[0:00] And sing to God's praise from Psalm 32. Psalm 32 from the beginning down to the double verse, Mark 5.
[0:14] O blessed is the man to whom is freely pardoned, all the transgression he hath done whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not his sin, and in whose spirit there is no guile nor fraud is found therein.
[0:32] When as I did refrain my speech, and silent was my tongue, my bones then walked stowed, because I roared all day long. For upon me both day and night thine hand did heavy lie, so that my moisture turned days in summer's drought thereby.
[0:52] I thereupon have unto thee my sin acknowledged, and likewise mine iniquity I have not covered. I will confess unto the Lord my trespasses, said I, and of my sin thou freely didst forgive the iniquity.
[1:13] These verses, Psalm 32. O blessed is the man to whom is freely pardoned. O blessed is the man to whom is freely pardoned, O blessed is the man to whom is freely pardoned, O blessed is the man to whom the Lord intethateth not his sin, In the dead notice, and in the sweat, there is no guile, nor a prodigal thing.
[2:32] When I sighed within my sleep, and silent was my turn.
[2:52] My bones and water settled because I would all get long.
[3:10] For upon me, both day and night, Thine hand is heavy light.
[3:27] So that my boy should turn the distance, In a summer's drought thereby.
[3:44] I there upon heaven to thee, My sin acknowledged it.
[4:04] And likewise my iniquity, I have not covered.
[4:21] I will confess unto the Lord, My trespasses said I, And of my sin, Thou freely did, Forgive thee, iniquity.
[4:57] I would like us to turn now to the Old Testament Scriptures, And the book of the prophet Isaiah, Chapter 53.
[5:12] Isaiah, Chapter 53. We can read from verse 6.
[5:27] All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way. And the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
[5:38] 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 done, So he openeth not his mouth.
[5:53] He was taken from prison, 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.
[6:11] 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.
[6:25] And so on. We are going to look particularly at these last verses, Last verse that we read. Verse 9.
[6:36] The words of Isaiah 53 are, I'm sure, Familiar to all of you.
[6:58] I don't think it would be wrong to suggest That there is no passage of the Old Testament scriptures That are as full of the sufferings of Christ As this familiar chapter is.
[7:16] According to Professor Finlison, Who refers to Isaiah 53 In his work Across the experience of our Lord, He makes mention of this chapter in particular, And he writes the following, During the last days of Jesus, He dwelt much in the Old Testament, And its language was consistently and constantly on his lips.
[7:57] This is particularly true about the book of Isaiah, And very specially Isaiah 53. Again and again he directed his disciples to that chapter, As affording them an insight Into what was about to happen to him.
[8:19] When he told them of his impending death and open shame, He cushioned their minds against the shock By telling them that it stood written.
[8:32] And we agree with what the professor said by way of assessment, His own knowledge of the scripture, No doubt undergirded his opinion.
[8:46] But we appreciate that When we read Isaiah 53, It brings the passion of the Lord Jesus Christ to us, To our attention. Even though theologians take delight in discussing and debating This question about who the suffering servant is or was, I think most Reformed Christians have no question in their mind about it, Simply because the scripture itself suggests that to us.
[9:20] When we read this passage, When we read this portion of scripture, As I was reading it myself, We always feel encouraged by it, We always feel as if we are standing on holy ground.
[9:42] And it is a reminder to us of the extent of the sufferings of Christ. Not just the extent of them, But the cause of them.
[9:54] And it is important for us to remind ourselves that When we come face to face with the sufferings of Christ on the cross, As Christians, We should often do.
[10:08] We cannot allow ourselves to point the finger of blame, Blame to others because of the sufferings of Christ.
[10:25] The writer E.W. Tozer, Just to paraphrase him, Says that Pilate and the Roman authorities were responsible for the death of Christ.
[10:40] Judas and the Jews were responsible for the death of Christ. They were all guilty of putting Jesus on the cross.
[10:53] They were guilty, But they were our accomplices in crime. They and we put him on the cross.
[11:05] Not they alone. Every one of us in Adam's race Had a share in putting him on the cross. And that is something we need to be conscious of.
[11:20] That if we read Isaiah 53, And we read of the sufferings of Christ, And we read and understand that the sufferings were for sin, We can't separate ourselves from the truth that says that he died for the sins of the world.
[11:45] And that incorporates our sin as much as the sin of any other individual. And the text that we're looking at this evening might not stand out to our attention as being a text that That is overly concerned with the sufferings of Christ.
[12:10] And yet you can't separate it from it. And when I was reading through this chapter again, I was thinking about the various sermons I preached on the chapter.
[12:24] And I found that I preached a sermon on all the texts that are in the chapter, Including the three verses that come at the end of chapter 52.
[12:38] And all of the texts apart from two. And this is one of them. Verse 9. And the other is verse 12. I had realised I had not ever preached a sermon on either of these texts.
[12:56] And I reflected on why it should be. Because often you go to, as a minister anyway, You go to a passage like this at communion occasions.
[13:08] Because it involves the sufferings of Christ. And it is an area of interest on such a Sabbath occasion.
[13:19] But I began to think about verse 9 in particular. And what is it that makes this text equally important to the Christian?
[13:34] As the Christian reads through this chapter that is so clearly, In my mind anyway, and in the mind of many others, So clearly focused on the passion of Jesus Christ.
[13:46] Why should this verse, amongst every other verse, Be of equal input? Well, of course, it goes without saying, I would hope, That it is a prophecy.
[14:00] It is the word of God. But it is also a word of prophecy. And the passage that we read in the New Testament, 1 Peter chapter 2, Quotes from this prophecy, Along with the other verses that we find, And that we read there.
[14:22] And if the Holy Spirit sees fit to make this truth prophetically known to us, As it concerns Christ, There must be some reason for it.
[14:38] Not only does he make it known to us, By way of prophecy, That this was part of the experience of Christ, But the apostle also draws attention to it, And encourages the believer by it.
[14:55] So what is it that we can learn from this verse? And as you can see, The verse itself is divided into two parts for the main.
[15:10] But the first part itself is in two parts. And the second part is also in two parts. He made his grave with the wicked, And with the rich in his death.
[15:25] That's the first section of it. And in the second section, Because he had done no violence, Neither was any deceit in his mouth.
[15:36] And probably, When I was preparing this, I was looking at The statements of others.
[15:51] And what you find is that Very often, If there are areas of Contention, Or areas of difficulty, You might find that The text or the passage Is not as Much considered As it would otherwise be.
[16:12] And one of the reasons Why you might not find As much written about Verse 9 Is that it is not An easy verse To interpret Based on The translation Of the Hebrew text.
[16:30] And I looked at The various Translations And it's not to say that That there is Any uncertainty About what is written Because As I said The Apostle Peter himself Refers to it With With clarity And with understanding.
[16:52] But as you can see From the passage As we have it here We read the words And he made his grave With the wicked And with the rich In his death.
[17:04] And the question Immediately occurs To me anyway Who is the he That this is speaking of? Because If the person That is the focus Of the attention Of the passage Is the Lord Jesus Christ He had no part Other than To be the one Placed in the grave In choosing Where the grave was.
[17:35] And when you look At the various Translations There are slight Variations In the translations In the ears We We read there They made His grave In the new English translation Which is a more More flexible Translation They intended To bury him With criminals But he ended up In a rich man's Grave Or rich man's Tomb And John L. Mackay's Own interpretation Of this In his commentary One Assigned his grave With wicked ones But he was With a rich Passion In his death Now You can see From these Different Translations That there Is something Behind the translation That makes
[18:35] This less Clear If you like But the lack Of clarity Has really To do With the Complexity Of the Original Hebrew Language I'm not An expert Far from it I wouldn't Even begin To translate Any part Of Hebrew But those Who are Scholars And those Who are Scholars In the Hebrew Language Because of The various Pointings And the Way that the Words Are formulated There is There is a Degree of Flexibility In where The emphasis Lies on the Words Themselves But having Said that It is not In any Way Grounds For Questioning The meaning Of what Is said To put it Simply Based on the
[19:35] New Testament Application This verse Has to do With the Passion of The Lord Jesus Christ And it Has to do With the Part That the Sovereign God Has to Play In his Death And in His Burial And the Passage As a Whole Makes Abundantly Plain To us That the Words Cannot be Applied To any Other Passion But the Passion of The Lord Jesus And the One whose Instrumentality Throughout the Passage Is brought To our Attention Is the Lord God Who is Sovereign In the Sufferings Of Jesus Christ We are Told in Verse 4 For example Surely he Hath borne Our griefs And carried Our sorrows And then He was Wounded For our Transgressions He was
[20:36] Oppressed He was Oppressed He was Taken From prison And judgment He made His grave With the Wicked It follows It follows On Logically That the Passion That is Spoken Of here Is the Same Passion But at The same Time It follows Logically That What happened To him Was the Result Of God's Doing Now The problem I suppose In one Sense At the Beginning Of the Verse Is that You see The two Instruments If you Like There were Those Who were Responsible For the Crucifixion Of Christ They were Responsible For putting Him to Death It was Their intention To bring His Sufferings
[21:36] So that They were As Extensive As possible As Intensive As possible And that The humiliation And shame Accompanying Them Should be As great As possible And for Them that Meant Him not Only being Put to Death But that His death Would be Followed By the Shame And the Humiliation Of the Burial That would Naturally Follow Somebody Who was Put to Death As a Criminal The death That Christ Died We know And the Scripture Makes it Plain to us It was the Cursed Death of The cross The cross Itself Ensured That in Our minds We have The element Of God's Curse Brought to Our Attention But he Was in The eyes
[22:36] Of his Accuser A common Criminal And the Place of His execution Was outside The city Walls The place Itself Was on The rubbish Dump And Although Not all The commentators Draw Attention To the Fact Furness And for One He says That the Most likely Burial Place For Christ And the Two Manufacturers Who were Crucified With him Was at The foot Of the Cross They would Simply be Brought down And thrown Into an Open grave It was as Simple as That He didn't Desire Anything More than That Now there's No certainty About that But We We can Imagine And it Is more Than Probable
[23:36] That because Of the Of the Fact that He was Demonised And that He was Criminalised In this Way That Christ Was intended To be Buried If Buried Was the Actual End of The In the World I put it Like this The Enmity That was In the Heart Of the Persecutors Of Christ And those Who were Responsible For his Death Was Without Equal And it Would not Be a Surprise If they Wanted To To Label Him With as Much Shame As Possible They Certainly They Hated It Enough However What this Verse Brings to Our Attention
[24:36] Is this That it Was not What they Wanted That was Going to Hold Sway Scholars Tell us That in The actual Hebrew Itself It is Deliberately The two Phrases Are So Closely Linked So that When you Read this In the Original Language He made His grave With the Wicked And with The Rich And Dead It is As if They are More or Less In tandem Or in Parallel So that You are Seeing These Two Truths These Two Truths The The grave Of Christ With the Wicked And His Being With the Rich In his Death And the Reason For that Is that You Find the
[25:37] Will of Man And the Will of God Put Alongside Each Other And As you Would see In Parallel But it Is important For us To understand That There is The Superintendence Of God The Overriding Sovereignty Of God Involved In this It is not Just a Matter of Chance That when Christ Died That was The end Of the Matter God Meant Him To be Buried In the Manner In which He was Buried The Others Probably Couldn't Care less How he Was Buried Some May have That Bitterness And Enmity In the Heart Towards Them That would Want him Buried With the Greatest Possible Humiliation
[26:37] But The Fact of The Matter Was That It Was God's Intention For That He Be Buried In a Rich Man's Grave With The Rich In His Death Now Some Some Commentated And I Believe That They're Way Off Track In What They're Saying That There Is An Identification Between The Wicked And The Rich That There Is Some Kind Of Identification That There Is Some Wickedness Attributed To Those Who Are Rich That There Is Some Connection Made By The Prophet When He Says This I Don't Think The Scripture Allows Us To Think Like That Because The Scripture Itself Highlights To Us What Took Place The Prophecy Is Fulfilled In One Clear Way And
[27:37] That Is That When Jesus Died That At That Moment We Are Told That His Death Was Marked It Was Something That Was Clearly Identified As Being A Genuine Experience On His Path On His Part And As As A Result Of His Death And As A Result Of The Intervention Of Joseph Of Arimathea We Read The Account In Matthew's Gospel And It's In The Other Gospels As Well A Rich Man Of Arimathea Named Joseph Who Also Himself Was Jesus Disciple Went To Pilate And Begged The Body Of Jesus Then Pilate Commanded The Body To Be Delivered And When Joseph Had Taken The Body He Wrapped
[28:38] It In A Clean Linen Cloth And Laid It In His Own New Tomb Which He Had Hewn Out In The Rock And He Rolled A Great Stone To The Door Of The Sepulchre And Departed Now I Know You're Familiar With This Story I Know You Understand What Took Place But It's Important For Us To Remind Ourself Of The Fact That This Was Every Bit Of God's Doing That He Had Prophetically Declared It Beforehand And The Fulfillment Of Prophecy Has To Be Identified And Acknowledged There Is Not Just The Fact That It Is Prophecy Being Fulfilled But The Implications Of The Fulfillment Of Prophecy For The Believer Should Be Highlighted As Well So
[29:39] That When You Read This Passage You Understand That All That Took Place Following On From His Being Placed In The Grave And From His Body Being Placed Where It Could Be Identified Rather Than Being In The You Know In The Rubbish Stunt Which Is Where It Was Meant To Go And Where It Could Have Been Left For The Wild Animals To Devour Where It Could Have Been Mixed Up With Other Bodies Or Whatever Without Going Into The Detail Of What Could Have Happened What What Did Happen Is That He Was Placed In A Tomb Carved Out Of The Rock And No Other Had Been Laid In That Grave Before And It Was From This Grave That He Was
[30:39] To Rise And It Was From This Grave That All Who Were Eyewitness To The Resurrection Could Identify Where He Had Written From You Know Bishop Wyle Makes An Interesting Comment On This And He Says That Jesus' Enemies Went Deliberately To Pilate And Asked That He Place A Guard On The Tomb And That The Tomb Be Sealed And He Says The Jews Were Providing The Most Complete Evidence Of The Truth Of Christ's Coming Resurrection They Were Actually Making It Impossible To Prove That There Was Any Deception Or Imposition In Their
[31:39] Haste In Their Desire To Make Sure That Christ Remained In The Grave They Not Only Identified The Grave As His Grave But He Identified The Fact That That Grave No Longer Held Christ Because When He Rose From The Dead The Grave Was Empty And There Were Eyewitnesses To It It's A Simple Truth But It's A Statement Of Fact That Needs To Be Remembered By The Believer And An Encouragement To The Believer The Enemies Of Christ Did All They Could To Malign His Character But Rather Than Do That God Honoured Him In His Death And That Is Sin He Was Taken From Prison From Judgment And So On He Made His Grave With The Wicked And With The Rich In His Death
[32:39] And Why Do We Believe That God Is Giving Honour To His Resurrection In This Emphasis That Is Placed On The Place Of His Burial Well We Read Again It Seems Words That Are Unnecessary Because The Truth That They State Was Stated Before You Read These Words Because He Had Done No Violence Neither Was Any Deceit In His Mouth You Already Read In This Chapter The Innocence Of Christ That This Was The Lamb Of God That This Was Someone Who Had No Sin He Was Bruised For Our Iniquities The Justicement Of Our Peace Was Upon And With His Stripes We Are Healed And So On Emphasis Falling Upon The Sufferings
[33:40] Of Christ Being For The Sins Of Others And Yet Here At The End Of Verse Nine Because He Had Done No Violence Neither Was Any Deceit In His Mouth It As If God Is Saying I Want You To Know That This Person Is Innocent That His Grave Testifies To His Innocence Because I Have Given To Him This Honour The Blindness Of Men Forbid Them To Believe That Truth It's Interesting That Modern Scholars Who Are Not Necessarily Believers In The Truth Of The Bible Many Of Them Are Not They Say This Versh Says Too Much
[34:40] This Versh Says Too Much It Cannot Mean What It Says Because It Is So Accurate It Is So Relevant It Is So Pointed It Must Be Something That Has Been Fabricated And Inserted After The Time But He Suffered For The Crimes Of Others He Suffered For The Sins Of Others All We Like Sheep Have Gone Astray We Have Turned Everyone To His Own Way The Lord Hath Laid On Him The Iniquity Of Us All He Was Cut Off Out Of The Land Of The Living For The Transgression Of My People Was He Stricken There Is No Question But That This Emphasis Appears Throughout The Passage And We Need To Remind Ourselves Of It But
[35:41] God At The Same Time Wants Us To Understand That He Was Free From All Blain He Had Done No Violence Neither Was Any Deceict In His Mouth And This Passage Is Quoted By The Apostle Peter As We Saw And The Context In Which He Quotes These Verses Perhaps Sheds Light On The Meaning Of These Words When He Quotes These Words Of The Prophet He Reminds The Believer That Not Only Are They To Receive Salvation From Him That He Is The Savior That He Is The One Who Died For Their Sin But That As A Consequence Of Believing That They Have Salvation But That Salvation Is Not Just A Mere Trivial
[36:41] Experience It Has Consequences Not Just For Their Future But For Their Presence As Those Who Believe In It The Theologian Don Carson Many Years Ago Was Preaching At The Keswick Conference And His Allotted Task Over The week That he Was Speaking There Was To Speak On The Writings Of The Apostle Peter But He Makes This Reference To The Quotation That Peter Has Here And He Says That When We Come Face To Face With The Example And Peter Is Quoting From This And Saying Christ Also Suffered For Us Leaving Us An Example
[37:42] That You Should Follow His Steps And He's Directing Us To The Prophecy Of Isaiah And He's Saying This Is The Example That Christ Has Set You And You're Saying To Yourself Well How Can Christ In His Sufferings Be An Example To Me Because His Example Is Clearly One That Was Unique His Sufferings Were Exceptional They Were Sufferings For The Sins Of The World They Cannot Be In Any Way An Example For Me To Follow But In The Context In Which He Caused These Words Not Only Does Peter Remind Us That The The Belief That We Have In The Sufferings Should Never Be A Simple Belief That
[38:43] Does Not Affect The Life That We Lead Through Christ What Carson Says Is That If We Have That It Is Just Like So Many The Sufferings Of Christ Lends Itself To An Empty Sentimentalism That You Think Of The Sufferings Of Christ And You The Poor Christ Think Think Of All The Things That He Went Through But For The Believer That Is Not The Reason That You Contemplate His Sufferings You Understand The Sufferings As Being Real You Understand The Sufferings As Being What They Were But You Also Understand That They Were For My Sin And For You Sin And That It Was That Reason Before All Else Took Him To The Cross But It Doesn't Stop There And Peter Doesn't Mean It To Stop There When
[39:43] He Applies This Preaching Or This Teaching From This Passage In The Old Testament He Means To The Believer To Look At The Example Of Christ As He Denied Himself And Who Suffered Willingly Because He Was In The Path Of Obegence And He Was No Question About It Unlike Any Other And Yet Through His Self Denying Embracing Of The The Call Of God Upon His Life He Sets An Example For Those Who Believe In Him To Follow Him In That Way A Verse Perhaps That We Go Over Very Quickly And Without Giving It Much Thought But
[40:44] I Think It Is A Verse That Through The Content Of It And The Place Of It Is A Verse That Reminds Us Of The Over Arching Sovereign Power Of God In Fulfilling All That Was Necessary For The Salvation Of Sinners Through The Passion Of Jesus Christ And The Welfare Of Those People That He Came To Seek And To Save May God Bless To Us These Few Thoughts And May Encourage Further Thought In Your Own Heart I Would Like To Look At The Final Verse Of The Chapter As I Said It Is The One Of Text That I Haven't Really Looked At And Preached From So I Hope To Do That The Following Thursday For Spared Let Us Pray Oh Lord Oh God We Give Thanks For Your Word The Meticulous
[41:44] Fulfillment Of Prophecy When The Disciples Were Told What Christ Anticipated We Found It So Hard To To Embrace These As Truths That Could Possibly Come To Thruition And Yet With The Benefit Of The Spirits Enlightening They Saw And Marvelled At How Perfectly Christ Anticipated The Cross And All That He Had Endured By Reason Offered And The Confidence That They Received By It Is There For All To See We Pray For Our Selves That We Too Might Be Encouraged Through The Word That Is Our Living Word And We Ask Your Blessing Upon It Here Is In Jesus Name Amen Going To Conclude By Singing Gaelic
[42:44] From Psalm 118 The Last Two Verses Of The Psalm 118 Verse 27 Per A Next SILENT TRIAL Merry Christmas.
[44:09] Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji
[45:39] Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji
[46:44] Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji to the service just a little bit.