Let's go back to that thought. I want us to be thankful about
the infiniteness of these wounds and the infiniteness of what
happened to the Lord Jesus Christ on account of the fact that we
are infinite sinners. Our sins are infinite against
God. The sin that we committed in
Adam in the garden was an infinite sin. The notion that we can somehow
fix them up by something that we do, or make them less severe
by something we do, is a denial of who the he is. They are infinite
because of whom was wounded. The one wounded was God Almighty. Infinitely. So these worms are
infinitely offensive worms. They are infinite words because
of the One who was pleased to crush Him. Isaiah 53 makes it
abundantly clear that this was God the Father's good pleasure.
It pleased the Father to bruise Him. It pleased the Father to
crush Him. It pleased His holiness, it pleased
His justice, it pleased His covenant to crush Him. The words of the
Lord Jesus Christ are infinite because there is an infinite
and eternal union and communion between the Lord Jesus Christ
and his people. Iniquity was laid on him and
he bear all that iniquity in his own body. And the other reason
that they're infinite is of God's children will look upon
the Lord Jesus Christ and they will see those scars and they
will know that the only reason they're in that place where there
is fullness of joy and glory in the presence of God is because
of those wounds. And so we'll spend, Lord willing,
the next couple of weeks looking at these wounds But I want us
to think about the fact that he was there mocking Levi then,
but he was there as the king. He didn't go to the cross of
Calvary for us to feel sorry for him. He went to the cross
of Calvary and set his face like a flint. He was the lamb slain. Having been slain from the foundation
of the world, this is why he came to come to the cross. This
is why he came into this world. He came as a king. In his anointed
roles, he's a king. They said, hail, king of the
Jews. In Mark's account, they began
to spit on him and they covered his face and they began to buffet
him and say unto him, prophesy. Who did hit you? In mockery,
they were declaring that he's a king and that he's a prophet. What they didn't understand,
is that our Lord Jesus Christ is fulfilling the glorious office
of the priest and taking the blood of the sacrifice into the
Holy of Holies, the only sacrifice, the only offering for sin that
God would accept, and he took it into the Holy of Holies in
heaven. And so, to go back to John chapter
19, the charges against him in the Gospel accounts reveal why
he suffered these stripes and the charges that the Jewish leaders
brought against him were blasphemy. Blasphemy, he has spoken blasphemy
by declaring himself to be the Christ of God and he declared
it openly and they brought him to this place having declared
him blasphemous in what he said. The other charge that they bring
against him in the presence of Pilate is he's a king. He's a
king. They said, hail king of the Jews. The Jews said of him that he
made himself to be the son of God. He made himself to be Christ
the king. Therefore he, being an imposter,
deserves to die. He made himself the son of God,
the king. And the wounds he suffered, With
his stripes, we are healed. With his stripes, there is healing
to us. With his wounds, they spat in
his face. They buffeted him in his face. And to buffet means to hit with
the palm of the hand or the fist in the mouth or on the face.
They smote him with the palms of their hands. They wove a crown
of thorns and put it on his head. And then they beat that crown
of thorns into his skull. When I was reading John 19, 20,
I was amazed to think that the angels was one at the head of
the Lord Jesus Christ and one at the foot. He was wounded from
head to foot. And the word angel means messenger,
and a messenger is someone sent of God who declares all of the
glories of God from his head to his feet. the resurrection
glories of our Lord Jesus Christ. They planted a crown of thorns
and they put it on his head. So I want us to have a look at
these charges against him and I want us to have a look at the
wounds and I want us to be mindful of the fact that he was bearing
in his body all of the So let's just look at the charges briefly.
The charges is blasphemy. What is blasphemy? Blasphemy is to speak contemptuous
words and it's to intentionally come short of the reverence due
to God. Blasphemy. The Lord Jesus Christ is in perfect
union with his people. He is bearing in his body all
of the crimes of all of our blasphemy against God. When have we ever
spoken of Him and there hasn't been an element of blasphemy
in it? When have we ever spoken of Him
or thought of Him with the due regard to all of His glory? I'm
so, so thankful that the Lord Jesus Christ, from those glorious
lips of him, came nothing but pure words. There came nothing
but glorious words. And I love the fact that when
his soul was troubled, and I pray that that's a prayer that we
would utter again and again. Now is my soul troubled, John
chapter 12. Now is my soul troubled. What's
his response to the troubles of his soul? His troubles in
this world, now is my soul. Father, glorify your name. Glorify
your name. What a wonderful prayer to pray
the next time, in the next moment, when you're under some sort of
conviction and there are trials around and there's darkness around.
Father, glorify your name. Glorify your name, your sovereignty
over this. This has come to me because you
will be glorified in all of this. We come into this world speaking
lies, drinking water, drinking iniquity like water. Why do we
keep reminding me and reminding us of what it is to be a sinner
before God? Because it's only sinners that
appreciate the glories of what the Saviour has done. If you
have a tiny skerrick of righteousness that you can do, that you can
bring before men and try to bring before God that you can do, then
you're not a sinner as God describes sinners. He says in Romans 3,
their throat is an open sepulcher, with their tongues they have
used to speak. The poison of asps is under their
lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Is that a description of you?
It's a description of me. It's a description according
to God of all humanity. The Lord Jesus Christ was bearing
in his body, on his face, and on his lips, the punishment due
to all of the blasphemy of all of his people. With his stripes, to us. What was the crime in the garden? Satan says, has God really said?
Has God really said? Has God said twice? Satan says,
has God said? And the woman says her first
words of Eve in the temptation is a lie. God said nothing about
touching the tree, touching the fruit of the tree. It's probably
very wise not to touch it given the punishment that was due for
eating it, but nevertheless she adds to the words of God. Satan
says, did God really say? And she said, well, I can add
to the words of God, and Satan said, you shall not surely die,
for God doth know, Genesis 3.5, God doth know that in the day
ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and you shall
be as gods. Knowing good and evil, where
does the blasphemy come from? from the garden, it comes from
us wanting to usurp the place of God. We are guilty of blasphemy. Listen to the law. Exodus 20
verse 3. Thou shalt have no other gods
before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee
any graven image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven
above, that is in the earth beneath, that is in the water under the
earth. That seems pretty comprehensive to me, doesn't it? I've got to
the stage these days where when I see crosses I feel horrified
by them. They're all adorning everything.
There's not to be a graven image. Thou shalt not bow down thyself
to them nor serve them, for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God. Thou shalt not, listen to this,
Exodus 20 verse seven. Thou shalt not take the name
of the Lord thy God in vain. for the Lord will not hold him
guiltless that taketh his name in thine. I pray unto a God that
cannot sife. He was declared guilty of the
charge of blasphemy. He who only spoke the most glorious
words. What a remarkable substitution
that is. The Lord Jesus Christ was there
suffering these words for the sin of blasphemy. It's out of our hearts that evil
thoughts come, and those evil thoughts are always evil thoughts
about God, and then follows murders and adulteries and all of those
other things. He was, the other charge that
was against him was that of him being a king, them being a king. is rooted in this, I will not
have this man to reign over me. I refuse to bow. You shall be
as gods. You shall be kings over your
own destiny. I remember a young fellow I knew
who put, I think it's that Marty Robbins fellow, isn't it? He
said something, he had it tattooed on his forearm. I am the master of my own destiny. Really? Really? He believed it. And millions
of others do, don't they? And you will know how real that
is in the hearts of fallen men when you tell them about a God
who is absolutely sovereign and He has the right to do with anyone
and anything in all of this universe as He sees fit and everything
that He does is good and just and holy. If He sends me to hell, It is
good and right and proper. And come the great day, you can
read about it in Revelation 18 or 19, come that great day, the
saints standing alongside the Lord Jesus Christ will say, hallelujah,
it is right and proper that this creation be read for someone
who is so evil. God has the right. God has the
right. We are not kings. But we assume
our kingship in many, many, many, many different ways. You know
it and I know it, but what a wonderful thing to contemplate that the
Lord Jesus Christ was bearing in his body my sin of wanting
to be a king, a king over all this earth. We've seen the charges
laid against him, blasphemy and him declaring himself to be a
king. Let's just look briefly at the
wounds that he suffered. I want to cover them all by looking
at the fact that all of these wounds in his face were actually
covered by the spit of men. What a horrifying thing to think With his stripes we are healed. What is it to spit? What is it
to spit in the scriptures? Well in Leviticus chapter 15
verse 8 there's a description, there's a declaration of what
it is to be spat upon. Leviticus chapter 15 verse 8
says, If he that has the issue spit upon him that is clean, Then shall he wash his clothes
and bathe himself in water and be unclean until evening. What was the significance of
the spittle of these men? As much as it horrifies us, legally
the Lord Jesus Christ was now unclean until the evening. What an extraordinary picture
of substitution. What an extraordinary picture
of the glory of the Gospel. You might recall in the Gospel
accounts the Lord Jesus Christ used his spittle to reverse the
entailments of the fall upon man, didn't he? These people that the Lord Jesus
Christ used his spittle to heal were considered cursed by the
religious world of that day. In Mark chapter 7 and 8 there
are two descriptions of them. He took one aside from the multitude
and put his fingers into his ear and he did spit and did touch
his tongue. Verse 23 of Mark chapter 8, he
took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town.
And when he had spit on his eyes, he put his hands upon him and
asked him what he thought. He healed a man's mouth with
his spittle that became clean. He healed a man's eye. glorious
picture of what the Lord Jesus Christ does in the salvation
of his people. They spit in his face. They buffeted
him. Mark 14.65, some began to spit
on him and to cover his face and to buffet him. To buffet
is to strike with the fist in the face or the mouth. His lips, what precious, precious
lips. What an amazing thing that he
was buffeted in the very place where our blasphemy comes from.
He was standing there in perfect union with all of his people,
a perfect substitute, a perfect representative of all of them,
and there he was. He went to that place with that
cup full of all of their sin, bound to his hands. He went to
that place before the scourging, stained, His raiment stained
with the blood in the garden when he looked into that cup,
and he was so overwhelmed that his heart broke within him, and
great drops of blood fell to the ground. His lips, we read
it in Psalm 16 earlier, but in Psalm 16, verse four, it says
of the wicked, Their sorrows shall be multiplied
that hasten after another God, their drink-offerings of blood
will I not offer, nor take up their names into my lips."
What had come forth from the lips of the Lord Jesus Christ
just prior to this buffeting? Listen to how he speaks of his
people in John 17. Isn't it wonderful what came
from those lips I in them, and thou in me, that
they may be made perfect in one, that the world may know that
thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, John 17, 23, and hast loved
them as thou hast loved me. Father, I will that they also
whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may
behold my glory. which thou hast given me, for
thou lovest me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father,
the world has not known thee, but I have known thee, and these
have known that thou hast sent me. And I have declared unto
them thy name, and will declare that the love wherewith thou
hast loved me may be in them, and I in them. What amazing words
that came from the lips of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the garden
he just uttered one word in the original and said, I am, and
an army fell to the ground. Judas included, including these
people that were now buffeting him up there in Herod's courts. He was struck with the fist in
the mouth. I'm a man, says Isaiah, of unclean
lips. And I live amongst a people of
unclean lips. I need my lips to be purified. I need what has come from my
lips to suffer all of the due punishment before a holy God. All of those who sing the praises
from their lips of God in heaven are saying, worthy is the Lamb,
worthy is the Lamb that was slain. He hath redeemed us out of all
of these kindreds and tribes and natures. He's redeemed us
unto God. He's brought us back. Our words, our words. are so, so unworthy of Him and
so, so unworthy of our place in this world. You'll be as gods
knowing good and evil. I can stand in judgment of other
people is what people are saying. I can know what's good and evil
and I can make the decision to do good and not to do evil. And
I'll be as God. and it comes out and it's brought
all of the horrors and miseries in all the lives of all humanity
in this world. The tongue is a little member.
You can read about it in James chapter 5. The tongue is a little
member and it boasts great things. Behold how great a matter a little
fire kindleth. You've heard it and you've witnessed
it, haven't you? Someone has said something and
it has just been a few words that might have even been idle
words and all of a sudden a whole forest is set on fire. The tongue
is a fire, a world of iniquity, so the tongue among our members
that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the cause
of nature. His lips were pure lips. No wonder
David said in his great psalm of repentance, O Lord, open thou
my lips, and my mouth shall show forth thy praise. You have to
do it. You have to do it. The Lord Jesus
Christ's lips were opened to praise God. His lips were opened
to speak the truth. I love what he says in Psalm
89 verse 34. He says, My covenant. I just love this. What a God
we have. Thank God our God is God. Thank God our God never changes. In Psalm 89 verse 34 he says, Our God, my covenant will I not
break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. Don't
you love that? This world, with changeable men
who make God in their own image, have a changeable God. Our Lord was wounded in his mouth. He was wounded on his lips. because he was bearing in his
body all of the sin that's come out of all of my lips, and on
the lips of all of God's children. Aren't you thankful? What a saviour,
what a saviour. Who shall stand before God, Psalm
15? Who can be in the holy presence
of God? Look how the Lord, raises the
bar of righteousness to where it ought be. Who shall abide
in thy tabernacle, and who shall dwell in thy holy temple? Psalm
15. He that walketh uprightly, worketh
righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart. He that backbiteth not with his
tongue, nor do evil to his neighbor. Isn't that remarkable? Who did
that? Who did that? Can we take our
place with Barabbas in that dungeon, rightly earning what we've deserved? Can we take our place with those
who wounded He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquity. He was, I smote him with the
palms of their hands. The hands in scripture describe
the things that we do. When have we done anything? with
our hands that's worthy of the glory of God. I need him to be
a savior from head to foot. Isaiah describes what man is. Listen to Isaiah's description
of humanity. And he was speaking in a religious
world to religious people. And he said of them, Isaiah chapter
one, He said, the whole head is sick
and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot, even
to the head, there is no soundness in it but wounds and bruises
and putrefying sores. They have not been closed, neither
bound up, neither mollified with ointment. He needed to be wounded
in his head. That crown of thorns was a horrible,
horrible thing to think about. You see the pictures of these
crowns of thorns. One of the things that was interesting
in one of the commentaries I read was that for a very small nation,
Israel has a greater proliferation of thorny plants than any other
part of this earth. So we don't know which one in
particular it was. But thorns, of course, are a
picture in Genesis 3 of the fact of the fall and the curse that's
upon this earth. The Lord Jesus Christ is not
just going to redeem people, he's redeeming a creation as
well, isn't he? But those thorns, this earth,
by the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat thy bread, For dust thou, until thou return
unto the ground, for out of it thou wast taken, for dust thou
art, and under dust thou shalt return. And this earth, this
dust, thorns also, and thistles shall it bring forth unto thee. They plaited a crown of thorns,
they put a mock purple robe on him to mock him as a king, And
they took that reed and they beat that crown of thorns into
his head. But the remarkable thing was
that all of this was done to him, according to John's gospel,
after Pilate has scourged him. And I have no doubt that given
what comes after these events and what preceded them, that
Pilate was hoping that by inflicting the most horrible punishment
that he possibly could upon the Lord Jesus Christ, he might elicit
some small sense of sympathy from those who wanted to crucify
him. And so he scourged him. He scourged
him. By his stripes we are healed. Psalm 129 verse 3 describes the
scourging of the Lord Jesus Christ. The plowers ploughed upon my
back. They made long their furrows. So a scourge was a piece of wood
that had leather strips attached to it, and at the end of the
leather strips they'd either put sharp pieces of metal or
bone or something. And the purpose of them was that
when they whipped the Lord Jesus Christ across his back, the whip
would hit and it would just open up the flesh. Many, many, many
people died from scourging. It's not for any wonder that
the Lord Jesus Christ made Simon to carry the cross to Calvary. It ultimately exposed the bones
and the organs of a person. Listen. to what the Lord Jesus
Christ did. And once again he doesn't want
us to feel sympathy for him, he wants us to see the glories
of the Gospel in what happened. Listen to what he says in Isaiah
chapter 50 verse 4. The Lord God has given me the
tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season
to him that is weary. He wakeneth morning by morning.
He wakeneth my ear to hear as the learned. The Lord God has
opened my ear. You can read about that in Exodus
chapter 21, about the servant who loves his master and loves
his wife and loves his children and won't go free and binds himself. in love to stay there as a servant. The Lord has opened my ear and
I was not rebellious, neither turned back away. I gave my back
to the smiters, my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair,
I hid not my face from shame and spitting. Here is the king
of kings. Here is the great substitute. He is the one with the government
upon his shoulders. I love what Nestor Hart said.
Here the Lord of life appeared, bore all incarnate God could
bear, with strength enough and none to spare. He says in Psalm 38 verse 4,
for mine iniquities are gone over mine head. The Lord Jesus
Christ is the perfect substitute for all of his people. In that
body that was wounded were all of the members of his body and
all of the wounds. All of the wounds with which
all of the members of that body have wounded the Lord Jesus Christ
received exposure and punishment. Mine iniquities have gone over
my head. As a heavy burden they are too
heavy for me. God's children, there's not one
of us that can bear the guilt and the shame of our sin. It's too much for us. Who's going
to rescue me from the body of this death, O wretched man that
I am? Thanks be to God. Thanks be to
God that in his body the Lord Jesus Christ was pleased to bruise
him, pleased to crush him. Our sins have wounded our heads. Our sins have wounded what we
say, our wounds. Our sins have wounded all of
our thoughts. We need a substitute for absolutely
everything about us all of the time. Every tiny moment of all
of our lives, I need a substitute before God, always. I need a
substitute who bore the punishment and the righteous wrath of God
against all of those sins. From the sole of our foot, to
the crown of our head, to everything in our heart. What a saviour. With his stripes, Isaiah 53,
there is healing for us. There is healing for us. What
a saviour. May the Lord cause him to be
precious, may we look upon him whom we have pierced, and may
we look upon him who is raised gloriously, having been pierced. All of our sins are gone, brothers
and sisters in Christ, all of our sins are gone. We are complete
in him. from head to foot, from heart
to mind. Oh may the Lord cause that Saviour
to be glorious in our midst and cause us to be the whosoever's
who come. May we just always be coming. Every moment of our lives is
a cause for coming. Whosoever, I'm a whosoever, come,
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. May
the Lord bless his words to our hearts. Let's have a break, thank
you.