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Man, the title of my sermon tonight is The Suffering Servant, The Suffering Servant. Isaiah 53 is one of the most powerful passages in the entire Bible. It's very famous because of the fact that 700 years or so before the Lord Jesus Christ walked on the earth, this gives such a powerful story about Jesus, and it has everything from his death, his burial, his resurrection, him being exalted and lifted up, his suffering. It's in so much detail that you'd have to be blind not to see the Lord Jesus Christ in this passage, even though it's in the Old Testament many centuries before Jesus actually came and fulfilled all of these prophecies. This scripture is also quoted throughout the New Testament. Romans chapter 10 quotes this, John chapter 12 quotes this, and of course when the Ethiopian eunuch is riding through the desert and Philip comes and meets with him, this is what he's reading. The Ethiopian eunuch is reading Isaiah 53, and Philip begins at this exact scripture and preaches unto him Jesus. He ends up getting saved, he ends up getting baptized, and he goes back to Ethiopia rejoicing in the fact that he's saved. Now let's back up a couple of verses because this passage actually really begins in verse 13 of chapter 52. There's a little bit more earlier in chapter 52, but really in verse 13 is where I want to start and get these couple of verses before Isaiah 53. It says, behold my servant shall deal prudently. So I wanted to start out by showing that Jesus Christ is called the servant of the Lord. He's the Lord's servant, and hence the title tonight, the suffering servant. Behold my servant shall deal prudently. He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high. As many were astonished at thee, his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men. Now the word astonished here is like our word astonished. People who are marveling, they wonder, they're amazed, they're just kind of blown away or speechless. They are astonished at him, why? Because his visage, visage means face, was so marred more than any man, and his form than the sons of men. So in the story in the gospels of Christ's crucifixion, of course the Bible tells us that he was beaten not only with a whip where he received stripes on his back, but he was also smitten in the face. They would punch him in the face, they covered up his eyes so that he couldn't see, and they would punch him in the face and say, prophesy unto us, who is it that smote thee? Who is it that hit you? You know, because they're making fun of him, oh yeah, you're supposedly the son of God or you have all these miraculous powers, then tell us who hit you right now. And of course, he kept silence as they beat him and pummeled him. They also put a great reed in the Lord Jesus Christ's hand as a scepter because they made fun of him by dressing him up in a purple robe and putting a crown of thorns on his head, and then they put a reed in his hand as a scepter. And when he was done being made fun of, they took the stick out of his hand and they hit him in the head with that stick. So Jesus Christ's face was marred more than any man. His visage was more marred than any man. So basically what it's saying is that his face is mutilated to the point where he looks no longer human because he was just so bloody. And if you've seen someone who's been beaten up really badly and their face gets black and blue and swollen, maybe they have a broken nose. And so that's the picture here that the Bible's painting. It says in verse 15, so shall he sprinkle many nations, the king shall shut their mouths at him for that which had not been told them shall they see and that which they had not heard shall they consider. And I want to stop and talk about this thing of sprinkling when it talks about Jesus Christ sprinkling many nations. What are we talking about when we talk about the sprinkling there? Well go if you would to 1 Peter chapter 1. And while you're turning to 1 Peter chapter 1, I'll quote you some other scripture and remind you of the fact that in Hebrews chapter 12, the Bible talks about how the blood of Jesus Christ is the blood of the New Testament. Remember when Jesus Christ was at the Last Supper, he said this cup is the New Testament in my blood. This is the New Testament in my blood. This blood is shed for you. And in Hebrews chapter 12, it talks about how the blood of Jesus Christ speaketh better things than that of Abel. And it says that we are come unto the blood of sprinkling which speaketh better things than that of Abel. So if you remember Abel was the son of Adam and Eve and Cain murdered Abel. And after Cain had killed Abel, then when God confronted Cain, he told Cain the blood of Abel cryeth unto me from the ground. And what he meant there is that the blood of Abel was crying out for vengeance. But the blood of Jesus Christ speaketh better things than that of Abel. Because when Jesus Christ was murdered on the cross, his blood wasn't crying out for vengeance, his blood was actually crying out redemption and salvation and actually forgiveness of sins. Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. So the blood of sprinkling, the Bible says in Hebrews chapter 12, speaketh better things than that of Abel because it speaks redemption, forgiveness, salvation as opposed to vengeance. Now in 1 Peter chapter 1 where you are there, it says in verse number 2, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, grace unto you and peace be multiplied. Go a few pages to the left in your Bible to Hebrews chapter 10. So we see that in Hebrews chapter 12 and 1 Peter chapter 1, the sprinkling has to do with the blood of Jesus. The blood of sprinkling. The Bible also tells us that when the Old Covenant or Old Testament was initiated with Moses, that Moses took the blood of goats and calves and he sprinkled the book of the law with blood and then he actually sprinkled all the people with blood. So the people were sprinkled with blood. And of course it's not possible for the blood of bulls and of goats to take away sins but that sprinkling of the blood of those animals on the book and all the people was a picture of the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Now let me stop and say this though, baptism is not by sprinkling. Baptism is not by sprinkling. So we don't want you to get Mr. Oh, that's where sprinkling comes from. Every time we see baptism in the scripture, people are being dunked under water. Jesus when he was baptized came up straight way out of the water. When Philip baptized Ethiopia and Eunuch, they went down both of them into the water and he baptized them. John was baptizing an anon near to Salem because there was much water there. It doesn't take much water to sprinkle or pour or whatever. Baptism is and always has been by immersion. In fact, the very word itself, baptized, means to immerse under water, to dunk under water. So if you say, oh, I was baptized and you got sprinkled, you were not baptized. That's not what that word means, okay? And in fact, this is why, you know, when the Roman Catholics and the Protestants sprinkle and pour, you'll notice that the Greek Orthodox, they actually dunk the babies under water. Of course, we're totally against infant baptism, amen, because you have to have faith in Christ before you can be baptized. You have to believe in order to be baptized, Acts 837 is a great verse on that. But the Orthodox, they never, it's funny how they never got caught up in this sprinkling or pouring. Why? Because they speak the Greek language. So they understand because the word baptizes comes directly from the Greek. It's transliterated in English. They know what that means and they knew this isn't sprinkling, this isn't pouring. You know, when they're reading their Bible in Greek, they get to the part where Jesus didn't baptize the sop and handed it to Judas, okay? He wasn't sprinkling it and handing it to Judas. So the point is that baptize means to dunk, to immerse, and everywhere in Scripture, it's obvious they're going down into the water, there's a lot of water, they go down in, they come up out. Hey, buried with them by baptism. You don't bury somebody by pouring a little dirt or sprinkling a little bit of dirt. They're surrounded by dirt, okay? So we don't want you to mistake the fact that baptism is not by sprinkling. And here's a great verse for that. Look at Hebrews chapter 10, verse number 22, Hebrews 10-22, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Okay. We are dunked in water, but our heart is sprinkled with the blood of Jesus Christ. Two very different things. And if you would flip back to Isaiah chapter 52, Isaiah chapter number 52, now you say, why do the Catholics and the Protestants, why do they sprinkle? Well, why do they do any of the things that they do? Why do they baptize babies? Why do they call their priest father when the Bible says, call no man your father upon the earth, for one is your father which is in heaven? The simple answer is because they don't base their religion on the Bible because they don't love the word of God. They don't read the Bible. They don't believe the Bible. They believe in the traditions of men, the doctrines of men that they teach as commandments of God, their church fathers, Thomas Aquinas and Augustine and all their heroes. You know what? The Bible does not teach what the Catholics and the Protestants teach. They're teaching false doctrine. And anybody who's sprinkling a baby and calling it baptism, you just take it to the bank. This guy is not basing his beliefs on the word of God because you're never going to find that in the Bible. You're never going to find nuns, monks, monasteries, sprinkling babies, none of that stuff is ever going to be found in the Bible. You never find the worship of Mary or worshiping images. This stuff is all wrong and it's all contrary to the word of God. And so we are Bible believing Christians. We don't follow the teachings of men or so called church fathers. We don't call any man father except our father in heaven. So the Bible said here in verse 15 of chapter 52, so shall he sprinkle many nations. Now what is so there? You know the word so shall he sprinkle many nations is referring to what we just read. So the fact that his visage is marred and that his form or shape is marred more than the sons of men, that allows him to sprinkle many nations. Why? Because the beating that he took that mutilated his face and that marred his body as well is what caused the blood to be released from his body and that's the blood of Christ that cleanses us from all sin that's going to sprinkle many nations. And so it says the king shall shut their mouths at him for that which they had not been told them shall they see and that which they had not heard shall they consider. Now let's get into the famous chapter here verse 1 of chapter 53. Who had believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of a dry ground. Now who is the he there? He is Jesus or he is if you will the suffering servant. The servant who was marred and beaten and sprinkling many nations. He Jesus shall grow up before him the Lord as a tender plant and as a root out of a dry ground. He hath no form nor comeliness and when we shall see him there is no beauty that we should desire him. He's despised and rejected of men. Now what does that mean when it says when we shall see him there's no beauty that we should desire him? I believe that what this is saying is that Jesus Christ when he walked on this earth as a man was not exceptionally good looking. I believe that he just looked like anybody else. He was a normal looking man and he was not handsome or good looking where you just look at him and say wow I just you know can't believe how handsome this man you know. That's not what Christ was. That's not the appeal of Jesus Christ. That's not what made Jesus Christ have thousands of followers was he was just that good looking of a guy. No. Wrong. He had no beauty or comeliness. When we shall see him there's no beauty that we should desire him. He's despised and rejected of men. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and we hid as it were our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed him not. Now this is a really interesting dichotomy here because we're talking about how his servant in verse 13 of chapter 52 will be exalted and extolled and very high kings are going to shut their mouths at him. He's going to sprinkle many nations but then in the next breath we see that he's marred. He's beaten. His visage is marred and then we see that he's despised. He's rejected. He's a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and we hid as it were our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed him not. This is because of the fact that Jesus Christ had to first be rejected of that generation. Then he had to die, be buried, rise again and then now that he's done that the Bible says that God has given him a name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus Christ every knee should bow of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord of the glory of God the Father. So Christ's glorification and ruling the nations with the rod of iron and all the kings stopping their mouths at him and him being lifted up and exalted very high and every knee bowing is after his suffering. So this passage is really thorough in explaining the fact that look Christ is going to suffer. He's going to be despised. He's going to be rejected. He's going to die. He's going to be buried. We're going to see that later in the passage. He's going to rise again and then he's going to be greatly exalted and given a name which is above every name. The Bible says in verse four, surely he had borne our griefs and carried our sorrows yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. What's he saying? Saying that the people who saw Jesus dying on the cross, they didn't realize that he was dying for their sins. A lot of the people there that saw Jesus die on the cross, they thought he's dying for his own sins. They looked at him and thought to themselves, oh, he's being smitten of God and afflicted. Basically that he's being punished for something that he did because he's up there on the cross. You know how some people have this attitude, anybody who gets arrested, well, they must be guilty or the police wouldn't have arrested them. So people when they saw Jesus dying on the cross, many people wrongfully assumed, oh, he must be some kind of a malefactor. He must be some kind of a criminal who did something awful but what many people didn't realize is that he was carrying our griefs and our sorrows. He was dying for our sins. The Bible says in verse five, 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. So we see here that even in this Old Testament passage, many, many centuries before Christ, we see that the doctrine of Christ's substitutionary atonement is clearly laid out. That Christ is our substitute, that he's dying for us, that he took upon him the sins of the world. The Bible says in 1 Peter 2.24, who his own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5, he who knew no sin became sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. The Bible says in verse six, 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. What do we see here? The fact that we are all sinners, that every single person in this world is a sinner. The Bible says as it is written, there's none righteous, no, not one. The Bible says for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. The Bible says there's not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth up. All we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone to his own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Every single person in this world, Jesus Christ died for that person. There's no limited atonement where Jesus only died for the people who are going to get saved because they've been chosen wrong. The Bible says that he died for everybody. He tasted death for every man and he has laid upon him the iniquity of us all. We're all sinners and he died for all. Romans 5 hammers that. It goes on and on about we're all sinners, we've all sinned and so Christ died for all and he makes salvation available to all because he died for all because all were dead, all are sinners, all need Christ. There's no salvation outside of Jesus Christ because every single person has gone astray. Every single person has done their own thing and gone their own way instead of God's way and because of that, Christ had to die for everybody's sins. Why would Christ die for somebody's sins if they don't need him to save them? There's some other way they could be saved through Buddha or through Islam or through Hinduism or through being a good person or whatever. No, there's only one way Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. Nobody is a sinner. Jesus had to die for everybody and he's the only way to be saved. Verse 7, he was oppressed and he was afflicted yet he opened not his mouth. He's brought as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb so he openeth not his mouth. This is of course predicting the fact that Christ is going to go willingly to the cross. Jesus said, no man taketh my life from me but I offer it up freely. He said, I have the power to lay down my life and I have the power to take it up again. And so Jesus Christ was not coerced or forced to go to the cross but he went willingly. He allowed himself to be arrested. He allowed himself to be crucified and when they offered him chances to defend himself, he often just kept his mouth shut. They had to beg him to even say anything. Herod couldn't even get him to say one single word. Pilate had to keep badgering him to get him to say anything to Pontius Pilate. And so he was like a sheep before her shearers, dumb. Dumb does not, you children out there, dumb does not mean stupid, okay, because that's the way that children use the word dumb, like you're dumb, that's just dumb. And you know, we as adults, we continue to use it that way as well. But dumb literally means that you can't talk, okay. So this is when someone is deaf, they're often also dumb, meaning that they don't have the ability to speak. So when the Bible says a sheep before her shearers is dumb, it's saying that the sheep can't talk, it can't defend itself, it can't say anything, okay. And Jesus Christ, he does not say anything in his defense because his hour had come and he's willingly going to the cross and allowing himself to be crucified. It says in verse 8, he was taken from prison and from judgment. What is the prison and the judgment? Well, you know, obviously he's arrested, he's incarcerated, he's judged, false witnesses stood up and accused Christ. And who shall declare his generation, for he was cut off out of the land of the living, for the transgression of my people was he stricken. Now what does this mean, who shall declare his generation? Well, all throughout the Bible we have generations, it'll say, you know, these are the generations of Esau, these are the generations of Noah, these are the generations of Jesus Christ, the son of God, or I'm sorry, Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Generations have to do with your descendants. You know, to generate means to produce something, right? When something generates electricity, it's producing electricity. Well, we have the word in English, genetics, right, and what does genetics have to do with passing on traits to your offspring? Well, to generate is like to beget, okay. And so a generation in the Bible is often a list of names of this person begat this person, this person begat this person. That's what's meant in Matthew chapter 1 verse 1 when it says the generation of Jesus Christ. What's his generation? It's referring to, okay, how did he get here in the sense of this is his grandfather, this is his father, whatever. So when the Bible says here, who shall declare his generation, it's referring to the fact that he had no physical children. He's cut off out of the land of the living without a single descendant, right? He's not leaving a physical descendant or an offspring or a son or a daughter after him. There's no generation physically from Jesus Christ. He was cut off out of the land of living. And then it reiterates at the end of verse 8, for the transgression of my people was he stricken. Again, reiterating the fact that he's dying for our sins. You know, the Jews really have to be blind, don't they, to not see Christ in this passage when they see that he's dying for our sins, dying for our sins, dying. He's wounded for our sins. He's bruised for our iniquities. He's stricken for the transgression of my people. He's going to die. He's going to be buried. He's going to be lifted up and exalted very high. He's going to rule all nations. You have to be blind not to see it, but the Bible says that they are blind. The Bible says that when they read the Old Testament, there's a veil over their face. It's like they literally are blindfolded when they read the Old Testament. And this is why it's ridiculous when people will ask Jews to interpret the Bible for them. Oh, let's see what Rabbi So-and-So says about the Old Testament. You know what, Rabbi So-and-So is blind as a bat. And I'm not just talking about his Coke bottle lenses in his glasses. Have you ever noticed how Jews always have corrective lenses and very thick corrective lenses? Well, Paul Wittenberger and I were on a plane. Do you remember that? And we were flying to New York or something, and the plane was half filled with Jews. I use that term loosely for the red-haired, freckled, blonde-haired, blue-eyed people that we were sharing the plane with. But they all, 100 percent, not 99 percent, 100 percent, had thick corrective lenses. And I was thinking, like, blindness in part has happened unto Israel. You know, the proverb has come true, you know, the Bible has predicted this. But you say, why is that? Well, here's the thing. If you try reading the Hebrew Old Testament, it's like ultra-fine print. And if you go online, I tried to go online to buy a giant print, Hebrew Old Testament. It doesn't exist. I couldn't find it. So the only Hebrew Old Testament you can get are these tiny, super tiny print that you can barely read. So when I read it, what I do is I blow it up real big and just print it off my printer and just blow it up huge. But it's insane how small it is. And we just saw some of the chosen ones when we took our recent trip over to the Holy Land. We saw some of the chosen in the airport. And it's like, I see this guy, and he's just got this super ultra-fine print. And it wasn't the Old Testament, but it was some kind of a prayer book or Talmud or something, whatever he had. And he's just got it right up to his face, and it was like the most ultra-fine print. And he's just like, ah. And at first, I thought the guy was disabled or handicapped or something, because he was acting that weird. But then he kind of acted normal a few minutes later. So then I thought, oh, OK, because I tried to talk to the guy, and he was just really weird. And then he'd act normal for a minute, and then he'd start acting real weird again. And he's just like. And I'm thinking, no wonder you have Coke bottle lenses. You're holding the book too close to your face. You're printing it too small. And you need to look up every 20 minutes and focus on something that's 20 feet away, amen? That's what I've been doing my entire life. And that's why, even though I read a lot, I still have good vision. Because my mom, thank you, mom. Thank you, Lord, for giving me a mother who taught me that. She said, when you turn the page, look up and focus on something far away. And that saves your eyesight. But the chosen ones, man, they're just like this. I don't know if they don't go outside and look at things that are far away to let their eyes focus and different. But they're blind, OK? Now, I don't care how many times they read that book. When they read that book, it profits them nothing. Even if it's the actual Bible, not their Talmud, even if it's the actual Hebrew Old Testament, the Torah, they can't learn anything from it. Why? Because their natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. Their foolishness unto him, neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. And in 2 Corinthians chapter 3, it says that when the Jews read the Old Testament, the veil is over their face. That's why they're holding the book so close to their face. They're like, whoa, there's a veil there. I'm kidding, of course. But physically, the print's too small. But spiritually, there's a veil there. They're blind. They can't see it. So they could read it and read it and read it. They could memorize the whole Torah if they want to. And I believe that some of them have done that. It's not going to do them any good. They're not going to see Christ. You'd have to be blind as a bat not to see Christ in Genesis 22. It's so funny listening to them try to explain what Genesis 22 is about. Because it's so dumb. When you take out Christ, it's dumb, children. That's the wrong meaning again. You know, they're blind. We're Christians. We look at Isaiah 53, and it's just jumping off the page at us. It's powerful. It makes all this sense. It's just so obvious, so clear. What a beautiful passage. But the Bible says, for the transgression of my people was he stricken. Verse 9, and he made his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death. So like I promised earlier in the sermon, this passage is dealing with the burial of Jesus Christ. Not just his death, but it's dealing with his burial. Now where was Jesus Christ buried? He was buried in a borrowed tomb of a very rich man who contributed his tomb that he might use it for only three days and three nights. He was just kind of a loner anyway because he's going to arise, amen? But this guy that was very rich. So he was buried in a very fancy tomb with a big stone rolled over the door and everything like that. So he made his grave with the wicked and with the rich. You say, why the wicked and the rich? Well, because usually rich people are wicked people, and not always because there are exceptions. Of course, the exception proves the rule, and there are godly rich people, and thank God for them, and God bless them. But because the love of money is the root of all evil, most often people who are rich end up being wicked people. That's why the Bible said, go to now you rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, your garments are moth-eaten, your gold and silver is cankered, and the rest of them shall be a witness against you and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. You've heaped treasure together for the last days. I mean, just very hard preaching in the New Testament against the rich, you know, in James chapter 5 is what I was just quoting. And then also, Jesus Christ said, woe unto you rich. He said, blessed are ye poor. And not just poor in spirit, that's Matthew chapter 5, but in the book of Luke, he said, just blessed are the poor, period, financially poor. And he said, also, hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him? But you've despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you and draw you before the judgment seats? Do not they blaspheme that worthy name by the which ye are called? So in general, rich people do what? Blaspheme the name of Christ and oppress God's people, just in general. That's not to say there aren't good rich people. The Bible talks about some godly rich men. So we don't want to just paint with a broad brush and say all rich men are wicked. No, but in general, rich people tend to be ungodly. They tend to be unsaved. And it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to be saved, Christ said. But with men, it's impossible. And with God, all things are possible, including the salvation of a rich man. So he made his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Everything he said was right. He didn't hurt anybody. He didn't harm anyone or do violence. But verse 10 says this, yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. So although he's totally innocent, although he's totally sinless, yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. So who is it that's actually allowing him to be killed and who's actually, obviously, it's the Lord's plan. It pleased the Lord to bruise him. So although it's the Jews screaming, crucify him. Although it's the Romans nailing him to the cross, of course, he's doing it willingly. And of course, we know that the Father, God the Father, sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. So it's the Father's plan. Jesus Christ is a willing participant. He is sent to this earth. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. It says it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He had put him to grief. Again, let's identify our pronouns here. He is God the Father, put him, Jesus, to grief. Everybody see that? It pleased the Lord to bruise him. He had put him to grief. Now we're talking to God in the second person here, calling him thou or you. When thou shalt 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. Now this is a powerful verse because we see, first of all, that he's an offering for sin. He is that burnt offering of the Old Testament come to fulfillment. All the different animal sacrifices and burnt offerings that were offered upon the altar, Jesus Christ is the ultimate offering for sin. Again, the Jews are completely blind to not see the prediction of this great man that would come, the servant that would come and be righteous and die for our sins and be an offering for sin. Now it says thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. Now what we need to understand is that often in the Old Testament, the word soul is referring to the whole person. And often it's just referring to the soul. So you have to go by context, but frequently in the Old Testament, a person is just known as a soul. Like for example, when it talks about Abraham and the souls he'd gotten in Haran. He's not just collecting only the soul, but he's collecting people is what that means. The soul that sinneth it shall die simply means the person that sins shall die. When Esau says to his father, you know, let thy soul bless me, he's just basically saying you're going to bless me. So the word soul is often referring to the whole person. And so it says here, thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. So this could just be referring to the person, but I think it's more likely that it's actually referring to the soul of Jesus Christ specifically in the sense that he is a body, soul and spirit. And I think it's specifically referring to the fact that his soul is an offering for sin. And if you would go over to Acts chapter two, and I'll show you why I think that is, although you could interpret it the other way because of the way soul is often used to refer to the whole person. I think it's more likely based on the way that sentence reads and based on what I'm about to show you, that he actually is referring to the soul there. Because the Bible says in verse number 24, or let's go back to verse 23, him being delivered by the determinant counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken him by wicked hands of crucified and slain. Verse 24, whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be holding of it. For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved. Therefore did my heart rejoice and my tongue was glad, moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope, because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption. So the Bible explains here that the resurrection of Christ is the fact that his soul was not left in hell. Now a lot of people will try to water this down and say, well, when it says hell there, it's not really hell. They'll say, well, it's Hades. Well, you know, just using another language doesn't really change anything. People like to just go to another language and to just make it sound different. Okay, no, let's translate that into English, because it's in Hades that the rich man lifted up his eyes being in torment, and he's in a flame, and he's begging for a drop of water. Guess what? That's just the word that the Bible uses for hell, okay? Every time that word is used in the original language is referring to a burning hell, okay? So don't go to some other foreign language to try to mess with us, okay? The English Bible is our final authority in this church, because we're English speakers here, okay? We don't expect you to know a foreign language to know doctrine. God doesn't expect you to know a foreign language. God doesn't expect any Christian to go learn a foreign language to know his word. His word can be translated into all languages. And our King James Bible has stood like a rock for 400 years while all the other perversions come and go. This King James Version has been here like an anchor, like a rock, for 400 years. Well, who says that's the standard? Oh, I don't know the entire world. It's the standard that every other version is compared to, because it has been the standard for 400 years. Where was the Bible before that? They had other versions before that, and if you go back even before that, there was no such thing as modern English. There was Middle English, and then there was Old English, okay? So modern English has only been around in the term modern English since around like 1450 AD, okay? And so you have in the early 1500s, Bibles being translated into modern English and then culminating in the King James Bible, 1611, which is modern English. Don't ever say that the King James is Old English. It's called modern English. Old English, you can't even understand a word of it. It's a very, very different language, not even close. You could not even understand literally a word of it, okay? It's like Beowulf, 1000 AD, okay? So we see here that the Bible says hell here. Now, of course, your modern versions are going to take this out and change it to the grave. Oh, you're not going to leave me in the grave, or you're not going to leave me dead, or you're not going to leave me in Hades, or whatever. And they'll try to tone this down, but let me just explain something to you. It's not just the King James that says hell here. Every Bible from 400 years ago is pretty much going to say hell here in virtually any language that you look it up in. I mean, you can look up in all manner of European languages and find hell, hell, hell, hell. Or obviously, you're going to find it in those languages, the word for hell. And then you look at the Old English translation before the King James, you're going to find hell. It's not like the King James is unique here. And it's the same Greek word that's translated everywhere else as hell. So it's a burning place. Now, people just struggle with this like, well, I just can't believe that Jesus went to hell. Why not? He took upon him the sins of the whole world. Do you think he's going to take all that sin and go to heaven with it? You think he's going to dump a big load of sin in heaven? It doesn't even make sense. Look, he took the sins of the world and he took them down to hell. He conquered hell and death. He said, I have the keys of hell and death. He said he was going to spend three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. He descended into the lower parts of the earth, the Bible says. So he was in hell for three days and three nights. And then three days later, he rose again. But a lot of people say, yeah, but OK, he went to hell, but it was a good part of hell. That reminded me of when I lived in Hammond, Indiana, and people would always talk about the good part of Gary, Indiana. I never found it. Now, I'm not saying it isn't there, but I never saw it. There's no good part in hell. Well, he's in a nice part. He's in a part called paradise. OK, well then explain this to me. If Jesus is in the good part of hell, quote unquote, or in paradiso, then explain to me why he's so anxious to get out of there. Explain to me why it says in verse 24, whom God has raised up, having loosed the pains of death. It looks like Jesus Christ is in pain before he's resurrected. He's suffering the pains of death before being resurrected, and he's saying the reason that he has hope is because he's not going to be left in hell. And so obviously, he wants to get out of there because hell's a bad place. Now you say, well, I don't know if that, you know, look, what does the Bible say? The Bible says he went to hell, period. If a preacher says, I don't believe Jesus went to hell for three days and three nights, what's he basically saying? Well, I don't believe this passage in Acts 2. I don't believe Psalm 16. I don't believe Matthew chapter 12, verse 40. I don't believe Ephesians 4. That's what they're saying. I mean, this is what the Bible says. Now if you want to go get to NIV, the non-inspired version, or if you want to join the Bible of the month club and get whatever new Bible comes out next week that takes out hell and turns it into the grave and everything else, well then, you know, I don't know what to tell you except for the fact that this is only the beginning of your false doctrine, and you're going to get about 100 more false doctrines reading the NIV because it's filled with junk. It's filled with twisting and changing of scripture. If you're going to be King James only, you've got to see here that Christ was in hell for three days and three nights. In fact, I talked to a guy one time. He was teaching Sunday school in a Baptist church. He didn't even expound on this. He didn't even preach about it in his sermon or lesson in Sunday school. He literally just read these verses, and the pastor confronted him afterwards and said, did I hear you say in your lesson that Jesus went to hell? And he said, no, you heard the Bible say that because he didn't even expound on it. Like he was preaching away, and he just read that part about, you know, his soul was not left in hell, and then he moved on, and it's like, what are you preaching? The Bible? The Bible. You say, Pastor Anderson, who was it that taught you that, that Jesus went, look, I just read the Bible, and when it said hell, I just assumed that hell was hell. Well, the good side of hell. Okay, I challenge you. Why don't you look up the 54 times that your King James Bible used the word hell and show me which one is a good place. I mean, the Bible is consistent on this. Oh, so, so 52 times it's a bad place, and two times it's a good place. You expect me to believe that? And it's funny how I believe that the Greek word Hades is used like 12 times. The NIV translates it 10 times as Hades, which is not a translation, it's a transliteration, and then two times they change it to the grave right here. So they're not even consistent. You know, they say, in Hades the rich man lift up his eyes being in torment, and then over here they'll put the grave. How do you get the, what gives the NIV the right to just translate that word as grave two times? Everywhere else they just leave it as Hades. Why? They're just trying to confuse you with a word you don't understand, Hades, with a word that means nothing to us in 2018 America. I mean, when you hear the word Hades, you don't know what that is. What is that? Some Greek underworld or the Assyrian happy fields or whatever, you know, you don't know what to make of that. It's some kind of mythology. Now, when Jesus used it in the Bible, he's using it to refer to a place of fire. Scripture with scripture, Luke 16, is the same hell of Acts chapter two. So anyway, I don't want to go on and on about that, but I just did. So go back if you would to Isaiah chapter 53. So Christ's soul was made an offering for sin. Well, let me just fill you in on something in case you haven't taken the time to read all of those chapters that you may have thought were boring in the Old Testament where you're reading about all the animal sacrifices and you're going through Leviticus and you're reading about all the sin offerings and the burn offerings and the trespass offering and the free will offering. Hey, let me just fill you in on something. You can read all those chapters and you know where you're going to find that every single offering in the Old Testament is burned upon the altar. There's always fire involved. There's always burning involved. Now there's what's called the whole burnt offering where the whole animal is burned. And then there are other offerings where the animal is butchered and certain parts are put on the altar and burned. Other parts are cooked and eaten. But there's always fire. There's always burning. Every offering is burned 100%. So if Christ is the offering for our sin, where's the fire? Where's the fire? If he's our Passover lamb. Why was the Bible so careful to tell us, don't boil the Passover. Don't eat the Passover raw. Make sure you eat the Passover roast with fire. Why? Because Jesus Christ, when he died, his body was buried but his soul went down to hell for three days and three nights. And hell is a place of fire. And then three days later, up from the grave, he arose. So it says in verse 10 of chapter 53, when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed. Now earlier we saw that he has no generation because he's cut off out of the land of living. He has no physical descendants. But now we see that after he has died and been buried and been made an offering for sin, what do we see? Now he's going to see his seed. Does Jesus Christ have descendants? Does Jesus Christ have offspring? Is he a father? Well, listen. Certainly not physically. I don't care what that blasphemous Hollywood movie taught you or whatever. Isn't there a blasphemous Hollywood movie like that about a, oh, Jesus, you know, fathered children with Mary Magdalene? That's blasphemy. That's wicked. That's a perverted, demonic, wicked movie and a wicked book. And it's not something that Christians should be participating in. But he was not a father physically or earthly on this earth, but spiritually, is he a father? Spiritually, does he have seed? Does he have offspring? Does he have children? Yes, because the Bible says that when his soul is made an offering for sin, he shall see his seed. Well, who are the seed of Jesus? I am. You are. We are Christ's seed because he has begotten us again through the gospel. And so he has given us life and made us a new creature because we're in Christ. And so we're his seed, spiritually. And it says he shall prolong his days. So when you're reading this story, you see he died. He's buried. He makes his grave with the rich and with the wicked. But then after he's made an offering for sin, he does what? He prolongs his days, meaning what? He lives again. And he has seed, which is us. And then it says, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Verse 11, and he shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many. Now, righteous and justify are basically the same word, okay? Righteous is an adjective, and justify is a verb that means to make righteous or to declare to be righteous, okay? Something that's already righteous can be justified in the sense that it's just declared as righteous. Or to justify means to make something righteous. So salvation is often called justification. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. What does that mean? It means that we're saved. We're justified. We're declared righteous because the Bible says, as is written, there's none righteous, no not one. So when it comes to ourselves and our own goodness, all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. None of us is righteous, no not one. We are saved when we are declared righteous by God. When we are justified by God, the Bible says that Christ's righteousness is imputed unto us. So that's what justifies us, is when Christ's righteousness is imputed unto us, or reckoned unto us, okay? That's what justifies us or saved us. So the Bible often used these two words interchangeably, just and righteous. Those two words mean exactly the same thing. Justice righteousness, just righteous. Justify means to declare to be righteous. And so even though we're not righteous, I mean we're sinful people. Because we've believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, we're justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Without having to live a perfect life of following God's law perfectly, we're just declared righteous because we believe in Christ. So God just pronounces us righteous. Based on what? Based on the merit of Jesus Christ. Based on the blood of Jesus. Based on his righteousness being imputed unto us. He took our sins upon him, and then he puts his righteousness on us. And that's how we get to heaven. So the Bible says, by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many. How is he going to justify many? Because he shall bear their iniquities, right? So he takes away our sins and bears them and carries them to the cross, and then he imputes his righteousness unto us. Some people have remembered this justified as just as if I'd never sinned. To be justified or declared righteous is just as if I'd never sinned. Why? Because Jesus bore my sins on the cross and paid for them. It's a debt that's been canceled. It's gone. And so it's just as if I'd never sinned, justified. Look at verse number 12. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great. And he shall divide the spoil with the strong. Because he hath poured out his soul unto death, and he was numbered with the transgressors. What does that refer to? The fact that he was crucified with two thieves. So he was one of three, and he was numbered with a couple of transgressors there. And it says that he was numbered with the transgressors, and he bare the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors. What does intercession mean? Intercession is the exact same thing as mediation. Intercession means to go between. Inter means between. So when we think about the internet or international, I mean, what is international travel? You're traveling what? Between nations. So if I travel from the United States to Mexico, I've traveled internationally because I've gone between two nations. That's how my trip was. Session has to do with going, okay? So for example, if I said proceed, pro means forward, seed means go. Proceed means go forward. What if something recedes like a receding hairline? What's the hairline doing? Going back. It's re-seeding. Everybody understand that? How about a recession? Recession means what? The economy is not growing and getting bigger, it's going backward. Things are going bad, okay? Procession is going forward, right? Like a parade or something like that. And so you get the idea. So intercession means to go between. So when the Bible says he made intercession for the transgressors, it's saying that he was a go between. This is where the Bible said there's one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Jesus is that great mediator or intercessor that makes peace between God the Father and mankind. He's the go between. He's the intercessor. He's the mediator. So look, it's mind blowing how much great doctrine is in this passage. And I mean, I'm just quickly blowing through this, just giving you the surface meaning here. This is just scratching the surface. This is just the tip of the iceberg. But do you notice how all the key elements of the gospel story are here? Isn't this amazing? I mean, it's all there. I mean, you've got the death, you've got the burial, you've got the resurrection, you've got Christ's substitutionary atonement. You've got the fact that we're all sinners. You've got Jesus dying for our sins. You've got us being begotten again or born again or becoming his seed. You've got his eternal life where after he raised from the dead, he liveth evermore to make intercession for them. It's all right here in this passage, 700 years before Christ walked on the earth. And yet people say, oh, the Bible's written by man. What? Who could write this 700, 800 years before the fact and just nail it? Every verse. And I mean, you could sit here and dissect this and take this apart and look at it with a microscope. And you know what? You're not going to find any flaw in this passage. You're going to find nothing but perfection. No matter how many times you look at this and go over it and over it and over it, you know what you're going to see? This fits like a glove. This is Jesus Christ. God prophesied exactly what Jesus Christ was going to do before he came. And you know who the most famous prophet of the prophets, if we're talking about the major prophets and the minor prophets in the scripture, I mean, who's everybody's favorite? I mean, it's Isaiah. I mean, Isaiah is the big one. So here it is, the big one, Isaiah. And what does it do? Just crystal clear lays out the gospel of Jesus Christ. Why? Because of the fact that the Jews are blind and we as Christians, we have the blinders off, we can see it clear as day. And God gives us so many assurances in his word of the gospel that we have the ancient witness of the Old Testament that's witnessing of Christ. Every page, every book, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, the ancient witness pointing forward to Christ. And then we have the New Testament looking back on Christ. But notice both of them are in the past tense. This whole chapter is pretty much in past tense. He was wounded because he's the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for this powerful, amazing passage, and thank you for what it represents. Thank you for the gospel. Thank you for salvation through Christ. Thank you for that mediator, that intercessor, our savior, our redeemer. Thank you for the blood of sprinkling, Lord. Thank you for salvation through Jesus. We pray that, Lord, you would just help us to never stop marveling or being amazed at the power of your word, at the glory of the gospel, at the beauty of salvation. And Lord, we just pray that every person here would be inspired to go preach Jesus Christ to every person that they can and to just preach the gospel to every creature. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.