Isaac Watts hymn, “When I survey the wondrous Cross," starts out with these words, "When I survey the wondrous cross, On which the Prince of glory died, My richest gain I count but loss, And pour contempt on all my pride.” This is what happened at the crucifixion. God poured out His wrath on His Son. He poured contempt on HIm. We deserved the contempt, but Jesus bore it. Let me make it more personal: I deserve contempt poured on all my pride. But it was poured out on our Savior Jesus Christ. In this sermon, based on Isaiah 53, I point out the many ways Christ suffered for our pride. In short, He was humiliated the way we deserved to be humiliated. He was treated the way we deserved to be treated for our pride

Welcome to a new day, a day for delight, a day to spend considering the greatnesses of the beauty of God and all of what He's done. I'd like to title the message that I want to deliver this morning, a poor contempt on all my pride. We've been talking a lot about pride and the one who had no pride, our Lord Jesus Christ, who actually took the punishment for all of our pride, which is so remarkable. We've talked about many ways that God desires to build humility in our lives and to destroy pride. And now I would like, in the next minutes, to try to show how God meets us at this weakest point of our pride and show his mercy but also his wrath toward our pride because he has both he both pours contempt upon it to teach us to contempt our pride have contempt of our pride but then he turns And he exonerates us from the most contemptible part of us.

This is the miracle of the new birth and the beauty of salvation. The kindness of God, his everlasting mercies that he pours out upon those for whom he has poured contempt on his son for all of our pride and so I'd like to speak about how God meets us there now probably most of us came here to such a conference about humility because we were concerned about it in our own lives. I think many came in order to grow their humility and expose their pride and turn to the Lord and to come and learn to hear the Word of God about all these matters and you know we've we've had to experience our pride in many ways and we've seen how harmful it is and you know yesterday I had a really interesting moment one of the men here and I were sitting standing in the back after the last session was ended and he he he put his arm on my shoulder and he said do you see all these people and you know people were getting up and he said we're gonna spend all eternity with these people and he he was just marveling at that and then he said you know we ought to just love him now because we're going to have to love him for all eternity.

And I don't think he was saying he didn't love people here but it was it was just one of those remarkable moments and I was telling my wife about it you know and It's a marvelous thing to be in a room with people for which the ever everlasting kindness of the Lord is resting. And we're able to share all eternity of his everlasting kindness. So this morning I really do want to talk about his everlasting wrath and his everlasting kindness at the same time through a number of passages of Scripture. Now, another thing about this crowd here is I've been realizing over the hours that we spent together that there are many of us in this room who've walked a really similar journey some for two decades some for a decade and a half, some for an entire ten years. And we've all experienced a lot of the same things because something happened to us about maybe 10 or 15 or 20 years ago.

And after that everything changed. And we came to the realization that things weren't right in our families. And things weren't really right in our churches. And we saw it and it terrified us. And we began to search the scriptures and we came to conclusions that that we didn't even know how to reflect the glory of God in our family life or in our churches we became so pragmatic we became so like the entire culture and we were just floating down that river and we look and somehow we looked up and saw well this river we we're not so sure this river is the right river.

And so we were convicted of our sin, and we had a desire to bring our families into some biblical functionality. You know, because we realized when we read the Bible and we read our lives, there's a big disconnect here. This is a big disconnect. And so we thought our families needed needed change and we're not gonna be able to live like every other family in America anymore for if we're gonna take our Bible seriously well that's that happened to us And the same thing happened with our churches. You know, some of us were pastoring churches.

And we looked around and we said, like they say, you know, like the rednecks around me say, that don't hit no much. You know, we were like off course according to the Word of God. We were playing all kinds of antics and games and, you know, we just got washed over with pragmatism. We just wanted to do the next cool thing well that was me and that was a lot of us and so the Lord was jerking our chain you know and we repented And you know many of us have been on a really long journey. I look around this room.

There's a lot of history here. A lot of history in there. You know I was standing out here in the hallway with there's an old man who's a little bit younger than me and we've probably been walking this journey for almost two decades and there was a young man standing there and that old man who's younger than I am was saying things and I looked at that young man I said you have no idea our history. We've been walking a long journey. What he's saying, I you know, and I what I was thinking in my mind is I understand a lot more of what he's saying than you do because we've been walking through this you know wasn't that amazing that was just a really remarkable moment and God God has been kind to us as best we as best we knew how we wanted to recraft our churches and our families according to the Word of God.

We did it imperfectly and we saw, you know, we saw huge blessings but we also saw huge tumult and difficulty and there's been hardship. Some of the hardship has been because of our own pride. And you know here's what happens, you know when you're swinging from the vines of Reformation sometimes you swing and say things maybe you shouldn't have and so some of us have had to go back and apologize to people but it was still was the Lord the Lord works through his imperfect people as he's reforming his people he's also exposing their pride along the way and you know while there's hardship we've seen beautiful things happen You know one of the joys of the last few years is just to see a bunch of these young people get married. You know I see them all over the country. You know East Coast, West Coast, even in Texas you know they're all over the place and it's a real joy to see that and so many of our children are doing the same things that we taught them and that's really a blessing I pray that God actually escalates his holiness in them and that they aren't yawning but they're hungry you know for God even more and I think that's their greatest danger that they might yawn as the second generation because the second generation tends to yawn the first generation gets shocked and they repent and the second generation says well this is just the same old thing you know for me That's just a reality by the way that happens in every generation where there's a revival it does it's always have it's nothing new You know it's happening again The every generation is trying to figure it out Pray that they'll figure it out God's ways and God's ways along because they really are pleasant ways all his paths are peace well I want to speak about the suffering and the crucifixion of Jesus Christ because it's there where the holiness of Jesus Christ and the pride of man is most clearly revealed and what God has done to deal with our pride and what measures he has taken any The measure that he took was to send his only son to suffer for our pride.

And when we come to this category of the cross, we really come to the mountain peak of Christ's suffering and his his his crucifixion we are on holy ground here now I want to read a passage of Scripture and then I want to walk through his suffering because in every step of his suffering is wisdom and insight about our pride and so that's what I want to do now open your Bibles to Isaiah chapter 53 because this is the text that will be coming off I'm really just going to bounce off of it into the crucifixion. Isaiah 53 verse 4 surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows yet we esteemed him stricken smitten by God and afflicted but he was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement for our peace was upon him and by his stripes we are healed all we like sheep have gone astray we've turned every one to his own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. And so with Isaiah 53 we find ourselves really in the centerpiece of the doctrine of justification by faith and the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ Which is the heart of Christianity, but it's even tells us more than that I mean it really speaks of the the absolute hopelessness of sinners to bear their own sins It speaks of the justice of a righteous God and the penalty paid by a substitute and He says that he bore our griefs.

There are eight things here in this passage. I want to point out he bore our griefs It means that he carried them He He took the weight off of our shoulders, and he put the weight on his son. It's like as if a yoke. He takes the yoke off the yoke of judgment and suffering for your sin that you deserve and he takes the yoke off of you, and he puts it on his son. That's the picture there and he bore our griefs and sorrows our griefs these are our Spiritual diseases our sicknesses the the way we are the way we wish we weren't He bore our griefs and it says, secondly, he carried our sorrows.

This is an emphasis on our pain and our grief, the pains from our pride, the anxiety, the discouragement, the depression, the fear, all these results of pride in our lives. And the judgment that we deserve for getting discouraged and anxious and depressed and fearful because it's sinful to do that and Jesus Christ was punished for those sins of when we fall into despondency, when we know we shouldn't. Thirdly, we esteemed him stricken, smitten, and afflicted that means that we rejected him we we we we're at a distance we're unmindful of him we ignore him we're prayerless we just don't esteem him you know we go through these moments in the day where we esteem him, we're aware of him, and then we're not. And we know we shouldn't, and we know we want to be, you know, every moment connected to him. We know we want that, but we're not.

And he took the punishment for that. And then, fourthly, he was wounded for our transgressions. That he was actually pierced, which I think is a picture of what he experienced on the way to the cross. And it was for our transgressions. And then, number five, he was bruised for our iniquities.

Means, you know, broken in pieces. You know, we deserve to be crushed and wounded he but but we weren't wounded. He was wounded for us and then sixthly he was chastised for our peace And by his stripes we are healed. That's number seven. We're healed by his stripes, the marks of on his skin from the blow, the bleeding, the tearing of his muscles as a result well he took those blows we deserve to be chastised but he was chastised and then number eight our iniquity was laid on him all we like sheep have gone astray we have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all now think about that for a minute Just let's just talk about the iniquity in this room.

Well I don't know how many Christians there are in this world, but the iniquity of every Christian was laid upon him. So that's the general thrust of Isaiah 53. You know we can personalize this as well. I think we should personalize it and we should say surely he is born my grief surely he's born my sorrows I esteemed him smitten stricken by God and afflict and afflicted he was wounded for my transgressions he was bruised for my iniquities the chastisement for my peace was upon him I have gone astray we can We can read it personally and we can read it corporately. You know, those who will spend all of eternity together under His everlasting mercies can say that today.

And you'll say it for all eternity it's the happiest thought now I want to walk through his sufferings here in the next few minutes and what I what I what I believe I've done is I've taken the four gospel accounts and harmonized them and taken one step after another toward the cross because all of those steps are reflective of what has happened to us, what he has done actually for us and so I want to walk through the four gospel accounts of the suffering of Jesus Christ and the first thing that we encounter is that he agonized in Gethsemane in Matthew 26 37 he began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed and it's and the Bible says that he was pleading with his father take this cup away and the contempt that he felt I deserve the contempt on all my pride he carried our sorrows and then there was unspeakable anguish We read that his sweat became like drops of blood falling to the ground. That's in Luke 22 verse 44. And what we learn, I think, from there, among many other things, I deserve the contempt on my pride by experiencing the pressure in my soul so great to sweat drops of blood for the judgment that I deserve the most and I dread the most.

I was the one who deserved to sweat the drops of blood. Anybody sweat drops of blood recently? The Lord Jesus Christ has done it. And then he was betrayed by a false friend, Judas. A false friend with a kiss.

You know, why would Jesus choose Judas anyway? Why would he do that? Well, there's several reasons, but one reason is that he was actually fulfilling prophecy. Jesus chose Judas even though he knew he was a devil in order to fulfill Psalm 41 verse 9. Even my own familiar friend whom I trusted who ate my bread has lifted up his heel against me.

I deserve the contempt to my pride to such a degree that it would be legitimate for me to be betrayed by every false friend who's ever observed all the inconsistencies and sins in my life. We deserve to be betrayed. But Jesus didn't deserve to be betrayed and then he was apprehended if he's as if he was a common criminal criminal in Matthew 26 55 and you read these words have you come out as against a robber with swords and clubs to take me? Jesus said that. Am I a robber?

Everyone knew the answer to that question. And you know, we deserve the contempt to our pride to be treated like a robber. Even with extreme measures like swords and clubs, we deserve to be rounded up by force you know I went one time we were talking about this yesterday I got together some of our old interns together we call it externs we were we were having lunch And there was this one class of interns. They were coming back from a Bible study, and they all had their Bibles. And they had a book, The Deliberate Church by Mark Dever.

And they're going down the road, and they get pulled over. And eight cars surround them. And one of my interns got pulled out and the officer put a gun in his chest and they handcuffed these guys. Like five minutes from my house they were going to my house. Well somebody in another neighborhood did a drive-by shooting and these policemen thought it was my interns.

So they got out, you know, with their dressing business casual with their Bibles, you know. They didn't exactly look like the Crips, you know, when they got out of that car. It was not just at all. Well Jesus Christ was apprehended like a common criminal with clubs. And then he was forsaken even by his disciples.

We read in Matthew 26 56 all of the disciples forsook him and fled they'd seen all of his miracles they had received such remarkable instruction and I think we learned that we deserve the contempt to our pride by being forsaken by those whom we walk with every once in a while that happens you're You are forsaken by those who you walk with. That happens. But whenever that happens, remember Jesus Christ. You don't think you deserve it? Guess who really didn't deserve it?

Jesus Christ. So don't worry about it too much. And then he was bound and led away by the mob this time in John 18 verse 12. You know we deserve the contempt upon our pride by being bound and led away and taken to spiritual authorities by a mob everyone a mob against us we deserve that this is how great how deep how pernicious our pride is it runs through everything we ever do say think or feel and so we does Pride is ever where and we did it deserves to have the contempt of God and then he was misrepresented the the high priest and the Sanhedrin sought and and they entertained false testimony they entertained false testimony has that ever happened to you Have you ever had somebody in your life, they entertain false testimony about you. Well that happened to Jesus.

And here's the reality. We deserve the contempt to our pride by being misrepresented. We would deserve it if men and women would gather in false testimony about us and smear us and destroy every part of our lives every in every false testimony of course there are some things that are true which are imperfections and they can just be exploded into things which were not and that's what was happening here they took the perfect Son of God and they misrepresented him while he didn't deserve to be misrepresented we probably do And then he was struck on the face during the proceedings and one of the officers struck Jesus with the palm of his hand in John 18.22 because he viewed Jesus' answers as disrespectful to the high priest. But this was a false charge. He was not being disrespectful.

He only spoke words of truth and love which just teaches us the depth of our pride and the contempt that we deserve from God we deserve the contempt poured upon all of our pride even to the point of being struck in the face as our words are twisted out of context and out of meaning. We deserve that. Everything that Jesus experienced on the way to the cross we deserved. And then he was condemned to death by a tribunal. The members of the Sanhedrin literally condemned to death.

You know we deserve the contempt poured on all of our pride to be condemned to death by a group, a committee, a board, a panel, whatever it is. Whoever has been given right to speak, we deserve that. And then he was mockingly spat upon we read in Matthew chapter 26 65 to 67 that they spat on his face and beat him and they blindfolded him and struck him with the palms of their hands and said mockingly prophesy to us Christ who is the one who struck you again you know our pride is so contemptible we deserve to be spat upon. Then he was rejected by a true friend, previously rejected by a false friend, now a true friend, Peter, who denied him three times. We deserve the contempt poured upon our pride to be betrayed by a true friend and then he was led away bound and then he was He was treated by contempt and they mocked him in Luke 23.

He was made fun of. They made a parody and a satire out of his claim to be king. In Luke 23 We read, they arrayed him in a gorgeous robe and sent him back to Pilate. They poured this, they covered him with this robe, making a satire out of his garments of kingliness. His garments of kingliness and then he received the injustice of having a criminal being preferred Pilate capitulated to the pressure of the crowd out of the fear of man and he caved and he passed over Jesus for release in favor of a murderer even though Pilate knew that the Jews were being driven by envy.

And again I think we learned we deserve the contempt poured upon our pride when authorities are afraid of popular opinion And then the crowd made up of his countrymen, the Jewish people, screamed, let him be crucified. And then he was scourged and delivered to him to be crucified. The scourging was vicious and brutal. Shards of metal and glass were hailed down upon his body and he bled at that scourging. Just again, our pride is so deep and so pernicious and so pervasive that we deserve to be scorched like that for our pride now here's here's a mercy of God he hasn't shown us all of our pride because we're blind to it but there's so much pride in us.

We deserve to be scorched. We think well I don't deserve to be scorched. That's not true Because your pride is deeper than your consciousness It's far more pernicious than your ability to even detect it we're blind to our pride which blinds us to our pride so we don't even know how sinful we are God has protected us from that isn't that amazing I think that if we knew how sinful we were we wouldn't be able to get up in the morning and we wouldn't be able to look at anyone if we really knew in mercy he blinds us to our pride and he slow releases our consciousness of it so that he would make us happier over time and then he was stripped and gawked at by the Roman garrison and they gathered around him and they stripped him. They stripped him naked and put him on a cross. Now our pride is so pernicious and so pervasive and it's embedded in so much of our lives that we deserve to be hung naked in embarrassment so that every secret is displayed and exposed to the crowd for everyone to see.

Now we don't normally think that we deserve that, but the Bible makes it very clear that we did deserve it. Your position on your sinfulness will determine whether you're saved or not. If you think you're really good, I'm just going to say I don't think you're saved. You can't be because you've never really come to terms with the sinfulness of sin and how pervasive it is. You know you think you might be able to shine yourself up and be a better businessman and a better dad and a better church member and do this or do that all those things are worthless in the face of your sin because it's greater than you can imagine And then a parody and a satire was escalated.

They twisted a crown of thorns on his head and they bowed mockingly and they said, Hail King of the Jews! They were laughing. They were laughing at him. Oh, King of the Jews! Ha ha ha ha ha ha!

That's what we deserve. Our pride is so deep, it's so pernicious, it's so pervasive, that we deserve to be mocked like that. You know, we present this outward appearance of righteousness, we deserve to be mocked for it it's really nothing and then the Roman garrison now spat on him he's being spat upon by different people here and then the soldiers mocked him and made a parody of him and they gave him a mock scepter a read oh here's your here's your scepter here's your symbol of authority it's a read and then they whacked him on the head with it and we deserve to be mocked as one who pretends to have authority but actually has no authority or ability to do anything and then they came to the place of the skull and they crucified him and then they mocked him even more and they said if you're the king of the Jews then save yourself and then they put a mocking inscription over his head in Greek and Latin and Hebrew this is the king of the Jews in Matthew 27 37 and so we deserve the contempt of being slandered in all the common languages of the people whatever language there is we deserve to be mocked and slandered by it Jesus was and then the pastors by blasphemed him as he was crucified with two robbers.

We deserve to be hanging with robbers. And those who passed by blasphemed him wagging their heads saying you who destroy the temple and build it in three days save yourself if you are the Son of God come down from the cross and then the chief priests and the scribes and the elders also mocked him and they said he saved others he cannot save himself he cannot save if he's the king of Israel let him come down from the cross and we will believe him he trusted God let him deliver him now if he will have him for he said I'm the Son of God And then hanging on the cross even the robbers criticized him. The robbers criticized him. Matthew 27, 44. They literally reviled him.

That's the word that's used. The robbers were reviling him. And again, our pride is so deep, it's so pernicious, it's so pervasive that we deserve even the robbers to revile us. And then he was forsaken by his father. And he who had unbroken unity and communion from eternity past as is recorded in Psalm 22, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

And at last after three hours of darkness Jesus cried out with a loud voice, it is finished. And at that moment he put an end to the condemnation and the wrath that sinners deserve. He poured, the Father poured his contempt on all pride of man. On all pride of man and then a soldier speared him in the side just to make sure that he was really dead why Why would Jesus Christ suffer like this? I think it's obvious by now.

Every element of the sufferings of Jesus Christ exposes our pride. The cross shows us our sin. I never saw my sin so clearly as Jesus' pathway to the cross. The anger that I deserve was diverted and God pours his wrathful contempt on all our pride. And hopefully the contempt of God on our pride as displayed in the wrath of God on his son that it would help us to hate our own pride more.

God hates our pride and the cross should teach us to hate our pride more than we ever have. Now I think the prayers of the people who organized this conference is that we would emerge a humbler people, more aware of our pride and hating it more and turning away from it more. I think that's what was desired, that we would be a humble people, and that we would be humbled by the means of God building humility in us and the ways that He's brought suffering into our lives, the ways He's pinpointed our pride along the years, even as many of us have walked together for a long time. Children seeing the pride of their parents, my children seeing my pride, And all of these things that we see in the cross bring together God's wrathful contempt on our pride. And it shows us that only Jesus Christ can absorb the wrath of God for our pride.

So what Jesus did on the cross was to what God the Father did on the cross was to pour contempt on all our pride. And He absorbed the punishment that we deserved. He suffered in our place, He drank the cup of wrath that we deserved. You know one of the most remarkable moments happens in our church every Sunday when we take the Lord's Supper. I marvel it at this moment every Sunday.

You know the Lord Jesus Christ drank the cup of wrath. In the Old Testament, the prophecies in Jeremiah particularly speak of Jesus Christ as drinking a poisoned cup with shards, and he drank the cup of the wrath of the fury of God. Jesus Christ drinks the cup down to the dregs, down to the garbage in the bottom. But in the Lord's Supper, what happens? He gives you bread and he gives you sweet wine.

That's what you get. He got the cup of wrath and we got the cup of blessing. One of the Apostles called it the the cup of blessing with which we bless isn't that amazing the freedom the happiness of being set free by Jesus Christ that's what that is you've been given a sweet cup when you deserved a poison cup with shards and glass and garbage in it that's what we deserve that's how bad our sin is so I I would like for us to sing a hymn that speaks of this. It's an appropriate response to all of these things and it really does speak of the Propitiation of the wrath of God that Jesus Christ accomplished. What's propitiation?

Everybody needs to know what propitiation means. It's to soothe the wrath, to make happy in one way. That's what Jesus has done. He has soothed the wrath of God, so there's no more wrath none no more wrath Even though you know you have pride you're still dealing with it. He's bringing it to the surface he His anger is gone.

It's gone. It was all poured out. Every bit of it was poured out upon his son. And the anger and the wrath of God is not upon his people. You know, when you appear before the judgment seat of Christ and everything will be exposed, I think it's going to be the happiest day of your life.

You're gonna be before him in robes of righteousness and he's gonna set everything right. Every controversy, every disagreement. Jesus is gonna set it all right. And he's gonna judge you and you're gonna be so happy if he did because now you finally get it and your friend gets it too and if he's a Christian you're gonna be hugging because Jesus Christ is gonna tell you where you all went wrong and it's gonna be the happiest day of your life And all the controversies will be settled. And you'll be there with his robes of righteousness because this is a work that was done.

It was accomplished. We must grasp the finality of the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ it was done okay hallelujah some one of the English Puritans said for every look at your own sin take ten looks at Christ. That's good advice. The Apostle Peter said it this way in 1 Peter 3 18, for Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. Bring us to God.

Isn't that amazing? Being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit Paul and to the Colossians Church said in Colossians 2 13 and you being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh he has made alive together with him having forgiven you all trespasses all trespasses having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us, and he has taken it out of the way having nailed it to the cross having disarmed principalities and powers he made a public spectacle of them triumphing over them. He nailed your sins to the cross he buried them in the bottom of the sea he put them as far as the East is from the West the Bible says he stopped them to the ground and ground them to nothing greater love has no one than this that he lay down his life for his friends Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. So there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.

One last question before we sing. Do you know him? Do you know his mercy? Have you been born again? Do you love his ways?

Do you hate your pride? If you're still hiding and running and thinking that you're so righteous and trying to fix up your life, you may receive the wrath of God because God's wrath will be experienced either by Jesus Christ as your substitute or you will experience it Because all of that wrath all of that exposure all of that nakedness all of that slander all of that mocking all of that will be yours you will be mocked You'll be slandered you'll be made naked you'll be set completely exposed and God will punish you for all eternity Turn to Jesus Christ He is so good. Oh, He's so good. If you've walked with Him for any length of time, you know that. How good he is.