you want to text it would be
just the opening verses of verse or the opening words of verse
3 of Isaiah 53. He is despised and rejected of
men. This morning we looked at that
Syro-Phoenician woman, that Canaanite woman who came to the Lord, she
had a request concerning her daughter and it seemed very much
as though the Lord was rebuffing her. But she was very persistent,
wasn't she? She wasn't going to take no for
an answer and the Lord responded with sort of apparent silence,
apparent rejection, and apparent insult. But her faith was commended. Her daughter was healed. And thinking of that lady who
is persistent reminded me of those words in Luke 18. And from
verse 1 to 8, he spake a parable unto them to this end. that men
ought always to pray and not to faint. Saying, there was in
a city a judge which feared not God, neither regarded man. And there was a widow in that
city, and she came unto him saying, avenge me of mine adversary. And he would not for a while.
But afterward he said within himself, though I fear not God
nor regard man, yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge
her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. And the Lord said,
hear what the unjust judge saith, and shall not God avenge his
own elect which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long
with them? I tell you that he will avenge
them speedily, Nevertheless, when the Son of Man cometh, shall
he find faith on the earth? And then right at the beginning,
it said about praying and persisting in prayer. And I mentioned something
about that this morning. And we read in James 5.16, don't
we, the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. But then this evening, I wanted
to think more about the Lord Jesus Christ. And with those
sort of headings that we had this morning, apparent silence,
apparent rejection, and apparent insult. But with the Lord, he
experienced actual silence and actual rejection and actual insult. And there's many scriptures that
can be referred to. I mean, we'd be here a long time
if we were to refer to them all. But I just want to pick out a
few lovely scriptures to perhaps
emphasize these points. we begin in Matthew 26 from verse
47. There it says, And while he yet
spake, said the Lord, Lo, Judas, one of the twelve, came, and
with him a great multitude with swords and staves, from the chief
priests and elders of the people. Now he that betrayed him gave
them a sign, saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same as he,
hold him fast. And forthwith he came to Jesus,
and said, Hail, Master, and kissed him. And Jesus said unto him,
Friend, wherefore art thou come? Then came they, and laid hands
on Jesus, and took him. And behold, one of them which
were with which were with Jesus, stretched out his hand, and drew
his sword, and struck a servant of the high priest, and smote
off his ear. Then said Jesus unto him, Put
up again thy sword into his place, for all they that take the sword
shall perish with the sword. Thinkest thou that I cannot now
pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve
legions of angels? so as though perhaps the silence
is the Lord not actually acting in a way that perhaps he could
have done he as God yes he did he could have called upon these
twelve legions of angels he could have in a moment silenced and
put to flight his enemies the Lord could have done that But
no, he was not going to do that because
he knew that he must suffer and he must die. In Matthew 27, in the next chapter,
verse 11 says, Jesus stood before the governor and the governor
asked him, saying, Art thou the king of the Jews? And Jesus said
unto him, Thou sayest. When he was accused of the chief
priests and elders, he answered, Nothing. Then said Pilate unto
him, Hearest thou not how many things they witness against thee?
And he answered him to never a word, insomuch that the governor
marvelled greatly. And there were many times, wasn't
there, when our Lord was falsely accused. And if we're falsely
accused, I'm sure it's a reaction, isn't it, to sort of put that
person right and to defend ourselves. but the Lord often would not. He answered nothing. That showed great strength to do that,
isn't it? And it sort of reminds me of Moses who was, back in Numbers,
who was described as a meek man. Not a weak man, a
meek man. And he was very much challenged
about his leadership. And I said, are you the only
one that the Lord is going to use to speak to us through? And
again, he could have been in a situation where he could have defended himself and
really put the people right. I said, look here. be careful what you say you know
just realize who I am and I was also reading this past few weeks
a book on two Corinthians and it's about the the ministry of
Paul the Apostle and where many times there his position was
very much criticized and challenged. And this book, which is called
Weak Pastor, Strong Christ, but it was a good book, I've managed
to, it was only a short book, I've managed to finish it. It was a very good, helpful book. And it really was sort of saying
how poor his concern was though he was
an apostle called by God and though in a sense you would say
he was above others no he didn't in any way kind of really emphasize that
or really sort of wag his finger at people and say well just just
remember who I am and you know just be careful about what you
say he didn't do that at all And so our Lord wasn't... And so there's many good lessons,
isn't there? And that's strength, isn't it? To be able to sort of not retaliate
or not react when we're perhaps being falsely accused or criticized
or something. And we read, didn't we? in Isaiah 53 in verse 7. He is brought as a lamb to the
slaughter and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb so he openeth
not his mouth. So the Lord knew silence but
also of course he also knew when to speak as well and thinking
about when he was on the cross, you know, what he said on the
cross, you know, how he said to the dying thief, today thou
shalt be with me in paradise. And then looking at his mother
and looking at the disciple, presumably John, and say, look,
look after each other, you know. You know, sort of like kind of
introducing a kind of a welfare system there on the cross look
take care of one another when you would think well the
lord he would be excused you would think just thinking about
himself there on the cross and then we have actual rejection
that the Lord knew. We read, don't we, in Psalm 22,
1, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And then Mark 15,
34, And in the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying,
Eloi, Eloi, lama sabach vanai, which is being interpreted, My
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? He doesn't say, my father,
why hast thou forsaken me, but my God. Father, as a father,
he couldn't forsake his son. But as God, in terms of justice
being done, he sort of did then forsake the
Lord as God, not as the father. and indeed he was rejected. I've
trodden the winepress alone and of the people there was none
with me. Isaiah 63 verse 3. And in Mark chapter 14 there's
so much there about how he was rejected in his last hours. There was the betrayal by Judas
there was a denial by Peter and a more general all forsook him
and fled and they're all mentioned one after the other in that 14th
chapter of Mark. 1 Peter 2.4 says to whom coming
as unto a living stone disallowed or rejected indeed of men, but
chosen of God, and precious. And then in the Old Testament
in Deuteronomy 32, 15, But Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked, thou art
waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness.
Then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed or
rejected the rock of his salvation. And often the idea of rock, well,
the image of Christ, isn't it? There's many references and images
of Christ being the rock. And what a sad thing it is to
reject the Lord Jesus Christ, the rock of our salvation. So there's great rejection. I want to, in a moment, just
to come back to Isaiah 53 after just a few thoughts about the
actual insult that our Lord experienced. In Luke 18, 32, there's so many
more references. As I said, we'd be here a long
time looking at them all. But I don't want to do that,
and I'm sure that I'm Sure as we read God's Word we have come
across them for ourselves. But in Luke 18.32, for he shall
be delivered unto the Gentiles and shall be mocked and spitefully
entreated or insulted and spitted on. And then Matthew 27.42, if you
are who you say you are come down from the cross. he saved
others he cannot save himself it's a real sort of mocking there
an insult where if you're so powerful and you can save others
and do all these things save yourself now Mark 14, chapter I mentioned
earlier in verse 65. And some began to spit on him,
to cover his face and to buffet him and to say unto him, prophesy. And the servants did strike him
with the palms of their hands. So there was there was insults
and and there was in terms of sort of physical things, but
then in words as well, that our Lord went through. experience
the men Luke 22 from verse 63 the men that held Jesus mocked
him and smote him and when they had blindfolded him they struck
him on the face and asked him saying prophesy who is it that
smote thee? Blindfolded him well have a guess
who it was who hit you you know you're blindfolded
you can't see and many other things blasphemously spake they
against him. And Romans 15 free, for even
Christ pleased not himself, but as it is written, the reproaches
or insults, that's another translation says, of them that reproach thee
fell on me. But then when we just think of
this 53rd chapter of Isaiah, really we have all these sort
of things together, aren't we, in this chapter? Insult and silence
and rejection and various other words that we could
use as well. As I said, verse 3, he is despised
and rejected of men. A man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief, we hid as it were our faces from him. A kind of
rejection there. He was despised and we esteemed
him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken,
smitten of God, and afflicted." Notice as we sort of look at
these verses, but he was wounded for our transgressions. He was
bruised for our iniquities. So he went through it for our sakes. We are the beneficiaries
of what he went through. He was wounded for our transgressions. We are the ones who've done wrong.
He was wounded in our place. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him and with his stripes we are healed. And all we like sheep have gone
astray. We have turned everyone to his
own way. Yet the Lord hath laid on him
the iniquity of us all. That he was oppressed, he was
afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought as a
lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her, sheer as
is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. He was taken from prison
and from judgment. so many times it's mentioned
there he was he was he was and it was for our sakes for
our sakes that he was afflicted despised rejected suffered as
he did He was taken from prison and
from judgment. Who shall declare his generation?
For he was cut off out of the land of the living. For the transgression
of my people was he stricken. See, here we have, don't we,
we have the gospel here in this tremendous chapter written a
long time before even the Lord came. we see so much, don't we,
of the Lord and his sufferings and his life here. He made his grave with the wicked
and with the rich in his death because he had done no violence,
neither was any deceit in his mouth. There was so many false
accusations You know, many sort of came with their stories about
the Lord, but they didn't agree, did they? They didn't agree with...
None of their accounts agree with each other. And again, the
Lord didn't respond as though, well, you've got that wrong and,
you know, I'm not like that at all. Whereas it would be very
easy, like if it was us, to react in that way. Yet it pleased the
Lord to bruise him, he hath put him to grief." Thank God that it was him that
suffered, the Lord who suffered. It was he who was bruised and
rejected and wounded and despised. It was him, not us, but we are
the ones who are the worthy recipients because of our sin and how we
are. But no, it was the law, wasn't
it? But we see in verse 11, he shall
see the travel of his soul and shall be satisfied. And it's
wonderful, isn't it? The work of Christ, the life
that he lived, the sufferings that he went through, and his
death and his resurrection. It was all according to the purpose
of God for even the foundation of the world. We were chosen
and the Lord didn't come into the world as a result of man's
sinning. Of course, the Lord knew that
Adam and Eve would fall. It wasn't as though called God
out so well I need to do something about this now that the Lord
knew what he would do in this so many remarkable isn't it I
don't know how many prophecies and scriptures there are about
the Lord Jesus Christ as well a lot I don't know how many there
are perhaps somebody has worked it out but how remarkable how
they come true and in such a detail and in such accuracy one that
speaks about his legs not being broken and that was the case
with the Lord they saw he was dead already so they didn't break
his legs and just something like that some sort of more minor
that's a minor thing but some of the some of those things came
true exactly as it was predicted and he was numbered with the
transgressors there in verse where he bear the sin of many
and that's so, isn't it? You know, the Lord Jesus Christ
came into this world to bear the sins of many, to live and
to suffer and die for his people, chosen before the foundation
of the world. I shall call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. And every aspect of what the
Lord did, wasn't it? He lived a perfect life, didn't
do anything wrong, And then he suffered terribly excruciating pain. He suffered so much we can't
really begin to describe it or fathom it. And he died and then
he rose again. So with the resurrection, the
receipt was given. The receipt given to the Lord
Jesus. The prices paid. payment is made
in full like a receipt given just as we buy something from
the shop and you get given a receipt and it's all paid and many thanks
it's all paid you don't have to pay any more you've paid for
it And so it is, isn't it, with the Lord Jesus. He paid for the
sins of all his people once and for all. He doesn't need to come
again to suffer and die. When he comes again, it will
be in great glory. And to take to bring things to
an end and to take his people to be with himself and all then,
whether they like it or not, will bow the knee to the Lord. So our Lord experienced, didn't
he, actual silence, actual rejection and actual insult and You know,
what we do, you know, we don't like it when perhaps people give
us a cold shoulder, seem to ignore us. Don't like that particularly
when that happens or if people reject us. It reminded me of
when I used to apply back in the 1980s for jobs and I would
send off an application form and this is days before emails
and texts and whatsapps you sort of do it hard copy you'd send
off somewhere and then you get a letter back and very often
the letter would said well thank you for your interest in our
company and for this position Sadly, we're not able to pursue
this with you, but we hope that you will be able to find a position,
you know, with another company. That's a kind of letter. I've
got quite a few. I've still got the letters, actually,
as a souvenir, all these letters that I had. I'm very thankful for the one
that did not reject me and that gave me the opportunity to work
for many years at the company that I worked at. So we all know
rejection in different ways. And insults, yes, I mean, people
can be perhaps quite nasty sometimes and that's not nice at all. Let's
remember that our Lord experienced it all. So he knows. When we go through it, he knows
all about it. He knows all about the things
that we go through. But going back to that Canaanite
woman this morning. what she went through and she
was commended in the end for her faith and her daughter, as
I said, was healed. I've not known this for somebody
who wasn't of Israel, but an outsider. I've not seen faith
like this anywhere in Israel. And she's an outsider. It's a
great commendation for her. But the commendation that we
want from the Lord is when we leave this world and meet him
as I said about the judgment but we need not fear that and
if we are in Christ I said well done good and faithful servant
enter into eternal life and that's all of the grace of God that's
all God's work is not well done because you're a cut above the
rest but no it's because of what the Lord has done in our life
so well done good and faithful servants may that be so with
each of us and may we be helped to serve the Lord not that we
gain praise of men but that we have that commendation from God. We want people, don't we, as
I've said before, we want people to glorify God. As believers
we should be serving the Lord, we should be giving evidence
that we are the Lord's people and people should be seeing that
and observing that in us and not commending us and say well
I think you're a wonderful person but no we want them to glorify
God instead that's Let your light so shine before men that they
may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. So may that be so with us that
indeed the people will see that in us. And if we know not the
Lord, may it be that we even this night will seek him. and
know that we are sinners but that our hope of eternal life
is only to be found in the Lord Jesus Christ. There's no other
name given amongst men whereby we must be saved other than the
Lord Jesus Christ. And so what a wonderful saviour
he is and as we saw in that chapter just what he would go through
and for us who are not not deserving of it at all not as though we deserve somebody
to die for us or suffer for us in that way no it's it's all
of the mercy and grace and goodness of God So may that be so with us indeed, that we know the Lord and that
we're helped to live something, to live our lives showing that
what matches most to us is what the Lord has done for us and
that has eternal consequences. and may it be that it galvanizes
us that we're galvanized to serve the Lord in these days so may
we seek his face. Well just a few thoughts more
could be said many more scriptures could be quoted of course but
we'll leave those thoughts for that here this evening. Amen. Let's close our worship here
today with singing hymn number 318. 318. God of eternal love,
how fickle are our ways, and yet how oft did Israel prove
thy constancy and grace. Hymn 318, June 75. How fickle are our ways, And
yet how often it is Well proved by constancy. ? I'll sing thy works of powerful
good ? ? And walk among faith and love ? ? All the year he
fled ? ? Our autumn ribbons fled ? ? Now with their mouths proclaim
the Lord ? ? And He redeems them not ? ? When they mourn their
foes ? ? He harkens to their cry ? ? His own, and call them still
His sons. ? ? Ever in His birth, He saved
them from their thirst. ? ? All did just die, but never
soon, ? the people that he chose. Then Israel blessed the Lord
with a happy Now the God of peace that brought
again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of
the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,
make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working
in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ,
to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.