WEBVTT

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This is your daily reminder. God has not run

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out of mercy, not for you, not today. Welcome

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to the New Mercies Podcast. Welcome. Today is

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Wednesday, March the 25th. So thankful you found

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the new Mercy's podcast. If you are new around

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here, be sure and like and follow and subscribe.

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And if you rate or do anything about this episode,

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share it. It just helps me to know and that this

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is valuable to you. So I encourage you to do

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that. And as always, if you want to financially

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support this podcast, you can do so in the episode

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description. There is a link there that you can

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donate any amount and it will help to cover the

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cost of all. of the fees and all the things that

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we have to pay for. So all that out of the way,

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today's reading plan on March the 25th, 2026

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is Isaiah. 53. We are going back to the Old Testament,

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looking at a place that will radically change

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our lives if we jump in and understand it. And

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so in our reading plan, I want to share a little

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bit out of this passage today. I'm not going

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to read every single verse. I encourage you to

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do so. It's just 12 verses, not too long today.

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But in those 12 verses, they're divided up into

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some amazing places. And it's a picture of what

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would happen to Jesus, the Messiah. This is one

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of the prophetic moments in the Old Testament

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talking about what was to come. So here's what

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I want to do. I want to read just verse number

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one, and then I want to give you kind of the

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breakdown of what this chapter will look like.

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So if you've already read it today, if you've

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been in our reading plan, you've already read

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it, I'm thankful. Hopefully, maybe this will

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help you to go back and read it again, maybe

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with those sections blocked off so you can kind

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of see a little bit of the pattern that it takes.

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But I want to read verse number one of Isaiah

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53 right now, and then we'll talk about it. Here

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we go. Isaiah 53, one, who has believed what

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he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm

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of the Lord been revealed? Now, a lot of times

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we will just read a verse in Scripture and then

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we just keep reading, right? And I want to take

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a pause here and I want to just talk about something

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that I was reading in one of my commentaries

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that I have that kind of brought a new thing

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to light for me that I had not really considered

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before. But here's the thing I think is pretty

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amazing. Whenever it talks about the... attributes

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or the characteristics or the physique or the

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things of God. It is important to note here in

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verse number one, it talks about the arm of God.

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Now, I am a person, I believe every word is in

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the scripture on purpose. I don't believe God

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put the word arm in there by accident. I think

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he did it on purpose. And here's what I think.

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So we're about to read in Psalm 53 the beautiful

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gift of Jesus dying for us, the great substitute

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that died for our sins. He's pierced for our

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iniquities. He takes on our sin, takes on the

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wrath of God so that we don't have to experience

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it. This is one of the most beautiful places

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in all of the Scripture. the suffering servant

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who is going to be murdered, who's going to be

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slain like a lamb to the slaughter. It is unbelievable

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the amount of love that we see in this text.

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But here's what I want to say. It starts out

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with the arm of God. Why does that matter? Here's

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why I believe it matters. We see throughout all

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the Scripture, for instance, in the book of Psalm,

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chapter 8, down in verse number 2 or 3, I believe,

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in verse number 3, it says that all of creation

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was made by the work of His fingers. The fingers

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are the smallest part, the weakest part of the

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arm, right? It's the very end. And then I look

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into the book of Exodus chapter 13. I look and

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I see that it was by God's hand that he delivered

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Israel out of Egypt. Now the hand is more powerful

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than the fingers, right? So it took a little

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bit more. It was a little bit more forceful.

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It was a little more strength that was flexed

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and shown whenever Israel was delivered out of

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Egypt. What happened when Israel was delivered

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out of Egypt? We know the Passover happened,

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right? That Passover took place, and then God

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delivered his people out of the land of Egypt,

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of slavery, of bondage, into the promised land

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eventually. And so we see the work of his fingers

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is everything we can see in the universe. That's

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God's just work with his fingers. Then we see

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the mighty work of his hand delivering his people

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out of slavery and bondage. What does he show

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whenever he delivers lost sinners into a relationship

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with him? We see the strength of his arm. It

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gets stronger and stronger and stronger. This

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is a powerful, powerful thought. I hope and pray

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when you read it again today. Maybe you'll see

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a little different emphasis here. This is God

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not just showing the work of his fingers. It's

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not him just showing the work of his hand. This

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is him showing the work of his arm, his mighty,

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strong, powerful arm. whole chapter today, it

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goes from there and gets better and better and

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better. I don't want us to miss anything whenever

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we're reading this text today. What I do want

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us to understand is as we are looking at this

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chapter, at this couple of verses here, verses

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one through four, give us the life and the ministry

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of Jesus. If you read those first four verses,

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it will point to him being born out of the root.

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It says in verse number two, like a root out

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of dry ground. Now, we know that Israel has already

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been spoken about in the Old Testament, and in

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specifically the book of Isaiah, multiple times

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as a tree. And we can go back and look at prophetic

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words, and we can see that even whenever the

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stump has been broken down out of that root,

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there would be the Messiah. He would come. This

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is the root of Jesse. This is Jesus, the one

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who comes. And it says out of dry ground. Why

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does it say dry ground? Well, when Jesus was

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born into the world. politically, spiritually,

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it was a dry place. It was desolate. There was

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no hope to be found, and yet in that dry place,

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there was a root that came. There was that that

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was at the very beginning of the people of Israel,

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the promised one would come. There's a lot of

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symbolism within this text, and I don't want

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us to miss something just because we may not

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understand it. I do want us to dive in and see

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a little bit more and more as this gets, the

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scripture becomes, I consider it like more robust,

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more beautiful. The more you dive in, the more

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you see. But I want to encourage you today to

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see the first four verses are the life and ministry

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of Jesus. And then verses five through eight

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are the death of Jesus, how he dies. He's pierced.

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crushed. He is like a lamb to a slaughter. It

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talks about his death. And then in verse number

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nine, it talks about his burial, how he is buried.

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And then verses 10 through 12 talk about his

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resurrection and his exaltation, how he will

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be resurrected and he will be exalted. If you

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read this text now, after knowing kind of the

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way it's broken down just a little bit, it may

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help you to sink into that section a little bit

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more. Verses five through eight are powerful.

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How Jesus dies. We will see in the New Testament,

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in Luke 23, in multiple places in the Gospels,

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we'll see how Jesus died. We can go back to Isaiah

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53, and we can look and see just how it happens

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and how it overlays beautifully. But what goes

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on, what we see in the Gospel accounts, is explained

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and given more of a foundation in Isaiah 53.

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If you look at those... Text in those verses

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in verses 1 through 4, you'll see more of the

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ministry of Jesus, how he's born, how he is raised

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up, and how he does ministry. You'll see that

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symbolically within there. And then verses, again,

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5 through 8, talk about his death, how he dies,

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the reason he dies. Then you see his burial happen

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in verse 9. And then you see, verses 10 through

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12, this massive exaltation, this beauty that

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he is going to be, God's going to give him everything.

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And as I read this text, And as I read it over

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and over again, I just want to encourage you

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today. We have a God that loves us so much. And

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the love of God is so powerful. It is far more

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impressive the way that Jesus redeemed us than

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how God created everything. He created it all

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at the work of his fingers. He delivered Israel

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out of slavery with his hand. But he flexed his

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mighty arm to bring us into his family. An unholy

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people made holy. This is powerful and beautiful

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today. I hope you appreciate what God has done

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for you more and more. And maybe so much you

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just can't contain it. Share it with somebody

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today.