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  ISAIAH'S VISION OF THE CROSS
  by Keith Malcomson
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Summary: This sermon delves deep into Isaiah 52 and 53, highlighting the
prophecy of a servant who suffers for the sins of many nations,
connecting his sacrifice to the Levitical sacrificial system. The
servant is marred beyond recognition, yet innocent in his sufferings,
fulfilling the role of a sacrificial lamb. His suffering is connected to
the Old Testament sacrificial practices, emphasizing his role as the
ultimate atoning sacrifice for sin.

Topics: "Suffering Servant", "Atonement and Sacrifice"
Scripture References: Isaiah 52:14, Isaiah 53:10, Isaiah 53:7, Leviticus 5:6, Leviticus 7:37, Exodus 12:3, Romans 3:25

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DESCRIPTION
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This sermon delves deep into Isaiah 52 and 53, highlighting the prophecy
of a servant who suffers for the sins of many nations, connecting his
sacrifice to the Levitical sacrificial system. The servant is marred
beyond recognition, yet innocent in his sufferings, fulfilling the role
of a sacrificial lamb. His suffering is connected to the Old Testament
sacrificial practices, emphasizing his role as the ultimate atoning
sacrifice for sin.

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CONTENT
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And I want to read all of this. I want you to listen by the Holy Spirit,
because as we read it, it's so powerful. I can barely touch on it
tonight.

I'm only going to take you to the most essential things, but I want to
tell you this chapter you need to spend time in. Isaiah 52 and verse 13.
Behold, my servant shall deal prudently.

He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high. As many were astolled
at thee, his visage was so marred, more than any man, and his form more
than the sons of men. So shall he sprinkle many nations.

The kings shall shut their mouths at him, for that which had not been
told them shall they see. And that which they had not heard shall they
consider. Then reading from Isaiah 53, this is all one singular
prophecy.

Verse one, 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 has 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 everyone to his own
way. And the Lord has 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 shears
is done. 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 has put him to grief. When thou shalt make his soul an offering for
sin, he shall see a 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 spoiled with the strong because he had poured
out his soul unto death and he was numbered with the transgressors and
he bared the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors.

Let's pray here tonight as we come to the word of God and we do wanna
see the Lord Jesus Christ tonight. Father, I do pray open the eyes of
our understanding that we might behold wondrous things out of your law.
Father, I pray reveal your son, make him so clear tonight, make him to
be presented, make him to be proclaimed in a way that warms our hearts,
that challenges us.

Lord God, you can save us, you can justify us tonight. Lord God, you can
redeem sinners even in this gathering tonight. Lord God, there's power
in the preaching of the cross and Lord God, we believe that, that your
Holy Spirit bears witness with real life-changing power and we ask for
that tonight, that your name might be glorified, that you'd be exalted,
that the Holy Spirit would do honor to the Lamb of God tonight in Jesus'
mighty name.

Amen, amen. My message tonight is Isaiah's vision of the cross, Isaiah's
vision of the cross. We started with Isaiah 52, reading those last
verses because they are connected to Isaiah 53.

What you have here is 15 amazing verses, remarkable verses about Jesus
Christ, God's son. As we've already said, when you look at the Old
Testament, the Holy Spirit spends 4,000 years, remarkably, through men
of God, prophets, kings of Israel, speaking very clearly through
prophecies, types, shadows, teachings, ritual in the house of God, using
all of this to prepare God's people for a day when God's son died at a
place called Calvary. The entire Old Testament is a commentary preparing
you to bring you to the cross, to a life-changing experience.

It is utterly remarkable. When we come to the book of Isaiah, there are
four songs that are written here. I'm only gonna deal with the fourth
song.

Isaiah gives four prophetic songs about a person called the servant, and
I'm only dealing with the last one. These songs of the servant go from
Isaiah 42 all the way through to Isaiah chapter 53. It is a prophetic
message about one called the servant, in fact, God's servant.

Beginning with Isaiah 42, it seems to be that he's speaking about
Israel. At times in these passages, he actually very clearly talks about
Israel, my servant, and talks about Jacob as well. So Israel sometimes
is called God's servant, and it's prophesied here.

But very quickly, you begin to realize it can't just be a nation. It
can't be God's entire people. It's speaking about one singular person.

And when you get to Isaiah 53, it is very clear it's not talking about
Israel. In fact, the servant is contrasted with Israel, with the entire
nation. This is someone doing something towards the entire nation, and
his name is the servant.

We're gonna look at this tonight very clearly and see what the Holy
Spirit has to say in a very clear way. You see, this is a vital chapter
for the Jew. The Jew was given Isaiah 53, and this servant, the Jews,
all through millennia, through many generations, believed that Isaiah 53
was a prophecy about their coming Messiah.

And they could see he was a suffering Messiah. All through the
generations, Jews believed that until about 1,000 years ago. Then they
began to teach and to change it.

Do you know now in synagogues, they don't read Isaiah 53. It began to
drop off over the past 1,000 years. Do you know why it is so dangerous
to their beliefs? Because it's so explicit.

Just this morning, I brought up the testimony of a Jewish man being
evangelized for the very first time. And a Christian came to him and
read Isaiah 53. And this Jew was so shocked, he said, no, no, I can't
read your Bible.

And he says, oh no, I'm reading your Bible from your Bible. And he says,
let me check that. And it was a Hebrew Bible, Isaiah 53.

And he said, there must be some mistake here. He was a Jew who had never
read Isaiah 53. And he says, but this is what you preach.

This is what you believe. He was utterly shocked. This eventually led to
that man getting born again, saved, washed in the blood of the Lamb.

Isaiah 53 absolutely rocked him. One reading of Isaiah 53. I want to
assure you, there has to be a terrible blindness on the Jews in order to
read Isaiah 53 and not to see who it's about.

Doesn't the Bible talk many times that Israel presently is in a state of
blindness? There's only a few, a remnant, who actually see the Messiah,
the Lord Jesus Christ. They are still in blindness. It's not a natural
blindness.

2,000 years ago, they were blinded that the gospel would go to the
Gentiles. There's an entire chapter, Romans 11, in the New Testament
explaining how the Jews are abnormally, strangely blind. It's not
natural.

But the Bible also talks of a day when, as an entire nation, this
blindness will be removed. And the Bible says, they shall look upon the
one whom they pierced. And they'll begin to weep and groan and to cry
out.

What a blindness that men cannot see Jesus Christ in this hour. When you
come to the book of Isaiah, it was written 700 years before the coming
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Isaiah, he's actually called by many the
fifth gospel, even though he's in the Old Testament.

It is such a remarkable book. And chapters like 53 are so remarkable.
You have to call it a gospel.

It is so explicit. It is so detailed. It is so accurate.

It is so powerful that what else can you do than call it the gospel
message before it's time? But when you go to Isaiah, you read much about
the Messiah or one called the servant. You read about his person, who he
is, what he is like. You read about his work and ministry.

You read about his coming reign upon the earth. You even read in Isaiah
about his virgin birth, his deity, he's Emmanuel, God with us. You read
all about his humanity, his perfect righteousness, and that he brings it
as a gift for sinners.

You read all of this and much more. But also in Isaiah, you read about
his suffering. This servant is not only one who'll reign over all
nations, he's actually one who's going to suffer.

And that's what Isaiah reveals. Isaiah is quoted or referred to in our
New Testament about 85 times. 85 times, referred to, are little
sentences taken and used in our New Testament.

Seven times in the New Testament, Isaiah 53 is directly and clearly
quoted in the New Testament by the apostles. All four gospels look back
to Isaiah and build upon it. But I want to tell you, Isaiah 53 is one of
the most powerful and dynamic chapters in the Bible.

Our entire series has been a stand against those who attack the truth of
the cross, that Jesus Christ died for sinners, and that he died in your
place, and that he bore your sin, and that he carried them far off.
You'd say, but that's my gospel, my convictions. No one would attack
that.

All across the church today, teachers, prophets, apostles, scholars are
rising up everywhere. They're starting to say, well, we don't really
believe that. That gets me very angry.

And so I take you to Isaiah 53 here tonight. It says in Isaiah 52 and
13, at the start of this prophecy, behold my servant. Notice what God is
saying here.

Behold my servant. Then he gives an entire prophecy. This word behold
means to take a prolonged, hard, staring look at my servant.

That's what Isaiah 53 is. You need to stand still, and you need to set
your eyes on the vision here, and you need to stare very carefully.
Don't take your eyes off it.

I've got several things for you here about this servant that I wanna
deal with. I wanna destroy the lies of false teachers who deny penal
substitution, and we've dealt with that. We've dealt with the enemies.

I told you two weeks ago, even Don Francisco is denying the shedding of
the blood, denying penal substitution. Many other leaders are arising
who once believed in the real gospel. They've departed from it.

This is a dangerous hour. And so when I preach a very simple elementary
message, don't go glaze-eyed. Don't zoom out and say, I know this.

You don't realize what you're dealing with. Spirits of deception. We're
living in the most dangerous hour of all history, and you haven't seen
deception.

Deception's about to get released in our world in a way that you can't
even fathom. If you're not grounded in the truth, if you're not grounded
in the bleeding lamb, in the atonement, if you don't hold fast to the
truth, you're in sinking sand in such a dangerous place. I've got
several things, and I'm not gonna get to deal with everything.

I'm just giving you the key points here of this chapter. It is so
fundamental. Number one, this is my first point about this servant.

He suffers for others. It might seem very basic here, but here's a
prophecy 700 years before Christ given by Isaiah, prophesying of this
servant who's gonna come. He is gonna suffer for others.

If anyone tries to tell you Christ did not suffer for us in our place,
you need to take them to Isaiah 53, and this is only one place. You
don't even need to go into the New Testament. It is very clear.

The servant who is distinct from God's people in Isaiah 53. Notice this
carefully. God's people are not the servant.

The servant is distinct all through this chapter from God's people. He
suffers in their place. He is their substitute.

He has taken their place. God's people are utterly distinct from him. In
fact, in these 15 verses, you can go through and count 21 times where
there's distinct mentions of him being separate from them.

21 times in 15 verses, there is him, then there is them. They are not
the same. Listen to what it says in just a couple of these verses.

Surely, verse four, surely he hath borne our griefs. That's a
distinction. Listen to the title of this first point.

He suffers for others. Heretics are rising up and saying, no, he didn't
suffer for us. You need to understand this, that liars, teachers,
prophets in the church are rising up and saying, he didn't do that.

Yes, he died on the cross for sin, and they're changing the message. But
I want you to be clear in this. There's he and there's our griefs.

He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him
stricken. Then verse five, but he was wounded for our transgressions.

I know it's very basic, but you've got damnable teachings coming in and
denying this. Do you realize how distinct that he suffers for the sins
of an entire people in this chapter? He is 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. Again, just go through verse 11 and 12, and you'll see that
there's a separation between God's people and between the servant.

This servant stands alone, utterly distinct. And you know what? He's
gonna suffer for the entire people. He suffers in their place.

He is a substitute. He is actually going to take their place and begin
to suffer, not just because men are naturally sinful or at the hands of
sinful men, but because of their sins. Let me make this personal.

This servant mentioned in Isaiah 53, prophesied by Isaiah, he suffers
for you, for your sins. He is suffering for you. His suffering is
personally for you as an individual.

It's not something general. It's very specific. When he suffers on the
cross, it's you that is involved with that.

You're connected for that. Why is he suffering on the cross? Because of
you here in this room. Don't make it generally sinners in the world.

It was for you that he's suffering. Did he have to suffer? Yes, if
there's any hope for you, any hope at all. If he didn't suffer for
others, then there's no hope for those others.

And so here you have this first vital point, very simple point. He
suffers for others, not for himself, not as the result generally of men
being sinful and hating him because he's righteous, not because that
he's actually suffering specifically for you, even though you lived
2,000 years later. 2,000 years, you didn't even live then when this
prophecy was given or when the prophecy is fulfilled.

But you know, within this chapter, it says that when it's being
fulfilled, he looks down through time and he sees you very specifically
through the corridors of time. He actually, on the cross, sees you,
beholds you, and you are that spiritual seed. But that's the first
point.

He suffers for others. Secondly, he suffers for the sins of his people.
He doesn't just suffer for them.

That's obvious in this chapter. There's them and him, and he's suffering
for them. But secondly, he suffers for the sin of his people.

Look at verse five again. But he was wounded. Why was Jesus wounded on
the cross? Why were there nails? Why was there a pierced side? Why was
there a crown of thorns? Why was there a whip back? Why did his beard
get plucked, his hair get pulled out? Why was he wounded? There's a
reason.

You've got to understand this. I am teaching you the ABCs of the cross.
Forgive me if you think I'm teaching you to suck eggs, but I'm telling
you, in a dangerous hour, I've got to spell it out.

I've got to say any man who denies that Jesus on the cross was wounded,
what does it say? He was wounded for our transgressions. Why was he
suffering on the cross? For your personal transgressions. Notice that
word, transgressions.

Do you know what it means? It means rebellion or to revolt against
authority. It means an expansion where you go, I just want my space. I
want some liberty.

I want some freedom. I'm feeling hemmed in here. Do you know what that
is? That is at the very heart of a rebel, a revolt against God's
authority.

It's too narrow. This teaching is too narrow. The way is too narrow.

Do you know what that is? That is transgression. It means a breaking
away from. So we see transgressors are actually rebels against God.

He was wounded for rebels. Those who are trying to break away from God,
who wanted freedom and liberty to sin, they wanted to run and fulfill
the lust of flesh. What happened? He's wounded for rebels.

You know what rebels are like? They take their fist and they shake it in
the face of God. And they go, I'll do it my way. It's not your will be
done.

It's my will be done. That's at the heart of a rebel. I know the way I
can choose.

I know the decisions I can make. I do whatever I feel is right. Then
you're a rebel.

You're a rebel against God. If you don't subject yourself to authority,
if you're not one submitted to God or submitted to his word, you know
what you are? You are a terrible rebel against God. I've met multitudes,
vast multitudes in my lifetime.

They're very nice folk. They say, I'm a good person and I wouldn't harm
anyone. And I just try to do my best and I love everyone.

And they believe their own propaganda. They really do believe this. You
know, the only problem is they're rebels against God.

They're rebels against his word. They don't love his word. They're not
submitted to what he says.

They do their own well. But they say, I'm a really nice guy. You're a
transgressor.

You're a rebel. Sounds very nice when you say you're a transgressor.
You're just a sinner.

No, you're an absolute rebel against the things of God. So when the
servant is suffering on the cross, he's suffering in the place of
others. He's suffering for others.

But he's also suffering for their sins or the sins of his people. He's
wounded for our, notice that word, our. Who's the our? I'm part of that.

I hope you're part of that tonight. He's wounded for our transgressions.
Do you know what you're, I'm a rebel by nature.

I can remember even in a backsliding state the night I shook my fist at
God, said, I love you. Oh, it was said very nicely. Lord, you haven't
done me any wrong.

And I love you. And I'm very grateful, but I just want to be one of the
guys and just want to go out and get drunk tonight. And I took my Bible,
put the bomb in my bag and said, Lord, I hope you understand.

That was pure rebellion against the dying, suffering Lord Jesus Christ.
And I shook my fist in his face. You know how he got me back? It was
finally two of my mates down in front of me in a helicopter crash to
bring me to my senses.

Oh, the way of the wicked is hard. I want to tell you, don't you think,
oh, the way of a Christian's hard? Oh no, the Bible says the way of the
wicked, the rebel, it's a hard way. You think the way of sin is nice.

No, it's not. It's a hard way. It's a harsh way against you.

And so it says here, he was bruised for our iniquities, not only our
transgressions, but our iniquities. The word iniquities means depravity.
It means to walk in a crooked way, to be perverted, to bend everything.

You know, that's what sin does to every area of your life. It twists
everything. It'll twist your mind, your emotions, your thoughts, your
decisions, your speech, your actions, your marriage, your family
relationships, your church relationship, your work relationships.

I want to tell you, iniquities pervert everything. They're perverted.
They twist everything.

Nothing is straight anymore. It says in verse six, the iniquities of us
all. Look at this servant.

He suffers for the transgressions and the iniquities of us all. And it
says something else here in verse five. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him.

Now notice that word chastisement. It means the discipline, the
correction, the chastening, because of your sin. What sort of chastening
is transgression gonna bring upon you? Are iniquities or rebellion
against God? What sort of chastening? The word chastening means
discipline, the rod of correction, the discipline you deserve for that.

Do you know what it says? The chastening of our peace, or in other
words, of our wellbeing fell upon him. It came upon him. The rod didn't
fall upon you for your sins.

If it really did, you'd be in serious trouble, I wanna tell you. So look
at him suffering in the place for your transgressions. Do you realize
tonight that your sins, someone suffered for them? You think your sins
were just forgiven? No, they were not.

You think God just said, I'm gonna let you off the hook. No, you are
not. Every sin you commit falls upon the one called the servant.

He bears the brunt of it. Someone is gonna pay the price of your
iniquities, of your transgressions. Someone is gonna have to take the
chastening for what you do.

You don't get off scot-free. No one gets off scot-free. But do you know
what this servant, it says he actually suffers for the sins of his
people.

The third thing, his suffering involves a physical disfigurement. His
suffering for your sins involves a physical disfigurement. Look at verse
14.

As many, sorry, chapter 52, verse 14. As many as were astonished, and
that word astonished means utterly astonished, shocked, utterly amazed,
dumbfounded. That's what it literally means.

As many as were astonished at thee. In other words, by gazing on you or
seeing you, his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form
more than the sons of men. That term marred means to be disfigured.

This servant was literally, visibly disfigured in his body. So when you
looked upon him, when he actually suffered for your sins, when your sins
were suffered for by him, his body was so disfigured you couldn't
recognize him. Is that even a man? A mother couldn't naturally recognize
him.

By merely looking. You know, I read the story of Brother Yun in China,
and he was so badly beaten to a pulp by the Chinese police and the
soldier's authorities, and they left him. Then they went and brought his
wife in and said, that's not him, that's not my husband.

He was so badly beaten that it took a time until he spoke. She could
not, she would not accept that that was her husband. His body was
broken, bones were broken.

He was terribly swollen. She couldn't identify him. That's nothing
compared to Christ on the cross.

Do you know what it said when people looked upon him? They were
astonished, utterly shocked. Can you imagine his mother Mary standing
there, gazing on him, going, this is my son. I can't even recognize this
child that I brought into this world.

He is so, what does it say? Disfigured, actually disfigured. I want you
to hear this. His suffering for your sin involved physical disfiguring.

It says in verse five that he was wounded for your transgressions,
wounded. The word wounded there means to bore through. It can also mean
to pierce straight through.

It's talking about a piercing, an extreme, excruciating, painful
piercing. He was wounded, he was pierced for you, straight through for
your sins. It was because of your sins that this happened with his body.

Listen to what it says in Psalm 22, 16. Also a prophecy about Jesus on
the cross. It says the dogs have compassed me.

The assembly of the wicked have enclosed me. They pierced my hands and
my feet. In Psalm 22, you've got a prophecy how the servant, the
Messiah, would actually be pierced.

You know, in the New Testament, it says in Luke 24 and 39, remember when
he, in his resurrection body, and he comes back to the disciples, and he
says, behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Handle me and
see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have. You know,
when Christ comes back again, he's gonna hold forth his hands, and you
will see the nail-pierced hands.

What does the Bible say? He was wounded, he was pierced for your
transgressions. That's why all Israel, when they see the one who they
pierced, they're gonna weep on that day. As a nation, when their eyes
are open to go, he was our Messiah, he's Isaiah 53.

He's the one we rejected, we crucified. And yet here he is, he was
pierced for our iniquities. Do you know Christ? He was pierced for your
iniquities.

It wasn't just Roman soldiers, it was your iniquities. That's why he was
wounded, that's why he was pierced, that's why he was nailed to a cross.
No man took his life for him, he laid down his life.

It was a willing thing. Do you realize none of us are righteous? None of
us would stand a chance if the servant had not been pierced upon the
cross. You know, in the church, if we don't preach the cross, we're in
great danger in the church.

If we don't constantly preach the cross, that's why we have the Lord's
table each Lord's day, is to bring you back to Calvary. What did Jesus
Christ do on the cross? Look at verse five again, it says, with his
stripes, we are healed. We are healed.

He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised, that word bruised
means a terrible bruising of the entire body. It means his body was
swollen.

It was impacted, it was hurting, it was in pain, it was in agony. He's
wounded, he is bruised, he is pierced. For your sins, your sins has
marred his body.

His body marred on the cross beyond recognition. It was for your sin,
your sin done that. That's what your sin done to the spotless lamb of
God.

And so it says, with his stripes, we are healed. You don't have healing
without his striping. You wouldn't have anything from God or anything
from Christ or anything from the cross if he had not been striped.

Again, that word striped in verse five. Striped, it's talking about the
whipping of his back. It means to join or unite two or more things
together, to heap them up one upon another.

That's what striping means. He was striped. He had so much heaped up.

And you know what the word means in Isaiah? It's not talking about many
stripes. It says basically there was one massive large stripe. You
couldn't identify different stripes.

All you can see is this one singular mass stripe. You know why he was
striped? That you could be healed. If Christ had not suffered in his
body, if his body had not been marred, see, that was the price.

That was the price. You wouldn't stand a chance. There's no healing for
you, no salvation, no deliverance.

For you to go free, someone is gonna have to pay your penalty, die in
your place, suffer the consequence of your sin. Someone is gonna have to
take what's not gonna fall upon you. It says in Peter, Peter quotes us,
1 Peter 2.24, who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the
tree, that we being dead to sin should live unto righteousness by whose
stripes ye were healed.

For we were a sheep going astray. You see, Peter knew this is the Lord
Jesus Christ. He knew that this is a clear teaching of the cross, that
the striping of the servant in Isaiah 53 is the Lord Jesus Christ.

And again, in the Greek, when Peter uses the same term, it means a mark
of a blue, a stripe, a wound, a welt, a bruise, a wound caused by many,
many blues. And so we see that Christ was terribly bruised. He was wept
in his physical body.

His body was literally marred. You know what it says in Isaiah 29 in
verse three, the plowers plowed upon my back. They made long their
furrows.

That's an extraordinary thing that you have here. Christ's back was like
a plowed field. In Isaiah 50, verse five to seven, you can go and read
it yourself.

It talks about them plucking the beard. I'm gonna tell you, Isaiah is
prophesying and preaching the gospel. It's a remarkable, explicit
preaching of the cross in Isaiah 53.

He doesn't miss the mark. You see, here is a servant suffering for
others, an entire people of God, suffering for their sins, their
personal sins, actual sins. And you know what? His body is marred,
absolutely marred, head to toe in order to do that.

Number four, the benefits that he brings by suffering. Again, it says in
verse five, the chastisement of our peace was upon him. And with his
stripes, we are healed.

Our peace comes at a great price. You don't get peace with God without
the chastisement falling upon the servant. You don't get spiritual
healing from your sins unless Christ is striped in your place.

I'll go as far as to say, if you don't believe Christ was striped for
you, you have no spiritual healing. You're yet in your sins. If you
wanna deny that the chastisement fell upon him, you don't have peace
tonight with God.

You have no peace with God. If you don't believe that he was chastened
in your place and punished in your place and suffered and was marred in
your place, and that was because of your personal sin, not someone
else's sin, your personal sin, then you're still in your sin. You don't
even believe this.

You haven't heard the gospel. And so this fourth point, the benefits
that get brought by this suffering. Verse four, surely he has borne our
grace and he has carried our sorrows.

What happened on the cross when this servant was being marred beyond
recognition? What was he actually doing on the cross? So it was for your
sin that he was suffering, but what was he doing? It says he bore our
grace. He carried our sorrows. Notice those two words.

He's boring or bearing and he's carrying what is yours. You didn't even
exist. You haven't even sinned yet.

And yet on the cross, 2,000 years ago, when you weren't even a thought,
or an imagination, there is one who is actually bearing something that
belongs personally to you in this lifetime that you've only experienced
since you lived. He is bearing your grace. Do you know what? Your grace
and your sorrows, you've only had them in this lifetime.

They're enough to destroy you. People in this world are demented in
their minds, being driven crazy. That's why they turn to drugs and drink
and suicide.

Don't tell me this generation isn't mad. This generation are killing
themselves. They're out of their heads, they're mad.

Don't tell me Christians are mad. I've got my sanity here tonight. I
love the Lord Jesus Christ with all of my heart.

This world of ours is going crazy. It's going mad. It's out of order.

And you know what? It's getting to a climax now where they're trying to
teach our kids all over this world. We are gonna penalize you. We're
gonna punish you in courts of law.

We're gonna punish you in the schools or in your job. If you don't call
a little boy a girl, don't tell me this world isn't going crazy. But
look at this one on the cross, this one being marred.

He is carrying the grace and the burdens and the cares. He's actually
carrying them. This word to born, he is born our grace.

You know what it means? It means to lift up, to accept as his own, your
grace. The things that are breaking you and destroying you and driving
you crazy. Do you know Christ carried them? Do you know if you're
demented tonight, you can actually look on the man of Calvary and go, I
believe that he carried my grace.

He actually bore them. What did he do? He accepted them as his own. The
word means to carry away far.

It means that he literally took them and carried them himself on his own
shoulder. He took the weight of them, the burden of them, the
responsibility. He wanted to take your grace.

It also says that he carried your sorrows. Who wants to be in sorrows
here tonight? Who wants to be so sorrowful in heart and mind that it
eventually drives you into hell one day? Do you know what this marred
man of Calvary done? The word to carry means to carry or bear a heavy
burden, very explicit, a burden that crushes you, a burden that's
overwhelming. Do you know the burden of sin is like that? The burden of
sin will drive you eventually into hell one day.

That's what sin does. It's a heavy, overwhelming burden. That's why
people hide in drugs and drink and sex and a thousand other things.

Don't tell me they're happy. They're trying to find a way of escape.
They can't face reality.

That's why they get drunk. That's why a man is driven into alcohol
addiction. You know what? He can't handle life with his own sanity.

So he tries to get relief from that. I wanna tell you the best relief.
Go to Calvary.

There's one who carries the heavy load. And it says here, this man being
marred because of your sin and actually suffering on the cross is
carrying the heavy weight or the punishment or the chastisement. It says
in verse 11, he shall bear their iniquities.

He is carrying the heavy weight of their iniquities. You know, your sin
is very, very heavy on your conscience, on your mind, on your memory. It
keeps popping up.

Either he carries it or you carry it. It's a very heavy load. Do you
know all of us have got born again when we said, it's too much for me.

It's a heavy load. You know, as a kid, I loved Pilgrim's Progress and
the little pictures of Pilgrim. He finally gets to the cross and you see
him kneeling at the cross and his great large burden on his back.

You see the ropes breaking and the burden rolls down the hill. That's
his salvation. The burden rolled away.

The burden, the weight of his sin, it's a very heavy thing. Sin and
iniquity were put and placed upon Christ on the cross, not in him, but
upon him in a very, very real way. Listen to me.

There are benefits from his suffering. There is healing for you tonight.
There is deliverance for you tonight.

Every physical healing comes out of this. Every salvation comes out of
this. Every miracle comes out of this.

All deliverance from drugs. I'll be talking to a brother tomorrow on the
phone, we're gonna talk. You know what? He was an alcoholic from, I
think, I watched a bit of his testimony from 15 to 29 years old.

He just lived for drink. You don't walk away from that, but he
experienced the power of the gospel. What a remarkable thing.

I can tell you, friends, they were heroin addicts. They got free. They
met the man of Calvary.

They're delivered. I met atheists and evolutionists and Muslims and you
name it, I can name it to you. Terribly immoral people.

They almost become like virgins. Why? They met the man of Calvary. It's
a powerful thing.

It's a dynamic thing. You know the benefits of Calvary through his
suffering. I've been healed.

I've been delivered. I've been saved. I've been forgiven.

I've been redeemed. Where did it happen? You know those who challenge
this? Everything I said here is being challenged by these new
theologians. They say, he didn't die as our substitute or if he did die
as our substitute, it wasn't our sin that put him there or he didn't
suffer the wrath of God.

Well, we'll get to that. My fifth point here, the source of the
suffering is God. I mentioned this before.

Yes, the Romans were involved. Yes, the Jews were there. Yes, Herod is
there.

Yes, Pilate is there. None of them. They're not even mentioned in this
chapter.

Listen very carefully to what it says in verse four. Yet we, those he
died for and suffered for, yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of
God and afflicted. The word esteem used there means it's like the word
esteem in Romans chapter six.

It means to calculate up, to think through or to consider or to reckon.
Remember that word in Romans six? You reckon these things to be true. In
other words, you calculate.

You need to do a mathematical equation here. That's what it's saying
here, that we that are saved, notice this very carefully. It's very,
very important.

Yet we did esteem him stricken. In other words, those who benefit from
this suffering of the servant by being pierced and marred in his
physical body beyond recognition, this is what we're to do. We're to
esteem him stricken.

You've got to calculate and estimate in your mind. I need you to gauge
your mind right now. No one gets saved unless they look at Christ and
say, I esteem him stricken.

Oh yes, stricken for your sins, but more than that, what does it say? Of
God. Who is he stricken by? Of God. I don't believe you can be a
Christian unless you believe this.

You esteem him, the servant, to be stricken, wounded, smitten by God the
Father. Who did it on the cross? Who wounded him? It was God the Father.
Do you see how simple all this is? These are the truths being denied in
this hour, and it's heresy.

This is a basic, simple teaching of the Bible, yet we did esteem him
stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. Who afflicted this servant on
the cross? It was God afflicting him. God actually afflicts him.

And yet if we had time, and we're not even gonna go there, I assure you.
Do you know at the beginning in chapter 52, it gives a prophecy of the
end of the story. It says, I'm gonna raise him up, I'm gonna exalt him.

I'm gonna raise him up and lift him up, highly exalt him. Do you know
the term there in the Hebrew is only used three other times, and it's
always in Isaiah. And that term always refers to the Lord, always.

Four times the term is used of being exalted and lifted up and raised
up. It's always talking about the Lord, the Lord God, yet it's saying
this servant is the Lord. This servant is actually gonna be exalted like
the God of the Old Testament of Israel.

This servant is given that place of exaltation, but that's the end of
the story. You see, the source of the suffering is actually God. Look at
verse 53, verse six.

All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own
way. That's you and me.

We've all been sinners. Notice we're not called goats as sinners, we're
called sheep as sinners. You see, these sheep are out in the world.

They haven't found Christ yet. You know where goats are? They're sitting
in churches. You don't get goats in the world.

Christ never calls a sinner a goat. He calls false converts who are
hypocrites in the church, he calls them goats. They're the goats.

Oh, well, I'm gonna be okay. But, but, but, but, but. Well, the Bible
says you've got to live holy.

But, but, but, I know what you are. You're a goat. You're a goat.

But, but, but, but, I know I can. I'm different. I'll get through.

I know what the Bible says. But, but, you're a goat. You're in serious
trouble.

I'm gonna tell you, these sheep, these sheep are who he came to die for.
They've gone astray. They're out of the way.

But listen to what it says next about these sheep. And the Lord, who did
it? The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Who did it? The
Lord took their iniquity and laid it on the servant.

It was an act of the Lord, of God doing it. God smote him. God chastised
him.

God done all of this. This was a work of God. And in verse 10, it says
this.

Yet it pleased the Lord. All of this marring of Christ on the cross, it
pleased the Lord. It made the Lord happy.

It satisfied the Lord. When God looked upon his marred son on the cross,
he was pleased with it. I'm giving you scripture.

I don't care what you think. I don't care what all of the intellectual
Christians out there and say, that's horrible. That's foul.

We don't believe that. Fine, you'll end up in hell because I'm giving
you scripture. You know, those who undermine the work of the cross throw
away their Bibles.

They have a very low view of scripture. You say, I believe the scripture
is accurate. It is perfect.

It's authoritative. And when you believe that, you've got a high view of
the cross. What that Bible says, I believe about the cross.

People say, I cannot believe there's an eternal hell. What's that got to
do with us? But I can't believe that. What's that got to do with us? Is
it true? Did God the father smite his son? It pleased the Lord to bruise
him.

Who bruised him? The Lord bruised Christ on the cross. He had put him to
grief. It's no longer you put to grief.

It is God the Lord putting him to grief for you. That's how much God
loves you. He wasn't angry with his son, not at all.

He wasn't mad at his son. He was trying to save sinners like you. He so
loved you that the son willingly took your place.

He was your substitute. Christ is the sinner's substitute. He takes your
place, your punishment.

He says, father, I'll take their place. I'll die in their place. I'll
bear their sin.

He was a willing sacrifice. That's why Christ actually died there. It is
God who lays the sin of his people upon his servant and it pleases him.

Number six, he is innocent in his sufferings. Verse nine, it says, he
has done no violence. Neither was any deceit in his mouth.

Again in verse 11, his knowledge shall, by his knowledge shall my
righteous servant. Notice he's called righteous servant. There's no sin
in his lips.

He is righteous. So this one's suffering. He's perfect.

He hasn't done anything wrong. He is righteous before God. When God
looks at him, he is righteous.

Yet he is being wounded. The same God who looks on him and said, he's
perfectly righteous, he's wounding him for you. And you're a sinner.

You're guilty. You don't deserve to get free. But if the innocent is
suffering, why is he suffering? Because there's no other way of
salvation.

There is no injustice with God in this. He is absolutely righteous,
perfectly righteous. And I wanna finish on this seventh and final point.

I've got a hundred other points I wanna tell you. You need to spend time
in Isaiah 53 and go, this is my gospel. This is my salvation.

Penal substitution is saturating these verses in the Old Testament. That
Christ died in your place. He suffered for your sin that you could go
free.

But seventh and lastly, these sufferings are connected to Israel's
Levitical sacrificial system in the Old Testament. Don't worry about
that title. I'll explain what I mean.

You see, so far I said, Isaiah 53, I've shown you how it reaches forward
to the cross, to the New Testament. Let me just say, this chapter is
absolutely connected into the Old Testament law. The whole religious
Levitical system that we dealt with last time.

Remember in Leviticus, I said, also you've got priests and sacrifice and
rituals and different animals, bulls, goats, lambs, birds, all being
sacrificed for sin. There's never a relationship with God without
sacrifice. There's no forgiveness without an innocent animal dying in
your place.

There's none of that. Leviticus is saturated with sacrifice to be
forgiven, to have a covenant with God. Right in the midst of this
chapter, I want to finish with this.

There's three little statements here. I want to point you to, to show
you that this servant, this singular man being marred, dying, suffering
for sin actually is connected into all of the animals that ever died in
the Old Testament. Let me prove it here as we close.

Isaiah 52 verse 14. As many as were astonished at thee, his visage was
so marred more than any man and his form more than the sons of men.
Notice this next bit.

Verse 15, so shall he sprinkle many nations. He is marred beyond
recognition. He is disfigured in his body.

Why? Well, it tells you in verse 52, so shall he sprinkle many nations.
You see, this marred man was not just for Israel. It wasn't just for the
Jew.

He's actually saying here at the beginning, he's being marred so that he
can then sprinkle many nations, entire groups of people outside of
Israel, entire peoples. Notice the word sprinkle there. See that word
sprinkle is very unique, very important.

The Hebrew word sprinkle used here, it's used one in Exodus in
connection with sprinkling the blood. It's used, I counted just earlier,
I might've miscounted, but I counted in Leviticus, it's used 14 times in
connection with sprinkling blood. The only other time you get this word
sprinkle is after the blood's been sprinkled, then you sprinkle oil or
you sprinkle water.

So this word sprinkle, it goes right back into the priesthood, the
Levitical sacrificial system of killing an animal and then sprinkling
its blood in order to be forgiven. Do you see Isaiah 53? This man is
marred on the cross, but then his blood can be sprinkled upon many, many
nations. That's what it's saying here.

This is a remarkable statement saying he's gonna sprinkle nations. It
means that statement's ceremonial, Levitical and sacrificial. So this
man on the cross is identified with the entire Old Testament system.

Right back to Abel in Genesis 5, Exodus chapter 12 where the Passover
lamb had to die for the entire nation. Here now you've got a man,
there's a man who's gonna come and die for all of his people for their
sins. And you know what? He's connected into that Levitical system.

It's no longer gonna be sprinkled in the blood of animals or of bulls or
of lambs. That's gonna get done away with. Now you're gonna have a man.

It's gonna be his blood begins to sprinkle many nations. And you know
what? That blood is gonna atone for their sin. This is a remarkable
thing.

Here's another point in Isaiah 53 and 10. Yet it pleased the Lord to
bruise him. He had put him to grief when thou shalt make his soul.

Notice this next term, an offering for sin. His soul is made 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. That term offering for sin, it's saying this man who's being
marred, suffering for sin, this man who's a sacrifice, who's gonna
sprinkle many nations, he literally, his entire soul is an offering for
sin. That's the guilt offering.

Do you know to find out what a offering for sin is? Do you know where
you need to go? Right back into Leviticus where we were last time. And
in Leviticus 5, it's mentioned twice. In Leviticus 7, it's also
mentioned.

This offering for sin, the exact same statement. So now what used to be
an animal being a sacrifice for sin, now it's saying here, right in the
midst of Isaiah 53, now this man is gonna be the sacrifice for people to
be forgiven. Let me give a third statement just as we close.

And this is a remarkable point, this is amazing. It's in verse seven,
speaking about this servant. He was oppressed and he was afflicted and
he opened not his mouth.

Notice this very carefully. He is brought as a lamb. Do you realize when
this prophecy is given, they keep carrying on with sacrificing lambs for
another 700 years before it's fulfilled.

But here it's talking about this man who's gonna sprinkle many nations.
This man who's gonna be the Levitical sacrifice for sin. This man, this
marred man, who's suffering for your sin.

What's it say? He is brought as a lamb, as a lamb to the slaughter. And
as a sheep before shears is done, so he openeth not his mouth. You know
when John the Baptist pointed at Jesus Christ and said, behold the lamb
of God that taketh away the sin of the world.

Do you know what he's saying? It's Isaiah 53, this is the lamb. Exodus
chapter 12, this is the lamb, this is the man. But look at this, Isaiah
53 is saying, there's a lamb coming who's gonna be the offering for sin,
who's gonna sprinkle ceremoniously nations with his blood.

It's all here 700 years before and he is brought as a lamb. I told you
about, we had a few sheep in our time, few lambs we raised, I fed them.
They're just new lambs and you've gotta get the bottle and you suck them
and the pull of that is remarkable.

It's beautiful, an animal. You know, your children, you should get a
little lamb for them, not a dog. And teach them how to feed that thing
and how to raise it and you raise it up.

And there was this day when our sheep was rather big and a day comes, a
certain date, a certain time. Now Skippy is going to the butcher. My dad
couldn't catch Skippy.

He was a big, hardy, strong, fast man. He couldn't catch Skippy. But you
know, Skippy always followed my mom.

Soon as my mom called, Skippy followed my mom. You know why? My mom fed
her. Skippy got fed by mommy.

So when mommy calls, Skippy comes running, skipping. And this day, we
were all there saying bye to Skippy after all these years. Skippy's
going to the butcher in Dremore.

And my mom's the only one that can get Skippy in the back seat of the
car. She goes in one door and goes out the other door. And when Skippy's
in there, we shut the doors.

And my mom began to cry because these words came to her. He was brought
as a lamb to the slaughter. And as the sheep before her shears was done,
he opened not his mouth.

Skippy didn't know where the destination was. But this lamb did. Jesus
Christ knew that he was giving himself over into the hands of wicked
men.

He spent hours in the Garden of Gethsemane saying, if there's any other
way. Don't tell me it was a walkthrough, a pushover, an easy ride. He
said, if there's any other way, my father, if this cup can go from me
without me drinking it, if there's any other way to get them saved, but
not my will, your will be done.

And you know what? He took the cup and drank it. And then he walked to
Calvary, told his disciples, sleep on, the Arab betrayal's here. Judas
is here, soldiers are here.

I'm gonna be presented to Pilate, it's all over. And he was led as a
lamb to the slaughter, fully known. You sit in this meeting, as he hung
on the cross marred, wet, torn, bruised, in agony, out of joint.

As he hung there, the Bible says, he looked on the corridors of time and
seen his seed. And by, listen to this as we close, by his knowledge, he
justified many. He made them perfectly righteous, forgiven, free by his
knowledge.

There's a knowledge of this one on the cross, of what he's done on the
cross, that makes you righteous, forgiven, just as if you'd never
sinned. And in the book of Romans, it says, by faith in his blood, we
are justified. I am justified, made righteous by faith in his blood.

Let's pray tonight. Lord Jesus, Lord Jesus, Lord Jesus, help us, oh God.
Open the eyes of our understanding, oh God.

Help us to understand, oh God, keep us from the deceptive ways of false
teachers, of heresies, of liars that are entering your church. Oh God,
Lord God, that we might walk humbly, Lord God, believing, reckoning,
esteeming, that this lamb of God was smitten on the cross for me, that
there, you, our heavenly father, smote him, that our transgressions were
punished there, they were dealt with there, by the mooring of his body
on the cross in our place. We esteem this to be true, and we put our
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ tonight, in Jesus' mighty name, amen.

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Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/S-EB04DFkvw.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/keith-malcomson/isaiahs-vision-of-the-cross/
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