Suffering Servant Substituted

[0:00] Each week we've been talking about the main idea of the whole passage in Isaiah 53.

[0:13] The main idea of the whole passage of Isaiah 53 is that Jesus Christ is presented as our suffering servant, whose substitutionary death and victorious resurrection are predicted seven centuries in advance.

[0:28] Chapter 53 is written as a prophecy about what the nation of Israel will say on the day that Israel realizes that Jesus is the Messiah. Last week, the first three verses of chapter 53 focused on Israel's unbelief.

[0:42] We saw that unbelief was expected and the unbelief was explained. Despite numerous passages to the contrary, Israel had no place in its thinking for a suffering and dying Messiah.

[0:55] That thinking led to Israel expressing its unbelief by disdaining Jesus and considering him worthless. Isaiah 53, 1 through 3 predicted exactly what would happen when the Messiah came.

[1:09] The Messiah would be an outsider from nowhere who had no physical characteristics that would draw people to him. Tonight's three verses, verses 4 through 6, focus on what Israel will confess in the future when the truth finally dawns on the nation.

[1:26] And that same confession can apply to anyone who finally realizes that Jesus truly is the only way of salvation. Let's go ahead and read Isaiah 53, 4 through 6.

[1:37] Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions.

[1:49] He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. And with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray.

[2:00] We have turned every one to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. This third stanza of the suffering servant passage reflects a staggering awakening.

[2:15] A sudden realization of why God's servant had to suffer such humiliating agony. This third stanza is the theological key to Isaiah 53. And it also is the key to everything scripture teaches about how sin ultimately is atoned for.

[2:33] These three verses summarize the core of the gospel. Jesus' substitutionary atonement on the cross permanently paid the penalty for all believers' sins.

[2:44] That's the main idea of tonight's three verses. Jesus' substitutionary atonement on the cross permanently paid the penalty for all believers' sins.

[2:56] The three verses in this stanza of Isaiah's suffering servant prophecy are tied together by a common theme. That is, the confession of sin. Each verse expands the scope of what is being confessed so that the verses are like concentric circles.

[3:11] Each verse presents an aspect of Israel's sin and the servant's atonement for that sin. We'll break tonight's passage into three sections of one verse each.

[3:23] And in verse 4, we see the shocking realization. So the shocking realization is your first set of blanks. Look at verse 4 again.

[3:35] It says, Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. Several words in this verse help us see how purposeful Jesus' substitutionary atonement was and how shocked the people of Israel will be when they recognize that.

[3:54] The word that opens this verse is translated as surely, and it's used as an exclamation. The word in Hebrew means both nevertheless and without a doubt.

[4:08] It conveys the idea of a great surprise, often with an element of dismay. When we put verse 4 together with the verses we studied last week, we understand how the Israelites will be shocked and why they'll be shocked when they realize that Jesus is the Messiah.

[4:26] Listen again to Isaiah 53.3 together with verse 4. The shocking realization that Jesus really is the Messiah is sandwiched by the equally shocking realization about how their Savior was treated.

[4:40] Starting in verse 3, the prophecy says, 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.

[4:55] Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. Last week we talked about how the word translated esteemed in verse 3 is an accounting term.

[5:10] It conveys the sense of whether we place value on something. In verse 3, the people esteemed Jesus not, meaning that they counted him as nothing or as a nobody.

[5:22] But now the shocking realization has dawned on them. They've come to the shocking realization that the person who was despised and rejected actually is the Savior that they need.

[5:33] The people of Israel who are making this confession are saying that they had despised Jesus. They had rejected Jesus. In a sense, they even enjoyed Jesus' suffering and dying because they believed that Jesus had received what he deserved.

[5:48] Nevertheless, now they realize that they were wrong, and they're so dismayed by their new realization that they say again what they previously thought. Have you ever been so surprised or dismayed by something that you keep repeating words or thoughts over and over, trying to come to grips with it?

[6:05] Let's look at a more positive example of how that could play out. Let's say that James, because he's so nice, gives me $100,000 for my birthday.

[6:18] When he does that, I would probably say something like, James gave me $100,000 for my birthday. I just can't believe it, but nevertheless, he gave me $100,000 for my birthday.

[6:29] James, that's in two weeks. Here in verse 4, the Israelites are surprised and dismayed negatively because what they previously thought was completely wrong.

[6:41] And he'll say, wow, he didn't give me $100,000. Like the Israelites, I'll be surprised and dismayed that I was completely wrong when my birthday rolls around.

[6:53] The Israelites had wanted Jesus to suffer, and they'd wanted Jesus to suffer because, like we said, they thought he had deserved it. And now they realize that he suffered for them because they were the ones who actually deserved to suffer.

[7:08] And the person they had really despised was saving them out of love instead. So do you get the sense of why they would say, we thought he was a nothing and a nobody, nevertheless, he was doing it all for us?

[7:21] The word translated surely indicates a sudden recognition of something totally unexpected. It's a dramatic change from a previous perception, a realization that the people speaking have been egregiously wrong.

[7:38] And here the exclamation signals the total reversal of Israel's attitude toward Jesus. They've repented, and so they now have a stunning and abrupt revelation, a complete reversal of how they'd viewed Jesus' death on the cross.

[7:54] For all the generations since Jesus came, they had assumed that Jesus' death on the cross proved he was a nobody, a fraud whose once promising career ended in humiliation and failure.

[8:06] But on that future day, they will confess that he is indeed their true Messiah. He came to deliver them from the eternal guilt and condemnation of their sin. Their subsequent words in verse 4 prove that they finally get the true picture.

[8:22] They go on to explain what Jesus has done. They start out by saying, he has borne our griefs. The Hebrew word translated borne literally means to lift or take up.

[8:35] It's an active verb. The servant of Isaiah 53 is suffering because he's taken on himself the full burden of the people's sin and guilt, including all the consequences.

[8:46] And those consequences go all the way up to death for him. The word choice shows that the people knew that Jesus had suffered on purpose. And so how different is that from what they'd previously thought?

[9:00] Let's move on to another key word in this verse. Isaiah said that Jesus has borne our griefs. The word translated griefs is a broad term that also can mean sickness, infirmity, or calamity.

[9:16] Isaiah here is talking about griefs that are brought on by sin. We know that sin causes our lives to be a constant struggle with sickness, disease, and calamity of every kind.

[9:29] Verse 4 continues to build on the picture in the next phrase. It says that Jesus also carried our sorrows. The word translated as sorrows has the idea of bearing a heavy load.

[9:44] Jesus intentionally took on the heavy load of every issue that sin causes. The word translated as sorrows could be better translated as anguish. The requirements of the Day of Atonement provided a picture of sorrows being carried away.

[10:00] Listen to part of those requirements. These verses are Leviticus chapter 16, verses 6 through 10. Leviticus 16, 6 through 10 say, Aaron shall offer the bull as a sin offering for himself and shall make atonement for himself and for his house.

[10:21] Then he shall take the two goats and set them before the Lord at the entrance of the tent of meeting. And Aaron shall cast lots over the two goats, one lot for the Lord and the other lot for Azazel.

[10:32] And Aaron shall present the goat on which the lot fell for the Lord and use it as a sin offering. But the goat on which the lot fell for Azazel shall be presented alive before the Lord to make atonement over it that it may be sent away into the wilderness to Azazel.

[10:50] The goat who symbolically carried the sins into the wilderness is what we know as the scapegoat. And like that scapegoat, Jesus carried the sorrows of believers away too.

[11:03] The difference is that the scapegoat was a symbol. Jesus was and is the scapegoat that the Day of Atonement symbolism foreshadowed. Closing out the verse, we get a reminder of what the suffering servant endured.

[11:19] He was stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. Last week, we talked extensively about the suffering that Jesus endured. The thing that we need to notice here is that Isaiah says that Jesus was smitten by God.

[11:34] Humans willingly caused Jesus' suffering, yet this suffering was purposeful and planned by God before the foundation of the earth. Listen to what Peter said in Acts 2, verse 23.

[11:45] Peter said, This Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.

[11:58] In that verse from Acts, Peter answers an objection that would arise in the minds of his listeners. That objection would be, if Jesus was the Messiah, why was he a victim?

[12:10] Why didn't he use his power to avoid the cross? Peter's reply to this objection is that Jesus was no victim. He was delivered up by the definite plan and foreknowledge of God.

[12:23] More than that, we see in other passages that Jesus himself clearly stated that he would suffer on purpose voluntarily. Listen to what Jesus said in John chapter 10, verses 17 and 18.

[12:38] Here in John 10, 17 and 18, Jesus said, For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.

[12:52] I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father. In his exchange with Pilate, Jesus also makes it clear that what is happening to him is being orchestrated by God.

[13:09] Listen to what Jesus says in John 19, verses 10 and 11. Starts out with Pilate first and it says, So Pilate said to him, You will not speak to me?

[13:22] Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you? Jesus answered him, You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given to you from above.

[13:34] Therefore, he who has delivered me over to you has the greater sin. We can see how this future people making the confession in Isaiah 53, 4 would be shocked and dismayed to realize that their ancestors got it wrong.

[13:51] Instead of being a nobody from nowhere who had no value to them, the people making the confession now realize that Jesus is the Messiah who also is God himself.

[14:01] Even more amazing is that God himself suffered on their behalf for their sins. And this brings us to verse 5 and the second section of our lesson.

[14:13] For believers, Jesus' atonement for sins provides a steadfast reconciliation. So steadfast reconciliation is what we'll look at next. Here is verse 5 again.

[14:29] 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 are healed.

[14:41] This short verse has four phrases that reference how Jesus served as our substitute. Let's look at those before we dig into the verse even deeper.

[14:51] First, Jesus was pierced for our transgressions. Second, he was crushed for our iniquities. Third, he endured the chastisement that brought us peace.

[15:03] And fourth, his wounds healed us. Keep in mind that Isaiah wrote this verse 700 years before Jesus died on the cross. Yet Isaiah described in accurate and precise detail what would happen to the Messiah.

[15:18] That is part of what proves that this prophecy was inspired by God. Back in Isaiah's day, stoning was the usual method of execution. Unaided by anything other than his own imagination, Isaiah would never have been able to envision crucifixion as a form of capital punishment.

[15:38] Much less could he correctly anticipate and describe the specific details of how the Romans did the crucifixion. Obviously, the Holy Spirit led him to choose these specific words to express the extreme suffering that the servant endured.

[15:54] Think about this as well as you look at those verses. He and we are continually in view. We see things like our sins and his suffering. The transfer of guilt, and this is the essence of substitutionary atonement, the transfer of guilt gives us the essence of salvation, and without it, we have no salvation.

[16:15] Think about a sinner's condition. We're steeped in rebellion and sins, deserving a death penalty and at war with God, needing deep healing, and all of our shortcomings were transferred to Christ at the cross.

[16:33] So let's look at these four substitutionary phrases in more detail. And the first one, of course, is Jesus was pierced for our transgressions. Two other prophecies in the Old Testament say that the Messiah will be pierced.

[16:48] One of these prophecies is Psalm 22, 16. And here is Psalm 22, 16. For dogs encompass me, a company of evildoers encircles me, they have pierced my hands and feet.

[17:05] The other time this word is used in a Messianic prophecy is in Zechariah 12, 10. And the Messiah is speaking here in this prophecy. Here is Zechariah 12, 10.

[17:18] And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him as one mourns for an only child and weep bitterly over him as one weeps over a firstborn.

[17:39] Zechariah 12, 10 prophesies exactly what we will see and what we see Isaiah prophesying in our passage tonight. One day Jews will realize how they treated their Messiah.

[17:52] Moving on to the next phrase, Isaiah predicted that the suffering servant would be crushed for our iniquities. Crushed there conveys the sense of beaten in pieces and totally destroyed.

[18:06] The suffering servant is crushed to death by the burden of the sin of others which he took on himself, further weighted by the wrath of God that fell on him because of that sin.

[18:19] Chastisement that we see in that verse is a general term used to express punishment and the word translated as wounds in the ESV also can be translated as stripes and some of your versions probably stay stripes there instead of wounds.

[18:34] That word is from a Hebrew word that speaks of bruises, welts, and the raw wounds from the strokes of a whip. All four punishments in this verse describe things that happened to Jesus.

[18:48] He was pierced in his wrists, feet, and side. He was crushed by the beatings he endured at the hands of the Sanhedrin and also the Romans. He was formally but illegally punished as a result of an unjust indictment, trial, verdict, and sentence.

[19:04] And he was severely marked with stripes and raw wounds because of the brutal scourging he received at the hands of the Romans. These were merely the visible wounds inflicted on him by the hands of lawless men as Acts 2.23 puts it.

[19:21] Earlier we looked at the predictions in Psalm 22.16 and Zechariah 12.10 that Jesus would be pierced. Let's look at some of the New Testament verses to remind us that all four of the punishments described here in Isaiah really did happen just as predicted.

[19:39] John 19.34 and 37 tell us that Jesus was indeed pierced so let's listen to John 19.34 through 37. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with the spear and at once there came out blood and water.

[19:57] He who saw it has borne witness. His testimony is true and he knows that he is telling the truth that you also may believe. For these things took place that the scripture might be fulfilled not one of his bones will be broken and again another scripture says they will look on him whom they have pierced.

[20:17] John 19.37 is a direct reference to the Zechariah 12.10 verse that we read earlier. Several New Testament verses talk about how the Messiah was crushed.

[20:30] Matthew 26.66-68 document Jesus' appearance before the Sanhedrin. So here are Matthew 26.66-68 What is your judgment?

[20:46] They answered He deserves death. Then they spit in his face and struck him and some slapped him saying prophesy to us you Christ who is it that struck you?

[20:56] Then Matthew 27.29-30 remind us how Jesus was crushed by the Romans. Here are Matthew 27.29-30 And twisting together a crown of thorns they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand and kneeling before him they mocked him saying Hail King of the Jews and they spit on him and took the reed and struck him on the head.

[21:24] Then in Luke 23.16-22 Pilate says the same statement twice and he says twice I will therefore punish and release him and the word punish is another word for chastisement.

[21:43] Then Mark 15.15 is one of the verses that documents the wounding of Jesus and here is Mark 15.15 So Pilate wishing to satisfy the crowd released for them Barabbas and having scourged Jesus he delivered him to be crucified.

[22:02] We've talked quite a bit about how the suffering servant suffered on our behalf but let's look at the benefits believers have received because of that suffering. The people making the confession in Isaiah 53 recognize that the chastisement brought us peace and with his wounds we are healed.

[22:23] The Hebrew word for peace there in verse 5 of Isaiah 53 is familiar even in English. It's the word shalom. It refers here to the removal of enmity between God and sinners.

[22:36] We know from our studies in James on Sunday mornings that even if sinners fail to realize that they are at enmity with God they still are. Here's James 4.4 James wrote You adulterous people do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?

[22:55] Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Jesus' substitutionary atonement changes the condition of true believers.

[23:08] Instead of continuing to be enemies of God believers have the peace with God that Isaiah predicted. Listen to Romans 5.1 Romans 5.1 says Therefore since we have been justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

[23:29] Then skipping down a few verses in Romans 5 verses 10 and 11 of Romans 5 explain why we have that peace. Here are Romans 5 10 and 11 for if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his son much more now that we are reconciled shall we be saved by his life.

[23:51] More than that we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have now received reconciliation. Let's talk now about the healing Isaiah references.

[24:14] The end of verse 5 is one of the most often misapplied verses and phrases in the Bible. Many preachers have misread Isaiah 53 4-5 and have concluded that Christ's atonement guarantees physical healing in this present age if we just have enough faith to believe it.

[24:36] Instead, Christ's mission was to die on the cross as a substitute for the sins of his people winning eternal life in a future world where disease and death will be abolished forever.

[24:48] Isaiah's prophecy is referencing spiritual healing rather than physical healing. In the long run, spiritual healing is the most important thing. And we know he's talking about spiritual healing because of the context of this passage.

[25:04] The context of this passage is all about our transgressions, our iniquities. He's talking about the moral and spiritual effects of sin, guilt, and alienation from God.

[25:16] Those who believe are healed in the sense of being restored to spiritual wholeness and released from the absolute bondage of sin. Spiritual healing is a more radical kind of healing and a much greater manifestation of divine power than the temporary healing of physical infirmities.

[25:34] Spiritual healing is a divinely wrought miracle of spiritual resurrection. Ephesians 2, 4, and 5 say, But God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.

[25:52] By grace you have been saved. The healing in view here in Isaiah 53 is a powerful remedy for an otherwise incurable spiritual problem.

[26:03] And that problem is our fallenness and resulting enslavement to sin. That's the underlying cause of all our unrighteous deeds or what Isaiah calls our transgressions, our iniquities.

[26:17] The Bible presents Jesus' healing miracles as evidence of his compassion for our physical distress and also as signs that clearly affirm his Messiahship. His miracles were never presented just merely as wonders for the sake of doing wonders.

[26:33] And this is especially true in John's gospel where the profusion of Christ's healings consistently point to his identity and reveal the restorative power with which the Messiah is invested.

[26:46] So here's a question. Does this fact then mean that we should never pray for physical healing? The answer to that, of course, is no.

[26:58] The gospels reveal a compassionate Savior who is very much concerned with the needs of the body. He is forever the same so we should never be reluctant to look to him for relief and healing when we ourselves are afflicted.

[27:11] However, we also should realize that God may have other reasons for allowing that suffering. We know, for example, that the apostle Paul was afflicted with an ailment that God chose not to remove.

[27:25] Although Paul was weakened as a result, the physical hardship only made him rely upon his Savior even more. And through that reliance, Paul experienced God's power in a vital way.

[27:38] Paul even learned to delight in his weaknesses, seeing them as an indirect vehicle for the manifestation of God's strength. Here's what Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 12.10.

[27:50] For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

[28:05] As far as our current physical state is concerned, we must ultimately bow to the sovereign will of God, who has promised that he will one day give us a new and flawless body like that of our resurrected and glorified Lord.

[28:19] And we know that from Philippians 3 verses 20 and 21. Philippians 3 20 and 21 say, But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

[28:44] To paraphrase Justin, Peter's, even if we must live with physical afflictions in this life, we will have all of eternity to live without them. So think about that again.

[28:56] Even if we must live with physical afflictions in this life, we will have all eternity to live without them. The gospel narratives reveal a Messiah who decisively and dramatically shows that he has the cure for all that ails and destroys us.

[29:12] His healing came to us not by his all-powerful word, but by his taking the essence of our sickness to himself. Sin ultimately is the root of all affliction, even though it may not be the direct cause as far as a specific sin goes.

[29:28] We know that Jesus, the flawless servant, took the very heart of our sickness upon him. In a sense, he touched the disease fully intending to become defiled himself. So what's the proper way to look at the last part of verse 5 where Isaiah talks about the benefits we receive from Jesus' substitutionary atonement?

[29:49] Well, Andrew Davis answers that question like this. He says, Jesus' punishment wins us peace with God, and the wounding of Christ heals us perfectly and eternally from all the damage sin has done.

[30:03] This healing comes in stages, justification and then sanctification and then glorification. only in our future resurrection and our life in the new heaven and new earth will our healing be complete.

[30:18] Isaiah 53.5 is an explicit confession of sinful behavior. Although Isaiah is recording the confession that will be made by a repentant Israel, it also is a fitting confession for anyone coming to faith in Christ because we know from Romans 3.23 that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

[30:41] All of us are sinful, guilty of perverting and violating God's law, and in our fallen state separated from him, we're spiritually sick, we're full of grief, and we're sorrowful.

[30:53] That Jesus took on himself his people's sin, guilt, grief, and sorrow, and every other sinister expression of our fallenness. Think about how he voluntarily endured God's punishment for those evils, and he purchased then for us peace and blessing from God.

[31:12] In essence, the death of the physician made the patient well. So, so far we've seen Israel's shocking realization about Jesus' substitutionary atonement, and also the steadfast reconciliation brought on by that atonement.

[31:28] In our final verse tonight, we once again reminded that the sobering reason why the substitutionary atonement was necessary. So once again, we get reminded of why the sobering reason was that the substitutionary atonement was necessary.

[31:44] So let's look at that sobering reason now. Verse 6 says, 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.

[32:00] Isaiah gives a realistic and honest description of the human condition and human nature apart from God. A stray sheep is a pitiful creature.

[32:14] It's away from the warmth and safety of the flock, and it's out of the reach of the shepherd's care. It's exposed to the elements and at the mercy of wild beasts that are stronger than the sheep, and it's separated from where it should be and where it ought to be.

[32:28] People apart from God are like stray sheep because they go their own way instead of God's way. Listen to what Peter Keller wrote about sheep.

[32:38] You probably have heard something similar to this before, but we all can use a reminder occasionally. Peter Keller said, sheep do not just take care of themselves, as some might suppose.

[32:50] They require more than any other class of livestock, endless attention, and meticulous care. It is no accident that God has chosen to call us sheep. The behavior of sheep and human beings is similar in many ways.

[33:05] Our stubbornness and stupidity and our perverse habits all are parallels of profound importance. We know that sheep by nature are stupid animals.

[33:15] They're prone to wander off on their own and place themselves in mortal danger. They're defenseless against predators and can't take care of themselves. For example, sometimes they roll over onto their backs and they're unable to right themselves.

[33:31] This is a potentially life-threatening situation. Similarly, people are prone by nature to go astray from God, to turn their own way, and to become lost or morally capsized.

[33:45] Unlike the parable that Jesus told about the lost sheep which focused on individual sinners, Israel's confession here views the entire human race of sheep who have all gone astray from the good shepherd.

[33:58] Spurning his guidance and care, choosing instead to follow the natural path of sin, we have turned everyone to his own way. And that's the sobering reason why the suffering servant had to die.

[34:11] Some people say that people are sinners because they sin. Those people have it backwards. People sin because they are sinners. Pulling together references from several psalms, listen to what Paul wrote in Romans 3 10-18.

[34:31] Here are Romans 3 10-18. As it is written, none is righteous, no not one. No one understands, no one seeks for God.

[34:42] All have turned aside, together they have become worthless. No one does good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave, they use their tongues to deceive.

[34:54] The venom of asp is under their lips, their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood, in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known.

[35:09] There is no fear of God before their eyes. True repentance goes deeper than just recognizing that we sin. Genuine repentance recognizes that we are habitual sinners by nature.

[35:24] David's confession in Psalm 51 shows that he understood this principle. Listen to Psalm 51 verses 3 and 4. David wrote these words after being confronted about his sin with Bathsheba.

[35:37] He said, For I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me. Against you and you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.

[35:54] And of course those words are directed toward God there. Isaiah 53 6 concludes with the sobering reality of why Jesus had to suffer, but consider how that sobering reality is good news for us.

[36:10] The good news of the gospel is that the Lord has laid on Christ the iniquity of us all. The expression laid on him is translated from a Hebrew word meaning to fall on in the sense of a violent attack.

[36:24] The same word is used in 2 Samuel 1.15 where David instructs one of his warriors to execute the Amalekite who boasted that he had killed Saul.

[36:35] The same word is used several times in 1 Kings 2 describing Solomon's orders to execute men who had been disloyal or brought harm to his father. The expression literally means fell upon him and so you can see that the intent really is clearly to imply that the person should be killed.

[36:54] Listen to how one commentator put it. The iniquity of which we are guilty does not come back to us to meet and strike us as we might rightly expect, but rather strikes the servant of Yahweh in our stead.

[37:08] The guilt that belonged to us God calls to strike him. He is our substitute for the punishment that the guilt of our sin required, the shepherd has given his life for the sheep.

[37:22] Paul said something similar in Romans 8, 3, and 4. These are verses that we looked at last week, but they're worth hearing again, and here are Romans 8, 3, and 4.

[37:32] For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.

[37:54] Jesus' message of salvation was designed to make us conscious of our utter lack of godly righteousness. We enter this world bent in the wrong direction because evil is ingrained deeply within us.

[38:08] None of us can change himself or herself. God must graciously enable us to turn our backs on evil and come to him. We need the shepherd of our souls to rescue us from our helpless condition, and that indeed is a sobering reason for God to suffer, but it also should cause us to rejoice and be thankful.

[38:29] What was transferred to the Messiah was the legal consequences of our sin, and what was transferred to us was our Savior's righteous standing before his father.

[38:40] This reckoning of absolute righteousness to our account is a judicial act. it's all the result of grace. All of this becomes ours through trusting in God's promise.

[38:52] At the moment of faith, we can rest secure in the fact that he has borne our judgment of the law, and he has borne that judgment because we have broken the law, but he has instead transferred his righteous standing to us.

[39:05] Although he has, in the divine transaction, imparted to us his Holy Spirit, our blessedness is the result of the Messiah's bearing our iniquities. not in our piling up good works.

[39:18] God our Father never looks at us without seeing his Son, in whom he is well pleased. Our standing is as secure as the Son's, and that standing is in his Father's love.

[39:31] The verses we've studied tonight are the heart of Isaiah's suffering servant passage. Isaiah placed his main point in the middle of the five stanzas.

[39:42] remember the main idea for these verses. Jesus' substitutionary atonement on the cross permanently paid the penalty for all believers' sin.

[39:53] You, I, and any true believers are part of the criminal element for whom Jesus died. To have peace with God and to have spiritual healing that are referenced in verse five, we must turn away from our disobedient path and turn towards God.

[40:08] God, the price our Savior paid to redeem his people from the guilt and bondage of sin was horrific, and Scripture never fails or never tries, that should be, to soften the dreadful aspects of this truth, especially if it means toning down the awful reality of the righteous wrath of God.

[40:29] Unless we understand and embrace the truth that it is the fearful thing to fall in the hands of an angry God, as Hebrews 10 31 says, we cannot truly appreciate the Father's great mercy and love toward us in sending his own Son to die in the place of sinners.

[40:45] But remember this, God's love and not his wrath is the central point of the cross. Jesus Christ willingly drank the full cup of God's wrath so that his people could escape the judgment of God.

[40:58] It was an act of unspeakable love. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. Jesus himself, the suffering servant, said those words before he willingly died on the cross for the sins of the believer.

[41:18] Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. And so like the Israelites of Jesus' day, we esteemed him stricken and smitten by God and afflicted at one time.

[41:32] But now we know that 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 are healed.

[41:43] of his! He a man to his and he a man to his son and to his and to his!

[41:57] He to his! He to his to his!!!