Isaiah Lesson 70

Father, we come to you again this afternoon knowing, Lord, that the words that you spoke so many years ago in Isaiah speak of the

Messiah, and we pray, Father, that as Pastor Jeff continues to bring us about this message, knowing how

Jesus died as our substitute, that these words would ring clear, draw us closer to you,

Lord, that we can use them in speaking to those who need to hear the word because there is one message of salvation, and it's

Christ and Christ crucified, and we thank you in Jesus' name, amen. So the prevailing thought in our culture today is that faith is whatever you want it to be.

It comes from within you, and it's placed in whatever seems right to a man, and it's very subjective.

So if a person believes in his heart of hearts in the religion of Islam, then

Islam is true to him. If somebody else believes in Judaism because that's a tradition that they've received from their family, well, that's their truth.

Christianity, many will grant, is just your truth. If you believe that, that's good for you, but don't push your religion on me.

Everybody has their private truth. This is the prevailing view of our culture today, but the truth is

Jesus Christ. The idea that faith is blind, it's just what you make it out to be, it comes from within you, is an absolute lie.

The truth is whatever God says is true, and here is how you know what's absolutely true, and not just the opinion of some preacher like myself.

God alone tells the future. He says things that have not yet come to pass, long before they do, and when they happen, that prophecy is confirmed, and God is shown to be true.

Let God be true, and every man a liar. Now logically, we would think that people could recognize that the

Muslim who says that Jesus was never crucified, and the gospel writer who tells about the crucifixion of Jesus, both can't be true.

They're mutually contradictory. So in Surah 4, 171, 157 through 71, it talks about Jesus in the

Quran, and it says, it is supposed that Jesus was crucified, but really, they crucified him not.

It only appeared that way to them. It was essentially a hoax, and Judas Iscariot actually was substituted in for Jesus.

That's a claim of the Quran, but Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the eyewitness accounts from that time, witnessed and recorded the eyewitnesses of Jesus being crucified, hung on a tree to die, buried in a rich man's tomb, and risen on the third day.

More than 500 witnesses saw this. Now, not only is this the eyewitness testimony of those who were there, but the strongest evidence, the reason that we should believe the gospel, is the prophecies that were recorded hundreds of years before it happened.

Faith is not blind. Faith is taking God at his word, and you know it's God, because unlike any other so -called

God or opinion of man, God has spoken these things from the beginning of time. Turn with me to Isaiah 53.

Isaiah 46, 9, and 10. What's Isaiah 46, 9, and 10? He knew the end from the beginning, and he prophesied what's yet to come.

Amen. And that's the trial of false gods. Isaiah 40 through 48 compares God to all the idols of the nations.

Yahweh alone knows the end from the beginning, and he knows the reasons why things happened in the past.

He is the God who has written history, and he's the one who holds everything in his hands. Therefore, we can trust him, and he tells us what will come to pass.

Why don't we just have, John, would you open us up? We left off last week at verse 4, but could

I have you read 52 .13 to 53 .3, just to pick up the part that we left off last week.

We saw that it begins with this vindication and this picture of the Christ who's exalted and lifted up, but then it descends to his sufferings and how he'll be a man of sorrows acquainted with grief, and it's all leading us to the passage we study today, where he substitutes himself for us.

Behold, my servant shall act wisely. He shall be high and lifted up. He shall be exalted.

As many were astonished at you, his appearance was so marred beyond human semblance and his form beyond that of the children of mankind.

So shall he sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths because of him.

For that which has not been told them, they see, and that which they have not heard, they understand.

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 former 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.

So here we are introduced to the suffering servant, and let me just ask you from the

Who else could this be but Jesus Christ, a man of sorrows acquainted with grief?

Well, many have suffered. Some will say maybe this is referring to some other suffering servant. OK, let's read on verses four to six, and I'll assert that nobody but Jesus Christ in the history of the world even comes close to fitting the bill of what is described here.

Kristen, would you mind reading for us Isaiah 53, four to six? Yes. 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 the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.

All we 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. Here is the great picture of substitutionary atonement.

One who substitutes himself for another, to stand in the place of another.

It says, surely he has borne whose griefs? Our griefs.

And carried our sorrows. Now, just a few verses earlier, he's called a man of sorrows, who's acquainted with grief.

For what reason is he sorrowful? What grief does he bear? Is it his own suffering for his own sin?

No, he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.

Kind of like Job's friends, right? They see Job suffering and they say, oh, he must have done something wrong.

Look how he's crucified. Look how he dies and how he bleeds. God must be angry with him.

Look how he suffers. That's a human approach to Jesus, and many people think that the death of Jesus is nothing more than an unfortunate murder, or something that he himself deserved.

He was a revolutionary. He stirred up strife, and the Roman Empire killed him. Many people approach

Jesus in that way. Muslims say he was never killed. Jews say he's not the

Messiah. All the other religions of the world come up with other reasons, but Christians alone believe these words.

So look very carefully at verse 5. But he was pierced, pierced with nails in his hands and in his feet, pierced with thorns in the crown of his head, pierced with the spear of a

Roman soldier, the centurion, who stood under the flow of that blood and water. He was pierced.

Why was Jesus pierced? Why did Jesus suffer these things?

The answer is right here. He was pierced for our transgressions.

If you can see that, you have spiritual eyes. If you can't see that, you're still blind.

This is God's highest revelation of himself, that Christ has come into the world to save sinners like us.

And the way he saves is by taking a punishment that we deserve. I'm the guilty one.

I'm the transgressor of God's law. Yet Christ came and took the punishment for my sin.

He was pierced for my transgressions and your transgressions. And everyone who believes in him, your transgressions were put on Christ.

That's what it says. Verse 5. He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities.

Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. What does that word chastisement mean?

Punishment. Yeah. You can picture a child being lightly chastised by a father, right?

Spanked on the bottom. But how much more if the sin that's being punished is treason against the

Holy God of the universe. The punishment owed to mankind for our rebellion against him is cosmic.

It's huge. And so picture now the scourging of Jesus.

He was whipped on his back with a cat of nine tails. The flesh of his back was torn open 39 times.

And then it says, oh, it could have been even more.

Yeah. Yeah. Because the Romans weren't bound by that Jewish rule of 39, but his back opened his flesh wounded, chastised.

And with his wounds, we are healed by his wounds.

We are healed. That's the glory of the good news that the suffering and dying of Jesus was for our healing.

His wounds forgive us. This is the good news. Now, verse six, all be like sheep have gone astray.

We have turned everyone to his own way. Every human being is guilty of sin.

With the exception of this one, who is the Christ. Everyone has gone astray.

Does anybody know someone that thinks that they're a good person? Oh, yeah.

They think they're good. What do you say to that? By what measure?

By what measure? They might be a good person compared to me. But am

I the standard? What's the standard? Perfect holiness.

God himself. Righteousness. And all of us fall short of the glory of God. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

All have gone their own way. Each one has chosen their own willful rebellion to do what their flesh wants to do rather than obedience to the holy law of God.

All have gone astray. So if we're like sheep that go astray, what could atone for our sin?

Only a sheep. A perfect sheep. A lamb. And of course this is a metaphor now for us.

We're the sheep of his pasture. He's God. He must become one of us.

And so he becomes the lamb of God. A human being, fully human, lives a perfect life. And what does it say here?

The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Now I'm going to call on you in a minute, Frank, to tell us about the Passover. Okay? But this theme of a lamb, a lamb of God, goes all the way back to the

Garden of Eden. When Adam and Eve rebelled against God, we're told in Genesis 3 .21

that God made garments of skin for them. It wasn't enough that they would be covered with fig leaves.

They needed a blood sacrifice. So an animal had to be killed and the skin of that lamb made into a wool coat to cover

Adam and Eve's sin. It couldn't take away their sin, but it could cover it, could cover their shameful nakedness because of their sin.

But that sacrifice was pointing to a lamb, a true lamb, Jesus the

Christ, whose sacrifice here described can actually take away sin. And again and again we see the lamb when

Abraham took his son up onto the mountain and his son was not to die, although that was the first picture.

Instead, what was found caught in the thicket? A ram, an animal that would die in the place, a substitute animal.

Okay? And then the Israelites were caught in captivity. The Egyptians.

And what is the Passover lamb, Frank? Well, it's the, it's probably one of the deepest revelations, for me anyway, in the

Old Testament. Yes. Because it runs all the way back through the, you know, the bigots, you know, the lineage that leads to Christ.

But when Moses was given an order by God to find a lamb without flemish, shed the blood of the lamb, apply it to the lentils and doorposts of your casa, they judged it would pass over your house.

Yes. And for the Jews that caught that revelation, you know, you can look at the whole

Egypt thing as like a big parable. Yes. Egypt being the world and the bondage of sin.

Yes. So what allowed them to escape that? And it was the blood of the lamb without flemish.

Amen. And God told Moses, keep this as a memorial forever. Yes. Forever.

Keep that. I'm going to stop you right there. Just sum it up so we can keep moving through. The Passover lamb is a picture of the blood of Christ.

And even as that doorpost was marked with the blood of the lamb, so we must come under the blood.

And you can picture the cross in that way at the top of the cross and going out this way, their

Christ's blood was applied to the doorposts and from his head at the top. The cross pictures that Christ's blood was shed so that the angel of death, the judgment of God would not fall on us.

It would pass over. We'd be set free. And then a festival was celebrated every year to remember the

Passover all the way up until Christ. And then the Passover stopped to be celebrated in that way in 70

AD because Christ had become our Passover. Christ is our Passover. All of these lambs pointed to the one final sacrifice of Jesus, his body on the blood, his blood on the cross.

And so that is what the lamb of God points to. And what really applies today,

Revelation chapter 6, verse 7, when the rider of the black horse who is going with the palaces, as they say, is going to ride.

And he heard a voice from heaven that said, when you see the wine and when you see the oil, pass over.

Oh, interesting. Okay. It might be a parallel in that. We'll talk about that more later.

But I don't want to get sidetracked from the big picture here. Right? The big picture idea. Yeah. The lamb of God points to Christ.

And here we're told so explicitly what's going to happen. We all like sheep have gone astray.

We have turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity, the sin of us all.

Jesus bore our guilt and our sin on the cross. Okay. Who would like to read for me?

Seven to nine. That next section. Thank you.

He was oppressed and he was afflicted. Yet he opened not his mouth.

He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before her shearers is done.

So he opened not his mouth. He was taken from prison, from judgment, and who shall declare his generation?

For he was cut off out of the land of the living. For the transgression of my people was he stricken.

And he made his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death. Because he had done no violence.

Neither was any disease in his mouth. Amen. So if you recall,

Isaiah 52 13 to 53 12 follows this pattern where you have an introduction.

The suffering. The introduction is vindication. Then you have suffering substitution, and then it kind of repeats itself in reverse order.

So you have suffering and then vindication. This is called. Chiastic form.

Chiastic form. Very good. He went to seminary too. So he's got this knowledge. This chiastic structure is where it builds up where you have a connection between the beginning and the end.

This part and this part. And then it culminates at the top. So we could spend more time describing that.

But the idea here is you start with vindication. Then you go to suffering. You culminate at substitution.

Then it's back to suffering vindication. So it's like a V. Or you could do it this way.

Yeah. ABCBA. Yeah. So that's the chiastic structure of what's happening here.

But what you need to know is the author here, Isaiah, has written this in this form.

It's like a song that he's writing to the suffering servant.

And it begins with his exaltation, his vindication. Then it goes to his suffering. Then the peak of it is how he substitutes himself.

It's for our sins. And then you come back down the mountain on the other side. And here you have the sufferings again.

The sufferings here are specific details that only Christ could have fulfilled.

So for those who don't believe the gospel, they want to believe what they want to believe. That, let's say, a

Jewish person that doesn't want to believe that Christ is their Messiah. Or a Muslim that doesn't want to believe that he was crucified.

They have to reject the very details that God himself wrote hundreds of years before it happened to Christ.

So let's look at it. Verse seven. He was oppressed and he was afflicted. Yet he opened not his mouth like a lamb that is led to the slaughter.

Like a sheep that before it shears is silent. So he opened not his mouth. What did

Pontius Pilate find so astonishing when he was putting Jesus on trial? He wouldn't answer.

He could have pled his innocence. He could have brought in witnesses. He could have appealed to Caesar like Paul at one point did.

He could have fought for his rights. But like a lamb led to the slaughter, he refused to defend himself.

Why wouldn't he defend himself? No one took his life. He gave it willingly.

That's the point. He was going to sacrifice his own life. Pontius Pilate marveled at this.

Don't you know that I have the power to set you free? Or the power to kill you? Jesus said, you would have no power except what the

Father has given you. He's bowing himself to the Father's will in the Garden of Gethsemane.

He told his father, not my will, but yours be done. And so in the Father's will, which we'll get to in verse 10, he goes like a lamb.

Passive, quiet, not objecting, just being led along. A lamb of sacrifice.

A lamb to the slaughter. Verse 8, by oppression and judgment, he was taken away.

And as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living?

What could it possibly mean? Cut off from the land of the living?

No other explanation but death. He actually died.

He was cut off from the land of the living. Jesus did die on the cross. So the billion plus people who follow

Muhammad are following a false prophet who said that Jesus never died on the cross.

It either happened or it didn't. The prophet Isaiah foretold that he would be cut off from the land of the living.

This is the truth. This is what happened. He died on the cross. I think the Muslims got that idea from the

Gnostic heresy of Docetus. Yeah, Docetus. Just an appearance or a fantasy.

Well, because Muhammad didn't have the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. He was reading the Gnostic gospel of Thomas and all these

Gnostic writings that were present in Arabia. So he didn't know. He was just a false prophet making up stuff and reading what he had available.

They're still here. And yet, yeah, these words cannot be changed. They were written hundreds of years before Christ.

You know, there's been some that tried to discredit this prophecy by saying, well, Christians probably added that to the

Bible later. Of course, we know that's impossible. Because in 1947, there was a discovery of the

Dead Sea Scrolls, which predate the time of Christ and has the great Isaiah scroll.

All 66 chapters of the book of Isaiah intact with this prophecy in dating back prior to the time of Christ.

So that destroyed that theory. The prophecies were written as they are. They're trustworthy.

So it says he was taken. So the next part that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people.

Why did he die? For other people since God's people, not for his own sin.

He was stricken for our sins. Look at the details of verse nine. This is incredible. And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death.

He was crucified with thieves and treated as a common criminal, a wicked man to be taken to the grave.

Why must people die? The soul that sins must die and everybody must account for this.

Why is it that we image bearers of God? He made us. Why do we have to die? That is horrifying.

Why do people die? Because we're sinners. But Christ died our death so that we could rise with him even as he rose from the dead.

The resurrection of death. So it says they made his grave with the wicked. Jesus was treated like an ordinary wicked man with a thief on his right and a thief on his left.

But what a picture that is of his grace. Because one of the thieves.

On his side. Confess that he is the Christ. And Jesus said to that man, today you will be with me in paradise.

The other continued to mock. And that's how it is even to this day. Christ on the cross divides humanity.

Some will look to him in faith and be saved. Others will continue to mock and reject. And be lost.

He's crucified with the wicked. But then with a rich man in his death.

Some people don't know this. But Joseph of Arimathea. A rich man.

Came to Pilate and said, I would like to take his body. And Pilate said, go ahead, take it.

And the rich man with Nicodemus. Pulled Jesus off the cross.

And carried him. And placed him in his own tomb. Jesus was not buried where ordinary criminals would be.

The other thieves, what came of them? Their bodies were just thrown in Gehenna. Thrown out to be eaten by vultures.

And picked at by the birds of the air. And burned in the trash heap. Completely discarded.

They're just criminals. But Jesus is different. He was buried in a rich man's tomb. Providentially, as prophesied.

Joseph of Arimathea buried him. And that garden tomb exists to this day. And guess what?

It's empty. That tomb is empty. It was a borrowed tomb. He borrowed the rich man's tomb.

Because he was fulfilling the prophecy. Carried away our sin. Buried it as far as the east is from the west.

In order to rise. Although he had done no violence. And there was no deceit. In his mouth.

In the innocence of the lamb. He had done no violence. Of what crime do they accuse him?

He had done no violence. Stolen nothing. And yet, accused of blasphemy.

Even though everything he said was true. No deceit in his mouth. He claimed to be the son of God.

And they said that's blasphemous. Who was he then? Is he just a lunatic?

But no one ever spoke like him. Love your enemies. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

He brought these teachings into the world. No one ever spoke with such authority.

And compassion. He spoke only truth. And yes, he claimed I am the way.

And the truth and the life. And no one comes to the father except through me. Either he was a lunatic to talk like that.

Or some kind of deranged liar. Or he actually was the Lord he claimed to be.

So they crucified him for blasphemy. Because they rejected the truth. But there was no deceit in his mouth.

Everything Jesus said is true. That's it. C .S.

Lewis. So, these details here are astonishing. What do those who do not believe that Jesus is the

Christ make of these words? What do you think? Well, the

Pharisees were... Remember when they were interrogating a fellow that was blind?

Yeah. And now they can see. And they were just coming up with all these accusations about Christ.

And he was left... Yeah, he wasn't educated then. He says, you know, I don't know about all that.

All I know is I was blind and now I see. Yeah, the blind... I was blind and now

I see. He was healed. So, what do people today say about these details?

I've told the story before when I visited with Dennis Prager up at Princeton University. And asked him about these things.

He didn't know the details. He's written... He recently just wrote a book on the Haggadah.

The Passover. But he doesn't know the Christ. And he doesn't know the details of Psalm 22.

He wasn't even familiar. In Isaiah 53, most synagogues completely Passover.

The writing itself. Because these words are so plain. And undeniable. It was

Jesus alone who was buried in a rich man's tomb. And now we see the vindication.

Let's see the last section. His rising from the dead. The final exaltation of Christ.

Who hasn't had a chance to read? Bob, would you mind? Read about 10 to 12. Yet it was the Lord's will to crush him and cause him to suffer.

And though the Lord makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the

Lord will prosper in his hand. After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied.

By his knowledge, my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.

Therefore, I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors.

For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. This final vindication is, it's just like dripping with honey.

Every phrase is powerful, beautiful, delicious truth.

Look at the first. It was the will of the Lord to crush him. It was

God's will that Jesus crushed him.

Only the gospel makes sense of that. The father had wrath against sinners, righteous, just wrath.

He was good to have that wrath, but he was pleased in his love to put his son in our place.

It pleased the father to crush the son, because it was the father's goodwill to put a substitute in our place, to bear the wrath that we deserve, and Jesus absorbed that wrath, and drank that cup in full to the dregs.

And this pleased the father, because now sin has been punished in a substitute, in order that we could be redeemed.

This is his plan, that one would suffer for the many. It says then, he has put him to grief.

Could not the father have rescued Jesus from the persecution? Why didn't he do it?

He loves us. It was his goodwill toward us, toward men, to put

Jesus to grief in our stead. Now, what was Jesus' attitude towards that plan?

He agreed with it. Yes, that's the beauty and the love of Jesus. Greater love has no one than this, that you lay down your life for your friends.

He willingly did this. He took that grief, when his soul makes an offering for guilt, an offering, a sacrifice, a lamb slain.

Remember, the lamb of the Garden of Eden, the lamb that was offered on the mountain when

Abraham almost sacrificed Isaac, but instead offered that animal. The lamb of the

Passover, the lamb of the Day of Atonement, the lamb of every day in the temple.

They would kill these animals, and they would take the blood and sprinkle the altar. Why the death of these animals?

They're offerings to God to atone for sin. God would take the substitute and allow the sinner to go free, but sin had to be shown to be horrifying.

And so there needed to be a death. Leviticus 17, 11 says, for the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.

The lifeblood of an animal had to be poured out as an offering to God, but was it possible for the blood of bulls and goats to truly take away sin?

No, those things were pointing forward to this one sacrifice, the Lamb of God.

Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. That's what it says.

When his soul makes an offering for guilt, not his own guilt, for our guilt. When that happens, okay, here's the beauty of it.

He shall see his offspring. He shall prolong his days.

No physical offspring like Dan Brown and the Da Vinci Code. That's a lie.

The offspring is us. Those from the seed of the woman, Genesis 3 .15, those who believe

Abraham's seed, the true believers, are his offspring. He will see us because he's atoned for us.

And then what does it say? He shall prolong his days, resurrection, more days on earth.

And he would appear for 40 more days, appearing to more than 500 believers before he then ascended in the sight of his apostles that he had handpicked to save us.

He will prolong his days. The will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

That nail -pierced hand has accomplished the will. God has stretched forth his hand to save us.

And that hand took the nails of the cross. But the will of God was done in that sacrifice.

The will of God was done in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied.

The wrath of God has been satisfied. Jesus is satisfied in the work that's been accomplished.

Satisfaction. God's plan is complete in the death of Jesus and his resurrection. Look at this next phrase.

By his knowledge shall the righteous one, the righteous.

What verse is that? This is verse 11, the second part of verse 11. This is justification by faith.

When someone comes to the knowledge of Jesus Christ who died and was buried and rose by that knowledge, by faith in him,

God credits the righteousness of Christ to that person. Think of it this way.

Your sin is imputed to Christ. And so he dies for you and his righteousness, his perfect life is credited to you.

You are counted as righteous as the Son of God without sin because all of your sin has been imputed to him.

His righteousness imputed to you by faith. You're united to Christ by faith.

And that's why faith in Christ is so important. It's everything. You might think you're a righteous person.

You do good. You're kind of nice. You try to be a good person.

But unless you're united to Christ by faith, you're still in your sin.

You need this great exchange. His death for your death. His life becomes your life.

His righteousness accounted to you. It's not something that you then earn or do.

It's a legal transaction where you're declared righteous. You're justified.

God stamps you as innocent, pure, righteous by a legal declaration.

And the only reason that God can do that and still be just is that he in fact has punished your sin already completely in Jesus.

So he's righteous and just to declare you innocent on account of what Christ did for you.

Justification by faith. That's what's said there. By his knowledge shall the righteous one my servant

Jesus make many to be accounted righteous. Why? He shall bear their iniquities.

He's taken your sin. So you're righteous. Lastly, verse 12.

Therefore, I will divide him a portion with the many where the many church who believe in him and he shall devoid.

He shall divide the spoil with the strong. The spoil refers to his reward.

The reward of his suffering. He now divides to his people. The many who belong to him are given heaven, eternal life.

Our sins are forgiven and now he gives us the spoil. All of his inheritance as the son of God.

He now gives to us. Wow. That's what we're being given through Christ.

Because he poured out his soul to death. And was numbered with the transgressors.

He became one of us. He became a lamb like us. Only he never wondered. He went willingly in the path directed by the father to the slaughter didn't open his mouth took our sin.

He was numbered with us. He became a human and live the perfect human life. He's the new Adam. If he hadn't become a human, he couldn't have stood in for us.

If he had become an angel, he could die for angels, but he didn't do that. He didn't become a different animal.

He became a human and he is the one human sacrifice for a sinner like me.

He was numbered with us because he poured out his soul to death was numbered with the transgressors.

Yet a final summary of what we're saying Isaiah 53. He bore the sin of me and makes intercession for the transgressors.

Jesus is our sin bearer. God took our sin and laid it on his shoulders.

He bore our sin in his body on the tree. The righteous for the unrighteous the just for the unjust.

He did that for us. He took all of our sin the weight of that he took it on his shoulders and he died the death that we deserve.

That's Isaiah 53 and every word of this prophecy points to one and only one whose name is

Jesus. Those who believe will be justified and given all of the rewards that belong to him and those who reject will go to their own grave without him and they can't resurrect themselves.

And so if you're listening to this video or you're here in the room listen the way we know that the gospel is true is not just because I'm saying it and Pastor John and Frank and these others who are here.

It's not on our authority. It's not just our own personal private belief not just because we're raised by Christian parents.

Many of us were raised in other religions or no religion at all. How old were you when you became a believer?

You know the exact day, right? Yeah, I do. I was 19. 19 years old. To whom has the arm of the

Lord been revealed? Through the word of God you also can believe.

Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. This prophecy Isaiah 53 is sent to you in order that you might have faith.

This is God's grace to you. Some people think faith is blind, right? Remember Indiana Jones and in that scene where there's nothing beneath him but just a cliff.

But there's an invisible bridge and all he has to do is have faith and step out onto the invisible bridge and then he'd be able to walk on it.

That is not how the Bible presents faith. Faith is entirely rational.

The evidence is given through God's word itself. God told us what he would do.

That God did what he said and all we have to do is see the words written on the page.

The details of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus put in a rich man's tomb. Pierced for our transgressions.

Risen from the dead. Having read and then the New Testament which records what he did to simply believe.

That's what pleases God. Faith pleases God because it's taking him at his word. It's trusting in the one who made us.

And those who do that who simply believe what God has said through his word will be saved.

And what did he say at the end on the cross? It is finished. Tetelestai. Tetelestai.

That he's done it. He finished it. He said he would do it and then he did it. John, can you close us in a word of prayer?

Before you pray, can you help people pray to accept Christ also if they have not yet come to saving faith in this society?

Oh Lord God, these words recorded so many years ago so clear.

Speaking of that substitutionary death so necessary that we might be justified just believing by faith knowing that Jesus willingly obediently went to the cross.

Not my will but thine he proclaimed. And then he said nobody takes my life I lay it down. He laid it down for each one of us.

For me as a sinner. And Lord, if there are those who are watching this video or here today who hear this message because the grace of God has opened their hearts.

Praying a prayer of submission and acceptance is the path. And so if this is the time where God is speaking to you pray in your heart.

Pray to God. I am a sinner. I have sinned against God. I deserve that eternal punishment of death.

But yet your love is so immense that you sent your son for me a sinner for each one of us a sinner to die to suffer taking my sin to that cross.

To where the Father saw the sins of all humanity my sins. Lord, if you believe this and if you confess this if you confess that you are a sinner if you accept this blood shed for you and say

Lord God I accept this gift of your blood I desire to be your child

I confess my sins I repent and I turn to you to make you the Lord of my life if you pray this we know that as many as receive him to them he gives the right to become children of God.

By praying this prayer by accepting in faith we become his child. No longer under the penalty of eternal death but a promise of hope in eternity with you.