Isaiah 53:6 (1996 Conf. in CA.)

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.

People sharing how God used Pastor Martin's sermon tapes ('mechanical preachers') to bring them to Christ or establish them, illustrating the power of God's Word to accomplish its purpose.

And then they begin to say how God has used this or that particular tape or series of messages either to bring them to Christ or to establish them in Christ as those messages came on what we back home affectionately call our little mechanical preachers. And it has been a great encouragement to know the truth read in our hearing that the Word of God, when it goes forth, does indeed accomplish that for which God himself sends it. And it has been a great encouragement to my wife and to me to see what God is doing here in this part of the country in the raising up of churches committed to the old ...

0:34 - 2:00 Read in full sermon

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, thought a pastor reading Isaiah 53 was reading from the New Testament, illustrating the chapter's detailed prophecy of Christ and its power to lead to faith.

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 elaborates on the imagery of straying sheep, explaining that humanity has strayed from God as the object of supreme desire and delight, and from God's law as the governing…

The prophet likens all humanity to a vast flock of sheep strayed from their shepherd, exposed to danger and destruction, vividly picturing humanity's desperate condition in sin, having left God's presence, protection, and guidance.

And here the, 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 bonafide 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, protection, and guidance of its ri...

9:21 - 10:47 Read in full sermon

Driving home: It doesn't say the carnal mind is at enmity with God. 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,' meaning every person by nature is 'one big clenched fist in the face of God,' illustrating humanity's inherent rebellion and opposition to God.

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.

16:20 - 16:48 Read in full sermon

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

God's banishment of Adam from Eden after his sin, rather than indulgent passing over, illustrates God's seriousness about sin and His immediate judgment.

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. I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, but you know, man is man in what can be expected.

28:32 - 29:00 Read in full sermon

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

The blotting out of humanity in the flood and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah serve as historical witnesses to God's severe judgment on sin, demonstrating that He does not take it lightly.

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 Eden. And when the generations soon became so cumulatively wicked that God says it's greed, it's greed. I believe me.

29:00 - 29:29 Read in full sermon

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

People often treat sin like a universal case of the measles – everyone gets it, but no one feels moral guilt. This analogy highlights the common, dismissive view of sin versus its true nature as individual rebellion against God.

Sure. You're a sinner, I'm a sinner, we're all sinners. Sort of like the measles, when it hits the household, everybody gets them. But nobody is too upset, no one feels moral guilt and culpability, and they treat sin like a universal case of the measles.

32:37 - 32:51 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Transitioning to the 'good news,' Martin highlights the shift in emphasis from human action to divine action: 'And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all,' stressing that…

Martin references Dr. Lloyd-Jones' sermon on 'but God' (Ephesians 2:4) to emphasize that all saving religion begins with God's initiative, not man's, serving as a 'litmus test' for religious teaching.

words, but God, who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us. If you've never heard the late Dr. Lloyd-Jones' sermon on those two words, but God, beg, bide, and I was almost going to say steal, but don't steal. But what a marvelous exposition of this truth, but God, but God. Again in Titus 3, Paul describes in the first several verses the tragic state all of us are in by nature, and then he says, but God, who is rich in mercy, 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...

38:18 - 39:32 Read in full sermon

Driving home: For the good news of God's provision for sin is to be found not in what man did to the servant of Jehovah, but what Jehovah did to the servant of Jehovah. Amen.

The betrayal by Judas, the wickedness of religious leaders, the cruelty of soldiers, and the taunting crowd are described as human actions at the cross, but Martin argues that these are not the true meaning of God's provision for sin.

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, rotten, 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, with his kisses of betrayal, until you want to vomit in the face of his wretched hypocrisy, i...

44:43 - 46:08 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin delves into the profound truth that it pleased Jehovah to bruise His Son, explaining that at the cross, God poured out His undiluted wrath against the imputed sins of His…

The darkness at the crucifixion is described as God pulling a curtain across the sun, plunging the noonday into blackest night, symbolizing the spiritual darkness and abandonment Jesus felt as He bore sin.

This is what he's talking about. He is saying that in the mystery of the cross of Christ, when his sufferings so clearly described in this passage were brought to their apex in all of the events surrounding, and culminating in the crucifixion and the blackened heavens 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. Jehovah is bruising Jehovah Jesus, his servant. There in th...

48:46 - 49:50 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin delves into the profound truth that it pleased Jehovah to bruise His Son, explaining that at the cross, God poured out His undiluted wrath against the imputed sins of His…

Jesus' trembling and shrinking from the 'cup' in Gethsemane is used to illustrate the immense weight of God's pure, holy, undiluted wrath against sin that He was about to bear.

And he is crediting his son with that guilt. And he is bringing down upon his soul the full undiluted fear, the fury of that guilt. In the language of our Lord Jesus, it was that which constituted the cup before which he trembled, and from which he shrank in Gethsemane. You remember, kids, that account of Jesus going into Gethsemane.

49:51 - 50:25 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin delves into the profound truth that it pleased Jehovah to bruise His Son, explaining that at the cross, God poured out His undiluted wrath against the imputed sins of His…

An old poet's description of the darkness at Calvary as 'blacker than a hundred midnights down in a a cypress swamp' is used to vividly portray the intensity of the darkness and spiritual abandonment.

No word when the Roman soldiers, no doubt amidst their mockery and amidst their foul soldier's language, impale Him upon a cross. But the Scripture tells us that there was darkness over the whole land from the sixth hour till 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.

54:43 - 55:22 Read in full sermon

Driving home: No, my friend, the cross of Christ is the eternally 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 b…

Hugh Martin's observation that from Gethsemane to His death, Christ appeared only as a 'guilty felon' in human eyes, is used to illustrate that God orchestrated events to visibly represent the invisible reality of imputed sin.

This is what it means when it says, He who knew no sin was made sin for us. This is what it means. I shall never forget the first time I read in Rabbi Duncan's masterful work, I'm sorry, Hugh Martin's masterful work, The Shadow 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.

57:41 - 58:20 Read in full sermon

Driving home: No, my friend, the cross of Christ is the eternally 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 b…

Rabbi Duncan's statement that Christ bore 'damnation... lovingly' is quoted to encapsulate the profound truth of Christ's substitutionary suffering for our sins.

God is making it plain that his Son is a guilty felon, not with guilt of his own sin, but the guilt, of imputed sin. Look at our text again. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. And so old Rabbi Duncan said it was damnation and he bore it lovingly.

61:52 - 62:24 Read in full sermon

The point: You can't have Christ by proxy; He is yours only when you embrace Him to be yours.

Rabbi Duncan's words, 'There's nothing but Christ between us and hell,' are quoted to emphasize the absolute necessity and sufficiency of Christ for salvation.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Oh, may God grant that this night you may go to this God who dealt with our sin in the person of His Son and His servant. I go back to Rabbi Duncan's words quoted several nights ago. There's nothing but Christ between us and hell.

70:48 - 71:20 Read in full sermon

The point: Come to Christ to be saved; He stands ready, willing, and entreating.

A poem penned by a young woman, based on Agrippa's 'almost persuaded,' is read to warn against lingering in indecision and the danger of nearly embracing Christ but not fully.

I close by reading the words of a young woman known to me personally who was so burdened for her fellow teenagers who had heard a message similar to this that she went home and penned these words based on the words of Agrippa who said to Paul, I need to be a Christian. Almost a Christian. Almost. Not quite.

73:22 - 73:48 Read in full sermon