The Murdering of God — E.A. Johnston

The Horror of Hell and the Evil of Sin

I don't think we understand how horrible hell is, and how ugly sin is. When our life is over, and we enter eternity, and we stand at the bema seat for believers that day, we'll be revealed with fire how we lived our lives, and we'll hang our heads in shame for not recognizing sin as the great evil it is.

Meditating on Christ’s Crucifixion

I believe it would do us good to get out our Bibles and meditate on the crucifixion of our blessed Redeemer, to see with fresh eyes the blood and gore of Calvary, to look upon the crucified Christ as he writhed and wiggled under those torturous nails that spiked his innocent hands and feet to that ignoble tree, that the public shame of being made a publical spectacle before men as he hung there naked between two criminals, as he endured the scandal of the cross, how his ears had to hear the blasphemies and reproaches of men, how his eyes had to behold the sight of his broken-hearted mother and his disciples who deserted him when he needed them the most, how his forehead pulsed with the throbbing pain of that crown of thorns, and how his sweat mixed with his blood as it stung his eyes, how the wood of that tree was washed crimson red by his flowing blood as he suffered and died, becoming a curse and taking upon himself the filthy, wretched sins of the world.

My filthy sins, your filthy sins, laid upon him, the sinless sinner, who became sin, making the Father turn his head away, if I may so speak. To where the Blessed Son cried out in desolation, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

That as this spotless sacrifice for sin was ridiculed and spit on by filthy sinners who mocked him and took delight in the murdering of God. And that's the title of my message today, friends, The Murdering of God.

Isaiah 53 and the Suffering Servant

My text can be found in Isaiah chapter 53. You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends. We will be in verses 1 through 12. I want us to ponder this solemn passage of the Word of God, as it vividly speaks of Christ's humiliation, that the man of sorrows, despised and rejected by men, suffered and died for such a vile sinner as me.

The very wonder of Calvary should awaken and alarm us to her great duty and her great lack, that the murdering of God was the most spectacular event in the history of mankind, that even the godless recognized the unique peculiarity of it and the great suffering of God from it.

It was said that Dionysus being in Egypt at the time of Christ's suffering and seeing an eclipse of the sun and knowing it to be contrary to nature, cried out, either the God of nature suffers or the frame of the world will be dissolved.

Reading Isaiah’s Prophecy of Christ

I want to take the time now, friends, to read us a sacred portion of Scripture as seen in the book of Isaiah in chapter 53. Let us quiet our hearts and minds to focus now on the Word of God. 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 a 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 a man, 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, 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 every one to his own way.

Sin as Going Our Own Way

Let me pause here, friends, briefly to say that this verse in Isaiah is the very definition of sin, for sin is going our way when we know it isn't God's way. Let us continue with our text. 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. 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, rather was any deceit in his mouth.

Christ’s Sacrifice and Intercession

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 of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied 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.

Living in Light of the Sin-Bearer’s Return

I will stop there, friends. That's the end of our passage. And here, friends, we see our sin-bearer, Christ Jesus, the refuge and remedy for sin. Let us behold him. Let us ponder him. Let us meditate on how we live the rest of our days for him, before his return.

Let us pray.