He took what we deserve and afflicted. You know, that's what happens when you handle sin, which He was doing for us. And the prophet is very clear to all the generations that Christ, the suffering of Christ, was under the total control of the Godhead. At no point did they lose control. It was systematic. It was foreordained.
There's nothing like it. This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Isaiah.
Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. But for now, let's join Pastor Rick in the book of Isaiah chapter 53 with today's edition of Cross-Reference Radio. God's brave love, part 2.
Christianity does not originate with its teachers. We learn that from Scripture. 1 Peter 1. Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you. There were many prophets involved in announcing the arrival of Christ.
The world doesn't know these things as a rule. The Holy Spirit looks to us to get this information to co-workers, neighbors, whoever we may be able to engage. Verse 4. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. Well, the first three verses, of course, introduce this servant and his time of suffering. The servant that was mentioned way back in Isaiah 42 verse 1. Then, even in chapter 52 and verse 13, we're reminded of this servant and now we have really the last time he's going to appear in Isaiah's prophecy. After chapter 53, this coming Messiah does not show up as he does in this section.
It's as though the main thing has been said. And on the strength of that, God moves forward. But this is the gospel message here in verse 4 bearing the griefs and the sorrows of a people that don't deserve it. The sinless servant dying as a sacrifice for sinners.
This is basic Christianity. Doing what no one even knew to ask him to do. I mean, how would Adam and Eve have gotten out of that mess? Well, what would their solution be?
Fig leaves. The best they could do. And mankind hasn't changed. Man has no answer to sin.
The scientists, the engineers, the great minds, the philosophers. What are you going to do with sin? This stuff is killing us. If we don't do something about it, it's going to keep killing us.
Well, that's what it's been doing. Ever since Eden. One of the great testimonies of the trustworthiness of Scripture.
No one has anything that's this sensible. The sacrifice is at the heart of Israel's religious system since Eden. Since the animals that were sacrificed for the guilty. In Leviticus 16 is rather a lengthy address on this issue.
Not only there, but that's one of them. He says, surely he has borne our griefs. Well, if you're reading this, you're an ancient Jew in the days of Isaiah. You understand this is a person. Someone's coming along to do all of this. It's not abstract. He has borne out.
It's no, it's someone's coming. And many of the Jews figured it out in the days of Christ. Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea, two of the rich men that squeezed through the eye of the needle. They figured it out. That surely he has, it's indisputable. They weren't the prophets.
They weren't foggy about what they had to say. Not only suffering with us, for us, bearing our griefs, carrying our sorrows. Well, to where?
Anywhere but, anywhere away from me would do. Now, Matthew partially applies this section of Isaiah, this first clause, to the healings and deliverance from demons that Jesus was carrying out during his earthly ministry. Matthew was flashing the credentials of Messiah. He's saying, this is who Isaiah was talking about, just this part. Of course, the rest of all of Isaiah 53, but he takes this part of Isaiah 53 while Jesus is doing the healing to say, see, this is him.
Nobody else is doing anything like this. Matthew, notorious for pointing to the scriptures and saying, see, told you so. And he does it 15 times by just saying that it would be fulfilled, that it is fulfilled. Constantly pointing back to their Bible. Told you the prophets called it. He's doing it, not you. You've got to love Matthew for that.
He's very careful. He's writing to the Jews, Matthew is, specifically to the Jews. Luke mainly to Gentiles, Mark to a mixture of Gentiles, Jews, John mainly to Gentiles, but Matthew, he's writing to his own people who had this scripture. So he partially applies it, but he makes no comment about, at that point in Matthew 8, he makes no comment about the atoning death. He says, Christ is fulfilling that part about the sorrows and the grief of the people.
What about the sins, Matthew? Well, he's only giving us partial at that point. He'll get back to that later.
Peter does a similar thing. He gives a partial application to Joel's prophecy on the day of Pentecost. This is what the prophet Joel talked about.
Your young men shall see visions, your old men will dream dreams. This is what Joel was talking about. It wasn't an absolute fulfillment. There's more to Joel's prophecy to come. There still remains unfulfilled elements of that section of Joel's prophecy. There's nothing wrong with them pointing out limited fulfillment because that alone is miraculous. You tried to do that.
I can't do that. And carried our sorrows, though the servant carries me and you. This is illustrated for us as though God takes out a paintbrush and paints pictures, word illustrations through events that took place. Where did he paint a picture of Christ carrying our sorrows? John 19, and he bearing his cross went out to a place called the place of the skull. Well, that's always death.
The skull, there's nothing cozy and friendly about a skull. It speaks of death. And that's where he went, bearing his cross, carrying our sorrows. Yet we esteemed him stricken. Well, his enemies told themselves that he had to suffer because he blasphemed, trumped up charges. The hatred was so blinding that they made themselves unrecoverable, a tipping point when something is so far gone it cannot be brought back. There are physical laws, physics, and there are spiritual laws.
And within those spiritual laws, there are decrees and rules that are binding. And those, where it says, yet we esteemed him stricken. His enemies, again, telling themselves that he deserved this, not even consulting their own scriptures. You think one of them would have raised their hand and said, wait a minute, there's something like this in Isaiah, where he says, who has believed our report? Because we're not believing it.
Well, some tried to protest, but they were shut down. I'll come to that in a little bit. Smitten by God and afflicted. But why did God smite him? Because he bore the iniquity of us all. He took what we deserved and afflicted. You know, that's what happens when you handle sin, which he was doing for us. And the prophet is very clear to all the generations that Christ, the suffering of Christ, was under the total control of the Godhead.
At no point did they lose control. It was systematic. It was foreordained.
There's nothing like it. Neither his griefs nor his sorrows were his own. Well, in an odd way, it was, because he grieved and sorrowed over man's condition, his fallen state. Otherwise, he would have said, look at that, they messed up.
Oh, well, what's for lunch? But he doesn't do that. He's ready already. He knows man is going to have a free will, is going to mess it up, and God has a plan in place.
But he will have what he wants, and what he wants are people who love him and look to obey him without ever seeing his eyes, without ever looking him in the face, as the angels were able to do. All for someone else, he goes through this. I don't like to stand on the line for somebody else. Maybe there's a vocation there, you know, professional line stander. You go to Kings Dominion, I don't want to stand on the line.
I'll hire a guy to do it for me, and he can just call me when it's done. Verse 5, 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, we are healed. That disjunctive, but, is, it's abrupt, smitten by God and afflicted, but abrupt, very important. It's not insignificant.
And here's why. Humanity has no way to deal with its filth and the outcome of its wrong behavior. So that, but he was wounded for our transgressions, not his own. And the spikes through his wrist and feet, well, they did not kill him. They wounded him. They did not kill him. No man takes my life.
I lay it down. They couldn't kill God. He gave up the spirit, which amazed everybody. Who can do that? Who can check out verbally, say, you know what, I'm done.
That's what he did. Psalm 22, they pierced my hands and my feet. What do you, what does a Jew do with that when you tell him you missed your Messiah?
There's no way now. If Jesus is not the Messiah, you will never have one. The Davidic records are gone. The fulfillment of, just Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22, enough. Not counting Isaiah 9, oh 6, no 9, upside down. First Corinthians 11, this is my body, which is broken for you.
Well, that's what's meant here, but he was wounded for our transgressions. I attended an Assemblies of God church for about two years when I first became a believer. And one of my fondest memories about that church, there were two fond memories.
The pastor would step into the pulpit Sunday morning and say, good morning and welcome to the house of the Lord. And I was just, oh man, I'm so happy to be here. I'm so happy to be a believer.
I'm so happy to not be on a construction site with all the foul mouths and thoughts and just impurities. I love that in part and have worked it into my own ministry. The other one was on communion, you know, communion music.
There's a time to weep and there's a time to rejoice. Sometimes, you know, the communion tables are a time to rejoice, but sometimes the Lord wants to lay it on us a little bit, be a little bit more, to reflect more on how all that takes place. And so sometimes the communion songs can be upbeat and we rejoice in them. And sometimes they can be, you know, a little bit more somber depending on the leading of the spirit with the musicians, with the worship leader. But in that Assemblies of God Church, they had, when communion was given, they would sing this verse verbatim.
And I'm not going to even make an attempt to do it. It was a slow kind of song. He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised. And it was just to me so moving, so powerful because it was right out of scripture.
And the communion table speaks of this very thing. He was bruised for our iniquities, plain and to the point. The trauma inflicted on him physically by with fists and rods, with whips and spikes. Matthew 27, then they spat on him and took the reed and struck him on the head. Was that necessary? That reed didn't hurt that much.
It wasn't like a piece of oak stick or something. It's more humiliating than anything. Some friend witnessed or heard, some ally of Christ heard about or witnessed that and it touched them. By his humiliation, they were touched and it found its way into the record, into the scripture. That they spat on him and they struck him on the head with a reed.
Why? Their hatred, the unrighteousness of man. And this was the creator of the universe in human form. And they were too far out there to see it. Not that some of them did not get the cross, some of the Roman soldiers admitted this is the Son of God. Matthew 26 verse 67, then they spat in his face and beat him and others struck him with the palms of their hands. He suffered these abuses to destroy the works of the devil. This is Christian theology, why did Jesus come?
Well, we're told in several places, we'll take two. Jesus of course saying, the Son of Man came to seek and save that which was lost. John echoes that, for this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil. Why did Jesus come?
To destroy what the devil has done to humanity, that's why he came. And whenever we're obnoxious, whenever we're rude and petty and self-exalting and mean-spirited and lustful and all the other things that go with the flesh, that's the works of the devil in us. And Christ came to get these things out of us so we could walk in the spirit, not give in to the temptations of the flesh. Sin has the fingerprints of man all over it. Salvation only has the blood-stained fingerprints of Christ, the only begotten Son of God.
The Christmas story is joyful, but the passion weak, the passion of Christ, going to the cross is more powerful. Christ didn't have to be born of a virgin to accomplish what he did. Well, he did because he made the prophecy to do it this way. But he could have just showed up, like Elijah, and lived that life before us and went to the cross and died. What makes Christ powerful? Because he really, the birth was only the incarnation, it wasn't the beginning, like with us, it's our beginning when we are conceived and we come from the womb, it's our beginning. But he is eternal.
He's always been, he's without beginning, without end. The chastisement for our peace was upon him. Well, nothing was easy about the cross. Nothing was easy about the cross.
It was not like, well, okay, this part's not so bad. It was for our peace and this peace that, in its most perfect state, is activated at death. Our peace, our true peace, is activated at our death. Romans 5, 1, therefore having been justified by faith, not feeling. Like, I'm good with God because I'm feeling good with God.
That's insane, that doesn't work. It's by faith. I've made my decision based on the evidence and I'm not moving from it, regardless of how I feel. When your feelings take control, just a tail wagging the dog.
Ironically, a dog's tail indicates his feelings, is they not? Therefore, we have been justified by faith and we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul could have said, and no one else.
That's not necessary. By his stripes, we are healed. His pain, his blood, his shame, our salvation. Make no mistake, not only was there physical pain, there was shame to go with it.
This was all done out in public. Grace is always ready to abound from God's perspective. God's grace is not weaker than our sin. And Satan will tell us that. Psalm 103, who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases. Now, if you have a disease, you say, Lord, you claim this verse and the Lord often says, I'm going to heal it when you get here, but I will heal it. Assurance is faith-based, not feelings-based. Emotional-ism destroys things, does not make it better.
Maybe at a dance or something or a sporting event. Even then, it gets out of hand and you have trouble. We are not saved so long as we feel like we're saved.
Oh, that would be horrible. I'm saved so long as I feel like I'm saved. What about when you're not? That's when I need it. I need grace and faith to kick in when I can't carry it. I need it to be there. And we'll come to recurring grace in a little bit.
Ephesians 2, for by grace you have been saved through faith, not feelings. And that not of yourselves. Don't go patting yourself on the back.
Not because of anything in us except the reception of what has been offered. It's the gift of God. You know, if someone gives you a gift, you don't have to accept it. Most of the time we do. Some of those gifts are valuable, some end up in the garage.
Until they come over. Here's a picture you gave me. Anyway, with God it's a whole different thing. Paul said to the Corinthians that Christ, the substance is of Christ. The substance is of Christ. Not the shadow.
Not a sign. The substance. The real thing.
Him. Colossians 2.17. The substance is of Christ. That's a meaty religion.
A meaty faith. It's something that when you're in the trenches and everything's falling apart, you still know what's true and you're not moving from it. You failed, but you're not moving from it. Or maybe someone else has failed.
Failed you. You know who the Lord is. Faith is a substance of things to hope for. The proof of things not seen. Invisible proofs. They exist. They exist. It's amazing. We can say, we can look back 30 years, 40 years, some of us, and we can say, I could see it like it was yesterday.
How does the brain record these things? There's evidence. There's unseen things that are real. And faith lays hold of them. Verse 6, all we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way and Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Still very Jewish at this point. It will not become human and globally human for all groups, all peoples, until the New Testament arrives. Though it was available, as I pointed to Jonah, all we like sheep in this regard applies to everyone who's ever been conceived.
Of course, except Christ. When sheep go astray, they never find themselves. They never bump back into where they strayed from. They bump into the wolf or something else. The shepherd has to go out and find them or the sheep perishes.
This is why. This is the keenest of metaphor describing God's people. We have turned. No man is born facing away from God. You are born in iniquity, born in sin. You have to be born again.
The first one's not good enough. We accept this. Soon we rejoice in these things because they're inescapable truths. And from there we repent. We have turned from God. Repentance is turning back to him. Everyone to his own way. We are sinners by choice and we are sinners by nature.
They go together. It is the head and heart of our sin. Like sheep, we are born with a nature that prompts us to stray. You know, in more civilized areas, you drive along, you see the sheep out in the field, there's fences around to keep the sheep in.
And even the shepherd has to, when he goes to sleep, make sure that somehow they're protected. By choice we become children of disobedience. Ephesians 2, you can cross-reference that.
I'll give you another one. Like sheep, effortlessly we decide to go our own way. By nature, by choice, we are sinners.
Ephesians 2, 3. And Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all. That's a lot of sin put on one person. That's all humanity. So, how do you do the math on that?
How do you calculate how many people have been born? Because all of them are sinners. And all their sins have been laid on him. Every generation, their sins have been dealt with.
Whether it's received or not, it's another matter. Proverbs 20, verse 9. And this is just, listen to the wisdom behind this question.
It's rhetorical. Who can say, I have made my heart clean. I am pure from my sin.
No one. They can lie and know they're lying. 2 Corinthians 5, which to me, the fifth chapter of 2 Corinthians is sort of like a condensed version of Romans. For he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God. He became my sin on the cross, everyone. And that salvation and righteousness could be available at the invitation of the gospel message. Why do people in this country get to hear the gospel offered to them time and time again and think there's no consequence to that.
And then there are those in other parts of the world that never get to hear the gospel. Thanks for tuning in to Cross Reference Radio today. Cross Reference Radio is a ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia. If you'd like to learn more about this ministry, we invite you to visit our website, crossreferenceradio.com.
You'll find a number of teachings from Pastor Rick available there. We also encourage you to subscribe to our podcast. When you subscribe, you'll be notified of new additions of Cross Reference Radio. Just search for Cross Reference Radio on your favorite podcast app. You can also follow the links at crossreferenceradio.com. We're glad we were able to spend time with you today. Tune in next time to continue learning from the book of Isaiah with Pastor Rick right here on Cross Reference Radio.
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