Please turn in your Bibles back to Isaiah chapter 50. Isaiah chapter 50. And I direct your attention to verse six. I gave my back to the smiters and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair. I hid not my face from shame and spitting. This verse is found in a section of the prophecy of Isaiah that is revealing to us the servant of the Lord. You could go back to chapter 42, verse one, where he is introduced. And of course, it is referring to the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. And in that chapter 42, verse four, we're told that So the whole of his ministry, is introduced at the beginning. In the chapters that follow, the servant continues to appear and we learn more about him. For example, chapter 49, verse one through 13, there is praise of him who is coming for the restoration of Israel and who will also be a light to lighten the Gentiles. He comes as the great prophet for all nations, but there's no hint in these verses of his suffering. And that's what makes chapter 50 so significant. It's a preparation for what will follow in the better known chapter 53. Who hath believed our report? Whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? And our Lord Jesus Christ there is wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquity. But it's in this chapter, verse six, that the element of suffering and the experience of God's servant is introduced. And it's very obvious. I gave my back to the smiters and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair. I hid not my face from shame and spitting. This chapter begins in the first two verses with God challenging his people for their rejection of him. They have been cast off, having received a bill of divorcement, and they are to blame for it, not God. In verse two, he reminds them that his arm is not shortened, that it cannot redeem, that he is not impotent to deliver them. But they have sold themselves into sin. And so he confronts them with their sin. But after convicting them with those words, he begins to speak peaceably to them of his prophet. He will come with the tongue of the learned. He knows how to speak a word in season to him who is weary. He is a representative of the God of all comfort. And on receiving his commission, this servant does not rebel. Verse five, the Lord God has opened mine ear and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back. And again, in verse seven, we're told that he's filled with a spirit of steadfast resolve. For the Lord God will help me. Therefore shall I not be confounded. Therefore have I set my face like a flint and I know that I shall not be ashamed. He is determined to do the will of the Father. But verse six, in the middle of those two verses, provides us with an insight into what this determined course of obedience will mean for the servant. We could take the words and apply them in part to the prophet Isaiah himself. They have a reference to the nation of Israel and the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. But the clear reference here is to the Lord Jesus Christ himself. And he appears in these words as our submissive and we might say also our suffering servant. We consider him this morning under three main headings. The first is total contempt. Total contempt. Verse six tells us that Messiah will be smitten on the back, he will have the beard ripped out of his face, and he will be spat upon. What an image of total contempt. And what do we discover? But that when he does appear, all this and more was heaped upon the head of our Redeemer. I want to break it down and walk through the gospel accounts to show you how this was fulfilled. First of all, he was beaten. Matthew chapter 26, verse 67 and 68. The Jewish leaders gather together in an ad hoc kangaroo court and we're told that there they smote him with the palms of their hands while mocking his prophetical office. Isaiah chapter 50 he is the tongue of the learned he knows how to speak a word in season to him that is weary and these men smite him with the palms of their hands and they say prophesy unto us thou Christ. soon he's before the Romans. And the Romans mock his kingship. They plait a crown of thorns. They press it down upon the head of the Lord Jesus Christ. They place a reed, a mock scepter, in his hand and they dress him with a robe. And they say, heal king of the Jews. And then They took the reed out of his hand and they smote him on the head with it. Before that he has been in the presence of Pilate who we're told in chapter 27 verse 26 scourged him. He was scourged at least once by Pilate. And it's this scourging that is very likely the main thing that is in view in Isaiah chapter 50, verse six, as Christ gave his back to the smiters. Scourging was done with a whip that had many strands upon it. When I was a boy, my father used to refer to this existing in his youth as the cat of nine tails. a whip with many strands and upon each of these leather strands there would have been pieces of bone tied and the back of a person was stripped and he was repeatedly whipped with these leather bone teals as they were brought repeatedly down upon his back to tear up his flesh. The Lord Jesus Christ gave his back to the smiters. So first of all, he was beaten. Secondly, his beard was plucked out. There's no specific reference to this in the Gospels, but Isaiah here does provide a very interesting detail. And so we may include it in some of the more general descriptions that the evangelists give to us of Christ's suffering. You could think of that general term that they buffeted him. They buffeted him. They pulled out the hair that was upon his face. Now children do many things they ought not to do but one of them is you may pull your brother or sister's hair. You may have had that done to you. Someone pulls your hair. It's particularly painful. Well, imagine somebody pulled your hair so as to rip it out. And then understand that your face is more sensitive than your scalp. And these men grab Christ by his facial hair and they rip it out. but it's not just pain that's before us here. In the day that Jesus lived, this was an expression of extreme anger and an example of the most degrading insult that you could give to someone. E.J. Young in his commentary says this, Then it gets worse. They spot upon him. In the culture of that day and in many cultures today, if you wanted to express abhorrence of something, you would spit in front of the person or beside them. You've maybe seen this. maybe in an old movie or something. Someone's getting angry with the person and then to show their contempt they spit on the ground in front of them. What degree of contempt is shown when not only did they spit on the ground in front of them but they spit upon him, upon the very face of the Lord Jesus Christ. And yet we go to the gospel accounts and we discover that both Jew and Gentile were guilty of this horrific crime. Let's turn in our Bibles to Matthew chapter 26. Matthew chapter 26 and verse 66 and 67. And let the horror of this sink into your soul. Matthew chapter 26 and verse 66. What think ye? They answered and said, He is guilty of death. Then did they spit in his face and buffeted him, and others smote them with the palms of their hands, saying, Prophesy unto us, thou Christ, who is he that smote thee? An assembly of religious men met in the house of Caiaphas, who was the high priest. And they spit in the face of the Son of God. And then turn to chapter 27 and look there at verse 29 and following. Matthew chapter 27, verse 29. And when they had plaited the crown of thorns, they put it upon his head and a reed in his right hand. And they bowed the knee before him and mocked him, saying, Heal, King of the Jews. And they spit upon him. and took the reed and smote him upon the head. The Jews in their court, the Romans now, this crucifixion band who were going to ultimately take him and kneel him to a cross, but that's not enough for them. Before they do that, they beat him and strip him and mock him and spit on him. It is what these people together thought of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's how they evaluated his doctrine and his life. Don't you see it evoked in them the strongest feelings of hatred. It brought people to the point where they are practically beside themselves with rage. religious leaders dressed in their fine religious garments who were pillars of society, supposed to be models of reserve. They cannot contain their anger against Christ. It pours out in verbal and physical abuse and ridicule of the worst kind. The eternal son of God made flesh and they spit in his face as though he were a piece of trash. You say this is horrific and it is, but what you need to see today is the animosity of the sinful heart to Jesus. Now I grant you that it is usually more outwardly restrained than this, but essentially it is exactly the same thing. That when people, or to make it personal, when you reject the Lord Jesus Christ, This is your heart. This is what you really think of him. You're not sitting here today shrugging your shoulders saying, well, I'm kind of neutral on the question. You're not. People in the world, like the Romans, people in the church, like the religious leaders of Jesus' day, if they will not come to the Lord Jesus Christ, This is what they do to him. This is the consent that they give to the gospel record of his disgrace. You think, no, no, no, I'm better than that. I protest. I am indifferent. More so, I'm a conservative. What do you think the religious leaders were? Do you think they were flaming liberals? What do you think the Pharisees were? Arch-conservatives of their day? Oh, I'm a friend of religion. If you're not a believer in Christ, you're an enemy of him. You just let his claims sink down into your heart today. And you'll begin to see it. Jesus says to you that you must immediately repent of your sins and submit to him as Lord. What saith your soul? Immediately bow down before him. Give up everything. Fall at his feet. Confess that he alone is worthy of your life. Indeed give your life up to him. Say I am not my own I am bought with a price. What saith your heart? I'd rather spit in his face. That's it. I will not come to him. I will not submit myself to these claims. Hear his exclusive claims against every other claim. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. There is one way and only one way. And you say, no, it cannot be so. How dare Christ? You spit in his face. The soul of the self-righteous revolts. The soul of the carnal worldling who will not repent of his sins and believe the gospel revolts against Christ. The soul of some of you sitting here revolts against Christ. You may be sick of hearing the gospel. Your parents come to you again and again with their godly pleas and they can see that it irritates you. What are you saying to Christ? When you say within your soul, I wish my parents would stop going on about that. I wish they would leave me alone. Your problem's not with them. It's Christ coming to you in your parents. and you would take out the rod and beat him and you would rip the hair out of his face and you would spit upon him. It's a picture of total contempt but it's the natural product of the animosity of the sinful heart who will not have this man to reign over him. We need to face up to that brethren. We can dress it up, we can smile, we can be civil, we can be polite, but this is how it is with the soul in Christ. If any man is not for me, he's against me, says Jesus. Secondly, in the face of this total contempt, we have complete obedience. complete obedience. Look at verse 5. And then in verse 7 we have another insight to the attitude of the Savior. His confidence is in the Lord you see. Therefore shall I not be confounded, therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed." Though he has to endure verse six, what does he say? I am given to complete obedience to God. This, of course, is required of all God's servants in the past, today, in the present, and will be in the future. And I think we would love to be able to take the words of verse five and verse seven and apply them to our hearts and say, this is me, this is my attitude to Christian service. But we have to recognise, don't we, that these words are only truly realised in the perfect obedience of the Lord Jesus. Take them and try to apply them even to the choice servants of God in scripture and you will discover they can't say these words. Think of Moses for example. Can he say this? No. He's called by God but he initially shrinks from the task. He offers a host of excuses And he eventually obeys, but yet his obedience is up and down. It's marred by his sin. So that when smiting the rock in anger, the Lord says, you will not enter into the promised land. So Moses can say this. And then if we were to take it to Jonah, he's called by God, but he runs in the other direction. At the beginning he's reluctant and then God breaks him by taking him to the bottom of the sea and he's found in the belly of a whale and now he consents to go to Nineveh. But then after he preaches in Nineveh he resorts to resentment that God has been kind to this people. If we take the words to Elijah. We have to say no Elijah what are you doing under that juniper tree. disconsolate, discouraged. Your face is not like a flint. It's like putty, Elijah. You're wanting to be removed from this world. Take my life. I've had enough. Or what about Peter? What about Peter? I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed. Can Peter say that as he warms himself at the fire and is challenged? as to his identification with Christ by a servant girl? No. Take it to your own service for God and you'll find similar fears and feelings that your resolve has often been weak and not like Flint and your inclination to obey has been so unstable. But we come to these words and we see the Lord Jesus Christ and we are eternally grateful that he is not like us at this point. That even though he would be held in total contempt of men and endure ridicule and scourging and pain and reproach and contempt and shame. And on the back of that, He would continue to suffer under the wrath of God in our place. He is totally submissive and completely obedient to the will of the Father. He doesn't refuse the task like Jonah. He never once rebels in the service of God. He never at any point ceases to love perfectly all the will of the Father and he holds nothing in reserve. He is completely consecrated to the work that the Father has given to him to save the souls of sinners. In this chapter we see him as God's true prophet and he's completely committed to the task. His ear is opened, his tongue is trained, and he goes forth, doesn't he? And he unswervingly preaches the word that he receives from the Father. Many times he refers to it. He says, the words that I speak, they're not my own. I speak not my own words, but the words of him that sent me. And as he continues to preach, he continues to infuriate his hearers, but he goes on preaching. He doesn't stop. And he's never ashamed to preach, though his preaching brings to him this ridicule and persecution. It's interesting how this lines up with Psalm 40 that you know well. There's maybe a double reference there in verse 5 that his ear is open, the prophetic ear. So he hears the will of the Father and then he speaks it. But that ear being open has a different connotation, doesn't it? the servant whose ear was bored to the doorpost of the master because he would commit himself forever to the master's service. And then we take that to Psalm 40 and we find it when God did not desire sacrifice or offering. You opened mine ear. I became the servant. To do thy will I take delight, O thou my God that art, yet that most holy law of thine I have within my heart. To do what? To preach righteousness in the congregation. Lord, you know that I never refrain my speech, says the Christ. This is his attitude with regard to his prophetic office. He will not turn back. He sets his face as a flint to preach the word of God and always the word of God and nothing but the word of God. But his suffering as it's connected to his prophetic office here is also part of something else. It is his suffering in his priestly office. as a sacrifice for sin. And so he endures the contempt of men. And he comes under the curse of the father. And he suffers imaginably. And yet through it all, he renders complete obedience unto God. outwardly in every point of his life, the things he said, the things that he does, married to an inward disposition where every motive was perfect, every affection was pure. Complete obedience. Thank God for that. Thank God for that. You and I must obey God's will in every part, but we don't. And it's this obedience of Christ to the cross that saves us. It's his bearing the wrath of God that closes the door of hell for every sinner who will believe in him. And it's his perfect obedience in every part that throws open the gates of heaven for every sinner who will believe in him, because your obedience can never shut hell or never open heaven for yourself. All of your imagined obedience, whether it be in good works in society or religious devotion, is only going to be a dead weight that sinks you into the depth of a lost eternity. You cannot in the flesh please God. Would to God he would convince you of that this morning. Your works cannot save you. And then we look at our obedience as believers and we see how imperfect it is and yet the Lord is pleased with the sincere obedience of his people. Why? Because he has the complete obedience of the Son for us. This is the only place that you are going to find righteousness and peace, is by sitting down and considering the complete obedience of Christ to the will of the Father on the behalf of sinners. That is the gospel, my friends. Why would you reject that and continue to labor, to try and render your own puny little works to God? Why would you do that? Number one, you can't please him. But number two, look at the glory of the work of Christ. And it's held out to you. Thirdly, we've total contempt and complete obedience, but we have voluntary suffering. Voluntary suffering. What took your attention most in verse six? Was it the beating of Christ? Was it the ripping out the hair on his face? Was it the fact that men spat upon him? What's the main thing that took your attention there? What's the dominant verb? What's the greatest action in verse six? It's not the beating. It's not the spinning. It's not the ripping out of the hair. It's found in another verb. I gave. It's the most remarkable verb in that text. It's the giving of Christ. Look at it. I gave my back to the smiters and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair. I hid not my face from shame and spitting. It's what Christ did that has to dominate our thinking here. Yes, they spat. Yes, they beat him. And yes, they pulled his facial hair out. But he purposely gave himself to that humiliation. Christ's obedience is complete, but don't you see, Christ's humiliation and sufferings are absolutely voluntary. Just like he says, no man taketh my life from me. I lay it down, I'll take it up again. No one could have laid a finger upon him. No one could have even opened their mouth to spit in his face if he did not first give himself to that humiliation. What is written in this verse would of course be contemptible if it was committed man against man as an equal or a peer. If you were to spit in the face of your brother it would be contemptible. But we've learned haven't we in our studies of the law of God in society the offense becomes worse when it's against a person in greater position. So for a servant to spit in the face of a servant would be contemptible, but for the servant to spit in the face of a king, that would be far worse. And yet we come to this portion and we behold our king, the king of glory, who is also king over every king and Lord over every Lord, before whom men like Alexander the Great or Caesar are nothing. They're nothing. And he's the one who's beaten. He's the one who's bleeding. He's the one who's broken. He's the one who's spat upon and willingly so. You need to step back and say, why? Why does Christ give himself to this voluntarily? Well, you know the answer, don't you? Because his sincere delight was to suffer. His sincere delight was to suffer, not because he loved suffering, but because in the first place, he loved his Father. And it was his delight to do the will of the Father and glorify Him. So in verse five, his ear is open. It's bored. He's the committed servant. To do thy will, I take delight. What is your will, Father? Your will is that I would go into the world and save an elect multitude of sinners by standing in their place, suffering, shame, ridicule, and disgrace, and exposing myself to the infinite wrath of God. Yes, that's my will. To do your will, I take delight. That's astounding. He loves his Father so he will do the Father's will but then he loves the sinners that he came to save. It wasn't necessary for God to save sinners but when God chose to save sinners it was necessary that Christ come to this. Why do you expose yourself to this shame? Because I love my Father and His will. And I love sincerely and perfectly every single sinner that the Father gave me to redeem. And for their sakes, I will sanctify myself to these sufferings. It was necessary in order that we might be saved. The Son of Man says Jesus must suffer many things. but was absolutely voluntary on the part of Jesus Christ to commit to this service. He's not forced. He's not a slave that has to be beaten to do the will of the master. His heart is perfectly in line with the will of God. Total contempt met with complete obedience And yet all of it is voluntary suffering. Let's make some application. There's a lot that we could say, of course. The first way I want to apply it is to preachers. Preachers ought to come to this portion of God's word and see Christ, the great preacher. And as his ear was open and his tongue was trained to speak the word of God, So preachers of the gospel must have their ear opened to the will of God and their mouth trained to preach it. But when they do, it is going to invite similar opposition from the world and often in the church itself. As we go forth preaching this gospel, which humbles man, they will rise up in pride against us. When we go forth to preach against sin, they will bear their fines and show their rage against God. Enemies will become violent persecutors. Friends may even become enemies. Yet still, Armed with the spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ, we must strive to say what he says here and those words in Psalm 40, to do thy will, I take delight. I'm going to preach righteousness in the great congregation. Lord, you know my heart. I have not refrained my speech. Godly ministerial friend of mine who went through troubles in the church back in Scotland in the late 80s and 1990s, had a longtime friend who was a minister, who was exposed as having committed grievous sins. And rather than submit to that, humble himself, repent, he decided that he was going to oppose all charges. My friend spoke to him and said, you know that you've done this. You know that you're guilty. You need to own up. To which his ministerial friend turned and said, you are just contemptible. You were just contemptible. I thought of him when I read this. It's the kind of thing people did to Jesus. Preachers of the Word of God need to be armed with the Spirit of Christ and recognize that it's going to bring them into suffering. To say with verse five, the Lord has opened mine ear and I was not rebellious, neither turned away by And then the ignominy and shame comes and the same resolve is there. I have set my face like a flint and I know that I will not be ashamed. But then there's a lesson for all Christians. Your ear has been opened to the truth and your tongue in your own context and place has to be open to witness to the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ wherever your lot is cast. But understand as you speak with your mouth and your life itself will speak in the midst of a sinful world. Men love darkness rather than light. Therefore do not be surprised If you are ridiculed and mocked and worse, don't be surprised if you're beaten. Don't be surprised if you go out street preaching, someone spits in your face. Don't be surprised when you go to Planned Parenthood and try to make a witness there that people rage against you. Sometimes I think Christians are stunned at that. Oh, we went there and these people did this. What do you expect? What do you expect? You need to look to Christ and say, as He was not rebellious to this commission, nor will I be. As He did not turn back from His service, nor will I. And though He was never ashamed when men were heaping shame upon Him, I'm not going to be ashamed. None of these things are going to move me. But as much as lies within me in the strength of Christ, I will be determined similarly to him to be submissive servants. Though I am held in complete contempt, I will determine to give complete obedience and I will be willing to suffer. That's what it means to be like Christ, in part. But let me leave this with a lesson to one believers. We've considered the shame that Christ endured for the salvation of sinners. And you will not come to him. I want you to leave this sermon by considering this. The everlasting shame and contempt that God is going to put you to. for the arch sin of rejecting his son. You don't come to Christ because you fear the contempt of men, how it would be accepted among your friends and your family. You don't come to Christ because you fear the ridicule of society. And yet in doing so, in your unbelief, you heap up contempt upon Christ. Paul speaks to the Hebrews about this in chapter four. He warns people in the church about crucifying the Lord Jesus Christ afresh and putting him to an open shame. You do that every week you hear the gospel and refuse to believe in him. You crucify him again and you put him to an open shame. The question for you is this, what will that be for you at the last day? When God places you under his everlasting wrath and you will suffer under the contempt of God. You see getting spat in your face in this world? That's nothing. That's nothing to the everlasting contempt of God. The answer is before you in the text. You need to look to the one in this middle verse, verse six, and say, he endured this so that sinners could be saved. He gave himself voluntarily to the smiters And to those who beat him and those who plucked out his hair, he gave himself voluntarily to the wrath of God. I will yield myself immediately and willingly to Jesus Christ as my savior and my Lord. May God bless his word to our hearts that stand for prayer. O Lord our God, we give thanks for Christ, for his determination to do the will of the Father from all eternity. Then, to the Lord, these were my words. I come, behold and see, within the volume of the book it written is of me, to do thy will I take delight, O thou my God that art. We thank you for the willingness of Christ. Lord, you see the hearts of all men. You've seen the response already to this sermon in the secrets of men's hearts. You've seen brokenness and faith and you've seen resistance and contempt even in the face of warning about such contempt. Oh God, have mercy, we pray. Break hearts. Grant that the contempt of Jesus Christ would win the heart of the stoutest sinner. Lord, feed our souls from the word and help us as we prepare for the table. Open up these things to an even greater measure to us there. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.