We turn again to the prophecies of Isaiah,
and this morning we are very definitely moving
on to the other side of the cross,
on from chapter fifty-three.
As we pointed out last night, chapter fifty
-three sees the way open and cleared for
God by the cross, and a new day,
a new prospect, breaking forth after all that
tragedy.
And when we come into chapter fifty-four,
we have what we may call a sample
chapter of resurrection.
As very much as we have indicated in
the remaining chapters of these prophecies, which indicate
what the new day is, what the Lord
would have it to be, this very next
chapter is a very good example of that
new day of resurrection.
There are eight features or characteristics of this
new day in this very chapter.
Eight, as you know, is the number of
resurrections, and you can just pass your eye
down through the chapter, take account of these
things.
In verse one, there is the movement from
barrenness to fruitfulness, a first feature of resurrection.
In verses two and three, movement from straightness
to enlargement, enlarge the place of thy tent,
let them stretch forth the curtains of thine
inhabitation, bear not, strengthen thy cords, lengthen thy
cords, and strengthen thy states.
For thou shalt spread abroad on the right
hand, and on the left, and thy seed
shall possess the nation, and make the desolate
cities to be inhabited.
How true of the resurrection of the Lord
Jesus.
Number three, verses four to six, the movement
from shame to honor, fear not, for thou
shalt not be ashamed, neither be thou confounded,
for thou shalt not be put to shame,
thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth,
and so on, from shame to honor.
Verses six to seven, from forsakenness to fellowship,
the Lord hath called thee as a wife
forsaken and grieved in spirit, even a wife
of youth, when she is cast off, set
by God.
For a small moment have I forsaken thee,
but with great mercies will I gather thee.
From forsakenness to fellowship, thou faith, from wrath
to mercy, in overflowing wrath, I hid my
faith from thee for a moment, but with
everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee,
saith the Lord, thy Redeemer.
See thee, the look back to the cross
in which all those things were true, and
now it's resurrection and they've passed, and it's
a mighty and wonderful change.
Next, in verses eleven and twelve, from affliction
and desolation to comfort and glory, O thou
afflicted, tossed with the tempest, not comforted, behold
I will set thy stones in fair colors,
lay thy foundations with sapphire, and I will
make thy pinnacles of rubies, and thy gates
of carbuncles, and all thy border of pleasant
stones.
From affliction and desolation to comfort and glory.
Then verses fourteen to sixteen, from oppression to
security, in righteousness shalt thou be established.
Thou shalt be far from oppression, for thou
shalt not fear, and from terror, for it
shall not come near thee.
Behold, they may gather together, but not by
me.
Whosoever shall gather together against thee, shall fall
because of thee.
Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth
the fire of coals, and bringeth forth a
weapon for his work, and I have created
the waster to destroy.
That leads to the last, verse seventeen, from
reproach to vindication.
No weapon that is formed against thee shall
prosper, and every town that shall rise against
thee in judgment, thou shalt condemn.
This is the heritage of the servants of
the Lord, and their righteousness, which is of
me, that's the Lord.
Surely a wonderful sample of resurrection, life, power,
and glory.
As in other connections, so in this, we
carry the whole thing over from Old Testament
history into New Testament, and into this very
dispensation in which we live, the day of
resurrection.
How true all this was and is of
the Lord Jesus in the first place.
There was the negative side, all those things
that we have mentioned.
The stripping, barrenness, and desolation of the cross.
The straightness, which he spoke, how am I
straightened, how am I straightened until it be
accomplished.
Shame and reproach, forsakenness, forsakenness even of his
very Father God.
The wrath of God resting upon him.
He was afflicted, afflicted, oppressed, and reproached.
All those things were true in chapter 53.
Now the whole thing has changed.
And how very true the change is for
the Lord Jesus in resurrection.
What fruitfulness has taken the place of barrenness?
Yes, the corn of wheat falling into the
ground, dying, has indeed borne very much fruit.
We're only a very, very small example or
representation of that today here.
Fruit out of many nations, but representing so
many more.
Great joy to us, is it not, today
to know, and to know personally in so
many cases, the fruitfulness of his suffering in
the seeing of his seed.
Out of barrenness into fruitfulness.
Out of his straightness against which he groans
through the great enlargement that has come to
him.
What enlargement?
Out of the shame into the honour.
The multitudes and multitudes ever since and today
all over the world are just heaping honour
upon him.
And so we go on.
How true all this is of the Lord
Jesus himself in resurrection.
But you can see also how true this
became of that little band of disciples.
You could say that in a certain sense,
at the time of the cross, these negative
and dark things were true of them.
Yes, everything was gone.
The trees were split bare.
It was barrenness indeed.
In their hearts they were saying, what has
it all been for?
Why did we give up everything?
We've lost everything.
It's all gone.
But see the change from the day of
Pentecost and from then onwards from barrenness to
fruitfulness.
And again you go through all this list
of characteristics.
From straightness, a little band, a handful of
men straightened in a few miles, Jerusalem and
Judea and Palestine, little countries, but their sound,
said Paul, went into all the earth.
And to the ends of the earth, what
enlargement, the lengthening of cause, the strengthening of
faith in resurrection.
From there a loneliness, a terrible, terrible loneliness
that came over them when he, as they
thought, was dead.
But now the marvelous fellowship that has sprung
up and been established in the relationship with
a growing and ever-growing company of fellow
believers.
Yes, it was true for the disciples.
All these things came about, this wonderful changeover
in their experience.
But does it stop there?
Does it stop there?
No.
Same thing we find in the New Testament
became true of every new believer.
And on and on till now.
These are the things that are the true
characteristics of the believer's life, if the believer's
life is a true believer's life, a believer's
life.
You're living the other side of the cross,
or even if you're living in the day
of his death, just living with Christ dead.
Well, it's not true.
But if we are living as true believers
on the ground of his resurrection, all these
things are true.
They are true.
It's a very blessed thing for us here
this morning to be able to say without
any hesitation, without our tongue in our cheeks
as we say, these things are true.
He has changed from barrenness to fruitfulness.
He has changed our life from strictness to
enlargement.
Oh, what enlargement!
Yes, he indeed has given us a large
place, a very large place.
He has changed our lot from shame to
honor, from forsakenness and aloneness to fellowship and
so on.
This is the heritage of every true believer,
the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, this wonderful
notice struck and sound forth, a new life,
a new hope, a new assurance.
Well, so it is in the New Testament,
you see, the effects of Christ's resurrection.
Just note, sometimes you can, the
marvelous effect that his appearing or appearances had
upon the people concerned.
As far as we can see, there were
about ten appearances of the Lord after his
resurrection.
Five of them took place on one day,
between sunrise and perhaps a little after sunset.
The other five were scattered over a period
in different places.
But it's most interesting, it's most impressive, it's
most instructive to notice just the change that
took place between the time before he appeared
and the time when he disappeared.
Tremendous change that came over the people concerned
and over everything.
Run through those ten appearances.
The first, undoubtedly, was to Mary Magdalene, who
came early to the tomb with spices to
anoint his body.
You remember the story, we can't this morning
describe every occasion, but what a poor, sad,
desolate, barren sort of person she was then
that morning.
What a plaintive note there is, as she
behoves him without recognizing him and calls him
the God known.
Sir, if you've borne him away, tell me
where you've laid him.
Jesus only meant spoke her name, Mary.
The whole situation is transformed, transfigured.
And she hurries from the tomb, hurries away
to tell his disciples.
And it would seem that there were other
women nearby, and as they were going, she
and they could tell the disciples, Jesus met
them on the way.
And another transforming scene and experience.
Then we're told that he appeared unto Simon.
He doesn't want very much imagination to see
what kind of Simon he was when Jesus
appeared to him.
Well, he was not a very happy sort
of man.
No, if ever there was a man who
felt that he was bereft, bereft of everything,
stripped, dark, and in utter despair, aloneness, forsaken,
it must have been Simon Peter.
Jesus appeared to him, gave him a private
appearance, a private interview.
Ah, yes.
And it changed the whole situation, didn't it?
Completely changed and transformed the whole outlook for
Simon.
And then to two disciples on the way
to Emmaus.
What miserable men they were.
What sad men they were.
What desolate men they were.
They walked and were sad.
It was the longest three miles that ever
two men had walked.
But then Jesus appeared.
Their eyes grew.
They saw him.
He went.
It was the shortest three miles that ever
a man had run.
I don't know whether they did a mile,
four miles, or three miles in a minute,
but I'm quite sure they were not conscious
of those three miles.
Distance and time lost all its meaning as
they simply hurried back, leaped afoot to Jerusalem
to tell the others.
Oh, the whole scene was changed.
They came in, came in, and before they
could say anything about what had happened to
them, they were met with this from those
in Jerusalem.
The Lord is risen indeed and hath appeared
unto Simon.
A changed scene into which they came in
Jerusalem.
And then to the apostles themselves and some
others.
Well I, shall I go through every instance?
Till the above five hundred brethren in Galilee.
His appearance, that is.
His coming and resurrection.
Everywhere, on every occasion, just brought about a
marvelous change in the whole situation.
Yes, Isaiah 54 had a very real fulfillment
in their case.
Its resurrection.
What we really are concerned with here, dear
friends, is that this should become something for
us.
We might again say, yes, long ago and
far away, but no.
No, the big question which arises with us
is, have we any ground for believing that
this can be our right up-to-date
experience?
And I want to say that the New
Testament presents us with very solid ground for
that.
There is very much in the New Testament,
after the Lord has gone to glory, in
the experience of men and women that had
this effect.
Again, I've got, I should have to start
to take you through the New Testament.
I'm only to take you through the book
of the Acts.
And look, what about that Ethiopian?
On his way home, disappointed and desolate, sorrowful
and perplexed.
Yes, we may say that through his servant,
Philip, and through the word of Isaiah 53,
in the mouth of Philip, the risen Lord
met that man.
The whole thing was changed.
The last we hear of him is, he
went on his way for rejoicing.
It's a transfigured life, a transfigured situation, because
he has come into touch with the risen
Lord.
And so again, you could go on, you
see every one of these wants a series
of meetings, doesn't it?
You go on like that.
The marvelous transformation by a touch of the
risen Lord, after he'd gone to glory, change
that took place when the spirit of the
Lord touched people, came into their lives, came
into their midst.
They met sometimes in that perplexity and oppression
and suffering and affliction with the threats of
the rulers.
But they met, and they went away, changed
people, full of joy, full of confidence, like
that.
Well, has the dispensation ended with the book
of the Acts?
The book of the Acts has never had
a conclusion.
It's broken up.
The Holy Spirit never intended Luke to write
the end of that story, because it had
got to go on and on and on
to the end of the dispensation.
What was true then is to be true
in our experience now.
Yes, there's plenty of evidence and ground for
this.
But then you say, you say, on what
ground can this experience be mine?
How can this be true of me if
the Scripture really gives that which justifies an
expectation that it should be true in our
case?
If we really have got it in the
Word that it ought to be like that
in our case, then, of course, the question
arises, how can it be?
How can it be?
Is that your question?
Well, I want to say as quickly as
I can, as concisely as possible, how it
can be, how we really can know this.
First of all, we must, we just must
most positively take our stand on that ground
which God has provided for us through the
cross of the Lord Jesus.
That is, we must take all the values
of Isaiah 53 as provided for us and
take our stand upon that ground.
What I mean, dear friend, is this, that
Isaiah 53 tells us of all that has
been done for us.
He was wounded for our transgressions.
He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon Him.
He bared the sins of many.
Our whole state and condition under condemnation and
judgment was put on Him by God Himself.
He, He made His soul an offering to
the divine Father.
If you and I still will linger on
that ground of question or doubt as to
whether the Lord Jesus has done that for
our sins, past, present, and future, for us
as men and women, if we linger on
the ground of doubt or question about that,
there is no hope of this transforming experience
of resurrection.
If you are still nursing condemnation, still opening
your heart or your mind to accusations, you
are in effect denying the work of the
Lord Jesus on the cross, and God cannot
show you His mighty arm.
So whom is the arm of the Lord
revealed?
Never to any man or woman who brings
a question upon the work of the Lord
Jesus in His cross.
Never.
Oh no.
You've got to get off of that ground,
right off of that ground, in every way.
And if you are so fond of doubting
and questioning and you will so tenaciously hold
on to condemnation, can't you swing right over
the other way and put all that capacity
for doubting and unbelieving round the other way
and say about your condemnation, I don't believe
it.
Isaiah 53 says that He took all that
from me.
I definitely do not believe it.
I won't believe it.
The cross of the Lord Jesus forbids me
to believe that there is condemnation.
Put your strong, mighty capacity for unbelief round
the other way.
Let it be converted.
And now, put it over against all this
work of the accusing spirits and the accusing
conscience and the accusing heart.
Meet the whole thing in the reverse.
Mark you, you will never, you will never
know this mighty many-sided transformation and transfiguration
of life until you positively, positively take your
stand on the values which have been secured
for you in Isaiah 53.
You will have again the very simplicity of
a beginner to sit down with that chapter
and as has been so often said, put
your name in there.
He was wounded for my iniquity.
He was bruised for my triumph.
It was the chastisement of my peace was
upon Him.
With His stripes I am healed.
You never get into resurrection glory until you
really do stand firmly on that ground.
You see, we are the ground of death.
It's in us, not in Christ.
We are the ground of death.
We must therefore repudiate our own ground.
Yes, I know it well and thousands more.
There's one that died in my place.
Faith, faith must credit God and Christ with
the full meaning of the cross.
It must.
Then in the next place, we must take
a positive attitude at all times to the
power of His resurrection.
It must be this attitude and this position
of faith in God that raises the dead.
We must really reckon upon that extra and
that other which is represented by the power
of His resurrection.
It is all true that we are this
and that is that and things are as
they are.
It's all true, we are not putting on
blinkers and trying to make believe that we
are not as bad as we are or
things are not as bad as they are.
They are just as bad as they can
be inside and out.
There's something more than that.
There's an extra and there is an other
and that is the power of His resurrection.
And we must really take a positive attitude
at all times, at all times, towards the
power of His resurrection.
And then, we must, while of course avoiding
breaking the laws of God.
I have to put that in because I've
been doing it myself lately.
We must, while avoiding breaking the laws of
God, definitely draw upon His risen life.
You wonder what I mean by that little
parenthesis.
Well, if you go on for something like
eleven weeks, three, four, five meetings a day
without one day's rest, then you are breaking
the law of God and God cannot protect
you.
That's exactly what happens.
Oh, how long it takes us to learn
these lessons.
It takes us a long lifetime to learn
them.
We get drawn by need and appeal and
so on.
I think the Lord is very sympathetic, but
nevertheless, He does not set aside His laws.
But that's by the way, that's by the
way.
Nevertheless, learn the lessons.
So, I have to say that while avoiding
breaking divine laws, the laws of our bodies,
and you can never speak of the laws
of nature without meaning God, see.
Laws of nature are God and God is
the law of nature.
That's not pantheism that I'm preaching, but you
see what I mean.
The law of nature brings you right into
touch with God.
So, while not violating God in His laws,
in the body and so on, we must
deliberately at all times draw upon His resurrection
life.
We must do it.
We must keep a tight hold, so to
speak, on the risen life of the Lord
and draw upon it.
Make a very practical thing of it.
When I was a little fellow, I remember
to this day something that my mother said
to me.
She was telling me, describing the death of
my grandfather, an old man of 84, and
she was sitting by his bed as he
was slowly, slowly passing away, a very strong
man physically.
And she told me, she said, he had
hold of my hand in a tremendous grip.
I was praying for him, but he was
gradually sinking away.
And I don't know what the science of
this is, whether there's any truth in it
at all, but I remember what she said.
She said, I felt that he was drawing
the very life out of me.
I felt my vitality being sent.
He was pulling something out of me to
hold on to life.
And at last, I could stand it no
longer.
I just hanked to wrench my hand out
of his.
And when I did so, he went.
Well, I don't know what that means at
all, whether that really is a true thing.
But to me, it's an illustration.
We have literally got to draw vitality out
of our Lord.
It's an attitude, a grip of faith, that
we must lay hold on life, as Paul
said to Timothy, lay hold on life, draw
on this life.
It must be something that we do.
Yes.
We, I fear, dear friends, are far too
indefinite in this matter of our relationship to
our risen Lord.
Too indefinite.
We believe in the resurrection.
We believe in resurrection life.
We believe that it is for us.
But we are not definite enough about it.
Now, begin by saying, do I need resurrection
life?
Do I?
Am I in need of the power of
his resurrection?
Of course, if you have no sense of
need, then you won't be definite about it.
But if you have, in any way, in
any way, you really feel your need of
the power of his resurrection, that the arm
of the Lord should be revealed in that
way to you.
Do you sense your need?
Secondly, is there scripture?
Is there scripture?
Is there that in the word of God
which justifies me in believing that that life
is for me?
Then the third thing will be, let me
get to the word and find out what
the word says about this.
Let me gather up, search out, all that
the word of God says about this matter
of resurrection life for me.
See, it's an exercise.
Not just some random test.
But what does the word of God really
say about this?
Get a strong foundation of scripture under your
feet.
If the spirit of him that raised up
Jesus from the dead be in you, he
that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead
shall also quicken your mortal body by his
spirit that dwelleth in you.
That's in the Bible.
See, it's an exercise.
Not just some random test.
But what does the word of God really
say about this?
Get a strong foundation of scripture under your
feet.
If the spirit of him that raised up
Jesus from the dead be in you, he
that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead
shall also quicken your mortal body by his
spirit that dwelleth in you.
That's in the Bible.
Always bearing about in the body the dying
of the Lord Jesus, that the life also
of Jesus might be manifested in our mortal
flesh.
That's scripture.
Now, get to it.
Gather it all up.
All that you can find.
And then take it to the Lord.
And say, Lord, your word clearly says, and
here it is, you can quote scripture to
the Lord if you like.
It's a very healthy thing to quote the
word to him.
Remind him of his word.
Say, now, Lord, you have said, you have
said that the power of the resurrection is
to be now known in your people, in
believers.
He said it.
Here is your word about it.
Present it to him, all that you can
find.
Be very definite on this matter.
Bring it to the Lord.
We are far too indefinite.
We might say marvellous things, wonderful things, but
a far greater testimony of resurrection lies if
only we would be more definite about Jesus.
That is the way of it.
It's not going to be casual.
It's not just going to happen.
Any dilly-dallying about this thing will not
find us coming into the good of it.
But here we must be positive.
We must be definite.
We must make this a very real matter
because it's not just personal for our good.
The whole testimony of our risen Lord is
bound up with it.
And this applies in many ways, of course.
It applies to ourselves individually, spiritually, spiritually.
Let's get hold of the word for ourselves
spiritually as to life, as to resurrection, for
our spiritual life.
Many of you no doubt are in real
spiritual need of life, new expression of life
spiritually.
It may be physically, and it can be
physically, blessed be God, that we can take
life for our bodies.
We may know the resurrection life of God
carrying us on through impossible physical situations, making
a marvellous testimony.
Yes, physically.
It may be in relation to our ministry.
We may need a new expression of life
in our ministry.
The bearing of his arm through our ministry.
Well, it's the same principle, you see.
For after all, all ministry has to be
fulfilled in the power of his resurrection, or
true spiritual ministry.
There is no other.
It may apply to the company of the
Lord's people, of which we are a part,
or in which perhaps we have some responsibility
and we are very burdened.
And the great need is, oh, that the
arm of the Lord should be revealed.
Oh, that the power of resurrection should be
manifested.
Things are going down, down, death, weakness and
dishonour and so on.
This is not glorifying God.
What are you going to do about it?
Well, the same exercise.
This resurrection of the Lord Jesus is for
every aspect of the life of the believer
and the church.
But it does not just happen.
I say again, we've got to take a
very definite and positive attitude to this matter.
If we will.
If we do.
Some of us do know with a long
history that this really does work.
It really does work.
The miracles of sustenance and enablement and supply
and carrying on and raising up again and
again and again result from a definite faith
-laid hope on the fact that Christ is
risen for us.
He died for us.
He's risen for us.
He dies in our place.
He lives in our place.
He is a living God.
Heavenly Father.