The Sign of His Atonement

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We’ve talked, especially the last two weeks, about some of the signs related to His first coming with signs that the Messiah would suffer all of the things that Jesus Christ suffered. So many people missed the first coming of the Messiah because they were looking for someone who was going to come and be a triumphal king. And the Bible does foretell that the Messiah would be a triumphal king, but that’s at one end.

That’s what we look forward to in the second coming. The Old Testament tells of a time in between the first and second coming when he would suffer, when he would be humiliated, when he would be abused, when he would go through all of these things. And for some reason, whether they just couldn’t see it or didn’t want to see it, whatever the problem was, so many people missed the signs from the Old Testament about the Messiah suffering and going through all of these things and just looked forward to the great triumphal coming and victory and power and missed all of these other things.

And so they missed Jesus Christ being the Messiah, missed what he came to do, missed what he came to accomplish, and people are still missing it today. There are still people who claim that there is a Messiah and Jesus Christ is not him. And I hope that through the course of this series, if there’s been any doubt in your mind, I would assume there’s not, or you wouldn’t be here faithfully week in and week out to pray to somebody who may or may not be the Messiah.

If there’s been any doubt in your mind, though, that Jesus Christ was exactly who He said He was and was exactly, is exactly who the apostles said He was, then I hope that going through this series has convinced you. If there wasn’t any doubt, I hope it has reaffirmed your faith that He was who He said He was. Because the idea that Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of God, the promised one sent here to save mankind from their sins, that he was foretold throughout the entire Old Testament.

That idea is constantly under attack by people who choose to mock and ridicule the one they should be bowing before. And we need to be strengthened from time to time in our faith that Jesus Christ is exactly who he said he was. And I hope that this series has helped reaffirm those things for you.

It has for me. I didn’t doubt that Jesus was who he said he was, But from time to time, we need a reminder of just how much God had foretold, just how much God had pointed to the fact that Jesus Christ, that the Messiah was going to come and be born in a certain way and live a certain way and do certain things so that when Jesus Christ came and did them, some that if he was not the Messiah, they would have been outside of his power. It makes it to where you’d have to have more faith to believe he was not the Messiah than to believe that he is.

Because I don’t believe, I’m sorry, I don’t believe in coincidence that much. And so it’s been a good study for me, and I hope it has been for you. As we’ve talked the last two weeks about two of these signs in particular, that the Old Testament said the Messiah would come and be humiliated, or at least that mankind would try to put Him through humiliation, but the Messiah says, I will not be ashamed.

And Jesus Christ was not brought to ultimate shame, because in the humiliation they put Him through, He accomplished what His Father sent Him to do. He fulfilled his mission in that. And then all the suffering that he went through on the heels of that humiliation.

We’ve talked about those things. Folks, it would be a sad story if we just left it at that, but I want to talk to you this morning about what the Bible said it was all supposed to mean. I think as human beings, one of the things that we’re most afraid of is that our life will have no meaning.

We’re the only creature, as far as I can tell, that ponders deep questions about why we’re here, what does it all mean I’ve spent a lot of time with my dog this week with everybody with everybody else being out of town and I can tell you as smart as my dog is and some of you’ve gotten to meet my dog he’s pretty smart as smart as he is there aren’t a whole lot of deep philosophical questions going on in that tiny head of his but mankind we think about why am I here what does it all mean is there life after death we’re the only ones that ponder these things and what so many people seem to be afraid of is that it just doesn’t mean anything. When somebody makes a great sacrifice, when their life ends, we want to believe that it means something. When our soldiers go overseas and they die fighting for a cause they believe in, we hear it said all the time that these have not died in vain.

And that’s reaffirmed for us because one of our greatest fears is that our sacrifice, our life, our death, all of these things will be meaningless. And folks, the greatest tragedy of all would be if Jesus Christ had come and he had suffered and he had been humiliated and he had died and that was the end of the story and it meant nothing. We would be without hope.

We would be bound for hell. We would be in the same predicament that mankind has been in since creation 6,000 years ago. But the Bible, just as the Old Testament foretold that Jesus Christ, that the Messiah, would come and be born in a certain way, that he would live in a certain way, do certain things, and that he would die in a specified way, as we talked about last week, that David wrote about in Psalms 22, how the Messiah would die.

Painted a picture of crucifixion hundreds of years before crucifixion was a common way to die. Before he could have even known what he was writing about, God foretold the crucifixion through David. That the Bible talks about all these things, but it doesn’t just leave it at that.

the Bible explains to us, it foretold what the purpose was of the Messiah coming and going through everything that he went through. And I want to look at that today. I asked you to turn to 1 Peter.

1 Peter chapter 2. We’re going to start looking there, and then I want to show you where it was foretold in the Old Testament. It’s kind of the pattern we’ve been following the last few weeks.

1 Peter chapter 2, verse 21 says, For even here unto were ye called, because Christ also suffered for us, Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that ye should follow in his steps. Who, meaning Jesus Christ, did no sin, neither was guile or bitterness found in his mouth. Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again.

When he suffered, he threatened not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously. Who his own body, I’m sorry, who his own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree, that we being dead to sins should live unto righteousness by whose stripes ye are healed. For ye were as sheep going astray, but are now returned unto the shepherd and bishop of your souls.

And so Peter writing to the early churches says, these are the things that you’ve been called to because Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow in his steps. Christ died for us and in so doing left you an example so that you could follow his example, and this is how you’re supposed to live as a Christian. And he says, this is what Jesus Christ did.

He did no sin. He who did no sin and no bitterness, no cursing, no wickedness was found in his mouth. James talks about how a perfect man is one who can bridle his tongue.

And unfortunately, I still have not mastered that. Probably never will. As good as I think I am and as close to, as I think I am sometimes to God, and let’s be honest, we all think that sometimes.

We know we’re sinners, but sometimes we just think, hot dog, I’m doing good. And then it always seems something sneaks up and comes out of my mouth that shouldn’t. I’m not talking about cussing, but something comes out of my mouth that should not.

And James talks about a perfect man as one that’s able to bridle the tongue because it’s easy, well, I shouldn’t say it’s easy. It’s easier to control everything else we do than it is to control what we say for some reason. Jesus was one who was able even to bridle his own tongue.

It says that no guile was found in his mouth, no bitterness, no cursing, no wickedness. If you want to see a perfect man, look at somebody who was able to bridle their tongue, who was able to keep their mouth in control, and Jesus Christ was able to do that. Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again, when they humiliated him, when they cursed him, when they falsely accused him, he answered nothing until he was asked a direct question.

They said, are you not the son of God? He said, you said it. Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again.

When he suffered, he threatened not. They beat him and they did all of these things. And this person, this God in the flesh, who had the power to create the universe, who had the power, who had created and set in motion the things that would bring the people who beat him into existence, created the land that they beat him on, created the seeds for the trees that grew the wood for the cross that he would be crucified on, the one who held the very existence of the universe in his hand and had the power to destroy the people who were beating and abusing and mocking him.

And it says, when they beat him, he did not threaten them. He didn’t say, I’m going to get you for this, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously. Him that judgeth righteously was not the high priest. It was not Pontius Pilate.

It was God the Father. And beforehand, before he ever stepped into this time and space, Before he ever stepped out of heaven, he submitted to the Father’s will to go and be the Messiah. And again in the garden, the night he was arrested, he submitted to the Father’s will when he said, if there’s any other way, let this cup pass from me, but nevertheless not my will, but thy will be done.

He didn’t threaten them, but he committed himself to him that judgeth righteously. They beat him, they mistreated him, they did all of these things, and he stood there and willingly took it because he was in submission to the Father’s will. who his own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree.

Remember, it says he had no sin of his own, but he took our sins upon himself and bore them on the tree, that wood, that cross. And I can’t even imagine. I’ve told you the last few weeks that sin is repulsive to God.

God is so perfect and pure and holy that our sin, our wickedness is disgusting to him. And yet God in the flesh, kind of makes my skin crawl just thinking about it, God in the flesh took all of our sins on Himself. It says, Who His own self bear our sins in His own body on the tree, that we being dead to sin should live unto righteousness, by whose stripes ye were healed.

He went to the cross, and by His stripes we were healed. He took that sin in Himself and was punished for it. He was beaten.

He shed His blood and died, and by His stripes we were healed. That doesn’t mean stripes in the sense of color. It means He was beaten.

and by the stripes on his back, the nails in his hands, the blood that he shed, we were healed and we can be dead to sin and live unto righteousness. He says, for ye were as sheep going astray but are now returned unto the shepherd and bishop of your souls. Each and every one of us, the Bible says, has wandered away from God.

Each and every one of us. We have all at some point disobeyed God. That’s the reason Jesus had to come.

But he said, now are you returned unto the shepherd and bishop of your souls. We all, like sheep, had gone astray and now we’re returned to the shepherd because Jesus Christ made it possible. This is what a couple decades after the crucifixion, this is what Peter was writing to the churches and telling them these things, reminding them of these things.

And if you’ve been here the last two or three weeks, you’ve heard the story from Matthew 27 and looking some at what Luke said about the crucifixion. You’ve heard the story that Jesus died on the cross. He was beaten beforehand, that He shed His blood and He died.

and He died in our place. What we need to understand, though, is that even though the Bible says that Jesus would die ahead of time, it said hundreds of years beforehand that He would die and how He would die, that the Bible also said it had a meaning. The Old Testament said it had a meaning.

This wasn’t just something that the disciples came along and said, well, we don’t want Him to have died in vain, so let’s just say He died for our sins, and that explains why all of this happened. This is something that 700 years before Jesus Christ was even born, Isaiah was writing about as he was inspired by the Holy Spirit of God. Turn with me to Isaiah chapter 53.

Isaiah chapter 53. And as I’ve told you in the last few weeks, Isaiah, probably more than any other Old Testament prophet, writes about Jesus Christ, writes about his coming and his birth and his death and all these things, so much so that my former pastor from Blanchard has referred to this book as the Gospel of Isaiah. I kind of like that title.

Isaiah chapter 53 says in verse 1, Who hath 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 or 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 a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. Folks, I need to remind you, if you’re thinking, that sounds like Jesus, you’re right. If memory serves, and correct me on this later if I’m wrong, If memory serves, in the early days of Christianity, when Philip was out walking the roads and ran across the eunuch from Ethiopia, Philip used this passage to explain Jesus Christ to him, so much so that the man trusted in Christ for his salvation.

Because even in the earliest days, they recognized this was about Jesus Christ. People who had been devout Jews recognized that this prophecy was written about Jesus Christ. And I need to remind you, this is not something that they later on said, okay, we’re going to make up a meaning about it. We’re going to make up something in the Old Testament to say that Jesus Christ was the Messiah. This was written 700 years before the fact.

And people say, well, how do you know that? People that think the Bible was made up by men say, how do you know that? They could have just gone back and changed Isaiah.

They could have done any number of things. We know this for a fact that this was written before the time of Christ because around 200 B. C.

, somewhere between 300 and 200 B. C. , the Jews in the city of Alexandria translated the entire Old Testament into Greek and what we call the Septuagint, and this prophecy is in there.

I don’t understand why there would have been somebody between 700 and 300 or 200 that would have needed to make up a prophecy about Jesus Christ if he was not born yet. There’s no reason not to believe that this was written by Isaiah. The manuscript evidence is there.

The historical evidence is there. this is not something that was made up by men. This is something that men of God, as they were moved by the Holy Spirit of God, wrote 700 years before the fact, and it points to Jesus Christ. It points to Jesus Christ, that He would die and that His death would not be in vain, that it would mean something.

And what it means for us is atonement. What it means for us is atonement. That’s the title of this message in the series, is the sign of His atonement.

And atonement means making compensation, repayment for a sin that was done or a death that was owed. And that’s exactly what Jesus Christ did, was in paying a debt. His death was not the death of a political revolutionary or religious rabble rouser.

It was so much more than that. It was God’s provision of someone to pay the penalty that we owed. I’ve told you before that there are not just outright prophecies.

There are more subtle pictures in the Old Testament of Jesus Christ. and I’m reminded of when God sent Abraham to sacrifice his beloved son Isaac. Sent him up to the mountain and Abraham and Isaac went up there with all the preparation for the sacrifice except for the lamb because God had told him, I want you to be willing to go and sacrifice Isaac. And the Bible says that as they went up there and Abraham, I assume, folks, I read it differently now that I have kids.

I can only assume hand trembling because he doesn’t want to do this and yet out of submission to God, he raises the knife. The Bible talks about his hand being stayed, and all of a sudden there’s a ram caught in the thicket. And Abraham rightly recognized that as a sign from God because a ram is a powerful animal, and here he’s getting caught by his horns in twigs.

And God provided there a sacrificial lamb to pay for Abraham’s sins instead of having to sacrifice his son. Folks, that’s a picture of Jesus Christ because God sent the payment. Not only did God require the penalty, Not only did God require the payment, but God made provision for it to be paid.

Hallelujah. The sign of His atonement is that Jesus Christ, His death was not meaningless, but He came to accomplish something, which was to die and pay the penalty that we owed. And we can see in this passage, just in the next few minutes, we can see in this passage really three things that we need to know about His atonement.

It says that Jesus, he would come and he would grow as a tender plant and as a root out of dry ground. I believe Jesus was always a little out of place. Can you imagine?

The Bible says Jesus had no sin and the Bible talks about his siblings. Can you imagine growing up with a sibling who was never wrong? Can you imagine being one of the teachers of the law and having a student?

Folks, those of you that teach children’s church or kids’ Sunday school, can you imagine having a five-year-old or a seven-year-old or an eight-year-old who knows all of the answers about the Bible, can teach the class better than you can? Jesus was like a tender plant out of dry ground. It wasn’t unusual for him to be there, but he was unusual for being there, if that makes any sense.

He was unusual in the way that he was there. There was no explanation for him being there and being the way he was except for God’s intervention. He was a tender plant out of dry ground.

But it also says, when we shall see him, he hath no form or comeliness, and when we shall see him, there’s no beauty that we should desire him. I want to point these things out before we get to the things about the atonement, because I want to make it clear that the disciples, those who followed Jesus in the early days, did not do so because he was the most handsome leader, because he was the most charismatic, because he was any of these things. The Bible says he had no form or comeliness or beauty, that there was nothing about him that would have drawn people to him other than the Spirit of God.

People will follow those that they think are rich or powerful or successful or beautiful. He wasn’t any of those things. But God was very evident.

The Father and the Spirit were very evident in his life even from the beginning. And there was no explanation for him being there, for him being the way he was, or for his following other than the fact that God’s hand was on him. He was despised and rejected of men.

We’ve seen that. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and we hid it as it were our faces from him. He was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Folks, the world did not give him the respect that he deserved, did not give him the reverence that he deserved. Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God. We esteemed him to be stricken, smitten of God.

When he died on the cross, mankind looked on him, especially I think the religious leaders who thought he had blasphemed God or had convinced themselves that he had blasphemed. They thought he’s getting what he deserved. He was stricken or smitten of God.

And folks, we looked at, as humankind, we looked at Jesus Christ and said he’s smitten of God. God is the one punishing him. God is the one striking him down.

And you know what? In a sense, they’re right. In a sense, we’re right.

But what we didn’t realize is that when we saw him and we esteemed him stricken and smitten of God and afflicted, we forget the beginning of verse 4 or we didn’t notice the beginning of verse 4, Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Jesus Christ was stricken and smitten of God, afflicted on the cross. But it wasn’t because of anything he did.

The first thing that we need to know about his atonement is that the Messiah would bear the wrath of God. The Messiah would bear the wrath of God. Folks, it wasn’t the Roman government that put Jesus Christ on the cross.

It wasn’t the Jewish religious elite that put Jesus Christ on the cross. It was God the Father who sent Jesus Christ to be on the cross. We as human beings, I think, get tunnel vision.

You know what tunnel vision is, where you can only see right in front of you? We get that to the extent that we can’t see the whole picture of God, even what He reveals to us sometimes, I think. Because we have a tendency when it comes to attributes of God to just focus on one all the time, to the exclusion of others.

And the Bible talks about so many different attributes that God has. In the last 30 or 40 years, it seems like all the focus is on God’s love. And folks, I’m glad that we can focus on God’s love and talk about God’s love because for so many years people have been under the impression that God was just mean.

There are so many people that have preached about God in such ways that would make Him sound mean, would make Him sound terrible and awful. And it’s about time people in the world hear about God’s love a little bit. But I think in the last several years we’ve focused on God’s love so much all people know about God.

And folks, that’s just a picture of God and it becomes a false, I mean, it’s just a partial picture of God and it becomes a false God. We talk about God as being all love and God being all acceptance. And we tell people, folks, God loves you no matter what you do.

God accepts you however you are. Just give God whatever you want and he’ll be happy with whatever you give him. And we make it sound like God is just the most tolerant person ever.

Like God is just the most open-minded person ever. And folks, God does love you. Please don’t misunderstand what I’m saying.

God does love you. But God’s love began at the cross. If God could accept us just how we are, if God could accept you just as you are today, then the cross was meaningless.

Jesus had no reason to die if God could accept us just as we are. I want to explain what I mean by that in just a minute. But the Bible here in Isaiah 53 makes it clear that his death was not meaningless.

The cross was not meaningless. But when we say just love God and He’ll accept you however you are, folks, that’s not exactly true. We can come to Christ just as we are.

We can ask His forgiveness no matter what we’ve done. But folks, if we try to come to God just as we are, we’re unacceptable to God. That’s why Jesus had to die for us.

And God is a God of love, but the Bible’s clear. He’s also a God of wrath. And we’ve not done anybody any favors by neglecting to talk about that.

We’ve got to talk about God’s love and God’s wrath together because God is angry about sin. God hates sin. God is repulsed by sin.

And please don’t feel like I’m just pointing the finger at you because I’m a sinner as well. And God is repulsed by my sin just as much as anybody else’s. And you read some of the passages from the Old Testament.

I think of the book of Nahum, for example. And it’s a fascinating book, but it just makes me cringe sometimes to think about how angry God is at sin and how wrathful. and one day he will pour out his wrath on any sin that’s not been forgiven.

And we read in Nahum about God’s anger, the fierceness of his anger, melting the mountains and causing earthquakes and destruction. We think that’s terrible. It’s a fearful thing.

The Bible calls it a fearful thing to fall in the hands of God. Folks, he’s not just a God of wrath toward us. He’s a God that poured out all of that wrath toward sin.

He poured out on Jesus Christ. He was stricken by God. He was smitten by God in our place. And folks, the wrath that he bears towards sin was poured out on Jesus Christ. That’s why he went through everything he did.

If he just had to die, he could have died in a lot easier way. He wouldn’t have had to go through everything that he did, but he had to shed his blood and die to pay the penalty. And God’s wrath had to be poured out on the wickedness of sin.

And Jesus Christ took the sin of the world on himself and was punished for it. The Bible was clear that the Messiah would bear the wrath of God. Folks, that’s how we look at God’s wrath and God’s love at the same time because, yes, God has this anger that’s going to be poured out on sin, but He loved us enough that Jesus Christ went and took that anger on Himself, took that wrath on Himself so that we wouldn’t have to.

If God was just a God of wrath and not a God of love, He could have said, I’m not sending Jesus. I’m not letting the Son go. But yet God in His wisdom devised this plan, had this plan from before the world began, that Jesus Christ would die for our sins.

The wrath of God would be poured out, not on us like we deserved, but on Jesus Christ, on the Messiah. And for that reason, he was stricken and smitten of God and afflicted. Verse 5 says, But he was wounded for our transgressions.

He was bruised for our iniquities. I’ve said it already, but I want to drive this point home. When he had the wrath of God poured out on him, it was not for anything that he had done.

It was for everything that we had done. And we need to know that the Messiah would purchase forgiveness of sins. It says He was wounded for our transgressions.

He was bruised for our iniquities. And folks, He did not go through everything He went through just so that the Father could continue to hold those sins against us. Again, if Jesus Christ died for me and I trusted Him as my Savior, if Jesus Christ died for you and you trusted Christ as your Savior and God continued to hold those sins against you, then there was no point in Jesus dying on the cross.

But it says he was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities. Those words, transgressions and iniquities, I could talk about the definitions. They’re a little bit different words, but basically they’re different kinds of sin.

And sin is disobedience against God. When we know the things that we’re supposed to do and we don’t do them, and we know the things we’re not supposed to do and we do them anyway, it’s sin. And it doesn’t matter if it’s one or one every second for the rest of your life.

We all have sin in our lives. The Bible’s clear. We’ve all sinned against God.

In my time, I’ve only heard one or two people try to claim that they have no sin, but you ask them, have you ever told a lie? Have you ever stolen? Folks, if we’re honest, we all have sin.

And the Bible says he was wounded and bruised for our sins. He was wounded and bruised so that we could be forgiven of our sins. God didn’t send him to go through everything he went through just for God’s pleasure, God’s delight, because God’s mean and sadistic.

that suffering, that death was for a purpose to buy the forgiveness, to purchase the forgiveness of our sins. So why couldn’t God just let it go? Because God is holy and God is just and God can’t overlook sin.

If there were a judge that was holding trials and people were out there raping and murdering and stealing cars and burning homes down and they came before the judge and the judge just always, oh, it’s all right, do better next time, threw the case out of court, we’d say that was the most corrupt judge in the state. and we demand he be turned out of office. Well, folks, God is no different.

He’s just and holy and sin must be punished. Sin must be dealt with. Otherwise, he’s no longer a just and holy God.

And sin was punished and dealt with because Jesus Christ paid the penalty to purchase our forgiveness of sins. And the final thing that we need to know is that the Messiah would make peace with God possible. He said the chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed.

I don’t know if you realize this or not. I didn’t realize this for a long time with all the things I heard growing up, just focusing on the love of God and never on His wrath towards sin. But folks, we in our natural state, I’m not talking about once we trust Christ, but in our natural state, the state we’re born in, we are at war with God.

We’re at war with God. The world is at war against God. The Bible says that friendship with the world is enmity or the state of being an enemy against God.

And it’s not a war that God started, but think about it as there’s a righteous king, a good king who loves his people, and he gives them instructions on what to do. And one day the people rise up and say, we don’t care how good you are or what you want us to do. We’re going to go and do our own thing.

We’re going to break your laws, and we’re going to rule ourselves. We call that rebellion. And in the old days where there were kings and things, rebellion was considered an act of war.

if you had a group of people that said we’re going to split off and disobey your laws and rule ourselves, is rebellion against the king. And there was a state of war there. Folks, God didn’t start this war.

We did. We did. When we disobeyed God, when Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the garden, they started the war.

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