It Pleased God to Crush Him - for You — Erlo Stegen

Let us pray. Thank you, Lord, for granting us this day where we may remember your passion, your suffering and your crucifixion. And we pray, Lord, that you would be with us now. Amen. Amen. Our text, we find in Isaiah chapter 53.

We read from verse 8B, the second part. For the transgression of my people, he was stricken. He was assigned a grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence nor was any deceit in his mouth.

For the transgression of my people, he was stricken. He was assigned a grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence nor was any deceit in his mouth.

The Suffering Servant and God’s Purpose in the Cross

Yet it was the Lord's will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.

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. Therefore, I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death and was numbered with the transgressors.

For he bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors. We will end reading there. Probably all the Christians, all the believers today remember the crucifixion of our Lord. Only in the eastern countries they'll remember, they'll celebrate Easter next weekend.

We in the west, we celebrate Easter this weekend, and in the east they do it next weekend. Brethren, things are difficult in the world. I read about a certain area in the United States where people who ask their opinion what do they say about homosexuality?

Is it right or not? And about half of them said, let them get married if they want to, a man with a man or a girl with a girl. I said, what a curse that is upon America, and they also voted in as their leader a person who is not a believer, his father was a Muslim.

Now in America, there are many other nations that are increasing, the blacks and Indians and other races, their numbers are increasing in the United States. Now let's leave alone those nations and those people, but let's come closer home.

Teenage Pregnancy and the Breakdown of the Family

For the last year, from this February till the previous February, there were 21 ,000 teenage pregnancies, that means schoolgirls who got pregnant at school.

And 700 added to that.

And 717 of those girls were still at primary school and the junior school where they got pregnant. What do we say about it if things are like that? This matter was discussed in Parliament and the Department of Education was asked by the DA.

The majority of them, or a large group of them, came from Gauteng. Also in the Eastern Cape. 4 ,130. And then in the Northwest. There were 232 in the Eastern Cape in primary schools who got pregnant.

In Gauteng, 64. In the Eastern Cape, 232.

In Pumalanga, 130. KZN, 84. I don't think though they've got these statistics right, that they've numbered them all. Because if I go down here to the Tugela Valley, you almost do not find a girl who hasn't got a child or isn't currently pregnant.

Now, the government... The government doesn't know what to do. Because, and I've just mentioned this one problem, but they really don't know what to do with all the problems. The immorality, the degraded state of the children, and I've just mentioned this one problem of teenage pregnancies.

We need to wake up. Don't you realize what's happening in the world right now?

We're getting used to it now. We don't live by child birth. We don't live by time when we're pregnant. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

If you don't know how to pay the tax, then you shouldn't be taking care of those children. You should rather look after your own children than look after the children of others.

We've got used to it now. And even our mothers at our homes, they are now so used to it that their daughters bring these children illegitimately born out of wedlock and they've now got to bring up these children at home like it's now a hen just bringing her chicks to be hatched.

One person told me in their area, if a girl hasn't had a child or isn't pregnant, their child is mocked. Now just imagine what the future is going to look like if your children are in this state.

What will your grandchildren be like where a child grows up without a father?

Now one child asked his mother, and this is the white family at Bragparn, and asked mother why is it, because he's got five brothers, he said the one, five children, one has got this surname, two have got that surname, and two have got a different surname, why is it like that mother?

What do you say of that?

What do you white say of that? What do you black say of that? If in this world it is so pitch black and dark, Jesus isn't still going to die, he has already died.

Christ’s Death for the Sinner

He was bruised and crushed. For the transgression of my people he was stricken. Have you ever been to the cross where you saw Jesus hanging there for your sin? A blind man once came here to the mission.

When I went to him I asked, what is your problem? He said, I cannot see, I'm blind. Could you please pray for me?

I said no, I cannot pray for you, I said I don't just pray for anybody who comes.

I said, before I pray for your physical eyes to be opened, you need to pray for your spiritual eyes to be opened. Have you seen Jesus hanging on the cross for your sin? Have you been to the cross?

He said, no, he said, well, we are not guilty of his death, he was killed by the Jews. I said yes, indeed.

I said, yes, the Jewish nation, they are guilty of that and so are the Romans. It said in that Roman cohort, there were many Germans there, many German soldiers, because the Romans recruited their warriors, many of them from the German warriors.

So there were many German warriors in Rome and we wouldn't be amazed if they were there.

At the cross as well.

And so he said, I wasn't there at that time, I'm not guilty of that, we're not guilty of that. I said, yes, it's true, but he was bruised and crushed and crucified for your sin. I said to him, come, and I took him to my office.

I said, please be seated. And then I mentioned to him sin. Different types of sin. And I said, have you never been angry? He said, well, I know of that, I do get angry. What about hatred? Grudges?

And so I mentioned different types of sin, drunkenness, immorality.

I said, those were the thorns that pierced his brow, and those, that immorality, that adultery, that those were the sins, that were the nails that held him to the cross. Because he had the power to come down from the cross.

It wasn't the nails that held Jesus to the cross.

It was your sin, and also those sins that you maybe say are small and insignificant, like grudges, like disrespect, and speaking idle talk. Jesus spoke to the father before he came to us. The father spoke to the son and he said, what am I going to do about my people, whom I have created after my own image?

But now they've taken on the image of animals, of pigs, and of dogs, and other animals. I have said that the soul that sinneth shall die, now they have to die. Because there's no word that the father has spoken that will not be fulfilled.

We easily say something and we don't keep it. We easily say things, one thing the one day, something else the next day, maybe we still remember what we said yesterday, and what we committed ourselves to, maybe we've even forgotten that.

And we say, well, I don't remember that I said that. We are people alike and we easily forget, whether we really forget or whether it is just hypocritical, I don't know.

I don't know.

God said the soul that sin shall die. Now look at mankind, all the nations, all the multitudes, from the west to the east. There's nobody that escapes that judgment of God. Even though you might say, well, we're not believers, but that word that God has spoken will be fulfilled.

And then Jesus said, Father, I am willing to go and to take their sin upon me. I will die in their stead.

He said, Father, through your love, which I have as well, I will go.

I will take their guilt upon myself. I will pay their guilt. I will die in their stead. Before the foundation of the earth, they agreed because God already knew at that time that you would be in this world.

And even before you, at that time, it was ordained. You didn't choose your own color, even what your hair type was going to be like. God ordained all of that before the foundation of the earth. And as Jesus came walking along, and John the Baptist saw in the distance, he said, behold the name of God who takes away the sin of the world.

Removing our sin by taking it upon himself.

Substitutionary Atonement and the Debt of Sin

We all have that debt. If a person has a debt at a shop, you don't know how to pay that debt.

And then he comes, somebody else comes and says, let's open the books up. Has this person got a debt here at the shop? And then the books are opened and it is found, yes. And he finds out how big that debt might be.

And then that benefactor pays that debt. Then it is deleted. There is no longer any debt because it has been paid. So Jesus has paid your debt. That debt which was yours, he paid it where you had to die.

He has died in your stead. When Jesus stood before Pilate, that Roman governor, and he tried his case and he judged him, he found him to be without guilt. He realized that he had been brought to him through the jealousy of the Jews.

But he tried to get away and he couldn't find a way how he could let Jesus escape. And then he found, he looked for a person and he found a person worse than anybody else. The worst criminal, an insurrectionist, a murderer.

And he took him, who was currently in jail. And he said,.

You Jews have a custom that at this time I release a prisoner to you. And he said, who do you choose now? Who should I release? Jesus of Nazareth or this Barabbas who is a murderer? With one voice they cried out, Barabbas!

Release Barabbas! Barabbas was then released. Do you see even before Jesus was crucified, he already saved the life of Barabbas out of jail. He was set free. Jesus came that you and I should be set free from our jail of sin.

What a terrible trace.

Jesus was crucified. To go for parapa. Barabbas should have been executed. God oh, Jesus. Josephus couldn't suck. But Jesus who's in Guinness as Kundalini suck.

I've seen do para. Jesus died in his place and Barabbas went or free.

I'm Ozzy Ugootu para power tree nappy. I don't know where I'm going to go in where they got Kubek, I guess or no suck or continue to be who just isn't cool. Only after Jesus had released him.

But now let's leave for others. Are there none in our midst who have come out of that jail, out of that prison of sin, they've been set free, but now they've gone back to their sin again. He was chastised by us because of our sin and our sin crucified him to the cross.

If you go back to that blind man who came here, when I said to him, I'm not going to pray for you, for your physical eyes to be open.

He said, why not? Because there's so many blind people that from came from our area that you have prayed for and their eyes were open. Why don't you want to pray for me? I said, the Bible says, if anyone is sick, you first need to confess your sin one to another and then be prayed for, for that sin to be forgiven and then you'll be healed.

I already mentioned to you how I mentioned different types of sin. I said, what about this? Haven't you done that ever in your life? What about that sin? And when I was along the way, halfway, he said, now I understand.

Now I can see what you mean. I understand what you mean. He said, now it dawns upon me. Yes, I am the one that's guilty through my sin. He was crucified.

To the cross. He opened his heart and he poured out his sin. He got it all out.

He was still confessing his sin. He hadn't yet finished. He jumped up and he said, I can see his eyes were opened. And he realized Jesus was crucified for our sin, my sin, your sin. And then there is a problematic verse here in the Bible.

Why God Was Pleased to Crush the Son

You're in verse 10. Yet it was the Lord's will to crush him and cause him to suffer. And in English, and in Zulu it says, it was his pleasure to do so. And one can say it was the Lord's will. It was his pleasure to crush him and cause him to suffer.

How can that be? How could he want to do that? How could it be his pleasure to beat his child, to cause him to suffer? Yes, we know that he forsook him, but he didn't only forsake him. He also beat him and he crushed him.

How is it possible that God wanted to do that, that it was his pleasure to cause him to suffer and to make his life a guilt offering? How is it possible? How is it that God found pleasure in it to beat his child, his son, to crush him, to make him to suffer?

We find the answer right there. He will see his offspring and prolong his days. That God beat Jesus. He crushed him for you and me, for us. Because he saw you and me having been rescued and taken out of our sin, with our guilt removed.

And so they agreed before the time that he would send him to do so. And that is why he found pleasure in that, in crushing him. For he saw what was going to result through the death of the Lord Jesus, that we would be helped.

He was pierced. He was pierced, he was crucified, and innocent blood flowed. But God rejoiced in that for he saw that through that blood that flows, your and my sin would be washed away. Just behold the love of God the Father for you and me.

He will see his offspring who had come through his death.

The Cross as Birth Pangs for New Life

Let me direct this to you, sisters, because I don't know whether the men will understand this.

They only know about it from hearsay. Maybe the children won't understand either. I want to illustrate it to you like this, because it's spoken here of offspring, and offspring, they are born. When I was still a child, there were many women who died through childbirth.

Today, it's not so common anymore. It's not common anymore. It's very rare that a woman will now die because of childbirth. Not that they were not midwives. They were midwives. But if a woman would give birth, it would be difficult and she would experience birth pains.

I don't know if you older people know that, but these midwives would sometimes take a rod and they'll beat that woman. They'll beat her so that the child will be born if it would go through difficulties.

They weren't beating that woman because they wanted to hurt her, but they wanted to help that woman, that she'd be strong to give birth to their child. Now, today, Now, today, because of the advance of medical science, it's no longer so difficult to give birth.

Women go to a hospital, they lie on white sheets, and it's easy now, they get injections and so on. But in the olden days, with the Zulus, they would even give birth onto cow dung. They would put cow dung on the floor, and they'd say, well, that child that is born is dirty, and it's fit to get born in cow dung.

But today, because of the advance of medical science, it's no longer so difficult to give. Now, today, because of the advance of medical science, it's no longer so difficult to give birth. But in the olden days, with the Zulus, they would even give birth onto cow dung.

They would put cow dung on the floor, and it's easy now, they get injections and so on.

And obviously, it was unhygienic, no surprise, no wonder that many of those young babies died, and even their mothers. But now, we've got medical science. Although there are blacks that say, well, Christianity is the white man's thing.

Well, if it's the white man's thing, then go back to the old traditional ways of giving birth as well. I don't understand it, why people can say, Christianity is the white man's religion, but when it comes to giving childbirth, they're happy to accept advances in medical science.

Well, go back to those midwives of old, with their big rods that can give you a good beating. If it's really true that you don't want anything of the white man. Those midwives beat that woman, not because they wanted to hurt her, but they wanted to give her strength, to give birth to that child that would be born well.

That's why I say, if you don't want anything of the white man, then go back to the old traditional ways of giving birth as well. I don't understand it, why people can say, Christianity is the white man's religion,.

And Jesus experienced birth pangs there on the cross, excruciating pain that we might be born, that this offspring might come forth, and God the Father, he crushed him there. It was his pleasure, because he saw us, you and me, being born.

I don't understand it, why people can say, Christianity is the white man's religion, and Jesus experienced birth pangs there on the cross, excruciating pain that we might. It was his pleasure, because he saw us, you and me, being born.

It was his pleasure, because he saw us, you and me, being born. I don't understand it, why people can say, Christianity is the white man's religion, and Jesus experienced birth pangs there on the cross, excruciating pain that we might.

It was his pleasure, because he saw us, you and me, being born. I don't understand it, why people can say, Christianity is the white man's religion, and Jesus experienced birth pangs there on the cross, excruciating pain that we might.

Jesus could have called 10 ,000 angels to come and take him down from the cross, but he chose to die there, to die alone, for you and me. It was his love that held him there. So then, don't hold it against me, if he is my hero, if he is more precious to me than anybody or anything else, because he paid that price for me, for my sin, and that's why he is so precious to me.

Great is his matter of him dying there on the cross. He experienced more birth pangs and excruciating pains than any other woman that has ever given birth.

So then, don't hold it against me, if he is my hero, if he is more precious to me than anybody else, because he paid that price for me, for my sin, and that's why he is so precious to me. Great is his matter of him dying there on the cross.

Great is his matter of him dying there on the cross. He experienced more birth pangs and excruciating pains than any other woman that has ever given birth. So then, don't hold it against me, if he is my hero, if he is more precious to me than anybody else, because he paid that price for me, for my sin, and that's why he is so precious to me.

He will see his offspring, and he will see the result of his suffering of his soul, and be satisfied. And that, like a woman who's given birth, when she experiences those birth pangs, she says, I'll never give birth again, this is the last time.

It's too difficult, it's too painful, but when she embraces that child, and she holds it to her breast, and that child suckles, then she is comforted, and she experiences the joy of having this child.

It's the same with Jesus. He went through those birth pangs for you and for me, but when he sees us, how he's been helped, how he's given birth to us, he rejoices. And that's why I say, that's why I said that the sisters will understand this much better than the men.

It has been said that if your wife should give birth to the first child, and then you as the husband, give birth to the second child, that will be the last child. You won't wish for your wife to go through that again.

Then there won't be the third child anymore.

But I thank God I had six children. I said I would have been happy with a dozen. But it's difficult today, it's expensive, the cost of living is high, and to send your child to school, how would you afford it if you've got so many children?

But children are a gift from God. Blessed are those who have children. But even if God has taken them and they've died, if they died as believers, it's better on the other side than here. On that side, on the other side, they don't long back to be here, they don't remember Earth, but they rejoice when anybody gets converted.

Parents’ Responsibility for Their Children’s Souls

Let me ask you parents. Let me ask you, where are your children?

Right now, this very moment, where are your children?

On which road and which way are they walking? In my presence, I ask you.

I ask you the one who will say to you,. I ask you the one who will say to you,.

I cannot understand it, when parents are aware of the fact that their children are lost, but they don't do anything about it. What steps do you take to try and help your child, to explain to your child, do you understand that Jesus died for you on the cross, that he died for your sin?

Or you've got a grandchild? Are you concerned about your grandchild? Are you troubled about your grandchild, that that grandchild should go to heaven? It might be that God might even require that grandchild from your hands.

When your grandchild dies, where will he or she go? Will their child die, having been to the cross, having been to Golgotha? When Jesus looks and he rejoices and he sees that that which he's done, the fruit of his work wasn't in vain for these little ones.

Because if my grandchildren get up to mischief and they sin, then people will say, it is the pastor's grandchild, it's Uncle Ella's grandchild that is sinning like that, and people will say the same of you.

They will ask, isn't this his grandchild? Isn't this his grandchild? And what are you doing about it?

Because she gets pregnant, out of marriage, she just brings those little children to you to come and that you should look after them. It's like a hen hatching chickens. What are you doing about it? Today I rejoiced, I heard something wonderful that happened overseas.

Anecdotes About Children, Courtship, and Responsibility

Because you girls are troublesome.

When I came here to the mission, I had a.

Little diker which I called Boki. This little Boki was hand-reared and it even slept in my room. And if I'd walk outside, it would follow me like a dog. I would walk outside and sometimes I'd even take it in my car with me.

Now, this diker was an ewe. And this diker grew up and one day I heard a big noise, a big commotion just on the other side of the valley. It had gone to that side and the people said, yes, a diker. So they thought, well, this is a wild buck and they wanted to hunt it.

And all the men came out with their sticks and their numbers. And so I shouted across the valley to them, I said, leave that diker alone, it's mine. And I saw one man throwing his stick at the diker and it knocked the diker down.

And then somebody else on that side shouted and said, leave that diker. That is the pastor's diker. And so I went there to go and rescue this diker. Fortunately, they just caught it. They didn't kill it because they heard it's mine.

But here, in its release, it was cut by a spear. So I said, take this diker to the vet in Greytown. And there it got some stitches, got stitched up and came back again. And this diker survived. So I spoke to this diker, I said, Boki, you must never do this again.

You hear me? You have now seen, you've experienced what happens to you, you'll end up in the pot if you go to that side. Well, before they even got all these stitches out, then a diker, a, what do you call them?

A male came.

Now, this male diker came along and this Boki just went after him.

She disappeared till today. She's never come back. I don't know what happened to her, but that's what you girls are like. Any old boy comes along, any pair of trousers, you follow after it. You don't know where he comes from, where he's going to, what's going to happen in your future.

You might end up in jail, maybe not this jail at Crownscorp, but at home, you'll be treated like a prisoner.

Did you hear that, young girls? Don't be so foolish. Don't be an idiot and fall for any boy. It's better to be unmarried than to get married and you a prisoner for the rest of your life.

Now, I've again got another kind of buck. What is in Konka in English? Pushback. Pushback. Now, somebody phoned me from far away, a girl, she said, I've got a male pushback. Nimbabala is the male. Female.

Nimbabala is the female. I've got Nimbabala here, that's the female pushback. When I got here, I found out it's a male. That's in Konka. Yes, in Konka.

It can be very dangerous. When that buck is in danger, it can charge you. It's got sharp horns.

I already thought, what will I do if it grows up because I've got so many young children at home? So, I drove out there in the mountains and there was this girl with this buck. I asked her, how much do you want for it?

She said 1 ,000 rand. I said, well, that sounds a bit much to me. I said, I thought I'd give you 200. But I said, because you've got such a high price, let's make it 400. She said, fine. And I said, now, what do you give it?

Because she gave me a bottle of milk. She said, well, we use this type of milk. If our goats die, then we rear the little ones with this type of milk.

I said, well, I'll give it to you. She said, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I said, I don't know where it is.

I said, now I'll give you money for this. And what then if I get back home and it dies, because they've been bitten by dogs? And she said no grandfather wasn't the dogs that caught it. I caught it myself when I was there in the bush.

I saw it lying there asleep so I came very slow very quietly and I quickly grabbed although it kicked. I held it and so I brought it home. It's with me in my home. I said I don't want to sleep. Let it sleep outside.

It's cold outside. It's used to warmer weather. And I said to her now you catch me another one as well. Now I can't put it here in our game reserve that we've got here. We've got some wild game because we've got Nyala back there.

And this Nkonga it's a small type. The Nyala is a big type buck and they fight. Now I've got a problem because I can't let it loose outside. Now you can come and have a look at it. I've just got a problem.

I don't know quite where to keep it because outside in the garden it will eat Naomi's roses and flowers inside the house. It doesn't wear nappies so it just dirties anywhere. But at the moment Dirk is looking after it for me and feeds it morning.

I could bring it even here but I thought now here the carpet it'll dirty the carpet as well but I like it.

The Satisfaction of Christ in His Redeemed People

But God's love for us is much greater than my love for their back has God's love touched and stood you already.

What where God found pleasure in crushing him and beating him and putting him to death on the.

Cross. Why. Because of your sin and my sin. Because of what was going to result through his death. That through his suffering and anguish we were born again. Where you will see the result of the suffering of his soul and be satisfied.

Is Jesus satisfied when he looks at your and my life. That which he did for us. That he was forsaken by God the Father. That he went down into hell. But when he looks at us at you and me that he says I'm satisfied.

God thank you. Oh my. Now I've given my bush back the name Bambi. And if you see it anywhere please take care of it. Don't kill it. Remember it's mine. My grandchildren ask me what do I call this. Uh buck.

And I said Bambi. So they went to school. They came back and they said granddad what did you call it Bambi. I said no not Bambi. It's Bambi. What does Jesus mean to you daniel. And evening. With a bottle.

Now daniel used to pray in the morning noon and evening and he was on fire for God. Tell me are you on fire for God. Or how is it like now. Time is gone. Now time is gone. You've got to go and sleep. But please don't go and chat till late at night and rather go and pray and then go to bed.

I don't like to preach to people who are asleep in the service. You're not ours that are awake at night and sleep during the day. Shall we pray foreign. We thank you. Oh God for your love. That you found pleasure in crushing and beating your son the Lord Jesus.

Because you wanted to help us and save us work. Oh Lord. That this service would not be in vain. Oh.

The one who's not yet made right his life with God that he might come to the cross.

With his sin that Jesus might see the offspring of his soul and be satisfied amen.