Hymn number 985. The tune is
Euphany 786. O ye despairing sinners, hear! Ye thirsty, sin-sick souls, draw
near! Here's water, whose all-powerful
stream Shall quench your thirst and wash you clean. Its healing
power has always wrought Beyond the reach of human thought. hymn
985, tune euphony 786. It is very shamelessly disrespectful. It's such a shame. His waterhead above the sea,
shall pensioners then watch to be. It's hidden far as gold may go,
Deep from the reach of human souls. beyond the reach of fear and
hope. that death's first bird is not
like this, nor heals, nor cures such nefarious sins, I don't strain, nor grope, but
suffer to my heart's content, I'll suffer. Tis the tears of the crimson
sea, The ocean's gilt and crimson ray, And washes him that filth away. To this His bounty I'm given
With all the fruit and pain I've been I think my day shall with thee
sigh, And watch, and drink, and benefy. ? O'er from the sacred stranger
? ? Take, take, take ? ? That soul of Sabaoth ? Let us read together from the
Holy Word of God in the prophecy of Isaiah chapter 53. The Prophecy of Isaiah, chapter
53. We'll read the last three verses
of chapter 52. Behold, my servant, that is,
of course, Christ, shall deal prudently. He shall be exalted
and extolled and be very high, as many were astounded at thee.
His visage was so marred, more than any man, and his form more
than the sons of men. So shall he sprinkle many nations. The kings shall shut their mouths
at him, for that which had not been told them shall they see,
and that which they have not heard shall they consider. Who hath believed our report,
and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For he shall go
out before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground,
he had no form nor comeliness. And when we shall see him, there
is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected
of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and we
hid as it were our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed
him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten
of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions,
he was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. Or we, like sheep,
have gone astray, We have turned every one to his own way, and
the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed
and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought
as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers
is done, he openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison and
from judgment. And who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off out of the
land of the living. For the transgression of my people
was he stricken. He made his grave with the wicked
and with the rich in his death, because he had done no violence,
neither with any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord
to bruise him. He had put him to grief. when
thou shalt 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. He shall see of the travail of
his soul, and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities.
will I divide him a portion with the great and he shall divide
the spoil with the strong because he hath poured out his soul unto
death and he was numbered with the transgressors and he bared
the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors. May the Lord bless the reading
of his own precious word and grant unto us the spirit of real
prayer. Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty,
which is an art, an art to come, we desire to bow before thy glorious
majesty, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and we desire to worship
thee in spirit and in truth. and we desire that the grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God our Father and
the sacred fellowship of the Holy Spirit may rest and abide
with us. We pray to be led of the Spirit
of God for as many as are led by the Spirit of God they are
the sons of God. We pray for those divine drawings
of our Heavenly Father For none come except the Father draw.
May we be drawn unto Jesus Christ. We pray for the presence of our
Lord Jesus Christ, the King of glory, here this afternoon, that
we may behold his glory, the glory as of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth. Oh, do hear us, Lord,
we humbly pray thee, guide us into thy truth. and open thy
word to our heart and to our understanding, and grant that
we may delve into the deep that counteth beneath, and grant that
the word may be a living word, a powerful word. It may be a
two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of the
joints of marrow and the very thoughts and intents of the heart.
May the word this afternoon, possessing that divine power
of the Holy Ghost, enter into the hearts of each one present.
May there be conviction of sin. May there be a realization of
the wonderful glory of a crucified savior. May we touch the hem
of his garment. May we draw from that sacred
fullness that is in him. May there be those that have
come with that desire that I may know him in the power of his
resurrection, in the fellowship of his sufferings being made
conformable unto his death. Oh, do hear us, Lord. We humbly
pray thee, grant that it may be with us as we read of the
dear apostle at Thessalonica. For our gospel came unto you,
not in word only, but in power, in the Holy Ghost, and with much
assurance. We pray, Lord, that there may
be those that shall be awakened here this afternoon, awakened
to their sinful state and condition, awakened to the holiness of God,
awakened to the solemn reality of a broken law and of the curse
of God, awakened to realize their need as a poor sinner before
a holy heart searching God, awakened to realize that one day They
must appear at the judgment seat of Jesus Christ and must give
an account for the deeds done in the body. For as it is appointed
under man once to die, so after death, the judgment. Lord, may
that powerful work of the Holy Ghost be present here this afternoon
to awaken poor sinners. And may they be awakened to the
glory of Christ to the risen Saviour, to sin
put away, to divine justice satisfied, to God and sinners reconciled
through the precious blood of the Lamb. Oh, do hear us, Lord,
and grant the mighty power of Thy Spirit. We humbly beseech
Thee. And Lord, we pray that we may
behold the man, the man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, that
we may behold his holy life, his sacred cross, his sufferings,
his sorrows, and may we realize that he was wounded for our transgressions
and bruised for our iniquities, and the chastisement of our peace
was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. Lord, may we have
that realization granted unto us, May we experimentally lay
hold of the atonement for sin. We do humbly beseech thee to
know it, to experience it. May darkness be turned to light. May bondage be turned to liberty. May torment be turned into peace. May a sense of distance and far
off be made nigh, that we may be made nigh. by the precious
blood of Christ. Oh, do hear us in heaven, thy
holy dwelling place, make us more spiritually minded, set
our affections on things above, truly convince us of our sin,
and lead to Jesus' blood, and to our wandering eyes reveal
the secret love of God. Oh, do hear us in heaven, thy
holy dwelling place, and when thou hearest, O Lord, forgive. humbly beseech them. We come
in confession of our sin and of our sinfulness. We pray to
be washed in that precious sinatory blood, that we may be plunged
into that fountain that is open for sin and uncleanness, that
we may lose the burden of sin, that we may be delivered from
the temptations of Satan, that we may know Jesus in the power
of his resurrection, Oh, do hear us, Lord, we humbly beseech thee,
and graciously draw us unto thyself for thy great namesake. We pray, most gracious Lord,
that thou wouldst indeed richly bless the little ones and the
children. Bless them with that rich grace
that is in Christ Jesus. Bless them with the fear of the
Lord, which is the beginning of wisdom. Bless the young friends,
Open their hearts to receive thy word. Bring them to living
faith in Jesus Christ. Bless them in all the paths of
providence and supply all their many returning needs. But bring
them to see there is but one thing that is needful. Bless
parents, give wisdom, give grace. Give guidance, give direction.
Bless all in the midst of the journey of life. Graciously undertake
for each one. Help them to cast their burden
upon the Lord, for he will sustain you. Oh, do grant, Lord, that
it may be so, that one and another may be enabled to lay aside every
weight and the sin that has so easily beset us, and to run with
patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus. Remember, Lord, each and every
one in the evening time of life's journey, and prepare us for all
thy will, and for that great change that must come. Remember
each one in pain or affliction or sorrow or sadness or bereavement. Lord, undertake for each one. Bless the word of the Lord as
it goes out on the internet. Grant that it may redound to
the great glory of thy holy name. Bless the word of God and the
scripture calendars that have been distributed. May it redound
to the great glory of thy name. Send the glory and light of the
truth into this village, gather many precious souls into the
house of God and into the church of God, and that thy truth may
have free course, and that thy name may be honoured and glorified,
and that the Lord Jesus Christ may be exalted as a prince and
as a saviour for to give faith, repentance and remission of sins.
Oh, do hear us, Lord, we do pray thee. We thank Thee for the glories
of Christ. We thank Thee for the wonders
of redeeming love. We thank Thee for the precious
blood of the Lamb. We thank Thee for the glorious
everlasting righteousness of Jesus Christ. We thank Thee that
He died for our sins and rose again for our justification and
is bodily ascended into heaven and He sits at Thy right hand,
our great High Priest. Oh gracious God, we do thank
thee for the glories of Christ and that he will come again and
receive us unto himself. Lord, what a glorious prospect.
Be with us, Lord, as we turn to thy holy word. Come and open
thy word to our heart and to our understanding. Meet with
us around the table of the Lord. We ask for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen. Let us now sing together hymn
number 720 to the tune Festus 464. Endless blessings on the
Lamb Broken hearts repeat the same. His dear heart was broken too
when he bore the curse for you. Hymn 720. Tune Festus 464. ? In excelsis Deo ? ? Venerae ?
? Renunciatis ? ? In excelsis Deo ? ? Venerae ? ? For the first morning ? ? Golden-bright suns ? ? In day's
high ? ? Splendid sun in day's low ? ? Thou didst give them
joy and love ? ? Thou gave them joy, peace, and love ? ? And whose broad stripes ? ? Through
the perilous fight ? ? O'er the ramparts we watched, were so
gallantly streaming? ? ? He abhors them in His presence
? ? In His love they have found refuge ? ? Sing with me, tend this place
? ? Tremble, O young child, for praise ? ? We have heard you,
now we'll be ? In this we put our victory, And
say, Jesus, we rejoice, ? And my heart was filled with
joy ? ? Let us pray to Him solely ? ?
Thou havest set the mountain free ? ? We would share the bread
of heaven ? Greatly feeling to need the Lord's
gracious help, I would direct your attention to the prophecy
of Isaiah and chapter 53, and we will read verse 10. for our
text. Isaiah 53 verse 10. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
him. He hath put him to grief. When
thou shalt 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. I always feel Isaiah 53 is one
of the most beautiful and the most sacred chapters in the whole
Bible because it speaks of a crucified Saviour and it speaks of why
he was crucified, of why he suffered, of why he died. And it says in verse two, for
he shall grow up, this is the Lord Jesus Christ, for he shall
grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of a
dry ground He had no form nor comeliness and when we shall
see him there is no beauty that we should desire him. And you know the Lord Jesus Christ,
he didn't look any different to any other man. We know when
people try and make pictures or illustrations of the Lord
Jesus and they put an aura around this person. or they put a halo
around his head. But you know friends, it wasn't
like that. There is no form nor comeliness
that we should desire him. He was just another man. It's
true, he was the holy god man. It's true, he was a holy man,
a righteous man, a good man. He's the eternal son of God.
But his human nature was exactly the same as ours. It says in
in Hebrews chapter 2 that in all points it behoved him
to be made like unto as we are and yet without sin that glorious
person of Jesus Christ the eternal son of God that was manifest
in the flesh the eternal Son of the Father. We do not see
two persons in Jesus Christ, that would be utter confusion.
We see one person, the Son of God, assuming a human nature. And that human nature had no
existence separate to the Son of God. It was his own personal
human nature. And when the Holy Ghost overshadowed
the womb of the Virgin Mary, and the Son of God immediately
assumed that seed of the woman. See that seed had no existence
separate to the Son of God. And there in the womb of the
Virgin, the Son of God was. He took into union, it's a profound
mystery The Apostle says, great is the mystery of godliness.
God was manifest in the flesh. And that's who Jesus Christ is.
He's God, manifest in the flesh, revealed in the flesh. So let us not run away, some
have over the years, run away with strange notions concerning
there was a divine person and a human person in Christ. That
is not correct. There is one person, the Son
of God, who assumed a holy human nature and took it into union
with his divine nature, becoming bone of our bone, flesh of our
flesh. And it was in that holy human
nature that the Son of God would suffer, bleed and die for the
sins of his people. It was in that holy human nature
that it says here in verse 3, He is despised. Jesus, the Son
of God. He is despised and rejected of
men. Do you reject the Lord Christ? Do you reject the glory of His
person? The fullness of His grace? deeply
solemn thing, my beloved friends, if you do. It speaks in Holy Scripture of rejecting
Christ. And here it says he is distised
and rejected of men. And a man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. You know the greatest sorrow
to Jesus Christ as he walked here upon earth is that he is
holy and pure and righteous and all around him were sinful
and corrupt and wretched and undone. What a grief that must
have been. You know we look with horror
on the terrible inhumanity that man does to man, even today. We see these wars, rumours of
wars and terrible conflicts and many thousands taken from time
into eternity. We see even more closer than
that how people treat each other, kill each other, murder each
other. Now we're not holy, but the Lord
Jesus is holy. And how that must have grieved
his heart. when he was surrounded with such
sin and such iniquity, he is despised and rejected of men. In his life, the Pharisees, the
Sadducees, the Romans, they opposed our Lord Jesus Christ every step
of the way. He was despised. As the scripture
declares so plainly, he's the King of Kings. He's the Lord
of Lords. The Lord Jesus speaks in one
of his parables of those men that despised the ruler of the
vineyard and in the end he sent his servants and they killed
him. That's the prophets of course. But then he said, I will now
send them my son and they will honour him. but instead of that
they stoned him to death and took possession of the vineyard. In that parable he's telling
us exactly what happened to him, despised, rejected, a man of
sorrows and acquainted with grief. He had a broken heart, He had a broken heart, he did.
But here in this lovely chapter we are told why it is that he
had to pass this way. Why it is that he had to suffer,
that he had to be despised, that he had to be rejected of men. It says in verse four, surely
he hath borne our griefs. It's the church speaking now
of their saviour, of their redeemer. Surely he hath borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken,
smitten of God and afflicted. But he was wounded. tells us
why this is the church this is believers but he was wounded
for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities you
see it says in our text did it please the lord that's his father
to bruise him but there it says he was bruised
for our iniquities Joseph Hart, he puts it very
beautifully in his hymn. My sins were the nails and the
spear. My sins. If we are truly spiritually exercised,
that is what we want to know. Did he suffer, bleed and die
for me? Was he bruised for my iniquities? The chastisement of our peace
was upon Him. Our peace. That peace of God that passeth
all understanding, which shall keep your hearts and minds through
Jesus Christ our Lord. Our peace, that is the peace
of the true Christian, it cost an awful lot. It did. The cost was tremendous. We come this afternoon to the
ordinance of the Lord's Supper. And the Lord Jesus, he said that,
this do in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this
bread and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till
he come. And that is the purpose of this
ordinance. Ye do show the Lord's death till
he come. What we witness and what we profess
as we come to the Lord's table is that we humbly hope and trust
that our sins were laid on Christ. It says here in the last clause
of verse 6, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us
all. He's laid it on his son. And
that is why he suffered and bled and died. We've often pointed
out to you that the actual divine act of laying that iniquity on
his son Jesus Christ was in the Garden of Gethsemane. And that
is what happened in the Garden of when we read that He, that
is Christ, being in an agony, sweat as it were, great drops
of blood falling down to the ground. Being in an agony. Why? Because the Father took
the sin of the Church and laid it on His Son, Jesus Christ. And hence He was wounded for
our transgression. See, it speaks of our condition
here in verse 6 that we're all in by nature, all we like sheep
have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his
own way. That's where we are. That's our
condition, our solemn and awful condition before a holy God. We've turned everyone to his
own way, we've gone astray. David, he says in Psalm 119,
in the last verse I think it is, I've gone astray like a lost
sheep. Lord seek thy servant. All we like sheep. Sheep follow
each other. In a sense the blind leaders
of the blind. One starts going and the others
follow through. And that is why the Lord likens
his church to sheep. We have gone astray. We have
turned everyone to his own way. But this is the wonderful glory
of divine grace, but the Lord has laid on Him, that's Jesus
Christ, the iniquity of us all. All our sins were laid on Christ. And because of that divine act
of the Father in laying all our sins on Christ, that is why He
suffered and bled and died and rose again. He did. See, in his life, it says here
in verse 7, he was oppressed and he was afflicted. Yet he
opened not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the
slaughter and as a sheep before her shearers is done. So he opened
not his mouth. He brought as a lamb to the slaughter. You know friends, a lamb when
it's taken to the slaughter, it doesn't, there's such a difference. You take a pig to the slaughter
and he squeals and he hollers as loud as he possibly can. But
you take a lamb to the slaughter and they do not. They do not. And what a emblem, what a glory
there is in Christ. He was led as a lamb, he is brought
as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before her, sheer
as his dom, so he openeth not his mouth. Yet it pleased the
Lord. I always think of the wonderful
grace of our Heavenly Father, yet it pleased the Lord. It's the turn of phrase, it pleased
the Lord. Why did it pleased the Lord,
our Heavenly Father, to punish his son because he loved the
Church with an everlasting love. Yea, I have loved thee with an
everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness,
have I drawn thee. Are you drawn to Christ? Do you
see a beauty in Christ? Do you see a loveliness in Christ?
Do you see a glory in Christ? Do you say with Paul that I might
know him in the power of his resurrection, in the fellowship
of his sufferings? Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
him. In that divine act of what is
known as the doctrine of imputation, our Heavenly Father He took the
sin of the church and he lifted that sin off of the church and
he laid it on his son or he imputed it unto his son. As it says in
the Word of God, he was made sin for us. He was made sin for
us. And that is what caused him to
be in such an agony because of the tremendous weight of the
sin of the whole church that was resting on Him. He laid upon Him the iniquity
of us all. But the wonderful glory of the
Gospel is that not only did our Heavenly Father impute our sin
to His pure and holy Son that was manifest in the flesh, so
that He suffered and bled and died for our sins, But he then, he took the perfect
obedience which is known as the righteousness of Christ. He took
the righteousness of Christ and he imputed it unto the church
as if it was theirs. So the church is made righteous. Her sin is taken away and Christ's righteousness is
given to cover her nakedness. What a perfect saviour, what
a perfect salvation, what a perfect redemption, yet it pleased the
Lord to bruise him, yet put him to grief. In the garden of Gethsemane,
he said, Father, if it would be possible, let this cup pass
from me, but not my will, but thine be done. He was in complete
submission to his heavenly Father's will, in laying upon Him the
iniquity of us all. You know, friends, we need to,
and this is really to make the truth clearer, we need to understand
that the sin bearing was in that holy human nature that was the
personal human nature of Jesus, the Son of God. The Son of God
in His divine nature could not die. He could not suffer. He could not be tempted of evil.
And it says clearly so in scripture. God cannot be tempted of evil. But the Son of God, that took
into union with his divine nature, a holy human nature, he could
suffer. He could bleed and he could die.
In that holy human nature, that was his own personal human nature. We've often explained to you
that beautiful illustration in Hebrews chapter 9, how the Lord
Jesus Christ shed his precious blood and he says, and through
the eternal spirit he offered himself without spot unto God. And the eternal spirit there
means the the divine nature of Jesus the Son of God. And so, you know, as in the type, there
is a altar, the type of the Jewish sacrifices, there is an altar
and there is a sacrifice on the altar. They are distinct one
from another. But what does it typify? It points
us to Christ. he says there in Hebrews chapter
9 verse 14 how much more shall the blood of Christ who through
the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God purge your
conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Now the
divine nature or as he calls it the eternal spirit is the
altar And the sacrifice that the Jews put on the altar represents
the human nature of Jesus, the Son of God. He offered himself. He offered himself upon the altar
of his divinity. One perfect, complete, holy sacrifice
offered unto his eternal Father to deliver his people from their
sins. God could not just wink at sin. God could not just forget sin. Sin had to be paid for. And the
payment was tremendous. It was the life of Jesus, the
Son of God. I have power to lay my life down
as the Son of God. And what life is he speaking
of? He's speaking of that holy human life that he assumed in
the womb of the Virgin Mary. That's what he's speaking of.
I have power to lay my life down I have power to take it again.
This commandment have I received of my father, yet it pleased
the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief when
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. There are those, and
there has been throughout the ages since the coming of Christ,
those that deny that Jesus Christ had a human soul. In other words,
they deny that he had a real true human nature. Human nature
is made up of a body and a soul. And that's what makes us distinct
from the beasts of the field and the birds of the air and
the fishes of the sea. We have a soul. Sinner, you have
a soul that will live eternally. It will never be destroyed. And the soul of man is the seat
of his intellect. It's in his soul. And that's
what makes him different to all the beasts of the field. He has
the power of reason. Like in our own articles of faith,
it speaks of Christ having a reasonable soul. And what it means, he had
reason, the power of reason. Such as all of us do. Because
we're human. That's what makes us human. And
that's what puts us above all the beasts of the field and the
birds of the air and the fishes of the sea. You see he offered that holy
human nature on the altar of his divinity. It was a pure,
holy sacrifice. He did no sin, neither was guile
found in his mouth. It was a holy, perfect sacrifice. And therefore, It was a sacrifice
that was acceptable to his eternal father. There could have been
tens of thousands of the finest specimens of the sons of men
offered as a sacrifice. None of them would have been
acceptable. You might say, why? Because they're sinful. But this
man, this holy God man, the man Christ Jesus, he did no sin. He was pure. He was holy. was
righteous altogether and therefore that sacrifice he offered was
pure and holy. It's what John Bunyan calls the
acceptable sacrifice. It was acceptable unto his eternal
father. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
him. He had put him to grief when
thou shalt make his soul an offering. I remember reading the Puritan
Thomas Brooks on that very subject of the soul of Christ. And he
went through the various scriptures where it speaks, especially this
one here, of the soul of Christ. And he made this point. He said
that the whole point of the atonement was substitution. So he said
if Jesus Christ only had a human body without a soul, that our
soul has never been redeemed. And he pointed out the ridiculousness
of such a notion. He took our nature, body and
soul, and he offered it as a sweet, sin-atoning sacrifice to redeem
our body and our soul from sin and Satan's power and from eternal
damnation. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
him. He hath put him to grief when
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. Now we speak of resurrection
and life. He shall see his seed, he shall
prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in
his hand. Though he suffered and bled and
died, and yet here it's prophesied he will rise again. It says in
verse 11, he shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall
be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. My beloved friends, has he borne
your iniquities? Did he suffer, bleed, and die
for your sins? If he didn't, you're in danger
of eternal damnation. Therefore, will I divide him
a portion with the great? he shall divide the spoil with
the strong because he hath poured out his soul unto death and he
was numbered with the transgressors and he bared the sin of many
and made intercession for the transgressors. When our Lord
Jesus Christ suffered and bled and died on the cross of Calvary,
one of the last acts there on the cross of Calvary, Father
into thy hands i commend my spirit and by that he meant his holy
human soul and in so doing he entered into death the body without
the spirit is dead being alone it's it's our it's our soul that
animates our body and when the that is what is called the Aaron
article of death when the soul leaves the body And the body
is no longer alive because it's the soul that animates. It's
the living soul that animates our body. And our soul will live
forever. Oh, my dear, beloved friends,
that the Lord, by His Spirit, would reveal these things unto
us. And those of us that will come
to the Lord's table May we think on these things, these wonderful
things of our most holy faith. Yet it pleased. It was the Father's
good pleasure. That's what it means. It pleased
the Lord to bruise him in infinite love to the church. Sometimes
we don't spend enough time thinking of the love of the grace and
the power of our heavenly Father who laid upon him the iniquity
of us all, yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He hath put
him to grief when thou shalt 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. May the Lord add
his blessings.