In the last day, when Israel is under massive siege, they will have nowhere to turn. Their only hope will be in God and in sovereign grace. They will look backwards in history and they will look back to the one they pierced. And the words of their confession will be the words of Isaiah 53. Yeah.
Welcome to Grace to You with the Bible teaching of John MacArthur. I'm your host, Phil Johnson. It's been called the torture chamber of rabbis. I'm talking about Isaiah 53. It's an Old Testament passage that Judaism won't touch.
It's the basis for John MacArthur's current study on Grace to You.
So why do Jewish teachers typically ignore Isaiah 53? Find out as John continues his series called The Gospel According to God. But before the lesson, it's important that we stop to recognize some people who have had a profound impact on Grace to You's ministry for the past 40 years, and that is Ambassador Advertising Agency. A couple of days ago, I mentioned that Ambassador recently closed down its operation. And in addition to the thanks that I expressed for Ambassador, I want you to hear some comments from John MacArthur.
Here's what he said not that long ago when I asked him about the importance of Ambassador to our ministry. It's a small army that makes my teaching available and possible. And we could start with saying thanks to the Ambassador Advertising Agency. We've had a critical relationship with them for many, many years. You might say that where our radio broadcast is concerned, Ambassador's founder was also Grace to U's founder.
DEAR AL SANDERS, ESTABLISHED AMBASTATOR ADVERTISING. And it was through his leadership that our broadcast was launched on radio in the 1970s. We are so grateful for our partnership with Ambassador and Al's family, thanks to Peggy Campbell and Jim Sanders and. The entire team there who work to get our programs to the radio stations that carry us. Yes, and we are also thankful for John Campbell, Peggy's husband, who for many years gave leadership to Ambassador until he went to be with Christ.
several years ago. Again, all of us at Grace TU echo John MacArthur's thanks for Ambassador's decades of faithful and critical partnership in helping us bring John's verse-by-verse teaching to radio stations like this one. And on that note, let's get to today's lesson from Isaiah 53 to continue his study called The Gospel According to God. Here again is John MacArthur. This chapter actually constitutes The greatest confession.
that will ever be made. In the history of the world, By one nation. And as far as Scripture is concerned, there is only one nation. That will As a nation. Turn to Christ.
And that is the nation of Israel. That is God's promise. To them. in the future. When is that feature day going to be?
Well, I can tell you what the Bible says about that. Turn to Zachariah 12. Zachariah? Comes um 500 years before Christ, maybe 150 or so years after Isaiah, they've gone into Babylonian captivity, they've come back. They've rebuilt, they've re-established themselves in the land.
And God raises up this prophet by the name of Zachariah. And he takes a look at that future event. Chapter 12, verse 1: This is the burden of the word of the Lord concerning Israel. All right, this is going to be a prophecy concerning the future of Israel. This is coming from a good source.
The Lord who stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation of the earth, and formed the spirit of man within him.
Okay?
So we know this didn't come from any human source, okay? This is the word of the Creator God. I'm going to make Jerusalem A cup. that causes reeling to all the peoples around. And then in verse 3, Jerusalem is going to be a heavy stone, and all who lift it are going to be seriously injured.
You tamper with Jerusalem, and it's going to backfire. You're going to be injured, and you're going to wind up reeling and staggering like a drunk. If you touch Jerusalem. What's he talking about? End of verse 2, a siege against Jerusalem and Judah, Judah being the countryside, Jerusalem being the main city.
And where's this siege coming from? End of verse 3. All the nations of the earth will be gathered against it. Oh boy. The whole world is going to attack Israel.
Does that sound like something very remote? or very possible. And when they start to to attack The Lord will protect his people. In fact, verse 6 he says, I'll make the clans of Judah like a fire pot. These are the people in the outlying defenseless areas of the countryside.
Like a firepot among pieces of wood and a flaming torch among sheaves. They will consume on the right hand and on the left all the surrounding peoples, while the inhabitants of Jerusalem again dwell on their own sites in Jerusalem.
So when the enemies start to come, they're going to come through the countryside first of all, and as they come through the countryside, God is going to burn them up on the way to Jerusalem. And then in verse 8, the Lord will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And then in verse 9, I will set about to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. Are you hearing that, nations? You want to aim your nuclear weapons at Israel, you want to aim your missiles at Jerusalem?
The time is coming when the world will collect. against Israel. Who knows what the scenario will be? But when those nations come against Israel, Verse 10 says, that's the moment. I will pour out.
On the house of David, on the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Those are expressions designating Israel. the spirit of grace and supplication. In that moment, In those hours or days or whatever it is, a few weeks, whatever it is. I'll pour out my spirit, the spirit of grace and supplication.
So that they will look on me, whom they've pierced. And right there, God says they'll look on me because I was incarnate in Christ. They pierced him, they pierced me. He even says they will look on me, whom they pierced, and mourn for him. As one mourns for an only son.
They'll weep bitterly over him. Like the bitter weeping over a firstborn. And in that day, chapter 13, verse 1. A fountain will be opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for impurity. A fountain to cleanse them.
That's their salvation. When's it going to happen? In the last day, When Israel is under massive siege. From the nations. In that hour, they will be defenseless.
They will have nowhere to turn. Their only hope will be in God. and in sovereign grace The Spirit will come, the Spirit of grace who hears the supplication. And he will turn their hearts so they will look backwards. in history.
and they will look back to the one they pierced. And the words of their confession will be the words of Isaiah 53. Bitter Weeping. As one mourns for an only son. Mourning for that only Son of God.
The Messiah. Will it be the whole nation? Will it be every Jew? If you go down to verse 8 of chapter 13, we read, It will come about in all the land, declares the Lord, the two parts in it will be cut off and perish. When the nations come Two-thirds will die.
Two-thirds will Be left in unbelief. But a third will be left in it. And I will bring the third part through the fire. Refine them as silver is refined. Test them as gold is tested.
They will call on my name. I will answer them. I will say, they are my people. And they will say, the Lord is my God. That's the salvation of Israel.
And that salvation comes because they look back on the one they pierced. They pierced his feet. They pierced his hand. They pierced his side. They begin to turn to God in desperation.
In the middle of the horrors of that global assault. At that point, The Spirit comes on them. And a third of them are red. Are brought to the awareness that they have pierced their Messiah. They'll look back on Christ, they'll see him in all his beauty, his death and resurrection will become real to them.
And they will be saved. A fountain of cleansing will be opened to wash them from Sin. And from Impurity. One-third of them will be protected in that great Armageddon. And they will be the sheep.
who go into the kingdom. that our Lord spoke about. He will then establish the kingdom. Chapter 14: A day is coming, the day when the Lord establishes his kingdom. I will gather the nations against Jerusalem to battle.
This is the Battle of Armageddon when he destroys all the ungodly. Verse 3, the Lord goes forth, fights against them, and at that moment is the second coming. He puts his feet on the Mount of Olives, splits the Mount of Olives. from the middle going to the east and the west by a large valley. and establishes his kingdom.
In that day, there's no light. The luminaries will dwindle. Remember, in the book of Revelation, the sun goes out. The book of Joel said the same thing: the moon goes out, the stars go out, and Jesus appears in blazing glory in the sky. And that's described by our Lord in Matthew 24 and 25 as well.
A unique day, known to the Lord only, neither day nor night. It'll come about. The Lord only knows when. No man knows the day or the hour, right? Verse 9 sums it up.
The Lord will be king. Over all the earth in that day The Lord will be the only one. and his name the only one that's the millennial kingdom When he reigns and rules supremely. Ezekiel saw this same thing. Turn to Ezekiel 38.
The prophet Ezekiel. In chapter 38, it receives a word from the Lord. There's a coalition of Middle Eastern nations that come against Israel. They come like a storm, verse 9. They come like a cloud, troops, many people.
This is the same thing Zachariah is talking about: this global attack. And they think they're going to go up against the land of unwalled villages in verse 11, this unprotected. Area. But the Lord is not going to let that happen. The Lord is going to protect His people.
It's such I wish we could go through it in detail, but if you go down to verse Chapter 39, say verse 29, that's as close as we can get to covering the ground.
Well, let's back up to verse 7. I can't resist this. In that day. In that day, when the Lord judges all these nations, verse 4 says they're going to fall on the mountains of Israel. You and all your troops and all the people with you.
You're going to be food for every kind of predatory bird and beast of the field. The Lord's just going to decimate those nations. Verse 7: My holy name I will make known in the midst of my people Israel. That's their salvation again, see? My holy name I will make known in the midst of my people Israel.
I'll not let my holy name be profaned anymore. The nations will know that I am the Lord, the Holy One, in Israel. Behold, it is coming, and it shall be done. This is what's going to happen. Verse 21, I will see my glory among the nations.
The nations will see my judgment, which I have executed in my hand, which I have laid on them. And I love this. Verse 22. And the house of Israel will know that I am the Lord their God from that day. onward.
And then down to verse 29. I will not hide my face from them any longer. Yeah. God's been hiding his face from them. For I will have poured out my spirit, the spirit of grace and supplication from Zechariah 12:10 on the house of Israel.
declares the Lord God.
So you get it? This is when it's going to happen.
Now let's go back to Isaiah 53. Is that near?
Well Israel is the bullseye for the Middle East. The target The enemy And the nations of the world continually Seem to be disaffected toward Israel. Nations that once were great friends and defenders of Israel seem to be backing away from that, even our own nation. The world is succumbing to Islamic propaganda, Muslim growth. Anti Zionism.
Rapidly growing. And Israel is losing its protectors. Maybe even our country. Such a war against Israel as Zachariah sees and as Ezekiel sees is not a remote reality. I often think about the fact that How can you miss this?
If the whole world was ganged up against Argentina, That would be a problem. Because that's not in the Bible. But this is. Is that some kind of strange coincidence? But when that day comes, now back to Isaiah 53, and we'll at least do one verse.
Yeah. When that day comes This is their response. Verse 1, and this is perfect introduction. Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm returned?
of the Lord been revealed. The first thing they're going to say is. We didn't believe it. We didn't believe. Message?
What do you mean? What message? The message concerning Messiah Yeshua. The message concerning The servant of the Lord, Messiah, Jesus, his humiliation, his death, burial, resurrection, ascension, intercession, coronation. The message of the gospel.
What do they mean? Our message, very important. The Hebrew Does not refer to a message we gave, although. There were Jews who preached it. The prophets were all Jews who predicted it.
John the Baptist was a Jew who identified Jesus. Jesus is Jewish, all the apostles are Jewish, all the writers of the Gospels are Jewish, all the writers of the New Testament are Jewish.
So, in a sense, it is a message given by Jewish people to Jewish people, but that's not the intent of the word here, because the word our. Refers not to what we gave, but to what was given us. It is a passive participle. With reference to the message, and literally is this: who has believed? The message that was heard by us.
That's A meaning of this term. The language is referring to what we heard. And it is an admission that we heard it. But we didn't believe it. The message is viewed not from the speakers.
perspective, but from the hearers The message of Messiah Jesus. That we heard. concerning His suffering and glory. Thank you. Virtually every Jew in the world Since the New Testament, Has heard the message of Jesus in order that he might reject it?
Right? I mean, the Jewish religious establishment has been very busy discrediting the message of Jesus. And preemptively telling the message so it can be discredited. There would be no other group of people Probably no other ethnic group of people who have had such an exposure to the gospel as the Jewish people have. Virtually every Jew knows Jewish history.
They know the Old Testament and the prophets. And they know the New Testament history concerning Jesus. They have a view of it. I'll tell you about it next week. They have a view of who Jesus is.
And it's not Nice, it's not good.
So when the future remnant looks back, They're going to say who has believed the message we heard Because they heard it. The Apostle Paul understands the meaning of that confession. Because in Romans chapter 10, He makes reference to it. Romans 10. Verse 11.
Paul writes, The scripture says, Whoever believes in him will not be disappointed. There's no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call upon him. For whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved. Then he says, How will they call on him they haven't believed? How will they believe in him they haven't heard?
How will they hear without a preacher? How will they preach unless they're sent?
So we have a problem. People can't believe unless they hear. They can't hear unless somebody goes. They don't go unless they're sinned. That's true generally.
However, In reference to the Jews, verse 16, they did not all heed the good news. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our message? Then he says Faith comes by hearing and by the hearing of the word of Christ, but they didn't believe. Paul literally says the Jews didn't believe exactly as Isaiah said. Said.
So the opening confession is this amazing statement. We've heard it, we've heard it, and we've heard it, but we haven't believed it. We haven't believed it. And to drive the point home, there's a second question: And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? The arm of the Lord, simply a symbol of divine power, literally the forearm, but a symbol of divine power.
Isaiah 51, 9, Isaiah 52.10 talks about the arm of the Lord as a symbol of power. In a very real sense, The Messiah is the arm of the Lord. In another sense, the gospel is the arm of the Lord because the gospel, Romans 1:16, is the power of God unto salvation.
So it's another way of saying God unbared his arm. He pulled his arm out of his garment and showed us his arm, showed us his strength, showed us his power to save. And we didn't understand it. This is John 1:11. He came unto his own and his own what?
received him not. Why didn't they believe? There's a theological reason why they didn't believe. Theological reason why they didn't believe it takes us back to Romans 10. And the answer is because They didn't need a sacrifice.
They didn't believe Jesus was the Messiah because He was dead and crucified. They didn't need a sacrifice. What do we mean by that? Romans 10, Paul says, They were seeking to establish their own righteousness. That's the point.
They didn't have any inadequacy. They could establish their own righteousness without an alien imputed righteousness being given to them. By Christ. They didn't understand, he says, that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes that it's by faith. They had an inadequate view of the righteousness of God.
They had an inadequate view of their own sin because they went about to establish their own righteousness so they didn't subject themselves to the righteousness of God. I always say it this way: they thought God was less righteous than He was, they were more righteous than they were, so they could come to God on their own terms.
So the spiritual reason, the theological reason you could say that they have rejected Christ is that they're righteous on their own. They have an inadequate view of sin and therefore an inadequate view of righteousness and atonement. There's another reason why they don't believe. And it's because of the sovereignty of God. Look, if they're going to be Self-righteous?
He's going to reach out his hands all day long to a disobedient and obstinate people. But there's going to come a time when he shuts that down. Listen to John 12. This is a powerful portion of Scripture. John chapter 12.
It's an extended one. I'm not going to read all of it, but... I want you to get this part of it that refers back to Isaiah. Mm-hmm. John 12.
Let's pick it up at verse 32. Jesus says, If I be lifted up, I'll draw them into myself. They know what he's talking about. He's going to be crucified. He said that.
He's talked about his death.
So he says, it's okay. If I be lifted up, I'll draw men to me. He was saying this to indicate the kind of death by which he was to die. He was telling them, I'm going to get crucified, I'm going to be lifted up on a cross.
So the crowd says, verse 34: We have heard out of the law that Christ is to remain forever. What are you talking about? You're going to be the Messiah and die? No, no, no, no, no. The Messiah is going to remain forever.
Maybe he's going to be like Enoch or like Elijah and never die. How can you say the Son of Man must be lifted up? What is this Son of Man? Jesus said, For a little while longer, the light is among you. Walk while you have the light, so the darkness doesn't overtake you.
He who walks in the darkness doesn't know where the light doesn't know where he goes. While you have the light, believe the light so that you may become sons of light. You better believe, he says, You better believe. I've given you the truth. You better believe.
Jesus spoke that, went away. and hid from them. Wow. Verse 37, though he had performed so many signs before them. Yet they were not believing in him.
This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet, which he spoke, Lord, who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? Then this. For this reason, That they wouldn't believe. They couldn't believe.
For Isaiah also said, And this is in Isaiah 6, 10. He has blinded their eyes. Hardened their heart, so they would not see with their eyes, perceive with their heart, be converted, and I heal them. And these things Isaiah said, because he saw his glory. And he spoke of him.
Verse 42 is an amazing footnote. Many, even of the rulers, believed in him.
So convincing. But because of the Pharisees, they were not confessing him. for fear they would be put out of the synagogue, for they loved the approval of men. rather than the approval of God.
So they were damned. by wanting human approval. Why didn't they believe? From a spiritual standpoint, theological standpoint, they thought they could establish their own righteousness. From a sovereign standpoint, God shut down their opportunity.
sovereignly. There's one other view of their unbelief, and it's the view of Isaiah 53. And starting in verse 2 and going through verse 3, they explain why they didn't believe in Jesus. They explain why. They didn't believe.
They looked at his life. And they were unimpressed with the beginning of it. They were unimpressed with the middle of it. and they were unimpressed with the end of it. and the accumulation of all of that unimpressive reality in their minds.
was the historic reason why they didn't believe. You're listening to Grace to You, the Bible teaching ministry of John MacArthur. John's current study is called The Gospel According to God.
Well, friend, just a reminder to pray for Grace to You, for the Bible teaching that goes out on our broadcast every day, and for the team of believers at Grace to You who work here every day in a variety of capacities to sustain this ministry. And another important team to pray for is the one at this radio station. And let me encourage you to tell those people that you're listening and learning and that you're praying for them. You will encourage them more than you know. And of course, we would love to hear how God is using Grace to You in your life as well.
So if you have benefited from John's Bible teaching, drop us a note today. Our address here is Grace2U, Post Office Box 4000. Panorama City, California, 91412. Or you can send us an email at letters at gty.org. Again, that's our email address: letters at gty.org.
And be sure to mention the call letters of the radio station where you listen anytime you get in touch. And keep in mind that at our website You can download all of John's sermons. That's more than 3,600 messages, including those from his current study called The Gospel According to God, available for free in MP3 and transcript format. And remember too, there's a variety of other free resources available at gty.org. If you want to know what the Bible says about doctrines like sovereign election and justification or issues like men's and women's roles, you'll likely find a resource that covers the subject from Scripture.
Our website again, gty.org.
Now for the entire GraceTU staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Watch Grace to U television this Sunday on DirecTV Channel 378. And then be back Monday to learn about Israel's rejection of God, God's gracious plans for that people group. and how you fit into those plans. It's another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth, one verse at a time.
on grace to you.
