 Well, I want to spend some time looking at Isaiah 53 with you. Allow me to begin reading at verse 1, and I'll read the entire chapter, it's 12 verses, and we'll get into our study. Isaiah 53, the question is being asked, who has believed? I'll report. And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness, and when we see him there's no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected by men a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and we hid as it were our faces from him. He was despised and we did not esteem him. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace was upon him, and by his stripes were healed. Oh, we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before his shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment, and who will declare his generation? For he was cut off from the land of the living for the transgression of my people, he was stricken. And they made his grave with the wicked, but with the rich at his death. Because he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth, yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He has put him to grief. When you make his soul an offering for his 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 the travail of his soul and be satisfied by his knowledge. My righteous servant shall justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the great. He shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul into death, and he was numbered with the transgressors. He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. Isaiah 53 for centuries was regarded by Jewish rabbis as referring to the coming Messiah. It was only after Jesus' life, death, and resurrection that Isaiah 53 took on a different meaning to the Jewish rabbis. They began to teach that either Isaiah 53 was speaking of the nation of Israel, or some would teach that this was simply a portion of Scripture referring to some unknown person. But this is a passage that is very famous for referring to Messiah. This is speaking concerning the one who was to come, because obviously it was written several hundred years before Christ. But we know that this passage, this portion of Scripture was fulfilled literally in Jesus Christ. It's interesting to note how it begins. Notice how it begins here in verse one. It begins with a question, who has believed our report? And so the point he begins to make here, even as he introduces this, is that the nation of Israel was given a message. Who has believed our report gives to us an insight that they have voluntarily rejected the message that was given to them. It's like what it says in Isaiah 65 verse two, where God says, I have stretched out my hands all day long to a rebellious people who walk in a way that is not good, according to their own thoughts. And so he begins with the question, who has believed our report? But he's insinuating there that they have voluntarily rejected the report. There's nobody in other words who's believing what God has said. Now God had cried out to the nation of Israel over the centuries and he had done so in a variety of ways and they had tremendous advantages over all peoples on the earth. Later on when the writer of Hebrews begins to speak concerning the nation of Israel and some of the things that God had done amongst them, while that writer of Hebrews in chapter one verse one introduced the book by saying, God who had various times and in different ways spoke in time past of the fathers by the prophets. He said, God in a variety of ways has spoken by prophets, by signs, by wonders and miracles. God in a variety of ways at a variety of times has spoken to the nation of Israel. He went on later to say, in these last days he's spoken to us by his son. They were given opportunity. Great advantage. Romans chapter nine verses four and five speaks of the people of Israel. There's the adoption of sons. There's the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, temple worship, the promises. There's are the patriarchs and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ who was God over all for ever praised. Amen. They had tremendous advantages, centuries of advantages and yet we see Isaiah 53 begin with a question. Who has believed our report? You know, in a similar way, we find ourselves in these last days here in the United States able to echo some of that. Who's believing the report that we're giving to this day? Who is believing the report of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in a nation that has elevated Easter bunnies to be equal to Jesus Christ? Who has believed our report? And that's what's taking place even now. There is a voluntary turning away from the things that we at one time so firmly believed as a nation. You see, in spite of such privileges, Israel was stubbornly refusing to listen to what was being said. When he says who has believed our report, the word report speaks of a message, the message that reveals how God would send Messiah and how they might be saved. Who has believed this message? When it speaks of the arm of the Lord, that's another way of speaking of God's power, God's power to save because it says to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? Who has believed this report, this message concerning salvation? And who has understood that God has the power to save? The Bible tells us once again, when speaking of God's, the arm of the Lord, if you will, it says in Psalm 44 verse three, they did not gain possession of the land by their own sword nor did their own arms save them, but it was your right hand, your arm in the light of your countenance because you favored them. So the arm of the Lord represents the power of God, the power of God to deliver. Who has believed our report concerning God who was able to deliver you from your, from your sins? God has made a way for people to be saved, but the majority of those who are hearing that message are rejecting it. This one that he sends to rescue them will be rejected, rejected by the nation. God has sent a message, a message of salvation, but the message will not be received by all who hear it. Now this message is to be shared with the world, but not everybody will be willing to come to him through Jesus Christ. It's interesting how this verse is one that John the apostle quoted regarding Jesus Christ and how that Jesus fulfilled this. In John 12 verses 37 and 38, it reads, 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 which he spoke, Lord who has believed our report and to whom as the arm of the Lord been revealed. So Jesus in his time as he came was actually fulfilling the prophecy and it was stated concerning him that he did so and yet what was being said was still true and was true during the time of Christ. People would hear the message but rejected and so as he's saying this concerning the report of salvation that you can have through Christ, he begins to describe Messiah in verse two. He shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness and when we see him there is no beauty that we should desire him. Prophetically Isaiah describes Messiah, what he will be like. He is pointing out here that Messiah will have insignificant and extremely humble beginnings. Notice he speaks concerning a root out of dry ground. This is a picture of dry and barren landscape with a small vine that is growing in the middle of nowhere. So when you look at it you ask yourself a question and it would be easy to ask this question. We could all imagine for a moment. Who noticed Jesus as a boy? Was there anything physically about him that would draw others to himself? Anything. Well it's interesting how scripture is very silent about his physical appearance. But if we were given charge of being his public relations agents, you have the job of presenting Jesus Christ, the Messiah. I think that we would look at it and do this job differently. If I were presenting Jesus as Savior of the world I would do it in a different way. One, I would have made sure that he came out of Jerusalem. Because Jerusalem is a major city. I mean it would be like saying, look we've got somebody that we want to have very notable who's going to have a lot of influence, a lot of culture, who's going to have a real pedigree and all. What city should this man who's going to be the Savior of the world come from? Should he come from Chino? And the answer would be, well no. I mean we can choose San Diego, we can choose Los Angeles, some major city. I say Chino. And it wouldn't work. Because I would say he probably would be best suited to have at least the appearance of some culture and experience, maybe Manhattan or something like that. But I wouldn't have planned that the Lord would have come out of an insignificant city like Nazareth. John chapter one verses 45 and 46 it says, Philip found Nathaniel said to him, we have found him of whom Moses in the law. And also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. Nathaniel said to him, can anything good come out of Nazareth? And Philip said to him, come and see. Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Nazareth being a small insignificant village in the north. Well, because Jesus came from this insignificant, if you will, city, the average person during his day did not feel inferior to him. He didn't have an upper social and upper financial class. And therefore he was not really intimidating. Because some of us, if you're ever around somebody who's from a high social class, high financial class, you could feel uncomfortable, high educational attainments. You could feel uncomfortable around that person. But you didn't feel that way around Jesus. Jesus was the common man. And the scripture said, and the common people heard him gladly. And so when it speaks here and says to us that he's going to grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of dry ground, it's referring to his insignificant beginnings. If I were to be bringing somebody to the fore to be regarded as a world savior, there's something else I'd want. I'd want him to be charismatic. I'd want him to be one of those individuals that when he walked in the room, everyone would become silent. And their eyes would be riveted on him. They would be looking at what I would call this magnetic man, if you will. He would be tall. He would be handsome. He'd be visually attractive, loaded with personality. But notice what Isaiah says. He has no form or comeliness. And when we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. So as handsome as some of the actors are who have portrayed Jesus, I don't want to say that he was ugly. I'm fairly certain that he wasn't. What I am saying is that he was able to mingle amongst average people without garnering so much attention that it detracted from the things that he came to say. And there was not some physicality about him that would draw people to him. There was a king in Israel by the name of Saul, the first king of Israel. Saul was regarded as taller. He was head and shoulders above every man in Israel, which meant he was a very tall man in that he was very handsome. So he had attributes about him that were so splendid and so kingly that when people saw him, they would say, indeed, the king stands before us. But Jesus was not of that stripe. It is not, again, that anywhere could we find that he was an unattractive man. But there was no physicality about him that automatically drew people's attention. There was no beauty. There was no splendor. There was no visual majesty in the sense that drew people to him. As a matter of fact, remember when he was standing before Pontius Pilate, how Pontius Pilate actually asked him a question. It's recorded in Mark 15, too. Pilate asked him, are you king of the Jews? So even in looking at him, he didn't see anything about him that drew his attention. There wasn't this outward physicality. Sometimes people think that Jesus glowed in the dark. You know, we even have crosses that do that, you know. But I'm certain that he didn't. Again, that is good that he wasn't like that overtly because the incredibly beautiful have a way of intimidating, average-looking people. Sometimes when you see somebody extremely striking, you begin to think, God didn't even try with me. Well, ordinariness. Again, that means that he's approachable to any who desire to be near him. A third thing it says in verse three is that he is despised and rejected by men. He's a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Again, if I were in charge of presenting Messiah, he would not have been despised nor would he have been rejected. Yet Isaiah tells us that he's despised and rejected by men. The word despised speaks of being worthless or despicable. It speaks of even being vile. The word rejected means unwanted. He was not worth defending nor was he worth caring for. Jesus was considered worthless and unwanted. I wonder how many in this room have felt that. Anybody? I think pretty much all of us have. Pretty much at least once. Maybe every day for some. Worthless and unwanted. I wonder how many in this room have had somebody tell them that they're worthless and unwanted. Many of you. Many of you. I know that for a fact. I said, you'll never amount to anything. You're nothing. You could never be anything. I made a mistake by letting you be born. You should have terminated when I was able. I have spoken to and no people who have heard that the whole life. Jesus was despised and he was rejected. He was considered worthless and he was unwanted. John chapter one, verses 10 and 11. He was in the world and the world was made through him and the world did not know him. He came to his own and his own did not receive him. Rejected by a man. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief acquainted by experience. That word speaks of experiencing. He was acquainted not just intellectually. I have met many people who are acquainted with ideas and thoughts that that simply mean that the intellectually are capable of speaking about those things who have never really gone through those things. But they can speak about it because they have googled it. And now they're experts on the subject. I just received a letter from a young man who was explaining to me some things about ministry and saying some very interesting things to me on a personal level about who I am and how ignorant I am in things of that nature. He must have been all of 22 years old. And so that's what happens. You get this idea that you know things simply because you read a book or somebody taught you that in a class. And we can do that with grief. We can go to classes to learn how to be grief counselors. And we can speak concerning how to express your feelings and how to embrace your feelings and things of that nature. We can give sermons on the therapy of weeping by looking at how that Jesus wept. And then we can give a 45-minute sermon on how good it is to have that cathartic experience of letting go emotionally and all that. We can do that. It's not hard to do that. But he didn't theorize he was personally acquainted with it. He knows suffering. He knows pain. He knows your pain. Jesus wept over people. Remember how that speaks concerning Jesus coming to to see his friend Lazarus to actually to come and do a miracle for his friend Lazarus who had died. Word had come to Jesus. Your friend Lazarus whom you love is sick. It's about to die. Jesus waits a few days. Make sure that the man does die. And then he goes and here comes Martha and then Mary out to explain to Jesus that he came too late. That Lazarus had died. Oh, if you'd only been here, my brother would not have died. We believe with all of our heart that you have the power to heal him while he was alive. We know that if you would have only hurried up a bit and made it on time, you wouldn't have died. Even now I know that whatever you ask for God will answer. So there was this hope. But it was a hope against hope. That's when Jesus said, I'm the resurrection and the life. You know, if you believe in me, you'll never died. He said, do you believe that? Then he stands there at the tomb. We all know the story and the Bible, the shortest verse in the New Testament. Just two words. John 11 35. Jesus wept. Jesus wept. Jesus wept over individuals, friends like Lazarus. The pain that death brings into somebody's life. The pain that you feel when a child dies, when a mama dies, when your father dies, when a wife dies, when a husband dies, when a brother dies, when a sister dies, an aunt, a grandmother. The pain that rips your soul, that you can grieve so deeply that you didn't even know that such an emotion was possible for you to experience. When my father died and came suddenly I wasn't prepared for it. I didn't realize the depth of grief that I experienced over. I didn't realize it until one day. I can still remember one morning actually, I was awakened early in the morning. I was awakened by the sound of somebody crying in the house. They were crying. My father died and I remember awakening to the sound of someone crying and it was me. It was me. It was crying in my sleep. See, I didn't know what grief was. Now I do. And many of you do too, what grief is. He wept over individuals. He wept over a city. He comes to the city of Jerusalem in a time where is a triumphal procession, a huge parade of festivity and he stops and he looks at the city of Jerusalem and the Bible tells us very clearly as a junior, he saw the city and he wept. He wept over it. See, so Jesus is acquainted with grief. Listen, he understands your pain. Please understand that today. He understands your pain. Aren't you glad that at least somebody in the universe understands? Well, that's our Jesus. He understands and that's our Messiah. He is acquainted with grief. And yet, he was held in contempt and he was not valued by the majority of people that he came to save. Part of the reason is, is because people prefer going to a party over a funeral anytime and they're not necessarily attracted to the kinds of people who are like Jesus in that way. You see, he was despised and he was not valued. Like it says in Psalm 69 verses 19 and 20, you know my reproach, my shame and my dishonor. My adversaries are all before you. Reproach has broken my heart and I am full of heaviness. I looked for someone to take pity, but there was none for comforters. But I found none. That's Jesus Christ. And so, he's the one that we go to because he understands when we are rejected. While on trial, his own people cried out, give us Barabbas. It says in verse four, surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken. The fact is, there was nothing wrong with him, but there is something wrong with humanity. In, in spite of people's reactions to Jesus Christ, he carried our sickness, he dragged away our sorrows. He took our burdens from us and he also took their consequences, the consequences that are really ours. He died on our behalf. He died for sins he never committed. But Israel's response is, we esteem him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. So, they're saying basically, well, what he got, what Messiah gets is what he deserves. He's been singled out by God. And so, he wouldn't be suffering like this if he didn't deserve it. It's, it's interesting, even when Jesus was on the cross, people believed that he should be there and even mocked him. The religious leaders mocked him. The people who were passing by mocked him. They wagged their heads at him and said, you saved others, save yourself. If you're really the Messiah, then come down from that cross. There was no sense of human compassion or pity for this man whatsoever, because he deserved to die. He made himself out, they thought, to be the Son of God, making himself equal to God. He broke the Sabbath, thought others to do so also. He's only getting what he deserved. But is that true? No, because in verse five it says, he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed. He was wounded. That word wounded is the word pierced, or it speaks of great pain. He was, he was wounded for us, pierced for our transgressions. Bruised, that word bruised speaks of being crushed for our iniquities, and the chastisement for our peace was upon him. He was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our depravity, punished so that we could have peace. He didn't deserve it. He received what was really meant for us. In 1 John chapter two, verse two, it says he is the sacrifice for our sins. He takes away not only our sins, but the sins of all the world. But he says with all of this, here's your blessing, by his stripes we are healed. By his stripes we have received favor with God. In 1 Peter 3 18, Christ also suffered when he died for our sins, once for all time. He never sinned, but he died for sinners, that he might bring us safely home to God. He suffered physical death, but he was raised to life in the Spirit. So Jesus Christ, Messiah, is going to restore us to a right relationship with our God. He says in verse six, all we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. As self-willed people, we have chosen our own paths, and we have done what we have wanted to do. You know, today you'll hear this. This is common. We all heard this in one form or another. They will advise you. Follow your heart. Follow your heart. My heart is deceitfully wicked. Jeremiah 79, man. I am to trust the Lord with all my heart, and to lean not according to my own understanding. In all my ways I'm to acknowledge him, and he will direct my path. That's what the Bible says. So why would the Bible tell me not to trust my heart? And the world says to trust my heart. It's because the world trusts its own heart, and its own heart is depraved and wicked and turns from that which would save them. And so, we like sheep have gone astray. We have every one of us turned to his own way. Well, when I follow my own inclination of my heart, while the result is sin and the result of that will be judgment. In Ecclesiastes 119 it says, Rejoice, O young men in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and the side of your eyes, but know that for all these God will bring you into judgment. So if you're following your heart and not following the spirit, you ultimately are going to pay the consequences of doing that. I'm very careful with my own heart, because indeed I really mean this when I say it. My heart, according to scripture, is deceitfully wicked. It's depraved. I need the restorative power of the blood of Christ. I need the new nature. And whenever I was young and I would follow the inclinations of my own heart, it always ended up poorly. I've heard people give advice to young women who wanted to date young Christian women who wanted to date unsaved young men. And I've heard the advice given to them where they've said, you know, follow your heart. You know, God will use you to bring them to faith in Christ. And I, no, no, it's easier. It's like this. I illustrate it like this. I'm standing on the platform and you're standing on the floor beneath the platform. It's easier for you to pull me off the platform than it is for me to pull you up the platform. I still remember many years ago now, over 30 years ago now, I was ministering to a young woman. She had come into the office and had asked me a question related to dating an unbeliever she wanted to be with this guy. And I remember saying to her, no, that is a bad thing to do. The Bible says, be not unequally yoked together with an unbeliever. From the old to the New Testament, the Bible makes it very clear that those who are followers of Christ are to be yoked evenly with those who are also followers of Christ. And if you as a non, as you as a believer involve yourself in the life of an unbeliever, get romantically involved, what is going to happen is you're going to be pulled away from the things of God. You're disobeying God. Now, that's old fashioned, by the way. Today people say, oh, that's what's wrong with you. You're so old and rigid. You've been married so long. You don't know what it feels like to be alone. I'd like to know what it feels like sometimes. She says, are you saying that that's 100% sure 100% sure what are you saying that 100% that there's no way that I will win this young man to Christ? Now, who am I God? How do I know? How do I know this person's going to come to faith in Christ or not? That's a loaded question. How could I answer a question like that? So I said, you know, if I were laying odds, I said, for the sake of argument, less than 1% chance. I shouldn't even have said that because she said, I'll take that. She did. I'll take that. And she left determined to go out with this guy and be with him because she thought I gave her permission by saying that. And that was just I made a mistake by even saying that she wanted to do what her nature was bent on doing. I'll never forget a man who came to my office. I got this quote unquote emergency phone call. I need to see the pastor. I need to see him now. And I said, I'm sorry, I'm in the midst. No, he I need to see him right now. I'm going to come at lunch. Please give me a half hour. I need to speak. My secretary says, this is an emergency. This guy needs to talk to you now. And I said, I can't he's insisting he I said, okay, if he's in that big of a need, of course. And so I put the things aside and I waited for him to come. He came in, he sat down, you know, pastor, I just want you to know, I'm not going to stay here long. I just need to ask a question. And he says, does God forgive divorce? And does God, does God allow me to remarry if I've been divorced? And, and it was kind of one of those questions, like I wonder why you ask. So I made a mistake. This was about 30 years ago. I won't make it again. I said, divorce is not the unpardonable sin. That's what you're asking. And does God forgive sin all sin is forgivable by God? Because God's grace. So I gave a standard answer to what I thought was, well, what he really was doing was this. He was making plans to divorce his wife to marry the woman he was having an affair with. So when he came in and asked that question, he was trying to hedge his bet. And when I said, God forgives sin and divorce is not the unpardonable sin, he took that as permission. He left my office, divorced his wife, married his lover, and went off saying, I'm walking in the grace of God. I am telling you that sinful nature is bent on doing what the sinful nature wants to do. And that's how it works. We will find one way or another to do exactly what we want to do. We all like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. But he goes on to say, the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. The Lord has made him the Lamb of God who take away the sin of the world. In Galatians 3 13 Christ has rescued us from the curse pronounced by the law. When he was hung on the cross, he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing. For it is written in the scriptures cursed as everyone was hung on a tree. He became the sin offering as the Lamb of God. We turned our own to our own way. By nature, we did not pursue him. There's none who seeks after God. No, not one. So God pursues us with the conviction of the Holy Spirit. He draws us with cords of love. He woos us. And he points our eyes to a cross to demonstrate to us the severity of sin and what sin does. Son, sin, sin kills, sin destroys. And what the cross is intended to do is to be that demonstration of the intense passionate committed love that God has for His creation. So when you preach the gospel and you say, look at we all like sheep have gone astray, each has turned into his own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. We are saying that by nature, we don't pursue him. But by his grace and love, he's pursued us. And Jesus, this messiah is being portrayed here openly as the one who was to lay his life down for us. The Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all as our sin offering verse seven. He was oppressed. And he was afflicted. Yet he opened not his mouth. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before it shares this silent. So he opened not his mouth oppressed and afflicted. That was fulfilled when Jesus was in custody custody and then placed on trial. When he stood before his tormentors, he stood silently. He didn't argue with them concerning his innocence. In Luke 22 verse 64, speaking of when he stood before the Jewish Council, it says having blindfolded him, they struck him on the face and asked him saying, prophesy, who is the one who struck you? In Mark 15 19. This is when he's before the Romans, it says they struck him on the head with a reed spat on him bowing the knee. They worshiped him. They put on him a gorgeous robe. And then they placed on him a crown of thorns and they they took a staff and they pressed that that crown of thorns into his head. And his face was already bruised and battered. They took pieces of his beard and ripped it out of his face. It says in chapter 52 verse 14 here in Isaiah, as many were astonished at you, his visage visage was marred more than any man is his form more than the sons of men. They had beaten him so severely, despised, oppressed, afflicted, but he didn't defend himself. He opened not his mouth in Matthew 27 12 through 14. It speaks of Jesus while he was being accused by the chief priests and elders. He answered nothing. Pilate said to him, do you not hear how many things they testify against you? But he answered him not one word so that the governor marveled greatly. Every man will protest his own innocence, especially the guilty. The more guilty you are, the louder you say you're not guilty. The louder you protest. This is wrong. This is offensive. This isn't just this is not right. And so Pilate who was a governor who was used to to to standing in this position of making judgment was used to seeing people defending themselves to the very end. Even those that they would drag off to put on a cross would be screaming. I'm innocent. I'm innocent. I'm an innocent man. Not Jesus. He was there silently, quietly, like a sheep before shearers is silent. So he remained silent himself. He opened not his mouth. It says in verse eight, he was taken from prison and from judgment who will declare his generation. He was cut off from the land of the living for the transgressions of my people. He was stricken. After Jesus' trial, he was taken without any resistance to Golgotha that he might be crucified. But notice that verse eight, who will declare his generation? I'll say this very quickly. This is a very difficult verse to interpret. But it may speak of the evil of those who put him to death. One commentator said, this must speak of the age and men of it in which he lived, whose barbarity to him and wickedness they were guilty of were such as could not be declared by the mouth or described by the pen of man. Who could speak concerning the incredible depravity of the human soul that man would rise up and kill their own God that man would rise up to kill his own God. That's depravity. And so that's what's going on during that time. It says he was in verse eight cut off from the land of the living for the transgressions of my people. Again, Jesus gave up his life voluntarily and he did so on behalf of others. There are those who say, well, Jesus was murdered and there are others to say that Jesus was martyred. Jesus voluntarily gave up his life. He did so of his own volition for the transgressions of the people. In John 11 verses 49 and 50, one of them Caiaphas being high priests that year said to them, you know nothing at all, nor do you consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people and not the whole nation should perish. So Jesus died on behalf of other people. He is again the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. Verse nine, they made his grave with the wicked, but with the rich at his death. We know by reading what happened to Jesus Messiah, he was crucified between two thieves. So he was used identified as a sinner by being amongst the sinners, but he was buried in a rich man's borrowed tomb. It says in Matthew 27 verses 57 through 60, when evening had come, there was a rich man from Mermethea named Joseph who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Pilate commanded the body to be given to him. When Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, laid it in his new tomb, which he had hewn out of the rock and he rolled a large stone against the door of the tomb and he departed with the rich at his death. Yet, verse 10, it pleased, it delighted the Lord to bruise, to crush him. He has put him to grief. When you make his soul and offering for sin, he shall see his seed, his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see the travail of his soul and be satisfied by his knowledge. My righteous servant shall justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will divide him a portion with the great. He shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul into death, who was numbered with the transgressors. He bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors. It pleased the Lord to crush him. It delighted God to provide salvation for man. Somebody was saying just the other day, I wish I could tell you who it was, but that Christians worship a bloodthirsty God who takes pleasure in pain. Now, what God takes pleasure in is providing salvation. It pleased him to bruise him, not because it pleased him to see his son in pain, but because through that he would win us to himself. Somebody says, how do you know that God loves you? The Bible says God demonstrated his love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. I think for a good man, I could possibly die for a righteous man, but Jesus died for sinful man, for sinful man. As good as we think we are, and we all think that we're the cutest thing in this room, you wouldn't say, oh no, no, I'm really not. If I took a picture of the room right now and I said, look at the picture, who's the first person you'd look for? We all think we're the cutest thing in the room. Oh, look at me, my eyes are closed. Oh, I'm making a funny face. I shouldn't have worn that color. So we think we're worth saving. I won't argue with you whether you are or not. There's no point in that, of course. The fact is we all think that. We're all worth saving. But in reality, none of us deserve being saved. Oh yes, there are some people who are a lot worse off than others. There's no doubt about it. There's some very nice little grandmas. And then there's some monsters. So if you had a choice, which one should die? Keep grandma, get rid of him. But you know what? This is so beyond me. I don't even know why I'm musing this so beyond me. God so loved the world. That includes a precious grandma and that person that we don't think has any right to even walk the planet. We had a lady in our fellowship many years ago who had a 21-year-old daughter who was raised in the Lord. This young lady was raised in the Lord. Made a poor choice, decided to live with her boyfriend as a Christian girl. And the Holy Spirit convicted her and said, you're in sin. You need to go home to your mama and your daddy. You need to get out of that relationship. This is not honoring to God. The Holy Spirit did that. So she told her boyfriend, I have to leave you. I have to move home. So he beat her to death. He beat her to death in a brutal, brutal, brutal murder. Brutal murder. I ministered to the mom and dad when all of that was going on. The mother came to me and was speaking to me. She said, I'm looking forward to my time in court where I addressed the man. I said, because that's the right of the family. And I said, yes, you have that right. You know what I'm going to do? And you know what she did? When she had the chance to address the man who beat her baby to death, she said, God loves you. God will forgive you. I forgive you. I love you. She went and handed him a Bible. And she said, you need to save your Jesus Christ for what you've done and what you are. You need the Lord. I was taught Christianity really by that woman, by her response. My response would not be as generous. They'd be putting me in jail. I'd be sending you televised Bible studies for myself. Hey, I ain't going to lie. So God's son died for us. And it pleased the Lord to not, the word bruise is not as strong. It's to crush him, to put him to grief, and he made his soul an offering. Jesus would see the fruit of his sacrifice in salvation of others. And he rules and reigns forever. Revelation 11, 15 says, the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ. He shall reign forever and ever. In verse 12, therefore I will divide him a portion with the great. He shall divide the spoil with the strong because he poured out his soul into death, was numbered with the transgressors, and he bore the sin of many, made intercession for the transgressors. Jesus' victory over his enemies produces what is called the spoils of war and victory. And he distributes these to those who have been made strong in him. It's like what it says in Ephesians 4, verse 8. Again, this is applying to Messiah. When he ascended on high, he led captivity captive and he gave gifts to men. When it says he was numbered with the transgressors and he bore the sin of many, again, he died between two thieves. And one of the things that always ministers my heart is that as it was taking place, he prayed for those who were killing him. Luke 23, 34, Father, forgive them. They do not know what they do. But the Bible tells us in Hebrews 7, 25, he is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through him since he always lives to make intercession for them, saves to the uttermost. One of my friends used to say from the guttermost to the uttermost. And the Lord has, that way he's able to do that and he does that. He bore the sin of many, made intercession for the transgressors. He was praying their Father, forgive them. He was numbered with the transgressors but this all worked together so that the Messiah might save us and that's why Isaiah 53. So very, very clearly presents to us the suffering servant, Jesus Christ, our Messiah. And as we gather on Friday for the Good Friday service and we contemplate what that really means, we do so with the anticipation of what comes on Sunday, the resurrection of our Savior and our Lord Jesus Christ which makes us what we are because he was declared to be the Son of God by the resurrection. If Jesus would have remained in the grave, then everything he said is suspect and untrue because it all hinges on whether or not he rose from the grave and he did. I had a Muslim write me, wanted to correct me because Jesus is a Son of God the way Adam was. So I had a chance to write him back and I said, you know, shared some scripture. Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit. He is the Son of God, the only begotten of the Father. And I said, and one of the things that you need to know about this prophet, Jesus whom you refer to as a prophet, is the Bible says every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord and that includes your prophet. He will bow his knee before Jesus Christ.