In preparing to preach, I seek
earnestly a message from God for you for the occasion which
we gather. And this blessed occasion, when
we come together as a church family around the Lord's table,
is one of the most cherished of our times of worship. How
can I best prepare our hearts to remember our Lord? How can
I inspire myself and you to worship Him? How can I persuade us and
persuade our hearts to just flat fall in love with the Son of
God? I'm confident that if God's pleased
to speak by His Word to our hearts, I have the message just for that
today. I want to talk to you once more
about the sufferings of our Savior. John Newton expressed what I
want to say so well, and him I quote often to you. In evil
long I took delight, unawed by shame or fear, until a new object
struck my sight and stopped my wild career. I saw one hanging
on a tree, and agonies in blood. He fixed his languid eyes on
me as near his cross I stood. Sure never till my latest breath
shall I forget the 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,
she, 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. I don't know what hell is or
where it is, I don't talk a great deal about it because I don't
know a great deal about it, and I don't want to. But I know this
book talks about a place, a state of existence called hell. And in that horrid, horrid place,
men and women will suffer the indescribable, infinite wrath
of Almighty God forever. in terms described as fire that
can't be quenched, gnawing worms of conscience that'll never die.
You who perish without Christ will suffer the wrath of God
in hell, wherever it is and whatever it is, endlessly, in perpetual
separation from God in darkness and in death, in your body, in
your hearts, and in your souls. Because you have sinned against
God with your bodies, because your hearts are enmity against
him, because in your very soul you despise his being, somehow
God has fixed it so that men will suffer death forever and
never die in heart, in body, and in soul. But in order to
redeem us from hell, in order to save us from the wrath of
God. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Son
of God, assumed our nature, came down here in this world, was
made to be sin for us, and hung upon the cursed tree under the
wrath of God, and suffered all the horrid wrath of God for sin. to the full satisfaction of divine
justice in his body, in his heart, and in his soul. Now that's more than I can begin
to explain. Oh my soul, may it grip our hearts. Here in Isaiah chapter 53, the
Holy Spirit gives us a declaration of this fact. I've told you many
times when you read the scriptures, always try to read the scriptures
in their context and recognize that the chapter and verse divisions
in the translation we have before us, even if you use a modern
translation, this is true, but the chapter and verse divisions
were given just for convenience sake, so that you can easily
find the passage, so that you can easily memorize passages
and so forth. But the chapter and verse divisions
are often harmful rather than helpful in understanding scripture.
When you read Isaiah 53, always remember that the chapter really
ought to begin, the paragraph begins, the theme begins in chapter
52 and verse 13. In chapter 52 and in verse 14,
the prophet tells us about our Lord's sufferings in his body. As many were astoned. It's an old Anglo word. Modern translations translate
it astonished, and that's what it means. But the word astoned
seems to have a stronger statement to us. Men saw him and were just
absolutely dumbfounded at him. Astoned at thee. How come? because he was the most hideous
looking mass of barbaric butchery you could ever imagine. If you
could accurately paint a picture, and certainly no one should,
all pictures of Christ are just idolatry, but if you could actually
paint a picture of what took place at Calvary, you wouldn't
want it hanging in your dining room. Our Lord Jesus, as he hung
on that cursed tree, was stripped naked. beaten, covered with human
spit, the excrement of men's vile throats. His own blood dried
on his flesh and it looked like a slaughtered animal hanging
on the tree. His visage was so marred more
than any man and his form more than the sons of men. When I consider his sacrifice
and what he endured, I am astonished. I am astonished that men, men
like you and me, men who were pretty good representatives of
you and me, should heap such barbaric cruelty on another human
being. I'm even more astonished that
I should heap such barbaric cruelties upon a perfectly good and holy
man, a man who never thought, spoke, much less did any evil. And even more astonished when
I consider that the man who suffered these indignities and this barbaric
cruelty at the hands of men is himself God Almighty. in total
control of all the circumstances. Those men who inflicted pain
upon him did so because he gave them strength to do it. Those
men who formed the cross on which he was crucified formed this
cross by his own wisdom given to them in their own minds. Those
men who formed these malicious manner of execution, considered
the most barbaric in world history, formed the manners of execution
according to the purpose of him who was executed at Calvary.
This one who died is God Almighty. Ever remember that the sufferer
whom Isaiah describes here is not just a man and is not just
God. He's the God-man. He must be
a man because man had sinned. The reason he assumed our nature,
James, is because we sinned. A mere animal sacrifice could
never put away human sin. The coming of an angel in human
form could never put away human sin. The sacrifices of other
men could not put away the sins of another. This one who suffers
must be himself a man, a holy, innocent man, but even the sacrifices
of a man, the utmost extremity of a man's agony and pain in
the womb of another man can't take away another man's sin.
He must also be God Almighty. God in human flesh dying in our
stead. You see, only God could fulfill
righteousness for God's satisfaction on our behalf. Only God could
render payment for sin that would satisfy the justice of God. Only
God could render infinite satisfaction to infinite justice and infinite
holiness on our behalf. The Lord Jesus Christ, who died
at Calvary, died as our substitute, God in human flesh. In this day of sentimental, sloppy,
emotional religion, people place a great deal of emphasis on the
physical aspect of our Lord's sufferings and try to get people
to feel sorry for poor Jesus. That's the farthest thing from
my mind. Our Lord Jesus said, Weep not for me, but weep for
yourselves. He hung upon the cursed tree
according to divine purpose, and yet at the same time, I fear
we are too prone to make less of our Lord's physical sufferings
than the scriptures do. Isaiah 53, Psalm 22, Psalm 69,
Lamentations 1, all four of the gospel narratives describe in
great detail what our Lord endured as our substitute physically.
All of them give us in plain language, our Lord said, behold
and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, wherewith
the Lord God hath afflicted me. And so the scriptures record
for us that which our Lord suffered in his body as our substitute,
as well as the other aspects of his sufferings. On the night
of our Lord's crucifixion, just before the crucifixion, he had
eaten the Passover for the last time with his disciples. He instituted
what we are now enjoying as the Lord's Supper. He took the bread,
broke it, passed it out, took the cup, blessed it, gave thanks
for it, said this is my blood and the new covenant shed for
many for the remission of sins. After the supper, our Lord gave
his final discourse. What a discourse it was. Read
John chapters 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17, all at one setting sometime. That's our Lord's final discourse,
and then his benedictory prayer, his great high priestly prayer. The Lord Jesus said to his disciples,
Because I have said these things, because I told you what I'm going
to do, sorrow has filled your hearts. And then it said, let
not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me, for in my Father's house are many mansions. If it weren't
so, I would have told you. I'm going to prepare a place
for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I'll come again
and receive you into myself that where I am, there you may be
also. And then our Lord Jesus offered
up that great prayer, which James just read. We continue the story. In John chapter 18, our Lord
went out into the garden in Gethsemane. And there he prayed. Three times
he said, Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. The
soldiers came out, led by Judas, to arrest him, and he was arrested
like a common criminal. Then it was a reign before Annas,
the high priest, and before Caiaphas, and then before the Sanhedrin.
And then the Lord Jesus was taken by the Roman soldiers to Pontius
Pilate. Pilate sent him to Herod, and
Herod, the ruler of Galilee, sent him back to Pilate again
after he had examined him, the governor of Judea. And then at
last Pilate delivered the Lord Jesus into the hands of Roman
soldiers. who mocked Him, and beat Him,
stripped Him naked, and took Him on an infamous parade through
the streets of Jerusalem, and at last nailed Him to the cursed
tree. And that's a picture of just
exactly what you and I would do with God Almighty if we get
our hands on Him. The Scripture says, buddy, Pilate
delivered Jesus to their will. What does the will of man do
with the Son of God? Nails Him to the tree. What does
the will of man do with God Almighty? Hangs Him up to die and laughs
while He does. The Lord Jesus was nailed to
the cursed tree. The scene at Calvary was so horribly
ignominious and painful that as He hung upon the tree, our
Lord looked at John, His beloved disciple, and said to him, Take
my mother away from here. Don't let her see this. 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 upon the horrid scene. The Lord Jesus burning with fever
in his body, indescribable, said, I thirst. And they did something they don't
normally do. Normally in execution, even the barbaric Romans would
give a man vinegar and gall to drink by which they would stupefy
his senses. But they didn't give the master
vinegar and gall, they gave him vinegar and myrrh by which they
would intensify his senses. And in excruciating pain, the
Lord of glory hangs upon the tree. Now look at Isaiah 53. understand something of the sufferings
of his heart. He is despised, hated, and rejected
of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. We hid,
as it were, our faces from him. He was despised, and we esteemed
him not. Our Lord was an outcast among
men, betrayed by his friends, denied by his disciples, forsaken
by his companions, tortured and nailed to the tree, but he cried,
Reproach has broken my heart. And that heart was broken for
me. I want to know something about that. Paul said, I want
to know him in the fellowship of his suffering. I want to know not only my part
in that as he is my substitute, I want to know something about
what he endured. He was despised and rejected
of men. John said he came unto his own
and his own received him not. There was room for his miracles,
room for his acts of mercy, but none for him and none for his
doctrine. A man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. You remember when Paul described
his afflictions for the gospel sake in 2 Corinthians 4? After
he describes all that he had endured, he said, our light affliction,
which is but for a moment. How on earth could he look at
such things and say, our light affliction? But one great way
is in comparison to what he endured for us. Our light affliction. Man, I haven't got any sorrow.
I haven't had any trouble. Our light affliction, which is
but for a moment, His was continual throughout the days of His life.
He was tried and tempted in all points like as we are. He is
a holy, holy, holy man, and yet He endured the constant slanders
of men. He was faithful and true, and
yet His disciples didn't even believe Him. His own kinsmen
looked at Him as a madman. The souls of men were on his
heart so that he was moved with compassion for them. He who is the Savior of men carried
a broken heart for the souls of men. The sorrows of his friends
caused him to weep. And while he was in Gethsemane, His heart broke. He said, Father,
if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Three times he
prayed such. Until at last he sweat as it
were, great drops of blood fall into the ground. I won't attempt to give an exposition
of what happened there. I won't attempt to explain it.
But this much I'm certain of. When our Lord knelt in the garden,
there kneels there a man who is the only man ever to breathe
air on God's earth who knew what sin is. We don't have any idea
what it is. We talk about things. Things being sin. We talk about
this being sin, that being sin. He knew what sin is as God himself,
for this man is God. That horrid, horrid, vile, obnoxious
thing called sin. And he anticipates being made
sin. And the shop crushed him. The
shop crushed him. It's a poor comparison, a very
poor comparison, but if you were to take a young virgin girl who
has some sense of moral decency and respectability and just throw
her in one of the cells over at North Point Prison and let
those rapists, vile, vile, vile creatures Now you can have your
way, just do what you want to, no consequences. Now just imagine
the shock and the horror. It pales into insignificance. Bobby, he was about to be made
sin. Made sin. Made sin. The soldiers took him. shoved
a crown of thorns in his head, put a purple robe on his back,
put a bamboo shoot in his hands, and smote him on the cheeks,
and said, Hail, King of the Jews! And nailed him to the tree, and
they spit on him, and they mocked him, and he became the song of
drunkards. Peter looked up at him, and he said, I don't know. I don't know. And then he took
an oath, as the Son of God is hanging there suffering for him,
as close to Peter as I am to Labrail. Peter cussed and said,
I don't know that man. And the Lord Jesus looked at
him. We were there with Peter. We hid, as it were, our faces
from him. As a matter of fact, the margin
reads here, he hid, as it were, his face from us. As if to keep
us from really grasping what took place. He was despised and we esteemed
him not. Indeed, we esteemed him stricken,
smitten of God, and afflicted. We cared nothing for him. We
looked at it as just a common thing, as something just not
to care about. Despised, rejected, we esteemed
him not. And yet, all the while, his heart
was on us. Read the Psalms. He says, as
he's made sin, as he's made the song of the drunkard, he said,
let them not be ashamed for my sake. Let them not be ashamed
for my sake. I've come here now and I bear
the wrath of God for them. Don't let them be ashamed or
put to shame or confounded. He did it for the zeal of God's
house had eaten him up. Now I understand something. about
the doctrine of the atonement. I study it every day. I understand
something about what was pictured in that Paschal Lamb portraying
Christ our Passover who sacrificed for us. I know something about
the necessity of a body being prepared for Him that He might
have wherewith to offer sacrifice to God in our stead. For without
the shedding of blood there is no remission. I understand that
God Almighty, not because He's vengeful and cruel, but because
He's just and true, must punish sin. I understand something of
the agony of our Savior's tormented body. I can even understand a
little something of the agony of His heart. But in Isaiah 53.10
and 11, the prophet describes the sufferings of his soul. And that's just beyond me. It
pleased the Lord to bruise him. The word please there simply
means satisfy. Nothing more. Nothing more. The
Lord has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, the prophet says.
That means the death of the wicked can never satisfy the wrath and
justice of God. No more than that. And here the
prophet is saying, the Lord God Almighty is satisfied to bruise
him. He has 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. Isaac Watts wrote, 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. The Holy Lamb of God was made
sin. And when He was made to be sin,
Larry, He was made a sin offering. So He died in our stead as sin
before God Almighty. when he was made a sin offering,
and the Father had imputed to him the sins of his people, as
the Son of God is at the apex of his obedience, when he is
at the very height of his obedience to the will of the Father, he's
forsaken of God, because he's made to be sin. And then the prophet says he,
perhaps he's referring to God the Father. who made him to be
sin, he shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. When the Father made him to be
sin for me, and poured out on him the terror of his heart and
wrath, when he had suffered all the vengeance of God Almighty,
all the wrath of the Holy God, all the justice of God's law,
the Father says, that's enough. And he's satisfied. And never
charges me with sin. Perhaps he is saying that he,
the Lord Jesus Christ himself, shall see of the travail of his
soul and shall be satisfied. That simply means He's going
to have what he died to get. At the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ will never be discovered a miscarriage. He shall see his
seed. He's going to see every one of
them justified. He's going to see every one of
them sanctified. He's going to see every one of them glorified.
This is the joy set before him for which he endured the cross,
despising the shame. He shall prolong his days. When
justice is satisfied, he will rise again. He was delivered
for our offenses and raised again for our justification. Yonder
he sits, sitting upon the throne of glory, and the pleasure of
the Lord prospers in his hand. He accomplishes all the will
of God. The Father gave him power over all flesh to give eternal
life to as many as the Father has given him. And by his knowledge shall my
righteous servant justify many. He knows for whom he died. He knows for whom he endured
the wrath of God. He knows for whom he made such
sacrifice. And according to his knowledge,
He's going to justify all those whose sins he bore at Calvary.
He'll justify them, every one of them. Why did the Lord of
Glory suffer such things? I'll give you three reasons. There was no other way for justice
to be satisfied. There was no other way. for sin
to be pardoned. He loved us. The Son of God loved me and gave
himself for me. Now some of you have spent your
lives hiding your face from him, despising him and esteeming him
not. Will you cease to despise Him? Will you cease to hide your face
from Him? Oh, if you will but look to the
Son of God. If you will but believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ. If you will now but look away
to Him. Listen to me. God Almighty, for
Christ's sake, has forgiven you all your sins. Oh, I wish somehow
I could Make sinners understand how anxious God is to forgive
sin for Christ's sake. He delights in mercy. God, for
Christ's sake, pardons iniquity. In the light of these things,
let me ask you, my brothers and sisters, two or three questions. As we prepare now to eat this
bread, drink this wine in remembrance of Him. Faith in Christ demands tremendous
sacrifice and constant. That's what it demands. Is anything too much to suffer
for Him? Faith in Christ demands that
we give our all Any sacrifice too great? Well, I couldn't do
that. For Christ? For Christ? What is it you can't
do now? What is it that's too costly?
What is it that's too demanding? What is it that's too strenuous? What? Can't go? Is any devotion, any consecration,
any love for Him extreme? Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no. Help us now, our Father, to give ourselves to Him who
gave Himself for us. in faith, in love, in consecration,
in the devotion of our lives and our hearts. Amen.