chapter 16, Leviticus chapter 16, where God lays down the regulations for atonement for sin. We read from verse 1. The Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, who died when they approached the Lord. The Lord said to Moses, tell your brother Aaron not to come whenever he chooses into the most holy place behind the curtain in front of the atonement cover on the ark or else he will die because I appear in the cloud over the atonement cover. This is how Aaron is to enter the sanctuary area with a young bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. He is to put on the sacred linen tunic with linen undergarments next to his body. He is to tie the linen sash around him and put on the linen turban. These are sacred garments, so he must bathe himself with water before he puts them on. From the Israelite community, he is to take two male goats for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. Aaron is to offer the bull for his own sin offering to make atonement for himself and his household. Then he is to take the two goats and present them before the Lord at the entrance to the tent of meeting. He is to cast lots for the two goats, one lot for the Lord and the other for the scapegoat. Aaron shall bring the goat whose lot falls to the Lord and sacrifice it for a sin offering. But the goat chosen by lot as the scapegoat or the goat of removal shall be presented alive before the Lord to be used for making atonement by sending it into the desert as a scapegoat. Then moving to verse 15. He shall then slaughter the goat for the sin offering for the people and take its blood behind the curtain and do with it as he did with the bull's blood. He shall sprinkle it on the atonement cover and in front of it. In this way, he will make atonement for the most holy place because of the uncleanness and rebellion of the Israelites, whatever their sins have been. He is to do the same for the tent of meeting which is among them in the midst of their uncleanness. No one is to be in the tent of meeting from the time Aaron goes in to make atonement in the most holy place until he comes out having made atonement for himself, his household, and the whole community of Israel. Then he shall come out to the altar that is before the Lord and make atonement for it. He shall take some of the bull's blood and some of the goat's blood and put it all in the horns of the altar. He shall sprinkle some of the blood on it with his finger seven times to cleanse it and consecrate it from the uncleanness of the Israelites. When Aaron has finished making atonement for the most holy place, the tent of meeting and the altar, he shall bring forward the live goat. He is to lay both hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites, all their sins. and put them on the goat's head. He shall send the goat away into the desert in the care of a man appointed for the task. The goat will carry on itself all their sins to a solitary place, and the man shall release it in the desert." Amen. We end our reading at the close of verse 22. Let us turn again in the Old Testament to the 53rd chapter of the prophecy of Isaiah, this chapter in which we're spending our Sabbath evenings at present. And I want to read again the verses that we looked at last Lord's Day evening and to which we, this evening, wish to return. Isaiah chapter 53, reading verses four to six. The prophet is speaking about the suffering servant of the Lord. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows. Yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. May God bless his work. When we came to this passage last Lord's Day evening, Isaiah 53, verses 4 to 6, I said that it was the heart of the gospel, and so it is. And I said that we would look at it under two short, simple headings. And we took the first of those headings last week, our sin. And we saw how that sin has described our infirmities, our sorrows, our transgressions, our iniquities, our punishment, how each of us has turned to his own way. We have gone astray like sheep. At the heart of the gospel is our sin. And we come this evening to the second of the two elements which epitomize the gospel. And it is our substitute. Our substitute. And I have to begin by saying something that I'm always reluctant to say. I don't like saying that human beings are indispensable. That there is something that we do that no one else can do. We're all too proud by nature. We're all tempted to think that we are indispensable. and that the world couldn't get along without us. And even though our common sense, and even though the Bible tells us that we're not indispensable, we feel that we are. And we don't want to encourage that arrogance. And yet it's true to say that there is a sense in which we, you and I, the people of God, are absolutely indispensable. There is a part that you and I have to play which no one else apart from God's people can play. There is an answer that we provide which no one else can provide. We're the only ones who can give it. And I want you to cast your mind back to Jesus of Nazareth hanging on the cross. And as he hangs there in the darkness, he utters a terrible cry, a scream of anguish My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? That is the most fearsome utterance ever made on this planet. It is a most dreadful, haunting, and appalling question. Who will answer that question? My God, my God. Why? Here is one who is perfectly righteous, but God has forsaken him. He's infinitely holy, but God has forsaken him. He's the only begotten son, but his father has forsaken him. He's the well-beloved, but his father has forsaken him. Why? Why have you forsaken me? The angels have no answer to that question. They long to look into these things. The devils have no answer to that question. And that terrible question echoes hauntingly through the cosmos. Why? Why? And the whole universe waits for an answer. And there's this terrible silence as the echo of Christ's scream goes through history and time and space. Why have you forsaken me? And into that silence steps a group of people, God's chosen people, his redeemed people, his believing people. And that group of people speak into the silence, and they say, we know the answer. We can answer that question. We are the answer. And here's the answer. He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our inequities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds We are He. We are an indispensable part of the explanation of the cross. Without us, Calvary doesn't make sense. Without us, it doesn't mean anything. Without us, there's no answer to this question. Why have you forsaken me? Why did God forsake His Son? Without us, there's no answer. We are the answer. We are the why. Let's go back again in our text and look for a moment at some of these words that describe the suffering of the servant. We read in verse 5 that he was pierced. That's a very strong word in the original. It means a death thrust. a sword or a spear not just pricking a human body but stabbing right through to the heart and bursting and piercing the heart and taking away life. It's used the same word in Isaiah 51.9 where the one doing the piercing is the arm of the Lord, and he's killing the great dragon, the embodiment of evil. And the question in Isaiah 51.9 is, was it not you who cut Rahab to pieces who pierced that monster through? The servant pierces the monster to the death. And he who pierces is in that act of piercing himself pierced. And he struck a mortal blow. He was pierced. Pierced to the heart. He was crushed. for our iniquities. That's a Hebrew participle which suggests complete and utter destruction. The commentators say it means he was trampled to death, he was broken in pieces, he was shattered. Shattered for our iniquities. He was pierced to the death. He was shattered in pieces. By his wounds we are healed. And that word refers to the lacerations of a whip. When a hide whip cuts open a man's back, tearing a gash in the flesh, bruising it and ripping it. It's used, for example, in Isaiah 1-6 where we read of Israel that there are wounds and bruises and open sores. Here we're being pointed to unparalleled suffering. He was pierced. He was crushed. He was wounded. And even earlier in verse 4, the words of agony are piled one on another. He was stricken. He was smitten. He was afflicted. Here is intense, unparalleled suffering. It's the darkest moment of all. Here is something mysterious and very, very terrible. And yet isn't it so typical of God that at this darkest moment there is the dawning of hope Because we're told in this passage that this appalling suffering, which causes such disfigurement that we saw in chapter 52, such horror, such scorn and contempt, this suffering is no accident. It's not a mindless tragedy. It's not an irrational freak. It's not blind chance. It's not even the action of evil. this suffering is carried out, is inflicted by God himself. And we'll come back to that later in the chapter. The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. It pleased the Lord to bruise him. He has put him to grief. The God who is love, the God who is perfect goodness, has inflicted this appalling suffering on the servant in whom his soul delights. And suddenly it all becomes clear with one very simple verb. The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. And that was language clear to every Old Testament worshiper. To lay on was the language of sacrifice. When you brought an animal to the altar, before the animal was killed, you laid your hands on the victim. And as you laid your hands on the victim, you were transferring to that victim all your sin in symbol, all your guilt, all your punishment. You laid your sin on the victim. And the victim died bearing your sin. And when the prophet comes to describe the cross of Christ, this is how he described it. The Lord, what's happening here? Why is God forsaking him? Why is he suffering? The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. You remember we read of the goat in Leviticus 16. The high priest is to lay both hands on the head of the goat and confess over it the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites, all their sins, and put them on the goat's head. The goat will carry on itself all their sins. The priest laid the iniquity of the people on the goat. And that's the language Isaiah uses. The Lord is laying on him the iniquity of us all. God himself is placing on his servant all the sins of his people. Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This is why he's suffering, because the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. This is how he's going to sprinkle many nations, as we looked at in chapter 52. This is why the great ones of the earth are going to bow in worship. This is why he's despised and humiliated. The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. God is holy and just, and he hates sin with his whole being, and he has said that he will punish every sin There's no such thing ever as an unpunished sin. Every sin that has ever been committed either has been punished or will be punished. It will be punished. But we are all guilty and we're all under condemnation. But the good news is that Jesus Christ has died in the place of sinner. He had no sin of his own to be punished for. He had no penalty to pay. No sentence could be pronounced against him, but he was pierced for us. He suffered what we should have suffered. He died when we should have died. He became a curse when that was the sentence that we deserved, our substitute. Friends, here is the heart and center of salvation, the core of the gospel. Here is the great mystery of all the ages that has now been revealed. Human beings are lost and ruined, but God has given his only son. God himself has provided a lamb. God has intervened. And his servant has lived and died and obtained salvation. Martin Luther called it the great exchange. The great exchange. Christ takes all our sin from us and gives all his righteousness to us. That's the exchange. All our sin is placed on Him. All God's fury is poured out upon Him. Jesus Christ paid the penalty for your sins and mine to the full, to the utmost, to the last drop, so that, as the prophet says, the punishment was upon Him that brought us peace. And by his wounds, we are healed, our substitute. That explains it. That's what Calvary means. That's what's happening there. How gracious this is. Think of it for a moment. God looks on us, on you and me, in all our vileness and ugliness and uncleanness, in our rebellion and in our wickedness. And what does God do? He chooses to love us. He chooses to love us and to save us. And he gives His well-beloved only Son to death for us. He provides a way of salvation which is absolutely free. We've nothing to pay. We've nothing to suffer. We've nothing to do. We've nothing to accomplish. We don't have to offer anything. Jesus Christ has done absolutely everything for us. It is finished, he said. We didn't deserve forgiveness. We didn't ask for forgiveness. We didn't even want forgiveness. We could never have obtained it. God gives it to us. He gives us repentance. He gives us faith. He gives us everything we need. Freely, because of his love. What a gracious Lord. Think of how profound this gospel is, how deep, how infinitely awesome and beyond our full comprehension. In this gospel, we have an agreement between the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit made between them before the universe was created. In the gospel we have the mystery, the unfathomable mystery of God made flesh, the God man. In this gospel we have payment made for sin against an infinite being. How could such payment be made? In the gospel, we have God who is both just and the one who justifies the ungodly. And the more we think of the gospel, the more we wonder and marvel at it. People talk about the simple gospel, and yet there is such profundity here that we'll never exhaust. And throughout all eternity we'll think of the gospel and study the gospel. We'll never exhaust it. We'll never come to the end of it. The great apostle, as he comes to the end of his discussion of the gospel, falls on his knees in Romans 11 and worships. Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How profound. And yet at the same time, how very simple it is. So simple that it can be understood by a little child, by the weakest, by the least educated. In fact, they will often understand it far more readily than the wise of this world. The Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. What could be simpler than that? And if you tonight have never believed the gospel, if you've never received Christ as your Savior, here it is. Christ died in the place of sinners. And if you trust in him, all the benefits of that death may be yours. Here then is the explanation of Calvary. There is no other explanation. Our sin and our substitute. Jesus Christ in the place of sinners. I said at the beginning of the study that there were two headings, our sin and our substitute. But we really need one more, our response. And I'm not just speaking to any unconverted people who may be here, I'm speaking to us all. And I say to you who are believers, never put yourself outside the gospel as you hear it. Never sit and think to yourself, this is for the non-Christians in the congregation. It's for us. We need to hear the gospel over and over and over again, and we need to enter into it again, and we need to take it for ourselves. What effect should this passage have on us? How should it impact you and me, even if you've been a Christian for many years? And you hear the gospel again tonight as you've heard it. What should our response be? Let me outline three possible responses, each one appropriate and worthy. There should be the response, surely, in all of us, of repentance. Of repentance. There's a famous scene in William Shakespeare's play, Julius Caesar. Caesar has just been assassinated by his Republican enemies. He was suspected of planning to make himself emperor. And his opponents, political opponents, murdered him because they didn't want him to be emperor. And after the murder, in the play, Brutus, one of the leaders of the killers, whips the crowd up into a fury against Caesar. And they're all glad that he's been killed. And they're all howling their delight that he's been murdered. And in this scene, Caesar's friend, Mark Antony, has to stand up and face this hostile crowd and turn them round. What is he going to do? How is he going to turn this crowd back to their loyalty to their dead leader? Well, in the play, he lifts up Caesar's robe. It's got gashes in it, it's stained in blood. And he holds the robe up before them and he says, if you have tears, prepare to shed them now. You all do know this mantle. Look. And after he shows them the robe, he lifts up Caesar's mutilated body and holds the body in front of the people. He says, I'm not eloquent. but I can show you sweet Caesar's wounds, poor, poor dumb mouths, and bid them speak for me. I can show you Caesar's wounds, and bid them speak for me. The crowd in the play look at the wounds of Caesar. and they're filled with shame and sorrow and their hearts break. My dear friends, tonight God has shown you the wounds of his Son. And we put those wounds there You and I. We are responsible. He was wounded for our transgression. For our transgression. He was crushed for our iniquity. and my sins. Our sins drove the thorns into his heart. Our sins tore open his back. Our sins cried out, crucify him, crucify him. The American spiritual asks the question, were you there? when they crucified my Lord, and we were there. We were there. My dear friends, should we not hate sin? Should we not turn from it in sorrow? What about the present sins in your life and in mine? Are you willing to take a few more nails in your hand and climb up and hammer a few more nails into his hands and into his feet, the prophet Zechariah says of the people of God, they will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him. And surely as we think of the wounds of Christ, We should pray, Lord, help me to hate, to hate my sins, which did that to my Savior. He was wounded for my transgressions. He was bruised for my iniquities. And if that's the case, do I want anything more to do with transgression? Surely not. What believer, seeing the wounds of Christ, can give himself or herself to sin? The response of repentance, it should awaken in us also the response of faith, of faith. You remember Thomas, doubting Thomas as he's so unfairly known. And Thomas couldn't believe that Jesus had risen from the dead. And how did our Lord convince him? We read in John 20, 27. Put your finger here, Thomas. See my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe. For Thomas, Christ's wounds were to convince him that the Lord really had risen. For us, perhaps a different application. Surely these wounds speak to us of the certainty of our forgiveness, of the certainty of our salvation. We're haunted by this question at times. Am I forgiven? Have my sins been dealt with? What does the passage say? He was pierced. He was crushed. He was wounded. There's no doubt about that. And it wasn't for his own sins. There's no doubt about that. So it was for the sins of others, us who believe in him. Forgiveness, you see, is not just based on a vague concept. It is based on actual winds, on actual human blood flowing. The penalty was paid. That's what the winds of Christ say. The penalty was paid by his winds. We are healed. Relieve it with all your heart. Repentance, faith. Lastly, surely, the wounds of Christ should awaken in us the response of love, of love. There's a well-known Irish song in which a man or woman is singing about their mother. There are a lot of Irish songs about mothers. Perhaps it's rather a corny song, but I like corny songs. And this person, let's say it's a man, this person's mother wouldn't win any beauty contests. She's now an old woman. But to her son, She is beautiful. And you know the chorus. I love the dear silver that shines in your hair and your brow that's all furrowed and wrinkled with care. And I kiss those dear fingers so toil-worn for me. God bless you and keep you. Mother Mokri. Mother, my darling. The marks of aging, the thickened, coarsened joints. That woman has worked all her life on the farm and her hands are like clubs. And the bowed shoulders and the wrinkles and the marks of suffering and weakness. How did she get them? She got them caring for her family. And her son says, they're beautiful, they're beautiful. Wouldn't it be monstrous to be ashamed of such a mother? Wouldn't it be monstrous to point at your mother and say, well, she's not just as glamorous and sophisticated as I would like her to be? Well, what would you think if a son or daughter would do that? Now, we've been thinking for these weeks now about how Jesus is despised. And now people have contempt for him, and they reject him, and they don't believe in him, and he's not credible. And why is he despised? Well, he's despised because he's lowly, because he's rejected, because he's suffering. The prophet says, we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. We have no time for a weak, suffering Savior. That, says the prophet, don't you see? Can't you understand the bitter unfairness of that? It was for our transgressions that he was pierced. It was for our iniquities that he was crushed. It was love for us that brought him down. It was love for us that made him low. It was love for us that disfigured him. And yet people say we can't believe in him because he's disfigured. Why is he disfigured? His disfigurement should be more beautiful to us and the most radiant glory of any heavenly age. Friends, we love the Lord, I hope. We love him now in glory. Peter says in 1 Peter 1.8, though you have not seen him, you love him. We love him now at the Father's right hand. We love the thought of him coming again. Paul speaks in 2 Timothy 4.8 of all who have loved his appearing. We shall love him to all eternity as we live before him in his glory. But let me put this to you. How do we love him most of all? How is he most dear to us, most precious, most close, most tender, most adorable? When does our heart go out most of all to our Lord? Is it not as the one who was pierced and crushed and wounded? And when our Lord wanted to establish a memorial throughout all time by which we should remember him, he took a piece of bread and he broke it, and he poured out the red wine, and he said, this is my body, this is my blood, and whenever you remember me, Remember me like this. This is how you're to remember me. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. That is our Jesus. The apostle John sees the glories of heaven, and he says to us, then I looked and saw a lamb standing in the center of the throne, looking as if it had been slain. Isn't that wonderful? looking as if it had been slain. And the heavenly choir cry out in worship and thanksgiving, worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing. The Lamb who was slain. You remember Rutherford's words, I will not gaze at glory, but at my King of grace. Not at the crown he giveth, but on his pierced hand, the Lamb is all the glory in Emmanuel's name. Amen. Let us bow our heads in prayer. Father in heaven, fill our hearts, we pray, with a more intense love for our dear Savior, who bled and died for us on the cruel cross of Calvary, who suffered in our place, who took upon himself the punishment of our sins. Lord, we love him. We love him as King. We love him and worship him as God, blessed over all. But Lord, in the hearts of us saved sinners, there is a special, unchallengeable place for the Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, who died on Calvary for us. Father, may we feel in our hearts a love for him, a thankfulness to him, a sorrow for sin, a determination to be free from it, on the faith that by his stripes we are healed. In his name we pray, amen.