He Himself Bore Our Griefs

[Music] [Speaker 1] Church fellowship cannot be more spiritual than the individuals and families that constitute them. God really desires a godly home for these are words of restoration and instruction in righteousness from Family Today Ministry. May you be blessed as you listen. For the past five weeks now we have been under this topic: Who will believe our report? And honestly, it has been a great blessing to me myself, learning and learning and looking at this matter of who will believe our report. So many issues were raised vis-à-vis looking at it. Our last discussion was that the Lord will grant us the spirit of discernment. That was our last discussion. We saw that except we can really discern on one hand, we may not be able to live uprightly, except we can be discerning. We gave the example that ever before Jesus came, all the religious leaders and Pharisees, people saw them as the standard of righteousness. They go to the synagogue, they worship; that was the standard of righteousness. But when Jesus came, people who were seen as the standard of righteousness, Jesus described them as vipers. He described them as life that is full of rottenness and maggots. So we said, how are we sure today that many men we are bowing under and learning from, they are not vipers? Except we can be discerning. Except we can be discerning. So having said but much more the other day, our major concern was that if we are not really discerning, we may not be able to get into all the benefit that is in the salvation that God has offered us. That was the real thing. If you take the gospel for its face value as it is being taken today and you don't sit down to look at it critically and look at the fullness of the blessings of Christ, it may never be yours, even though it is yours by birth. You may never experience it, except we take time to really look at what is the gospel, what was offered us in the gospel. So we want to trust the Lord today as we turn to the book of Isaiah where we started the whole matter from, in the book of Isaiah chapter 53. Isaiah chapter 53. And another thing again that we must also put in perspective is what we said. Who can still remember 1 Peter 1:23? What was the basic thing we said from there? 1 Peter 1:23. Don't go to the place, oh. Don't go and check your Bible. Who can first quote the scripture? Those of us that are around for that day. Yes. [Speaker 2] Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. [Speaker 1] In fact, that's it. And he has given us the verse. What was the basic thing we brought out of that thing that day? There were just two things as it relates to Isaiah chapter 53. What was the two basic things we brought out of 1 Peter 1:23? Yes. A good teacher is doing revision. [Speaker 2] The decay, the vanity that we are experiencing today. Every man was born under that vanity. And even from God himself, Jesus who came in the form of human, he has to pass under that vanity. So now talking about what Christ has done by his death, his resurrection, and what God has said, that we are now born not with corruptible seed but incorruptible seed. By the word of God. If the Word of God can be this powerful to sustain this system, how much more what God has, the new thing God has for us. It was more about putting more hope in what God has been for us as righteousness. [Speaker 1] Exactly. That's the one. I'm doing that because I want to relate all that thing to what we want to do today. The first basic thing is that sin was effected by the Word of God. As it says in Romans 6:23, the wages of sin is death. And that, to date, has not been corrupted. It has not been corrupted. The efficacy of that sentence stands to date. The wages of sin is still death. And to all eternity, the wages of sin still remains death. When God himself put on the form of the flesh, that order could not be changed. God himself died. It could not be de-effected. It stood. Then if the Bible now says the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, then you can be sure too that it is the same God, the same person who pronounced it, that is pronouncing this thing again. Nothing can corrupt it. We need to truly believe it. Then the second thing I said that day is what is the distance between we and Adam? In terms of time, how many generations am I from Adam? I don't know my own. Maybe some of us know. How many generations are you from Adam? We were saying that look at the distance, the time distance between we and Adam. We never saw Adam. We never had relationship to, there was no blood relationship. There was nothing in terms of direct relationship. It was generation upon generation upon generation. Yet that which became efficacious in Adam is so real in our nature today, that nature of sin. Look at distance between we and him. And yet it's so real that every man that is born is conceived in sin. Except God intervene, he will tell lie, he will fornicate, he will be immoral. It can't be otherwise. Yet we didn't have any personal touch with Adam. But when it came to that of Jesus Christ, as it says in 1 John 3:9, the Bible says he that is born of God cannot sin because the seed of God is in him. 1 Corinthians 6:17 says he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit. What I used that day was an intercourse between our spirit and the Spirit of God to get us born again. Then to what extent do you think it would be efficacious in us? If the one that we don't have any direct connection with is so effective, how much more the one that we have direct link with? On those two platforms I want us to explore Isaiah chapter 53. Today I trust the Lord that we should be able to conclude who will believe our report. And so all this while we have been taking our time on trying to explore 'Who will believe our report?' Just the verse one. Isaiah 53:1: "Who will believe our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?" Verse two, it says, "He shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground." Who is this 'he'? This 'he' is referring to who? We all have that common understanding that it's referring to Jesus Christ. Is there anybody that has any doubt about that? Nobody. Now, it says, "He shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground. He has no form nor comeliness, and when we see him there is no beauty that we should desire him." Who is Jesus? How did he describe himself? Let's take the one that he described himself. In John 14:6 he said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." Colossians, please look at Colossians chapter 1, verse 15. Where it said he is the image of the invisible God. Please read from there. [Speaker 3] He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. For by him were all things created, that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions, or principalities or powers. All things were created by him and for him. And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. [Speaker 1] Have you seen this person we are talking about? Can you see his glory? You see his pre-eminence? He said when he is coming, he will come up like a tender plant, and like a root out of a dry ground. When we see it, there is no beauty in it to desire it. What is it telling you about truth, about life, about the pre-eminence of everything that Jesus made available by his death? How will it appear? How is it going to appear to us in time? One, not attractive. Two, tender plant. Fragile, weak, not capable of doing anything, not being able to redeem, not being able to save, not being able to take you out of your situation. The person that is coming, the Bible says thrones, principalities, talk of thrones, talk of powers; they were made for him and by him. And I told my family this morning that if this is the CV of Jesus, this is the person that died to shed his blood, then which power is it that can challenge what the blood made available? Look at the pre-eminence of who you described. He's the one that shed his blood to set us free from principalities and powers. Now all of these things they were made by him and for him. He now died, made a sacrifice to make them powerless to set you free. Then how can they challenge? I'm trying to totally make clear what the gospel is, why we call it the gospel, why it is good news. You're afraid because you don't understand that the person who died, this one was created by him and for him. But the way those ones will appear, they will appear intimidating. They will appear very fierce. But this one is weak, it looks weak. We're talking about how truth and other powers manifest in time. Truth looks like a thing that is weak, it looks like a thing you cannot take, it looks like a thing that cannot save you, it looks like a thing that if you take it you may not get out. What it is telling you is that the method by which God is going to redeem us, by which God is going to save us, by which God is going to get us out, the method of our salvation, ordinarily it would not look like a thing that you should hold to. It will look more like a thing that you should leave. I give the example of somebody who was continuously ill, ill and ill continuously, could not come out of bed. They took her to several places, visited this place, that place, different baba adura, here, there, this. Until one day suddenly it came upon her that, "Come, I'm not going anywhere again. If Jesus cannot save, then let me die." Do you know that it was that resolve that brought her back to her feet today? For people, "This one that you now choose, you will die quickly." But she said, "Look, if Jesus cannot save, if holding to what he said..." Now, what makes this thing weak? What makes this look weak? It is because it is just what? It is just a report. Now, Isaiah 53:3 says, "He is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows acquainted with grief. We hide as it were our faces from him. He was despised and we did not esteem him." Now, talking about his suffering. While all these things were happening, the people doing it did not see it as being done for our salvation. But where it begins with us is in verse 4, that the Bible says, "Surely he has borne our griefs." Why is the introduction, please, can somebody tell me why this introduction is beginning with 'surely'? It says "surely he has borne our grief and carried our sorrow". He said he was despised, we did not esteem him. He was the man acquainted with sorrow. So many things happened. It said, "but surely he has borne our grief and carried our sorrows". Why is the Bible beginning with 'surely'? I don't know how best to re-emphasize this. But what I want us to understand is that when the Bible says "surely he has borne our grief and carried our sorrows", it says, "yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted." While all this was happening to him, what were the Pharisees saying? The people that were killing him, what were they thinking, what were they saying? "If he is truly of God, God should have delivered him." So they were seeing that it was God that was dealing with him because of the wrong that he has done. But the Bible is saying that that thing that was going on, that incident, the reason for that incident, that grief, that sorrow... it got to a point that he was praying for an escape, but he said it was not possible. That grief, that sorrow actually if you understand it, it is such that there is no grief that can be as grievous as the grief of death. Do you understand me? We go through so many griefs. But one grief that human beings fear most is death because it has no solution. It has no repair. When you're going through something and you know certainly that you are going to die, and you are going through the pain, the grief of death is a thing that man ordinarily don't want to take. When I work in the hospital as social volunteers in HIV clinic, once you go for the HIV result and it is stamped positive, the doctor will not tell you the result. They will send it to the counselors. Once we see that it's positive, what we want to do is to prepare you to receive the result. You think that when they tell some that they have HIV, they just become unconscious and they stop breathing, they become another casualty to manage. Why? Because it has no certified cure, so you know it is death, it's a death sentence. The grief of death is a thing that man finds difficult, it's beyond what man can bear. Man wish not to... when you talk about death, "I wish, if I had lost one leg or one hand in the accident, I would have still appreciated it." People will pray. Death is the one we don't want. So when death becomes in view, it's a journey man ordinarily don't want to take, it's a sorrow that man don't want to bear. Now, what the Bible is saying is that there is no dimension of whatever wants to grief us today, there is no dimension of it. The Bible says surely he bore our grief and took our sorrow. Even if the grief is that you are about to die, can I show you somebody that was rejoicing that the death was coming? That was brother Paul. In the face of his own end he said, "For me I'm even happy that I'm here." What brought him to that state that death becomes a joy? He said, "I'm ready to be sacrificed." What brought him to that state? It was because somebody has borne his grief. Somebody has taken that thing. What he is saying is that there is nothing you want to experience in life, no matter how grievous that thing can be, if you truly understand the gospel, you can rejoice in the face of tribulation. You can rejoice in the face of suffering. There is no dimension of suffering, there is no dimension of grief that can affect your joy. Deep insight, that is why he says as it is written in Philippians 4:6-7, be anxious about nothing, but in nothing through prayer, supplication and thanksgiving, let your request be made known unto God. And the peace of God which passes understanding. There is a peace that passes understanding. Who would not want that kind of peace? It is because the Bible says he bore our griefs. I'm talking about the peace we have in Christ, the privileges that we have in Christ. The Lord knows as he says in John 16:33 that in the world you will have tribulation. Trouble will be. There is this song: [Singing in Yoruba]. The point is that you get to a point when you truly begin to enter into the fullness of this salvation with Jesus, you get to a point that... look at another example, look at the man that sang "It Is Well With My Soul". Do we know the story behind it? Many of us know the fullness of that story. Can an ordinary person who has not experienced the peace that is in the gospel sing that kind of song in the midst of such thing? No! There is a peace that passes understanding. There is a peace that you can experience even when there is no food on your table. It is that peace that will make you not to compromise your faith when they say, "Sister, take this 20,000, but just tell this small lie." You say, "No, I'm contented where I am." It is that peace. It is that thing that believers ought to be experiencing today in the face of so many griefs. We shouldn't be overwhelmed by them because we don't understand the gospel. If you understand it very well, what I said one time... I don't know how many of us were here then. What I said now you'll remember. That if any believer is tempted beyond what he can bear, God ceases to be faithful. As it says in 1 Corinthians 10:13, he said God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tried beyond what you can bear. So when trouble comes, God should not allow it. No, the Bible says when a man knows the torture that goes into the fact that you are going through a thing, it is completely injustice. You are being flogged and as they are flogging you, the thing is tearing you, blood is coming out. You know it is unjust, and God says you cannot talk, and you are not talking. And you know there is no way out, you are going to die under it. Do you know the level of that grief? That is the dimension of the grief. Psalm 61:2 says, "When my soul is overwhelmed, lead me to the rock that is higher than me." He went to the deepest of the deepest of the deepest of grief to bear so that there is no grief and sorrow we can experience here that can break our peace and our joy in him. So that deep down, yes, it can be stormy, yes, we can be crying, but deep down there's this it is well with my soul. There's this thing that makes us not to be hopeless, that makes us different from the world. There's this thing that does not touch us when they say, "Ah, that Christian, he's a child of God, that trouble made him commit suicide." When I hear this thing, for sometimes I just tell people that it is because the gospel is not understood. You are not trying to behave like human. I'm not saying the Lord said that we don't have grief. I want us to get this thing straight. And as Romans 12:15 says, the Lord did not say that we should not cry with them that cry. He said weep with them. So the Lord did not rule out weeping. I want us to get some of these things clear. Some spirituality, "don't cry", it's not spiritual. It's a lie. It is spiritual to cry if it's pain, you can cry. So that you don't say, "Ah, no, Jesus has borne our grief, anybody that is crying is not a Christian." That's not what the Bible is saying. What the Bible is saying is that something happened when we lose somebody in the church. And in the midst of all those things, myself, a particular person stood, then another person stood. As we were just talking, I just look at the other person and we just simultaneously just said, "It is well." That person now said, "No, it's not well! It's not well! It's not well, oh! It's not well, it's not well!" We now looked at him, we just said, "Sir, who sang that song? What happened to him? Is it as what has happened to this person now?" He said, "Oh, it is well, it is well, it is well." What I want to make you understand is that for many of us, we are not experiencing the blessedness of the gospel. And that is why many times pain, grief, sorrow, they take us beyond the limit where God expects us to be waiting for him. Because what many of us don't understand is that sometimes too grief and sorrow is God's way of molding and making us. Hebrews 12:8 says if other children experience hardness, discipline, so as to train them, if you don't experience it, are you not a bastard? Look at what God told the Israelites in Deuteronomy 8:3. He said, "I humbled you, I made you to suffer hunger, so that you can learn that man does not live by bread alone." And sometimes when we are going through hunger and lack and God is trying to teach us to know that man don't live by bread, that you can trust God even in the face of nothing, and yet God will take you through it and it will become a testimony. What do we do many times? We throw away faith. We so much magnify the grief, we so much describe the sorrow, we so much paint it, "This one is unique, this one peculiar, if you only know what is happening, let me describe it well". But the Bible says there's nothing that has happened to you but such as is common to men. No peculiarity, no drawing. The point I'm showing you about the gospel is that we need to understand that the deepest of the deepest of our grief is death. I hope we know. But somebody has borne that one, that grief, that sorrow. As 1 Corinthians 15:55 says, that is why Paul could say, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" He has been able to understand his inheritance in Christ. Our inheritance in Christ, these are the things that remember consistently we were discussing. We said our inheritance in Christ are those things that except you are truly in Christ you can never experience. Our inheritance in Christ are not those things you can experience outside Christ. That is why I said money is not our inheritance in Christ, because unbeliever too they can be rich, they can be great. All those things that anybody can experience outside Christ, they are what we call the provisions of God's providence. God cares for his creation, makes it to rain upon both the good and the bad. They are providential gifts. Long life is providential. You can see an atheist, "Which God? I will pit God! I will stand him to death!" And you will see him, he will live up to 120. Have you not seen it before? When you want to pray, he say, "Which prayer? No God will take me!" And you will see him, he will go, he will come back, he will go, he will come back. And you will see him, 120 years he is still alive. And you will see another one that really prayed, he died at 50. So certain things we should understand, they are providential gifts. But our inheritance in Christ, don't get confused, the brother died at 50 and he was a believer, and the one that did not believe was 120. In fact, my Christianity is confused now. It's because those who raised you up, they didn't teach you the gospel. If what they taught you was not the gospel, it was something else. The gospel is clear as to what our inheritance in Christ is clear. They are things that are beyond understanding. They are things that they come as a result of something that somebody wrote this again. It's just a comment, but it blessed me. He said God works severally. Sometimes he delivers us. Some other times he delivers us in, and sometimes he wants us to come over. He was talking about the three Hebrew children. He said for those boys, God did not deliver them from the fire. He delivered them in the fire. He said sometimes God, "Lord, don't let this happen, Lord, let this...", and then you begin to care. Okay, go and see it. You can be delivered and nothing will happen while you'll still be solid. You need to understand that salvation is comprehensive. You know what Jesus said about the good man, Psalm 112:7. We said something on Saturday. He said his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord. He is not afraid of evil tidings. When will you be at rest? Do you know how many evils is in the world? How many news of abortion? How many news that you will die? The way things in this country today... we were watching one, somebody sent it to us, highly placed woman who has a school or something, arrangement with the driver. And then she was killed, they raped her, they killed her, they tied her, they buried her. And then you know what my son said when he watches? He said, "Me, I will never employ a security man! I will never employ a driver!" He said, "I will never employ a driver! I will never employ a security man! These people..." Now my wife now told her, we now told him something. We said even your father can plan your evil. So it's not about "I will run here, I will run...", you don't know where to run to. This world is wicked. In John 16:33 he said, "Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." Be of good cheer. Be of good cheer. Hypertension! The worry, the anxiety, the fear... you need to take paracetamol because you have already died before they even told you that they have arrived. It's his heart is fixed, trusting the Lord. He knows that I can never be tried beyond what I can bear. And if I run into trouble, I can still rejoice. It is only to work endurance. That's the heart of a Christian. Christians are not fearful people. I see the spirit of fear today in the church today. "Oh, let's pray against my blood, against my blood! Lord, let me not die!" We are not... it's not wrong to pray that I won't die. But it's wrong to pray because you are afraid. I see Christian today, it's like we are not different from non-Christians. Brother, sister, he has borne our grief. He bore it. Let our heart be fixed on him. Let our heart, "Lord, you have borne my grief". So anyone that comes is because you only want to teach me endurance. That's the heart. That's the correct heart. And then we can move on and on and on. And look at where I want to stop. Verse 5 said the chastisement of our peace is upon him. The chastisement of our peace is upon him. There is nothing that has the right to shake my peace. The chastisement of our peace is upon him. If you understand the gospel, nothing can shake your peace. When something comes, I say, "Look, look, look, the chastisement of my peace is upon Jesus". Whatsoever is shaking my peace, you are transgress. The chastisement of my peace, I'm to be at peace. Can we pray? Can we talk to God this evening? Can we talk to the Lord? Please don't forget, he had no form nor comeliness. When you see it, there's no beauty in it to desire it. You want to take a quick way out, a quick way out. But if you can believe it and you can hold it, it is well. It is well. I want you to talk to the Lord. What is grieving you that has become so grievous? That has become a person of sorrow? You no more smile. You can no more praise God. You cannot rejoice again. What is that thing that is grieving you? Maybe somebody has offended you and it is still hurting you. Give that thing to Jesus. He can remove that hurt. When you see the person, you'll be smiling. He has taken the hurt away. He bore our grief. He bore our grief. Thank you, Father. Blessed be your name, O God. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Holy Spirit. Blessed be your name. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray. [Music]