Isaiah 53 - Sunday Morning Sermon Series

In the next 25 minutes,

I pray in the name of Jesus Christ, that the

Holy Spirit of the living God would not just reveal to you, but would empower you to overcome whatever sin has entrapped you, whatever lie is holding you back.

Whatever thing is causing you in your life to think you are less than, I pray in the name of Jesus Christ that you would know what it is to be a child of a risen

King, destined for glory and bound beyond any power in creation to be sitting at the right hand of Almighty God.

I hope you know what that feels like, but I hope you know what it is to live in that hope.

I'm going to use, back in the old days, when you go to other churches, you'll hear people say things like, use regular words.

Well, I promise you, I will not use one theological word today.

I will use doctrinal words as they were found in the word of God. And I pray, listen to me,

I pray in the name of Jesus that every single one of you would hear these words and be encouraged by them to live out that life of victory that God is wanting you to have.

So we're going to be in Isaiah chapter 53, and we're going to be talking about the hope that we have in Christ Jesus.

And I'm only going to give two points to you today. That hope is based upon the causality of Christ's death.

And that hope is based upon the call of Christ's death. Okay. Let's read

Isaiah chapter 53, starting in verse 10. I'm going to be all over 53.

Some of you people write, write this stuff down, put it or text, talk it into your phone or whatever you got to do so that when this next week comes and you feel like a big fat, stupid loser, or you're doubting the power of God or grace in your life, you won't listen to pastor

Jeff words. And remember, you'll recall the word of God and be set firm on the foundation of truth.

Isaiah chapter 53, verse 10 says this. Yet the Lord was pleased to crush him severely.

When you make him a restitution offering, he will see his seed.

He will prolong his days. And by his hand, the Lord's pleasure will be accomplished in the name of Jesus.

Amen. Guys, what is the causality of Jesus Christ death?

You know, there are people who actually believe that Jesus was killed by the

Jews. There are people that actually believe that he was killed by the

Romans. Guys, some people think it was a Roman spear or a

Roman nail that killed Jesus. Guys, read Isaiah 53, 10. One more time.

Very careful. Who killed Jesus Christ? It was the wrath of God that killed

Jesus. It says right here, the Lord was pleased to crush him severely.

I have five children, right? And, um, my daughter,

I just see her beautiful face sitting right there. I cannot, in my wildest dreams, imagine killing her for you to let you live.

I'm going to crush her in my wildest dreams. I cannot figure that out.

Now people say all the time, well, I didn't kill Jesus. Our sin did. When you understand the power and the sovereignty of almighty

God, it is the height of arrogance to think that mankind could produce anything to wipe the life of God almighty.

The only way Jesus Christ died was by the grace of God and by the justice of God.

You see, he is the propitiation for me. Now I know that sounds like a big word, but it's not.

It's a biblical word. Propitiation means this, the satisfaction of the wrath of God for me.

You know, I know that Solomon's picture is painted in every Sunday school room in every Baptist church in the world.

You know which one I'm talking about? It's called the face of Jesus. That little white guy with a little blondish brown hair, the blue eyes with the light emanating out from behind him is one of the silliest pictures.

It's a cultural reproduction of what we think Jesus Christ looked like. But we don't have to think about what we look like.

We have a very vivid description. None of this physical characteristics, but on that day when the wrath of God was poured out,

Psalm Isaiah 52, just go back one chapter to verse 14. Just as many were appalled by you, his appearance was so disfigured that he did not even look like a man and his form did not resemble a human being.

Have you ever been slapped really hard when it's cold in your back or have you ever been punched right here?

Um, listen to me, I'm a pretty tough guy, right? I mean, I used to fight 10 three minute rounds and get punched in the face and I could keep going.

That's how I usually won, not by my skill because I was too dumb to go down. I'm a pretty tough guy, but you can find the smallest person in here to catch me right here and I will tell you every state secret, my social security number and anything else you want me to tell you by catching me right here.

Guys, imagine this just for a second. Imagine us taking the most innocent of persons in here.

Now we're all sinful, I get it, but by cultural standards, that baby right there, that two year old child right there and tying him to this bench and getting nine strands of barbed wire and whipping him to literally his flesh was hanging off his back.

Oh, pastor, that's so grotesque. No, your sin is more disgusting. Your rebellion is more disgusting.

Your apathy at such a precious gift is more disgusting. You see, if you call

God, if you go to verse one, listen to what it says. Go to verse one of the same chapter of chapter 53.

It says this, who has believed what we have heard and who has the arm of the

Lord been revealed to this morning? Let me ask you a question. Are you a born again Christian in this room?

Are you? Did the word of God has been revealed to you? Oh, we Christians never forget the price in which that revelation came at the agony of flesh being ripped from back at the agony of nails being driven at the agony of a son in the midst of being innocent, dying for you, crying out,

Daddy, please don't leave me. Oh, your worship will be sweeter.

Your peace will be greater. Your boldness will have new power. Your Christian life will take on a new meaning when you see that the causality of Christ's death was the justice of God falling upon the head of Christ and setting you free.

This won't be a religion to you anymore. It won't be a social meeting on Sunday morning.

It is unnecessary. As God's commandment said during the Lord's Supper, do this and show the death of Christ.

That death was beautiful, that by our hands, but by the loving graces and of almighty

God, his wrath had to be justified. And there was no one who could bear that yet.

But his son, even before we sinned in the garden of Gethsemane was destined, as Revelation said, he was crucified before the foundation of the world for you.

There's always God's plan to rescue his children. He will not leave his seed abandoned.

Now, if you're in this room and that makes you feel guilty, remember this.

God does not use guilt. God uses conviction. And the difference between the two is this.

Conviction is the spirit that brings us to a place of repentance where we are re -established and made more whole and more powerful through repentance.

Guilt will just eat you and beat you down. Here's the call of God of your life.

The justice of God, the wrath of God, and man's sin came together to crush the life out of Jesus Christ.

But it's not for your enslavement or guilt. It is to set you free so that you can serve a holy and righteous

God. And this morning, if you're in this room, please listen to me.

I don't want you to hear any more stupid sermons. Please do not attribute these words to a

Baptist church. Do not be that short -sighted. Do not let be entrenched in religion.

These words are not meant to guilt you, to motivate you. These words are to understand that sacrifice, the giving, the call of God was given.

The causality was to set you free. Look at this next part. The causality of Christ's death is this.

Oh, this is so beautiful. The call of Christ's death was this. Who has heard?

First of all, I want to talk about the call of Christ to the lost people in this room. Now listen to me, you know,

I can't judge whether you're safe or lost. I don't have that power. I have a right to say, well,

I'm a member of whatever your membership in a church religious organization has nothing to do with the same grace of almighty

God. It is not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy, he has saved us.

There is one mediator between God and man, second Timothy, and it is this man,

Christ Jesus. Amen. But to you lost, I'm going to say something to you this morning. Look at this time chart over here.

One more time. I know that miss Carrie sits there and goes,

Hey man, when you take that down, that's just ugly nine mile ways to Sunday. I know it is, but I'm going to leave it up just for a little bit longer.

I promise you to be going away soon, but I want you to hear the call of God on your life.

This is lost people. There's going to come a time in your life and that time may be right now where you're going to have to choose this day when you're going to start.

And I know way back here when you were 13 years old in a youth conference or way back here when you were in BBS or sometime back ago, you made some sort of commitment, but it was not with your soul.

It was with your mind. He chose to join a church and he chose to say you were a

Christian based upon some sort of field. I asked you this morning to be set free from feelings.

Choose this day. When you will start to the loss today, this is what the crowd is saying to you.

It's saying, he's coming home and this is so beautiful. Think about it for a second.

You are sitting in a room. We just saw a song that I'd never heard before based upon the same hope of a song we saw in 1800s based upon a song in Isaiah 750 years before Jesus Christ was born saying the same thing.

Hey guys, it's good news. Jesus is coming. When Adam and Eve fell, you know, the first words out of God's mouth was this.

Hey, take hope because there's one coming one day. The seed of this woman, the seed of this woman will crush the head of evil and sin and of Satan.

I know he will bruise his heel, but ultimately this death will be victorious.

Guys have hope he's coming. Moses said to the people of Israel, Hey, I know you're in slavery, but it's okay because you're going to be set free.

No, not from the Egyptian. The slavery of your dad said, listen to me, church. He's coming.

Lots of people hear this. Isaiah, Matthew, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Jeremiah, Daniel, Malachi, all the way to John the

Baptist. When Jesus showed up, he said, behold the light of God who takes away the sin of the world.

The call of God is this on your life. It's this he's come.

He's already come. Now here's the new coming I'm talking about. Some of you are going to come face to face with the return of Jesus Christ, that blood of Christ on your life.

And it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living and angry God, but you have spurned that death of Jesus Christ that cross to you as more of a religious symbol than an understanding of freedom and a new life in Christ.

The call of God on your life is so pale and so thin. You have run from it for so long that beating in your heart right now, knowing that when

I say I'm speaking to the lost, you know, it's referring to you. Yet you will not because of fear, because of whatever shoes this is.

You choose Jesus Christ to be your Lord. And that call goes unanswered.

Now, last thing, and I'm going to move on to Christians because I don't have any hope for you lost people. I don't have any hope to give you, but I know someone who can.

While you still draw breath on this earth, there is a choice and a chance for your salvation, for you to be set free, not just to go to heaven, but to know peace, to have a purpose in your life, to do something more than to try to find a career or a spouse, to not live every day, give up a day, go to work, come home, watch

TV and die. Man, I live the greatest life in the world.

I know my purpose and it gives me such peace and power.

Lost people, I beg you. Please, I beg you today, do not leave this stupid building without coming to know the person of Jesus.

Now, for you Christians, man, it's a good day. Man, it's a good day.

I mean, it's a good day. You know, I don't have to hope. Last night I watched

Alabama and Tennessee and it was a nail biter. I mean, it was a back and forth game, tenaciously hung on and Alabama got over the finish line and got the

W with the help of Brett Reeves. But it was, where's Elena? There she is. Hi. Where's Aten?

Father forgive me. I'm embarrassed, it's very too solemn. Guys, listen to me.

I'm here standing before you right now. I didn't barely get into heaven.

I'm going to walk in. I don't have to look like in high school.

I always used to watch the Insecure Band Nerd. I loved him, his name was Joe. He's actually been here before.

Some thug broke his tooth and because he was trying to be a tough guy, so I got suspended for three days because I hated guys who acted like they were tough, thinking

I'm the smallest kid in the class. But I love this guy. I remember in my mind's eye,

I can go back and look at that guy being an example of Christianity, being an example of peace before I even knew what

Jesus was. I know without a shadow of a doubt that peace, even in the midst of conflict, won't carry me home.

I'm going to give you two things today, Christians. I lost people, I'm done with Jesus. Maybe if you leave here today without Jesus and die, your blood is not on my hands.

You haven't called me a man of faith. But for Christians, listen to this right here. I close with these two things.

Verse 5 of chapter 53. Watch this. But he was pierced for our transgression, crushed because of our iniquities.

Punishment for our peace was on him, and we are healed by our wounds.

And in verse 6, we all like sheep have gone astray. We have all turned to our own way, but the

Lord has punished him for the iniquities of us all. It's called vicarious atonement.

Substitutionary atonement, aka penal atonement. Those are all theological words, but God's word talks about this.

Atonement. Substitutionary, vicarious atonement. Now, what does that mean?

What exactly does all that mean? Well, it means this. 1 Peter chapter 3, verse 18.

It's on your little sheets. Look. 1 Peter chapter 3, verse 18 says this. For Christ also suffered for sin once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring you to God after being put to death in the fleshly realm, but made alive in the spiritual realm.

That first line of that scripture, and this is how we know it's doctrine because it's mentioned in every book of scripture,

Christ suffered for sin once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous.

He took my place. Guys, it says this right here.

He suffered, and here's the beautiful part, how many times? Guys, look at this right here.

Oh, I almost dropped this one. Look at this right here. Now, this, this, this little cross right here.

Guys, I want you to understand that Calvary is finished.

There's, even symbolically, there's no Jesus name on that cross. We know where Jesus is.

Where is he? He's seated at the right hand of God.

You know why he's sitting down? Because Calvary is done. It is finished.

How many times has a Christian really felt like he's finished? Has anyone ever felt that before?

Usually, if you're a Christian, you'll feel it at least once in Christ, a dozen thousand times. Because what happens is you start looking at your failures and your faithlessness rather than God's faithfulness.

You'll start seeing your sin rather than God's grace. But how many times did Jesus die?

Once. And for how much of your sin? All. By the way, in Greek, that word is kos.

You know what it means? All. All. All. But pastor,

I came down here and I repented of my sin and I promised God I would never do it again. Yeah, well, we already all know you're going to fail again.

So did God. That's why he died for them. All. He took your place.

He got on that cross because you never could. Christian, have hope today in the call of God because it's not a call to damnation or a call to judgment.

It's a call to be by his side as his son or his daughter. You are free.

But also notice this, and this is this is so beautiful. Second Corinthians 521.

He made the one who did not know sin so that we might become the righteous of God in him.

Kind of sounds poetic, doesn't it? You know, you can actually memorize that one pretty easy. Watch this.

God didn't want me stained because he wanted me to come home. So he took his only son and made him a dishrag to clean the filth off of me so that I could be clean.

And he threw that dishrag away because he loved me that much.

That is vicarious atonement. You can study theology and impress people, or you can study doctrines that have hope.

Last thing is this justification. What is just what church? What does justification mean to be rendered innocent?

Romans 5 .1 says this. Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our

Lord Jesus Christ. But I want to expand on justification just a little bit more. Read verse 11 with me.

Isaiah chapter three, verse 11. It says this. He will see it out of his anguish.

What if I had to watch my daughter slowly suffer and die, would I be anguished? Oh yeah.

God sat there and his very wrath and his very justice fell upon the brow of his son from me.

Even in that anguish, watch this, verse 11. Yet, and he will be satisfied with his knowledge.

My righteous servant will justify many, and he will carry their iniquities.

Now, in that verse, it says he will justify many. All right, now listen to this.

The blood of Jesus Christ paid for the sin of the entire world.

I know little Calvinists in here, reformed theologians. We love to sit around and debate this, and it's okay that you're wrong, but the blood of Jesus Christ is powerful enough to absolutely atone for every sin from Adam until the last one born.

Sorry, I believe that with all my heart. However, listen to verse 11 very carefully.

He justifies. The word there is not loss.

It's not. You see, ladies and gentlemen, the blood of Christ is powerful enough and was powerful enough to be the payment and the ransom for the entire world.

But ladies and gentlemen, it did not justify it. I know there are many people out there today saying we were all

God's children. There's a bunch of hippie garbage that is not found anywhere in Scripture.

We are all God's creation. We are not all God's children. Guys, only through justification to be declared righteous can you know the power of what it is to be truly saved.

Some of you in this room have adhered to religion so long that you understand by trusting in the history of man's church rather than the word of the living

God wrote through pieces, yet it escapes you. Guys, it's because you don't understand the power of justification.

Justification, now watch this, read with me and I wrote it out for you because I knew I would confuse you because I'm not that smart.

It says that justification is to declare righteous and make one right with God.

This happens by God declaring those who belong to Christ to be righteous based on the righteousness of Christ being imputed to the accounts of those who belong to Christ.

We are justified at the moment of our conversion. Now don't miss this.

See, I type like I talk. Don't miss this because this is important for us to understand.

Justification does not make us righteous. That only comes by faith in the sacrificial blood of Jesus Christ.

Justification is the declaration of God that his standard of perfection has been met.

Now why is this so important? Well, it's because the declaration of justification that believers can have the assurance of salvation.

It is eternal. We are now reconciled. Now let me put that back, try to dumb it down because I know

Marty's here. So let me try to bring that down just a little bit and actually hear what he says. Guys, when the judge says the jury found you not guilty, was that the time when you weren't guilty?

See, the payment's already been rendered. God saying not guilty is simply the declaration of what

Christ has already done. You may say to yourself, well, but pastor,

I've failed so many times. Christian, breathe in easy air this morning because God declared you righteous before you even created, or before you even did those things.

Do you know when you were saved? Tell me. Let's try that again.

When were you saved? Before the foundation of the world.

Watch this. Jesus Christ died before the foundation of the world because God's will is so sovereign.

That was his declaration that Jesus would be the payment for my sin. It was as if it already was.