In Isaiah chapter 53, directing
your attention this morning to words that we find in verses
4, 5, and 6. Isaiah 53, verses 4, 5, and 6. Surely He hath borne our griefs,
and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten
of God, and afflicted, but he was wounded for our transgressions.
He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep
have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his
own way. and the Lord hath laid on him
the iniquity of us all." To say something then with regards to
the sympathy and the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ as the
Prophet speaks of them here in this remarkable chapter in the
Old Testament. In many ways, these words that
we've just read form a key passage with regards to the whole doctrine
of imputation, the transference of sin from Christ to those that
were given to Him in that eternal covenant of grace, surely. He hath borne our griefs and
carried our sorrows, wounded for our transgressions, bruised
for our iniquities. The Chastisement of our peace
upon Him with His stripes we are healed. The Lord has laid
on him the iniquity of us all. How the statements that really
speak to us of the imputation of sin, the reckoning of sin
from one to another are repeated then in these verses of Holy
Scripture. Now recently, I think it was
a week last Thursday, we were considering words that we find
in the 40th psalm. And that psalm, evidently a messianic
psalm. It's the psalm of David, but
David is really speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's speaking,
as it were, in the person of his son. Christ comes of the
seed of David. He is David's greatest son. And there in that psalm we were
considering words in verse 12. But remember what we have previously
indicating to us quite clearly that it speaks of Christ there
at verse 6 of the psalm. Sacrifice and offering thou not desire, that is all those
Old Testament sacrifices could never take away sins. Mine ears
are so open, burnt offering and sin offering are so not required.
Then said I, Lo, I come, in the volume of the book it is written
of me. I delight to do thy will, O my gods. Yea, thy law is written
within my heart." Remember how those words are clearly taken
up by the Apostle in Hebrews chapter 10 at verse 5 following
and Paul makes it plain that those words belong to the Lord
Jesus Christ. The whole of the psalm belongs
to the Lord Jesus Christ. As I said, It is David, as it
were, speaking in the person of his greater son. And we were
considering those words at verse 12 in particular. Innumerable
evils have compassed me about. My iniquities have taken hold
upon me, so that I am not able to look up. They are more than
the hairs of mine head, therefore my heart faileth me. How can such words as those be
put into the mouth of the Lord Jesus Christ, that one who is
altogether free from all sin, who was in his very conception,
in his birth, referred to as that holy thing, who in his life
was holy and harmless and undefiled and separate from sinners? The only way in which we can
understand those words as belonging to Christ, is by the imputation
of the sins of his people to him. As we have it here in verse
6, the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all, caused to meet upon
him, or as the margin says, made to meet upon him the iniquity
of us all. He has made Him to be sin for
us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him." And there at the end of 2 Corinthians chapter
5 we see how the Apostle speaks of what Christ was in Himself. He was sinless. He knew no sin. That's what He was in Himself
and yet what He was made He hath made Him to be sin for us, who
knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God
in Him." There is the exchange, the sins of all the people imputed to the Lord Jesus Christ
and that righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ imputed to
that people who were given to him in the eternal covenant,
the blessed exchange that we have in the gospel of the grace
of God. Well, this morning, as I say,
I want us to consider these verses. I'm sure they're familiar to
us here in Isaiah 53. Surely He hath borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem Him. stricken,
smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The Justicement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes
we are healed. All we, like sheep, have gone
astray. We have turned everyone to His own Word, and the Lord
hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all." Two things then,
the sympathy of the Lord Jesus Christ and then the sufferings
of the Lord Jesus Christ. First of all, to say something
of the simplest. Why do I say that? Well, I'm
mindful of that passage that we read in the New Testament,
because there Matthew refers directly to this very passage
in Isaiah chapter 53 in the context. how these words are quoted there
at verse 17 in Matthew chapter 8. In the previous verses we
see the Lord Jesus performing a whole series of miracles. It's
interesting in the previous chapters we have the Sermon on the Mount
chapters 5, 6 and 7 the preaching, the teaching of
the Lord Jesus, and then he comes down from the mountain, and great
multitudes are following him, and then we have these series
of miracles. And how interesting is the connection. Here is the authentication of
his preaching, really. That is the point and purpose
of the miracles. they point to him as that one
who is truly the Messiah, the promised one, the Christ of God. Now, the miracles are always
subordinate to his preaching, the authentication of his person,
and so he performs many miracles, and then We read at verse 16,
When He even was come, they brought unto Him many that were possessed
with devils, and He cast out the spirits with His word, and
healed all that were sick, that it might be fulfilled which was
spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, Himself. took our infirmities and their
our sins. And what is the scripture that
he's being referred to? It's the words that we have here
in verse 4 of Isaiah 53. Surely he hath borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten
of God, and afflicted. In the context there In the Gospel
we see the wholeness of the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
doesn't just come to minister to the spiritual needs of men
and women. He doesn't just come to effect
that great work of salvation for the souls of sinners. No, He ministers to the physical
needs, is mindful of all the needs of the people, and he goes
about doing good. And he performs many remarkable
miracles of healing, giving sight to those who were blind, feet
to the lame, ears to the dumb, even raising the dead to life
again. That ministry of the Lord Jesus
Christ, there is a wholeness to the ministry. He is mindful
of his people's needs, be they physical needs, as well as their
spiritual needs. And now here is one who is able
to sympathize with them. And why is it so? Because of
his own experiences. He lives a very real human life. We must never lose sight of the
reality of the human nature of the Lord Jesus and all that he
experiences as a man is so important because in and through these
experiences he is able to sympathize with his people we read of him
in the days of his flesh we get up at our prayer and supplication
with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save
him from death and was heard in that he feared though he were
a son yet learned the obedience by the things that He suffered. He was never anything less than
the Son of God, the Eternal Son of the Eternal Father. But how
He becomes the Son of Man! And how we see Him as a Man,
for as much as the children were partakers of flesh and blood,
He likewise took part of the same. his human nature was as
real as your human nature and my human nature he understands
what it is, he feels for his fellow men and women he has a
sympathy and we see how that sympathy is expressed, he heals
all those sick ones who were being brought to him there in
the gospel. Oh, how he sympathizes. Remember
the language of Paul again there in Ephesians, in Hebrews 4.15? We have not an high priest which
cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was tempted
in all points like as we are yet without seeing. Oh, he is
touched. What does it mean to be touched?
It means to feel, to feel for his fellow creatures, the sympathy
of the Lord Jesus. And now of course there, what
is the Apostle doing? He's encouraging us still to
come to this one. Let us therefore come boldly
to the throne of Christ. All the high priests touched
with the feeling of our infirmities. Let us therefore come boldly
to the throne of Christ. that we may obtain mercy and
find grace to help in time of need though he is now risen from
the dead ascended on high exalted in heaven reigning at his father's
right hand yet he is still that one who is a sympathetic high
priest the one that we can come to with all our prayers and all
our supplications the sympathy then of the Lord Jesus that is
the way in which these words of verse 4 are taken up in the
New Testament. It's an important aspect of the
ministry of the Lord Jesus, when we see the wholeness of that
ministry. But turning in the second place,
and this is the main thing that I want to deal with this morning,
the sufferings of the Lord Jesus. And the whole truth of the imputation
of sin, the transfer of sin to that one who is without sin. Tempted in all points like as
we are yet without sin. And as we turn to think of his
sufferings, I want to speak of four aspects of the sufferings
of Christ. First of all, they were real
physical sufferings I just thought to emphasize the fact that he
is a real man who can sympathize with men and women and so his
sufferings were so real he was wounded for our transgressions
it says The word, the verb that we have here, to wound, literally
means to pierce or to perforate. And we know that that was what
happened when he came to die. Now he says in the language of
prophecy in Psalm 22, they pierced my hands and my feet, and so
we have it. It's recorded quite plainly there
in the Gospels. how his hands, his feet were
pierced, they nailed him to the cross. Previous to that, they
had thrust that crown of thorns about his head. Those soldiers,
when they took him and they began to mock him in that travesty
of a trial that he has to endure because his death is a judicial
death, how his brow was pierced with those thorns, as well as
his hands and his feet being pierced with the cruel nails. And there now one of the soldiers
comes and thrusts a spear into his side and there comes out
blood and water. Oh, he was wounded, he was wounded. In Ezekiel we read of the groanings
of a deadly wounded man. Who is that deadly wounded man? That is the Lord Jesus Christ.
But what is the significance of all that wounding? The hymn
writer tells us they nailed him to the accursed tree. They did,
my brethren, so did we. The soldier pierced his sides,
it is true, but we have pierced him through and through. Oh, it was that, it was the sins
of his people that nailed him to the cross. If we are those who have an interest
in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, we have to come to that,
we have to recognize the truth of it, that it was our sins our
sins that were the cause of that body being so sorely wounded
those hands being so cruelly nailed to the cross is a sight
pierced through with the sword the flowing of the blood and
of the water Now we have to come to terms with that. Remember
the language again of the prophet there in Zechariah 12 10. I will
pour upon the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem
the spirit of grace and supplications and they will look upon him whom
they have pierced and will mourn for him as one mourneth for an
only son and be in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness
for a firstborn. Or what do we know of these experiences? To see what sin is in the sufferings
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Sin is seen, we know it's seen
in the Lord, that is the ministry of the Lord. It brings that knowledge
of sin. Sin is a transgression of the
Lord. But law and terrors do but harden
all the while they work alone. But a sense of blood brought
pardon soon dissolves the heart of stone, or to be those whose
hearts then are moved at the sight of this, the sufferings
of the Lord Jesus, real physical suffering, wounded for our transgressions,
it says, bruised for our iniquities. Now, again, it's interesting
to examine the language that is being employed. We do well
to carefully study the Word of God and to take account of the
words that are employed, and sometimes word study can be truly
profitable. The word here, he was bruised,
literally it means to crush. It's not just the bruising, it's
what causes the bruising that we have here. And how he was
crushed, how we see him there in the garden of Gethsemane prostrate. He falls to the ground, in his
prayers to God. And what is Gethsemane? You remember
the meaning of the name, Gethsemane, it means the olive press, it's
a garden. And it's there at the foot of
the Mount of Olives, that place where there obviously were an
abundance of olive trees. And there's a garden, but in
the garden there's a press, where they take the olives and crush
the olives. And here is the Lord Jesus. And
what is his soul like now? Why, it's like some great olive
press. How he is being pressed. How
he is being bruised and crushed. The powers of hell united pressed
and squeezed his heart and bruised his breast. What dreadful conflicts
rage within when sweat and blood forced through the sea. Well,
this is the suffering of the Lord Jesus, the very contemplation
of Calvary. That's what the Lord is doing.
He's there in the garden. He knows what is before Him.
He knew that He must need to go to Jerusalem. He knew what
would befall Him there, how He would be taken and tried and
crucified. And now the contemplation of
the cross is crushing and bruising the very soul of the Lord Jesus. Here we see him then bruised. And why? For our iniquities. It's always substitution. Or the cause of his sufferings.
It's not in himself. It's those sins, those iniquities
of his people that have been reckoned to him, transferred
to his account. And then, again at the end of
this fifth verse, We're told, the chastisement of our peace
was upon him and with his stripes we are healed. He was chastised. He was scourged. We're told quite clearly that
that was the case in the trial that he has to undergo before
Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor. Now, Pilate was in many ways
such a weak-minded man. Pilate took Jesus, we're told,
and scourged him. We have to acknowledge that this
is an innocent man. But now, he is governed by the
baying crowds, by the Jews who are demanding his crucifixion.
And he takes him and he scourges him. He lays stripes upon him,
not personally, but that's what his soldiers do. And not only
do they scourge him by whipping him, but they smote him on the
head with a reed, we're told, and they did spit upon him. This
is all part of his chastening. all that dreadful reproach that
is now being thrown upon him and yet it says with his stripes
with his stripes we are healed all the sufferings of the Lord
Jesus they were real sufferings he was suffering in that human
body he has identified with his people in that they were partakers
of flesh and blood, he is likewise taken part of the same, it says.
And he is suffering in the body. But it's not only physical sufferings. What we have here also in the
sufferings of Christ is spiritual, are spiritual sufferings. And
we see that later in what he said at verse 10, when thou shalt make his soul
an offering for sin." Again at verse 11, "...he shall see of
the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied." Verse 12,
"...because he hath poured out his soul unto death." The sufferings
of the Lord Jesus are not physical sufferings, they are that. But we're not to over-emphasize that
physical aspect of his sufferings. Now, in a way, some of the Mennonites
in the 18th century, they did over-emphasize that. People like
Gansinzendorf and the influence, of course, they had on on that
great awakening that came in the 18th century under the ministry
of men like George Whitfield and the Wesley brothers I said
Mennonites, I should have said the Moravians the Moravians,
they like to concentrate very much upon the physical aspects
of the of the sufferings of the Lord Jesus. Those are important.
We're not to lose sight of them. But in a sense they over-emphasize
that aspect. Surely the important part of
the sufferings of the Lord Jesus are those things that transpired
in the very depth of his human soul. We sometimes sing the hymn,
the pangs of his body were great. but greater the pangs of his
mind." Now the Lord Jesus suffers inwardly, and that's the beauty
of the Psalms. Those Messianic Psalms, in a
way, are so wonderful, because they draw out the inward experiences
of the Lord Jesus, what is taking place in the very depth of his
being. There's more there than what
we have really when we come to read the Gospels. The Gospels,
each of them, of course, give us a very graphic account of
the crucifixion. In so much detail we have it
in the four Gospels. But when we come back to the
Old Testament, to those Psalms, the veil is drawn aside, as it
were, and we are favored to look into the very soul of the Lord
Jesus Christ and oh what sufferings there, what sufferings there.
Think of the language that we have in Psalm 22. My gods, my
gods, why hast thou forsaken me? And how those words are taken up by the Lord Jesus
Christ himself. He utters that very prayer upon
the cross. He feels utterly forsaken in
his soul. There's a great mystery in the
dying of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's a mystery in the birth
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Great is the mystery of godliness.
God was manifest in the flesh. What a miracle it is that a virgin,
a pure virgin, is with child. she's with child by the holy
ghost the miracle of the virgin birth and now what is conceived
in Mary's womb is referred to as that holy thing that is the
human nature joined to the eternal son of God joined to the person
the second person in the Godhead the eternal son of God takes
to himself that holy thing that human body and soul and yet that
holy thing has been conceived in the womb of a woman who is
a fallen daughter of Adam, she's a sinner she rejoices in God
her Saviour, she's a pure virgin she has never known a man but
the miracle of the birth And now it's a wonder to ponder,
to contemplate on these things, the person of the Lord Jesus.
But not only in his birth, what a miracle we also witness when
we come to see his death upon the cross. Because through all
his human life he is never anything less than God. He never ceases
to be the eternal son of God. in all the days of his humiliation
here upon the earth he is that and he is that even as he expires
and dies upon the cross and out there he is bearing all the sin
of his people and what is the consequence, the real consequence
of sin of course is an eternal death and that eternal death
is an eternal separation from God that is the awful suffering
of hell cut off from God forever. God makes man in his image, God
creates man after his likeness. Man is made for God, man is made
to know God. The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy God.
All men are dead in trespasses and sins, they don't understand
that. They live their lives without any thought of God. but man is
made for God and this is a terrible suffering of those who are in
hell because there they are cut off from God forever and there's
no unbelief there they know that God is but they know nothing
of fellowship with God eternally cut off, separated and this is
what the Lord Jesus Christ himself is experiencing in his soul He
feels bereft. It's a cry of dereliction. My
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And here is the mystery.
Because there could never be separation between the persons
in the Godhead. There could never be any separation
between God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit,
because God is One. and God is undivided and God
is indivisible and yet we cannot understand how it could be because
that one who died it wasn't just the human nature that was dying
it was the God-man who was dying the mystery of his death there
upon the cross and how he is so troubled at the prospect of
these things. He says it there in John 12,
27, Now is my soul troubled. Now is my soul troubled. And
what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour.
But for thy cause came I to this hour. Father, glorify thy name. Oh, it's all for the glory of
God. These sufferings of the Lord
Jesus, they're real, they're physical sufferings, but they're
spiritual sufferings. It's what's going on in the soul
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then thirdly, these sufferings
are voluntary sufferings. Oh, they're voluntary sufferings.
That human nature of the Lord Jesus Christ was not mortal. What do we mean by mortal? We
are mortal in that we are those who are subject to death. Mortality
comes as the result of sin. The soul that sinneth it shall
die. The wages of sin is death. The soul of the Lord Jesus, the
body of the Lord Jesus is not mortal. Not mortal. He would never have died, because
he never sinned. He could only die by a voluntary
sacrifice, and so it was. Therefore does my father love
me, he says, because I lay down my life that I might take it
again. No man taketh it from me. I lay it down of myself. I have power, I have authority
to lay it down, I have power, authority to take it again. This commandment have I received
of my Father." Oh, the Lord Jesus Christ, when He dies, it's not
that men are taking His life. No man can take His life. He
would never die. It is a willing, voluntary act
on the part of the Lord Jesus. And how we see it when he comes
to die. There in Matthew's account, Matthew
27.50, Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded
up the ghost, it says. He cried again. What is the cry
that he makes with a loud voice? It's that cry, it is finished.
It is finished. And then he yielded up the ghost
and the verb that we have to yield, literally it means to
send out, to dismiss. He yielded up, he sent out his
soul, he sent out his spirit. What is he doing? He is making
his soul an offering for sin. He is pouring
out his soul onto death as we have it here in verse 12. It
is all a voluntary act on the part of the Lord Jesus Christ. He deliberately offered up himself
in dying and yet we know that he was crucified through weakness. Crucified through weakness, that's
the language that is used in reference to the dying of the
Lord Jesus There at the end of 2nd Corinthians, in 2nd Corinthians
13 verse 4, He was crucified through weakness. What does it
indicate? Well, it shows us that He was
not impassive. Oh yes, it's a voluntary death that He
dies. He has authority, He has power
to lay down His life. But we're not to think of Him
laying down His life like some stoic on feeling. No, He is crucified through weakness. "'Twas here the Lord of life
appeared, and sighed, and groaned, and prayed, and feared. But all incarnate God could bear
with strength enough and none to spare." That's the dying of
the Lord Jesus. It's a voluntary sacrifice, but
how he feels that awful burden that is being laid upon him as
he makes that great sin-atoning sacrifice. They are real physical
sufferings. They are spiritual sufferings.
He is suffering in the very depths of his soul. They are voluntary
sufferings. He so willingly goes this way
of the cross And then finally, the emphasis that I really want
to make, their substitutionary sufferings. Their substitutionary
sufferings. Verse 10, it pleased the Lord,
it says, to bruise Him. It pleased the Lord to bruise
Him. How could it please a God who
is holy and righteous and just How could He please him to bruise,
to break a man who is sinless? A man who
has fulfilled all righteousness, a holy man, a righteous man. How was it possible that God
could be pleased to bruise such a person as that? The Lord Jesus,
as we've said, is free from every sin. There's no taint of any
sin. There's no taint of the original sin of Adam and Eve. Because, as we've said, his very
conception ensures that he is free from all that taint. He
is conceived by the Holy Ghost in the womb of a virgin. he partakes of her human nature
but he doesn't partake of her sin, that's the miracle he is
preserved from every taint of Mary's sin, of all sin it's that
holy thing we read of him who did no sin
neither was guile found in his mouth he was holy and harmless
and separate from sinners and made higher than the heavens. How then is it possible for a
just God to brew such a man as that? Well, it is the sins of
others. It's the sins of others that
are being imputed to him. They're being reckoned to his
account. They're being transferred to
him. He is dying as their substitute. He is in their place. And that
is the great emphasis that is being made here in these verses. Verse 5 and verse 6, He was wounded
for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon Him. And with His stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his
own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all."
The margin here says, "...made the iniquity of us all to meet
on him." He is a substitute. Verse 4, "...surely he hath borne
our griefs and carried our sorrows." Oh, how he is that one, you see,
who sympathizes, bears the griefs and the sorrows of his people.
Sorrow comes as a consequence of the fall. Cursed is the ground
for thy sake. In sorrow shalt thou eat of it
all the days of thy life, till thou return to the dust, for
dust thou art, and under dust shalt thou return. There's the
curse. in sorrow shall thou eat of it all the days of thy life
and how the Lord Jesus Christ has even taken those sorrows
upon himself my soul he says is exceeding sorrowful my soul
is exceeding sorrowful even unto death Oh, is that one, you see,
the suffering Saviour, the sympathetic High Priest, feeling for His
people, in the midst of all the sorrows, all the sicknesses,
all that comes as the consequence of sin, even death itself? Oh, the Lord Jesus Christ, is
that one then to whom we're being directed here, even in this remarkable
chapter? But how does the chapter begin?
Who has believed our report? All men don't believe these things.
They don't want to hear these things. Who has believed our
report? To whom is the arm of the Lord
revealed? How the Lord must reveal His
arm. How the Lord must come and open blind eyes, unstop deaf
ears, and make those who are willful in sin willing in the
day of the power of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'll close by reading
a verse in the hymn 1116, one of Thomas Calley's hymns, stricken,
smitten, and afflicted. See him dying on the tree, but
thinking in particular of the words that we have here in the third verse of the hymn.
Ye who think of sin but lightly, Nor suppose the evil great, Here
may view its nature rightly, Here its guilt may estimate. Mark the sacrifice appointed,
See who bears the awful load. Tis the words the Lord's anointed,
Son of man and Son of God. Amen.