Isaiah 53. Isaiah begins with a question. Who hath believed our report? Who hath believed our message? Never has lived a prophet or
an apostle or true preacher of God who has not grieved over
the fact that most people do not believe our report. What is our report? What is our
message? John summed it up in 1 John 5
when he said this, this is the record. It's the record God hath
given. Our report and our message is
God's message. the testimony of God. This is
the record that God has given us eternal life. What is our
message? What is our report? It's received
from God, and it's a report of peace and goodwill and eternal
life. And this is the record that God
has given us eternal life. This life's in His Son. It's
received from the Lord. It's a report of peace, goodwill,
eternal life. It's a report of a person whom
God has sent, who hath believed, I report, and to whom is the
arm of the Lord revealed. What is this arm of the Lord?
His arm is Christ, that person, the one he sent to save. He's
the power of God and the wisdom of God. Turn to Isaiah 40, and
this will reveal to you who he speaks of when he says, to whom
is the arm of the Lord revealed. Isaiah 40, verse 9 and 10. O Zion, that bringest good tidings,
get thee up into the high mountains, O Jerusalem that bringeth good
tidings, lift up thy voice with strength. Lift it up. Be not
afraid. Say to the cities of Judah, Behold
your God. Behold, the Lord God will come
with a strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him. Behold, his
reward is with him, his work before him." I finished the work
you gave me to do. The arm of the Lord is that person
that God sent to save. His arm shall rule. His reward
is with him. Turn to Psalm 98. Who is this
arm of the Lord? To whom is the arm of the Lord
revealed? In Psalm 98, verse 1, "...who
sing unto the Lord, a new song, for he hath done marvelous things.
His right hand, his holy arm, hath gotten him to victory. The Lord hath made known his
salvation, his righteousness hath he openly showed in the
sight of the heathen." But who believes this report? To whom
is this person revealed? Paul said, he revealed him to
me. Paul said, God who separated me from my mother's womb and
called me by His grace was pleased to reveal His Son in me. God was pleased to reveal His
arm, His power, His wisdom, His Son in me. And then he says in
verse 2, this person whom God sent, He shall grow up before
Him as a tender plant. Now, He shall grow up? Grow up
before God? Jesus Christ, I read a while
ago, thought it not robbery to be equal with God. The Father
and the Son are one. I and my Father are one. He is
God. How does God grow up? God doesn't
grow up. God doesn't change. He's the
same yesterday, today, and forever. But when God became a man, He
started as an infant, as a babe. He was born a babe. The Lord
himself shall give you a sign. A virgin shall be with child
and bring forth a babe, a son. Call his name Immanuel, God with
us. Unto us a child is born, and
that child shall grow up before him who sent him. He shall grow
up. before Him. Turn to Luke chapter
2. Here's a verse that so clearly
manifests the flesh, the infancy, the incarnation of God in human
flesh. A woman, in the fullness of time,
God sent forth His Son made of a woman, born a little babe. Now what's Verse 51 of Luke 2, and he went
down with them and came to Nazareth. This is the Lord Jesus Christ
when he was just a boy, and he was subject unto his parents.
But his mother kept all these sayings in her heart. That was
when he went up there to Jerusalem, and they left without him, and
they went back and found him. He was about 12 years of age,
and he was discussing things with the religious leaders in
the temple. And he said to his mother, Mary,
you know I must be about my father's business. Well, he was just a
lad then. In verse 52, he went back with
them to Nashua, to the carpenter shop, to the little home, and
Jesus increased. He grew up. He grew up in wisdom, in stature
and age, in body and favor with God and man. Jesus Christ, our Savior, our
Lord, came to this earth the same way we do, from the womb. Fully an infant, a baby, loved
by his mother, sucked his mother's breast, grew to 3, 4, 5 years
of age, 12, helped his foster father in the carpenter shop,
and grew up. baby, infancy to childhood to
teenage to early youth. And in favor with God, he loved
God with all his heart, mind, soul, and strength. He was a
perfect son. And you say, well, people hated
him. Not then. They didn't hate him until his
message was preached. When he was growing up in our
stead and room as our representative, He was such a perfect son. Everybody,
he had the favor of everyone. He helped his father in the shop.
He did excellent work. He was kind to people. He was
such a lovable, kind, gracious, loving son, worker, neighbor,
friend. He was in favor with not only
God, but men. See that? Christ was perfect
as a child. Scripture doesn't take us into
his childhood, but I do know that he grew up and increased
in wisdom and stature and age in favor with God and men. Perfect. Now watch this next line. He
shall grow up before God as a tender plant, as a baby, infant, as
a root out of a dry ground. He was the son of David. You
see, the scripture says the gospel is concerning his son who was
made of the seed of David. He was declared to be the son
of God, but he was made a Jew who went to the tabernacle of
the synagogue on the Sabbath day, kept all the laws, was circumcised
the eighth day, was named Jesus, was son of Joseph and Mary. He
was a Jew. But to show you how low the once
mighty house of David was. The house of David, the throne
of Israel, the kingdom of Solomon in its magnificent majesty during
those days was now nothing. Nothing. To show you the nothingness
of that once mighty kingdom and empire, the heir to the throne,
the son of David, in the direct house and lineage of David was
Mary and also Joseph. And Jesus Christ, not only King
of kings and Lord of lords, but as a Jew, he was the King of
Israel. He was truly the King. He was
the Son of David. But to show you how that mighty
kingdom and household had fallen, the King is lying in a stable wrapped in swaddling clothes
on hay. Now, nobody knew him, nobody
recognized him, nobody wanted him, but he's the king. And that's the root out of a
dry, dry, dry, dry, dry ground. And listen to this. He, this
man, man-child, he has no form, no comeliness. He has no royal
form. He's the king. Remember, the
wise men said, where is he that is born king of the Jews? Herod
said to some wise men, who is this king they're talking about?
Well, he has no form. He has no royal form. He has
no majesty. He has no crown. He has no honor.
He has no kingdom. He has no court. He has no princes
and captains and no army. He has no influence on this earth. He's the son of a carpenter and the son of a virgin, a teenage
Jewish girl. And when we see him, and these
people might paint pictures of that baby lying there with a
halo around his head, but that's not true. When we see him, there's
no beauty, there's no comeliness, there's no form. There's no heavenly
glory surrounding him. There's no beauty we should desire
him. Listen to me. When we see him, there is no
difference between him and any other baby. At no time in his
life was there anything physically or materially about this man
that would attract the natural eye or cause men to believe him
to be God. I promise you that. It says that
here. He grows up as a tender plant,
as a root out of a dead, dry ground. He's no farm. No farm. You see the farm of religion
all over this town. You've got the stained glass
windows and the crosses sticking up in the air and the IHS written
everywhere and all this decoration to let people know that it's
religious. It's a religious place. Let them
know it's a religious place. Not him. No beauty, no form. It took anointed eyes to know
who he was. It took opened ears. He put on humanity. He put on,
listen, the form of a servant. He lived in poverty. Jesus of
Nazareth lived in poverty. Somebody said, can anything good
come out of Nazareth? Well, they said, we know who
he is. He's the carpenter. We know his mother. We know his
brothers and sisters. He lived in poverty. His family
was totally unknown, uninfluential. He owned no property. The son
of man does not have where to lay his head. Foxes have holes,
he said. Birds of the air have nests.
The son of man has no place to lay his head. He went to the
mountains. and slept. No property. He slept in another's
manger when he was born. He sailed in another person's
boat. He never owned a boat. He rode
another man's donkey. He didn't have a donkey to ride.
He was buried in another man's grave. He made himself of no
reputation, took on himself the form of a servant, was made in
the likeness of the flesh, and was obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross. Verse 3, he's despised. Totally rejected of all men. Why? Several reasons. Same would be rejected today.
Rejected because of the poverty of his parents. They were nobodies. Is not this the carpenter whose
parents went out? A gluttonous man, a wine-bibber?
They rejected him because of where he lived, Nazareth. Because
of his lack of education, he never went to their schools.
The Pharisees said to him one day, do you teach us? How does this man have such wisdom
with no learning? That's what they said. Where
did he get this wisdom? He didn't come from our schools.
They hated him because of his friends. They said he's the friend
of sinners. This man's gone to be the guest
of a man that's a sinner. He receives sinners and eats
with them. They were offended. He's despised
and rejected because of the truth he preached. He said, all that
my Father giveth me will come to me. And him that cometh to
me I'll in no wise cast out. I came down from heaven not to
do my will but the will of him that sent me. This is the will
of him that sent me that of all which he hath given me I'll lose
nothing but raise it up at the last day. This is the will of
him that sent me that everyone that seeth the Son and believes
on him might have everlasting life. I'll raise him up at the
last day." And they murmured. And they complained. And he said,
don't murmur. He said, no man can come to me
except my Father which sent me, draw him. And they shall all
be taught of God. It's written in the scriptures,
he that is taught of God, learned of the Father, cometh to me.
And they said, this is a hard saying. Who can hear it? He said,
if this is a hard saying, Wait till you see the Son of Man,
the Son of God, exalted where He was before, then you will
be offended. I and my Father were, and they
took up stones to stone Him. They despised Him and rejected
Him because of the poverty of His parents, His lack of education
and training, because of His friends, and because of His gospel,
His message, and because of His death. They stood down at the
foot of the cross and looked up and saw him stripped naked,
beaten to a pulp, blood streaming from his face, his forehead,
his hands, his feet, in human weakness, crying for something
to drink. And they said, he trusted in
God, let's see if God will have him. If you're really the son
of God, why don't you come down from the cross? We don't understand
this. He saved others. Why can't he save himself? He
must be a fraud. God wouldn't die. He despised and rejected of men. Listen, a man of sorrows. Whose
sorrows? Well, they were his, but they
were ours. Is there any sorrow, he said,
like my sorrow, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the
day of his fierce anger? Let me ask you a question. Suppose
right now, you, any of you, or I, If we were stripped of all that
we have, everything that we have, every possession, all that we
hold dear, totally stripped of it, all our friends, all our
needs, all our family, all our comforts, utterly stripped and
taken to a foreign country to live in the slime and corruption
of a foreign nation, hated, ridiculed, made fun of for 35 years, you'd
be a man of sorrow. And our Lord, who thought it
not robbery to be equal with God, came down here to this slime
and fell, and sin and corruption, and was made sin for us. He was
a man of solace. I thought about this and I thought,
some of us have dear, dear loved ones in glory now. What on earth
would it be like if they had to leave there and come back
down here to this place of sin and darkness
and evil? I'll leave them there. But he
came so that they might go there and we might go there. He was
made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. That's the good news. But who
believes it? I do. You do, don't you? To whom is
that power, that arm of God revealed? Well, what's verse 4? Well, the
man of Saul was acquainted with greed, verse 3, and we hid our
faces from him. His visage, his countenance,
his face was so marred as no other man on that cross. He didn't
look like a human being. That's the reason all of these
crucifixes, pictures of Christ on the cross, is foolishness. Because on that cross, our Lord
was naked, He was mutilated, He didn't even look like a human
being. They had beaten him. His visage
was barred as no other man. If you could get a true picture
of that transaction of God visiting his son with the wrath and our
sins laid on him, you wouldn't put it in your living room. You
wouldn't hang it up here as an emblem of religion, of faith. It'd be too horrible. It'd be
like a gargoyle for people to look at. Christ was bearing our
sins. And when He comes again, we're
not going to see Him like that. We're going to see Him as He
is. He's not on a cross. Every crucifix
ought to be ripped from its holdings right now. Ripped and cast and
burned in the fire. Ground to powder and make people
that made it drink it. put it in water and make them
drink it. Like Hezekiah did the serpent of brass that Moses lifted
up, the people worshiping that thing. They made a box for it
and put it on black velvet and worshiped it. And Hezekiah grounded
the powder. Grounded the powder. He said
it's nothing but a piece of brass, a piece of tin. But look at verse 4, surely,
surely, He hath borne our grace. Now the word surely, words in
God's word are important. Words in God's word are important.
Surely, the word surely means nevertheless. He grew up in a tender plant,
a root out of dry ground. He's despised, rejected of me,
and a manifest how I was acquainted with grace, nevertheless. The
word surely means nevertheless, it means certainly. of a certain,
truly. What he came to do, he did. But
truly, certainly, nevertheless, he hath borne our griefs and
carried our sorrows. We did esteem him stricken, smitten
of God, and afflicted. What he came to do, he did, nevertheless. The purpose for which the Father
sent him will all be fulfilled. He said, I came to do the will
of him that sent me. And when he had accomplished
that purpose, he said, it's finished. I finished the work you gave
me to do. Now glorify me with the glory which I had with thee
before this mess down here, before this work down here in this slum
dump ever started. Just glorify me with the glory
I had with thee before this world was, before sin came into this
world. And all who are called by His
Spirit and called by His grace and all who desire to be called,
I want you to listen to these five statements here now. In
verse 4, 5, and 6. Five statements. Listen to me. Surely He hath borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows. Matthew calls those our sicknesses
and diseases. Now, a lot of preachers have
gone all over the country preaching that there's healing in the atonement. There is healing for the soul.
But they're teaching that if a person looks to Christ and
looks to Calvary, that he shouldn't have any cancer, he shouldn't
have any heart trouble, and he shouldn't have any pneumonia,
and he shouldn't have any infirmities. But when Christ bore our sicknesses
and diseases, He bore our spiritual sickness and disease. That's
what He bore on the cross. If God were to heal a certain
disease I had, in another four or five years I'm going to get
another one and it will take me out of here. Now that's just
true, that's just so. That's just so. But there's healing
in the blood of Christ, eternal healing, eternal life, eternal
perfection, eternal righteousness. He's the scapegoat of all, of
old. He's the scapegoat. All of our
sicknesses and diseases and iniquities are laid on Him. He bore them
away. And then the second statement
is, we did esteem Him stricken and smitten of God. He said,
did God crucify him? I thought the Roman soldiers
did. They did. The Roman soldiers did. The Jews
called for his death. Pilate okayed it, and the Roman
soldiers nailed him down. But these were all instruments
of God. These were all people doing what
they wanted to do. But it pleased God to bruise
him. He was stricken and smitten of God and afflicted. He said,
no man take my life from me. I lay it down. But now, when
a person is put to death for a crime, listen to me, a person
has committed an awful murder, and he's tried and found guilty,
and they, years ago, used to hang him, hang him. Now, the man who pulls the lever
and hangs the fellow, he doesn't kill him. He's not charged with
murder by God. He's not charged with murder
by man. The man that pulls the lever
and hangs the murderer, he didn't kill him. He did in one sense
of the word, but he didn't. It was the law that killed him.
It was judgment and justice that killed him. And this man should
have no conscience and no pangs of conscience that puts a murderer
to death acting on the authority of the law and justice. And that's
what we've got here. God set him forth that he might
declare his justice and his righteousness. And when he died on that cross,
it was the law of God and the justice of God that slew him. the hand of man God used to fulfill
his justice, that he might be just and justify. He was stricken
of God and afflicted. But verse 5, what? He was wounded
for our transgressions. He's a substitute. He was wounded
for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities,
our sins. That's substitution. I think
there's an article in the Bulletin this morning by Brother Nyberg
on substitution, in this Sunday or the last Sunday. That's the
gospel, substitution. See, the Passover lamb, when
Israel was in Egypt, they were sinners just like the
Egyptians. But God said, I'm going to pass through at midnight,
and in my wrath, I'm going to slay the firstborn. in every
home, even the cattle on the hillside. Firstborn in every
situation. Now you take a lamb and put that
lamb up and observe it four days without spot or blemish, and
then you kill it. Kill the lamb, roast it with
fire, eat its flesh, and put the blood on the door. And when
I see the blood, I'll pass over you. And when God came that midnight,
He slew all the firstborn in every home except where the blood
was. There was death in every home. There was death in every home
of the Egyptians and death in every home of the Israelites.
But in the Egyptians, their sons died. In the Israelites, the
Lamb died. And that's the same thing with
us. Jesus Christ is Lamb. He said, Christ, our Passover
is sacrificed for us. He died for us. And we don't
die because He died. Because I live, you live. And
He had borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. We did esteem Him
stricken, of God smitten and afflicted. He was wounded for
our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
And listen, the chastisement of our peace was upon Him. He made peace with God through
the blood of His cross. There's peace. There's peace. There's not peace between God
and every man. There's peace between God and
the man that's in Christ. God's angry with the wicked.
If a man believes not on the Son, the wrath of God abideth
on him. But there's peace between God
and the man who's reconciled through the blood of Christ.
My peace I give unto you. There's no peace except in the
prince of peace, in the author of peace, in the giver of peace,
in Christ who is our peace. So He's our peace, you see that?
The chastisement of our peace, reconciliation, atonement, acceptance
with God is on Him. And by His stripes, we're healed. Totally healed. And watch verse
6. Oh, we like sheep have gone astray. There's none righteous, no, not
one. We've all sinned and come short of the glory of God. We've
turned everyone to His own way, my way. But the Lord laid on
Christ the iniquity of all who believe. All who believe. It was because of sins on him
by God were laid. He who himself had never sinned,
but for us sin was made. Therefore let all men know that
God is satisfied And all who believe on Him, by Him, are justified. Now let's read those verses again,
4, 5, and 6. And you take your name. Will
you do this for me? Your name, whatever it is. George,
John, Bill, Henry. Everywhere you see the word our,
you put your name in there, and you'll have the gospel. If you
believe it, you have salvation. Surely he hath borne Henry's
grief. and carried Henry's sorrows.
Yet we did esteem him strict and smitten of God. God smote
him and afflicted him, but he was wounded for Henry's transgression.
He was bruised for Henry's iniquities. The chastisement of Henry's peace
was upon him, and by his stripes Henry's healed. Oh, we, John,
Henry, Ron, Bob, we've gone astray. John, Henry, Bob, all of us have
turned our own way to Henry's own way. That's the way he walked,
the way he lived. And the Lord laid on him the
iniquity of all of us. Now in closing, I want you to
do something in these verses. Get your pen and write in your
margin some words here. These last six verses give the
character and work of our Redeemer. First, He's the willing Savior,
verse 7. Willing. He was oppressed, He
was afflicted, but He didn't open His mouth. He's brought
as a lamb to the slaughter, as a sheep before her shearers is
done. He opened not His mouth. He was a willing Savior. He didn't
complain. He didn't open His mouth against
the Father, against His people, or against just them. Now verse
8, right? The suffering Savior. He was
taken from prison and from judgment. He was wrongly judged, false
witnesses. His trial was a mockery. Who
shall declare his generation? Nobody declared his innocence,
his glory. He was cut off out of the land
of the living, suffered violence. For the transgression of my people
was he stricken. But all this was between the
Father and the Son." So he was a suffering Savior. Verse 9,
he was a sinless Savior. Right word. Sinless Savior. He
made His grave with the wicked. What's that? He was crucified,
died between two thieves. That's the way they thought of
Him. Another thief. But He was sinless. He made His
grave with the wicked, with the rich. In His death, He was buried
in a rich man's tomb, a barred tomb. Though He had done no violence,
there was no deceit in His mouth. Perfect. Our perfect Savior. dying for our sins, sinless.
Verse 10 writes, sovereign, sovereign Savior. Yet it pleased the Lord
to bruise him. God not only permitted his death,
predestinated his death, but he was pleased with his death,
pleased with the sacrifice. He put him to grief. He shall
make his soul an offering for sin. He shall see his seed. He shall prolong his days. The
pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Don't you love the
shalls of God's Word? There's no if, or and, or perhaps,
or maybe, or if you do something, he will, or if you... No, he
shall. He shall. The pleasure of the
Lord shall prosper in his hand. And then verse 11 writes, satisfied. He's a satisfied Savior. He shall
see of the travail of his soul. The pains given birth to a child,
travail, the travail of a woman. And once she sees her child,
it's all worth it. And he sees the travail of his
soul. He made his soul an offering for sin to deliver a people from
bondage and sin, and he'll be satisfied. By his knowledge shall
my righteous servant justify many, many, a number which no
man can number. He'll bear their iniquities.
He shall. He's satisfied. Now write, he's the supreme victorious
Savior. Therefore, because of all of
this through which he gave himself, I'll divide him a portion with
the great. Exalt his name above every name.
And the spoil of the strong, he shall divide the spoil with
the strong. Because he poured out his soul
to death, He was numbered with the transgressors. He bared the
sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors. That, my friend, is the report
and the message and the testimony of God. May the Lord be pleased
to reveal His arm, His mighty... Is my arm short that I can't
say? His mighty arm to everyone who hears this message.