ISAIAH’S CHRISTMAS - Divine Viewpoint · Christmas is depicted for us in Isaiah 53. There are...

ISAIAH’S CHRISTMAS

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

signed,

Isaiah

taken from

Isaiah 53

Buddy Dano, Pastor

Divine Viewpoint

www.divineviewpoint.com

February 1987

98

http://www.divineviewpoint.com

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM ISAIAH

How did Isaiah celebrate Christmas? Howdo you celebrate Christmas? What do

you know about Christmas? Here is a Christ-mas exam for you.

What do you know about the Cross?What do you know about Christ on theCross? It was not a partridge in a pear tree!It was Christ bearing our sins in His ownbody on the Tree. It was actually Christmasin April that Isaiah celebrated.

Christmas is depicted for us in Isaiah 53.There are seven points of emphasis in thischapter, or seven principles about Christmasyou should know.

Isaiah 53:1-12 gives us seven factorsabout Isaiah’s Christmas. I wonder how manyof them the believer in the Lord Jesus Christtoday knows. Here is the Tree and sevenChristmas ornaments, or gifts.

In Isaiah 53:1 we have two questions fororientation. ‘‘To whom is the Arm of the Lordrevealed?’’ This is a reference to the DEITYof the Lord Jesus Christ. ‘‘Who hath believedour report?’’ A reference to the HUMANITY ofthe Lord Jesus Christ. So, in these two ques-tions we have the Lord Jesus Christ as theGod-man, the unique Member of the uni-verse.

Point 1: Act one. Ornament one. Verses2-4, the HUMANITY of Christ related to theTree/ the Cross.

Point 2: Verses 5-6, man’s condition andthe Tree/ the Cross.

Point 3: Verses 7-8, the Lord’s trials andthe Tree/ the Cross.

Point 4: Verse 9, the Lord’s burial andthe Tree/ the Cross.

Point 5: Verse 10, the Lord’s resurrec-tion and the Tree/ the Cross.

Point 6: Verse 11, salvation and theTree/ the Cross.

Point 7: Verse 12, the Lord’s glorificationand the Tree/ the Cross.

Here is your Christmas pageant. Isaiah’sChristmas pageant. Isaiah 53 is one of themost marvelous and concentrated passagesin the Old Testament with regard to the Per-son of the Lord Jesus Christ.

People often ask ‘‘Was Jesus Christ re-vealed in the Old Testament?’’ Actually, theLord Jesus Christ was revealed in manyways in the Old Testament. He was revealedthrough the Levitical offerings. He was re-vealed through the various articles of furni-ture in the tabernacle and the temple. Hewas revealed through the operation of thepriesthood. He was revealed through directconversation, and above all He was revealedthrough prophesy. ‘‘The spirit of prophesy isthe testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ.’’

Now in Isaiah 43 we have a prophesywritten 600 years before the Cross, and yetthis is one of the most detailed passages onthe Tree, the Cross, that has ever existed.

For example, let us just briefly, before westart with Isaiah’s Christmas, skip down to averse that demonstrates something THATONLY HAPPENED TWICE IN THE HIS-TORY OF THE HUMAN RACE. Isaiah 53:9,‘‘And He made His grave with the wicked.’’The pronoun ‘‘He’’ refers to God the Father. Itshould be translated, literally, ‘‘He assignedHim,’’ Christ, ‘‘His grave with the wicked.’’That means that there were two thieves whodied on each side of Him on the Tree. Therewere three Crosses and Christ was in themiddle. ‘‘And with the RICH in His death.’’(Wicked and rich). Now, Jesus Christ shouldhave been placed in an obscure grave be-cause He was identified with criminals, butinstead, He went to the tomb of Joseph ofAramethia after His death.

But, here is a very unusual thing: This is600 years before it happened. Isaiah wrote in

1 MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM ISAIAH

verse 9: ‘‘With the rich in His DEATHS.’’ Plu-ral. This word ‘‘deaths’’ is not in the singular,but in the plural. So, this word has been mis-translated. The translators didn’t know whatto do with it. So, here in the original languageof the Hebrew text we have a word in theplural which is very unusual. It isn’t the word‘‘death,’’ but it is the word ‘‘deaths,’’ plural.They didn’t know what to do with it. Theythought it was some mistake, and eventhough it is in the plural in the Hebrew, thetranslator put it in the English in the singular.

One of the things that Isaiah knew aboutChristmas that many, many people do notknow when they celebrate Christmas is thatJesus Christ DIED TWICE. Only twice in thehistory of the human race has a living personever died twice. The first person who suf-fered death twice, plural, was Adam. Adamwas alive and then one day he sinned.

Genesis 3:6, ‘‘And when the woman sawthat the tree was good for food, and that itwas pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to bedesired to make one wise, she took of thefruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also untoher husband with her; and he did eat.’’ Themoment he sinned, he died spiritually. Nowthat is the first death. We know that he diedspiritually immediately because Genesis 2:17tells us that the ‘‘wages of sin is death.’’ Hewas told that he would die. ‘‘But of the treeof the knowledge of good and evil, thou shaltnot eat of it: for in the day that thou eatestthereof THOU SHALT SURELY DIE.’’

He died spiritually because as soon asJesus Christ came walking in the garden,Adam had to hide. He couldn’t have fellow-ship with the Lord, because he was sepa-rated from God. He was spiritually dead,which means actually separation from God.So Adam died spiritually. Then many hun-dreds of years later, you see the Bible tellsus that Adam lived a long time, quite a fewhundred years later, and then Adam diedphysically.

Human beings die physically. But theyare already spiritually dead when they areborn. And this is the reason we need salva-tion. Ephesians 2:1 tells us that we are born

physically alive but spiritually dead, ‘‘And youhath He quickened, who were dead in tres-passes and sins.’’ But Adam was actuallyalive, and then he died twice. Adam is thefirst person who ever died twice.

In Romans 5:12 we read, ‘‘Wherefore, asby one man sin entered into the world, anddeath by sin; and so death passed upon allmen, for that all have sinned.’’ That ‘‘oneman’’ is Adam. Adam was the only memberof the human race, along with Eve, his wife.They were the only members of the humanrace to die twice. Then Jesus Christ cameinto the world and Jesus Christ went to theCross. Jesus Christ, like Adam, was the onlyPerson who ever came into the world whowasn’t already spiritually dead. This was ac-complished through the virgin birth of Christ.Jesus Christ was spiritually alive in His hu-manity, and He did not have the imputationof Adam’s sin. He did not have an old sinnature, and He lived a life free from sin.

When He hung upon the Tree, He diedfirst of all, just like the first Adam, He diedfirst of all spiritually. Jesus Christ died spiritu-ally when He screamed out, the fourth thingHe cried out on the Tree, ‘‘ELOI, ELOI, LA-MAI SABANTANI,’’ which means ‘‘My God,My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?’’ WhenJesus Christ said ‘‘My God, My God,’’ He wasaddressing first God the Father, and sec-ondly He was addressing God the HolySpirit. Both of Them had to forsake the HU-MANITY of Jesus Christ because as JesusChrist hung on that Tree, He was made sinfor us. He bore our sins on that Tree. There-fore God the Father and God the Holy Spirithad to turn Their backs on Him and at thatmoment He died spiritually. He died spiritu-ally as our Substitute, bearing our sins, andtaking our place on the Tree.

So Christmas says that Jesus Christ wasforsaken. HE HUNG THERE ALONE FORYOUR AND FOR ME.

Then we get to the seventh cry of theLord Jesus Christ on the Tree, which waspreceded by the sixth cry, which was ‘‘It isfinished.’’ He was not going to leave thisworld until His work of salvation was finished.

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM ISAIAH 2

When He said ‘‘It is finished’’ then the sev-enth saying was ‘‘Father, into Thy hands Icommit My Spirit,’’ and that is when He diedphysically.

Jesus Christ died spiritually at twelvenoon on the Tree, high noon. He died physi-cally at 3:00 in the afternoon. So, He diedtwice.

Now notice what Isaiah says aboutChristmas. Isaiah 53:9, ‘‘He made His gravewith the wicked.’’ These were the two thieveson the tree, the two criminals who died withHim, crucifixion. ‘‘He was assigned His gravewith the rich in His DEATHS,’’ plural, not sin-gular as we have it in the English language.

This one phrase, when the Hebrews readthis, tends to make them terribly upset. Weknow that orthodox Israel often read manypassages in the Old Testament. But this isone phrase that they do not understand be-cause it is plural. It is quite disturbing tothem, until they personally accept JesusChrist as their Messiah, then, of course, it isquite simple.

But here is a fantastic thing about Christ-mas. This is only one of many thousands ofdetails that are here for us in our study thischapter, which will be brought out for us bythis verb. Many of the verbs in our EnglishBible are not clearly translated. You will findthat much of the word order is not very clear,and so we will go slow in order to get all thatis here for us. But I want you to see this fan-tastic principle here. ONLY ONCE IN ALLOF PROPHECY IS THERE SUCH APHRASE ‘‘DEATHS,’’ PLURAL.

The Hebrew word is MAWVETH, pro-nounced ‘‘mooth.’’ This passage is talkingabout the Lord Jesus Christ. For us He diedspiritually and then He died physically. Butlet’s reverse the order. Because He diedspiritually, this is where He said ‘‘It is fin-ished,’’ and bore our sins.

This means that physical death has lostits sting, or its power. 1 Corinthians 15 saysthat the stinger is taken out of death. ‘‘Odeath, where is thy sting?’’ So now we mayface the possibility that we could be removed

from this life through physical death. ‘‘Yea,though I walk through the valley of theshadow of death, I will fear no evil, thou artwith me,’’ i.e., relationship. So physical deathto the believer means that because JesusChrist died twice, WE CAN ONLY DIEONCE.

You see, there is another death, calledthe second death. Actually there are sevendeaths depicted in Scripture. The seconddeath is FINAL JUDGMENT. But for the per-son who has accepted Jesus Christ as per-sonal Saviour, we only die once, MAYBE.

Here is the fantastic thing. Adam got usinto this mess by dying twice. First death:spiritual. Second death: physical. Adam gotthe whole human race into it because we areall born in Adam’s line. Here is the humanrace and we are all in it. Then another Mem-ber of the human race comes along, just likethe First Adam, who was perfect, and that isJesus Christ, the Second Adam. He is thesubject of Christmas, Isaiah’s Christmas.Isaiah 53.

Jesus Christ did exactly the same thingas the First Adam. First, He died spiritually,and then, secondly, He died physically.When any member of the human race ac-cepts Jesus Christ as personal Saviour, HECAN’T DIE TWICE. The only people in thehuman race who can ever die twice arethose who reject Jesus Christ as their per-sonal Saviour. ‘‘In Adam all die. In Christ allare made alive.’’ So, the unbeliever dies oncephysically, and then for them the seconddeath, and that is called the Last Judgment.There is another death, which is called thesecond death. But for the believer in the LordJesus Christ, the second death is cancelledbecause Jesus Christ was our Substitute onthe Tree. We are no longer in the area ofthe second death.

Paul realized this and he said ‘‘For me tolive is Christ, and to die is gain.’’ Physicaldeath, then, for the believer is a PROMO-TION, a home going, a wonderful promotioninto the presence of the Lord, where we willnever know anything remotely resemblingdeath.


Here is an interesting thing now. How dowe get here? We get here by being borntwice. It is the second birth that counts. Andthat is why the Lord Jesus Christ said to areligious man, ‘‘Ye must be born again.’’ Weare born once physically, and we are bornthe second time, spiritually. So, here is theprinciple of this word ‘‘deaths.’’ MAWVETH,mooth. The person who is born twice diesonly once, MAYBE. But the person who isonly born once DIES TWICE! Can you followthat? MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

All of that comes out of one word,‘‘deaths,’’ plural. Christ didn’t die once. HEDIED TWICE! One of His deaths is empha-sized in Scripture. ‘‘God commended His lovetoward us, in that while we were yet sinners,Christ died for us.’’ Romans 5:8, ‘‘Christ diedfor us.’’ That is SPIRITUAL death. THAT ISTHE ONE DEATH THAT SAVES US, NOTHIS PHYSICAL DEATH . His physical deathmerely meant that EVERYTHING ELSE WASFINISHED AND HE HAD ACCOMPLISHEDHIS MISSION.

The Scriptures always emphasize thefirst death, spiritual. Just as the Scripture al-ways emphasizes the first death of Adam,spiritual. It wasn’t Adam’s physical deaththat had the significance. Adam’s physicaldeath was the result of his spiritual death.But he died immediately spiritually the mo-ment he sinned.

So the Lord Jesus Christ had to do ex-actly what the First Adam did to reverse theprocess for salvation. Christ went through ex-actly the same thing. Now only two membersof the human race who ever came into thisworld actually died twice during their lifetime,Adam and Christ. That is why the Scriptureoften calls the Lord Jesus Christ the LastAdam. ONE ADAM GOT US IN, AND AN-OTHER ADAM GOT US OUT.

By accepting Jesus Christ as personalSaviour we are born spiritually. We are borntwice therefore, and the person who is borntwice can only die once, MAYBE. Physicaldeath to the believer then is not going intosomething that is terrible. It means going intosomething that is wonderful beyond human

description. It is, in fact, almost impossible todescribe it, so we have such phrases asRevelation 21:4, ‘‘No more sorrow, no moretears, no more pain, no more death. The oldthings are passed away.’’ ‘‘The old things,’’are ‘‘In Adam.’’ This is what Jesus Christ didfor us. And this will give you some clue as tothe marvelous things we have in this pas-sage with regard to Christmas and the LordJesus Christ.

There are many other such things thatare not obvious. And we will dig them out. Sowe want to establish, first of all, by way ofintroduction, the fact that our passage dealswith the Lord Jesus Christ. In Isaiah 42 weare told that the Lord Jesus Christ becamethe servant of God the Father. It says ‘‘Be-hold My Servant.’’ These are the first fewwords of Isaiah 42:1. When God the Fathercalls the Lord Jesus Christ His Servant, youhave to remember that God exists in threeseparate and distinct Personalities, the FirstPerson, the Second Person and the ThirdPerson. They are co-equal and co-eternal.They all have identical characteristics, butthey are three Persons.

The First Person, God the Father, is theAuthor of the Plan. His Plan was salvation forthe whole human race. His Plan was dividedinto three parts. The first part of the Plan wecall Stage One, the Tree. Jesus Christagreed to go to the Cross, but you see, theOne who goes to the Cross had to die for oursin. He has to be subject to death. It wasimpossible for Jesus Christ in His DEITY asGod to be subject to death. Simply becauseJesus Christ is eternal life and Christ is im-mutable and Christ is sovereign. Therefore,Christ in His DEITY can’t die.

So Jesus Christ had to take upon Him-self HUMANITY and that is the virgin birth ofChrist. That is what we celebrate at Christ-mas. The fact that Jesus Christ came into theworld and became true HUMANITY. But Healso had to be perfect HUMANITY, sinlessHUMANITY. That is the way in which Hecame into the world. ‘‘Behold, a virgin shallconceive and bear a Child,’’ Isaiah 7:14.


When Jesus Christ came into the worldas perfect HUMANITY and sinless HUMAN-ITY, His HUMANITY was subject to death.His HUMANITY died in a unique way. He isthe only Person, the only Member of the hu-man race, apart from Adam, who had everbeen in the world in an innocent status, orsinless status. He went to the Cross sinlessin His HUMANITY, perfect in His HUMAN-ITY. And therefore qualified to do somethingthat no member of the human race has everbeen able to do and that is TO DIE TWICE.By Jesus Christ dying twice, WE HAVE TWOBIRTHS. So all these things are tied intothis phrase.

God the Holy Spirit, ‘‘Who is our Teacherand our Guide, Who guides us into all Truth,’’has the objective of revealing this to man.Jesus Christ is called the ‘‘Servant of the Fa-ther.’’ That is the HUMANITY of the Lord Je-sus Christ. The HUMANITY of the Lord Je-sus Christ is the Servant of the Father be-cause the HUMANITY of Christ went to theCross and died for our sins. DEITY was notinvolved because, again, DEITY can’t die.

There are two areas in the New Testa-ment where Isaiah 53 is quoted in part. Eachtime it is quoted to demonstrate it is talkingabout the Lord Jesus Christ. They are foundin Luke 22:35-37, ‘‘And He said unto them,When I sent you without purse, and scrip,and shoes, lacked ye any thing? And theysaid, Nothing. Then said He unto them, Butnow, he that hath a purse, let him take it, andlikewise his scrip: and he that hath no sword,let him sell his garment, and buy one. For Isay unto you, THAT THIS THAT IS WRIT-TEN MUST YET BE ACCOMPLISHED INME, AND HE WAS RECKONED AMONGTHE TRANSGRESSORS: for the things con-cerning Me have an end.’’

Acts 8:30-35, ‘‘And Philip ran thither tohim, and heard him read the prophet Esaias,and said, Understandest thou what thoureadest? And he said, How can I, exceptsome man should guide me? And he desiredPhilip that he would come up and sit withhim. The place of the Scripture which heread was this, He was led as a sheep to the

slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before Hisshearer, so opened He not His mouth: In Hishumiliation His judgment was taken away:and who shall declare His generation? for Hislife is taken from the earth. And the eunuchanswered Philip, and said, I pray thee, ofwhom speaketh the prophet this? of himself,or of some other man? Then Philip openedhis mouth, and began at the same Scripture,and preached unto him Jesus.’’

We are all familiar with Acts 8 where wehave the Ethiopian eunuch. The treasurer ofEthiopia is driving his car back to Ethiopiaand on the way he picks up a hitchhiker bythe name of Philip, whose name means loverof horses. In those days you could ride in acar and read at the same time because allyou did was put the horse in gear and youdidn’t have to worry about where the carwent. Consequently, as he was going alongin his chariot, he was reading. He was read-ing a manuscript of Isaiah. This is the samething that we are doing right now. As he wasreading, Philip said, ‘‘What are you reading?’’And he said, ‘‘I am reading Isaiah, but I don’tunderstand it.’’ Then we read how that Philipstarted him is Isaiah 53 and began to preachChrist. ‘‘To whom is the Arm of the Lord re-vealed? Who has believed our report?’’ ThePerson is Jesus Christ.

We know that Isaiah 53 is talking aboutthe Lord Jesus Christ. SO WHEN WESTUDY ISAIAH 53, WE ARE DOING EX-ACTLY THE SAME THING PHILIP DIDSOME 2000 YEARS LATER, of course, butPhilip did this first. The same passage, butwe will start with verse 1 and not with verse7 as Philip did. Actually you can start any-where in Isaiah 53. Every verse talks aboutthe Lord Jesus Christ.

What is the subject of Isaiah 53 and/orChristmas? It is the Tree. It is the Cross. It isthe centrality of the Cross. It is the Cross asthe most important event in history. We havea seven-fold outline of Isaiah’s Christmas.

Verse 1: Introduction. Two questions,who and whom. ‘‘To whom is the arm of theLord revealed? And who hath believed our


report?’’ Two questions and seven answers,verses 2-12.

Verses 2-4: The First Advent of JesusChrist. Christmas and the Cross. There areseven areas of teaching about the Cross andthe Tree, Christmas.

Verses 5-6: Man’s condition and Christ-mas. The Cross.

Verses 7-8: Our Lord’s trial and theCross of Christmas.

Verse 9: Our Lord’s burial and the Crossof Christmas.

Verse 10: Our Lord’s resurrection andthe Cross of Christmas.

Verse 11: The doctrine of salvation andthe Cross of Christmas.

Verse 12: Our Lord’s glorification and theCross of Christmas.

Seven principles of examination inIsaiah’s Christmas.

This is prophecy of Christmas. We willrepeat these and analyze each one of themas we study this passage.

The Cross, the Tree, the Christmas pag-eant is the central point of Isaiah 53. Isaiah53 has another function. First of all: It isprophecy about the Lord Jesus Christ. This isone of many means of revealing Jesus Christin the Old Testament. There are others.Secondly: It has the greatest single doctrinaldocument on the Cross and the details of theCross in the Scriptures in one spot. A closesecond would be Psalm 22.

Thirdly: Isaiah 53 will be spoken or sung,or both at the Second Advent of Christ by theborn again of Israel. For that picture youhave to hold your place here for a momentand turn to Zechariah 12. I want you to seejust one more thing before we get started, soyou can have a good view of the Cross, ofthe Tree, and of Christmas.

Zechariah 12:10 and following, ‘‘And I willpour out upon the house of David, and uponthe inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of

GRACE and of supplications: and they shalllook upon Me,’’ Christ, ‘‘whom they havepierced, and they shall mourn for Him, asone mourneth for his only son, and shall bein bitterness because of Him, as one that isin bitterness for his firstborn.’’ ‘‘In that day,’’now here is the mourning, ‘‘there shall be agreat mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourn-ing of Hadadrimmonin the valley of Megid-don. And the land shall mourn, every familyapart; the family of the house of David apart,and their wives apart; the family of the houseof Nathan apart, and their wives apart. Thefamily of the house of Levi apart, and theirwives apart; the family of Shimei apart, andtheir wives apart; All the families that re-main, every family apart, and their wivesapart.’’

The families that are mentioned here,that remain at the Second Advent of Christ,will be the Jews who are born again whenChrist returns. They will mourn, and they willsing Isaiah 53. We will see that as we studyit. And we will see the phrase, ‘‘We did es-teem Him stricken smitten of man.’’ They areactually speaking of their own testimony andtheir own salvation.

Isaiah 53:1. Beginning in verse 1 wehave two questions. We have here the intro-duction. This is a good way to teach and agood way to communicate. Question one(Christmas exam): ‘‘Who hath believed ourreport?’’ ‘‘Report’’ is literally ‘‘our message,our Gospel.’’ Question two: ‘‘To whom is theArm of the Lord revealed?’’ THE FIRSTQUESTION DEALS WITH MAN’S SIDE OFSALVATION, ‘‘Who hath BELIEVED?’’ ‘‘Whohath believed the message, the report of theGospel, the Good News?’’ THE SECONDQUESTION DEALS WITH THE DIVINE SIDEOF SALVATION. ‘‘To whom is the Arm of theLord revealed?’’ (Everyone). ‘‘The Arm of theLord’’ is a title for the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now let’s analyze the first question.‘‘Who’’ is an interrogative pronoun. It is an in-definite pronoun, speaking of the members ofthe human race. ‘‘Who,’’ then, is the humanside. ‘‘Who will believe the Gospel?’’ ‘‘Hathbelieved’’ is what is called in the Hebrew lan-


guage a HIPHIEL stem, which is causative.Literally, ‘‘Who has been caused to believeour report?’’ The word ‘‘report’’ is literally,‘‘Gospel, Good News,’’ i.e., the message ofsalvation. Literally, ‘‘our exciting report, ourmarvelous report, our wonderful report.’’

There are all sorts of reports today andall sorts of reporters. Business reports, mostof them are bad. Political reports, which areterrible. International reports. Crisis stackedupon crisis. We have all sorts of reports, andmost of them are bad. Here is one report thatis always good, no matter what happens inthe world!! This is the report of the Gospel. Itis the most marvelous, wonderful news in allof the world. IT IS THE NEWS THAT THEWORLD NEEDS.

Regardless of how difficult and how terri-ble man has made and confused thingsthrough his efforts, through satanic operation,abroad in the world today, there is one glori-ous, marvelous message of hope and it isETERNAL. That is the message of Isaiah.That is the message of the Cross. That is themessage of the Tree. That is the message ofChristmas.

Man’s plans are temporary and man’splans are imperfect because man is imper-fect. An imperfect person can only come upwith an imperfect plan. Man’s plans have tobe imperfect. They cannot be perfect, be-cause the source is man, who is imperfect.THE PLAN IS NO BETTER THAN THE MANWHO PLANS IT. ‘‘The best laid plans of miceand men...’’

Now you take someone who is perfect,God. He can ONLY COME UP WITH A PER-FECT PLAN. So man’s plans, because theyare imperfect, are temporary. Even the goodplans of man are temporary. The good planand the bad plan of man are only temporary.And that is a good thing to remember attimes. Communism is temporary. Now, thereare a lot of terrible things in this world today,and they are temporary. ‘‘The world is pass-ing away.’’ So man’s plans are all temporary.They are confined to time. We have manyplans of man, but they are all confined totime.

But, let me say this: God’s Plan is per-fect, BECAUSE GOD IS PERFECT. Andtherefore, WHEN A PLAN IS PERFECT, ITIS ETERNAL. We may never realize it untilwe leave this life and enter into the presenceof the Lord, how wonderful His Plan for usreally is.

There are all sorts of wonderful Scrip-tures that describe it, mostly in generalterms. ‘‘He can do exceeding abundantlyabove all we could ever ask or think.’’ ‘‘Ab-sent from the body and face to face with theLord.’’ ‘‘Inheritance incorruptible, undefiled,that fadeth not away, reserved for us inheaven, for us who are kept by the power ofGod unto faith unto salvation, ready to be re-vealed at the last time.’’ ‘‘No more sorrow, nomore tears, no more pain, no more death.’’‘‘Let not your heart be troubled. Ye believe inGod. Believe also in Me. In My Father’shouse there are many mansions.’’

We have all these wonderful phrases.They simply tell us that God’s Plan for us ispermanent. They include time and eternity.

So you think to yourself then, what arewe doing down here? Why are we still here?Well, we are here to represent the Lord Je-sus Christ.

James says that ‘‘life is just a vapor. Itstretches across the sky.’’ It is here todayand gone tomorrow. But here it is: ONCEYOU ACCEPT JESUS CHRIST AS YOURPERSONAL SAVIOUR, THERE ARE NOLONGER ANY VAPORS IN YOUR LIFE.

‘‘Who believed our report?’’ Well, the an-swer to that word ‘‘who’’ is the whole humanrace. Someone has to tell the human racethis message. That is a part of why we arehere. Therefore, we have next the Divineside of salvation revealed for us. The humanside is simply ‘‘BELIEVE.’’ ‘‘Believe on theLord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.’’

Now before we leave this first questionlet us be sure we have some Scriptures thatstate that SALVATION IS SIMPLY BYFAITH IN CHRIST AS YOUR PERSONALSAVIOUR.


John 20:31, ‘‘But these are written, thatye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, theSon of God; and that believing ye might havelife through His Name.’’ Acts 16:31, ‘‘Believeon the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt besaved.’’ John 3:16, ‘‘Whosoever believes inHim shall not perish but have everlastinglife.’’

Galatians 2:16, ‘‘Knowing that a man isnot justified by the works of the Law, but BYFAITH IN JESUS CHRIST, even we havebelieved in Jesus Christ, that we might bejustified by the faith of Christ, and not by theworks of the Law: FOR BY THE WORKS OFTHE LAW SHALL NO FLESH BE JUSTI-FIED.’’ Ephesians 2:8, 9, ‘‘For by GRACEare ye saved, through faith; and that not ofyourselves: it is the gift of God: NOT OFWORKS, LEST ANY MAN SHOULDBOAST.’’

You can see the word ‘‘believe’’ here.This is in the Old Testament times, and sal-vation was by faith then and it is so now. It isalways ‘‘believe.’’ ‘‘Who hath BELIEVED ourreport?’’

The second question is the Divine side.‘‘To whom is the Arm of the Lord revealed?’’The ‘‘Arm of the Lord’’ is a title for the LordJesus Christ. It is made up of two words:‘‘Arm’’ and the word ‘‘Lord,’’ JEHOVAH. Theword ‘‘Lord,’’ JEHOVAH, is the verb ‘‘to be’’doubled, which means perfect existence. ‘‘Iam, I am.’’ The word ‘‘arm’’ is a reference tothe HUMANITY of the Lord Jesus Christ. Andthe word ‘‘Lord’’ is a reference to the DEITYof the Lord Jesus Christ.

Most students in seminary often misspellthe word ‘‘Deity.’’ Yet we are supposed to bestudying all about the Deity of the Lord JesusChrist. More than three-quarters of mostseminary classes cannot even spell the word‘‘Deity.’’

Whenever you see the word ‘‘arm,’’ andwhenever you see an arm moving, it is work-ing. Now, there are all sorts of ways in whichyou can move your arm and use your arm.When the arm moves, and the muscle in thearm flexes, it is working. It speaks many

times of power. So the words ‘‘Arm of theLord’’ refer to the HUMANITY of the Lord Je-sus Christ. And here in our study the Arm isdisplayed in specific reference to the Cross.

The Word ‘‘JEHOVAH’’ is, of course, theword for DEITY. So the Lord Jesus Christ iscalled here ‘‘the Arm of the Lord.’’ Now,whenever you find the word ‘‘arm’’ in the OldTestament, and we find it many times, evenin the book of Isaiah, it always refers to thework of the Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross. Itis very interesting to compare the work of theLord. Now, we realize that finger work is al-ways easier than arm work. You only have touse your fingers, and that isn’t very hard.

In Psalm 19:1 we read ‘‘The heavens de-clare the glory of God, AND THE EARTHSHOWETH HIS HANDIWORK.’’ The word‘‘handiwork’’ in the Hebrew is literally ‘‘thework of His fingers,’’ or His hands. So Psalm19:1 tells us that when Jesus Christ, who isthe Creator, created the universe, He simplyused His fingers. It was easy. Now, when itcame to providing salvation, He had to useHis arm. In other words, there was muchmore work involved in providing salvationthan there was in creation, because that isdescribed for us simply as finger work.

This also tells us something else. ‘‘TheArm of the Lord’’ tells us that Christ is theunique Person of the universe. There isn’tanyone in all of the universe like the Lord Je-sus Christ. From the moment of the virginbirth, right down to this present time, and for-ever, Jesus Christ will always be unique! HEIS ABSOLUTELY DIFFERENT FROM ANY-ONE ELSE. He is different from God. JesusChrist is God. And He is co-equal with theFather and with the Holy Spirit. But He is dif-ferent from Them in that He is true HUMAN-ITY. He is different from humanity in that Heis God.

You hear people speaking in terms of Je-sus Christ as being just a good man. So, Iwant you to look at that phrase for a mo-ment. Because when a person says that Je-sus Christ is a good man, or a great religiousleader, let’s just take a look at that statementfor a moment. Jesus Christ cannot be a good


man, even in the sense of logic. If you takethe logical approach, if Jesus Christ is God,and He is, then He is more than a good man.He is the God-man. To say that He is a goodman is not to say enough and not to recog-nize what He really is.

Now, if Jesus Christ is not God, there areonly two alternatives, logically. Either JesusChrist is God or He is not God. He said, ‘‘Iam the Way, the Truth and the Life.’’ He said,‘‘I and the Father are one.’’ So, He is eitherGod or He is a liar. He can’t be anythingelse. He said, ‘‘He that hath seen Me hathseen the Father.’’ Jesus Christ couldn’t be agood man and deceive so many people. Hesaid He was God. And if He isn’t, then Heactually deceived many people. And if He de-ceived people, then He is not good. Becausea good man would not deceive people, anddeceive many people throughout all the cen-turies.

So, if you look at it logically, He can’t bea good man. He is either God, or He is a liarand a deceiver. If you examine the evidence,He can’t be a liar and/or a deceiver. JesusChrist could not perpetuate a lie. He couldn’tperpetuate it over some 2000 years. So, theonly conclusion is the same as was stated bythe centurion at the Cross, ‘‘TRULY THISWAS THE SON OF GOD.’’

Once you recognize Jesus Christ asGod, then you recognize that He is morethan a good man. And you recognize Himthen as your personal Saviour. Once you rec-ognize Jesus Christ as God, you can only ac-cept Him as your personal Saviour. And so itis the crowd that talks about the Lord JesusChrist as a good man, as the master, as thegreat religious leader. These then are theones who have missed the boat. You knowwho called Him ‘‘Master?’’ Judas Iscariot. Ju-das never called Jesus Christ ‘‘Lord.’’ Hecalled Him ‘‘Master.’’ The reason for that is:‘‘No one calls Jesus Christ Lord except bythe Holy Spirit.’’ When people state that Je-sus Christ is a good man, that is an expres-sion of the natural man, the soulish man, theunbeliever, who cannot receive anythingspiritual.

No person can examine the evidenceand ever say that Jesus Christ is merely agood man. He has to be more than that, andHe is. He is the God-man, and therefore, weconclude, our Saviour. If He isn’t God andman in one Person, and therefore not ourSaviour, He is then a faker and a liar.

Do you know something? For centuriesnow Satan has been trying to prove that Je-sus Christ is a fake, and that Jesus Christ isa liar. He has never proved it yet, and HENEVER WILL, because Satan himself is aliar from the beginning.

The most attacked Person in the historyof the human race is the Lord Jesus Christ.And yet, even though He is attacked, the evi-dence still stands. Jesus Christ is God. JesusChrist is our Saviour. ‘‘Neither is there salva-tion in any other, there is none other Nameunder heaven, given unto men, whereby wemust be saved.’’

These two questions launch us into thesubject of the Lord Jesus Christ. ‘‘To whom isthe Arm of the Lord revealed?’’ ‘‘Revealed.’’The word ‘‘revealed’’ is a NIPHEIL stem,which is a passive, declarative. This simplymeans ‘‘to whom does the Arm of the Lordreceive revealing?’’ This is a passive voice,the voice of GRACE. The human race re-ceives this revelation of Jesus Christ. Therevelation is something we receive, which isthe voice of GRACE.

‘‘To whom.’’ ‘‘Whom’’ is the subject. It re-fers to the whole human race. The whole hu-man race receives revelation of the Lord Je-sus Christ. No one in the human race everearned this revelation or deserved it. I don’tknow how you feel about it, but I am person-ally grateful for the day that I found out aboutthe Lord Jesus Christ. We all ought to bethankful for that day. Whether you receivedthat revelation through someone telling youabout Jesus Christ, or whether you readabout Him yourself. None of us have everearned the right to hear about the Lord JesusChrist, or even to see it in the Word, or evenhow we became aware of the Lord JesusChrist. None of us ever earned or deservedthat revelation. It is all the GRACE of God.


In other words, He revealed Himself tous. It is the Biblical principle of the GRACEpursuit of the Lord. This is the passive voice,that which we receive, which means that Goddoesn’t wait until we are real nice and re-spectable people and then say, ‘‘Now I willtell them.’’

This might shock a lot of you, but it ismuch harder for the religious people andthe respectable people to receive salva-tion actually, simply because they keep onleaning on their own self-righteousness.They keep on wanting to DO IT THEM-SELVES. They can’t break that ‘‘do it your-self’’ type of a kit, which, of course, is devas-tating to salvation in Christ.

Okay, we have the two questions, bothsides of the questions, and now we start withseven answers to those two questions. Verse1, two questions, who and whom. Verses 2-4, the First Advent and the Cross, the Tree,Christmas. We begin where you should al-ways begin when you begin with the HU-MANITY of Jesus Christ, at Christmas, theoriginal Christmas. I imagine that the originalChristmas took place some time in SPRING.The shepherds were out with their flocks atnight. ‘‘While shepherds were watching theirflocks at night.’’ You don’t do that in Palestinein the winter, like December. What you do inthe winter is to huddle up at night because itis too cold. It gets very cold in the desert.And it gets very cold in Palestine around theso-called Christmas time.

So, we are probably a few months offwhen we celebrate Christmas in December.Christmas is probably closer to our so-calledEaster. But this study is not designed to con-fuse you. We will still go on celebratingChristmas on December 25. But actually,Biblically, we ought to celebrate EVERY DAYas Christmas. Because Christmas speaks tous as believers of the incarnation of the LordJesus Christ, and we live every day alike.EVERY DAY IS CHRISTMAS!

Verse 2, ‘‘He shall grow up before Him.’’The subject, the pronoun ‘‘He,’’ is a referenceto the Lord Jesus Christ. You will notice Howdramatic the Good News is, our report. The

Good News is here given in verses 2-12.‘‘Who hath believed our report?’’ Our report isthe Gospel. This report specifically is given inthe rest of this chapter. ‘‘To whom is the Armof the Lord revealed?’’ Well, in Isaiah’s day itwas revealed through everyone who heardthis sermon, and all were without excuse.

‘‘For He,’’ the Lord Jesus Christ, ‘‘shallgrow up.’’ Let’s stop for a minute. JesusChrist is God. He is JEHOVAH. As JEHO-VAH, Jesus Christ is sovereignty, and right-eousness, and justice, and eternal life, andlove, and omniscience, and omnipresence,and omnipotence, and immutability, and ab-solute veracity.

If there is one thing that is clear aboutthe DEITY of the Lord Jesus Christ, ‘‘He can’tgrow up.’’ He is immutable. He is eternal. Hecan’t change. He can’t change any of Hischaracteristics. He always had them, and Hewill always have them. Millions of years agoHe didn’t grow up in His DEITY. So immedi-ately we know that we are talking about theHUMANITY of the Lord Jesus Christ.

‘‘He shall grow up.’’ As we start to talkabout the Lord Jesus Christ here we are talk-ing about His HUMANITY. We start out withthe virgin birth and as a baby we move righton into His manhood. ‘‘He grew in GRACEand wisdom and stature with God and withman.’’ That is the HUMANITY of the Lord Je-sus Christ.

Now, ‘‘grow up’’ is the HIPHIEL stem,which is causative, active voice, whichmeans He was CAUSED to grow up, literally.The causation factor is two-fold: Luke 2:52tells us that ‘‘JESUS CHRIST GREW IN WIS-DOM AND STATURE AND IN GRACE WITHGOD AND MAN.’’ GRACE with God, this isHis spiritual life. GRACE with man, that isHis physical development. He was caused togrow spiritually, by the ministry of God theHoly Spirit. He was caused to grow physi-cally because He had a body without an oldsin nature. So our Lord began in a cradleand He grew up.

There are some interesting things aboutthis Baby in the cradle. He, as you realize,


was God. He was God and He was man atthe same time. While He was a Baby cryingin the cradle, this was in His HUMANITY, doyou know what He was doing in His DEITY?Well, HE WAS HOLDING THE UNIVERSETOGETHER!!! Colossians 1:16, 17, ‘‘For allthings by Him were created, that are inheaven, and that are in Earth, visible and in-visible, whether they be thrones, or domin-ions, or principalities, or powers: all thingswere created BY HIM, AND FOR HIM: AndHe is before all things, AND BY HIM ALLTHINGS CONSIST.’’

There are millions and millions of starsmoving around in space. They travel at unbe-lievable rates of speed. Yet they never col-lide. If we had all those stars and reducedthem to cars in Houston traffic, we wouldhave an accident every second on the sec-ond. All of these fantastic celestial bodiesmoving, literally millions of stars, all movingat unbelieveable speeds, and yet none ofthem collide. What a traffic pattern! Why? Doyou know why they don’t collide? BecauseJesus Christ is the Traffic Manager. He is incharge of air traffic control. He is the trafficcontrol system. ‘‘By Him all these thingshang together,’’ in their orbits.

So, the Baby in the cradle was also hold-ing the universe together. Now, here issomething to think about: In the HUMANITYof the Lord Jesus Christ, Christ could onlycry as a baby, like any baby cries. But doyou know what Jesus Christ was doing in HisDEITY while He was in that cradle? We haverecorded for us the exact words that Hespoke, JUST AFTER HE WAS BORN!!(Merry Christmas!). He carried on a conver-sation with God the Father in His DEITY. Wehave it recorded for us. Hebrews 10:5 givesus the original Christmas message from theBaby in the cradle. ‘‘Wherefore when Hecometh into the world.’’ This is Jesus Christcoming into the world through virgin birth.‘‘He saith,’’ He is now speaking to God theFather. ‘‘He saith, Sacrifice and offering Thouhast not desired, but a body Thou hast pre-pared Me.’’ Here is the HUMAN BODY of theLord Jesus Christ.

In other words, all these animal sacrificesin the past spoke of the death of the LordJesus Christ, but none of them could provideour so great salvation. You see, every time alamb was sacrificed on the altar, the lambsimply pointed to the death of the Lord JesusChrist, was looking forward to Christ. ‘‘TheLaw was a schoolmaster to bring us toChrist.’’ The Law was a shadow of goodthings to come. But the lamb dying as a sac-rifice on the altar could not save anyone. NOONE HAS EVER BEEN SAVED BY OFFER-ING ANIMAL SACRIFICES. The offering ofthe animal sacrifices is comparable to thecommunion service. It simply reveals whathas happened, or in that case, what will hap-pen. But it cannot save.

That is why He said, ‘‘Sacrifice and offer-ings You do not desire, but a body Thou hastprepared Me.’’ ‘‘In burnt offerings and sacri-fices for sin Thou hast no pleasure.’’

‘‘Then said I,’’ Christ is still speakinghere, ‘‘Lo, I come,’’ He is coming into theworld. ‘‘In the volume of the Book,’’ this is areference to the Old Testament Scriptures. ‘‘Itis written of Me.’’ This would be and includesGenesis 3:15, Isaiah 7:14, and Isaiah 11:1.Jesus Christ is here speaking to God the Fa-ther.

Then in Hebrews 10 we have an expla-nation of all that. We have a little amplifica-tion of what Jesus Christ said above whenHe said, ‘‘Sacrifices and offerings and burntofferings and offerings for sin Thou would notdesire, neither hath pleasure therein,’’ whichwere offered by the Law. Then He said, ‘‘Lo, Icome to do Thy will, O, God.’’ ‘‘He takethaway the first,’’ i.e. the Mosaic Law, ‘‘and allof its shadows.’’ You see, Hebrews 10:1 says‘‘the Law was a shadow of good things tocome.’’ The Law isn’t the REALITY. It isONLY A SHADOW, which always pointed tothe Cross. ‘‘He takes away the shadow,’’which means that He takes away the Law,the first, ‘‘that He might establish the second.’’

Then the passage in Hebrews 10 goeson to explain more about this so great salva-tion from the standpoint of the ministry of theLord Jesus Christ. Now the point is: When


the Baby was in the cradle, all He could dowas cry in His HUMANITY. BUT, in His DE-ITY, He carried on a conversation with Godthe Father. ‘‘I come to do Thy will, O, God.’’And at the same time His DEITY held theuniverse together. So, never was there aPerson like the Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man.

‘‘Grew up.’’ He grew up physically, men-tally and spiritually. ‘‘He shall grow up beforeHim,’’ and that is before God the Father, whois the Author of the Plan of God. ‘‘As a tenderplant.’’ This word ‘‘tender plant’’ must be un-derstood with a little bit of the oriental im-agery in order to get the picture here. When-ever oriental imagery is used, it uses plantsto depict various types of people. We usesome of it in our analogy today. We saysomething like ‘‘Come up smelling like arose.’’ Now you see, whenever a V.I.P. or aking was mentioned, he was always picturedas a ‘‘great tree.’’

Here, Jesus Christ is called ‘‘a tenderplant.’’ In the Psalms a rich man is called a‘‘green bay tree.’’ But Jesus Christ was notdepicted as a tree, but a little plant, a tenderplant. Tender plants were used for ordinarypeople in the ancient world. In other words,He came in an ordinary way. They expectedthe Messiah of Israel to arrive as a full growntree, a king. They expected the Messiah tocome in all His majesty the first time. But thatis the way in which He will come the secondtime, as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. So,instead of coming as a beautiful tree, comingin majesty, He came as a child, a tenderplant, in His mother’s arms.

His mother, by the way, was directly de-scended from David. Jesus Christ was theheir to the throne, through Nathan, on Mary’sside. Joseph was not his real father becauseof the virgin birth. But Joseph was descend-ed from David. There was a prophecy givenconcerning this. The prophecy was that therewas king by the name of Coniah, or sometimes in Scripture he is called Jeconiah. Hewas descended from David through Solomon.Coniah was a very wicked descendent ofDavid. So God said to Coniah, ‘‘You will not

have a seat in that great Davidic Covenant.’’Coniah was an unbeliever. Furthermore, Hesaid to Coniah, ‘‘Your seed will not be in thatDavidic Covenant.’’ The direct descendent ofConiah is Joseph.

David had another son, by the name ofNathan. A direct descendent of Davidthrough Nathan was Mary. Mary was the realmother of the HUMANITY of Jesus Christ.Again, Joseph WAS NOT THE REAL FA-THER because of the virgin birth. This elimi-nated the possibility of the Lord Jesus Christhaving an old sin nature. But, also fulfilled,at the same time, the prophecy of Coniah.Coniah would never have a son that wouldever be in the fulfillment of the Davidic Cove-nant.

‘‘He grew up like a tender plant.’’ A babyin His mother’s arms, a child learning to walk,to talk, etc. Here is an amazing thing: whileHe grew up, we have an expression ‘‘a Rootout of dry ground.’’ The ‘‘dry ground’’ is Israel,RELIGIOUS ISRAEL. He, Christ, is the Rootin the dry ground.

What does that mean? Well, Israel hadbecome religious. Therefore, they lost theirmission. They lost their purpose. They wereset aside. They were punished for it. Theywere expected to be a full grown tree. Theydidn’t recognize Jesus Christ as ‘‘the Rootout of dry ground.’’

The Root means that Jesus Christ is theFounder of the Jewish race. Jesus Christcalled Abraham personally out of Ur ofChaldees. Christ personally delivered theJews at the time of the exodus, NOTMOSES. Moses was an instrument, a ser-vant. Jesus Christ preserved and kept theJewish race so they might fulfill their missionand their witness for the Lord Jesus Christ.Jesus Christ is the Root of the Jewish race.This is one of the reasons why Stephen wasstoned.

The Root here is also called a tenderplant. You see Him on both ends here. TheFounder of the Jewish race, the Root. He isnow a plant. He had to become a plant, trueHUMANITY, in order to go to the Cross. But,


at the Second Advent, He is not only theRoot of the tree, but Christ will be called theBranch of the tree. Tender plant, Root, andBranch. Branch in that He will reign foreveras ‘‘the righteous Branch.’’ He’ll be the boughgoing over the wall. As David’s greater Son,the Lord Jesus Christ at the Second Advent,will reign as the Branch, yet He is also calledthe Root.

The tree trunk, in this case, is Israel.Christ is the Founder of the Jewish race. Is-rael has come to the place where they are‘‘dry ground,’’ which means no production, nowater, no life, no Spirit (i.e., dry bones com-ing together in Ezekiel, the Second Advent).THE PRINCIPLE HERE IS THAT RELIGIONDRIES UP A RACE. RELIGION DRIES UP ANATIONAL ENTITY FASTER THAN ANY-THING IN THE WORLD.

Remember in your study of the Word ofGod that RELIGION IS THE WORST THINGTHAT CAN EVER HAPPEN TO THISWORLD. Religion is man seeking to gainthe approbation of God by his own works,by his own deeds, by his own actions .

Remember that SATAN IS THE FATHEROF RELIGION, as declared by the Lord Je-sus Christ in John 8:44, ‘‘Ye are of your fa-ther the devil, and the lusts of your father yewill do. He was a murderer from the begin-ning, and abode not in the Truth, becausethere is no Truth in him. When he speaketh alie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar,and the father of it.’’ Israel was not fruitfulground, but dry ground, and the principle isthat you must break up the fallow ground.

‘‘Fruitful ground’’ means they are fruitful inleading people to the Lord Jesus Christ. But‘‘dry ground’’ means they have become relig-ious. Remember it was the religious crowdthat sent Jesus Christ to the Cross. It wasthe Pharisees, the people who prayed seventimes a day, the people who went into thesynagogue three times a day, the peoplewho went around simply doing good deeds,in order to gain salvation. It was the religiouscrowd, BECAUSE OF ENVY, that put JesusChrist on the Cross. It was the religiouscrowd, not just the Jewish people. It was the

‘‘dry ground’’ part of Israel. In other words,‘‘dry ground’’ means no production, nothing isgrowing, no food, no agricultrual economy,no water, no Word, no Spirit. Dry ground.

Jesus Christ is called here, ‘‘the Root outof dry ground.’’ Now, as the Root, He is theson of David, and the Root of David. He isthe Root of David’s house. He is the son ofDavid.

Continuing in verse 2. ‘‘He hath no formnor comeliness.’’ This explains the ‘‘tenderplant.’’ The word ‘‘form’’ means literally, nostriking beauty. In other words, He wasn’tdressed like a king. He didn’t wear all the ac-couterments of a king. He didn’t wear all theornaments of a king. The Jews were lookingat life from the human viewpoint. They didn’tsee the Messiah of the Scriptures. Conse-quently, they rejected Him. This doesn’tmean that Jesus Christ was physically repul-sive. It simply reveals the fact that Israel ex-pected Him to come with all the pomp andcircumstance of a king and instead He camelowly riding on an ass. But, instead He camefirst as a baby in a cradle, with normalgrowth, until He reached maturity. He wasnot full grown, in all His regal glory, as Hewill be at the Second Advent.

‘‘And when we shall see Him.’’ ‘‘When’’ re-fers to the First Advent of the Lord JesusChrist. This would be 600 years after Isaiahsaid this, ‘‘when we shall see Him.’’ This isthe Jews at the time of the First Advent ofChrist. ‘‘There is no beauty that we shoulddesire Him.’’ The word ‘‘beauty’’ is literally,glamour. You have to remember two thingsabout the Lord Jesus Christ. ONE: He wasthe strongest Person who ever lived, THESTRONGEST. He had more physical powerand strength than any human being who everlived. There are several indications of Hisstrength in Scripture.

One: He took the money changers’ ta-bles and tossed them out. No one personcould do that. If you think it can be done, justtake a card table and put 500 silver dollarson it and watch and see who can pick it up.You see, the money changers had gigantictables, and they were all filled with coins.


There was no paper money in those days.They had REAL coins, not zinc or copper orsome alloy. And their coins weighed a lot. Je-sus Christ picked them up and threw themout. Then He picked up the money changersand threw them out. That takes great physi-cal strength. Therefore, no artist has evercaptured the Lord Jesus Christ properly oncanvas. Now, HE WAS STRONG, especiallyas He hung on the Cross. We will see thatlater on in our study. He was completely dis-figured, and destroyed by the time He cameto the Cross.

Secondly: His body was the most power-ful body that ever existed. He was not emaci-ated, with His rib cage sticking out. He wasnot weak and puny. No person ever tookmore physical punishment and lived in orderto get to the Cross for you and me. MerryChristmas! We must remember that He wasvery strong and very attractive physically. ButHe did not wear the robes of a king. THECROSS MUST ALWAYS COME BEFORETHE CROWN. Consequently the word‘‘beauty’’ means literally, glamour.

‘‘And when we shall see Him there is noglamour that we should desire Him.’’ Theword ‘‘desire’’ means to treasure or to takepleasure in, literally, to set up, to set up in aplace of authority, i.e., king. While the Jewsrejected Him, there were those, of course,who accepted Christ. We will see this posi-tive attitude in verse 5. ‘‘We should desireHim.’’ We should set Him up, literally. This, ofcourse, will be the confessional song sung bythe Jews in that day.

Beginning in verse 3 we have His rejec-tion. Negative volition. This is rejection of theFirst Advent of the Lord Jesus Christ. Inverse 3 He was rejected. I want to show youa principle here. In verse 3, many of theJews, lead by the religious crowd, rejectedJesus Christ.

Let’s suppose that you were about to dosomething wonderful for the United States ofAmerica. Maybe you were going to straightenout our enemies. And let’s suppose you hadthe power to do it. And just before you left,thousands upon thousands of people called

you up and called you all sorts of names,every horrible name that you could ever thinkof. And everyone you met everywhere toldyou how terrible you are and how awful androtten you are. In fact, you were insulted inso many ways and you were criticized in somany ways, you might even be tempted tochange your mind about helping the UnitedStates of America and straightening out ourenemies.

In spite of that fact, this was the attitudeof the people toward the Lord Jesus Christ inverse 4. But in spite of all that, He went anddied on the Cross for those malingers. Hedied for those who rejected Him, as well aseveryone in the whole world. He died for thepeople who rejected Him. He died for thepeople who blasphemed Him. He died for thePharisees, the chief priests, those who cameout to the Cross and screamed at Him.

‘‘If He is the Son of God, let Him comedown and save Himself.’’ He was dying fortheir sins, right then and there, and He hadTHEM in mind. How many times have youpersonally gone out of your way to helpsomeone and they hated you and they letyou know that they hated you?

So you see what a tremendous force wehave in these next two verses. Verse 3,‘‘They despised Him.’’ They hated Him, andyet He went to the Cross for them, knowingthey hated Him. ‘‘He is the despised and re-jected of men.’’ ‘‘Despised’’ is a Hebrew stemwhich means He RECEIVED the manifesta-tion of their despise. He received insult, Hereceived their blasphemy.

‘‘He was rejected.’’ ‘‘Rejected’’ is a He-brew adjective and not a verb. This empha-sizes their rejection. Why did they despiseHim? Why did they reject Him? And why didHe arouse such hatred? Here are five Biblicalreasons why the religious crowd, the chiefpriests, and the scribes and the Pharisees,and those who they influenced in Israel, re-jected Jesus Christ. Here are five reasonswhy RELIGION hates the Lord Jesus Christ:

1. HE LIVED A PERFECT LIFE. Henever committed a sin. They couldn’t stand


that. Religion tries to be saved by doinggood and here comes Someone who is per-fect. He teaches that salvation is by GRACEthrough faith, and THEY COULDN’T STANDTHAT.

2. HE HEALED THE SICK. He helpedthe needy. He resuscitated. He brought peo-ple back to life. This happened with severalwho were dead. He cured those who had in-curable diseases, such as leprosy. He pro-vided food from practically nothing. Theycouldn’t stand that. You see, RELIGION AL-WAYS PUTS UP A FRONT OF HELPINGPEOPLE, BUT RELIGION CAN’T HELPPEOPLE, IT ONLY HURTS PEOPLE.

But Jesus Christ came along and He canand does help people. And therefore, the factthat Jesus Christ helped people, healed peo-ple, provided food for people, provided com-fort for and strength and encouragement forpeople for all eternity, the fact that He pro-vided these things showed religion up forwhat it really is, WHICH IS A HOLLOWMOCKERY, and they couldn’t stand to beEXPOSED. There is one category of the hu-man race that that can never stand up to ex-posure. THEY HAVE TO HAVE THEIRPHONY HYPOCRISY NEVER EXPOSEDAND THIS IS RELIGION. So they hatedHim. The strongest hatred in the world al-ways COMES FROM RELIGION. The envyof religion killed the Lord Jesus Christ.

3. HE NOT ONLY FED THOSE WHOWERE PHYSICALLY HUNGRY, BUT HEFED THOSE WHO WERE SPIRITUALLYHUNGRY. He even violated religion’s pet ta-boo’s to do so, like when He fed them on theSabbath. So He didn’t recognize their holydays, and they hated Him for it. He didn’t goalong with their gimmicks, the money chang-ers in the temple, and the Sabbath and theyhated Him for it.

4. HE GAVE THE HUMAN RACE ETER-NAL SALVATION WITHOUT MERIT. Tothose who accepted Him as personal Sav-iour, He gave them eternal life. To those whoreceived Him, He gave them eternal life. Andreligion is legalistic, and cannot stand any-thing without works attached. They cannot

stand the GRACE of God, AND GRACEAND WORKS DON’T MIX. As it says inGalatians, ‘‘the son of the bondwoman AL-WAYS persecutes the son of the freewoman.’’ Religion is in slavery to works,and the religious people cannot stand forsomething to be given away, and not sold,and not worked for. And GRACE was in noway connected with them, and it excludedthem. ‘‘Not by works of righteousness whichwe have done, but according to His GRACEHe saved us.’’

5. THEY HATED HIM BECAUSE THEYWERE INSPIRED BY SATAN. Satan inspiredthem to hate the Lord Jesus Christ, becauseJesus Christ said, ‘‘I am the way and theTruth and the life, and no man comes untothe Father but by Me.’’ He said, ‘‘Come untoMe, all ye that labor and are heavy laden andI will GIVE you rest.’’ He said, ‘‘I am thebread of life. He that cometh unto Me shallnever hunger and He that believeth on Meshall never thirst.’’ He said, ‘‘He that comethunto Me, I will in no wise case out.’’ He said,‘‘I am the good Shepherd, and I lay down Mylife for My sheep.’’ Therefore, religion and itsfather, Satan, hated Him.

In other words, Jesus Christ told themthe Truth, RELIGION IS A LIE AND THEIRFATHER IS A LIAR. And therefore they can-not stand the Truth. There is a spirit of errorand a Spirit of Truth in this world of conflict.That is true in every walk of life. If you wantto go somewhere and be thoroughly disliked,just go some place and tell the Truth. Justwalk into the White House and say that theUnited Nations is a plot to destroy the UnitedStates of America. Tell them that it isinternational, and tell them it will destroy usand rob us of our freedoms. It will not beaccepted.

It is the Truth, though. It is the Truthfound in Genesis 11. And when you statethat principle, you will be escorted right outthe door. So, when you tell the Truth, youwill be hated. But, it is always the Truth thatsets you free. ‘‘Ye shall know the Truth, andthe Truth shall set you free.’’


First of all, the Truth of eternal salvation.When you know the Truth, then you are free.You are free from sin, and you are free fromthe bondage of sin, and you are free to liveyour life in the presence of God for now andforever. When you know the Truth about theBible, about anything in life, whether it is theUnited Nations, or the World Council ofChurches, or Communism, or anything else,when you speak up, you are going to behated.

You can’t speak the Truth and have peo-ple love you for it. PEOPLE DO NOT LIKETHE TRUTH. Why? ‘‘Because men lovedarkness.’’ AGAPE love, darkness. And es-pecially when they are sitting on the satanicside of the fence. The only people who re-spond to the Truth are those who have posi-tive volition toward the Word of God, which isthe Truth. You accept the Truth of salvationby FAITH IN CHRIST, and then you acceptthe Truth of the Christian way of life found inthe Word of Truth.

Therefore, because He was ‘‘despisedand rejected,’’ He was a ‘‘Man of sorrows.’’That means that He was personally broken-hearted by this rejection. Do you know whyJesus Christ was personally broken-heartedby their rejection? Because when they re-jected Him, they rejected their only chancefor salvation. He said, ‘‘O Jerusalem, O Jeru-salem, how oft would I have gathered you asa chicken gathers her young, BUT YOUWOULD NOT.’’ ‘‘He came unto His own,BUT HIS OWN RECEIVED HIM NOT.’’

His sorrow was built upon the fact thatJesus Christ was God. He wanted everyoneto be saved. ‘‘He was not willing that anyshould perish.’’ And so He was going to theCross to die for the sins of the whole world,and He was going to take their place. Hewanted EVERYONE TO BE SAVED, andTHEY REJECTED HIM. So He was a man ofsorrows. Because every person in the humanrace has free will and can choose inde-pendently of Him, and could and did rejectHim.

He was also ‘‘acquainted with grief.’’ ‘‘Ac-quainted’’ means literally, ‘‘to know.’’ It is a

QAL participle, which means that He kept onknowing grief. The word ‘‘grief’’ means ‘‘afflic-tion.’’ He kept on knowing affliction, literally.Jesus Christ knew affliction. He knew malign-ing. He knew betrayal. He knew what itmeant to be deserted. He knows what itmeans to be denied. He knows what itmeans to be scourged, tortured. He knew allof these things. And yet He was perfect.

Imagine one Person, in a short period oftime, maligned, lied about, deserted, be-trayed, beaten, slugged, falsely accused,skinned alive with a whip, tortured, spit uponHis face, and yet He was perfect as a man.In His HUMANITY alone He was perfect. Andtherefore, there is no member of the humanrace like the Lord Jesus Christ who con-stantly knew grief, affliction.

Now, you and I, as long as we walk onthis earth, we are going to know somethingof grief and sorrow. We are going to facetimes of suffering and pressure and adver-sity. Now, I want you to remember this.There is no sadness, there is no trial, there isno frustration, there is no heartache in life,that Jesus Christ Himself did not endurewhile He was here on this earth. And so Henot only knows our heartaches, and how wefeel, having been here Himself, but He suf-fered more than we ever could or would orwill.

HE IS ACQUAINTED WITH OURGRIEFS. And our afflictions, and our suffer-ings. And therefore, JESUS CHRIST HASMADE PROVISION FOR EVERY AFFLIC-TION IN LIFE, and there is no problem in lifefor which the Lord Jesus Christ does nothave a solution.

The more you know about the Word, themore you know about the solutions. And forthe person who gets to know the Word well,then you will come to the place where every-thing in life, no matter how difficult, you willbe able to face it, and you will have perfectpeace, and stability and power. Now that ishow gracious the Lord Jesus Christ is. He isacquainted with our grief and He knows allabout it.


‘‘And we hid as it were our faces fromHim.’’ The word here ‘‘to hide’’ is causative,and it means we were caused to hide ourfaces. This literally means ‘‘to cover ourfaces.’’ In other words, the Lord Jesus Christis going by, on the way to the Cross, andpeople had to turn around and couldn’t look,covered their faces. Do you know why? Hehad been so badly beaten, and so terriblytortured in those six trials, THAT HE NOLONGER LOOKED HUMAN. We read this inIsaiah 52:14, ‘‘As many were astonied,’’ liter-ally shocked, ‘‘at Thee,’’ that is Christ. ‘‘Hisvisage,’’ face, ‘‘was so destroyed,’’ the He-brew says, ‘‘that He no longer looked hu-man.’’

In verse 3 we read ‘‘we covered ourfaces from Him.’’ The people who werewatching the Lord Jesus Christ, as He wentthrough the street to Golgotha, had to covertheir faces because HE WAS SO BADLYBEATEN. They had never seen a person sohorribly beaten and yet still alive. Why wasHe still alive? Because He was going to theCross and to die for you and to die for me. Itwas the most awful sight, so they had tocover their faces.

‘‘We hide,’’ literally ‘‘cover our faces.’’ Andagain we read, ‘‘He was despised.’’ ‘‘De-spised’’ here in the sense of being con-demned. This again is in the Hebrew stem,which says that He received this despising.

‘‘And we esteem Him not.’’ To esteemmeans to compute the facts, literally. So, inour Lord’s day, people who watched Him,covered their faces because the sight was sohorrible. But they couldn’t compute or add upthe facts. Literally, ‘‘We did not add up thefacts about Him.’’ That is rejection. Despised,rejected, and they did not add up the facts.

Verse 3a, Despised and rejected. A.

Verse 3b, Sorrows, grief. B.

Verse 3c, Hid our faces. B.

Verse 3d, Despised, rejected. A.

But in spite of all that, we have verse 4.‘‘Surely,’’ literally, therefore... in spite of theirrejection, their negative attitude, in spite ofthe fact that He had been so badly beaten.‘‘Therefore He hath borne our griefs.’’ Theword ‘‘griefs’’ is plural here. In the Hebrewlanguage this is a noun which was originallyused for a necklace, or some kind of a trin-ket. And eventually they wore a necklace ora trinket to keep away any kind of an evilspirit. So, this word was used eventually foraffliction. People who were afraid of somepressure in life, some affliction, would put ona talisman, some kind of a necklace, acharm. So, this word eventually came tomean an affliction, or something of which youwere afraid.

‘‘He took away,’’ carried our fears, liter-ally. Now, the basic fear of man is of thefuture, death and beyond. And so He hastaken away the fear of death, and He hasdestroyed it by dying for us, by taking ourplace. So that death now, to the believer inthe Lord Jesus Christ, is simply goingthrough a valley in His presence. So He hastaken away our fears, fear of death, fear ofdifficulties.

And ‘‘He has carried our sorrows.’’ This isliterally, ‘‘to carry a heavy burden.’’ This wordwas used in the ancient world for porters,those who carried very heavy burdens. ‘‘Theheavy burden of our sorrows,’’ literally, ourcatastrophes, or calamities. He carried them,and this is, of course, the principle of puttingyour faith in the promises of God. He actuallycarries our burdens and our problems. Thatis why we can ‘‘cast all our cares upon Him,because He cares for us.’’

The reason that Jesus Christ can carryour problems and our burdens today is verysimple. In salvation, Stage One, Christ car-ried our sins. He died on that Tree. He actu-ally carried our sins. And so this first of allrefers to the fact, in salvation, that Christ car-ried our sins. THAT IS THE GREATESTLOAD THAT CHRIST EVER HAD TOCARRY.

Christ became a servant. Christ becamea porter, as it were, carrying our sins for us.


When He died on the Cross, He actually‘‘bore all our sins in His own body on theTree,’’ just as a porter carries a heavy bur-den. In fact, when He carried this burden ofour sins, He screamed, ‘‘My God, My God.’’But up until that time He didn’t open Hismouth. And up to that point He never didscream because of all the pain that He hadendured. THE ONLY PAIN, THE ONLY BUR-DEN, THAT CHRIST EVER CARRIED THATWAS CAUSING HIM TO SCREAM WASOUR SINS. And since He has carried oursins, the moment we believe in Christ, IT ISALL BLOTTED OUT, the past, the present,and the future, and that is Stage One, our sogreat salvation in Christ.

Now, in Stage Two, as a Christian onthis Earth, in time, He can also carry ourproblems. That is brought out many times inScripture. ‘‘Come unto Me, all ye that laborand are heavy laden, and I will give yourest.’’ Now, that is salvation. That is StageOne. And then it says, ‘‘Take My yoke uponyou, and learn of Me, for I am meek andlowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto yoursouls, for My yoke is easy, and My burden islight.’’ That is Stage Two, the Christian wayof life, and the rest that He promises for us intime. That would be the principle found in 1Peter 5:7, ‘‘Casting all your cares on Him be-cause He cares for you.’’ CAST ALL OFYOUR CARES, ALL OF YOUR PROBLEMS,ON HIM.

We can’t take this into Stage Three,which is eternity, because there are NOPROBLEMS IN ETERNITY. There is nothingwe can cast on Him in eternity except ourcrowns. Because we are promised for alleternity ‘‘No more sorrows, no more tears, nomore pain, no more death; the old things arepassed away.’’ THERE ARE NO SORROWSIN ETERNITY. We only have sorrows intime.

‘‘Carried our sorrows.’’ He carried oursins and He carried our problems. He carriesour calamities, our catastrophes. So onceagain, every time you move through life andhave a problem, He is there waiting to carrythat problem for you, to relieve us of it. That

is why we have in Psalm 55:22 this promise:‘‘Cast thy burdens upon the Lord and Heshall sustain thee. He shall never suffer therighteous to be moved.’’

Verse 4, ‘‘Yet.’’ This is a change of pace.‘‘Yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten ofGod and afflicted.’’ ‘‘We did esteem.’’ ‘‘We’’ isthe believer, the one who accepts JesusChrist as personal Saviour. Notice in verse 3,‘‘We esteem Him not,’’ we didn’t add up thefacts. That is the statement of the unbeliever,the one who rejects Christ, the one who isnegative to the Word of God when it comesto the Cross.

But, this verse says ‘‘We did esteemHim.’’ That is a believer. He is positive to theWord. And ‘‘we did add up the facts.’’ ‘‘Es-teem’’ means to consider the facts, and to re-spond with faith. Here are the facts listed thatwe considered:

First: He was stricken.

Second: He was smitten.

Third: He was afflicted.

STRICKEN, SMITTEN AND AFFLICTED.MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

These are three words used to describefor us the Tree, the Cross. In this verse wehave people who responded to Christ in thepast. Here are people who believed the re-port, and they believed and were saved be-cause they recognized what He did on thatTree.

‘‘Stricken,’’ which means that Jesus Christwas struck down with our sins. He stood upin our place and was struck down. Thiswould be the doctrine of reconciliation.

‘‘Smitten.’’ The Hebrew says ‘‘caused tobe smitten.’’ GOD THE FATHER ALSOSTRUCK HIM. ‘‘Stricken,’’ our sins mowedHim down as it were. But ‘‘smitten’’ meansthat God the Father actually poured our sinsupon Him and judged Him. This would be thedoctrine of justification.


‘‘Afflicted,’’ which means to be struck witha voice, or sometimes it refers to be made tolabor. Someone throws their voice at you,like ‘‘Pick that up,’’ ‘‘Carry that over there.’’ Inother words, the word ‘‘afflicted’’ means to bemade to labor, to be made to work. CHRISTWORKED FOR US. HE DID ALL THEWORK, so we will never have to work for oursalvation. This is the work of Christ on theCross that provided our so great salvation,NOT OUR WORKS. So, when it comes tosalvation, Christ said, ‘‘It is finished.’’

But we have on the other hand, theworks, the good deeds, the efforts of the hu-man race. And every time a person acceptsJesus Christ as personal Saviour, they de-pend upon the work of Christ, that is, ‘‘smit-ten and stricken for us.’’ And when anyonerejects the Cross, then they depend upontheir own works, and his own works condemnhim.

Now, here is the point: Christ was struckfor us. He was struck by our sins. God theFather struck Him down, and this was at theCross. For those of you who accept JesusChrist, you will never be struck down byGod’s judgment. ‘‘There is no condemnationto them who are in Christ Jesus our Lord,’’Romans 8:1. BUT THE PERSON WHO RE-JECTS JESUS CHRIST AS PERSONALSAVIOUR, THEN THEIR OWN WORKS,THEIR OWN GOOD DEEDS, WILL BEUSED TO STRIKE THEM DOWN AT THELAST JUDGMENT.

You will notice in Revelation 21 that sinsare never mentioned at the Last Judgement,but it says there two times, ‘‘judged accordingto their works.’’ The reason is because JesusChrist died for the sins of the whole world, soSIN IS NOT THE ISSUE IN SALVATION.MAN WILL BE SMITTED BY HIS OWNGOOD WORKS.

His own good deeds will condemn him atthe Last Judgment, be cause he has rejectedthe work of Christ on the Cross. SO, EVERY-ONE, THEN, IN THE HUMAN RACE HAS ACHOICE, AND WE MAKE OUR CHOICE.We say, ‘‘I accept the work of JesusChrist on the Cross.’’ Or you can say ‘‘I

reject the work of Jesus Christ on theCross. I accept my own good works, andGod will take my good works and judgeme with them.’’

In other words, Christ was struck downfor me. I can accept that. If I do, THEN I AMSAVED. If I reject the work of Jesus Christbeing smitten for me, then my own gooddeeds will strike me down, and THAT IS THEISSUE!!! The works of man vs. the work ofthe Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross .

This is only the beginning of this wonder-ful original Christmas message in Isaiah 53.It all deals with the Person and the work ofthe Lord Jesus Christ.

That brings us to verse 5. Rememberthis is the greatest con centration on Christol-ogy in the Old Testament. This is not allthere is about the Lord Jesus Christ in theOld Testament, but this is a concentrateddose.

In verses 5, 6, we have man’s conditionand the Tree, the Cross. Man’s condition isnow declared. It is related to the Cross. Yousee the scene changes now. We have, as itwere, Act Two. This is a Christmas pageantin seven acts.

Verses 2-4 we have the HUMANITY ofthe Lord Jesus Christ re lated to the Cross.Act One. The last word in verse 4 hits us,just like it did the Lord Jesus Christ. Whyshould Christ be afflicted? Why could Hetake the greatest shock in all of humanhistory? Why? Because He became trueHUMANITY. His DEITY couldn’t have any-thing to do with it. We must assume thatwhen Jesus Christ was on the Cross, the De-ity of the Father, and the Deity of the HolySpirit left the Lord Jesus Christ. That is thecry of ‘‘My God, My God. Why hast Thou for-saken Me?’’ We must as sume also since Je-sus Christ is God, His own DEITY had to for-sake Him. And Christ’s DEITY couldn’t haveany contact with sin either.

So, in verses 2-4 we have the relation-ship between the HUMANITY of the Lord Je-sus Christ and the Cross. This is the FirstAdvent and the Cross. So, you see He had


to become man. He had to become a humanbeing to go to the Cross. He had to be aperfect human being to provide for our sogreat salvation.

Now, we will see that even though wetake up another subject, it still comes back tothe Cross, that Tree, and the original Christ-mas. We have a subject and then go back tothe Cross. Then we have another subjectand go back to the Cross. We will do thisseven times in this passage, so we haveseven acts in this pageant.

Now we have another subject. This timeit is man’s condition. As you can see, there isa very beautiful correlation here. First of all,Christ became a man. Why? Relation to theCross. Why did He become man? BECAUSEMAN WAS IN SUCH TROUBLE. Man was ina terrible condition.

Christ became man and He started outthrough the virgin birth. He was perfect man,and He CONTINUED that way. Now why?Because mankind was in such bad shape.So someone had to go to the Cross in orderto provide salvation for the human race.

So, verses 2-4 speak of Christ and theCross. Now, verses 5-6 speak of man’s con-dition and the Cross. We will see in this sec-tion the expression ‘‘all we.’’ Verse 5, ‘‘But,’’here is a conjunction of contrast. In spite ofthe rejection of verse 3, ‘‘we esteem Himnot,’’ in spite of the fact that Jesus Christ wasrejected, He still knowing this went to theCross and HE DIED FOR THOSE WHO RE-JECTED HIM. He also died for those whoaccepted Him. HE DIED FOR ALL. 1 John2:1,2, ‘‘My little children, these things write Iunto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin,we have an Advocate with the Father, JesusChrist the righteous: And He is the propitia-tion for our sins: and not for our’s only, butalso for the sins of the whole world.’’

‘‘But He was wounded for our transgres-sions.’’ ‘‘He’’ is the subject and that is theLord Jesus Christ. ‘‘Was wounded.’’ This isthe intensive stem in the Hebrew, and pas-sive voice. He received this wound. And theverb actually means ‘‘to be pierced.’’ This re-

minds us of Psalm 22:16, ‘‘They have piercedMy hands and My feet.’’ Zechariah says,‘‘They will look upon Me, whom they havepierced.’’ So there is ‘‘piercing’’ here literally.He was pierced.

Three times in the Old Testament‘‘pierced’’ is used prophetically, anticipatingthe Cross. We have it here in verse 5, inPsalm 22:16, and in Zechariah 12:10.

‘‘Pierced for our transgressions.’’ Theword ‘‘transgressions,’’ here, is a word for aVIOLATION OF THE LAW, a law which isestablished, a law which is well known. Forexample, a transgressor would be someonewho violated the 10 Commandments. That isan established law. But members of the hu-man race are sinners, for more reasons thanthat we are transgressors of the Law. Trans-gression is a bonafide category of sin. Butthere are other categories of sin which wewill see soon, like iniquities.

‘‘He was bruised.’’ The word ‘‘bruised’’here means to be crushed. It is literally, ‘‘Hereceived crushing, intensive crushing.’’ ‘‘Forour iniquities.’’ Let’s look at the verbs first andthen we will see the object of the participle.‘‘He was pierced. He was crushed.’’ ‘‘Pierced’’we saw this three times in the Old Testamentprophetically.

Now, ‘‘crushed.’’ We have it in Psalm22:16. ‘‘I am a worm.’’ There are seven differ-ent Hebrew words for ‘‘worm.’’ The one usedin Psalm 22:16 is a very rare type of worm.This was a type that was collected andraised with a great deal of difficulty. It wasplaced into a vat, and then a stone wastaken and these worms were crushed in thisvat. The blood from these worms was usedto make a beautiful dye for the robes ofkings.

So, you see, ‘‘crushed’’ here. JesusChrist was crushed. He was crushed by theload of our sins. In order that we might wearthe robes of our King, Jesus Christ, forever.We will rule and reign with the Lord JesusChrist. The word ‘‘bruised,’’ or crushed, isalso used in Genesis 3:15. This is the firstplace in the Bible where we have the Gospel.


So we have two words used here, trans-gressions and iniquities. This will help us tounderstand what sin is. We are all sinnersbecause of transgression. And we are all sin-ners because of iniquities. Transgressionmeans violation of God’s law, as in the 10Commandments. That isn’t all of God’s law,but that is just an illustration.

Iniquities is the failure to measure up toGod’s righteousness. So, we are sinners be-cause we have all violated God’s law. Buteven if we kept the 10 Commandments per-fectly, all of our life, we are still sinners. Noone is going to, but even if we could, keepthe 10 Commandments, you are still a sinnerand you are still lost. And the reason you area sinner is BECAUSE YOU ARE NOT ASGOOD AS GOD IS.

That is Romans 3:23, ‘‘For all havesinned and come short of the glory of God.’’‘‘The glory of God’’ is the sum total of Divineessence. The best person who ever lived, Idon’t care how good a person is, the bestperson who ever lived is still minus God’srighteousness. WITHOUT GOD’S RIGHT-EOUSNESS WE CANNOT HAVE FELLOW-SHIP WITH HIM. If you lived a life that wasabsolutely perfect as far as the Law is con-cerned, you kept the 10 Commandments,and the other 120 in the Old Testament, andthe New Testament, YOU WOULD STILL BEA SINNER.

You are a sinner because of no matterhow good you are, you are not perfect.You do not have God’s imputed right-eousness in you. One of the most importantthings in salvation is to get God’s righteous-ness into the human race. The only way thatthat can be done is FOR A PERSON TO RE-CEIVE JESUS CHRIST, AND WHEN THEYACCEPT HIM AS THEIR PERSONAL SAV-IOUR, THEN GOD’S RIGHTEOUSNESS ISIMPUTED TO THEM. This is the doctrine ofimputation, followed by the doctrine of justifi-cation.

‘‘God the Father, made God the Son tobe sin for us, who knew no sin, that we mightbe made the righteousness of God in Him.’’We are justified because imputed to us at the

point of salvation is God’s righteousness.‘‘Abraham believed in God, and it wascounted to him for righteousness.’’ ‘‘And be-ing found in Him not having my own right-eousness, which is of the Law, but that whichis through faith in Christ, the righteousnesswhich is of God by faith.’’

There are three things that are ABSO-LUTELY NECESSARY IN SALVATION:

1. If I am going to live with God forever, Imust have His life, and that is eternal life. Wereceive that by faith in Christ Jesus our Lord.

2. If I am going to live with God forever, Imust have His righteousness, therefore theimputation of God’s righteousness at thepoint of salvation.

3. If I am going to live with God forever,my sins must be blotted out. That is the doc-trine of unlimited atonement.

All three of these are accomplished, ofcourse, in our so great salvation by means ofthe Cross.

Notice, ‘‘He was pierced for our trans-gression. He was bruised for our iniquities.’’Please remember that the most self-right-eous, ‘‘holier than thou,’’ person who everwalked on the face of this Earth, and the per-son who comes closer to keeping all of thecommandments, like the rich young ruler,even if a person kept them perfectly, THATPERSON IS STILL A SINNER.

That is why it is the hardest to reachreligious people than anyone else. Simplybecause religious people have a strongtendency to use their own self-righteous-ness, which God says, ‘‘IS AS FILTHYRAGS IN HIS SIGHT.’’ Religious people areafflicted with the most awful affliction ofall, the pride of self-righteousness, deadworks, filthy rags. They think they havemade enough points in their life time togain the approbation of God. And yet ifthey could perform all of the good deedsthat ever existed and at the same time liveup to the 10 Commandments, they wouldstill be greatly lacking, and they are stilllost without Christ. ‘‘ALL have sinned andcome short of the glory of God.’’ ‘‘Sin,’’ then,


is coming short, coming short of the gloryof God. In other words, we ALL miss themark of God’s character.

Now, the next phrase, ‘‘chastisement.’’This is literally, ‘‘the punishment.’’ WE shouldbe chastised or punished. When you havetwo words like transgression and iniquities fora commentary on the human race, then weshould be punished. You see, GOD IS AB-SOLUTE RIGHTEOUSNESS, therefore Hecannot have fellowship with the human racein status quo sin. GOD IS ALSO ABSOLUTEJUSTICE. And the justice of God must PUN-ISH TRANSGRESSION. Justice must alsoPUNISH INIQUITIES. So, we should, asmembers of the human race, be punished,not just in time but in eternity and forever.

But if someone is punished as our substi-tute, the substitute being someone who takesour place, and the principle we have here isthat Jesus Christ took our place on theCross. He was punished for us. So, when wetalk about chastisement, which doesn’t meanmuch to many, unless, of course, you havehad a couple courses in Shakespeare. But ifyou substitute the word ‘‘punishment’’ forchastisement, then you have a clear picture.

‘‘The punishment which brought uspeace.’’ This is not ‘‘of our peace.’’ PEACE.What does that mean? Peace is the doc-trine of reconciliation. You see, we haveman and MAN IS MINUS GOD’S RIGHT-EOUSNESS. Then we have God, and Godhas absolute righteousness. Between Godand man THERE IS AN IMPASSABLE BAR-RIER. This barrier is made up of sin, thepenalty of sin, the problem of physical birth,the problem of relative righteousness, theproblem of the character of God, the problemof man’s position in Adam. And so we havean impassable barrier.

Man cannot have fellowship with God.Man is a sinner on three counts: Imputed sin,inherent sin, and personal sin. There are twokinds of personal sins: Personal sin trans-gression and personal sin iniquities. Now, allof this is removed by the Lord Jesus Christ.This is unlimited atonement. This is the doc-trine of redemption. The penalty of sin is

death, so Jesus Christ paid the penalty. Thatis the doctrine of expiation.

The problem of physical birth. Man isphysically alive, but spiritually dead. This issolved by the new birth, the doctrine of re-generation. The problem of relative righteous-ness. This is solved by the imputation ofGod’s righteousness, followed by justification.The problem of the character of God. This issolved by propitiation. Christ satisfied God’scharacter. The problem of position in Adam,all die. This is solved by the position INCHRIST, where all are made alive.

So, man lacks God’s righteousness, andGod has absolute righteousness and the bar-rier is removed. It says, ‘‘There is one Media-tor between God and man, the Man ChristJesus.’’ Now the ONLY barrier between Godand man is the Man, the Person of the LordJesus Christ. That means, in verse 5, thatJesus Christ made peace. PEACE BE-TWEEN MAN AND GOD. Not peace be-tween nations. Not peace at any price, na-tionally or internationally, and not evenbetween each other. But peace betweenGod and man.

‘‘Peace on Earth’’ was potential. This is apart of the Christmas message. Peace be-tween God and man. The phrase ‘‘Blessedare the peacemakers,’’ is NOT WORLDPEACE, but those who lead other people tothe Lord, having peace with God.

Jesus Christ said, ‘‘I come to bring asword.’’ Now that is not world peace. This istalking about personal peace, a personalrelationship with God through the Personof Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace.There is therefore today no barrier be-tween man and God, except man’s atti-tude toward the Person of the Lord JesusChrist. ‘‘He that believeth on the Son hatheverlasting life. He that believeth not the Son,shall not see life, but the wrath of Godabideth on him.’’

Let’s read this once more. ‘‘The punish-ment, which brought us peace.’’ Peacemeans there is NO BARRIER. Peace meansWE HAVE ACCESS TO GOD. But man is


reconciled, man has peace with God, throughthe death of the Lord Jesus Christ. We aresaid, in Scripture, as believers, to be minis-ters of reconciliation. Peace is provided bythe Cross. Man can now have fellowship withGod forever because of what Jesus Christaccomplished at the Cross. ‘‘The punishmentwhich brought us peace.’’ The punishment isthe Cross. This is where Christ was punishedfor us. ‘‘The Just for the unjust.’’

‘‘Was upon Him.’’ This is not translatedcorrectly. Literally this says, ‘‘The punish-ment, the Cross, was upon Him.’’ ‘‘Upon Him’’belongs with ‘‘punishment.’’ That is the Cross.‘‘THE PUNISHMENT OF HIM THATBROUGHT US PEACE.’’ This is the result ofthe Cross, peace.

Romans 5:1, ‘‘Therefore being justified byfaith we have peace with God through ourLord Jesus Christ.’’ Peace through the Princeof Peace. THIS is the message of Christmas,‘‘Peace onEearth.’’

Now, do you think you can take a Christ-mas exam on verse 5? Let’s take a test onverse 5 and see how we do. A CHRISTMASEXAM. Question One: The word ‘‘but’’ inverse 5 is in light here. What kind of a con-junction is it?

Answer: It is a conjunction of contrast.Right. And where is the contrast? Well, withverse 3, where we have rejection, and inspite of the rejection of verse 3, we have re-ception of verse 4. So we have free will inthe human race, NEGATIVE AND POSITIVE,verses 3,4.

Question Two: This indicates the wordsused reveal man’s sin. What are the twowords?

Answer: Transgression and iniquities.

Question Three: Distinguish betweenthe two words in question two.

Answer: Transgression is the violation ofthe Law. Iniquities are the failure to measureup to God’s character.

These two words describe two differentaspects of sin. You can’t cover the doctrineof personal sin until both of them are men-

tioned. How much closer to heaven wouldyou be if somehow you could not sin anymore? NO CLOSER THAN BEFORE. Youcan see what that will do to a lot of witness-ing.

Most people who witness try to get peo-ple to turn respectable. And what do mostpeople think of when they hear the word‘‘Christian?’’ Well, respectability. Even a littledullness thrown in with it. AND YET THATISN’T CHRISTIANITY! People say, ‘‘Sure, I’ma Christian. I was born in America.’’ ‘‘Sure,I’m a Christian. I live a good life. I am re-spectable.’’ That is NOT Christianity AT ALL.Any unbeliever can do and say that. Somepeople think that Christianity is putting onclothes and being better than the so-calledheathen. That is NOT Christianity either.

CHRISTIANITY IS NOT CHANGINGYOUR BEHAVIOUR PATTERN. CHRISTIAN-ITY ISN’T GIVING UP YOUR NASTY HAB-ITS. You see the tragedy of our day. Andwhere do we get this idea? Well, we aretaught only to think in terms of sin as a se-ries of taboos, and a few things society con-demns. But ‘‘Your thoughts are not Mythoughts, saith the Lord.’’

And yet sin is way beyond all of this. Yousee, you will never make the issue clear untilyou get off the back of people with regard totheir habits, and put the pressure at the rightplace. The only bonafide pressure is to givethem information CONCERNING THE GOS-PEL. The Gospel means GOOD NEWS.And it IS good news. So don’t make it soundlike bad news. The way most people presentthe Gospel it sounds like it is bad news.

Like, ‘‘Listen. You’re going to have tostraighten up. You are going to have to stoprunning around. Girls, gin and games. Youare going to have to change your way of life,brother. And then you are going to have tofeel sorry for your sins, and walk down anaisle, and sign a pledge, and go through atank, and check off how many times youbring your Bible to church, and how manytimes you come to Sunday School, and howmany people you brought to church, and ifyou double tithe, and if you are sincere, and


if you live by the Golden Rule and get into achurch program.’’ WELL, NOT ON YOURLIFE, AND NOT ON GOD’S LIFE EITHER!!!

What do you have if you follow all thoserules? All you have is a respectable, andprobably very miserable unbeliever. That isnot a Christian! There is nothing there that Ihave mentioned that makes you a Christian!Why? CHRISTIANITY IS SIMPLY BELIEV-ING IN JESUS CHRIST AS SAVIOUR. It isnot reformation. It is REGENERATION.

What did Jesus Christ do? He providedfor both aspects of sin. So, if you can’t distin-guish between these two kinds of sins, youhave flunked this Christmas exam. And youhave flunked the course. But these are bothpersonal sins, transgressions and iniquities.There are two categories of sin and they areimputed sin and in herent sin.

Question Four: Give a modern Englishdefinition in one word of ‘‘chastisement.’’

Answer: This would be ‘‘punishment.’’

Question Five: Explain that danglingphrase, in the right place, ‘‘upon Him.’’

Answer: This is literally ‘‘the punishmenton Him brought us peace.’’ He was punishedfor us, and it resulted in peace.

Question Six: What is peace? Explainthe doctrine of reconciliation, as declared inEphesians 2:15, 16 and 2 Corinthians 5:17-21.

Can you pass that Christmas exam sofar? What is your average?

Still in this same verse we see the nextword, and it is even worse. We cannot letthis exam go by without taking up this nextword. ‘‘And with His stripes we are healed.’’The reason we saved this for last is becauseEVERY WORD IS WRONG. There is nohealing here in the atonement. And it isn’tstripes at all. ‘‘Stripes,’’ shown here is in theplural, but it is in the SINGULAR in the He-brew. ‘‘Stripe.’’ Death is singular in the Eng-lish, but plural in the Hebrew. And ‘‘stripes’’here is plural in the English and it is singularin the Hebrew. The word ‘‘stripe’’ in Hebrew is‘‘bruise.’’

So, let’s take that word first. ‘‘Bruise.’’This is the correct word for stripes, and it issingular. Why? Why is it singular? BE-CAUSE THE LORD JESUS CHRIST WASONE MASSIVE BRUISE WHEN HE HUNGUPON THE CROSS . That is why no artisthas ever correctly depicted our Lord. He wasbeaten up many times. He was slugged. Hewas punched. He was whipped. He wasscourged. He suffered every kind of tortureand abuse. When the Lord Jesus Christhung on that Cross, He no longer looked hu-man.

We saw this in Isaiah 52:14. This is adescription of Jesus Christ on the Cross. ‘‘Asmany were astonished, (shocked at Thee)His visage, (face) so marred, more than anyman.’’ Literally, ‘‘HIS FACE WAS SO DIS-TORTED FROM THE FORM OF MAN THATHIS APPEARANCE WAS NOT HUMAN .’’ Heno longer looked human! That is not hard todo, if you let someone step up and punchyou in the face a half dozen times withoutretaliation. So they can set for every punchthey throw, and you will eventually not lookhuman either. Teeth knocked out. Nose bro-ken. Eyes all torn up. HIS FACE WAS AMASS OF GORE AND BLOOD. So badlywas He beaten that PEOPLE HAD TO TURNAWAY.

Do you know why He was so badlybeaten? Everyone wanted Him to die. But noone wanted Him to die the way He did die.Satan didn’t want Him to get to the Cross.The religious leaders, the Jews, wanted Himto die, too. The Romans saw in Him a pestand they wanted Him to die. They wanted toget rid of Him. And they all wanted to crucifyHim. But Satan didn’t want Him to go to theCross. So Satan tried to kill Him before Hegot to the Cross. So, He was badly beatenand He no longer looked human.

There isn’t another member of the hu-man race who has ever lived, or ever willlive, who has taken as much punishment thatthe Lord Jesus Christ took and still remainalive. So that He could lay down His life forus. You and I would have died long beforethat of a cerebral hemorrhage or something


else. So again, once again, this shows thatJesus Christ was the STRONGEST PER-SON WHO EVER LIVED. Stronger than anystrong man who ever lived. He had to havethe most unusual physical body in order totake all that punishment and still remainalive. And He did.

Now we are getting close to the Hebrewword here ‘‘bruise.’’ ‘‘By His bruise.’’ 1 Peter2:24. When Peter saw the Lord Jesus Christhe was a bruise hanging on the Cross. AndPeter said, ‘‘By His bruise we are healed.’’ Itis not ‘‘we are healed.’’ You should be waitingfor this one. Notice three things first of allabout this verb ‘‘we are healed.’’ The etymol-ogy of this verb doesn’t mean to be healed,although it has been used that way.

‘‘Healed’’ means to draw something to-gether. Now, the reason it was sometimesused in a secondary sense for healing is be-cause in the ancient world, if you had a greatwound, there was a gap there. The wound isseparated. So, what did they do in the an-cient world with wounds? They stitched it to-gether. If the person recovered from thewound, they said he was healed. How manystitches did you get? The way he recoveredfrom the physical wound is that they sewedthe wound together. So this means to sewthem up. This is then the doctrine of peace,the doctrine of reconciliation, which we had inour previous study. ‘‘By His chastisement,punishment, we have peace.’’

Here is man then, and there is a gap, thewound. And then there is God. Christ by Hiswork on the Cross pulls the wound together,closes the gap between man and God. So,now it is man and God together, healed,peace. It means to sew up, or draw together,and we have been brought nigh. Man andGod are now reconciled and have peace.

The next point on ‘‘healed.’’ This is a pas-sive voice, and the tense is perfect. Thismeans a completed action. But this was writ-ten 600 years before the action was com-pleted. So, let us get the technical term usedhere. When a technical term for this type ofphrase is used it is called PROPHETICUMPERFECTUM, which simply means this: In

the mind of God it has already happened, al-though there will still be 600 years before itdoes happen. Therefore it is put in the per-fect tense. Because not only has it happenedin the mind of God, His Plan, this Plan is partof God’s sovereignty. This is a prophecy anda promise of the certainty of fulfillment. It willand did happen.

Here we have the same thing as peace,reconciliation, healed. We have a Hebrewparallelism here:

A. Wounded, bruised for our transgres-sion and iniquity...

B. Punishment, was upon Him, resultingin peace with God.

A. By His bruise...

B. We are sewed together, peace.

A. Wounded, Cross...

B. Peace, Christianity.

A. Punished, Cross...

B. Healed, Christianity.

Now let’s see if we can pass this part ofour Christmas exam. Here is a verse that isquoted and quoted and quoted. And no oneseems to get it right. They don’t even knowwhat they are quoting. So, let’s try it.

Question One: What was the word‘‘but?’’

Answer: A conjunction of contrast. Re-jection in verse 3 and acceptance in verse 4.

Question Two: He was wounded andHe was bruised. Define those words.

Answer: He was wounded, literallypierced, the intensive stem, passive voice. At12 Noon with Jesus Christ on the Cross,these things became intense, excruciating in-tensity. ‘‘He bore our sins in His own bodyon the Tree.’’

Question Three: ‘‘He was bruised.’’ Whatdoes that mean?

Answer: Crushed, in the intensive stem,passive voice. He was pierced intensely. Hewas crushed, like a worm, intensely.


Question Four: Chastisement literallymeans punishment. Whose punishment wasit? And what happened to our punishment onHim?

Question Five: What did His punishmentbring us?

Answer: Peace, reconciliation.

Question Six: By what means of Hisbruise are we what?

Answer: Drawn together, sewed to-gether, drawn back to God. Right now we arein union with Christ. That is one stick that willNEVER be broken, eternal salvation.

In verse 6 we have the universality ofman’s sin. ‘‘All we.’’ Every member of thehuman race is a sinner. We are sinners be-cause we are born sinners. Long before youcommit a personal sin, you are a sinner. Weare sinners because we are born with an oldsin nature. The first time we open ourmouths, we cry, which is the first time webreathe, and we are sinners. Right then andthere, a little so-called ‘‘innocent baby.’’ Onlything is that they are not innocent. We arenot innocent because we are only babies.We have two things as babies that make usnot innocent. And that is imputed sin, and in-herent sin.

It may be some time before that babysins personally. Maybe a few hours or maybea few days. You see, we may not be gettingany attention, and so we yell for it, and thenwe start sinning personally. But long BE-FORE we sin personally, we are sinners. Weare born physically alive and spiritually dead.See this phrase, ‘‘All we,’’ and that means allof us.

‘‘All we like sheep have gone astray.’’‘‘Gone astray’’ means to wander. We haven’tall gone astray. We have all wandered. ‘‘Allwe like sheep have wandered.’’ Apparentlyeveryone in the ancient world knew that allsheep wander. Sheep wander, and do youknow why they wander? Because they don’tknow any better. They go in different direc-tions. And that is the reason why they havesheep dogs, in order to keep them from wan-dering. When sheep scatter it is very humor-

ous, unless they belong to you and you haveto personally collect them. If there is a littlelightning, they go in every direction.

Now that is what we are exactly like. Inother words, we are just like a flock of sheep.Something frightens us and we scatter. Thatis exactly what happened to mankind. Andman therefore, has to get back into the fold,and that is Jesus Christ. Mankind goes eve-rywhere, like sheep, but in the wrong direc-tion. We go everywhere and we go in all di-rections, but never in the direction of theShepherd, the Lord.

Someone is always trying to get some-thing out of life. And we go in every directionto get it, BUT NOT IN GOD’S DIRECTION.Until Christ died, as it were, until salvationwas planned, there was no way to bring thesheep back, and without the work of Christon the Cross there is no way to keep sheepfrom wandering and scattering. That is themeaning of ‘‘All we like sheep.’’

Just two words, ‘‘like sheep,’’ and wehave our illustration. Sheep scatter, and theywill never come back, unless there is someway to bring them back. This is where thepursuit of GRACE comes in. THE LORDSEEKS THAT LOST SHEEP TILL HE FINDSIT. The only way to bring the sheep backsince the fall of Adam, is the work of JesusChrist on the Tree.

‘‘We have turned everyone to his ownway.’’ ‘‘His own way’’ means that we all havefree will. By our own free will we go in everydirection except toward the Lord. We fall allover each other. We bump into each other.We knock heads, as it were, but we neverturn in the direction of God, apart from theCross of Christ, apart from the Gospel. ‘‘Hisown way,’’ means independent free will. But itis God’s will that we come back, ‘‘not willingthat any should perish.’’ But there are manysheep wandering around out there, and thatis man’s volition. But God ‘‘is not willing thatany should perish,’’ and that is God’s freewill. His will is that we all come back. Somecome back and some do not.


But the point is that MAN HAS FREEWILL, which can, and does, operate inde-pendently of God. Now what is it that bringsus back? Well, the next phrase. ‘‘The Lord.’’The Hebrew word is JEHOVAH, which is asacred name for God. Here in context it re-fers to God the Father. ‘‘The Lord hath laid.’’This is a causative stem, active voice. Liter-ally it reads, ‘‘to cause to fall one,’’ not laid.‘‘The Lord, God the Father, has caused to fallon Him .’’

What? ‘‘The iniquity of us all.’’ Notice howthis verse started. Notice carefully how itstarts and ends. The same word, both times,begins with ‘‘all’’ and ends with ‘‘all.’’ ‘‘All welike sheep’’ and ‘‘the iniquity of us all.’’ Herewe have the substitutionary death of Christ.Someone had to take it for us. That someoneis the Lord Jesus Christ. ‘‘The iniquity of usall’’ means every sin, every sin ever commit-

ted. Please notice it doesn’t say ‘‘transgres-sion of all of us.’’ This is simply becausetransgression is a limited form of sin. Trans-gression is only a violation of known law, aknown Divine law.

But there are millions and millions of sinsin addition to that one. That is why it says,‘‘the iniquity of us all.’’ God the Father took allof these things at 12 Noon in April 30 A.D.,and put them all on the Lord Jesus Christ,‘‘causing to fall on Him.’’ And when He did,the Lord Jesus Christ screamed out ‘‘ELOHI,ELOHI, LAMA SABATANI.’’

Now, in verses 7-9 we have the completeexplanation of that phrase, ‘‘My God, MyGod. Why hast Thou forsaken Me?’’ Thisbrings us to the third act or third increment ofIsaiah 53.


THE THIRD PRINCIPLE IN ISAIAH’SORIGINAL CHRISTMAS STORY

OUR LORD’S TRIALS AND THE TREE,CROSS. THE SILENCE OF GRACE. ‘‘Hewas oppressed,’’ and ‘‘He was afflicted,’’ yet‘‘He opened not His mouth.’’ There are threepersonal pronouns, He, He, He. And the twoverbs, ‘‘oppressed and afflicted.’’ These allapply to the trials of the Lord Jesus Christ.Both of these verbs are in the passive voice,which means He received them.

The first word, ‘‘He was oppressed,’’means to be harassed and abused. The sec-ond word, ‘‘He was afflicted’’ means to re-ceive affliction, in the place of justice, insteadof justice. Where He should have receivedjustice, He received affliction. But, in spite ofthat fact, even though there were many dif-ferent reasons, the six trials He went throughwere all mistrials. They were all wrong. Theywere all unfair. They were all unjust. Yet Hedid not complain at any one point. ‘‘Heopened not His mouth.’’

Here is a Biblical commentary on the sixtrials of the Lord Jesus Christ. The intensivestem issued in the Hebrew language here forthe expression, ‘‘He opened not His mouth,’’which means injustice after injustice, and thiswas all committed in the courtroom. Yet Hedid not complain or even respond as peopleoften respond to injustice. Sometimes peoplescream out, ‘‘This is not fair. You have vio-lated my rights, etc.’’

Now this silence of God is very interest-ing. This is the silence of GRACE. This si-lence is interesting in view of the fact thatwhen Jesus Christ returns to this Earth, Hekills people with His mouth, Revelation19:13-15. ‘‘He slays them with the sword ofHis mouth.’’

Maybe for your own study of the Bible,you should have the six trials of the Lord Je-sus Christ, so let us at least list them for youhere:

1. The trial before Annas. This is found inJohn 18:12-24. This was an illegal trial be-cause Annas was not the high priest. How-

ever he was the lord high executioner of allof southern Palestine. He was the father-in-law of the high priest. He was the head of agangster syndicate. They were operating atthat time in the Negev and in Jerusalem.Therefore, everything had to be cleared withAnnas. Jesus Christ appeared before Annasfirst in John 18:12- 24.

2. The second trial was before Caiaphas.This is found in Matthew 26:57-68. Now thistrial had many injustices, such as the judgetrying to get an indictment, WHICH ISNEVER DONE. Judges usually always listento the evidence and make a decision. Butthese judges ran around trying to collect evi-dence.

Now, under Jewish law, you have tohave two people to agree in order to draw anindictment. They found it virtually impossibleto get two people to agree on anything inconnection with the Lord Jesus Christ. Theyspit upon Him. They beat Him. This trial wasalso illegal because it was held at night. Thetrial was also held on a holy day, and thatmade it illegal. They also tried to get Him tocondemn Himself, and this is also illegalwhen it comes to Jewish jurisprudence.

3. The third trial was held before the as-sembled Sanhedrin the next morning. Luke22:66-71. In this trial they tried to make it le-gal. The night before was not legal, so theyheld one in the daytime to try to make it le-gal. This was as illegal as the first. Daytimeillegal.

4. The fourth trial was held before Pon-tius Pilate. Luke 23:1-7. Pilate was the onlyopen-minded judge in whom Jesus Christfaced. He declared the innocence of the LordJesus Christ, on four different occasions, dur-ing two trials.

5. The fifth trial was held before Herod. Itwas an attempt on the part of Pilate to dodgehis responsibility. Herod was in town, andsomeone told Pilate that Jesus Christ wasfrom Galilee, and therefore, He was underHerod’s jurisdiction. So he sent Him over toHerod. Herod tried to make the Lord JesusChrist do magic tricks. When He refused, he


abused Him and sent Him back. Luke 23:8-12.

6. The sixth trial was held before PontiusPilate again. John 18:29-19:16. Again thetrial was illegal in every way. The judge him-self declared the Lord Jesus Christ innocent.But one thing was added, scourging.

Here are six trials of the Lord JesusChrist. Long before it happened, some 600years beforehand, we have the details con-cerning the trials. It is not unusual for a per-son to be a victim of injustice during so-called legal procedures. But this was unusualin that ‘‘He did not open His mouth.’’ He didnot say a word. This is the silence ofGRACE.

Then we read, ‘‘He is brought as a lambto the slaughter.’’ ‘‘He is brought,’’ is thecausative passive. It is literally, ‘‘He wascaused to be led.’’ He didn’t go Himself, oth-ers caused Him to go. Others caused Him togo to the Cross. This emphasizes the hu-man side of the Cross. This is people, andtheir desire and their volition. Others causedHim to go.

Then we have the first of two illustrationsin this verse. ‘‘As a lamb to the slaughter.’’Here is the correlation between Jesus Christbeing led to the Cross and the constant andhabitual offerings of animal sacrifices in theOld Testament. ‘‘Christ the Lamb of Godwhich taketh away the sins of the world.’’Then when He was on the Cross, again youwill notice again it says, ‘‘And as a sheep be-fore the shearer is dumb, so He opened notHis mouth.’’ Again the Lord Jesus Christ wasrailroaded to the Cross. And yet once againHe did not complain. While He was being ledto the Cross, He did not complain. Yet Hehad more right to complain than any personwho has ever lived. ‘‘The Just for the unjust.’’

Then we have the second illustration us-ing sheep, lamb and sheep. ‘‘The sheep be-fore the shearers is dumb,’’ silent. In otherwords, the sheep do not resist the shearers.They do not make noises and/or complain.This means that Jesus Christ was willing togo to the Cross and die for our sins. Just as

sheep are willing to be sheared, no resis-tance, Jesus Christ did not resist the Cross.Had the Lord Jesus Christ resisted, the situ-ation would have been most interesting. Tenthousand angels would certainly have clut-tered up and made a mess of Jerusalem.They would have destroyed many people.

But He did not resist because HESOUGHT TO DO THE FATHER’S WILL. Hesettled this question in the Garden ofGethsemane, when He said, ‘‘If it be Thy will,let this cup pass from Me.’’ This was a firstclass condition of supposition. He was as-suming for the moment that it was the Fa-ther’s will. Then when He realized that it wasnot, He went on to say, ‘‘Nevertheless, Thywill be done, not My will, but Thy will bedone.’’ If Jesus Christ had been operating in-dependently of the Father, He would haveavoided the Cross, not because of the suffer-ing, because during the course of His suffer-ing, as we saw, He was very silent. Physicalsuffering did not bother the Lord JesusChrist. He was completely skinned alive, witha whip. He was beaten very badly. He wasspit upon. He was lied about. He was ma-ligned. He was abused. All in every possibleway, and yet, not once did He cry out in pain.

During the time He was on the Cross Heonly said three things: ‘‘Father, forgive themfor they know not what they do.’’ ‘‘Today shaltthou be with Me in Paradise.’’ ‘‘Woman.’’ Hespoke to the Father. He spoke to the dyingbeliever on the cross. And He spoke to Mary,‘‘Woman, behold thy son.’’ John took chargeof Mary after that time. He made provision forHis family.

These are the only things that He statedbefore 12 Noon. Then He finally screamedout, ‘‘My God, My God. Why hast Thou for-saken Me?’’ This is coming up in our nextverse of this original Christmas story.

So, we have two illustrations here, lamband sheep. Now, as far as our exam forChristmas is concerned, I would ask severalthings concerning this verse. What two verbsexpress the trials of our Lord Jesus Christ?What Hebrew stem are they in? And why?You would then give the first two verbs, op-


pressed and afflicted. Both of them are pas-sive stems, these are things He received. Hedid not earn them, nor did He deserve them.He was NOT a criminal.

So, therefore, this stem says He was vic-timized. He was innocent. And then I wouldask you to give the exact meaning of thesetwo verbs, and how they are connected withthe trials of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then citethe Scriptural references.

Next question: Give two illustrations inthis verse and tell what they mean.

Answer: Lamb to the slaughter, that isJesus Christ being led to the Cross, the hu-man side. ‘‘Sheep before the shearers is si-lent.’’ This is Jesus Christ willing to do theFather’s will, and that is the Divine side.

Now, there is another important principlehere. Why did the Lord Jesus Christ want toavoid the Cross? Not because of physicalpain. BUT BECAUSE AT THE CROSS, THEPERFECT SON OF GOD, PERFECT IN HISHUMANITY, WOULD COME INTO CON-TACT WITH SINS. ‘‘He would bear our sinsin His own body on the Tree.’’ That was re-pugnant to Him.

‘‘He opened not His mouth.’’ He did notcomplain. He did not fight back. But a veryimportant principle is here. In order to under-stand this principle you have to go back tothe Valley of Elam, when David arrived after40 days, and when this loud mouth Goliathwas trumpeting out his challenge, and said,who will come down and fight with me?

David, as you remember, was the firstone to speak up. That was the 40th day. AndDavid said, ‘‘Who is this uncircumcized Philis-tine, that he should defy the armies of theLiving God?’’ And, of course, the populationimmediately started to lead David off into thetent of Saul, which was the command post.They finally had a volunteer. But on the wayhis older brother, his handsome olderbrother, whom Saul wanted to anoint, beganto criticize him, the older brother once again.But David ignored the criticism. He spokeback in a very simple idiom, which was verygracious and moved on.

Now this was a great attempt on the partof Satan to keep David from meeting the gi-ant. If David had been out of fellowship, hewould have failed. HIS BROTHER UN-JUSTLY CRITICIZED HIM. You haven’t liveduntil you have been unjustly criticized. ButDavid didn’t snap back. He didn’t fight back.He didn’t retaliate. He didn’t take vengeancein his own hands. He simply moved on.

Now, when it came to the Lord JesusChrist, all the way along, starting with the tri-als of the Lord Jesus Christ, and continuingto the trip to Golgotha, there were manytimes when Jesus Christ was maligned, bothby the crowd and the Sanhedrin, the religiousleaders. Not once during that entire time didthe Lord Jesus Christ snap back, or do any-thing to get out of fellowship. Nor did He everfail once during that trying period, because ifHe had failed even once during that wholetrying period, we would not have our so greatsalvation.

No one can die for the sins of the wholeworld unless he is perfect. Jesus Christ didnot have an old sin nature, and He did nothave the imputation of Adam’s sin. Right upto the moment when He screamed out, ‘‘MyGod, My God, Why hast Thou forsaken Me?’’He still could have failed by committing justone sin. But He didn’t. Not one sin. But Hewas made sin for us. He knew no sin.

I don’t know about you, but I have hadthe opportunity many times, after havingbeen insulted, we all have, and we have thistendency to just run over whoever just said,‘‘boo.’’ It is a great temptation when someonegets in your way just to mow them down, justto run over people. It is very easy whensomeone insults you to automatically just letthem have it. It is a tremendous temptation, atemptation to fight back. Especially when it isunjust. Just reach out and let them have it.

Now, the Lord Jesus Christ could havejust spoken one word, and they all wouldhave dropped dead. In other words, on ourpart, it takes a little activity, we have to be incondition in order to retaliate and to be suc-cessful. But the Lord Jesus Christ only had toopen His mouth and He did it before with the


Assyrians. He said, ‘‘Drop dead,’’ and theydid. He didn’t even have to call upon the an-gels, although He could have. Just think whata tremendous tempta tion our Lord facedwhen all this occurred unjustly to Him, andmany more temptations than we do.

He faced all that we will ever face, andmany more things besides. But one of thegreatest, and subtlest of all temptations cameto the Lord Jesus Christ during those lasthours, FROM THE TIME THAT JUDASKISSED HIM, UNTIL THE TIME HE BOREOUR SINS ON THE TREE. From the kiss ofdeath, to the actual death on the Cross. Aperiod of almost 12 hours, possibly a littleover 12 hours. During that period, He wasconstantly criticized, and constantly ma-ligned, and constantly abused. He could havefought back in a way that we do not have thepower to fight back with. He could have veryeasily leveled them. Why didn’t He?

Well, I will tell you why. BECAUSE HEWAS THINKING OF US. Merry Christmas!Because He was bearing our sin, ‘‘becauseof the joy that was before Him.’’ You are thejoy that was before Him. Because He wastaking our place. Because He had a missionto accomplish. That mission meant that Hecould not take vengeance into His ownhands. He could not fight back. ‘‘When Hewas reviled, He reviled not again, but com-mitted it unto Him who is the Judge of all.’’

The basic principle here is that TWOWRONGS DON’T MAKE A RIGHT. Theywere all wrong. They maligned Him. If Heturned around and met wrong with wrong,then He would have been out of fellowship.He would have sinned, and we would nothave our so great salvation.

Now, any body who has any gumption orguts is going to stand up and deliver whenthey are challenged. It is easy to do. It is astrong temptation not to. And yet, we havethis basic principle here for us. Yet, in ac-complishing the Lord’s will, many, manytimes it takes just exactly the opposite. Re-member that wonderful principle and put faithin the promises of God and rest there.‘‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay, saith the

Lord.’’ Therefore maintain your fellowship withGod.

Some of the most subtle temptations thatcome to us as believers in the Lord JesusChrist come to us by those who are critical,or jealous, or noisy. They malign, they criti-cize, they gossip, unjustly. In other words,the ‘‘attacks of the sins of the tongue,’’ whichare high on the list of sins.

James 3:5, 6, ‘‘Even so the tongue is alittle member, and boasteth great things. Be-hold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity:so is the tongue among our members, that itdefileth the whole body, and setteth on firethe course of nature; and it is set on fire ofhell.’’

So when these attacks come, if we re-spond in kind, if we meet evil with evil, thenwe are out of fellowship. We are no longercontrolled by God the Holy Spirit, and we areabsolutely useless.

So, from the Cross, the Tree, the Christ-mas message, we learn this wonderful princi-ple. PUT IT IN THE LORD’S HANDS. AsDavid said by the time he arrived at the bat-tle field. He had already fought many battlesthat day. He also faced this temptation tofight back, to fight his brother. His brothersaid, ‘‘You don’t have enough experience.You are just a kid.’’ He faced many tempta-tions like putting on Saul’s armour. But by thetime he got out there to Goliath, life for Davidbecame very simple. Now all He had to dowas to kill this 9 foot 2 inch giant. That forDavid was simple compared to what he hadjust gone through. So he told Goliath verysimply, when Goliath began to threaten him.Goliath used psychological warfare againstDavid, and he began to tell David what hewas going to do with him, ‘‘feed him to thebirds,’’ etc.

So, David simply told him, ‘‘The battle isthe Lord’s.’’ How did David know that? Well,David had been putting things in the Lord’shands all day. He had to turn over the criti-cism of his brother to the Lord. And he hadto turn over Saul to the Lord. He had to re-


fuse Saul’s armour. There was a great rea-son for that. You see, just before a great vic-tory, you have your greatest test. Sometimesyou don’t know when a victory is around thecorner, except by the tremendous pressureyou have. When the pressure builds up, andwhen things get very sticky, and a little diffi-cult then you know that there is somethinggreat right around the corner. So, by stayingin fellowship with the Lord, keeping your rela-tionship with the Lord in tact, being under thecontrol of the Holy Spirit, then you are victori-ous.

That is exactly what the Lord JesusChrist did. Our Lord remained in status quofilling of the Spirit. He did not get out of fel-lowship. He did not sin. Satan did everythinghe could to draw His anger. He tried hard toget the Lord into that situation of these vi-cious traits that exist in the human race. ButChrist didn’t fall for it. ‘‘He opened not Hismouth.’’ The silence of GRACE.

He didn’t fight back. He didn’t say unkindthings to unkind people. Many of us, as be-lievers, lose out on major victories simply be-cause when these pressures come along, werevert to petty little people who have to fightback, who have to meet gossip with gossipand maligning with maligning, instead of put-ting it in the Lord’s hands.

So, there are always small people whonever break through. If the Lord Jesus Christhad done that, then there would have beenno salvation. So, ‘‘He opened not His mouth.’’This is a very important doctrine.

Verse 8, now we move on to a legal pro-cedure. ‘‘He was taken from prison.’’ That iswhat the King James version of 1611 says.But no matter how you translate this in theEnglish, the Hebrew word here is not‘‘prison.’’ It is literally ‘‘He was seized by thegovernment, by dominion.’’ The word ‘‘taken’’is literally seized, taken into custody. It is in-tensive, and it is in the passive voice. So,when He was finally seized, it was a very vi-cious thing. This is where the problemsstarted right here, when they seized Him,they manhandled Him. Not just seized and

took into custody, but manhandled Him, topush Him around and beat Him.

‘‘And He was taken by government,’’ do-minion. ‘‘From prison’’ is literally ‘‘from domin-ion.’’ There were two governments involved,the Roman government and the Jewish gov-ernment. So we can correctly translate this,‘‘He was seized by governmental authority.’’

‘‘And from judgment.’’ This is incorrectlytranslated also. This is literally, ‘‘and legalprocedure.’’ ‘‘He was seized by governmentalauthority, and by legal procedure.’’ In otherwords, the Roman government was estab-lished to keep the peace. And they were tak-ing the Prince of Peace into custody. ‘‘Legalprocedure’’ is a reference to the trials of theLord Jesus Christ. They tried to get rid ofHim legally.

Now, the next phrase is also incorrectlytranslated. ‘‘And who shall declare His gen-eration.’’ The Hebrew says, ‘‘Of His genera-tion, who shall protest?’’ Who shall protest inHis generation? Who will protest the thingthat He did? Answer, historically, Peter onthe day of Pentecost.

Peter, by the way, at this time, is hiding.He has run away at this point. He denied theLord the night before, and he followed theLord afar off. Peter, who had done everythingthat is wrong, he wouldn’t listen to the Word,failed in prayer. He followed the Lord afar off.He tried everything in his own strength. Hedenied the Lord. He is the one who is goingto protest for that generation. That is Peter’sPentecostal sermon in the book of Acts. Itwasn’t a Pentecostal sermon by any stretchof the imagination. It had Divine power andnot human emotions.

Peter’s sermon on the day of Pentecostwas one of five protests. Every protest is re-corded in the book of Acts. Stephen pro-tested. Paul’s sermon on Mars Hill was an-other protest. All of the protests are recorded.So, actually in Acts we have the answer tothis question here in Isaiah, 600 years beforethese protest sermons were given.

Literally, ‘‘Who shall protest in His gen-eration?’’ The word ‘‘protest’’ is in the inten-


sive stem. The protest will be intensive,which means with power. The protest will bemade the great power, Acts 1:8, the power ofthe Holy Spirit. ‘‘Ye shall receive power afterthat the Holy Spirit is come upon you. Andye shall be witnesses unto Me.’’ The witness-ing was in the power of the Holy Spirit. Andso in our Lord’s generation, every bit of wit-nessing, every bit of declaration of Christ wasa protest.

The rest of the verse says, ‘‘For He wascut off, out of the land of the living for thetransgression of My people, was Hestricken.’’ ‘‘He was cut off.’’ This is a causa-tive, He received death. This refers to Hisspiritual death, not His physical death. ‘‘Cutoff’’ means to die. This anticipates the nextverse, where He died twice.

Now, if I was giving you an examination,I would ask, what is the significance of thisphrase, ‘‘He was cut off?’’ Answer: His death.

Next question: Which death, and why?Answer: The Hebrew stem is always passive,therefore it cannot refer to something He didHimself. He received this death. When Je-sus Christ died physically, He did it Him-self. ‘‘Father, into Thy hands, I commit MySpirit. And He dismissed His Spirit.’’ There-fore, if this was referring to physical death,the physical death of the Lord Jesus Christ, itwould be a QAL stem, which is the activevoice. But here we have the passive voice.This shows us how important the Hebrewstems are. Because in the passive voice itmeans He was cut off, in spiritual death, sothat when God the Father and God the HolySpirit departed from Him, He received spiri-tual death.

‘‘For the transgressions of My people.’’‘‘For’’ is literally ‘‘because of the transgres-sions of My people.’’ In other words, He diedfor our sins. ‘‘Stricken’’ is literally, ‘‘the strokeof judgment fell upon Him.’’ Notice, He wasstricken, not that He was stricken, but thatthe stroke of judgment fell upon Him. Thisagain refers to His first death on the Cross,again, spiritual death. When He bore our sinson the Tree, and took our place and satisfiedall the righteousness and the just claims of

God the Father, which He had against thewhole human race. This phrase says that.‘‘The stroke of judgment fell on Him.’’

God is absolute righteousness and manis MINUS God’s righteous ness. Because ofthat, God must pronounce a penalty uponman. Now, man is also spiritually dead, andman is a sinner, but even man’s righteous-ness is not good enough to have fellowshipwith God. So man is dead because of it.Therefore, God has something against man,and God’s love cannot go past God’s justiceand God’s righteousness. God wants to lovethe human race. God loves the world, but Hisrighteousness and justice are in the way. So,God can’t love man. He can’t do it apart fromthe Cross.

But when Jesus Christ died on theCross, He, Jesus Christ, was absolute right-eousness. He died the first time spirituallyand satisfied the just demand of God the Fa-ther. He, Jesus Christ, paid the penalty of sinfor us. Now the love of God, which is a partof God’s character, comes through GRACEand comes to man ONLY by the way of theCross.

Now, a loving God can very easily throwany creature into the Lake of Fire, who doesnot come to the Cross, because when hedoes not come to the Cross and accept Je-sus Christ as his personal Saviour, then manaccepts his own good works. His own goodworks are still minus God’s righteousness.Man’s relative righteousness cannot havefellowship with God’s absolute righteous-ness and therefore, he still has the penalty ofsin still outstanding. ‘‘The stroke of judgmentfell upon Him.’’

Now, in verse 9 we have our Lord’s bur-ial and the Cross. The fourth act, or thefourth principle in the Original Christmas,Isaiah’s Christmas.

‘‘And He made His grave with the wickedand with the rich in His deaths.’’ Deaths hereis plural. ‘‘Because He had no violence, nei-ther was any deceit in His mouth.’’ ‘‘He’’ isreference to God the Father, again. The word‘‘made’’ means literally, ‘‘to assign.’’ He as-


signed Him, Christ. This is a simple declara-tion of the fact in the Hebrew language, but ithasn’t happened yet, as of the time of Isaiah.This is again 600 years before it happened.

Now, while Jesus Christ was dying, andin His deaths, plural, He was assigned to twodifferent categories. First of all, ‘‘the wicked.’’Secondly, ‘‘the rich.’’ ‘‘The wicked’’ refers tothe two thieves, the ones who were crucifiedon each side of Him. Two criminals justlycondemned, justly paying their debt to soci-ety, as it were. Capital punishment, Romanstyle, crucifixion. At first both of these thievesmocked Him and ridiculed Him. Then finallyone thief changed his mind about the LordJesus Christ. And he said, ‘‘Lord.’’ When hesaid ‘‘Lord,’’ he used the Greek wordKURIOS, which means Deity. He recognizedJesus Christ as God. Then he said, ‘‘Remem-ber me.’’ He brought himself into the picture,‘‘Lord, remember me.’’ At that very point hehad a personal relationship with God throughthe Lord Jesus Christ.

One criminal getting exactly what he de-served. One criminal getting what he de-served, to die, a criminal who was justly dy-ing, and then this criminal went on to say,‘‘When Thou comest into Thy kingdom.’’ Herecognized that He was God, Lord, and herecognized that Jesus Christ was a king. Herecognized Christ as God, and recognizedChrist as man. In this phrase that he utteredthere was the identification of Christ for whatHe was.

Christ responded, ‘‘Today shalt thou bewith Me in Paradise.’’ The soul of the LordJesus Christ would go to Paradise, and Hisbody would go into the grave, and His Spiritwent into the presence of God the Father.One of the dying thieves was saved, and itdidn’t involve water baptism, or joining achurch or tithing. He didn’t have time to doany of those things. He didn’t have time tostraighten out his life. He didn’t have time toturn respectable. He didn’t have time to feelsorry for his sins or to make restitution.

Now, this is 600 years before it hap-pened. Christ was identified with twothieves. Just think of all the factors that it

took to get two thieves and the Lord JesusChrist to that hill to be crucified, all at thesame time. First of all, those two thieves hadto be somebody’s children. They had to beborn into this world. They had to go throughthe course of time. They had to get into theNegev and be apprehended. They may havebeen a part of the other criminal Barabbasand his gang. They had to be caught at justthe right time, at the very same time that ourLord was going through His illegal trials. Andthey had to be crucified. If you sit down andtry to figure out all the possibilities, it is morethan probably a 2000 to 1 shot that these twothieves would be crucified with the Lord atthat time. 600 years before it happened herewe have the details.

And that isn’t all. The next phrase is veryimportant. ‘‘The rich in His death.’’ This is areference to the Lord Jesus Christ’s burial inthe tomb of Joseph of Arimathaea. This isdescribed for us also in Matthew 27:57,‘‘When the even was come, there came arich man of Arimathaea, named Joseph, whoalso himself was Jesus disciple.’’ John 19:38,‘‘And after this Joseph of Arimathaea, being adisciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of theJews, besought Pilate that he might takeaway the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave himleave. He came therefore, and took the bodyof Jesus.’’

The story of the two thieves is fulfilled inLuke 23:39-43, ‘‘And one of the malefactorswhich were handed railed on Him, saying, IfThou be Christ, save Thyself and us. But theother answering rebuked Him, saying, Dostnot thou fear God, seeing thou art in thesame condemnation? And we indeed justly;for we receive the due reward of our deeds:but this man hath done nothing amiss. Andhe said unto Jesus, Lord, remember mewhen Thou comest into Thy kingdom. AndJesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee,Today shalt thou be with Me in Paradise.’’

We know from the study of the ancientworld, specifically the book of Josephus,where he mentions this particular fact, that itwas the Jewish custom to bury blasphemers


in a very obscure manner. They just sort ofcarried out the trash, and threw it away.

Now, if they did that with the Lord JesusChrist, it would be very hard to validate Hisresurrection historically. So, instead of beingtaken out with the two thieves, when the timecame to remove these three from the cross,the Lord instead of being taken out to an un-known cave, was placed in a very prominentconspicuous place, the tomb of Joseph ofArimathaea. So Joseph of Arimathaea wentto Pontius Pilate, and he persuaded him toallow him to take the body of the Lord JesusChrist, and along with Nicodemus, they pre-pared the body for the burial and then put thebody in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathaea, atomb which was nearby, a tomb which wasvery, very prominent. Joseph was a wealthyman, and he had a very prominent place forhis own burial. And so it was fulfilled.

‘‘He was identified with the rich.’’ This, ofcourse, refers to Joseph of Arimathaea. Thetomb of the Lord Jesus Christ had to beprominent because of His resurrection. If hehad been carted out with the other twothieves and thrown into an ash heap, thiswould have made it very hard to validate Hisresurrection. And an obscure grave wouldbe a means of discrediting the resurrection ofthe Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, the body ofthe Lord Jesus Christ winds up in a veryprominent place in the tomb of a verywealthy man, a place of a rich man’s tomb.And a place of prominence, whereby wehave a very excellent observation of His res-urrection.

Literally, ‘‘He assigned Him with thewicked and with the rich in His deaths.’’‘‘Deaths,’’ again, plural. Christ died twice,spiritually and physically.

Back in the Garden we have Adam.Adam partook of the tree and he died imme-diately. That is spiritual death. Satan saidthat thou shalt NOT surely die, and Christsaid, ‘‘Thou shalt surely die.’’ Now, spiritualdeath meant that when Jesus Christ camewalking in the Garden that particular day,Adam had to hide. Adam could never hidefrom the omniscience of the Lord, or the om-

nipresence of the Lord. But because he wasincapable of carrying on a conversation andhaving fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ,he was completely cut off from God. Like weare when we come into this world, physicallyalive and spiritually dead. Ephesians 2:1,‘‘And you hath He quickened, who were deadin trespasses and sins.’’

Hundreds of years later Adam finally diedphysically. Adam was told ‘‘the wages of sin’’is not physical death. Physical death is theresult of spiritual death. So when Adam died,he died immediately spiritually. Now the indi-cation of this death was that he could nothave fellowship with the Lord. If the Lord hadnot spoken to him in the Garden, he stillwould be hiding. That is the GRACE of God.God broke the silence. God the Son brokethe silence. That is the pursuit of GRACE. Itwas impossible for Adam to have fellowshipwith God, and God the Son made it possible,then and there. God had to do something be-cause Adam was spiritually dead.

When Jesus Christ died on the Cross,first of all He died spiritually. When He diedspiritually it was indicated by His fourth cryon the Cross, ‘‘My God, My God, Why hastThou forsaken Me?’’ God the Father and Godthe Holy Spirit forsook Him, simply becauseGod the Father poured out on the Lord JesusChrist the sins of the whole world. God theFather gathered into one ball every sin thathad ever been committed, past, present andfuture, all the sins of the world, from the timeof Adam till the end of time. They were allgathered up by God the Father, and theywere put on the Lord Jesus Christ. And thatwas His first spiritual death. When he boreour sins, the Father, in His holiness, and theHoly Spirit, in His holiness, had to departfrom the Lord Jesus Christ. At that moment,the Lord Jesus Christ, who had already beendeserted by man, was deserted by God theFather and God the Holy Spirit. They couldnot have fellowship with the One who wasmade sin for us. ‘‘God is of purer eyes thanto behold iniquity.’’ Jesus Christ paid rightthen and there for us. He was completelyalone on the Cross, on that Tree.


Then after He paid for our sins, at 12Noon, darkness covered Golgotha, and threehours later He said, ‘‘It is finished.’’ John19:30. When He said, ‘‘It is finished,’’ salva-tion was accomplished right then and there.Literally ‘‘finished’’ says ‘‘FINISHED IN THEPAST WITH A RESULT THAT IT STANDSFINISHED FOREVER.’’ That is actually whatHe said, ‘‘TETELASTI.’’ This was in the per-fect tense in the Greek language of the NewTestament.

And then He said, ‘‘Father into Thy handsI commit My Spirit.’’ Then He died physically.His work was accomplished, finished. So,‘‘My God, My God,’’ is spiritual death ex-pressed. And ‘‘Father’’ speaks of physicaldeath. He died physically because His workwas finished, completed.

He dismissed His own Spirit, of His ownvolition. His work was finished. We, like theLord Jesus Christ, remain on this Earth untilour work is finished. YOU ARE GOING TOREMAIN ON THIS EARTH UNTIL YOURWORK IS FINISHED. The only way of ex-ception will be, of course, Divine discipline,or violation of Divine law, and/or glorifyingGod in some other special way. OTHER-WISE, YOU WILL REMAIN UNTIL YOURWORK IS FINISHED. Paul said, ‘‘I havefought a good fight. I have finished mycourse. I have kept the faith.’’ ‘‘I have finishedmy course’’ indicates that he had finished hiswork.

Now, Jesus Christ had finished His work,and He sat down. It is all completed. NOTH-ING CAN BE ADDED TO THE FINISHEDWORK OF CHRIST. That is why we can’t besaved by our own works. It is therefore im-possible for human works to save, and, ofcourse, this is the greatest blasphemy of alltime, and the issue of indictment at the lastjudgment, ‘‘judged according to their works.’’

Now notice what the Hebrew actuallysays here. ‘‘He assigned Him His grave withthe wicked and with the rich in His deaths.’’Plural. Christ died twice, so that we onlyhave to die once, maybe. We who are bornonce, must be born twice that we don’t dietwice. In other words, the second death has

no claims on the believer in the Lord JesusChrist. Simply because of our second birth,because we have appropriated what the LordJesus Christ accomplished for us.

Here we also have a reference to thefact that the Lord Jesus Christ was qualifiedto do this for us, because it says, ‘‘He haddone no violence.’’ He had no overt sin. Theword ‘‘violence’’ is literally ‘‘wrong.’’ Literally,‘‘He had done no wrong.’’

Next we have ‘‘Neither was deceit in Hismouth.’’ There was no inner sin. He wastherefore sinless. Therefore He was qualifiedto bear our sins. Whoever goes to the Crossmust be true HUMANITY. But He must alsobe perfect HUMANITY.

There are three ways in which JesusChrist was qualified to bear our sins. Thereare three different kinds of sins:

One: There is the old sin nature, thatwhich we call inherent sin.

Second: There is imputed sin, the sin ofAdam imputed to the human race.

Third: There is imputed sin.

Now, Jesus Christ, through the virginbirth, did not have an old sin nature. Remem-ber that the old sin nature is passed downthrough the man. Jesus Christ came into thisworld through the virgin birth, so He had noold sin nature. He came into the world with-out an old sin nature, the only One who everdid.

Secondly, the imputation of Adam’s sincomes down through the man. Again, wehave the virgin birth of the Lord Jesus Christ,which actually kept the Lord Jesus Christfrom having the sin of Adam imputed to Him.

Thirdly, the issue for 33 years was Hispersonal life. He lived personally without sin.Therefore the Lord Jesus Christ was the onlymember of the human race qualified to go tothe Cross and die for the sins of the world.

One: virgin birth = no old sin nature.

Two: virgin birth = no imputed sin ofAdam.


Three: 33 years of perfect living, no per-sonal sin.Verse 10, the resurrection and theCross, the Tree, the fifth act.

‘‘Yet it pleased the Lord.’’ The word‘‘Lord’’ is JEHOVAH, which is a reference toGod the Father. ‘‘It pleased’’ means literally‘‘to desire, to be favorably disposed.’’ Thismeans to do something for someone.

Literally, ‘‘The Lord, God the Father, wasfavorably disposed to.’’ ‘‘Bruise Him.’’ Itpleased the Father to bruise the Lord JesusChrist. ‘‘Bruise’’ is in the PIEL stem, infinitive,which means to crush, or break in pieces, lit-erally. This goes back to Genesis 3:15, theCross. ‘‘And I will put enmity between theeand the woman, and between thy seed andher Seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thoushalt bruise His heel.’’

Next, ‘‘He hath put Him to grief.’’ Literally,‘‘He has caused Him suffering,’’ pain, bearingour sins. This is causative. He caused Christto suffer. The Father caused Christ to sufferfor us. Then we have the word ‘‘when.’’ Thisis a temporal relative word that tells us whenthis took place. It is a reference to the Crossagain.

‘‘When thou’’ is a reference again to Godthe Father. ‘‘Shall make His soul an offeringfor sin.’’ The Father, literally, shall designateHis soul as a sin offering. Now we have theprinciple of the sin offering. This is found inLeviticus 5 and 6. There are only a couple ofpoints we need here from Leviticus to sup-port this sin offering. One point is from Levi-ticus 5:16 and one is from Leviticus 6:5. InLeviticus 5:16 we have the first principle ofthe sin offering. ‘‘And he shall make amendsfor the harm that he hath done in the holything, and shall add the fifth part thereto, andgive it unto the priest: and the priest shallmake an atonement for him with the ram ofthe trespass offering, and it shall be forgivenhim.’’ The point is that God is the gainer. Firstof all, God is the gainer. And secondly, manis the gainer in the sin offering. The wholepoint is GAIN, and/or PROFIT.

In Leviticus 5:16 the verse tells us thatGod gains. God gains from the death of Je-

sus Christ on the Cross. God the Father sentGod the Son into the world, and as a resultof SENDING THAT SON, HE NOW HASMANY SONS. That is Hebrews 2.

So here is the first principle of the sin of-fering. Hebrews 2:9, ‘‘But we see Jesus, whowas made a little lower than the angels forthe suffering of death, crowned with gloryand honour; that He by the GRACE of Godshould taste death for every man.’’ The Fa-ther sent His Son and now the Father hasmany sons. ‘‘But we see Jesus, who wasmade a little lower than angels.’’ That meansthat in His HUMANITY, Jesus Christ is lowerthan angels. ‘‘For the suffering of death,’’which is the Cross. ‘‘Crowned with glory andhonor.’’ That is His resurrection and ascen-sion. ‘‘That by the GRACE of God He shouldTASTE DEATH FOR EVERY MAN.’’

Verse 10, ‘‘For it became Him, Christ, forwhom are all things, IN BRINGING MANYSONS INTO GLORY, to make the Captain oftheir salvation perfect through suffering.’’ So,the Father brings many sons into glorythrough the Lord Jesus Christ, who is theCaptain of our salvation.

Now, here are the mechanics. ‘‘For bothHe, Christ, that sets us apart, sanctifieth, andthey who are sanctified.’’ In other words itmeans simply this: Here is the throne room inheaven, and Jesus Christ has ascended. Je-sus Christ is now seated as our personalSaviour, we enter into union with Christ. Thisis our position in Christ. Christ is the Onewho sanctifies or sets us apart. Believers arethe ones who are sanctified, set apart inChrist. Christ is the Son, we are in union withChrist, therefore we are sons. Galatians 3:26,‘‘We are all the sons of God by faith in ChristJesus.’’ So we are children of God by believ-ing in Christ. Because we enter into unionwith Christ, ‘‘we are accepted in the Beloved.’’

So the principle first of all says God isthe gainer. He ‘‘brings many sons into glory.’’Verse 11, ‘‘For both He, Christ, that sancti-fieth and they who are set apart are all onefor which cause He is not ashamed to callthem brethren.’’ So we are called ‘‘brethren’’because we are in union with Christ.


Then the passage goes on to tell us howthis all works. Verse 14, ‘‘Forasmuch then asthe children are partakers of flesh and blood,He also Himself likewise took part of thesame.’’ This was Christ coming into theworld, the original Christmas message ofIsaiah. ‘‘That through death,’’ Christ had tobecome true humanity in order to die for oursins. ‘‘That through death He might destroyhim that had the power of death, that is, thedevil.’’ So Jesus Christ had to become truehumanity in order to die for our sins. Godsent one Son into the world and now Godhas many sons in glory.

So, the first principle of the sin offering.GOD IS THE GAINER. One Son, many sons.‘‘Thou Father shall make His soul a sin-offer-ing.’’ God the Father Himself becomes thegainer by having many children in glory.

Now Leviticus 6:5 explains the other prin-ciple of the sin-offering. MAN IS THEGAINER. Now man gains more by redemp-tion and regeneration than He had before thefall. Man in the fall lost his innocence and aGarden in one spot. Man is now higher thanthe angels. He is in union with the Lord Je-sus Christ. And man will live with God for-ever under circumstances which are far su-perior to what Adam had in the Garden instatus quo innocence.

So, MAN IS THE GAINER. Man, throughregeneration, has gained more than Adamlost by sin. And that is the principle of thesin-offering, to demonstrate how both Godand man gain for this sin-offering of the LordJesus Christ.

The verse goes on to say, ‘‘He,’’ JesusChrist, ‘‘shall see His seed.’’ Now, this ex-pression is a reference to the physical bodilyresurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. ‘‘Heshall prolong His days.’’ Literally, ‘‘He shallcause His days to be extended.’’ This again

is an expression of the bodily resurrection ofthe Lord Jesus Christ.

‘‘And the pleasure of JEHOVAH.’’ This isa reference to God the Father. ‘‘Shall prosperin His hands.’’ The word ‘‘pleasure’’ is literally‘‘plan,’’ the plan of JEHOVAH, the plan ofGod the Father, WILL PROSPER IN THEHAND OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST.

The word ‘‘prosper’’ is a simple declara-tion of prosperity through the death of theLord Jesus Christ. This verse actually beginswith death, as Christ being our sin-offering.Here we have the plan of the Father. StageOne of the plan of God the Father is thedeath of Christ. So this means that all mem-bers of the human race must start at theCross. ‘‘BELIEVE ON THE LORD JESUSCHRIST AND THOU SHALT BE SAVED.’’

Then we have the plan of God the Fatherfor the believers in Christ. That plan is for usto represent Him here in time on this Earth.So from the time you accept Jesus Christ asyour personal Saviour until the time you areabsent from the body and face to face withthe Lord, you are His personal repre-sentative. This means that God has a pur-pose for your life.

Then Stage Three of the plan of God theFather calls for you as a believer in eternityto glorify Him in a resurrection body exactlylike the Lord Jesus Christ. But there can beno eternity, no eternal life, there can be nomeaning or purpose and definition to your lifein time until you start at the Cross. God’splan for you begins at the Cross. And that iswhat is being said here at the end of thisverse.

‘‘The plan of Jehovah shall prosper in Hishands,’’ in the hand of the Lord Jesus Christ.The hands that were nailed to that Tree.‘‘They pierced My hands and My feet,’’ Psalm22:16.


In verse 11 we have the doctrine of sal-vation on the Tree, the sixth act.

‘‘He shall see the travail of His soul.’’ Thesubject of this verb is God the Father onceagain, the Planner. In other words, this saysthat God the Father takes note of the LordJesus Christ, and takes note of Him bearingour sins on the Cross. ‘‘He shall see the suf-fering and the travail of His soul.’’ This is theextreme suffering of Christ’s soul. That iswhen Jesus Christ was bearing our sins inHis own body on the Tree.

‘‘And shall be satisfied.’’ God was satis-fied with the death of Christ. This is the doc-trine of propitiation. God the Father is satis-fied with the death of God the Son. AREYOU? He said many times, ‘‘This is My be-loved Son in whom I am well pleased. Hearye Him.’’ This is the only work that God theFather is satisfied with. This is the only workwhereby we may be saved.

Romans 3:23, ‘‘All have sinned and comeshort of the glory of God.’’ Sin then, as faras this verse is concerned, says it is fail-ure to match Divine essence. The ‘‘glory ofGod’’ is the character, essence of God. ‘‘Allhave sinned and come short of the glory, oressence, of God.’’ So, ‘‘Being justified freelyby means of His GRACE, through redemp-tion that is in Christ Jesus, whom God hathpublicly displayed a propitiation.’’ The Greekword for propitiation is literally ‘‘mercy seat.’’

The mercy seat is the Ark of the Cove-nant. In the Ark there were things that spokeof the three failures of Israel in the past. TheArk was made out of wood and out of gold.The wood spoke of the HUMANITY of theLord Jesus Christ. The gold spoke of the DE-ITY of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a pictureof Christ bearing our sins on the Tree. Insideof the Ark was Aaron’s rod that budded. Thisspoke of the sin of rebellion against God’sappointments and order. Inside of the Arkwas also a pot of manna. This was the rebel-lion on the part of Israel, complaining aboutGod’s provision for them. Then inside of theArk was the table of the Law. This was Is-

rael’s rebellion and sin against God’s Word,God’s norm and standards.

All of these things spoke of their sinwhich was inside of the Ark. They were com-pletely surrounded by the box, a picture onceagain of Christ bearing our sins. Then overthe top of the Ark was the mercy seat. Oneach corner of the mercy seat was an angel,cherub. The cherubs spoke of the character,or essence, of God. One cherub spoke ofGod’s righteousness and the other spoke ofGod’s justice. Once a year, on the day ofAtonement, the high priest sprinkled theblood across the top of the mercy seat, theblood of an innocent victim.

Now, the righteousness of God looksdown and sees the blood instead of the sin.And the righteousness of God and the justiceof God is satisfied, propitiated. That is theway the word ‘‘propitiation’’ in Romans 3:25 isactually translated, mercy seat. ‘‘God be mer-ciful unto me, a sinner.’’

This verse then says, ‘‘Whom God theFather hath publicly displayed a mercy seatthrough faith in His blood to declare His right-eousness for the remission of sins that arepast through the forebearance of God.’’ Sothis is what is meant by the word ‘‘propitia-tion.’’ This word is found again in 1 John 2:2,‘‘Christ is a propitiation for our sins.’’

Verse 11, ‘‘He, the Father, shall see theextreme pain of His soul, and shall be propiti-ated.’’ Then the next phrase, ‘‘by His knowl-edge,’’ literally ‘‘by knowledge of Him.’’ ‘‘Byknowledge of Him, Christ, My righteous Ser-vant, shall justify the many.’’

In other words, when the human raceknows the facts of the Gospel, and respondsby faith in Christ Jesus, the believer is justi-fied. ‘‘My righteous Servant,’’ is a title for theLord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ justifieseveryone who puts their faith in Him aspersonal Saviour.

‘‘For He shall bear our iniquities.’’ Now, ifyou notice here, in this particular verse, wehave many doctrines. We have the doctrineof propitiation. God the Father ‘‘shall besatisfied.’’ We have the doctrine of justifica-


tion. ‘‘My righteous Servant shall justify.’’ Wehave the doctrine of unlimited atonement.‘‘Because He bore the sins of the many.’’ TheFather is satisfied with the work of JesusChrist on the Cross. The Son, by His deathon the Cross, justifies all those who acceptHim. The whole human race has availablethis so great salvation because of unlimitedatonement. Jesus Christ died for the many,the sins of the whole world.

So, these three doctrines give us the Fa-ther, the Son and the human race. All thesethree doctrines relate to the death of Christ,which are all related to the doctrine of soteri-ology, which is our so great salvation.

In verse 12 we have our Lord’s glorifica-tion and the Cross. The seventh act.

‘‘Therefore I will divide Him a portion withthe great.’’ This whole verse is completelymistranslated. It says literally, ‘‘therefore I willgive the many to Him for a portion.’’ ‘‘Themany’’ are those who have responded to theGospel, the Christmas message. ‘‘The many’’are those who have accepted Jesus Christas personal Saviour. ‘‘Who hath believed ourreport, to whom is the Arm of the Lord re-vealed?’’ Answer, in context, ‘‘the many.’’

Now, these are said to be justified in ourprevious verse. Here they are said to begiven to Christ for a portion, FOR HIS POR-TION. ‘‘The many’’ now fall into two catego-ries. First of all, the regenerate Jews of thepast, and their portion will be the fulfillment ofthe Davidic covenant. Secondly, the Church,and the fulfillment will be ultimate sanctifica-tion. We are presently in union with Christ,set apart, sanctified in time. We are now, onthis Earth, as believers in Christ, in unionwith Christ. But in the future, we will alsohave a resurrection body. So, the believer isgiven to Christ by the Father, as His portion,i.e., bride.

Next we have ‘‘He shall divide the spoilwith the strong.’’ ‘‘The strong’’ are those whohave power. In context they are believers in

Christ. The word for ‘‘spoil’’ is literally, booty,referring, of course, to rewards.

This is the principle of being conquerorsin Christ. In other words, believers will be re-warded. The strong are those who possesseternal life, and those who possess the right-eousness of God.

‘‘Because He hath poured out His soulunto death.’’ This is the doctrine of expiation.Again this refers to the spiritual death of theLord Jesus Christ, and not His physicaldeath. ‘‘He was numbered with the trans-gressors.’’ This is the doctrine of redemption.He took, as it were, the place of the trans-gressor. We have been redeemed from theslave market of sin, by the only free man, thePerson of the Lord Jesus Christ, who wasqualified to redeem us. Christ our Redeemer.

‘‘He beareth the sin of many.’’ Again wehave the doctrine of atonement, unlimitedatonement, that Jesus Christ died for the sinsof the whole world, not just a select few.1 John 2:1, 2, ‘‘Not for our sins only, but forthe sins of the whole world.’’

‘‘And made intercession for the transgres-sors.’’ Only the Hebrew doesn’t say interces-sion. Literally it is ‘‘And made peace for thetransgressors.’’ This is the doctrine of recon-ciliation. Christ made peace for us. Christ re-moved the barrier between God and man.Ephesians 2:16, ‘‘And that He might reconcileboth unto God in one body by the Cross,having slain the enmity thereby.’’ At the endof verse 15 it says, ‘‘making peace;’’ ‘‘That wemight reconcile...’’ So, He makes peace byreconciliation, by reconciling man to God.This is the principle of ‘‘Blessed are thepeacemakers.’’ Or in other words, removingthe barrier and having peace with God, theprinciple of Christmas once again. Peace onEarth, which again is potential.

This, of course, is the basis of His glorifi-cation. The portion which we have, is that weare a part of His portion in eternity. JesusChrist is glorified. And the basis of His glorifi-cation is His work on the Tree, the Cross. ‘‘Iwill give the many to Him for His portion.’’ Weare His portion as believers in Christ.


MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! The four ways inwhich we become His portion are mentionedin this verse.

In verse 11 we had three doctrines: Thedoctrine of propitiation, God is satisfied withthe work of Christ. The doctrine of justifica-tion, Jesus Christ justifies all those who ac-cept Him. The doctrine of unlimited atone-ment, Jesus Christ died for the sins of thehuman race.

Now in verse 12 we have four more doc-trines. So in verses 11 and 12 we haveseven doctrines which match up with ourseven acts of Christmas, verses 1-12. Inverse 12 we have the doctrines of: Expia-tion, where He has poured out His soul untodeath for us. Redemption: He was ap-pointed with the transgressors. He redeemedus. Atonement: He bore the sins of many.He died for the whole world. Reconciliation:He made peace for us with God. The Cross,the Tree, gives us peace with God. MERRYCHRISTMAS!!!

So here are three reasons in verse 11and four reasons in verse 12, that tell us that

when we accept Jesus Christ as our personalSaviour, we are a portion for the Lord JesusChrist for time and eternity. God the Fathergives the bride away to the Lord Jesus Christas the Bridegroom.

We are His portion forever. We will sharein glory, His glory, in the future. We have afuture with Christ, which is the principle ofeternal security. Seven doctrines guaranteethis for us. This is Isaiah’s Christmas mes-sage to us. This is the original Christmas.This is what we have in Christ.

Signed,

Isaiah

Buddy Dano, Pastor

Divine Viewpoint

www.divineviewpoint.com


http://www.divineviewpoint.com

Date post:	24-May-2020
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ISAIAH’S CHRISTMAS - Divine Viewpoint · Christmas is depicted for us in Isaiah 53. There are...

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