And that’s what Isaiah is speaking about here in chapter 53 in verse 10. He says, it was the will of the Lord to crush him. He has put him to grief. Now that raises this very obvious question. How could it possibly be the will of God that his own dearly loved and righteous son should suffer? Welcome to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. I’m David Pick and I’m glad you could join us today. And Colin, that’s a question I imagine all of us have asked at one time or another. How can it possibly be God’s will for his son to suffer? Well, the scripture gives us this marvelous principle that God works in all things for the good of those who love him. And that means even in the very, very worst things. And God was working for the good of his own son, the Lord Jesus, and for our eternal good in what the Lord Jesus suffered on the cross. And we’re going to see that in this marvelous verse from Isaiah in chapter 53 in verse 10 today, that the Lord Jesus Christ is going to see his offspring. In other words, there’s going to be a whole community of people who are like the Lord Jesus Christ. And all of this is going to come out of what he suffered. And it’s going to be for his eternal joy and our eternal blessing. It’s going to go on forever and forever. It is a marvelous thing that whatever the worst thing is in a person’s life, our God is able to turn that and to use it in a way that will be for our own ultimate good. This is a story of great hope that we’re looking at together today. What an encouraging thing to think about. So please join us if you can in Isaiah chapter 53 in verse 10 with our new message starting today, Resurrection. Here’s Colin. Well, please open your Bible at Isaiah and chapter 53, this remarkable chapter that describes what Jesus accomplished in his life, in his death, and in his resurrection. And last time we looked at verse 9, which is really the turning point of the whole chapter. The first eight verses are all about the life and the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. They tell us that the prevailing response to Jesus coming into the world was unbelief. Who has believed what they have heard from us? That’s verse 1. He was despised and we esteemed him not. That’s verse 3. And Isaiah describes how Jesus was arrested, how he was tried, and how he was sentenced by oppression and judgment. Verse 8, he was taken away. Verse 7, he was led like a lamb to the slaughter. So the focus of the first eight verses of this remarkable chapter of the Bible is on the rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was despised, he was rejected, he was oppressed, he was pierced, he was crushed, he was cut off. And then last week we saw that the burial of Jesus in verse 9 really is the turning point of the whole story. Those who condemned Jesus to death intended that his grave should be with the wicked. That’s verse 9. But that is not what happened. And we saw in the New Testament that, as Isaiah prophesied here, a rich man by the name of Joseph of Arimathea came forward and asked Pontius Pilate for the body of Jesus. And Jesus was given an honored burial. After all that he suffered, an honored burial in a new tomb that Joseph had prepared for himself, but gave in order to honor Jesus. And we saw that Jesus is honored on earth by believers who love him, and Jesus is honored in heaven by the Father who has vindicated him. Now today we come to verse 10 that points very wonderfully to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it is a marvelous statement of all that Jesus has accomplished. Look with me at verse 10 if you would. Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him. He has put him to grief. When his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring. He shall prolong his days. The will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Now notice at the beginning and the end of this verse we have the will of God. It was the will of God to crush him, and then at the end of the verse the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. So you can see just from looking at this verse that God’s will is the main theme, and this is what Isaiah now wants us to focus on. Today what I want us to see from this verse is that God’s will prevailed in the death of Jesus. That’s the first part of the verse. And then we’ll spend most of our time on this wonderful truth that God’s will prevails through the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now first then, God’s will prevailed in the death of Jesus. The story of the crucifixion of Jesus can be told in terms of human injustice, human cruelty, human wickedness. Peter could say in Acts and chapter 2, this Jesus you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. And the gospels tell us what wicked men did. Judas betrayed Jesus, and he did it for money. Caiaphas condemned Jesus, and he did it out of envy. Pilate handed Jesus over to be crucified, and he did it because he wanted peace at any price. So does that mean that the death of Jesus was a triumph of evil over good? Does that mean then, since this was the act of wicked people, that somehow darkness triumphed over light, was it the case that God’s will and purpose was actually thwarted at the cross by these actions of wicked and evil men who intended only pain, suffering, and destruction towards the Lord Jesus Christ? The answer to these questions is no, no, no, a thousand times no. God’s will prevailed in the darkness, in the evil, and even in the violence that was perpetrated at the cross. And Peter makes this very clear on the day of Pentecost. Let’s look in full at what he says in Acts chapter 2 in verse 23. He says, this Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. Now you see, because the hands of lawless men were involved, you would expect him to say, this Jesus was delivered up by Judas Iscariot, or by Caiaphas, or by Pontius Pilate, but that’s not what he says. He says, this Jesus was delivered up by the definite plan and the foreknowledge of God. And you get this theme right throughout the New Testament. God being proactive, accomplishing our redemption at the cross. God did not spare his own son, but freely gave him up for us all. And that’s what Isaiah is speaking about here in chapter 53 in verse 10. He says, it was the will of the Lord to crush him. He has put him to grief. Now that raises this very obvious question. How could it possibly be the will of God that his own dearly loved and righteous son should suffer? How could that be? And the first thing to say is that the will of God, the father, and the will of God, the son, were at one, completely aligned. The son’s will and the father’s will at one, aligned together. The second thing to say is that Jesus gave himself as a sacrifice for our sins. He offered himself in our place. And Isaiah is making it very clear here that the father and the son were at one in the making of this sacrifice. It was the will of the Lord to crush him. He has put him to grief when his soul makes an offering for guilt. And we saw earlier in the chapter, back in verse five, that when Jesus died on the cross, he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon him. And by his wounds, we are healed. God’s will prevailed in the death of Jesus. Despite and even through the evil actions of wicked men, God got his will done. And, you know, what was true in the suffering and the death of Jesus will also be true for you. There is no grief. There is no suffering. There is no pain. There is no darkness. There is no activity, even of Satan himself, that can ultimately derail the purpose of God for you in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible speaks about the purpose of God who works all things together according to the counsel of his will. That’s Ephesians chapter one in verse eleven. He works all things together according to the purpose of his will. Or Romans chapter eight and verse twenty-eight, we have the same truth. In all things, all things, God works for the good of those who love him. All things. And you know what that means? It means all things. The evil as well as the good. You see, there may come a time when someone in your life turns out to be a Judas who betrays you. There may be a time in your life when you experience great pain because of a Caiaphas who abuses his power. It may be that in your life you experience great pain because of a pilot who simply neglects his own responsibility. But know this, that whatever darkness you may face, whatever evil you may encounter, whatever suffering you may endure, God will always be at work in you and through you for your eternal good and for the good of others. You’re listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith and the message Resurrection, part of our larger series, The Gospel According to Isaiah. If you ever miss one of our broadcasts, you can always go online, catch up, or go back and listen again. You can find all of our previously broadcast messages on our website, that’s openthebible.org.uk. You can also find them as a podcast. If you go to your regular podcasting site, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, any of those, and search for Open the Bible UK. Look for the purple banner and subscribe to the podcast to receive regular updates. Back to the message now, here’s Colin. God’s will prevailed at the cross. It prevailed in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. And now Isaiah wants us to see that God’s will prevails in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is the main focus of this verse. And Isaiah gives us three reasons. He tells us why we can be sure that God’s will prevails through the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the first is because Jesus will bring many children to birth. Notice what he says here, he shall see his offspring. Now, this word offspring is really important and I want you to take in its significance as we look at the Bible together today. Literally translated, the word here is seed. He shall see his seed. Another way to say it would be he shall see his children. Isaiah says Jesus will see his offspring. Now, think about what that means. If you have offspring, it means that your life is reproduced in another person. Something of you is in them, your offspring. Now, Jesus was never married. Jesus never had physical children. And very clearly, Isaiah is referring here to the work of Christ in his resurrection. And what he’s telling us is that he will have offspring. In other words, he will bring many to new birth. He will give to many his own life. John tells us, to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. You see this marvelous promise that when you believe in when you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you become one of God’s children. You become one of his offspring. His life actually comes into you. You are born again. You are born of God. Paul says, I have been crucified and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. Now, that is the heart of the Christian life. The great purpose of God is that you and I will be conformed to the image of God’s son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. That’s Romans chapter 8 and verse 29. Now, the image used there is the image of brothers rather than children. But you see, the point is the same. It’s about the reproducing of the family likeness. God is absolutely committed to reproducing the likeness of the son he loves. And he does this by infusing the life of the Lord Jesus Christ himself into his people, into all who will receive him, into all who will believe in his name. He gives the right to be children of God. Now, friends, this is really, really important for this reason, that sometimes our calling to live the Christian life can just seem absolutely overwhelming. I wonder if you’ve felt like this at times. We are called to be disciples of Jesus, but Jesus lived a perfect life. What hope is there for us to be able to follow his example? And you see, if discipleship were the only category that a person had for thinking about the Christian life, well, that person would soon become pretty discouraged. And one reason that some people give for holding back on committing to follow the Lord Jesus Christ is just this. Well, it’s too difficult. You will have heard someone say this. Perhaps you’ve said it yourself. You know, if I was to try this, it would only end up in failure. In the most dismal failure. And that’s why I’m not even going to try. But here’s what I want you to grasp from this wonderful verse today. There is more to living the Christian life than you making your best effort to follow the example of Jesus. There’s more to it. And the more is what is being spoken about here. Jesus brings offspring to birth. And the life of Jesus himself is going to be in his offspring. That’s the miracle of the new birth that is the experience of everyone who puts their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Christian life at its heart is Jesus living his life in and through you. Now try and take this in. It will help you. In Christ, you are more than a disciple. In Christ, you are more than a servant. In Christ, you are more than a person doing his or her best to follow the example of Jesus. In Christ, you are his offspring. And his life is in you. The Holy Spirit dwells within you. And what that means is that something of the love and the patience and the peace and the wisdom and the strength and the perseverance and the joy of the Lord Jesus Christ are actually in you by virtue of the fact that his presence is in you. He is in you. Nourish this life that is in you. And it will grow. So you see, becoming more like Jesus actually goes with the grain of who you are as a Christian believer. Not against it. See, the sinner is being true to himself when he sins. But you are Christ’s offspring. The Holy Spirit lives within you. His life is in you. And therefore, you are being true to yourself as you grow in likeness to him. As a believer, you are never more in conflict with yourself than when you sin. Because that’s not who you are. You are Christ’s offspring. And as a believer, you are never more true to yourself than when you are following the example of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because that is who you are. You are Christ’s offspring. And the more like Jesus you become, the more peace and joy you’re going to have. Because you’re being true to yourself. You are his offspring. What a great idea that is to be the offspring of Jesus Christ himself. You’re listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith and the message called Resurrection. It’s part of our larger series, The Gospel According to Isaiah. And if you ever miss one of our broadcasts, you can always go online. Go back, catch up, or listen again. Go to openthebible.org.uk. And you can find any of our previously broadcast messages as podcasts. Go to your regular podcasting site and search for Open the Bible UK. Look for the purple banner and subscribe to the podcast to receive regular updates. Open the Bible is supported by our listeners. And we want to thank you for that. If you’re able this month to set up a new donation in the amount of five pounds or more, we’d love to send you a free gift. It’s a book by J.I. Packer entitled Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God. So Colin, the book is about evangelism and God’s sovereignty. But why is this book so important? Oh, well, it has been very important in my life. I read it first many years ago. And the mark of a good book in my view is it’s one you keep going back to. And this is one that I do keep going back to because Packer speaks so clearly about this really important issue of evangelism and the sovereignty of God. And the issue is simply this, that the Bible quite clearly proclaims that God has done more than make salvation possible. God actually saves people. Salvation is of the Lord and that’s the sovereignty of God. God saves. And believers know this by instinct that though I have made a decision to follow Christ, God somehow laid hold of me and has wonderfully turned my life around. But of course, the question that then arises is, well, if it’s God who saves, then why don’t we just leave him to do it? And of course, that would cut out evangelism altogether. So how does our responsibility to share the gospel with people who don’t yet believe relate to the wonderful truth that God is in the business of saving people, evangelism and the sovereignty of God? Packer’s book helped me on seeing how these things don’t fight each other. They actually complement each other and they hold together very wonderfully. It’s beautifully written. It’s very clear. And I’m really excited that we’re able to share this with folks who listen to the programme. If you find it a tenth as helpful as I found it, you will be greatly blessed. Well, we’d love to send you a copy of this book if you’re able to set up a new donation to the work of Open the Bible this month in the amount of five pounds or more per month. You’ll be joining many other listeners who are supporting the work that we do, both online and on the radio. Full details of the offer on our website, openthebible.org.uk. For Open the Bible and Pastor Colin Smith, I’m David Pick, and I very much hope you’ll be able to join us again soon. How did the will of God get done through the resurrection of Jesus? Find out next time on Open the Bible.