The Savior in Isaiah 53

To read, please, in Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53. I hardly need to say this, but I hardly think I could find a greater chapter in all the Bible.

Isaiah 53, we're going to begin at the beginning of it and read the chapter. Who hath believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of a dry ground. He hath no form or comeliness, and when we shall see him there is no beauty that we should desire him.

He is despised and rejected of men. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. We hid as it were our faces from him.

He was despised and we esteemed him not. Now, younger Christians maybe need to hear this again, but these words of Isaiah were written about seven and a half centuries before Christ was born. Look with me at verse 4 again.

Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.

The chastisement, the punishment of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

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 shears his dung, so we openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison and 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 this is a real death. He made his grave with the wicked. I take it that's Pilate, the Roman authority.

But with the rich, and that's a plural, with rich men in his death, because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. I think the next verse is one of the most amazing verses in all the Bible. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him.

That word bruise is the strongest word in the Hebrew language to describe suffering. It pleased the Lord to crush him. He hath put him to grief.

When thou shalt 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 hand. He shall see, after death, he shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities.

Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoiled with the strong, because he hath poured out his soul unto death. And he was numbered with the transgressors, and he bared the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. I would have to say again that I have to speak on what I'm enjoying, and I would say that these words have been speaking in my heart this week very much.

I think if you look through Isaiah 53, you will find amazing prophecies. In fact, the treasury of prophecy in this passage is so tremendous that you couldn't read this and have any understanding of its fulfillment and not believe that this is the Word of God. How would Isaiah know that these twelve events would happen to our Savior on Calvary? Could not possibly know it by any other means than by the revelation that comes alone from God.

So this is the great treasury of prophecy. This is the great tragedy of sin, because he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.

I think the closing clause of that verse is absolutely amazing. With his wound, with a stroke of judgment that fell on him, we are healed. So this is the tragedy of sin, but here is the truth of the cross.

And how could you go through these verses and not be totally impressed with all that it says about the Savior? These are wondrous words for believers, and these are wondrous words for worshipers. But these are also blessed words for seekers and for sinners like us. What message can be greater, can have more meaning than he was wounded for our transgressions? He was bruised for our iniquities.

The punishment that should fall upon us fell upon him, and with his strikes we are healed. So this is the truth of the cross, and of course in this wondrous chapter is the triumph of the resurrection. You couldn't read this without understanding that he truly died.

It was a real death. It was the only death of that nature that ever, ever had happened. Because he gave himself up to death.

He died of his own voluntary will. You remember what he said in the Gospel of John? No man taketh my life from me. Did you think men killed the Lord Jesus? No, they did not.

They could not. No man taketh my life from me. I lay it down of myself.

I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it again. I've been staggered as I've read Isaiah 53 these last few days at men's estimation of this blessed one. He is despised.

There's hardly a word stronger than that. He is despised and rejected from amongst men. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

Sinner's estimation of the Savior. But there's something even more amazing in Isaiah 53. I think the silence of the Lord Jesus in his suffering is beyond our comprehension.

He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as the sheep before her shears his dung, so he opened not his mouth. So the estimation of man is amazing in Isaiah 53, but the silence of the Savior is even more amazing.

There is another fact that I've mentioned already that perhaps is the greatest truth we know. God's pleasure. The satisfaction that was given to divine holiness, to the righteous claims of a just and holy God.

He was fully satisfied with what Christ endured, with what Christ suffered on Calvary. So God's pleasure, it pleased the Lord. How do we understand that? It pleased the Lord to bruise him.

I can only understand it in this way. God's holiness demands punishment for sin, and that punishment was meted out to the Savior on Calvary. It was God who wounded him.

You know, I know there are many who have read these words and thought the wounds are the nails, or the thorns, or the lash, or even the spear. No, those are not the wounds that are described here. You know why I know they are not? Because men could never have wounded him for our transgressions, or bruised him for our iniquities.

Only God could do that. The God who must punish sin, he meted out to his own son the full measure of his wrath, his judgment against sin. So God wounded him and crushed him underneath the load of guilt and sin on Calvary.

I've been going over these words in this way in my own heart, and this is not new to me and maybe not new to you, but this beautiful chapter tells us of the moral beauty of the Savior. There was no beauty in him that men should desire him, but oh, what beauty in that blessed, lovely person. He is actually described here as the root out of a dry ground, and he is the plant that is tender.

What a Savior, what a Lord. So he has moral beauty. But this is something you know well.

Isaiah 1 is describing a leper. In fact, the book of Isaiah has very much the thought of leprosy as a terrible disease like sin. And at the very beginning of this book of Isaiah, I was preaching with a young man one night, you've heard me tell this maybe, but he got up on the platform and he said, I want to read from the Gospel of Isaiah.

And then he said, oh I'm sorry, I didn't mean that. I said to him after a minute, I hope you didn't mean it. This is truly the Gospel according to Isaiah.

And this blessed Savior that was so marred, he has moral beauty, but he had missing sores. Because in Isaiah 1, the leper is described from the sole of the foot to the head with no soundness but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. So in Isaiah 53, you have the wounds, you have the bruises.

What's missing? Putrefying sores. Wounds and bruises come without putrefying sores from within. The Savior was absolutely holy, so the sores are missing.

But I want you to think with me just for a moment of the many sorrows of the Savior. I don't believe that we can begin to understand the sorrow that the man of sorrows knew. Not only in this world as he saw the ravages of sin on every hand, but as he suffered on the cross under the weight of guilt, our guilt, our sin.

All the many sorrows that he bore, and all the crown of thorns he wore, that we might live forevermore is more than tongue can tell. So the Savior had many sorrows. He was the man of sorrows.

He earned the title as no other ever has earned it. The man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. But think of his marred body.

If you were to go back to verse 14 of Isaiah 52, you would read that he was so marred, more than any man in his form, more than the sons of men. Now I know men marred him. And I know that on the cross as he hung in agony, nailed to the tree, he was unrecognizable.

But oh, this marring is much deeper. It is much greater. It was from God.

He was so marred, more than any man in his form, more than the sons of men. But I want you to think of the majestic dignity of this blessed Lord. I gave my back to the smiters, he said.

My cheeks to those who plucked off the hairs. I hid not my face from shame and spitting. What an amazing prophecy that is.

Literally fulfilled as wicked men spat on his blessed face and gambled for his garment. But think of his mysterious death. A death that we could never, never fully understand.

And all eternity is only going to make it a greater wonder to us. The Lord Jesus suffered. I don't need to tell you that, do I? That he suffered.

He suffered as a man because he must become a man that he might die. He suffered with men because he had a heart of tender sympathy and compassion. He suffered from men because they mocked him and spit upon him and bruised him and wounded him and nailed him to the tree.

He suffered before men. They were witnesses to the sufferings of the Lamb of God. But he suffered for man.

That is the greatest wonder to me. He was wounded. And I say this very humbly and simply.

He was wounded for my transgressions. He was bruised for my iniquities. Have you ever wondered that Isaiah could use the past tense of an event that wouldn't happen for over 700 years? But you see, in God's purposes it could not fail.

The Lord Jesus would go to the cross. It must happen. The Lord Jesus said that.

The Scripture must be fulfilled. He couldn't fail. So he suffered for man.

But listen, this is a point that I want to impress on my heart and yours. He suffered more than any man. No one has ever suffered as the Savior suffered.

No one has ever gone through the agony of his holy soul. And so he actually was the tender plant, but he was the Lamb. Led to the slaughter.

The Lamb of God led to the slaughter. That's a very powerful word, by the way. It means torture.

It means an agony that is beyond words. He was the Lamb led to the slaughter. And as the sheep before her shears his dung, so he opened not his mouth.

Have you noticed the many titles of the Lord Jesus that are in Isaiah 53? Of course, he is the root out of the dry ground. He is the righteous servant. He is the man of sorrows.

He is the Lamb led to the slaughter. And thank God, this blessed one who suffered in agony on the cross, he shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities.

So there are tremendous contrasts in this chapter, and I've been enjoying them this week. If you look at the word yet that is found in verse 4, verse 7, verse 10, you'll see some of the greatest contrasts to be found in all the Bible. The great contrast between howling men and the silent Savior.

Around the cross men mocked him in death to his last laboring breath, but he was silent in his agony, dying crushed beneath the load of the wrath and curse of God. So, do you believe the Bible? How could you help but believe it? These words were all written centuries before the events happened. We cannot tell you what's going to happen a day from now.

This is the word of God. This is the living word. And this blessed one who died on the cross, he lives.

You couldn't read Isaiah 53 and not know that it is teaching resurrection. Because his soul is offered as an offering for sin. But he shall see his seed.

He shall, listen to this word, he shall prolong his days. That's real to my heart. He can never die.

He is the eternal one. He will prolong his days forever and forever and forever. And because he lives, we shall live also.