Who Killed Jesus

We'll turn if you will in your Bibles to Isaiah chapter 53. Isaiah chapter 53 we come to the, pretty much in the center of what we call the

Servant Songs of Isaiah which began in chapter 40 of Isaiah and run really through the end.

In chapter 39 of Isaiah we have the end of a sort of historical excursus from the prophetic oracles of the

Prophet, began in chapter 36 and goes through 39, sort of the Hezekiah cycle. King Hezekiah, a king like no other that Israel had known who followed the ways of his father

David, a king who cleansed the temple, who reinstituted the

Passover, a king who there was none like him before or since. He was going to be the great hope of Israel as you read through there and at the very end in chapter 39 this great king makes his one great error and so brings the final judgment from the

Babylonians that God sent against them because of this great king Hezekiah and immediately in chapter 40, which we won't be going that far back, begins the

Servant Songs as this king failed so badly and Israel will be saying how then can we be saved?

How then can we avoid any judgment? Who then can be this great king that we had always been hoping for and waiting for we thought perhaps he was him but he failed and so begins the

Servant Songs and our text this morning Isaiah 53 is smack dab in the middle of those

Servant Songs. So with that please stand for the reading of God's Word. I'll read the entire chapter

Isaiah 53 but don't worry it's only 12 verses but we'll read it all. This is the

Word of the Lord. 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 and 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 one 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 a chastisement that brought us peace and with his wounds we are healed.

We all 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 a lamb that is led to the slaughter and like a sheep before its shearers is silent so we open not his mouth.

By oppression and judgment he was taken away as for his and as for his generation who considered that he was cut off from the land of the living stricken for the transgression of my people and 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 yet it was the will of the

Lord to crush him he has put him to grief when his 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 god bless the reading of his word and now the hearing and preaching of his word please be seated what

I just read to you is really one of the more monumental passages in the Old Testament in many ways and we're not going to preach the entire chapter

I'm going to focus in on answering a question and Lord willing bring it to bear upon us which is who killed

Jesus who killed Jesus that's the title of the message and it gives away some of the conclusions that it is

Jesus and we'll establish this a little bit more firmly as we go through who the prophet speaks of here and this passage this

Isaiah 53 these 12 verses speak of a miscarriage of justice like almost no other that is ever been known before or since it's a short chapter there's only 12 verses and it tells us someone intentionally afflicted for the sins of others sins in which he did not participate but he is afflicted for them it's an innocent man one in whose mouth was found no deceit and nonetheless this one is executed he's executed in a fashion that takes from him any shred of human dignity his appearance was marred beyond all human semblance that's the previous chapter 50

Isaiah 52 and verse 14 he was executed even after human justice imperfect at its best but in this case came to the right verdict they found him innocent and of course despite his innocence executed horribly and that is of course we're

Jesus Christ of whom we speak and there's a lifetime of contemplation available in this chapter but this morning just this one question for you who killed

Jesus who killed Jesus God willing this will enliven us to greater strides of faith will open our hearts to more gratitude to God for what he's done we will look in awe and wonder at the sacrifice of our

Lord Jesus Christ and what he as man went through so that he is God could bring us to redemption and give us salvation the historical record of the

Gospels makes it clear that in Jesus Christ God entered into both history and humanity and read the

Gospels especially Matthew we encounter this refrain this was done to fulfill what was written over and over again not just Matthew but most specifically

Matthew this was done to fulfill what was written and among the more important apologetic proofs of the life and the death and the resurrection of the

Lord Jesus Christ is the fact that all of this was prophesied long before in the

Word of God was prophesied before the Word of God who is the

Son of God who is very God of very God became flesh and blood so this chapter is incredibly important to us because about seven and a half centuries before Jesus Christ God in the flesh was incarnated and walked on this earth for some 33 years before all that seven and a half centuries before all that it was so clearly prophesied in such detail

Isaiah 53 is among the clearest of those prophecies so the question who killed

Jesus now first we need to establish for sure that the

Prophet Isaiah speaks of Jesus now the Jewish commentators in the

Midrash that's what's called the Jewish commentaries called Midrash for many centuries have named this smitten one as the entire nation of Israel they said well this

Isaiah 53 this is Israel at large this is our nation so growing up as a young plant as I read in Isaiah 53 that would be

God's election of the nation through Abraham and then his forming of them in the exodus when he actually made them into the nation they had promised

Abraham and then the nation is led away like lambs to the slaughter which would be the

Babylonian exile of 586 BC and in exile they're cut off from the land of the living and so forth and so they would say that this is

Israel who's spoken of here of course Isaiah 53 cannot be national

Israel then or now or at any time Israel was to be a light to the

Gentiles a task at which they failed but this passage is not being about being a light to the

Gentiles this passage Isaiah 53 is about atonement it's about atonement for sin it's about one taking upon himself the sins of others it's sacrificial language it's temple language what we call cultic language where one makes satisfaction to God for the sins of another the symbolic process of the temple as bulls and goats and lambs and turtle doves and so forth were brought in as atoning sacrifices for sin now this isn't about anything that could be related to a nation as a whole rather than go through all the proofs from Scripture and all the logic and turning what should be a gospel sermon into an apologetic lecture rather than doing all that we have was strong in fact we have an infallible testimony that's far stronger than any logic or any apologetics or any proof and far more certain and more accurate than any commentator we have an infallible proof that Isaiah 53 speaks of Jesus Christ now many of you already believe this you believe that Isaiah 53 is about Jesus you've been raised in the church or if you came to church or later in life and you've only been in in the

Lord for a few years I'm sure you've heard this Isaiah 53 is about Jesus Christ you believe that well let me solidify your belief with Scripture Acts chapter 8 in Acts chapter 8 which is soon after the

Pentecostal sermon that creates the church or that founds the church I should say we find this man

Philip Philip we call him the evangelist and he's told by the Holy Spirit to approach this

Ethiopian official he's called the Ethiopian eunuch he was Candace's Queen Candace's treasure apparently had been in Jerusalem for the festivals for the

Passover feast and so the Holy Spirit says you go to this man because he needs some understanding here he needs some direction

Philip finds him on his chariot obviously or clearly we'd be surrounded by his retinue he was a high official he wasn't alone and he sees him reading the

Scripture and he runs up to him and and asks him if he understands what he is reading and the

Ethiopian replies to him and I quote from Scripture how can I unless someone guides me so what does

Philip do he jumps up on the chariot and again I quote now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this like a sheep he was led to the slaughter and like a lamb before its shearer is silent so he opens not his mouth in his humiliation justice was denied him who can describe his generation for his life was taken away from the earth now what is that a little different than the way

I read it but that is Isaiah chapter 53 verses 7 and 8 and probably represents the whole of chapter 53 of Isaiah which is what

I read to you so here's the question that the eunuch asks Philip here's the question that the

Holy Spirit sent Philip to the eunuch to answer for him the eunuch said to Philip about whom

I ask you does the Prophet say this about himself or about someone else speaking of himself the

Prophet is Isaiah saying Isaiah is the one who's going to take upon himself the sins of others Isaiah the one in whom's in whose mouth was found no deceit

Isaiah the one who said to God in Isaiah chapter 6 I am a man of unclean lips no this couldn't be him it couldn't be

Isaiah or about someone else perhaps the nation of Israel no who's the subject of this injustice we don't need to speculate then

Philip opened his mouth and beginning with this scripture Isaiah chapter 53 verses 7 and 8 and I would argue for the whole of Isaiah 53 open his mouth and beginning with this scripture he told him the good news about Jesus Isaiah 53 according to the same spirit who has inspired

Isaiah's words some seven and a half centuries before Jesus's advent is not about the

Prophet it's not about the nation it's about one individual it's about Jesus Christ you know right away we can learn something here when we're troubled with a question we have before us an issue or a problem we're looking for direction from God and we're praying to him about it and we come across something in the scripture that seems to relate but it's hard for us understand we don't quite get it we can't get our arms around it we don't see the direction that God would have us to go to correct things for ourselves as here we find the analogy of faith that scripture answers scripture if I want to know in Isaiah 53 who is this about well

Isaiah 53 from seven and a half centuries before does not have a footnote say by the way wait seven and a half centuries and wait till Acts 8 is written will answer this we understand that my point being the scripture answers scripture we're often accused of being circular in our reasoning because you know we were just saying that it answers itself and therefore we've got this closed little circle it doesn't make any sense but that's wrong because Isaiah was written by a man named

Isaiah who lived in an entirely different time a different culture a different place different pressures different politics different history and yet ties perfectly to what was written centuries later by a different man in a different place speaking a different language but all inspired by the same

Spirit of God all scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching for reproof for correction ever training and righteousness that man of God may be complete equipped for every good work brethren we could stop right away and remind ourselves and we have these problems we have these issues we even just questions that we're curious about remember that the first answer to scripture no matter how difficult it is it's scripture itself that the one might answer the other so Phillips answer is good news was it didn't is the scripture say they told the good news about who about Jesus about Jesus Christ the good news that the lamb led to the slaughter was

Christ so we established that do we now know that Isaiah 53 are you certain in your spirit is about Jesus Christ and no other and do you now see just from the little in the short incident in Acts chapter 8 that scripture will answer your questions answer your curiosities give you your direction well that's established for us that it's

Jesus Christ who was led away as Jesus Christ in whose mouth no deceit was found

Jesus Christ who despite all that was afflicted for the sins of others we can ask ourselves well who killed him who killed him the three answers often present themselves the

Jews killed him the Romans killed him or we all killed him and I'd like to go through these pretty quickly each one of them in case you've heard them in case you've been in discussions with friends family unbelievers other believers who killed him well the first option or one of the options is the

Jews killed him it was the Jewish leaders who brought charges against him we know that they it was the

Jewish leaders who brought him to pilot the governor at the time specifically because under Roman occupation and law only

Roman authorities could carry out a death sentence it was only it was one way they subjugated a people you know when they occupied a land they kept them subjugated because they and not the nation's leader but Roman law had sovereignty over the people's lives in chapter 18 of verse 31 of John's gospel pilot tells the

Jewish leaders to take Jesus and judge him by their own laws but they'd already done that well it wasn't really by law but by kangaroo kind of proceedings and they had sentenced him the problem was what

I mentioned before and they said to pilot it is not lawful for us to put anyone to death so you have to do it now

Peter says in Acts chapter 2 verse 23 speaking to a

Jewish crowd the ones who stopped when they saw the manifestation of the

Holy Spirit coming on the apostles and they heard that great Pentecostal sermon Peter says you crucified and killed

Jesus by the hands of lawless men meaning the Romans but they didn't really do the deed as we say they just made sure that the deed got done well the

Romans killed Jesus and that's true as far as it goes all four gospels confirm that Jesus was handed over for death and that pilot

Rome's representative and Rome's arbiter of justice carried out the sentence he was unwilling and he tried to squirm out of it in the end he succumbed to political convenience and he handed

Christ over to be crucified his soldiers pounded in the nails his soldiers raised the cross his soldiers confirmed their work with a spear washing his hands took away none of the blood guilt

Rome executed Jesus but you know it's really much the same way that people were executed during the

Inquisition remember that way the Inquisition would convict someone of being a heretic but they couldn't kill because they were the church they turn them over to the authorities the secular authorities who would do their will and execute the condemned so -called heretics so Rome yes but only guardedly so I want to call them unwitting accomplices or accomplices by convenience a third option and I wonder how many of us have heard this we all killed

Jesus do you ever hear that everyone killed Jesus this becomes so common it's almost like a platitude

Jesus died for sin I have sinned therefore I killed Jesus that's a syllogism right where we take the major premise all of sin the minor present premise

I have sinned and therefore the conclusion therefore I killed Jesus well the problem with that syllogism the problem with that way of reasoning is that it detracts from something really important it detracts from us the historicity of Jesus's life and especially his death and his burial and his resurrection see when

Peter said what he said to the Jews he was speaking to those who had actually been there they were there for the

Passover feast and many if not most of them were who heard that Pentecostal sermon may have been in that crowd screaming before Pilate crucify him crucify him so he's speaking to people who were there when he said you crucified him many of them had to have been in that crowd shouting maniacally for the blood well you weren't there neither was

I none of us were alive 2021 years ago you know in the passion of the

Christ when the actor who plays Jesus is nailed to the cross the movie's producer who's

Mel Gibson he's said to have joined his hand with the other hands that held his hand down for the nailing and he meant this to be symbolic of the fact that what

I was saying a moment ago that we all killed Jesus that's nice sentimentality and it makes for a good story and I'm not even 100 % sure it's true

I've just heard and I think I read it a couple of times I don't ever hear the producer having confirmed it but even so that's sentimental it's only really good for a movie it's true that our sin that your sin that my sin necessitated the cross that's absolutely true but that's a different matter than actually having killed literally the

Lord so none of these answers really work logically or factually in any event the gospels make it clear that no man ever had power over Jesus they didn't have power over his mind they couldn't get him to say things one way or the other no one had sovereignty over our

Lord Jesus Christ in Luke chapter 4 remember right after Jesus comes out of the temptation of the wilderness and he's preaching in the synagogue and makes an application of what he's reading it's a from Isaiah 61 where he says the spirit of the

Lord is upon me and that scripture was fulfilled in their hearing and they were very offended by him and they're going to throw him off the brow of a cliff do you remember that and what does

Luke tell us quote but passing through their midst he went away I've always wondered how he did that Luke doesn't tell us but the point there is no one had power over Jesus Christ no one's going to lay a finger you're not even going to graze his cheek with your thumb unless Jesus Christ allows it according to the will of God in Matthew 26 53

Jesus rebukes Peter for trying to defend him from arrest he says do you think that I cannot appeal to my father and he will at once excuse me do you do you think that I cannot appeal to my father and he will at once send more than 12 legions of angels just a word from the

Lord and how many angels do we need to wipe out the arresting party

I don't even know if God needs to send in send an angel just send his word and they're gone in John chapter 19 verse 11

Jesus tells Pilate you could have no power over me at all unless it had been given to you from above so in the most important sense biblically and theologically men did not kill

Jesus not really because no one could do anything with Jesus except what Jesus allowed them to do you know when they came to arrest the

Lord this will be my last point to solidify this point do you remember when they said he said

I am he and they said they're looking for Jesus they're going to arrest him he says

I am he you leave them alone now I'm paraphrasing I am he but what did the arresting party do when he said that do you recall

I am he so they put the cuffs on him they tied him up and dragged him away he said

I am he they said okay we've got a warrant for your arrest buddy no he said

I am he and they fell down as dead men they fell down as dead men and you know when they got up to arrest him when he allowed it nothing ever happened to the

Lord Jesus Christ that he did not allow and that his father did not will they didn't get to get up and arrest him until he allowed it according to his father's will you know the hymn says many hands were raised to wound him but it was

God who decreed that the hands be raised in the first place you know just before what

I read from Peter's Pentecostal sermon he said this Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God Romans chapter 3 verse 25

Paul writes Christ Jesus whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith so Peter does say that the

Jews did it by the hands of lawless men it was they who brought Jesus delivered him as we would say for death but as Jesus himself has said no one had any power over him that was not given to them by God and he never gave himself to the auspices of any man but to God only you know when

Jesus prayed at Gethsemane for the cup to be taken away do you say oh pilot I hope you won't do this to me no

I hope the arresting party takes a wrong turn and doesn't get here no he prayed to God his father and his father alone he didn't pray for the high priest to have mercy he didn't pray for pilot to actually follow the law he pleaded with God his father to save him from the awful cup of the cross well does this all sound incredible to you where we're heading with this

I mean we need to think about it for a moment because we're talking about the gospel we're talking about the gospel of the

Lord Jesus Christ that if you repent of your sins and put your faith in him and know that your salvation was won by him on the cross because your iniquity was laid upon him you will be saved that's an incredible gospel but if it's truly the power of God for salvation as Paul says in Romans 1 16 for I'm not ashamed of the gospel for the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes to the

Jew first and also to the Greek if it really is the power of God for salvation than every part of it no matter how small it may seem to you or how shocking it may be to our sensibilities it is and it must be from start to finish all of God we cannot have a hand in it because if we do it's hopelessly useless and wrong it's all of God and none of me none of you you know we try and try to make ourselves right some people spend a whole life striving to do what's right to follow what they can of the ten commandments and only breaking the small ones and we've all heard that sort of thing and when we become faithful to Christ when

Christ gives us faith to believe in him and we try to be right and we fall and we stumble and we can't find ourselves succeeding you know it must do us good even as we read through Isaiah 53 to be reminded that it's

Jesus Christ's success Jesus Christ's success in his life as he fulfilled all where Israel had failed

Jesus Christ and his success on the cross where he accomplished what God sent him to do your faith the faith that he's given you to believe it's all of God and the success of the gospel is his men were not hapless helpless pawns in all this

God used them but he didn't force them God's decrees are the irrevocable articulation of his will and he never wills for men to sin as James says

God cannot be tempted by sin you might think of Judas Jesus's betrayer he's an example of how he followed

God's secret decrees yet he had repentance made available to him by Jesus Christ himself and so when he did that was scriptures demanded he was fully responsible for it so man could not have done anything to Jesus Christ that Jesus Christ did not allow and that God did not decree so I want to ask why why would

God do this why would God put his only begotten son to death and his only begotten son who was tempted in all ways as we are tempted he faced everything that yous face and yet he succeeded he never sinned there's no deceit found in his mouth as the prophet

Isaiah says as Peter and first Peter would quote from that and say there was nothing ever found in him that was wrong

Hebrews 4 15 as I quoted a moment ago why would

God do this well there are many reasons we can raise we could spend a lifetime on this but one of them would be that the plan of salvation was decreed before the foundation of the world that's

Ephesians chapter 1 verse 4 that he chose us in him that means God the father he chose you if you have faith in Christ you were chosen to have that faith to be in Christ to receive the benefits of salvation that he won on the cross when before the foundation of the world that's

Ephesians 1 4 and that would coincide with Ephesians 2 8 of the in that same book says for by grace you've been saved through faith and this is not your own doing it is the gift of God not as a result of works so that no one may boast in Romans chapter 9

Paul's dealing with the same issue of God's election of God doing these things before anybody could prove themselves worthy or even unworthy of this gospel he speaks of Jacob and Esau before either one was born he says though they were not yet born and had done nothing either bad or good meaning

God elected because he's sovereign and elects whom he will because he will and he doesn't explain it to any of us so there's one reason why

God would do this is because this was determined before life itself on earth even existed two is the great love with which he loved us

Paul writes in chapter 8 and verse 32 of Romans that God who did not spare his own son but gave himself up for us all how will he not also with him graciously give us all things so God killed his son because of love for the people who he would have in his son and because in him in Jesus alone can we have all things because Jesus died for our sakes and rose again for our justification

God now freely gives us all because of him and a third reason incredible but true

Jesus became guilty but understand that this was

God's doing not man's doing man tried over and over again to find

Jesus guilty of anything they failed each time consider what Mark's gospel says of Jesus's trial before the

Sanhedrin which was the the ruling council in Israel at the time Mark chapter 14 and verse 56 for many bore bore false witness against him but their testimony did not agree and some stood up and bore false witness against him saying we heard him say

I will destroy this temple that is made with hands and in three days I will build another not made with hands yet even there this testimony did not agree

I've always wondered about that how they heard that how they could turn that into a death sentence if I came in here and told you

I'm going to tear this building apart and three days later I'm going to have it built right back up again you

I mean you wouldn't take me seriously nobody would and yet it became reason for condemning him to death and even with that these hand -picked false witnesses couldn't agree they couldn't find

Jesus guilty and you think of what Jesus said in his own defense when he was before the council he said if what

I said is wrong bear witness about the wrong but if what I said is right why do you strike me and they couldn't find a single word that he said he that was wrong but they struck him anyway and finally in Luke chapter 23 verse 4 then

Pilate said to the chief priests and the crowds I find no guilt in this man so man couldn't make him guilty and this ties back to what

I was saying before that no one had sovereignty no one had control no one had any influence over Jesus Christ at all except that it was

God who gave it to them men tried all they could to make him guilty and they failed they failed every time at every level so who made him guilty

God did God did Isaiah 53 verse 4 says he was smitten by God verse 5 said he was pierced for our transgressions he was crushed for our iniquities our iniquities not his own iniquities because he was tempted as we are yet without sin our iniquities not his own he was stricken for the transgression of my people

Peter puts it this way in first Peter 3 18 for Christ also suffered once for sins the righteous for the unrighteous that he might bring us to God being put to death in the flesh and made alive in the spirit so God made him guilty but Isaiah 53 says no deceit was found in his mouth

Hebrews 4 15 once again he in every respect was tempted as we are yet without sin

God made him guilty and where do we get this from also we get this from second

Corinthians chapter 5 verse 21 the apostle Paul writes for our sake he made him to be sinned who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God for our sake

God the father made him God the son to be sinned who knew no sin he never sinned he was not tempted by sin he never breathed a breath except it was perfectly in line with God's holiness and righteousness in order that so that in him in Christ by faith in him we become the righteousness of God he wasn't guilty of any sin but he was made to be sin you are guilty of every sin but made to be righteous he became what he never was which is sin so you could become what you never were

I could become what I never was or on your own could ever become which is the righteousness of God himself well

I don't know if it was 100 accurate to say that God made him guilty because as I've said over and over from the scripture he was really guilty of nothing yet if God killed him as the scriptures plainly teach then

God violated his own justice by executing an innocent man how do we resolve this this way

God made Jesus to be sin meaning that on the cross Jesus was made to embody that which he never was or did he never thought sinfully he never acted simply he never took a breath that was other than pleasing to God and perfectly his will and yet God made him as if he was every sin as if he was the reason which he never was it's that great exchange of second

Corinthians 5 21 is what Isaiah speaks of yet he bore our transgressions pierced for our iniquities yet no deceit found in his mouth you see because Jesus never sinned yet was made sin when he was made sin what sin did he pay for well

God would only make you pay for a sin that you actually committed which sin did Jesus commit none let me emphasize that again

Jesus committed none and what does that mean in this great exchange where Jesus becomes what he never was which is sin and you became what you never were by faith in him which is righteous what's the beauty of this because Jesus was guilty of no sin when he became sin for us all of his perfection could be attributed to our sin because none was due to his own because was due to his own he would still be suffering may it never be and if any sin of yours was not covered by the cross you will suffer forever and ever for it may it never be because Jesus Christ when he says it is finished it was finished he had become sin and because no sin was due for his or no penalty was due for his own sin he rose victorious

God raised him from the dead for our justification why could he justify you and me because he needed no justification of his own why is all his suffering attributed to others so you could become righteous because none was due for his own sin he was counted to be sin itself in order that all of his payment of sin could be attributed to others to your sin to my sin to anyone who believes this gospel message that if you will believe that Jesus died for your sins that God raised him on the third day you will be saved that's the promise of scripture saved from standing before God as you are which is sin saved from the wrath of God that Jesus suffered on your behalf saved from eternal damnation see once again

Jesus became what he never was so you could become what you never were Jesus became what he never was so you and I could be what we could never have become and which all our striving and all our work and all our effort would leave us only condemned so who is

Isaiah 53 about it's about Jesus Christ well the midrash had it sort of correct in one way though the commentators then didn't know it it is about Israel in a way not the nation promised to Abraham and drawn out of Egypt not the nation that rebelled in the wilderness though they'd seen

God's miracles not the nation who always seemed to find other people's gods so attractive true

Israel true Israel Israel as Israel was meant to be

Israel as the nation could never be true Israel which is Jesus Christ Jesus Christ who exceeded where the nation failed every time

Jesus Christ who stood in temptation's way as they did and yet never sinned he is the true

Israel of Isaiah 53 he is the one in whom alone salvation is found do you believe this is this gospel yours at the beginning of that chapter and we'll only spend a moment on the first verse of Isaiah 53 he starts he says who has believed what he's heard from us the word believed is the

Hebrew word amen it means to be firm to be established to be certain of something who is certain of what he's heard from us and that word is in a special form and we're not going to go into a lot of detail about this just understand that word believed is causative it means who has been caused to believe this report

Genesis chapter 15 6 and Abraham believed God or believe the

Lord it was counted to him as righteous the same exact word in the same exact form he was caused to believed for by grace you've been saved through faith and this is not your own doing it's the gift of God have you believed this report you can't reach up to heaven on your own and pull down an understanding you can't dig down to the earth below and find some treasure that's going to reveal it to you this is by faith in the

Lord Jesus Christ do you have faith in him have you believed this report of this gospel you can cry out to God even now and plead with him to grant you faith to repent to believe this report that Jesus Christ died and rose are you established on this truth that Christ died for your sins he rose from the grave the apostle

Paul quotes in Romans 10 16 so faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ cry out to God that he might have mercy on you and make you able to believe you can't do this on your own but it's only by the grace of God and the promise of the scripture is everyone who calls on the name of the

Lord his name is Jesus will be saved do you believe in this Lord Jesus Christ be confirmed in your faith have you believed this report of this gospel thank

God that he's made you able to believe it that he's caused you to believe that he's given you a new heart to believe and go forth in the confidence and with assurance that it is