The Ohio Independent Baptist, April 1963

e u ete rist By Rev. Thomas S. Wright, Pasto r Sharon Baptist Church, Sharon, Pa . Golgotha. I it any wonder He fell under it's weight? Simon was pres ed into ervice to bear it part of the way for Him. He was led to Golgotha' brow laid upon the cross, piked to ~t, and the cro s lifted and dropped into the hole pre.pared for it. And there with His body agging after hours of uf fering God drew a hroud over the sun, and darkne covered the the un and darkne covered the land. And that darkne is highly significant, symbolic of in. Alone in the darkne Jesu Chri t suffered as our ub titute, bearing our in . The ju t dying for the unju t, the inno– cent for the guilty. "Who Hi own elf bear our sin in Hi own body on the tree, that we being dead to in, might live unto rightou ne , by whose stripes we are healed. ' I P eter 2: 24. During that midnight hour our Lord wre tled with the enemy of our oul , and overcame him. He the eed of the woman cru bed the head of the er– pent . Ye , ,the Son of God wrought the victory, but at what a price, in untold agony, uffering and hame. He bore it all willingly and even gladly for your sin and mine. I would like to call your attention to a pa sage of Scripture found in the 52nd chapter of the book of I aiah ' and the 14th ver e. 'A many were astonied, ( a toni hed) at thee: hi visage wa o marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men: ' The reader of thi pa sage in I aiah get a glimp e into the deep– e t pit of man' hatred of God a he view the uffering of our Lord Je u Chri t the Me siah. He the Lan1b of God that came to take away the sin of the world. What do we ee here? ot ju t di like : ot just repugnance: But a deep abiding hatred for Him and all He s tood for. Human language fails, the pen of man slips from his hand in weakness d ' ' an man s tongue is helpless to de- cribe, the terrible suffering , the tragic injustice, and the friendish hate displayed against God's Son which . ' is b~ought before u s in this passage. In it we see Calvary at it's wors t Satan doing his utmost against God ~ There are two things I would like you to notice here: l. In the text before us Messiah's ufferings have o altered Hi ap– pearances, that He no longer resem– bles a man. The cruel treatment to which he was subjected is written across this passage that all might b _ hold with astonishment. 2. One cannot understand the inner significance of this pas age, apart from rightly understanding several key words which appear here. The word Astonied i a word which means (astonished) (thrown into a state of bewilderment) ( confus– ion) - (startled beyond under tand– ing) - (amazement). I he sight that met men's eyes caused men's tongue to cleave to their jaw , rendered them \peech– Jess, so great was their amazement at what had taken place in so . hort a • 11111e. he)' had seen Hi,n rai se the dead , till tl1e ett , heal t}1c sick, and gJve ight to tl1e blind. l1ey \\'ere a111a,c.:d at the des tr11c– tion of Hi plenti1d pll)'sic al body. A11d tl1en the word J/ isage. 'fl1i '"' rd carri s 'tVitl1 it tl1e id a of . igl1t , forn1, and a p1,eara11ce. ~ 0111 11 ,tve tl1 uglit of tl1i onl)' in 1 eferenee to H i ace or count enanc , but it e - tend )'011d tl1a t in it' full ig11ifi- ca11 , 1 c:ri11g tl1e Ylh l g neral The OHIO INDEPENDENT BAPTIST appearance of Jesus hrist on that cross. And the third word I would have you notice i Marred. Thi word carrie with it a very violent mean– ing, namely destroyed defaced , dis– figured ruined. Looking at the ,pa sage then the Spirit ays that the entire aspect, that is the general appearance of Chri t had been brutally destroyed , and this to uch an extent as to cau e paralyz– ing a tonishment to grip the hearts and tongues of tho e who beheld His uffering . They were stricken dumb by what they beheld. They had seen men crucified before they had een men suffer before, but never had they seen anything like thi . Hi form, (figure) (whole body) wa marred more than any man. Hi body was so de troyed on the cros by what He had endured that he no longer re– sembled a man. Let u go back a little way in our thoughts to Mat. 26: 67. Jesus Christ was brutally beaten in the ecclea ti– cal trial before Caiaphas. The Scrip– ture says "Then did they spit in His face, and buffeted Him, and other mote Him with the Palms of their hand .' ' Now buffeting means to smite heavy blow with the clo ed fi t. Men obviou ly leveled heavy blow of the fist upon Hi face and body causing Hi face to be blackened and bruised and utterly twi ted out of shape with swelling. And following that came the courging ordered by Pilate. In tho e day , courging wa a fearful thing, and many people died under courgi ng. A courge- a leather la h platted, and at the end three long lea ther thong , knotted and weighted with bits of bone or harp piece of metal. With uch a courge wa " our Lord beaten. Then the heavy cro. wa placed upon H i bleeding back. and He ta1itcd i11 the direction of And o a our pa age read , that which had once been the plendid body of Je u of Nazareth but now the blighted, twi ted , defaced , almo t de troyed ma re embling no man and bearing no apparent relation hip to the human race. So great wa the price he paid at the hand of men under the fierce fire of the wrath of God again t in. Thank be unto God, He bore our in I Pet. 2: 24; He la id down Hi life, J hn 10: 1 ; Went into the grave, J hn 19 :41 ; ame out in three day . Lt1le 24: 6; A cended back to the ather, Ac t 1:10; There to make interce i n f r ll . H b. 7:25; An<l i coming back. for Hi I The . 4 : 13-1 ; ( 0 11 ·1. 0 ,1 page 13 ) O\\' n , THE CHILDREN'S GOSPEL HOUR, INC. L1v1ngston , Tenn . Listen to station WSPD-TV ch . 13 - Toledo, Ohio - Sunday 8 :30 a .m . WEWS-TV ch. 5 - Cleveland, Ohio - Saturday 9 :30 a .m. Prese1zti11g Clzrist to J'Oltt1z b) 1 ra lio ai1d TIT God is answering p rayer and rnore stations are accepting the Children's Gospel Hour. We now have 39 hal f-hour programs and five prints of each one, These prograrns n 1 ake clear God's plan of salva t ion and the boy and girls of An,erica should see then1. Henry C. Geiger, Executive Director . Page 3, APRIL 19o3