[0:00] The following message is given by Walt Alexander, lead pastor of Trinity Grace Church in Athens, Tennessee. For more information about Trinity Grace, please visit us at TrinityGraceAthens.com.
[0:13] Say at 52, verse 13. Behold, my servant shall act wisely. He shall be high and lifted up and shall be exalted.
[0:27] As many were astonished at you, his appearance was so marred beyond human semblance and his form beyond that of the children of man.
[0:40] So shall he sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths because of him. For that which has been told them they see and that which they have not heard they understand.
[0:55] Who has believed what he has heard from us and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed. For he grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground.
[1:10] He had no form or majesty that we should look at him and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men.
[1:23] A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised and we esteemed him not.
[1:36] Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted.
[1:48] But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace.
[2:02] And with his stripes, we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way.
[2:15] And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted.
[2:26] Yet he opened not his mouth. Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter. And like a sheep that before its shears is silent, so he opened not his mouth.
[2:41] By oppression and judgment, he was taken away. And as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people.
[2:53] And they made his grave with the wicked and with the rich man in his death. Although he had done no violence and there was no deceit in his mouth.
[3:07] Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him. He has put him to grief. When his soul makes an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring.
[3:22] He shall prolong his days. The will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul, he shall see and be satisfied.
[3:35] By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous. And he shall bear their iniquities.
[3:47] Therefore, I will divide him a portion with the many. And he will divide the spoil with the strong. Because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors.
[4:00] Yet he bore the sin of many and makes intercession for the transgressors. This is the word of the Lord. Thank you, God.
[4:12] In the 1960s classic, A Charlie Brown Christmas, Charlie Brown admits, I just don't understand Christmas. I love getting presents and sending Christmas cards and decorating trees and all that.
[4:28] But I'm still not happy. I always end up feeling depressed. He looks around for help. But it doesn't seem like anyone else really understands Christmas either.
[4:40] Snoopy is caught up in the commercialization of Christmas, has entered his little doghouse into the light contest. His sister Sally has been enamored with the materialism of Christmas, writing down that long list of presents she must have.
[4:57] He's been tapped to lead the annual Christmas play. But at the practice, no one even cares. He refuses to sit idly by.
[5:11] He brings out a Christmas tree in hopes that it would capture the Christmas spirit and rescue the play. But it's a wimpy, pathetic tree that leaves everyone laughing and erupting.
[5:25] At his wit's end, he says, Is there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about? Linus says, Sure, Charlie Brown, I'll tell you what Christmas is all about.
[5:41] He takes center stage and begins reading. In the same region there were shepherds in their field, keeping watch over their flock by name. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them.
[5:55] They were filled with great fear. And the angel said, Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy for all the people. But in many ways, the question Charlie Brown asked still stands, because is there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?
[6:14] It is still so easy to get caught in the materialism, in the abundance of possessions, in the accumulation of things. Perhaps it's even easier to be lulled to sleep by the sentimentalism of Christmas.
[6:31] The sights and sounds, the smells, the nostalgic, warm and fuzzy feelings, all the while lulling us to sleep such that we have little thought to the realities of state.
[6:44] But I fear it might be easiest of all to become bored with Christmas. To do the thing, sing the song, give the gifts, with little more than a yawn.
[7:01] So much so, we need Charlie Brown. Do you still know what Christmas is all about? Sure, it's about the angels, the shepherds, the birth of Jesus Christ.
[7:13] God made man the most wonderful miracle. But even more so, Christmas is about the breaking in and the plan and purpose of God to the suffering of our mediator and our Savior, Jesus Christ.
[7:31] This morning, just a few days before we celebrate this Christmas, we have the privilege of looking at one of the most important passages in all of Old Testament Scripture. It's the fourth servant song about a suffering servant, about the suffering of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[7:50] Charles Spurton calls this passage the Bible in miniature and the gospel in essence. One Old Testament scholar calls it the Mount Everest of Old Testament prophecy.
[8:04] It stands out among all of the Old Testament prophecies. It's the most quoted chapter in the New Testament from the Old Testament, quoted specifically seven times and alluded to at least 34 other times.
[8:22] So much so, the Ethiopian eunuch was on his way back from Jerusalem. If you remember in Acts 8, he's reading Isaiah 53 and he says, Who is this prophet Isaiah is talking about?
[8:36] And Philip the evangelist went on to tell him the good news about Jesus Christ. So we can answer his question too without hesitation.
[8:47] It is about our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He's going to know where we're going. The good news of Christmas is the birth of our Savior who offered himself as a substitutionary sacrifice for us.
[8:58] The good news of Christmas is the birth of our Savior who offered himself as a substitutionary sacrifice for us. We're going to look at this in three points.
[9:10] The first is the appearance of Christ's suffering. The appearance of Christ's suffering. These verses explain the sufferings of this servant king over five stanzas.
[9:26] Most translations separate them out so you can see those stanzas very easily. It may be preferable to take each stanza one at a time, but we're going to look at one and two together, then three, and then four and five together.
[9:41] These first two stanzas focus on the appearance of his suffering. The word on the streets of his suffering.
[9:54] They bring together two vast realities. On the one hand, they bring together the unrivaled glory of the Son of God. On the other hand, they bring together the unimaginable humiliation of Jesus Christ.
[10:08] It begins in eternity past where this servant is high and lifted up and exalted. Look at verse 13 of chapter 52.
[10:19] Behold, my servant shall act wisely. He shall act in the fear of the Lord. He shall be high and lifted up and exalted. High and lifted up. The last time you would have seen that combination of high and lifted up is from Isaiah 6.
[10:34] In the year that King Uzziah died, Isaiah went into the temple. What did he see? No earthly king on the throne, but the Lord seated high and lifted up, whose train of his robe filled the temple.
[10:48] And the seraphim said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. The Lord is high and lifted up. And Isaiah is saying, So too is this servant.
[11:07] This servant is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ, as we know from the New Testament, who reigns and did reign in unrivaled glory alongside the Lord God.
[11:21] He is very God of very God. Light from light, as we just sang, the true Son of God, the image of the invisible God, the one who was before all things, the one through whom all things were made.
[11:35] And yet all the accent on this passage, as it continues, is on his work as a servant, on his unimaginable humiliation.
[11:50] He is a servant. A servant is someone with no rights, but only does what the master wants.
[12:03] And this servant only does what his master wants. And the wonder of his coming and his humiliation, that's what the Son of God becomes.
[12:15] A servant. He is the Lord's servant. The very Son of God says, I am among you as one who serves.
[12:32] I have not come down from heaven, not to, or I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.
[12:43] I do nothing of my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me. I did not come to be served, but to serve.
[12:53] These are the words of the Son of God. United with human flesh as Jesus Christ. The Son of God, his work of service begins by taking the form of man, by being born as a baby.
[13:12] As we talked about last night, it's unbelievable. Last week, it's unbelievable. The Son of God took on human flesh. The maker was made. The invincible became helpless.
[13:22] The invisible appeared. The eternal began to live with a biological clock. It's unthinkable. It's unbelievable. Nothing could be further apart than the eternal God, unrivaled in his glory and the weakness of human flesh.
[13:39] And yet that's what our Lord became, uniting himself with humanity, never to forsake it again. He is Jesus Christ forever and ever.
[13:51] And so Isaiah says in Isaiah 53, one who has believed what he has heard from us and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed. This servant is the arm of the Lord.
[14:06] If you remember Taylor, actually, they call the worship. His arm rules for him. That's what's going through Isaiah, this promise of the arm of the Lord. The arm symbolizes strength and power.
[14:20] That's why he sits at the right hand of God. He's the right hand of God's power and might. And yet he comes as a baby. He comes in a way that no one expects.
[14:35] When the Lord bears his strong arms so that all the nations see, he bears it by sending him as a baby in a backwoods town.
[14:45] Isaiah continues. Look in verse two. For he grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground. These images reference Isaiah 11.
[14:58] There's a sprig out of the stump of Jesse. There's going to be another son of David to rule over all. But they're using this passage to emphasize how small his coming will appear.
[15:12] Small like a young sapling, barely beginning to grow. Weak like a mere root. What could be more like a young plant or a mere root than a baby?
[15:27] Charged with potential, nonetheless, but tiny and helpless at present. But it's not as if he was born into a royal family like Prince Charles, who was the son of Queen Elizabeth and lived in the comfort of royalty as he awaited the throne.
[15:47] He was a root out of dry ground. He grew up in a forgotten field in the middle of nowhere. There was nothing about his birth or his hometown or his family or his upbringing that was impressive.
[16:01] There was nothing about his story that would have caused you to pause or ask any more questions. There was nothing special or distinctive about him. There was nothing even in his looks that made him stand out.
[16:14] Look at the way it continued. He had no form and no majesty that we should look on him. No beauty that we should desire him. He was not handsome and well built.
[16:28] It's not the stunning fair-eyed, blue-eyed, fair-skinned, handsome one we have hanging in our houses or found in a local thrift shop.
[16:42] It's more like Elvis than someone from the Middle East. There was nothing about his features that impressed others. He did not have the good looks of Julius Caesar, the towering height of Abraham Lincoln or the quiet dignity of Queen Elizabeth.
[16:58] You can almost overhear the crowd saying, Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Isn't this the carpenter's boy? But the descent of the Son of God continues.
[17:15] Look in verse 3, chapter 53. He was despised and rejected by men. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He was not just unimpressive.
[17:28] He was despised and rejected. From the vantage point of the world, his life was not one of success, but of failure. Not triumph, but defeat. Not of respect, but of shame.
[17:39] It's hard. It's not hard to see how these words apply to the life of our Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, the crowds danced before him and celebrated him. Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!
[17:51] But just a few days later, the same crowd shouted, Crucify him! He was struck and spat upon and scourged. He received blow after blow.
[18:03] He was crowned with a crown of thorns and wrapped with a robe around his shredded back. He was forced to carry a horizontal crossbame across his back like every other man that was crucified in Rome or in the Roman world until he couldn't take it any longer.
[18:27] His body was mangled. Look back in 52, verse 14. Many were astonished at him. His appearance was so marred beyond human semblance and his form beyond that of the children of man.
[18:40] You ever seen someone that you haven't seen in a while that life's been rough on? Someone who hasn't aged well?
[18:57] I ran into an old friend I hadn't seen in nearly a decade a little bit ago. Seemed. He's been living on the streets.
[19:10] Lost his family and his wife. He didn't look the same anymore. His beard was long. His face was worn from hard living scarred up. I drive by men like that all the time but this man was my friend.
[19:27] His eyes were hollow. That's the way the servant was made to be.
[19:40] Hopelessly marred and mangled. But this is the bright and morning star. The image of the invisible God. The radiance of his glory.
[19:53] The exact imprint of his nature and yet now he bears no human resemblance at all. Far from drawing forth public praise and admiration he is a public spectacle.
[20:14] Drawing forth public dismay and disgust even horror. What cursed thing our eyes behold. I remember years ago I was a youth pastor took a group of upper high schoolers to Wales on a mission trip.
[20:32] We landed in London and planned to spend two days acclimating and things like that. I was a bit nervous about stopping in London because that July a number of terrorist bombings had happened two weeks before we arrived.
[20:49] But alas we were assured everything was okay and there was nothing to worry about. We arrived at the hotel I let the young folks out of the hotel to go get some lunch went upstairs and unpacked my bag and I went and walked to lunch myself.
[21:06] While I was walking to lunch through the crowded streets of London just a normal business day I kept passing people visibly shaken with tears streaming down their face.
[21:20] I walked a few blocks and came upon a group crowded around the television in the window of a store playing the news reporting that another bombing had just occurred.
[21:41] Here are these Londoners piecing their life back together and weeping walking away from this television saying what's going on? Where can I run to be safe appalled and dismayed filled with disgust and horror?
[22:05] That was the effect of the life of Jesus Christ. His earthly life in that way appalled dismayed but even disgusted.
[22:21] Why are they disgusted? Why do they turn their eyes from him? Why do they not want to look at him? You know we live in a culture that likes to film everything on a phone. Why did they run away? Why did they hide their face from him?
[22:32] Well they looked on him and they thought what did he do to deserve this? He must have done something to deserve this. They look away from him because he's getting what he deserves.
[22:44] That's what they assume. They say we esteemed him not. He is sorrowful and grieving because of his own sorrow and grief. And so they look on this marred mangled body and they say the Lord has done it.
[23:01] And so Isaiah asked who has believed what they heard about him? To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? The answer is no one.
[23:13] No one can believe this is the plan of God apart from the gift of regeneration. No one would believe this is the plan to save the world.
[23:29] Point two, the reality of Christ's sufferings, the reality. Isaiah leads us deeper into this mystery and he keeps our eyes riddled on this public spectacle.
[23:43] on this man. These verses four to seven form the heart of the poem, the heart of the song, the heart of Isaiah's message. They uncover the reality behind Christ's sufferings.
[23:56] What was going on on the cross underlines the reality that Jesus suffered in our place. Verse three ends. You see that down there says we esteemed him not because we saw he was a man of sorrows and acquainted with griefs.
[24:15] Therefore, we concluded that he must be stricken, spitten by God. But look at verse four. He says, surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. He is a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, but the griefs and sorrows are not his own.
[24:36] They're ones he's taken up at least ten times. In verses four to six, we see these pronouns. We, our, ours, underlining that all the griefs and sorrows belong to us.
[24:48] Jesus Christ suffered in our place. He was a substitute for us. Continues, Jesus suffered alone.
[25:00] Threading through these verses is a profound emphasis on the utter aloneness of Jesus Christ in his sufferings. Surely he has borne our griefs.
[25:12] We esteem him stricken, but he was wounded. He was crushed upon him with his stripes. The Lord has laid on him.
[25:28] When he was taking up the griefs and sorrows that were ours, he was completely alone. There was no one near to lift up his arms like they did to Moses. There was no one near to help him.
[25:40] All had ran away, hid their faces, and turned away. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly. He suffered in our place.
[25:54] He suffered alone. He suffered to pay the penalty for our sins. It may sound like I'm kind of saying the same thing over and over again, but it's important for developing the argument Isaiah is making.
[26:08] After emphasizing that Jesus suffered in our place and suffers completely alone, it makes explicitly clear that Jesus suffered to pay the penalty for sin. The focus on sin is obvious in this passage.
[26:20] The words for sinfulness are repeated transgressions, iniquities, gone astray, everyone to his own way.
[26:32] all of it emphasizing he was dying and paying a price for sin. The repeated contrast also underlines this, that he, him, and his, and the we, us, and we all, contrasting, making clear that he has not suffered for his sin, but for our sin.
[26:51] Indeed, as verse five continues, upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. With his stripes we are healed. The beginning of it, he was wounded for our transgressions.
[27:04] He was crushed for our iniquities. That's a wonderful thing when someone steps in to intervene, to help, to take the place of another, particularly at great cost to themselves personally.
[27:26] We admire Moses being willing to be blotted out so that the people of Israel might remain the people of God. We respect Paul for a similar statement in Romans 9, that he would be rejected if the Jews were brought in.
[27:45] We revere people who step in to help others, but that is not primarily what Jesus did. Jesus did not just suffer in our place as if we're walking down the road, we're pushed out of the way of a bus, and he jumped into it, jumped in from the bus.
[28:12] He did not merely suffer in our place, he suffered to pay the penalty for sin. It's important to understand this.
[28:24] Sin is not most importantly missing the mark or some character flaw or some deficiency. Sin is breaking the law of God and the wages of sin is death.
[28:36] The punishment of sin is death. And Jesus intervened to pay the penalty, the debt for our sin against God. The only way that analogy of us walking down the road works is if he pushes us out of the way to take on the penalty of that debt, that bus that was bearing down on us righteously from God, he took on completely to pay that debt.
[28:59] But I'm getting ahead of myself so I won't go there. He sets us free, tucked into these wonderful verses. Verse 5, he says, upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace.
[29:10] With his stripes we are healed. This substitutionary, work, this work he's done, stepping in our place, is a work that sets us free.
[29:22] The heart of the poem continues strikingly in verse 6, a verse we should all have committed to memory. All we like sheep have gone astray, we've turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
[29:38] The iniquity of us all. Look how beautifully it says, all we sheep, like sheep, the iniquity of us all. You might think your sin don't stink, like your drunk neighbor, or your thrice divorced cousin.
[29:58] But all who find grace in Jesus Christ must learn that the suffering of Christ is the meeting place for the sins of us all. the ground is level at the foot of the cross.
[30:18] After what we've seen so far, it's not surprising that Isaiah 53 was the most important chapter in the Old Testament for the early church. It's a chapter they quote the most because it was vital to them for understanding the cross.
[30:33] Remember, this was a shock to the system. They knew there was going to be a day of the Lord. Repeated throughout the Old Testament, they assumed the day of the Lord would come with judgment, but the day of the Lord comes with salvation, comes with humility, comes with the ripping and the shredding apart of the Son of God.
[30:52] That's why Peter took him aside and rebuked him for saying he must die. But it seems clear that these verses were vital for Jesus as well.
[31:05] clothed in human flesh. He learned, was deepened of his awareness of the cross through scripture just like we are. Two verses where it seems very clear in Jesus' words in Mark 12.
[31:22] Seems to be a clear allusion to Isaiah 53. We have it up there for you. Isaiah 53, 12. He poured out his soul to death, numbered with the transgressor, to bear the sin of many.
[31:35] That word's repeated, many got this passage. Mark 12, 22. On the night he was betrayed, celebrating the Passover with his disciples, he said, this is my blood, no longer the blood of the Passover lamb, but of me, which is poured out for many.
[31:56] You see the clear reference of these actions. It's abundantly clear. Jesus understood his death not merely to be in our place, but to be paying the penalty for our sin.
[32:11] So what does it all mean? Several years ago, an ad ran in the New York Times, ever a wonderful source for truth, said the meaning of Christmas is that love will triumph and that we will be able to put together a world of unity and of peace.
[32:31] We just work together. We can overcome society's ills, poverty, hunger, injustice, evil. We have the power to do it. Let's just love one another.
[32:44] That's not the meaning of Christmas at all. The Baptist popularized the phrase, Jesus is the reason for the season. That's not it. Jesus is the reason for the season. But a better question is one pastor asked, what's the reason for the reason?
[32:59] In one sense, sin is the reason for the season. All we, like sheep, have gone astray. Not only committed sin, but we're bound to sin, unable to free ourselves up from sin.
[33:18] sin. We needed a savior to come from outside us, to rescue us. We needed God to save us. And that's the wonder that Isaiah says has come.
[33:31] Let's look finally at the significance of Christ's suffering. the significance of Christ's suffering. In verses 7 through 12, Isaiah unpacks the significance.
[33:44] Christ suffered in our place as a payment for our sins, but Christ also suffered as an offering. Before you come to God, you must bring an offering.
[33:55] You must bring a sacrifice. You don't come directly to this king. It's striking. The beginning of the Christmas story is these wise men that come from afar with a sacrifice, with an offering to this king, rejoicing in him.
[34:12] And so the people of Israel were familiar with this system of sacrifices and offering that were required to come into the presence of God. And such that it kind of brings it together.
[34:23] If he suffered alone, if he suffered in our place, he suffered for the penalty of our sin, where did he suffer in this way? Where did he offer this up to God?
[34:37] Through a sacrifice, through becoming a sacrifice. These stanzas combine to teach us that Christ offered himself and that God offered him up.
[34:48] Christ offered himself. Verses 7-9 are repeatedly referenced in the New Testament, most especially 1 Peter. He opened not his mouth like a lamb that was led to slaughter.
[34:59] He was silent. They made his grave with the rich. He did no violence. No deceit was on his mouth. He was completely passive in a good way. He shut his mouth.
[35:09] All the focus on these verses is on his innocence. He did nothing to revile in return. He did not threaten. He did not strike back. He was silent like a lamb before its slaughter, like a sheep before its shears.
[35:21] He opened not his mouth. You see that emphasis upon the words coming from his mouth. But why this emphasis upon his innocence right here in the song? Why are they alerting us?
[35:37] Surely we already know he is innocent because he's not suffering for his griefs and sorrows. He's suffering for our griefs and sorrows. So why this continued emphasis on and this repeated emphasis on his innocence?
[35:48] Well, he's making clear that this servant suffered willingly. He is innocent but was also willing. He did what no animal sacrifice could do.
[36:00] Bulls, goats, lambs go where they're led just like our dogs. They follow the leash. They have no say in the matter. No will in the matter. But Jesus offers himself willingly.
[36:14] He was not coerced. He was not a mere prisoner. Here's the idea. The sacrifice of mindless animals can cleanse our external guilt.
[36:26] They can wash away our sin. But we need the sacrifice of a willing individual to cleanse our hearts. Is that not what Hebrews 9 says?
[36:37] Look there with me. He says, If the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of a deviled person with the ashes of a heifer sanctified for the purification of the flesh, that just means the purification of the body, how much more will the blood of Jesus Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
[37:01] You see the contrast between the flesh and the conscience. Jesus does through his willing sacrifice, what no animal sacrifice could do by offering himself to God for unwilling, hell-deserving sinners like you and me.
[37:22] But he did not just offer himself up. God offered him up. In these final verses, this final stanza, the Lord is the emphatic subject.
[37:39] In the previous stanza, the subject was on us and our sins, on what we had done to put him in this predicament. Then it moved to the leaders that were involved, the oppression, the injustice that was involved.
[37:52] But now the subject immediately and suddenly shifts to the Lord, the living God to Yahweh himself, who offers up the servant as a sacrifice.
[38:03] We read the unthinkable. This innocent one, this one that had no deceit, no reviling, no oppression in his mouth.
[38:17] Yet, it was the will of the Lord to crush him. Christ is offered up as a sacrifice, a sin-atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world.
[38:46] No wonder, in the first stanza, he said he will sprinkle many nations. He's not just the great high priest, he is the spotless sacrifice offered for the sins of the world such that his blood might be sprinkled everywhere the curse is found.
[39:03] Amen. Every year on the day of atonement, the priest would select two goats.
[39:15] One, he would sacrifice to make atonement for the sins of the people and would sprinkle the blood of the goat on the altar. The other one, he would confess over that other goat the sins of the people and send him out into the wilderness.
[39:32] Those two goats were meant to pay the price for the sins of the people and to avert the righteous wrath of God against them.
[39:44] The day of atonement, once a year, as archaic and repulsive as it may seem, the mystery of the cross is found precisely here.
[39:57] Jesus Christ is put forward as a sacrifice. The iniquity of us all is laid on him. It's as if God the father lays his hands on his son's head and confesses your many sins and my many sins over him such that he takes upon himself the sins and he puts him forward as an offering for sins.
[40:25] Where does he present this offering? What altar is great enough for this offering? The offering that he offers is not on any altar, but on the cross itself. The cross is not merely in the hands of God the father is not merely a form of execution, but an altar to rescue sinners from his wrath.
[40:45] And there on the cross, God the father offers up his only beloved son as a sacrificial offering so that he might cancel forever the record of debt that stood against us and satisfy forever the righteous wrath for which we were otherwise destined.
[40:59] That is what is going on on the cross. It is not the physical suffering that rakes his body and mind to the greatest degree. It is the suffering of the righteous wrath for sinners like you and me.
[41:14] So I must say the only application from this text is behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Take it in.
[41:24] this is what God has done to wreck God. He's reconciling you to himself. The perfect spotless Lamb of God is offered up to deliver you from the final Passover, from the final judgment.
[41:41] The perfect spotless Lamb of God is marred and mangled for you. Charles Spurgeon preached many times, calling people to behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
[42:00] One of my favorite stories goes like this. On October 7th, in fact, he preached before the largest, October 7th, 1857, he preached before the largest audience he ever preached before.
[42:10] He was the greatest preacher since the Apostle Paul, as his son said one time. He preached to 23,000 people in London at Crystal Palace.
[42:25] One of the best stories comes a few days before Spurgeon was urged to go to the Crystal Palace to see. You know, they had to think where, from an acoustic standpoint, you know, you can have these fancy speakers like we do.
[42:39] From an acoustic standpoint, where should the great preacher stand? They move him around. They select a place. He shouts out, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
[42:55] Unbeknownst to him, there was a man in the galleries working, heard those words, and in a moment was arrested by the grace of God, put his trust in Jesus Christ.
[43:12] That's what I say to you. Behold the Lamb of God. There's no three points to make you a better Christian after a message like this.
[43:25] The only point is to call you to look. Look at the length to which God has come to rescue you. All you have to do is look.
[43:37] The people that get in are not those that clean themselves up. Not those that have their life well-ordered and well-managed. Not those that have success and stupid things like that figured out.
[43:48] The people that get in are the ones that look with the eyes of face. So I call on you. Do you look? Have you truly looked at this one? Behold the Lamb of God.
[44:02] It takes away the sins of the world. Is there anybody who knows what Christmas is all about? Is it all just some charade to make us feel like life is going better than it is?
[44:18] I sure am not. It's all about unimaginable plan of God to rescue sinners in a way that's breathtaking.
[44:40] Let us rest in this Christmas. Amen. Father in heaven, we cling to you. We hide in you. We run to you. Thank you for these words.
[44:55] Gospel in essence. Thank you for the good news. Help us, God. We rest our hearts and minds on these things this Christmas.
[45:08] In Jesus' name. Amen. Trinity Grace Church in Athens, Tennessee.
[45:20] For more information about Trinity Grace, please visit us at TrinityGraceAthens.com Trinity Grace Trinity Grace through the전