Let us pray. Father, again, how we thank you for your blessed word of truth, for the opportunity to again gather around your word. Father, these are mere words on pages, unless by your spirit you make them live to us. And so, God, we pray that you would enliven your word. cause them to not only come to our ears, but to our very hearts. Cause them not only to bring us outward joy, but cause them to bring us that inward peace that only your spirit can give. We look to you now, and I ask that the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts would be acceptable in thy sight. For as in Jesus' name we pray, amen. This morning we began to look at this prophecy of Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 53, a tremendous prophecy that is a pinnacle in the book. It's that high place that God brings us and allows us to stand upon and to look out over all that he has done in bringing to us salvation. through the years as I have looked at this chapter, and one of the reasons I started meditating upon it and thinking about it, not only because I like the book of Isaiah, but because I came across a series of sermons written by James Durham, that old Puritan preacher. Well, actually, he wasn't very old. He died in his 20s, but in those brief years that God gave him in ministry, he preached a series of sermons on Isaiah 53. actually preached 57 sermons before the Lord took him home on this particular chapter of this prophecy. And one of the things he said in that book, which I have found to be very true, there is not a piece of gospel truth missing from the verses of this chapter. Not a piece. All that we are to believe concerning God and all the duty that God requires of us is either explicitly stated for us here in these words or by good and necessary consequences can be deduced from the statements that are made. Now there is not a whole lot of places that you can actually say something like that. Joseph Carlyle preached for 39 years on the book of Job, but the book of Job is a pretty large book and it's pretty easy to get to all the major heads of divinity from a whole book, but you can do so from these 12 verses in Isaiah chapter 53. The response of men, the goodness of God, the salvation that comes to us in Jesus Christ are all laid down for us here. But tonight we're going to be looking at one theme that is set for us here in the midst of this book that we will refer to or talk about this doctrine as the humiliation of Christ. The humiliation of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Now this is not a doctrine that is unfamiliar to us as Christians. We know from the testimony of the New Testament that God humbled himself in his son, our Savior Jesus Christ, and in tabernacled himself among men. The Apostle Paul writes to Timothy in 1 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 16, Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifested in the flesh. Now we sometimes forget about the mystery of this doctrine. The Apostle Paul writes again about it in the book of Philippians, chapter 2, when he says to us, let this line be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, though being God, counted not equality with God as something to be grasped, but he emptied himself, and he took upon himself the form of a servant. and being found in the likeness of a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." Now sometimes as we read these words, we tend to overlook the great mystery that's involved in the incarnation or the humiliation of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And we can testify to that as we come into our Christmas season. That time of year where we call to remembrance the incarnation or the humiliation of Christ, His entabernacling among men, we celebrate it as a festive time. We celebrate it as a time of great beauty. And yet the scripture pictures for us the humiliation of Christ in any way but that sentimental way that we often look at it. Some years ago there was in the New Horizons magazine a little picture of a manger scene. And around this manger scene it had donkeys and cows and it also had elephants and giraffes and all kinds of different animals. And it asked the question of the children, what other animals do you think were around at the time of Christ's birth? Well, I was very happy at the picture from the perspective that it didn't show a little baby Jesus in the manger, since I would consider that to be a violation of the second commandment in making a graven image, but I was a little bit distrust by the message that it was communicating to our children that somehow the incarnation, somehow the humiliation of Christ was something easy, something joyous in the sense that Christ was born in this nice little place with all kinds of animals around with big smiles on their faces and looking as if somehow all of this was just natural, all of this was just the ordinary. instead of the extraordinary that it really was. The Bible tells us that Christ humbled himself and took upon himself the form of a servant. In fact, as we would read in the larger catechism, The larger catechism tells us that part of the humiliation of Christ was that he was born with diverse circumstances of more than ordinary abasement. Christ wasn't born in a nice hospital where they have all the medical technologies that we would have today. He wasn't born in a sterile environment. He wasn't born in luxury. He wasn't born great. He was born in a stable. where there were flies and dung and filth. He was born outside of the common life course of men in the sense that he didn't have all the opportunities that we had. He humbled himself. He was obscure. The Bible goes on to remind us, as we would read this chapter, he had no form or comeliness that we should desire him. He was not like an Alexander the Great. He was not like a Charlemagne. He was not like a great leader among men from a worldly perspective. There was nothing in him that we would desire him. But that really doesn't get to the heart of the humiliation of Christ. that the scripture would have and call to our attention here when it says to us that He was born among men. You see, it was not that he just simply was born of more than ordinary abasement, but that is highlighted by the fact of who he was and what he laid aside in entabernacling himself among men. The reality of the humiliation was that Christ, the Lord of glory, the creator of heaven and earth and all that in them is, that one who holds all things in the palm of his hands, who speaks his word that never returns to him void. It was that one who set aside his glory, veiled his majesty, and entabernacled himself among men. It was that one who came among us. It was that one who was despised and rejected. It was that one who came unto his own, but his own received him not. You see, one of the things that was taking place in the early church, and one of the reasons why I had the Apostle Creed read tonight, because I wanted us once again, as God's people, to consider the reality. One of the things that was going on in the early church, and by the rejection of the divinity of Christ, was that they were saying, God cannot so humble himself to take upon himself a human body and a reasonable soul. that God cannot incarnate himself, that it would be impossible to do. So either Jesus had to be God and not really a man, or he had to be a man and not really God. But the reality, the truth of the doctrine we proclaim in the humiliation of Christ is that this God, who created heaven and the earth and all that in them is, and tabernacled himself among us so that he really was Emmanuel, God with us. It was Christ, the Lord of glory. The necessity of Christ's humiliation, as we would see it in terms of the gospel, was that if God was going to save us, his creature, it was necessary that our mediator be both God and man. One of the ways I like to look at it is that Christ is to stand between God and man. And the only way he could hold, as it were, to use this analogy, God's hand, is if he is divine. Because only the divine can be in full relationship with the divine. The scripture says to us, if Christ was going to hold the hand of God, He must be fully God, and we know Him to be the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. But if He was also going to hold our hand as our Redeemer, and not simply as our Creator, He must be a man. He must be the God-man. And the only way for God to be and to take upon Himself the form of a man is by humbling Himself. is by taking that step, as the songwriter says, emptying himself, veiling his glory, assuming unto himself our nature, that he might hold our hand and bring us and reconcile us to God. He must not simply be man, but he must be a man like us. And the scripture says to us as we read, for he grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground. He had no form or majesty that we should look at him and no beauty that we should desire him, but he was still a man. He was still like us. There was nothing in him that would have tipped us to look at him and say, ah, there is something unique about this man. He looked just like you and I would look. Christ did humble himself. and it was necessary for our redemption that he be humble and be like us, that he might redeem us from our sins. Now this is the great assumption of this chapter. It is that great underlying truth that the humiliation of Christ, the incarnation of Christ, his assuming unto himself a human nature is true and was necessary. This is not God just simply saying, hey, this would be a good way to save sinful men. I think I'll go down and live among them for a little while and show them how I love them and show them how kind I am. And then I'll just come back up here and live in heaven. No, Christ did humble himself and that humiliation was absolutely necessary. And so this chapter tells us about that humiliation as our confession of faith and catechisms remind us the extent of Christ's humiliation consists in these ways. First, that he was born. And as our shorter catechism says, that he was born and that in a lowly condition. Think about it. The reality of what the gospel message is, that God humbled himself, was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary and born of her. God who created the heavens and the earth and all that in them is. It's not unusual for us to think of ourselves as being born, but to talk about that humiliation of God who created all of life, who gives to life all breath, who by his sovereign providence controls all things living and inanimate. He humbled himself to be born of a woman and with diverse circumstances of more than ordinary abasement. Again, that lowly birth in a manger, in a stable, in Palestine, so many thousands of years ago. Not in the technological age in which we live. But he also humbled himself according to scripture, and as we would read, that he was born and born under the law. that he who was the great law maker, who formed all the laws and all the facts of the universe as we know them. I like to put it this way, especially, why does 2 plus 2 equal 4? It's a law of mathematics. That's what we were told when we were going to school. But it's a law because Christ said 2 plus 2 equals 4. There's the law of gravity that we learn about. Why do things stay on the ground? Because of that law of gravity. Why does that which we throw up come down? Because of the law of gravity. And here the very God who made the laws of the universe, every scientific law, every scientific precept, every moral obligation, this very God humbled himself under the law, submitting himself to the very laws that he created. So they walked on this earth. We can't fathom what it is to be omnipresent. We will never fathom that incommunicable attribute. how it is possible to be everywhere all at once, but to be so immense that nothing of this world can contain you, but to be so imminent in your creation that there is not one square inch of this world where you are not. God is omnipresent, but he came and then tabernacled himself, limiting himself to time and space for you and I, born under the law. and, as the scripture says, born under the law and all the miseries of this life. In his human body, feeling hunger and thirst, knowing what it was to have the everyday common infirmities of a body as it dwells in the midst of this fallen world, in his spirit, understanding poverty, sorrow, and rejection. Psalm 22 and verse 6 says that he was rejected by men, rejected by Judas, rejected by his disciples, rejected by the world. He came unto the world which he had made, and they received him not, the scripture says. On that day, when He stood before Pontius Pilate, the multitudes yelled, Give us Barabbas, crucify Jesus, the Creator of heaven and the earth. The Scripture says that was a misery to Him. As He stood before Jerusalem, as He came in that Passion Week, He cried out, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, O how I would have gathered you as a hen gathers her chicks, but you would not. When he came to the grave of Lazarus, he wept. His heart was broken as his friend had died. He felt the sorrow and the pain of Martha and Mary in their bereavement. He knew what it was to be hated among men. He knew all the miseries of this life. But even in his humiliation, the scripture says to us that he was tempted in all points, such as we are yet without sin. Now when we begin to talk about the doctrine of the impeccability of Christ, which is that teaching that Christ, both in his human nature and his divine nature, couldn't sin, we sometimes, if we hold to that doctrine, we sometimes minimize the reality of the temptations of Christ. We read in Luke chapter 4 about how Jesus, by the Spirit, was led into the wilderness and the devil comes to tempt him. And he tells him to turn rocks into bread. He tells him to cast himself off of the pinnacle. He tells him to disobey the Lord. And Christ easily says to us, and reminds us and shows us how he resists the temptation of Satan. Or we think about the reality where Christ says, I've come not to do my will, but to do the will of Him who sent me. And we realize, or we fail to realize, the full extent of the temptations that Christ felt that he struggled through, that he fought against. The Bible reminds us in the Garden of Gethsemane that he fought temptation to the point of sweating blood. Medically, that means the capillaries in his body were bursting because of the pressure that he was under. So even the angels came to minister to him physically, born under the law. under all the miseries of this life. But it doesn't stop there. All of us have experienced the miseries of this life. We know what it is to live under the law. We were born. But thank God we will not experience this next thing that encompasses part of the humiliation of Christ when it says, he was not only despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted his grief as one from whom men hid their faces. He was despised and we esteemed him not. Yes, he bore our griefs, carried our sorrows. We esteemed him smitten, smitten by God and afflicted by the Most High. Born under the law, all the miseries of this life, the wrath of God. Many people don't like to read the Bible. And one of the reasons they don't like to read the Bible is because it talks about God's wrath and judgment. If we were to read these chapters prior to chapter 40 in the book of Isaiah, chapters 13 through 39, about God's pending wrath and judgment upon the nations, if we are the least bit sensitive, to what the scripture there is teaching us, it should terrify us. The Bible says, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God because our God is a consuming fire. And often that's how the scripture depicts him, as a fire who consumes all unrighteousness and all ungodliness with a vengeance and a hatred that leaves nothing to escape. Completely consuming that which lies before it. And it was the reality of that suffering under the wrath of God that caused Christ to say in the garden, Father, if it's possible, let this cup pass from me. The cup of God's fury and wrath. You see, Jesus was not going to just take a little taste of the fury of God. He was going to drink that cup all the way down to the dregs. till there was nothing left that caused him to cry out on the cross as we read in Psalm 22 and in the Gospels accounts, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why hast thou turned thy back on me? Why hast thou poured out the full fury of thy indignation and judgment upon me for the sins of men? You see, it was nothing for them to pierce his side with a spear. It was nothing for them to pound nails through his hands and his feet. It was nothing for them to put crown of thorns upon his head. It was the full fury of God's wrath that broke the back of Christ on Calvary's cross. And the scripture says that Christ knew the full extent of that fury that would be poured out upon him. And so he said, Lord, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me, but not my will be done, but thy will be done. Remember those two malfactors who are on the cross next to Him. One of them begins to ridicule Him and the other one says, Hush up! What is the matter with you? We are getting what we deserve. No, they weren't. Because what they deserved was being poured out upon the back of Jesus Christ. The full fury of God's indignation. that Christ would receive upon himself. But the extent of his humiliation doesn't stop with his being born, and being born under the law, or under the miseries of this life, or even the wrath of God. But the Scripture says to us, also included his death, the shameful, painful death of a cross. Think about all the ways to die physically. Can you imagine the agony and the pain of hanging upon Calvary's cross? That lingering slow way to die where your bones begin to dislocate one by one. You become dehydrated and your tongue begins to swell in your mouth. To where you lose all of your perspiration and slowly by slowly you feel your breath just choked out of your physical body. Not many more painful ways to die invented by men. But again, that's not the extent of the full extent of Christ's atonement. It's just not physical death. It's just not life going out of this body. But it is that death, that separation from God, that death symbolizes that being cut off, as it were. And the scripture tells us that Christ died in his humanity. He was cut off from God. That God had utterly and completely forsaken him. And then they took his body and they put it in the grave. And he remained under the power of death for a time. For three days and three nights, the humanity of Christ was separated. He humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. He was despised and rejected of men. We esteemed him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. And the scripture says, this was his humiliation. that He left the throne of glory, not with some kind of idea that He was going to turn us around, but that He would come and dwell among us and give His life as a ransom for many, that He came to die, and not just any death, but to humble Himself to that painful and shameful death of the cross. that we who are dead in our trespasses and sins. Because it goes on to say in verse 5, but he was wounded for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquity, upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his strikes we are healed. All we like sheep had gone astray. We had turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord laid on Christ the iniquity of us all. You see, Christ humbled himself. Now, what is amazing, once again, about this humiliation of Christ was that Christ's humiliation was voluntary. He was not made by God the Father to do this. There was no necessity, there was no intrinsic necessity that Christ had to incarnate himself among us. He could have simply said, let man perish in his sin. As my father used to say to me when I was a boy, you make your bed, you lie in it. Christ could have simply said, you made your bed, you lie in it. But he humbled himself voluntarily. He set aside the glory of heaven for the shame and the pain of this life to bring us reconciliation. Now Christ's humiliation, the scripture would remind us, did not destroy his essential glory. It simply veiled it. It simply brought the glory of Christ into relationship with our humanity, with his humanity. That great hymn that we sing, And Can It Be, speaks in that one verse. He emptied himself of all but love. Wesley got it wrong. He didn't empty himself of love. He didn't empty himself of any of his essential deity. All he did was veiled his glory. So that in that prayer, in John chapter 17, Christ prays and says, And now, Father, glorify me with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. on the Mount of Transfiguration, what did they see? They didn't see Jesus any more than what they saw when they saw Him every day, except they saw the full manifestation of His glory as He was transfigured before their eyes. But what does Christ's humiliation speak to us concerning? Well, first of all, as we read this chapter, Christ's humiliation exhibits to us the extent of God's love for sinful men. The Bible tells us that most of us probably would be willing to die for a loved one. I think I could sacrifice my life for one of my children if I saw them in some intimate danger. I don't think I would have a hesitation to simply give myself that they might be able to live. I don't know that I would necessarily be so inclined for a neighbor. I think maybe if I had the opportunity to be in the military and go to war, I could probably lay down my life for my country. But it would be something that I would think about long and hard. But I don't think I would lay down my life for my enemy, for those who despise and hate me, for those who despitefully use me. But the Bible says, in while we were yet sinners, while we were yet the enemy of God, that Christ died for us. He exhibits the extent of God's love, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. Behold what manner of love the Father hath given unto us that we might become the children of God. Greater love hath no man than this, than that he would lay down his life for others. Christ voluntarily humbled himself, dwelt among us, laid down his life for us. For no other explanation the scripture gives us other than he loves sinners. He loves the unlovable. He desires the undesirable. We have nothing to offer Him. What do we offer Him even as we are saved and brought near to Him? What do we offer to God that He does not already possess? Do we bring Him glory? He's the all-glorious One. Do we bring Him praise? He's the all-praiseful One. He lacks nothing. He's got the whole heavenly host to sing praise to His name. What do we bring to God that He doesn't already have? God didn't save us for anything that He could get from us. He saved us because He loved us. And he loved us to such an extent that he humiliated himself and was born, born under the law, under all the miseries of this life, to the wrath of God, to death itself, and to remain under the power of death for a time. But not only does it exhibit the extent of God's law, but it also displays for us the severity of God's justice. You see, as Christ hangs upon that cross, we see the love of God, God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son. He gave Him to that painful, shameful death of the cross, that we who are sinners might be reconciled to God. But it also shows us how God hates sin. He poured the full fury of His wrath upon His only begotten Son. God would not spare even Christ, but poured forth his wrath and his curse upon him. And the pain of that shameful death was not mitigated in any way. No man in history will ever suffer the anguish and the pain that our Savior suffered on Calvary's cross. Until that day, those who reject Him will know the full fury of God's wrath. And the Bible describes it this way, the worm never dies and the fires never quenched. There is weeping and gnashing of teeth. But those of us who have trusted in Christ, those of us who have given our lives unto Him because of the work of His Holy Spirit, Christ humbled Himself because of my sin to take upon His own shoulders, in His own bosom, that fury and wrath that was my due. And this is what this chapter in Isaiah 53 tells us about. that upon his shoulders were laid the wrath of God that was my due. He was repressed, oppressed, he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. Like a lamb he was led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away, and as for his generation, who considered? Who considered? But Isaiah calls us to consider. He calls us to consider three things. He would have us consider, first of all, the extent of our own separation from God. How great a distance there is between us and God. By our mere creation, there is the creature-creator distinction. God is God, and we are men. God is infinite, we are finite. God is eternal, immortal, invisible. And we have a beginning. We are born. But the extent of the distance between us and God, that separation, is so great that Christ had to humble himself, take upon himself the form of a servant, and be found in the likeness of men, humbling himself, even unto death, that he might bridge the gap. There was no device, there was no engine among men that was able to bridge the gap. No mechanical engineering could have built a bridge to cross the chasm, but Christ, in His humiliation, came and entabernacled Himself among men that He might bridge the gap and bring to us reconciliation to God. He would have us consider how we hate the sin that called for this humiliation of Christ. You see, sometimes we look at sin and we grieve for it, not because of what it gave or caused Christ to suffer, but because of what it causes us to suffer. It breaks my peace. It makes me feel uneasy. If I'm a young child, it makes me sometimes get the wrath of my parents. I get spanked. I get put on restriction. I don't like it. But the real ugliness of sin is what it did to Christ on Calvary's cross. Have we ever stopped and contemplated When we start talking about the Incarnation, what the purpose of the Incarnation was, the goal, the end mark, the finish line. The finish line of the Incarnation was Calvary's cross, Christ hanging, suffering under the full fury of God's wrath. And that which necessitated that was my sin. my rebellion against God. But also Isaiah would have us consider as we think about the humiliation of Christ, how for our sakes he suffered such agony in body and spirit that we might prize our salvation all the more. Remember Peter tells the believers in 1st Peter Brethren, we weren't born again or bought by gold and silver. Christ didn't bring all the rubies of heaven and all the diamonds and all the sapphires and all the precious stones and metals of heaven to buy our salvation. He purchased our lives with His own blood. He who knew no sin became sin for us, that we who are sinners might become righteous in him. He died our death. He considered our salvation to be of such value. The Bible says, for the joy that was set before Him for a redeemed people, He endured the cross, the painful, shameful death of the cross. He humbled Himself in tabernacling Himself among men. He prized our salvation to such a degree that He gave His life. How do we prize our salvation? Do we count it a light thing, or do we count it a glorious thing? Do we count it of no significance, or do we count it as being that pearl of great price, that blessing above and beyond all blessings, that blessing to which there is nothing greater? What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul? But if a man has his soul saved, what value is the world? The Bible reminds us and says to us, all we like sheep have gone astray. We all turned our own way and the Lord laid upon him the iniquity of us all. Verse 10, it was the will of the Lord to crush him and put him to grief. When his soul made an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring. He shall prolong his days. Out of the anguish of his soul, he shall see and be satisfied. Jesus will not lose one that the Father has given him, because by his knowledge shall the righteous one my servant make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. He shall divide him a portion with the many, and Christ shall divide the spoiled with the strong." See, we are where we are because Christ paid the price. He humbled himself and God kept his promise to Jesus and has given to him a seed. One of the glories of the book of Isaiah is that it tells us that seed won't be an insignificant seed. But as the stars of the heavens and the sands of the seashore, greater will be the number of those who stand on that day to praise Christ and to glorify God for so great a salvation. Isaiah says, who has believed our report? And we say this evening, thank God we have. Let us pray. Father, you are gracious and kind to us beyond measure. When we contemplate the cost of our salvation, your humiliation, your suffering, your shameful, painful death, we are humbled, oh Lord, before you. So great is salvation. Help us to prize it more and more. Help us to understand, God, the great salvation that you have given to us and the cost but the extent of your amazing love. But, oh Lord, help us also to understand the full fury of your wrath. that we might be more earnest and zealous in our prayers for loved ones who are lost, for our neighbors who are blind, for nations that are wandering in darkness. Father, cause your light to shine. For this we thank you and praise you in Jesus' name, amen. Our hymn of response this evening is found in the book of Psalms for singing, Selection number 146A. Selection number 146A, and we will sing it to the tune of What a Friend We Have in Jesus. 146A.