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 is not good enough. We accept this. Soon we rejoice in these things as they are 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. 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.
It's still very Jewish at this point. It will not become human, globally human, for all groups, all peoples, until the New Testament arrives. Though it was available, as I pointed to Jonah, all we like are like sheep in this regard.
It 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. 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 is 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.
So if we catch the plural pronouns in verses 4 through 6 from this ancient prophet, how powerful is this? And this is, I don't care how old or young you are, the youngest child in the church building at any time is not old enough to act on their sin. But all of the codes are there. There's no need that anybody should download anything to help them sin later. They can do it on their own.
You have to train a child not to do things. So we listen to these plural pronouns, our griefs and sorrows, our iniquities, our transgressions. We have gone astray.
We have turned to our own way. So it's all about you. Sin is. The next time a person says it's all, well I don't know if anybody did that. That vein where, I guess there are some, where it's all about me.
Yes it is. Let me take you to Isaiah 53 verses 4 and 6. He suffered and died because of what you did with your hours and weeks. Verse 7 now, Isaiah 53, he was oppressed, he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before his shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.
You want to say, wait a minute Isaiah, you could not. Were you standing at the cross when this happened? Were you at the trial and the arrest? Were you there from Gethsemane to the empty tomb?
How do you see these things 700 years before Christ was born? He was mistreated and he was battered. How do you measure the mistreatment of God's only begotten son at the hands of dirty people? How do you measure that crime, that audacity? Rejected, arrested, bound, mocked, blasphemed, shamed, spat on, scourged, forced to carry his own cross, then murdered on it in front of everybody.
Yet he opened not his mouth. The silence of one in perfect agreement with the methods of God. Who here likes all the methods of God? I don't think any person being honest, I like everything God allows. I like everything God is about. Who he is, his word, I love that. But I also understand what's going on.
And sometimes I don't care for the methods that are used, but I don't have perfect knowledge. He does. And by faith I submit to that. We submit to that. And this is what we're seeing here.
The difference is Christ knew where all this is going. He said, what should I say father? Save me from this hour? Before this hour I have come.
And how I wish it has already passed. Yet he opened not his mouth. And remember now, he was never discouraged, never defeated, and never disgusted with the work he had to do. Isaiah 42 verse 4. Remember verse 1 of Isaiah 42, he introduces us to this servant.
And he says this about him in the fourth verse. He will not fail nor be discouraged. So, I mean, of course if someone said, hey I want you to die for this guy over here.
I'm not going to do that. We might for a loved one or someone that we held in such esteem or on the battlefields. But none of these circumstances. Barabbas gets to go free, but he gets to die on the cross that was meant for Barabbas. So his silence marks his willingness to die for sinners. He was silent when he stood before the high priest Caiaphas who was a fraud and a gangster. Matthew 26, can you say anything to him?
Not much. The chief priest and elders, Matthew 27, silent before them, before Pilate. I mean he's conversed slightly with all of them except one, with Pilate. Pilate was marveled that he wouldn't defend himself. That's what the silence is about. He wouldn't say, you know there's no charges against me that are legal.
You know this is a kangaroo court. He didn't say anything like that. He didn't deny when asked, are you the king of the Jews?
That's the way it is. But then there's Herod Antipas who ordered the beheading of John the Baptist. And he is the only person in the Bible who the Son of God had absolutely nothing to say to.
Talk about contempt, righteous contempt. Luke chapter 23, speaking of Herod Antipas. Then he questioned him, Jesus, with many words, but he answered him nothing. I mean that is profound that there would be someone that God would completely ignore.
And a ruler amongst people. Anyway, he did not speak when the soldiers mocked him and as they beat on him. He was determined to embrace the cross without so much as hinting that he wanted out to the people. He brings it up in Gethsemane to the Father, more on display for us, because he knew what would be recorded and he knew what those recordings would teach. He knew it would be in the Bible, Father, if possible, let this cup pass from me. And he knew that we would realize it is impossible.
If we're going to be forgiven, you're going to have to drink the whole cup. This silence of Christ impressed the Ethiopian treasurer. And as he read this passage, he asked Philip, who does he speak about, himself or someone else? And of course, Philip took the opportunity to share the gospel with the Ethiopian, who came to Christ incidentally, but it was this passage that worked on his heart. It struck him. Why is he doing this? Maybe when you first read the gospel, did you not say, boy, he can get out of this. But he doesn't and he cannot. My friend John Connors in Brooklyn, he's older than me in the Lord.
He's older than me in life too, like really old. But anyway, we were there in midtown Manhattan doing our thing on lunch break or whatever, and these Moonies, Moonies were not what you might think. They didn't show you anyway. They were a cult and they sound like they have the gospel. And John flayed them in one second. He said, did Christ have to go to the cross? And that was the end of it because they felt no, he didn't.
Because they don't understand, he had to go to the cross to die for our sins because you're a sinner. That's why they try to deny, well, he really didn't have to go to a cross. He was a good man. They shouldn't have killed him. No, he had to die.
If you were going to get anywhere near heaven, he had to die. And that ended the whole thing. And I was like, what?
That's pretty good. So, and I never had to deal with a Mooney. My tactics were a little different.
I found that physical violence could shut them up pretty quickly too. But no, no I did not, no. Anyway, he was led as a lamb to the slaughter. Well, God's lamb, lambs were used in the offering on the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur.
That's the big day for the Jews, the solemn day. And lambs were also used in the sacrifice at Passover. Well, together the two Day of Atonement and the Passover speak of sin and judgment and possible salvation, if you'll have it. And he is the Lamb of God. He speaks of sin and judgment and possible salvation if you will receive it.
In Revelation, John, who scribed for us the revelation of Jesus Christ, he refers to Jesus as the Lamb 28 times in 22 chapters. As if to say, we'll never forget. We'll never forget. You're the Lamb of God.
You died for us. It's all connected to the prophets. This was not spontaneous. This was mapped out. It was charted out. No one stumbled into this.
It was laid out for us and is nothing like it on earth. This submissive nature of him as the Lamb was a one-time event. Next he comes as a lion. And we love that, do we not? We love that if he came as a lion, we'd be dead in our sins if he came the first time as a lion.
Because lions don't put up with much. But a lamb is different. And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. So this is when they take, they harvest the wool from the sheep.
And it's perfect, the imagery is perfect. It is as though, again, Isaiah followed Christ from Gethsemane to Golgotha. When they came to arrest him, are you Jesus?
I am. They couldn't handle that. They all fell down. They could just see it's only the keystone cops when he says that and they all fall. They probably dismissed it as just a clumsy moment in the dark. But it was the power of God.
And we know it. Verse 8, he was taken from prison and from judgment. And who will declare his generation? For he was cut off from the land of the living for the transgressions of my people.
He was stricken. You're not going to get away in Isaiah 53 from this transgression sin deal. And you're not going to get away from it in your own conscience either.
But it should be a settled deal. There is now therefore no condemnation. What glorious words with that. The Christians before Paul wrote that, they knew it by the teachings of Christ and the voice of the apostles as they preached what Christ taught them. He was taken from prison and from judgment.
That's the kangaroo court. Nicodemus at one point objected. Not in the middle stages of their vitriol against Christ, he objected. John chapter 7, does our law judge a man before it hears him and knows what he is doing? And they ganged up on him.
He does not protest again on record. They by hate jailed and judged their own Messiah. That is how powerful the hatred of man can be. Don't hate anybody. Just don't do it. It's not going to reward.
It's going to hurt. That doesn't mean we love what people do. We're not naive as to what to do about certain people. Certain people need to be executed. Certain people need to be put in jail and taken out of society.
But hating them won't help them and it won't help you. That trial was injustice cloaked in legal formalities and processes of jurisprudence. It was just all nonsense. They had made up their mind. Hate made up their mind. He's going to die and he's going to die tonight. It was an execution. And who will declare his generation?
Now there are two applications to this. The first is he has no biological children. Well he didn't, you know, he was cut down at 33 and a half years old. There's plenty of time for him to have a family.
And in that culture that was, you know, a high part of their society. No biological children. But he has spiritual children.
And that's mapped out for us. So he was cut off in the prime of his life and left no descendants. Isaiah 54, of course the next chapter in the first verse, Sing, O barren, you who have not borne. Break forth into singing, cry aloud, you who have not labored with child. For more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married woman, says Yahweh. Well, there's a lot of truth in that one. But we're not going to get into that verse right now. You know the first purpose of marriage is companionship. And not everybody is to get married.
If you are without, if you are outside of marriage, you're in high company. I'll just name three of them. Daniel, John the Baptist, Jesus Christ. And as a bonus, we throw in Paul. So, you know, you have to go with what God has given you, identify it, and then work it, develop it.
It'll take a lifetime to do that, and it's worth it. You know, you have to have many tools in a workshop, and some of the tools are like Daniel and John the Baptist and Paul. Well, the second application, using the various Old Testament genealogies of Matthew and Luke, remember, who will declare his generation? Okay, he's not going to have any offspring. He's cut down in the prime of his life.
That's one. The second one is that the genealogies were available in his lifetime. The rightful claim to the Davidic throne. No one challenged Isaiah's, or accepted Isaiah's challenge. When Isaiah said, who will declare his generation? Nobody said, let me run down to the temple, I'll grab the records, and I will show you the lineage of Christ, that he is a rightful heir to the throne of David. His connection to Messiah is not something that you can dismiss, but nobody did that. The genealogies weren't published, as far as we know, of Christ, in the sense of Messiah until Matthew and Luke come along. So no one declared his genealogy that we knew of amongst those who murdered him, that he is indeed king of the Jews, and he told that to Pilate. He told that to a Gentile, I am the king of the Jews, it is as you say. For he was cut off from the land of the living. Again, his death was a murder.
Webster defines murder as the crime of unlawfully killing a person, and his trial was not lawful, and so they murdered him. Even idolatrous Gentiles knew of his innocence. I find no fault in him, said Pilate, three times. Imagine going to a court in this country and the judge says, innocent, innocent, innocent.
Now take him out and kill him. That's what Pilate did. I find no fault.
That was a lawful decision. In John 18, 38, and John 19, 4, and then John 19, verse 6, Pilate again thrice said, I don't have any, he's innocent. That didn't stop the mob. For the transgressions of my people he was stricken. Well, he never transgressed God, not once. And in verse 5, the same idea of him being abused is introduced. The difference is that initially, in verse 5, it's the suffering on the weight of the cross, but now at this point it's going to be his execution, death itself. When he says, my people, it could apply several applications.
All of them would be right. It could be God saying, my people, for the transgressions of my people he was stricken. Then you have to identify who's God's people. But those who come and receive the benefit from all that took place because of this. Or the prophet Isaiah could have in mind his people in the day that he was preaching, or the Jewish people. So you can say it's either believers or it's Jewish people. The Holy Spirit knew that ultimately the application would be understood to mean all who believe in Christ. All who believe in Christ will benefit from him being stricken, and all who reject the message will not benefit. And that's why he will come to the many versus not everyone. Verse 9, and they made his grave with the wicked, but with the rich at his death, because he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.
Well he had allies amongst the rich because they knew he was not evil. Again, sentenced as a criminal with the expectation that he would receive a criminal's burial. That was the Sanhedrin's expectation. They're the ones that petitioned Pilate, break his legs, it's the Sabbath.
Let him die and then cart his body into the ditch with the other outlaws. That was their intention, but they were never in control. Even though they thought they were in control of their hearts and their actions, but not of all that was taking place. And had it not been for Joseph of Arimathea, that's exactly what would have happened. But God was ahead of them the whole time. They intended this disgraceful death and a disgraceful burial for daring to oppose them. How dare you disagree with me?
How dare you point out that I'm not holier than thou? Because Jesus did that just by doing what he was doing, just by healing people and preaching sermons on the righteousness of God and the iniquity of men. So the burial of Jesus Christ is as much a part of the gospel as is his death.
Now don't miss that. The burial is just as much a part of the gospel as is the death. Because the burial is proof that he actually died. And without that, the resurrection is kind of pointless. You have to have a confirmed death.
And he did die. Paul gets into that in 1 Corinthians 15 and takes up almost the whole chapter on the resurrection. These were the authorized custodians of scripture. They never bothered to look into Isaiah 53.
Or they just conveniently ignored it. But with the rich at his death, as I mentioned Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, both wealthy men, both brought a substantial amount of frankincense and myrrh for the preparation of the body. It's interesting that death in the Hebrew here is plural. And it focuses on the two deaths that are associated with sin. There is a death of the body and there is a death of the relationship with God. That's what happened in Genesis chapter 2, in the day that you eat of the tree you will die. And though physically they did not die instantly, spiritually they did, that relationship was no longer going to be the same ever again.
Not in this side of heaven. When you subscribe you'll be notified of new editions 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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