ISAIAH 53 Our Suffering Substitute by Pastor Jimmy Wattles

Transcription

1 ISAIAH 53 Our Suffering Substitute by Pastor Jimmy Wattles On March 5, 2008, I sat here at Calvary South Denver for the very first time. My wife Terry and I had been greeted by Manny Hays as we walked toward the front doors. Manny and I had both retired from the Denver Police Department and Manny was currently serving at the church as usher/greeter. Manny introduced me to Pastor Gino within minutes of being inside the church. Our introduction didn't last long, but it was certainly memorable. What I didn't know at the time was how my life was about to change within the next hour and over the last 10+ years. The Bible lesson Pastor Gino was teaching was from Isaiah Chapter 53. I listened as Pastor Gino as he went verse by verse through the 12 verses. At first it didn't strike me as to how powerful these verses were. However, as I left church that night with my wife and headed for home, I asked her what Bible version was used and she told me it was the New King James Version. I told her, I'm going to read the Bible. I'm sure it shocked her to hear me say that, as I had only started to return to church off and on the last couple of years, after some 30+ years of not attending. I had been going, as my work shifts allowed, to another Calvary church, but my shift work kept me from attending regularly. But March 5, 2008 was different. At some point in the next year I know I read Isaiah Chapter 53. My mind was spinning in confusion throughout this first reading of the Bible. There were so many things I simply did not understand and it frustrated me. There were parts I barely read and I know I skipped over a lot of the begets I read in the Old Testament. I had heard Pastor Gino quote Mark Twain one Wednesday night and I remembered and use the quote frequently: It isn't the things in the Bible that I don't understand that scare me, but it is the things I do understand in the Bible that scare me. My wife had spent quite a large sum of money in purchases of Bible commentaries and study guide books that she used in her Bible studies. I quickly found Warren Wiersbe's Bible Commentaries to be just what I needed. I had heard Pastor Gino quote Wiersbe many times. His commentaries really did help clear up some of the confusing things of a new

2 believer and put things together for me. It was at this time I started writing notes and underling Scripture in my Bible! I still use that same Scofield Study Bible today. It is held together with it's second layer of duct tape and is in need of a third repair. I had gone out an bought another new one just like it, but I couldn't give up my original Bible because it had all my notes and highlighted verses in it. All of Pastor Gino's sermons are online, so at some point I had gone back and I listened to his teaching on Isaiah 53. After listening I kept trying to figure out what it was Pastor Gino had said that had me quietly accepting Christ. I tell people my coming to Christ wasn't with claps of thunder or hearing the booming voice of God. It didn't push me to come forward on an altar call and/or publicly accept Christ as my Lord and Savior. But I have done so privately, with God as my witness. I have certainly shared the fact that Jesus Christ is My Lord and Savior publicly with others since then, as I will do again tonight. My life changed on March 5 th, 2008 and it was because I learned what was so powerful in those 12 verses of Isaiah Chapter 53. Those verses of prophecy, written some 700 years before the birth of Christ, clearly identify the life and ministry of Jesus Christ, His death, His burial and His resurrection and His exaltation to our Lord and Savior. All 12 verses are powerful and any one of them should be enough to welcome Jesus Christ into your life. I learned about our 'suffering servant' and how Jesus was our 'suffering substitute' on the cross. Tonight I want to teach those verses to you. I don't know if you have ever read your Bible this way, or listened to it being taught, but I want you to visualize and picture yourself, imagine if you will, being in the places where Jesus was. It is meant to make you feel unfortable. I'm sure you all have heard the two songs I'm going to speak briefly about. First was a song written and sung by John Lennon in The title of the song was Imagine. Lennon's first verse said, Imagine there's no heaven, It's easy if you try. No hell below us, above us only sky.... Very obvious Lennon didn't believe in a God, or in heaven or hell, at the time he wrote and sang the some. Some of you remember when Lennon said the Beatles were more popular than Jesus? Seems Lennon at least believed there was a man named Jesus...but I think he would have been surprised with a polling of their popularity numbers.

3 Then we hear quite another song sung by the group Mercy Me titled, I Can Only Imagine, with lyrics of I can only imagine what it will be like, when I walk by Your side. I can only imagine what my eyes will see, when Your face is before me, I can only imagine. Surrounded by Your glory, what will my heart feel. Will I dance before you Jesus, or in awe of You be still. Will I stand in your presence or to my knees will I fall. Will I sing hallelujah, will I be able to speak at all. I can only imagine. How differently two song writers think about what they imagine...one imagines a life without God and another imagines a life with God. I want you to imagine with me tonight, being where Jesus walked. Picture yourselves walking with Him some 2000 years ago. Imagine yourself walking with Him, with worn sandals on your feet, a loose-fitting cloth robe, tied at the waist and your feet covered in dirt and dust from your travels. See if you can imagine that Isaiah was describing anyone but Jesus Christ as the coming Messiah in his prophecy. I'm not going where some go in proclaiming that the person described here is not the Messiah Jesus Christ. In fact, I understand many Jewish rabbis teach Isaiah 52 and Isaiah 54, but will not teach Isaiah 53. Tonight, I am going right along with the writers of the New Testament, who leave no question as to who is referenced in the Old Testament book of Isaiah. It is Jesus Christ! 1 Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? You heard me say I liked Warren Wiersbe. Well, he comes out with some great imagery for us in the first verse. Isaiah is obviously speaking to the people of Israel, who have not believed in earlier prophecy of the coming Messiah. Wiersbe points out that when God created the universe, He had used his fingers and when He delivered Israel from Egypt, it was with His strong hand, But to save lost sinners, He had to bare His mighty arm! But still some refused to believe God's great power that had been revealed. 2 For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, And as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; and when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him. We have all heard the song Altogether Lovely haven't you? Well, Isaiah describes Jesus as having no beauty that we should desire Him and no form or comeliness. As a young boy, we see nothing as Jesus grows up that

4 brings attention to Himself. He apparently is not all that handsome and apparently not so ugly that He draws much attention to Himself either. He apparently is not overly tall or short, to where He gets an extra look from those He comes in contact with. There is nothing about Him that portrays who He is! He grows up as a tender plant. He is probably your normal pre-teen Jewish boy and there appears to be nothing special about Him. But as He grows, we see a change. Remember in v2 he was described as a root out of dry ground. GotQuestions.org explains it this way: He wasn't described as a mighty oak was He...but a dry root. But remember...he is from the root of David! I found this explanation in Thinking on Scriptures by Steven Cook when describing how Jesus was a root out of dry ground. Jesus had no sustaining benefit from the soil of His human life. Jesus found no nourishment or support socially, politically or even from His human family. God sustained His Servant! Okay, picture yourself as a root out of dry ground. What do you depend on to sustain yourself? It isn't the world that can provide the nourishment every believer needs is it? The Christian is fed and nourished by God's Word and is sustained by the Holy Spirit. Several different commentaries use this exact quote: Judgment in Isaiah is often described as a cutting down of trees, and Isaiah 6:13 and 10:33-34 are used as examples. The Holman Illustrated Bible Commentary adds this: The stump of Jesse indicates that the Davidic line has also been cut down, but the stump is yet living. The shoot that springs up shows that David's line will have new life. It will be restored and will once again bear fruit. Again GotQuestions.org said, The Davidic dynasty was to be cut down in judgment like a felled tree, but it was promised to Israel that a new sprout would shoot up from the stump. King Messiah was to be that sprout. As believers in Jesus Christ, we must look to Him to sustain us. John 15:5 "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. Picture yourself as a branch attached to the vine of Jesus. Might there be times when your branch needs pruning to keep the branch healthy. Each and every day more than likely! 3 He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised,

5 and we did not esteem Him. Jesus was to grow up despised and rejected by men and become a man of sorrows. The word sorrows comes from the Hebrew word makob (machove) and it is defined as: sorrow, pain, both physical and mental. In this verse, I can see where I started to see who Jesus really was, how He suffered and why He suffered. Remember I told you to visualize yourself in places where Jesus was. Well Charles Spurgeon said, One who truly desires to know love must go to Calvary and see the man of sorrows die. Can you picture how it looked to Jesus as He hung nailed to the cross? Can you picture yourself among the people below Him that still despise and reject Him? Picture yourself, both at the foot of the cross looking up at Jesus and then picture yourself on that same cross looking down through your eyes covered with blood, at the people watching you die! Can't imagine yourself hanging from the cross! Shouldn't be that difficult. After all, who should be on that cross? Your immediate response is probably, I should be on that cross...not Jesus! But that wasn't God's plan was it? It was God's plan that Jesus be the one to suffer and die on the cross. It was God's plan that Jesus suffer for all our sins. It was God's plan all along and Jesus came to carry out the will of His Father. It was Jesus who was to die on the cross...jesus was alwayrs to be our substitute on the cross. How did God feel about putting His own Son on the cross? It might surprise you when we get to v10. 4 Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. I understood the first part of v4 where it said, He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, but then it says Yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. Can you see your griefs and your sorrows that Jesus carried? I had to go to the Hebrew dictionary to clear up how we were esteemed that Christ was stricken and smitten by God. I went to the Hebrew dictionary. Esteemed comes from the Hebrew word chashab (kah-shav) which is defined as: regard; value; to plan; to devise. But today we associate the word as meaning: to respect, admire and appreciate. Stricken comes from the Hebrew word naga which is defined as: to

6 touch, to strike, to be defeated. Smitten comes from the Hebrew word nakah which is defined as: beat, scourge, strike, kill, slay, to be wounded Afflicted comes from the Hebrew word anah which is defined as: oppress; put down, humble, weaken We begin to see that this is all part of God's plan. We see that God had a plan and God smote His own Son, which means that God struck Him or hit Him hard, and Yet we esteemed Him stricken. We are to value in high regard the person who took on the beating, scourging, striking and eventual death for us. For it was always God's plan that Jesus suffer for us on the cross. Think once again how difficult it must have been for the Father to allow His beloved Son to suffer the pain and indignation and atrocities for all the sinners throughout time and knowing His Son was innocent? All so His plan for us could be carried out and we could be set free of our sins. Imagine this if you can. You have a way that will save 15 people from being killed, but it requires you to let your innocent young son die so that 15 other people, who you don't even know, can live. Can you truly put yourself in the state of mind? I can't even imagine that we can. 5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. This was the verse that hit me the hardest. 5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. I had learned early on from Romans 3:23 and 6:23 that for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and For the wages of sin is death. I had also found that my previous idea that being a good person was not good enough to get me to heaven. That I needed help and the help I needed were the gifts of grace and of faith, which can come only by way of Our Father. Ephesians 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,. It became clearer and clearer that I was not that good of a person and I was still a sinner...even years after accepting Christ...even now...and it is still sinking in of what Jesus Christ did for me! Even after Pontius Pilate makes some vain attempts to spare Jesus' life but finally relents at the urging of the Pharisees, Pilate washes his hands of

7 any personal liability and turns Jesus over to the Roman soldiers. Picture yourself in Jesus' place. No, better yet, imagine yourself as a spectator, watching the brutal Roman guards as they tie Jesus to a wooden post and scourge Him with the Roman flagrum. The whip had three or four leather strips that had sharp pieces of bone or shards of metal tied along the strips, that cut and quickly pulled at the flesh and muscle. We have probably all seen the movie 'Passion of the Christ'. It was brutal to even watch and I have chosen not to watch it when I have the chance. Pastor Jon Courson pointed out in his commentary that in medicine there are five kinds of wounds and Jesus suffered all five of them during His ordeal. There is a contusion which Jesus received when he was punched in the face. There is a laceration which Jesus received when he was whipped with the flagellum that ripped at his skin. There is a penetration which He received when the crown of thorns was beaten into His forehead. Then there is a perforation which Jesus received when His hands and feet were pierced with spikes to secure Him on the cross. And then there was an incision that Jesus received when His side was pierced by the spear when the soldier stuck Him in the side. I'm sure your mind has wandered away just a bit, so I want you to picture yourself once again standing over Jesus as he is tied to the wooden post. Can you smell the blood? I've been at a bloody crime scene. You can smell the unique odor of blood. Can you hear His moaning and weeping? Look at the ground! Can you see the blood pools and blood spatter and pieces of His flesh on the ground around him? Can you see His blood spattered for 3-4 feet all around Him? Can you see His rib bones exposed where flesh and muscle that have been torn and ripped from his back! Can you picture yourself as the Roman guard? Can you feel the whip in your hand? Can you feel losing your grip on the handle because of the blood on your hands? Can you feel the blood spatter on your face, arms and legs as you bring the whip back from Jesus' back? Can you see His body shuddering and convulsing in unimaginable pain? Can you imagine why this was done? Can you imagine how a Father would allow His Son to endure this? Can you imagine that it was because of you! God allowed this and Jesus willingly surrendered Himself to this suffering and death on the cross for us! I'm not sure we can really imagine how Jesus looked at this time. In previous verses in Isaiah 52:14 we read, Just as many were astonished at you, so His visage was marred more than any man, and His form more than the

8 sons of men;. It says His visage was marred...more than any other man. The Hebrew word for marred is 'mishchath which is defined as: disfigured. Picture yourself now seeing someone you don't want to look at. It is too horrible to look at! Something you have to turn away from...hide your eyes from! Why did the Lord allow Jesus to suffer through all these things? How could a Father allow His Son to suffer this way? How could the Father possibly devise a plan like this where His Son was to suffer a death this unspeakable? Answer: He was wounded for our transgressions and was bruised for our iniquities! Bruised is translated from the Hebrew word 'daka which is defined as: to crush, to be crushed, to be broken. It sounds so much less violent to say He was bruised instead of saying He was crushed doesn't it. How was he crushed? What bruised Him? It was the tremendous burden placed on Him by His Father. It may be a little clearer in the NLT translation where it says, He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. The crushing burden placed on Jesus was the sins of the world...our sins! By His stripes we are healed. Again, I'm pretty sure you know that His stripes were the wounds caused by the scourging, whipping and beatings that Jesus suffered. His flesh torn off in chunks by the sharpened bone and metal affixed to the leather strips of the Roman whips. But again we can look at the healing of those stripes as the spiritual healing that comes in our personal relationship with the Father. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. This verse is a confession of sin to all who have gone astray. Spurgeon preached, I want to draw the hearts of all who feel the confession to the blessed doctrine set forth in the text: the Lord hath laid on Christ the iniquity of us all. It does not say that Jesus died just for the sins of those who believed in Him, but for us all. I don't want to get into a numbers game, but it is fair to say that billions of people have been born since God created Adam and Eve. Another fair thing to say is that everyone that has been born since and that will be born in the future...will be sinners! I don't know how much a sin weighs, but our sins were enough to 'crush' our Savior. Our sins can weigh on us as well, until we realize by our faith we have been forgiven of our sins and by His stripes we are healed.. Our sins should no

9 longer weigh us down. Okay, picture every sin you alone have committed. You can picture a lot can't you. But can you picture them all? I'll give you a little more time if you need it But you just can't picture them all. So, just go ahead and imagine if you will, a big old heap of sins. Then, just for good measure, add some more sins. Now, go ahead and add a bunch more for the sins you are going to commit in the future! Don't underimagine how sinful you've been, how sinful you are or how sinful you will be in the future. Remember you are still a sinner and you will carry that burden until you die! Just your own sins would be tremendous crushing blow to Jesus wouldn't they! Now can you can imagine what the weight of the sins of the world are that were laid on Him would do! Jesus absorbed the weight from all who sinned. 2 Corinthians 5:21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. The Bible uses words like iniquities, trespasses and transgressions when it speaks of sins. According to GotQuestions.org the word used most often is iniquity. It means guilt worthy of punishment It is sin at its worst. Iniquity is premeditated, continuing and escalating sin. The word transgression means rebelled against God. Transgressions can also be intentional. There are many other words that are used for sin, but I'm not going into a big word study tonight, so I'll just stick to the basics. Sin is anything that falls short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23) We can blame some of our sins on our sin nature can't we. Those sins come in the form of our words, thoughts and our actions. Some, mostly our thoughts, we just can't seem to help from committing and they come upon us to quickly to stop them. But we as sinners do have a choice with almost all our words and actions and we even have a choice as to how long those sinful unwanted thoughts are allowed to ferment in our minds! Each of us have failed God as we have turned our own way and we will fail again. But what does God do? He continues His unconditional love for us and shows us His grace and mercy doesn't He? Now once again look at Jesus' bleeding, bruised and crushed body. You must come to grips and the truth that those wounds were the results of your sin. 7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He

10 was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth. 8 He was taken from prison and from judgment, and who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living; For the transgressions of My people He was stricken. We saw this after Jesus' arrest in the New Testament. We are witnesses to His accuser's questioning Him, trying to provoke Him, taunting Him, falsely accusing Him, attempting to trick Him and hitting Him, pulling out his beard, and driving the thorns in His makeshift crown into his skull. Yet Jesus was silent, admitting nothing except for the truth of who He was. In Luke 23:3 Pilate asks him, Are you the King of the Jews and Jesus answered, It is as you say. Jon Courson said it may have been that Jesus did not want to sin in defending himself, and thereby jeopardizing our salvation. He could have gotten Himself out this situation, but He was obedient to His Father. He was submitting to the will of His Father. He was silent when addressed by Caiaphas, Pilate and Herod Antipas. Jesus knew His purpose and His future. He knew His arrest and trial were illegal. He knew there would be no appeals and He knew what His sentence would be. Jesus was compared to a lamb being taken to slaughter. I'm not sure that is entirely the image of Jesus, as I imagine a lamb would put up quite a fuss and would be a handful if it knew what was about to happen to it. And a sacrificial animal is not beaten, whipped and tortured prior to it's life being ended. But Wiersbe also makes the point that there was a lamb that died for every Jewish household at Passover and Jesus died for His people on the cross. Jesus is referred to in John 1:29 as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. We see Him referred to as the Lamb 28 times in the Book of Revelation alone. Jesus suffered silently for us all. He took every contusion, laceration, penetration, perforation and incision for us all. Not once did Jesus curse or demean those who were responsible for where He was and what they were doing to Him. He knew it was His Father who had placed Him in this position and He was being the obedient Son. He is referred to as the Suffering Servant. He was also the Perfect Servant. I have come to do Your will. (Hebrews 10:9); I always do the thing pleasing to Him. (John 8:29); I glorified You on earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do. (John 17:4) However, Jesus was not silent on the cross. and He did speak while on the

11 cross. Scripture records these seven sentences spoken by Jesus: Luke 23:34 "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do." Luke 23:43 "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise." John 19:26-27 "Jesus said to his mother: "Woman, this is your son." Then he said to the disciple: "This is your mother." Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? John 19:28 I thirst. John 19:30 It is finished Luke 23:46 Father, into your hands I commend my spirit. Even as His life was coming to an end, the few words He did speak were not in anger or deceitful or revengeful. In fact, Jesus was forgiving those who wronged Him and even promising a common criminal who believed Jesus was innocent that he would be with Jesus that day in paradise. Let's look at a couple of the things Jesus said from the cross. Matthew 27:46 records Jesus speaking in Aramaic "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" that is, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" Jesus is quoting the first words of David in Psalm 22:1 My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Why are You so far from helping Me, And from the words of My groaning? We see Jesus for one short period of time feel the separation from His Father. It was at that moment where Jesus, for the first time, bore the sins of all human mankind...all the sins, past, present and future, had separated Him from His Father. We know our sins cause separation from God and Jesus now felt that separation Himself. But even as a sinful man, Jesus looked down on those below Him and asked His Father to forgive them, for they know not what they do. And Jesus' final words were It is finished! God's plan had been fulfilled and His suffering was over and the work His Father had given to Him to accomplish here was done. (God does have future plans for His Son...but that is a separate lesson). The debt of sin had been paid...our sin debt has been redeemed! His plan for eternal salvation for His people was done. Jesus knew His Father's plan and knew what He had to do. He did it not only for His Father, but for you and I...and Jesus found tremendous joy in that.

12 9 And they made His grave with the wicked- But with the rich at His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was any deceit in His mouth. Jesus was not buried as a common criminal. In fact it is said that criminals were not buried, but laid open to the elements and birds of prey. This Jewish practice was also written of in Deuteronomy 28:26 "Thy carcasses shall be food unto all fowls of the air, and unto the beasts of the earth. This was a fear of being left unburied. Even in old Mesopotamian text was found: May the earth not receive your corpses. But we see that God would not allow His Son to be buried like the wicked, but with the rich at His death, in a tomb prepared by a rich man named Joseph of Arimathaea. Joseph must have been so sure of Jesus' innocence that he risked his own reputation in the community to provide Jesus a tomb. 10 Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul 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. Remember a little bit ago, I asked you if you knew how it made God feel by putting His Son on the cross to die for us? It says here, it pleased the Lord to bruise Him. God actually took pleasure in putting His Son through all this torture? Is that what Isaiah really meant to say? It was the desire and will of God that Jesus suffer and die on the cross. Jesus knew the plan. I think His obedience pleased His Father don't you? Wiersbe said, Jesus was not a martyr, nor was His death an accident. He was God's sacrifice for the sins of the world. It was God's plan that He has put Him to grief. Grief is to be weak, sick, afflicted. As Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, prior to being arrested and betrayed by Judas, we saw that Jesus was a willing sacrifice, although He did ask His Father if there might not be another way. Luke 22:42-44 "Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done." Then we read that Jesus did have human feelings and was in agony and He prayed more earnestly and His sweat became like drops of blood falling on the ground. Okay, once again picture yourself in the Garden. Can you imagine what Jesus was going through? We have all had difficult times and worrying and in anguish about something for days and hours before it was to happen or were worried sick about something we didn't even know would in fact happen. But have you ever had blood come out of your pours. It's called hematohidrosis. It is rare, but it does occur in certain

13 highly stressful circumstances. It is caused when tiny blood vessels constrict to where they rupture, causing blood to leak into the sweat glands. But, Jesus knew His fate and the will of His Father. Courson wrote It pleased the Father to smite the Son. It pleased the Son to submit to the Father...and it was all because of you! There are some arguments as to who killed Jesus. Some place the blame on the Romans who carried out the beatings and crucifixion. Others blamed the Pharisees for falsely accusing Jesus of blasphemy and urging the crowd to call and demand for Jesus to be crucified. Others blame Herod Antipas and Pontius Pilot. But prophecy makes it very clear that Jesus' death was determined long beforehand...almost 700 years beforehand and it was His Father who sent Him to die on the cross. Who is to blame? It was our own sinfulness that made His death necessary. Ours sins tore and pulled the flesh and muscle from His bones! Our sins drove the thorns into his head! Our sins pulled the beard from his face! Our sins spit in Jesus' face! Our sins pounded the nails through his hands and feet! Our sins plunged the Roman spear between Jesus' ribs! It was our sins that caused a sinless man to bear the sins of humankind and it was our sins that caused Jesus to feel the separation from His Father. It was our sins who caused the death of Jesus! Can you picture this!!! Get the picture! It was our sins! Not so quick to blame yourself. Remember this? It was God's plan all along. And what would come from His death? It says He shall see His seed. Jesus' death on the cross will cause many to come to believe in Him. Jesus' descendants are those who are members of His spiritual family. It is those who know Him as their Lord and Savior and who will kneel before Him in Heaven. His seed are those who are the children of God. It says He shall prolong His days. God raised Jesus from His tomb and gave Him eternal life. He will live forever, never to die again! And we see that God's plan will prosper and be successful, it will succeed and will be profitable. Once again imagine yourself standing at the foot of the cross. You just heard Jesus say It is finished. You watch as a Roman soldier takes his spear and stabs Jesus between the ribs. You see blood and water pour out and splatter onto the already blood-covered ground below the cross.

14 Think about the love Jesus had for you. Think about the love God has for you. Think about the physical and mental pain Jesus has endured for you. Look at the blood on the ground that was spilled for you! 11 He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, For He shall bear their iniquities. Warren Wiersbe made a point in saying that the cross brought satisfaction to God. He did not find enjoyment in seeing His beloved Son suffer, for the Father is not pleased with the death of the wicked, let alone the death of the righteous Son of God. But the Father was pleased that His Son's obedience accomplished the redemption that He had planned. Was Jesus angry because He had to endure tremendous suffering and death on the cross? No! Hebrews 12:2 says looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Jesus found it joy to obey His Father. Jesus found it joy to endure the cross. Jesus found joy in bearing our sins. Jesus found joy in redeeming our sins. And He will find joy in walking with us as we sanctify our lives and His joy will come to climax when we kneel before Him in heaven!. 12 Therefore I will 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 He was numbered with the transgressors, And He bore the sin of many, And made intercession for the transgressors. From the NLT I will give him the honors of a victorious soldier, because he exposed himself to death. He was counted among the rebels. He bore the sins of many and interceded for rebels. What is it that God will divide with His Son? What are the spoils of His victory? What is the reward Jesus will receive for His suffering and death on the cross? It's us Christians! Courson said, In His eyes I am the His spoil, His treasure. But is God's plan over? No! He now has plans on how he works out our sanctification. That comes from God's grace and the Holy Spirit, which results in our holiness, which separates us into God's service. We are still sinners and therefore God will continue to intercede for us. Philippians 1:6 that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it

15 until the day of Jesus Christ; God is not done with us yet! It is our faith in Jesus that will see us all the way through God's plan until He receives us into glory. Jesus has to find joy in that! Okay...are you sweating blood yet! Have you stood along side of Jesus tonight? Have you witnessed His trials, His beatings, His scourging and have you stood at the foot of the cross and been witness to His crucifixion? Have you been witness to the pain of our sins that His Father laid on Him? Are you ready to fall on your knees at the foot of the cross? Do you still smell the blood? Are you hands still sticky with the blood of Christ? Do you still feel the blood spatter hit you from the whips? Be assured Christian. That is not how God sees you right now...