FBC Adult Sunday Bible Study

In proclaiming the truth of your word, even in the face of great opposition and the threat of death. Thank you for the legacy of the Reformers and all that they did when they were in such a small minority initially.

Thank you for using them, and thank you for the fact that we today are enjoying the fruits of their sacrifices and labors. Father, we pray for Scott Williquette today and his partner as they're ministering the word somewhere in Chad.

I pray that you would bless them and bless their labors. Pray for the ministry this week as they work with about 125, 130 Chadian pastors, teaching them, giving them insight into the word, giving them opportunities to learn that they've never had before in their lives and ministry.

So I pray that you would bless and prosper that work, and may it do much for these pastors and their desire and effort to lead their congregations. Father, we commit this day to you now and pray that you would bless it.

We ask it in Jesus' name, amen. All right, what do you think is the most popular chapter in all of the book of Isaiah? Jan says 53. All in favor of 53, say aye or raise your hand. Okay, yeah, what would be second probably, least most well-known?

Probably 6, Isaiah 6, the calling of Isaiah when he saw the Lord high and lifted up surely. Well, Isaiah 53 I think is probably one of the most well-known passages in the book of Isaiah, and even in the whole Bible, even in all of the Scriptures, Old and New Testaments.

Isaiah 53, actually the whole section that we're looking at this morning, 52, 13 to the end of chapter 53, that section is the fourth and final what's called the servant songs. So the section related to the servant takes us back to chapter 42, and the first song is the song of his call, the call of the servant, first four verses of chapter 42.

The next song comes in chapter 49, and it has to do with his commission, the commission of the servant, and then in chapter 50, verses 4 through 9, Israel was called to be the servant of the Lord. They were to carry out the functions that the servant of the Lord was to carry out, but they failed, of course they failed miserably, and obviously was not the intention of the Lord that Israel would be the ultimate servant of the Lord, it was just a point to the coming servant, and that of course is the Lord Jesus Christ.

Isaiah promised the coming of Jesus, the servant who would fulfill all that Israel was called upon to do, but Isaiah promised that fulfillment, and of course our Savior came, and he did actually fulfill all that has been given to him as the servant of the Lord.

So we've already seen that he is to be the servant of the Lord who would redeem his people and provide for them an eternal inheritance, and he would also, in his function as the servant that redeems his people, be a light to the Gentiles.

So the people he redeems are not just Jewish people, Israel, but he would redeem people from every tribe and tongue and nation and so forth. So we've already seen that in the earlier chapters in Isaiah and his prophecy, but now in chapter 53 we see how, in this fourth song, we see how he goes about the redeeming of his people.

So before we look at the chapter specifically, let's get this bird's-eye view of the section that we were to read for today, chapters 52 to chapter 55. The section we're going to look at in more detail here in just a few minutes, the servant of the Lord who is Jesus, he suffers the punishment of God on behalf of God's people, and because of that suffering, he justifies many.

Chapter 54, because of the suffering and the triumph of the servant, Jesus, notice in verses 1 to 3 that God's people will expand, they will expand. But look at the end of verse 1, he says, "...for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married woman.".

And he's singing, he's calling the barren to sing, that have not labored with child, there's going to be this great number of converts, the fruitless nation is going to see many converts. And then in verses 2 and 3, the call goes out to enlarge the coasts, enlarge the boundaries, enlarge the place of your tent, verse 2 says, and let them stretch out the curtains of your dwellings.

Why? Because he says in verse 3, you shall expand to the right and to the left, your descendants will inherit the nations and make the desolate cities inhabited. So God's people will expand. In verses 4 through 8, God's people will forget their shame.

Notice particularly verses 4 and 5. He says, "...do not fear, for you will not be ashamed, neither be disgraced, for you will not be put to shame, for you will forget the shame of your youth and will not remember the reproach of your widowhood anymore.".

God's people will forget their shame. Verses 9 and 10, Isaiah promises that God's people will never again be judged. Notice verse 9, he says, "...for this is like the waters of Noah to me, for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah would no longer cover the earth, so have I sworn that I would not be angry with you nor rebuke you.".

Then we come to chapter 55, I'm sorry, the rest of chapter 54, God's people, Isaiah promises, will be secure. They'll be secure. Notice particularly verses 14 and 15. He says, "...in righteousness you shall be established, you shall be far from oppression, for you shall not fear, and from terror, for it shall not come near you.

Indeed, they shall surely assemble, but not because of me. Whoever assembles against you shall fall for your sake.". There's the security of God's people mentioned there. Verse 17, he says, "...no weapon formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue which rises against you in judgment you shall condemn.".

This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is from me, says the Lord. God's people will be secure. In chapter 55, an invitation is sent out for others to enjoy the fruit of the servants' triumph.

You see this at the beginning of the chapter, "...ho, everyone who thirsts come to the waters.". And so they are called upon, they are invited to turn from the empty, unsatisfying ways of life, and to find true satisfaction in God.

Continuing on in verse 1, "...you who have no money, come buy and eat. Yes, come buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy?

Listen carefully to me and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance.". What an invitation for longing, hungry people to find satisfaction in God. In verses 8 through 11 is the promise that God's Word will reap a harvest.

These are some very familiar verses where the Lord says, "...my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways," says the Lord, "...for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts, and that we know.".

We cannot fully comprehend all that God is and all that God thinks. But look at what He says in verses 10 and 11, because God has revealed what He wants us to know in His Word, and it will reap a harvest.

He says, "...for as the rain comes down and the snow from heaven and do not return there, but water the earth and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth.

It shall not return to me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.". That's a great promise, and it's one that holds true for every time God's Word is faithfully opened and taught and preached, that God has a purpose intended for that preaching of the Word and the teaching of the Word, and that purpose will be accomplished.

We may not know what it is, we may not see any evident effect of it, but God has a purpose for that delivery of His Word. Now in verses 12 and 13, we wrap up this chapter with the promise that even the created world will be caught up in the redemption of humanity.

He says, "...you shall go out with joy and be led out with peace. The mountains and hills shall break forth into singing before you, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress tree, instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle tree, and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.".

So some great promises in this section of Scripture. But let's go back to chapter 52, beginning in verse 13 through chapter 53. And this section, I noted on your handout, this section is divided into five stanzas.

Remember, it's the song of the servant, of the judgment of the servant. It's divided into five stanzas, just like in our hymnal we have stanzas one through five in some songs. This song is divided into five stanzas.

And these five stanzas form a chiasm. That's a word you've heard before, we've mentioned it from time to time. It's a structure, it's a way of structuring the content of a passage of Scripture. And the way a chiasm works, in this case there's these five stanzas, and you can notice it there on your handout, you can see the relationship.

Stanza capital A corresponds to stanza lowercase a, and both have to do with the servant's ultimate glory. The second and fourth stanzas, the B stanzas, have to do with the servant's rejection. And then the third stanza, which is the middle stanza, the central stanza, chapter 53 verses 4 to 6, has to do with the servant's substitutionary work.

Now the the function of a chiasm is to call attention to what's in the middle. The central point in the chiasm is the focal point of that particular passage of Scripture, in this case of this song. So the focal point of the servant's song is in chapter 53 verses 4 through 6, the servant's substitutionary work.

So let's work our way through these stanzas, and the way we'll do it is, first of all, look at the B stanzas, stanzas 2 and 4, and see how Isaiah prophesies in these stanzas the servant's experience of rejection, of his rejection.

Now as I pointed out, I think I pointed this out on your handout, I can't remember for sure, but the rejection of the servant is indicated in each of the five stanzas. So look at chapter 52 verse 14. His visage was marred more than any man, and we were astonished at him.

We were appalled at his appearance, is the idea. Okay, that's giving you an indication, that's a hint of the rejection that the servant faces. In stanza 3 in verse 4, the last part of the verse, it says that we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted.

In other words, when we saw Jesus on the cross, our rejection concerned, had to do with our conclusion that we drew toward him, that he's being smitten by God. And then in stanza 5 in verse 12, we thought of him as a transgressor, a transgressor.

Again, those are indications of our rejection of the servant, but the emphasis of the second and fourth stanzas is on that rejection itself. So in stanza 2, the second stanza, chapter 53 verses 1 to 3, notice how his life provokes disdain.

His life provokes disdain. Now this expresses the rejection of the common people. As Jesus went about his public ministry and his work among people, the rejection that he received from the common people is indicated here.

So for example, in verse 2, it says, he grew up before him as a tender plant. He had a common upbringing, Jesus did. A common upbringing. This is a normal, normal childhood, if you will. Typical child.

He grew up as a tender plant, and he did so in an obscure, unimpressive place. As he says in the next line in the verse, as a root out of dry ground. Remember Nathaniel's comment regarding Jesus of Nazareth.

Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? The expectation would be that Messiah, the one who would fulfill the servant of the Lord passages, that Messiah would be someone impressive, someone that would come from an impressive place like Jerusalem.

I mean, that's the capital city, and he would come from a royal family, one that was recognized as particularly noble, but he had a common upbringing. And the last part of verse 2 speaks of his appearance.

It says he has no form or comeliness. When we see him, there's no beauty that we should desire him. There was nothing physically remarkable about Jesus. If he walked in this building this morning as he, in his incarnate state from a couple thousand years ago, he would be dressed like the common man is dressed, and he would look like the common man looks.

He would come in and sit down among us, and we would think, oh, well we have another visitor with us today. Wonderful, great, glad, wonderful, give him a visitor's card. But we would not think of him as God in the flesh.

There was nothing physically about him that indicated that. There was no glow, there was no halo around his head. There was nothing about him that we should desire him. He had an unremarkable appearance.

And then in verse 3, and I want you to notice, here's where the rejection really comes among the common people. And notice, by the way, the change in verb tenses. In verse 2, notice the tenses of the verbs are in the future.

He shall grow up before him. We see him, there's no beauty that we, when we see him, there's no beauty that we should desire him. And then in verse 3, there's this present tense of the verb. He is despised and rejected, a man of sorrows acquainted with grief.

Goes back to the past tense. We hid, as it were, then it moves to the past tense, I'm sorry. Goes from the future to the present and then moves to the past. We hid, as it were, our faces from him. He was despised and we did not esteem him.

So in verse 3, notice the expressions of rejection. He becomes, Jesus does, the servant of the Lord, a total outcast from society. And this particularly, I think this verse particularly portrays the rejection that occurred at the cross.

He is despised, emphasized twice, pointed out twice. The first part of the verse, he is despised and rejected by men. The last part of the verse, he was despised. He also is forsaken, forsaken. He is rejected by men.

Literally, he is forsaken by men. Remember, in the night of his arrest, all the disciples forsook him and fled. Everyone did. Everyone forsook him. But we're talking about the forsaking of man. We're not talking about the expression on the cross when Jesus cried out to his father, why do you forsake me?

Everyone else had forsaken him. And then he was filled with sorrow and pain. He's a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Interesting, that word grief could literally be translated suffering. He is acquainted with suffering.

Even the word sickness would be appropriate. Affliction. It is a grief that is connected to the affliction, to the suffering in which he is enduring. It's not like the grief of losing someone whom you've loved, but it's more a grief that is the result of the affliction.

And we did that to him. We filled him with that sorrow and pain. He is acquainted with grief. We also then considered him contemptible. Considered him contemptible. We hid as it were our faces from him.

We saw him on that cross. We saw him hanging in that shame. And instead of adoring him for what he was doing, we rejected him. We hid our faces from him. We considered him to be contemptible. So contemptible it's not even worthy of a look.

And we disrespected him. We did not esteem him. We did not esteem him. The idea there is that we accounted or thought of him as nothing. He's nothing. He's just another common criminal hanging on the cross.

So Jesus the servant suffers rejection in stanza two by his life that provokes disdain. In stanza four, the focus of the rejection is more on the part of the officials, those in authority who rejected him.

So stanza four has to do with his trial that provoked rejection. His trial that provoked an unjust death. So look at how Isaiah prophetically describes the treatment that Jesus received here in verses seven and following.

He was oppressed and he was afflicted. He was oppressed and afflicted and this is focusing on his trial. And the oppression and the affliction that he received at his trial was from the religious and the political leadership, the religious and political authorities.

Here are the priests, the chief priests and the priests and the scribes who are oppressing him, who are turning him over to the authorities to have him crucified. He is the recipient of grievous treatment as if he's just a common criminal.

Notice this in the last part of verse seven. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before its shearers is silent. He opened not his mouth. He's led to his sentence like a sheep is led to its slaughter, verse seven says.

The first part of verse eight says that as a grievous criminal he was confined and and judged. He was taken from prison and from judgment. And in the last part of verse 12, right in the middle of the verse, he was numbered with the transgressors.

Treated as just a common grievous criminal, maybe not a common criminal, but a heinous criminal. This is the treatment that he receives. This treatment continues in verse eight as he is cut off from the land of the living.

That of course is a reference to the crucifixion, to his execution. Verse nine speaks of his burial. They made his grave with the wicked. And the last part of verse nine of the injustice that he received.

He made his grave with the wicked, but with the rich at his death because he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. I find no reason of guilt in him. I find no guilt in him, Pilate said.

Nevertheless, go ahead and crucify him. Injustice. And notice his response. We read it a minute ago in verse seven. He opened not his mouth as a sheep before its shears is silent, so he opened not his mouth.

Isn't it interesting that that is emphasized twice? He did not respond at all. He didn't lash out. Could have. Had a right to, but he didn't. He didn't lash out at the judges or the executioners. He took it.

So Jesus the servant experiences rejection in stanzas two and four. Now the central stanza, stanza three, the focal point of this song in verses four through six, is that Jesus the servant provides substitution.

And an interesting thing about this central stanza is that it too forms a chiasm. In the first and last section go together, the second and third or fourth sections go together, and then there's a central thing.

This notion or this fact of substitution is also pointed out or emphasized in the latter two stanzas, but not in stanzas one and two. So for example, in verse eight, stanza four, it says, for the transgressions of my people he was stricken.

In verse ten, in the last stanza, it says, when you see his soul make an offering for sin. Again, substitution idea there. And in verse 12, let's see, in verse 12, near the last part of the verse, he bore the sin of many.

Jesus is a substitute for sinners. So it's brought up in these last couple of stanzas. It's absent from the first couple of stanzas, but it is the idea of the central stanza, and it is the, therefore, the focal point of this song.

Look at the chiastic structure of this stanza. In the first part of the first section, verse four, first part of the verse, speaks of the load he carried. He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.

And the end of verse six, the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Speaks of the load he carried. The second and fourth section have to do with our behavior. We'll look at that in a minute. And then the central point of this stanza is verse five.

The focal point is his effective substitution. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace was upon him. By his stripes we are healed. All right, let's look at the load he carried.

He carried a load that was not his own, and this is brought out in the first and the last section of this stanza. Verse four, the griefs that he carried, the sorrows that he carried, belonged to us. They belong to us.

Notice that word griefs again, all right? We saw it back in verse three. He's a man of sorrow acquainted with grief. I pointed out that that word could be translated sickness. He carried, he bore our sickness.

I'm using that word deliberately here, and you'll see why in just a few minutes. And the sorrows or the pains that he carried, they weren't his own. They were ours. The last part of verse six, the prophet says that the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

He carried the iniquity of which we are guilty. Notice how that load got placed upon him. The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. So this was not a load that was on him because he deserved it or merited it or somehow so fully identified with us that he was as iniquitous as us.

No, the Lord laid on him, imputed to him, the iniquity of us all. He carried a load not his own. And our behavior in relationship to that is completely wrong. It's completely wrong. The last part of verse four, we see him carrying that load and we reach a wrong conclusion, altogether wrong conclusion.

We esteemed him. We considered him to be stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. Our conclusion, the conclusion of the jeering mob was, he deserves to die. Crucify him. He is worthy of death. And when that occurs, when that death occurs, that crucifixion occurs, we considered him to be rejected by God.

See, this proves that he's guilty. This proves that he deserves to die because he claims to be the Messiah, the sent one of God, the Son of God. But where is God in healing him and taking him down off of that cross?

Remember the comments of the religious elite in Matthew 27. Remember this? Matthew 27, verses 41 to 43. Jesus is on the cross and it says, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders mocked him, saying, he saved others, himself he cannot save.

If he is the King of Israel, let him come down from the cross and we will believe him. He trusted in God, let him deliver him now, if he will have him. If he will have him. Conclusion, God isn't doing anything about this man hanging on the cross, therefore God doesn't want to have anything to do with him.

God has rejected him. If he does that, then we will believe him. But he said, I am the Son of God. Prove it. Let God bring you down off that cross. Our conclusion was that he is smitten by God and afflicted.

In the fourth section here of this stanza, the first part of verse 6, another way that our behavior is wrong concerning the load that he carried is that we carried the load by our sin. The load that was laid on him was our load.

It was our load that we created by our sin. This is our behavior in relationship to the load he carried. What am I talking about? Look at verse 6. He says, all we like sheep have turned away. We have gone astray.

We have turned everyone to his own way. We all, we all have turned away from God and his ways. We all have. And we have all, instead of going God's ways, have turned to our own sinful ways. This is our behavior that demanded he have a load that he carried.

And he bore our load. It's our load created by our sin. But look at the central focus here in verse 5. In the carrying of that load, in spite of our behavior, in the carrying of that load, he provided a full substitution for us.

He took, this verse says, what we deserved. You see the repetition of our in this verse. He was wounded or pierced, literally. He was pierced for our transgressions. And that word wounded really could be better translated pierced, because you think of a wound and you might think of, oh, you know, you punch somebody in the nose and they get a bloody nose, a broken bloody nose.

Well, not a bone of his was broken, but his body was pierced. So the nails that pierced his hands and pierced his feet and pierced the spear that pierced his side was for our transgressions, not our own.

He took the piercing that we deserved. We deserved the nails and the spear. He took the crushing that our iniquities deserved. It says he was bruised for our iniquities, really literally there. He was crushed for our iniquities.

Every blow, physical blow that he took, the beating with the rod and the smacking of the hand and the fists, every one of those things we deserved, he took it. The chastening that our alienation deserved, he took it.

The chastisement for our peace. What's he talking about there? Is he talking about taking some punishment so that we could be, oh, just never have a problem in the world? No, he's talking about the alienation that exists between man and God because of his sin.

We are enemies of God's in our fallen state, and as enemies, we're alienated from Him. We have no peace with God. Well, the chastisement that could do something about that lack of peace that we deserved, he took it upon himself.

And the blows that our sin deserved, he took those as well. The stripes I'm talking about here, and this is, of course, a prophetic reference to the whipping, the scourging that he experienced, the whip that cut his flesh with each blow.

We deserve that. It says the chastisement for our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed. So he took what we deserved, and in the taking what we deserved, he provided for us what we don't deserve.

What did his work, his substitutionary work provide? It provided peace. The peace with God that we did not have. The peace that is the fruit of justification. Hang on to that because we're gonna get into that in the morning service today.

But the peace of justification, the fruit of justification. As Paul says in Romans 5, 1, being justified, we therefore have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. How was that accomplished? Right here, Isaiah 53, on the cross.

He also provided the healing that we don't deserve, and so it says at the end of the verse, by his stripes we are healed. He provided the healing that we don't deserve, and this is talking about the fruit of sanctification.

He's not talking about getting over COVID or getting over the flu, that kind of healing. He's talking instead about the sicknesses that we referred to earlier. He is a man of sorrows acquainted with sickness.

He has borne our sickness. What sickness? The soul sickness that we all suffer from, with which we are afflicted, and he bore that soul sickness, and by his bearing of our soul sickness and the receiving of the stripes that he experienced, we are healed of our sickness in the soul.

He provided what we don't deserve. Now, the only two stanzas that we haven't looked at are the first and last, and those two stanzas emphasize the fact that Jesus, the servant, receives glory, and he receives that glory in four ways.

Notice them with me quickly. Two of them in stanza one, and two of them in stanza five. In stanza one, he receives glory through his personal exaltation. Verse 13. Behold, my servant shall deal prudently.

He shall be exalted and extolled very high. What's the basis of that exaltation? He shall deal prudently, and that is a reference to the wisdom of his entire life and death behavior. He dealt prudely from the time of his childhood through the time of his it-is-finished, and he gave up the ghost, gave up the spirit.

He dealt prudently, and because of his prudent dealing, he is personally exalted. The second way he is exalted is through his global impact. You see this in verses 14 and 15 of chapter 52. He says, Just as many were astonished at you, so his visage was marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men.

Notice, just as, in other words, the exaltation that he's going to receive by way of this global impact is going to correspond to the rejection. Now, he had a global rejection, but just as he experienced global rejection, verse 15, so shall he sprinkle many nations.

Kings shall shut their mouths at him, for what had not been told them they shall see, and what they had not heard they shall consider. This exaltation of this global impact will be so widespread and complete that it brings total humbling even to the most powerful on earth.

Putin will grovel at his feet. Biden will grovel at his feet. Xi will. They all will. They all will. The other two ways that he receives glory, in verses, in stanzas, in stanza 5, the last part of chapter 53, is he receives glory through his father's satisfaction, through his father's satisfaction.

In verse 10, it says that it pleased the Lord to bruise him, he's put him to grief. When you make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hands.

He shall see the labor of his soul and be satisfied. He will be satisfied. Satisfied with the servant's work. And what is that work? His sacrifice and its effects. And fourthly, he receives glory through the results of his sacrifice, seen in verses 11 and 12.

What are the results of his sacrifice? Last part of verse 11, by his knowledge my righteous servant shall justify many. Many will be justified because of his sacrifice. Notice the basis of that justification.

He shall bear their iniquities. Goes back to that substitutionary sacrifice of Christ on the cross. And he also receives, as a result of his sacrifice, a generous inheritance. This he provides. He says, I will provide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong.

A generous inheritance. And what is the basis of that inheritance? Next word, next line, right? Why? Because he poured out his soul unto death, and he was numbered with the transgressors, and he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.