One of the remarkable titles
of the Lord Jesus Christ in Isaiah chapter 58 is that He is called
in Isaiah chapter 58 verse 12. These shall build the old ways
places and thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations,
and thou shalt be called..." This is a title of the Lord Jesus
Christ I haven't taken notice of before in such a way. The Lord declares, doesn't He,
in Psalm 69 verse 4, that I have restored that which I took not
away. He wasn't responsible for the
taking away. What did He restore? What did
we lose? What did we lose when we fell
in our father Adam? We lost We lost the presence of God and
we lost the knowledge of who he was. Such is the darkening
of sin that we cannot see God for who he is and we cannot see
us for who we are. He restored to God, our great
Restorer, he restored to God people, his chosen, his bride,
he restored them to God's image and in such a remarkable way
that the children of God are now better off than ever were
in the garden. He honoured the law of God and
he honoured all of the character of God. But at what cost? At what cost? we have a glimpse into the heart
of the Lord Jesus Christ when he was made sin, when he was
made to be a curse for us. So the only place we ever see
sin as sin really is, is on the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And here, remarkably, amazingly, and wonderfully, we actually
see God with the most extraordinary character.
We see man in his sin in the most extraordinary way. We see
substitution. We see union. We see the marriage
of the Lord Jesus Christ as our surety from all eternity played
out in the most graphic detail. And we have As verse 32, for
those who will see it, the humble shall see this, I love, the longer
I go on, the more I love the wills and shalls of our God. I love the fact that the conditions
attached to them are all conditions met, fulfilled and promised. The humble shall see this and
be glad. One of those amazing promises
in the Old Testament is the only way we'll ever see sin, the only
way we'll ever see this, is when God does a work of almighty grace. And he says in verse 10 of Zechariah
12, he says, and I will pour out upon the house of David and
upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and supplication,
and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and shall
mourn for him as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be
in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness for his
firstborn. May God continue to pour out
a spirit of grace and supplication that word implies please, but
also as you can see from its root that implies that he must
supply, he must supply everything. So let's just look through some
of these verses and make a few simple points that I think the
Lord might cause us to find comfort in what our Redeemer was doing
on behalf and for his people. He says, he begins by saying,
save me, O God, save me, O God, for the waters are come into
my soul. I sink in the deep mire where
there is no standing. I come into the deep waters where
the floods overflow me. Of course, the Lord Jesus Christ
is talking about something that we have no, understanding of
and we can only enter into glimpses of it and that is what it was
for him to be made sin, for him to bear the wrath of his father. It is the place where we see
sin so clearly. It broke his heart. my heart, and I am full of heaviness,
and I looked for some to take pity, and there was none, and
for comforters I found none. In this extraordinary transaction
the Lord Jesus Christ was on his own. That great transaction
was covered in darkness for God, who is the two pure eyes to behold
iniquity. It turned out, the Son, that
this transaction would be seen to be a transaction between God
the Father and God the Son. Listen to what he says of himself
in verse 3. I am weary of my crying, my throat
is dried, my eyes fail while I wait for my God. The most remarkable thing about
our Lord Jesus Christ and the most remarkable thing about us
in union with him is that he was faithful. in the midst of
all of the depths of what was to him who hated sin to be made
sin. He waited for my God. He was
faithful to the end. This is perfect faith. This is
the faithfulness of the Son of God. That's why I love what Paul
said, isn't he, in Galatians 2.20, the life I now live in
the flesh. I'm crucified with Christ. This is all done in union
with his people, and we'll see that in a few minutes. I'm crucified
with Christ, but not, And I know and I believe that Christ lives
in me in the life I allow him to live in the flesh. I live
by the faithfulness. Here is the faithfulness of the
Son of God. I wait for my God. If you go down to verse 6, one
of the reasons he's doing this is, let not them that wait on
thee, he produces faith. He gives and
grants the gift of faith to his others. As he waited on God,
he causes his children to wait on him. I wait for my God. They that hate me without a cause. Do you remember the time you
hated God? hatred of me, and people will
say, well I've always loved him. You haven't. You have never always
loved him. You did hate him, and you hated
him without a cause. They are more than the hairs
on my head, though, that would destroy me, being my enemies.
Don't you love that while we are enemies, Christ died for
us? I restored that. I restored that
which I took not away. So he didn't take away our righteousness. He didn't take away anything
at all. He restored that which he took
not away. What have we lost and what misery
have we brought to ourselves? What pains do we bring upon ourselves
and others around us by our unbelief, by our sin? as we ought. We lost the very
righteousness of God. We lost the very presence of
God. We lost the very knowledge of
the character of God. And we lost the knowledge of
ourselves. And we lost the knowledge, remarkably in that fall, we lost
the knowledge of who Satan was and how he deceives and manipulates
and lies. He's a liar and a murderer and
we can't even see his activities. We lost, we lost so much. We went from having a life with
God to being just precipitants of his eternal wrath in hell
forever. We lost so much. The only way
we'll see what we lost from the depths of it is to see what the as I said earlier, restored God
to His glory. He restored the character of
God before men in all of its beauty. He magnified the name
of God. He magnified the law of God.
He magnified the justice of God. He magnified the grace of God
and the love of God. You think of all the things that
we lost. He restored them. He restored them. Thou knowest my foolishness,
and my sins are not kept from Thee. I do pray that the Lord
would cause us to be enabled by faith to simply believe what
God says about these remarkable things for the foundation of the world,
all of the sins of all of his people. And in this psalm, and
in Psalm 40, and in many other places, he declares that they
are his. His, as our surety from the foundation
of the world. His, as the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. My sins, he says. Sins cannot,
under the justice of God, be in two places Let not them that wait on thee,
O Lord God of hosts, be ashamed for my sake.
Let not those that seek thee be confounded for my sake, O
God of Israel. He will not allow for his people
who wait on him to be ashamed, and he will not allow them to
be confounded. You see, in the midst of all
this, he had two things in mind always. In the midst of his agony,
if you listen to him on that night before he went to Calvary
Street, as much as he was aware of the agony that was in the
cup that he was about to drink, he had thoughts for his people. in the most remarkable way. Listen to what he goes on to
say. He says, let them not be confounded, and let them not
be ashamed. Let those who have faith, God-given
faith, for my sake, O God of Israel, because for thy sake
I have borne reproach, shame hath covered my face. Five times in this psalm, he
speaks of reproach that he bore. In verse 10, he calls it my reproach. In verse 19, he calls it my reproach. In verse 20, he says, reproach
has broken my heart. But isn't it remarkable the depth
to which our Lord Jesus Christ bore our sins at his own body? in his own body on the tree.
God made him and you know him to be seen for us. Here he was
as a substitute, suffering for others. We may well suffer unjustly
because of others in this world and for others. there often is anger and resentment
and it rises up very, very quickly indeed. We may suffer willingly
because of our love for others. And that will engender pity and
love for the one for whom you have suffered. But in neither
of those circuits See, shame is associated with
guilt, isn't it? This is that shame because of
his union with his people. Here is imputation. Our sin became his and he bore
100% of the shame of our sins. And he bore the shame and the
reproach what the glory of our God is. Verse nine, for the zeal of thine
house, he does it for his sake, the zeal of thine house hath
eaten me up, and the reproaches of them that reproach thee, When I wept and chastened myself
with face fasting, that was to my reproach. I might read a poem by my friend
Mr Hart. Come hear you that would desire
to know the exceeding sinfulness of sin, Come see a scene of matchless
woe and tell me what it all can mean. Behold the darling Son
of God, bound down with horror to the ground, run at heart and
sweating blood. His eyes in tears of sorrow drown. See how the victim panting lies,
his soul in bitter anguish pressed. He sighs, he faints, he groans,
he cries, dismayed, dejected, shocked, distressed. What pangs
are these that tear his heart? What burdens this that's on him
laid? What means this agony of smart? What makes our maker hang his
head? Tis justice with its iron rod,
inflicting strokes of wrath divine. Tis the vindictive hand of God
incensed at all your sins and mine. Deep in his breast our
names were cut. He undertook our desperate death. Such loads of guilt were on him
put. He could but just sustain then let us not ourselves deceive,
for while of sin we lightly deem, whatever notions we may have,
indeed, we are not much like you. He calls himself a servant in
verse 17. He's a servant of my God, O God,
O God, He's a servant, he calls his people his brethren, he's
one with them. He says that they are those that
seek him, they are those that wait on him. And all of this,
this broken hearted saviour dying with our sins upon him, until
divine justice says it's enough, it's finished. I pray that it humbles us, and
does what Psalm 69 verse 32 said to him before. The humble shall
see this. Only the Lord can open our eyes
to see this. The humble shall see this and
be glad and your heart shall live that seek God. For the Lord heareth the poor.