Well, good morning. And Carol, to those of you who are so inclined, it's good to be with you. Even if it is online, it's a little strange speaking to my little audience of four, well, three in the sound booth. But anyway, that's where we are today.
We're praying that things will transpire in the next few weeks where we can start getting opened up. So let's look to the Lord if we could with the word of prayer. Father, thank you for bringing us together this morning. We thank you that you are so good.
You are so good to us. And Lord, we look to you for all things. Look to you for help this morning in speaking from your word. Look to you for each person who is listening and who will listen.
That you will, in spite of the messenger, that you will get the message clear through this Holy Spirit to our hearts. You will work in our lives and that you will change us so that we become more like the Lord Jesus Christ. Help us to look at him this morning and focus our hearts on him. And with all of the distractions in the world around us and all of the things that take our focus and our attention away from him, Lord, forgive us for looking at the wrong things.
But Lord, give us clarity that we may look to you. And we ask all of these things in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen. Now I'm looking at the clock at the back.
And that's the last time I'm going to look at it because like it's like whoever those singers were, they went way over time. But that's okay too. I like that. It was kind of funny to get back here and play guitar in the chapel.
I haven't been here for the last three or four weeks and learned that I probably have forgotten anything that I knew before. It's a bit strange. Everything okay back there like on? It is good.
Thumbs up. I just saw you standing up. I thought, okay, so maybe you're getting kind of costable on me or something like that. So I didn't know.
The master theme of the Bible, I want to continue in this series that we've been doing. Part five. And we will look today if you have your Bibles because I don't have the text up on the wall or on the little screen that's right down there on your virtual church thing. It will be from Isaiah 52 verse 13.
So again, I read this book. I heard somebody speak on this topic a few years ago at camp. And I picked up this book online. And it's called The Master theme of the Bible.
And the doctrine of the Lamb is the specific title by J.C. LaBaxter. It's a very good book. To my surprise, I went through some of my books in my library and I found that I have another book or two by J.C.
LaBaxter. So I think I'll probably read those because I like the way he writes. It's old brethren style, but it's very good. So here's a recap of where we've been.
So first of all, we saw promised in Genesis chapter 3, verse 15, right after the sin of man. That God had come down, sought the mode in the garden, and said all of these things that Satan, the serpent, would have his head crushed. So a rescuer is going to come. Genesis 3, verse 15.
And then we saw later on where the offerings between Cain and Abel were able had offered a lamb. And Cain had not. He had offered the fruit of his own hands. And God rejected that offering, but he accepted the offering of a lamb.
So a lamb was required for an offering before God. Then we went to Genesis chapter 22. And we all remember that story where Abraham took his son, Isaac, his only son, and went up the hill, Mount Moriah, to offer him on an altar, as God had instructed him to do so. And just at the last moment, as he raised the knife to offer his son in sacrifice, we get a little insight in Hebrews where it says that he believed that God was going to give him his son back.
So that's the faith that Abraham had. But God provided a lamb that was caught in the thicket to replace Isaac in that sacrifice. And then in Exodus chapter 12, we saw a lamb that is slain. The lamb must be slain for the family in the Passover.
The last time we looked at a lamb, and it was actually two goats, that were in a tome that for sin. It was offered as a payment for sin in Leviticus chapter 16. Now today we're going to look at the lamb is a person, the lamb as a person. And that's in Isaiah chapter 52, verses 13 to 53 12.
So to recap that, it's a lamb for sin, Genesis chapter four, a lamb for an individual in Genesis chapter 22. It expanded to a lamb for a family in Exodus chapter 12, a lamb for a nation in Leviticus chapter 16. And now we're going to see a lamb that is offered for the many in Isaiah chapter 53. So there's a transition here.
In all of these former passages, Genesis, Exodus, and Leviticus, the lamb was referred to as an it, it was an animal, it was an it. So up until this point, the lamb is an animal. In Isaiah chapter 53, there's a change. The lamb is now a he, a person, has a personality.
In fact, I went through and marked and circled in my Bible, and I understand it is cool to mark your Bible, so that's why I try to mark it up. And I circled every time I saw he himself and him in my Bible in this passage. I did this some time ago. So I added it up and it's at least 55 times in that short passage that he, him, or himself is mentioned.
The lamb is a person. Now this is the pinnacle text of the study of the lamb. In fact, this is one of the best known passages in the Old Testament. If you've attended Northbrook for some time and you've been to breaking the bread, I'd say this and Ephesians chapter two are probably in Revelation chapter five, are probably the three top by a long shot passages of scripture that we have read.
And I would say this probably stretches out to number one. We probably refer to this when we come to remember the Lord Jesus more than any other passage. In fact, it's so important that Martin Luther says, every Christian ought to be able to repeat this by heart. I remember my grandmother teaching me when I was a boy.
Isaiah 53, the first six verses to memorize by heart. She lured me with a $2 bill when we had them. And boy, I'll tell you I learned this by heart. And you know what?
Here I am. Many, many, many decades later. And I still remember it because, and it's in the King James, the way she taught me to memorize it, it's in my head. It's there because it was so important to her.
In fact, she came to Christ through Isaiah chapter 53 verse five. Spurgeon called it a Bible in miniature, the gospel in its essence. And scholars Keel and Delich, they said it looks as if it was written beneath the cross at Golgotha. Isaiah chapter 53 has been called the fifth gospel.
Now, Isaiah is a very interesting book. Isaiah is like a Bible within a Bible. Here are some parallels here. The book of Isaiah has 66 chapters, two distinct sections.
Chapters one to 39, they speak mostly of God's judgment of the Southern Kingdom of Judah and the eventual taking into captivity in Babylon. Chapter 40 to 66, the remaining 27 chapters, speak of God's grace and salvation that will come through the Messiah, the promise of the Messiah and the salvation that will come through Him. What's interesting is that the Bible has 66 books. The first 39 books of the Old Testament.
And the Old Testament speaks mostly, and this is where some people get hung up when you try to evangelize and talk to them. And say, yeah, like I read the Old Testament. God is just so, like he's always about judgment. Well, it kind of is because God is laying out who He is, what His character is all about.
And His purity and the impurity of man. And there is many cases of, and many times when you see the judgment of God in the Old Testament. But then anybody who reads the Bible, if you've read the Old Testament and you've stopped there, you've missed the whole thing. Because as soon as you start into Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and you read into the New Testament, you realize there's a complete shift, a complete shift in the way the Bible has its tone.
The New Testament is all about God's salvation and all about God's grace to us. You can't have one without the other. There's no need of salvation and grace if there's no judgment. And if there's no judgment, then salvation and grace are meaningless.
So they're linked together. And you need both. This section of Isaiah is known as the servant songs, or four of them. Isaiah 42, Isaiah 49, Isaiah 50, and Isaiah 53.
And I like what David Hanson always says when he speaks. I will leave those for you to study. And I hope that you will go. I hope that these times when we look into the scriptures prompt you to go in and do your own search in the Word of God.
Isaiah 42, 49, 50, 53 are the servant songs. Now, Isaiah contrasts two servants. In the first part, there's the unfaithful servant Israel who repeatedly failed God. It failed to be all that God wanted them to be as a light to the world, and leading up to where they were going to go into captivity.
But then there's another servant, the perfect ultimate servant of the Lord, the Messiah who was perfect and will fulfill the will of God. You know, in the New Testament, Isaiah 53 is mentioned or inferred 85 times. It's found in Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans. Another thing my grandmother taught me was to know the books of the Bible in order.
Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans. First and second Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, first Timothy, Titus, Hebrews, first Peter, first John. They all quote or refer to Isaiah 53. It's the pinnacle of messianic prophecy of the Old Testament.
The Lord through Isaiah called us to be astonished or amazed at the servant of his in 52, 14. Let's just read this, this great chapter. So when the chapters in the Bible were not the inspired chapters when God first came up with a, and the texts were all given, the chapters were added in after. So really, there is no real break between chapter 12 starting verse 13 and chapter 53.
Sorry, is it chapter 52 verse 13 rather, and chapter 53. So let's start in verse 13 of chapter 52. Behold my servant will prosper. He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted.
Just as many were astonished at you, my people. So his appearance was married more than any man in his form more than the sons of men. Thus he will sprinkle many nations. Kings will shut their mouths on account of him.
In what has had not been told them, they will see. In what they had not heard, they will understand. Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
For 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. No appearance that we should be attracted to him. He was despised and forsaken of men.
A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. 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 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 scorching, we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. Each one 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 like a sheep that is silent before its shearers. So he did not open his mouth.
By oppression and judgment, he was taken away. As for his generation, who considered that he was cut out, 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. 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 servants will justify the many and 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 he interceded it for the transgressors. Wonderful chapter, probably one of the most amazing chapters in all the scripture and it's again, it's a messianic prophecy. I have six points to look at today and you're thinking six points and I'm looking at the clock. Well, I'm not gonna look at the clock anymore.
But first of all, he is a sovereign servant. He is the sovereign and he is the sovereign servant. He is God's servant. Secondly, he's the suffering servant.
He is the sinless servant, the silent servant, the substitutionary servant and the saving servant. All beginning with the letter S, it's like a double message because an ideal message has three points to the S6 and John McKim would be very, very proud of me because everything starts with the letter S and has the second word servant in it. So let's look at this whole idea of him being the sovereign servant. In Isaiah chapter 52 verse 13 says, Behold, my servant shall deal prudently.
He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high. Jesus came first and foremost above all else as a servant of God the Father to perfectly accomplish the will of God. That's what his mission was. It wasn't to teach us to be good people.
It wasn't to be a good example. It wasn't any of those things. It was to fulfill the will of God and to offer himself as a sacrifice for our sins. In John chapter eight, verse 29, he says, I always do the things that please him, speaking of his Father, always do the things that please him.
I can't say that. He may can't say that. No, but he online can say that I always do the things that please him. I sometimes do the things that please him.
I sometimes try to do the things to please him. I often do things that don't please him, but I can never say of me or any other human being, I always do those things which please him. Jesus Christ is the only one. This was the servant of God.
He says in John chapter six verse 38, I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And in Matthew chapter 20 verse 28, this is the whole gospel in one sentence. I did not come to be served, but to serve and to give my life a ransom for many. He is the servant of God.
That is the reason he came. We come to this verse, it says, behold, behold my servant. Look, look at him. Pay attention.
I had sons, but now I have a grandson. And when I read he need to get his attention, I always do this. I don't know why, but this is what it is. I don't say, Camden, behold.
That means nothing. Words sometimes don't mean anything, but this word behold is more than, hey, have a look or take a glance or just, hey, by the way, it means look intently. And I'll sometimes get my grandson, if I really need to get a point across. Camden, look at me.
Look, so that we're looking this way, eye to eye. And he understands what I'm saying. God is saying here, behold my servant. Look at him.
Pay attention. My servants. Isaiah uses the word servants. This is where it can get a little confusing sometimes because he uses the word servant to refer to himself, servants to refer to the nation of Israel, and servants to refer to the Messiah.
But it's so obvious that it's Jesus Christ that he's referring to in these texts that there's been much debate about it and Jewish people get kind of up in arms about it because they don't want to think this is the Messiah. I remember he used to try to use Isaiah 53 to witness to my Jewish friends and they would hear nothing of it, they'd almost stick their fingers in their ears and they'd say, you are so out of line. You are so out of line. I said, well, it's in your Bible.
You are so out of line. You are so out of line. Don't bring that up. I'm thinking like, whoa, what a reaction.
I don't get that from anything else. So in the oldest translations, it was, behold my servant Messiah, I shall prosper in some of the oldest translations. And the old ancient Jewish rabbis believed that it referred to a coming Messiah. They did, they taught and believed this was, but then there's this Rabbi, Rashi was his name.
He started teaching around the 11th century. I think it was, but this is not about the Messiah, but this is about Israel. And so my friend used to say, you're so out of line. That has nothing to do with Jesus Christ.
That has everything to do with Israel. Really, really read through the language of it as we look at it today. Israel didn't go through this stuff. This is Jesus Christ.
This is about Jesus Christ. And so now when they come together in synagogue, even to this day and they read through the scriptures throughout the year, they ignore this one. They pass over it. Let's skip it.
Not a good way to make things go away. Just pretend it doesn't exist. But that's what they do. They skip it.
You see, Isaiah starts in chapter 53 with the words, who is believed our report? This implies that there are people who are not gonna believe our report. You know, when you say, you're not gonna believe this, you're kind of opening the door up to saying, you probably might not believe this, I'm not sure. But he says, who is believed our report?
It questions that only a few, perhaps will believe it. John chapter one, verses 10 and 11. Speaking of Jesus Christ, it says, he was in the world. The world was made through him.
And the world did not know him. He came in verse 11 says, he came to his own and his own did not receive him. In John chapter 12 verse 37 and 38, it says, but although he had done so many signs before them, they did not believe him. Verse 38 says, the word of Isaiah, that the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled which he spoke.
Lord, who has believed our report and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? I kind of wish John wells was sitting here because at least he'd give me the nod, but give me a nod at home, John, if you're watching. When you go down on the streets, I'm sure it comes to your mind. Who has believed our report?
Who has believed our report? Who's going to believe this? Many, most, almost all that go by will not believe. And so why?
Why do people, why do the Jewish people, why do people reject Jesus as the Messiah? Why? Well, it really boils down into the religious system that they have. I hope that's not bumping, it's catching on my collar there, but if it is, we know why.
Okay, this is the headpiece there. There are only really two belief systems in the world. Now you might say, oh, wait a minute now, I studied comparative religion in university and there's thousands of religions. No, no, no, there's two belief systems.
There's only two in the whole world. That's it. There's the religion of human accomplishment or achievement. I can do it my way.
I mean, Frank Sinatra summed it up in that song my way, I guess it was, I did it my way. That is the hymn of the grand hymn of the faith of most people. I can do this myself. I will make my own way to heaven.
I will meet God on my terms. That's religion belief system number one. And then there's the religion of divine accomplishment. I can't do this, but God will do it for me.
God has done it for me. I can go to heaven, but only because God has provided a way. I can't do this on my own. Anything I do will fall short, but God will not fall short, and he has provided a way for me to go to heaven.
That is the second belief system. If you depend upon that, you will be saved. So either you do it yourself or someone does it for you. If you do it yourself, then you're saying, I don't need a savior, bad place to be, a bad belief system.
It will not take you to a good place. Jesus is presented as God's righteous servant, but one who will be largely rejected. He is God's servant. Secondly, he is a suffering servant.
It says his visage was murdered. I read it in the NLT, as I put my notes together, it says, and I put that at the top here, many were amazed when they saw him, beaten and bloodied. So disfigured that one would scarcely know he was a person. It's hard to think of the Son of God coming to this earth, and what men did to him.
It was a movie that went out a number of years ago, and I'm sure many online have seen it, the Passion of the Christ. And a fairly accurate depiction, I have to say, there were things in it that were perhaps not, but the thing that struck me was when they put the Lord Jesus through the torture they put him through. First of all, what stood out to me was how much they enjoyed doing it. That was unbelievable.
But what struck me the most is the disfigurement, the agony, the cruelty, and what they did to him. Pilate didn't think he was guilty. And Pilate said, okay, I find no guilt in him. So I'll tell you what I'll do.
I'll have him scorched. And sometimes you read that and you think, hey, good on Pilate, he saw he wasn't guilty, so he just gave him a minor punishment. Well, first of all, did he deserve any punishment? No, he did nothing.
I find no, what court would you ever go to in any land anywhere where a judge would say, I find you're not guilty, but I'm just gonna give you a punishment. That would never happen on a human court anywhere in the world that I know of. Any that abides my law. So Pilate says, I'll tell you what, he's not guilty, so scourge him.
Now sometimes we read over little words like scourge in the Bible, let me just go to the next verse and we read it. But do we really understand what we're reading here? What they did was they took him out, and it's usually two Roman soldiers, and they have whips. Whips that have pieces of bone and lead and wood and whatever they can get into it.
And they take the person and they put them like this around a post so that their back is fully stretched up. And they whip and they pull and they pull and they tear the skin off the back, even to the point sometimes that the person is almost eviscerated and the organs are visible. I'm not saying this to be gross, I'm saying this to say, this is what happened to him. Many were amazed when they saw him beaten and bloodied, so just figured that one would scarcely know he was a person.
This was the warm up for the cross. This is what Pilate did to somebody he said, he is not guilty. And then it says after he scorched him, he was brought back to Pilate. He didn't even, probably didn't even look human, he was so beaten up because on top of that, they mocked him, they came up to him, they punched him in the face with a blindfold on.
Who's punching you in the face? Can you imagine how swollen his face will be? Beaten, blackened, bruised, crowned with thorns, Pilate brings him out and he says, behold a man. He probably had to say that because they're wondering, what's that?
He doesn't even look human anymore. This is what the Lord Jesus went through. He suffered, he was a suffering servant, behold the man. The language that's used in the text as we read through here, it's clear that the servant suffered greatly.
In 53 verse 4 it says, stricken, smitten by God, afflicted. Verse 5, wounded, bruised. Verse 7, oppressed, afflicted, led as a lamb to slaughter. Verse 10, it pleased the Lord to bruise him.
And then after that, if that wasn't enough, after beating and scorching, Jesus was forced to carry the cross beam for his cross, 75 to 100 pounds up the hill to Golgotha, to be nailed to that cross. You see, there's no other religion in the world. There is no other religion in the world that has as its heart, the humiliation of its God. Hours does.
Why? Because he was willing. He was willing to be humiliated for you and for me. The world looks at what we believe in, I think.
Are you guys serious? Yes, we are serious. Our God came down to this earth for the humiliation of the cross. We'll look a little further on and you read it in Philippians chapter two, that he made himself of no reputation, that he may suffer death for you.
Next, we see that he is a sinless savior. I kind of smiled as I was putting some notes to this little outline and this part of it. And I thought of my brother Warren who says, oh, he's impeccable. And he always has that smile on his face when he says it.
I love that. He's impeccable. Isaiah presented contrast of Jesus' death in 53, verse 9, and says he was sinless. Here's verse 9, and I took it from the NLT.
He has, or he had done no wrong. And he never deceived anyone. But he was buried like a criminal. He was put in a rich man's grave.
In, it says that he was sinless. Yet he died with a wicked. He was crucified between two absolutely notorious criminals. Here he is in the company of the worst criminals and is the savior, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God in between.
You see, Jesus lived on earth and he was poor, but he was buried in a rich man's grave. It says because he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. A better translation would say, he committed no sin. In John chapter 8, verse 46, Jesus says to the Pharisees who were there, he says, which of you can truthfully accuse me of sin?
And since I'm telling you the truth, why don't you believe me? They were silent. They did not bring a single accusation against him. Even Pilate admitted, Luke 24, verse 34, I find no fault in him.
And see, that's important. Because first of all, what Jesus went through on the cross, what Messiah went through, was totally undeserved. He did nothing, nothing to deserve that treatment. We sometimes say he paid a debt, he did not all.
He didn't owe anything. He had no sin. There was no guile in his mouth. He had done no violence.
But he had to be sinless. You see, a sinner dying for me, the sinner, would be useless. No sense of having another sinner die for my sins because they have their own sins they have to deal with. I need somebody who is perfectly sinless to bury in his own body on the tree, my sins.
Somebody who needs a tone and cannot atone for another person. He was totally sinless, he was impeccable. He's the silent servant. Now, most people aren't silent about their suffering.
I did actually get to spend a couple nights in hospital back about 10 years ago just for a little surgery. So I wasn't too bad. But there was a lot of people around me that were in an awful lot of agony. And through the night, you can hear them calling out and crying out in pain.
They're suffering. They're expressing. They're suffering. Oh, loud.
I find now, when I sit down, stand up, move around, I groan. Oh, my aching back. Oh, I used to have a right knee and a left knee. Now I have a good knee and a bad knee.
But we groan and we moan and we as we suffer. But it says, he is silent. He opened not his mouth. He was like a sheep, like a lamb.
He said he was oppressed and afflicted. Yet he opened not his mouth. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter. As a sheep before it shearers a silent, he opened not his mouth.
It's interesting because sheep, I know we heard this morning that they're dumb, but they're loyal too. They love their shepherd. The shepherd's leading them around. They just love having the shepherd around.
We'll just enjoy this field. And we'll be quiet. And so then comes time when their wool gets full of lanolin and sticky and mud sticks to it and everything else. I remember a few years ago I went over to, on a business trip to Scotland and we drove to the countryside.
And I've never seen so many sheep in my life. Unbelievable number of sheep. It was just everywhere. It was almost like a snow in the fields.
They were just sheep all over the place. And this was like in the spring and they were, they weren't sheared in some places at that point in time. And they were filthy. They were filthy, wretched looking animals because they had all this, their body, their wool makes lanolin and stuff sticks to it and their cakes with mud and they're just like, oh boy.
And so when they come to the shepherd, who they, hey, they follow the shepherd wherever he goes, when he takes them in and says, okay, it's shearing time. He brings the shearers out. They don't say a word. It feels nice.
Like I'm getting rid of all this stuff. The picture of a sheep being sheared. They're not going crazy. They're not making noise.
But you see, here's the other thing. When they're taken in to be slaughtered, to make lamb chops, they don't say anything then either. They're silent. And it's, I guess, almost unsettling.
They're just there and they're going to be killed. But they're quiet. And here's the Lord Jesus. It says this picture of him that he was led as a lamb to slaughter as a sheep before she was silent.
So he opened not his mouth. It says in Matthew 26 verse 63, as he stood accused, the Lord Jesus says, but Jesus kept silent. And then when he's in front of Herod, in Luke chapter 23 verse nine, he didn't argue with Herod. He says he didn't say anything.
And then in Matthew 27 verse 14, it says, the Pilate marveled greatly. Pilate had seen many prisoners. It probably had many of them come before him to be condemned to death. And I bet you every single one of them, except for this one, were mouthing off the whole time.
I'm innocent. Why are you putting me on that cross? Why are you charging me with this? I'm innocent.
I didn't do it. That's what they would be crying and yelling at him the whole time. But here's Jesus Christ standing silently and innocent before Pilate and condemned to death. I wonder why Jesus was silent.
I always wondered that. Is it because, hey, Pilate, you had your chance and now it's over? I don't know. Perhaps in silence could be intimidating.
You ever talk to somebody and they're just looking at you silent? Boy, that makes you think. Okay. Was it something I said?
Something I should have said? It's intimidating. I've sat down and I've said things and the person sitting across me is absolutely silent, just looking at you and you're thinking, oh. So here's Pilate.
I'm about to make the biggest decision. I've been thinking about the most of his life for eternity and Jesus is silent before him. Is it to give Pilate a moment to think about what you're going to do? I don't know.
None of us knows, but it was silence. That's the important thing. It fulfilled the scripture exactly. But it's important too to understand that this scripture was written 700 years before Jesus came to earth.
This isn't a recap of Pilate's judgment hall. This isn't a recap of Calvary. This is a prophecy written 700 years before it even happened. And the text is interesting because the way it's written, it's says he uses words like born carried in 53, verse four.
Verse five, it says he was wounded. And these are in the past tense. And God has allowed these things to be written in the past tense. Why?
Because with God, when he says something, it says sure as it's happened in the past. It says sure as when God says something's going to happen in the future, it might as well be history because it is sure. It's going to happen. I got to move along.
He is the substitutionary servant. And this is 53, verse eight, four to eight, and 10 to 12. I've read through these things. But if you read these things, it talks about him as our substitute.
Let's just quickly look at these are too important to just pass by. Verse four, surely our griefs, he himself bore, and our sorrows, he carried. Yet we ourselves esteemed him stricken and smitten of God and afflicted. But he was pierced through for our transgressions.
He was crushed for our iniquities. The chastising or the chasing for our well-being fell upon him. And by his scourging, we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray.
Each one 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 the slaughter like a sheep, silent before its shearers, 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 from the land of the living for the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due?
Down to verse 10. 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 and he will prolong his days and the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in his hand. Verse 12, therefore, I will allot him a portion with the great, and he will divide the booty with the strong because he poured himself out to death and was numbered with the transgressors, yet he himself bore the sins of many and interceded for the transgressors.
He died for us. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. I bolded all of these things that speak of where he substituted for us.
His soul was offered as an offering for sin. He bore the sin of many, it says. You see, it points out the collective problem we have. Words like griefs, sorrows, transgressions, iniquities, sin, something we all have.
You might say, I don't have much, but you know what, you have all of these things. If you're a sinner. Romans, chapter three, verse 23 says, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. All of these things are ours, griefs, transgressions, sorrows, iniquity and sin.
And if you say, I'm not a sinner, then you know what you're saying? I don't need a savior. That's what that's saying. And if you live that way, you won't have a savior.
And hell awaits you. The judgment of God awaits you. All of the sickness, all of the pain, all the suffering that's in this world. People said, where did COVID-19 come from?
Did it come from a lab here? Did it come from this? Was it from a bat, you know, kissing somebody? All of this stuff.
You know where COVID-19 came from? I'll tell you where COVID-19 came from. It came from our sin, which brought on sickness, which brought on sorrow, which brought on all of this trouble in this world. We need to be saved, not by a vaccine, not by a doctor, not by science, not by any of these things.
We need to be saved by a real savior. And the only way we can be saved if somebody can take our place, somebody pure and pay the penalty for our sin. You know, Isaiah 53 answers the most important question in all of life. I went on Google the other day, so I couldn't believe this.
I had to take a screenshot so you could see it. And I can't see it up there because that thing needs to be replaced. It says, okay, what is the most important? What is life's most important question?
So I looked at it and it came back with three billion, 180,000 hits for me to go through. Three billion. And guess what? The most important question wasn't there.
It wasn't there in the top ones that I looked at. It's questions like where will I live? What will I study? Where will I wear?
Who will I marry? What are my, how many children will I have? What about my finances? What about my health?
What about my mental health? Will COVID-19 never end? Is there a cure for COVID? All of this came up.
No, that's not the most important question. The most important question in Joe Bastas, how can a person be right with God? How can a person be right with God? Let me put it another way.
How can an unrighteous person be made right with a righteous God? If you didn't get that, how can a sinner be saved in this escape eternal hell and enjoy eternal heaven? The most important question in the world, how can I be right with God? The answer is, as a sinner I can't, but I have a substitute who died in my place, who took my sins and took them away.
And by believing in him, I could be right with God. I can have a right standing with God. A sinner can be saved because a servant became a substitute for the sinner. And God's wrath is now turned away from him.
Finally, he is the saving servant. He became a substitute. And here's the result. It says in chapter 53 verse 15, he will sprinkle many nations.
I am so happy that's in there. You know why? I'm not Jewish. I probably have zero Jewish blood in my body.
I'm one of the many nations. And I look at my background and where my people came from before they got to Cape Breton, the Promised Land. But before all of that, where did my people come from? They're from many different nations, England, Scotland, so on and so on and so on.
My wife, the same story. Her past is way more money than mine. But it doesn't matter. It says, he will sprinkle many nations.
I am so glad as a Gentile, as one of the nations that his blood sprinkled me, it sprinkled my nationality. It wasn't just exclusive to the Jewish people. He took the place of the guilty. He is the saving servant.
He took my place. I was watching the hockey game. First hockey game I watched the other night. Tried a cheer for Toronto against Montreal.
That didn't work. I have no faith in Toronto anymore. I have no faith in the Lord because he won't let me down. But I watched the hockey game the other night.
Now it didn't happen. But it reminded me, as I was thinking about all of this, about the substitute. What happens when the goalie does something stupid tries to use his stick as a hatchet on somebody's leg? He gets a penalty.
So what did they do? Do they come down and say, hey, goalie? Two minutes in the box, pal. Well, you know what's going to happen then?
The score is going to be like 4 million nothing after that, because you just keep scoring. No, they don't do that. What they do is they say, you're guilty, but he's going to take your place. And they pick somebody on the team to sit in the box for him for two minutes.
Is it fair? Is it fair that Jesus died for me? No, not fair that God had to come and die in my place. But you know what?
He did. And now I am free. He is my substitute. He saved me.
That guy sitting in the box probably saved the game, because if the goalie had to pay for his guilt, it's game over. If I had to pay for my guilt, it's game over for me. You know, sprinkle many nations. The term refers to how the priest used to come in.
We looked at it the last time. And he'd take some hiss up, which is like a brush. And he put blood on it, the blood of a lamb, and sprinkle it on the mercy seat. The atoning blood of Jesus Christ for us, many nations.
For God so loved the world that he gave only begotten Son that whosoever believes in him. Many nations, whoever you are, if you believe in him, you will not perish but have everlasting life. The crux of the gospel is found in this one verse. Second Corinthians chapter 5 verse 21, a great verse.
For he made him, Jesus Christ, for God made Jesus Christ who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God and him. There is hope for you. There is salvation for you. And it's in Jesus Christ who died to take your place.
As I wrap up, I always like to ask a few questions. Have you accepted the substitute? Back to my analogy of the hockey game. If the goalie said, ref, you're crazy?
No, no, no, no. Nobody's paying for my penalty. I'll do it myself. That's a disaster.
It has a terrible ending. It has a terrible ending. It says in this verse that it uses the word many. It doesn't say all.
That he says in verse 11, it says, my servant will justify the many as he will bear their iniquities, justify the many. The implication of that means that not all will accept. Their substitute, sadly. But have you ever personally repented of your sins and asked him to be your savior?
I'm not asking you, do you go to church? I know you can't go today. But do you think that going to church or even watching this is good enough? Are you a religious person?
I'm not asking you that. I'm not asking you if your grandmother or your parents took you to church. I'm not even asking you if you have a belief in God. I'm asking you, have you ever recognized your sin?
Have you ever come before God and said, you know what? I am a sinner and I'm sorry for those sins. But you sent payment in a substitute for me. Someone said that God has a big eraser.
But you have to admit. You have a big spot that needs to be removed. And he will use that eraser and remove it. I hope today, as you hear this, that you will believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
And if you do the promise of scripture, from Acts 16, verse 31, you will be saved. Father, thank you this morning. For the Lamb of God, the one who has come as your servant to suffer for us, to be our substitute and to save us. We thank you for him.
We thank you for the salvation we have in him. And Lord, we thank you that we have the promise of heaven because of what he has done. Thank you for saving us and for sending your son in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.
I think we'll sing, Man of Sorrows, if we could, Lamb of God.