Wounded for you

[0:00] Amen. Lord, we thank you for this time of fellowship and just ask you Lord to be glorified.

[0:12] ! Be glorified. In Jesus name. Amen. Psalm 147 verse 3. It says, He healeth the broken in heart and bindeth up their wounds.

[0:24] The next verse, verse 4 says, He telleth the number of the stars, He calleth them all by their names. The omnipotent One, the Creator of the universe, condescends to come down and reach us and touch us with His tender love.

[0:43] He healeth the broken in heart and bindeth up their wounds. He telleth the number of the stars, He calleth them all by their names. How many stars are there?

[0:55] Of course I went to the internet, the source of all truth, and found there the answer. On a clear moonless night you can look into the sky and see about 3,000 stars visible to your eyes on a good night.

[1:10] Telescopes reveal many, many more. Many, many more. And of course there's many more beyond the range of telescopes. Someone has calculated that there's possibly some 10 billion trillion stars.

[1:28] So if we divided the number of stars amongst the 6 billion of people on the earth, every person would receive more than one trillion stars.

[1:40] So that's going to keep you busy, isn't it? Just getting familiar with those one trillion that would be yours. And yet this One, this One who created the world, the universe, who fashioned all of creation, stepped down from glory to come and visit us.

[2:00] And it says of Him, He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.

[2:11] Sin damages people. It breaks hearts and lives. Christ is the one, the healer of broken hearts, who comes and heals that which is broken by sin.

[2:23] He washes us through and through, cleansing our very hearts. If you'll but cry out. And He will gladden our hearts, and make our hearts to sing, no matter what is happening.

[2:35] We can still have a heart filled with His joy. Have you suffered hurt feelings? He heals the wounded spirit, it says. He heals the wounded spirit.

[2:47] Brother, He heals that wounded spirit. Sister, He can heal that wounded heart. He brings the healing balm, and He pours it out. He can truly sympathise with that suffering time.

[3:00] He is the great physician. He is your medicine. He is your righteousness. He is the Lord, your healer. He is your strength. He is the one who touches, and touches lives that are broken.

[3:14] Hurting hearts, hearts torn and bruised, can still receive His extended touch. In times of sorrow and grief, He reaches us.

[3:27] When He declared His mission in Luke 4, 18, as He opened the Scriptures, He said, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, to preach, because He hath anointed me, to preach the gospel to the poor.

[3:43] He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

[4:01] To preach the gospel, to heal the brokenhearted. That was part of His mission. He is the healer of the brokenhearted.

[4:12] There is a story told during the war of Vietnam. A nurse would go out after the battle and wander from the medical camp out onto the battlefield itself.

[4:25] And sometimes this nurse would personally drag in a soldier who was in need of medical attention. And more than once she was reprimanded for doing this by the doctors.

[4:37] They told her that it was no place for her. She had no business to go onto the battlefield. Not only that, she brought in Viet Cong soldiers along with the Americans for treatment.

[4:50] And one day after a big battle, an officer saw her out on the battlefield, amid all the suffering, the dying and the maimed and death. And he began to rebuke her and said, What are you doing on that battlefield?

[5:06] And she said, without hesitation, I'm looking for the wounded. That's what I'm here for. This is just like the ministry of our Lord.

[5:19] He comes down to the battlefield of our lives. He comes down and He rescues and He delivers us and He heals us. And He is always in that business.

[5:31] He's in that business today. The business of gathering unto Himself the wounded, the broken, the outcasts. Healing broken hearts and binding up their wounds.

[5:46] And you and I as Christians have that same work to do. We are to be looking for the wounded people. We are here to go out and reach out the wounded ones.

[5:59] As the parable of Luke 14 tells us of the Lord sending out His servant, Go out into the highways and compel them to come in that my house may be filled.

[6:12] What's He saying? Go! Go and look for the wounded. Go and reach those that are far away. Reach out to the wounded people.

[6:23] And the commission is ours too. That we are to go out into the battlefields of this world. And find them and bring them to the great physician.

[6:38] The Lord Jesus Christ. His welcome still is extended. To heal and bring them and bind up their wounds. Then we are to send them out into the battlefields to do the same.

[6:53] What did the Lord Jesus do in John chapter 4 when He went to the area of Samaria? In John chapter 4 we see a woman of ill recuse.

[7:08] A woman coming to draw water from Jacob's well. She was an outcast from society. She had five husbands and was now living in sin.

[7:19] She was a fallen woman who needed help. And one day Jesus came and headed her way. He said, I must needs go by Samaria.

[7:31] I must needs go through Samaria. I am sure the disciples did not understand what He was on about. For the Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans. They were people that they would not have anything to do with.

[7:44] Why did Jesus have to go there? Because He was looking for wounded people. He was looking for wounded people just like this girl. And the Lord Jesus gave her living water so she would thirst no more.

[7:59] If you have been cast out by society, He is looking for you. He is looking for the wounded. He is looking for the ones that others will not bother about.

[8:10] Thank God He still finds outcast today. This one who seeks and finds and touches and heals the hurting and the broken and the wounded.

[8:22] We read that He was wounded for you. He was wounded for you. As the world stops at this time, as much as there is all kinds of baggage to do with this season 2 that are nothing to do with the Bible.

[8:37] The world stops at this time and thinks of Calvary. They think of that rugged cross. They think of that bruised and beaten and mocked and scorned one. The one spat upon.

[8:49] We think today of His wounding for us. We think of that in John 20 verse 25. Earlier the disciples had met the Lord and they told Thomas and they said to Him, We have seen the Lord.

[9:03] This is John 20 around 25 verse 25. And it says, But He said unto them, Except I shall see in His hands the print of the nails and thrust my hand into His side, I will not believe.

[9:20] And after eight days again the disciples were within and Thomas with them. And then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst and said, Peace be unto you.

[9:33] Then saith He to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands, and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side, and be not faithless, but believing.

[9:46] And Thomas answered and said, My Lord and my God. Jesus saith unto him, And Thomas, Because thou hast seen me that hast believed.

[9:57] Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed. And it goes on in the last verse of John. These are written.

[10:09] That ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. And that believing ye might have life through His name.

[10:20] Thomas doubted. And then Jesus confronted him with the prints of the nails in His hand. In Luke's account when He came earlier to the disciples He said, Behold my hands and feet, that it is I myself.

[10:39] Behold my hands and feet, that it is I myself. Let's take a moment, can we? Take a moment to think of the wounded one.

[10:52] Look upon this one wounded for you. Look upon this one this morning. Look upon Him today. Think of the agony that He bore.

[11:08] The agony of the garden. The sweat drops like as of blood. The grief, the brutality. The shame, the curse that was the cross.

[11:19] He still wears His wounds. When He appears in heaven, He is still the wounded one. The lamb slain.

[11:30] His hand still marked, pierced. There was a teenager who was embarrassed about her mother.

[11:42] She didn't want to be seen in public with her mother. Because the mother's arms were terribly disfigured. One day the mother took the little girl shopping.

[11:53] And as she wrenched out her hand to the shop assistant to pay, the shop assistant was horrified when she saw the scars. And the little girl later told the mum how embarrassed she was.

[12:06] How embarrassing it was. The mother waited, feeling hurt. And then she thought she would go to her daughter's room to tell her for the first time.

[12:21] What had happened? What had happened to her arms? Her hands? She said, when you were a baby I woke up to a burning house. Your room was an inferno. Flames were everywhere.

[12:33] I could have gotten out the front door. But I decided I'd rather die than leave you to die alone. I ran through the fire and wrapped my arms around you.

[12:46] Then I went back through the flames, my arms on fire. When I got outside on the lawn, the pain was agonising. But when I looked at you, all I could do was rejoice that the flames hadn't touched you.

[13:00] Stunned, the girl looked at her mother through new eyes. Weeping in shame and gratitude, she kissed her mother's marred hands and arms.

[13:12] He still bears the wounds. He still bears the wounds for us. He was wounded. Wounded for you, for me.

[13:24] Wounded. One day we will look upon him and we'll see the wounds that he bore for us. We'll see the scars that he still wears for us. Think upon his wounding today.

[13:37] It was for you. For you. He was wounded in many ways. Matthew 26, 67 it says, Then did they spit in his face and buffeted him, and others smoked him with the palms of their hands.

[13:58] Matthew 27, 30. And they spit upon him and took the ream and smoked him on the head. Matthew 27, 29.

[14:09] Matthew 27, 29. And when they had planted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his hand and a ream in his right hand. And they bowed the knee before him and mocked him saying, Hail, King of the Jews!

[14:25] A crown of thorns. This was not some little prickly bush. It was a jagged, brutal, horrible, sharp and painful crown that he bore.

[14:43] Psalm 129, verse 3. It was prophesied, The plowers ploughed upon my back. They made long their furrows. His back was shredded.

[14:55] It was torn. It was like ribbons. Isaiah 50, verse 6. I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair.

[15:07] I hid not my face from shame and spitting. The humiliation, the shame, the brutality. Think of his wounding today.

[15:18] The humiliation. As he carried his own cross, someone said, It could have been almost 2 kilometers that he carried that cross. And some have estimated that it was about 30 kilos of weight.

[15:31] It was heavy. It was a heavy weight that he carried. Much of the weight. A long weight. 2 kilometers. And then he was pierced.

[15:43] As the psalmist prophesied in Psalm 22, verse 16. For dogs have compassed me. The assembly of the wicked have enclosed me. They pierced my hands and my feet.

[15:55] Zechariah 13, verse 6. Zechariah 13, verse 6. The prophet says, And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.

[16:07] Wounded in the house of my friends. And then we see John 19, verse 34. One of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side.

[16:19] And forthwith came there our blood and water. It was the sign that he had given his absolute all. His heart bursting for us. Behold his wounds today. Behold his wounds.

[16:31] Let us not neglect to behold his wounds. Let us cry out as Thomas did, My Lord and my God. Let it be that turning point for you. That you are but trust him.

[16:43] The wounded one. Wounded for you. Moweth more than any man. His visage, his face. More scarred, more brutalised, more demolished and damaged than any man's.

[16:54] And he suffered the accursed tree for you and me. And he still bears the prints of the nails in his hands. Those hands that brought healing and forgiveness.

[17:09] Those hands that touched the leprous. Those hands that touched the vile and the sinful. Those hands that reached out and still reach out. Saying, come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden.

[17:26] And I will give you rest, rest unto your souls. Those hands, those arms are still extended. Thank God the word says that God's arm is not shortened.

[17:37] That it counts, saying. Now we have got the long arm of the law. But we have got the long arm of the Lord. The Lord. His arm can extend beyond any reach of any policeman.

[17:50] Beyond the reach of any human being. His arm can extend to the foulest of the foul. To even me. To even we. Today.

[18:01] Thank God for that. You know, there's a song that goes. Standing somewhere in the shadows you'll find Jesus.

[18:15] He's the one who always cares and understands. Standing somewhere in the shadows you will find Him.

[18:28] And you'll know Him by the nail prints in His hands. He's the one standing in the shadows. Maybe He's in the shadows so much that you scarcely spend a thought thinking of Him.

[18:40] That life is so busy, busy, busy. So rush, rush, rush. That you don't spare a thought to think of the one standing in the shadows. The one who cares and understands.

[18:52] The one wounded for you. And He knows what it's like today. There's wounded ones here this morning. I've heard some sad stories even this very morning. Sad things going on for people.

[19:04] He knows what it feels like to be scarred. He knows what it feels like to be damaged. To be in pain. To be hurting today. Only by His wounds can you be healed today.

[19:17] Only by His wounds can you be healed. To think that the scars that He bore were for you. Think of His wounds this morning. Those wounds were caused by your sin and mine.

[19:30] That suffering that He endured. That wounding, that bruising, the chastising, the piercing, the mocking, the spitting, the shame, the reproach, the curse of the tree itself.

[19:43] That plague of our sin that He bore. Think of the wounds. And the wounding was because of us.

[19:56] He was crushed. He was humiliated. He was bruised for our iniquities. And He carried on His own person the sins of the world. And it pleased the Lord to bruise him.

[20:08] Isaiah 53 verse 10. He had put him to grief when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. His soul was made an offering for sin.

[20:22] And it was foretold so many times through scriptures we heard of Passover. We've seen of many prophecies that people saw the piercing before it happened.

[20:34] They saw the lamb. Isaiah the prophet, some 800 years before he came, saw how he would be despised, rejected of man. A man of sorrows.

[20:46] We see Abraham. I was just looking earlier where it says, as he took Isaac to the mount, God will provide himself a lamb.

[20:57] God will provide a lamb. Thank God the lamb came. The lamb still scarred, still as one slain. And we'll see him there.

[21:09] In Revelation 5 verse 9. We'll praise him. Thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation.

[21:22] The wounds of Christ are there as we see the slain one, slain for us. We see his great love as God's plan of redemption was made real for us.

[21:36] In 2 Corinthians 5 it says, For he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us. That we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

[21:51] Glory to God that you can be made the righteousness of God in him. Amen. I look at my brother here.

[22:03] Rukakuya. Rukakuya is made the righteousness of God. Amen. Jodie, made the righteousness of God in him.

[22:15] In him. In him. Because our sin was placed upon him. Because he was made sin for us.

[22:26] Are you wounded today? Maybe life is tough. He was wounded for you. He was wounded for you. He was bruised and pierced for you. And he still heals broken hearts and binds up their wounds.

[22:41] When your days are dark, hold on to his nail scarred hands. It says, The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart, and saith such as be of a contrite spirit.

[22:54] It's a good thing to be broken hearted over your sin today. The Bible tells us a breaking up of fallow ground.

[23:06] As the picture would be of land laying dormant and uncultivated, not fruitful. Or, that the farmer comes and breaks it up.

[23:19] Breaks it up. With a pickaxe or with the plowshare pulled behind the oxen. Plowing up that ground so that it can receive the seed and blossom and bloom.

[23:32] And we too must break up the fallow ground of our hearts. We must break up that heart that is hard and stony and hardened to the things of God.

[23:44] We don't have to wait until Easter. We don't have to wait until some particular holy time. Or until we get a holy feeling. Or some holy season when we've got to look pious.

[23:55] Break up your fallow ground. And seek the Lord while it is time to seek him. The Lord is nigh to them that are of a broken heart. And saith such as be of a contrite spirit.

[24:08] But I heard this little quote. It's quite an insightful quote. That stuck out to me. God will only change what he has control over.

[24:21] God will only change what he has control over. Give him your heart. Give him your heart. Let him touch your life.

[24:32] Those hands that were pierced for you touch you today. Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith. Who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross.

[24:44] Despising the shame. And is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. God will not be able to do it. Even in that gruesome awful time.

[24:57] There was a joy set before him. He knew what was beyond the cross. He knew the resurrection was beyond the cross. He knew his victory was assured beyond the cross.

[25:09] He knew the joy of sinners repenting of souls newborn into new life. And he endured the cross.

[25:22] Despising the shame. For the joy that was set before him. You know the word of God tells us of great joy. Joy unspeakable and full of glory.

[25:34] Joy everlasting and full. Not joy dependent on the circumstances of this life. This is just a blink of an eye. This life.

[25:45] But the joy beyond. The joy set before him. The joy of heaven. Of lives changed. Friends today I urge you. He healeth the broken in heart.

[25:58] And bindeth up their wounds. Let us pray. We pray Lord God today as we come. We think of Calvary. We think of your wounds. We think Lord of the great sacrifice of your bleeding and dying for mankind.

[26:11] For our sin. We that call upon you. Our sin can be taken. And carried there. As you've paid for it. In full. When you said it is finished.

[26:22] It was finished. There's nothing more than we can ever do. It was finished then. Those 2,000 years ago. As you spent your last breath. It was finished for us. Lord we thank you.

[26:33] That finished work. Avails today. For those that will believe. Lord we ask you to bless. Each heart. Each soul. Each home. Each family. Each individual.

[26:44] Lord let us come. As the woman at the well came. Let us come. And hear your voice. Let us have a heart. That you open. Lord that you will penetrate. With your Holy Spirit. And convict.

[26:55] And draw us to yourself. Let us have a ground. That will be broken up. As fellow ground is broken up. By the plough. Lord let us be broken up. Over our sin. And realize our great need.

[27:06] Of you. Let us see the wounding. That you bore. That we. That are wounded. Can be healed. We praise you Lord. And pray. If there is any present. Here today.

[27:17] In the hearing of this message. That they might come. And trust you. Even now. In this very moment. By faith. And be transformed. From the inside out. We thank you Lord. For the gift.

[27:28] Of eternal life. That it is made possible. As we simply trust. What you have done for us. In Jesus name. Amen. God bless you. We will have a closing song.

[27:40] To ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending