Father, thank you for your omniscient knowledge of all that will befall us and all that has befallen us. Thank you that we can rest the fact that all things work together for our good and for your glory. Father, as we walk through those ways that you have prepared for us, many times we do not expect the twists and the turns that they will have. Your father, we know that you control them, that you guide them. And so we submit our wills to you, to your plan, to your purposes. Father, thank you that you have made known your purposes to us. Thank you that we can go to your word, that your word instructs us. It's who we are and who you are. You are so high above us that we cannot know you, and yet you have deigned to come down to us, and therefore we can know something about you and be saved. Father, I pray that we would come to you in humility. We'd come to you asking for your word to work in us. Fathers, we examine our lives. We find that we are so far from being what you expect us to be. And yet we also find grace in Christ Jesus. And we find the special, specific grace that we need in our time of trial. And so we come confidently asking for your grace upon us as your people. Father, I know that in a church like this, there are people that are struggling, people that are facing difficulties. They might be facing financial difficulties, health difficulties, family difficulties, and yet even there, your grace is sufficient for our need. So minister grace to those people that are needy. Father, there are people that are facing deep spiritual struggles. Struggles that are a result of their own sin or of other people around them. Struggles that are natural to our human condition. People that are facing temptation. Temptation that is powerful before them. And Father, I pray for grace over those people that you would free them from temptation. You would give them the peace that comes from doing what is right and from taking the escape that you provide for them. Father, I know that as we face those difficulties, we feel overwhelmed, and yet we can run to the cross and run to Christ and find our sufficiency in him. Father, I pray that as we go to you and find sufficiency, that you would also use us to be lights to the people around us, that our life would be reflecting your glory And that as we interact with unsaved people around us, that we would share the gospel with them, that they would hear the life-saving news of Jesus Christ. Let us be lights that shine in the darkness. Don't let us hide our light under the bushel. And Father, I pray that that would also be happening around the world. You have purposes for the ends of the earth. And so as the Word is preached in churches around the world today, I pray that people would be saved, people would be comforted, that people would receive grace. Father, I pray for our church in Mexico, Iglesia Bautista La Gracia, Grace Baptist Church. I pray for Pastor Mario, who will be bringing the Word today, that you would give him the words to speak, that would be faithful to your Word, and that would minister grace to the hearers. Father, I pray that as we hear your word today, that we would have receptive hearts, attentive minds, submissive wills, so that we would be transformed and changed by your word today. So use your word and the power of your spirit. to do that work that only you can do in our hearts. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. You may be seated. Please take your Bibles and open to Isaiah chapter 52. We will read the portion that we will study today. Isaiah 52, 13 through the end of 53. I'll read the passage, you can follow along. Behold, my servant shall act wisely. He shall be high and lifted up and shall be exalted. As many were astonished at you, his appearance was so marred beyond human semblance and his form beyond that of the children of mankind, so shall he sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths because of him, for that which has not been told them, they see, and that which they have not heard, they understand. Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, like a root out of dry ground. He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And as from whom men hide their faces, he was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. And with his wounds we are healed. all we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth like lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before it shears is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment, he was taken away and asked for his generation who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people. And they made his grave with the wicked and with the rich man in his death, although he had done no violence and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him. He has put him to grief. When a soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring. He shall prolong his days. The will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul, he shall see and be satisfied. By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will divide him a portion with the many. and he shall divide the spoil with the strong because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors. Yet he bore the sin of many and makes intercession for the transgressors. This is the word of the Lord. One of the greatest tragedies that we can experience as human beings is war. We have seen some of this going on in our environment, in our world today. Perhaps some of us have seen the expressions that people have that have experienced war. During World War I, a reporter Formed the phrase the thousand-yard stare You know what? That means it describes a soldier or a civilian that has just gone through a battle and is sitting Next to the road maybe sitting on the rubble that used to be his house and he's staring away into nothing shocked by what he's lived, stunned by the maybe tragic turn that his life just took, something that he could never imagine, never thought about. Maybe he's sitting there wondering, what happened to my life? This was not what I expected. And maybe wondering, how can I move forward from here? This is the thousand year stare, the thousand yard stare. And I don't know if you have ever sat on the rubble of your life and wondered what happened to your life. wondered what the future is going to be for you, how you can move forward. This was the experience of Israel, specifically of Judah. At our church, we've been preaching through Isaiah in the last year or so, and it's been wonderful. It's been challenging at times as well. And yet, as we work through Isaiah, the first 30-some chapters of Isaiah, we find that God had warned Judah against trusting other gods and trusting other nations. When they were about to be invaded by Syria and Israel, they turned their trust not to the Holy One of Israel, but they turned their trust to Assyria. And Assyria certainly did come and attack Israel and Syria, but then they kept on coming south and attacked Jerusalem as well. And Assyria, the great savior of Judah, turned out to be the greatest enemy of Judah as well. And then as Assyria became their enemy, they turned their trust and hope, again, not to the Holy One of Israel, but they turned their hope to Babylon and Egypt. God kept telling them, you don't need to trust other gods. You don't need to trust other nations. You just need to trust me. I will save everyone who trusts in me. And yet they refused to trust in him. And God wanted to demonstrate to them that they could trust him. And so in Isaiah 35 through 39, we have that wonderful story of how Assyria comes and in his surrounding Jerusalem and then God demonstrates that we only need to trust in him and he saves them by slaying the Assyrian army in one night. And the righteous King Hezekiah celebrates God's avenging angel on the enemy, and yet, then he's filled with pride, and he turns to Babylon again. And so that wonderful section closes with the pronouncement of judgment upon Judah, and that Babylon, their ally, will one day destroy them. So now what? Historically, we move past Hezekiah, the good king Hezekiah dies, and the evil king Manasseh takes his place. And God pronounces doom upon Judah. And he says, the destruction is coming. You're going to be carried away into captivity. And so starting in chapter 40 through the end of Isaiah, Isaiah pronounces messages that are designed for people who will know and experience captivity. They will sit on the rubble of Jerusalem. They will walk the road to captivity and exile, and they will wonder, what happened to my life? How did this come about? Now what? Undoubtedly, many of them have that thousand-yard stare. We could maybe use the term shell-shocked. Sitting there shell-shocked, wondering what is going on with their lives. This is what is described in Isaiah 51, for example, where God tells them that they are like drunk people staggering around because they have drunk from the cup of God's wrath down to the dregs, and they stagger like drunk people wondering what's going on. I mean, they're shell-shocked. They don't understand what is happening to them, how this could happen to them. And this is one of the things that we can learn, that sin and its consequences can leave us shell-shocked. We look at our lives and we go, what happened? And maybe you're facing that today. Maybe you're living the consequences of your own sin. Maybe you've given in to addiction and it has destroyed your family and your friendships. Maybe you stole money at work and nobody knows, but you know that you are about to be discovered. Maybe you've lived in sexual sin that has distanced you from your family. Maybe it's your anger and bitterness that has poisoned your relationships, and now you're looking back at your life and you're going, what happened? How did this come about? Sometimes it's not our own sin that leaves us shell-shocked. Sometimes it's the sin of other people around us that brings that into our lives. People have been sexually abused. People that have been stolen from and are now in financial shambles. Maybe people had a corrupt boss that blamed you, and now you're taking the fall for his misdeeds. Maybe your children. You took them to church their entire lives. And now they've walked away from the Lord and you're sitting there shell-shocked, wondering what's going on. Maybe your spouse left you. Maybe everything about your life has fallen apart and you're sitting on the rubble of your life and you're wondering what's going on. And you're sitting there shell-shocked. You know, not only does sin oftentimes leave us shell-shocked, but sometimes it's God's plans for our lives that leave us shell-shocked. Because God works in ways that we don't understand. And God had devised these plans for Judah. The plan of captivity and exile. What, you're going to tell me that the temple is going to be destroyed, that Jerusalem, God's chosen city, is going to be left in ruins? That can't be. Something's wrong. And so we sit shell-shocked wondering what is going on with our lives. And maybe God has brought plans into your lives that you never expected. Maybe you're sitting here today with a medical diagnosis that surprised you, has shocked you. Maybe it's not something recent. Maybe some of you lived with chronic illness for decades. And you've questioned God. God, why would you plan that for me? Why would you plan that for my life? I don't understand. Maybe a family member died. Maybe you were downsized. Maybe you're forced into early retirement. Maybe your children moved away. Maybe your portfolio took a hammering and you're sitting there wondering, what's going on? How can I move forward? God, why would you bring this into my life? And many times God's plans do shock us. And yet in this section of Isaiah, God is bringing comfort to people who are shell-shocked. And he's giving them messages specifically designed for them as they sit on the rubble of their life. And this message that we have here in Isaiah 52 and 53 is a message for us as well. And we wonder, if it's comfort, then what comfort does this bring to us? And throughout Isaiah 40 through 66, God promises an amazing restoration. And he promises that he is going to bring that amazing restoration through his servant. Now, Israel was his servant, but Israel proved to be a useless, inadequate servant that was blind, that was dumb, that was deaf. And so God was going to send another servant. And we find four servant songs throughout Isaiah. And in our passage today, we're at that fourth servant song. Each one of those servant Psalms revealed new aspects of the ministry of that servant. But that servant is going to bring restoration. And so we are left with a question, then how is he going to bring this restoration about? And today we're going to have two questions. Two questions that we need to answer in our minds. And the questions are, how will the exalted servant bring salvation? But remember, this message is for shell-shocked people. So the second question we wanna answer is how can we shake off our shell shock? How can we overcome that condition? Some people never overcome that condition. But this message answers both these questions the same way. The answer to the first question is also the answer to the second question. And so as we look at this passage, we want to ask these questions. How is the exalted servant going to bring salvation? And how can we then overcome and shake off the shell shock that we have in our lives when God's plans are not what we expect them to be or when our sin or the sin of other people has brought ruin upon our life? Well, look at this passage because it starts beautifully in chapter 52, verse 13. We're told, And we read that and we think, oh, that's wonderful. That's great. That's exactly what we expect. God is going to do something so great, so marvelous. His servant is going to be exalted. Yes, I love this. And then immediately, were left shocked by the way that God is gonna do it. It says in verse 14, and many were astonished at you. What? That word that's translated astonished can mean astonished, yes, in a positive way, but it can also mean stunned, appalled. It can mean stupefied. Could we use the word shocked? What's happening? People are seeing what God is working out through the servant and they are shocked. They are astonished at the exalted servant. Why? His appearance was so marred beyond human semblance and his form beyond that of the children of mankind. So shall he sprinkle many nations. That phrase is quite difficult to translate. but the idea is clear in the rest of the verse. Kings shall shut their mouths because of him for that which has not been told them they see and that which they have not heard they understand. What's going on? Something is happening to this exalted servant that is so shocking that the kings of the earth, the nations of this world are seeing it and they're left in stunned silence. What's going on? I don't understand. And what happens in this verse that shocks them so much? The appearance of the servant is marred beyond human semblance. That's what's going on. These people, they'd never heard about this. They'd never been told that this was happening, but when they saw the servant, the exalted servant of Jehovah, they saw him marred, and they're shocked into silence. Now, most of us here have heard about the servant. We know who he is. And so, it is not shocking to us because we've never heard it, and yet we should still be astonished and amazed at this appalling mutilation that comes upon the servant. And as we look at this, we need to stand amazed at the appalling mutilation of the exalted servant. When our lives have been shell-shocked by sin and its consequences, when God has brought things into our lives that we don't understand, one of the ways that we can move forward in our lives is by looking at the exalted servant and seeing how he was mutilated, beyond recognition. His face didn't even look like a human face anymore. Many times, as we think about our own lives, we think about God's plans. As we have said, we sit on the rubble of our life and we wonder, how can we look forward? How can we move forward? How can we keep going in our lives? And then if we stop and look at the appalling disfigurement that the exalted servant experienced, our own suffering, our own experience begins to change. we began to realize that we are not alone in our own suffering. That he took on weakness and suffering for us as well. And my brother, my sister, you are not alone in your suffering. Will you experience our servant, our exalted servant can sympathize with us in our weakness. and we can find in him the comfort and the grace that we need. And I don't want to minimize the suffering that somebody might be experiencing here today. But can we really say that our experience is greater, our suffering is greater than the suffering of the exalted servant? Can you honestly say that? I'm sure we can't say that. Yet God chose to mar, to mutilate, to disfigure the exalted servant. And as we gaze upon that, it leaves us speechless. That's what happened to these kings, the kings of the world. They look at this and they say, what's going on? I don't understand. And yet the passage continues. In chapter 53, the focus shifts away from the nations of the earth and focuses on Israel. And we think, well, okay, Judah, Judah, they're the people of God. They have the revelation of the Lord. They heard about this. But what happened? to the Israelites. What was their response? I mean, they longed for restoration. Surely they were willing to accept what God said, but no, look at what 53.1 says. Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? What's Isaiah saying? Israel heard about it, Judah heard about it, but they didn't believe. They didn't believe the message that they heard about the exalted servant. They refused to accept it. Why did they refuse to accept it? Look at verse 2. He has no form or majesty that we should look at him and no beauty that we should desire him. Now, what Isaiah is saying here is not, well, you know what, he's not like a supermodel. This would be maybe more like when we say something, he is not attractive. And we get that in the next verse as well. Look at how this appalling mutilation left him. He was despised. despised. And that word means something that is repugnant, vile, repulsive. Israel heard the word of the Lord. They looked upon his servant and they found him repulsive. And so they rejected him. Why did they reject him? Because he wasn't beautiful. because he wasn't powerful. He wasn't what they expected. I mean, this was a tender plant, a dry shoot growing up in a dry ground. That's not what they wanted. That's not what they expected. They wanted something great. They wanted something powerful. They wanted something triumphant. And yet, he was to be a man of sorrows, a man acquainted with grief. And so, what do we do as human beings when we see something that is ugly? We turn away. We hide our faces. As one from whom men hide their faces, he was repugnant. He was repulsive. We esteemed him not. This is what we do, is it not? I mean, we love powerful people. We love attractive people. That's what social media is all about. We just love to follow them. The whole thing about influencers today, I mean, they do nothing but look good. And so people follow them, because that's what we like. But again, what happens when we see people that are hurt, people that are wounded, people that are broken, people that are ugly, we turn away from those people. We don't want to look upon them. And this is what Israel did to the exalted servant. He was repulsive and they did not expect that. They wanted somebody powerful. They wanted somebody attractive. And so, when the servant came, they turned away from him. They did not want to see him because he had been appallingly mutilated. And yet, as we look at the way that God works out His plans on this earth, we need to stand amazed at the unexpected repulsiveness of the exalted servant. The servant was repulsive. And we have to be careful because many times we do not understand how God works in this world. Israel had seen the powerful hand of God. I mean, Judah had seen 185,000 Assyrian soldiers that had been killed in one single night. That is what they wanted. That is what they expected. But do you realize that the greatest manifestation of the omnipotence of God was not when he slayed 185,000 soldiers, but was when the dry ground gave birth to a tender shoot that was then chopped off at the roots. That was the greatest manifestation of God's omnipotent power. Do you realize that that is how God does his work? He does his work in unexpected ways. He does his work in small, seemingly insignificant ways. What do we want? If you had to choose, would you choose a powerful general or a defenseless rabbi? We would all go with the general, right? I mean, what would you choose, a lion or a lamb? We'd all choose the lion. That explains a little bit about what happens in our Christian world today. Famous personalities, Christian influencers, they gather around them thousands of people, and yet they are as far from the work of God as they can possibly be. Because God does his work in ways that is repulsive to man, naturally. As people look at the servant, they are repulsed. But if we're going to experience God's power, God's salvation, God's forgiveness in our lives, we have to embrace that unexpected repulsiveness. We have to accept it. We have to realize that this is the way that God works. This is the way that God carries out his plan. He carries it out through the frail, through the broken, through the defenseless, through the despised. That is how God works. And this is exactly what the servant is experiencing here. He is repulsive. He is rejected. But notice what happens now to this servant. What happens to him? Verses 4 through 7 tell us, Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned, every one, to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Notice what befell the exalted servant. Make a list of these words, grief, sorrows, stricken, smitten, afflicted, pierced, crushed, chastised, or punished, wounded. Think about all these words. Let them sink in a moment. I mean, this describes somebody that has been horribly tortured. Somebody that is bruised. Somebody that is wounded. Why did this happen? Well, Israel thought they knew. We esteemed them smitten by God. Because this is the way we think. This is the way Israel thought as well. We think if something bad happens to you, it's because you deserve it. God punished you. And so if this man was suffering, it's because he deserved to suffer. But that is not the way God works. The servant did not deserve to suffer. In fact, read with me, or read on the screen, I will read it, but read Isaiah 1, 5, and 6. Notice how God describes Israel. Why will you still be struck down? That word is in Isaiah 53. Why will you continue to rebel? The whole head is sick, that word is in Isaiah 53. And the whole heart, faint, from the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it but bruises, that word is in Isaiah 53. And sores and raw wounds, they are not pressed out or bound up or softened with oil. This was the description that God did, gave of Israel. This was Israel. Sinners, bleeding because of their sin. And yet they did not turn to the Holy One of Israel. They refused to go to Him. They thought, well, if it's going to go badly for you, it's because you've been bad. And God says, well, what are you like? then what can you expect? You're bad, you're sinful, you're wounded, your sores are open sores. What's gonna happen to you? You should experience judgment and yet as we arrive at Isaiah 53, everything that was true of Israel now is true of the exalted servant. Now he is bruised. Now he is wounded. Now he is struck down. Now he is crushed. Now he is sick. This is what happened to the exalted servant. And what we see going on in this passage is that there is this wonderful exchange of positions. We read it in that passage. What do we see? We see a ray of hope in verse five when it says that by his wounds, or with his wounds, we're healed. We who are full of bruises and sores and raw wounds, now we're healed, how? By his wounds. We read in this passage in how he was stricken for our transgressions, he was pierced for our iniquities, it was our sins, and yet he bore those sins. He bore them like a lamb, like a sheep. We find the terminology of sheep in verse six. We're the sheep that go astray. But he, the lamb, upon God, upon whom God laid our guilt, he was stricken. He took our sin. Look at it in verse seven. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted. Yet he opened not his mouth like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before it shears is silent. So he opened not his mouth. What are we seeing described here? What we see described here is the language of Old Testament sacrifices. We know how that worked out in the Old Testament. If we go to the law, we'll find in the book of Leviticus that when a person sinned, they would go to the tabernacle or the temple, and they would take a lamb, and they would offer that lamb as a sacrifice, but before they offered the lamb as a sacrifice, they would lay their hands on the head of that offering, and they would confess their sins, and they would transfer their sins upon that lamb, and then that lamb would die as a substitute for the sinner. the life of the Lamb for the life of the sinner. And in that way, the guilt would be paid, the anger of God for that sin would be placated. And now they could restore their relationship with God and walk in his presence and have his blessing. Theologians, we use a word to describe this, or two words, vicarious atonement. Now don't check out on me here, right? Vicarious just means substitute. Substitute. And atonement just means that placating of the wrath of God for our sinful guilt. You think about that for a minute as we look at this passage. Look at this passage and we see the Lamb of God being slaughtered unfairly, look at verse 8, by oppression and judgment. He was taken away as for his generation who is considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living. What are they saying there? What Isaiah is saying is that this man, this servant of God is cut off and he has no generation, he has no descendants. Now again for An Israeli, an Israelite, if you don't have descendants, you're cursed of God. He's cut off without descendants out of the land of the living. He is stricken for the transgression of my people. This is what happened to him. Verse 9, they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence and there was no deceit in his mouth. This is what came upon the exalted servant of the Lord. Why? because of our sins, because of our transgressions, because of our iniquities, and yet our iniquities were laid on him. Our bruises, our sores, our raw wounds he took upon himself so that we might be healed. You know what? That should leave you stunned. That should leave you shell-shocked that the perfect lamb of God could be contaminated and corrupted by our sin, though he knew no sin. And as we think about that, and we think about the grace of God upon us, we must stand amazed at the vicarious atonement of the exalted servant. He became our substitute. He placated the wrath of God that we deserved. He paid for our guilt. And we look at that and we're stunned. We're amazed. We're shocked. How can this be? How can this be? Think about it for a moment. We, from the sole of our feet to the crown of our head, there was no soundness. There was nothing healthy in us. And he became sin for us so that we could receive that healing, that forgiveness. We were the sheep who went astray, but he was the lamb who paid the price. And we should be shocked at this. You know, you might be sitting here today and you are carrying the load of your sin. You do not need to carry that load. The servant died to pay the price for your sins. If you will turn to him in repentance and faith, he will bear your iniquities. He will take your sores, your bruises, your raw wounds, and he will heal them. Maybe you're sitting here today full of those raw wounds that are caused by your own sin and Christ can take those from you. This story, it seems like a tragedy, but notice how the chapter finishes. It's amazing turnabout here in the last few verses. What happens here, verse 10. Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him. He has put him to grief. But look now, when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see offspring. Wait a second. He was cut off. He had no descendants. He had no generation. He had no offspring. How is he going to see offspring? Yet this is what God is going to do for him. He shall prolong his days. Wait a second. We laid him in the grave. But now his days are prolonged. This was the will of the Lord to prosper him in his hand. This is not something shocking. This is not something that happened by accident. This is what the will of the Lord determined would happen. Look at verse 11. Out of the anguish of his soul, he shall see and be satisfied. The Lord God would look down on the exalted servant, on the suffering, and he would be satisfied by his offering. And now, by his knowledge, shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous." What can happen now because of what the servant experienced? Now those who know him can be accounted righteous. He shall bear their iniquities. Somehow in all this ugliness, in this death, new life springs. Something is born and it's the life of many who are now accounted righteous before God. We find the servant in verse 12 now dividing a portion with the many. who are the many, the many accounted righteous, that are now around him, that are now his children. And he shall divide the spoiled with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors. Yet he bore the sin of many and makes intercession for the transgressors. What do we see here? We see the astonishing exaltation of the servant. Yes, he was brought low. Yes, he poured out his life unto death. But now we stand amazed at the triumphant exaltation of the exalted servant. Yeah, the one who was disfigured, the one who was mutilated, the one who was repulsive is now exalted, is now lifted up, is now triumphant. He prospers, the verse says. He prospers. But the greatest and most glorious truth of all is that the many are counted righteous. The many are counted righteous. God sees his sacrifice and is satisfied, and we are justified. This is glorious. This is glorious. This is wonderful. And as we look at it, maybe we still have the question, well, who's the exalted servant? Most of us, I think, know the answer, but it's sad that many people do not. The Jewish rabbis They sought the answer to this question. They still debate the answer to that question. Who is the exalted rabbi? As I prepared for this sermon, I read numerous writings by Jewish rabbis. Many thought that it must be the Messiah. It has to be the Messiah. But then others argued it can't be the Messiah because he's gonna die. So some postulate that there are at least two messiahs, one that's going to die and another that's going to be exalted. They don't know the answer to this question and they still debate it till today, but we know the answer. The answer is clear. One day, Peter's mother-in-law would be lying in bed with a fever, and Jesus of Nazareth would touch her hand, and she would be healed. And the disciples remembered Isaiah 53, for surely he has borne our griefs, or our sicknesses, and carried away our sorrows. Jesus would go about performing miracles and preaching the word of God, and you know what? In spite of the miracles, the multitudes of Israel would not believe. And so the disciples would remember Isaiah 53.1, who has believed what he has heard from us. Jesus, on the way to the cross, would prepare his disciples for his death by reminding them of Isaiah 53.12, that he would be numbered with the transgressors. And this is a story of God's incredible plan, unexpected plan, that leaves us shell-shocked that one day his own son would be born as a man, come as a young plant out of dry ground. And he would lead a life that would be despised and rejected. He would be a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He would be stricken. He would be afflicted. And when this all happened, they would turn their faces away from him and they would say, God is doing that to him. And yet he was not guilty. He never committed sin. He never deceived. but he was condemned in oppressive and corrupt judgment and counted among the transgressors. Then he was taken like a sheep to the slaughter and he opened not his mouth. And there, upon the cross, Jesus was crushed under the mighty, just, holy wrath of God. And he was crushed for our iniquities. He was pierced for our transgressions. And there he would be cut off from the land of the living. And yet the story does not end there. Because three days later, The Lord would see his sacrifice and be satisfied and raise him from the dead and exalt him to the heavenlies and there he makes intercession for sinners such as you and I today. And He did all those things so that now if we come to the knowledge of Him, of Christ, that now we can be forgiven and now we can be accounted as righteous before God, even though we are nothing but bruises and sores and raw wounds from the sole of our feet to the crown of our heads. This is what the exalted servant does for us. This is what Jesus of Nazareth does for us. And as we look upon Him, As we see Him, we must stand amazed. And so today, I want to invite you to gaze in awe at Jesus, the exalted servant. Gaze in awe upon Him. Many times we lose perspective, we look around at our lives, And we say, it's not my fault. We sit on the rubble, the ruins that maybe our own sins have brought upon us and we don't understand it. And yet the answer to the ruin and the rubble, the answer to our wounds is to gaze upon Jesus Christ in awe, to realize what he has done for us. to realize that, yes, we are sinners full of sin, yet Jesus died to take away your sin, and the only thing you need to do is come to Him in repentance and faith. As you trust His work on the cross, as you believe upon Him, and you turn away from your sins, you come to Him, and by His wounds, you are healed. He atones for your sins. He becomes your substitute on the cross. And so I ask you this morning, if you will believe that Jesus atones for your sins, will you believe that? If you are here today and you have never repented from your sins, you've never come to Christ, today is the day of salvation. Today's the day to gaze upon Jesus and come to Him in repentance and faith, and you will be healed. This is the amazing work of the exalted servant. Maybe you're sitting here today. You've already received forgiveness for your sins. You've trusted Jesus for your salvation. But you're sitting here shell-shocked by the plans that God has for your life. You don't understand. You don't know how you can move forward. You feel like you deserve better. Maybe you're filled with bitterness and resentment against God for what He's done to your life. But think about the servant. Stop gazing at the rubble. Start gazing at the servants. Start gazing at Jesus. And realize that this is the way that God shows his power. From that rubble, God wants to build something marvelous and wonderful. And it may be damaging and it may be hurtful. I mean, we may not understand what is happening to us, And yet we know that this loving God did this thing for His glory and our good. And if we stop looking at ourselves, if we stop looking at the rubble, if we look to the cross, if we look at our Savior, if we gaze at Jesus, That healing process can begin in us. That restoring process can begin in us. And you see, God is doing something. God is doing something that is taking place individually in our hearts and in our lives, and he is building towards something. He is building towards the perfect restoration of all things. That is what Isaiah, the second half of Isaiah is all about. God restoring everything. restoring the rubble of our lives. It may not happen here. We know what the end of the story is if we will just believe. If we will just believe. So will you stop gazing at the rubble and start gazing at Jesus today? Would you allow him to heal you as you gaze upon him? Maybe you're sitting here, you're at ease. Your sins have been forgiven. Your life isn't in ruins and rubble. Everything's going along well. Well, it's very possible then that in your ease, you've stopped being amazed at the exalted servant. It's easy when things are going well to just take things for granted, to just sort of slide into apathy, indifference, live your Christian life as a routine. And yet this should amaze us. This should fill us with awe. And I would invite you today to gaze upon Jesus And I would ask you, will you be amazed once again by the exalted servant? Will you let the amazing ugliness and beauty of God's work shock you out of your apathy? Fill your heart with love. a passion for Jesus Christ, to live your life for Him, to be a trophy of His grace, to share His glory with those around you. Will you do that today? I don't know which one of these questions applies to your life, but I'm pretty sure that one of them does. Will you take that question to the Lord? Will you gaze upon Jesus today? Let's pray. Father, we are amazed as we stand in the presence of Jesus of Nazareth. We who are sinners, we who are condemned to die, we say, how can it be that you should love us? We praise your amazing love. And Father, we ask that if there's anyone here that does not know that love, that today they would gaze upon Jesus and be saved. And we pray for those that are sitting among the rubble of their lives that they would look on Jesus and find healing. And Father, those of us who are maybe full of apathy and indifference, That as we are amazed by the exalted servant, that our hearts would be flaming in fire of passion and love for you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. We are so much like Judah. We get it wrong every time. If they looked at the Savior and they got it wrong. And how many times do we just get it wrong because we have an idea of how life should be. We demand that life should be that way. And so often God is doing a zillion other things in order to demonstrate his great glory. May we be a group of people that see his glory and follow hard in faith after him. This is the message of the gospel. This is the core of the gospel. This is the essence of the gospel. It is what we get to carry out every day to the people that we come in contact with. I want us to end our time