Adrian Rogers - Magnifying Jesus Through Worship and the Word
Would you find Isaiah chapter 53? Isaiah chapter 53, The title of today's message, "Magnifying Jesus Through Worship and the Word". If you want ice cream, you can go to Baskin Robbins and they have thirty-one different flavors. Americans, we like a choice. As a matter of fact, I was reading about a store in New York City, one store has 2,500 different kinds of light bulbs; in one store. We just like all of this infinite variety. If you go to buy a soft drink, first of all you have to decide whether you want Seven-Up, Pepsi, Coca Cola, or whatever kind you want. You decide on the brand, then you decide on the size, then you decide whether you want it with sugar or artificial sweetener. Then you decide whether you want it caffeinated or decaffeinated. Or you may decide on some sort of a combination of all of these. A lot of variety.
But, friend, there's only one Jesus. There is only one dear, wonderful Savior. And this church exists, not to give people a lot of choices, but to say there is but no other Savior in the whole wide world. Amen? You see, all of the universe is for one purpose, to magnify the Lord Jesus Christ. And when He was baptized, God the Father, in Luke 9 verse 35, said out of the glory, "This is My Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye Him". This church exists for the purpose of magnifying Jesus; magnifying Jesus through worship and the Word. And that's what we've been doing today, worshipping Him. And now we come to listen to the Word of God.
And I thought, "Well now what passage of Scripture would I get today if I just wanted to talk about Jesus? Would I go somewhere to the New Testament"? Indeed, I could. But, you know, I decided to go to the Old Testament, Isaiah chapter 53. And we're going to find in Isaiah chapter 53 the story of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm talking about in the Old Testament. I'm talking about seven hundred years before Jesus Christ walked the dusty shores of Galilee. You're going to see the biography of the King. You're going to hear the Gospel, not according to Matthew, Mark, Luke or John, but you're going to hear the Gospel according to Isaiah, the prophet, seven hundred years before Jesus was born.
In Isaiah chapter 53, Isaiah dipped his pen in golden glory and wrote this. Martin Luther said, "It ought to be written on golden parchment with diamonds for letters". Perhaps the greatest chapter in all of the Word of God is Isaiah chapter 53. And I've chosen that chapter today for us together to center our thoughts, our hearts, our minds on that wonderful, glorious person whom I love and adore, and you do too; His name is Jesus! And all of the Bible is about Jesus. If you read the Bible and you don't find Jesus, you better go back and re-read it because you missed it. It is His story. It is about Him, the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, the old time preachers used to have an outline.
Now I don't know who first came up with this outline. But somebody came up with an outline about Jesus, His life, His ministry, His death, His resurrection. And here's the outline somebody came up with, and every preacher who's ever preached the Gospel knows this outline: Jesus; His virgin birth, Jesus; His virtuous life, Jesus; His vicarious death, Jesus; His victorious resurrection, Jesus; His visible return. Isn't that a good outline of the life of Jesus? That's it. Jesus, you see, His virgin birth, His virtuous life, His vicarious death, His victorious resurrection, and His visible return.
Would you be surprised if you found all of that in Isaiah chapter 53? Would you be surprised if you found in the Old Testament all five of those wonderful, glorious truths concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, as we magnify Him through worship and the Word? Let's look and see if we can find them right here. Read with me Isaiah chapter 53, and we begin in verses 1 and 2, "Who hath believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For He," Jesus, "shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground". What's that talking about? It's speaking here of the Lord Jesus, a little baby, a tender plant, growing up in a barren desert. This is talking about the virgin birth of the Lord Jesus Christ.
You say, "Isaiah didn't know anything about the virgin birth, Pastor". Oh, yes he did. Isaiah chapter 7 verse 14 says, "Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and be with child". Isaiah 9:6 says, "For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given, and the government shall be upon His shoulder". And now Isaiah says in Isaiah 53 verse 2, "He's like a tender plant coming up in a dry, barren desert". Oh, thank God for the virgin birth. Thank God for the Lord Jesus who left His throne of glory, came down to this world of woe through a dark Judean night, and came into this world through the portals of a virgin's womb; was born in a smelly cow barn, laid upon straw in a manger, wrapped in coarse cloth.
Why was Jesus born of a virgin? Mendel, M-E-N-D-E-L, gave us the laws of genetics. We're learning more and more about genetics, but we've never gone past what Mendel taught us about genetics. Now what is the law of genetics? Listen to me. There is nothing in you that was not in your parents. Got that? There is nothing in you that was not in your parents.
Number two, everything that was in your parents is in you. It may be dominant or it may be recessive, but it's in you, and you came from your parents. Now it may be recessive. It may not show up to your children. And by the way, if your children misbehave, therefore, you might can blame it on your parents. But I'm telling you it's there. It is there, either dominant or recessive. Everything that was in your parents is in you, and there's nothing in you that was not in your parents. That's the law of genetics.
Now let's think a little bit about the virgin birth of the Lord Jesus Christ and why Jesus had to be born of a virgin. For example, if Mary and Joseph were the parents of the Lord Jesus, then all that was in Mary and Joseph would have been in the Lord Jesus Christ. And Mary and Joseph were both human, and so the Lord Jesus would have only been human. For humanity can only produce humanity.
Now let's think again. Suppose if Mary was divine, if Mary were deity, and God is the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, then deity plus deity produces deity, and all the Lord Jesus Christ would have been was divine. Rather than merely human, Mary and Joseph, God and God, He would have been divine, therefore, remote and unapproachable and could not have been our dear wonderful Savior who was made like unto us. But if Mary is human and the Father is Almighty God, then you have, according to Mendel's Law of Genetics and according to divine inspiration and revelation, you have the God-Man, the Lord Jesus Christ. He was born of a virgin.
Now, it wasn't that He was half-God and half-man; He'd have been a monster. Not that He was all God and no man; He could not have been our Savior. Not all man and no God, He could not have been our Savior. But the God-Man. There was never another like the Lord Jesus Christ. He was virgin born. Why was Jesus virgin born? Had He been a son of Adam, "In Adam all die". First Corinthians 15:22. He was the Son of God and yet He was human. You see, no virgin birth, no deity. No deity, no sinlessness. No sinlessness, no blood atonement. No blood atonement, no new birth. No new birth, no hope of Heaven. Thank God for the virgin birth, Amen? He came to Earth that we might go to Heaven. He was born of a virgin that we might be born again. He became the Son of Man that we might become the sons and daughters of Almighty God.
And Isaiah speaks of this virgin birth, of the Lord Jesus Christ who stepped out of glory and came into this world, "As a tender plant, as a root out of a dry ground". But secondly, not only does Isaiah speak of His virgin birth; Isaiah speaks of His virtuous life. Continue to read in Isaiah 53 verses 2 and 3, the last part of verse 2, "He hath no form nor comeliness; and when we see Him, there's no beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not".
This speaks of His virtuous life. It speaks of the manner of His life. The Lord Jesus Christ lived an incredible life. You would think that if God were to come to Earth that He would have come down in robes, woven on looms of light. You would have thought that the Lord Jesus would have come to this Earth in a jeweled chariot. But where was He born? He's born in Bethlehem, little Bethlehem, a little hamlet, a little small, insignificant town, the least of all the cities of Judah. You would have thought that He would have been raised in some royal court, but He was raised as a carpenter's son in another obscure, hated village, Nazareth. You would have thought that the Lord Jesus would have come with wealth and opulence and power, but He walked about in sandaled shoes; where, "Foxes have holes and birds have nests, the Son of Man had not where to lay His head." Matthew 8:20.
You know, don't get the idea that if you'd have seen the Lord Jesus Christ, you would have recognized Him as deity. You would not have, not with your eyes. Isaiah 53 verse 2, when we see Him, "There's no form nor comeliness, nor beauty that we should desire Him". That doesn't mean that He was hideous. It just means that He did not physically stand out above other people. If Jesus Christ had physically stood out among other people, why would Judas have had to point Him out in Gethsemane? You know, sometimes we see these pictures of the Lord Jesus that, very frankly, leave me a little cold. They look like He came out of a beauty shop, you know. And then the ones with the halo behind His head, looks like a big dinner plate back there. No, no. When we see Him, "There's no form nor comeliness nor beauty that we should desire Him".
In a very real way, a nondescript person outwardly. You know, the Bible says in John 1 verse 14, "The Word was made flesh and tabernacled among us". Had you seen the tabernacle in the wilderness, you would have understood why John chose that word. "The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us". Literally it says, "And tabernacled among us". Had you seen the tabernacle in the wilderness, it would have been covered with badger skins. Badger skins, drab, brown, unattractive on the outside. But had you gone into that tabernacle and seen the embroidery, seen the gold, seen the Shekinah glory there on the mercy seat, see that candelabra, see that beautiful building. You'd said, "This is indescribably beautiful". But it had to be seen from the inside. And so it is with Jesus, isn't that right? You know, the natural eye looks at Jesus and says, "What's so great about Jesus"?
Oh friend, if you only knew Jesus, to be in Christ, and to have Christ in you, to come into the Lord Jesus and to see the One who, "Was made flesh and then tabernacled among us," and see the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Man of Sorrows. "Man of Sorrows, what a name! For the Son of God who came. Ruined sinners to reclaim; hallelujah, what a Savior"! We could talk about His life. We'd never get finished; the miracles that He did, He went about doing good, the love that He showed, the life that He lived. Where He could say to His enemies John 8:46, "Which of you convinceth Me of sin"? He was not without sorrow, but He was without sin. Oh, the virtuous life of the Lord Jesus. Isaiah speaks to us about that. But now, notice also Isaiah speaks, not only of His virgin birth and His virtuous life, but Isaiah speaks of His vicarious death.
Look if you will now, beginning in Isaiah 53 verses 4 and read through verse 11, a longer passage, "Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions; He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him," on Jesus, "the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He openeth not His mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment, and who shall declare His generation? For He was cut off out of the land of the living, for the transgression of my people was He stricken".
I'm going to stop reading right there, but let's talk a little bit about His vicarious death. Do you know what the word vicarious means? It means in the place of another. You see, the purpose of the cross was substitution. Now there're other reasons for the cross, and other lessons from the cross; but I say without stutter, stammer, apology, equivocation, that the major purpose of the cross was that Jesus Christ would die as our substitute. You see, sin had to be punished. My sin has to be punished and your sin has to be punished. There's no question about that. The only question is who will bear the punishment? Either I will bear the punishment or I will have a substitute to bear my punishment for me. So the Bible says that all our sins were laid upon the Lord Jesus Christ.
Look if you will in the last part of Isaiah 53 verse 6, "The Lord hath laid upon Him the iniquity of us all". Now what did Jesus do as my substitute? Listen very carefully. Here's why we're magnifying Jesus through worship and the Word. What did Jesus take when He went to that cross? He took my sin. "The Lord hath laid upon Him the iniquity of us all". Paul tells us in the New Testament, in Second Corinthians 5:21, "Him, who knew no sin, God hath made to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him". Now notice in Isaiah 53 verse 5, look at it, "He was wounded for our transgressions". Look at the word wounded, do you see it, verse 5? Do you know what the word wounded means in Hebrew? Pierced, pierced. It speaks of the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus. He was nailed to a cross for our transgression.
Now, Jesus took my sin. Have you ever wondered about the Garden of Gethsemane? The more I study Gethsemane, the more it breaks my heart, because, you see, this was Calvary before He was ever nailed to the cross. In Gethsemane the Lord Jesus said to the Father in Luke 22:42, "Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me". What was He talking about? Not physical death. He was talking about the cup. What was in that cup? Your sin was in that cup. My sin was in that cup. Your sin, sir, was in that cup. Yours, lady, was in that cup. And the sin of all this congregation was in that cup. And the sin of today, yesterday, tomorrow, the sin of all of the ages, of all of the people; all the rape, the arson, the pillage, the pornography, the blasphemy, the hatred, the pride, the arrogance, the vileness, it all settled in that cup.
And the Lord Jesus knew that if He drank that cup, God would have to treat Him as He would treat every sinner. Jesus knew that. Jesus knew that He Who had been in the bosom of the Father would become, when He became sin, the object of the Father's loathing. He would become our substitute. He said, "Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me". The silence from Heaven said, "There was no other way". And Jesus took that bitter cup, and Jesus, in the Garden of Gethsemane, drank that cup. No wonder we sing, "My sin, oh the bliss, of this glorious thought; my sin, not in part, but the whole, were nailed to the cross and I bear them no more. Bless the Lord, bless the Lord, oh my soul".
But not only did he take our sins, folks, verses 5 and 6, but in Isaiah 53 verse 7; He took our shame. Look at it, "He was oppressed, and He was afflicted," now watch this, "yet He opened not His mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He openeth not His mouth". Pilate said, "Why don't You say something? Don't You hear what these people are accusing You of? Why don't You say something? If You're the Son of God, tell us! Speak"! But He doesn't say a word. Boy, when I read that, I say, "Jesus, tell them who You are. Do something, don't just stand there, don't just take it. Why don't You turn Pilate into a frog? You could do it if You wanted to".
Why doesn't He do that? Because, friend, the purpose of the cross is substitution, and along with our sin comes shame. You see, Jesus could not have justified Himself without condemning me. I mean, Jesus could not have said, "Well, I'm here, but it's really not My sin I'm suffering for, it's Adrian's sin". Then He would have been the hero. But He did not die as a hero. He died as a criminal. He died as a thief. He died as an ignoble, no good. And the Bible said in Isaiah 53 verse 4, "We did esteem Him, smitten, stricken of God and afflicted," saying, "Good enough for Him. He's getting what He deserves"! He died in shame, hanging naked on a cross for you!
It's amazing you have to beg people to come forward sometime to confess their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ when He did that for you. Are you ashamed of Him? The Bible says in Romans 10:11, "When we believe on Him we will not be ashamed". The Apostle Paul said in Romans 1:16, "I'm not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it's the power of God unto salvation". Ashamed of Jesus, and can it be? Ashamed of that One who died for us upon the cross? He took my shame and by God's grace and for God's glory, I'll never be ashamed of Jesus Christ. I hope you're never ashamed of the Lord Jesus Christ. I hope you're not ashamed to carry your Bible. Hope you're not ashamed to bow your head in a restaurant and pray. I hope you're not ashamed to witness. I hope you're not ashamed to get up in that baptistery and be baptized as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, who upon that cross took your sin and He took your shame.
I'll tell you what else He took, friend, He took your suffering. Look if you will here in Isaiah verses 8 and 9 of this same chapter, "He was taken from prison and from judgment, and who shall declare His generation? He was cut off out of the land of the living, and for the transgression of my people He was stricken". Cut off, what does that mean? It means He was crucified. Look in verse 9, "He made His grave with the wicked, and the rich in His death". You see the word death? Friend, that word in the Hebrew is an intensive plural. It means deaths, it's plural. Why would the Lord use the plural here? Because, friend, He was dying for all of us. He's dying for all of us. I mean, we use an idiom today like, "He died a thousand deaths".
Only He didn't die a thousand deaths. He died billions of deaths. He paid the sin for all of the world. How much did Jesus Christ suffer for your soul? How much did Jesus Christ suffer on that cross? Only the damned in Hell can begin to know the price He paid, but they will never know because they're still paying for their sins. It's not over yet. And they're only paying for their sins. But Jesus paid it all, and He paid for all, on that cross. You say, "I don't understand that. How could He, in that period of time, suffer all eternity"? I I'll tell you how. You see, we being finite, will suffer in an infinite period of time. He, being infinite, suffered in a finite period of time what we, being finite, would suffer in an infinite period of time.
When the Lord Jesus died upon that cross, the prophet said in Lamentations 1:12 concerning Him, "There's no sorrow like My sorrow". Nobody knows the pain. Nobody knows how dark it was when the Lord Jesus Christ died upon that cross. The eternities were compressed upon the Lord Jesus. The sins of the world were distilled upon the Lord Jesus. And He, being infinite, suffered in a finite period of time what we, being finite, would suffer in an infinite period of time. Jesus paid it all on that cross. No wonder He shrunk back from that cross.
No wonder He said in Luke 22 verse 42, "Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me". But Jesus took my sin. Jesus took my shame. Jesus took my suffering. And Jesus took my separation. You see, the Bible says there again that Jesus was cut off from the land of the living. Here's the Lord Jesus there, who had always been in the bosom of the Father from eternity. Now He's separated from God the Father. He has to cry from that cross, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me"?
Now, He wasn't looking back, quoting David in Psalm 22 verse 1. David was looking forward when he wrote Psalm 22 quoting the Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew 27:46. It was a prophecy of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the demons of Hell taunted Him, and Hell had a holiday. And the rabble mocked Him. The disciples fled from Him. And the Lord Jesus is suspended between Heaven and Earth there, alone on that cross, lifted up. The sun refused to shine. When David died, King David, David, in Psalm 23:4, could say, "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me". But I want to tell you, Jesus walked that lonesome valley by Himself. He could not say, "Thou art with Me". He had to say, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me"?
Why? I'll tell you why. He was taking your place. And your sin will bring separation from Almighty God for all eternity if you don't get saved. See, listen, this is His vicarious death. Isaiah's talking about it in Isaiah 53 verse 5, "All our iniquities were laid upon Him. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquity". And this is His vicarious death. He took our sin. He took our shame. He took our suffering. He took our separation. And I love Him. I love Him. I love Him. And you need to love Him. And this church exists for the purpose of magnifying Jesus through worship and the Word. But it doesn't end there. Friend, not only do we have His vicarious death, but we have His victorious resurrection.
Look if you will in Isaiah 53 verses 9 and 10, "And He made His grave with the wicked, and with the rich in His death; because He had done no violence, neither was there any deceit in His mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He hath put Him to grief, and when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, He," the Messiah, "shall see His seed," His descendants, "He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand". It doesn't sound like a dead man now to me does it? No, He made His grave with the wicked and the rich. You know, He was laid away in a borrowed tomb, a rich man's tomb. No man had every laid in that tomb. Jesus had a virgin womb and a virgin tomb. But He came up out of that grave.
Verse 10 says, "God will prolong His days". He is the ancient of days. The Living Bible paraphrases it, "He shall live again". He came out of that grave. That's why I love the Lord Jesus. Confucius died; he's dead! Buddha died; he is dead! Mohammad died; he is dead! Jesus died; He walked out of that grave! A minister was visiting Moscow, Red Square, the tomb of Lenin. I've been there to see those soldiers, goose-stepping, guarding that tomb. They asked them, "What are you doing"? They said, "We're guarding the tomb of our hero". This Christian said, "They don't guard the tomb of my hero because He's not there". He's risen. His victorious resurrection. Jesus came out of that grave, and I want to say, had Jesus not come out of that grave, He'd just been one more religious leader. But Romans 1:4 "He's shown to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the grave, from the dead".
Here's the last thing, thank God for this, His visible return. Look in Isaiah 53 verses 11 and 12, "He shall see the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied". Oh listen, He's going to say, "It was worth it all," when He sees you and when He sees me saved. "By His knowledge shall my righteous Servant," that's Jesus, "justify many," that's us, "for He shall bear their iniquities. Therefore," God the Father says, "will I divide with Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong". It's talking about Jesus here, coming to rule and to reign. What do you do after a victory? You divide up the spoil. He, listen, "He shall divide the spoil with the strong because He hath poured out His soul unto death. And He was numbered with the transgressors; and bare the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors".
Oh friend, what's it talking about? It's talking about when Jesus comes again. The only hope of this world is Jesus coming again. I've given up trying to reform Hollywood or Washington. No, no. Might as well try to run a soda shop in Hell. Friend, I'm going to tell you something. The hope of this world is the second coming of Jesus Christ. "And mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. He's trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored. He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword. Our God is marching on". And, "Jesus will reign where'er the sun doth His successive journeys run. His kingdom spread from shore to shore, 'til moon shall wax and wane no more".
Matthew 5:5, "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the Earth," because He's going to divide the spoil with the strong. And people who know their God will do exploits. And friend, we're on the winning side. It's the story that Isaiah gave in Isaiah 53. We sing it, "Living, He loved me. Dying, He saved me. Buried, He carried my sins far away. Rising, He justified, freely forever. One day He's coming". Glorious day, when He comes. Father, seal the message to our hearts. Help us, Lord Jesus, that we would exist as individuals and as a church to magnify You through worship and the Word.
And now while heads are bowed, eyes are closed, if you've never received Him, the Bible says, "By His knowledge shall my righteous Servant justify many". He'll save you today if you come to know Him in repentance and faith. I invite you right now to pray a prayer like this:
Lord Jesus, I need You. I want You. Thank You for dying for me. I now open my heart, and by faith like a child, I receive You as my Lord and my Savior. Come in, Lord Jesus, take control of my life, and begin now to make me the person You want me to be. In Your name I pray, Amen.