For our Scripture reading tonight, we turn together to that familiar and comforting passage found in Romans 8. Romans 8, reading together verses 12-39. And then we will turn together to our text as we finish up our consideration of Isaiah 53. First of all, Romans 8. beginning at verse 12 through the end of the chapter as we give our attention to the reading of the Word of God. Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation. But it is not to the sinful nature to live according to it, for if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of Sonship. And by Him we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs, heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in His sufferings, in order that we may also share in His glory. I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will. And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. For those God foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called. Those he called, he also justified. Those he justified, he also glorified. What then shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also along with him graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is He that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died, more than that who was raised to life, is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written, For your sake we face death all day long. We are considered as sheep to be slaughtered. Knowing all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. And now if you would turn back to Isaiah chapter 53. Isaiah 53. We consider together tonight verses 10-12 as our text. Isaiah 53, beginning at verse 10. 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 congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, as we have considered this chapter of Scripture together, as you know, we have also been considering the suffering and death of Jesus Christ. His rejection, His redemption, And His resignation thus far. But we need to understand that His death may never be divorced from. It may never be separated from that which it accomplished. The fruit of Christ's work swallows up the suffering and the shame He endured. All of Christ's work was for the purpose of the salvation of His people. That was the object of Christ's calling. Again, in verses 1-9, in essence, they considered the path to the cross in these verses as well as the cross itself. And now with this text tonight, verses 10-12, we see the other side of the cross. Even as chapter 52, verse 13 introduced for us, See, my servant will act wisely. He will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted. The text tonight, congregation, speaks of the success of the cross. Sin is atoned for, the sacrifice accepted, the work of salvation completed, and honor for the one who completed it. I preach to you this Word of God, the suffering servant, His reward. Considering, first of all, the accomplishment of His reward. Secondly, the content of His reward. And finally, the beneficiaries of His reward. You see, the text speaks about the exaltation of Christ exaltation earned by way of humiliation. The suffering servant was indeed rewarded for his work and his reward includes a wonderful truth about you and me who believe. Yet the beginning of verse 10 and the end of verse 12 summarize for us once again that which we have considered in the first nine verses. And so we want to consider for a moment, we want to be reminded of the accomplishment of his reward. That is, how it was earned. Verse 10 begins, 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. And then verse 12 concludes, 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. First of all, as we considered a little bit last week, the suffering and death of Christ for our sins was the Lord's will. It was God's will. The Hebrew word translated will also means delight or pleasure. It was the Lord's delight, the Lord's pleasure to crush Him. Not in the sense, boys and girls, that it was fun for God the Father to lay on His Son the iniquity of us all. But it was His delight, it was His pleasure because of what it would accomplish. God would be satisfied. Christ was crushed. The idea here is that of a painful blow. And of course, we know that sinful men inflicted crushing suffering and intense sorrow upon Christ, but God used that for the greatest good. That suffering was the way to glory for Christ. It was the fulfillment of the divine plan of salvation and it was the foundation of the church. Yet you see, all of this was not just some sort of afterthought. Oh, man sinned. I guess then I better figure out a way to save him. That's not what God said. God elected some from before the foundation of the world, as Ephesians 1 tells us. And that election is unto salvation. Because God knew that's what man would need. But that also means some were not chosen. Now Peter makes it clear in his Pentecost sermon in Acts 2 that God planned the suffering and death of Christ. Let me say that again. God planned the suffering and death of Christ and He used the sinful rejection of man to fulfill that plan. Read about that in chapter 2 of Acts, verses 22-24. Men of Israel, listen to this. Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs, which God did among you through Him as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge, And you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. And then in chapter 4, there's a section, at least in my Bible, that is highlighted the believer's prayer, where Peter and John are praying. And in that prayer, they talk about Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. And then notice what verse 28 says, they did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. This morning and last week Sunday in adult Bible school, Dr. Jones has been teaching us about the covenant of redemption, which highlights the saving work of Jesus Christ. And last week he said it beautifully that God provided a sacrifice for sin even before man fell into sin. You see, before man ran, redemption was planned by God. And it was accomplished because Christ gave His life, as our text says, as a guilt offering. As we heard this morning in that same Sunday school class, Jesus Christ is the priest, the great high priest, and He offered Himself. on the altar of the cross. A guilt offering meant that someone else had been violated in sin. God's honor and holiness had been violated in sin. Man is guilty before God because he has stolen from God by not giving to Him what He requires and what He justly deserves. Now, we need to understand this. I think that too often, if we talk about sin, we talk about sin as it affects us, but we fail to consider how it affects God. That God is offended. Offended. We have a hard time comprehending this because only Adam and Eve enjoyed that perfect state for a time and only they could really compare living out of sin, that is, living outside of sin, with living in sin. Yet we must consider how our sin affects God. It offends Him. We must consider also the holiness and perfectness of God. We must consider His omniscience, that He knows all things and He knows all things perfectly. His omnipotence, that He is the Sovereign One. All power belongs to Him. His omnipresence, that He is everywhere all the time. And that He created man to live before Him in perfect righteousness, holiness, and obedience, yet each of us has turned to his own way. Remember, that's the essence of sin. Choosing our own way which only leads to eternal death and destruction instead of following God's perfect way which leads to eternal life. We are guilty before God because we have stolen from Him that which is His, His honor, His glory, and the obedience He deserves. Again, he is offended. We don't like to be offended. We hate it. We have offended God. But beloved, do we really understand what our guilt deserves? Do we really understand what we have earned by our sin? Again, it's pretty easy to talk about the sins I used to commit and the desires that I used to have, but now don't have by the grace of God because of the work of the Holy Spirit regenerating me and sanctifying me. But yet, do we really understand what our sins deserve? The Puritan Jonathan Edwards lived in the 1700s and he wrote that famous sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. And there he talks about man's ignorance with regard to sin that we really don't understand the deadly danger we are in apart from the saving grace of God. Edwards says that the only thing that keeps wicked men at any one moment out of hell is the mere pleasure of God. And apart from the mercy and grace of God, all are condemned to hell. You are, I am, each and every one of us. He says the pit is prepared. The fire is made ready. The furnace is now hot, ready to receive them. the flames do now rage and glow. And he rightly says that nothing man does can truly give him security for escaping hell. Man's wickedness is like a lead weight that pulls him toward hell and if God would let him go, there would be no detour, but a drop straight into the depths of hell. And then listen to this analogy that he uses. And your healthy constitution and your own care and prudence and best contrivance and all your righteousness would have no more influence to uphold you and keep you out of hell than a spider's web would have to stop a falling rock. Boys and girls, you can understand this. If you see a spider's web and you drop a stone on it, that stone goes right through. There's no strength for that stone to hold that stone up. And that's what this man is saying. That nothing that we can do, not even our best works, can act as a net and rescue us from hell. Our guilt before God is so bad that we dangle, as it were, from a tiny thread over the gates of hell. And beloved, we need to understand this because only then can we understand the glory of what Jesus Christ has done. He has given His life as a guilt offering in our place. Our guilt was placed upon His shoulders. He took our curse. Verse 12 says, He poured out His life unto death. He bore the sin of many. In order for God's justice to be satisfied, Christ, the perfect, unblemished, sacrificial Lamb, had to die. The guilt offering was an offering for sin and blood had to be shed and restitution had to be made. And Jesus Christ gave to God that restitution. He gave the perfect righteousness, holiness, and obedience that was required of us. And He paid the debt for our sin so that our sins could be forgiven. And He did this by shedding His blood. Hebrews 9, verse 22 says, And according to the law, almost all things are purified with blood. And without shedding of blood, there is no remission. People of God, sometimes we think that we're not that bad. Our sin isn't that great. In fact, we're pretty good. God ought to be pleased with us. After all, look at all that we do for Him. But we need to understand that because of our sin, God can't and won't have anything to do with us. We are detestable in His presence. He can't even look at us. He won't even look at us. We need to get it through our heads that we could do nothing to secure ourselves out of hell. We could not offer ourselves. We could not offer Christ. He offered Himself. He poured out His soul to death. And that means He willingly subjected Himself to the wages of sin, which is death, as Paul says in Romans 6. And His guilt offering appeased it, pacified God's wrath, and removed our guilt and secured for us reconciliation and fellowship with God through faith in Christ. That's how He secured His reward. But what then is the content of His reward? The text lists a number of things. The second half of verse 10, And on through the first half of verse 12. 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. Now once again, beloved, it's interesting that we as believers are very much included in Christ's reward. The church is part of His reward. Even as Paul makes that clear, we are sons and daughters of the Most High God. We call Him Abba, Father. What a blessed privilege for us. But first, concerning God, Christ's reward is that God's will has been done. That's a reward for Christ. God's will was the redemption of sinners and Christ accomplished that on the cross so that He could confidently say, it is finished. And as verse 11 says, that will of the Lord will prosper in His hands. And because God was satisfied, He accepted Christ's payment, which is demonstrated by the resurrection. Our Lord saw the light of life in His resurrection and His satisfaction once again is that He accomplished His Father's will. That was His food and drink, remember? To do His Father's will. And He is satisfied in that His Father is glorified. To be satisfied. One must receive that for which He has wished and worked. And again, God's will was to save His elect people. And Christ has accomplished this. And His satisfaction, you see, is never ending as His divine work of salvation continues. Again, verse 10, he will see his offspring and prolong his days and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. His offspring is his church, his redeemed people, those he purchased by his blood. And prolonged days points to the eternal life that Christ's church enjoys with him. And his reward congregation includes the gathering of that church until every last elect of God has been gathered in. The will of the Lord will prosper in His hand. And what a beautiful promise for the continuation and success of the ministry of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as lost souls are brought to salvation. The text says, By His knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and He will bear their iniquities. And we can possibly think of His knowledge here in two ways. First, Christ's knowledge included the fact that He alone could discern and perform God's will. Only Him. And therefore achieve its glorious purpose. And on the other hand, since He has done that, those who have knowledge of Christ and His saving work and have faith in Him by the grace of God are justified by grace through faith. Notice the contrast. The One who alone is righteous justifies the many who are unrighteous. Only Christ. No one else could do that. And of course, these are His offspring. Heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ. Christ is indeed an everlasting Father as Isaiah prophesied that He would be in Isaiah 9. He died. But He didn't leave His children as orphans. He rose again. He sent His Holy Spirit as a down payment that He would come again and take us to be with Him. And His Holy Spirit comforts us, lives with us, leads us throughout this life. And beloved Jesus Christ shares the spoils of His victory with His family. Beginning in verse 12 again, Therefore, I will give Him a portion among the great, and He will divide the spoils with the strong. His portion among the great includes that Christ is recognized by some as the great victor and one day He will be recognized by all as even the great kings of the earth shall bow before Him. Psalm 2 teaches us that the nations are His inheritance. That the ends of the earth are His possession. And that the kings are called to kiss the Son, to adore Him, to worship Him. And His portion is that He is above all as God has also highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of those in heaven and of those on earth and of those under the earth and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. His is the uncontestable victory and universal dominion. Spoils after a great victory are the unquestionable evidence of the victory. Boys and girls, spoils means that when the side who wins takes all of the riches from the other side, they take them as their own. Jesus Christ has the riches of life. And He shares His spoils with those He enlists in the army of God. Those whom He justifies are enriched with the eternal riches of restored fellowship with God and life everlasting and He intercedes before the Father on our behalf. You see, Christ alone has earned the right to stand before God on our behalf and He pleads with God on the merit and virtue of His atoning work which congregation is the only ground by which we might be forgiven and accepted by God. That's the believer's benefit as the beneficiaries of his reward. His reward is that indeed he has accomplished God's will. He is exalted. But we benefit as God's people. In order for Christ to have offspring or children, God had to be satisfied. Our guilt needed to be removed. God's wrath had to be satisfied by payment for our sins. So do you know what that means? That means without the substitutionary atonement, there can be no redeemed people. Apart from that, there are no redeemed people. And further, that means that it is impossible to grow the church apart from the cross of Christ and His saving sacrifice. Impossible. It was our privilege tonight to witness the public profession of Nick. And as Nick met with the elders, that was his testimony. Jesus Christ died for me once. Once, that's all it took. And I am saved. Eternal life is mine. It's impossible to grow the church apart from the cross of Christ and His work. But so many have tried to grow the church apart from that because the Gospel of Jesus Christ is offensive, so we have to water it down in order to make it palatable. We may not do as so many have done. And that is to fail to preach sin and the need for forgiveness. And to fail to preach that there is no other way to the Father except through Christ. Because a church without Christ and His saving sacrifice is no church at all. It's just a bunch of walking dead people. Those dangling over hell by nothing more than a spider's web. But those redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, those for whom He died, those whose place He took, those who are born again to a living hope, they are justified before the sight of God. What does that mean to be justified? It means that because of Christ's perfect accomplished work, both in fulfilling the righteous requirements of God's law and dying for my sin. Therefore, my sins are forgiven. Every last one of them. And I no longer stand before God clothed in my nature of sinful rags, but I have been given the white robes of Christ's righteousness and God sees me. He looks upon me. He sees me, as the catechism says, as if I had never had nor committed any sin and myself had accomplished all the obedience which Christ has rendered for me. Justification is a legal term. It's a term that belongs in a court of law. And in God's heavenly court of law, it means that the verdict against me is no longer guilty. But not guilty. Not guilty. Do we hear this congregation? Boys and girls and young people, do you hear this? If your sins are not forgiven, the only way possible which is through the shed blood of Jesus and if you are not reconciled with God, then you are hanging over the fire of hell and over Satan's greedy open arms held only by a tiny thread. And when Jesus Christ comes again, that thread will snap and it will be too late. But those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ by grace through faith, for them that tiny thread has been replaced by an anchor, Jesus Christ. Listen to what Hebrews 6.19 says, This hope, hope of salvation, we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the presence behind the veil where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus. Did you hear that? Those who are in Christ, those connected to Him by faith, are anchored into the very presence of God forever, never to be lost. And that's why Paul can say with such confidence, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? And then after a list of suggestions, he says nothing, no created thing. will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Why is this? Because we are more than conquerors. That means to overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. And beloved, in this we may be fully confident because if God is for us, who can be against us? And the answer that Paul expects is no one. Nothing. At the beginning of this sermon, We said that we cannot separate Christ's suffering and death from that which it accomplished. Apart from the saving sacrifice of Jesus Christ, no one can be saved. Not you, not me, not one of us. But because He accomplished and fulfilled God's plan, those who believe on Him by grace through faith will never be lost, but are already saved. Even as we travel this pilgrimage, Because those he justified, he also glorified. That's our God's promise. May each one of us be humbled as we consider our Lord's suffering and death in our place. Only then to be filled with inexpressible and overflowing joy in the faith that salvation full and free is ours. Because there is now no condemnation. None. for those who are in Christ Jesus. Amen. Shall we pray? Father, again You have come to us with the blessed truth of Your Word. That Jesus Christ took our place. That He has been exalted on high. He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. And those who believe on Him will reign with Him forever and ever in the heavenly place. Father, indeed, may we be humbled by this, but as well filled with that inexpressible joy of our salvation. O Lord God, we thank You and praise You again for this day in Your house. May we go forward in Your strength and Your strength alone. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.