ISAIAH'S APPRECIATION OF CHRIST

ISAIAH’S APPRECIATION OF CHRIST

Isaiah 53: 11, 4; Isaiah 40: 11; Isaiah 63: 9; Isaiah 46: 4

In this prophet we have the Lord Jesus alluded to in a variety of ways, in a special way as the Servant, “My servant”, Jehovah says, “whom I uphold, mine elect in whom my soul delighteth!”, Isaiah 42: 1. One covets coming under that heading in any little way, for all service must take character from Christ. Heaven has peculiar delight in the service that is carried on according to the example of Christ. “My servant”, Jehovah says, “... in whom my soul delighteth!”. Hence the service carried on in this way affords a constant yield for heaven, “For we are a sweet odour of Christ to God, in the saved and in those that perish to the one an odour from death unto death, but to the others an odour from life unto life” (2 Corinthians 2: 15, 16), odour of life, odour of Christ; whether it be to life or death. If there be refusal of the message, death is the solemn, gloomy outlook for those that refuse. In David’s time there was a full line for life, “one full line”, 2 Samuel 8: 2. There were also those marked out for death; it is a very solemn thing to be amongst those doomed, not that God has any pleasure in anyone’s doom, for He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked. Judgment is a strange thing to Him; it is not in accord with His disposition, He is obliged to resort to it, but His thought is life; and whether a service is for life, whether it result in life for anyone, or death, in a sense it is always a savour of Christ; that is how the apostle spoke of it.

“My servant whom I uphold, mine elect in whom my soul delighteth!”, that is the service that is in mind; Christ is in heaven and what He is before the Father is what He was here as Son; but He was here in service, and service yielding to God, so that no gospel meeting ^[p. 384] carried on as the service of Christ is savourless, even although there be no converts. No converts is ‘an odour of death’, the apostle says. It is very solemn, nevertheless it is so. God has pleasure in the preaching even if it be not received, and Isaiah is marked by this. Isaiah is a remarkable book, full of holy feelings, and no part of it is more touching than chapter 53. It is Christ here in suffering. In chapter 6 it is Christ in glory, sitting upon His throne; in chapter 53 Christ here in sufferings, and in most touching terms the Spirit of God marks them off and the holy Sufferer. I have in mind to begin with this chapter, in relation to the idea of bearing or carrying.

The Lord came in, a lowly Servant, to take on all the drudgery that resulted from the activities of sin, and oh! what drudgery there is even in a material sense in this poor benighted world, drudgery of wives, drudgery of children, and of fathers and mothers toiling for their children, sorrowing! It is a world of misery brought about by sin. Every one of us has had his part in it; each of us has contributed his quota to the world, so sorrow-stricken; but the Lord Jesus came into it, not merely to look around to see what was there. He entered into the temple (Mark 11: 11) and He looked around on everything, and so He looked around on the world, He came into it, we are told; it was made by Him; what right He had! He could look up at the sun and regard it as His. The moon, the stars, the mountains and the hills, the rivers and the plains were all His. The world was made by Him; He came into what was made by Him. The outline of His creatorial handiwork was there, but morally it knew Him not, “the world knew him not”, John 1: 10. There were those with whom He had entered into special relations, that is, Israel, His own, and they did not know Him, they did not receive Him. How strange it must have seemed! Yet it was not strange, for He could not have been taken by surprise;

^[p. 385] yet the awful reality of the change was felt by Him. He was there, not as a mere visitor. Persons may visit places where there has been suffering; curious persons may visit these places out of curiosity, but the Lord did not. He came in to take account of things as they were. He took account of the physical, but He said little or nothing about it; what He was concerned about was the moral state of things. That is what He is concerned about tonight, not about your position in the world, but your moral state and your moral outlook, your destiny, and He is here tonight, as He came into the world at the beginning, to take on liabilities. How great He was! Like the ark of Noah, He was great enough to take in every thought of God. The ark was a very large vessel relatively, great enough to take in everything, but, more than that, Christ was great enough to carry in His mind, in His heart, every human ill, every human sorrow. He bears our sorrows; He carries them. But what He was concerned about particularly was man’s sinfulness, knowing as He did that it must shut man out of God’s presence for ever and for ever. So, if He left you as you are tonight, unregenerate, unforgiven, you must be shut out from God for ever and for ever. The prospect is unutterably gloomy for the unsaved. The Lord felt that, He felt for the sin-stricken, and that is therefore the first thing that I have in mind, that He should bear our iniquities. What gospel that is for any sin-stricken person, any person who feels himself a leper! Literally what gospel it was as the Lord could stretch out His hand and say, “I will; be cleansed”, Matthew 8: 3. What gospel it is to a sin-worn soul, a conscience consciously pricked by uncountable sins! What gospel it is, “He shall bear their iniquities”. We do not say He shall; we say He has done it. Most of us here tonight can say that He has borne our iniquities; He has carried them, not as in His manhood here. No, He took them on to the cross, bore them, and only then. When the ^[p. 386] judgment of God was about to be raised against Him He sustained them there. So that we do not read of a future thing, we speak of an accomplished thing; the Lord Jesus having borne our iniquities, carried them; He sustained them on the cross, and God met Him there; I say, God met Him there! He had looked down from heaven upon Him earlier several times, yea, He was always looking down upon Him; there was never a moment that the Father’s eye was not upon Him, from the manger to the cross. But now everything has changed. No sinner will get peace without seeing that. The position is changed, for, instead of the Lord being delightful to the eye of the Father, He took on our sins before God, knowing well what the judgment of God was in regard of them; He took them on, every one of them. It is beyond the human mind to take in how He could take every one, but He speaks about the number of them, and He took them on as His own. They were not His own but He took them on as His own and they were in that sense His, “mine iniquities ... are more than the hairs of my head”, Psalm 40: 12. The whole position was changed, for He was bearing the full weight of our iniquities, and judging them, knowing what they meant. How terrible they were, how dreadful to Himself! One would love to be able to enter into that more. He took them on morally, and God dealt with them as if they were His own; they were not His own. It was real, no imaginary forsaking, it was a general abandonment of God. He forsook His beloved Son; and the Lord Jesus knew it, He was conscious of it. He sustained the full weight of that judgment and died under it, for death is fallen man’s portion. Before He died the awfulness of the suffering was over; but nevertheless He died. Death was publicly upon man, and He died; according to the gospel that Paul preached to the Corinthians, “that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures;

and that he was buried”, 1 Corinthians 15: 3, 4. That is another thing, another part of the gospel; He actually went under the ground, yea, in the heart of the earth. He bore our sins. Most of us here can say that He has borne “our sins in his body on the tree”, 1 Peter 2: 24. Is there anyone here who cannot say, ‘He has borne my sins in His own body on the tree’? It is your opportunity to put your name in with ours.

As soon as that movement of faith in your heart has its place, heaven notices it; your history begins in heaven and it goes on eternally. It is a great thing to begin to make history in heaven. Ever since our history began, heaven has been noting down the precious traits of Christ that have come out in us. One would appeal to young or old people who have not put in their name, in this sense, amongst those who can say, “Himself bore our sins in his body on the tree”. He Himself! He would not do it by a mediator, He did it Himself. There is much that He does mediatorially, for us through others; but these two things He does Himself. He died for us Himself, “bore our sins in his body on the tree”; and He comes for us, “The Lord himself ... shall descend”. These two great services He performs, not mediatorially, but directly, and it ought to touch our hearts. Can anyone sit there on the seat, and be callous about this, make it a trivial matter, or perhaps no matter at all to you, no concern at all to you? How dreadful! God forbid that it should be! We would urge you to take your place with us. Come into the company of the redeemed, and record your name as one whose sins have been borne, whose iniquities have been borne, sustained in the judgment by Christ, and never brought up against you. God says, “Their sins and their lawlessnesses I will never remember any more”, Hebrews 10: 17. That is one part of His covenant. He swears so as to assure our hearts; God cannot lie, but yet He swears, not that anyone demanded Him ^[p. 388] to swear. He swore by Himself (Hebrews 6: 17, 18). It is to assure our hearts that our sins and our iniquities are remembered no more.

I have spoken of the sorrows (verse 4) that come in, for the believer will have sorrows; his sins are gone, never to be remembered, but he will have sorrows. Verse 4 means that the Lord Jesus takes liability on Him in regard of them. He came into this world, He takes our liabilities on for us, and amongst these, as verse 4 states, He bears our griefs and carries our sorrows. No Christian is without these. The more faithful one is as a Christian, the more sorrow. There are sorrows indeed that come to us through our unfaithfulness; but if we are true to Christ we shall come into griefs, and the Lord undertakes, according to this verse, to bear our griefs and to carry our sorrows. There may be christians here who are going through sorrow of one kind or another. That is part of the gospel, that the Lord takes them on. If there is one undergoing peculiar sorrow here, the gospel is for you. Verse 11 is for the sinner, but verse 4 may have a word of relief for someone here, some person under peculiar sorrow. Maybe nobody knows it but yourself, but the Lord knows it. Every man knows “the plague of his own heart”, 1 Kings 8: 38. The Lord is ready to take on that plague and carry it Himself; that is verse 4.

Then in verse 11 of chapter 40 we have the young Christian. People make enquiries about young christians, young believers, whether they should be ministered to as such, and the answer is, ‘Certainly, but ministered to by persons who can minister to them’. The Lord Jesus ministered to the young, He took the very youngest in His arms; little ones, babes, as Matthew says. The greatest Servant does not depute some young person to do it. The little ones are impressionable, and it is peculiarly important that they should get right impressions at this time, for “^[p. 389] That which is crooked cannot be made straight” (Ecclesiastes 1: 15); and if young christians do not start well they are apt to be maimed or dwarfed all their history here, which is a disaster. Hence the Lord leads in the way of serving the young, taking the babes in His arms. It is very beautiful to see the Lord Jesus taking an infant in His arms, and of course an infant spiritually too. We may transfer the literal to the spiritual, and say that the Lord ministers to His people according to their growth; whether they be infants, or boys, or girls, or young men, or fathers, He ministers to all. There can be no question that young people can be ministered to as such, but the minister is one who can minister to fathers also; he is not some person of little spirituality who can take Sunday school classes, for the departmental principle of teaching is not scriptural. The servant, a faithful servant, ministers a portion of meat to the household, whether the household be old or young. So chapter 40: 11 is for young christians, that is, infants. If one of you sitting on your seat here tonight receives Christ into your soul as I have been presenting Him to you, then you belong to this class. You may have sorrows and, as I said before, He will take on those also, but He will not only carry the sorrows and the griefs, He will carry you. He has much more delight in carrying you than in carrying your sorrows and griefs; He will carry you, and He will carry you in His bosom. Could I present anything more attractive to a young Christian or a young believer? Could I present anything more attractive to you than the arms of Jesus, the bosom of Jesus? He carries you! Will you not just commit yourself to Him? His arms are strong enough, His bosom is large enough. The idea of bosom is receptiveness, it is an inward thought; the idea of breast in John 13 suggests firmness, you can lean on it. A bosom is a place to be in; John was in His bosom, and it is large enough for all believers.

^[p. 390] Would you like to be there? It may be difficult for you to take it into your soul. I quite see that, because young people find it difficult to transfer their thoughts from the natural to the spiritual, but you have to learn to be spiritual; you have to remember that it is part of christianity to get the idea of what is spiritual. “God is a spirit” (John 4: 24), and if I have to say to God I must ultimately come to the idea of what is spiritual. If I have in me the idea of the spiritual I have the thing instinctively; then the point is to develop that. If you ask me for an indication of this spiritual instinct, I would say, ‘Would you like to be with the Lord’s people where they talk about Jesus rather than at a game of cricket?’. It is lovely to see young christians sitting down amongst those who are speaking about the things of the Lord. You are ready to sit and listen. You are beginning to be spiritual; the thing is to cultivate that, and see what this means to get into the arms of Jesus. That is what it says here, “He will feed his flock like a shepherd: he will gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom”. It is the same Person who is spoken of in chapter 42 as the Servant, the Servant who delights the heart of God, the Servant whom He chose, the Elect who delights His heart, and He gathers the lambs with His arm. Oh, young people, do not let some little thing defeat you! You scamper off, perhaps you want to go somewhere, or a friend entices you to see something, and you do not tell your parents where you are going; and yet the previous night you heard precious things. Why not follow that up? The Lord will come in. An arm is powerful, but it can be gentle; it is not only the expression of power, but it is the expression of love. Eutychus was enfolded in the arms of Paul (Acts 20: 10). They are expressive of power, but think of power actuated by love”He will gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom”. I would like the young people here to follow up these ^[p. 391] thoughts. You have trusted Christ and confessed Him; now get into these thoughts, the feeding like a shepherd, gathering with the arm, carrying in the bosom. It would be difficult for us to get more precious thoughts than these, and it is important, it is urgent, that you should embrace these thoughts and see how they work out; what it is to be fed, to be gathered, to be carried by the Lord Jesus in your youthfulness.

There is the thought of testimony to this kind of thing having been done to others. The Lord has dealt with others in this way, because Scripture not only has its direct teaching to christians, but teaches by example; the Lord says, “Learn from me”, Matthew 11: 29. That is seeing how He does things. So in chapter 63: 9 we have an historical statement-not that Scripture specialises in history, but it does present the history of Jesus, and this is one of the historical things presented to us to strengthen us; it is a matter of example. That is to say, something happened before; I need it to happen now, but it has happened before. Think of the millions of conversions, for instance, that happened before; they are all written for us. One could mention thousands of things that have happened before. They happened, and the happening is recorded so that the christian should be concerned. I have been speaking to young people about His carrying them, but now here is an historic thing: “In his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bore them and carried them all the days of old”. As you get a little help in your soul from what I am saying, the Spirit of God would say, ‘Look at that there!’. If you are in a school you are taught by illustration as well as by direct teaching. This is an illustration, an historic fact, that the Lord in His love redeemed His people. He says, “I have borne you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself” (Exodus 19: 4), and here He says that He carried them ^[p. 392] all the days of old. He would call your attention to that, that He carried Israel all the days of old. Why not carry you? That is the idea. God would confirm what I have said from chapter 40: 11 by this historic example. How dependent it makes us as we accept the Lord! He not only takes our sorrows and griefs, but takes on ourselves, feeding us, gathering us, carrying us in His bosom. Some of us here may not be gathered. You may have believed in the Lord some time ago, you have believed Him, and confessed Him, but you are not gathered. To you Isaiah says later, “Yet will I gather others to him, with those of his that are gathered”, Isaiah 56: 8. Most of us here are gathered: why not you? The Lord would gather you by the power of His Person, so that you feel the power of the Person behind it. He would set you down with a sense of obligation. Gathering implies that I accept obligation. You come into a realm where obligation is present; but it is the obligation of love, “the perfect law, that of liberty”, James 1: 25. If you are not gathered, you are greatly exposed to the wolf and the lion; Satan is “as a roaring lion ... seeking whom he may devour”, 1 Peter 5:8. You regard yourself as unattached; you talk about the saints as ‘they’ and ‘them’ and so forth; you do not say ‘we’. Satan knows you are unattached, and he will attach you to something and destroy your soul. It is most dangerous to be unattached for the christian. But then, as I was saying, this is the historic example, carrying.

In chapter 46: 4 the principle of carrying extends to the old ones. Some older brethren here tonight may think they are here to support the gospel; rightly so, but every christian should attend the gospel with an open mind feeling that he needs the gospel. I have often thought and said that the apostle Paul would be glad to sit down and listen to Peter. He might present a side of the gospel that Paul had not thought of, and ^[p. 393] vice versa; Peter would be glad to listen to Paul; and in fact it would be important that he should, for Paul spoke of “my glad tidings”; Peter never said that. Paul is the only one that said that. It means a particular gospel that every apostle and every saint should listen to; it is the gospel of place; it is the gospel of salvation, too, but it is the gospel of another place. It is the gospel the spies preached to Israel when they searched the land and brought back the grapes of Eshcol. That is the gospel, that God has another place. It is “the glad tidings of the unsearchable riches of the Christ”, Ephesians 3: 8.

Now this verse, chapter 46: 4, as I said, is for the old people here, the grey-haired christian. I do not use the expression ‘grey hairs’ as a matter of spiritual decay; that is not what is meant here. In other places it does, but here it is not that. In chapter 46 it is, “Even to old age, I am HE, and unto hoary hairs I will carry you: It is I that have made, and I will bear, and I will carry, and will deliver”. Now this is for old christians. The gospel is for the lamb, for the infants spiritually; the carrying love of Christ, the gathering love of Christ, the feeding love of Christ, no word about grey hairs there. But then there are not only lambs, but there are those with grey hairs, those who have old age, and heaven sympathises with them. Physical decay tends to weaken us even in our faith: as we pass to old age we are apt to become downcast and depressed. The thing is to be more in line. We have to provide against it that christians should be restful and bright in the apprehension of Christ, although in old age. He is conscious of our old age; it is the love of Christ for the old, the grey haired. It is the saving love of Christ, for we need to be saved to the uttermost. Salvation is not an historic thing; to many of us it is a continuous thing, and the gospel implies that in old age He will carry you. That is a thing to be cherished, for you need the Lord at ^[p. 394] the last. It is an exercise as we face these things and see how the gospel of the grace of God provides for every stage in christianity, every gradation, and how the old are to see to it that they are appropriating what love provides for them, so that their minds may be clear and their faith unimpaired, that their interests in the testimony may go on, that they may contribute to their younger ones and not be a burden to them. They will not be a burden if they are bright spiritually, though old and decrepit. The spiritual regard them as assets and not liabilities. It is a very poor thing for a christian to become a liability to his brethren. The Lord provides that it should not be; this verse provides for that, we should appropriate His provision of love for us, “Even to old age, I am HE”, meaning that He is unchanged, “and unto hoary hairs I will carry you: It is I that have made, and I will bear, and I will carry, and will deliver”. One like Moses could see and his force was unabated (Deuteronomy 34: 7). One desires to be found thus, so that he has an abundant entrance into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.