Phil Beach Jr. emphasizes the profound humility and lowliness of Jesus as depicted in Isaiah 53, illustrating how the Savior's appearance and life do not appeal to the proud or self-sufficient. He warns against the tendency to dress Jesus up to make Him more appealing to the masses, stressing that true revelation of Christ comes to those with a broken and contrite heart. The sermon highlights that Jesus, who was despised and rejected, bore our sins and offers salvation to those who recognize their need for Him. Beach encourages believers to seek a deeper understanding of Jesus, who is hidden from the proud but revealed to the humble. Ultimately, he calls for a commitment to stay in the Word and keep one's heart fixed on Jesus.

Ray, let's get acquainted with the Savior this morning. Isaiah 53 will acquaint us with him. Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? Well, we can answer that question by going to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. The Lord Jesus does not appeal to the flesh. The Lord does not appeal to the proud. The Lord does not appeal to the arrogant. The Lord does not appeal to the self-sufficient. The Lord does not appeal to the independent. This is why the apostles cried with Isaiah, who hath believed our report and to whom has the Lord revealed himself? The apostles discovered the rude awakening that a lowly Savior being presented to a self-sufficient world doesn't bring respect and love. The Lord is hid to the natural mind, to the natural man. Religion has done a great injustice to biblical Christianity. We have tried to dress Jesus up. We've tried to dress him up so that he appeals to the masses, so that our churches can grow and our budgets can multiply and our income can be in an ever-increasing manner. We've dressed the lowly man of Galilee up and have made him appealing to a sinner, in that the sinner can stay in his sins. We've changed his appearance. We've created a Jesus that doesn't offend, that doesn't bring men to a crisis, that doesn't require men to bow before him before they can see him and know him and understand him. Paul warned the Corinthians that even at the time when the New Testament Church was just birthed into existence, there had already begun to be propagated a different Jesus, a different gospel, and a different spirit. A different Jesus, a different gospel, and a different spirit. So let's get acquainted with the Jesus of the Bible this morning. Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? He grew up before him like a tender shoot and like a root out of dry ground. Dry ground. He wasn't born in a king's palace, was he dearly? Jesus wasn't born in kingly robes. He was wrapped in swaddling clothes. Dry ground. We don't look for God in dry places, we look for, we often try and look for God in exciting places, things that appeal to the natural man. Jesus grew up in dry ground. You know, there were quite a bit of beautiful places in Rome at the time when Jesus was born, weren't there? Now I'm not gonna fool anybody, I'm not a history student and I don't know that much about it. I know, you know, just a little bit about the times when Jesus was born, but I do know one thing. There were many more nicer places where God could have had his Son come into the world. Jesus's first congregation was a donkey and a horse. He didn't have silk garments, he had hay. Why? Beloved, why? Why did God send Jesus in such a place to be born? So that there was nothing about everything that Jesus was, there was nothing about his birth, there was nothing about his life that appealed to the natural man. That's why. What rich man would walk into the stable and bear the smell of manure to bow down and worship Jesus? I'll tell you the one that would, the poor in spirit, the leper. Oh how I long for a revelation of the purity of who Jesus really is. Jesus, the one who decided he was gonna be born in a stable, manure is cologne. Why? Because Jesus wants to be repugnant to anything that looks at him other than a broken and contrite heart. Jesus doesn't want to appeal in a fleshly way to anybody. He doesn't. That's why he hid himself in a stable. But oh how Jesus, the bread of heaven, appeals to the soul that sees your utter inability, your utter powerlessness. When a soul responds to the revelation of God's love and the revelation of its need for a Savior, it will walk into a stable, smell the manure, pass through the cows and the donkeys, because see those things only bother pride. See those things are repugnant to pride. See God hides himself in clothes that reek to pride. God hides himself in clothes. God fashions himself and is hid in that which is a savor of death to the proud and the arrogant and the haughty to keep him away. See the Lord's presence in the Lord's throne is filled with praise and worship. The angels cry holy, holy, holy every day. The four and twenty-four elders fall down and bow at his knees. See the scene does not appeal to the proud. It doesn't appeal to the arrogant. It doesn't appeal to the self-sufficient. It appeals to those who are lowered in his presence. Now listen to this, oh I thank God the Lord even hides himself from me. He hides himself from me when I get to walking in a cocky way to teach me that only the meek and the humble in heart will see him. He grew up before him like a tender shoot and like a root out of dry ground. Now listen to this, I'd love this, he had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him. Should Christianity find ways to make the Lord beautiful and attracting to the world so we can increase our numbers? He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him. Nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. Can you see this revelation of God friends? I pray that God will open up the eyes of our understanding. There was nothing about the person of Jesus Christ when he came as a man that would have caused any man to desire him. There was nothing about his appearance that appealed to the pride of life, to the lust of the flesh, or to the lust of the eyes. Nothing. He was repugnant to the religious Pharisee. He was despised and rejected by men. Verse number three, he was despised and rejected by men. A man of sorrows and familiar with suffering, like one from whom men hide their faces. He was despised and we esteemed him not. Didn't Jesus say that which is highly esteemed among men is what? Abominable to God. What is the Holy Spirit doing? Revealing the true beauty of Jesus Christ. Not a beauty that appeals to our flesh, but a beauty that appeals to a broken heart, a contrite spirit. Verse four, surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we were healed. We all like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers in silent. So he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away, and who can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living, for the transgression of my people he has been stricken. You see, this is where the New Testament writers understood the revelation that Christ came to bear the sins of the world. Right here in Isaiah chapter 53, God describes prophetically what Jesus would do. He describes what Jesus was like, and remember friends, he doesn't change. He describes what he looked like to the natural man, but oh, when the natural man is broken by the working of the Holy Spirit, and the pride of man is crushed, how appealing he looks. He becomes my only hope. He becomes my only salvation. Huh. He becomes the lover of my soul. I fall in love with him. I want to be with him all the time. Just last night we had some folks fellowshipping, and we were saying, wonder what it would be like if Jesus came walking down the steps, and came walking into our midst, and sat down on a chair. What would he talk to us about? What would Jesus talk to us about? Would he talk to us about parables? Would he tell us about the kingdom of God? Would he tell us about things to come? Maybe he'd tell us about some sin in our life. I don't know, but I had this intense longing. I wished, I even prayed and said, Lord I wished you would come down the steps. I know he wasn't gonna, but I love him. I want to see him. I want to touch him. Just think, the Creator, imagine hearing words coming out of his mouth. I mean, that's not some man talk. That's God. Wow. Imagine. What would Jesus say if he came walking in here? I mean, there he is, man. No wonder Peter, no wonder Peter hid his face from him and said, Lord depart from me. I'm a sinful man. I mean, Peter saw. This is the, this is the Lord of heaven. Wow. Does your heart pant to know Jesus? I need to know him. Maybe you should pray and say, Lord keep making my heart stir for you. This is good. Verse number nine, he was assigned a grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the Lord's will to crush him and cause him to suffer. And though the Lord makes his life or his soul a guilt offering or a sin 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. That's why he's King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He is the King, God, the father. Therefore God have highly exalted him and given him a name, which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess to the glory of God the father. Amen. There's no one that Jesus is accountable to, friends. He is the God of accountability and we're accountable to him. God has given him a name. Remember what the father said? This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Would the God we can come to the place in our life where all we care about is God's pleasure on our life. Therefore I will give him a portion among the great. 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. There it is, friends. Verses 1 through 3. The Savior's garments. Remember, repugnant and repulsive to the natural man. God will always hide his true work from the natural, strong, arrogant man, but to the lowly and the poor and the meek and the hungry in spirit. That which is repugnant becomes lovely. That which is not appealing becomes so drawing and so attracting. Verses 4 through 9. The Savior's mission. He took our sins, beloved. He bore our sins on his body that we may become righteous before God the Father. And verses 10 through 12. 1 through 3. The Savior's garments. 4 through 9. The Savior's mission. And 10 through 12. The Savior's joy. The Savior's joy is realized every time a sinner responds to the convicting power of the Holy Spirit, falls down upon his face, and says, My God and my Lord, save me from my sin. Why did Jesus do it? Just for that. The joy that was set before him, Hebrews, what was the joy? He foresaw that in bearing the sins of the world, some would come to him. Beloved, in closing, may I encourage you, never lose vision of Jesus Christ. Stay in the Word of God. Keep your heart in the love of God. Regularly wait on the Lord. Learn to do it in the morning, in the night, I don't know when. Keep your heart fixed on Jesus, and let him reveal himself to you, and you will never, ever lack. And God will become your strength. Amen. Norman, do you know the song, Open Our Eyes?