October 16, 2016
Morning Worship
Text: Isaiah 53
Subject: By His Stripes We Are Healed – Part 3
Title: He Opened Not His Mouth
Let’s begin by holding up our bibles…
I believe this is God’s word…
I believe it is for me…
I accept it as mine…
I will appropriate it to my life today…
We began several weeks ago in the series we are calling By His Stripes We Are Healed. How many of you know that we believe in divine healing? And the purpose of the series is to help you look at some things that will perhaps grow your faith and bring you to the place where you can just receive by faith all the promises that the Lord has given you through His word.
In verse 1 Isaiah asked the question,
1 Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
Now we talked about how when the scriptures refer to the arm of the Lord it is talking about His mighty power. To whom has the power of God been revealed? In the New Testament scheme of things – it is to those who believe the report… I want you to listen to me on this. The arm of the Lord has been revealed to everyone who is a believer… in the Spirit. But not every believer will receive that power because they fail to believe the report. Do you hear what I’m saying? Being a believer qualifies you to receive the benefits of God’s power, but a lack of faith, whether it is from wrong teaching, or lack of understanding, or just unbelief, a lack of faith will hinder you from receiving anything from the Lord.
James 1:5-8 (NKJV)
5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.
7 For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord;
8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
Hebrews 11:6 (NKJV)
6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
To those who have the faith to receive it!
Are you with me so far?
Last week we learned that Isaiah saw in the Spirit some 700 years before it happened what Jesus would go through on our behalf. Look at the words that are used in verses 4 and 5,
Isaiah 53:4-5 (NKJV)
4 Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.
In verse 4 we see that those things that Jesus took upon Himself He did so that we wouldn’t have to. He has borne our griefs – that same word is translated as disease or sickness and He has carried our sorrows – or pain. And the benefit of that is that now, we don’t have to carry them… it’s not that Jesus is still burdened down with the weight of our sin or our sickness or our pain… He carried them away. If all of our sickness and pain and sin were still upon Him then He could never have defeated death and the grave. So the key for us is this, since Jesus has carried it away in the spirit, we must be willing to agree with that work and even though we may feel sickness in our bodies, we must confess and believe in our spirit man that the work is already done. Don’t receive it in your spirit. Resist the devil and he will flee from you…
And by His stripes we are healed.
Somebody shout Hallelujah!
Are you ready to move forward?
Isaiah 53:6 (NKJV)
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
Is that true? Paul said in Romans that we all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God… And scripture is pretty clear that the fallen nature of man tends to lean toward doing evil. Beginning all the way back in Genesis. Genesis 4:7 (NIV2011)
7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”
And yet the Father has chosen to lay our iniquity upon His only Son Jesus. Go back to those violent words written in verses 4 and 5. Stricken, smitten, afflicted, wounded, bruised… chastisement… all of those words reflect the punishment that was due us. And here is something that most Christians don’t want to believe… He was Smitten by God.
God doesn’t bring those things on us. It’s from the devil. No! Listen! In Deuteronomy 27 and 28 the scriptures tell us that there are curses (punishment) for disobedience and blessings for obedience.
The wages of sin is death… Did Jesus take all our sin upon Himself or not? Was He smitten by God because of our sin? It had to be our sin because Jesus was sinless. He took our punishment. The chastisement for our peace was upon Him…
Isaiah 53:8 (NKJV)
8 He was taken from prison and from judgment, And who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living; For the transgressions of My people He was stricken.
When Jesus was being beating… when He was on trial… when they struck Him with the reed and said “prophesy King!”… when they placed the crown of thorns on His head and drove the spikes into His hands and feet,.. all that they could see was what was going on in the natural… The devil saw what he had provoked the religious leaders to and thought that he had won the victory. Oh, but in the Spirit there was something else taking place.
Now, Jesus had to go through this. It was God’s righteous judgment. Was there sin upon Jesus? Yes, the sin of all mankind from beginning to end. If there was no punishment for sin then how could God be righteous in His judgments?
If there were a judge who had a son or daughter commit a crime and was brought before them and declared guilty wouldn’t they have to sentence them appropriately for the crime they committed? If not then all of their judgments would be called into question. If Jesus were not punished for the sin that was upon Him, then satan, the accuser of the brethren, could say about those who are redeemed, how can they escape punishment if you judged your son not guilty? In fact the judgment that is upon our enemy would be called into question. “If you didn’t judge your Son as guilty how can you judge me and for sure you can’t judge mankind as not-guilty!”
10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, And the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand.
So what the Jewish leaders and the Romans who participated who participated in the punishment of Jesus saw in the natural as something that only the worst criminals received, in the Spirit realm God was doing something that only His Son do.
Going back to verse 7, I want to take a little bit different direction.
7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth.
Do you know that the bible is a legal document? The word “Testament” means a legal agreement. It is a contract or a covenant between two parties.
The Old Testament was between the Jewish nation and God. The New Testament is between Jesus and all who are adopted into the family of God through saving grace.
As a party of the New Covenant you have privileges afforded to you. And that includes eternal life, blessing, health, power, authority, deliverance…
But those things that are guaranteed and already accomplished in the spirit realm are dependent upon something on your part. There is confession to be made.
Romans 10:9 (NKJV)
9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
Mark 11:23 (NKJV)
23 For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.
Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth.
Did Jesus have a legal right to open His mouth? Didn’t He tell His disciples when He was arrested to put the sword away?
Matthew 26:52-54 (NKJV)
52 But Jesus said to him, "Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.
53 Or do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels?
54 How then could the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must happen thus?"
As the beatings began Jesus could have opened His mouth to put an end to it, but He didn’t…
As the scourging began, He could have called on a legion of angels to end it but He chose not to…
As the nails were driven into His hands and feet and He was suffering for my sin and yours, He could have called on the name of the Father and been delivered. He had every legal right to do so.
Oh but there was something going on in the spirit realm that others couldn’t see. Our sin was being transferred from us to Him that He might bear our sin, that He might carry our sickness and our pain. He didn’t open His mouth so that those to whom the arm of the Lord is being revealed can.
AS a legal recipient of all the promises afforded me in adoption I can now claim/confess my healing, my blessing, my authority, my power…
In Acts chapter 22 Paul was abut to be torn apart by the Jews and the Roman commander took him into custody and had him stretched in preparation for a beating so he could question him about what was going on. Now Paul could have just stayed silent and took the beatings and thought that somehow God would be glorified through it. And too many Christians believe that very thing. Well somehow God will be glorified through my sickness. But is that what Paul did?
Acts 22:25 (NIV2011)
25 As they stretched him out to flog him, Paul said to the centurion standing there, “Is it legal for you to flog a Roman citizen who hasn’t even been found guilty?”
Where is your citizenship? Is God’s will intended to be done on earth as it is in heaven?
Don’t you think then that you have the legal right to stand against your accuser and say,
“Is it legal for you to bring sickness upon me?”
“Is it legal for you to keep me from being blessed?”
“Is it legal for you to bring discord into my family?”
“Is it legal for you to attack my finances?”
And the ANSWER IS “NO!”
Acts 22:25-28 (NKJV)
25 And as they bound him with thongs, Paul said to the centurion who stood by, "Is it lawful for you to scourge a man who is a Roman, and uncondemned?"
26 When the centurion heard that, he went and told the commander, saying, "Take care what you do, for this man is a Roman."
27 Then the commander came and said to him, "Tell me, are you a Roman?" He said, "Yes."
28 The commander answered, "With a large sum I obtained this citizenship." And Paul said, "But I was born a citizen."
John 1:12-13 (NKJV)
12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:
13 who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
Romans 9:8 (NKJV)
8 That is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted as the seed.
2 Corinthians 4:13 (NKJV)
13 And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, "I believed and therefore I spoke," we also believe and therefore speak,
Right now it is time to stand up and take hold of your legal rights.
Take hold of the salvation provided for you through faith in Jesus Christ…
Take hold of the healing… satan, "Is it lawful for you… to bring sickness and pain into my life when Jesus has already carried it away?
Take hold of your power… satan, "Is it lawful for you… to continue to try to steal, kill and destroy when I have the power of God at work within me?
Take hold of your blessing… satan, "Is it lawful for you… to take away every blessing that God has promised me?
And the obvious answer is that satan has no legal right to anything that the blood has provided for you…
So open your mouth – Jesus did not so that legally you can.
