Isaiah 53:10-12 - It Was the Will of God to Crush Him

SERMON TEXT

Let’s open our Bibles together once again to Isaiah 53.

It’s my plan this week to finish up our survey of this pivotal chapter,

But I am certain if you continue to read and study this chapter, you will find things here we have not touched on together.

I hope that as you discover these treasures, we can find opportunities to look at those subjects together in-depth at other times.

And because verse 10 begins with a “Yet” or a “But”, we will begin reading in verse 9.

[READ ISAIAH 53:9-12]

What does it take for God to forgive sins?

Not just the great big sins anyone might think of, but any sin? Every sin?

That thought of revenge or mischief you would never actually do, but it was fun to think about?

That man or woman you have seen and thought “If I weren’t married...”

The extra helping of dessert or racing to get ahead of someone in the WalMart checkout line.

Or the murder, lust, covetousness, and theft those examples represent.

What does it take for God to forgive those sins?

I am certain I wouldn’t have to walk too far outside these doors asking this question before I came to someone who told me:

“He just does forgive sins. God is love!”

“it just takes God being a loving God.”

For many people, that is the reason Jesus came: to ANNOUNCE God’s forgiveness.

To my thinking, this attitude proves that in our neck of the woods, we’ve done a good job pushing the Bible and a poor job at proclaiming the gospel.

I would bet most of our neighbors could quote the verse “God is Love”, and many of them would have no clue that unless they repent and believe in Jesus Christ, that same loving God will pour out His eternal wrath on them in hell.

They are presuming upon the love of God while ignoring the great debt they owe to the holiness, righteousness, and justice of God.

The only reason a person might even think they would be forgiven apart from Jesus Christ is that they have no concept of the holiness of God.

And not them only. I think we are all somewhat deficient in this.

Because we think there is a difference in the offense offered to God between a sin in our heart and a sin in our body.

We think smaller sins offend Him less, represent less rebellion against Him than grave sins.

So I let my mind wander to revenge or lust or fantasies of wealth - no harm done, is there?

God understands those kinds of things are just the way I was made, the way He made me.

Now certainly, acting out on adulterous impulses or murderous thoughts have a much worse effect for us,

But even those fleeting thoughts we entertain a few seconds too long still break the entirety of God’s Law.

That’s what the Sermon on the Mount - Matthew 5-7 - tells us.

Matthew 5:21–22 ““You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.”

When we allow our heart to go through the motions of sin, we are sinning.

Even when we never allow those thoughts to move beyond the privacy of our own head, we still are in rebellion against God.

And it’s in these sins we consider smaller where we find the true fallenness of our hearts, the true remaining worldliness of our flesh.

Think about the first man, Adam.

He was made perfect, innocent, and God declared Him good, very good even.

But if we look at the first few chapters of Genesis, we see that beginning tragedy we call “The Fall”.

In the first two chapters of the whole Bible, we see God creating everything, including man and woman.

And you all know the story:

[READ GENESIS 3:1-5]

So I would like for you to consider this:

If Satan was going to tempt man to disobey God, he could have tempted man to slack off on his tending of the garden.

God had placed him in the Garden - Genesis 2:15 “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.”

He could have tempted man to abuse God’s creation, since God commanded man in Genesis 1:28 “And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.””

He could have tempted him to stop being a caretaker for God’s creation and instead use it for himself.

He could have tempted Adam to violate any one of the sins we know as the Ten Commandments.

Make an idol.

Steal from Eve.

But he didn’t. At least not directly.

He tempted them about dinner.

A piece of fruit on a tree.

The only tree they were forbidden to eat from.

Not because the fruit was bad, but because even this tiny disobedience was a complete rebellion against God.

It’s almost like man could tell himself, “Well, with all the great things I have done with God, I think He’ll be ok with me taking the lead on this one.”

“I named all the animals. God trusted me enough to name them all myself.”

“He won’t do anything if I take a bite.”

The enemy doesn’t begin tempting you with big things; he starts small.

Things that no one sees.

Things that allow you to say “I’m still a good person.”

And then it’s the devil, the Accuser, who hisses “Because God is love.”

He probably didn’t have the bite swallowed when he felt it: the cold, the exposure.

When he knew something that was vital had been lost - he was now, for the first time, separated from God.

And the man knew in that same heart of rebellion that things had changed.

He and his wife tried to cover themselves the best they could, but the best fig leaves stand no chance before a holy God.

I remember thinking as a kid that it was a shame Adam didn’t know the serpent was the devil in disguise, but that’s just wrong.

It didn’t matter that Adam didn’t know who the serpent was; he knew who God was.

And that was enough.

He didn’t have to be signing up for Satan’s team;

It is more than enough to condemn him that he was rebelling against God.

Even if it was just taking a simple bite of a piece of fruit.

No murder, no adultery - just a bite of dinner.

But the rebellion was real and lasting.

Every child descended from Adam by normal means would inherit this fallen, corrupted, twisted nature.

So was Adam forgiven? I believe he was.

Which brings us back to the question I asked at the beginning: what does it take for God to forgive sins?

In this, and every case where sin is forgiven afterward, blood has to be shed.

See Genesis 3:21 “And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.”

The man and woman had been trying to cover themselves with leaves; God slew an animal for his skin.

He didn’t create a skin to clothe them - He MADE them garments of skins to clothe them.

And never again would Adam be innocent in himself;

He would always require clothing that was not HIS skin to cover his nakedness.

Man’s righteousness was warped and ruined; he would always need something else to be right before God.

It’s ok to feel some pity for the animals - both the ones slain by God to cover the sinful pair, and for the ones to follow.

Man was created to be the caretaker of God’s creation, and now that creation was used to cover the man.

All God’s creation joined in His curse of the man;

Thorns and thistles grew.

Work became labor.

The earth, which was once at peace with man, now fought him in a thousand different ways.

But all that curse couldn’t atone for a single act of rebellion against a perfectly holy and loving God.

All the good work Adam had done prior to his sin couldn’t erase his guilt for the one time he chose his own way instead of trusting God.

But here, at the very beginning, God introduced man to our Substitute, our Savior.

That’s the message of our passage in Isaiah this morning.

We see the man, Christ Jesus, through His own soul making a guilt offering.

Bearing the sin if His people.

Calling out to God on behalf of transgressors.

Seeing in v. 12 - pouring out His soul, His life, to do these things.

What does it take for God to forgive sins?

A sacrifice.

A propitiation - that is a sacrifice to remove God’s wrath.

1 John 2:1–2 “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins...

Notice the two acts of our Lord here is 1 John:

Being the propitiation

Being our Advocate/ making intercession

Isaiah 53:12 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 transgressors.”

Hebrews 9:22 “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.”

I am sure some will say that God, being God, could just declare our sins to be forgiven, to declare us clean.

In fact, many Roman Catholics accuse us of believing in that very “legal fiction” - that we are declared right with God just because He declares it.

They tend to believe that WE must continue to pay for sins, sometimes even with cash, because the blood of Jesus didn’t cover all sin.

In spite of the fact that 1 John 1:7 says “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.”

We don’t believe in a legal fiction, some sort of spiritual loophole.

It was ALWAYS God’s plan to redeem His people in this way to His own glory.

There was never another plan to accomplish it.

Isaiah says it here in v.10 - it was the will of the Lord to crush Him; He has put Him to grief.

There was never another sacrifice.

Jesus Christ is THE propitiation; THE Lamb of God; THE Messiah; THE Suffering Servant.

Before the Tree was put into the Garden; before man was ever formed from the dust, God had ALREADY ordained the redemption of His people from sin into life by the sacrifice of THE Son.

We mentioned the passage last Wednesday night:

After the Jewish Council had commanded Peter and John not to preach in the name of Jesus, they went back and gathered with the church. praying for boldness.

Acts 4:27–28 “for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus [talking about His crucifixion], whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.”

Herod rejected Him;

Pilate handed him over.

But God crushed Him.

No man could provide sufficient anguish to pay for the sins of many.

No man could provide sufficient torment to burn up our smallest sins.

No man could provide the agony to pay for our treason, not even the agony of the cross would be enough.

GOD crushed Him.

God sacrificed the Lamb.

There’s no legal fiction here - this is REAL death and REAL blood and REAL wrath poured out on REAL sin.

Jesus Christ, the REAL substitute the REAL sacrifice that all the sacrifices in the Old Testament, starting in Genesis 3, point to.

And when He had suffered ALL God’s wrath upon the sin of His people, He experienced their death and was buried.

But just like we see in v. 11 in our passage today:

Isaiah 53:11 “Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.”

His anguish was real;

And so was His resurrection.

He SEES His saved people.

Jesus Christ was not merely a martyr, dying in place of someone to keep them from dying.

Not just some noble gesture that gives us a few more years on this earth.

He is the Savior, taking the full wrath of God that would otherwise eternally crush your soul and mine in the torments of hell.

And He is the Risen Lord who, even now, reigns over all God’s creation.

Who even now lifts the prayers of the saints to the throne of God.

Who even now jointly sends the Holy Spirit of God to support and strengthen His people in this life so we may persevere to the next.

He makes MANY to be accounted righteous...

Not ALL - many.

His particular people - saved now and eternally.