with the occasion of Confession of Faith this evening and to keep on track with our series on Isaiah 53. We turn to Isaiah 53 this morning. Read once again that chapter of the prophecy of Isaiah. Chapter 53, Who hath believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of a dry ground. He hath no form nor comeliness. 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 not. Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. 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 of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned every one 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 shearers 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 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 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 bear the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. This morning I call your attention to this inspired word of God in Isaiah 53 verses 8 and 9. 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." Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, as we continue our study of this 53rd chapter of Isaiah, we have to bear in mind that we have here one of the great promissory prophecies of the certain and future redemption of Israel. To the church in this world, to those who are crying for their deliverance, Isaiah directs God's prophetic word. Zion shall be redeemed. But that redemption would come in a way that men would never anticipate. The servant of Jehovah, the long-awaited Messiah, would not immediately take the throne. He would suffer and die. Under the infinite wrath of God, the servant of Jehovah must suffer, not for his own sins, for he is the perfect spotless lamb of God, but for the sins of his people. Redemption shall come. through the personal, sacrificial suffering of the Messiah sent by God. Pictured here in Isaiah 53 is the mystery of godliness seen at Calvary, at Golgotha. The same is true of the text that we consider this morning in verses 8 and 9. It might appear on the surface that these verses are simply a repetition of what was set forth before. But there is progression in this text. Though the text continues to set forth the sufferings of Christ, it does so in another light. The prophet here proclaims the pure judgment of God. The judgment of God strikes Christ and casts him out of the land of the living, bringing him down to death and the grave. But even from the grave, Christ has the victory. In the midst of death, the suffering servant of Jehovah was the conqueror. That's the particular viewpoint in this text. And seeing the Lord's suffering and victory from yet another perspective, we are constrained to humble ourselves and to offer to him a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. I take my theme from the phrase found in verse 9, with the rich in his death. We notice, first of all, a lonely suffering, secondly, a symbolic burial, and finally, a rewarded death. The eighth verse brings a particular emphasis to Christ's suffering, the judgment of God. His was a lonely suffering. The idea of this verse has been a matter of much discussion throughout the years because there have been different ideas set forth concerning what this verse means. And the reason for the controversy concerning this verse is because of the quotation of this verse found in Acts 8 verse 33. The quotation is somewhat different. There in Acts 8, verse 33, we find the Ethiopian eunuch and Philip reading this passage together. They would have been reading the Greek translation of the Old Testament, that is, the Septuagint. And in the Greek version of this text, as we have it translated in Acts 8, verse 33, the translation is this. In his humiliation, his judgment was taken away. And who shall declare his generation? For his life is taken from the earth. That distinct difference in translation has confused some through the years. But the idea of the text, whether you consider it from the eighth verse of Isaiah 53 or from Acts 8 verse 33, is this, Christ's suffering culminated, was taken away by death. In his humiliation, through the depths of his suffering, that is the execution of God's wrath upon him, Christ was taken away. Or to put it another way, He was taken out of the prison of this earthly sojourn of suffering. He was taken out of judgment that he experienced. Indeed, he was taken out of this world by death. It was, by all appearances, the end. The end for him. And so the question follows. Who shall declare his generation? Who shall talk about him any longer? Who shall speak of any earthly family of this crucified man? He was cut off out of the land of the living. It looked absolutely hopeless. And it looked hopeless because among Jesus' contemporaries, no one understood the significance of his suffering and the victory that he had accomplished by his death. His suffering wasn't understood by anyone. The enemy certainly did not understand. They well knew that Jesus was a blameless and a just man, but they were totally ignorant of the fact that the blood of atonement was being shed there at Golgotha. And when I say that they were ignorant, that's not to deny the responsibility for their sin. Theirs was certainly a willful ignorance. the blindness of spiritual hatred. They were and remain responsible for their sin, except in the case of those elect for whom Christ bore the responsibility in their place. But even Jesus' disciples shared the ignorance of the significance of his suffering. That terrible miscarriage of justice, that inexpressible sorrow and suffering that they witnessed, absolutely confounded them. It troubled them to the depths of their souls. It mystified them. So then Isaiah would even prophesy of them in the immediate light of Jesus' death, who shall declare his generation? They thought it was the end. For his lonely suffering culminated in death, death under the wrath of God. How was it that his could be such a lonely suffering and death? How is it possible that he who had so many followers beside the twelve closest to him, could be left absolutely alone at the time of his death. For the transgression of my people was he stricken, says Jehovah. Couldn't they see that? No, they couldn't. That's amazing on the one hand because the prophets had plainly spoken of this in many places, including Isaiah in the very chapter we are considering. Besides, Jesus had spoken of this on more than one occasion. As the Gospel narratives point out, in fact, one day just a few days before this, Jesus told his disciples how he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things of the chief priests and elders and scribes and be killed and be raised again the third day. It was not as if he had whispered it or that the disciples didn't hear him. They heard him. They heard him well enough that Peter responded and rebuked him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord, that shall not be." Were they unbelieving? Oh, they believed. And the sense in which they believed is revealed in Luke 24, verses 13 and following, when immediately after Jesus rose again from the dead. He appeared to two men traveling on the road to Emmaus. Those two men were deeply involved in a spiritual discussion about the events that had just taken place, about the crucifixion of their Lord. And when Jesus asked them about it, They made the statement that was so significant to the question that we are considering. They said, but we trusted that it had been He which should redeem Israel. These were not unbelievers. They trusted in Jesus, but there had been something wrong with their hopes. and the stumbling block was exactly the nature of Jesus' suffering. The stumbling block was at the cross. First of all, the disciples in common with all the Jews were expecting the promised Messiah as one like David and Solomon. They expected their deliverance to be an earthly deliverance. such as had occurred all through the Old Testament as a picture of what was to be the salvation of Israel. It never occurred to them that Jesus would not be a king who would sit on the throne in the earthly Jerusalem. They were mistaken about what would constitute the reality. They looked for a kingdom in which God would be all in all. They looked for a better country than the earthly land of Canaan. But they were still expecting that kingdom to be earthly. And they couldn't possibly conceive of the fact that to enter the heavenly glory And to establish that kingdom, the Messiah would have to go and satisfy God's justice by dying on the cross. They didn't see that. They didn't see that in spite of all the prophecies to that effect in the Old Testament. That cross to them was too horrible to contemplate. It spoke not only of rejection by men, but by God. That Jesus would be made a curse for them was a matter that mystified them. They were ignorant of the deep things of God. Even for all their religion, they were ignorant. But their ignorance was according to the mercy of God. Christ was alone in His suffering. And it was so that the Father's will be accomplished in our salvation. And so one of the last acts that Jesus did was to pray, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. He prayed for his own. That's what he said in John 17, verse 9. I pray for them. I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine. Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Forgive them. for they will be the contrite of heart who turn to thee in true repentance. And so having accomplished his work, he died. Jesus, the suffering servant of Jehovah, was cut off out of the land of the living. And because he must be full partaker of the wrath of God that is due us, he must also be buried He must enter the place of corruption. He himself would not see corruption as was prophesied in Psalm 16. But even so, he must deliver his body to the humiliation of the grave where the sinner returns to dust. That also belongs to the sentence of God upon the sinner. Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. Just as he willingly entered the womb of the Virgin to assume the likeness of our sinful flesh, so he must submit in perfect obedience to that sentence of God concerning the sinner's death. Now we ask, why and how could he voluntarily enter the grave How could he do that voluntarily? That belongs to the mystery of his Godhead and the wonder of the Gospel. That he voluntarily entered the grave can only be explained from the truth that Jesus is the person of the Son of God and as such was never separated from his human nature even in death and the grave. Even the grave belonged to his perfect obedience. That's the truth of this text. He made his grave with the wicked. So he accomplished all of death and fulfilled all righteousness. But as verse 8 leads us into the 9th verse, we must also understand that there is a significant symbolism in Jesus' burial. At the grave, we come face to face with the stark, earthly aspect of death, physical death. Temporal, physical death is an enemy. The Bible recognizes that. True, for us who believe, it's the last enemy, and one of which we need not be terrified. But death is an enemy. And it is an enemy because of its relationship to the righteous judgment of God. Physical death is God's declaration that the sinner has absolutely forfeited every right to his existence in this world. Death belongs, therefore, to the wages of sin. It's the revelation of God's righteousness and justice against the sinner. And this sentence had to be executed also upon Jesus. Only in the case of this suffering servant of Jehovah, He made also of his death a willing act of love to God. He did so by commending his spirit to the Father and delivering his body into the place of corruption. And so we see that death has two aspects. When you see death as that final separation of man's spirit and body, you see death has two aspects. There's an aspect of death that involves the earthly and material side, and there's that aspect of death that involves the spiritual and eternal side of our existence. The grave is that which we see concerning death. We keep the dead body and bury it in harmony with the honor that we owe, that creative work of God, while the spirit proceeds to our Heavenly Father. And when a loved one dies, the only thing that we can see is the stark reality of the grave. That's all we can see. At the grave we see only the earthly end. But we know from the Bible there's another side. Another side of death and the grave, and that side also has two aspects, depending on whether or not the person who died was wicked or righteous, that is, unbelieving or believing, For the wicked, all those outside of Christ, temporal death is a passing into everlasting desolation. And that's true immediately. When Jesus spoke the parable of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16, he pointed out that the rich man also died and was buried. And in hell. He lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and seeth Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy upon me and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue. For I am tormented in this flame. That was the horrible experience of the rich man, of his spirit, immediately after he died. As to the body of the unbeliever, it's simply waiting for eternal, everlasting, that is, desolation, Beginning in the day of Christ's return, when all those that are in the grave shall rise, they that have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation, John 5 verse 29. But for those who believe, for all who are righteous in Christ Jesus, That same physical death is a passing into everlasting glory. There is no soul sleep, such as the seven-day Adventists teach. That's a false teaching. It's contrary to scripture. Besides the poor Lazarus who was named in Luke 16 in the parable of Jesus, who was immediately carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom, there are other passages in the Bible which teach that immediately upon closing our eyes in death, we awaken in heavenly glory. We're speaking now about Jesus suffering in death. Don't forget what he said to that penitent thief who was crucified alongside him. He didn't say to him, today you're going to go to the grave with me. He said to him, today thou shalt be with me in paradise. And so with the Apostle Paul, We also confess in all confidence in 2 Corinthians 5 verse 1, for we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, and house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. And as to our bodies, and the body of any believer, it is simply sown in the earth that presently it may appear in the glory of the resurrection. That's the beautiful truth set forth in 1 Corinthians 15 and Philippians 3, just to name two passages. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. And because of those truths clearly revealed to us in the scriptures, we say that in Jesus' burial and grave, there is a significant symbolism. He made his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death. That's striking when you take into account the fact that scripture tells us in several places that the wicked are not entitled to an honorable burial together with the righteous. Frequently, it was the case that wickedness was rewarded with a dishonorable death. When Cardinal Israel refused the reports of Caleb and Joshua, and instead rebelled against the Lord, the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, tell the people, your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness. Many years later, when the curse of the Lord was pronounced against Babylon, As we read in Isaiah 14 verses 19 and 20, Isaiah prophesied, but thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch. And as the raiment of those that are slain thrust through with the sword that go down to the stones of the pit as a carcass trodden underfoot, thou shalt not be joined with him in burial, Because thou hast destroyed thy land and slain thy people, the seed of evildoers shall never be renowned. And those of you who are familiar with the Old Testament, including our children who've heard some of these Bible stories, might remember that with several of the wicked kings and queens, their bodies were thrown outside the gates of the city to be meat for the birds and the beasts. But that symbolism of being grievous outcasts, dishonorable outcasts, that symbolism was grievous when the children of God were wrongfully persecuted. There were times, for example, when those who were godly suffered the same lot with the wicked. were not honorably buried. The psalmist grieves about that persecution and the dishonor shown God's people when he sings in Psalm 79, O God the heathen are come into thine inheritance, thy holy temple they have defiled. They have laid Jerusalem on heaps. The dead bodies of Thy servants have they given to be meat unto the fowls of the heavens, the flesh of Thy saints unto the beasts of the earth. Their blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem, and there was none to bury them. And he goes on to plead God's cause in verse 9. Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of Thy name. and deliver us, and purge away our sins for thy name's sake. In that symbolism of the grave, therefore, it's made plain that while the wicked and the righteous live together on earth, in physical and temporal death they are separated forever. The wicked are assigned the place of the damned, while the righteous receive glory, their bodies only to await the glorious resurrection. Now with all this in mind, we find that an amazing thing happened with Jesus' death and burial. He was assigned a place with the wicked, both while he lived on this earth and in his death. That the Lord of Glory would make His grave with the wicked speaks of the shameful death that He suffered in our place. That Jesus made His grave with the wicked, beloved, means that He suffered as one who is cursed. In our place! You remember the pronouncement of God, don't you? Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. And as the apostle wrote in Galatians 3 verse 13, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. The arm of Jehovah. The suffering servant of Jehovah made his grave with the wicked in order fully to pay our debt and give the full evidence that he had satisfied God's justice. Christ did that willingly. He made his grave with the wicked. But he was rewarded in death. His enemies had assigned him a grave with the wicked. They had, in fact, assigned him a place with the wicked throughout his earthly sojourn. Don't you remember what they called him? Deceiver, gluttonous, wine-bibber, son of Beelzebub. All names assigning him a place with the wicked. Boys and girls, the wicked did that to Jesus. You don't talk that way, do you, to your classmates? You don't assign them a place with the wicked, do you, by name-calling? The hatred of their hearts came to expression that way. And that hatred of their hearts was so intense, they sought the release of Barabbas, a murderer and a robber, claiming that Jesus was worse than he And we learn from John 19 verses 31 and following that the same enemies made clear their intention that the suffering servant of Jehovah also be buried with the wicked. That was one reason behind the request that the soldiers break the legs of all three who had been crucified in order that they might quickly be taken down and thrown into a hastily dug common grave. That was their intention. And by that action, they would express that Jesus had passed on to everlasting desolation, cursed by God, forever separated from the righteous, and also his body didn't await the resurrection of the just. They assigned him a place among the damned. But such could not be. Indeed, the soldiers broke the legs of the two men who were crucified with Jesus. But we read in John 19, verses 33 through 37, when they came to Jesus and saw that he was dead already, they break not his legs. But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came thereout blood and water. And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true. And he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe. For these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled. A bone of him shall not be broken. And again, another scripture saith, They shall look on him whom they pierced. The Lord then worked in the hearts of Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. And by the power of his spirit and grace, he removed whatever fear they had as members of the Sanhedrin. and he moved them to make the request to Pilate that they might take Jesus' body and bury it. He was buried with the rich. Though the unbelieving had assigned him a place with the wicked, he was buried with the rich. Not only was he wrapped with fine expensive linen and embalmed with myrrh and aloes, but he was laid in a new tomb. He was with the rich in his death because he was obedient in his life. He accomplished the purpose for which God sent him. He fulfilled all righteousness and the justice of God for us. It is finished, he said, without violence and without deceit. Jesus sought not vengeance. He sought your life and mine. He lived for the truth, not content to live a lie. He spoke the truth to the glory of God. He said to God, I love thee. He did that even from the agonies of hell. That perfect obedience must be rewarded by the perfectly righteous God. And for that perfect obedience, it was the Father's will that His servants' burial be reckoned with the transgressors no more but be counted with the righteous." That points to another wonderful truth. That he was buried with the rich in a new grave was also symbolic. Because Jesus himself saw no corruption. He made himself a new grave. He did so by going through the grave. to eternal life and heavenly glory, making of the grave an entrance to heaven for all his own. Apart from Christ, all graves are old passageways into everlasting misery and desolation. What unspeakable comfort, therefore, for all who are in Christ Jesus by faith. He made of the grave the door to heaven, the passageway to heaven. The curse is removed. Death's terror is gone. We are more than conquerors through him that loved us. So you see, it was necessary that Jesus ascend to the depths before being exalted. He received not only His burial with the rich, but exaltation at God's right hand in heaven. For if He had not suffered, if He had not died and entered our grave, if He only appeared before us in the majesty of His glory, How could we be assured that our sins are forgiven? We would see the Son of God, but He would be separated from us. We would have nothing in common with Him. We would not be able to have fellowship with Him. Instead, we'd only have feelings of guilt and shame. Apart from faith in the crucified and risen Savior, There's no hope in the world. Nothing but despair. Your life is only a breath. And you are ready any minute to be brought into desolation, except you are a member of Christ by faith. a member of Him who was with the rich in His death. But now are we in Christ Jesus, He who passed through our death, who paid our debt, who reconciled us unto God, He is now our life. Who shall declare his generation? Yes, at Calvary everything appeared hopeless. But because he went through the grave, we shall declare his generation. For his seed are without number. Stars in the heaven. Sand upon the seashore. Even as Paul wrote in the last part of Galatians 3, For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. And we shall show forth his praise. Amen. Heavenly Father, we thank Thee for the wonder work of Thy grace, revealed in Thine only begotten Son, not only suffering the cross for us, but going to the grave and opening to us that doorway to heaven. Father, grant that we may live in the consciousness of the gospel and stand in awe before thee in true repentance and faith. To thy name's honor and glory and for Jesus' sake, amen.