======================================================================== UNDISGUISABLE IN LIFE -- UNRECOGNISABLE IN DEATH by Ian Paisley ======================================================================== Summary: Ian Paisley's sermon explores the contrast between Christ's undisguisable life and His unrecognizable death, emphasizing the significance of His suffering and the call to faith in Him for salvation. Duration: 32:42 Topics: "Christ Centered", "Evangelism" Scripture References: Isaiah 52:13 - 55:9, Mark 7:24-30 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ DESCRIPTION ------------------------------------------------------------------------ In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes that Christ cannot be hidden or concealed. The entire creation is eagerly awaiting the coronation of the Son of God. The preacher highlights that everything in God's plan is centered around Christ. The sermon also mentions that all people, events, and history are leading towards the day when Jesus will come back gloriously for His Church. The preacher encourages believers to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. The sermon concludes with a reminder that on the judgment day, all individuals will have to face Christ as the judge, and it is important to have the image of Christ stamped on one's soul to find mercy. The sermon references the Gospel of Mark, specifically chapter 7, verses 24-30. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENT ------------------------------------------------------------------------ I have two portions from God's Word to read to you. You'll find an authorized version of the Holy Scriptures in front of you in the pew. You take it out and turn first of all with me to the Second Gospel, the Gospel of Mark, at the chapter 7 and at the verse 24. Our first reading is from verse 24 to verse 30. And from thence he, our Lord Jesus Christ, arose, and went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon, and entered into a house, and would have no man know it, but he could not be hid. For a certain woman, whose young daughter had an unclean spirit, heard of him, and came and fell at his feet. The woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by nation, and she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter. But Jesus said unto her, Let the children first be filled. For it is not meet to take the children's bread and to cast it unto the dogs. And she answered and said unto him, Yes, Lord, yet the dogs under the table eat of the children's crumb. And he said unto her, For this saying, Go thy way, the devil is gone out of thy daughter. And when she was come to her house, she found the devil gone out, and her daughter laid upon the bed. And then turning to the Old Testament, to the book of the prophecy of Isaiah. Isaiah's prophecy at the chapter 52 at the verse 13. And we're reading Isaiah chapter 52 from verse 13 right into the 53rd chapter to verse 5. Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted, and extolled, and be very high. As many were astonished at thee, his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men. So shall he sprinkle many nations, the kings shall shut their mouths at him. For that which had not been told them shall they see, and that which they had not heard shall they consider. Who has believed our report, and to whom has the arm of the Lord revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground. He hath no form nor comeliness, and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire of him. He is despised and rejected of men. A man of sorrows and acquainted, and we hid as it were our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. Ending our reading at verse 5, and God will stamp his infallible word with his own divine approval. I take the promised Holy Ghost, the blessed power of Pentecost, to fill me to the uttermost. I take, thank God, he undertakes for me. And the people of God said, Amen. You may be seated. I have two texts from Holy Scripture to bring to your attention tonight. The first one is in Mark chapter 7. The Gospel according to Mark at the chapter 7 and at the verse 24. And from Thames Christ arose and went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon, and entered into a house, and would have no man know it, but he could not be hid. He could not be hid. And then Isaiah's prophecy at the chapter 52 and at the verse 14. As many were astoned at these. His visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sun's. In the first text we have the undisguisable Christ in life. He could not be hid. And in the second text we have the unrecognizable Christ in death. So I want to draw your attention tonight on the undisguisable life of Christ. And the unrecognizable death of Christ. In reading the Scriptures, one must be very careful to observe the contrasts that occur on the divine and inspired texts. The contrasts of Scripture are of the utmost importance. It is only by a careful study of these contrasts that the fullness of the truth of the Scriptures can be appropriated. By comparison of opposites in the Bible, the depths of the Scriptures are found. I was struck the other day when I was having my own private devotions. And I was reading the Bible as I read it through each year. I was struck with the contrast between Christ's life, which could not be disguised, and Christ in death, who could not be recognized. We have the undisguisable Christ in life. He could not be hid. But we have the unrecognizable Christ in death. His visage was so marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men. This cry from the cross in Psalm 22, I am no man. All through the Scriptures, we discover that Christ is not to be hid. It has been well said that there is a thread of gold that runs from Genesis to Malachi and from Matthew to the book of the Revelation. That thread is a promise which surfaces over and over and over again in the whole of the Bible. What is the promise? The Son of Righteousness has arisen with healing. As the sun rises in the firmament of the earthly heaven, so the Son of Righteousness rises in the firmament of Holy Scripture. The Lord Jesus is plainly seen in the Scriptures by those who want to see Him. And is plainly heard in the Scriptures by those who wish to listen. Christ is not to be hid. Secondly, Christ ought not to be hid. Sinful man and the vicious devil attempt to hide the Lord Jesus. He said, I am the light of the world. The religious world is full of plans, full of schemes to hide Christ. From the world of sinners. Attempt after attempt is made in every generation that lives in this world of ours. To do the dastardly deed to conceal Christ from the eyes of those. When the Savior was upon this earth, the scribes and the Pharisees employed themselves in one word. To blot out the light of Him who is indeed the light of the world. They accused Him of casting out devils, even by the prince of devils, Beelzebub himself. The Jews thought that by His death on the cross, they would quench out of man's memory any remembrance of the incarnate Son of God. And so they conspired after Christ went to heaven. They conspired to destroy all His teaching by destroying the members of the early church. The church of Rome has worked from its inception to hide the Savior under a high mass of superstitious nonsense. And so prevent sinners. They burned. Then they sought by imprisoning the scriptures in a dead language that no one would ever read the scriptures. What were they doing? They were trying to keep the truth of Christ. But Christ cannot be hid. Christ cannot be hid. The whole creation groans and reveals together unto now, waiting for the coming coronation of the Son of God. All events in this old world are rolling on to the great day. When Jesus parts the clouds and comes personally and gloriously and victoriously for His church. Everything in God's plan is for Christ and by Christ. He cannot be hid. He cannot be disguised. He cannot be concealed. All peoples, all events, all history, all times are united in the onward march of the great coronation day. The crowning day of Jesus Christ Himself. He must reign until every enemy will lick the dust at His feet. My King Supreme, to Thee I bow, a willing subject at Thy feet. All other lords I disavow, and to Thy governments submit. My Savior, my King, this heart would love and imitate the blessed. Having discovered that Christ is undisguisable in life, let us turn for a moment to Christ unrecognizable in death. His visage was so marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men. The Hebrew words there describe someone who could not be recognized as a human being. That is confirmed from the mouth of Jesus Christ as a hung in darkest agony and pain and sacrifice and suffering on the middle cross. But I am a worm, I am not a man. Christ was unrecognizable as a human being when He took the full weight of the judgment of our sins upon His body on the tree. How shall we measure the cross? How shall we measure His pain? How shall we measure His suffering? There is only one way it can be measured, and that is by the strength of His glorification. For it is His glorification that measures the depth of His humiliation. If you read the epistle to the Philippians, you'll read about His humiliation, and then you'll read Christ has been highly exalted. The height of His exaltation is the same as the measurement of the depth of His humiliation. I hath not seen, e'er hath not heard what the judgment of the cross really was. It was the undiluted damnation of God's elect that Christ endured upon that cross, rolled into three hours of the intensive darkness of the cursed tree of Calvary. The consecrated damnation of every soul that will one day be in heaven was poured out to the uttermost purity on the blessed body of the Son of God at Calvary. Of course, an artist could paint, but what about the suffering? It was in the depths of Christ's soul that He endured the pain. We may not know, we cannot tell what pains He had to bear. No wonder God drew a dark, heavy blanket for 180 minutes of terrible darkness, the most terrible darkness that the world has ever experienced and ever will experience. Oh, the darkness of Calvary! Oh, the descent of the cross! Oh, the desolation of Christ's suffering! Oh, the dread of that separation! Oh, the damnation of that separation! Your cup of damnation, you would still be traveling to the blackness of darkness forever. But because He took the dark draught and emptied the dark cup, you can drink of the cup of salvation and you can call on the name of the Lord. His body was naked upon the cross, that man outwardly could punish that body with those wounds, those wounds upon his body, flesh and bones. But inside there was a soul naked to all the fiery darts of the justified punishment that sinners should bear because of their sins. The Hebrew text makes it exceedingly clear that His marring was the defacing so that He was unrecognizable as a man. No wonder He confessed, I am a worm and no man. No other man ever endured or suffered like Christ, nor did any of all the sons of man ever taste one such bitter bowl. Behold, He calls out from the depths of His agony, and see if there is any sorrow like unto My sorrow. The only measuring rod to measure Christ's humiliation is the same rod that can measure, as I have already said, His exaltation. According to the severity of His sufferings was the greatness of relief from those sufferings when He cried, It is finished. To the depths of His humiliation the answer is found in the height of His uplifting. With the gloom which He endured, you can measure the glory of Emmanuel's land. The darkness of the cross had its eclipse with the light of the coronation. The deeper our Savior went beneath the waves, the higher He arose. We would do well to ponder again the words of the Apostle Paul in Philippians chapter 2, verses 5. Mr. C. H. Spurgeon in one of his great sermons said this, If any here are offended with Christ because of His cross, I beg them to dismiss their prejudice. Should it lead any man to doubt the Savior or withhold his heart from Him because He comes with a visage marred with sorrow, if He came to teach us to be unhappy and to prescribe to us rules of increasing misery, we might be excused if we shunned the teaching of our blessed Lord. But if He comes bearing the grief that He ought not to bear, but that you should really bear, even those lines of agony were wrought in His countenance because He bore our grief and because He carried our sorrows, they ought to be to us the most attractive of all beauties. I reckon that the scar across a warrior's face which he gained in defending his country is not disfigurement. It is a beauty spot. If my brother had in saving my life lost an arm or received a hideous wound, he would be all the more beautiful in my esteem. Certainly I would not shun him. I would love him because he gave his body to be wounded for me. The wounds of Jesus are the most precious things that were ever uncovered to the eyes of man in this world. Those wounds are eloquent mouths. They all speak the eloquence of love. And not only are they eloquent mouths, but they speak the blood and the highest eloquence to describe the sufferings of Christ. As a flowing, there is a fountain drawn from Emmanuel's veins, sinners plunge beneath that flood, lose all their guilty steams. But Mr. Spurgeon said something else. He said, look at the men of this day who talk about being advanced in thought, who are really infidels in their heart, and they speak of those that hold to the Bible as if they were old women and semi-idiots who listen to the platitudes of evangelical doctrines. They know how to despise those that cling to the old time religion and the cross of Christ. And they cry out like the Pharisees who cried out against the young people who shouted, Hosanna, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. Contempt has always followed at the heels of Jesus, and it always will until the day when he is final. There are four views of Christ in this portion of Scripture in Isaiah. The wounded seeker attracts to himself extreme attention. The kings of all the world, the kings of all the world are awed here. The kings of all the world are dazzled here. They are silenced by Christ's power. They are awed by Christ's presence. And they are dazzled by his principality. But there is another view of Christ. It is the view of the wounded Savior as exciting to himself, extreme, as many were astonished at thee. Behold his person and be astonished. Behold his body and be astonished. Behold his wounds. Here is cause for extreme astonishment. Behold the lowly Christ, the gentle Christ, the kind Christ, the good Christ made the plaything for the wickedness of men. Well may the thieves die for their misdeeds, but Christ had no misdeeds. He was the spotless. He was the stainless. He was the harmless. He was the crimeless. He was the sinless. He was the guiltless. But view him the third way, so he shall sprinkle many nations. I thank God tonight, standing in this pulpit, that there is nations converting power in the blood of the Lamb. Note the word, not just nations, not just a few nations, but many nations. He shall sprinkle many nations. They shall come from the earth and they shall sit down with him in the kingdom of God. Go ye into all the world, not to some of the world, but to all the world and preach the gospel to a limited number of creatures. No, to every creature. And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end. But view him finally before the kings of the earth. And they shut their mouths at him. The kings of the whole earth will be silenced one day when every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ, then shall rebel kings bow down to Christ's honour, Christ's love and Christ's obedience. Many hate Christ, but they shall bow down and acknowledge him in the final judgment. Many are indifferent to Christ, their indifference will be broken, and they too shall bow before him. Many love him and they shall shine. What category are you in, my friend? We are all hastening to the judgment day. Great judge of all, that day will come when mortals shall receive their doom. Oh, hear our cry and grant we may of thee find mercy. The wicked tremble. Saints rejoice. One dreads, the other loves a voice. The wicked fear. Believers sing the coming of their God and King. Think, O my soul, thou must appear and pass the judgment at this bar. What now does God and conscience say? Wilt thou find answer in that day? Dost thou by faith to Jesus flee? Is his dear image stamped on thee? If so, let nothing thee dismay. Thou shalt find mercy in that day. Eternal Judge, Almighty Lord, seal home and bless thy solemn word and oh that we poor sinners may of thee find mercy in that day. And the face of him that sat from whose face the earth and heavens did flee away, no place for them. The judge of all the earth shall do right. Make sure the blood of Christ and the pardon of Christ is yours by putting simple faith in the Lord Jesus Christ for all eternity. Let us bow our head. Father, we thank thee for the wonder of Christ's death and the merit of his precious blood that is more than tongue. May sinners wash and be cleaned. May backsliders wash. May thine own people wash afresh in the bloodstream of Christ. We would close this service by saying thank you, Lord, for saving. Thank you, Lord, for making me whole. Thank you, Lord, for giving to me thy grace so rich in Jesus' name. And everybody say, Amen. ======================================================================== Audio: https://sermonindex1.b-cdn.net/15/SID15154.mp3 Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/ian-paisley/undisguisable-in-life-unrecognisable-in-death/ ========================================================================