In this sermon, the speaker shares various examples of people in desperate situations, such as a woman being beaten and raped while bystanders do nothing, or someone contemplating suicide while a crowd chants for them to jump. The speaker emphasizes the lack of compassion and empathy shown by these bystanders, questioning how someone could be so dispassionate. The sermon then shifts to the suffering of Jesus, who was despised, rejected, and subjected to torture. The speaker highlights the significance of Jesus' sacrifice and offers forgiveness for sins, urging listeners to accept his loving offer.

Now let's turn in our Bibles to Isaiah chapter 53. I'll read the first, the unnumbered verses. Pastor Brian will lead the congregation in the even-numbered verses. Shall we stand as we read the Word of God? Who has believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant and as a root out of dry ground. He hath no form nor comeliness, and when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. 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. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as sheep before her shears is dumb, so He opened not His mouth. 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. And He made His grave with the wicked and with the rich in His death, because He had done no violence and neither was any deceit in His mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him. He hath put Him to grief. When thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. He shall see the travail of His soul and shall be satisfied. And by His knowledge shall My righteous servant justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoiled with the strong, because He hath poured out His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors. And He bare the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors. Let's pray. Father, as we read Isaiah's account of the suffering of our Lord Jesus Christ, and we realize that He wrote this almost 750 years before our Lord suffered, we realize that it was Your plan to send Your Son into the world, to take our sins, and to die in our place, and to suffer as He did in order to redeem us from our sins. And Lord, when we realize that, we realize what a loving God You are, and to what extent You are willing to go to make it possible for us to live in a loving relationship with You. So now Lord, teach us as we look at Your Word today, teach us of the greatness of the love that You have for us, and of the opportunities that You give to us to know that love and to live in fellowship with You. In Jesus' name, Father, we ask these things. Amen. This morning, we'd like to draw your attention to Lamentations chapter 1 verse 12. Here Jeremiah declared, Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Behold, and see if there is any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger. Jerusalem, the city of God, lies in ruins. The smoke from the smoldering fires rises over the rubble that was once the wonderful city of Jerusalem. It had been a very horrible siege. The cruel enemy had no mercy. The horrible stench of death fills the air. The vultures, the dogs, are eating the carcasses of the people who have been slain, the once proud, mighty people of Israel. Jeremiah has watched the death of the nation, of the beautiful city that he loved. He is sitting in a cave there on the hill, overlooking Jerusalem, overlooking the ruins of the once glorious and wonderful city. And as he looks, he weeps because he can see the rubble that was once the glorious city of Jerusalem. He can smell the stench of the dead bodies. He can see the tragedy that has transpired, and it really wasn't necessary. This horrible carnage wasn't necessary. Jeremiah was a prophet of God. He had warned the people of the judgment of God that would surely come if they continued in their sins. He was constantly exhorting them to turn from their sin, escape this judgment and wrath of God that was going to come upon them. He had advised them, surrender to the Babylonians. Don't try to resist them, because if you do, then they will destroy and burn the city, and you will be destroyed. However, the people didn't listen to Jeremiah. They were listening to the false prophets that were saying, don't worry, everything is going to be all right. All things will work out, and God would not allow you to be destroyed. God loves you. And listening to the false prophets, they tried to resist the Babylonian army. They underwent that horrid siege. They saw the terrible consequences of their resistance. The city is now destroyed. Very few inhabitants left. And as Jeremiah looks over this whole sad scene, he says, is it nothing to you, O you that pass by? See if there's any sorrow been like the sorrow which has happened to me, as I see the judgment of God and the wrath of God against his people. Can you look at this scene of desolation, Jeremiah is saying, and not be moved, not be touched? Can you just dispassionately observe this horrible scene? Some people have taken this passage of scripture and have declared that it is a prophecy concerning Jesus Christ, as very well it might be. A prophecy of Jesus who has suffered the wrath of God for our sins, who in his body has borne our sins. As Isaiah said, he was wounded for our transgressions. And can you look at that disfigured body of Jesus, the suffering that he bore? Can you look at it dispassionately? Can you see Jesus as he is hanging there on the cross, dying the most painful death, the death by crucifixion, and your heart not be touched? You're not moved by what you see? Is it nothing to you? A kinder man has never graced this planet earth. There was a kindness and a lovingness about Jesus that attracted even the little children who were drawn to him, to just sit on his lap and to be blessed. Everywhere he went, people were drawn and they thronged about him. He was totally innocent. He did nothing to deserve to die, especially that horrible death of crucifixion. Judas Iscariot, who had betrayed him, said, I have betrayed innocent blood. Pilate's wife sent a message to Pilate and said, have nothing to do with that just man. Pilate himself said to the people, I have examined him and I find no fault in him. The thief on the cross confessed, we are here because we deserve to be here, but this man has done nothing amiss. Though there was no fault in him, though he had done nothing amiss, still he is hanging there on the cross between two thieves. Jesus was a perfect manifestation of what God is. Do you want to know what God is like? You can look at Jesus and know exactly what God is like. Jesus said, if you have seen me, you have seen the father. John tells us that no man has seen the father at any time, but the only begotten son who is in the bosom of the father, he has manifested him to us. Jesus said, I have given to you an example that you should do as I do. So not only was he a perfect manifestation of God to man, he is a perfect manifestation of what man should be. He was the ideal man. He could say, I always do those things that please my father. Peter said, Christ also suffered for you, leaving us an example that we should follow in his steps. Perfect representation of God to man, a perfect representation of what man should be before God. But as perfect as he was, he was despised and rejected by the rulers, and he was exposed to the worst kind of torture. They covered his head with a sack, and then they would hit him on the face with their fist. And then they would taunt and say, prophesy, who was it that hit you? God has created our bodies in a very wonderful way, a way by which when we see an object approaching us, such as a fist, we naturally sort of feign so that we absorb much of the blow by drawing back a bit. But when you can't see the blow coming, then you get the full blunt of that blow. With the head covered, he could not see the fist coming. And thus received the full blunt of those fists, causing his face to swell beyond recognition. We've watched the football games, and we see the quarterbacks as they are tackled by these huge, monstrous guards and tackles. And we wonder, will they ever get up? But they seem to hop to their feet and back into the huddle and ready for the next play. When they are hurt is when they are tackled from behind, when they don't see the tackler coming, when they don't have that opportunity to sort of flow with it and absorb the force of the blow. That's when they really get hurt. But when they can see it coming, there's this natural reaction that just sort of recoils a bit and absorbs much of the shock of the blow. Not so with Jesus. He couldn't see those blows coming. They pulled out his beard with chunks of flesh with it. His back was beaten with canes and his face with these canes. And then his back was laid bare by the whipping with the lash. He was crowned with a crown of thorns. He was forsaken by his own friends and followers. He was finally nailed to the cross to die. And as you see him dying there, the bloodied, battered form of our Lord. Can you just look dispassionately? Is it nothing to you to see the marks of man's hatred against God and against God's righteousness? God had said concerning him, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Those who knew him well said, oh, he went around doing good and healing all manner of sicknesses and those that were oppressed by the devil. What if I told you that he took that abuse for you? You were the cause of it. He was dying for your sins. He had done no sin. He was not dying for some evil deed that he might have done. But God laid on him, we read, the iniquities of us all. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. As God cried out there in Isaiah 53, which we read, for the transgressions of my people was he smitten. As God declared that all of us, we like sheep went astray. We turned every one of us to our own ways, but God laid on him the iniquities of us all. And so as you see that battered body of Jesus, it was for you. He was taking your punishment, punishment due to each of us because of our sins. We look at a man as a hero who is willing to risk his life in order to save others. A few years back in Israel, we met a very interesting man. He owned the Ariel Hotel. We met him at the hotel with our group. He gave us cookies and refreshments. And then he led us to a place called Shiloh where the Ark of the Covenant and the Tabernacle first stood when the children of Israel came into the land. On the bus on the way to Shiloh, he taught us the chorus Allelu, Allelu, Allelu, Alleluia. Praise ye the Lord. He taught us that chorus in Hebrew and had us singing it in Hebrew. Perhaps some of you remember him who were with us on the trip that year that we went to Shiloh. A very wonderful man, a very enthusiastic man. Last year, he was standing there near his hotel, talking to a group of Israeli soldiers. And he saw this Arab approaching and with a bulging jacket, he realized that he was a terrorist with a belt bomb. And so he ran to him, tackled him, held him on the ground, holding his hands out so he could not detonate his bomb. And he called to the soldiers, shoot him, shoot him. One of the soldiers, when he shot, hit the bomb belt and it went off. Because his body was covering the terrorist, his body received the brunt of the explosion. He was almost blown to pieces. However, all of the soldiers were okay because his body took the bomb. Miraculously, he didn't die. Though his body was just shredded, still he was alive. And they took him to the hospital. And for weeks, he lay between life and death as they tried to put the body back together. Today, his body is quite disfigured. He's been severely handicapped and crippled because of the wounds that he received. But when the young Israeli soldiers go to visit him, as they see that body that has been so disfigured as a result of that bomb, they stand there with tears going down their cheeks as they think, if it weren't for him, I would be dead today. And as we look at the body of Jesus and we see it disfigured, we see it beaten and battered, if it weren't for him, if it weren't for his taking our punishment, we would be without hope today. Can you look at Christ dispassionately? Can you see the suffering that he bore and just sort of shrug your shoulders and walk away? Or as Jeremiah said, is it nothing to you, O you that pass by? Is there any sorrow like unto my sorrow which was done unto me, wherewith the Lord afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger? Looking at Jesus, seeing his suffering and his dying for you, and then just turning and walking away without being touched, is probably the worst sin that a man could commit. Jesus said that his Father did not send him into this world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. He said, he that believes in me is not condemned, but he who doesn't believe in me, well, he's condemned already, seeing he hasn't believed in the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation. That light has come into the world, but men won't come to the light because they love the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds are evil. If you have to stand before God at the great judgment of God, the only issue that will be there for you to face is the fact that you rejected God's love, and the only provision that God has made for the forgiveness of your sins. Jesus said, when the Holy Spirit comes into the world, he will testify of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment to come. Of sin, he said, because they did not believe in me. People will not have to face the judgment of God because they have been liars, or thieves, or adulterers, or fornicators. The only issue that you will have to face is why you rejected Jesus Christ as your Savior, why you didn't respond to his provision for the forgiveness of your sins. All of our sins were judged by Jesus, or in Jesus. He took every sin of the world. There's only one sin that isn't covered by the death of Jesus, and that is the sin of rejecting that sacrifice that he made. For God has made no other provision for the forgiveness of your sins. The Bible asks the question, what kind of punishment do you suppose a person deserves who has trodden underfoot the Son of God, and has counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified an unholy thing, and has despised the Spirit of grace? What kind of punishment do you suppose that person deserves, who would despise, who would look at Jesus dispassionately, who could see his suffering and not be moved, not be touched, when they realized he bore all of that for me. He was wounded for my transgressions. I once read a news account of a woman in New York who was being beaten and raped by a man, and there were a crowd of people standing and watching this man beat her and rape her. And they did nothing to help. And I wondered, what kind of a person could watch something like that and not be moved to try to help the poor lady? How could you be dispassionate so hard that you wouldn't do nothing to try to come to her aid? We often read of people who are standing on a ledge ready to jump to their death, and a crowd gathers below. And the crowd begins to chant, jump, jump, and begins to taunt the person who is so desperate, ready to take their own life. And rather than their hearts reaching out, rather than being moved by the desperate situations that that person must be facing, ready to take their own lives, are not touched, not moved by that. A couple of years ago when we were in Florida, we were driving to a restaurant where the pastors were to have dinner. As we were crossing one of the high bridges over the Indian River, we saw this lady who was standing there outside of the fence. Her purse and all was there on the sidewalk, but she had climbed the fence, and she was standing there looking down at the water below, ready to jump. We could do nothing because of the traffic and all. We couldn't stop. And I could hardly eat dinner that night thinking of the desperation that she must have felt, wondering, did she jump? Is it nothing to you that the world is suffering around us? Is it nothing to you that Jesus suffered for you in order that you could have forgiveness for your sins? As you are lost and dying in sin, Jesus holds out a nail-scarred hand, and he says, come unto me. All you who are under the load and guilt of sin, I will give you rest. I will forgive you. Doesn't that move you, to receive his loving offer to you? Offering to forgive every wrong thing that you have ever done? Is it nothing to you, can you just say, I don't care, doesn't matter to me? And can you just turn and walk away from his love? If so, if you can, you deserve the judgment that God has reserved for those who reject his love and the salvation that he is offering to them. As the Bible says in Hebrews 10 26, for if we go on willfully sinning after we have received the knowledge of truth, there is no other sacrifice for our sins. There is only that certain fearful, looking for the judgment and the fiery indignation of God, by which he will devour his adversaries. If a person despised Moses' law, they were put to death without mercy. How much worse do you suppose the punishment will be for those who have trodden underfoot the Son of God? Who have counted the blood wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing, and have despised the Spirit of grace. For we know him who said, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. And then the writer comments, it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God. It's a fearful future for those who can look dispassionately at Jesus Christ, not be moved, not be touched by that love, and not receive the salvation that he purchased at such a price. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the love of Jesus Christ, and for your love. Your love that prompted you to send him, in order to give his life for our sins. And Father, we confess today that we have sinned. We've come short of your glory. But we are so grateful, Lord, that you loved us that much, that much that caused you to send your Son. We thank you, Jesus, you loved us that much, that you were willing to suffer, to suffer our guilt, and to suffer the punishment for our guilt, to die in our place. Lord, we are touched by that love. We're moved by that love. And we resurrender ourselves today to that love. In Jesus' name, Amen.