[0:00] I'd like to say a few words this morning, God willing, from this chapter 53 in Isaiah, and in particular, verses 5 and 6 of chapter 53 in Isaiah.
[0:24] Verse 5 we read, But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was crushed for our inequities. Upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His stripes we are healed.
[0:42] All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to His own way, and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of all.
[1:00] The children of Israel, they settled in the land of Canaan around 1250 BC.
[1:13] And 500 years later the Lord called Isaiah, the prophet, to minister to the people of God in the land of Canaan.
[1:29] In the land of Canaan when they entered first of all, by and large the people respected Jehovah or Yahweh, their God.
[1:42] But as time went on, the idolatry that was prevalent among the Canaanites started to infiltrate into the minds and lifestyles of the people of God, the Israelites.
[2:00] So by the time Isaiah came, 500 years after they had entered the land of Canaan, people had gone to a great extent into idolatry.
[2:15] Isaiah opens this marvellous prophecy with words that remind us of that situation. In chapter 1 we read the words of the Lord, verse 2, He, O heavens, and give thee, O earth, for the Lord has spoken, Children, have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me. The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's crib.
[2:48] But Israel does not know, my people do not understand. Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly.
[3:05] They have forsaken the Lord, they have despised the Holy One in Israel, they are utterly estranged. Well, what a change. In 500 years they have come to this low point.
[3:26] And the strange thing is that when the Lord calls Isaiah to go and minister to them, the Lord reminds Isaiah in chapter 6, after he has expressed a willingness to be sent by the Lord to preach to these people, the Lord reminds them that their ears are heavy, their hearts are closed against the word of God.
[3:55] And when we come to chapter 53, he opens with these amazing words, who has believed what they heard from us?
[4:09] It's as if Isaiah looks on his ministry and he says, nobody has believed me. Nobody has listened to me.
[4:22] The Lord had given promises regarding a coming Messiah, a virgin child conceived and bear a son and call his name Emmanuel.
[4:34] That's chapter 7. And then in chapter 9, he talks about unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given. And the government shall be upon his shoulders and his name shall be called wonderful, counselor, the mighty God, the eternal Father and the Prince of Peace.
[4:56] And throughout the prophecy, Isaiah speaks of this glorious person, the Messiah, the coming Savior. And we read in chapter 53, verse 1, who has believed what they heard from us?
[5:16] The Messiah whom he has shown to them in his words of prophecy, they didn't think much of him at all.
[5:28] He grew up before him like a young plant, like a root out of a dry ground, no form or majesty that we should look at him, no beauty that we should desire him, despised and rejected by men a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised and we assumed him not.
[5:52] Isn't it amazing that the prophet here brings before them the coming Messiah in prophecy and they didn't recognise him?
[6:05] They didn't want to know him. He was different from what they expected. He was a man of sorrows acquainted with grief, and that's exactly the same kind of reaction duplicated in the New Testament when you're reading John's Gospel chapter 1, that Jesus, he came unto his own people and his own people refused him. They rejected him.
[6:36] What did they say at the time of his crucifixion? Not this man, but Barathas will have him released to us the criminal, but this man.
[6:50] We don't want to know him. Now coming to the verses 5 and 6, I'd like to say a few words, first of all, about the way the scripture there speaks about the nature of our sin, because it's our sin that gives us to be blind to the glory of Christ. It's our sin that gives us to be rejecting him in our minds and in our lives.
[7:25] And he uses four words in chapter 53 verse 5 to describe the nature of sin. That's my first point.
[7:40] Four words that describe the nature of sin. Transgressions, iniquities, lack of peace, discord, and then healing from our diseases.
[8:03] Sin is a disease. Sin is discord. Sin is iniquity. Sin is transgression.
[8:15] I'd like to say a word or two on each of these under my first point. And the second point is the way the Lord deals with these aspects of our sinful nature in his sufferings.
[8:34] He was wounded for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. He was chastised in order to bring us peace. And he suffered stripes to bring healing to us.
[8:59] And finally in verse 6, reminds us there that we have done all the sinning, all we like sheath upon us three, but then God has done all the saving.
[9:18] He laid on Christ the iniquity of us all. We have done all the sinning. Christ has done all the saving.
[9:32] So, these four words that describe to us what sin is like. First of all, transgressions. In verse 5, he was wounded for our transgressions.
[9:50] What are transgressions? Well, one could say that our transgression is an open rebellion against our law. A revolt against our law given to us.
[10:14] A stepping over the line that we're not to step over. And you see, in the life of many people highlighted in the scripture, we see that coming out very, very clearly.
[10:30] Think for example of the prodigal son. The way he sought to break acidware the law of his father.
[10:43] It wasn't expected that the inheritance be divided among the families until the father would die. But this younger son, he said to his living father, divide my portion to me. I want it now and I want to do my own thing.
[11:05] And the father agreed to do that and the prodigal went away to a far country. And the scripture says that he wasted his substance and riotous lifestyle.
[11:19] Well, that is transgression. A blatant rebellion, open revolt against the law of God.
[11:34] And we see that happening all around us today. And if you examine your own life and I examine mine, I'll discover aspects of that sin in my life also.
[11:50] I transgress the world of God, the law of God. The second thing is, he was crushed for our iniquities. Iniquities.
[12:09] The iniquities find acidware at their place of survival within our hearts, within our lives, within our minds.
[12:23] It is a deep resentment and anarchy against our God.
[12:34] Oh, you see, I haven't got that. Well, I thought this morning of our version Genesis and chapter six.
[12:45] After man had fallen, this is what the Lord said in chapter six and verse five. The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
[13:12] That talks to us about man's total depravity. In other words, there isn't a faculty of my body or soul or being that isn't stained with sin.
[13:30] Listen to it again. Every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
[13:44] And we cannot rise above that by ourselves. This is the way we are. And part of that depravity is an unwillingness to change and an inability to improve ourselves.
[14:02] That's the way we are by nature. And of course, when you read in Jeremiah 17 and verse nine, it says, the heart of man is desperately wicked.
[14:19] Who can know it? The heart of man, the sinful heart of man, desperately wicked. Who can know it?
[14:31] And if you read in Psalm number two, the people there are saying, we want to break God's law, break these bands from us. They ties down too much. They restrict and constrict us. Give us to do our own thing.
[14:50] And that's the way the natural heart, the natural mind is, because it is laden with iniquity, full of iniquity.
[15:05] And then, of course, he mentions this third thing, that the chastisement that brought us peace was upon him.
[15:20] We are discordant. We are not at rest. We are not at peace with God. We are not at peace with God's law. We are not at peace with ourselves.
[15:41] We are craving for something throughout our lives because we are not at rest, not at peace with God.
[15:59] You see, sin is a rebellion against God. And we can't be at peace with God because our heart is rebellious against him.
[16:16] What a picture. The scripture draws for us over ourselves. What a terribly depressing picture. We are full of discord and restlessness.
[16:36] But there, of course, is the fourth thing, healing. And those who are diseased need healing.
[16:49] Sin is a disease, likened often to the leprosy that was prevalent in biblical times. Leprosy came and leprosy would envelop the patient.
[17:06] And anybody who came within shouting distance of a leper would hear the leper constantly saying, Unclean, unclean, don't come near me.
[17:22] And our sin is like a leprosy. It has prevailed upon us in every department of our soul and our lives.
[17:39] But I say, his world is full of encouragement to those who are described by these four views of the nature of sin.
[17:53] He said, the Saviour is coming. And the Saviour is going to be wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities.
[18:05] The chastisement of our peace to be upon him and by his stripes. There is could be healing for us. I'd like to say one or two words about the wounding.
[18:22] Now, I mentioned that transgression was a blatant, open breaking of God's law.
[18:33] And the wounding that Jesus Christ suffered was something visible. I mean, he was wounded by his enemies. He was nailed hands and feet to the cross of shame.
[18:57] They had made a crown of thorns and put it on his head, causing him to be wounded. They had whipped him. They had beaten with rods, a public injuring of his body before the eyes of men.
[19:19] He was publicly displayed on the cross of Calvary as one whose wounds were open before their very eyes.
[19:31] And at last, a Roman soldier plunged a spear into his side, yet again wounding him and out came water and blood.
[19:47] You see, his public wounding made atonement for our public sins.
[19:59] A man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, went up the hill of Calvary, and he was powerful enough to prevent his being arrested and to prevent his being crucified, but his love for his people bound him to that cross of shame and gave him to say these words, to do thy will, I take delight, although my God but art.
[20:38] It is my delight to do this what I'm doing. It involves wounding. It involves public shame. But I want my people to have their transgressions forgiven.
[20:54] And I am going through with it. And then again, he's talking about he was crushed for our iniquities.
[21:08] When you think of crushing, I think the emphasis changes from a public observable suffering to a more private, deeper suffering of the soul.
[21:29] And that's, I think, what we have here. He was crushed for our iniquities. These sins of your heart, sins of your mind that people don't necessarily witness or see.
[21:49] Nevertheless, they are abhorrent to God himself and they need to be atoned for. They need to have Christ suffer for them.
[22:00] And it says here, he was crushed for our iniquities. Isn't it amazing that the wrath of God was poured upon him, crushing him as it were.
[22:22] Somebody once highlighted the amazing truth of these words by using this illustration that Jesus was crushed between the top millstone and the nether millstone.
[22:44] The top millstone of God's wrath and the nether millstone of God's love.
[22:55] The top millstones do the grind, the grain into flour. And it is as if Jesus, in his being crushed, was suffering in that kind of way.
[23:10] The undiluted and unremitting wrath of God poured out justly against sin in the experience of God's only Son.
[23:28] He was crushed for our iniquities. It's as if we ought to be hanging our heads in shame as we're discussing these marvellous words, as well as being thankful for the fact that he has done this work in our room and in our place.
[23:56] And then thirdly, his experience of being chastised to bring us peace.
[24:07] We were full of discord, enmity against God, not at peace with ourselves, not at peace with our family, not at peace with our neighbours, not at peace with the world.
[24:22] We wanted just our own way. We were rebels. And someone has put it this way, Christ as head of the family of God, the elder brother.
[24:45] The stroke of chastity or chastisement fell on him as the elder brother of all the family members of the family of God.
[24:58] He was willing to come. He had shown willingness in the covenant of peace and eternity. And he said, I will come in the fullness of time and take their sin upon myself.
[25:15] And here on the cross of Calvary, we see that commitment in action. He stands forth and he said, I am their elder brother.
[25:27] I will stand in their place and whatever chastisement that is due to them because of their sins, I am willing to take it.
[25:43] You see, he bore the wrath that all the family of God deserved to bear.
[25:58] The fire of God's wrath turned away from his people onto him. And chastising your chastening is a family word.
[26:14] And who is chastising Christ in my place and in your place if we are God's children? Oh, his father is. And our father is.
[26:29] Remember when he had risen from the dead and he said to Mary, I ascend to my father and to your father, my God and your God.
[26:40] Well, his father saw fit to pour his wrath on his own son rather than on the sons and daughters in God's family.
[26:59] And then by his stripes, there's healing for us. You see, he was crucified.
[27:14] And who knows what experienced, what experienced that entailed for him. But it was necessary that he died, that healing come to us.
[27:30] Our broken lives, our shoddy lives, our impure lives, our rebellious lives, our selfish worldly, carnal lives.
[27:46] It was by his stripes that healing came to us. Have you felt the voice of the heavenly physician speak into your lostness, into your brokenness, into your sinfulness?
[28:08] Have you heard him say peace and healing? It's an amazing thing, isn't it, for somebody who has had serious illness to hear the doctor say, all is now well.
[28:24] Healing has taken place. Well, that's what's true in relation to all of God's people, that Christ has finished the work the Father gave him to do in order to bring healing, salvation, peace, blessing to those who believe.
[28:50] But thirdly, finally, verse six reminds us that we have done all the sinning, but God has done all the saving.
[29:09] All we like sheep have gone astray. That's the picture of us. That's the way we are, like sheep, gone astray.
[29:25] It's amazing, at the very beginning when I read the quotation from Isaiah chapter one, that the Lord is saying, the ox knows its owner and the donkey, its master's crib.
[29:46] But Israel does not know. My people do not understand. The sheep will not come back to their own place, according to that picture we have brought before us there.
[30:03] We are like sheep gone astray. The sheep will follow where it gets grass to feed upon. And that's the way we are, the grass, the sweet grass of this world that appeals to our fallen and broken nature.
[30:18] That's what we'll follow. We'll not come back to God. All we like sheep have gone astray. But then we have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
[30:43] What an amazing statement that is, that we have been sinning. Come across this amazing statement, that God has laid on him, on Christ, on our elder brother, on our Savior, on our mediator, on our Lord, the God-man, that God has laid on him, the iniquity of us all.
[31:12] Do you remember John the Baptist, when he was pointing Jesus Christ out to his own community? These words he said, Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.
[31:31] And that's an amazing text to himself, because the Lamb of God, harking back, as it were, to the example of sacrifices in the Old Testament, the sin of the Offerer was confessed on the head of that sacrifice, and the man who was offering it was leaning upon it, as it were, transferring his own sin by way of confession onto the head of the sacrifice, and saying, well, the animal is dying, the death I deserve.
[32:14] And so it is with Jesus, the Lamb of God. He is taking away the sin of the world, not just the sin of Jewish people, but Gentiles also.
[32:27] He is the savior of the world, doesn't matter who we are, where we are. Jesus is a suitable, mighty savior.
[32:38] There is no other name under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved.
[32:49] The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Well, the scripture reminds us that one sin is enough to sink us into a lost eternity.
[33:08] One sin. Even the sin of thought. One sin enough to sink us into hell forever.
[33:24] Christ bore all of the sins of his people. Sins of thought, word, and action. Sins of omission, sins of commission, sins against light, original sin, but every other aspect of sin laid upon him what a burden as he was on the cross of Calvary, bearing the sin of his people, and in doing so, protecting them from the wrath of God that they were deserving of.
[34:10] Where are you this morning? Have you called upon this savior to save you from your sin? Have you said, Lord, remember me?
[34:25] The thief on the cross said that in the closing moments of his life. He had misspent his life, but he called upon Jesus.
[34:38] Are you calling on him? Am I calling on him the way I ought to? Am I not giving him rest by calling upon him day and night, Lord, remember me?
[34:54] And once he remembers us, a song of praise will break forth in our hearts and lives, thanking him for all that he has done for us, thanking him for the wonderful salvation that he has purchased for us.
[35:14] We are undeserving, but he has fulfilled everything to ensure our eternal peace and blessedness. May God bless these thoughts to us.
[35:27] Let us pray. Help us, Lord, to be thankful for the scripture that is open before us. Help us to bow in through acknowledgement, acknowledgement of our evil dessert as sinners, but also to thank you for all that you have done for sinners such as we are in order that we might be saved.
[36:00] Help us this morning, every day of life, to keep our eyes upon Jesus. Looking unto him, the author and finisher of faith.
[36:14] We thank you for this privilege of meeting together today and bless us now as we sing your praise in conclusion. In Jesus name, amen.