The High Price for Our Peace
Isaiah 53:1-12
Sermon by Rick Crandall
(Prepared June 2, 2024)
Background:
*Last Monday was Memorial Day, and this Thursday marks the 80th anniversary of the Allied D-Day invasion in France. So this is a good time to focus on the high price for our peace. Our Scripture today is Isaiah 53:1-12, and I'd like to begin by reading the first 6 verses.
MESSAGE:
*James Allbritton went home to be with the Lord in 2008. When I knew James, he was one of our faithful deacons over at McClendon Baptist Church in West Monroe. But like many men in that generation, James was a veteran of World War II.
*During the war, Bro. James served nearly five years in the Army Infantry. That included fighting all the way through France and Germany until the war in Europe was won. James was honorably discharged on September 24, 1945, with several medals.
*He was in the first wave of troops that landed on Normandy Beach on D-day. He was also in the Battle of the Bulge, so let me tell you a little more about those 2 major battles:
*Dwight David Eisenhower was Supreme Commander of Allied forces in Europe. The D-Day invasion of France was on June 6th, 1944. It was one of modern history’s most important moments, because it led to the defeat of Hitler’s evil Nazi regime. An Allied Force representing 12 nations launched more than 5,000 boats and ships, 11,000 aircraft flew 28,000 missions, and about 150,000 ground troops landed in France.
*On D-day, under heavy fire, our brave armed forces landed on the beaches and scaled the cliffs of Normandy. About 4,500 of our soldiers were killed that day. And over 5,000 more were wounded. That number would have been twice as high, except for the planning, leadership, and courage of those men.
*But the day before this key invasion of Europe, the weather over the English Channel was terrible. And there was a serious debate about whether to postpone the invasion. The tides and moon wouldn't be right again until July. General Eisenhower said, "Such a postponement is too bitter to contemplate. I am quite positive, we must give the order." The invasion was launched, and the victory was won. (1)
*Ten years later, President Eisenhower spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast. He told of praying on the night before the invasion, and he heard a voice from above which said, "The weather is for your protection. -- Launch tomorrow."
*The bad weather put the Germans off-guard. They did not expect the attack. And victory came through the help of Almighty God! So never give up on prayer! Keep asking for God's mercy and blessings on us, on our families, on our churches, and on our nation. (2)
*Six months after D-Day, the Battle of the Bulge began on December 16, 1944. Hitler sent a quarter million troops across an 85-mile stretch of the Allied front., from southern Belgium into Luxembourg. In deadly cold weather, the German troops advanced 50 miles into the Allied lines, forming a deadly "bulge" into the Allied defenses. That battle lasted through January of 1945. By the end of that month, about 19,000 Americans had been killed, 41,000 wounded, and 23,000 captured or missing. So many sacrificed so much for us to live in the freedom we have today. We should always be grateful for the over one million men sacrificed their lives to help us live in freedom and peace. (3)
*Today we are talking about the high price of peace. And the high price of peace is death. Someone had to die. But the only man who could die to give us peace with God was His Son, Jesus Christ.
*And in order to see the greatness of the Lord’s sacrifice, we need to see the greatness of our Savior. Isaiah saw the Lord’s greatness, and he gave this testimony in Isaiah 6:
1. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple.
2. Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.
3. And one cried to another and said: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!"
4. And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke.
5. So I said: "Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, The LORD of hosts."
6. Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar.
7. And he touched my mouth with it, and said: "Behold, this has touched your lips; Your iniquity is taken away, And your sin purged."
*Isaiah saw the greatness of the Lord, and it changed his life forever. We all need a bigger, better view of the Lord’s greatness. In Philippians 2, Paul described the Lord's greatness, and how much Jesus humbled Himself for us. There Paul challenged Christians with these words:
5. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,
6. who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God,
7. but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.
8. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.
9. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name,
10. that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth,
11. and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
*The more we understand the greatness of our Savior, the more we can appreciate the greatness of His sacrifice. God led Isaiah to prophesy about it 700 years before Jesus was born.
1. AND WE SHOULD REMEMBER JESUS TODAY, FIRST BECAUSE HE STOOD IN OUR SHOES.
*That's what the Lord Jesus Christ did for us all. He stood in our shoes.
*There will be times when we feel undesirable and ugly. Verse 2 reminds us that Jesus has been there. As Isaiah said: "He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; and when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him." There will be times when we feel undesirable and ugly. But Jesus knows what we are going through.
*There will also be times when we feel lonely, even despised, and rejected. But Jesus has been there too. In vs. 3, "He is despised and rejected by men." There will also be times when we are in great sorrow and grief. Jesus has been there. In vs. 3, He was "a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him." Then there will be times when we are bruised and in pain. But Jesus has been there too. In the first part of vs. 5, "He was wounded for our transgressions; He was bruised for our iniquities."
*Whatever you are going through, and whatever you will go through, Jesus understands, because He has been there too. And He went there for us! In vs. 4: "Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows"
2. REMEMBER JESUS CHRIST BECAUSE HE STOOD IN OUR SHOES, AND BECAUSE HE BRINGS OUR GREATEST BLESSINGS.
*Truly, all of our blessings come through Jesus Christ! -- From the smallest to the greatest. But today's Scripture focuses on the greatest blessings we can ever receive from God. Think about the blessings of peace and healing we see at the end of vs. 5. There God's Word says this about Jesus: "The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed." These are just two of the greatest blessings the Lord wants to give His people: Healing and peace.
*Think about His Healing. By the stripes of Jesus Christ we are healed! What kind of healing is He talking about there? The best answer is: All kinds! -- Physical, emotional, spiritual, and best of all, the everlasting healing Christians get when we go to Heaven.
*Jesus Christ is the ultimate source of all our healing. He is also the source of all our peace. One day the Lord will bring His blessing of everlasting peace to this whole universe! But right now, Christians, we have the greatest peace of all. Right now, through the Lord Jesus Christ, we have peace with God!
*That's why Romans 5:1-2 says this to all Christians:
1. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
2. through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
*Right now, you can have peace with God and peace in your heart, knowing that one day Jesus Christ will bring the blessing of peace to the whole world!
3. REMEMBER JESUS BECAUSE HE BRINGS OUR GREATEST BLESSINGS. AND REMEMBER JESUS BECAUSE HE SUFFERED FOR OUR SINS.
*In today's Scripture, Jesus Christ is the suffering Lamb Who suffered for our sins. God's Word stresses this truth for us seven different times in vs. 5-6, seven times in two verses!
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.
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.
*Jesus Christ suffered and died on the cross to take the punishment for our sins. And He took on His mission with the strongest commitment. We begin to see the Lord's commitment in vs. 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."
*This prophecy was fulfilled during the Lord's trials in the hours before the cross. First before the chief priests in Matthew 26:
59. Now the chief priests, the elders, and all the council sought false testimony against Jesus to put Him to death,
60. but found none. Even though many false witnesses came forward, they found none. But at last two false witnesses came forward
61. and said, "This fellow said, 'I am able to destroy the temple of God and to build it in three days.'''
62. And the high priest arose and said to Him, "Do You answer nothing? What is it that these men testify against You?''
63. But Jesus kept silent. . .
*And Jesus remained silent until the high priest forced Him to say under oath whether or not He was the Son of God.
*The high priest said:
63. . . "I adjure you by the living God that You tell us if You are the Christ, the Son of God.''
64. (Then) Jesus said to him, "It is as you said. Nevertheless, I say to you, hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.''
*Jesus was also silent when He was on trial before the Roman Governor, Pontius Pilate. In Matthew 27:11-14:
11. . . Jesus stood before the governor. And the governor asked Him, saying, "Are You the King of the Jews?'' So Jesus said to him, "It is as you say.''
12. And while He was being accused by the chief priests and elders, He answered nothing.
13. Then Pilate said to Him, "Do You not hear how many things they testify against You?''
14. And He answered him not one word, so that the governor marveled greatly.
*Pilate was amazed by Christ's silence in the face of His murderous accusers. But Jesus uttered not one word of protest, when a word was all it would have taken to end that travesty of a trial.
*Earlier in the Garden of Gethsemane, in Matthew 26:53, Jesus had asked the disciples, "Do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than 12 legions of angels?" Church: That's over 70,000 angels! And Jesus could have easily called for help.
*For that matter, the Lord could have handled all the armies of Rome all by Himself. But Jesus was silent before His accusers. And why was He silent? -- Because He was totally committed to go to the cross and die for us!
*Jesus was totally committed to suffer for our sins. And we see more of the Lord's commitment in vs. 8-9. Here Isaiah said:
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.
9. And they made His grave with the wicked but with the rich at His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was any deceit in His mouth.
*Verse 9 says, "They made His grave with the wicked, because He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth." You see, Jesus died, not because He was bad, but because He was good. God's only begotten Son, Jesus Christ is the only perfect man who ever lived. He was the only spotless Lamb who could ever die for the sins of the world.
*That's why vs. 10 says, "It pleased the LORD (God the Father) to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin . . ." God the Father made His eternal Son, our Savior, a sacrificial offering for our sins!
*And the first part of vs. 11 tells us that our Heavenly Father was satisfied. "He shall see the travail of His soul, and be satisfied. . ." The Heavenly Father was satisfied, because of the perfect obedience of His Son, Jesus Christ. The Heavenly Father was also satisfied, because our sin debt had been paid in full, pleased because He loves us, and pleased because He knew that Jesus' suffering was the only way for us to be saved.
*God the Father was so pleased in vs. 10 that He "prolonged the days" of His Son. This points out the wonderful truth that Jesus Christ rose again from the dead! And by receiving the Risen Son of God as our Lord and Savior, we are justified. That's why vs. 11 says this about Jesus: "By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities."
*Christians: Jesus took our sins on the cross, so we are justified. And the old preachers would say, "It's just-as-if-I'd-never-sinned, because in vs. 12, Jesus "poured out His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors."
*That's why we must always remember the sacrifice of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. But around this time of year, we also remember those who died for our nation's freedom, because if it wasn't for their sacrifice, we may have never even heard of Jesus Christ.
*Melvin Newland is a pastor in Oklahoma with a wonderful testimony about his family during World War II. They were medical missionaries in the Philippines. And Melvin said:
-"My family – my parents, a younger sister, and two younger brothers – were prisoners of the Japanese during World War II. When they had set sail for the Philippines in January 1941, I had been left behind for further schooling, with plans for me to join them later.
*But then came Pearl Harbor, the start of World War II, and the Japanese invasion of the Philippines. For most of the war years there was no news concerning what had happened to them. I didn't know whether they were alive or dead.
*I learned later that when the Japanese invaded their island that they decided not to surrender, but to flee into the interior, to live and minister in the high jungles among the primitive mountain peoples. For six months they lived up in the mountains, and were even able to start four churches among the mountain peoples.
*After an extensive search, the Japanese printed leaflets, and began dropping them by airplane all over the island. They set a deadline for my family's surrender, and warned them that after that deadline no mercy would be shown. They would be shot on sight. So they finally surrendered and were prisoners for almost 3 years.
*At first, as civilians, they were not too badly treated. But then, when the tide of war turned against the Japanese, all foreign prisoners throughout the islands were moved to Manila. And there the Japanese Army began taking out its anger on them, -- deliberately starving men, women, and children, even while the prison store houses were filled with food.
*For the last 10 months of their imprisonment, they received only one watery cup of rice per day, plus salt. And any weeds, grass, tree leaves, or bugs that they could find to eat. During the last few weeks of their imprisonment an average of 7 men a day died of starvation. My father, who normally weighed over 175 lbs., weighed only 95 lbs. when they were rescued.
*Yes," Melvin said. "They were rescued! On February 3rd, 1945, the American Army was still 60 miles away from Manila. On that day, they learned that the Japanese Commandants of the Prisons had received orders that on the next morning all male prisoners in both the civilian and military prisons were to be executed. And that the women and children were to be used as human shields against the American forces.
*That's when 900 men of the First Cavalry Division were given orders to get into their tanks and trucks, and in the darkness of night, to barrel their way as fast as they could right down the highway, -- through 60 miles of enemy territory, making as much noise as they could to make the Japanese think that the entire Army was behind them.
*That night these 900 brave men, -- on what might have very well been considered a 'suicide mission,' crashed though the enemy lines, and charged into a city containing nearly 50,000 Japanese soldiers. They broke into the military and civilian prisons, and held them secure against repeated counterattacks for almost 3 weeks, -- until the rest of the American forces fought their way into Manila to relieve them.
*It was because of them that my family and many others were saved. And I will never forget their bravery and the sacrifice that they made." (4)
CONCLUSION:
*Church: We should never forget the kind of sacrifice and courage that has given us political freedom today. But as believers we know that a much higher price has been paid for us, the highest price of all. God the Father's only begotten, eternal Son Jesus Christ humbled Himself to become a mortal man. Then Jesus died on the cross for all of our sins. And He rose again forever to save anyone who will turn to Jesus, and put their trust in Him.
*So put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ! Receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior today. Call on the Lord to save you when we go back to God in prayer.
*And Christians: Keep trusting in the Lord! No matter what happens in this sin-sick nation, no matter what happens in this sin-sick world, keep trusting in the Lord! We don't know how God is going to work things out. But we do know that He always does the right thing at the right time. Keep trusting in the Lord!
(1) National D-Day Memorial Foundation - https://www.dday.org/
(2) I have lost the original hard copy source for Eisenhower's testimony, and I have not been able to find it online.
(3) Sources:
-www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/bulge/timeline/timeline2.html
-Info from Wikipedia: www.history.army.mil//books/wwii/7-8/7-8_Cont.htm#pvii - Military History of Battle of the Ardennes
-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_military_casualties_of_war
(4) SermonCentral sermon "There Is a Purpose" by Melvin Newland - Ecclesiastes 1:2-11
