Our sermon today is taken from Isaiah 53, Isaiah 53, which we've read already together, and we will read it again just now. In Isaiah 53, the Lord Jesus Christ is shown forth, held forth as that suffering servant of the Lord. We see his pains, we see his misery. We see the vicarious nature of his sorrows and of his sufferings. These things are demonstrated unto us that he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. We see that the Lord hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all, that for the transgression of my people was he stricken. That it says, when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days. And so in all of these things we see the vicarious and substitutionary nature of the sufferings of Jesus Christ. He suffered not for any sin of his own, for he was a spotless lamb of God. But the sins of his people were laid upon his back. The sins of his people were imputed to him. He took the guilt and the sinfulness of his people upon him that he might suffer as their substitute in our place. We see his physical sufferings held forth to us in this chapter. We read that he was wounded. We read that he was bruised. It pleased the Lord to bruise him, it says in verse 10. But we see those physical sufferings, but we also see here his internal sufferings, the sufferings of his soul, because the greater part of the sufferings of Jesus Christ was not that which was inflicted upon his body by those Romans and by the Jews, but it was that which was poured into his soul by the immediate power and wrath of God upon his soul. And so we will focus this morning upon those internal sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ and particularly upon his sorrows. So verse 3, our Lord Jesus is called a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and then in verse 4, surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Our Lord's earthly life, the days of his humiliation, were characterized and marked by sorrow. We read him saying things like, now is my soul troubled. I am exceeding sorrowful, even unto death. Mark tells us that on the night that he was betrayed, he was sore amazed and very heavy. He's famous for having wept, Jesus wept, but we never once read that he laughed. That's not to say he never did laugh, but the Lord has not seen fit to record that or emphasize it, but instead the Lord emphasizes to us the sorrows of this man, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Indeed, he could say with Jeremiah, who was himself a type of Christ. Jeremiah is known as the weeping prophet. And as the weeping prophet, he was a type of Christ. And Jesus could say with him, behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow. which is done unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger. And I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And yet our Lord Jesus was not always the man of sorrows. He was not always acquainted with grief he is from all Eternity the blessed son of God with all perfection and all sufficiency in himself. Have you ever considered the blessedness of God as one of his divine attributes as one of his Perfections that we have a God who is full of all that is blessed and there is no spot of sorrow in him. We have not a God who is in his transcendence somehow impersonal or austere, but we have a God who is full of rejoicing. We read of Jesus Christ, we read of the eternal Son of God and his joy in Proverbs chapter 8. Proverbs chapter 8, where we read of him as wisdom personified, the wisdom of God who was with God in the beginning. This passage is a very close parallel with John 1, where we read of Christ as the Word of God. So we read this in Proverbs 8, starting in verse 22. The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. I was set up from beginning, wherever the earth was. When there were no depths, I was brought forth. You see that language of being begotten. When there were no depths, I was brought forth. When there were no fountains abounding with water, before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth. while as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world. When he prepared the heavens, I was there. When he set a compass upon the face of the depths, when he established the clouds above, when he strengthened the fountains of the deep, when he gave to the sea his decree that the water should not pass his commandment, when he appointed the foundations of the earth, listen to this, then was I with him as one brought up with him, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him, rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth. and my delights were with the sons of men." So here we see that the eternal son of God was the daily, the father's delight, and that the son of God here was rejoicing always before him. This is that essential joy, essential blessedness, which Christ possesses by virtue of his divinity in the perfect image of the blessed Father, the express image of his nature. And so our Lord Jesus Christ is God most blessed. And yet this eternally blessed Son of God, this One who is blessedness itself, took sorrow upon Himself when He took to Himself the dust of our miserable humanity. And isn't it remarkable that at this moment when the blessed Son of God takes upon Him our sorrows in His incarnation, it is described by the angel as glad tidings of great joy, glad tidings of great joy. When our Lord Jesus Christ, for the first time, felt with his human capacities the weakness and the misery of our nature, knowing the weakness of newborn infancy, feeling the blade of the knife of circumcision cutting into his flesh, shedding drops of his own precious blood even in his infancy. He was from his childhood a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. These are the sufferings. This is the sorrow of our Lord Jesus Christ. But secondly, we will consider the sympathy of Christ, the sympathy of Christ, because these sorrows of the Lord Jesus, this doctrine of the sorrow of the Lord Jesus contains in it a sweetness for the soul of the Christian. we have the sympathy of the Lord Jesus. So Hebrews chapter 4, Hebrews chapter 4 verses 14 and 15, seeing then that we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus, the son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was at all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. A high priest who can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities." Literally, when it says, We have not a high priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. It's literally who has not power to suffer with our infirmities. We have not a high priest who has not power to suffer with our infirmities. Because Christ took our sorrows upon himself, He has the power, the ability to be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. He knows what it's like by experience. We read of the father, we read of God having a pity for his people like a father pities his children. We read of the father remembering our frame, knowing that we are dust, but Jesus Christ is that dust. Jesus Christ took that dust to his own divine person. Jesus Christ took the weakness of our frame, yea, our weak frame itself, to himself. felt our weakness. And because of that, he has power to be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. And this is said of Jesus, not in terms of his earthly ministry, but in terms of his exaltation and his being that high priest seated in the heavens. He is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. When it says touched with the feeling, of our infirmities. It's literally, suffer with our infirmities. The Greek word is the word, supathesai. It's the word that we get the word sympathy from. Sympathy to suffer with our infirmities. He knows our weakness. He knows our sorrows by experience, and he's touched with the feeling of our infirmities. So are you sorrowful this day at the death of a loved one? Our Lord Jesus Christ wept. Jesus wept. When did he weep? he wept at the tomb of Lazarus. And we read not only that he wept, we read that he groaned within himself at that graveside. He's touched with the feeling of your infirmities when he sees your sorrow at the death of a loved one. Are you sorrowful at the betrayal of a trusted friend or a friend that you've sacrificed for? Consider Christ's sorrow at Peter's denial. Peter, part of his inner circle, one of those three disciples that he would take with him into the most intimate settings, one of those three disciples that he took with him into the Mount of Transfiguration, one of those three disciples that he led with him into the Garden of Gethsemane. This close friend, this confidential friend of the Lord Jesus Christ denies him. Just when Jesus is about to offer himself up for Peter's salvation, Peter's sinning against him even then. When Jesus is about to suffer for those very sins, Peter, out of his own weakness and the corruption of his nature, is sinning against Jesus Christ. So are you sorrowful? at the betrayal of a trusted friend, of a friend you've sacrificed for, of a friend you've given of yourself, for Jesus is touched with the feeling of your infirmities in heaven now. Are you sorrowful and afflicted at the consciousness of your own sins. If you're a true believer this day, I trust that the deepest sorrow that you feel in your soul is when you find that you have sinned against God. And you feel that sorrow, that grief, that right grief over your own sin. But sometimes this sorrow over our own sins can cause us to want to draw back from the Lord. It can cause us to want to hang away from the Lord and to be like Adam covering himself in the garden, hiding in the bushes, as it were, from the Lord. Well, as Jesus even touched with the feeling of that sorrow, touched with the feeling of sorrow for sin, well, he had not sin of his own to be sorrowful for, and yet he bore ours. He bore our sins. So closely did he identify with our sins that in Psalm 69, which as we've been seeing throughout today and seeing that it's the words of the Lord Jesus Christ in typical form, it's the words of David first, then the words of the Lord Jesus, In that psalm, he says, O God, thou knowest my foolishness, and my sins are not hid from thee. He had no sin of his own. He had no folly of his own. But so closely does he identify with the sins and with the folly of his people. He took them to himself. He stood as the one who had committed those things, although he had done none of them. To render that which I took not was I forced. I was forced to render that which I took not. And so he knows the feeling of being one who is guilty for sin because he took that guilt. When it says that my sins are not hid from thee, the word translated sins is literally guiltiness. My guiltiness is not hid from thee. Jesus Christ stood in the place of a sinner before the justice of God. He took the guilt of our sins to himself, and he knows what it is to be justly condemned by the law of God. That's his position. That was his position before God. This sense of his exposure to the offended wrath of God hung over him like a cloud. Now is my soul troubled, he said as those days approached before he was to be offered up for the sins of his people. He was conscious of the fact that he was naked and exposed as a guilty sinner before the wrath of almighty God. Jesus knows what that feels like. So when you have sinned against God and you feel the guilt, you feel the sorrow, you feel exposed to the wrath of God. Jesus knows what that's like. And Jesus is touched with the feeling of your infirmities, even at times such as this. And so this should cause us not to somehow console ourselves as though it doesn't matter that we've sinned. No, no, but it should cause us to go to this great high priest who knows what it feels like. should cause us not to draw back from him saying I've offended Jesus Christ I've sinned against his grace I've sinned against his cross all of that's true but we aren't to draw back because of that because he died for those sins he died for those sins he died to put away your sins and so we're to bring those sins to him and he receives us as a compassionate high priest a sympathetic high priest who is touched with the feeling of those infirmities because he was made sin for us. Whatever the causes of your sorrow, there is sympathy in Christ for you. He is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. He bore your griefs. He carried your sorrows. And so when you're bowed down with that sorrow, bring it to him and say, Lord Jesus, has thou not carried this sorrow? Has thou not born this grief? Let us therefore, we read in Hebrews right after this, let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Indeed, we can say that we can come boldly to Jesus Christ because in taking our nature to himself, he has made himself approachable. He has made himself approachable to his own. Well, Christ's sorrows, as we've been saying, were not his own, but ours. He bore our griefs and he carried our sorrows. Why then did he do this? Why did he take our misery to himself? It was so that we might be filled with joy. This is a part of that great exchange, that we might be filled with joy. Consider as an example, beautiful example, Sarah, the wife of Abraham. Sarah, the wife of Abraham. She was old and stricken in age, having been barren in her womb for 90 years. When she receives the child of promise, receives the child of promise, that one who was an ancestor and a type of the Lord Jesus Christ, the true child of promise. And what does she call him? What is the name of the child that's born to this afflicted woman who has known misery and has known sorrow to the point that she was even willing to give her a handmaid to her husband if she might have something like a child of her own through her? What does she name the child of promise? What does God name the child of promise? Isaac. Laughter. Laughter. Why could Sarah laugh? Sarah could laugh because Jesus wept. Sarah could laugh and be filled with joy because Jesus was to bear her sorrows. He was to carry her griefs. She could be filled with joy because the child of promise had come into the world. This child was emblematic of all the promises of God. Indeed, the whole plan of salvation was bound up in the life of this little child, Isaac. because it was God had said to Abraham in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed and so the whole of man's salvation Sarah's salvation was bound up in this child of promise and he's named laughter he's named laughter and Sarah said when he was born and Sarah said God hath made me to laugh so that all that hear will laugh with me. And so we're given joy, we're given laughter. The Lord gives beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for heaviness. Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing. Thou hast put off my sackcloth and girded me with gladness. This is the result of Christ's sorrow. How did Christ accomplish it? that our sackcloth would be put off, that we'd be girded with gladness, it's because he took our sackcloth to himself. He bore our sackcloth. He bore our griefs and our sorrows before God that we might be clothed with gladness, joy unspeakable and full of glory. And yet the Christian's joy, though it's real in this life, And we all taste, if we're in Christ, we taste of the joy of the gospel. These glad tidings of great joy unto all men. Yet our joy in this life is not perfect. We don't yet have the fullness of this joy in this life. We are sorrowful, yet always rejoicing. Sorrowful, yet always rejoicing. Christ mingles in. sweetness with our sufferings. He mingles in comfort with our pain, joy with our sorrow. But fullness of joy awaits us in the world to come. When we hear those blessed words, enter thou into the joy. thy Lord enter thou into the joy of the Lord and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes and there shall be no more death neither sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more pain for the former things are passed away our Lord says in Revelation and then we will enter in to that blessed state before God, the beatific vision of God. This describes the Christian's vision and sight of God and communion with him, unbroken communion with him. The fullness of the revelation of God to the soul of man beyond anything you've experienced in this life is what awaits you in heaven. It's what makes heaven heaven. It's what makes eternity glorious. Because as we said, Blessedness is an aspect of God's divine nature. It's one of his attributes, and you will share in that blessedness. That blessedness will be revealed unto you in measure far beyond anything we can imagine. It's the beatific vision of God. That word beatific means blessed, or that which makes happy. the psalmist says in my presence is fullness of joy and that is literally fullness of joy is with my face with my face is fullness of joy and we will see him face to face we will see him as he is, and then we will know the fullness of that joy inexpressible, joy unspeakable, and full of glory, unbroken communion with God unto all eternity, the fullness of the revelation of God, which will satisfy our soul and fill us with joy unto all eternity. And just like the Son of God, the eternal Son of God said that I was rejoicing always before him. So we, being perfected in Christ's image, will be always rejoicing before God, because there's no limit. There's no fullness. The things of this world, which bring some happiness into our life, they quickly fade. We quickly lose our interest. But when we are beholding the face of God to all eternity, our souls will be filled and filled and filled with the joy and the wonder and the awe of the majesty of God and of his beauty. This is the beatific vision of God, fullness of joy. Well, seeing that we have this blessedness held out to us, this joy before us, let us not lose heart. This sorrow that we have in this life, it will quickly pass away. We're only in this world for a brief time. We don't know the brevity of our time in this world. It might be much more brief than what you've even conceived. And for the Christian, that's a blessed prospect because we'll enter into the joy of our master, enter into the joy of our Lord, enter in before the face of our God. But however long or however brief our time in this world is, it is But a moment it is brief and so seeing that we have this blessedness held out before us though. We walk through a valley of the shadow of death in this life. Let's not lose heart. Let us run with patience. the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. And so let us take heart and be encouraged because the Lord Jesus Christ, you will never experience the dark night that he experienced, and he endured it. He endured it for the joy that was set before him. That was a joy that consisted, yes, in part in his exaltation, that consisted in his rising again from the dead and being seated at the right hand of God, but it also consisted in his seeing the travail of his soul. He shall see the travail of his soul, and his soul shall be satisfied. What is that? The travail of his soul. It's talking about the sons and the daughters that he was laboring to bring forth in his death. That's you and me. So his joy is perfected. We're speaking of his human joy. His divine joy is immutable, but his human joy increases. increases and increases as he sees sons and daughters born unto himself and as he receives them in to the joy of their Lord. This was set before him and it caused him to endure the cross, despising the shame. It was nothing to be accounted for. in his mind compared to what he was heading toward, compared to the delight that he had in your salvation and in the eternal fruit of that salvation and the communion which was to be held with you through all eternity. and in the glory which he was getting to his father's name through it all. And if these things strengthened our Lord Jesus Christ, then we, who have much lighter afflictions than he had, who have much greater comforts of soul than he had, can take heart and persevere and endure in this race unto the end. So let's not lose heart, but let's persevere to the end through faith unto salvation, for we have great things set before us and a great example in the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's stand and seek our God in prayer. Our blessed Heavenly Father, we thank Thee for the wonders of Thy grace in Thy Son, Jesus. We thank Thee for His perseverance that He endured the cross, despising the shame. We thank Thee for that wondrous and amazing love wherewith He loved us, gave Himself for us. We marvel at the testimony of the Holy Scriptures that he rejoices over us with singing, that he sees the travail of his soul and is satisfied, that he sees his seed, prolongs his days, the pleasure of the Lord prospers in his hand. What a wonder to be part of such a glorious plan of redemption, to be the recipients of such lavish grace. We pray, O Lord, that we would all take these things to heart, that we would not fall back into that legal and unbelieving spirit which draws back from the Lord, which says, I'm not worthy to receive these things, and therefore I'll shrink back from them because of my sins. No, no, help us to draw near with boldness. despite our sins, bringing our sins before thy presence to be healed. Coming, O Lord, like the leper came to Jesus and said, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. So, Lord, we bring our sins unto thy presence and say, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make us clean. So, Lord God, receive us. this day for the sake of that offering for sin, thy son, Jesus Christ, and help us, Lord God, to take these things to heart, to persevere. Lord, help us who have considered how that Christ was touched with the feeling of our infirmities and help us, Lord God, to meditate on these things and to be touched with the feeling of his infirmities. Seeing these things are revealed to us for the comfort of our own souls. So Lord be gracious unto us and may thy spirit continue with us for we ask these things in Jesus name, amen.