Welcome to Reign of Grace. This program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening. And now for today's program. Welcome to our program today. I'm glad you could join us. And if you'd like to follow along in your Bibles, I've been preaching through the book of Isaiah just in the survey form. And today I'm going to be preaching from Isaiah 53. Now I've preached from this passage quite a bit because it's such a beautiful picture and prophecy of the Lord Jesus Christ. I've entitled this message, Christ the Suffering Servant. The Suffering Servant. And of course, we know him in the Bible as the Servant of the Covenant. The Servant of the Lord. And so, who suffered for the sins of his sheep. suffered unto death. We're going to be talking about that. But before I get into Isaiah 53, I want to go back to Isaiah 52 beginning at verse 13. Because this really is kind of an introduction. to chapter 53. And I probably won't get through chapter 53 the whole thing in one message, but we'll see how it goes. But look at Isaiah 52, verse 13, on Christ the suffering servant. It says in verse 13, and this is a prophecy of Christ now, understand that. This is not talking about Israel the nation. If you ask a lot of unbelieving Jews, Jewish people, who is the person here in Isaiah 53, they'll tell you that it's the nation. It's not. This is Christ. These things could only fit one who is the son of God incarnate, who suffered unto death for the sins of his people given to him before the foundation of the world, and who by his death, obedience unto death, worked out a perfect righteousness whereby God is just to justify them and give them eternal life, spiritual life, and bring them to glory. In other words, there's not one person for whom Christ died that will perish. I'll show you that. Verse 13 of chapter 52. God says, behold, my servant shall deal prudently. He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high. That's a prophecy of success, not failure. That word deal prudently means to prosper. My servant shall prosper. You see, Christ, when he came to this world made under the law, made of a woman, made under the law, he didn't come to make sinners redeemable if they would cooperate. He didn't come to make you savable if you would do your part. First of all, number one, if left to ourselves, we wouldn't do our part, whatever part you think that is. Somebody says, well, God loves you, Christ died for you, now the rest is up to you. Well, whatever that rest is in your mind, you won't make it. You may think you will, but that's only pride and self-righteousness. Christ did not die for everybody conditionally. So, well, the Bible says you've got to believe. Yes, it does. Because that is the gift of God given to his people whereby he shows them and reveals to them and gives them the knowledge of salvation in Christ and brings them into the kingdom. But that's God, even faith is God's work. You remember, think about Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Now, a lot of people say, well, that gift of God there, that not of yourselves, talking about salvation, not faith. My friend, faith is part of salvation. Faith is the gift of God. It's an instrument that God gives to his people. It's a gift. You don't have it naturally, and I don't either. If we have it, it's a miracle of God's grace. the gift of faith. So it doesn't come from your so-called free will or doesn't come from any inherent goodness or bent toward God. Man by nature is spiritually dead and trespasses the sin. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 2.14, the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them. They're spiritually discerned. If any man receives Christ, he's born of God, John 1, 12 and 13. So the servant is Christ here. It's the servant of the covenant. He's the Lord of glory. He's the king of kings. He's the sovereign of the universe, the creator, the redeemer, the king of kings, but he's also the servant. He had to serve because before the foundation of the world, God, the father, chose a people and gave them to Christ and Christ willingly took them and took the responsibility of their salvation upon himself. He became their surety. Their sin debt was charged to him and he agreed to be their substitute and their redeemer. So he said he's going to be prosperous. He'll be exalted and extolled. He's going to die. He's going to suffer. He's going to bleed. He's going to die. But he's going to be raised from the dead. Extol and be very high. He's going to ascend unto the Father. And he's going to ever live to make intercession for his people as their advocate, as their preserver, as the one who will bring them into glory by his power and his goodness and his grace. It says in verse 14 of Isaiah 52, as many as were astonied or astonished at thee. His visage was so marred more than any man. Now this is talking about his suffering under death, when he was tortured, beaten, whipped, spat upon, all of that. His form more than the sons of men. It's almost like he became, almost looked like he was inhuman. And verse 15, so now because of that suffering unto death, that's what that describes. So shall he sprinkle many nations, the king shall shut their mouths at him for that which had not been told them shall they see and that which they had not heard shall they consider. He's gonna be successful, that's what that's saying. He'll sprinkle many nations, not just the Jews, God has a people out of the Jewish nation, it's called a remnant according to the election of grace, but God has a people out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation. When he made promise to Abraham concerning the coming of the Messiah, he said, Abraham, through you, I will bless all families of the earth. How's he gonna do that? It's not all families without exception, all people without exception, no. It's all of His chosen people, His elect, His sheep, His church. And so therefore, Isaiah launches into this suffering servant, verse one of Isaiah 53, listen to it. Who hath believed our report? Now, who has believed this report, this message, this doctrine? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? The arm of the Lord. God is spirit. He doesn't have an arm like you and me. But the arm of the Lord is a metaphor, a way of referring to His power. Well, who's going to believe this message? Only those to whom the arm of the Lord is revealed. And who is the arm of the Lord? Who is the power of God? It's Christ. The power of God. You remember over in 1 Corinthians chapter one, he talks about how the Jews seek after a sign, the Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, both the wisdom and the power of God. Christ is the power of God. So who hath believed our report? Who has believed this message? Only those to whom the power of God in Christ is revealed. Verse two, and here's how he reveals the suffering servant. He shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of a dry ground. Think about it, Christ, the son of God, the eternal word. In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God, the creator. That word, that person, came to this world and took into union with his divine nature a perfect sinless human body and soul created for him in the womb of the Virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit and he lived in her womb just like a baby. an infant and he was born and laid in a manger and wrapped in swaddling clothes, all of that, like a tender plant. Now this is the one who created the world, this is the one who controls the world, that's right, the God of providence, the God of power. But in order to be the suffering servant and to do what he was required to do to save his people, To the praise of the glory of His grace, He had to grow up before God as a tender plant. He grew in wisdom and stature. And we don't understand all of that. He never sinned. He was never contaminated with sin, even as a youth. But He grew in wisdom and stature. Now, all that's to be attributed to His sinless humanity, not to His deity. as God absolutely considered, He knew all things, He's omniscient, decreed all things but as God-man, He grew up as a tender plant and as a root out of a dry ground and oh was it a dry ground, think about Judea in that day, Bethlehem, the city of David. What it had become, it was under foreign rule. It was very, very under oppression, root of a dry ground. And look what it says in verse two, he hath no form nor comeliness. And when we shall see him, there's no beauty that we should desire him. You know, a lot of times in movies or in pictures, they'll portray Jesus as having some special glow about him. Something special that you could recognize it people just look at him and just go spell, but that's not the way it was Isaiah says that right here the suffering servant. He had no form nor comeliness He wasn't he wasn't a striking figure as far as his physical humanity now he was sinless and And he did a lot of things, he performed miracles. And there were times he revealed the effulgence of his glory. For example, on the Mount of Transfiguration, when he revealed himself to three of his disciples. But Jesus Christ walking around, nothing special about his look. He says, when we shall see him, there's no beauty that we should desire him. You see, salvation is not a matter of magic and mysticism. It's a matter of truth revealed that identifies and distinguishes the glorious person of Christ and the power of His finished work, the Lord our righteousness. Look at verse three. The suffering servant is despised. He's rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. I saw a picture one time, and let me say this, there are no replicas or pictures of Jesus. Nobody knows what he looked like. All we know is what the Bible tells us here in these words. So when people try to portray Jesus or act him out, that's not what he looked like. He was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, And I saw one picture that they claim was Jesus, and he was smiling real big. What it says here, he was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. He wept, he suffered, he sweat great drops of blood. You mean there's no times that he laughed? I don't know. The Bible doesn't speak of that necessarily. But he was a perfect God-man living in an imperfect world. And he grieved over sinners. And that grief was not a sinful grief, not a selfish grief. He really felt that way in his own psyche and the way he did it. But don't get involved in these pictures and replicas and these crucifixes and all of that. Read the word of God. If you want to know Christ, read the word of God. Don't look at a picture. I never forget one time there was a lady who was a painter. And she saw me and she had a painting and she said, I want to show you this painting. And she said, she showed me the painting and she asked me, who do you think this is? Well, it was of a wild, wild eyed fellow with a beard and not real long hair. But, but you know, the first name that popped into my head was Charlie Manson. And I told her, I said, well, it looks like Charles Manson to me, and she liked to die. And she said, no, this is Jesus. Well, no, it's not. It's not at all. If you want to know Jesus, don't look at people's pictures or replicas or imagination. Look at the word of God. You want to know Christ. This is life eternal. They might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent, and you know him by his word, as revealed by the Spirit. So look at it again, verse three. He's despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and we hid as it were our faces from him. In other words, we hid from him. He's nobody we were drawn to. He said he was despised and we esteemed him not. We didn't exalt him. That's man by nature. That's our sinfulness, you see. That's our lack of holiness and righteousness. But look at verse four. It says, surely He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. When Christ went to the cross, when He suffered, and He went to the cross, He didn't go there for Himself. He went there for His people, given to Him before the foundation of the world by the Father, covenant people, the elect, whose names were written in the Lamb's Book of Life before the foundation of the world. And He died for their sins, our sins, and was buried and rose again the third day. But man by nature looked upon Him as being cursed of God. The unbelieving Jews, the unbelieving Gentiles, and they're representative of all of us by nature now, even though we weren't there at that time 2,000 years ago. But they looked upon Jesus of Nazareth as a man being cursed of God. Well, he wasn't cursed of God. Now, he was made a curse for his people. Let me make that clear. And so in that sense, he was cursed of God, but he wasn't cursed of God for his own sins. He was not a sinner. He was not corrupted. He was made a curse because the sins of his people who were cursed was laid upon him. So we had it all in our minds twisted. That's what he's saying. But look at verse five, but he was wounded for our transgressions. Now who is the our there? Not all without exception. But all of his sheep, he died for his sheep. He was wounded, he was tormented for our transgressions. He was bruised or crushed. For our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon Him. That punishment that would bring peace between God and sinners was upon Him. And with His stripes, with His bruises, we're healed. In other words, all for whom He died, they're healed. They will be healed. They're justified. Their sins are washed away by the blood of Christ. Because their sins were imputed, charged, accounted to him. And he died for those sins and he drank damnation dry. He took upon himself the damnation that I deserved and earned. The curse that I deserved and earned. And he drank it dry. He drank the cup of God's wrath dry. The wrath of God, which I deserve and I've earned, fell upon him as my surety, my substitute, and my redeemer. That's what happened. And with his stripes, his suffering unto death, all of his people for whom he died and was buried in a rose again are healed. He'll bring healing. He's the great physician. That's not talking about physical ailments. I've heard false preachers say, well, if you get cancer or you get some kind of deadly disease, look to Christ because with his stripes we're healed. His stripes will not heal physical diseases. Now you may be healed of a physical disease, but it's not because of his stripes. Because everybody's gonna die, friend. Even God's, even the ones for whom he died. We're gonna die. The Bible says in Romans 8, 10 that the body, this body is dead because of sin. Now, if you get cancer and you're healed, that's great, and I'm glad for you, but you're still gonna die someday, maybe old age, or you may get run over by a car, I don't know. This body is dead because of sin. That's a consequence of sin. If I'm in Christ, sin cannot condemn me forever, cannot send me to hell. But this old body, this physical body, it's gonna do a number on it. I'm gonna grow older and die. But Romans 8, 10 says the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, is life because of righteousness. And that's what happened here on the cross. Christ worked out the perfect righteousness. that demands the salvation and eternal life and glory of everyone for whom he died. So look at this, he says in verse six, all we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord hath laid on him. The iniquity of us all. Our Lord have made the iniquity of us all to meet on Him. Now I know when people read passages like this, they say, well look there, it says all. The iniquity of us all. Yes, all of God's elect. In the Bible, the words all and every and each and world have to be qualified by that which identifies them. And so when he says all here, who are the all? Well, it's the all for whom he died, all of his sheep, all for whom who are going to be healed. That's what the scripture teaches. If he did it for everybody without exception, every human being that has ever lived, ever living now or ever will live, then they're all going to be saved according to scripture, but the Bible doesn't teach that. The Bible teaches that a multitude of people will perish in their sins. But there is a remnant according to the election of grace, chosen by God, given to Christ, redeemed by His blood, and they'll know them by the fact that they'll be regenerated, converted, born again by the Spirit. They'll believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, look at verse seven. And when it says, it laid on him the iniquity, it means it imputed to him. That's what it means. It was a great burden. Again, it's not talking about just put on the outside. It means it's a burden that brought him to suffer, to pay the debt that he owed because of our sins. And he says in verse 7, he was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He didn't try to defend himself or get out of it. He did it willingly. He told him in the book of John, nobody takes my life from me, I give it. And it says, he's brought as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before her shears is done, so he opened not his mouth. When God determined, or as God determined to save a people, He had to appoint someone who was able to do what was required and who was willing. And that's His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, able and willing, appointed by God the Father, able to do the job, to meet all conditions for the salvation of His sheep, and willing to do so. So that's why He opened not His mouth. He could have defended Himself. One pastor said He could have called 10,000 angels, but He didn't. because he willingly went to the cross to save his people from their sins. And verse 8 says he was taken from prison and from judgment. And who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off out of the land of the living. He died. For the transgression of my people was he stricken. the transgression of God's people. And verse nine says, he made his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death, because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. He died rich and poor, all kinds of people, black, white, male, female. God's elect is made up of all kinds of people. And that's who he died for. And there was no deception in his mouth, there was no pretense. There was no lies. Verse 10, now listen to these verses. Verse 10, yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. God is the one who crushed him. God the Father. It pleased the Lord. Now that doesn't mean that God takes pleasure in inflicting pain. It means God was satisfied in his justice with the death of his son. He hath put him to grieve. When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, a substitute, he shall see his seed, that's his children, his sheep, his elect, the ones for whom he died. He'll see them, he shall prolong his days, they're gonna have eternal life, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Whatever God determined to do in their life, it's gonna prosper and be successful in Christ's hands. And that means we're gonna live forever. Not one sinner for whom Christ died can perish in their sins. They will all be saved by the grace of God. Verse 11, he shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. Like a woman in childbirth who travails, suffers in childbirth only to see a healthy child at the end. That's what Christ, his suffering was a travail. And he shall see the travail of his soul. He's gonna see healthy children, saved sinners, and shall be satisfied. And it says, by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many. What do you mean by his knowledge? Christ suffered, went through the experience of suffering. And he knew suffering. He knew pain. He knew sorrow. He knew the wealth of tears. And that's what that's talking about, by his knowledge, by his experience. He, the righteous servant, Christ, who remained righteous even when he was under the guilt of sin. He justified many, he bore their iniquities. In verse 20, he said, therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, he shall divide the spoiled with the strong, because he hath poured his soul out unto death, numbered with the transgressors, bear the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. All a success. for the suffering servant of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, by whose blood and righteousness every one of his people shall be saved. I hope you'll join us next week for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us at 1-1-0-2-3. Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia 31707. Contact us by phone at 229-432-6969 or email us through our website at www.theletterofgrace.com. Thank you again for listening today and may the Lord be with you.