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in the Word of God to Isaiah 52 with me. Time won't permit me to explain to you everything that I would want to tell you, like things like, I love you, and when I yell at you, it's just because I'm loving you and I'm a preacher. And so, and I won't have time to explain some of the details and supports behind some of what I may say today. So if I was going to preach through the passage I'm going to read to you right now, it would probably be a six to ten week sermon series.

So if you do have questions afterwards, I genuinely would like to hear them and talk about them and things of that sort. If you start in verse 13, I'm going to read the last three verses of Isaiah 52 and then entirety of Isaiah 53. Behold, my servant shall act wisely. He shall be high and lifted up and 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 Yahweh been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground.

He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions he was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was 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 Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all he was oppressed and he was afflicted yet he opened not his mouth like a lamb that is led to slaughter and like a sheep that before its shearer is silent so he opened not his mouth by oppression and judgment he was taken away and asked for his generation who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people. And they made his grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in his death.

Although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of Yahweh to crush him. He has put him to grief. When his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring, he shall prolong his days. The will of Yahweh shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied.

By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous. And he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death, and was numbered with the transgressors. Yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.

That's a reading of the word of God. Amen. Trust that God will add his blessing to even the reading of his word. Verse number 6 is the verse that I chose to put a focus on for this evening's service. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way.

And Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all. first thing I want you to note we're going to have three three sections of this verse we discussed the first one being all we like sheep have gone astray so if you turn to 1 Peter chapter 2 The end of that chapter. I want to remind you that in Psalm 119, 176, David says, I've gone astray like a lost sheep. The imagery of sheep and their going astray and the things they do is throughout Scripture.

It would take us several days to even try to look at all the verses that mention sheep for any reason. Jesus, of course, being the Lamb of God, led like a sheep to the slaughter is more imagery for us. But one of the things that I want to focus on here is in 1 Peter 2, verse 25. Peter quotes this verse. Peter says, For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls.

Peter is applying the passage in Isaiah not only to Jesus earlier in first Peter chapter 2 but he applying the straying of the sheep to us the believers who are reading his letter Peter knows that Jesus had his sheep that were of his fold and that he had to find all of the lost sheep and he knows that the reason why we're lost is because we have sinned against God but in the book of 1 Peter he is exhorting the believers of the first century to a life of holiness and the reason given is that you strayed like sheep but now you are one of God's people but now you have been returned to your shepherd and your overseer Jesus Christ of course being the chief shepherd and our chief overseer we will return to 1 Peter 2 later for now you can turn to Luke 15 a little more sheep imagery for you hopefully I'll be able to explain some of this verse to you from Isaiah 53 Luke 15 3-7 and then we can make some application Jesus speaking So he told them this parable. What man of you having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders rejoicing. and when he comes home he calls together his friends and his neighbors saying to them rejoice with me for I have found my sheep that was lost I don't want to read too much into the text but when Jesus says come to me all who are weary and heavy laden and you will find rest for your souls because my yoke is easy and my burden is light I can't miss the imagery of the shepherd putting the sheep on his shoulders when he gets them.

The reason why serving Jesus Christ is considered a light burden is because Jesus is the one who's already carried the burden for his people. So if you're feeling burdened today, remember that. Because the burden of your sin just wanted to drive you to hell. Jesus puts you on his shoulders, and we'll talk about this later, but there's some suffering. There's some moments that it's hard to count it all joy, right?

Heard that earlier already. But Jesus is always there for His people. That's the comfort you have in this life. But in verse 7, Jesus says, Just so I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance. Jesus came not to save the righteous but to save sinners just like a doctor doesn't come for the ones who are well but the ones who are sick there was a Spurgeon quote where he said something like you don't feel sick? well that's your problem part of your problem is your sickness makes you think you're not sick but Matthew 12 the same parable being told Jesus says, this is a different parable but he says of how much more value is a man than a sheep.

And so when Jesus is telling a parable about lost sheep and how important it is for an earthly shepherd to go find one lousy sheep, he's making the comparison that if it's that important, that there's that much rejoicing, that much labor involved on the part of the shepherd to save that one, that each man who would come to Christ, each woman who would come to Christ, there's rejoicing in heaven over that. And I will add just a side note to this. Jesus doesn't say there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who praises sinners prayer.

He doesn't say there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who goes through religious motions and maybe gets baptized and comes to church a lot. He says there's more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents. over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance if you've been around the United States at all for any time now as a Christian you can turn back to Isaiah 53 by the way then you will know that there is a gospel of no repentance that is being regularly I can't say the word preached it's being regularly distributed by people if a guy gets up and tells you you can believe in Jesus and you don't have to repent say thank you for the TED talk and leave you understand me? Jesus will rejoice over repentant sinners repentance is part and parcel of your regeneration and believing the gospel all we like sheep have gone astray we're like sheep we've all gone our own way.

The second part of the verse, he says, we have turned, and then he says, everyone to his own way. A couple Bible verses, the way of the transgressor is hard. Why would you want to go your own way? There's only one way, one truth and one life, the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the only way to the Father. No one can come to the Father except through Him.

Your own way is basically everybody else's way too, and it the path to hell It called the broad road In Romans 5 Paul trying to teach us about how basically the world began And he says, therefore, in 5.12, I already said it, excuse me, he said, therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, Adam, and death through sin, death entered the world because of the sin, He says, so death spread to all men. He says, because all sinned. And that's a strange sounding verse in English to a lot of people.

And it took somebody who studied Greek to explain it to me, for me to have the sense of what this is saying. What it's saying is that when Adam sinned, each and every one of us did as well. You were in Adam when he sinned. And God, the sovereign creator who's all wise and eternally has perfect knowledge, chose the very best representative for all of mankind to hang out in the covenant of works in the Garden of Eden with anything he wanted, basically.

You could eat from all the fruit of all the trees, except one. Adam didn't have a bad dad. Adam didn't have a difficult wife. and yet Adam still chose to sin and the only difference between Adam and you is you would have sinned faster than he did God chose the best representative to represent humanity in that garden and he fell so when Isaiah says all we like sheep have gone astray well everyone sins right anyone ever here has done evangelism and you've tried to convince somebody that they're a sinner.

One of the first things most people say to me is, well, everyone sins. Everyone does that. But Isaiah, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God and recognizing that people will try to think about things in these terms, says, we have turned everyone to his own way. you cannot read this verse and not recognize that he's pointing directly at you everyone has turned his own way there's a way that seems right to a man and it's the end that leads to death we've all turned to our own way William Perkins wrote the serious condition of this that the very Son of God Himself suffered all the pains and torments of hell on the cross for our sins is the most effectual means to stir up our hearts to a godly sorrow for them.

He says every man must be settled without doubt that he was the man that crucified Christ. That he is to be blamed as well as Judas, Herod, Pontius Pilate and the Jews. His sins, your sins, my sins were the nails, spears and thorns that pierced him. We cannot escape the reality that we are personally transgressors. You can run from that reality. You can anesthetize yourself by indulging in even more sin.

Sin that takes you out of your mind a little bit, intoxicates you, makes you forget your own sinfulness because you're so deep in it. You can constantly compare yourself to worse sinners than you. Think about it. Logically, there's one worse sinner in the world at all times, right? Everyone's going to find somebody who they can compare themselves to. you can try self help groups you can try astrology and the enneagram and all the new age stuff that they're doing that tries to make you feel better about your guilty conscience for things but in the end all your running will only lead you to hell each sinner in order to repent has to have some concept that you are a sinner in need of repentance everyone has turned to his own way.

Although you are guilty in Adam, you are also guilty because you yourself have transgressed God's law. I'm going to continue so we can get to some good news. I promise there's good news. The final part of Isaiah, verse 53, verse 6 says, And Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all. There is a modern day gospel attack on something called penal substitutionary atonement.

If those words were all new to you, you can figure out what they mean afterwards or you can look up the doctrine. Penal means penalty. There's a penalty. Substitutionary means there's a substitute. Somebody is doing something in place of somebody else. And atonement is the washing away of sin, the execution of justice, propitiation.

Jesus Christ was a penal substitutionary atonement for his people. He did not die because some bad man just didn't like his teachings. He didn die to be a good example for us of self If you don understand why I saying that these are real false Gospels that people are portraying right now all around our country all around the world Jesus Christ died because God actually laid on Him the punishment that was due to satisfy His justice towards sin.

Because God is holy and God is perfect. God cannot be in the presence of sin. In fact, and it sounds like strong language maybe to some people, God hates sin. And some people say, well, God hates the sin but loves the sinner. I'll quote Paul Washer, God's not going to send sin into hell. He's going to put sinners in hell.

I'm not denying the love of God, but the love of God for all that is perfect, the love of God, the intra-Trinitarian love that's eternally perfect and unblemished, logically results in His total wrath against all that is contrary to what He stands for. every what we might call minute breaking of his perfect law is seen as cosmic treason it's as if you're walking up to a king's throne and spitting in his face every single time you even have an evil thought he cannot help but hate it this is what makes the fact that Jesus became a sacrifice for us the good news. This is what makes the atonement, Jesus suffering the penalty as our substitute such wonderful news. God treated His only Son as if He had lived the wicked, perverse, iniquitous life that each and every one of us had lived. and not only does God promise to forgive you of your sins and treat you as if you had never sinned if you will come to faith in Christ and turn to Him and believe in Him He also offers Jesus' life so that when you stand before God one day it's not just, hey I'm a blank slate because God forgave me through Jesus it's as if you did every single righteous act that that perfect man did when he walked the earth.

A few verses in Isaiah 53 that will remind us of this truth that Jesus died in our place. Listen for it. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted.

He bore our griefs, carried our sorrows. We, in some sense, properly understood that he was smitten by God. It's a dual meaning in this verse. Jesus was stricken and smitten by God in the sense that He was punished for the sins of the world when He endured the punishment of the cross. But at the same time, there were people who observed Jesus Christ's crucifixion.

And what did they say? Do you remember what the mockers said? Well, if you're the Son of God, come down! call on your father to help you, right? They mocked him. And so they esteemed him, smitten by God, not because, hey look, that guy's making substitutionary atonement for us because we're so wicked and we're so finite and imperfect, we could never do it ourselves.

We'd have to suffer for all eternity to not even scratch the surface of what we owe God for our sin, and he's doing it in a matter of hours. That's not what they meant. they were mocking him as if he wasn't truly the perfect son of God. That's what they considered him smitten and stricken by God. What they assumed wrongly and what health and wealth prosperity preachers all over this country will say to you is that if God loves you, everything will go well in your life.

And God wouldn't let one of his dear children suffer. and what they'll tell you is that if you just have enough faith you'll have health and wealth and prosperity and it always starts with you giving them something and they're smart enough to hide it a little bit so it's not always the first phone call but don't get sucked in by these false preachers God hates sin there's nobody that God speaks more sharply about in the scripture from what I can tell than false teachers verse 5 even more clear but he was pierced for our transgressions he was crushed for our iniquities Iniquities. Upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace. And with His wounds we are healed.

He was pierced for our transgressions. That makes sense in our mind. Because we all know they will look upon Him whom they have pierced. They pierced his hands, they pierced his feet, they cut open his side, right? We all know that. And thank God there's no pictures of it in here.

Protestants. There's still a second commandment that we obey, we don't modify it. So we have an idea of what that means to be pierced for our transgressions. Transgression generally meaning a crossing over of the law. So God gave us some good gifts, like private property is a nice gift. Having things is nice.

When you decide to steal what's not yours, you've now been a transgressor. You've taken a good thing God provided and you've made it. You've gone too far with it. So like premarital fornication would be a really good example of a transgression. But it says he was crushed for our iniquities. And iniquity is an interesting word.

It's another type of sin in some sense. I'm not convinced every time you see these two words, it's always trying to make this distinction. But I think a lot of it's called a synecdoche, where God uses multiple words to explain the same concepts to you, and a lot of times they have different meanings, and it helps you understand the whole. Iniquity is a twisting.

So whereas I just said that premarital fornication would be transgression, the transgender stuff and the homosexual stuff going on right now, which is all leading to pedophilia, just so you know. That's an iniquity. That's a twisting completely of what God has done into something that doesn't even look like what He intended. But it says He was crushed for our iniquities, and you have to ask yourself, when was He crushed?

We know His bones weren't broken. that was prophesied in Psalm 34. And that prophecy was fulfilled. Of course, every prophecy about the Messiah was fulfilled by Jesus. It's easy when you write the book to then play it out, right? When you're the guy that determined all of history, you can spell it out. But he wasn't crushed in any way that I can remember.

But it says he was crushed for our iniquities, and I'm convinced that he was crushed by his Father. that God in heaven was pouring out His righteous wrath for sin on this man. Upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace. Now we have atonement. It's one thing for Him to be punished because other people sinned. We can read that in this text. It says it brought us peace.

It brought us peace with God. If you want to read the Bible correctly, you have to have the Spirit of God enable you to do so. And you have to be very careful not to turn every passage into about you or about your country. Because there's people all over that don't know peace. Right now, while we're worshiping God in a warm building, or cold, whatever, it's comfortable, nice chairs.

You know that there are Christians right now being tortured. simply because they just say they believe in Jesus. So there's a lot of non-peace in the world. This is about peace with God in heaven. Reconciliation for your sins. You're hopelessly separated from God because of your evil, and if you have been born again, you have peace with God. in fact you can have a peace that surpasses all understanding let's continue 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 and it says stricken for the transgression of my people I'm just trying to bring out to you the frequency that in this one section of the Bible Jesus Christ is portrayed as making a penal substitutionary atonement without which nobody can be saved.

And I'll add this. If you're asking, well, how does he know this is about Jesus? It sure sounds like Jesus. Okay? Well, of all the texts in the Old Testament that the New Testament quotes. This is one of the most frequently quoted sections of Scripture other than maybe Psalm 110.

In the book of Acts, when Philip evangelizes the Ethiopian eunuch, the Ethiopian eunuch is reading this section of the Scripture and it was sufficient to save his soul. And there's several more times. Throughout the Gospels you'll see the quotation, and thus the prophecy was fulfilled. The prophecy from verse 15 of the previous chapter was quoted by Paul and Romans.

If you memorized one section of the Bible and you picked this one, I would not tell you it was a foolish choice. The whole Bible is profitable, but there's probably sections that aren't as practical to your life at times. This section would be good. And also ignore the chapter breaks. If you don't start this by reading in verse 13 of the previous chapter, you're not understanding.

Stricken for the transgression of my people, Jesus died for his people. this is a controversial statement in a lot of churches and to a lot of people but there will not be a single sinner in hell who can yell back at God but Jesus paid for my sins on the cross okay It's just not how atonement works. That is not the Jesus that is the victorious one. that Jesus who suffered on the cross died and was buried then rose again three days later for the justification of his people that Jesus who laid down his life for his bride who is the church didn't lay down his life for the very people that he was going to send to hell and he knew exactly who they all were verse 9 and they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death. He died with two wicked men.

And with a rich man in his death. Although he had done no violence and there was no deceit in his mouth, the perfect man. Yet it was the will of Yahweh to crush him. He has put him to grief. It's literally the will of God for Jesus to have died. This wasn't some mistake. he was delivered up according to the predetermined plan of God.

And you know what? That's what you can bank your eternity on. I know for some people I'm talking about lofty doctrines, and I might be saying things that people, they disagreed with at times. But the only way you know you're going to heaven is if the God who knows all things and planned all things said he's going to save you. You have no hope other than that.

But it's a perfect hope. It's a certain hope. He did not die to make men savable, but he died to save them. That's Spurgeon. So, let's turn back to 1 Peter. so that was a little explanation of some of those verses 1 Peter 2 I'd like to make a little application for you there's a few groups of people here today there's at least two groups there's one group of people here today who are Christians you've been regenerated by the Holy Spirit of God you've believed on the Lord Jesus Christ you understand the gospel you know that he's your hope and you're trying to live this life in this cursed world the best you can serving him and you need encouragement and you need edification and teaching and there's people in this room who don't yet know Jesus Christ as Savior I like sometimes to call them the pre-saved you know that's a hopeful way of talking about these are Baptist churches.

That's how we talk about our kids, right? We're not Presbyterians here, so we don't presume these things. In 1 Peter 2, when Peter's trying to tell people how to be holy, he's trying to tell them how to submit to authority, and he decides to use Jesus Christ as an example, which of course he's our perfect example, when he's telling servants or slaves to be subject to their masters.

He says in verse 18, Be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the unjust. He says, for this is a gracious thing when mindful of God one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. If anyone in the history of the world had a right to shout, that's not fair. It was Jesus Christ. Well, let's see what he did. For what credit is it if when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure?

Okay, so if you're punished because you did something bad, there's no credit for that. But if when you do good and suffer for it, you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. Another false teaching that's floating around today is that Jesus did it all for you and you got nothing to do.

You've got nothing to do to earn your salvation, but you've got a lot to do if He's left you here and given you His Spirit and a whole bunch of commands to follow. You've got to follow in His steps. But listen, He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in His mouth. Does that sound like Isaiah 53? It's a direct quotation. When He was reviled, He did not revile in return.

That's tough. When He suffered, He did not threaten, but continued entrusting Himself to Him who judges justly. The one who could have called 15,000 angels to help him out was led like a lamb to the slaughter and he opened not his mouth because it was God's will that he do that. He continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins substitutionary atonement in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.

There is no gospel that saves people from their sins, guarantees them future glorification, which is, I think, the wound healing that we could be really hopeful about, but doesn't also promise practical sanctification in this life. By His wounds you've been healed. I believe that we've been healed from our spiritual sickness. In those wounds, you turn to Romans 8, but I do believe that our future glorification is in view when we recognize that so if you a Christian today I gonna say something one of the clearest marks of your election is that you suffer at the hands of God enemies Romans 8, 16 and 17.

The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. So this is the context of this sentence. And He says, And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, which is the whole sermon in there, he says, and fellow heirs with Christ. And then he says, provided we suffer with him in order that you may be glorified with him. Jesus said, if any man would come after me, let him take up his cross and deny himself.

Nobody in here is carrying a cross, and I hope you don't. Watch these Catholic guys crucify each other on Easter or Good Friday. They probably did it today. They probably marched across Guatemala or whatever. You're supposed to die to yourself. But the spirit bearing witness with your spirit that you're a child of God is done through the suffering that you endure.

Turn to verse 32. instead of Jesus being smitten by God as if God didn't love his son verse 32 of Romans 8 says he who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all how will he not also with him graciously give us all things if God didn't spare his own son don't think that somehow you're going to do better if they hated him they're going to hate you too again one of the clearest marks of your election is that you suffer at the hands of God's enemies that's what Jesus did and Jesus was the elect big E and the rest of us if we are going to identify with Jesus Christ in a sin cursed and wicked world filled with people who hate him and everything he stands for you will suffer too listen to Philippians 1 verse 28 and 29, and not frightened in anything by your opponents. And he says, this is a clear sign to them, your opponents, of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God. Not being afraid of God's enemies.

Not being afraid of your opponents. That's a sign to them of their destruction and your salvation. And he says, for it's been granted to you. Anybody ever want a gift? Here, here's a gift. Listen.

It's been granted to you that for the sake of Christ, you should not only believe in Him, but also suffer for His sake. The reason why we're told to count it all joy, which I know is difficult at times, it's a difficult world, is that your suffering is actually God's mark on you that's telling you He loves you, that you're one of His. the world will tell you your God has forsaken you but when Jesus cried out my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He was the one that was forsaken so that we could be forgiven again, one of the clearest marks of your election is that you suffer at the hands of God's enemies I want you to be comforted by that.

I want Christians who are suffering now, or if you're not, I'm not trying to prophesy, but I'll say you will. Especially if you live for Jesus. But all those who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. Sometimes I wonder, maybe we're not quite living quite an openly godly life for Christ Jesus as we ought. What's the little pithy saying people sometimes say is if becoming a Christian became illegal, would there be enough evidence to convict you?

Maybe a heart check for some of us. Back to Isaiah 52. For those of you in the room who don't yet know Jesus Christ, you've sat through this whole thing and maybe you've daydreamed, dreamed. Maybe you're making some story up in your mind. I don't know why you're here. I don't know why you go to church.

I don't know who you're trying to fake out. You can fake out the whole world. You're not going to fake out God. I want you to know the gospel of Jesus Christ. I want you to know that you are personally responsible for each and every time that you've sinned before God. that God's holy justice requires punishment for your sin. And that God, who is good and merciful and kind, has sent a substitute into the world to pay the penalty that sinners deserve.

That Jesus Christ is that substitute. the only son of God became man born of the virgins without original sin Jesus was not in the covenant of Adam I can't preach at Jesus and say well you would have sinned too because he wouldn't have he wasn't in that covenant Jesus created a new covenant in his blood and he did everything God commanded him to do he lived the perfect life you and I could not live spoke when he should have spoke, and was quiet when he should have been quiet. And if any of us could ever even get that down, we'd be pretty good people. Okay?

And he did all the other things right as well Every single moment of Jesus life was to the glory of God And then he was murdered. And he shed his blood to pay the penalty that sinners deserve because we needed a man to represent us, because we needed an intercessor, a high priest, who was one of us, who could sympathize with us, who understood our weakness and yet was without sin. But we also needed an eternal God who could actually pay an infinite penalty.

One way to heaven, and it's through belief that that man who suffered and died and was buried rose again. Don't truncate the gospel that Jesus died for your sins. I don't even tell people Jesus died for their sins. I say Jesus died for sinners. Do you believe? That's what I do. don't forget to mention the resurrection.

Don't forget to praise Him for it because you will be raised with Him. That's your hope. Hey, you got a bad knee? You won't have a bad knee one day. Well, that sounds great, but guess what? One day you won't even understand what it's like to sin.

You'll have like some memory, I suppose, of it. But you won't have the inclination at all. That is heaven. not being able to sin and seeing our Savior face to face Isaiah 52.13 it's interesting the way this chapter is laid out because I feel like the end is at the beginning he says behold my servant shall act wisely speaking of Jesus Christ Jesus Christ is the servant that God made a covenant with to redeem a people for himself if he would do all that he was commanded all that he ought to do it says he shall be high and lifted up that's the cross he shall be high and lifted up and shall be exalted Paul said after Christ's humiliation because he came and was willing to take on human flesh and take the form of a servant therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him a name that is above every name Jesus obeying what he was to obey and then dying a death he did not deserve, suffering the humiliation of that and even continuing under the power of death for a time he was exalted this is all predicted there's very few people in the world I know, who if you read this chapter to them wouldn't recognize, well, it's clearly about Jesus.

They might not believe it, but it's so clear. But listen, it says, as many were astonished at you, so shall he sprinkle many nations. So ignore those hyphens or em dashes for a second. He was marred. He was brutalized. It's not the point.

As many as were astonished at you, so shall he sprinkle many nations. the gospel has spread in a way that is just unfathomable by any human contemplation there have been countless religions that have come and gone that you've never heard of because their leader died and nobody cared enough to carry it on there's been a few big ones that Satan controls pretty well I think but the only reason that many nations now have the gospel is that Jesus promised to sprinkle the nations with the gospel. Praise the Lord for that. Kings shall shut their mouths because of Him.

If kings are going to shut their mouths because of Jesus, shouldn't you? Shouldn't it stop your mouth to contemplate what He's done? because what has not been told before, now you see it. What you've not heard, you understand. Don't be one of the people that Isaiah laments, and I lament and every other believer in here laments who has believed what he has heard from us?

It's a rhetorical question. His point is nobody's believing what he's saying. Jesus dying for your sins is something for you to believe. Jesus being raised from the dead that you might have new life is what you are commanded to embrace and to trust for the forgiveness of sins and your eternal salvation. Pray with me. Father in heaven, your grace and kindness poured out upon us through the grace of Jesus Christ is overwhelming.

Our cup overflows. We thank you for the numerous scriptures we can recall at any time reminding us you're the good shepherd. That Yahweh is our shepherd and we shall not lack anything that we need. Our cup overflows and you anoint us as you anointed your son Jesus. We pray that you would enable us by the power of your spirit to walk with him faithfully. during this time of year when we have a particular focus on the cross and the resurrection encourage our hearts that our suffering is temporary, that Jesus is worth following, and that those around us are important enough to give the gospel to.

In Christ's name I pray. Amen.