Worship & Word Celebration - Part 3

The Lord says, My servant will succeed in his task. He will be highly honored. Many people were shocked when they saw him. He was so disfigured that he hardly looked human. But now many nations will marvel at him and kings will be speechless with amazement. They will see and understand something they had never known. The people reply, Who would have believed what we now report? Who could have seen the Lord's hand in this? It was the will of the Lord that his servant should grow like a plant taking root in dry ground. He had no dignity or beauty to make us take notice of him. There was nothing attractive about him. Nothing that would draw us to him. We despised him and rejected him. He endured suffering and pain. No one would even look at him. We ignored him as if he were nothing. But he endured the suffering that should have been ours. The pain that we should have borne. All the while we thought that his suffering was punishment sent by God. But because of our sins he was wounded. Beaten because of the evil we did. We are healed by the punishment he suffered. Made whole by the blows he received. All of us were like sheep that were lost. Each of us going his own way. But the Lord made the punishment fall on him. The punishment all of us deserved. He was treated harshly but endured it humbly. He never said a word. Like a lamb about to be slaughtered. Like a sheep about to be sheared. He never said a word. He was arrested and sentenced and led off to die. And no one cared about his fate. He was put to death for the sins of our people. He was placed in a grave with evil men. He was buried with the rich. Even though he had never committed a crime. Or ever told a lie. The Lord says it was my will that he should suffer. His death was a sacrifice to bring forgiveness. And so he will see his descendants. He will live a long life and through him my purpose will succeed. After a life of suffering he will again have joy. He will know that he did not suffer in vain. My devoted servant with whom I am pleased will bear the punishment of many. And for his sake I will forgive them. And so I will give him a place of honor. A place among great and powerful men. He willingly gave his life and shared the fate of evil men. He took the place of many sinners and prayed that they might be forgiven. Let's just pause in silence and just allow the Lord to apply that to our hearts as we prepare for his servant Charles to come and just bring God's Word to us. Let's just pause in silence. We thank you so much Lord Jesus for the relevance of your word. As we look into it we ask that the Holy Spirit will be our teacher. Not just that we're better informed, but better equipped to live lives that please you and honor you. In Jesus' name, Amen. Well good to see you again this morning. We've just had read to us probably the best known section in the whole book of Isaiah. If you knew nothing else about Isaiah before you came here this week you probably knew Isaiah 53 or parts of it. It's to some extent the climax of Isaiah's prophecy. If not the climax of all Old Testament prophecy. It's the fourth and last of the servant songs that we mentioned yesterday. We're going to look at it this morning. I believe as I've prepared this this morning and spent time in praying through the issues we want to talk about this could be for some folks a very significant morning. Because I know many Christians I sit, talk and counsel and pray with many Christians who have never actually understood the message of this chapter. They're Christians and the likelihood is there are many of us here this morning who need to understand what we're going to talk about and be refreshed and maybe liberated by it. Now the servant song as such actually begins in chapter 52 and verse 13 where he says, see my servant will act wisely and then he extends right through to the end of chapter 53. Remember of course that the chapter divisions were not inspired, not part of the original text. I understand they were done by a bishop whilst traveling on horseback from Paris to Lyon. And I think he must have fallen off his horse once or twice and got confused. And this is one of the areas. Anyway we're going to confine ourselves to chapter 53 and I don't need to tell you that this chapter is about Christ. If you have any problems with that just read Acts 8 on some occasion when Philip, when directed by the Spirit of God or by an angel that came to him when he was preaching in Samaria to go down to the desert road, bumped into an Ethiopian, jumped on board his chariot. He happened to be reading from this very passage and the Ethiopian said, well Philip said to the Ethiopian, do you understand what you're reading? He said, no I don't. Is this about the writer? Is it about somebody else? And it says beginning with that passage Philip told him the good news about Jesus. So I'm in league with Philip. This is about Jesus. I don't need to persuade you of that. Not only that, I don't need to tell you that it's about the cross. Yet the remarkable thing is that this description of the cross of Jesus was written 750 years before Christ was ever born. Now I want to talk about the cross of Christ. You see the death of Jesus took his disciples by surprise. He told them he was going to Jerusalem and die. They didn't believe it. Peter interrupted when he told them and said, never Lord, this shall never happen to you. Not because Peter was trying to be awkward, he was trying to be helpful. Lord you don't deserve to die on a cross. That's not part of the agenda. Jesus had to say to him, get behind me Satan, you're a stumbling block to me. When those two men on the road to Emmaus, we mentioned them yesterday, when they met with Jesus, not knowing who he was, they said of Jesus, we had hoped he was the one who would deliver Israel. It was past tense. Their hope was shattered. Their hope had died the moment he died. They said it's the third day and he's in the tomb. Weren't expecting it. Probably if we were contemporaries of Jesus or one of the disciples, we would have joined them in their disbelief, but it shouldn't have taken them by surprise. Hundreds of years before the Lord Jesus Christ was born, graphic details have been given about his cross. Isaiah here, chapter 53, 750 years before he was born. David in Psalm 22, 1,000 years before Christ was born, wrote a description that would cause us to think he was an eyewitness. I think Psalm 22 is a remarkable chapter. Says in verse 7 of that chapter, all who see me mock me. They hurl insults, shaking their heads. He trusts in the Lord. Let the Lord rescue him. Well, isn't that exactly what they said? You'd think this is an eyewitness report. A little bit later in the same chapter, it says, I am poured out like water. All my bones are out of joint. That was the effect of the cross being dropped into the hole in the ground. The third, as the cross hit the base of that hole, would knock most of his bones out of joint. My heart has turned to wax. It's melted away within me. My strength is dried up like a pot shirt. My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You lay me in the dust of death. Dogs have surrounded me. A band of evil men has encircled me. They have pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones. People stare and gloat over me. They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing. If I read that to you without telling where it was from, some of you would say, that's an eyewitness account. It's written a thousand years before Jesus was ever born. Moses, 1,500 years before Christ was born, received on Mount Sinai the elaborate rituals centered on the shedding of blood, all of which foreshadow and tell the story of Jesus. Someone has worked out there are 333 prophecies, detailed prophecies, about Christ in the Old Testament. I haven't been able to check it. Wouldn't know where to start. And somebody else has worked out that the chances of those prophecies being fulfilled in one man are 1 in 83 billion. I wouldn't know how to check that out. Yet the remarkable thing is they were all fulfilled in Christ from the place of his birth. He was born in Bethlehem as a fluke, as you will know. His mother lived in Nazareth. It just so happened away in Rome, Caesar Augustus decided, I want to know how many people live in my empire. I'll count them and just arranged that the day the census to be taken, when every man went to the home of his family, the forebears, just so happened the day the census was around the day he was due to be born. And they arrived late, too late. All the beds in the inns were taken, as you know. Had Jesus been born a day early, he would have been born in Samaria. Had it been a month later, almost certainly back in Nazareth, they would have counted. That doesn't take long to count everybody and then visit, you know, granny and a few other relatives and go home again. But 750 years before, Micah had written in Bethlehem, in Judah, he's going to come. Remarkable. Went down to Egypt, Hosea wrote that 800 years before. Herod thought it was his idea. Came back to Nazareth. Matthew 2 says he'd be called a Nazarene. That's a quotation he says you don't find in the English Bible. It's probably a play on the Hebrew in Hebrews 11 about, in Isaiah 11 about the root of Jesse. And in the Hebrew, it sounds like Nazarene. Nazareth, you see, is a town that had never been in existence when Isaiah wrote that. Remarkable. Now I want to say something. We have a better reason for believing that Jesus Christ was born and lived and died and rose again than the Bible said that he did. You say what's the better reason than that? The better reason for believing that Jesus Christ was born and lived and died and rose again than that the Bible said he did is that the Bible said he would long before he did. That's remarkable, isn't it? If you pick up today's newspaper and read yesterday's news, you expect to do that. If you pick up today's newspaper and read next week's news and next week it happens, wouldn't you want to meet the editor? The Old Testament is next week's news 700 years, 1,000 years, 1,500 years in advance and it happened in detail. If you need convincing of the authority of Scripture, read the Old Testament because there are times you think I must be reading the New Testament. This surely was written after it all happened. It's so detailed. Isaiah 53 is next week's news. The marvelous thing is you can meet the editor far in advance, 750 years before it ever happened. You see the twists and turns of history never take God by surprise. Now what's the message of Isaiah 53? I want to break it into three simple things about the suffering servant. When I introduced the servant songs yesterday and mentioned what they're about, I mentioned this one is the song of the suffering servant and I want to break it up into three things concerning Christ the servant that it foreshadows and anticipates. First three verses, just a few things we'll say briefly about his status. We won't take too long over that. Then verse four to nine about his substitution and we'll take most of our time over that because that's the heart of this chapter. And then thirdly from verse 10 to 12 his satisfaction because the marvelous thing is it says that the Lord Jesus, the one who endured all this suffering, was actually satisfying through it. And we'll see that in just a moment. But I want to say something about his status here because I think this is important and it may encourage some of us. It says in verse 2, he grew up before him, that is before the Lord, like a tender shoot, like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, familiar with suffering, like one from whom men hide their faces. He was despised and we esteemed him not. This is an incredible description when you realize who it's talking about. He had no beauty, no majesty that would attract us, nothing in his appearance would make us desire him. Despised, rejected, man of sorrows, familiar with suffering, one from whom people hide their faces, they're embarrassed by him. That's surely the implication of that. Despised, this isn't what we would have expected of the Messiah, it certainly wasn't what his contemporaries when he came expected. This is the Son of God he's talking about. Co-equal with the Father and with the Holy Spirit, one who is in the beginning, with God who was God, by him all things were made, whether visible or invisible. Scripture tells us he created the world, everything in it, through every star into the far corners of the night. But he says there's nothing beautiful about him, nothing in his appearance we would desire him. You know when people paint pictures of Jesus they always make him look good. Now the New Testament gives us no indication of his physical appearance and we live in a culture where physical beauty has a high priority. You just pick up any glossy magazine and see what most of the adverts are about. How to make yourself beautiful, what paint to buy, what clothes to wear, what jewelry to hang off, everything it can hang off. This is the men I'm talking about. We lay great store on beauty, the New Testament doesn't give us any physical description of Jesus, the Old Testament does. Here it says he wasn't good-looking. That encourages some of us, isn't it? He wasn't good-looking. You wouldn't look twice in the street. Most paintings, when we try to imagine what he was like, make him so striking that you would stop on the street and watch him go by. He was unattractive. He knew what it was to suffer. He didn't have an easy run through life. I mean sometimes we imagine that for the Lord Jesus Christ everything was probably quite easy. No, he was tempted in all points like you and me. He knew it was to battle and suffer. For 30 years he worked as a carpenter. He didn't just go into his carpenter shop and nobody looking, just produce miraculously a table. He sawed up the wood, chiseled it, occasionally probably cut his finger in the process. He never told anybody who he was. I'm amazed he was able to keep it quiet. Wouldn't you have been tempted to tell folks who you were? You know, sitting outside with your brothers, looking up into the sky. Say to his brothers, do you like the sky? Like the stars? Beautiful, isn't it? Let me tell you something. I made them. On a Wednesday afternoon. In half a verse. I love the way on the fourth day, in half a verse, and he made the stars also. Bit of time left before tea, just make the stars also. He knew about the laws of aerodynamics. Why didn't he invent the helicopter? Why did he go by foot and get tired and sit on the well? Because he was worn out. Why didn't he at least invent a car? He was real man. Subject to all the pressures that every other man. There's something about him that was unusual. It was this. He was like a root out of dry ground. Roots don't grow in dry ground. There was an explanation for his life. It had nothing to do with his environment. If that was true of the Lord Jesus Christ, I believe it's a principle that should be true of you and me. The only valid explanation for the quality of life that you live and I live is not our environment. It's not our personality. It's not our background. It's not our education. It's God in us, operating through us. A root out of dry ground. Well, I'm not going to say more about that, though I think it's fascinating, the status of the Lord Jesus Christ. But the main point of this passage and the main concern I want to talk to you about is from verse 4 down to verse 9, where he talks of his, I've called his substitution. Because he says in these verses, let me read part of it, verse 4, surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows. Yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by God, and afflicted, but he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was on him. By his wounds we are healed. We, like sheep, have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. I have underlined the words our and us in those verses. They occur eight times. Did you know that you were mentioned in the Bible? You're in the Bible. We got a telephone book that came through a couple days ago. My children looked up to see if our name's in it. I mean they felt good, our name's in this book. Did you know your name's in this book? Because it's our infirmities, our sorrows, our transgressions, our iniquities. It's our peace. We are healed. His iniquity, the iniquity of us he took upon himself. And this is Christ as our substitute. Now you know that. That's fundamental. But I want to talk about the big question. Why was the cross necessary? And it's important that we're clear on this, because as I mentioned at the beginning, it seems that many of us as Christians are not very clear about this. I mean if God is God, why doesn't he just forgive us? Why is the cross a necessary ingredient in our forgiveness? Well there are two qualities in the character of God that required the cross. The first is that God is just. The second is that God is merciful. Now you say that's all very well. You haven't told me anything new, but there's a problem with those two qualities. And the problem is they are incompatible with one another. To be just and to be merciful at the same time is inconsistent. What is justice? Justice is giving what is deserved. What is mercy? Mercy is not giving what is deserved. Now you can't do both at the same time. Give what is deserved at the same time, not give what is deserved. You can't be just and merciful at the same time, in the same situation, towards the same person. Let me give a very simple illustration. The simplest are usually the best. Just supposing I got into a car, drove away from Skegness, went down the Lincolnshire roads at 80 miles an hour. If that were possible, but you know the Lincolnshire roads, it probably isn't possible. And as I drive along at 80 miles an hour, I noticed in my rear view mirror a car with a blue flashing light going at 90 miles an hour. And it passes me, pulls me over, and imagine I'm taken to court. Magistrate says, did you drive your car at 80 miles an hour in a, whatever the limit is, 50 miles an hour limit? I might say, because I'm honest, yes, your honor, the police car was going at 90. The magistrate has a choice. He can either be just. If he's just, he will fine me. Or he can be merciful. If he's merciful, he can let me go free. What he can't do is both. How can he be just, fine me, and be merciful, let me go free at the same time? There's only one possibility for that, and that is by the introduction of a third party. And so imagine Doug Barnard, he's my friend, or he wasn't until this moment, comes into the courtroom. Magistrate says, you're guilty. In the exercise of justice, I fine you 100 pounds. And I say, oh no, 100 pounds? I'm a preacher. Where do I get 100 pounds? And my friend writes his check for the 100 pounds and pays it on my behalf. As far as that court is concerned, justice has been done. The records of that court say, Charles Price, crime, speeding, guilty, penalty, fine, 100 pounds, paid. I walk out of the court the recipient of mercy. Justice and mercy are reconciled only in a third party. Now this is basic stuff, of course. I want to tell you why it's important to stress that, and go over that ground, which is so basic. Because the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ was the judge himself, the magistrate, getting off his throne. And on the cross, the Lord Jesus Christ met the just demands of a holy God, who said, the soul that sins shall die, that is the justice of God. God, in his integrity, must see sin paid for. And as the Lord Jesus Christ received in his body the punishment due to you and to me, when he said, my God, why have you forsaken me? Enter the very atmosphere of hell, separation from God, that's the penalty for sin. And the Lord Jesus on the cross was made to be sin for us. You and I become the recipients of mercy. Now I'm going to ask you an important question. I'm going to ask you to respond to this in a moment, put your hand up. I'm going to ask you to respond to one of these two questions. When you come to God for forgiveness, do you appeal to his justice, or do you appeal to his mercy? That's my question. Now please don't put your hand up and say both. If, when you come to God for cleansing of your sin, if you appeal to his justice, would you please put your hand up? Okay, I can see one hand in this direction. Maybe you're not playing, I don't know. If you appeal to his mercy, put your hand up. I suspected that would be the case, put your hand down. You are wrong. And this is not just a little detail, this is crucial. What does 1 John 1 9 say? If we confess our sins, he is faithful and... Oh, you know it. I beg your pardon? Faithful and just? Why does God forgive you? Not because he's kind, he is kind. Not because he's merciful, he is merciful. God forgives you because he's just. What does that mean? Because Jesus Christ on the cross satisfied the complete demands of a holy God on sinful men and women, boys and girls. Because his demand was satisfied in Christ, God, understand this, is morally, legally obligated to forgive you. Now I'll tell you why this is important. If you appeal to the mercy of God, I'll tell you what you'll begin to think. I've gone too many times. I've exhausted his mercy. But when you and I come in genuine repentance, we appeal not to his mercy, behind the cross is the mercy of God, but I appeal to his justice. Father, I've sinned, I know that, but I thank you, Jesus died. Let me give you another illustration. Supposing at the end of this session you went down the track here to the snack bar, whatever it is, cafeteria down here. You went in and you said to the butler and employee behind the counter, I would love a cup of coffee, but I'm really sorry, I don't have any money. Left it in my chalet and I haven't time to go back. Could you give me a cup of coffee? What's he likely to do, or he likely to do? Well they may look you up and down, say we're not supposed to do this. You say, I'm really thirsty. They might say, okay, I'll give you one. Don't tell anybody. Well, you've experienced mercy. Supposing tomorrow you went back, went back in, found the same butler and employee and said, hi, remember me from yesterday? Yeah, I remember you. You'd never believe it, but I forgot my money again. Would you forgive, would you give me a cup of coffee? What are they going to say? They're going to say, look, I wasn't supposed to do it yesterday, let alone today. But if they're really, really nice and you smile really, really warmly, they might say, look, I'll give it to you, but this is it. Supposing the next day you go back again, you say, hey, you'll never guess. They'd say, I think you should take a walk back to your chalet. But supposing I went down the track and I said, went down the track to the, wherever it is, snack bar, and I said to the person behind the counter, listen, a friend of mine is coming in here this morning. I'd like to give you some money for him to get a cup of coffee every morning after the Bible study. So here's a few pounds, it'll cover his coffee. You go in after this session, you say, good morning. Charles Price come here this morning? You say, yeah. Did you get some money? Yeah. Can I have my coffee? Thanks. You go back the next morning, what are they going to say? Hi, good morning. Do you want your coffee? It's here. Go back the third morning. Hi, I've been waiting for you. I've got your coffee. It's here. Have it. What's the difference? Well, first time you appeal to their kindness and mercy. Second time, they're obligated to give it to you. Why? I've paid the money. The cash is in the till. When the Lord Jesus Christ said, it is finished, what he was saying, he was saying there's cash in the till. It doesn't matter what your sin is. It doesn't matter how many times you've come, come again. It's paid for. And I meet folks, Christian people, who live with a sense of guilt because they've never understood the justice of God was satisfied in Jesus. And without any presumption, but boldly, boldly not on the basis of anything that God owes me, but boldly on the basis of the fact that God in his holiness owes Jesus my forgiveness. Do you understand that? And I come and say, Father, I confess my sin. And I know your faith. I know your just. You don't just look at my sin. You look at the cross and you say the money's in the till, paid for. One of the most wonderful things is to know the possibility of forgiveness because forgiveness is one of the greatest psychological needs that people have, the Christians have. Luis Palaio, in a seminar that I shared with him a few days ago, quoted Gordon Macdonald in a statement he made. He said, any congregation you stand to address will have 40 percent of its people filled with a sense of guilt. That is the statistic that applies here this morning, 40 percent of us filled with guilt. Is that you? I heard on Radio 4 on one occasion a Scottish psychiatrist dealing with those who've gone through mental breakdown. He said this, and I was so taken by it, I pulled my car off the road. I was on the motorway, pulled off at the next service station to write down what he said. It was too dangerous to write it down on the road because I was driving. He said, if my patients could be assured of forgiveness, half could go home tomorrow. I read in Newsweek magazine, 95 percent of insanity in the United States has its roots in the refusal to accept forgiveness. I don't know how that statistics arrived at, but 95 percent is an awful lot. Breakdown has its roots in guilt. You see, if God is only a God of mercy, you can take Isaiah 53 out of our Bible. We can take the cross out of our Bible. But God is a God of justice, and your name is in this text. It was our infirmities, our sorrows, our transgressions, our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was on Him. If God will not forgive you for your sin, what he's saying is not that you're bad. He's saying, Jesus' death was not adequate. He doesn't say that. But the events of the cross go beyond simply saying that Jesus died for me. And I want to explain this because this is important. It goes to the point of saying, I died in Him. What does that mean? It means that when Jesus Christ was crucified on the cross, as far as God is concerned, you died. I died in Him that day. My sin was paid for. That's why Paul says in Galatians 2 verse 20, I have been crucified with Christ. That's past tense. As far as God's concerned, Charles Christ hung on the cross on that first Good Friday. Romans 6 verse 5 says, we have been united with Him in His death. And verse 11 of Romans 6 then says, therefore count yourselves dead to sin. Now this doesn't mean engage in some mental gymnastics when you pretend you're dead. I spent time doing that. I'm supposed to be dead. Reckon yourself dead. Pretend I'm dead. I knew I wasn't, but pretend I am. Pretend the old me is dead. What he's saying is judicially, legally, as far as God is concerned, the old me was crucified with Christ. You don't crucify yourself. It's past tense. People sometimes say to me, how do I crucify myself? Well, you can't. In fact, it's the only way you can't kill yourself. I mean, how do you crucify yourself? You knock on the left hand. What do you do about this hand? You pull it out and knock on the left hand. Now, what do you do about this hand? Pull it out again. Knock it in here. Listen, you can jump off a bridge, put your head in an oven, or put a bullet in your brain, but you can't crucify yourself. It's the only way you can't deal with yourself. You've got to be crucified. The marvelous thing is, you were. Good Friday is next week. If you go to a Good Friday service next week, I want you to think of it this way. You're going to your funeral. I'm speaking next Good Friday next week at a gathering in Ottawa in Canada. 28 denominations join together every Good Friday for a mass Good Friday service. They invited me to speak. They said, give us a title. I gave them the title, Welcome to your Funeral. They'll come out of curiosity, I'm sure. On the cross, in God's reckoning, I died. I went two years trying to crucify myself, and died to myself, and suddenly realized it says all along, I have been. It's past tense. Believe it, Romans 6 says. Count it as true. That is, for every sin you have ever committed, as far as God is concerned, you have paid. You died in a substitute, in Christ. He demands nothing more of you, but your repentance and confession in order that we may my appropriate. Now, I put in my notes here, and haven't really time to talk about them, five statements the scripture makes about what God does with our sin. Let me give you them very quickly without any time for amplification. Psalm 103 verse 12. Jot these down, if you like, as far as the east is from the west, so far as he removed our transgressions from us. I love that description. He doesn't say as far as the north is from the south. The north is a fixed point. The south is a fixed point. If you were to fly north, before long, you cross the north pole and begin to go south. But west and east are irreconcilable. West never meets east. Infinity. Taking your sin removed as far as east is from the west. It says in Isaiah 38 verse 17, he puts our sins behind his back. Well, where's behind God's back? I thought he was omnipresent in all places all the time. Where's behind his back? Well, I'll tell you, it so far doesn't exist. And wherever behind his back is, it means this, he can't see it. It's gone from his vision. Isaiah 43 verse 25, your sins and your iniquities are remembered no more. God has a unique ability not to forget. He's not forgetful, but he remembers no more. That's an act of his will. He chooses never again to raise it. We can't do that, but God can. I used to think it meant that he forgets and that if you gave your testimony and talked about all the wicked things you did before you became a Christian, God wouldn't know it was true. So you'd think you're telling lies. I remember giving my testimony and saying, Lord, it really has happened. I know you forgot, but it's not a lie. It's true. I'm just telling these folks what a difference Christ made. Of course he remembers, but he doesn't bring it against you. I wish we could believe that. I heard a story one day of two brothers who were fighting. They'd been fighting all day and before they went to bed that night, the mother tried to appeal to them to make it up with each other. And she sat on the bed of the elder brother and said, you've been fighting your brother all day. Why don't you make it up with him before you go to bed? He said, I'm not going to make it up with him. It's his fault. He started, he hit me first. So the mother tried to appeal to his sentiment a little bit. And she said, just suppose your brother died during the night. Wouldn't you be sorry in the morning if you hadn't forgiven him? And that got through to the little boy. So he said, all right, I'll forgive him. But if he's alive in the morning, are you worried about the morning? I'm certain because I've met so many all over the place. There's some of you here, you're a Christian, but you're very worried about the morning. But Romans 8, one says, there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. That's the fourth thing. No condemnation. Listen, whenever you feel condemned, you know, it does not come from God. It comes from Satan. He's the accuser of the brethren. Satan and God both speak to you and to me about our sin, but with a difference. Satan condemns, God convicts. What's the difference? Condemnation is like a wet blanket. It sits on you. You can't move. Do you know that experience? Heap with a sense of guilt, condemnation, unworthiness. Conviction, which is the ministry of the Holy Spirit in our lives. He convicts of sin, at the same time makes us aware of our sin. He makes us aware of the way out, the cross, cleansing. Whenever God convicts of our sin, it's never to humiliate us, never to condemn us, never to rub our nose in the dirt. It's always to clean us up and to change us. And here's the fifth. I think this is one of the best verses about cleansing. It's in 1 John 4 and verse 17, where John talks about the judgment day. He says, in this way love is made complete among us, so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like Him. 1 John 4 verse 17. He says on the day of judgment, we're not going to cower, we're going to walk with our heads held high. Why? Because in this world we are like Him, like Christ. Because you see, there was a day when Jesus Christ was made to be like me, and that day God poured His wrath on Him, and He died. And because one day Jesus Christ was made to be like me, today I am made to be like Him. This isn't just a theological, you know, detail that we are righteous. This is truth. This is to be reality in the way we live, in the way we behave, in the way we see ourselves. And at the cross Jesus Christ exchanged my unrighteousness for His righteousness. He exchanged my sin for His holiness. He exchanged my dirt for His cleanliness. He exchanged my guilt for His innocence. That's what Isaiah 53 is all about. But briefly we cannot talk about the substitutionary death of Jesus, but at the same time commenting on the substitutionary life of Jesus, because the fact that Jesus died for us is half of the gospel. Galatians 2 20, I've been crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live but not I, it's Christ who lives in me. He took me in Himself on the cross. I died in Christ, now having risen from the dead, He lives in me. And as once He was my substitute in death, He's now my substitute, the means by which I can live a godly life in a godless world, a clean life in a dirty world. Not because of a technique we learn, but because Christ is the source of it and He's within us. Romans 5 verse 10 says, having been reconciled to God by the death of His Son, that's the cross, much more, you say is there something more than reconciliation to God? Well Paul says there is. Having been reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more shall we be saved through His life. He's reconciled me by His death on the cross. He took out the dirt, but now through His resurrection, He puts in the life. See, Jesus didn't come just to make you clean. He came to restore us to godliness. The life of Christ within us. 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 10 says, He died for us whether we wake or sleep. We live together with Him. The end product, whether we're awake or asleep, that is on earth or in heaven, dead or alive, we live together with Him. We don't just wait till we get to heaven to start living with Christ. We live now in His power and His strength. But then just to close, and we need, by the way, and I need to stress this, a gospel of the substitutionary death of Jesus and a gospel of the substitutionary life of Jesus, two halves of the one gospel. I'd love to say more about that, but there's a book in the bookshop I've written on it. Yeah, thirdly is satisfaction, verse 10 to 12, just in the last couple of minutes. You see, the marvelous thing is the Lord Jesus came willingly to the cross because He saw the end product. Verse 10, it was the Lord's will to crush Him and cause Him to suffer. Let me just pause at that point and just say, in the first place, Jesus did not die for you or for me. In the first place, Jesus died for His Father. It was the will of God. In Hebrews chapter 10, you have an insight into what happened in heaven the night before Christmas. It says there that, let me just read it to get it right, Hebrews 10, and it says, when Christ came into the world, that is at Bethlehem, He said, sacrifice an offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me. With burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. Then I said, here I am. It is written about me in the scroll. I've come to do your will, O God. The night before Christmas, Jesus said, that's your will. You're the reason I'm going. Of course, He died for you, but essentially He died for His Father. God so loved the world that He gave His only Son. Then the will of the Lord to please Him says in verse 11, after the suffering of His soul, He will see the light of life and be satisfied. By His knowledge, My righteous servant will justify many, and He will bear their iniquities. He says He's going to look down the corridors of time and be satisfied. This is another mention of you in Isaiah 53. What satisfies the Lord Jesus as He hung on the cross in all the agony, not only the physical agony, but also the torture of separation from His Father, being made to be sin? What satisfied Him? What in the Garden of Eden when He said, My Father, if it's possible, let this cup pass from me. If there's any other way men and women can be reconciled to God, let that be the way, but if there is no other way, your will be done. What motivated Him? He looked down the corridor of years and He saw you and He was satisfied. He saw me and He was satisfied. If you're dissatisfied this morning, you're making yourself bigger than Jesus. He's satisfied. The old you has been nailed to the cross. As far as God's concerned, legally, in accordance with the justice of a holy God, you are crucified with Christ. You live, but Christ lives in you. It's an exchanged life, and He's satisfied. One of the devil's biggest tactics is to create in our own hearts such a sense of dissatisfaction, such a sense of guilt, to accuse of the brethren, resist them, let them run away, which you do, and you resist them, we're told in James. Resist or you'll flee, and say, Thank you, Lord Jesus, I'm not only covered with your righteousness, but the righteous life of Jesus lived by the Holy Spirit is in me, and you're satisfied. Yes, I fail, because if any man says he has no sin, he deceives himself. He doesn't kid anybody else. His wife notices, his kids notice, but his neighbors notice, but he thinks, I'm fine. You're going to fail in this life. When you fail, we come back to the cross and say, Lord Jesus, I don't deserve it, but you did die, and I appeal to your justice on the basis of the cross of Jesus. Thank you for your cleansing. You died for me. The only way sin ever leaves your body is through your mouth. Never bury it. Confess it. Bring it out in repentance. We've been very simple this morning, but you know, my experience is, it's in the simple, what ought to be the introductory principles of the Christian life, so many of us stumble, and we stay stumbled. I want you tonight, this morning rather, it feels like tonight, of course, I want you this morning to look away to the cross and see yourself crucified with Christ, and say, Lord Jesus, I know I'm dirty. I know I fail, but thank you so much. It doesn't matter anymore. I'm clean, and you've given me your spirit. He lives in me, and I can go out into a world that's going downstream fast and discover I can go against the tide, not because of a technique, but because Christ is everything I ever need. He's my life. He's my righteousness. He's my cleansing. Isn't that fantastic? Let's pray together. Father, thank you so much for the all-inclusive work of the cross. Thank you so much that every man and woman in this place this morning is in union with Christ, and should there be somebody who doesn't yet know you, is not yet in union with you, Lord Jesus Christ, graciously draw them, bring them to that point of repentance, so they can enjoy this wonderful freedom of being clean, no condemnation, with their heads held high, not in arrogance, but in humility, recognizing that in this the love of God is made complete, for in this world we are like Jesus. Thank you so much. It's only true because one day Jesus was like me, and bore my sin. Make us clean. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. In the quietness of this morning, I simply want to say one thing very openly and very straightforwardly. It's possible to listen to ministry and say, that's for me. That's great. And then before you know where you are, you're at lunch, or you're in another session, or another seminar, hearing someone else speak, and somehow the impact of the first one is gone. And I believe when God speaks, he always deserves an answer. God has spoken so clearly this morning, hasn't he? And I believe that he deserves an answer. That doesn't mean that every one of us will answer, because God speaks to us at different times. And it's fine, it's your turn tonight, if he's not spoken this morning. But if God has spoken to you this morning, and if the simple longing of your heart is, Lord, I want to be crucified with Christ. I don't want to live. I want you to live in me. I recognize you as the suffering servant in my place. Now it may be that you're sitting here this morning, you've never given your life to Jesus. You've never ever come to know him. It may be that you're sitting there, and you've been a Christian a long time, but you need at this moment to be crucified again with your King, that he lives in you. And if that's your case this morning, we're not going to drag this out. Just want to give you the opportunity to respond to the living God as he has spoken to you. So we're going to bow in prayer, and as we bow, if God has spoken to you this morning, I'm going to ask you just to stand where you are, just like the privilege of praying with you, and then you'll sit down again. But it's important to seal with God when God speaks, and we're family together. You don't have to be frightened about those around. If God has spoken to you this morning, and you want to surrender your life, either for the first time or for the 50th time, and say, Lord, you died for me. I die to myself for you. As we bow in prayer now, if that's your heart cry, would you just stand, and then we'll pray. Just if God has spoken, you know it in your heart. It's just when the scripture is opened up, God speaks. And if he's touched you, then stand. If he hasn't, then just stay seated. He's not touched you in that particular way. That's great. Bless you. We're going to pray together. Lord, we thank you that you're still speaking through your word. We thank you that you are God and that you're not silent. And we're standing here this morning because we want to say something to you. We want to say, Lord, we want to be crucified with you. We don't want to live, we want you to live in us. Lord, we want to say to you this morning, some of us who've never met you, that we long that you might bring your love and forgiveness to us. We long that you might come and make your home in our lives. And others of us, Lord, we've known you for a long time. And Lord, we just want to say to you again, we surrender. Knowing that in your arms is the only place that our restless hearts will ever find peace. Knowing that in your hand is the only way we'll ever achieve what you have for our lives. Lord, together we stand to say, thank you for dying for me. I give my life to you, that you might live your life in me. In Jesus name. Amen.