Isaiah 53:6

Driving home: The entirety of the Bible can be summed under one of two heads. It is a message of the law and of the gospel. A message of man's ruin in sin and God's redemption in Jesus Christ.

A Jewish man, hearing Isaiah 53 read in a Christian assembly, mistook it for a New Testament passage, highlighting the striking clarity with which Isaiah describes Christ's suffering.

given us statements in the Scriptures in which he has summarized for us the very heart, the very nerve centers of God's saving revelation to us in Jesus Christ. And tonight we're going to look at just such a summarizing statement in which God by the Holy Spirit through the prophet Isaiah gives us the distilled essence of the whole message of the Word of God. The older writers used to say the entirety of the Bible can be summed under one of two heads. It is a message of the law and of the gospel. A message of man's ruin in sin and God's redemption in Jesus Christ. And we're going to look tonigh...

3:57 - 5:17 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Those who refuse to tell men truly what their true condition is under the guise of being their friends, they're their worst enemies.

McShane's quote, 'Never forget that the man who loves you the most is the one who tells you the most truth about yourself,' is used to justify the sermon's focus on humanity's desperate condition in sin.

told in our day, if we're to reach modern men and women, we must not use such terminology. It bristles with negativism. And we have a generation that goes about with a bruised and tattered self image. And we must never, never offend them by using such words as bad news, desperate condition, sin. Well, there is one problem with that whole approach. It has absolutely no basis in the word of God, none whatsoever. And those who refuse to tell men truly what their true condition is under the guise of being their friends, they're their worst enemies. The prophet Jeremiah confronted this continually ...

8:10 - 9:04 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: He moves from the collective 'we' to the individual 'everyone,' asserting that each person has turned to their own self-willed way, which is the common denominator of all sin…

The analogy of looking for oneself first in a group photo is used to encourage listeners to personally apply the biblical description of sin to themselves, rather than viewing it generically.

brings before us in more extensive than 18 through Romans 3 and verse 20 but now notice what the prophet does in setting out the bad news not only does he set before us this imagery this vivid picture of our desperate condition all we like sheep have gone astray now he gives us a blunt assertion of our desperate condition we have turned everyone to his own way you see what he does he moves from the group picture we are all like one vast flock of sheep and now he says we are going to turn in the zoom lens on every single individual among those who are like a vast flock of sheep and we have turn...

21:00 - 22:29 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: He moves from the collective 'we' to the individual 'everyone,' asserting that each person has turned to their own self-willed way, which is the common denominator of all sin…

Examples from Genesis (Adam and Eve's shame, the flood, Sodom and Gomorrah) are used to illustrate God's severe displeasure with sin and rebellion.

we have turned each one of us to his own way and that's bad news you want to know how God feels about people leaving him as the supreme object of desire and delight turning to their own way as the rule of life indifferent to the rule of God and his law then go back to the early chapters of Genesis and picture Adam and Eve with heads hung in shame like when the whole earth was inundated with a flood and bloated dead corpses by the tens and hundreds of thousands stand back and think of what it was like when God rained fire and brimstone upon the cities of the plains and utterly consumed them go ...

26:56 - 28:25 Read in full sermon

Driving home: My Son, I've forsaken You because I've laid on You their iniquity.

Hugh Martin's insight from 'The Shadow of Calvary' is quoted to explain that the human events of Christ's crucifixion mirrored the invisible, spiritual reality of God the Father judging God the Son for sin.

But the prophet says it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He has put him to grief. And until we see the true reality of what Jesus did in the vertical dimensions, it's what God the Father is doing with God the Son. As Hugh Martin in his marvelous book, The Shadow of Calvary, points out, God so ordered the events of Jesus' execution that everything that was transpiring in the human theater was to mirror what was transpiring in the human theater.

41:41 - 42:18 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin uses a hymn to illustrate Christ's substitutionary suffering and then affirms the certainty of justification through Christ's resurrection. He then turns to Isaiah 55…

A multi-stanza hymn is quoted extensively to vividly illustrate the substitutionary nature of Christ's suffering, depicting Him bearing burdens, drinking the cup of wrath, feeling the rod, enduring the tempest, and facing God's sword on behalf of sinners.

God makes it in the substitutionary curse bearing of His own Son. And over the years as I've sought to find hymns that capture the heart of the biblical message, none captures it better than the hymn that I want to quote in your hearing now. I wish it were in our Trinity Hymnal. You'll notice the progression in the first stanza.

48:43 - 49:06 Read in full sermon

The point: Consider how you can make all of Christ's finished work yours, so you can know your sins are pardoned and stand acquitted on the last day.

Joseph's empty tomb is presented as God's megaphone, proclaiming to the world that Christ's work of atonement is 'finished!'

I know Jesus cried, it is finished, but then He died. Ah, yes, my friend, but three days later He rose from the dead. And I love to think of Joseph's empty tomb as God's megaphone saying to the world, it is finished! It is finished!

52:36 - 52:53 Read in full sermon

The point: Consider how you can make all of Christ's finished work yours, so you can know your sins are pardoned and stand acquitted on the last day.

A personal anecdote about a lanky black woman hawking okra in Augusta, Georgia, is used to illustrate God's role as a 'street hawker' in Isaiah 55, offering His spiritual wares freely to all who thirst.

That I can know my sins are pardoned. That I will stand in the last day acquitted and welcomed into the presence of my God. Though I acknowledge that I have been a straying sheep and a self-willed rebel. Here in chapter 55, God takes upon Himself the role of a street hawker.

53:56 - 54:18 Read in full sermon