Jesus. How can you have joy when they're going to whoop you all night long? Uh, when they're going to do the things to you that they're going to do to you? But Jesus would say to us in this passage, I'm going through it because I understand the blessings in a beat down.
You're listening to Treasure Truth with pastor and author James Ford Jr, senior pastor of the Christ Bible Church in Chicago. I'm Steve Hillard. Glad you're with us today as we're beginning a new message from Isaiah chapter 50, the blessings in a beatdown. And, uh, pastor, you don't look like the guy who's experienced too many beat downs in life. Big, strong guy like that. So I can't imagine that, uh, you can say, hey, I've had a lot of blessings
coming out of beat downs, at least physically, so. Well, well.
And we've had a few now.
Okay. I've had.
A few. Yes, yes. In my BC days before Christ days. I was a fighter.
Okay.
Yeah. And it didn't matter to me who you were. So I did take a lot of beatdowns.
Well, if I would have met you back then, I would have been the runner as fast as I could.
Well, you know, the old adage goes something like this. I'd rather they say, there he go, than there he lay.
Right. There you go. Amen. That's right. That's right. So you're saying Jesus took a beat down? Yes. And, uh, in the midst of that, you're saying he would have said, I'm going through this because I understand the blessings. What are the blessings that come out of his beat down?
Uh, well, Scripture says, uh, he did it so he could bring many sons to glory. So it's you and I. Uh, that he had us in mind. He knew what he was doing. He knew. And as a matter of fact, remember what the writer of the book of Hebrews said? Who? For the joy set before him. You know what's joyous in a beatdown? What comes after it. Yeah. You know, the many sons to glory. And of course, the gospel writers said, except the seed die, it abideth or remains alone.
But if it dies, it brings forth much fruit. Yeah. And we're the fruit that come as a result of the fact that Jesus Christ said, you know, he stayed on that cross. If it would have been me on that cross and you would have said, come on down, you saved others yourself. You cannot save what I said nails out of my hands. Yeah, I float and I'd be zapping them. Zap! What you say, zap! POW! You know. But Jesus submitted to the will of the father because he loved you and I.
Mm. That is, uh, quite a love to try and wrap our minds around. So let's go ahead and do that. Open your Bible, if you can, to Isaiah 50 as we begin this message, the blessings in a beat down. Here is Pastor Ford.
You know, I grew up in a different era. Things were totally different when I was growing up. Uh, so, for example, you would never see a sex scene on television, especially in prime time. Amen. Amen. There were just some things that weren't tolerated. As a matter of fact, I grew up in a day when you got spanked. Alright. Yeah. See, nowadays they have what they call time out, Brother Joe. But when I was growing out, it was called Lights Out. Yeah.
No time out. As a matter of fact, I can recall, uh, my mother asking questions that I knew I could never answer truthfully. She catch me doing something and I say, I didn't do it. She say, do I look stupid to you? I couldn't answer that. My brother be in another room talking about. That's a trick question. It's a trick question. Don't answer that. And she would say things, Brother Dave. That that that. I just had to keep my mouth shut. I fought it when she said, you
know what I'm going to tell you now? This is going to hurt me more than it's going to hurt you. And I'm thinking to myself, well, if that's the case, then why don't you let me whoop you so that it could hurt me more than it hurts you? Well, that make sense? Yeah. And so now, listen, you know young people, they're over on the other side. You get away with murder. You get away with stuff. I never
would get away with because I'm. I don't know if anybody had a mama like me, but I thought once you went to sleep, you didn't have to worry about it. And she would whoop you, woke and whoop you back. Sleep again. Yeah. So, so so you children, uh, your children better, thank God. Yeah. See, you can call the police. It's called abuse. My mom would have said, oh, while you're on the phone, call the coroner because the police are going to come for me, and the corner is
for you. Because I'm going to kill you. Yeah. But did you know there was a day if you were in England and you had some substance, you had some money. If you were a prince or duke or earl or the child of a prince, a duke, a king or earl, you never got a weapon. In the 16th and 17th century, they had what was called whipping boys. So what they would do is, uh, you would lie and get caught, and they bring your whipping boy in, and they whip your.
Whipping boy before you. You would do something wrong, and the whipping boy would be beaten. Some of y'all are looking at me like I'm crazy. Google it. As a matter of fact, it's so deep they even a couple years ago made a movie about it. And so you could cuss and your parents would say, bring in the whipping boy. And whip him in front of you. Now, today we have one. We call him pastor. Uh, but you know where I'm going. Because if you disobeyed, the
whipping boy took your whipping. If you didn't do your schoolwork, the whipping boy took your whipping. If you didn't do your house. The whipping boy. I know some of the kids wish they were here. They say, where are they? Where are they Now, you already know where I'm going with this. Because Jesus is our whipping boy. We did the crime, and Jesus did the time. See, the Bible says he became sin for us. Who knew no sin, that we may become the righteousness of God in him.
So he never got drunk, but he became a drunkard so that drunkards could be saved. He never committed fornication or adultery, but he became a fornicator and adulterer so that fornicators and adulterers could be saved. He never murdered. He never lied, he never cheated. He never got high. He never stole anything. But he became a murderer, a liar, a cheater, and a thief so that murderers, liars and thieves and cheaters could be saved. Yeah. He became our
whipping boy. Yeah. He took our sin so we could have his salvation. He took our hell so we could have his heaven. He took our sadness so we could have his gladness. He took our guilt so we could share in his glory. He took our poverty so that we could have his richness. He took our emptiness. That we could have his. I'm preaching better than you. Amen. Yeah, yeah. Let me just say it this way. Because y'all y'all don't want to hear it. Jesus went to hell for
us so that we could go to heaven with him. Yeah. He's our whipping boy. As a matter of fact, I said it this way. Isaiah said, surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. But we esteemed him lightly smitten and stricken of God. He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, and the chastisement of his peace was upon us, and by his stripes we are healed. Yeah. You know what happened? Jesus was beat down because you and I were low down. Right. Don't
look around. Don't look around. Tell, tell you. Tell your neighbor he talking about you. Mhm. Mhm. Uh, so now we said we're celebrating not March Madness but March Madness. Not the road to the Final Four, but the road to the final fight for victory on Calvary. And Jesus is on his way down the via de la Rosa, on his way to the cross. To carry our sorrows, to carry our sickness, to carry our suffering, to carry our shame. He's going to take it all upon himself
on Calvary as our whipping boy. And I wonder what is his attitude. Now I know when I get a beat down I don't like it. I don't like trouble. I don't like trial. I don't like tribulation. Is there anybody that's like me or I'm the only one? Yeah. But Hebrews 12 two says that we are to look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the suffering. What was the joy that Jesus had? Joy despising the shame,
but he had joy. Jesus, how can you have joy when they're going to whoop you all night long? Uh, when they're going to do the things to you that they're going to do to you. So that Isaiah says that his face was marred more than any man's ever been marred. You saw the the passion of the Christ. You saw it. Yeah. But Jesus would say to us in this passage, Isaiah 50, Isaiah 50, verses four through 11. I'm going through it because I understand the blessings in a beatdown.
Alright, alright.
Oh yeah, that there are blessings in the a beat down. That's the message of our text today from Isaiah. Now remember I got to give you the con watt text before I give you the content, because a text without a context is both a pretext and a proof text. If somebody gives you a text without giving you the context, you've just been calm. Amen. Amen.
Did you follow all that? You might want to go back and listen to this program again, to make sure you get that you can do so easily by coming to our website, Treasure Truth Radio. You can stream programs through your computer or mobile device, download MP3's, or order copies of this broadcast on CD. You know, another thing you can do when you stop by the website is
check out the books that Pastor Ford has written. You can click on the link that says Books by Pastor Ford on the left side of the home page, and see the different titles available as a paperback or in an e-book format. And if you're ever in the Chicago area, you can visit Christ Bible Church of Chicago and hear Pastor Ford speak live. Get all the info when you come to our website and click on the about link. Our website address is Treasure Truth radio.org. Back to the message.
Here's Pastor Ford.
And so Isaiah is called the Bible in miniature. It has 66 chapters that correspond with the 66 books of the Bible. So that the first 39 chapters form the Old Testament in Isaiah and the last 27, the New Testament in Isaiah, so that the first 39 chapters focus on the government of God, whereas the last 27 chapters focus in on the grace of God. So the first 39 chapters talks about the sovereign who is also the Savior, and the last 27 chapters talk about the Savior, who
is also the sovereign. So then in the first 39 chapters. Jesus is our master. In the last 27 chapters, Jesus is our Messiah. He is the one who God said would come. Now it's commonly called the Fifth Gospel. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and I. Now why? Because more is said about Jesus in the book of Isaiah than in all of the other books of the Old Testament combined.
Amen.
So that what you have take my favorite verse, Isaiah nine six. It says this. For unto us a child is born, and unto us a son is given. And the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. So notice what happens here. Unto us a child is born. That is the crib. It's called the incarnation. He came. Yes, but then unto us a son is given. See, the child was born, but the son was given. And
that's the crucifixion. So you go from the incarnation to the crucifixion, the crib, and then the cross. Then he says, but his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, there you have the crown.
Right?
But then he said, his government shall be upon my shoulder. When is that going to take place? Doing what's called the Millennial Kingdom, that there is literally still coming a thousand year period in which Jesus Christ will rule on the earth.
Alright.
So one verse takes us from Alpha to Omega, from beginning to end. It takes us from the crib, then to the cross, then to the crown, then to his coming.
Yes.
Alright, so Isaiah was a book that was written to encourage the Israelites, the Jewish remnant that would be delivered from the Babylonian captivity after their 70 years of captivity were over. Right over your head. You say. What do you mean, right over our head? Because they're not in captivity yet. They won't be in captivity, Sister Kim, until 150 years from the writing of this book. So do you know what that means? Say, what does it mean? It means that before they ever got in trouble, God
told them. I'm going to get you out of trouble. When they didn't even know they would ever be in trouble. That God wants us to understand. When you get in trouble, quit focusing on the hell you're going through and start focusing on the heaven you're going to. I'm going to help 2 or 3 of you before you get up out of here. You ain't going to like me when you leave, but I'm going to help you. And so
when you look at this, it's amazing to me. He told them, I will bring you out before they ever went out.
Amen.
Okay. Let me illustrate before I move on. Last week, remember what I did last week. How many were here last week? Okay. Last week I gave out $100 bills. Remember the illustration I gave out? I gave out Brother Dave. I said, okay, listen, uh, I called sister up, and I said, uh, give me $100. I want $100. I was trying to teach imputed righteousness. That. Is that what God wants from us? He has to give it to
us because we don't have it. Because if he don't give it to us, we can never have a relationship with him because his criteria is $100. Holiness and the first sister had $5 holiness. So then I gave him the money. So in the second service, Sister Asia, uh, she she came up and she helped me with the illustration, and I gave her the $100. Now, I don't care what you're thinking. We're not doing that this week. Amen. And so you never know when I'm going to do it.
You better come to church. Now get this. She she told me. She said afterwards, she said, Pastor Ford, I need to tell you something. I need to I need to tell you something. I said, okay, okay, okay. Uh, what's it about? It's about that $100 you gave me. That's okay. I want to hear it. She said, well, let me tell you what happened after after the service
we're talking. I said, wow, this is really powerful. She says, uh, me and my daughter were going to eat and, uh, we were going to go to our favorite place, but the Lord said, go to Olive garden. And I said to the Lord, you know, I don't like Italian. I can't stand Italian. And she said, I know it was God who told me, go to Olive garden. So she said her and her daughter went to Olive garden, and she said, mama, why are you going here? You don't
like Italian? She goes to Olive garden. She gets into Olive garden, she orders her food. The lady that's waiting on her is, uh, is, uh, you know, tear stained eyes and, and and apologizing for slow service and all that and then tells her the reason that I'm so slow and things are I'm tore up from the floor up. My husband's sick. My child is sick. I have to work. And it's like I got my mind on them, but I gotta work and I just don't know what to do. And God told her, give her $50. That was her
last $50. And so if she, like me, she said, you know, ain't nobody but the devil. God ain't told me. God ain't told me. No, no no no no God ain't told me. Get my, get my, get nobody. No $50. But she gave her $50. And the woman was so appreciative, I guess she could get her husband's medicine or whatever.
Amen.
She said, then I come to church and you give me $100.
Amen. Amen.
You see what God did? God said, do you trust me enough to obey me and to give what I tell you to give and go where I tell you to go and do. Yes, Lord. Well, here's what I'll do. You don't even know it. You didn't do it to get it. So she didn't give to get or. This ain't prosperity. No, no, no, this is obedience. And how did I know? Why did I call her? There's at least 300 people. Why did I call her out of everybody? Because I just felt like I wanted to give it to somebody who was a single mom.
Amen. Amen. Amen.
And so I saw over there, I said, come here. No, no, no, no, that is not what happened. God, just put it in the mix. He said, okay, here's who I want you to get. Look over there. Look over there. Because I need to show her that I'm able to give her double for her trouble. I'm Jehovah Jireh that she obeyed me, wasn't expecting anything, but now I'm going to bless her. And that's what God did.
Amen. Mm.
Now, this text that we have before us can teach a little bit. Just for a minute. Yeah. Okay. Thank you for your permission. The text before us is one of the four, possibly five songs in Isaiah, and they're called Servant Songs. What are they called? Servant songs. They're all songs about the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what we're talking about this month, right? A man, because that's the only name under heaven whereby we must be saved. It's
the only name that can set the captives free. It's the name that is above every name that at the sound of that name, everything in heaven, everything that's human, everything in hell will say that Jesus Christ is Lord. To the glory of God the Father. And so it's the servant song. Let me give it to you real quick. I'm going to drop them. I'm not going to push them. The first one is in Isaiah 42 one through seven. Uh, the second one is Isaiah 49 one through seven. The
third one is this text Isaiah 54 through 11. Then the fourth one is Isaiah 5213 to Isaiah 5312. And some would include the fifth one. And the reason they don't want to include a lot of people is because the name servant isn't there. Uh, I'd like to include it because even though the name servant isn't there, the concept of it is there. And the song rounds it off. So then what's these songs about? Let me drop em. I'm not going to push em. The first song is
about his identification. What's it about? Yeah. Who is he? And then the second is about his occupation. What's it about? What will he do? Does. This one is about his tribulation. Is what? How he will suffer. The fourth one is about his mediation, why he would suffer, and the fifth one is about his exaltation. That one day those who hated on Jesus will have to face him as judge and jury. That's what he's going to do.
Blessings in a beatdown. That is the title of this message from Pastor Ford. You're listening to Treasure Truth and you'll find more teaching like this when you come to our website. Treasure Truth radio.com. You know, we live in a relativistic age where claims to absolute truth are treated with skepticism. Yet, as Christians, we believe that God is the source of all reality and His Word. The Bible
is absolute truth. Perhaps you struggle to explain this to non-believers, or maybe you're wrestling with your own doubts about what the Bible is and how you should respond to those doubts. Well, in the book Why Believe the Bible? Pastor and author Doctor John MacArthur presents convincing evidence that we can believe the Bible and shows that God's Word is true not only in abstract religious terms, but also in our experience.
Discover why the Bible is trustworthy and find out how it can change your life when you request this practical book. It's yours for a gift of any amount to treasure truth. Simply call 888 644 7660 or go online to Treasure Truth Radio.com. If you prefer to write and send a check in the mail, our address is Treasure Truth, 820 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 606 ten. Well, perhaps you're in a place today where you can give more than a one time gift and you'd like to become a
monthly partner. You know, that's the best way to support Treasure Truth on this station, to ensure that this clear and passionate Bible teaching continues. Become a monthly partner. When you call 888 644 7660 or go online to Treasure Truth Radio.com. Hi, I'm Steve Hiller, our producer is Amy Rios. Join us next time for more Bible teaching from Pastor Ford here on Treasure truth. A production of Moody Radio, a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.