In the sermon 'The Victory of His Pleasures' by Scott Brown, the focus is on the concluding verses of Isaiah 53, emphasizing the doctrine of substitutionary atonement. The sermon highlights that God is gathering His people through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, which satisfies God's pleasures and fulfills His plan to redeem sinners. The satisfaction of Christ in his labors is explored, portraying both the satisfaction of God the Father in His wrath being appeased and the satisfaction of Christ in his redemptive work. The sermon delves into the concept of knowledge, not just as divine understanding, but as a transformative power in the hearts of believers, leading to justification. It further discusses the role of Christ as an intercessor, advocating for sinners and highlighting His continuous prayers for them. The sermon also touches on the victory and inheritance that Christ shares with His people, portraying them as co-heirs and strong in faith. Through detailed references to scripture and theological insights, Scott Brown paints a picture of a God who delights in His work of redemption, drawing His people into a family bonded by the sacrifice and victory of His Son.

I'm going to read Isaiah 53, 11 through the end. He shall see the labor of his soul and be satisfied. By his knowledge, my righteous servant shall justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the great and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul unto death and He was numbered with the transgressors and he bore the sin of many and with intercession for the transgressor let's pray Lord I thank you for this sacrifice. I thank you for what you've done for us.

Lord, I pray that we would Listen closely for what you have for us. Lord, I pray for the preaching that you would be with every word that is said. Amen. Well, here we are in the final section of Isaiah 53 as we continue to develop the whole doctrine of substitutionary atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ? This is the seventh sermon that we've preached on Isaiah 53, but I still feel like we're a little underweight, and it may happen that we might only get one phrase through today.

I have a book that I've been reading by James Durham, Christ Crucified, 72 sermons on Isaiah 53. James Durham has 20 sermons on verse 11 alone, and we're going to do verses 11 and 12 today. But here what we find is just a continuation of the argument that Isaiah is bringing to us of the pleasures of God, the reason for everything, that God is pleasing himself, that he's satisfying his pleasures by the work of his son the Lord Jesus Christ and you you find yourself you know entering into the the mind and the emotions of God the Father and and God the Son as they've conceived of this way of redeeming sinners. And the overarching theme of Isaiah 53 is that God is gathering His people to Himself by the sacrifice of his son. He's gathering people to love him, to follow him, and he's separating them out of the world to be with him and to experience his presence with his son and by his spirit.

And he does that through the shedding of the blood of his son because God is bringing together a family. And in that family there's the experience of his presence, which is why we read in Psalm 16 11, in his presence is fullness of joy at his right hand, our pleasures forevermore. And all of Isaiah 53 is really a development of the pleasures of God to redeem sinners and how he delights to expand his mercy, you know, through the shed blood of his son into the hearts of sinners that they might be healed. It's such a beautiful passage of scripture. And so as we enter into these final verses of Isaiah 53 verses 11 through 12, we continue this theme of the victory of the pleasures of God that were introduced in the previous verse, in verse 10, which we covered last week.

And these pleasures of God are the overflow of His love and His generosity towards sinners and how He desires to draw near to them and to gather them together into a family. And how finally in the last verse, Christ himself comes along to help as an intercessor for transgressors. And so these are all the victories of the Son of God. And Isaiah 53, as we've mentioned before, is the Old Testament explanation of what is the center of the entire message of the Bible, that God glorifies himself in everything, but in particular, the salvation of sinners. And this is why over the centuries people have referred to Isaiah as the fifth gospel.

And so here we are in the heart of the fifth gospel, in the very heart and soul of the entire Bible summarizing the purpose of all of history that God would send his son to rescue a bride. So that's where we find ourselves here. You see an outline in front of you. We've had seven sermons on this text and it begins in chapter 52, one of the most untimely chapter divisions in all of Scripture, and then runs until this final declaration of his victory, the victory of his pleasure and his satisfaction and his generosity. And so as you see before here, I've listed eight of the things of his pleasure that are here, and we'll develop them one by one.

And so here in verse 11, we find that Isaiah is speaking to God, and we read, He shall see the labor of his soul and be satisfied." And here there's this rejoicing in the labor that God the Son has performed toward his children. And so we first of all see his pleasure in the satisfaction of his labors. Now there are two ways that one can understand this. We had an extensive discussion about this on Tuesday morning about who is he in verse 11, who is the first he in verse 11. When you read that you think it possibly could be the Father's wrath is satisfied, or secondly, that Christ himself is satisfied.

And we're very familiar and aware of the whole idea of God satisfying his wrath through the death of his son. So our minds immediately move to that principle. It could indicate that the father, his wrath has been satisfied. My view of this is that it was the satisfaction of the Son of God. He was satisfied with his own labors.

And I think the Father and the Son are satisfied in different ways. The Father's wrath is satisfied. And the Son is satisfied with his labor in redeeming sinners. At the same time, the Father's pleasures are satisfied in the redemption of sinners as well. So you have different kinds of satisfaction.

One is not shared with the other. The Lord Jesus Christ, His wrath was not satisfied, except in the sense that God the Father and God the Son are one and they consider matters together the very same way. And I spent quite a bit of time trying to discern whether it was the Father's wrath that was satisfied or whether it was the Son's labor, the son was satisfied in his labor. And here's, I mean, here's the bottom line. If you consult the Hebrew scholars on the matter, every commentator says it's the son's satisfaction in his own labor.

So that's the element that I'm going to develop here in dealing with this first point that we have in verse 11. Now let me just give you some ways that others have described the satisfaction of the Son of God. Here's John Calvin. This is full of the sweetest consolation for Isaiah could not have better expressed the infinite love of Christ toward us than by declaring that he takes the highest delight in our salvation and that he rests in it as the fruit of his labors, as he who has obtained his wish rests in that which he most ardently desired." So in that sense Christ himself was satisfied. Albert Barnes speaks of it this way, that he shall see so much of the good resulting from his great sorrows, so much happiness and so many saved, that the benefit shall be an ample compensation for what he endured." And so I think the weight of understanding of this passage is that Jesus Christ is delighted.

And we learn of Christ's delights in so many different places in scripture, and here is one of them. His soul delights in His own labor for sinners. Perhaps in the same way that God the Father when he saw that he made he looked at it and he said ah, behold, it is good. And here the Lord Jesus Christ says the same thing. He sees the goodness of his labor in the hearts of those whom he has saved.

And so there was this labor of his soul. He labored, he sweat blood, he endured persecution, he was slandered, he was struck, he was pierced in his side, and he finally died on the cross. He performed great labors as the weight of the sins of the world were laid upon him. So his labor is something that he found pleasing to himself in the same way that a woman who gives birth has such great pain and travel and yet when it's all over she just can't believe what has happened. How thankful, how beautiful it is to have been a recipient of God's mercy toward her in holding this new baby.

And in some ways, she forgets the labor, of course, until the next time, and then she remembers it again. But This is the labor of his soul. What is the soul? Now, this word is used to indicate his life, his mind, his heart, his body, his whole life. He labored with his whole soul.

Every part of him was this labor of love. And then you see his satisfaction. This is his delight. Maybe like the sweet aroma of the sacrifices in the Old Testament. It was to him, his sacrifice was even to him a sweet aroma as he thought of what would happen to people.

You know, what happens to a person when they believe in Jesus Christ? He begins to heal them. He delivers them from their fears. He begins to remake them. What a marvelous thing.

And so this great mystery of the pleasure of the Son of God and his satisfaction in his labors and his sufferings. And so our Lord Jesus Christ was thankful to his Father for the salvation of those who turned to him. And Even when he was in his earthly ministry, he said, Oh, Father, I thank you that you have revealed these things to babes. Oh, Lord, I thank you that you've opened up their eyes and seen it. So the Son of God was rewarded by the people of God.

You know, as a church when we gather together, it's always important for us to remind ourselves of what is happening when we gather together as a people. And we gather together as his sons and his daughters and when we gather together we we're gathering together under under the specter of his delight that he's looking down upon his children and he delights to see his children gathering together. It pleases the Lord when they come and gather together and they realize they fall so short. They turn from their sins. It pleases the Lord Jesus Christ when the church gathers together and they love one another from the heart.

It pleases the Lord when his people gather together and they lift their voices and they praise him. David said praise is beautiful. It's beautiful to the Lord as the people of God gather. So God is satisfied with the gatherings of his people as a result of his labors that he performed for them. Why?

Because God is gathering a people to himself by the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ and he's separating them out from the world so that they would praise him and worship him as we're doing today. And then you see his pleasure in spreading his knowledge. This is the second phrase in verse 11. By his knowledge, my righteous servant shall justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. Now when we get to verse 11 we see that God is speaking, God Himself is speaking, Isaiah was speaking, now it is God, by His knowledge my righteous servant.

God the Father is speaking of His Son, He's speaking of his righteous servant. And he shall justify many. And there's the way that he did it. And now he is either speaking of God's knowledge or our knowledge, that it was God's knowledge that he delivered or our knowledge of him. And I think they're both related.

The Hebrew is very difficult in this phrase, But I take this to be that the knowledge of God is known in the hearts of men, that it is declared and it is known. And here what we find is that God, God the Son, rejoices over the spread of his knowledge. And he spreads his knowledge, he causes sinners to have understanding, and to know God, and to know of his ways. And it points to the time when you realize that the knowledge of God was superior. Do you remember that time?

Do you remember when you began to regard the knowledge of God as beautiful to you? And you read his word and it was so different. You loved it. The knowledge of God had been revealed to you. You saw it for the first time and you might have read the Bible many many times and you just didn't get it it was just a book and then it it became so much greater than a book it became life it became spirit it energized you it it moved you it changed your heart his knowledge came to you.

One writer described it this way the Holy Scriptures are the only fountain of divine knowledge they are a kind of map whereby we may find our way through this trackless desert and arrive in safety at our Father's house. This doctrine that God has broadcast throughout the world is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. He does give knowledge to those whom he chooses. And what is his knowledge? It is his perception, his skill, his discernment, his understanding, it is his wisdom that is all encapsulated in his holy word.

This is his wisdom. You know back in Isaiah 33 verses 5 and 6 the prophet spoke of the knowledge of God that is apprehended by man. He says this, the Lord is exalted for he dwells on high. He has filled Zion with justice and righteousness wisdom and knowledge will be the stability of your times and the strength of salvation the fear of the Lord is his treasure this is a picture of of God declaring his wisdom and knowledge and when you know it, it becomes the stability of your times. They're just not words on a page anymore.

Your heart actually is moved by them. And so the main point is that God speaks his words that justify when they are embraced and when they are loved. And so when the Word of God is declared and you hear it, then something happens to you when you hear the Word of God and you begin to have a sense of the knowledge of God. The first thing that happens with the knowledge of God is that you're aware of your sins. You recognize your failings.

You recognize how short you fall. And you're terrified by the law of God. And so as a result, as a result of your seeing who you really are, as a result of his knowledge, then this second thing is realized in your life and that is you realize that that he has borne your iniquities. You recognize your need to have your iniquities to be taken care of. This is why 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 2 declares that it's God's divine power that has given us the ability to even know Him, because you can't know Him unless His divine power comes upon you and He opens up your eyes and you see it.

He says, grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ as his divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and by virtue. And here is a picture of the knowledge of the Son of God coming to a person and it comes as a result of His divine power. You could turn to Luke chapter 1 verse 77 and you can see the tender mercies of God to make his knowledge known to mankind. You could turn to Ephesians chapter 1 verse 28 and speak of the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of Him that causes one to see his sins and turn to Him and be saved. You know Christians are people who love this kind of knowledge.

Christians are marked by this. I don't know how many people I've talked to who said, You know, I was such a terrible student until Jesus Christ saved me. And then I actually began to read. I never read before. And that's the result of this knowledge of God.

It becomes a hunger. It becomes a beauty in your life. The hunger for His words, and this is one of the marks of the justified person, is that they hunger for the words and their lives are changed by it. And then they're marked by spreading, spreading the words. This is our primary responsibility in the world is to spread it.

So they find their knowledge of God and then they see their iniquities. The knowledge causes their hearts to turn to him. And that's what brings us to this next of God's, God the Father's and God the Son's great pleasures, the pleasure in bearing iniquities. This third phrase in verse 11, for he shall bear their iniquities. And here we see a vision of Jesus Christ as a great high priest.

He bears the iniquities of the people and we've spoken quite at length about this matter of him bearing our iniquities that he has taken the weight of our sin and has taken it literally off our shoulders and placed it on his son's shoulders. He's placed it on his own shoulders. And this is the whole picture that is here. Because when you, when the knowledge of God comes to you, you feel the weight and you realize that you have only one hope and that it is somehow lifted because you are hopelessly lost in your sins and there's nothing that you can do to satisfy the wrath of God by any act of obedience or any kindness or any gift or any any kind of magnanimous behavior or good attitude or anything. Nothing satisfies the wrath of God except the sacrificed Son of God.

And that is how it happens that the weight of sin is lifted from your shoulders and placed upon his son. And this is the whole idea of the scapegoat in the Old Testament. You know, people are skeptical of Christianity And they say, and I'm sure most of us have thought this thought many times, how could one person dying on a cross bring forgiveness to me? Or many? How does this possibly work?

And the answer really is, has been declared many times in Isaiah chapter 53 and we're not saved simply by what Christ did on the cross. We are saved by who He was on the cross. We are saved because He is a perfect man. He kept all of God's commandments and as a result our sins are atoned for. His righteousness, his perfect obedience to the law, replaces our comprehensive disobedience to the law of God.

So there is this replacement that has taken place and it's the picture of the scapegoat where the high priest would put his hand on the goat and confess his sins and the sins of Israel and transfer those sins to the goat and symbolically send it out into the wilderness because God hates sin. This is the doctrine of the devastating sinfulness of sin, that the soul that sins shall die. But the Lord Jesus Christ has come, And He has borne our sins. He has actually carried them. This is such an important matter in Isaiah 53 that it's repeated.

And so I think we should recognize how important it is to remember that. You know, as we're gathered here in this church today, we're gathered as a family, God is separating us out from the world by the blood of His Son. And how should we think of it? Well, we should be the lightest stepping people stepping people because Jesus Christ has taken our burden, the burden of our sin. You know, he has taken this burden once and for all.

You know, I've seen in the last several years particularly a rise in kind of the messianic Christian movement. And one of the great concerns that is constantly put before me when I see different things that are being proposed. The Messianic movement delights in the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem. There's this delight, this relishing of the reinstitution of the Jewish sacrificial system and that somehow this is some kind of sign of God's blessing and moving among his people. And the truth of the matter is that while people might fawn over this idea, they have forgotten that Jesus Christ shed his blood on the cross once and for all.

The sacrificial system has been done away with. Christians will never, ever go back to the sacrificial system. It's blasphemous in order to think this way, That somehow you would go back to the Old Covenant. This is why the Apostle Paul was so devastatingly stern to the Galatians. And he says, who has bewitched you, O Galatians?

What was he talking about? There were those that wanted to go back to the ceremonial law. They wanted to go back. And the Apostle Paul was saying, no, this is a doctrine of demons. And you need to recognize that Jesus Christ is the once for all sacrifice for sins.

If there ever is the Jewish sacrificial system set up again, here's what you will know. It is from the devil himself in order to distract, in order to deceive people, and to lure them into a bankrupt and outmoded religion that Jesus Christ has already abrogated. And then fourthly we see further his pleasures and delights, the Father and the Son and their pleasure in generosity by dividing spoil. Verse 12. We move into verse 12 and we read Therefore, I will divide him a portion with the great.

The father is going to divide a portion with his son. There is an inheritance that is being communicated here. And so the word therefore brings us to really the whole conclusion of this servant song. And you'll see many of these elements that we've already read about brought together. The various threads are here.

And really they are all brought together in the last three verses of this servant's song. But here in this part the focus is war, booty, treasure, something given to you, something taken from one and given to another. And of course, the whole message of this last verse in Isaiah 53 is about the victory of the work of redemption of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you have this military imagery where the enemy has been disarmed and his goods have been taken away and now they're going to be used for good. And he's dividing spoil, God the Father is dividing spoil for his son.

And so far we've seen so much of the humiliation of the Son of God. And now you begin to see in such vivid terms the exaltation. Humility always comes before exaltation and that's true with the Lord Jesus Christ as well. And now, now he's, he's receiving the reward for his labor and he's, and wealth is being divided. And what is that wealth?

It's people. It's the people that he's redeemed. And so God is bequeathing his wealth to his son. You know, his son actually asked for the wealth in Psalm chapter 2. The father says to the son, ask of me and I will give you the nations for your inheritance and the ends of the earth for your possession.

The father speaks to the Son and says, ask me for an inheritance and he does and he gets it right here. It is now divided. And then the Son of God doesn't stop, he receives the division of this wealth and then he in turn applies it and gives gifts to his sons and daughters and he shall divide the spoil with the strong So the Lord Jesus Christ takes the spoil the wealth the booty the The treasure of his inheritance and then he divides He divides gifts with them. He calls them the strong These are the weak that are made strong. These are those who have lost their life for His sake and they have found it.

And so they're now they are the strong, They are the ones who are being strengthened. He's dealing with their great weakness. He's poured out his spirit within them, and he's empowered them. He's given them a way for their lives to actually change by the power of his spirit. And so they are called the strong.

The people of God are called the strong. This whole disarming is spoken of in many many places in Scripture and chapter 9 that great messianic chapter in Isaiah that begins with, the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Then it also says, for you have broken the yoke of his burden and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor as in the day of Midian. God vanquishes his enemies, takes their spoil and gives it to his son. And now we have a picture of Christ giving gifts to his own sons and daughters.

And I think this happens in many many ways it's it's it's the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the treasure of having the strength and the wisdom and the voice and the guidance of God the conviction of the Holy Spirit you It's such a great treasure to see your sin and turn from it and find health and life, returning to that part of your life that was so defiled and so wrong. But it also has to do with the distribution of gifts that we read about in Ephesians chapter 4 verse 8. Therefore when he ascended on high, he led captivity captive and he gave gifts to men. And then it says that he gives men to the church, apostles and prophets and evangelists. And then there's the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.

He gives gifts to all of his people so that there would be even greater benefiting and value in their life together. And so the Lord Jesus Christ is sharing his wealth with his sons and daughters and we become co-heirs with Christ. We receive his inheritance. His inheritance becomes our inheritance. Not only were we raised up with Him, that we are also given His inheritance.

And so As the church gathers together, they sit really before their Father's throne with His Son. And they have all of the inheritance that the Father has divided with His Son, and that his son is so kindly and graciously given to his sons and his daughters. It's, you know, I view this as very much a reflection of what we're doing even here today. You know, there are people here that are sitting here, clothed, and in their right minds, like never before. There are people here today who have a value and a contribution of their life that they never had before because God gave them gifts.

They were changed. Their hearts changed and as a result, their life became an outpouring of the wisdom and the goodness and the beauty of God. This is a picture of the gathered church because God is separating a people for himself by the blood of his son, Jesus Christ, and He gathers them together and then He has them eat together and feast together in various ways. They see His light and they see the Father's Son, their Savior, interceding at their Father's right hand. And He's bringing many sons to glory.

This is a picture of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ because he has crushed the head of the serpent. And as John said in 1 John 5, 4, he who is born of God overcomes the world. This is part of this whole vast blessing of gifts that God is giving his children. It's his pleasure. It's such a pleasure to God to gather his people together by the sacrifice of his son, to separate them from the world, and then to divide his wealth.

And then to call them to look to Him, to look to Him every day, to look to Him every day for more wealth and treasure. That they would open up their hearts every day and say, oh Lord, show me your glory. Teach me the way in which I should go They awake and they are daily at his feet remembering his treasures and then distributing those treasures in the world in the same way that the Lord Jesus Christ did And then there's his pleasure in pouring out his soul, the fourth phrase in verse 12. Because he poured out his soul unto death. He poured out his soul unto death.

You know in Psalm 22 the Lord Jesus Christ says this in verse 14, I am poured out like water, And all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax. It has melted within me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd. My tongue clings to my jaws.

You have brought me to the dust of death. For dogs have surrounded me. The congregation of the wicked has enclosed me. They pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones.

They look and stare at me. They divide my garments among them. And for my clothing they cast lots. But you, O Lord, do not be far from me, O my strength, hasten to help me." He poured out his soul unto death and he did that in order to take your place for all the reasons your soul should have been poured out if your soul should have been poured out like water he did it for you if If your bones should have been put out of joint because of your sins, his bones were put out of... If your heart should melt like wax because of your iniquity, his heart melted.

If your strength should dry up because of your sin, it was his strength that dried up. If your tongue should cling to your to your jaws because of all the iniquity, it was his tongue that clung to his jaws. Everything that we deserved he took as punishment upon himself and this is what it means that he poured out his soul unto death and he did that because he's gathering of people to gather before him to come before his presence was singing and into his courts with praise, to behold his beauty, to recognize his gifts, his kindnesses to them, to celebrate with such vigor and joy. And then the sixth pleasure that we see is his pleasure in being numbered with the transgressors. And he was numbered with the transgressors.

And here you find Jesus Christ, He identified Himself with sinners. He was always with sinners. He hung on the cross with criminals. He was identifying with criminals so that those who ought to be identified with criminals would recognize that Jesus Christ was punished for all of your criminal activity. It wouldn't be hard to reason that many of you have engaged in criminal activity at some time in your life, and you deserve punishment for that criminal activity.

Jesus Christ identified with criminals so that you would identify with him, so that you would see how great his mercy is toward criminals, and that he would suffer your punishment for all of your crimes. So he identified himself with criminals so that criminals could see how they could be saved. This is why The apostle Paul says in Romans chapter 5 verse 19, by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one, many were made righteous. And then the seventh pleasure of his, his pleasure in bearing the sins of many. And he bore the sins of many.

Again we come to this whole matter of bearing sins. You know, it's such a heavy burden to bear your own sins. David explained how difficult this is in Psalm 38 verses 3 through 8. There's no soundness in my flesh because of your anger, nor any health in my bones because of my sin. For my iniquities have gone over my head like a heavy burden.

They are too heavy for me. My wounds are foul and festering because of my foolishness. I'm troubled, I'm bowed down greatly. I go mourning all the day long. For my loins are full of inflammation, and there is no soundness in my flesh.

I am feeble and severely broken. I groan because of the turmoil of my heart. It's such a heavy burden to bear your own sin. And this is why our only hope is to confess our sins. If we confess our sins, He's faithful and righteous to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

But Until there's true confession, until there's a turning to Him, the bearing of the heaviness of the sins will always be there. Until you run to Him, the fever heat of summer will always be upon your bones, and you cannot escape it until you finally say, Oh Lord, I have sinned. This is why when we take the Lord's Supper, the command of scriptures, that we examine ourselves so that we we might see anything that is not repented of. If we're nourishing sin, countenancing it, making sin our friend, to use the time of the Lord's Supper to turn our hearts again back to Him to repent because it's such a heavy burden to bear your own sins and here Jesus Christ is declaring that it was His pleasure. It was his pleasure to bear your sin.

This is how you can enter into the Lord's Supper and not be overcome by too much heaviness because it was the pleasure of the Lord Jesus Christ to bear your sin. It was His pleasure. He did it for the joy set before Him, for the inheritance that He would have for the sons of men. It was His pleasure, even though it was his agony at the same time. And then finally, his pleasure in intercession for transgressors.

For transgressors. This is the very last phrase in Isaiah 53. Why? Why is this the Why? Why is this the last phrase in the center of the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ and all of its doctrine in all of scripture.

Why? Why is this last phrase there? We should contemplate it. We should never forget this. We should learn of the various elements of this intercession.

And I'd like to spend a brief time, a remaining time, on this one element of this song. Isaac Ambrose wrote a book called Looking Unto Jesus. It's one of the most beautiful books I've ever read. Here's what he says about Christ's intercession. He has a long section on it in that book.

Christ's intercession is his gracious will, fervently and immovably desiring that for the perpetual virtue of his sacrifice, all his members might both for their persons and duties be accepted by the Father." there are different elements of Christ as our intercessor, our mediator. First is a mediator is someone who is on your side. This is what John was saying in 1 John 2, 2. We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. He is on your side.

In John 11, 42, we learn that His Father always hears him. There is someone by your side as your advocate and the Father always hears the voice of that intercessor. Second, an intercessor is on a mission to bring warring parties together. They bring those who have sinned, the one who has sinned and the one who has sinned against. And so when you have an intercessor you have this implied that you have an offending party.

And this intercessor is on a mission to bring the offended and the offender together. This is what Jesus Christ has done. This is why he's called Jesus Christ the righteous. And then thirdly, he stands in between. He stands in between the offended party, the offended parties, to protect the offender.

And he, in the case of Jesus Christ, he presents his own merits on behalf of the one who had offended God the Father. He brings his own merits, not the merits of the offender. And this is the miracle of intercession. Because if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father. You know, I was struck by something that happened in our Bible study.

At the very end, my father opened up his mouth, and he called us to consider ourselves to be in a court of law. And we hadn't really discussed the whole matter of intercession in the Bible study at that point. We somehow didn't get to it too much. But he called us to transport ourselves to a courtroom. And there, in that courtroom, we knew we were guilty.

We knew that we should be prosecuted to the full extent. But we had a friend. We had a friend in the courtroom. And he was arguing for us. And that's the picture that we have here.

We stand before this judgment seat, and the verdict will be delivered. And My father asked this, who is your lawyer? Who is your lawyer? And when he said that I thought, you know, we all have such a vocal inner lawyer in ourselves to justify ourselves. And there's no hope in your inner lawyer.

There's no hope in all the things that you've done. But we have an advocate with the Father. And, you know, who is your lawyer? Are you your own lawyer? Or is the thief, is the liar your lawyer or is it the Son of God?

And when we stand before the judgment of God, You will have a lawyer. You will either have the accuser of the brethren or you will have the Lord Jesus Christ, your advocate. He's a high priest and he is the only mediator. The Bible says there is only one mediator between God and man. And for those who grew up in a Roman Catholic worldview, you recognize that the Roman Catholics have many mediators.

Mary, the saints, there's a mediator on every corner, But there is only one mediator between God and man, Jesus Christ the righteous. We have an advocate before the Father. We have one solitary advocate before the Father. The Lord Jesus Christ was constantly interceding for sinners both before his resurrection, during his passion and crucifixion, and then after. He was a man who was always making intercession.

When he was on the cross, he said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. You know, he was reviled, but he didn't revile in return, but rather he prayed for them. Jesus Christ was always feeding his enemies. He was always giving his enemies water to drink, he was always causing the rain to fall on the just and on the unjust. Christ prays for his enemies.

Stephen was following in his example In Acts chapter 7, he kneels down and he cries out with a loud voice, Lord do not charge them with this sin. And then he fell asleep. And then we learned that we learned that they did it out of ignorance. They did not know what they were doing. You know when the 3, 000 were converted in Jerusalem it was because Christ was praying for his enemies.

And so there's such a great value in his intercession. Now there are two different parts of his intercession. And the first part is his cleansing through his suffering on the cross. This was a once for all act. This was the first act of intercession.

The second is his intercession from heaven. This continues on. He makes intercessions with groanings too deep for words, as the Apostle Paul tells us in Romans chapter 8. Now I want to give you 12 elements of his intercession. I'm going to move quite quickly.

But I think we should understand the depth and the beauty of this intercession. And it, because it strikes at the heart of everything that salvation in Jesus Christ implies. It collects the whole gospel up in this one practical beautiful image of an intercessor. First, he prays to his father for our comfort and our guidance. John 14, 16.

Second, his prayers bring with them his perfect obedience. He prays for us, but he brings his perfect obedience to the law. In his intercession, he presents his wounds for our transgressions. Thirdly, when he prays, he always prays better prayers than we do. Christ prays the prayers that we should have prayed.

We're often struck that God has not answered a prayer of ours somehow, at least not the way that we'd hoped. And the reason that that happens is that Jesus Christ is always praying better prayers than we're even capable of. We have an advocate before the Father. He is making righteous, perfect intercession when we cannot because of our lack of wisdom, our worldliness, our self-centeredness, our desire for self-congratulation and glory. And so he prays for something better than we could ever pray.

And so it's his love for us that causes him to intercede. Number four, His prayers promote our peace with God. Romans 5, 1 and 2. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, Through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. His prayers give us peace with God and we have access by faith.

In Ephesians 2 14 we read, He is our peace. The fifth, His prayers are designed to make us bold in our access to the Father. Ephesians 2, 18 and 19. Number six, he brings our names before the Father in heaven. Ephesians 2, 18, Ephesians 3, 12.

But I think it would be helpful to go back to the shadow in the Old Covenant in Exodus chapter 28 where the high priest brought the names of the tribes of Israel and where did he bring them? He brought them on his heart and upon his shoulders. He actually carried the names of the twelve tribes of Israel on his heart and on his shoulders before his father in his high priestly duties. He brings our names before our Father. He carries them on his heart.

This is why he's called, I think, a compassionate high priest. Number seven, when he intercedes for us, he presents us holy before our Father. He presents us holy. Again Isaac Ambrose, he says, quote, Christ comes and picks out the weeds and so he presents nothing but flowers to God the Father. Do you understand how that could happen?

I do not understand that. How? How in the world could Jesus Christ's Father not see me as filthy? How is that? When he intercedes, he accounts for all of the accusations that there are against us, and he answers them one by one, and we're pronounced not guilty.

Because he answers them with his own merit, not ours. This is why Paul said, who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died.

Number eight. In Christ's intercessions it was the Father's purpose to do the church good. He desired to bless his people. He calls his children jewels, his treasure, and he loves them. Malachi chapter 3 verse 17 speaks of this.

He says, on that day I will make them my jewels and I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him. Number nine, Christ's intercessions are precious to God the Father. In Matthew chapter seven verses nine through eleven, we hear the Lord Jesus Christ speaking of a person who asks for bread And will He give him a stone? Or if He asks for a fish, will He give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him?

And here you have the Son of God coming before your Father, and how precious do you think his intercessions are to him? Does he regard them more than your own? He regards them. Even in this illustration, you know, a normal father is not going to give his son a snake. How much more when the Lord Jesus Christ Himself is interceding?

Number 10, Christ intercedes so that we would have free access to the throne of grace. Hebrews 4, 14 through 16. Number 11, his intercessions please his father. And this really brings us to the whole reason why this happened. Why is it that there is this intercessor?

And it's because Christ was doing what his Father wanted him to do. It was always the will of God that he would be a sacrifice for sin. It was always the Father's will that there would be an intercessor for sinners. So Christ did it because he wanted to do the will of his father. Colossians 1, 18 and 19, John 1, verses 3 through 5, that speaks of this.

And then finally, number 12, his intercessions are continuous, Hebrews 7, 25. Therefore, he is able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them." They never cease. They're new every morning, every mid-morning, every noon hour, every mid-afternoon, late afternoon, night time, they never cease, not one moment. I often marvel at how often I find myself languishing in the day. And I completely forget that Jesus Christ is praying for me.

He's never ceased to pray for me all day long. Not for a single second was I uncovered of his prayers. He was always crying out to God for me, praying prayers that I could not even conceive, far, far better than my own, and then fulfilling them in the things that are happening all around me. And my just forgetting that Jesus Christ always lives to intercede for me. So How do we deal with life now?

Now that we know this. And I think in the midst of all this cultural demise that we see as we see the rejection of God running harder than we've ever seen it before, How should we think about it? We should think about it this way, the way that Isaiah 53 has taught us to think about it. And that is that God is separating out for Himself a people And the mark of their separation is the blood of his son. And he's gathering a people together, as a father gathers his children together, so that they would feast at his table, so that they would enjoy all of his goodness and all of his grace.

And here in Isaiah chapter 53, it's a picture of Christ. He's always with his people. He's bearing their sins. He's identified with them. He's among them.

He's before his Father, interceding for them. Jesus Christ is at his father's right hand, and Jesus Christ has distributed all of his wealth to his children. And it's the whole picture of Emmanuel, God with us. It's the whole picture of God's care for sinners and his concern for their souls and standing together with them. You know, at the very beginning of this study, I believe I began with this question, who is going to care for man?

Who is going to give man what he needs? Who's going to give man something better than his little entertainments and his little diversions and his little vacations? Who's going to give man something better than his little entertainments and his little diversions and his little vacations? Who's going to give man something that will save him and nourish him and grow him and make him rich? Who is that?

It is Jesus Christ the intercessor. And what does he do? The prophet says that he rejoices over his people with singing. In Psalm 45 we read that the king will desire your beauty because he is your Lord, worship him. And this is the whole picture of Isaiah 53.

It's a picture of God gathering his people together out of the world as a result of the shed blood of his son, Jesus Christ. And they gather together to adore Him, to eat of all of His pleasures in His bounty, to learn what pleases Him, and have a life full of His pleasures, replacing all of your pinched and truncated and inadequate and underperforming pleasures with His pleasures, the pleasures of His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the call of Isaiah 53. This is the heart of the whole Bible. This is the reason for all of history.

And this is the whole purpose of our gathering together today, to enjoy Him forever. What a blessing. Would you pray with me? Oh Father, I pray you would give us such affection for the things that are pleasing to you, that all of your pleasures would be our pleasures, that we would turn from our own and turn toward yours to behold the wondrous mystery. Amen.