WHAT WAS LAID ON CHRIST
Norman J Henry
Isaiah 53: 6
Mathew 26: 36-42
1 Samuel 17: 20 (to “commanded him”), 29
John 10: 27-30
I would like divine help to speak a little about what was laid on Christ, the Lord Jesus. Who would know what that was? This was an incalculable matter, which affected not only mankind but God Himself. You might say the resources of God would be called into full use at a time like this when something would be laid upon Christ that could be laid on no other. No other in the universe could take on what was put on Christ. Think of men of God that had been previously! No one could say, ‘Jehovah hath laid upon them the iniquity of us all’. We have all gone our own way. It says, “every one to his own way”. We have all gone different ways. You have your ways and I have mine, and it was all away from God, like the younger son in Luke 15 going away. He went out without his father but he came back with his father; that is recovery.
Think of what was laid on Christ! Only He fully knew what that was. He says, “the cup which the Father has given me, shall I not drink it?”, John 18: 11. When did He get that? Was that publicly seen? No! Nobody saw that publicly. That is why I read of Gethsemane just to get some little impression of the pressure that was in the heart and mind and affections of Christ. There is no one more feeling than Christ. When He came to this matter, what was in that cup was abhorrent to Him. It was done in secret. Even the selected disciples did not know. The Spirit had to give us Matthew 26 and Mark 14: 32-41, showing what transpired at Gethsemane. The disciples slept through it; they were not able for it. The Spirit of God gave us these touches, Jesus says, “not my will, but thine be done”, Luke 22: 42. What words these were to heaven, to the Father’s ears! What the angels must have felt! The angels were singing at His birth and the angels must have marvelled. What that life of perfection meant to the Father! The Father would delight in that pathway, and yet it came to this point and there was this cup. No one knew anything about it, “the cup which the Father has given me”. What was in that cup? Everything that was against God: sin, death, everything was in that cup, the whole judgment of God on the race, and the Lord knew that. In His wonderful, gracious feelings and affections, He would know He would have to go there to provide a basis for salvation for everyone who had put faith in God. How would David be saved without it? How would Abraham and the patriarchs be saved? It depended on God overlooking “the times of ignorance” (Acts 17: 30) as to men or even His people. These men died in faith but they needed the work of Christ to come into eternal blessing, and we need it. No one here gets it by birth. We never could get anything by birth. We speak about repentance; repentance is that you abandon your own thoughts, and you are accepting God’s thoughts.
But here it is laid upon Him. The horns of the altar involve strength in Christ, and here it is laid upon Him. “And Jehovah hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all”. What precious balm to our souls! Do not be ashamed to produce tears; I mean genuinely deep feelings. I know what it is like to sit through preaching after preaching after preaching and hardening inside: ‘I am not going to give in tonight’. Thank God He never gave up! He kept going until eventually each one of us had to accept it that He went there for us. He went there for me. So, it says, “Jehovah hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all”.
The day of atonement looked forward to Christ. It was a very great matter in Israel’s history, the day of atonement. No man could go in but the high priest and he went in and presented the offering, and he took the coals and incense and went into the Holiest, Lev 16: 12. That was typical of the presence of God. The perfection of Christ was in the divine presence. What a place to be! Then the blood was put “upon the mercy-seat, and before the mercy-seat”, v 15. How precious! That has given God a basis to come out to you tonight, in a forgiving way to men, however hard, and they are getting harder. The days are getting harder, more sinful, more unashamed. They celebrate Christmas but may have little regard for His death. What we had before us this morning was His death, which brought us into the good of things, and here - I will just go over it again - “All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way; and Jehovah hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all”.
When you come to Gethsemane, what a scene! “Then Jesus comes with them to a place called Gethsemane, and says to the disciples, Sit here until I go away and pray yonder. And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and deeply depressed. Then he says to them, My soul is very sorrowful even unto death; remain here and watch with me. And going forward a little he fell upon his face, praying and saying, My Father, if it be possible let this cup pass from me; but not as I will, but as thou wilt”. Thank God for the will of the Father! The Lord Jesus hated sin as much as God hates sin. He loved righteousness, and God loves righteousness, and here He is given this great matter to bear, and He says, “if it be possible let this cup pass from me”. If the Father had said, ‘Yes’, where would you now be? In a lost eternity! No hope at all! Think of persons going to spend eternity without Christ! Their conscience will be restless eternally. The greatest vehicle of torment will be a restless conscience. It will be impossible to satisfy the conscience then with the lost! Too late! Everyone here who has been converted, even then just for a few moments, had the terrible sense of what it means, what being lost means, and the hand is outstretched to bless you, to fill your heart with Christ! There is nothing like it.
Now, it says, “if it be possible let this cup pass from me; but not as I will, but as thou wilt”. Satan was powerless, when a Man goes to that extent in the face of what Satan has seized. Death was actually God’s penalty for sin but the power of it was seized by the devil through Cain, and he wields that power over the race. The fear of death keeps persons in bondage the whole of their life. That is what has happened to every generation since, and here this blessed One is about to be made sin. He was made what He hated most. It was not just saying, ‘I will accept you in perfection only’. The fact is that God made Him to be sin for you and me (2 Cor 5: 21), and that is why when a person gets forgiveness, it is absolute. It is for the whole of your life. Now remember that: you cannot spend your life as you want because if you have received that, it covers every sin, although sin may come into our responsible history. That is marvellous. That is how great forgiveness of sins is. It is something worth telling the race. What is holding you back? You can have forgiveness of sins without one qualm or question in your conscience or anything. It is all met in the blood of Christ. Is that not wonderful?
So, it says, “And he comes to the disciples and finds them sleeping”. I think that is why the Spirit gives this outline because the Lord Jesus goes back a second time and then He prays a third time and eventually He says, “Sleep on now”, v 45. He knew they were not able for this scene, but the Spirit of God gives us the agonies of Christ. They were agonies of Christ in anticipation of what He would do at the cross and take sins away. The sin matter was gone into absolutely on the cross. He suffered for righteousness in His life; He suffered for sin on the cross, the three hours of darkness when the sin matter was resolved eternally for God; and if it satisfies God, it should satisfy you and me. And it says here, “And coming he found them again sleeping, for their eyes were heavy”, v 43. I think that was because it was such a great matter.
Now we come to 1 Samuel 17. The Philistine giant was challenging Israel to produce an opponent; he did not know what he was taking on. Instead of seeing somebody in Saul’s armour, it was an unprotected youth. He went forward as a type of Christ. Christ could have gone through the midst of the people, Luke 4: 30. They took up stones to cast against Him, but He hid Himself, John 8: 59. He could have asked for angelic protection, but He did not, Matt 26: 53. He went forward as unprotected. What a Saviour! David got that giant where he should get him, right in his head; the Philistine mind was dealt with on the spot.
It says David “left the sheep with a keeper”. I think you will see in John chapters 14, 15 and 16, He is making known to His own who the Keeper would be in His absence. He has left the sheep, and the Lord Jesus provided for us in the Keeper He has left. He has left the Holy Spirit, and if you get salvation, you need the Spirit. That will bring assurance into your soul, and therefore He leaves the sheep. And when questioned David says, “What have I now done? Was it not laid upon me?”. The footnote says, ‘Or, “Is there not a cause?”’. There was a need to get the Spirit in the absence of Christ, and the Spirit will be with us until the coming of the Lord at the rapture. We will have a Keeper with us. I want to speak respectfully. He is a divine Person, but we have a Keeper, and there is no one like Him. As someone has said, He is the greatest Friend on earth. David says, ‘Is there not a cause?’. They said he had forsaken the sheep. There was a cause he had come for. He was coming into conflict and the Lord went before us in the conflict, in a conflict we could not have other than lost. We had no ability to face the enemy of our souls. We have a divine Person that laid down His life for us, and we have a divine Person that sustains us in the way through. We have a Keeper here in the Holy Spirit, and that is a blessed thing.
Now, just finally I would like to make a reference to John 10. He says, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and I give them life eternal; and they shall never perish”. That is one thing to remember. There is no going back once you get it. Once you lay hold of Christ, He lays hold on you. You might weaken, but the hold of Christ will never weaken. He says, “no one shall seize them out of my hand”. What an all-the-way-through Saviour, sustaining you in the testimony, sustaining you going to work, and next week, or whenever it may be, sustaining you. “No one shall seize them out of my hand”; He gives an assurance. People want assurance, safety: this is the best safety you can get.
And then it says, “My Father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one can seize out of the hand of my Father. I and the Father are one”. I was thinking this morning, and we would feel what the brethren here have gone through over the years, that the service of God will never cease. I believe that. The service of God, whatever the conditions may be, will continue, and that is because of the hand of Christ and the hand of the Father. In other words, the Father’s interests are secured and the Lord’s interests are secured. “And they shall never perish, and no one shall seize them out of my hand”. I think seizing is grabbing at something. Things can happen so quickly in our lives. We need to be preserved from the enemy’s tactics over us to try to weaken us. I will go over it again, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and I give them life eternal; and they shall never perish, and no one shall seize them out of my hand. My Father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one can seize out of the hand of my Father”.
He says in chapter 17, “the men whom thou gavest me out of the world”, v 6. He really brings them back to the Father. They were the Father’s gift to the Son. That is a blessed thing. That involves predestination, that we might “be conformed to the image of his Son”, but more than that, “so that he should be the firstborn among many brethren”, Rom 8: 29. Christ has brethren given by the Father to Him, and Christ brings them to the Father. That is why I think it is unfailing. There will always be a response from hearts. Those chapters we had today in Matthew and every gospel are full of persons returning when it seemed it was impossible to get a response. Even if there are two or three, or however many it may be, there is bound to be a response. I think that applies here: “My Father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one can seize out of the hand of my Father”. I think things are going to be completed in power. It is not going to end in weakness. The Spirit will be there to the end. We will not be without the Spirit. The gift He gave will be with us “for ever”, John 14: 16. We have that Keeper and when the assembly goes at the rapture, the Spirit goes as well. Solemn conditions lie on the world’s system. Others will be brought in and they will be anointed to preach, but they will not have the indwelling Spirit that you and I can have because that involves the formation of the assembly, and that is a remarkable thing. It is a dignity and a privilege to be in the assembly, dear brethren. It is a fine thing to end the preaching with that, a recognition of the local assembly for the heart of Christ.
May the Lord bless the word!
Manchester
17th December 2023