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Christ in the Old Testament - Too Good to be True (Isaiah 53) | Warren Wiersbe Sermons | Warren Wiersbe | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: Christ in the Old Testament - Too Good to be True (Isaiah 53) | Warren Wiersbe Sermons
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Core Theme
Isaiah 53 is presented as a profound prophecy foretelling the suffering, death, and redemptive purpose of Jesus Christ, explaining why the Gospel message, despite its unbelievable nature, offers salvation.
I'd like us to turn to Isaiah chapter
53 I shall read the entire chapter as
you follow
along Isaiah 53 the great Old Testament
Prophecy of the birth and life and death
Christ who hath believed our
report and to whom is the arm of the
Lord revealed
for he shall grow up before him like a tender
tender
plant and like a root out of a dry
ground he hath no form nor cess and when
we shall see him there is no beauty that
we should desire
him he is despised and rejected of men a
Man of Sorrows and acquainted with
grief and we hid as it were our faces
from him he was despised and we esteemed him
him
not surely he hath borne our griefs and
carried our
sorrows and yet we did esteem him
stricken smitten of God and
Afflicted but he was wounded for our
transgressions he was bruised for our
iniquities the chastisement for our
peace was upon him and with his stripes
all we like sheep have gone
astray we have turned everyone to his
own way and the Lord hath laid on him
the iniquity of us
all he was oppressed and he was
afflicted yet he opened not his mouth he
is brought as a lamb to the slaughter
and as a sheep before her sheers is dumb
so he openeth not his mouth
he was taken from prison and from
judgment and who shall declare his
generation for he was cut off out of the
land of the living for the transgression
of my people was he
stricken and he made his grave with the
wicked and with the rich in his death
because he had done no violence neither
was any deceit in his
mouth yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
him he hath put him to
grief when thou shalt make his soul an
offering for sin he shall see his seed
he shall prolong his days and the
pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his
his
hand he shall see of the travail of his
soul and shall be
satisfied by his knowledge shall my
righteous servant justify many for he
shall bear their their
iniquities therefore will I divide him a
portion with the great and he shall
divide the spoil with the strong because
he hath poured out his soul unto death
and he was numbered with the
transgressors and he bore the sin of
many and made
53 is the
book as you know the first 39 chapters in
in
Isaiah deal with
judgment and
condemnation from chapters 40 through 66
we have a message of comfort and
salvation Isaiah is something like the
Bible in
miniature there are 66 books in the
Bible and there are 66 chapters in
Isaiah there are 39 books in the Old
Testament and there are 39 chapters in
Isaiah that deal with judgment and
condemnation there are 27 books in the
New Testament giving us the message of
Grace and
salvation and there are 27 chapters in
the latter part of Isaiah that give us
the salvation of
God Isaiah chter 40 opens the New
Testament section of the book with
Comfort ye Comfort ye my people the
voice of one crying in the wilderness
prepare ye the way of the lord it's John
the Baptist coming to point the way for
Christ the very heart of this latter
section is chapter
53 down through the centuries the Bible
students have asked the
question that that Ethiopian Treasurer
asked in the book of Acts chapter
8 of whom does the prophet
speak of himself or of some
other and you'll recall when Philip the
Evangelist joined this
Treasurer and heard him reading Isaiah
53 Philip beginning at that very Place
preached unto him Jesus
Christ now there are those who tell us
that Isaiah 53 is talking about the Jewish
Jewish
Nation certainly in the latter part of
the book of
Isaiah the Jewish nation is called the
servant of God there's no problem with
that but I have a difficult time
applying Isaiah 53 to the nation of
Israel for three reasons first of all we
read here about someone who voluntarily was
was
suffering I don't think this was ever
true of our Jewish Nation they were
carried into captivity against their
will it was not
voluntary secondly I read that in Isaiah
53 the one who is suffering is
innocent no human being Jew or Gentile
can claim to be innocent before God all
we like sheep have gone astray we've
turned turned everyone to his own way
thirdly the one who suffers here in
Isaiah 53 suffers not for his own sin
but for somebody else's it is not only
voluntary suffering it is vicarious
suffering he is a
substitute and with all due respect for
our Jewish friends whom we love nowhere
do we discover that the nation of Israel
ever suffered for the sins of the world
no I think when you read Isaiah 53 you
come face to face with Jesus Christ and
the message of Isaiah 53 is the message
of the
Gospel Christ died for our sins
according to the scriptures he was
buried he arose again the third day
according to the scriptures and it's
believe now the strange question
question is asked in verse one who hath
believed our report our
message and to whom is the arm of the
Lord revealed verse one is saying that
God through his word and through his
Works has revealed himself to men and
yet men will not
believe when the Gospel of John was
being written the Apostle John got to
that 12th chapter he's CL climaxing the
public Ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ
and he writes these words though he had
done so many miracles before them yet
they did not believe that it might be
fulfilled which was written by the
prophet Isaiah Lord who hath believed
our report to whom is the arm of the
Lord revealed and people today have the
same sin and make the same mistake God
reveals himself and God speaks to people
and people won't
believe now he's speaking in this
chapter not only about the nation of
Israel in her unbelief he's talking
about all
people I speak to friends right now I
speak to listeners right now who have
not trusted Jesus
Christ we want to look at Isaiah 53 and
answer the question why is the gospel so
unbelievable what is there about this
gospel message the message of of our
Lord Jesus that is so
unbelievable why is it so difficult for
people to
believe the prophet suggests three
reasons for the
unbelief of so many many people verses
1- 4 the gospel concerns an unbelievable
person now he describes the Lord Jesus
here in these first four verses and he
makes three statements about him he says
he is
unbelievable because he is human yet he is
is
divine he is humble yet he's
exalted he is hated and yet he loves
people and dies for them and this is
unbelievable the Lord Jesus Christ was
human and yet he was divine we have in
verse two his birth for he shall grow up
before him like a tender plant and like
a root out of a dry ground when our lord
Jesus came to this earth to become our
savior he was born of the Virgin Mary
Isaiah had prophesied this back in ch
7:14 behold the Virgin shall conceive
and shall be with child and his name
Shall be Called Emanuel
God With
Us the prophet is picturing here a dead
Barren Earth and in this earth is a
dried up
root and yet from this root there
Springs forth a majestic tree that bears
fruit now initially he's talking about
the nation of Israel when our lord Jesus
was born into this world he came at a
time when Israel was a dry ground their
religion was stale and Aid and dead they
had formality without any power and they
had ritual without any reality to it and
our lord Jesus came into that
desert and he was the root out of dry
ground he was human he grew up and yet
he was divine he was the Eternal when
God would save men from their sins he
took his own son and wedded his own son to
to
humanity our lord Jesus did not come to
this earth and simply make a visit and
then go back he came and joined himself
with your very nature he was made
flesh that's the only way he could get
the job done and people say this is so
unbelievable he he he's human and yet
he's is
divine when our lord Jesus stood before
the Jewish multitudes and claimed to be
God they shook their heads and said this
man is mad he's demon-possessed how can
he say before Abraham was I am how can
he say Abraham saw my day and rejoiced
how can he claim to be God in human
flesh it's unbelievable yes it is but
it's true
he was human yet he was
divine he was humble and yet he was
exalted the Jewish people have a another
meaning to verse two he shall grow up
before him like a tender plant and like
a root out of a dry ground back in
Isaiah's day whenever a Jew wanted to
call somebody a back Woodsman a uh a
hillbilly uh a nobody oh he's just a
root out of dry ground this was true of
Jesus from every human point of view he was
was
nobody he was born to
a little Jewish mother whose husband was
a poor [Music]
[Music]
carpenter their family was not the
greatest in Israel he was born in a
manger poor he was born in the little
town of Bethlehem not in the great
Metropolis of
Jerusalem he grew up in Nazareth and
people said can any good thing come out
of Nazareth
whenever you wanted to give somebody a
kind of a nasty nickname you could call
him a Nazarene he's a na he's from
Nazareth Isaiah is saying that he is
humble and yet he's exalted in his
origin in his appearance there's nothing
about him that makes us want
him there are thousands of printings of
various pictures of the Lord Jesus but
nobody knows what Jesus looked like all
we know is there was nothing essentially
physically attractive about
him he was human yet he was divine it's
unbelievable he was humble and yet he's
exalted it's
unbelievable he was hated and yet he
loved people and helped people it's
unbelievable I read here he was despised
this means he didn't want him they
looked down upon him he was rejected of
men this means he was
forsaken his family forsook him they
said he was a little bit out of his mind
his Nation forsook him we will not have
this man to Reign Over Us his own
disciples forsook him and fled and I
would remind you that when he died on
the cross our Lord was forsaken even of
his father my God my God why hast Thou
forsaken me despised and rejected of
men he says we esteemed him not that
means we didn't put a big price tag on
him we didn't put a big evaluation on
him there are men today in the United
States of America who are seemingly more
important than other men when I travel I
don't have bodyguards with me I'm not that
that
important when the president travels he
has bodyguards with him he's a very
important person when I take a plane and
fly somewhere the Press doesn't pay one
bit of attention to it but when Mr
Kissinger gets on the plane to go
somewhere the Press is very attentive to
what's going on he's far more important
our Lord Jesus Christ when he was here
on Earth was not followed by the
Press he wasn't written up by the
journals he wasn't interviewed by the
great people he was not highly esteemed
and yet in spite of the way people
treated him look what he did surely he
hath borne our griefs and carried our
sorrows now he's not simply talking
about the tears of Life he's talking
about the consequences of sin do you
know why there's grief in this world
because of
sin you know why there's sorrow in this
world because of sin and when our Lord
was here on Earth and he saw the sin and
the sickness and the death and he wept
and while he was here on Earth he healed
the sick and took away their grief and
he raised the dead and took away the
sorrow of their loved ones Matthew over
in his gospel quotes this verse applying
not to the death of Jesus but to the
life of Jesus while he was here on Earth
he gathered together those who were
brokenhearted those who were ready to
quit and he loved them and he dried
their tears and yet what did men do to him
him
they rejected
him yes the gospel is unbelievable
because it concerns an unbelievable
person the Lord Jesus
Christ human yet Divine God In the Flesh
humble yet exalted hated yet he loved
people and died for them that leads us
to the second reason why the gospel is so
so
unbelievable verses 1- 4 it concerns an unbelievable
unbelievable
person verses
5-9 it demands an unbelievable
price do you think that salvation is something
cheap do you have the idea that almighty
God can just snap his finger and men are
forgiven God can move his finger and
make a un Universe when I consider the
heavens the work of thy
fingers God can bear his arm and do
Great and Mighty things when it came to
saving your soul and making your life
worthwhile putting your home back
together again giving you a place in
heaven rescuing you from hell when it
came to that it demanded an unbelievable
Price look at verses
5-9 we see him
suffering the emphasis in verse 5 is on the
the
pronoun but he was wounded for our
transgressions he was bruised for our
iniquities the chastisement for our
peace was upon him and with his stripes
we are healed we see him suffering now
let's take these words he was wounded
that Hebrew word wounded means
pierced he was pierced for our
transgressions you see he wasn't stoned
to death he wasn't burned to death he
wasn't drowned he wasn't strangled he
was crucified they shall look upon Him
whom they have
pierced they have pierced my hands and
my feet says Psalm 22
he was
pierced for our
our
transgressions look at that next word he was
was
bruised that means
crushed it isn't just referring to to a
whipping that he had it's the it's the
it's the crushing of the weight of sin
when they nailed Jesus Christ to the
Cross says Peter who his own self bore
our sins in his own body on the tree he
was crushed under the weight of our sin
I wonder if anybody here
today would be willing for God to reach
all the way back to Adam and all the way
down to the end of time and take all of
the murder and vice and vomit and filth
empty every Cesspool of iniquity put it
into one great
you he was pierced for our
transgressions he was
crushed for our
iniquities the chastisement the
punishment for breaking the law that I
should have felt he
felt to put it in everyday grade school
you remember that last time you
lied he was whipped for
that you recall that lustful deed that's
hidden by some shade of Darkness he took
the whipping for
that and it wasn't just that he bore the
punishment he bore the
Martin Luther in a very courageous
statement that
almost shocks you says on the cross
Jesus became the greatest sinner who ever
ever
lived what he meant by that was because
of all of the burden and stain and
poison of the sins of the world laid
Upon Jesus God treated
him as though he were the greatest
sinner who ever
lived by his stripes we healed that's an
amazing thing he was stricken that I
might be healed now he's not talking
about physical healing here he's talking
about healing from sin
sickness the sickness of sin the worst
sickness in all the world and there's no
vaccination you can get to make you immune
immune
and yet Jesus Christ paid the price it
meant suffering it's an unbelievable
substitution all we like sheep have gone
astray we've turned everyone to his own
way and the Lord hath laid on him the
iniquity of us all have you notice the
words that he uses here he was wounded
for our transgressions
that means breaking the law God draws a
line and says you can't go over that
line that's rebellion and it says here
yes but he was pierced for our
Rebellion he uses the word
transgressions and he uses the word
iniquity that word iniquity is a Hebrew
word that means
crooked God looks down upon me and says
oh I wanted you to be straight I wanted
you to to to obey my word when I made
the first man I made him to be straight
I measured him and there was no
variation oh but sin came in and sin has
made everything
crooked and men can't think straight
they think crooked and men can't talk
straight they speak in Devious lying
ways and Men won't walk straight they
walk with the limp of
sin and the Lord Jesus Took My Rebellion
on his body he took my crookedness on
his body he uses the word
iniquities it was
substitution it's interesting to read
the theologians down Through the Ages
wrestling with the cross why did Jesus
die someone says he died for his own sin
no the word of God doesn't tell us
that someone says well when he died it
was an example for others to follow the
word of God doesn't tell us that someone
else says when he died it was such an
Evidence of the pity of God it broke
people's hearts and they wanted to
repent the word of God doesn't say that
I don't find too many people around the
cross who had broken hearts waiting to
repent most of them went by and said
look at him he claimed to trust God let
God take him down from the cross there
was not much brokenheartedness there was
a lot of
bitterness a lot of hard-hearted
now now he tells us in verse 6 why he
died the Lord hath laid on him Jesus your
your
sin there are two alls in this verse all
we like sheep have gone astray you walk
into verse six a sinner you can walk out
of verse
six a saved sinner the Lord hath laid on
him the
iniquity of us all
would you notice please that verse 6
tells you and tells me that our sin is
so bad it has us locked in on two counts
number one we're born Sinners oh we like
sheep have gone astray it's our nature
we are Sinners by Nature oh you say I
can't that's not my fault that's my
mother and dad's fault ah but he moves
on to say we have turned everyone
individually to his own way we are not
only Sinners by Nature we are Sinners by
choice and no one here today can look
into the face of God and say I have not
deliberately disobeyed you
Lord no we have to hang our heads in
shame and say I've gone my own way and
you've gone your own way and you've
discovered what happens when you go your
own way there's sorrow and there's tears
and pain and shame and broken homes and
broken bodies and ruined lives and yet
the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity
of us all there
sacrifice and
suffering and
substitution and Jesus didn't
fight the prophet says they they took
him from prison and from judgment he
didn't get a fair trial his civil rights
were not protected for him he didn't
argue argue about it as a sheep before
mouth some of us can remember when the
Stockyards were still
uh down the way here in the South part of
of
Chicago used to be a big deal to go
visit the Stockyards and one of the most
interesting things you'll remember was
the way they used to lead the sheep and
the goats to the
slaughter it was done in such a an
interesting way a couple of the animals
had been trained to lead them they
called them the Judas goats and the Judas
Judas
sheep and these sheep would just get in
front of the of the flock and just begin
to lead them and the others would just
follow so
meekly then they would have their throats
throats
cut they'd be
slaughtered our Lord could have summoned
the angels of Glory one angel in the Old
Testament wiped out
185,000 soldiers like that my lord said
he could have called Legions of angels
there wouldn't have been much left but
he didn't because he loved
you yes the gospel is unbelievable
because it concerns an unbelievable
person and it demands an unbelievable
unbelievable
price he had to die but thirdly the
gospel is unbelievable because it
fulfilled an unbelievable
purpose what did God accomplish by all
of this verses 10- 12 my we could spend
days just meditating on what he says in
verses 10-2 but let me put it into three
capsule statements number one Justice was
was
satisfied it please the Lord to bruise
him now this doesn't mean that God the
father had great Glee over the suffering
of God the son oh no what it meant was
that the Holiness of God was
satisfied Justice was
satisfied you see some people have a
rather polyana Mambi pambi Santa Claus
view of
God they say well if God is God he can
just blink his eyes and he didn't see my
drunkenness and he didn't see my
adultery and he didn't see my lying and
and he'll just
forgive me oh no now somebody has to pay
the price let's suppose that I owe you
$100 I'm glad I don't let's suppose I
do and I go to you and say you know
you're such a wonderful guy just forget
about it you say wait a minute
somebody's got to pay for
this we don't deal with politics in this
Pulpit but you'll recall when President
Ford granted uh
uh
forgiveness to his predecessor people
were up in arms who's going to pay for
this they were right somebody has to pay for
for
something and God is a holy God and says
my law must be satisfied and God is a
loving God and says my creation must be
saved and so a holy loving God met at
Calvary righteousness and peace kissed each
each
other and Justice was satisfied now hear
me God has paid the price for your sin
if you accept this price you're
forgiven but if you're
rejected you've rejected the only
satisfaction God ever gave you must make
satisfaction yourself and you can't do
judgment you see it uh fulfilled an
unbelievable purpose Justice was
satisfied secondly Sinners were
Justified verse 11 he shall see of the
travail of his soul and shall be
satisfied by his knowledge shall my
righteous servant justify many the word
justify is one of the great words in
Christian vocabulary it means to be
God and you the Lost Sinner come and you
condemned the soul that sinth it shall
die then you turn and you see one
hanging on a [Music]
[Music]
tree and you say oh I believe I receive
and the voice from Heaven that once said
you see it's it's a transaction like
this God picked up your bank book one
day and he looked and saw that you were
bankrupt nothing but bad records against
you you couldn't pay your spiritual
debts and he said I'm going to do this
I'm going to take your debt and pay
it that's why Jesus
died and when you trust my son I am not
only going to forgive you all your debt
but I'm going to take your bank book and
I'm going to give you my righteousness
that's justification you know what that
means that means I stand before God
today not in the weakness of Warren weby
I stand before God today clothed in the
righteousness of Jesus Christ accepted
in the Beloved he hath made him to be
sin for me he who knew no sin that I
might be made the righteousness of God
in him
Justice was satisfied and sinners were
Justified and God was glorified that's
the purpose for the whole
thing the whole purpose of Calvary was
to conquer sin and death and hell and
God verse 12 tells us it was not a
defeat it was a victory he's dividing
the spoils therefore will I divide him
upon portion with the great he shall
divide the spoil with the strong because
Heath poured out his soul un death and
he was numbered with the
transgressors I began to count and I
stopped counting I began to count and
discovered 85 references to Isaiah 53 in
the New
Testament it's all over the place and I
didn't count all of them I'm sure
85 what he's saying here is simply
this it achieved an unbelievable purpose
glorified and now the Lord Jesus is
Alive in
heaven having
conquered having been raised from the
dead and he can be your
savior now I grant you this is all very
but he's true he's
real it's an unbelievable
price but it
worked it's an unbelievable purpose that
I should share in the family of God he
shall see his seed he shall see the
children that shall be born through the
travail of the
Cross it's
because if
it's unbelievable and you don't
believe it becomes
unbearable Jesus said except ye believe
ye shall die in your
sins he that believeth on him is not
condemned but he that believeth not is
condemned already because he hath not
believed in the name of the all only
begotten Son of God oh my friend it's
unbelievable but
faith trust
him and you'll become a child of
report will you believe
today for whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord
shall be
father our hearts well up within us as
we contemplate
Calvary Not In a Sentimental way but in
a spiritual
us who are we that he should bear our
oh father thank you for
Calvary I pray that those here today who
have not trusted Christ will trust him
and I pray too father that those of us
who are believers will appreciate
more what it means to be a
Christian help many to believe today I
pray in jesus'
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