Isaiah 53 — Hattie Hammond

The Word of God and the Prayer of Jesus

I think we have just sung the text, we've just sung our text, and what the Father would say to us this morning is found in this word. In the 11th chapter of St. Luke again, this beautiful, beautiful exhortation and will of God for us was brought to us, as I said the other morning, it came to pass as he was praying.

Can you imagine heaven's response, who this man was, they knew him there with them. I don't believe they ever could understand why he left them and would come down to sinners. Heaven loves him, Father loves him, how the angels love him.

He said he could go ten thousand or many times, can you imagine how heaven felt when they said, Jesus is praying, Jesus is praying, and they knew he was conscious of tremendous need when he, if he were praying, Jesus is praying, he's praying, honey, do you know, he says, as the Father loved me, so have I loved you, and we come with sincerity and a real prayer, heaven sees our devotion to Jesus, heaven knows when our dedication is real, oh, heaven knows when we truly love him and adore him.

You love Jesus this morning, say his name, will you, how do you say it when you're all alone with him and nobody's listening to him, comes from way down, oh, poor young people, give him all, there is nothing, don't withhold anything from Jesus, you will never, never, ever regret giving yourself one hundred percent plus to Jesus.

Somebody says this morning, after fifty years, you can say that, oh, if I had ten thousand lives, I'd give everyone of them fifty percent plus, nothing less. He's worthy, he's worthy, he is, he is worthy, he's worthy, and, and we dedicate according to the value that we place on Jesus, how much value, what value do you, all day yesterday, I was blessed through the night, I was blessed in my subconscious, I was still hearing you sing yesterday morning, this is the day the Lord has made, I'll rejoice, and you're rejoicing, that, that rejoicing just got down into my subconscious and rejoiced in me all day yesterday and all night last night.

Rejoicing in the Worth of Jesus

Paul says, rejoice in the Lord. Now, there's, that word, rejoice, there's certain words that just captivate me. This word has so, so varied meanings, and one of the meaning, meaning is the value that we place on the Lord Jesus Christ.

Let your rejoicing be according to the worth, the worth, the worth of Jesus, the value of Jesus to you. What value, what worth, rejoice, rejoice, the what worth do we place on this man. A number of you have said to me, I want to love Jesus, I really want to love him more, I, I don't love him as I should, I really want, how can I love Jesus more, how can I?

Feeding on Isaiah 53 Rather Than Counting Chapters

Honey, you take this chapter, Brother Johanson read this morning, you will, love in you is awakened in the presence of your lover, is awakened in the presence of the object of our love. Take this 53rd chapter of Isaiah, you want to love him, it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter if you don't read 10 chapters a day.

Folks frighten me sometimes, they frighten me. One man came up, he said, Sister, I read 40 chapters every day, and he was so proud of himself, and he thanked me to say, you're wonderful, I knew he did.

I said, man, you scare me to death. And he looked at me and he said, why, no person can eat 40 meals a day, and the fact of the matter is he's not eating, he isn't eating. It's better to have one crust of bread than to drive past 40 restaurants and say, doesn't that smell good?

That's all you can do, reading 40 chapters a day, you're just driving past the restaurant. It isn't how many chapters we read, it's how we feed. Yes, that's right, get out your pencils and write that down.

It isn't how we read, how much we read, but how we feed. Sometimes I don't get through one verse all day long. He has held me in one word. Read this 53rd of Isaiah, and let the precious Holy Spirit open that chapter, let him open it.

The Sacrifice Accomplished at Calvary

Don't turn to it now, we're not going to open it up now, but if you want to love Jesus, here, this is Jesus, here is what he means to us, here is what he has done for us, here is the whole universe in the sight of his holy, divine sight, this holy, holy Lenten season.

We'll be thinking about and singing about Calvary, but don't be taken up with the old wooden cross, on the hill far away, how they love to sing that, on the hill away, keep that cross. No dear, it isn't the old rugged cross, it's what happened on that cross, it's what happened on that cross, the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, his poured out life, and all that he's suffering, all that he's enduring, all that he's going through in this 53rd of Isaiah, if you see what he does for us, do you know he almost died of a thrombosis when he thought he was going to lose hearted lover?

Have any of you ever lost, loved and lost? I don't want to awaken any heartaches, but if you know such a heart, you have loved and lost. I, all over this country, I can think now, scenes at the altar of lovers, when engagements were broken, when they loved and lost.

I can think of a young minister, pastor in the church, and was just a couple months before his wedding, and some jewel jacket evangelist came into that church, and stole the heart of that girl, and left town with her.

And here was the sister pastor down there at the altar, sobbing and sobbing, night after night, night after night, night after night, sobbing. And finally I went over to him, Jack, you've got to tell me what's wrong.

You've got to tell me, boy. The poor, poured out agony. I said, Jack, Jack, it has happened, but in no experience that you'll ever go through, will you get closer to the heart of Jesus, and what he has gone through for us.

Gethsemane and the Agony of the Bride

That's what, that's what happened in Gethsemane. That's what Gethsemane is all about. When Jesus said, let this cup pass from me, he wasn't praying about Calvary. That was all determined before the foundations of the world was laid.

He was ordained that if this anything happened to this man they were going to create, and this one that was to be for Jesus, let us make man in our likeness, and in our own image, and he is to be this man out from him, from this company of redeemed ones if necessary.

If he fails, I'll go down, I'll pay the price, I'll give my life, I'll go to Calvary. That was all ordained before man was even created. He wasn't saying now at this late date, Father, I hope I don't have to go to Calvary.

Father, is there some other way that I don't have to go to Calvary? That's not what was happening. That's not what's happening. That's not what was happening. The devil knew that if Jesus, he was to redeem all the prayers, the hopes, the dreams of Jesus would be realized, the whole plan of God would come through, and he was doing his, the life of Jesus before he got to Calvary, that he wouldn't have this bride, and the agony of Jesus was over you and over me.

Here the devil was trying to make him feel he wasn't going to get to Calvary. He wasn't going to have this bride. He wasn't going to have this bride. He wasn't going to have this church. Oh, Father, Father, if I could take you through all the surrenders that Jesus had to make, every surrender.

You will never be called on to make one surrender if Jesus hasn't already made that surrender. Everything that he asked us to do, he has done. All the way he asked us to go, he has gone before us. Everything he asked us to do, he's already done that.

He's already done that. He's already praised the one that has counted. We talk about us counting the cost. You sit down and count the cost. You're gonna, you're gonna say it's too much. He's the one who counted the cost.

He's the one who says, I, I can do it. He's the one who fought the battle. He's the one who met the enemy. He's the one who has gone before. He's the one who has made every surrender, even to his bride.

This is what the devil is, is, is hammering the life out of. This is why he's sweating drops of blood. It's not over going to Calvary. The devil is telling him he's not going to have a church. He's not going to have a bride.

He's not my bride. If I was a bride and not to have a church, the lamb of God. And Hebrews tells us he was feared losing you and losing me. And what we, I will be done. And those gods, let out. He had a thrombosis strength to go to Calvary.

The last death that he could, he could have his bride. Listen, honey, this is what you mean to him. This is what you mean to him. Oh, never was there a lover like this love. Never was there love like this.

When the precious Holy Spirit takes us into this world, shouts of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. He's going to have a church, isn't he? He's going to have a bride, isn't he? Yes. Have you settled that you're going to be in that number?

Have you settled that you're going to, that in you, he'll see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied. You see, you're that seed that will bring, bring him many. The corn of wheat that fell in the ground to bring forth much fruit.

Christ’s Claim on the Believer’s Life

Do you know, dear Jesus has a terrific claim on your life. Do you know this? Say yes, will you? Yes. That he has a terrific claim. Do you know you were born for a long, long time? Do you know that? Say yes.

Do you your eternity has already begun? You know that? Yes. Yes. Do you know Jesus has great plans for you? Do you know that? All right, listen to me. Listen to me. Do you know Jesus has not one future plan that does not include you?

You don't have any plans that doesn't include your wife, do you? Are you in this holy company? Are you in this church plan? This is why, this is, this is why he's dealing with us now. You know, his plan is a long range plan.

We only see the end of our nose. We only know today and we're taken up with all the little waves and, and the upheavals that we're involved in right now. We only know today. His program is a long, his eternity and he's, listen dear, all the dealings of God in your life range program.

He wants to bring through a church that rule and reign with him that has those qualifications wrought in us now. This is why he says if we're faithful in little, little things, little things, if you can't trust somebody with a dime, you're not going to trust them with a dollar, right?

So he just puts us in little, little circumstances, little situations, little, little trials, a dime's worth to see if in the eternal ages what value we are to him. Say his name. You know he's here? Do you know he's here?

Say his name again. He's here. Yes, he's here. He's here. For you personally, Jesus went to Gethsemane. For you, he suffered a thrombosis, a broken heart and sweat drops of blood because he thought he was going to lose you and, and when he surrendered us and God gave us, isn't that the way he deals?

Surrendering Everything to God’s Will

Exactly. Don't hold anything. Don't hold your life. Give her up. Give her to God. If you put her in God's hands today, they'll be in her hands when you need God's help tomorrow. Give yourself. Oh, I know.

I, I hear it at every Bible school. I hear it every church, everywhere. I'm afraid to give him up. I'm afraid to give him up. I'm afraid God will take me at my word and take him. You had better give him up.

You had better. Suppose, suppose I, this is my last chance. Oh, oh, these little surrenders that God asks us for in this little cramped lifetime. It's only three score year and ten that he's promised us.

He wants our greater interest to be in the future because that's where I'm going to spend the rest of my life. I'm going to spend the rest of my life there. So let that be. Say his name, his, his long range program.

Praying for God’s Will to Be Done

Not my will, but say that. Not my will. Oh, to have these, well, the power of another will. Say it again. Not my will, but, now I want you not to say it, pray it. Oh God, not my, not be done. We sang thy kingdom come, will be done.

Where? No honey doesn't say on earth. In earth, in this clod. Here's where his kingdom will be done in. This right now sing it. He's together to sing the thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory.

And I think it's an individual matter this morning.