Grace, mercy, and peace to you, church. Thank you, Brandon and Robin, for allowing me to preach to you this afternoon. If you don't already have your Bibles open to Isaiah 53, please turn there. We'll be in verse 7. Isaiah 53, 7. Isaiah 53, in my estimation, is one of the clearest texts found in the Old Testament regarding the person and work of Christ. The 17th century Scottish Presbyterian James Durham preached 72 sermons in this one chapter. It spans two volumes. I've got those volumes on my shelf and it's pretty intimidating as you begin to comb through and you see your inadequacy. He commented that this portion of Scripture, above any other portion of Scripture, contains Christ most obviously and openly, most pleasantly and beautifully. He said, the 53rd chapter of the prophecies of Isaiah cannot but be looked at as a transcendently pleasant, beautiful, sweet-smelling, and fragrant piece of divine Scripture. John Owen looked at this portion of scripture as the sum of what is spoken in the Old Testament. Matthew Poole said that it was the occasion of many Jews' conversion upon reading Isaiah 53. Its theme spans nearly the entirety of the work of Christ in his incarnation. If I were to summarize Isaiah 53, it'd be a little more polemic, it'd be a little more I don't know, poking at people, I guess you could say. I would say that Isaiah 53 is the rabbi's dilemma, first and foremost. But also it's the unbeliever's undeniable portrait. And it's the believer's deep, deep consolation. For the rabbi, The theological force of Isaiah 53 is almost like Romans 9 to an Arminian. He can't get around it. He might argue with it, he might try to avoid it, but the conclusions are clear. Interestingly enough, I've read this portion of scripture to an unbeliever, not giving them any context, any background information, just read Isaiah 53, and you know what their conclusion was? That's Jesus. It never mentions His name. It never says anything about Him as far as an identity. But the description is so specific, even the unbeliever goes, that's Jesus. And that's in the Old Testament. And that's without any theological training. So Isaiah 53 is a prophecy. It's a prophecy written by Isaiah nearly 700 years before the incarnation of the Lord. Now, his prophecy is written in a unique way. I don't know if you caught it as Robin was reading through the prophecy. It's written in the past tense. Most of the time when we hear a prophecy it's, he will do this, he will do that. But it's a future prophecy looking back on an accomplished event. And really, Isaiah's prophecy here is the confession of every believer. I believe that every believer in Christ, as they approach Isaiah 53, it's their confession of who Christ is. Listen to the language. Look at verse 3. He was despised. Past tense. Verse 4. He has borne our grief. Verse 5, he was wounded, he was crushed. Verse 5 again, with his wounds we are healed. Not we will be healed, we are healed. And in verse 7, he was oppressed and afflicted. None of the language there is in the future tense. All of it's looking back on an accomplished event. Again, it's every believer's confession. And it's truly a unique way of writing prophecy. He's writing from the past, looking back on an accomplished event. So our text tonight is Isaiah 53. I have a basic three-point outline. First, we're going to look at the silent sufferer. The silent sufferer. Second, the willing sufferer. And third, the question why. Why must he be silent? Why must he be willing? So the silent sufferer, the willing sufferer, and the why. So let's pray together and we'll get started. Father, I bow my head before you in great need of your spirit's help to preach your son. I approach this Lord feeling my inadequacy as any man does who truly tries to plumb the depths of Christ and his work. I pray for myself and for the hearers tonight as As Isaiah listed in the 11th chapter, the Spirit of the Lord, that it may rest upon us, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. Would you grant grace to the preacher and to the hearer, in Christ's name. Amen. So let's look at verses 1 through 6 leading up to verse 7. It's worth our time to kind of build a case, build a context. Isaiah's main point in writing verses 1 through 6 is what he describes to remove a stone of stumbling and a rock of a fence for the Jew. Earlier in Isaiah in chapter 8, he says in verses 13 and 15, the Lord of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, let him be your dread, and he will become a sanctuary and a stone of a fence and a rock of stumbling, both to the house of Israel and a trap and a snare. to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and many shall stumble by it." Israel had been looking for the Messiah, this promised seed, promised all the way back in Genesis 3.15, but Israel all along was looking for a Messiah with power, with majesty, with pomp. Someone who was handsome and kingly. And we see this attitude all throughout history. Even in our own culture today, men want someone in charge who is handsome and powerful. And it's almost our day and age, we equate power with beauty. And in God's wisdom, he gave the world something completely different. Fifteen times in these six verses, we see a clear portrait of exactly who the Messiah was. Isaiah 53, 2 says, he grew up before him like a young plant, literally like a sapling, like something insignificant and overlooked, like a twig growing out of dry ground. Not only that, he came into the world like a root out of dry ground. Isaiah's portrait here is one of insignificant and almost hopeless strength, something that easily dies and passes away from the memory of man. Men with their physical eyes could not see what was underneath the soil. However, and so it's the wisdom of God to make it this way, God sent us something that we couldn't physically see with our eyes. We needed spiritual eyes. Isaiah goes on to say, he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, no beauty that we should desire him. In the wisdom of God, he was not some majestic, pompous king, but he was someone who, if we passed him on the street, would be just overlooked. He would be insignificant. He was to the physical eye plain, yet to the one who has been given spiritual eyes, he is truly beautiful. Verse 3 continues, "...he was despised, rejected by men, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, as one from whom men hid their faces. He was despised and we esteemed him not." If it wasn't enough to portray Christ as insignificant in the previous verse, Isaiah presses the idea further by saying that when humanity looked on Jesus, they hid their faces. You hid your face. It's an estimation of disgust. He was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, carrying the burden of his task and the weight of the sin of his people. But we couldn't see that beauty. Men can't see the beauty of Jesus naturally. They have to be given spiritual eyes. Verses four through six carry on surely he's born our griefs carried our sorrows yet. We esteemed him stricken smitten by God and afflicted He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace and with his wounds. We are healed and Not only was Christ withered, rejected, detested, sorrowful, and walking around with grief as a close companion, He, by His great love, bore not only that grief in and of Himself, but He bore the grief of His people. He bore your grief. He not only carried His own sorrows, but your sorrows as well. But what's our reaction? What does the scripture say is our reaction as we see this man of sorrows? We esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. So Israel was looking for an earthly prince. Someone with power, someone with pomp, beauty, prestige. But God in his own wisdom gave us Christ. He gave the world a root growing out of dry ground. A man of sorrows. The world's estimation of Christ, I think, could be summed up in one word. Worthless. Men don't make much of worthless things, do they? They don't speak about them. They don't think about them. They don't teach them to others. So I want to pause here and just ask a little bit of a searching question before we get started in verse 7. What is Christ worth to you? Are you speaking about Him? Are you thinking about Him? Are you seeking to hold Him out to a lost and dying world? How you answer those questions may be a telltale sign of what Christ is worth to you. So all of this leads up to verse 7. Verse 7 says, He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth, like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before it shears is silent, so He opened not His mouth. This very text, if you remember in Acts, was the occasion of the conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch. He was reading the scroll of Isaiah. And it was this very text that converted his heart. So I would say we need to do well to pay attention tonight. Here we see the silent sufferer. Now when it says that he was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth, I want to look at two parts. The first part is the nature of that suffering, where it says he was oppressed and he was afflicted. And then second, I want to look at the attitude by which he suffered. He opened not his mouth. So what were the nature of Christ's sufferings? When it says that he was oppressed and he was afflicted, all of the verbs there are passive. What does that mean? That sounds fancy. In other words, this is something being done to Christ, not by Christ. It can also be translated, he was punished and troubled. The idea behind the words are that of a slave master driving his slave to the point of death. or a debt collector assaulting the one owing the debt. It conveys the idea of tyranny, demanding pressure, evil treatment, and harassment. Christ in Matthew 20, 28 is said to give his life as a ransom for many. Hebrews 7, 22, he's called the guarantor of a better covenant. Now each of these words, oppressed and afflicted, carry with them this idea. Christ has ransomed His people from the debt of sin so that all who are in Him need not fear their debt be required of them. Its exactness has been paid. nor will it be required twice. God will not punish His Son and exact the debt of sin upon Him and then at a later time exact it upon you as well. Once by Christ and then by you, never will be. If Christ has paid it, beloved, it's paid. Period. Paul says in Romans 6.23, the wages of sin is death. And the word wages there literally means a person's pay or allowance, his payoff once his duties are done. And Christ was oppressed for this very reason. The word afflicted means to be constantly humiliated, depressed, downcast. It means to be preoccupied with vulnerability, suffering, and the violation of oneself by others. Isaiah is portraying here that this is not some set of small events that just happen in a window of time in Christ's life, only occurring possibly near the end of His life, but this was His constant state of affairs. He was in constant affliction. He was under constant scrutiny. and plots for his life by the religious leaders. In summary, he was a man of sorrows. When we want to summarize a man's life, if we know someone and we're wanting to convey that person's life to someone else, we might say something like, he's a man of integrity or he's an unscrupulous man. Kind of summarizing in general the general overflow of his life, the general path of his life. Well, the scripture says Christ was a man of sorrows. and acquainted with grief. But Christ bore all of this oppression and affliction willingly and patiently for your sake. Now, how did He do this? This leads us to our second point. He opened not His mouth. Luke 6, 45, you know it. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Christ, in the face of overbearing persecution, was silent. He wasn't silent not because his heart was empty, but because he was wholly content with God. The phrase, he opened not his mouth, I think we can make one overarching observation. He was patiently content. Patiently content with his Father's will. Experience tells us that One of the great marks of patience in suffering and affliction is the bridling of the tongue. One of the first signs of a lack of contentment or patience in the heart of a man is what his mouth begins to complain about. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. James says in chapter 1 verse 19, let every man be quick to hear, Slow to speak and slow to anger. It's interesting, he ties the words speaking and anger together there. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. But Christ, when all of the weight of sin, all the weight of your sin, was upon Him, He uttered not a word, neither against God nor against His enemies. 1 Peter 2, 22 and 23 says this, He committed no sin, Neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly." Now the question is, how does a man do this without a rock-solid grip on the sovereignty of God for his life? How do you not revile in return? How do you not threaten when you're suffering? One Puritan said, stormy hearts will soon boil over. And that's true. But Christ rested in perfect patience in His Father's will. His heart was perfectly patient. His heart was trusting in Him who judges justly. This is the heart of the silent sufferer. And then further, God gives us two illustrations to kind of drive the point home. He gives us two illustrations and He gives them by an agricultural illustration. He gives a lamb and a sheep. Verse 7 says, Now it's interesting that Isaiah uses the phrase, he opened not his mouth, twice in verse 7. And then he gives two illustrations to drive the point home. He's compounding the idea of the utter, I tried to find the best word here, acquiescence. The utter complacency of the heart of the Messiah. The perfect patience, the unreservedness of the heart of Christ. to do His Father's will. And complacency here is a pleased satisfaction with His Father. Normally when we speak of complacency we think of somebody who has a kind of a smug satisfaction, you know? Eh, whatever. But Christ was pleased and satisfied with His Father's will. I think it would do us well to pay attention to these examples. Now by using the terminology of a lamb, Isaiah was reminding his audience of the Passover. God gave that in the law. Exodus 12, God was preparing to send the last of the ten plagues upon Egypt. And the death of the firstborn of the Egyptians, God commanded the Israelites to take a lamb without blemish, slaughter it at twilight, put the blood on the doorpost and the lintel of their home, and death would pass over. Of those who did, lived. And those who didn't, suffered the effects of the plague. Further, in Exodus 29, God instructs Moses to tell the priests of the tabernacle to slaughter a lamb every day, one in the morning and the other at twilight, as an offering to God. And Isaiah's usage of the lamb here is heavily symbolic and I think it strikes a deep note in the heart of all who understand its true significance. Christ is called a lamb in Scripture to portray innocence. 1 Peter 1, 18 and 19, you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but what? With the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb, without blemish or spot. God only accepts a pure, undefiled, spotless lamb as a sacrifice, and Christ was that sacrifice. So he's called a lamb in scripture to portray his innocence. He's also called a lamb in scripture to show how he was weak in appearance. We explored this a little bit in verses 2 through 6, but God reminds us that Christ was, by the world's standards, weak. In the world's eyes, power is mainly displayed in possessions. Yet from birth to death, Christ was a poor man. I don't know if you have ever thought about this, but when Joseph and Mary presented Christ at the temple and the offering they brought is a telltale sign as to their economic status. Do you remember what they brought with Christ to the temple to sacrifice to God? A pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons. This was a poor person's offering. This was allowed by God in the law in case someone who was not wealthy enough to own livestock could bring a sacrifice to the temple. This was a wild bird. Anyone who wanted to could go out and catch these wild animals and offer them to the Lord. And it was Mary and Joseph's offering with Christ. It was a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons. Mary, by that offering, was making a public declaration of her poverty. And Christ grew up in poverty. I like the way Ryle puts it. He was nursed by a poor mother. He lived under a poor man's roof. He ate a poor man's food. He wore a poor man's clothing and worked a poor man's job and shared in all a poor man's troubles. So I think, beloved, what we can say is in the world's eyes, Christ was weak. Poverty is weakness to the world. But Christ is also called a lamb in Scripture to show His not only weakness, but meekness as well. There's two main illustrations in Scripture. Christ is called a lamb, but on the opposite side, He's called what? A lion. Now, any child watching National Geographic can tell which one is meek and which one is ferocious. It's just self-evident. Lambs are not ferocious. Lions are. Lions are not the yielding type. They're fierce. They're powerful. But Christ is likened to a lamb to show meekness. John the Baptist said in John 129, he didn't say, Behold, the Lion of God takes away the sin of the world. He said, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Christ suffered in the meekness of a lamb to save. But beloved, He'll come back like a lion in judgment. So the first illustration is that of a lamb. The second illustration is like a sheep that before its shearers is silent. Now one commentator said this, he said, hogs whine and hout. But sheep are dumb before the shearer. Now, I can affirm this. I don't know if many of you know this, but my family, one side of my family owns a hog farm. We make sausage for a living. Bacon too, if you'd like it. Like clockwork, every Saturday, every Saturday morning, 10.30 a.m., the hogs are led into the holding pen. And every Monday morning, before the sun comes up, utter chaos breaks loose. You don't have to know exactly what's being made in that plant to know that things are unsettling. There's a loud sound, things are clanking, and you can tell somebody or something is dying in there. But you know what you hear from a sheep? That right there. Absolutely nothing. Total silence. Sheep of all creatures who were slaughtered are the most silent. And he was led like a sheep before his shearers. He was completely and utterly silent. Christ was the silent sufferer. But not only was he the silent sufferer, he was the willing sufferer. He was totally willing, heart, mind, and soul. I think this can be proven many places in Scripture. I'm going to go through a few here rather quickly. Philippians 2.8, being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. That's a willing suffering. Ephesians 5.25, Christ loved the church and gave himself up both in life and death for her. Hebrews 10, which was citing Psalm 40, says, Behold, I have come to do your will, O God. Psalm 40 actually reads, I delight to do your will, O God. And John 10 says, For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. He did that willingly. Not only this, but Christ longed for the accomplishment of this task. Luke 12.50 is an interesting verse. I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it's accomplished. Christ knew that the full wrath of God was coming upon Him. and he bore the sins of God's people upon him. Yet Luke's gospel says that he set his face like flint toward Jerusalem. He was willing to die. Luke 22, 15 carries with it the same idea. We can hear the echoes of his heart at the Passover when he says, I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. Men who are looking forward with joy to the accomplishment of a task at hand also look forward to all of the steps leading up to that task. Christ earnestly desired to live for us as well as to die for us. I think also His willingness can be seen by not preventing it. Luke 18 says, see, Jesus says, we're going up to Jerusalem. And everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. For He will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. And after flogging Him, they will kill Him. And on the third day, He will rise. Could He have not called a legion of angels to defend Him against mere mortals? He said, I laid down my life. No man takes it from me. He did nothing to prevent it. He was completely willing. But last, I think we can also see His willingness by His silence. Every gospel account, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, record the silence of Christ before His accusers. Pilate said to Him, Do you not hear how many things they testify against You? But He gave them no answer. not even to a single charge, so that the governor is greatly amazed. God's servant does nothing and says nothing, but is silent before his accusers. So we've seen the silent sufferer, the willing sufferer, but the question is why? Why must he be a silent, willing sufferer? I think there's two main reasons. First, I think it's to show himself to be a perfect mediator between God and men. And then second, it's to show the heinousness of sin. So he's to be a perfect mediator and to show the heinousness of sin. This is why he was a silent, willing sufferer. So first, Christ was a silent and willing sufferer to show himself to be the perfect mediator between God and men. In Exodus 27, God commanded Moses to make a bronze altar to sacrifice in the tabernacle. The altar was square, seven and a half feet by seven and a half feet. And one of the features of this altar was that on each corner it had bronze horns made into the altar. What were these horns used for? There's no detail in the tabernacle that should go overlooked. They were not merely ornamental. They served a very practical purpose. They were used to keep struggling sacrifices, I guess we could say unwilling sacrifices, from escaping the altar. Psalm 118 speaks of such a thing when Israel sang, bind the festal sacrifice with cords up to the horns of the altar. In this festive psalm of thanksgiving and praise to God for his salvation, the overflow of the people in this celebration is to offer up a sacrifice to God, but the sacrifice is to be bound. Bind the festal sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar. For very, very practical reasons was this done. Animal sacrifices were not willing. There was apprehension. There was reluctance, instinct to tell them something's going on. The psalmist then, reflecting on those sacrifices, admonishes God's people to bind the sacrifice with cords to the altar. That's a very small point, but I think it has great theological significance. In a similar way, just to probe a little bit deeper, to get you thinking about maybe a familiar text you've read a lot, Genesis 22, It's familiar. It's about God commanding the sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham. God tells Abraham to take his firstborn son to the promised land of Moriah and offer him as a burnt offering on the mountain. The account reads a little like this. So Abraham took in his hand the fire and the knife and so they went both of them together. And Isaac said to his father Abraham, my father. And he said, here I am my son. He said, Behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? Abraham said, God will provide himself a lamb for the burnt offering, my son. So they went both of them together. When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built an altar and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac, his son, and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. Now, many reading this passage, and I've read it this way in the past, just thinking through it, and maybe not as deeply as I should, may come to the conclusion that Isaac displays a perfect willingness to die. He just lays there on the wood. Scripture doesn't record that he put up a fight. But there's something in verse 9 that can be easily overlooked. It says that Abraham built an altar, laid the wood on it, and bound Isaac. His son. Beloved, I submit to you that things don't need binding which are not willing to escape. Isaac must have put up some sort of resistance. There must have been apprehension in his heart. He certainly had questions. Just as any animal offered upon the bronze altar would have surely been restrained because of their reluctance, I think Isaac was bound so that he could not escape. And here's the picture I think we get in Christ's role as a perfect, silent, willing mediator. Christ offered Himself up with no apprehension in His heart. He offered Himself to His Father without struggle. The nails were in His hands and feet. They weren't there to keep Him on the cross. His heart kept Him there. The only perfect, silent, and willing sacrifice was Christ and Christ alone. He offered Himself willingly so that you may receive, by His perfect mediation, mercy willingly from God. Beloved, let that truth sink in. He offered Himself perfectly willing to the Father. But secondly, I think Christ was silently willing to die for sinners to show the heinousness of sin. 2 Corinthians 5.21 says this, For our sake God made Him, Christ, to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. Theologians call this the doctrine of imputation. And imputation can be simply stated like this, God took every one of the sins of all the people who would believe in Him and placed them on Christ. as if they were his own, and then took all of the righteousness that belongs to Christ and placed it on the believer as if it was their own. When God imputes righteousness to us, it means that God thinks of Christ's righteousness as belonging to us. He reckons it to our account. Christ has no sin but ours, and we have no righteousness. but his. So when Christ became sin for us in the sight of God, he had to become silent before the judgment of God. Charles Spurgeon said this of Christ's silence, nothing can be said to excuse human guilt. And therefore he who bore its whole weight stood speechless before his judge. John Gill said, justice always gets its man. If God did not spare his own son who became sin, what do you think will be the outcome of those who want to answer for their own sin? It'll be hell forever. It's a terrible fate, and it's the day of all days. Calvin said this of Christ's silence. This was the reason for his silence at the judgment seat of Pilate. Though he had a just defense to offer, Having become answerable for our guilt, he wished to submit silently to the sentence that we might loudly glory in the righteousness of faith obtained by free grace. Romans 8.32, he who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how shall he not also graciously give us all things? So what are the implications of this? How does the rubber meet the road? How do we bring the hay off the loft? First, I think three implications, three observations. First, there's a caution in our suffering. Second, there's a call to service. And three, there's a cheering consolation. So we're going to see a caution in our suffering, a call to service, and a cheering consolation. First, caution in our suffering. 1 Peter 2.21 says, For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. If contentment is the testing ground of whether or not you believe in God's sovereignty, then one of the chief fruits of contentment is a silent reservation of your heart to God. Let me say that one more time. If contentment is the testing ground of whether or not you believe in God's sovereignty, then one of the chief fruits of contentment is a silent reservation of your heart to God. We are lambs in the midst of wolves, dear Christians. Let us not yell like swine when we're suffering. When we suffer, do we try to justify ourselves before men? Or do we entrust ourselves to God who judges justly? Christ was the pure, innocent Lamb of God. He brought no accusation. When you're wronged, do you instantly try to defend yourself with your words? Is it an overwhelming sense of justice in your heart or is it the idol of self-image being defended? Only after 39 chapters does Job come to the conclusion, I place my hand over my mouth. Let's take our example from our perfect patient Lord and consider that he was a lamb at the slaughter and silent before his shearers. Let us entrust our cause to God, provided we suffer for righteousness' sake." So first, there's a caution in our suffering. But second, there's also a call to service. The implications of Christ's willing sacrifice should show us how we should give up ourselves in service to God. Commenting on the American Board of Missions in his day, Charles Spurgeon said that the mission had for its seal an ox. with an altar on one side and a plow on the other." And the motto, ready for either. Ready to live and labor or ready to suffer and die. He goes on to say, we would gladly spend ourselves for the Lord actively or be spent by Him passively, whichever may be His will. But since we know the rebellion of our corrupt nature, we earnestly pray that we may be kept in this consecrated mind. and that we may never, under discouragements or through the temptations of the world, be permitted to leave the altar to which it is our intense desire to be forever fastened. I think the Apostle Paul's words are fitting. I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. And these things we can do by the Spirit's help. So there's a call to service in the suffering of Christ. But third, and finally, there's a cheering consolation. If Christ has offered Himself in such a sweetly silent way, in a willing way to the Father, you can be sure, if you are not sure about anything else tonight, that God in Christ is pleased with you. He's pleased with you. In the silence of the Messiah, God spoke. He said, this is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. If you are in Christ, the Father is as pleased with you as He is with His very own Son. It's amazing. Thomas Matten says this, Christ gave Himself cheerfully and willingly for you. Therefore the Lord loveth Him and loveth you for His sake. Among the heathens, a sacrifice that came unwillingly to the altar was thought a bad omen. O Christians, your sacrifice came willingly. He is not dragged to the altar with rigor, but he went as a lamb to the slaughter and a sheep that before his shearers is silent. Go, urge it to God. Willing sacrifices are pleasing to Him. Jesus Christ did not offer Himself with a grudging mind. Now I can't stop here and I would be remiss to do so. There is a great cheering consolation for those who are in Christ, but what of the fate of the ungodly? The Christian has in Christ a meek and mild Savior in all humility. Although Isaiah 53 doesn't mention this, it is the flip side of things. Isaiah prophesies of the meek lamb slain for sinners, but there is another prophecy and its startling account of the final judgments recorded in Revelation. It reads like this, Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems, and He has a name written that no one knows but Himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which He is called is the Word of God. And the armies of heaven arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following Him on white horses. From His mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On His robe and on His thigh, He has a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Elsewhere the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and the rocks, fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who is seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. For the great day of their wrath has come and who can stand? For any of you who are in here, tonight who have not bowed the knee to Christ. Christ has appeared as a meek lamb for sinners. But there is coming a day when He will return as a lion to make war. Men who once hid their faces from this lamb in spite of Him will one day cry out for the mountains to fall on them. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. I ask you, as one great prophet of old asked his contemporaries, why will you die? God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, therefore repent and live. It's a radical truth, but a truth nonetheless that one of the reasons anyone will end up in hell is that they want to be there. For now, Christ is a lamb slain. Gentle, lowly in heart, receive Him in this way. Before it's too late, there's coming a day when He will be to those who reject Him a savage and unbearable lion. Let's pray. We thank you for the silent, willing suffering of the lamb. We realize that he is our all. We have nothing to offer you. I pray, oh God, if there would be any here tonight who do not know you, that they would see the meekness of the lamb slain for sinners. And that you would strike fear in their hearts of the coming lion in judgment. They will not escape. that will beg for the mountains to fall upon them. What a terrible day. But we thank you, O God, that you have given us Christ. Thank you for the lamb slain. We cannot praise you enough, O God, would you consecrate our lives to be in service to you like the ox, ready to plow. O God, give us strength, we're ready to die on the altar, whatever it may be. May your holy will be done in Christ's name.