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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/brandon-doll/the-sufferings-of-christ/
It turns me pleased, the book of Psalms, Psalm number 69, please. What we're going to do is we're going to go through some of the Old Testament prophecies, not all of them, but a few. And we're going to look at the sufferings of Christ.
The sufferings of Christ. It's my exercise today in the gospel that, with the audience that we're speaking to tonight of Christian's children, if you're like everyone else as a Christian's child, you have a hard time seeing the depth of your sin and the depravity of it.
And what my exercise is tonight is to look at the suffering of Christ. And if you can't see what your sin is in God's sight in yourself, I hope as we read these scriptures, you can understand the magnitude of sin in God's sight as he dealt with his son.
The sufferings of Christ and defining our sin. Psalm number 69, and we're going to read at verse number 1. Then I restored that which I took not away. Psalm 129, please. Psalm 129. We'll just read verse number 3.
The plowers plowed upon my back. They made long their furrows. Isaiah, please, chapter 50. Isaiah chapter 50, verse number 5. I gave my back to the smiters and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair.
I hid not my face from shame and spitting. Chapter 52. Behold, my servant, verse 13. Behold, my servant shall deal prudently. He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high. As many as were astonished at thee, his visage was so marred more than any man and his form more than the sons of men.
Chapter 53, verse 3. 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. Lord, bless to us what we've read together and what we've been privileged to listen to tonight in the testimonies and in the preaching of the gospel.
There is something in the human heart, in every one of our hearts, that we convince ourselves that we're not that bad. That we've really done nothing that terrible. Even without even thinking about it, you young people here tonight, you've heard over and over and over of your sin as you've grown up.
And you've heard that there's judgment for your sin. And yet when you look around this world tonight, you subconsciously, you compare yourself with other people. Maybe some here do it on purpose, maybe not.
But if you were like I was growing up and you look at the other kids in school and they don't think like you think and they don't behave like you behave and they don't know what you know, there's something that takes place in us and it's called self-righteousness.
We are not that bad. And tonight, before you're ever going to be saved, you're going to come to understand that you are that bad. That your sin deserves a judgment of God, just like the people that we look down upon as we grew up.
There is no difference. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And so we're going to look at the sufferings of Christ and we're going to use that as a gauge, as a measuring stick. And if you've never looked at it in this way before, I want you, if you're not saved, to look at the sufferings of Christ as we speak just very briefly about them.
And I want you to consider this. That's what sin deserved. But the Savior didn't deserve it. He had no sin of his own. So what you're going to realize, hopefully by the Spirit of God tonight, is just the depravity, the burden of sin as you look at what it has done to someone else.
As the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. And for us believers, I hope this draws worship from our heart. A man whose visage was so marred, more than any man, in his form more than the sons of men.
One that gave his back to the plowers of the field. And he gave his cheeks to those that plucked off the hair. Now in your imagination, you're starting to picture a man with a swollen face. And you're picturing a man with massive scratches and gouges across his back.
Across the back of his legs. Across his back and where the scourge would rip around his chest. And then you'll think about the crown of thorns that they plated upon him and they beat it down with that reed.
And the blood would come down from his head. And you're not picturing what you see on a lot of people's wall as a nice, clean, washed up Christ on the cross. Those pictures drive me nuts. That's not what he looked like.
And from time to time you go into a home and there's a peaceful, unmarred Christ upon the cross. They buffeted him. They punched him in the face with the palm of their hands. You see, this is a very strong part of your body.
You've got all the bones of your arm behind it. And they punch with the palm of their hands. And his face would be swollen. So that he wasn't even recognizable as who he was. That reveals to us the depth of the heart of man.
That's what's in here. This is what is in you. For what was in those in that day when they rejected him and they said, We will not have this terrain over us. The very same heart is in us. And I know there's no one here that would go to a place and they would cry out among the scoffers for him to be crucified.
But yet tonight in your silence you'll say this, Not tonight. We will not have this terrain over us. You all look very nice tonight. But man looks on the outward appearance and God looks upon the heart.
And the depth of sin and the burden of sin as we consider the suffering of the Lord Jesus. He was made to cry out, Father, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? All the things done to his body, men did to him.
It was all important. It was all necessary. But what men had done to the Son of God was from their heart. A heart that is deceitful of all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? A heart that is full of sin.
A heart that God sees and He understands just exactly what we're made out of. And just exactly what we can do when opportunity and desire meet. Every single one here tonight. Sin. Sin. And then you think of the Lord Jesus there and I imagine, most know I've had a little leg issue and sometimes that nerve feels like it's on fire.
It burns. And I think oftentimes of the Lord Jesus as those lacerations would come across His skin and how awful them cuts would burn. And someone just thought, well, I'm never going to suffer like that.
I don't know what that's going to be like. Listen, dear friend, tonight in this meeting. The awful consequences and the awful depth of every sinner and what every sinner deserves tonight is to feel the torment of the flames of hell.
And they will feel them in their body. A body that will never disintegrate. A body that will never be consumed. A body that will never be annihilated. And sinners who die in their sin, they go to hell.
And they suffer for their sin. But they never pay for it. Sin is not paid for in hell. When a person loses their soul and they go out into eternity, you remember the story the Lord Jesus Christ told of the man who went to prison and he couldn't come out until he had paid the last farthing, the last penny.
And instantly your mind goes, well, how is he ever expected to pay for it if he can't get out to work for anything? That's the point! Never a reprieve. Never a relief. Never an escape. Can you see the burden of sin at Calvary?
And there the Lord Jesus and all of His sufferings at the hand of men, it displays the depravity of our heart. And then the suffering as Almighty God and the Holy and Righteous God would lay sin upon Him.
And there He would bear the punishment for sin. And the chastisement for our peace would be put upon Him. And He would be separated from His God. My friend, can you imagine what it must be like to be in the blackness of darkness forever?
Separated from all light. Separated from all kindness. Separated from all mercy. Separated from all grace. Separated from everything that would ever give joy. And to remember that Christ had died upon the cross.
You see, at the cross and the suffering and the death of Christ, we see the depth of sin. We can measure it there, can't we? We can see what God requires of sin. For every sin. Most of you have heard my testimony.
But what spoke to me in those meetings that night in that series at Mount Tabor was this, that the plowing of the wicked is sin. I grew up on a dairy farm. I thought in my mind that there was something wrong with that.
What is sinful about plowing a field? God told Adam to till the ground. I thought, aha, I got him. Adam was only doing what God told him to do. What is sinful about plowing a field? A high look and a proud heart and the plowing of the wicked is sin.
Proverbs 21 and 4. And I pondered that and I pondered that and I finally asked mom and I said, Mom, I don't want to get it. Why is it sin? Listen, young people. This is what she said and she's absolutely right.
Every moment you reject Christ is sin. Doesn't matter if you're plowing your field. Doesn't matter if you're sitting in Sunday school. Every moment you reject Christ is sin. Any 17-year-olds here not saved.
That's how old I was. You know how many sins of rejecting Christ you have? If you're old enough to understand at the age of 7? 315 million. That's just of the sin of rejecting Christ. What is God going to do with you in your sin?
Are you expecting somehow that in eternity God's going to be able just to forgive you because you were raised in a Christian home? And you were privileged above every single person in this world to be raised in a Christian home where you'd hear the gospel.
I'll tell you nay, except you repent, you shall all likewise perish. And there as you look upon the suffering Savior and you can see the depth of depravity of man and their sin, I want you to look at something else just for a few moments.
Because Calvary is the great measuring stick and there we see our sin and how God dealt with sin. But there we're going to see also in the suffering of Christ the depth of the love of God. People say from time to time if their God is so loving, how can He allow so much evil into the world?
And all these things to happen to men and to women. Listen, if you want to know the depth and the length and the breadth and the height of the love of God, go to the place called Calvary. You want to know the depth and the length and the breadth of sin, go to the place called Calvary.
And there you'll see God's estimation. How God has dealt with sin. Why has God dealt with sin? That's where we see the love of God. His love for the guilty, His love for the sinner and all of their depravity and all of their hatred toward God without a cause.
And yet He gave His only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And at the cross of Calvary, the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. Do you suppose there's fingers out of the flames of hell and they're pointing a finger at God and saying, God, you didn't love me?
No. Oh, they're probably blaming God. Maybe they are saying, God, you didn't love me. But listen to your soul tonight. When you consider the sufferings and the death of Christ, does it not move your heart to understand that it is the love of God reaching out to lost sinners?
It is the only way possible for God to redeem a sinner. It is the only way possible for God to reconcile those that have sinned against Him back to Himself. It is the only way that sin can be righteously dealt with and paid for in full.
And it took place at the cross of Calvary where the sinless One, the spotless One, was made sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. And there at Calvary, God's love is commended toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Herein is love, not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation, the atonement, the covering, the satisfaction for our sin. Has God done anything for you? Oh, He says, come now and let us reason together and that we might see our sin, and that we might agree with Him.
The Lord Jesus says, As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must a son of man be lifted up. And he was lifted up between heaven and earth upon the cross. A man that was unrecognizable.
I think of the countenance of souls in hell. You know what a countenance is? It's to look on your face. And you've seen people that are suffering and in a lot of pain and you can see that their countenance has changed.
I remember, and John will remember, a dear woman up in Canada that was saved in meetings there and she had a very bright smile, a bubbly personality, and she found out that she wasn't saved and she'd come out and you couldn't recognize her for her countenance.
We had supper with them the night before and we looked at each other. Who was that in the meeting tonight? As such was her burden and her concern for her sin. And his visage was so marred, his countenance was marred because of the anguish and the suffering that he was in.
But souls that are lost and they're now bearing the full weight of their sin. Have you ever seen someone carrying a load so heavy? They were just in anguish and it was just terrible. Someone that's gone through something so heartbreaking, so heart-rending, so crushing to their heart and you just want to cry by looking at them.
What must it be for sinners in hell? What will it be for you, dear sinner? What will it be for you? As your visage will be marred with the anguish and the suffering and the agony and the torment of that place.
But there's one who at the cross of Calvary was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. And the love of God and the provision of God is on display. As a faithful Savior God, He has made a way that sin can be put away.
He has made a way to rescue the sinner from their sin. From the penalty of their sin and the power of sin. And this is what took place at the cross. The love of God on full bloom. The love of God on full display.
That the perfect one, the sinless one, would be nailed to the cross and suffer not only the judgment of men. See, we enter in more into the physical sufferings of Christ than we do the spiritual because we can't understand what took place.
But there He suffered the wrath of Almighty God that you might go free. Christ paid the penalty He did not owe because you could not pay the penalty that you owe. That's the love of God. That's magnified at Calvary.
It is on full display. Never in the history of man or the history of the universe or the history of creation was love ever displayed in such a vivid way. It wasn't just spoken through words. But it was a life that was given.
It was the just for the unjust. It was the Son of God for me. Trust tonight you'll be able to see the magnitude of sin and the magnitude of the love of God. Can I quote John 3 .16? Should not perish but have everlasting.
We'll pray. Father, as we draw near this evening we give thanks for the mercy of God that has been on display today. And our Father, Thy mercy has been on display and that sinners are still yet preserved from the flames of hell what they deserve.
And that is nothing but the mercy of God withholding from the guilty that which is rightly theirs. And our Father, Thy grace has been on display in full display as well today as we think of the undeserved kindness of God the unmerited favor of God to reach out to guilty and lost sinners another time.
And oh Father, we've been marveling and wondering and worshiping at Thy love. To think of the depths of the suffering of Christ and the words of Jeremiah come to mind is it nothing to you all ye that pass by.
Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of His fierce anger. Oh our Father, we pray tonight that our loved ones would get a glimpse of eternal realities that they might seek a Savior while there's yet time.
They might come on a run to the cross of Calvary and understand for the first time the love of God for them. Saved souls, tonight we ask as we look to Thee according to Thy will. In the worthy name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.