No season of Lent, we might say, that it's called would be complete without a consideration of Isaiah's prophecy in Isaiah chapter 53. So we turn there this morning, Isaiah chapter 53 serving as our text. Now, there's no way we can consider this chapter in minute detail. But in these 12 verses, as I see it, it's split up into four sections, three verses each. And there's a specific theme, we might say, with regard to each of those sections. This is a portion of Isaiah in which Isaiah considers the suffering servant, the servant songs of our Lord. And in chapter 52, it talks about our Lord returning to Zion. And at the end of chapter 52 and in chapter 53, it talks about a very disturbing reception of the Lord. We begin reading at chapter 52, verse 13 through the end of 53. And again, chapter 53 serving as the text this morning. Hear now the Word of God. Verse 13 of chapter 52. See, my servant will act wisely. He will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted. Just as there were many who were appalled at him, his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man, and his form marred beyond human likeness, so will he sprinkle many nations and kings will shut their mouths because of him. For what they were not told, they will see. And what they have not heard, they will understand. 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. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. 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. 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 are 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 is 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 was stricken. 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 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. Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, I am a lousy artist. You wouldn't cross the street to see my artwork. I'm sure my parents simply tried to gratify me as they looked at my artwork and said, very nice, son, we see. We see what you were trying to draw. And that's why I'm so amazed by those who have been blessed with such artistic talent as some of you have been. I've seen some of your work. You have been blessed with artistic talent to be able to draw and paint beautiful, lifelike nature scenes and characters and portraits and all kinds of things. And it's amazing to me that with a proper background and with such minute detail and with appropriate shadows and shading as well as spectacular color, you are able to create breathtaking work of art to which I can only respond, wow, that's amazing. And I know that the inspiration for your work comes in different ways. Maybe because of something you've seen. Maybe it has to do with a sunset or a person. Or maybe your inspiration and ideas have come from something you read and ideas have been formed in your mind, but your inspiration, you see, for what you work on comes from something that already exists. Isaiah paints a portrait here. But he does of something 700 years into the future. And his inspiration did not come from something that he saw with the naked eye. It didn't come from something he read about and therefore formulated certain ideas. Yet his inspiration was based on something that had existed from eternity. And that is a plan of God that was revealed to him by the Holy Spirit as Isaiah paints a portrait of the Savior. Now this portrait wasn't necessarily a pretty picture to the human eye, but it was a clear picture as he paints a portrait of the Savior with a background of his being rejected, verses 1, 2, and 3. With a detail of his redeeming work, verses 4 through 6. with a shadow of His humble resignation, verses 7-9, and with a brilliance of His glorious reward, verses 10-12. In chapter 53, Isaiah prophesies, as we know, of the message of the cross of Jesus. And the New Testament applies this chapter to Christ in a number of New Testament passages, one of the most notable, no doubt, being in the book of Acts, when we read about Philip coming upon the chariot of the Ethiopian eunuch, and the eunuch is reading Isaiah 53 and Philip says, do you understand? He says, how can I? Unless somebody explains it to me. Is the author talking about himself or someone else? And therefore, Philip teaches him about the message of the cross of Jesus. The message of what Jesus Christ did to save sinners. And already, so many years before, Isaiah describes that clearly. What it involved. What it included. And as he paints this portrait of the Savior, He does so, first of all, with the background of His being, the Savior being rejected. That's what we see in the first three verses. He was rejected because of His unexpected appearance. Now, why unexpected? Is it because He all of a sudden popped on the scene just like that out of nowhere? No. It was unexpected because it was humble. It was ordinary. Now, we know that those who do not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ walk by sight. sight. They walk according to their physical senses. They do not walk by faith. Isaiah speaks here as if this has already taken place. In a sense, he pushes himself all those years into the future and talks as if it's the Jews of Jesus' day, we might say. And they rejected Jesus because Jesus did not fit their expectation for the Messiah. Well, what did they expect? Well, they knew that He would be the Son of David and therefore certainly He must be royalty and therefore He would be surrounded by splendor and majesty and pomp and circumstance and all kind of earthly power. And therefore also as a powerful king, He would put His enemies, at that time the Romans, He would put them under His feet. After all, isn't that what Psalm 2 was pointing to? They had Psalm 2. God would set His king on His holy hill, namely Zion. That had to be Jerusalem. And the nations would be given to Him as His inheritance. He would possess as His very own the ends of the earth. He would crush His enemies. Couldn't be any more clear than that, right? And since He would be the son of David, He would have an uncommon physical beauty and a magnetic personality like David and maybe his son Absalom, remember him? One whom people would not be able to take their eyes off. They wouldn't be able to resist him. You see, they expected a Messiah that would be like one they had never seen before. And how true that was. But sadly, their reaction was more like this. We hope that we never see anyone like him again. Why? Why? Because He was exactly the opposite of what they expected. Verse 2 here describes the earthly humility of the Messiah. He grew up before Him like a tender shoot and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him. Isaiah describes Him as a tender shoot. Now, we would call that, in terms of a tree, a little sucker branch on a tree that grows somewhat unnoticed where you don't want it and it simply steals the nourishment from the other parts of the tree that need it more. Again, it grows when you don't see it. When it is found, it's cut off, it's thrown away. Christ is described as a tender shoot, not as a great and powerful tree. He grew up unnoticed. And when he was discovered, as it were, they didn't want him. And Isaiah describes him as a root out of dry ground. I believe this simply points to his humble situation. He was born and raised in a carpenter's home. He grew up in the city of Nazareth, of all places. His family was ordinary. Nothing special about them. They were not socialites. Not well-known, not popular, not prestigious. not important in society. And if you think about it, a rut in dry ground is a hopeless picture, isn't it? It's a picture of certain death. And His crucifixion is a picture to many of hopelessness. A sign of His defeat. He was the complete opposite of what they expected. But then we might also ask, what should they have expected? They had the Word of God. They had the Old Testament. They knew that Isaiah said the virgin would conceive and bear a son, pointing to his humble beginning. That Isaiah said a child would be born, a son would be given. They knew that Zacharias said that the king would come riding, not on a nice war stallion, but on a donkey colt, a beast of burden. They may have even heard of the reports from the shepherds on the hillside that the angel said, To you a Savior has been born who is Christ the Lord. And He is laid, well, not in a royal palace in Jerusalem, but in a manger in Bethlehem. And they had these words of Isaiah that there would be nothing physically stunning or magnetic about Him to delight the human eye. To draw people to Himself. Humanly speaking, He would be just a plain guy. Ordinary. And we know that as His humility is seen in that He emptied Himself of the glory and the splendor of heaven and He was veiled in flesh, not even attractive flesh. And He came into a world shrouded in sin and shame. Simply unbelievable to those who rejected Him. As Isaiah says, who has believed our message? The Jews did not respond as the shepherds on the hillside who said, let's go see this thing that has happened. And they went in haste and they worshipped. And we know, beloved, that without faith, without faith by the power of the Holy Spirit, even though one sees God's power, and we see His power and grandeur all around us, and even though one sees, as many did, the miracles of our Lord Jesus Christ healing and raising the dead, without faith they will reject Him as they did because Jesus Christ did not fit their expectation. John 12, verses 37 and 38 says, But although He had done so many signs before them, they did not believe in Him that the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled. And in Romans 10, verse 16, Paul says, But they have not all obeyed the Gospel, for Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our report. He was rejected, beloved, because his own were embarrassed of him. Look at verse 3. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering, like one from whom men hide their faces as if embarrassed. He was despised and we esteemed him not. That embarrassment was demonstrated in the fact that he was despised. He wasn't wanted. Boys and girls, they looked down upon him. He was rejected, forsaken. They turned their backs on him. They did not esteem Him. That means in their eyes, He had no value. He was not worthwhile. Because of His humble appearance and humble surrounding His own did not see His value. They did not see their need for Him. And it's somewhat ironic that the great people of this world, those who might lead nations successfully or those who find cures for diseases or those who do some other great work or worse, athletes and musicians. They're not simply appreciated. But in our day, they're exalted. They're adored. They're worshipped. And people want to be associated with their name because of their popularity. But Christ, the King of kings, was put to death on the cross because in the sight of men, He was nothing great. He was an embarrassment. They didn't want to be associated with Him. And sadly, we know today the same thing is true, is He is rejected by many because He does not satisfy their wants and their desires when and how they want Him to. They see no value in Jesus Christ. And therefore, in their own minds, they create a Savior of their own making which is right for them. What about you and me? Do we desire to be associated with the name of Jesus Christ? Yet against the background of this rejection, Isaiah continues to paint, and he paints then with the detail of his redeeming work, verses 4-6. On the canvas of this rejection, he paints with the detail of the Savior's redeeming work. Now those verses, verses 4-6, point directly to the cross. And there Isaiah details the depth of his suffering and shame, yet for a glorious purpose. And we notice there that his redeeming work included suffering. There's no mistake about that. We know that, don't we? We consider this in a specific way each and every year at this time of the year. There's no mistake about his suffering, and Isaiah made no mistake about it. Notice those verses. 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 are 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. And of course, the Gospel accounts verify these details that Isaiah gives us. His redeeming work included suffering, first of all, from the hands of men. He suffered because of the rejection and the hatred of men. If that wasn't bad enough, though, he was bound, boys and girls, he was handcuffed, he was tied up. He was shoved, he was hit, he was spit on, he was mocked, he was whipped. And that was painful because in the cord of the whip was woven sharp pieces of bone or wood or other sharp objects which literally tore the flesh on one's back. He suffered with that crown of thorns being pushed down on His head, no doubt, so that those thorns pierced His head. And the crucifixion. The nails being driven all the way through His hands and feet. And the excruciating pain that He suffered on the cross, which you and I cannot even begin to imagine. But that wasn't even the worst of His suffering. He also suffered from the hand of God. Why? Because of our sin and rebellion against God. Because of our crooked, sin-soaked nature. Because of our guilt. We were the guilty. We offended God. But He took the full wrath of God. Yet again, it's a little bit ironic that the people did not see the truth of why Jesus Christ suffered this way. They did not see the truth that it was for the sin of others. And I believe we see that if we look close at the last part of verse 4. Yet we considered Him stricken by God, smitten by Him, and afflicted. In other words, they thought He deserved what He got. Just like Paul on the island of Malta that we considered a few weeks ago when Paul was bitten by that deadly snake. Right away the people said, He must be a murderer. He's going to die. He must have taken someone else's life. They measured the sin of the sufferer by the degree of the suffering. And we know that they had accused Jesus of sin. They accused Him of working for Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons. They accused Him of blasphemy. They accused Him of claiming to be God. And surely, if they who feared God so and who were God's special people, if they were able to read right through this man, And if they hated him so, then certainly God must hate him too. His redeeming work included suffering, but it also included substitution. And his part of the substitution, beloved, was his complete destruction. Notice the descriptive words in the text. Stricken, smitten, afflicted, pierced, crushed, punished, wounded. All of those point to complete destruction. including a violent and a painful death brothers and sisters Jesus Christ went the whole distance not just part way and left the rest for you and I but he went the whole distance he left nothing unfinished our sin deserved eternal hell and anguish our sin deserved eternal separation from God's favor and the eternal punishment that flows from God's wrath We deserve to be eternally cut off from God and His fellowship. But Jesus took it all. Every bit of it. For us. That's hard for us to comprehend because we have not been completely separated from God and by the grace of God never will be. So we cannot totally understand this, but Jesus took it all. And our side then is complete salvation. His is complete destruction. Ours is complete salvation. He took what we deserve. He gave what we do not deserve. In Matthew 8, verses 16 and 17, Matthew points to Christ's casting out of demons and His healings as a fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy here that He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses. And we know that our Lord's healing ministry points to our spiritual healing. In verse 5, Isaiah says, His punishment. Punishment is far from peaceful, isn't it? But His punishment. He took on the peacelessness and His punishment brought us peace with God. Favor with God. And by His wounds, He was wounded. And what do we get? We get healing. Healing of our sin-diseased soul that brings only eternal death. And as Paul says, in Him we are new creations. His redeeming work included suffering and substitution, but it included one more thing. It included the truth that salvation is only the work of God. Why did Jesus do this? Why did He suffer? Why did He substitute Himself? Well, not because we desired it. Not because we asked for it. We didn't. As Isaiah makes clear, the essence of sin is to follow our own way and not God's way. Our will was in opposition and in competition with God's will. We didn't ask for it. We didn't even want Him to do it on our account. And we also didn't make Him do it. Yes, it's because of our sin that Jesus Christ went to the cross, but He says, no one takes my life for me. I give it. I lay it down freely. It's only the work of God. God laid on Him our iniquity. It was God's plan. The very One we offended deeply chose to redeem us. This was the only way. By sending His only begotten Son. Beloved, the cross, we know, looks like defeat in the eyes of the world. It looks like hopelessness. But in reality, it is the beauty of victory. It is the beauty of such a great salvation to the eye of faith. Isaiah's portrait of the Savior reveals all this rejection and all this redemptive suffering which He endured. And Isaiah makes that clear as he paints with the shadow of His humble resignation in the first place. Verses 7-9, Jesus Christ endured it all. And He did so voluntarily. As we talk about resignation, as we talk about giving Himself over to it, notice the character of this resignation was not, oh well, okay, surah, surah, whatever will be, will be. I can't do anything about it anyway. I might as well just give in to it. That's not it at all. But the character of our Lord's resignation, giving Himself over to all of this, was without protest. Isaiah speaks of oppression. He speaks of judgment. That points to the merciless treatment that Jesus endured at the hands of the Jews who wanted to destroy Him. We know that he could have called twelve legions of angels. But even worse than the merciless treatment by the Jews was being rejected by God. And he demonstrated in the Garden of Gethsemane the bitter anguish and agony of being rejected by God as his sweat was as great drops of blood. And when it came to the earthly sentence passed on down to him, he could have protested. He could have appealed it. Because even Pilate says, I find no fault in Him. But our Lord doesn't. He didn't. He did not complain. He did not resist. He did not cry, It's unfair. This shouldn't be happening to me. He didn't say, It's not worth it. The only words He uttered, beloved, were on behalf of others. Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. As a day, you will be with me in paradise. He willingly endured it all because He knew the eternal benefit it would secure for those who would believe in Him. And beloved, that's amazing given the context of His resignation. Verse 8 begins, By oppression and judgment, He was taken away. Very simply, I believe this points to His unfair trial. It was rigged. It was filled with lies. It was unjust from beginning to end in the earthly sense of the word. It was illegal. He had done no wrong. And as well, the context of resigning himself was that no one came to his defense. There was no protest by those he came to save. No one cried out on his behalf, this is not fair for him. They only hurled insults at him. That was the context on earth, but in the sight of heaven, the context was a little bit different. Quite a bit different. There the context was God's electing and redeeming love in that context. He gave himself over to suffer and be rejected and to substitute himself. Beloved, praise God that Jesus Christ did not say, forget it. Praise God he did not say it's not worth it. But praise God he valued God's chosen people enough to die for them. And Isaiah here also points forward to the climax of this resignation. In verse 9, 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. We know that the grave, the cemetery, is a sign of the wages of sin. It's a sign of that last enemy. Jesus Christ endured it all. He was buried. He was treated as a criminal. He died as a criminal. But by His death, just as your death and my death one day will mean the end of our sin, no more offending God, by His death, Jesus Christ was released from the unjust oppression, from the unjust judgment, and He was exalted. And in an earthly sense, before the eyes of men, He received not a potter's field, but He received earthly honor in His burial. he received Joseph's carved out tomb and proper grave clothes. In God's plan, he was given an honorable earthly burial after a dishonorable death because he had done no violence, as Isaiah says. He had committed no deceit. Beloved, we face difficulties and trouble each and every day. And we often do so with much complaining over trivial things. How often don't we cry out, it's unfair. I shouldn't have to go through this. I deserve better. But Jesus Christ endured unfair treatment to end all unfair treatment. Not one before, not one since, not one will ever experience the unfair treatment He had to experience. But He did it, beloved, so that you and I won't have to. So that we won't have to face what we justly deserve to face. And therefore, may we rejoice as we face the trials and the troubles that cross our paths. May we, in God's strength, endure them patiently as we remember what Jesus Christ secured and earned for us. And that, too, is revealed in Isaiah's portrait as he paints, lastly, with the brilliance of the Savior's glorious reward, verses 10 through 12. Now, maybe you've caught on already. verses 1-9, there Isaiah is dealing with before the cross and on the cross. And now he completes this portrait with the other side of the cross, our side of the cross, prophesying that the fruit of Christ's work, what He has accomplished, would swallow up His suffering and shame. And we notice the glorious reward the Savior earned first of all for God the Father. Verse 10 begins, Yet it was the Lord's will to crush Him and cause him to suffer. That doesn't sound very rewarding. And that word will there can also mean delight or pleasure. And it doesn't mean Isaiah is not saying that it was fun for God to crush him. That it was enjoyable for him to cause his son to suffer. But it was a delight because of what it would accomplish. He was the guilt offering. The offering for the guilt of his people. to remove our guilt, to satisfy God. And the Father's reward is this, that Christ accomplished it. He fulfilled God's will perfectly. He satisfied God completely. He redeemed the sinner completely. And this is evident by the resurrection. Verse 11 begins, After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied. He will see the light of life. Beloved, the resurrection was the Father's Amen. On Christ's words, it is finished. Amen. It is finished. The work is done. Every bit of it, it's complete. It's perfect. I am satisfied. But He also earned a glorious reward for Himself. Isaiah says He would be satisfied. If you think about satisfaction, in order to be satisfied, one must receive that for which they wish, that for which they worked. Jesus Christ received that for which he worked. Again, the accomplishment of his Father's will. That was always his purpose. That was always his delight. And as well, he purchased and saved a people for himself. He made them his very own possession. His reward also included that he was exalted as the victor. He conquered over Satan and sin and death. He paid for all of the sins of all of His people. He was raised on high and seated on the throne at the right hand of His Father. He is the one before whom every single knee shall bow. He is the one who will come again to judge the living and the dead. And His reward also includes offspring, Isaiah says. Offspring. Those whom He has purchased. His victory is evident in what He accomplished for and in His people. His reward also points to the reward for believers. His reward of us includes His reward earned for us. Now, we know that to the victor belong the spoils of war. And He shares those spoils with His offspring. My righteous servant will justify many. The spoils of war are our justification. The forgiveness of all of our sins. And being freely given the righteousness, the perfect, perfect, brilliant righteousness of Christ to stand before God. And our reward too, beloved, is to be a part of His church, His bride. He is raising up, He is building up His church, which will not end until it is complete. And again, if we look close, I believe we see this in the second part of verse 10. He will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. That's a promise for the continuance and the ongoing success of the gospel ministry until every last elect child of God is brought to the faith. The gospel ministry will not end until the last one is brought to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And then, and only then, and not a minute before, He will present her in glory, as Paul says, as a radiant church without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. Beloved, what an awesome portrait of our Savior. At least for those who believe in Him. For those who trust in Him alone for salvation. But that means that those who reject Him have no Savior. But they themselves will be rejected by God for eternity because they have no one to redeem them. They will suffer the full wrath of God for their sins forever because there will be no escape apart from Jesus Christ. But again, just as there was hope in Isaiah's day, there's still hope today. Today is the day of salvation. And for all those who repent of their sins and turn to the Lord Jesus Christ in faith, They have the blessing of the detail here of Isaiah's portrait. That Jesus Christ has taken it all. He has suffered it all. There's nothing left to suffer for those who are in Christ Jesus only to glory in Him. And what a blessed hope for those who by the grace of God have been brought to faith in Him. And may we, beloved, as believers, rejoice in Jesus Christ alone. May we rejoice in the knowledge and the assurance of having been rescued from the depths of hell and having been brought into the heights of heavenly glory. And may it be that we would show our gratitude for such a great salvation by worshiping and adoring only Him, by striving to obey Him in all things. May we show our gratitude by resisting compromise with the ways and the delights of the world that tempt us each and every day. May we show our gratitude by giving ourselves to others just as Christ freely gave Himself for us. May we show our gratitude by reflecting a knowledge and a confidence of belonging to Jesus Christ in all that we think and say and do. Can others see that you belong to Christ by what you do? Can they hear that you are confident that you belong to Him by the words you say? And may we also show our gratitude by proclaiming, not keeping to ourselves, but proclaiming to the world such a great salvation. Beloved, by this portrait, Isaiah revealed his confidence in the Savior who was to come. And every single detail has come true as God gave him to see it. Nothing is missing. Nothing is left undone. It is complete. And therefore, as we reflect on such a great salvation, every day of our lives, but in a particular way this time of year. May there be only one response that you and I can make, and that is, Alleluia, what a Savior. Let's pray together. Father, we praise your name for indeed this message of salvation is so wonderful. It is so great. but we must confess, Lord, that we cannot fully comprehend it because we have never been fully cast off from Your presence. We have not suffered the wrath of God as our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ has, and therefore it's hard for us, O Lord, to consider fully and completely what it is that we have in Him. And it won't be that we will understand that until we come into Your glory in the presence of heaven. But may it be, Lord, that we will continue to praise You day by day for all that we have in Christ Jesus. His death for our life. What a wondrous exchange. An eternal life in Him. Father, we praise Your name for such a great salvation. A salvation that is complete. A salvation that cannot be lost. A salvation that will never be taken away. In His name alone we pray these things. Amen.