Isaiah 53:3

0:00 Good evening. What a mighty praying group this is. While I'm trying to fix this thing to my belt, I'll just say that, you know, the people the world views as powerful, Vladimir Putin, Elon Musk, the devil leads them around by their nose. But in this place, He trembles because of the prayers like we've just heard. It's not what our passage is about tonight, but after Romar's sermon, I couldn't help but say it.

0:40 Tonight, we're going to be looking at a passage that says what Jesus experienced while he was earning a perfect record for us and taking on our sins. Isaiah 53.3 is our passage, however I'd like to read the chapter, it's a short chapter, it will do more to put it in context than anything I can say, I am alert that we need to rush on, so I'll try to be quick. So this is on page 613 of your few Bibles as you want to pull out one, I'll read aloud and please follow along.

1:19 Who has believed what he has heard from us, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

1:59 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken and smitten by God and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. And with his wounds, we were healed. All we like as sheep have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way.

2:33 The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. Like a lamb that is slain to the slaughter, led to the slaughter, And like a sheep that before his shears is silent, he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment, he was taken away. And as for this, his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgressions of my people?

3:05 And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him. He has put him to grief. When his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring, that's us. He shall prolong his days. The will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul, he shall see and be satisfied.

3:42 By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many and he shall divide the spoiled with the strong because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors yet he bore the sin of many and makes intercession for the transgressions.

4:16 We have two related ideas, truths that kind of go together as the main idea. There's a lesser and a greater. The lesser is our particular verse, Isaiah 53, 3. And the truth is that although Jesus was God, he was as much a human as anybody in this room. During his life, he experienced every sorrow and pain that we experience.

4:50 Are you taken for granted tonight? He was despised and rejected. Are you sorrowful tonight? He was a man of sorrows. Are you grieving? Jesus wept. Do you wish you were smarter, better looking, more respected? He was a person from whom men hid their faces. Do you feel that maybe you're not in the career you'd hoped for?

5:28 Maybe you're in a dead-end job, as they say. Tired of fixing meals, tending to children or elderly people, Knowing you're going to have to do it tomorrow, and the next day, the next day. And one day is just going to drag on to the other. Jesus spent 95% of his working life growing up in a nowhere town and working in a blue-collar job. There was a famous preacher in his family. It was John the Baptist.

6:01 He was stuck in Nazareth, Capernaum. Of course, they did have the dying on a cross to look forward to. Jesus knows how we feel because he experienced what we experience. So when we feel unappreciated, discouraged, esteemed not, as the Bible says, we need to go to Jesus.

6:42 He has been there. He's lived what we've lived. My wife pointed out the other members of the Trinity, they know too. They invented emotion. They know our lives. And there's a unity among them we really cannot understand. But Jesus lived our lives. He has the power to comfort us. Don't try to figure it out when you don't understand.

7:14 Just go to Him. Because He can put things in perspective. What our life is really about. Because we are the most blessed creatures in the universe. and this is where the second part of Isaiah 53 comes in. Jesus paid for our sins.

7:47 And I'd like to ask particularly for the attention of those of you who may be younger than me, which, of course, is the whole room, with few exceptions. I see a couple of white hairs out there. Thank you. But I'm particularly thinking of those of you who maybe came with a parent, children, teenagers. The reason I say that, I would like to call to your attention, is you have a tremendous opportunity and, frankly, a tremendous danger.

8:26 Because it's easy to sit in a place like this, hear what Jesus did over and over, and it become rote. God actually holds account, not based as we often think on what are the popular sins, but on how much opportunity you had. Jesus said, and this is only the younger, a little bit older you will understand what I'm talking about here, But Jesus said that the people of Capernaum, where he spent most of his time, were more in danger from hell, and the worst of it, than the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, who are known for the worst sins.

9:24 Now is the time to turn over your life to Jesus Christ. Do you really care? Do you care what God thinks? Do you care what he wants you to do? The answer to that question, unless you've already turned over your life to Christ, is probably, in fact, not probably, it is.

9:56 The answer to that question is no. And that was true for every single person in this room. It's nothing to be embarrassed about. It is something to be alarmed about. Jesus Christ stands with his arms open. If you go to hell, it will not be because he did not want you to come.

10:29 He is begging you to come. He is commanding you to come. We have a terrible problem. We don't want to come. And like I say, that was true for all of us. Jesus makes an unbelievable offer. He says, ask me, I will give you the Holy Spirit. And sometimes theologians monkey around with that, try to figure it out.

11:04 Well, you really won't be asking unless God is already working in your heart to give you the Holy Spirit. I wonder why Jesus said that. It's a promise he will keep. Ask him. Ask him. And if you have trusted Jesus Christ, if you have asked him, Lord, help me. I want to want what you want. I don't, but I want to want what you want. I want to follow you. I don't, but I want to follow you.

11:36 Help me. He will draw you to himself. Your life will never be the same. You will not regret it. It will not be easier. If anything, your life will be harder. But it will be wonderful. You will never be alone. You will know that you are bound for heaven. And what's hard to understand and impossible to explain is you'll start to experience heaven now with the people of God.

12:15 Jesus is offering mercy take it if you're not sure how to take it ask your parents ask your friends who seem to know Christ I can tell you the people in high school that I know prayed for me I was so obviously lost it attracted the prayers of Christians it worked let's pray Lord God we thank you so much for your mercy we thank you Lord Jesus for what you have done to open wide the gates of heaven and we ask you to draw everyone in within the sound of this church everyone comes into Temple Hill

13:17 Baptist Church Lord we're asking you to draw men and women to yourself and particularly children teenagers, spouses that do not know you that come into this church in Jesus name we pray in the name of your son haven't you promised you would do what we ask in the name of your son we know we have no claim on you we're asking we're not telling but we're asking Amen