And while those who came from Babylon cried
to them in mockery, Sing us one of
the songs of Zion.
They cry, How shall we sing the Lord's
song in a strange land?
By the rivers of Babylon there we sat
down and wept when we remembered Zion.
And many of them doubtless recognized that this
was the outcome of their persistent disobedience and
their failure to hear the voice of God
and that Babylon was now to be their
permanent exile from God as well as from
home.
And then there came this message through the
prophet Isaiah that there was a plan and
a purpose of God which was going to
be realized whereby God would raise up a
servant and call his people back to himself.
But beyond that figure there is of course
another figure and that is the figure of
the ultimate servant of Jehovah who is going
to come in the fullness of God's time.
No king, no figure of the contemporary era
fits the description that God gives of this
other servant of His who is going to
deliver His people not just from the physical
bondage of Babylon but from the deeper spiritual
bondage of sin.
And when we ask with the Ethiopian treasure
of whom does the prophet speak?
There is no question of whom the prophet
ultimately is speaking.
The consistent answer of the New Testament is
that the servant of Isaiah who is revealed
to us as God's suffering servant is the
sin bearing savior of Calvary.
It is a very significant thing that practically
every verse of the 53rd chapter of Isaiah
is quoted in the New Testament.
And if we have any doubt about who
this figure is of whom we read in
detail in chapter 52 and 53 then our
minds are finally convinced by the words of
Jesus Christ Himself in Luke 22 after the
upper room supper when He says it is
written.
He was numbered with the transgressors and I
tell you that this must be fulfilled in
Me.
Yes, what is written about Me must be
fulfilled.
Now it is a striking thing if you
bring this song from Isaiah's prophecy 800 years
before alongside the language of the New Testament
as it introduces the Lord Jesus Christ to
us and you notice that here in Isaiah
you have the very language that is used
by the eternal God Himself when He is
introducing His own Son.
You notice that it is not Judah's servant
who is introduced to us for example in
chapter 42 of Isaiah.
It is Jehovah's servant.
And on that day in Matthew chapter 3
when the heavens open and God the Father
calls upon His people behold My beloved Son
in whom I am well pleased listen to
Him and the very language is the language
of Isaiah in chapter 42 verse 1 here
is My servant whom I uphold My chosen
one in whom I am well pleased now
this you see, this figure is Jehovah's servant
behold My servant and the speaker is Jehovah
now the significance of that is this that
pushes the horizons of our thinking back far
beyond the 800 years that Isaiah lived before
the coming of Christ it pushes the horizons
of our thinking back beyond time itself beyond
the creation of the world to the plan
and purpose of God for the redemption of
His people before the world began have you
noticed how the Lord Jesus is described as
the Lamb slain before the foundation of the
world and this figure, the servant of Jehovah
pushes our thinking back to eternity before time
began to what our forefathers would have called
the covenant of redemption which was entered into
by the Father and the Son in all
eternity as God the Father began to purpose
and plan for the salvation of His people
and in His consultation as it were within
the Godhead and here we are entering into
something that defies our fathoming and would blow
our minds if we could but properly understand
it but there is a covenant that God
the Father enters into with God the Son
concerning the salvation of His people do you
notice how the Lord Jesus throughout John's Gospel
especially has His mind dominated by the idea
that He has come into the world on
a mission sent by the Father and there
is a little phrase in John's Gospel which
is almost a technical name for God the
Father Him that sent me and He is
aware of this I do not speak my
own words but the words of Him that
sent me the works that I do are
not my own but His that sent me
the Father who sent me is one of
His constant themes now what is He referring
to?
He is referring to that occasion in all
eternity when God the Father setting His heart
upon His people recognizing them to be a
people who would fall into the depths and
despair and disaster of human sin and rebellion
against God began to plan the salvation of
His people John Flavel, one of the great
Puritans has got a great section in one
of his volumes on this where he pictures
God the Father saying, how shall I retain
my righteous character and yet save the unrighteous
people on whom I have set my heart?
He is saying something like what He said
to Isaiah Whom shall I send?
and who will go for us?
and Flavel pictures God the Son saying, My
Father I will go and I will stand
surety for them Ah, but My Son God
the Father replies they are bound for condemnation
they will draw upon themselves the full weight
of My judgment and God the Son responds
let it fall upon Me, Father let it
fall upon Me and the Father responds Oh,
My Son, what a cost what a price
let it be so, Father the Son replies
and in the fullness of the time the
Father sent the Son to be the Savior
now, in that sense the Lord Jesus Christ
is Jehovah's servant to achieve our salvation that's
why Paul says He who was in the
form of God counted not equality with God
a thing to be grasped onto but humbled
himself and what did he become?
he became a servant but my dear friends
long before he became the servant figure who
washed our feet he was the Father's servant
for our salvation and when he became man
took our flesh and wore our human nature
this is what he was doing he was
becoming the servant figure who is described for
us here and at that moment at his
anointing and his baptism the heavens opened and
the Father says and behold my Son my
servant, my chosen one in whom I am
well pleased there was not another human being
in all the universe that day with whom
the Father was well pleased and he came
to bear our sin in his body on
the tree and when he had done it
he comes to the Father at the beginning
of John 17 and do you remember what
he says?
Father I have finished the work that you
gave me to do glorify me with the
glory I had with you before the world
began and the 52nd
chapter of Isaiah tells us this is what
indeed happened to him see my servant he
will act wisely he will be raised and
lifted up and highly exalted and this in
response to his cry to the Father now
this is something of what Isaiah sees oh
you say Isaiah didn't see that?
didn't he?
well Jesus says he did in John 12,
41 he says Isaiah said this because he
saw Jesus glory and spoke about him well
now you will see in the first and
last stanzas of this song the first stanza
begins at verse 13 of chapter 52 and
the last at verse 10 of chapter 53
but he is the one who bears the
glory of perfect manhood that is what happened
when the Lord Jesus came into the world
you see he revealed the true glory not
just of the Father but the true glory
of perfect manhood and this is why he
says see my servant will act wisely he
will be raised and lifted up and highly
exalted and in verse 10 of chapter 53
he says 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 therefore
I will give him a portion among the
great and he will divide the spoils with
the strong but he is the one who
bears the marks of true glory of the
glory of the perfect man this is why
Martin Luther so frequently speaks of Jesus as
the proper man and what he means by
that is creation has never seen since the
formation of Adam and Eve creation has never
seen perfect humanity until the coming of the
Son of God behold my son hear him
I am well pleased with him now that
is a very important thing we do not
think enough about the perfect humanity of the
Lord Jesus Christ about the glory of everything
that the real beauty of humanity in all
its perfection was radiated in the life of
our Lord Jesus not only in his being
I am sure this is why we do
not know what Jesus physical appearance was like
you know people often wonder what was he
really like I am sure we could not
conceptualize it even if we were given a
description of it it is because he is
perfect humanity but he is perfect humanity not
only in his physical being but in his
moral caliber and that of course is why
Jesus perfect obedience is such a vital element
in his qualification to be our Savior there
was no sin of his own which he
had to atone for and so the hymn
rightly emphasizes it saying my Savior's obedience and
blood hide all my transgression from view now
because of this you see because of Jesus
being the perfect proper man it is an
extraordinary thing that whereas God the Father is
going to raise him and lift him up
and highly exalt him when he came to
the earth to be our sin bearer there
is a description of him beginning in chapter
52 at verse 14 which sounds like some
grotesquely disfigured being distorted beyond all
understanding or recognition notice it in verse 14
of chapter 52 just as there were many
who were appalled at him his appearance was
so disfigured beyond that of any man and
his form marred beyond human likeness now my
dear friends I have to tell you again
this is Jehovah's servant this is the one
of whom scripture says he is the fairest
amongst ten thousand the bright and morning star
the altogether lovely one and here he is
being described to us as the one who
is marred beyond human likeness his appearance is
so disfigured beyond that of any man and
in verse 2 of chapter 53 this is
amplified for us halfway through verse 2 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
of men a man of sorrows and familiar
with suffering like one from whom men hide
their faces he was despised and we esteemed
him not now hold to that for a
moment will you and will you recognize with
me again that here in this figure from
whom men hide their faces did you remember
last night we were looking at Isaiah 6
where the angel figures brought before us in
the seraphim held their wings over their faces
because they could not bear the glory of
God burning out in their presence but here,
here are ordinary human beings like ourselves and
when they see the servant of Jehovah they
put their hands over their faces now you
do that on occasions don't you or you've
seen people do it you may have seen
some horrifyingly disfiguring accident or some ghastly illness
and I've seen people putting their hands over
their faces one of my friends went to
the help of some of the people in
Lockerbie when the Pan American jet was shot
down by that bomb he was minister nearby
and he said he had never seen so
many people with their hands over their faces
crying out Oh God, Oh God because there
were people hanging from trees disfigured and distorted
and broken that's the very language that's the
very language and I said to you it
was to the one of whom we sing
fairest Lord Jesus it was gazing upon him
he who is admired by angels and archangels
as the brightened morning star they cannot look
upon him because the sight is so repulsive
now we need to ask what and I
said reverently what in God's name produced that
reaction well there are three answers in the
song there is first the human answer what
produced such disfigurement and such deformity and such
an appalling somebody sinned to cause this they
knew that they said who sinned this man
or his parents that he is in this
dreadful and appalling condition now they said we
esteemed him smitten by God and afflicted and
they thought he was bearing the punishment of
his own sin and yet you notice what
the prophet sings of in the song in
verse 9 he had done no violence neither
was any deceit in his mouth but that
was the human answer you notice what is
the prophet's answer to the question what brought
this dread sight in the servant of Jehovah
it begins in verse 4 with that single
word which expresses the dawning of the truth
upon someone's understanding the opening of blinded eyes
the sudden awareness of the truth which has
been hidden from them it's the one word
surely you know not long after I was
converted I was taken by my brother who
led me to Christ I was taken to
a performance of the Messiah in Glasgow I'd
never heard it before but the one word
that rang out in that great auditorium and
stabbed my heart was the word that begins
one of the greatest of Handel's choruses surely
and it is repeated again and again do
you know it one of the most moving
things to me in all music surely he
has borne our sin and carried our sorrow
and the word is repeated again surely now
it is as though the light has begun
to dawn you see it is as though
understanding is being opened and they are saying
surely this is what it was all about
this is why the servant of Jehovah is
one whom men hide their faces from surely
he took up our infirmities and carried our
sorrows you can almost see it in the
use of the pronouns have you noticed that
in the last bit of verse 4 and
throughout verse 5 surely he took up our
infirmities he carried our sorrows verse 5 he
was pierced for our transgressions he was crushed
for our iniquities the punishment that brought us
peace was upon him by his wounds we
are healed you cannot get away from it
even there is theology in pronouns you know
and there is an abundance of it here
here is the prophet saying it has something
to do with him and it has something
absolutely parallel to do with us what he
bore he bore for our sake in our
place let me just draw your attention to
it and how the prophet traces the meaning
both of human sin and of the servant's
suffering from the circumference of sin to the
center of it and from the circumference of
his suffering to the heart of it notice
what it is he says in verse 5
there are four descriptions of human sin do
you notice it?
it is transgression it is iniquity it is
dis-peace because the punishment that brought us
peace for our dis-peace was upon him
and it is dis-ease by his wounds
we are healed now transgression is the outward
act of sin it is the public rebellion
against the law of God and in our
actions that's what transgression is iniquity is something
that goes deeper than just the public and
outward transgression of the law of God it
speaks of an inward sickness dis-peace speaks
to us of that deeper reality in the
human soul which is the result of rebelling
against God there is no peace says my
God to the wicked for the simple reason
that sin expresses itself not just in public
transgression and in the inward reality of the
disease of sin but in this dis-peace
which invades every area of our being and
dis-ease all the reality of the sickness
that sin brings to every area of our
being that brother I was telling you about
who led me to Christ when he was
29 he and just home from his honeymoon
he was taken into hospital and diagnosed as
having an almost inoperable and certainly an incurable
cancer which had never been evident before and
when I went to see the doctor who
was a family friend who was the anesthetist
I said to him where exactly is the
cancer he said well I'm afraid that's not
really the question the question is where is
it not and that's the problem of human
sin not where is it but where is
it not that's what we mean when we
talk about total depravity we don't mean that
somebody is as bad as they ever could
be what we mean is that there is
no area of life that is not touched
by our sin but if that is the
description of sin will you notice how it
is matched so perfectly in the wisdom and
mercy of God are you beginning to see
what grace now is like when the Lord
Jesus Christ's sufferings are described to us he
was pierced that is a description of the
outward assault upon his body he was crushed
or bruised that is the kind of wound
that goes beyond the outward to the area
beneath sight he was punished now the NIV
doesn't do us a favor here it's a
good translation by and large you know but
it's missed the point here the King James
Version has the proper translation he was chastised
the chastisement of our peace was upon him
what's the point about chastisement and what's the
difference between chastisement and punishment well of course
you know don't you the chastisement is a
father's act that's the point a stranger may
punish some child but only a father can
chastise them and in some mysterious sense these
wounds by which our sickness is healed were
the chastisement of the father that of course
you see is what our Lord Jesus Christ
is bearing in his death upon the cross
what he is bearing is not so much
the outward suffering in his body, multitudes of
people have borne that what he is bearing
is the judgment of a holy God upon
sin what he is bearing is the wrath
of a righteous God upon sinners and
that of course is what makes sin serious
isn't it you ever thought about this what
makes sin serious is not what it does
to me although God knows how sin dreadfully
messes up human life John Calvin says when
we find ourselves appalled by the servant's marred
appearance we need to reckon afresh that here
at Calvary we gaze upon our own disfigured
humanity and that is what we are seeing
at the cross when we see the disfigured
Son of God bearing our sin we are
reminded that sin does not leave us unscarred
nor of course is the serious thing about
sin what it does to other people although
we all of us in some sense have
discovered that haven't we that sin makes a
mess of other people's lives you speak to
the wife who has been the victim of
her husband's philandering and you will know how
someone's sin can break someone else it is
a figment of the imagination however sophisticated in
our own times and in our television age
that sin is fun sin is often very
pleasurable but that's not its last word or
effect its ultimate effect is to disfigure and
destroy but that's not its most serious
feature the most serious thing about human sin
is not what it does to me or
to anybody else but what it does to
a holy God it draws down his wrath
and judgment and my dear friends that's the
really serious thing about being outside of Christ
there is no shelter from the wrath of
God anywhere else but in him but there
is not only a human answer and a
prophetic answer to the question what has brought
this disfigurement to the son of God there
is a divine answer do you notice at
the end of verse 6 we all like
sheep have gone astray each of us has
turned to his own way now listen to
this 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 he was cut off from the
land of the living for the transgression of
my people why was this look at verse
10 with me yet it was the Lord's
will to crush him and cause him to
suffer it was the Lord who made his
life a guilt offering now have you then
begun to think about how it is that
Jesus says in Gethsemane to the father father
if it be possible now put this into
the context of that eternal covenant of redemption
if it be possible let this cup pass
from me nevertheless not my will but your
will be done and there
and then within the Godhead there was taking
place something that defies our understanding as the
judgment of a holy God fell upon his
son you know how the hymn puts it
oh Christ what burdens bowed thy head my
load was laid on thee Jehovah lifted up
his sword oh Christ it fell on thee
thou was sore stricken of thy God there's
not one stroke for me thy tears thy
blood beneath it flowed thy bruising healeth me
my dear friends that's grace when the eternal
God comes and sees us disfigured in all
the ugliness of our sin and failure when
he sees us in our rebellious state against
him when he sees us without anything in
us that would attract him to us yet
goes to this extent to embrace us have
you ever heard of a physician like this
who takes upon him our dis-ease in
order that we might find healing in his
wounds that is where grace
finds its ultimate expression the free mercy of
God which Isaiah delighted to proclaim an infinitely
costly love for infinitely unworthy sinners but
I need to tell you this evening that
one of the reasons we need to come
back again and again and again to all
that that chapter teaches us one of the
reasons we need to come back to it
is that that's how God goes on dealing
with his people grace is not just the
manner in which he brings us into the
kingdom grace is the means by which he
takes us on so that later in his
life the apostle is able to say and
he wasn't exercising some mock humility by the
grace of God I am what I am
beloved, that's the answer to every foolish pride
that ever tries to rise up in our
hearts by the grace of God I am
what I am and the language of the
believing heart will be the language of the
hymn we are going to sing presently amazing
grace amazing love how can it be that
thou my God die for me you can
almost tell where somebody is spiritually by how
much they are amazed at the grace of
an infinitely merciful God let's pray together blessed
Lord our minds cannot begin to contain nor
our hearts encompass the wonders of your grace
to us in Jesus Christ we truly stand
amazed in your presence what manner of love
is this we cry Lord continue to lead
us to explore the riches of your grace
more and more day by day for the
glory of our Lord Jesus Christ and in
his perfect name we ask it Amen