When our Lord Jesus hung upon the cursed tree, suffering
the wrath of God and all the vile, obnoxious filth of human scorn
heaped upon Him, He looked around at His tormentors who cried for
His blood and laughed as he died, and prayed, Father, forgive them,
for they know not what they do. In a little while, one of the
men who was crucified by his side, a thief who had before
railed with the crowd mocking him, said to him, Lord, remember
me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And the Savior responded
today. shalt thou be with me in paradise
our savior knowing the ignominy and the shame that he was enduring
and the heartbreak that his mother was watching looked in pity upon
her and said woman behold thy son and then when God darkened the
skies. He cried, my God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me? His body burning with fever,
his tongue swollen, his throat dry and parched. He cried, I
thirst. And they gave him gall and vinegar. gall and myrrh to drink, a stupefying
mixture that's designed to prolong life, designed to somewhat deaden
the pain that he's enduring. And when he tasted it, not willing
to taste thereof, he refused to have it because he was determined
to suffer in all the keen awareness of his holy being as our substitute,
all the fury of God's holy wrath and justice as a man. Then when he had suffered all
that God in his infinite justice demanded for the satisfaction
of justice and the punishment of the sins of his people, when
God in justice said, The son of God cried, it is finished. And the work was done. The law
was fulfilled. Justice was satisfied. The prophets
were accomplished. Everything written of him was
performed. He accomplished his death and
cried, it is finished. And he finished the work of redemption
by the sacrifice of himself on that blessed day. Then our Lord
bowed His head like a reverent servant whose work was done. And He says, Father, into Thy
hands I commend my spirit. And He gave up the ghost. Now,
if you'll open your Bibles with me to Ezekiel, I'm sorry, to
Lamentations, the Gospel of Lamentations, chapter 1. I'll show you another
of our Savior's cries as He hung yonder on Calvary's cursed tree,
suffering all the horrible fury of God's holy wrath and justice. Lamentations chapter 1, my text
will be verses 11 through 14. So let's begin reading at verse
8. Lamentations chapter 1, verse
8. Jerusalem hath grievously sinned,
therefore she is removed. All that honored her despise
her. Because they have seen her nakedness,
yea, she scytheth and turneth backward. Her filthiness is in
her skirts. She's committed whoredom with
gods that are no gods at all. She remembereth not her last
end. Therefore, she came down wonderfully. She had no comforter. Now notice
the change of persons. Jeremiah has been talking about
Jerusalem, her sin, her nakedness, her filthiness, her shame, her
idolatry, her judgment. Then at the end of verse nine,
he speaks in the first person about his own affliction. Oh
Lord, behold my affliction for the enemy hath magnified himself. In verse 10, the weeping prophet
changes persons again as he pours out his lamentation to the Lord
God. The adversary hath spread out
his hand upon all her pleasant things, for she hath seen that
the heathen entered into her sanctuary, whom thou didst command
that they should not enter into thy congregation. All her people
sigh. They seek bread. They have given
their pleasant things for meat to relieve the soul. Then beginning
again at the end of verse 11 and continuing through verse
14, Jeremiah speaks again in the first person. Now here's
my text, beginning at verse 11, right at the end of verse 11.
See, O Lord, and consider for I am become vile. Is it nothing to you? All ye
that pass by behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto
my sorrow, which is done unto me. wherewith the Lord hath afflicted
me in the day of his fierce anger. For from above hath he sent fire
into my bones, and it prevaileth against me. He hath spread a
net for my feet. He hath turned me back. He hath
made me desolate and faint all the day. The yoke of my transgressions
is bound by his hand. They are wreathed and come upon
my neck. He hath made my strength to fall. The Lord hath delivered me into
their hands from whom I am not able to rise up. As a faithful
pastor, Jeremiah, God's prophet, had been cast into a deep, dark
pit by the people for whom he labored. He had preached to them
the word of God faithfully, declaring to them the word that God gave
him faithfully. And prophets of deceit had come
along and said, Jeremiah, he's prophesying hard things to you.
Things are not going to be that bad. And because they would not
receive his word and would not receive God's word by him, they
cast him into a pit to shut him up. And God's judgment is upon
the nation. God's going to send Nebuchadnezzar
to destroy Jerusalem and the temple at Jerusalem. And he's
going to take all of Jerusalem, all of Israel, all of Judea into
Babylon in bitter captivity for 40 years, for 70 years. Jeremiah
told them plainly, but they would not hear it. And now judgment's
upon them. And God's prophet is heartbroken
for those very people who put him in the pitch. Heartbroken. He laments what's about to happen
to them. They were his beloved people
still. They were God's professed people,
and many of them God's genuine people. His heart broke for the
very people who had cast him into the dungeon. And he weeps
for them. And he cries, See, O Lord, and
consider, for I am become vile. Is it nothing to you, all ye
that pass by? Behold, and see if there be any
sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the
Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger. Now,
there's no question. There is no question. When we
are dealing with extreme circumstances,
and extreme emotions, good or bad, we all exaggerate. But when something is written
in this book by divine inspiration, there's no exaggeration. There's
no exaggeration. If that's the case, then we cannot
possibly limit these words that we have just read to Jeremiah. Jeremiah cannot be speaking absolutely
about his sorrow as if there's no sorrow like his. There were
many people before him, many with him and many after him who
suffered that great sorrow and worse. Who then is Jeremiah represented? like many of God's prophets writing
in the scriptures. Jeremiah here writes as the spokesman
for the Lord Jesus Christ, our great Redeemer and our Savior. And you cannot possibly hear
these words fall from the lips of any man and fail to recognize
He alone is the man who could speak these words with absolute
truthfulness. Is that clear enough? Everyone
sees that no one could say these things except the son of God
in human flesh and tell the truth. Absolutely. So as we read this
passage of scripture. Focus your mind and your attention
and your heart. Upon your substitute, my brother,
my sister. Oh. center focus your mind and your
heart on the sinner's substitute hanging yonder on Calvary's cursed
tree suffering the fury of God's holy wrath and justice and now
hear him speak see oh Jehovah and consider for I am become
vile Is it nothing to you? All ye
that pass by, behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto
my sorrow, my sorrow, which is done unto me, my sorrow, wherewith
the Lord Jehovah hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger. From above hath he sent fire
into my bones. and it prevaileth against them.
He hath spread a net for my feet. He hath turned me back. He hath made me desolate and
faint all the day. The yoke of my transgressions
is bound by his hand. They are wreathed And come upon
me, upon my neck. He hath made my strength to fall. The Lord hath delivered me into
their hands. From whom I'm not able to rise
up. Is it nothing to you? Is it nothing to you? Is it nothing
to you? That's my subject this evening. Come here again to the place
called Calvary and hear our Savior, our Redeemer,
as He voluntarily endures all the painful, shameful, ignominious
agony of the cross as He's made sin for us and made to suffer
the wrath of God for our sins. I want to call your attention
to four or five things. I won't be long and then nothing
complicated about what I've got to say. Indescribably mysterious,
but nothing complicated. The word of God reveals to us
the deepest, most mysterious facts and truths of divine revelation. facts and truths that no human
mind can grasp and explain. No mind can comprehend the facts
and truths that every believing heart gladly bows to, believes
and gives thanks to God for. Simply and plainly stated. All
right. First, as we read this passage
of Holy Scripture in verse nine, we hear the all holy Christ,
the spotless, sinless Lamb of God, make a shocking confession. See, O Jehovah, and consider,
for I am become vile. You didn't become vile, you were
born that way. Here is the one man who never
knew sin, who could not sin, who did not sin. The one man
who is perfectly righteous, holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate
from sinners. And he speaks a word that it
would be blasphemy to think, let alone speak, if he hadn't
spoken it. If he hadn't spoken it. But he
spoke it, Brother Morris. He said, behold, I am become
vile. This is nothing contrary to what
we've read in other scriptures. Listen to this. Our Savior says,
innumerable evils have come past me about. Mine iniquities have
taken hold upon me so that I'm not able to look up. They're
more than the hairs of my head. Therefore, my heart faileth me.
He says, O God, thou knowest my foolishness and my sins are
not hid from thee. He cried, the reproaches of them
that reproach thee are fallen upon me. Thou hast known my reproach
and my shame and my dishonor. My adversaries are all before
thee. Reproach hath broken my heart. I'm full of heaviness. Now, the
Old Testament scriptures are full of illustrations about our
Lord Jesus. bearing our sin in His own body
on the tree. The Old Testament scriptures
are full of illustrations about how the Lord laid on Him the
iniquity of us all. Let's just look at one. Turn
over just a few pages to Ezekiel chapter 4. Ezekiel chapter 4. Oh, wonder of wonders, mercy
of mercies, His beauty, made ours makes us the perfection
of beauty. Only because our vileness made
Him vile when He was made sin for us. That's worth remembering. His
beauty made ours makes us the perfection of beauty only because
our vileness made His, made Him vile when He was made sin for
us. There's no way Todd Nyberg could
ever have been made the righteousness of God in Him without Him being
made sin for you. It cannot be done. Cannot be
done. Here in Ezekiel chapter 4, the
prophet Ezekiel is commanded by the Lord God as Ezekiel is
declaring the same judgment upon Israel and Judah that Jeremiah
had declared. He declares this judgment, the
justice of it, the rightness of it, and then right in the
middle of his declaration of judgment, God commands Ezekiel
to do a strange thing, a strange thing. Ezekiel's commanded to
illustrate his prophecy. And he's commanded to illustrate
his prophecy by giving in the midst of a declaration of judgment,
just and righteous judgment, a vision of hope. God commanded
Ezekiel to lay on his side, bearing the sins of many for three hundred
and 90 days. Representing the 390 years of
Israel's rebellion turning to idolatry again and again. And then he was to turn over
and lay on his right side for 40 days. Again, the 40 days representing
the 40 years of Judah's idolatry and rebellion against God. Watch
this in verse 4. Ezekiel was required to do this,
bearing the sins of many. Thou shalt bear their iniquity. He's laying on his side. And
all the time he's laying on his side, he's laying there symbolically,
bearing the sins of Israel. And then bearing the sins of
Judah. according to their iniquity. Now as he did so, God commanded Ezekiel to make
himself unclean, polluted, and vile. He was allowed to eat a
piece of bread. I picture it as something you
buy at a health food store. Just 12 ounces for the whole
day. It was bread made of wheat and barley and beans and lentil
and millet and pitches. You can have all of it you want.
I don't want any. But that was his sole substance, except for
one thing. Except for one thing. God said,
you go out to the outhouse and dig up the waste of a man and
spread it over it. That's what he said. And then they said, all right,
instead of a man's dung, you can take a cow's dung and spread
that on it. And Ezekiel is required while
he lay on his side for 390 days and lay on his side for 40 more
days to eat nothing but this piece of bread smeared with cow's
dung by which he makes himself vile. For he hath made him to be sin
for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. Number two. We have in our text an urgent
appeal to the Lord Jehovah. See, O Lord, and consider. The Savior who has cried, my
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Hearing nothing from heaven,
he says, see, O Jehovah, and consider. Consider who I am. I'm your son. Consider who I
am. I'm God come in the flesh. Consider
who I am. I am your faithful righteous
servant. Consider why I came here and
why I made myself vile. It is that I might thereby magnify
your law and make it honorable. It is that I might thereby save
your people from their sins. Consider for whom I'm doing this. Thy people. Thy people. Oh, how He must have loved us. Move on. Here's the third thing.
We had before us a vision of indescribable sorrow. Oh, ye
that pass by, behold and see There be any sorrow likened to
my sorrow. Is any sorrow so deep, so undeserved,
so effectual? What strong language our Savior
uses here. Declaring his indescribable sorrow. Sorrow that the Lord himself
heaped upon him. What mind can conceive? What
tongue can declare the pain, the agony, the sorrow of the
Lamb of God in this bitter hour? His own body on the tree, nailed
there by the hands of men and nailed there by divine justice. He stretched out on the tree,
dies in the place of sinners, the just for the unjust. that
He might bring us to God. Much we talk of Jesus' love,
of Jesus' blood, but how little is understood of His sufferings
so intense, angels have no perfect sense. Who can rightly comprehend
their beginning or their end? It is to God and God alone that
their weight is fully known. See him suffering, son of God,
panting, groaning, sweating blood, boundless heights of love divine. Jesus, what a love is thine. As he hangs there under the curse
of the law, made a curse for us, the divine sufferer says
this challenge and says, behold and see whether there be any
sorrow like unto my sorrow. There's no sorrow in all the
world like this. No, not even in the deepest,
darkest pit of hell. No sorrow like this anywhere.
This is the sorrow of a man who is God of infinite worth. A man suffering all the fury
of God's holy wrath until God says, that's enough! Fury now
is not in me. Oh, what is this sorrow? I can't do anything but state
little things I see around the edges. Holiness was made sin. Innocence was made guilt. The spotless Lamb of God was
made vile. The obedient son was forsaken
by his father at the apex of his obedience. The righteous
and faithful servant of Jehovah was punished for rebellion and
treason. against the God of heaven when
he was most faithful. I can't even imagine that. I
can't imagine that among men, let alone speaking of God the
Son, the just one who was executed by the sword of justice because
he who is wholly harmless and undefiled was made sin and become vile. Behold, I am vile. Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter
5, verse 17. The apostle Paul writing by divine
inspiration He's urging sinners to believe on the Son of God.
Urging sinners just as I urge you now to think on eternity,
think on eternity, think on eternity. Soon you must meet God in judgment.
Think on eternity and flee away to Christ the Lord. For if any
man be in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things are passed
away. Old things passed away. Gone. Gone. We like to say, well, man's
justified just as if I'd never sinned. That ain't it. That ain't
it. I'd never sinned. Ask God. Ask God. Well, that's the way
God sees things. I don't know why Russell is so
hard for us to get hold of. However, God sees it. That's
what it really is. And God says, I look for their
sins and they shall not be found. He's removed our sins from us
as far as the East is from the West. Old things are passed away
and they'll never come up again. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. But brother John, I can't understand
that. I can't either, but I'd dance and click my heels. Passed
away. And behold, all things are become
new. Who Don Fortner, his name is
Jehovah Sidkenu, the Lord our righteousness. You can read it
in Jeremiah 33, 16. And all things are of God. who hath reconciled us to himself
by Jesus Christ and hath given us the ministry of reconciliation. Our business is to proclaim this
reconciliation to wit that God was in Christ, reconciling the
world, the world of his elect unto himself, not imputing their
trespasses unto them, but hath committed unto us the word, the
message of reconciliation. Now then, We are ambassadors
for Christ. As though God did beseech you
by us, we pray you in Christ's stead, be you reconciled to God. We pray you in Christ's stead,
be you reconciled to God. We call on you, we beseech you,
we plead with you, we urge you, be reconciled to God. Quit fighting
God, you're going to lose. Quit fighting God. Bow to the
sun. For He hath made Him to be sin
for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him." Who is this man? This man is Jehovah's own fellow.
Who heaped such sorrow upon Him? Who made Him sin? Who ordered
His execution? Hear what he says. All of this
is that wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his
fierce anger. Yes, Jehovah laid on him the
iniquity of us all. He says, the Lord Jehovah has
taken my transgressions and twisted them together like
a wreath. I can't help but to think about
that crown of thorns, those wicked men made from that emblem of
God's curse on the earth and shoved it on his head. He says,
Oh, but Jehovah hath wreathed my transgressions and made a
yoke and pressed it on my back. Our sins were sent upon him. And he says, the Holy Lord God
sent fire into my bones that prevailed against me. God made
the Holy One of Israel vile for us. God made Him sin for us. God forsook it. God killed it. And yet, all of this was done
and endured voluntarily by Him. Who for the joy that was sent
before him endured the cross. Where did you find any joy in
this? Have you heard anything here about joy? Have you heard
anything here about joy? There's not a word about joy.
What joy is it? The joy of having Bruce Crabtree
with him in Glee. Can you grasp that? The joy of
having his people with him in glory. He endured the cross,
despising the shame, and with one tremendous draft of love,
he drank damnation dry. Death had no claim on him. We had no claim on him. We despised
him and rejected him. We lived all our lifetime with
our fists shoved in his face. We didn't want it. When we heard
about him, we'd cuss him. Yet voluntarily, he laid down
his life in our place that he might reconcile us to God. He
willingly has made sin for us that he might make us the righteousness
of God in him. He died by the hands of men and
for the sake of men. The Lord of glory died for men
who wished that he should be made to die because he loved
them with an everlasting love. Could we with we eek the ocean
still and were the skies of parchment made where every stalk on earth
a quill and every man a scribe by trade to write the love of
God above? would drain the oceans dry, nor
could the scroll contain the whole, though stretched from
sky to sky. Here's the fourth thing. Our
Savior raises a question, a question of infinite importance. Is it
nothing to you? Is it nothing to you? To some of you, it's nothing. To you who believe not, nothing. With your rebellion and unbelief,
you trample underfoot the Son of God, despising His shed blood
and despising Him. And your unbelief and rebellion
is but a reflection of your heart's enmity against God. Yet there
are some to whom our darling Savior speaks, and we must answer positively. Oh Lord Jesus, no, this is not
nothing to me. This is everything. This is everything. It wasn't
always so. I once lived, as some of you
now live, hating God, despising the son of God, blaspheming God
with every breath, my fist shoved in God's face, constantly, constantly
trying to push God out of my face. And then one day, suddenly
something happened. John Newton expressed it better
than I can. 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 who 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. My conscience felt and owned
the guilt and plunged me in despair. I saw my sins. His blood had
spilled and helped to nail Him there. Alas, I knew not what
I did, but now my tears are vain. Where shall my guilty soul be
hid? For I, the Lord, have slain." 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 darkest 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 kill. The son of God so loved me as
to make himself vile that he might make me the righteousness
of God in him. Bought me with his blood. And this is his claim upon me.
And Skip, it's his claim on you. You're not your own. You're not your own. You're mine. I bought you with
a price. It's a glorified God in your
body and in your spirit, which are God's. Amen.