Open your Bible to Isaiah 53. Just hold it open there in your
lap or in your hand. And let me tell you a story. Down in Ethiopia, almost 2,000
years ago, there was a queen who reigned by the name of Candacy. And there was a fellow that worked
for her. In fact, he had a very important
position. He was the treasurer. He was a trusted employee. He was a moral man, an honest
man, a man of integrity, much like Naaman, who was captain
of the host of Syria, an honorable man, trusted man. This Ethiopian,
I don't know his name, He worked for the Queen. He was in charge
of all of her treasury. And something was troubling him.
He was troubled about his spiritual condition. He didn't know what
was wrong, but he knew something was wrong. He knew there was
a God, but he didn't know God. The heavens declared the glory
of God, and he could see by the heavens, the firmament showeth
forth his handiwork. There was a conscience in here
that told him things were wrong. Why they were wrong, he didn't
know, but he knew they were wrong. By nature, he knew there was
a God. By nature, he knew he was a sinner.
By conscience, the things that are made declared unto him the
existence of God. He was troubled, and the gods
of Ethiopia, the gods of Africa, didn't satisfy him at all. He saw these gods of of iron
and stone that did not speak, had no hands and could not move,
had no ears and could not hear, no eyes and could not see, no
lips and could not speak. He knew something was wrong.
He came to the Queen and he said, I want to make a trip. I want
two months off. She said, where are you going?
He said, I'm going to Jerusalem. He said, I've heard that there's
a God in Israel. I've heard of the God of Israel.
I've heard stories, and I'm going to Jerusalem, they're having
a feast in Jerusalem, a feast of their God, unto their God,
and there'll be preaching and teaching, and there'll be study,
and there'll be ceremonies, and it may be that I can find God.
It may be that something can be done in here. It may be my
need will be met, my spiritual hunger will be fed, my spiritual
thirst will be satisfied. It'll be quenched. I can't go
on this way. But she said, go ahead, and she gave him people
to go with him in a large caravan, and he went to Jerusalem, and
he attended the big meeting. And he heard all of the things
that were said. He heard all of the big preachers. He heard
the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and he heard the scribes. And
he watched them as they went through their ceremony. He watched
them with their washings, and he watched them with their sacrifices,
and he watched them with their bread, and he watched them with
the different things that they did. He watched carefully, and
he listened to them. And he went through the whole
five or six or seven or eight days that they were there. He
was a careful observer and a careful listener. And he tried to take
part. When the people would raise their
hands, he'd raise his. And when the people would say
Shalom and all these different things, he'd say it. And he'd
kneel when they knelt, and he'd lie prostrate when they did that.
And he went through all of the ceremonies, and for a little
while he was caught up in it. But then it was over. It was
just as flat when it was over as it was exuberant when it started. It just fell flat, and he walked
away from the crowd and away from the influence, and once
again he was in his habitat with his companions from Ethiopia,
who weren't interested in these things. They were just standing
over there waiting on him to go home. And when he finally went
over to them and they started home, and while he was there,
he purchased some scripture. He purchased the Bible, the Old
Testament. a scroll or parchment or whatever
it was written on, but he got a hold of one. And he had it
in his possession when he got on his chariot, and he said,
let's go home. And they got the camels and horses underway and
got everything loaded and started back to Ethiopia. It was a long
way. And they started back. And he's sitting there, and his
heart was filled with sorrow, and his eyes, I know, must have
been weeping. He didn't get anything. He made
the trip for nothing. He didn't get anything. It's
just as empty. The noise didn't satisfy him. The preaching said nothing. He
had no hope. He had no peace. He had no rest.
He had no joy. He had no satisfaction. He had
no knowledge of God any more than when he came back. The preachers
had failed. He's gone away empty. And he
was sitting in that chariot. And they were a long ways from
Jerusalem, and he just kept reading, reading, reading this prophet
Isaiah. They told him about Elijah the
prophet, and Isaiah the prophet, and David the psalmist. They
told him about these different ones. He heard their names. And
so he began to read this prophet Isaiah, and he was reading chapter
53, this chapter that Jay read a minute ago. He's sitting there
in that chair. Here's this hungry man. This weary man, this dissatisfied
man, this man desiring to know God, was sitting there reading
this scripture. This man was sincere. He wasn't
playing games. This man wasn't looking just
for a shortcut to heaven when he died. He wasn't looking for
pie in the sky and a sweet by and by. He didn't know anything
about the sweet by and by. He was looking for something
now. knowledge of God now. And God will honor that. Cornelius,
a devout man, the scripture said, your prayers have come up before
God. Zacchaeus, the guy who skedaddled
up the tree so he could see the Lord Jesus. Blind Bartimaeus
who cried out, the woman with the issue who said, I must get
to him, I must get to him. The Canaanite woman who would
not turn Christ loose until he blessed her. God honors people
who walk in the light God gives them. whether it's the light
of conscience, or the light of nature, or the light of the law,
or whatever light it is. And this man was so hungry. And
he wasn't just looking for a shortcut to heaven, and a one-way ticket
to glory, and some pie in the sky, and a sweet bind-by, and
a yo-yo to play with in heaven. He was looking for knowledge
of God. He wanted to know God. And God
sent somebody to tell him. God sent him an honored, faithful,
trusted servant. And you know, the Lord took that
servant right out of the middle of a big shindig up there in
Samaria. Old Philip was up there in Samaria.
They were having revival up there, and the Lord came to Philip and
said, Go down to the desert. Is there a bigger crowd, Lord?
No, sir, just one man. That's all, just one man. You
talk about a demotion. Philip took a demotion. But God
said, You go down there in Samaria. That one man down there is going
to know me, and he'll be worth your while to go that distance.
And so Philip went down in Samaria, and he saw this caravan from
Ethiopia headed back from Jerusalem to Ethiopia, and God's servants
are not arrogant. He didn't walk up and jerk the
door open and say, God sent me, you know. That's how preachers
today do. I'm somebody who are you. He walked alongside. This man was an important man. He was the treasurer of the country
of Ethiopia. And Philip didn't go knock on
the door and tell him who he was. He just walked alongside
the chariot. That's what it says, that he
walked alongside the chariot. He was walking on the ground,
on the sand. And this man was up there in the chariot. Philip
walked along just like anybody else. He didn't say, are you
born again? He just walked along. And why
don't you come to our revival if you don't like the one you
just came from, you know? Here are a quartet, they're the
best in town." He walked along, kept his mouth shut. In a minute
he looked up and he saw the man was reading the scriptures and
he said to him, do you understand what you're reading? And the
fellow looked down at him and he said, how can I except somebody
show me? And he said, would you show me?
He invited Philip up there. He said, come on up in the chariot.
And Philip came up and sat down. And Philip started right here,
where I'm starting this morning, right here. And he preached Christ
to that man from this scripture right here. And that hungry-hearted,
seeking sinner found the Savior right there. That's what's said. They kept riding along. I don't
know how long Philip preached to him. I don't know how long.
He didn't just stay right here in this water. He told him about
everything because they finally came to a body of water. And
the man said, the Ethiopian said, here's water. Now Philip, somebody
that wasn't out looking for him to baptize him, he's looking
for water to be baptized in. You see, this is the difference.
The preachers today are like parasites and proselyters. They're
out here looking for somebody that they can get in the water.
They'll take the water to you. But here this man had come to
know Christ and he was looking for somebody to baptize him and
some water to be baptized in. They had a goatskin hanging on
the chariot, but that wasn't enough water. And so they came
to the water. He said, here's water. What does
it hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, If you believe,
you may. If you believe. That's the only
condition. The only condition. The condition is that you believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, nobody's got any right
to be baptized who's not a believer because he's got nothing to show.
See, baptism shows the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.
You've got nothing to show if you haven't seen it. If you're
not dead and buried and risen in Christ, you've got nothing
to say. Baptism is showing something and saying something, and signifying
something. And if nothing's been done in
your heart, you've got nothing to show, say, or signify. So
Philip said, I'll baptize you on one condition, that you believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ with all your heart. And this man
said, I believe. I believe that Jesus Christ is
the Son of God. And buddy, I tell you, they got
out of that chariot and both of them went down into the water.
The Scripture says both Philip and the eunuch. That's what it
says. Both of them. And when they came up out of
the water, the Lord took Philip back to his meeting and sent
that man home with a full heart, with an enriched soul, with a
knowledge of Christ. with the grace of God and the
joy of God and the praise of God on his lips. And it was from
reading this scripture, you see, whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. That's what the Bible says. That's
the promise. But how are they going to call
on him in whom they've not believed? And how are they going to believe
in him with whom they've not heard? And how are they going to hear
without a preacher? You see that, my friend? So you have all the
ingredients here. You have a man who is seeking.
You have a man who is hungry. You have the Word. You have Christ
who is willing to save. And you have the preacher who
gets up here and shows the man the report. Now let's look at
it, chapter 53. And this is what, Philip, this
is the scripture right here. Maybe it will be used of God
for your good in His glory. But he starts out, Isaiah starts
out in verse 1. He says, Who hath believed our
report? Who has believed this report?
Do you believe it? I'll tell you who believes it.
Look at the next line. It's the person to whom the arm
of the Lord revealed. Now what is the word arm? The
word arm here is the power of God. It's the mercy of God. It's the arm of grace. That person
to whom the arm or the power or the wisdom or the greatness
of God is revealed, he's going to believe it. to whom it is
revealed by the Holy Spirit. Let me show you an example of
this. Turn to Acts 16. Here was a woman in Acts 16. Here was a woman by the name
of Lydia. Now, back in those days, there
were different cities in which they had a synagogue. But in
order to have a synagogue, you had to have so many people. Until
you had so many people, you didn't have a synagogue. And so they
would meet in different places to worship, and down here they
met down by the river. There weren't enough Jews there
therefore to have a synagogue, so they met down by the river.
And this woman Lydia met down there with them, and Paul went
down there on the Sabbath day to worship with them, and it
says in verse 13, and on the Sabbath we went out of the city
by a riverside where prayer was wont to be made. Now here's people
praying, here's people going through the motions of some kind
of ceremony who really don't know the Lord. They know there's
a God, and they've got their Old Testament rules and regulations,
but they don't know Christ and redemption or heavenly peace,
but they're going through the motions. And Paul went down there to worship
with them, where prayer was wont to be made. And we sat down and
spake unto the women who came thither. And a certain woman
named Lydia, they say evidently her husband had died, she was
a seller of purple, she was a businesswoman. of the city of Phalatera, which
worshiped God, heard us. She heard Paul as he spoke and
preached. Now what's this next line? Whose
heart the Lord opened. God opened her heart. Who hath
believed, I report? The person whose heart the Lord
hath opened. That's a believer. And what's
the next line? that she attended unto the things
which were spoken of Paul. And when she was baptized in
her household, she sought us saying, If you judge me to be
faithful to the Lord, come into my house and abide there. And she insisted, and we did. I tell you, when a person hears
a... There's got to be a hungry heart.
There's got to be some seeking of the Lord. People just don't
walk in off the street and whooping at religion. That's what's wrong.
There's somebody who's empty and wants something. They're
seeking and hungry and desiring to know Christ. They're tired
of religion. This woman's going, just like
this Ethiopian eunuch, going through the motions, playing
church. But she knew something was wrong.
She came down to every Sabbath day by the river and she'd sit
around and she'd listen and she'd She'd take part and she'd pray
or try to and go through the motions. And one day she came
down and sat down and God's man was there, Paul. And he's talking
about reality. He was talking about revelation.
He was talking about redemption. He was talking about a Christ
who died, a Messiah, a Mediator, a Redeemer, someone who took
our guilt and sin and shame and filth and paid our debts and
died for our sins and was buried and rose again and now is at
the right hand of God who is our great high priest. Boy, her
ears pricked up. But that ain't enough. It's not
enough to prick up your ears. God opened her heart. God did
something. God revealed his power. God revealed
his glory. God revealed his Son. And she
listened. And she moved a little closer
to Paul and listened a little more attentively. And God opened
her heart. And she said, I believe what
you're saying. Now she might have been the only one. I don't
know. She's the only one he went home with. She might have been
the only one. And she listened. Well, do you
believe it? Do you believe it? Well, you
say, what is your report? Well, let's see. Let's look at
verse 2. Here's his beginnings on earth. Now watch it. Here's
his beginnings on earth. Not his beginnings. For in the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God, and all things were made by him. Without him was
not anything made that was made. Glorify me, Lord, Father, with
the glory which I had with thee before the world was. Thou lovest
me before the foundations of the world." Unto us a son is
given. A child is born, but a son is given.
So here Christ, Jesus, God sent his son into the world. God sent
a son who was already a son, who was already his well-beloved,
only begotten son. He sent him into the world. God
so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. He was
in the world and the world knew him not. In the fullness of time
God sent his Son. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. So he was here in this world.
But he didn't come into this world like you think or you would
think a God would come into the world. No, sir. The heavens didn't part. A flash
and bolt of lightning didn't. When God came down to Sinai,
that's the way he came. Glory! Power! Fire! Smoke! Until the people fell
backwards. You know how Christ came? He
didn't come that way. He didn't come with 10,000 saints. He didn't come on a white horse
and a fiery chariot. He didn't burst upon the scene. The Holy Ghost came upon a Jewish
mate, who incidentally was David's great-great-great-great-great-great-granddaughter. And she was engaged to a fellow
who was David's great-great-great-great-great-great-grandson, Joseph and Mary. They were the
heirs of the throne that didn't exist no more. And the Holy Ghost
came upon that girl, and the power of the hash overshadowed
her. and quicken life in her womb, seed of God, seed of woman. And that little seed developed
a little boy, and she began to show pregnancy, and the angel
came to Joseph, who was engaged to Mary, and said, your engaged
girlfriend is pregnant with child. And he said, now don't be afraid
to marry her, take her to be your wife, because that child
is the Holy One of God. She's with child by the Holy
Spirit. And he came to Mary and she said,
I can't bear a child, I don't know a man. He said, the power
of God shall come upon you. And she carried that child and
kept these things and pondered them in her heart, kept them
secret. And Joseph, Joseph put her away privately. So nobody'd
see her or anything for long, for eight, nine months. And then
old Herod, you know, Christ has to be born in Bethlehem. Has
to be born in Bethlehem. That's what the Old Testament
says. He's from the tribe of Judah, the family of Jesse, of
David, and born in Bethlehem. That's the city of that tribe.
So how's Mary's not in Bethlehem, Joseph's not in Bethlehem, they're
off down there in Galilee somewhere, Nazareth, wasn't it? Somewhere
down there. So God, you see, God uses God will use even the
devil to accomplish his purpose. God will use anything or anybody
to do what he wants done. So this king got the big idea
that he'd tax all the Jews. And he sent a word out when Mary
was about nine months pregnant, he sent the word out, all you
Jews go to your cities where you're supposed to be according
to your tribe and pay your taxes. And I want all of you to go,
don't leave anybody home. So poor Mary and Joseph both
had to go to Bethlehem. See, that's their capital city.
You see, God doesn't do anything by accident. In the year of Caesar
Augustus, the word went out that all the native world was to be
taxed and so forth. That was to get Mary to Bethlehem. Otherwise she wouldn't have been
there. And while she was there, there was the cry of a little
child out there in a cow stable. because they weren't important
enough and didn't have money enough or prestige or influence
enough to have a place in the hotel, they had to go out to
Cal Stable. And so when God sent his Son
into the world, he didn't come like you'd think a God would
come. In fact, nobody would have known about it if God hadn't
announced it. But he didn't leave that event unattended. That little
girl gave birth in the straw of that manger to the Son of
God. But he's born low so he could
bless the low. He was born in poverty so he
could be identified with poverty. You see, he was born like the
lowest of creatures so that he could reach the lowest of creatures.
If he'd been born up yonder in Herod's capital, I wouldn't have
felt obliged to come to him. I wouldn't have felt identified
with him. I wouldn't have felt that he could enter into my sorrows.
But that he could enter into any man's sorrows or afflictions
or infirmities because he was born lower than any man. How
many of you were born in a stable? But God put a star in the sky
and told some folks over there, somewhere else, some wise men.
Then he sent an angel down here to tell the shepherds. He said,
under you is born, under you is born this day in the city
of David a Savior. And they went down there to see.
And you know what they found? Look at verse 2. And he shall
grow up before him as a tender plant. A tender plant. You know what that pictures to
me? As I go out in my garden in the early spring, and I've
planted my beans, and they're in that old hard ground with
a cake of crust on top of it. I see the ground crack, and right
up out of that cracked ground comes a little old half-inch
tender plant. It's so small and so fragile
and so tender. Sometimes I've tried to help
it out, you know. I go to move the dirt and I'll
squeeze it every time. I'll break it. It's so tender.
It can't stand any human assistance. It's got to stand there alone.
And that's the way I go and I say that the Son of God has come
into this world and I go and lie in that manger and that hay
That's the son of God, that's God? Little old fella there with
his hair still wet, you know, and his eyes closed, his little
old hands, you can't even see his hands, you know, he act like
some kind of monster, and why, you know, that's the son of a
tender, tender, tender, tender plant. Put your hand over his
mouth and you kill him. Turn the cradle upside down and
let him fall out and you kill him. So many ways to snuff out
his life, just a tender plant. And a root out of a dry ground,
they say, who's his daddy? Nobody. Well, what's his background?
Nothing. Well, where'd he come from? Nazareth. Boy, can anything worthwhile
come out of Nazareth? Boy, I tell you, read on, it
says a root, a root out of a dry ground. That's talking about
the nation Israel. His tribe forgotten, his family
forgotten, his nation forgotten. The Jews didn't have anything
to call their own. They had nothing. And here's
the king of the Jews. And everybody laughed, you know.
Because he didn't have anything to be king of. There wasn't anything
left. The Romans had it all. But he's a root out of the dry
ground. and hath no form, no comeliness,
his family offensive, his hometown offensive, his educational background,
who'd he study under? Nobody. His disciples, his followers,
his friends, sinners, pilots, publicans, his trade? A carpenter? A carpenter? You want me to listen
to a carpenter? There's no beauty. There's no
glory, no glamour that we should desire him, that we should even
pay attention to him. None whatsoever. Everybody who
was anybody turned thumbs down on him. That's my report. That's his beginning. Well, what
about, let's go on. What about his reception? That's
his beginning. What about his reception? What
next? Well, read on. He's despised. He's despised
and rejected. The world knew him not. His own
received him not. He's a man of sorrows. Christ
wept. A man acquainted with grief.
And we hid our faces from him. You know, have you ever just
didn't want to? You saw a fellow every once in
a while. We go up to Huntington to make
the tapes, and out there in the plaza in Huntington, sometimes
there's some drunks and some bums and some fellas that you
just don't want to be bothered with. I mean, they come up to
you and they want you. You don't mind helping folks,
but when you're on your way to eat dinner, you know, to do these
things, and these fellas just get around you, give me a dollar
or a dime or a quarter or whatever they ask for now, you know, and
here you walk down the street and you see one coming. And he's
headed right at you. You know what you do? Like a
beeline into the store. You hide your face from him.
You hide your face. And here comes this Jesus. Huh? And he is so despised and so
rejected and so without comeliness and beauty. He's such a nothing. He's the carpenter from Nazareth
that we hid our faces from him. Huh? That's right. But you know,
we're pretty dumb. We're pretty dumb. We're pretty
dumb. You know the reason we hid our
faces from him? Because his face was hid from us, his true face,
his true glory. We didn't have sense enough to
see the tabernacle. You know that tabernacle in the
wilderness, if you had walked by it, you wouldn't have taken
a second look? That's the most expensive building for its size
that's ever been erected on this earth. It wasn't but 15 feet
wide. and 15 feet high and 45 feet long. Now you think about
it, this auditorium is 50 feet wide. That tabernacle was 5 feet
shorter than this auditorium. And it was only 15 feet high. That's exactly how high that
ceiling is, 15 feet. And about as wide as from that
bench over there at the wall. And you know what it was covered
with? Badger skin. Just an old piece of badger skin. Covered. Just covered. It looked
awful. That badger skin protected it
from the weather. It was all the way around it,
all the way around it. But boy, you don't know what's inside. I tell you, if you could just
peep inside, gold and glory in the very presence of God, and
furniture like you've never seen and never will see, you'd get
to heaven. But no, we go whistling by and there's that tabernacle.
My, they'll tear that place down, you know. They'll tear that place
down. And that's what, when they saw
Christ, when we saw Him, no beauty. Because we couldn't see inside.
We couldn't see in Him God, the glory of God, the power of God,
the grace of God, the mercy of God. So we passed on the other
side of the street and hid our faces from Him. And we esteemed him not. And that's what folks think today.
To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? To whom is the real
glory of Christ revealed? Who believes this? Who believes
this? The same crowd that believes
that tabernacle is worth looking at. They've seen inside. They're the ones. They're the
ones that stop and say, come in and look here, I ain't got
no time to look at that piece of that tent. You would if you
knew what was inside. But you don't. Blind eyes don't
see and deaf ears don't hear and darkened understandings don't
lay hold upon mysteries. But I've seen him. I've seen
him. I know who he is. Who is this
Jesus? Who is this they said? Who is
this? I'll tell you, look at his sufferings,
verse 4 through 6. But he bore our griefs, my friend,
he came in my nature, that's me I'm looking at. That no beauty,
despised, rejected, not esteemed, that's me. Christ is coming in
my nature, in my flesh, he's assuming my position that he
might be my Redeemer. He bore my griefs and sorrows.
We did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, afflicted, but he was
wounded for my transgressions. He was bruised for my iniquities,
a chastisement of my peace was upon him by his stripes. I'm
healed. Oh, we like sheep gone astray.
God laid on him, this one representative, this one person, this one glorious
federal head, God laid on him all the sins and griefs and sorrows
and transgressions and iniquities of all his people. That's the
reason there's no beauty about him. Sin is not beautiful. Transgression is not beautiful.
God couldn't send Christ down here in glory. He had to come in poverty because
there's nothing glorious about sin. He has made sin for us. Now let me show you three things
about his suffering. Number one, they were ordained
of God. Did you notice while I was reading,
he was smitten of God? Huh? When you say men crucified
Christ, they did what God determined before to be done. And what does
Scripture say? He was smitten of God. It says in verse 6, the
last line, the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all. Who laid
it on him? The Lord did. Look down there at verse 10,
if you will. Verse 10, the first line, it pleased the Lord to
bruise him. You see that? John, his sufferings
were ordained of God. His sufferings were ordained
of God. Alright? Secondly, his sufferings
were vicarious. Do you know what the word vicarious
means? It means substitutionary. Do
you know what the Pope claims to be when he says he's the vicar
of Christ? Do you know what he's claiming?
He's claiming to be Christ on earth. And you need to learn
these things. When men like Billy Graham say
publicly in writing the paper, now listen to me, that the Pope,
John Paul, is the greatest spiritual and moral leader of our generation.
That's what he said. That's exactly what he said.
That can be documented. That's what he says in the Herald-Dispatch.
The man doesn't know the gospel because the Pope is an imposter. He says he's the vicar of Christ.
Isn't that what he says? The vicar of Christ. Vicar means
substitute. It means he can do what Christ
did for you. He can forgive sin because he's
the vicar. Vicarious. It means in the place
of, in the stead of. It means he's here as Christ. That's the reason they claim
he's infallible. That's the reason they claim he's head of the church,
because he's Christ in the flesh. He's the vicar of Christ. I know,
folks, I tell you people it's time somebody Somebody exposed
some of the error in this world so folks wouldn't be caught up
in it. Oh, everything religious is all right. Everything is not
all right. Our Lord Jesus Christ exposed
the Pharisees and exposed the Sadducees. He said they're blind
leaders of the blind. They're hypocrites. They're a
generation of snakes. They're misleading people. Our
Lord's sufferings were ordained of God and they were vicarious. He bore our griefs, he carried
our sorrows, he was wounded far in the stead of us. You see that? Vicarious. So if he bore them,
I don't bear them. If he died for them, I don't
die for them. If he paid for them, they're paid for. He's
my vicar. And the only one I got, my vicarious
Lord. His sufferings were effectual.
Look at verse 6, the last line. on the last line of verse 5. And with his stripes we could
be healed if we'd be baptized. That's not what it says. With
his stripes we could be healed if we'd do something, if we'd
do this, that, or the other, if we'd pray through, if we'd
give our tithes, if we'd serve the Lord. By his stripes we're
healed. We are healed. We are healed. It says in that last line, and
next to last line, by his knowledge, that is, or the knowledge of
him, or the knowledge which he teaches. He's the teacher and
author of our righteousness. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many. He shall justify them, not make
them justifiable. He shall justify them, for he
shall bear their iniquities. His sacrifice is vicarious. His
sufferings were ordained of God, they were vicarious, and they
are effectual. Now notice verse 7, 8. Here's the report. This
is what Philip preached to the youth. And this is what the word
of promise that saved his soul. He believed it. This is the word
that quickened life. This is the word that convicted
of sin. This is the word that revealed inability. This is the
word that revealed Christ. This was the word that begat
faith. This was all he got. And this is what Philip taught
him. And Eunuch said, Who's Isaiah talking about? Philip got up
in that chair and said, I'm Mr. Philip. And he said, I'm Mr.
Eunuch. Is that the way? I don't know what his name was.
But he said to Philip, I've been reading this Isaiah. Who's he
talking about here? Baron Arsaurus himself or some
other man? Philip said, He's talking about
the Lord Jesus Christ. He's talking about the Messiah.
And he was a willing Savior. Look down here at verse 7. He
was oppressed, he was afflicted, and when Jay read this, I noticed
how he paused here. He opened not his mouth. Verse 8 it says, and he opened
not his mouth. He opened not his mouth. Verse
7, two times, he opened not his mouth. No man taketh my life
from me. Christ said, I'll lay it down.
He was taken from prison. You see, the justice of God,
I owed the justice and law of God.
I was a debtor. And it laid hold on Christ in
my place. The justice of God laid hold
on Christ and took Him to prison, and took Him to the cross, and
took Him to the grave. And that's all it could do. Turned
Him loose. And the power of God raised Him
without sin. And he was taken from prison
and judgment. Who shall declare his generation?
Hold it there, justice! That's God you've got to hold
up! Nobody stood out to bear witness of his generation, of
his deity, of his glory, of his personage, of his accomplishments,
of his glory. He was deserted. Nobody. Nobody. None of the apostles
came forward and said, wait a minute, don't do that to him! Even the
Heavenly Father was silent, even the Holy Spirit was silent. Nobody
declared his generation justice and the law and holiness and
judgment laid hold on him as he bore our transgression, numbered
with the transgressors and executed him. And God raised him from
the dead, and that's when the Father owned him. That's when
he owned him. He owned him so much, read on.
Verse 11 says he was successful. There's a will of God to bruise
him, there's a will of God to put him to grief, there's a will
of God, verse 10, to make his soul an offering for sin. See
that? Please God to bruise him, please God to put him to grief,
please God to make his soul an offering for sin. But watch this. He shall see his seed. Now who's
his seed? His children. His seed. He shall prolong his days, and
the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper. What's the pleasure
of the Lord? Well, let's turn to John 6. Let's
see what the pleasure... You see, somebody comes up and
says, what's your pleasure? He means by that, what's your
will? What do you will? What's your pleasure? When the
Lord does his pleasure and accomplishes his pleasure, he does as he pleases,
which is according to his will. I think that's the way you'd
describe that. All right, John 6, verse 38,
the Lord Jesus said, I came down from heaven not to do my own
will, but the will of him that sent me. The pleasure of the
Lord, the will of God, shall prosper in his hand. And this
is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he
hath given me I'll lose nothing, but I'll raise it up again at
the last day. This is the will of him that sent me that everyone
That seeth the Son. Seeth Him. How? Seeth Him how?
A lot of people saw Him that weren't saved. People that nailed
Him to a cross got a good look at Him. that seeth the Son with
the heart, eyes of faith, seeth him in his glory, seeth him in
his redemptive character, seeth him in his substitutionary work,
seeth him in his redeeming grace, who sees him, I see him, and
I believe on him. He that seeth the Son, and believeth
on him, believeth on him, do you believe this report? Do you
believe it? May he have everlasting life.
And I raise him up at the last day. You know who's going to
be raised up at the last day? All right, here's what it says
here. The Lord Jesus said, I came down to do my Father's will,
and all that my Father giveth me will come to me, and him that
cometh to me I'll in no wise cast out, I'm going to raise
him at the last day. And he says everybody that gets
a look of faith sees the Son. Don't see the superstar, they
see the Son of God. They don't see sweet little Jesus,
boy, in a nativity scene, lying in a helpless position. They
see the Son! The Son of God, the Son of Glory. They see the Son! Exhausted. And they believe on Him. They
believe He came as a tender plant, as a root of drought, a dry ground,
a despised, rejected substitute. But He was raised in power, and
they see Him! And they believe it. He said,
I'm going to give him everlasting life and raise him up. Now look
at verse 44. No man can come to me. Natural
man doesn't believe that. He doesn't see that. Some of
you don't see it. You say, that's foolishness. Well, that's what
he said you'd say. The preaching of the cross is foolishness to
them that perish. Foolishness. And to the Jew,
to the religious man, it's a stumbling block. It's a stumbling block. He's in the midst of his road
of religion, and you put this Christ out there in front of
him, and he just stumbled over it and kicked it out of the way,
you know, and kept going. It's a stumbling block. But I'll raise
him. He says, No man comes to me except
my Father draw him. I'm going to raise him up at
the last day, the man my Father draws. How does God draw men?
He woos them. He wins them. He saves them,
as Roth said, against their will, with full consent. That's right. As it is written in the prophets,
and they shall be all taught of God. Taught of God. Taught of God. And every man
that hath heard, hath heard. Who hath believed, I'll report.
Who hath heard. To whom is the power, the arm,
the redeeming wisdom of God made known. He that's taught of God and learned
of the Father and hath heard, he'll come to me. He'll come
to me. Just like the eunuch. He'll come
to me. He'll believe. So, it'd do well if you'd look
over those verses in John 6. The Lord Jesus, He talked about
in Isaiah 53, He said, I came to do my Father's will. And this
is my Father's will. that everybody whom he hath given
me, I'll lose not a one, but I'll raise them up at the last
day. And everyone that sees me, not so as to despise me and reject
me, but to enthrone and crown me, I'm going to raise him up
too, because that's the man that's been taught of the Father. That
old boy, the Father sent him somebody that wasn't interested
in his gold, but interested in his salvation. He wasn't interested
in his honor and praise, he was interested in that man's salvation,
and he told him by Christ. And that man believed. Our Father, bless the Word. It's
the Word that quickens. It's the Word, the Word that
gives life. It's the report, the record which
you've given of your Son.