If you would, go back with me to Isaiah 53. Verse 10 through 12 this morning. And I wanna speak to you. on his soul was made an offering for sin. Would you bow with me? Let us pray together. Our Father, neither do I, understand or grasp the significance of the garden and the cross and what took place in your own heart as you looked upon your son and then turn your back. Not because of the anguish or the weight of it in thine own heart, but because of what he became. No better description could we ever think about there other than what he told Nicodemus as a serpent was hung on the pole. And so was our Lord. And thy heart, O God, had to leave him there, turn away from him. And now it seems that we, even in our best days, are careless. And we don't stop long enough. to consider and have a moment of silence in our own soul as we look at such a spectacle. Father, grasp these hearts and that by The word spoken, but that must be by thy direction and guidance and by thy spirit. And their hearts must have been opened by thy spirit to receive. Father, give a correct utterance and one of wisdom. Father, would you, would you grasp or make our hearts to grasp a little more of what transpired there. From the time of the Last Supper until that great cry, it is finished. Let us see our Lord Jesus. Forgive us for our Lukewarmness in these areas. Maybe even sometimes a very cool heart. And honor your son today as only thy spirit can do. And let us leave with an appreciation, with a greater love, a greater hunger, a greater desire to know our Redeemer. Give help, be thou glorified, O God, as you exalt your Son. We pray in his name, amen. Verse number 10 of Isaiah 53. Yet it pleased, or the Lord took delight, to bruise him, his son. He hath put him to grief when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. He shall see a seed, he shall prolong his day, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. And by his knowledge, my righteous servant justify many." That is a specific number, the many. Can't make less out of it than what God said here. Those justified have had their iniquities laid upon the Lord Jesus, for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great and he shall divide the spoil with the strong because he hath poured out his soul unto death. And he was numbered with the transgressors and he bared the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors. Three times in three verses, it spoke about the soul of our Lord. and the effect that you now have because of that and will have if you are in him throughout eternity. Now, you know the closer that you are connected or attached to another, the greater you are affected by their pain, their grief and their sorrow. There has not one tear that you've ever shed or one sorrow that you've ever had to bear that your Lord didn't feel that. He is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. It is said that a righteous man regardeth the life of his beast. He gonna take care of them, look after them, provide for them. And yet wicked and ungodly think nothing about it. And there on the cross, looking down, Jesus saw his mother and the disciples standing by whom he loved. And he said to his mother, behold, thy son. But he didn't call her mother, not out of disrespect, but he placed her in that of humanity, woman. Your entrance into glory will be by me. Not all that you know of me, not all that we've shared growing up, but your entrance and following me will be based on what transpired here today and how you receive that. The old man there, when they brought Jesus at that age to be circumcised, the old man Simeon looked at Mary and said, a sword's gonna pierce thy heart. Now folks, if we are members of his church, then can we go through life without that sword? piercing us, not to the degree that it did to Mary, but that sword piercing our hearts. You think it possible? Now to the title, to the text, his soul was made an offering. God looking at the travail of that soul. God seeing that he poured out his soul unto death, then you enter glory based upon him. Now there are some things in the household of faith that we all differ to a degree here or there. Things that we say are not crucial to salvation, but as to the atonement of our Lord on Calvary, there can be no disagreements. To become a member of Christ's church, Christ's body, Christ's bride, repentance and faith are necessary, and on that we cannot disagree. There is but one door. If you do not enter in with that door into heaven, but you climb up some other way, you are a thief and a robber. You and I cannot disagree on that. There is a narrow path. Not only must you start on it, but you must finish, complete that path. No disagreement, we cannot there. No man cometh unto the Father, but by Him. We all, we all are in agreement. No one can disagree. Salvation is by faith alone. It is not by works. It is the gift of God. I like the old German Lutheran theologian, And what he said, I like to keep it in mind in preaching and in fellowship with those of like faith. One of the most noted of all the Puritans, Richard Baxter, adopted it as a motto. And here's what the old gentleman said. In essentials, unity. In non-essentials, liberty. In all things, charity. I mention this because I differ with some of my friends concerning the cup and what it is and what it was. Many say that the cup was Jesus asking the Father to remove it from him, which was the cross. It might be. I cannot prove that it wasn't. I have no desire to be different than that. This we agree and we must in essentials unity that the death of Christ was essential. I cannot, nor can anyone disagree with me on that. The blood in the lamb, like the blood in the basin was of no effect. God told Israel, you take a lamb and you kill it for the Passover. And you take that hyssop and you dip it in the basin of blood and you strike the lintel and the side post. And if the angel, death angel sees that blood, he will Passover. But even the very blood of Christ that is not applied by the Spirit of God to your heart and to your sins is of no effect. Will God let that blood fall to the ground and it be useless or wasted? No. It took every drop to purchase and to cleanse a church, his bride. And in the Old Testament, the priest, the priest was to take some of the blood, and upon the tip of the right ear, upon the thumb of the right hand, and our King James calls it, and upon the great toe of the right foot, from head to toe, You take that blood and you sprinkle it on these parts. Essential, his death, his resurrection and the new birth. You cannot disagree with anyone, nor can anyone disagree with you concerning those three things. And of the necessity of the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit. Not a decision you made, not a prayer you prayed. Not you accepting Jesus, but a regenerating work of the Spirit creating in you a new heart. That's the only thing whereby you will enter glory. No one can disagree with that. That is another one of those essentials. The Lordship of Jesus Christ, essential. Some say, well, it is not so with salvation, but you can make him Lord later in life. We cannot in no way agree with that. Jesus Christ as Lord only saves an individual. So his Lordship is essential for your salvation and not him being Lord someday later. He's that, begins that the moment that the Spirit of God works in your soul. You can't find any place in this holy book, divinely inspired word that teaches that man has the option of making him Lord. Paul said of the Lord of glory being crucified, an essential part of the gospel. No disagreement. The son of God must be crucified, and that on a tree. For Galatians 3, 13, cursed is everyone that hangeth upon a tree. His death had to be by that instrument. There was no other way in which he could have died. Wicked men might have hung him there, but they were only carrying out the divine purpose and design of his father. That cross, it was the most shameful of all deaths and produced the greatest torture. It had been used before the Romans ever began using it in crucifying a man, putting him to death. But they, fine-tuned it, so to speak. And they got that where it could exact the greatest amount of pain possible on a human being. And God was sovereign over all things and all men and permitted that cross for them to perfect it to that degree. Christ, without clothing, in great shame and humiliation, died not as an innocent victim, that which will always be to us. but he passed through all that as a guilty, a guilty man. You must get to him. You must, you must find and have a great interest in his death. John Owen, the old great divine's mind was, he wrote a good work there on the death of deaths and the death of Christ. My, what a death. So I'm going to vary a little. with some of my friends that say he asked to be removed from the death of the cross. But I hope that you'll give me an opportunity to prove my point here. Would you turn with me to John 12? From here, we go back to the Psalms and come back to Matthew. whatever the cup was. And we can disagree on that, but we cannot disagree on the death of Christ and his sufferings to pay your eternal debt. In John chapter 12, beginning with verse 24, the Lord Jesus And all of you here know well what this means. Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn, or in our language, a grain of wheat, fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it, and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. If any man serve me, let him follow me, and where I am, there shall also my servant be. If any man serve me, him will my father honor." Now listen in Mark verse 27. Now is my soul troubled. Here's a kernel of corn. Here's that grain of wheat that knows that he must fall into the ground, that he must die. And he looks ahead, my soul is troubled. And what shall I say? Father saved me from this hour, but for this cause came I unto the hour. Whatever conclusion you might leave with, the death of Christ is an absolute necessity. How he died, we cannot differ on that. The method in which he died, we cannot disagree on that. Cursed was that man that God hung on the tree that day. So whatever conclusion you might leave with, His death, or it being something prior to the cross, eternal life does not depend upon which one of these that you accept. And now some are going to say, well, why deal with it anyway? Because I would like and hope and pray that God, by His Spirit, might enable all of us to look further into His sufferings, there that your love might increase. and that you might go away with a determination for a greater devotion to him than you've ever had, or that your dedication might be broadened beyond that that it is this day. One thing Paul wanted to know was the fellowship of his suffering. Our Lord was called the man of sorrows in previous verses there in Isaiah 53. But he was a man of sorrow throughout life. But there, it became something different. The travail of his soul. He poured out his soul unto death. thou shalt make his soul an offering. And there in the garden, my soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death. He's ready to die there in the garden for the grief that he's bearing in that body. The Roman scourge might have pulled out great chunks of his flesh. and ripped open the blood vessels and those large spikes that they drove into his hands and to his feet and the crown of thorn. It added to the pain of our Lord Jesus. But many folks suffered like that before Christ ever got to the cross. Nobody. They might've died as a lost man. pain and the physical pain of the cross there, but nobody died with the sin of someone else pouring in upon his soul. No one. No scourge, no nails, no thorns, all that in his body but being in exceeding sorrow even unto death." That was before the whip. That was before the arteries or veins in his back were laid open and blood began dropping from that body. He prayed more earnestly in that garden and his sweat became as it were great drops of blood. And there he said, Father, if I'll be willing, remove this cup. But here in John, he said, no, I was destined to fall into the ground. And I was predetermined to die that I might bring forth other fruit, more fruit, abundant fruit. He was ready to die there. But he asked his father, Lord, if I'll be willing, our father, if I'll be willing to remove this cup, all that the angel could do, dear soul, all that the angel could do. And an angel from heaven appeared unto him He did not remove the cup. He did not lessen the sufferings. He just strengthened your Savior in His sufferings. The pain could not have been reduced. No way. Not if He's going to save a people from their sin. Now go with me to the 40th Psalm. 40th Psalm. Verse 11, start with me. You're looking at a greater than David here, though David was in this condition. Withhold not thy tender mercies from me, O Lord. Let thy loving kindness and thy truth continually preserve me. For innumerable evils have compassed me about. My iniquities have taken hold upon me. And as a young Christian and for years following, I could not understand how Christ could begin to bear the iniquities of all his children and call them mine. Is it that serious? Is there that close a connection between my iniquities becoming his iniquities? Innumerable evils have compassed me about. Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me so that I'm not able to look up. They are more than the hairs of my head. Therefore, my heart faileth me." My heart, not going to endear this. It's failing me in the midst of torment and torture and anguish. God the Father looked and he saw that holy soul that God had made to be sin. Jesus, he was made sin. 2 Corinthians 5.21, took your sins. Child, if you get into glory, it'll be based upon Christ in the garden, but he suffered. He was a man of sorrows all through life. But he who knew no sin was made sin. He became that from which all eternity, Adam and Eve and all their generations were dying. Why were they dying? Because of sin. Here he was in the garden, face on the ground. He said, I can't look up. Mine iniquities, they've taken such a grip upon me that I cannot hold up my head. The weight is too great. Bowed down there, suffering as a man never had. And a body so weak that he wonders, will I get to the cross? You say, well, he knew he'd get there. You forget he's dying as a man. I mean, how are you gonna put God to death? He who is life. He's dying as a man. And it seems impossible. Not able to lift up his head. Not making it. out of that garden to the cross. Their suffering as a man never had. Body weakness so great. Father help. All the Father could do was send an angel not to relieve pain by one degree, but strengthen the man, Jesus, to endear the last dregs in the cup. Now go with me to the last passage this morning. I think it's the last, Matthew 26. And we were here, we were here last week. Matthew 26, 42. He's already gone one time and prayed and he comes and he finds him asleep. Ask, can you watch with me? Verse 42, he went away again the second time and prayed saying, oh my father, If this cup may not pass away from me except I drink it, thy will be done. And he came and found them asleep again for their eyes were heavy. And he left them and went away again and prayed the third time saying the same words. Then cometh he to his disciples and saith unto them, sleep on now and take your rest. Behold, our is a hand and the son of man is betrayed into the hand of sinners. Rise, let us be going. So the sleep that he referred to in verse 45 had to be that of their hearts and their understanding. Because he turns immediately around, after he said, sleep on, and says, rise, let us be going. Behold, he is at hand that doth betray me. His father, having heard, having sent that angel, let's strengthen. Returning to the disciples the third time, says, let's be going. Jacob wrestled with that angel, probably Lord Jesus, all night, till the break of day. Then after that, he headed towards a brother intent on murdering him. And now Christ has been strengthened there by that heavenly messenger, that heavenly angel. Now as a mighty warrior, he heads to the field of battle. There's something changed. After he returns from that third time praying, It's almost as if a victory has been won there in the garden. And now he can head out to the cross. Painful, you'll never know the anguish there. The torment, the torture, the disgrace, the humiliation, the being forsaken by his father. But again, I tell you, it was not the nails in his hands or feet or the thorn on his head. It was the fact that his holy soul had been made an offering for sin. Something came upon him that he had never known before. Get up, fellas. He that is to betray me, or he that betrayed me is at hand. And now our Lord heads off to the field of battle. And when Jesus bowed his head and uttered that last saying into thy hands, Father, I commit my spirit. But if you hold a minute before you get to the word father, he's referring to God. The weight of sin is so on such a soul as that, that the very face of his father is turned, not looking at him, but he dies a victor over sin, over hell and over death. Satan may have thought he defeated his enemy, but wait till the third morning. There up from the grave, he arose a mighty triumph over his foes. Our Lord, in a weakened body due to the battle but being strengthened by the angel sent from his father enters into the arena. Not with one sin lessened. All in piety and upon the Holy soul. All of them. Every sin of every person that will be with him in eternity. All of them poured in upon that holy, spotless, pure soul. Thou has made His soul an offering. He shall save the travail of His soul. Folk, the cross was little compared to the events leading up to it. And that soul, God, having made him to be sin, that you and I who were nothing but sin might be made the righteousness of God in him. You that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now have God reconciled in the body of his flesh. How, Paul? Through death. That's Colossians 1. Because the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also took part of the same that through death, He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil. You might begin thinking about death a little. I don't know if you'd even consider it serious, but you can't refer to a saint after the death of Christ, spoken of as having died. They just fell on sleep because of his Holy soul. Now I'm closing, I want to give you two examples. They're not even worthy to be mentioned. in light of God making that holy soul and its travail and his son's death to be your entrance into glory. The week before last, I picked up a small piece of wood that Bentley had split. and that there was a little splinter on it that I jammed between my nail and flesh. And I kept cutting my fingernail till I got down far enough that I could get that out. That was painful. That part of your body is tender. It's never, it's never, hardened like the outer part. I could have stuck that in my flesh and it would have been little of nothing. But in that part of my skin that had always been protected, it hurt. But I can tell you something more sensitive than the flesh under your fingernail. Years ago, before we ever got back to this part of the country, I was coming out of the woods and a tray limb hanging over brushed inside the window, door window, and a branch scratched my eye. I thought at first it was just something in it. I drove home about 45 miles or so with my left hand over that left eye because of the pressure and the pain, worse than any migraine I've ever had. I mean, the pressure was intense. Just from a little scratch, just from a little splinter, And I had a friend that called the optometrist there in the city. He just happened to have the same name as the director over the hospital. And of course, the optometrist met me there. He sure looked surprised when he looked into that man's eyes. You're not my boss. But he looked after me anyway. He said, I'm going to drop a few drops in your eyes. And he said, it's going to burn. I mean, really burn. Well, he didn't lie. As soon as it touched that eye. But the burning only lasted for seemingly just a few seconds. And within 30 minutes, the pain was gone. Now, I told you those are pitiful illustrations. But the part, or those parts in me that were the most sensitive found out what pain was. And the Holy Soul of the Son of God In his journey to and in the garden, he began to feel something that he had never felt before. And that was sin, filth, your actions, and your attitude, and your deeds that are wrong, and everything that is selfish about every one of us, and we all got that, and everything that is prideful about every one of us, and we got that. And all that began piling in upon that soul that had never known sin. And do not for one second think you're going to heaven outside His death, burial and resurrection. And it took every one of your sins, every last one of them. Because if you entered heaven, if you entered into the judgment with just one sin, one sin, you're cast into the eternal like a fire. And for the man Jesus that had never, and he was as eternal as was his father, never known sin, never, never. And yet he began to feel the weight of that crushing that Holy soul. And Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. An angel strengthened him and helped him to the cross. He's already bleeding in the garden that that blood of the Lamb of God was shed for you, if you are a child of God. And folk, I will leave you with this. I know that you watch over your physical heart, you exercise, you try to eat right. But what about that within that God's created, that new heart? Do you feed it properly? Or does it get a lot of garbage? Are you sensitive to your thinking? Or it doesn't matter, you're a Christian. Jesus saved you. Watch after your wounds, your heart. Solomon said, keep it with all diligence for out of it are all the issues of life. That comes from your heart. Paul said in 1 Timothy, bodily exercise profits little, it does help. He says, I can carry you one step farther. Godliness is of great gain. And I heard a friend 25, 30 years ago, We were coming back, back up 75. We pulled into this rest stop and he sat over there weeping and said, I'll do everything I possibly can not to sin because it would add one more degree of pain to my Savior. Are you that conscious? You say, well, he's already paid for them. That's not the point, children. Are you that sensitive? Is your conscience that sensitive? And we spend fortune, a fortune on our bodies. And you should take care of it, you should. But that's secondary in this. Christ died to redeem your eternal soul. And that price was that his holy soul had to bear your sins. If you're a Christian, the physical body will follow the soul. I mean, they're gonna plant the body, the natural body back in the earth from which it came But the very second death finds you, your soul is in eternity. But Job said, I know that in my flesh I shall see God. Be a reunion up there someday with you and your soul. That is, if you're watching after your heart, taking care of it, and all for the opposite. What a reunion in glory that will add to, in hell that will add to the punishments. When the soul and the body are reunited, and your own body begins to feel something of what Christ did there in the garden. Every person in this building needs to make certain you're calling an election. You can disagree with me on it being the cup, being the cross or prior to, that's not the point. I just carried you back before the cross to get you to expand your thinking about the suffering Savior. You do good, you would do well to make certain your salvation, your election, and your calling. And make certain that when Jesus suffered that pain and agony, and that soul be made sin that your sins were there. Rise up, O men of God, have done with lesser things. Press on towards a likeness to the Lamb of God.