said, Do you understand what
you're reading? He said, How can I except some man interpret? Show me. Bunyan called us fellows
who preach the interpreters. Well, Brother Bob just read it.
Now let me be the interpreter. All right. The first words in
Isaiah 53. Who hath believed our report?
Our report is called our testimony, it's called our gospel. There's never lived a prophet,
never lived an apostle or a preacher or a pastor or teacher who has
not mourned and grieved over the fact that men and women in
general do not believe our report. They do not believe our testimony. They do not believe our witness. It's a grievous matter. Once
in a while someone does, when God opens their eyes, opens their
ears, but the public in general does not believe the gospel.
Even our Lord said that. He said, I'll tell you the truth,
and you don't believe me. He said, I'm coming in my Father's
name. And you receive me not. You let another come in his own
name, preaching the imaginations of his own evil heart, and him
people believe. That's the condemnation. Light
has come into the world, but men love darkness rather than
light. Why? Their deeds are evil. Who hath believed? I report.
To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? Who is the arm of the
Lord? Well, let me show you two scriptures. First, let's read Isaiah 40.
The arm of the Lord. Who is the arm of the Lord? Isaiah 40, verse 10. This clearly defines the arm
of the Lord. Isaiah 40, verse 10. Behold,
the Lord God will come. with strong hand, Isaiah 40.10,
and his arm. His arm shall rule for him. Behold,
his reward is with him, his work before him, and he shall feed
his flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with
his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead
those that are with young. Christ the arm of the Lord, Christ
the power and wisdom of the Lord. One more scripture, Psalm 98,
having to do with this arm of the Lord. There are plenty of
them, I've selected two. Psalm 98, verse 1, O sing unto
the Lord a new song. Psalm 98, for he hath done marvelous
things, and his right hand and his holy arm. hath gotten him
the victory. The Lord hath made known his
salvation, his righteousness hath he openly showed in the
sight of the heathen. He is the Lord's right arm. I've told you this before and
I'll repeat it again. The pronouns he, him, and his
are used in this 53rd chapter of Isaiah about 43 times, he,
him, and his. He's the arm of the Lord, the
power and wisdom of God. All right, verse 2. For he shall
grow up before him. What is this business, growing
up? Well, this declares his entrance into the world as an infant. He came into the world just like
your children came into the world, except they had a human father,
he had a heavenly father. But he was conceived in the womb,
developed and born, just as we are born, as a helpless infant. Born a woman, flesh and blood,
bones, a human being, and he grew up. He grew up. He increased in wisdom and stature
and favor with God and men. He grew up just like we did.
Had to be our representative. But what's this? He grew up before
Him. Before whom? Before God the Father. Talking about He grew up before
His Father who sent Him. Men didn't know Him, but the
Father knew Him. Men didn't respect Him, but the
Father loved Him. Men despised him, but God said,
Behold, my servant, in whom my soul delights, mine elect, in
whom I delight. Oh boy. He grew up before the
Father, and all that he became on this earth, and all that he
did on this earth from the cradle to the grave, he did it before
God, before him. He wasn't demonstrating his power
to this bunch of renegades. He was growing up before him.
Before him. Everything he did, everything
he became from the cradle to the cross was before him and
according to his will. I always did the will of him
that sent me. And on behalf of someone, to
the Father, toward the Father, before the Father on behalf of
a covenant people whom he represented, for whom he was surety, savior,
federal head, representative, redeemer, and great high priest. He grew up before him, watch
this now, as a tender plant, son of man, Subject to all of
the weakness of this flesh and the thirst and the weariness,
Jesus being weary with the journey. Can you imagine Him weary? Oh, yes. I thirst. My bones can be seen. My tongue
cleaveth to the roof of my mouth. Those were His cries. as a tender plant, a little child
dependent on his mother, nursing at her breast, waiting to be
fed, waiting to be changed. Everything we are and were and
experience we have, he experienced. Our representative, tender plant. Then we grew up before him as
a root out of the dry ground. What's this dry ground? Well,
this Messiah, This Messiah, this Redeemer is the son of David.
He's of the tribe of Judah. He's the heir, the rightful,
legitimate heir to the throne of Israel, to David's throne,
Solomon's throne. But the mighty house of David
is nothing at this time, nothing, dry ground. And he is a root
out of that dry ground. He's David's son. He's a legitimate
king of the Jews, but there he is, the heir to the greatest
throne on earth, asleep in somebody else's stable on a bed of straw. That is dry ground. He's got no form, no comeliness. He has no majesty about him,
and no honor, and no court, and no army. and no influence, and
no silk and satin, no crowns and gold, no earthly glory, and
no earthly kingdom, and no farm or comeliness. No farm, no comeliness. And when
we did see him, there was no beauty, nothing appealing to
these natural eyes and these natural ears. and sense of touch
and feeling and smell. Nothing about him that impressed
anybody or indicated that he meant anything or that made us
desire him. In fact, someone said at no time
in the life of this man Jesus Christ on earth was there anything
about this man that would attract the people of this world. Nothing. One must have anointed eyes to
be attracted to him. One must have ears. One must
have a heart of understanding given him by God. For in answer to the question,
whom do they say that the Son of Man, that I the Son of Man
am? Well, they say you're one of the prophets, maybe John the
Baptist or Elijah or somebody. Well, what do you say? Oh, and
their eyes got big. God, the Christ, the Son of the
living God. But nobody else saw that. He
had no wealth. He had no formal education. He
owned no property. His family was unknown and uninfluential. He spent his days, until he was
30 years old, working as a carpenter. He never traveled outside his
own land. He slept in another man's manger. He sailed on another man's boat.
He rode on another man's donkey and was buried in another man's
tomb. No beauty about him that we should
desire him. In fact, verse 3, he's despised. He's despised and rejected of
men. Why would they despise someone
like this? He claimed to be what they didn't
believe he was. You're not 50 years old. You
say you've seen Abraham? Before Abraham was, I am. Despised and rejected because
of his lowly birth. Can anything good come out of
Nazareth? Despised and rejected because of his family. But we
know his mother. We know his brothers, Judy, Joseph,
Simon. We know his sisters. Despised
because of his occupation. Isn't this the carpenter? Despised
because of his background. Do you teach us? How on earth
this man letters? He never learned. He never graduated
from one of our schools. Despised because of his friends. Why does your master hate Republicans
and sinners? He's a friend of sinners. He
must be like them. Despised because of his doctrine.
This is a hard saying. A hard saying. Who can hear it?
I think I'll leave. Despised because of his death
on a cross. Come down from the cross and
we'll believe you. If he had come down from the
cross, we wouldn't have believed him. A man of sorrows, acquainted
with grief. I believe there is one verse
in the book of Lamentations that describes this sorrow, this sorrow
and grief. In Lamentations 1, verses 12
and 13, I sought in vain today to find somebody who agreed with
me on this. A couple of fellows I read after didn't see it this
way. They applied it only to Israel. But I believe this is
Christ speaking. Lamentation 1, 12, and 13. Is
it nothing to you? All ye that pass by, pass by
this way, behold and see, if there be any sorrow like my sorrow,
which is done unto me, Wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in
the day of his fierce anger." Is there anybody that that can
be applied to but Christ? There is no sovereign like his
sovereign. My soul is exceeding sorrowful
even unto death. You haven't been there, and I
haven't either, and the Jews haven't either. Verse 13 says,
From above, from God, hath he sent fire into my bones. It prevaileth
against them. He hath spread a net for my feet.
He hath turned me back. He hath made me desolate and
faint all the day. In is Solomon like my son, a
man of Solomon's, acquainted with grief." He was despised. We hid our faces
from him. He was despised and we esteemed
him not. Brother Barnard used to say,
anybody, everybody, it was anybody. turn thumbs down on this man.
Everybody that was anybody turned thumbs down on this man, despised
and we esteemed him not. Now, do you want an explanation
for all that, those three mighty, powerful verses? Do you want
a reason for his coming? Do you want a reason for his
suffering? Do you want a reason for his sorrow? Do you want a
reason for his obedience unto death? Well, look at verse 4. I told you while ago that the
words he, him, and his are in this chapter 43 times. But another
person enters in verse 4. Someone else enters. Other persons
and person enter the picture. Surely he hath borne our grace. Oh, that's us. Why? Did he come into the world? Why
was it necessary for him to bleed and suffer and die? He was bearing
our griefs. He was carrying our sorrows. We do esteem him stricken, smitten
of God, and afflicted, but he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities,
the chastisement of our peace. was upon him, and with his tribes
we are healed." I'm glad we came in there, aren't you? I'm so
glad we got in right there. We've been reading about he and
him and his, and here we come along and say, all this is done
for us! Wounded for our transgressions.
He was a substitute for sinners. The hymn writer said, It was
because our sins on him by God were laid, he who never sinned,
for us sin was made. Therefore let all men know that
God is satisfied, and all who believe on him by him are justified. That's plenty. have gone astray. All of God's
elect, like wandering lost sheep, have gone astray from the foe,
never to return of ourselves. We have turned everyone to his
own way. We have turned from God's way.
We don't like God's way. We have turned to our own way
of And the Lord God hath laid on him the iniquity of us all,
and the Lord God, the Heavenly Father, against whom we have
sinned, and from whom we have turned, hath sent his only Son
into the world as our substitute, and literally, actually made
him to be sin for us who knew no sin. Christ knew no sin. that
we might be made the righteousness of God in him. He bore our sins
in his body on the tree, and he was smitten by the judgment
and justice of God. That's why it says back there
in verse 4, we'll esteem him stricken, smitten of God. Stricken
and smitten by the judgment and justice of God for us, and by
his stripes we're healed. It's finished. It's done, the
great transaction's done. I'm my Lord's and he is mine.
It's finished. The Lord laid on him the iniquity
of us all and we're free. Free from the law of condemnation,
free from the curse of the law, free from the penalty of sin,
free from the power of sin, free from all judgment. We're free. Now look at verse 7 and 8. Let's
read both of these verses and then come back. He was oppressed. He was afflicted. Yet he opened
not his mouth. He's brought as a lamb to the
slaughter, as a sheep before her shearers is dumb. So he opened
not his mouth. He was taken from prison and
from judgment. Who shall declare his generation?
He was cut off out of the land of the living. for the transgression
of my people was he stricken. Verse 7, he was oppressed and
afflicted and twice it said, he opened not his mouth. Now
we saw in the first six verses that the Father sent him, the
Father ordained his coming and all that he did and all that
happened to him and all that they did to him, that was ordained
of God. But he came as the willing He came as our loving Savior.
He willed it too. He opened not His mouth against
the Father and His will. He opened not His mouth against
the charges they brought against Him. They were false charges,
true of us, false of Him, but because He's numbered with us,
they were true of Him. He said, no man takes my life
from me. I lay it down. I love my sheep. I give my life
for my sheep. This command, if I receive to
my father, he opened not his mouth. Twice it says, he was
oppressed, he was afflicted, opened not his mouth. He's brought
as a lamb to the slaughter. As a sheep before her shearers
is done, he opened not his mouth. Not against the father, not against
the charges brought against him, and not against his disciples
who forsook him and fled. This is a difficult verse, but
I believe I have a key to it. He was taken from prison, that
is, he was arrested and taken by force under pretense of judgment. He was taken from prison and
from judgment. He was arrested by force under
false pretense of judgment. False charges, false witnesses,
and violence from the soldiers. although he had done no violence.
And the next line says, who shall declare his generations? He was
innocent, but no one told it. No one declared his pedigree.
No one declared his innocence. No one objected to the false
charges. Everybody cried, crucify him. There was no one to declare his
generation. Who this man is? He was cut off
out of the land of the living. He was forsaken by all. He was
judged to be a male factor. He was executed by a violent
death on a cross. But all of that, for the transgression
of my people, was his stricken. In order to make satisfaction
for our transgressions, in order to make satisfaction unto God
for his people. He was judged, he was found guilty,
he was executed, and he was buried. He fulfilled the promise of the
angel called his name Jesus. He shall save his people from
all their sins. It says in verse 9, He made his grave with the wicked
and with the rich in his death. Someone said that that may help us a little
bit if we say he made his death with the wicked and his grave
with the rich. Because what I believe that Isaiah
is saying here, that he was crucified between two thieves. He made
his death with the wicked. He was nailed to a cross, judged
to be a male factor between two male factors. And that's how
he died. Paul said he became obedient
unto death, even that awful death of the cross. Cursed is everyone
that hangs on a tree. So he made his death with the
wicked and with the rich. He's made his death with the
wicked and his grave with the rich. What's that talking about?
Well, turn to Matthew 27. There was a man called Joseph
of Arimathea who was, for fear of the Jews, a secret disciple
of Christ. When our Lord died, he came and
requested his body. And the account of it is in Matthew
27, verse 57. And when the evening was come,
you have it in Matthew 27, verse 57, there came a rich man of
Arimathea, named Joseph, Joseph of Arimathea, who also himself
was Jesus' disciple. He went to Pilate and begged
the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body
to be delivered. And when Joseph had taken the
body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth and laid it in his
tomb. Scripture says when man had never
laid. So couldn't be any doubt that
the one who arose was Christ. He's the only one that laid that.
And he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre and
departed. When our Lord Jesus Christ, when he came to this
earth, he was born and laid in a manger. Poverty. He couldn't have stooped any
lower. That's about as low as a place a woman can bring her
firstborn child into the world in a stable and lay him in a
manger where the cows eat their hay. And then his parents had
to take him to Egypt to flee the wrath of the king. And then
he was brought up in Nazareth, in a little old town of which
no one could say any good thing. Can any good come out of Nazareth?
Worked as a carpenter, the humblest of trades, with his hands. Had
no place to lay his head. The son of man hath not any place
to lay his head. Like I said, he rode in another
man's boat, rode in another man's donkey. All of these were poverty
status. But when he died, When he died,
all that's over. It's finished. Took it down from
the cross. They didn't lay him in a stable.
They laid him in a brand new, beautiful tomb, where no man
had lain, that belonged to a very, very wealthy man. Our Lord's
sorrows was over. Poverty's over. It's all over. And he's not subjected to any
more of this He's somebody. I think that's
what it's saying. I think Joseph became a disciple, I really do.
He and Nicodemus both, they were the ones that came to bury him,
Joseph and Amity and Nicodemus, who were still with the Pharisees. God gives men space to repent. Aren't you glad of that? Aren't
you glad that we don't have to do whatever we do right now,
that we have some time? God's long-suffering. God's patient.
God is plenteous in mercy. And he gave
these men, and the Apostle Peter, it took a whole lifetime for
God to convert him. He was saved instantaneously. Some of us are hard cases and
it takes a long time to whittle us down and make us look like
a hound dog. Have all of you heard that story?
I've got to tell that. There's a traveling salesman going through
Arkansas and he stopped in a little country store where men sit around
the pot-bellied stove and chew tobacco and spit in the fire
and whittle. Most of them just make shavings.
But there was one man there that was whittling, and he was making
hound dogs. Beautiful, artistic, excellent
hound dogs. And they were selling them there,
and this traveling salesman came through and he saw these figures
on the shelf there, these hound dogs, and he picked one up and
he said, that's great work. That's great work, he said to
the proprietor. Who did this? He said, that old
fellow over there by the stove, he whittles out these hound dogs
and I sell them. He took that, walked over there,
and he watched this man, the old farmer, whittle, and he said,
How do you do this? He said, How do I do what? How
do you make that piece of wood into such a perfect hound dog? I don't know. He said, I just
cut off everything and don't look like a hound dog. Nothing to
it. And that's what the Lord's doing
to us. He's cutting off everything that doesn't look like his son.
And we don't lose it all at once, and that's just so. All right,
let's look at verse 10, 11, and 12, and that'll be the message
for tonight. Verse 10, here's the Father's
sovereign purpose in about six statements. Listen, please the
Lord to bruise him. Pleased God the bruising? Yeah.
God never had any pleasure in those Old Testament sacrifices.
But this is my son, whom I'm well pleased. He pleased the
Father. He pleased the Father in his
death. Secondly, he put into grief. Acts 4, these people,
they caused him a lot of grief. But they did what the Father
ordained before to be done. That's right. Even the soldiers
beating him was all in the prophecy in the Old Testament. God put
him to grave. And God made his soul an offering
for sin. God made his soul. He said, My
soul. Our Lord suffered in body, but
his soul. That was the true agony of Calvary.
His soul. My soul is sorrowful unto death. Body and soul. And he'll see
his seed. The Father gave him a people.
He knows them. He sees them. He said, All that
my Father giveth me will come to me. Him that cometh out of
nowhere is cast out. God has given me power over all
flesh that I should give eternal life to as many as God has given
me. He'll see His seed. He saw Him from eternity. He
saw Him when He walked the earth. He knew who would believe on
Him and who wouldn't. That's what Scripture says. The Lord
knoweth them that are His. He sees His seed and God will
prolong His days. He's not going to stay dead.
God's going to raise Him. These days on earth are just
days in between his eternity. He'll prolong his days, and the
pleasure of the Lord, and the purpose of the Lord, and the
covenant of the Lord shall prosper in his hands. I purposed it,
and I'll do it. I've spoken it, I'll bring it
to pass. Everything God gave him to do,
every soul God gave him to save, every sinner God gave him to
wash and redeem will be saved. Verse 11, here's the son's victory.
That's the father's purpose, here's the son's victory. And
the son shall see of the travail of his soul. He said, every sheep
I have which are not of this foal, them I must bring. He's
always seen the travail of his soul. Travail is birth pains. A woman goes through to bring
forth a child. Our Lord went through these pains to bring
forth children that God had given him. I and the children which
God has given me." He sees the travail of his soul, and he's
satisfied. Somebody said one time in a sermon,
Jesus is just walking back and forth in heaven, hoping you'll
let him come into your heart. Now, come on. Our Lord's seated
at the right hand of God, expecting to his enemies be made his footstool.
He's satisfied. He's totally satisfied. He sees
the travail of his soul, the results of his suffering, the
accomplishments of Calvary, and he's satisfied. And by his knowledge shall my
righteous servant justify many. I found a verse today that helps
me with that knowledge. By his knowledge, my righteous
servant shall justify many. Let's turn to John chapter 10.
Verse 14, 15. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many. Verse 14, John 10. I am the good
shepherd, I know my sheep. But not only that, they know
me. And that verse says that I know my sheep and am known
of mine. The Father knows me, and I know the Father. And therefore
I lay down my life for the sheep, by his knowledge. He knows the
Father, the Father knows Him. He knows His sheep, the sheep
know Him. By His knowledge, a righteous servant will justify many. That's
right. It's a covenant. It's a covenant. He's the ordained surety, He's
the ordained sacrifice, He's the ordained priest and redeemer,
prophet, priest and king, and we're the ordained people. And
He knows them, and they know Him, and He knows the Father,
and the Father knows Him. And therefore he'll justify many
out of every tribe, kindred, nation, tongue unto heaven. How's
he going to do it? He shall bear their iniquities.
Not the iniquities of the whole world, their iniquities, their
sins. He'll redeem them. Therefore,
here is the church's sure deliverance. Therefore, because of the purpose
of God, verse 10, and the victory of the Son, verse 11, we can
say, therefore, God will divide to him an inheritance with the
great, and he will divide the small with the strong. We're
going to be joint heirs with him in this inheritance. And all of it based on this fact,
because he poured out his soul unto death, he was numbered with
the transgressors, he bared the sin of many, and he lives today
making a cession for these transgressors. That's our creed, isn't it? I
can't think of any passage of scripture or writings of anyone
that sums it up more perfectly than Isaiah 53.