I ask your pastor to read my
text this morning in Isaiah 53, so if you will turn back there
and let me talk to you for a few minutes before I start to preach. I ask you to pray for me, for
Shelby as she assists me in so many ways, for our congregation
in Danville, as God opens doors of utterance for the gospel before
us. I'll leave here this afternoon and go up to College Grove. I'll
preach for those folks tonight, if the Lord willing, and then
at home on Tuesday. And then on the 14th, we've got
to go to Alaska. We've had a mission work there
now for a long time. Can't find a preacher. Nobody
wants to go to Alaska. So I keep going up there and
preaching to them as often as I can. a few folks to meet and
watch our videos. I'll come back from there and
go to Marysville, California. There's a new work there. Brother
Rick Warder is pastor. We're preaching there. There's
a mission work out in San Francisco in the Bay Area. Brother Scott
McMehan is getting some folks together and they watch our videos.
And Brother Eric Wall goes up to preach for them about once
a month. Eric is now pastoring mission
work in San Diego. God's allowed us to have some
influence in his kingdom, and we're thankful for it. There's
a group in Valley Money, North Ireland I try to go to a couple
times a year. There are now about 25 of them. They have no pastor
and I try to preach to them. They watch our videos and meet
in a public place like this and worship every week. How blessed
you are that God's given you another faithful pastor. And
I urge you, do what you can. That's all. Just do what you
can. Do what God has given you the
means, the opportunity, and the ability to do for the furtherance
of the gospel, and just wait and see what God does. Just wait
and see what God does. I'd like to see things. It's
best for us if we don't see too much. But let me tell you God's
promise. He said, my word will not return
to me void. I'll give you one illustration. In the 1800s, a young man by
the name of C.H. Spurgeon started what they called
a penny pulpit. Somebody would take down his
sermon notes in shorthand, and then he would edit them, take
them to a publisher. I think he took them to the publisher
on Wednesday morning, and they were printed one sermon at a
time and sent all over the place. You could buy them for a penny.
It cost him a penny. If you couldn't buy them, they
gave them away. But somebody then took one of those sermons
and printed it in the United States. And somebody got hold
of that sermon, and either didn't find any other use for it or
decided it was worthless to start with and ripped out a few pages
of the sermon and wrapped a package in it and sent the package to
Australia. And somebody took that package
and sent it to a lady in England just like it was wrapped. And
a pastor got a call for an old lady who was dying in Nottingham
and went to see her. And as he went in he saw this
woman about to die and rejoicing and weeping and giving thanks
to God and chatted a little bit and asked her, said, how did
you come to know the Lord Jesus? And she said, somebody sent that
package to me wrapped in that piece of paper and I read what
that man said. Do what God gives you, the opportunity
and the means and the ability to do. for the furtherance of
the gospel and God has promised him that honoreth me I will honor
and I ask you to pray for me for our congregation in Danville
that God will make us faithful all the days of our lives and
I pray he will do that for you all right Isaiah chapter 53 John
Newton wrote many many hymns with which I have great affinity
But here's one that sums up my experience of God's grace. A
hymn that displays the motive of my life and my ministry in
this world for the glory of God. In evil long I took delight,
unawed by shame or fear. till a new object struck my sight
and stopped my wild career. I saw one hanging on a tree in
agonies and blood who fixed his languid eyes on me as near his
cross I stood. Sure never till my latest breath
can I forget that look. It seemed to charge me with his
death, though not a word he spoke. My conscience felt and owned
the guilt and plunged me in despair. I saw my sins. His blood had
spilt and helped to nail him there. Alas, I knew not what
I did. But now my tears are vain. Where
shall my trembling soul be hid? For I, the Lord, have slain."
A second look he gave, which said, I freely all forgive. This blood is for thy ransom
paid. I die that thou mayest live. Thus while his death, my sin
displays in all its blackest hue, such is the mystery of his
grace. It seals my pardon too. With
pleasing grief and mournful joy, my spirit now is filled that
I should such a life destroy. yet live by him I killed. Oh may God give you the sweet
blessed revelation of his son and his accomplishment of redemption
and cause you this day to live by him who bore your sins upon
the curse tree. As God will enable me I've got
a message for you. I pray he'll enable me to preach
it. I want to talk to you about the sufferings of our Savior. I want to talk to you about them,
but not explain them. I can't do that. Not give you
understanding in them, I can't do that. But I want to talk to
you about the sufferings of our Savior, the sufferings of his
body, the sufferings of his heart and the sufferings of his soul
I don't know what hell is and I don't know what hell is or
where it is but I know this this book this book speaks of a place
called hell a place of everlasting torment
where unbelieving rebels who live and die with their fist
in God's face will suffer the horrid wrath of God forever. Torments in their body, in their
heart, and in their soul. Your heart is enmity against
God. your body is the instrument by
which you work out that enmity and your soul is the seat of
your despising God Almighty and having sinned against God all
the days of your life in your heart, in your body and with
your soul You will suffer the everlasting torment of God's
indescribable wrath in hell, in your body, in your heart,
and in your soul. As I said a moment ago, I don't
know what hell is and I don't want to know. I don't want to
know. Sometimes I will get calls from
folks who've heard a message or heard me on the radio or something
I'll get an email or a letter and say are you a hellfire damnation
preacher? And I think why on earth would
that excite you? I don't I don't want to know
what hell is But I know this Hell is a place of separation Separation from life and God
and good. Separation. Separation from everything
desirable. Place of horrible, horrible isolation. Unimaginable isolation. Multitudes, untold multitudes
from all the ages of humanity cast into hell and everyone in
the midst of the horrible throne of the ungodly in utter isolation. It's a place called a lake of
fire. Do you believe the fires of hell
are real? Far more real than any fire you've ever seen in
a steel mill. Far more real. Far more real. Fire that's unquenchable. Fire
described as a worm that dies not. And a fire that's unquenchable. Fires, whether that literal fire
or not, it doesn't really matter. Fire far more real than any literal
fire you can imagine. Hell is a place of darkness.
Outer darkness. darkness of mind, darkness of
heart, darkness of soul, darkness, darkness, and a place of torment, indescribable just torment, not
torments of the addictiveness to give pleasure
to God. For the death of a man can never
give pleasure to God. Only the death of the God-man
pleased God. Only the death of the God-man
satisfied God's justice. Hell is a place of endless, everlasting,
just, indescribable torment for your body, your heart, and your
soul. And I know this, in order to
redeem and save his people from their sins, It was necessary
that the Lord Jesus Christ, He who is God the Son, come into
this world in a body, a real human body. with a real human
heart and a real human soul and that he suffer all the horrid
wrath of God's holy law and justice to the full extremity of God's
wrath until justice was satisfied in his body in his heart and
in his soul That's what Isaiah describes for us in Isaiah 53
that your pastor read for us a little while ago. It's hard
to imagine that this prophecy of Isaiah was written by a man
who lived 750 years before Christ came into
the world. This prophecy right here, what
we just read, was written 750 years before Christ came into
the world. I defy all the infidels of the
world to explain the existence of this one chapter in Holy Scripture
by any means except the word which the Apostle Peter wrote
by divine inspiration, holy men of God spake as they were moved
by the Holy Ghost. This book is the inspired, inerrant,
perfect word of God. It is the inspired, inerrant,
perfect word of God. That's why this book and this
book alone is our creed. This book and this book alone
is our confession of faith. This book and this book alone
is authoritative in the church and kingdom of God. The book
of Isaiah is quoted frequently in the New Testament. Isaiah
53 is quoted more often than any other portion of all the
Old Testament scriptures. Why? Because Isaiah 53 gives
us a picture of what transpired at Calvary written by a man who
lived almost a millennium before it happened. But as you read
this chapter, It looks like you're reading that which a man wrote
down who was an eyewitness of what happened. It looks like
it was written by a man who was standing there and observed it
all. It cannot be understood except by the inspiration of
God the Holy Spirit. When we say the Word of God is
inspired, it is God breathed. Now let me tell you exactly what
that means. That means that when Isaiah penned
Isaiah's prophecy, when Paul penned the book of Romans, when
Mark penned the gospel of Mark, when John penned the gospel of
John, 1st, 2nd, 3rd John, the book of Revelation, true of all
the prophets, Amos, Joel, all of them, all of them, God the
Holy Spirit guided the pen and they wrote exactly the letter
he dictated. But he did something marvelous.
He did something marvelous. He used the character and personality
of each penman of scripture so that as you read Paul's writings
Looks like Paul's writing to me. I mean, it's as obvious as
it can be. When you read John, that's just
what you expect John to say. Some of you have read commentaries,
things I've written, and I've had folks tell me all the time,
and I'm glad it's this way, so I can almost hear you talking
when you write. You write just like you talk. That's just the
way it is. Only the things that I'm inspired
to do, I'm kind of, I hope, moved and directed by the Spirit of
God to do, but it's full of mistakes. It's full of mistakes. I make
grammatical mistakes. I have even made doctrinal mistakes
that had to be corrected. I make some mistakes, not the
penman of Holy Scripture. God the Holy Spirit gives us
his word using men of like passions as we are, and yet gives us his
very perfect, absolute, infallible word. And that's what we have
before us now. Let's see what God the Holy Ghost
here tells us about our Savior's sufferings. First, look at verse
14 of chapter 52. When you read Isaiah 53, I urge
you always begin in chapter 52 at verse 13, where Jehovah begins
to describe my servant, the Lord Jesus Christ, God's righteous
servant. Chapter and verse divisions were not given by inspiration.
They were added by our translators, and they're convenient to help
us remember scripture, help us find scripture, but sometimes
they imply a break where there shouldn't be one. And there shouldn't
be any break between Isaiah 52, 13 and the end of chapter 53
at verse 12. In verse 14, the prophet describes
something of our Savior's sufferings in his body. As many were astonied
at thee. Astonied at thee. That's a good
old English word. We modern translators translate
it astonished or astounded, but the word Astoned. That's a better
translation. Folks saw him and the sight was
so shocking it was like they just turned to stone. Who can describe this? As many
as were astoned at thee, his visage was so marred more than
any man. and his form more than the sons
of men. If you have any of those idolatrous
pictures that are supposed to represent the Lord Jesus Christ
in your possession, I suggest that you burn them. And they
are idolatrous. And all of them represent our
Savior as some kind of a light-wristed, lip-wristed fellow like the loafers
Just a tad effeminate, all of them do. And none of them are
in any way descriptive of our Savior. Even pictures supposed
to represent him hanging on the cross. I promise you, I promise
you, if an artist could paint a picture of what Isaiah here
describes, you wouldn't have it hanging in your bedroom. And
you wouldn't have it hanging over your kitchen table. You'd
be more likely to take a picture of a man mutilated on a battlefield,
dead, just blood dried on him and his body so mutilated you
couldn't tell it was a man. Looks like just a piece of meat
rotted in the field and hang that up there over your dinner
table. Our Lord Jesus suffered so in his body that none could
look upon him. No man can read the sufferings
of our Savior and not be astonished. Astonished that any man could
inflict such barbaric cruelty upon another. And even more astonished
that any man could endure such agony. When we realize that the
one who suffered at Calvary 2,000 years ago is not just a man,
but man who is God. the sufferings of his body even
become even more astonishing. Ever remember that he who suffered
in our room instead, that sufferer that Isaiah describes here is
both God and man. Otherwise, his sufferings would
be of no benefit to anyone. Man sinned. so man must suffer
man sinned so man must die a mere animal sacrifice could not put
away sin all the sacrifices of the Old Testament were but pictures
declaring to sinners there's one coming who can put away sin
but those sacrifices were repeated day after day after day month
after month after month year after year after year and every
time a man bought a sacrifice he was saying this can't take
away sin I've got to bring another sacrifice until he comes who
can take away sin no animal sacrifice can put away sin no angel could
put away sin no work performed by man can put away sin only
he who is the innocent holy God man can put away sin man alone
Man alone can't redeem. Man alone, man alone can't save. Man alone can't satisfy God. Our Lord Jesus must be God in
human flesh. God in human flesh, altogether
God. And altogether man in one glorious
person. I have said, and sometimes mistakenly
say, our Lord assumed our humanity. That's not accurate. Our Lord
took our humanity into union with his divinity. That's not
accurate. The Word of God says the Word
was made flesh. God became a man and never ceased
to be God. This one who died in our stead
is God in the flesh. You see, man could not satisfy
and God could not die, but the God-man both died and satisfied. The fact that Jesus Christ is
God declares that his sufferings and his death are of infinite
efficacy and infinite merit before God Almighty so that all he did
when he died, all he intended to do was fully accomplished. I will say this again probably
before I get done on purpose. I said to Brother Terry the other
night, we were chatting a little bit, and he's asked me about
things in Europe, lots of folks who claim to believe the gospel,
who claim to believe the gospel of God's grace, are running as
fast as they can to get away from any way identifying themselves
as believing in limited atonement. And I said to Terry, I can bend
over backwards and do about everything I can to get along with a fella
until he gets here. Limited atonement is the issue
of the gospel if Christ died for folks in hell His death ain't
worth spit That's exactly right. If Christ is a failure, he's
not a Savior. If Christ tried to do what he
failed to do, he's not God. The question really is not, for
whom did Christ die? The question is, who died? If
Christ is God, all that he intended to do, he fully accomplished.
Without question, I realize that many place far too much emphasis
on our Savior's physical sufferings. play him up in an emotional way
to try to get folks to feel sorry for poor little Jesus as if somehow
he died as the victim of circumstances. Oh no, our Savior, the one we
worship, the one to whom we trust our souls, he who bled and died
in our stead at Calvary did not die as the helpless victim of
circumstances, he died as the God of the circumstances. He
was fully in charge. It is he who gave strength to
the men who nailed him to the tree. It is he who made the tree
from which the cross was made on which he hung. He is God over
all and blessed forever. When he stood before Pilate,
he said, you wouldn't have any power over me if my father didn't
give it to you. I can call him right now and
he'd send a legion of angels to deliver me. Our Savior said
when he was going to the cursed tree, weep not for me, but weep
for yourselves and for your children. So it is entirely possible to
place too much emphasis on the physical sufferings of Christ
and stir men's emotions and try to get folks emotionally stirred
up and get them religious for that reason. But the physical
sufferings of our Lord are written out in great detail by Matthew,
Mark, Luke, and John, by the pen of divine inspiration for
our learning, for our admonition, for our consolation, and for
our hope. They're described here in Isaiah
53, and they're described in Psalm 22. They're described in
many places in the Old Testament scriptures because God the Holy
Ghost determined that we should understand that our Savior really
did suffer as a man, as a man. On the night of the Passover
supper, when our Savior instituted what we call the Lord's Supper,
breaking bread and drinking wine and praying and singing with
his disciples, an all-night vigil began. The Lord broke bread with
Judas and the disciples. I could preach a sermon on that.
As a matter of fact, I have. Folks get real good, you know,
in religion. And they think they're just fine,
fine examples and specimens of what Christianity ought to be.
I don't know anybody to say that. Did you ever hear somebody say,
I couldn't go to church with a fellow like that? I've had folks come to me and
say, I can't continue to worship you as long as they come. I can't
go to church with folks like that. I can't go to church with
folks like that. I had a lady come one time who wanted to have
me put folks in church out because they were attending a restaurant
at a Saturday night, what do they call them, square dance. Do you know those folks over
there serve beer at their square dance? And there's square dance
on Saturday night. I can't go to church with folks like that.
In other words, you're better than the Son of God. He ate bread
with Judas and didn't say a word about it. Our Lord Jesus established
the supper and that was followed by Judas going out and arranging
to betray him for 30 pieces of silver. And our Lord gave his
final discourse. Sometime when you have an opportunity
to read slowly and carefully, sit down and read John chapters
14, 15, and 16 all at one sitting. That's all one sermon. Our Lord
gave us that one sermon to his disciples in John 14. He speaks
of trusting him and He speaks in chapter 15 of the true vine,
and him being the true vine, and us being branches in him.
In chapter 16, he speaks of the coming of God, the Holy Ghost,
the Comforter, who would reprove us of sin, of righteousness,
and of judgment. And then in chapter 17, we have
his marvelous high priestly prayer, where the Son of God makes intercession
for his people, those who were then his disciples, and we who
would soon be his disciples. And our Lord said to his disciples
when he finished it all, because I said these things to you, sorrow
had filled your heart. Let not your heart be troubled.
You believe in God, believe also in me. In my father's house are
many mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And whither I go, you
cannot come for now. He said, but if I go away, I
will come again and prepare a place or receive you unto myself. And
then our Lord Jesus says, and where I am, there you also will
be. And then the story continues.
We piece it together with Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and John. Judas
led a band of soldiers and arrested him in Gethsemane. The Lord Jesus stepped forward. It's a remarkable picture. Here
Judas comes. with a whole band of Roman soldiers. And the master takes the initiative. He takes the initiative as if
to say, now fellas, watch this now, I'm in control. This is
my work, this is what I came to do. He said to those soldiers,
who are y'all looking for? Whom seek ye? And they said,
Jesus of Nazareth. And he said, I am. They fell away like dead men.
He said, so that you understand who you're dealing with, I am. I am the eternal Jehovah. I am he who spoke to Moses in
the bush. And then he raised them up again. And he said, now, who did you
say you were looking for? I like to picture things. I can almost picture this. How are we gonna get out of this?
We're looking for Jesus of Nazareth. We didn't come to deal with you.
We're looking for Jesus of Nazareth. And he said, I am he. If you
seek me, let these go their way. So the son of God speaks to Moses
in the law. Who are you looking for? Who
are you looking for? Looking for one to punish for
sin. Who you're looking for? Looking
for what? Guilty before God. Who you're looking for? Looking
for one to satisfy divine justice. He says to the law, he says to
Moses, I am he. If you want me, you can have
me, but you gotta let my people go. Gotta let my people, let
these go free. And then our Lord being arrested
was arraigned before Annas and then before Caiaphas and then
before the Sanhedrin. And then the Lord was taken by
the soldiers to Pontius Pilate. Pilate sent him to Herod and
the ruler of Galilee. And Herod sent him back to Pilate.
And those two fellows who had always hated each other became
friends. And then at last, Pilate condemned the Son of God to be
crucified. He gave him into the hands of
cruel, barbaric, hardened Roman soldiers. And this is what the
scripture describes Pilate's act as being. I'm looking for words with which
to sufficiently condemn, with which to sufficiently show
my contempt. Words with which to sufficiently
display my anger at the hellish, damning doctrine of man's free
will. Here they are. This is what Pilate
did. This is what Pilate did. Pilate
delivered Jesus to their will. And from that Until you hear
our Lord Jesus cry, it is finished. That's a picture of your free
will. That's a picture of what Larry
Chris would do with God if he could. That's a picture of what
Shelby Faulkner would do with God if she could. That's a picture
of what I would do with God if I could. That's a picture of
what man by his free will would do with God because man hates
God and won't have Him. Our Lord was delivered to those
soldiers and they mocked him and beat him. They stripped him
naked and put a piece of purple cloth on his back and a reed
scepter in his hand and smote him and said, who hit you? Let's
see, let's see if you can tell, you're the king? Hail King of
the Jews! And laughed at him and beat him
and beat him and beat him. And then they placed the cross
on his back and parade him through the streets of Jerusalem. up
to the hill of Calvary. Calvary is not the peaceful,
serenic place that you have portrayed in artwork. Calvary was Jerusalem's
garbage dump. That's where they took the garbage.
It was called the place of the skull because folks who were
paupers and no one would bury them would be taken out there
and just covered over with enough dirt to keep them from having
to smell their bodies and bones and skulls would be stinking
out everywhere. It was an ugly, ugly, dirty, dirty place. And
the soldiers took this poor carpenter's son out to Calvary where they
had prepared a hole and they stretched him out upon the cross
and picked him up nailed to that tree and dropped
his body in that socket. Oh, what pain. Our Lord hung there with fever
wracking his body. He cried, I thirst, and gave
him gall. Mingled with myrrh. But he would do nothing to prolong
his agony and sufferings. He would do nothing to prolong
his life. He had come here to suffer and
die at precisely that hour. And so he refused to drink of
that intoxicating drink that would cause him to live a little
longer. And he burns with fever and hangs
there in excruciating pain. But that isn't sufficient. Look at Isaiah 53 verse 3. Our Lord Jesus suffered in his
heart. He is despised and rejected of
men. A man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. All his life long despised and
rejected of men. All his life long, a man of sorrows
and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces
from him. He was despised, and we thought
that's just what he deserved. We esteemed him not. Our Lord
was outcast by men, betrayed by his friend, denied by his
disciple, forsaken by all his companions, tortured, nailed
to the cursed tree. And he cried, reproach hath broken
mine heart in Psalm 69. His heart was broken, broken
for me. And I want to know something
about that too. We read here that he's despised and rejected
of men. All of his countrymen, his own
brothers thought he was mad. They said he's lost his mind. Call somebody, put him away.
He's a madman. People have idea that our Lord
Jesus somehow or another was born with a halo around his head,
an aura, a glow about his body. You could just look at him and
tell he was special. Nobody knew he was special. Nobody esteemed him. His own
brethren considered him a lunatic. There was no room for the son
of God in the inn or in the streets of this world. No room for him
in their temple, no room for him in their religious world.
Plenty of room for his miracles, plenty of room for his acts of
mercy, plenty of room for the loaves and fishes he provided,
but none for him, none for his doctrine, a man of sorrows, acquainted
with grief. I'm certain that when the apostle
Paul wrote about His trouble 2nd Corinthians chapter 4 from
from the day Pastor that God saved him that man suffered for
it From the day God saved him. I mean he he was shipwrecked.
He was beaten. He was in prison He was left
for dead. He was stoned from the day God saved him He had
nothing but trouble as a result of it, and then he said but our
light afflictions light afflictions, our featherweight
troubles. Hear me children of God, will
you listen to me now? Whatever it is that weighs most
heavily on your heart, whatever it is that causes you most to
weep, Whatever it is that is most aggravating to you is summed
up in those two words, our light afflictions. When you consider
what the Son of God suffered for you. I've never known any sorrow like
your sorrow. I've never known any pain like
his pain. I've never known any adversity
like his adversity. Our Lord Jesus endured trials
and temptations, the slanders of men, the betrayal of a friend,
misrepresentation by folks who knew better. He knew what it
was to preach to folks for three and a half years. Perfect preacher,
perfect preacher. The best preacher ever was, and
nobody paid attention to him. You ever preach to folks and
somebody asks you a question and you think, didn't you hear
what I just said? Didn't you hear that? He preached
to somebody for 30 years and they come and ask him a question. So does nobody pay any attention?
Our Lord preached to folks for three and a half years and they
didn't understand most of what he said. Didn't understand most
of it. Our Savior looked at the souls
of men and he saw Jerusalem. Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem. Thou that killest the prophets,
and stonest them that are sinning unto thee, how oft would I have
gathered thy children together as a hen gathereth her chickens
under her wings, and you would not. And he was moved with compassion. He saw Martha and Mary weeping
at the tomb, and the Lord Jesus wept with them. Our Lord Jesus
saw the sorrows of his friends and entered into their sorrows.
and then in anticipation of being made sin for us. Our Lord went
to Gethsemane and prayed, and prayed again,
and prayed the same words a third time. We saw that last night. Paul said, I asked the Lord three
times, take this from me. The Lord Jesus prayed three times,
three times. Father, if it be possible, let
this cup pass from me. What was that? What was that? Was he asking that the Father
prevent him from dying? No. He created the world so that
he could die a Calvary. He created the world so that
he could die at Calvary. And everything done in human
history up to that point in time was done to accomplish this event
of which we read here in Isaiah 53. No, he's not asking God to
keep him from dying. He's anticipating what only his
Holy soul could understand. He's about to be made sin. He's about to be made sin. The
only man, John, who ever knew what sin is, this man's God. He's about to be made sin. If you could find a chaste virgin
young lady, who knew what it was to be a
lady and cherished her virginity. If you could find such and take
her and put her into a cell with the most hardened, vicious criminals
the world's ever known and say you have your way with her. Just
if you could picture her shock the terror that sees her soul.
You haven't come close to getting a picture of this. Our Lord is
about to be made sin and his heart broke. His heart ruptured
at him. He sweat as it were great drops
of blood falling to the ground. You've heard of broken heart
syndrome. It's a true medical condition.
We have a lady in our congregation, she fell over the steering wheel
right beside the EMS station in Danville, and they got there
just a matter of seconds, resuscitated her, resuscitated her three or
four times, and we got to the hospital. Shelby and I stopped
by to visit her. I think we'd been out of the country. We stopped
by to visit her that night. The doctor was asking her husband
Mark. Mr. Henson said, has your wife
lost someone dear to her? Son? Daughter? Mother? Father? Someone dear to her just recently?
He said, oh no, no. And they were asking for a reason.
They said, your wife seems to have broken heart syndrome. People really do die of a broken
heart. Our Savior anticipated my reproaches
falling on him and he broke out into a sweat of blood and cried
oh my father if it be possible let this cup pass from me but
not my will your will be done and our Lord suffered how he
suffered for us. He became the song of drunkards
and harlots. Men spit on his face. Peter denied
him, cussed him. I don't know the man. We hid,
as it were, our faces from him. The marginal translation reads,
it might be translated this way, he hid, as it were, his face
from us as if he wouldn't allow us to see it. He was despised
and we esteemed him not and we never would esteem him had he
not caused us to know him. All these things tormented our
Savior's heart. And yet, even when his heart
broke with reproach and shame, his heart was on us. Read the
69th Psalm. We won't do it now, but you read
that at home. All the while he's suffering, as reproach breaks
his heart, he says, oh God, don't let my people be ashamed for
my sake. He said, you know my foolishness, you know my sins.
Because for thy sake I have borne the reproach, and the shame hath
covered my face. The reproaches of them that reproach
thee have fallen upon me. I'm in trouble, help me speedily,
but don't let my people be ashamed because of me. Reproach has broken
my heart. I'm full of heaviness, but don't
let my shame and my reproach cause my people to be ashamed
of me. And then there's something more. Look at Isaiah 53.10. it pleased the Lord to bruise him he hath put him to grief
when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin when thou
shalt make his soul an offering for sin if you want to understand
exactly what that means you'll find the translation given in
the Greek text of as well as the English text of 2 Corinthians
5 21, the translation given by God the Holy Ghost is this. He
hath made him sin for us. When you, O Jehovah, make him
sin, he shall see his sin. He shall prolong his days, and
the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hands. he shall
see the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied and by his
knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many for he shall
bear their iniquities here the Spirit of God tells us something
about the soul of his sufferings I can understand something of
physical agony I can understand something, something of his broken
heart, but of the sufferings of his
soul, I have no comprehension. I understand
the biblical doctrine of atonement. I understand the picture of the
Passover lamb. I understand the doctrine of
substitution, but the sufferings of our Savior in his soul. I can't begin to understand,
and I certainly can't explain. All I can do is attempt to declare
it to you in the language of Holy Scripture so that we can
enter into something of this thing in our own experience of
His grace. Much we talk of Jesus' blood,
but how little is understood. of his suffering so intense,
angels have no perfect sense. Who can rightly comprehend their
beginning or their end? Tis to God and God alone that
their weight is fully known. See the suffering, son of God,
panting, groaning, sweating blood, boundless depths of love divine. Jesus, what a love was thine. He who knew no sin was made sin. Made sin. Made sin. Wonderously, mysteriously,
inexplicably made sin. Made sin. Sin was imputed to
him because he was made sin. He was made sin. People had the
idea that somehow our Lord was made sin like the goat was made
sin. And Avery laid his hands on that
goat and transferred ceremonially the sins of the people to that
goat. But that goat didn't feel a thing. That goat didn't know what it
was to be made sin. That was just a picture. God
did not pretend that our Savior was made sin. He who knew no
sin was made sin. Completely, fully, absolutely, He never ceased to be God, the
Holy One, the Holy Lamb of God, but he's made sin. So much so
that he cries to his father, the reproaches of them that reproach
thee have fallen on me. Thou knowest my foolishness,
my guiltiness, O God, is not hidden from you, and reproach
has broken my heart. Pretense wouldn't break his heart. He was made sin Made all that
you are by nature All that you keep hidden from
me and everybody else All that you wouldn't dare confess
to your wife or your husband All that causes you to tremble
at night when you think about meeting God in judgment. Christ
was made sin. Now listen to these next two
words, Pete, and just rejoice for us. For us. For sinners. For sinners who deserve God's
wrath. For sinners who've earned God's
justice. For sinners who should perish
forever in hell. And when he was made sin, he
was forsaken of his father. My God, my God. Why hast thou forsaken me? and he answers his own question,
thou art of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. And when our
Savior was made sin, the Holy Lord God cried awake, O sword,
against the man that is my fellow smite and slay the shepherd and
the Lord Jesus. Pulls the sword of justice into
his holy soul. and swallows it up so thoroughly that God says to
Jacob fury is not in me fury is not in me and here I am now
here I am now he was made sin for us that we might be made
the righteousness of God in him now watch me watch me oh God
help you to hear this God help you to get it. He who was completely, absolutely
made to be all that I am and suffered all the wrath of God
in my stead has by God's free grace made me to be the righteousness
of God in him. made me to be all that he is. So much so that God in heaven, in all his
purity, holiness, justice, and truth, never, never, never, never, never,
has a reason to frown on me, be displeased with me, or be
angry with me. Never. Never. I'm accepted in
him. Well pleasing to God in him. And if that's not enough, when
he gets done, when he gets done, and I stand before God, he's
going to look at me. Louie do you trust the Son of
God? Do you trust Him? He's going to look at you, you. Louie Cates, who would ever have
thought such a thing? I just want to go say, well done
thou good and faithful servant. Come inherit the kingdom prepared
for you before the world began and then and then He's going
to present us faultless before the presence of His glory with
exceeding joy. Isn't that amazing? Who for the joy set before Him
endured the cross, despises Him. What was it that caused Him to
come into this world? What was it that caused him to
endure all the sorrow and agony and pain and grief of humanity? What was it that caused him to
endure all the wrath of God that he made sin for us? The joy,
the joyous prospect, all the joy of presenting all the host
of God's elect before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. Now believe on the Son of God
and go home rejoicing to know He who knew no sin was made sin
for you that He might make you the righteousness of God in Him. Ah.