I have a message this morning
that I've been working on for a long, long time. Several months ago, I was reading
through the book of 1 Peter, and I got to verse 11. And in
the last part of verse 11 of chapter 1, these words, God the
Holy Spirit stamped on my heart, the sufferings of Christ and
the glory that should follow. I finished reading 1 Peter and
came back to these words again. The sufferings of Christ and
the glory that should follow. And I've been coming back to
them continually now for weeks and weeks and weeks. So this
is my subject. It's a subject of infinite depths.
I'm just going to scratch around on the surface, and when I get
done, I won't have said much about it. The sufferings and
the glory of Christ. Just these two points. The sufferings
of Christ and the glory of Christ. Peter tells us here that the
prophets in the Old Testament speaking by God the Holy Spirit,
testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ. They, searching the
Word of God to discern when Christ would come to redeem His people,
they testified continually beforehand the sufferings of Christ and
the glory that should follow. And none of those prophets testified
more distinctly and more clearly the sufferings of our Lord Jesus
Christ than the prophet Isaiah. And none described more distinctly
or more clearly the glory that would follow. Let's turn back
to Isaiah 53 and look at it. Isaiah chapter 53. This is the Spirit's commentary
on 1 Peter 1 verse 11. I want to show you what I can
of the sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ in his body, in
his heart, and in his soul. That which he endured under the
wrath of God when he died as our substitute, he suffered in
his body, in his heart, and in his soul. I don't know what hell
is or where hell is. And frankly, I don't like to
think much about it or talk much about it. But I know this, this
book speaks distinctly and clearly and repeatedly about a place,
a state of existence, a state of ceaseless, indescribable agony
and torment under the wrath of God Almighty that's called hell. And in that place, men and women
will suffer the horrid, indescribable wrath of God Almighty Many women are right now suffering
the horrid, indescribable wrath of God Almighty. And soon after
the resurrection shall suffer that wrath not only in their
souls and in their hearts, but in their bodies. You see, all
three have been instruments of evil. The heart is enmity against
God. And this is what makes you do
the things you do. This is what makes some of you
sit and listen to preaching and you try your best to ignore it
or rebel against it and despise it. This is what makes you run
around in rebellion, hating authority, despising all who have authority
over you because they represent God. And they're as near as you
can get to God. Mom and dad, law teachers, whoever
God sets in authority over you, they're just representatives
of Him. And men despise authority because they despise God. The
heart is enmity against God. Yours and mine. That's our nature. Enmity against
God. Not at enmity with God. Enmity
against God. That means, Bill Raleigh, we
were born in this world with hearts hating God, and they've
never gotten better. Hearts that hate God. Our bodies have been the instruments
by which we have lived in defiance of the Almighty. And in our very
souls, we have despised Him. And therefore, you who perish
under the wrath of God shall forever suffer the horrid torment
of God's wrath unrelentingly in your body, in your heart,
and in your soul. What a horrible, horrible thought. But except you repent, that's
your destiny. Except you be made pure and spotless
before God by the sacrifice of His darling Son, that's your
destiny. Except you believe on the Son
of God, that's your destiny. Trust Him. Trust Him now right
where you sit. Cast your worthless, helpless,
empty, vain soul on the Son of God and live forever. But that's not what my subject
is. My subject is the sufferings of Christ. In order to redeem
and save His people from their sins, It was necessary that the
Lord Jesus Christ suffer all the consequence of sin, all the
just deserving of sin in body, in heart, and in soul, and that
he suffer it to the full satisfaction of divine justice. that God might
be just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus.
And no passage in the Old Testament is quoted so frequently as is
Isaiah chapter 53. And one great reason for that
is the fact that Isaiah 53 sets forth the Lord Jesus Christ as
the center substitute and describes for us in vivid, clear language
the very core of our Lord's sufferings. And this is done in many places
in the scripture. Psalm 22 speaks of our Savior's
agony as he speaks to the Father when he hangs upon the cursed
tree. But Isaiah 53 describes the core of his sufferings. And
Isaiah describes these things as though he were a man who had
been sitting at the feet of the cross, gazing upon the Lord Jesus. He describes these things as
though he had been eyewitness of these things. And he describes
them 750 years before Christ came into the world. I defy anyone,
any infidel who mocks our confidence that this book is the word of
God. I defy anybody to give any reasonable
explanation of Isaiah 53 except God wrote that. Isaiah spoke as he did because
as he wrote his prophecy, That which he wrote was inspired of
God, breathed out by God the Holy Spirit. In order to redeem
and save his people, the Son of God had to suffer the consequences
of our sins, and here they're described. First, look back in
verse 14 of chapter 52. The chapter divisions, as I've
told you many times, are unfortunate. When you begin to read Isaiah
53, always start at verse 13. of chapter 52. But look at verse
14, Isaiah 52. As many were astonied at thee. Some of your modern translations,
most of them, read it astonished. We tend to read it astonished.
The old King James reads it best, astonied. They saw you and so shocking
is what they saw. They were men turned to stone. His visage was so marred more
than any man and his form more than the sons of men. You see these idolatrous, portrayals
of the crucifixion, and they are all idolatrous. They are
all idolatrous. No excuse for them, just pure
idolatry. But they portray the crucifixion
in a peaceful, serene way, often portraits of a halo hovering
over the head of the Savior, and while A few trickled drops
of blood, everything looks pretty good. Those who saw him were
turned to stone as they saw him hanging on the tree. When you
read of the crucifixion of our Lord, the sufferings he endured,
it's impossible not to be astonished. astonished that men could inflict
such cruel barbarity upon another man, or that any man should endure
such agony. And when you realize that the
one who suffered on that day, on that day of all days, on that
the greatest of all days and the most infamous of all days,
when you realize that that one who suffered is God the Son,
Oh my soul, who is not utterly turned to stone, shocked, shocked,
deeply, profoundly, permanently shocked by that which is observed. Ever remember the sufferer that
Isaiah here describes is both God and man. He is the God-man,
the man-God, Jesus Christ, our Lord. The one who died as our
Savior must be a man like us. A man of all human passions,
just like we are. A man with all human weaknesses,
just like we have. A man with all the subjection
of harm, just as we do. The only difference being he
knew no sin. This man knew what it was to
hunger and thirst and burn with fever. He knew what it was to
grow weary and tired and need rest. He knew what it was to
be hurt in his heart by the actions of men. He knew what it was to
be injured. All the things that you and I
are capable of experiencing, He's capable of experiencing
and did. Sin alone accepted. He must be
a man. No animal sacrifice could put
away sin. Certainly no religious ceremony
could atone for sin. No angel from heaven could atone
for sin. Man sinned and man must suffer. But the sufferings of a mere
man, even a perfect man, even a righteous man could not atone
for your sin and mine. The sufferings of our substitute
are the sufferings of a man who is God. That gives his sufferings infinite
worth, infinite merit, to make infinite satisfaction to the
infinite justice of God. One of the reasons hell is eternal,
there are many but one reason, It's because should all the world
be cast into hell right now, and everybody who ever was born
in this world suffer the wrath of God forever, no man can satisfy
the infinite justice of God. No man. And not all men together. And so justice continually punishes
the ungodly. But here is a man who is God.
The old writers used to say, God could not suffer and man
could not satisfy. But the God-man both suffered
and satisfied. This man who is God suffered
all the wrath of God in our stead, and he suffers it in his body.
Now, without question, many place far too much emphasis on the
physical sufferings of our Redeemer. Play it up big. They play it
up big and get folks to feel so sorry for poor Jesus. Look
what men did to him. I remember years ago, I thought
I'd think of that in Ohio, yeah, at Humbard, I thought he'd be
on television. He preached part-time and owned a girdle factory full-time.
I wish he'd have kept to the girdle business. But he was talking
on television one Sunday morning and just big crocodile tears. Oh, if I'd have been there, I'd
have stopped him. I'd have stopped him that day. Our Lord Jesus
said, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves. He doesn't want
your pity. He doesn't need your pity. He
did not die as the helpless victim of circumstances beyond his control. He died by his own voluntary
will and that which he suffered in his body and in his heart
and in his soul, he suffered because he was determined to
suffer these things in our room and in our stead. Having said
that, it's quite possible for us to place very little significance
upon our Lord's sufferings, and that's just as wrong. The scriptures
record in great detail those things that our Lord suffered
in his body. The court of those things in great detail. You read
about them in the Old Testament and you read about them in all
four gospel narratives given in great detail. And they're
given in great detail for our edification, for our instruction,
and for our consolation. On the night of the Passover,
when our Lord Jesus instituted what we call the Lord's Supper,
breaking bread and drinking wine, praying and singing with his
disciples, An all-night vigil began. The supper was followed
by our Lord's last sermon. You can read it in John chapters
14, 15, and 16. Those things contained in those
three chapters are the Lord's last sermon to his disciples
before leaving this world. Then in chapter 17 came his high
priestly prayer. Our Lord said to his disciples
that night, because I have said these things unto you, sorrow
has filled your heart. I've told you I'm going to leave
you. I've told you I'm going yonder
to suffer and die and I'll rise again. Sorrow therefore filled
your heart. Let not your heart be troubled.
You believe in God, believe also in me. In my father's house and
many mansions, if it were not so, I would have told you. I'd
go 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." The story continues. Piece it together from the gospel
narratives. Let me just give you the, shall
I say, highlights. Our Lord's in Gethsemane. Judas
leads a band out to arrest the Savior. He betrays him with a
kiss. And they haul the Son of God
over to Annas the high priest before Caiaphas and before the
Jewish Sanhedrin so that the court of religious opinion has
its opportunity to speak of him. And all the religious leaders,
all the religious leaders of his own nation and people, demanded
that he be crucified. Next, our Lord Jesus is taken
by the soldiers to Pontius Pilate, the governor of Judea. Pilate
sends him over to Herod, and Herod sends him back to Pilate.
And those two men who had been enemies became friends in their mutual opposition to
the Son of God. At last, Pilate condemned the
Son of God to be crucified. He gave him into the hands of good, religious men and women. I chose my words on purpose.
They were good, religious men and women, paid tithes all the
time. straight as a gun barrel, tight
as shoelaces, good, religious men and women. And this is how
the book describes what Pilate did. And Pilate delivered Jesus
to their will. Nearly 40 years ago, I heard
Pam Woods' brother, Ron, Preach on that text of scripture. Title
the message what free will has done to Christ. If there were
no other indictment against free will religion than those words,
that's enough. Pilate delivered Jesus to their
will. And they mocked him. They stripped
him. They beat him. piece of reed in his hand, took
a purple blanket and put it over his shoulders, shoved a crown
of thorns on his head, and they said, Hail, King of the Jews! And they put his, took his garments
off of him and led him through the streets in an infamous parade. Took him up to Mount Calvary. and stretched him out on the
tree. Nailed his head and his feet
to the tree. And he picked it up and shoved
it into a socket in the ground. And the scene was so horribly
ignominious and painful that when he hung on the cross, our
Lord Jesus looked at his disciple John, and he said, take my mother
away from here. Don't let her see this. And God
the Father calls the sun to be put out so that the earth couldn't
see the infamy taking place. And he refused to look upon the
horrid scene. And our Savior, with fever pulsing
through his body, cried, I thirst. And they ran and stuck vinegar
and myrrh in his mouth. And he hangs there in stupefying
pain. Let us never speak lightly of
the physical sufferings of his body. But there's much, much
more. Look at Isaiah 53 verse 3. Here the prophet describes the
suffering of his heart. He is despised and rejected of
men, 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. We tend to limit our Lord's sufferings
to the cross. But the reality is our Lord suffered
as our substitute throughout the days of his humanity. He
was an outcast betrayed by men, and he was betrayed by his friend,
denied by his disciple, and forsaken by his companions. His family
looked upon him and to save their own hides said, he's beside himself. He's a madman. He didn't know
what he was talking about. And then he was tortured, nailed
to the cursed tree. But he cried, reproach hath broken
mine heart. And that heart was broken for
me. Oh, that I may know him in the
fellowship of his sufferings. That I may know him and know
that that which he suffered I suffered in him. That that which he suffered,
he suffered for me. And that which he suffered, I
shall never suffer. Oh, that I may know him in the
fellowship of his sufferings. He was despised and rejected
of me. And he came unto his own, and
his own received him not. His own countrymen didn't receive
him. His own family didn't receive him. His own brethren didn't
receive him. There was no room for the Son
of God in the end. No room for Him in the streets
of this world. No room for Him in their temple.
No room for Him in their world. Oh, as it is now, so it was then. There was plenty of room for
His miracles, but none for Him. Plenty of room for His acts of
mercy, but none for Him. Plenty of room for that which
He provided, but none for Him. He's described here as a man
of sorrow. and acquainted with grief, tempted and tried in all points
like as we are. Rex Bartley, there's no possibility
that you and I can ever suffer any trial or temptation. He didn't
suffer. No possibility. We shall never
endure any pain he didn't endure. Say, well, I'm so much slander
to men, not like he was. I'm so often maligned, not like
he was. Folks don't believe me. Oh, his
own disciples didn't believe him. And we saw men walking the streets, having a
merry life, singing and dancing their way to hell. His heart
broke in him, moved with compassion. When he saw his friends in doing
pain, as Martha and Mary lost their
brother Lazarus, the scripture says Jesus wept. And the folks
standing by understood what was going on. They, for one time,
they understood exactly what was going on. They said, behold,
how he must have loved Lazarus. Oh, Brother Don, didn't he know
he was fixing to raise him from the dead? Of course he did. Didn't
he know that everything was all right with Lazarus? Of course
he did. But his heart broke for Martha and Mary, whose hearts
were breaking. Behold our Savior in Gethsemane.
Hear him as he anticipates being made sin for us. Oh, the heartbreaking
anticipation of Gethsemane. Oh, my father. Oh, my father. Oh, my father,
he cried. If it be possible, let this cup
pass from me. If there's any way for God to
be just and justify His people. If there's any way for a holy
God to save wretched men. If there's any way by which my
people can live without me drinking their iniquities and their sins. Nevertheless, not my will. Thy will be done. After his arrest in Gethsemane, our Savior made the song of drunkards
and harlots. They spit on him and plucked
out his beard. He saved others, himself he cannot
save. He called him for Elias. Let's
see if Elias grabbed him. Let's see if he's God's son.
See if God will have him and then mock him. And then he endured
the denial of Peter. I expect that's the most painful
thing his heart had to endure. the denial of that disciple for
whom he's dying, cussing and denying his savior. And all of
his disciples forsook it. We hid, as it were, our faces
from him. But perhaps, even in the denial
of Peter, and even in the forsaking of his disciples, The Lord had
a hand in this thing. Indeed, we know he did. And that
which they did in their weakness and in their unbelief, he overruled
for their good. The marginal translation of this
passage reads like this. He hid, as it were, his face
from us. Peter, James, John. Get away from here. I wouldn't have you see this. He was despised and we esteemed
him not. And yet, even when his heart
broke with reproach and shame, dying as our substitute, his
heart was upon us. Turn over to Psalm 69 for a second.
Hold your hands in Isaiah 53. Psalm 69. Our Savior has confessed our
sins as his own. He's suffering in our room instead. Bearing all the hot wrath of
his Father as our substitute. In verse 6, listen to this. Let not Darwin Pruitt, O Lord
God of hosts, be ashamed for my sake. Let not them that wait on thee. Let not my people, them that
trust in you, O Lord God of hosts, let them not be ashamed for my
sake. Let not those that seek thee
be confounded for my sake. O God of Israel, because for
thy sake I have borne 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 have fallen upon me. A few times in my life, a few
times, not many, I've been in real physical pain. Now, when the doctors give you
something to make the pain go away, and I anticipate dying,
I think about my wife, my daughter, think about you. But when I'm
in excruciating pain, do you know who I'm thinking about?
I'm thinking about me. and find it impossible to think
about anything else. When our Savior was in his most
excruciating pain, his heart was altogether wrapped up in
us. But there's more. Verse 2, Isaiah
53. I can understand the biblical
doctrine of the atonement. Anybody can if they just read
the scriptures. Christ was a sin offerer. Christ,
our Passover, is sacrificed for us. A body was especially prepared
him, a body in which he could suffer all the wrath of God.
I understand without the shedding of blood is no remission. Not
because God is vengeful and cruel, but because God is good, righteous,
and holy. I understand something of the
agony of our Savior's tormented body. I can even to some degree
understand the agony of his heart. But here's something I simply
can't comprehend. Make no pretense of comprehending
it. the suffering of his soul. Isaiah 53 verse 10. 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 Much we talk of Jesus' blood,
but how little is understood. Of His suffering 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. Here's the suffering of his soul. He was made an offspring for
sin, quite literally. He was made sin. He was made sin. He was made sin for us who knew
no sin. I recognize our sins were imputed
to our Savior. They were laid to His charge.
He became legally responsible for them. But there's a heapsight more
to this than that. If I should be required to pay
the debts of any man or of a multitude of men, and if those debts took
from me everything I have down to life itself, because their
debts were charged on me, it may cause me much pain and much
difficulty, but being charged with that of which I have no
complicity, would not break my heart. But here the Son of God, as He
anticipates being made sin for us in Gethsemane, sweats blood profusely from the pores
of His body. because his heart broke within
him. And when he was made sin, his father, who is of purer eyes
than to look upon iniquity, turned his back on his darling son. And he did it at the height of
his obedience. I didn't often try to do anything
when I was growing up to please my dad. I don't brag on that. I'm ashamed of it. That's just
fact. I didn't have much interest in
pleasing him. But on a couple of occasions,
I did things and worked my hind end off when I was a little boy,
just to please my dad. And the two I remember, I messed
up so bad. I mean, I messed up so bad, he
nearly beat the life out of me. I mean, just nearly beat the
life out of me because I messed things up so bad. One time he
had gotten a brand new 1957 Cadillac. And I decided to wash that car
because it got dirty. I was eight years old, never
will forget it. And I scrubbed that thing from
the ground to the very top, got stools and stepped up on top
and scrubbed the top of it, scrubbed the windows, scrubbed everything
with Comet. And man, when I got done, I knew
I had messed up. And I wasn't looking forward
to the day coming home. And believe me, my anticipation
wasn't anywhere near what the reality was. The reality was
a heapsight worse. But the most painful part, even
with blood running from my legs and from my back, the most painful
part was the disapproval of somebody I loved and wanted to please. And the Lord God turns his back
in disapproval upon his darling son when he has made sin for
us. How come that we might be made
the righteousness of God in him? And the sword of justice was plunged into his holy soul
until it was completely swallowed up. And now he says, fury is not
in me. And thus the prophet describes
the sufferings of Christ. But Peter says the prophets also
spoke of the glory that should follow. And Isaiah here speaks of the
glory that should follow. In fact, 1 Peter 1 11, really
the word glory is in the plural. It is the glories that should
follow. And here Isaiah speaks of six
great glories sure to follow the sufferings of the son of
God. six wondrous things that sure must come to pass because
of the sufferings of Christ. He shall see his seed. He'll see every one of them justified,
sanctified, and glorified. He'll see every one of those
for whom he suffers with him in heaven, made like him in the
perfection of holiness, without spot and without blemish. This
is the joy that was set before him for which he endured the
cross, despising the shame. He shall prolong his days. That
is to say, the third day he will rise again. He shall prolong
his days. He will not leave my soul in
hell. I will not leave my soul in the
grave. Neither will you suffer your
Holy One to see corruption. He shall prolong his days. And
third, the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He said, Father, restore to me
the glory that I had with you before the world was. What glory?
The glory of all things given to the Son, that the Son may
have preeminence. And now the Father restores in
an open manner the glory the Son had from eternity as our
mediator. And he says to all the world,
look here now, my darling Son, rules the world and prospers,
performing all my pleasure over all flesh to the saving of my
people. Read on. Here's the fourth thing. He shall see of the travail of
his soul and shall be satisfied. That is, he, God the Father,
shall see all his son in And his father says, that's enough. Justice is satisfied. Sin is
gone. My people are free. Fifth, read
it this way. He, God the Son, the Lord Jesus
Christ, the God-man, the man-God, shall see of the travail of this
soul and shall be satisfied. The best thing I learned in all
my years studying in Bible college, the very best thing I learned,
might have been the only thing good that I learned. The very
best thing I learned was this statement from Tommy Lawrence,
a Welshman who came to preach in chapel one day. He said, the
cross of our Lord Jesus Christ shall never be discovered a miscarriage. he shall see of the travail of
his soul and shall be satisfied. Number six, by his knowledge,
not by our knowledge of him, by his knowledge, by his knowledge
of all that he's accomplished, shall my righteous servant justify
many, a multitude that no man can number, for he shall bear
their iniquities. Now, in the light of these things,
I have some questions for you. Is anything too much for you
to suffer for Him? Is any sacrifice Too great for you to make for
Him. Is any devotion to Him extreme? No. No. No. Oh God give me grace to give
myself to Him. in utter, complete devotion.