The title of the message is Behold, Isaiah chapter 52. Brother Gruber
and I spent some time this past week discussing
these scriptures. He brought a message last Wednesday
from the 53rd chapter of Isaiah, and I'd like to look at it again
this morning. Let's keep in mind one thing,
and that is that something every preacher and every believer ought
to know, that the Father fully intends and purposes to honor,
glorify, and exalt his Son. That's the intent of Almighty
God, to exalt, magnify, and glorify and honor the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to show you that. If you
don't care to turn to it, I'll turn and read it in Hebrews chapter
1. It says in verse 8, unto the
Son, the Lord Jesus, the Father said, Thy throne, O God, is forever
and ever. A scepter of righteousness is
the scepter of thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness
and hated iniquity, therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed
thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows." And then
you remember Brother Cody Groover spoke from John 13, these two
verses here, listen, verse 31 and 32. In John 13, verse 31. Therefore, when Judas was gone
out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is
glorified in him. If God be glorified in him, God
shall also glorify him in himself, and shall straightway glorify
him. God is going to glorify Christ. He's going to honor and
glorify Christ. And so is the Holy Spirit. In
John 16, look at this. So is the Holy Spirit. God the
Father is going to glorify the Son. And God the Spirit, it says in
John chapter 16, verse 13, when he, the Spirit of truth, is come,
he'll guide you into all truth. For he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear
from the Father, that shall he speak. And he'll show you things
to come. Now verse 14, four words. He shall glorify me. Not the
gifts of the Spirit, not the emotions of the Spirit, not even
the work of the Spirit. He shall glorify me. He shall receive of mine and
show it to you." God is going to glorify the Son, and the Holy
Spirit is going to glorify the Son. Now watch this. The Holy
Spirit does not reach out for something novel, or something
new, or something spectacular, or something human, in order
to glorify Christ. No sir, he does not. He does
not use something spectacular, something human, something new,
something novel to glorify Christ. He'll take the things of mine
and glorify me. He'll take the things of mine
and show them to you. Christ's glory is who he is. Christ's glory is who he is.
That's his glory. His glory is what he does for
sinners. His glory is not fixing it so
you don't have to sit in a wheelchair, or you can break your crutch,
or you can see better, or you can be financially independent.
His glory is himself, who he is, what he did to enable God
to be just and justify us. That's his glory. Moses says,
show me your glory. God said, my glory is my goodness. My glory, I'll be merciful. His
glory is where he is. Sit thou at my right hand. I'll
set my king on my holy hill of Zion. That's his glory. He's glorified in himself. The
Holy Spirit take the things of mine and glorify me. His glory
is his deity, his glory is his person, his glory is his incarnation. Glory to God in the highest and
on earth peace, goodwill, unto you is born this day in the city
of David, a Savior. That's his glory. His incarnation,
his life of holiness. I've glorified you on this earth. Nobody's ever said that. Nobody
better have said that. I have glorified you, my Father,
on this earth. His perfect life, his holiness,
his death, his resurrection, his ascension,
his exaltation, his return, his kingdom. I'll tell you this,
our Lord is most honored and glorified when we preach Christ. And that's what this is all about
here in chapter 52 and 53, and I'm going to ask you to behold. I'm going to ask you to behold,
and behold will be our theme through all of these scriptures.
Verse 13 says, all right, behold, my servant. Our Savior is the Father's servant. It said back there in chapter
42, you were here when I read it. Chapter 42, verse 1, Behold my
servant, whom I uphold, mine elect, and whom my soul delighteth.
I put my spirit upon him, he'll bring forth judgment. He's my
servant. He thought it not right for him to be equal with God,
but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of
a servant, and was made in the likeness of sinful flesh. And
it says here in chapter 52, verse 13, My servant shall deal prudently,
wisely. He's a wise servant. He shall
not fail. Remember we read that a while
ago? He shall not fail. He shall not be discouraged.
He shall deal wisely and he shall prosper. In fact, he said before
he died, I finished the work you gave me to do. When his servant
came to this earth, born of a woman, The first recorded words that
the Holy Spirit preserved that came from his mouth were these. First recorded words of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Wist ye not that I must be about
my Father's business? And the last recorded words before
the servant died and ascended back to glory. I finished the
work you gave me to do. It's finished. And then verse
14 says, this servant is a subject of amazement. Once you look at
my servant, now, I'm elect, he'll deal prudently. He shall be exalted,
extolled, and very high. But he's going to be a subject
of amazement. Not so much, listen to me a minute,
not so much for the miracles he wrought. That seems to catch the eye of
people today who want to see signs and wonders. But that's
not the subject of amazement, or even the doctrines he taught,
or even the work he did, or even at his greatness and glory. But
you know, the subject of amazement about him is his humiliation. How could
one so high stoop so low? You know what? Listen. They were
astonished at him. At his doctrine, yes. At his
works, yes. At his miracles, yes. But at
his death. His visage was marred more than
any man. He didn't even look like a man.
They beat him to a pulp. The Lord of Glory came to this
earth. perfect God, perfect man, and
lived in holiness. And men hated him so badly, they
turned him over to a bunch of pagan, illiterate, ignorant Roman
soldiers, professional soldiers. And they humiliated him. They
took a cat of nine tails and gave him 39 stripes on his back. And then they sat him down and
put a crown of thorns on his head. and a reed in his hand. They said, you're a king, you
need a crown. They put a crown of thorns. They put a reed. You're
a king, you need a scepter. You're a king, you need a robe.
They picked up an old rug off the floor, an old dirty red rug,
and threw it across those shoulders that were bleeding raw with that
whip, that scourge. And then they bowed the knee
and said, Hail, King of the Jews. And one of them walked up and
hit him in the mouth with his fist, said, blindfolded him and
hit him in the mouth and said, you're a prophet, tell me who
hit you. That's right, read it. Tell me who hit you. And then
they pulled out his beard by the roots. That's what it says
in the scripture. Plucked out his beard. Ripped his beard out of his face
with their hands and beat him until he wasn't even wrecked.
His visage was marred more than any man. and his form more than
any human being. And they took that swollen, beaten
man and made him carry a heavy wooden cross out to a hill, stripped
his clothes off of him, and drove nails in his hand and feet, and
hung him up there to die, and laughed while he suffered. That's the amazing thing. Behold my servant. You put him down, I'm going to
put him up. You humiliate him, I'm going to exalt him. You can
curse him now, but one day he'll deal with you as an enemy. But
that was the thing that astonished them the most. Is there any,
he said, is there any sorrow like my sorrow with which My
God has afflicted me. Pause my soul, adore and wonder
that one so high should for our sake be brought so low. Pause
my soul, adore and wonder that one born so low as I should be raised so high and
be made a son of God. Well, he says in verse 15, he'll
sprinkle many nations. What's this talking about? It's
talking about the blood of Christ. It's talking about the blood
of sprinkling. It's talking about what Paul mentioned in Hebrews
9. Listen, I'll read it to you. Christ being come, a high priest
of good things to come by greater, more perfect tabernacle, not
made with hands, that is to say, not this building. neither by
the blood of bulls and goats, but by his own blood, he entered
once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for
us. If the blood of bulls and goats
back yonder, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean,
sanctified temporarily through the forbearance of God
to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood
of sprinkling, the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit
offered himself without sin and spot to God, purge your conscience
from dead works to serve the living God. This is the blood
of sprinkling. He'll sprinkle many nations. And kings shall shut their mouths. It's going to be told them what
has not been told them, they're going to see. that which they
have never heard shall they consider." This, Isaiah 49, tells us about
that. Isaiah 49, 7. Isaiah 49, 7. Thus saith the Lord, the Redeemer
of Israel, and his Holy One, to him whom man despises, to
him whom the nation abhors, to a servant of rulers. Well, kings
shall see and rise, and princes also shall worship. because of
the Lord that is faithful, and the Holy One of Israel. And he
shall choose thee, verse 23, and kings shall be thy nursing
fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers. And they shall
bow down to thee with their faces towards the earth, and lick up
the dust of your feet. And they shall know that I am
the Lord, and they shall not be ashamed who wait on me." Behold my servant. Behold my
servant. Paul said in Romans 15, 21, it
is written, to whom he was not spoken of, they shall see. And they that have not heard
will understand. That's us. That's us too. That's us. That's right. To whom it was not spoken of.
Pagan Gentiles. They're going to see. And they
that have never heard are going to understand. Chapter 53, verse
1, Behold my substitute. We have beheld his servant, now
let's behold his substitute. And he starts off this way, not
many people are going to believe this. Who hath believed I report? Who hath believed I report? That's
the Son of God hanging on that cross. That beaten, emaciated,
hated, despised, rejected creature dying on a Roman tree, that's
the Son of God. Not many people believe that.
Not many people believe the gospel. Who hath believed, I report?
To whom is this arm of the Lord? This arm of the Lord is the power
of God, the wisdom of God, the power and wisdom of God. That's
the arm of God. My arm's not short that I can't
say it. I've lifted up my right hand. substitute the servant shall
be born of a woman. It says here in verse 2, he'll
be born of a woman. He'll grow up, that's right,
grow up as a tender plant. A tender plant, you see, springs
up lowly in its beginning and frail, just a tender plant. You have to be careful when you
plant your little tender plants. There's a seed that comes up,
it's very tender. They're brittle. And that's the
Son of God became an infant, a baby. And it's a root out of
a dry ground. What is that dry ground? That's
the mighty house of David. You see, the Messiah is of the
house and lineage of David. He's the Son of David. He's the
one to whom God promised an everlasting kingdom. He said, David, your
kingdom will never end. Jacob said, Shiloh's going to
come from Judah. But now here in this day when
Christ was born in Bethlehem, that's a root out of a dry ground.
The heir to the throne of David is a baby lying in a manger in
a calf stable. That's a dry ground now. That's
a kingdom that ain't no kingdom. That's an empire that doesn't
exist. That's right. Except as a root. A root. Just a root. They've had a famine for months
and months and months. Everything's dead. Everything's
dead. There's nothing on the dry ground. But there's a root. There's a root. And all it needs
is a little water from God, and it'll be a mighty oak. That's
what he is. He's just a tender fruit. He's
a root. He had no form or comeliness. There's no majesty about him,
this king. There's no honor. There's no
entourage. There's no armies, there's no
court, there's no white horse, there's no kingdom, there's no
influence. This is the carpenter, we know him. You talk about Mr. Nobody from
nowhere. Can any good thing come out of
Nassau? There's no farm, there's no comeliness. And when we see it, there's no
beauty. Let me tell you something. At
no time in his life Was there anything about our Messiah that
would attract the following among the elite? Nothing. He put on humanity, the form
of a servant. He lived in the most complete
simplicity. The son of man does not have
where to lay his head. He had no form of education.
He had no wealth. He owned no property. His family
and relatives were unknown. He never traveled outside his
area. He slept in another's manger.
He sailed in another's boat. He rode on a barred donkey. He
died on another man's cross and was buried in another man's grave.
Nothing. He has nothing. No beauty. Verse 3, he is despised
and rejected of men because of his birth. because of his occupation,
because of his lack of credentials. Dost thou teach us? Because of
his friends, because of his doctrine, and because of his death. If
you'll come down from the cross, that's all we're asking, we'll
believe on you. It's offensive. He's despised
and rejected of men. He's a man of sorrows. What a
name for the Son of God who came. A man of sorrows. Acquainted
with grief, and listen, we hid as it were our faces from him.
He is unworthy of notice. Set by anointed eyes, John the
Baptist said, Behold the Lamb of God, and these two fellows
followed him. We hid as it were our faces from
him. We esteemed him, not no respect.
We esteemed him not. And I'll tell you the reason.
Behold my servant. Behold my substitute. As our
substitute and surety, he has to undergo all the temptation,
all the disgrace, and all the dishonor that you deserve and
I deserve. He's got to come down where we
are. That's right. In order for us to go where he
is, he's got to come where we are. That's right. Behold my sin offering, here's
the next behold, verse 4. Behold my sin offering. Would
you really learn the gospel? I would. I'd really like to know
the gospel, wouldn't you? The gospel, not a gospel, the
gospel, the one and only gospel, the gospel of God, the gospel
of grace, the gospel of eternal life. Well, here it is. Five
statements. He, the servant, the substitute,
the surety. No mistake in who we're talking
about, isn't it? He. The words in this thing 43 times. He, him, his. He hath borne our
griefs and carried our sorrows. What does that mean? Well, some
of these wild preachers say, well, that's sicknesses and diseases.
You don't have to be sick because there's healing and atonement.
You're going to be sick if you're human. I promise you. I just promise you that. He's
talking about our spiritual sickness, spiritual diseases. He had borne
our griefs and sorrows, our sicknesses and our diseases. Jesus Christ,
the Lamb, took upon himself all of our corruption. He took on
himself. That's what causes our sickness,
sin. Like when the priest put his
hand on the Lamb and transferred Israel's entite, transferred
Israel's sins to that scapegoat, sent him out to the wilderness.
Our Lord Jesus Christ actually, personally, bore in his body
our corruption, all of it. That's right, that's number one.
Number two, and we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God,
and afflicted. You say the Jews crucified him. That's what they said. The Roman
soldiers nailed him to that tree. God used their hands. But it
pleased God to bruise him. That's right. He was stricken
of God. He was smitten of God. He was
afflicted of God. He was God's lamb. That's right. Just like Abel brought his lamb,
a living lamb. without spot or blemish and cut
his throat as a priest and burn it on an altar, quartered it
and burned it. Just as Abel did that, God Almighty
took his son and shed his blood and crucified
him on that cross. See, these men did what God determined
before to be done. They were humanists who must
have carried out the will of God. Now, that's so. That's right. Do you think they could have
crucified Christ without God's permission? Our Lord said that. Peter took out his sword and
whacked off that high priest's servant's ear, and the Lord put
his ear back on his head and told Peter to put up his sword.
He said, Peter, don't you know? Isn't he saying this? Don't you
know? Haven't you got sense enough to know that I could call on
my Father? And this little handful of Roman
soldiers would be annihilated by legions. You know what a legion
is? That's a heap of folks. By legions
of angels, don't you know that? Have you got any sense at all,
Peter? For this hour came out of this
hour. For this cause came out of this
hour. For this purpose came out of this world. This is written
hundreds of years before he died. He said he'll be smitten of God
stricken of God and afflicted. This is my sin offering. This
is God's sin offering for you and me. They hold him. Here's
the third. And he was wounded for our transgressions. For, F-O-R, in the stead of,
in the place of. You know what a substitute is?
All you fellas do is play football or basketball or something. A
fella comes in and takes your place. And you skedaddle to the
beach. and sit there and drink Gatorade
while he works. That's right. But he's our substitute. He took our place. And God laid
on him our iniquity. That's right. In our place. And
we're free. That's right. He was wounded
for our transgressions. He was wounded for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him, and with his stripes, it's not we might be healed,
we could be healed, there's a possibility. God offers it to you, we are
healed. Our peace and our healing demanded
his stripes, and with them we are healed. That's the fourth,
our peace and our healing. demanded his death. Here's the
last one. Verse 2, All of us have strayed,
and the debt by him was paid. Are we like sheep gone astray?
We turned every one to his own way, and the Lord laid on him
the iniquity of us all. Now, tell you what you do, and
I'll do it too. Let's put our names in there.
Where it says our, let's just make it personal. I'm going to
put Henry's name in there, verse 4. That's it. If you miss that,
you're just going to miss it, and there's no hope for you. Isn't there hope for these religionists
out here that's missed that? If a man doesn't preach that,
he doesn't preach the gospel. Substitution. Behold, my servant. Behold, my substitute. Behold,
my sent-offer. There he is. Behold him. If we
don't behold him, we're going to behold him as the judge and
be held accountable for every word we've heard or could have
heard. Now look, if you will, behold my silent sufferer. Silent
suffering, verse 7, he was oppressed, he was afflicted, he opened not
his mouth. He brought as a lamb to the slaughter
as a sheep before her shears was done, he opened not his mouth. He says that twice. He never
said a word. Because he was willing. Our Lord
was willing. Willing to bear the cross was
he. Willing to suffer all the agony. Willing to die for you
and me. He opened not his mouth against
the Father, who was pleased to bless him. He opened not his
mouth against his enemies. That's right, look down here
at verse 8. He was taken from prison and from judgment. He was unfairly tried and condemned. He was accused by false witnesses.
Who shall declare his generation? Nobody to declare his pedigree,
his innocence. Nobody said, hey, hold it here.
This is the Son of God. What's going on here? Nobody. Who shall declare his generation?
Nobody. Nobody. Even God didn't say anything.
Even God didn't say anything. Nobody ever been as alone as
Christ was that day. Walked the winepress of God's
wrath by himself. by himself purged our sins. He
cut off out of the land of the living. He was wrongly judged
and put to death. And I know why he opened not
his mouth. Here it is, for the transgression of my people was
his truth. You know why he didn't open his
mouth to the Father? He was guilty. You know why he didn't open his
mouth to those liars, those false witnesses? They're telling the
truth. He's guilty. Oh no, hell yeah,
he bore my guilt. You know why he opened not his
mouth against his people? Because he's dying for them.
It's just like a father led to a place of execution in the place
of his son. He opened not his mouth. He opened not his mouth. And
verse 9, Behold, my sovereign Savior. My sovereign Savior,
behold my sovereign." He made his grave with the wicked, thus
he died between two thieves. With the rich in his death, what's
that talking about? He's buried in a rich man's tomb,
Joseph of Arimathea. Charles Spurgeon, when he was
26 years old, wrote an article on why he was buried in such
a fine tomb. It's very interesting. I don't
know how much truth is in it, but it's very interesting. The humiliation was over. The
debt was paid. The sin offering was presented. The humiliation's all over. And
he took him down from that tree, and here's one of the most wealthy
men in the whole place, had a new tomb in which the man had never
laid, in a garden. And they took our Lord, the King,
and buried him in that tomb. That's right. Put the Roman seal
on it. Somebody's buried there. Nobody
died and somebody was buried. That's right. Maybe so. But he was buried in the finest
tomb man could find, with loving hands and anointed with all the
spices. With the rich in his death, though
he'd done no violence, There's no deceit found in his mouth.
Yet, here's the sovereignty now. It pleased God to bruise him.
God put him to grief, God the Father. He allowed these people
to do all these things. You read in the Old Testament,
it tells how they spat upon him. It tells how they parted his
garments and cast lots. It tells how they pierced my
hands and pierced my feet. It's all in the Old Testament.
When they fulfilled everything that was written of him from
Genesis to Malachi, they took him down from the tree. They
pleased God. God made his soul an offering
for sin. I describe the physical sufferings
of Christ just, I didn't describe them, I tried to. Don't even try to describe his
soul sufferings. You can't do it unless you go
to hell, then you might know something about it. He sold,
he made his soul an offering for sin. He never cried out against
the cruelty with his flesh, but he cried out to his Father because
his soul was sorrowful unto death. If it be thy will, let this cup
pass. Not my will, thy will be done. He'll see his seed, he's successful. He'll prolong his days eternal,
he'll rise from the tomb. You're not going to stay dead,
you're coming into the kingdom. The pleasure of the Lord. What
is the pleasure of the Lord? His covenant. The Lord made a
covenant before the foundation of the world. He chose a people,
gave them to Christ. He made a covenant with his son
on behalf of a people. And this pleasure of the Lord,
this purpose of the Lord is going to prosper. He shall do it prudently. He'll prosper. He'll see the
travail of his soul and be satisfied. That word travail is birth pains.
You ladies go through that in bringing forth your children,
the travail of pain. But once they bring that little
fellow and put him in your arms, it's all forgotten. And our Lord
will see the travail of his soul. He made his soul an offering
for sin. What's he going to see? He sees his people, every one
of them. He said, all that my Father giveth me will come to
me. And he that cometh to me, I don't know where I was cast
out. I came down from heaven, not to do my will, but the will
of him that sent me. And this is the will of him that
sent me, that of all which you have given me, I lose not one,
not one. Our Lord has no dead children. And he'll see the travail of
his soul and be satisfied by his knowledge, by his knowledge,
by the knowledge of him and by his knowledge, shall my righteous
servant justify many a number that no man can number. How's
he going to do it? He'll bear, bear, and bear. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission. And this world has gotten so
modern and so neat and so prosperous and so whatever, that blood is not fashionable. It's not, you know, you don't
preach on the blood, you don't preach on the cross, you don't
preach on substitution. That's not neat. Let's don't
try to be neat. Let's just be truthful, all right?
Without the shedding of blood, there's no, here bear the iniquities,
real iniquities. And therefore, here is our supreme
king now, exalted. Behold my servant, behold my
substitute, behold my sent-offer, behold my sent-offer, behold
my sovereign savior, behold my satisfied savior. Now behold
the supreme king, listen. Therefore will I divide him a
portion with the great, and he'll divide the spoiled with the strong,
because he poured out his soul to death. He was numbered with
the transgressors. He bore the sin of many. He made
intercession for the transgressors. That intercession, one of our
preachers said this week so effectively, doesn't require that Christ audibly
pray for us in heaven. Just Christ's presence there
is intercession enough. If he's there, you're there.
He's there, you're there. If he's there, accepted, you're
accepted. He's the beloved.