Congregation let me invite us this evening to open our Bible to Isaiah 53 Isaiah 53 I Said a while ago to our congregation here as we were approaching This night that I would find it difficult to preach anywhere, but Isaiah 53 on Good Friday so in that sense, we're trying to keep our word, but I Having said that, there is no limit to the focus of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ found in Isaiah 53. It is a virtual bottomless pit of great help to us in this chapter. So we're gonna read Isaiah 53, and then our text is gonna be in verse 11, and most especially the second and third sections of verse 11. We'll see that when we get there. So Isaiah 53, who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? He grew up before him like a tender shoot and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hid their faces, he was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon him. and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment, he was taken away. And who can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living. For the transgression of my people, he was stricken. He was assigned a grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death. Though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth, yet it was the Lord's will to crush him and cause him to suffer. And though the Lord makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied. By his knowledge, my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong because he poured out his life unto death and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors. Thus, your congregation, from the Old Testament, a picture and description of your Lord and his suffering on the cross. Let's pause again and pray and ask for our God's help this evening, shall we? Well, Father in heaven, there is no more central truth to be affirmed. And yes, delighted in by the Christian, we cannot come to the supper as we hoped to do in a little while, except having come through the cross. Yes, Lord, we also take great joy in Easter, the resurrection, and it seems so many, so many even today think it appropriate to only come to church on Easter Sunday. Oh, Father, what a shame to your gospel, for we need first to know of the cross and then come to the great glory of the resurrection. But now we pray, Lord, this evening. Again, we pray for help by the Spirit that we might take great consolation in the work accomplished by our Savior on the cross for all his people. And so help us, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Dear congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, and as we have been learning, so we will see tonight, Jesus, was no helpless victim. He was not led against his will to the cross. He knew he must endure the cross. But it is a terrifying reality that he knows. It is a cross of torment and shame. It was and is the only hope for wicked sinners. And yet, for him, the sacrifice was of the deepest, darkest, most horrifying reality, which would then bring the cry from him that we saw already this evening, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And yet, the cross remains the keynote of the Christian gospel. Christianity embraces the cross. Now it may seem odd to us if we actually consider that, why we would embrace such a torturous symbol. Whenever you see the cross, I hope that your mind is drawn to the great agony of the Lord Jesus Christ there. Considering what he endured, there seems to be no other conclusion to come to. Yet so important was his death on that cruel cross, that torture device that still, still we set before our eyes the cross. And rightly so. We embrace it. It is something akin to the tension of calling this Good Friday. Though as we are considering that title, what it is we call it good for has, yes, to do with the horror, but then the great relief and a glorious salvation so that we can say that his work on the cross is the best good ever. Well, you'll see in your bulletin there's a sermon handout guide with this theme statement printed there. The Lord Jesus Christ accomplished At the cross. What was planned? The Lord Jesus Christ accomplished at the cross. What was? Planned. First of all, then he knew. What was to be done? When you look again at Isaiah 53 in verse 11 and especially now the B section, it begins with these words by his. Knowledge. That is actually an astonishing statement when we are considering the cross. It opens for us a world of insight and wisdom and understanding about what it is that Jesus Christ knows is coming when he gets to the cross. What we have here in Isaiah 53 is prophecy, it is promise, it is the telling and the revealing of the situation the Messiah would come to and he realized it. He began to understand that in the early years of his ministry, he has knowledge, a great confidence about what he has to do. It isn't a little thing in the Gospels to consider the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ about his mission, about his calling, and about the cross as the center of it. Think about Jesus as 12-year-old boy. We get something very interesting when his parents exasperate and spend three days trying to find him, and they come and they actually find him, and Jesus is the one who looks at them oddly, and he says, well, didn't you know that I must be about my father's business? Because he knows, you see, And as he matures, as he comes to a greater knowledge as the human Jesus Christ, there it becomes a closer and closer unity about his perfect divine knowledge and his growing human knowledge as a young man and a young boy. As he walks about Palestine preaching and healing and comforting, he knows what is to come. He comes and he grasps then a perfect knowledge of what it is he must do for people who cannot save themselves, for people who know so little about their sins, who know so little about their God. And I'm not thinking of just general people somewhere, but beloved about we ourselves here and now. He knows that he must bear the sins of his people on the cross, taking the full measure of the justice from his father the righteous wrath that will fall on him, he knows. This word, then, which begins our text, Isaiah 53, 11, and the second section, by his knowledge, is something that ought to, if we push him away, shake us in great fear. We're going to come to the Lord's Supper in just a little while, and we think perhaps of 1 Corinthians 11 and the words of warning there. Why does the Apostle Paul put and couch in such language of warning that we ought not take the supper of the Lord if we do not believe? He puts it in language of it will cause damnation to ourselves if we take the Lord's Supper but do not believe. Why that? It is because, you see, the issue of knowledge. The Lord Jesus Christ never questions, he never doubts, he's never wondering what it is that he's going to do, but he comes with this knowledge, this certainty of the significance of sin and the necessity of the cross. Oh beloved, do you love him that he knew and still went forward? Do you love him that though in the garden of Gethsemane he prayed, if it's possible, my father, let this cup pass from me, nevertheless, you know the words, nevertheless, thy will be done, he knows. He's not questioning, he's not doubting, he's absolutely gripped by this. And so I ask you this evening, do you love him? Is he your first love? Your greatest love. Something about this phrase in verse 11b, by his knowledge, also points to the fact that in the pre-time agreement between the Father and the Son, testified by the Spirit, that counsel of redemption, he comes to grasp it as he matures and as he comes to a full knowledge in his human person of the divine truths. that it was supposed to be this way before the foundations of the world were laid. Do you love him that as he grasps this, he did not swerve from that necessity? Luke tells us, and it seems like a passing comment in chapter nine of Luke in verse 51, that the Lord Jesus, and the language Luke uses is very interesting, set his face to go to Jerusalem. Why? Because he knows. He knows what he must do for his people. Do you love him? What torment and shame awaits him, and most egregiously, most terrifyingly, the separation that he is going to endure from his father on the cross for those who were his enemies. And I'm not thinking of general people out there, but beloved, the scripture speaks of us in those terms, why we were yet his enemies. He loved us. He knows. And secondly, he was able. Able to do what was to be done. There are two important markers in Isaiah 53 in verse 11B which inform us as to how or why he is able to do what had to be done. Two identifying titles are here affixed to him by his father, righteous servant. Notice that by his knowledge, my, and I'm sorry the NIV doesn't capitalize that, I wish it did, it is the language of the Father addressing him in this way, my righteous servant. He is that one, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Father's one, the father's righteous one. That's the first part of the title his father affixes to him, which gives to us confidence, absolute, undoubted confidence that he will accomplish what needs to be done. He is, first of all, his father's righteous one. Do you know what that means? Would you dare to use that phrase about yourself? Would we dare to say that about ourselves and say to others, oh, look at me, I am God's righteous one? We probably wouldn't be too inclined to say that, though it's true in a certain sense. We wouldn't be the first to go and shout that. But if we're going to be saved, if we're going to come to God, if we're going to go to heaven, there is absolutely a requirement of righteousness, of holiness. For our God is holy, holy, holy. And if you and I are going to go to heaven, we also must be perfect. This holy God demands perfection. He doesn't grade on the curve. He doesn't say, well, you tried your best. I saw that you were really trying, so I'm going to go ahead and let you in. That's never the divine economy or an equation, perfection, righteousness. So do you see this here, beloved? Do you see what these words mean? My righteous, and we'll get to servant in a moment, but my righteous one will justify many. Who is he when he gets to the cross? If you still have your Bible open, just turn to one passage, just a couple chapters before Isaiah 53 to chapter 42. Isaiah chapter 42. I want you to notice it here. That title, my righteous one, my servant. Notice it here, Isaiah 42 in verse one. Here is my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight. I will put my spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations. He will not shout or cry out or raise his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness, notice it, in faithfulness he will bring forth justice. He will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth. And where especially did he establish justice on earth? The very center of the earth at that moment was the cross. And as the Father's righteous one, utterly sin free, he becomes at the cross the Father's servant for us. The servant who had to uphold the Father's will. Who has to take the full weight of the Father's righteous wrath on the cross for us. He becomes his Father's servant. But because he's the righteous one, he can do that. Do you know, beloved, when we consider our sins, we are considering our humanness, we are considering the things that are for us normal, the things that are for us regular. We say, well, I sinned, of course I sinned. I sinned yesterday, I sinned last week, I sinned last year, I sinned the last hour. But all of these things are not natural, they're not normal, they were not common and not at all known for the Lord Jesus Christ. He was the righteous one. who then becomes the servant on the cross. As Paul puts it in 2 Corinthians 5, he there became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Oh, this beloved is such a rich and a pure source. He is faultless. He is beautiful in His righteousness. He is perfect in His holiness. He is glorious. And then on the cross we face the horror of what happens to Him. I don't think, and this is one of those places where I was in prayer having us to consider this, I don't think we can ever rightly reckon with what it was for Him to become sin on the cross. I think it's beyond us. I think we don't have the capacity in our fallen minds to really reckon with what that meant to him. And that cry of dereliction which comes from him as his father must turn his back on his son because his son has become the servant taking upon himself our sin is something we cannot comprehend. That cry, why have you forsaken me? And we said it, didn't we, here in church? Didn't we say that he makes that cry so that we can say, so that I might be saved? Why have you forsaken me? And we answer, so that I might be forgiven, don't we? And this is where we understand, beloved, his righteousness and his glory. Do you glory in him? Do you place him on the highest pedestal of your life and your thinking and your reckoning, your consideration? None is higher than Jesus Christ. Do you glory in him? And by that then we say, I worship him. Yes, of course. I fall down before him. Yes, of course. I exalt him. Why? Because we glory in him. Because what he did for us, who he is, the Father's righteous servant who, now listen, actually accomplishes salvation. There is no comfort to be found, no comfort to be found in a supposed work by a supposed savior on the cross which makes salvation possible. That's not the gospel. The gospel is a savior who accomplishes salvation completely, fully, and surely for his people. Accomplishes it. Look at it thirdly. He knew for which ones he was working. And we have to pay very careful attention to the text. There is for us, then, beloved, a rich, confident assurance in the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ actually accomplished salvation for us, actually saved us, doesn't make salvation possible for a vast people, but actually accomplishes salvation for his people. The suffering servant justified, notice it, verse 11 again, many. Justified, that's a word of finality, a word of completion, Many. He knew those whom he was saving at that time. In the upper room, in the mission briefing, as sometimes we call it in the upper room, John 17, 20, the Lord Jesus Christ says about the disciples and those after them, he says, I do not pray for those alone, his disciples, but also, quote, for those who will believe in me through their word. For their sakes I sanctify myself, the righteous servant for all the unrighteous elect sinners. That is to say, the word many in Isaiah 53, 11b cannot possibly be stretched to mean all. That's not what the Bible says here. It says many. And then he says, there. Notice it, the very end of verse 11, and he will bear their iniquities. Beloved, you grasp what that means for all of those who believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ. He has himself taken the weight of all your iniquities on the cross. Let's go back to that issue that we wrestled with a moment ago. And I've heard other people say this, even very recently, that we should call this day, indeed, we should call it Good Friday. Well, why should we call this day good when our focus is on the most horrifying, torturous event in human history? Why call it good? Because of what the text here says to us. will bear all their iniquities. You say, well, Jesus saved me from all of my past sins, yes. You say, well, Jesus saves me from my current sins, and we say yes. And we go and we say, and Jesus has, notice the tense here of the verb, has saved me, accomplished, has saved me from all my future sins. And we say yes. because the text says he will bear their iniquities, not some, not a partial list, but the whole of our sin, nailed to the cross, covered by the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, accomplishing a certain salvation for his people. He did justify many. Remember that word we all spoke from John chapter 19, that word which you know very well, It. Is. Finished. We had the privilege of going to a nursing home this morning. They wanted a good Friday service worship service. I focused on that text in John. It is finished and ask them something. I want to ask you this evening. As we're going through Isaiah 53 portions of verse 11. The issue that should be going through our minds this evening, and I asked them the same this morning, is do I believe this? Am I convinced about these things? Do I have in my mind and in my heart absolutely no doubt as to the truth of these things? Oh beloved, how do you answer that? We asked, do I love him? And what was your answer? Then we asked, do you glory in him? And what was your answer? And now we're asking, do you believe him? And what is your answer? What does he say here? I will bear their iniquities. Do you believe? Because you see, fourthly, his work was to bear our burden, and he did. What we are forced to consider this evening, dear congregation, and focus on for the minutes that we have been spending on this, and it hasn't been long, and it won't be long, but what we have been caused to pay attention to this evening is the center of our salvation. This is the heart of the matter. Look at it again. By his knowledge, my righteous servant will, notice the language, justify many. Why? How? He will bear their iniquities. That means something happened at the cross. Jesus Christ took upon himself the full weight, the wrath, the righteous anger of the Father upon himself that should have fallen to us. Why? Because on the cross, he became sin for us. But something else, you see, has happened because of that. And it's what the prophecy here is addressing and dealing with, justification. The great exchange occurs at the cross. It's validated on Easter morning. It's validated by his resurrection and the empty tomb, as Paul will get to in Romans and address in Romans. But here's where the great exchange occurs, where the effecting of our righteousness happens, by the Lord Jesus Christ bearing our sins. all our debt, all that we owe, transferred to him so that his full righteousness, all of his purity and perfection would be transferred to us, so that our great accounting of debt would be washed away and wiped out by the blood of the cross, and we would be forever known as the righteous ones. I wonder if that's a hard word to hear. I wonder if it's something that causes us some cognitive dissonance, some strain in the brain when we are called now the righteous ones. I just said we wouldn't normally stand up and shout to the world saying, I'm a righteous one. But if we wouldn't, we have dismissed the value of the cross. Because notice what he says here. He will justify many by the bearing of their iniquities. Beloved, do you know that your debt has been settled? That is a glorious thing to consider this evening. Because before the work of Jesus Christ is applied to your account, God is terribly angry with you. People, especially today in this world, wouldn't listen to such a word, would they? If you walk out to the public square amidst the people going back and forth and buying their things and engaged in all their electronics, and you shook them and grabbed them by the collars and said to them that unless you're covered by the blood of Jesus Christ, God is terribly angry with you. It probably wouldn't work out well for you. They wouldn't like you very much. But they didn't like him very much, did they? But that wouldn't change the reality of the matter, would it? That unless you are reconciled to God by Jesus Christ, he is terribly angry, and rightly so, because we are sinners, enemies, wretches. Now we must be convinced of that, beloved, if this word is going to mean something to us, that we are justified because he bore our iniquities, because the Father now looks at us and says, I love you, I'm enamored with you, you are my choice one because of what Jesus Christ did on the cross for you. And so we have hope. And so we have confidence. And so we have peace with God through Jesus Christ. What was planned? What was planned? The salvation of all God's people, that's what was planned. It's why the son enters this wretched, fallen world. It's why he lives perfectly amongst sinners. It's why on the cross he descends into hell. It's why he defeats the enemy for us. It was all planned. That we might be saved. That we might be lifted up. Are you comforted in this? Do you love him? Do you glory in him? Do you believe him? And are you comforted in him? Amen. Our Father in heaven, we have no greater reason for saying thank you And for what we see in the scripture about what Jesus Christ accomplished on the cross. Oh Lord, there is no greater depth than what he endured on the cross and for us no greater height. Of being the justified in Christ, having all of our iniquities removed our sins paid for. He bore that righteous wrath of yours on the cross for us. And, O Father, receive this evening our thanksgiving and our praise. And may it be so, O Lord, that we love him and glory in him and believe him and now are comforted in him. Lord, be with your people and strengthen us all. We ask now for the glory of Jesus Christ to be seen through us and pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Congregation let's stand and we'll sing 355 before we come to the Lord's Supper in a moment stand and sing sake Oh sacred head now wounded three