The Suffering Servant Isaiah 53 Guest Speaker John MacArthur

thank you folks for allowing me the privilege to be here with you today and for the opportunity to share in worship and to open the Word of God I have some skin in Alabama I mean that literally when I was 18 years old I was driving through Alabama with some young people and the driver rolled the car and I was sitting in the right front passenger seat and as the car going about 75 miles an hour down the highway near a little town called Utah Alabama the car flipped in the air my door flew open and I fired out of the car I was ejected and it was amazing because I was fully conscious I hit the highway going the same speed as the car the car flipped over to the my door being opened acted as a right angle kind of brace in the car just ground down it's rough as it slid down the highway and into a ditch and I was going right alongside the car on my southern hemisphere I had a had a really rapid rate and fully conscious I watched the car go into a ditch I didn't know exactly how to stop not having been in that position before so I did the brilliant thing of putting my hands down and you could see the scars today at humble little bit took skin off both shoulders elbows and knees when it was all over I stood up and walked off the highway without a broken bone but I had left most of my back and that's the skin I have in Alabama I lost a large part of the skin right on down to the deep tissue third-degree burns over most of my backside from that skid 125 yards or so walked off the highway stood on the side of the highway and I had an amazing thought Lord whatever you want me to do I'll do it if you're gonna play like this I give it was right on that Highway in Alabama that I said Lord I'll serve you any way you want me to if it's a small ministry giving me the grace to do it and be satisfied if it's the larger ministry give me the humility to do it and I committed my life to ministry there I was a believer but I was toying with the idea that I thought I might want to be an athlete even on a professional level but the Lord got my attention I had my own Damascus Road experience so whenever I come to Alabama I am reminded of that and there was a guy who came along the road and started picking up the other kids from the car none of them were injured I was the only one the Lord exited me and dealt with me and left him alone it got me to a Birmingham Baptist Hospital and tried to take care of my burns and shipped me a California I thought I would be able to recover faster than I did it took me three months in bed to get the burns healed up and during those three months the Lord sealed the call of my life to preach his word it all happened in Alabama so whenever I come here there's a moment of deep deep gratitude for what the Lord did for me a spiritual level by throwing me out of a car when I was 18 years old all these many years being able to preach his word is joy beyond comprehension for me and when it comes to the Word of God I'm always drawn to the person of Jesus Christ the Old Testament is the anticipation of Christ the Gospels are the incarnation of Christ the book of Acts is the proclamation of Christ the epistles are the explanation of Christ and the revelation is the glorification of Christ it's all about him and if I only have one opportunity to speak to a congregation like this and I assume that everywhere I go because they usually don't get invited back I want to talk about Christ and we've sung about him haven't we and I want to take you to what I think is the richest chapter in the Old Testament Isaiah 53 Isaiah 53 fifty-third chapter of Isaiah and if you have your Bible handy turn to that 53rd chapter I want to try to give you a gift today I want to give you the gift of this chapter Isaiah 53 actually will start a little bit before that and we're gonna try to squeeze this chapter into one message this morning I know you think that Matthew is the first gospel and Mark is second and Luke is third and John is fourth but actually that's not the case the first gospel is Isaiah 53 the second gospel is Matthew now a gospel is a divinely inspired book that tells the story of Jesus and the first divinely inspired revelation from heaven that tells the story of Jesus in its fullness is Isaiah 53 it's really the first gospel it is the most complete and the most profound revelation of the work of salvation listen to this in the entire Bible did you get that it is the most complete profound revelation of the work of salvation in the entire Bible and I'm including the New Testament it also is this it is the greatest single text of scripture to verify the divine inspiration of the Bible Martin Luther said every Christian should memorize it one of the great German commentators back in 1866 said Isaiah 53 is the most central the deepest and the loftiest that scripture has ever achieved when you're in Isaiah 53 you're on the top of Mount Everest it is the heart of gospel language the gospel language with which we are familiar comes more frequently from this chapter than any New Testament chapter the stunning predictions that are in this chapter are so complex and so precise that only God could know them seven centuries before they happened it is the most comprehensive explanation of the cross in the Bible and the cross with seven centuries away the substitutionary vicarious sacrificial death of the Savior is fully explained here there is no chapter equal to it in an explanation of the atonement in the New Testament in fact the New Testament writers refer to it and they basically collectively refer to almost every single line in Isaiah 53 almost every line is picked up in the New Testament the scope of this chapter is a Goering it goes from eternity past to eternity future from the Trinity in heaven to the redeemed with the Trinity in heaven in the future it sweeps from the eternal Trinity to the Incarnation to the humiliation to the rejection to the unjust trial to the conviction execution accomplishment of redemption to the resurrection to the ascension to the exaltation and the coronation of Jesus Christ it's all here it is a stunning testimony to Christ someone went through the streets of Jerusalem recently and found the Jewish people there and read isaiah 53:2 many of them made a video out of it now Jewish people even if they go to the synagogue regularly have never read this chapter because the rabbi's for a long time do not allow it to be read in the synagogue's whenever they read it to a Jewish person who had never heard it they would ask them this question who is this talking about universally they would say well that has to be Jesus it's that obvious if the New Testament epistles were lost if we didn't have the New Testament epistles there is a sufficient explanation of the gospel here to save sinners and what happens in Isaiah 53 is really new in the Old Testament because not up until this point is there such a clear and specific revelation of the substitutionary vicarious sacrifice of Messiah for his people this chapter is about the slave of Yahweh or sometimes in your translations the servant of Jehovah now there are a number of servant chapters in I aah after 42 49 50 and 52 but 53 and the text that comes before it is the most significant of all those chapters about the coming Messiah and it's a it's really an incredible chapter now in let me give you a little bit of a focus pulling down to the very point of the center of this chapter there are two divisions in Isaiah 39 chapters of judgment 27 chapters of salvation did you get that 39 chapters of judgment 27 chapters of salvation that's exactly the way the Old Testament is broken down from the New Testament 39 chapters and 27 it parallels the Bible in the final 27 chapters which deal with with salvation there are nine chapters nine chapters and nine chapters nine chapters on the salvation of Israel nine chapters on essentially the salvation of sinners and nine chapters on the salvation of the universe the middle of the nine is on saving sinners the middle chapter in that nine is chapter 53 and the middle verse in chapter 53 is verse 6 all of us like sheep have gone astray each of us turned to his own way the Lord caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him the the the Book of Isaiah just keeps coming down down down down down down till you landed verse 6 this chapter has been called the torture chamber of the rabbis it has been called the guilty conscience of the Jews and beyond these kind of overviews of it this chapter answers the most critical question the most critical question of all questions and what is that how can a sinner be right with God that is the most critical question any human being will ever ask and by the way all the religions of the world offer the wrong answer religion is designed to answer the question how can a sinner be made right with God religion must answer that correctly or it's a religion designed in hell it also solves the riddle this chapter does of the Old Testament you know what the major riddle in the Old Testament is it's in Exodus chapter 36 here it is so 34 verse 6 then the Lord passed by in front of him in front of Moses and proclaimed the Lord the Lord God compassionate and gracious slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness and truth who keeps loving kindness that's covenant love saving love for thousands who forgives iniquity transgression and sin okay that's the first part the Lord is compassionate gracious slow to anger abounding in covenant love committed love for thousands forgives iniquity transgression and sin and then here's the second part that makes it a riddle yet he will by no means leave the guilty unpunished that is the riddle of the Old Testament how can God forgive and show grace and compassion and punish sin at the same time that is the riddle that isn't even answered until you get to Isaiah 53 this chapter is a really a dirge it's a funeral song at least at the beginning it's horrific leak rushing for ways that you probably don't understand but you will in a few moments this is perhaps the single saddest chapter in all of Holy Scripture it's horrific it has no historic parallel in its sorrow it's crushing sorrow now clearly it refers to the Messiah the Lord Jesus but it is not a prophecy directed specifically at him most people read it and say well this is about Jesus this is about the future coming Messiah but while that's essentially what it lays out that's really not the purpose of it how do you know that because the verbs are in the past tense how can it be a future prophecy if the verbs are in the past tense he was despised and forsaken verse 3 he was despised again we did not esteem him he bore our griefs he carried our sorrows he was stricken smitten of God afflicted he was pierced he was crushed he was scourge past tense he was oppressed he was afflicted somebody is looking back at the cross not looking forward to the cross 700 years before the the Messiah comes we have a prophecy of somebody in the future looking back at the Messiah so this is not a prophecy specifically about him this is a prophecy about someone in the future looking back at him in fact it's not a person because all the pronouns are plural some group of people in the future is going to look back at the cross and they're going to say what's in chapter 53 what are they going to say let your ears hear who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed for he grew up like a tender plant like a root out of parched ground he has no stately form or Majesty that we should look upon him no appearance that we should be attracted to him he was despised and forsaken of men a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and like one from whom men hide their face he was despised and we did not esteem him surely our griefs he himself bore and our sorrows he carried yet we ourselves esteemed him stricken smitten of God and afflicted but he was pierced through for our transgressions he was crushed for our iniquities the chastening for our well-being fell upon him and by his scourging we are healed all of us like sheep have gone astray each of us has turned to his own way but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him he was oppressed and he was afflicted yet he did not open his mouth like a lamb that has led to slaughter and like a sheep silent before it's Shearer's so he did not open his mouth by oppression and judgment he was taken away and as for his generation who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression of my people to whom the stroke was due his grave was assigned with wicked men yet he was with a rich man in his death because he had done no violence nor was there any deceit in his mouth but the Lord was pleased to crush him putting him to grief if he would render himself as a guilt offering he will see his offspring he will prolong his days and the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in his hand as a result of the anguish of his soul he will see it and be satisfied by his knowledge the righteous one my servant will justify the many as he will bear their iniquities therefore I will allot him a portion with the Great and he will divide the booty with the strong because he poured out himself to death and was numbered with the transgressors yet he himself bore the sin of many and interceded for the transgressors credible incredible chapter just breaking it down a little bit for us it starts out with the recognition that we have a future group of people looking back at this and saying this is the Messiah and this is what the Messiah suffered for us who is this people who are these people the answer comes from the Prophet Zechariah the Prophet Zechariah in chapter 12 tells us that in the future Israel the nation of Israel will be saved and this is how he presents it chapter 12 of Zechariah verse 10 the Lord says I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem meaning the nation Israel in the future the spirit of grace and supplication I will give them grace to draw them to salvation and supplication is the prayer of repentance for salvation so they will look on whom they have pierced they will look on me whom they have pierced amazing statement God is speaking and God says they pierced me an affirmation of the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ and they will mourn for him the son as one mourns for an only Son and they will weep bitterly over him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn and that day there'll be great morning in Jerusalem like the morning of hadra Drummond in the plain of megiddo the land will mourn every family by itself the family of the house of David by itself their wives by themselves the family of the house of Nathan by itself and their wives by themselves and on it goes everybody weeping everybody mourning chapter 13 verse 1 in that day a fountain will be opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for impurity salvation is coming to what nation Israel salvation is coming to Israel Zachariah says they will look on him whom they have pierced they pierced him they used the Romans to do it but it was their decision the time is coming in the future when they will look back on the one they pierced and they will mourn for him as an only Son when that day happens Isaiah 53 is what they will say Isaiah 53 is what they will say can you imagine the horror when that day comes and they look back and they finally realize that Jesus whom they rejected not just the generation that had him executed but every generation of Jewish people since then was in fact their Messiah do you understand why I said this is the most horrific scene in scripture for the generation that comes to faith it's a glorious reality but for all the generations in between you hear the Lord pleading in Ezekiel chapter 18 to the people of Israel saying why will you die repent and live the generation after generation after generation has perished a horrific unimaginable overwhelming sweeping sorrow as they look back over history and realized they rejected their Messiah this is what they will say listen to them starting in verse 1 the startling slave of Jehovah who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed you know what they're saying there who believed the report we heard we didn't believe it we didn't believe it we didn't believe what he said we didn't believe what the Apostle said we didn't believe what the 70 said we didn't believe the preachers in the early church we didn't believe we didn't believe we didn't believe and generations of us have not believed and it wasn't just that we didn't believe the words the arm of the Lord was revealed what is the arm of the Lord expression of power and did Jesus not demonstrate divine power that for all intents and purposes Jesus banished illness from the land of Israel for the duration of his ministry healing every imaginable disease taking total power over the kingdom of darkness raising people from the dead controlling the elements of nature creating food we didn't accept even when we saw the power the arm of the Lord was revealed but who who accepted it who acknowledged it the message came who received it repentance with a confession of the horrendous blasphemous sin of rejecting the Savior that's not just true for Jewish people that's true for everyone why did they reject verse two answers that question he grew up before him like a tender shoot like a root out of parched ground he has no stately form or Majesty that we should look upon him nor appearance that we should be attracted to him we were looking for a different kind of Messiah right we were looking for somebody to knock off the Romans we were looking for somebody powerful not a a meandering preacher with a ragtag bunch of laborers not a rabbi in the bunch not a Pharisee or a sad you see or anybody else important this is a contemptible origin that's why they say he grew up before him like a tender shoot that's a sucker branch we didn't see him as this glorious plant this flourishing plant producing all kinds of messianic fruit we we saw him as a sucker branch and what do you do with a sucker branch you whack it off that's all he was or he was like a root out of parched ground when you have a dry root in parched ground you get rid of it because it'll make somebody stumble we stumbled over him we saw him nothing other than somebody who made us stumble a sucker branch to be hacked off in mark 6 they say are you kidding is not this the carpenter he even had a contemptible appearance he has no stately form or Majesty by the way didn't have a halo around his head he didn't have a pained angelic one white faced look either as he's depicted so often but there was nothing majestic about him and that tells you that he looked like everybody else there was nothing in his appearance that was attractive no royal bearing no majesty in fact when you get to the cross it's kind of interesting preaching through the crucifixion of Christ as many times I have I call it the comedy at Calvary because the Romans did everything to make it into a comedy it was a show it was a joke it was mockery from start to finish they put a crown on him like he was a king they put a reed in his hand like he was a scepter they mocked him as if he were a king to put a sign over said King of the Jews sheer sarcasm the whole thing at Calvary was a Roman comedy the Jews are gonna say there was nothing about him that was attractive nothing about his appearance he had a contemptible origin he was nothing but a sucker branch coming out of Galilee can anything good come out of Galilee and who's his father and mother but a bunch of nobodies from Nazareth a hick town way in the north he had a contemptible appearance there was nothing about him that was attractive no royal bearing he had a contemptible life look at verse 3 he was despised and forsaken of men twice it says despised a man of sorrows acquainted with grief and like one from whom men hide their face he was despised and we didn't esteem him he they looked at him and they said there's nothing Martyn remarkable about his life he hangs around mom like I would guess maybe as many as seven of the disciples were in the fishing business smelly guys you know not the kind that you would associate with a king and so he was despised and forsaken of men Bennish men of rank he was despised and by men of rank the the literate the elites the Sadducees the Pharisees the rabbis the rulers the high priests the whole temple elite and that then followed up in Jewish history by the way he was Yeshua but rabbis changed his name to Yeshua Yeshua is a Jewish acrostic meaning let his name be blotted out he has been called in Jewish literature the transgressor he is called Tolui it means the hanged one and perhaps a more popular designation for him as yeshua ben pandera son of a Roman soldier illegitimate child the power elite said he's from Hell his power comes from Beelzebub they killed him then they started killing his followers his life was full of sorrow verse three and grief and he was such a despicable person to them he's the kind of person when you see somebody so ugly coming down the street you turn your face away because you don't want them to see the look on your face when you see them he was despised we did not esteem him the language there in Hebrew means he was non-existent he was non-existent that's the ultimate scorn you don't even exist can you imagine the day when the Jews as as a people say that that is the fashion that is the profound confession that comes from their lips in the day when they look back on the one they pierced and they mourn for him as an only Son only one Messiah only one Messiah and this is what they did to him he didn't fit their messianic perspective but in that day their eyes will be open in the future and what was promised to them in Ezekiel 36 in Jeremiah 31 the new covenant the Lord will show them grace hear their prayer hear their answer the their prayer answered and so all Israel will be saved as Paul says in Romans so we meet the scorned slave of Jehovah starting in verse 6 we see the substitute slave of Jehovah the first three verses described in retrospect their view of him verse 4 affirms how they see him in the hour of their salvation Oh surely our griefs he himself bore and our sorrows he carried yet we ourselves esteemed him stricken smitten of God and afflicted what is that saying we thought he was an impostor we thought it was a liar we thought he was from hell we thought his power came from Beelzebub we thought he was satanic and we thought God was killing him as a blasphemer and God used us and we used the Romans to do God's will and to do God's work and kill the blasphemer oh oh but he didn't die for his sins he had none he didn't die for his iniquities verse 5 he was pierced through for our transgressions he was crushed for our iniquities the chastening for our well-being fell on him and by his scourging we are healed there is there is substitutionary sacrificial atonement it was our sins that he was bearing it was our transgressions it was our iniquities our griefs our sorrows he bore them he carried them to be bore them in the sense that he took the wrath of God in our place he was the one who is the propitiation for our sins he satisfied God's just law how can God be compassionate and forgiving and at the same time never look past any sin someone has to pay and the answer to the the riddle of the Old Testament is God gives grace to the penitent believing sinner and punishes his son in place of that sinner he bore our sins he bore our sins he was crushed for our iniquities the chastening that we deserved fell on him by his scourging we are spiritually healed that that's a spiritual healing as indicated by the first chapter of Isaiah where Isaiah describes the whole nation as sick from head to foot spiritually we thought God was using us to kill a blasphemer and God was using us to put a savior on a cross to bear our sins pierced crushed chastened scourge for our transgressions for our violations for our perversions for our wellbeing for our spiritual healing let me stop at this minute and just say this this is the same perspective that every sinner must have when he comes to the cross this is not exclusively the perspective of Israel it is prophetically to be the perspective of Israel in the future in the meantime it is a call for all of us to look at the cross and see the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ there as well but you notice in verses 4 & 5 he is bearing our transgressions our iniquities in other words the things we've done our transgressions iniquities are the sins that we have committed there's something even deeper than that in verse 6 there's something more in a true confession a penitent sinner would acknowledge his sins and it would acknowledge that those sins are his and that he is guilty and he has committed things that offend God for which there must be punishment and putting his trust in Christ he would understand that Christ had died for those sins specifically but there's something more there's something behind those sins and that's in verse 6 all of us like sheep have gone astray each of us have turned to his own way but the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all or caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him now we go a little bit deeper than behavior we're talking about nature now we're talking about the essence of being human and being a sinner all of us like sheep have gone astray we're talking about something that's that's innate this is a sheep and this is what they do they don't do anything else they do this they go astray they wander that's characteristic of sheep so we have a problem not only with our behavior we have a problem with our nature we're like sheep we by nature sin we by nature go astray from God we by nature violate his law in his will so Christ has to die not only for the sins that we have committed but the innate inherent sinfulness of our own humanity david says in psalm 51 in sin did my mother conceive me he doesn't mean it was an adulterous relationship what he means is that from conception I was a sinner as in Adam all died so Christ on the cross is offering a sacrifice to God for all the sins that we have committed and for all the sins that are latent in us that never fully expressed themselves on the outside but they're part of our corrupt nature he died for all of it for all of it how did that work 2nd Corinthians 5:21 God made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him what does that mean God made him who knew no sin who's that there's only one name on that list Jesus he made him who knew no sin to be sin what does that mean he became a sinner no he was a spotless lamb what do you mean he made him to be sin simple he treated him as if he committed every sin ever committed by every person who's ever believed throughout all of human history and he committed none of them God treated him as if he committed all of them and as if he had all of the corruption of all the people through all human history who have believed and belonged to the Lord he punished Jesus for all of that sin innate sin and behavioral sin here's the amazing thing about Jesus he did in three hours of darkness now if all the people who go to hell will be in Hell forever in their sins will never be expiated how can Jesus sum up all the sins of all the people who will ever believe they're all over empty of history and bear them away in three hours of darkness answer he is an infinite person he has an infinite capacity for redemption he took the curse for us yes he was the scorned slave but he was also the substitute slave verse seven he was the submissive slave of Jehovah now we're coming to his trial he was oppressed the legal word he was he allowed literally in Hebrew he allowed himself to be abused yet he didn't open his mouth like a lamb led to slaughter like a sheep silent before it's Shearer's so he did not open his mouth when I've gone to New Zealand and preached in New Zealand they always remind me they have seventy thousand sheep there I've been on many sheep farms and I've watched them work with the Sheep I've watched them slaughter the Sheep on one occasion and they lead they lead the Sheep into slaughter with one lead sheep who for I guess centuries has been called the Judas sheep he leads the others to slaughter and they go silently make no sound the Jewish people would know that they were shepherds weren't they that's what he did in his trial he said nothing didn't speak wouldn't defend himself he was like a lamb led to slaughter bloody death a massacre really John the Baptist said behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world his trial was a mockery an illegal trial verse 8 by oppression and judgment that's the oppression is the illegal trial the judgment is the verdict he was taken away that is the sentence that is the sentence and what was the sentence says for his generation who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living who protested it no one were there any Jewish people who stood up and tried to stop the crucifixion no he allowed himself to be abused he allowed himself to be scourge he allowed himself to be taken away he allowed himself to be cut off for the transgression of my people to whom the stroke was due into verse 8 the People of God for all the people of God for all the people of God he allowed himself to be slaughtered being cut off out of the land of the living is just an expression for death violent death execution by the way there is in the Jewish Talmud which was written sometime after the life of Christ an interesting section on the crucifixion that says when Jesus had his trial there was a Jewish law that required 40 days after a death sentence was pronounced on somebody there needed to be 40 days in which anybody could come forth to give testimony on behalf of the one who had been found guilty in case they had made a mistake in the Talmud you can read today if you can find the section the historical record that at the time of the crucifixion of Jesus they crucified Him forty days after his trial they actually crucified him the morning after a krile overnight they've rewritten history because that was a violation of all Jewish law you can see how fast it went from oppression he went to judgment then he was taken away and then he was killed that's exactly what happened in that rapid-fire succession on the same day it was for the people of God all the people of God that he died and the stro stroke was really to be meted out on us verse 9 you come to his resurrection his burial first his grave was assigned with wicked men he was supposed to be thrown in Gehenna a city dump bar they threw criminals who were executed just threw him in there with the rest of the burning refuse of the City of Jerusalem but something happened his grave was assigned to be with wicked men they didn't end up that way he was with a rich man in his death who's that rich man Joseph of Arimathea something's changed here now all of a sudden something dramatic has happened why does he not end up in the grave of the criminals in the fires of Gehenna the Lord's not gonna let that happen some 16 says my Holy One will not see corruption and so for the first time we we start moving back up everything up to this point has been going down down down deeper into darkness and now all of a sudden there's a move up yet he was with the rich man in his death because he had done no violence nor was there any deceit in his mouth he was sinless some 16 again verse 10 the Lord will never allow his Holy One to see corruption his Holy One his sinless one so he's turned over to Joseph of Arimathea Arimathea and he's put in his own tomb no violence was ever done by him he's perfect he's sinless see this is Christ in all the details of his work on our behalf the next little piece of this would be the satisfied to slave of Jehovah the scorned slaved the substituted slave the submissive slave the satisfied slave verse 10 the Lord was pleased to crush him the Lord was pleased to crush him not that the Lord was pleased in the agony of the atonement the Lord was pleased in what he accomplished through his death he was pleased to crush him putting him to grief because he would render himself as a guilt offering as a satisfaction as a propitiation as an expiation as a restitution he was a guilt offering just as in the Old Testament you picked out a spotless lamb to bring to the temple to be offered as a guilt offering God selected his own lamb and offered him as a guilt offering for all who would ever believe and the one little short step up from the burning fires of Gehenna to the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea is followed by what event three days later the resurrection and it's implied in verse 10 look what it says he will see his offspring he will see his offspring as a father and a four kids who love the Lord and love their mom and dad for which were deeply grateful and 15 grandchildren my grandchildren are starting to get married I would really love to see their offspring I'd love to see the next generation of people at my church I'd love to see what the Lord does in the lives of the young people in our church I won't see that my my candles burning down and in my heart I pray for my kids I pray for my grandchildren I would love to be around to be there to help them to enjoy what the Lord does in the next couple of generations I won't see that because I'll be gone obvious but in the case of Jesus he will see his offspring he will live to see his offspring therein is the resurrection he will prolong his days eternally and the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in his hand the story gets better now we come out of the darkness of all of his substitutionary atonement to the glory of the Resurrection and the good pleasure of the Lord is really the satisfaction of the Lord God was satisfied to crush him and God will be satisfied to give him his offspring what does it mean to be in heaven forever it means to be the Bride of Christ right he will know all who belong to his bride his church he will see his children this is of course the promise of a resurrection nobody sees the subsequent generations but Christ will he'll see all of them in his presence verse 11 as a result of the anguish of his soul he will see it and be satisfied full satisfaction no one will be left out all that the father gives to me she'll come to me and I'll lose none of them John 6 my sheep hear my voice and they know me and they follow me and they will not follow another John 10 I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it the Messiah will be satisfied God will be satisfied when redemption is complete the full satisfaction of God there is a final testimony at the end of the chapter and it comes from God all of a sudden were done hearing the future people confessing this and God speaks he says by his knowledge by the knowledge of him the righteous one my servant many will be justified this is God affirming that justification will come through the righteous one and the one who is his servant and it will come when they know him when they know him by the knowledge of the righteous one will come justification that is the only way to be made right with God so there's the answer to the question how can a sinner be made right with God you can only be made right with God through the knowledge of the Holy One the Messiah the one who bears our iniquities and comes the exaltation of the slave of jehovah the supreme sovereignty of the slave of jehovah i will allot him a portion with the great he will divide the booty with the strong because he poured out himself to death and was numbered with the transgressors yet he himself bore the sin of many and interceded for the transgressors really an amazing verse this is God the Father saying I affirm the substitutionary atonement of my son on the cross for sinners divine affirmation that the confession that is being made here which is a confession that will come from the people of Israel yet in the future is indeed the true confession that leads to salvation but we know this we know that this confession is not at all just limited to Israel this is the confession that every sinner must make looking back oh I see it was my griefs my sorrows my transgressions my iniquities that he suffered for you have to see the reality of the cross and when you come and mourn for the pierced one and mourn over the fact that you have rejected him and call out to him and affirm that you believe and you turn from your sin and you embrace him as Lord and Redeemer and your substitute a fountain of cleansing will be open to you as well the servant of Jehovah in this chapter goes from heaven to earth to heaven from glory to shame to glory from life to death back to life and in verse 12 God gives him the full portion along with the great that refers to the redeemed along with the strong that also refers to the redeemed because of the sacrifice that he made so here is the first gospel the Incarnation to the exaltation and in the middle a life of teaching a life of miracles and then all the features and elements of his death and his resurrection and then his exaltation when God gives him the spoil for what he accomplished as you focus on the person of Jesus Christ and his majesty and glory you will find the Spirit of God will sanctify you second Corinthians 3:18 says as you gaze at the glory of the Lord your changed into his image from one level of glory to the next by the Holy Spirit your vision of Christ is the key to your sanctification David said I've set the Lord always before me therefore my heart is glad father we thank you that you have given us your word we thank you that you have given us this majestic incomprehensible picture of the Lord Jesus even 700 years before he arrived thank you for the treasure that this chapter is thank you that we were in Christ when he died we were in Christ when he rose we were in Christ before the world began because we were chosen in him before the foundation of the world in your mind we have always been in Christ we have always belonged to him and we will always belong to him and no one is able to take us out of your hand we have been in Christ from eternity to eternity from everlasting to everlasting this is the reason for our songs of praise fill us with joy in believing grateful hearts we ask in our saviors name Amen we want to give you an opportunity to respond to what you've heard today as you think of the viewpoint of the cross from those looking back one day you think about God's view of us and I'm in time eternal for you to be in Christ requires you to make that decision today or to make that decision at some point and we invite you to do that if you're you're not sure of where you stand if you're not sure of a relationship that you have if if you have heard God speaking to you in very clear tones today the message of the gospel who Jesus is and the great gift that God has offered us in Christ and our measureable need for him and the solution to our sin the answer to the real the Old Testament doctrine MacArthur said if you know that's the answer to your life and it is for all of us and you want to respond to that today we would love to pray with you counsel with you so in just a moment we're gonna have a time of response and several of our pastors will be here we'd love to pray with you we'd love to accounts with you about what you heard today and how you might respond to it how you might leave here a new creation in Christ and if that's what God is leading you to do I want you to do it to just not concern yourself the folks around you the crowds or even family that you brought with you would happily wait for you but let's honor him right now in our response to him and what we heard so I'm gonna ask you to stand with us as we worship and respond as we sing together again if we can pray with you if we can encourage you with what you've heard we've been counts with you how to make this yours and to leave here with the certainty of your relationship with Christ we want to do that today so we invite you to come and respond

Channel: CalvaryDothan

Views: 33,462

Rating: 4.8639054 out of 5

Keywords: Pastor Paul Thompson, Paul Thompson, Calvary Baptist Church, Calvary Dothan, Calvary, Dothan AL

Id: 6bZB7BFvqV8

Length: 60min 5sec (3605 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 24 2018