At Todd's Road Grace Church,
we'd like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Niver. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 10.30 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
9.45 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com.
Now here's our pastor, Todd Nibert. Our subject for this morning
is the silence of Christ. It's pointed out in the scripture
that when he was brought before the high priest, when he was
brought before Pilate, when he was brought before Herod, he
held his peace. He didn't defend himself. He
didn't speak. In Isaiah chapter 53, beginning
in verse 6, we read, All we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned every one to his
own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. 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 shears is
dumb, so opened he not his mouth." Silence. In Matthew's account of him being
brought before the priest, we read in verse 62 of chapter 26,
And the high priest arose and said unto him, Answerest thou
nothing? What is it which these witness against thee? But Jesus
held his peace. When he's brought before Pilate,
We read in verse 12 of chapter 27, and when he was accused of
the chief priests and elders, he answered nothing. Then said Pilate unto him, Hearest
thou not how many things they witness against thee? And he
answered him never a word. Now Pilate would send the Lord
to Herod, and we read beginning in verse 8 of Luke chapter 23,
And when Herod saw Jesus, he was exceedingly glad. For he
was desirous to see Him of a long season, because he had heard
many things of Him, and he hoped to have seen some miracle done
by Him. Then he questioned Him with many
words, but he answered nothing. When he's sent back to Pilate
by Herod in John chapter 19, we read these words. When the
chief priests, therefore, and officers saw him, they cried
out, saying, Crucify him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them,
Take ye him, and crucify him, for I find no fault in him. I'm
not going to do it. The Jews answered him, We have a law,
and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the son
of God. When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he was the
more afraid, and he went again into the judgment hall and said
unto Jesus, Whence art thou? But Jesus gave him no answer. The silence of the Lord Jesus
Christ before the priests, before Pilate, before Herod, and once
again before Pilate, how majestic he was in his silence. There is a deafening roar to
his silence. Why was he silent? Now, if I was accused of something
that I didn't do and was getting ready to be thrown into jail
for it or be put to death for it, I would not remain silent. I would be trying to justify
myself. This isn't right. I shouldn't
be being treated this way. Yet the Lord was silent. Let me give you seven reasons
why He was silent before the high priests and their accusations,
why He was silent before Pilate, why He was silent before Herod
in the midst of all these accusations brought against Him. He did not
respond. Now here is the first reason,
because He was fulfilling the Scriptures. That's easy enough,
isn't it? He was fulfilling the Scriptures. It's said in Isaiah 53, verse
7, He opened not His mouth. Everything that our Lord did,
He did that the Scripture might be fulfilled. And that's so important. Everything Christ did, was prophesied
in the Old Testament Scriptures concerning His birth, His virgin
birth, His life, His death, the manner of His death, the things
He would say were all prophesied in Scripture. Now that is another
way of saying that God's will is always done. If he purposed
something in the scripture, it will take place. I love that passage of scripture
in Acts chapter 4 when the early church says, both Herod and Pontius
Pilate with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered
together for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined
before to be done. Christ was silent because it
was determined before that he would be silent. Now, he's Lord. I love it when they came to arrest
him. They said, he said, whom seek
ye? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth. He said, I am. And they were
driven backward by omnipotent power. The Lord was letting them
know, I'm in control of this situation, not you. I'm no victim. The only reason you're doing
this is my will that the scriptures might be fulfilled." So the first
reason for his silence is it's simply the fulfillment of the
Old Testament scriptures. Why was he silent? Why didn't
he defend himself against the accusers? Here's my second reason.
He was showing his complete willingness his complete willingness to go
through with everything he was going through. Now one time,
I guess the day before, when they came to arrest him, Peter
tried to protect him. He didn't want this to happen,
so he swung at the high priest, a servant who was there to apprehend
the Lord Jesus Christ, and cut off his ear. And the Lord healed
the man's ear. He told Peter, put the sword
back up. He said, don't you know that
if I want to, I can pray and the Father will send 12 legions
of angels, 72,000 angels, and wipe this crowd out? I'm doing
this because it's my will to do this. I'm completely willing
in this thing. In John chapter 10, when he was
telling his Disciples of his death, beginning in verse 14,
he said, I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known
of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father,
and I lay down my life for the sheep. And other sheep I have
which are not of this fold, them also I must bring, and they shall
hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd.
Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life,
that I might take it again. No man takes it from me. But
I lay it down of myself. I'm doing what I want to do. I have power to lay it down and
I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received
of my father. Lord said, there's only one reason
I'm dying. Nobody's taking my life from me. This is my will. Some years ago a man wrote a
book, you may remember it, When Bad Things Happen to Good People. It only happened once. You hear me? That only happened
once when the Lord Jesus was treated as He was, when He is
essentially and eternally good. But understand this, the reason
it happened to Him is because He willed it to happen. When our Lord remained silent
and didn't try to get out of the trouble that all this was
causing Him, it was because it was His will. He was completely
willing for everything that happened to Him to happen. Thirdly, why
was He silent? because he was not pleased to
make himself known to these people. He didn't have anything to say
to Annas and Cavus, the high priests. He didn't have anything
to say to Pilate. He didn't have anything to say
to Herod. He was not speaking to them. Now understand this. If the Lord
doesn't speak to you, you're toast. You're totally dependent
upon Him to speak to you, to reveal Himself to you. If all
you hear is the words of the preacher, it will do you no good.
You must hear from Him, and if you don't hear from Him, you
will not be saved. He was pleased to not speak to
the high priests, but let them die in their sins. He was pleased
to not speak to Pilate, and Pilate's in hell right now. He was pleased
to not speak to Herod, and Herod was damned eternally. If Christ
doesn't speak to you, you will not be saved. We're totally dependent
on hearing His voice. The hour is coming, and now is
when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and
they that hear shall live. Somebody says, I'm not hearing
then. Well, it's because He's not speaking to you. Because
if He speaks, you'll hear. And He was pleased to not speak
to these men. They deserved to be damned. They
deserve to not be spoken to, and the Lord didn't speak to
them. That's why he was silent. He could have spoke, but he chose
not to with regard to these three individuals. Why did the Lord
Jesus remain silent? Because of his utter submission
to the Father's will. Now, you'll remember in Gethsemane's
garden. The scripture says he was sweating
great drops of blood. And he said, Father, if it be
possible, let this cup pass from me. What cup was he speaking
of? I mean, he was, the scripture
says he was in agony and sore amazed at this time. Well, this
was the cup of his people's sin. He was made to drink it. He bore
our sins in his own body on the tree. And when he saw that cup,
he saw the contents of that cup, he said, this is going to kill
me right now. The angels came down to minister to him, but
he knew the evil of sin. You and I don't much know about
the evil of sin. We're used to it. It doesn't
bother us. We say it does, but it doesn't
bother us that much. It should, but it doesn't because
we're so hard-hearted. But here the spotless Lamb of
God who knew no sin saw that he was going to drink this cup,
the cup of God's wrath, the cup of our sins. He knew he was going
to be separated from God and that he was going to suffer the
full equivalent of an eternal hell. And he said, if it be possible,
let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but
thine be done. After Gethsemane, He said, the
cup which my father hath given me to drink, shall I not drink
it? He was completely submissive
to his father's will, even if it cost him his life. He demonstrated
by His silence before these people that He was completely submissive
to His Father's will. You see, it was His Father's
will for Him to come and go to the cross. It pleased the Lord
to bruise Him. He was in control of all of this
thing. Why? He's called the Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world. And He had to come in time to
be the Lamb slain in time, to bear the sins of His people,
to be forsaken by His Father, to bear the full equivalent of
hell. He was doing this because it
was His Father's will for Him to do this. He said, I came down
from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of Him that
sent me. And He is demonstrating by not
trying to defend Himself before the priests and before Pilate,
before Herod. He's demonstrating by His silence
His complete and utter submission to the will of His Heavenly Father. Now let me give you the fifth
reason why the Lord Jesus remained silent. The silence of the Lord
toward his accusers speaks of his guilt. Now I want you to
think about that. His silence before his accusers
speaks of his guilt. Now if I'm accused of something
that I didn't do, and I'm going to be punished for it. You can
bet I'm not going to be silent. I'm going to do everything I
can to prove myself innocent and justify myself and vindicate
myself. I'm not going to remain silent.
Why did the Lord remain silent? Because He was guilty. Somebody says, how can you say
he's guilty when he's the spotless lamb of God who knew no sin?
It's true. He never committed a sin. But
the scripture says the Lord hath laid upon him the iniquity of
us all. Speaking of all of God's people,
who his own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree,
he became guilty of those sins. The Scripture says, Now we know
that whatsoever the law saith, it saith to them who are under
the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world
stand guilty before God. And at this time the Lord Jesus
Christ stood guilty before God. The sins of His people were laid
upon Him. They became His. I heard a preacher
just this week say, God treated Christ as if He were guilty.
No, God did not treat Christ as if He were guilty. God treated
Christ as guilty! Guilty as charged. That's why
the justice of God killed him. That's why he was nailed to the
cross. He was guilty of all those sins.
Somebody says, how can you say that? Listen to the scripture. 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. It was not as if he were made
He was made sin. And it's not as if we're made
the righteousness of God. We're made the righteousness
of God. He is the righteousness of God.
He kept God's law perfectly. He never sinned. God took the
sins of His people and laid them upon Him so that He became guilty
of them. And He bore God's wrath and His
perfect righteousness is given to every one of His people. It's
called substitution. You say, how can this be? Well,
God did it. God did it. With God, nothing should be impossible.
He made a way to be just and to be consistent with His justice
and yet justify sinful people. So when our Lord kept silent,
It was because he was guilty, guilty as charged. He didn't say, these sins are
Todd's sins and they're just charged to me. He said, these
are my sins. My iniquities have gone over
my head as a heavy burden. They're too heavy for me. That's
the words of the Lord in Psalm 40. That's how truly my sins
became his sins. He literally became guilty of
them. God said, I will by no means
clear the guilty. On the cross, Christ was guilty,
and God punished him. It pleased the Lord to bruise,
to crush him. He hath put him to grief. Why
did the Lord remain silent? Because He was guilty. And because He took my place
and remained silent, I'm not guilty. It's what the Bible calls
justification. My sin is gone. I don't have
it. And that naturally leads us to
the sixth reason why he was silent. His silence speaks of his death
as a substitute. Isaiah 53 verse 6 and 7, we've
already read it. All we, like sheep, have gone
astray. We've turned everyone to his
own way. There's a particular guilt that
makes us feel ourselves to be worse than anybody else. We've
turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord hath laid upon him
the iniquity of us all. Now, we're sheep. We're sheep. We're straying sheep. We're dumb
sheep. We're defenseless sheep. We're helpless sheep. What did
Christ become? A sheep. A lamb. We're straying sheep. He had
to become a sheep as a sheep before her shearers is done. He was sheared of everything.
When He was on the cross, He lost all communion with God. He lost all personal righteousness. He was made to be sin. He lost
all peace. He lost all comfort. He lost
the joy of beholding and communion with His Father. He was cut off.
He felt all the guilt and shame of sin. He felt it all. Why? He became what I am. He was made sin as my substitute. And as a lamb before the slaughter,
a lamb going to the slaughter, He was slaughtered under the
wrath of God as my substitute. I'm this straying sheep. How
can I be brought back into the fold? By Him taking my place
as my substitute and completely satisfying the wrath of God. For me to not be slaughtered,
he had to be slaughtered. And here's the last reason. He opened not his mouth out of
love for his bride. You see, the church is the bride
of Christ. And if he would have opened his
mouth and defended himself, I would have to be damned. All of God's
people would have to be damned, but oh, the love he has for his
bride, that he was willing to be cut off from God so that they
wouldn't be. He said to his people, as the
Father hath loved me, so have I loved you. Now, who can express
the love of the Father to the Son? And the Son says, that's
the love that I have for you. The church is the church that
He purchased with His own blood. The church is called the Bride
of Christ. And the Lord loves His bride,
and He's going to make sure that they're saved. And that's why
He was silent. Now I want to take you to another
scene. It's found in Acts chapter 8,
verse 26. And the angel of the Lord spake
unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south, and to the
way that goeth down from Jerusalem, and to Geza, which is desert."
Now he is telling him to leave this revival that's taking place
in Samaria and go down to a desert place. And he arose and went,
and behold a man of Ethiopia. and eunuch of great authority
under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her
treasure, he'd come to Jerusalem to worship. Now this man was
a heathen. He wasn't a Jew, but somehow
through God's mercy toward him, he knew that God was to be worshiped
in Jerusalem. He wanted to come to the Passover.
He wanted to worship God. And he came to Jerusalem with
this purpose, to worship. And I believe he was returning
as empty as he was when he came. But there was something he was
doing good while he was in this chariot. He was reading the Bible. That's always a good thing to
do. The Lord speaks through his word. The Bible is the word of
God. I highly recommend reading the
Bible, all of it. It's the word of God. But he
was sitting there reading the Bible, and you know where he
was reading? The passage of Scripture I just read from Isaiah 53, verses
6 and 7. He was reading Isaiah 53. Now
let's go on reading. He was returning and sitting
in his chariot, reading Isaiah the prophet. Then the Spirit
said unto Philip, Go near and join thyself to this chariot.
And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet
Isaiah. He was reading out loud. And
Philip asked him this question, do you understand what you're
reading? Now, I know the way most people
would respond. Well, here's what I think it
means. But I love this man's response. He says to Philip,
when he says, understand what you're reading, he said, how
can I? Except some man should guide me. He said, I'm blind. I can't understand this. It's
a mystery to me. Somebody's going to have to tell
me what this means, or I'll never know. You know, you can't figure
out the Scriptures. I don't care how intelligent
you are, you can't figure out the Scriptures. You can only
understand the meaning of the Scriptures as God reveals Himself
to you through the preaching of the Word. That's the only
way you're going to understand. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. And he desired, Philip,
that he would come up and sit with him. And the place of the
scripture which he read was this, he was led as a sheep to the
slaughter, and like a lamb dumb before his shear, so opened he
not his mouth. He was reading of the silence
of Christ. And it says, in his humiliation,
his judgment was taken away. And who shall declare his generation?
For he is taken from the earth. And Enoch answered Philip and
said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? Of himself
or of some other? man. And in the original, the
word man is not there. Some other. Some other being. You know, the best definition
of holiness is other. Other. Of whom speaketh the prophet
this? Of himself or some other? Verse 35, then Philip opened
his mouth and began at that same scripture and preached unto him,
Jesus. Oh, how would you like to take
Isaiah 53 to somebody who wants to know what it means? He was
wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes
we're healed. This is talking about the Lamb
of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. It pleased the Lord to bruise
Him. He had put Him to grief. It was God's will. It was God's
purpose. He shall see the travail of his
soul and be satisfied. He's not going to be frustrated
that he didn't get the job done. By his knowledge shall my servant
justify many, for he shall bear their iniquity. Oh, he preached
unto him the Lord Jesus Christ. And as they went on their way,
they came into a certain water, and the eunuch said, See, here's
water. What doth hinder me to be baptized? He heard something
about baptism. You see, baptism illustrates
the gospel. When I'm baptized, I'm saying
when Christ lived, I lived. When he died, I died. When he
was raised from the dead, I was raised from the dead. My salvation
is being in him. And Philip said, If you believe
with all your heart, you may. And he said, I believe that Jesus
Christ is the Son of God. That's what faith is. If you
believe he's the Son of God, you believe what he did must
be successful. He heard of the silence of Christ. And I guarantee you, Philip explained
to him exactly why he was silent, just like we've heard this morning.
He says, Todd and I pray that God will be pleased to make himself
known to you. That's our prayer. To request a copy of the sermon
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