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And his heart was constrained. We just had a hem about the course of God's love and the manner often in which God constrains our hearts by His love and the person of the Lamb. So I believe we have that Lamb to be occupied with in the Isaiah 53.
Stop.
Isaiah chapter 53, verse One who has believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plan, and as a root out of a dry ground. So have he. He hath no form nor comeliness. And when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men. A man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.
And we hit us at where our faces from him. He was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely He had borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 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 all. We, like sheep, have gone astray.
We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shears is dumb, so he opened it not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment. 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, and he made his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death.
Because he had done no violence, neither was any defeat in his mouth, yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He had put him to grief. 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 hands. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied by his knowledge. Shall my righteous servant justify many?
For he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him apportion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with a strong, because he had poured out his soul on the death, and he was numbered with the transgressors, and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
When the lab is introduced to us.
In picture on the Passover night in Egypt.
The people were each responsible in each household to go out into their flocks and to select the land.
If they were too poor to do so, they could go to their neighbor and share a lamb with the neighbor.
And shows us a lab, but as the.
Exodus proceeds. There it finally says D Lab.
The truth of the matter was that no man had one that.
Fully satisfied God's requirements.
And so in Genesis 22, when Isaac asked his father, where is the Lamb?
For a burnt offering.
I uh, Abraham's answer is beautiful. He says God shall provide for himself a lamb of the burnt offering, and only God could provide a lamb for himself.
For God needed a lamb, but so did we.
And uh.
God is the one that could provide the Lamb and did so in John's gospel. It is primarily in the first chapter when John sees the Lord. He says behold the Lamb of God. And most of the gospel is really a picture of the 10th day to the 14th day as seen in Exodus 11 umm twe chapter 12.
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But.
Where the Lamb wants it was selected, was kept from the 10th day to the 14th day, and observed to see whether it was a suitable Lamb, and passed the qualifications necessary to be the Lamb that was slain. And in John the Lamb is presented particularly to us. And then we have, as the gospel progresses, the Lamb from the 10th to the 14th day is observed.
And found to be perfect as God's Lamb is suitable for the offering here in Isaiah 53.
The lamb is in their midst. Really, they don't recognize it. They don't see him as the one that God had provided for them. And so he grow. He grows up in the midst of a dry ground. There was a a land of no fruit for God.
And, uh, there was no beauty in him to the eye of those who were there. And, uh, so we thank God this afternoon that we can observe the land for our own heart, and that God, in his grace to us, has given us to see beauty in the Lamb, and to delight, as John the Baptist did, to behold him.
If there's anyone in this room that doesn't see in the Lord the Lamb.
It's because you're blind.
Not physically blind, but spiritually blind. And if you're spiritually blind, it's because of unbelief. The Word of God connects seeing with believing and blindness with unbelief. And so perhaps you don't see anything this afternoon in the wars as the Lamb. That's God's provision for your need. If that's the case, then a report is given to you and the question is, have you believed the report?
Well, if you don't believe the report, it's because you do not believe the testimony that God has given you concerning His land. And therefore there is and you're seeing. You don't see. And in fact, in John 9 where He's spoken of, it says your sin remains. That is, you might say, well, I don't believe that, I don't see that and so on. But it's just the evidence of blindness.
And so it's a wonderful thing to say, if necessary. Lord, help thou mine unbelief, that your eyes might be open, that you might see beauty and have your heart constrained by the person of God's Son, his Lamb.
First verse is mentioned in John chapter 12 which you're mentioning.
On verse 37, That though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him. The saying of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spake, Lord, who hath believed our report, and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed?
Therefore they could not believe because that Isaiah said again.
Here's a quote from the 6th chapter. He had blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts that they should not see with their eyes nor understand with their heart can be converted and I should heal them. These things set is this when he saw his glory and spake of him?
Serious to not see beauty in the Lord Jesus.
Blindness. Spiritual blindness.
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We find when John the Baptist announced to this one was in the first chapter of John's Gospel that there for the most part there was a already a rejection and a blindness that is developed through the not only John's Gospel, but in all the gospel. But it is beautiful to see that when he made the announcement the second time, two of John's disciples who heard him, they turned and they beheld that beauty in the Lord Jesus.
They realize by faith who He was as the Lamb of God, and they turned from following John to follow the Lord Jesus.
And so how beautiful it is when the Lord Jesus is presented and there's a real work of faith and the opening of the eyes of the blind, as Dawn has said, then we find there are souls even today still being turned.
To the Lord Jesus, but it's interesting too, before he raises this question at the beginning of this chapter, and I almost suggested that we begin with the reading of the last three verses of the previous chapter. In fact, maybe you'll just allow me to read them because it might have been better if the chapter division had been at the end of the 12Th verse of the previous chapter because that's really where there's a perhaps a more proper break. But.
See that as it may, let me read verses 1314 and 15 of chapter 52. Behold, my servant shall deal prudently. He shall be extolled, and he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high. As many were astonished at these, his visage was so mired. More than any man, and his form more than the sons of man, so shall he sprinkle many nations.
The king shell shut their mouth at him for that which has had not been told them, shall they see, and that which they had not heard shall they consider. I'd like to just suggest here that we have something very beautiful in God's estimation of this one that is taken up in the 53rd chapter because He raises this question. Who has believed our report? And there's many multitudes today who haven't believed the report.
Israel as a nation didn't believe the report and rejected God's lamb. And to this day there's judicial blindness on the nation of Israel. But isn't it beautiful that God first of all, gives his estimation of his servant? And it's helpful when you go through Isaiah to find that when the servant is singular, it is almost always, uh, the Lord Jesus that is being referred to prophetically.
And so God gives his estimation in the opening verses of the 53rd chapter. We have man's estimation due to his rejection and spiritual blindness, and there's no beauty that we should desire him and so on.
But before we have that, God gives His view, because God always gives his view first of His Son, his servant, and the one who accomplished the work to His glory and satisfaction as the Lamb of God, the one who offered himself as the sweet savor. Brethren, God gives His estimation. And what does God say? There's a day coming when my son is going to be extolled. He's going to be very high. He's going to have his rightful place. The kings of the earth are going to stand in awe with closed mouths because of him.
God was looking on to the future day and he says in the mean time, he's the rejected one. In the meantime, there's few who believe the report, but there's a day coming when he's going to have his full exultation. And if I can just make this little suggestion too. And brother, and I don't want to be dogmatic about it, but in the 14th verse where we read of chapter 52 when it says his village was so mired more than any man, I want to make this little suggestion.
That perhaps this is not so much the physical sufferings of Christ that are being referred to here, but that a little illusion or hint of that which took place in those hours of darkness, where we will never understand what fell on the Lord Jesus. And I know that His back with the physical sufferings was plowed with. I know they beat His blessed face. I know that He wore a crown of thorns. I know they plucked the hairs of his cheek.
But I suggest that this statement is a little suggestion of that time when he came under the judgment of God, when God hid the face of the Lord Jesus from this world, when he dealt with his Son as to the question of sin. And I think it's so beautiful that it's brought in here at the beginning of this section of this portion in in the book of Isaiah. Because brethren, that's what our blessings are all based on. Is there gonna be blessings for the world in a future day?
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Is God's Son gonna have his rightful place? Are we brought in the blessing now by grace and on the grounds of.
Putting our faith in the Lord Jesus and availing ourselves of the Lamb of God and His sacrificial work yet. But brethren, what is it all left on or what is it all based on? It's all based on those sufferings that took place in those hours of darkness. All the physical sufferings of Christ, as awful as they were and as good for us as it is to go over them. And tomorrow morning when we remember the Lord, it's good to go over those physical sufferings. But let's remember.
That the physical sufferings of Christ never atone for one sin. They're not the ground of our blessing or Israel's blessing or the blessing of the nations in the coming days. All blessing is based on those atoning sufferings. And so I suggest He brings them out here, looks on to the day of glory. Now he goes fast and raises this question, and now he's going to go over some of the sufferings of the Lord Jesus as well as that mighty sacrifice.
And I say, brother, it's good for our souls because it's the ground of every blessing we are possessed now and for all eternity.
Currently the nation of Israel is blinded, and so they don't see beauty in that blessed One. And you can talk to a Jew and point to the Scriptures and even read this passage of Scripture and their eyes are blinded to see him. But it's good to see here in this 53rd chapter, the context is really perhaps at his appearing that their eyes will be open, they will see him, and they will recognize him and their hearts will be touched, perhaps particularly in connection with the remnants here from.
Versus umm, maybe down umm.
Versus 5 down to the end. It's really, it speaks of, uh, brings in, uh, substitution there, I believe, uh, 10 times. And, uh, so you have it really in connection with the three words us or our or we. And so they see the Lord Jesus as having, uh, borne the judgment on their behalf as being the Lamb of God, their land. They didn't recognize him as their land, but now they recognize him as their land. And so in Zechariah chapter 14.
Is perhaps when they see him then they will recognize him in verse four. His speech shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst of toward the east and the West.
He will appear, He will be manifested, and they will recognize him by the grace of God.
A wonderful contrast in verse two. He should grow up before him as a tender plant. And then when we shall see him?
Well, how wonderful thing, brethren, that.
He wasn't unseen to the eye of his God, his Father, and so the Lord Jesus.
From the moment of if I could put it as to his incarnation for the moment of his birth to the moment of his death, the Father looked upon him with intense delight and appreciation. And he grew up before him as a tender plant and as a root. The ground was dry, Uh.
There was no fruit for God from that ground until that plant was planted there. And then for the first time God could look upon that land and say, now I see, I see a root from which there will be fruit for myself. And so in a prophetic sense, actually the this section of Isaiah begins in the 49th chapter where God.
Looks upon him as the one and from Isaiah 40 to 49, the people are charged with idolatry and, uh, they had idols instead of the true God, and consequently there was nothing, no fruit for God from them. But then as we have when the Lord says in John, I'm the true vine, and my father is the husband. And in the 49th of.
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Isaiah and on through this section, he replaces, he becomes the true vine of Israel. He becomes the one that grows up as the tender plant before his God. And uh, all that then identify and become part of him, become part of the fruit for God that could not be found from the nation prior to that. And so from the very beginning, at least while man didn't see it.
The one that mattered, if you will. God looked upon him and enjoyed his growing up as a tender plant before his holy eye.
As a root out of dry ground, there was nothing in this world to sustain him, was it? And it was really that sense of his Father's favor that really sustained him. In fact, when it says in John's Gospel chapter one.
We beheld His glory, glory as of an only begotten with the Father. They looked at Him, and there was a man who lived, not for any earthly reason, but because there was one who lived ever in the sense that his Father's love, his Father's eye was upon him. That's what sustained him.
All the way through his life down here.
He was a rude head of a dry ground. Nothing down here sustained him in that position.
And it says He has no form nor comeliness when we shall see him. There is no beauty that we should desire him.
There is nothing in him, naturally, that particularly attracted people.
Remember 1 brother commenting on it if you would have seen Jesus and his 12 disciples passing by.
You would not know who Jesus was in that mix. There was 313 men going by. There was nothing that marked him outwardly to the crowd. They saw no beauty in him and they talked about him. They said we know him. He's the Carpenter.
We know his brothers and sisters. They saw in him nothing more than a normal person down here.
But oh, so much more there was to His glorious person.
So there were perhaps three reasons that they if they rejected the Lord Jesus when he was here, that is the nation of Israel for the Jewish people. One was because he didn't come from a distinguished family. He came from a poor family, as you say, raised in a Carpenter shop in Nazareth. Can anything good thing come out of Nazareth? The question is raised there in John chapter one. And so he came from an undistinguished and poor family.
He then, as Bob said, he lacked as they would, we would say worldly pomp and glory as he walked about. There was nothing to distinguish him. Usually when we see an artist's depiction of the Lord Jesus and his pathway here, there's some glow or some light around him, something that would distinguish him from other men. But as you say, that wasn't true. And then there was spiritual blindness. And so those three things combined.
There was they saw no beauty in him. But isn't it beautiful, brother, that to the eye of faith, as it says in Psalm 45, verse two, thou art fairer than the children of men. Thus the eye of faith. And isn't it wonderful to consider?
That's for you and for me. This afternoon, by a work of grace and grace alone, our eyes have been open to see beauty in the Lord Jesus. And there were those two in the days of the Lord Jesus, weren't there? There were those whose eyes were opened by faith to see beauty in the Lord Jesus and to see beyond the fact that I want to use this expression very reverently and carefully, but beyond the fact that He was more than just another man.
He was more than just another man. He was God manifest in the flesh. He was the Son of God. And we were talking about God's estimation, and Don was talking about the Lord Jesus growing up as a tender plant before the eye of God. And isn't that why the heavens opened on different occasions? And heaven delighted to look down at that object walking in this world. God the Father delighted to gaze down at his beloved Son.
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And a voice declare, this is my beloved Son, hear him. This is the one in whom I'm well pleased and so on. That was not man's estimation of the Lord Jesus. That was God the Father's estimation of the tender, tender plant. But there were those weren't there who did see, as I say, beauty in the Lord Jesus. And there are those today by grace, brethren, and it's only by grace. We believe the report, we believe the gospel.
The gospel is going to go forth tonight, God willing, and we trust that the Spirit of God will work and eyes will be opened.
By faith, by grace to see beauty in the Lord Jesus. The work is still going on, but for the most part, men even today do not. They're blinded. And especially the nation of Israel, as Brother Robert said, just repeat for three reasons. There he was from a poor and undistinguished family. There was no worldly pomp or glory about his demeanor or his person as he walked here in this world. And there was spiritual blindness. And that veil is on the hearts of Israel, of the nation of Israel to this very day.
And won't be removed until a coming day when he removes it and they do recognize who this one was that they flew.
His Godhead glory was veiled with a human form, wasn't it? That's why it says in the book of Hebrews.
Speaks about the veil, which is to say his flesh, so as they looked at him to just another man.
But there were times when the.
Glory shone through that human veil when He stood in the boat and calmed the winds and their waves. And even the disciples said, What man is this? Didn't they know who he was? But brethren, do we really know who He is? Do we grasp the tremendous glory of His person? And then when He was, when they were coming to take him and to bind Him?
And he says, Whom seek ye say Jesus of Nazareth. He says, I am. It went back and fell to the ground. His God had glory that shone through that human veil. But there was another glory that could not be head, brethren, and it was His moral glory. It could no He could be no less than he was the perfect Son of God.
And so as he spoke to the scribes and the Pharisees, the doctors of the law.
Often marveled at how lawyers are so great in taking your words and tripping you up and making you contradict yourself and making you say what you didn't even ever mean to say. They're experts at that.
But when they surrounded Jesus, they could never trip him up. He was a completely perfect man, morally perfect, and they always went away confounded. That was his moral glory, shining that could not be hit.
It's a common saying. We all, most all of us know it. Among men, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
And often beauty, seen or not seen is a reflection on the not the person that's being viewed, but the person that's viewing.
And it's so true with respect to the Lord Jesus. When beauty is not seen in His person, it's a reflection on the viewer, not on himself.
And so when the Lord Jesus was here and man saw him, there were evidences that man recognized him. Even though some said is not this the Carpenter or the carpenter's son? There are others that when they went, the soldiers went to take him. They said never man spike like this man. When Pilot examined him, even as a human judge, he said he's innocent. He recognized the motivation of those that have brought him to him. And they said.
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Well, I know they brought him here to me for envy. And isn't it true even among men? Take a very beautiful young woman, perhaps among her peers, what is the natural tendency? Send me, Why am I not that? And so on. And, uh, the reason?
Able slew his brother Cain was because.
He saw in Cain righteousness and recognized in himself by contrast, evil. And so thank you Cain and Abel. And so Cain slew Abel because Cain's works were righteous, enables, I'm sorry, evil and.
Abel's were righteous.
So it was with Lord Jesus. The lack of seeing beauty in Himself was a reflection on the sinful condition of man. And God enables us to see beauty in him because He has given us a life.
That loves that beauty. He has given us the eternal life, His own, the life of the Son. And so when we see that love in Himself, we have a nature now that is attracted to it, rejoices in it when we see the Lord Jesus to our souls.
Our our lives respond to it and are constrained by it, but it's not the life of nature.
That life says away with this, we will not have this man among us that God has given us to see beauty in them, because we by the grace of God have put faith in the Lord Jesus and have received the life and we look at them and we say, can't have enough of that. I want that forever. And so the apostle Paul expresses what we trust would become fully practically the desire of our own hearts too, to have him.
I want more.
If we could look back a little bit further in chapter 52 we get a little phrase I think adds dimension to chapter 53, Isaiah 52 and verse 10. The Lord has made bare His.
Holy heart, Isaiah 53 begins to lead our report. To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?
Isaiah 52.
His holding arm. The Lord Jesus was down here. He was incomprehensible to his own people because though they professed holiness, they didn't understand or appreciate it.
And that was his strength, His Holiness.
God had given a report in the Old Testament times, and by his word by his prophets as to the person of the Lord, and how they were to recognize him. And it says in Deuteronomy chapter 18 and verse 18, it says, I will raise them up a prophet among their brethren, from among their brethren like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.
And it shall come to pass that whosoever will not hearken under my words, which he shall speak in my name, I will required of him. And so God had given a faithful re record, a report, and by the prophets have spoken of, uh, this man. And uh, he had desired to give that written record and speak to his people that they might receive it. And so it is today we have a written report, a record from God himself that's accurate and faithful as to the deity of the Lord his.
Holiness, as you say, and umm, the perfection of his holy work and this work of substitution. And so those that are umm, uh, in that day of, uh, his appearing, the remnant that, uh, hearers word and has heard his word and believed his word, those are the ones they're going to recognize him. And so on the day that we live now, those that do recognize the Lord Jesus as the faithful one, the Lamb of God are the ones that believe his word, believe his record, believe his report.
And so we have the Word of God.
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It's a serious thing to set aside any portion of the word of God and say I don't want to believe that.
I'll just see you now first John 5.
That he had to believe. It's not the record that God has given.
His son makes God a liar and I don't think people maybe think of it and have respect but if I don't accept.
What you are telling me, I see, I don't believe it. That is making you a liar. That's really what I'm doing to you. I'm making you a liar. And that's very serious to think about and make God alive. You know, it tells us more than once that.
It's impossible.
Prasad a lot.
Now that which is.
Not possible with men.
Tells us that it is possible to lift up God. All things are possible. But it does also say that it is possible for God to lie.
So God has given the record concerning His Son and this book that we hold in our hand.
And how important it is to test it.
As the truth of God.
As those girls said, God said it, I believe it, and that settles it.
I was thinking of the beauty of Dan, you know, speaks and sounds about how the duty of man, it vanishes the way I believe it's Psalm 39, not the statement.
139 and verse 11.
When Tau with rebuked the correct land for inequity, thou maketh his beauty to consume a way like more.
Early every man Hispanic.
We see the contrast in the Lord Jesus.
You never needed to be corrected.
Even his thoughts were in perfect harmony with the will of God. You could say if I do all these those things that please the following.
And so rather than this beauty consuming away, you know, like a garment.
I can put a nice suit and close into the closet and for a time perhaps it looks very good, but I can come back sometime later and find out that it's been attacked by law.
And the beauty isn't there any longer in that particular.
To the close.
You know that's how it is with NAND. NAND at first. Apparently they have a very.
Attractive.
Appearance about you and even morally you might think that so and so is a very wonderful person, but the fact is in time you're gonna see failure. There will be shortcomings and access characteristic of the first man, the first atom. You know he was a failure and everyone part of his race has failed since. But how wonderful the contest in the last Adam is the Lord Jesus Christ.
And truly, it could be said of hints that that it is altogether low.
What a path you had to go to the cross.
Verse three. Think of this man, this Lamb of God.
Was there encouragement?
Go on to the end.
Even though she loved him, even those who said and recognized as God and were in their measure of comfort to the soul. He could say to them when he was facing the last Passover and he wanted them to partake of it with him. He said ye are they which have continued with me and appreciated it in his soul, but his general path in verse 3.
Was a difficult, very difficult one. Umm, he says. He's despised what I want. What a thing to go through life despise.
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I misunderstood, rejected, or let alone of men. Leave that man alone. Let him go his own way, as it were. He was a man who constantly faced the sorrows of life and felt it as none other man did.
We know what pain and suffering is, but nobody has suffered pain and suffering as he did.
Our senses to it are in measured dolls, but his were not.
This will not uh, the greater love a person has, the greater capacity they have to suffer. Is love exceeded any and exceeds any of ours? Sometimes we can only take so much and we sort of back away from it. Even at the cross he refused the medication or the cheap wine that they wanted to give him the dollar census.
He's he's Wanda. He's one to worship.
Man of Sorrows.
And acquainted with grief.
With a commentary of his pathway down here.
And it's been mentioned at times that you never find the Lord Jesus laughing in Scripture.
There was one time that it mentions he rejoiced in spirit.
But as he passed through this world and saw the misery, the degradation that sin had.
Done through the whole creation. Just think of a brethren when man was created. In the beginning they lived up to 900 and some years old. Today we hardly can get up to 100. Whatever has happened to this creation?
Sin has degraded the whole thing to a place where not what God had in mind when He created it. And as he passed through, you find him groaning in spirit, deeply moved because it was not what he had in mind. To see the suffering, the sin. And brethren, as we pass through the world too today, we need to have God's thoughts about it all.
You think of the awful suffering in other parts of the world.
Children dying of hunger and bombs blowing up mothers and children.
Can we do anything less than grown? Is this what God had in mind? How can it be? No wonder the Son of God passed through this world. He was a man of sorrows.
And acquainted with grief.
He came under his own and his own received him not, it says in John's Gospel chapter one, but here he's despised and rejected of men. And so in verse two it says that there's no form nor comeliness or nor lordliness, and he didn't come and pomp and great glory as a king. But then here in verse three, he's rejected. He's left alone of many of the Darby translates it. And so he really wasn't a part of the inner circle.
As it were, He came unto His own, His own refuge of God, and the One whom they should have recognized and received, why they wanted to have nothing to do with them. And so how his heart must have been, uh, broken at the thought of those that He loved and came to bless, and those that were of the highest.
Order of society, you might say, those that were in the chief principal places of ruling among the people.
They, uh, sought with envy to uh, keep anything, any of the people from believing on him. They desired in their envy and their hatred, to umm, ostracize him. And so he was left alone of men.
3061.
Can you repeat that 261?
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The Holy.
Water.
Don't stand God's name.
And all rise.