This morning's message will be
taken from the book of Isaiah. We're going to be looking at
chapter 53 of Isaiah. Now, I'd like very much if you
will take the trouble, if you have one convenient, get a Bible
and open it to the 53rd chapter of Isaiah. I want to speak to
you this morning on this subject, the gospel according to Isaiah. Now this is an important message,
and I would like for every one of you to just sit down and be
still and listen for the next few minutes. to this subject,
the gospel according to Isaiah. A friend told me yesterday that
he was visiting in a certain city, visiting some relatives,
and they attended church a few Sundays ago. He met the pastor. He was a fine young man. It was
a large congregation and The morning service began and they
finished the song service and the pastor got up to preach.
He had a nice delivery and a nice voice And he kept talking about
the gospel And my friend said he never did define the gospel
He just talked about the gospel. Mentioned the gospel this and
the gospel that. And as my friend sat there and
listened to him, he thought to himself, why doesn't he define
the gospel? Why doesn't he tell people what
the gospel is? He keeps talking about the gospel,
but he is not preaching the gospel. Now this is one of the great
failures of modern preachers, most preachers today. They talk
about the gospel, they even use gospel words. But seldom, very
seldom, is the gospel of God's glory and the gospel of God's
grace in Jesus Christ, seldom is it actually defined. Seldom
is the gospel clearly presented as it is to men as they are.
And that's my subject this morning, the gospel according to Isaiah. Now John wrote about Isaiah in
John chapter 12, verse 41, and this is what he says. When Isaiah
saw his glory, talking about Christ, when Isaiah saw his glory,
he spake of him. And then in the eighth chapter
of the book of Acts, when Philip was sent to the desert by the
Spirit of God to speak to the eunuch, a man who was journeying
from Jerusalem to Ethiopia reading the Bible, When Philip preached
to this eunuch the gospel, the gospel of salvation, of redemption,
he preached that gospel from the 53rd chapter of Isaiah. Now, the gospel is there. It's
clearly defined. It's clearly presented. And I
want to present it to you today. So will you take your Bible and
turn to Isaiah 53? Now, if you want this message
later on tape, it'll be available. You can order it, give it to
your friends. You're going to hear the gospel of the grace
of God and of the glory of God and the gospel of redemption
clearly presented this morning, as plain as I can make it. Now
look at verse 1, chapter 53, verse 1, chapter 53. And Isaiah begins the chapter
asking this question, who has believed our report, or who has
believed our gospel? Who has believed our message?
To whom has the gospel, the good news of God's mercy, been revealed? Now, most men do not believe
the gospel. This is what Isaiah is saying.
He's saying, who hath believed our report? Who hath believed
our message and our gospel? It's true even in his day, in
the day of our Lord, when he was here on this earth in the
flesh, and in our day Even men who hear the gospel don't believe
it. Listen to what the Master said. You will not come to me
that you might have life. He said he came unto his own,
and his own received him not. He was in the world, and the
world knew him not. He said to the religious people,
he said, I've come in my Father's name, and you will not receive
me. Let another come in his own name,
and him you will receive. Now this is what Isaiah began,
the way begins by asking, Who's going to believe this message?
Who has to believe this report? Now, in the next line, he gives
us the key word. He says, to whom is the arm,
that is, the power, the grace, the glory of God, here's the
key word, revealed. To whom is the arm of the Lord
revealed? This gospel message, if it is
to be believed, must be revealed. The scripture says in 1 Corinthians
2, I have not seen ear hath not heard, neither hath it entered
the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them
that love him. But he hath revealed them unto
us by his Spirit. Who hath believed our gospel? Who hath believed our report?
To whom is the gospel, or the message, or the glory of God
in Christ revealed? God hath revealed it unto us
by his Spirit. God hath revealed his glory in
the face of Christ Jesus. And our Lord said to Peter, when
Peter said, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God, he
said, Flesh and blood did not reveal that to you, but my Father
which is in heaven. The natural man receiveth not
the things of God. They are foolishness to him,
neither can he know them. because their spirits were discerned.
So as we approach this subject this morning, the very first
thing that Isaiah presents to us is this, who's going to believe
it. I'll tell you who will believe
it, those to whom it's revealed by the Spirit of God. Now, verse
2 and 3, stay with me, Isaiah 53, it says, he shall grow up. Now, this whole chapter is about
a person. It's about the Christ. And it
says, he shall grow up as a tender plant as a root out of dry ground,
he hath no form nor comeliness, and there is no beauty about
him that we should desire of him." Now, here's the first reason
why men do not believe the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm going to
give you the first reason. I know inability and all these
other things, but here's the first concrete reason. why it's
called foolishness to the natural man and a stumbling block to
the religion, because Jesus Christ did not come into the world as
men expected him to come. That's right, he says, who believes
this gospel? To whom is the arm of the Lord
revealed? The first reason why they don't believe it is he came
as a tender As a root out of a dry ground, he hath no form,
no comeliness, and no beauty that we should desire. They were
looking for a Messiah. No question about that. They
were looking for a great prophet. No question about that. The people
asked him, are you the Christ? Are you the one of whom Moses
wrote? They were looking for a Christ. They were looking for
a king. They were looking for a coming
Redeemer. But wait a minute. Not knowing the sinfulness of
natural flesh. and not knowing the holiness
of God's law, and they didn't. They said, we've kept the law.
We're not born of fornication. We're not born in sin. We're
not bonded to any man. God is our Father. Not knowing
the strictness of God's justice, not knowing the necessity for
an atonement, they look not for a lamb, they look for a king.
They look not for a sin offering, they look for a political leader.
They looked not for sacrifice, they looked for a ruler to restore
the great glories of Israel as they had known them in the days
of David and Solomon. They didn't look for a lamb.
They didn't look for a savior. They didn't look for a sin offering.
They didn't look for a man made of a woman, made under the law
to redeem them from the law. Oh, Christ will come as a king,
but he will not come as a king until he first of all comes as
a lamb. Who hath believed this message? To whom is it revealed?
The first stumbling block is this. He'll grow up as a tender
plant. And that's talking about his
infancy. He was born of a virgin. He came forth from the womb as
a little, tender, helpless infant. Well, you don't look for a Messiah
in a manger. You don't look for a Christ or
a king in the arms of a teenage girl. You don't look for a king
depending on someone else. They weren't looking for a lamb.
He's a root out of a dry ground. He came from the nation Israel. They were under the bondage of
Rome. There was nothing about Israel of any value or any consequence. He has no form, no earthly majesty. He has no comeliness. He was
not robed in satin and silk and wearing a king's garb and a crown. He was born in a manger and raised
in a carpenter shop. There's no beauty about him that
we should desire him. Even his friends were repulsive.
He was a friend of sinners and of publicans. He was called a
winebibber, a gluttonous man. Read the next verse. He is despised. Everybody who was anybody turned
thumbs down on him. He was rejected of men. He was
a man of sorrows, a man who never owned a piece of ground, who
had no formal education, no one of any influence behind him.
He was acquainted with grief. We hid, as it were, our faces
from him. This is why they refused him.
This is why they rejected him. He didn't come in the character
in which they were looking for him. He came as a lamb. He came as a sacrifice. He came
as a sin offering. He came to put away the sins
of his people. Why, a baby born to a young maiden,
laid in a manger, worked in a carpenter's shop, had no formal education,
never owned a piece of land, a friend of publicans and sinners,
his followers and disciples, uneducated men, walked among
men, was betrayed, denied, rejected, nailed to a cross, The message
that this man is God, the message is that this man is that prophet
of whom Moses wrote, and that priest, after the order of Melchizedek,
and that king like David, difficult to believe, impossible to believe,
except by divine revelation. I look at verse 4 through 6.
Now, Isaiah starts off, and this is where most people fall, right
here. They don't even believe the first part. because they're
not looking for a lamb, a sin offering. And here's the reason
why he came to earth in this way. This is why he came in this
way. He came as our Savior and our
substitute. Now, if he had come as a king,
which he will, man would say, we'll not have this man reign
over us. They wouldn't bow to his sovereignty, to his lordship,
to his kingdom. They wouldn't bow to him. They
didn't bow to God in the Garden of Eden. They won't bow to God
now until they're broken. So here's why Christ came in
this way. Listen to Isaiah 53 now, verse
4 through 6. Surely he hath borne our grief,
and carried our sorrows. Now he was a man of sorrows,
but not with his sorrows, they were my sorrows. He was a man
acquainted with grief, but it wasn't his grief, it was my grief.
He was a man tempted and tested under the law of God, not for
himself. He gave the law. He wrote the law. He is the law.
He is the essence of the law. But he was bearing it in our
place, you see. He was a substitute. He was a
representative. Let me read it to you, Isaiah
53, 4 through 6. But surely he hath borne our
grief and carried our sorrow. We did esteem him stricken, not
only of men, but smitten of God. and afflicted, afflicted of God. But he was wounded, he was afflicted
for our transgression. He was bruised for our iniquity,
the chastisement of our peace. We needed peace with God. We
needed an atonement. We needed to be reconciled, and
the chastisement, the punishment of that which secured our peace
and reconciliation was laid on him. And with his strife, we
are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray.
We've turned every one of us to our own way and God laid on
him the iniquity of us all. Now my friends, he grew up as
a tender plant, a human being, an infant. He came from a nation
all but forgotten, root out of dry ground, no form, no princely
attire, no beauty, no comeliness, tempted, tested in all points
as we are as a man. Why? Well, God is holy. Don't ever forget that. God is
immutably, unchangeably, infinitely holy. God is just and God is
righteous. He created this world in perfect
holiness and pure glory. That's why he made the heavens
and the earth without sin. He made man upright, that's what
the scripture says, and holy without sin. He put him on this
earth subject to his holiness, subject to his perfect purity
and holy law under a covenant which says, walk before me in
holiness and purity and live, sin and die. That's the way it
is. It's never changed. It's not
changed now. God is not less holy than he was. He's just as
infinitely holy as he ever was, just as unchangeably holy. We
change, we sin, we fail, we sinned against God. And the scripture
says, for by one man's disobedience, sin entered this world, and death
by sin, so death passed upon all men. Everything about us
is death, death, dying death, darkness, evil, lies, hate, greed,
covetousness, lust, envy, jealousy. Everything about us, from the
sole of our feet to the top of our head, is sin and guilt. None righteous know not want.
You, me, or any other son of Adam. None that doeth good. None
that understandeth. None that seeketh after God.
Men love darkness. They love sin. They are sinful,
selfish, and self-willed. Everything about them. Now, if
God is going to have a kingdom, If God is going to have subjects
in that kingdom, it's going to be a holy kingdom, they're going
to be holy subjects. If God is going to have a kingdom,
he's going to have a kingdom established upon a perfect holy
law. And the subjects of that kingdom
will be a holy people who have fulfilled themselves that law,
a people against whom justice has no claim and no charge, and
lets every one of us act. So that's why Christ came. That's
why he came into this world. He came into this world. Man
in his natural state will not bow to God, not in his natural
state. So in order for God to have a
kingdom of holiness and subject obedience to his will, in order
for God to be just and justifier, In order for men to love and
bow to God, there's got to be a work of redemption performed
by a perfect Redeemer, and that's why he came. This is why Christ
came to the earth as a man, born of a woman, made of a woman,
made under the law. He came as a covenant head. Just
as Adam was the head of a fallen race, Christ is the head of a
restored race. Just as by Adam's disobedience,
sin and evil and unrighteousness and darkness were imputed and
imparted to us, even so Christ is the head of a new people,
a covenant people, a new race, redeemed by him, declared righteous
by his obedience, and clean through his perfect sacrifice. He came
as our representative. You see, the law was given to
me. And it's got to be obeyed by men. And the justice of God
must be satisfied on the man who transgressed it, the man
who sinned against it. Man sinned and man must die.
So in order to redeem us, Christ became a man. Do you understand
what I'm saying? And that's the reason Isaiah
starts out with it. This is what's not being preached
today. Preachers are continually saying, believe, believe, believe,
but don't tell us what to believe. Or whom to believe? Who he is?
What did he do? Why did he do it? Where is he
now? And that's the reason Isaiah starts out. He says, who believes
this record? Who believes this report? Who
believes this message? To whom is it revealed? And the reason
is they didn't look for Christ to come as a king. They looked
for him to come riding on a white horse, triumphant, just wipe
everybody out in front of him and restore an Israel, a kingdom
of Israel and all the glories and power and rule on this earth
with a sword. Christ came to redeem a people
for a holy kingdom. And he was wounded for our transgression. All the way through the Bible,
through the Old Testament, we have this picture of the Lamb
set forth. We have this picture of the Redeemer.
You have it in Abel's offering. After Adam and Eve sinned and
Cain and Abel were born to them, that man that brought the offering,
Abel, he brought a sin offering, he brought a blood offering.
Without the shedding of blood, there's no remission. You have
it all the way through the Old Testament, nowhere more clear
than the Passover in Egypt. And that's when our Lord said
to the people of Israel, I'm going to deliver you out of Egypt,
I'm going to deliver you out of bondage, I'm going to deliver
you out of slavery, and you're going to be delivered by blood.
Take a lamb, the firstling of the flock, put it up so many
days, slay that lamb. eat of the flesh, put the blood
on the doorpost and the lintel, and when I see the blood, I'll
pass over you." And the Scripture tells us in 1 Corinthians that
Christ is our Passover. And the Jews kept that Passover
feast every year from the first time that blood was shed, until
Christ our Lord came. And our Lord Jesus Christ gave
us the Lord's table. We don't slay a lamb. The Lamb
of God has been slain. We don't put the blood of animals
on an altar because the blood of God's Son has been shed. But
we do take the bread. He said, this is my bread, my
body. This is the bread which is my
body broken for you, and this wine is my blood shed for you. eat this bread and drink this
wine, you show my death till I come." That's substitution.
And if you want to learn the gospel, you learn two words.
One word is substitution. Christ literally, the God-man,
came down here to the earth, was born of a woman, made under
the law. He fulfilled the law for us in
our place instead. He went to the cross of Calvary,
and there The wrath of God was poured upon him. The judgment
of God was satisfied upon Christ. He died. He was taken down from
that cross and buried and rose again, our justifier. And God
says, it's done. It's finished. The debt's paid.
The ransom is found. Deliver him from going down into
the pit. I found a ransom. God's justice
is satisfied. God's law is honored. No man
can do it, but Christ did it. And this is the only way we can
be saved and God be just, you see. And that's the gospel. God looks on Christ as being
us. And if we believe on Christ and
receive him and trust in Christ, his obedience becomes our obedience.
His death becomes our death. You see, his perfect righteousness
becomes ours. He who knew no sin. was made
sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
Of God are you in Christ who has made unto us wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. You see, all of it is fulfilled
in Christ. The other word is satisfaction,
substitution and satisfaction. Christ took my place. And he
literally, perfectly satisfied everything God required of me.
Now that's the gospel. It's not something I do for God,
it's something Christ did for me. It's something Christ did
for me outwardly and something Christ does for me inwardly.
He reveals that grace to me, puts his Spirit within me. So
he was wounded for our transgression. He came as a tender flame. He
came a root out of dry ground. He came a man in the flesh. He lived on this earth. He worked.
He earned his bread by the sweat of his brow. He was subject to
every trial and test and temptation and completely fulfilled all
that God required of men perfectly. Then he went to the cross, and
under the judgment of God, you see, the soul that sinneth has
to die. That's what God said. God will by no means clear the
guilty. The soul that sinneth will die. Christ died. And so
I'm saying this, that the law has no requirement that I haven't
fulfilled in Christ. And the judgment of God has no
demand that hasn't been met in Christ. So we are free. He that
is dead is freed from sin, from his curse, from his covenant,
from his condemnation, from his penalty. And that's the reason
Paul said, who can lay anything to the charge of God's elect?
With his stripes we're healed. We, like sheep, have gone astray,
we've turned everyone to his own way, but God laid on him
our iniquity. Now, he can't lay it on him and
lay it on me. Payment, God's justice, cannot
twice demand. First at my bleeding shirt, his
hand, then again at mine. If Christ paid the debt, it's
paid. If he satisfied justice, it's satisfied. If he worked
out a perfect righteousness, we have it. And Paul said, who
can lay anything to the charge of God's election? Who is he
that condemned it? Christ died. Yea rather is risen
again, who is even at the right hand of God, who intercedeth
for us." Always, ever living. Now look at verse 7 and 8. He
was oppressed. He was afflicted. Yet he didn't open his mouth.
He didn't open his mouth against his enemies. He didn't open his
mouth against his friends who betrayed him. He didn't open
his mouth against the father who deserted him. He didn't open
his mouth against divine justice. As a sheep to the slaughter,
he opened not his mouth. Because he knew he was bearing
our sin, and they were given to him in our place, and they
were deserved. He was numbered with the transgressors,
and he had nothing to say, nothing but guilt. Because, verse 8,
for the transgression of my people was he stricken. Why was Christ
born of a woman? Because we're born of a woman.
Why did he live on this earth so many years? Because we live
on this earth. Why was he tempted and tested?
Because we're tempted and tested. Why did he die on a cross? Because
the judgment and justice of God says we must die. Why was he
buried in a tomb? Because we must be buried in
a tomb. Why did he rise from the tomb? In order that we might
live. Why did he ascend to glory as a man? Because that's what
we're going to do. He did all of this for us. It's
substitution. And we find our hope in Him,
in Christ. Now, that's the gospel. It's
not walking down in the house and shaking a preacher's hand,
and it's not following a bunch of ceremonies and rituals and
turning over a new leaf and these things. It's looking to a substitution,
to a sacrifice, to a Savior, to a sin offerer. Look at verse
10. It pleased the Lord to bruise him. Who did? The Father. God
determined to have a people. God chose those people out of
Adam and Eve. God made Christ to share with
Him. And in the fullness of time, He sent His Son into the world.
And men crucified Him, but they did what God determined before
to be done. They did what God decreed from
all eternity. It pleased God to bruise Him.
God put Him to grieve. when the Lord shall make his
soul an offering for sin." It wasn't just his physical suffering
that redeemed us, he made his soul an offering for sin. You
see, God is able to cast body and soul into hell, and when
Christ died, he didn't just suffer the bruising of his hands, but
he bore sin and made his soul an offering for sin. And he shall
see his seed, his seed are his people. He shall prolong his
days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hands.
What's the pleasure of the Lord? To have a people like Christ.
as the stars of the heavens and the sands of the seashore. And
he shall see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied, by
his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many." Now watch
this last line. Here's your gospel. "...for he
shall bear their iniquity." Do you see it? By his knowledge,
by his faithfulness, by his obedience, by his sacrifice, by his death,
shall my righteous servant, he is the righteous servant, We're
the unrighteous one. He's the righteous servant. And
by his faithfulness, my righteous servant shall justify. You know
what justify means? Just as if I had never seen it.
Holy, perfectly holy in God's sight. Justified, not in your
sight, my sight, but in God's sight. By his knowledge shall
my righteous holy servant justify many, for he shall bear their
iniquity where? In his body on the cross and
pay for it.