Our Condition in Sin, God's Provision for Sin

In this part of the sermon: Martin begins with an imaginative illustration about answering questions on the Bible's nature and purpose, establishing that the Bible is God's inspired Word given to make us…

Martin imagines distributing notepads and pens to the congregation to answer two questions: 'What is the Bible?' and 'Why was the Bible given to us?' This sets up the sermon's foundational premise about the Bible's nature and purpose, and how Isaiah 53:6 distills its message.

I want you to imagine with me that in preparation for our gathering for this worship service this morning, I had spoken to the chairman of our deacons, Mr. Davies, and asked him if he would do me a favor. And that favor was to make sure that one of the deacons would secure a number of little notepads and an equal number of ballpoint pens and that he would instruct the ushers that at this point in the service they were to come down the aisles and distribute one of those notepads and one of those pens

0:04 - 0:46 Read in full sermon

The point: Resist the temptation to pull a shade and hide your sin from God's light.

Martin uses the metaphors of 'pulling a shade' (to hide one's sin from the light) and 'making arrows' (to attack the one revealing sin) to describe the natural human resistance to confronting personal sin, urging listeners to resist these temptations.

There's a temptation the minute you hear the word sin and you hear the word our sin, our sin, there's a temptation to pull a shade and to make arrows. You know what I mean by that? Just this. Jesus said, this is the condemnation that light has come into the world and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil.

10:54 - 11:21 Read in full sermon

The point: Resist the temptation to make arrows and hate those who show you your sin.

Martin presents an analogy of a seemingly healthy person receiving a diagnosis of aggressive cancer that requires radical surgery. This illustrates that a truly loving doctor (or pastor) will confront a patient (or congregant) with uncomfortable truth for their ultimate good, even if it's painful, because spiritual malignancy (sin) leads to hell.

Think of that for a minute. Suppose you hadn't had a general physical checkup for a long time. And I mean, you feel so healthy, you make everyone else sick.

13:17 - 13:26 Read in full sermon

The point: Face God's diagnosis of your malignant spiritual mass (sin) that will drag you to hell unless excised by the gospel.

The prophet Isaiah's imagery of 'all we like sheep have gone astray' is explained by describing the vulnerability of sheep without a shepherd, underscoring humanity's corporate straying from God and His protection, exposing them to danger.

First of all, the bad news of our desperate condition in sin is to be seen in terms of this vivid picture of our desperate condition. The prophet compares our condition in sin to something that would have been very familiar to his readers and his hearers. They were in a agrarian society. They knew what sheep were.

17:08 - 17:33 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The sermon's first main division is the 'bad news' of humanity's desperate condition in sin, as depicted in the first part of Isaiah 53:6. Martin warns against resisting this…

Martin contrasts a man's capacity to appreciate a sunset as a reflection of God's majesty with a cow's inability to do so. This highlights humanity's unique design for communion with God and the horror of sin in severing that capacity for delight in Him.

And the picture there in Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 is that of exquisite, mutual delight, perfect compatibility between God and the creature made in his image. Blissful, mutual contentment one with another. And that was the crowning glory of man, Adam and Eve, unlike the beast whose constitution and functions reflect the wisdom and the power and the love and the tender care of God for his creation and his creatures and for man. Man was made with a capacity that no cow even in Eden ever had.

21:08 - 21:50 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Continuing the 'bad news,' Martin asserts that humanity has strayed from God's law as the governing rule of life, highlighting the carnal mind's enmity against God. He then shifts…

Martin uses the common experience of looking for oneself first in a group picture to illustrate how the sermon moves from the 'wide-angle lens' of humanity's corporate sin to the 'super-zoom lens' of individual sin ('every one to his own way').

Let me illustrate it this way. Whenever you've been involved in a group picture and the group picture gets posted in the office or gets passed around, what's the first thing you look for?

29:11 - 29:22 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Continuing the 'bad news,' Martin asserts that humanity has strayed from God's law as the governing rule of life, highlighting the carnal mind's enmity against God. He then shifts…

Martin rejects the idea of God as an 'accommodating indulgence' or 'unprincipled indifference,' like a doting grandpa who lets grandkids 'get away with murder.' This emphasizes God's holy justice and His serious view of sin.

It says, well, you know, boys will be boys, human beings will be sinners. No, he doesn't look upon it with a kind of accommodating indulgence. He doesn't look upon it with an unprincipled indifference. Like an old, nearsighted, doting old grandpa that the grandkids can get away with it.

33:51 - 34:08 Read in full sermon

Driving home: You will never understand how God has made provision for your sin unless in your mind when you read about Jesus dying you get beyond what the Jewish leaders did to him what Judas did to him what the soldiers did to him w…

Martin describes Jesus' posture from arrest to crucifixion as that of a 'condemned felon' in the visible realm. This analogy helps listeners understand that God was demonstrating in the visible theater what was truly happening in the invisible: God the Father was treating His Son as the 'guiltiest of all criminals' by laying our sins upon Him.

to a stake and then he was cruelly scourged then the cross beam was laid upon his shoulders and he was taken out and executed on the cross from his being arrested and apprehended in the garden until he was hung upon the cross and his lifeless body was taken down and placed in a borrowed tomb he appeared in the garden and he was in only one visage only one appearance before anyone looking on the scene you know what that was? it was the posture that's the word I'm fighting for it was the posture of a condemned

53:01 - 53:46 Read in full sermon

The point: If you treat with scorn such mercy and grace, consider what God can do but send you to hell.

Martin quotes Annie Cousin's hymn, 'O Christ, what burdens bowed Thy head,' which graphically portrays Christ's experience at the Father's hands as bearing a vast burden, draining a full cup of wrath, receiving the rod, enduring the tempest, and facing the sword. This hymn powerfully captures the biblical truth of Christ's substitutionary atonement and the Father's active role in His suffering.

in which she likens Christ's experience at the hands of his father to a vast burden to a full cup of wrath to a rod to a tempest and to a sword and this is what she wrote O Christ what burdens bowed thy head our load was laid on thee thou stoodest in the sinner's stead didst bear all ill for me a victim led thy blood was shed now there's no load for me death and the curse were in our cup O Christ

59:35 - 60:20 Read in full sermon

The point: If you treat with scorn such mercy and grace, consider what God can do but send you to hell.

Martin quotes John Calvin, who states that God was not satisfied with merely sending His Son to death but daily sets this treasure before us, declaring that Christ's pierced side and open heart assure us of His love, and His open arms draw us to Himself. This quote reinforces the ongoing availability and invitation of the gospel.

to have my own way what can God do who loves his son but send you to hell I ask you what can God do who loves his son but banish you if you treat with scorn such mercy and such grace in my preparation I came across a marvelous quote from John Calvin on this passage and with this I close God was not satisfied with sending his son once for all exposing him to death and smiting him with his

61:50 - 62:34 Read in full sermon