Isaiah 53:6

Driving home: And one such portion of the Word of God is found here in Isaiah 53 and verse 6, where in a very real sense, the entire message of the Bible is condensed within the compass of one verse.

A Jewish woman, unfamiliar with the Gospel, heard Isaiah 53 read in church and thought it was from the New Testament, leading to her conversion. This illustrates the chapter's vivid depiction of Christ's suffering and its power to reveal the Messiah.

We know of a woman whose background was Jewish. She had never been within the walls of a church where the gospel had been preached. And she somehow found her way into such a church. And when the servant of God stood and began to read the scriptures from Isaiah 53, she thought for sure the man must be reading from the New Testament, from the New Testament gospel records.

3:28 - 3:57 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin presents the vivid picture of humanity as a vast flock of sheep that has strayed from God as the object of supreme desire and delight, citing Romans 3:10-18 to underscore…

The prophet's imagery of humanity as a vast flock of sheep straying from its shepherd is used to vividly picture our desperate condition, exposed to danger and destruction without God's presence, protection, and guidance.

We like sheep have gone astray. And here the prophet incorporates imagery that would have been familiar to all of his hearers. Perhaps there are not a few of you here who have never seen a real bona fide flock of sheep, let alone seeing flock of sheep day after day as a part of your ordinary experience. But to those to whom this word came in its original setting, this would have indeed conveyed very vivid imagery to their minds. For what the prophet is doing is likening the condition of his hearers and of all humanity to that of a vast flock of sheep that has strayed from the presence, protect...

9:14 - 10:13 Read in full sermon

Driving home: The Scripture says the carnal mind is enmity itself. In other words, every one of us by nature is one big clenched fist in the face of God.

The carnal mind is described as 'enmity itself,' likened to 'one big clenched fist in the face of God,' to emphasize humanity's inherent rebellion and opposition to God's law.

as the governing rule of life. And what the prophet sets out in this vivid imagery, the apostle Paul, states in explicit language in Romans 8 and verse 7, where he writes, The carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be. And what that means, kids, when it says the carnal mind, it means the disposition with which you were born, the disposition with which all of us was born, the internal disposition of heart to God is enmity itself. It doesn't say the carnal mind is at enmity with God. The Scripture says the carnal mind is enmity itself. I...

16:01 - 17:05 Read in full sermon

The point: Have you ever felt the reality of your desperate condition in sin?

God's banishment of Adam from Eden and the judgment of the flood are cited as historical examples of God's serious view of sin, demonstrating that He does not take sin lightly.

the question is how does God look upon all this will you go right back to the garden of Eden and when our first father went astray like a sheep when he turned to his own way how did God react did God just say oh well you know boys will be boys and kids will be kids and Adam will be Adam oh yes I told him you shall not eat of that tree in the day that you eat you die but you know man is man in what can be expected and did God indulgently pass over Adam going astray like a sheep from God as the supreme object of his desire and delight and turning to his own way no God came and banished him from ...

28:25 - 29:54 Read in full sermon

The point: Have you ever felt the reality of your desperate condition in sin?

The common admission of being a 'sinner' is compared to having the measles – a universal affliction that doesn't evoke moral guilt. This highlights the superficiality of merely admitting sin versus truly feeling its reality.

you you you and you and you and you have you ever felt the reality of your desperate condition in sin I didn't say have you felt it to the point where you wept seven buckets of tears over the course of thirteen days I didn't say have you felt it to the point where you couldn't sleep at night for six successive weeks no I would not set standards beyond the word of God but Jesus said I did not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance and no one ever embraced Christ as savior who did not keenly feel his desperate condition as a sinner apart from Christ so I ask you the simple question...

31:23 - 32:51 Read in full sermon

Driving home: mark it down as a very very accurate litmus test of all religious teaching when it comes to the issue of how man gets right with God does the teaching start with an arrow that begins on earth with man reaching up to heav…

Martin references Dr. Lloyd-Jones's sermon on 'But God' (Ephesians 2:4) to emphasize that salvation originates with God's initiative, not man's.

where are and he came as the great inquisitor not only to confront him with his sin but to say look you've aligned yourself with the devil but I'm going to break up the alignment I will put enmity warfare between you and the woman between your seed and her seed God takes the initiative to break up man's alignment with the devil God takes the initiative and from that first indication of it on to the wonderful statement of John 316 for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son Ephesians 2 and verse 4 after describing our condition in sin in verses 1 to 3 the apostle transitions i...

37:16 - 38:45 Read in full sermon

Driving home: and in opening up this gracious glorious truth my friend let me say this until you see in the cross of Christ what happened between the father and the son the son and the father you never understand the cross of Christ

The betrayal of Judas, the wickedness of the chief priests, the cruelty of the soldiers, and the physical suffering of Christ are described as human actions that, while horrific, do not fully explain the cross's meaning. This sets up the argument that the true meaning lies in God's action.

and in opening up this gracious glorious truth my friend let me say this until you see in the cross of Christ what happened between the father and the son the son and the father you never understand the cross of Christ if all you see when you read the gospel records is the wretched rot sneaking shriveling betrayal of Judas coming to Jesus in the place where he knew he would find him for he oft times went there to pray if all you see is his sickening smothering of Jesus with his kisses of betrayal until you want to vomit in the face of his wretched hypocrisy if that's all you see you've never u...

44:41 - 46:10 Read in full sermon

Driving home: and in opening up this gracious glorious truth my friend let me say this until you see in the cross of Christ what happened between the father and the son the son and the father you never understand the cross of Christ

Jesus' trembling before 'the cup' in Gethsemane is explained as His shrinking from the pure, holy, undiluted wrath of God against the sins of His people, illustrating the magnitude of the wrath He bore.

and the cry of abandonment the true meaning of the cross is to be found not looking out at the horizontal plane but looking upward in the vertical dimension because there in the unseen but real world of spiritual reality there was inner Trinitarian activity Jehovah is bruising Jehovah Jesus his servant there in the court of heaven God is taking all of the legal guilt the cumulative guilt of all of the people of God of all ages and he is crediting his son with that guilt and he is bringing down upon his soul the full undiluted fury of that guilt in the language of our Lord Jesus it was that whi...

49:08 - 50:37 Read in full sermon

Driving home: no my friend the cross of Christ is the eternal irreversible monument that God will never treat sin lightly for if ever God was going to treat sin lightly he would have treated it lightly when his son was the sin less th…

An old poet's description of the darkness at the crucifixion as 'blacker than a hundred midnights down in a cypress swamp' is used to convey the profound spiritual darkness and judgment Christ experienced.

the ninth hour there was at high noon a total eclipse of the heavens it became blacker as one old poet said blacker than a hundred midnights down in a cypress swamp God as it were takes the curtain and he pulls it across the sun and he turns the noonday into the blackest darkness of night while the soul of the son of God is plunged into the felt pangs of outer darkness and the scripture says toward the end of the three hours then he did cry and what was the direction of his cry not horizontal he didn't say my great leaders in Israel why my disciples why but my God why have you abandoned and th...

55:05 - 56:33 Read in full sermon

Driving home: no my friend the cross of Christ is the eternal irreversible monument that God will never treat sin lightly for if ever God was going to treat sin lightly he would have treated it lightly when his son was the sin less th…

Rabbi Duncan's statement that Christ bore 'damnation... lovingly' is quoted to encapsulate the idea that Christ truly experienced the legal consequences of hell for our sins, though without despair.

do you know the answer it's here in our text the Lord has made to light upon him the iniquity of us all and when Jesus is legally really charged with the guilt of our sin and dealt with by God in pure justice he receives our hell though as one of the old Puritans said not in a hellish manner that is with despair and no hope of the reshining of the face of God but while he was bearing our sins in his body upon the tree he was he knew in those dark hours in that pure holy spotless soul the felt pangs of abandonment by his father when the scripture says Christ redeemed us from the curse of the la...

56:33 - 58:02 Read in full sermon

Driving home: no my friend the cross of Christ is the eternal irreversible monument that God will never treat sin lightly for if ever God was going to treat sin lightly he would have treated it lightly when his son was the sin less th…

Hugh Martin's observation that Christ appeared as a 'guilty felon' in the theater of human activity from Gethsemane to the cross is used to illustrate that God orchestrated events to visibly represent the imputation of our sin to Christ.

of Calvary an exposition of Gethsemane and he made this point that from the time Jesus was apprehended in the garden you remember how they came and they bound him they dragged him off to Annas and Caiaphas and Pilate and Herod and back to Pilate from the time he was bound he was bound and he was there outside the wall of the garden of Gethsemane voluntarily giving himself up at the first approach whom seek ye Jesus of Nazareth I am he and it says the soldiers fell backward upon the ground apparently there was either in his voice or temporarily in his very countenance an outburst of his own inh...

58:02 - 59:30 Read in full sermon

The point: Let the unrighteous man forsake his thoughts. Stop making a God of your brain and bring your thoughts subject to God's thoughts in holy scripture.

God's thoughts and ways of forgiveness are contrasted with human tendencies to put sinners on probation, emphasizing that God's mercy is infinitely higher and more abundant than ours.

God. For he will abound. You need to tell me, preacher, that if I simply call upon this God, turning from my own way and my own thoughts, that this God, for the sake of Christ, will fully, completely, irreversibly pardon all of my sins forever? Yes. You say, that's too good to be true. God says, I know it is, so read on. Yes, God anticipates your thinking. Read on. My thoughts are not your thoughts. Neither are my ways your ways. If you and I were God and anyone had treated us the way we've treated him, we'd say, crawl in your muck for a while. Put you on probation for a while. Behave yourself...

69:45 - 70:42 Read in full sermon

The point: You can't have Christ by proxy. Christ is not yours because he's mom's and dad's. He's yours only when you embrace him to be yours.

A poem penned by a young woman, based on Agrippa's words to Paul, is read to challenge those who are 'almost persuaded' to become Christians, highlighting the danger of lingering and the eternal stakes involved.

The scripture says this is a faithful saying worthy of all acceptance. Christ Jesus came into the world sinners to save and no qualification before the word sinners. In the original the word sinners comes first. He came sinners to save. Young sinners, old sinners, polite sinners, rotten sinners, sweet smelling sinners, stinking sinners, sinners. Jesus came to save. And dear friend, he stands in the livingness of his power. Not only ready and willing, but entreating that you come to him to be saved. Are you almost persuaded? Almost? I close by reading the words of a young woman known to me pers...

72:32 - 73:56 Read in full sermon