Dr Greg Bahnsen - God Sent His Son (Christmas): The Suffering Servant (Isaiah 53) (Part 4)

This recording has been released into the public domain by the Bonson Institute, where we aim to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. We continue our series this morning on the divine preparation for Christmas. And we'll be looking at the suffering servant of the Lord toward the end of our morning message. And with that in view, please turn with me to Isaiah, the 53rd chapter. Isaiah, chapter 53, which I'd like to read in its entirety for you this morning. Hear this as it is God's word. Who hath believed our message, and to whom hath the arm of Jehovah been revealed? For he grew up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He hath no form nor beauty. And when we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And as one from whom men hide their face. 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 every one to his own way. And Jehovah hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, yet when he was afflicted, he opened not his mouth as a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep that before its shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away. And as for his generation, who among them considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due. And they made his grave with the wicked and with the rich man. In his death, although he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased Jehovah to bruise him. He hath put him to grief. When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed. He shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of Jehovah shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied by the knowledge of himself. Shall my righteous servant justify many, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the Strong because he poured out his soul unto death and was numbered with the transgressors. Yet he bare the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors. And thus far, the reading of God's word. And after you read such a glorious prophecy of the coming Messiah, doesn't of the song Santa Claus is coming to town just make you sick? How can we have gotten so far away from the expectation of God's people and the promises of God? The glorious good news that God is sending a Savior. It's the Savior who's coming to town. Santa Claus promises gifts. The Savior brings the greatest gift of all, Himself. And this is what we've been looking at the last few weeks as we consider the divine preparation for Christmas. We've asked ourselves over and over again, what is the meaning of history and what's the meaning of our lives? And I've suggested to you that we can't answer that question unless we know what God has promised to do in the midst of history. If we don't know the Savior that has been promised by God himself, then we don't understand the course of history. We don't know what life is all about, and we don't have genuine meaning and significance in our own lives. There are people, of course, who live from moment to moment, you know, looking either for some kind of desire to be fulfilled, maybe some kind of thrill of the moment, something that would make them happy. Some people live from sentiment to sentiment, and in that way, Christmas is a wonderful time of year because as we have said before, nostalgia is, you know, in the air. And. And even though people may not like each other, they want to talk about peace on earth, and people want to get along and be happy for a little while, but there is no lasting value in that kind of empty emotionalism. There is no true meaning to life unless we come to understand how God prepared through the ages so that at just the right moment one would be born who would be the very purpose of history and the one who would save us from our sins. Let me review with you for just a moment where we have been in our series having to do with the divine preparation for Christmas. I hope that this is building up in you something of not only a theological insight so that you understand better the nature of the Messiah and the salvation that he brings, but also you'd be able to present to others what the whole theme of the Old Testament is. What is the Bible all about? Those of you who have tried to read it have found undoubtedly it doesn't read like a novel, does it? In fact, our English Bibles are organized according to a traditional setting out of the canon of Scripture in a way that you can't even understand the history of the Old Testament with that, doing some comparison, background study and so forth. You can't begin with Genesis, read to Malachi and think that you've read a history lesson because it goes back and forth. The different sections of Scripture overlap one another. So if you're going to understand the Bible as a book, the most precious book that's ever been given, you can understand God's message to you. You should be thinking in terms of what we've been studying. What was the Old Testament all about? What was it leading up to? When the father John the Baptist Zacharias gave his Benedictus, as it's now called in Luke the first chapter, he declared that the coming of the anticipated Messiah was expected from of old. This was the very earliest promise of God and that everything is building on that promise. That one would finally come to save us from our sin. That this coming one would fulfill the oath God had made to Abraham in the covenant that he made with David. That this coming one was spoken of through the mouth of the prophets. So that the entire Old Testament from Genesis through the prophets, no matter what you read in one way or another, is related to this basic theme. Christmas Day, God is sending his own son into the world. Now God didn't come out and just give that message just that way in simple summary form. But there were hints and clues and prophecies and promises and insights that were given to God's people throughout the ages to build their expectation, to help them learn slowly but surely what the nature of the coming Savior would be. God first promised that he would give a seed to the woman who would crush the head of Satan. This promised seed would turn out to be the seed of Abraham. God promised Abraham a seed in whom all the nations of the earth would be blessed. We learn at the time of Abraham, and it's also reflected and foreshadows at the time of Hannah's giving birth to Samuel, that this promised seed would be coming into the world through special divine provision. And so it turns out that barren women bear children. Those who are unable to have children nevertheless have the miraculous intervention of God that they will give birth. God is going to send a seed into this world, a miraculous seed. We learn in Isaiah's prophecy, chapter 7, that it will be a virgin born son. So miraculous will the birth of the Messiah be, that his mother will not have had sexual relations with any man. And this special child that will be born of the virgin, the seed promised of God will be no one less than God himself. Immanuel God with us. Isaiah says in chapter nine of his prophecy that this son will be the mighty God. In Isaiah the 40th chapter, someone will go before him to prepare the way for Jehovah himself. And as I've taught you already, so we see two remarkable things about the promised Messiah. The first remarkable thing is that in the Garden of Eden, when God came and could have judged Adam and Eve and said, that's it for the human race and consigned them to hell for eternity, he came rather with a promise of salvation. I want you to think about the nature of your God. That's the kind of God he is. Where there is wrath and well deserved wrath, grace nevertheless is greater. And so God promises a Savior. But then we see even more that this Savior will not simply be a human being. How could another human being who is born to Adam in the regular order of things, and therefore under the guilt of Adam, how could another human being prove to be the Savior of men? That human being would need a Savior himself. And so the second wonder that we see is that the Savior that is coming will be God himself. Not born in the ordinary way, born of a virgin, beginning a new human race. Someone who would be God with us, the God man himself. And then we saw that the one who was coming as this God man, the Messiah, the Anointed One of God, would fulfill all the offices that the Old Testament people of God knew. He would bring all the promises to God to fulfillment. He would be the anointed prophet, the anointed priest and the anointed king. In Last Lord's Day, we especially emphasized this fact that the coming one would be a king, anointed of God, and the King would be God himself. Let's review just for a moment. Turning in our bibles to Psalm 45, verses 6 and 7. This is especially valuable when you talk to people, or maybe people who are members of a cultic group who question the full deity of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. Notice what the Bible tells us. We're looking at Psalm 45 and how the coming Messiah, the Anointed One, is going to be a king. Verse 6. Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. A scepter of equity is the scepter of thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore God thy God hate, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows. This is obviously being addressed to the anointed one of God. That's what verse seven says. God, thy God hath anointed thee. And so this Messianic king is being addressed. And yet Notice in verse 6 what is addressed to the Messianic king are these words. Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. The Messiah is God, the eternal One. And In Hebrews, the first chapter, in verse 8, the author of Hebrews cites this passage from Psalm 45 and clearly indicates that it was intended of Jesus Christ himself. So the author of Hebrews says in verse eight of chapter one, but of the Son, he said, thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. And the scepter of righteousness is the scepter of thy kingdom. Thou has loved righteousness and hated iniquity. Therefore God thy God hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. Who was David speaking of? Hebrew says of the Son. He was speaking of the Son of God when he promised a coming king who would rule and accomplish all that God wanted him to do. We saw last Lord's day that David in Psalm 110 spoke of this one who was coming as his Lord Jehovah said to my Lord, sit thou on my right hand until I make thine enemies the footstool of thy feet. Jehovah said to another person that David calls Adonai, my Lord. And so the Messiah is going to be a king. He is going to be the king promised to David. And yet somehow, miraculously, wondrously, majestically, he is going to be God himself, David's son, and yet David's Lord. At the very same time today I'd like to continue this thought of the coming king. But I want to add now a new dimension to our considerations. We've seen that God promised the seed who would crush Satan. Indeed, a miraculously born seed, a virgin born seed, a son who was God with us, himself, the anointed prophet, the anointed priest, and the anointed king who was promised to David, David's son, and yet at the same time, David's Lord. All of this, you see, is just really too much to take in. And I wish I had the words that were adequate to tell you the glory of these truths that we've rehearsed. But we're going to add a new truth to the developing revelation of the coming Messiah as it's found in the Old Testament. And this is one that goes far beyond just the glory of what might be expressed. How could we ever understand the Grace of God. How could we ever comprehend his goodness and his mercy? Because God promises that the coming king is going to be a humble king. A humble king. Now, does that make sense? A humble king? Kings are supposed to be glorified and adored. People are supposed to bow the knee to the king. They are supposed to give respect to the king. They are supposed to subordinate themselves to the king. They are supposed to exalt the king and extol the king. They are supposed to honor the king, not expect that the king will be humble in their presence. In the United States of America, as you know, we have a very proud tradition of rejecting kings. We don't have monarchs. Well, we have functional monarchs. I'm afraid we have gotten rid of the titles, but we still like to honor people who are in office. The sitting President of the United States is not having a very good time these days. I realize that his public relations are very low. But the fact of the matter is that we still give a kind of dignity to our political leaders, even the President of the United States. Most people who would badmouth the president of the United States in a private conversation would not likely speak with that disrespect if they were having dinner with the president. They might want to, with guarded expression and caution, express their criticism, or they might not at all. But my guess is that even in the United States, we believe that it's right to show deference to those who are in political office well outside the United States, where the tradition of monarchy is still quite strong for years and years. You know, I mean, it's suffering in England these days because the king that they think they're going to have has made such a fool of himself socially. And yet, when I was in England, it was amazing to me the number of people who would say that about the particular individual who might become their king, nevertheless honor the monarchy. The institution is to be respected, and it does not even do anything in England. It does not have any genuine function apart from diplomatic service. We know that the notion, the concept of a king, of a monarchy, is something that calls for honor and respect, subservience. We want to, if you will, exalt kings, not humble them. And that's what's so amazing about this morning's message. In the Old Testament, God revealed that the coming anointed one, the one who was selected and anointed by God, the Messiah, the one who would come to be a king over the nations and the savior of men, would nevertheless be a humble king, not an exalted, honored king. The one who would come into this world in a way that is unbefitting those who are to rule over others. Turn with me in your Bibles to the prophecy of Micah. Micah in the fifth chapter. And here's what God revealed to his people in the days of the prophet Micah about the one who was coming as the promised scene, the virgin born son of God, the anointed one, their prophet, their priest and their King. Micah 5 But thou Bethlehem Ephrathah, which art little to be among the thousands of Judah, out of these shall one come forth unto me, that is to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting boy. This is a mystifying prophecy, especially if you can put yourself back in the shoes of the Old Testament saints and prophets who would speak these sorts of words and meditate on what this could possibly mean. You have the great advantage of having read the New Testament, you're on the fulfillment side of things. And so you look back at that and you say, well of course we understand that. But before Jesus came into this world and did his redemptive work and then rose from the dead and ascended on high to be glorified as the king over all creation, it was very difficult for the Jewish believers to understand how the king could be born first of all in Bethlehem. The prophet Micah makes the point very clear. But you, Bethlehem, you are little to be among the thousands of Judah. You're nothing. You know how small Bethlehem was, how insignificant Bethlehem was. Bethlehem was not even cataloged in the book of Joshua. When the people took the promised land and God detailed the cities of the land and the places that would be distributed to the tribes. Bethlehem is not even mentioned. This is just a podunk town. It's just a little village. It's nothing. That's what the prophet says. And you're nothing. Of the thousands of Judah, who are you, Bethlehem? But Micah says this is the amazing thing. Out of obscurity, out of humility, out of almost nothingness in terms of human significance, one is coming. And this one is described as a person whose goings forth are from eternity. The eternal one is going to be born in you Bethlehem, you little runt village. That means nothing in terms of socio political significance. I mean, Israel means nothing really when you think about it. It was just this little postage stamp of a nation there on the edge of the Mediterranean Sea. What's Israel really? Nothing. And even the grandest cities of Israel don't have international significance. And it's not just Israel or its grand Cities we're talking about, we're talking about a little shepherd's village, Bethlehem. And Micah says here's the amazing wonder, paradoxical grace of God that the eternal One is going to come forth from you. This is what Micah promises a king. Someone who is going to be born to rule over Israel with supernatural greatness. And yet this king has a quite natural inferiority and that's reflected in the place of his birth, Bethlehem. That's not fitting for a grand monarch. Well, Bethlehem does have significance though if you've read your Old Testament, it doesn't have socio political significance. It's not great because it's a commercial center or makes the news every night. It's not great because it has a lot of people and a lot of money and prestige. It's great because God promised that David would be the destined shepherd prince from Bethlehem. Look at 2nd Samuel 5. 2. Turn in your Bibles to 2nd Samuel chapter 5 and the second verse we read in times past when Saul was king over us, it was thou speaking to David, it was thou that leddest out and broughtest in Israel. And Jehovah said to thee, Jehovah said to David, thou shalt be shepherd of my people Israel, and thou shalt be prince over Israel. Where was David born and what was David's hometown? Bethlehem. Bethlehem by the way in Hebrew means house of bread. The house of bread. And David being born in the house of bread would be the one who would provide for his people. He would be a prince and yet a shepherd. Now that is striking because, well, we live in Southern California. To be honest, we can understand the reputation of shepherds. Shepherds are despised people. They're despised because in the first place, they don't herd really, you know, glorious animals, do they? If you know anything about sheep, sheep are incredibly stupid and incredibly smelly. In fact, in the Old west we even have stories and movies that are made of this. You know, as the cattle ranchers and the shepherds would get into fights with one another and trade insults. Often the insults made about shepherds is about you could smell them everywhere they went because they smelled like sheep. And it's bad enough to have these smelly sheep, but the sheep are not glorious creatures. You know, they aren't strong, they, they don't go out there and run races and so forth. And they're incredibly stupid. They wander off. They're good for little more than shearing. And so that's why people are insulted for being as stupid as sheep always sheared, because they're so foolish so lacking in intelligence. And so David is going to be a shepherd, and yet he's going to be a prince. How can the king. How can the one who has princely royal estate be someone as lousy as a shepherd, so low in the social totem pole, if you will. Well, Bethlehem, according to the prophet Micah, one is going to come to rule over Israel. The son of David is going to come from David's own town in a very humble place. And yet he is God himself, whose goings forth are from eternity. How can anyone deny the deity of Jesus Christ? How can anyone read Micah and not realize that the Messiah is described as the eternal God who is going forth from eternity? God is coming, but he is coming as a king who is humble, coming in low estate, not even to be recognized by the world. Not on the evening news, of course, you know the story. We're going to be looking at it even more next week. But in Matthew the second chapter, we're told that it's this prophecy of Micah that the Jews looked to as they anticipated the coming of their Savior and where he would come from. And yet they still rejected him when he arrived. Now, when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem saying, where is he that is born king of the Jews? For we saw his star in the east and are come to worship him. And when Herod the king heard it, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. And gathering together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ, where the anointed one should be born. You notice, they don't hesitate. And they said unto him, in Bethlehem of Judea. For thus it is written through the prophet, and thou, Bethlehem, land of Judah, art in no wise least among the princes of Judah, for out of thee shall come forth a governor who shall be shepherd of my people Israel. So the Old Testament led the Jews to anticipate a shepherd king, a governor, a prince, a royal person who would nevertheless be a shepherd from David's town. And when the wise men came looking and Herod was concerned to find where the king of the Jews would be born, they turned to Micah and they said, bethlehem is the place who came to worship the king on the night of his birth. Well, it wasn't the wise men. Now, I hate to shatter all those nice Christmas stories that people have been told. The wise men probably were weeks later in arriving. But whenever they happen to come, we know that on the very night of his Birth God sent human people to receive the king. And he didn't go to Herod and say, herod, you're a great king. But I've got news for you. You need to go worship the Christ child. He didn't come to the leaders of Israel, and he didn't come to the cattle ranchers in Israel. And he didn't come to the wealthy in Israel. He didn't come to the prestigious in Israel. He went to shepherds outside of Bethlehem, so that the shepherd king would be brought into this world by his own in humble estate. Another prophecy that I think we should look at in passing about the humility of the coming king is found in Zechariah, the ninth chapter. So let's now look at Zechariah 9, 9, 10 again. This doesn't fit, does it? Kings should be honored, they shouldn't have to be humble. But the coming king will be born in Bethlehem, and this is the nature of his ministry. Zechariah 9, 9. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, thy king cometh unto thee. He is just and has salvation. But now listen to these words. Lowly and riding upon an ass, even upon the colt, the foal of an ass. And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem. And the battle bow shall be cut off. And he shall speak peace unto the nations. And his dominion shall be from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth. The prophet Zechariah says, your king is coming, Jerusalem. He will speak peace to you and to all the nations. He will have worldwide dominion. This is a great king. Why then is he riding upon a donkey? Even in our culture, donkeys are objects of derision. People make jokes about donkeys, right? How can the one who is going to rule over the nations, he should be riding in on a white horse, right? He should be the victorious military commander. But no, Jerusalem. Your king comes to you riding upon a donkey. Why is that? Because he is lowly. We have this strange combination. One who is of high estate, the very king, God himself, will nevertheless be lowly. Born in Bethlehem, the shepherd city, a village of no significance, and riding not on a white horse, but upon a donkey. In the New Testament, John the 12th chapter, you'll remember how this passage is cited by the author of the Gospel to remind us of the character of the great coming Savior himself, that he is a humble King. John 12 and the 12th verse. On the morrow, a great multitude that had come to the feast when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took the branches of the palm trees and went forth to meet him and cried, hosanna. Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel. And Jesus, having found a young ass, sat thereon as it is written, fear not, daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, thy king comes sitting on an ass's colt. These things the disciples did not understand at first. That's hard to understand. How can the one who is the great and glorious Savior, the King of men, the ruler over all the nations, the very promised seed of God, the anointed, selected ruler that God would send, how can he come riding on a donkey? Would you understand? Because he is the greatest one of all human history, and yet the most humble of men born in Bethlehem, riding on a donkey. That's the kind of Davidic king the Old Testament had the Jews look forward to. And it mystified them. And though we see how it was fulfilled, I trust it mystifies you too, doesn't it? Confound your heart. How can God win? How can God prevail? How can God accomplish his great and glorious promises through a loser? Through a humble, inconspicuous person, like someone who comes from Bethlehem, someone who rides a donkey, being called the Prince of Israel. Well, there is one other strain of Old Testament teaching that I want to focus on today as we look at the humility of the coming Messiah. And this is perhaps even more explicit about his suffering and about his humility than anything that we've said or have seen up to this point in the latter portion of Isaiah's prophecy. If I had my way, I would give you now a lesson on Isaiah because it's a great book, the Old Testament, I can't say the greatest because they're all the inspired word of God, but in a sense, for showing us the coming Savior, Isaiah's prophecy may be the greatest. However, many people read the book of Isaiah and they don't get it. They don't understand. And so I wish I could give you an entire lesson, give you an outline of the book and trace the development of Isaiah's lot. But in the last portion of Isaiah's prophecy, those of you who have read it and are concerned about these things know that there is a figure that appears who is called the servant of Jehovah. God has someone selected that stands in a special position of favor with him. And yet someone who is going to do a great ministry in his name, the Servant of Jehovah. And this Servant of Jehovah sometimes refers to the nation of Israel. And yet there is someone within the nation of Israel who par excellence will become the servant of Jehovah. We see the national interpretation of the servant of Jehovah in Isaiah's prophecy. For instance, in Isaiah 41, verse eight, please open your Bibles to Isaiah 41 in the eighth verse. And I'm just going to repeat one more time. It's important for you all to be bringing the Scriptures with you to worship God so that we can study it together. That's why we're here. Isaiah 41, verse 8. But thou Israel, my servant Jacob, whom I have chosen the seed of Abraham, my friend, thou whom I have taken hold of from the ends of the earth and called from the corners, etc. Well, there it's obvious that the nation as a whole is God's servant. Isaiah 42:19. Who is blind but my servant or deaf as my messenger that I send? Who is blind as he that is at peace with me, and blind as Jehovah's servant? Well, here it's obvious in the Context of Isaiah 42 that the blind one is the nation itself. Now you know what many Jews who study the Old Testament then say about the prophecy of Isaiah. They say, well, the Savior that Isaiah was talking about was the nation Israel. What? The Savior is blind. The Savior is indicted for sin and rebellion against the Lord. Well, the nation is Jehovah's servant in the world. However, Isaiah has more to say. He narrows the scope. Now, within Israel, within the nation, there is someone who is an individual. Not just corporate, not just socially, all the Jews that make up the nation, but a particular individual, a specific person is the suffering servant of Jehovah. Isaiah 49:5. And now saith Jehovah, that formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him, and that Israel be gathered unto him. For I am honorable in the eyes of Jehovah, and my God has become my strength. You see here the suffering servant of Jehovah is. Is an individual, not one who was blind and rebellious against Jehovah, but honored by God in his eyes. And he will bring the nation to Jehovah. So it's not the nation that Isaiah is talking about, it's a specific individual. Not only that, the individual Isaiah speaks of is yet future to Isaiah. Look at Isaiah 52, verse 13. Behold, my servant shall deal wisely. He shall be exalted and lifted up, and shall be very high. And so Israel in the days of Isaiah is not the servant of Jehovah. There is Something that goes beyond the national interpretation to an individual who is honored of Jehovah and in the future is. Is going to be glorified. Not only that, this one who is the servant of Jehovah in Isaiah's prophecy, his work will avail for the Gentiles, not just for the nation of Israel. Isaiah 42 now verse 6 I Jehovah have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thy hand, and will keep thee and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles. And so the servant of Jehovah is not just the nation of Israel. It's an individual who is honored of Jehovah and in the future will bring God's covenant to the Gentiles and light to them. What else do we know about the servant of the Lord in Isaiah's prophecy? Chapter 49, verses 1 and 2 tell us this will be a human born prophet. Listen, O isles, unto me, and hearken ye peoples from afar. Jehovah hath called me from the womb, from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name? And he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword in the shadow of his hand hath he hid me and he hath made me a polished shaft in his quiver hath he kept me close. The servant of the Lord who is coming is going to be born of a woman, but he's going to be a prophet of God. But then Isaiah tells us something about this coming Savior, the servant of the Lord, that's even more glorious than anything we've heard thus far. In 53:9, chapter 53, verse 9, Isaiah says, and they made his grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. The servant of the Lord who was coming, the servant of Jehovah, who is going to come to the people as a light to the Gentiles, who will be favored of God is favored because there is no sin in him at all. He knows no deceit, he knows no violence. He has never violated, never transgressed the holy commandments of God. You understand that someone is going to be born of a woman who, unlike the rest of us, will never break God's commandments, who will uphold holiness in everything that he does, in all of his attitudes and all of his words. And so God promises to send an individual, a righteous individual in the future who was sinless and yet born of a woman, to be a prophet of God and bring light to the Gentiles. But then Isaiah 53, which is perhaps the crowning chapter in all the Old Testament, telling us about the humility of the coming Messiah, Isaiah 53 tells us that as great as this one is, as favorite of God as he is, as righteous and as sinless as he is, will nevertheless be condemned as a criminal. He will die for others. Isaiah 53, beginning at the fourth verse. Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. He was wounded for our transgressions, not for his own. 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've turned everyone to his own way. All of us have wandered out of the way. All of us have transgressed the commandments of God. All of us are under the wrath and the curse of God. All of us deserve condemnation. But Isaiah says, jehovah will lay on him the iniquity of us all. What an amazing Savior oppressed. Yet when he was afflicted, he didn't open his mouth as a lamb led to the slaughter as a sheep before its shearers is dumb. So he opened not his mouth by oppression and judgment. He was taken away by oppression, by injustice. Men would carry him away. And as for his generation, who among them considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due? God's people deserve to die. The servant of the Lord in its national interpretation, according to Isaiah, is a blind servant, a rebellious servant worthy of rejection. But God will send one individual to be the servant of Jehovah, to redeem the whole nation. And the stroke that is due to the nation, that is due to the people of God, will fall upon the Messiah himself. What kind of savior is this? What kind of ruler is this? What kind of hero is this? He's to come into this world to be bruised and yet crush the head of Satan. As Jesus came into this world to crush Satan's head, the Bible tells us, he would undergo bruising. He would undergo a buffeting, a rejection. He himself would be humbled in the process of bringing us to glory and bringing us salvation. Isaiah 53:10 says specifically that this suffering servant will do the work of a priest. Yet it pleased Jehovah to bruise him. He hath put him to grief. When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed he shall prolong his days in the pleasure of Jehovah shall prosper in his hand. This is the apex of what the Old Testament tells us about the coming Messiah. And his saving word, he will make his soul an offering for sin. I wish you could read the Hebrew. I mean, that'd be nice in general, but particularly here, offering for sin is the technical Hebrew word for a guilt offering. In the Old Testament, this is what everyone who was sinful before Jehovah had to offer a guilt offering so that the guilt would be taken away and they could stand right before God. Already I've told you in my series that if God promises to send a human savior, the question is, how can a human savior save us? He too is under the guilt of Adam. And the answer is, God will send his own son. He will be God himself. And yet born of a woman, the God man is coming to save us. And if he's going to come as a prophet and a priest and a king, how will he do his priestly work? Where will the God man, the Savior, find an offering for sin that's acceptable to God? Will it be the blood of bulls and goats? Will that ever satisfy God? Can an animal substitute ever take away sin? You know the answer, don't you? The author of Hebrews says of course not. And that's why they offered those animals over and over and over again. Because no guilt offering in the Old covenant ever put an end to the guilt of God's people. He will give himself for the sins of his people, so that finally one that is righteous and pure and spotless will be offered up. Because the cost, the price, the dreadful penalty of sin is death. Let's go back to the beginning of our series. Remember, in the Garden of Eden, God said, in the day that you eat thereof, you shall surely die. Nothing, nothing can take care of the guilt of sin except death. Paul puts it this way. The wages of sin is death. Where will we find one who can die as our substitute? How will we ever be right with God? How can you ever live your life with peace and confidence before God? Why do you not fear at any moment that the judgment of God would break in upon you? Why do you not live your life thinking at the very end there is no hope? I will stand before my Maker and he will condemn me. I will eternally be under his judgment of death. Why is it that we have any confidence to live our lives? Any joy, any hope in this world? It's because of Isaiah 53:10. Because one is coming into this world, Isaiah said, who will finally give a guilt offering that will put an end to all of it? When Jesus died on the cross, I want you to feel the force and emotional weight of those words. It is vanished. No more sin offering, no more bloody sacrifices, no more lambs and cattle and birds and other animals being offered in the place of men. God sent one, the greatest of men, the righteous one, the sinless one, his own son, to offer the sacrifice that none of us could provide. Isaiah says he will give his soul an offering for sin. You see how God had been preparing for Christmas throughout the Old Testament, giving promises and prophecies and foreshadows to his people of what the very center of history is all about. The one who will come to finally fulfill the promise of salvation will be born of a woman, a human being. And yet the one who is born will be God himself. His goings forth are from eternity. The mighty God, born of a virgin. And yet, though he comes as a prophet and a priest and a glorious king, he will be a humble king. And his humility is seen in the dreadful circumstances of his birth and his life. He rides a donkey. He's born in a shepherd's village. Isaiah says the greatest part of his humility will be seen in that he will give up his life, righteous though he is, for the unrighteous. And those for whom the stroke was due will have their guilt and their iniquity born by the Holy One of God. I tell you, that takes your breath away, doesn't it? How can God love that way? I've never loved that way. You've never loved that way. We have never known, we have never experienced, we have never initiated the mercy that God has shown. And he was waiting a long time to give this present. And he wanted his people to understand what it was all about. He wanted them slowly but surely to see. I'm sending you a human being to be your savior. And yet I'm sending God to be your savior. I'm sending him to be a prophet, priest and king, and yet a humble one. So I leave this question with you. How could Israel have missed it? How is it that when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the king, when Jerusalem heard the word from the Gentiles, we understand the light has shone and the King of the Jews has been born. The Bible says Herod was greatly afraid and all Jerusalem with him. Boy, they didn't celebrate that Christmas Day. But I trust that you will not. Just the yearly celebration of our Lord's birth. But I pray that you can celebrate from the heart that the long awaited Savior, the promised gift of God, the light of the nations, the one to crush Satan, the anointed one himself, the God man has been born. Let's pray. Jesus, thank you for coming into this world. We do honor you because you are the selected one of God, the anointed, the very Messiah. We honor you as we call you Jesus Christ. We know that you're what the whole Old Testament was about. You were the great, long awaited, anticipated savior of God's people. And yet we honor you today with wonder in our hearts. We stand before you with awe that in all of your glory and splendor and all of your eternality and power, with all the authority and majesty that is yours. You came into this world as a humble Savior, a humble king. One who would be born in obscurity, one who would have a ministry of ridicule and rejection. One who would be carried off by oppression and put to death. And yet, somehow, miraculously, in a wondrous supernatural irony, in that humility and rejection in death you would fulfill the promises of God. Thank you Jesus, for offering your soul as a guilt offering for our sin. Thank you Jesus, for being bruised for us. Thank you for bearing the affliction of God's holy judgment. Thank you for undergoing condemnation, not just the unfair condemnation of men, but the very condemnation of God that you might take away our guilt. We praise you today, a humble Savior, and do wish that you would be exalted and glorified not only in all the earth, but more particularly in our hearts. We pray, Lord Jesus, that you would rule over us, that you would give our lives meaning and direction. We pray these things in your glorious name. Amen. This recording has been released into the public domain by the Bonson Institute. Duplication, sharing and display distribution is encouraged. For more information about the life and Ministry of Dr. Greg L. Bonson, visit our website, bonsoninstitute.com where we aim to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.