And from Isaiah chapter 53, we'll
read four verses, if you please. Isaiah chapter 53 and verse 6,
then fall down to verse 10, verse 11, and verse 12 of that great
prophecy. Isaiah 53 and verse 6. 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. Now verse 10, 11, and 12. Yet
it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief. When thou shalt make his soul
an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong
his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his
hand. He shall see of the travail of
his soul and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquity. Therefore I will divide him a
portion with a grape, and he shall divide the spoiled with
the strong, because he has poured out his soul unto death, and
he was numbered with the transgressors, and debare the sin of many, and
made intercession for the transgressors. Or write in 1 Peter chapter 2
verse 18 through verse 25. Servants be subject to your masters
with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to
the froward. For this is thankworthy, if a
man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. For what glory is it, if when
you be buffeted for your faults, you shall take it patiently? But if when you do well and suffer
for it, you take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. For even hereunto, were ye called,
because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example
that ye should follow his steps. who did no sin, neither was guile
found in his mouth, who, when he was reviled, reviled not again. When he suffered, he threatened
not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously,
who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree that
we, being dead to sin, should live under righteousness by whose
stripes ye were healed. For ye were as sheep going astray,
but are now returned under the shepherd and the bishop of our
soul. Verse 24, who his own self bear
our sin in his own body on the tree that we being dead to sin
might live unto righteousness. Now, I do not think that there
is a more important subject in all of the scripture connected
to our salvation than that of the death of our Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ. This is the essence of the gospel. This is the essence of our great
salvation. Paul states in 1 Corinthians
chapter 15 and verse 3 how that Christ died for our sin according
to the scripture. buried according and raised again
according to the scripture on the third day. And so, says Paul,
we preach Christ crucified. Our message is Christ crucified
upon the cross. And the reason and the essence
and the nature of that great death, writes Paul again in Galatians,
the third chapter, that Christ was made a curse for us. that He endured the very curse
of the law. We lay heavy under that curse
except for our connection to Christ and His death in our behalf. He redeemed us from the curse
of the law, brought us out from under the curse of the law, that
we might receive the adoption of children by and through Jesus
Christ. They have not preached the gospel,
who have not understood this great message in the scripture. They have not known these things.
They have not known the gospel and the way of salvation. When we think about the death
of Christ, we can say it this way, that our Lord's death was
vicarious. That is, it was on the behalf
of others. not for himself, but it was upon
the behalf of others. Also, that our Lord's death was
a propitious death, that is, it was a death that might put
us in the favor of God by the way that Christ died. It was
a redemptive death in that he brought us out from under the
slavery of sin and the bondage of sin. His death, furthermore,
was an atoning death That is, it covered our sin, it reconciled
us unto God. So, let's notice something about
the text in the passage here in 1 Peter chapter 2 that we
have read for today. First of all, I think you might
notice that the words of this text by Peter are couched in
Old Testament terminology. That is, there is Old Testament
terminology that is employed here in describing Christ. I mean by that, that it is phrased,
it is spoken or written in such a way as to make a Jew think
of certain passages of scripture that he has heard and read from
a child in the Old Testament. And it carries his mind to those
verses of scripture in the Old Testament scripture. And they
are applied by the Apostle Peter unto our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ. Here are some that are set forth
in the Old Testament. First of all, there is that of
sheep and of shepherd that we find throughout the Old Testament,
the people of God. are referred to as the sheep
of the Lord, the sheep of his pasture. The words of Isaiah
53 and verse 6, all we like sheep have gone or turned astray or
aside. We have gone in our own way. And then in 1 Peter 2 and verse
25, you were as sheep going astray. We have all, like sheep, gone
astray. Now says Peter, you were as sheep
going astray. And then there is that familiar
and that shameful image of one hanging upon a tree. in the old
economy. You'll find it in the end of
Deuteronomy, the 21st chapter, verse 22 and verse 23, where
one is hanged upon a tree by the wayside for all to see as
they pass by. And Paul In Galatians 3 and verse
13, cursed is everyone that hangs upon a tree, who Jesus, that
is, the Jews slew Jesus and they hanged him up on a tree. Acts chapter 5 and verse 30. So that makes the connection
there between that one cursed and dead through the law hanging
on a tree by the wayside until the evening of the day. And then
there's another thing here. This is another place in the
Apostles' writing where an exhortation to the saints of God regarding
their Christian behavior turns into, or morphs as it were, into
one of the greatest passages concerning the work of the Lord. Now the greatest one in my mind
is Philippians, the second chapter. where Paul there exhorts the
saint to be in lowliness of mind and to regard the things of others,
not just the thing of himself, to consider the interest of others
and to have the mind or to have the attitude of Christ in regard
unto others. The Lord existed in the form
of God, yet he became incarnate and took on the form of a servant
or of a man, and he even gave himself up to the death of the
cross in the behalf or for the sake of others. The supreme example
of looking upon the things of others is the death of our Lord
as he gave himself upon the cross. And here in 1 Peter chapter 2,
The exhortation is to patiently endure the things that come upon
us and cause our suffering as a Christian. And the spirit of
that suffering is to be after the spirit of our Lord. He said in verse 21, to this
we have been called, that is to suffer for the sake of our
Lord. Christ endured reviling without
reviling back again. He did not threaten those that
reviled him, though he might have called fire down from heaven
or 12,000 angels that might have destroyed them. Instead, Christ
gave himself up are over into the hands of God the Father,
the righteous judge, as he is called, and this included giving
himself over to that righteous judge for the death upon the
cross. He said on the eve of that crucifixion,
the cup the Father hath given me to drink, shall I not drink
it, as he agonized in Matthew 26 and 42, John 18 and verse
11 Philippians chapter 2 And verse 8, He became obedient unto
death, even the death of the cross. Yes, He endured the cross. Hebrews chapter 12 and verse
2. So let us know the mind of our
blessed Lord, that He in His suffering, quote, committed Himself
to Him that judgeth righteously, unquote. Oh, that we might have
the faith and the courage to do that. One of my interlinears
has it this way, quote, delivered himself to the one judging righteously. And then in another version,
I found it this way, quote, kept entrusting himself to him that
judges righteously, end quote. This gives us occasion, therefore,
for us to take note of some passages which declare that our God is
a righteous judge. The first one that I'll mention
is from Abraham himself, way back on in Genesis chapter 18. And verse 25, shall not the judge
of all of the earth do right? 2 Timothy 4 and verse 8, Paul
calls God, quote, the righteous judge, unquote. In Acts 17 and
verse 31, he will judge the world in righteousness, end quote,
for he is Indeed, a righteous judge. Now, as for the words
at the end of verse 23 in the passage from Peter, I took this
quote from John Brown's commentary on that section of the word of
our Lord. And he said this, and I quote,
he, that is Jesus Christ, was persuaded that both he and his
righteous cause of the divine glory and salvation of men was
perfectly safe in the hands of him who judges righteously, unquote. And so he committed himself into
the hands of a just, righteous God to carry forth the death
and crucifixion upon the cross. In all that befell our Lord,
in all that came before Him as a suffering servant of Jehovah,
He committed Himself perfectly to the will of God. He said in
Matthew 26, 42, Face in the cross thy will be done. He said unto
the Father, He gave His back to the smiters. He gave his cheeks
to them that plucked off the hair and the beard. He hid not
his face from shame and from spitting as he endured that great
shameful thing. In Isaiah 50 and verse 6, and
devoted his will to suffer the full extent required to make
the great atonement for the sin of his people and his elect. And in verse 24 of Peter, it
is the heart of this message. Who his own self bear our sin
in his own body on the tree. His own self and his own body. And that up are upon the tree
are the cross. He made an all-sufficient sacrifice. Nothing was kept back. Nothing
was withheld. He carried our sin. He gave satisfaction
to the law and the righteousness of God, that God might be righteous
in forgiving the sin of the elect. See the personal way that Christ
Jesus took our sin in this verse. who is own self. They were not like Abraham who
found a ram to substitute in the stead of his son, but the
Lord his very on itself. And not only that, but in his
very own body. What did he do? He bore, he bare,
he carried our sin to the tree. And the margin has it, I think,
to the tree. That is, to it, upon it, and
fastened to it, and hanging there. Of course, the same word translated
back in verse 25 return to or unto the shepherd and the bishop
of our soul. The Lord bear our sin up to and
upon the tree that we might live unto righteousness." Now is there
here an intended contrast by the apostle between the Old Testament
sacrifice of the beast and of the animal and the sacrifice
of our Lord's Christ His very own body and soul given up unto
sacrifice. In Hebrews 9 and 12, not by the
blood of goats and bullocks and such like, but by His very own
blood our Lord entered into the Holy of Holy. Now the Jew, for
centuries, had been used to animal sacrifices and the shedding of
their blood. Them being slain by a human priest
at a material altar and their blood carried and sprinkled that
it might make an atonement for their sin. But such sacrifices,
says Hebrews, could never take away their sin. No, the blood
of goats and bullocks and turtle doves And all of that could never
take away sin. So says Hebrews chapter 10, verse
1 through 4. But they were types and they
were shadows of the great sacrifice of Christ, of the better sacrifice
that was to come, the sacrifice of the new covenant, Hebrews
chapter 10 and verse 1. So Christ himself is our sin
bearer. He did not settle for a lesser
sacrifice, not at all, or shift the work to the sacrifice of
another. He sacrificed himself. He has given himself for us,
an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor."
So says Paul in Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 3. He has given himself
to God a sweet odor and acceptable sacrifice. He was made sin for
us. 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 21. Not made sinful, but made sin
in the sense of the meaning of the text. He was made a curse
for us, or He endured the curse for us, Galatians chapter 3 and
verse 13. So let's look, if we might, at
what the Lord Himself bear. What did He bear in His very
own body? Where did He bear it? up on the
tree? The answer, sin. He bore sin
in his body on the tree. And the question again is, whose
sin? And the answer that Peter gives
is, our sin. He bore our sin, our as it is
in the Greek, the same of us as the words we, us, and our
refer to such as have been regenerated and called and believed. and
converted to such as have a saving interest in the Lord Jesus Christ. It speaks of those in a state
of grace, us, our, we. He bore our sin, the sins of
us, so that we can never separate the death of Christ from the
demerit of our sin, which was upon us. Sin requires death. Sin brings death. And that is
very clear in the scripture. For the wages of sin is death. The soul that sinneth shall die. The Old Testament prophet had
said, should we need we ask ourselves, what is sin? Some people take
it very lightly. To many people, sin is not a
serious thing at all. But if you want to know what
sin is... and the vileness of it and what
God thinks about it, look yonder at the cross with His only begotten
Son hanging there bearing our sin. What is sin? Sin is the
transgression of God's law. 1 Peter, or rather 1 John chapter
3 and verse 4, that every sin in some way comes back to be
a transgression of the law of God. Our sins are our personal
acts, our words, our deed, our thoughts, our motive, our violation
of the law of God. Now, how this is variously described
in the scripture is an interesting thing unto us. It is called sin,
transgressions in one place. It might be called iniquity.
It's called ungodliness. It's called unrighteousness.
It's called evil. Perhaps some more that I have
left out or forgotten. And with sin there comes that
guilt. Guilty sinners incur the guilt
of sin and sinners stand guilty before God apart from the sacrifice
of our blessed Lord. Next comes the question that
we want to ask, how it is that Christ, holy, innocent, without
sin, no fault, no guile in his mouth whatsoever, how is it that
Christ came to bear the sins of his people? The sins are not
his. They're not his sin, per se. They're not his personal sin.
They are ours, they are ours and ours only. He knew no sin. 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 21. And none could convince him of
being a sinner. John chapter 8. and verse 46,
as he hurled the charge before them. He is separate from sinners,
holy and undefiled. Hebrews chapter 7 and verse 26,
he did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth. Verse 22
of 1 Peter chapter 2 has already told her. So how is it that Christ
came to bear our sin in his own body and that upon that cursed
tree are the cross of Calvary, one of the most shameful deaths
that ever the world had seen to that time. And that death
be effectual to save guilty sinners. How can an innocent one take
the sins of the guilty, bear their sin, and they be set free
and declared righteous in the sight of God? How come they came
to be in his own body and upon him in his own self? We read
it. Isaiah 53 and verse 6. The Lord hath laid upon him The
iniquity of us all. There's that us again. Of us
all. Thus made him to be sin for us. Laid on him. What? Our iniquity. He let our iniquities fall upon
our blessed Savior. We read in Isaiah 53 and verse
12, He bear the sin of many. Some say the words in Isaiah
chapter 53 and verse 6, laid on him the iniquity of us all. You might notice that it is in
the margin, has made to meet or to light upon him. the iniquity
of us all. And some say that that describes
a heavy load lighting upon our blessed Lord. Some good expositors
think that the good literal rendering would be either this the Lord
made to meet on him the iniquities of us all, or the Lord has made
to fall upon him the iniquity of us all. This was typified,
you remember, when the high priest Aaron Back in Leviticus chapter
16, on the day of atonement, he brought out the two goats
and lots were cast for them, one for the goat and one lot
for the Lord, because verse 9 The Lord's lot fell up on him. That goat died. His blood was
taken and sprinkled upon the mercy seat. Leviticus 16 and
verse 15. Notice that again. The goat on
whom the Lord's lot fell. that was singled out by an act,
a sovereign act of our Lord. Now the other, the second goat,
Aaron laid his hands upon that one, upon his head, pressed down,
and confessed over him all the sins of the people of the children
of Israel. Quote, putting them upon the
head of the goat, unquote. Again, Leviticus chapter 16.
And then the goat, with their sins, symbolically or typically. pressed down upon his head. And verse 22, and the goat shall
bear upon him all the iniquities unto a land not inhabited, and
he shall let go the goat in the wilderness, unquote. And that
goat never returned into the camp again, signifying their
sins are upon him. They're gone out of sight, never
to return upon them anymore. And Isaiah 53. And verse 6, John
Brown builds a case here that the words Jehovah laid on him,
that is, on his righteous servant. In Isaiah 53.13 and 53.11, which
of course is Christ. And it describes what the writer
John Brown called, quote, a fierce, hostile attack, unquote, as the
sin of the elect were laid or imputed unto our blessed Lord. And the same word appears in
other places in another way in context. For example, in Numbers
chapter 35, I believe that it is, verse 19 and 21. The avenger of blood fell upon
the person to slay them. And he did not so gently, but
violently took hold of them that he might slay them. Fall upon
me, in Judges chapter 15 and 12, seems to be the same word. So that our sin came upon Christ
as a heavy burden. In 1 King 2 and 25. when Benaiah
fell on Adonijah. And see that he died. He died
by Solomon's orders as they fell upon him and they slew him. Now
our sins did not ease gently upon the Lord Jesus Christ. They came armed with a curse
of the law, because the strength of sin is the law, 1 Corinthians
15 and 56, and requiring death and nothing but and nothing short. of death, for it is sin that
puts the sting in death," writes the Apostle Paul. How unnatural
for the Holy Christ to be made sin in behalf of others. And as the hour approached Him,
when the Lord would bear our sin literally, finally, and fully
in His own body on the cross and in the garden, we read, that
he began to be very sorrowful. He began to be very heavy. Matthew chapter 26 and 37. Mark writes it like this in Mark
chapter 14 and verse 33. He began to be sore amazed and
to be very heavy. how that burden began to ease
and come upon our Lord in the eve of the crucifixion and His
death upon the cross. Luke 22 and verse 44, and being
in agony, He prayed more earnestly and his sweat was, as it were,
great drops of blood falling to the ground. See our Lord there,
he travailed in soul as the great weight of our sin settled upon
him for the full. and the final accounting. Spurgeon
put it this way, quote, this was the sole travail which was
completed at the cross, unquote, as he bore our sin actually upon
the cross. Appointed he was before the world
began to die, he assumed our flesh, it was that he might die. But now in Gethsemane, He has
come near death's door, even the very next day. And his soul
becomes exceedingly sorrowful. And the disciple had never seen
their Lord like this before. They'd never seen our Lord in
such agony, never seen their master, as it were, sweating
drops of blood. He said to them just a little
bit before, the hour is come. John 17 and verse 1. It might be rendered, I think,
that hour or the hour. that hour appointed by God from
before the foundation of the world. Here's again how Spurgeon
put it, the travail of soul which was completed at the cross, unquote. So let me try, if I might, to
emphasize that Lord and his dying and bearing our sin. Number one,
the Lord lay under the sentence of death all of his life. He came into the world that he
might die, a body God prepared him that he might offer a sacrifice
unto God. But then came the actual hour. A couple of examples might suffice. All of us realize, even from
our young life, that we will die someday. But we think it
may be here. It is a way off. It is a great
way off. Then comes the sickness, and
then comes the suffering in the body, and death comes and grabs
us. And then thirdly, think of one
who has committed a crime, and he's sentenced to die. And he's
yonder in the prison. His death date is appointed,
but it's 10 years off. And yet one day, the 10 years
marches by, and they come and they take him down for the chamber
and the execution. That being said, let us hear
again the words of our Lord. My soul is exceedingly sorrowful
even unto death. My soul is sorrowful even unto
death. I think the key word here is
the word soul. My soul is exceedingly sorrowful. My soul as in Matthew 26 38 Mark
14 and verse 34, Scripture speak, you know, of the soul of our
Lord. And I'd like to say a few things
about the soul of our Lord. I think some folks probably might
not understand exactly the nature of the soul of our Lord. In John
chapter 12 and 27, now is my soul troubled. My soul is troubled. The Lord also spoke of his soul. God spoke of it. The Lord also
spoke of his soul. Remember Psalm 16 and 10 referred
to in Acts chapter 2 and other places. Thou wilt not leave my
soul in hell. Hades, also Acts 2 31. And from
the prophecy of Isaiah, chapter 58, verse 10, verse 11, and verse
12, there are three mentions of the soul of God's suffering
servant. Verse 10, that his soul should
make an offering for sin. Verse 11, he shall see
the travail of his soul and be satisfied. And again in verse
12, he has poured out his soul unto death as God's suffering
servant. Now consider if you will, if
we were to ask an evangelical Armenian consider the soul of
the Lord Jesus Christ as mentioned in the scripture, would he think
that it is a divine soul or is it a human soul? The best way
perhaps to ask the question is, the soul of Christ so often mentioned
in the scripture, is it a part of his divine nature or a part
of the human nature. If it is a part of his divine
nature, then he brought it with him from in the incarnation and
always had it. It is a part of his divinity.
When a soul would be incapable, therefore, of the sorrow and
the suffering that our Lord said that he would endure. If we eavedrop
on the Armenians a little more, we might hear them speak of Christ's
divine soul and Christ's divine blood is the way they often speak. And yet, as Williamton Huntington
once wrote, a great old-timer, divinity has no blood to shed. No doubt at times the soul is
put for the whole self in the scripture. We recognize, we understand
that. But as he gave himself, Ephesians
chapter 5 and verse 2, he offered himself without spot to God,
Hebrews 9 and verse 4. As John Brown put it back in
Isaiah chapter 53, he laid down his life. He laid down his whole
living self on the altar of divine justice," unquote. The Lord said,
I lay down my life for the sheep in John chapter 6. In his incarnation,
the eternal son, in accordance with the divine purpose, took
a whole but impeccable human nature into hypostatic union
with the divine nature of our Lord. How be it? The humanity
of Christ was impeccable and the two natures are not co-mingled
or inextricably mixed together. They're not indivisibly merged
one into the other. He was a God-man. He's the God-man. His divine nature was not turned
into human and his human was not turned into divine. A body thou hast prepared him,
Hebrews 10 and 5. In Hebrews chapter 10 verse 10,
it is by the offering of that body once for all that we are
sanctified. He partook of flesh and of blood
to take the necessary kinship with his elect that he might
redeem us and act as our Goel Redeemer. That'd be Hebrews chapter
2 and verse 14. He himself partook of flesh and
blood. Thus we read the Lord's body,
Hebrews 10, of his soul, Matthew 23, 38, of his spirit, Luke chapter
23 and 46. And if I might quote Huntington
again, quote, the Lord from heaven took on him the whole of man's
nature, consisting of human body and reasonable soul, unquote,
even as human creatures are body and soul. Now wherein consists
his being made like unto his brethren. He partook of flesh
and blood, a human body and a human soul. And in that body and upon
that cross, he bore our sin. And though he carried our sorrow
and bore our grief all the days of his life, it was culminated
in the cross. when our Lord died that awful
death. Remember, we said the word can
be to the cross. Why must the Holy Christ bear
our sin under the tree? Why must he hang on a tree, a
sign of and a curse? It signifies that the wages of
sin is death. That we lay under the curse of
God. In Deuteronomy 21, 23. He that is hanged is accursed
of God. Literally, the curse of God. Under the curse of the law. When
they saw that man hanging upon that tree, it spoke to all that
passed by. He has committed a sin. worthy
of death and is died under the curse of the law. It was a posthumous,
if I may use the expression. It was a posthumous degradation
to slay him by stoning for transgressing the law, and then to affix his
body to a tree the rest of that day, that all that passed by
first killed and hanged upon a tree. And the one hanged on
the tree signified that the curse of the law had been imposed or
endured And Christ, taking our sins under the cross, completed
the great work of expiation, and our sins are put away. For Christ has acted as our surety. He has paid and answered our
debt. He has suffered what satisfied
God as a just recompense of reward. so that there is no condemnation
to them that are in Christ and for whom Christ Jesus has died. Think of Paul's words in Romans
8, 32. He spared not his own son. He spared Abraham's son, but
he spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all. The focus is upon this. Spared
not, delivered up. Bear not means he did not forego
the punishment due our sin simply because it was against his very
own son. He gave him the full measure
of punishment that our sins deserved, and he delivered him up. He delivered
him up to the death of the cross. Delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by wicked
hands, crucified, and slain," said Peter in the second chapter
of the book of Acts. Yes, he bore our sin in his own
body on the tree that we, being dead to sin by that act, might
live unto righteousness. We cannot do without it. This
is God's doings. It's marvelous in our eye. that
he has provided for us a lamb and for himself a lamb to bear
the sin of the elect. And thank God for that great
work and act of our blessed Lord. Thank God for it.