This week, you’re listening to a sermon from Pastor Colin Smith of Open the Bible. To contact us, call us at 1-877-OPEN365, or, visit our website, OpenTheBible.org. Let’s get to the message. Here is Pastor Colin. Please open your Bible for the last time—in this series—at Isaiah 53. We have spent one weekend in each of the first 11 verses, and today we come to the last verse, verse 12, of this wonderful chapter. The whole of this chapter, the book of Isaiah, was written hundreds of years before the Lord Jesus Christ came into the world. But through the prophet Isaiah, God revealed what would happen in the life and the death and the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. This chapter is full of what Jesus has accomplished. Isaiah tells us that when the Son of God came into the world, he would be despised, he would be rejected, he’d be oppressed, pierced, crushed, wounded, cut off. In eight verses we saw Isaiah describes the suffering and the death of the Lord Jesus, and then in verse 9 he prophesied the burial of the Lord Jesus. In verse 10 he prophesied the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, and then as we saw last time in verse 11 he announces the work of the Ascended Lord Jesus Christ. He will make many to be accounted righteous. So we have the life, the death, the burial, the resurrection and the ascension of the Lord Jesus. What’s left? Well, there’s one great and glorious thing left. And that is the glorious return of our Lord Jesus Christ, his ultimate triumph as he returns in power and glory. And that is the focus of verse 12 that is before us today. Look at these wonderful words. Therefore, I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors. Yet he bore the sin of many and makes intercession for the transgressors. Now I call today’s message, Celebration, because what Isaiah is describing here is the ultimate triumph of our Lord, and Savior Jesus Christ. And notice that he begins this last verse with the word, therefore. So what we’re reading here is really the final outcome of all that the Lord Jesus Christ has accomplished in his life, death, resurrection, and ascension. And the final outcome of all that our Lord Jesus has suffered is that he will enjoy a great triumph, and we who are his people will share in it with him. Now I want you to notice that there is an I and a he at the beginning of this remarkable verse. I will divide him a portion with the many. That’s the English standard version. The Christian standard Bible translates it this way. I will give him the many as a portion. Now the I here is God himself. This is God, the father, speaking. And he’s telling us through the prophet Isaiah, what he’s going to do for his own dearly loved son. In the light of all that Jesus has done, all that he’s suffered and all that he has endured, God, the father will divide him a portion. Now a portion of course is simply what is given to you. That’s what a portion is. And it seems here that Isaiah is saying that the many, that is those who come to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, are the father’s gift to his son. They are the portion that the father gives to his son. It is literally translated, this verse says I will apportion out to him the many. I want you to think about this. That as a believer you are actually the gift of God the Father to his own dearly loved son. And Jesus spoke about this repeatedly four times in his prayer in John and chapter 17. Jesus speaks to the father about the people that the father has given to him. John 17 and verse 6 Jesus says I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were. And you gave them to me. So you see here are people who are given by the father to the son. And what does the son do for them? Well he reveals the father to them. That is he I have manifested your name. Son reveals the father to those. The father has given him. And then Jesus says that he prays for the people that he has been given. And in verse nine of John 17 I am praying for them. I�m not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me for they are yours. So you can see here this is very wonderful. The father gives people to the son, his portion. And what does the son do? He reveals the father to them. He prays for them. And then Jesus tells us in this marvelous prayer that he keeps them. Verse 12 I kept them in your name which you have given me I have guarded them and not one of them has been lost. So those who are given by the father to the son they come to know God because Jesus reveals the father to them He prays for them and he keeps them and he will bring them all the way home to his own glorious presence that’s verse 24 of John seventeen Father I desire that they also whom you have given me what does Jesus desire for those who are given that they may be with me where I am to see my glory. Now, we may well ask then who are these people who are given by the Father to the Son Jesus refers to them four times in this prayer on the night on which he was betrayed and the Bible gives us the clearest answer Jesus himself said all that the Father gives me will come to me. And whoever comes to me I will never cast out. So do you see very clearly from this verse that those who come to Jesus are the Fathers gift to the Son and those the father gives to the Son well they come to Jesus The Father draws them and the Son wonderfully receives them. And this vast company of people given by the Father to the Son the people who come to Him the people to whom he reveals the Father, the people he keeps, the people he prays for, the people he brings all the way into glory that they’ll be with Him and see His glory forever, they are Jesus’ portion, they are the reward that He receives from all that He suffered. And the Bible tells us, very clearly, that Jesus endured all that He suffered on the cross for the joy that was set before Him. And what is the joy that was set before Him? Well that’s what we’re looking at right here, the gift of the Father to Him, of a vast company of redeemed people who will share His joy for all eternity. There’s an I in this verse, and the I is God the Father. But I want you to notice, too, that there is a he in this verse, and the he is God the Son. He shall divide the spoil with the strong. Now again, the he here is clearly the Lord Jesus Christ. And again, it seems most likely that Isaiah is referring to the strong as the spoil that Jesus, the ascended Lord, will indeed divide. Literally translated, this verse says, I will allocate to him, that is to the son of God the many, and the strong he will allocate as spoil. In other words, at the end of time, Isaiah is prophesying there will be two communities, two groups of people. There will be the many who have come to Jesus and there will be the strong who have resisted Jesus. The many who come to Jesus are given to him by the Father and he receives them. But the picture’s very, very different when it comes to the strong who resist him. They are the spoil. And that indicates that Jesus triumphantly over them. He conquers them by his own power. Scripture tells us that God the Father has highly Exalted our Lord Jesus Christ. And bestowed on him the name that is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. One way or another every person who has ever lived will one day bow the knee to the Lord Jesus Christ. Some will bow before him because we have come to him and he has received us. Others will bow because they have resisted him and he has conquered them. So Jesus will enjoy a great triumph. He will indeed be King of Kings and Lord of lords, conqueror over all, and he will share his triumph with his redeemed people. There will be, we are told at the end of the Bible, a new heaven and earth and new earth. It will be the home of righteousness. Christ will bring his people into it and he will wipe away all tears from our eyes. There will be no more death, no more mourning, no more crying and no more pain. God himself will be with us and we will share his joy forever and forever. Now here’s the very practical question that arises from the truth to which Isaiah points. How can you be sure that you will share in the triumph of Jesus? How can you be sure that you will be in the great company of the redeemed? How do you know that you will make it to heaven? How do you know that heaven will be yours? And Isaiah gives three answers to that question. Questions that we as those who trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, trust ourselves to him, believe in him, are able to take so that we will have confidence in regards to the ultimate outcome of our lives. As a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you can be sure that heaven will be yours because of the will of Jesus, because of the death of Jesus, and because of the life of Jesus. All of these are right here in this last verse of Isaiah in chapter 53. First then, the will of Jesus. Notice he says, therefore I will divide him a portion with the many and he shall divide the spoil with the strong because he poured out his soul to death. Now, the main point here is that our Lord Jesus Christ died willingly. Death did not overcome the Lord Jesus. He was the one who poured his soul out to death. Now Isaiah has described how Jesus was oppressed, how he was pierced, how he was crushed and wounded and cut off, and when you read the story in the Gospels, you read the story of the crucifixion of Jesus, it just seems that evil has got the upper hand. It seems that darkness has taken over completely and seems to reign, but what Isaiah is pointing us to here is the wonderful truth that throughout it all even in the darkest place the Lord Jesus Christ himself was in control. He was in control even at the moment of his own death. He makes it very clear that the life of Jesus was not taken, it was given. He was in control. He poured out his soul to death. You remember that Jesus said, I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up again. Only God in the flesh could say such words as these. And do you know, you see this very clearly in the eyewitness descriptions that were given in the gospels of the moment of the death of Jesus. He was clearly in complete control and this is how we know that. Matthew tells us that Jesus cried out with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. And Luke in his account records that Jesus calling out with a loud voice, said, father into your hands I commit my spirit and having said this he breathed his last. Now, think about it. When a person is dying, their voice becomes weaker and weaker. Eventually they can only speak in a whisper, sometimes it’s really hard to make out what a person is trying to say. But do you see that with the Lord Jesus Christ it was completely different. Jesus died by the shout, he entered into death as a conqueror. He went in there in triumph at the moment of his own choosing when the work of atonement that he had done on the cross was finished. He said, it is finished. And then with a shout he breathed his last. Father into your hands I commit my spirit. The life of Jesus was not taken from him, he laid it down. And he chose to lay it down when all the work that he came in the world to do was completed right there on the cross. Jesus died willingly and what that means is that Jesus wants to save you. That’s his will. He chose to do this. The will of Jesus with regards to those who come to him in faith is not in doubt. He wants to save you. Father I desire he that they will see my glory. That’s the will of Jesus and you can be sure of heaven because the will of Jesus gets done. How can you be sure that you’re going to share the triumph of Jesus? How can you be sure of heaven? Well, you can be sure whether you’re sure or not. Well, you can be sure of heaven because of the will of Jesus. And secondly, you can be sure of heaven because of the death of Jesus. Look at what Isaiah says here, therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong. Because he was numbered with the Yet he bore the sin of many. Now again, Isaiah is reminding us of the central truth in the whole chapter. Of what Jesus accomplished in his death, he begins by telling us that Jesus was numbered with the transgressors. That’s what the those who despised him and rejected him thought of him. You know just another transgressor, that’s what they thought. Just another of these wretched people for whom there is no place, no room in the world, as we think it ought to be. That’s what they thought, but Isaiah says, Yet he bore the sin of many. Now this has been the central theme of the whole of Isaiah in chapter 53 and we’ve seen it again and again. We saw it in verse 5. He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. And then we saw it again in verse 6. All of us, like sheep, have gone astray. We’ve all turned and gone to our own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Last week we saw it again in verse 11. By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous and he shall bear their inequities. And now here we have it again in verse 12. He bore the sin of many. So here’s the central message of this marvelous chapter of the Bible, that Jesus stood in the place of sinners. That Jesus suffered and died for our sins. How do you know that God loves you? See, some people get all confused because they try to read the love of God for them from the circumstances of their own lives. And so when things are going well, they feel that God loves them. And then when things go badly, well, they think that God must be against them. How do you know that God loves you? Well, you see the Bible answers that question clearly. Here’s how you know! God shows his love for us in this, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Greater love, Jesus says, has no one than this, but that one lays down his life for his friends. That’s the love of God. That’s the love of Christ. He laid down his life for you. This is love. Not that we have loved God, but that God has loved us and sent his son to be a propitiation for our sins. Here’s how you know that God really loves you. For you. God the father gave his one and only son for you. And God the son gave himself for you. Let me read to you some words from Jerry Bridges that I think describe the experience of many people. He says this, there was a period in my early Christian life when my concept of God’s love was little more than a logical deduction. God loves the world. I’m part of the world. Therefore, God loves me. He says it was as if God’s love were a big umbrella to protect us all from his judgment against sin and I was under the umbrella along with thousands of other people, there was nothing particularly personal about it. Then one day, he says, I realized God loves me. Christ died for me. That’s how you know that God loves you. He gave his son and Christ gave himself for you. Jesus bore your sins. He really did. And in Christ, you are counted righteous before God because of His sin bearing death, it is just as if you had never sinned. Never sinned and because of his righteous life when you’re in him, it’s just as if you had always obeyed. So how can you be sure of heaven? That’s really the question that’s before us as we think of the ultimate outcome of all things, the great triumph of Jesus. How do we know that we’re going to have a share in it? Well, heaven will be yours because of the will of Jesus is very clear. He gave himself willingly, wants to save you, and heaven will be yours because of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. He really did bear your sins and he did it in love for you to redeem you. And then Isaiah gives us this third answer that heaven will be yours because of the life of Jesus. Look at what he says at the end here. Therefore, I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because… well, then Isaiah says, he makes intercession for the transgressors. He makes intercession for the transgressors. That’s why the many will be his and they’ll all be brought safely home. Now, this word intercede or intercession, it simply means make to meet, to make to meet. And you might picture it this way, that there is a vast chasm between God and us sinners. And the Lord Jesus Christ stands in the gap. Here we are, transgressors. That’s the word that Isaiah uses. And how could transgressors, sinners, ever come anywhere near to a Holy God, let alone enjoy his presence in heaven forever. And the answer to that question is, Jesus stands in the gap. Jesus intercedes. Jesus makes to meet. That’s what the word means. Think about it. Sin once stood between us and God as a barrier. Now Jesus stands between us and God, not as a barrier, but as a bridge. Peter puts it this way, Jesus suffered the righteous for the unrighteous to bring us to God. It’s what he does. That’s what comes out of all that he suffered. Notice that Isaiah uses the present tense here. He makes intercession for the transgressors. He used the past tense when he was prophesying what Jesus would accomplish on the cross. He poured out, past tense, he did this, his soul to death, he bore the sin of many. That was Jesus’ work, dying on the cross, and it’s done, it’s completed, it’s finished. But you see, when Isaiah comes to speak about the intercession of Christ, his bringing us to God, and bringing God to us, well, he uses the present tense, because this is the constant and continuing work of Jesus, and it will be until every one of his children are brought safely home. This is what Jesus is doing in heaven right now, and the scripture speaks about it very clearly. He’s our intercessor. He stands in the gap. He’s the one that causes us to meet with God, brings us to Him. Hebrews 7 and verse 25, He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. Isn’t that the greatest encouragement, to draw near to God through the Lord Jesus. You draw near to God through the Lord Jesus, and here’s what you’ll prove and discover, that He is able to save even the worst, He’s able to save to the uttermost, because He’s always living to make intercession, to cause to meet, bringing us to God, He makes intercession for us. Romans chapter 8 and verses 33 and 34, who shall bring any charge against God’s elect. It is God who justifies, who is to condemn. Christ Jesus, is the one who died, more than that who was raised, who is at the right hand of God and indeed is interceding for us. Interceding. You know when you’re heart pressed, you’ll know what it is to say as I do, I need some friends to pray for me. And when someone says to you, you know I’ve been praying for you, you actually feel strengthened, here is someone who knows God, who is coming before him on your behalf and asking that you will receive the help that you need. You’re strengthened just to know that, that a friend prays for you. And now I want you to try and take this in, that the Son of God himself, the Lord Jesus Christ, is at the right hand of the Father and he is interceding for you. He speaks to the Father on your behalf and he brings all your needs before the Father in heaven. You know, Thomas Manton said, It is a great privilege for us to pray to God, but it is a much greater privilege to have God praying for us. Can you take that in? That the Son of God intercedes for you? Now of course, this does not mean that Jesus is on his knees in heaven agonizing as he once did in the Garden of Gethsemane. No, we know he’s on the throne in heaven, he is the Ascended Lord. He is at the right hand of the Father and all authority and power has been given to him. What he commands in heaven, happens on earth. But, you see, this is the wonderful good news, that when you find yourself in trouble, when you don’t know what you’re going to do next, the Lord Jesus Christ speaks with authority in the presence of the Father, and His Word releases all the resources of heaven that you need. It is the intercession of Jesus Christ that makes the Christian life possible. Think about it… Suppose that after he died and rose from the dead, the Lord Jesus Christ ascended into heaven and then simply retired. Suppose he simply sat back and watched to see how we’d get on making our best attempt to live the Christian life. Well you know, under these circumstances there wouldn’t be a single one of us that would make it to heaven, we’d all be completely overwhelmed by the world, the flesh and the devil. So thank God the Lord Jesus Christ is not in retirement. He is actively engaged every moment of every day bringing the needs of all of his children before the Father so that all the resources of heaven are released according to your need you will have all that you need to get through all that you face until you arrive in the glorious presence of your Lord Jesus in heaven itself. You know there’s a wonderful phrase in the Diary of Robert Murray McShane that has really helped me just in his notes about his own Christian life he says this I ought to study Christ as an intercessor Okay why is that so important? Why did McShane feel that it was really important for him to take in this truth that Jesus intercedes for us. Well here’s his answer, he says If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room I would not fear a million enemies and you know that’s true if you could hear the Lord Jesus Christ praying for you by name praying that you will be given the strength that you need if you could actually hear the Son of God interceding for you you wouldn’t fear a million enemies The Son of God does intercede for you no you can’t hear Him but He is interceding and what Jesus asks for gets done and so everything that you need for all that you face will be yours Then the very last thing in this remarkable chapter is that Isaiah tells us that He, Jesus makes intercession for the transgressors Now, Christian brother and sister this is the most marvelous truth that our many sins and our many failures in the Christian life will not keep us out of Heaven Thank God for this C.S. Lewis wrote a letter to a former student of his Evidently, she had written to Lewis and it seems, from Lewis’s reply to her letter that she had been through some kind of a fall or failure in her Christian life and she had become desperately discouraged defeated down She describes herself as being in a trough And Lewis wrote to her to encourage her to get up and to press on and to keep going as a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ This is what he said No amount of falls will really undo us If we keep on picking ourselves up each time We shall, he says, of course be very muddy and tattered children by the time we reach home but the bathrooms are all ready the towels are put out and the clean clothes are in the airing cupboard The only fatal thing is to lose one’s temper and to give up If you’re discouraged today here’s why you should not give up You keep pressing forward because God the Father has given people to His Son who will be His portion and His joy forever and we who believe are the Father’s gift to His Son And Jesus will bring all who He has been given safely home to glory We know this because He gave Himself willingly for us because He really did in love bear our sins all of them on the cross and because right now and always He lives to make intercession for us therefore You will have all that you need for all that you face until the day when faith is turned to sight and you then enter into the presence of your glorious Lord with great joy forever Let’s pray together Father May the most discouraged person here today be lifted by the marvelous truth of all that is ours in the Lord Jesus Christ May the person who has not yet believed see what can be hers or his through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and stop putting up resistance and instead bow the knee gladly and freely to Christ and come to Him Father grant that the person who doubts and is unsure of your love may have a profound awareness today that in the cross of Christ your love is unfathomably revealed and that your love surrounds us in all things forever Thank you that our Lord Jesus who gave Himself for us and died for our sins lives to interseed for us Thank you that He will bring all that the Father has given to Him all the way home So grant to us peace joy and assurance and trust as we look to our Saviour until faith is turned to sight and we enter into all that He has prepared for us forever and ever Through Jesus Christ our Lord we pray these things Amen You’ve been listening to a sermon with Pastor Collin Smith of Open The Bible To contact us call us at 1-877- open365 or visit our website openthebible.org