Turn if you will to first Peter
first Peter chapter 1 Every year I Travel preaching
the gospel of God's grace as far east as Ballymunny, North
Ireland and as far west as San Diego, California and as far
north as Wasilla, Alaska, and as far south as Merida, Mexico. I am familiar with lots of gospel
preachers and gospel churches. Just last Sunday night, a week
ago, I preached for Brother Gabe Starnaker, who's the recently
chosen pastor of Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church in Kingsport, Tennessee. They called Gabe to be pastor
there about the same time you called Brother Eric to be pastor
here. In fact, these two groups were
started within a few months of one another, started meeting
together. And I can't think of any two places in the world about
which I'm more excited than I am what God is doing here and what
God's doing there. I'm excited at the prospect that
lies before you and pray for you and if I Weren't where I
know God had me to be I'd want to be one of those two places
starting all over again It's exactly what I want to do and
I pray for you and I thank God for you All right, first Peter
chapter 1 Peter an apostle of Jesus Christ
to the strangers scattered throughout Pontius our Pontus Galatia Cappadocia
Asia and Bithynia elect according to the foreknowledge of God the
Father. That is, elect according to God's sovereign predestination. The word foreknowledge doesn't
have the idea of God knowing beforehand, but rather has the
idea of God foreordaining, predestinating. Our Lord Jesus was verily foreordained,
we're told in verse 20. The very same word is used. Foreknowledge
here speaks of God lovingly Embracing and predestining you who are
his elect unto eternal salvation. Elect according to the foreknowledge
of God the Father through sanctification of the spirit. That is, you're
saved by the regenerating work of God the Holy Spirit sanctifying
you, giving you a new nature. Unto obedience and sprinkling
of the blood of Jesus Christ. Saved by God's free grace working
in you. And saved by the obedience of
Christ unto death as our substitute. There's no other way for sinners
to enter into glory except by God's election, by Christ's redemption,
and by the Holy Spirit's effectual regeneration. Indeed, all who
are chosen of God from eternity were redeemed by Christ at Calvary
and shall be called by God the Holy Spirit in time. Read on. Grace unto you and peace be multiplied. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy
hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead. He's begotten us to an inheritance
incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved
in heaven for you. For you who are kept by the power
of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last
time." Oh, what a day that will be. Salvation ready to be revealed. We just have a little smidgen
of insight now. We see just a little bit. Oh,
but what it will be when God reveals all that he has done
in the saving of our souls. Salvation ready to be revealed
in the last time. Wherein you greatly rejoice,
rejoicing in this grace, this salvation, this savior. Though
now for a season, if need be, year in heaviness through manifold
temptations. Here in this world, during this
season of our sojourn on this earth, we will often be in heaviness
through manifold, that is through many and varied trials and temptations. But whenever that's the case,
there's always a needs be. God never chastens his children
except because of his love for them and to do them good. Never
because he's angry with them. Never because he's angry with
them. I told somebody last night, I only have one child and he
was a girl, so I don't qualify for giving parental advice. I always considered it my responsibility
to govern the House and to discipline our daughter. Shelby did occasionally
do so when I was away, but especially when she was growing up, Shelby
would say, when your daddy gets home, he'll take care of it.
And that meant daddy's gonna take care of it. And sometimes,
not often, but sometimes, children do things that just make you
mad. You just want to smack the mud
out of him. Just do something stupid. Just make him mad. That's
not the time to discipline. Not once while our daughter was
growing up did I discipline her in anger. Never because I was
angry with her. Not once. When I disciplined
her, she hurt. I saw to it that she felt it.
I saw to it that she was in pain. I made certain she remembered
it. And never for any reason except to benefit her. The only reason our Heavenly
Father ever exercises His chastening rod upon us, the only reason
we are ever in heaviness is because of His love for us. never because
he's angry with us. He punished our sins in our substitute. He punished our sins when Christ
died. He will never impute sin to us
again. He will never punish us for sin. He corrects us. He chastens us. brings us into seasons of heaviness
with a good reason, sometimes known only to himself, but a
good reason. Read on. Verse six, wherein we
greatly rejoice. You greatly rejoice in this salvation,
though now for a season, if need be, you're in heaviness through
manifold temptation. Now watch this. That the trial
of your faith being more precious than of gold that perisheth."
Brother Conrad, that's a strange expression, isn't it? He didn't
say your faith. He didn't say your faith is more
precious than gold that perishes. He said the trial of your faith
is more precious than gold that perishes. So that the heaviness
The trial, the temptation to manifest and manifold sorrows
we experience in this world is more precious than gold that
perisheth. Watch this now. Though it be
tried with fire, doesn't matter how severe it may be, might be
found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus
Christ. Oh my, what a statement. I heard
an old, old preacher many, many years ago from Liverpool, England,
Brother Charles D. Alexander. He used to come and
take a tour through our part of the country, West Virginia,
once a year. And I guess Brother Alexander
was in his 80s, first time I met him. He would preach from this
passage of scripture. And he made this observation.
I think I can give it to you exactly like he said it. Heaven
will be far more glorious than it could otherwise be as a result
of the trial of your faith upon this earth. It'll be found unto praise and
honor and glory at the day of Jesus Christ. What a statement,
read on. Whom having not seen ye love,
In whom though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice
with joy unspeakable and full of glory, receiving the end of
your faith. This is the consummation, this
is the finishing, this is the termination of your faith, even
the salvation of your souls. of which salvation, this great,
great salvation to which we were chosen, for which we have been
redeemed, for which we have been sanctified, and to which we have
been called, this great salvation, of which salvation the prophets
have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that
should come unto you, Now this does not mean, as many imagine,
that the prophets of old did not understand the things of
God. And so they just searched into them. That's not what it
means. Abraham rejoiced to see Christ's day. Abraham knew Christ
as well as you do. Abraham walked with Christ just
like we do. That's not what it means. They were trying to figure
this thing out. No, no. They searched it just
as we're searching it now. I want to know more about Jesus,
don't you? More of his saving fullness see
more of his kingdoms sure in case I want to know him and so
it was with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Isaiah Ezekiel
Jeremiah they inquired after this read on searching what verse
11 searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ
which was in them did signify. We want to know when this is
going to happen. We want to know what the Lord's going to do,
when he's going to do it. When it testified, when the Spirit
that was in them testified beforehand, This is what the Spirit that
was in all the prophets testified. The Spirit that inspired them
to write. The Spirit that moved them to
walk with God. The Spirit that gave them grace
and faith. This is what the Spirit testified in them. The sufferings
of Christ and the glory that should follow. The sufferings
of Christ and the glory that should follow. This is what that
means. Pick your Bible up, pick it up
in your hand, turn to Genesis chapter one. Turn to Genesis
chapter one. Hold your finger there. Now turn
all the way over to Malachi chapter four. Malachi chapter four. Have you got it? Now look here. Everything in
there, Everything in there is talking about the sufferings
of Christ and the glory that should follow Everything in there
is talking about the sufferings of Christ and the glory that
should follow What an astounding statement? What an astounding
thought? the sufferings of Christ and
the glory that should follow That's my subject tonight Oh,
Spirit of God, as you taught the hands of David to war, teach
these lips to preach this hour. First, let me talk to you for
a little bit about the sufferings of Christ, and then I'll talk
to you just briefly about the glory that should follow. Turn
back to Isaiah's gospel, the gospel of Isaiah, chapter 53. In our text, Peter speaks of
the prophets in the Old Testament who testified beforehand of the
sufferings of Christ and none testified beforehand of the sufferings
of Christ more clearly and more distinctly than did his prophet
Isaiah here in this 53rd chapter of Isaiah's prophecy. I want
to show you what I can from the testimony of scripture here in
Isaiah 53 about the sufferings of Christ. I get strange words from people,
conversations, emails, letters, telephone calls. Every now and
then I'll get somebody talking to me and say, I like to hear
hellfire damnation preaching. Do you preach about hell and
damnation? And I think, what kind of a perverted fella wants
to hear about hell all the time? What kind of perverted fella
wants to hear about hell all the time? I don't know much about it. And
I don't want to know much about it. But I know this, there is
a real place in this book called hell, where men and women, sinners
against God, will suffer forever the indescribably horrid, horrid
wrath of God in their bodies, in their hearts, and in their
souls forever. Somebody said, do you believe
in literal fire in hell? Something a whole lot more than
fire you get with a matchstick. The fire of a conscience. Guilty. Keenly awake. Tormenting your soul all the
time. Worm that will not die and fire
that will not be quenched. You have sinned against God in
this body. This body must suffer. You sinned
against God with your heart. This heart must suffer. You sin
against God, despising him in your very soul. Therefore, you
must suffer the wrath of God in your soul, in body, in heart,
and in soul. How can a man burn forever in
the lake of fire? How can a worm gnaw on his guilty
soul forever? How can the fire never be quenched? And yet the man continue to exist
in that which is called the second death. God fixes it so you can
endure everlasting torment forever. He sustains you so that you can
suffer everlasting torment forever because you've offended infinite
justice. And infinite justice can't be
satisfied by the sufferings of finite creatures. But the Lord
Jesus Christ, oh, oh, God help you today. to save his people from their
sins, took on himself our humanity,
and took our sins in his own body on the trail, and suffered
all the horrid, horrid hell of God's wrath at one time in his
body. in his heart and in his soul
until justice was fully satisfied. Isaiah here speaks about this
in Isaiah 53. But when you read the 53rd chapter
of Isaiah, always be aware that the chapter and verse divisions
in our Bibles were put there by the translators. And don't
let them get in your way in reading the scriptures. Isaiah 53 always
began at chapter 52 and verse 13. Look at the last two verses
of Isaiah 52. Behold, my servant shall deal
prudently, very wisely, He shall be exalted and extolled and be
very high. He's going to be exalted at last
when he's finished his service to me. As many were astoned at
thee. What a word. Astoned. We don't use the word anymore.
Most of our translations translate it astonished. The better translation
is astoned. It's a man has a vision of something
so shocking. It's just like it turned into
stone. As many were astonished at thee,
how come his visage was so marred more than any man and his form
more than the sons of men? This is talking about the sufferings
of our Savior in his body. Everywhere you go you see pictures,
supposed to be representations of the Lord Jesus. But they always
portray him as a sort of pretty boy. Long haired, little effeminate,
not the kind of fellow you'd ladies be interested in dating
or men would want for a son. Such pictures are themselves
condemned in scripture. Idolatry is wrong. You don't
want to have around you religious images and pictures and relics
and such as that. That's just idolatry. That's
just remnant of papacy. But if you could paint a picture
of the Son of God as is represented here in Isaiah 52 verse 14, you
wouldn't have it hanging in your living room. are over top of
your dining room table. Here is a man who is so tortured
in his body, his body so mutilated, so beaten. so bruised, so bloody,
his beard plucked out and the hairs of his head jerked out
and his lacerated back and his thorn pierced with the crowns
and he's so hideously covered with his own dried blood and
blood pouring over his body that you look at him and say, oh,
what's that? And you're shocked at what you
see. The fact is no man can read of the sufferings of Christ and
not be astonished. Astonished that any man could
inflict such cruel barbarity upon another man. astonished
that any man could endure such cruel barbarity and inhuman treatment. And when you realize that the
one who suffered that day of all days was and is the holy,
immaculate Son of God in our flesh, many were astonished at
thee. Ever remember that the sufferer
Isaiah here describes is both God and man. Our savior had to
be a man, otherwise his sufferings couldn't benefit us. A man sinned,
so a man must die. You see, putting away sin is
no easy thing. Putting away sin requires something
only God can do. The blood of animal sacrifices
in the Old Testament, God never used those sacrifices to put
away sin. Men were never forgiven and atoned for their sin by those
sacrifices. They only symbolized atonement
and forgiveness. Not all the blood of beasts on
Jewish altars slain could give the guilty conscience peace or
wash away the stain. But Christ, the heavenly Lamb,
His blood washes all our guilt away. not an angel, not a mere
man, not any animal could put away sin, but the Lord Jesus,
that one who is himself God and man in one person, is able to
suffer all the fury of God's wrath and satisfy all the justice
of God with one sacrifice. Because this man, who is God,
is a man whose sacrifice is of infinite worth to a holy God. without question. Many place
too much emphasis upon the physical bodily sufferings of Christ.
I understand that. And they try to get people to
feel sorry for poor little Jesus. Clearly understand that's not
my object. Our Lord Jesus did not die as
the helpless victim of circumstances. He died as the God of circumstances. He said, I laid down my life. I have power to lay it down and
I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received
of my father. He said to Pilate, you have no
power against me. Don't get your head to sweating
up too much. I could ask my father right now and he'd send angels
from heaven to deliver me from your hand. Our Lord Jesus does
not desire our pity. He does not want our pity. Let
us weep for our sins for which he died, but never weep because
he died. In fact, he says, weep not for
me, but for yourselves and for your children. But having said
that, we must never look upon our Lord's physical bodily sufferings
as matter of insignificance. The Word of God spends much time
in describing for us what our Lord suffered in His body. It
is written clearly in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Here in
Isaiah 53, the prophet Isaiah describes for us, as it's described
in many places in the Old Testament and the New, that which our Lord
suffered. If you read the 22nd Psalm, the
40th Psalm, the 69th Psalm. You will read what our Savior
said as he suffered under the wrath of God in his body upon
the cursed tree. On the night of the Passover
supper, when our Lord Jesus instituted what we call the Lord's Supper,
breaking bread, drinking wine, praying, singing with his disciples,
The supper was followed by our Lord's last discourse. Sometime
soon, I suggest that you read, at one setting, John chapters
14, 15, and 16, and then read the 17th chapter. John chapter 14 begins our Lord's
Sermon after he had instituted the Lord's Supper. And it goes
all the way through chapter 16. Our Savior said to his disciples,
because I have said these things to you, sorrow hath filled your
heart. And then he said, let not your
heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. in
my father's house and many mansions. If it weren't so, I would have
told you. I'm going now to prepare a place for you, and if I go
and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive
you unto myself, that where I am there you may be also." And our
Lord then made his high priestly prayer in John chapter 17. Oh,
what a prayer. What a prayer. We sometimes refer
to our Lord's model prayer, in which the disciples said, Lord,
teach us to pray, and he gave us a pattern of prayer and called
it the Lord's Prayer. That's not the Lord's Prayer,
Matthew chapter six. The Lord's Prayer, you find it
in John chapter 17. The Lord Jesus making intercession for
us, just as our great high priest was about to offer himself as
the Passover sacrifice to God on our behalf. The story continues,
and we piece it together from the accounts of Matthew, Mark,
Luke, and John. The soldiers came against him at his garden
and arrested him. And he was arraigned before Annas
and Caiaphas, and then before the Jewish Sanhedrin. And then
the Jews took the Savior by Roman soldiers to Pontius Pilate. And
Pilate sent him to Herod, the ruler of Galilee. And Pilate
and Herod, who had been vicious enemies up to that time, became
friends. They had a reason now to join
hands together. They got the Son of God in their
hands. Herod sent him back to Pilate,
the governor of Galilee. At last, Pilate condemned the
Son of God to be crucified. gave him into the hands of cruel
barbaric soldiers. And the scripture makes this
statement about what Pilate did. The Jews cried, crucify him,
crucify him. Let his blood be on us and on
our children. And Pilate, trying to get out
of the situation he was in, knowing there was no fault in the man,
he washed his hands and said, I'm innocent of the blood of
this just person. And then the scripture tells us, Pilate delivered
Jesus to their will Pilate delivered Jesus to their
will if ever there is a reason to despise The idea of will worship
the idea thought of free will religion That's the reason when
the Jews had their will The Son of God was put to death at the
cursed tree He was mocked by the soldiers beaten Just humiliated, stripped naked
and beaten. Then led him through the streets
of Jerusalem, out to a place outside Jerusalem called Calvary,
Golgotha, the place of the skull. You see pictures of it. Nice,
serene hillside. Everything calm and peaceful.
Three crosses there and three men hanging there. Just nice
and peaceful. That's not Calvary. Calvary was
Jerusalem's garbage dump. That's where they took fellows
whose bodies were not claimed by any relatives and threw them
out there on a pile of junk and just covered them over with a
little dust and bones and skulls stick out everywhere. It's a
scenery of debauchery and cruelty and filth and degradation. And
there a socket was prepared. And they stretched out the son
of God on a Roman cross, nailed his hands and his feet, and then
they picked him up Dropped cross body and all in
that socket. Oh What pain What an ignominiously horrible
scene we had before us So much so that the Savior said to his
servant John take my mother away. Don't let her see this. I His
sufferings and death were hidden from his mother. The sun refused
to shine, hiding the infamy from the earth. And God the Father
refused to look on him. And the Savior cried, after he
burned with fever, I thirst. And they quickly read, gave him
some vinegar with myrrh, which would sort of stupefy his sufferings. And when he tasted it, he said,
no, I won't have that. Determined to suffer with full
awareness of what he was doing. And his body burns with fever
and contract with excruciating pain. And there he suffers in
his body. Now, look at verse three of Isaiah
53. He is despised. and rejected
a man, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it
were, our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed
him not." Isaiah here begins to describe
the sufferings of our Lord's heart. He was despised and rejected
of men. Betrayed by his friend, denied
by his disciples, forsaken by his companions, tortured and
nailed to the curse tree. Our Savior cried, reproach hath
broken my heart. And that heart was broken for
me. I want to know something about that. Paul said, oh, that
I may know him in the fellowship of his sufferings. He was despised
by his countrymen, came to his own and his own received him
not. He was despised by his own brethren. As long as they profited
by his miracles and his fame, they were happy to have it. But
when things began to turn against him, his kinsmen said he's lost
his mind. Y'all put him in a nuthouse somewhere.
He's a man of sorrows and acquainted with griefs. Our Lord Jesus,
while he walked on this earth, I find it somewhat interesting.
Never once in the book of God do we hear of him laughing. Not once. But throughout his
life, We read of him who is a man of sorrows from the beginning
of his days in trial and temptation, enduring all his ministry, the
slanders of men, the unbelief of his disciples. I'll stop and
say something to your pastor. You, uh, the day will come. I promise you it'll come. It'll
come. You'll hear folks you've been preaching to all their lives
make some kind of outlandish, dumb, unbiblical statement, contrary
to everything you've ever preached. And you'll think to yourself,
didn't you hear anything I preached to you all your life? It's kind
of like our Lord's disciples. Kind of like our Lord, that's
the way it is with human beings like us. The disciples heard,
who ever heard such preaching? Who ever heard such preaching?
And yet they constantly acted and thought and spoke contrary
to what they heard. That was a pain to him. And our
Lord Jesus was moved with compassion when he saw sinners going to
hell. Brother John, explain that. Let me tell you something. Let
me tell you something. If you need that explained to
you, something's bad wrong with you. Well, we believe in sovereign
grace. The scripture says our savior, this man, a real man,
looked upon the city of Jerusalem going to hell, and he cried,
oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem. He saw that rich young ruler
going to hell, and he had compassion on him. Oh, didn't he believe
in predestination? He's the one who did it. Didn't
he believe in election? He's the one who did it. Didn't
he believe in reprobation? He's the one who did it. But
he is a real man with real tenderness for humanity and he moved with
compassion. You and I need to ask God for
grace to be moved with compassion upon this generation. Don Fortner,
beg of God grace to cease being so hard and judgmental against
men acting like you are and moved with compassion to preach the
gospel of God's free grace to sinners who need his grace. Our
Savior saw the sorrows of his friends. You remember when he came to
the tomb of Lazarus in John chapter 11? He's standing there at the two. Mike, do you reckon he knew what
he was fixing to do? I've got a hunch he knew Lazarus was coming
out of that too. I just got a hunch he did. I've got a hunch he knew
full well all that lie ahead for Lazarus. He knew very well
he was fixing to display his glory as God in the resurrection
of Lazarus to the joy of Mary, Martha, Lazarus, and all his
people around him. I just have a hunch he knew all
about that. But when he saw Mary and Martha weeping, he wept. How come? Because he's touched
with the feeling of our infirmities. A real man, a real sympathetic
high priest able to succor them that are tempted. Behold our
savior in Gethsemane. And hear him cry, Oh, my father,
if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. After his arrest in Gethsemane,
the blessed son of God endured the cruel mockery of the soldiers. They plaited a crown of thorns
and shoved it into his brow. They found an old piece of cloth
of purple colors of probably some kind of a doormat and threw
it over his naked body as if it were a robe for a king and
put a reed in his head for a royal scepter. And then they taunted
him and jeered him and beat him in the face. And the Lord of
Glory became the song of drunkards and harlots. Pharisees and publicans, scribes
and harlots, drunks and Herodians, streetwalkers and pimps and prostitutes,
all joined together in a hellish, hellish party, mocking the Son
of God as He suffers spit on His face. Don't ever imagine
that his sufferings in his heart were easy to bear. And then Peter
denied him. All his disciples forsook him.
He was despised and we esteemed him not. I remember Brother Mahan telling
me once of an experience he had. He was preaching down south somewhere,
I don't know where, I've forgotten. And he was having dinner at the
house of a widow and her daughter. And the daughter spoke just so
admirably of her father. And after a while, while they're
sitting at the dinner table, Henry said to the daughter, he
said, tell me, what is it about your daddy that has given you
such high regard and such precious memory of him. Would you mind
telling me?" And she says, oh no, Brother Mayhead, I won't
mind at all. She said, when I was just a little girl, my daddy
had a bad heart. And the doctors told him he couldn't
take any strain, not to strain himself, he'd kill it. And one
day we were at the beach, Mama and Daddy and me, and I got out
in the water, and Daddy realized I was out too far. And when he
did, he hurriedly got up and ran and dove in the water and
swam out and got me and brought me to shore. And when he brought
me to shore, he fell over dead. You see, my daddy gave his life
for me. That's what makes him so precious
to me. That's what the son of God did for us in his sufferings
on our behalf. Turn to Psalm 69. All the time
he's suffering, his heart is upon us. Listen to what he said. Verse 6, Psalm 69. Let not them that wait on thee,
O Lord God of hosts, be ashamed for my sake. Don't let Matthew,
Mark, Luke, John, Peter, the rest of them. Don't let them
be ashamed. Don't let God be ashamed. Let not those that seek
thee be confounded for my sake, O God of Israel, because for
thy sake I bore reproach. Shame hath covered my face. I
am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien to my
mother's children. for the zeal of thine house hath
eaten me up, and the reproaches of them that reproach thee are
fallen upon me. I made sackcloth also my garment. And I became a reproach, a proverb
to them, and they that sit in the gates speak against me, and
I was the song of the drunkards. Verse 14. Deliver me out of my
and let me not sink. Let me be delivered from them
that hate me and out of the deep waters. Excuse me. Let not the water flood overflow
me, neither let the deep swallow me up, and let not the pit shut
her mouth upon me. Hear me, O Lord, for thy lovingkindness
is good. Isn't that amazing? Mikey's hanging on the cross,
suffering all the horrid wrath of God for our sin, and he says,
thy lovingkindness is good. Thy lovingkindness is good. Turn
unto me according to the multitude of thy tender mercies, and hide
not thy face from thy servant, for I'm in trouble. Hear me speedily. Drawn I under my soul and redeem
it deliver me because of my enemies Thou has known my reproach my
shame and my dishonor You see what that says pastor
Lord God my father you've known my reproach My shame. My dishonor. Well, that ought to read, you've
known the reproach of my people. My people's shame. My people's
dishonor. Oh no. Oh no. My shame. My reproach. My dishonor. Mine adversaries
are all before thee. They were his adversaries, just
as the shame was his shame, the reproach his reproach, and the
dishonor his dishonor. My adversaries are all before
thee. Reproach hath broken mine heart, and I'm full of heaviness. I looked for some to take pity,
but there was none, and for comforters, but I found none. Still there's
more. Back in Isaiah 53, verse 10. I understand the biblical doctrine
of the atonement. I understand what this book teaches
about the sin offering and the Paschal Lamb and the body prepared
for our suffering and death, or for our Savior's suffering
and death. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission. I understand the agony of our
Savior's tormented body. And I understand a little bit,
a little bit about his broken heart. But here we come to something
I simply can't comprehend. the sufferings of his holy soul. Look at verse 10. Yet it pleased
the Lord. It pleased the Lord. The word
is satisfied. It satisfied God to bruise him. He, the Lord God, Father, Son,
and Holy Ghost, 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 iniquities. Much we talk of Jesus' blood. But have littles understood of
his sufferings so intense, angels have no perfect sense. Who can
rightly comprehend their beginning or their end? Tis to God and
God alone that their weight is fully known. See the suffering
son of God, panting, groaning, sweating blood. Boundless depths
of love divide. Jesus, what a love was thine. When thou shalt make his soul
an offering for sin. I was showing some of you fellows
on Bible programs and concordance on it. Tell you what you do.
When you get a chance to look up every place in the Old Testament,
every one of them, all the way through the Old Testament, where
you see the word sin offering. and get your Strong's Concordance
and just use it on your computer. Much easier than we used to have
to do it with a big old book in hand. And look up every one
of them and just highlight it and see what the word is. See
what the word is. The word sin offering is never
used in the Old Testament. Never used. That's the English
translation. It's the English translation
of this word, sin. And when God, the Holy Spirit,
inspired the Apostle Paul to give us his translation of Isaiah
53 10, this is how he translated it. He hath made him to be sin for
us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. Our sin was made His. The Son of God had our sins imputed
to Him justly because He was made sin. God always acts in
justice, righteousness, and truth. Justice will not impute sin where
there is none. And justice will not impute righteousness
where there is none. God really and truly made his
son sin so that his heart is broken with the weight of sin.
One of the ladies in our congregation, Regina Henson, A few years ago,
had one of her children in the car, was driving somewhere, and
she stopped. When she did, she just keeled
over. She was right across the street from the ambulance center.
So they got there in time to resuscitate her, got her to the
hospital. And I was out here preaching. And Shelby and I got
back in town. We stopped by the hospital to
visit with her and Mark. And Mark said, they were just distraught. She was in critical condition.
The doctor just left them and been asking Mark, has she lost
a child? Somebody she loves, somebody
who's very close to her. And Mark said, well, no, no. Why do you ask? Doctor said,
well, there's nothing wrong with her physically to cause this. But we have discovered in recent
years that people actually die of a broken heart. It's called
broken heart syndrome. And that's what your wife has.
And she may not recover. I know one who 2,000 years ago
died with broken heart syndrome. His heart broken. Who knew no
sin. But he, the only man who ever
lived who knew sin. Bob Miller, you and I don't have
a clue what sin is. We don't have an inkling of an
idea. But this man, he is God. He knew sin as God knows sin. Knew what it was, and he was
made sin for us. And when he was made sin, justice
cried, awake, O sword, against the man that is my fellow. Smite
and slay the shepherd. And God slaughtered his son,
because his son fully deserved to be slaughtered. that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. Really made, really made, really
made the righteousness of God in Him. And God Almighty imputes
righteousness to us because we're righteous. And when we stand
before God in judgment, the Lord God will look at Eric Richards
and he will say with absolute truth, well done, our good and
faithful servant. That's called grace. That's called
substitution. That's called salvation worth
looking into. Search it. Find out what God
reveals about this. In evil long I took delight,
unawed by shame or fear, till a new object struck my sight
and stopped my wild career. I saw one hanging on a tree in
agonies and blood. He fixed his languid eyes on
me as near his cross I stood. Sure, never till my latest breath
can I forget that look. It seemed to charge me with his
death, though not a word he spoke. A second look he gave, which
said, I freely all forgive. This blood is for thy ransom
paid. I die that thou mayst live. Thus, while his death, my sin
displays in all its blackest hue. Such is the mystery of his
grace, it seals my pardon too. With pleasing grief and mournful
joy, my spirit now is filled that I should such a life destroy,
yet live by him I killed. I've got to quit. But the glory
that follows is this. He's going to prolong His days.
He's going to rise from the dead. God's going to put everything
in His hands. And He shall see His seed justified, sanctified,
and glorified. This is the joy set before Him
for which He endured the cross, despising the shame. he shall
see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied. What does that mean? It means
that the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ shall never be discovered
in miscarriage. Every soul for whom he died shall
be with him in glory. Because the pleasure of the Lord,
prospering in his hand, sees to it that his redeemed ones
are saved. Just what you read in Isaiah
chapter 43. He called them and gathered them
from the north and the south and the east and the west because
he loved them and he gave everything for them. Amen.