PREACHING OF THE WORD OF GOD
I want to speak tonight about the Lord Jesus as the Sin-bearer. Only He was great enough to take up the question of sin and sins, and settle it entirely for God’s pleasure. He is the only One who did no sin and knew no sin and in whom sin is not. He is the only One that was able to be a sacrifice and substitute for sin.
How sad it would be if you go out of time into eternity living without Christ and dying without Christ. Dear friend, if you die without Christ, you will be raised by Christ and stand before Him and have to answer for all you have done. Alas, having died without Christ, having been raised by Christ and being judged by Christ, you will be condemned by Christ to suffer for all eternity. Yet, you do not need to go out of time and into eternity without Christ. Every provision has been made from God’s side. If men die without Christ, it will not be because God did not love them. God has made full provision for every person here. He has made full provision for every person in the whole world. It does not matter how far they have gone. It does not matter what they have done. Their sins may have piled up until they have become obnoxious to God. God has the means to forgive every sin and to retain the sinner. He can free the sinner from the penalty of his sins.
Are you under the power of sin? If you are, there is a way out of your bondage. Those who know the Saviour God can look back to a time in their history when they heard God’s report and the arm of Jehovah was revealed. They can recall when God’s power came into their lives, when God “laid help upon a mighty one”, Psalm 89: 19. They can rejoice that they were freed by the power of God from all they were involved in and known for. God still has that power tonight. Persons say, ‘I can’t get free’. Dear friend, there is power in God tonight that can free you completely from the bondage of sin.
We desire to testify to you as to the greatness of Christ. He is a wonderful Saviour. How good it would be if you came to know him. He loves you. You may say, ’Well, I don’t want Him’, but I can assure you that He wants you. If you do not know God, it is not because He will not have you; it is because you will not have Him. Yet, He is patient and is still appealing to you. He is waiting on you. He is waiting for a move from your side. He has moved from His side in the work of Christ. He is waiting for a move from your side.
Dear friend, the question is whether you have “believed our report” (v 1). There are only two kinds of people in this room tonight. It is not rich and poor or those who come from Worcester and those who come from Malvern. The only two kinds of people in this room tonight are those who are saved and those who are lost. Not who will be lost but those who are lost. Those who are lost are away from God in the darkness of sin. Dear friend, you do not need to remain in the darkness. The glory of God is shining in the face of Jesus Christ. There is One who had the power and the ability to bear the judgment of God. There is One who was buried and raised and who now stands in the glory of God. The Lord Jesus is “the propitiation for our sins; but not for ours alone, but also for the whole world”, 1 John 2: 2. That just simply means that because God is satisfied with the work of Christ, He can come out in blessing to every single person in this world.
One loves, especially before the preaching, to read that tract, ‘The Power of the Redeeming Blood’. Could God save a Nazi war criminal? Did God have the power to forgive a person like that? Praise God, He did. He had the means and the basis in the work of Christ to forgive a Nazi war criminal. He can work with men in their last hours and cause them to judge their heinous crimes and cause them to see a Man that has borne the judgment of God for sin. Thank God, there is no man that has gone too far. The Lord Jesus can search until He finds and brings back the sheep that is lost.
The great thing for you, dear friend, is to believe the report. What does the report refer to? It refers to a Man who grew up before God “as a tender sapling” (v 2). The Lord Jesus was a different kind of man. Every one of us from the minute we are born is out to please ourselves. That is what we are all like. It is not that some people are like that and others are not. Every one of us is like that. We all have a fallen nature and are sinful creatures. We are out to please ourselves. The Lord Jesus was entirely different from that. He grew up as “a tender sapling”, before God. His whole life was lived for the pleasure of God and the blessing of men. If persons were too difficult for the Jews to help, they were not too hard for Christ. If the Priest and the Levite could not help the man lying half-dead (see Luke 10: 31,32), Christ could help him. He could help you too, dear friend. He felt for men no matter what they had done. He did not condone their sins and He is not condoning yours either. He hates your sin but still longs to bless you.
We have been reminded recently of what pity really means. The Lord Jesus was perfect and holy. It was impossible for Him to sin but when He saw men who were suffering because of their sins, He had pity on them. He never condoned sins, but such was His love that He had pity on sinners. He saw what sin had done to man. He saw how sin was destroying man. He saw the effects of sin and He sought to free men from the power of sin. It is a wonderful thing if the truth sets you free but it is even greater if the Son sets you free (see John 8: 32-6). That involves wondrous liberty. The things that used to bind you, bind you no longer and you rejoice in the great things of God. Only Christ can do that for you.
The Lord Jesus was a humble, meek and lowly man. He took a very low place. He could say, “man acquired me as bondman from my youth”, Zec 13: 5. He took a lowly place in order that He might serve men. That is in keeping with the way He came into this world. While all the kings sat in palaces in their pomp and their glory, He was cradled in a manger. Think of Him, the Man who had the rights to the whole world, being cradled in a manger. Alas, “He came to his own, and his own received him not”, John 1: 11. The persons who had the greatest privilege rejected Him. That takes us back to what we said in the reading that persons brought up in a Christian household have the greatest privilege but also the greatest responsibility. The Lord gave the Jews the first opportunity and what did they do? Did they receive Him? Dear friend, they rejected Him and crucified Him. There is no more painful death that a man can suffer than crucifixion. Man had no room for Christ and we are no different to the Jews. If we were there, still in our sins, we would also be calling out “crucify him”, Luke 23: 21.
The Lord Jesus stands alone in all His perfection and beauty. Perhaps you think the world is an attractive place. However, if you go in for the world, eventually you will find out what the world truly is. By that time, your life may be destroyed. Perhaps your body will be ravaged with the effects of sin, and you will find out, we trust not too late, exactly what the world really is. There is something far more attractive than the world and that is Christ. What a precious, blessed Man. “He is altogether lovely”, Song of Songs 5: 16. There is no one or nothing great enough to be compared to Him. He is the only one who can fill your heart.
Dear friend, because of what you are, there is a void in your life. Do you realise that? There is something missing in your life. You can try what you like, you can go where you like, you can do what you like, but you will find that the only thing that can fill that void is Jesus Christ. Do you feel dissatisfied? Do you feel that you cannot find the joy you are looking for? Why are you surprised? There is none but Christ can satisfy you. If you are drinking at broken cisterns (Jer. 2: 13) be assured that they will never satisfy your heart. There is only one thing that will satisfy your heart and that is Christ. Come to the Lord Jesus tonight. Get things settled tonight. Forget about putting it off until next week or even until tomorrow. Settle things tonight. This is the time for putting things right. Do you have things to put right? Why not tonight? The hymn writer says ‘thou wouldst be saved, why not tonight?’
Dear friend, there was One who was “despised and left alone” (v 3). Do you feel lonely? Loneliness is a real thing. You can even feel lonely in a crowd. There was One lonelier than you and that was Christ. When He was here, there was no one who understood Him. Not even His disciples fully understood Him. He understands if persons are lonely and He longs to give them His company. We spoke last night about the Lord looking for your company. If you feel lonely tonight, He would love to draw near. It has been well said that God does not say in the gospel, come to Me because you are a sinner. God says, I come to you because you are a sinner. The Lord Jesus loves to draw alongside. In His life here, He was prepared to do that at the height of the noonday sun. He sat down at Jacob’s well and poured the secrets of the love of God into the heart of a sinner. Dear friend, He would sit down beside you at your chair and speak to you about the love of God. It is not being fanciful to say this. The Lord Jesus is a real man with a real heart and He comes to the preaching Himself. It says in Ephesians, “He has preached the glad tidings of peace to you,” Eph 2: 17. You may say that you can take or leave the preacher’s word but what about Christ’s word? He Himself is speaking in the gospel. He would come alongside you and heal your broken heart. There is no one like Christ. Perhaps you are looking to some other man. Perhaps someone else has the place in your heart that only Christ should have. Let me ask you, who can be compared with Christ? There is no one who can fill the place that only Christ can fill in your life. Would you not have Him? If dear friend, the preciousness of His life is not enough to attract you, think about all that He suffered for you.
I just want to finish with a word as to the sufferings of Christ. As a man, He carried the sorrows that other men had. He felt for men and drew alongside to comfort them but His sufferings surpass anything that man has had to go through. The Lord Jesus was “wounded” (v 4). That is what He suffered vicariously. That just means it was on behalf of others. He was entirely pleasurable to God, yet He suffered at the hands of God. Further down the chapter, it says, “Yet it pleased Jehovah to bruise him” (v 10). Do not ask me to explain that. No one can fully understand the depth of that scripture. Yet sinners can understand that Christ took their place. He is the Sin-bearer and as you are a sinner, you must come to know Him in this way. What sins have you committed today? Have you told any lies? Have you been disobedient? Have you had any bad thoughts that you know you ought not to think? You say, well these things do not matter, but they do matter. One sin is enough to condemn you to punishment for all eternity. Dear friend, there was One who never had a bad thought. There was One who was always obedient. There was One who always spoke the truth. The Lord Jesus said that He was “a man who has spoken the truth”, John 8: 40. Yet, He bore the judgment for liars that confess their sins. He bore the judgment for disobedient persons who repent from their sins. He took the sinner’s place. Being wounded, bruised, chastised and enduring stripes does not refer to His sufferings at the hand of men, terrible as they were. They refer rather to God judging sin in the Person of His Son. Every repentant sinner can say that He “who himself bore our sins in his body on the tree”, 1 Peter 2: 24.
Are you going to go on with your sins another day, dear friend? They only cause you sorrow and pain. You know they only cause you grief. You know that. God does not want you to be in grief and pain because of your sins. He has done all He can for you in judging sin in the person of His Son. If you trust Christ, you can be free from the burden of your sins. God will send you on your way rejoicing. What a change will take place in your life when you come to know Christ! He has done everything that is possible from His side to save you. The work has been done. What about your sins? You need to be forgiven. You need to be converted. You need to repent. You need to make up your mind tonight that you have finished with your sins and that you will never go back to them. You need to make a decision. It is either Christ or the world – you cannot have both. You need to make a clean break. It is time to make a decision tonight. Do not leave it until tomorrow. You may never see tomorrow. You need to come to know God and Christ now.
If you come to the Lord Jesus, you will have an eternal salvation and God will give you the Holy Spirit. It is a wonderful gift. What a tremendous thing it is to experience the love of God being shed abroad in your heart. Perhaps you think that being a Christian is a doleful thing. Perhaps you think that if you become a Christian there is no more joy for you. Dear friend, you do not know the half of the blessings that God has in mind for you. God gives so many things in the gospel. He gives peace, joy and sonship. He gives the Holy Spirit to help enjoy these blessings. If you are not a Christian, you do not know what you are missing. It is the best life that any man could have. There is nothing to be compared with it. It is wonderful to be a Christian. No matter what you go through in the way of sorrows and difficulties of life, at the end of it all, you can say ‘it is good to know the Saviour’. Come to Christ tonight. Make Him your Saviour and Lord tonight. Trust Him. He is the Sin-bearer. May the Lord bless the word.
MALVERN
10 July 2005