Church Notes: Notes of a Sermon

by Rev. Alex. MacAskill, Lochinver.

“Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.” 1 Peter 2: 24.

Peter is here writing to the church, especially among the Jews, who were called upon to suffer for the Word of God. There is nothing so precious as the Word of God, and nothing stirs so much enmity as the Word, so that he writes to those who were scattered abroad. There is also instruction given to us as to how we are to behave and conduct ourselves. There is more danger from what is within than from what is without for those who are called by God, and one is in danger of forgetting that those who profess that they are called of God are called to suffer for righteousness sake. Instruction is given as to how they are to conduct themselves and an example of the highest way of suffering is viewed in the person of Christ. We may say that nothing gives so much encouragement in suffering as to behold the Lord in suffering.

In the context he exhorts them to do good. That cannot, be separated from the truth that “there is none good but One, that is God.” It is in serving Him that this good is. There is nothing done to the glory of God, apart from faith in him. It is impossible for the natural man to serve God, for he knows Him not. Paul says it is only those who are in the kingdom that cannot be moved that can do so, and he calls upon them to realise their need of grace to do well and to suffer for doing well. Grace can enable one to know that they are serving God. The Word gives guidance as to serving and doing well, and having to suffer for doing well and taking it patiently, for God receives them. I feel that nothing is so pleasing to grace as that God is pleased. It matters not what others say if we know that God is pleased with us.

We have here Christ as an example of well doing. The Father declared regarding Him that in Him He was well pleased — “Mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth.” It is true that Jesus did well according to what was pleasing in the Father’s sight. He was reviled. There was never such a servant and never such a master who suffered as He did. Surely He was the highest example of patience and of doing well in all His sufferings. We should have our eye focused on endeavouring to please God. He calls all His people to work for Him, and it should be our exercise to please Him.

Jesus said: “The cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?” A cup is given to all His people, and they seek to serve Him by taking what is according to His will.

Christ is the highest example of suffering patiently, and not only in suffering, but in dying for His people in their room and stead in order that they might be His blood-bought ones. The Father gave them to His Son in their lostness — “Thine they were and thou gavest them me” — in order that He might bring them alive to God as children and living members of His body. The minds of some of us did not look beyond being effectually called, but for many years back we have come to see that being called effectually was to present the Church of God on High. The calling is part of the work, but He is not to leave them until He presents them back to the glory of the Triune God.

There are three matters I would like to draw your attention to:—

1. The One here brought before us as His own Servant.
2. In regard to the work of this Person — that “He bare our sins in His body on the tree.”
3. The effect of His sufferings — “That we being dead to sins should live unto righteousness.”

The work of this One is so great. There was no other person suitable for this work. I often think that if less than that would meet the need of sinners, why should the Father give His Son? Who could bear the glory that belonged to this work, but God Himself? None less than God, who created all things of nothing. All nations are as dust before Him. He it is that upholds all things by His mighty power and to whom the issues from death belong. He must take our nature. What creature could we find in heaven who could ever think of God becoming man? It is beyond the thought of the creature — God manifested in the flesh, but it was necessary that He would take the nature of His people. He had no sin and was born without sin. Although it is true that He revealed Himself in the Old Testament, yet He did not become man till a body was prepared for Him in the womb of the Virgin Mary and was united to His own Person. He was the Son of God in our nature, but no one could see it as He veiled Himself. As Paul says to the Galatians: “He was made of a woman,” and the Church has all her hope and confidence placed in Him who was made of a woman.
Man was born under a broken covenant — and is there not the curse and death there? The sentence passed in Eden stood from Adam downwards — that “dying, thou shalt die” — meaning eternal death. Christ came under this curse. In connection with this He loved the law. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart.” Here is One able and willing to obey the law. It was in His heart. Man was able to obey in innocence. Here is the second Adam. He loves the perfect law of God. The breach of the law does not affect Him as it does us. Man fell into an estate of sin and misery. Adam in his fallen state did not care for the glory of God. Nothing but devilishness was in his heart. Christ said to the Jews: “Ye are of your father, the devil.” The love of God was in Christ’s heart. He took our nature to serve God in the room and place of His people. And He knew what He was to suffer, and that was death all the way through, not only on the cross, but death given Him in the cup all the way through.

1. He bare our sins. He is a divine person who is bearing the sins of His people. Their guilt is transferred to Him and laid to His account, for He took our nature and had to suffer, for He alone is to bear the glory of their salvation. Although He was the Son of God and free from sin, yet He ever kept before His true followers that He was God and that He must die. He did not come to bring salvation apart from fulfilling the law, and He bare His people’s sins in our nature in the shameful death of the tree. That was not the greatest part of His suffering — the suffering of His body — but it was the agony of His soul as in Gethsemane, when the blood oozed out of His body. The sufferings of His soul were more than those of His body, and if you go to a lost eternity you will know that the sufferings of the body are nothing to the sufferings of the soul. He was not forced into it, but this arose out of love to glorify God and that in connection with the salvation of those who were elected. Bearing their sins, taking their sins away, He carried their sins to Calvary and there made an end of sin, as far as His people are concerned. He said, “I have glorified Thee on the earth,” and it is in His death and suffering that he has done this. He bowed His head and gave up the ghost, showing obedience to the Father. He died in full strength. He had power to lay down His life and power to raise it again. The effect was that He became our all in all unto salvation.

2. We are dead to sin. You may say you never felt more alive to sin, but there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, although sin did bring in condemnation. Having come under their sin, they are made free because He freed them from the curse of the law. If you take hold of this you will be in the kingdom of glory — if you believe that He is the end of the law for righteousness and that there is no other way you can be free from the law and the death of the law. He said, “I will give them an heart to know Me, that I am the Lord.” You will never get the carnal mind to that, but grace cries to be free from uncleanness, which is part of the corruption of our nature before God. You wonder what you understand of what you see in the Word, but you know that sin has not the dominion over you as formerly. At one time who could make you believe that there was pleasure to be found apart from sin, but now you know that without holiness you will never see God. The Apostle Paul said, “When the commandment came, sin revived, and I died,” and there you have the beginning of the new life. When a person is brought into the family of God and is justified, the burden of guilt is taken away. It is written, “Thou shalt call His name Jesus: for He shall save His people from their sins.” Because you have been brought to the knowledge of Him you will say, “The Lord our righteousness.” There you have a soul quickened and every faculty brought alive on the ground of the meritorious life of the Son of God. It is not surprising that they complain of their heart, but see that that will not prevent you coming to acknowledge Him. Paul had a clear experience and was near the promised land when he had to say, “O wretched man that I am!”, but he had the victory.

“By whose stripes we are healed.” You can remember the day when you were not conscious of this disease. There is a disease that is not unto death, but to the glory of God. — that we have a heart that He is able to cure. It is written,

"Who thy diseases all and pains
doth heal, and thee relieve."

This is because He suffered for them, and intercedes for them, and He has the ear of His Father.