Worthy of all acceptation. It's
worthy to be accepted by all, and it's worthy to be accepted
in its entirety. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. How do I know He saved me? I'm a sinner. If I meet the qualification
of who He came to save, then I can have hope that his work
of salvation was for me. Tom's going to come lead us in
number 199. Is that right? The number 199? Let's stand together. Sinners Jesus will receive Sound
this word of grace to all Who the heavenly pathway leave All
who linger, all who fall Sing it o'er again. Christ receiveth sinful
men. Make the message clear and plain. Christ receiveth Come and He will give you rest. Trust Him for His word is plain. He will take the sinful last. Christ receiveth sinful men. Sing it o'er and o'er again. Christ receiveth sinful men. Make the message clear and plain,
Christ receiveth sinful men. Now my heart condemns me not,
pure before the law I stand. He who cleansed me from all spot,
satisfied its last demand, sing it o'er. and or again Christ
receive a sinful man make the message clear and plain Christ
receive a sinful man Christ receiveth sinful men,
even me with all my sin. Purged from every spot and stain,
heaven with Him I enter in. Sing it o'er and o'er again. Christ, receive the sinful man. Make the message clear and plain. Christ, receive the sinful man. Please be seated. The book of Malachi chapter 3. The last book of the Old Testament. Malachi chapter 3 and verse 13. As we approach the Old Testament,
you're never going to understand it without knowing two things.
Number one, it's all about Christ. Number two, the Gospel has never
changed. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday,
today, and forever. The Gospel was presented to Adam
in this form. You must believe that the seed
of the woman will bruise the head of the serpent, and the
serpent will bruise his heel. Job said, I believe that my Redeemer
liveth. The latter days shall stand upon
the earth. The New Testament says, if thou
shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in
His heart that God has raised Him from the dead, thou shalt
be saved. It's all about Christ, and the Gospel has never changed.
Malachi 3. Your words have been stout against
me, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, what have we spoken
so much against thee? Ye have said, it is vain to serve
God. And what profit is it that we
have kept His ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully
before the Lord of hosts? And now we call the proud happy,
yea, they that work wickedness are set up. Yea, they that tempt
God are even delivered. Then they that feared the Lord
spake often one to another, and the Lord hearkened and heard
it. And a book of remembrance was written before Him for them
that feared the Lord and that thought upon His name. And they
shall be Mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day, when I
make up My jewels, and I will spare them as a man spareth his
own son that serveth him. Then shall you return and discern
between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth
God and him that serveth him not. Because behold, the day
cometh that shall burn as an oven, and all the proud, yea,
and all that do wickedly shall be stubble. and the day that
cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, and it will
leave them neither root nor branch. But unto you that fear My name
shall the Son of Righteousness arise with healing in His wings,
and you shall go forth and grow up as calves of the stall." Father, we thank You for the
fear that You put into our hearts toward You, Father. It's not
being afraid of You, Father, but it's a respect for the Lord
of glory. It's a confidence, Father, that
You have the grace and the strength to bring everything that You
said come to pass. That You will bring us through
the last day, Father, and take us home to glory with the Lord
Jesus Christ. Open our eyes to the Scriptures,
Father, and open our hearts to the preaching. Be with Greg this
morning as he brings a message, Father. Give him grace to present
the Word of God and give us a hearing ear, Father, and a soft heart.
We ask these things in Jesus' name, Amen. Let's all stand together. We'll
sing the hymn that's found on the back of your bulletin. In thy name, O Lord assembling,
we thy people now draw near. Teach us to rejoice with trembling,
Speak and let Thy servants hear. Savior, follow with Thy blessings,
Truth delivered in Thy name. Thus the Word, Thy power possessing,
Shall declare from whence it came. Let thy word be food to
nourish those whom thou hast made thine own. Let thy people's
graces flourish and the glory thine alone. God of our salvation,
hear us. Bless, oh bless us, ere we go. When we join the world, be near
us. Keep us safe from every foe. Please be seated. Will you open your Bibles with
me to Isaiah chapter 53? You say, well, I thought we were
in chapter 41, or 51. We were. We're going to skip
ahead a little bit this morning. Isaiah chapter 53. I've titled this message, The
Wounds of Christ. The Wounds of Christ. Where exactly on His body was
the Lord Jesus Christ wounded, and why was He wounded in those
particular places? When we go to be with the Lord,
and see Him as He is, and are made like Him, one thing that
I know for sure that's going to distinguish Him from us are
the scars of those wounds. And we will know that those scars
are the only reason that we're in heaven. We cannot have in heaven any
remembrance of what caused those scars. We'll not remember our sin. We'll
not know anything about it. But we'll know that those scars
are the reason we're there. Now, the first question I want
to ask in considering the scars, the wounds of the Lord Jesus
Christ, is who inflicted those wounds? You say, well, the Romans
did. No. No, the scripture says in verse
10 of Isaiah chapter 53, yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
him. God the Father and God the Son
entered into a covenant before time ever began. Michael, you
spoke of this Wednesday night. The Lord Jesus Christ struck
hands with the Father and agreed to be the surety for His people,
agreed to do everything necessary to accomplish the salvation of
God's elect. The Father knew that that was
going to require God Almighty bruising His own Son inflicting
Him with the wounds of death for the sins of His people. And so, yes, it was the Romans
that actually put their hand to the hammer and the sword and
the crowns of thorn and the whip of nine tails, the cat of nine
tails, but it was all of the Father. It was God Almighty that
sheathed the sword of his own divine justice into the heart
of his own son on Calvary's cross. God was doing business with God. God was not making an offer of
salvation for us to reject or accept. The Lord Jesus Christ
was accomplishing everything that he had agreed with the Father
in that covenant to save his people. And all his people were
saved. All of them were. Religious people
will talk about when they got saved. We were saved in the covenant
of grace when God chose a particular people and wrote their names
in the land's book of life before time ever began. We were saved
when the Lord Jesus Christ bowed his mighty head on Calvary's
cross and said, it is finished. We are saved in our experience. when God the Holy Spirit gives
us faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and we continue
to be saved day by day as we continue to come to Him for all
the hope of our salvation and one day, one day we shall be
saved. Now everyone that Christ died
for was saved, is saved. You might say, Well, how do I
know for sure that He died for me? That's a pretty important
question. And the Lord has given us a very
simple and clear way to determine whether or not He died for me. Romans chapter 5 verse 6, In
that while we were yet Without strength, Christ died for the
ungodly. So two questions. Are you without
strength to save yourself? Don't mean you've got you're
gonna take the first step. You're gonna make a decision.
You're gonna pray a prayer You're gonna do your part and and then
you're gonna obligate God to do his part. No, you are without
Strength you have no ability whatsoever to save yourself or
to make any contribution to your salvation Secondly, you're ungodly
There's no point of comparison between you and God. God is holy, separate from sinners. You're unholy, sinful, unrighteous,
completely dependent upon the Lord Jesus Christ to stand in
your stead before God and represent you for all the hope of your
salvation. In that while we were yet without
strength, Christ died for the ungodly. If you're without strength
and you're ungodly, Christ died for you. Because the natural
man's not that way. He's not that way. Now, why was the Lord Jesus Christ
wounded exactly where He was wounded? Two answers to that question.
for God to show us His holy hatred for sin, and to satisfy His holy
justice by bruising His Son at the very place where our sin
manifests itself. Where was the Lord bruised? We know that God bruised Him.
The covenant of grace was being fulfilled, and it was being fulfilled
in order to save His people. And everyone that Christ died
for was saved. Turn with me back to our text
and let's begin reading at verse 4. Surely, surely there can be
no question about it, What else can we say? God says
it's sure. Everybody in the world has got
an opinion about something, don't they? They're talking heads every
time we turn around. Everybody's got something to
say. God's speaking here, and He says, surely. He, the Lord
Jesus Christ, hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken,
smitten of God, and afflicted. He was stricken. He was smitten
of God. He was afflicted for the griefs
that we put on him. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him and by his stripes, we are. Didn't say by his stripes,
we can be healed. We might be healed, we shall
be healed. By his stripes, we are healed. When it pleased God
to bruise the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's cross, the next
passage in Isaiah 53 says, God saw the travail of his soul and
was satisfied. God was pleased. His justice
was satisfied. Sin was put away. And by the
stripes that the Lord Jesus Christ suffered in the wounds that the
father inflicted upon him, we are healed. Nothing you can do
Nothing you can do to add to what he's done Nothing you can
do to put away your sin. That's what it means to be without
strength All we like sheep have gone astray
every one of us are in the same boat every single one of us So
we don't know how far I've gone astray You've gone astray a whole
lot further than you think you have All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his
own way. There is a way that seems right
unto man. What is the way that seems right
unto man? That God is expecting me to bring
something to the table of salvation. That's the way that seems right
to man. I've got to bring my free will.
I've got to bring my good works. I've got to bring my knowledge.
I've got to bring my commitment. I've got to bring something.
That is the way that seems right unto man. And God says in the
end, that way leads to death. There's no hope of salvation
in man's way. And that's the reason God said,
my ways are not your ways. They're not your ways. As the
heavens are high above the earth, so are my ways above your ways. and the Lord. The Lord. hath laid on him the
iniquity of us all." All the sins of all of God's people were
born on the Lord Jesus Christ as He suspended between heaven
and earth, bearing the full punishment of God's justice to put those
sins away once and for all by the sacrifice of Himself. What
are you going to do to add to that? What are you going to do
to make that work for you? What did Paul say in Romans chapter
10? Say not in your heart, what can I do to bring Christ down
from above? Perish the thought. Don't even
think it. What can I do to make what Christ did work for me?
Nothing. Why? Because what he did worked. It's finished. It's over. It's accomplished. It's done.
There's nothing left to be done. He's not waiting on you to give
him permission to save you. He's already saved you. He was oppressed and he
was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. Why didn't he
open his mouth? Well, number one, he laid down
his life willingly. He was fulfilling that promise
that he had made to his father. And he had no objection in fulfilling
that promise. Number two, he had no defense.
He was guilty before God. Don't you love how this chapter
begins? Who hath believed our report? And what we're talking
about right now, most folks don't believe it. Why? Because it robs them of their
glory. It robs them of their strength.
It leaves them without anything to do. And men in their pride
want to do something. Who hath believed our report?
Now I know in the King James, the second half of verse 1 is
a question, but in fact, the second half of verse 1 is the
answer to the first half of verse 1. who have believed, I report,
to whom the arm of the Lord is revealed. That's who's believed
it. Everyone that the Lord Jesus
Christ, he's the arm of the Lord, everyone that he's revealed to
believes God. They can't not believe God. You know where that leaves me
and you? Lord, reveal yourself to me. Lord, open the eyes of
my understanding. Lord, unstop my ears. Lord, take
out my heart of stone and put in a heart of flesh. God, give
me faith. I can't figure this out. I can't
come. I can't do anything. I'm without
strength. I'm ungodly. You're going to
have to make me come. Turn me, Lord, and I shall be
turned. 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 dumb, so he opened
not his mouth. Verse 10, yet it pleased the
Lord to bruise him. He, the Father, hath put him
to grief, when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. He, the Father, shall see his
seed, the Lord Jesus Christ, and he, the Father, shall prolong
his days, and the pleasure of the Father shall prosper in the
hands of the Lord Jesus Christ. He, The father shall see the
travail of the son's soul, and the father shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many, and he shall bear their iniquities."
Everyone that Christ died for stands justified before God. So everybody that Christ died
for, believer? Not yet, but they will be. They will be. God the Holy Spirit entered into
that covenant too. And he said, Father, I'll make
them willing in the day of my power. I'll cause them to come. I'll give them faith. And they
will believe. And everyone that Christ died
for, he's not gonna lose one of his sheep, is he? Not a single
one. They already stand justified
before God. All the sin's been put away.
Just a matter of time. That's why that verse in Romans
chapter 5 verse 6 says in that while we were yet without strength
in I left this out the first time I quoted it in due time
Christ died for the ungodly in the due time of the cross and
in the due time of your regeneration you discover that you were ungodly. Where were our Lord's wounds
afflicted, inflicted by the Father, and why in those particular places? Well, five places. On his back,
in his head, on his hands, on his feet, and in his heart. Those
are the five wounds that were spoken of in the scriptures.
The first thing they did was they stripped him of his clothes
and the Roman soldiers. Now in the Jewish punishment
it was 40 lashes minus one because the law said you couldn't whip
a man more than 40 times and they didn't want to break the
law so they would only whip him 39 times. The Romans were not
subject to such a law. And so they would take a whip
that had sharpened pieces of bones on the end of it and they
would whip the victim sometimes till he died. Certainly to right
up to the time he was dead that the the the bones would be exposed
in his back listen to what God said in Psalm 129 I The plowers
plowed my back they made deep their furrows And then in Psalm in Isaiah chapter
50 I gave my back to the smiters what Paul say in Romans chapter
7 Oh wretched man that I am who
shall deliver me from the body of this death what do we bear
on our backs? what do we bear? we bear rotting
corpse a dead body You know, the amazing thing is that the
religious, the self-righteous religious will go around proudly
displaying the dead corpse on their back and say, look at my
corpse. Check out what I've done. And
the child of God can hardly stand the stench of it. And so the
Lord Jesus Christ gave his back to the smiters. Proverbs chapter 10 verse 13,
a rod is for the back of him that is void of understanding. The rod is for the back of him
that is void of understanding. You and I are void of understanding.
Unless God gives us understanding, we can't understand the gospel. We're the ones that are worthy
of that lashing. We're the ones that are worthy
of the rod. And the Lord Jesus Christ as our substitute took
the wrath of God for the flesh that we carry on our backs. In verse 29 of Proverbs 19, it
says that the stripes are for the backs of fools. That's what
we are. or I'm without understanding,
I'm a fool before God. And those stripes that the Lord
Jesus Christ suffered were in order to reveal the wickedness
and the deadness of my own flesh. Romans chapter 11, verse 19. Paul says, of the Jews, let their
eyes be darkened that they see not, and let them bow down their
backs. You see, the religious man carries
the burden of his flesh on his back, believing that he's somehow
pleasing God by that burden that he's carrying. He's not looking
to what the Lord Jesus Christ suffered. He's thinking that,
that's why the Lord said in Matthew chapter 11, come unto me all
ye that labor. You're laboring, you're carrying
us around on your back. And then he says, and are heavy
laden. My yoke is easy. My burden is
light. Learn of me. Find rest for your
soul in me. But the natural man carries his
burden, believing that somehow he's going to satisfy the demands
of God's justice. He's going to please God by the
burden that he's carrying. I can't tell you how many times
in my life I've had somebody, well, you know, I'm just carrying
my cross. I'm bearing my cross, carrying my burden. That's why
the Lord carried it. Bearing your cross means identifying
yourself in the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul said,
I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not
I, but the life that I now live in the flesh. I live by the faithfulness
of the Son of God who loved me and died for me. Christ suffered
the wounds of the Father on his back in order to put away the
sins of our back. The Lord said of the Pharisees
in Matthew chapter 23, they bind heavy burdens, grievous to be
born, and they lay them on men's shoulders, and they will not
lift one finger to lift them, to remove them. Now that's the
law. That's man-made religion. They
put the burden of responsibility for your salvation on your back,
and then they will not lift a finger. to relieve that burden. And what
I want to do is relieve that burden from you. You can't save yourself. You
can't get the burden off. What did Paul say after he said,
O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body
of this death? The next verse says, Thanks be to God, through
Christ Jesus I'm free. There is now therefore no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh
but after the Spirit. That's why the smiters smote
him on the back. That's why the Father made deep
the furrows of the plowers in the back of the Lord Jesus Christ
to deliver us from the burden of the law, the burden of our
own performance, the burden of sin, the burden of God's justice. Christ bore that for us. In Isaiah chapter 38, He cast
all our sins behind His back. Behind His back. So when you
see the wounds of the Lord Jesus Christ, you see those scars,
you know now what they're for. Then you'll know that the only
reason you're there is because of what He suffered for you.
The second wound that the Lord Jesus Christ suffered was when
they mocked him with a crown of thorns. The scripture says
they made, they plaited a crown, they pressed it on his brow,
and then they took a reed and beat it into his head until the
blood flowed freely. Why? Why was he, why was he,
his head His head and his hairs on his
head are white like wool in wisdom. And the raiment of his head,
I'm sorry, in Revelation, the Scripture gives a picture of
Christ and it's revealing the beauty of his head. And it says
his hair is white like wool, and it speaks of his wisdom,
and there's a rainbow over his head, speaking of his faithfulness
to keep his covenant promises. Here's the truth. You and I have
never, for one second, been able to have a holy thought. We just can't do it. We're not
capable. The Lord Jesus Christ never had
anything but holy thoughts. He loved the Lord God with all
of his heart and all of his mind all the time. All the time. And God says about your head
and my head, the whole head. Isaiah chapter
one, verse five, the whole head is sick. We talk about people being sick
in the head. God says every one of you are. Every one of you
is sick in the head. I had to be wounded in my head
to expose the sickness of your head, the holiness of my head. Jonah, who's clearly a picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ, when he was in the belly of the whale,
said, the weeds are wrapped around my head. Yet, I cried unto the
Father, I cried unto the Lord, and he heard my cry. Salvation
is of the Lord. What a picture of Christ. Jonah
spent three days and three nights in the belly of the whale and
was vomited out. brought forth and here he's got
reeds wrapped around his head. Psalm 38 verse 4, mine iniquities
are gone over my head as a heavy burden. And in Psalm 40 verse
12, mine iniquities have taken hold upon me. They are more than
the hairs of my head. Now that's the Lord Jesus Christ
talking about the iniquities that were placed upon him. God requires of me and you that
we have, that we love the Lord our God with all of our heart,
all of our minds, all of the time. And we've never been able
to do it one time. And the Lord Jesus Christ did
it all the time. And then when he bore our iniquities
and suffered our judgment, the father bruised him in his head. You know your heads that way,
don't you? Paul said in Romans chapter 7, when I would do good,
evil is ever present with me. Now the truth is that you and
I can't come to a place like this, open the word of God, ask
God to meet with us and speak to our hearts without us having
distracting thoughts and sometimes very evil thoughts. When I would
do good, I want to worship God. Evil is ever present with me. Why? Because I'm sick in the
head. Christ Jesus the Lord was wounded
by the Father in his head to put away once and for all all
those unholy thoughts. How do we start out that way?
God said you thought You thought that I was altogether as yourself.
You fashioned in your darkened imagination an idol that looked
like you. And then you called him God.
And God said, your thoughts are not my thoughts. As the heavens
are high above the earth, so are my thoughts above your thoughts.
You remember when Naaman came to the prophet to be healed of
his leprosy, and the prophet wouldn't even come out of the
house? And Naaman, the scripture says, became wroth. He was angry. I mean, this was the captain
of the host of the army of Syria. This is a powerful man next to
the king of Syria and the whole world. And he came to this little
prophet, Elisha. Elisha wouldn't even come out.
What Nehemen said, I thought, now that's where your problem
was, Nehemen. I thought the man of God would come out and he
would perform some ceremony and wave his hands in the air and
require something very special of me. I thought. You know, that's
our problem. Our problem is our thinking. We need one who's got perfect
thoughts all the time to stand in our stead before God. And
he was wounded in his head to put away the sins of our thoughts
so that now we can say, he has anointed my head with oil. My
cup runneth over. God's given me the grace. He's
given me the grace. I'm not able to have a holy thought
yet, but I do have the grace to think right. Why? Because
He's given me repentance. Repentance is not stopping sin. Repentance is having a changed
mind. When God takes out the heart of stone and puts in a
heart of flesh, He changes your mind. About what? He changes
your mind about who God is. He shows you that God's absolutely
holy and God's absolutely sovereign. You thought you could bring something
to the table, now you know that you're without strength. He shows
you what you are. A sinner. Unable. Ungodly. Unable to do anything. He shows you how it is that God
is pleased to remit your sins. Only through the sacrifice of
the Lord Jesus Christ, when I see the blood, I'll pass by you.
Changes your mind, gives you the mind of Christ. Why? Because Christ was wounded in
His head. He was wounded in His back. He was wounded in His hands.
Everything the Lord Jesus Christ touched was made perfect. When He came to a deaf man, put
His fingers in his ears, all of a sudden, Robert, he wasn't
like me and you. He heard perfectly everything.
When the Lord put his hands on a man's eyes, he had 20-20 vision. When he touched his tongue, he
loosed the string of his tongue and he was able to speak. When
the Lord went to that little 12-year-old girl's home, who
was dead, with grieving parents, and put his hand on her. And
he said, Damsel, arise. And his touch made her alive. He was holy, harmless, undefiled,
separate from sinners. Who can stand in the presence
of God? They which have clean hands and a pure heart. Now, contrary to his hands, Being
perfectly clean and holy before God, everything you and I touch,
we defile it. Everything we touch. That's why
God said, when you come before me and you make an altar and
you put a sacrifice on that altar, don't put your hand to the altar.
Don't touch it. Don't hew the stones. Don't try
to make it look good. Because as soon as you touch
it, because you touched it, you're going to defile it. And so the scripture says he
was pierced in his hands and in his feet. The Lord Jesus Christ
suffered the wounds of the father. Listen to Psalm 18 verse 20.
The Lord The Lord rewarded me according
to my righteousness, according to the cleanliness of my hands
hath he recompensed me, according to the cleanliness of my hands
in his eyesight. The Lord has rewarded me according
to the cleanliness of my hands in His eyesight. How clean are
your hands? That's why Christ was wounded
in His hands, to put away everything you ever touched and defiled.
His hands were clean, were perfect, were holy, and He was bruised
for our iniquities. The works of His hands, Psalm
111 verse 7, are verity and judgment. Our hands, the scripture says,
are quick to shed innocent blood, and that's what we did. That's
what we did. When the spirit of grace and
supplication comes upon the house of Israel and upon the inhabitants
of Jerusalem, they shall mourn after him whom they have pierced,
as one mourneth after his only son." You see, it was my sins,
it was what I've done with my hands that caused the Lord Jesus
Christ to be pierced in His holy hands when He bore my sins in
His body upon that tree. Revelation chapter 9 those who
are destroyed in the day of judgment. Here's what God says about them.
They Repented not of the works of their hands The unbeliever thinks that he's
done something good with his hands You know, he built something
for God and he stands back and he's proud of it and that's fine
when you make something physically speaking and You know, I build
something, I like to stand back and take a look and say, boy,
that looks pretty good. Oh, you build something for God
thinking that somehow you're going to earn favor with Him.
They repented not at the works of their own hands and they were
destroyed. Psalm 26 verse 9 says, Their
hands are full of bribes. Now that's what we are by nature,
we're trying to bribe God. Trying to bribe God. And sinners
just infect everything they touch. Jeremiah chapter 44 verse 8,
they provoked me to wrath with the works of their hands. The
works of our hands have provoked God to wrath. God's only pleased
with the works of one man's hands. And that's the hands of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And they were pierced when he
bore our iniquities and was bruised by his father. Fourthly, he was pierced in his
feet. In his feet. They pierced my
hands and my feet, the scripture says. How beautiful are the feet
of those who preach the gospel of peace and bring good tidings,
glad tidings of good things. That's Romans chapter 10 and
we often think of the gratitude that we have for the men that
God has called out to preach the gospel, but those men are
only pointing to the feet of Christ. His feet would be, my
feet not beautiful. I guarantee you they're not.
His feet were beautiful. When John saw the Lord Jesus
Christ in Revelation, he says, his feet were like fine brass
tried in a furnace. What do we have? Feet of clay.
Feet of clay which have taken us out of the way. We can't stand. We can't walk after God. we're
like the man at the gate called beautiful trying to get into
heaven and begging for alms and what Peter say silver and gold
have we none but such as we have we give unto thee in the name
of Jesus of Nazareth we command they stand and walk and immediately
the scripture says strength was given to his ankles and to his
feet and he leaped And for the first time in his life he was
able to go through that gate called beautiful and enter into
worship. He no longer crippled. The Lord
Jesus Christ was wounded in his beautiful feet. Mary sat at the feet of the Lord
Jesus, didn't she? And when Martha complained about
Mary not helping her, what did the Lord say to Martha? Martha,
Martha, you're encumbered with many things. Mary's chosen that
one thing needful. What is the one thing needful?
To sit at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. And God said to
the Lord Jesus Christ, Sit here at my right hand until I make
thine enemies thy footstool, and those of us who are by nature
at enmity with God through the miracle of the new birth are
brought to sit at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. I hope
that's what we're doing right now. Right now, sitting at His
feet, learning about Him, hearing from Him, and trusting Him for
all the hope of our salvation. His feet were pierced because
our feet, we can't get to the Savior with
our feet. You remember the man who wanted
to see the Lord and they couldn't get, so they removed the tiles
from off the roof and lowered him down? Thy faith has made
thee whole. Can't we're just like that crippled
man. We can't get there with our feet We can't stand upright
in the presence of God and yet in the Lord Jesus Christ. We
are Accepted in the beloved we can come before the throne of
grace with boldness With boldness with with confidence Where is
our confidence? Our confidence is that his feet
were wounded because my feet were wicked and His hands were
wounded because my hands were wicked. His back was wounded
because my back was wicked. His head was wounded because
my head is wicked. And then finally, after he gave permission for
his spirit to depart from him, and he had to do that in order
to die, Father into thy hands I commend my spirit Now when you and I die We're
not gonna be talking like that Here's what we're gonna say.
Oh Lord, please receive my spirit We're gonna be mercy beggars
right to our dying breath the Lord Jesus Christ wasn't begging
for mercy in his dying breath I He said, Father, into thy hands
I commend my spirit. I command my spirit. The Lord
Jesus Christ was absolutely confident that His head and His back and
His hands and His feet and His heart were perfect before God. And that He had satisfied the
requirements of the covenant that He made with the Father
in putting away our sins. And He knew the Father was going
to reward Him. He knew the father, he obligated
the father to reward him. Not only with his own resurrection,
but with the salvation of all those for whom he died. And so
those Roman soldiers came and they took a spear and they thrust
it in his side. They were professional executioners,
those Roman soldiers were. They saw that naked body of the
Lord Jesus Christ. They could see every rib. And
they knew exactly which rib to go between with that spear in
order to pierce his heart. And that's exactly what they
did. And out from that wound flowed water and then blood. Water, a picture of our Sanctification. Cleansing. Holiness. The blood,
a picture of our justification. Justified before God. Without
sin. That's what it means to be justified
without God. It means you're without sin.
You have no sin before God. Oh, the Lord's heart was so pure
and so lovely. I am meek and lowly in heart. You shall find rest for your
souls. Husbands, love your wives even
as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. He loved
God with all of his heart. He loved his people. His heart
was perfect. What does God say about your
heart and my heart? Well, the scripture says out
of the heart precedes evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornication,
thefts, false witness, blasphemy. These are the things which defile
a man. Our hearts, God said, are deceitful
above all things, desperately wicked. We cannot know our own
hearts. Every imagination of the thoughts
of our hearts are only evil and that continually Oh men's proud men are proud
of their outward appearances, aren't they? God's not impressed men look
at the outward appearances God's looking at the heart He's looking
at the heart The Lord said of those self-righteous, you're
like whitewashed tombs. You're white on the outside,
and the inside's full of dead men's bones. You're like a cup
full of corruption. You clean up the outside of the
cup. If I'm gonna drink out of a cup, I want it to be clean
on the inside. And the inside is full of corruption. What you and I need is a new
heart. And the only hope that we have
to get a new heart is that Christ's heart was pierced. His heart
was pierced. God bruised him in his heart
to show us the wickedness of our hearts and to satisfy the
justice of God in putting away the sins of our hearts. And so in the new birth, God
takes out that dead, cold, lifeless, hard, stony heart, and he puts
in a heart of flesh, a beating heart, a heart that desires the
things of God, a heart that wants to know Christ, a heart that
cries, oh, Lord, have mercy upon me, a heart that says, I want
to know him better, and I long to see him. A heart that knows that apart
from his wounds, it is without strength and ungodly and completely
dependent upon what he did to satisfy God's justice and put
away their sins. When we get to glory, we'll know when we see the scars
of His wounds, that that's the only reason we're there. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful.
We're thankful for Your Word. We're thankful for what You've
revealed to us. We're thankful for Your willingness,
Father, to bruise Your own Son. at the very point at which our
sins are made manifest. And Lord, we're thankful for
the hope of knowing that You're satisfied. You're satisfied with
what He's done. You're looking to Him for everything
You require from us. And Lord, we pray for the faith
to put our hope and trust completely in what Christ suffered on Calvary's
cross. For our righteousness, our justification,
our sanctification, Lord, all that we have, all that we could
be. For your son is our all and he is in all. We ask it in his
name. We're going to celebrate the
Lord's table. I was looking for it. If Tom, just remain seated,
please. Tom's going to come lead us in
number 17 in your spiral hymnal. And if we could ask the men to
come and distribute the wine and the bread, please. See the table spread before you,
see the feast of bread and wine. These are symbols of our Savior,
tokens of his love divine. Bread that's broken, Broken is
his body, crushed beneath the wrath of God. Wine poured out is a reminder
of our Savior's precious blood. Children of our God, remember
how he bought your soul and mine. In remembrance of our Savior,
eat the bread and drink the wine. the God incarnate to fulfill
God's holy law. On the cross he made atonement
and retrieved us from the fall. Let us ne'er forget the promise
Jesus made to come again. Soon he comes, our King, to call
us home to glory. Praise his name. With this hope Hope and expectation,
we rejoice to keep this feast. Celebrating our redemption, till
we lean on Jesus' breast. Celebrating our redemption till
we lean on Jesus breath breast That's what we're doing right
now celebrating this unleavened bread reminds us that the life
of the Lord Jesus Christ everywhere he walked Everything he did every
thought he had The flesh that he bore was not like our flesh
he was born of a woman under the law and bearing the likeness
of sinful flesh, but his flesh wasn't sinful. That's the reason
why the grave couldn't hold him. Grave's gonna hold you until
the resurrection. You're gonna return to the dirt. Grave couldn't
hold him. His flesh was not like our flesh.
It was holy, undefiled, separate from sinners. And this life of
his is our life. And so as we take this bread,
we're confessing that the life of Christ before God is my life. Wounded for our transgressions,
bruised for our iniquities, every one of those wounds that we talked
about brought forth a profuse amount of blood. And not one
drop of his blood was wasted. Everyone he shed his blood for
was saved. The Lord said, do this in remembrance
of me. in all God's people said. Amen. Amen. Reinaldo, thank you, brother,
for translating. Reinaldo had a big job, translated
at least six messages, and then he was always by our side translating
for us with our friends in Mexico, and I appreciate him so much
and thankful for him going. Let's stand together, brother.
Would you dismiss us in prayer, please? So dear son of God, we come to
you, giving thanks for all your work of the day, giving thanks
for all the parts of your body that you are wounded, for our
thoughts that are wicked, for our feelings.