Let's be turning, brethren, to
Isaiah 53. It's good to be back with you. Folks say I'm from Princeton,
New Jersey, but I'm from here. I could stand here now and look
back there and see my son on that back row, and I know what
my pastor was looking at when he stood here. Let's turn here to Isaiah 53. Let's begin reading in verse
7, and we're going to read down to verse 10. This is speaking
of Christ Jesus our Lord. He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
yet He opened not His mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the
slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He openeth
not His mouth. He was taken from prison and
from judgment, and 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. And 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. Yet it pleased
the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief." When we go through this life
as believers, we need patience and we need meekness. And in
our text here, we see patience and meekness in our Lord Jesus
Christ. But now, like Brother Darwin
was talking about earlier, about love, that God gives being a
different love than what natural love is, that's the case with
patience and meekness. That patience and meekness which
is a moral virtue that's natural to men is totally different than
this patience and meekness that God gives by His grace. The patience
that God gives by His grace is an endurance. waiting on God, believing God,
trusting God, persevering, waiting on God. And this meekness is
a calm temper, a calm temperament in the face of suffering because
of the same reason. We believe God and we know God's
reigning and He's ruling. The comfort of God-given patience
and meekness is that we know whatever we're suffering, it's
of the Father's hand. He's the first cause. There may
be some secondary causes used, but He's the first cause. That's
great comfort to true patience and true meekness that God gives.
And then the consolation of God-given patience and meekness is knowing
that whatever we suffer, God's bringing glory to His name. and
it's for the good of his church, for the good of our brethren
and for our personal good. That's the consolation of this
suffering. And the strength of God-given
patience and God-given meekness is in committing all our care
into the hand of God, trust in Him. Now, these are the things
we see preeminently set forth here in Christ Jesus, the substitute
of His people, as He obeyed God and obtained for His people a
perfect righteousness. He opened not His mouth. Isn't
that amazing? In all of this that He suffered,
He opened not His mouth. I want to show you, first of
all, an example of us. An example of us. And then secondly,
I want you to see here, Christ our representative and our substitute. And then thirdly, we see Christ
our example. All right? First of all, we see
an example of us. Now this is the depravity of
man, particularly a vainly religious man. This is us. This is what
we were when we were dead in our sins. This is what we are
still in our flesh. In verse 7 says, he was oppressed. He was oppressed. The men that
instigated the crucifixion of our Lord were religious men. They did what they did, professing
to do it in the name of God for the glory of God. Now this is
us. This is us. This is a picture
of us right here. Now remember this as we look
at these things. Our natural depraved heart, especially
in religion, loves to oppress. He was oppressed. It means to
smite, to drive, to exact, to rule over as a taskmaster. Now
think about it. This is what we do. We like our
tradition. We like to do it the way we've
always done it. Even if it's contrary to the
Word of God. That's our nature. We want it
to be the way we've always... This is how we've always done
it. And we want things to be how we think they ought to be.
We like our thoughts over God's thoughts. And our thoughts are
not God's thoughts. We don't understand God until
He gives us a knowledge of Him. Until Christ, we're given the
mind of Christ and Christ has made wisdom unto us. We don't
know God and we don't understand God. And when somebody doesn't conform to our tradition or the
way we like it, we smite them with the tongue, Smite them with
the hand. We'll smite them with a weapon
if we can get away with it. Men have done that in the past.
It's called the dark ages. And that's what we'll do. This
is what we do by nature. We oppress. We think we can keep
the law. Men, religious men, vainly unregenerate
men think we can keep the law. We can't keep the law, not before
conversion, not after conversion. Not as God requires it be kept,
which is in perfection. We can't do that, brethren. But
what we'll do by nature, we'll look at how somebody else is
acting. We want mercy. We want God to be merciful to
our shortcomings. But then we see somebody else
and we'll smite them because they don't they don't keep things
as we think they ought to keep them. Now, this was the heart
of me. And this is why men were dealing with Christ the way they
were dealing with Christ. He didn't conform to their tradition.
Now, secondly, Here's the next thing we see. We see that the
depraved self-righteous heart is unjust. Verse 8 says, he was
taken from prison and from judgment. You can read a lot of things
on this, but Acts 8.33, the Spirit of God gives us the meaning of
this. It says, in his humiliation, his judgment was taken away.
His judgment was taken away. When Christ humbled Himself and
gave Himself into the hands of His captors to do with Him as
they were willing to do, they were willing to do things that
were unjust. They gave Him no justice whatsoever.
They did nothing that was just toward our Savior. He was treated
in an unjust and unrighteous manner. Christ went through two
trials. two trials, not one, two trials,
a Jewish trial and a Roman trial, and neither one of them had any
resemblance of justice whatsoever. You know how long it takes us
to go through a trial, when somebody's on trial? His trial began and
ended in one night. They never had any witnesses
that agreed, two or more witnesses, and they sought false witness
against him, and they passed a sentence that was unjust. And
then when he was brought before the Roman government, the question
was, is his kingdom in competition with Caesar's kingdom? And Christ
plainly stated, My kingdom is not of this world if it was my
servants would fight my kiss his kingdoms a heavenly kingdom
It's not an earthly kingdom. He's creating the kingdom It's
it's created in righteousness and true holiness where everything
there's what he created. It's not this kingdom And yet
Pilate, knowing full well that he was innocent, said some good
things about him, then turned him over to the will of the people
to do with him what they will. Now this is what's going on mostly
in our day, is Pontius Pilate preaching. Men will say some
good things about Christ, some true things about Christ, but
ultimately they turn him over to the will of the people to
do with him what they will. And any time that Christ was
turned over to our will, we dealt unjustly. We dealt unjustly. We called ourselves righteous
by something we had done, and we never would bow to the truth
that Christ is the only righteousness of His people. If it's true,
and it is true, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believes. That's justice. That's just.
That's right. But for us to bow to that, we're
going to have to confess we've never done righteous. We've never
kept the law one day in our life. It's true Christ is sanctification. He's the sanctification of His
people. So to believe that, to trust
Christ that we've been, that we're born of His Spirit and
Christ is formed in us and that is how we're sanctified and lay
hold of Christ, our sanctification. We have to confess that having
begun in the Spirit, we're not going to be made perfect now
by our flesh. We're not going to turn back
to the law now and be made perfect by our flesh. That's what the
Judaizers were preaching in Galatia. But see, we won't deal justly
with God. We won't confess we're sinners.
We won't confess we need Him to be our only righteousness
and our only sanctification, our only redemption. We won't
do that. We'll deal unjustly with Christ. The gospel that men preach where
they say that Christ died for all men without exception, takes
away all justice. There's no justice preached in
that message. Because Christ did accomplish
the justification of His people. Look there at verse 11. He shall
see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. By his
knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many." He did
that. He justified his people. When
he had accomplished eternal redemption, then he sat down. When he had
by himself purged our sins, then he sat down. That means for everybody
for whom he died, he accomplished this. And so he's going to, like
that Brother Garvin quoted that scripture, he saved us. And then
He's going to call us and tell us about it. He's going to tell
us what He did. That's what He does. That when
we were in our depravity, like all depraved men, like works
religion in particular, we were wicked and rich, rich in our
self-righteousness. Look at verse 8. It says, Who
shall declare His generation? Different things can be said
here, Staying with the context, the best thing I found on this
is this is what it's saying. Who shall declare the wickedness
of the generation that crucified Christ? Who shall declare the
wickedness? John called them a generation
of vipers. Christ said, strong bulls of
Bashan have come past me about. There's a generation which is
Christ's generation. It's God's elect. They're called
a chosen generation in 1 Peter 2. And then there is a generation
that is the seed of the serpent, the seed of Satan. They reprobate
men, justly reprobate, because they would not believe God, would
not trust God. The Scripture says, God says,
I will be gracious to whom I'll be gracious. But He never says,
I'll condemn whom I'll condemn. He chose some men unto salvation
in Christ, but He didn't predestinate men to hell. Men earn that. Men
earn that justly. They earn it, and He appoints
them to reprobation because they earn it. He says here, he made
his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death. He
was crucified at the hand of wicked men, rich in self-righteousness. Rich here meaning wicked, just
like poor sometimes stands for godly in the scriptures. We rejected
Christ because we didn't see ourselves as sinners. We didn't
see ourselves as sinners. We didn't see ourselves as bankrupt
in sin, in need of salvation. Every single person here is a
sinner. Every single person here is in
need of salvation, from the youngest to the oldest. Every person here
is unable to please God by anything you've ever thought, anything
you've ever said, or anything you've ever done. That's true
of you and that's true of me. And until God makes us see that,
We will not bow to God and trust God. We will go on in what we
call righteousness and what God calls wickedness, rich and in
need of nothing, thinking we don't need God. Here's the fourth
thing. The depraved heart and vain religion
is enmity against God, enmity against true righteousness and
true holiness. This was the issue then. This
is the issue now. Verse 9. At the end there it
says, because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit
in his mouth. He said this, if I had not come
and spoken unto them, they had not had sin, but now they have
no cloak for their sin. You ever have a loved one that
you want them to come hear the gospel, you want them to hear
the message of full, accomplished redemption by Christ Jesus the
Lord, and they just won't do it. They make up every excuse,
they come up with every kind of reason, they won't do it.
But you know what the real reason is? When men hear about the righteousness
of Christ, it takes away all the cloak they have for their
sin. It makes them to see they're not righteous. It reminds them
they have no righteousness. It reminds them that they have
no covering for their sin. And men hate that. Men hated
God. and hated Christ, they hated
Christ, they hate him now, hate the gospel now, because he's
righteous and he's holy. He's the only one righteous.
He's the only one holy. These things come about, these
four things. Now this right here, oppression,
injustice, being wicked and rich in ourselves, and hating true
holiness and true righteousness. That's the heart of natural man. That's the heart of vain, carnal,
free will works religion. We were in it. We were in it. I don't care who you are, whether
you was in a church or not. This is what we were right here. We were like the man in parable
that Christ gave, we would not have this man to reign over us. We would not have Christ to be
wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. We would not
glory only in the Lord. We have to be born of God. We
have to be given repentance by Him. We have to be given faith
by Him to be turned from us and all our vainness to Him and rest
there. Now, that's the first thing we
see. You want to see depravity, look to the cross. That's where
you see it. That's us. Now, don't think,
well, if I'd have been there, I wouldn't have done that. That's
what we did before he called us. We crucified him before he
called us. Anytime we heard the gospel,
that's what we do to men that was trying to tell it to us.
Now, here's the second thing. Let's behold Christ, our representative
and our substitute. I like to behold Christ as my
active righteousness fulfilling the precept of the law, just
as much as seeing him as my justifying righteousness from the penalty
of the law. He is that righteousness. And scripture said, he came down,
he made himself of no reputation. He took upon him the form of
a servant. And being found in fashion as
a man, he humbled himself. And he says, he became obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross. Now what Christ was
enduring here, he was enduring at the hands of wicked men, but
there's something Christ knew. This is what I want you to get.
When we're suffering, it may be at the hands of wicked men.
But know this, know what Christ knew. Christ endured all these
things and He was willingly doing these things because He was fulfilling
the will of the Father. Look at verse 10. Yet, in spite
of all these things, yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him. He hath
put Him to grief. It was God doing this, not men
doing this. Men were being used. God was
doing this. God was doing this. Our head
was oppressed unjustly by wicked men. But it was the Lord God
justly exacting of our surety what we could not pay. Verse
6 says, all we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone
to his own way. All of us together, collectively,
all the elect of God went astray. And then when we were born, every
one of us individually went our own way. And they are the ways
of death. There is a way that seems right
unto a man. But you put them all together,
all our ways, you put them all together, and they are all the
ways of death. But Christ came, and the Lord
hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. And He was oppressed. He was exacted. God exacted of
Him exactly what you and I could not pay to God. That which oppressed
our Savior most was having our sin laid on Him, and then bearing
the wounds the bruising for our transgression at the hand of
the very God whom he loved and whom he served. That was the
oppression that he bore. When he was oppressed by our
wicked hands, it appeared we were driving him to that cross.
But that wasn't the case. He was willingly going to that
cross. When verse 7 right here, when it says, he was oppressed
and he was afflicted, that word afflicted there means on his
part, he answered. I didn't know that's what that
meant. It means he was oppressed and he answered. How did he answer? Verse 7, yet he opened not his
mouth. He opened not his mouth. He's
brought as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before shears
is dumped, so he openeth not his mouth. The high priest arose,
and he said unto him, answerest thou nothing? He said, what is
it which these witness against thee? But Jesus held his peace. And then Pilate arose, and he
asked him again, said, answerest thou nothing? Behold, how many
things they witness against thee. But Jesus yet answered nothing,
so that Pilate marveled. He never said a word. Here he
is, he's laying down his life for his sheep. He's the sheep
taking the place of his straying sheep. And we forsook him. We left, we fled, we ran away. He never upbraided his sheep
that he would lay down his life for. Here He was, wicked hands
are nailing Him to a tree and reviling Him and smiting Him
in the face and saying all manner of blasphemous things against
Him. He never spoke a sinful, threatening word back to them.
He said, Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. God
Himself. separated himself from him and
left him there to bear what he was bearing justly on the cross.
And when he cried out, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me? That was not a reviling word. That was a word of agony. That
was a word. He even justified what he said, saying, but thou
art holy. This is a just thing that's happening.
That's what he was saying. I must be lifted up. I must bear the sin of my people.
I must bear the stroke of divine justice for my people. I must
do this in order for God to be just and justified. Indeed, it
was wicked hands that took him from prison and from judgment.
It was a generation of vipers that nailed him to a cursed tree.
He was cut off out of the land of the living. But it says, for
the transgression of my people was he stricken. Brethren, the
hell that His people owe, the hell that we owe, it's a living
death. You know, it's not that death
you die at the end of your life and then they put you in a box
in the ground. That's not hell. Hell is a living death. Hell
comes after that. It's a worm that never dies.
Christ bore that when He hung on that tree. He bore that cutting
off when He hung on the tree. He hung there on that tree, and
God separated Himself somehow from him. And I'll tell you,
this is, I don't know this, this is beyond me, but that has something
to do with how he was made sin. Because in the garden, Adam transgressed. But when sin, when he became
sin, God didn't put something in Adam, God took something away
from him. He removed his presence from him. I'm not suggesting
that by that Christ would have been seen if God removed his
presence from him, but it has something to do with him removing
and separating himself from him. When he cried out, that's what
he was progressively, his soul was becoming more and more troubled
about that. And it started in the garden of Gethsemane. That's
where Adam was made sin. That's where he was made sin,
in the garden. The curse was, in the sweat of
your face, you'll sweat blood all your days. And in the garden,
he sweat, as it were, great drops of blood. When he came back to
his disciples and he said, watch and pray, because the Spirit
is willing, but the flesh is weak. He was speaking by experience
about what he was enduring right there in that garden. He was
experiencing how weak our flesh is. And even then, God didn't come
and strengthen him. God sent an angel to strengthen
him. And then it culminated on the cross where he cried out,
my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? He was cut off. He was cut off. Satan and the
evil invisible host of hell was lashing upon him. Wicked men
were lashing upon him. His people were separated from
him. His God was separated from him. There was a gulf fixed between
the two and he's bearing that on that cross. That's the hell
me and you would have suffered. That's the living death he was
bearing on that cross. And when he said it is finished,
he put an end to that death. Him giving up the ghost and going
in that grave was just the final stroke to it to show us it's
finished, it's done. And when he came out of the grave,
God declared, I'm satisfied, it's done. Ah, you picture, brethren,
all the You picture a mountain, and you picture streams coming
down that mountain from every side and from every angle, and
they begin to converge, and then they get a little bigger, and
then these converge with these, and they keep going until they
just become one mighty river, and they all dump into a big
lake at the bottom of that mountain. Those streams are the sins of
His people. All the sins of all his people from all ages, from
all generations come down and converge into one giant mass
of iniquity and was laid on our Redeemer. And he bore the stroke
of God's justice and satisfied it. He satisfied it. Wounded for our transgression,
bruised for our iniquities. John Trautman said, our iniquities
were the weapons and ourselves the traitors that put to death
the Lord of life. Judas and the Jews were but our
workmen." And this ought to draw dreary tears from us. And he
says it will. He says, I'm going to pour my
spirit upon them and they're going to look upon me whom they
have pierced and weep for me with bitterness like a man weeps
for his only begotten son. And yet Christ was in full control
when all this was happening. He was willingly suffering these
things. Look at verse 9. He made His
grave with the wicked. He made it. He made His grave
with the wicked and with the rich in His death, willingly
for the world to see. He was crucified between two
malefactors, two wicked men, and He hung there, right there,
numbered among them. You know what He was telling
me and you by that? He was telling me and you by
that, I've been numbered with the transgressors. I've been
counted the transgressor. I've been the one who stood in
the gap between God and my people and bore what they owed to God
and satisfied God for them. I did that for my people. And
those that railed on Him and hung Him there, just like today,
thought He was the most wicked one of the group. And here's why He did it. because
he was the only one fit to do so. Verse 9 says, because he
had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
There wasn't another one that was capable of doing what he
did. Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust,
that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh,
but quickened by the Spirit. Brethren, the strongest answer
ever given came without words. The strongest answer ever given
came without words. Christ had power to summons more
than 12 legions of angels. But he would not have displayed
his mighty power if he would have displayed his omnipotence.
This power wasn't displayed by omnipotence. The greatest power
ever displayed was displayed without a word, without saying
a word. Without saying a word, he went
to that cross and by bearing the sins of his people and then
justly bearing the punishment for our sins in his body, this
is what the Lord did. He satisfied the law for his
people. He declared God just and the
justifier. He justified us from all our
sin. He crushed Satan's head. He conquered
death and he conquered hell for his people. What does Satan have
to accuse you with now? Nothing. He can accuse all he
wants to. But Christ stands there and says,
this is a bran plucked out of the fire. I've saved this one. I've laid down my life for this
one. He's righteous. Who's going to condemn him? That
was done without Him saying a word. With His stripes now, we're healed. We were naked in sin. He was
stripped naked that He, through the Spirit, through faith, might
cover our nakedness with His righteousness. We were shameful.
We were the shameful thing. And He came and He bore the shame
that He might put away that shame by His righteousness. Let me
read this. I wrote this, but I want to read
it because I want to say it. The great mystery of the cross
is that while the Lamb of God bore all the spots of his people,
that God might be just to pour out justice upon him in our place,
that God might be just and justify us who believe, yet in his heart
he offered himself without spot to God. On the cross is Christ perfectly
fulfilling the spirit of the law, faith in his Father, working
by love for God and His brethren. And at the same time, Christ
perfectly fulfilling the penalty of the law. So that in Christ's
suffering and death, we see perfect holiness of heart, Christ our
sanctification. And we see perfect righteousness
in precept and penalty, the Lord our righteousness. That's who
that is on the cross. Now, do you believe Christ is
the Son of God? Do you believe that he accomplished
these things that I've been telling you this morning? Is he all your
righteousness, all your sanctification, all your hope? If you believe
him, confess him in believers baptism. Listen to this. He said,
whosoever therefore shall confess me before me and him will I confess
also before my father, which is in heaven. But whosoever shall
deny me before me and him will I also deny before my father,
which is in heaven. Confess Him. If you believe Him,
confess Him. Now thirdly, and if you believe
Him, I want you to see now Christ as our example. Turn to 1 Peter
2. We'll be brief here, but turn to 1 Peter 2. The Holy Spirit tells us here
to follow Christ as our example. Peter was writing here, and he
was writing and teaching us to abstain from fleshly lusts, which
war against the soul, He was telling us to have your conversation
honest among sinners. He was saying, submit yourselves
to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake. And look here
at the end of verse 18. He says, not only to the good
and gentle, but also to the froward. He says, for this is thankworthy,
if a man for conscience toward God endured 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 here unto where you
call because Christ also suffered for us leaving us an example
that you should follow in his steps now Christ said if they
persecuted me they're gonna persecute you and Paul said in Philippians
1 it's given to us not only to believe but to suffer for his
sake We're gonna suffer for his sake if you believe him and preach
this gospel. I guarantee you gonna suffer
for that Your family's gonna reject you Your dearest friends
and loved ones are going to reject you because men by nature hate
God. That's just plain and simple.
Now listen. First of all, make sure our suffering
is not due to our faults. Verse 22 says, who did no sin,
neither was guile found in his mouth. If we be buffeted for
our faults, we ought to take it patiently because we deserve
that. But he says now, if you don't want to be reviled because
of your faults, don't give men any ammunition. Don't load their
gun for them. by our faults. And then listen to this. Be honest. Walk honorably before men. And
if you suffer for well-doing, take it patiently because this
is acceptable to God. It's accepted through Christ
our altar, through Christ our righteousness. Now secondly,
when you do suffer for doing well, don't revile again. Don't
threaten back. Look at verse 23. When he was
reviled, he reviled not again. When he suffered, he threatened
not. He brought as a lamb to the slaughter,
as a sheep before shears is done, so he opened not his mouth. We
just saw how, what a great thing he did. What power was wrought
by him keeping his mouth shut. Now he tells us now, don't revile
back. Don't threaten back. When folks
say mean things, you don't have to open your mouth. They can't make you talk. You
just keep your mouth shut. When Christ was reviled, He didn't
pop off in response. When He suffered, He didn't threaten
back. What did He do? Instead, He committed it all
to God. Look here, verse 23, "...but
committed Himself, His cause, to him that judgeth righteously."
I want to show you something real quick. Look at Isaiah 50. You see, this is what Christ
did. This is why He was able to suffer
and keep His mouth closed. He said, verse 6, I gave my back
to the smiters and my cheeks to them that plucked off the
hair. I hid not my face from shame and spitting, for the Lord
God will help me. This is committing it all to
him. The Lord God will help me. Therefore,
shall I not be confounded? Therefore, if I set my face like
a flint, I know I shall not be ashamed. He is near that justifies
me. Who will contend with me? Let
us stand together. Who's my adversary? Let him come
near to me. Behold, the Lord God will help
me. Who is he that shall condemn me? Lo, they all shall wax old
as a garment. The moth shall eat him up. Turn
to Romans 8, just a minute. Now that's what Christ did when
He suffered. That's how He committed it to
God the Father. Now Christ our Redeemer is risen
and He's the head of His church and all power in heaven and earth
is given to Him as the God-man. In our nature, there He is ruling
everything in this world and everything in His church. He's doing that. Now look what
he says for us to do. Romans 8. Romans 8. Look here
at verse 33. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect is God that justifies. Sounds like Paul's
preaching from Isaiah 50, don't it? He is. Yes, who is he that
condemneth? It's Christ that died yea rather
that's risen again Who's even at the right hand of God who
also maketh intercession for us? Who's gonna separate us from
the love of Christ tribulation distress persecution famine nakedness? Look at verse 36 as it's written
for thy sake. We're killed all the day. We're
counted as sheep for the slaughter but in all these things We're
more than conquerors through Him that loved us. You see, He
committed it all to the Father. Now He says, now you commit it
all to Me. Commit it to Him and He'll take
care of it. He knows everything you feel.
He knows everything you suffer. And when we're so weak that the
only strength we have is to look to Christ, that's when we're
strong. That's when the power of Christ rests upon us instead
of the power of Satan resting on us. And that's when we find
out His grace is sufficient. I've been with a couple of dear
brethren that have died. And when it's in the end, you're
weak. You're weaker than you'll ever
be at the end. But you know what happens when
you're that weak, weaker than you've ever been before? Immediately
when you close your eyes, you see Christ as He is and you're
stronger than you've ever been. Now, that's so now. If we could
just enter into it when we're as weak as we can be so that
we only can trust Christ, that's when we're strong. That's when
we're strong. Commit it to Him. Now listen,
we don't judge righteously, He does. We don't judge righteously.
We never know the full story, He does. We never know the hearts
of men, but He does. Never say an unkind word about
your brother or your sister in Christ. To do so is to do those
four things we saw in the beginning. It's to oppress, it's to deal
unjustly, it's to be wicked in our self-riches, and it's to
hate true holiness and righteousness. Don't say an unkind word. Don't
cause another brother to doubt the other by something you've
ever said about him. Don't do it and don't listen
to it. And if you hear that someone that says something about you,
Don't revile back. Don't threaten back. Commit it
to him that judges righteously. Commit your cause to him and
commit their cause to him. The scripture says, Who art thou
that judges another man's servant? He's Christ's servant and he's
own master. He stands or fall. Yea, he should
be held up for God's able to make him stand. Now, let me give
you these three things that I'm doing. This is what Christ knew
when he suffered. This is what I said to you at
the beginning. First thing he knew was it was his father's
will. His God was bringing to pass everything He was suffering,
His Father. Now you remember that. Everything
we suffer, God's bringing it to pass. Secondly, in His suffering,
Christ knew God would receive all the glory. Remember, if we
suffer, God's bringing glory to His name. And then thirdly,
He knew that in His suffering, He was going to justify all His
people and save us from our sins. Remember, whatever we suffer,
somehow, God is working good for His church, for His people,
and for you personally. Remember those three things.
And here's our constraint right here. Verse 24, "...who His own
self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being
dead to sins, should live unto righteousness by whose stripes
ye were healed. For you were a sheep going astray,
but are now returned unto the shepherd and Bishop of your soul.